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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34080-8.txt b/34080-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bd1e5c --- /dev/null +++ b/34080-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15661 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Historical Geography of the British +Colonies, by Charles Prestwood Lucas + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Historical Geography of the British Colonies + Vol. V, Canada--Part I, Historical + +Author: Charles Prestwood Lucas + +Release Date: October 16, 2010 [EBook #34080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +HISTORY OF CANADA + +PART I (NEW FRANCE) + +_C. P. LUCAS_ + + + + +HENRY FROWDE, M.A. + +PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + +LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE + + + + +A HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES VOL. V + +CANADA--PART I HISTORICAL + + +BY + +C. P. LUCAS, C.B. + +OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE + + +OXFORD + +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + +MDCCCCI + + + + +OXFORD + +PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + +BY HORACE HART, M.A. + +PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +CHAP. I. EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS IN NORTH AMERICA TO THE END OF + THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + +CHAP. II. SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC . . . . 35 + +CHAP. III. THE SETTLEMENT OF CANADA AND THE FIVE NATION INDIANS 79 + +CHAP. IV. FRENCH AND ENGLISH DOWN TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT . . 123 + +CHAP. V. THE MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + +CHAP. VI. ACADIA AND HUDSON BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + +CHAP. VII. LOUISBOURG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + +CHAP. VIII. THE PRELUDE TO THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR . . . . . . . . 216 + +CHAP. IX. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 + +CHAP. X. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (_continued_) . . . . . . . . 289 + +CHAP. XI. GENERAL SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 + +APPENDIX I. LIST OF FRENCH GOVERNORS OF CANADA . . . . . . . . 350 + +APPENDIX II. DATES OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF + CANADA DOWN TO 1763 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 + + + + +LIST OF MAPS + + +1. Map of the French and English possessions in North America in + the middle of the eighteenth century + +2. Map of New England, New York, and Central Canada, showing the + waterways + +3. Map of Louisbourg + +4. Map of Quebec + + + + +[Illustration: Map of the French and English Possessions in NORTH +AMERICA in the Middle of the 18th Century] + + + + +{1} + +HISTORY OF CANADA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS IN NORTH AMERICA TO THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH +CENTURY + + +[Sidenote: _The British possessions in North America._] + +The British possessions in North America consist of Newfoundland and +the Dominion of Canada. Under the Government of Newfoundland is a +section of the mainland coast which forms part of Labrador, extending +from the straits of Belle Isle on the south to Cape Chudleigh on the +north. + +The area of these possessions, together with the date and mode of +their acquisition, is as follows:-- + + _Name._ _How acquired._ _Date._ _Area in square miles._ + + Newfoundland Settlement 1583-1623 40,200 + and Labrador 120,000 + + Canada Cession [Quebec] 1763 3,653,946 + +[Sidenote: _British possessions in North America and West Indies +contrasted._] + +In the Introduction to a previous volume,[1] it was pointed out that +all the British possessions in the New World have one common feature; +viz. that they have been, in the main, fields of European settlement, +and not merely trading stations or conquered dependencies; but that, +in other respects--in climate, in geography, and in what may be +called the strata of colonization--the West Indian and North American +provinces of the Empire stand at opposite poles to each other. It may +be added that, in North America, European colonization was later in +time and slower in development than {2} in the central and southern +parts of the continent; and, in order to understand why this was the +case, some reference must be made to the geography of North America, +more especially in its relation to Europe, and also to its first +explorers, their motives, and their methods. + +[Footnote 1: Vol. ii, _West Indies_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Sidenote: _Geographical outline of America._] + +The Old World lies west and east. In the New World the line of length +is from north to south. The geographical outline of America, as +compared with that of Europe and Asia, is very simple. There is a +long stretch of continent, with a continuous backbone of mountains, +running from the far north to the far south. The mountains line the +western coast; on the eastern side are great plains, great rivers, +broken shores, and islands. Midway in the line of length, where the +Gulf of Mexico runs into the land, and where, further south, the +Isthmus of Darien holds together North and South America by a narrow +link, the semicircle of West Indian islands stand out as +stepping-stones in the ocean for wayfarers from the old continent to +the new. + +[Sidenote: _North and South America._] + +The two divisions of the American continent are curiously alike. They +have each two great river-basins on the eastern side. The basin of +the St. Lawrence is roughly parallel to that of the Amazon; the basin +of the Mississippi to that of La Plata. The North American coast, +however, between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and that of the +Mississippi, is more varied and broken, more easy of access, than the +South American shores between the Amazon and La Plata. On the other +hand, South America has an attractive and accessible northern coast, +in strong contrast to the icebound Arctic regions; and the Gulf of +Venezuela, the delta of the Orinoco, and the rivers of Guiana, have +called in traders and settlers from beyond the seas. + +[Sidenote: _South America colonized from both sides, North America +only from the eastern side._] + +The history of colonization in North America has been, in the main, +one of movement from east to west. In South America, on the other +hand, the western side played almost from the first at least as +important a part as the eastern. {3} The story of Peru and its Inca +rulers shows that in old times, in South America, there was a +civilization to be found upon the western side of the Andes, and the +shores of the Pacific Ocean. European explorers penetrated into and +crossed the continent rather from the north and west than from the +east; and Spanish colonization on the Pacific coast was, outwardly at +least, more imposing and effective than Portuguese colonization on +the Atlantic seaboard. The great mass of land on the earth's surface +is in the northern hemisphere; and in the extreme north the shores of +the Old and New Worlds are closest to each other. Here, where the +Arctic Sea narrows into the Behring Straits, it is easier to reach +America from the west than from the east, from Asia than from Europe; +but to pass from the extremity of one continent to the extremity of +another is of little avail for making history; and the history of +North America has been made from the opposite side, which lies over +against Europe, where the shores are indented by plenteous bays and +estuaries, and where there are great waterways leading into the heart +of the interior. + +[Sidenote: _The rivers of North America._] + +[Sidenote: _English colonization in North America._] + +The main outlets of North America are, as has been said, the St. +Lawrence and the Mississippi; while, on the long stretch of coast +between them, the most important river is the Hudson, whose valley is +a direct and comparatively easy highroad from the Atlantic to Lake +Champlain and the St. Lawrence basin; and here it may be noticed +that, though a Bristol ship first discovered North America, and +though, from the time of Ralegh onwards, North America became the +main scene of British colonization, the English allowed other nations +to secure the keys of the continent, and ran the risk of being cut +off from the interior. The French forestalled them on the St. +Lawrence, and later took possession of the mouth of the Mississippi. +The Dutch planted themselves on the Hudson between New England and +the southern colonies, and New York, the present chief city of +English-speaking America, was once New Amsterdam. Of all {4} +colonizing nations the English have perhaps been the least scientific +in their methods; and in no part of the world were their mistakes +greater than in North America, where their success was eventually +most complete. There was, however, one principle in colonization to +which they instinctively and consistently held. While they often +neglected to safeguard the obvious means of access into new-found +countries, and, as compared with other nations, made comparatively +little use of the great rivers in any part of the world, they laid +hold on coasts, peninsulas, and islands, and kept their population +more or less concentrated near to the sea. Thus, when the time of +struggle came, they could be supported from home, and were stronger +at given points than their more scientific rivals. If the French laid +their plans to keep in their own hands the Mississippi, the Ohio, and +the St. Lawrence, and thereby to shut off the colonies of the +Atlantic seaboard from the continent behind, those colonies had the +advantage of close contact with the sea, of comparatively continuous +settlement, and of yearly growing power to break through the weak and +unduly extended line with which the competing race tried to hem them +in. + +But this contest between French and English, based though it was on +geographical position, belongs to the Middle Ages of European +colonization in America: let us look a little further back, and see +how the Old and the New Worlds first came into touch with each other. + +[Sidenote: _Bacon on the discovery of North America._] + +In his history of King Henry VII, Bacon refers to the 'memorable +accident' of the Cabots' great discovery, in the following +passage:--'There was one Sebastian Gabato, a Venetian living in +Bristow, a man seen and expert in cosmography and navigation. This +man, seeing the success and emulating perhaps the enterprise of +Christopherus Columbus in that fortunate discovery towards the +south-west, which had been by him made some six years before, +conceited with himself that lands might likewise be discovered +towards {5} the north-west. And surely it may be he had more firm and +pregnant conjectures of it than Columbus had of his at the first. For +the two great islands of the Old and New World, being in the shape +and making of them broad towards the north and pointed towards the +south, it is likely that the discovery first began where the lands +did nearest meet. And there had been before that time a discovery of +some lands which they took to be islands, and were indeed the +continent of America towards the north-west.'[2] Bacon goes on to +surmise that Columbus had knowledge of this prior discovery, and was +guided by it in forming his own conjectures as to the existence of +land in the far west; and it is at least not unlikely that, when he +visited Iceland in 1477, he would have heard tales of the Norsemen's +voyages to America.[3] + +[Footnote 2: Spedding's edition of Bacon's works, 1870, vol. vi, p. +196.] + +[Footnote 3: For this visit, see Washington Irving's _Life and +Voyages of Columbus_, bk. i, ch. vi.] + +[Sidenote: _Pre-Columbian explorations._] + +It would be out of place in this book to make more than a passing +reference to the much-vexed question, how far the New World was known +to Europeans before the days of Columbus and the Cabots. Indeed, if +all the stories on the subject were proved, the fact would yet remain +that, for all practical purposes, America was first revealed to the +nations of Europe, when Columbus took his way across the Atlantic. It +was likely that, when his discovery had been made, men would rise up +to assert that it was not so great and not so new as had been at +first imagined. The French claimed priority for a countryman of their +own;[4] stories of Welsh and Irish settlement in America passed into +circulation; the romance of the brothers Zeni was published, a tale +of supposed Venetian adventure in the fourteenth century to the +islands of the far north; and it was contended, more prosaically and +with greater show of reason, that Basque fishermen had frequented {6} +the banks of Newfoundland, before that island was discovered for +England and thereby earned its present name. + +[Footnote 4: Cousin of Dieppe, who claimed to have discovered America +in 1488, four years before Columbus reached the West Indies.] + +[Sidenote: _Voyages of the Norsemen._] + +The story of the Norsemen's voyages has a sounder foundation than any +other of these early traditions and tales. Iceland is nearer to +Greenland than to Norway: it has been abundantly proved that colonies +were established and fully organized in Greenland in the Middle Ages; +and it seems on the face of it unlikely that the enterprise and +adventure of the seafaring sons of the north would have stopped short +at this point, instead of carrying them on to the mainland of +America. + +[Sidenote: _Their alleged discovery of North America._] + +The Norse are said to have come to Iceland about 875 A.D., where +Christian Irish had already preceded them; and, in the following +year, rocks far to the west were sighted by Gunnbiorn. A century +later, in 984, Eric the Red came back from a visit to Gunnbiorn's +land, calling it by the attractive name of Greenland. About 986, +Bjarni Herjulfson, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, sighted land to +the south-west; and, a few years later, about the year 1000, Leif, +the son of Eric, who had brought the Christian religion to Greenland, +sailed in search of the south-western land which Bjarni had seen. The +record of his voyage claims to be the record of the discovery of +America. He found the rocky barren shores of Labrador and +Newfoundland, and called them from their appearance Helluland, or +'slateland.' He passed on to the mouth of the St. Lawrence and to +Nova Scotia, calling it Markland, or the 'land of woods.' Then +sailing still further south, he came to a land where vines grew wild, +and which he called Vinland. This last was, it would seem, the New +England coast, between Boston and New York; and here in after times, +for a like reason, English settlers gave the name of Martha's or +Martin's Vineyard to an island, which lies close to the shore south +of Cape Cod.[5] In Vinland, it is stated, a Norse colony was {7} +founded a few years after Leif's visit; and trade--mainly a timber +trade--was carried on with Greenland down to the year 1347, after +which all is a blank. + +[Footnote 5: A little further to the south on the coast of New +Jersey, or Maryland, Verrazano 'saw in this country many vines +growing naturally' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 360, 1810 ed.).] + +No authentic inscriptions or remains, indicating Scandinavian +discovery or settlement in America, have, it is said, been found +anywhere outside Greenland, except at one point in the very far +north;[6] and in their absence these northern tales cannot be +absolutely verified. It can only be said that, in all probability, +America was known to the Northmen in the Middle Ages, but that what +happened in these dark days in the extreme north of Europe and the +extreme north of America has no direct bearing upon the history of +European colonization. + +[Footnote 6: See Justin Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of +America_, (vol. i, chap. ii) on 'Pre-Columbian Explorations.' The +writer says, 'Nowhere in America, except on an island on the east +shore of Baffin's Bay, has any authentic runic inscription been found +outside of Greenland.' Reference should be made to the first chapter +of Mr. Raymond Beazley's _John and Sebastian Cabot_ ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898), in which the dates and particulars of +the Norse discovery of America, as given above, are somewhat +modified.] + +[Sidenote: _The way to the East._] + +At the time when modern history opens, there were two parts of the +world which were--to use the Greek philosopher's phrase--'ends in +themselves.' One was Europe or rather Southern Europe, the other was +the East Indies; and the great problem was to find the best and +shortest way from the one point to the other. + +[Sidenote: _Africa and America places on the road._] + +The overland trade routes through Syria and Egypt--by which Genoa, +Venice, and the other city states of the Middle Ages had grown +rich--had fallen in the main under Moslem control; and, accordingly, +the growing nations of Europe began to take to the open sea. On the +ocean, India can be reached from Europe either by going east or by +going west. In the former case Africa comes in the way, in the latter +America; and the position of these {8} two continents in the modern +history of the world is, in their earliest stage, that of having been +places on the road, not final goals. + +The Portuguese tried the way by Africa and succeeded. Vasco de Gama +rounded the Cape, sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, and crossed +to India. The Spaniards set sail in the opposite direction, and, +failing in their original design, found instead a New World. + +Let us suppose that the conditions had been reversed, that Southern +Africa, when reached, had proved as attractive as the West Indies; +that its shores had been fertile and easy of access; that its rivers +had been navigable, and that its turning-point had been as distant as +Cape Horn; that, on the contrary, Columbus had discovered a channel +through America, where he sought for it at the Isthmus of Darien, had +found the American coasts and islands as little inviting as Africa, +and behind them an expanse of sea no wider than the Indian Ocean. In +that case America would have remained the Dark Continent, to be +passed by, as Africa was passed by, on the way to the East; and +hinging on this one central fact, that the Indies were the goal of +discovery, the whole history of colonization would have been changed. +As it was, the Spaniards, in the first place, found their way barred +by America; and, in the second place, found America too good to be +passed by, even if a thoroughfare had been found. Thus they assumed +that they had really reached the Indies on their furthest side; and, +by the time that the mistake had been finally cleared up, the riches +and wonders of the New World had given it a position and standing of +its own, over and above all considerations respecting the best way to +the East. + +America then was discovered by being taken on the way to some other +part of the world; it could not be passed by like Africa; and it was +more attractive than Africa. Thus it was early colonized, while the +great mass of the African {9} continent was left, almost down to our +own day, unexplored and unknown. + +[Sidenote: _Reasons why the discovery and settlement of North America +was later than that of Central and South America._] + +This statement, however, only holds true of that part of America +which the Spaniards made their own; and the further question +arises--Why was the discovery and settlement of North America a much +slower process than the Spanish conquest and colonization of Central +America and the West Indies? The north of Newfoundland is in the same +latitude as the south of England; the mouth of the St. Lawrence lies +directly over against the ports of Brittany; a line drawn due east +from New York would almost pass through Madrid: therefore it seems as +though sailors going westward from Europe would naturally make their +way in the first instance to the North American coast; and, as a +matter of fact, Cabot probably sighted the shores of Newfoundland, +Nova Scotia, or Labrador before Columbus set foot upon the mainland +of South America. + +[Sidenote: _Spain and Portugal the natural centres for Western +discovery._] + +[Sidenote: _The Spaniards went to the south-west._] + +There are, however, ample historical and geographical reasons for the +fact that, at the beginning of modern history, the stream of European +discovery and colonization took a south-westerly rather than a +westerly direction. The main course of European civilization has on +the whole been from south-east to north-west. Its centre gradually +shifted from Asia Minor and Phoenicia to Greece, from Greece to Rome, +and finally from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the +Atlantic. The peninsula of Spain and Portugal stands half-way between +the inner and the outer sea, and accordingly geography marked out +this country to be the birthplace of the new and wider history of the +world. Further, at the time when modern history begins, the Spaniards +and Portuguese were better trained, more consolidated, more nearly +come to their prime, more full of expansive force than the peoples of +Northern Europe; so that their history combined with their +geographical position to place them in {10} the front rank among the +movers of the world. But Spain and Portugal look south-west: both +countries are hot, sunny lands, and, while adventurers to the unknown +would in any case be more attracted to regions where they would +expect light and heat and tropical growth and colour, than to the +bare, bleak stretches of the north, most of all would a southern race +set out to find a new world in a southerly or south-westerly +direction. Again, as has been seen, the early explorers were seeking +for a sea-road to the Indies; and, as the tales of the Indies were +glowing tales of glowing lands, men were more likely at first to +start in search of them by way of the Equator than by way of the +Pole. + +And they had guidance in their course. The Canaries, Madeira, and the +Azores, lying away in the ocean to the south-west, were the +half-mythical goals of ancient navigation. The Spaniards would +naturally make for them in the first instance, and so far help +themselves on their westward way. Wind and tide would prescribe the +same line of discovery. The way to the West Indies is made easy by +the north-easterly trade winds, whereas the passage to North America +is in the teeth of the prevailing wind from the west. Those who take +ship from Europe to North America meet the opposing force of the Gulf +Stream; voyagers to the south-west, on the contrary, are borne by the +Equatorial Current from the African coast to the Caribbean Sea. + +[Sidenote: _The West Indies more attractive than North America._] + +Easier to reach than North America, the West Indies and Central +America were also more attractive when reached. The Spaniards found +riches beyond their hopes, pearls in the sea, gold and silver in the +land, and a race of natives who could be forced to fish for the one +and to mine for the other. When they had discovered the New World, +there was every inducement to make them forthwith conquer and +colonize in countries where living promised to be more luxurious than +in their own land. Adventurers to North America, on the contrary, +found greater cold than they had {11} left behind them in the same +latitudes in Europe, desolate shores, little trace of precious metal, +and natives whom it was dangerous to offend and impossible to +enslave. In the far north the cod fisheries were discovered, and furs +were to be obtained by barter from the North American Indians; but +such trade was not likely to lead to permanent settlement in the near +future. Its natural outcome was not the founding of colonies, the +building of cities, and the subjugation of continents, but, at the +most, repeated visits in the summer time to the Newfoundland banks, +or spasmodic excursions up the course of the St. Lawrence. Thus, for +a century after Columbus first sailed to the west, while Central and +South America became organized into a collection of Spanish +provinces, the extreme north was left to Basque, Breton, and English +fishermen; and the coast between the St. Lawrence and the +Mississippi, where the English race was eventually to make its +greatest effort and achieve its greatest success--this, the present +territory of the United States, was, with the exception of Florida, +little visited and scarcely known. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of finding mineral wealth in Central America._] + +The discovery of minerals in a district brings about dense population +and a hurried settlement. Men come to fisheries or hunting-grounds at +stated times, and leave to come again. The progress of agricultural +colonization, if steady and continuous, is usually very slow. Thus, +where Central America gave gold and silver, there adventurers from +Europe hurried in and stayed. The fisheries of Newfoundland saw men +come and go; the sea was there the attraction, not the land. The +agricultural resources of Virginia and New England were left +undeveloped by Europeans, until the time came when business-like +companies were formed by men who could afford to wait, and when +enthusiasts went over the Atlantic not so much to make money as to +live patiently and in the fear of God. + +[Sidenote: _The North-West Passage._] + +But, though the sixteenth century passed away before men's eyes, +which were dazzled with the splendour of the {12} tropics, had given +more than passing glances to the sober landscape of North America, +discoverers from Cabot onwards were not idle; and from the first, the +ever powerful hope of finding a new road to the Indies took +adventurers to the north-west in spite of cold and wind and tide. +Because North America was unattractive in itself, therefore men seem +to have imagined that it must be on the way to something better; and +also, because it was unattractive in itself, they did not wait to see +what could be made out of it, but kept perpetually pushing on to a +further goal. They argued, as Bacon shows in the passage already +quoted, and argued rightly, that in the north the Old and New Worlds +were nearest together, and that here therefore was the point at which +to cross from one to the other. They found sea channels evidently +leading towards the west; they saw the great river of Canada[7] come +widening down from the same quarter; and thus, long after the quest +of the Indies had in Central America been swallowed up in the riches +found on the way, in North America it remained the one great object +of the men who went out from Europe, and of the Kings who sent them +out. + +[Footnote 7: The idea that there was a way to the Indies by the St. +Lawrence long continued. Thus Lescarbot writes (_Nova Francia_, +Erondelle's translation, 1609, chap. xiii, p. 87) of the great river +of Canada as 'taking her beginning from one of the lakes which do +meet at the stream of her course (and so I think), so that it hath +two courses, the one from the east towards France, the other from the +west towards the south sea.'] + +As the first discoverer, Cabot, set sail to find the passage to +Cathay, 'having great desire to traffic for the spices as the +Portingals did,'[8] so all who came after during the century of +exploration kept the same end firmly in view. Francis I of France +dispatched Verrazano to find the passage to the East; Cartier, the +Breton sailor, came back from the St. Lawrence with tales which +savoured of the Indies, of 'a river that goeth south-west, from +whence there is a whole {13} month's sailing to go to a certain land +where there is neither ice nor snow seen'[9]--of a 'country of +Saguenay, in which are infinite rubies, gold and other +riches'[10]--of 'a land where cinnamon and cloves are gathered';[11] +and his third voyage was, in his King's words, 'to the lands of +Canada and Hochelaga, which form the extremity of Asia towards the +west.'[12] Frobisher's voyage in 1576 led to the formation of a +company of Cathay. As early as 1527, Master Robert Thorne wrote 'an +information of the parts of the world' discovered by the Spaniards +and Portuguese, and 'of the way to the Moluccas by the north.' Sir +Humphrey Gilbert published 'a discourse' 'to prove a passage by the +north-west to Cathaia and the East Indies'; and Richard Hakluyt +himself, in the 'epistle dedicatory' to Philip Sydney, which forms +the preface to his collection of _Divers Voyages touching the +discovery of America_,[13] sums up the arguments for the existence of +'that short and easy passage by the north-west which we have hitherto +so long desired.' In short, the record of the sixteenth century in +North America was, in the main, a record of successive voyagers +seeking after a way to the East, supplemented by the fishing trade +which was attracted to the shores of Newfoundland. + +[Footnote 8: Gomara, quoted by Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 30 (1810 ed.).] + +[Footnote 9: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 10: Ibid. p. 281.] + +[Footnote 11: Ibid. p. 285.] + +[Footnote 12: See Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_ +(25th ed., 1888), p. 217.] + +[Footnote 13: Published in 1582; edited by the Hakluyt Society in +1850.] + +[Sidenote: _The early voyagers to North America were of various +nationalities._] + +The two men who opened America to Europe were of Italian +parentage--Columbus the Genoese, and Cabot, born at Genoa, domiciled +at Venice.[14] The two great trading republics of the Middle Ages at +once crowned their work in the world, and signed their own death +warrant, in providing Spain and England with the sailors whose +discoveries transferred the centre of life and movement from the +Mediterranean {14} to the Atlantic. The King of France too turned to +Italy for a discoverer to rival Columbus and Cabot, and sent +Verrazano the Florentine, at the end of 1523, to search out the +coasts of North America. + +[Footnote 14: As to Cabot's parentage see below, p. 18. If the +voyages of the Zeni were genuine, the Venetians could have claimed a +yet older share in the record of European connexion with America.] + +At the first dawn of discovery those coasts were not wholly given +over to French or English adventurers. Though Florida was the +northern limit of Spanish conquest and settlement, Spanish claims +extended indefinitely over the whole continent; and the French King's +scheme for the colonization of Canada, in 1541, under the leadership +of Cartier and Roberval, roused the suspicion of the Spanish court as +an attempt to infringe an acknowledged monopoly. The Portuguese at +the very first took part in north-western discovery, and with good +reason; for it was their own Indies which were the final goal, and +they could not afford to leave to other nations to find a shorter way +thither than their own route round the Cape. Thus it was that Corte +Real set out from Lisbon for the north-west in the year 1500, having +'craved a general license of the King Emmanuel to discover the +Newfoundland,' and 'sailed unto that climate which standeth under the +north in 50 degrees of latitude.'[15] We find, too, records of +Portuguese working in the same direction under foreign flags. In 1501 +two patents were granted by Henry VII of England to English and +Portuguese conjointly to explore, trade, and settle in America;[16] +and, in 1525, Gomez, who had served under Magellan, and who, like +Magellan, was a Portuguese in the service of Spain, set out from the +Spanish port of Corunna to search for the North-West Passage.[17] + +[Footnote 15: See Purchas' _Pilgrims_, pt. 2, bk. x, chap. i. A brief +'collection of voyages, chiefly of Spaniards and Portugals, taken out +of Antoine Galvano's Book of the Discoveries of the World.'] + +[Footnote 16: See Doyle's _History of the English in America_, vol. +i, chap. iv.] + +[Footnote 17: See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, p. 10.] + +[Sidenote: _The Basque fishermen._] + +Basque fishermen were among the very first visitors to Newfoundland, +and, even after the North American continent {15} was becoming a +sphere of French and English colonization, to the exclusion of the +southern nations of Europe, the Spaniards and Portuguese still held +their own in the fisheries. The record of almost every voyage to +Newfoundland notices Spanish or Portuguese ships plying their trade +on the banks.[18] A writer[19] in the year 1578, on 'the true state +and commodities of Newfoundland,' tells us that, according to his +information, there were at that date above one hundred Spanish ships +engaged in the cod fisheries, in addition to twenty or thirty whalers +from Biscay; that the Portuguese ships did not exceed fifty, and that +those owned by French and Bretons numbered about one hundred and +fifty. Edward Hayes, the chronicler of Gilbert's last voyage in 1583, +relates how the Portuguese at Newfoundland provisioned the English +admiral's ships for their return voyage, and adds that 'the Portugals +and French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing upon this +bank.'[20] + +[Footnote 18: See Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_ +(25th ed., 1888), pp. 189, 190, and notes.] + +[Footnote 19: Anthony Parkhurst. The letter was written to Hakluyt, +and published in his collection, vol. iii, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 20: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 190.] + +In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Spanish Government still +claimed for its subjects the right to fish on the Newfoundland coast, +among other grounds on that of prior discovery, a claim which was +only finally relinquished under the provisions of the Peace of Paris +in 1763;[21] and, writing {16} about the same date, the author of the +_European Settlements in America_ noted that the Spaniards still +shared in the fishery.[22] + +[Footnote 21: As to the question whether Basque fishermen had found +their way to Newfoundland before Cabot, see the note to p. 189 of Mr. +Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_. The reasons for +thinking that these fishermen forestalled Cabot seem to be--(1) the +argument of probability; (2) assertions of old writers to that +effect; (3) the application of the Basque name 'Baccalaos' to +Newfoundland, and the statement of Peter Martyr that Cabot found that +word in use for codfish among the natives; (4) the claim advanced by +the Spanish Government to right of fishing at Newfoundland on the +ground of prior discovery by Biscayan fishermen. As to this last +point, see _Papers relative to the rupture with Spain, 1762_. One +source of friction at this time between Great Britain and Spain was +what Pitt styles in a dispatch (p. 3) 'the stale and inadmissible +pretensions of the Biscayans and Guipuscoans to fish at +Newfoundland.' As to this claim, the Earl of Bristol, British +minister at Madrid, writes (p. 53), 'With regard to the Newfoundland +fishery, Mr. Wall urged, what I have also conveyed in some former +despatches, that the Spaniards indeed pleaded, in favour of their +claim to a share of the Bacallao trade, the first discovery of that +island.'] + +[Footnote 22: _European Settlements in America_, pt. 6, chap. xxviii, +'Newfoundland.' The author (? Burke) says, 'The French and Spaniards, +especially the former, have a large share (in the fishery).'] + +Hayes, who has just been quoted, tells us that more than thirty years +before he wrote, i.e. about 1550, the Portuguese had touched at Sable +Island and left there 'both neat and swine to breed.' In the same way +they left live stock at Mauritius on their way to and from the East; +and in like manner the Spaniards landed pigs at the Bermudas[23] on +their early voyages to the West Indies. + +[Footnote 23: See vol. i of this series, p. 163, and vol. ii, p. 6 +and note. Lescarbot states that the French Baron de Léry, who +attempted to found a colony in North America in 1518, left cattle on +Sable Island. See Parkman's _Pioneers of France_, p. 193, and Doyle's +_History of the English in America_, vol. i, chap. v, p. 111.] + +[Sidenote: _Names in North America indicate visits from Southern +Europe._] + +If evidence were wanted that, in the oldest days of movement from +Europe to the West, southern sailors did not go only to tropical +America, it would be found in the naming of the North American coasts +and islands. The first point on the coast of North America, sighted +by the first discoverer--the Italian Cabot--was spoken of under the +Italian name of Prima Terra Vista. The name Baccalaos[24] tells of +voyages of the Basques, as Cape Breton of visitors from Brittany; +and, {17} after Corte Real's voyages, the east coast of Newfoundland +was, as old maps testify, christened for a while Terra de Corte +Reall.[25] Soon, however, the Spaniards found Mexico, Peru, and +Central America enough and more than enough to absorb their whole +attention; the Portuguese were over-weighted by their eastern empire +and Brazil: and North America was given over, first to be explored +and then to be settled, by the peoples of the north of Europe; who +gathered strength as their southern rivals declined, and whose work +was more lasting because more slow. + +[Footnote 24: 'Baccalaos' is the Spanish name for codfish. It is of +Basque origin. Cabot, it is stated, gave the name generally to the +lands which he found. The name was subsequently applied more +especially to Newfoundland. Thus Edward Hayes in his account of Sir +Humphrey Gilbert's last voyage, under the heading 'a brief relation +of the Newfoundland and the commodities thereof' (Hakluyt, iii, 193), +speaks of 'that which we do call the Newfoundland and the Frenchmen +Bacalaos.' Various small islands, however, in these parts were also +given this name by different writers. At the present day, on the maps +of Newfoundland, an islet off the east coast, at the extreme north of +the peninsula of Avalon, bears the name of Baccalieu. See Parkman, p. +189 note as above, and the chapter on the voyages of the Cabots in +Justin Winsor's history, vol. iii.] + +[Footnote 25: The name 'Labrador' is supposed to have been derived +from the fact that some North American natives, brought back in one +of the ships which accompanied Corte Real on this second voyage, were +said to be 'admirably calculated for labour and the best slaves I +have ever seen.' Hence the name 'Laboratoris terra,' or Labrador. On +Thorne's map (1527) printed in the _Divers Voyages to America_, there +appears 'Nova terra Laboratorum dicta.' Sir Clements Markham, in his +edition of the _Journal of Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real_ (Hakluyt +Society, 1893, Int. p. 51, note), says: 'There is no reference to +Labrador in any of the authorities for the voyages of Corte Real. The +King of Portugal is said to have hoped to derive good slave labour +from the lands discovered by Corte Real. That is all. The name +Labrador is not Portuguese; and Corte Real was never on the Labrador +coast.' Another derivation given is: 'This land was discovered by the +English from Bristol, and named Labrador because the one who saw it +first was a labourer from the Azores.' One more derivation is that +Labrador was the name of the Basque captain of a fishing-vessel. See +Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, pp. 2, 46, and Parkman's _Pioneers +of France in the New World_, p. 216, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The Cabots._] + +On March 5, 1496, King Henry VII of England granted a patent to 'John +Cabot, citizen of Venice,' and to his three sons--Lewis, Sebastian, +and Sancius--empowering them 'to discover unknown lands under the +king's banner.'[26] Under this patent--'the earliest surviving +document which connects England with the New World'[27]--North +America was discovered. + +[Footnote 26: Quoted from the marginal note to the patent. See +Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages touching the discovery of America_, +published by the Hakluyt Society, 1850, p. 21.] + +[Footnote 27: From Doyle's _History of the English in America_, vol. +i, chap. iv.] + +Almost every point connected with the voyages of the Cabots is dark +and doubtful. What the father did and what {18} the son, whence they +came, and whither they went, is all uncertain. The tale of Columbus +and his voyages is known to all the world; but readers are left to +grope after the Cabots, as the latter groped after the strange wild +regions of the north-west. + +John Cabot, it would seem, was a Genoese who settled in Venice. There +he was admitted to the rights of citizenship. He married a Venetian +lady, and in Venice probably his three sons were born and passed +their childhood. He travelled on the sea, visiting the coasts of +Arabia, and forming, it may be, schemes to discover a new route to +the far East. He came to England, having previously attempted to gain +support for his projected voyages in Spain and Portugal, and he took +up his residence in either London or Bristol. The exact date of his +arrival in this country is unknown; but, either shortly before or +shortly after he came, Columbus crossed the Atlantic for the first +time in 1492. The news gave a stimulus to other would-be discoverers, +and encouraged the Kings of Europe to further their plans. Hence +Cabot and his sons obtained their patent in 1496. It was little that +King Henry VII gave to the Italian sailors. Their voyages were to be +made 'upon their own proper costs and charges,' and in return for his +licence, the King was to receive a fifth of the profits. The +enterprise was countenanced but not supported by the state, and the +English Government in these early days, as in the times which came +after, left the work of discovery and colonization in the hands of +private adventurers. Bristol was the port of departure, and a Bristol +book contains the following notice of the voyage:--'In the year 1497, +the 24th of June, on St. John's day, was Newfoundland found by +Bristol men in a ship called the _Matthew_.'[28] John Cabot and +Sebastian his son probably both sailed in the _Matthew_, and they +commanded a crew of English sailors. The voyage {19} was a short +summer venture, beginning in May and ending with the close of July or +the beginning of August. America was seen and touched, the land-fall +being either the northern end of Cape Breton island, or the coast of +Labrador, or Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland. The English flag was +planted on American soil, but no exploration took place; nothing was +achieved but the one great fact of discovery. In the following +February, new letters patent were issued--on this occasion to John +Cabot alone; and a second time, in the summer of 1498, the ships +started from Bristol. Again, it is conjectured, both father and son +were on board; and this time the North American coast seems to have +been skirted from the region of icebergs and the banks of +Newfoundland as far south as the Carolinas. In reference to this +second voyage, Sebastian Cabot wrote that he sailed 'unto the +latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a half under the North Pole,' and +'finding still the open sea without any manner of impediment, he +thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaio +which is in the East.'[29] The way to the East, however, was left +unopened, to tantalize after-comers, and to be a kind of 'will o' the +wisp,' leading men on to barren shores and Arctic seas, though the +continent which they had already found was worth all the riches of +the Indies. + +[Footnote 28: Barrett's _History and Antiquities of Bristol_ +(Bristol, 1789), p. 172.] + +[Footnote 29: From Ramusio, quoted in 'a note of Sebastian Cabot's +voyage of discovery' (Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, p. 25). For the +much-vexed question of the Cabots and their voyages, reference should +be made to _John Cabot the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian +his son_, by Henry Harrisse, London, 1896; to the _Journal of +Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real_, edited for the Hakluyt Society by +Sir Clements Markham, 1893; to Doyle's _History of the English in +America_, vol. i, Appendix B, 'The Cabots and their Voyages'; and to +Mr. Raymond Beazley's _John and Sebastian Cabot_ ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898). The result of a great deal of +learning is after all little but conjecture.] + +[Sidenote: _Corte Real._] + +The next great voyager to North America was Gaspar Corte Real, a +Portuguese. Twice he sailed to the north-west, in 1500 and 1501, on +the earlier voyage sighting Greenland {20} and the east coast of +Newfoundland, and on the later working north from Chesapeake Bay. He +was lost on the second voyage; and his brother Miguel, who went in +search of him in 1502, after finding 'many entrances of rivers and +havens,' was lost also.[30] + +[Footnote 30: The voyages of the Corte Reals are given in Purchas' +_Pilgrims_, pt. 2, bk. x. See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, on +Cortereal, Verrazano, &c. See also the volume of the Hakluyt Society +referred to in the previous note.] + +[Sidenote: _French explorers._] + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century, if not earlier, Frenchmen +took their place among the explorers of the world, and the Norman and +Breton seaports began to send their ships across the Atlantic. Denys +of Honfleur is said to have reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1506; +in 1508, Aubert of Dieppe brought American Indians back to France; +and in 1518 Baron de Léry made the first, a stillborn, attempt to +found a French colony in North America.[31] + +[Footnote 31: See above, p. 16, note 23.] + +[Sidenote: _Verrazano._] + +At the end of the fifteenth century, the consolidation of France had +been completed by the marriage of Charles VIII with Anne of Brittany, +and from this time France began to compete with Spain. Francis I came +to the throne in 1515, and his personal rivalry with Charles V, +German Emperor and Spanish King in one, quickened the competition +between the French and Spanish peoples. Thus it was that the French +court turned its attention to the work of exploration, and Francis +sent forth the Italian Verrazano with four ships from Dieppe 'to +discover new lands by the ocean.'[32] Sailing at the end of 1523, +Verrazano was driven back by tempest; but, starting again, he left +Madeira to cross the Atlantic on January 17, 1524. He reached the +shores of Carolina; then coasted northward, landing at various +points; and, having sailed as far north as {21} Newfoundland--'the +land that in times past was discovered by the Britons (Bretons), +which is in fifty degrees'--he 'concluded to return into France.' + +[Footnote 32: From 'The relation of John Verarzanus,' given in +Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, p. 55, and there also headed 'The +Discovery of Morum Bega' (Norumbega). It is given too in the ordinary +collection, vol. iii, p. 357.] + +He brought home to his King a sober and systematic report of the +North American coast--a report which meant business, and was not +tricked out with vague surmises and impossible tales; but, within a +year from his return, the strength of France was for a while broken +at the battle of Pavia. He himself died soon afterwards, hanged, it +is said, by the Spaniards as a pirate; and for ten years there is no +record of any French explorer following in his steps, though French +ships found their way over the ocean to the cod-fisheries of +Newfoundland. + +[Sidenote: _Cartier._] + +The year 1534 is a memorable one in the annals alike of France and of +North America. It is the year from which must be dated the first +beginnings of New France on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The +discoverer of Canada was Jacques Cartier, a Breton sailor of St. +Malo. He went out to explore the unknown world, not at his own risk, +but as the agent of Brian Chabot, High Admiral of France. Sailing +from St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, he came to Newfoundland, passed +through the straits of Belle Isle, and entered the Gulf of St. +Lawrence. He sailed into Chaleurs Bay under the July sun, describing +the country as 'hotter than the country of Spain, and the fairest +that can possibly be found';[33] and, having set up a cross on Gaspé +Peninsula, he reached St. Malo again on September 5, bringing with +him two Indian children as living memorials of his voyage. + +[Footnote 33: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 257.] + +He had discovered a hot, fair land, widely different from the bleak +and rock-bound coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador; and the good +report which he brought of his discoveries was more than enough to +find him backing for a second venture. Accordingly, in the following +year, on May 19, 1535, he sailed again from St. Malo, and, reaching +{22} the straits of Belle Isle after storm and tempest, took his way, +the first of European explorers, up the great river of Canada. He +moored his three ships below the rock of Quebec--then the site of +Stadaconé, a native Indian village, and the dwelling-place of a chief +Donnaconna, who is styled in the narrative the Lord of Canada. There +he left his two larger vessels, and pushed on in his pinnace and +boats to the town of Hochelaga. That town, the Indians had told him, +was the capital of the land; and he found it, palisaded and fortified +in native fashion, where Montreal now stands.[34] The Frenchmen were +received as gods by the Indians; they were asked, like the Apostles +of old, to touch and heal the sick; and, ever mindful of the duty of +spreading the Christian religion, they read the gospel to their +savage admirers in the strange French tongue, to cure their souls if +they could not mend their bodies. + +[Footnote 34: As Mr. Parkman points out (_Pioneers of France_, p. +212), Quebec and Montreal were in old days, as now, the centres of +population in Lower Canada. 'Stadaconé and Hochelaga, Quebec and +Montreal, in the sixteenth century, as in the nineteenth, were the +centres of Canadian population.'] + +Returning down stream to their ships, they passed the winter +underneath Quebec, amid ice and snow, stricken with scurvy, and +distrustful of their Indian neighbours; and at length, on the return +of summer, they set sail for France, carrying away the Indian chief +Donnaconna and some of his companions, to die in a far-off land. They +reached St. Malo in the middle of July, 1536, and so ended Cartier's +second voyage to 'the New found lands by him named New France.'[35] + +[Footnote 35: End of the narrative of Cartier's second voyage in +Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 285.] + +[Sidenote: _Failure of Roberval's attempt at colonization._] + +Between four and five years passed, and then the Breton sailor set +out again. This time a definite scheme of settlement was projected, +the instructions were more elaborate than before, the preparations +were on a larger scale. The money {23} was found by the crown, and +the King was to receive one-third of the profits. A French nobleman, +De Roberval, was to go out as the King's lieutenant in the New World, +and was given the title of Lord of Norumbega,[36] while Cartier was +appointed Captain-General. The objects of the expedition were to +explore, to colonize, and to convert the heathen; and its leaders +were, like Columbus, empowered to recruit colonists from the prisons +at home. Cartier set out in advance of Roberval, in May, 1541. Again +he sailed up the St. Lawrence, reached in his boats a point above +Montreal, and, as before, wintered on the river; but this time at the +mouth of the Cap Rouge, some way higher up than Quebec. His leader, +Roberval, did not start till April, 1542; and, when in June he +reached St. John's harbour in Newfoundland, he was met by Cartier, +who had broken up his colony in disgust, and was on his way home to +France. In spite of Roberval's remonstrances, Cartier left by night +on his return voyage, and the Lord of Norumbega went on alone to the +St. Lawrence. He planted his settlement at Cap Rouge, where Cartier +had last sojourned, but it proved a miserable failure. The supplies +were insufficient, the Governor turned out a savage despot, and after +about a year the colony came to an end. + +[Sidenote: _Norumbega._] + +[Footnote 36: As to Norumbega, see Parkman's _Pioneers of France_, +pp. 216 and 253, notes, and Justin Winsor, vol. iii, chap. vi, on +'Norumbega and its English explorers.' The writer of this latter +chapter (p. 185) says the territory of Norumbega never included +Baccalaos, 'though Baccalaos, an old name of Newfoundland, sometimes +included New England.' Norumbega, an Indian name, covered the +district now included in the state of Maine, and was sometimes +extended to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the north, and part of +New England on the south. Michael Loki's map (1582) makes Norumbega +the whole district between the river and gulf of St. Lawrence and the +Hudson. The river of Norumbega was the Penobscot, and on it a city of +Norumbega was given a fabulous existence. Lescarbot (_Histoire de la +Nouvelle France_, 1609, bk. i, chap. i) speaks of 'pais qu'on a +appellé d'un nom Alleman Norumbega, lequel est par les quarante cinq +degrez.'] + +With this disappointing and disastrous failure, the curtain fell on +the prologue of the great drama of New France, and did not rise again +for more than fifty years. For the French, {24} as for the English, +the sixteenth century was a time of exploring, of training, of making +experiments; and it was not till the seventeenth century dawned that +permanent colonization began. Then in the Bourbons the French had +rulers who, with all their faults, were abler and stronger than the +princes of the house of Valois; and in Champlain they had a leader as +daring as, and more statesmanlike than, Cartier. But it was by +Cartier that the ground had been broken and the seed first sown. His +voyages made Canada[37] in some sort familiar to Europeans. He opened +the St. Lawrence to be the highway into North America,[38] and he +gave to the hill above the native town of Hochelaga the name of the +Royal Mount, which is still perpetuated in Montreal. He brought the +French into Canada, and, though his settlement failed, the French +connexion remained. Fishermen and fur-traders followed in his steps, +and in fullness of time the New France, which his discoveries +conceived, was brought to birth and grew to greatness. + +[Footnote 37: For the meaning of the name 'Canada,' see Parkman's +_Pioneers of France_, p. 202, note. It is of Indian origin, probably +meaning 'town.' Cartier called the country about Quebec Canada, +having Saguenay below and Hochelaga above. Donnaconna, the native +chief at Quebec, was called Lord of Canada.] + +[Footnote 38: On his second voyage Cartier sailed into a bay at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, where he stayed from the eighth to the +twelfth of August, and 'named the said gulf St. Lawrence his bay' +(Hakluyt, iii, 263), St. Lawrence's Day being the 10th of August. +Hence the river, which he called the river of Hochelaga or the great +river of Canada, derived its name. See Parkman, p. 202.] + +[Sidenote: _English exploration in North America in the sixteenth +century._] + +[Sidenote: _Hore's voyage._] + +[Sidenote: _Acts of Parliament relating to the Newfoundland +fisheries._] + +A Bristol ship[39] having first discovered North America, it might +have been expected that the years succeeding Cabot's voyages would +have been fruitful in English adventure to the West; but, as far as +records show, little was done by Englishmen during the first half of +the sixteenth century to open up the New World; and even Cartier's +bold exploits roused little or no spirit of rivalry in Great Britain. +Indeed, all through {25} this century no English voyager seems to +have turned his mind to Canada and its river. The explorers went to +the Arctic seas, the would-be colonizers to Newfoundland or Virginia. +Between 1500 and 1550 two voyages alone have been actually +chronicled, though passing reference is made to others. Of these two, +the first was in 1527, when Albert de Prado, a canon of St. Paul's, +sailed with two ships in search of the Indies, reaching Newfoundland +and the North American coast. The second was in 1536, under a leader +named Hore--a voyage of which a graphic account is given in Hakluyt. +On the coast of Newfoundland the adventurers suffered the last +extremes of starvation, until at length even cannibalism began among +them; and the survivors owed their safety to the coming of a French +ship, which they seized and in which they returned home. It is clear, +however, that before the middle of the century the Newfoundland +fisheries had become a recognized branch of English trade, for the +traffic was safeguarded by two Acts of Parliament, one passed in +1540, in Henry VIII's reign, the other in 1548, in the reign of King +Edward VI. The object of the second Act was to prohibit the exaction +of any dues by way of licence from men engaged in the Iceland or +Newfoundland fishing trade, and Hakluyt's note upon it is that 'by +this Act it appeareth that the trade out of England to Newfoundland +was common and frequented about the beginning of the reign of Edward +VI, namely, in the year 1548.'[40] + +[Footnote 39: For this passage, see Doyle's _History of the English +in America_, vol. i, chap. iv.] + +[Footnote 40: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 170.] + +[Sidenote: _Return of Sebastian Cabot to England._] + +About this date Sebastian Cabot again appears upon the scene. In 1512 +he had entered the Spanish service; and, after a visit to England, +had returned to Spain, where, from 1518 to 1547, he held the +appointment of Pilot-Major to the King and Emperor Charles V.[41] At +the end of 1547 or the beginning of 1548, he was induced in his old +age to come back to the land, for and from which, more than half a +century {26} before, his or his father's great discovery had been +made; and King Edward VI rewarded his services by appointing him +Grand Pilot in England. His mind was still set on finding a way to +the Indies by the Northern Sea. He became governor of 'the mystery +and company of the Merchant Adventurers for the discovery of regions, +dominions, islands, and places unknown'; and in Hakluyt's pages[42] +may be found his instructions 'for the direction of the intended +voyage for Cathay.' + +[Footnote 41: See _The Dictionary of National Biography_, s. v.] + +[Footnote 42: Vol. i, p. 251.] + +[Sidenote: _The North-East Passage and Sir Hugh Willoughby._] + +[Sidenote: _The Muscovy Company._] + +The company was not finally incorporated by royal charter till +1554-5, but in the preceding year, 1553, they sent out an expedition +of three ships to try for a North-East Passage. The leader of the +expedition, Sir Hugh Willoughby, was, with the crews of two ships, +frozen to death on the coast of Lapland; but Richard Chancellor, the +captain of the third ship, reached the port on which the town of +Archangel now stands, and made his way overland to Moscow. This was +the beginning of British trade with Russia. The Merchant Adventurers +became known as the Muscovy Company, and their efforts were directed +to the overland traffic between Asia and Europe, which came by +Bokhara, Astrakhan, and the Volga, to the meeting of the east and +west at Novgorod. + +[Sidenote: _Martin Frobisher._] + +But, important as was this new development of trade, the British +explorers, whose names have lived, still took their way for the most +part over the Atlantic, making ever for the West. In June, 1576, +Martin Frobisher sailed from Blackwall to the north-west 'for the +search of the straight or passage to China.'[43] He sighted +Greenland; and, sailing west, came to the inlet in the American +coast, north of the Hudson Straits, which, after him, was called +Frobisher Bay. This arm of the sea he took to be a passage between +the two continents, the right-hand coast, as he went west, seeming to +be Asia, the left-hand coast America. He came back {27} to Harwich in +October, bringing with him a sample of black stone supposed to +contain gold; and thus, to the vain hope of a short passage to the +Indies, he added the more dangerous attraction of possible mineral +wealth in the Arctic regions. Men's hopes were raised; a company of +Cathay was formed, with Michael Lok for governor; and, as their +Captain-General, Frobisher sailed again in May, 1577, 'for the +further discovering of the passage to Cathay.'[44] Again he sighted +Greenland. Again he reached the bay which had been the turning-point +of his former voyage. He took possession of the barren northern land +in his Queen's name; and, when he came back in September, 'Her +Majesty named it very properly Meta Incognita, as a mark and bound +utterly hitherto unknown.'[45] The voyage was fruitless, but the +stones brought home were still thought to promise gold, and so, in +the following May, Frobisher started once more on a third voyage to +the north. Fifteen ships went with him from Harwich, bearing 'a +strong fort or house of timber'[46] to be set up on arrival in the +Arctic regions, and intended to shelter one hundred men through the +coming winter. The hundred men included miners, goldfiners, +gentlemen, artisans, 'and all necessary persons'[46]--as though this +desolate region were to become the scene of a thriving colony. They +set sail, reached the coast of Greenland, and claimed it in the +Queen's name. They fell in with the Esquimaux; they crossed the +channel now known as Davis Strait to the Meta Incognita; and they +came back in the autumn with no result beyond the report of a new +imaginary island. This was the end of Frobisher's enterprise, but in +the next forty years other English sailors followed where he had gone +before, and opened up to geographical knowledge fresh stretches of +icebound coast and wintry sea. Davis, Hudson, Baffin, and others, +gave their names to straits and bays, but it is impossible here to +trace the record of their courage and endurance. {28} No quest has +ever been so fruitful of daring, patient seamanship, none has ever +been so barren of practical results, as that for the North-West +Passage. What Frobisher went to find in the sixteenth century, +Franklin still sought in the nineteenth: and through all the ages of +British exploration has run the ever receding hope of finding a short +way through ice and snow to the sunny lands of the East. + +[Footnote 43: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 52.] + +[Footnote 44: Ibid. p. 56.] + +[Footnote 45: Ibid. p. 104.] + +[Footnote 46: Ibid. p. 105.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir Humphrey Gilbert._] + +In Great Britain the sixteenth century was the age of adventurers, +casting about for ways to other worlds, or freebooting where Spain +and Portugal claimed ownership of land and sea; but in that time two +men stand out as having had definite views of settlement, and as +having been colonizers in advance of their age. They are Sir Humphrey +Gilbert and his half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh. Edward Hayes, the +author of a narrative of Gilbert's attempt to found a colony in +Newfoundland, speaks of him as 'the first of our nation that carried +people to erect an habitation and government in those northerly +countries of America,'[47] and no nobler Englishman could well be +found to head the list of English colonizers of the New World. +Chivalrous in nature, bold in action, he was at the same time 'famous +for his knowledge both by sea and land';[48] and it was his +_Discourse to prove a passage by the north-west to Cathaia and the +East Indies_, which is said to have determined Frobisher to explore +the north. + +[Footnote 47: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 48: From Fuller's _Worthies of Devonshire_.] + +[Sidenote: _His patent of colonization._] + +In June, 1578, Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth his celebrated +patent 'for the inhabiting and planting of our people in +America.'[49] The grant was a wide one. It gave him full liberty to +explore and settle in any 'remote heathen and barbarous lands, +countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian +prince or people'; and it constituted him full owner of the land +where he settled, within {29} a radius of two hundred leagues from +the place of settlement. It was subject only to a reservation to the +Crown of one-fifth of the gold and silver found, and to a condition +that advantage should be taken of the grant within six years. For +three or four years Gilbert's efforts to colonize under this patent +were fruitless; he organized an expedition which came to nothing, and +other men, to whom he temporarily resigned his rights, were equally +unsuccessful. + +[Footnote 49: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 174.] + +[Sidenote: _His voyage to Newfoundland._] + +At length, on June 11, 1583, he set sail from Cawsand Bay, near +Plymouth, to try his luck for the last time in the western world. +There were five ships, one of which was fitted out by Ralegh,[50] and +one, the _Golden Hind_, had for its captain and owner, Edward Hayes, +the chronicler of the voyage. The company numbered 260 men all told, +including shipwrights, carpenters, and other artisans, 'mineral men +and refiners,' 'morris dancers' and other caterers of amusement 'for +solace of our people and allurement of the savages.'[51] These last +were evidence that more was projected than mere temporary +exploration. It was intended, writes Hayes, 'to win' the savages 'by +all fair means possible'; and with this end in view the freight of +the ships included 'petty haberdashery wares to barter with those +simple people.' On the third of August the little fleet entered the +harbour of St. John's in Newfoundland, where they found thirty-six +ships of all nations. They came expecting resistance, but met with +none. When Gilbert made known his intention to proclaim British +sovereignty over the island, the sailors and fishermen present seem +to have willingly acquiesced; and when he wanted to revictual and +refit his ships, the necessary supplies were readily forthcoming.[52] + +[Footnote 50: This ship deserted soon after starting.] + +[Footnote 51: Hakluyt, vol. iii, pp. 189, 190.] + +[Footnote 52: Hayes says, 'The Portugals (above other nations) did +most willingly and liberally contribute' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 192). +See above, p. 15.] + +[Sidenote: _Newfoundland declared to be a British possession._] + +The want of a settled authority, of some guarantee for law {30} and +order, in the harbours and on the coasts of Newfoundland, was no +doubt felt by those who came year by year to the fisheries, and Sir +Humphrey Gilbert's name and high repute may well have been known to +others than his own countrymen. Two days after his arrival he took +formal possession of the land, with ceremony of rod and turf, in the +name of his sovereign; the arms of England were set up; three simple +laws were enacted--providing that the recognized religion should be +in accordance with the forms of the Church of England, safeguarding +the sovereign rights of the Queen of England, and enjoining due +respect for her name; and then Gilbert issued land grants as +proprietor of the soil. In the words of one of the accounts which +Hakluyt has preserved,[53] 'he did let, set, give, and dispose of +many things as absolute Governor there, by virtue of Her Majesty's +letters patents.' + +[Footnote 53: Peckham's account, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 209.] + +Thus was Newfoundland declared to be a British possession, and such +are its claims to be our oldest colony. The annexation was complete +in form and substance; no protest was entered against it by those +whom it concerned; land was granted by the recognized proprietor, and +nothing was wanting to constitute a claim which should last, and has +lasted, to all time. Frobisher proclaimed the sovereignty of England +over Arctic lands, but his proclamation was as barren as the shores +over which it extended. Gilbert, on the contrary, went to a place +where European sailors had long foregathered; he went there as an +English Governor; his authority was unquestioned, his grants were +accepted, and when he read his commission and set up the arms of +England at the harbour of St. John, he took the first step, and a +very long step, towards British dominion in the New World. + +[Sidenote: _Gilbert's death._] + +Gilbert had great hopes of finding precious metal in Newfoundland; +and his principal mining expert, a Saxon, {31} promised him a rich +yield of silver from the ore which was collected in the island. That +ore, however, was lost early on the voyage home, and the miner +himself was lost with it in the wreck of the largest ship--the +_Delight_. A far greater loss, however, was in store for the +ill-fated expedition. They left St. John's on August 20, making for +Sable Island, which had been stocked years before by the +Portuguese.[54] In a few days the _Delight_ foundered on a rock; and +the weather became so bad that, at the end of the month, Gilbert +consented to make for home. He was in the smallest ship, the +_Squirrel_, a little ten-ton vessel, as being the best suited to +explore the creeks and inlets of the American coast; and, in spite of +the remonstrances of his companions, he would not leave her on the +return voyage. 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' were his +last words, before the ship went down in the middle of the Atlantic +with all on board; and thus, fearless and faithful unto death, he +found his resting-place in the sea. The story is one which stands out +to all time in the annals of English adventure and English +colonization. It was meet and right that the founder of the first +English colony should be a Devonshire sailor of high repute, of +stainless name, chivalrous, unselfish, strong in the fear of God. It +was no less meet that his grave should be in the stormy Atlantic, +midway between the Old World and the New. Thus those who came after +had a forerunner of the noblest type; and the ships, which from that +time to this have carried Englishmen to America, may ever have been +passing by where Humphrey Gilbert went to his rest. + +[Footnote 54: See above, p. 16.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir Walter Ralegh._] + +[Sidenote: _His attempts to colonize Virginia._] + +Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, was cast in the same +mould, but the record of his doings lies in the main beyond the range +of this book. Virginia and Guiana were the scenes of his attempts at +colonization, not Newfoundland or the coasts and rivers of Canada. In +1584, the year after {32} Gilbert had been lost at sea, Ralegh +obtained from Queen Elizabeth a patent which was practically the same +as Gilbert's grant of 1578; and, at the end of April, he sent out two +ships, commanded by two captains named Amidas and Barlow, to explore +and report upon a likely place for an English settlement.[55] + +[Footnote 55: Accounts of this and the following voyages are given in +the third volume of Hakluyt. See also the first book of John Smith's +general history of Virginia, _The English Voyages to the Old +Virginia_, in Mr. Arber's edition, _The English Scholar's Library_.] + +They sailed more towards the south than previous English explorers, +and eventually reached the island of Roanoke, which is now within the +limits of North Carolina. Everything seemed bright and sweet and +healthful, and the natives of the country were friendly and +hospitable, 'such as live after the manner of the golden age.'[56] So +they came back in the autumn with a story full of hope for the +future, and the virgin Queen christened the land of promise Virginia. + +[Footnote 56: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 304.] + +Ralegh lost no time in sending out settlers. In the next year, 1585, +seven ships started with 108 colonists on board. The expedition was +commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and among other captains with him +was Thomas Cavendish, afterwards celebrated, like Drake, for sailing +round the world. Ralph Lane, a soldier of fortune, was chosen to +remain in charge of the colony, and with him was Amidas, the explorer +of the previous year, who was styled 'Admiral of the country.' They +went by the West Indies, touching at the Spanish islands of Porto +Rico and Hispaniola, and, at the end of June, they reached Roanoke. +Here they formed their settlement, and, when Grenville and his ships +left in August and September, they brought back as bright a report as +Amidas and Barlow had given the year before. + +Already, however, before Grenville's departure, there had been +friction between the Indians and the new-comers; and, as months went +on, the new-born colony became in constant {33} danger of +extermination. Still Lane contrived to hold his own, exploring north +and west, gleaning reports of pearls and mines, and a possible +passage to the south sea, until the winter and spring were past and +the month of June had come again. A fleet of twenty-three ships was +then seen out at sea, and, to the joy of the settlers, proved to be +an English expedition under Sir Francis Drake, who was returning home +laden with spoils from the Spanish main. Drake, at Lane's request, +placed one of his ships with seamen and supplies at the disposal of +the colony; but a storm arose, and the ship was blown out to sea. +Daunted by this fresh trouble, the settlers determined to give up +their enterprise and return home. They asked for passages on board +Drake's vessels: the request was granted; and they abandoned Roanoke +only a fortnight before Grenville arrived with relief, long expected +and long delayed. Finding the island deserted, Grenville left fifteen +men in possession and himself came home. + +So far, Ralegh's scheme had failed; but the failure was due to +untoward circumstances, not to the nature of the country, and he +still persevered in his efforts. The very next year, in 1587, he sent +out a fresh band of settlers, 150 in number; giving them for a leader +John White, who had taken part in the former expedition. The +arrangements for forming a colony were more fully organized than +before; and to White and twelve Assistants Ralegh 'gave a charter and +incorporated them by the name of Governor and Assistants of the city +of Ralegh in Virginia.'[57] When the colonists reached Roanoke, they +found that the fifteen men left by Grenville had disappeared, driven +out, as they learnt, by the Indians. Notwithstanding, they renewed +the old settlement; and, in the face of native enmity, began again +the work of colonizing America. Before the end of the summer, White +sailed for England, to give an account of what had been done; and, on +his return home, Ralegh prepared to send {34} relief to the colony. +But war with Spain was now on hand, freebooting was more attractive +than colonizing, one attempt and another to send ships to Virginia +miscarried; and when at length, late in 1589, White reached the scene +of his settlement, he found it dismantled and deserted. So ended the +first attempt to colonize Virginia. Success was not to come for a few +more years, until the sixteenth century had passed and gone. + +[Footnote 57: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 341.] + +[Sidenote: _General results of the sixteenth century._] + +Before 1600, Newfoundland had been annexed by Great Britain, but not +one single English or French colony had as yet taken root in America. +Nevertheless the century was far from barren of results. The way had +been made plain, the ground had been cleared, the wild oats of +adventure and knight-errantry had been sown, and the peoples were +sobering down to steadier and more prudent enterprise. Beaten on the +sea, raided and plundered in their own tropical domain, the Spaniards +were ceasing to be a terror and a hindrance to the nations of +Northern Europe; and, as the latter grew from youth to lusty manhood, +the map of the great North American continent unfolded itself before +their eyes. Then Champlain went to work in Canada, and John Smith in +Virginia; Jesuits on the St. Lawrence, and Puritans in the New +England states; and so the grain of mustard-seed, cast into American +soil, grew into a great tree, which already, before three centuries +have ended, bids fair to overshadow the earth. + + +N.B.--The references to Hakluyt made in the notes above are to the +1810 edition. + + +Among modern books most use has been made in this chapter of:-- + + PARKMAN'S _Pioneers of France in the New World_; + DOYLE'S _History of the English in America_, vol. i; and + JUSTIN WINSOR'S _Narrative and Critical History of America_. + +Reference should also be made to Sir J. BOURINOT'S monograph on 'Cape +Breton,' first published in the _Proceedings and Transactions of the +Royal Society of Canada_, vol. ix, 1891, and since published +separately. + + + + +{35} + +CHAPTER II + +SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC + + +The history of Canada has been so often and so well told, that an +attempt simply to reproduce the narrative would be worse than +superfluous. The scheme of the present series is, in the field of +colonization and within the present limits of the British Empire, to +trace the connexion between history and geography; and from this +point of view more especially the story of New France will be +recorded. + +[Sidenote: _New France._] + +Various parts of the world, now British possessions, were once owned +by other European nations, notably by the Dutch or French. The last +volume of the series dealt with what was in past times a dependency +of the Netherlands, the Cape Colony, the mother colony of South +Africa. The present volume deals with a land which the French made +peculiarly their own; where, as hardly anywhere else, they settled, +though not in large numbers; not merely conquering or ruling the +conquered, not only leaving a permanent impress of manners, law, and +religion, but slowly and partially colonizing a country and forming a +nation. + +Lower Canada, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was rightly included +under the wider name of New France, for here France and the French +were reproduced in weakness and in strength. It was a land well +suited to the French character and physique. Much depended on tactful +dealings with the North American Indians, a species of diplomacy in +which Frenchmen excelled. The commercial value of Canada consisted +mainly in the fur trade, an adventurous kind of traffic more +attractive to the {36} Frenchman of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries than plodding agriculture or the life of a counting-house. +On the rivers and lakes, coming and going was comparatively easy; the +short bright summers and the long winters made the country one of +strong contrasts. To a bold, imaginative, somewhat restless people +there was much to charm in Canada. + +But Canada meant far less in earlier days than now it means. It meant +the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and of the lakes +from which it flows. The Maritime Provinces of the present Dominion, +or at any rate Nova Scotia, were not in Canada properly so called, +but bore the name of La Cadie or Acadia,[1] and the great North-West +was an unknown land. + +[Footnote 1: For the derivation of the name 'Acadia,' see Parkman's +_Pioneers of France in the New World_, p. 243, note. _Cadie_ is an +Indian word meaning place or region. 'It is obviously a Micmac or +Souriquois affix used in connexion with other words to describe the +natural characteristics of a place or locality' (Bourinot's monograph +on 'Cape Breton,' _Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society +of Canada_, vol. ix, sec. 2, p. 185). For the name 'Canada,' see +above, p. 24. note 37.] + +By the end of the seventeenth century the French had three spheres of +influence and colonization in North America--the country of the St. +Lawrence, the seaboard between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the +New England colonies, and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi. +To join them and encircle the English colonies was the aim of French +statesmanship. It was an impossible aim, inevitably frustrated by +geographical conditions and by want of colonists; but the conception +was a great one, large as the new continent in which it was framed, +and able men tried to work it out, but tried in vain. + +[Sidenote: _The French as colonizers._] + +Much has been written of French methods of colonization; writers have +been at pains to enumerate the shortcomings of the French, and have +carefully explained whence those mistakes arose. But there is less to +wonder at in the failures than in the great successes to be credited +to France. Being {37} part of the continent of Europe, and ever +embroiled in continental politics, when she competed with England as +a colonizing power, she competed with one hand tied.[2] Changeable, +it is said, were the French and their policy; their kings and +courtiers may have been changeable, but the charge does not lie +against the French nation. + +[Footnote 2: This is pointed out in Professor Seeley's _Expansion of +England_, course i, lecture 5.] + +They were trading up the Senegal early in the seventeenth century, +and there they are at the present day. From the dawn of their +colonial enterprise they tried to obtain possession of Madagascar; +they have their object now. Nearly four centuries ago they fished off +the coasts of Newfoundland, and England has good cause to know that +they fish there still. To the St. Lawrence went Cartier from St. +Malo, and by the same route generations of Frenchmen entered steadily +into America, until Quebec had fallen and the St. Lawrence was theirs +no more. The French were versatile in their colonial dealings; they +were quickly moving and constantly moving; but they saw clearly and +they followed tenaciously; they were strong and staunch, and they +proved themselves to be a wonderful people. + +Yet there must have been some element of weakness in the French +character, in that they bred and obeyed bad rulers who did not live +for France, but for whom France was sacrificed; who crushed liberty, +political and religious, who drove out industry with the Huguenots, +and squandered the heritage of the nation. Englishmen, comparatively +early in their history, reckoned with priests first and with kings +afterwards. They did most of their work at home before they made +their colonial empire; they colonized new worlds as a reformed +people; the French tried to colonize under absolutism and +priestcraft. It might not have been so, it probably would not have +been so, if the religious policy of the French Government had been +other than it was. {38} The Huguenots, if not persecuted and +eventually in great measure driven out, would have given France the +one thing wanting to make her colonization successful, the spirit of +private enterprise independent of court favour, the child and the +parent of freedom, the determined foe of a deadening religious +despotism. + +[Sidenote: _Attempts at French colonization in Brazil and Florida._] + +In the sixteenth century, after Cartier's voyages to the St. +Lawrence, we hear little of the French in North America. The Breton +fishermen followed their calling, crossed the Atlantic year after +year, and came back with cargoes of fish and with furs procured by +barter with the Indians; but no French settlement was founded either +in Canada or in Acadia. In France itself the last half of the century +was a time of civil war; the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place, +the house of Valois came to an end, and in 1589 Henry of Navarre +became King of France. Before his accession to the Crown, two +attempts at French colonization were made, in Brazil and in Florida. +The colonists were mainly Huguenots, and their enterprise was backed +by the great Protestant leader Coligny. The earlier attempt, designed +to plant a settlement on the harbour of Rio Janeiro, was short-lived, +because ill led by a violent tyrannical man, Villegagnon. The first +settlers arrived in 1555; by the end of 1558 they had all +disappeared. Still more tragical was the outcome of the venture in +Florida. In 1562 a band of would-be colonists sailed from Dieppe, +under the command of Jean Ribault. They reached Florida in safety, +and built a small fort towards the northern end of the peninsula, in +which thirty men were left behind while Ribault returned to France. +In the following year, the survivors of the thirty came back to +Europe, having abandoned the fort and experienced every extremity of +thirst and hunger while crossing the Atlantic in a ship of their own +making. Again in 1564, a Huguenot expedition, under René de +Laudonničre, sailed for Florida, and the settlers planted themselves +on the {39} St. John's river, then known as the river of May. In 1565 +Ribault joined them with reinforcements and supplies. Well known from +its surpassing horror is the story of the French settlement. A +Spanish force under Menendez, a fanatic as treacherous and as savage +as Philip II himself, took up a position to the south where the town +of St. Augustine now stands, and overpowering the Frenchmen in +detachments, butchered them with every accompaniment of cruelty and +guile. The French fort passed into Spanish hands, but within three +years time an avenging freebooter came from France, Domenic de +Gourgues; the Spaniards in their turn were shot and hung, and the +banks of the St. John's river were left desolate. + +Ill managed, badly supported were these French ventures to Brazil and +Florida. Had they been well led and given some little encouragement +and assistance, the result might have been far different. Protestants +might have gained a firm foothold in Central and Southern America. +France might have won from Spain and Portugal a great domain. As it +was, the attempts resulted in utter failure, and great opportunities +were lost never to be regained. + +[Sidenote: _La Roche's patent._] + +As the sixteenth century drew to a close, a patent was issued by the +French King to a Breton nobleman, the Marquis de la Roche, to +colonize in North America. The terms of the patent were +preposterously wide, conferring sovereignty over Canada, together +with a monopoly of trade. The results were proportionately small. La +Roche set sail in 1598, in a single ship with a cargo of convicts. He +landed them at Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, and sailed +back to France, leaving them to their fate. Five years later, in +1603, eleven of the number, who had survived, were rescued and +brought home again. + +[Sidenote: _Chauvin and Pontgravé._] + +[Sidenote: _De Chastes._] + +About a year after La Roche's fruitless voyage, in 1599 or 1600, two +other Frenchmen, Chauvin, a sea captain, and Pontgravé, a St. Malo +merchant, also obtained a patent to {40} colonize in Canada. Their +object was to monopolize the fur trade, and they attempted a +settlement at Tadoussac, where the Saguenay river flows into the St. +Lawrence. During a whole winter a small party was left at the +station, but no permanent colony was formed; and a second and third +voyage had no lasting results. Chauvin died, and in 1602 or 1603 a +new patent was granted to De Chastes, a man of rank and station, who +associated with himself Pontgravé, and secured the services of Samuel +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Samuel Champlain._] + +In order of time, Champlain's name stands second in the list of the +men to whom New France in America was due. It stands second in time +to the name of Cartier; in order of merit it heads the list. Cartier +was a great explorer, but his work ended with discovery; Champlain +founded a colony. The history of Canada as a French possession has +gained in attractiveness, in that it began and ended with a +high-minded, chivalrous leader. It began with Champlain, it ended +with Montcalm. Born on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, the +adventurous son of a seafaring father, Champlain fought for the King +in Brittany, and was given by him a retainer in the shape of a small +pension. The war over, he travelled for two years in the Spanish +Indies, and, visiting Panama, conceived the idea of a ship canal +across the isthmus. After his return home, he took service under De +Chastes' company, and in 1603 sailed with Pontgravé for the St. +Lawrence. The voyage was one of exploration only. Champlain ascended +the river as far as Montreal, gathering geographical information from +the Indians, but attempting no settlement; and when he returned to +France in a few months' time, he found that his employer, De Chastes, +was dead. + +[Sidenote: _De Monts' patent._] + +[Sidenote: _The first French settlement in Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal._] + +Yet another royal patent was granted, in 1603, to De Monts, a +Huguenot gentleman of the French court, its object being the +colonization of Acadia, and Acadia being defined as extending from +the fortieth degree of north latitude, which runs {41} through[3] +Philadelphia, to the forty-sixth degree, which is north of Montreal. +De Monts took into partnership the members of De Chastes' company, +and in 1604 two vessels sailed for America. They carried a mixed +freight, Huguenots and Roman Catholics, gentlemen of fortune, and +vagrants impressed under the King's commission. De Monts and +Champlain were on board the first ship, Pontgravé followed in the +second, with supplies for the future colony. They steered not for the +St. Lawrence, but for the coast of Nova Scotia; and entering the Bay +of Fundy they discovered Annapolis harbour, which was given the name +of Port Royal. The first settlement, however, was made on an islet +off the mouth of the St. Croix river, which now forms the boundary +between New Brunswick and the state of Maine; and there through the +winter De Monts and Champlain stayed with a scurvy-stricken company, +numbering seventy-nine in all, of whom nearly half died. On the +return of spring and the advent of relief from France, the leaders +coasted south along the shores of Maine, and of what were in after +years the New England states; and coming back to their station in +August, they moved the settlement across the Bay of Fundy, and +established themselves on the inlet of Annapolis harbour. De Monts +then returned to France, leaving Pontgravé and Champlain to hold the +post through the winter of 1605. + +[Footnote 3: For De Monts' patent see the _Calendar of State Papers_, +Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 4, entry 10, Nov. 8, 1603. It was a patent +'for inhabiting Acadia, Canada, and other places in New France,' and +De Monts was appointed the French King's Lieutenant-General 'for to +represent our person in the countries, territories, coasts, and +confines of La Cadia from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree.'] + +[Sidenote: _Lescarbot._] + +In the following summer, ships came back from France just in time to +prevent the settlement at Port Royal from being broken up in despair. +They brought with them the advocate Lescarbot, the historian of New +France. Again there was exploring down the American coast, and again +Champlain and his associates held their own through the winter. The +{42} outlook of the little colony was promising. The season was mild, +the natives were friendly, supplies were plentiful, gardens were laid +out and corn was sown. But in the late spring of 1607 news came from +home that the patent had been cancelled, and before the summer ended +Port Royal was abandoned. + +[Sidenote: _De Poutrincourt._] + +[Sidenote: _Jesuit influence._] + +For nearly three years the place was left desolate, and then, in +1610, one of De Monts' associates came back again. It was the Baron +de Poutrincourt, to whom the harbour, when first discovered, had been +granted by De Monts. The Jesuits were at the time strong at the +French court, stronger still after the assassination of King Henry IV +in this same year. They, or the ladies of the court, who were their +tools, bought shares in the venture, and Jesuit priests went out to +Acadia, thwarting and quarrelling with Poutrincourt and his son. Both +the two great dangers which always threatened and finally ruined the +French power in North America came into being at this date, the +exclusive influence of the Jesuits and English competition. + +[Sidenote: _Argall's raid from Virginia._] + +[Sidenote: _Destruction of Port Royal._] + +In 1606 the Virginia company was incorporated, and in the following +year British colonization on the mainland of North America began with +the founding of Jamestown. There are many miles of coast between +Acadia and Virginia, between the Bay of Fundy and Chesapeake Bay, but +French and English soon crossed each other's paths. In 1613 a ship +sailed from France, sent out under Jesuit influence, with a view to +founding a settlement on the North American coast. After touching at +Port Royal, the party sailed southwards to the coast of Maine, and +landed in the region of the Penobscot river. Hardly had their tents +been set up on the shore, when an English ship came in sight, +captured the French vessel, which was lying at anchor, uprooted the +would-be colony, and took all the Frenchmen prisoners. The invaders +hailed from Jamestown; they were commanded by Samuel Argall, an +unscrupulous freebooter. {43} His pretext was that the Frenchmen were +taking up ground within the limits of the patents granted by the +English King to his subjects, but his act was little more than +piracy. Some of the Frenchmen were set adrift in an open boat, and +eventually reached France in safety; the rest were carried prisoners +to Jamestown, whence Argall set sail again, commissioned by the +governor of Virginia to attack Port Royal. He reached, plundered, and +burnt the fort, its commander, Biencourt, with the rest of the +settlers, being absent in the fields, for it was harvest time; but +the colony was not finally blotted out, and the French still kept a +foothold in Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Champlain on the St. Lawrence._] + +Champlain's first voyage to North America in 1603 had taken him to +the St. Lawrence. From 1604-7 Acadia had been the scene of his +labours, until De Monts' patent had been revoked. In 1608 he returned +to the river of Canada. On the line of the St. Lawrence he carried +out the work of his life, and by its banks he died. In the course +which French colonization in America and its first great leader took, +may be traced the influence on history of geography and race. + +[Sidenote: _Comparison of English and French colonization in North +America._] + +[Sidenote: _English colonial enterprise in the seventeenth century +the result of private co-operation._] + +In English colonial history, as writers on the subject have pointed +out,[4] the age of adventure was distinct from the age of settlement. +Ralegh was the latest product of the times of romance, an his +attempts at colonization were premature and unsuccessful. To some +extent a similar distinction may be made in French colonial history: +Cartier may be taken as a representative of the earlier age, +Champlain of the later; but the line of demarcation is much fainter, +much less real, in the case of the French than in that of the +English. To English and French alike adventure had meant private +enterprise, usually but not always countenanced by kings, generally +carried out under cover of royal licences or patents, so vague as to +be almost meaningless, granted one day, liable to be {44} cancelled +the next. When the age of romance passed away in England with the +passing of the sixteenth century, adventurers in the ordinary sense +in great measure disappeared, with the exception of the Arctic +explorers, who, like Hudson and Baffin, still sailed to the desolate +North. Private enterprise, on the other hand, not only survived, but +it grew stronger, more business-like, more independent of court +favour. It was private enterprise still, but under new forms, the +enterprise not of individual freebooters, or of knights errant, but +of associations of citizens, some of the associations being chartered +commercial companies, while others were bands of colonizers and +colonists united by a common antagonism and a common creed. Their +objects were not in the air, they did not live in dreamland, they +went out or sent out others, not so much to discover new lands, as to +occupy and appropriate lands which had already been found, to make +new English homes on the other side of the Atlantic. + +[Footnote 4: See e.g. Doyle's _History of the English in America_, +vol. i, chap. vi.] + +[Sidenote: _The new patents of English colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _Motives of English colonization in the seventeenth +century._] + +[Sidenote: _The English kept near to the sea._] + +In theory the commercial companies were, like the individual +patentees of the former generation, working under the authority of +the Crown. Indeed that authority was far more strongly proclaimed +than before, and for vague generalities were substituted very +definite restrictions; but this was only a sign of a new time. It +indicated that a stage had been reached when more was known, when +practical business was being taken in hand, and when, therefore, the +slipshod patents, which had hitherto sufficed, would no longer avail. +Because private enterprise really meant more, therefore the +Government said more, and the very defining of the work and +circumscribing of its sphere made the results sounder, more lasting, +and more substantial. It was not the lust of conquest, it was not the +glamour of adventure, it was not a wish to proselytize in religion or +to add new provinces to the domain of a European kingdom which made +the English colonize North America. There were two {45} main motives +at work. One was the desire to find or to do something which would +pay, the other was a longing to live under more independent +conditions than existed in the mother country. The settlers went to +lands where natives dwelt, and, therefore, dealings with the North +American Indians in war and peace ensued; but the English did not go +to the New World in the main to conquer or to convert the Indians, +they went to live and to make their living pay. Instinct was at work +in English colonization, the instinct of self-preservation, of +extension, of always moving a little further and winning a little +more; but there was no high scheme of universal dominion for the +English King or the English creed. Against any such views the New +England colonies were a living protest, and in Virginia, Maryland, or +Carolina they found no place. All of these colonies were prosaic, +unromantic communities: they were groups of Englishmen, living, +grumbling, working and squabbling, with varieties of opinions and +differences of outward forms, half protected, half worried by the +home Government, building up unconsciously, illogically, amid much +that was mean and small, what was to be in the end a mighty nation. +Instinct, too, kept the colonists for the most part near to the sea. +They fringed the Atlantic over which they had come, and ever renewed +their strength as more emigrants came in; they strayed no doubt to +some extent as years went on, taking up farms inland and clearing the +backwoods; but, on the whole, there was continuity of colonization, a +gradual widening of the belt of settlement, expansion on the part of +the settlers themselves, as opposed to planting in the heart of the +continent military outposts, or isolated mission stations. + +[Sidenote: _The French colonized inland._] + +[Sidenote: _Comparison of French colonization in Canada and Dutch +colonization in South Africa._] + +With the French in Canada the case was different. Except in Acadia +and Cape Breton Island, and to a limited extent in Newfoundland, they +had no hold on the sea coast: and Acadia had for many years little +connexion with the {46} land of the St. Lawrence. Canada, as a sphere +of colonization, began when the open sea had been left far behind. It +was an inland territory with a great river and great lakes. No two +parts of the world are more unlike than Canada and South Africa. +Canada has a river highway into it, excellent water communication by +lake and stream, and, until the Rocky mountains are reached, no +mountain barriers are interposed to cut off the interior from the +coast regions or one district from another. South Africa is almost +devoid of natural harbours, its rivers are valueless for purposes of +navigation. Its ranges of hills or mountains rise one behind the +other, barring the way from the coast to the interior, severing one +section of the territory from another. Yet, curiously enough, +somewhat similar results followed from diametrically opposite +geographical conditions. No two races in the world were and are more +unlike each other than the Dutch and the French, unlike in character, +in tradition, in political and religious training. But the Dutch in +South Africa and the French in Canada resembled each other in this, +that they were and remained very few in number, planted in an +unlimited area, and that men lived in either case under a rigid +system. The restrictive rule of the Netherlands East India Company in +South Africa led to trekking, to wandering in the wilderness, and the +difficulties of communication increased the wandering tendency, +because the wanderers, who wished no longer to be controlled by the +government at Cape Town, could not easily be followed up. The French +rule in Canada was restrictive too, restrictive in matters of +politics, of commerce, and of religion. It was a despotism which +allowed no vestige of freedom or self-government; but it was a far +stronger and more active despotism than that of the Netherlands +Company. The Dutch sought a trade monopoly, the French a territorial +dominion. The Dutch were at pains to minimize their responsibilities. +The French policy was {47} one of conquest and conversion; they +looked to holding in subjection the lands and the peoples of the New +World. They worked under a government which was absolute, but whose +absolutism, in the main, encouraged perpetual moving forward, and +they worked in a land where moving forward was comparatively easy. +Thus dispersion ensued on a greater scale than in South Africa. The +negative force which promoted trekking in the Cape Colony was present +also in Canada--antipathy to a rigid system, to hard and fast rules; +and the counterpart of the Dutch voortrekkers, though under very +different conditions, was to be found in the Canadian fur-traders and +_coureurs de bois_. But in South Africa the positive force was +wanting which shaped Canadian history, the forward policy of an +ambitious state. The agents of the French Government in Canada, +military and religious, went far afield--adventurous and +enterprising, intriguing with savage races, establishing outposts in +the interior, strong to carry out a preconceived plan of a great +French dominion. The malcontent Dutchmen in South Africa moved slowly +and sleepily away in their wagons to be out of reach; the country +aided their intent by being difficult of access. Along the rivers and +the lakes of Canada the Frenchmen lightly passed, those who worked +the will of the Government as well as those who were impatient of +control. + +[Sidenote: _Contrast between English and French in North America._] + +The rivalry then between the two European nations who colonized North +America, the English and the French, was rivalry at every point. It +was a conflict of race, of religion, of geographical conditions, of +new and old, of European government and American colonists. On the +one side were seaboard settlements, comparatively continuous, in +which there was much instinct and little policy, much freedom and +little system; where the population steadily grew by natural causes +and by immigration, democratic communities in which the real work was +done from below, the products of {48} a wholly different era from +that which preceded it, and in which picturesque adventurers had +failed to colonize. On the other side were the beginnings of +continental colonization along the natural lines of communication. +The dispersion was great, the settlers were few, the settlements were +weak. All was done from above, except where unlicensed adventurers +roamed the woods. The elements of an older day were preserved and +stereotyped, attractive but unprogressive. Old forms transplanted to +a New World did not lose their life, but renewed it. Feudal customs +took root in the soil. Despotism, supported by the Roman Catholic +Church, did not survive merely, but grew stronger. The adventurer +remained an adventurer, and did not turn into a businesslike +colonist. There was much that was great, there was more that was +uniform, but there was little or no growth. + +[Sidenote: _Elements of strength on the French side._] + +The ultimate outcome of such a contest must necessarily have been, in +the course of generations, the triumph of the side on which were the +forces and the views of the coming time. But, while the struggle +lasted, the French gained not a little from being less vulnerable +than the English, as being more dispersed; from being better situated +for purposes of attack; from being organized, so far as there was +organization, under one government and one system instead of many; +from the extraordinary energy and quickness of some of the French +leaders in Canada; from the strong military element in the +population; from the fanatical devotion of the French missionaries; +and last, but not least, from the Frenchmen's better handling of the +natives. + +[Sidenote: _The waterways of North America._] + +The sources of the Mississippi are close to the western end of Lake +Superior, and the eastern half of North America is therefore nearly +an island, created by the Mississippi, the great lakes, the St. +Lawrence, and the sea. An inner circle is formed by the Mississippi, +the Ohio, Lakes Erie, Ontario, and the St. Lawrence, the head waters +of the Ohio river being within easy distance of Lake Erie. The course +of the Ohio {49} is from north-east to north-west. It flows, very +roughly, parallel to the Alleghany mountains, and drains their +western sides. The Alleghanies in their turn are parallel to the +Atlantic, and between them and the sea is a coast belt from north to +south. Here was the scene of the English settlements. Here, cut off +by mountain ranges from the Mississippi valley and from the inland +plains, the Virginians and the New Englanders made their home. 'The +New England man,' writes Parkman, 'had very little forest experience. +His geographical position cut him off completely from the great +wilderness of the interior. The sea was his field of action.'[5] + +[Footnote 5: _The Old Régime in Canada_, chap. xxi, p. 399 (14th ed., +1885).] + +[Sidenote: _The Hudson river and Lake Champlain._] + +But there is one direct route, with nearly continuous waterways, from +the Atlantic seaboard to the St. Lawrence. It runs due north up the +Hudson river, is continued by Lakes George and Champlain between the +Adirondack mountains on the west, and on the east the Green mountains +of Vermont; and from the northern end of Lake Champlain it follows +the outlet of that lake, the Richelieu river, for seventy to eighty +miles into the St. Lawrence. The head waters of the Hudson are hard +by Lake George, but at the present day navigation ceases at Troy, 151 +miles from the sea, where is the confluence of the Mohawk river, and +from whence the Champlain canal runs direct to Lake Champlain. The +distance from Troy to Lake George is in straight line about fifty +miles. This route was all-important for attack and defence in the +wars between England and France, and it was well for Great Britain +that, at a comparatively early stage in the colonization of America, +she took over the Dutch settlements in the valley of the Hudson, +gaining control of that river and linking New England to the southern +colonies. + +[Sidenote: _The St. Lawrence._] + +From the mouth of the Hudson at New York to where the Richelieu joins +the St. Lawrence, a straight line drawn on {50} the map from south to +north measures rather under 400 miles. It is much the same distance, +on a very rough estimate, from the confluence of the Richelieu and +the St. Lawrence to the point where the St. Lawrence opens into the +sea. This point is generally taken to be the Point de Monts, which is +on the northern bank of the river, in north latitude 49 degrees 15 +minutes, and west longitude 67 degrees 30 minutes, though the Gaspé +peninsula, on the southern side of the estuary, extends much further +to the east. Thus the centre of the St. Lawrence basin is equidistant +from the mouth of that river and from the mouth of the Hudson,[6] and +between these two points, before the days of railways, there was no +easily accessible route from the sea to Montreal. + +[Footnote 6: Hennepin in _A New Discovery of a vast Country in +America_ (English ed., London, 1698, pt. 2, p. 129), speaking of the +St. Lawrence, says: 'The middle of the river is nearer to New York +than to Quebec, the capital town of Canada.' This is of course +incorrect, but it shows appreciation of the directness of the route +to the St. Lawrence by the Hudson river.] + +Following up the St. Lawrence from the Point de Monts, at about a +distance of 140 miles, the mouth of the Saguenay is reached on the +northern side. There stood and stands Tadoussac, in old days a great +centre of the fur trade, and the earliest foothold of the French in +Canada. From the mouth of the Saguenay to Quebec is about 120 miles, +and from Quebec to Montreal is rather over 160. Nearly halfway +between Quebec and Montreal, over seventy miles from the former and +over ninety from the latter, is the town of Three Rivers, situated on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at its confluence with the St. +Maurice river, one of the oldest and one of the most important French +settlements in Canada. Here is the limit of the tideway, and above +this point the St. Lawrence expands for some thirty miles into Lake +St. Peter. At the upper end of this lake or expanse of river, on the +southern side, the Richelieu joins the St. Lawrence, with the town of +Sorel at {51} its mouth, and forty-five miles higher up is Montreal. +From Montreal to Kingston, where the St. Lawrence issues from Lake +Ontario, is a distance of 180 to 190 miles by river, past rapids well +known to readers and to tourists, and past the Thousand islands. Thus +the total length of the St. Lawrence, from the lakes to the opening +into the gulf, is rather over 600 miles. + +[Sidenote: _The great lakes._] + +The great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin cover a surface of nearly +100,000 square miles--an area larger than that of Great Britain. +Lakes Ontario and Erie, connected by the Niagara river, continue the +direct line of the St. Lawrence, Lake Erie more especially lying due +south-west and north-east; but from the extreme end of this +last-named lake the channel of communication takes a sharp curve to +the north in the Detroit river, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair +river, which link together Lakes Erie and Huron. Lake Huron, the +centre of the whole group, stretches back towards the east and +south-east in Georgian Bay, while on the north-west it is connected +with Lake Michigan by the straits of Michillimackinac or Mackinac, +and with Lake Superior by St. Mary's straits and rapids, the Sault +St. Marie. The rivers which feed Lake Superior are the head waters of +the St. Lawrence, and one of them, the St. Louis, which enters the +lake at its extreme western end, has its source hard by the source of +the Mississippi. The total length of lake and river on the line of +the St. Lawrence is over 2,000 miles. + +[Sidenote: _The route of the Ottawa river._] + +It has been said that Lakes Ontario and Erie continue the main course +of the St. Lawrence in its south-westerly and north-easterly +direction, that the channel which feeds Lake Erie at its western end +comes down from the north, and that the central lake which is then +reached--Lake Huron--breaks back towards the east. Thus the direct +line from Montreal to the centre of the lake system is not up the St. +Lawrence, but along one of its largest tributaries, which enters the +main river at Montreal. This tributary is the Ottawa, flowing {52} +from the north-west in a course broken by falls and rapids. One +hundred and thirty miles from its confluence with the St. Lawrence, +just below the Chaudičre falls, now stands the city of Ottawa, the +capital of the Canadian Dominion, connected with Lake Ontario by the +Rideau canal; and rather under 200 miles above Ottawa, where the +Mattawa river enters from the west, there is nearly continuous water +communication in a due westerly direction with Lake Nipissing, which +lake is in turn connected by the French river with the great inlet of +Lake Huron known as Georgian Bay. Champlain early explored this +route--the direct route to the west, and along it as far as Lake +Nipissing now runs the Canadian Pacific Railway. French river flows +into the northern end of Georgian Bay. At its south-easternmost end, +that bay runs into the land in the direction of Lake Ontario; and in +the middle of the broad isthmus between the two lakes lies Lake +Simcoe. + +[Sidenote: _Canada a geographical federation._] + +Such in rough outline is the basin of the St. Lawrence. It is a +network of lakes and rivers which finds no parallel, unless it be in +Central Africa. The present Dominion of Canada is not merely a +political federation; it is a federation of regions which are +geographically separate from each other. There is the eastern +seaboard, the old Acadia; there is the basin of the St. Lawrence; +there are the plains of the North-West and the regions of the Hudson +Bay; and there are the lands of the Pacific coast. Only one of these +four regions, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was the main scene of +early Canadian history. Acadia comes into the story, it is true, but +until the eighteenth century only indirectly, in connexion with the +English colonies on the Atlantic coast rather than with the French in +Canada. English and French collided on the shores of Hudson Bay; they +collided also in Newfoundland; but Hudson Bay and Newfoundland alike +were outside the sphere of Canada. The great prairies of the +North-West were a possibility of the distant future; but not {53} +till the days of railways did the western half of the present +Dominion come within the range of practical politics. Along the St. +Lawrence and its tributaries the drama of Canadian history was +played; the furthest horizon was the Mississippi and the whole line +of the lakes; a nearer view was bounded by the Ohio valley; while the +immediate foreground was formed by the St. Lawrence from Quebec to +Lake Ontario, the centremost point being the confluence of the +Richelieu with the main river. + +Movement, constant movement, these waterways suggested; exploration, +adventure, and ultimately conquest; pressing onward by strength or +skill through a boundless area, with something unknown always beyond; +making portages round impossible rapids, forcing paths through +interminable forests, dealing with half-hidden foes. The land was one +for the traveller, the explorer, the missionary, the soldier, the +hunter, the fur-trader, but not so much for the settler and the +agriculturist. Thus it was that the age of adventurers was +perpetuated along the St. Lawrence, while the English colonists +between the Alleghanies and the sea were living steady lives attached +to the soil. + +[Sidenote: _The main object of North American exploration was a route +to the East._] + +The great motive force of modern adventure was, as has been seen, the +search for a direct route to the East. Engaged in this search Henry +Hudson, in 1609, piloted the Dutch into the Hudson river.[7] +Champlain's first expedition up the Ottawa was due to a lying tale +that along that river had been found a way to the sea. La Salle, the +explorer of the Mississippi, had his mind ever set on the East, and +his Seigniory above Montreal was named La Chine; for, 'like {54} +Champlain and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a passage to the +south sea, and a new road for commerce to the riches of China and +Japan.'[8] Many long years passed before the geography of North +America was known with any accuracy, and in the meantime the recesses +of the continent, from which the rivers flowed, seemed to hide the +secret of a thoroughfare by the West to the East. Similarly, from the +time when Columbus sought for and thought he had found the Indies in +the New World, down to our own day, the natives of America have been +known as Indians. + +[Footnote 7: Hudson in 1609 sought for a North-West Passage about the +fortieth degree of latitude. 'This idea had been suggested to Hudson +by some letters and maps which his friend Captain Smith had sent him +from Virginia, and by which he informed him that there was a sea +leading into the western ocean by the north of Virginia.' See _A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to New Netherland_, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Müller, 1868), Introd. pp. xxv, xxvi.] + +[Footnote 8: Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West_ +(1885 ed.), p. 8.] + +[Sidenote: _The Indians of North America._] + +[Sidenote: _The Algonquins._] + +The two native races, with which the history of Canada is mainly +concerned, are the Algonquins and the Huron Iroquois. The former were +far the more numerous of the two, and were spread over a much larger +area. They included under different names the Indians of the lower +St. Lawrence, of Acadia, New England, and the Atlantic states as far +as the Carolinas--the Montagnais, the Abenakis, the Micmacs, the +Narragansetts, the Pequods, and others. The Delawares, too, were +members of the race, and Algonquin tribes were to be found on the +Ottawa, at Lake Nipissing, on the further shores of the great lakes, +in Michigan and Illinois. From the day when Champlain joined forces +with them against their hereditary foes the Iroquois, they ranged +themselves for the most part on the side of the French. + +[Sidenote: _The Huron Iroquois._] + +The Hurons or Wyandots and the Iroquois were distinct from the +Algonquins and akin to each other. When Cartier visited the St. +Lawrence, the native towns which he found on the sites of Quebec and +Montreal seem to have been inhabited by Indians of this race; but by +Champlain's time the towns had disappeared, and those who dwelt in +them had sought other strongholds. Though related in blood and +speech, these two groups of tribes were deadly foes of each other. +The Hurons, like the Algonquins, were allied to the {55} French; the +Iroquois, guided partly by policy and partly by antipathy to the +European intruders into Canada and their Indian friends, were as a +rule to be found in amity with the English. The region of the upper +St. Lawrence and of Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, was the home of +the Huron Iroquois race. The Huron country lay between Georgian Bay +of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe. South of the Hurons, the northern +shore of Lake Erie and both sides of the Niagara river were held by +the Neutral Nation, neutral as between the Iroquois and the Hurons, +and akin to both. The Eries on the southern side of Lake Erie, and +the Andastes on the lower Susquehanna, were also of Huron Iroquois +stock; but the foremost group of the race, the strongest by far, +though not the most numerous, of all the North American Indians, were +the Iroquois themselves, the celebrated Five Nations of Canadian +story. + +[Sidenote: _The country of the Five Nations._] + +The Erie canal, which, in its 352 miles of length, connects Lake Erie +at Buffalo with the Hudson river at West Troy and Albany, runs +through the country of the Five Nations. That country extended along +the southern side of Lake Ontario from the Genesee river on the west +to the Hudson on the east, while due north of the Hudson, the outlet +of Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu river, was in +old days known as the river of the Iroquois. The Mohawk river, along +which the Erie canal is now carried, was, on the Atlantic side, the +highway to the land of the Iroquois, and it bore the name of the best +known of the Five Nations, the whole confederacy being sometimes +spoken or written of as Mohawks.[9] The route up the river provided +nearly continuous communication by water between the Hudson and Lake +Ontario. From its confluence with the Hudson the Mohawk was followed +to the head of its navigation, whence there was a short portage of +about four miles {56} to Wood Creek, a stream running into the Oneida +lake, and the Oneida lake was linked to Lake Ontario by the Oswego +river. All this line was under Iroquois control; and the westernmost +of the Five Nations, the Senecas, commanded also the trade route to +Lake Erie. + +[Footnote 9: The Mohawks, however, were not the strongest of the five +in number. They were outnumbered by the Senecas.] + +[Sidenote: _The Five Nations._] + +The name 'Iroquois' is said to be of French origin: the true title of +the Five Nations was an Indian word,[10] signifying 'people of the +long house.' Their dwellings were oblong in form, often of great +length; and, as were their dwellings, so also was their +dwelling-place. Side by side the Five Nations stretched in line from +west to east, as may be told by lakes and rivers in New York State, +which to this day bear their names. Farthest to the west were the +Senecas; next came the Cayugas, the people of the marsh. The third in +line, the central people of the league, within whose borders was the +federal Council house, were the Onondagas, the mountaineers; the +Oneidas followed; and easternmost of all were the Mohawks.[11] + +[Footnote 10: Hodenosaunee.] + +[Footnote 11: In a report of a committee of the Council held at New +York, Nov. 6, 1724, on the subject of a petition of the London +merchants against the Act of 1720, given in Colden's _History of the +Five Indian Nations of Canada_ (3rd ed., London, 1755), p. 226, the +Five Nations are placed as follows: the Mohawks but 40 miles due west +of Albany, and within the English settlements; the Oneidas about 100 +miles west of Albany, and near the head of the Mohawk river; the +Onondagas about 130 miles west of Albany; the Cayugas 160; and the +Senecas 240.] + +[Sidenote: _Small numbers of the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Their geographical position. They held the border line +between French and English._] + +In all the history of European colonization no group of savages, +perhaps, ever played so prominent a part as the Iroquois; none were +so courted and feared; none made themselves felt so heavily for a +long period of years together. This fact was not due to their +numbers, for they were comparatively few, and Parkman estimates that +'In the days of their greatest triumphs their united cantons could +not have mustered four thousand warriors.'[12] Yet they attacked and +{57} blotted out other Indian races equal to or outnumbering +themselves. They nearly destroyed the French settlements in Canada; +and all through the contest between Great Britain and France in +America, they were a force to be reckoned with by either side. Their +alliance was sought, their enmity was dreaded. Their strength was due +to the geographical position which they held, and to their national +characteristics; while their policy was influenced by the differing +conditions of the white people with whom they had to deal. Their home +has been described. It was the southern frontier of central Canada, +the borderland between the French and English spheres of trade and +settlement. Here they lived, in a position where a weak race would +have been ground in pieces between opposing forces, but where a +strong race, conscious of its advantages and able to use them, could +more than hold its own. 'Nothing,' wrote Charlevoix, 'has contributed +more to render them formidable than the advantage of their situation, +which they soon discovered, and know very well how to take advantage +of it. Placed between us and the English, they soon conceived that +both nations would be obliged to court them; and it is certain that +the principal attention of both colonies, since their settlement, has +been to gain them or at least to engage them to remain neuter.'[13] + +[Footnote 12: _Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1885 ed.), vol. i, chap. i, p. +21. Charlevoix says: 'All their forces joined together have never +amounted to more than 5,000 or 6,000 fighting men' (_Letters to the +Duchess of Lesdiguičres_, Engl. tr., London, 1763, p. 185). On the +other hand, in _A Concise Account of North America_, by Major Robert +Rogers (London, 1765), p. 206, it is stated that 'when the English +first settled in America they (the Iroquois) could raise 15,000 +fighting men.'] + +[Footnote 13: Charlevoix, as above, pp. 184-5.] + +[Sidenote: _Their strength of character and policy._] + +A strong race the Iroquois were. In cruelty and endurance, in bold +conception and swift execution, they had few, if any, rivals among +the natives of North America, and in their grasp of something like +state policy they had no equals. As savages, pure and simple, they +reached the highest level; they might indeed have had a greater and +more lasting future, if their level had not been so high. The Kaffir +races of South Africa in our own time have produced good {58} +fighting material; some of their leaders have shown skilful +generalship and no small statecraft; but they have been loosely knit +together, little bound as a whole by the ties of country or of kin; +and from this very weakness has come their salvation, in that they +could and can be recast in a new mould. It was not so with the North +American Indians, least of all with the Iroquois. They were +stereotyped in savagery, and, when the white men came among them, it +was too late for them to change; but, as savages of the most +ferocious type, as ruthless murdering hunters of men, they developed +an organization which was evidence at once of intellectual and +physical strength, and of a wild kind of moral discipline. + +[Sidenote: _Their political organization._] + +It is rare to find among savages a confederacy which will outlive a +single expedition or one season's war. When there is cohesion, it is +usually under savage despots like the Zulu Kings, who habituate their +followers to military discipline, and keep them attached partly by +fear and partly by the memory or hope of successful bloodshed; but +among the Five Nations the rule of one man had no place, and, though +warring was their normal condition, the federation lasted in peace as +well. They were doubly federated. Not only were there five nations or +tribes, but there were also eight clans which included the whole of +the Five Nations, members of each clan being found in each nation. +The five nations had in fact originally been one, composed of eight +clans. Each clan was named after some beast or bird, which formed its +totem or coat of arms, the three leading clans bearing those of the +tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.[14] The {59} clan tie was a family +tie; the members of each clan, to whichever nation they belonged, +were as brothers and sisters, and there was no intermarrying between +them. Inheritance ran in the female line, and the children belonged +to the mother's clan. The clans gave the chieftains to the separate +nations and to the confederacy. The highest chiefs were known as +_sachems_, a civil rather than a military title, and the Council of +fifty sachems formed the principal governing body of the league, the +place of honour being given to the head sachem of the Onondagas. +There was also a Council of subordinate chiefs, and a wider body, a +Senate--in whose deliberations men of age and experience took part, +irrespective of hereditary rank. The form of government was the same +for each of the five nations as for the whole confederacy. There was +no law but much custom, despotism was unknown, and so was anarchy. +There was something Homeric about the Iroquois. Like the Greeks of +the legendary age, they were perpetually fighting in spasmodic +fashion, with great cruelty, with every form of guile as well as +force; and when not fighting they held innumerable councils, making +many and long-winded speeches. Apart from personal bravery, the one +sound element in their system and character was, strange as it may +appear, some measure of what the early Greeks valued under the term +[Greek: aidos] or reverence. The Iroquois reverenced long-standing +customs, social position, and the voice of age. War was their trade, +but the highest dignities attached to the civil chieftain more than +to the successful warrior. They dealt out shameless violence to all +beyond their pale, but within the ranks of their own people they +recognized much more than mere physical strength or skill in +butchery. + +[Footnote 14: These three leading clans so put into the shade all the +others that in some old writers these alone are recognized. Thus +Colden says (vol. i, p. 1): 'Each of these nations is again divided +into three tribes or families, who distinguish themselves by three +different arms or ensigns, the tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.' A +full account of the Iroquois organization is given by Parkman in the +first chapter of the _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, and in the introduction +to _The Jesuits in North America_. See also the chapter on Canadian +and Iroquois Indians in Sir J. G. Bourinot's _Canada_, in the 'Story +of the Nations' series. It will be seen from the note to the +Introduction, p. lv, of _The Jesuits in North America_ (1885 ed.), +that the number of the clans as given above, and their presence in +each tribe, is not absolutely certain.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois in some respects resembled the Spartans._] + +In their organization they had advanced beyond the stage {60} which +is outlined in the Iliad. They were far more democratic than the +Greeks of Homeric time. In savage sort they framed and kept a polity +of the kind which Aristotle tells us is the most perfect type of +constitution, being a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. The +hereditary principle was strong, but chieftainship did not pass from +father to son owing to the rule of female succession. The councils of +the nation found place for all whose qualifications were for the +public good. High standing, age, experience, eloquence, strength of +arm, all were recognized in this strange community. To Sparta Colden +likens the confederacy of the Five Nations, in that, in either case, +the national customs trained the minds and the bodies of the people +for war;[15] but the likeness extends to other points as well. As far +as a Greek state and a band of North American savages can be +compared, in their social and political training, in their inflexible +rules, in their recognition of merit combined with unswerving +adherence to the principle of priority of families and clans, no less +than in their heartless indifference to pain whether inflicted on +themselves or others, the Iroquois Indians resembled the citizens of +the famous Greek state. But whatever comparison may be made with +either ancient or modern communities, the story of the Five Nations +presents the curious problem of a group of savages of the very worst +type, who yet in some sort solved the difficulties which the most +civilized peoples find so great--those of reconciling democracy with +hereditary privileges, and federal union with local independence. + +[Footnote 15: P. 14., 'On these occasions the state of Lacedaemon +ever occurs to my mind, which that of the Five Nations in many +respects resembles, their laws and customs being in both framed to +render the minds and bodies of the people fit for war.' Parkman, too, +says of them, 'Never since the days of Sparta were individual life +and national life more completely fused into one'; see _The Jesuits +in North America_ (1885 ed.), Introduction, p. lx.] + +[Sidenote: _Principle of adoption among the Iroquois._] + +Constantly weakened by the strain of war, to some extent {61} they +renewed their strength by the principle of adoption.[16] Of the +prisoners whom they took, most were put to death with nameless +tortures, but many were admitted to their tribes; and in one instance +they incorporated a whole people. This was the Tuscaroras, a kindred +tribe from the Carolinas, driven north by war with the colonists +early in the eighteenth century. About 1715, they were admitted into +the league as a sixth nation, though not on equal terms, and were +assigned a dwelling-place among the Oneidas and Onondagas. + +[Footnote 16: 'They strictly follow one maxim, formerly used by the +Romans to increase their strength, that they encourage the people of +other nations to incorporate with them' (Colden, p. 5).] + +[Sidenote: _Their sphere of influence._] + +[Sidenote: _Their feud with the French._] + +The tribes of the Huron Iroquois stock were agriculturists to a +greater extent than the Algonquins. In other words, they had passed +out of the nomad stage and made permanent homes. Still, they lived in +great measure by the chase; they were born hunters as they were born +warriors, and furs and beaver skins were the products which they +bartered for the white man's goods. The Five Nations hunted and +raided far beyond the limits of their cantons. In 1687, Dongan, +Governor of New York, wrote of them: 'The Five Nations are the most +warlike people in America, and are a bulwark between us and other +tribes. They go as far as the South Sea, the North-West Passage, and +Florida to war.'[17] Their interests as well as their pride demanded +that on the upper St. Lawrence, as well as on Lakes Erie and Ontario, +their power should be paramount. As far as other groups of Indians +were concerned, they ensured their object, conquering and in great +measure exterminating the Hurons, the Neutral Nation, and the Eries; +but they knew well that the few Frenchmen in Canada were more +dangerous to their ascendency, and possibly to their existence, than +any native tribe or race, however numerous. The French began by +making the Iroquois their foes. Champlain had hardly {62} settled at +Quebec, when he joined the Hurons and Algonquins in an expedition +against them. Thenceforward the Five Nations were the enemies of +France. This result would probably have followed in any case, and it +is difficult to suppose that one early action determined all +succeeding history. It was rather the beginning of an inevitable +struggle for the control of the upper St. Lawrence and of the +Canadian fur trade. On all sides of their own country the Iroquois, +like other masterful peoples, extended their sphere of influence; but +their real outlet was to the north, towards the lakes and the great +river. On this side the white men were most active and restless, ever +sending their emissaries a little further on, ever putting themselves +in evidence in some new tribe or village.[18] The French were not +content to live outside the Indians; nor were they content, having +found a resting-place, to stay there. To be in and among the natives, +to control and to convert them, to be the recognized protectors of +the land and its peoples, to be the ultimate recipients of the +produce of the country, and the guardians of the channels by which +the produce was conveyed--no smaller aims sufficed for the French in +Canada. In the pursuit of these objects they directly competed with +the Iroquois Indians. Great was the territory, few in number were the +Frenchmen and Iroquois alike; but they were rivals for ascendency on +the same river, and there was not room for both. + +[Footnote 17: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1685-8, No. 1160, +pp. 328-9, Dongan to the Lords of Trade, March, 1687.] + +[Footnote 18: 'But this justice must be done to the French, that they +far exceeded the English in the daring attempts of some of their +inhabitants, in travelling very far among unknown Indians, +discovering new countries, and everywhere spreading the fame of the +French name and grandeur' (Colden, p. 35).] + +Because they were enemies of the French, the Iroquois naturally +became the allies of the English; but before they had much, if any +experience of the latter, they had come into contact with a third +European people, the Dutch on the Hudson river. + +[Sidenote: _The Dutch on the Hudson river._] + +[Sidenote: _New Netherland._] + +In 1609, the year after the founding of Quebec, Henry {63} Hudson, an +Englishman in the Netherlands service, sailed at the beginning of +September into the river which still bears his name, seeking, as he +sought till his death, a North-West Passage to Asia. The name of New +Netherland was formally given to the scene of his discovery in 1614, +and in 1615 a small fort was built on Manhattan Island--the first +little seed of the city of New York. In 1621, the Netherlands West +India Company came into being; and in the following year New +Netherland, with the beaver trade, which was its chief attraction, +was placed in the hands of the company. In settling on the Hudson the +Dutch conflicted with English claims, and the Government of the +Netherlands seem to have recognized that there was a flaw in their +title. However, the existence of New Netherland as a Dutch possession +continued till the year 1664, when it was surrendered to an English +force sent out by the Duke of York, who had obtained from his +brother, Charles II, a grant of the territory. The English occupation +was confirmed by the Peace of Breda in 1667; and though a Dutch fleet +recovered the colony in 1673, in the following year, by the Treaty of +Westminster, it was finally given up to the English. + +New Amsterdam, afterwards New York, was the chief settlement of New +Netherland; but Dutch trade and colonization extended up the valley +of the Hudson, where tracts of land were obtained by _patroons_ or +large landowners, who were granted exclusive privileges by the +company on condition of planting families of settlers upon their +holdings. The chief inland colony was Rensselaerswyck, called after +an Amsterdam merchant of the name of Rensselaer, and its centre was +Fort Orange, now Albany; while on the Mohawk river, about twenty +miles above its confluence with the Hudson, and rather less in a +direct line from Albany, was the settlement of Schenectady.[19] + +[Footnote 19: For an account of the Dutch on the Hudson see _A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to {64} New Netherland_, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Müller, 1868), referred to above. See also Justin Winsor's +_Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iv, chap. viii.] + +[Sidenote: _Friendship between the Dutch and the Iroquois._] + +Traders wherever they went, all the world over, the Dutchmen were at +pains to keep peace with the Iroquois. Their dealings with them were +on the same lines as the dealings of their countrymen with the +Hottentots in the early days of the Cape Colony.[20] They bought and +sold, and got good value for their money, paying, for instance, no +more than forty florins for Manhattan Island. But the mere fact of +paying for what they took was in their favour, for it was a +recognition that the natives were the rightful owners of the land. In +course of time they came into conflict with the Mohican Indians along +the banks of the Hudson; but with the Five Nations, the nearest of +whom were the Mohawks, they were ever in friendship. They were not +actually in the Mohawk country, but on its borders; they were +neighbours, not intruders; they took the furs which the Indians had +to barter, giving in exchange European goods, and notably firearms. +Thus Albany became a friendly meeting-place between the Iroquois +Indians and the white men of the Hudson colony. The two peoples did +not clash with one another in any way, but met as friends and equals, +and supplied each others' wants. + +[Footnote 20: See vol. iv of this series, chap. ii, p. 43.] + +The one object of the Dutch being to trade, and the whole people +being traders, a twofold result followed, promoting friendly +relations between them and the Mohawks. Not only did the Indians +realize that they had nothing to fear, and much to gain, from having +for their neighbours Europeans who had no views of war or conquest, +and through whose agency they could arm themselves against the more +aggressive Europeans on the Canadian side; but also, as we may well +suppose, the Dutch traders included the best of the Dutchmen, which +was not the case with either the French or the English. At any rate, +we read that the Dutch in the Hudson valley 'gained the hearts of the +Five Nations by {65} their kind usage',[21] and in memory of a +Dutchman named Cuyler, whom the Indians held in special honour, the +Iroquois in after years always gave to the British Governor of New +York the title of 'Corlaer'.[22] + +[Footnote 21: Colden, vol. i, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 22: Parkman's _Count Frontenac_ (1885 ed.), p. 93, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The English inherited the Iroquois alliance._] + +Into this kindly heritage the English entered;[23] and, though their +treatment of the Indians left much to be desired, the alliance, if +often strained, was, in the case of the Mohawks at any rate, never +sundered; and finally, at the close of the War of Independence, many +of the Five Nation Indians, after fighting for England, migrated into +Canada, and were assigned lands in the province of Ontario, where +their descendants are still to be found. In the words of the Indian +orators, a chain of friendship held together the English and the +Iroquois. 'Our chain,' they said, 'is a strong chain, it is a silver +chain, it can neither rust nor be broken';[24] and it would be +difficult to overrate the advantage which accrued to the English +colonies from their traditional alliance with the strongest natives +of North America. + +[Footnote 23: Colden, as above, 'In 1664, New York being taken by the +English, they likewise entered into a friendship with the Five +Nations.'] + +[Footnote 24: Colden, p. 125.] + +[Sidenote: _The founding of Quebec._] + +In the summer of 1608, Champlain founded the first French settlement +at Quebec. A year before, the English had settled at Jamestown in +Virginia. A year later, the Dutch found their way to the Hudson. Till +his death, at the end of 1635, the story of Champlain is the story of +Canada. His colleagues in the new enterprise were men with whom he +had already worked in Acadia--De Monts and Pontgravé. De Monts had +obtained from the King one year's monopoly of the Canadian fur trade, +and two ships which he sent to the St. Lawrence were in charge of +Pontgravé and Champlain respectively. Pontgravé, the merchant, stayed +at Tadoussac through the summer, bartering with the Indians and +coming to blows with Basque traders, who held {66} the French King's +patent of little account. Champlain, the explorer, went higher up the +river, and erected wooden buildings by the water-side, on the site of +the lower town of Quebec. There he stayed through the winter, while +his friend went home, and, when Pontgravé returned in the following +summer, travels and adventures began which made Champlain's name +great among the Indian tribes of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Champlain's explorations and collision with the +Iroquois._] + +His first expedition, in 1609, was to the lake which is still called +after him. He went as an ally of the Huron and the Algonquin Indians +against their enemies the Iroquois. Up the St. Lawrence, up the +Richelieu, and on to Lake Champlain he took his way, and at the head +of the lake, somewhere near the site where Fort Ticonderoga +afterwards stood, the white men's firearms dispersed the warriors of +the Five Nations and won a victory. The summer of 1609 ended, and +Champlain went back to France, returning to Canada in the following +spring.[25] + +[Footnote 25: Canada was first known as New France after Champlain's +return to Europe, in 1609 (Charlevoix's _Histoire Générale de la +Nouvelle France_, 1744 ed., vol. i, bk. iv, p. 149).] + +[Sidenote: _His difficulties in France._] + +De Monts' monopoly had expired and had not been renewed, but none the +less he and his associates persevered in their enterprise, opening up +the trade of the St. Lawrence, while others shared the profits. Again +Champlain joined forces with the friendly Indians against the +Iroquois, and a second victory was the result. Before the summer of +1610 ended, he was back in Europe, having learnt in the meantime that +his friend and patron, King Henry IV, had been stabbed to death in +the streets of Paris. On his next visit to Canada, in 1611, he +cleared the ground for a future settlement at Montreal, having noted +its advantages as a meeting-place for the Indian tribes from the +Ottawa and the great lakes. The late months of that year and the +whole of 1612 he spent in France, trying to devise some organization +under which the work of building up the French power in Canada {67} +might be successfully carried on. There was now no company in +existence, there was no royal mandate; personal favour and protection +had passed away with the death of Henry of Navarre. The French court +was a scene of growing priestly influence and of numberless +intrigues; while New France on the St. Lawrence was a 'no man's +land,' infested in summer time by crowds of fur-traders, who owned no +rule and knew no law, in winter deserted by white men, except the few +struggling settlers at Quebec. To form some kind of trade's union +under an acknowledged authority was the one thing needful, and with a +view to this end Champlain sought for and obtained the patronage of a +member of the royal house. The Count de Soissons, a Bourbon prince, +was appointed Lieutenant-General of the King for New France, and when +he died, shortly after his appointment, the place was taken by +another Bourbon, the Prince of Condé. The deputy of these princes was +Champlain himself; he was given control over the Canadian fur trade, +and he endeavoured to reconcile the rival interests of the western +ports of France by forming a combination of traders, to which all +could be admitted who had an interest in Canada. The scheme was +partially carried out, but unfortunately jealousies, commercial and +religious, precluded the establishment of a single united company. + +[Sidenote: _The imposture of Nicolas de Vignau._] + +To make money by trade for himself or others was not the first object +of Champlain's life. Exploration, with the Indies as its final goal, +was in his mind, and the formation of a colony which should indeed be +New France. While he still sojourned in Europe, a Frenchman, Nicolas +de Vignau, came back from Canada, telling a tale that up the Ottawa +river and beyond its sources he had found an outlet to the sea. Early +in 1613 Champlain recrossed the Atlantic, went up the St. Lawrence to +Montreal Island, and thence, taking De Vignau with him, followed the +course of the Ottawa as far as the Île des Allumettes. He went no +further. The {68} story of a way to the sea was exposed, as a +cunningly devised fable, by the Indians of the upper Ottawa, among +whom the impostor had sojourned when he concocted his lies; and, but +for Champlain's interposition, he would then and there have paid for +his falsehood with his life. Champlain, however, spared him, retraced +his steps, and went back again to France, where he spent a year and +more before he again visited Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Recollet friars._] + +[Sidenote: _Le Caron._] + +[Sidenote: _The first mission to the Hurons._] + +Towards the end of May, 1615, he reached Quebec. He brought with him +this time a small band of missionaries, four friars of the Recollet +branch of the Franciscan order; and now mission work began in Canada. +One of the friars, Le Caron, with twelve other Frenchmen in the +company, visited for the first time the Huron country, and Champlain +followed close upon his steps. Ascending the Ottawa for the second +time, he passed the point which he had reached two years before, and +by the Mattawa river and Lake Nipissing came to the shores of Lake +Huron. Coasting southward along Georgian Bay, he found himself at +length among the Huron towns, where Le Caron was already busy +preaching a new faith to the heathen. An expedition against the +Iroquois had been determined on, and with the Huron warriors and +their allies, Champlain set out for the enemy's land. His route took +him across Lake Simcoe, down the series of small lakes which feed the +river Trent, and by that river to Lake Ontario, then seen by him for +the first time. Crossing the lake, he landed at the site of Oswego, +and marched into the midst of the Five Nations' cantons. From the +military point of view the expedition was a disastrous failure, for +an attack on a palisaded Iroquois town miscarried, Champlain himself +was wounded, and the invaders retreated beaten and disheartened. +Among the Hurons Champlain spent the winter; next year, returning +down the Ottawa, he came back to Quebec, in the midsummer of 1616, +and subsequently he sailed for France. + +{69} [Sidenote: _Result of the first eight years of New France._] + +Eight years had now passed since the founding of Quebec. Lakes Huron +and Ontario had been reached, the Ottawa route had been explored, the +friendship of the Hurons had been secured at the price of enmity with +the Iroquois, missionaries were converting or trying to convert the +Indians, and fur trading was briskly carried on; but colonization had +made as yet little or no way. There were a few permanent residents at +Quebec; but lower down at Tadoussac, and higher up at Three Rivers +and Montreal, where in the summer white men and coloured foregathered +to exchange their wares, in the winter no Frenchmen were to be found, +unless it were one or other of the much enduring Recollet +missionaries. In France it was the trade of Canada, not its +settlement, that was matter of concern. As in the case of +Newfoundland, the merchants of the western seaports of England set +themselves to keep the island from being permanently colonized, +anxious that the fishing traffic should remain in their own hands: so +in the case of Canada, the merchants of the western seaboard of +France regarded colonization as at best a useless expense, at worst a +measure by which they might lose command of the fur trade. The +climate of Newfoundland and of the St. Lawrence region was not such +as to induce Englishmen or Frenchmen to make these lands their homes. +Rather they seemed places for summer trips alone, to be left in +winter icebound and desolate. Trade interests and nature combined to +check the colonization of Canada; that anything was done in the way +of settlement in the early years of the seventeenth century was due +to missionary enthusiasm and to the foresight and tenacity of +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Dispute among French traders._] + +[Sidenote: _Company of the One Hundred Associates formed by +Richelieu._] + +He had formed a company of merchants, chiefly connected with Rouen +and St. Malo, who nominally controlled the trade of the St. Lawrence; +but they were not at one amongst themselves, some were Catholics, +others were Huguenots, while the merchants of La Rochelle refused to +join the combination, {70} and traded in defiance of the monopoly +which the rival towns claimed to possess. Various changes followed. +About the beginning of 1620, Condé was succeeded as Viceroy of New +France by the Duc de Montmorency, and in 1625 the latter sold his +office to his nephew the Duc de Ventadour. In 1621, the privileges +enjoyed by the Rouen and St. Malo company were transferred to two +Huguenot merchants, the brothers De Caen: the result was ill feeling, +and on the St. Lawrence open feuds between the old and the new +monopolists, until in 1623 some kind of union was formed. Eventually, +in 1627, all former privileges were annulled, and the control of +Canada passed into the hands of a new strong company, known as the +One Hundred Associates, at the head of which was Richelieu. + +[Sidenote: _Building of the fort at Quebec._] + +During these troubled years, amid the squabbles of conflicting +interests, the one source of strength and steadfastness for the +Frenchmen on the St. Lawrence was Champlain's own personality, while +the two principal events were the building of the fort at Quebec, and +the coming of the Jesuit missionaries. As Lieutenant of the King and +representative of the Viceroys of New France, Champlain's difficult +task was to hold the balance even between the rival traders and to +maintain some semblance of law and order along the water highway of +Canada. In former years, as an explorer he had obtained unrivalled +influence among the Indians; now, as Governor, he brought the same +qualities of tact and firmness into play in keeping the peace among +his turbulent countrymen. From 1620 to 1624, he was continuously in +Canada, and on the rock of Quebec he built a fort stronger and more +substantial than the wooden buildings which abutted on the river +below. Well situated, able to withstand ten thousand men,[26] such +was an English account a few years later of this fort, when enlarged +and completed--the fort {71} St. Louis at Quebec. The merchants +grudged the money and the men for the work, but the building of a +substantial fortress on the St. Lawrence was a step forward towards +the French dominion of Canada. + +[Footnote 26: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1574-1660, p. +139, under the year 1632.] + +[Sidenote: _Coming of the Jesuits to Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Their policy._] + +[Sidenote: _Supported by the French Government._] + +The year 1625 was the year in which the first Jesuit missionaries +came into Canada. In that year the Duc de Ventadour became Viceroy of +New France: he was closely connected with the Jesuit order, and began +his régime by sending out priests at his own expense. Their coming +marked an epoch in Canadian history. The Franciscan brethren, who +were already in the field, and who welcomed the new-comers on their +arrival, were men of a different stamp. Devoted missionaries, they +kept to their work; they claimed, outwardly at least, no religious +monopoly; they had no wish to control the temporal power; and they +lived at peace with all men. The Jesuits, on the other hand, imported +religious despotism. The Jesuit emissaries were brave men, none more +so; they were self-sacrificing to an extreme, venturesome and +tenacious, indifferent to danger, and fearless of death. They were +tactful in their dealings with the Indians, and were trained in a +school of diplomacy which has never been excelled. But they were the +champions of exclusiveness, and the enemies of freedom. Their coming +meant that one form of religion was to supplant all others--that the +spiritual power was, as far as in them lay, to dominate all things +and all men; and that while much was to be done, it was to be done +for instead of by the colonists and the natives, from above instead +of from below, on a rigid system--strong in itself but inimical to +healthy growth, to that variety of life, of thought, and of outward +form which helps on the expansion of a young community. From their +training and their organization, the Jesuits would in any case have +had great influence on the fortunes of the land to which they came; +but their influence was greater in that their despotic views +harmonized for the time being with the policy {72} of the Bourbon +Kings and their ministers. For absolute monarchy had taken root in +France; and in the French dependencies, as in the mother country, +there was to be henceforth political and religious despotism. That +the spiritual power might grow too strong was a distant danger, and +in France hardly a practical possibility. In the meantime Kings and +priests went hand in hand, co-operating against liberty in church and +state alike. Protestantism meant liberty. The Jesuits abhorred the +Huguenots because they deemed them heretics: the French Kings and +their ministers oppressed them rather on political than on religious +grounds, but were glad to use the religious argument in support of +political aims. + +[Sidenote: _Oppression of the Huguenots in France._] + +[Sidenote: _Its effects in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Huguenots excluded from New France._] + +On the death of Henry IV in 1610, his young son, Louis XIII, became +King of France. In 1624 Richelieu became his minister. In 1627 the +discontent of the Huguenots culminated in the open revolt of the town +of La Rochelle; and its fall, after a ten months' siege, gave the +King and the cardinal mastery over the Protestants of France. The +effect on Canada of this unsuccessful rising was twofold. It involved +the exclusion of Huguenot settlers, and it involved also the +hostility of England. The patent granted in 1627 to the company of +New France, known as the One Hundred Associates, provided that every +colonist who went out to Canada must be a Catholic, and when in the +following year Richelieu received the submission of the Rochellois, +he was well able to enforce this arbitrary provision. It is difficult +at the present day to comprehend a policy, initiated and approved by +a statesman of consummate ability, which could not but result in +blighting the infancy of the greatest French colony. The English +colonies were in the main pre-eminently homes of freedom, +dwelling-places for men whose political and religious opinions found +scant favour in the United Kingdom. For the English race the New +World redressed the balance of the Old; and though the {73} colonists +who went out from Europe to America, were in their turn prejudiced +and narrow-minded, their want of tolerance was not forced upon them +from without, and members of one or other unpopular sect, when +persecuted in one province, could find refuge in another. Maryland +was a British colony, founded under Roman Catholic auspices; its +neighbour, Pennsylvania, was founded and dominated by Quaker +influence; throughout British North America there were examples of +all opinions and of all creeds. The men on the spot quarrelled with +and persecuted each other; but persecution and exclusion were not +ordained from home. It would have been bad for the British Empire if +from all settlements, which the English formed and maintained, Roman +Catholics had been rigidly kept out; but it was far worse for France +when her Kings and ministers closed the French colonies to the +Huguenots. + +[Sidenote: _Merits of the Huguenots as colonists._] + +[Sidenote: _War between England and France._] + +The Huguenots were the best of the French traders; they were men of +substance; they were capable, enterprising, and resolute. They were +beyond others of their countrymen, the pioneers of trade and +colonization, and had led the way in the New World. De Monts was a +Huguenot, the De Caens were Huguenots, Champlain himself is said to +have been of Huguenot parentage. The exclusion of the French +Protestants from Canada meant depriving Canada of the class of +Frenchmen who were most capable of colonizing the country and +developing its trade. Their fault, in the eyes of the French +Government, was their independence; that they did not conform to the +state religion, and that by not conforming they were politically an +element of danger. But what was deemed a fault in France would, in +colonizing America, have been a virtue; inasmuch as in the field of +adventure, trade, and settlement in new lands, the men who are least +bound by old-world systems and traditional views are of most value. +If fair play had been given to the French Protestants, Canada would +have been far stronger than it {74} ever was while it belonged to +France, and probably it would have continued to belong to France down +to the present day. For the closing of Canada to the Huguenots, +followed as it was afterwards by their ejection from France, not only +weakened France and her colonies, but strengthened the rival nations +and their colonies. The French citizens who had begun to build up the +French colonial empire, helped to build up instead the colonial +empires of other European nations; and the oppressions which they +suffered brought them the sympathy, at times the armed sympathy, of +the Protestant nations of Europe. The rising of the citizens of La +Rochelle was accompanied by war between England and France. +Buckingham's expedition for the relief of the city, ill planned and +ill led, was a fiasco, completing the ruin of the Rochellois instead +of bringing them relief; but on the other side of the Atlantic, where +English adventurers could take advantage of a time of war without +being hampered by court favourites, there was a different tale to +tell. + +[Sidenote: _David Kirke_] + +Sir William Alexander,[27] a Scotch favourite of James I, had in the +year 1621 obtained from the King a grant of Acadia, or, as it was +styled in the patent, Nova Scotia. The patent was renewed by Charles +I. When war broke out between Great Britain and France, Alexander +combined with certain London merchants, styled 'Adventurers to +Canada,' or 'Adventurers in the Company of Canada,' to strike a blow +at the French in North America. Prominent among these merchants was +George Kirke, a Derbyshire man, who had married the daughter of a +merchant of Dieppe. Three ships were fitted out under the command of +Kirke's three sons, David, Lewis, and Thomas, David Kirke being in +charge of the expedition. The Kirkes were furnished with letters of +marque from the King, authorizing {75} them to attack French ships +and French settlements in America; and, well armed and equipped, they +sailed over the Atlantic, entering the St. Lawrence at the beginning +of July, 1628. + +[Footnote 27: A further account of Sir William Alexander is given +below, p. 173.] + +[Sidenote: _attacks the French on the St. Lawrence_] + +[Sidenote: _and destroys a French fleet._] + +Below Quebec was the trading station at Tadoussac, and higher up than +Tadoussac, less than thirty miles below Quebec, there was a small +farming establishment--a 'petite ferme'--at Cape Tourmente, whence +the garrison at Quebec drew supplies. Kirke took up his position at +Tadoussac, and sent a small party up the river, who burnt and rifled +the buildings at Cape Tourmente and killed the cattle. He then +dispatched some of his prisoners to Quebec and called upon Champlain +to surrender. The summons was rejected, though the garrison was in +sore straits. The Iroquois had been of late on the warpath, and the +inroads of Indians on the one hand and of English on the other, meant +starvation to the handful of men on the rock of Quebec. Yet Richelieu +had not been unmindful of Canada. While these events were happening, +a French fleet of eighteen vessels had sailed from Dieppe, laden with +arms and supplies, and bringing also some settlers with their +families, and the inevitable accompaniment of priests. It was the +first effort made by the newly formed French company, an earnest of +their intention to give strength and permanence to New France. The +expedition reached Gaspé Point, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence; +but between them and Quebec were the Kirkes and their ships. Instead +of moving up the river to attack Quebec, the English admiral went +down the river to intercept the new-comers. The English ships were +but three to eighteen; but the three ships were fitted and manned for +war. The French vessels were transports only, freighted with stores +and non-combatants, unable either to fight or to escape. On July 18, +Kirke attacked them, and seventeen out of the eighteen ships fell +into his hands. Ten vessels he emptied and burnt, the rest of his +prizes, {76} with all the cargo and prisoners, he carried off in +triumph to Newfoundland. + +[Sidenote: _First English capture of Quebec._] + +There was bitterness in France when the news came of this great +disaster; there was distress and hopelessness at Quebec, where +Champlain still held out through the following winter. Kirke had gone +back to England; but when July came round again in 1629, he +reappeared in the St. Lawrence, with a stronger fleet than before. +The Frenchmen at Quebec were by this time starved out, they had no +alternative but to surrender; and on July 22, 1629, the English flag +was for the first time hoisted on the rocky citadel of Canada. There +was little booty for the conquerors, nothing but beaver skins, which +were subsequently sequestrated, and Canadian pines were cut down to +freight the English ships. Kirke's ships carried back to England +Champlain and his companions, who thence returned to their homes in +France; and Quebec was left in charge of an English garrison. + +[Sidenote: _Convention of Susa and Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada given back to France._] + +The Merchant Adventurers had done their work well. With little or no +loss, unaided by the Government, they had driven the French from +Canada and annexed New France. Had Queen Elizabeth been on the throne +of England, she would have scolded and then approved; and would have +kept for her country the fruits of English daring and English +success. The bold freebooter, Kirke, would have found favour in her +eyes; she would have honoured and rewarded him, as she honoured and +rewarded Drake. But the Stuarts were cast in a different mould, and +no English minister at the time was a match for Richelieu. Before +Quebec had fallen, Charles of England and Louis of France had +concluded the Convention of Susa, on April 24, 1629; and the Treaty +of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed nearly three years later, on March 29, +1632, definitely restored to France her possessions in North +America.[28] No consideration was {77} embodied in the treaty for the +surrender of Canada, but State Papers have made clear that the price +was the unpaid half of Queen Henrietta Maria's marriage dowry. For +this sum, already due and wrongly outstanding, Canada was sold. It +was a pitiful proceeding, unworthy of an English King, but typical of +a Stuart. It is noteworthy that early in the seventeenth century both +the Cape and Canada might have become and remained British colonies. +In 1620 two sea captains formally annexed the Cape, before any +settlement had as yet been founded at Table Bay; but their action was +never ratified by the Government at home.[29] Nine years later Kirke +took Quebec, and again the work was undone. So the Dutch in the one +case, and the French in the other, made colonies where the English +might have run their course; and generations afterwards, Great +Britain took again, with toil and trouble, what her adventurers, with +truer instinct than her rulers possessed, had claimed and would have +kept in earlier days. It is noteworthy, too, that state policy was in +great measure responsible for the earlier French loss of Canada, as +it was mainly responsible for the later. It is true that Quebec was +taken while the French Protestants were still to some extent +tolerated, and that a Protestant, De Caen, was selected to receive it +back again, when the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye was carried into +effect. But there were Huguenots on board Kirke's ships, serving +under a commander whose mother was of Huguenot blood; and the schism +which had broken out in France and {78} culminated for the time in +the siege and fall of La Rochelle, left the best of the French +traders and colonizers half-hearted servants of France. Canada was +given back, but it was given back to the French Government rather +than to the French people; and, as years went on, the St. Lawrence +saw no more of the stubborn, strong heretics who had sung their +Protestant hymns on its banks. Frenchmen, as gallant as they were, +had afterwards the keeping of Canada; but, state-ridden and +priest-ridden, they lacked initiative and commercial enterprise. +Freedom was to be found in the backwoods among the _coureurs de +bois_, but it was the freedom of lawlessness, unleavened by the +steadfast sobriety which marked the Calvinists of France. + +[Footnote 28: The Convention of Susa provided that all acts of +hostility should cease, and that the articles and contracts as to the +marriage of the English Queen should be confirmed. The Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye, or rather one of two treaties signed on the same +day, provided for the restitution to France of all places occupied by +the English in New France, Acadia, and Canada. Instructions to make +restitution were to be given to the commanders at Port Royal, Fort +Quebec, and Cape Breton. General de Caen was named in the treaty as +the French representative to arrange for the evacuation of the +English. The places were to be restored in the same condition as they +had been in at the time of capture, all arms taken were to be made +good, and a sum was to be paid for the furs, &c., which had been +carried off.] + +[Footnote 29: See vol. iv of this series, pt. 1, p. 19.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Champlain._] + +In July, 1632, the French regained Quebec. In May, 1633, Champlain +came back to Canada. For two and a half years he governed it under +the French company, and on Christmas Day, 1635, he died at Quebec in +the sixty-ninth year of his age. New France owed all to him. Amid +every form of difficulty and intrigue, in Europe and in America, +among white men and among red, he had held resolutely to his purpose. +His life was pure, his aims were high, his judgment sound, and his +foresight great. He lived for the country in which he was born and +for that in which he died; but 'the whole earth is the sepulchre of +famous men',[30] and not in France or Canada alone is lasting honour +paid to his name. + +[Footnote 30: Thuc., bk. ii, chap. xliii (Jowett's translation).] + + +NOTE.--For Canadian history down to the death of Champlain, see, +among modern books, more especially + + PARKMAN'S _Pioneers of France in the New World_, and + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. i. + + + + +{79} + +CHAPTER III + +THE SETTLEMENT OF CANADA AND THE FIVE NATION INDIANS + + +[Sidenote: _Colonization by the medium of Chartered Companies +characteristic of the nations of Northern Europe._] + +To trade and to colonize through the medium of Chartered Companies +has been characteristic of the nations of Northern Europe. Chartered +Companies have not been peculiar to England. The Dutch worked +entirely through two great companies; the Danes adopted the same +system; and various companies played their part in the early history +of French colonization. Herein lay the main difference, in the field +of colonial enterprise, between the northern peoples and the +southerners who had preceded them. In the case of Spain and Portugal +all was done under the immediate control of the Crown. These two +nations were concerned with conquest rather than with settlement; +and, if the Portuguese were traders, their commerce was not the +result of private venture, but was created and supported by the +Government. The Spaniards and Portuguese were first in the field. +East and West lay before them, and they divided the world in secure +monopoly. The northerners came in--they came in tentatively; policy +kept the Governments in the background for fear of incurring war, and +freedom of individual action was more ingrained in these races than +in the Latin peoples of the south. So freebooters sailed here and +there, at one time honoured, at another in disgrace; merchants took +shares in this or that venture, and Chartered Companies came into +being. + +[Sidenote: _French Chartered Companies._] + +In the case of Holland, the Netherlands East India Company and the +Netherlands West India Company practically {80} included the whole +nation: the state and the companies were co-extensive. In England, +the companies were really private concerns, licensed by the +Government, often thwarted by the Government, but, in the main, +working out their own salvation or their own ruin, as the case might +be. In France there was a mixture of the northern and the southern +systems, as of the northern and the southern blood. There, as in +England, the companies were private associations, but Court favour +was to them the breath of life. Kings and ministers constantly +interfered, created and undid, conferred licences and revoked them, +until in no long time the Chartered Company system lost all that +makes it valuable, and Frenchmen learnt to look to the Crown alone. + +[Sidenote: _The company of the One Hundred Associates._] + +Trade jealousies hampered the beginnings of Canadian settlement; +there was neither free trade in Canada nor unquestioned monopoly. To +cure this evil Richelieu, in 1627, brought into being the company of +the One Hundred Associates, nominally a private association, really +the offspring of the Government. Its sphere extended from Florida to +the North Sea, and from east to west as far as discovery should +extend along the rivers of Canada. It controlled all trade except the +fisheries, and it enjoyed sovereign rights in so far that it was +entitled to confer titles and tenures, subject to the approval of the +Crown. The chief officers were to be nominated by the King, but under +the Sovereign the company was feudal lord of New France; of its soil +and its inland waters, with all that they produced. A statesman +projected the company, and, with keen insight into the wants of New +France, Richelieu laid down as one of the terms of its charter that +settlers were to be introduced in specified numbers, especially and +immediately settlers of the artisan class; but these provisions were +made to a large extent barren by excluding the Huguenots. At the +outset the new French company, with all its backing, was foiled in +its efforts by the English Merchant Adventurers. The first transports +{81} sent out, bearing settlers and supplies, were captured by Kirke. +Quebec fell and New France was lost. The Convention of Susa and the +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye were signed and executed, and the One +Hundred Associates resumed their charge of Canada. Under them +Champlain held the government of New France till he died, being +succeeded by a soldier, M. de Montmagny, who reached Quebec in June, +1636. + +[Sidenote: _Three Rivers. Montreal. Sorel._] + +In 1634, while Champlain was still alive, a fort was begun at Three +Rivers. The first permanent settlement at Montreal dates from the +spring of 1642, and in the same year Fort Richelieu was founded on +the site of the present town of Sorel,[1] where the Richelieu--the +river of the Iroquois--joins the St. Lawrence. For many years Quebec, +Three Rivers, and Montreal practically comprised New France. Outside +them were fur-traders and Jesuit missionaries, carrying their lives +in their hands. A few farms were taken up along the river above and +below Quebec, but colonization was almost non-existent, and small +groups of priests and soldiers at two or three points on the St. +Lawrence feebly upheld the power of France in North America. + +[Footnote 1: 'So called from M. de Saurel, who reconstructed the fort +in 1665' (Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. i, p. 185).] + +[Sidenote: _Slow progress of Canada up to 1663._] + +The company of the One Hundred Associates lasted till 1663, and +little they did for the land or for themselves. At the end of their +tenure, the whole French population of Canada hardly reached 2,500 +souls. It had been an integral part of the company's programme to +people Canada with French men and French women, but, inasmuch as +Huguenots were rigidly excluded, the motive for emigration was +wanting. The Catholic citizens of France were comfortable at home. +They might wish to trade with Canada, but they did not wish to spend +their lives there. The soldiers of France went out only under orders; +they looked for brighter battlefields than the North American +backwoods. Priests and nuns {82} alone felt a call to cross the +Atlantic, to face the most rigorous winters and the most savage foes. +The French religion was firmly planted in North America during these +early years, but the French people were left behind. + +De Montmagny was Governor for twelve years, till 1648. His successors +under the company's régime were D'Ailleboust, De Lauzon, the Vicomte +d'Argenson, and Baron d'Avaugour. Under the Governors there were +commandants of the garrisons at Three Rivers and Montreal; and from +1636 onwards there was some kind of Council for framing ordinances +and regulating the administration of justice, the Governor and the +leading ecclesiastics being always members, and representatives of +the settlers being from time to time admitted. In 1645, moreover, the +company was reorganized, and the fur trade, which had been vested in +the Associates, was handed over to the colonists. Notwithstanding, +there was little increase of strength and little growth of population +till the year 1663, and up to that date the history of Canada is no +more than a record of savage warfare and missionary enterprise. + +[Sidenote: _The foundation of Montreal._] + +Religious enthusiasts founded Montreal, and the foundation of +Montreal was a challenge to the Iroquois. Always the enemies of the +French, the Five Nations saw in the settlement a new menace to their +power. Above the Richelieu river, they looked on the St. Lawrence as +more especially within their own domain; and when Frenchmen took up +ground on the island of Montreal, the Indians resented the intrusion +with savage bitterness and with more than savage foresight. On the +part of the French, state policy had nothing to say to the new +undertaking, nor was it a commercial venture. It was simply and +solely the outcome of religious zeal untempered by discretion. + +[Sidenote: _The Jesuits in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _They did not promote colonization._] + +The Jesuits had abundantly advertised in France the spiritual needs +of Canada. They had much to tell, and they told it well, skilful in +narrative as they were bold in action. {83} They attracted money to +the missionary cause, they enlisted brave men, and, still more, brave +and beautiful women. Convents were founded in America, and hospitals; +priests and nuns led and lost heroic lives, to widen the influence of +the Roman Catholic Church, and to convert the heathen. The deeds +done, and the sufferings endured, commanded, and still command +admiration, yet withal there was an element of barrenness in the +work; it was magnificent, but it was not colonization. It was unsound +in two main essentials. First and foremost, liberty was wanting. The +white men and the red were to be dominated alike: North America and +its peoples were to be in perpetual leading strings, prepared for +freedom in the world to come by unquestioning obedience on this side +the grave. The Protestant, however narrow and prejudiced in his +dealings and mode of life, in theory held and preached a religion +which set free, a gospel of glorious liberty. The Roman Catholic +missionary preached and acted self-sacrifice so complete, that all +freedom of action was eliminated. There was a second and a very +practical defect in the system. What Canada wanted was a white +population, married settlers, men with wives and children. What the +Jesuits asked for, and what they secured, was a following of +celibates, men and women sworn to childlessness. The Protestant +pastor in New England lived among his flock as one of themselves; he +made a human home, and gave hostages to fortune; a line of children +perpetuated his name, and family ties gave the land where he settled +another aspect than that of a mission field. The Roman Catholic +priest was tied to his church, but to nothing else. At her call he +was here to-day, and, it might be, gone to-morrow. He more than +shared the sufferings and the sorrows of those to whom he ministered, +but his life was apart from theirs, and he left no children behind +him. Martyrs and virgins the Roman Catholic Church sent out to +Canada, but it did not send out men and women. In comparing {84} +English and French colonization in America, two points of contrast +stand out above all others--the much larger numbers of English +settlers, and the much greater activity of French missionaries. Both +facts were in great measure due to the influence of the Roman +Catholic religion, and notably to the celibacy of its ministers. + +[Sidenote: _Religious enthusiasts in Canada._] + +Histories of Canada give full space to the names, the characters, and +the careers of the bishops, priests, and nuns who moulded the +childhood of New France, and to the struggle for supremacy between +the Jesuits and rival sects. We have portraits of the Jesuit heroes +Breboeuf, Lalemant, Garnier, Isaac Jogues, and many others; of the +ladies whose wealth or whose personal efforts founded the Hôtel Dieu +at Quebec and at Montreal; of Madame de la Peltrie, Marie Guyard the +Mčre de l'Incarnation, Jeanne Mance, and Marguerite Bourgeoys; of +Laval the first of Canadian bishops; but the record of their devoted +lives has only an indirect bearing on the history of colonization. It +will be enough to notice very shortly the founding of Montreal, and +the episode of the Huron missions, as being landmarks in Canadian +story. + +[Sidenote: _Montreal settled by a company connected with St. +Sulpice._] + +Montreal, it will be remembered, had been in Cartier's time the site +of an Indian town, which afterwards disappeared. Champlain had marked +it out as a place for a future settlement, and the keen eyes of the +Jesuits looked to the island as a mission centre. It had become the +property of De Lauzon, one of the One Hundred Associates and +afterwards Governor of Canada, and he transferred his grant to a +company, the Company of Montreal, formed exclusively for the service +of religion, and especially connected with the priests of St. +Sulpice. The first settlers numbered about sixty in all, in charge of +a chivalrous soldier, De Maisonneuve, and including one of the +religious heroines of the time, Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, who was +entrusted with funds by a rich French lady to found a hospital. They +arrived in Canada in 1641, {85} and in spite of the warnings of the +Governor, who urged that they should settle within reach of Quebec on +the Island of Orleans, they chose their site at Montreal in the same +autumn, and in the following spring began to build a settlement. +Ville Marie was the name given to it at the time, the enterprise +being dedicated to the Virgin. At the first ceremony, on landing, a +Jesuit priest bade the little band of worshippers be of good courage, +for they were as the grain of mustard seed; and now the distant, +dangerous outpost of France in North America, which a few +whole-hearted zealots founded, has become the great city of Montreal. + +[Sidenote: _The influence of religion on colonization._] + +Religion has been a potent force in colonial history. On the one hand +it has promoted emigration. It carried the Huguenots from France to +other lands. It peopled New England with Puritans. On the other hand, +it has sent forerunners of the coming white men among the coloured +races, bearers of a message of peace, but too often bringing in their +train the sword. As explorers and as pioneers, missionaries have done +much for colonization; but from another point of view they have +endangered the cause by going too fast and too far. In South Africa, +a hundred years ago, the work, the speeches, and the writings of +Protestant missionaries led indirectly to the dispersion of +colonists, to race feuds, and to political complications which, but +for this agency, would certainly have been postponed, and might +possibly never have arisen. Similarly in Canada, Jesuit activity and +forwardness added to the difficulties and dangers with which the +French settlers and their rulers had to contend. + +[Sidenote: _Montreal and the Five Nations._] + +The Governor, who vainly attempted to dissuade the founders of +Montreal from going so far afield, was right in his warnings. Very +few were the French in North America, their struggle for existence +was hard, their enemies were watchful and unrelenting. Safety lay in +concentration, in making Quebec a strong and comparatively populous +centre, in keeping aloof from the Iroquois, instead of straying +within {86} their range. To form a weak settlement 160 miles higher +up the river than Quebec, within striking distance of the Five +Nations, was to provoke the Indians and to offer them a prey. This +was the immediate result of the foundation of Montreal. Year after +year went by, and there was the same tale to tell: a tale of a hand +to mouth existence, of settlers cooped up within their palisades, +ploughing the fields at the risk of their lives, cut off by twos and +threes, murdered or carried into captivity. Moreover, between +Montreal in its weakness and the older and stronger settlement at +Quebec, there was an element of jealousy. What with rival commandants +and rival ecclesiastics, controversy within and ravening Iroquois +without, the early days of the French in Canada were days of sorrow. + +[Sidenote: _The Huron missions._] + +Far away from civilization in the seventeenth century was Montreal, +but further still was the Huron country. The first white man to visit +the Hurons was the Recollet friar, Le Caron, in the year 1615, and +from that date onward, till Kirke took Quebec, a very few Franciscan +and Jesuit priests preached their faith by the shores of Georgian +Bay. Suspended for a short time, while the English held Canada, the +missions were resumed by the Jesuits in 1634, foremost among the +missionaries being Father de Breboeuf, who had already worked among +the Hurons, and came back to work and die. + +Few stories are so dramatic, few have been so well told[2] as the +tale of the Huron missions. No element of tragedy is wanting. The +background of the scene gives a sense of distance and immensity. The +action is comprised in very few years, years of bright promise, +speedily followed by absolute desolation. The contrast between the +actors on either side is as great as can be found in the range of +human life, between savages almost superhuman in savagery, and +Christian preachers almost superhuman in endurance and {87} +self-sacrifice; and all through there runs the pity of it, the pathos +of a religion of love bearing as its first-fruits barren martyrdom +and wholesale extermination. + +[Footnote 2: By Francis Parkman in _The Jesuits in North America_.] + +Between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay the Hurons dwelt, accessible to +the Frenchmen only by the Ottawa river and Lake Nipissing, for the +Iroquois barred the alternative route up the St. Lawrence and by Lake +Ontario. Montreal was left far behind, and many miles of a toilsome, +dangerous route were traversed, until by the shores of the great +freshwater sea were found the homes of a savage but a settled people. +To men inspired by religion and by Imperial views of religion, who +looked to be the ministers of a world-wide power, including and +dominating all the kingdoms of the earth, the greatness of the +distances, the remoteness of the land, the unbounded area of unknown +waters stretching far off to the west, were but calls to the +imagination and incentives to redoubled effort. + +But, ambitious as they were, the Jesuits were not mere enthusiasts: +they were practical and politic men, diplomatists in the American +backwoods as at the Court of France. Not wandering outcasts, like the +Algonquins of the lower St. Lawrence; not, like the Iroquois, wholly +given to perpetual murder; with some peaceful impulses, traders to a +small extent, and tillers of the ground, and above all, since +Champlain first came among them, sworn allies of the French--the +Hurons seemed such a people as might be moulded to a new faith, and +become a beacon attracting other North American natives to the light +of Christianity. So the Jesuit fathers went among them in 1634, and +in 1640 built and fortified a central mission station--St. Marie--a +mile from where a little river--the Wye--flows into an inlet of Lake +Huron. + +To convert a race of suspicious savages is no easy task. The priests +carried their lives in their hands. They were pitted against native +sorcerers, they were called upon to give {88} rain, they were held +responsible for small-pox. Yet year by year, by genuine goodness and +by pious fraud, they made headway, until some eleven mission posts +were in existence among the Hurons and the neighbouring tribes, the +most remote station being at the outlet of Lake Superior. The promise +was good. Money was forthcoming from France. There were eighteen +priests at work, there were lay assistants, there was a handful of +French soldiers. Earthly as well as spiritual wants were supplied at +St. Marie, and far off in safety at Quebec was a seminary for Huron +children. It seemed as though on the far western horizon of discovery +and colonization, the Roman Catholic Church was achieving a signal +triumph, its agents being Frenchmen, and its political work being +credited to France. Yet after fifteen years all was over, and the +land was left desolate without inhabitants. The heathen learnt from +their Christian teachers to obey and to suffer, but in learning they +lost the spirit of resistance and of savage manhood. As in Paraguay, +a more submissive race, under Jesuit influence, dwindled in numbers, +so even the Hurons, after the French priests came among them, seem to +have become an easier prey than before to their hereditary foes. + +[Sidenote: _Destruction of the missions by the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Dispersion of the Hurons._] + +In July, 1648, the mission station of St. Joseph, fifteen miles from +St. Marie, was utterly destroyed, the priest in charge was shot dead, +and 700 prisoners were carried off. In the following year 1,200 +warriors of the Five Nations swept like a torrent through the Huron +cantons, fifteen native towns were attacked, ravaged, and burnt, and +the brave priest, De Breboeuf, was tortured and slain. Other devoted +missionaries shared his fate; the shepherds were slaughtered, and the +survivors of the flock were scattered abroad. For the Hurons made +little or no attempt to defend themselves; fear came upon them and +trouble; they fell down, and there was none to help them. The fort at +St. Marie stood, for even the Iroquois hesitated to attack armed +walls; but its purpose {89} was gone with the slaughter and +dispersion of the Huron clans. The priests who still lived abandoned +it, and spent a miserable winter with a crowd of Indian fugitives on +a neighbouring island in Lake Huron. There too they built a fort; but +famine and the Iroquois followed them, and in 1650 they left the +country, taking with them to Quebec some 300 Huron converts. The +refugees were settled on the Isle of Orleans; yet even there, five or +six years later, they were attacked by the Iroquois, and at length +they found a secure abiding-place at Lorette, near the banks of the +river St. Charles. The rest of their kinsfolk were scattered abroad. +Some were incorporated in the Five Nations. Others, driven from point +to point, were found in after years at the northern end of Lake +Michigan or at Detroit, and, under the new name of Wyandots, played +some part in later Canadian history; but the Huron nation was blotted +out, the Huron country became a desert, and the light which had shone +brightly for a few years in the far-off land was put out for ever. + +[Sidenote: _Weakness of the French in Canada._] + +Most readers of the story of the Huron missions will study it mainly +as an episode in religious enterprise. They will note the heroism of +the Jesuit priests--their faithfulness unto death, their constancy +under torture and suffering not surpassed by the stoicism of the +North American Indians themselves. They will mourn the failure of +their efforts, the butchery, the martyrdom, but will record that all +was not absolutely thrown away; for even in the lodges of the Five +Nations we read that some of the nameless Hurons held to the faith +which their French teachers loved and served so well. But this is not +the true moral of the story. The significance of the events lay in +proving the French to be weak and the Iroquois to be strong, in +demonstrating with horrible thoroughness that the white men in Canada +were powerless to protect their friends, in thus making more +difficult what was difficult enough already, in retarding the +progress of {90} European colonization in Canada. The want of +concentration, the attempt to do too much, the somewhat paralysing +influence of the particular form of the Christian religion which the +French brought with them--all these elements of weakness came out in +connexion with the Huron missions; and meanwhile precious years were +lost to France which could not be afterwards made good; for in these +same years the English, not producing martyrs and heroes, so much as +fathers of families, were taking firm root in North American soil, +plodding slowly but surely along the road to colonization. + +[Sidenote: _The strength and ferocity of the Iroquois._] + +The Iroquois were like man-eating tigers. The taste of human blood +whetted their appetite for more. Fresh from the slaughter of the +Hurons, in 1650-1 they fell upon the Neutral Nation, whose home was +on the northern shore of Lake Erie, stretching to the east across the +Niagara river. The Neutrals had held aloof from Iroquois and Huron +alike, whence their name; but their neutrality did not protect them +from utter extermination at the hands of the Five Nations. Over +against them on the southern side of the lake were the Eries, second +to none as ferocious savages, and known to the French as the 'Nation +of the Cats.' Their turn came next, in 1654-5. They fought hard, +behind palisades and with poisoned arrows; but they too were blotted +out, and only on the south were left native warriors to cope with the +conquering Iroquois. These were the Andastes, on the line of the +Susquehanna river, who year after year gave blow for blow, until they +too succumbed to superior numbers. + +Nothing withstood the Five Nations; yet their fighting men were few, +and their losses great. For the time they nearly ruined the French +cause in Canada, but in the end their work of destruction rendered +the triumph of the white man more inevitable and more complete. They +broke up and killed out tribes, whose forces, if united to their own, +might have overwhelmed the Europeans; and in doing so {91} they +sapped their own strength. They kept up their numbers only by the +incorporation of natives who had learned to look to Europeans for +guidance and support; and in course of time, fallen from their high +estate, they found salvation not as leaders of red men but as allies +of white. + +[Sidenote: _Mission of Le Moyne to the Five Nations._] + +It seems marvellous that the confederation held together, and there +were, it is true, occasional outbursts of inter-tribal jealousy and +suspicion. Difference of geographical position tended to difference +of policy. The most determined foes of the French were the +Mohawks--the easternmost nation, supplied with firearms by the +Dutchmen at Albany, and having easy access to the St. Lawrence. At +the other end of the line the Senecas had their hands full in the +Erie war, and were little disposed, while it lasted, to molest the +Europeans. In the centre, the Onondagas, always few in numbers and +already recruited by captive Hurons, were minded to attract to their +ranks the Huron refugees at Quebec. So about the autumn of 1653, +overtures of peace were made to the French, even the Mohawks for the +moment dissembling their enmity; and in the following year a Jesuit +priest, Le Moyne, was sent as an envoy to the Iroquois country. + +The mission was notable in more ways than one. Le Moyne was the first +white man to follow up the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Lake +Ontario, and his journey marked the beginning of diplomatic relations +between the French and the Iroquois. Thenceforward there was always +the nucleus of a French party among the Five Nations, the elements of +a divided policy in lieu of solid hostility to the French. Here was +an illustration too of the value of the Jesuit priests to the French +cause, as well as of the danger of employing them. None equalled +these priests in the statecraft necessary for dealing with savages, +but none were at the time in question so ready in season or out of +season to promote a forward policy, involving future complications +and dispersion of strength. + +{92} [Sidenote: _Attempt at a French settlement among the Five +Nations._] + +Le Moyne's mission was to the Onondagas, and its result was an +application from that tribe that a French settlement should be +established among them. The invitation was accepted; and in the +summer of 1656 between forty and fifty Frenchmen established +themselves on Lake Onondaga, in the very heart of the Iroquois +country. It was a desperate enterprise. The men could ill be spared +from Quebec, and they were but hostages among the Five Nations. The +Indians pretended peace, but even while the Onondagas were escorting +the Frenchmen up the river, the Mohawks attacked the expedition, and +subsequently under the very guns of Quebec carried off Huron captives +from the Isle of Orleans. For a little less than two years, the small +band of French colonists remained amid the Onondagas, in hourly peril +of their lives; and finally, towards the end of 1658, at dead of +night, while the Indians were overcome by gluttony and debauch, they +launched their boats and canoes on the Oswego river, reached Lake +Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and found themselves once more at +Montreal. + +It was a fit ending to the first stage of Canadian history--a +hopeless venture, a confession of weakness, a hairsbreadth escape. So +far there had been no colonization of Canada. There had been one +wise, far-seeing man--Champlain. Brave soldiers had come from France, +and still braver priests. There had been going in and out among the +natives, toil and hardship, adventure and loss of life. But the +French had as yet no real hold on Canada. Between Quebec and the +Three Rivers--between the Three Rivers and Montreal, not they but the +Iroquois were masters of the St. Lawrence. A trading company claimed +to rule: its rule was nothingness. Within Quebec bishops and +Governors quarrelled for precedence: under its walls the Mohawks +yelled defiance. Montreal, the story goes, was only saved by a band +of Frenchmen, who, in a log hut on the Ottawa, sold their lives as +dearly as the heroes of Greek or Roman legend; and to crown it all, +{93} at the beginning of 1663, the shock of a mighty earthquake was +felt throughout the land, making the forts and convents tremble, +sending, as it were, a shiver through the feeble frame of New France. + +[Sidenote: _The One Hundred Associates surrender their charter._] + +It was the prelude of a better time. In March, 1663, the One Hundred +Associates surrendered their charter to the Crown. A century later, +by the Peace of Paris in 1763, France lost Canada. In those hundred +years a fair trial was given to French colonization. How much was +done to leave the impress of a great nation on Canada, the province +of Quebec to-day will testify. Wherein the work was found wanting is +told in history. + +[Sidenote: _The Company of the West._] + +In 1663, we read, Canada became a Royal Province. It passed out of +the keeping of a company and came under the direct control of the +French King and his ministers. The statement requires some +modification, for in 1664 Colbert created a new Chartered Company, +the Company of the West, whose sphere, like that of the Netherlands +West India Company, included the whole of the western half of the +world, so far as it was or might be French--America North and South, +the West Indies, and West Africa. Canada was within the terms of its +charter, which included a monopoly of trade for forty years and, on +paper, sovereign rights within the wide limits to which the charter +extended. Thus the members of the company claimed to be feudal +Seigniors of the soil of New France and to nominate the Council of +Government, with the exception of the Governor and Intendant; while +from the dues which they levied the cost of government was to be +defrayed. + +Such was the outline and the intention of the scheme: the actual +result was that the carrying trade was monopolized by the company, +together with one-fourth of the beaver skins of all Canada, and the +whole of the traffic of the lower St. Lawrence, which centred at +Tadoussac. Out of their monopoly they paid all or part of the +expenses of government, {94} but the administration practically +remained in the hands of the Crown. Like its predecessor, this +company was a miserable failure. It lasted for ten years only, and +during those years it was an incubus on Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Chartered Companies ill suited to France._] + +The truth was that Chartered Companies were alien to the genius of +France, or at any rate of Roman Catholic France--the France of the +Bourbons. Her greatest ministers, Richelieu and Colbert, were, it is +true, loth to discard the system. They wished to give French +merchants a direct interest in building up a colonial empire. They +saw the English working by means of companies. They saw the Dutch +giving to the state the outward semblance of private enterprise. +Companies, they argued, would promote French trade and colonization, +as they had promoted the trade and colonization of rival nations. But +Richelieu and Colbert were despotic ministers of arbitrary Kings; the +companies which they created were as lifeless and as helpless as +their titles were high-sounding and pretentious. They lasted as long, +and only as long, as they were backed by the Crown. They were swept +away as easily as they were formed; and they left no lasting impress +on French colonial history. + +[Sidenote: _Canada under the Crown._] + +We may take it then that, in 1663, Canada in effect passed to the +French King and became what would now be styled a Crown Colony. +Strong hands ministered to it, and it grew in strength. New France +was fostered, was ruled and organized, was supplied, though sometimes +sparingly, with means of defence and offence. It was developed on +rigidly prescribed lines. It was given a social and political system. +Capable and enterprising men were concerned in making its history, +and its history was made on a distinct type imported from the Old +World, and little modified by the New. What this system was, and how +far under it the colonists were able to cope with their coloured +foes, will be told in the remaining pages of this chapter. + +[Sidenote: _The Government of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Supreme Council._] + +The Government of Canada was a despotism. Under the {95} King of +France, whose word was law, the whole power was centred in the +Governor, the Intendant, and the Council, known at first as the +Supreme Council, afterwards as the Superior or the Sovereign Council. +This Council was created by royal edict in April, 1663. It was at +once a legislative body, and a High Court of Justice. It consisted of +the Governor, the Intendant, the bishop, and five other councillors, +afterwards increased to seven, and again to twelve. The councillors +were appointed by the King, and held office usually for life. They +deliberated, they legislated, they judged, they wrangled among +themselves; they followed the lead of Governor, Intendant, or bishop, +according as one or the other was strongest for the time being, and +the strongest for the time being was the man who had the ear of the +King and his minister. + +[Sidenote: _The law of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The courts of justice._] + +The law of the land was the Customary Law of Paris, supplemented by +three kinds of ordinances. There were the royal edicts sent out from +France and registered by the Council in Canada; there were the +decrees made by the Council; and in the third place, there were the +ordinances of the Intendant, who was invested with legislative +authority by the King. The Council, as has been stated, was a +judicial as well as a legislative body. It was the court of appeal +for the colony, and in early days it was also a court of first +instance. There were minor courts of justice, too, established by the +Council, and three judges of the three districts of Quebec, Three +Rivers, and Montreal respectively, appointed by the King. In +addition, the feudal Seigniors[3] of Canada exercised a petty, and +usually little more than nominal, jurisdiction among their vassals, +while the Intendant enjoyed {96} extensive judicial powers, emanating +from and subordinate to the King alone. + +[Footnote 3: The judicial powers of the Seignior varied. In a very +few cases the Seignior could administer _haute justice_, i.e. try +crimes on the Seigniory which were punishable with death. For all +important cases there was right of appeal. See Kingsford's _History +of Canada_, vol. i, p. 365, and Parkman's _Old Régime in Canada_ +(14th ed.), pp. 252, 269.] + +[Sidenote: _The Governor._] + +The highest executive officer was the Governor. He had control of the +armed forces, and was responsible for the peace and safety of New +France. He called out the militia when he thought fit; foreign policy +and native policy were in his charge. In old and troubled times +distance gave to the Governors of colonies and provinces actual power +far exceeding the terms or the intent of their commission. They were +the men on the spot. They held the sword; and, when a serious crisis +arose, their word was obeyed. Especially was this the case in Canada, +cut off for half the year from communication with France, and girt +with foreign and with savage foes. Few years passed without wars or +rumours of wars. Each Canadian settlement was a garrison; and +strength, if not full authority, tended to centre in the hands of the +commander of the forces, the trained soldier who held for the time +the Governorship of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Intendant._] + +Yet, unless he had, like Count Frontenac, great force of character, +or was in favour at the Court of Versailles, and when war was not +imminent, his influence was hardly more, it was often less, than that +of the Intendant. The Governor was the representative of the Crown. +The Intendant was the King's agent, the steward of his province, his +own man. He was a civilian, usually a lawyer, and therefore, in most +cases, of greater business capacity, and more skilled in penmanship, +than the Governor with his military training. His intimate relations +with King and minister, coupled with experience of legal advocacy, +tended to give more weight to his representations than to those of +the Governor at the Court of France. The Intendant, not the Governor, +presided at the Council; and as legislator or judge, he was +responsible to the King alone. In time of peace, and in matters of +internal administration, he had perhaps more real power than the +Governor, and even when fighting times called the {97} soldier to the +front, the Intendant, dealing with supplies and accounts, controlled +in great measure the sinews of war. + +[Sidenote: _The bishop._] + +By the side of the Governor and the Intendant at the council sat the +bishop, spiritually supreme, and with power by no means confined to +spiritual matters. How strong, politically, was the Church in France +before the Revolution, the cardinal prime ministers bear witness, and +the priest-ridden wives and mistresses of the Bourbon Kings. It was +stronger still in Canada. Priests formed no small part of the scanty +population of New France; they made a large part of its history. The +schools and hospitals were built by the Church, and the Church owned +much of the land. Well organized and disciplined, with clear and +definite aims, the ministers of the Church made their power felt in +council chamber and in palace; too often they ruled the rulers; and +the first and greatest bishop of Canada, Bishop Laval, made or unmade +the Governors of New France. + +[Sidenote: _Defects in the political system of New France. +Centralization of power._] + +Such was the political system of Canada, while Canada was a province +of France. Power was centralized, and the ordinary safeguards of +freedom were wholly wanting. Executive, legislative, and judicial +functions were placed in the same hands. There was not a shred of +popular representation, there was not even a vestige of municipal +rights.[4] Canada was good for priests and, to some extent, for +soldiers; there was room in it and a living for an agricultural +peasantry, and for the trapper and backwoodsman, who was a law to +himself. Where the St. Lawrence flowed by the island of Montreal, or +under the rock of Quebec, there were the beginnings of cities with +dwellers in them, but there were no citizens in Canada. + +[Footnote 4: Count Frontenac on first arriving in Canada attempted to +give the Canadians some voice in the government by calling together +the three estates, and by allowing the citizens of Quebec to elect +three aldermen. He incurred the royal displeasure by his proceedings, +and his measures came to nothing. See Parkman's _Count Frontenac and +New France_ (14th ed.), pp. 16, &c., and see below, p. 107.] + +{98} [Sidenote: _Friction between the officials._] + +Though power was centralized, it was not entrusted locally to one man +alone. The maxim of despotism is _Divide et impera_; and on this +principle the Kings of France ruled Canada. The Governor and the +Intendant each corresponded directly with the King and his minister. +Each was wholly independent of the other, and yet their respective +functions were not clearly enough defined to prevent friction and +deadlock. The other members of the Council were subordinate neither +to the Governor nor to the Intendant, in so far that they were +appointed, and could be removed, by the King alone. For this division +of authority there was some excuse. On the assumption that both the +Governor and the Intendant might be thieves, it was prudent to set a +thief to catch a thief. The system minimized the possibility of +tyranny in a distant dependency, where the colonists had no voice in +making the laws, and no control over the administration. One +all-powerful officer might have become a tyrant; but two or more, if +evilly disposed, might be trusted to expose each other's misdoings +with a view to securing favour at home. Chartered Companies took the +same line in this respect as the French Kings. The British East India +Company held their Governor-General in check through his Council; the +Dutch East India Company created in their dependencies the office of +Independent Fiscal, which corresponded in great measure to that of +Intendant.[5] But the plan devised by Louis XIV and Colbert for the +government of Canada had grave defects. Division of authority meant +weakness, where strength was urgently needed; it led to personal +jealousy, to party feeling, to corruption, and to intrigue; it +lessened the sense of responsibility, for each officer could throw +the blame on another; and it left the fortunes of Canada in the hands +of the man who, for the time being, had, irrespective of any office +he held, the {99} strongest character, or the least scruple, or the +largest share of Court favour. + +[Footnote 5: See vol. iv of this series, pt. 1, p. 75 and notes.] + +[Sidenote: _Emigration from France to Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The settlers and_] + +The King of France created the government of Canada. He created also +the people. In less than ten years from the date when he took the +colony in hand the population was more than doubled. Shiploads of +male emigrants were sent out from France, and cargoes of future wives +and mothers. Wedlock was prescribed, celibacy was proscribed, +bounties were, in Roman fashion, given to early marriages and to +large families. The privilege of remaining single was reserved for +priests and nuns; the lay members of the community were bidden to be +fruitful and multiply, and they obeyed the King's commands with much +success. They were honest folk, the Canadian settlers, not convicted +felons sent out from French prisons. No doubt there were among the +emigrants men and women who were glad to leave France, and of whom +France was glad to be rid; but there was no convict strain in the +population, and the _coureurs de bois_, unlicensed though they were, +were not mere outlaws, like the Australian bushrangers. + +[Sidenote: _the Feudal System._] + +[Sidenote: _Canadian feudalism was purely artificial._] + +When an emigrant came to Canada, he could not return to France +without a passport, but he might possibly drift into the backwoods or +to the Dutch or English colonies. Efforts were therefore made to +attach him to the soil. For this purpose a kind of Feudal System was +introduced, somewhat diluted to suit the place and the time. The +essence of feudalism in bygone days had been military tenure and +oligarchy. Time had been in France when the nobles were stronger than +the King, but in the reign of Louis XIV they were little more than +courtiers. They had become ornamental rather than useful; yet even +under a Bourbon despotism, tradition, long descent, ownership of wide +and well-cultivated lands, and rights over a considerable number of +serfs or peasants, gave the French noblesse considerable social +influence. In Canada feudalism had no military {100} aspect. There +was, it is true, a Canadian militia, but it had no connexion with the +feudal tenure of land. Very few of the Canadian Seigniors were of +noble birth, all were poor, their honours were brand new, their +domains were backwoods with occasional clearings, their vassals were +nearly as good men as themselves. The Feudal System in Canada was not +born of the soil, it was simply a device of a benevolent despot for +allotting and settling land, for artificially grading and classifying +an artificially-formed people, and for giving to a new country some +element of old-world respectability. + +[Sidenote: _The Seigniors._] + +[Sidenote: _The Habitans and their tenure._] + +The Seignior held his land, in most cases, directly from the Crown. +He held it as a free gift from the King by title of faith and homage. +He held it on condition of bringing it into cultivation; and, if he +sold his Seigniory, one-fifth of the price as a rule was paid to the +Crown. There was no immemorial title to the land. The title was given +by an arbitrary overlord, and by the same could be revoked. The +condition of cultivation was annexed in order to promote settlement, +and inasmuch as most Seigniors, owing to poverty and the size of the +holdings, could not themselves fulfil the condition, they granted +lands in turn to other settlers, who held of them as they held of the +King. These other settlers were the _Habitans_, the cultivators of +the soil, and their tenancy was the tenure of _cens et rente_, whence +they were known in legal phrase as _Censitaires_. In other words, +they paid a small rent in money, or in kind, or in both. If they sold +their holdings, the Seignior received one-twelfth of the +purchase-money. They were required to grind their corn at the +Seignior's mill, to pay for the privilege of fishing one fish in +every eleven caught, and to comply with sundry other small demands, +in addition to having justice meted out occasionally at the +Seignior's hands. + +These conditions may have been found in some instances petty and +annoying, but to Frenchmen of the seventeenth {101} and eighteenth +century they can hardly have been onerous. They were limited and +safeguarded, as they had been created, by the royal will; and it was +not till the year 1854, after Canada had known British rule for +nearly a hundred years, that they were swept away. That a purely +artificial system should have lasted so long and caused apparently so +little friction and discontent, argues no little skill in those who +invented it, and proves that it was not ill suited to the wants, and +harmonized with the traditions, of the colonists of Canada. It is +impossible to imagine the Puritan settler in New England submitting +to such minute regulations, taking his corn to a Seignior's mill, +baking his bread at a Seignior's oven, paying homage to another +settler set over him by a distant King. But Frenchmen could be +drilled and organized. They understood being planted out in rows, +like so many trees. Their religion and their training tended to +unquestioning obedience, and they throve in quiet sort under +restrictions which the grim and stubborn New Englander would have +trodden under foot. + +[Sidenote: _Military colonization in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Carignan Regiment._] + +Though feudalism on the St. Lawrence had no military basis, military +colonization played a great part in the early settlement of Canada. +The Intendant, Talon, Colbert's right-hand man in his Canadian +schemes, took in this matter the Romans for his model. As the Romans +planted military colonies along the frontiers of their provinces, +including Gaul itself, so Colbert and Talon determined to ensure the +security of Canada by placing a barrier of soldier-colonists on the +border. There was a famous French regiment known as the +Carignan-Saličres Regiment. It had been raised in Savoy by a Prince +of Carignan. It had lately fought with distinction side by side with +the Austrians against the Turks, and in 1665, under Colonel de +Saličres, was sent out to Canada, the first regiment of the line +which had ever landed in New France. The main outlet for Iroquois +incursions was the line of the Richelieu river. On that river forts +were {102} built and garrisoned, and along its banks and also along +the St. Lawrence, between the mouth of the Richelieu and the island +of Montreal, time-expired soldiers were planted out as settlers. +Officers and men alike were given grants of land and bounties in +money, and the soldiers were kept for a year by the King, while +building their houses and clearing their land. The theory was that +the officers should be Seigniors, and that the soldiers who had +served under them should become tenants of their old commanders. +Where the lands were most exposed, the houses were grouped together +within palisades. Elsewhere they were detached from one another, +forming a line of dwellings along the river-side, whence the +settlements were known as _côtés_. + +[Sidenote: _Size of the Seigniories._] + +The usual size of a Seigniory, whether granted to a soldier or to a +civilian, was four arpents in front by forty in depth. In other +words, an arpent[6] being rather less than an acre, the frontage of a +Seigniory was about 260 yards long, while the depth was about 2,600, +or a mile and a half. This long hinterland contained the corn land, +the timber, and the hunting-grounds, but the most valuable and +distinctive feature in the Seigniories was the river frontage. In a +word, Canadian colonization consisted of a series of river-side +settlements, forming a long, narrow, military frontier, with a +wilderness behind. + +[Footnote 6: The _arpent de Paris_ was .845 of an acre or 36801.7 +English square feet; therefore one side of the arpent was about 64 +yards.] + +[Sidenote: _Strong contrasts in Canadian history._] + +Such was the colony, its land, and its people. There is no exact +parallel to be found in the story of other European colonies. None of +them, perhaps, started with such very strong contrasts. Canada was +not a seaboard colony, it was a purely inland colony; yet its +settlements were so many little ports, and its active life was mainly +by, and on, the water. It was pre-eminently not a colony of towns or +of townsfolk, yet Quebec was as much the heart of Canada as Paris was +of France, and the conquest of Canada consisted {103} in the taking +of Quebec and Montreal. It was not a plantation colony, it was not a +mining colony, it was not a pastoral colony; it was a colony of +agriculturists and hunters, and its trade, such as it was, came not +so much from agriculture as from the chase. No colonists were ever +more carefully drilled and organized than the Canadian +agriculturists; none ever lived a life of more unbounded freedom than +the Canadian _coureurs de bois_. The drilling and organization of the +one element, and the roving enterprise of the other, combined to +produce a good fighting population; but the extremes in either case +were too great to result in forming a community, which should be at +once stable and progressive. What was natural in Canada was not +colonization. What was colonization, that is to say permanent +European settlement in the land, was purely artificial. The system of +settlement was cleverly conceived, and skilfully as well as humanely +carried into effect; but it depended not on law so much as on the +personal will of an absolute master. It was wanting in safeguards, it +was wanting in elasticity, it stunted individual effort, and it +contained no element of growth. A full-blown colony was called into +being under regulations which implied childhood, and the result was +to leave the Canadians contented so long as they knew no other rules +of life, but to leave them standing still, while their English +rivals, neither too lawless nor too conservative, grew out of infancy +into clumsy manhood, and proved their strength when the fullness of +the time was come. + +[Sidenote: _Arrival of De Tracy, De Courcelles, and Talon._] + +On June 30, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy arrived at Quebec. He had been +appointed by the King of France Lieutenant-General for the time being +of all his American possessions, including the West Indies; and, +before coming to Canada, he had visited Cayenne and the French West +India Islands. His mission was temporary, to put the colony in a +proper state of defence, and to inaugurate the system of +administration devised by the King. The new Governor {104} of Canada, +De Courcelles, and the Intendant, Talon, landed in September of the +same year. They were good men for their respective posts--the one a +keen soldier, the other, Talon, a born administrator, whose power of +organization and creative genius left a lasting mark on New France. + +[Sidenote: _Operations against the Iroquois._] + +The most pressing need of the colony was security against Iroquois +raids. Before the year 1665 ended, three forts had been built on the +Richelieu; one, Sorel, at its mouth, a second below the rapids at +Chambly, a third at some little distance above the rapids. The line +of communication was strengthened by the construction of sixteen or +seventeen miles of road from Chambly to the bank of the St. Lawrence +opposite Montreal, and in the following year a fourth fort was built +near the northern end of Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Expedition of Courcelles;_] + +The Frenchmen determined to strike soon and hard at the Five Nations. +In January, 1666, in dead of winter, Courcelles led an expedition +against them up the Richelieu, by Lakes Champlain and George, on to +the head waters of the Hudson river. The route, well known in after +years, was unfamiliar then, and instead of turning to the west into +the country of the Mohawks, the Frenchmen found themselves in the +middle of February near the small Dutch settlement of Schenectady, +where they were challenged as invaders of an English province, for in +1664 the Duke of York had become proprietor of New Netherland. It was +news to the French commander that the valley of the Hudson had passed +into British hands--unwelcome news, and would have been more +unwelcome, had he foreseen the results of the change on after +history. Of all events which strengthened the English cause in +America against the French, the most important perhaps was the +substitution of English for Dutch ownership of the present State of +New York. At the time, no rupture took place between French and +English, and, after an interchange of courtesies, Courcelles led his +troops back to Canada, losing men through cold and privation, and +{105} by the hands of the Mohawks, who dogged his retreat. He had +achieved nothing, yet the daring of his venture seems to have +impressed the Indians, and he had gained knowledge which was soon to +tell. + +[Sidenote: _and of Tracy._] + +In September of the same year he set out again with 1,300 men, the +whole commanded by Tracy in person. This time no mistake was made as +to the route. The hearts of the Mohawks failed them. They fled before +the invaders, leaving their strongholds empty and undefended. Each +village in turn was burnt to the ground, the stores were destroyed or +carried off, and, homeless and starving, the Indians were glad to +make peace with the French, leaving Canada unmolested for some years +to come. During those years the colony grew stronger, the +administration was recast, the settlements were organized, and, +beyond the line of colonization, explorers carried French influence +further to the west. + +In 1667, Tracy returned to France. In 1671, Courcelles and Talon +followed him. In 1672, Count Frontenac came out as Governor to +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Prominence of individual leaders in the early history of +Canada._] + +It has been noted above how great are the contrasts in the story of +Canada, and, so far as it was colonized, how much in the system was +artificial, how little was the result of natural growth. The record +of Canada, as compared with that of the English colonies in America, +is much more a series of biographies, much less a chronicle of a +community. Of the great men, whose lives and doings make up Canadian +history in French times, it may be said that some created Canada, +while others were Canada's own creations. In other words, some were +in but not of Canada; they came out from France to make, to rule, to +save, or to try to save, the French colony on the St. Lawrence; while +others, though many of them also came out from home, and all of them +were in their way builders of New France, yet were the outcome of +Canada itself, the result of the unbounded freedom of its backwoods, +{106} their deeds being done and their lives spent mainly beyond the +limits of the Canadian settlements. To the first class belong, among +others, Champlain (though Champlain's name might in truth appear in +either list), Talon, Frontenac, and Montcalm. The second class +comprises the names of explorers such as La Salle, of Du Luth, the +noted _coureur de bois_, and of Iberville, the bold guerilla chief, +who raided the English in Newfoundland and on Hudson Bay, who carried +out La Salle's unfinished work in Louisiana, and of whom, when dead, +Charlevoix wrote: 'The late M. d'Iberville, who had all the good +qualities of his country without any of its defects, would have led +them (his countrymen) to the end of the world.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: Charlevoix's _Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguičres_, +Eng. tr., 1763, p. 104.] + +Of these last there will be more to tell. Of the former class it may +be said that, while not children of Canada, their influence on the +history of the colony and their distinction in Canadian annals was in +proportion to the extent to which New France was the land of their +adoption. If we except discoverers, the three greatest names in +Canadian history are Champlain, Frontenac, and Montcalm, all three of +whom died at Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Count Frontenac._] + +The strongly marked contrasts characteristic of Canada and its story +are illustrated in the case of Count Frontenac. Like other Governors, +before and after him, he came out from the very centre of +civilization, the Court of France: from serving in the finest army in +the world, he came to rule a barbarous borderland, and to command +troops, the majority of whom were backwoodsmen or native Indians, or +at best a half-disciplined militia. He did not come young to the +work. He was fifty-two on his arrival. When he was appointed Governor +for the second time, in 1689, he was in his seventieth year. He had +great merits and great defects. He was pretentious, arrogant, violent +and overbearing, {107} insubordinate to his employers, somewhat +unscrupulous in his policy, and not cleanhanded in repairing his +broken fortunes. On the other hand, he was resourceful, fearless, and +determined; he stood by his friends, he was not unkindly, he had in +many respects broad views, and above all he believed in Canada, its +fortunes, and its peoples. He had in a high degree the admirable +French quality of adapting himself to places and to men. He was +trusted and revered by the Indians beyond any other French or English +Governor, for, while he refused to treat them as equals, he humoured +their customs and to some extent walked in their ways. His force of +character impressed native and colonist alike. He took Canada in hand +at a time of danger and disorganization. When he died, he left her on +the lines of prosperity and possible greatness. + +[Sidenote: _His first government._] + +The term of his first government lasted for ten years, from 1672 to +1682. They were years of constant wrangling and worry. He was at +daggers drawn with the Jesuits, and his quarrels with his colleagues +on the Council, notably the Intendant, Duchesnau, were similar to the +disputes between Warren Hastings and Francis at another time and +place. The end of it was that both Frontenac and Duchesnau were +recalled; but Frontenac had left his mark, and after seven years' +interval, during which two governors failed, he was sent back at a +critical time to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _His attempt to introduce political representation._] + +[Sidenote: _Jealousy between Quebec and Montreal._] + +Two incidents in his first administration may be picked out as +illustrating the boldness of his character, and implying foresight +and breadth of view unusual in a French Governor under Louis XIV. The +first was his crude attempt, already noticed,[8] to form a kind of +Canadian parliament on the old French model, with the three estates +of clergy, nobles, and people. It was a rash step to take immediately +after his arrival, when he could not have known the conditions of the +colony, and must have known well the wishes of the King. {108} It +brought upon him a severe reprimand from home, and his scheme came to +nothing. But the step, if ill timed, was in the right direction. Some +semblance of popular assembly would have done much for Canada, if +only as tending to create a national sentiment and to allay local +jealousies. For among the many elements of weakness in the colony in +its early days was the semi-independence of Montreal. Montreal was +the commercial dépôt for the upper St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the +great lakes. It was the meeting-place of French and native +fur-traders. In it centred the natural wealth of Canada, and to it +resorted the most enterprising and the least settled part of the +population. It was jealous of the older settlement of Quebec, which +was the seat of government, the centre of law and order, and which, +being nearer the sea, commanded the import and export trade with +Europe. Under its feudal Seigniors, the Sulpician monks, Montreal +claimed to have some voice in the appointment of the local Governor; +and Perrot its Governor, in the early days of Frontenac's first +administration, defied within the limits of his district the +authority of the Governor-General, and imprisoned his officers. + +[Footnote 8: See above, p. 97, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Founding of Fort Frontenac._] + +The second event to be specially noted was the building of a fort on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at the point where it flows +out of Lake Ontario. The place was known to the Indians as Cataraqui. +It is now the site of the town of Kingston. The new fort, built in +1673, the year after Frontenac came to Canada, was named after him, +Fort Frontenac. Its building marked the onward movement of the +French. Hitherto their main concern had been to secure mastery of the +central St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal, together with the +command of the Richelieu river. Among the Iroquois, they had fought +chiefly with the Mohawks, the easternmost and nearest of the Five +Nations. But before Frontenac came, and long before the central St. +Lawrence was wholly safe, traders and missionaries had {109} gained +knowledge of the western lakes, and Fort Frontenac was built to be at +once a new outpost of the colony, guarding the upper reaches of the +St. Lawrence, and a starting-point for further exploiting the trade +routes of the west. By building it, the Frenchmen made good their +claim to the river of Canada for its whole length from the lakes to +the sea, and planted themselves at the entrance of a new and vast +system of waterways. + +As the St. Lawrence on its upward course broadens into Lake Ontario, +so, as the French went further west, the story of Canada widens out. +From the tale of two or three river settlements it slowly grows into +the history of a continent. The struggle becomes more and more a +struggle not so much for bare existence as for supremacy. The +Iroquois were a deadly danger still, but the danger largely consisted +in the fact that behind them was a strong and, as a rule to them, a +friendly European colony--the English State of New York. Every year +intensified the rivalry between French and English. Every year showed +that both sought to control the trade of the west. The main practical +issue, for the time being, was whether the furs from the lake region +should come down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, or be +diverted to Albany through the country of the Five Nations. The +Iroquois held the key of the position, and they knew it. Unless they +could be taught either to fear or to love the French, there was +little hope for Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The French come into contact with the Senecas._] + +As the French moved up the St. Lawrence, and along Lake Ontario, they +passed along the line of the Five Nations, and came directly into +conflict with the furthermost and the strongest of the five, the +Senecas. After Tracy's successful expedition against the Mohawks in +1666, the Iroquois gave comparatively little trouble for some years. +They knew well the difference between a strong and a weak _Onontio_, +as they styled the Governor of Canada, and for Courcelles, and his +successor Frontenac, they had a wholesome respect. {110} When +Frontenac was recalled, in 1682, there was a different tale to tell. + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac recalled and succeeded by La Barre._] + +His successor in that year was La Barre, an old soldier of some +distinction, who had been Governor of Cayenne, which he recaptured +from the English. In Canada he proved to be an irresolute commander +and an incapable administrator, notable even among Canadian officials +for greed of gain. The Iroquois became more and more menacing. The +Senecas especially, at the western end of the line, who had never yet +felt in any measure the weight of the French arm, raided the Indians +of the Illinois, who were nominally under French protection, +threatened the tribes of the lakes, and were in a fair way to master +the trade on which Canada depended. There had been some prospect of a +rupture between the Five Nations and the English, owing to border +forays on Virginia and Maryland; but in 1684, at a great council held +at Albany, the old alliance was solemnly renewed. There was no hope +from this quarter for the French. + +[Sidenote: _His expedition against the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Its failure._] + +[Sidenote: _He is succeeded by De Denonville._] + +La Barre, whatever may have been his faults, was in a most difficult +position, but made up his mind to take the offensive, hoping by a +demonstration of force to bring the Iroquois to terms. Having +collected troops and native allies, he moved up the St. Lawrence in +the summer of 1684, from Montreal to Fort Frontenac. There he waited +while his force sickened with malarial fever. After delay he moved +his men across to the southern side of Lake Ontario, and encamped at +a place called La Famine, where more men went down with fever. There, +at length, deputies of the Iroquois came to meet him. He talked +swelling words, but the state of his camp gave them the lie. He made +a kind of truce, in which the Indians practically dictated the terms, +and he retreated down the river again, having encouraged his enemies, +disgusted his allies, brought embarrassment on the colony, and +procured his own recall. He was succeeded in the following year by +the Marquis de Denonville. + +{111} [Sidenote: _His expedition against the Senecas._] + +[Sidenote: _Posts placed at Niagara and Detroit._] + +Denonville was at once more capable and more honest than La Barre, +but he had still greater difficulties to contend with. The Iroquois +were now quite out of hand, and Dongan, the able Governor of New +York, was taking a stronger line than was the wont of most Governors +in the English colonies, making a bold bid for the control of the +lake region. However, ample reinforcements were sent from France with +orders to attack the Five Nations, and in the summer of 1687 the +French Governor set out with an overwhelming force against the +Senecas. His troops, nearly 3,000 in all, mustered at Irondequoit +Bay, halfway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. From thence a +route led southwards to the chief town of the Senecas. Many of the +Seneca warriors were out of the country at the time, and the French, +advancing in strength, dispersed the savages who remained, reached +the town, already burnt and deserted, and after destroying corn and +devastating the neighbouring land, returned to the lake. A fort was +then built at the further end of the lake, below Niagara,[9] to +command the junction of Lakes Erie and Ontario, as in the previous +year a stockade had been constructed on the strait of Detroit, to +control the passage from Lake Huron to Lake Erie; after which the +Governor returned to Montreal. + +[Footnote 9: In March of this same year Dongan was urging on the +Lords of Trade the building of an English fort at Niagara, or as he +called it, Oneigra, 'near the great lake on the way whereby our +people go hunting and trading. It is very necessary for our trade and +correspondence with the Indians, and for securing our right to the +country' (_Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1685-8, p. 328).] + +[Sidenote: _Fruitlessness of the expedition._] + +[Sidenote: _The massacre of Lachine._] + +The French, to quote Colden's words,[10] had 'got nothing but dry +blows by this expedition.' Denonville had not done enough. He had +enraged the confederate Indians without crippling them. A few months +before, with odious treachery, he had ordered some friendly Iroquois +to be kidnapped and sent to France to serve in the galleys. The +tribesmen of the prisoners neither forgave nor forgot, and in less +than two {112} years' time they paid the debt. On the island of +Montreal, some eight miles above the town to the south-west, at the +head of rapids now cut by a canal, and at the lower end of the broad +reach of the St. Lawrence--which bears the name of Lake St. +Louis--was the settlement of Lachine. At the beginning of August, +1689, at dead of night and under cover of a storm, many hundred +Iroquois warriors broke in upon the settlers. Two hundred of the +French were butchered there and then. One hundred and twenty were +carried off, some to be tortured and burnt almost within sight of +their countrymen, others to be gradually done to death in the lodges +of the Five Nations. A detachment of eighty French soldiers was also +cut to pieces, and outside forts and palisades the country was a +scene of death and desolation. + +[Footnote 10: _History of the Five Nations_ (3rd ed.), vol. i, chap. +v, p. 82.] + +[Sidenote: _Abandonment of Fort Frontenac. Recall of Denonville and +return of Frontenac._] + +The horrors of Lachine stand out in Canadian history as a kind of +Sicilian Vespers or Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The upper part of +the colony, Montreal and its neighbourhood, was paralysed with +terror, and once more, for a moment, the Iroquois seemed to threaten +the very existence of New France. It was not so in fact. Below Three +Rivers Canada was safe, and the savages did not, as in old days, +parade their triumph beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Meanwhile +Denonville had already been recalled, his last act being to order in +his panic the evacuation and destruction of Fort Frontenac; and the +old Frenchman, after whom that fort had been named, came back in his +seventieth year to save and to rule Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Calličres._] + +Another competent man returned with Frontenac, after a short visit to +France--Calličres, the Governor of Montreal. He was a strong second +in command, and, when Frontenac died, was appointed to succeed him, +and carried on his work. The two commanders arrived in the autumn of +1689, to find all in confusion and distress; but Frontenac was not +forgotten. His presence gave confidence, and even among the {113} +Iroquois his name secured respect. It was his habit to see with his +own eyes, to take his own line, to act with promptitude and decision. +These qualities, when coupled with ten years' previous experience of +the colony, were invaluable at a crisis. He might quarrel with +Intendants, browbeat Councillors, and denounce Jesuit priests; but to +the settlers he gave security, to the adventurous backwoodsmen of the +West he was a congenial leader, and to the Indians he was the great +_Onontio_, whose actions matched his words. + +[Sidenote: _Confidence restored by Frontenac._] + +[Sidenote: _His dealings with the Indians._] + +For the time he was not in a position to carry war into the Iroquois +country, and the Iroquois would not listen to friendly overtures. He +contented himself, therefore, with strengthening the forts and +defences of the colony and with issuing proclamations to the wavering +tribes of the lakes. It was one thing when La Barre or Denonville +spoke, it was another when the words were those of Frontenac. His +next step was to intimidate the English allies of the Five Nations, +and to send three raiding parties into New England and New York. This +was the kind of irregular warfare for which the Canadians were best +suited. All three expeditions were successful; and their success, +coupled with two defeats of parties of Iroquois on the Ottawa, by Du +Luth in 1689 and Nicolas Perrot in 1690, both noted leaders of +_coureurs de bois_, gave new heart to Canada. Before the summer of +1690 ended, the Indians of the upper lakes came down in force to +trade at Montreal, and the grey-headed Governor-General of New France +led the war dance, hatchet in hand, appealing to savages in savage +fashion, as only a versatile Frenchman could. + +It was a typical proceeding. French priests turned heathens into +Christians, but left them on their savage lines. French hunters lived +among Indians, adopting Indian garb and Indian methods; and the great +Governor of Canada, who of all others was a ruler of men, led a +yelling crowd in their native prelude for war, as sure in {114} +self-esteem, as sure in the esteem of his company, as if he were +treading a minuet in stately fashion at the Court of Versailles. The +English had no such address; but not having it they ran less risk for +the future of their kind. They kept the heathen, for the most part, +outside their pale. They did little to convert them. They did little +to befriend or protect them. But the English race remained stronger +and purer in its dour isolation than the assimilated and assimilating +Frenchmen of what was then Upper Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Insecurity of the French settlers above Three Rivers._] + +Raids and counter raids went on. Of the part which the English took +in the fighting, something will be said presently. So far as the +struggle was between the French and the Five Nations, the scene of +action was either the Ottawa river, or the angle between the +Richelieu and the St. Lawrence. Always important, as being the direct +trade route from Lake Huron, the Ottawa was more important now, +seeing that there was a larger population in Canada than in bygone +days dependent on the fur trade, and that since Denonville's abortive +expedition against the Senecas, the massacre of Lachine, and the +evacuation of Fort Frontenac, the French had lost command of the +upper St. Lawrence. + +The corner of land lying between Chambly on the Richelieu and +Montreal was the old battlefield of French and Iroquois. By this +line, before Tracy's expedition of 1666, the Mohawks had raided +Canada; by this line, once more, their war-parties came. Below the +Three Rivers, at Quebec and in its neighbourhood, there was no fear +of the Indians, though there was both apprehension and reality of +English invasion, and distress from English blockade of Canadian +trade. But in the upper half of the colony, of which Montreal was the +centre, there was no security for life or property outside +fortifications and stockades. + +[Sidenote: _Madeleine de Verchčres._] + +Some twenty miles below Montreal, on the southern bank of the St. +Lawrence, in the troubled belt of land between that river and the +Richelieu, was the Seigniory of Verchčres. {115} There was on it a +fort and a blockhouse, which, in the last week of October, 1692, was +the scene of one of the most picturesque episodes in all the annals +of border warfare. The Seignior, a military man, was absent, the fort +was nearly empty, for the able-bodied men were working in the fields, +when the Iroquois came down on the place. The Seignior's daughter, +Madeleine de Verchčres, a girl of fourteen, took charge of the fort, +having for a garrison, over and above women and children, two +terrified soldiers, one hired man-servant, one refugee settler, an +old man of eighty, and two small boys, her brothers. She gave the +command, she placed each at his post, she misled the savages by a +show of imaginary force, and watching day and night she held them at +bay, until, at the end of a week, a party of soldiers came to her +relief from Montreal. Years afterwards the tale of the siege was +taken down from her own lips; and her name lives, and deserves to +live, in the history of Canada. The girl's heroism is the chief, but +not the only, point of the story. That the Mohawks should have +prowled round the fort for a week without seriously attempting to +take it, and without finding out that it was nearly defenceless, +shows how helpless and stupid these noted warriors were when face to +face with a fortification. On the other hand, that a post, only +twenty miles distant from Montreal, was left for a week without +relief, proves how paralysed, or at least how weakened, were the +French by a long series of Indian incursions. This was in Frontenac's +time; but Frontenac had the English on his hands, and was short of +men. Had it been otherwise, there would have been no beleaguering of +girls in forts, and Canada would have lost a pretty story. + +[Sidenote: _Revival of the French cause._] + +As it was, the scale soon turned in favour of the French. In dead of +winter, at the beginning of 1693, a mixed body of Canadians and +Indians broke in upon the Mohawk towns, and, in spite of a somewhat +disastrous retreat, inflicted considerable loss on their persistent +enemies; while later {116} in the year, at the bidding of the sturdy +old Governor, a strong party of _coureurs de bois_ came down the +Ottawa, convoying a long pent-up and most welcome cargo of furs. This +'gave as universal joy to Canada as the arrival of the galleons give +in Spain';[11] and Frontenac was hailed as the father of the people. + +[Footnote 11: Colden's _History of the Five Nations_ (3rd ed.), vol. +i, chap. ix, p. 159.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois complain of English inaction._] + +More soldiers came out from France, and the Iroquois began to lose +heart. Many of their warriors had fallen, and not a few, converted by +the Jesuits, had settled in Canada, being known to their heathen +countrymen as the 'praying Indians.'[12] From the English colonies +little or no help had come, beyond supplies of arms and ammunition. +The councils at Albany produced on the English side pretentious +speeches, criticism, encouragement, and promises which were never +fulfilled; but the words of the Indians were more to the point, 'the +whole burden of the war lies on us alone ... we alone cannot continue +the war against the French by reason of the recruits they daily +receive from the other side the Great Lake.'[13] They had been +faithful to the English alliance, more faithful than the English +deserved, and more faithful than any civilized nation would have been +under like circumstances; but they tired of fighting singlehanded, +and the chain of the covenant began to rust. + +[Footnote 12: The converted Iroquois were settled at Caughnawaga, +which was on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, at the Sault St. +Louis, and directly opposite Lachine. They were often called +Caughnawagas.] + +[Footnote 13: Colden, vol. i, chap. x, p. 176.] + +[Sidenote: _Their policy towards the French._] + +[Sidenote: _Barbarity of Frontenac._] + +In default of active aid from the English, there were two policies +open to them--to make terms with the French, and to detach from the +French cause the Indian tribes of the lakes. They pursued both +policies at once: they invited Frontenac to meet them and the English +at Albany; he refused. He refused also to come to a meeting at +Onondaga. {117} They then sent a deputation to Quebec in 1694; and +Frontenac offered a peace which should include the Indian allies of +the French and exclude the English. Two nations of the confederacy +were ready to accept these terms; the other three rejected them, and +there was no peace. In the meantime the Iroquois intrigued with the +Lake Indians, and, attracted by the prospect of English goods, the +latter came near exchanging the French alliance for combination with +the Five Nations and the English. To prevent this result, Frontenac +and his officers had resort to infamous methods. Not only at the +forest post of Michillimackinac, but at Montreal itself, the French +compelled the wavering Indians to burn Iroquois prisoners to death, +in order to make peace impossible, and joined themselves in the +torture and butchery. Few worse instances of barbarous policy are +recorded in history. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Frontenac reoccupied._] + +Such means alone would not attain the desired end. Nothing, the +Governor knew, would avail except acknowledged mastery over the Five +Nations. The most obvious confession of weakness on the French side +in Denonville's disastrous time had been the evacuation of Fort +Frontenac; and never had Denonville's successor slackened his +determination to reoccupy the post, which, if he had arrived in +Canada a day or two earlier, would not have been abandoned. The time +came in the summer of 1695. A force, secretly and quickly gathered, +was sent up from Montreal; the walls of the fort still standing were +repaired; and the Iroquois were startled by the news that the post, +which they most dreaded, and which most menaced their confederacy, +was again manned by a French garrison. Frontenac was just in time. +The day after the expedition started, orders came from France that +the fort should not be reoccupied; but he refused to recall his +troops, and set himself to justify, by further measures, his +disobedience to the home Government. + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac's expedition against the Five Nations._] + +In July, 1696, he set out from Montreal at the head of {118} over +2,000 men. The military strength of Canada was well represented; +there were French soldiers of the line, Canadian militia, and +friendly Indians. With the old Governor went his best +officers--Calličres leading the van of the march, Vaudreuil bringing +up the rear. The force reached Fort Frontenac, crossed Lake Ontario, +and, landing at the mouth of the Oswego river, worked their way up, +by stream and lake and portage, towards the goal of the +expedition--Onondaga, the central town and meeting-place of the Five +Nations. What had happened before happened again. The Indians +retreated into the forest before superior numbers, leaving the French +a barren conquest over the smouldering ashes of the native town and +the standing corn. The Oneidas' village and maize fields were also +laid waste, and then the invaders retraced their steps. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Frontenac._] + +Though the expedition was recorded by the French as a success, +Frontenac had done no more than Denonville in his march against the +Senecas, and a writer on the English side contemptuously refers to it +as 'a kind of heroic dotage'.[14] The show of force, however, seems +to have had the effect of inclining the Iroquois to peace, of proving +once more that the French were more active than the English, and that +the arm of _Onontio_ was longer than that of the Governor of New +York. Early in 1698 came news of the Peace of Ryswick. The Five +Nations were subjects neither of England nor of France, but both +Canada and New York claimed them. Sturdily to the last, Frontenac +repelled English pretensions and half-hearted Indian advances; but +the hand of death was upon him, and on November 28, 1698, he died at +Quebec, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. + +[Footnote 14: Colden, vol. i, chap. xii, p. 202.] + +[Sidenote: _His services to Canada._] + +He had rid Canada in a great measure from the scourge of murdering +savages. He had humbled the Iroquois to some extent; he had certainly +won their respect. How he withstood the English in open warfare, and +how he {119} encouraged Frenchmen of his own bold type to explore and +to claim the far West, remains to be told. He was a great man for the +time and place, great in fearlessness, in self-reliance, in +foresight, and in unflinching tenacity of purpose. The element of +bombast and arrogance in his character helped him, as it helped other +Frenchmen, whose names have lived, in handling native races. As a +ruler of wild men, whether coloured or white, he was unsurpassed. The +ruthlessness of his policy has left a stain upon his memory; but he +gave life and confidence to Canada in time of trouble, and but for +him there would have been no future for New France. + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois make peace with the French._] + +His deeds and his character bore fruit immediately after his death. +At the invitation of his successor, Calličres, a general meeting of +all the Indian tribes was held at Montreal, in 1701, to which the +Iroquois condescended to send representatives. Peace was made; and +the French, whom the Five Nations had brought to the brink of ruin, +emerged from the contest as acknowledged arbitrators between the +native races of North America. + +[Sidenote: _Causes which inclined the Iroquois to peace. Loss of +numbers._] + +Thus, with the close of the seventeenth century, came in effect the +close of the life-and-death struggle between the Five Nation Indians +and the Canadian settlers. What were the causes which brought the +Iroquois to terms? The first and most potent was loss of numbers. +Continual bloodshed had reduced the male population of the +confederates by half;[15] and mixture by adoption, it may well be +supposed, had brought some alloy into the old fighting breed. When +white men meet coloured men in war, there is always the same tale to +tell. The white men suffer reverses, as long as they are a handful, +and until the native race has lost a certain proportion of its +warriors. Then strength, and knowledge, and discipline prevail; and +the issue is no longer in doubt. But no other coloured race in the +history of colonization fought with Europeans, man for man, like the +Iroquois, and never {120} submitting, treated sullenly as equals only +when the white race were absolutely superior in numbers. Big +battalions in the end usually determine the course of history. They +certainly decided the fate of North America. Numerical strength +turned the scale in favour of the French, as against the Iroquois. It +subsequently turned the scale in favour of the English, as against +the French. + +[Footnote 15: See Parkman's _Count Frontenac_, last page, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Personality of Frontenac._] + +The second cause which influenced the Iroquois was Frontenac's +personality. In dealing with him the Indians dealt, and knew that +they dealt, with a man who in the greatest straits would never give +way an inch. There was no compromise in his policy. He meant to be +master; the savages knew it, and respected him accordingly. He did +not live to complete his work, and it was not thoroughly completed; +but he lived long enough to cripple the Five Nations, and after his +time their strength declined. + +[Sidenote: _Shortcomings of the English._] + +A third cause was the failure of the English. They missed their +opportunities. The path of English colonization has been strewn with +lost opportunities. The end has been achieved in most cases, and in +most parts of the world; but it has been achieved only after long +years of toil, expense, and loss of life, which a little foresight +might well have avoided. There was no Frontenac on the English side, +no man who went in advance of his Government, who framed and forced a +strong policy. One Governor of New York, the Irishman Dongan, was +active and determined, but those who came after did little. The +element of compromise in the English character, and in the policy of +the English Government, made itself felt. Colony was jealous of +colony, petty legislatures wrangled, and farmers resented being +called to fight instead of sowing or harvesting their crops. Over and +above all, whether as friends or as foes, the Frenchmen stretched out +their right hands to the native races of North America; the English +lived their lives apart, and for the time they paid the penalty. + +{121} [Sidenote: _Founding of Detroit._] + +[Sidenote: _La Mothe Cadillac._] + +Thus the Five Nations made peace with the French at Montreal. At the +very same time, at Albany,[16] they gave the English a title to the +lake regions. In the year 1686, by Denonville's orders, Du Luth, with +a party of _coureurs de bois_, established a French outpost on the +strait (Detroit) between Lakes Huron and Erie,[17] his object being +to prevent the fur trade of the upper lakes passing down that way to +the Iroquois country, and thence to the English market at Albany. The +post was not maintained; but some years afterwards a more permanent +occupation took place. Frontenac had died; but he left behind him men +trained in his school, keen on a forward policy, on holding in the +interests of France and in their own the passes of the West. Such a +man was La Mothe Cadillac, who in 1694 had been sent to take command +at Michillimackinac. He urged upon the French Government the +importance of controlling the outlet from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, +and, having obtained their consent, was the founder of the city of +Detroit. He began the work in July, 1701, but before his expedition +actually reached the place, the Five Nations took alarm, recognizing +that Detroit, like Fort Frontenac, would limit their range and +endanger their power. + +[Footnote 16: The great meeting at Montreal was held on Aug. 4, 1701. +The deed of cession referred to in the text was dated July 19, 1701.] + +[Footnote 17: See above, p. 111.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois cede their hunting-grounds to the King of +England._] + +They sent representatives of all their nations to Albany, and there, +on July 19, 1701, ceded to the King of England their 'beaver +hunting-ground,' retaining for themselves the right of free hunting. +The deed was of the most formal character, attested by the totem +marks of all the Five Nations.[18] It is an interesting document, +setting forth that the Iroquois had already subjected themselves and +their lands 'on this side of Cataraqui (Ontario) lake wholly to the +Crown of {122} England,' and conveying to the King a wide area to the +north of the lake, which the Five Nations claimed as their +hunting-ground in right of conquest. The tract was estimated at 800 +miles in length by 400 in breadth, extending on the north to Lake +Superior, on the west to Chicago, and it specifically included +Detroit,[19] the French designs on which were stated as the reason +for making the cession. A white man's hand must have drawn the deed. +It gave away the Iroquois entirely. Hitherto they had stubbornly +rejected any English claim to sovereignty. Brother the Governor of +New York had been, but not father, and no allegiance had been offered +to the King of England; but in the conveyance William III figured as +'the great lord and master' of the Five Nations, and on paper the +acknowledgement of British sovereignty was complete. + +[Footnote 18: A certified copy in manuscript sent home at the time +may be seen at the Record Office, and a printed copy is included in +the New York documents.] + +[Footnote 19: Spoken of in the deed in one place as 'Tiengsachrondio +alias Fort de Tret.'] + +It was a piece of parchment only, and as such and no more the +Iroquois probably regarded it; but it embodied a small element of +fact. These hardheaded, hardhanded Indians were gradually being worn +down by the white men on either side, owing such measure of +independence as they still retained not so much to their own fighting +strength as to the constant enmity between Great Britain and France. +When war broke out again, after Queen Anne's accession, they remained +for the most part neutral; what they had claimed and conveyed as +their hunting-ground passed more and more under French control, +while, as the result of Marlborough's victories on the other side of +the Atlantic, their own land and its cantons was awarded to Great +Britain in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht.[20] + +[Footnote 20: Clause xv of the Treaty of Utrecht ran as follows: 'The +subjects of France inhabiting Canada, and others, shall hereafter +give no hinderance or molestation to the Five Nations or Cantons of +Indians subject to the dominion of Great Britain nor to the other +natives of America who are friends to the same.'] + +[Illustration: Map of New England, New York & Central Canada, showing +the Waterways] + + + + +{123} + +CHAPTER IV + +FRENCH AND ENGLISH DOWN TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT + + +Down to the date of the Treaty of Utrecht, the Iroquois formed the +first line of the foes of Canada. Behind them were the English. + +[Sidenote: _Little communication in early times between Canada and +the English colonies._] + +[Sidenote: _Route from the Atlantic to Quebec by the line of the +Kennebec._] + +After Quebec had been in 1632 given back to France, the English on +the Atlantic coast, and the French on the St. Lawrence, for many +years came little into contact with each other. In Acadia the two +nations overlapped, with results which are told elsewhere, and it was +the same in Newfoundland; but the French colonists at Quebec and the +English colonists at Boston or in Virginia were far apart. We read of +an English traveller finding his way, in 1640, from the coast of +Maine, up the Kennebec river and by the Chaudičre, to Quebec, his +journey being noted as an explorer's feat with an ultimate design of +reaching the North Sea; while a few years later, in 1647-51, the same +route became better known, and was taken by French emissaries of +peace to the New England states. + +[Sidenote: _Proposals for a treaty between the English and French +colonies._] + +Negotiations were then on foot, at the instance of Winthrop, Governor +of Massachusetts, for a treaty of commerce between the English and +French colonies in North America, and it was suggested that they +should keep peace with each other even in the event of war in Europe +between the respective mother countries.[1] Such a treaty {124} might +have been made and kept, if there had been no native question; but +each side had Indian friends and Indian foes, and could not afford to +alienate the one or add to the number of the other. The French wanted +New England support against the Iroquois, and with the Iroquois the +New Englanders had no quarrel. Thus the friendly overtures between +the two parties came to nothing; but Frenchmen on the river of Canada +and Englishmen by the open sea went their own ways, having no direct +dealings with each other in war or peace. + +[Footnote 1: A like sensible policy was pursued in the little island +of St. Kitts, when first colonized by French and English. They agreed +to keep the peace whether or not France and Great Britain were at +war. See vol. ii of this series, chap. iv, p. 135. See also +Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. ii, p. 426.] + +[Sidenote: _The English take New York._] + +A change came when the English, in 1664, took possession of New York. +They too had now a river--the Hudson--which carried them inland; they +became neighbours and friends of the Five Nations; and their natural +line of expansion was in the direction of the St. Lawrence and the +great lakes. From this time onward collision between French and +English was inevitable, and it was equally inevitable that the colony +of New York should be the central point of the contest. + +[Sidenote: _Want of union between the English colonies._] + +Before the Dutchmen on Manhattan Island and in the valley of the +Hudson became subjects of the British Crown, they had themselves +absorbed the Swedish colonists on the Delaware. The result, +therefore, of New York becoming a British province was to link +together the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. It has been +said above that English colonization in North America was more +compact and more continuous than French. In other words, though the +English colonists many times outnumbered the French, they were less +dispersed through the wilderness. But the compactness and continuity +was comparative only. Continuity of English colonization meant little +more than that the lands claimed by one colony were coterminous with +those claimed by the next, and that no other European nation could +plant {125} a settlement between the Alleghanies and the sea without +committing a trespass and fighting for its place. There was no +continuity of what would now be called effective occupation. Colony +was divided from colony by many miles of forest and backwood. +Separately they were planted. Their surroundings, their traditions, +their interests were all distinct. Sprung in the main from one stock, +and speaking one language, they had little else in common. They had +not even the bond of a common religious creed. + +[Sidenote: _Dissensions in New York._] + +Within each single colony there was division still. Settlements and +homesteads were often far from one another, and political or +religious dissensions supplemented geographical separation. New York +was an instance in point. Alone among the colonies, it had a good +waterway for any distance inland; but there was little community of +interest between the settlers at Albany or Schenectady, and the +seaport at Manhattan Island, except so far as the latter commanded +the import and export trade of the Hudson valley. The settlers at the +mouth of the Hudson were merchants and seafaring men. The settlers +inland were farmers, landholders, and traders with the Indians. The +former were exposed to attack by sea, but recked little of the French +in Canada or their Indian allies. The latter had nothing to fear from +a hostile fleet, but were constantly in danger from an inroad from +Canada. Then there were feuds of race and religion. The English +overpowered the Dutch, and with the English came in the rule of the +Duke of York, Roman Catholic influence, and a policy too often +dictated by France. + +[Sidenote: _Leisler's rebellion._] + +The Revolution, which turned out the Stuarts in England, was followed +by a rising in New York. There was a cleavage, not so much on lines +of race, as on those of politics and religion. The extreme +Protestants and Republicans, whose stronghold was in and about the +town of New York, rose against the existing system, which was upheld +by the more {126} moderate and aristocratic section of the +population, who were stronger up country, and were supported by such +men as Schuyler, the chief magistrate of Albany. Jacob Leisler, a +German, led the revolutionary party, and in 1689, backed by the +militia, he deposed the Lieutenant-Governor and took the government +into his own hands. He played the part of Cromwell for two years +until, in 1691, regular troops were sent out from England, when he +was deserted by his followers, imprisoned, and hanged; and the +ordinary methods of colonial government were resumed. + +[Sidenote: _Want of union made the English impotent against the +French._] + +Colony being thus divided from colony, and the one colony which +directly abutted on Canada being divided against itself, it was long +before the English made any headway against the French on the St. +Lawrence. At almost any given date the French had a larger number of +regular troops available, supported by Canadian rangers, whose life +was spent in border warfare--the whole being under one Governor, who +was, as has been seen, invariably a man of considerable military +experience. On the sea the English could more than hold their own, +but the sea-route from New York or Boston to Quebec was long and +troublesome. If such an expedition was taken in hand, there could be +no secrecy and no speed in the matter. There was gathering of ships +and transports; discussions as to the quota of each colony; selection +of a leader because he was a good neighbour or a popular citizen, +rather than for any naval or military capacity. There was sailing +round the coast, taking Acadia on the way, and finally arrival before +Quebec after men and ships had dropped off and the French had been +forewarned and forearmed. Thus down to the date of the Treaty of +Utrecht English efforts against the French in Canada amounted to +little more than giving arms and supplies to the Five Nations, making +occasional counter raids by land, and still more occasional +demonstrations by sea. + +{127} [Sidenote: _First proposal for joint action against the +French._] + +It will be remembered[2] that in February, 1666, the French +commander, Courcelles, on his bold midwinter expedition against the +Mohawks, strayed from his route, and found himself near Corlaer or +Schenectady, where he learnt that the English had become masters of +New York, and that there was an English garrison at Albany. This was +the first intrusion of the French into the Hudson valley. Tracy's +expedition against the Mohawk towns later in the same year gave +Colonel Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, occasion to +invite the New England colonies to join him in attacking the French. +They refused, fearing that, if they sided with the Iroquois, they +would be exposed to attack from the Abenakis, who were on their +borders, and who were friends of the French, foes of the Five +Nations. Some twenty years then passed without open rupture. New York +was retaken by the Dutch and regained by the English. The +colonization of Canada went on. The Iroquois remained comparatively +quiet, and in Frontenac's first term of administration western +exploration and western trade began to determine French policy in +Canada and English policy in New York. + +[Footnote 2: See above, p. 104.] + +[Sidenote: _Thomas Dongan._] + +[Sidenote: _Meeting between the English Governors and the chiefs of +the Five Nations._] + +[Sidenote: _Bad feeling between French and English._] + +In 1683, after Frontenac had come to Canada for the first time and +gone again, New York was given in the Irish Catholic, Thomas Dongan, +a Governor of strength and foresight. In the following year, at a +conference held at Albany, at which Lord Howard of Effingham, the +Governor of Virginia, was present, the alliance between the English +and the Five Nations was formally confirmed; and, assured of English +aid and protection, the Iroquois turned their strength against +Canada. Though there was peace between Great Britain and France in +James II's time, the relations between New York and Canada were the +reverse of friendly. The French knew that the Five Nations were +backed by the English. Dongan on his part was resolved that the {128} +trade of the West should not be left exclusively in French hands. +Angry letters passed between him and Denonville, English and Dutch +traders on the lakes were intercepted by the Canadians, and a party +from Montreal captured and looted three English trading posts on +Hudson Bay. In 1688 Dongan was recalled, and in the following year +news reached the American colonies of the Revolution in England. + +[Sidenote: _French plan for attacking New York._] + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac's raiding parties._] + +The expulsion of the Stuarts and the accession of William III to the +throne of Great Britain meant war with France; and at this critical +moment Frontenac came back to Canada. He came back with a plan, +devised by Calličres and approved by the King, for attacking New York +by land and sea. A stillborn scheme it proved, through untoward +delays, but its conception indicated that New York was recognized by +the French Government and its advisers as the key of the position in +North America. While plans were being laid by the French for the +invasion of New York the Iroquois invaded Canada, and the massacre of +Lachine faced Frontenac on his return in 1689. Next year he sent out +against the English colonies the three expeditions which have been +already mentioned.[3] + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 113.] + +[Sidenote: _The capture of Schenectady._] + +The first started from Montreal in depth of winter, following the +familiar route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, and intending to +strike a blow at Albany. The men were picked for the work, Frenchmen +and Indians, about 250 in all, led by the best of Canadian rangers, +such as Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brothers. They toiled through +ice and snow, and, turning off from the path to Albany, in the +darkness of a winter's night they fell upon the Dutch settlement of +Schenectady. It was the time of Leisler's movement, when New York was +in the throes of revolution. The village was unguarded, its gates +were open, its inmates were asleep. A blockhouse manned by eight or +nine militiamen from {129} Connecticut was stormed, and the scene was +one of helpless massacre. + +[Sidenote: _The attack on Salmon Falls and Falmouth._] + +The second party, smaller in number, consisting of some fifty French +and Abenaki Indians, left Three Rivers towards the end of January, +and near the end of March made a night attack on the settlement of +Salmon Falls, on the borders of New Hampshire and Maine. Again the +English, sleeping and unprepared, were murdered in their beds, and +the murderers, making good their retreat, joined forces with the +third and strongest party, which had set out from Quebec to attack +the settlement of Falmouth at Casco Bay. Falmouth stood where the +town of Portland in Maine now stands. There was a fort at the +place--Fort Loyal--into which the outlying settlers gathered with +their families when the attacking force of four or five hundred men +appeared. After a short defence the commander, Sylvanus Davies by +name, surrendered on solemn promise, according to his own +circumstantial account, of quarter and freedom for the whole company. +The terms were immediately broken, and all the English were massacred +or carried into captivity. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of the French raids._] + +Thus three separate raids on the English colonies, sent out under +Frontenac's orders in the year 1690, were all successful. They were +well devised, and carried out with skill, courage, and determination. +The English and Dutch settlers, on their side, showed the greatest +negligence and little stubbornness or competence in self-defence. The +immediate result was to invigorate the French and their Indian +allies; but the causes of their momentary success were the causes of +their ultimate failure; and even at the moment these marauding +exploits threatened new danger to Canada. The French succeeded +because, leagued with savages, they in all things likened themselves +to their companions, they habited themselves in Indian dress, their +warriors were ferocious as Indian warriors, their priests hounded on +to blood. They succeeded because their trade was war not peace, {130} +because they were roving adventurers who had only their lives to +lose, ravening among quiet men of substance who had homes and wives +and children to be plundered and slain. It was as certain that in +course of time the cause of the English colonists would prevail, as +that the Highland clans, who in Scotland marauded their southern +neighbours, would eventually be broken, or that the Five Nations +themselves, if left to fight alone, would eventually go down before +the settled life of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _They tended to unite the English colonists._] + +On this occasion three blows were struck, nearly at the same time, at +three separate points in a long undefended line. The adoption of this +policy by the French, and still more the fact of its success, in +reality tended to remove the one great obstacle to British supremacy +in North America. When Sylvanus Davies, taken at Fort Loyal and +carried prisoner to Quebec, asked Frontenac the reason for the savage +raid on the Casco Bay settlement, he was told that it was reprisal +for the support given to the Iroquois by New York. His rejoinder, +which was to the effect that New England should not be called upon to +answer for the doings of New York, showed how little community of +sentiment or interest existed in the English colonies. The one great +source of weakness to the English cause, the greatest source of +strength to the French, was the disunion of the English colonies and +their indifference to each other. Consolidation could come only +through partnership in suffering, and pressure from a common foe. +This was the lesson which Frontenac taught, when his border ruffians +carried havoc from the head waters of the Hudson to the sea-coast of +Maine. + +[Sidenote: _The colonies determine to attack Canada._] + +The lesson was never fully learnt as long as the Atlantic colonies +were British possessions and Canada was French; but for a time the +French outrages produced some semblance of common action on the other +side; and at a conference held at Albany, in 1690, it was resolved to +attack Canada by land and sea. The land expedition, taking the route +{131} of Lake Champlain, was a failure, ending in a small raid on the +French settlement of La Prairie; and the main effort was made by sea. +On sea the New Englanders showed the way, led by the men of +Massachusetts. + +[Sidenote: _Massachusetts takes the lead._] + +[Sidenote: _Capture of Port Royal._] + +The 'Bostonnais,' as the French called them, were dangerous foes of +Canada. Puritans, Republicans, sea-fighters, sea-traders, they were +all that the Canadians were not. They were strong in numbers too. At +the end of the seventeenth century, Boston was a town of some 7,000 +inhabitants, and the population of the whole colony was estimated at +not far short of 50,000, against less than 15,000 French in Canada. +At the very time that the French and Indian raid on Casco Bay took +place, a fleet of seven or eight ships with 700 men on board sailed +from Boston for Acadia, took possession of Port Royal with other +French settlements on the Acadian coast, and returned in little more +than a month's time with prisoners, booty, and renown. + +[Sidenote: _William Phipps._] + +The commander of the expedition was William Phipps, a typical product +of the seaboard colonies. Starting as a New England ship-carpenter, +he had turned rover and buccaneer; and finding a sunken Spanish +treasure-ship, had won himself riches and a knighthood. He was brave, +not too scrupulous or cleanhanded, a good seaman, and a patriotic +man. He was well fitted for irregular warfare on a small scale, but +his capacity was limited, and he did not rise to the level of +greatness. After his success in Acadia, Phipps seemed obviously the +man to achieve the conquest of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Condition of Quebec._] + +Sixty years had passed since David Kirke took Quebec. A better leader +than Phipps, he had had an easy task in starving out an infant +settlement. The interval had been for Quebec a time of comparative +peace. Sheltered on the land side by Three Rivers, Montreal, and the +military outposts of the Richelieu, the town was practically safe +from the Iroquois, while civil wars and Stuart Kings in England +prevented invasion from the sea. One year and another {132} the furs +which came down the river, or the supplies which were brought from +France, were intercepted; but in the main the capital of New France +enjoyed security and peace. It had grown, but was a very small town +still, ill fortified, except by nature, and, if fortune and skill had +combined, might well have been taken. But in 1690 there was no luck +and little skill on the attacking side. The land campaign, which was +to have kept Frontenac and his best troops at Montreal, failed just +in time to enable all the available French forces to concentrate at +Quebec. England, when asked by Massachusetts to help the expedition +by arms and ammunition, sent nothing; and, while the appeal was being +made, valuable time was lost. Phipps was at first too leisurely and +afterwards too impatient to succeed, and wind and weather befriended +the Frenchmen in Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Phipps' expedition against Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Its failure._] + +It was the ninth of August when the New England commander sailed from +Nantucket with thirty-four ships, and soldiers and sailors to the +number of 2,200 men. It was the sixteenth of October when he anchored +before Quebec. He sent a pompous summons to surrender, which provoked +an insulting reply, and then prepared to land his troops below the +town, to attack it in rear, while his ships opened fire in front. It +was a hopeless enterprise. The night after the English fleet +appeared, strong reinforcements came in from Montreal, and Frontenac +had at his disposal not far short of 3,000 fighting men. On the +eighteenth, the New England levies were landed on the Beauport shore, +having the river St. Charles between them and Quebec. They were +between 1,200 and 1,300 in number, commanded by Major Walley. Short +of food and supplies, sickening in the wet weather, out-numbered by +disciplined troops and Canadian rangers, who fought under cover and +with the advantage of the ground, they could do nothing but prove +themselves brave and stubborn men. Phipps on shipboard gave them no +support, wasting his ammunition in a wild and useless cannonade {133} +against the face of the cliff and the walls of the upper town; and in +ten days time all the men were re-embarked and the ships set sail for +home. + +[Sidenote: _Boldness of the attempt._] + +So ended in complete failure the attempt of Massachusetts to take +Quebec. Yet it was a bold and masterful effort on the part of one +undeveloped English colony. It had in it the elements of strength, +and under different conditions might have earned success. As it was, +the citizen soldiers and sailors of Boston, led by an +ex-ship-carpenter, faced Count Frontenac and all the trained strength +of New France, their retreat was unmolested, and their failure was +hailed as a miraculous deliverance for Quebec.[4] + +[Footnote 4: Phipps, before he made his attack, was told by French +prisoners of the path up the cliff above the town, by which Wolfe +subsequently took Quebec; but he preferred to attack from Beauport.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Phipps._] + +Phipps had not proved himself to be a great commander. He failed too +as Governor of Massachusetts, to which post he was appointed in the +following year; but he had the merit of dogged determination to fight +the French in Canada; and, had he lived longer, he might again have +tried his hand at besieging Quebec. A few weeks after his repulse and +return to Boston, he sailed to England to urge upon the home +Government an active policy against New France, and that policy he +continued to advocate until he died, in 1695, at the early age of +forty-four. + +[Sidenote: _Wheeler's abortive expedition._] + +On either side, the true line of defence was to carry war into the +enemy's country. It was thus that Frontenac defended Canada. It was +by constant raids that the Iroquois maintained their position; and +the counsel which those astute savages gave to their English friends +was to combine and attack Quebec. 'Strike at Quebec,' urged Phipps on +the English Government; 'strike at Boston and New York' was the +advice which the leaders of Canada one after another tendered to King +Louis. No help had been sent from England to the late expedition +against Quebec, but Phipps' {134} subsequent representations led to +an English fleet being dispatched to the West Indies in the winter of +1692, under command of Admiral Wheeler. The ships were intended to +take Martinique, then to go on to Boston, and embarking a force of +New Englanders under Phipps to sail for Quebec. Again there was a +failure. Wheeler lost more than half his soldiers and sailors in the +West Indies from yellow fever; and, when he reached Boston in +midsummer of 1693, bringing the sickness with him, the Massachusetts +Government decided that it was hopeless to attempt to carry out the +scheme. + +[Sidenote: _Fighting on the New York frontier._] + +[Sidenote: _New York protected by the Iroquois._] + +In spite of the massacre at Schenectady, New York suffered less than +New England from border war. In 1691, in a second attack on the +French settlement of La Prairie over against Montreal, the English +and Dutch colonists achieved some success, carrying out the raid +which they had planned, and cutting their way back hand to hand +through a party of French troops who tried to bar their retreat. The +Iroquois were the salvation of New York. Their raids into Canada +safeguarded the rival colony, and when the Five Nations were not on +the warpath, the French hesitated to attack their English allies, for +fear of provoking a fresh incursion of savages. It has been seen that +the Iroquois tended more and more to a policy of neutrality, worn by +constant fighting, tired of English inaction, and discerning that +their true interest lay in siding with neither French nor English. +Still, with the exception of their converted countrymen settled in +Canada, they were not likely to band with the French against the +English. To do so would have been to break with old ties and +traditions, to close their best market, to combine with their +deadliest foes against friends of long standing, whose faults had +been after all but faults of omission. This the French knew well: +they were content to leave New York alone, provided they themselves +were left alone by the Iroquois, and so long as {135} the traders of +New York did not seriously threaten their command of the West. + +[Sidenote: _The Abenakis on the borders of New England._] + +It was otherwise in the case of New England. The Abenaki Indians on +the borders of the New England colonies had always been in the French +interest. Jesuit influence was strong among them: they had been +taught that Christianity could go hand in hand with ferocity, and +that murder of white heretics might be not only a pleasure but a +duty. Here the object of the French was not to keep the Indians +quiet, but to spur them on. As they dreaded lest their Indian allies +on the upper lakes should come to terms with the Iroquois,[5] and +enforced barbarities to make peace impossible, so in the closing +years of the seventeenth century and the early years of the +eighteenth, they incited the Abenaki warriors against the border +settlements of Maine and New Hampshire, butchering, looting, carrying +into captivity, their one object being to keep alive the taste of +blood, lest, lured by the prospect of peaceful and profitable trade +with the neighbouring English, the Abenakis should drift apart from +New France. + +[Footnote 5: See above, p. 117.] + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal reoccupied by the French._] + +[Sidenote: _French and Indian raids on York, Wells, and Oyster +River._] + +A Canadian officer, Villebon, was specially deputed to take charge of +Acadia, and organize war-parties against the English settlers. He +reoccupied Port Royal, and at the beginning of 1692 the work of +massacre was taken seriously in hand. The first point of attack was +the border settlement of York on the sea-coast of Maine: it was laid +waste early in February, with all the usual horrors of Indian +warfare. In June, another seaside settlement--Wells, about twenty +miles to the north of York--was attacked by a large party; but some +thirty militiamen, headed by a determined officer, Convers by name, +made a stubborn defence, and beat off the assailants. Two years later +the settlement at Oyster River was surprised, and its inhabitants +killed or carried off. + +[Sidenote: _Backwardness of the New Englanders in self-defence._] + +There was one way, and one only, to put a stop to this {136} +destructive warfare; to build strong forts in advanced positions; to +give them adequate garrisons under competent officers; to patrol the +frontier constantly with bodies of armed border police, and to harry +the Indian marauders by land and sea. New England--and New England +meant Massachusetts--was perfectly able to adopt and to maintain such +a policy. The New Englanders were many against comparatively few; +they had as a rule command of the sea; but the colonists did not like +the expense or the personal service which was involved; the Boston +citizens did not feel the full force of the blows which struck the +outlying farms and homesteads; and the petifogging Government too +often employed men to command who knew little or nothing of +soldiering. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Pemaquid._] + +[Sidenote: _Chubb's treachery._] + +There was one point, in particular, which should have been strongly +fortified and strongly garrisoned. This was Fort Pemaquid, on the +sea-coast between the mouths of the Kennebec and the Penobscot. It +was to New England, and to the Abenakis, what Fort Frontenac was to +Canada and to the Iroquois, an advanced post covering the English +colonies and menacing the Indians. In 1689, most of the English +garrison having been withdrawn, it had been surprised and taken by +the Abenakis. In 1692, Phipps, then Governor of Massachusetts, acting +under orders from the King, rebuilt and regarrisoned it. Iberville, +sent by Frontenac in the following year, with two ships of war, +reconnoitred the fort but did not venture to attack it. In 1696, it +was in charge of an incompetent commander, Chubb, who made himself +odious to the Indians by a gross act of treachery. Some Abenaki +chiefs had been invited to the fort under pledge of personal safety, +to exchange prisoners; and, acting under instructions from Stoughton, +Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, Chubb laid an ambush for them, +killed some and kidnapped others. + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Pemaquid._] + +It was a proceeding as impolitic as it was immoral, and quickly +brought retribution. Early in 1696, two ships of {137} war came out +from France, and, taking on board troops from Quebec, coasted round +the Acadian peninsula, capturing on the way some English vessels, +including an armed frigate. Off the mouth of the St. John the French +received reinforcements, sent down by Villebon from his Fort Naxouat, +which stood higher up the river; and a further band of Indians joined +them at Pentegoet, the fort of the French adventurer St. Castin, at +the mouth of the river Penobscot. The expedition led by Iberville, +St. Castin, and others sailed on to Pemaquid, and on August 14 +demanded its surrender. Chubb returned a contemptuous reply, and +backed his words by promptly surrendering next day, on condition of +safe conduct for himself and his men. He went back to Boston in +safety and disgrace, and a year later was murdered by Indians. + +[Sidenote: _Abortive French expedition against Boston._] + +The loss of Fort Pemaquid was a serious blow to the English, and in +the next year, 1697, the French Government determined to follow up +their success by attacking Boston. A strong fleet was sent out to +Newfoundland under the Marquis de Nesmond. Its orders were to defeat +any English vessels off that coast, and sailing south to the mouth of +the Penobscot to take up Canadian troops and Indian allies. The +expedition was then to proceed to take Boston, and, having +accomplished this object, to overrun the whole of New England to the +north of that city. Frontenac had the land forces in readiness, +proposing to take command himself; but on this occasion the French +took a leaf out of the English book; the fleet was detained by +contrary winds till the summer was past, the combination failed, and +all the grand scheme came to nothing at all. For Boston read Quebec, +and the record of this failure might be the record of one of the +stillborn enterprises, by which the English from time to time hoped +to reduce Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Treaty of Ryswick._] + +[Sidenote: _War of the Spanish Succession._] + +The Treaty of Ryswick signed in 1697, and formally proclaimed in +America in 1698, settled nothing. It gave {138} breathing-space to +Louis XIV and his enemies, and, while it lasted, there was a respite +from border forays for the English colonies in North America. But no +attempt was made to adjust boundaries, or to remove causes of past +and future disputes, and the only specific provision, which the +treaty contained with regard to America, referred to Hudson Bay. Both +sides knew that the truce was not likely to be long-lived, and its +end came when, in 1701, the King of France promised the exiled James +II on his deathbed to acknowledge his son as rightful King of +England. In the following year war broke out again, the War of the +Spanish Succession, the war which, after Marlborough's victories, +ended with the Peace of Utrecht. + +[Sidenote: _French raids on Wells, Casco Bay, Deerfield, and +Haverhill._] + +It was in Europe that the battle of the American colonies was fought, +in Flanders and at Blenheim, rather than on the St. Lawrence or on +the coasts of Acadia and New England. There was fighting in America, +but it was in the main fighting of the same indecisive kind as had +gone before--murder, pillage, and the like; and history repeated +itself with singular fidelity. On May 4, 1702, war was declared: in +August, 1703, the old work of raiding the New England frontier was +resumed. The settlement at Wells, which had suffered before, was the +first to suffer again; the neighbouring settlements, as far as Casco +Bay, were marauded by the Abenaki Indians; and the fort at Casco was +hard beset, until relieved by an armed vessel from Massachusetts. In +the following year, at the end of February, 1704, the village of +Deerfield was attacked by night by some 250 French and Indians. It +stood on the Connecticut river, on the north-western frontier of +Massachusetts, and at the date of the attack contained in all nearly +300 human beings. Of them about fifty were killed, and over 100 were +carried off, among the latter being the minister of the place, John +Williams, who survived to tell a tale of almost incredible loss and +suffering in a narrative entitled _The Redeemed Captive returning to +Sion_. A similar {139} attack was made, in 1708, on the village of +Haverhill on the Merrimac river, which cost the lives of about fifty +villagers; and one after another the border settlements, during these +troubled years, were infested by savages appearing from and +disappearing in the backwoods under cover of night. The authors of +the outrages were the French rulers of Canada; their agents were in +the main converted Indians; the series of raids was not so much the +spontaneous movement of natives against white men, as a crusade +against heretics, prompted and led by Europeans, and carried out by +Indian warriors on the lines of Indian warfare. There was much +vicarious suffering. The past inroads of the Iroquois into Canada led +to years of retaliation on New England: retaliation on New England +induced the New Englanders in their turn to attack Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal threatened by Major Church and Colonel +March._] + +In 1691, the year after Phipps had taken Port Royal, a new charter +was granted by the Crown to Massachusetts, which included Acadia +within the limits of the colony. But in the same year, and in the +very month of September in which the charter was given, the Frenchman +Villebon reoccupied Port Royal, and four years later, Massachusetts, +unwilling or unable to make good its claim, petitioned the British +Government to take over its rights and responsibilities in regard to +the Acadian peninsula. Whether in English or in French hands, Port +Royal remained a small, ill-fortified, and poorly defended post, +constantly open to, and constantly threatened with attack. In 1704, +after and in consequence of the French raid on Deerfield, a +buccaneering force from New England, under Major Benjamin Church, +appeared before it, having previously burnt the Acadian settlement of +Grand Pré, but sailed away without venturing to attack the fort. In +1707, a stronger expedition was sent from Massachusetts and the +neighbouring colonies under Colonel John March; but again, though the +troops landed, skirmished, and began a siege, the enterprise came to +nothing. + +{140} [Sidenote: _Samuel Vetch._] + +In 1709 preparations were made for more vigorous and more effective +action. In the previous year the colony of Massachusetts resolved to +appeal to the British Government for help from home to attack Canada. +Their emissary to England was Samuel Vetch, a notable man of the time +in North American history. He was a Scotchman, the son of a +Presbyterian minister, born and bred in Puritan surroundings; he had +served in the Cameronian regiment, and had fought on the continent in +William III's armies. After the Peace of Ryswick he went out with +other would-be colonists to the Isthmus of Darien, and, on the +failure of the scheme, came over to New York. There he married and +engaged in trade with Canada, gaining a knowledge of New France, its +river, and its people, which subsequently stood him in good stead. +Like Phipps, he was a shrewd, self-made man, whose enemies accused +him, apparently with reason, of illicit dealings; like Phipps, he had +seen the world outside New England and New York; and, having seen it +and having taken stock of Canada as well as of the English colonies, +he was a warm advocate, as Phipps had been before him, of united and +aggressive action against the French. + +[Sidenote: _His mission to England._] + +[Sidenote: _British aid promised to New England._] + +Quite recently, in 1705, he had been in Canada, to negotiate exchange +of prisoners and a treaty of peace between Massachusetts and the +French. Both Dudley, the Governor of Massachusetts, and Vaudreuil, +the Canadian Governor, were inclined to peace, but the negotiations +broke down in consequence of Vaudreuil's demand that the other +English colonies in North America should also be included in the +treaty--a condition which Dudley was not in a position to guarantee. +Vetch was for some little time on this occasion both at Quebec and at +Montreal. When, therefore he visited England in 1708, he brought with +him accurate first-hand knowledge of the enemy's land and people. He +was well received. Marlborough's victories supported his plea for a +decisive campaign in America, and early in 1709 he was {141} sent +back over the Atlantic with the promise of a fleet and five regiments +of British troops amounting to 3,000 men. The colonists on their part +were to raise contingents of specified strength, and attack by sea +was to be combined with a land expedition by way of Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Attitude of the colonies._] + +[Sidenote: _Land expedition under Colonel Nicholson._] + +[Sidenote: _Its retreat._] + +Even now some of the colonies hung back. Pennsylvania, out of reach +of French attack and dominated by Quakers, sent no help in men or +money. New Jersey sent money but no men. New York however abandoned +its neutrality, threw in its lot with New England, and persuaded some +of the Five Nations to take up arms again against the French, the +Senecas only, under the influence of a skilful French agent, +Joncaire, holding aloof. Fifteen hundred men were gathered for the +land march, and, under the command of Colonel Francis Nicholson, +advanced to Wood Creek, which is connected with Lake Champlain. He +entrenched himself there, and his outposts came into collision with +the advance guard of a French force sent to surprise him under +Ramesay, Governor of Montreal. The French fell back to Chambly, and +Nicholson waited week after week for news of the English fleet, until +pestilence broke out among his troops, and he was compelled to +retreat. + +[Sidenote: _Non-arrival of the English fleet._] + +Meanwhile at Boston every preparation had been made, according to the +orders of the English Government. Men, stores, transports were +gathered, but all to no purpose, for no fleet came. It was due in +May, and not till October came the news that the ships and men +intended for America had been sent instead to Portugal. Once more +there was a respite for Canada, once more the hearts of the English +colonists were made sick by hope deferred. They had done their part, +and all the trouble and expense and, in Nicholson's army, loss of +life had been for nought. + +[Sidenote: _Fresh representations to the home Government._] + +Yet the representatives of Massachusetts still pressed the home +Government to take action against New France. Nicholson went to +England at the end of the year, and {142} pleaded the cause of the +colonies, pleading it with authority, as having been +Lieutenant-Governor of New York and Governor of Maryland. One of the +Schuylers too followed him to England from New York, bringing a party +of Mohawk chiefs to see and be seen. + +[Sidenote: _Reduction of Port Royal by Nicholson._] + +If Canada were not to be invaded, at least Port Royal might be taken, +and Imperial aid was promised to attain the latter object. An English +force, timed to reach Boston in March, 1710, arrived there in July; +and in September Nicholson sailed for Port Royal at the head of a +strong expedition. He reached it on September 24. For a week there +was some fighting, but the French were hopelessly outnumbered; and on +October 1, the fort surrendered. Port Royal, henceforth known as +Annapolis, now passed in permanence into English hands, and with it +the English became masters of all Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Political changes in England._] + +[Sidenote: _Jeremiah Dummer._] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition of 1711._] + +[Sidenote: _Its arrival at Boston._] + +After taking Port Royal Nicholson returned to London, again to urge +an attack on Canada. Before he arrived, there had been in August, +1710, a change of ministry. Godolphin had been dismissed, and +Marlborough's enemies, Harley and Bolingbroke, were in power. +Bolingbroke had in his service a New Englander, trained at Harvard +University--Jeremiah Dummer--who had become agent of Massachusetts in +England, and who set forth in pamphlets the colonists' case, and +urged the vital importance of conquering Canada. His writings, +combined with the personal representations of Nicholson, persuaded +ministers, who were anxious to father an enterprise which might weigh +in the balance of public opinion against Marlborough's victories; and +in April, 1711, fifteen men of war, with forty-six transports, sailed +for America, carrying seven regiments of the line, five of which were +from the army in Flanders. The regulars numbered 5,000 men, exclusive +of sailors and marines, and they were to be supplemented on arrival +by colonial levies. They reached Boston, after a fair passage, +towards the end of June. + +{143} [Sidenote: _Feeling of the colonists._] + +The force was fully strong enough to take Quebec, provided that two +requisites were forthcoming--the hearty co-operation of the colonists +and capable leaders. The colonists did their part, but not with a +whole heart and not without misgivings. They had asked for British +troops, but, notwithstanding, there was a suspicion in the minds of +many that a strong force landed in America might be used to subvert +colonial liberties, and to reduce the communities of New England to +the position of Crown Colonies. The French knew that such a spirit +was abroad, and did their best to foster it. It was fostered too by +other causes. There was something new in the action of the British +Government. The American settlers were accustomed to refusal of aid +from home, to promises of aid made but not fulfilled, to tardy and +inadequate assistance. But on the present occasion an unusually large +force of veteran troops arrived at Boston at a fortnight's notice. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition sails from Boston._] + +Nicholson landed with the news of the coming fleet on June 8, on the +twenty-fourth the fleet appeared. Its destination had been kept +secret, and it was provisioned only for the voyage to America. On its +arrival, therefore, it was necessary to impress men and supplies: +pilots too were wanted and were not forthcoming: the King's officers +found the colonists difficult to deal with: the colonists resented +peremptory orders, and sheltered deserters from the army and the +fleet. Still the authorities of Massachusetts loyally backed the +expedition; preparations went forward; and on July 30 the ships set +sail for the St. Lawrence, carrying, in addition to the English +forces, two Massachusetts regiments, which numbered about 1,500 men, +and were commanded by Vetch, now Governor of Annapolis. + +[Sidenote: _Nicholson's advance towards Lake Champlain._] + +[Sidenote: _Admiral Walker and General Hill._] + +The orthodox plan of invading Canada involved a twofold attack, by +land on Montreal, by sea on Quebec. Accordingly, while the fleet was +sailing round the North American coast, Nicholson collected troops at +Albany, and advanced as far as {144} Wood Creek at the head of 2,300 +men, 800 of whom were Iroquois. Thence he intended to push his way +down Lake Champlain. He was a competent commander, but the leaders of +the main expedition were not. Little is known of the admiral, Sir +Hovenden Walker, and it does not appear why he was chosen for so +important a post. The general, Hill, familiar enough to London +society as Jack Hill, had hitherto shown no military capacity. +Marlborough had set his face against his promotion, and he owed his +rise entirely to Court favour, for he was brother of Abigail Hill +(Lady Masham), now the ruling favourite of Queen Anne. Sister and +brother alike had been befriended by the Duchess of Marlborough; by +intrigue, Abigail Hill had supplanted her benefactress in the Queen's +favour; and with her aid Harley and Bolingbroke, themselves +arch-intriguers, turned out Godolphin and procured Marlborough's +disgrace. The price of her assistance was the appointment of her +incompetent brother to command seasoned troops well fitted to conquer +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Disaster to the fleet in the St. Lawrence._] + +Rounding Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, the fleet, on August 18, +put into Gaspé Bay. By the evening of the twenty-second it was at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, and in foggy weather the unskilful +admiral, many miles out of his course, headed straight for the +northern shore of the river, under the impression that he was too +close to land on the southern side. At dead of night he was roused +from his berth with the unwelcome news that the ship was among +breakers; and turned her head just in time to avoid running upon +rocks. The ships which followed his disastrous lead were not so +fortunate, and eight of the transports were dashed to pieces on the +reefs with a loss of about 1,000 lives.[6] The place where the +catastrophe occurred was one of the {145} rocky islets, known as the +Egg Islands, about twenty miles to the north of the Point de Monts. + +[Footnote 6: According to one English account 884 soldiers were lost, +according to another 740 soldiers and women. The number of sailors +lost is not given.] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition abandoned._] + +For two days the ships were busied in picking up survivors from the +wrecks. On the twenty-fifth a council of war was held, and it was +resolved to abandon the expedition. A message was sent to recall +Nicholson and his troops from their advance on Montreal; the fleet +sailed back to Sydney harbour in Cape Breton Island. A suggestion to +attack Placentia in Newfoundland was rejected. The New England +transports returned to Boston, and the English fleet went home to +Portsmouth,[7] where--to complete the fiasco--the admiral's ship blew +up, costing the lives of some 400 seamen. + +[Footnote 7: Swift, in the _Journal to Stella_, says that the ship +blew up in the Thames, but the accident seems to have taken place at +Spithead; see Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. ii, pp. 468-9. +There are various references to this expedition and to Hill in the +_Journal to Stella_. Hill was subsequently placed in command at +Dunkirk, while that port was being held as security for the execution +of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.] + +Of the two commanders, Hill escaped formal censure. Luckily for him, +Swift's bitter pen was at the service of the political clique with +which he was connected. Walker, more culpable, was also less +fortunate: deprived of his command he emigrated first to South +Carolina and afterwards to Barbados, where he died, having written +his own version of the expedition,[8] which in no way tended to +redeem his reputation. + +[Footnote 8: _A full account of the late Expedition to Canada_, by +Sir Hovenden Walker (London, 1720).] + +[Sidenote: _Ignominious end of the expedition._] + +Such was the end of the enterprise, intended to eclipse the great +deeds of Marlborough. There have been many shortcomings and many +disasters in the military annals of England, but few instances are on +record of so much incompetence, verging almost on cowardice. Phipps' +expedition against Quebec was a complete failure, but at least he led +his band of untrained farmers and fishermen safely up and down the +St. Lawrence, and gave Count Frontenac a taste of powder and shot. +Walker and Hill, {146} with the best of ships and the best of men, +blundered and turned back at the mouth of the river; at the first +mishap they abandoned everything. No wonder the Frenchmen deemed that +the saints watched over Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Treaty of Utrecht._] + +The result can hardly have confirmed the American colonies in their +allegiance to England. As a matter of fact, England had been fighting +their battle against France, but her successes had been on the other +side of the Atlantic; whereas in America, under the eyes of the +colonists, there had been little but failure. One substantial gain +there was--the capture of Port Royal; but this easy feat had been +previously achieved by Massachusetts alone without any aid from home. +The conquest of Canada, which had been well within reach, now seemed +as far off as ever; and the Treaty of Utrecht--which, if Marlborough +had been left to follow up his career of victory, and if a commander +of his choosing had been sent with his troops across the seas, might +have forestalled the famous treaty of fifty years later--did not even +secure the whole seaboard to England, or confine the French to the +river of Canada. Acadia, according to its ancient limits, was ceded +to the British Crown, the French gave up their possessions in +Newfoundland, and their hold on Hudson Bay: but on a section of the +Newfoundland coast they were granted fishing rights, to be a fruitful +source of future trouble; and, keeping Cape Breton Island, they +reared in it the fortress of Louisbourg, to be a stronghold second +only to that of Quebec. Once more England lost her opportunity, and +the settlement, which should have been made in 1713, was postponed +till 1763. + + +NOTE.--For the substance of chaps. iii, iv, and v, see among modern +books, + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vols. i and ii, + +and the following works of Parkman: + + _The Jesuits in North America_; + _The Old Régime in Canada_; + _Count Frontenac and New France_; + _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West_. + + + + +{147} + +CHAPTER V + +THE MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA + + +[Sidenote: _French and English views in North America._] + +What were the French and English fighting for in North America? The +answer seems obvious, for North America itself. But what did North +America mean? It had a different meaning to different interests. The +New Englander cared for little but the New England colonies, and the +immediately adjacent lands and seas. To the Acadian settlers the +Acadian peninsula, to the Canadian _habitant_ the banks of the St. +Lawrence, were all in all. The inland colonists of New York had in +their minds not merely the safety of their colony, within its +ill-defined boundaries, but also paramount influence over the Five +Nations, and unrestricted trade with the western Indians. Longheaded +governors of New York and Massachusetts took a still wider view; but +the widest of all was held by the French Governors of Canada, and by +the roving Canadians, who, with restless spirit and undaunted +enterprise, claimed seas and rivers before they were reached or +known, magnifying tales of far-off lands and peoples, building in the +air and bringing down to earth a fabric of continental dominion. As a +rule, the English view was too circumscribed, the French view was too +diffuse. The strength of the English lay in effective occupation +within narrow limits; the French committed the blunder of perpetually +forcing competition upon rivals who had larger resources; but to them +belonged the great merit of grasping in some sort the true meaning of +North America, and never letting slip the problems of the future. + +{148} [Sidenote: _The search for the Western sea._] + +The explorers' aim was always to reach the further sea. That it must +be somewhere to the west, in the opposite direction to the homes from +whence they came, they knew or conjectured; but of the immense +distance at which it lay, and of the Rocky Mountain barrier which +must be surmounted to find it, they were wholly ignorant. They +followed the water, and, when they had gained some knowledge of the +great lakes, they reached the closely adjoining sources of the +tributaries of the Mississippi, the Wisconsin, the Ohio, and the +Illinois; and, borne with the stream, they came in due course not to +the west but to the south, not to the Pacific but to the Gulf of +Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _The missionaries and Western discovery._] + +There was the usual mixture of motives--love of adventure, love of +gain, political ambition, religious fervour. There was rivalry and +competition. One trader or band of traders was jealous of another. +One man or set of men was backed by the Governor for the time being, +another secured the favour of the Intendant. Missionaries played a +great part in exploration. At first they led the van of discovery; +they were always in or near the front rank; but, as years went on, +and as the simple desire of adding to geographical knowledge, of +opening new fields for France and for Christianity, became more and +more alloyed with commercial greed, the ministers of religion, when +heart-whole themselves, realized that the multiplication of trading +posts in the backwoods meant lawlessness of white men, deterioration +of natives; and they no longer gave hearty support to the bold French +adventurers whose enterprise opened up the West. + +[Sidenote: _The gates of the waterways of Canada._] + +It will be noticed, on reference to a map of Canada--or rather of +that part of the Dominion which was comprised in New France--not only +that there is water communication from end to end, from the extreme +west of Lake Superior to the Atlantic, but also that there are very +distinct points along the way, which are, so to speak, natural +toll-bars, {149} where the waters narrow, where the rivers or lakes +meet. Here the explorer must pass to reach a goal beyond; here the +trader could intercept traffic; here the missionary was sure to find +Indians to be converted, and _coureurs de bois_ to be reclaimed; +these were the places which must be occupied by the would-be +sovereigns of North America. Consequently, at these points of vantage +along the route, at one time and another, mission stations, trading +posts, and forts were planted. + +Montreal itself, at the head of the colony, at the beginning of its +hinterland, commanded the junction of the Ottawa and the St. +Lawrence. At Cataraqui, where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake Ontario, +Fort Frontenac was built. A little above the outlet of the Niagara +river into Lake Ontario and below the falls, another French fort was +reared, Fort Niagara; while on the channel between Lakes Erie and +Huron was the fort of Detroit. The Iroquois, as we have seen, knew as +well as the French the value of these positions: they feared and +resented the building of the forts, as limiting the range of their +power, and taking from them the control of the fur trade. On the +upper lakes there were at least two posts of prime importance: one +was the Sault St. Marie at the junction of Lake Huron and Lake +Superior, the other was Michillimackinac at the junction of Lake +Huron and Lake Michigan. It must not be supposed that the points +mentioned were occupied in chronological order, as they have been +enumerated above; or that there was any regular series of occupants, +that the explorer came first, followed by the missionary, the trader, +and so forth: but the net result was that French enterprise and +French statesmanship took and kept the gateways on the highroad of +Upper Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Lake Michigan._] + +[Sidenote: _Michillimackinac._] + +[Sidenote: _Green Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _The route to the Mississippi from Green Bay,_] + +Lake Michigan was known to the French as the 'Lac des Illinois.' The +narrows where it joins Lake Huron were the straits of +Michillimackinac, now Mackinac or Mackinaw; and on their northern +side stood the trading station of the {150} same name, and the +mission of St. Ignace. Within the straits on the western side, is a +large indentation, forming a sheet of water which runs south-west, +nearly parallel to the main lake. This was at first called, after +certain Indians who lived on its shores, the Baie des Puans; but it +was subsequently named the Grande Baie, and this title was corrupted +into Green Bay, its present name. The Fox river flows into the head +of Green Bay, and, if the upward course of this river is followed +through Lake Winnebago and beyond, a point is reached at which the +waters of the Wisconsin river are not more than a mile and a half +distant. The Wisconsin is a tributary of the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _and from the end of Lake Michigan._] + +A slightly longer portage was needed to reach the Mississippi basin +from the end of Lake Michigan. Still it was a matter of very few +miles to leave the lake, where the city of Chicago now stands, and to +strike one or other of the branches of the Illinois river, the +nearest being the stream known as Des Plaines. Canoes launched on +that stream were carried down into the Illinois, and so to the +Mississippi at a point far south of its confluence with the +Wisconsin. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio route._] + +For adventurers bold enough to diverge from the line of lakes, and to +pass overland within reach of the dreaded Five Nations, there was yet +a third route, more direct than the other two, to the great river. It +was a route well known in after years, and followed the course of the +Ohio. The Ohio, the 'beautiful river,' for such is the meaning of its +name,[1] is formed by the junction of two rivers, the Alleghany and +the Monongahela. At their junction, in the middle of the eighteenth +century, the French founded Fort Duquesne, and where Fort Duquesne +stood is now the city of Pittsburg. The northern branch, the +Alleghany, takes its rise near the southern shore of Lake Erie. One +of its affluents flows out of Lake Chautauqua, about eight miles +south of Lake Erie, at the point where there is now the small town of +Portland; {151} another, the Rivičre aux Boeufs, now called French +Creek, is very little further from the lake, over against Presque Île +and the present town of Erie. A day's march through the forest would +therefore bring a traveller from Lake Erie to a stream which, when in +full volume, would carry his canoe into the Alleghany, the Ohio, and +so to the Mississippi far down its course. No wonder the line of the +Ohio became, when geographical knowledge had made some way, a central +feature in French politics and French strategy in North America. + +[Footnote 1: The name was given it by the Iroquois.] + +[Sidenote: _The head waters of the Mississippi closely adjoin the St. +Lawrence basin._] + +From the above it will be seen how closely the head waters of the +Mississippi adjoin the St. Lawrence basin, how short the land journey +was from the one to the other. The natives of North America made +exploration difficult, but from a geographical point of view, the +discoverer's path was comparatively easy. + +[Sidenote: _Early exploration on the upper lakes._] + +The upper lakes, Lakes Huron and Superior, were visited and explored +before there was any adequate knowledge of Lakes Ontario and Erie, +and there is no record of white men passing from Lake Erie to Lake +Huron by the strait of Detroit before the year 1670. The Five Nations +barred the upper St. Lawrence, and the Niagara river and portage; but +they did not control to the same extent the alternative route from +Montreal to Lake Huron by the Ottawa river. Thus it was that the +Jesuits found their way to the Hurons, on Georgian Bay, long before +any mission enterprise was attempted on the lower lakes, and as early +as 1640 there were Jesuit missionaries at the outlet of Lake +Superior, the Sault St. Marie. Later, after the dispersion of the +Hurons, there was for a while a mission at the western end of Lake +Superior, the place being known as La Pointe, and the mission as the +mission of St. Esprit. + +[Sidenote: _Jean Nicollet._] + +The first white man to reach Lake Michigan was Jean Nicollet. He was +a native of Cherbourg, and had come to Canada as early as 1618. +Sojourning among the Nipissing {152} Indians, he heard from them of +the western tribes; and, listening to Indian tales, seems to have +conjectured that a people might be reached in the far West who could +be none other than Chinese. With these pictures in his mind, he went, +about 1635, as an ambassador of peace to the Puans or Winnebagos, who +dwelt on the Green Bay of Michigan, and arrived among them, so the +story goes, in an embroidered dress of Chinese damask, as being +appropriate to the people whom he hoped to find. He did not find +Chinamen, but came near finding the Mississippi; and a claim was made +in after years on his behalf that he actually was the first +discoverer of that river. The claim however must be disallowed, and +the honour of discovering the great river belongs to the two +Frenchmen, Joliet and Marquette, who did not reach it till 1673. + +[Sidenote: _Promoters of discovery._] + +After the destruction of the Huron missions, it was difficult enough +for some years to keep life in the struggling colony of New France; +and it was not until the King had taken Canada in hand, had sent out +soldiers and settlers, had commissioned Tracy and Courcelles to curb +the Iroquois, and the Intendant, Talon, to introduce order and +system, that progress was made in exploring and opening up the West. +The promoters of exploration were Talon himself, before he returned +to France; and subsequently the Governor, Frontenac; the Sulpician +and Jesuit missionaries, especially the latter; and laymen +adventurers, the foremost of whom was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la +Salle. La Salle's name is for all time connected with the +Mississippi, but Joliet and Marquette were before him in reaching the +main river. + +[Sidenote: _Joliet and Marquette._] + +Of these two companions in travel, Louis Joliet was a layman, though +connected with the Jesuits by early training. Born in Canada, he had +been sent by Talon to look for copper by Lake Superior, and was +subsequently picked out to discover the mysterious river. Jacques +Marquette was a Jesuit priest, of the earlier and purer type--a +saintly man, {153} humble and single in mind, who early wore his life +away in labouring for his faith. He had come out from France in 1666, +and about the year 1668 was sent as a missionary to the upper lakes. +On the shores of Lake Superior he ministered to Huron and Ottawa +refugees at the mission of St. Esprit, where he heard from Illinois +visitors of the great river, and from which point, though he knew it +not, one feeder of the Mississippi, the St. Croix river, is at no +great distance. A Sioux raid broke up the mission, and with the +retreating Hurons he established himself at Michillimackinac, where, +about 1670, he founded the mission of St. Ignace. About the same +time, a mission was also established at the head of Green Bay, and +from this point the two travellers, at the end of May, 1673, went +forward to the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _They reach the Mississippi._] + +The course up the Fox river and across Lake Winnebago had already +been taken by other missionaries, who had not, however, gone as far +as the Wisconsin. That river was now reached, and on June 17 it +carried the explorers' canoes out into the Mississippi. Down stream +they went, past the mouths of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the +Ohio, until they came to the confluence of the Arkansas river. There +they turned, assured in their own minds that the outlet of the +Mississippi was in the Gulf of Mexico--not, as had been supposed, in +the Gulf of California--and fearing lest, if they lost their lives at +the hands of Indians or of Spaniards,[2] the tale of their discovery +might be lost also. They came back by way of the Illinois and Des +Plaines rivers, made the portage to Lake Michigan, and reached Green +Bay at the end of September, having made known to white men the great +river of the West. + +[Footnote 2: The lower Mississippi had long been known to the +Spaniards.] + +[Sidenote: _Their return._] + +[Sidenote: _Marquette's second journey and death._] + +Joliet went back to Quebec to report to the Governor, losing all his +papers by the way in the rapids of Lachine. He lived to visit Hudson +Bay and the coasts of Labrador. Marquette, in broken health, stayed +rather more than a year {154} at the Green Bay mission. Then, in the +winter of 1674-5, accompanied by two French _voyageurs_, he revisited +the Illinois river, carrying for the last time his message of +Christianity to savages, who heard him gladly, and followed him back, +a dying man, as far as Lake Michigan. In the month of May he embarked +on the lake, making for Michillimackinac; but, as he went, the end +came, and he was put on shore to die. His companions buried him at +the lonely spot where he died, but at a later date his bones were +brought to Michillimackinac by Indians who had loved him well, and +were laid to rest with all reverence in the chapel of his own +mission. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle._] + +[Sidenote: _His Seigniory at Lachine._] + +Marquette, like David Livingstone at a later date, was a missionary +explorer. He was carried forward by a faith which could remove +mountains. La Salle was cast in another mould. His gift was not +religious enthusiasm, but the set purpose of a resolute, masterful +man, who made a life-study of his subject. He was born at Rouen, the +birthplace of much western enterprise, and went to Canada in the same +year as Marquette, the year 1666. An elder brother, who was a +Sulpician priest, had gone out before him; and from the Sulpicians, +as feudal lords of the island of Montreal, La Salle obtained a grant +of the Seigniory of Lachine, eight miles higher up the river than +Montreal itself. Here he laid out a settlement, but, as the name 'La +Chine' testifies,[3] his mind was set on finding a route to China and +the East, and in 1669 he gave up his grant, receiving compensation +for improvements, and spent what little money he had in beginning his +work of discovery. + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 53.] + +[Sidenote: _He reaches the Ohio._] + +His early wanderings have not been clearly traced, but there is no +reason to doubt that, in the years 1669-71, he found his way from +Lakes Ontario and Erie through the Iroquois country to the Ohio. It +was perhaps a more difficult feat to accomplish than the subsequent +discovery of {155} the Mississippi by way of the lakes. The land +journey was longer, and took the explorer well within range of the +Five Nations. His success proved his capacity for treating with +natives--a quality in which he resembled his staunch friend and +supporter Count Frontenac. + +[Sidenote: _His character._] + +Among white men he had, like Frontenac, many enemies, suspicious +priests and jealous merchants. The Jesuits had little love for a man +who had no love for them; and the Canadian merchants regarded him as +a dangerous rival, recognizing no doubt the element of tenacity in +his character. It was the character of one who could hold as well as +find, and who was not likely to rest content with the barren honours +of discovery. There were in him contradictory elements, and his +strength was balanced by failings, which became more conspicuous in +the later stages of his adventurous career. He was not in all points +a typical Frenchman. He had, it is true, address in dealing with +North American Indians; he could lay his case well before the Court +and the ministers of France. He enjoyed the friendship and +countenance of Count Frontenac, and from more than one of his +companions in travel, notably Henri de Tonty, he won unbounded +devotion. But he was wanting, as a leader, in tact and sympathy. +Solitary and self-contained, facing all dangers, enduring all +privations, he spared neither himself nor others. Mutiny and +desertion were in consequence rife amongst those who served him, and +in the end he lost his life at the hands of his own followers. He had +statesmanlike conceptions. He mapped out New France, in his own mind, +as extending from sea to sea, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to that +of Mexico. Like other Frenchmen, he went too far and tried to do too +much; but, if he made mistakes, he was at least no visionary. Until +the last stage of his career, his ends were clearly kept in view, and +he measured the means to attain them, though he did not always +measure aright. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle at Fort Frontenac._] + +He gave up one Seigniory to find the Ohio. It was not {156} long +before he obtained another. Count Frontenac came out to govern +Canada, for the first time, in 1672; and determined, as has been +told,[4] to build a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario. Guided, it +would seem, by La Salle's advice, he built it in 1673, at the mouth +of the Cataraqui river. In 1675, La Salle, who had paid a visit to +France in the autumn of the previous year, became by royal grant +Seignior of the new fort and settlement, to which he gave the name of +Fort Frontenac. It was a strong position to hold, whether for making +money by trade or for prosecuting westward discovery; and bitter was +the jealousy against the young Frenchman, who, at thirty-two years of +age, and after no more than nine years' residence in Canada, had in +spite of strong opposition achieved so much. + +[Footnote 4: See above, p. 108.] + +[Sidenote: _His plans for Western discovery._] + +Two years he remained at Cataraqui, rebuilding and strengthening the +fort, clearing the ground and constructing small vessels for trading +purposes on Lake Ontario: then, ready to move forward again, he went +back to France in 1677, and laid before the King and Colbert a +further memorial for permission to discover and colonize the +countries of the West. He asked to be confirmed in his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac, to be allowed to establish two other stations, and to +be given rights as Seignior and Governor over whatever lands he might +discover and colonize within twenty years. He promised, if his +request were granted, to plant a colony at the outlet of Lake Erie, +and to waive all claim to any share in the trade between the Indians +of the western lakes and Canada. + +[Sidenote: _He is given a royal patent._] + +These conditions are worth special note. La Salle was prepared to +assure to France one more link in the chain of rivers and lakes: he +was prepared too to disarm trading jealousy by renouncing any plans +for intercepting the existing fur trade. He asked in return for a +free hand to the south-west, in the lands of the Ohio, the Illinois, +and the Mississippi. The answer of the King, given in May, 1678, was +permission 'to labour at the discovery of the western parts of New +France {157} ... through which to all appearance a way may be found +to Mexico,'[5] and for that purpose to build forts and enjoy +possession of them as at Fort Frontenac. The concession was limited +to five years; and, while a monopoly in buffalo skins was granted to +the petitioner, he was prohibited, as he had contemplated, from +trading with the tribes whose furs came down to Montreal. + +[Footnote 5: Quoted by Parkman in his _La Salle_ (11th ed.), p. 112.] + +[Sidenote: _Henri de Tonty._] + +[Sidenote: _Father Hennepin._] + +Having secured this patent, La Salle raised funds in France for the +furtherance of his enterprise; and in July, 1678, set sail from La +Rochelle to Canada, taking with him an Italian officer, Tonty, who +had been recommended to him by the Prince de Conti, and whose +subsequent faithfulness to his leader became almost proverbial. A +companion of a different kind joined him on his return to Canada, +Father Hennepin, a Flemish friar, a brave and sturdy traveller, but a +man of great personal vanity and convicted of telling more than +travellers' tales. He published an account of his travels in La +Salle's lifetime, and, after his death, put forth a new edition,[6] +claiming to have anticipated La Salle in descending the Mississippi +to the sea. The story has been proved to be an absolute imposture, +the more discreditable that it was an attempt to rob a dead man of +honour dearly bought. + +[Footnote 6: The first book, published at Paris in 1683, was entitled +_Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte_. The second, +published at Utrecht in 1697, was headed _Nouvelle découverte d'un +trčs grand pays situé dans l'Amérique_.] + +[Sidenote: _La Salle builds a fort at Niagara._] + +On his return from France, La Salle dispatched a party of men in +advance to Lake Michigan, to trade and to collect stores against his +own arrival. He then set himself, taking Fort Frontenac as his basis, +to plant a post at the mouth of the Niagara river below the falls; +and, above the falls, to build a ship of some appreciable size for +the navigation of the upper lakes. The plan was well thought out. He +would hold both ends of Lake Ontario; and, the continuity of advance +being broken by the falls of Niagara, he would have, above the {158} +falls, an armed vessel plying for merchandise between Niagara and the +end of Lake Michigan, where again there should be another fort or +factory to safeguard the portage to the waters of the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _Suspicions of the Senecas._] + +It was specially necessary to hold both ends of Lake Ontario, for +here was the land of the Senecas. Jealously and sullenly they watched +the Frenchmen's work, through the winter of 1678-9, not wholly +reassured by a visit from La Salle himself to the chief town of the +tribe; but they attempted no armed opposition. Thus the beginning was +made of the first Fort Niagara,[7] on the eastern bank of the river, +in the angle formed by its junction with Lake Ontario; while on the +same side of the water, five miles above the falls, where a stream +called the Cayuga creek enters the main river, a ship was built +bearing the name and the emblem of the _Griffin_, the appropriate +arms of truculent Count Frontenac. + +[Footnote 7: Denonville's fort, referred to above, p 111, was a later +structure.] + +[Sidenote: _The voyage of the 'Griffin' to Michillimackinac._] + +[Sidenote: _Loss of the ship._] + +On August 7, 1679, the _Griffin_ started on her voyage up Lake Erie. +On the tenth--the feast of Sainte Claire--she had passed up the +Detroit river and was in Lake St. Clair. Against the strong current +of the St. Clair river, she found her way into Lake Huron, and, +buffeted by storm and wind, reached in the course of the same month +the mission of St. Ignace at Michillimackinac. Of the advanced party +of traders sent there in the previous year, some had deserted; +others, who remained true, were found at Green Bay with a rich store +of furs; and on the eighteenth of September La Salle parted with his +vessel, sending her to carry back the furs to the portage at Niagara. +He never saw the ship again, and her fate was never known. +Foundering, it would seem, in Lake Michigan, she left her owner to +wait in vain for her return, in want of food, in want of stores for +his onward march, with followers whom he could not trust, with Indian +tribes to master or appease, with winter making the way harder and +the wilderness more drear. + +{159} [Sidenote: _La Salle builds a fort at the end of Lake +Michigan._] + +[Sidenote: _He descends the Illinois river._] + +After dispatching the _Griffin_ homeward, La Salle pushed on in +canoes to the south-eastern end of Lake Michigan. There, at the mouth +of the St. Joseph river, which he called the Miami, he built a fort. +December came on, but forward he went, up the St. Joseph, across to +the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois, and down that stream and +the Illinois river to where the Illinois Indians were encamped for +the time near the present town of Peoria. His plan had been to build +another ship on the Illinois, and sail down that river and the +Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _He builds Fort Crčvecoeur on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _He returns to Canada._] + +The new year, 1680, opened badly for his enterprise. The Indians were +suspicious, his men were deserting, no news had come of the ill-fated +_Griffin_. Yet he held staunchly to his purpose. Again he reared a +fort--Fort Crčvecoeur--a little lower down the Illinois than the +Indian camp, and again in the far-off wilds, in dead of winter, he +turned his men to shipbuilding. Without fittings and supplies it was +impossible to proceed, and, accordingly, he determined to go back +himself and bring the needed stores. Leaving Tonty in charge of the +fort, he retraced his steps to Lake Michigan. At Fort Miami he learnt +beyond question the loss of the _Griffin_. Across the then unknown +peninsula of Michigan he took his way, reached the Detroit river, +struck Lake Erie, and, passing by way of Niagara, arrived at Fort +Frontenac in sixty-five days from leaving the Illinois, having in +March and April achieved a feat of travel almost unparalleled even in +the early history of Canada. Going down to Montreal, he obtained +supplies, and again set his face undaunted to the West. + +[Sidenote: _He goes back to the West._] + +[Sidenote: _Iroquois raid on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _Tonty lost_] + +As he came and went, he heard of nothing but disaster. The men left +at Fort Crčvecoeur under Tonty's command broke out in open mutiny, +and some of them were intercepted on their way back to Fort +Frontenac, having destroyed the forts on the Illinois and St. Joseph, +looted their employer's property at Michillimackinac and Niagara, and +being minded {160} to crown their villainy by killing La Salle +himself. They met their fate--were shot or imprisoned--and La Salle +pushed on to Tonty's succour. Towards the close of the year he was +back on the Illinois river, only to find a scene of utter desolation. +In his absence, the Iroquois had invaded the land and swept all +before them. Skeletons of men and women, empty huts, an abandoned +fort, the hull of a half-built ship, all told a tale of brutish +warfare and a ruined enterprise. Tonty was not to be found; and, +after following the Illinois down to its confluence with the +Mississippi, La Salle returned to Lake Michigan, and wintered on the +St. Joseph river at Fort Miami, which had been destroyed by the +mutineers but was again rebuilt. + +[Sidenote: _and found._] + +[Sidenote: _His adventures._] + +With the spring of 1681 there came a gleam of hope. The western +Indians, terror-stricken by the Iroquois--and Indian immigrants from +the east, driven out by the English colonists--gathered for +protection to the brave, enduring Frenchman, took him for their +leader, and hearkened to his word. News came that Tonty was in safety +at Green Bay; and at length, about the end of May, La Salle and he +joined hands again at Michillimackinac. Tonty had a tale of heroism +to tell. Left in charge of the garrison at Fort Crčvecoeur, he had +gone, according to his leader's instructions, to prospect a site for +a fort a little higher up the river. When his back was turned, his +followers destroyed the fort, carried off the stores, and left him +with five other Frenchmen, two of whom were Recollet friars, among +the Illinois Indians. True to his trust, he stayed among them, when +the hordes of the Five Nations broke in, bent on destruction. Between +the contending forces he held his life in the balance, vainly +striving to stem the tide of massacre; and, having done all that man +could do, found his way back to the lakes, saved by his own fearless +honesty and by respect for the French name. + +[Sidenote: _Hennepin's travels on the upper Mississippi._] + +[Sidenote: _Du Luth._] + +Of the expedition which started in the ill-fated _Griffin_, there was +still another prominent member to be accounted {161} for. This was +Father Hennepin. Before La Salle turned home from Fort Crčvecoeur in +the spring of 1680, he sent two Frenchmen of his company, and with +them Father Hennepin, to explore and to trade on the upper +Mississippi. Hennepin and his companions went down the Illinois; and, +ascending the Mississippi, fell among the Sioux or Dakota Indians. +Carried off to the Sioux lodges, in the present State of Minnesota, +the Frenchmen sojourned among them for some months, half captives and +half guests, until they were found by Du Luth, fur-trader and +_coureur de bois_, who had already explored these regions, and had +crossed from Lake Superior to the Mississippi by the line of the St. +Croix river. In his company, Hennepin returned up the Wisconsin; and, +before the year 1680 ended, was safe at Michillimackinac. In the +following year he went back to Montreal; and soon afterwards, +returning to Europe, published the book to which reference has +already been made. He was the first European to describe the upper +Mississippi and its tributaries, and the Falls of St. Anthony +preserve the name of his patron saint--St. Anthony of Padua. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle descends the Mississippi._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Prudhomme built on the Mississippi._] + +The descent to the sea, which in after years he falsely claimed to +have made, was soon afterwards achieved by La Salle. After rejoining +Tonty at Michillimackinac, he went back with him to Fort Frontenac +and Montreal, and once more procured men and money to renew his +enterprise. Again turning west, he reached Fort Miami late in the +autumn of 1681, and on the shortest day his expedition left Lake +Michigan. Crossing from the St. Joseph to the Chicago creek, and from +the latter to the Des Plaines river, the northern tributary of the +Illinois, they embarked--fifty-four Frenchmen and Indians, including +thirteen women and children--in six canoes, and took their way +steadily down stream. They joined the Mississippi, they passed the +mouths of the Missouri and Ohio. Halfway between the Ohio and the +Arkansas, {162} on the east bank of the Mississippi, they built and +manned a small wooden fort, naming it Fort Prudhomme after one of +their number who for a while lost himself in the woods. Again holding +on their course, under softer skies than those of Canada, they +reached the mouth of the Arkansas river, whence Joliet and Marquette +had turned back; and there, among friendly and wondering Indians, +they proclaimed the French King lord of the land. Below the Arkansas +they came to other Indian tribes, such as the Spaniards had known, +who, under dome-shaped roofs, worshipped the sun. At length the river +parted into three channels, as it neared the sea; and, dividing into +three parties, the bold voyagers soon met again on the shore of the +Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle reaches the Gulf of Mexico._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisiana._] + +It was April 9, 1682, when, on the southernmost edge of the new +domain, a column was reared inscribed with the arms of France and +with the name of _Louis le Grand_. The secret of the great river was +won at last, from its source to its mouth; and, claiming all the +lands which it watered for the Crown of France,[8] La Salle called +them by the name 'Louisiana.' + +[Footnote 8: In La Salle's proclamation the basin of the Ohio was +excluded from Louisiana, as the words are 'from the mouth of the +great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio' (Parkman's _La +Salle_, 12th ed., p. 286).] + +[Sidenote: _He returns up stream._] + +[Sidenote: _The colony on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort St. Louis._] + +His canoes could not face the open sea, so the explorers retraced +their course up stream. They suffered from want of food, the natives +attacked them, and La Salle himself was sorely stricken by fever, +which kept him many weeks at Fort Prudhomme. It was not till +September that he reached Michillimackinac, and rejoined Tonty, who +had gone on before him. The winter of 1682-3 was spent in +establishing a colony of French and Indians on the Illinois. The +place selected for the purpose was on the southern bank of the river, +some distance above the site of Fort Crčvecoeur, where a high +precipitous cliff towered over wood and stream. The rock had been +marked by La Salle in his former sojourn on {163} the river, and it +was during Tonty's visit to the spot[9] that Fort Crčvecoeur was +looted and left. Had the Illinois river been the Rhine, the rock +would in mediaeval times have been crowned by the castle of a border +noble; and on its summit was now built a wooden fort, Fort St. Louis +of the Illinois. Round the fort the Indians gathered for protection +and for trade, the peasantry as it were of the western wilderness, +clustering under the shelter of a feudal stronghold; for in virtue of +the royal patent, La Salle was the Seignior of the place. It promised +to be a strong outpost of French dominion, if its connexion with +Canada was kept intact. + +[Footnote 9: See above, p. 160. A full description of the rock, known +afterwards as 'Starved Rock,' is given in Parkman's _La Salle_ (12th +ed.), pp. 293-4, and note.] + +[Sidenote: _Opposition to La Salle in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _He returns to France._] + +New France was made by a few individual men, of whom La Salle was +one. Their work was perpetually undone by want of efficient +co-operation, or rather by efficient antagonism, on the part of their +fellow countrymen. Fort Frontenac, Niagara, armed and trading vessels +on the upper lakes, Fort Miami, where the lakes end, a fort on the +Illinois--constituted the basis of a scheme worthy of support, but +support was wanting. Frontenac had been recalled in 1682; and his +successor, La Barre, leagued with the enemies of La Salle, cut off +his supplies, detained his men, maligned him to the King, seized his +Seigniory at Fort Frontenac, and sent an officer to take possession +of the fort on the Illinois. La Salle had but one remedy left, to +appeal to the King in person; and with that object he sailed for +France in 1683, never to see Canada again. His troubled fighting life +was soon to end, and its closing scenes were crowded with disaster. +He seems to some extent to have lost his balance, to have acted with +insufficient knowledge, and to have changed hardihood into +recklessness. Yet in all that he attempted there was continuity of +aim from first to last, and his final wild adventure, as it seemed to +be, had its bearing on the story of the Canadian Dominion. + +{164} The patent, which had been given to him in 1678, authorized +discovery, trade, and the building of forts, but said nothing of +founding colonies. The policy of the French Government was always in +the main a forward policy; but the French King and his ministers had +the good sense to discourage proposals for colonizing the backwoods, +because they saw the obvious danger of dispersing through a large +area the scanty population of New France. It was therefore easy for +La Salle's enemies to denounce his schemes as opposed to the royal +will, as drawing off colonists from the St. Lawrence, where they were +sorely needed, and teaching the able-bodied men of Canada to become +not _habitans_ but _coureurs de bois_. These were the charges which +La Salle had to rebut. He met them by propounding a still bolder plan +than his former ventures, and he induced the King to give his +sanction to an enterprise for French colonization on the shores of +the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _His schemes for colonization on the Gulf of Mexico._] + +It happened that, at the date when he arrived in Paris, there was bad +blood between France and Spain, resulting for a short space in open +war. The Spaniards claimed to exclude French ships from the Gulf of +Mexico, and King Louis, with his minister Seignelay, Colbert's son, +contemplated meeting these claims by taking and holding a post on the +Gulf. Some scheme of the kind had already been submitted to them by a +Spanish refugee from Peru, Count Penalossa by name; and when La Salle +advanced similar proposals, suggesting the establishment of a French +colony on or near the mouth of the Mississippi, to be connected with +Canada, and to be the basis for attacking and conquering the northern +province of Mexico, New Biscay, his words fell on willing ears. He +spoke with authority. Alone among Frenchmen at the Court of France, +he had reached the mouth of the great river, and could tell to a +King, with lust of conquest, a story of lands to be won for France, +and of peoples ready to follow her lead. + +{165} [Sidenote: _The plan accepted, and La Salle reinstated in +favour._] + +The result was that La Salle's rivals in Canada were discomfited, and +peremptory orders were sent to La Barre to restore his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac and his station on the Illinois; while an expedition, +destined for the Gulf of Mexico, was fitted out at La Rochelle, and +eventually sailed on July 24, 1684. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle's motives._] + +What was in La Salle's mind in suggesting this southern adventure can +only be conjectured. Was it the last desperate stake of a ruined +gambler? Or was it an over-sanguine attempt to realize the great +object of his life, to master the far West by moving up instead of +down its waterways, by entering not through Canada, where every step +would be dogged by jealousy and intrigue, but through the mouths of +the Mississippi, where climate and natives would be less formidable +foes than the Governor of Canada and his unscrupulous clique of +confederates? If, as it is reasonable to suppose, he still clung with +the determination of his character to the western enterprise, in +which he had already achieved so much, he added to it a +highly-coloured picture of conquest in Mexico; and he drew his map of +Mexico as adjoining the lands on the Mississippi, omitting in +ignorance most of the wide area of intervening territory, now +included in the State of Texas. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition sails._] + +[Sidenote: _It reaches the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico._] + +[Sidenote: _Landing on the shores of Texas._] + +Four vessels set sail, freighted with all things necessary to found a +colony, carrying soldiers, artisans, married women, and young girls. +They were a doomed company; from first to last all went wrong. There +was divided command, and Beaujeu, the admiral of the ships, a Norman +like La Salle, had with some reason little confidence in the +expedition or its leader. They made in the first instance for St. +Domingo, but one of the four ships which was carrying the stores was +cut off by Spanish buccaneers before reaching the island. At St. +Domingo, La Salle was laid low with fever; and, while he was between +life and death, his followers rioted and sickened on shore. After a +delay of two months, the {166} expedition started again, weakened by +desertion and disease. The ships entered the Gulf of Mexico, +passed--without knowing it--the mouths of the Mississippi, and on New +Year's Day, 1685, anchored off the coast of Texas. Somewhere on this +coast, in the vicinity either of Matagorda Bay or of Galveston Bay, +La Salle effected a landing, where a series of lagoons that lined the +shore concealed, as he thought, the main outlet of the Mississippi. +Disaster still attended the enterprise: one of the ships was wrecked +on the reefs, the natives of the land proved unfriendly; and when +Beaujeu, the admiral, having given what help he could, sailed away in +the middle of March, he left behind on desolate shores a despondent +band of French men and women groping for a river which could not be +found, in present trouble and without clear guidance for the future. + +[Sidenote: _Founding of Fort St. Louis._] + +[Sidenote: _Distress of the settlement._] + +[Sidenote: _Attempt to reach Canada._] + +Skirting the sea-line, the would-be colonists had reached a large +bay, into the head of which a river ran; and on the banks of this +stream La Salle formed a settlement, to which, as to his colony on +the Illinois, he gave the name of Fort St. Louis. Gathered within +palisades, the settlers worked and waited, dwindling in numbers, +while their leader explored, but explored in vain. Setting out at the +end of October, 1685, La Salle returned in the following March, +having accomplished nothing and having lost his last vessel, a small +frigate, the _Belle_. Again in a month's time, towards the end of +April, 1686, he set out to make his way to Canada; once more, in +October, he returned to the fort, baffled and disappointed. His +followers were sadly reduced in numbers: of some 180, no more than +forty-five were left; and of them he could trust but few. Return to +France was cut off, and from France time had shown that no help was +forthcoming. There was no alternative but to make one more attempt to +reach Canada, and thence to bring rescue to the fort in Texas. + +[Sidenote: _Death of La Salle._] + +It was a forlorn hope at best, but the attempt was made. {167} Half +of the company remained at the fort. The others, including La Salle's +brother, the Abbé Cavelier, and two young nephews, followed La Salle +himself on his northward journey. It was on January 7, 1687, that the +party set out to make their way painfully over prairies, across +rivers, through forest, thicket, and scrub. On March 19, near the +Trinity river, La Salle fell dead, ambushed and shot by his own men. +No career ever had a more squalid or pitiable ending. It ended in +commonplace mutiny and murder. Three or four scoundrels, discontented +and badly handled, nursed their personal grudges against a severe and +domineering leader, until, in an outbreak of irritation, they killed +three of his immediate following and the leader himself. + +[Sidenote: _Fate of his company._] + +The brother escaped; so did one of the nephews, and Joutel, a +gardener's son from Rouen--the most honest and capable of the +band--who afterwards told the unvarnished tale. They companied for a +while with the murderers, roaming among the Indians of the west, +until one and another of the guilty men fell by each other's hands or +strayed into savagery. In the end seven Frenchmen, with the help of +Indian guides, reached the Arkansas river, found an outpost +established there by Tonty, made their way thence to the Illinois, +and so to Canada and France. On the Illinois and in Canada they +concealed, from policy or fear, the fact of La Salle's death. In the +dead man's name his brother, the coward priest, obtained from Tonty +advances for his home journey; and it was not till after he was safe +in Europe, in the autumn of 1688, that the tragedy came to light. + +[Sidenote: _Indifference in France as to La Salle's death._] + +Few seemed to care. A man had gone, who by the age of forty-three had +achieved great deeds, had dared and suffered much; but he was a man +who had few friends and many enemies, and he served a Government in +whose eyes failure was a crime, and to which gratitude was unknown. +{168} An order was given that, if the murderers reappeared in Canada, +they should be arrested, and with that order the name of La Salle +passed out of official ken. + +[Sidenote: _Extermination of the colony in Texas._] + +[Sidenote: _Tonty's faithfulness._] + +The Government made no attempt to relieve the hapless exiles in +Texas. They were left to perish, just as, many years before, the +Huguenot settlers in Florida had been abandoned and betrayed. Tonty +alone was mindful of his friend. Already, in 1686, before La Salle +had started on his last march, he had descended the Mississippi to +its mouth, and had searched the coast in vain, hoping to bring +succour and relief; and when, in the autumn of 1688, he knew the full +truth, again he started, to save if possible the remnant of the +expedition. He penetrated to the Red river and beyond, but could not +reach the fort in Texas; and it was from Spanish sources that the +fate of the last settlers was afterwards known. An expedition from +Mexico, sent to root out the intruders, found the fort a desolate +ruin. The Indians had been beforehand in the work of destruction, and +had butchered or carried off the inmates, two or three of whom +exchanged captivity among savages for Spanish prisons. + +[Sidenote: _Importance of La Salle's work._] + +Such was the end of La Salle's last venture--misery, ruin, death, +and, for the time, comparative oblivion. Yet his name lives in +history and deserves to live, and his work was not all undone. We +look back not merely on his hardihood and his sufferings. We see in +him not only an explorer of the boldest type; but he stands out +pre-eminently as the man, who, above all others, grasped the +conception of a North American dominion, which should be from sea to +sea--based on the great geographical factor in North America, its +nearly continuous water communication--and in which the natives of +North America should be banded together in war and peace, under the +leadership of France. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth +of the Mississippi, by river and lake, his vision was that Frenchmen +and their native subjects should come and go, carrying from fort to +{169} fort, from settlement to settlement, the produce of forest and +prairie, the wealth of the West. + +It was a great conception, too great to be realized; but it +harmonized with the genius of the French people. Their gift was to be +ever moving, their strength was not to sit still. What success they +won was on the lines that La Salle marked out. With all his failures, +he knew the land and he knew his race. + +[Sidenote: _Colonization of Louisiana by Iberville._] + +The eighteenth century had not ended before the colonization of +Louisiana became more than a dream. Tonty continued to urge it. The +English threatened to take it in hand; Spain was reasserting her +claim to the ownership of the Gulf of Mexico; and, lest the French +should be excluded altogether, Le Moyne d'Iberville, best of Canadian +leaders, obtained permission to sail for the Mississippi. More +skilful than La Salle, or better informed, he reached its mouth in +March, 1699; but the first settlements were made to the east of the +river, at Biloxi in the present State of Mississippi, and on Mobile +Bay. It was not till the year 1718 that the city of New Orleans was +first founded by Bienville, Iberville's brother, who at intervals +governed Louisiana for many years. Bandied about from Crown to +company, and from company to Crown, the prey of speculators, the +scene, like Canada itself, of artificial settlement and regulated +colonization, Louisiana made but slow progress. Yet in time it became +a factor to be reckoned with in North American history, and to +connect it with Canada was in the eighteenth century the aim of the +rulers of New France. + +[Sidenote: _The Illinois abandoned by the French._] + +In 1702, Tonty left Fort St. Louis on the Illinois to join Iberville +in the south, and, except for a few years at a little later date, +that fort was abandoned. The Indians, too, who had gathered round it, +dispersed; some of them moved down to the Mississippi; and connexion +between Canada and Louisiana was afterwards sought not so much by the +Illinois river, as by the line of the Ohio, the earliest scene of La +Salle's discoveries. + + + + +{170} + +CHAPTER VI + +ACADIA AND HUDSON BAY + + +In the last chapter the main stream of Canadian history has been +followed down to the Treaty of Utrecht. New France was essentially +the colony on the St. Lawrence; but with the story of Canada proper +the story of Acadia is interwoven, and Acadia under another name now +forms part of the Canadian Dominion. To complete the tale to 1713, it +is necessary to go back to the early days of settlement in the +present Maritime Provinces of the Dominion. Some notice must also be +made of English commercial enterprise on the northern side of Canada, +the shores of Hudson Bay. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia._] + +Acadia, Acadie--a name which the French took from the +Indians[1]--included an ill-defined region. Whoever held it, at any +given time, naturally claimed as large an area as possible, and, +after it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, the +question of the boundary was a fruitful source of trouble. Under the +French, Acadia was roughly coterminous with the present provinces of +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and part of the State of Maine; but +Acadia proper was the peninsula of Nova Scotia. There, and on the +immediately adjoining coast of the mainland, the fighting and the +raids took place. It was not until after the Peace of Utrecht was +signed that Cape Breton Island, whose name recalls the nationality of +early voyagers to North America, became, under the new title of Île +Royale, a renowned stronghold of France; while Prince Edward Island, +the Île de {171} St. Jean, played little part in the early history of +North America. + +[Footnote 1: See above, p. 36, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The peninsula of Nova Scotia._] + +Linked to the continent by the isthmus of Chignecto, sixteen miles in +breadth, the peninsula of Nova Scotia runs for some 300 miles +north-east and south-west, parallel to the North American coast. From +that coast it is separated on the southern side of the isthmus by the +Bay of Fundy--the Baie Françoise as it was called in old days--a bay +into which the sea runs strong and which divides at the head, forming +on the left, the mainland side, Chignecto Bay, on the right the Basin +of Mines. The shores of this latter land-locked basin were in the +eighteenth century a well-known scene of Acadian settlement, and here +stood the village of Grand Pré. On the same side of Nova Scotia, +lower down than the Basin of Mines, is Annapolis harbour, better +known in old days as Port Royal. The opposite sides of New Brunswick +and Maine are deeply indented by the estuaries of various rivers--the +St. John, the St. Croix, now the border stream between Canada and the +United States, and, further south, the Penobscot and the Kennebec, +names that constantly occur in the story of Acadian and New England +warfare. Cape Sable--the sand cape--is the southernmost point of Nova +Scotia: midway on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is Halifax +harbour, formerly known as Chebucto; and on the north the narrow +strait known as the Gut of Canso divides Nova Scotia proper from Cape +Breton Island. Cape Breton Island on the south, Newfoundland on the +north, mark the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are the +buttresses of the main gateway of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Geographical importance of Acadia._] + +Sea-girt and sea-beaten was and is Acadia, with broken shores and +many bays, where fishermen and freebooters came and went: a land to +nurse a hardy race in small and scattered settlements, nestling in +nooks and corners by inlets of the sea. Its importance did not lie in +natural riches, but in its geographical position. It was the +borderland of French and {172} English colonization. Whoever held in +strength Acadia and Cape Breton on the one side, and Newfoundland on +the other, could command the river of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia was in the English sphere of colonization, but was +all important to France._] + +Taking the two spheres of colonization, the seaboard settlements of +the English on the one hand, the inland river settlements of the +French on the other, it is clear that Acadia naturally belonged to +the former; it was within the sphere of which Boston was the centre, +not within that which was ruled by Quebec. The coasts of Maine, of +New Brunswick, and of Nova Scotia prolong the shores of New England: +any dividing line has been made by man not by nature. The Boston +fishermen went faring north, not into strange waters or by foreign +coasts, for land and sea were as their own. Between Quebec and Port +Royal, on the other hand, there was no natural connexion, yet the +possession of Acadia was of more vital importance to France than to +England. With Acadia in French hands the New England colonies could +still grow in strength; but English occupation of Acadia, Cape +Breton, and Newfoundland meant the beginning of the end for New +France, the closing of the St. Lawrence, if England kept command of +the sea. Thus it was that in the negotiations which ended in the +Treaty of Utrecht the French King fought hard to keep Acadia, and, +thwarted in this endeavour, made the most of Cape Breton Island, +rearing in it the strong fortress of Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _Early settlers in Acadia._] + +Acadia then was a borderland, and its history resembled that of other +borderlands. Its first settlers were French, and the majority of the +scanty population remained French in language, in tradition, in +religion, in sympathy; but for years rival adventurers squabbled and +fought, with doubtful allegiance to England or France. + +[Sidenote: _The De la Tours._] + +We have seen how in 1613 the freebooter Argall,[2] sailing up from +Virginia, destroyed Poutrincourt's settlement at Port Royal. In spite +of this disaster, Biencourt, {173} Poutrincourt's son, with a handful +of Frenchmen, few but sturdy, still held fast to the shores of +Acadia. Among them was a French Huguenot, Claude Étienne de la Tour, +who with his son, Charles de la Tour, had come out from France in or +about the year 1609. When the Port Royal settlement was broken up, he +crossed over to the mouth of the Penobscot, and held a station there +until the year 1626, when he was driven out by an expedition from New +England. Biencourt appears to have died either in Acadia or in France +about the year 1623, and the younger La Tour became the foremost man +among the French settlers, holding a small fort near Cape Sable, +which seems to have been known by various names--Fort Louis, Fort +l'Omeroy or Lomeron, and Fort or Port Latour. In 1627, according to +the ordinary account, the father went to France to interest the +French Government in the fortunes of Acadia, and to secure the +position and title of Governor for his son. It was the year in which +Richelieu founded the company of the One Hundred Associates, and in +1628 a French squadron was sent out to America. The ships were +intercepted by David Kirke, and Claude de la Tour, who was on board, +was carried a prisoner to England. + +[Footnote 2: See above, p. 42.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir William Alexander._] + +[Sidenote: _His patent._] + +[Sidenote: _Nova Scotia._] + +Acadia had by this time acquired a second name, its present name of +Nova Scotia. A Scotch scholar of some repute, William Alexander, born +near Stirling, became tutor to Prince Henry, son of James VI of +Scotland and I of England, and rose to high favour at Court. He was a +prolific writer, composed tragedies and sonnets, and after the King's +death completed a metrical version of the Psalms which James had +begun. In 1621 Sir William Alexander, as he then was, obtained from +the King a grant of the Acadian peninsula, Cape Breton Island, and +all the mainland from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, the whole +territory within these wide limits being given the name of New +Scotland or Nova Scotia. + +The terms of the charter were of the most liberal kind, and {174} +Alexander was constituted Lieutenant-General for the King, with +practically sovereign powers. The grant was made as an appanage of +the kingdom of Scotland; and, in seeking for and obtaining it, +Alexander seems to have been stimulated by the fact that an English +charter had lately been given to Fernando Gorges in the region of New +England. In other words, the patent represented the effort of an +energetic Scotchman to bring his country and his people into line +with the English in the field of western adventure. + +[Sidenote: _Alexander's scheme of colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _The baronets of Nova Scotia._] + +Cape Breton Island he made over to another Scotchman, Sir Robert +Gordon, of Lochinvar, and went to work to find settlers for the rest +of his domain. His scheme was not taken up warmly; two ships were +sent out in 1622 and 1623, but no settlement was formed, and he found +himself involved in a debt of 6,000 pounds. He tried to rouse +enthusiasm for the colonization of New Scotland by publishing a +pamphlet entitled _An Encouragement to Colonies_; and, finding that +it met with little response, he hit upon the device of inducing the +King, who a few years before had created baronets of Ulster, to +establish also an order of baronets of New Scotland. The recipients +of the honour were to have grants of land on the other side of the +Atlantic, and the fees which they paid would, it was hoped, recoup +past losses and provide funds for future colonization. + +[Sidenote: _Renewal of the patent by Charles I._] + +King James having died, his successor Charles I, in 1625, renewed +Alexander's patent, and formally ratified the creation of the Nova +Scotian order, the honours being to a certain extent taken up under +pressure from the King. A new expedition was now set on foot, but in +the meantime news came that Richelieu had formed a rival company, and +that the French were preparing to make good their old title to +Acadia. The prospect of foreign competition gave fresh vigour to the +enterprise; Kirke offered his services to Alexander, and in 1628 +captured Richelieu's squadron; while earlier in the same year four +ships in charge of {175} Alexander's son landed a party of settlers +safely at Port Royal, who established themselves on the site of the +old French settlement. In the following year Kirke took Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _The elder La Tour joins Alexander._] + +The elder La Tour, we have seen, was brought a prisoner to England. +There he seems to have transferred his allegiance to Great Britain, +in the words of an old record to have 'turned tenant'[3] to the +English King. According to one account, he married a maid of honour +to the Queen. At any rate, he threw in his lot with Alexander, was +created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1630 received for himself +and his son--also created a baronet--two baronies in the Nova Scotian +peninsula. In the same year he seems to have returned to Acadia with +some more Scotch colonists, and vainly attempted to induce his son, +who was still holding the fort near Cape Sable, to come over to the +British cause, and take up the grant and honours which had been +conferred upon him. The son, we read, would yield neither to +persuasion nor to force, and the elder La Tour apparently went on to +the Scotch settlement at Port Royal. + +[Footnote 3: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1574-1660, pp. +119-20.] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Latour built._] + +[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France._] + +Already, in 1629, the Convention of Susa had been signed between the +Kings of England and France. Charles La Tour received a message of +encouragement from France; and, coming to terms with his father, +crossed over to the mainland, where he built Fort Latour at the mouth +of the river St. John.[4] In 1631 he was appointed +Lieutenant-Governor by the French King; and in 1632 the Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye restored to France 'all the places occupied in New +France, Acadia, and Canada' by British subjects. + +[Footnote 4: The exact date at which the La Tours founded the fort is +very uncertain.] + +[Sidenote: _The Scotch settlement at Port Royal abandoned._] + +This treaty put an end to Scotch colonization of Acadia, and nothing +is now left to tell of Alexander's enterprise beyond the name of Nova +Scotia. The Scotch emigrants returned {176} home, or were lost among +the outnumbering French, and the old station of Port Royal was either +at the time or a few years afterwards entirely deserted. The site on +the northern or western side of Annapolis Basin was subsequently +known as Scots Fort; but the later Port Royal, which Phipps and +Nicholson took, was situated five miles away, on the other side of +the estuary, and is now the town of Annapolis. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Alexander._] + +Alexander never made good his losses. He died in 1640, in high honour +and position, having been Secretary of State for Scotland and +ennobled as Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada; but he must have +learnt, as all who had dealings with the Stuarts learnt, not to put +his trust in princes; for his well-meant scheme to make a New +Scotland, which should rival New France, ended, through the tortuous +policy of the King whom he served, in utter failure. + +[Sidenote: _Razilly, Denys, and D'Aunay._] + +Isaac de Razilly was sent by Richelieu to receive Acadia back from +Alexander's representatives, upon the conclusion of the Treaty of +1632, and to be Governor of the country. With him went out, among +other settlers, Nicholas Denys, a native of Tours, and Charles de +Menou de Charnizay, known also as the Chevalier d'Aunay. Acadia now +became the scene of intestine feuds between Frenchmen with rival +claims and interests. + +[Sidenote: _French adventurers in Acadia._] + +It is exceedingly difficult to trace the relations between the +various adventurers, where they went and what they did. Razilly, who +was Governor-in-chief, settled at La Héve on the Atlantic coast of +Nova Scotia. D'Aunay seems to have driven out the New Englanders from +the Penobscot, and taken possession of Pentegoet at its mouth. +Charles La Tour held his fort on the estuary of the St. John, his +father having died or disappeared from the story, and raided, in or +about 1633, an outpost established by the Plymouth settlers at +Machias, north of the Penobscot. Denys formed trading stations at +Chedabucto, now Guysboro, at the eastern end of the Nova Scotian +peninsula, and in Cape Breton Island, {177} leaving to posterity an +account of Acadia and Cape Breton, in his book entitled _Description +des Costes de l'Amérique Septentrionale_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: Charlevoix's account is that Acadia was divided into +three provinces, both for government and for ownership. Razilly had +the superior command over all, and was given Port Royal and the +mainland south to New England; Charles La Tour had the Acadian +peninsula, excluding Port Royal; and Denys had the northern district +from Canso to Gaspé, including Cape Breton Island. This leaves out +D'Aunay, and the arrangement, if it existed, was modified, inasmuch +as Razilly settled at La Héve, and Charles La Tour was on the river +of St. John.] + +[Sidenote: _Feud between D'Aunay and Charles La Tour._] + +Razilly died in 1635 or 1636; his brother, Claude de Razilly, +assigned his rights in Acadia to D'Aunay, and between the latter and +Charles La Tour a deadly quarrel ensued. D'Aunay, it would seem, +re-established Port Royal on the present site of Annapolis, making it +the principal settlement of Acadia instead of La Héve. His rival, La +Tour, had strong claims both on France and on Acadia. He had been far +longer in the country than D'Aunay, he had in trying circumstances +retained his allegiance to the Crown of France, he had been given a +commission by the King, and moreover something was owing to him in +virtue of the grants which Alexander had made in 1630 to his father +and himself, which grants appear to have been subsequently construed +into a transfer of the whole of Alexander's patent. However, D'Aunay +had the ear of the French Court. + +It is stated[6] that, in 1638, the King prescribed certain boundaries +between the two rivals, but the delimitation had no effect; for in +1640 La Tour seems to have attacked Port Royal, with the result that +he was taken prisoner with his wife, both being released at the +intercession of French priests. In the next year, 1641, D'Aunay +obtained an order from home which revoked La Tour's commission and +empowered his enemy to seize him, if he refused to submit, and send +him prisoner to France. La Tour now turned for help to New England, +and, in 1643, after long and scriptural {178} debates by the Puritans +as to the lawfulness of aiding 'idolaters,'[7] succeeded in hiring +four ships at Boston to join him in raiding D'Aunay's property. In +the following year, however, an emissary from D'Aunay came to Boston +to protest against English interference; and in October, 1644, a +convention was concluded between the New Englanders and D'Aunay, +providing for mutual peace and free trade. + +[Footnote 6: By Haliburton in his _History of Nova Scotia_, vol. i, +p. 53.] + +[Footnote 7: The younger La Tour was not, like his father, a +Huguenot.] + +[Sidenote: _Madame La Tour._] + +[Sidenote: _D'Aunay gains possession of Fort Latour._] + +D'Aunay had now the upper hand, and Madame La Tour becomes the +heroine of the story. She had followed her husband's fortunes with +undaunted courage, and had been to France to plead his cause. Going +on to London, she took passage on board ship, the master contracting +to take her to Fort Latour. Instead of carrying out his contract, he +wasted time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and finally landed her at +Boston, where she brought an action against him and was awarded +damages of 2,000 pounds. Reaching Fort Latour, she was attacked there +by D'Aunay in 1645,[8] while her husband was absent, and the garrison +reduced to a very few men. She held the fort, notwithstanding, with +so much determination, and in spite of treachery within the walls, +that D'Aunay agreed to a capitulation, by which all the lives of the +defenders were to be spared. The terms were broken as soon as he +obtained possession of the fort, and the whole of the garrison was +put to death, with the exception of Madame La Tour and one man who +was spared to act as hangman to the rest. Madame La Tour herself was +compelled to witness the execution with a rope round her neck, and +three weeks afterwards she died. + +[Footnote 8: According to Haliburton, D'Aunay besieged Madame La Tour +in the fort twice, being beaten off the first time. Kingsford gives +the date of the siege as 1647.] + +[Sidenote: _Later career of Charles La Tour._] + +Ruined and an outlaw, La Tour found his way to Newfoundland, where he +tried in vain to enlist the aid of the {179} English governor, Sir +David Kirke. He is said also to have visited Quebec and Hudson Bay, +and in his distress to have made an ill return for the kindness which +had been shown to him at Boston, by raiding a ship from that port and +ejecting her crew on to the Nova Scotian coast in the middle of +winter. Ultimately, in 1650, D'Aunay died, and La Tour, who must have +had a keen eye to business, some little time after married the widow. +New complications now arose. A creditor of D'Aunay, Le Borgne by +name, came out from France to enforce his claims against D'Aunay's +property, and in virtue of those claims to take possession of Acadia. +He first attacked Denys[9] at Chedabucto, and took him prisoner. He +was next preparing to attack La Tour, when events took a wholly +different turn, and the English again became masters of Acadia. + +[Footnote 9: Denys went to France and secured, in 1654, the +restitution of his property, together with a commission as Governor +from Cape Canso to Cape Rosiers or Race, i.e. of Cape Breton, Prince +Edward Island, and Newfoundland. He was then raided by another +Frenchman, Giraudičre. He seems to have eventually given up his +stations in Cape Breton, and in 1679 was at Quebec, old and blind.] + +[Sidenote: _The English under Sedgwick take Acadia._] + +Cromwell, in 1654, sent out an expedition to take Manhattan Island +from the Dutch, Major-General Sedgwick being in command. Peace being +made with the Netherlands, the force intended to drive the Dutch out +of Manhattan was turned against the French in Acadia; and in quick +succession, Sedgwick reduced the fort at Penobscot, La Tour's station +on the St. John, and Port Royal, where Le Borgne was at the time.[10] +Mazarin attempted to recover these posts under the twenty-fifth +article of the Treaty of Westminster of November 3, 1655; but, less +complaisant than the Kings who {180} preceded or who followed him, +Cromwell refused to entertain the proposals for a transfer. + +[Footnote 10: Sedgwick was shortly afterwards sent to Jamaica, where +he died in June, 1656. In Appendix xxviii to Carlyle's _Oliver +Cromwell_, reference is made to the taking of the French forts in +Acadia, with the following characteristic but not very accurate note: +'Oliver kept his forts and his Acadie through all French treaties for +behoof of his New Englanders. Not till after the Restoration did the +country become French again, and continue such for a century or so.'] + +[Sidenote: _La Tour and Temple become owners of Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of La Tour._] + +La Tour now turned to account the fact that he had been created a +Nova Scotian baronet and received a grant from Alexander; he became a +British subject; and on August 10, 1656, letters patent were issued +by which he became, under the name of Sir Charles La Tour, joint +owner of Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crowne. Very +shortly afterwards he sold his interest to Temple, but appears to +have remained in Acadia, where he died in 1666. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France by the Treaty of Breda._] + +Temple, who received a commission from Cromwell as Governor of +Acadia, and went out there in 1657, laid out money in the country and +carried on trade with energy and success. He maintained the existing +stations, planted a new settlement at Jemseg on the St. John river, +higher up than Fort Latour, and drove out a son of Le Borgne, who +attempted to reoccupy La Héve; but, like Alexander before him, he +suffered at the hands of the Stuarts, for Charles II, after renewing +his commission as Governor and creating him a baronet of Nova Scotia, +subsequently, in spite of remonstrances from Massachusetts, restored +Acadia to France by the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, in return for +French concessions in the West Indies. Temple attempted to dispute +the extent covered by the treaty, but with no effect; and, in 1670, +the whole area became again a French possession. Temple retired to +Boston with a promise of 16,200 pounds which he never received, and +finally died in London in 1674. + +The above is a bare recital of early days in Acadia, when it was, in +effect, no man's land. The story might be made picturesque, with La +Tour and his first wife for hero and heroine, with some embellishment +of Alexander's scheme, and a little dressing of D'Aunay, Denys, and +the other adventurers who come on the scene; but in truth it is a +very slender record of two or three Frenchmen and Englishmen, who did +a little trade or a little fishing on desolate {181} shores, and who +plundered each other in rather squalid fashion--left to themselves by +their rulers, except when their acts or their claims had a bearing on +international questions. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia under French rule._] + +When Temple retired in 1670 in favour of a new French commander, De +Grandfontaine, the total number of settlers in Acadia did not exceed +400. Some new French colonists now came in: the beginning of +settlement was made at Chignecto and the Basin of Mines, and +communication was for a time opened by land between Acadia and +Quebec. The great majority of the French inhabitants were at Port +Royal; but Pentegoet on the Penobscot was the seat of government, +until, in 1674, it was taken and plundered by a Dutch privateering +vessel, the same fate befalling the fort of Jemseg on the St. John +river. Chambly, who had succeeded Grandfontaine as Commander in +Acadia, was carried off a prisoner to Boston, and Pentegoet was for +the time abandoned by the French. Two years later, in 1676, it was +occupied by the Dutch; but the latter were in their turn driven out +by the New Englanders,[11] and the place passed into the hands of a +Frenchman notable in Acadian border warfare, the Baron de St. Castin. + +[Footnote 11: In the Government records at The Hague, under date Oct. +27, 1678, there is a claim of the Netherlands West India Company +against Great Britain to the forts of Penobscot and St. John in +Acadie and Nova Scotia, and a request that they may be allowed to +remain in quiet and peaceable possession thereof.] + +[Sidenote: _St. Castin at Pentegoet._] + +He was a Béarnese, and had come out to Canada as an officer in the +Carignan Regiment. Finding, like other Frenchmen, a charm in forest +life, he drifted off to Acadia and lived as an Indian among Indians, +a devout Roman Catholic, but in other respects a native chief, with +his squaws and following of savage warriors. He established himself +at Pentegoet, on or near the site of the old fort, where Castine now +stands; he raided and was raided; in time of peace making money by +trade, in time of war joining in the border forays. For Pentegoet was +the southernmost {182} station of the French, standing on soil +claimed by the English, and granted by Charles II to the Duke of +York. Similarly, Pemaquid, near the Kennebec, established in 1677, +was the northernmost post of the English; and, if there was a line +between the two nations, it was between Pentegoet and Pemaquid. But +French influence extended to the Kennebec river, and Indian converts +of French priests were to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of +Pemaquid. + +[Sidenote: _French priests and the Abenaki Indians._] + +In 1676, the war between the New Englanders and the neighbouring +Indians, known as Philip's war, came to an end, leaving bitterness +between the conquered natives and victorious colonists. Hatred of the +English meant love of the French; and the Abenaki Indians of Acadia +and Maine, under the tutelage of fanatical and unscrupulous French +priests, became trained to enmity with the heretics; many of them +migrated to mission stations in Canada; while those who remained +behind were ever ready to obey the call to murder and pillage. In +Acadia, even more than in Canada proper, the Indian as a convert +became the tool of the Frenchman, and the Frenchman lent himself to +the barbarism of the Indian. The full effects of the unnatural blend +were seen and felt a little later on; but for twenty years after the +Treaty of Breda and the restoration of Acadia to France, there was +more often peace than war between the English and the French; and the +Boston fishermen were, about 1678, licensed for the time being by the +French Commandant, La Valličre, to ply their trade on the Acadian +coasts. + +[Sidenote: _French Governors and colonists of Acadia._] + +With some trading of this kind and with a good deal of privateering, +the years passed by. Perrot, who had been Governor of Montreal and +had distinguished himself even among French officials of the time for +corrupt practices, succeeded La Valličre in 1684, with a commission +as Governor of Acadia. Still intent on enriching himself by illicit +trade, he was recalled in 1687, and his place was taken by Meneval. +The latter, like Perrot, was subordinate to the {183} +Governor-General of Canada, and the number of colonists whom he ruled +was, according to a census held in 1686, 858, 600 of whom lived at or +near Port Royal, and the remainder chiefly at Beaubassin at the head +of Chignecto Bay, and on the Basin of Mines. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia ceded to England by the Peace of Utrecht._] + +In 1688, Andros, then Governor of the New England colonies, plundered +St. Castin's station at Pentegoet; the French and Indians retaliated, +taking the fort of Pemaquid in the following year; and there followed +a long series of butcheries and reprisals, of which an account has +already been given in a preceding chapter, the taking of Fort Royal +by Phipps in 1690, and, in 1710, its final surrender to Nicholson. In +the end, the Treaty of Utrecht provided in its twelfth article that +'all Nova Scotia or Accadie with its ancient boundaries' should be +'yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown +for ever.' + +[Sidenote: _Henry Hudson sails to the Arctic regions and is lost._] + +[Sidenote: _The search for the North-West Passage._] + +[Sidenote: _Button._] + +We have seen[12] that, in 1609, Henry Hudson led Dutchmen into the +present State of New York, and left his name to the river on which +the city of New York stands. In the following year, he took service +under an English syndicate, to make a further attempt to find a +North-West Passage to the Indies. In April, 1610, he started in a +small ship, the _Discovery_, found his way through Hudson Straits +into Hudson Bay, wintered at the extreme south-eastern end of James' +Bay, and, cast adrift by his mutinous followers in the following +summer, never saw home again, 'dearly purchasing the honour of having +this large Strait and Bay called after his name.'[13] The Arctic +seas, where he met his death, and where his name has lived through +the centuries, were visited again and again by English explorers, +still seeking for the North-West Passage. One voyager after another +went out, hoping to return by China and the East. In April, 1612, +Captain Button set forth with two ships, one of which was {184} +Hudson's old vessel, the _Discovery_, reached the western coast of +Hudson Bay--which was long called after him, Button's Bay--wintered +at Port Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson river, and returned in the +autumn of 1613. + +[Footnote 12: See above, p. 63.] + +[Footnote 13: Oldmixon's _British Empire in America_ (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 543.] + +[Sidenote: _Royal charter granted to the Merchants Discoverers of the +North-West Passage._] + +His instructions had been drawn up by the young Prince of Wales, +Prince Henry, who died not long afterwards; and three months after +Button started, the merchants at whose expense both his expedition +and Hudson's had been fitted out, were incorporated under royal +charter as the 'Company of the Merchants of London Discoverers of the +North-West Passage,' having the Prince of Wales as governor or +'Supreme Protector,' and including among many well-known names that +of Richard Hakluyt. + +[Sidenote: _Gibbons._] + +[Sidenote: _Bylot and Baffin._] + +In 1614, the _Discovery_ was sent out again under the command of +Captain Gibbons, but returned in the same year, having penetrated no +further than Hudson Strait. In 1615, Bylot and Baffin set sail for +the North, again taking with them the _Discovery_; they too returned +in the same year, concluding that the North-West Passage was not to +be found by the way of Hudson Straits. Once more, in the next year, +1616, the same men went out, and once more the stout old ship, the +_Discovery_, carried them, the voyage resulting in the exploration of +Baffin Bay. For two years after their return there was a respite from +Arctic voyages, but in 1619 Captain Hawkridge led a fresh expedition, +which proved a failure. + +[Sidenote: _Luke Foxe and Thomas James._] + +Much money had now been spent in the attempt to find a North-West +Passage, and little had been achieved; but after an interval of +twelve years, in 1631, two more Arctic voyages took place. One +expedition was commanded by a Yorkshireman, Luke Foxe, the other by +Captain Thomas James, who was connected with Bristol. The former was +backed by London merchants, the latter was a Bristol venture; but +both received sanction and encouragement from the King. James' voyage +was unfortunate and barren of result; but Foxe, {185} though he did +not find the Passage, which was the one aim and object of all these +early attempts, completed the exploration of Hudson Bay, and +penetrated further north than previous sailors by the way of what is +still known as Fox Channel. + +[Sidenote: _The period of discovery in the far North followed by +trading enterprise._] + +With these two voyages the first chapter in Arctic discovery comes to +an end. As in the record of English colonization we have a distinct +break between the time of discovery and adventure on the one hand, +and the time of trade and settlement on the other, so even in the far +North there was a time of exploration, followed after an interval by +a time of trade. All the early voyages, which have been recounted +above, were voyages of discovery, and, though they were fitted out +for the most part by syndicates of merchants, their object was not to +bring back furs, or to establish trading stations, but to search for +a new route to the East.[14] + +[Footnote 14: A most excellent account of the early voyages in search +of a North-West Passage is given in Mr. Miller Christy's Introduction +to the _Voyages of Foxe and James to the North-West_ (Hakluyt +Society, 1894).] + +[Sidenote: _Zachariah Gillam._] + +[Sidenote: _Radisson and Des Groseilliers._] + +Forty years passed away and, in the year 1668, an English ship once +more found its way into Hudson Bay. The ship was named the _Nonsuch_, +her commander was Captain Zachariah Gillam, and Prince Rupert seems +to have had a hand in sending her out. The expedition was designed to +establish trade with the Indians, and Gillam wintered in James Bay, +near where Hudson had wintered in 1610, building a fort called +Charles Fort at the mouth of a river which was named Rupert river. +The fort was subsequently known as Fort Rupert or Rupert House. It is +stated that this new enterprise was undertaken in consequence of +information received from two French settlers in Canada named +Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and that the latter was on board +Gillam's ship, while Radisson had embarked on another vessel which +started from England with Gillam, but put back on account of stress +of weather. + +{186} [Sidenote: _French claims to priority in Hudson Bay._] + +How far these two Frenchmen contributed to the beginning of trade in +Hudson Bay, and to the founding of the Hudson Bay Company, has been a +matter of much controversy. The question was originally of some +importance, for French claims to priority of occupation in the Arctic +regions rested in large measure on the real or the alleged doings of +the two adventurers. Like the rest of the world, they must have heard +of the existence of Hudson Bay, for the voyages to discover the +North-West Passage, though not made by Frenchmen, were not made in +secret; and they had gathered information from the Indians of Canada +as to the possibilities of fur trading in these northern regions. +They had more than once attempted, between 1658 and 1663, to make +their way by land to the bay, but never seem to have reached its +shores; and the first recorded overland visit from Canada, is that of +a French priest, Albanel, who, in 1671-2, journeyed from Quebec to +Lake St. John, and thence, by the line of the Rupert river, came to +the sea, to find an English factory already established at the mouth +of the river. + +[Sidenote: _Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company._] + +[Sidenote: _Rupert's Land._] + +Gillam returned to England in 1669, and on May 2, 1670, the Hudson +Bay Company came into existence. On that day Charles II issued a +royal charter, creating a corporate body under the title of 'The +Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's +Bay.' Prince Rupert was the first Governor; Albemarle, Ashley, and +Arlington were among the original grantees. The preamble of the +charter recited that the persons named had 'at their own great cost +and charges, undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay, in the +North-West part of America, for the discovery of a new passage into +the South Sea, and for the finding some trade for furs, minerals, and +other considerable commodities'; and in their corporate capacity the +Company were constituted absolute lords and proprietors, with a +complete monopoly of trade of all the lands and seas 'that lie within +the entrance of the straits, commonly called Hudson's {187} Straits,' +so far as they were not already actually granted to or possessed by +British subjects, or the subjects of any other Christian Prince or +State. The charter enacted that 'the said land' should be 'from +henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our plantations or colonies +in America, called Rupert's Land.' + +[Sidenote: _Operations of the company._] + +Armed with practically unlimited powers over an unlimited area, the +company lost little time in sending out ships and establishing +factories. In addition to Fort Rupert at the south-eastern end of +James Bay, Fort Hayes, or Moose Fort, was constructed at the +south-western end of the bay, at the mouth of the Moose river; and +some distance to the north of the latter fort, Fort Albany was placed +at the outlet of the Albany river. Voyages were also made to the +mouth of the Nelson river, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, but no +attempt was made to plant a factory there till the year 1682. + +[Sidenote: _Collision between French and English in Hudson Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _A Canadian company formed._] + +It was in that year and at Fort Nelson, as it was called, that French +and English first came into collision in the far North. Radisson and +Des Groseilliers, who had taken service with the English in +consequence of being fined by the Governor of Canada for making their +early journeys without his licence, subsequently returned to Canada, +and piloted their countrymen by sea into Hudson Bay. A company was +formed in Canada in 1682, the Compagnie du Nord, and sent out an +expedition from Quebec with these two men on board. They reached the +Nelson river; a few days before they arrived a Boston vessel appeared +on the scene, and a few days subsequently a vessel came from England, +sent by the Hudson Bay Company to build a fort. After a short +interval the French overpowered the English; but two years later, in +1684, Radisson and Des Groseilliers having in the meantime again come +back to the Hudson Bay Company, that company recovered its fort, and +the French lost their footing on Hudson Bay. + +{188} [Sidenote: _Attack made overland from Canada on the English +forts on Hudson Bay._] + +In the following year two Frenchmen passed overland from the bay to +Canada by the Abbitibbi river, Lake Temiscaming, and the Ottawa; and +it was determined to send a Canadian expedition by that route to +attack the factories of the Hudson Bay Company. The rulers of Canada +viewed with distrust English settlements to the north of New France, +as they feared and distrusted the English colonies on the southern +side, and they determined if possible to strangle them in infancy. +Denonville was now Governor of Canada; and early in the year 1686 he +dispatched a party of soldiers and Canadians to attack the forts on +Hudson Bay. It was the kind of expedition in which French Canadians +excelled, indifferent to privation and hardship, trained to toil +through ice and snow, through unknown forests, making the rivers the +highways for sleigh or canoe. Their leader was De Troyes, and with +him went three sons of the celebrated Le Moyne family, including the +most noted of them, Iberville. The Frenchmen followed the line of the +Ottawa and the Abbitibbi, and in June, 1686, surprised and took Fort +Hayes on the outlet of the Moose river. Crossing the eastern end of +James Bay on the floating ice, they next reached Fort Rupert, seized +a ship which was moored in front of the fort, and overpowered the +fort itself. The sea was by this time open to navigation, and in +canoes and the captured vessel the victorious Frenchmen turned west +to attack Fort Albany. There was here some semblance of siege, but +the little English garrison was forced to capitulate, and leaving +Iberville in charge of the fort, which was renamed Fort St. Anne, De +Troyes returned in November to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Complaints of the Hudson Bay Company against the seizure +of their forts._] + +[Sidenote: _The English forts recovered._] + +This successful raid was organized and carried out in a time of peace +between the English and French Crowns; and, when the Englishmen who +had been taken prisoners at the forts found their way home, the +Hudson Bay Company laid the case before the Government, demanding +satisfaction for the wrong done and restitution of their property. +{189} There was little likelihood of redress while James II was King +of England. On November 16, 1686, he concluded a treaty of neutrality +with the French King, the Treaty of Whitehall; and a mixed commission +of French and English was appointed to inquire into the claims of the +company. No settlement was arrived at: in 1688 came the Revolution in +England; in 1692 the battle of La Hogue crippled the French at sea; +and at length, in 1693, an English expedition was sent to Hudson Bay +which recovered all the forts in James Bay. + +[Sidenote: _Iberville takes Port Nelson and the forts in James Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _They are recovered by the English._] + +The northernmost post of the Hudson Bay Company, the post on the +Nelson river, or rather on the Hayes river, which flows into the same +estuary, had not been taken by the French in their buccaneering +expedition of 1686. It was known indifferently as Port Nelson or Fort +York. It was at some distance from the forts in James Bay, and +promised to be an outlet for trade from the regions west of the great +lakes. It had been threatened by the French in 1690, and in October, +1694, the bold and restless Iberville, who had returned to Canada in +1687, appeared before it with two ships. After a short siege it +capitulated, and was renamed Fort Bourbon; and Iberville followed up +his success by recapturing the forts in James Bay. Thus, by the +middle of 1695, the French held every post in Hudson Bay. In the next +year came English ships, and all the positions were regained for +England. + +[Sidenote: _Fresh raid by Iberville._] + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Ryswick._] + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Utrecht._] + +[Sidenote: _Hudson Bay secured to England._] + +Once more, in 1697, Iberville appeared on the scene. He had in the +meantime taken Fort Pemaquid on the Acadian frontier, and overrun +Newfoundland; and starting from Placentia, with four ships of war +sent out from France, he made sail for Hudson Bay. The destination +was Port Nelson; but the vessels became separated, and with a single +ship, Iberville, when nearing the fort, came into collision with +three armed English merchantmen. The bold Frenchman closed with them, +one to three, sank one of the vessels, took a second, {190} while the +third made its escape. A heavy gale came on, his own ship was driven +ashore and broken up; but landing with his men, he was rejoined +shortly afterwards by the rest of the French squadron, and laying +siege to the fort compelled it to capitulate. This feat of arms took +place early in September, 1697; on the twentieth of the same month +the Peace of Ryswick was signed, and under its terms the French were +placed in possession of all the Hudson Bay forts, with the exception +of Fort Albany.[15] They held them down to the year 1713, when the +Peace of Utrecht in no uncertain words gave back to Great Britain 'to +be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson, +together with all lands, seas, seacoasts, rivers and places situate +in the same Bay and Straits and which belong thereunto, no tracts of +land or of sea being excepted, which are at present possessed by the +subjects of France.' Boundaries, which by the treaty were to be +defined, were never fixed; but no French ship appeared again with +hostile intent in Hudson Bay until the year 1782. + +[Footnote 15: The manner in which the Treaty of Ryswick worked out in +favour of the French in Hudson Bay is explained, as far as it can be +explained, in Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. iii, pp. 39-41.] + + +NOTE.--For the first part of the above chapter, see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. ii. + Sir J. BOURINOT'S _Cape Breton_ (referred to above, p. 34, note). + The same author's _Canada_, in the 'Story of the Nations' Series, + chap. vii, and + Dr. PATTERSON'S Paper on _Sir William Alexander and the Scottish + Attempt to Colonize Acadia_, published in the _Proceedings and + Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, vol. x, 1892. + +For the second part, see KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii. + +Two books have recently been published on the Hudson Bay Company, +viz: _The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company_, by GEORGE +BRYCE, M.A., LL.D., and _The Great Company (1667-1871)_, by BECKLES +WILSON. + + + + +{191} + +CHAPTER VII + +LOUISBOURG + + +[Sidenote: _Cape Breton Island under the provisions of the Peace of +Utrecht._] + +[Sidenote: _Importance of the island to France._] + +The Treaty of Utrecht provided that 'the island called Cape Breton, +as also all others both in the mouth of the river of St. Lawrence and +in the gulf of the same name, shall hereafter belong of right to the +French, and the Most Christian King shall have all manner of liberty +to fortify any place or places there.' It was an important provision. +Driven from Acadia and Newfoundland, with the reservation of certain +fishing rights along a specified part of the Newfoundland coast, the +French would have lost the seaboard altogether but for the possession +of these islands at the entrance of the river of Canada. + +A French eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745 described, in +a contemporary pamphlet, the value of Cape Breton Island to France. +It was used, he says, to provide a place for the French settlers who +were leaving Newfoundland after the cession of that island to Great +Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, but 'this was not all. It was +necessary that we should retain a position that would make us at all +times masters of the entrance to the River which leads to New +France.'[1] Similar testimony to its value is given by an English +writer. 'Cape Breton Island is a subject no good Englishman can write +or read with pleasure. The giving of it to the French by the Treaty +of Utrecht may prove as great a loss to the Kingdom, as the Sinking +Fund amounts {192} to or even the charge of the last war.'[2] Cape +Breton, in short, kept open for France the mouth of the St. Lawrence, +and the story of New France became more than ever the story of that +river, and of the waterways which connected it with the far West, and +with the newborn French colony in Louisiana. + +[Footnote 1: _Louisbourg in 1745_, the anonymous _Lettre d'un +habitant de Louisbourg_, translated and edited by Professor Wrong +(Toronto, 1897), p. 26.] + +[Footnote 2: Oldmixon's _British Empire in America_ (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 37.] + +From 1713, for thirty years, there was nominally peace between Great +Britain and France. In 1743, English troops assisted the Austrians +and defeated the French at the battle of Dettingen; but war was not +formally proclaimed between the two powers until the following year, +1744, when it lasted for four years, being terminated by the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the years of so-called peace, French +Governors, French priests, French explorers and border leaders lost +no opportunity of strengthening the French position in North America. + +[Sidenote: _Controversy as to the boundaries of Acadia._] + +Intrigue and covert force were notably at work in Acadia. By the +Treaty of Utrecht, King Louis ceded to Great Britain 'all Nova Scotia +or Accadie with its ancient boundaries.' What were the ancient +boundaries? They were left to be demarcated by commissioners of the +two nations; but no demarcation ever took place, and meanwhile French +on the one hand, and English on the other, construed the term +'Acadia' according to their respective interests. While Acadia was +French, the French widened, the English narrowed, the area to which +the name might apply. When Acadia became English, the contention was +reversed; and the French, who had included in Acadia a large extent +of mainland, claimed that the peninsula of Nova Scotia alone was +covered by the terms of the treaty. + +[Sidenote: _The Acadians and French intrigues._] + +Within that peninsula there were, at the time when the treaty was +signed, some two thousand French settlers--a simple peasantry, +uneducated, priest-ridden, of the same type as the _habitans_ of the +St. Lawrence; but more primitive, {193} more old-fashioned, clinging +to their homes, to their national traditions, to their faith. Under +the fourteenth article of the treaty, French subjects were given +liberty to remove themselves within one year; if they preferred to +remain and become subjects of the British Crown, they were to enjoy +the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion 'as far as the laws +of Great Britain do allow the same.' The Acadians themselves did not +wish to leave their farms and homesteads, nor did the English, when +they took over Acadia, wish to lose the white settlers of the +peninsula, who might reasonably be expected to become loyal and +valuable citizens. The French authorities, on the other hand, desired +to remove them in order to populate their own territories and deplete +the ceded lands. Thus from the outset the intention of the treaty was +frustrated, and the unfortunate Acadians suffered between two +masters. As years went on, English and French views alike changed. +The French, having by priestly influence rendered the Acadians +thoroughly disaffected to English rule, and having year by year +stronger hope of recovering Acadia, wished the Acadians to remain +where they were, a growing hostile population around a weak English +garrison. The English, on the other hand, seeing the impossibility of +securing the loyalty of the peasantry, wished to be rid of them, and +in the end deported large numbers of them to other lands. + +[Sidenote: _Annapolis neglected by the home Government._] + +The main agents of mischief were on the one side French priests, +political and religious fanatics, who threatened and cajoled their +flocks; on the other the British Government, which left Acadia to +take care of itself. It is deplorable to read the accounts given of +Annapolis, as Port Royal was now called, and of the state of its +garrison. What should have been the strong and thriving capital of a +British province, remained for years nothing more than practically a +very weak outpost in the enemy's country. + +[Sidenote: _The Acadians and the oath of allegiance._] + +A long time passed in vainly attempting to make the {194} Acadians +swear allegiance to the King of England. At length, in 1730, Governor +Philipps reported that he had succeeded in persuading each adult +member of the population to 'promise and solemnly swear on the faith +of a Christian that I will be thoroughly faithful and will truly obey +his Majesty George II'; but the adoption of this form of words had +little effect on the minds or the conduct of the French settlers. +Strength to insist on loyalty and to punish traitorous dealing was +not supplied from home; the Governors were unable to enforce their +proclamations, and the governed were irritated by orders which were +not carried into effect. Meanwhile, from 1720 onwards, Louisbourg +grew up in artificial strength, the Dunkirk of America, the most +powerful fortress on the Atlantic coast. Money and soldiers came out +from France, while the British possession almost under the guns of +the fortress was starved and neglected. To reconquer Acadia for the +French, writes the eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, +'it was only necessary to appear before this English colony ... and +to land a few men'; and yet in 1745 Acadia had been in British +keeping for thirty-five years. + +[Sidenote: _The Abenaki Indians._] + +On the mainland, French policy was the same as in the Acadian +peninsula, nominally to keep the peace, secretly to incite the +natives to war. For generations the Abenaki Indians had raided at +frequent intervals the New England frontier; yet fear and the +necessities of trade might at length have kept them quiet, had it not +been for the instigation of the Canadian Government and its priestly +agents. In 1713, and again in 1717, Abenaki chiefs had come to terms +with Massachusetts; but there could be no peace as long as the +savages were carefully instructed that the English were the enemies +of their religion and the robbers of their lands. The savages were in +truth in a hard case. Peace meant the aggressive growth of the white +men's settlements, inevitable encroachment on the red men's heritage. +War {195} meant cutting off the New England trade, and inadequate +support from France. They sent to Quebec to ask what aid they might +expect from Canada. 'I will send you in secret,' said the Governor +Vaudreuil, 'tomahawks, powder, and shot.' It was such a reply as the +English Governors of New York had been wont to give to the Iroquois; +and the Abenakis, like the Iroquois, were little satisfied with it. +To fight the battles of France while the French looked on, was not +what the Indians wished or understood. Yet their priests taught them +to do it, and the Canadian Government stiffened their resolution by +sending in mission Indians from Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Sebastian Rasle._] + +[Sidenote: _His mission destroyed and himself killed._] + +[Sidenote: _Peace between the Indians and New Englanders._] + +The foremost French emissary among the Abenaki Indians at this time +was a Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rasle, keen in controversy, +uncompromising in zeal, a bitter foe of the English, but not so +utterly inhuman as were some of his colleagues. His mission was among +the Norridgewocks, high up on the Kennebec river, where the head +waters of that river flowing down to the Atlantic are at no very +great distance from the Chaudičre river which runs into the St. +Lawrence. Against this place, in August, 1724, a strong body of men +was sent from Massachusetts. They rowed up the Kennebec in +whaleboats, and, landing at some distance below the Indian village, +marched on it, and took it by surprise. Rasle was shot dead, the +Indians were killed or dispersed, their homes were burnt to the +ground; and the expedition returned in safety, having struck a strong +and relentless blow at a centre of French and Indian hostility to the +English colonists. War went on for some little time longer, and the +English raided the tribes of the Penobscot. At length, in 1726, the +Indians came to terms; and a peace was concluded which lasted for +many years, dépôts being established at various points, where the +natives could to their advantage barter furs with the traders of New +England. + +[Sidenote: _The Indians were the tools of the French Government and +its agents._] + +The principal point to notice in the dreary record of {196} murder +and pillage is the attitude of the Canadian Government and their +superiors in France. Letters were intercepted, proving beyond dispute +that the Indians were acting under the direct encouragement of the +French authorities. In time of peace and nominal friendship the old +struggle was ever going on. North America was a chessboard. On the +French side the Indians were in front, pawns in the game. Behind them +was the King temporarily in check, bishops or their representatives, +half-breed knights of tortuous movement, and the castles of +Louisbourg and Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Oswego._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Rouillé or Toronto._] + +The mouth of the Niagara river had long been held in intermittent +fashion by the French, and by 1720, in spite of jealous opposition on +the part of the Five Nation Indians, a permanent fort was built +there. The English in their turn, in the year 1727, established and +garrisoned a trading fort at Oswego, on the southern shore of Lake +Ontario,[3] Burnet, the Governor of New York, finding the necessary +funds, as the colonial Legislature would not vote the money. The +establishment of this station was a serious blow to French trade, +nullifying to a large extent the advantage of holding Niagara. In +vain the Canadians tried to incite the Five Nations to destroy it; +and in vain, in 1749, they planted a rival post, Fort Rouillé, at +Toronto,[4] on the other side of the lake, to command the direct +route to Lake Huron by Lake Simcoe. To Oswego the Indians brought +their furs, and the traffic enriched the Iroquois and their English +neighbours in New York. + +[Footnote 3: See the letter from Governor Burnet to the Board of +Trade, dated New York, May 9, 1727: 'I have this spring sent up +workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, +at the mouth of the Onnondage river, where our principal trade with +the far Nations is carried on. I have obtained the consent of the Six +Nations to build it.' Papers relating to Oswego in O'Callaghan's +_Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, p. 447.] + +[Footnote 4: The name of Toronto appears before the founding of this +fort. On the old maps, i.e. on Delisle's map of Canada, published in +1703, Lake Simcoe appears as Lake Toronto.] + +[Sidenote: _Crown Point._] + +But, menacing as was this outpost on the lake to the {197} commercial +interests of Canada, greater danger threatened both New England and +New York from another move made by the French. Far up on Lake +Champlain, at the point where the lake narrows into a wide river, +stretching many miles to the south, there is a small isthmus on the +western side standing out boldly in the lake. It was known to the +English as Crown Point; and here in 1731, at the instance of a +well-known French officer, the Chevalier Saint Luc de la Corne, the +French built a fort commanding the strait, and named it Fort St. +Frederic. The English colonies protested, but did not use united +force to back their protests; and the position remained, fortified in +time of peace, an evidence of French claims and a base for future +attack. + +[Sidenote: _War between England and France._] + +[Sidenote: _An outpost at Canso overpowered by the French, who +threaten Annapolis._] + +War began again in March, 1744, and in May the French commander at +Louisbourg took action. There was a small fishing village at Canso, +on the narrow arm of the sea which divides Nova Scotia from Cape +Breton Island. It was guarded by a blockhouse, garrisoned by about +eighty English soldiers. A far stronger force from Louisbourg came +against it, the garrison surrendered, and the place was burnt. The +Frenchman who commanded the expedition, Duvivier, a descendant of La +Tour, was then sent to attack Annapolis, and appeared before it in +August. Ill fortified, ill garrisoned, the little town had at least a +good English officer in charge--Major Mascarene, of Huguenot descent. +The French offered terms of capitulation, threatening the arrival of +more troops from Louisbourg; but these reinforcements did not arrive, +the Acadians did not rise in mass, and in September the besiegers +disappeared, having effected nothing. + +[Sidenote: _New England and Acadia._] + +Neglected by the British Government, Acadia was valued by New +England. Massachusetts had in past years taken and held Port Royal, +and knew well that English interests in America were not compatible +with the French regaining the Acadian peninsula. The taking of Canso, +the attempt {198} to take Port Royal or Annapolis, roused the +'Bostonnais,' and led to an enterprise second to none in colonial +history. + +[Sidenote: _William Shirley._] + +The Governor of Massachusetts at the time was William Shirley. A +Sussex man, son of a merchant in the City of London, bred to the law, +he had gone out to Boston in 1731, and in ten years' time, by +judicious pushing, became Governor of the colony. He was a layman +with military instincts, and, taking up the rôle of Cato, never +ceased to preach to the ministers at home and to his fellow colonists +on the spot, that Canada must be conquered, and the French driven +from North America. His policy was good and clearsighted, his +military ability was of no large order; but, like William Phipps, +while he loved himself, he loved his country also; and eventually, +after falling under a cloud, and being relegated to the government of +the Bahamas, he came back to end his days in Massachusetts as a +private citizen, and was buried at Boston in 1771. + +[Sidenote: _His scheme for attacking Louisbourg._] + +To this enterprising man, it is said, the idea of attacking +Louisbourg with colonial forces was suggested by William Vaughan, a +New Englander, interested in the fishing trade on the coast of Maine. +The scheme seemed a wild one. A fortress strong, as far as the newest +military skill and unlimited money could strengthen it, was to be +attacked and taken by untrained colonists. Yet there were solid hopes +of success, and the dream came true. The English prisoners, carried +from Canso to Louisbourg, had been sent on to Boston, and told of the +actual condition of the French. The garrison at Louisbourg was not +very numerous: they were ill commanded and mutinous. If the +fortifications were formidable, within them were the elements of +weakness. + +[Sidenote: _The scheme adopted by Massachusetts._] + +[Sidenote: _William Pepperell._] + +Shirley called the Massachusetts Assembly together in secret session, +and propounded his scheme for an expedition against Louisbourg. The +scheme was rejected. Soon afterwards a petition in its favour was +presented from Boston and other coast towns: the question came again +before the {199} Assembly, and the proposals were carried by one +vote. All the English colonies down to and including Pennsylvania +were invited to help; but, though New York sent a little money and a +few guns, the enterprise was practically left to New England alone. +Massachusetts contributed about 3,000 men, Connecticut, 500; and +William Pepperell, shipbuilder and merchant of Kittery Point, Maine, +was named as commander. He was of Devonshire descent, a colonel of +militia, and, though he had little military experience, he was a man +of good judgement and common sense. + +[Sidenote: _Admiral Warren._] + +A request had been sent to England for ships of war, and Warren, the +English commodore at Antigua in the West Indies, was asked to bring +his squadron. When the message reached him, he was without orders +from home, and refused to sail; but almost immediately afterwards +permission came, and he left at once for the North American coast, +joining the expedition, which had already started, at their +rendezvous at Canso. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition starts._] + +It was on March 24, 1745 that the New Englanders left Boston; on or +about April 4 the transports began to arrive at Canso. They carried +men who knew little or nothing of scientific warfare, and for whom +amateur strategists had drawn up fantastic plans of campaign; but +they were colonists of tough English breed, their Puritan +proclivities had been strengthened by the Methodist revival, and the +great preacher, George Whitfield, had given to Pepperell for the +motto of the expedition 'Nil desperandum Christo duce.' + +[Illustration: Map of Louisbourg] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg and its surroundings._] + +'Louisbourg is built upon a tongue of land which stretches out into +the sea and gives the town an oblong shape. It is about half a league +in circumference.'[5] The tongue of land in question is part of a +larger peninsula running out to the south and east from the coast of +Cape Breton Island. The little promontory, which was covered by the +{200} town and fortifications of Louisbourg, has an almost due +easterly direction, and it is prolonged to the east by reefs ending +in a small rocky island, on which the French erected a battery to +command the mouth of the harbour, the channel being about half a mile +wide. The harbour lay to the north and north-east of the town; on the +other side was the ocean. To the west of the whole peninsula, of +which the Louisbourg promontory was but a small part, is a large +semicircular bay, known as Gabarus Bay. Surrounded by the sea on all +sides but one, on that one side--the western side--the town was +strongly protected by a ditch and rampart, outside which was marshy +ground. Moreover, almost due north of the town, on the edge of the +harbour, was a battery, known as the Grand Battery, over against the +Island Battery which has been already mentioned. Nature, French +money, and French engineers had combined to make a stronghold, which +seemed almost impregnable. + +[Footnote 5: From the anonymous _Lettre d'un habitant de Louisbourg_, +translated by Professor Wrong, pp. 27, 28.] + +[Sidenote: _The French garrison._] + +The garrison consisted of between 500 and 600 regular troops, with +1,300 to 1,400 militia.[6] Among the regulars were Swiss soldiers, +who had mutinied at the preceding Christmas time and infected their +French comrades with the spirit of insubordination. They mutinied, it +was said, about their rations, as to the 'butter and bacon' which the +King supplied. In Louisbourg, as elsewhere in Canada, peculation was +rife, and officers and commissaries made profit at the privates' +expense. The Governor, Duquesnel, had died in the previous October. +His successor, Duchambon, was not the man for a crisis. The walls +were there and brave men behind them, but confidence in a determined +and prescient leader was wanting; and, as the consequence of +maladministration, we read that 'the regular soldiers were +distrusted, so that it was necessary to charge the inhabitants with +the most dangerous duties.' + +[Footnote 6: It is difficult to make out from the _Lettre d'un +habitant_ whether or not the 1,300 to 1,400 men included the +regulars, but probably not.] + +{201} [Sidenote: _The English land in Gabarus Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _The Grand Battery occupied by the English._] + +Having waited for about three weeks at Canso, and rebuilt and +garrisoned the blockhouse, the New Englanders went on to their +destination. On April 30 the transports sailed into Gabarus Bay, +making for Flat Point, three miles due west of Louisbourg. A small +French force was detached to oppose them; but the boats made good +their landing, two miles further to the west, at a little inlet +called Freshwater Cove. Here the whole force of 4,000 men was +disembarked; and, two days later, a party under Vaughan, having +marched behind the town, found the Grand Battery deserted and +occupied it, turning its guns in due course upon their rightful +owners. The precipitate abandonment of this battery by the French, on +the ground that its defences were inadequate, proved a fatal blunder, +giving the besiegers a firm position in the rear of the town, whereas +the direct attack was over swamp and marsh. + +[Sidenote: _Beginning of the siege._] + +[Sidenote: _Capture of the 'Vigilant.'_] + +The siege now began in earnest. Warren's squadron, which was at a +later stage reinforced from England, blockaded the harbour, and on +May 19 achieved an important success in capturing the _Vigilant_, a +large French ship of war, whose supplies of food and ammunition, +destined for the garrison, passed instead into the hands of the +besiegers. Warren could not however enter the harbour, as long as the +Island Battery commanded the entrance. + +[Sidenote: _Spirit of the New Englanders._] + +The bulk of the work fell on the land force, and well they did it. +Ill clothed, ill housed, suffering so much from exposure and +privations, that at one time out of 4,000 men little more than +one-half were fit for duty, without transport, dragging the guns +themselves across the morasses, without skilled engineers, and with +hardly any trained gunners, they none the less pushed the siege with +boisterous audacity, mingling religious fervour with schoolboy +recklessness. They fought better in this way--their own way--than by +adhering to strict military rule, and their commander, William +Pepperell, knew his men. His was a difficult task. {202} There was +some little friction between the King's man and the colonist, but, on +the whole, Warren on the sea and Pepperell on the land worked in +harmony, due in no small measure to the tact and good sense of the +New England commander. + +[Sidenote: _The besiegers threatened from the mainland._] + +There was a further danger to the besiegers, of attack from the +mainland side. Canadians and Indians were reported to be marching to +the relief of the garrison. They were a party sent from Canada to +besiege Annapolis, who drew off and marched for Louisbourg on +receiving an urgent message for help from Duchambon, but arrived only +in time to hear that the town had surrendered and to retreat again in +safety into Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Attempt on the Island Battery, which fails._] + +As long as the Island Battery remained intact, it was or seemed +impossible to attack from the sea. Accordingly an attempt was made to +take it. At midnight, on May 26, a storming party put out in boats +from the Grand Battery, and rowed to the strongly fortified rock on +which the Island Battery stood. The result was an entire failure. +Firing under cover, the French wrecked many of the boats, and shot +down the soldiers who landed. The English lost 189 men, being nearly +half the attacking force, 119 of whom were taken prisoners. It was +clear that the battery could not be taken by assault, and the +besiegers proceeded gradually to cripple it by mounting guns on +Lighthouse Point, being the opposite side of the narrow entrance to +the harbour. These guns did good execution, and, while the Island +Battery lost its sting, the defences of the town on the land side +were steadily weakened by the besiegers' fire. + +[Sidenote: _Final assault threatened._] + +[Sidenote: _The town capitulates._] + +At length Warren and Pepperell decided that the time had come to +assault the town simultaneously by land and sea. The French saw what +was intended; they were worn with fatigue and anxiety; their houses +were riddled with shot and shell; and the townspeople urged the +Governor to capitulate. Fair terms were granted by the English +commanders, who knew that their own position was none too secure. The +{203} garrison was allowed to march out with the honours of war, and +safe transport to France was guaranteed to the officers and men, as +well as to the inhabitants of Louisbourg, on the promise that none +should bear arms against England for the space of a year. On these +conditions Duchambon surrendered, and on June 17, after a siege of +forty-seven days, the English became masters of Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _Warren and Pepperell._] + +The capitulation was made jointly to Pepperell and Warren. The French +eye-witness of the siege is at pains to distinguish between them; for +Warren he has nothing but praise, for Pepperell the reverse. 'Mr. +Warren,' he writes, 'is a young man about thirty-five years old, very +handsome, and full of the noblest sentiments.' Against Pepperell he +brings charges of bad faith in carrying out the terms of the +capitulation, adding, 'What could we expect from a man who, it is +said, is the son of a shoemaker at Boston?' As a matter of fact, +Pepperell, on occupying Louisbourg, kept his undisciplined men well +in hand, much to their disgust, and little loot rewarded their weeks +of toil and suffering. To Warren's sailors, on the other hand, there +accrued a large amount of prize-money; for, by the device of keeping +the French flag flying after the surrender of the town had taken +place, various French vessels were decoyed and captured. + +[Sidenote: _The success mainly due to the colonists._] + +In after years, when the American colonies had taken arms against the +mother country, men argued as to whether the taking of Louisbourg was +due to the English sailors and their commander, or to the colonists. +As a matter of fact, neither without the other could have achieved +success, but the enterprise was conceived by the colonists, on the +colonists fell the brunt of the fighting, and to them, not to +England, the chief credit was due. 'The enterprise,' says the French +writer already quoted, 'was less that of the nation or of the King +than of the inhabitants of New England alone.' It was in truth a +wonderful feat, and till our own times it was never sufficiently +appreciated. + +{204} [Sidenote: _Reception of the news in England, and at Boston._] + +There was rejoicing in England; but England in the year 1745, the +year of the Jacobite rebellion, had other sights before her eyes, and +other sounds in the ears of her people. It may well have been, too, +that joy at success over the enemy of the nation was alloyed by +uneasy and unworthy consciousness of the growing strength and +self-confidence of the New England beyond the sea. But to Boston the +tidings were tidings of unmixed joy and pride. The Lord had risen to +fight for His chosen people, the dour and stubborn Puritan, and the +stronghold of the idolaters was laid low. + +'Good Lord,' said the old and usually long-winded Chaplain Moody, in +his grace before dinner at the end of the siege, 'we have so much to +thank Thee for that time will be too short, and we must leave it for +eternity.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: Quoted in Parkman's _A Half Century of Conflict_ (1892 +ed.), vol. ii, p. 153.] + +[Sidenote: _Sermon at Boston on the event._] + +A General Thanksgiving was held at Boston on Thursday July 18, 1745. +At the South Church in that city the Rev. Thomas Prince, one of the +pastors, preached on the great New England victory. He took for his +text 'This is the Lord's doing: it is marvellous in our eyes'; and +his sermon, which has been preserved to us,[8] well illustrates the +view which the Puritans of Massachusetts took of their success. The +hand of the Lord was visible to them in every detail of the 'most +adventurous enterprise against the French settlements at Cape Breton +and their exceeding strong city of Louisbourg, for warlike power the +pride and terror of these northern seas.' The preacher recounted the +advantages which the island gave to France, its abundance of pit +coal, its commodious harbours, 'its happy situation in {205} the +centre of our fishery at the entrance of the Bay and River of +Canada.' He noted the natural and artificial strength of the walled +city, added to for thirty years, until Louisbourg became 'the Dunkirk +of North America, and in some respects of greater importance.' He +traced the finger of God in the circumstances preliminary to and +attending its capture; how the British prisoners, carried to +Louisbourg, on their return to Boston brought information 'whereby we +came to be more acquainted with their situation and the proper places +of landing and attacking'; how the New Englander had accounts 'of the +uneasiness of the Switzers there for want of pay and provision'; how +the weather was fair, the men were willing, supplies were plentiful; +how God guided the decision of the Court of Representatives, and +timed the arrival of 'the brave and active Commodore Warren, a great +friend to these Plantations.' The landing, the taking of the Grand +Battery, the 'happy harmony between our various officers,' even +disease, reverse, toil and labour, all were signs of a particular +Providence working out His great design and leading His people into a +place of shelter. Thus was Louisbourg taken 'by means of so small a +number, less than 4,000 land men, unused to war, undisciplined, and +that had never seen a siege in their lives.' 'As it was,' said the +preacher, referring to the Treaty of Utrecht, 'one of the chief +disgraces of Queen Anne's reign to resign this island to the French, +it is happily one of the glories of King George II's to restore it to +the British empire.' The measure of joy at the taking of Louisbourg +must also have been the measure of disappointment at its subsequent +retrocession by the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. + +[Footnote 8: _Extraordinary events, the doings of God, and marvellous +in pious eyes_. Illustrated in a sermon at the South Church in Boston +(New England), on the General Thanksgiving, Thursday, July 18, 1745. +Occasioned by taking the city of Louisbourg, on the isle of Cape +Breton, by New England soldiers, assisted by a British squadron. By +Thomas Prince, M.A. Pamphlet, Boston and London, 5th ed. 1746. +Dedicated to H. E. William Shirley.] + +[Sidenote: _Subsequent career of Pepperell_] + +Of the two men who led the English to victory on this memorable +occasion, Pepperell was made a baronet--the first colonist to receive +that honour: he lived to help his countrymen still further in their +struggle with France. Through his exertions a royal regiment was +raised in {206} America, and the New England shipping yards added a +fine frigate to the British navy. He died in 1759, holding the +commission of Lieutenant-General in the British army. + +[Sidenote: _and Warren._] + +Warren, in 1747, took part, as second in command, in Anson's naval +victory over the French off Cape Finisterre, and in the same year he +was elected member of Parliament for Westminster. He died in 1752, at +the age of forty-nine, one of the richest commoners in England; and a +monument to him stands in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. It +tells that he was a 'Knight of the Bath, a Vice Admiral of the Red +Squadron of the fleet, and member of the City and Liberty of +Westminster'; but it does not tell how close was his sympathy with +the English in America, married, as he was, to an American lady, and +owner of estates in Manhattan Island and on the Mohawk river; nor, +amid the verbiage of eighteenth-century adulation, is there any +mention of the part which he took in helping the New England +colonists to conquer Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _The New Englanders garrison Louisbourg._] + +[Sidenote: _Relieved by regular troops._] + +The New Englanders garrisoned Louisbourg for the better part of a +year. The soldiers were discontented, with some reason. Their success +had brought them little or no profit: they wanted to be back on their +farms: the town which they occupied was dismantled and insanitary; +pestilence broke out, and 'the people died like rotten sheep.'[9] +Shirley came up from Boston to keep the soldiers quiet, but not till +April, 1746, were the colonists relieved by regular troops, sent from +Gibraltar. Warren then took sole command for a short time, being +succeeded by another sailor, Commodore Knowles. + +[Footnote 9: Quoted in Parkman's _A Half Century of Conflict_, vol. +ii, p. 166.] + +[Sidenote: _Preparations for invasion of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The plan miscarries._] + +Shirley intended the capture of Louisbourg to be but the beginning of +the end, the end being the conquest of Canada. The French Government, +on the other hand, were determined to recover their fortress. Each +was for the time disappointed. In the early months of 1746, the +colonies, {207} elated by their recent and great success, cheerfully +answered to the call for soldiers to invade Canada. The home +Government promised eight battalions, and had them ready for +embarkation at Portsmouth; the plan of campaign--the usual plan of +dual invasion by the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain--was duly +outlined; Quebec was thrown into a state of alarm and hurried +preparation, when, as so often before, all came to nothing, owing to +the shuffling and delays of the ministers of the Crown, in this +instance the incompetent Duke of Newcastle. The troops destined for +America were diverted to Europe; one more opportunity was lost; one +more nail was driven into the coffin of colonial loyalty. Realizing, +as the autumn of 1746 drew on, that an invasion of Canada was now out +of the question, Shirley determined to attack the French advanced +position at Crown Point with the New York and Massachusetts levies; +but this plan, too, was frustrated by news of a coming fleet from +France, and the fears of Quebec were transferred to Boston. + +[Sidenote: _Failure of a counter expedition by the French._] + +The fleet in question left La Rochelle at midsummer in the year 1746. +It consisted of twenty-one ships of war and a number of transports, +carrying 3,000 troops. The whole was under the command of the Duc +d'Anville. Disaster in the form of tempest and pestilence attended +the expedition from first to last. The ships were scattered on the +ocean, and it was not until the end of September that the admiral, +with three ships, reached Chebucto (now Halifax) harbour. Here, while +waiting for the rest of the fleet, he died; and the vice-admiral, +D'Estournel, arriving immediately afterwards, saw no hope for the +shattered expedition but to return to France. His officers, on the +other hand, urged an attack on Annapolis, and D'Estournel, in a fit +of mortification and mental distress, put an end to his life. The +command now devolved on the Marquis de la Jonquičre, a naval officer, +who had gone out on board the fleet to take over the {208} government +of Canada. He waited into October at Chebucto, the Acadians brought +him provisions, but his men still died of disease day by day. He +sailed for Annapolis, but encountered fresh storms off Cape Sable; +and at length the miserable remains of the fleet made their way back +to France, the loss of life having been, it was said, 2,500 men. In +the following year, 1747, La Jonquičre again set out from France in +another fleet, but again he failed to reach Canada; the ships were +encountered and defeated off Cape Finisterre by Anson and Warren, and +the outgoing Governor of Canada was carried a prisoner to England. + +[Sidenote: _Canadian raids._] + +The main operations of the war were supplemented by the usual series +of raids from Canada. In the winter of 1745, Fort Saratoga, +thirty-six miles from Albany, was attacked and taken by French and +Indians from Crown Point; the place was burnt, and its inhabitants +were carried into captivity. It was again reoccupied by the English, +but in 1747 was evacuated and burnt as indefensible, to the disgust +of the Five Nation Indians, who looked upon the proceeding as +evidence of weakness and cowardice. Another successful French attack +was made, in August, 1746, on Fort Massachusetts, standing on an +eastern tributary of the Hudson, on the line of communication between +Albany and the Connecticut river. In short, for three years, the +borders of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were harried by +Canadians and Indians, using the French fort at Crown Point as their +base. + +[Sidenote: _French success at Grand Pré._] + +But the most notable success in this petty warfare was achieved on +the Acadian frontier. The isthmus of Chignecto, which connects the +Nova Scotian peninsula with the mainland, was, at the time of +D'Anville's expedition, held by a comparatively strong force of +Canadians under De Ramesay. Fearing for the safety of Annapolis and +the rest of Acadia, Shirley sent reinforcements from Massachusetts, +consisting of some 500 men under Colonel Noble, who in December, +{209} 1746, reached the Basin of Mines, and occupied the village of +Grand Pré. They were quartered throughout the village, taking no +sufficient precautions against surprise; Ramesay therefore, on +hearing of the position, determined towards the latter end of January +to attack them. He had with him the best of the Canadian partisan +leaders; and unable, owing to an accident, to take personal charge of +the expedition, he placed the command in the hands of Coulon de +Villiers. + +In the depth of winter, with sledges and snow-shoes, the French set +out; they started from the isthmus on January 23, on February 10 they +were on the outskirts of Grand Pré. Under cover of night, one party +and another attacked the detached houses in which the English were +lodged; Colonel Noble and over seventy of his followers were killed; +sixty were wounded, fifty-four were taken prisoners. The rest +capitulated, on condition of safe return to Annapolis; and on +February 14 they marched out, leaving Grand Pré in the hands of the +French, who in their turn shortly afterwards retired to their old +position at Chignecto. It was a brilliant feat of arms, but, like +most of these border attacks, had no lasting effect. Grand Pré was in +a few weeks' time reoccupied by the English; and not long afterwards +the French retired from the Acadian frontier into Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg given back to France._] + +The war, known in history as the War of the Austrian Succession, had +brought to none of the combatants much honour or profit. On the +continent the Austrians and their English allies met with little +success, on the sea the French were equally unsuccessful. The end was +a peace, as between England and France, based on the principle of +mutual restitution, such a peace as left the seeds of future war. +England gave back Louisbourg and Cape Breton Island, France gave back +Madras, which had surrendered in 1746 to Labourdonnais. The treaty +contained the somewhat humiliating {210} provision, that English +hostages should be given to France until the restitution of +Louisbourg had actually taken place. + +[Sidenote: _Foundation of Halifax._] + +[Sidenote: _The peace from the English and from the colonial point of +view._] + +In July, 1749, the French re-entered their fortress; and in the same +year a large body of settlers was sent out by the British Government +to Chebucto harbour, where the city of Halifax was founded. The +settlement was designed to be a rival to Louisbourg. Its foundation +was evidence that the Imperial Government was at length not wholly +indifferent to the value of Acadia; and Halifax is almost unique, +among English cities in America, in having owed its origin to the +direct action of the State. But no founding of new townships, we may +well imagine, could compensate the New Englanders for losing the +fruits of their victory. It is said that the first answer of King +George II, when pressed to give back Louisbourg to France was that it +belonged not to him but to the people of Boston. If these were his +words, he spoke truly; the Massachusetts men had won the town, and +England gave it away. Yet on no other terms could peace be secured; +and it is not easy to pass a fair criticism on the transaction. Then, +as now, England had to reckon with conflicting interests within her +Empire. Then, as now, she had self-governing colonies which +necessarily did not see eye to eye on all points with the mother +country. The horizon of New England was bounded by the Atlantic, and +the fate of a factory in the East Indies, or even international +arrangements on the continent of Europe, were beyond the colonists' +ken. They saw only that their blood and their money had been given in +vain, and that the fortress, which they had wrested from France, was +hers again. English statesmen, on the other hand, looked east as well +as west; and near home, across the Channel, was the spectacle of +campaigns that brought more loss than gain. As successful war in +Europe had given Acadia to the English, so want of success in the +{211} same quarter reacted on America. The account was made up, the +balance was struck, and the retrocession of Louisbourg was the price +of peace. But it was a heavy price to pay, for it seemed to have been +paid by the American colonists alone; and, had not another war soon +followed, and Louisbourg been again taken by a general whom the +Americans loved, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle might have passed into +history as not merely a disappointment but an irretrievable disaster. + +[Sidenote: _Western discovery._] + +French exploration in North America followed, as has been seen, the +line of the lakes and the rivers. From Louisiana, in the first half +of the eighteenth century, various expeditions were made in a +westerly direction--up the Red River, the Arkansas, the Missouri, and +its tributary the Kansas river--the object of the French explorers +being to enter into friendly relations with the Comanches and other +Indians of the western plains, and gradually to open up trade with +New Mexico and the city of Santa Fé; in other words, to reach Spanish +America, an object which did not commend itself to Spain. + +[Sidenote: _Knowledge gained of Lake of the Woods and Lake +Winnipeg._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort built in the Sioux country._] + +Before the year 1700, the course of the upper Mississippi was known. +Nicolas Perrot, in or about 1685, is said to have established posts +where the river widens out into Lake Pepin; and further north, French +_coureurs de bois_, or _voyageurs_, as they began to be called, +gained information of the Lake of the Woods, and of the Lac des +Assiniboines, now Lake Winnipeg. The principal Indian tribes in the +regions of the upper Mississippi were Sioux; and, with a view to +making them friends to France, and penetrating through their country +to the western sea, the Jesuit traveller Charlevoix recommended, in +1723, that a mission should be established among them. A few years +later, in 1727, a company was formed for trading in the Sioux +country, and built a new fort on Lake Pepin called, after the then +Governor of Canada, Fort Beauharnois. The Sioux, however, {212} +proved intractable neighbours, and ten years later the fort was +abandoned. + +[Sidenote: _Verendrye._] + +In 1728, there was a small French outpost at Nipigon, at the western +end of Lake Superior, on its northern side--where the river Nipigon +flows from the lake of the same name into Lake Superior. The +commander was Pierre de Varennes de la Verendrye, son of a lieutenant +of the Carignan Regiment, who had settled at and been Governor of +Three Rivers. As a young man, La Verendrye had crossed the sea to +fight in the armies of France, and had been badly wounded on the +field of Malplaquet. He lived to leave his name high in the list of +western explorers. At his distant station on Lake Superior, he heard +the stories that Indians brought, mixture of fact and fable, of +waters to the west that led to the long-sought-for sea; he offered to +follow up the clue, and, with the usual opposition from jealous +Canadian merchants, and the usual barren authority from the French +Government to explore at his own expense, in return for the grant of +a monopoly of the fur trade to the west and north of Lake Superior, +he gave the rest of his life to western discovery. + +[Sidenote: _The water-parting on the west of Lake Superior._] + +As the water-parting between the basin of the St. Lawrence and that +of the Mississippi is hardly marked by any height of land, so the +divide between the chain of lakes which feed the St. Lawrence and the +more westerly waters, of which Lake Winnipeg is the centre, is a +slight rise of ground which it is difficult to distinguish on the +maps. A low range of hills runs round the western end of Lake +Superior, at the highest point not more than 1,000 feet above the +level of the lake. These uplands separate the tributaries of Lake +Superior and the St. Lawrence from the feeders of Lake Winnipeg. +There were two routes across the divide, one leaving Lake Superior at +Thunder Bay, near the point where Port Arthur now stands, and +following for a short distance the present line of the Canadian +Pacific Railway; {213} the other a little further south, leaving the +lake at or near Pigeon river, and going westward along the present +boundary line between Canada and the United States. On this latter +route was the Grand Portage, by which the _voyageurs_ crossed the +water-parting at about sixty miles distance from Lake Superior, and +reached Rainy Lake. Rainy Lake drains into the Lake of the Woods, and +the Lake of the Woods drains into Lake Winnipeg. This last great +lake, fed by the Saskatchewan, the Assiniboine, the Red River, and +many other rivers and lakes, finds its outlet by the Nelson river to +Hudson Bay, and a chain of posts carried from Lake Superior to Lake +Winnipeg would tend to divert the western fur trade from Hudson Bay +to the St. Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Verendrye's journeys and forts._] + +[Sidenote: _His sons near the Rocky mountains._] + +In the summer of 1731, La Verendrye started west by the Grand +Portage; and in the next eight or nine years established posts along +the water line, from Rainy Lake to where the Saskatchewan river +enters Lake Winnipeg from the north-west. One of these forts or +stations was Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine river, which formed the +starting-point for an advance over the western plains through what is +now the State of Dakota. In 1742, two of his sons made their way from +the Assiniboine to the Missouri, crossed the latter river, and, +traversing the prairies in a westerly and south-westerly direction, +reached the country drained by the tributaries of the Yellowstone +river. How far they went is matter of conjecture, and doubt is thrown +on their claim to have been the first discoverers of the Rocky +mountains. It is stated that, on January 1, 1743, they came in sight +of high mountains, which are supposed to have been the Bighorn range +in Wyoming and Montana, an eastern buttress of the Rocky mountains, +lying in front of the Yellowstone National Park; but no mention is +made in the story of snowy peaks, such as would indicate discovery of +the great mountain barrier of America. The explorers {214} came back +in fifteen months' time. Their father died in 1749, and, like other +pioneers, they reaped but little fruit, in honour or in profit, from +all their labours. They did not find the western sea, they possibly +did not descry the Rocky mountains; but to La Verendrye and his sons +it must be credited that a new water area in the far west was fully +made known to the world, and that trade routes were opened beyond the +basin of the St. Lawrence and the basin of the Mississippi, reaching +to the great Saskatchewan river and to the waters which flow into +Hudson Bay. + +[Sidenote: _The Rocky mountains._] + +The Rocky mountains, as we know them, were not known in the +eighteenth century.[10] In 1793 Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them +far in the North, by the line of the Peace river, and reached the +Pacific Ocean on the coast of British Columbia; but the full +revelation of the main range dates from the year 1805, when Lewis and +Clarke followed the Missouri to its source, and thence made their way +over the mountain barrier to the western sea. In short, as long as +Canada was New France, and for years afterwards, it was for trading +and for colonizing purposes a region of inland waters; it was not +also, as it now is, a land of plains, with a background of giant +mountains, and behind them the further ocean. Yet it was to reach the +further ocean that Europeans first came into Canada, and the earnest +expectation of the earliest {215} explorers has in our own time found +more than fulfilment in a Dominion from sea to sea. + +[Footnote 10: In Jeffreys' _American Atlas_, 1775, the Assiniboils +(sic) or St. Charles river is prolonged to the Pacific by a dotted +line, entitled the 'River of the West.' Below it a range of mountains +is traced from north to south, with the note, 'Hereabouts are +supposed to be the mountains of bright stones mentioned in the map of +the Indian Ochagach.' In Carver's _Travels through North America in +1766-8_, published in 1778, p. 121, the Rocky mountains 'are called +the Shining Mountains from an infinite number of chrystal stones of +amazing size with which they are covered, and which, when the sun +shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great +distance.' Morse's _American Geography_, 1794, shows the Rocky +mountains on the map of America. In the text they are called 'Shining +Mountains.' In Arrowsmith's _Map of North America_, dated 1795-6, +they are called Stony Mountains. In a later edition of 1811 the name +'Rocky Mountains' appears.] + + +NOTE.--For the substance of the above chapter, see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii; + PARKMAN'S _A Half Century of Conflict_; + Sir J. BOURINOT'S _Cape Breton_ (referred to above on p. 34, note); + and + _Louisbourg in 1745_, the anonymous _Lettre d'un habitant de + Louisbourg_, edited and translated by Professor WRONG, (Toronto, + 1897). + + + + +{216} + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PRELUDE TO THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR + + +The fifteen years from the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 to the +Peace of Paris in 1763 include the most stirring and picturesque +times in the history of Canada. They were masculine years, when, in +all parts of the world, great men did great things. They were the +years when Montcalm and Wolfe fought and died on the St. Lawrence; +when Robert Clive mastered India; when Chatham redeemed England from +littleness; and when Frederick of Prussia became known for all time +as Frederick the Great, by standing grimly foursquare against the +continent of Europe in the Seven Years' War. + +[Sidenote: _The southern colonies drawn into the struggle with +France._] + +The Seven Years' War only began in 1756; but before that date, before +war between France and England had formally been proclaimed, French +and English were fighting hard in North America. We have the same +sphere of war as before, and in large measure the same plans of +campaign, trouble and conflict in and on the borders of Acadia, siege +and capture of Louisbourg, attack up the St. Lawrence against +Quebec--at last a successful attack, and prolonged fighting along the +line of Lakes George and Champlain. The Five Nation Indians played +their part in the war, though a more subordinate part than in earlier +times; the cantons most within range of the English remaining under +English influence and being more adroitly managed than in earlier +days, while the westernmost tribes, the Senecas, inclined to the +French side. But a new feature came into the struggle, the {217} +result of the inevitable advance of white men on either side in the +course of years. The English colonies to the south of New York began +to take a more active part than formerly in the conflict with France. +The Virginians appeared on the scene, and among the Virginians was +prominent the name of George Washington. The great French scheme of +holding the rivers of North America and their basins implied that the +English colonies should not cross the Alleghany mountains. Great +schemes never allow for the ordinary every day work of nature and +man. It was certain that, as the English multiplied, they would go +further and further afield; and in due time, from Pennsylvania and +from Virginia, English traders and backwoodsmen made their way into +the valley of the Ohio. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio._] + +[Sidenote: _Celeron de Bienville._] + +The Ohio, which La Salle first made known to the world, is, as has +been pointed out, the connecting link on the inner line of the North +American waterways--starting from the confines of the St. Lawrence +basin near the shores of Lake Erie, and reaching the Mississippi +comparatively low down in its course. The outer line is much more +extensive, continuing along the great lakes until from Lake Michigan +the Mississippi is reached by the Wisconsin or the Illinois. Along +this outer line the French had hitherto worked. It took them more +directly to the far West; and, passing along it, they only skirted +instead of traversing the region where the Iroquois were in strength; +but, had they allowed the English to lay firm hold of the Ohio +valley, Canada and Louisiana would have been severed, and down the +Ohio would have come a challenge to French sovereignty over the West. +Thus it was that, in the year 1749, the year after the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, the Governor of Canada, the Marquis de la +Galissoničre, sent one of his officers, Celeron de Bienville, to +register the claims of France to the Ohio river and the lands which +it watered and drained. + +[Sidenote: _His mission to the Ohio._] + +Starting up the St. Lawrence from the island of Montreal, {218} +Celeron landed on the shores of Lake Erie; and, making a portage to +Lake Chautauqua, reached the head waters of the Ohio. Down stream he +went, into the Alleghany, down the Alleghany to where, meeting the +Monongahela, it becomes the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the confluence +of the Miami river, not far from the site of Cincinnati city. Here he +left the Ohio, and, ascending the Miami, crossed overland to the +Maumee river, on which there was a small French post. The Maumee +flows into the south-western end of Lake Erie, and down its stream he +returned to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _English intrusion into the Ohio valley._] + +At various points along the route he buried leaden plates, with +inscriptions asserting the title of the King of France to the lands +of the Ohio and its tributaries; and he affixed to trees the arms of +France on sheets of tin, to tell all comers that the French were +lords of the country. It was time that some assertion of French +claims was made in these regions. He found parties of English +traders, as he went, and the Indians showed no love for France. There +had been for some time past a migration of Indians into the Ohio +valley. Many of the Iroquois had settled there: and if among the +various races, notably among the Delawares, there were those whose +traditional sympathies were with the owners of Canada, there were +more who appreciated the present benefit of English trade. Prominent +among the friends of the English were the Indians of the Miami +confederacy, whose centre was at Pique Town or Pickawillany on the +Miami river. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio company._] + +Celeron came and went. He had made a demonstration on behalf of +France, but not a demonstration in force. His expedition was +memorable as the prelude to coming events; but no definite action was +taken for about three years. La Galissoničre was succeeded as +Governor of Canada by the Marquis de la Jonquičre,[1] who died in +1752, and was {219} followed by the Marquis Duquesne. Meantime, an +Ohio company was formed on the English side, consisting mainly of +Virginians, and English traders and emissaries were active among the +Indians of the Ohio. Yet the English, like the French, achieved no +tangible results. Pennsylvania and Virginia were jealous of each +other, and the Legislature in each state opposed the Governor. Both +Assemblies were invited to build a fort at the junction of the +Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, which formed the key of the +position; but both refused. + +[Footnote 1: De la Jonquičre had been named Governor of Canada in +1746, and made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Quebec, one in that +year on board D'Anville's fleet, and a second in 1747, when he was +taken prisoner in the fight off Cape Finisterre (see above, pp. 207, +208). He finally arrived in 1749.] + +[Sidenote: _The French attack the Miamis._] + +Thus matters drifted on until, in June, 1752, a Frenchman, Langlade, +came down from the lakes with a band of Indian warriors, attacked the +Miamis at Pickawillany, took the town, and killed its chief--who was +known to the French as La Demoiselle, and who was feared by them as a +warm friend of their English rivals. The place was a centre of +English trade, there were English traders in it when the attack was +made, and this French success was the beginning of action, on a +larger scale than had hitherto been attempted, for the conquest and +control of the Ohio valley. + +[Sidenote: _Halifax._] + +Founded in 1749, Halifax, on the coast of Nova Scotia, was, in 1752, +a town of 4,000 inhabitants. Had the settlement been made thirty +years earlier, immediately after the Peace of Utrecht instead of +after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the story of Acadia would have +been a different and probably a happier one. Mascarene at Annapolis, +and Shirley at Boston, saw the necessity of introducing English +settlers into the peninsula in order to balance the French +malcontents, and the British Government, when giving back Louisbourg +to France, recognized at length that steps must be taken to +strengthen the English hold on Nova Scotia. It was determined to +recruit the English, or at any rate the Protestant, {220} element in +the population from Europe, from the North American colonies, and +from the ranks of the men who were withdrawn from Louisbourg; and +Chebucto harbour on the Atlantic coast of the Nova Scotian peninsula +was selected as the scene of a new township to be well fortified and +strongly garrisoned. + +[Sidenote: _The first settlers at Halifax._] + +[Sidenote: _Cornwallis._] + +Here was created the city of Halifax, called after the Earl of +Halifax, at the time 'First Lord of Trade and Plantations.' In +founding it, the English had regard to the methods by which the +French had established their colonies on the St. Lawrence. Halifax +was in its origin a military colony. The first settlers consisted +largely of officers and privates of the army and navy, who, when +peace was concluded, received their discharge and who were +supplemented by a certain number of labourers and artizans. +Parliament voted 40,000 pounds in aid of the initial expenses. Free +passages, free grants of land, and the cost of subsistence for a year +after landing were provided, privileges which secured a considerable +number of colonists; 1,400 immigrants were landed from the first +batch of transports at Chebucto harbour,[2] and others followed. A +good Governor was appointed, Colonel Edward Cornwallis, uncle of Lord +Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown and ruled India. + +[Footnote 2: It is difficult to make out the numbers. The above +figure is given by Cornwallis in a letter to the Lords of Trade, July +24, 1749 (see Mr. Brymer's _Catalogue of Canadian Archives_, 'Nova +Scotia,' p. 142). On the other hand passages were taken for over +2,500 (p. 138). Haliburton says, 'in a short time 3,760 adventurers +with their families were entered for embarkation.' Parkman puts the +number at about 2,500, including women and children, Kingsford at +1,176 settlers with their families. Parliament for some years +continued to make annual grants for the colonization of Nova Scotia, +'which collected sums,' says Haliburton, 'amounted to the enormous +sum of 415,584 pounds 14_s_. 11_d_.'] + +[Sidenote: _The Lunenburg settlement._] + +Old soldiers do not always make good colonists, and Cornwallis wrote +home complaining of their want of industry, contrasting the English +unfavourably with a few Swiss who were among the newcomers, and +suggesting that an effort {221} should be made to introduce +Protestant emigrants from Germany. Accordingly, German Lutherans were +brought over through an agent at Rotterdam, the majority of whom +were, in 1753, planted out at Lunenburg, a little to the south-west +of Halifax, on the same side of the peninsula. Thus the outer margin +of Nova Scotia was being sparsely colonized with English, Swiss, and +German Protestants, while on the side towards the mainland, along the +shores of the Bay of Fundy, the Roman Catholic Acadians remained +French in heart and sympathies. + +[Sidenote: _The commissioners to fix the limits of Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Designs of the French on Acadia._] + +For three years following the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French +and English commissioners, appointed to determine the limits of the +French and English possessions in North America, wrangled at Paris, +William Shirley being one of the English delegates; but they never +came to any conclusion. The French now refused even to concede that +the whole of the Acadian peninsula belonged to England, and wished to +confine English sovereignty to its southern coasts. They were in fact +resolved by bluff or by force either to regain Acadia, or, in default +of attaining that object, to make its condition one of permanent +insecurity and unrest. As related in the last chapter,[3] immediately +after the Peace of Utrecht the intention of the French Government had +been to transplant the Acadians to French soil, to Cape Breton Island +and to Prince Edward Island, then known as Île St. Jean. For this +policy they subsequently substituted the more dangerous plan of not +removing the Acadians, but encouraging them to consider themselves +still as French subjects while remaining under the British flag. +After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, however, they reverted +to their project of transplantation, finding that the British +Government were resolved no longer to treat their subjects in Acadia +as neutrals, and realizing that the Governor had now force at his +back. + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 193.] + +{222} [Sidenote: _Position of the Acadians._] + +[Sidenote: _Attitude of Cornwallis._] + +The Acadians claimed to be exempt from bearing arms in defence of +their country and their country's rulers, in other words against the +French and the Indian allies of the French. They were not free +agents; they were terrorized by the French Government and the French +priests, notorious among whom was a ruffian named Le Loutre, +Vicar-General of Acadia. Spiritual excommunication and Indian +hostility threatened them, if they acted with loyalty to the British +King, whose subjects they had been for nearly forty years. How +faithless and unscrupulous was the policy of the French is abundantly +shown by official dispatches, proving that the Canadian Governor, La +Jonquičre, with the sanction of the French Government at home, +accepted and endorsed Le Loutre's villainous schemes for preventing +the Acadians from taking the full oath of allegiance, and for +instigating the Indians of the peninsula to murder the English +settlers. Cornwallis treated the Acadians with kindly firmness. Some +of them asked to be allowed to leave the country, and he promised +permission to those who should obtain passports, when peace and +tranquillity were restored. For the moment he declined to allow them +to cross the frontier, as it would mean sending them among French and +Indians, who would compel them to bear arms against the English +Government. + +[Sidenote: _Beaubassin occupied by English troops._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Lawrence._] + +The frontier, as far as any line was provisionally recognized, was a +little stream on the isthmus of Chignecto. On the mainland side the +French had occupied a hill called Beauséjour, on the Nova Scotian +side was the village of Beaubassin. In April, 1750, Cornwallis sent a +force of some 400 men under Major Lawrence to occupy a position at or +near Beaubassin, and to guard the isthmus. On his arrival, Lawrence +found Beaubassin in flames. Le Loutre and his Indians had set fire to +the place, and compelled the hapless residents to cross over to the +French lines. The English left, but returned in September in stronger +force; their landing was disputed by Le Loutre's savages, who were +driven off, {223} and a fort was built and garrisoned, called after +the name of the commander, Fort Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Murder of Captain Howe._] + +French and English now faced each other across a narrow stream, the +French completed their fort at Beauséjour, and the temper of Le +Loutre's Indians was shown by a horrible incident, the murder of an +English officer, Captain Howe. Howe had gone out in answer to a flag +of truce, which appeared from the French lines; but the bearer of the +white flag was an Indian disguised in French uniform, who lured the +Englishman into an ambush, where he was mortally wounded. The French +themselves attributed this act of wanton wickedness to Le Loutre. + +[Sidenote: _Colonel Lawrence._] + +[Sidenote: _Acadian emigration._] + +In 1752 Cornwallis returned to England, and was succeeded as Governor +of Acadia by Colonel Hopson, who had been in command at Louisbourg, +when that town was given back to France; the latter was, in the +autumn of 1753, succeeded by Colonel Lawrence. The Acadian +population, which in 1749 numbered between 12,000 and 13,000 souls, +five years later was reduced to little more than 9,000. The +emigration which caused the reduction in numbers was largely the +result of a French terror, and on the mainland, or in the Île St. +Jean, the unfortunate emigrants endured misery unknown in their old +homes in Acadia. Those who find in the subsequent rooting up of +Acadian settlement an instance of English cruelty with little +parallel in history, would do well to remember that the process had +already been going on at the hands of the French; and the lot of the +Acadians under the French flag was in no wise preferable to the +fortunes of those who were carried, as it were, into captivity in the +English colonies. + +[Sidenote: _De Vergor._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of the French fort Beauséjour._] + +The catastrophe, of which so much has been made in prose and verse, +happened in the year 1755. It was not an isolated incident, but part +of a general plan--which for the time miscarried--of breaking the +French power in North America. The commandant of the French fort at +{224} Beauséjour was De Vergor, son of Duchambon who surrendered +Louisbourg in 1745. He owed his position to Bigot, the notorious +Intendant of Canada. By his side, and with as much or more authority, +was Le Loutre, the evil genius of Acadia. The French contemplated +attack on the English: Lawrence, in communication with Shirley, +determined to forestall them. Some two thousand men came up from +Massachusetts, enlisted under John Winslow--a name which New +Englanders honoured--and, landing at the isthmus early in June, +joined the English garrison at Fort Lawrence, the whole force being +under Colonel Monckton. In a few days' time the bombardment of the +French fort began; but, before there had been any serious fighting, +De Vergor surrendered. The garrison marched out with the honours of +war, and Fort Beauséjour was renamed Fort Cumberland. + +[Sidenote: _The French driven from Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _End of Le Loutre._] + +This success was speedily followed by the capitulation of another +French fort at Baie Verte, at the northern end of the isthmus, and by +the evacuation of a post on the mainland, at the mouth of the river +St. John. The whole of Acadia on both sides of the isthmus thus +passed into English hands. De Vergor some time afterwards was put on +trial at Quebec for his feeble and incapable conduct, but influential +friends procured his acquittal; and he remained in Canada to earn +further obloquy, as commandant of the French outpost which was +surprised by Wolfe in his memorable climb by night up to the Plains +of Abraham.[4] Le Loutre disappeared from the scene of his wickedness +in North America. He fled in disguise to Quebec, and, sailing for +France, was taken prisoner and spent eight years in captivity in the +island of Jersey. He seems to have died in his bed in France--a +better fate than he deserved. + +[Footnote 4: See below, pp. 306, 307.] + +[Sidenote: _The expulsion of the Acadians._] + +The victory of the English arms was followed by the removal of the +bulk of the Acadian population from Acadia. This policy had been +determined upon as the only practicable {225} alternative to +unqualified obedience. Such obedience, until it was too late and the +die had already been cast, the Acadians refused to give. They would +not swear heart-whole allegiance to King George; they had abetted his +enemies year after year; many of them had actually borne arms against +the English; and with Louisbourg in threatening strength in the +immediate neighbourhood, with manifold other difficulties to +face--for before the actual expulsion Braddock's defeat and death on +the Monongahela river had occurred--it was absolutely necessary for +the English authorities to make the Nova Scotian peninsula +permanently safe. The time to strike was while there was an adequate +force on the spot, and before the Massachusetts contingent returned +to Boston. + +Sternly and relentlessly Governor Lawrence took his measures; at +Beaubassin, at Annapolis, round the shores of the Basin of Mines, +where the most pleasing features of Acadian settlement were to be +found, the majority of able-bodied men were secured; and, as the +transports came up, groups of peasants were carried off to other +lands. In the actual work of expulsion, no unnecessary harshness +appears to have been used; families were as a rule kept together, and +went out hand in hand into exile; but they were taken, an ignorant +and bewildered crowd, from the homes of their childhood, and were +transported, helpless and hopeless, to distant countries, where there +was another religion and another race. The pity of it was that, after +forty years of so-called English government, the Acadians never +believed that that Government, when it threatened or decreed, would +be as good as its word. When therefore the blow came, it stunned a +people who had been bred in the belief that much would be said and +nothing would be done. + +[Sidenote: _The number transported._] + +[Sidenote: _Their fate._] + +Some 6,000 in all were removed, out of a total population of a little +over 9,000. Of these, over 3,000 had had their homes round the Basin +of Mines, the majority of whom {226} were dwellers in the village and +district of Grand Pré. The others came from the isthmus, or from +Annapolis. They were dispersed abroad among the English colonies in +North America, from Massachusetts southwards; but the colonies were +not all willing to receive them, and from Virginia and South Carolina +many were sent on to England. Some, it is said, found their way to +Louisiana, while of those who had escaped transportation a certain +number took refuge at Quebec. A considerable remnant was left behind +in Acadia, and some of the exiles 'wandered back to their native land +to die in its bosom';[5] but those who were left behind in Acadia, +and those who returned, were not enough to leaven to any great extent +the future history of the peninsula. + +[Footnote 5: From Longfellow's _Evangeline_.] + +[Sidenote: _Different views as to the policy of expulsion._] + +What judgment may fairly be passed upon this measure of expulsion? +The traditional view has been that the removal of the Acadians from +Acadia was an injustice and a crime--an arbitrary and cruel act, +parallel on a smaller scale to the earlier expulsion of the Huguenots +from France. According to this view the English were oppressors, +rooting out and carrying captive a harmless and innocent peasantry-- + + Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, + Darkened by shadows of earth but reflecting an image of heaven. + +Longfellow has given us this picture in _Evangeline_, and it has been +drawn in similar outlines by various hands. In the foreground are +bands of terror-stricken peasants, driven on board ship amid mourning +and lamentation. In the background are burning homesteads, emptiness +where there had been plenty, desolation where yesterday the children +played. + +A different view is given by later writers who have more closely +tested the facts. Their conclusion is that the expulsion of the +Acadians, stern and even cruel as it was, was more or less a +political necessity; that the Acadians {227} themselves were sinners +as well as sinned against; and that they were sinned against more by +men of their own race and religion than by the English. + +This latter view is probably nearer the truth. There is always, +especially in England, a tendency to sympathize unreasonably with the +weak against the strong, and, when severe measures are taken, to +condemn those measures almost unheard. The Acadians, in their +primitive agricultural life, in their farms gathered round the +village church, were picturesque objects of sympathy; and, whenever a +fine or a punishment is inflicted on a whole district or on a whole +community, the innocent no doubt suffer with the guilty. But there +are conditions under which no lasting effect can be produced without +collective dealing, and the Acadians were not transported beyond the +sea until for many years half-measures had been tried, and tried in +vain. These farmers had been gently treated under English rule; many +of them had been born and brought up under it; a large proportion of +their number had requited the treatment by actively abetting or +tacitly conniving at the unceasing petty warfare, by which French +borderers and Indian savages year after year took English lives and +pillaged English homes. Was it unreasonable that, if they would not +be loyal subjects in Acadia, they should be moved elsewhere, and +that, instead of being sent to increase the hostile population of +Canada, they should be dispersed among the British colonies on the +North American coast? + +It must be remembered that the tale of their sufferings has probably +not been minimized. French writers would naturally exaggerate what +actually occurred, and American accounts, until recent years, would +not be likely to be unduly friendly to England. It must be +remembered, too, that half as many as were transported by the English +had already been induced or forced by the French to emigrate to their +possessions; and we have it on French evidence that those who, {228} +when the sentence of expatriation was passed, took refuge in Canada, +suffered as much as or more than their compatriots suffered in the +English colonies. + +[Sidenote: _True causes of the catastrophe._] + +It is difficult to blame Colonel Lawrence for the step which he took +under the conditions of the time and place. On the other hand, it is +difficult to believe that the Acadians fully deserved their doom. The +responsibility for the wholesale misery, in which a small community +was involved, must be shared between the French Government and its +agents on the one hand, notably the priests, and on the other the +British Government in earlier years. Had the French been loyal to the +terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, had they ceased to instil the spirit +of disaffection into the minds of men who were no longer their +subjects, had they discountenanced instead of encouraging acts of +barbarity, had they not made religion a cloak for maliciousness, and +used the ministers of religion as political agitators of the worst +and most unscrupulous type, Acadia and the Acadians would have +prospered under the British Government as Canada and the Canadians +prospered in after years. Again if, when Acadia was ceded by the +treaty, Great Britain had recognized her responsibilities, had given +adequate protection and enforced the law, loyalty and obedience would +have brought happiness in its train, and a generation would have +grown up not attempting the impossible task of serving two masters. +The true verdict of history on the melancholy episode is this. The +misery which befell the Acadians was the result of not using force at +the right time, and of the evil potency of priestcraft. + +[Sidenote: _French forts established on the route from the great +lakes to the Ohio._] + +Before Acadia had been depopulated, much had happened in the west. +Always unready, the English colonies let slip the opportunity of +occupying the upper valley of the Ohio, and the French seized the +opening which their rivals might have closed. Early in 1753, the +Canadian Governor, Duquesne, sent a force of considerable strength +under an {229} old and tried officer, Marin, to establish +communication between the great lakes and the Ohio, and to hold the +route by a chain of forts. Launched upon Lake Erie, Marin and his men +held their way past the point where Celeron had landed; and, instead +of taking the portage to Chautauqua, disembarked further along the +southern shore of the lake at Presque Île, where the town of Erie now +stands. Here a fort was built, and a road cut southwards through the +woods for about 21 miles to the Rivičre aux Boeufs. This stream, now +known as French Creek, flows into the Alleghany river, and is +navigable for canoes when the water is high. Where the road struck +the river a second fort was built, called Fort Le Boeuf. Thus the way +was cleared from the lakes to the sources of the Ohio, and either end +of the portage was guarded by a blockhouse. + +[Sidenote: _Distress of the French._] + +So far the enterprise had succeeded, and success had produced the +usual effect upon the wavering Indian mind, inclining the tribes of +the Ohio to the side which took the initiative and gave outward and +visible signs of strength. But the French were only at the outset of +their enterprise. As the year wore on, their ranks were thinned by +disease; their commander, Marin, died; and, when winter came, but +three hundred men were left to hold the forts on Lake Erie and French +Creek. The intention had been to push down the latter river, and, +where it joined the Alleghany, to build a third fort. This fort in +turn was to be a starting-point for a further advance to the main +objective, the junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela rivers. + +[Sidenote: _The routes to the Ohio._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Cumberland._] + +All through early Canadian history, we find the clue to the various +movements on either side is studying the waterways. As in the centre +of the two conflicting lines of advance, the English moved up the +Hudson and the French up the Richelieu, to find their battleground on +Lakes George and Champlain, so further to the west, in the region of +the Ohio, the Alleghany and its feeders brought the French down from +{230} Canada, while the English moved north along the line of the +Monongahela and its tributary the Youghiogany. These streams take +their rise amid the parallel ranges of the Alleghanies, in that +border country of the three States of Virginia, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, which was the scene of the hardest fighting between +North and South in the American Civil War. Near where the Monongahela +starts on its northern course to the Ohio, but divided by mountains, +is the source of the northern branch of the Potomac, which runs into +the Atlantic. This latter river flows at first north-east between two +mountain ranges; and, where it turns to the east, cutting its way +through the hills, a small stream, known as Wills Creek, joins it +from the north. At this point was a station of the Ohio Company, +shortly afterwards called Fort Cumberland, after the English duke. +This was the base of the British advance; but mountains had to be +crossed to reach the Monongahela valley; it was easier to come down +from Canada to the Ohio than to march upon it from the Atlantic side. + +[Sidenote: _Robert Dinwiddie._] + +The Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, in the year 1753, the titular +Governor being in England, was Robert Dinwiddie, a cross-grained +Scotchman. He had none of the arts of popularity, but none the less +was a watchful guardian of his country's interests. Like William +Shirley in Massachusetts, he was a determined opponent of French +pretensions; but he was less tactful than Shirley in managing a +colonial Legislature, and less happily placed, in that the +Legislatures of the southern provinces were far behind the New +Englanders in public spirit. Hearing of the French advance from Lake +Erie, he lost no time in making a counter claim, and sent a messenger +to Fort Le Boeuf to warn off foreign trespassers from what he +conceived to be the domain of the King of England. The messenger was +George Washington, just come to man's estate. + +[Sidenote: _George Washington's first mission._] + +[Sidenote: _Apathy of the southern colonies._] + +In November, 1753, Washington left Wills Creek. In {231} January, +1754, he returned to Virginia, having in the depth of winter +traversed the frost-bound backwoods, and risked his life in crossing +the Alleghany river. His journey in either direction took him by the +old Indian town of Venango, at the confluence of the French Creek +with the Alleghany, where there had been an English trading house: +this was now occupied by a French outpost. There could be no doubt +that the Governor of Canada intended to be master of the Ohio. Still +the British colonies remained apathetic or half-hearted. Virginia +voted 10,000 pounds; North Carolina gave some money; a handful of +troops in Imperial pay was placed at Dinwiddie's disposal; but the +money and the men were utterly inadequate to the occasion, and +Pennsylvania, the state which, with Virginia, was most concerned, did +nothing at all. For Pennsylvania was the home of Quakers and Germans, +the former averse to war on principle, the latter indifferent to the +conflicting claims of alien races. + +[Sidenote: _The French build Fort Duquesne._] + +The crisis came on apace. In February, 1754, a month after +Washington's return, Dinwiddie sent a small detachment over the +mountains to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and +Alleghany. While the work was in hand, a strong Canadian force came +down in April from the north and overpowered the Virginians. A fort +was built, but it was a French fort, and became memorable in history +under the name of Fort Duquesne. Dinwiddie determined to drive the +French back, if possible, from this new position, and he set +Washington to the task--impossible to perform with the only available +troops, amounting to 300 or 400 men. + +[Sidenote: _Washington marches on Fort Duquesne._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Jumonville._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Fort Necessity and retreat of Washington._] + +From Wills Creek to Fort Duquesne was a distance of 120 to 140 miles, +with two ranges of mountains to be crossed, before half the journey +was accomplished, and the Monongahela reached. Making a road over the +first range, the main range of the Alleghanies, Washington, about the +end of May, reached open ground known as the Great Meadows, having +still in front of him the Laurel hills, through which {232} the two +branches of the Monongahela find their way to the Ohio. A few miles +further on, guided by Indian scouts, he surprised an advance party +sent out from Fort Duquesne, and killed their commander, Jumonville. +Assassination was the term which the French applied to the death of +this officer, claiming that he was the peaceful bearer of a summons +to the English to retire from the land; but there is no reason to +doubt that Washington was justified in using force, and that the +Frenchman was killed in fair fight. Returning to his camp, and +entrenching it under the suitable name of Fort Necessity, the English +commander awaited a counter attack. Small reinforcements reached him, +and he pushed on over the Laurel ridge; but, hearing that the French +were advancing in force, fell back again to Fort Necessity. Stronger +in numbers, the French, from their base at Fort Duquesne, marched +forward under Jumonville's brother, Coulon de Villiers; and, after a +nine hours' fight, Fort Necessity surrendered; the English, under the +terms of the surrender, retreated across the Alleghanies, and the +French returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne. For the time, they were +beyond dispute masters of the Ohio valley, and the young Virginian, +whose name now stands first in the great history of the United States +of America, crawled back over the mountains, defeated and undone. + +American history is great as a whole, but the back records of its +component parts are full of what is mean and contemptible. We are +accustomed, in the chronicles of the English race, to trace the +errors of its rulers, and to find them put right by the good sense +and strong character of the people; but, if we turn to the provincial +annals of the American States, when the fate of the continent seemed +to be trembling in the balance, the rulers sent out from home must be +credited with patriotism and some measure of foresight, while the +peoples were or appeared to be selfish and blind. New England alone +stands out in a brighter light, ready to {233} sacrifice money and +men in the national cause. With the enemy on their borders, the New +Englanders knew what the danger was; further south the Alleghany +mountains bounded the horizon of the colonists. State Assemblies +squabbled with their Governors, each little province was passively +indifferent to or actively jealous of its neighbour, all alike were +with good reason suspicious of the mother country; while on the other +side the fighting strength of Canada, centralized under a despotic +Government, one in aim and sympathy, was menacing and dangerous out +of all proportion to the resources of the country or the numbers of +its people. + +[Sidenote: _Movement towards union of the English colonies._] + +Yet some attempt had been made at concerted action on the part of the +English colonies. It emanated from the Government at home. In +September, 1753, the Lords of Trade wrote round to the Governors of +the various North American provinces, directing them to invite their +respective Legislatures to adopt a uniform policy towards the +Indians. In consequence, a conference was held at Albany, at which +seven of the colonies were represented--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, +Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The +Commissioners met representatives of the Five Nation Indians, whose +hereditary friendship for the English cause was fast turning into +hatred and contempt. They pacified the angry Indians to some extent, +and renewed the old covenant of friendship, then turned to +constitution-making, at the instance of Franklin, one of the +Commissioners from Pennsylvania. + +[Sidenote: _Franklin's scheme._] + +[Sidenote: _It is not accepted._] + +Franklin had a scheme for North American union, comprising a +President appointed by the Crown, and a general Council elected by +the taxpayers of the colonies, the number of representatives of each +colony to be determined by the amount of taxes paid. Plenary powers +were to be given to the President and Council, including even power +to make war and peace. Had the scheme been carried out, North America +would have become one great self-governing colony, {234} in some +respects more independent, in others more restricted than the +self-governing colonies of Great Britain at the present day. +Franklin's proposals, though his fellow commissioners were inclined +to approve them, pleased neither the colonies nor the mother country. +They were premature. The colonies were too jealous of their local +liberties to accept the scheme. The mother country still distrusted +the colonies, and dreaded the strength which union would bring. +Moreover, the immediate necessity was united action, not +constitutional change. The French must first be driven back; and with +this object Dinwiddie made an earnest appeal to the ministry in +England. + +[Sidenote: _Troops sent from England and from France._] + +[Sidenote: _The 'Alcide' and the 'Lys' intercepted by Admiral +Boscawen._] + +The appeal was not made in vain; two regiments of infantry, the 44th +and 48th, now the Essex and Northampton regiments, were ordered to +embark for Virginia, and sailed from Cork in January, 1755, with +Major-General Braddock in command. The French Government, taking +alarm, ordered out 3,000 men under Baron Dieskau, a German serving in +the French army; and at the beginning of May, 1755, eighteen French +ships sailed from Brest carrying to Canada the troops and their +commander, and taking out at the same time a new Governor-General, +the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Most of the vessels reached their +destination in safety; but two, the _Alcide_ and _Lys_, were +intercepted by the English Admiral Boscawen, off the coast of +Newfoundland, were fired into, and compelled to surrender.[6] There +was still supposed to be peace between Great Britain and France, but +the backwoods of America and the waters of the Atlantic echoed to the +sounds of war. + +[Footnote 6: The _Alcide_ was overpowered by the _Dunkirk_, commanded +by the afterwards famous Admiral Lord Howe.] + +[Sidenote: _Scheme of the English campaign against Canada._] + +At four points, according to the English plan of campaign Canada was +to be threatened and the French advance was to be checked. Braddock, +with his two English regiments, was to march on Fort Duquesne. From +Albany the second and {235} the third expeditions were to start. One, +marching due north, was to master Crown Point on Lake Champlain; the +other, taking the route of the Five Nation cantons, and having for +its advanced base Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to reduce the French +fort at Niagara. The fourth effort was to be made in Acadia. This +last enterprise proved successful, as has already been seen, Shirley +having previously prepared the way by building a fort on the mainland +behind the peninsula, at the portage between the Kennebec and the +Chaudičre rivers. What fate befell the other expeditions must now be +told. + +[Sidenote: _General Braddock._] + +History has been unkind to General Braddock. His name is associated +for ever with a great disaster in North America, as the name of Wolfe +is linked to a crowning victory. Like Wolfe, Braddock was mortally +wounded on the field of battle; he was defeated, and obloquy was +heaped on his name. Wolfe triumphed, and all men spoke well of him. +The accounts of Braddock are largely derived from the spiteful gossip +collected by Horace Walpole, and from the writings of Franklin--never +a lover of the mother country, and, after the War of Independence, +glad, like others of his countrymen, to throw the blame of an English +defeat upon a commander sent out from England. We have a portrait +given us of a brutal, blustering, and incompetent soldier, a man of +coarse habits and broken fortunes, with little to recommend him but +personal honesty and courage. 'Braddock is a very Iroquois in +disposition,'[7] writes Horace Walpole. Before the fatal battle the +same writer tells us in the same letter, 'the duke (of Cumberland) is +much dissatisfied at the slowness of General Braddock, who does not +march as if he was at all impatient to be scalped.' After the +disaster he writes, 'Braddock's defeat still remains in the situation +of the longest battle that ever was fought with nobody.'[8] The {236} +Braddocks of England, with all their failings, have deserved better +of their country than the Horace Walpoles. + +[Footnote 7: _Letters of Horace Walpole_ (Bohn's ed., 1861), vol. ii, +p. 459 (Letter of Aug. 25, 1755).] + +[Footnote 8: Ibid. p. 473 (Letter of Sept. 30, 1755).] + +Born in 1695, the son of an officer in the Coldstream Guards, and an +officer of the Guards himself, he was sixty years old when sent out +to America by the Duke of Cumberland. He had the reputation of being +a very severe disciplinarian, and yet we have Walpole's own admission +that while serving at Gibraltar, 'he made himself adored.'[9] He was +criticized by Franklin as being too self-confident, and as having too +high an opinion of European as compared with colonial troops; but, on +the other hand, the scanty colonial levies which reached him had not +shown high fighting qualities, and his care for transport and +supplies, together with his anxiety to conciliate and use the Indians +on the line of march, were evidence of prudence and military +forethought. Burke wrote of him as 'abounding too much in his own +sense for the degree of military knowledge he possessed';[10] but +probably Wolfe's judgement upon him was sound, that 'though not a +master of the difficult art of war, he was yet a man of sense and +courage,'[11] and we may reasonably infer that the shortcomings of +the colonists were unjustly visited on his head. + +[Footnote 9: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, p. 461 (Letter of Aug. 28, +1755).] + +[Footnote 10: _Annual Register_, 1758, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 11: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 324.] + +[Sidenote: _Braddock's march on Fort Duquesne._] + +Late in February, 1755, the English troops and their commander +reached Hampton in Virginia, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. In +due course they were sent up the Potomac to Alexandria, where in +April Braddock met the Governors of the various colonies, including +Shirley, and settled with them the plan of campaign. He himself +prepared to march on Fort Duquesne by the route which Washington had +taken, but found endless difficulty in obtaining horses, wagons, and +supplies. Virginia and Pennsylvania were still half-hearted, and +inclined to think that the danger {237} of French invasion was a +scare created in the interests of the Ohio Company. It was not the +first time, and not the last, that a real crisis has been interpreted +as the work of a designing few. However, a base was established, as +before, at Fort Cumberland on Wills Creek, and early in June the +march began. + +The force consisted of about 2,000 men, 1,350 of whom belonged to the +two regiments of the line. There were some 250 Virginia rangers, and +the rest were detachments from New York, Maryland, and the Carolinas. +The troops were formed in two brigades, under Sir Peter Halkett and +Colonel Dunbar. Washington, ill with fever, was attached to +Braddock's staff, by the General's own request. Steadily and well the +advance on Fort Duquesne was made; a road was cleared through forests +and over mountains; and every precaution was taken against surprise. +But progress was inevitably slow; and, at a distance of forty miles +from Fort Cumberland, Braddock, on Washington's advice, resolved to +push forward with the larger half of his troops, leaving the +remainder with the heavy baggage to follow under charge of Colonel +Dunbar. The object was to reach Fort Duquesne before reinforcements +could arrive from Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The fight on the Monongahela._] + +At the end of the first week in July, Braddock was eight miles +distant from the French fort, at a point where a little stream, +called Turtle Creek, flows into the Monongahela. He was on the same +side of the latter river as the fort, which stood on the right bank +of the Monongahela, in the angle which it forms with the Alleghany; +but the direct route passed through country suitable for ambuscade; +and he therefore resolved to make a short détour, crossing the +Monongahela, and recrossing it lower down the stream. On July 9, the +movement was successfully carried out; no opposition at either ford +being offered by the enemy. The troops moved on; and, early in the +afternoon, at a little distance from the river, as the line of march +crossed a shallow {238} forest-clad ravine, there was a sudden check; +a French officer sprang out in front of the advancing column, and +forthwith, in a moment, at his signal, the thickets were alive with +foes. + +[Sidenote: _Rout of the English._] + +The scene which followed was one not uncommon in the story of +colonial warfare. The first attack was answered by artillery fire; +the French commander, De Beaujeu, was killed, and many of the +Canadians fled. But the majority of the enemy, with whom the English +had to deal, were Indians, who dispersed on this side and on that, +hiding behind trees, and attacking either flank of the column, active +and noisy out of all proportion to their numbers. The English +vanguard fell back, the supports crowded up, the redcoated soldiers +stood in close formation, an easy mark for the invisible foe. They +fired at nothing, for nothing could be seen; all around was a hideous +din, from every side came bullets dealing death. The men were +bewildered, the ammunition began to fail, confusion turned into +panic, and, when at length the order for retreat was given, there was +a headlong flight. + +[Sidenote: _Braddock mortally wounded._] + +The survivors rushed across the river, taking with them the General +mortally wounded; no stand was made at the first crossing or at the +second; and when, in about two days' time, the fugitives reached +Dunbar's camp, many miles distant, they found panic prevailing there +also. The retreat was continued to Fort Cumberland, stores, guns, and +wagons being abandoned; and not many days after Fort Cumberland had +been reached, Dunbar marched off with the remains of the regular +troops to Philadelphia. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Braddock._] + +Braddock had shown conspicuous bravery, if not conspicuous judgment, +on the battlefield. He was shot through the lungs as the retreat +began, and bade his men leave him where he fell. They carried him, +however, from the fight; and for four days he lingered, reaching +Dunbar's camp, and dying at Great Meadows on July 13. Of 1,460 {239} +British and colonial officers and men who took part in the battle, +nearly 900 were killed or wounded. Those who escaped, escaped with +their lives alone. On the French side the numbers engaged appear not +to have exceeded 900, three-fourths of whom were Indians. The English +force included over 1,200 regulars; the battle therefore resulted in +a crushing defeat of troops of the line by a smaller number of +Indians, with a sprinkling of Frenchmen and Canadians, led by French +officers. + +[Sidenote: _Blame for the disaster._] + +The disaster was attributed to the incompetence of the General, and +the bad quality of the regular troops; it was said that the few +Virginians who were present fought well, in contrast to their English +comrades; that, knowing bush fighting, and taking cover, they were +driven into the open by Braddock, only to be shot down like the rest. +These accounts must be taken with reserve; the testimony of +Washington and others was prejudiced in favour of the colonial and +against the British soldier; Braddock did not live to give his own +version of the matter; and the two regular regiments, having been +brought up to strength since their arrival in America, included many +colonists in their ranks. Yet it must be supposed that, as the column +neared its destination unopposed, there was some slackening of +precaution, for which the General must be held to blame; while Wolfe +set down the defeat to the bad conduct of the infantry, writing in +strong terms of the want of military training in the English army, as +compared with the armies of the continent.[12] + +[Footnote 12: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 324.] + +[Sidenote: _Bad conduct of the colonies of Virginia and +Pennsylvania._] + +But, even if the defeat and rout on the Monongahela was due to the +shortcomings of the English troops and their commander, we may well +ask why troops from the mother country were needed to protect the +frontiers of the two strong colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. +The whole story shows these colonies in the worst possible light. +They {240} had ample warning of the importance of securing Fort +Duquesne; they allowed it to fall into the hands of the French; they +threw on the mother country the onus of recovering it: they hindered +Braddock rather than helped him; and, when he failed, they debited +him and his men with the whole blame of failure. It was not wonderful +that soldiers fresh from England should be stampeded at their first +venture in forest warfare, but it was wonderful that the men on the +spot should be so utterly indifferent to the calls, both of +patriotism and of self-interest, as to contribute to the disaster. + +[Sidenote: _They suffer in consequence._] + +Bad as was the failure, it was a blessing in disguise. The colonies +concerned were for a time left to bear their own burdens; French and +Indians harried their frontiers; homesteads and villages were burnt; +women and children were butchered or carried into captivity. While +sleek Quakers and garrulous Assembly men prated of peace and local +liberties, the outlying settlements were given over to fire and +sword; until the southern colonists began to learn the lesson, which +New England had long since learnt, that the first duty of any +community is self-defence. + +[Sidenote: _William Johnson._] + +[Sidenote: _His influence with the Five Nation Indians._] + +On the Mohawk river, about thirty miles to the north-west of Albany, +there lived a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, named William Johnson. He +had come out to America in 1738, when he was twenty-three years old, +to manage estates which his uncle had bought on the confines of the +Five Nation Indians. He lived a semi-savage life, in a house +constructed as a fort and named Fort Johnson or Mount Johnson, taking +to wife first a German woman, and then an Iroquois. His position +among the Indians was not unlike that which the Baron de Castin had +held in bygone years on the Penobscot. He knew and understood the +natives and their ways, he spoke their language, and his honest +dealings contrasted favourably with the rascalities of the border +traders. He was a type of man, more common on the French side than on +the English, {241} who lived within, not outside, the circle of +native life; and, having these versatile attributes, it is almost +superfluous to add that he was an Irishman. For the rest, Johnson was +a man of force and energy, whose tact and talents were by no means +confined to the backwoods. He did good service to his King and +country, and was not at all inclined to hide his light under a +bushel. His value to the English cause in North America cannot be +overestimated. His personal influence among the Mohawks +counterbalanced the influence of the Frenchman Joncaire among the +Senecas at the other end of the confederacy; and, being appointed +Superintendent of, or Commissioner for, Indian affairs, he, and he +alone, kept alive the old covenant of friendship between the English +and the Five Nation Indians. + +[Sidenote: _He commands the expedition against Crown Point._] + +[Sidenote: _Building of Fort Edward._] + +When it was decided to send an expedition against Crown Point, +Shirley gave him the command, and Braddock confirmed the appointment. +He had no military experience, though he was a colonel of militia; +but the whole force under him consisted of colonists, preferring to +be led by a man who knew the country and its people than by a trained +soldier. Preparations were made for raising 6,000 to 7,000 men. +Massachusetts, as usual, contributed the largest levy; the other New +England colonies and New York sent or promised smaller forces, and +some 300 Mohawk Indians joined the expedition, finding that it was +commanded by the white man, whom of all others they trusted and +loved. The actual numbers engaged, however, did not much exceed 3,000 +fighting men. In July they met at Albany and moved up the Hudson, for +about forty-five miles, to the 'Carrying Place,' the spot where the +portage begins to the waters which run to the St. Lawrence. Here, on +the eastern side of the Hudson, a beginning was made of a fort, +called for the time Fort Lyman, after Phineas Lyman, second in +command of the expedition, but a little later rechristened Fort +Edward. + +[Sidenote: _Course of the Hudson._] + +The Hudson river rises in the Adirondack mountains, to {242} the west +of Lake George, and flows in a south-easterly direction, until it +reaches a point south-west by south of the southern end of the lake. +Here for some miles it takes a due easterly course, at right angles +to the line of the lake, until, at Sandy Hill, near where Fort Edward +was founded, it turns due south, and flows due south into the +Atlantic. It appears to prolong to southward the line of Lake George +and Lake Champlain; but the watersheds are distinct, the two lakes in +question drain to the north, and eventually discharge through the +Richelieu river into the St. Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Lakes George and Champlain._] + +They form a long narrow basin running north and south between the +Adirondacks on the west and the Green mountains of Vermont on the +east. No stream of any size feeds Lake George; it stretches for +between thirty and forty miles from south-west to north-east, +overshadowed by the Adirondacks; and, narrowing at the northern end, +finds an outlet into Lake Champlain by a semicircular channel, which +enters the larger lake from west to east. This channel is broken by +rapids, and in the angle which it forms with Lake Champlain stands +Ticonderoga. + +Lake Champlain is here a broad river rather than a lake, having +narrowed into the similitude of a river from where, fifteen miles +further north, the isthmus of Crown Point juts out on the western +side of the lake. But it does not end at Ticonderoga, where it meets +the waters of Lake George. It continues southwards in a direct line, +very roughly parallel to Lake George, still narrowing in its upward +course, through the marshes known as the Drowned Lands, past a little +subsidiary lake on the western side known as South Bay, over against +which now stands the small town of Whitehall, and ending in a stream +known as Wood Creek. The sources of Wood Creek are but a few miles +distant from the point, already noted, where the Hudson turns south +to form the central valley of New York State, and where Johnson, in +the summer of 1755, was busy constructing Fort Lyman. + +{243} [Sidenote: _Johnson encamps at the end of Lake George._] + +Johnson's objective was Crown Point; and to reach it he had a choice +of two parallel routes, either of which involved a portage from the +Hudson watershed to that of Lake Champlain. He could take either the +western line by Lake George, or the eastern line by Wood Creek. He +chose the former, and making a road for fourteen miles from Fort +Lyman to the head--the southern end--of Lake George, encamped there +at the end of August with over 2,000 men, leaving 500 men behind to +garrison Fort Lyman. + +[Sidenote: _Dieskau at Crown Point._] + +The French in the meantime had not been idle. When Dieskau arrived in +Canada with his troops, it was intended that he should operate on +Lake Ontario, and reduce the English outpost at Oswego; but, as soon +as news came of Johnson's expedition, the plan was changed, and he +hurried up the Richelieu with reinforcements to protect Crown Point. +By the time that Johnson reached Lake George, there were assembled at +Crown Point over 3,500 men--French soldiers, Canadians, and Indians. + +[Sidenote: _He advances to Ticonderoga and up the southern arm of +Lake Champlain,_] + +The two alternative routes from Fort Lyman to Crown Point converged +at Ticonderoga, or, as the French called it, Carillon. Dieskau +therefore moved forward to that place, to block the English advance. +He had not yet learnt that Johnson was encamped at Lake George, but +was under the impression that the advanced guard of the English, +instead of the rearguard, was at Fort Lyman. Accordingly, he laid his +plans to push rapidly up the southern arm of Lake Champlain, and to +take Fort Lyman before reinforcements could arrive; or, if Johnson +had already marched to Lake George, to cut the line of his +communications. French and English were in fact advancing, or +preparing to advance, south and north respectively, on parallel +lines. + +[Sidenote: _and cuts Johnson's communications._] + +A flying column of 1,500 men set out from Ticonderoga; the water +carried them as far as South Bay, where they left their boats, and +marching thence through the forest between Lake George and Wood +Creek, they struck the road which {244} Johnson had made from Fort +Lyman to the lake, at a point three miles from the fort, eleven from +the lake. They had thus intercepted Johnson's communications and cut +him off from his base of supplies. From prisoners Dieskau learnt the +disposition of Johnson's forces, and he took counsel whether to +attack the fort or the encampment by the lake. Capture of the fort +had been the original object of the march; but in deference to the +Indians, who little loved assault on fortified positions, it was +decided to take the second alternative and advance on the lake. + +[Sidenote: _Johnson's counter plan._] + +[Sidenote: _The English fall into an ambush._] + +Meanwhile, warned of what had happened, Johnson prepared a +counter-stroke. What Dieskau had done, he could do also; if the +Frenchman had cut his communications, he in his turn could intercept +Dieskau's line of retreat; and, with this object, on the morning of +the eighth of September, a force of 1,000 men was sent out from the +camp to strike the French in the rear. The whole formed a pretty +picture of backwood manoeuvres; but, like the Boers in South Africa, +the Canadians proved themselves more mobile than the English, and +more skilful in ambuscade. At three miles distance from the camp, +after an hour's march, the English fell into a carefully-laid trap. +On the road in front were the French regulars; in the forest on +either flank Canadians and Indians lay in wait for their prey. +Advancing without due precaution, though they had a band of Mohawks +with them, the English were completely surprised; the head of the +column was driven in on the rear, the whole force became (in +Dieskau's words) like a pack of cards, and fell back with heavy loss +in rout to the camp, the retreat being partially covered by a +detachment sent out by Johnson on hearing of the engagement. + +[Sidenote: _The French attack the camp and are defeated._] + +[Sidenote: _Dieskau taken prisoner._] + +At the camp hasty preparations were made for defence, behind wagons +and fallen trees, and in a short time the enemy appeared. The French +regulars attacked boldly and well, but the Canadians and Indians were +out of hand, the {245} commander of the Canadians, Legardeur de Saint +Pierre, having already been killed. For three or four hours there was +furious firing; but the English had artillery, the French had not, +and this advantage, coupled with the lines of defence, decided the +issue. Dieskau was disabled by a wound; the attack slackened; at +length the defenders left their entrenchments and charged their foes, +and late in the afternoon the whole French force was routed and fled, +leaving their wounded General in the hands of the enemy. Some of the +Canadians and Indians had already fallen back to the scene of the +morning's fight, intent on scalps and plunder. Here a scouting party +from Fort Lyman fell upon them, and, after a hard struggle, drove +them into further retreat. + +Both sides lost heavily, but the balance of the day's fighting was +unquestionably in favour of the English. On the French side the +regulars showed to more advantage than their colonial and Indian +allies, and Dieskau deserved a better fate than wounds and captivity. +While lying wounded, we read, he was again shot by a French deserter, +and, when he was brought into the English camp, the Mohawks, whose +chief had been killed, threatened his life. Johnson, however, who had +himself been wounded, took every care of his prisoner; in due course +he was sent over to England; and eventually, disabled for further +service, he returned to France, where he died in 1767. + +[Sidenote: _Results of the fight._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort William Henry._] + +The most was made of this repulse of the French. It came as a set-off +to the defeat of Braddock. Johnson was made a baronet and received +5,000 pounds. The Lac du Sacrement he had already renamed Lake +George, the encampment at the head of the lake blossomed out into +Fort William Henry, and another of the King's sons provided the name +of Fort Edward for the fort at the Carrying Place. Yet the object of +the expedition was not achieved; no attempt was made at a further +advance; the French were unmolested in their retreat, and retained +their hold on Crown Point and {246} Ticonderoga also. Johnson +remained encamped by the lake, with a force raised to a total of +3,600 men, until November was drawing to a close, when, a garrison +being left to hold Fort William Henry through the winter, the rest of +the army disbanded to their homes. + +[Sidenote: _Shirley's advance to Lake Ontario._] + +While Johnson was moving north from Albany to attack Crown Point, +William Shirley went west, with the intention of reducing the French +fort at Niagara and cutting off Canada from the upper lakes. He +started from Albany in July with some 1,500 men, mainly colonial +troops in Imperial pay, and took his way along the line of the Five +Nation cantons. He moved up the Mohawk river, past Schenectady and +past Johnson's home, made the portage from the Mohawk to the stream +called, like the feeder of Lake Champlain, Wood or Wood's Creek, +which runs into Lake Oneida, and by the outlet of that lake, now the +Oswego river, to Lake Ontario. + +[Sidenote: _Oswego and Niagara._] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition abandoned._] + +Where the river joined Lake Ontario stood the small English fort of +Oswego, founded in 1727, and regarded with the utmost jealousy by the +French.[13] The French fort at Niagara was 130 to 140 miles to the +west of Oswego, while due north of the latter place, at a distance of +over fifty miles across Lake Ontario, was Fort Frontenac. The +garrisons of both the French forts had been reinforced on hearing of +Shirley's advance, and an attack on Fort Niagara involved the danger +of a counter attack on Oswego from Fort Frontenac. On the other hand, +Fort Frontenac was fully strong enough to repel any direct attempt to +take it. The English, moreover, experienced great difficulty in +collecting provisions or an adequate fleet of boats, and after some +weeks' delay it was resolved to abandon the expedition. Before +October ended, Shirley returned to Albany by the way he went, leaving +700 men to garrison Oswego and strengthen its defences, +communications with Albany being maintained by two blockhouses which +had been built at either end of the {247} four miles' portage between +the Mohawk river and Wood Creek--Fort Williams on the Mohawk river, +where the town of Rome now stands, and Fort Bull on Wood Creek. + +[Footnote 13: See above, p. 196.] + +[Sidenote: _Results of the year's campaign_] + +Thus the campaigning of the busy year 1755 came to an end. The main +forces on either side disbanded, or went into garrison for the +winter; Washington and a few hundred Virginians tried to safeguard +the harried frontiers of the southern colonies; Robert Rogers, +boldest of New England rangers, went scouting up the line of Lake +George. The forts stood isolated in the wintry backwoods, waiting for +the stirring times which were coming on forthwith. + +[Sidenote: _in favour of the French._] + +Neither French nor English had much cause to boast of the results of +the year's fighting. On either side a General had been sent out from +Europe; the English General had been killed, the French General had +been wounded and taken prisoner. But, on the whole, the French had +undoubtedly gained and the English had lost. The English had taken +the offensive, they had planned attack all along the line, and in the +main their schemes had conspicuously failed. Only in the extreme east +had they achieved substantial success. Acadia had been permanently +secured, if there could be security as long as the fortress of +Louisbourg remained in French hands. In the extreme west they had +been badly beaten, and the French had acquired full control of the +Ohio valley. On Lake Ontario they had done nothing at all. On the +main central line of advance they had set out to take Crown Point, +and had to be content with repelling a counter attack by the French. +The more New England had been concerned in the war, the better the +English had fared; the further west or south they operated, the +greater was their want of success. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of geography on the English side of the war._] + +The most striking feature to notice in the events of the year is the +effect of distance, when not counteracted by steam and telegraphy. It +will be noted how far removed in every sense was America from Europe +in the middle of the {248} eighteenth century, and how far removed in +every sense were the American colonies from one another. Here was +fighting going on at all points on the border line of French and +English America, and yet France and England were nominally at peace. +New England was raising her levies with patriotism and spirit, +meeting a common foe with common feeling, and, it may be added, with +common sense. New York and Virginia could, on the other hand, +scarcely be prevailed upon to move; while Pennsylvania was as +indifferent as though the fighting had been on another continent. We +may and must put down much to political causes, to social and +religious prejudices; and Canada proved that, even in the eighteenth +century, long distances did not necessarily preclude concerted +action; but, where settlement had begun and continued for generations +at widely different points on the American continent, and on +absolutely separate and independent lines, war and peace were alike +localized, and there was little or no cohesion between the colonies +and the mother country, or between one colony and another. The +history of the English North American colonies had been the history +not of one but of many communities. No uniform system held them +together, no sentiment of the distant past was strong enough to +counteract geography. Only, as colonization spread in the long course +of years, the dwellers in one province came into contact with the +dwellers in another, and both the one and the other came face to face +with the French advance. Then the pressure of common danger made for +union, and the race instinct gathered strength. The mother country +sent out soldiers; colonists were enlisted in royal regiments to +supplement the provincial militias; and in clumsy, most imperfect +fashion, the English in North America began to shape themselves into +a nation. + +One keen English observer, at any rate--General Wolfe--saw at once +the present defects of the English colonies in North America, and the +great future which lay before them. {249} 'These colonies,' he wrote +in 1758, 'are deeply tinged with the vices and bad qualities of the +mother country.' But he added, 'This will, some time hence, be a vast +empire, the seat of power and learning. Nature has refused them +nothing, and there will grow a people out of our little spot, +England, that will fill this vast space, and divide this great +portion of the globe with the Spaniards, who are possessed of the +other half.'[14] + +[Footnote 14: Wolfe to his mother, Louisbourg, Aug. 11, 1758 +(Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 454).] + + +NOTE.--For the above see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii, and + PARKMAN'S _Montcalm and Wolfe_. + +The period dealt with in this and the two succeeding chapters is +covered by + + A. G. BRADLEY'S recent work, _The Fight with France for North + America_ (1900). + + + + +{250} + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CONQUEST OF CANADA + + +[Sidenote: _The Seven Years' War._] + +In May, 1756, Great Britain declared war against France. In June, +France declared war against Great Britain. The war between these two +nations formed part of the Seven Years' War, one of the most widely +extended and, in its results, one of the most decisive in history. In +the first number of the _Annual Register_, for the year 1758,[1] +Edmund Burke wrote: 'The war, into which all parties and interests +seem now to be so perfectly blended, arose from causes which +originally had not the least connexion, the uncertain limits of the +English and French territories in America, and the mutual claims of +the houses of Austria and Brandenburg on the Duchy of Silesia.' After +three years of the war, in September, 1759, Horace Walpole wrote in +his laughing style, 'I believe the world will come to be fought for +somewhere between the north of Germany and the back of Canada.'[2] + +[Footnote 1: p. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 249 (Letter of +Sept. 13, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _Numerical superiority of the English in America._] + +On the continent of Europe, Great Britain had Frederick of Prussia +for an ally; on the other side were France, Austria, Russia, and +Sweden. Beyond the Atlantic, a French population in Canada, Acadia, +and Louisiana of less than 90,000 souls was ranged against British +colonies with a population at least thirteen times as numerous. One +or other of the larger British colonies, taken alone, was better +peopled with white colonists than Canada. + +{251} [Sidenote: _Official corruption in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Bigot and his gang._] + +Nor was want of numbers the only disadvantage under which Canada +laboured. The currency, principally paper money, was depreciated. +Provisions were scarce, seeing that the farmers were constantly +called away to fight, and that supplies from beyond the sea were +liable to be intercepted. The government was corrupt, and the high +officials cheated the King on the one hand and the _habitans_ on the +other with the greatest impartiality. Canadian history, all through +its course, as long as Canada was a province of France, was tainted +by official corruption. The officials were traders also, and the +public service was largely in the hands of commercial rings. What +happened in the mother country happened also in her greatest colony. +One official's wife became another official's mistress, and the +husband who gave up the wife was rewarded with pickings at the +expense of the public and of the Crown. The evil was at its worst in +the last days of New France. The Intendant was then Bigot, a clever +Frenchman who had come out in 1748, and round him gathered a gang of +unscrupulous adventurers, whose misdeeds were fully brought to light +after the crisis was over and the colony was lost. Among them were +Cadet, butcher and contractor, who was made Commissary-General; Péan, +Varin, and others, who, one at Quebec and another at Montreal, formed +stores and created monopolies, buying and selling at artificial +prices, sucking the life-blood of an extravagant Government in France +and of a poor community in America. + +[Sidenote: _Vaudreuil._] + +In past years, supreme authority in Canada had been shared between +the Governor and the Intendant, and quarrels in abundance had arisen +between the holders of the two offices; but, at the time when the +Seven Years' War began, the Governor and the Intendant were at one. +The Intendant Bigot, and the Governor De Vaudreuil, were on excellent +terms. Vaudreuil, son of a previous Governor-General of Canada, +received his appointment in 1755, having {252} already been Governor +of Louisiana. He was a vain man, of some but not great capacity, +called to high office in a difficult time, and not equal to the task +which was imposed upon him. Surrounded by cleverer and more +unscrupulous men of Bigot's type, he did nothing to check the evils +which were ruining Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Division between Canadians and Frenchmen._] + +[Sidenote: _Different classes of troops engaged in the war._] + +The principal point to note about him is that he was a Canadian by +birth. This fact was the source of mischief. In lieu of the old feud +between the Governor and the Intendant, there came into being a new +line of cleavage, which tended to divide the mother country from the +colony. The Governor had always been supreme in military matters; +but, when war in North America grew to be more than a series of +border forays, it became necessary to send out skilled generals from +France. Dieskau was sent, and after him came a greater man, Montcalm. +Friction then arose between the Governor and the General, accentuated +in consequence of the Governor being a Canadian. All the Governors of +Canada, including Vaudreuil, had seen service, or had at any rate +been trained to war, but they were usually either sailors or +connected with the forces which were attached to the navy and under +the Minister of Marine. On both the English and the French side in +North America there were, at the time of the Seven Years' War, three +classes of troops engaged. On the English side there were the regular +regiments sent out from home, and brought up to strength by +recruiting in the colonies. There were also regiments entirely raised +in the colonies, but still royal regiments in the pay of the Crown, +such for instance as the four battalions of Royal Americans, first +raised by Loudoun's orders, and famous in after times as the 60th or +the King's Royal Rifle Corps.[3] Lastly, there were the purely +colonial levies. On {253} the French side there were in the first +place regiments of the line from France. In the second place there +were the _troupes de la Marine_, regiments or companies mainly raised +in France, but permanently stationed in Canada, to form a standing +garrison and to develop into military colonists. In the third place +there was the Canadian militia, including all the adult males between +the years of fifteen and sixty. Only the first of these three classes +of troops was under the direct command of the General from France. +After Montcalm's arrival they numbered rather over 4,000 men, about +one-fourth of whom were in garrison at Louisbourg. The _troupes de la +Marine_ amounted at most to about 2,500 men. The Canadian militia on +paper numbered 15,000, but very few of them were to be found in the +field at any given time or place. The General corresponded with the +Minister for War; when in action he took command of all the forces +present, but the nominal Commander-in-Chief was the Governor, who was +by way of directing the campaign, and who reported to the Minister of +Marine. Thus, both at home and in Canada, there was divided +responsibility at a time when all depended on the most complete +co-operation and single control. + +[Footnote 3: They were originally the 62nd or Royal American Regiment +of foot. The men were chiefly German and Swiss Protestants, and about +one-third of the officers were of the same nationalities. On the +disbanding of Shirley's and Pepperell's Regiments, which were +numbered 50th and 51st, the Royal Americans became the 60th Regiment. +Their motto, 'Celer et audax,' is said, without much authority, to +have been first given them by Wolfe.] + +[Sidenote: _The strength of Canada._] + +The strength of Canada, on the other hand, consisted in the divisions +of her adversaries, the separate grumbling English colonies; in the +incompetence of the English Government at home; in the fact that the +routes for attack from Canada favoured quick movement from the base; +and most of all in the support which the Frenchmen received from the +red men, notably from the mission Indians. The Indians went hand in +hand with the Canadians; the one and the other loved irregular +warfare; the one and the other answered {254} to the call of the +Governor of Canada, rather than of the General who looked on war as +he had known it in Europe--more scientific, more continuous, better +controlled, and more humane than the savage outbursts of killing and +plundering which were the product of American backwoods. + +[Sidenote: _Canadian raid on the route between Albany and Oswego._] + +As winter turned into spring, in 1756, before war had been proclaimed +in Europe, and before Montcalm had come out, the Canadians made a +move. The most distant and isolated English outpost was Oswego on +Lake Ontario. Its communication with Albany depended on the two +little forts which, as told in the last chapter,[4] had been +constructed to guard the four miles' portage between the Mohawk river +and Wood Creek, the stream which feeds Lake Oneida. Towards the end +of March, a party of Canadians and Indians, sent by Vaudreuil and +commanded by an officer named De Léry, surprised the fort on the +latter river, Fort Bull, killed or captured the small garrison, and +destroyed the building with all its contents. The damage was repaired +by Shirley, in whose eyes Oswego was of supreme importance, and who, +in the winter of 1755, had formulated new schemes for a comprehensive +campaign against Canada, including as before the reduction of the +French forts on Lake Ontario. + +[Footnote 4: See above, pp. 246, 247.] + +[Sidenote: _Weakness of Oswego._] + +[Sidenote: _Colonel Bradstreet._] + +If this last object was to be achieved, it was absolutely necessary +that Oswego should be made so strong in men and munitions, as not +merely to hold its own, but to dominate the rival forts at Frontenac, +Toronto, and Niagara. These conditions were very far from being +fulfilled, and Shirley can hardly be acquitted of blame in the +matter. The garrison of Oswego was weakened by winter sickness, the +fortifications were hopelessly incomplete, the supplies were scanty +and uncertain. The French raid in March was followed by a +strengthening of the French positions on Lake Ontario, and Coulon de +Villiers, a well-known Canadian leader, took up new ground at Sandy +Creek to eastward of, and at no {255} great distance from, the +English fort. From Albany, early in the summer, Shirley sent up +supplies to Oswego in charge of a strong body of colonists under +Colonel John Bradstreet, a New Englander who did other good service +later in the war. Bradstreet reached his destination in safety, but +on his return up the Oswego river, at the beginning of July, was +attacked by Villiers, whom he beat off after heavy fighting and +considerable loss on either side. + +[Sidenote: _French designs on Oswego._] + +Vaudreuil was as determined to drive the English from Lake Ontario, +as Shirley was to secure for his countrymen control over the +navigation of the lake; and at the time that Bradstreet's fight took +place, Montcalm had already been some weeks in Canada. The French +knew from the reports of their scouts the weakness of Oswego, they +knew too that the English were concentrating in another direction for +an attack on Ticonderoga: an advance in force on Oswego was likely to +succeed: if not successful, it would at least draw off some of the +English troops from the main campaign. Accordingly, an expedition was +taken in hand, commanded by Montcalm in person. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm marches against it._] + +In July, Montcalm was at Ticonderoga. Returning rapidly to Montreal, +he pushed up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac; and early in August, +moving his troops by night, crossed Lake Ontario, at the outlet of +the St. Lawrence, passing to Wolfe Island, and thence to Sackett's +Harbour in the south-eastern corner of the lake. Here a force of +Canadians, including the remains of Villiers' troops, was awaiting +him; and he advanced with about 3,000 men, including three regiments +of the line, and an adequate supply of artillery, some of the guns +having been taken from General Braddock's force. Undiscovered by the +English, the expedition moved westward, the main body coasting the +shore, the Canadians marching on land, until at night time, on August +10, they took up a position at little more than a mile's distance +from Oswego. + +{256} [Sidenote: _Position of Oswego._] + +There were at this time, in consequence of Shirley's efforts, three +forts at Oswego or Chouaguen, as the French called it. The old fort +and trading house stood on the western bank of the Onondaga or Oswego +river, where it enters the lake. On the same side of the river, about +600 yards to the westward, was a 'small unfinished redoubt, badly +enough entrenched with earth on two sides.'[5] It was called a fort, +and pompously named Fort George, but, as a matter of fact, it was +used as, and was little better than, a cattle-pen. On the eastern +side of the river, over against the old fort, at a distance of 470 +yards, was a newly-built, square-shaped blockhouse, known as Fort +Ontario. It was built wholly of timber; and, while strong enough to +resist such firearms as Indians could bring, it was of no avail +against artillery. + +[Footnote 5: See 'Papers relating to Oswego,' in O'Callaghan's +_Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, pp. 488-503.] + +[Sidenote: _The French attack._] + +[Sidenote: _Oswego surrenders._] + +The French prepared to bombard this eastern fort, but, before their +trenches were complete, it was evacuated, and the garrison was +withdrawn across the river. The abandonment was inevitable, but it +sealed the fate of the main fort, which, for protection on the lake +and river side, depended on Fort Ontario. One day's fighting saw the +conclusion of the matter. The French brought their guns into position +by the side of the abandoned fort; and, firing across the river, +riddled Fort Oswego. At the same time, Canadians and Indians forded +the river higher up, and attacked on the southern side. The English +commander, Colonel Mercer, was killed: the troops, consisting mainly +of convalescents and recruits, were not in condition for a stubborn +defence; women and children found no shelter from the enemy's fire; +the position was hopeless, and the garrison surrendered. The +prisoners, who were carried off, numbered about 1,600; guns, boats, +and supplies fell into the hands of the French, the forts were burnt +to the ground, and every vestige of British occupation was for the +time obliterated. + +{257} [Sidenote: _Effect of the fall of Oswego._] + +The news of the fall of Oswego, after so many years of British +occupation, caused consternation in England. Colonel Daniel Webb, who +at the time was bringing up reinforcements along the line of the +Mohawk and Wood Creek rivers, beat a hurried and discreditable +retreat, burning the forts at the Carrying Place[6] and blocking the +waterway with fallen timber. In England the blow followed on that of +the capture of Minorca, for which Byng was made a scapegoat. 'Minorca +is gone, Oswego gone, the nation is in a ferment,' wrote Horace +Walpole; and again, 'Oswego, of ten times more importance even than +Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot learn the particulars.'[7] +It was in truth a great success for France, the result of a plan +boldly conceived and brilliantly executed. The garrison had been +taken completely by surprise; in four days from the date when +Montcalm landed within reach of the forts, he had achieved his +object, and left the English no foothold on Lake Ontario. The defeat +of Braddock had given to France command of the Ohio; the fall of +Oswego gave her undisputed mastery of the lakes. All the west, and +all the ways to the west, were now in her hands, and her forces could +be concentrated on the central line of advance to the south up Lake +Champlain. There already some way had been made, for, in addition to +holding Crown Point, the French were now firmly planted at +Ticonderoga. + +[Footnote 6: Fort Williams was rebuilt in 1758, and named Fort +Stanwix. See below, p. 282.] + +[Footnote 7: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 41, 42 +(Letter of Nov. 4, 1756).] + +Great as were the immediate material results of Montcalm's success, +the indirect moral advantage which the French derived from it was +greater still. Oswego, Burke reminds us in the _Annual Register_ for +1758,[8] was 'designed to cover the country of the Five Nations, to +secure the Indian trade, to interrupt the communication between the +{258} French northern and southern establishments, and to open a way +to our arms to attack the forts of Frontenac and Niagara.' A few +pages later, he describes the effect of the disaster in the following +words: 'Since Oswego had been taken, the French remained entirely +masters of all the lakes, and we could do nothing to obstruct their +collecting the Indians from all parts, and obliging them to act in +their favour. But our apprehensions (or what shall they be called?) +did more in favour of the French than their conquests. Not satisfied +with the loss of that important fortress, we ourselves abandoned to +the mercy of the enemy all the country of the Five Nations, the only +body of Indians who preserved even the appearance of friendship to +us. The forts we had at the Great Carrying Place were demolished, +Wood Creek was industriously stopped up and filled with logs, by +which it became evident to all those who knew that country that our +communication with our allied Indians was totally cut off, and, what +was worse, our whole frontier left perfectly uncovered to the +irruption of the enemy's savages.' + +[Footnote 8: pp. 13, 29.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois discouraged._] + +The effect of what had happened on the minds of the Five Nation +Indians was disastrous. Oswego had covered their cantons, it had been +the entrepôt of trade between them and the west. They saw it swept +away with little or no resistance. They saw Webb hurry back towards +Albany, only anxious, as it seemed, to quit the country unmolested. +Hesitating constantly between the French and English alliance, they +had now every reason to prefer the former; and, had it not been for +Johnson's influence with the Mohawks, the Iroquois would, for the +time at any rate, have abandoned the English cause in disgust and +contempt.[9] + +[Footnote 9: Sir William Johnson, writing to the Lords of Trade on +Sept. 10, 1756, says: 'Oswego in our hands, fortified and secured by +us, and our having a navigation on Lake Ontario, was not only a curb +to the power of the French that way, but esteemed by the Six Nations, +whenever they joined our arms, as a secure cover to them and their +habitations against the resentment of the French.' Later in the same +letter he speaks of the fort as 'the barrier of the Six Nations,' and +says that, in consequence of its capture, 'the spirit they had +recently shown in our favour was sunk and overawed by the success of +the French' (O'Callaghan's _Documentary History of New York_, vol. +ii, pp. 733, 734).] + +{259} Moreover, the achievement differed in kind from the ordinary +Canadian raid. Troops had been moved, artillery brought up, transport +organized in rapid, skilful fashion, which betokened leadership of no +ordinary kind; the new General from France had at once made himself +felt, and friend and foe alike recognized that Canada was being +defended and the English colonies attacked by a soldier of high order +in the Marquis de Montcalm. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm._] + +Few characters in colonial history are so interesting and attractive +as that of Montcalm. Interest attaches to him not only on account of +his own personality, but also because he illustrates the better side +of the soldier-aristocrats of France. Born in 1712, near Nîmes in the +south of France, he came out in middle life to North America, having +seen hard fighting in various parts of the continent, and owing the +Canadian command to his own merits, not to Court influence. He was +the head of his family, owner of the ancestral estate, straitened in +means, and with ten children to provide for; loving his home, loving +his mother, his wife and children, following arms as his profession +for honour and for a livelihood. He was well educated, and in every +sense a gentleman of France, with a quick, impetuous Southern spirit, +but the heart of an affectionate and chivalrous man. His coming +lifted the war on the Canadian side to a higher plane; he used the +savage tools which he found to hand, but he did not love them,[10] +nor did he love the corruption and chicanery which made the +Government of New France a squalid {260} reproduction of the +Government at home. A great man--Champlain--brought New France to +birth; her end was ennobled by the death of Montcalm. Of his military +talent it would be difficult even for an expert to judge, for it must +always be a matter of doubt how far Montcalm, like Wolfe, may have +been 'felix opportunitate mortis.' Neither the one nor the other was +tried in the command of big battalions on European battlefields; but +in quick aggressive movement, such as resulted in the capture of +Oswego, as well as in the patient defensive tactics which he +displayed at Quebec, Montcalm proved himself to be a skilful +commander. + +[Footnote 10: This is contrary to what Wolfe wrote, when before +Louisbourg, to Amherst. 'Montcalm has changed the very nature of war, +and has forced us, in some measure, to a deterring and dreadful +vengeance' (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 440, 441). But none the +less it was the case that, with Montcalm's arrival, war on the French +side became what it never had been before, something more than a +series of semi-savage raids.] + +[Sidenote: _Levis, Bourlamaque, and Bougainville._] + +He was ably supported by his second in command, De Levis, who lived +to be a duke and a marshal of France, and a third good officer, +Bourlamaque, came out at the same time. Montcalm's own aide de camp +was De Bougainville, more famed in after years on sea than land. His +name stands first in the list of French navigators; he was the rival +and contemporary of Captain Cook. Good leaders France sent out to +America in the spring of 1756, but she sent few troops with them. The +campaign on the continent absorbed her strength, and New France was +lost in consequence. + +[Sidenote: _The English leaders. Webb, Abercromby, and Loudoun._] + +[Sidenote: _Recall of Shirley._] + +Montcalm and his officers arrived in May; in June and July three +English commanders appeared on the scene--Colonel Daniel Webb, +General Abercromby, and Lord Loudoun. Of these three, Webb in a +subordinate command and Loudoun as Commander-in-Chief were failures. +Abercromby, possibly the best of the three, was not a success; he was +in Wolfe's opinion 'a heavy man.'[11] The trio were a type of the +soldiers that the English Government chose, while England, to quote +the Prussian King Frederick's words, was in labour, and before she +brought forth a man. While sending out inadequate officers from home, +the Government recalled William Shirley, who, whatever his faults may +have been, embodied more than any one man in America {261} +enterprising and heart-whole resistance to the national foe. He left +on the arrival of Loudoun, having to the last used all his influence +to prepare manfully for the coming campaign. Thus the summer of 1756 +found the two sides ill matched in point of commanders; if the +chances of war were at all even, the forces led by Montcalm could not +fail to outwit and surprise the troops which were guided by the +slow-moving Scotch laird, the Earl of Loudoun.[12] + +[Footnote 11: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 451.] + +[Footnote 12: John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, had served in the +Highland campaign of 1745. In America he appears to have shown +himself wanting in quickness, in tact, and in strategical ability. +Franklin accused him of indecision. The colonial saying about him was +that he was like the sign of St. George over an inn, always on +horseback but never moving on. There is a pleasant notice of him in +Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, when Boswell and Johnson dined at his +house on the tour to the Hebrides.] + +[Sidenote: _Robert Rogers._] + +Yet the English had some useful men among them, though not in the +first rank. William Johnson has already been noticed. John Winslow, +who had adequately commanded the New England contingent in Acadia, +was now in charge of the provincial troops at Fort William Henry, +near Johnson's old camping-ground at the southern end of Lake George. +In the same force was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, whose name is +still borne by a cliff on Lake George, known as 'Rogers' Rock.' +Rogers raised and commanded companies of New England scouts, known as +the Rangers, which were multiplied as the war went on, and as the +value of the men and their leader became more apparent. His journal +is a model of clear, concise military writing, recounting in +straightforward fashion feats of extraordinary daring and hardihood. +As Johnson in his mastery over the Indians rivalled and perhaps +excelled the French, so no Canadian partizan understood border +warfare better than Robert Rogers. We read that on one occasion, when +he had been reported as killed and the report proved false, the +Indians in the French interest, who had been committing atrocities, +repented from fear when they learnt that Rogers was still alive, and +blamed {262} the French for encouraging them, as they said, to do the +actions for which vengeance awaited them. It was something to have on +the English side men who, in the Canadian style of fighting, were as +good as or better than the Canadians themselves; and, in the absence +of competent generals, fighting backwoodsmen, like Robert Rogers, at +least served to remind Canada that the English colonies had a nasty +sting. + +[Sidenote: _End of the campaign of 1756._] + +The programme for 1756--Shirley's programme--had included an advance +to and from Oswego, and an advance from Fort William Henry against +Ticonderoga. When Loudoun arrived, he countermanded the first +movement, though he subsequently sent Webb too late up the Mohawk +river in order to reinforce Oswego. Montcalm's swift action then +disconcerted all English plans, Oswego was lost, the forward move +down Lake George was countermanded, and the summer ended with nothing +for the English to record but one crushing defeat. + +[Sidenote: _Fruitless French attack on Fort William Henry._] + +In November, the main body of the troops on either side went back +into winter quarters, and Fort William Henry was left in charge of a +small garrison of between 400 and 500 men, belonging to the 44th +Regiment and the Rangers, commanded by Major Eyre. In the early +spring of 1757, an attempt was made to surprise them by an expedition +sent up from Montreal under the command of Rigaud de Vaudreuil, +brother of the Governor of Canada. The attacking force started +towards the end of February, and on March 19 appeared before the +fort. The next day they offered terms of surrender, which were +refused; and, after vainly attempting to reduce the fort till the +twenty-fourth, they retreated down Lake George, having burnt some +boats and outbuildings, but otherwise inflicted little loss. + +[Sidenote: _Loudoun's abortive expedition against Louisbourg._] + +The spring came on, and the early summer, and Loudoun matured a plan, +which he had formed for attacking Louisbourg in force, as a +preliminary to a further attack on Quebec. {263} His plan was +accepted in London, and the Government determined to send out a +strong fleet to co-operate with him, the rendezvous to be the harbour +of Halifax. Like previous schemes of the same kind, the enterprise +failed through untoward delays. The fleet under Admiral Holborne, +consisting of fifteen ships of the line, and conveying transports +with from 5,000 to 6,000 men on board, did not sail till May 5, and +did not reach Halifax till early in July. Loudoun, meanwhile, had +drawn off the bulk of his troops, including Rogers and his Rangers, +from the New York frontier; and, after vainly waiting at New York for +news of the English Admiral, set sail for Halifax on June 20, +reaching his destination on the last day of that month. + +The combined forces were nearly 12,000 strong, but the time for +attack had gone by. Hearing of the English preparations, the French +Government had sent a fleet at least as strong as Holborne's across +the Atlantic, under Admiral La Motte; and the English commanders +learnt that Louisbourg was being defended by ships as numerous as +their own, and by a garrison in which the troops of the line alone +were said to number 6,000 men. The enterprise was accordingly +abandoned. In the middle of August Loudoun re-embarked the majority +of his troops for New York. Holborne twice reconnoitred Louisbourg in +the hope of bringing on a sea-fight. The second time, in the middle +of September, a storm shattered his vessels, and the whole expedition +utterly collapsed.[13] 'It is time,' wrote Horace Walpole[14] in +despondent terms, 'for England to slip her own cables and float away +into some unknown ocean.' On {264} his way back to New York, Loudoun +was met with bad news--that Fort William Henry had fallen. + +[Footnote 13: While Loudoun's troops were waiting at Halifax, he +employed them in raising vegetables. In consequence, Lord Charles +Hay, who was third in command, charged him with expending the +nation's wealth 'in making sham fights and planting cabbages.' Lord +Charles Hay was sent back to England, and a court-martial was held +upon him, but the incident served to bring ridicule on the +expedition.] + +[Footnote 14: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 103 (Letter +of Sept. 3, 1757, written before the final break-up of the fleet).] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm prepares to attack Fort William Henry._] + +When he started for Louisbourg, he left Webb in command of the small +forces which remained to cover the New York frontier. He seems to +have thought that the troops were sufficient not only to hold the +French in check, but also to threaten Ticonderoga. Montcalm, on the +other hand, saw his opportunity and determined, while he had superior +numbers, to strike a blow which should rival his former achievement +at Oswego. Throughout July the French troops concentrated at +Ticonderoga, provisions were brought up, and a road was made past the +rapids, by which Lake George discharges into Lake Champlain. A number +of Indians were gathered from all quarters to join in the expedition, +mission Indians taught to kill the heretic English, and savages from +the wild and barbarous west. Scouting parties went forth, some along +Lake George, others up the parallel southern arm of Lake Champlain; +and, with Robert Rogers far away in Nova Scotia, they did much +damage, on one occasion killing or taking prisoners two out of three +hundred New Englanders. At the end of the month the main advance +began. + +[Sidenote: _The fort and its surroundings._] + +Fort William Henry was about thirty miles distant from the French +lines. It was a strong square fort, built near the southern edge of +Lake George, a little to the west of the spot where Sir William +Johnson two years before had formed his camp. The road from the fort +to Fort Edward ran for a short distance due east, skirting the shore +of the lake, and then turned inland to the south and south-east. On +rising ground to the east of the road, beyond the point where it took +the southward turn, the English had an entrenched camp, separated +from the fort by swampy ground. After the attack on the fort in the +preceding spring, Major Eyre and his troops had been replaced by +others under the command of Colonel Monro, the main body consisting +of 600 {265} men of the 35th, now the Sussex Regiment. When news came +that the French were on the point of advancing, Webb sent up 1,000 +colonial troops from Fort Edward; and, when the attack began, Monro +had with him about 2,400 men, while Webb, who had only 1,600 men left +at Fort Edward, sent urgent messages to New York for reinforcements. + +[Sidenote: _The French advance._] + +On July 30, Levis moved forward with the French vanguard, marching +along the western shore of Lake George; the main body of troops under +Montcalm followed in boats on August 1, the whole force amounting to +between 7,000 and 8,000 men. Two detachments, one commanded by La +Corne, the other by Levis, marched round the fort, and took up +positions on its southern side, to cut off communication with Webb; +La Corne occupied the road to Fort Edward, while Levis encamped a +little further to the west. Montcalm landed his big guns at a little +inlet, still called Artillery Cove, about half a mile in a direct +line from the fort, and, after a summons to surrender on August 3, +began his trenches on the night of the fourth. + +[Sidenote: _The fort surrenders._] + +A far better defence was made than at Oswego. For four days the +garrison held out bravely, hoping for relief from the south. Their +guns were heard at Fort Edward; the urgency of their case was known; +but Webb, though some 2,000 militia had reached him, felt himself too +weak to make any advance. At length the situation became hopeless, +and on August 9 Monro surrendered. The terms of capitulation were +that the garrison should be escorted to Fort Edward, on condition +that they would not serve again for eighteen months, and that all +French prisoners taken in the war should be restored. The fort with +all that it contained was handed over to the French. The surrender +included the entrenched camp as well as the fort: the fort was +evacuated; and the whole garrison, with the exception of a few sick +and wounded, were gathered into the camp, retaining their arms, but +without ammunition. + +{266} [Sidenote: _The massacre of Fort William Henry._] + +Before night fell, the French Indians plundered the fort, and +butchered some of the sick. Early on the following morning, the +English troops began their march to Fort Edward; the Indians broke in +among them, seizing and stripping men, women, and children; and, at a +signal given by the Christian Abenakis from the Penobscot--Indians +who had known the teaching and training of men like Le Loutre--a +wholesale massacre began. Montcalm and his officers, however, used +every effort to protect the English, with the result that not more +than fifty were murdered, and 600 carried off, 400 of whom were +promptly recovered; and the broken band of fugitives in due course +found their way to Fort Edward. + +[Sidenote: _Blame attaching to the French._] + +This was the episode well known in colonial annals as the massacre of +Fort William Henry, told of in history and in romance.[15] The +horrors have no doubt been exaggerated, if, as appears to have been +the case, the death-roll did not exceed the number given above. Still +it was a horrible incident, and brought righteous discredit on the +French cause. Though Montcalm, when the mischief had begun, acted +with promptitude and vigour, it was well within his power to have +prevented the possibility of any such outrage. His Indians numbered +but 1,800, and he had 3,000 regular troops from France to hold them +in check. The Canadian militia, too, numbered 2,500 men; but probably +the seed of the evil lay in the disinclination of the colonial French +and their officers to interfere with their Indian allies. It had +become the tradition in Canada to live down to the Indians in matters +of war, to attach them and to hold them by humouring their savage +instincts; and it may well be believed that, if Canadian soldiers or +Canadian officers were concerned in seeing the terms of capitulation +carried out, they would prefer injuring the English to offending the +Indians. Three years later, in the advance on Montreal, we read of +{267} Sir William Johnson, under Amherst's orders, strongly +repressing the Iroquois' lust for French blood, and Amherst reporting +that not a peasant woman or child had been hurt, nor a house burnt, +since he entered the enemy's country. Better control of the savages +in their employ gave the English fewer friends among them, but in the +end it was one, and not the least, of the causes of their gaining the +supremacy in North America. + +[Footnote 15: e.g. in Fennimore Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_.] + +[Sidenote: _Webb's conduct._] + +It was disputed at the time, and is still matter of dispute, whether +Webb from Fort Edward might have saved the fort by the lake. The view +generally taken of his conduct was probably coloured by the memory of +his frightened retreat down the Mohawk river in the preceding year. +He could muster but 4,000 men all told; and, had he advanced and met +with disaster, no force would have been left to keep Montcalm from +marching on Albany, and possibly on New York itself. He risked +nothing, and possibly he was wise; but the catastrophe which happened +within his reach was in part, rightly or wrongly, debited to his +account, and the feeling deepened in England and in America that on +the English side leaders of men were sadly wanting. + +[Sidenote: _The French raid the German Flats._] + +One more success was scored by the French before the winter came on. +In October, Vaudreuil sent out from Montreal a raiding party of the +old type, consisting of about 300 Canadians and Indians under an +officer named Belętre. They went up the St. Lawrence into Lake +Ontario, landed on its southern shore, at some distance east of the +ruins of Oswego, crossed to the portage between the Mohawk and Wood +Creek, where the forts were no longer standing, and moved down the +Mohawk to raid the outlying settlements. Between the head waters of +the Mohawk and Schenectady, on the northern side of the river, was +the district known as the German Flats, where German colonists had +been planted about the year 1720. They came from the Palatinate, and +their group of houses bore the name of the settlement or village +{268} of the Palatines. In the second week of November, Belętre's +party broke in among them, burnt houses and barns, killed cattle, +horses, and some of the inhabitants, carried off over a hundred +prisoners, and retired in safety in face of a weak detachment from a +little English fort on the other side of the river, and of a stronger +body of troops whom Lord Howe brought up from Schenectady too late to +retrieve the disaster. + +[Sidenote: _The French triumphant in North America._] + +[Sidenote: _William Pitt._] + +This was the end of the campaign, the high-water mark of French +successes in North America. At the end of 1757, the English had been +beaten at all points. They had failed to attack Louisbourg, they had +been driven from Lake George, the country of the Five Nation Indians +was nearly cut off, all hold on the rivers and the lakes was gone. +The outlook was dark in the extreme: it is always darkest before +dawn, and as a matter of fact dawn had already begun; for William +Pitt, who had been dismissed from office in April, was recalled by +the unanimous voice of the people of England before the end of June, +and, leaving to the incompetent Duke of Newcastle the name of Prime +Minister, controlled, as Secretary of State and Leader of the House +of Commons, the soldiers, the sailors, the subsidies and the foreign +policy of his country.[16] + +[Footnote 16: Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son dated May 18, +1758 (1775 ed., vol. iv, p. 137, Letter 298), wrote as follows of the +Newcastle-Pitt combination: 'The Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt jog +on like man and wife, that is, seldom agreeing, often quarrelling, +but by mutual interest upon the whole not parting.'] + +[Sidenote: _Want of a leader on the English side._] + +The wars of England have usually run the same course. They have begun +with blunders and reverses, but ended in success. The English do not +love war, and are rarely prepared for it. They begin fighting in +half-hearted fashion, before the nation makes up its mind that the +cause is worth a real effort and serious expenditure of money and +life. There is groping about for a leader, for some one who will say +distinctly what is to be done, and will prove as good as {269} his +word. If such a man is found, the people will follow; they forgive a +man who makes mistakes provided, as the saying is, that he makes +something. Then the resources of the country are concentrated and +utilized, and under articulate and sympathetic leadership the cause +of the nation prospers. If England in the year 1757 needed some one +controlling will, much more was the want felt in her North American +colonies. The demoralization caused by feeble ministries in England +had its baleful effect in America; nerveless government at home +strengthened the centrifugal tendencies of the colonies. Nothing but +common danger gave them any common life; and, though Pitt's advent to +power partially corrected the evil, Pitt was in England not in +America. To the end the uniting force came from without rather than +from within: the colonies followed the lead of Pitt and his generals, +but to the mother country not to the colonies was due the conquest of +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Distress in Canada._] + +That Canada must be conquered, when England made her effort, was +inevitable. The French appeared triumphant; they had moved forward; +they had struck heavy blows; but behind the fighting line, even on +the surface, they were in straits. The garrison of Fort William Henry +had not been taken prisoners to Canada, because Canada could hardly +feed them;[17] and the winter of 1757, which followed the brilliant +campaign, was a winter of distress. Bread was wanting; horses were +eaten for meat; the troops were mutinous and only kept in order by +Levis' firmness and tact; the finances were in a ruinous condition; +there were winter gaieties and winter gambling, but Canada before its +conquest was in much the same condition as the mother country on the +brink of the Revolution. + +[Footnote 17: Similarly, after the fall of Oswego, Horace Walpole +wrote, 'The massacre at Oswego happily proves a romance; part of the +two regiments that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at +Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit +additional numbers.' _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 44, +45 (Letter of Nov. 13, 1756).] + +{270} [Sidenote: _French plan of campaign for 1758._] + +Both sides laid their plans for the coming year. The French scheme +included a movement by Levis from Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, +across to the site of Oswego, and thence, after securing the alliance +or the allegiance of the Iroquois, down the Mohawk valley, so as to +co-operate with the main army under Montcalm advancing from +Ticonderoga. The success of this project of Vaudreuil's, which was +never carried into effect, presupposed that the bulk of the English +troops would again be drawn off to attack Louisbourg, for it was +known or suspected in Canada that another attempt on Louisbourg was +in contemplation. + +[Sidenote: _Pitt's plan._] + +Pitt's plan of campaign was not new or original. The experience of +long years had painfully taught what were the points where Canada +must be attacked, if any permanent success was to be achieved. First +and foremost was Louisbourg. With Louisbourg in English hands, the +St. Lawrence could be blocked and Canada starved out. But the English +minister had no intention of denuding the inland frontier of the +British colonies, in order to take the French fortress in Cape +Breton. On the contrary, he laid his plans also for an advance on +Ticonderoga, and for the recovery of Fort Duquesne. He conceived no +new scheme, but into old schemes he put new life. The novelties which +he introduced were abundance of English troops, prompt instead of +dilatory movement, and above all capable leaders--inspired with his +own spirit, and in their turn inspiring the men whom they led. There +was to be an end of the 'delays, misfortunes, disappointments and +disgraces,'[18] which had so long been associated in the English mind +with war in America. + +[Footnote 18: _Annual Register_ for 1758, p. 70.] + +[Sidenote: _Strong English forces sent to America._] + +On December 30, 1757, he addressed a circular letter to the Governors +of the North American colonies, asking for levies of 20,000 men. On +February 19, 1758, a strong fleet set sail for Halifax, to be +directed against Louisbourg, while other English squadrons blocked +the French ports {271} in Europe, and kept the enemy's ships from +crossing the Atlantic. It was a rare thing for an English expedition +for America to start betimes, instead of waiting for orders and +counter orders, until the season for active work was far spent. It +was unheard of, too, for so many English troops to be sent into the +New World. Twelve thousand soldiers, nearly all regulars, took part +in the Louisbourg expedition. Abercromby on Lake George commanded, +when summer came on, 15,000 men, of whom fully 6,000 were regulars. +Six thousand men took part in the march against Fort Duquesne, of +whom 1,600 were Imperial troops. Thus in the year 1758 England had +more than 20,000 regular soldiers employed in North America, enough +force, as Lord Chesterfield thought, when coupled with the colonial +troops, 'to eat up the French alive in Canada, Quebec, and +Louisbourg, if we have but skill and spirit enough to exert it +properly.'[19] + +[Footnote 19: Lord Chesterfield to his son, Feb. 8, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 124; Letter 293).] + +[Sidenote: _The English commanders._] + +The skill and the spirit were forthcoming also, though not at once in +full measure, and not at all points. Loudoun was recalled. Abercromby +was left to take his place, but with him was placed as brigadier a +young officer of rare promise, Lord Howe. Jeffrey Amherst was picked +out to command the troops against Louisbourg, and of his three +brigadiers one was Lawrence, the Governor of Nova Scotia, and another +was Wolfe. In the further west, the command of the expedition against +Fort Duquesne was given to a resolute Scotch soldier, Forbes. +Gradually in his choice of officers Pitt sifted the chaff from the +grain, young men were brought to the front, merit was preferred to +seniority. Amherst was forty-one years of age, Wolfe was thirty-one, +Howe was thirty-three. Lord Chesterfield wrote of them in February, +1758, 'Abercromby is to be the sedentary and not the acting +commander. Amherst, Lord Howe, and Wolfe are to be the acting and I +hope the active officers. I wish they may agree.'[20] + +[Footnote 20: Ibid.] + +{272} [Sidenote: _The fleet sails for Louisbourg. Admiral Boscawen._] + +The fleet which sailed for North America, carrying the hopes and the +fortunes of England, was commanded by Admiral Boscawen. He had seen +service in the East and West, off Cartagena and Pondicherry; and it +was he who in the year 1755, before France and England were at war, +had, as has already been told, attacked and taken the two French +ships, the _Alcide_ and the _Lys_, off the North American coast.[21] +He had Churchill blood in his veins, for Arabella Churchill was his +grandmother; and he was known as 'Old Dreadnought,' after a ship of +that name which he had commanded. He was a determined, hard-fighting +sailor, with little respect for neutrality in time or place if there +was a chance of striking a blow for England. + +[Footnote 21: See above, p. 234.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst._] + +His colleague, General Amherst, like Wolfe, was born in Kent. Joining +the Guards in 1731, he made his name on the Continent. He was present +at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and served on the Duke of Cumberland's +staff. Unlike most of the commanders of the time, he lived to be an +old man, and was Commander-in-Chief of the English army before he +died; but his good work was all done in America in the years 1758-60, +while he was still in early middle age, and when he conquered Canada. +He was a good soldier of the cautious type, not wanting either in +vigour or determination, but making sure of each point before he +moved further. What Carlyle says of the Parliamentary general, Lord +Essex, might be said of Amherst--he was a 'somewhat elephantine' man. + +[Sidenote: _The first and second siege of Louisbourg compared._] + +The ships took time to go over the sea, and did not reach Halifax +until well into May. On the second of June they sailed into Gabarus +Bay and came in sight of Louisbourg. The second siege and capture of +Louisbourg was very similar to the first, except that in 1758 much +larger forces were engaged on either side, and more military skill +was shown than in 1745. The earlier siege was, on the English side, +{273} as far as the land forces were concerned, purely a colonial +venture. On the later occasion very few colonial troops were +employed. The French had in garrison 3,000 regulars, and the +residents of the town who bore arms made up nearly another thousand, +the besiegers on land outnumbering the besieged in the proportion of +three to one. In harbour there were twelve French ships of war, with +a complement of 3,000 men--no match for Boscawen's overpowering +fleet. The fortifications of Louisbourg were strong, but not so +strong as they were reputed. It was stated that prior to 1755 nothing +had been done to repair the damage done in the first siege.[22] The +French had a good commander, the Chevalier de Drucour; and his wife, +according to the accounts of the time, was as brave as himself. In +1758 the English landed in the same place as in 1745; the siege took +almost exactly the same number of days; the Grand Battery on the +north shore of the harbour was, as before, evacuated by the French; +once more the English mounted guns on Lighthouse Point, from which +the French had retired, and battered to pieces the Island Battery, +which guarded the mouth of the harbour. Again, as in 1745, a small +force of Canadians and Indians tried to make a diversion from inland, +and again the attempt was quite ineffectual. The seas and the skies, +however, in spite of the time of year, were far less kind to the +besiegers on the later than on the earlier occasion. + +[Footnote 22: In the _Annual Register_ for 1758, pp. 179-81, is given +a translation of a letter from Drucour, the French Governor of +Louisbourg, after he had been taken prisoner to England. It is dated +Andover, Oct. 1, 1758. Referring to the defences of Louisbourg, he +speaks of 'a fortification (if it could deserve the name) crumbling +down in every flank, face, and courtine, except the right flank of +the King's bastion, which was remounted the first year after my +arrival.'] + +[Sidenote: _Landing effected by Wolfe._] + +The real difficulty was the initial difficulty, that of landing on an +awkward coast in bad weather, with an enemy lining the shore. The +French had made full preparations, and had {274} their men, guns, and +batteries ready along the fringe of Gabarus Bay; while, for nearly a +week, surf and fog made any attempt at landing impracticable. At +length, at daybreak on June 8, three strong parties under the three +brigadiers put out in boats from the transports, and rowed for the +shore at three separate points. The main effort was intended to be +made on the extreme left, at Freshwater Cove, by the party commanded +by Wolfe. As the boats neared the land, the French opened a heavy +fire, and Wolfe signalled a retreat; but, by happy accident or by +design, one or more of the boats misinterpreted the sign, and made +good their landing a little to the right of the cove, where the cliff +gave some slight shelter from the enemy's fire. The rest then +followed in support, and, with no slight loss of men and boats, the +English carried the French position, and drove their opponents back +within range of the Louisbourg guns. + +[Sidenote: _The siege pressed._] + +The disembarkation now went on under difficulties. On June 18 the +siege guns were landed, and gradually the English formed their +encampment, drew their lines, and opened their trenches, beleaguering +the fortress on the western side, where the peninsula on which the +town of Louisbourg stood joined the mainland. The lines started from +the sea at Flat Point cove, and extended in a semicircle for about +two miles inland. Meanwhile, on the twelfth of June, Wolfe had +marched round the harbour, and subsequently mounted his guns at +Lighthouse Point on the opposite side. By the twenty-fifth he had +silenced the Island Battery, and thus commanded the mouth of the +harbour, where the French in consequence sunk several of their ships +to bar any attack by Boscawen. + +The town was now fully invested by land and sea; such French ships as +still remained were cooped up in the harbour, and the fall of +Louisbourg was merely a question of time. But the operations took +time. The besiegers had the same difficulty as had been experienced +in 1745, in advancing {275} across a belt of swamp. Day and night +passed in incessant work, under fire of the enemy's guns, and +interrupted by sorties of the garrison; but slowly and surely the +trenches were drawn nearer to the town. On the twenty-first of July +three out of the five remaining French ships took fire from a shell +and were destroyed, and on the twenty-fifth the two last were +successfully attacked by a detachment of English sailors, who rowed +into the harbour at night time, and among whom was James Cook, not +yet known to fame. One ship was grounded and burnt, the other was +towed off by its captors. + +[Sidenote: _The town surrenders._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg dismantled._] + +This bold feat brought matters to a climax. The land defences were in +ruins, the garrison was worn out, there was nothing to stop a general +assault by land and sea. On the twenty-sixth the French Governor +asked for terms. Unconditional surrender was demanded and refused; +but before the message of refusal reached the English camp, it was +withdrawn, at the instance, it was said, of the Intendant or +Commissary-General, who represented the civilian element in the town. +The articles of capitulation were signed, between 5,000 and 6,000 +French soldiers and sailors became prisoners of war, and on July 27 +the English forces entered Louisbourg. Two years later, in 1760, all +the fortifications were demolished, and the town was practically +blotted out. No chance was left of again handing back to France a +fortress which had so long threatened English interests in America. +Halifax was henceforth to be unrivalled on the coast; and at the +present day the once famous harbour of Louisbourg is in the keeping +of Cape Breton fishermen. + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's services at Louisbourg._] + +[Sidenote: _Time lost by the English._] + +The English Parliament voted thanks to Amherst and Boscawen; but to +Wolfe, who as a subordinate was not mentioned, the thanks of the +nation were mainly due. He 'shone extremely at Louisbourg,'[23] wrote +Horace Walpole, and Walpole owns that he did not love him. Had he +been {276} in supreme command, the siege would probably have ended +earlier, and greater results would have been achieved. His own view, +at any rate, as expressed in a private letter written after his +return to England, was that both during the siege and after it +valuable time was lost.[24] It is certain that when the expedition +was sent out, more was hoped from it than the capture of Louisbourg +alone. On May 18, 1758, Lord Chesterfield wrote: 'By this time I +believe the French are entertained in America with the loss of Cape +Breton, and, in consequence of that, Quebec; for we have a force +there equal to both those undertakings, and officers there now that +will execute what Lord L---- (Loudoun) never would so much as +attempt.'[25] The French on their side, as we learn from a subsequent +letter from Drucour, were aware of the importance of prolonging the +siege, in order to prevent Abercromby being reinforced, or an attack +being made on Quebec;[26] and all honour is due to the memory of the +brave {277} French commander for the determined stand which he made. +Before the siege ended, Abercromby had been beaten back from +Ticonderoga, and breathing time had been given to the defenders of +Canada. + +[Footnote 23: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 207 (Letter +of Feb. 9, 1759).] + +[Footnote 24: 'We lost time at the siege, still more after the siege, +and blundered from the beginning to the end of the campaign' (from a +letter written Dec. 1, 1758; Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 465). +Similarly, Wolfe wrote from the camp before Louisbourg, on July 27, +1758, the day after the capitulation: 'If this force had been +properly managed, there was an end of the French colony in North +America in one campaign' (Wright, p. 449).] + +[Footnote 25: Lord Chesterfield to his son, May 18, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 136; Letter 298).] + +[Footnote 26: See the letter already quoted above, p. 273, note. +Drucour is explaining why he would not allow the French ships to +leave Louisbourg harbour, 'It was our business to defer the +determination of our fate as long as possible. My accounts from +Canada assured me that M. de Montcalm was marching to the enemy and +would come up with them between July 15 and 20. I said then "if the +ships leave the harbour on June 10 (as they desire), the English +admiral will enter it immediately after," and we should have been +lost before the end of the month, which would have put it in the +power of the generals of the besiegers to have employed the months of +July and August in sending succours to the troops marching against +Canada, and to have entered the river St. Lawrence at the proper +season.' In a 'Scheme for taking Louisbourg,' which was submitted to +Pitt by Brigadier Waldo (who had been on Pepperell's expedition) on +Nov. 7, 1757, fourteen days were given to Louisbourg to hold out when +once duly invested, and an attack on Quebec was contemplated as the +immediate result of its fall (Brymer's _Report on Canadian Archives_, +1886, pp. 151-3).] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe returns to England._] + +Yet it was but the end of July when Louisbourg fell, and, if Wolfe +had had his way, the ships would have gone on to Quebec. Even Amherst +might have gone on but for the bad news from Abercromby, which +confirmed his habitual caution, and retarded instead of quickening +his movements. One officer, Lord Rollo, was sent to reduce the Île +St. Jean; another, Monckton, cleared the valley of the St. John river +on the mainland. Wolfe was dispatched to Gaspé Bay and the mouth of +the St. Lawrence, to harry the settlers and the fishermen; and when +he had accomplished his task, which was little to his taste, he +sailed for home angry and disappointed that more had not been done, +and that his advice had not been taken. Amherst, in the meantime, had +gone with six regiments to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George. + +[Sidenote: _The Maritime Provinces finally secured to England._] + +The capture of Louisbourg secured to England all that should have +been hers when the Treaty of Utrecht was being negotiated. The +English were now in full occupation of the Maritime Provinces of +Canada. More than half of the comparatively small French population +of Cape Breton was, at the people's own wish, shipped to France; and +of the residents in the Île St. Jean, mainly Acadian refugees, a +large proportion was similarly transported, while others found their +way to Canada. Cape Breton was attached to Nova Scotia, to be +subsequently separated from that province and again rejoined. The Île +St. Jean was placed under the same Government, and before the century +ended, in the year 1799, its name was changed to Prince Edward Island +in honour of the Duke of Kent, the father of Her late Majesty Queen +Victoria. + +[Sidenote: _Abercromby's advance._] + +By Loudoun's recall, Abercromby was left in chief command of the +British forces in North America. He had with him, {278} as one of his +brigadiers, Lord Howe, who commanded the 55th Regiment. In May, 1758, +he was at Albany preparing for the summer's work. In June he moved up +to the end of Lake George, where his force, amounting to 15,000 men, +gathered to drive the French back on Canada. The colonies had +answered well to Pitt's appeal, and contributed 9,000 men to the +total. On July 5 the army embarked in boats; on the sixth they landed +without opposition at the northern end of the lake, on the western +side of the water, and began their march on Ticonderoga through the +forest, having on their right the semicircular stream which connects +Lake George and Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Lord Howe killed._] + +The right centre column was led by Lord Howe, and, as the soldiers +groped their way through the dense thickets, they stumbled across a +party of French, who had been sent out to reconnoitre, had also lost +their way, and found their retreat cut off. A confused skirmish +followed, with more numerical loss to the French than to the English; +but Howe was shot dead, and his life by common consent meant the life +of the expedition. All night the army remained under arms in the +forest, and on the morning of the seventh marched back to the +landing-place. + +[Sidenote: _The approach to the French position at Ticonderoga._] + +It was a matter of very few miles to the French position. The river, +which carries the waters of Lake George into Lake Champlain, and +enters the latter lake at Ticonderoga, has a course of about eight +miles; but they are eight miles of a semicircle, and the distance in +a straight line from Lake George to Ticonderoga is much shorter. The +English had landed at the head of the river; about two miles lower +down rapids begin, and here was the portage leading from the head to +the bottom of the rapids, and forming the chord of an arc, the arc +being between three and four miles of broken water. The lower bridge +of the portage, where there was a sawmill, was well within two miles +of the French Fort Carillon. At the head of the rapids the French had +held an advanced {279} post, which was withdrawn on the approach of +Abercromby's army, and, when the main force of that army landed to +wander in the forest, a detachment was sent on down the river and +occupied the deserted position. On the seventh, while the main body +again was resting at the landing-place, Bradstreet was sent forward +to the post at the bottom of the rapids, which was also found to be +deserted, and here on the evening of the seventh the main body +encamped, the bridge being repaired, and the encampment being on the +same side of the river as Ticonderoga. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm's dispositions._] + +Montcalm, who was joined by Levis on the night of the seventh, had +with him rather under 4,000 men, the majority of whom were regulars. +Outnumbered as he was by three or four to one, his position was +perilous in the extreme, for his retreat could easily be cut off. He +determined, however, to make a stand, and on rising ground on the +inland--the western--side of the little peninsula on which Fort +Carillon or Ticonderoga[27] was built, at a distance of rather over +half a mile from the fort, he formed at the eleventh hour +entrenchments of timber, fringed on the outside by a network of +'felled trees, the branches pointed outwards,'[28] and carefully laid +so as to entangle and annoy the enemy. + +[Footnote 27: Ticonderoga, according to Rogers' _Journals_ (p. 22, +note), is an 'Indian name signifying the meeting or confluence of +three waters.'] + +[Footnote 28: Abercromby's dispatch to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _The English repulse at Ticonderoga._] + +[Sidenote: _Retreat of Abercromby._] + +Against this position Abercromby ordered an attack on July 8. He had +been told by French prisoners that Montcalm's force was stronger than +it actually was, and that further reinforcements were shortly to +arrive. In consequence he hurried his movements, and without bringing +up any guns, which apparently he had left behind him, he determined, +thinking that the entrenchment had not been completed, to trust +entirely to the bayonet. The result was the inevitable result of a +frontal attack, delivered in the open, against an enemy fighting +under cover and undisturbed by {280} artillery fire. For four hours +charge after charge was made, and at the close of the day the English +had achieved nothing and had lost nearly 2,000 men. The casualties in +the Black Watch alone amounted to 500. Abercromby had still 13,000 +men left, but he had no stomach for further fighting. On the +following day he ordered a retreat, and the whole force went back to +the southern end of Lake George. + +[Sidenote: _Triumph of Montcalm._] + +At Oswego and at Fort William Henry, Montcalm had shown how to +concentrate superior forces at a given point rapidly and effectively, +and how to use them when concentrated to the best possible advantage. +At Ticonderoga, he showed how to make the most of very inferior +numbers, by utilizing every natural and artificial advantage, and +every mistake of the foe. It was a great triumph for him; it produced +joy in Canada, and discouragement in England; but, as Mr. Parkman +points out, it is difficult to see how he could possibly have +succeeded, if Abercromby had taken any other course than the one +which he actually took. Wolfe summed up the matter aright, when, in +the following December, he referred in a private letter to 'the +famous post at Ticonderoga, where Mr. Abercromby by a little +soldiership and a little patience might, I think, have put an end to +the war in America.'[29] + +[Footnote 29: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 469.] + +[Sidenote: _Tribute to Lord Howe._] + +Almost as disastrous as the repulse itself was the death of Lord +Howe, which preceded it. The eldest of three distinguished brothers, +the second of whom was the famous admiral, and the third the not so +successful general in the American War of Independence, he was not +thirty-four years old when he was killed, and had only landed in +America in the previous year. Yet he had lived long enough for all +men to speak well of him, and all to love him. In his dispatch giving +an account of the operations, Abercromby wrote: 'He was very +deservedly universally beloved and respected through {281} the whole +army.'[30] Pitt testified in more stilted phrases that 'he was by the +universal voice of army and people a character of ancient times, a +complete model of military virtue in all its branches.'[31] Wolfe +loved him dearly, and his letters show how highly he valued 'his +abilities, spirit and address.'[32] He writes of him as 'the very +best officer in the King's service,' as 'the noblest Englishman that +has appeared in my time,' as 'truly a great man.' 'This country has +produced nothing like him in my time; his death cannot be enough +lamented.' Similar testimony is given by Robert Rogers, the Ranger, +who was with the force when he fell: 'This noble and brave officer +being universally beloved by both officers and soldiers of the army, +his fall was not only most sincerely lamented, but seemed to produce +an almost universal consternation and langour through the whole.'[33] +But the most striking honour to his name and memory was paid by the +province of Massachusetts. In 1759 the Court of Assembly ordered a +monument to him to be placed in Westminster Abbey, which still +records 'the sense they had of his services and military virtues, and +of the affection their officers and soldiers bore to his command.' +Burke, in the _Annual Register_ for 1758,[34] gives the clue to the +affection with which the colonists regarded Lord Howe: 'From the +moment he landed in America he had wisely conformed, and made his +regiment conform, to the kind of service which the country required.' +Howe's life, he adds, was 'long enough for his honour, but not for +his country.' In truth, had he lived, and had Wolfe lived, the +history of the English in America might have been widely different. +Two men who in youth had so inspired their time, and so impressed +American colonists with the sense of leadership, might well {282} +have averted the War of Independence, or by military genius have +given it another issue. + +[Footnote 30: Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +[Footnote 31: _Grenville Correspondence_, vol. i, p. 262.] + +[Footnote 32: Wright, pp. 426, 448, 450, 465, 469.] + +[Footnote 33: Rogers' _Journals_, p. 114, note.] + +[Footnote 34 pp. 72, 73.] + +[Sidenote: _Bradstreet takes Fort Frontenac._] + +From July to October Abercromby remained at one end of Lake George, +and Montcalm, who had received heavy reinforcements, at the other. +Parties of Rangers and Canadians attacked each other on the Wood +Creek line, but the main bodies were inactive. The presence of the +English force had the advantage, however, of holding in their front +so large a number of the enemy that the latter were unable adequately +to protect other positions, and in consequence they lost Fort +Frontenac. That competent officer, Colonel Bradstreet, had already +proposed an expedition against this point, and when he renewed his +proposal after the battle of Ticonderoga, Abercromby gave his +consent, and spared him 3,600 men for the purpose, noting that 'he is +not only very active, but has great knowledge of the country.'[35] + +[Footnote 35: Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +In August he moved up the Mohawk, took his troops past the Carrying +Place from that river, where, on the site of Fort Williams, General +Stanwix was busy building a new fort, reached the ruins of Oswego, +put out across the lake, and on August 25 landed close to Fort +Frontenac. By the twenty-seventh he had the fort at the mercy of his +guns, and the small garrison of a little over a hundred men +surrendered. The prisoners were sent on parole to Montreal, to be +exchanged for a corresponding number of English; the fort was burnt, +and guns, ships, and supplies were carried off or destroyed. It was +an excellent piece of work for the English side; 'a great stroke,' as +Wolfe wrote on hearing of it.[36] Great material damage was caused to +the French by, temporarily at any rate, cutting their communications +with the west, and intercepting supplies which had been intended for +{283} the forts on the Ohio and on the upper lakes. The moral effect +was greater still. The time-honoured French fort on Lake Ontario, the +earliest French post on the lakes, had been with little effort taken +and blotted out, reminding the waverers among the Five Nation Indians +that, in spite of reverses, the English arm was strong and +far-reaching, and the English alliance was for them a valuable asset. + +[Footnote 36: Letter of Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. +457). In another letter (p. 465) he writes: 'Bradstreet's coup was +masterly. He is a very extraordinary man.'] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst becomes Commander-in-Chief in North America._] + +Early in October Amherst came up to Abercromby's camp, and the two +generals decided not to make a further attempt on Ticonderoga until +the following year. 'General Amherst,' wrote Wolfe, 'thought the +entrenchments so improved as to require more ceremony in the second +attack than the season would allow of.'[37] The troops were +accordingly sent into winter quarters, and in November Abercromby +received a letter of recall. Amherst became in his stead +Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America. + +[Footnote 37: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 469.] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition against Fort Duquesne._] + +By the end of October campaigning was over for the year in the east, +and in the centre; but it was not so in the west, where +Brigadier-General Forbes was marching on Fort Duquesne. + +[Sidenote: _General Forbes._] + +Forbes was an older man than the other English commanders, who +achieved success in the war; and he seems to have been over sixty in +the year 1758.[38] He proved himself to be a man of great fortitude +and resolution, tactful in dealing with colonists or Indians, a +brave, sure, and careful soldier. His task was to give security to +the harried frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and to clear the +French out of the Ohio valley. With this end he had to collect and +equip a force, the large majority of whom were provincials; to get +money and men out of two colonies, which were very jealous alike of +the mother country and of {284} each other; to make choice between +two conflicting routes, and to detach the Ohio Indians as far as +possible from the French cause. + +[Footnote 38: For his age see Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. +iv, p. 192, note. He has been generally put down as a younger man.] + +[Sidenote: _Reasons why the expedition made slow progress._] + +A long time was taken over the preliminaries, and over the expedition +itself, the object of which was not attained until the end of +November; but the delays were not only the consequence of want of +transport, and of Forbes' own ill health, they were also the result +of design. The longer the English kept their enemies waiting to be +attacked, the fewer those enemies were likely to be; for the Indians, +and the militia of New France, did not love to keep the field for any +long time together. Moreover, as Forbes wrote to Pitt,[39] October +and November were the best hunting months for the Indians, which they +were therefore not willing to devote to war; while, on the other +hand, they were months when the leaves fell and left the backwoods +easier to reconnoitre and less easy for ambuscade. + +[Footnote 39: Letter of Forbes to Pitt, Oct. 20, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _Preparation for advance._] + +[Sidenote: _A new route taken._] + +Forbes came to Philadelphia in April; and through the early summer +months his force gradually assembled, and moved to the front. When +the numbers were complete, they amounted to over 6,000 men, in the +main southern colonists, but including a strong regiment of +Highlanders. The second in command was a good man for the work, +Bouquet, one of the Swiss officers of the Royal Americans. The +advanced base was formed at Raestown, now Bedford, in Pennsylvania, +distant about ninety miles from Fort Duquesne. It was some thirty +miles north-east of Fort Cumberland, from which Braddock had started +on his disastrous march; and a keen controversy arose as to whether +the old route should be followed, or a new road taken. Opening a road +to the Ohio meant, when the fighting was over, giving to the State, +within or near whose boundaries the road ran, control of the trade. +Virginia accordingly pressed for the old and more southerly route, +Pennsylvania for the northern line. In spite {285} of Washington's +arguments, the latter was chosen; it was shorter and more direct, and +on the whole presented fewer natural difficulties than the other. The +first forty miles led due west over the main Alleghany range and the +Laurel hills, to a place called Loyalhannon; and by the end of August +Bouquet had a road cut to this place, a dépôt established, and +preparations made for carrying on the track through fifty miles of +less difficult country to Fort Duquesne. + +[Sidenote: _An advance attack on Fort Duquesne repulsed with loss._] + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio Indians desert the French._] + +Every care was being taken by the commanders; but notwithstanding, +before the end came, there was in a smaller measure a repetition of +Braddock's reverse. In the middle of September, Major Grant, an +officer of the Highlanders, obtained permission from Bouquet to march +out from Loyalhannon with between 700 and 800 men,[40] for the +purpose of reconnoitring Fort Duquesne. He arrived at night time +close to the fort; intended a night attack, which miscarried; +repeated the attempt to attack on the following day, and having +broken up his force into small parties, was badly beaten and himself +taken prisoner. The total British casualties numbered about 280, the +survivors finding their way back to Bouquet at Loyalhannon. 'This was +a most terrible check to my small army,' wrote Forbes,[41] but the +reverse was more than counterbalanced shortly afterwards by a success +of a different kind. From the first Forbes had spared no pains to +secure the friendship of the Indians; and in October, in large +measure through the good offices of a Moravian missionary, a general +council was held, at which the tribes of the Ohio made their peace +with the English, deserting the French cause as rats leave a sinking +ship. + +[Footnote 40: Forbes' own dispatch mentions 900.] + +[Footnote 41: Forbes to Pitt, Raestown, Oct. 20, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _The final advance on Fort Duquesne._] + +[Sidenote: _The fort abandoned by the French and occupied by the +English._] + +It was November before Forbes joined Bouquet at Loyalhannon. He was +broken in body, but resolute to carry {286} through the expedition, +in spite of the lateness of the season. The road had been cut to +within easy reach of the French fort; and, on November 18, 2,500 men, +picked out of the force, advanced in three columns, carrying with +them only what was absolutely necessary in the way of supplies, and +their brave commander on a litter. At a day's march from Fort +Duquesne, it was reported that the fort had been evacuated and burnt; +and when the English reached it on the twenty-fifth, they found that +the news was true. Weakened by the desertion of the Indians, and by +having disbanded some of the militia, whom he could not feed, in want +of the provisions which Bradstreet had intercepted at Fort Frontenac, +the French commander, De Ligneris, saw no alternative but to blow up +the fort, and retreat more than a hundred miles up the Alleghany to +the junction of that river with French Creek, leaving the valley of +the Ohio in English hands, as events proved, for ever. + +[Sidenote: _Foundation of Pittsburg._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Forbes._] + +For the moment Forbes' chief care was to build at once on the site of +Fort Duquesne a temporary stockade, which could be held by a small +garrison through the winter. In the following year a permanent fort +was built. The name of Fort Duquesne was exchanged for that of Fort +Pitt, and the city of Pittsburg still recalls the statesman who +recovered for the British colonies the rich western lands which are +watered by the Ohio. 'I have used the freedom of giving your name to +Fort Duquesne,' wrote Forbes to Pitt two days after he had reached +the fort, 'as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by +your spirit that now makes us masters of the place.'[42] The honest +soldier, whom the English minister sent to do the work, and who did +it when the colonies concerned should have done it for themselves, +did not long survive his success. Patient and suffering, John Forbes +was carried back to Philadelphia, where he {287} died in the +following March, having shown a steadfast, single-minded devotion to +duty, rare even in the rich record of British soldiers. + +[Footnote 42: Forbes to Pitt, Pittsburg, Nov. 27, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _Results of the campaign of 1758._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada receives little help from France._] + +With the English occupation of Fort Duquesne, the campaigning of 1758 +in North America came to an end. It been a long season, and for +England distinctly a successful though also to a certain extent a +disappointing one. 'I do not reckon that we have been fortunate this +year in America,' wrote Wolfe on December 1; 'our force was so +superior to the enemy's that we might hope for greater success.'[43] +He wrote in ignorance that Fort Duquesne had been taken, but, +notwithstanding, his view of the situation was the true one. At +Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac, Fort Duquesne, there had been great and +substantial successes. At Ticonderoga there had been a bad check; but +the French had made nothing of it afterwards. They were now on the +defensive and playing a losing game. Yet that more might and should +have been done by the English commanders with their great superiority +of numbers cannot be doubted. Had Wolfe been in Amherst's place, and +Lord Howe in Abercromby's, the year 1758 might well have been the +last year of French rule in North America. But the end was only +postponed for a short time, the resources of Canada in men and in +supplies were becoming insufficient to sustain the war: the country +was practically in a state of blockade; and Bougainville, who was +sent at the beginning of winter to France to plead the cause of +Canada, met with little success. A very few soldiers, some supplies, +and honours for the generals, were the result of his mission. France +was engrossed in the war in Europe, and not as many hundreds were +sent to North America as England sent thousands. Vaudreuil, in the +meantime, was intriguing against Montcalm, whose genius and +determination had prolonged the unequal {288} fight, and on whom, +with Levis and Bourlamaque, lay the heavy burden of defending a +ruined State, and checking, at this point and at that, the flowing +tide of English invasion. + +[Footnote 43: Wright, p. 464.] + + +NOTE.--For the above see, among modern books, + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vols. iii and iv; + PARKMAN'S _Montcalm and Wolfe_; and + WRIGHT'S _Life of Wolfe_. + + + + +{289} + +CHAPTER X + +THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (_continued_) + + +When Wolfe reached England from Louisbourg in November, 1758, he +wrote to Pitt offering himself for further service in America, 'and +particularly in the river St. Lawrence, if any operations are to be +carried on there.'[1] Before Christmas, Pitt had appointed him to +command an expedition in the coming year against Quebec. + +[Footnote 1: Wolfe to Pitt, Nov. 22, 1758 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, +p. 464). There was some misunderstanding as to his return to England. +See the correspondence quoted by Mr. Kingsford in the note to vol. +iv, p. 155, of his _History_.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's early life and character._] + +Wolfe was born at Westerham, in Kent, on January 2, 1727, and was +therefore not thirty-three years old when he was killed at Quebec in +September, 1759. He was the son of a soldier, and received his first +commission before he was fifteen. He was present at Dettingen, and at +Culloden; and, subsequently to the latter battle, after an interval +of fighting in the Netherlands, where he distinguished himself at the +battle of Laffeldt, he was stationed for a considerable time in +Scotland. Service in the Highlands, it may be noted, in Jacobite +times, was not bad training for service in North America. In +September, 1757, after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, he took +part in the expedition against Rochefort, to the south of La +Rochelle, on the west coast of France--an enterprise as utterly +barren of results as was the Duke of Buckingham's venture against the +same area of coast when Charles I was King. Lord Howe and Wolfe {290} +were among the few who gained any credit from the expedition. In the +following year, Wolfe served at Louisbourg. + +Horace Walpole writes of him: 'Ambition, activity, industry, passion +for the service, were conspicuous in Wolfe. He seemed to breathe for +nothing but fame, and lost no moments in qualifying himself to +compass his object.'[2] These words are partly true, but do not tell +the whole truth. Wolfe was ambitious, active, and industrious, but he +cared for more than fame alone. His dramatic death in the hour of +victory, while he was still very young, makes it impossible to form +an adequate estimate of his real worth as a soldier; but all that is +known of him points to his having been, in spite of persistent ill +health, a great military genius, and a rare leader of men. He seems +to have resembled Nelson in his fighting qualities, and to have had +the same lovable nature, coupled with a higher standard of life. Like +Nelson, in warfare he always took the offensive if possible--took it, +as at Quebec, in spite of smaller numbers and a less favourable +position. 'An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the Indians and +ruin the French,' were his words to Amherst in a letter written after +the taking of Louisbourg.[3] + +[Footnote 2: Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_ (1847 +ed.), vol. iii, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 3: Louisbourg, Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright, p. 457).] + +Like Nelson, he loved his men, and his men loved him. According to +the old story, when the Duke of Newcastle told the King that Wolfe +was mad, the King expressed a wish that he would bite his other +generals. This was precisely what Wolfe did. He infected to some +extent those above him, to a great extent those under his command. He +was a man after Pitt's own heart; wherever he was, he made himself +felt, giving a living fire and force to the army. Coupled with this +vitality was a thorough knowledge of his profession, gained not only +on actual battlefields and {291} training-grounds, but also from +voluminous reading.[4] Nature gave him a hot temper and fearless +independence of spirit; he was in consequence impatient, and perhaps +unduly critical, of the mistakes of those above him; but he was the +soul of honour and chivalry, and his private life was marked by +tender love for his mother, stanch attachment to his friends, and +kindness to all dependent upon him, including dumb animals. In his +lifetime he enjoyed 'a large share of the friendship and almost the +universal goodwill of mankind.'[5] In a word, English history has +produced no truer type of hero than James Wolfe. + +[Footnote 4: In Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 342-5, is given a +letter of Wolfe's, dated July, 1756, recommending a long list of +books for a young soldier to read. Reference is made at the beginning +of the letter to a French book recently published (Turpin's _Essai +sur l'art de la guerre_), and it is interesting to find that Forbes, +in a letter to Pitt from Raestown, dated Oct. 20, 1758, stated that +in his march on Fort Duquesne he was acting on the principles laid +down in that book.] + +[Footnote 5: From the 'Character of General Wolfe' in the _Annual +Register_ for 1759, p. 282.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's brigadiers. Monckton. Murray. George Townshend. +Carleton. Howe. Admiral Saunders._] + +At the siege of Louisbourg, Wolfe was one of three brigadiers under +General Amherst. When he was given the command of the expedition +against Quebec, three brigadiers were placed under him--Monckton, +Townshend, and Murray. They were all of noble birth, and two of them +at any rate were good soldiers. Monckton, the senior of the three, +had shown his efficiency in Acadia, and at the siege of Louisbourg. +Murray proved his worth both before and after the capture of Quebec, +in a civil as well as in a military capacity. The least satisfactory +of the three was George Townshend, elder brother of the better known +Charles Townshend, not wanting in capacity, but deficient in loyalty +to his commander; a somewhat jealous and bitter-natured man, who had +the backing of political and aristocratic connexion. Horace Walpole +writes of him as a man 'whose proud and sullen and contemptuous +temper never suffered him to wait for thwarting his superiors till +risen to a level {292} with them. He saw everything in an ill-natured +and ridiculous light--a sure prevention of ever being seen himself in +a great or favourable one.'[6] The Quartermaster-General of the force +was Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, well known in Canadian +history, a great personal friend of Wolfe's, though out of favour +with the King. Howe, younger brother of the man whose untimely death +Wolfe so deeply lamented, commanded the light infantry, and led them +in the van of the force up the cliffs of Quebec. Lastly, an admirable +officer was in charge of the fleet, Saunders, who nineteen years +before had sailed round the world with Lord Anson in the _Centurion_. + +[Footnote 6: _Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_ (1847 ed.), +vol. iii, pp. 171, 172.] + +[Sidenote: _Small number of troops commanded by Wolfe._] + +[Sidenote: _Start of the expedition._] + +The troops, whom Wolfe and his officers commanded, were too few for +the difficult task with which they were entrusted. They were to have +numbered 12,000; as a matter of fact their total did not reach 9,000. +Some were in America already, but the large majority sailed from +England with Wolfe and Saunders, leaving England in the middle of +February, anchoring at Halifax at the end of April, moving on to +Louisbourg in May, when the ice was disappearing, and arriving in +front of Quebec towards the end of June--a small squadron, under +Admiral Durell, having already ascended the St. Lawrence in advance +of the main fleet. As they went up the river, 'the prevailing +sentimental toast amongst the officers' was 'British colours on every +French fort, port, and garrison in America.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: From Knox's _Historical Journal of the Campaigns in +North America_ (London, 1769), vol. i, p. 279.] + +[Sidenote: _General plan of campaign in North America._] + +The expedition against Quebec was only part of a general plan of +campaign. While Wolfe was operating in the St. Lawrence, it was +intended that Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief, with a larger army, +should move northward by way of Lake Champlain; and, reducing the +French forts at {293} Ticonderoga and Crown Point, make his way to +the St. Lawrence, in time to co-operate with Wolfe's force, or to +draw off a number of the defenders of Quebec for the protection of +Montreal. As events turned out, Amherst gave little support to Wolfe. +On the contrary, the main French army under Montcalm went to and +remained at Quebec; and Wolfe, with the smaller force and far the +more difficult enterprise to undertake, had to rely on his own +resources alone. Montcalm had probably gauged the respective merits +of Amherst and Wolfe. Had Amherst been in command of the Quebec +expedition, and Wolfe leading the central advance, it is reasonable +to suppose that the French general would have entrusted the defence +of Quebec to a smaller force, and with the bulk of his army would +have confronted the more dangerous English leader on the line of Lake +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's difficulties._] + +Amherst, however, it is fair to note, had, as Commander-in-Chief, to +direct his attention to other points as well as the direct northern +line of advance. When the spring opened, the forts on the Mohawk +river had been re-established, and Fort Duquesne was held by the +small garrison which Forbes had placed there. But Oswego was still +desolate, and the English had no post on Lake Ontario. The French +held a strong position at Niagara; they commanded the routes from the +lakes to Fort Duquesne; they could bring reinforcements of Canadians +and Indians from the west as well as up the St. Lawrence--if any +could be spared from this quarter. Forbes, the leader in the west, +was dead. Under these circumstances a cautious commander, though not +perhaps a brilliant one, might hesitate to invade central Canada +until some further security was attained on the western side. + +[Sidenote: _Prideaux sent against Niagara._] + +[Sidenote: _Haldimand attacked at Oswego: he beats off the French._] + +General Stanwix was accordingly sent to reinforce Fort Duquesne, and, +having made that position secure, to press forward, if possible, up +the Alleghany and French Creek rivers, in order to co-operate with +another force which, under General Prideaux, was ordered to ascend +the Mohawk river, {294} reoccupy Oswego, and from Oswego as the base +to attack Niagara. Prideaux concentrated his troops at Schenectady +towards the end of May, about 5,000 in number, including two +regiments of regulars. Sir William Johnson joined him with Indian +warriors from the Five Nations; and with him too, as second in +command, was Colonel Haldimand, like Bouquet a Swiss by birth, and +twenty years later Governor-General of Canada. Strengthening the +outposts on the line of communication as he advanced, Prideaux made +his way to Oswego, and, leaving Haldimand there to rebuild the fort, +started westwards on July 1 for Niagara, carrying his men in boats +along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Soon after he left, +Haldimand's force at Oswego was attacked by 1,000 Canadians and +Indians, who came up the St. Lawrence under the command of St. Luc de +la Corne; but, though taken by surprise, the garrison beat off their +assailants with little loss. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Niagara._] + +The French fort at Niagara was in good condition for defence. It +stood in the angle between the Niagara river and the lake, on what is +now the American side of the river; a road had been made past the +falls, and there were two outposts, one above and the other below the +falls. A competent French officer, Pouchot, was in command; his +garrison, when the English appeared, numbered 500 men more or less, +and he sent messages to bring up reinforcements from the forts on the +Ohio route--Presque Île, Fort Leboeuf, and Machault or Venango--in +addition to Indians and Rangers from Detroit and the west, who were +already coming down to the aid of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Prideaux._] + +[Sidenote: _Johnson takes command and defeats the French relief +force._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Niagara._] + +On July 8 Prideaux summoned the fort to surrender, and, his summons +being rejected, began to invest the place. No great skill was shown +in the investment, and on July 20 the English general was +accidentally killed by the bursting of a shell from one of his own +guns. The command devolved on Johnson, who heard that a relief {295} +force was coming down Lake Erie--a force which numbered at least +1,200 men all told, and was led by some of the best border fighters +in Canada, including Ligneris, who had in the preceding year been in +charge of Fort Duquesne. Johnson marched out to intercept them on the +road between the fort and the falls, attacked them at once in front +and on the flank, and gained a complete victory. The French officers +were taken prisoners, their troops were utterly routed and broken up, +and the survivors retreated westward to Detroit, abandoning Lake Erie +and the whole of the Ohio country. It was on July 24 that the fight +took place, and on the following day Pouchot, having verified the +news of the French defeat, surrendered Niagara. One of the terms of +the surrender was that the prisoners should be protected from the +Indians by an English escort, the massacre at Fort William Henry +being evidently borne in mind; and on this condition six hundred +Frenchmen were sent to New York. + +[Sidenote: _Result of its fall._] + +Thus, for the second time, Sir William Johnson had rendered signal +service to the English cause; and with the fall of Niagara the French +lost all command of the lower lakes. Their only communication now +with Detroit and the far West was by the old route of the Ottawa +river, and their scheme of conquest in the lands of the Ohio was +wholly and for ever undone. 'The taking of Niagara broke off +effectually that communication, so much talked of and so much +dreaded, between Canada and Louisiana; and by this stroke one of the +capital political designs of the French, which gave occasion to the +present war, was defeated in its direct and immediate object.'[8] On +hearing of the success, Amherst sent up General Gage to replace +Prideaux, with orders to come down the St. Lawrence and join in the +combination against central Canada; but the force was small, Gage, +like Amherst, was cautious, and the summer passed {296} away without +any further success by the troops on Lake Ontario. + +[Footnote 8: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 34.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's advance._] + +[Sidenote: _The French abandon Ticonderoga and Crown Point._] + +While Prideaux and Johnson were operating against Niagara, Amherst +had begun his northward movement. He had carefully secured his +communications by fortified posts, and, before June ended, had +gathered a force of 11,000 men at the southern end of Lake George, +the scene of so many encampments and so much fighting. On July 21 he +embarked his troops, followed the line of Abercromby's advance in the +previous year, found the famous entrenchment, which had foiled +Abercromby's troops, deserted, but the fort itself still held. On the +evening of the twenty-sixth, however, deserters brought news that the +garrison was in retreat, and shortly afterwards a loud explosion told +its own tale. Ticonderoga had been abandoned and blown up. The French +commander opposed to Amherst was Bourlamaque, and his orders were to +fall back before the English to the outlet of Lake Champlain, where a +small island in the Richelieu river, the Île aux Noix, could easily +be defended, blocking the enemy's advance on Montreal. He had a force +of over 3,000 men, the rearguard of which, consisting of 400 men, had +held Ticonderoga for two or three days, to cover the retreat of the +main force. On August 1, Crown Point was found to be abandoned also, +and the way north, down Lake Champlain, lay open to the invaders of +Canada. Amherst entered Crown Point on August 4, and on the following +day wrote to Pitt: 'I shall take fast hold of it, and not neglect at +the same time to forward every measure I can to enable me to pass +Lake Champlain.' + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's inaction._] + +Now was the time for the quick aggressive movement which Wolfe +practised and preached, but the Commander-in-Chief fell miserably +short of the occasion. August went by, and September, but Robert +Rogers and his Rangers, who harried the French Indians on the river +St. Francis {297} north-east of Lake Champlain, were the only +fighting members of Amherst's army. Time was spent in constructing a +new fort at Crown Point; in making a road eastward from Lake +Champlain, opposite Crown Point, to the Connecticut river; in +building vessels to overpower four little armed sloops, which +represented French naval enterprise on the lake. In the middle of +October Amherst embarked his troops to go north, met with wind and +storm, returned to Crown Point, and made all snug for the winter. +This was not the way to conquer Canada: the real work was done by +another man at another place. While the main English army loitered on +the shores of Lake Champlain, Wolfe had laid down his life in victory +on the Plains of Abraham. + +[Illustration: Map of Quebec] + +[Sidenote: _The harbour of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _The northern bank of the St. Lawrence._] + +By a Canadian Act of 1858, the harbour of Quebec, for the purposes of +the Act, is defined as extending from the Cap Rouge river, about +eight miles above Quebec, to the Montmorency, about the same distance +below the city. At Quebec, and for many miles above, the St. Lawrence +is a tidal river. Below Quebec the river flows due north-east, and is +divided into two channels by the island of Orleans, which also lies +due north-east and south-west, being twenty miles long with a maximum +breadth of six miles. The inland--the south-western--end of the +island points directly at the rock of Quebec, which runs out from the +northern shore of the St. Lawrence, facing straight down the river, +at four miles distance from the island. The two channels, looking up +stream, unite at the end of the island, and form a semicircular basin +just below Quebec, where the northern shore recedes. Immediately +above this basin the rock of Quebec on the north of the river, and +Point Levis on the southern mainland, jut out towards each other, +narrowing the St. Lawrence to a breadth of considerably less than a +mile. Above Quebec the upward course of the river is still south-west +by west. The northern bank is continuously steep, and at five to six +miles' distance from Quebec on this side is Sillery Cove. {298} +Between two and three miles further on, nearly due west, is Cap +Rouge. Over against Sillery the Chaudičre river flows in from the +south, forming in old days a possible route to the St. Lawrence for +those who followed up the course of the Kennebec from the coast of +Maine.[9] + +[Footnote 9: See above, p. 123.] + +Miles of river-side cliff culminate in the promontory on which Quebec +stands, and the south-western end of which is known as Cape Diamond. +From the river above the town, Quebec, if man combined with nature, +was almost inaccessible. Below, the eastern side of the city is girt +by the winding River St. Charles, beyond which are the meadows of +Beauport, with shoals in front and high ground behind; and, past the +little Beauport river, which is very roughly equidistant from the St. +Charles and the Montmorency, the northern bank of the St. Lawrence is +again more or less fringed with steep ground as far as, and beyond, +the falls, over which the Montmorency takes its way into the great +river. + +[Sidenote: _The strength of the French position._] + +Nature had given Quebec a position of unique strength; man had added +fortifications; and, when Wolfe came before it, 16,000 soldiers, +including French, Canadians, and Indians, were mustered for its +defence, under one of the most skilful generals of his day. There was +a garrison in Quebec itself; but the main army was encamped below the +city, and lined entrenchments from the St. Charles to the +Montmorency, Montcalm's head quarters being on the further side of +the Beauport river. To defeat an army nearly double the strength of +his own, and to take the citadel which, since the days of Kirke and +Champlain, had proved impregnable, was the hopeless task assigned to +Wolfe. It was a task which he accomplished. + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's troops superior in quality to Montcalm's._] + +[Sidenote: _Importance of commanding the river._] + +[Sidenote: _Co-operation of English army and navy._] + +Over and above his own leadership, he had two points in his favour. +His troops were better than those commanded by Montcalm. The majority +of Montcalm's men were Canadian militia, disinclined for long +continuous service, {299} which kept them away from their farms, and, +while excellent for raiding purposes or for fighting under cover, not +to be relied on if ever they should be brought face to face with +English regiments in the open field. Wolfe, moreover, gained complete +command of the river. Such ships as the French possessed had been +sent high up the St. Lawrence out of harm's way; and, though the guns +of Quebec commanded the river strait immediately below the rock, as +the siege went on some of the English vessels, and many boats, were +taken past the promontory, so that the St. Lawrence was securely held +both below and above the city. In war and in peace English sailors +and soldiers have known how to support each other. At the sieges of +Louisbourg the admirals co-operated in every possible way with the +leaders of the land forces, and equally hearty was the co-operation +of the two arms of the service before Quebec. Admiral Saunders, with +Durell and Holmes, did all that men could do to second Wolfe in his +difficult enterprise. + +[Sidenote: _The island of Orleans occupied._] + +[Sidenote: _Vaudreuil's fireships._] + +[Sidenote: _Point Levis occupied._] + +Piloted by Canadian prisoners or by their own determined seamen, the +British ships had threaded their way up the St. Lawrence, and on June +26 anchored on the southern side of the Isle of Orleans. That night a +party of Rangers landed on the island, meeting with some slight +opposition, and the next day the whole force disembarked and marched +across the island towards its westernmost point, the Point of +Orleans. There the city of Quebec came in full view, 'at once a +tempting and a discouraging sight.'[10] Hardly had the troops landed +when, on the same day, a heavy storm broke upon the English ships, +and drove some of the transports ashore; while, little more than +twenty-four hours later, a new danger threatened the fleet in the +form of fireships sent down from Quebec. This was a pet scheme of +Vaudreuil, but, like the author of the scheme, the ships did nothing +more than splutter and make a noise, scaring the {300} English +outpost at the Point of Orleans. Some stranded, others were towed +ashore by the English sailors--none of them reached the fleet which +they were intended to destroy. On the evening of the next day, the +twenty-ninth, part of Monckton's brigade was carried across the mile +and a half of water which separates the island of Orleans at its +westernmost point from the mainland on the southern shore; on the +thirtieth the rest of the brigade was landed, and occupied Point +Levis. Here batteries were erected under fire from Quebec; and, after +a futile, half-hearted attempt had been made to dislodge the English +by a party of Canadians, who crossed the river higher up on the night +of July 12, the guns opened fire on the city opposite, and began the +work--which went on for weeks--of knocking its buildings to pieces. + +[Footnote 10: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 35.] + +[Sidenote: _Landing effected on the northern shore below the +Montmorency._] + +[Sidenote: _Division of Wolfe's force._] + +[Sidenote: _The English ships gain the upper river._] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm on the defensive._] + +Before the batteries at Point Levis were complete, Wolfe had sent +troops across to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, lower down +the river, and occupied the heights on the eastern side of the +Montmorency river, which more or less commanded the extreme left of +the French line, where Levis was stationed. The movement was not +effected without some loss to the Rangers, who were ambushed by a +party of Indians. The latter had crossed the Montmorency by a ford +above the falls, but the ford was too securely guarded on the French +side to justify any attempt on the part of Wolfe's small force to +attack in this direction. It was the English general's plan to +reconnoitre and threaten every point in turn of the French position, +to divide the enemy's forces if possible, and if possible to induce +Montcalm to take the offensive. With this object, Wolfe ran great +risks. One part of his army was at Point Levis, another below the +Montmorency, a third small detachment held the Point of Orleans. On +July 18 his ships began to run the gauntlet of the Quebec batteries +and reach the upper river, while boats were dragged overland by Point +Levis to co-operate above the city. A still further division of the +attacking force {301} was then made, and Carleton was sent some +eighteen miles up stream to land and raid on the northern shore. But +though the movement drew off a certain number of French troops from +the Beauport lines to watch the enemy above Quebec, Montcalm +persisted in playing a waiting game, in making no attack, and running +no risk. His policy was no doubt a sound one. It is true that Quebec +was being riddled with shot and shell, that the farmers and villagers +in the country round were suffering, that the Canadians and Indians +were losing heart at the apparent inaction of their leaders, but time +and place were on the side of the French, and as the weeks went on +the wisdom of patient defence became more and more apparent. + +[Sidenote: _Frontal attack on the French lines by the Montmorency._] + +At the end of July, Wolfe determined to try to force the French +entrenchments where they abutted on the Montmorency river. The plan +involved a frontal attack on a very strong position, and it was only +possible to make the attempt when the tide was out. At low tide the +Montmorency could be forded below the falls, and the General proposed +to land Monckton's brigade on the shore of the St. Lawrence, above +the Montmorency, in face of the French lines, and to support it by +marching Townshend's and Murray's troops, who held the heights below +the Montmorency, across the ford at the mouth of the latter river. +The two forces converging were to carry an advanced French redoubt +which stood on the flat a little beyond high-water mark, and, if the +French still refused battle, to assault the heights beyond. + +[Sidenote: _The English repulsed with heavy loss._] + +Monckton's men, embarked mainly at Point Levis, were moved up and +down the river through the day, keeping the French in doubt as to +where the attack would be made. A ship of war was anchored in a +position to cover the ford of the Montmorency, while two large +flat-bottomed boats carrying guns, or, as Knox called them, 'two +armed transport cats (catamarans) drawing little water,'[11] were +taken in {302} close to shore, and left to be stranded as the tide +went out. Towards evening the water was low, the guns opened fire, +and, after some delay in finding a landing-place, the men began to +disembark on the muddy edge of the river. The Grenadiers, with some +of the Royal Americans, who were first landed, rushed forward and +seized the redoubt, which the French abandoned. They then hurried on, +without waiting for the main body of troops, to attack the higher +ground behind. This premature movement ruined the enterprise. +Advancing without order or formation up slippery slopes, in a storm +of rain, under heavy fire, the Grenadiers were hurled back to the +redoubt with a loss of over 400 men, and were brought off by Wolfe, +who saw the uselessness of repeating the attack in the deepening +shades of evening. Some of the troops were re-embarked, the others +retreated in good order across the ford, and the day ended in +failure, though the bulk of the English army had taken no part in the +fight. In his General Order on the following day Wolfe commented +severely, and with reason, upon the 'impetuous, irregular, and +unsoldierlike proceedings' of the Grenadiers, reminding them that +'the Grenadiers could not suppose that they alone could beat the +French army.'[12] The blame for the disaster rested solely with the +soldiers of the advanced party, who, in eagerness to attack, lost all +order and discipline; but the effect was much the same as though the +leaders had blundered. The small English army had lost a number of +men, who could ill be spared; the defenders of Quebec gained heart, +their enemies were correspondingly dispirited. + +[Footnote 11: Knox, vol. i, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 12: Knox, vol. ii, p. 1.] + +[Sidenote: _Operations on the upper river._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis sent to Montreal to oppose Amherst._] + +Wolfe still held his ground below the Montmorency, but moved more of +his men than before above Quebec. Here Murray was placed in command, +with Admiral Holmes in charge of the ships and boats. Bougainville, +with 1,500 men, was detached by Montcalm to watch the enemy's {303} +movements and to guard the northern shore; but, on both sides of the +river, both above and below the town, the English spread havoc and +destroyed supplies. The waterway being blocked by Holmes' vessels and +the country round Quebec being desolated, Montcalm's army could only +be fed by a toilsome overland transport of many miles, until the +means of transport failed, when provisions were again sent down the +river, running the blockade usually under cover of night. Meanwhile, +early in August, the French had learnt of the fall of Niagara and the +abandonment of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and to meet Amherst's +expected advance Levis was sent up to Montreal with 800 men. In this +respect, and in no other, Amherst's operations helped Wolfe. As +events turned out, it was of incalculable importance to the English +that, when the battle of Quebec took place, Montcalm's able +lieutenant was not on the field. + +[Sidenote: _Critical position of Wolfe._] + +[Sidenote: _His illness._] + +[Sidenote: _His brigadiers recommend an attempt above the city._] + +The position of the French was critical, but that of the English was +more critical still. The summer was waning. The English troops were +dwindling in numbers from casualties and disease. Worst of all, when +the middle of August was past, worn in mind and body, Wolfe was laid +low with fever in the camp at Montmorency. On his life, as the +soldiers who loved him knew, hung all the hopes of the expedition. +While recovering, but still unable to move, he submitted to his +brigadiers three alternative plans for attacking Montcalm's lines. +They met on August 29, and, rejecting all three proposals, counselled +an attempt above the city. 'We are of opinion,' they wrote, 'that the +most probable method of striking an effectual blow is to bring the +troops to the south shore, and to carry the operations above the +town. If we can establish ourselves on the north shore, the Marquis +de Montcalm must fight us on our own terms. We are between him and +his provisions, and between him and the army opposing General +Amherst.'[13] Their {304} advice, which was unanimous, was taken +without demur, and Wolfe proceeded with the desperate task of putting +it into execution. + +[Footnote 13: Wright, p. 545.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's despondency._] + +That he had little hope of success is shown by the tone of his +correspondence. In his last dispatch to Pitt, dated September 2, he +wrote, 'there is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at +a loss how to determine.'[14] To Admiral Saunders, two or three days +before, he had written of himself as 'a man that must necessarily be +ruined';[14] and in his last letter to his mother, written on August +31, he spoke of being determined to leave the service at the earliest +opportunity.[14] Townshend, meanwhile, in private, criticized him +much as Wolfe himself had criticized his superior officers the year +before. 'General Wolfe's health,' he wrote to his wife, 'is but very +bad: his generalship, in my poor opinion, is not a bit better.'[15] +Yet, sick and despondent as he was, Wolfe did not lie down in the +furrow. For past failures he blamed no one but himself; manfully he +faced the future in all its gloom; and, if Townshend felt little +confidence in his leading, the soldiers knew better; and he led them +to victory. + +[Footnote 14: Wright, pp. 548, 549, 553.] + +[Footnote 15: From the _Townshend Papers_. The letter is quoted in +full by Kingsford in his _History of Canada_, vol. iv, p. 226, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Disposition of Wolfe's army at the end of August._] + +At the end of August, the following was the disposition of the +English forces. Murray, with Admiral Holmes, was operating above the +city; Monckton was at Point Levis, and near him Admiral Saunders, +with the main English fleet, was anchored in the basin of Quebec. +Wolfe himself, with Townshend, was still encamped on the northern +shore below the Montmorency; and Admiral Durell, with the rearguard +of the fleet, was watching the river below. Amherst's successes were +known to Wolfe and his colleagues, but they soon learnt also that no +help could be expected from him. September was on them, and at the +end of September, or at {305} latest by the middle of October, the +campaign would close. Whatever had to be done must be done quickly. + +[Sidenote: _The camp at the Montmorency broken up, and the troops +moved up the river._] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm deceived._] + +On September 3 the English camp by the Montmorency was broken up, and +the troops were moved to the Point of Orleans and Point Levis. On the +fifth, Murray's troops, which had returned to Point Levis, were +marched up the southern shore and embarked on Holmes' vessels; they +were followed by battalions of Monckton's and Townshend's brigades; +and by September 7 nearly 4,000 troops, with the necessary supplies, +were moving up and down the river above Quebec, menacing a landing at +this point or at that, wearying Bougainville's force, now raised to +3,000 men, which, with its head quarters at Cap Rouge, was required +to keep pace with the enemy's fleet, and to guard the heights on the +northern bank of the St. Lawrence. Montcalm knew that the English +force above Quebec had been strengthened; but he seems not to have +known the full extent of Wolfe's preparations. English forces at +Point Levis and on the island of Orleans still faced the Beauport +lines, while Saunders' fleet lay directly off Quebec. The French +general regarded Wolfe's movements on the upper river as feints; the +main attack, if attack there should be, he expected below the town. + +[Sidenote: _Preparation for the final attack._] + +There was bad weather on September 7 and 8, and Wolfe landed a large +proportion of his men from the crowded transports high up on the +southern shore. Early on the twelfth they were put on board again, +and orders were issued for the coming night. Two days' provisions +each soldier took with him; and in the General Order, the last which +Wolfe issued, officers and men alike were bid to 'remember what their +country expects from them.' It was a signal such as Nelson gave at +the battle of Trafalgar. + +[Sidenote: _The landing-place selected._] + +On September 10, looking through his telescope from the southern +shore across the river, Wolfe had noted a path running up the +opposite bank from a little cove rather more {306} than a mile and a +half higher up the river than the citadel of Quebec. The place was +known as the Anse au Foulon, and now bears the name of Wolfe's Cove. +The bank is between 200 and 300 feet high, and at the top were to be +seen the tents of a French outpost. Here he determined to attempt a +landing. On the night of the twelfth the troops, whom he had on +board, were to drop down the river with the ebbing tide, half going +on in boats, the rest following in the transports, while another +smaller force, left under Colonel Burton at Point Levis, was to move +up the southern shore, to be ferried across in support of the attack. +Saunders, meanwhile, as night came on, was to threaten the Beauport +lines. + +[Sidenote: _Fortune favours Wolfe._] + +Fortune had hitherto been unkind to Wolfe; now all went well. The +many chances which a night attack involves, when the crisis came, all +favoured the English. Their boats, as they came down stream, were +taken by the sentries for French provision boats, which had been +expected. Bougainville, who, before night fell and before the tide +turned, had seen the ships drift up stream instead of down, was +completely misled. Montcalm looked for danger from the fleet in front +of him, and knew not what the tide was bringing down. + +[Sidenote: _The descent of the river._] + +[Sidenote: _The landing._] + +[Sidenote: _French picket surprised._] + +[Sidenote: _The heights gained and line of battle formed._] + +It was about two o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth when the +boats cast off from the ships, and took their way down stream. Howe +led with twenty-four men of the light infantry, who had volunteered +for the first ascent. Close behind was Wolfe himself; and it has been +told in many books, how, as the stream bore him on in darkness to +glory and the grave, he repeated the well-known lines of Gray's +Elegy.[16] The leading boat was carried a little below the spot where +the path runs down to the shore. About four o'clock in the morning, +an hour before daybreak, the men scrambled up the side of the wooded +cliff, and surprised the French picket at the top. Its commander, +Vergor, who had surrendered {307} Fort Beauséjour in Acadia, was +wounded when trying to escape, and taken prisoner. The way being +clear, the rest of the troops followed. The boats, having discharged +their first cargo, brought off the remainder of the force from the +transports, and carried over Burton's men from the opposite bank. +About six o'clock, the daylight of a cloudy morning showed the whole +army at the top of the cliffs; and, moving forward towards Quebec, +Wolfe formed his line of battle within a mile of the city, on the +part of the plateau known as the Plains of Abraham. + +[Footnote 16: Gray's _Elegy written in a Country Churchyard_ was +first published in 1751.] + +Between four and five thousand men had been landed; but some were +kept in reserve, or left to guard the landing, and less than 4,000 +men formed the fighting line. Monckton's brigade on the right abutted +on the edge of the cliffs. Murray held the centre with three +regiments, the 47th, the 58th, and the 78th Highlanders.[17] +Townshend was posted on the left. The left could be turned, for the +force was too small to extend across the plain; and therefore, while +the rest of the troops faced Quebec, Townshend's men, drawn up at +right angles to their comrades, fronted the high ground known as the +Côte St. Genevičve, which overlooks the river St. Charles above the +city. Howe's light infantry covered the rear. One gun[18] had been +dragged up the cliff; but, when the fight began, the English had no +other artillery. The French in this respect were in not much better +case, {308} for they hurried to the battlefield with few big guns to +back them. The fight was one of infantry alone. + +[Footnote 17: The 78th Highlanders, who fought with Wolfe, were not +the ancestors of the present regiment of that number. The regiments +of the present day who carry Quebec on their colours are the 15th +(1st battalion East Yorkshire Regiment), the 28th (1st battalion +Gloucestershire Regiment), the 35th (1st battalion Royal Sussex), the +43rd (1st battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry), the 47th (1st +battalion Loyal North Lancashire), the 48th (1st battalion +Northamptonshire Regiment), the 58th (2nd battalion Northamptonshire +Regiment), and the 60th Rifles (two battalions).] + +[Footnote 18: Townshend's dispatch of Sept. 20 says distinctly 'we +had been able to bring up but one gun.' Knox, on the other hand, +says, 'About eight o'clock we had two pieces of short brass +six-pounders playing on the enemy' (Knox, vol. ii, pp. 70, 128).] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm hurries to give battle._] + +Saunders' pretence at landing on the Beauport shore had kept +Montcalm's army on the alert all the night. At six in the morning, +riding towards Quebec, the French general learnt that the English had +landed, and saw in the distance the enemy's lines. He brought his +troops from Beauport with what speed he could; crossed the St. +Charles; passed by or through the city; and marshalled his force +beyond for instant fight. He had with him, it would seem, not more +than 5,000 men. The garrison of Quebec remained within the walls, and +a large proportion of the army did not leave their encampment, for +the further lines by the Montmorency were some miles distant, and the +shore had still to be protected. He might have waited to bring up +more troops, and to give time to Bougainville to operate in the +enemy's rear; but his communications were threatened, his supplies +were short, Wolfe, if given breathing space, could throw up +entrenchments, and with his command of the river, make his position +absolutely safe. The one hope was to hurl him back over the cliffs, +while yet his foothold was insecure; and to strike before the ardour +of the Canadians and Indians had time to cool. + +[Sidenote: _The battle of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Defeat of the French._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Wolfe._] + +Between nine and ten o'clock the French were in battle array, and +advanced over a little ridge which lay between Wolfe's army and +Quebec. Wolfe's soldiers had had two hours' rest, and steadily moved +forward, reserving their fire by the General's orders. At forty +yards' distance the word of command was given; and two volleys of +musketry decided the battle. The fire came from the whole English +line, the French fell like corn under the reaper's scythe, a charge +with bayonets and claymores followed, 'the Highlanders chased them +vigorously towards Charles river, and the 58th to the suburb close to +John's Gate.'[19] Montcalm's army {309} became a routed rabble. +Stricken already earlier in the fight, Wolfe on the right, while +preparing to lead the final charge, received his death wound. He was +carried to the rear; heard, while still conscious, that the enemy +were in flight; turned on his side, thanked God, and died in peace. + +[Footnote 19: Knox, vol. ii, p. 71.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Montcalm._] + +[Sidenote: _Monckton wounded._] + +[Sidenote: _Townshend in command._] + +It was all over before noon. The English casualties numbered between +six and seven hundred, the French lost double that number, and they +too were bereft of their leader. As Montcalm retreated towards Quebec +with his flying troops, he was shot through the body. He reached a +house in the city, lingered for some hours, and, before the following +day broke, like Wolfe he had gone to his rest. 'It was a very +singular affair,' was Horace Walpole's cold-blooded comment; 'the +generals on both sides slain, the second in command wounded; in +short, very near what battles should be, in which only the principals +ought to suffer.'[20] The French lost not only Montcalm, but also the +officer next in rank on the field. On the English side, Monckton, who +would have succeeded Wolfe, was severely wounded, though he was able, +on the fifteenth, to sign a short and simple dispatch, reporting the +'very signal victory'; and the command devolved on Townshend. +Threatened by Bougainville, who came up too late from behind with +2,000 men, and retreated again, Townshend recalled his troops and +entrenched them; cannon and supplies were brought up from the river, +and communication with the ships was made safe. + +[Footnote 20: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 258 (Letter +of Oct. 19, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _Disorderly retreat of the French._] + +Behind the St. Charles the French were all in confusion. Vaudreuil +called a council of war, and determined on an immediate retreat, +abandoning all the lines which Montcalm had held so long and so well, +and leaving the garrison of Quebec to surrender, as soon as +provisions failed. The retreat began that same night with no +semblance of order; and, circling inland past the English lines, the +fugitives made {310} their way towards Montreal, hurrying in panic +far beyond Cap Rouge, where Bougainville was still stationed, to +Jacques Cartier, thirty miles distant from Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Siege of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis rallies the French too late._] + +[Sidenote: _The city surrenders._] + +With Wolfe and Montcalm expired the genius of either army. It was +characteristic of Wolfe that, while dying, he sent an order to cut +off the French retreat; but in the interval between the battle on the +thirteenth and the capitulation of Quebec on the eighteenth, we do +not read that any attempt was made to intercept the French, nor did +Saunders land men to occupy the deserted Beauport lines. Townshend +steadily made his trenches and besieged in form; while the French +commandant of Quebec, Ramesay, with a weak garrison, and little or no +food, was urged by his own people to capitulate. He had orders from +Vaudreuil to surrender in due time, and, though counter messages +came, they came too late. Too late Levis at Montreal had heard of the +disaster; hurrying back, he turned the beaten troops at Jacques +Cartier; he started with them on the eighteenth to save Quebec; but +on that very morning Quebec was given up. The afternoon before, an +assault on the town was threatened above, while a landing from the +river was threatened below. Distrusting the promises of relief, +Ramesay yielded to the pressure put on him by soldiers and civilians +alike; at eight o'clock, on the morning of the eighteenth, the terms +of surrender were signed; and that same day advanced parties of the +English army held the gates of Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Murray left in charge._] + +[Sidenote: _Saunders sails for home,_] + +The English commanders debated whether or not they could hold the +city through the coming winter, and determined at all hazards to do +so. Murray was placed in command with a garrison of about 7,000 men; +a month passed in repairing the fortifications, in landing and +storing supplies; and on October 18, Admiral Saunders, with the first +portion of the fleet, set sail for England. As he neared home, at the +entrance of the Channel, he learnt that Hawke was about to engage a +French fleet from Brest. He sailed {311} off to join him 'without +landing his glory,'[21] but came too late, for Hawke had already +fought his fight and won his victory in Quiberon Bay. Saunders had +deserved well of his country, for without his active, untiring +support the land forces would never have taken Quebec. He outlived +Wolfe for sixteen years, and was privately buried in Westminster +Abbey in December, 1775. + +[Footnote 21: Letter from Horace Walpole dated 'November 30th, of the +great year' (1759), vol. iii, p. 268.] + +[Sidenote: _and Townshend._] + +Townshend, too, went home, his enemies said, to exaggerate his own +merits and belittle Wolfe's memory. An anonymous letter to 'an +honourable brigadier-general,' attributed to Junius among others,[22] +appeared in the following year, and attacked him with bitterness, +some of which he probably deserved. He passed into political life, +and as Viceroy of Ireland achieved a doubtful repute. + +[Footnote 22: See the _Grenville Papers_, 1852, 3rd ed. Introductory +notes relating to Lord Temple and the authorship of Junius at the +beginning of vol. iii, pp. lxxxviii-xc.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's body brought to England._] + +Wolfe's body was brought to England, and buried where his father had +been laid earlier in the year, in the vaults of Greenwich parish +church. A monument to him, voted by Parliament, stands in Westminster +Abbey, and his name lives, and will for ever live, in the hearts of +men. + +[Sidenote: _Cotton's letters to Grenville._] + +The news of his victory and death, and of the fall of Quebec, reached +England on October 17. It came but two or three days after his latest +dispatches, which gave little hope of success. There are two +interesting letters among the _Grenville Papers_, written to +Grenville by the Rev. Nathaniel Cotton, from on board the _Princess +Amelia_ at Île Madame in the St. Lawrence. The first is dated August +27 to September 6; the second bears the date of September 20. The +first, repeating former letters, is not hopeful. It points out the +insufficiency of Wolfe's force, the necessity of co-operation on the +part of Amherst; and it refers to 'unrevealed causes' militating +against the enterprise, {312} which may be taken to mean want of +harmony between Wolfe and Townshend. The later letter begins with the +following words: 'I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that +through the smiles of Providence we are in safe and quiet possession +of Quebec.'[23] + +[Footnote 23: _Grenville Papers_, vol. i, pp. 318-26.] + +[Sidenote: _Reception of the news in England._] + +Very dramatic was the revulsion of feeling in England, when all was +known. No submarine cables then told the story of the war from day to +day. Only a few dispatches and letters at long intervals were brought +over the Atlantic, recording at first slow progress, then reverse, +disappointment, and the General's sickness and despondency. The rock +of Quebec seemed still impregnable; and, as the bright summer waned +into autumn, public confidence gave place to gloom. Then in +mid-October, when to North American lands the Indian summer gives a +second brightness, tidings came from over the sea that the victory +was won, and that the price paid for it was the life of Wolfe. There +followed, as Burke well said, a 'mourning triumph.'[24] Joy was +sobered by the sense of loss, and the picture of a desolate home +appealed, as it always appeals, to Englishmen's minds. They thought +of the mother, lately widowed, now childless, whose sickly son had +been her joy and pride; and many, we may not doubt, thought also of +the French home, whose master had gone out and came not again. + +[Footnote 24: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 43.] + +[Sidenote: _Was Wolfe's attack a great military feat?_] + +The question naturally suggests itself, whether Wolfe's landing and +attack was a desperate venture, justified only by success, the last +throw of the dice by a man who had described himself as one who must +necessarily be ruined; or whether it was the supreme effort of a +military genius? It is impossible to study the story without coming +to the conclusion that the second is the true view. No doubt fortune +favoured him; no doubt the enterprise was full of risk; but from +first to last as little as possible was left to {313} chance, and +from first to last a master mind made itself felt. The main point to +remember is that he had secured absolute command of the river; +wherever therefore he landed, on high ground not commanded by the +enemy's guns, if for a few hours only he could make good his landing, +his way of retreat was absolutely safe. Montcalm knew this, and hence +his immediate attack. Then we have the movements which baffled +Montcalm and Bougainville alike; we have time and place calculated to +a nicety, every commander and every man told what to do and doing it, +the landing effected by break of day, the battlefield carefully +selected, the men duly rested, the battle line cautiously and safely +formed, the respective merits of the two forces accurately +gauged--the one, in Wolfe's own words, a small number of good +soldiers, the other 'a numerous body of armed men (I cannot call it +an army).'[25] There was no rush or hurry about the landing, the +advance, or the fight. The soldiers kept their fire till told to use +it: they charged when and not until their leader bade them. The whole +was a thought-out feat of steady daring. + +[Footnote 25: Wolfe to his mother, Aug. 31, and to Lord Holderness, +Sept. 9 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 553, 563).] + +[Sidenote: _If Wolfe had not succeeded._] + +Another question which is worth considering is: What would have been +the result if Wolfe had not succeeded, if Quebec had not been taken, +and the English fleet had sailed off down the St. Lawrence, either +carrying the army home, or leaving it, as at one time during the +siege had been contemplated, to go into winter quarters at the Île +aux Coudres lower down the river? A failure would have been recorded, +and Wolfe above all others would have so regarded it; but, +notwithstanding, the expedition would not have been in vain. Quebec +would have been left in ruins, the banks of the St. Lawrence, with +emptied farms and homesteads, would have been a scene of desolation; +though Montcalm would have lived to fight again, Canada in all human +probability {314} must have fallen. For Canada was being starved out; +and, if the French Government a year before could spare but few +troops and supplies for New France, much less were the necessary +troops and supplies likely to be forthcoming after another year of +exhausting war on the Continent. On December 16, Amherst wrote to +Pitt from New York: 'From the present posts His Majesty's army is now +in possession of, if no stroke was to be made, Canada must fall or +the inhabitants starve.' He wrote with information given him by one +of his officers, Major Grant, who had been a prisoner in Canada. +Grant's words were: ''Tis believed that the colony, though in great +distress, may subsist for a year, without receiving supplies from +France'; but it could only subsist by using up all the live stock in +the land. The English command of the water was killing Canada, the +farmers and peasantry were sickening of the war; though Amherst wrote +after the fall of Quebec, the saving of Quebec would in no way have +fed Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Results of his success on the future history of Canada._] + +Unless, then, some great reversal of existing conditions had taken +place, or unless peace had been declared, Canada would have been +conquered, even if Wolfe had not triumphed and Quebec had not fallen +in September, 1759. But widely different would have been the result +on after history, and herein lies the true lesson to be drawn from +the record of the siege and capture of Quebec, and of the death of +Wolfe and Montcalm. It is the most conclusive answer, if answer were +needed, to those--fifty years ago they were many--who ignore or +minimize the effect of sentiment on the making and the preserving of +nations. The noble picturesqueness of the story, its accompaniments +of heroism and death, were of untold value in the work of +reconciliation; and of untold value was the legacy to a yet unformed +people of one of the great landmarks in history. In a sense, which it +is easier to feel than to express, two rival races, under two rival +leaders, unconsciously joined hands on the Plains of Abraham. The +{315} noise of war seemed to be stilled, the bitterness of competing +races and creeds to be allayed, by sharing in an episode which +appealed to all time and to all mankind. The dramatic ending of the +old order blessed the birth of the new; the instinct of human pathos +brought men together; and out of divergent elements made a nation. +Born far away in different lands, in death Wolfe and Montcalm were +not divided; and the soil on which they died has become the sacred +heritage of a people, whose union is stronger than the divisions of +religion, language, and race. + +[Sidenote: _Successes of England in 1759._] + +In the _Annual Register_ for 1759,[26] summing up the results of the +year to Great Britain, Burke wrote: 'In no one year since she was a +nation, has she been favoured with so many successes, both by sea and +land, and in every quarter of the globe.' It was a bright year for +England in every sense of the word. The sun had shone upon her soil +and upon her arms. In America, in India, at Minden, at Quiberon, she +had triumphed. 'I call it this ever warm and victorious year,' wrote +Walpole on October 21, 'we have not had more conquest than fine +weather. One would think we had plundered East and West Indies of +sunshine.'[27] + +[Footnote 26: p. 56.] + +[Footnote 27: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 259 (Letter +of Oct. 21, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _The winter at Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis' plans for recovering the city._] + +The winter which followed was a trying one for the garrison at +Quebec. They held the battered town, amid constant rumours of attack, +ill provided with warm clothing, with scanty supplies of firewood, +suffering much from sickness, and, as Knox tells us, in arrears of +pay, 'from which they might derive many comforts and refreshments +under their present exigencies.'[28] Outposts were established at +Point Levis, Sainte Foy, Lorette, and Cap Rouge; and here and there +skirmishes took place with parties of the enemy. Levis was at +Montreal, bent upon recovering Quebec. When the English fleet had +left, he sent messages to France to ask that {316} provisions might +be sent as early as possible in the coming year, with ships of war, +timed to arrive in the St. Lawrence before the English should return, +and numerous enough to hold the river for France. Meanwhile, he +debated whether or not to attack Quebec in mid-winter, and attempt to +carry it by a _coup de main_; but eventually determined to await the +coming of spring and the opening of the waters. Thus the anxious +winter passed, and the middle of April came. Attack became imminent, +and Murray knew it. He ordered the French residents to leave Quebec, +called in his outposts, and with a force sadly reduced by sickness +awaited Levis' army. + +[Footnote 28: vol. ii, p. 241.] + +[Sidenote: _His advance in the spring of 1760._] + +At the end of October the effective strength of the garrison had been +7,313. On March 1 the number of fighting men, owing to scurvy and +other diseases, was reduced to 4,800;[29] and, though April, with its +milder weather, saw the beginning of recovery, the English force was +greatly outmatched by the enemy, for Levis had with him, all told, at +least 10,000 men.[30] About April 20, the French advance from +Montreal began. The troops were brought down the river in ships and +boats, and, landing some thirty miles above Quebec, crossed the Cap +Rouge river and marched on to Lorette and Sainte Foy. + +[Footnote 29: Knox, vol. ii, p. 267.] + +[Footnote 30: Knox gives the French numbers as 15,000, against 3,140 +English (p. 295).] + +[Sidenote: _The battle of Sainte Foy, and defeat of the English._] + +On April 27, Murray offered battle at Sainte Foy; but the French made +no move, and he fell back to Quebec, leaving Levis to occupy Sainte +Foy that same night. Before seven o'clock on the next morning he +marched out again, bent on fighting, if possible, before Levis had +secured his position, and anxious not to be cooped up behind the +fortifications of Quebec, too weak to withstand a vigorous +bombardment. The English force numbered 3,140 men, with eighteen +pieces of cannon; and, as the men carried entrenching tools, it {317} +would seem that Murray contemplated throwing up lines outside the +city. The battle took place on the same plateau where Wolfe and +Montcalm had fought; it lasted about the same time, for two hours; +but the result was widely different. Seeing the French still on the +march, and not yet in battle order, Murray ordered an immediate +attack. His artillery did good execution, and, on the right and left +wings, the light infantry and the Rangers respectively won an initial +success. But the tide soon turned. On the right the advancing English +were drawn into swampy ground; on the left they came under fire from +French troops covered by the woods. Outnumbered and outflanked, the +whole force was compelled to retreat into Quebec, having lost their +guns and 1,100 men. The French losses appear to have been heavier, +numbering according to some accounts from 1,800 to 2,000 men. + +[Sidenote: _Critical position of Murray._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis loses his opportunity._] + +Murray's position was now exceedingly critical. Two days after the +battle no more than 2,100 soldiers were returned as fit for duty; but +the General and his men were fully determined not to lose Quebec. On +May 1 he sent off a frigate to Louisbourg and Halifax to hasten +relief; and, day and night alike, officers and men worked with common +spirit, strengthening the defences, and mounting the guns. The French +lost their opportunity. Had they attacked the town at once, before +the garrison had recovered from the effects of the defeat, 'Quebec +would,' in Captain Knox's opinion, 'have reverted to its old +masters';[31] and the leisurely nature of Levis' operations seems to +bear out the view, to which French prisoners gave currency, that he +had only intended to invest the town, and wait the arrival of a +French fleet. + +[Footnote 31: p. 301.] + +[Sidenote: _Relief of Quebec._] + +He landed his stores and munitions at the Anse au Foulon, Wolfe's +landing-place, and gradually pushed forward his lines, while the +English position in front of him steadily {318} grew stronger, and in +the besieged garrison confidence took the place of despondency. A +storm on the river, it was reported in the city, cost the French +guns, provisions, and ammunition. Bourlamaque, who, as an engineer by +training, was placed in charge of the siege, was wounded; and when, +on the forenoon of May 9, a strange ship sailed up the river into the +basin of Quebec, and hoisted the English colours, little doubt could +be left that any attempt to regain the city would be in vain. The +ship in question was the _Lowestoft_ frigate, and she brought 'the +agreeable intelligence of a British fleet being masters of the St. +Lawrence, and nigh at hand to sustain us.'[32] The news, in Captain +Knox's words, was as grateful as when the garrison of Vienna, hard +pressed by the Turks, beheld Sobieski's army marching to their +relief. + +[Footnote 32: Knox, vol. ii, p. 310.] + +[Sidenote: _Retreat of Levis._] + +But one swallow does not make a summer, and some days passed before +any other British ships appeared. On May 11 the French batteries +opened, answered by 150 guns from Quebec: and bombardment went on +without much damage, until, on the evening of the fifteenth, the +_Vanguard_ ship of war and the _Diana_ frigate anchored before +Quebec. The next morning the British ships passed up the river at +flood tide, and attacked a small French squadron above the city. The +French commander, Vauquelin, made a brave fight, but his few little +vessels were nearly all destroyed. On that night and on the +seventeenth, the French were in full retreat with the English at +their heels. Guns, scaling ladders, baggage, ammunition, sick and +wounded, were left behind. The siege of Quebec was raised, the +English, after the disastrous battle of April 28, not having lost +more than thirty men; and Murray, by his brave and able defence, made +more than amends for his previous reverse. + +[Sidenote: _Reception in England of the news of Murray's defeat and +subsequent relief._] + +In England the news of his defeat, followed after a short interval by +the news of his relief, resulted in a curious reproduction of the +excitement of the previous year. In a letter {319} dated June 19, +1760, Mr. Jenkinson in London wrote to Grenville, 'We all here blame +Mr. Murray, and are not at all satisfied with the reasons he assigns +for leaving the town to attack the enemy ... As it is, however, I +understand that there are no expectations that it (Quebec) can be +saved, and indeed I am told that Murray himself gives little reason +to hope it. The relief from Amherst is certainly impossible, and I do +not think that he has ever shown activity enough to make one hope +that he would make an attempt vigorous enough, even if there was a +mere chance of success.'[33] On the following ninth of July, we have +in the same _Grenville Papers_ a letter from the Duke of Newcastle to +Lord Temple, referring to 'the great and almost unexpected event of +recovering Quebec and turning the loss entirely upon the French.'[33] +Similarly Horace Walpole, on hearing the bad news, wrote: 'We are on +a sudden reading our book backwards.' The good news came, and he +chronicled it with 'Quebec is come to life again.'[34] Many cold and +hot fits had been the result of news from North America since the +year 1755; but, with the failure of Levis to retake Quebec, English +anxiety as to the issue of the strife was finally dispelled. What was +left was work for which Amherst was eminently suited, steady crushing +out of the remains of resistance, slow and certain invasion, where no +brilliant effort was needed or required. + +[Footnote 33: _Grenville Papers_, vol. i, pp. 343-5.] + +[Footnote 34: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 317, 323 +(Letters of June 20 and 28, 1760).] + +[Sidenote: _The final advance on Montreal._] + +[Sidenote: _Murray ascends the river._] + +A threefold English advance on Montreal was planned. Murray was to +move up the river from Quebec. Brigadier Haviland was to force the +passage of the Île aux Noix at the end of Lake Champlain, and strike +the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. Amherst himself, with the main +army, starting from Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to come down the +river from the west. Murray was first in motion. He embarked {320} +2,400 men on ships and boats, and on July 14 took his way up stream, +followed and joined on August 17 by two regiments from Louisbourg, +which was being dismantled and abandoned. The troops went slowly up +the river, passed French outposts at various points, landed here and +there, here and there exchanged shots, and were often supplied with +provisions by the peasantry, who preferred bargaining to fighting, +and many of whom took the oath of allegiance. At Sorel, at the mouth +of the Richelieu river, Bourlamaque was stationed with a +comparatively strong force to prevent a junction between Murray and +Haviland, who was coming down from Lake Champlain; but no battle took +place, and, after Murray had reluctantly burnt the deserted houses of +the inhabitants of Sorel, who were absent in arms, the English on the +river, and the French on either bank, moved onward side by side +towards Montreal. By the end of August, Murray was encamped on an +island a few miles below Montreal, gradually gathering intelligence +of Haviland's and Amherst's advance; and on September 7 he landed on +the island of Montreal itself. During the voyage up the river two +facts had become manifest. One was that the country higher up the St. +Lawrence was less impoverished, and supplies were more plentiful, +than in the neighbourhood of Quebec. The other was that the +Canadians, who still had something to lose, were anxious for peace. +The constant advance of the English, the obvious futility of +Vaudreuil's boasts and threats, the good treatment of the inhabitants +who offered no resistance, had due effect. The country side +surrendered, the militia deserted, the French regulars began to +follow suit; and the few remaining troops, driven back on Montreal, +recognized the hopelessness of their position. + +[Sidenote: _Haviland's advance._] + +Haviland started from Crown Point on August 11 with about 3,500 men, +including Rogers with some of his Rangers, and a few Indians. He took +with him also some {321} light artillery. The boats which carried the +force made their way to the northern end of Lake Champlain, entered +the Richelieu river, and on the twentieth landed some of the troops +on the eastern bank of the river, over against the Île aux Noix. Here +Bougainville was stationed with a considerable force, behind +fortifications which had been strengthened in the previous winter. +Some miles further on down the Richelieu river, at St. John's, +another French force was in position, under an officer named +Roquemaure. Bougainville gave Haviland, in Knox's words, 'the trouble +to break ground and erect batteries';[35] but the English, having +attacked and taken the French vessels which lay below the Île aux +Noix, and cut off the garrison's retreat by the river, Bougainville +crossed from the island to the western bank on the twenty-seventh, +and made his way with difficulty through the woods to St. John's, +where he joined Roquemaure. On the twenty-eighth the few men left on +the Île aux Noix surrendered; on the twenty-ninth the French +abandoned St. John's also; the fort at Chambly surrendered on +September 1; as Haviland advanced, the Canadians deserted wholesale; +and the remains of Bougainville's and Roquemaure's troops, falling +back to the St. Lawrence, joined Bourlamaque's force, and were +carried over to the island of Montreal. By September 6, Haviland's +army was encamped at Longueuil on the southern shore of the river, +directly opposite Montreal. + +[Footnote 35: Knox, vol. ii, p. 394.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's advance._] + +[Sidenote: _La Présentation._] + +By the end of July, Amherst's army was assembling at Albany. The +colonial troops came up slowly, and valuable time was lost. The +General moved on to Schenectady, left that place on June 21, and +reached Oswego on July 9. At Oswego he stayed for a month, waiting +for the full complement of the expedition, and collecting the boats +on which the force was to descend the St. Lawrence. Sir William +Johnson joined him with a number of Indians, {322} while the white +troops reached a total of 10,000 men, rather more than half of whom +were regulars. On August 10 the army embarked. They sailed and rowed +to the end of Lake Ontario, entered the St. Lawrence, made their way +through the Thousand Islands, and by the fifteenth reached the French +mission station of La Présentation, now Ogdensburg, at the mouth of +the Oswegatchie river, where the Abbé Piquet--the apostle of the +Iroquois, as he was called--had, since the year 1749, endeavoured to +win the Five Nations to the French.[36] + +[Footnote 36: See _Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, pp. +433-40 (Papers relating to the early settlement at Ogdensburg). The +Abbé Piquet retired in this year (1760) to Louisiana, and thence to +France, where he died in 1781. His mission on the Oswegatchie river, +or Rivičre de la Présentation, was a good sample of the aggressive +French missions in Canada. Its object was to bring over the western +tribes of the Five Nations to the French religion and French +interests.] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Levis taken._] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst before Montreal._] + +A little lower down, on an island in the St. Lawrence, at the head of +the rapids, the French had a fortified outpost. They called the +island Île Royale, and the fort upon it Fort Levis. The officer in +charge was Pouchot, who had commanded at Niagara in the preceding +year, and had been exchanged with other prisoners. From the +eighteenth to the twenty-fourth of August, Amherst attacked the fort. +From either bank, and from the neighbouring islands, the British guns +poured in their fire, supported by the armed vessels of the +expedition; and on the twenty-fifth, after a brave defence, Pouchot +surrendered. On the thirty-first, Amherst began the descent of the +rapids, watched by La Corne and a band of Canadians. A number of +boats were lost, and eighty-four men were drowned; but the main body +was carried safely onward, and by September 5 reached the Île Perrot, +a few miles above the island of Montreal. On the sixth, Amherst +landed at Lachine, and, marching forward, encamped that night +directly in front of Montreal. + +[Sidenote: _Negotiations for surrender._] + +[Sidenote: _Montreal capitulates, and with it the whole of Canada._] + +The next day the French commanders negotiated for {323} surrender, +Murray having meanwhile landed on the island, and begun his march +towards Montreal, on the opposite side to that on which Amherst was +encamped. Vaudreuil and Levis tried to extract better terms from +Amherst than the latter was inclined to grant; and Levis, in +particular, strove hard to modify the provision that all the French +troops in Canada should lay down their arms, and not serve again +during the war. His protests were in vain. Amherst returned answer in +strong words, that he was resolved by the terms of the capitulation +to mark his sense of the infamous conduct of which the French troops +had been guilty, in exciting the savages to barbarities in the course +of the war. With 2,400 men opposed to about 17,000 in the three +English forces, the Frenchmen had no option but to surrender. On +September 8 the terms of capitulation were signed, and the whole of +Canada passed into the keeping of Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: _Amherst on the conduct of the French Indians._] + +Amherst's reference to French dealings with the Indians, and to the +dealings of the Indians in French employ, the authority for which is +Captain Knox's book, deserves to be noted. When two white races are +pitted against each other in savage lands, the final mastery will +rest with the one which, less than the other, comes down to the +savage level. The French had sinned more than the English in this +respect; and it is significant that, at the surrender of Niagara, +they stipulated for protection against the Indian allies of the +English, and that at the surrender of Montreal they made a similar +request. On the second occasion Amherst answered, and answered truly, +that no cruelties had been committed by the Indians on the English +side. A few days before, at the taking of Fort Levis, a large +proportion of Johnson's Indians had deserted when not allowed to use +their scalping knives; and probably the majority of the English +shared Captain Knox's opinion of them, that 'this is quite uniform +with their conduct on all occasions whenever {324} opportunity seems +to offer for their being serviceable to us.'[37] The truth was that +the English did not love the Indians or Indian ways; they suffered in +consequence while the fate of war was still in the balance; but in +the end they gained, as a ruling race, for the humanity of Amherst +and the men whom he commanded stood to the credit of Great Britain in +the coming time. + +[Footnote 37: Knox, vol. ii, p. 413. According to Knox, Johnson +collected 1,330 Indians belonging to seventeen tribes. This number +was reduced at the time of embarkation to 706, and afterwards by +desertion to 182.] + +[Sidenote: _End of the war._] + +With the capitulation of Montreal, the war in North America ended. +Already in the past July some French ships bringing supplies, which +had reached the Baie des Chaleurs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had +been followed up and destroyed in the Restigouche river by Commander +Byron; and while Montreal was being given up, a detachment from the +English garrison at Quebec reduced the French outpost at Jacques +Cartier. The surrender of Montreal included all Canada, and Robert +Rogers was sent by Amherst to take over Detroit, Michillimackinac, +and other of the western outposts of New France. They were peaceably +occupied at the time, but three years later were the scene of hard +fighting in consequence of the dangerous Indian rising under Pontiac. +Amherst himself left Canada almost immediately, but remained in +America as Commander-in-Chief, having his head quarters at New York, +until peace was signed, when he returned to England. Vaudreuil and +his subordinates went back to France, to be brought heavily to +account for their shortcomings; and until the peace, or rather until +Pontiac's revolt had been put down a year later, Canada remained +under military rule. + +[Sidenote: _Canada under military rule._] + +There were three Governors, subordinate to the +Commander-in-Chief--General Murray at Quebec, Colonel Burton at Three +Rivers, and General Gage, who eventually took over {325} Amherst's +command, at Montreal. Matters seem to have gone in the main smoothly. +The Canadian people, worn with war, desired only rest and fair +dealing, and fair dealing they received at the hands of the British +commanders, among whom Murray was a conspicuously humane man. +Criminal jurisdiction was placed in the hands of British officers, +but civil cases were left to be settled by the captains of militia in +the various parishes according to the custom of the people, with the +right of appeal to the Governor. More publicity was given by +proclamation to the orders and regulations of the Governors than had +been the case in French times; and though the status was one of +military occupation, there was a nearer approach to freedom, or at +any rate more even-handed justice, than in the days when Bigot and +his confederates robbed the peasantry in the name of the French King. + +[Sidenote: _Events in Europe._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of King George II._] + +[Sidenote: _Rise of Bute and resignation of Pitt._] + +Meanwhile events moved fast in Europe. The fall of Montreal was +followed in a few weeks' time by the death of King George II. He died +on October 25, 1760, and with the accession of George III there came +a change in English policy. The 'King's friends,' as they were +called, by intrigue and bribery gradually gained power. Bute, the +royal favourite, led them, and strongly supported a peace policy. In +March, 1761, he became a Secretary of State, and in the following +October Pitt resigned. Success had perhaps told against the great +English minister. The main work to which he had put his hand had been +accomplished; among the colleagues who intrigued against him, or who +resented his imperious leadership, there may well have been in some +minds an honest wish to give the country rest and to lighten the +heavy burdens which war imposed. Already peace negotiations with +France had been opened, but the discovery that the French Government +had formed a secret compact with Spain stiffened Pitt's policy, and +he urged the desirability of striking the first blow and declaring +war against {326} Spain. On this issue he parted company with the +other ministers, except Lord Temple, and retired from office. A few +months later, in May, 1762, Newcastle resigned, and Bute was left +supreme. + +[Sidenote: _Greatness of Pitt._] + +No eulogy on Pitt can exaggerate the services which he rendered to +England. 'He revived the military genius of our people, he supported +our allies, he extended our trade, he raised our reputation, he +augmented our dominions.'[38] He gave to the world a splendid +illustration of an English statesman who was as good as his word; +who, unlike the ordinary run of Parliamentary leaders, did not shift +his course or seek for compromise. He believed in the destiny of his +country, and shaped that destiny on world-wide lines. His faults, +which were not few, are forgiven by his countrymen, for he loved +England much. + +[Footnote 38: _Annual Register_ for 1761, p. 47.] + +[Sidenote: _War with Spain._] + +[Sidenote: _English reverse in Newfoundland._] + +The mean men who supplanted him could not undo what he had done. The +beginning of the year 1762 saw them at war with Spain, and still +Englishmen struck blow after blow. In 1761, while Pitt was still in +office, Belle Île, off the French coast, had been taken, and in the +West Indies and in India there had been gains. In 1762 more West +Indian islands were captured, and Spain lost for the time Havana in +the West, the Philippines in the East. Curiously enough the one +reverse experienced by the English was in North America, St. John's +in Newfoundland being surprised and taken in June, 1762, though it +was recovered in the following September. + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Paris._] + +In spite of continued success Bute was resolved on peace, the +negotiations being entrusted to the Duke of Bedford, who was one of +the extreme peace party. The preliminaries were concluded in +November, 1762; they were approved by Parliament, and on February 10, +1763, the Peace of Paris was signed. Under its provisions the French +King renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia or Acadia, and ceded +'in full {327} right Canada with all its dependencies, as well as the +island of Cape Breton and all the other islands and coasts in the +gulf and river St. Lawrence.' A line drawn down the middle of the +river Mississippi defined the inland frontier; all territory on the +left side of the river, 'except the town of New Orleans and the +island in which it is situated,' being ceded to Great Britain. Two +clauses, however, in the treaty marred the completeness of the +cession. They renewed the rights of fishing and drying on part of the +Newfoundland coast, which had been given to French subjects by the +Treaty of Utrecht; and they ceded in full right to the King of France +the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, to serve as a shelter to +French fishermen, on condition that the islands should not be +fortified. Here were the seeds of future trouble, sown by other hands +than those of Pitt. Yet, considering the character and inclinations +of the men who held power in England at this critical time, the +country had reason to congratulate itself on the result of the +negotiations.[39] Spain paid for her interference in the quarrel with +France by the loss of Florida, which became a British possession; in +turn she received from France Louisiana. Thus the Seven Years' War +ended, {328} closing the story of New France; and on the line of the +St. Lawrence, under British rule, grew up the Canadian nation. + +[Footnote 39: Lord Chesterfield's views on the preliminaries of the +Peace of Paris, not yet fully known when he wrote, are interesting. +In a letter dated Nov. 13, 1762 (1775 ed., vol. iv, pp. 190, 191, +Letter 328), he writes, 'We have by no means made so good a bargain +with France (i.e. as with Spain), for in truth what do we get by it +except Canada, with a very proper boundary of the river Mississippi, +and that is all? As for the restrictions upon the French fishery in +Newfoundland, they are very well _per la predica_, and for the +Commissary whom we shall employ, for he will have a good salary from +hence to see that those restrictions are complied with, and the +French will double that salary, that he may allow them all to be +broken through. It is plain to me that the French fishery will be +exactly what it was before the war.... But, after all I have said, +the articles are as good as I expected with France, when I considered +that no one single person, who carried on this negotiation on our +parts, was ever concerned or consulted in any negotiation before. +Upon the whole then the acquisition of Canada has cost us four score +millions sterling.'] + + +NOTE.--For the above, see the books specified at the end of the +preceding chapter. + +In these two chapters the original dispatches have been consulted, +and much use has been made of + + KNOX'S _Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America_ + (London, 1769). + + + + +{329} + +CHAPTER XI + +GENERAL SUMMARY + + +In order to sum up the story of New France, it is proposed in the +present chapter to try to answer the four following questions. What +effect had geography on the history of Canada down to the year 1763? +Why did France lose Canada? What were the respective merits and +defects of the French and English systems and policies in North +America? And lastly, was the contest between the two powers and the +victory of one inevitable, and was it beneficial? These four +questions overlap each other, and the answers involve considerable +repetition of what has gone before; but a short general summary may +be useful to those who care to study the earlier history of Canada in +reference to the general history of colonization. + +[Sidenote: _Position of the French among colonizing nations._] + +From the time of Columbus down to the middle of the nineteenth +century, five nations, all on the western side of Europe, were mainly +concerned in carrying European trade, conquest, and settlement into +other parts of the world. They were the Spaniards, the Portuguese, +the Dutch, the French, and the English. Of these five nations, the +Spaniards had what may be called a continental career. They overran +and mastered an immense area of mainland. The Portuguese, the Dutch, +and the English, on the other hand, while they differed from each +other in many points, were alike in this, that they were traders and +seafarers, not so much attempting an inland dominion, as securing +footholds on sea coasts, peninsulas, and islands. The French stood +midway between the Spaniards and the other three nations. They were +not {330} continental conquerors to the same extent as the Spaniards, +they did not confine themselves to the fringes of the land to the +same extent as the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English. They were +what France made them to be. + +[Sidenote: _Twofold character of France and the French._] + +France is an integral part of the continent of Europe; but it is +also, with the exception of the Spanish peninsula, the westernmost +province of that continent; and it has a long indented seaboard open +to the Atlantic. The country has a double outlook, its people have +had a twofold character and a double history. It is noteworthy that, +while the French, to judge from the greatest event in their +history--the French Revolution--and to judge from their writing and +thought, have been the most thorough and logical, the most +uncompromising of peoples, their record has yet been in a sense one +of continual compromise, or at least one of perpetual combination of +opposite extremes. The northern and southern races, the northern and +southern religions, have had their meeting-ground in France. France, +which has been notable for violent political changes, had and has the +strongest element of conservatism in its population. No nation is +more quick-witted than the French, yet in none is there more plodding +industry. + +[Sidenote: _Canada well suited to be a sphere of French +colonization._] + +In the fullness of time, the French people had their call to take +part in the over-sea expansion of Europe, and they found their way to +Canada. They entered the New World at its widest point, where the +American continent extends furthest from west to east; but they +entered it also at the point where the interior of the continent is +most accessible from the sea by means of a great navigable river and +a group of lakes. Thus the advent of the French into Canada meant the +coming of a people, who in their old home were partly continental, +partly sea-going, into a sphere of colonization, which was a vast +extent of continent, but which at the same time was more intersected +and more dominated by water than perhaps any other portion of the +mainland of the globe. {331} Like came to like when the French came +to Canada. Their old home had given them at once the instincts of +land conquerors, and the knowledge of men whose way is on the waters. +Quick to move and loving motion, they found the route into the New +World to be one which invited and facilitated quick movement; for, +important as is inland water communication at the present day, it was +all important before the days of railways. The great highroad of +North America was the St. Lawrence, and that highroad became owned by +a quick, ambitious people, who were not content to remain as traders +by the side of the sea. + +[Sidenote: _Greatness of the St. Lawrence water system._] + +The combination of accessibility from the open sea, of length of +navigable waters, and of volume of waters, makes the St. Lawrence +basin almost, if not quite unique. Up to Three Rivers, 330 miles from +the sea, the St. Lawrence is a tidal river. Up to the Falls of +Niagara, 600 miles from the sea--nearly as far as London is from +Berlin--there is no break of navigation. From the westernmost point +of Lake Superior to the Atlantic is a distance of 2,000 miles--much +further than is the distance from London to St. Petersburg. Lake +Superior alone is larger in size than Scotland. + +[Sidenote: _It is almost connected with the basin of the Mississippi, +of Hudson Bay, and of the Hudson river._] + +[Sidenote: _Colonization in Canada was colonization by water._] + +Further, this wonderful chain of waters, as has been pointed out, is +nearly continuous with the Mississippi basin on the southern side, +and on the north-western side with the lakes and rivers which drain +into Hudson Bay; while one of the smaller affluents of the St. +Lawrence, the Richelieu river, carries into the St. Lawrence the +waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George, the southern end of Lake +George being but very few miles distant from the upper waters of the +Hudson river, which flows into the Atlantic. In short, Canada, within +its ancient limits, was a network of inland waters. Here was a +continent to be conquered and settled by water rather than by land, +and the congenial task of conquering and attempting to settle it was +allotted by Providence to the French. + +{332} [Sidenote: _The geography of Canada favoured motion._] + +Canada then suited the French, and the French suited Canada; but the +effect of the geography of Canada on an incoming race, with the +instincts and the characteristics of the French, was to stimulate +their natural inclination to attempt too much and to go too fast and +too far. The incomers moved quickly along the lines of communication, +and went into the heart of the continent; but permanent settlement +lagged behind, and was confined to the edges of the inland waters. +For, while nature had given to Canada, in her rivers and lakes, the +best of roads, away from those rivers and lakes the land was +difficult to penetrate. Thus Canada was colonized only by the water +side, and what settlement there was, was characterized by length +without breadth; while, beyond the point where continuous settlement +ended, the very easiness of movement carried forward enterprising +French officers, priests, and traders, until there was a skeleton +outline of French dominion, which was never filled in, from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _Settlement held close to the water side._] + +[Sidenote: _Two distinct kinds of colonists in Canada._] + +Geography, too, had this effect upon the population. The rivers were +so entirely all in all, that they made the settled portion of the +French Canadians very settled, and the fluid portion very fluid. +Those who wished to stay in one place stayed by the river bank, which +was the roadside, because it was the roadside, and because behind and +away from the river there was not open ground but dense forest. +Those, on the other hand, who were inclined to roam, were carried by +the waters wheresoever they wished, with the backwoods at hand, +should hiding-places be required. Thus Canada bred two distinct +species of colonists, the _habitans_ of the central St. Lawrence, and +the _voyageurs_ or _coureurs de bois_. As in their old home, so still +more in their new, the French race comprised contradictory elements. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of the Canadian climate on colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _It made against continuity_] + +Climate counts for much in the formation of a people, and in +determining its history. The climate of Eastern {333} Canada inclines +to extremes. It favours quickness but not continuity of action. The +summer is short, but very hot and bright; the winter is long and +severe, but again not unfavourable to movement over the frozen +surface of water and ground. Eastern Canada is not by nature a land +open all the year round to steady work, but one in which settlers +have a limited time wherein to till the ground, followed by a long, +close season; while wanderers can in summer and winter alike indulge +their vagrant instincts. The tendency therefore of the Canadian +climate, as regards its influence on an incoming race, with a +restless and impatient element in its character, was to stimulate the +restlessness, and to discourage colonization in the sense of +attachment to the soil. + +[Sidenote: _and against the policy of the French Government._] + +In winter, the St. Lawrence is closed to shipping. Consequently New +France was for several months in each year cut off from all +communication with the mother country. Here again the effect of +climate was to break continuity of colonization; and, moreover, the +forces of nature were employed against the policy of the French +Government, for the effect of long breaks in communication must have +been to develop a separate life in New France, evidence of which is +to be found in the jealousy existing, in Vaudreuil's and Montcalm's +time, between natives of France and natives of Canada; whereas the +unaltering aim of French Kings and ministers was simply to reproduce +France in America, and to keep the colony under constant and rigid +control from home. The effects of the summer, therefore, on Canada +were counteracted by winter isolation; and one more element of +contradiction was introduced into French history in North America. + +[Sidenote: _Canada had no minerals._] + +[Sidenote: _This was one cause of the small population._] + +The natural products of a country are an important factor in making +its people. Canada, as compared with most other fields of +colonization, with Spanish America for instance, or the East Indies, +was a poor land. It had practically no mineral wealth, though traces +of iron and copper were found {334} in the region of Lake Superior. +In the earlier part of the eighteenth century Charlevoix wrote: 'The +first source of the ill fortune of this country, which is honoured +with the name of New France, was the report which was at first spread +through the kingdom that it had no mines; and they did not enough +consider that the greatest advantage that can be drawn from a colony +is the increase of trade. And to accomplish this, it requires people, +and these peoplings must be made by degrees, so that it will not +appear in such a kingdom as France.'[1] The great weakness of Canada +was the paucity of the white population. Had mines been discovered, +the colony would no doubt have been much stronger, for a far greater +number of colonists would have come out from France; and, while the +character of the people would have been, in a sense, at least as +restless as it actually was, the restlessness would have been +localized in the mining areas, which would have become large centres +of population. + +[Footnote 1: Charlevoix's _Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguičres_, +giving an account of a voyage to Canada (Eng. translation, 1763, p. +31). The letters began in 1720.] + +[Sidenote: _Agriculture, fisheries, and fur-trading._] + +In the absence of minerals Canada depended on agriculture, fisheries, +and fur-trading. Of these three industries, agriculture alone +conduced to permanent settlement. The fisheries did not directly much +concern the life of the colony up the St. Lawrence river, for the +fishing-grounds were mainly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the +coasts of Newfoundland and Acadia; nor did fishing, when the +fishermen found their principal market in Europe, and were in great +measure domiciled in Europe, contribute much to the colonization of +North America. Fur-trading again, the great speciality of Canada, +made for movement and for wandering life, not for colonization. This +is pointed out by Charlevoix, who dwells upon the evil results of +giving licences to trade, as encouraging vagabondism, and notes as +{335} the second cause of the ill fortune of Canada, the want of +resolution in its people, and their constant moving from place to +place, instead of carefully selecting a place for settlement and +staying there.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Charlevoix (as above), pp. 31-5.] + +The real wealth of Eastern Canada was, as it still is, agricultural; +but the history of colonization proves that agricultural colonies, +while very sound and sure, progress very slowly; and to the +impatient, enterprising Frenchman, who was inclined to seek fortune +over the seas, farming in Canada, with a Canadian winter to face, +offered little attraction. It is true that the English North American +colonies were also agricultural colonies; but they had a great +advantage over New France, in that their coasts were open all the +year round, resulting in a maritime trade, which could never be +enjoyed by Canada. Moreover New England, at any rate, was peopled by +colonists who went out, not to make their fortunes, and not to build +up a dominion for their King, but to make their homes, and their +children's homes, on the agricultural pattern, in as kindly a soil +as, and in a kindlier climate than, that of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Canada better suited for war than peace._] + +New France then was a country where movement was easy, and where the +incentives to settlement were not great; and in its white population, +or at any rate in a large proportion of that population, there was a +strong element of restlessness, added to great power of conciliating +and assimilating savages; while the religious and political policy of +its rulers was, in the main, a forward policy. The result was that +the Canadians were more successful in motion than at rest, in making +war than in keeping peace. 'The English Americans,' writes +Charlevoix, 'are entirely averse to war because they have much to +lose; they do not regard the savages, because they think they have no +occasion for them. The youth of the French, for the contrary reasons, +hate {336} peace, and live well with the savages, whose esteem they +gain during a war and have their friendship at all times.[3] + +[Footnote 3: Charlevoix (as above), p. 27.] + +[Sidenote: _The Canadians as fighters._] + +The Canadians were to the English settlers in New England or New +York, very much what the Highlanders of Scotland, in past centuries, +were to the dwellers in the Lowlands. Their forte was in raiding +their English rivals; and, as they were better qualified to excel in +war than in peace, so in war they were more capable of quick, +spasmodic action, than of bearing continuous and steady strain. 'They +seem not to be masters of a certain impetuosity, which makes them +fitter for a _coup de main_, or a sudden expedition, than for the +regular and settled operations of a campaign. It has also been +remarked, that amongst a great number of brave men, who have +distinguished themselves in the late war, there have been few found +who had talents to command. This was perhaps because they had not +sufficiently learnt how to obey.'[4] On the other hand, it must be +remembered that Canada also contained a stationary population on the +banks of the St. Lawrence, who more and more, as years went on, +learnt what war meant and preferred peace; and that the colony was +not devoid of trading centres, the largest of which were Quebec and +Montreal, and all of which, including for instance, Niagara, Detroit, +and Michillimackinac, were inland ports. + +[Footnote 4: Charlevoix (as above), p. 104.] + +[Sidenote: _The English had the better position in North America, +larger numbers, and command of the sea._] + +If the above was the effect of geography on the history of France in +North America, it is not difficult to answer the question, Why did +the French lose Canada? They lost it because the English had the +better position in North America; because the English population in +North America largely outnumbered the French; because, when the +crisis came, the English made their main effort in North America, +whereas the French devoted their resources and their energies +primarily to continental war in Europe; and lastly, because {337} the +English secured command of the sea, and in consequence command of the +St. Lawrence also. But then the further question arises: What +produced this balance of advantage on the English side? + +[Sidenote: _There is no valid reason why the English originally +secured the better geographical position in North America._] + +It is not easy to determine why the better lot in North America, as +regards geography, fell to Great Britain and not to France. It was +hardly a question of prior discovery. The first pioneer for England, +Cabot, struck the New World at Newfoundland or Cape Breton, far north +of what became the main sphere of British colonization. The first +authenticated pioneer on behalf of France, Verrazano, found his way +to the present shores of the United States. The French connexion with +the St. Lawrence dated from Cartier's voyages; but those voyages, +though they gave the right of discovery, did not result at the time +in effective occupation. It was little more than an accident that the +English settled in Virginia and New England, and the French in Acadia +and on the St. Lawrence; though the fact of having found the St. +Lawrence, and the attraction of a great river, which might be the +long-wished-for, and long-dreamt-of, highroad to the far East, may +well have dictated to French instincts where New France should be. At +any rate, the English gained the great initial advantage of a far +larger seaboard, open at all times of the year, and a climate which +was more favourable to European colonization. 'Along the continent of +America which we possess,' wrote Wolfe from Louisbourg in 1758, +'there is a variety of climate, and, for the most part, healthy and +pleasant.... Such is our extent of territory upon this fine +continent, that an inhabitant may enjoy the kind influence of +moderate warmth all the year round.'[5] + +[Footnote 5: Wolfe to his mother, Aug. 11, 1758 (Wright, p. 454).] + +[Sidenote: _English superiority in numbers mainly due to French +policy towards the Huguenots._] + +With this advantage, it was natural that there should be greater +immigration into the English colonies than into Canada. But this was +not the only, or the main, cause of the superior numbers in the +English colonies. The main {338} cause was the policy of the French +Government, and especially its religious policy. The most fatal +mistake made by the French in regard to North America was the +exclusion of the Huguenots. The men who wished to leave England went +to the present United States. The men who wished to leave France were +not allowed to go to Canada, and went in considerable numbers to +England and her colonies. The effect, therefore, of Roman Catholic +exclusiveness was that, though France had a far greater population +than England, the greatest French colony failed for want of +colonists. Nor was it only a matter of quantity, but a matter of +quality also. The Huguenots were the type of men who would make +homes, create business, and build up communities beyond the seas. +They were of the same strong fibre as the New England Puritans. In +the competition of the coming time, New France was doomed in +consequence of being closed to the French Protestants. + +[Sidenote: _Numerical superiority of the English forces in North +America in the Seven Years' War._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada was conquered by Great Britain, not by the English +colonies._] + +When the Seven Years' War came, the English colonists in North +America outnumbered the French by thirteen to one; but, at the +moment, superiority in numbers was largely counterbalanced by the +want of union in the English colonies, whereas Canada was one. +Therefore the issue largely depended on the forces and the leaders +sent out by the two mother countries respectively. England, inspired +by Pitt, sent out abundant troops. France, inspired by Madame de +Pompadour, kept nearly all her troops to fight Frederick of Prussia, +with his few English and Hanoverian allies. The result was the defeat +of the French in North America, and the British conquest of Canada. +Whatever might have been the result if the crisis had been postponed, +it was not the British colonists but the troops from England, who, in +1758-60, decided the fate of North America. It is customary, in +writing accounts of the colonial wars of Great Britain, to emphasize +the merits of the colonial soldiers, who have the advantage of +knowing the country and the mode of {339} fighting appropriate to it; +and to depreciate the regulars sent from home. Reverses, like that of +Braddock, are written and read from a colonial point of view; and in +America, more especially, the colonists' side has been emphasized in +consequence of the results of the subsequent War of Independence. +But, as a matter of fact, excellent as were some of the colonial +troops, such as Robert Rogers' Rangers, Canada was conquered by +soldiers from England under able English generals like Wolfe and +Amherst; and similarly the burden of the defence of Canada fell +mainly on Montcalm and the few regiments which had been spared to him +from France. + +[Sidenote: _The English command of the water._] + +As the French kept for war on the continent of Europe the troops +which should have been sent to North America, so they allowed the +English to gain control of the water, over which alone troops and +supplies could be sent to New France. 'The possession of Canada,' +writes Captain Mahan, 'depended upon sea power.'[6] After the victory +of Hawke in Quiberon Bay, and other English successes on sea, Burke, +in the _Annual Register_ for 1760,[7] wrote that France 'was obliged +to sit, the impotent spectator of the ruin of her colonies, without +being able to send them the slightest succour. It was then she found +what it was to be inferior at sea.' Especially important was the +command of the water to those who would hold Canada, for two reasons; +because Canada, poor and undeveloped, was dependent on supplies from +Europe, to a greater extent than the English colonies[8] in North +America; and because she could and must be attacked by the St. +Lawrence. + +[Footnote 6: _Influence of Sea Power upon History_ (6th ed.), p. +294.] + +[Footnote 7: p. 9.] + +[Footnote 8: Thus Charlevoix (as above, p. 38) says Canada 'has +always had more from France than it could pay.'] + +The command of the sea meant the command of the St. Lawrence; and the +command of the St. Lawrence was indispensable for the reduction of +Quebec and Montreal. The downfall of New France began when the Treaty +of {340} Utrecht took from her, in Acadia, the best part of her +scanty seaboard; the downward process was arrested when Louisbourg, +taken by Massachusetts, was restored to the French; it began again +with the second capture of Louisbourg. The seaport was taken in one +year; in the next the river port, Quebec, was lost also. This would +not have happened had the French not divided their energies so +completely as to give Great Britain superiority on the water. They +attempted too much at home, and the same fault, if we turn to +consider their system and policy in North America, was carried into +the New World. + +[Sidenote: _French and English systems and policies in North America +compared._] + +It is roughly true to say that in North America the French had a +definite policy and a definite system; but the policy, though +brilliant in conception, was quite impracticable, and the system was +radically unsound. The English in North America, on the other hand, +had rarely any policy and never any system. + +[Sidenote: _Hopelessness of the French scheme for dominion in North +America._] + +The French policy was an imperial policy. It was clear, consistent, +and far-reaching. The object aimed at was a French dominion in North +America, the lines of communication being the two great rivers, the +St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. Canada and Louisiana were to be +joined; the English were to be kept between the Alleghanies and the +Atlantic; the French King was to be lord of all; the French religion +was to be supreme; the Indians were to be converted and made French +in sympathies and interests. The scheme was brilliant, but it was +impossible; and it is difficult to understand why it is considered by +historians to have been so dangerous to the future of the British +colonies. White men of one race, sparsely scattered over two sides of +a gigantic triangle, were to control white men of another but equally +masculine race, thirteen times as numerous, who held the base of the +triangle, the base being the seaboard. The attempt became more +impracticable every year, for every year the actual preponderance of +numbers on the English {341} side increased, and every year the white +men gained on the red men, who alone could make the realization of +the French dream even conceivably possible. + +[Sidenote: _French native policy._] + +[Sidenote: _Its merits._] + +Ample reference has already been made to the dealings of the French +with the Indians. There is much to praise and much to blame in what +may be called the native policy of France in North America. The +object of the French Government was, as Charlevoix points out, to +'frenchify' the savages;[9] and, as an instance of the value of the +Indians to the cause of France in America, he cites 'the Abenaquis, +who, though few in numbers, were during the two last wars the +principal bulwark of New France against New England.'[9] With the +exception of the Five Nation Indians, the natives of North America +were almost wholly on the side of the French as against the English, +in spite of the fact that the English offered them a better market +and sold them better wares. The reason was that the French relations +to the Indians were more human than those of the English. No doubt, +among the English colonists were Quakers and Moravians, whose tenets +bade them deal gently with the people of the soil; and on the New +York frontier, from Dutch times, there had been friendship, sometimes +warmer sometimes cooler, between the Dutch and the English colonists +on the one hand, and the Iroquois on the other. But the ordinary +English colonist's view of the red man was the Old Testament +view--hard, exclusive, and often cruel. The Puritan New Englander +took the land of the heathen in possession, and from his standpoint +there was not room in it for him and them. Widely different was the +French view. The Indians were not to be excluded from, but +incorporated in, the French dominion. The King of France, and his +representative the Governor of Canada, were to be the fathers, and +the Indians were to be the obedient and trusting children. The +missions taught the {342} same lesson. The Indians were not to be +exterminated, but to be fruitful and multiply as dutiful children of +France and of the Roman Catholic Church. On these lines the French +acted consistently from first to last; and their unaltering policy +contrasted favourably with the halting, uncertain dealings of the +English, which changed from year to year, and were different in the +different colonies. The way to win a black man's or a red man's +affections is to treat him, if not as an equal, at least as a man, +and to be constant in the treatment. For this reason, the Indians +loved the French better than the English. Very rarely on the English +side appeared a man, like Sir William Johnson, who possessed the +mixture of firmness and sympathy which attracted and conciliated the +Indians, and which was common among the French. + +[Footnote 9: Charlevoix (as above), pp. 34, 35.] + +[Sidenote: _Its defects._] + +But there was a very dark side to the French policy and system in +regard to the North American Indians. In the first place, as has been +abundantly shown in the preceding pages, the French authorities, +temporal and spiritual, kept the savages on their side by +sanctioning, or at least not repressing, their savagery; and notably +the mission Indians of Canada, the special protégés of the priests, +were foremost in barbarous warfare against white Christians of a +different shade of religion. In the second place, the political +system of Canada, which indirectly created the Canadian vagrants, the +_coureurs de bois_, produced, in doing so, indianized Frenchmen, +differing little from frenchified Indians. Here again we can take +Charlevoix's testimony. He writes that 'some vagabonds, who had taken +a liking to independency and a wandering life, had remained among the +savages, from whom they could not be distinguished but by their +vices.'[10] If the French were more human than the English in their +dealings with the Indians, they were more human for evil as well as +for good; and, whatever was the result on the Indians, {343} there is +no question as to the result on the French and English respectively, +of their different lines of action towards the red men. The English +race gained greatly in the end in soundness and in progress, from +keeping outside the Indian circle and not coming down to the Indian +level. + +[Footnote 10: Charlevoix (as above), p. 34.] + +[Sidenote: _Merits of French settlement in Canada._] + +It has been said above that the French system in North America was +radically unsound. It was unsound, in that it was based on political +and religious exclusiveness. There was the one great fundamental +mistake of excluding the Huguenots, and there were various other +important defects. But, on the hypothesis that the most independent +and most progressive element in France was to have no place in New +France, it is open to question whether the system of colonization, +which Louis XIV, Colbert, and Talon devised, and which remained the +basis of the colony, deserves the somewhat severe criticism which it +has received at the hands of historians. It is true that the system +was most artificial, that it contained no element of freedom or +self-government, and that when, long years after it came into being, +many of the restrictions were removed in consequence of the English +conquest of Canada, the colonists were deeply sensible of the relief. +It is true, too, that reaction against these restrictions, while +still in existence, produced the semi-savage race of _coureurs de +bois_, and that, through placing the power in the hands of a few +individuals, without providing any check of local representation or +local public opinion, an atmosphere of wholesale corruption and +intrigue was produced. But none the less there was an undoubted +element of soundness and strength in the settlement of New France; +and a considerable amount of shrewdness was shown in taking a certain +material from the old country and placing it in the New World, under +familiar conditions. The military side of the colonization was +skilfully handled; and the peasants, who had been in tutelage in +France to lord, to King, and to Church, found themselves in their new +homes {344} under similar guidance, instead of being turned into +strange ways, for which by bringing up they were not fitted. The +system, artificial as it was, produced permanent settlement of +considerable strength and great tenacity, which, under a more liberal +régime, has resulted in the French-speaking Canadian people of the +present day. + +[Sidenote: _Canada, as compared with the English colonies, was one._] + +[Sidenote: _The English colonies were separate from the mother +country, and from each other._] + +There were divisions in Canada, and various contradictory elements in +its history; but, as against foreign rivals and for purposes of +offence and defence, the colony was one, under one Government and one +Church, and in line with the mother country. Widely different was the +case of the English colonies. They were rarely in harmony with the +mother country, or with each other. They had little or no instinct of +imperialism. They had the instinct of self-preservation, and if +seriously attacked were to some extent prepared, unless Quaker +influence was dominant, to protect themselves, and to accept aid from +the mother country. But their traditions and their inclinations made +for peace, not for war; for isolation, not for union. Their +forefathers' aim and object had been to create and maintain separate +and self-dependent communities, not to be in substance amenable to +home control. Here is a French view of the New Englanders given by +the anonymous eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745: 'These +singular people have a system of laws and protection peculiar to +themselves, and their Governor carries himself like a monarch.'[11] +If the fault of the Canadian system was too rigid uniformity and too +complete subordination to the mother country, the English colonies +suffered from the opposite extreme, from utter want of uniformity and +complete absence of system. Different constitutions, different shades +of religious beliefs, different phases of settlement--all created +disunion. Common origin made a bond with the mother country, but the +Governors {345} sent from England could tell those who sent them how +deficient was the habit of obedience to the British Crown. + +[Footnote 11: Professor Wrong's translation, p. 37.] + +[Sidenote: _The English colonists alone no match for Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Shortcomings of the home Government._] + +Common danger alone produced occasional signs of common action. The +New England colonies, whose borders were most within reach of French +raids, and whose shores reached to Acadia, showed far the most public +spirit, and far the most power of combination. The southern colonies +awoke only when the French in the Ohio valley did them active and +present hurt; but, with many times the numbers of the Canadian +population, the English colonies as a rule showed themselves to be no +match for Canada. The first decisive treaty in North America--the +Peace of Utrecht, which gave Acadia to Great Britain--was the result +of fighting by English, not colonial soldiers, and not in America, +but in Flanders under Marlborough. The second decisive treaty, the +Peace of Paris in 1763, was the result of fighting in America, but +mainly by British not colonial troops, and under British generals. +The 'Bostonnais' alone among the English colonists were objects of +apprehension to the French; and, if it were not for the record of +Massachusetts and her smaller neighbours, the English colonies in +North America before the year 1763 would in manhood and public spirit +compare poorly with Canada. With equal truth it may be said that, in +the matter of having a clear and consistent policy in North America, +Great Britain compared very poorly with France; and the apathy of the +colonies may fairly be attributed in large measure to their +uncertainty as to what on any particular occasion might be the +attitude of the King and the ministers in England; whether support +would be forthcoming or withheld, and whether, if forthcoming, it +would involve some sacrifice in return. It is very noticeable how +often a promised force from home either was never sent or sent too +late; it is noticeable too how difficult it was for Governors who +opposed French claims and pretensions, such as Dongan of New York, in +the seventeenth century, and William Shirley {346} of Massachusetts, +in the eighteenth, to persuade the home Government of the justice of +their views. Like her colonies, England was as a rule averse to war; +and as her colonies were inclined to keep her at arm's length, so she +was inclined to leave them, within limits, to take care of +themselves. + +[Sidenote: _English compromise._] + +In the case of North America, while French and English were competing +there, the English through their Government acted as they always have +acted, during the whole course of their foreign and colonial history. +They did, they undid, they compromised, until at length in Pitt there +came a man who gripped the nettle, and the end was reached which +might with infinitely greater ease have been attained many years +before. When Quebec was in its infancy, the English under Kirke +conquered it; the English King gave it back, and then the French +dominion in North America took root. After Marlborough's wars the +Peace of Utrecht gave Acadia to England, but gave it in terms so +vague that the French continued to claim much or most of it; at the +same time it left Cape Breton Island to France, and sowed the seeds +of an apparently perennial controversy between Great Britain and +France with regard to fishing rights on the coast of Newfoundland. +There was more war, and the colonists took Cape Breton Island. Under +the terms of the next treaty the English Government restored it to +France. Then came the final war and the final peace; England gained +all Canada, but, with that strange liking which Englishmen seem to +have for leaving a frayed end in their treaty arrangements, the +British Government confirmed the fishing rights of France on the +Newfoundland coast, and added thereto possession of the two small +islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. + +It was not policy, it was not system, which gave North America to the +English rather than to the French, and yet there was a certain gain +even from the utter absence of both policy and system. Natural forces +had more play on the English side than on the French, and in a sense +it might {347} be said of the English colonies that their strength +was to sit still. + +[Sidenote: _Was the contest between Great Britain and France in North +America inevitable and beneficial?_] + +The last question to be asked, and if possible to be answered, is: +Was the contest between France and Great Britain in North America, +and the victory of one of the two powers, inevitable, and was it +beneficial? From the English point of view, the answer to part of +this question is a foregone conclusion. If there was to be a contest, +it seems evident, if we look back on the past, that the English must +have in the end prevailed. It is impossible to imagine that the +French colony of Canada, with a population at the time of the +conquest of considerably under 100,000, could dominate the English +colonies with a million and a quarter inhabitants. Equally certain +does it appear that to Canada the British conquest was a blessing in +disguise, and the Canadians in a very short time realized what they +had gained by the change of administration. In Mr. Parkman's words, +'a happier calamity never befell a people than the conquest of Canada +by the British arms.'[12] + +[Footnote 12: _The Old Régime in Canada_ (end).] + +But the question, whether a decisive war between the two races in +North America was inevitable, is one which may well be asked and +answered, inasmuch as a similar question has in our own day troubled +many minds in regard to other parts of the world where colonizing +races have been side by side. Surely, it might be said, and probably +was said, there was room enough in the great continent of North +America for both French and English to work out their national +destinies, without trying to supplant each other. In a sense this was +no doubt true; and the truth is not vitiated by the fact that the +French scheme of policy was not compatible with the presence of the +English race in North America, on the supposition that the latter +race would be allowed to extend its bounds by natural increase and +progressive settlement _pari passu_ with the French. + +{348} [Sidenote: _No natural frontier between New France and the +English colonies._] + +The interesting point, however, to notice is that there was no +natural frontier between Canada and the English colonies, at the time +when they came into serious competition; for the line of the +Alleghanies, even if recognized, could fully delimit only the more +southerly colonies. To use a modern term, two separate spheres of +influence in North America had not been marked out by nature. But in +new countries, unless there is some strongly defined natural line of +division, it is true to say, however paradoxical it may appear, that +there is not room for two incoming white races to colonize as equals +side by side. It is precisely when the land is thinly populated, and +when therefore the population is in a fluid condition, that +collisions will and must occur. Given a continent like Europe at the +present day, the geography of which is accurately known, the +resources of whose soil in every part have been fully gauged, and +whose surface has been for many generations parcelled out in +effective occupation, one province to one race, another to another; +then, when the peoples are crystallized in their respective moulds, +war is not inevitable; and when war arises, it is the artificial +result of political naughtiness and ambition, unless indeed it be the +effect of some inaccuracy in the map, which needs to be adjusted. In +new fields of colonization, on the other hand, wars are not +artificial; they are natural, and not only natural but sometimes +absolutely necessary to future happiness and welfare. Just as Europe +was herself once in the melting-pot, so the lands which Europeans +have settled and are settling, if they are to be the homes of strong +peoples in days to come, must, when rival races are planted there, be +the scenes of armed strife. + +Colonial wars which end where they began, with indecisive treaties +tending to further bloodshed, may well be the subject of national +sorrow and regret; but it is otherwise when a great issue has been +achieved, and when it has been decided once for all what lines shall +be laid down for the {349} future of a great country, not yet peopled +as it will be in the coming time. Then the millions of money, which +seem to have been wasted, are found to have been invested for the +good of men; and the mourners for the lost sorrow not as without +hope, inasmuch as those who have gone have died that others may live. +The foundations of peoples are the nameless dead, who have been laid +amid North American forests or under the bare veldt of South Africa. + + + + +{350} + +APPENDIX I + +LIST OF FRENCH GOVERNORS OF CANADA + + PERIOD + Samuel de Champlain . . . . . . . . 1632-1635 + Chevalier de Montmagny . . . . . . . 1636-1648 + Chevalier d'Ailleboust . . . . . . . 1648-1651 + Jean de Lauzon . . . . . . . . . . . 1651-1657 + Vicomte d'Argenson . . . . . . . . . 1658-1661 + Baron d'Avaugour . . . . . . . . . . 1661-1663 + Sieur de Mésy . . . . . . . . . . . 1663-1665 + Marquis de Tracy . . . . . . . . . . 1665-1667 + Chevalier de Courcelles[1] . . . . . 1665-1672 + Comte de Frontenac . . . . . . . . . 1672-1682 + Sieur de la Barre . . . . . . . . . 1682-1685 + Marquis de Denonville . . . . . . . 1685-1689 + Comte de Frontenac . . . . . . . . . 1689-1698 + Chevalier de Calličres . . . . . . . 1699-1703 + Marquis de Vaudreuil . . . . . . . . 1703-1725 + Marquis de Beauharnois . . . . . . . 1726-1747 + Comte de la Galissoničre . . . . . . 1747-1749 + Marquis de la Jonquičre . . . . . . 1749-1752 + Marquis Duquesne . . . . . . . . . . 1752-1755 + Marquis de Vaudreuil[2] . . . . . . 1755-1760 + +[Footnote 1: While Tracy was in Canada he was Governor-General, and +Courcelles was Governor.] + +[Footnote 2: Son of the previous Governor of that name.] + + + + +{351} + +APPENDIX II + +DATES OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF CANADA DOWN TO 1763 + + YEAR + +North America discovered by Cabot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497 + +Cartier's first voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1534 + +Cartier's second voyage and discovery of the St. Lawrence . . . 1535 + +Champlain's first voyage to North America . . . . . . . . . . . 1603 + +Founding of Port Royal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605 + +Quebec founded by Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1608 + +Hudson discovers the Hudson River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1609 + +Hudson discovers Hudson Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610 + +Port Royal destroyed by Argall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1613 + +Grant of Acadia to Sir W. Alexander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621 + +Company of the One Hundred Associates incorporated . . . . . . 1627 + +Quebec taken from the French by Kirke . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1629 + +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Canada restored to France . . . 1632 + +Death of Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1635 + +Founding of Montreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642 + +Acadia taken by the English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645 + +Destruction of the Huron Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1648-50 + +Company of One Hundred Associates dissolved and Canada taken + over by the French Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1663 + +New York taken by Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1664 + +Expedition of Tracy and Courcelles against the Five Nations . . 1666 + +La Salle comes to Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1666 + +Treaty of Breda. Acadia restored to the French . . . . . . . . 1667 + +La Salle supposed to have discovered the Ohio . . . . . . . . 1669-71 + +Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670 + +Count Frontenac's first government . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672-82 + +Founding of Fort Frontenac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1673 + +Joliet and Marquette reach the Mississippi from Lake Michigan . 1673 + +Treaty of Westminster. New York finally ceded to Great Britain 1674 + +La Salle descends the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico . . . . 1682 + +La Salle's expedition to Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1684-5 + +Treaty of Whitehall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686 + +Forts in Hudson Bay raided by Iberville . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686 + +Death of La Salle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 + +Massacre of Lachine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689 + +Count Frontenac's second government . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689-98 + +Port Royal taken by Phipps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1690 + +Phipps' expedition against Quebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1690 + +Peace of Ryswick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1697 + +First colonization of Louisiana by Iberville . . . . . . . . . 1699 + +Founding of Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1701 + +Calličres' Treaty with the Five Nation Indians . . . . . . . . 1701 + +Five Nation Indians acknowledge supremacy of Great Britain . . 1701 + +Port Royal taken by Nicholson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1710 + +Expedition of Walker and Hill against Quebec . . . . . . . . . 1711 + +Peace of Utrecht. Hudson Bay and Acadia ceded to Great Britain 1713 + +English fort built at Oswego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727 + +Western discoveries by the Verendryes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1731-43 + +First siege and capture of Louisbourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1745 + +Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1748 + +Halifax founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1749 + +Fort Duquesne built by the French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1754 + +Expulsion of the Acadians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +The _Alcide_ and the _Lys_ taken by Boscawen . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Braddock defeated on the Monongahela . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Johnson's victory over Dieskau at Lake George . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Oswego taken by Montcalm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1756 + +William Shirley recalled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1756 + +Abortive attempt against Louisbourg by Loudoun and Holborne . . 1757 + +Fort William Henry taken by Montcalm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1757 + +Pitt comes into power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1757 + +Louisbourg taken by Amherst and Wolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Abercromby defeated at Ticonderoga and Lord Howe killed . . . . 1758 + +Fort Frontenac taken by Bradstreet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Fort Duquesne taken by Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Fort Niagara taken by Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Ticonderoga and Crown Point taken by Amherst . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Battle of Quebec. Deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm. Quebec + surrendered to the English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Surrender of Montreal and final conquest of Canada . . . . . . 1760 + +Resignation of Pitt. Bute comes into power . . . . . . . . . . 1761 + +War between Great Britain and Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1762 + +Peace of Paris. Canada ceded to Great Britain . . . . . . . . . 1763 + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbitibbi River, the, p. 188. + +Abenakis, the, 54, 127, 129, 135, 136, 138, 182, 194, 195, 266. + +Abercromby, General, 260, 271, 276, 277, 279, 280, 282, 283, 287, + 296. + +Acadia, meaning of name, 36 _n_. + +-- and Acadians, 42, 43, 45, 52, 123, 131, 142, 146, 170-90, 192-4, + 221-8, 235, 250, 337, 345, 346. + +Adirondack Mountains, 49, 241, 242. + +Adventurers to Canada, Company of, 74, 76. + +Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 192, 205, 209, 211, 216, 217, 219, 221. + +Albanel, 186. + +Albany, 56 _n._, 63, 64, 91, 109, 110, 116, 121, 125-7, 130, 208, + 234, 241, 246, 258, 267, 278, 321. + +-- River, the, 187. + +Albemarle, 186. + +Albert de Prado, 25. + +_Alcide_, the, 234 and _n._, 272. + +Alexander, Sir William, 74, 173-6. + +Alexandria, 236. + +Algonquins, the, 54, 61, 62, 66, 87. + +Alleghany Mountains, 49, 53, 217, 230-3, 285, 340. + +-- River, the, 150, 151, 217-9, 229, 286, 293, 331. + +Amazon, the, 2. + +Amherst, Lord, 259 _n._, 267, 271, 272, 275, 277, 283, 287, 290, 291, + 296, 297, 303, 304, 311, 314, 319-24, 339. + +Amidas, 32. + +Andastes, the, 90. + +Andros, 183. + +Annapolis and Harbour, 41, 142, 143, 171, 176, 177, 193, 197, 202, + 207-9, 219, 225, 226. + +Anne of Brittany, 20. + +-- Queen, 122, 144, 205. + +Anse au Foulon, 306, 317. + +Anson, Admiral, 206, 208, 292. + +Argall, Samuel, 42, 43, 172. + +Arkansas River, the, 153, 161, 162, 167, 211. + +Arlington, 186. + +Arthur, Port, 212. + +Artillery Cove, 265. + +Ashley, 186. + +Assiniboine, the, 213. + +Aubert of Dieppe, 20. + + +Baccalaos, 15 _n._, 16 and _n._, 23 _n_. + +Bacon, 4, 12. + +Baffin, 27, 44, 184. + +-- Bay, 7 _n_. + +Baie des Puans. _See_ Green Bay. + +-- Françoise. _See_ Bay of Fundy. + +-- Verte, 224. + +Barlow, 32. + +Basques, the, 5, 11, 14-17, 65. + +Beaubassin, 183, 222, 225. + +Beauharnois, Fort, 211. + +Beaujeu, Admiral, 165, 166. + +-- de, 238. + +Beauport River and Shore, 132, 133 _n._, 298, 301, 305, 306, 308, + 310. + +Beauséjour, 222-4, 307. + +Bedford, 284. + +-- Duke of, 326. + +Belętre, 267, 268. + +Belle Île, 326. + +-- -- Straits of, 1, 21, 22. + +Biencourt, 172, 173. + +Bienville, 169. + +Bighorn Mountains, 213. + +Bigot, 224, 251, 252, 325. + +Biloxi, 169. + +Bjarni Herjulfson, 6. + +Bolingbroke, 142, 144. + +Bonavista, Cape, 19. + +Boscawen, Admiral, 234, 272-5. + +Boston, 6, 123, 126, 131, 133, 134, 137, 141, 142, 145, 178, 180, + 181, 198, 199, 204 and _n._, 206, 210. + +'Bostonnais,' the, 131, 198, 345. + +Bougainville, 260, 287, 302, 305, 308-10, 313, 321. + +Bouquet, 284, 285, 294. + +Bourbon, Fort, 189. + +Bourgeoys, Marguerite, 84. + +Bourlamaque, 260, 288, 296, 318, 320, 321. + +Braddock, General, 225, 234-41, 245, 257, 284, 285, 339. + +Bradstreet, Colonel, 255, 279, 282 and _n._, 286. + +Breboeuf, 84, 86, 88. + +Breda, Peace of, 63, 180, 182. + +Bristol, 4, 18, 19, 184. + +Brittany and Bretons, 11, 12, 15, 16, 22, 38. + +Buckingham, Duke of, 74, 289. + +Bull, Fort, 247, 254. + +Burke, 236, 250, 312, 315, 339. + +Burnet, Governor, 196. + +Burton, Colonel, 306, 307, 324. + +Bute, Lord, 325, 326. + +Button, 183, 184. + +Button's Bay, 184. + +Bylot, 184. + + +Cabots, the, 4, 5, 9, 12-19, 337. + +Caens, the De, 70, 73, 77 and _n_. + +Calličres, 112, 118, 119, 128. + +Canada and Canadians, 12-14, 21, 244, 245, 269. + +-- meaning of name, 24 _n_. + +Canso, Cape, 177 _n._, 179 _n._, 197-9. + +-- Gut of, 171. + +Cap Rouge River, 297, 298, 305, 310, 315, 316. + +Cape Breton Island, 16, 19, 45, 77 _n._, 144-6, 170-4, 179 _n._, 191, + 192, 197, 199, 204 and _n._, 209, 221, 270, 276, 277, 326, 346. + +Carignan, Prince of, 101. + +Carignan-Saličres Regiment, 101, 181, 212. + +Carillon. _See_ Ticonderoga. + +Carleton, Guy, 292, 301. + +Cartier, 12, 14, 21-4, 37, 38, 43, 54, 337. + +Casco Bay, 129-31, 138. + +Castine, 181. + +Cataraqui, 108, 121, 149. + +Cathay, 12, 13, 19, 26-8. + +Cats, Nation of the. _See_ Eries. + +Caughnawaga, 116 _n_. + +Cavelier, Abbé, 167. + +Cavendish, Thomas, 32. + +Cayuga Creek, 158. + +Cayugas, the, 56 and _n_. + +Celeron, 217, 218, 229. + +Chabot, Brian, 21. + +Chaleurs Bay, 21, 324. + +Chambly, 104, 114, 141, 181, 321. + +Champlain, 24, 34, 40-3, 52-4, 61, 65-70, 75, 76, 78, 81, 92, 106, + 260, 298. + +-- Lake, 3, 49, 55, 66, 104, 128, 131, 141, 197, 207, 216, 229, 235, + 242, 243, 246, 264, 278, 292, 293, 296, 297, 319, 321, 331. + +Chancellor, Richard, 26. + +Charles I, 74, 76, 174, 289. + +-- II, 63, 180, 182, 186. + +-- V, 25. + +-- VIII, 20. + +-- Fort, 185. + +Charlevoix, 56, 106, 211, 334, 335, 339 _n._, 341, 342. + +Chastes, de, 40, 41. + +Chaudičre Falls, 52, 123. + +-- River, 195, 235, 298. + +Chautauqua Lake, 150, 218, 229. + +Chauvin, 39. + +Chebucto, 171, 207, 210, 220. _See also_ Halifax. + +Chedabucto, 176, 179. + +Chesapeake Bay, 20, 42, 236. + +Chesterfield, Lord, 271, 276, 327. + +Chignecto Bay, 171, 181, 183. + +-- Isthmus of, 171, 208, 209, 222. + +Chouaguen. _See_ Oswego. + +Chubb, 136, 137. + +Chudleigh, Cape, 1. + +Church, Major, 139. + +Churchills, the, 272. + +Cincinnati, City of, 218. + +Clarke, 214. + +Colbert, 94, 98, 101, 156, 343. + +Coligny, Admiral, 38. + +Columbus, 4, 5 and _n._, 8, 9, 13, 14, 54, 329. + +Comanches, the, 211. + +Compagnie du Nord, 187. + +Company of the West, 93. + +Condé, 67, 70. + +Connecticut, River, 138, 208, 297. + +-- State of, 129, 199. + +Convers, 135. + +Cook, 260, 275. + +Corlaer. _See_ Cuyler. + +Cornwallis, Colonel E., 220. + +-- Lord, 220, 222. + +Corte Reals, the, 14, 17 and _n._, 19, 20. + +Cotton, Rev. N., 311. + +Courcelles, De, 104, 105, 109, 127, 152. + +Cousin of Dieppe, 5 _n_. + +Crčvecoeur, Fort, 159-63. + +Cromwell, 179 and _n._, 180. + +Crown Point, 197, 207, 208, 235, 245-7, 293, 296, 297, 303, 320. + +Crowne, William, 180. + +Cumberland, Duke of, 235, 236, 272. + +-- Fort, 224, 230, 237, 238, 284. + +Cuyler, 65. + + +D'Ailleboust, 82. + +Dakota, 213. + +D'Anville, 207, 208, 218 _n_. + +D'Argenson, 82. + +Darien, Isthmus of, 2, 8, 140. + +D'Aunay, 176-80. + +D'Avaugour, 82. + +Davies, Sylvanus, 129, 130. + +Davis, 27. + +-- Strait, 27. + +Deerfield, 138, 139. + +Delawares, the, 54, 218. + +_Delight_, the, 31. + +Denonville, Marquis de, 110-4, 118, 121, 128, 188. + +Denys, Nicholas, 176, 179 and _n._, 180. + +-- of Honfleur, 20. + +Des Groseilliers, 185, 187. + +Des Plaines, the, 150, 153, 161. + +D'Estournel, Admiral, 207. + +Detroit, 51, 89, 111, 121, 122, 149, 151, 158, 159, 294, 295, 324, + 336. + +Dettingen, Battle of, 192, 272, 289. + +Diamond, Cape, 298. + +_Diana_, the, 318. + +Dieppe, 20, 38, 74, 75. + +Dieskau, Baron, 234, 243-5, 252. + +Dinwiddie, Robert, 230, 231, 234. + +_Discovery_, the, 183, 184. + +Dongan, Governor, 61, 111 and _n._, 120, 127, 128, 345. + +Donnaconna, 22. + +Drake, Sir Francis, 32, 33, 76. + +'Drowned Lands,' the, 242. + +Drucour, Chevalier de, 273 and _n._, 276 and _n_. + +Duchambon, Governor, 200, 202, 203, 224. + +Duchesnau, 107. + +Dudley, Governor, 140. + +Du Luth, 106, 113, 121, 161. + +Dummer, Jeremiah, 142. + +Dunbar, Colonel, 237, 238. + +Dunkirk, 145. + +-- the, 234 _n_. + +Duquesne, Fort, 150, 231, 232, 234, 236, 237, 270, 271, 283-7, + 291 _n._, 293. + +-- Governor, 219, 228. + +Duquesnel, 200. + +Durell, Admiral, 292, 299, 305. + +Dutch, the, 46, 47, 53, 62-4, 77, 79, 128, 329, 330, 341. + +Duvivier, 197. + + +Edward, Fort, 242, 245, 264-7. + +-- VI, 25, 26. + +Egg Islands, 145. + +Elizabeth, Queen, 28, 30, 32, 76. + +Emmanuel, King, 14. + +Eric the Red, 6. + +Erie, Lake, 48, 51, 55, 56, 61, 90, 111, 121, 149, 151, 154, 158, + 217, 218, 295. + +-- Town of, 151, 229. + +Eries, the, 61, 90. + +Eyre, Major, 262. + + +Falmouth, 129. + +Fernando Gorges, 174. + +Finisterre, Cape, 206, 208, 218 _n_. + +Five Nations. _See_ Iroquois. + +Flat Point, 201, 274. + +Florida, 14, 38, 39, 80, 168, 327. + +Fontenoy, 272. + +Forbes, 271, 283-6, 291 _n._, 293. + +Fort Albany, 187, 188, 190. + +-- Hayes, 187, 188. + +-- le Boeuf, 229, 230. + +-- Orange, 63. + +Fox Channel, 185. + +-- River, 150, 153. + +Foxe, Luke, 184. + +France and the French, 12 and _n._, 14-24, 35-7, 42, 43, 45, 77, 78, + 113-9, 250, 251, 329. + +Francis I, 12, 20. + +Franciscans, the, 71. + +Franklin, 28, 233-6, 261 _n_. + +Frederick the Great, 216, 250, 260. + +French and English, 123-46, 216-24, 329. + +-- Creek, 151, 229, 231, 286, 293. + +Freshwater Cove, 201, 274. + +Frobisher, Martin, 13, 26-8, 30. + +-- Bay, 26. + +Frontenac, Count, 96 and _n._, 105-10, 112-21, 127-33, 146, 152, 155, + 156, 158. + +-- Fort, 108, 109, 114, 117, 118, 121, 136, 149, 156, 157, 159, 161, + 163, 165, 246, 254-5, 258, 270, 282, 286, 287. + +Fundy, Bay of, 41, 42, 171, 221. + + +Gabarus Bay, 200, 201, 272, 274. + +Gage, General, 295, 324. + +Galissoničre, Marquis de la, 217, 218. + +Galveston Bay, 166. + +Garnier, 84. + +Gaspé Bay, 144, 177, 277. + +-- Peninsula, 21, 50, 75. + +Genoa and Genoese, 7, 13, 18. + +George Lake, 49, 104, 216, 229, 242, 243, 245, 261, 262, 264, 265, + 271, 277, 278, 282, 296, 331. + +-- II, 194, 205, 210, 225, 325. + +-- III, 325. + +Georgian Bay, 51, 52, 55, 86, 87, 151. + +'German Flats,' the, 267. + +Germans, the, 231, 267. + +Gibbons, Captain, 184. + +Gibraltar, 206, 236. + +Gilbert, Sir H., 13, 15, 16 _n._, 28-32. + +Gillam, Captain Zachariah, 185, 186. + +Giraudičre, 179 _n_. + +_Golden Hind_, the, 29. + +Gomez, 14. + +Gordon, Sir R., 174. + +Gourgues, Domenic de, 39. + +Grand Battery, the, 200-2, 205, 273. + +Grand Pré, 139, 171, 209, 226. + +Grande Baie. _See_ Green Bay. + +Grandfontaine, 181. + +Grant, Major, 285, 314. + +Great Meadows, 231, 238. + +Green Bay, 150, 152-4, 158, 160. + +-- Mountains, 49, 242. + +Greenland, 6, 7, 27. + +Grenville, Sir R., 32, 33. + +Gunnbiorn, 6. + +Guyard, Marie, 84. + + +Haldimand, Colonel, 294. + +Halifax City and Harbour, 171, 210, 219-21, 263 and _n._, 270, 272, + 275, 292. + +Halkett, Sir Peter, 237. + +Hampton, 236. + +Harley, 142, 144. + +Haverhill, 139. + +Haviland, 319-21. + +Hawke, Admiral, 310, 311, 339. + +Hawkridge, Captain, 184. + +Hay, Lord C., 263 _n_. + +Hayes, E., 15, 16 and _n._, 28, 29. + +-- River, 189. + +Helluland, 6. + +Hennepin, Father, 157, 161. + +Henry, IV, 38, 42, 66, 67, 72. + +-- VII, 4, 14, 17, 18. + +-- Prince of Wales, 173, 184. + +Hill, Abigail, 144. + +-- General, 144-6. + +Hispaniola, 32. + +Hochelaga, 13, 22 and _n._, 24 and _n_. + +Holborne, Admiral, 299, 302-5. + +Hopson, Colonel, 223. + +Hore, 25. + +Howard of Effingham, Lord, 127. + +Howe, Captain, 223. + +-- Colonel, 292, 306-7. + +-- Lord, 268, 271, 278, 280, 281, 287, 289. + +Hudson, the, 3, 23 _n._, 49, 50 and _n._, 53, 62-5, 104, 124, 125, + 130, 208, 229, 241. + +-- Bay, 52, 106, 128, 138, 146, 153, 170-90, 213, 214, 331. + +-- Bay Company, 186-9. + +-- Henry, 27, 44, 53 and _n._, 63, 183, 184. + +-- Straits, 26, 183, 184. + +Huguenots, the, 37, 38, 41, 70, 72-4, 77, 80, 81, 168, 226, 338, 343. + +Hundred Associates, 70, 72, 80-2, 93, 173. + +Huron, Lake, 51, 55, 68, 69, 87, 111, 114, 121, 149, 151, 196. + +Hurons, the, 54, 55, 61, 62, 66, 68, 86-92, 151, 152. + + +Iberville, 106, 128, 136, 137, 169, 188, 189. + +Iceland, 6. + +Île aux Noix, 296, 319, 321. + +Île des Allumettes, 67. + +Île de St. Jean. _See_ Prince Edward Island. + +Île Madame, 311. + +Île Perrot, 322. + +Île Royale, 322. _See_ Cape Breton Island. + +Illinois, the, 110, 148, 150, 153, 154, 156, 159, 162, 163, 217. + +Independence, War of, 65, 280, 282, 339. + +Indians, the, 54, 342, &c. + +Indies, the, 10, 12, 13, 26. + +Irondequoit Bay, 111. + +Iroquois, the, 54-62, 64-6, 75, 81, 82, 108-23, 134, 216, 233, 258 + and _n._, 267. + +Island Battery, the, 200-2, 274. + + +Jacques Cartier, 310, 324. + +James, Captain T., 184. + +-- I, 74, 173, 174. + +-- II, 127, 138, 189. + +-- Bay, 183, 185, 187-9. + +Jamestown, 42, 43, 65. + +Jemseg, 180, 181. + +Jesuits, the, 34, 42, 70-2, 82-91, 151, 152, 155. + +Jogues, Isaac, 84. + +Johnson, Fort, 240. + +-- Sir William, 240-6, 258, 261, 264, 267, 294-6, 321, 323, 324, 342. + +Joliet, Louis, 152-4, 162. + +Joncaire, 141, 241. + +Joutel, 167. + +Jumonville, 232. + + +Kankakee, the, 159. + +Kansas River, the, 211. + +Kennebec, the, 123, 136, 171, 182, 195, 235, 298. + +Kingston, 51, 108. + +Kirkes, the, 74-7, 81, 86, 131, 173-5, 179, 298, 346. + +Kittery Point, 199. + +Knowles, Commodore, 206. + +Knox, 301, 307 _n._, 315, 317, 318, 321, 323, 324 _n_. + + +La Barre, 110, 111, 113, 163, 165. + +Labrador, 1, 6, 9, 19, 153. + +La Cadie. _See_ Acadia. + +Lac des Assiniboines. _See_ Lake Winnipeg. + +Lac des Illinois. _See_ Lake Michigan. + +Lachine, 53, 112, 114, 116 _n._, 128, 153, 154, 322. + +La Corne, 197, 265, 294, 322. + +'La Demoiselle,' 219. + +La Famine, 110. + +Laffeldt, Battle of, 289. + +La Héve, 176, 177 and _n_. + +La Hogue, Battle of, 189. + +La Jonquičre, Marquis de, 207, 218 and _n._, 222. + +Lake of the Woods, 211, 213. + +Lalemant, 84. + +La Mothe Cadillac, 121. + +La Motte, Admiral, 263. + +Lane, Ralph, 32, 33. + +Langlade, 219. + +La Peltrie, Madame de, 84. + +La Plata, the, 2. + +La Pointe, 151. + +La Prairie, 131, 134. + +La Reine, Fort, 213. + +La Roche, Marquis de, 39. + +La Rochelle, 69, 72, 74, 78, 157, 165, 207, 289. + +La Salle, 53, 106, 152, 154-69. + +Latour, Fort, 173. + +-- -- 175, 178. + +La Tours, the, 173, 175, 177-80. + +Laudonničre, René de, 38. + +Laurel Hills, 231, 232, 285. + +Lauzon, De, 82, 84. + +Laval, Bishop, 84, 97. + +La Valličre, 182. + +La Verendrye, 212-4. + +Lawrence, Fort, 223, 224. + +-- Governor, 222-5, 228, 271. + +Leboeuf, Fort, 294. + +Le Borgne, 179, 180. + +Le Caron, 68, 86. + +Legardeur de St. Pierre, 245. + +Leif, 6, 7. + +Leisler, Jacob, 126, 128. + +Le Loutre, 222-4, 266. + +Le Moyne, 91, 92. + +Léry, 254. + +-- Baron de, 16 _n._, 20. + +Levis, 260, 265, 270, 279, 288, 300, 303, 310, 315-7, 319, 323. + +-- Point, 297, 300, 301, 304-6, 315. + +Lewis, 214. + +Lighthouse Point, 202, 273, 274. + +Ligneris, 286, 295. + +Lok, Michael, 27. + +L'Omeroy, Fort. _See_ Fort Latour. + +Longueuil, 321. + +Lorette, 89, 315, 316. + +Loudoun, Earl of, 252, 260-4, 271, 276, 277. + +Louis XIII, 72, 76. + +-- XIV, 98, 107, 138, 162, 164, 192, 343. + +-- Fort. _See_ Fort Latour. + +Louisbourg, 146, 172, 191-214, 216, 219, 220, 223-5, 247, 253, + 259 _n._, 262-4, 270-7, 289-92, 299, 317, 320, 337, 340, 344. + +Louisiana, 36, 106, 162 and _n._, 169, 211, 217, 226, 250, 252, 295, + 340. + +_Lowestoft_, the, 318. + +Loyal, Fort, 129, 130. + +Loyalhannon, 285. + +Lunenburg, 221. + +Lutherans, 221. + +Lyman, Fort, 241-5. + +-- Phineas, 241. + +_Lys_, the, 234, 272. + + +Machault. _See_ Venango. + +Machias, 176. + +Mackenzie, Sir A., 214. + +Maine, State of, 23, 41, 42, 123, 129, 130, 170-2, 182, 198, 298. + +Maisonneuve, 84. + +Mance, Jeanne, 84. + +Manhattan Island, 63, 64, 124, 125, 179, 206. + +March, Colonel, 139. + +Marin, 229. + +Markland, 6. + +Marlborough, Duke of, 122, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 345, 346. + +Marquette, Jacques, 152-4, 162. + +Martha's or Martin's Vineyard, 6. + +Maryland, 45, 73, 110, 142, 230, 233, 237. + +Mascarene, Major, 197, 219. + +Massachusetts, 131-3, 136, 138-43, 146, 147, 180, 195, 197-9, 208, + 226, 230, 233, 241, 281, 340, 345. + +-- Fort, 208. + +Matagorda Bay, 166. + +_Mathew_, the, 18. + +Mattawa River, the, 52, 68. + +Maumee River, 218. + +May, River of, 39. + +Mazarin, 179. + +Menendez, 39. + +Meneval, Governor, 182. + +Mercer, Colonel, 256. + +Merchants Discoverers' Company, 184. + +_Merrimac_, the, 139. + +_Meta Incognita_, the, 27. + +Mexico, 17, 155, 157, 164, 165, 168. + +-- Gulf of, 2, 153, 155, 159, 164-6, 169, 332. + +Miami Fort, 159-61. + +-- River, 218. + +Miamis, the, 218, 219. + +Michigan, Lake, 51, 54, 89, 149, 153, 154, 157-61, 217. + +Michillimackinac, 51, 117, 121, 149, 153, 154, 158-62, 324, 336. + +Micmacs, the, 54. + +Minden, Battle of, 315. + +Mines, Basin of, 171, 181, 183, 209, 225. + +Miquelon, 327, 346. + +Mississippi, the, 2-4, 36, 48, 49, 53, 148, 153, 156, 159-62, 166, + 168, 169, 217, 327, 340. + +Missouri, the, 153, 161, 211, 213, 214. + +Mobile Bay, 169. + +Mohawk River, the, 49, 55 and _n._, 56 and _n._, 63, 206, 240, 246-7, + 254, 257, 267, 270, 282, 293. + +Mohawks, the, 55, 64, 65, 91, 92, 104, 105, 108, 109, 114, 115, 127, + 142, 241, 244, 245, 258. + +Mohicans, the, 64. + +Monckton, Colonel, 224, 277, 291, 301, 305, 307. + +Monongahela River, 218, 219, 225, 229-32, 237, 239. + +Monro, Colonel, 264, 265. + +Montagnais, the, 54. + +Montcalm, 106, 216, 252-5, 259-62, 264-7, 270, 276 _n._, 279, 280, + 282, 287, 293, 298, 300-3, 305-10, 313-5, 333, 339. + +Montmagny, De, 81, 82. + +Montmorency, Duc de, 70. + +-- River, 297, 298, 300-5, 308. + +Montreal, 22-4, 41, 50, 51, 54, 66, 67, 69, 81, 82, 92, 95, 102, + 108-15, 131, 134, 145, 154, 157, 161, 217, 251, 255, 262, 267, + 296, 303, 310, 319-25, 336, 339. + +Monts, de, 40-3, 65, 66, 73. + +Moody, Chaplain, 204. + +Moose Fort. _See_ Fort Hayes. + +-- River, 187, 188. + +Moravians, the, 285, 341. + +Murray, 291, 301, 302, 304, 305, 307, 310, 316-20, 323-5. + +Muscovy Company, the, 26. + + +Nantucket, 132. + +Narragansetts, the, 54. + +Naxouat, Fort, 137. + +Necessity, Fort, 232. + +Nelson, Fort, 187, 189. + +-- River, 187, 213. + +Nesmond, Marquis de, 137. + +Netherlands East India Company, 46, 79. + +-- West India Company, 63, 79, 181 _n_. + +Neutral Nation, 55, 90. + +New Amsterdam, 3, 63. + +-- Biscay, 164. + +-- Brunswick, 23 _n._, 41, 170-2. + +Newcastle, Duke of, 207, 268 and _n._, 290, 319, 326. + +New England, 3, 6, 11, 23 _n._, 45, 54, 124, 139, 147, 172, 197-9, + 210, 241, 248, 335-7, 341, 344, 345. + +Newfoundland, 1, 6, 9, 11, 13-25, 30, 34, 37, 45, 52, 69, 76, 106, + 123, 146, 171, 172, 178, 179 _n._, 234, 334, 337, 346. + +New France, 22-4, 35, 66 _n._, 67, 70, 80, 81, 97, 148, 251, 314, + 329, 335, 341. + +-- Hampshire, 129, 135, 208, 233. + +-- Jersey, 6 _n._, 141, 233. + +-- Mexico, 211. + +-- Netherlands, 63, 104. + +-- Orleans, 169, 327. + +-- Scotland, 174, 176. + +-- York, Town and State of, 3, 6, 9, 49, 63, 65 _n._, 124, 128, 134, + 141, 147, 183, 199, 208, 233, 237, 241, 242, 248, 263, 265, 267, + 295, 314, 336. + +Niagara, Falls of, 157, 158, 294, 295, 331. + +-- Fort, 111 and _n._, 149, 158, 159, 196, 235, 246, 254, 258, 293-6, + 303, 336. + +-- River, 51, 90, 151, 157, 196, 294. + +Nicholson, Colonel, 141-3, 145, 183. + +Nicollet, Jean, 151. + +Nicolls, Colonel, 127. + +Nipigon, Fort and River, 212. + +Nipissing Indians, 151. + +-- Lake, 52, 54, 68, 87. + +Noble, Colonel, 208, 209. + +_Nonsuch_, the, 185. + +Norridgewocks, the, 195. + +Norsemen, 5, 6. + +North-West Passage, 183-6. + +Norumbega, 23 and _n_. + +Nova Scotia, 6, 9, 23 _n._, 36, 39, 41, 170-6, 264, 271, 277, 326. + + +Ogdensburg, 322 and _n_. + +Ohio, the, 4, 48, 53, 148, 150, 151, 154, 156, 161, 162 _n._, 169, + 217-9, 232, 257, 283-6, 294, 345. + +Oneida, Lake, 56, 246, 254, 282. + +Oneidas, the, 56 and _n._, 61, 118. + +Oneigra, 111 _n_. + +Onondaga, 116, 118. + +-- River, 196 _n_. + +Onondagas, the, 56 and _n._, 59, 61, 91, 92. + +Ontario, Fort, 256. + +-- Lake, 48, 51-6, 61, 87, 91, 108-11, 118, 149, 151, 154, 158, 196, + 235, 243, 246, 247, 254-8, 267, 270, 283, 293, 294, 319, 322. + +Orleans, Island of, 85, 89, 92, 297, 299, 300. + +-- Point of, 300, 305. + +Oswegatchie River, 322 and _n_. + +Oswego, 196 and _n._, 235, 243, 246, 254-8, 260, 262, 264, 265, 267, + 269 _n._, 270, 280, 293, 294, 319, 321. + +Ottawa, City of, 52. + +-- River, 51, 66-9, 87, 92, 108, 114, 149, 151, 188, 295. + +Oyster River, 135. + + +Paris, Peace of, 15, 93, 326, 327, 345. + +Péan, 251. + +Pemaquid, Fort, 136, 137, 182, 189. + +Penalossa, Count, 164. + +Pennsylvania, 141, 199, 217, 219, 230, 231, 233, 236, 239, 248, 283, + 284. + +Penobscot, the, 23 _n._, 42, 136, 137, 171, 176, 179, 181 and _n._, + 195, 240, 266. + +Pentegoet, 137, 176, 181, 182. + +Pepin, Lake, 211. + +Pepperell, W., 199, 202, 203, 205, 252 _n_. + +Pequods, the, 54. + +Perrot, Governor, 108, 113, 182, 211. + +Philadelphia, 41, 284, 286. + +Philip's War, 182. + +Philipps, Governor, 194. + +Phipps, William, 131-4, 139, 140, 145, 183, 198. + +Pickawillany, 218, 219. + +Pigeon River, 213. + +Pique Town. _See_ Pickawillany. + +Piquet, Abbé, 322 and _n_. + +Pitt, 15 _n._, 216, 268 and _n._, 269, 271, 284, 286, 291 _n._, 296, + 304, 314, 325-7, 346. + +Pittsburg, 150, 286. + +Placentia, 145, 189. + +Plains of Abraham, 224, 297, 307, 314. + +Points de Monts, 50, 145. + +Pontgravé, 39-41, 65, 66. + +Pontiac, 324. + +Portland, 129, 150. + +Port Royal, 41-3, 77 _n._, 131, 135, 139, 142, 146, 171-3, 175-7, + 179, 183, 197, 198. + +Portsmouth, 145, 207. + +Portugal and Portuguese, 3, 8-10, 14-9, 29 _n._, 39, 79, 329, 330. + +Potomac, the, 230, 236. + +Pouchot, 294, 295, 322. + +Poutrincourt, 42, 172. + +Presque Île, 151, 229, 294. + +Prideaux, General, 293-6. + +Prima Terra Vista, 16. + +Prince Edward Island, 170, 179 _n._, 221, 277. + +-- Rev. T., 204. + +-- Rupert, 185. + +Prudhomme, Fort, 162. + +Puans, the. _See_ Winnebagos. + +Puritans, the, 34, 85, 204, 338, 341. + + +Quakers, the, 73, 231, 240, 341, 344. + +Quebec, 22-4, 35-78, 95, 97, 102, 123, 146, 172, 179, 186, 207, 224, + 226, 251, 260, 262, 269 _n._, 271, 276 and _n._, 289, 291-3, + 297-320, 336, 339, 340, 346. + +Quiberon Bay, 311, 315, 339. + + +Radisson, 185, 187. + +Raestown, 284, 291 _n_. + +Raleigh, Sir W., 3, 28, 29, 33, 43. + +-- City of, 33. + +Ramesay, 141. + +-- 208, 209. + +-- 310. + +Rasle, Sebastian, 195. + +Razilly, de, 176, 177 and _n_. + +Recollet Friars, the, 68, 69, 160. + +Red River, the, 211. + +-- -- -- 213. + +Rensselaer and Rensselaerswyck, 63. + +Restigouche, 324. + +Rhode Island, 233. + +Ribault, Jean, 38, 39. + +Richelieu, 70, 72, 75, 76, 80, 94, 173, 174, 176. + +-- Fort, 81. + +-- River, the, 49, 50, 53, 82, 101, 102, 104, 108, 114, 128, 131, + 229, 242, 243, 296, 320, 321, 331. + +Rideau Canal, 52. + +Rio Janeiro, 38. + +Rivičre aux Boeufs, 151, 229. _See also_ French Creek. + +Roanoke, 32, 33. + +Roberval, 14, 23. + +Rochefort, 289. + +Rocky Mountains, 46, 213, 214. + +Rogers, Robert, 247, 261-4, 296, 320, 324, 339. + +Rogers' Rock, 261. + +Rollo, Lord, 277. + +Roman Catholics, 41, 48, 73, 83, 88, 221. + +Rome, 247. + +Roquemaure, 321. + +Rouen, 69, 154. + +-- and St. Malo Company, 69, 70. + +Rouillé, Fort, 196. + +Royal Americans, 252 and _n._, 302. + +-- Mount. _See_ Montreal. + +Rupert, Fort or House, 185, 187, 188. + +-- Land, 187. + +-- River, 185, 186. + +Ryswick, Peace of, 118, 137, 140, 190. + + +Sable Cape, 171, 173, 208. + +-- Island, 16 and _n._, 31, 39. + +Sackett's Harbour, 255. + +Saguenay River, 13, 24 _n._, 40, 50. + +St. Anne, Fort, 188. + +-- Anthony, Falls of, 161. + +-- Augustine, Town of, 39. + +-- Castin, Baron de, 137, 181, 183, 240. + +-- Charles, River, 89, 132, 298, 307-9. + +-- Clair, Lake and River, 51, 158. + +-- Croix, River, 41, 171, 173. + +-- -- -- 153, 161. + +-- Esprit, Mission of, 151, 153. + +-- Francis, River of, 296. + +-- Frederick, Fort, 197. + +-- Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 76, 77 and _n._, 81, 175. + +-- Ignace, Mission of, 150, 153, 158. + +-- John's, 321. + +-- -- (New Brunswick), 137, 171, 176, 177 _n._, 180, 181, 277. + +-- -- (Newfoundland), 29-31, 326. + +-- -- Lake, 186. + +-- -- River (Florida), 39. + +-- Joseph, River of, 159-61. + +-- Lawrence, Gulf of, 20, 24 _n._, 171, 334. + +-- -- River of, 2-4, 6, 9, 12 and _n._, 35-8, 43, 46, 48-55, 65-71, + 108, 109, 149, 168, 173, 191, 212, 241, 255, 267, 289, 292, + 298-301, 321, 331-4, 339. + +-- Louis, Fort of (Illinois), 163, 169. + +-- -- -- (Quebec), 71. + +-- -- -- (Texas), 166. + +-- Malo, 37, 39. + +-- Marie, Station of, 87, 88. + +-- Mary's Straits. _See_ Sault St. Marie. + +-- Maurice, River of, 50. + +-- Peter, Lake, 50. + +-- Pierre, Island of, 327, 346. + +Sainte Foy, 315, 316. + +Saličres, Colonel de, 101. + +Salmon Falls, 129. + +Sandy Creek, 254. + +-- Hill, 242. + +Santa Fé, 211. + +Saratoga, Fort, 208. + +Saskatchewan, the, 213, 214. + +Sault St. Louis, 116. + +-- -- Marie, 51, 149, 151. + +Saunders, Admiral, 292, 299, 304-6, 308, 310, 311. + +Saurel, Monsieur de, 81 _n_. + +Schenectady, 63, 104, 125, 128, 134, 246, 267-8, 294, 321. + +Schuyler, 126, 142. + +Scots Fort, 176. + +Sedgewick, Major-General, 179. + +Seignelay, 164. + +Seigniors, the, 100, 101. + +Senecas, the, 55 _n._, 56 and _n._, 91, 109-11, 118, 141, 158, 216, + 241. + +Seven Years' War, 216, 250-2, 327, 338. + +Shirley, William, 198, 206-8, 219, 221, 224, 230, 235, 236, 241, 246, + 252 _n._, 254-6, 260, 345. + +Sillery, 297, 298. + +Simcoe, Lake, 52, 55, 68, 87, 196 and _n_. + +Sioux, the, 153, 161, 211. + +Smith, John, 34. + +Soissons, Count de, 67. + +Sorel, 50, 81, 104, 320. + +South Africa, 46, 47. + +-- Bay, 242. + +-- Carolina, 145, 226. + +Spain and Spaniards, 8-21, 34, 39, 79, 153, 162, 211, 326, 329, 330. + +Spanish America, 211. + +-- Succession, War of, 138. + +_Squirrel_, the, 31. + +Stadaconé, 22 and _n_. + +Stanwix, Fort, 257 _n_. + +-- General, 282, 293. + +Stirling, Earl of. _See_ Alexander. + +Stoughton, 136. + +Stuarts, the, 76, 125, 176. + +Sulpicians, the, 108. + +Superior, Lake, 48, 51, 88, 122, 148, 149, 151-3, 161, 212, 213. + +Susa, Convention of, 76 and _n._, 81. + +Susquehanna River, 55, 90. + +Sweden and Swedes, 124, 250. + +Swift, 145 and _n_. + +Sydney Harbour, 145. + + +Tadoussac, 40, 50, 65, 69, 75, 93. + +Talon, 101, 104-6, 152, 343. + +Temiscaming, Lake, 188. + +Temple, Lord, 319, 326. + +-- Sir T., 180, 181. + +Terra de Corte Reall. _See_ Corte Real. + +Texas, 165, 166, 168. + +Thorne, Robert, 13. + +Thousand Islands, the, 51, 322. + +Three Rivers, 50, 69, 81, 82, 92, 95, 112, 129, 131, 331. + +Thunder Bay, 212. + +Ticonderoga, 66, 242, 243, 246, 255, 257, 262, 264, 270, 278-80, 282, + 283, 287, 293, 296, 303. + +Tonty, Henri de, 155, 157, 159-63, 167-9. + +Toronto, 196 and _n._, 254. + +Tourmente, Cape, 75. + +Townshend, 291, 301, 304, 305, 307, 309-12. + +Trent River, the, 68. + +Trinity River, 167. + +_Troupes de la Marine_, 253. + +Troy, 49. + +Troyes, de, 188. + +Turtle Creek, 237. + +Tuscaroras, the, 61. + + +Utrecht, Treaty of, 122 and _n._, 123, 126, 138, 145 _n._, 146, 170, + 172, 183, 190-2, 205, 219, 221, 228, 277, 327, 339, 340, 345, 346. + + +Valois, House of, 24, 38. + +_Vanguard_, the, 318. + +Varin, 251. + +Vasco de Gama, 8. + +Vaudreuil, Governor (father), 118, 140, 195. + +-- (son), 234, 251, 252, 254, 255, 267, 270, 287, 299, 309, 310, 320, + 323, 324, 333. + +-- Rigaud de, 262. + +Vaughan, William, 198, 201. + +Vauquelin, 318. + +Venango, 231, 294. + +Venice and Venetians, 13 and _n._, 18. + +Ventadour, Duc de, 70, 71. + +Verchčres, Madeleine de, 115. + +-- Seignory of, 114. + +Vergor, de, 224, 306. + +Vermont, 49, 242. + +Verrazano, 7 _n._, 12, 14, 20, 337. + +Vetch, Samuel, 140, 143. + +_Vigilant_, the, 201. + +Vignau, Nicholas de, 67. + +Villebon, 135, 137, 139. + +Villegagnon, 38. + +Ville Marie, 85. _See_ Montreal. + +Villiers, Coulon de, 209, 254, 255. + +Vinland, 6. + +Virginia, 11, 25, 31-4, 42, 43, 45, 53 _n._, 110, 123, 127, 172, 219, + 230, 231, 234, 236, 239, 248, 283, 284, 337. + +-- Company, 42. + +Virginians, the, 217, 219, 231, 239. + + +Walker, Admiral, 144-6. + +Walley, Major, 132. + +Walpole, Horace, 235, 236, 250, 257, 263, 269 _n._, 275, 276, 290, + 291, 309, 315, 319. + +Warren, Commodore, 199-203, 205, 206, 208, 240. + +Washington, George, 217, 230-2, 236, 237, 239, 247, 285. + +Webb, Colonel D., 257, 258, 260, 262, 264, 265, 267. + +Wells, 135, 138. + +Westerham, 289. + +West Indies, the, 1, 8-10, 32, 103, 134, 180, 199, 326. + +Westminster, Treaty of, 179. + +-- -- -- 63. + +Wheeler, Admiral, 134. + +White, John, 33. + +Whitehall, Town of, 242. + +-- Treaty of, 189. + +Whitfield, George, 199. + +William III, 122, 140. + +-- Henry, Fort, 245, 246, 261, 262, 264, 266, 269, 295. + +Williams, Fort, 247, 257 _n._, 282. + +-- Rev. J., 138. + +Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 26. + +Wills Creek, 230, 231, 237. + +Winnebago, Lake, 150, 153. + +Winnebagos, the, 152. + +Winnipeg, Lake, 211-3. + +Winslow, J., 224, 261. + +Winthrop, Governor, 123. + +Wisconsin, River, 148, 150, 153, 161, 217. + +Wolfe, General, 216, 235, 236, 239, 248, 253 _n._, 259 _n._, 260, + 271, 272, 274-7, 281, 283, 287, 289-93, 296-317, 337, 339. + +-- Island, 255. + +Wolfe's Cove, 306. + +Wood Creek (Lake Champlain), 141, 144, 242, 243, 282. + +-- -- (Lake Oneida), 56, 246, 247, 254, 257, 258, 267. + +Wyandots, the, 54, 89. + +Wye, the, 87. + +Wyoming, 213. + + +Yellowstone Park and River, 213. + +York, Duke of, 63, 104, 125, 182. _See also_ James II. + +-- Fort, 189. + +-- Settlement of, 135. + +Yorktown, 220. + +Youghiogany, the, 230. + + +Zeni, the brothers, 5, 13 _n_. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Historical Geography of the British +Colonies, by Charles Prestwood Lucas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + +***** This file should be named 34080-8.txt or 34080-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/8/34080/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34080-8.zip b/34080-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da8b49f --- /dev/null +++ b/34080-8.zip diff --git a/34080-h.zip b/34080-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da41a40 --- /dev/null +++ b/34080-h.zip diff --git a/34080-h/34080-h.htm b/34080-h/34080-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be4916a --- /dev/null +++ b/34080-h/34080-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,22076 @@ + +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> + +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of History of Canada Part I, by C. P. Lucas</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} + h1 {text-align:center} + h2 {text-align:center} + h3 {text-align:center} + h4 {text-align:center} --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Historical Geography of the British +Colonies, by Charles Prestwood Lucas + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Historical Geography of the British Colonies + Vol. V, Canada--Part I, Historical + +Author: Charles Prestwood Lucas + +Release Date: October 16, 2010 [EBook #34080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +</pre> + +<h2>HISTORY OF CANADA</h2> +<center><big>PART I<br><br> +(NEW FRANCE)</big></center> +<br> +<br> +<center><i>C. P. LUCAS</i></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>HENRY FROWDE, M.A.<br> +<small>PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD<br> +LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK<br> +TORONTO AND MELBOURNE</small></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><big>A</big></center> +<h2>HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY</h2> +<center><big>OF THE</big></center> +<h1>BRITISH COLONIES</h1> +<center><big>VOL. V<br><br> +CANADA—PART I<br><br> +HISTORICAL</big></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>BY</small><br><br> +<big>C. P. LUCAS, C.B.</big><br><br> +<small><small>OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD<br> +AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE</small></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>OXFORD<br> +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS</small><br><br> +MDCCCCI</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center>OXFORD<br> +<small>PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS<br> +<small>BY HORACE HART, M.A.<br> +PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY</small></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" summary="contents"> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap1">C<small>HAP</small>. I.</a></td> + <td valign="top">E<small>UROPEAN</small> D<small>ISCOVERERS IN</small> + N<small>ORTH</small> A<small>MERICA TO THE</small> E<small>ND OF + THE</small> S<small>IXTEENTH</small> C<small>ENTURY</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap2">C<small>HAP</small>. II.</a></td> + <td valign="top">S<small>AMUEL</small> C<small>HAMPLAIN AND THE</small> + F<small>OUNDING OF</small> Q<small>UEBEC</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap3">C<small>HAP</small>. III.</a></td> + <td valign="top">T<small>HE</small> S<small>ETTLEMENT OF</small> + C<small>ANADA AND THE</small> F<small>IVE</small> N<small>ATION</small> I<small>NDIANS</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap4">C<small>HAP</small>. IV.</a></td> + <td valign="top">F<small>RENCH AND</small> E<small>NGLISH DOWN TO + THE</small> P<small>EACE OF</small> U<small>TRECHT</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap5">C<small>HAP</small>. V.</a></td> + <td valign="top">T<small>HE</small> M<small>ISSISSIPPI AND</small> L<small>OUISIANA</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap6">C<small>HAP</small>. VI.</a></td> + <td valign="top">A<small>CADIA AND</small> H<small>UDSON</small> B<small>AY</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap7">C<small>HAP</small>. VII.</a></td> + <td valign="top">L<small>OUISBOURG</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap8">C<small>HAP</small>. VIII.</a></td> + <td valign="top">T<small>HE</small> P<small>RELUDE TO THE</small> + S<small>EVEN</small> Y<small>EARS'</small> W<small>AR</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap9">C<small>HAP</small>. IX.</a></td> + <td valign="top">T<small>HE</small> C<small>ONQUEST OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap10">C<small>HAP</small>. X.</a></td> + <td valign="top">T<small>HE</small> C<small>ONQUEST OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small> <i>(continued)</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#chap11">C<small>HAP</small>. XI.</a></td> + <td valign="top">G<small>ENERAL</small> S<small>UMMARY</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#app1">A<small>PPENDIX</small> I.</a></td> + <td valign="top">L<small>IST OF</small> F<small>RENCH</small> G<small>OVERNORS OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#app2">A<small>PPENDIX</small> II.</a></td> + <td valign="top">D<small>ATES OF THE</small> P<small>RINCIPAL</small> + E<small>VENTS IN THE</small> H<small>ISTORY OF</small> C<small>ANADA + DOWN TO</small> 1763</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>LIST OF MAPS</h3> +<br> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" summary="contents"> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#map1">1.</a></td> + <td valign="top">Map of the French and English possessions in North America in + the middle of the eighteenth century</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#map2">2.</a></td> + <td valign="top">Map of New England, New York, and Central Canada, showing the + waterways</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#map3">3.</a></td> + <td valign="top">Map of Louisbourg</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right" valign="top"><a href="#map4">4.</a></td> + <td valign="top">Map of Quebec</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="map1"></a> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="map1"> + <tr> + <td width="1283"> + <img src="images/1.jpg" alt="Map of eastern North America"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>HISTORY OF CANADA</h2> +<br> +<br><a name="chap1"></a><a name="page1"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> +<center>E<small>UROPEAN</small> D<small>ISCOVERERS IN</small> N<small>ORTH</small> +A<small>MERICA TO THE</small> E<small>ND OF THE</small> S<small>IXTEENTH</small> +C<small>ENTURY</small></center> +<br> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote1"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The British<br> + possessions<br> + in North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The British possessions in North America consist of Newfoundland and +the Dominion of Canada. Under the Government of Newfoundland is a +section of the mainland coast which forms part of Labrador, extending +from the straits of Belle Isle on the south to Cape Chudleigh on the +north.</p> + +<p>The area of these possessions, together with the date and mode of +their acquisition, is as follows:—</p> + +<table align="center" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="8" summary="possessions"> + <tr> + <td align="center"><i>Name.</i></td> + <td align="center"><i>How acquired.</i></td> + <td align="center"><i>Date.</i></td> + <td align="center"><i>Area in<br> + square miles.</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Newfoundland<br> + and Labrador</td> + <td>Settlement</td> + <td align="center">1583-1623</td> + <td align="right">40,200<br> + 120,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Canada</td> + <td>Cession [Quebec]</td> + <td align="center">1763</td> + <td align="right">3,653,946</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote2"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>British<br> + possessions<br> + in North<br> + America<br> + and West<br> + Indies<br> + contrasted.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the Introduction to a previous volume,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> +it was pointed out that +all the British possessions in the New World have one common feature; +viz. that they have been, in the main, fields of European settlement, +and not merely trading stations or conquered dependencies; but that, +in other respects—in climate, in geography, and in what may be +called the strata of colonization—the West Indian and North American +provinces of the Empire stand at opposite poles to each other. It may +be added that, in North America, European colonization was later in +time and slower in development than <a name="page2"></a>in the central and southern parts +of the continent; and, in order to understand why this was the case, +some reference must be made to the geography of North America, more +especially in its relation to Europe, and also to its first +explorers, their motives, and their methods.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Vol. ii, <i>West Indies,</i> pp. 3, 4.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote3"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Geographical<br> + outline of<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Old World lies west and east. In the New World the line of length +is from north to south. The geographical outline of America, as +compared with that of Europe and Asia, is very simple. There is a +long stretch of continent, with a continuous backbone of mountains, +running from the far north to the far south. The mountains line the +western coast; on the eastern side are great plains, great rivers, +broken shores, and islands. Midway in the line of length, where the +Gulf of Mexico runs into the land, and where, further south, the +Isthmus of Darien holds together North and South America by a narrow +link, the semicircle of West Indian islands stand out as +stepping-stones in the ocean for wayfarers from the old continent to +the new.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote4"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>North and<br> + South<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The two divisions of the American continent are curiously alike. They +have each two great river-basins on the eastern side. The basin of +the St. Lawrence is roughly parallel to that of the Amazon; the basin +of the Mississippi to that of La Plata. The North American coast, +however, between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and that of the +Mississippi, is more varied and broken, more easy of access, than the +South American shores between the Amazon and La Plata. On the other +hand, South America has an attractive and accessible northern coast, +in strong contrast to the icebound Arctic regions; and the Gulf of +Venezuela, the delta of the Orinoco, and the rivers of Guiana, have +called in traders and settlers from beyond the seas.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote5"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>South<br> + America<br> + colonized<br> + from both<br> + sides,<br> + North<br> + America<br> + only from<br> + the eastern<br> + side.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The history of colonization in North America has been, in the main, +one of movement from east to west. In South America, on the other +hand, the western side played almost from the first at least as +important a part as the eastern. <a name="page3"></a>The story of Peru and its Inca +rulers shows that in old times, in South America, there was a +civilization to be found upon the western side of the Andes, and the +shores of the Pacific Ocean. European explorers penetrated into and +crossed the continent rather from the north and west than from the +east; and Spanish colonization on the Pacific coast was, outwardly at +least, more imposing and effective than Portuguese colonization on +the Atlantic seaboard. The great mass of land on the earth's surface +is in the northern hemisphere; and in the extreme north the shores of +the Old and New Worlds are closest to each other. Here, where the +Arctic Sea narrows into the Behring Straits, it is easier to reach +America from the west than from the east, from Asia than from Europe; +but to pass from the extremity of one continent to the extremity of +another is of little avail for making history; and the history of +North America has been made from the opposite side, which lies over +against Europe, where the shores are indented by plenteous bays and +estuaries, and where there are great waterways leading into the heart +of the interior.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote6"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The rivers<br> + of North<br> + America.<br> + <br> + <br> + English<br> + colonization<br> + in North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The main outlets of North America are, as has been said, the St. +Lawrence and the Mississippi; while, on the long stretch of coast +between them, the most important river is the Hudson, whose valley is +a direct and comparatively easy highroad from the Atlantic to Lake +Champlain and the St. Lawrence basin; and here it may be noticed +that, though a Bristol ship first discovered North America, and +though, from the time of Ralegh onwards, North America became the +main scene of British colonization, the English allowed other nations +to secure the keys of the continent, and ran the risk of being cut +off from the interior. The French forestalled them on the St. +Lawrence, and later took possession of the mouth of the Mississippi. +The Dutch planted themselves on the Hudson between New England and +the southern colonies, and New York, the present chief city of +English-speaking America, was once New Amsterdam. Of all <a name="page4"></a>colonizing +nations the English have perhaps been the least scientific in their +methods; and in no part of the world were their mistakes greater than +in North America, where their success was eventually most complete. +There was, however, one principle in colonization to which they +instinctively and consistently held. While they often neglected to +safeguard the obvious means of access into new-found countries, and, +as compared with other nations, made comparatively little use of the +great rivers in any part of the world, they laid hold on coasts, +peninsulas, and islands, and kept their population more or less +concentrated near to the sea. Thus, when the time of struggle came, +they could be supported from home, and were stronger at given points +than their more scientific rivals. If the French laid their plans to +keep in their own hands the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the St. +Lawrence, and thereby to shut off the colonies of the Atlantic +seaboard from the continent behind, those colonies had the advantage +of close contact with the sea, of comparatively continuous +settlement, and of yearly growing power to break through the weak and +unduly extended line with which the competing race tried to hem them +in.</p> + +<p>But this contest between French and English, based though it was on +geographical position, belongs to the Middle Ages of European +colonization in America: let us look a little further back, and see +how the Old and the New Worlds first came into touch with each other.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote7"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Bacon<br> + on the<br> + discovery<br> + of North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In his history of King Henry VII, Bacon refers to the 'memorable +accident' of the Cabots' great discovery, in the following +passage:—'There was one Sebastian Gabato, a Venetian living in +Bristow, a man seen and expert in cosmography and navigation. This +man, seeing the success and emulating perhaps the enterprise of +Christopherus Columbus in that fortunate discovery towards the +south-west, which had been by him made some six years before, +conceited with himself that lands might likewise be discovered +towards <a name="page5"></a>the north-west. And surely it may be he had more firm and +pregnant conjectures of it than Columbus had of his at the first. For +the two great islands of the Old and New World, being in the shape +and making of them broad towards the north and pointed towards the +south, it is likely that the discovery first began where the lands +did nearest meet. And there had been before that time a discovery of +some lands which they took to be islands, and were indeed the +continent of America towards the north-west.'<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> +Bacon goes on to +surmise that Columbus had knowledge of this prior discovery, and was +guided by it in forming his own conjectures as to the existence of +land in the far west; and it is at least not unlikely that, when he +visited Iceland in 1477, he would have heard tales of the Norsemen's +voyages to America.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Spedding's edition of Bacon's works, 1870, vol. vi, p. +196.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> For this visit, see Washington Irving's <i>Life and +Voyages of Columbus,</i> bk. i, ch. vi.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote8"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Pre-Columbian<br> + explorations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It would be out of place in this book to make more than a passing +reference to the much-vexed question, how far the New World was known +to Europeans before the days of Columbus and the Cabots. Indeed, if +all the stories on the subject were proved, the fact would yet remain +that, for all practical purposes, America was first revealed to the +nations of Europe, when Columbus took his way across the Atlantic. It +was likely that, when his discovery had been made, men would rise up +to assert that it was not so great and not so new as had been at +first imagined. The French claimed priority for a countryman of their +own;<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> stories of Welsh and Irish +settlement in America passed into +circulation; the romance of the brothers Zeni was published, a tale +of supposed Venetian adventure in the fourteenth century to the +islands of the far north; and it was contended, more prosaically and +with greater show of reason, that Basque fishermen had frequented <a name="page6"></a>the +banks of Newfoundland, before that island was discovered for England +and thereby earned its present name.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Cousin of Dieppe, who claimed to have discovered America +in 1488, four years before Columbus reached the West Indies.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote9"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Voyages<br> + of the<br> + Norsemen.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The story of the Norsemen's voyages has a sounder foundation than any +other of these early traditions and tales. Iceland is nearer to +Greenland than to Norway: it has been abundantly proved that colonies +were established and fully organized in Greenland in the Middle Ages; +and it seems on the face of it unlikely that the enterprise and +adventure of the seafaring sons of the north would have stopped short +at this point, instead of carrying them on to the mainland of +America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote10"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their<br> + alleged<br> + discovery<br> + of North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Norse are said to have come to Iceland about 875 <small>A.D.</small>, where +Christian Irish had already preceded them; and, in the following +year, rocks far to the west were sighted by Gunnbiorn. A century +later, in 984, Eric the Red came back from a visit to Gunnbiorn's +land, calling it by the attractive name of Greenland. About 986, +Bjarni Herjulfson, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, sighted land to +the south-west; and, a few years later, about the year 1000, Leif, +the son of Eric, who had brought the Christian religion to Greenland, +sailed in search of the south-western land which Bjarni had seen. The +record of his voyage claims to be the record of the discovery of +America. He found the rocky barren shores of Labrador and +Newfoundland, and called them from their appearance Helluland, or +'slateland.' He passed on to the mouth of the St. Lawrence and to +Nova Scotia, calling it Markland, or the 'land of woods.' Then +sailing still further south, he came to a land where vines grew wild, +and which he called Vinland. This last was, it would seem, the New +England coast, between Boston and New York; and here in after times, +for a like reason, English settlers gave the name of Martha's or +Martin's Vineyard to an island, which lies close to the shore south +of Cape Cod.<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> In Vinland, +it is stated, a Norse colony was <a name="page7"></a>founded +a few years after Leif's visit; and trade—mainly a timber trade—was +carried on with Greenland down to the year 1347, after which all is a +blank.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> A little further to the south on the coast of New +Jersey, or Maryland, Verrazano 'saw in this country many vines +growing naturally' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 360, 1810 ed.).</small></blockquote> + +<p>No authentic inscriptions or remains, indicating Scandinavian +discovery or settlement in America, have, it is said, been found +anywhere outside Greenland, except at one point in the very far +north;<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> and in their absence +these northern tales cannot be +absolutely verified. It can only be said that, in all probability, +America was known to the Northmen in the Middle Ages, but that what +happened in these dark days in the extreme north of Europe and the +extreme north of America has no direct bearing upon the history of +European colonization.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> See Justin Winsor's <i>Narrative and Critical History of +America,</i> (vol. i, chap. ii) on 'Pre-Columbian Explorations.' The +writer says, 'Nowhere in America, except on an island on the east +shore of Baffin's Bay, has any authentic runic inscription been found +outside of Greenland.' Reference should be made to the first chapter +of Mr. Raymond Beazley's <i>John and Sebastian Cabot</i> ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898), in which the dates and particulars of +the Norse discovery of America, as given above, are somewhat +modified.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote11"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The way<br> + to the East.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the time when modern history opens, there were two parts of the +world which were—to use the Greek philosopher's phrase—'ends in +themselves.' One was Europe or rather Southern Europe, the other was +the East Indies; and the great problem was to find the best and +shortest way from the one point to the other.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote12"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Africa and<br> + America<br> + places on<br> + the road.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The overland trade routes through Syria and Egypt—by which Genoa, +Venice, and the other city states of the Middle Ages had grown +rich—had fallen in the main under Moslem control; and, accordingly, +the growing nations of Europe began to take to the open sea. On the +ocean, India can be reached from Europe either by going east or by +going west. In the former case Africa comes in the way, in the latter +America; and the position of these <a name="page8"></a>two continents in the modern +history of the world is, in their earliest stage, that of having been +places on the road, not final goals.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese tried the way by Africa and succeeded. Vasco de Gama +rounded the Cape, sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, and crossed +to India. The Spaniards set sail in the opposite direction, and, +failing in their original design, found instead a New World.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose that the conditions had been reversed, that Southern +Africa, when reached, had proved as attractive as the West Indies; +that its shores had been fertile and easy of access; that its rivers +had been navigable, and that its turning-point had been as distant as +Cape Horn; that, on the contrary, Columbus had discovered a channel +through America, where he sought for it at the Isthmus of Darien, had +found the American coasts and islands as little inviting as Africa, +and behind them an expanse of sea no wider than the Indian Ocean. In +that case America would have remained the Dark Continent, to be +passed by, as Africa was passed by, on the way to the East; and +hinging on this one central fact, that the Indies were the goal of +discovery, the whole history of colonization would have been changed. +As it was, the Spaniards, in the first place, found their way barred +by America; and, in the second place, found America too good to be +passed by, even if a thoroughfare had been found. Thus they assumed +that they had really reached the Indies on their furthest side; and, +by the time that the mistake had been finally cleared up, the riches +and wonders of the New World had given it a position and standing of +its own, over and above all considerations respecting the best way to +the East.</p> + +<p>America then was discovered by being taken on the way to some other +part of the world; it could not be passed by like Africa; and it was +more attractive than Africa. Thus it was early colonized, while the +great mass of the African <a name="page9"></a>continent was left, almost down to our own +day, unexplored and unknown.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote13"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reasons why the<br> + discovery and settlement<br> + of North America was<br> + later than that of<br> + Central and South<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This statement, however, only holds true of that part of America +which the Spaniards made their own; and the further question +arises—Why was the discovery and settlement of North America a much +slower process than the Spanish conquest and colonization of Central +America and the West Indies? The north of Newfoundland is in the same +latitude as the south of England; the mouth of the St. Lawrence lies +directly over against the ports of Brittany; a line drawn due east +from New York would almost pass through Madrid: therefore it seems as +though sailors going westward from Europe would naturally make their +way in the first instance to the North American coast; and, as a +matter of fact, Cabot probably sighted the shores of Newfoundland, +Nova Scotia, or Labrador before Columbus set foot upon the mainland +of South America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote14"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Spain and<br> + Portugal<br> + the natural<br> + centres for<br> + Western<br> + discovery.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + Spaniards<br> + went to the<br> + south-west.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There are, however, ample historical and geographical reasons for the +fact that, at the beginning of modern history, the stream of European +discovery and colonization took a south-westerly rather than a +westerly direction. The main course of European civilization has on +the whole been from south-east to north-west. Its centre gradually +shifted from Asia Minor and Phoenicia to Greece, from Greece to Rome, +and finally from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the +Atlantic. The peninsula of Spain and Portugal stands half-way between +the inner and the outer sea, and accordingly geography marked out +this country to be the birthplace of the new and wider history of the +world. Further, at the time when modern history begins, the Spaniards +and Portuguese were better trained, more consolidated, more nearly +come to their prime, more full of expansive force than the peoples of +Northern Europe; so that their history combined with their +geographical position to place them in <a name="page10"></a>the front rank among the +movers of the world. But Spain and Portugal look south-west: both +countries are hot, sunny lands, and, while adventurers to the unknown +would in any case be more attracted to regions where they would +expect light and heat and tropical growth and colour, than to the +bare, bleak stretches of the north, most of all would a southern race +set out to find a new world in a southerly or south-westerly +direction. Again, as has been seen, the early explorers were seeking +for a sea-road to the Indies; and, as the tales of the Indies were +glowing tales of glowing lands, men were more likely at first to +start in search of them by way of the Equator than by way of the +Pole.</p> + +<p>And they had guidance in their course. The Canaries, Madeira, and the +Azores, lying away in the ocean to the south-west, were the +half-mythical goals of ancient navigation. The Spaniards would +naturally make for them in the first instance, and so far help +themselves on their westward way. Wind and tide would prescribe the +same line of discovery. The way to the West Indies is made easy by +the north-easterly trade winds, whereas the passage to North America +is in the teeth of the prevailing wind from the west. Those who take +ship from Europe to North America meet the opposing force of the Gulf +Stream; voyagers to the south-west, on the contrary, are borne by the +Equatorial Current from the African coast to the Caribbean Sea.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote15"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The West<br> + Indies more<br> + attractive<br> + than North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Easier to reach than North America, the West Indies and Central +America were also more attractive when reached. The Spaniards found +riches beyond their hopes, pearls in the sea, gold and silver in the +land, and a race of natives who could be forced to fish for the one +and to mine for the other. When they had discovered the New World, +there was every inducement to make them forthwith conquer and +colonize in countries where living promised to be more luxurious than +in their own land. Adventurers to North America, on the contrary, +found greater cold than they had <a name="page11"></a>left behind them in the same +latitudes in Europe, desolate shores, little trace of precious metal, +and natives whom it was dangerous to offend and impossible to +enslave. In the far north the cod fisheries were discovered, and furs +were to be obtained by barter from the North American Indians; but +such trade was not likely to lead to permanent settlement in the near +future. Its natural outcome was not the founding of colonies, the +building of cities, and the subjugation of continents, but, at the +most, repeated visits in the summer time to the Newfoundland banks, +or spasmodic excursions up the course of the St. Lawrence. Thus, for +a century after Columbus first sailed to the west, while Central and +South America became organized into a collection of Spanish +provinces, the extreme north was left to Basque, Breton, and English +fishermen; and the coast between the St. Lawrence and the +Mississippi, where the English race was eventually to make its +greatest effort and achieve its greatest success—this, the present +territory of the United States, was, with the exception of Florida, +little visited and scarcely known.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote16"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Effect of<br> + finding<br> + mineral<br> + wealth in<br> + Central<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The discovery of minerals in a district brings about dense population +and a hurried settlement. Men come to fisheries or hunting-grounds at +stated times, and leave to come again. The progress of agricultural +colonization, if steady and continuous, is usually very slow. Thus, +where Central America gave gold and silver, there adventurers from +Europe hurried in and stayed. The fisheries of Newfoundland saw men +come and go; the sea was there the attraction, not the land. The +agricultural resources of Virginia and New England were left +undeveloped by Europeans, until the time came when business-like +companies were formed by men who could afford to wait, and when +enthusiasts went over the Atlantic not so much to make money as to +live patiently and in the fear of God.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote17"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + North-West<br> + Passage.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But, though the sixteenth century passed away before men's eyes, +which were dazzled with the splendour of the <a name="page12"></a>tropics, had given more +than passing glances to the sober landscape of North America, +discoverers from Cabot onwards were not idle; and from the first, the +ever powerful hope of finding a new road to the Indies took +adventurers to the north-west in spite of cold and wind and tide. +Because North America was unattractive in itself, therefore men seem +to have imagined that it must be on the way to something better; and +also, because it was unattractive in itself, they did not wait to see +what could be made out of it, but kept perpetually pushing on to a +further goal. They argued, as Bacon shows in the passage already +quoted, and argued rightly, that in the north the Old and New Worlds +were nearest together, and that here therefore was the point at which +to cross from one to the other. They found sea channels evidently +leading towards the west; they saw the great river of Canada<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> come +widening down from the same quarter; and thus, long after the quest +of the Indies had in Central America been swallowed up in the riches +found on the way, in North America it remained the one great object +of the men who went out from Europe, and of the Kings who sent them +out.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> The idea that there was a way to the Indies by the St. +Lawrence long continued. Thus Lescarbot writes (<i>Nova Francia,</i> +Erondelle's translation, 1609, chap. xiii, p. 87) of the great river +of Canada as 'taking her beginning from one of the lakes which do +meet at the stream of her course (and so I think), so that it hath +two courses, the one from the east towards France, the other from the +west towards the south sea.'</small></blockquote> + +<p>As the first discoverer, Cabot, set sail to find the passage to +Cathay, 'having great desire to traffic for the spices as the +Portingals did,'<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> so all who came after during the century of +exploration kept the same end firmly in view. Francis I of France +dispatched Verrazano to find the passage to the East; Cartier, the +Breton sailor, came back from the St. Lawrence with tales which +savoured of the Indies, of 'a river that goeth south-west, from +whence there is a whole <a name="page13"></a>month's sailing to go to a certain land where +there is neither ice nor snow seen'<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small>—of a 'country of Saguenay, in +which are infinite rubies, gold and other riches'<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small>—of 'a land +where cinnamon and cloves are gathered';<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> and his third voyage +was, in his King's words, 'to the lands of Canada and Hochelaga, +which form the extremity of Asia towards the west.'<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small> Frobisher's +voyage in 1576 led to the formation of a company of Cathay. As early +as 1527, Master Robert Thorne wrote 'an information of the parts of +the world' discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese, and 'of the +way to the Moluccas by the north.' Sir Humphrey Gilbert published 'a +discourse' 'to prove a passage by the north-west to Cathaia and the +East Indies'; and Richard Hakluyt himself, in the 'epistle +dedicatory' to Philip Sydney, which forms the preface to his +collection of <i>Divers Voyages touching the discovery of America,</i><small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> +sums up the arguments for the existence of 'that short and easy +passage by the north-west which we have hitherto so long desired.' In +short, the record of the sixteenth century in North America was, in +the main, a record of successive voyagers seeking after a way to the +East, supplemented by the fishing trade which was attracted to the +shores of Newfoundland.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> Gomara, quoted by Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 30 (1810 ed.).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 278.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> Ibid. p. 281.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Ibid. p. 285.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> See Parkman's <i>Pioneers of France in the New World</i> +(25th ed., 1888), p. 217.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> Published in 1582; edited by the Hakluyt Society in +1850.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote18"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The early<br> + voyagers<br> + to North<br> + America<br> + were of<br> + various<br> + nationalities.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The two men who opened America to Europe were of Italian +parentage—Columbus the Genoese, and Cabot, born at Genoa, domiciled +at Venice.<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> The two great trading republics of the Middle Ages at +once crowned their work in the world, and signed their own death +warrant, in providing Spain and England with the sailors whose +discoveries transferred the centre of life and movement from the +Mediterranean <a name="page14"></a>to the Atlantic. The King of France too turned to Italy +for a discoverer to rival Columbus and Cabot, and sent Verrazano the +Florentine, at the end of 1523, to search out the coasts of North +America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> As to Cabot's parentage see <a href="#page18">below</a>. If the +voyages of the Zeni were genuine, the Venetians could have claimed a +yet older share in the record of European connexion with America.</small></blockquote> + +<p>At the first dawn of discovery those coasts were not wholly given +over to French or English adventurers. Though Florida was the +northern limit of Spanish conquest and settlement, Spanish claims +extended indefinitely over the whole continent; and the French King's +scheme for the colonization of Canada, in 1541, under the leadership +of Cartier and Roberval, roused the suspicion of the Spanish court as +an attempt to infringe an acknowledged monopoly. The Portuguese at +the very first took part in north-western discovery, and with good +reason; for it was their own Indies which were the final goal, and +they could not afford to leave to other nations to find a shorter way +thither than their own route round the Cape. Thus it was that Corte +Real set out from Lisbon for the north-west in the year 1500, having +'craved a general license of the King Emmanuel to discover the +Newfoundland,' and 'sailed unto that climate which standeth under the +north in 50 degrees of latitude.'<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> We find, too, records of +Portuguese working in the same direction under foreign flags. In 1501 +two patents were granted by Henry VII of England to English and +Portuguese conjointly to explore, trade, and settle in America;<small><small><sup>16</sup></small></small> +and, in 1525, Gomez, who had served under Magellan, and who, like +Magellan, was a Portuguese in the service of Spain, set out from the +Spanish port of Corunna to search for the North-West Passage.<small><small><sup>17</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> See Purchas' <i>Pilgrims,</i> pt. 2, bk. x, chap. i. A brief +'collection of voyages, chiefly of Spaniards and Portugals, taken out +of Antoine Galvano's Book of the Discoveries of the World.'</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>16</sup></small> See Doyle's <i>History of the English in America,</i> vol. +i, chap. iv.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>17</sup></small> See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, p. 10.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote19"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Basque<br> + fishermen.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Basque fishermen were among the very first visitors to Newfoundland, +and, even after the North American continent <a name="page15"></a>was becoming a sphere of +French and English colonization, to the exclusion of the southern +nations of Europe, the Spaniards and Portuguese still held their own +in the fisheries. The record of almost every voyage to Newfoundland +notices Spanish or Portuguese ships plying their trade on the +banks.<small><small><sup>18</sup></small></small> A +writer<small><small><sup>19</sup></small></small> in the year 1578, on 'the true state and +commodities of Newfoundland,' tells us that, according to his +information, there were at that date above one hundred Spanish ships +engaged in the cod fisheries, in addition to twenty or thirty whalers +from Biscay; that the Portuguese ships did not exceed fifty, and that +those owned by French and Bretons numbered about one hundred and +fifty. Edward Hayes, the chronicler of Gilbert's last voyage in 1583, +relates how the Portuguese at Newfoundland provisioned the English +admiral's ships for their return voyage, and adds that 'the Portugals +and French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing upon this +bank.'<small><small><sup>20</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>18</sup></small> See Parkman's <i>Pioneers of France in the New World</i> +(25th ed., 1888), pp. 189, 190, and notes.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>19</sup></small> Anthony Parkhurst. The letter was written to Hakluyt, +and published in his collection, vol. iii, p. 171.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>20</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 190.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Spanish Government still +claimed for its subjects the right to fish on the Newfoundland coast, +among other grounds on that of prior discovery, a claim which was +only finally relinquished under the provisions of the Peace of Paris +in 1763;<small><small><sup>21</sup></small></small> and, writing <a name="page16"></a>about +the same date, the author of the +<i>European Settlements in America</i> noted that the Spaniards still +shared in the fishery.<small><small><sup>22</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>21</sup></small> As to the question whether Basque fishermen had found +their way to Newfoundland before Cabot, see the note to p. 189 of Mr. +Parkman's <i>Pioneers of France in the New World</i>. The reasons for +thinking that these fishermen forestalled Cabot seem to be—(1) the +argument of probability; (2) assertions of old writers to that +effect; (3) the application of the Basque name 'Baccalaos' to +Newfoundland, and the statement of Peter Martyr that Cabot found that +word in use for codfish among the natives; (4) the claim advanced by +the Spanish Government to right of fishing at Newfoundland on the +ground of prior discovery by Biscayan fishermen. As to this last +point, see <i>Papers relative to the rupture with Spain, 1762</i>. One +source of friction at this time between Great Britain and Spain was +what Pitt styles in a dispatch (p. 3) 'the stale and inadmissible +pretensions of the Biscayans and Guipuscoans to fish at +Newfoundland.' As to this claim, the Earl of Bristol, British +minister at Madrid, writes (p. 53), 'With regard to the Newfoundland +fishery, Mr. Wall urged, what I have also conveyed in some former +despatches, that the Spaniards indeed pleaded, in favour of their +claim to a share of the Bacallao trade, the first discovery of that +island.'</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>22</sup></small> <i>European Settlements in America,</i> pt. 6, chap. xxviii, +'Newfoundland.' The author (? Burke) says, 'The French and Spaniards, +especially the former, have a large share (in the fishery).'</small></blockquote> + +<p>Hayes, who has just been quoted, tells us that more than thirty years +before he wrote, i.e. about 1550, the Portuguese had touched at Sable +Island and left there 'both neat and swine to breed.' In the same way +they left live stock at Mauritius on their way to and from the East; +and in like manner the Spaniards landed pigs at the Bermudas<small><small><sup>23</sup></small></small> on +their early voyages to the West Indies.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>23</sup></small> See vol. i of this series, p. 163, and vol. ii, p. 6 +and note. Lescarbot states that the French Baron de Léry, who +attempted to found a colony in North America in 1518, left cattle on +Sable Island. See Parkman's <i>Pioneers of France,</i> p. 193, and Doyle's +<i>History of the English in America,</i> vol. i, chap. v, p. 111.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote20"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Names in<br> + North<br> + America<br> + indicate<br> + visits from<br> + Southern<br> + Europe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>If evidence were wanted that, in the oldest days of movement from +Europe to the West, southern sailors did not go only to tropical +America, it would be found in the naming of the North American coasts +and islands. The first point on the coast of North America, sighted +by the first discoverer—the Italian Cabot—was spoken of under the +Italian name of Prima Terra Vista. The name Baccalaos<small><small><sup>24</sup></small></small> tells of +voyages of the Basques, as Cape Breton of visitors from Brittany; +and, <a name="page17"></a>after Corte Real's voyages, the east coast of Newfoundland was, +as old maps testify, christened for a while Terra de Corte Reall.<small><small><sup>25</sup></small></small> +Soon, however, the Spaniards found Mexico, Peru, and Central America +enough and more than enough to absorb their whole attention; the +Portuguese were over-weighted by their eastern empire and Brazil: and +North America was given over, first to be explored and then to be +settled, by the peoples of the north of Europe; who gathered strength +as their southern rivals declined, and whose work was more lasting +because more slow.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>24</sup></small> 'Baccalaos' is the Spanish name for codfish. It is of +Basque origin. Cabot, it is stated, gave the name generally to the +lands which he found. The name was subsequently applied more +especially to Newfoundland. Thus Edward Hayes in his account of Sir +Humphrey Gilbert's last voyage, under the heading 'a brief relation +of the Newfoundland and the commodities thereof' (Hakluyt, iii, 193), +speaks of 'that which we do call the Newfoundland and the Frenchmen +Bacalaos.' Various small islands, however, in these parts were also +given this name by different writers. At the present day, on the maps +of Newfoundland, an islet off the east coast, at the extreme north of +the peninsula of Avalon, bears the name of Baccalieu. See Parkman, p. +189 note as above, and the chapter on the voyages of the Cabots in +Justin Winsor's history, vol. iii.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>25</sup></small> The name 'Labrador' is supposed to have been derived +from the fact that some North American natives, brought back in one +of the ships which accompanied Corte Real on this second voyage, were +said to be 'admirably calculated for labour and the best slaves I +have ever seen.' Hence the name 'Laboratoris terra,' or Labrador. On +Thorne's map (1527) printed in the <i>Divers Voyages to America,</i> there +appears 'Nova terra Laboratorum dicta.' Sir Clements Markham, in his +edition of the <i>Journal of Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real</i> (Hakluyt +Society, 1893, Int. p. 51, note), says: 'There is no reference to +Labrador in any of the authorities for the voyages of Corte Real. The +King of Portugal is said to have hoped to derive good slave labour +from the lands discovered by Corte Real. That is all. The name +Labrador is not Portuguese; and Corte Real was never on the Labrador +coast.' Another derivation given is: 'This land was discovered by the +English from Bristol, and named Labrador because the one who saw it +first was a labourer from the Azores.' One more derivation is that +Labrador was the name of the Basque captain of a fishing-vessel. See +Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, pp. 2, 46, and Parkman's <i>Pioneers +of France in the New World,</i> p. 216, note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote21"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Cabots.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On March 5, 1496, King Henry VII of England granted a patent to 'John +Cabot, citizen of Venice,' and to his three sons—Lewis, Sebastian, +and Sancius—empowering them 'to discover unknown lands under the +king's banner.'<small><small><sup>26</sup></small></small> Under this patent—'the earliest surviving +document which connects England with the New World'<small><small><sup>27</sup></small></small>—North +America was discovered.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>26</sup></small> Quoted from the marginal note to the patent. See +Hakluyt's <i>Divers Voyages touching the discovery of America,</i> +published by the Hakluyt Society, 1850, p. 21.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>27</sup></small> From Doyle's <i>History of the English in America,</i> vol. +i, chap. iv.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Almost every point connected with the voyages of the Cabots is dark +and doubtful. What the father did and what <a name="page18"></a>the son, whence they came, +and whither they went, is all uncertain. The tale of Columbus and his +voyages is known to all the world; but readers are left to grope +after the Cabots, as the latter groped after the strange wild regions +of the north-west.</p> + +<p>John Cabot, it would seem, was a Genoese who settled in Venice. There +he was admitted to the rights of citizenship. He married a Venetian +lady, and in Venice probably his three sons were born and passed +their childhood. He travelled on the sea, visiting the coasts of +Arabia, and forming, it may be, schemes to discover a new route to +the far East. He came to England, having previously attempted to gain +support for his projected voyages in Spain and Portugal, and he took +up his residence in either London or Bristol. The exact date of his +arrival in this country is unknown; but, either shortly before or +shortly after he came, Columbus crossed the Atlantic for the first +time in 1492. The news gave a stimulus to other would-be discoverers, +and encouraged the Kings of Europe to further their plans. Hence +Cabot and his sons obtained their patent in 1496. It was little that +King Henry VII gave to the Italian sailors. Their voyages were to be +made 'upon their own proper costs and charges,' and in return for his +licence, the King was to receive a fifth of the profits. The +enterprise was countenanced but not supported by the state, and the +English Government in these early days, as in the times which came +after, left the work of discovery and colonization in the hands of +private adventurers. Bristol was the port of departure, and a Bristol +book contains the following notice of the voyage:—'In the year 1497, +the 24th of June, on St. John's day, was Newfoundland found by +Bristol men in a ship called the <i>Matthew</i>.'<small><small><sup>28</sup></small></small> John Cabot and +Sebastian his son probably both sailed in the <i>Matthew,</i> and they +commanded a crew of English sailors. The voyage <a name="page19"></a>was a short summer +venture, beginning in May and ending with the close of July or the +beginning of August. America was seen and touched, the land-fall +being either the northern end of Cape Breton island, or the coast of +Labrador, or Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland. The English flag was +planted on American soil, but no exploration took place; nothing was +achieved but the one great fact of discovery. In the following +February, new letters patent were issued—on this occasion to John +Cabot alone; and a second time, in the summer of 1498, the ships +started from Bristol. Again, it is conjectured, both father and son +were on board; and this time the North American coast seems to have +been skirted from the region of icebergs and the banks of +Newfoundland as far south as the Carolinas. In reference to this +second voyage, Sebastian Cabot wrote that he sailed 'unto the +latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a half under the North Pole,' and +'finding still the open sea without any manner of impediment, he +thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaio +which is in the East.'<small><small><sup>29</sup></small></small> The way to the East, however, was left +unopened, to tantalize after-comers, and to be a kind of 'will o' the +wisp,' leading men on to barren shores and Arctic seas, though the +continent which they had already found was worth all the riches of +the Indies.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>28</sup></small> Barrett's <i>History and Antiquities of Bristol</i> +(Bristol, 1789), p. 172.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>29</sup></small> From Ramusio, quoted in 'a note of Sebastian Cabot's +voyage of discovery' (Hakluyt's <i>Divers Voyages,</i> p. 25). For the +much-vexed question of the Cabots and their voyages, reference should +be made to <i>John Cabot the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian +his son,</i> by Henry Harrisse, London, 1896; to the <i>Journal of +Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real,</i> edited for the Hakluyt Society by +Sir Clements Markham, 1893; to Doyle's <i>History of the English in +America,</i> vol. i, Appendix B, 'The Cabots and their Voyages'; and to +Mr. Raymond Beazley's <i>John and Sebastian Cabot</i> ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898). The result of a great deal of +learning is after all little but conjecture.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote22"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Corte Real.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The next great voyager to North America was Gaspar Corte Real, a +Portuguese. Twice he sailed to the north-west, in 1500 and 1501, on +the earlier voyage sighting Greenland <a name="page20"></a>and the east coast of +Newfoundland, and on the later working north from Chesapeake Bay. He +was lost on the second voyage; and his brother Miguel, who went in +search of him in 1502, after finding 'many entrances of rivers and +havens,' was lost also.<small><small><sup>30</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>30</sup></small> The voyages of the Corte Reals are given in Purchas' +<i>Pilgrims,</i> pt. 2, bk. x. See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, on +Cortereal, Verrazano, &c. See also the volume of the Hakluyt Society +referred to in the previous note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote23"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French<br> + explorers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the beginning of the sixteenth century, if not earlier, Frenchmen +took their place among the explorers of the world, and the Norman and +Breton seaports began to send their ships across the Atlantic. Denys +of Honfleur is said to have reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1506; +in 1508, Aubert of Dieppe brought American Indians back to France; +and in 1518 Baron de Léry made the first, a stillborn, attempt to +found a French colony in North America.<small><small><sup>31</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>31</sup></small> See above, <a href="#page16">note 23</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote24"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Verrazano.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the end of the fifteenth century, the consolidation of France had +been completed by the marriage of Charles VIII with Anne of Brittany, +and from this time France began to compete with Spain. Francis I came +to the throne in 1515, and his personal rivalry with Charles V, +German Emperor and Spanish King in one, quickened the competition +between the French and Spanish peoples. Thus it was that the French +court turned its attention to the work of exploration, and Francis +sent forth the Italian Verrazano with four ships from Dieppe 'to +discover new lands by the ocean.'<small><small><sup>32</sup></small></small> Sailing at the end of 1523, +Verrazano was driven back by tempest; but, starting again, he left +Madeira to cross the Atlantic on January 17, 1524. He reached the +shores of Carolina; then coasted northward, landing at various +points; and, having sailed as far north as <a name="page21"></a>Newfoundland—'the land +that in times past was discovered by the Britons (Bretons), which is +in fifty degrees'—he 'concluded to return into France.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>32</sup></small> From 'The relation of John Verarzanus,' given in +Hakluyt's <i>Divers Voyages,</i> p. 55, and there also headed 'The +Discovery of Morum Bega' (Norumbega). It is given too in the ordinary +collection, vol. iii, p. 357.</small></blockquote> + +<p>He brought home to his King a sober and systematic report of the +North American coast—a report which meant business, and was not +tricked out with vague surmises and impossible tales; but, within a +year from his return, the strength of France was for a while broken +at the battle of Pavia. He himself died soon afterwards, hanged, it +is said, by the Spaniards as a pirate; and for ten years there is no +record of any French explorer following in his steps, though French +ships found their way over the ocean to the cod-fisheries of +Newfoundland.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote25"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Cartier.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The year 1534 is a memorable one in the annals alike of France and of +North America. It is the year from which must be dated the first +beginnings of New France on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The +discoverer of Canada was Jacques Cartier, a Breton sailor of St. +Malo. He went out to explore the unknown world, not at his own risk, +but as the agent of Brian Chabot, High Admiral of France. Sailing +from St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, he came to Newfoundland, passed +through the straits of Belle Isle, and entered the Gulf of St. +Lawrence. He sailed into Chaleurs Bay under the July sun, describing +the country as 'hotter than the country of Spain, and the fairest +that can possibly be found';<small><small><sup>33</sup></small></small> and, having set up a cross on Gaspé +Peninsula, he reached St. Malo again on September 5, bringing with +him two Indian children as living memorials of his voyage.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>33</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 257.</small></blockquote> + +<p>He had discovered a hot, fair land, widely different from the bleak +and rock-bound coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador; and the good +report which he brought of his discoveries was more than enough to +find him backing for a second venture. Accordingly, in the following +year, on May 19, 1535, he sailed again from St. Malo, and, reaching +<a name="page22"></a>the straits of Belle Isle after storm and tempest, took his way, the +first of European explorers, up the great river of Canada. He moored +his three ships below the rock of Quebec—then the site of Stadaconé, +a native Indian village, and the dwelling-place of a chief +Donnaconna, who is styled in the narrative the Lord of Canada. There +he left his two larger vessels, and pushed on in his pinnace and +boats to the town of Hochelaga. That town, the Indians had told him, +was the capital of the land; and he found it, palisaded and fortified +in native fashion, where Montreal now stands.<small><small><sup>34</sup></small></small> The Frenchmen were +received as gods by the Indians; they were asked, like the Apostles +of old, to touch and heal the sick; and, ever mindful of the duty of +spreading the Christian religion, they read the gospel to their +savage admirers in the strange French tongue, to cure their souls if +they could not mend their bodies.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>34</sup></small> As Mr. Parkman points out (<i>Pioneers of France,</i> p. +212), Quebec and Montreal were in old days, as now, the centres of +population in Lower Canada. 'Stadaconé and Hochelaga, Quebec and +Montreal, in the sixteenth century, as in the nineteenth, were the +centres of Canadian population.'</small></blockquote> + +<p>Returning down stream to their ships, they passed the winter +underneath Quebec, amid ice and snow, stricken with scurvy, and +distrustful of their Indian neighbours; and at length, on the return +of summer, they set sail for France, carrying away the Indian chief +Donnaconna and some of his companions, to die in a far-off land. They +reached St. Malo in the middle of July, 1536, and so ended Cartier's +second voyage to 'the New found lands by him named New France.'<small><small><sup>35</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>35</sup></small> End of the narrative of Cartier's second voyage in +Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 285.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote26"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Failure of<br> + Roberval's<br> + attempt at<br> + colonization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Between four and five years passed, and then the Breton sailor set +out again. This time a definite scheme of settlement was projected, +the instructions were more elaborate than before, the preparations +were on a larger scale. The money <a name="page23"></a>was found by the crown, and the +King was to receive one-third of the profits. A French nobleman, De +Roberval, was to go out as the King's lieutenant in the New World, +and was given the title of Lord of Norumbega,<small><small><sup>36</sup></small></small> while Cartier was +appointed Captain-General. The objects of the expedition were to +explore, to colonize, and to convert the heathen; and its leaders +were, like Columbus, empowered to recruit colonists from the prisons +at home. Cartier set out in advance of Roberval, in May, 1541. Again +he sailed up the St. Lawrence, reached in his boats a point above +Montreal, and, as before, wintered on the river; but this time at the +mouth of the Cap Rouge, some way higher up than Quebec. His leader, +Roberval, did not start till April, 1542; and, when in June he +reached St. John's harbour in Newfoundland, he was met by Cartier, +who had broken up his colony in disgust, and was on his way home to +France. In spite of Roberval's remonstrances, Cartier left by night +on his return voyage, and the Lord of Norumbega went on alone to the +St. Lawrence. He planted his settlement at Cap Rouge, where Cartier +had last sojourned, but it proved a miserable failure. The supplies +were insufficient, the Governor turned out a savage despot, and after +about a year the colony came to an end.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote27"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Norumbega.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>36</sup></small> As to Norumbega, see Parkman's <i>Pioneers of France,</i> +pp. 216 and 253, notes, and Justin Winsor, vol. iii, chap. vi, on +'Norumbega and its English explorers.' The writer of this latter +chapter (p. 185) says the territory of Norumbega never included +Baccalaos, 'though Baccalaos, an old name of Newfoundland, sometimes +included New England.' Norumbega, an Indian name, covered the +district now included in the state of Maine, and was sometimes +extended to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the north, and part of +New England on the south. Michael Loki's map (1582) makes Norumbega +the whole district between the river and gulf of St. Lawrence and the +Hudson. The river of Norumbega was the Penobscot, and on it a city of +Norumbega was given a fabulous existence. Lescarbot (<i>Histoire de la +Nouvelle France,</i> 1609, bk. i, chap. i) speaks of 'pais qu'on a +appellé d'un nom Alleman Norumbega, lequel est par les quarante cinq +degrez.'</small></blockquote> + +<p>With this disappointing and disastrous failure, the curtain fell on +the prologue of the great drama of New France, and did not rise again +for more than fifty years. For the French, <a name="page24"></a>as for the English, the +sixteenth century was a time of exploring, of training, of making +experiments; and it was not till the seventeenth century dawned that +permanent colonization began. Then in the Bourbons the French had +rulers who, with all their faults, were abler and stronger than the +princes of the house of Valois; and in Champlain they had a leader as +daring as, and more statesmanlike than, Cartier. But it was by +Cartier that the ground had been broken and the seed first sown. His +voyages made Canada<small><small><sup>37</sup></small></small> in some sort familiar to Europeans. He opened +the St. Lawrence to be the highway into North America,<small><small><sup>38</sup></small></small> and he +gave to the hill above the native town of Hochelaga the name of the +Royal Mount, which is still perpetuated in Montreal. He brought the +French into Canada, and, though his settlement failed, the French +connexion remained. Fishermen and fur-traders followed in his steps, +and in fullness of time the New France, which his discoveries +conceived, was brought to birth and grew to greatness.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>37</sup></small> For the meaning of the name 'Canada,' see Parkman's +<i>Pioneers of France,</i> p. 202, note. It is of Indian origin, probably +meaning 'town.' Cartier called the country about Quebec Canada, +having Saguenay below and Hochelaga above. Donnaconna, the native +chief at Quebec, was called Lord of Canada.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>38</sup></small> On his second voyage Cartier sailed into a bay at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, where he stayed from the eighth to the +twelfth of August, and 'named the said gulf St. Lawrence his bay' +(Hakluyt, iii, 263), St. Lawrence's Day being the 10th of August. +Hence the river, which he called the river of Hochelaga or the great +river of Canada, derived its name. See Parkman, p. 202.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote28"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>English<br> + exploration<br> + in North<br> + America<br> + in the<br> + sixteenth<br> + century.<br> + <br> + <br> + Hore's<br> + voyage.<br> + <br> + <br> + Acts of<br> + Parliament<br> + relating<br> + to the<br> + Newfoundland<br> + fisheries.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A Bristol ship<small><small><sup>39</sup></small></small> having first discovered North America, it might +have been expected that the years succeeding Cabot's voyages would +have been fruitful in English adventure to the West; but, as far as +records show, little was done by Englishmen during the first half of +the sixteenth century to open up the New World; and even Cartier's +bold exploits roused little or no spirit of rivalry in Great Britain. +Indeed, all through <a name="page25"></a>this century no English voyager seems to have +turned his mind to Canada and its river. The explorers went to the +Arctic seas, the would-be colonizers to Newfoundland or Virginia. +Between 1500 and 1550 two voyages alone have been actually +chronicled, though passing reference is made to others. Of these two, +the first was in 1527, when Albert de Prado, a canon of St. Paul's, +sailed with two ships in search of the Indies, reaching Newfoundland +and the North American coast. The second was in 1536, under a leader +named Hore—a voyage of which a graphic account is given in Hakluyt. +On the coast of Newfoundland the adventurers suffered the last +extremes of starvation, until at length even cannibalism began among +them; and the survivors owed their safety to the coming of a French +ship, which they seized and in which they returned home. It is clear, +however, that before the middle of the century the Newfoundland +fisheries had become a recognized branch of English trade, for the +traffic was safeguarded by two Acts of Parliament, one passed in +1540, in Henry VIII's reign, the other in 1548, in the reign of King +Edward VI. The object of the second Act was to prohibit the exaction +of any dues by way of licence from men engaged in the Iceland or +Newfoundland fishing trade, and Hakluyt's note upon it is that 'by +this Act it appeareth that the trade out of England to Newfoundland +was common and frequented about the beginning of the reign of Edward +VI, namely, in the year 1548.'<small><small><sup>40</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>39</sup></small> For this passage, see Doyle's <i>History of the English +in America,</i> vol. i, chap. iv.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>40</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 170.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote29"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Return of<br> + Sebastian<br> + Cabot to<br> + England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>About this date Sebastian Cabot again appears upon the scene. In 1512 +he had entered the Spanish service; and, after a visit to England, +had returned to Spain, where, from 1518 to 1547, he held the +appointment of Pilot-Major to the King and Emperor Charles V.<small><small><sup>41</sup></small></small> At +the end of 1547 or the beginning of 1548, he was induced in his old +age to come back to the land, for and from which, more than half a +century <a name="page26"></a>before, his or his father's great discovery had been made; +and King Edward VI rewarded his services by appointing him Grand +Pilot in England. His mind was still set on finding a way to the +Indies by the Northern Sea. He became governor of 'the mystery and +company of the Merchant Adventurers for the discovery of regions, +dominions, islands, and places unknown'; and in Hakluyt's pages<small><small><sup>42</sup></small></small> +may be found his instructions 'for the direction of the intended +voyage for Cathay.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>41</sup></small> See <i>The Dictionary of National Biography,</i> s. v.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>42</sup></small> Vol. i, p. 251.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote30"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + North-East<br> + Passage<br> + and Sir Hugh<br> + Willoughby.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + Muscovy<br> + Company.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The company was not finally incorporated by royal charter till +1554-5, but in the preceding year, 1553, they sent out an expedition +of three ships to try for a North-East Passage. The leader of the +expedition, Sir Hugh Willoughby, was, with the crews of two ships, +frozen to death on the coast of Lapland; but Richard Chancellor, the +captain of the third ship, reached the port on which the town of +Archangel now stands, and made his way overland to Moscow. This was +the beginning of British trade with Russia. The Merchant Adventurers +became known as the Muscovy Company, and their efforts were directed +to the overland traffic between Asia and Europe, which came by +Bokhara, Astrakhan, and the Volga, to the meeting of the east and +west at Novgorod.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote31"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Martin<br> + Frobisher.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But, important as was this new development of trade, the British +explorers, whose names have lived, still took their way for the most +part over the Atlantic, making ever for the West. In June, 1576, +Martin Frobisher sailed from Blackwall to the north-west 'for the +search of the straight or passage to China.'<small><small><sup>43</sup></small></small> He sighted +Greenland; and, sailing west, came to the inlet in the American +coast, north of the Hudson Straits, which, after him, was called +Frobisher Bay. This arm of the sea he took to be a passage between +the two continents, the right-hand coast, as he went west, seeming to +be Asia, the left-hand coast America. He came back <a name="page27"></a>to Harwich in +October, bringing with him a sample of black stone supposed to +contain gold; and thus, to the vain hope of a short passage to the +Indies, he added the more dangerous attraction of possible mineral +wealth in the Arctic regions. Men's hopes were raised; a company of +Cathay was formed, with Michael Lok for governor; and, as their +Captain-General, Frobisher sailed again in May, 1577, 'for the +further discovering of the passage to Cathay.'<small><small><sup>44</sup></small></small> Again he sighted +Greenland. Again he reached the bay which had been the turning-point +of his former voyage. He took possession of the barren northern land +in his Queen's name; and, when he came back in September, 'Her +Majesty named it very properly Meta Incognita, as a mark and bound +utterly hitherto unknown.'<small><small><sup>45</sup></small></small> The voyage was fruitless, but the +stones brought home were still thought to promise gold, and so, in +the following May, Frobisher started once more on a third voyage to +the north. Fifteen ships went with him from Harwich, bearing 'a +strong fort or house of timber'<small><small><sup>46</sup></small></small> to be set up on arrival in the +Arctic regions, and intended to shelter one hundred men through the +coming winter. The hundred men included miners, goldfiners, +gentlemen, artisans, 'and all necessary persons'<small><small><sup>46</sup></small></small>—as though this +desolate region were to become the scene of a thriving colony. They +set sail, reached the coast of Greenland, and claimed it in the +Queen's name. They fell in with the Esquimaux; they crossed the +channel now known as Davis Strait to the Meta Incognita; and they +came back in the autumn with no result beyond the report of a new +imaginary island. This was the end of Frobisher's enterprise, but in +the next forty years other English sailors followed where he had gone +before, and opened up to geographical knowledge fresh stretches of +icebound coast and wintry sea. Davis, Hudson, Baffin, and others, +gave their names to straits and bays, but it is impossible here to +trace the record of their courage and endurance. <a name="page28"></a>No quest has ever +been so fruitful of daring, patient seamanship, none has ever been so +barren of practical results, as that for the North-West Passage. What +Frobisher went to find in the sixteenth century, Franklin still +sought in the nineteenth: and through all the ages of British +exploration has run the ever receding hope of finding a short way +through ice and snow to the sunny lands of the East.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>43</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 52.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>44</sup></small> Ibid. p. 56.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>45</sup></small> Ibid. p. 104.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>46</sup></small> Ibid. p. 105.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote32"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Sir<br> + Humphrey<br> + Gilbert.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In Great Britain the sixteenth century was the age of adventurers, +casting about for ways to other worlds, or freebooting where Spain +and Portugal claimed ownership of land and sea; but in that time two +men stand out as having had definite views of settlement, and as +having been colonizers in advance of their age. They are Sir Humphrey +Gilbert and his half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh. Edward Hayes, the +author of a narrative of Gilbert's attempt to found a colony in +Newfoundland, speaks of him as 'the first of our nation that carried +people to erect an habitation and government in those northerly +countries of America,'<small><small><sup>47</sup></small></small> +and no nobler Englishman could well be +found to head the list of English colonizers of the New World. +Chivalrous in nature, bold in action, he was at the same time 'famous +for his knowledge both by sea and land';<small><small><sup>48</sup></small></small> and it was his +<i>Discourse to prove a passage by the north-west to Cathaia and the +East Indies,</i> which is said to have determined Frobisher to explore +the north.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>47</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 185.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>48</sup></small> From Fuller's <i>Worthies of Devonshire</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote33"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His patent of<br> + colonization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In June, 1578, Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth his celebrated +patent 'for the inhabiting and planting of our people in +America.'<small><small><sup>49</sup></small></small> The grant was a wide one. It gave him full liberty to +explore and settle in any 'remote heathen and barbarous lands, +countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian +prince or people'; and it constituted him full owner of the land +where he settled, within <a name="page29"></a>a radius of two hundred leagues from the +place of settlement. It was subject only to a reservation to the +Crown of one-fifth of the gold and silver found, and to a condition +that advantage should be taken of the grant within six years. For +three or four years Gilbert's efforts to colonize under this patent +were fruitless; he organized an expedition which came to nothing, and +other men, to whom he temporarily resigned his rights, were equally +unsuccessful.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>49</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 174.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote34"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His voyage to<br> + Newfoundland.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At length, on June 11, 1583, he set sail from Cawsand Bay, near +Plymouth, to try his luck for the last time in the western world. +There were five ships, one of which was fitted out by Ralegh,<small><small><sup>50</sup></small></small> and +one, the <i>Golden Hind,</i> had for its captain and owner, Edward Hayes, +the chronicler of the voyage. The company numbered 260 men all told, +including shipwrights, carpenters, and other artisans, 'mineral men +and refiners,' 'morris dancers' and other caterers of amusement 'for +solace of our people and allurement of the savages.'<small><small><sup>51</sup></small></small> These last +were evidence that more was projected than mere temporary +exploration. It was intended, writes Hayes, 'to win' the savages 'by +all fair means possible'; and with this end in view the freight of +the ships included 'petty haberdashery wares to barter with those +simple people.' On the third of August the little fleet entered the +harbour of St. John's in Newfoundland, where they found thirty-six +ships of all nations. They came expecting resistance, but met with +none. When Gilbert made known his intention to proclaim British +sovereignty over the island, the sailors and fishermen present seem +to have willingly acquiesced; and when he wanted to revictual and +refit his ships, the necessary supplies were readily forthcoming.<small><small><sup>52</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>50</sup></small> This ship deserted soon after starting.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>51</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, pp. 189, 190.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>52</sup></small> Hayes says, 'The Portugals (above other nations) did +most willingly and liberally contribute' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 192). +See <a href="#page15">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote35"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Newfoundland<br> + declared to be<br> + a British<br> + possession.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The want of a settled authority, of some guarantee for law <a name="page30"></a>and order, +in the harbours and on the coasts of Newfoundland, was no doubt felt +by those who came year by year to the fisheries, and Sir Humphrey +Gilbert's name and high repute may well have been known to others +than his own countrymen. Two days after his arrival he took formal +possession of the land, with ceremony of rod and turf, in the name of +his sovereign; the arms of England were set up; three simple laws +were enacted—providing that the recognized religion should be in +accordance with the forms of the Church of England, safeguarding the +sovereign rights of the Queen of England, and enjoining due respect +for her name; and then Gilbert issued land grants as proprietor of +the soil. In the words of one of the accounts which Hakluyt has +preserved,<small><small><sup>53</sup></small></small> 'he did let, set, give, and dispose of many things as +absolute Governor there, by virtue of Her Majesty's letters patents.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>53</sup></small> Peckham's account, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 209.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Thus was Newfoundland declared to be a British possession, and such +are its claims to be our oldest colony. The annexation was complete +in form and substance; no protest was entered against it by those +whom it concerned; land was granted by the recognized proprietor, and +nothing was wanting to constitute a claim which should last, and has +lasted, to all time. Frobisher proclaimed the sovereignty of England +over Arctic lands, but his proclamation was as barren as the shores +over which it extended. Gilbert, on the contrary, went to a place +where European sailors had long foregathered; he went there as an +English Governor; his authority was unquestioned, his grants were +accepted, and when he read his commission and set up the arms of +England at the harbour of St. John, he took the first step, and a +very long step, towards British dominion in the New World.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote36"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Gilbert's<br> + death.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Gilbert had great hopes of finding precious metal in Newfoundland; +and his principal mining expert, a Saxon, <a name="page31"></a>promised him a rich yield +of silver from the ore which was collected in the island. That ore, +however, was lost early on the voyage home, and the miner himself was +lost with it in the wreck of the largest ship—the <i>Delight</i>. A far +greater loss, however, was in store for the ill-fated expedition. +They left St. John's on August 20, making for Sable Island, which had +been stocked years before by the Portuguese.<small><small><sup>54</sup></small></small> In a few days the +<i>Delight</i> foundered on a rock; and the weather became so bad that, at +the end of the month, Gilbert consented to make for home. He was in +the smallest ship, the <i>Squirrel,</i> a little ten-ton vessel, as being +the best suited to explore the creeks and inlets of the American +coast; and, in spite of the remonstrances of his companions, he would +not leave her on the return voyage. 'We are as near heaven by sea as +by land,' were his last words, before the ship went down in the +middle of the Atlantic with all on board; and thus, fearless and +faithful unto death, he found his resting-place in the sea. The story +is one which stands out to all time in the annals of English +adventure and English colonization. It was meet and right that the +founder of the first English colony should be a Devonshire sailor of +high repute, of stainless name, chivalrous, unselfish, strong in the +fear of God. It was no less meet that his grave should be in the +stormy Atlantic, midway between the Old World and the New. Thus those +who came after had a forerunner of the noblest type; and the ships, +which from that time to this have carried Englishmen to America, may +ever have been passing by where Humphrey Gilbert went to his rest.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>54</sup></small> See <a href="#page16">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote37"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Sir Walter<br> + Ralegh.<br> + <br> + His attempts<br> + to colonize<br> + Virginia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, was cast in the same +mould, but the record of his doings lies in the main beyond the range +of this book. Virginia and Guiana were the scenes of his attempts at +colonization, not Newfoundland or the coasts and rivers of Canada. In +1584, the year after <a name="page32"></a>Gilbert had been lost at sea, Ralegh obtained +from Queen Elizabeth a patent which was practically the same as +Gilbert's grant of 1578; and, at the end of April, he sent out two +ships, commanded by two captains named Amidas and Barlow, to explore +and report upon a likely place for an English settlement.<small><small><sup>55</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>55</sup></small> Accounts of this and the following voyages are given in +the third volume of Hakluyt. See also the first book of John Smith's +general history of Virginia, <i>The English Voyages to the Old +Virginia,</i> in Mr. Arber's edition, <i>The English Scholar's Library</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>They sailed more towards the south than previous English explorers, +and eventually reached the island of Roanoke, which is now within the +limits of North Carolina. Everything seemed bright and sweet and +healthful, and the natives of the country were friendly and +hospitable, 'such as live after the manner of the golden age.'<small><small><sup>56</sup></small></small> So +they came back in the autumn with a story full of hope for the +future, and the virgin Queen christened the land of promise Virginia.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>56</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 304.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Ralegh lost no time in sending out settlers. In the next year, 1585, +seven ships started with 108 colonists on board. The expedition was +commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and among other captains with him +was Thomas Cavendish, afterwards celebrated, like Drake, for sailing +round the world. Ralph Lane, a soldier of fortune, was chosen to +remain in charge of the colony, and with him was Amidas, the explorer +of the previous year, who was styled 'Admiral of the country.' They +went by the West Indies, touching at the Spanish islands of Porto +Rico and Hispaniola, and, at the end of June, they reached Roanoke. +Here they formed their settlement, and, when Grenville and his ships +left in August and September, they brought back as bright a report as +Amidas and Barlow had given the year before.</p> + +<p>Already, however, before Grenville's departure, there had been +friction between the Indians and the new-comers; and, as months went +on, the new-born colony became in constant <a name="page33"></a>danger of extermination. +Still Lane contrived to hold his own, exploring north and west, +gleaning reports of pearls and mines, and a possible passage to the +south sea, until the winter and spring were past and the month of +June had come again. A fleet of twenty-three ships was then seen out +at sea, and, to the joy of the settlers, proved to be an English +expedition under Sir Francis Drake, who was returning home laden with +spoils from the Spanish main. Drake, at Lane's request, placed one of +his ships with seamen and supplies at the disposal of the colony; but +a storm arose, and the ship was blown out to sea. Daunted by this +fresh trouble, the settlers determined to give up their enterprise +and return home. They asked for passages on board Drake's vessels: +the request was granted; and they abandoned Roanoke only a fortnight +before Grenville arrived with relief, long expected and long delayed. +Finding the island deserted, Grenville left fifteen men in possession +and himself came home.</p> + +<p>So far, Ralegh's scheme had failed; but the failure was due to +untoward circumstances, not to the nature of the country, and he +still persevered in his efforts. The very next year, in 1587, he sent +out a fresh band of settlers, 150 in number; giving them for a leader +John White, who had taken part in the former expedition. The +arrangements for forming a colony were more fully organized than +before; and to White and twelve Assistants Ralegh 'gave a charter and +incorporated them by the name of Governor and Assistants of the city +of Ralegh in Virginia.'<small><small><sup>57</sup></small></small> When the colonists reached Roanoke, they +found that the fifteen men left by Grenville had disappeared, driven +out, as they learnt, by the Indians. Notwithstanding, they renewed +the old settlement; and, in the face of native enmity, began again +the work of colonizing America. Before the end of the summer, White +sailed for England, to give an account of what had been done; and, on +his return home, Ralegh prepared to send <a name="page34"></a>relief to the colony. But +war with Spain was now on hand, freebooting was more attractive than +colonizing, one attempt and another to send ships to Virginia +miscarried; and when at length, late in 1589, White reached the scene +of his settlement, he found it dismantled and deserted. So ended the +first attempt to colonize Virginia. Success was not to come for a few +more years, until the sixteenth century had passed and gone.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>57</sup></small> Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 341.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote38"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>General<br> + results of the<br> + sixteenth<br> + century.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Before 1600, Newfoundland had been annexed by Great Britain, but not +one single English or French colony had as yet taken root in America. +Nevertheless the century was far from barren of results. The way had +been made plain, the ground had been cleared, the wild oats of +adventure and knight-errantry had been sown, and the peoples were +sobering down to steadier and more prudent enterprise. Beaten on the +sea, raided and plundered in their own tropical domain, the Spaniards +were ceasing to be a terror and a hindrance to the nations of +Northern Europe; and, as the latter grew from youth to lusty manhood, +the map of the great North American continent unfolded itself before +their eyes. Then Champlain went to work in Canada, and John Smith in +Virginia; Jesuits on the St. Lawrence, and Puritans in the New +England states; and so the grain of mustard-seed, cast into American +soil, grew into a great tree, which already, before three centuries +have ended, bids fair to overshadow the earth.</p> +<br> + +<p><small>N.B.—The references to Hakluyt made in the notes above are to the +1810 edition.</small></p> +<br> +<p><small>Among modern books most use has been made in this chapter of:—<br> +<br> + P<small>ARKMAN'S</small> <i>Pioneers of France in the New World;</i><br> + D<small>OYLE'S</small> <i>History of the English in America,</i> vol. i; and<br> + J<small>USTIN</small> W<small>INSOR'S</small> <i>Narrative and Critical History of America</i>.</small></p> + +<p><small>Reference should also be made to Sir J. B<small>OURINOT'S</small> monograph on 'Cape +Breton,' first published in the <i>Proceedings and Transactions of the +Royal Society of Canada,</i> vol. ix, 1891, and since published +separately.</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap2"></a><a name="page35"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> +<center>S<small>AMUEL</small> C<small>HAMPLAIN AND THE</small> +F<small>OUNDING OF</small> Q<small>UEBEC</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<p>The history of Canada has been so often and so well told, that an +attempt simply to reproduce the narrative would be worse than +superfluous. The scheme of the present series is, in the field of +colonization and within the present limits of the British Empire, to +trace the connexion between history and geography; and from this +point of view more especially the story of New France will be +recorded.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote39"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>New<br> + France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Various parts of the world, now British possessions, were once owned +by other European nations, notably by the Dutch or French. The last +volume of the series dealt with what was in past times a dependency +of the Netherlands, the Cape Colony, the mother colony of South +Africa. The present volume deals with a land which the French made +peculiarly their own; where, as hardly anywhere else, they settled, +though not in large numbers; not merely conquering or ruling the +conquered, not only leaving a permanent impress of manners, law, and +religion, but slowly and partially colonizing a country and forming a +nation.</p> + +<p>Lower Canada, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was rightly included +under the wider name of New France, for here France and the French +were reproduced in weakness and in strength. It was a land well +suited to the French character and physique. Much depended on tactful +dealings with the North American Indians, a species of diplomacy in +which Frenchmen excelled. The commercial value of Canada consisted +mainly in the fur trade, an adventurous kind of traffic more +attractive to the <a name="page36"></a>Frenchman of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries than plodding agriculture or the life of a counting-house. +On the rivers and lakes, coming and going was comparatively easy; the +short bright summers and the long winters made the country one of +strong contrasts. To a bold, imaginative, somewhat restless people +there was much to charm in Canada.</p> + +<p>But Canada meant far less in earlier days than now it means. It meant +the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and of the lakes +from which it flows. The Maritime Provinces of the present Dominion, +or at any rate Nova Scotia, were not in Canada properly so called, +but bore the name of La Cadie or Acadia,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> and the great North-West +was an unknown land.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> For the derivation of the name 'Acadia,' see Parkman's +<i>Pioneers of France in the New World,</i> p. 243, note. <i>Cadie</i> is an +Indian word meaning place or region. 'It is obviously a Micmac or +Souriquois affix used in connexion with other words to describe the +natural characteristics of a place or locality' (Bourinot's monograph +on 'Cape Breton,' <i>Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society +of Canada,</i> vol. ix, sec. 2, p. 185). For the name 'Canada,' see +above, <a href="#page24">note 37</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>By the end of the seventeenth century the French had three spheres of +influence and colonization in North America—the country of the St. +Lawrence, the seaboard between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the +New England colonies, and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi. +To join them and encircle the English colonies was the aim of French +statesmanship. It was an impossible aim, inevitably frustrated by +geographical conditions and by want of colonists; but the conception +was a great one, large as the new continent in which it was framed, +and able men tried to work it out, but tried in vain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote40"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + French as<br> + colonizers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Much has been written of French methods of colonization; writers have +been at pains to enumerate the shortcomings of the French, and have +carefully explained whence those mistakes arose. But there is less to +wonder at in the failures than in the great successes to be credited +to France. Being <a name="page37"></a>part of the continent of Europe, and ever embroiled +in continental politics, when she competed with England as a +colonizing power, she competed with one hand tied.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> Changeable, it +is said, were the French and their policy; their kings and courtiers +may have been changeable, but the charge does not lie against the +French nation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> This is pointed out in Professor Seeley's <i>Expansion of +England,</i> course i, lecture 5.</small></blockquote> + +<p>They were trading up the Senegal early in the seventeenth century, +and there they are at the present day. From the dawn of their +colonial enterprise they tried to obtain possession of Madagascar; +they have their object now. Nearly four centuries ago they fished off +the coasts of Newfoundland, and England has good cause to know that +they fish there still. To the St. Lawrence went Cartier from St. +Malo, and by the same route generations of Frenchmen entered steadily +into America, until Quebec had fallen and the St. Lawrence was theirs +no more. The French were versatile in their colonial dealings; they +were quickly moving and constantly moving; but they saw clearly and +they followed tenaciously; they were strong and staunch, and they +proved themselves to be a wonderful people.</p> + +<p>Yet there must have been some element of weakness in the French +character, in that they bred and obeyed bad rulers who did not live +for France, but for whom France was sacrificed; who crushed liberty, +political and religious, who drove out industry with the Huguenots, +and squandered the heritage of the nation. Englishmen, comparatively +early in their history, reckoned with priests first and with kings +afterwards. They did most of their work at home before they made +their colonial empire; they colonized new worlds as a reformed +people; the French tried to colonize under absolutism and +priestcraft. It might not have been so, it probably would not have +been so, if the religious policy of the French Government had been +other than it was. <a name="page38"></a>The Huguenots, if not persecuted and eventually in +great measure driven out, would have given France the one thing +wanting to make her colonization successful, the spirit of private +enterprise independent of court favour, the child and the parent of +freedom, the determined foe of a deadening religious despotism.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote41"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Attempts<br> + at French<br> + colonization<br> + in Brazil<br> + and Florida.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the sixteenth century, after Cartier's voyages to the St. +Lawrence, we hear little of the French in North America. The Breton +fishermen followed their calling, crossed the Atlantic year after +year, and came back with cargoes of fish and with furs procured by +barter with the Indians; but no French settlement was founded either +in Canada or in Acadia. In France itself the last half of the century +was a time of civil war; the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place, +the house of Valois came to an end, and in 1589 Henry of Navarre +became King of France. Before his accession to the Crown, two +attempts at French colonization were made, in Brazil and in Florida. +The colonists were mainly Huguenots, and their enterprise was backed +by the great Protestant leader Coligny. The earlier attempt, designed +to plant a settlement on the harbour of Rio Janeiro, was short-lived, +because ill led by a violent tyrannical man, Villegagnon. The first +settlers arrived in 1555; by the end of 1558 they had all +disappeared. Still more tragical was the outcome of the venture in +Florida. In 1562 a band of would-be colonists sailed from Dieppe, +under the command of Jean Ribault. They reached Florida in safety, +and built a small fort towards the northern end of the peninsula, in +which thirty men were left behind while Ribault returned to France. +In the following year, the survivors of the thirty came back to +Europe, having abandoned the fort and experienced every extremity of +thirst and hunger while crossing the Atlantic in a ship of their own +making. Again in 1564, a Huguenot expedition, under René de +Laudonničre, sailed for Florida, and the settlers planted themselves +on the <a name="page39"></a>St. John's river, then known as the river of May. In 1565 +Ribault joined them with reinforcements and supplies. Well known from +its surpassing horror is the story of the French settlement. A +Spanish force under Menendez, a fanatic as treacherous and as savage +as Philip II himself, took up a position to the south where the town +of St. Augustine now stands, and overpowering the Frenchmen in +detachments, butchered them with every accompaniment of cruelty and +guile. The French fort passed into Spanish hands, but within three +years time an avenging freebooter came from France, Domenic de +Gourgues; the Spaniards in their turn were shot and hung, and the +banks of the St. John's river were left desolate.</p> + +<p>Ill managed, badly supported were these French ventures to Brazil and +Florida. Had they been well led and given some little encouragement +and assistance, the result might have been far different. Protestants +might have gained a firm foothold in Central and Southern America. +France might have won from Spain and Portugal a great domain. As it +was, the attempts resulted in utter failure, and great opportunities +were lost never to be regained.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote42"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Roche's<br> + patent.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As the sixteenth century drew to a close, a patent was issued by the +French King to a Breton nobleman, the Marquis de la Roche, to +colonize in North America. The terms of the patent were +preposterously wide, conferring sovereignty over Canada, together +with a monopoly of trade. The results were proportionately small. La +Roche set sail in 1598, in a single ship with a cargo of convicts. He +landed them at Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, and sailed +back to France, leaving them to their fate. Five years later, in +1603, eleven of the number, who had survived, were rescued and +brought home again.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote43"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Chauvin and<br> + Pontgravé.<br> + <br> + <br> + De Chastes.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>About a year after La Roche's fruitless voyage, in 1599 or 1600, two +other Frenchmen, Chauvin, a sea captain, and Pontgravé, a St. Malo +merchant, also obtained a patent to <a name="page40"></a>colonize in Canada. Their object +was to monopolize the fur trade, and they attempted a settlement at +Tadoussac, where the Saguenay river flows into the St. Lawrence. +During a whole winter a small party was left at the station, but no +permanent colony was formed; and a second and third voyage had no +lasting results. Chauvin died, and in 1602 or 1603 a new patent was +granted to De Chastes, a man of rank and station, who associated with +himself Pontgravé, and secured the services of Samuel Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote44"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Samuel<br> + Champlain.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In order of time, Champlain's name stands second in the list of the +men to whom New France in America was due. It stands second in time +to the name of Cartier; in order of merit it heads the list. Cartier +was a great explorer, but his work ended with discovery; Champlain +founded a colony. The history of Canada as a French possession has +gained in attractiveness, in that it began and ended with a +high-minded, chivalrous leader. It began with Champlain, it ended +with Montcalm. Born on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, the +adventurous son of a seafaring father, Champlain fought for the King +in Brittany, and was given by him a retainer in the shape of a small +pension. The war over, he travelled for two years in the Spanish +Indies, and, visiting Panama, conceived the idea of a ship canal +across the isthmus. After his return home, he took service under De +Chastes' company, and in 1603 sailed with Pontgravé for the St. +Lawrence. The voyage was one of exploration only. Champlain ascended +the river as far as Montreal, gathering geographical information from +the Indians, but attempting no settlement; and when he returned to +France in a few months' time, he found that his employer, De Chastes, +was dead.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote45"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>De Monts'<br> + patent.<br> + <br> + <br> + The first<br> + French<br> + settlement<br> + in Acadia.<br> + <br> + <br> + Port Royal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet another royal patent was granted, in 1603, to De Monts, a +Huguenot gentleman of the French court, its object being the +colonization of Acadia, and Acadia being defined as extending from +the fortieth degree of north latitude, which +runs <a name="page41"></a>through<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> +Philadelphia, to the forty-sixth degree, which is north of Montreal. +De Monts took into partnership the members of De Chastes' company, +and in 1604 two vessels sailed for America. They carried a mixed +freight, Huguenots and Roman Catholics, gentlemen of fortune, and +vagrants impressed under the King's commission. De Monts and +Champlain were on board the first ship, Pontgravé followed in the +second, with supplies for the future colony. They steered not for the +St. Lawrence, but for the coast of Nova Scotia; and entering the Bay +of Fundy they discovered Annapolis harbour, which was given the name +of Port Royal. The first settlement, however, was made on an islet +off the mouth of the St. Croix river, which now forms the boundary +between New Brunswick and the state of Maine; and there through the +winter De Monts and Champlain stayed with a scurvy-stricken company, +numbering seventy-nine in all, of whom nearly half died. On the +return of spring and the advent of relief from France, the leaders +coasted south along the shores of Maine, and of what were in after +years the New England states; and coming back to their station in +August, they moved the settlement across the Bay of Fundy, and +established themselves on the inlet of Annapolis harbour. De Monts +then returned to France, leaving Pontgravé and Champlain to hold the +post through the winter of 1605.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> For De Monts' patent see the <i>Calendar of State Papers,</i> +Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 4, entry 10, Nov. 8, 1603. It was a patent +'for inhabiting Acadia, Canada, and other places in New France,' and +De Monts was appointed the French King's Lieutenant-General 'for to +represent our person in the countries, territories, coasts, and +confines of La Cadia from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote46"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Lescarbot.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the following summer, ships came back from France just in time to +prevent the settlement at Port Royal from being broken up in despair. +They brought with them the advocate Lescarbot, the historian of New +France. Again there was exploring down the American coast, and again +Champlain and his associates held their own through the winter. The +<a name="page42"></a>outlook of the little colony was promising. The season was mild, the +natives were friendly, supplies were plentiful, gardens were laid out +and corn was sown. But in the late spring of 1607 news came from home +that the patent had been cancelled, and before the summer ended Port +Royal was abandoned.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote47"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>De Poutrincourt.<br> + <br> + <br> + Jesuit influence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For nearly three years the place was left desolate, and then, in +1610, one of De Monts' associates came back again. It was the Baron +de Poutrincourt, to whom the harbour, when first discovered, had been +granted by De Monts. The Jesuits were at the time strong at the +French court, stronger still after the assassination of King Henry IV +in this same year. They, or the ladies of the court, who were their +tools, bought shares in the venture, and Jesuit priests went out to +Acadia, thwarting and quarrelling with Poutrincourt and his son. Both +the two great dangers which always threatened and finally ruined the +French power in North America came into being at this date, the +exclusive influence of the Jesuits and English competition.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote48"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Argall's<br> + raid from<br> + Virginia.<br> + <br> + <br> + Destruction<br> + of Port<br> + Royal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1606 the Virginia company was incorporated, and in the following +year British colonization on the mainland of North America began with +the founding of Jamestown. There are many miles of coast between +Acadia and Virginia, between the Bay of Fundy and Chesapeake Bay, but +French and English soon crossed each other's paths. In 1613 a ship +sailed from France, sent out under Jesuit influence, with a view to +founding a settlement on the North American coast. After touching at +Port Royal, the party sailed southwards to the coast of Maine, and +landed in the region of the Penobscot river. Hardly had their tents +been set up on the shore, when an English ship came in sight, +captured the French vessel, which was lying at anchor, uprooted the +would-be colony, and took all the Frenchmen prisoners. The invaders +hailed from Jamestown; they were commanded by Samuel Argall, an +unscrupulous freebooter. <a name="page43"></a>His pretext was that the Frenchmen were +taking up ground within the limits of the patents granted by the +English King to his subjects, but his act was little more than +piracy. Some of the Frenchmen were set adrift in an open boat, and +eventually reached France in safety; the rest were carried prisoners +to Jamestown, whence Argall set sail again, commissioned by the +governor of Virginia to attack Port Royal. He reached, plundered, and +burnt the fort, its commander, Biencourt, with the rest of the +settlers, being absent in the fields, for it was harvest time; but +the colony was not finally blotted out, and the French still kept a +foothold in Acadia.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote49"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Champlain<br> + on the St.<br> + Lawrence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Champlain's first voyage to North America in 1603 had taken him to +the St. Lawrence. From 1604-7 Acadia had been the scene of his +labours, until De Monts' patent had been revoked. In 1608 he returned +to the river of Canada. On the line of the St. Lawrence he carried +out the work of his life, and by its banks he died. In the course +which French colonization in America and its first great leader took, +may be traced the influence on history of geography and race.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote50"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Comparison<br> + of English<br> + and French<br> + colonization<br> + in North<br> + America.<br> + <br> + <br> + English<br> + colonial<br> + enterprise<br> + in the<br> + seventeenth<br> + century the<br> + result of<br> + private<br> + co-operation.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In English colonial history, as writers on the subject have pointed +out,<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> the age of adventure was distinct from the age of settlement. +Ralegh was the latest product of the times of romance, an his +attempts at colonization were premature and unsuccessful. To some +extent a similar distinction may be made in French colonial history: +Cartier may be taken as a representative of the earlier age, +Champlain of the later; but the line of demarcation is much fainter, +much less real, in the case of the French than in that of the +English. To English and French alike adventure had meant private +enterprise, usually but not always countenanced by kings, generally +carried out under cover of royal licences or patents, so vague as to +be almost meaningless, granted one day, liable to be <a name="page44"></a>cancelled the +next. When the age of romance passed away in England with the passing +of the sixteenth century, adventurers in the ordinary sense in great +measure disappeared, with the exception of the Arctic explorers, who, +like Hudson and Baffin, still sailed to the desolate North. Private +enterprise, on the other hand, not only survived, but it grew +stronger, more business-like, more independent of court favour. It +was private enterprise still, but under new forms, the enterprise not +of individual freebooters, or of knights errant, but of associations +of citizens, some of the associations being chartered commercial +companies, while others were bands of colonizers and colonists united +by a common antagonism and a common creed. Their objects were not in +the air, they did not live in dreamland, they went out or sent out +others, not so much to discover new lands, as to occupy and +appropriate lands which had already been found, to make new English +homes on the other side of the Atlantic.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See e.g. Doyle's <i>History of the English in America,</i> +vol. i, chap. vi.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote51"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The new<br> + patents of<br> + English<br> + colonization.<br> + <br> + <br> + Motives of<br> + English<br> + colonization<br> + in the<br> + seventeenth<br> + century.<br> + <br> + <br> + The English<br> + kept near<br> + to the sea.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In theory the commercial companies were, like the individual +patentees of the former generation, working under the authority of +the Crown. Indeed that authority was far more strongly proclaimed +than before, and for vague generalities were substituted very +definite restrictions; but this was only a sign of a new time. It +indicated that a stage had been reached when more was known, when +practical business was being taken in hand, and when, therefore, the +slipshod patents, which had hitherto sufficed, would no longer avail. +Because private enterprise really meant more, therefore the +Government said more, and the very defining of the work and +circumscribing of its sphere made the results sounder, more lasting, +and more substantial. It was not the lust of conquest, it was not the +glamour of adventure, it was not a wish to proselytize in religion or +to add new provinces to the domain of a European kingdom which made +the English colonize North America. There were two <a name="page45"></a>main motives at +work. One was the desire to find or to do something which would pay, +the other was a longing to live under more independent conditions +than existed in the mother country. The settlers went to lands where +natives dwelt, and, therefore, dealings with the North American +Indians in war and peace ensued; but the English did not go to the +New World in the main to conquer or to convert the Indians, they went +to live and to make their living pay. Instinct was at work in English +colonization, the instinct of self-preservation, of extension, of +always moving a little further and winning a little more; but there +was no high scheme of universal dominion for the English King or the +English creed. Against any such views the New England colonies were a +living protest, and in Virginia, Maryland, or Carolina they found no +place. All of these colonies were prosaic, unromantic communities: +they were groups of Englishmen, living, grumbling, working and +squabbling, with varieties of opinions and differences of outward +forms, half protected, half worried by the home Government, building +up unconsciously, illogically, amid much that was mean and small, +what was to be in the end a mighty nation. Instinct, too, kept the +colonists for the most part near to the sea. They fringed the +Atlantic over which they had come, and ever renewed their strength as +more emigrants came in; they strayed no doubt to some extent as years +went on, taking up farms inland and clearing the backwoods; but, on +the whole, there was continuity of colonization, a gradual widening +of the belt of settlement, expansion on the part of the settlers +themselves, as opposed to planting in the heart of the continent +military outposts, or isolated mission stations.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote52"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + colonized<br> + inland.<br> + <br> + <br> + Comparison<br> + of French<br> + colonization<br> + in Canada<br> + and Dutch<br> + colonization<br> + in South<br> + Africa.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With the French in Canada the case was different. Except in Acadia +and Cape Breton Island, and to a limited extent in Newfoundland, they +had no hold on the sea coast: and Acadia had for many years little +connexion with the <a name="page46"></a>land of the St. Lawrence. Canada, as a sphere of +colonization, began when the open sea had been left far behind. It +was an inland territory with a great river and great lakes. No two +parts of the world are more unlike than Canada and South Africa. +Canada has a river highway into it, excellent water communication by +lake and stream, and, until the Rocky mountains are reached, no +mountain barriers are interposed to cut off the interior from the +coast regions or one district from another. South Africa is almost +devoid of natural harbours, its rivers are valueless for purposes of +navigation. Its ranges of hills or mountains rise one behind the +other, barring the way from the coast to the interior, severing one +section of the territory from another. Yet, curiously enough, +somewhat similar results followed from diametrically opposite +geographical conditions. No two races in the world were and are more +unlike each other than the Dutch and the French, unlike in character, +in tradition, in political and religious training. But the Dutch in +South Africa and the French in Canada resembled each other in this, +that they were and remained very few in number, planted in an +unlimited area, and that men lived in either case under a rigid +system. The restrictive rule of the Netherlands East India Company in +South Africa led to trekking, to wandering in the wilderness, and the +difficulties of communication increased the wandering tendency, +because the wanderers, who wished no longer to be controlled by the +government at Cape Town, could not easily be followed up. The French +rule in Canada was restrictive too, restrictive in matters of +politics, of commerce, and of religion. It was a despotism which +allowed no vestige of freedom or self-government; but it was a far +stronger and more active despotism than that of the Netherlands +Company. The Dutch sought a trade monopoly, the French a territorial +dominion. The Dutch were at pains to minimize their responsibilities. +The French policy was <a name="page47"></a>one of conquest and conversion; they looked to +holding in subjection the lands and the peoples of the New World. +They worked under a government which was absolute, but whose +absolutism, in the main, encouraged perpetual moving forward, and +they worked in a land where moving forward was comparatively easy. +Thus dispersion ensued on a greater scale than in South Africa. The +negative force which promoted trekking in the Cape Colony was present +also in Canada—antipathy to a rigid system, to hard and fast rules; +and the counterpart of the Dutch voortrekkers, though under very +different conditions, was to be found in the Canadian fur-traders and +<i>coureurs de bois</i>. But in South Africa the positive force was +wanting which shaped Canadian history, the forward policy of an +ambitious state. The agents of the French Government in Canada, +military and religious, went far afield—adventurous and +enterprising, intriguing with savage races, establishing outposts in +the interior, strong to carry out a preconceived plan of a great +French dominion. The malcontent Dutchmen in South Africa moved slowly +and sleepily away in their wagons to be out of reach; the country +aided their intent by being difficult of access. Along the rivers and +the lakes of Canada the Frenchmen lightly passed, those who worked +the will of the Government as well as those who were impatient of +control.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote53"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Contrast<br> + between<br> + English<br> + and French<br> + in North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The rivalry then between the two European nations who colonized North +America, the English and the French, was rivalry at every point. It +was a conflict of race, of religion, of geographical conditions, of +new and old, of European government and American colonists. On the +one side were seaboard settlements, comparatively continuous, in +which there was much instinct and little policy, much freedom and +little system; where the population steadily grew by natural causes +and by immigration, democratic communities in which the real work was +done from below, the products of <a name="page48"></a>a wholly different era from that +which preceded it, and in which picturesque adventurers had failed to +colonize. On the other side were the beginnings of continental +colonization along the natural lines of communication. The dispersion +was great, the settlers were few, the settlements were weak. All was +done from above, except where unlicensed adventurers roamed the +woods. The elements of an older day were preserved and stereotyped, +attractive but unprogressive. Old forms transplanted to a New World +did not lose their life, but renewed it. Feudal customs took root in +the soil. Despotism, supported by the Roman Catholic Church, did not +survive merely, but grew stronger. The adventurer remained an +adventurer, and did not turn into a businesslike colonist. There was +much that was great, there was more that was uniform, but there was +little or no growth.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote54"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Elements of<br> + strength on<br> + the French<br> + side.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The ultimate outcome of such a contest must necessarily have been, in +the course of generations, the triumph of the side on which were the +forces and the views of the coming time. But, while the struggle +lasted, the French gained not a little from being less vulnerable +than the English, as being more dispersed; from being better situated +for purposes of attack; from being organized, so far as there was +organization, under one government and one system instead of many; +from the extraordinary energy and quickness of some of the French +leaders in Canada; from the strong military element in the +population; from the fanatical devotion of the French missionaries; +and last, but not least, from the Frenchmen's better handling of the +natives.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote55"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + waterways<br> + of North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The sources of the Mississippi are close to the western end of Lake +Superior, and the eastern half of North America is therefore nearly +an island, created by the Mississippi, the great lakes, the St. +Lawrence, and the sea. An inner circle is formed by the Mississippi, +the Ohio, Lakes Erie, Ontario, and the St. Lawrence, the head waters +of the Ohio river being within easy distance of Lake Erie. The course +of the Ohio <a name="page49"></a>is from north-east to north-west. It flows, very roughly, +parallel to the Alleghany mountains, and drains their western sides. +The Alleghanies in their turn are parallel to the Atlantic, and +between them and the sea is a coast belt from north to south. Here +was the scene of the English settlements. Here, cut off by mountain +ranges from the Mississippi valley and from the inland plains, the +Virginians and the New Englanders made their home. 'The New England +man,' writes Parkman, 'had very little forest experience. His +geographical position cut him off completely from the great +wilderness of the interior. The sea was his field of action.'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>The Old Régime in Canada,</i> chap. xxi, p. 399 (14th ed., +1885).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote56"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Hudson<br> + river<br> + and Lake<br> + Champlain.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But there is one direct route, with nearly continuous waterways, from +the Atlantic seaboard to the St. Lawrence. It runs due north up the +Hudson river, is continued by Lakes George and Champlain between the +Adirondack mountains on the west, and on the east the Green mountains +of Vermont; and from the northern end of Lake Champlain it follows +the outlet of that lake, the Richelieu river, for seventy to eighty +miles into the St. Lawrence. The head waters of the Hudson are hard +by Lake George, but at the present day navigation ceases at Troy, 151 +miles from the sea, where is the confluence of the Mohawk river, and +from whence the Champlain canal runs direct to Lake Champlain. The +distance from Troy to Lake George is in straight line about fifty +miles. This route was all-important for attack and defence in the +wars between England and France, and it was well for Great Britain +that, at a comparatively early stage in the colonization of America, +she took over the Dutch settlements in the valley of the Hudson, +gaining control of that river and linking New England to the southern +colonies.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote57"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The St.<br> + Lawrence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>From the mouth of the Hudson at New York to where the Richelieu joins +the St. Lawrence, a straight line drawn on <a name="page50"></a>the map from south to north +measures rather under 400 miles. It is much the same distance, on a +very rough estimate, from the confluence of the Richelieu and the St. +Lawrence to the point where the St. Lawrence opens into the sea. This +point is generally taken to be the Point de Monts, which is on the +northern bank of the river, in north latitude 49° 15', +and west longitude 67° 30', though the Gaspé peninsula, +on the southern side of the estuary, extends much further to the +east. Thus the centre of the St. Lawrence basin is equidistant from +the mouth of that river and from the mouth of the Hudson,<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> and +between these two points, before the days of railways, there was no +easily accessible route from the sea to Montreal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Hennepin in <i>A New Discovery of a vast Country in +America</i> (English ed., London, 1698, pt. 2, p. 129), speaking of the +St. Lawrence, says: 'The middle of the river is nearer to New York +than to Quebec, the capital town of Canada.' This is of course +incorrect, but it shows appreciation of the directness of the route +to the St. Lawrence by the Hudson river.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Following up the St. Lawrence from the Point de Monts, at about a +distance of 140 miles, the mouth of the Saguenay is reached on the +northern side. There stood and stands Tadoussac, in old days a great +centre of the fur trade, and the earliest foothold of the French in +Canada. From the mouth of the Saguenay to Quebec is about 120 miles, +and from Quebec to Montreal is rather over 160. Nearly halfway +between Quebec and Montreal, over seventy miles from the former and +over ninety from the latter, is the town of Three Rivers, situated on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at its confluence with the St. +Maurice river, one of the oldest and one of the most important French +settlements in Canada. Here is the limit of the tideway, and above +this point the St. Lawrence expands for some thirty miles into Lake +St. Peter. At the upper end of this lake or expanse of river, on the +southern side, the Richelieu joins the St. Lawrence, with the town of +Sorel at <a name="page51"></a>its mouth, and forty-five miles higher up is Montreal. From +Montreal to Kingston, where the St. Lawrence issues from Lake +Ontario, is a distance of 180 to 190 miles by river, past rapids well +known to readers and to tourists, and past the Thousand islands. Thus +the total length of the St. Lawrence, from the lakes to the opening +into the gulf, is rather over 600 miles.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote58"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The great<br> + lakes.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin cover a surface of nearly +100,000 square miles—an area larger than that of Great Britain. +Lakes Ontario and Erie, connected by the Niagara river, continue the +direct line of the St. Lawrence, Lake Erie more especially lying due +south-west and north-east; but from the extreme end of this +last-named lake the channel of communication takes a sharp curve to +the north in the Detroit river, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair +river, which link together Lakes Erie and Huron. Lake Huron, the +centre of the whole group, stretches back towards the east and +south-east in Georgian Bay, while on the north-west it is connected +with Lake Michigan by the straits of Michillimackinac or Mackinac, +and with Lake Superior by St. Mary's straits and rapids, the Sault +St. Marie. The rivers which feed Lake Superior are the head waters of +the St. Lawrence, and one of them, the St. Louis, which enters the +lake at its extreme western end, has its source hard by the source of +the Mississippi. The total length of lake and river on the line of +the St. Lawrence is over 2,000 miles.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote59"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The route<br> + of the<br> + Ottawa<br> + river.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It has been said that Lakes Ontario and Erie continue the main course +of the St. Lawrence in its south-westerly and north-easterly +direction, that the channel which feeds Lake Erie at its western end +comes down from the north, and that the central lake which is then +reached—Lake Huron—breaks back towards the east. Thus the direct +line from Montreal to the centre of the lake system is not up the St. +Lawrence, but along one of its largest tributaries, which enters the +main river at Montreal. This tributary is the Ottawa, flowing <a name="page52"></a>from +the north-west in a course broken by falls and rapids. One hundred +and thirty miles from its confluence with the St. Lawrence, just +below the Chaudičre falls, now stands the city of Ottawa, the capital +of the Canadian Dominion, connected with Lake Ontario by the Rideau +canal; and rather under 200 miles above Ottawa, where the Mattawa +river enters from the west, there is nearly continuous water +communication in a due westerly direction with Lake Nipissing, which +lake is in turn connected by the French river with the great inlet of +Lake Huron known as Georgian Bay. Champlain early explored this +route—the direct route to the west, and along it as far as Lake +Nipissing now runs the Canadian Pacific Railway. French river flows +into the northern end of Georgian Bay. At its south-easternmost end, +that bay runs into the land in the direction of Lake Ontario; and in +the middle of the broad isthmus between the two lakes lies Lake +Simcoe.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote60"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada a<br> + geographical<br> + federation.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such in rough outline is the basin of the St. Lawrence. It is a +network of lakes and rivers which finds no parallel, unless it be in +Central Africa. The present Dominion of Canada is not merely a +political federation; it is a federation of regions which are +geographically separate from each other. There is the eastern +seaboard, the old Acadia; there is the basin of the St. Lawrence; +there are the plains of the North-West and the regions of the Hudson +Bay; and there are the lands of the Pacific coast. Only one of these +four regions, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was the main scene of +early Canadian history. Acadia comes into the story, it is true, but +until the eighteenth century only indirectly, in connexion with the +English colonies on the Atlantic coast rather than with the French in +Canada. English and French collided on the shores of Hudson Bay; they +collided also in Newfoundland; but Hudson Bay and Newfoundland alike +were outside the sphere of Canada. The great prairies of the +North-West were a possibility of the distant future; but not <a name="page53"></a>till the +days of railways did the western half of the present Dominion come +within the range of practical politics. Along the St. Lawrence and +its tributaries the drama of Canadian history was played; the +furthest horizon was the Mississippi and the whole line of the lakes; +a nearer view was bounded by the Ohio valley; while the immediate +foreground was formed by the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Lake +Ontario, the centremost point being the confluence of the Richelieu +with the main river.</p> + +<p>Movement, constant movement, these waterways suggested; exploration, +adventure, and ultimately conquest; pressing onward by strength or +skill through a boundless area, with something unknown always beyond; +making portages round impossible rapids, forcing paths through +interminable forests, dealing with half-hidden foes. The land was one +for the traveller, the explorer, the missionary, the soldier, the +hunter, the fur-trader, but not so much for the settler and the +agriculturist. Thus it was that the age of adventurers was +perpetuated along the St. Lawrence, while the English colonists +between the Alleghanies and the sea were living steady lives attached +to the soil.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote61"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The main<br> + object<br> + of North<br> + American<br> + exploration<br> + was a route<br> + to the East.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The great motive force of modern adventure was, as has been seen, the +search for a direct route to the East. Engaged in this search Henry +Hudson, in 1609, piloted the Dutch into the Hudson river.<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> +Champlain's first expedition up the Ottawa was due to a lying tale +that along that river had been found a way to the sea. La Salle, the +explorer of the Mississippi, had his mind ever set on the East, and +his Seigniory above Montreal was named La Chine; for, 'like <a name="page54"></a>Champlain +and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a passage to the south +sea, and a new road for commerce to the riches of China and +Japan.'<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> Many long years passed before the geography of North +America was known with any accuracy, and in the meantime the recesses +of the continent, from which the rivers flowed, seemed to hide the +secret of a thoroughfare by the West to the East. Similarly, from the +time when Columbus sought for and thought he had found the Indies in +the New World, down to our own day, the natives of America have been +known as Indians.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Hudson in 1609 sought for a North-West Passage about the +fortieth degree of latitude. 'This idea had been suggested to Hudson +by some letters and maps which his friend Captain Smith had sent him +from Virginia, and by which he informed him that there was a sea +leading into the western ocean by the north of Virginia.' See <i>A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to New Netherland,</i> by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Müller, 1868), Introd. pp. xxv, xxvi.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> Parkman's <i>La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West</i> +(1885 ed.), p. 8.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote62"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Indians<br> + of North<br> + America.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + Algonquins.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The two native races, with which the history of Canada is mainly +concerned, are the Algonquins and the Huron Iroquois. The former were +far the more numerous of the two, and were spread over a much larger +area. They included under different names the Indians of the lower +St. Lawrence, of Acadia, New England, and the Atlantic states as far +as the Carolinas—the Montagnais, the Abenakis, the Micmacs, the +Narragansetts, the Pequods, and others. The Delawares, too, were +members of the race, and Algonquin tribes were to be found on the +Ottawa, at Lake Nipissing, on the further shores of the great lakes, +in Michigan and Illinois. From the day when Champlain joined forces +with them against their hereditary foes the Iroquois, they ranged +themselves for the most part on the side of the French.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote63"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Huron<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Hurons or Wyandots and the Iroquois were distinct from the +Algonquins and akin to each other. When Cartier visited the St. +Lawrence, the native towns which he found on the sites of Quebec and +Montreal seem to have been inhabited by Indians of this race; but by +Champlain's time the towns had disappeared, and those who dwelt in +them had sought other strongholds. Though related in blood and +speech, these two groups of tribes were deadly foes of each other. +The Hurons, like the Algonquins, were allied to the <a name="page55"></a>French; the +Iroquois, guided partly by policy and partly by antipathy to the +European intruders into Canada and their Indian friends, were as a +rule to be found in amity with the English. The region of the upper +St. Lawrence and of Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, was the home of +the Huron Iroquois race. The Huron country lay between Georgian Bay +of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe. South of the Hurons, the northern +shore of Lake Erie and both sides of the Niagara river were held by +the Neutral Nation, neutral as between the Iroquois and the Hurons, +and akin to both. The Eries on the southern side of Lake Erie, and +the Andastes on the lower Susquehanna, were also of Huron Iroquois +stock; but the foremost group of the race, the strongest by far, +though not the most numerous, of all the North American Indians, were +the Iroquois themselves, the celebrated Five Nations of Canadian +story.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote64"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + country of<br> + the Five<br> + Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Erie canal, which, in its 352 miles of length, connects Lake Erie +at Buffalo with the Hudson river at West Troy and Albany, runs +through the country of the Five Nations. That country extended along +the southern side of Lake Ontario from the Genesee river on the west +to the Hudson on the east, while due north of the Hudson, the outlet +of Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu river, was in +old days known as the river of the Iroquois. The Mohawk river, along +which the Erie canal is now carried, was, on the Atlantic side, the +highway to the land of the Iroquois, and it bore the name of the best +known of the Five Nations, the whole confederacy being sometimes +spoken or written of as Mohawks.<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> The route up the river provided +nearly continuous communication by water between the Hudson and Lake +Ontario. From its confluence with the Hudson the Mohawk was followed +to the head of its navigation, whence there was a short portage of +about four miles <a name="page56"></a>to Wood Creek, a stream running into the Oneida +lake, and the Oneida lake was linked to Lake Ontario by the Oswego +river. All this line was under Iroquois control; and the westernmost +of the Five Nations, the Senecas, commanded also the trade route to +Lake Erie.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> The Mohawks, however, were not the strongest of the five +in number. They were outnumbered by the Senecas.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote65"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Five<br> + Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The name 'Iroquois' is said to be of French origin: the true title of +the Five Nations was an Indian word,<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> signifying 'people of the +long house.' Their dwellings were oblong in form, often of great +length; and, as were their dwellings, so also was their +dwelling-place. Side by side the Five Nations stretched in line from +west to east, as may be told by lakes and rivers in New York State, +which to this day bear their names. Farthest to the west were the +Senecas; next came the Cayugas, the people of the marsh. The third in +line, the central people of the league, within whose borders was the +federal Council house, were the Onondagas, the mountaineers; the +Oneidas followed; and easternmost of all were the Mohawks.<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> Hodenosaunee.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> In a report of a committee of the Council held at New +York, Nov. 6, 1724, on the subject of a petition of the London +merchants against the Act of 1720, given in Colden's <i>History of the +Five Indian Nations of Canada</i> (3rd ed., London, 1755), p. 226, the +Five Nations are placed as follows: the Mohawks but 40 miles due west +of Albany, and within the English settlements; the Oneidas about 100 +miles west of Albany, and near the head of the Mohawk river; the +Onondagas about 130 miles west of Albany; the Cayugas 160; and the +Senecas 240.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote66"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Small<br> + numbers<br> + of the<br> + Iroquois.<br> + <br> + <br> + Their<br> + geographical<br> + position.<br> + They held<br> + the border<br> + line between<br> + French and<br> + English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In all the history of European colonization no group of savages, +perhaps, ever played so prominent a part as the Iroquois; none were +so courted and feared; none made themselves felt so heavily for a +long period of years together. This fact was not due to their +numbers, for they were comparatively few, and Parkman estimates that +'In the days of their greatest triumphs their united cantons could +not have mustered four thousand warriors.'<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small> +Yet they attacked and +<a name="page57"></a>blotted out other Indian races equal to or outnumbering themselves. +They nearly destroyed the French settlements in Canada; and all +through the contest between Great Britain and France in America, they +were a force to be reckoned with by either side. Their alliance was +sought, their enmity was dreaded. Their strength was due to the +geographical position which they held, and to their national +characteristics; while their policy was influenced by the differing +conditions of the white people with whom they had to deal. Their home +has been described. It was the southern frontier of central Canada, +the borderland between the French and English spheres of trade and +settlement. Here they lived, in a position where a weak race would +have been ground in pieces between opposing forces, but where a +strong race, conscious of its advantages and able to use them, could +more than hold its own. 'Nothing,' wrote Charlevoix, 'has contributed +more to render them formidable than the advantage of their situation, +which they soon discovered, and know very well how to take advantage +of it. Placed between us and the English, they soon conceived that +both nations would be obliged to court them; and it is certain that +the principal attention of both colonies, since their settlement, has +been to gain them or at least to engage them to remain neuter.'<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> <i>Conspiracy of Pontiac</i> (1885 ed.), vol. i, chap. i, p. +21. Charlevoix says: 'All their forces joined together have never +amounted to more than 5,000 or 6,000 fighting men' (<i>Letters to the +Duchess of Lesdiguičres,</i> Engl. tr., London, 1763, p. 185). On the +other hand, in <i>A Concise Account of North America,</i> by Major Robert +Rogers (London, 1765), p. 206, it is stated that 'when the English +first settled in America they (the Iroquois) could raise 15,000 +fighting men.'</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> Charlevoix, as above, pp. 184-5.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote67"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their<br> + strength of<br> + character<br> + and policy.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A strong race the Iroquois were. In cruelty and endurance, in bold +conception and swift execution, they had few, if any, rivals among +the natives of North America, and in their grasp of something like +state policy they had no equals. As savages, pure and simple, they +reached the highest level; they might indeed have had a greater and +more lasting future, if their level had not been so high. The Kaffir +races of South Africa in our own time have produced good <a name="page58"></a>fighting +material; some of their leaders have shown skilful generalship and no +small statecraft; but they have been loosely knit together, little +bound as a whole by the ties of country or of kin; and from this very +weakness has come their salvation, in that they could and can be +recast in a new mould. It was not so with the North American Indians, +least of all with the Iroquois. They were stereotyped in savagery, +and, when the white men came among them, it was too late for them to +change; but, as savages of the most ferocious type, as ruthless +murdering hunters of men, they developed an organization which was +evidence at once of intellectual and physical strength, and of a wild +kind of moral discipline.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote68"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their<br> + political<br> + organization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It is rare to find among savages a confederacy which will outlive a +single expedition or one season's war. When there is cohesion, it is +usually under savage despots like the Zulu Kings, who habituate their +followers to military discipline, and keep them attached partly by +fear and partly by the memory or hope of successful bloodshed; but +among the Five Nations the rule of one man had no place, and, though +warring was their normal condition, the federation lasted in peace as +well. They were doubly federated. Not only were there five nations or +tribes, but there were also eight clans which included the whole of +the Five Nations, members of each clan being found in each nation. +The five nations had in fact originally been one, composed of eight +clans. Each clan was named after some beast or bird, which formed its +totem or coat of arms, the three leading clans bearing those of the +tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> +The <a name="page59"></a>clan tie was a family tie; +the members of each clan, to whichever nation they belonged, were as +brothers and sisters, and there was no intermarrying between them. +Inheritance ran in the female line, and the children belonged to the +mother's clan. The clans gave the chieftains to the separate nations +and to the confederacy. The highest chiefs were known as <i>sachems,</i> a +civil rather than a military title, and the Council of fifty sachems +formed the principal governing body of the league, the place of +honour being given to the head sachem of the Onondagas. There was +also a Council of subordinate chiefs, and a wider body, a Senate—in +whose deliberations men of age and experience took part, irrespective +of hereditary rank. The form of government was the same for each of +the five nations as for the whole confederacy. There was no law but +much custom, despotism was unknown, and so was anarchy. There was +something Homeric about the Iroquois. Like the Greeks of the +legendary age, they were perpetually fighting in spasmodic fashion, +with great cruelty, with every form of guile as well as force; and +when not fighting they held innumerable councils, making many and +long-winded speeches. Apart from personal bravery, the one sound +element in their system and character was, strange as it may appear, +some measure of what the early Greeks valued under the term [Greek: +aidos] or reverence. The Iroquois reverenced long-standing customs, +social position, and the voice of age. War was their trade, but the +highest dignities attached to the civil chieftain more than to the +successful warrior. They dealt out shameless violence to all beyond +their pale, but within the ranks of their own people they recognized +much more than mere physical strength or skill in butchery.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> These three leading clans so put into the shade all the +others that in some old writers these alone are recognized. Thus +Colden says (vol. i, p. 1): 'Each of these nations is again divided +into three tribes or families, who distinguish themselves by three +different arms or ensigns, the tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.' A +full account of the Iroquois organization is given by Parkman in the +first chapter of the <i>Conspiracy of Pontiac,</i> and in the introduction +to <i>The Jesuits in North America</i>. See also the chapter on Canadian +and Iroquois Indians in Sir J. G. Bourinot's <i>Canada,</i> in the 'Story +of the Nations' series. It will be seen from the note to the +Introduction, p. lv, of <i>The Jesuits in North America</i> (1885 ed.), +that the number of the clans as given above, and their presence in +each tribe, is not absolutely certain.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote69"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Iroquois<br> + in some<br> + respects<br> + resembled<br> + the Spartans.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In their organization they had advanced beyond the stage <a name="page60"></a>which is +outlined in the Iliad. They were far more democratic than the Greeks +of Homeric time. In savage sort they framed and kept a polity of the +kind which Aristotle tells us is the most perfect type of +constitution, being a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. The +hereditary principle was strong, but chieftainship did not pass from +father to son owing to the rule of female succession. The councils of +the nation found place for all whose qualifications were for the +public good. High standing, age, experience, eloquence, strength of +arm, all were recognized in this strange community. To Sparta Colden +likens the confederacy of the Five Nations, in that, in either case, +the national customs trained the minds and the bodies of the people +for war;<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> but the likeness extends to other points as well. As far +as a Greek state and a band of North American savages can be +compared, in their social and political training, in their inflexible +rules, in their recognition of merit combined with unswerving +adherence to the principle of priority of families and clans, no less +than in their heartless indifference to pain whether inflicted on +themselves or others, the Iroquois Indians resembled the citizens of +the famous Greek state. But whatever comparison may be made with +either ancient or modern communities, the story of the Five Nations +presents the curious problem of a group of savages of the very worst +type, who yet in some sort solved the difficulties which the most +civilized peoples find so great—those of reconciling democracy with +hereditary privileges, and federal union with local independence.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> P. 14., 'On these occasions the state of Lacedaemon +ever occurs to my mind, which that of the Five Nations in many +respects resembles, their laws and customs being in both framed to +render the minds and bodies of the people fit for war.' Parkman, too, +says of them, 'Never since the days of Sparta were individual life +and national life more completely fused into one'; see <i>The Jesuits +in North America</i> (1885 ed.), Introduction, p. lx.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote70"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Principle<br> + of adoption<br> + among the<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Constantly weakened by the strain of war, to some extent <a name="page61"></a>they renewed +their strength by the principle of adoption.<small><small><sup>16</sup></small></small> Of the prisoners +whom they took, most were put to death with nameless tortures, but +many were admitted to their tribes; and in one instance they +incorporated a whole people. This was the Tuscaroras, a kindred tribe +from the Carolinas, driven north by war with the colonists early in +the eighteenth century. About 1715, they were admitted into the +league as a sixth nation, though not on equal terms, and were +assigned a dwelling-place among the Oneidas and Onondagas.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>16</sup></small> 'They strictly follow one maxim, formerly used by the +Romans to increase their strength, that they encourage the people of +other nations to incorporate with them' (Colden, p. 5).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote71"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their<br> + sphere of<br> + influence.<br> + <br> + <br> + Their<br> + feud with<br> + the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The tribes of the Huron Iroquois stock were agriculturists to a +greater extent than the Algonquins. In other words, they had passed +out of the nomad stage and made permanent homes. Still, they lived in +great measure by the chase; they were born hunters as they were born +warriors, and furs and beaver skins were the products which they +bartered for the white man's goods. The Five Nations hunted and +raided far beyond the limits of their cantons. In 1687, Dongan, +Governor of New York, wrote of them: 'The Five Nations are the most +warlike people in America, and are a bulwark between us and other +tribes. They go as far as the South Sea, the North-West Passage, and +Florida to war.'<small><small><sup>17</sup></small></small> Their interests as well as their pride demanded +that on the upper St. Lawrence, as well as on Lakes Erie and Ontario, +their power should be paramount. As far as other groups of Indians +were concerned, they ensured their object, conquering and in great +measure exterminating the Hurons, the Neutral Nation, and the Eries; +but they knew well that the few Frenchmen in Canada were more +dangerous to their ascendency, and possibly to their existence, than +any native tribe or race, however numerous. The French began by +making the Iroquois their foes. Champlain had hardly <a name="page62"></a>settled at +Quebec, when he joined the Hurons and Algonquins in an expedition +against them. Thenceforward the Five Nations were the enemies of +France. This result would probably have followed in any case, and it +is difficult to suppose that one early action determined all +succeeding history. It was rather the beginning of an inevitable +struggle for the control of the upper St. Lawrence and of the +Canadian fur trade. On all sides of their own country the Iroquois, +like other masterful peoples, extended their sphere of influence; but +their real outlet was to the north, towards the lakes and the great +river. On this side the white men were most active and restless, ever +sending their emissaries a little further on, ever putting themselves +in evidence in some new tribe or village.<small><small><sup>18</sup></small></small> The French were not +content to live outside the Indians; nor were they content, having +found a resting-place, to stay there. To be in and among the natives, +to control and to convert them, to be the recognized protectors of +the land and its peoples, to be the ultimate recipients of the +produce of the country, and the guardians of the channels by which +the produce was conveyed—no smaller aims sufficed for the French in +Canada. In the pursuit of these objects they directly competed with +the Iroquois Indians. Great was the territory, few in number were the +Frenchmen and Iroquois alike; but they were rivals for ascendency on +the same river, and there was not room for both.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>17</sup></small> <i>Calendar of State Papers,</i> Colonial, 1685-8, No. 1160, +pp. 328-9, Dongan to the Lords of Trade, March, 1687.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>18</sup></small> 'But this justice must be done to the French, that they +far exceeded the English in the daring attempts of some of their +inhabitants, in travelling very far among unknown Indians, +discovering new countries, and everywhere spreading the fame of the +French name and grandeur' (Colden, p. 35).</small></blockquote> + +<p>Because they were enemies of the French, the Iroquois naturally +became the allies of the English; but before they had much, if any +experience of the latter, they had come into contact with a third +European people, the Dutch on the Hudson river.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote72"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Dutch<br> + on the<br> + Hudson river.<br> + <br> + <br> + New<br> + Netherland.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1609, the year after the founding of Quebec, Henry <a name="page63"></a>Hudson, an +Englishman in the Netherlands service, sailed at the beginning of +September into the river which still bears his name, seeking, as he +sought till his death, a North-West Passage to Asia. The name of New +Netherland was formally given to the scene of his discovery in 1614, +and in 1615 a small fort was built on Manhattan Island—the first +little seed of the city of New York. In 1621, the Netherlands West +India Company came into being; and in the following year New +Netherland, with the beaver trade, which was its chief attraction, +was placed in the hands of the company. In settling on the Hudson the +Dutch conflicted with English claims, and the Government of the +Netherlands seem to have recognized that there was a flaw in their +title. However, the existence of New Netherland as a Dutch possession +continued till the year 1664, when it was surrendered to an English +force sent out by the Duke of York, who had obtained from his +brother, Charles II, a grant of the territory. The English occupation +was confirmed by the Peace of Breda in 1667; and though a Dutch fleet +recovered the colony in 1673, in the following year, by the Treaty of +Westminster, it was finally given up to the English.</p> + +<p>New Amsterdam, afterwards New York, was the chief settlement of New +Netherland; but Dutch trade and colonization extended up the valley +of the Hudson, where tracts of land were obtained by <i>patroons</i> or +large landowners, who were granted exclusive privileges by the +company on condition of planting families of settlers upon their +holdings. The chief inland colony was Rensselaerswyck, called after +an Amsterdam merchant of the name of Rensselaer, and its centre was +Fort Orange, now Albany; while on the Mohawk river, about twenty +miles above its confluence with the Hudson, and rather less in a +direct line from Albany, was the settlement of Schenectady.<small><small><sup>19</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>19</sup></small> For an account of the Dutch on the Hudson see <i>A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to New Netherland,</i> by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Müller, 1868), referred to above. See also Justin Winsor's +<i>Narrative and Critical History of America,</i> vol. iv, chap. viii.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote73"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Friendship<br> + between<br> + the Dutch<br> + and the<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page64"></a> +<p>Traders wherever they went, all the world over, the Dutchmen were at +pains to keep peace with the Iroquois. Their dealings with them were +on the same lines as the dealings of their countrymen with the +Hottentots in the early days of the Cape Colony.<small><small><sup>20</sup></small></small> They bought and +sold, and got good value for their money, paying, for instance, no +more than forty florins for Manhattan Island. But the mere fact of +paying for what they took was in their favour, for it was a +recognition that the natives were the rightful owners of the land. In +course of time they came into conflict with the Mohican Indians along +the banks of the Hudson; but with the Five Nations, the nearest of +whom were the Mohawks, they were ever in friendship. They were not +actually in the Mohawk country, but on its borders; they were +neighbours, not intruders; they took the furs which the Indians had +to barter, giving in exchange European goods, and notably firearms. +Thus Albany became a friendly meeting-place between the Iroquois +Indians and the white men of the Hudson colony. The two peoples did +not clash with one another in any way, but met as friends and equals, +and supplied each others' wants.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>20</sup></small> See vol. iv of this series, chap. ii, p. 43.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The one object of the Dutch being to trade, and the whole people +being traders, a twofold result followed, promoting friendly +relations between them and the Mohawks. Not only did the Indians +realize that they had nothing to fear, and much to gain, from having +for their neighbours Europeans who had no views of war or conquest, +and through whose agency they could arm themselves against the more +aggressive Europeans on the Canadian side; but also, as we may well +suppose, the Dutch traders included the best of the Dutchmen, which +was not the case with either the French or the English. At any rate, +we read that the Dutch in the Hudson valley 'gained the hearts of the +Five Nations by <a name="page65"></a>their kind usage',<small><small><sup>21</sup></small></small> and in memory of a Dutchman +named Cuyler, whom the Indians held in special honour, the Iroquois +in after years always gave to the British Governor of New York the +title of 'Corlaer'.<small><small><sup>22</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>21</sup></small> Colden, vol. i, p. 34.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>22</sup></small> Parkman's <i>Count +Frontenac</i> (1885 ed.), p. 93, note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote74"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + inherited<br> + the Iroquois<br> + alliance.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Into this kindly heritage the English entered;<small><small><sup>23</sup></small></small> and, though their +treatment of the Indians left much to be desired, the alliance, if +often strained, was, in the case of the Mohawks at any rate, never +sundered; and finally, at the close of the War of Independence, many +of the Five Nation Indians, after fighting for England, migrated into +Canada, and were assigned lands in the province of Ontario, where +their descendants are still to be found. In the words of the Indian +orators, a chain of friendship held together the English and the +Iroquois. 'Our chain,' they said, 'is a strong chain, it is a silver +chain, it can neither rust nor be broken';<small><small><sup>24</sup></small></small> and it would be +difficult to overrate the advantage which accrued to the English +colonies from their traditional alliance with the strongest natives +of North America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>23</sup></small> Colden, as above, 'In 1664, New York being taken by the +English, they likewise entered into a friendship with the Five +Nations.'</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>24</sup></small> Colden, p. 125.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote75"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + founding<br> + of Quebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the summer of 1608, Champlain founded the first French settlement +at Quebec. A year before, the English had settled at Jamestown in +Virginia. A year later, the Dutch found their way to the Hudson. Till +his death, at the end of 1635, the story of Champlain is the story of +Canada. His colleagues in the new enterprise were men with whom he +had already worked in Acadia—De Monts and Pontgravé. De Monts had +obtained from the King one year's monopoly of the Canadian fur trade, +and two ships which he sent to the St. Lawrence were in charge of +Pontgravé and Champlain respectively. Pontgravé, the merchant, stayed +at Tadoussac through the summer, bartering with the Indians and +coming to blows with Basque traders, who held <a name="page66"></a>the French King's +patent of little account. Champlain, the explorer, went higher up the +river, and erected wooden buildings by the water-side, on the site of +the lower town of Quebec. There he stayed through the winter, while +his friend went home, and, when Pontgravé returned in the following +summer, travels and adventures began which made Champlain's name +great among the Indian tribes of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote76"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Champlain's<br> + explorations<br> + and collision<br> + with the<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His first expedition, in 1609, was to the lake which is still called +after him. He went as an ally of the Huron and the Algonquin Indians +against their enemies the Iroquois. Up the St. Lawrence, up the +Richelieu, and on to Lake Champlain he took his way, and at the head +of the lake, somewhere near the site where Fort Ticonderoga +afterwards stood, the white men's firearms dispersed the warriors of +the Five Nations and won a victory. The summer of 1609 ended, and +Champlain went back to France, returning to Canada in the following +spring.<small><small><sup>25</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>25</sup></small> Canada was first known as New France after Champlain's +return to Europe, in 1609 (Charlevoix's <i>Histoire Générale de la +Nouvelle France,</i> 1744 ed., vol. i, bk. iv, p. 149).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote77"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His<br> + difficulties<br> + in France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>De Monts' monopoly had expired and had not been renewed, but none the +less he and his associates persevered in their enterprise, opening up +the trade of the St. Lawrence, while others shared the profits. Again +Champlain joined forces with the friendly Indians against the +Iroquois, and a second victory was the result. Before the summer of +1610 ended, he was back in Europe, having learnt in the meantime that +his friend and patron, King Henry IV, had been stabbed to death in +the streets of Paris. On his next visit to Canada, in 1611, he +cleared the ground for a future settlement at Montreal, having noted +its advantages as a meeting-place for the Indian tribes from the +Ottawa and the great lakes. The late months of that year and the +whole of 1612 he spent in France, trying to devise some organization +under which the work of building up the French power in Canada <a name="page67"></a>might +be successfully carried on. There was now no company in existence, +there was no royal mandate; personal favour and protection had passed +away with the death of Henry of Navarre. The French court was a scene +of growing priestly influence and of numberless intrigues; while New +France on the St. Lawrence was a 'no man's land,' infested in summer +time by crowds of fur-traders, who owned no rule and knew no law, in +winter deserted by white men, except the few struggling settlers at +Quebec. To form some kind of trade's union under an acknowledged +authority was the one thing needful, and with a view to this end +Champlain sought for and obtained the patronage of a member of the +royal house. The Count de Soissons, a Bourbon prince, was appointed +Lieutenant-General of the King for New France, and when he died, +shortly after his appointment, the place was taken by another +Bourbon, the Prince of Condé. The deputy of these princes was +Champlain himself; he was given control over the Canadian fur trade, +and he endeavoured to reconcile the rival interests of the western +ports of France by forming a combination of traders, to which all +could be admitted who had an interest in Canada. The scheme was +partially carried out, but unfortunately jealousies, commercial and +religious, precluded the establishment of a single united company.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote78"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The imposture<br> + of Nicolas<br> + de Vignau.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>To make money by trade for himself or others was not the first object +of Champlain's life. Exploration, with the Indies as its final goal, +was in his mind, and the formation of a colony which should indeed be +New France. While he still sojourned in Europe, a Frenchman, Nicolas +de Vignau, came back from Canada, telling a tale that up the Ottawa +river and beyond its sources he had found an outlet to the sea. Early +in 1613 Champlain recrossed the Atlantic, went up the St. Lawrence to +Montreal Island, and thence, taking De Vignau with him, followed the +course of the Ottawa as far as the Île des Allumettes. He went no +further. The <a name="page68"></a>story of a way to the sea was exposed, as a cunningly +devised fable, by the Indians of the upper Ottawa, among whom the +impostor had sojourned when he concocted his lies; and, but for +Champlain's interposition, he would then and there have paid for his +falsehood with his life. Champlain, however, spared him, retraced his +steps, and went back again to France, where he spent a year and more +before he again visited Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote79"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Recollet<br> + friars.<br> + <br> + <br> + Le Caron.<br> + <br> + <br> + The first<br> + mission to<br> + the Hurons.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Towards the end of May, 1615, he reached Quebec. He brought with him +this time a small band of missionaries, four friars of the Recollet +branch of the Franciscan order; and now mission work began in Canada. +One of the friars, Le Caron, with twelve other Frenchmen in the +company, visited for the first time the Huron country, and Champlain +followed close upon his steps. Ascending the Ottawa for the second +time, he passed the point which he had reached two years before, and +by the Mattawa river and Lake Nipissing came to the shores of Lake +Huron. Coasting southward along Georgian Bay, he found himself at +length among the Huron towns, where Le Caron was already busy +preaching a new faith to the heathen. An expedition against the +Iroquois had been determined on, and with the Huron warriors and +their allies, Champlain set out for the enemy's land. His route took +him across Lake Simcoe, down the series of small lakes which feed the +river Trent, and by that river to Lake Ontario, then seen by him for +the first time. Crossing the lake, he landed at the site of Oswego, +and marched into the midst of the Five Nations' cantons. From the +military point of view the expedition was a disastrous failure, for +an attack on a palisaded Iroquois town miscarried, Champlain himself +was wounded, and the invaders retreated beaten and disheartened. +Among the Hurons Champlain spent the winter; next year, returning +down the Ottawa, he came back to Quebec, in the midsummer of 1616, +and subsequently he sailed for France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote80"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Result of<br> + the first<br> + eight years<br> + of New<br> + France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page69"></a> +<p>Eight years had now passed since the founding of Quebec. Lakes Huron +and Ontario had been reached, the Ottawa route had been explored, the +friendship of the Hurons had been secured at the price of enmity with +the Iroquois, missionaries were converting or trying to convert the +Indians, and fur trading was briskly carried on; but colonization had +made as yet little or no way. There were a few permanent residents at +Quebec; but lower down at Tadoussac, and higher up at Three Rivers +and Montreal, where in the summer white men and coloured foregathered +to exchange their wares, in the winter no Frenchmen were to be found, +unless it were one or other of the much enduring Recollet +missionaries. In France it was the trade of Canada, not its +settlement, that was matter of concern. As in the case of +Newfoundland, the merchants of the western seaports of England set +themselves to keep the island from being permanently colonized, +anxious that the fishing traffic should remain in their own hands: so +in the case of Canada, the merchants of the western seaboard of +France regarded colonization as at best a useless expense, at worst a +measure by which they might lose command of the fur trade. The +climate of Newfoundland and of the St. Lawrence region was not such +as to induce Englishmen or Frenchmen to make these lands their homes. +Rather they seemed places for summer trips alone, to be left in +winter icebound and desolate. Trade interests and nature combined to +check the colonization of Canada; that anything was done in the way +of settlement in the early years of the seventeenth century was due +to missionary enthusiasm and to the foresight and tenacity of +Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote81"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Dispute<br> + among<br> + French<br> + traders.<br> + <br> + <br> + Company<br> + of the One<br> + Hundred<br> + Associates<br> + formed by<br> + Richelieu.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He had formed a company of merchants, chiefly connected with Rouen +and St. Malo, who nominally controlled the trade of the St. Lawrence; +but they were not at one amongst themselves, some were Catholics, +others were Huguenots, while the merchants of La Rochelle refused to +join the combination, <a name="page70"></a>and traded in defiance of the monopoly which +the rival towns claimed to possess. Various changes followed. About +the beginning of 1620, Condé was succeeded as Viceroy of New France +by the Duc de Montmorency, and in 1625 the latter sold his office to +his nephew the Duc de Ventadour. In 1621, the privileges enjoyed by +the Rouen and St. Malo company were transferred to two Huguenot +merchants, the brothers De Caen: the result was ill feeling, and on +the St. Lawrence open feuds between the old and the new monopolists, +until in 1623 some kind of union was formed. Eventually, in 1627, all +former privileges were annulled, and the control of Canada passed +into the hands of a new strong company, known as the One Hundred +Associates, at the head of which was Richelieu.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote82"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Building<br> + of the<br> + fort at<br> + Quebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>During these troubled years, amid the squabbles of conflicting +interests, the one source of strength and steadfastness for the +Frenchmen on the St. Lawrence was Champlain's own personality, while +the two principal events were the building of the fort at Quebec, and +the coming of the Jesuit missionaries. As Lieutenant of the King and +representative of the Viceroys of New France, Champlain's difficult +task was to hold the balance even between the rival traders and to +maintain some semblance of law and order along the water highway of +Canada. In former years, as an explorer he had obtained unrivalled +influence among the Indians; now, as Governor, he brought the same +qualities of tact and firmness into play in keeping the peace among +his turbulent countrymen. From 1620 to 1624, he was continuously in +Canada, and on the rock of Quebec he built a fort stronger and more +substantial than the wooden buildings which abutted on the river +below. Well situated, able to withstand ten thousand men,<small><small><sup>26</sup></small></small> such +was an English account a few years later of this fort, when enlarged +and completed—the fort <a name="page71"></a>St. Louis at Quebec. The merchants grudged +the money and the men for the work, but the building of a substantial +fortress on the St. Lawrence was a step forward towards the French +dominion of Canada.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>26</sup></small> <i>Calendar of State Papers,</i> Colonial, 1574-1660, p. +139, under the year 1632.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote83"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Coming of<br> + the Jesuits<br> + to Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + Their<br> + policy.<br> + <br> + <br> + Supported<br> + by the<br> + French<br> + Government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The year 1625 was the year in which the first Jesuit missionaries +came into Canada. In that year the Duc de Ventadour became Viceroy of +New France: he was closely connected with the Jesuit order, and began +his régime by sending out priests at his own expense. Their coming +marked an epoch in Canadian history. The Franciscan brethren, who +were already in the field, and who welcomed the new-comers on their +arrival, were men of a different stamp. Devoted missionaries, they +kept to their work; they claimed, outwardly at least, no religious +monopoly; they had no wish to control the temporal power; and they +lived at peace with all men. The Jesuits, on the other hand, imported +religious despotism. The Jesuit emissaries were brave men, none more +so; they were self-sacrificing to an extreme, venturesome and +tenacious, indifferent to danger, and fearless of death. They were +tactful in their dealings with the Indians, and were trained in a +school of diplomacy which has never been excelled. But they were the +champions of exclusiveness, and the enemies of freedom. Their coming +meant that one form of religion was to supplant all others—that the +spiritual power was, as far as in them lay, to dominate all things +and all men; and that while much was to be done, it was to be done +for instead of by the colonists and the natives, from above instead +of from below, on a rigid system—strong in itself but inimical to +healthy growth, to that variety of life, of thought, and of outward +form which helps on the expansion of a young community. From their +training and their organization, the Jesuits would in any case have +had great influence on the fortunes of the land to which they came; +but their influence was greater in that their despotic views +harmonized for the time being with the policy <a name="page72"></a>of the Bourbon Kings +and their ministers. For absolute monarchy had taken root in France; +and in the French dependencies, as in the mother country, there was +to be henceforth political and religious despotism. That the +spiritual power might grow too strong was a distant danger, and in +France hardly a practical possibility. In the meantime Kings and +priests went hand in hand, co-operating against liberty in church and +state alike. Protestantism meant liberty. The Jesuits abhorred the +Huguenots because they deemed them heretics: the French Kings and +their ministers oppressed them rather on political than on religious +grounds, but were glad to use the religious argument in support of +political aims.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote84"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Oppression<br> + of the<br> + Huguenots<br> + in France.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its effects<br> + in Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + Huguenots<br> + excluded<br> + from New<br> + France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On the death of Henry IV in 1610, his young son, Louis XIII, became +King of France. In 1624 Richelieu became his minister. In 1627 the +discontent of the Huguenots culminated in the open revolt of the town +of La Rochelle; and its fall, after a ten months' siege, gave the +King and the cardinal mastery over the Protestants of France. The +effect on Canada of this unsuccessful rising was twofold. It involved +the exclusion of Huguenot settlers, and it involved also the +hostility of England. The patent granted in 1627 to the company of +New France, known as the One Hundred Associates, provided that every +colonist who went out to Canada must be a Catholic, and when in the +following year Richelieu received the submission of the Rochellois, +he was well able to enforce this arbitrary provision. It is difficult +at the present day to comprehend a policy, initiated and approved by +a statesman of consummate ability, which could not but result in +blighting the infancy of the greatest French colony. The English +colonies were in the main pre-eminently homes of freedom, +dwelling-places for men whose political and religious opinions found +scant favour in the United Kingdom. For the English race the New +World redressed the balance of the Old; and though the <a name="page73"></a>colonists who +went out from Europe to America, were in their turn prejudiced and +narrow-minded, their want of tolerance was not forced upon them from +without, and members of one or other unpopular sect, when persecuted +in one province, could find refuge in another. Maryland was a British +colony, founded under Roman Catholic auspices; its neighbour, +Pennsylvania, was founded and dominated by Quaker influence; +throughout British North America there were examples of all opinions +and of all creeds. The men on the spot quarrelled with and persecuted +each other; but persecution and exclusion were not ordained from +home. It would have been bad for the British Empire if from all +settlements, which the English formed and maintained, Roman Catholics +had been rigidly kept out; but it was far worse for France when her +Kings and ministers closed the French colonies to the Huguenots.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote85"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Merits of the<br> + Huguenots<br> + as colonists.<br> + <br> + <br> + War between<br> + England<br> + and France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Huguenots were the best of the French traders; they were men of +substance; they were capable, enterprising, and resolute. They were +beyond others of their countrymen, the pioneers of trade and +colonization, and had led the way in the New World. De Monts was a +Huguenot, the De Caens were Huguenots, Champlain himself is said to +have been of Huguenot parentage. The exclusion of the French +Protestants from Canada meant depriving Canada of the class of +Frenchmen who were most capable of colonizing the country and +developing its trade. Their fault, in the eyes of the French +Government, was their independence; that they did not conform to the +state religion, and that by not conforming they were politically an +element of danger. But what was deemed a fault in France would, in +colonizing America, have been a virtue; inasmuch as in the field of +adventure, trade, and settlement in new lands, the men who are least +bound by old-world systems and traditional views are of most value. +If fair play had been given to the French Protestants, Canada would +have been far stronger than it <a name="page74"></a>ever was while it belonged to France, +and probably it would have continued to belong to France down to the +present day. For the closing of Canada to the Huguenots, followed as +it was afterwards by their ejection from France, not only weakened +France and her colonies, but strengthened the rival nations and their +colonies. The French citizens who had begun to build up the French +colonial empire, helped to build up instead the colonial empires of +other European nations; and the oppressions which they suffered +brought them the sympathy, at times the armed sympathy, of the +Protestant nations of Europe. The rising of the citizens of La +Rochelle was accompanied by war between England and France. +Buckingham's expedition for the relief of the city, ill planned and +ill led, was a fiasco, completing the ruin of the Rochellois instead +of bringing them relief; but on the other side of the Atlantic, where +English adventurers could take advantage of a time of war without +being hampered by court favourites, there was a different tale to +tell.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote86"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>David<br> + Kirke</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Sir William Alexander,<small><small><sup>27</sup></small></small> a Scotch favourite of James I, had in the +year 1621 obtained from the King a grant of Acadia, or, as it was +styled in the patent, Nova Scotia. The patent was renewed by Charles +I. When war broke out between Great Britain and France, Alexander +combined with certain London merchants, styled 'Adventurers to +Canada,' or 'Adventurers in the Company of Canada,' to strike a blow +at the French in North America. Prominent among these merchants was +George Kirke, a Derbyshire man, who had married the daughter of a +merchant of Dieppe. Three ships were fitted out under the command of +Kirke's three sons, David, Lewis, and Thomas, David Kirke being in +charge of the expedition. The Kirkes were furnished with letters of +marque from the King, authorizing <a name="page75"></a>them to attack French ships and +French settlements in America; and, well armed and equipped, they +sailed over the Atlantic, entering the St. Lawrence at the beginning +of July, 1628.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>27</sup></small> A further account of Sir William Alexander is given +<a href="#page173">below</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote87"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>attacks the<br> + French on<br> + the St.<br> + Lawrence<br> + <br> + <br> + and<br> + destroys<br> + a French<br> + fleet.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Below Quebec was the trading station at Tadoussac, and higher up than +Tadoussac, less than thirty miles below Quebec, there was a small +farming establishment—a 'petite ferme'—at Cape Tourmente, whence +the garrison at Quebec drew supplies. Kirke took up his position at +Tadoussac, and sent a small party up the river, who burnt and rifled +the buildings at Cape Tourmente and killed the cattle. He then +dispatched some of his prisoners to Quebec and called upon Champlain +to surrender. The summons was rejected, though the garrison was in +sore straits. The Iroquois had been of late on the warpath, and the +inroads of Indians on the one hand and of English on the other, meant +starvation to the handful of men on the rock of Quebec. Yet Richelieu +had not been unmindful of Canada. While these events were happening, +a French fleet of eighteen vessels had sailed from Dieppe, laden with +arms and supplies, and bringing also some settlers with their +families, and the inevitable accompaniment of priests. It was the +first effort made by the newly formed French company, an earnest of +their intention to give strength and permanence to New France. The +expedition reached Gaspé Point, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence; +but between them and Quebec were the Kirkes and their ships. Instead +of moving up the river to attack Quebec, the English admiral went +down the river to intercept the new-comers. The English ships were +but three to eighteen; but the three ships were fitted and manned for +war. The French vessels were transports only, freighted with stores +and non-combatants, unable either to fight or to escape. On July 18, +Kirke attacked them, and seventeen out of the eighteen ships fell +into his hands. Ten vessels he emptied and burnt, the rest of his +prizes, <a name="page76"></a>with all the cargo and prisoners, he carried off in triumph +to Newfoundland.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote88"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>First<br> + English<br> + capture of<br> + Quebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was bitterness in France when the news came of this great +disaster; there was distress and hopelessness at Quebec, where +Champlain still held out through the following winter. Kirke had gone +back to England; but when July came round again in 1629, he +reappeared in the St. Lawrence, with a stronger fleet than before. +The Frenchmen at Quebec were by this time starved out, they had no +alternative but to surrender; and on July 22, 1629, the English flag +was for the first time hoisted on the rocky citadel of Canada. There +was little booty for the conquerors, nothing but beaver skins, which +were subsequently sequestrated, and Canadian pines were cut down to +freight the English ships. Kirke's ships carried back to England +Champlain and his companions, who thence returned to their homes in +France; and Quebec was left in charge of an English garrison.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote89"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Convention<br> + of Susa and<br> + Treaty of St.<br> + Germain-en-Laye.<br> + <br> + <br> + Canada given<br> + back to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Merchant Adventurers had done their work well. With little or no +loss, unaided by the Government, they had driven the French from +Canada and annexed New France. Had Queen Elizabeth been on the throne +of England, she would have scolded and then approved; and would have +kept for her country the fruits of English daring and English +success. The bold freebooter, Kirke, would have found favour in her +eyes; she would have honoured and rewarded him, as she honoured and +rewarded Drake. But the Stuarts were cast in a different mould, and +no English minister at the time was a match for Richelieu. Before +Quebec had fallen, Charles of England and Louis of France had +concluded the Convention of Susa, on April 24, 1629; and the Treaty +of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed nearly three years later, on March 29, +1632, definitely restored to France her possessions in North +America.<small><small><sup>28</sup></small></small> No consideration was +<a name="page77"></a>embodied in the treaty for the +surrender of Canada, but State Papers have made clear that the price +was the unpaid half of Queen Henrietta Maria's marriage dowry. For +this sum, already due and wrongly outstanding, Canada was sold. It +was a pitiful proceeding, unworthy of an English King, but typical of +a Stuart. It is noteworthy that early in the seventeenth century both +the Cape and Canada might have become and remained British colonies. +In 1620 two sea captains formally annexed the Cape, before any +settlement had as yet been founded at Table Bay; but their action was +never ratified by the Government at home.<small><small><sup>29</sup></small></small> Nine years later Kirke +took Quebec, and again the work was undone. So the Dutch in the one +case, and the French in the other, made colonies where the English +might have run their course; and generations afterwards, Great +Britain took again, with toil and trouble, what her adventurers, with +truer instinct than her rulers possessed, had claimed and would have +kept in earlier days. It is noteworthy, too, that state policy was in +great measure responsible for the earlier French loss of Canada, as +it was mainly responsible for the later. It is true that Quebec was +taken while the French Protestants were still to some extent +tolerated, and that a Protestant, De Caen, was selected to receive it +back again, when the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye was carried into +effect. But there were Huguenots on board Kirke's ships, serving +under a commander whose mother was of Huguenot blood; and the schism +which had broken out in France and <a name="page78"></a>culminated for the time in the +siege and fall of La Rochelle, left the best of the French traders +and colonizers half-hearted servants of France. Canada was given +back, but it was given back to the French Government rather than to +the French people; and, as years went on, the St. Lawrence saw no +more of the stubborn, strong heretics who had sung their Protestant +hymns on its banks. Frenchmen, as gallant as they were, had +afterwards the keeping of Canada; but, state-ridden and +priest-ridden, they lacked initiative and commercial enterprise. +Freedom was to be found in the backwoods among the <i>coureurs de +bois,</i> but it was the freedom of lawlessness, unleavened by the +steadfast sobriety which marked the Calvinists of France.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>28</sup></small> The Convention of Susa provided that all acts of +hostility should cease, and that the articles and contracts as to the +marriage of the English Queen should be confirmed. The Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye, or rather one of two treaties signed on the same +day, provided for the restitution to France of all places occupied by +the English in New France, Acadia, and Canada. Instructions to make +restitution were to be given to the commanders at Port Royal, Fort +Quebec, and Cape Breton. General de Caen was named in the treaty as +the French representative to arrange for the evacuation of the +English. The places were to be restored in the same condition as they +had been in at the time of capture, all arms taken were to be made +good, and a sum was to be paid for the furs, &c., which had been +carried off.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>29</sup></small> See vol. iv of this series, pt. 1, p. 19.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote90"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Champlain.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In July, 1632, the French regained Quebec. In May, 1633, Champlain +came back to Canada. For two and a half years he governed it under +the French company, and on Christmas Day, 1635, he died at Quebec in +the sixty-ninth year of his age. New France owed all to him. Amid +every form of difficulty and intrigue, in Europe and in America, +among white men and among red, he had held resolutely to his purpose. +His life was pure, his aims were high, his judgment sound, and his +foresight great. He lived for the country in which he was born and +for that in which he died; but 'the whole earth is the sepulchre of +famous men',<small><small><sup>30</sup></small></small> and not in France or Canada alone is lasting honour +paid to his name.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>30</sup></small> Thuc., bk. ii, chap. xliii (Jowett's translation).</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For Canadian history down to the death of Champlain, see, +among modern books, more especially<br> +<br> + P<small>ARKMAN'S</small> <i>Pioneers of France in the New World,</i> and<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. i.</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap3"></a><a name="page79"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> +<center>T<small>HE</small> S<small>ETTLEMENT OF</small> C<small>ANADA +AND THE</small> F<small>IVE</small> N<small>ATION</small> I<small>NDIANS</small></center> +<br> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote91"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Colonization<br> + by the medium<br> + of Chartered<br> + Companies<br> + characteristic<br> + of the nations<br> + of Northern<br> + Europe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>To trade and to colonize through the medium of Chartered Companies +has been characteristic of the nations of Northern Europe. Chartered +Companies have not been peculiar to England. The Dutch worked +entirely through two great companies; the Danes adopted the same +system; and various companies played their part in the early history +of French colonization. Herein lay the main difference, in the field +of colonial enterprise, between the northern peoples and the +southerners who had preceded them. In the case of Spain and Portugal +all was done under the immediate control of the Crown. These two +nations were concerned with conquest rather than with settlement; +and, if the Portuguese were traders, their commerce was not the +result of private venture, but was created and supported by the +Government. The Spaniards and Portuguese were first in the field. +East and West lay before them, and they divided the world in secure +monopoly. The northerners came in—they came in tentatively; policy +kept the Governments in the background for fear of incurring war, and +freedom of individual action was more ingrained in these races than +in the Latin peoples of the south. So freebooters sailed here and +there, at one time honoured, at another in disgrace; merchants took +shares in this or that venture, and Chartered Companies came into +being.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote92"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French<br> + Chartered<br> + Companies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the case of Holland, the Netherlands East India Company and the +Netherlands West India Company practically <a name="page80"></a>included the whole nation: +the state and the companies were co-extensive. In England, the +companies were really private concerns, licensed by the Government, +often thwarted by the Government, but, in the main, working out their +own salvation or their own ruin, as the case might be. In France +there was a mixture of the northern and the southern systems, as of +the northern and the southern blood. There, as in England, the +companies were private associations, but Court favour was to them the +breath of life. Kings and ministers constantly interfered, created +and undid, conferred licences and revoked them, until in no long time +the Chartered Company system lost all that makes it valuable, and +Frenchmen learnt to look to the Crown alone.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote93"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The company<br> + of the One<br> + Hundred<br> + Associates.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Trade jealousies hampered the beginnings of Canadian settlement; +there was neither free trade in Canada nor unquestioned monopoly. To +cure this evil Richelieu, in 1627, brought into being the company of +the One Hundred Associates, nominally a private association, really +the offspring of the Government. Its sphere extended from Florida to +the North Sea, and from east to west as far as discovery should +extend along the rivers of Canada. It controlled all trade except the +fisheries, and it enjoyed sovereign rights in so far that it was +entitled to confer titles and tenures, subject to the approval of the +Crown. The chief officers were to be nominated by the King, but under +the Sovereign the company was feudal lord of New France; of its soil +and its inland waters, with all that they produced. A statesman +projected the company, and, with keen insight into the wants of New +France, Richelieu laid down as one of the terms of its charter that +settlers were to be introduced in specified numbers, especially and +immediately settlers of the artisan class; but these provisions were +made to a large extent barren by excluding the Huguenots. At the +outset the new French company, with all its backing, was foiled in +its efforts by the English Merchant Adventurers. The first transports +<a name="page81"></a>sent out, bearing settlers and supplies, were captured by Kirke. +Quebec fell and New France was lost. The Convention of Susa and the +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye were signed and executed, and the One +Hundred Associates resumed their charge of Canada. Under them +Champlain held the government of New France till he died, being +succeeded by a soldier, M. de Montmagny, who reached Quebec in June, +1636.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote94"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Three Rivers.<br> + Montreal.<br> + Sorel.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1634, while Champlain was still alive, a fort was begun at Three +Rivers. The first permanent settlement at Montreal dates from the +spring of 1642, and in the same year Fort Richelieu was founded on +the site of the present town of Sorel,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> where the Richelieu—the +river of the Iroquois—joins the St. Lawrence. For many years Quebec, +Three Rivers, and Montreal practically comprised New France. Outside +them were fur-traders and Jesuit missionaries, carrying their lives +in their hands. A few farms were taken up along the river above and +below Quebec, but colonization was almost non-existent, and small +groups of priests and soldiers at two or three points on the St. +Lawrence feebly upheld the power of France in North America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> 'So called from M. de Saurel, who reconstructed the fort +in 1665' (Kingsford's <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. i, p. 185).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote95"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Slow progress<br> + of Canada<br> + up to 1663.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The company of the One Hundred Associates lasted till 1663, and +little they did for the land or for themselves. At the end of their +tenure, the whole French population of Canada hardly reached 2,500 +souls. It had been an integral part of the company's programme to +people Canada with French men and French women, but, inasmuch as +Huguenots were rigidly excluded, the motive for emigration was +wanting. The Catholic citizens of France were comfortable at home. +They might wish to trade with Canada, but they did not wish to spend +their lives there. The soldiers of France went out only under orders; +they looked for brighter battlefields than the North American +backwoods. Priests and nuns <a name="page82"></a>alone felt a call to cross the Atlantic, +to face the most rigorous winters and the most savage foes. The +French religion was firmly planted in North America during these +early years, but the French people were left behind.</p> + +<p>De Montmagny was Governor for twelve years, till 1648. His successors +under the company's régime were D'Ailleboust, De Lauzon, the Vicomte +d'Argenson, and Baron d'Avaugour. Under the Governors there were +commandants of the garrisons at Three Rivers and Montreal; and from +1636 onwards there was some kind of Council for framing ordinances +and regulating the administration of justice, the Governor and the +leading ecclesiastics being always members, and representatives of +the settlers being from time to time admitted. In 1645, moreover, the +company was reorganized, and the fur trade, which had been vested in +the Associates, was handed over to the colonists. Notwithstanding, +there was little increase of strength and little growth of population +till the year 1663, and up to that date the history of Canada is no +more than a record of savage warfare and missionary enterprise.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote96"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + foundation<br> + of Montreal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Religious enthusiasts founded Montreal, and the foundation of +Montreal was a challenge to the Iroquois. Always the enemies of the +French, the Five Nations saw in the settlement a new menace to their +power. Above the Richelieu river, they looked on the St. Lawrence as +more especially within their own domain; and when Frenchmen took up +ground on the island of Montreal, the Indians resented the intrusion +with savage bitterness and with more than savage foresight. On the +part of the French, state policy had nothing to say to the new +undertaking, nor was it a commercial venture. It was simply and +solely the outcome of religious zeal untempered by discretion.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote97"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Jesuits<br> + in Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + They did<br> + not promote<br> + colonization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Jesuits had abundantly advertised in France the spiritual needs +of Canada. They had much to tell, and they told it well, skilful in +narrative as they were bold in action. <a name="page83"></a>They attracted money to the +missionary cause, they enlisted brave men, and, still more, brave and +beautiful women. Convents were founded in America, and hospitals; +priests and nuns led and lost heroic lives, to widen the influence of +the Roman Catholic Church, and to convert the heathen. The deeds +done, and the sufferings endured, commanded, and still command +admiration, yet withal there was an element of barrenness in the +work; it was magnificent, but it was not colonization. It was unsound +in two main essentials. First and foremost, liberty was wanting. The +white men and the red were to be dominated alike: North America and +its peoples were to be in perpetual leading strings, prepared for +freedom in the world to come by unquestioning obedience on this side +the grave. The Protestant, however narrow and prejudiced in his +dealings and mode of life, in theory held and preached a religion +which set free, a gospel of glorious liberty. The Roman Catholic +missionary preached and acted self-sacrifice so complete, that all +freedom of action was eliminated. There was a second and a very +practical defect in the system. What Canada wanted was a white +population, married settlers, men with wives and children. What the +Jesuits asked for, and what they secured, was a following of +celibates, men and women sworn to childlessness. The Protestant +pastor in New England lived among his flock as one of themselves; he +made a human home, and gave hostages to fortune; a line of children +perpetuated his name, and family ties gave the land where he settled +another aspect than that of a mission field. The Roman Catholic +priest was tied to his church, but to nothing else. At her call he +was here to-day, and, it might be, gone to-morrow. He more than +shared the sufferings and the sorrows of those to whom he ministered, +but his life was apart from theirs, and he left no children behind +him. Martyrs and virgins the Roman Catholic Church sent out to +Canada, but it did not send out men and women. In comparing <a name="page84"></a>English +and French colonization in America, two points of contrast stand out +above all others—the much larger numbers of English settlers, and +the much greater activity of French missionaries. Both facts were in +great measure due to the influence of the Roman Catholic religion, +and notably to the celibacy of its ministers.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote98"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Religious<br> + enthusiasts<br> + in Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Histories of Canada give full space to the names, the characters, and +the careers of the bishops, priests, and nuns who moulded the +childhood of New France, and to the struggle for supremacy between +the Jesuits and rival sects. We have portraits of the Jesuit heroes +Breboeuf, Lalemant, Garnier, Isaac Jogues, and many others; of the +ladies whose wealth or whose personal efforts founded the Hôtel Dieu +at Quebec and at Montreal; of Madame de la Peltrie, Marie Guyard the +Mčre de l'Incarnation, Jeanne Mance, and Marguerite Bourgeoys; of +Laval the first of Canadian bishops; but the record of their devoted +lives has only an indirect bearing on the history of colonization. It +will be enough to notice very shortly the founding of Montreal, and +the episode of the Huron missions, as being landmarks in Canadian +story.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote99"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montreal<br> + settled by<br> + a company<br> + connected<br> + with St.<br> + Sulpice.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Montreal, it will be remembered, had been in Cartier's time the site +of an Indian town, which afterwards disappeared. Champlain had marked +it out as a place for a future settlement, and the keen eyes of the +Jesuits looked to the island as a mission centre. It had become the +property of De Lauzon, one of the One Hundred Associates and +afterwards Governor of Canada, and he transferred his grant to a +company, the Company of Montreal, formed exclusively for the service +of religion, and especially connected with the priests of St. +Sulpice. The first settlers numbered about sixty in all, in charge of +a chivalrous soldier, De Maisonneuve, and including one of the +religious heroines of the time, Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, who was +entrusted with funds by a rich French lady to found a hospital. They +arrived in Canada in 1641, <a name="page85"></a>and in spite of the warnings of the +Governor, who urged that they should settle within reach of Quebec on +the Island of Orleans, they chose their site at Montreal in the same +autumn, and in the following spring began to build a settlement. +Ville Marie was the name given to it at the time, the enterprise +being dedicated to the Virgin. At the first ceremony, on landing, a +Jesuit priest bade the little band of worshippers be of good courage, +for they were as the grain of mustard seed; and now the distant, +dangerous outpost of France in North America, which a few +whole-hearted zealots founded, has become the great city of Montreal.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote100"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The influence<br> + of religion on<br> + colonization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Religion has been a potent force in colonial history. On the one hand +it has promoted emigration. It carried the Huguenots from France to +other lands. It peopled New England with Puritans. On the other hand, +it has sent forerunners of the coming white men among the coloured +races, bearers of a message of peace, but too often bringing in their +train the sword. As explorers and as pioneers, missionaries have done +much for colonization; but from another point of view they have +endangered the cause by going too fast and too far. In South Africa, +a hundred years ago, the work, the speeches, and the writings of +Protestant missionaries led indirectly to the dispersion of +colonists, to race feuds, and to political complications which, but +for this agency, would certainly have been postponed, and might +possibly never have arisen. Similarly in Canada, Jesuit activity and +forwardness added to the difficulties and dangers with which the +French settlers and their rulers had to contend.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote101"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montreal<br> + and the<br> + Five Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Governor, who vainly attempted to dissuade the founders of +Montreal from going so far afield, was right in his warnings. Very +few were the French in North America, their struggle for existence +was hard, their enemies were watchful and unrelenting. Safety lay in +concentration, in making Quebec a strong and comparatively populous +centre, in keeping aloof from the Iroquois, instead of straying +within <a name="page86"></a>their range. To form a weak settlement 160 miles higher up the +river than Quebec, within striking distance of the Five Nations, was +to provoke the Indians and to offer them a prey. This was the +immediate result of the foundation of Montreal. Year after year went +by, and there was the same tale to tell: a tale of a hand to mouth +existence, of settlers cooped up within their palisades, ploughing +the fields at the risk of their lives, cut off by twos and threes, +murdered or carried into captivity. Moreover, between Montreal in its +weakness and the older and stronger settlement at Quebec, there was +an element of jealousy. What with rival commandants and rival +ecclesiastics, controversy within and ravening Iroquois without, the +early days of the French in Canada were days of sorrow.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote102"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Huron<br> + missions.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Far away from civilization in the seventeenth century was Montreal, +but further still was the Huron country. The first white man to visit +the Hurons was the Recollet friar, Le Caron, in the year 1615, and +from that date onward, till Kirke took Quebec, a very few Franciscan +and Jesuit priests preached their faith by the shores of Georgian +Bay. Suspended for a short time, while the English held Canada, the +missions were resumed by the Jesuits in 1634, foremost among the +missionaries being Father de Breboeuf, who had already worked among +the Hurons, and came back to work and die.</p> + +<p>Few stories are so dramatic, few have been so well told<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> as the +tale of the Huron missions. No element of tragedy is wanting. The +background of the scene gives a sense of distance and immensity. The +action is comprised in very few years, years of bright promise, +speedily followed by absolute desolation. The contrast between the +actors on either side is as great as can be found in the range of +human life, between savages almost superhuman in savagery, and +Christian preachers almost superhuman in endurance and +<a name="page87"></a>self-sacrifice; and all through there runs the pity of it, the pathos +of a religion of love bearing as its first-fruits barren martyrdom +and wholesale extermination.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> By Francis Parkman +in <i>The Jesuits in North America</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay the Hurons dwelt, accessible to +the Frenchmen only by the Ottawa river and Lake Nipissing, for the +Iroquois barred the alternative route up the St. Lawrence and by Lake +Ontario. Montreal was left far behind, and many miles of a toilsome, +dangerous route were traversed, until by the shores of the great +freshwater sea were found the homes of a savage but a settled people. +To men inspired by religion and by Imperial views of religion, who +looked to be the ministers of a world-wide power, including and +dominating all the kingdoms of the earth, the greatness of the +distances, the remoteness of the land, the unbounded area of unknown +waters stretching far off to the west, were but calls to the +imagination and incentives to redoubled effort.</p> + +<p>But, ambitious as they were, the Jesuits were not mere enthusiasts: +they were practical and politic men, diplomatists in the American +backwoods as at the Court of France. Not wandering outcasts, like the +Algonquins of the lower St. Lawrence; not, like the Iroquois, wholly +given to perpetual murder; with some peaceful impulses, traders to a +small extent, and tillers of the ground, and above all, since +Champlain first came among them, sworn allies of the French—the +Hurons seemed such a people as might be moulded to a new faith, and +become a beacon attracting other North American natives to the light +of Christianity. So the Jesuit fathers went among them in 1634, and +in 1640 built and fortified a central mission station—St. Marie—a +mile from where a little river—the Wye—flows into an inlet of Lake +Huron.</p> + +<p>To convert a race of suspicious savages is no easy task. The priests +carried their lives in their hands. They were pitted against native +sorcerers, they were called upon to give <a name="page88"></a>rain, they were held +responsible for small-pox. Yet year by year, by genuine goodness and +by pious fraud, they made headway, until some eleven mission posts +were in existence among the Hurons and the neighbouring tribes, the +most remote station being at the outlet of Lake Superior. The promise +was good. Money was forthcoming from France. There were eighteen +priests at work, there were lay assistants, there was a handful of +French soldiers. Earthly as well as spiritual wants were supplied at +St. Marie, and far off in safety at Quebec was a seminary for Huron +children. It seemed as though on the far western horizon of discovery +and colonization, the Roman Catholic Church was achieving a signal +triumph, its agents being Frenchmen, and its political work being +credited to France. Yet after fifteen years all was over, and the +land was left desolate without inhabitants. The heathen learnt from +their Christian teachers to obey and to suffer, but in learning they +lost the spirit of resistance and of savage manhood. As in Paraguay, +a more submissive race, under Jesuit influence, dwindled in numbers, +so even the Hurons, after the French priests came among them, seem to +have become an easier prey than before to their hereditary foes.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote103"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Destruction<br> + of the<br> + missions by<br> + the Iroquois.<br> + <br> + <br> + Dispersion<br> + of the<br> + Hurons.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In July, 1648, the mission station of St. Joseph, fifteen miles from +St. Marie, was utterly destroyed, the priest in charge was shot dead, +and 700 prisoners were carried off. In the following year 1,200 +warriors of the Five Nations swept like a torrent through the Huron +cantons, fifteen native towns were attacked, ravaged, and burnt, and +the brave priest, De Breboeuf, was tortured and slain. Other devoted +missionaries shared his fate; the shepherds were slaughtered, and the +survivors of the flock were scattered abroad. For the Hurons made +little or no attempt to defend themselves; fear came upon them and +trouble; they fell down, and there was none to help them. The fort at +St. Marie stood, for even the Iroquois hesitated to attack armed +walls; but its purpose <a name="page89"></a>was gone with the slaughter and dispersion of +the Huron clans. The priests who still lived abandoned it, and spent +a miserable winter with a crowd of Indian fugitives on a neighbouring +island in Lake Huron. There too they built a fort; but famine and the +Iroquois followed them, and in 1650 they left the country, taking +with them to Quebec some 300 Huron converts. The refugees were +settled on the Isle of Orleans; yet even there, five or six years +later, they were attacked by the Iroquois, and at length they found a +secure abiding-place at Lorette, near the banks of the river St. +Charles. The rest of their kinsfolk were scattered abroad. Some were +incorporated in the Five Nations. Others, driven from point to point, +were found in after years at the northern end of Lake Michigan or at +Detroit, and, under the new name of Wyandots, played some part in +later Canadian history; but the Huron nation was blotted out, the +Huron country became a desert, and the light which had shone brightly +for a few years in the far-off land was put out for ever.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote104"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Weakness of<br> + the French<br> + in Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Most readers of the story of the Huron missions will study it mainly +as an episode in religious enterprise. They will note the heroism of +the Jesuit priests—their faithfulness unto death, their constancy +under torture and suffering not surpassed by the stoicism of the +North American Indians themselves. They will mourn the failure of +their efforts, the butchery, the martyrdom, but will record that all +was not absolutely thrown away; for even in the lodges of the Five +Nations we read that some of the nameless Hurons held to the faith +which their French teachers loved and served so well. But this is not +the true moral of the story. The significance of the events lay in +proving the French to be weak and the Iroquois to be strong, in +demonstrating with horrible thoroughness that the white men in Canada +were powerless to protect their friends, in thus making more +difficult what was difficult enough already, in retarding the +progress of <a name="page90"></a>European colonization in Canada. The want of +concentration, the attempt to do too much, the somewhat paralysing +influence of the particular form of the Christian religion which the +French brought with them—all these elements of weakness came out in +connexion with the Huron missions; and meanwhile precious years were +lost to France which could not be afterwards made good; for in these +same years the English, not producing martyrs and heroes, so much as +fathers of families, were taking firm root in North American soil, +plodding slowly but surely along the road to colonization.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote105"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The strength<br> + and ferocity<br> + of the<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Iroquois were like man-eating tigers. The taste of human blood +whetted their appetite for more. Fresh from the slaughter of the +Hurons, in 1650-1 they fell upon the Neutral Nation, whose home was +on the northern shore of Lake Erie, stretching to the east across the +Niagara river. The Neutrals had held aloof from Iroquois and Huron +alike, whence their name; but their neutrality did not protect them +from utter extermination at the hands of the Five Nations. Over +against them on the southern side of the lake were the Eries, second +to none as ferocious savages, and known to the French as the 'Nation +of the Cats.' Their turn came next, in 1654-5. They fought hard, +behind palisades and with poisoned arrows; but they too were blotted +out, and only on the south were left native warriors to cope with the +conquering Iroquois. These were the Andastes, on the line of the +Susquehanna river, who year after year gave blow for blow, until they +too succumbed to superior numbers.</p> + +<p>Nothing withstood the Five Nations; yet their fighting men were few, +and their losses great. For the time they nearly ruined the French +cause in Canada, but in the end their work of destruction rendered +the triumph of the white man more inevitable and more complete. They +broke up and killed out tribes, whose forces, if united to their own, +might have overwhelmed the Europeans; and in doing so <a name="page91"></a>they sapped +their own strength. They kept up their numbers only by the +incorporation of natives who had learned to look to Europeans for +guidance and support; and in course of time, fallen from their high +estate, they found salvation not as leaders of red men but as allies +of white.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote106"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Mission of<br> + Le Moyne<br> + to the Five<br> + Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It seems marvellous that the confederation held together, and there +were, it is true, occasional outbursts of inter-tribal jealousy and +suspicion. Difference of geographical position tended to difference +of policy. The most determined foes of the French were the +Mohawks—the easternmost nation, supplied with firearms by the +Dutchmen at Albany, and having easy access to the St. Lawrence. At +the other end of the line the Senecas had their hands full in the +Erie war, and were little disposed, while it lasted, to molest the +Europeans. In the centre, the Onondagas, always few in numbers and +already recruited by captive Hurons, were minded to attract to their +ranks the Huron refugees at Quebec. So about the autumn of 1653, +overtures of peace were made to the French, even the Mohawks for the +moment dissembling their enmity; and in the following year a Jesuit +priest, Le Moyne, was sent as an envoy to the Iroquois country.</p> + +<p>The mission was notable in more ways than one. Le Moyne was the first +white man to follow up the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Lake +Ontario, and his journey marked the beginning of diplomatic relations +between the French and the Iroquois. Thenceforward there was always +the nucleus of a French party among the Five Nations, the elements of +a divided policy in lieu of solid hostility to the French. Here was +an illustration too of the value of the Jesuit priests to the French +cause, as well as of the danger of employing them. None equalled +these priests in the statecraft necessary for dealing with savages, +but none were at the time in question so ready in season or out of +season to promote a forward policy, involving future complications +and dispersion of strength.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote107"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Attempt at<br> + a French<br> + settlement<br> + among the<br> + Five Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page92"></a> +<p>Le Moyne's mission was to the Onondagas, and its result was an +application from that tribe that a French settlement should be +established among them. The invitation was accepted; and in the +summer of 1656 between forty and fifty Frenchmen established +themselves on Lake Onondaga, in the very heart of the Iroquois +country. It was a desperate enterprise. The men could ill be spared +from Quebec, and they were but hostages among the Five Nations. The +Indians pretended peace, but even while the Onondagas were escorting +the Frenchmen up the river, the Mohawks attacked the expedition, and +subsequently under the very guns of Quebec carried off Huron captives +from the Isle of Orleans. For a little less than two years, the small +band of French colonists remained amid the Onondagas, in hourly peril +of their lives; and finally, towards the end of 1658, at dead of +night, while the Indians were overcome by gluttony and debauch, they +launched their boats and canoes on the Oswego river, reached Lake +Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and found themselves once more at +Montreal.</p> + +<p>It was a fit ending to the first stage of Canadian history—a +hopeless venture, a confession of weakness, a hairsbreadth escape. So +far there had been no colonization of Canada. There had been one +wise, far-seeing man—Champlain. Brave soldiers had come from France, +and still braver priests. There had been going in and out among the +natives, toil and hardship, adventure and loss of life. But the +French had as yet no real hold on Canada. Between Quebec and the +Three Rivers—between the Three Rivers and Montreal, not they but the +Iroquois were masters of the St. Lawrence. A trading company claimed +to rule: its rule was nothingness. Within Quebec bishops and +Governors quarrelled for precedence: under its walls the Mohawks +yelled defiance. Montreal, the story goes, was only saved by a band +of Frenchmen, who, in a log hut on the Ottawa, sold their lives as +dearly as the heroes of Greek or Roman legend; and to crown it all, +<a name="page93"></a>at the beginning of 1663, the shock of a mighty earthquake was felt +throughout the land, making the forts and convents tremble, sending, +as it were, a shiver through the feeble frame of New France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote108"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The One<br> + Hundred<br> + Associates<br> + surrender<br> + their charter.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was the prelude of a better time. In March, 1663, the One Hundred +Associates surrendered their charter to the Crown. A century later, +by the Peace of Paris in 1763, France lost Canada. In those hundred +years a fair trial was given to French colonization. How much was +done to leave the impress of a great nation on Canada, the province +of Quebec to-day will testify. Wherein the work was found wanting is +told in history.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote109"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Company<br> + of the West.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1663, we read, Canada became a Royal Province. It passed out of +the keeping of a company and came under the direct control of the +French King and his ministers. The statement requires some +modification, for in 1664 Colbert created a new Chartered Company, +the Company of the West, whose sphere, like that of the Netherlands +West India Company, included the whole of the western half of the +world, so far as it was or might be French—America North and South, +the West Indies, and West Africa. Canada was within the terms of its +charter, which included a monopoly of trade for forty years and, on +paper, sovereign rights within the wide limits to which the charter +extended. Thus the members of the company claimed to be feudal +Seigniors of the soil of New France and to nominate the Council of +Government, with the exception of the Governor and Intendant; while +from the dues which they levied the cost of government was to be +defrayed.</p> + +<p>Such was the outline and the intention of the scheme: the actual +result was that the carrying trade was monopolized by the company, +together with one-fourth of the beaver skins of all Canada, and the +whole of the traffic of the lower St. Lawrence, which centred at +Tadoussac. Out of their monopoly they paid all or part of the +expenses of government, <a name="page94"></a>but the administration practically remained +in the hands of the Crown. Like its predecessor, this company was a +miserable failure. It lasted for ten years only, and during those +years it was an incubus on Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote110"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Chartered<br> + Companies<br> + ill suited<br> + to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The truth was that Chartered Companies were alien to the genius of +France, or at any rate of Roman Catholic France—the France of the +Bourbons. Her greatest ministers, Richelieu and Colbert, were, it is +true, loth to discard the system. They wished to give French +merchants a direct interest in building up a colonial empire. They +saw the English working by means of companies. They saw the Dutch +giving to the state the outward semblance of private enterprise. +Companies, they argued, would promote French trade and colonization, +as they had promoted the trade and colonization of rival nations. But +Richelieu and Colbert were despotic ministers of arbitrary Kings; the +companies which they created were as lifeless and as helpless as +their titles were high-sounding and pretentious. They lasted as long, +and only as long, as they were backed by the Crown. They were swept +away as easily as they were formed; and they left no lasting impress +on French colonial history.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote111"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada<br> + under the<br> + Crown.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>We may take it then that, in 1663, Canada in effect passed to the +French King and became what would now be styled a Crown Colony. +Strong hands ministered to it, and it grew in strength. New France +was fostered, was ruled and organized, was supplied, though sometimes +sparingly, with means of defence and offence. It was developed on +rigidly prescribed lines. It was given a social and political system. +Capable and enterprising men were concerned in making its history, +and its history was made on a distinct type imported from the Old +World, and little modified by the New. What this system was, and how +far under it the colonists were able to cope with their coloured +foes, will be told in the remaining pages of this chapter.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote112"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + Government<br> + of Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Supreme<br> + Council.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Government of Canada was a despotism. Under the <a name="page95"></a>King of France, +whose word was law, the whole power was centred in the Governor, the +Intendant, and the Council, known at first as the Supreme Council, +afterwards as the Superior or the Sovereign Council. This Council was +created by royal edict in April, 1663. It was at once a legislative +body, and a High Court of Justice. It consisted of the Governor, the +Intendant, the bishop, and five other councillors, afterwards +increased to seven, and again to twelve. The councillors were +appointed by the King, and held office usually for life. They +deliberated, they legislated, they judged, they wrangled among +themselves; they followed the lead of Governor, Intendant, or bishop, +according as one or the other was strongest for the time being, and +the strongest for the time being was the man who had the ear of the +King and his minister.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote113"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The law<br> + of Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The courts<br> + of justice.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The law of the land was the Customary Law of Paris, supplemented by +three kinds of ordinances. There were the royal edicts sent out from +France and registered by the Council in Canada; there were the +decrees made by the Council; and in the third place, there were the +ordinances of the Intendant, who was invested with legislative +authority by the King. The Council, as has been stated, was a +judicial as well as a legislative body. It was the court of appeal +for the colony, and in early days it was also a court of first +instance. There were minor courts of justice, too, established by the +Council, and three judges of the three districts of Quebec, Three +Rivers, and Montreal respectively, appointed by the King. In +addition, the feudal Seigniors<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> of Canada exercised a petty, and +usually little more than nominal, jurisdiction among their vassals, +while the Intendant enjoyed <a name="page96"></a>extensive judicial powers, emanating from +and subordinate to the King alone.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> The judicial powers of the Seignior varied. In a very +few cases the Seignior could administer <i>haute justice,</i> i.e. try +crimes on the Seigniory which were punishable with death. For all +important cases there was right of appeal. See Kingsford's <i>History +of Canada,</i> vol. i, p. 365, and Parkman's <i>Old Régime in Canada</i> +(14th ed.), pp. 252, 269.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote114"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + Governor.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The highest executive officer was the Governor. He had control of the +armed forces, and was responsible for the peace and safety of New +France. He called out the militia when he thought fit; foreign policy +and native policy were in his charge. In old and troubled times +distance gave to the Governors of colonies and provinces actual power +far exceeding the terms or the intent of their commission. They were +the men on the spot. They held the sword; and, when a serious crisis +arose, their word was obeyed. Especially was this the case in Canada, +cut off for half the year from communication with France, and girt +with foreign and with savage foes. Few years passed without wars or +rumours of wars. Each Canadian settlement was a garrison; and +strength, if not full authority, tended to centre in the hands of the +commander of the forces, the trained soldier who held for the time +the Governorship of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote115"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + Intendant.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet, unless he had, like Count Frontenac, great force of character, +or was in favour at the Court of Versailles, and when war was not +imminent, his influence was hardly more, it was often less, than that +of the Intendant. The Governor was the representative of the Crown. +The Intendant was the King's agent, the steward of his province, his +own man. He was a civilian, usually a lawyer, and therefore, in most +cases, of greater business capacity, and more skilled in penmanship, +than the Governor with his military training. His intimate relations +with King and minister, coupled with experience of legal advocacy, +tended to give more weight to his representations than to those of +the Governor at the Court of France. The Intendant, not the Governor, +presided at the Council; and as legislator or judge, he was +responsible to the King alone. In time of peace, and in matters of +internal administration, he had perhaps more real power than the +Governor, and even when fighting times called the <a name="page97"></a>soldier to the +front, the Intendant, dealing with supplies and accounts, controlled +in great measure the sinews of war.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote116"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + bishop.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>By the side of the Governor and the Intendant at the council sat the +bishop, spiritually supreme, and with power by no means confined to +spiritual matters. How strong, politically, was the Church in France +before the Revolution, the cardinal prime ministers bear witness, and +the priest-ridden wives and mistresses of the Bourbon Kings. It was +stronger still in Canada. Priests formed no small part of the scanty +population of New France; they made a large part of its history. The +schools and hospitals were built by the Church, and the Church owned +much of the land. Well organized and disciplined, with clear and +definite aims, the ministers of the Church made their power felt in +council chamber and in palace; too often they ruled the rulers; and +the first and greatest bishop of Canada, Bishop Laval, made or unmade +the Governors of New France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote117"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Defects in<br> + the political<br> + system of<br> + New France.<br> + Centralization<br> + of power.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such was the political system of Canada, while Canada was a province +of France. Power was centralized, and the ordinary safeguards of +freedom were wholly wanting. Executive, legislative, and judicial +functions were placed in the same hands. There was not a shred of +popular representation, there was not even a vestige of municipal +rights.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> Canada was good for priests and, to some extent, +for soldiers; there was room in it and a living for an agricultural +peasantry, and for the trapper and backwoodsman, who was a law to +himself. Where the St. Lawrence flowed by the island of Montreal, or +under the rock of Quebec, there were the beginnings of cities with +dwellers in them, but there were no citizens in Canada.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Count Frontenac on first arriving in Canada attempted to +give the Canadians some voice in the government by calling together +the three estates, and by allowing the citizens of Quebec to elect +three aldermen. He incurred the royal displeasure by his proceedings, +and his measures came to nothing. See Parkman's <i>Count Frontenac and +New France</i> (14th ed.), pp. 16, &c., and see <a href="#page107">below</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote118"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Friction<br> + between<br> + the<br> + officials.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page98"></a> +<p>Though power was centralized, it was not entrusted locally to one man +alone. The maxim of despotism is <i>Divide et impera;</i> and on this +principle the Kings of France ruled Canada. The Governor and the +Intendant each corresponded directly with the King and his minister. +Each was wholly independent of the other, and yet their respective +functions were not clearly enough defined to prevent friction and +deadlock. The other members of the Council were subordinate neither +to the Governor nor to the Intendant, in so far that they were +appointed, and could be removed, by the King alone. For this division +of authority there was some excuse. On the assumption that both the +Governor and the Intendant might be thieves, it was prudent to set a +thief to catch a thief. The system minimized the possibility of +tyranny in a distant dependency, where the colonists had no voice in +making the laws, and no control over the administration. One +all-powerful officer might have become a tyrant; but two or more, if +evilly disposed, might be trusted to expose each other's misdoings +with a view to securing favour at home. Chartered Companies took the +same line in this respect as the French Kings. The British East India +Company held their Governor-General in check through his Council; the +Dutch East India Company created in their dependencies the office of +Independent Fiscal, which corresponded in great measure to that of +Intendant.<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> But the plan devised by Louis XIV and Colbert for the +government of Canada had grave defects. Division of authority meant +weakness, where strength was urgently needed; it led to personal +jealousy, to party feeling, to corruption, and to intrigue; it +lessened the sense of responsibility, for each officer could throw +the blame on another; and it left the fortunes of Canada in the hands +of the man who, for the time being, had, irrespective of any office +he held, the <a name="page99"></a>strongest character, or the least scruple, or the +largest share of Court favour.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> See vol. iv of this +series, pt. 1, p. 75 and notes.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote119"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Emigration<br> + from France<br> + to Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The settlers<br> + and</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The King of France created the government of Canada. He created also +the people. In less than ten years from the date when he took the +colony in hand the population was more than doubled. Shiploads of +male emigrants were sent out from France, and cargoes of future wives +and mothers. Wedlock was prescribed, celibacy was proscribed, +bounties were, in Roman fashion, given to early marriages and to +large families. The privilege of remaining single was reserved for +priests and nuns; the lay members of the community were bidden to be +fruitful and multiply, and they obeyed the King's commands with much +success. They were honest folk, the Canadian settlers, not convicted +felons sent out from French prisons. No doubt there were among the +emigrants men and women who were glad to leave France, and of whom +France was glad to be rid; but there was no convict strain in the +population, and the <i>coureurs de bois,</i> unlicensed though they were, +were not mere outlaws, like the Australian bushrangers.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote120"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>the Feudal<br> + System.<br> + <br> + <br> + Canadian<br> + feudalism<br> + was purely<br> + artificial.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>When an emigrant came to Canada, he could not return to France +without a passport, but he might possibly drift into the backwoods or +to the Dutch or English colonies. Efforts were therefore made to +attach him to the soil. For this purpose a kind of Feudal System was +introduced, somewhat diluted to suit the place and the time. The +essence of feudalism in bygone days had been military tenure and +oligarchy. Time had been in France when the nobles were stronger than +the King, but in the reign of Louis XIV they were little more than +courtiers. They had become ornamental rather than useful; yet even +under a Bourbon despotism, tradition, long descent, ownership of wide +and well-cultivated lands, and rights over a considerable number of +serfs or peasants, gave the French noblesse considerable social +influence. In Canada feudalism had no military <a name="page100"></a>aspect. There was, it +is true, a Canadian militia, but it had no connexion with the feudal +tenure of land. Very few of the Canadian Seigniors were of noble +birth, all were poor, their honours were brand new, their domains +were backwoods with occasional clearings, their vassals were nearly +as good men as themselves. The Feudal System in Canada was not born +of the soil, it was simply a device of a benevolent despot for +allotting and settling land, for artificially grading and classifying +an artificially-formed people, and for giving to a new country some +element of old-world respectability.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote121"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Seigniors.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Habitans<br> + and their<br> + tenure.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Seignior held his land, in most cases, directly from the Crown. +He held it as a free gift from the King by title of faith and homage. +He held it on condition of bringing it into cultivation; and, if he +sold his Seigniory, one-fifth of the price as a rule was paid to the +Crown. There was no immemorial title to the land. The title was given +by an arbitrary overlord, and by the same could be revoked. The +condition of cultivation was annexed in order to promote settlement, +and inasmuch as most Seigniors, owing to poverty and the size of the +holdings, could not themselves fulfil the condition, they granted +lands in turn to other settlers, who held of them as they held of the +King. These other settlers were the <i>Habitans,</i> the cultivators of +the soil, and their tenancy was the tenure of <i>cens et rente,</i> whence +they were known in legal phrase as <i>Censitaires</i>. In other words, +they paid a small rent in money, or in kind, or in both. If they sold +their holdings, the Seignior received one-twelfth of the +purchase-money. They were required to grind their corn at the +Seignior's mill, to pay for the privilege of fishing one fish in +every eleven caught, and to comply with sundry other small demands, +in addition to having justice meted out occasionally at the +Seignior's hands.</p> + +<p>These conditions may have been found in some instances petty and +annoying, but to Frenchmen of the seventeenth <a name="page101"></a>and eighteenth century +they can hardly have been onerous. They were limited and safeguarded, +as they had been created, by the royal will; and it was not till the +year 1854, after Canada had known British rule for nearly a hundred +years, that they were swept away. That a purely artificial system +should have lasted so long and caused apparently so little friction +and discontent, argues no little skill in those who invented it, and +proves that it was not ill suited to the wants, and harmonized with +the traditions, of the colonists of Canada. It is impossible to +imagine the Puritan settler in New England submitting to such minute +regulations, taking his corn to a Seignior's mill, baking his bread +at a Seignior's oven, paying homage to another settler set over him +by a distant King. But Frenchmen could be drilled and organized. They +understood being planted out in rows, like so many trees. Their +religion and their training tended to unquestioning obedience, and +they throve in quiet sort under restrictions which the grim and +stubborn New Englander would have trodden under foot.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote122"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Military<br> + colonization<br> + in Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + Carignan<br> + Regiment.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Though feudalism on the St. Lawrence had no military basis, military +colonization played a great part in the early settlement of Canada. +The Intendant, Talon, Colbert's right-hand man in his Canadian +schemes, took in this matter the Romans for his model. As the Romans +planted military colonies along the frontiers of their provinces, +including Gaul itself, so Colbert and Talon determined to ensure the +security of Canada by placing a barrier of soldier-colonists on the +border. There was a famous French regiment known as the +Carignan-Saličres Regiment. It had been raised in Savoy by a Prince +of Carignan. It had lately fought with distinction side by side with +the Austrians against the Turks, and in 1665, under Colonel de +Saličres, was sent out to Canada, the first regiment of the line +which had ever landed in New France. The main outlet for Iroquois +incursions was the line of the Richelieu river. On that river forts +were <a name="page102"></a>built and garrisoned, and along its banks and also along the St. +Lawrence, between the mouth of the Richelieu and the island of +Montreal, time-expired soldiers were planted out as settlers. +Officers and men alike were given grants of land and bounties in +money, and the soldiers were kept for a year by the King, while +building their houses and clearing their land. The theory was that +the officers should be Seigniors, and that the soldiers who had +served under them should become tenants of their old commanders. +Where the lands were most exposed, the houses were grouped together +within palisades. Elsewhere they were detached from one another, +forming a line of dwellings along the river-side, whence the +settlements were known as <i>côtés</i>.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote123"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Size of the<br> + Seigniories.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The usual size of a Seigniory, whether granted to a soldier or to a +civilian, was four arpents in front by forty in depth. In other +words, an arpent<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> being rather less than an acre, the frontage of a +Seigniory was about 260 yards long, while the depth was about 2,600, +or a mile and a half. This long hinterland contained the corn land, +the timber, and the hunting-grounds, but the most valuable and +distinctive feature in the Seigniories was the river frontage. In a +word, Canadian colonization consisted of a series of river-side +settlements, forming a long, narrow, military frontier, with a +wilderness behind.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> The <i>arpent de Paris</i> was .845 of an acre or 36801.7 +English square feet; therefore one side of the arpent was about 64 +yards.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote124"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Strong<br> + contrasts in<br> + Canadian<br> + history.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such was the colony, its land, and its people. There is no exact +parallel to be found in the story of other European colonies. None of +them, perhaps, started with such very strong contrasts. Canada was +not a seaboard colony, it was a purely inland colony; yet its +settlements were so many little ports, and its active life was mainly +by, and on, the water. It was pre-eminently not a colony of towns or +of townsfolk, yet Quebec was as much the heart of Canada as Paris was +of France, and the conquest of Canada consisted <a name="page103"></a>in the taking of +Quebec and Montreal. It was not a plantation colony, it was not a +mining colony, it was not a pastoral colony; it was a colony of +agriculturists and hunters, and its trade, such as it was, came not +so much from agriculture as from the chase. No colonists were ever +more carefully drilled and organized than the Canadian +agriculturists; none ever lived a life of more unbounded freedom than +the Canadian <i>coureurs de bois</i>. The drilling and organization of the +one element, and the roving enterprise of the other, combined to +produce a good fighting population; but the extremes in either case +were too great to result in forming a community, which should be at +once stable and progressive. What was natural in Canada was not +colonization. What was colonization, that is to say permanent +European settlement in the land, was purely artificial. The system of +settlement was cleverly conceived, and skilfully as well as humanely +carried into effect; but it depended not on law so much as on the +personal will of an absolute master. It was wanting in safeguards, it +was wanting in elasticity, it stunted individual effort, and it +contained no element of growth. A full-blown colony was called into +being under regulations which implied childhood, and the result was +to leave the Canadians contented so long as they knew no other rules +of life, but to leave them standing still, while their English +rivals, neither too lawless nor too conservative, grew out of infancy +into clumsy manhood, and proved their strength when the fullness of +the time was come.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote125"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Arrival of<br> + De Tracy,<br> + De Courcelles,<br> + and Talon.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On June 30, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy arrived at Quebec. He had been +appointed by the King of France Lieutenant-General for the time being +of all his American possessions, including the West Indies; and, +before coming to Canada, he had visited Cayenne and the French West +India Islands. His mission was temporary, to put the colony in a +proper state of defence, and to inaugurate the system of +administration devised by the King. The new Governor <a name="page104"></a>of Canada, De +Courcelles, and the Intendant, Talon, landed in September of the same +year. They were good men for their respective posts—the one a keen +soldier, the other, Talon, a born administrator, whose power of +organization and creative genius left a lasting mark on New France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote126"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Operations<br> + against<br> + the Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The most pressing need of the colony was security against Iroquois +raids. Before the year 1665 ended, three forts had been built on the +Richelieu; one, Sorel, at its mouth, a second below the rapids at +Chambly, a third at some little distance above the rapids. The line +of communication was strengthened by the construction of sixteen or +seventeen miles of road from Chambly to the bank of the St. Lawrence +opposite Montreal, and in the following year a fourth fort was built +near the northern end of Lake Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote127"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Expedition<br> + of Courcelles;</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Frenchmen determined to strike soon and hard at the Five Nations. +In January, 1666, in dead of winter, Courcelles led an expedition +against them up the Richelieu, by Lakes Champlain and George, on to +the head waters of the Hudson river. The route, well known in after +years, was unfamiliar then, and instead of turning to the west into +the country of the Mohawks, the Frenchmen found themselves in the +middle of February near the small Dutch settlement of Schenectady, +where they were challenged as invaders of an English province, for in +1664 the Duke of York had become proprietor of New Netherland. It was +news to the French commander that the valley of the Hudson had passed +into British hands—unwelcome news, and would have been more +unwelcome, had he foreseen the results of the change on after +history. Of all events which strengthened the English cause in +America against the French, the most important perhaps was the +substitution of English for Dutch ownership of the present State of +New York. At the time, no rupture took place between French and +English, and, after an interchange of courtesies, Courcelles led his +troops back to Canada, losing men through cold and privation, and <a name="page105"></a>by +the hands of the Mohawks, who dogged his retreat. He had achieved +nothing, yet the daring of his venture seems to have impressed the +Indians, and he had gained knowledge which was soon to tell.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote128"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and of<br> + Tracy.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In September of the same year he set out again with 1,300 men, the +whole commanded by Tracy in person. This time no mistake was made as +to the route. The hearts of the Mohawks failed them. They fled before +the invaders, leaving their strongholds empty and undefended. Each +village in turn was burnt to the ground, the stores were destroyed or +carried off, and, homeless and starving, the Indians were glad to +make peace with the French, leaving Canada unmolested for some years +to come. During those years the colony grew stronger, the +administration was recast, the settlements were organized, and, +beyond the line of colonization, explorers carried French influence +further to the west.</p> + +<p>In 1667, Tracy returned to France. In 1671, Courcelles and Talon +followed him. In 1672, Count Frontenac came out as Governor to +Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote129"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Prominence<br> + of individual<br> + leaders in<br> + the early<br> + history of<br> + Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It has been noted above how great are the contrasts in the story of +Canada, and, so far as it was colonized, how much in the system was +artificial, how little was the result of natural growth. The record +of Canada, as compared with that of the English colonies in America, +is much more a series of biographies, much less a chronicle of a +community. Of the great men, whose lives and doings make up Canadian +history in French times, it may be said that some created Canada, +while others were Canada's own creations. In other words, some were +in but not of Canada; they came out from France to make, to rule, to +save, or to try to save, the French colony on the St. Lawrence; while +others, though many of them also came out from home, and all of them +were in their way builders of New France, yet were the outcome of +Canada itself, the result of the unbounded freedom of its backwoods, +<a name="page106"></a>their deeds being done and their lives spent mainly beyond the limits +of the Canadian settlements. To the first class belong, among others, +Champlain (though Champlain's name might in truth appear in either +list), Talon, Frontenac, and Montcalm. The second class comprises the +names of explorers such as La Salle, of Du Luth, the noted <i>coureur +de bois,</i> and of Iberville, the bold guerilla chief, who raided the +English in Newfoundland and on Hudson Bay, who carried out La Salle's +unfinished work in Louisiana, and of whom, when dead, Charlevoix +wrote: 'The late M. d'Iberville, who had all the good qualities of +his country without any of its defects, would have led them (his +countrymen) to the end of the world.'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Charlevoix's <i>Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguičres,</i> +Eng. tr., 1763, p. 104.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Of these last there will be more to tell. Of the former class it may +be said that, while not children of Canada, their influence on the +history of the colony and their distinction in Canadian annals was in +proportion to the extent to which New France was the land of their +adoption. If we except discoverers, the three greatest names in +Canadian history are Champlain, Frontenac, and Montcalm, all three of +whom died at Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote130"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Count<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The strongly marked contrasts characteristic of Canada and its story +are illustrated in the case of Count Frontenac. Like other Governors, +before and after him, he came out from the very centre of +civilization, the Court of France: from serving in the finest army in +the world, he came to rule a barbarous borderland, and to command +troops, the majority of whom were backwoodsmen or native Indians, or +at best a half-disciplined militia. He did not come young to the +work. He was fifty-two on his arrival. When he was appointed Governor +for the second time, in 1689, he was in his seventieth year. He had +great merits and great defects. He was pretentious, arrogant, violent +and overbearing, <a name="page107"></a>insubordinate to his employers, somewhat +unscrupulous in his policy, and not cleanhanded in repairing his +broken fortunes. On the other hand, he was resourceful, fearless, and +determined; he stood by his friends, he was not unkindly, he had in +many respects broad views, and above all he believed in Canada, its +fortunes, and its peoples. He had in a high degree the admirable +French quality of adapting himself to places and to men. He was +trusted and revered by the Indians beyond any other French or English +Governor, for, while he refused to treat them as equals, he humoured +their customs and to some extent walked in their ways. His force of +character impressed native and colonist alike. He took Canada in hand +at a time of danger and disorganization. When he died, he left her on +the lines of prosperity and possible greatness.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote131"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His first<br> + government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The term of his first government lasted for ten years, from 1672 to +1682. They were years of constant wrangling and worry. He was at +daggers drawn with the Jesuits, and his quarrels with his colleagues +on the Council, notably the Intendant, Duchesnau, were similar to the +disputes between Warren Hastings and Francis at another time and +place. The end of it was that both Frontenac and Duchesnau were +recalled; but Frontenac had left his mark, and after seven years' +interval, during which two governors failed, he was sent back at a +critical time to Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote132"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His attempt<br> + to introduce<br> + political<br> + representation.<br> + <br> + <br> + Jealousy<br> + between<br> + Quebec and<br> + Montreal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Two incidents in his first administration may be picked out as +illustrating the boldness of his character, and implying foresight +and breadth of view unusual in a French Governor under Louis XIV. The +first was his crude attempt, already noticed,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> to form a kind of +Canadian parliament on the old French model, with the three estates +of clergy, nobles, and people. It was a rash step to take immediately +after his arrival, when he could not have known the conditions of the +colony, and must have known well the wishes of the King. <a name="page108"></a>It brought +upon him a severe reprimand from home, and his scheme came to +nothing. But the step, if ill timed, was in the right direction. Some +semblance of popular assembly would have done much for Canada, if +only as tending to create a national sentiment and to allay local +jealousies. For among the many elements of weakness in the colony in +its early days was the semi-independence of Montreal. Montreal was +the commercial dépôt for the upper St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the +great lakes. It was the meeting-place of French and native +fur-traders. In it centred the natural wealth of Canada, and to it +resorted the most enterprising and the least settled part of the +population. It was jealous of the older settlement of Quebec, which +was the seat of government, the centre of law and order, and which, +being nearer the sea, commanded the import and export trade with +Europe. Under its feudal Seigniors, the Sulpician monks, Montreal +claimed to have some voice in the appointment of the local Governor; +and Perrot its Governor, in the early days of Frontenac's first +administration, defied within the limits of his district the +authority of the Governor-General, and imprisoned his officers.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> See above <a href="#page97">note</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote133"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Founding<br> + of Fort<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The second event to be specially noted was the building of a fort on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at the point where it flows +out of Lake Ontario. The place was known to the Indians as Cataraqui. +It is now the site of the town of Kingston. The new fort, built in +1673, the year after Frontenac came to Canada, was named after him, +Fort Frontenac. Its building marked the onward movement of the +French. Hitherto their main concern had been to secure mastery of the +central St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal, together with the +command of the Richelieu river. Among the Iroquois, they had fought +chiefly with the Mohawks, the easternmost and nearest of the Five +Nations. But before Frontenac came, and long before the central St. +Lawrence was wholly safe, traders and missionaries had <a name="page109"></a>gained +knowledge of the western lakes, and Fort Frontenac was built to be at +once a new outpost of the colony, guarding the upper reaches of the +St. Lawrence, and a starting-point for further exploiting the trade +routes of the west. By building it, the Frenchmen made good their +claim to the river of Canada for its whole length from the lakes to +the sea, and planted themselves at the entrance of a new and vast +system of waterways.</p> + +<p>As the St. Lawrence on its upward course broadens into Lake Ontario, +so, as the French went further west, the story of Canada widens out. +From the tale of two or three river settlements it slowly grows into +the history of a continent. The struggle becomes more and more a +struggle not so much for bare existence as for supremacy. The +Iroquois were a deadly danger still, but the danger largely consisted +in the fact that behind them was a strong and, as a rule to them, a +friendly European colony—the English State of New York. Every year +intensified the rivalry between French and English. Every year showed +that both sought to control the trade of the west. The main practical +issue, for the time being, was whether the furs from the lake region +should come down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, or be +diverted to Albany through the country of the Five Nations. The +Iroquois held the key of the position, and they knew it. Unless they +could be taught either to fear or to love the French, there was +little hope for Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote134"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + come into<br> + contact with<br> + the Senecas.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As the French moved up the St. Lawrence, and along Lake Ontario, they +passed along the line of the Five Nations, and came directly into +conflict with the furthermost and the strongest of the five, the +Senecas. After Tracy's successful expedition against the Mohawks in +1666, the Iroquois gave comparatively little trouble for some years. +They knew well the difference between a strong and a weak <i>Onontio,</i> +as they styled the Governor of Canada, and for Courcelles, and his +successor Frontenac, they had a wholesome respect. <a name="page110"></a>When Frontenac was +recalled, in 1682, there was a different tale to tell.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote135"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Frontenac<br> + recalled and<br> + succeeded<br> + by La Barre.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His successor in that year was La Barre, an old soldier of some +distinction, who had been Governor of Cayenne, which he recaptured +from the English. In Canada he proved to be an irresolute commander +and an incapable administrator, notable even among Canadian officials +for greed of gain. The Iroquois became more and more menacing. The +Senecas especially, at the western end of the line, who had never yet +felt in any measure the weight of the French arm, raided the Indians +of the Illinois, who were nominally under French protection, +threatened the tribes of the lakes, and were in a fair way to master +the trade on which Canada depended. There had been some prospect of a +rupture between the Five Nations and the English, owing to border +forays on Virginia and Maryland; but in 1684, at a great council held +at Albany, the old alliance was solemnly renewed. There was no hope +from this quarter for the French.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote136"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His expedition<br> + against<br> + the Iroquois.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its failure.<br> + <br> + <br> + He is<br> + succeeded by<br> + De Denonville.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>La Barre, whatever may have been his faults, was in a most difficult +position, but made up his mind to take the offensive, hoping by a +demonstration of force to bring the Iroquois to terms. Having +collected troops and native allies, he moved up the St. Lawrence in +the summer of 1684, from Montreal to Fort Frontenac. There he waited +while his force sickened with malarial fever. After delay he moved +his men across to the southern side of Lake Ontario, and encamped at +a place called La Famine, where more men went down with fever. There, +at length, deputies of the Iroquois came to meet him. He talked +swelling words, but the state of his camp gave them the lie. He made +a kind of truce, in which the Indians practically dictated the terms, +and he retreated down the river again, having encouraged his enemies, +disgusted his allies, brought embarrassment on the colony, and +procured his own recall. He was succeeded in the following year by +the Marquis de Denonville.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote137"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His expedition<br> + against<br> + the Senecas.<br> + <br> + <br> + Posts placed<br> + at Niagara<br> + and Detroit.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page111"></a> +<p>Denonville was at once more capable and more honest than La Barre, +but he had still greater difficulties to contend with. The Iroquois +were now quite out of hand, and Dongan, the able Governor of New +York, was taking a stronger line than was the wont of most Governors +in the English colonies, making a bold bid for the control of the +lake region. However, ample reinforcements were sent from France with +orders to attack the Five Nations, and in the summer of 1687 the +French Governor set out with an overwhelming force against the +Senecas. His troops, nearly 3,000 in all, mustered at Irondequoit +Bay, halfway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. From thence a +route led southwards to the chief town of the Senecas. Many of the +Seneca warriors were out of the country at the time, and the French, +advancing in strength, dispersed the savages who remained, reached +the town, already burnt and deserted, and after destroying corn and +devastating the neighbouring land, returned to the lake. A fort was +then built at the further end of the lake, below Niagara,<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> to +command the junction of Lakes Erie and Ontario, as in the previous +year a stockade had been constructed on the strait of Detroit, to +control the passage from Lake Huron to Lake Erie; after which the +Governor returned to Montreal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> In March of this same year Dongan was urging on the +Lords of Trade the building of an English fort at Niagara, or as he +called it, Oneigra, 'near the great lake on the way whereby our +people go hunting and trading. It is very necessary for our trade and +correspondence with the Indians, and for securing our right to the +country' (<i>Calendar of State Papers,</i> Colonial, 1685-8, p. 328).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote138"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fruitlessness<br> + of the<br> + expedition.<br> + <br> + <br> + The massacre<br> + of Lachine.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The French, to quote Colden's words,<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> had 'got nothing but dry +blows by this expedition.' Denonville had not done enough. He had +enraged the confederate Indians without crippling them. A few months +before, with odious treachery, he had ordered some friendly Iroquois +to be kidnapped and sent to France to serve in the galleys. The +tribesmen of the prisoners neither forgave nor forgot, and in less +than two <a name="page112"></a>years' time they paid the debt. On the island of Montreal, +some eight miles above the town to the south-west, at the head of +rapids now cut by a canal, and at the lower end of the broad reach of +the St. Lawrence—which bears the name of Lake St. Louis—was the +settlement of Lachine. At the beginning of August, 1689, at dead of +night and under cover of a storm, many hundred Iroquois warriors +broke in upon the settlers. Two hundred of the French were butchered +there and then. One hundred and twenty were carried off, some to be +tortured and burnt almost within sight of their countrymen, others to +be gradually done to death in the lodges of the Five Nations. A +detachment of eighty French soldiers was also cut to pieces, and +outside forts and palisades the country was a scene of death and +desolation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> <i>History of the Five Nations</i> (3rd ed.), vol. i, chap. +v, p. 82.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote139"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Abandonment<br> + of Fort<br> + Frontenac.<br> + Recall of<br> + Denonville<br> + and return of<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The horrors of Lachine stand out in Canadian history as a kind of +Sicilian Vespers or Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The upper part of +the colony, Montreal and its neighbourhood, was paralysed with +terror, and once more, for a moment, the Iroquois seemed to threaten +the very existence of New France. It was not so in fact. Below Three +Rivers Canada was safe, and the savages did not, as in old days, +parade their triumph beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Meanwhile +Denonville had already been recalled, his last act being to order in +his panic the evacuation and destruction of Fort Frontenac; and the +old Frenchman, after whom that fort had been named, came back in his +seventieth year to save and to rule Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote140"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Calličres.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Another competent man returned with Frontenac, after a short visit to +France—Calličres, the Governor of Montreal. He was a strong second +in command, and, when Frontenac died, was appointed to succeed him, +and carried on his work. The two commanders arrived in the autumn of +1689, to find all in confusion and distress; but Frontenac was not +forgotten. His presence gave confidence, and even among the <a name="page113"></a>Iroquois +his name secured respect. It was his habit to see with his own eyes, +to take his own line, to act with promptitude and decision. These +qualities, when coupled with ten years' previous experience of the +colony, were invaluable at a crisis. He might quarrel with +Intendants, browbeat Councillors, and denounce Jesuit priests; but to +the settlers he gave security, to the adventurous backwoodsmen of the +West he was a congenial leader, and to the Indians he was the great +<i>Onontio,</i> whose actions matched his words.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote141"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Confidence<br> + restored by<br> + Frontenac.<br> + <br> + <br> + His dealings<br> + with the<br> + Indians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For the time he was not in a position to carry war into the Iroquois +country, and the Iroquois would not listen to friendly overtures. He +contented himself, therefore, with strengthening the forts and +defences of the colony and with issuing proclamations to the wavering +tribes of the lakes. It was one thing when La Barre or Denonville +spoke, it was another when the words were those of Frontenac. His +next step was to intimidate the English allies of the Five Nations, +and to send three raiding parties into New England and New York. This +was the kind of irregular warfare for which the Canadians were best +suited. All three expeditions were successful; and their success, +coupled with two defeats of parties of Iroquois on the Ottawa, by Du +Luth in 1689 and Nicolas Perrot in 1690, both noted leaders of +<i>coureurs de bois,</i> gave new heart to Canada. Before the summer of +1690 ended, the Indians of the upper lakes came down in force to +trade at Montreal, and the grey-headed Governor-General of New France +led the war dance, hatchet in hand, appealing to savages in savage +fashion, as only a versatile Frenchman could.</p> + +<p>It was a typical proceeding. French priests turned heathens into +Christians, but left them on their savage lines. French hunters lived +among Indians, adopting Indian garb and Indian methods; and the great +Governor of Canada, who of all others was a ruler of men, led a +yelling crowd in their native prelude for war, as sure in +<a name="page114"></a>self-esteem, as sure in the esteem of his company, as if he were +treading a minuet in stately fashion at the Court of Versailles. The +English had no such address; but not having it they ran less risk for +the future of their kind. They kept the heathen, for the most part, +outside their pale. They did little to convert them. They did little +to befriend or protect them. But the English race remained stronger +and purer in its dour isolation than the assimilated and assimilating +Frenchmen of what was then Upper Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote142"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Insecurity<br> + of the French<br> + settlers above<br> + Three Rivers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Raids and counter raids went on. Of the part which the English took +in the fighting, something will be said presently. So far as the +struggle was between the French and the Five Nations, the scene of +action was either the Ottawa river, or the angle between the +Richelieu and the St. Lawrence. Always important, as being the direct +trade route from Lake Huron, the Ottawa was more important now, +seeing that there was a larger population in Canada than in bygone +days dependent on the fur trade, and that since Denonville's abortive +expedition against the Senecas, the massacre of Lachine, and the +evacuation of Fort Frontenac, the French had lost command of the +upper St. Lawrence.</p> + +<p>The corner of land lying between Chambly on the Richelieu and +Montreal was the old battlefield of French and Iroquois. By this +line, before Tracy's expedition of 1666, the Mohawks had raided +Canada; by this line, once more, their war-parties came. Below the +Three Rivers, at Quebec and in its neighbourhood, there was no fear +of the Indians, though there was both apprehension and reality of +English invasion, and distress from English blockade of Canadian +trade. But in the upper half of the colony, of which Montreal was the +centre, there was no security for life or property outside +fortifications and stockades.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote143"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Madeleine<br> + de Verchčres.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Some twenty miles below Montreal, on the southern bank of the St. +Lawrence, in the troubled belt of land between that river and the +Richelieu, was the Seigniory of Verchčres. <a name="page115"></a>There was on it a fort and +a blockhouse, which, in the last week of October, 1692, was the scene +of one of the most picturesque episodes in all the annals of border +warfare. The Seignior, a military man, was absent, the fort was +nearly empty, for the able-bodied men were working in the fields, +when the Iroquois came down on the place. The Seignior's daughter, +Madeleine de Verchčres, a girl of fourteen, took charge of the fort, +having for a garrison, over and above women and children, two +terrified soldiers, one hired man-servant, one refugee settler, an +old man of eighty, and two small boys, her brothers. She gave the +command, she placed each at his post, she misled the savages by a +show of imaginary force, and watching day and night she held them at +bay, until, at the end of a week, a party of soldiers came to her +relief from Montreal. Years afterwards the tale of the siege was +taken down from her own lips; and her name lives, and deserves to +live, in the history of Canada. The girl's heroism is the chief, but +not the only, point of the story. That the Mohawks should have +prowled round the fort for a week without seriously attempting to +take it, and without finding out that it was nearly defenceless, +shows how helpless and stupid these noted warriors were when face to +face with a fortification. On the other hand, that a post, only +twenty miles distant from Montreal, was left for a week without +relief, proves how paralysed, or at least how weakened, were the +French by a long series of Indian incursions. This was in Frontenac's +time; but Frontenac had the English on his hands, and was short of +men. Had it been otherwise, there would have been no beleaguering of +girls in forts, and Canada would have lost a pretty story.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote144"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Revival of<br> + the French<br> + cause.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As it was, the scale soon turned in favour of the French. In dead of +winter, at the beginning of 1693, a mixed body of Canadians and +Indians broke in upon the Mohawk towns, and, in spite of a somewhat +disastrous retreat, inflicted considerable loss on their persistent +enemies; while later <a name="page116"></a>in the year, at the bidding of the sturdy old +Governor, a strong party of <i>coureurs de bois</i> came down the Ottawa, +convoying a long pent-up and most welcome cargo of furs. This 'gave +as universal joy to Canada as the arrival of the galleons give in +Spain';<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> and Frontenac was hailed as the father of the people.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Colden's <i>History of the Five Nations</i> (3rd ed.), vol. +i, chap. ix, p. 159.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote145"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Iroquois<br> + complain of<br> + English<br> + inaction.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>More soldiers came out from France, and the Iroquois began to lose +heart. Many of their warriors had fallen, and not a few, converted by +the Jesuits, had settled in Canada, being known to their heathen +countrymen as the 'praying Indians.'<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small> From the English colonies +little or no help had come, beyond supplies of arms and ammunition. +The councils at Albany produced on the English side pretentious +speeches, criticism, encouragement, and promises which were never +fulfilled; but the words of the Indians were more to the point, 'the +whole burden of the war lies on us alone ... we alone cannot continue +the war against the French by reason of the recruits they daily +receive from the other side the Great Lake.'<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> They had been +faithful to the English alliance, more faithful than the English +deserved, and more faithful than any civilized nation would have been +under like circumstances; but they tired of fighting singlehanded, +and the chain of the covenant began to rust.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> The converted Iroquois were settled at Caughnawaga, +which was on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, at the Sault St. +Louis, and directly opposite Lachine. They were often called +Caughnawagas.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> Colden, vol. i, chap. x, p. 176.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote146"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their policy<br> + towards<br> + the French.<br> + <br> + <br> + Barbarity of<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In default of active aid from the English, there were two policies +open to them—to make terms with the French, and to detach from the +French cause the Indian tribes of the lakes. They pursued both +policies at once: they invited Frontenac to meet them and the English +at Albany; he refused. He refused also to come to a meeting at +Onondaga. <a name="page117"></a>They then sent a deputation to Quebec in 1694; and +Frontenac offered a peace which should include the Indian allies of +the French and exclude the English. Two nations of the confederacy +were ready to accept these terms; the other three rejected them, and +there was no peace. In the meantime the Iroquois intrigued with the +Lake Indians, and, attracted by the prospect of English goods, the +latter came near exchanging the French alliance for combination with +the Five Nations and the English. To prevent this result, Frontenac +and his officers had resort to infamous methods. Not only at the +forest post of Michillimackinac, but at Montreal itself, the French +compelled the wavering Indians to burn Iroquois prisoners to death, +in order to make peace impossible, and joined themselves in the +torture and butchery. Few worse instances of barbarous policy are +recorded in history.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote147"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fort<br> + Frontenac<br> + reoccupied.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such means alone would not attain the desired end. Nothing, the +Governor knew, would avail except acknowledged mastery over the Five +Nations. The most obvious confession of weakness on the French side +in Denonville's disastrous time had been the evacuation of Fort +Frontenac; and never had Denonville's successor slackened his +determination to reoccupy the post, which, if he had arrived in +Canada a day or two earlier, would not have been abandoned. The time +came in the summer of 1695. A force, secretly and quickly gathered, +was sent up from Montreal; the walls of the fort still standing were +repaired; and the Iroquois were startled by the news that the post, +which they most dreaded, and which most menaced their confederacy, +was again manned by a French garrison. Frontenac was just in time. +The day after the expedition started, orders came from France that +the fort should not be reoccupied; but he refused to recall his +troops, and set himself to justify, by further measures, his +disobedience to the home Government.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote148"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Frontenac's<br> + expedition<br> + against the<br> + Five Nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In July, 1696, he set out from Montreal at the head of <a name="page118"></a>over 2,000 +men. The military strength of Canada was well represented; there were +French soldiers of the line, Canadian militia, and friendly Indians. +With the old Governor went his best officers—Calličres leading the +van of the march, Vaudreuil bringing up the rear. The force reached +Fort Frontenac, crossed Lake Ontario, and, landing at the mouth of +the Oswego river, worked their way up, by stream and lake and +portage, towards the goal of the expedition—Onondaga, the central +town and meeting-place of the Five Nations. What had happened before +happened again. The Indians retreated into the forest before superior +numbers, leaving the French a barren conquest over the smouldering +ashes of the native town and the standing corn. The Oneidas' village +and maize fields were also laid waste, and then the invaders retraced +their steps.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote149"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Though the expedition was recorded by the French as a success, +Frontenac had done no more than Denonville in his march against the +Senecas, and a writer on the English side contemptuously refers to it +as 'a kind of heroic dotage'.<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> The show of force, however, seems +to have had the effect of inclining the Iroquois to peace, of proving +once more that the French were more active than the English, and that +the arm of <i>Onontio</i> was longer than that of the Governor of New +York. Early in 1698 came news of the Peace of Ryswick. The Five +Nations were subjects neither of England nor of France, but both +Canada and New York claimed them. Sturdily to the last, Frontenac +repelled English pretensions and half-hearted Indian advances; but +the hand of death was upon him, and on November 28, 1698, he died at +Quebec, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> Colden, vol. i, chap. xii, p. 202.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote150"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His services<br> + to Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He had rid Canada in a great measure from the scourge of murdering +savages. He had humbled the Iroquois to some extent; he had certainly +won their respect. How he withstood the English in open warfare, and +how he <a name="page119"></a>encouraged Frenchmen of his own bold type to explore and to +claim the far West, remains to be told. He was a great man for the +time and place, great in fearlessness, in self-reliance, in +foresight, and in unflinching tenacity of purpose. The element of +bombast and arrogance in his character helped him, as it helped other +Frenchmen, whose names have lived, in handling native races. As a +ruler of wild men, whether coloured or white, he was unsurpassed. The +ruthlessness of his policy has left a stain upon his memory; but he +gave life and confidence to Canada in time of trouble, and but for +him there would have been no future for New France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote151"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Iroquois<br> + make peace<br> + with the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His deeds and his character bore fruit immediately after his death. +At the invitation of his successor, Calličres, a general meeting of +all the Indian tribes was held at Montreal, in 1701, to which the +Iroquois condescended to send representatives. Peace was made; and +the French, whom the Five Nations had brought to the brink of ruin, +emerged from the contest as acknowledged arbitrators between the +native races of North America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote152"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Causes<br> + which<br> + inclined<br> + the Iroquois<br> + to peace.<br> + Loss of<br> + numbers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Thus, with the close of the seventeenth century, came in effect the +close of the life-and-death struggle between the Five Nation Indians +and the Canadian settlers. What were the causes which brought the +Iroquois to terms? The first and most potent was loss of numbers. +Continual bloodshed had reduced the male population of the +confederates by half;<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> and mixture by adoption, it may well be +supposed, had brought some alloy into the old fighting breed. When +white men meet coloured men in war, there is always the same tale to +tell. The white men suffer reverses, as long as they are a handful, +and until the native race has lost a certain proportion of its +warriors. Then strength, and knowledge, and discipline prevail; and +the issue is no longer in doubt. But no other coloured race in the +history of colonization fought with Europeans, man for man, like the +Iroquois, and never <a name="page120"></a>submitting, treated sullenly as equals only when +the white race were absolutely superior in numbers. Big battalions in +the end usually determine the course of history. They certainly +decided the fate of North America. Numerical strength turned the +scale in favour of the French, as against the Iroquois. It +subsequently turned the scale in favour of the English, as against +the French.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> See Parkman's +<i>Count Frontenac</i>, last page, note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote153"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Personality<br> + of Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The second cause which influenced the Iroquois was Frontenac's +personality. In dealing with him the Indians dealt, and knew that +they dealt, with a man who in the greatest straits would never give +way an inch. There was no compromise in his policy. He meant to be +master; the savages knew it, and respected him accordingly. He did +not live to complete his work, and it was not thoroughly completed; +but he lived long enough to cripple the Five Nations, and after his +time their strength declined.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote154"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Shortcomings<br> + of the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A third cause was the failure of the English. They missed their +opportunities. The path of English colonization has been strewn with +lost opportunities. The end has been achieved in most cases, and in +most parts of the world; but it has been achieved only after long +years of toil, expense, and loss of life, which a little foresight +might well have avoided. There was no Frontenac on the English side, +no man who went in advance of his Government, who framed and forced a +strong policy. One Governor of New York, the Irishman Dongan, was +active and determined, but those who came after did little. The +element of compromise in the English character, and in the policy of +the English Government, made itself felt. Colony was jealous of +colony, petty legislatures wrangled, and farmers resented being +called to fight instead of sowing or harvesting their crops. Over and +above all, whether as friends or as foes, the Frenchmen stretched out +their right hands to the native races of North America; the English +lived their lives apart, and for the time they paid the penalty.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote155"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Founding<br> + of Detroit.<br> + <br> + <br> + La Mothe<br> + Cadillac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page121"></a> +<p>Thus the Five Nations made peace with the French at Montreal. At the +very same time, at Albany,<small><small><sup>16</sup></small></small> they gave the English a title to the +lake regions. In the year 1686, by Denonville's orders, Du Luth, with +a party of <i>coureurs de bois,</i> established a French outpost on the +strait (Detroit) between Lakes Huron and Erie,<small><small><sup>17</sup></small></small> his object being +to prevent the fur trade of the upper lakes passing down that way to +the Iroquois country, and thence to the English market at Albany. The +post was not maintained; but some years afterwards a more permanent +occupation took place. Frontenac had died; but he left behind him men +trained in his school, keen on a forward policy, on holding in the +interests of France and in their own the passes of the West. Such a +man was La Mothe Cadillac, who in 1694 had been sent to take command +at Michillimackinac. He urged upon the French Government the +importance of controlling the outlet from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, +and, having obtained their consent, was the founder of the city of +Detroit. He began the work in July, 1701, but before his expedition +actually reached the place, the Five Nations took alarm, recognizing +that Detroit, like Fort Frontenac, would limit their range and +endanger their power.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>16</sup></small> The great meeting at Montreal was held on Aug. 4, 1701. +The deed of cession referred to in the text was dated July 19, 1701.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>17</sup></small> See <a href="#page111">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote156"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Iroquois<br> + cede their<br> + hunting-grounds<br> + to the King<br> + of England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>They sent representatives of all their nations to Albany, and there, +on July 19, 1701, ceded to the King of England their 'beaver +hunting-ground,' retaining for themselves the right of free hunting. +The deed was of the most formal character, attested by the totem +marks of all the Five Nations.<small><small><sup>18</sup></small></small> It is an interesting document, +setting forth that the Iroquois had already subjected themselves and +their lands 'on this side of Cataraqui (Ontario) lake wholly to the +Crown of <a name="page122"></a>England,' and conveying to the King a wide area to the north +of the lake, which the Five Nations claimed as their hunting-ground +in right of conquest. The tract was estimated at 800 miles in length +by 400 in breadth, extending on the north to Lake Superior, on the +west to Chicago, and it specifically included Detroit,<small><small><sup>19</sup></small></small> the French +designs on which were stated as the reason for making the cession. A +white man's hand must have drawn the deed. It gave away the Iroquois +entirely. Hitherto they had stubbornly rejected any English claim to +sovereignty. Brother the Governor of New York had been, but not +father, and no allegiance had been offered to the King of England; +but in the conveyance William III figured as 'the great lord and +master' of the Five Nations, and on paper the acknowledgement of +British sovereignty was complete.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>18</sup></small> A certified copy in manuscript sent home at the time +may be seen at the Record Office, and a printed copy is included in +the New York documents.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>19</sup></small> Spoken of in the deed in one place as 'Tiengsachrondio +alias Fort de Tret.'</small></blockquote> + +<p>It was a piece of parchment only, and as such and no more the +Iroquois probably regarded it; but it embodied a small element of +fact. These hardheaded, hardhanded Indians were gradually being worn +down by the white men on either side, owing such measure of +independence as they still retained not so much to their own fighting +strength as to the constant enmity between Great Britain and France. +When war broke out again, after Queen Anne's accession, they remained +for the most part neutral; what they had claimed and conveyed as +their hunting-ground passed more and more under French control, +while, as the result of Marlborough's victories on the other side of +the Atlantic, their own land and its cantons was awarded to Great +Britain in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht.<small><small><sup>20</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>20</sup></small> Clause xv of the Treaty of Utrecht ran as follows: 'The +subjects of France inhabiting Canada, and others, shall hereafter +give no hinderance or molestation to the Five Nations or Cantons of +Indians subject to the dominion of Great Britain nor to the other +natives of America who are friends to the same.'</small></blockquote> +<a name="map2"></a> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="map2"> + <tr> + <td width="740"> + <img src="images/2.jpg" alt="Map of New England and surroundings"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="chap4"></a><a name="page123"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> +<center>F<small>RENCH AND</small> E<small>NGLISH DOWN TO THE</small> P<small>EACE OF</small> U<small>TRECHT</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<p>Down to the date of the Treaty of Utrecht, the Iroquois formed the +first line of the foes of Canada. Behind them were the English.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote157"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Little communication<br> + in early times between<br> + Canada and the English<br> + colonies.<br> + <br> + <br> + Route from the Atlantic<br> + to Quebec by the line<br> + of the Kennebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>After Quebec had been in 1632 given back to France, the English on +the Atlantic coast, and the French on the St. Lawrence, for many +years came little into contact with each other. In Acadia the two +nations overlapped, with results which are told elsewhere, and it was +the same in Newfoundland; but the French colonists at Quebec and the +English colonists at Boston or in Virginia were far apart. We read of +an English traveller finding his way, in 1640, from the coast of +Maine, up the Kennebec river and by the Chaudičre, to Quebec, his +journey being noted as an explorer's feat with an ultimate design of +reaching the North Sea; while a few years later, in 1647-51, the same +route became better known, and was taken by French emissaries of +peace to the New England states.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote158"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Proposals<br> + for a treaty<br> + between<br> + the English<br> + and French<br> + colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Negotiations were then on foot, at the instance of Winthrop, Governor +of Massachusetts, for a treaty of commerce between the English and +French colonies in North America, and it was suggested that they +should keep peace with each other even in the event of war in Europe +between the respective mother countries.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> Such +a treaty <a name="page124"></a>might have +been made and kept, if there had been no native question; but each +side had Indian friends and Indian foes, and could not afford to +alienate the one or add to the number of the other. The French wanted +New England support against the Iroquois, and with the Iroquois the +New Englanders had no quarrel. Thus the friendly overtures between +the two parties came to nothing; but Frenchmen on the river of Canada +and Englishmen by the open sea went their own ways, having no direct +dealings with each other in war or peace.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> A like sensible policy was pursued in the little island +of St. Kitts, when first colonized by French and English. They agreed +to keep the peace whether or not France and Great Britain were at +war. See vol. ii of this series, chap. iv, p. 135. See also +Kingsford's <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. ii, p. 426.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote159"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + take New York.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A change came when the English, in 1664, took possession of New York. +They too had now a river—the Hudson—which carried them inland; they +became neighbours and friends of the Five Nations; and their natural +line of expansion was in the direction of the St. Lawrence and the +great lakes. From this time onward collision between French and +English was inevitable, and it was equally inevitable that the colony +of New York should be the central point of the contest.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote160"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Want of union<br> + between the<br> + English colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Before the Dutchmen on Manhattan Island and in the valley of the +Hudson became subjects of the British Crown, they had themselves +absorbed the Swedish colonists on the Delaware. The result, +therefore, of New York becoming a British province was to link +together the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. It has been +said above that English colonization in North America was more +compact and more continuous than French. In other words, though the +English colonists many times outnumbered the French, they were less +dispersed through the wilderness. But the compactness and continuity +was comparative only. Continuity of English colonization meant little +more than that the lands claimed by one colony were coterminous with +those claimed by the next, and that no other European nation could +plant <a name="page125"></a>a settlement between the Alleghanies and the sea without +committing a trespass and fighting for its place. There was no +continuity of what would now be called effective occupation. Colony +was divided from colony by many miles of forest and backwood. +Separately they were planted. Their surroundings, their traditions, +their interests were all distinct. Sprung in the main from one stock, +and speaking one language, they had little else in common. They had +not even the bond of a common religious creed.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote161"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Dissensions<br> + in New York.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Within each single colony there was division still. Settlements and +homesteads were often far from one another, and political or +religious dissensions supplemented geographical separation. New York +was an instance in point. Alone among the colonies, it had a good +waterway for any distance inland; but there was little community of +interest between the settlers at Albany or Schenectady, and the +seaport at Manhattan Island, except so far as the latter commanded +the import and export trade of the Hudson valley. The settlers at the +mouth of the Hudson were merchants and seafaring men. The settlers +inland were farmers, landholders, and traders with the Indians. The +former were exposed to attack by sea, but recked little of the French +in Canada or their Indian allies. The latter had nothing to fear from +a hostile fleet, but were constantly in danger from an inroad from +Canada. Then there were feuds of race and religion. The English +overpowered the Dutch, and with the English came in the rule of the +Duke of York, Roman Catholic influence, and a policy too often +dictated by France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote162"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Leisler's<br> + rebellion.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Revolution, which turned out the Stuarts in England, was followed +by a rising in New York. There was a cleavage, not so much on lines +of race, as on those of politics and religion. The extreme +Protestants and Republicans, whose stronghold was in and about the +town of New York, rose against the existing system, which was upheld +by the more <a name="page126"></a>moderate and aristocratic section of the population, who +were stronger up country, and were supported by such men as Schuyler, +the chief magistrate of Albany. Jacob Leisler, a German, led the +revolutionary party, and in 1689, backed by the militia, he deposed +the Lieutenant-Governor and took the government into his own hands. +He played the part of Cromwell for two years until, in 1691, regular +troops were sent out from England, when he was deserted by his +followers, imprisoned, and hanged; and the ordinary methods of +colonial government were resumed.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote163"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Want of union<br> + made the English<br> + impotent against<br> + the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Colony being thus divided from colony, and the one colony which +directly abutted on Canada being divided against itself, it was long +before the English made any headway against the French on the St. +Lawrence. At almost any given date the French had a larger number of +regular troops available, supported by Canadian rangers, whose life +was spent in border warfare—the whole being under one Governor, who +was, as has been seen, invariably a man of considerable military +experience. On the sea the English could more than hold their own, +but the sea-route from New York or Boston to Quebec was long and +troublesome. If such an expedition was taken in hand, there could be +no secrecy and no speed in the matter. There was gathering of ships +and transports; discussions as to the quota of each colony; selection +of a leader because he was a good neighbour or a popular citizen, +rather than for any naval or military capacity. There was sailing +round the coast, taking Acadia on the way, and finally arrival before +Quebec after men and ships had dropped off and the French had been +forewarned and forearmed. Thus down to the date of the Treaty of +Utrecht English efforts against the French in Canada amounted to +little more than giving arms and supplies to the Five Nations, making +occasional counter raids by land, and still more occasional +demonstrations by sea.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote164"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>First proposal<br> + for joint action<br> + against the<br> + French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page127"></a> +<p>It will be remembered<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> that in February, 1666, the French +commander, Courcelles, on his bold midwinter expedition against the +Mohawks, strayed from his route, and found himself near Corlaer or +Schenectady, where he learnt that the English had become masters of +New York, and that there was an English garrison at Albany. This was +the first intrusion of the French into the Hudson valley. Tracy's +expedition against the Mohawk towns later in the same year gave +Colonel Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, occasion to +invite the New England colonies to join him in attacking the French. +They refused, fearing that, if they sided with the Iroquois, they +would be exposed to attack from the Abenakis, who were on their +borders, and who were friends of the French, foes of the Five +Nations. Some twenty years then passed without open rupture. New York +was retaken by the Dutch and regained by the English. The +colonization of Canada went on. The Iroquois remained comparatively +quiet, and in Frontenac's first term of administration western +exploration and western trade began to determine French policy in +Canada and English policy in New York.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> See <a href="#page104">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote165"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Thomas Dongan.<br> + <br> + <br> + Meeting between<br> + the English<br> + Governors and<br> + the chiefs of<br> + the Five Nations.<br> + <br> + <br> + Bad feeling<br> + between French<br> + and English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1683, after Frontenac had come to Canada for the first time and +gone again, New York was given in the Irish Catholic, Thomas Dongan, +a Governor of strength and foresight. In the following year, at a +conference held at Albany, at which Lord Howard of Effingham, the +Governor of Virginia, was present, the alliance between the English +and the Five Nations was formally confirmed; and, assured of English +aid and protection, the Iroquois turned their strength against +Canada. Though there was peace between Great Britain and France in +James II's time, the relations between New York and Canada were the +reverse of friendly. The French knew that the Five Nations were +backed by the English. Dongan on his part was resolved that the <a name="page128"></a>trade +of the West should not be left exclusively in French hands. Angry +letters passed between him and Denonville, English and Dutch traders +on the lakes were intercepted by the Canadians, and a party from +Montreal captured and looted three English trading posts on Hudson +Bay. In 1688 Dongan was recalled, and in the following year news +reached the American colonies of the Revolution in England.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote166"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French plan<br> + for attacking<br> + New York.<br> + <br> + <br> + Frontenac's<br> + raiding parties.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The expulsion of the Stuarts and the accession of William III to the +throne of Great Britain meant war with France; and at this critical +moment Frontenac came back to Canada. He came back with a plan, +devised by Calličres and approved by the King, for attacking New York +by land and sea. A stillborn scheme it proved, through untoward +delays, but its conception indicated that New York was recognized by +the French Government and its advisers as the key of the position in +North America. While plans were being laid by the French for the +invasion of New York the Iroquois invaded Canada, and the massacre of +Lachine faced Frontenac on his return in 1689. Next year he sent out +against the English colonies the three expeditions which have been +already mentioned.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> See <a href="#page113">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote167"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The capture of<br> + Schenectady.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The first started from Montreal in depth of winter, following the +familiar route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, and intending to +strike a blow at Albany. The men were picked for the work, Frenchmen +and Indians, about 250 in all, led by the best of Canadian rangers, +such as Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brothers. They toiled through +ice and snow, and, turning off from the path to Albany, in the +darkness of a winter's night they fell upon the Dutch settlement of +Schenectady. It was the time of Leisler's movement, when New York was +in the throes of revolution. The village was unguarded, its gates +were open, its inmates were asleep. A blockhouse manned by eight or +nine militiamen from <a name="page129"></a>Connecticut was stormed, and the scene was one +of helpless massacre.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote168"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The attack on<br> + Salmon Falls<br> + <br> + <br> + and Falmouth.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The second party, smaller in number, consisting of some fifty French +and Abenaki Indians, left Three Rivers towards the end of January, +and near the end of March made a night attack on the settlement of +Salmon Falls, on the borders of New Hampshire and Maine. Again the +English, sleeping and unprepared, were murdered in their beds, and +the murderers, making good their retreat, joined forces with the +third and strongest party, which had set out from Quebec to attack +the settlement of Falmouth at Casco Bay. Falmouth stood where the +town of Portland in Maine now stands. There was a fort at the +place—Fort Loyal—into which the outlying settlers gathered with +their families when the attacking force of four or five hundred men +appeared. After a short defence the commander, Sylvanus Davies by +name, surrendered on solemn promise, according to his own +circumstantial account, of quarter and freedom for the whole company. +The terms were immediately broken, and all the English were massacred +or carried into captivity.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote169"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Effect of the<br> + French raids.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Thus three separate raids on the English colonies, sent out under +Frontenac's orders in the year 1690, were all successful. They were +well devised, and carried out with skill, courage, and determination. +The English and Dutch settlers, on their side, showed the greatest +negligence and little stubbornness or competence in self-defence. The +immediate result was to invigorate the French and their Indian +allies; but the causes of their momentary success were the causes of +their ultimate failure; and even at the moment these marauding +exploits threatened new danger to Canada. The French succeeded +because, leagued with savages, they in all things likened themselves +to their companions, they habited themselves in Indian dress, their +warriors were ferocious as Indian warriors, their priests hounded on +to blood. They succeeded because their trade was war not peace, +<a name="page130"></a>because they were roving adventurers who had only their lives to +lose, ravening among quiet men of substance who had homes and wives +and children to be plundered and slain. It was as certain that in +course of time the cause of the English colonists would prevail, as +that the Highland clans, who in Scotland marauded their southern +neighbours, would eventually be broken, or that the Five Nations +themselves, if left to fight alone, would eventually go down before +the settled life of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote170"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>They tended<br> + to unite<br> + the English<br> + colonists.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On this occasion three blows were struck, nearly at the same time, at +three separate points in a long undefended line. The adoption of this +policy by the French, and still more the fact of its success, in +reality tended to remove the one great obstacle to British supremacy +in North America. When Sylvanus Davies, taken at Fort Loyal and +carried prisoner to Quebec, asked Frontenac the reason for the savage +raid on the Casco Bay settlement, he was told that it was reprisal +for the support given to the Iroquois by New York. His rejoinder, +which was to the effect that New England should not be called upon to +answer for the doings of New York, showed how little community of +sentiment or interest existed in the English colonies. The one great +source of weakness to the English cause, the greatest source of +strength to the French, was the disunion of the English colonies and +their indifference to each other. Consolidation could come only +through partnership in suffering, and pressure from a common foe. +This was the lesson which Frontenac taught, when his border ruffians +carried havoc from the head waters of the Hudson to the sea-coast of +Maine.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote171"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The colonies<br> + determine to<br> + attack Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The lesson was never fully learnt as long as the Atlantic colonies +were British possessions and Canada was French; but for a time the +French outrages produced some semblance of common action on the other +side; and at a conference held at Albany, in 1690, it was resolved to +attack Canada by land and sea. The land expedition, taking the route +<a name="page131"></a>of Lake Champlain, was a failure, ending in a small raid on the +French settlement of La Prairie; and the main effort was made by sea. +On sea the New Englanders showed the way, led by the men of +Massachusetts.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote172"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Massachusetts<br> + takes the lead.<br> + <br> + <br> + Capture of<br> + Port Royal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The 'Bostonnais,' as the French called them, were dangerous foes of +Canada. Puritans, Republicans, sea-fighters, sea-traders, they were +all that the Canadians were not. They were strong in numbers too. At +the end of the seventeenth century, Boston was a town of some 7,000 +inhabitants, and the population of the whole colony was estimated at +not far short of 50,000, against less than 15,000 French in Canada. +At the very time that the French and Indian raid on Casco Bay took +place, a fleet of seven or eight ships with 700 men on board sailed +from Boston for Acadia, took possession of Port Royal with other +French settlements on the Acadian coast, and returned in little more +than a month's time with prisoners, booty, and renown.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote173"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>William<br> + Phipps.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The commander of the expedition was William Phipps, a typical product +of the seaboard colonies. Starting as a New England ship-carpenter, +he had turned rover and buccaneer; and finding a sunken Spanish +treasure-ship, had won himself riches and a knighthood. He was brave, +not too scrupulous or cleanhanded, a good seaman, and a patriotic +man. He was well fitted for irregular warfare on a small scale, but +his capacity was limited, and he did not rise to the level of +greatness. After his success in Acadia, Phipps seemed obviously the +man to achieve the conquest of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote174"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Condition<br> + of Quebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Sixty years had passed since David Kirke took Quebec. A better leader +than Phipps, he had had an easy task in starving out an infant +settlement. The interval had been for Quebec a time of comparative +peace. Sheltered on the land side by Three Rivers, Montreal, and the +military outposts of the Richelieu, the town was practically safe +from the Iroquois, while civil wars and Stuart Kings in England +prevented invasion from the sea. One year and another <a name="page132"></a>the furs which +came down the river, or the supplies which were brought from France, +were intercepted; but in the main the capital of New France enjoyed +security and peace. It had grown, but was a very small town still, +ill fortified, except by nature, and, if fortune and skill had +combined, might well have been taken. But in 1690 there was no luck +and little skill on the attacking side. The land campaign, which was +to have kept Frontenac and his best troops at Montreal, failed just +in time to enable all the available French forces to concentrate at +Quebec. England, when asked by Massachusetts to help the expedition +by arms and ammunition, sent nothing; and, while the appeal was being +made, valuable time was lost. Phipps was at first too leisurely and +afterwards too impatient to succeed, and wind and weather befriended +the Frenchmen in Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote175"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Phipps'<br> + expedition<br> + against<br> + Quebec.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its failure.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was the ninth of August when the New England commander sailed from +Nantucket with thirty-four ships, and soldiers and sailors to the +number of 2,200 men. It was the sixteenth of October when he anchored +before Quebec. He sent a pompous summons to surrender, which provoked +an insulting reply, and then prepared to land his troops below the +town, to attack it in rear, while his ships opened fire in front. It +was a hopeless enterprise. The night after the English fleet +appeared, strong reinforcements came in from Montreal, and Frontenac +had at his disposal not far short of 3,000 fighting men. On the +eighteenth, the New England levies were landed on the Beauport shore, +having the river St. Charles between them and Quebec. They were +between 1,200 and 1,300 in number, commanded by Major Walley. Short +of food and supplies, sickening in the wet weather, out-numbered by +disciplined troops and Canadian rangers, who fought under cover and +with the advantage of the ground, they could do nothing but prove +themselves brave and stubborn men. Phipps on shipboard gave them no +support, wasting his ammunition in a wild and useless cannonade +<a name="page133"></a>against the face of the cliff and the walls of the upper town; and in +ten days time all the men were re-embarked and the ships set sail for +home.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote176"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Boldness<br> + of the<br> + attempt.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>So ended in complete failure the attempt of Massachusetts to take +Quebec. Yet it was a bold and masterful effort on the part of one +undeveloped English colony. It had in it the elements of strength, +and under different conditions might have earned success. As it was, +the citizen soldiers and sailors of Boston, led by an +ex-ship-carpenter, faced Count Frontenac and all the trained strength +of New France, their retreat was unmolested, and their failure was +hailed as a miraculous deliverance for Quebec.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Phipps, before he made his attack, was told by French +prisoners of the path up the cliff above the town, by which Wolfe +subsequently took Quebec; but he preferred to attack from Beauport.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote177"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Phipps.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Phipps had not proved himself to be a great commander. He failed too +as Governor of Massachusetts, to which post he was appointed in the +following year; but he had the merit of dogged determination to fight +the French in Canada; and, had he lived longer, he might again have +tried his hand at besieging Quebec. A few weeks after his repulse and +return to Boston, he sailed to England to urge upon the home +Government an active policy against New France, and that policy he +continued to advocate until he died, in 1695, at the early age of +forty-four.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote178"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wheeler's<br> + abortive<br> + expedition.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On either side, the true line of defence was to carry war into the +enemy's country. It was thus that Frontenac defended Canada. It was +by constant raids that the Iroquois maintained their position; and +the counsel which those astute savages gave to their English friends +was to combine and attack Quebec. 'Strike at Quebec,' urged Phipps on +the English Government; 'strike at Boston and New York' was the +advice which the leaders of Canada one after another tendered to King +Louis. No help had been sent from England to the late expedition +against Quebec, but Phipps' <a name="page134"></a>subsequent representations led to an +English fleet being dispatched to the West Indies in the winter of +1692, under command of Admiral Wheeler. The ships were intended to +take Martinique, then to go on to Boston, and embarking a force of +New Englanders under Phipps to sail for Quebec. Again there was a +failure. Wheeler lost more than half his soldiers and sailors in the +West Indies from yellow fever; and, when he reached Boston in +midsummer of 1693, bringing the sickness with him, the Massachusetts +Government decided that it was hopeless to attempt to carry out the +scheme.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote179"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fighting<br> + on the<br> + New York<br> + frontier.<br> + <br> + <br> + New York<br> + protected<br> + by the<br> + Iroquois.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In spite of the massacre at Schenectady, New York suffered less than +New England from border war. In 1691, in a second attack on the +French settlement of La Prairie over against Montreal, the English +and Dutch colonists achieved some success, carrying out the raid +which they had planned, and cutting their way back hand to hand +through a party of French troops who tried to bar their retreat. The +Iroquois were the salvation of New York. Their raids into Canada +safeguarded the rival colony, and when the Five Nations were not on +the warpath, the French hesitated to attack their English allies, for +fear of provoking a fresh incursion of savages. It has been seen that +the Iroquois tended more and more to a policy of neutrality, worn by +constant fighting, tired of English inaction, and discerning that +their true interest lay in siding with neither French nor English. +Still, with the exception of their converted countrymen settled in +Canada, they were not likely to band with the French against the +English. To do so would have been to break with old ties and +traditions, to close their best market, to combine with their +deadliest foes against friends of long standing, whose faults had +been after all but faults of omission. This the French knew well: +they were content to leave New York alone, provided they themselves +were left alone by the Iroquois, and so long as <a name="page135"></a>the traders of New +York did not seriously threaten their command of the West.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote180"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Abenakis<br> + on the<br> + borders of<br> + New England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was otherwise in the case of New England. The Abenaki Indians on +the borders of the New England colonies had always been in the French +interest. Jesuit influence was strong among them: they had been +taught that Christianity could go hand in hand with ferocity, and +that murder of white heretics might be not only a pleasure but a +duty. Here the object of the French was not to keep the Indians +quiet, but to spur them on. As they dreaded lest their Indian allies +on the upper lakes should come to terms with the Iroquois,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> and +enforced barbarities to make peace impossible, so in the closing +years of the seventeenth century and the early years of the +eighteenth, they incited the Abenaki warriors against the border +settlements of Maine and New Hampshire, butchering, looting, carrying +into captivity, their one object being to keep alive the taste of +blood, lest, lured by the prospect of peaceful and profitable trade +with the neighbouring English, the Abenakis should drift apart from +New France.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> See <a href="#page117">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote181"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Port Royal<br> + reoccupied<br> + by the French.<br> + <br> + <br> + French and<br> + Indian raids on<br> + York, Wells, and<br> + Oyster River.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A Canadian officer, Villebon, was specially deputed to take charge of +Acadia, and organize war-parties against the English settlers. He +reoccupied Port Royal, and at the beginning of 1692 the work of +massacre was taken seriously in hand. The first point of attack was +the border settlement of York on the sea-coast of Maine: it was laid +waste early in February, with all the usual horrors of Indian +warfare. In June, another seaside settlement—Wells, about twenty +miles to the north of York—was attacked by a large party; but some +thirty militiamen, headed by a determined officer, Convers by name, +made a stubborn defence, and beat off the assailants. Two years later +the settlement at Oyster River was surprised, and its inhabitants +killed or carried off.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote182"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Backwardness<br> + of the New<br> + Englanders in<br> + self-defence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was one way, and one only, to put a stop to this <a name="page136"></a>destructive +warfare; to build strong forts in advanced positions; to give them +adequate garrisons under competent officers; to patrol the frontier +constantly with bodies of armed border police, and to harry the +Indian marauders by land and sea. New England—and New England meant +Massachusetts—was perfectly able to adopt and to maintain such a +policy. The New Englanders were many against comparatively few; they +had as a rule command of the sea; but the colonists did not like the +expense or the personal service which was involved; the Boston +citizens did not feel the full force of the blows which struck the +outlying farms and homesteads; and the petifogging Government too +often employed men to command who knew little or nothing of +soldiering.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote183"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fort<br> + Pemaquid.<br> + <br> + <br> + Chubb's<br> + treachery.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was one point, in particular, which should have been strongly +fortified and strongly garrisoned. This was Fort Pemaquid, on the +sea-coast between the mouths of the Kennebec and the Penobscot. It +was to New England, and to the Abenakis, what Fort Frontenac was to +Canada and to the Iroquois, an advanced post covering the English +colonies and menacing the Indians. In 1689, most of the English +garrison having been withdrawn, it had been surprised and taken by +the Abenakis. In 1692, Phipps, then Governor of Massachusetts, acting +under orders from the King, rebuilt and regarrisoned it. Iberville, +sent by Frontenac in the following year, with two ships of war, +reconnoitred the fort but did not venture to attack it. In 1696, it +was in charge of an incompetent commander, Chubb, who made himself +odious to the Indians by a gross act of treachery. Some Abenaki +chiefs had been invited to the fort under pledge of personal safety, +to exchange prisoners; and, acting under instructions from Stoughton, +Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, Chubb laid an ambush for them, +killed some and kidnapped others.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote184"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Surrender<br> + of Pemaquid.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was a proceeding as impolitic as it was immoral, and quickly +brought retribution. Early in 1696, two ships of <a name="page137"></a>war came out from +France, and, taking on board troops from Quebec, coasted round the +Acadian peninsula, capturing on the way some English vessels, +including an armed frigate. Off the mouth of the St. John the French +received reinforcements, sent down by Villebon from his Fort Naxouat, +which stood higher up the river; and a further band of Indians joined +them at Pentegoet, the fort of the French adventurer St. Castin, at +the mouth of the river Penobscot. The expedition led by Iberville, +St. Castin, and others sailed on to Pemaquid, and on August 14 +demanded its surrender. Chubb returned a contemptuous reply, and +backed his words by promptly surrendering next day, on condition of +safe conduct for himself and his men. He went back to Boston in +safety and disgrace, and a year later was murdered by Indians.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote185"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Abortive<br> + French<br> + expedition<br> + against<br> + Boston.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The loss of Fort Pemaquid was a serious blow to the English, and in +the next year, 1697, the French Government determined to follow up +their success by attacking Boston. A strong fleet was sent out to +Newfoundland under the Marquis de Nesmond. Its orders were to defeat +any English vessels off that coast, and sailing south to the mouth of +the Penobscot to take up Canadian troops and Indian allies. The +expedition was then to proceed to take Boston, and, having +accomplished this object, to overrun the whole of New England to the +north of that city. Frontenac had the land forces in readiness, +proposing to take command himself; but on this occasion the French +took a leaf out of the English book; the fleet was detained by +contrary winds till the summer was past, the combination failed, and +all the grand scheme came to nothing at all. For Boston read Quebec, +and the record of this failure might be the record of one of the +stillborn enterprises, by which the English from time to time hoped +to reduce Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote186"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Treaty of<br> + Ryswick.<br> + <br> + <br> + War of the<br> + Spanish<br> + Succession.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Treaty of Ryswick signed in 1697, and formally proclaimed in +America in 1698, settled nothing. It gave <a name="page138"></a>breathing-space to Louis +XIV and his enemies, and, while it lasted, there was a respite from +border forays for the English colonies in North America. But no +attempt was made to adjust boundaries, or to remove causes of past +and future disputes, and the only specific provision, which the +treaty contained with regard to America, referred to Hudson Bay. Both +sides knew that the truce was not likely to be long-lived, and its +end came when, in 1701, the King of France promised the exiled James +II on his deathbed to acknowledge his son as rightful King of +England. In the following year war broke out again, the War of the +Spanish Succession, the war which, after Marlborough's victories, +ended with the Peace of Utrecht.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote187"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French raids<br> + on Wells,<br> + Casco Bay,<br> + Deerfield, and<br> + Haverhill.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was in Europe that the battle of the American colonies was fought, +in Flanders and at Blenheim, rather than on the St. Lawrence or on +the coasts of Acadia and New England. There was fighting in America, +but it was in the main fighting of the same indecisive kind as had +gone before—murder, pillage, and the like; and history repeated +itself with singular fidelity. On May 4, 1702, war was declared: in +August, 1703, the old work of raiding the New England frontier was +resumed. The settlement at Wells, which had suffered before, was the +first to suffer again; the neighbouring settlements, as far as Casco +Bay, were marauded by the Abenaki Indians; and the fort at Casco was +hard beset, until relieved by an armed vessel from Massachusetts. In +the following year, at the end of February, 1704, the village of +Deerfield was attacked by night by some 250 French and Indians. It +stood on the Connecticut river, on the north-western frontier of +Massachusetts, and at the date of the attack contained in all nearly +300 human beings. Of them about fifty were killed, and over 100 were +carried off, among the latter being the minister of the place, John +Williams, who survived to tell a tale of almost incredible loss and +suffering in a narrative entitled <i>The Redeemed Captive returning to +Sion</i>. A similar <a name="page139"></a>attack was made, in 1708, on the village of +Haverhill on the Merrimac river, which cost the lives of about fifty +villagers; and one after another the border settlements, during these +troubled years, were infested by savages appearing from and +disappearing in the backwoods under cover of night. The authors of +the outrages were the French rulers of Canada; their agents were in +the main converted Indians; the series of raids was not so much the +spontaneous movement of natives against white men, as a crusade +against heretics, prompted and led by Europeans, and carried out by +Indian warriors on the lines of Indian warfare. There was much +vicarious suffering. The past inroads of the Iroquois into Canada led +to years of retaliation on New England: retaliation on New England +induced the New Englanders in their turn to attack Acadia.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote188"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Port Royal<br> + threatened<br> + by Major<br> + Church and<br> + Colonel March.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1691, the year after Phipps had taken Port Royal, a new charter +was granted by the Crown to Massachusetts, which included Acadia +within the limits of the colony. But in the same year, and in the +very month of September in which the charter was given, the Frenchman +Villebon reoccupied Port Royal, and four years later, Massachusetts, +unwilling or unable to make good its claim, petitioned the British +Government to take over its rights and responsibilities in regard to +the Acadian peninsula. Whether in English or in French hands, Port +Royal remained a small, ill-fortified, and poorly defended post, +constantly open to, and constantly threatened with attack. In 1704, +after and in consequence of the French raid on Deerfield, a +buccaneering force from New England, under Major Benjamin Church, +appeared before it, having previously burnt the Acadian settlement of +Grand Pré, but sailed away without venturing to attack the fort. In +1707, a stronger expedition was sent from Massachusetts and the +neighbouring colonies under Colonel John March; but again, though the +troops landed, skirmished, and began a siege, the enterprise came to +nothing.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote189"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Samuel<br> + Vetch.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page140"></a> +<p>In 1709 preparations were made for more vigorous and more effective +action. In the previous year the colony of Massachusetts resolved to +appeal to the British Government for help from home to attack Canada. +Their emissary to England was Samuel Vetch, a notable man of the time +in North American history. He was a Scotchman, the son of a +Presbyterian minister, born and bred in Puritan surroundings; he had +served in the Cameronian regiment, and had fought on the continent in +William III's armies. After the Peace of Ryswick he went out with +other would-be colonists to the Isthmus of Darien, and, on the +failure of the scheme, came over to New York. There he married and +engaged in trade with Canada, gaining a knowledge of New France, its +river, and its people, which subsequently stood him in good stead. +Like Phipps, he was a shrewd, self-made man, whose enemies accused +him, apparently with reason, of illicit dealings; like Phipps, he had +seen the world outside New England and New York; and, having seen it +and having taken stock of Canada as well as of the English colonies, +he was a warm advocate, as Phipps had been before him, of united and +aggressive action against the French.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote190"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His mission<br> + to England.<br> + <br> + <br> + British aid<br> + promised to<br> + New England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Quite recently, in 1705, he had been in Canada, to negotiate exchange +of prisoners and a treaty of peace between Massachusetts and the +French. Both Dudley, the Governor of Massachusetts, and Vaudreuil, +the Canadian Governor, were inclined to peace, but the negotiations +broke down in consequence of Vaudreuil's demand that the other +English colonies in North America should also be included in the +treaty—a condition which Dudley was not in a position to guarantee. +Vetch was for some little time on this occasion both at Quebec and at +Montreal. When, therefore he visited England in 1708, he brought with +him accurate first-hand knowledge of the enemy's land and people. He +was well received. Marlborough's victories supported his plea for a +decisive campaign in America, and early in 1709 he was <a name="page141"></a>sent back over +the Atlantic with the promise of a fleet and five regiments of +British troops amounting to 3,000 men. The colonists on their part +were to raise contingents of specified strength, and attack by sea +was to be combined with a land expedition by way of Lake Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote191"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Attitude of<br> + the colonies.<br> + <br> + <br> + Land expedition<br> + under Colonel<br> + Nicholson.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its retreat.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Even now some of the colonies hung back. Pennsylvania, out of reach +of French attack and dominated by Quakers, sent no help in men or +money. New Jersey sent money but no men. New York however abandoned +its neutrality, threw in its lot with New England, and persuaded some +of the Five Nations to take up arms again against the French, the +Senecas only, under the influence of a skilful French agent, +Joncaire, holding aloof. Fifteen hundred men were gathered for the +land march, and, under the command of Colonel Francis Nicholson, +advanced to Wood Creek, which is connected with Lake Champlain. He +entrenched himself there, and his outposts came into collision with +the advance guard of a French force sent to surprise him under +Ramesay, Governor of Montreal. The French fell back to Chambly, and +Nicholson waited week after week for news of the English fleet, until +pestilence broke out among his troops, and he was compelled to +retreat.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote192"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Non-arrival<br> + of the<br> + English<br> + fleet.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Meanwhile at Boston every preparation had been made, according to the +orders of the English Government. Men, stores, transports were +gathered, but all to no purpose, for no fleet came. It was due in +May, and not till October came the news that the ships and men +intended for America had been sent instead to Portugal. Once more +there was a respite for Canada, once more the hearts of the English +colonists were made sick by hope deferred. They had done their part, +and all the trouble and expense and, in Nicholson's army, loss of +life had been for nought.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote193"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fresh<br> + representations<br> + to the home<br> + Government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet the representatives of Massachusetts still pressed the home +Government to take action against New France. Nicholson went to +England at the end of the year, and <a name="page142"></a>pleaded the cause of the +colonies, pleading it with authority, as having been +Lieutenant-Governor of New York and Governor of Maryland. One of the +Schuylers too followed him to England from New York, bringing a party +of Mohawk chiefs to see and be seen.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote194"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reduction of<br> + Port Royal<br> + by Nicholson.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>If Canada were not to be invaded, at least Port Royal might be taken, +and Imperial aid was promised to attain the latter object. An English +force, timed to reach Boston in March, 1710, arrived there in July; +and in September Nicholson sailed for Port Royal at the head of a +strong expedition. He reached it on September 24. For a week there +was some fighting, but the French were hopelessly outnumbered; and on +October 1, the fort surrendered. Port Royal, henceforth known as +Annapolis, now passed in permanence into English hands, and with it +the English became masters of all Acadia.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote195"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Political<br> + changes in England.<br> + <br> + <br> + Jeremiah Dummer.<br> + <br> + <br> + The expedition<br> + of 1711.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its arrival<br> + at Boston.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>After taking Port Royal Nicholson returned to London, again to urge +an attack on Canada. Before he arrived, there had been in August, +1710, a change of ministry. Godolphin had been dismissed, and +Marlborough's enemies, Harley and Bolingbroke, were in power. +Bolingbroke had in his service a New Englander, trained at Harvard +University—Jeremiah Dummer—who had become agent of Massachusetts in +England, and who set forth in pamphlets the colonists' case, and +urged the vital importance of conquering Canada. His writings, +combined with the personal representations of Nicholson, persuaded +ministers, who were anxious to father an enterprise which might weigh +in the balance of public opinion against Marlborough's victories; and +in April, 1711, fifteen men of war, with forty-six transports, sailed +for America, carrying seven regiments of the line, five of which were +from the army in Flanders. The regulars numbered 5,000 men, exclusive +of sailors and marines, and they were to be supplemented on arrival +by colonial levies. They reached Boston, after a fair passage, +towards the end of June.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote196"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Feeling of<br> + the colonists.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page143"></a> +<p>The force was fully strong enough to take Quebec, provided that two +requisites were forthcoming—the hearty co-operation of the colonists +and capable leaders. The colonists did their part, but not with a +whole heart and not without misgivings. They had asked for British +troops, but, notwithstanding, there was a suspicion in the minds of +many that a strong force landed in America might be used to subvert +colonial liberties, and to reduce the communities of New England to +the position of Crown Colonies. The French knew that such a spirit +was abroad, and did their best to foster it. It was fostered too by +other causes. There was something new in the action of the British +Government. The American settlers were accustomed to refusal of aid +from home, to promises of aid made but not fulfilled, to tardy and +inadequate assistance. But on the present occasion an unusually large +force of veteran troops arrived at Boston at a fortnight's notice.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote197"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The expedition<br> + sails from<br> + Boston.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Nicholson landed with the news of the coming fleet on June 8, on the +twenty-fourth the fleet appeared. Its destination had been kept +secret, and it was provisioned only for the voyage to America. On its +arrival, therefore, it was necessary to impress men and supplies: +pilots too were wanted and were not forthcoming: the King's officers +found the colonists difficult to deal with: the colonists resented +peremptory orders, and sheltered deserters from the army and the +fleet. Still the authorities of Massachusetts loyally backed the +expedition; preparations went forward; and on July 30 the ships set +sail for the St. Lawrence, carrying, in addition to the English +forces, two Massachusetts regiments, which numbered about 1,500 men, +and were commanded by Vetch, now Governor of Annapolis.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote198"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Nicholson's<br> + advance<br> + towards<br> + Lake<br> + Champlain.<br> + <br> + <br> + Admiral Walker<br> + and<br> + General Hill.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The orthodox plan of invading Canada involved a twofold attack, by +land on Montreal, by sea on Quebec. Accordingly, while the fleet was +sailing round the North American coast, Nicholson collected troops at +Albany, and advanced as far as <a name="page144"></a>Wood Creek at the head of 2,300 men, +800 of whom were Iroquois. Thence he intended to push his way down +Lake Champlain. He was a competent commander, but the leaders of the +main expedition were not. Little is known of the admiral, Sir +Hovenden Walker, and it does not appear why he was chosen for so +important a post. The general, Hill, familiar enough to London +society as Jack Hill, had hitherto shown no military capacity. +Marlborough had set his face against his promotion, and he owed his +rise entirely to Court favour, for he was brother of Abigail Hill +(Lady Masham), now the ruling favourite of Queen Anne. Sister and +brother alike had been befriended by the Duchess of Marlborough; by +intrigue, Abigail Hill had supplanted her benefactress in the Queen's +favour; and with her aid Harley and Bolingbroke, themselves +arch-intriguers, turned out Godolphin and procured Marlborough's +disgrace. The price of her assistance was the appointment of her +incompetent brother to command seasoned troops well fitted to conquer +Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote199"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Disaster to<br> + the fleet<br> + in the St.<br> + Lawrence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Rounding Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, the fleet, on August 18, +put into Gaspé Bay. By the evening of the twenty-second it was at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, and in foggy weather the unskilful +admiral, many miles out of his course, headed straight for the +northern shore of the river, under the impression that he was too +close to land on the southern side. At dead of night he was roused +from his berth with the unwelcome news that the ship was among +breakers; and turned her head just in time to avoid running upon +rocks. The ships which followed his disastrous lead were not so +fortunate, and eight of the transports were dashed to pieces on the +reefs with a loss of about 1,000 lives.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> The place where the +catastrophe occurred was one of the <a name="page145"></a>rocky islets, known as the Egg +Islands, about twenty miles to the north of the Point de Monts.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> According to one English account 884 soldiers were lost, +according to another 740 soldiers and women. The number of sailors +lost is not given.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote200"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + expedition<br> + abandoned.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For two days the ships were busied in picking up survivors from the +wrecks. On the twenty-fifth a council of war was held, and it was +resolved to abandon the expedition. A message was sent to recall +Nicholson and his troops from their advance on Montreal; the fleet +sailed back to Sydney harbour in Cape Breton Island. A suggestion to +attack Placentia in Newfoundland was rejected. The New England +transports returned to Boston, and the English fleet went home to +Portsmouth,<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> where—to complete the fiasco—the admiral's ship blew +up, costing the lives of some 400 seamen.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Swift, in the <i>Journal to Stella,</i> says that the ship +blew up in the Thames, but the accident seems to have taken place at +Spithead; see Kingsford's <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. ii, pp. 468-9. +There are various references to this expedition and to Hill in the +<i>Journal to Stella</i>. Hill was subsequently placed in command at +Dunkirk, while that port was being held as security for the execution +of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Of the two commanders, Hill escaped formal censure. Luckily for him, +Swift's bitter pen was at the service of the political clique with +which he was connected. Walker, more culpable, was also less +fortunate: deprived of his command he emigrated first to South +Carolina and afterwards to Barbados, where he died, having written +his own version of the expedition,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> which in no way tended to +redeem his reputation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> <i>A full account of the late Expedition to Canada,</i> by +Sir Hovenden Walker (London, 1720).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote201"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Ignominious<br> + end of the<br> + expedition.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such was the end of the enterprise, intended to eclipse the great +deeds of Marlborough. There have been many shortcomings and many +disasters in the military annals of England, but few instances are on +record of so much incompetence, verging almost on cowardice. Phipps' +expedition against Quebec was a complete failure, but at least he led +his band of untrained farmers and fishermen safely up and down the +St. Lawrence, and gave Count Frontenac a taste of powder and shot. +Walker and Hill, <a name="page146"></a>with the best of ships and the best of men, +blundered and turned back at the mouth of the river; at the first +mishap they abandoned everything. No wonder the Frenchmen deemed that +the saints watched over Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote202"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Treaty<br> + of Utrecht.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The result can hardly have confirmed the American colonies in their +allegiance to England. As a matter of fact, England had been fighting +their battle against France, but her successes had been on the other +side of the Atlantic; whereas in America, under the eyes of the +colonists, there had been little but failure. One substantial gain +there was—the capture of Port Royal; but this easy feat had been +previously achieved by Massachusetts alone without any aid from home. +The conquest of Canada, which had been well within reach, now seemed +as far off as ever; and the Treaty of Utrecht—which, if Marlborough +had been left to follow up his career of victory, and if a commander +of his choosing had been sent with his troops across the seas, might +have forestalled the famous treaty of fifty years later—did not even +secure the whole seaboard to England, or confine the French to the +river of Canada. Acadia, according to its ancient limits, was ceded +to the British Crown, the French gave up their possessions in +Newfoundland, and their hold on Hudson Bay: but on a section of the +Newfoundland coast they were granted fishing rights, to be a fruitful +source of future trouble; and, keeping Cape Breton Island, they +reared in it the fortress of Louisbourg, to be a stronghold second +only to that of Quebec. Once more England lost her opportunity, and +the settlement, which should have been made in 1713, was postponed +till 1763.</p> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the substance of chaps. iii, iv, and v, see among modern +books,<br> +<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vols. i and ii,<br> +<br> +and the following works of P<small>ARKMAN</small>:<br> +<br> + <i>The Jesuits in North America;</i><br> + <i>The Old Régime in Canada;</i><br> + <i>Count Frontenac and New France;</i><br> + <i>La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West</i>.</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap5"></a><a name="page147"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> +<center>T<small>HE</small> M<small>ISSISSIPPI AND</small> L<small>OUISIANA</small></center> +<br> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote203"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French and<br> + English views<br> + in North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>What were the French and English fighting for in North America? The +answer seems obvious, for North America itself. But what did North +America mean? It had a different meaning to different interests. The +New Englander cared for little but the New England colonies, and the +immediately adjacent lands and seas. To the Acadian settlers the +Acadian peninsula, to the Canadian <i>habitant</i> the banks of the St. +Lawrence, were all in all. The inland colonists of New York had in +their minds not merely the safety of their colony, within its +ill-defined boundaries, but also paramount influence over the Five +Nations, and unrestricted trade with the western Indians. Longheaded +governors of New York and Massachusetts took a still wider view; but +the widest of all was held by the French Governors of Canada, and by +the roving Canadians, who, with restless spirit and undaunted +enterprise, claimed seas and rivers before they were reached or +known, magnifying tales of far-off lands and peoples, building in the +air and bringing down to earth a fabric of continental dominion. As a +rule, the English view was too circumscribed, the French view was too +diffuse. The strength of the English lay in effective occupation +within narrow limits; the French committed the blunder of perpetually +forcing competition upon rivals who had larger resources; but to them +belonged the great merit of grasping in some sort the true meaning of +North America, and never letting slip the problems of the future.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote204"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The search<br> + for the<br> + Western sea.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page148"></a> +<p>The explorers' aim was always to reach the further sea. That it must +be somewhere to the west, in the opposite direction to the homes from +whence they came, they knew or conjectured; but of the immense +distance at which it lay, and of the Rocky Mountain barrier which +must be surmounted to find it, they were wholly ignorant. They +followed the water, and, when they had gained some knowledge of the +great lakes, they reached the closely adjoining sources of the +tributaries of the Mississippi, the Wisconsin, the Ohio, and the +Illinois; and, borne with the stream, they came in due course not to +the west but to the south, not to the Pacific but to the Gulf of +Mexico.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote205"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The missionaries<br> + and Western<br> + discovery.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was the usual mixture of motives—love of adventure, love of +gain, political ambition, religious fervour. There was rivalry and +competition. One trader or band of traders was jealous of another. +One man or set of men was backed by the Governor for the time being, +another secured the favour of the Intendant. Missionaries played a +great part in exploration. At first they led the van of discovery; +they were always in or near the front rank; but, as years went on, +and as the simple desire of adding to geographical knowledge, of +opening new fields for France and for Christianity, became more and +more alloyed with commercial greed, the ministers of religion, when +heart-whole themselves, realized that the multiplication of trading +posts in the backwoods meant lawlessness of white men, deterioration +of natives; and they no longer gave hearty support to the bold French +adventurers whose enterprise opened up the West.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote206"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The gates of<br> + the waterways<br> + of Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It will be noticed, on reference to a map of Canada—or rather of +that part of the Dominion which was comprised in New France—not only +that there is water communication from end to end, from the extreme +west of Lake Superior to the Atlantic, but also that there are very +distinct points along the way, which are, so to speak, natural +toll-bars, <a name="page149"></a>where the waters narrow, where the rivers or lakes meet. +Here the explorer must pass to reach a goal beyond; here the trader +could intercept traffic; here the missionary was sure to find Indians +to be converted, and <i>coureurs de bois</i> to be reclaimed; these were +the places which must be occupied by the would-be sovereigns of North +America. Consequently, at these points of vantage along the route, at +one time and another, mission stations, trading posts, and forts were +planted.</p> + +<p>Montreal itself, at the head of the colony, at the beginning of its +hinterland, commanded the junction of the Ottawa and the St. +Lawrence. At Cataraqui, where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake Ontario, +Fort Frontenac was built. A little above the outlet of the Niagara +river into Lake Ontario and below the falls, another French fort was +reared, Fort Niagara; while on the channel between Lakes Erie and +Huron was the fort of Detroit. The Iroquois, as we have seen, knew as +well as the French the value of these positions: they feared and +resented the building of the forts, as limiting the range of their +power, and taking from them the control of the fur trade. On the +upper lakes there were at least two posts of prime importance: one +was the Sault St. Marie at the junction of Lake Huron and Lake +Superior, the other was Michillimackinac at the junction of Lake +Huron and Lake Michigan. It must not be supposed that the points +mentioned were occupied in chronological order, as they have been +enumerated above; or that there was any regular series of occupants, +that the explorer came first, followed by the missionary, the trader, +and so forth: but the net result was that French enterprise and +French statesmanship took and kept the gateways on the highroad of +Upper Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote207"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Lake Michigan.<br> + <br> + Michillimackinac.<br> + <br> + Green Bay.<br> + <br> + <br> + The route to the<br> + Mississippi<br> + from Green Bay,</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Lake Michigan was known to the French as the 'Lac des Illinois.' The +narrows where it joins Lake Huron were the straits of +Michillimackinac, now Mackinac or Mackinaw; and on their northern +side stood the trading station of the <a name="page150"></a>same name, and the mission of +St. Ignace. Within the straits on the western side, is a large +indentation, forming a sheet of water which runs south-west, nearly +parallel to the main lake. This was at first called, after certain +Indians who lived on its shores, the Baie des Puans; but it was +subsequently named the Grande Baie, and this title was corrupted into +Green Bay, its present name. The Fox river flows into the head of +Green Bay, and, if the upward course of this river is followed +through Lake Winnebago and beyond, a point is reached at which the +waters of the Wisconsin river are not more than a mile and a half +distant. The Wisconsin is a tributary of the Mississippi.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote208"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and from the end<br> + of Lake Michigan.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A slightly longer portage was needed to reach the Mississippi basin +from the end of Lake Michigan. Still it was a matter of very few +miles to leave the lake, where the city of Chicago now stands, and to +strike one or other of the branches of the Illinois river, the +nearest being the stream known as Des Plaines. Canoes launched on +that stream were carried down into the Illinois, and so to the +Mississippi at a point far south of its confluence with the +Wisconsin.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote209"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Ohio<br> + route.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For adventurers bold enough to diverge from the line of lakes, and to +pass overland within reach of the dreaded Five Nations, there was yet +a third route, more direct than the other two, to the great river. It +was a route well known in after years, and followed the course of the +Ohio. The Ohio, the 'beautiful river,' for such is the meaning of its +name,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> is formed by the junction of two rivers, the Alleghany and +the Monongahela. At their junction, in the middle of the eighteenth +century, the French founded Fort Duquesne, and where Fort Duquesne +stood is now the city of Pittsburg. The northern branch, the +Alleghany, takes its rise near the southern shore of Lake Erie. One +of its affluents flows out of Lake Chautauqua, about eight miles +south of Lake Erie, at the point where there is now the small town of +Portland; <a name="page151"></a>another, the Rivičre aux Boeufs, now called French Creek, +is very little further from the lake, over against Presque Île and +the present town of Erie. A day's march through the forest would +therefore bring a traveller from Lake Erie to a stream which, when in +full volume, would carry his canoe into the Alleghany, the Ohio, and +so to the Mississippi far down its course. No wonder the line of the +Ohio became, when geographical knowledge had made some way, a central +feature in French politics and French strategy in North America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> The name was given it by the Iroquois.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote210"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The head waters of<br> + the Mississippi<br> + closely adjoin the<br> + St. Lawrence basin.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>From the above it will be seen how closely the head waters of the +Mississippi adjoin the St. Lawrence basin, how short the land journey +was from the one to the other. The natives of North America made +exploration difficult, but from a geographical point of view, the +discoverer's path was comparatively easy.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote211"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Early<br> + exploration<br> + on the<br> + upper lakes.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The upper lakes, Lakes Huron and Superior, were visited and explored +before there was any adequate knowledge of Lakes Ontario and Erie, +and there is no record of white men passing from Lake Erie to Lake +Huron by the strait of Detroit before the year 1670. The Five Nations +barred the upper St. Lawrence, and the Niagara river and portage; but +they did not control to the same extent the alternative route from +Montreal to Lake Huron by the Ottawa river. Thus it was that the +Jesuits found their way to the Hurons, on Georgian Bay, long before +any mission enterprise was attempted on the lower lakes, and as early +as 1640 there were Jesuit missionaries at the outlet of Lake +Superior, the Sault St. Marie. Later, after the dispersion of the +Hurons, there was for a while a mission at the western end of Lake +Superior, the place being known as La Pointe, and the mission as the +mission of St. Esprit.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote212"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Jean Nicollet.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The first white man to reach Lake Michigan was Jean Nicollet. He was +a native of Cherbourg, and had come to Canada as early as 1618. +Sojourning among the Nipissing <a name="page152"></a>Indians, he heard from them of the +western tribes; and, listening to Indian tales, seems to have +conjectured that a people might be reached in the far West who could +be none other than Chinese. With these pictures in his mind, he went, +about 1635, as an ambassador of peace to the Puans or Winnebagos, who +dwelt on the Green Bay of Michigan, and arrived among them, so the +story goes, in an embroidered dress of Chinese damask, as being +appropriate to the people whom he hoped to find. He did not find +Chinamen, but came near finding the Mississippi; and a claim was made +in after years on his behalf that he actually was the first +discoverer of that river. The claim however must be disallowed, and +the honour of discovering the great river belongs to the two +Frenchmen, Joliet and Marquette, who did not reach it till 1673.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote213"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Promoters<br> + of discovery.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>After the destruction of the Huron missions, it was difficult enough +for some years to keep life in the struggling colony of New France; +and it was not until the King had taken Canada in hand, had sent out +soldiers and settlers, had commissioned Tracy and Courcelles to curb +the Iroquois, and the Intendant, Talon, to introduce order and +system, that progress was made in exploring and opening up the West. +The promoters of exploration were Talon himself, before he returned +to France; and subsequently the Governor, Frontenac; the Sulpician +and Jesuit missionaries, especially the latter; and laymen +adventurers, the foremost of whom was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la +Salle. La Salle's name is for all time connected with the +Mississippi, but Joliet and Marquette were before him in reaching the +main river.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote214"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Joliet and<br> + Marquette.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Of these two companions in travel, Louis Joliet was a layman, though +connected with the Jesuits by early training. Born in Canada, he had +been sent by Talon to look for copper by Lake Superior, and was +subsequently picked out to discover the mysterious river. Jacques +Marquette was a Jesuit priest, of the earlier and purer type—a +saintly man, <a name="page153"></a>humble and single in mind, who early wore his life away +in labouring for his faith. He had come out from France in 1666, and +about the year 1668 was sent as a missionary to the upper lakes. On +the shores of Lake Superior he ministered to Huron and Ottawa +refugees at the mission of St. Esprit, where he heard from Illinois +visitors of the great river, and from which point, though he knew it +not, one feeder of the Mississippi, the St. Croix river, is at no +great distance. A Sioux raid broke up the mission, and with the +retreating Hurons he established himself at Michillimackinac, where, +about 1670, he founded the mission of St. Ignace. About the same +time, a mission was also established at the head of Green Bay, and +from this point the two travellers, at the end of May, 1673, went +forward to the Mississippi.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote215"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>They reach the<br> + Mississippi.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The course up the Fox river and across Lake Winnebago had already +been taken by other missionaries, who had not, however, gone as far +as the Wisconsin. That river was now reached, and on June 17 it +carried the explorers' canoes out into the Mississippi. Down stream +they went, past the mouths of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the +Ohio, until they came to the confluence of the Arkansas river. There +they turned, assured in their own minds that the outlet of the +Mississippi was in the Gulf of Mexico—not, as had been supposed, in +the Gulf of California—and fearing lest, if they lost their lives at +the hands of Indians or of Spaniards,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> the tale of their discovery +might be lost also. They came back by way of the Illinois and Des +Plaines rivers, made the portage to Lake Michigan, and reached Green +Bay at the end of September, having made known to white men the great +river of the West.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> The lower Mississippi had long been known to the +Spaniards.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote216"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Their return.<br> + <br> + <br> + Marquette's<br> + second journey<br> + and death.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Joliet went back to Quebec to report to the Governor, losing all his +papers by the way in the rapids of Lachine. He lived to visit Hudson +Bay and the coasts of Labrador. Marquette, in broken health, stayed +rather more than a year <a name="page154"></a>at the Green Bay mission. Then, in the winter +of 1674-5, accompanied by two French <i>voyageurs,</i> he revisited the +Illinois river, carrying for the last time his message of +Christianity to savages, who heard him gladly, and followed him back, +a dying man, as far as Lake Michigan. In the month of May he embarked +on the lake, making for Michillimackinac; but, as he went, the end +came, and he was put on shore to die. His companions buried him at +the lonely spot where he died, but at a later date his bones were +brought to Michillimackinac by Indians who had loved him well, and +were laid to rest with all reverence in the chapel of his own +mission.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote217"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle.<br> + <br> + <br> + His Seigniory<br> + at Lachine.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Marquette, like David Livingstone at a later date, was a missionary +explorer. He was carried forward by a faith which could remove +mountains. La Salle was cast in another mould. His gift was not +religious enthusiasm, but the set purpose of a resolute, masterful +man, who made a life-study of his subject. He was born at Rouen, the +birthplace of much western enterprise, and went to Canada in the same +year as Marquette, the year 1666. An elder brother, who was a +Sulpician priest, had gone out before him; and from the Sulpicians, +as feudal lords of the island of Montreal, La Salle obtained a grant +of the Seigniory of Lachine, eight miles higher up the river than +Montreal itself. Here he laid out a settlement, but, as the name 'La +Chine' testifies,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> his mind was set on finding a route to China and +the East, and in 1669 he gave up his grant, receiving compensation +for improvements, and spent what little money he had in beginning his +work of discovery.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> See <a href="#page53">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote218"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He reaches<br> + the Ohio.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His early wanderings have not been clearly traced, but there is no +reason to doubt that, in the years 1669-71, he found his way from +Lakes Ontario and Erie through the Iroquois country to the Ohio. It +was perhaps a more difficult feat to accomplish than the subsequent +discovery of <a name="page155"></a>the Mississippi by way of the lakes. The land journey +was longer, and took the explorer well within range of the Five +Nations. His success proved his capacity for treating with natives—a +quality in which he resembled his staunch friend and supporter Count +Frontenac.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote219"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His character.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Among white men he had, like Frontenac, many enemies, suspicious +priests and jealous merchants. The Jesuits had little love for a man +who had no love for them; and the Canadian merchants regarded him as +a dangerous rival, recognizing no doubt the element of tenacity in +his character. It was the character of one who could hold as well as +find, and who was not likely to rest content with the barren honours +of discovery. There were in him contradictory elements, and his +strength was balanced by failings, which became more conspicuous in +the later stages of his adventurous career. He was not in all points +a typical Frenchman. He had, it is true, address in dealing with +North American Indians; he could lay his case well before the Court +and the ministers of France. He enjoyed the friendship and +countenance of Count Frontenac, and from more than one of his +companions in travel, notably Henri de Tonty, he won unbounded +devotion. But he was wanting, as a leader, in tact and sympathy. +Solitary and self-contained, facing all dangers, enduring all +privations, he spared neither himself nor others. Mutiny and +desertion were in consequence rife amongst those who served him, and +in the end he lost his life at the hands of his own followers. He had +statesmanlike conceptions. He mapped out New France, in his own mind, +as extending from sea to sea, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to that +of Mexico. Like other Frenchmen, he went too far and tried to do too +much; but, if he made mistakes, he was at least no visionary. Until +the last stage of his career, his ends were clearly kept in view, and +he measured the means to attain them, though he did not always +measure aright.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote220"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle at<br> + Fort Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He gave up one Seigniory to find the Ohio. It was not <a name="page156"></a>long before he +obtained another. Count Frontenac came out to govern Canada, for the +first time, in 1672; and determined, as has been told,<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> to build a +fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario. Guided, it would seem, by La +Salle's advice, he built it in 1673, at the mouth of the Cataraqui +river. In 1675, La Salle, who had paid a visit to France in the +autumn of the previous year, became by royal grant Seignior of the +new fort and settlement, to which he gave the name of Fort Frontenac. +It was a strong position to hold, whether for making money by trade +or for prosecuting westward discovery; and bitter was the jealousy +against the young Frenchman, who, at thirty-two years of age, and +after no more than nine years' residence in Canada, had in spite of +strong opposition achieved so much.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See <a href="#page108">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote221"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His plans for<br> + Western<br> + discovery.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Two years he remained at Cataraqui, rebuilding and strengthening the +fort, clearing the ground and constructing small vessels for trading +purposes on Lake Ontario: then, ready to move forward again, he went +back to France in 1677, and laid before the King and Colbert a +further memorial for permission to discover and colonize the +countries of the West. He asked to be confirmed in his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac, to be allowed to establish two other stations, and to +be given rights as Seignior and Governor over whatever lands he might +discover and colonize within twenty years. He promised, if his +request were granted, to plant a colony at the outlet of Lake Erie, +and to waive all claim to any share in the trade between the Indians +of the western lakes and Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote222"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He is given<br> + a royal patent.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>These conditions are worth special note. La Salle was prepared to +assure to France one more link in the chain of rivers and lakes: he +was prepared too to disarm trading jealousy by renouncing any plans +for intercepting the existing fur trade. He asked in return for a +free hand to the south-west, in the lands of the Ohio, the Illinois, +and the Mississippi. The answer of the King, given in May, 1678, was +permission 'to labour at the discovery of the western parts of New +France <a name="page157"></a>... through which to all appearance a way may be found to +Mexico,'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> and for that purpose to build forts and enjoy possession +of them as at Fort Frontenac. The concession was limited to five +years; and, while a monopoly in buffalo skins was granted to the +petitioner, he was prohibited, as he had contemplated, from trading +with the tribes whose furs came down to Montreal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> Quoted by Parkman in +his <i>La Salle</i> (11th ed.), p. 112.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote223"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Henri de Tonty.<br> + <br> + <br> + Father Hennepin.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Having secured this patent, La Salle raised funds in France for the +furtherance of his enterprise; and in July, 1678, set sail from La +Rochelle to Canada, taking with him an Italian officer, Tonty, who +had been recommended to him by the Prince de Conti, and whose +subsequent faithfulness to his leader became almost proverbial. A +companion of a different kind joined him on his return to Canada, +Father Hennepin, a Flemish friar, a brave and sturdy traveller, but a +man of great personal vanity and convicted of telling more than +travellers' tales. He published an account of his travels in La +Salle's lifetime, and, after his death, put forth a new edition,<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> +claiming to have anticipated La Salle in descending the Mississippi +to the sea. The story has been proved to be an absolute imposture, +the more discreditable that it was an attempt to rob a dead man of +honour dearly bought.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> The first book, published at Paris in 1683, was entitled +<i>Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte</i>. The second, +published at Utrecht in 1697, was headed <i>Nouvelle découverte d'un +trčs grand pays situé dans l'Amérique</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote224"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle<br> + builds a fort<br> + at Niagara.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On his return from France, La Salle dispatched a party of men in +advance to Lake Michigan, to trade and to collect stores against his +own arrival. He then set himself, taking Fort Frontenac as his basis, +to plant a post at the mouth of the Niagara river below the falls; +and, above the falls, to build a ship of some appreciable size for +the navigation of the upper lakes. The plan was well thought out. He +would hold both ends of Lake Ontario; and, the continuity of advance +being broken by the falls of Niagara, he would have, above the <a name="page158"></a>falls, +an armed vessel plying for merchandise between Niagara and the end of +Lake Michigan, where again there should be another fort or factory to +safeguard the portage to the waters of the Mississippi.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote225"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Suspicions<br> + of the<br> + Senecas.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was specially necessary to hold both ends of Lake Ontario, for +here was the land of the Senecas. Jealously and sullenly they watched +the Frenchmen's work, through the winter of 1678-9, not wholly +reassured by a visit from La Salle himself to the chief town of the +tribe; but they attempted no armed opposition. Thus the beginning was +made of the first Fort Niagara,<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> on the eastern bank of the river, +in the angle formed by its junction with Lake Ontario; while on the +same side of the water, five miles above the falls, where a stream +called the Cayuga creek enters the main river, a ship was built +bearing the name and the emblem of the <i>Griffin,</i> the appropriate +arms of truculent Count Frontenac.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Denonville's fort, referred to <a href="#page111">above</a>, was a later +structure.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote226"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The voyage of<br> + the 'Griffin' to<br> + Michillimackinac.<br> + <br> + <br> + Loss of the ship.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On August 7, 1679, the <i>Griffin</i> started on her voyage up Lake Erie. +On the tenth—the feast of Sainte Claire—she had passed up the +Detroit river and was in Lake St. Clair. Against the strong current +of the St. Clair river, she found her way into Lake Huron, and, +buffeted by storm and wind, reached in the course of the same month +the mission of St. Ignace at Michillimackinac. Of the advanced party +of traders sent there in the previous year, some had deserted; +others, who remained true, were found at Green Bay with a rich store +of furs; and on the eighteenth of September La Salle parted with his +vessel, sending her to carry back the furs to the portage at Niagara. +He never saw the ship again, and her fate was never known. +Foundering, it would seem, in Lake Michigan, she left her owner to +wait in vain for her return, in want of food, in want of stores for +his onward march, with followers whom he could not trust, with Indian +tribes to master or appease, with winter making the way harder and +the wilderness more drear.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote227"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle builds a<br> + fort at the end of<br> + Lake Michigan.<br> + <br> + He descends the<br> + Illinois river.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page159"></a> +<p>After dispatching the <i>Griffin</i> homeward, La Salle pushed on in +canoes to the south-eastern end of Lake Michigan. There, at the mouth +of the St. Joseph river, which he called the Miami, he built a fort. +December came on, but forward he went, up the St. Joseph, across to +the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois, and down that stream and +the Illinois river to where the Illinois Indians were encamped for +the time near the present town of Peoria. His plan had been to build +another ship on the Illinois, and sail down that river and the +Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote228"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He builds Fort<br> + Crčvecoeur on<br> + the Illinois.<br> + <br> + <br> + He returns<br> + to Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The new year, 1680, opened badly for his enterprise. The Indians were +suspicious, his men were deserting, no news had come of the ill-fated +<i>Griffin</i>. Yet he held staunchly to his purpose. Again he reared a +fort—Fort Crčvecoeur—a little lower down the Illinois than the +Indian camp, and again in the far-off wilds, in dead of winter, he +turned his men to shipbuilding. Without fittings and supplies it was +impossible to proceed, and, accordingly, he determined to go back +himself and bring the needed stores. Leaving Tonty in charge of the +fort, he retraced his steps to Lake Michigan. At Fort Miami he learnt +beyond question the loss of the <i>Griffin</i>. Across the then unknown +peninsula of Michigan he took his way, reached the Detroit river, +struck Lake Erie, and, passing by way of Niagara, arrived at Fort +Frontenac in sixty-five days from leaving the Illinois, having in +March and April achieved a feat of travel almost unparalleled even in +the early history of Canada. Going down to Montreal, he obtained +supplies, and again set his face undaunted to the West.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote229"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He goes back<br> + to the West.<br> + <br> + <br> + Iroquois raid<br> + on the Illinois.<br> + <br> + <br> + Tonty lost</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As he came and went, he heard of nothing but disaster. The men left +at Fort Crčvecoeur under Tonty's command broke out in open mutiny, +and some of them were intercepted on their way back to Fort +Frontenac, having destroyed the forts on the Illinois and St. Joseph, +looted their employer's property at Michillimackinac and Niagara, and +being minded <a name="page160"></a>to crown their villainy by killing La Salle himself. +They met their fate—were shot or imprisoned—and La Salle pushed on +to Tonty's succour. Towards the close of the year he was back on the +Illinois river, only to find a scene of utter desolation. In his +absence, the Iroquois had invaded the land and swept all before them. +Skeletons of men and women, empty huts, an abandoned fort, the hull +of a half-built ship, all told a tale of brutish warfare and a ruined +enterprise. Tonty was not to be found; and, after following the +Illinois down to its confluence with the Mississippi, La Salle +returned to Lake Michigan, and wintered on the St. Joseph river at +Fort Miami, which had been destroyed by the mutineers but was again +rebuilt.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote230"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and found.<br> + <br> + <br> + His adventures.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With the spring of 1681 there came a gleam of hope. The western +Indians, terror-stricken by the Iroquois—and Indian immigrants from +the east, driven out by the English colonists—gathered for +protection to the brave, enduring Frenchman, took him for their +leader, and hearkened to his word. News came that Tonty was in safety +at Green Bay; and at length, about the end of May, La Salle and he +joined hands again at Michillimackinac. Tonty had a tale of heroism +to tell. Left in charge of the garrison at Fort Crčvecoeur, he had +gone, according to his leader's instructions, to prospect a site for +a fort a little higher up the river. When his back was turned, his +followers destroyed the fort, carried off the stores, and left him +with five other Frenchmen, two of whom were Recollet friars, among +the Illinois Indians. True to his trust, he stayed among them, when +the hordes of the Five Nations broke in, bent on destruction. Between +the contending forces he held his life in the balance, vainly +striving to stem the tide of massacre; and, having done all that man +could do, found his way back to the lakes, saved by his own fearless +honesty and by respect for the French name.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote231"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Hennepin's<br> + travels on the<br> + upper Mississippi.<br> + <br> + <br> + Du Luth.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Of the expedition which started in the ill-fated <i>Griffin,</i> there was +still another prominent member to be accounted <a name="page161"></a>for. This was Father +Hennepin. Before La Salle turned home from Fort Crčvecoeur in the +spring of 1680, he sent two Frenchmen of his company, and with them +Father Hennepin, to explore and to trade on the upper Mississippi. +Hennepin and his companions went down the Illinois; and, ascending +the Mississippi, fell among the Sioux or Dakota Indians. Carried off +to the Sioux lodges, in the present State of Minnesota, the Frenchmen +sojourned among them for some months, half captives and half guests, +until they were found by Du Luth, fur-trader and <i>coureur de bois,</i> +who had already explored these regions, and had crossed from Lake +Superior to the Mississippi by the line of the St. Croix river. In +his company, Hennepin returned up the Wisconsin; and, before the year +1680 ended, was safe at Michillimackinac. In the following year he +went back to Montreal; and soon afterwards, returning to Europe, +published the book to which reference has already been made. He was +the first European to describe the upper Mississippi and its +tributaries, and the Falls of St. Anthony preserve the name of his +patron saint—St. Anthony of Padua.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote232"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle descends<br> + the Mississippi.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort Prudhomme<br> + built on<br> + the Mississippi.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The descent to the sea, which in after years he falsely claimed to +have made, was soon afterwards achieved by La Salle. After rejoining +Tonty at Michillimackinac, he went back with him to Fort Frontenac +and Montreal, and once more procured men and money to renew his +enterprise. Again turning west, he reached Fort Miami late in the +autumn of 1681, and on the shortest day his expedition left Lake +Michigan. Crossing from the St. Joseph to the Chicago creek, and from +the latter to the Des Plaines river, the northern tributary of the +Illinois, they embarked—fifty-four Frenchmen and Indians, including +thirteen women and children—in six canoes, and took their way +steadily down stream. They joined the Mississippi, they passed the +mouths of the Missouri and Ohio. Halfway between the Ohio and the +Arkansas, <a name="page162"></a>on the east bank of the Mississippi, they built and manned +a small wooden fort, naming it Fort Prudhomme after one of their +number who for a while lost himself in the woods. Again holding on +their course, under softer skies than those of Canada, they reached +the mouth of the Arkansas river, whence Joliet and Marquette had +turned back; and there, among friendly and wondering Indians, they +proclaimed the French King lord of the land. Below the Arkansas they +came to other Indian tribes, such as the Spaniards had known, who, +under dome-shaped roofs, worshipped the sun. At length the river +parted into three channels, as it neared the sea; and, dividing into +three parties, the bold voyagers soon met again on the shore of the +Gulf of Mexico.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote233"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle reaches the<br> + Gulf of Mexico.<br> + <br> + Louisiana.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was April 9, 1682, when, on the southernmost edge of the new +domain, a column was reared inscribed with the arms of France and +with the name of <i>Louis le Grand</i>. The secret of the great river was +won at last, from its source to its mouth; and, claiming all the +lands which it watered for the Crown of France,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> La Salle called +them by the name 'Louisiana.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> In La Salle's proclamation the basin of the Ohio was +excluded from Louisiana, as the words are 'from the mouth of the +great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio' (Parkman's <i>La +Salle</i>, 12th ed., p. 286).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote234"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He returns<br> + up stream.<br> + <br> + <br> + The colony on<br> + the Illinois.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort St. Louis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His canoes could not face the open sea, so the explorers retraced +their course up stream. They suffered from want of food, the natives +attacked them, and La Salle himself was sorely stricken by fever, +which kept him many weeks at Fort Prudhomme. It was not till +September that he reached Michillimackinac, and rejoined Tonty, who +had gone on before him. The winter of 1682-3 was spent in +establishing a colony of French and Indians on the Illinois. The +place selected for the purpose was on the southern bank of the river, +some distance above the site of Fort Crčvecoeur, where a high +precipitous cliff towered over wood and stream. The rock had been +marked by La Salle in his former sojourn on <a name="page163"></a>the river, and it was +during Tonty's visit to the spot<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> that Fort Crčvecoeur was looted +and left. Had the Illinois river been the Rhine, the rock would in +mediaeval times have been crowned by the castle of a border noble; +and on its summit was now built a wooden fort, Fort St. Louis of the +Illinois. Round the fort the Indians gathered for protection and for +trade, the peasantry as it were of the western wilderness, clustering +under the shelter of a feudal stronghold; for in virtue of the royal +patent, La Salle was the Seignior of the place. It promised to be a +strong outpost of French dominion, if its connexion with Canada was +kept intact.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> See <a href="#page160">above</a>. A full description of the rock, known +afterwards as 'Starved Rock,' is given in Parkman's <i>La Salle</i> (12th +ed.), pp. 293-4, and note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote235"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Opposition to<br> + La Salle<br> + in Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + He returns<br> + to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>New France was made by a few individual men, of whom La Salle was +one. Their work was perpetually undone by want of efficient +co-operation, or rather by efficient antagonism, on the part of their +fellow countrymen. Fort Frontenac, Niagara, armed and trading vessels +on the upper lakes, Fort Miami, where the lakes end, a fort on the +Illinois—constituted the basis of a scheme worthy of support, but +support was wanting. Frontenac had been recalled in 1682; and his +successor, La Barre, leagued with the enemies of La Salle, cut off +his supplies, detained his men, maligned him to the King, seized his +Seigniory at Fort Frontenac, and sent an officer to take possession +of the fort on the Illinois. La Salle had but one remedy left, to +appeal to the King in person; and with that object he sailed for +France in 1683, never to see Canada again. His troubled fighting life +was soon to end, and its closing scenes were crowded with disaster. +He seems to some extent to have lost his balance, to have acted with +insufficient knowledge, and to have changed hardihood into +recklessness. Yet in all that he attempted there was continuity of +aim from first to last, and his final wild adventure, as it seemed to +be, had its bearing on the story of the Canadian Dominion.</p> +<a name="page164"></a> +<p>The patent, which had been given to him in 1678, authorized +discovery, trade, and the building of forts, but said nothing of +founding colonies. The policy of the French Government was always in +the main a forward policy; but the French King and his ministers had +the good sense to discourage proposals for colonizing the backwoods, +because they saw the obvious danger of dispersing through a large +area the scanty population of New France. It was therefore easy for +La Salle's enemies to denounce his schemes as opposed to the royal +will, as drawing off colonists from the St. Lawrence, where they were +sorely needed, and teaching the able-bodied men of Canada to become +not <i>habitans</i> but <i>coureurs de bois</i>. These were the charges which +La Salle had to rebut. He met them by propounding a still bolder plan +than his former ventures, and he induced the King to give his +sanction to an enterprise for French colonization on the shores of +the Gulf of Mexico.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote236"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His schemes for<br> + colonization<br> + on the Gulf<br> + of Mexico.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It happened that, at the date when he arrived in Paris, there was bad +blood between France and Spain, resulting for a short space in open +war. The Spaniards claimed to exclude French ships from the Gulf of +Mexico, and King Louis, with his minister Seignelay, Colbert's son, +contemplated meeting these claims by taking and holding a post on the +Gulf. Some scheme of the kind had already been submitted to them by a +Spanish refugee from Peru, Count Penalossa by name; and when La Salle +advanced similar proposals, suggesting the establishment of a French +colony on or near the mouth of the Mississippi, to be connected with +Canada, and to be the basis for attacking and conquering the northern +province of Mexico, New Biscay, his words fell on willing ears. He +spoke with authority. Alone among Frenchmen at the Court of France, +he had reached the mouth of the great river, and could tell to a +King, with lust of conquest, a story of lands to be won for France, +and of peoples ready to follow her lead.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote237"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The plan accepted,<br> + and La Salle<br> + reinstated in favour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page165"></a> +<p>The result was that La Salle's rivals in Canada were discomfited, and +peremptory orders were sent to La Barre to restore his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac and his station on the Illinois; while an expedition, +destined for the Gulf of Mexico, was fitted out at La Rochelle, and +eventually sailed on July 24, 1684.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote238"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Salle's<br> + motives.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>What was in La Salle's mind in suggesting this southern adventure can +only be conjectured. Was it the last desperate stake of a ruined +gambler? Or was it an over-sanguine attempt to realize the great +object of his life, to master the far West by moving up instead of +down its waterways, by entering not through Canada, where every step +would be dogged by jealousy and intrigue, but through the mouths of +the Mississippi, where climate and natives would be less formidable +foes than the Governor of Canada and his unscrupulous clique of +confederates? If, as it is reasonable to suppose, he still clung with +the determination of his character to the western enterprise, in +which he had already achieved so much, he added to it a +highly-coloured picture of conquest in Mexico; and he drew his map of +Mexico as adjoining the lands on the Mississippi, omitting in +ignorance most of the wide area of intervening territory, now +included in the State of Texas.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote239"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + expedition<br> + sails.<br> + <br> + <br> + It reaches the<br> + West Indies<br> + and the Gulf<br> + of Mexico.<br> + <br> + <br> + Landing on the<br> + shores of Texas.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Four vessels set sail, freighted with all things necessary to found a +colony, carrying soldiers, artisans, married women, and young girls. +They were a doomed company; from first to last all went wrong. There +was divided command, and Beaujeu, the admiral of the ships, a Norman +like La Salle, had with some reason little confidence in the +expedition or its leader. They made in the first instance for St. +Domingo, but one of the four ships which was carrying the stores was +cut off by Spanish buccaneers before reaching the island. At St. +Domingo, La Salle was laid low with fever; and, while he was between +life and death, his followers rioted and sickened on shore. After a +delay of two months, the <a name="page166"></a>expedition started again, weakened by +desertion and disease. The ships entered the Gulf of Mexico, +passed—without knowing it—the mouths of the Mississippi, and on New +Year's Day, 1685, anchored off the coast of Texas. Somewhere on this +coast, in the vicinity either of Matagorda Bay or of Galveston Bay, +La Salle effected a landing, where a series of lagoons that lined the +shore concealed, as he thought, the main outlet of the Mississippi. +Disaster still attended the enterprise: one of the ships was wrecked +on the reefs, the natives of the land proved unfriendly; and when +Beaujeu, the admiral, having given what help he could, sailed away in +the middle of March, he left behind on desolate shores a despondent +band of French men and women groping for a river which could not be +found, in present trouble and without clear guidance for the future.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote240"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Founding of<br> + Fort St. Louis.<br> + <br> + <br> + Distress of<br> + the settlement.<br> + <br> + <br> + Attempt to<br> + reach Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Skirting the sea-line, the would-be colonists had reached a large +bay, into the head of which a river ran; and on the banks of this +stream La Salle formed a settlement, to which, as to his colony on +the Illinois, he gave the name of Fort St. Louis. Gathered within +palisades, the settlers worked and waited, dwindling in numbers, +while their leader explored, but explored in vain. Setting out at the +end of October, 1685, La Salle returned in the following March, +having accomplished nothing and having lost his last vessel, a small +frigate, the <i>Belle</i>. Again in a month's time, towards the end of +April, 1686, he set out to make his way to Canada; once more, in +October, he returned to the fort, baffled and disappointed. His +followers were sadly reduced in numbers: of some 180, no more than +forty-five were left; and of them he could trust but few. Return to +France was cut off, and from France time had shown that no help was +forthcoming. There was no alternative but to make one more attempt to +reach Canada, and thence to bring rescue to the fort in Texas.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote241"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + La Salle.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was a forlorn hope at best, but the attempt was made. <a name="page167"></a>Half of the +company remained at the fort. The others, including La Salle's +brother, the Abbé Cavelier, and two young nephews, followed La Salle +himself on his northward journey. It was on January 7, 1687, that the +party set out to make their way painfully over prairies, across +rivers, through forest, thicket, and scrub. On March 19, near the +Trinity river, La Salle fell dead, ambushed and shot by his own men. +No career ever had a more squalid or pitiable ending. It ended in +commonplace mutiny and murder. Three or four scoundrels, discontented +and badly handled, nursed their personal grudges against a severe and +domineering leader, until, in an outbreak of irritation, they killed +three of his immediate following and the leader himself.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote242"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fate of<br> + his company.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The brother escaped; so did one of the nephews, and Joutel, a +gardener's son from Rouen—the most honest and capable of the +band—who afterwards told the unvarnished tale. They companied for a +while with the murderers, roaming among the Indians of the west, +until one and another of the guilty men fell by each other's hands or +strayed into savagery. In the end seven Frenchmen, with the help of +Indian guides, reached the Arkansas river, found an outpost +established there by Tonty, made their way thence to the Illinois, +and so to Canada and France. On the Illinois and in Canada they +concealed, from policy or fear, the fact of La Salle's death. In the +dead man's name his brother, the coward priest, obtained from Tonty +advances for his home journey; and it was not till after he was safe +in Europe, in the autumn of 1688, that the tragedy came to light.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote243"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Indifference in France<br> + as to La Salle's death.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Few seemed to care. A man had gone, who by the age of forty-three had +achieved great deeds, had dared and suffered much; but he was a man +who had few friends and many enemies, and he served a Government in +whose eyes failure was a crime, and to which gratitude was unknown. +<a name="page168"></a>An order was given that, if the murderers reappeared in Canada, they +should be arrested, and with that order the name of La Salle passed +out of official ken.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote244"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Extermination<br> + of the colony<br> + in Texas.<br> + <br> + <br> + Tonty's<br> + faithfulness.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Government made no attempt to relieve the hapless exiles in +Texas. They were left to perish, just as, many years before, the +Huguenot settlers in Florida had been abandoned and betrayed. Tonty +alone was mindful of his friend. Already, in 1686, before La Salle +had started on his last march, he had descended the Mississippi to +its mouth, and had searched the coast in vain, hoping to bring +succour and relief; and when, in the autumn of 1688, he knew the full +truth, again he started, to save if possible the remnant of the +expedition. He penetrated to the Red river and beyond, but could not +reach the fort in Texas; and it was from Spanish sources that the +fate of the last settlers was afterwards known. An expedition from +Mexico, sent to root out the intruders, found the fort a desolate +ruin. The Indians had been beforehand in the work of destruction, and +had butchered or carried off the inmates, two or three of whom +exchanged captivity among savages for Spanish prisons.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote245"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Importance<br> + of La Salle's<br> + work.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Such was the end of La Salle's last venture—misery, ruin, death, +and, for the time, comparative oblivion. Yet his name lives in +history and deserves to live, and his work was not all undone. We +look back not merely on his hardihood and his sufferings. We see in +him not only an explorer of the boldest type; but he stands out +pre-eminently as the man, who, above all others, grasped the +conception of a North American dominion, which should be from sea to +sea—based on the great geographical factor in North America, its +nearly continuous water communication—and in which the natives of +North America should be banded together in war and peace, under the +leadership of France. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth +of the Mississippi, by river and lake, his vision was that Frenchmen +and their native subjects should come and go, carrying from fort to +<a name="page169"></a>fort, from settlement to settlement, the produce of forest and +prairie, the wealth of the West.</p> + +<p>It was a great conception, too great to be realized; but it +harmonized with the genius of the French people. Their gift was to be +ever moving, their strength was not to sit still. What success they +won was on the lines that La Salle marked out. With all his failures, +he knew the land and he knew his race.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote246"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Colonization<br> + of Louisiana<br> + by Iberville.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The eighteenth century had not ended before the colonization of +Louisiana became more than a dream. Tonty continued to urge it. The +English threatened to take it in hand; Spain was reasserting her +claim to the ownership of the Gulf of Mexico; and, lest the French +should be excluded altogether, Le Moyne d'Iberville, best of Canadian +leaders, obtained permission to sail for the Mississippi. More +skilful than La Salle, or better informed, he reached its mouth in +March, 1699; but the first settlements were made to the east of the +river, at Biloxi in the present State of Mississippi, and on Mobile +Bay. It was not till the year 1718 that the city of New Orleans was +first founded by Bienville, Iberville's brother, who at intervals +governed Louisiana for many years. Bandied about from Crown to +company, and from company to Crown, the prey of speculators, the +scene, like Canada itself, of artificial settlement and regulated +colonization, Louisiana made but slow progress. Yet in time it became +a factor to be reckoned with in North American history, and to +connect it with Canada was in the eighteenth century the aim of the +rulers of New France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote247"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Illinois<br> + abandoned by<br> + the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1702, Tonty left Fort St. Louis on the Illinois to join Iberville +in the south, and, except for a few years at a little later date, +that fort was abandoned. The Indians, too, who had gathered round it, +dispersed; some of them moved down to the Mississippi; and connexion +between Canada and Louisiana was afterwards sought not so much by the +Illinois river, as by the line of the Ohio, the earliest scene of La +Salle's discoveries.</p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap6"></a><a name="page170"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> +<center>A<small>CADIA AND</small> H<small>UDSON</small> B<small>AY</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<p>In the last chapter the main stream of Canadian history has been +followed down to the Treaty of Utrecht. New France was essentially +the colony on the St. Lawrence; but with the story of Canada proper +the story of Acadia is interwoven, and Acadia under another name now +forms part of the Canadian Dominion. To complete the tale to 1713, it +is necessary to go back to the early days of settlement in the +present Maritime Provinces of the Dominion. Some notice must also be +made of English commercial enterprise on the northern side of Canada, +the shores of Hudson Bay.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote248"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Acadia, Acadie—a name which the French took from the +Indians<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small>—included an ill-defined region. Whoever held it, at any +given time, naturally claimed as large an area as possible, and, +after it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, the +question of the boundary was a fruitful source of trouble. Under the +French, Acadia was roughly coterminous with the present provinces of +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and part of the State of Maine; but +Acadia proper was the peninsula of Nova Scotia. There, and on the +immediately adjoining coast of the mainland, the fighting and the +raids took place. It was not until after the Peace of Utrecht was +signed that Cape Breton Island, whose name recalls the nationality of +early voyagers to North America, became, under the new title of Île +Royale, a renowned stronghold of France; while Prince Edward Island, +the Île de <a name="page171"></a>St. Jean, played little part in the early history of North +America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> See <a href="#page36">above</a>, note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote249"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The peninsula<br> + of Nova Scotia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Linked to the continent by the isthmus of Chignecto, sixteen miles in +breadth, the peninsula of Nova Scotia runs for some 300 miles +north-east and south-west, parallel to the North American coast. From +that coast it is separated on the southern side of the isthmus by the +Bay of Fundy—the Baie Françoise as it was called in old days—a bay +into which the sea runs strong and which divides at the head, forming +on the left, the mainland side, Chignecto Bay, on the right the Basin +of Mines. The shores of this latter land-locked basin were in the +eighteenth century a well-known scene of Acadian settlement, and here +stood the village of Grand Pré. On the same side of Nova Scotia, +lower down than the Basin of Mines, is Annapolis harbour, better +known in old days as Port Royal. The opposite sides of New Brunswick +and Maine are deeply indented by the estuaries of various rivers—the +St. John, the St. Croix, now the border stream between Canada and the +United States, and, further south, the Penobscot and the Kennebec, +names that constantly occur in the story of Acadian and New England +warfare. Cape Sable—the sand cape—is the southernmost point of Nova +Scotia: midway on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is Halifax +harbour, formerly known as Chebucto; and on the north the narrow +strait known as the Gut of Canso divides Nova Scotia proper from Cape +Breton Island. Cape Breton Island on the south, Newfoundland on the +north, mark the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are the +buttresses of the main gateway of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote250"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Geographical<br> + importance<br> + of Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Sea-girt and sea-beaten was and is Acadia, with broken shores and +many bays, where fishermen and freebooters came and went: a land to +nurse a hardy race in small and scattered settlements, nestling in +nooks and corners by inlets of the sea. Its importance did not lie in +natural riches, but in its geographical position. It was the +borderland of French and <a name="page172"></a>English colonization. Whoever held in +strength Acadia and Cape Breton on the one side, and Newfoundland on +the other, could command the river of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote251"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Acadia was in the<br> + English sphere of<br> + colonization,<br> + but was all<br> + important<br> + to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Taking the two spheres of colonization, the seaboard settlements of +the English on the one hand, the inland river settlements of the +French on the other, it is clear that Acadia naturally belonged to +the former; it was within the sphere of which Boston was the centre, +not within that which was ruled by Quebec. The coasts of Maine, of +New Brunswick, and of Nova Scotia prolong the shores of New England: +any dividing line has been made by man not by nature. The Boston +fishermen went faring north, not into strange waters or by foreign +coasts, for land and sea were as their own. Between Quebec and Port +Royal, on the other hand, there was no natural connexion, yet the +possession of Acadia was of more vital importance to France than to +England. With Acadia in French hands the New England colonies could +still grow in strength; but English occupation of Acadia, Cape +Breton, and Newfoundland meant the beginning of the end for New +France, the closing of the St. Lawrence, if England kept command of +the sea. Thus it was that in the negotiations which ended in the +Treaty of Utrecht the French King fought hard to keep Acadia, and, +thwarted in this endeavour, made the most of Cape Breton Island, +rearing in it the strong fortress of Louisbourg.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote252"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Early settlers<br> + in Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Acadia then was a borderland, and its history resembled that of other +borderlands. Its first settlers were French, and the majority of the +scanty population remained French in language, in tradition, in +religion, in sympathy; but for years rival adventurers squabbled and +fought, with doubtful allegiance to England or France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote253"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The De<br> + la Tours.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>We have seen how in 1613 the freebooter Argall,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> sailing up from +Virginia, destroyed Poutrincourt's settlement at Port Royal. In spite +of this disaster, Biencourt, <a name="page173"></a>Poutrincourt's son, with a handful of +Frenchmen, few but sturdy, still held fast to the shores of Acadia. +Among them was a French Huguenot, Claude Étienne de la Tour, who with +his son, Charles de la Tour, had come out from France in or about the +year 1609. When the Port Royal settlement was broken up, he crossed +over to the mouth of the Penobscot, and held a station there until +the year 1626, when he was driven out by an expedition from New +England. Biencourt appears to have died either in Acadia or in France +about the year 1623, and the younger La Tour became the foremost man +among the French settlers, holding a small fort near Cape Sable, +which seems to have been known by various names—Fort Louis, Fort +l'Omeroy or Lomeron, and Fort or Port Latour. In 1627, according to +the ordinary account, the father went to France to interest the +French Government in the fortunes of Acadia, and to secure the +position and title of Governor for his son. It was the year in which +Richelieu founded the company of the One Hundred Associates, and in +1628 a French squadron was sent out to America. The ships were +intercepted by David Kirke, and Claude de la Tour, who was on board, +was carried a prisoner to England.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> See <a href="#page42">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote254"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Sir William Alexander.<br> + <br> + His patent.<br> + <br> + Nova Scotia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Acadia had by this time acquired a second name, its present name of +Nova Scotia. A Scotch scholar of some repute, William Alexander, born +near Stirling, became tutor to Prince Henry, son of James VI of +Scotland and I of England, and rose to high favour at Court. He was a +prolific writer, composed tragedies and sonnets, and after the King's +death completed a metrical version of the Psalms which James had +begun. In 1621 Sir William Alexander, as he then was, obtained from +the King a grant of the Acadian peninsula, Cape Breton Island, and +all the mainland from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, the whole +territory within these wide limits being given the name of New +Scotland or Nova Scotia.</p> + +<p>The terms of the charter were of the most liberal kind, and <a name="page174"></a>Alexander +was constituted Lieutenant-General for the King, with practically +sovereign powers. The grant was made as an appanage of the kingdom of +Scotland; and, in seeking for and obtaining it, Alexander seems to +have been stimulated by the fact that an English charter had lately +been given to Fernando Gorges in the region of New England. In other +words, the patent represented the effort of an energetic Scotchman to +bring his country and his people into line with the English in the +field of western adventure.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote255"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Alexander's scheme<br> + of colonization.<br> + <br> + <br> + The baronets of<br> + Nova Scotia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Cape Breton Island he made over to another Scotchman, Sir Robert +Gordon, of Lochinvar, and went to work to find settlers for the rest +of his domain. His scheme was not taken up warmly; two ships were +sent out in 1622 and 1623, but no settlement was formed, and he found +himself involved in a debt of £6,000. He tried to rouse +enthusiasm for the colonization of New Scotland by publishing a +pamphlet entitled <i>An Encouragement to Colonies;</i> and, finding that +it met with little response, he hit upon the device of inducing the +King, who a few years before had created baronets of Ulster, to +establish also an order of baronets of New Scotland. The recipients +of the honour were to have grants of land on the other side of the +Atlantic, and the fees which they paid would, it was hoped, recoup +past losses and provide funds for future colonization.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote256"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Renewal of<br> + the patent<br> + by Charles I.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>King James having died, his successor Charles I, in 1625, renewed +Alexander's patent, and formally ratified the creation of the Nova +Scotian order, the honours being to a certain extent taken up under +pressure from the King. A new expedition was now set on foot, but in +the meantime news came that Richelieu had formed a rival company, and +that the French were preparing to make good their old title to +Acadia. The prospect of foreign competition gave fresh vigour to the +enterprise; Kirke offered his services to Alexander, and in 1628 +captured Richelieu's squadron; while earlier in the same year four +ships in charge of <a name="page175"></a>Alexander's son landed a party of settlers safely +at Port Royal, who established themselves on the site of the old +French settlement. In the following year Kirke took Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote257"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The elder<br> + La Tour joins<br> + Alexander.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The elder La Tour, we have seen, was brought a prisoner to England. +There he seems to have transferred his allegiance to Great Britain, +in the words of an old record to have 'turned tenant'<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> to the +English King. According to one account, he married a maid of honour +to the Queen. At any rate, he threw in his lot with Alexander, was +created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1630 received for himself +and his son—also created a baronet—two baronies in the Nova Scotian +peninsula. In the same year he seems to have returned to Acadia with +some more Scotch colonists, and vainly attempted to induce his son, +who was still holding the fort near Cape Sable, to come over to the +British cause, and take up the grant and honours which had been +conferred upon him. The son, we read, would yield neither to +persuasion nor to force, and the elder La Tour apparently went on to +the Scotch settlement at Port Royal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> <i>Calendar of State Papers,</i> Colonial, 1574-1660, pp. +119-20.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote258"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fort Latour built.<br> + <br> + <br> + Acadia restored<br> + to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Already, in 1629, the Convention of Susa had been signed between the +Kings of England and France. Charles La Tour received a message of +encouragement from France; and, coming to terms with his father, +crossed over to the mainland, where he built Fort Latour at the mouth +of the river St. John.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> In 1631 he was appointed +Lieutenant-Governor by the French King; and in 1632 the Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye restored to France 'all the places occupied in New +France, Acadia, and Canada' by British subjects.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> The exact date at which the La Tours founded the fort is +very uncertain.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote259"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Scotch<br> + settlement at<br> + Port Royal<br> + abandoned.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This treaty put an end to Scotch colonization of Acadia, and nothing +is now left to tell of Alexander's enterprise beyond the name of Nova +Scotia. The Scotch emigrants returned <a name="page176"></a>home, or were lost among the +outnumbering French, and the old station of Port Royal was either at +the time or a few years afterwards entirely deserted. The site on the +northern or western side of Annapolis Basin was subsequently known as +Scots Fort; but the later Port Royal, which Phipps and Nicholson +took, was situated five miles away, on the other side of the estuary, +and is now the town of Annapolis.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote260"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Alexander.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Alexander never made good his losses. He died in 1640, in high honour +and position, having been Secretary of State for Scotland and +ennobled as Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada; but he must have +learnt, as all who had dealings with the Stuarts learnt, not to put +his trust in princes; for his well-meant scheme to make a New +Scotland, which should rival New France, ended, through the tortuous +policy of the King whom he served, in utter failure.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote261"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Razilly, Denys,<br> + and D'Aunay.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Isaac de Razilly was sent by Richelieu to receive Acadia back from +Alexander's representatives, upon the conclusion of the Treaty of +1632, and to be Governor of the country. With him went out, among +other settlers, Nicholas Denys, a native of Tours, and Charles de +Menou de Charnizay, known also as the Chevalier d'Aunay. Acadia now +became the scene of intestine feuds between Frenchmen with rival +claims and interests.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote262"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French<br> + adventurers<br> + in Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It is exceedingly difficult to trace the relations between the +various adventurers, where they went and what they did. Razilly, who +was Governor-in-chief, settled at La Héve on the Atlantic coast of +Nova Scotia. D'Aunay seems to have driven out the New Englanders from +the Penobscot, and taken possession of Pentegoet at its mouth. +Charles La Tour held his fort on the estuary of the St. John, his +father having died or disappeared from the story, and raided, in or +about 1633, an outpost established by the Plymouth settlers at +Machias, north of the Penobscot. Denys formed trading stations at +Chedabucto, now Guysboro, at the eastern end of the Nova Scotian +peninsula, and in Cape Breton Island, <a name="page177"></a>leaving to posterity an account +of Acadia and Cape Breton, in his book entitled <i>Description des +Costes de l'Amérique Septentrionale</i>.<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> Charlevoix's account is that Acadia was divided into +three provinces, both for government and for ownership. Razilly had +the superior command over all, and was given Port Royal and the +mainland south to New England; Charles La Tour had the Acadian +peninsula, excluding Port Royal; and Denys had the northern district +from Canso to Gaspé, including Cape Breton Island. This leaves out +D'Aunay, and the arrangement, if it existed, was modified, inasmuch +as Razilly settled at La Héve, and Charles La Tour was on the river +of St. John.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote263"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Feud between<br> + D'Aunay and<br> + Charles La Tour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Razilly died in 1635 or 1636; his brother, Claude de Razilly, +assigned his rights in Acadia to D'Aunay, and between the latter and +Charles La Tour a deadly quarrel ensued. D'Aunay, it would seem, +re-established Port Royal on the present site of Annapolis, making it +the principal settlement of Acadia instead of La Héve. His rival, La +Tour, had strong claims both on France and on Acadia. He had been far +longer in the country than D'Aunay, he had in trying circumstances +retained his allegiance to the Crown of France, he had been given a +commission by the King, and moreover something was owing to him in +virtue of the grants which Alexander had made in 1630 to his father +and himself, which grants appear to have been subsequently construed +into a transfer of the whole of Alexander's patent. However, D'Aunay +had the ear of the French Court.</p> + +<p>It is stated<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> that, in 1638, the King prescribed certain boundaries +between the two rivals, but the delimitation had no effect; for in +1640 La Tour seems to have attacked Port Royal, with the result that +he was taken prisoner with his wife, both being released at the +intercession of French priests. In the next year, 1641, D'Aunay +obtained an order from home which revoked La Tour's commission and +empowered his enemy to seize him, if he refused to submit, and send +him prisoner to France. La Tour now turned for help to New England, +and, in 1643, after long and scriptural <a name="page178"></a>debates by the Puritans as to +the lawfulness of aiding 'idolaters,'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> succeeded in hiring four +ships at Boston to join him in raiding D'Aunay's property. In the +following year, however, an emissary from D'Aunay came to Boston to +protest against English interference; and in October, 1644, a +convention was concluded between the New Englanders and D'Aunay, +providing for mutual peace and free trade.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> By Haliburton in his <i>History of Nova Scotia,</i> vol. i, +p. 53.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> The younger La Tour was not, like his father, a +Huguenot.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote264"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Madame La Tour.<br> + <br> + <br> + D'Aunay gains<br> + possession<br> + of Fort Latour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>D'Aunay had now the upper hand, and Madame La Tour becomes the +heroine of the story. She had followed her husband's fortunes with +undaunted courage, and had been to France to plead his cause. Going +on to London, she took passage on board ship, the master contracting +to take her to Fort Latour. Instead of carrying out his contract, he +wasted time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and finally landed her at +Boston, where she brought an action against him and was awarded +damages of £2,000. Reaching Fort Latour, she was attacked there +by D'Aunay in 1645,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> while her husband was absent, and the garrison +reduced to a very few men. She held the fort, notwithstanding, with +so much determination, and in spite of treachery within the walls, +that D'Aunay agreed to a capitulation, by which all the lives of the +defenders were to be spared. The terms were broken as soon as he +obtained possession of the fort, and the whole of the garrison was +put to death, with the exception of Madame La Tour and one man who +was spared to act as hangman to the rest. Madame La Tour herself was +compelled to witness the execution with a rope round her neck, and +three weeks afterwards she died.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> According to Haliburton, D'Aunay besieged Madame La Tour +in the fort twice, being beaten off the first time. Kingsford gives +the date of the siege as 1647.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote265"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Later career of<br> + Charles La Tour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Ruined and an outlaw, La Tour found his way to Newfoundland, where he +tried in vain to enlist the aid of the <a name="page179"></a>English governor, Sir David +Kirke. He is said also to have visited Quebec and Hudson Bay, and in +his distress to have made an ill return for the kindness which had +been shown to him at Boston, by raiding a ship from that port and +ejecting her crew on to the Nova Scotian coast in the middle of +winter. Ultimately, in 1650, D'Aunay died, and La Tour, who must have +had a keen eye to business, some little time after married the widow. +New complications now arose. A creditor of D'Aunay, Le Borgne by +name, came out from France to enforce his claims against D'Aunay's +property, and in virtue of those claims to take possession of Acadia. +He first attacked Denys<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> at Chedabucto, and took him prisoner. He +was next preparing to attack La Tour, when events took a wholly +different turn, and the English again became masters of Acadia.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> Denys went to France and secured, in 1654, the +restitution of his property, together with a commission as Governor +from Cape Canso to Cape Rosiers or Race, i.e. of Cape Breton, Prince +Edward Island, and Newfoundland. He was then raided by another +Frenchman, Giraudičre. He seems to have eventually given up his +stations in Cape Breton, and in 1679 was at Quebec, old and blind.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote266"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + under Sedgwick<br> + take Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Cromwell, in 1654, sent out an expedition to take Manhattan Island +from the Dutch, Major-General Sedgwick being in command. Peace being +made with the Netherlands, the force intended to drive the Dutch out +of Manhattan was turned against the French in Acadia; and in quick +succession, Sedgwick reduced the fort at Penobscot, La Tour's station +on the St. John, and Port Royal, where Le Borgne was at the time.<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> +Mazarin attempted to recover these posts under the twenty-fifth +article of the Treaty of Westminster of November 3, 1655; but, less +complaisant than the Kings who <a name="page180"></a>preceded or who followed him, Cromwell +refused to entertain the proposals for a transfer.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> Sedgwick was shortly afterwards sent to Jamaica, where +he died in June, 1656. In Appendix xxviii to Carlyle's <i>Oliver +Cromwell,</i> reference is made to the taking of the French forts in +Acadia, with the following characteristic but not very accurate note: +'Oliver kept his forts and his Acadie through all French treaties for +behoof of his New Englanders. Not till after the Restoration did the +country become French again, and continue such for a century or so.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote267"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>La Tour and Temple<br> + become owners of Acadia.<br> + <br> + <br> + Death of La Tour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>La Tour now turned to account the fact that he had been created a +Nova Scotian baronet and received a grant from Alexander; he became a +British subject; and on August 10, 1656, letters patent were issued +by which he became, under the name of Sir Charles La Tour, joint +owner of Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crowne. Very +shortly afterwards he sold his interest to Temple, but appears to +have remained in Acadia, where he died in 1666.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote268"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Acadia<br> + restored<br> + to France<br> + by the<br> + Treaty of<br> + Breda.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Temple, who received a commission from Cromwell as Governor of +Acadia, and went out there in 1657, laid out money in the country and +carried on trade with energy and success. He maintained the existing +stations, planted a new settlement at Jemseg on the St. John river, +higher up than Fort Latour, and drove out a son of Le Borgne, who +attempted to reoccupy La Héve; but, like Alexander before him, he +suffered at the hands of the Stuarts, for Charles II, after renewing +his commission as Governor and creating him a baronet of Nova Scotia, +subsequently, in spite of remonstrances from Massachusetts, restored +Acadia to France by the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, in return for +French concessions in the West Indies. Temple attempted to dispute +the extent covered by the treaty, but with no effect; and, in 1670, +the whole area became again a French possession. Temple retired to +Boston with a promise of £16,200 which he never received, and +finally died in London in 1674.</p> + +<p>The above is a bare recital of early days in Acadia, when it was, in +effect, no man's land. The story might be made picturesque, with La +Tour and his first wife for hero and heroine, with some embellishment +of Alexander's scheme, and a little dressing of D'Aunay, Denys, and +the other adventurers who come on the scene; but in truth it is a +very slender record of two or three Frenchmen and Englishmen, who did +a little trade or a little fishing on desolate <a name="page181"></a>shores, and who +plundered each other in rather squalid fashion—left to themselves by +their rulers, except when their acts or their claims had a bearing on +international questions.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote269"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Acadia under<br> + French rule.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>When Temple retired in 1670 in favour of a new French commander, De +Grandfontaine, the total number of settlers in Acadia did not exceed +400. Some new French colonists now came in: the beginning of +settlement was made at Chignecto and the Basin of Mines, and +communication was for a time opened by land between Acadia and +Quebec. The great majority of the French inhabitants were at Port +Royal; but Pentegoet on the Penobscot was the seat of government, +until, in 1674, it was taken and plundered by a Dutch privateering +vessel, the same fate befalling the fort of Jemseg on the St. John +river. Chambly, who had succeeded Grandfontaine as Commander in +Acadia, was carried off a prisoner to Boston, and Pentegoet was for +the time abandoned by the French. Two years later, in 1676, it was +occupied by the Dutch; but the latter were in their turn driven out +by the New Englanders,<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> and the place passed into the hands of a +Frenchman notable in Acadian border warfare, the Baron de St. Castin.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> In the Government records at The Hague, under date Oct. +27, 1678, there is a claim of the Netherlands West India Company +against Great Britain to the forts of Penobscot and St. John in +Acadie and Nova Scotia, and a request that they may be allowed to +remain in quiet and peaceable possession thereof.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote270"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>St. Castin<br> + at Pentegoet.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He was a Béarnese, and had come out to Canada as an officer in the +Carignan Regiment. Finding, like other Frenchmen, a charm in forest +life, he drifted off to Acadia and lived as an Indian among Indians, +a devout Roman Catholic, but in other respects a native chief, with +his squaws and following of savage warriors. He established himself +at Pentegoet, on or near the site of the old fort, where Castine now +stands; he raided and was raided; in time of peace making money by +trade, in time of war joining in the border forays. For Pentegoet was +the southernmost <a name="page182"></a>station of the French, standing on soil claimed by +the English, and granted by Charles II to the Duke of York. +Similarly, Pemaquid, near the Kennebec, established in 1677, was the +northernmost post of the English; and, if there was a line between +the two nations, it was between Pentegoet and Pemaquid. But French +influence extended to the Kennebec river, and Indian converts of +French priests were to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of +Pemaquid.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote271"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French priests<br> + and the<br> + Abenaki Indians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1676, the war between the New Englanders and the neighbouring +Indians, known as Philip's war, came to an end, leaving bitterness +between the conquered natives and victorious colonists. Hatred of the +English meant love of the French; and the Abenaki Indians of Acadia +and Maine, under the tutelage of fanatical and unscrupulous French +priests, became trained to enmity with the heretics; many of them +migrated to mission stations in Canada; while those who remained +behind were ever ready to obey the call to murder and pillage. In +Acadia, even more than in Canada proper, the Indian as a convert +became the tool of the Frenchman, and the Frenchman lent himself to +the barbarism of the Indian. The full effects of the unnatural blend +were seen and felt a little later on; but for twenty years after the +Treaty of Breda and the restoration of Acadia to France, there was +more often peace than war between the English and the French; and the +Boston fishermen were, about 1678, licensed for the time being by the +French Commandant, La Valličre, to ply their trade on the Acadian +coasts.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote272"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French Governors<br> + and colonists<br> + of Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With some trading of this kind and with a good deal of privateering, +the years passed by. Perrot, who had been Governor of Montreal and +had distinguished himself even among French officials of the time for +corrupt practices, succeeded La Valličre in 1684, with a commission +as Governor of Acadia. Still intent on enriching himself by illicit +trade, he was recalled in 1687, and his place was taken by Meneval. +The latter, like Perrot, was subordinate to the <a name="page183"></a>Governor-General of +Canada, and the number of colonists whom he ruled was, according to a +census held in 1686, 858, 600 of whom lived at or near Port Royal, +and the remainder chiefly at Beaubassin at the head of Chignecto Bay, +and on the Basin of Mines.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote273"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Acadia ceded to<br> + England by the<br> + Peace of Utrecht.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1688, Andros, then Governor of the New England colonies, plundered +St. Castin's station at Pentegoet; the French and Indians retaliated, +taking the fort of Pemaquid in the following year; and there followed +a long series of butcheries and reprisals, of which an account has +already been given in a preceding chapter, the taking of Fort Royal +by Phipps in 1690, and, in 1710, its final surrender to Nicholson. In +the end, the Treaty of Utrecht provided in its twelfth article that +'all Nova Scotia or Accadie with its ancient boundaries' should be +'yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown +for ever.'</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote274"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Henry Hudson sails<br> + to the Arctic regions<br> + and is lost.<br> + <br> + <br> + The search for the<br> + North-West Passage.<br> + <br> + <br> + Button.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>We have seen<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small> that, in 1609, Henry Hudson led Dutchmen into the +present State of New York, and left his name to the river on which +the city of New York stands. In the following year, he took service +under an English syndicate, to make a further attempt to find a +North-West Passage to the Indies. In April, 1610, he started in a +small ship, the <i>Discovery,</i> found his way through Hudson Straits +into Hudson Bay, wintered at the extreme south-eastern end of James' +Bay, and, cast adrift by his mutinous followers in the following +summer, never saw home again, 'dearly purchasing the honour of having +this large Strait and Bay called after his name.'<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> The Arctic +seas, where he met his death, and where his name has lived through +the centuries, were visited again and again by English explorers, +still seeking for the North-West Passage. One voyager after another +went out, hoping to return by China and the East. In April, 1612, +Captain Button set forth with two ships, one of which was <a name="page184"></a>Hudson's +old vessel, the <i>Discovery,</i> reached the western coast of Hudson +Bay—which was long called after him, Button's Bay—wintered at Port +Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson river, and returned in the autumn +of 1613.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> See <a href="#page63">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> Oldmixon's <i>British Empire in America</i> (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 543.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote275"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Royal charter granted<br> + to the Merchants<br> + Discoverers of the<br> + North-West Passage.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His instructions had been drawn up by the young Prince of Wales, +Prince Henry, who died not long afterwards; and three months after +Button started, the merchants at whose expense both his expedition +and Hudson's had been fitted out, were incorporated under royal +charter as the 'Company of the Merchants of London Discoverers of the +North-West Passage,' having the Prince of Wales as governor or +'Supreme Protector,' and including among many well-known names that +of Richard Hakluyt.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote276"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Gibbons.<br> + <br> + <br> + Bylot and Baffin.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1614, the <i>Discovery</i> was sent out again under the command of +Captain Gibbons, but returned in the same year, having penetrated no +further than Hudson Strait. In 1615, Bylot and Baffin set sail for +the North, again taking with them the <i>Discovery;</i> they too returned +in the same year, concluding that the North-West Passage was not to +be found by the way of Hudson Straits. Once more, in the next year, +1616, the same men went out, and once more the stout old ship, the +<i>Discovery,</i> carried them, the voyage resulting in the exploration of +Baffin Bay. For two years after their return there was a respite from +Arctic voyages, but in 1619 Captain Hawkridge led a fresh expedition, +which proved a failure.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote277"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Luke Foxe and<br> + Thomas James.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Much money had now been spent in the attempt to find a North-West +Passage, and little had been achieved; but after an interval of +twelve years, in 1631, two more Arctic voyages took place. One +expedition was commanded by a Yorkshireman, Luke Foxe, the other by +Captain Thomas James, who was connected with Bristol. The former was +backed by London merchants, the latter was a Bristol venture; but +both received sanction and encouragement from the King. James' voyage +was unfortunate and barren of result; but Foxe, <a name="page185"></a>though he did not +find the Passage, which was the one aim and object of all these early +attempts, completed the exploration of Hudson Bay, and penetrated +further north than previous sailors by the way of what is still known +as Fox Channel.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote278"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The period of discovery<br> + in the far North<br> + followed by<br> + trading enterprise.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With these two voyages the first chapter in Arctic discovery comes to +an end. As in the record of English colonization we have a distinct +break between the time of discovery and adventure on the one hand, +and the time of trade and settlement on the other, so even in the far +North there was a time of exploration, followed after an interval by +a time of trade. All the early voyages, which have been recounted +above, were voyages of discovery, and, though they were fitted out +for the most part by syndicates of merchants, their object was not to +bring back furs, or to establish trading stations, but to search for +a new route to the East.<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> A most excellent account of the early voyages in search +of a North-West Passage is given in Mr. Miller Christy's Introduction +to the <i>Voyages of Foxe and James to the North-West</i> (Hakluyt +Society, 1894).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote279"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Zachariah Gillam.<br> + <br> + <br> + Radisson and<br> + Des Groseilliers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Forty years passed away and, in the year 1668, an English ship once +more found its way into Hudson Bay. The ship was named the <i>Nonsuch,</i> +her commander was Captain Zachariah Gillam, and Prince Rupert seems +to have had a hand in sending her out. The expedition was designed to +establish trade with the Indians, and Gillam wintered in James Bay, +near where Hudson had wintered in 1610, building a fort called +Charles Fort at the mouth of a river which was named Rupert river. +The fort was subsequently known as Fort Rupert or Rupert House. It is +stated that this new enterprise was undertaken in consequence of +information received from two French settlers in Canada named +Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and that the latter was on board +Gillam's ship, while Radisson had embarked on another vessel which +started from England with Gillam, but put back on account of stress +of weather.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote280"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French claims<br> + to priority<br> + in Hudson Bay.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page186"></a> +<p>How far these two Frenchmen contributed to the beginning of trade in +Hudson Bay, and to the founding of the Hudson Bay Company, has been a +matter of much controversy. The question was originally of some +importance, for French claims to priority of occupation in the Arctic +regions rested in large measure on the real or the alleged doings of +the two adventurers. Like the rest of the world, they must have heard +of the existence of Hudson Bay, for the voyages to discover the +North-West Passage, though not made by Frenchmen, were not made in +secret; and they had gathered information from the Indians of Canada +as to the possibilities of fur trading in these northern regions. +They had more than once attempted, between 1658 and 1663, to make +their way by land to the bay, but never seem to have reached its +shores; and the first recorded overland visit from Canada, is that of +a French priest, Albanel, who, in 1671-2, journeyed from Quebec to +Lake St. John, and thence, by the line of the Rupert river, came to +the sea, to find an English factory already established at the mouth +of the river.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote281"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Incorporation<br> + of the Hudson<br> + Bay Company.<br> + <br> + <br> + Rupert's Land.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Gillam returned to England in 1669, and on May 2, 1670, the Hudson +Bay Company came into existence. On that day Charles II issued a +royal charter, creating a corporate body under the title of 'The +Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's +Bay.' Prince Rupert was the first Governor; Albemarle, Ashley, and +Arlington were among the original grantees. The preamble of the +charter recited that the persons named had 'at their own great cost +and charges, undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay, in the +North-West part of America, for the discovery of a new passage into +the South Sea, and for the finding some trade for furs, minerals, and +other considerable commodities'; and in their corporate capacity the +Company were constituted absolute lords and proprietors, with a +complete monopoly of trade of all the lands and seas 'that lie within +the entrance of the straits, commonly called Hudson's <a name="page187"></a>Straits,' so +far as they were not already actually granted to or possessed by +British subjects, or the subjects of any other Christian Prince or +State. The charter enacted that 'the said land' should be 'from +henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our plantations or colonies +in America, called Rupert's Land.'</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote282"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Operations<br> + of the<br> + company.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Armed with practically unlimited powers over an unlimited area, the +company lost little time in sending out ships and establishing +factories. In addition to Fort Rupert at the south-eastern end of +James Bay, Fort Hayes, or Moose Fort, was constructed at the +south-western end of the bay, at the mouth of the Moose river; and +some distance to the north of the latter fort, Fort Albany was placed +at the outlet of the Albany river. Voyages were also made to the +mouth of the Nelson river, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, but no +attempt was made to plant a factory there till the year 1682.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote283"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Collision between<br> + French and English<br> + in Hudson Bay.<br> + <br> + <br> + A Canadian<br> + company formed.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was in that year and at Fort Nelson, as it was called, that French +and English first came into collision in the far North. Radisson and +Des Groseilliers, who had taken service with the English in +consequence of being fined by the Governor of Canada for making their +early journeys without his licence, subsequently returned to Canada, +and piloted their countrymen by sea into Hudson Bay. A company was +formed in Canada in 1682, the Compagnie du Nord, and sent out an +expedition from Quebec with these two men on board. They reached the +Nelson river; a few days before they arrived a Boston vessel appeared +on the scene, and a few days subsequently a vessel came from England, +sent by the Hudson Bay Company to build a fort. After a short +interval the French overpowered the English; but two years later, in +1684, Radisson and Des Groseilliers having in the meantime again come +back to the Hudson Bay Company, that company recovered its fort, and +the French lost their footing on Hudson Bay.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote284"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Attack made<br> + overland from<br> + Canada on the<br> + English forts<br> + on Hudson Bay.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page188"></a> +<p>In the following year two Frenchmen passed overland from the bay to +Canada by the Abbitibbi river, Lake Temiscaming, and the Ottawa; and +it was determined to send a Canadian expedition by that route to +attack the factories of the Hudson Bay Company. The rulers of Canada +viewed with distrust English settlements to the north of New France, +as they feared and distrusted the English colonies on the southern +side, and they determined if possible to strangle them in infancy. +Denonville was now Governor of Canada; and early in the year 1686 he +dispatched a party of soldiers and Canadians to attack the forts on +Hudson Bay. It was the kind of expedition in which French Canadians +excelled, indifferent to privation and hardship, trained to toil +through ice and snow, through unknown forests, making the rivers the +highways for sleigh or canoe. Their leader was De Troyes, and with +him went three sons of the celebrated Le Moyne family, including the +most noted of them, Iberville. The Frenchmen followed the line of the +Ottawa and the Abbitibbi, and in June, 1686, surprised and took Fort +Hayes on the outlet of the Moose river. Crossing the eastern end of +James Bay on the floating ice, they next reached Fort Rupert, seized +a ship which was moored in front of the fort, and overpowered the +fort itself. The sea was by this time open to navigation, and in +canoes and the captured vessel the victorious Frenchmen turned west +to attack Fort Albany. There was here some semblance of siege, but +the little English garrison was forced to capitulate, and leaving +Iberville in charge of the fort, which was renamed Fort St. Anne, De +Troyes returned in November to Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote285"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Complaints of the<br> + Hudson Bay Company<br> + against the seizure<br> + of their forts.<br> + <br> + <br> + The English<br> + forts recovered.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This successful raid was organized and carried out in a time of peace +between the English and French Crowns; and, when the Englishmen who +had been taken prisoners at the forts found their way home, the +Hudson Bay Company laid the case before the Government, demanding +satisfaction for the wrong done and restitution of their property. +<a name="page189"></a>There was little likelihood of redress while James II was King of +England. On November 16, 1686, he concluded a treaty of neutrality +with the French King, the Treaty of Whitehall; and a mixed commission +of French and English was appointed to inquire into the claims of the +company. No settlement was arrived at: in 1688 came the Revolution in +England; in 1692 the battle of La Hogue crippled the French at sea; +and at length, in 1693, an English expedition was sent to Hudson Bay +which recovered all the forts in James Bay.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote286"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Iberville takes<br> + Port Nelson and the<br> + forts in James Bay.<br> + <br> + <br> + They are recovered<br> + by the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The northernmost post of the Hudson Bay Company, the post on the +Nelson river, or rather on the Hayes river, which flows into the same +estuary, had not been taken by the French in their buccaneering +expedition of 1686. It was known indifferently as Port Nelson or Fort +York. It was at some distance from the forts in James Bay, and +promised to be an outlet for trade from the regions west of the great +lakes. It had been threatened by the French in 1690, and in October, +1694, the bold and restless Iberville, who had returned to Canada in +1687, appeared before it with two ships. After a short siege it +capitulated, and was renamed Fort Bourbon; and Iberville followed up +his success by recapturing the forts in James Bay. Thus, by the +middle of 1695, the French held every post in Hudson Bay. In the next +year came English ships, and all the positions were regained for +England.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote287"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fresh raid<br> + by Iberville.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Peace<br> + of Ryswick.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Peace<br> + of Utrecht.<br> + <br> + <br> + Hudson Bay<br> + secured to<br> + England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Once more, in 1697, Iberville appeared on the scene. He had in the +meantime taken Fort Pemaquid on the Acadian frontier, and overrun +Newfoundland; and starting from Placentia, with four ships of war +sent out from France, he made sail for Hudson Bay. The destination +was Port Nelson; but the vessels became separated, and with a single +ship, Iberville, when nearing the fort, came into collision with +three armed English merchantmen. The bold Frenchman closed with them, +one to three, sank one of the vessels, took a second, <a name="page190"></a>while the third +made its escape. A heavy gale came on, his own ship was driven ashore +and broken up; but landing with his men, he was rejoined shortly +afterwards by the rest of the French squadron, and laying siege to +the fort compelled it to capitulate. This feat of arms took place +early in September, 1697; on the twentieth of the same month the +Peace of Ryswick was signed, and under its terms the French were +placed in possession of all the Hudson Bay forts, with the exception +of Fort Albany.<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> They held them down to the year 1713, when the +Peace of Utrecht in no uncertain words gave back to Great Britain 'to +be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson, +together with all lands, seas, seacoasts, rivers and places situate +in the same Bay and Straits and which belong thereunto, no tracts of +land or of sea being excepted, which are at present possessed by the +subjects of France.' Boundaries, which by the treaty were to be +defined, were never fixed; but no French ship appeared again with +hostile intent in Hudson Bay until the year 1782.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> The manner in which the Treaty of Ryswick worked out in +favour of the French in Hudson Bay is explained, as far as it can be +explained, in Kingsford's <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. iii, pp. 39-41.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the first part of the above chapter, see<br> +<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. ii.<br> + Sir J. B<small>OURINOT'S</small> <i>Cape Breton</i> (referred to <a href="#page34">above</a>, note).<br> + The same author's <i>Canada,</i> in the 'Story of the Nations' Series, + chap. vii, and<br> + Dr. P<small>ATTERSON'S</small> Paper on <i>Sir William Alexander and the Scottish + Attempt to Colonize Acadia,</i> published in the <i>Proceedings and + Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,</i> vol. x, 1892.</small></p> + +<p><small>For the second part, see K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. iii.</small></p> + +<p><small>Two books have recently been published on the Hudson Bay Company, +viz: <i>The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company,</i> by G<small>EORGE</small> +B<small>RYCE</small>, M.A., LL.D., and <i>The Great Company (1667-1871),</i> by B<small>ECKLES</small> +W<small>ILSON</small>.</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap7"></a><a name="page191"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> +<center>L<small>OUISBOURG</small></center> +<br> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote288"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Cape Breton Island<br> + under the provisions<br> + of the Peace of Utrecht.<br> + <br> + <br> + Importance of the<br> + island to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Treaty of Utrecht provided that 'the island called Cape Breton, +as also all others both in the mouth of the river of St. Lawrence and +in the gulf of the same name, shall hereafter belong of right to the +French, and the Most Christian King shall have all manner of liberty +to fortify any place or places there.' It was an important provision. +Driven from Acadia and Newfoundland, with the reservation of certain +fishing rights along a specified part of the Newfoundland coast, the +French would have lost the seaboard altogether but for the possession +of these islands at the entrance of the river of Canada.</p> + +<p>A French eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745 described, in +a contemporary pamphlet, the value of Cape Breton Island to France. +It was used, he says, to provide a place for the French settlers who +were leaving Newfoundland after the cession of that island to Great +Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, but 'this was not all. It was +necessary that we should retain a position that would make us at all +times masters of the entrance to the River which leads to New +France.'<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> Similar testimony +to its value is given by an English +writer. 'Cape Breton Island is a subject no good Englishman can write +or read with pleasure. The giving of it to the French by the Treaty +of Utrecht may prove as great a loss to the Kingdom, as the Sinking +Fund amounts <a name="page192"></a>to or even the charge of the last +war.'<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> Cape Breton, +in short, kept open for France the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and the +story of New France became more than ever the story of that river, +and of the waterways which connected it with the far West, and with +the newborn French colony in Louisiana.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Louisbourg in 1745,</i> the anonymous <i>Lettre d'un +habitant de Louisbourg,</i> translated and edited by Professor Wrong +(Toronto, 1897), p. 26.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Oldmixon's <i>British Empire in America</i> (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 37.</small></blockquote> + +<p>From 1713, for thirty years, there was nominally peace between Great +Britain and France. In 1743, English troops assisted the Austrians +and defeated the French at the battle of Dettingen; but war was not +formally proclaimed between the two powers until the following year, +1744, when it lasted for four years, being terminated by the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the years of so-called peace, French +Governors, French priests, French explorers and border leaders lost +no opportunity of strengthening the French position in North America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote289"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Controversy<br> + as to the<br> + boundaries<br> + of Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Intrigue and covert force were notably at work in Acadia. By the +Treaty of Utrecht, King Louis ceded to Great Britain 'all Nova Scotia +or Accadie with its ancient boundaries.' What were the ancient +boundaries? They were left to be demarcated by commissioners of the +two nations; but no demarcation ever took place, and meanwhile French +on the one hand, and English on the other, construed the term +'Acadia' according to their respective interests. While Acadia was +French, the French widened, the English narrowed, the area to which +the name might apply. When Acadia became English, the contention was +reversed; and the French, who had included in Acadia a large extent +of mainland, claimed that the peninsula of Nova Scotia alone was +covered by the terms of the treaty.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote290"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Acadians<br> + and French<br> + intrigues.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Within that peninsula there were, at the time when the treaty was +signed, some two thousand French settlers—a simple peasantry, +uneducated, priest-ridden, of the same type as the <i>habitans</i> of the +St. Lawrence; but more primitive, <a name="page193"></a>more old-fashioned, clinging to +their homes, to their national traditions, to their faith. Under the +fourteenth article of the treaty, French subjects were given liberty +to remove themselves within one year; if they preferred to remain and +become subjects of the British Crown, they were to enjoy the free +exercise of the Roman Catholic religion 'as far as the laws of Great +Britain do allow the same.' The Acadians themselves did not wish to +leave their farms and homesteads, nor did the English, when they took +over Acadia, wish to lose the white settlers of the peninsula, who +might reasonably be expected to become loyal and valuable citizens. +The French authorities, on the other hand, desired to remove them in +order to populate their own territories and deplete the ceded lands. +Thus from the outset the intention of the treaty was frustrated, and +the unfortunate Acadians suffered between two masters. As years went +on, English and French views alike changed. The French, having by +priestly influence rendered the Acadians thoroughly disaffected to +English rule, and having year by year stronger hope of recovering +Acadia, wished the Acadians to remain where they were, a growing +hostile population around a weak English garrison. The English, on +the other hand, seeing the impossibility of securing the loyalty of +the peasantry, wished to be rid of them, and in the end deported +large numbers of them to other lands.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote291"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Annapolis<br> + neglected<br> + by the home<br> + Government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The main agents of mischief were on the one side French priests, +political and religious fanatics, who threatened and cajoled their +flocks; on the other the British Government, which left Acadia to +take care of itself. It is deplorable to read the accounts given of +Annapolis, as Port Royal was now called, and of the state of its +garrison. What should have been the strong and thriving capital of a +British province, remained for years nothing more than practically a +very weak outpost in the enemy's country.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote292"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Acadians<br> + and the oath<br> + of allegiance.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A long time passed in vainly attempting to make the <a name="page194"></a>Acadians swear +allegiance to the King of England. At length, in 1730, Governor +Philipps reported that he had succeeded in persuading each adult +member of the population to 'promise and solemnly swear on the faith +of a Christian that I will be thoroughly faithful and will truly obey +his Majesty George II'; but the adoption of this form of words had +little effect on the minds or the conduct of the French settlers. +Strength to insist on loyalty and to punish traitorous dealing was +not supplied from home; the Governors were unable to enforce their +proclamations, and the governed were irritated by orders which were +not carried into effect. Meanwhile, from 1720 onwards, Louisbourg +grew up in artificial strength, the Dunkirk of America, the most +powerful fortress on the Atlantic coast. Money and soldiers came out +from France, while the British possession almost under the guns of +the fortress was starved and neglected. To reconquer Acadia for the +French, writes the eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, +'it was only necessary to appear before this English colony ... and +to land a few men'; and yet in 1745 Acadia had been in British +keeping for thirty-five years.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote293"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Abenaki<br> + Indians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On the mainland, French policy was the same as in the Acadian +peninsula, nominally to keep the peace, secretly to incite the +natives to war. For generations the Abenaki Indians had raided at +frequent intervals the New England frontier; yet fear and the +necessities of trade might at length have kept them quiet, had it not +been for the instigation of the Canadian Government and its priestly +agents. In 1713, and again in 1717, Abenaki chiefs had come to terms +with Massachusetts; but there could be no peace as long as the +savages were carefully instructed that the English were the enemies +of their religion and the robbers of their lands. The savages were in +truth in a hard case. Peace meant the aggressive growth of the white +men's settlements, inevitable encroachment on the red men's heritage. +War <a name="page195"></a>meant cutting off the New England trade, and inadequate support +from France. They sent to Quebec to ask what aid they might expect +from Canada. 'I will send you in secret,' said the Governor +Vaudreuil, 'tomahawks, powder, and shot.' It was such a reply as the +English Governors of New York had been wont to give to the Iroquois; +and the Abenakis, like the Iroquois, were little satisfied with it. +To fight the battles of France while the French looked on, was not +what the Indians wished or understood. Yet their priests taught them +to do it, and the Canadian Government stiffened their resolution by +sending in mission Indians from Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote294"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Sebastian Rasle.<br> + <br> + <br> + His mission destroyed<br> + and himself killed.<br> + <br> + <br> + Peace between the<br> + Indians and New<br> + Englanders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The foremost French emissary among the Abenaki Indians at this time +was a Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rasle, keen in controversy, +uncompromising in zeal, a bitter foe of the English, but not so +utterly inhuman as were some of his colleagues. His mission was among +the Norridgewocks, high up on the Kennebec river, where the head +waters of that river flowing down to the Atlantic are at no very +great distance from the Chaudičre river which runs into the St. +Lawrence. Against this place, in August, 1724, a strong body of men +was sent from Massachusetts. They rowed up the Kennebec in +whaleboats, and, landing at some distance below the Indian village, +marched on it, and took it by surprise. Rasle was shot dead, the +Indians were killed or dispersed, their homes were burnt to the +ground; and the expedition returned in safety, having struck a strong +and relentless blow at a centre of French and Indian hostility to the +English colonists. War went on for some little time longer, and the +English raided the tribes of the Penobscot. At length, in 1726, the +Indians came to terms; and a peace was concluded which lasted for +many years, dépôts being established at various points, where the +natives could to their advantage barter furs with the traders of New +England.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote295"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Indians were<br> + the tools of the<br> + French Government<br> + and its agents.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The principal point to notice in the dreary record of <a name="page196"></a>murder and +pillage is the attitude of the Canadian Government and their +superiors in France. Letters were intercepted, proving beyond dispute +that the Indians were acting under the direct encouragement of the +French authorities. In time of peace and nominal friendship the old +struggle was ever going on. North America was a chessboard. On the +French side the Indians were in front, pawns in the game. Behind them +was the King temporarily in check, bishops or their representatives, +half-breed knights of tortuous movement, and the castles of +Louisbourg and Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote296"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Oswego.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort Rouillé<br> + or Toronto.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The mouth of the Niagara river had long been held in intermittent +fashion by the French, and by 1720, in spite of jealous opposition on +the part of the Five Nation Indians, a permanent fort was built +there. The English in their turn, in the year 1727, established and +garrisoned a trading fort at Oswego, on the southern shore of Lake +Ontario,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> Burnet, the Governor of New York, finding the necessary +funds, as the colonial Legislature would not vote the money. The +establishment of this station was a serious blow to French trade, +nullifying to a large extent the advantage of holding Niagara. In +vain the Canadians tried to incite the Five Nations to destroy it; +and in vain, in 1749, they planted a rival post, Fort Rouillé, at +Toronto,<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> on the other side of the lake, to command the direct +route to Lake Huron by Lake Simcoe. To Oswego the Indians brought +their furs, and the traffic enriched the Iroquois and their English +neighbours in New York.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> See the letter from Governor Burnet to the Board of +Trade, dated New York, May 9, 1727: 'I have this spring sent up +workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, +at the mouth of the Onnondage river, where our principal trade with +the far Nations is carried on. I have obtained the consent of the Six +Nations to build it.' Papers relating to Oswego in O'Callaghan's +<i>Documentary History of New York,</i> vol. i, p. 447.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> The name of Toronto appears before the founding of this +fort. On the old maps, i.e. on Delisle's map of Canada, published in +1703, Lake Simcoe appears as Lake Toronto.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote297"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Crown<br> + Point.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But, menacing as was this outpost on the lake to the <a name="page197"></a>commercial +interests of Canada, greater danger threatened both New England and +New York from another move made by the French. Far up on Lake +Champlain, at the point where the lake narrows into a wide river, +stretching many miles to the south, there is a small isthmus on the +western side standing out boldly in the lake. It was known to the +English as Crown Point; and here in 1731, at the instance of a +well-known French officer, the Chevalier Saint Luc de la Corne, the +French built a fort commanding the strait, and named it Fort St. +Frederic. The English colonies protested, but did not use united +force to back their protests; and the position remained, fortified in +time of peace, an evidence of French claims and a base for future +attack.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote298"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>War between England<br> + and France.<br> + <br> + <br> + An outpost at Canso<br> + overpowered by<br> + the French, who<br> + threaten Annapolis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>War began again in March, 1744, and in May the French commander at +Louisbourg took action. There was a small fishing village at Canso, +on the narrow arm of the sea which divides Nova Scotia from Cape +Breton Island. It was guarded by a blockhouse, garrisoned by about +eighty English soldiers. A far stronger force from Louisbourg came +against it, the garrison surrendered, and the place was burnt. The +Frenchman who commanded the expedition, Duvivier, a descendant of La +Tour, was then sent to attack Annapolis, and appeared before it in +August. Ill fortified, ill garrisoned, the little town had at least a +good English officer in charge—Major Mascarene, of Huguenot descent. +The French offered terms of capitulation, threatening the arrival of +more troops from Louisbourg; but these reinforcements did not arrive, +the Acadians did not rise in mass, and in September the besiegers +disappeared, having effected nothing.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote299"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>New England<br> + and Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Neglected by the British Government, Acadia was valued by New +England. Massachusetts had in past years taken and held Port Royal, +and knew well that English interests in America were not compatible +with the French regaining the Acadian peninsula. The taking of Canso, +the attempt <a name="page198"></a>to take Port Royal or Annapolis, roused the 'Bostonnais,' +and led to an enterprise second to none in colonial history.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote300"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>William<br> + Shirley.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Governor of Massachusetts at the time was William Shirley. A +Sussex man, son of a merchant in the City of London, bred to the law, +he had gone out to Boston in 1731, and in ten years' time, by +judicious pushing, became Governor of the colony. He was a layman +with military instincts, and, taking up the rôle of Cato, never +ceased to preach to the ministers at home and to his fellow colonists +on the spot, that Canada must be conquered, and the French driven +from North America. His policy was good and clearsighted, his +military ability was of no large order; but, like William Phipps, +while he loved himself, he loved his country also; and eventually, +after falling under a cloud, and being relegated to the government of +the Bahamas, he came back to end his days in Massachusetts as a +private citizen, and was buried at Boston in 1771.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote301"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His scheme<br> + for attacking<br> + Louisbourg.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>To this enterprising man, it is said, the idea of attacking +Louisbourg with colonial forces was suggested by William Vaughan, a +New Englander, interested in the fishing trade on the coast of Maine. +The scheme seemed a wild one. A fortress strong, as far as the newest +military skill and unlimited money could strengthen it, was to be +attacked and taken by untrained colonists. Yet there were solid hopes +of success, and the dream came true. The English prisoners, carried +from Canso to Louisbourg, had been sent on to Boston, and told of the +actual condition of the French. The garrison at Louisbourg was not +very numerous: they were ill commanded and mutinous. If the +fortifications were formidable, within them were the elements of +weakness.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote302"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The scheme adopted<br> + by Massachusetts.<br> + <br> + <br> + William Pepperell.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Shirley called the Massachusetts Assembly together in secret session, +and propounded his scheme for an expedition against Louisbourg. The +scheme was rejected. Soon afterwards a petition in its favour was +presented from Boston and other coast towns: the question came again +before the <a name="page199"></a>Assembly, and the proposals were carried by one vote. All +the English colonies down to and including Pennsylvania were invited +to help; but, though New York sent a little money and a few guns, the +enterprise was practically left to New England alone. Massachusetts +contributed about 3,000 men, Connecticut, 500; and William Pepperell, +shipbuilder and merchant of Kittery Point, Maine, was named as +commander. He was of Devonshire descent, a colonel of militia, and, +though he had little military experience, he was a man of good +judgement and common sense.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote303"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Admiral<br> + Warren.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A request had been sent to England for ships of war, and Warren, the +English commodore at Antigua in the West Indies, was asked to bring +his squadron. When the message reached him, he was without orders +from home, and refused to sail; but almost immediately afterwards +permission came, and he left at once for the North American coast, +joining the expedition, which had already started, at their +rendezvous at Canso.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote304"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + expedition<br> + starts.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was on March 24, 1745 that the New Englanders left Boston; on or +about April 4 the transports began to arrive at Canso. They carried +men who knew little or nothing of scientific warfare, and for whom +amateur strategists had drawn up fantastic plans of campaign; but +they were colonists of tough English breed, their Puritan +proclivities had been strengthened by the Methodist revival, and the +great preacher, George Whitfield, had given to Pepperell for the +motto of the expedition 'Nil desperandum Christo duce.'</p> + +<a name="map3"></a> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="map3"> + <tr> + <td width="737"> + <img src="images/3.jpg" alt="Map of Louisbourg"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote305"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Louisbourg<br> + and its<br> + surroundings.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>'Louisbourg is built upon a tongue of land which stretches out into +the sea and gives the town an oblong shape. It is about half a league +in circumference.'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> The tongue of land in question is part of a +larger peninsula running out to the south and east from the coast of +Cape Breton Island. The little promontory, which was covered by the +<a name="page200"></a>town and fortifications of Louisbourg, has an almost due easterly +direction, and it is prolonged to the east by reefs ending in a small +rocky island, on which the French erected a battery to command the +mouth of the harbour, the channel being about half a mile wide. The +harbour lay to the north and north-east of the town; on the other +side was the ocean. To the west of the whole peninsula, of which the +Louisbourg promontory was but a small part, is a large semicircular +bay, known as Gabarus Bay. Surrounded by the sea on all sides but +one, on that one side—the western side—the town was strongly +protected by a ditch and rampart, outside which was marshy ground. +Moreover, almost due north of the town, on the edge of the harbour, +was a battery, known as the Grand Battery, over against the Island +Battery which has been already mentioned. Nature, French money, and +French engineers had combined to make a stronghold, which seemed +almost impregnable.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> From the anonymous <i>Lettre d'un habitant de Louisbourg,</i> +translated by Professor Wrong, pp. 27, 28.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote306"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + garrison.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The garrison consisted of between 500 and 600 regular troops, with +1,300 to 1,400 militia.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> Among the regulars were Swiss soldiers, +who had mutinied at the preceding Christmas time and infected their +French comrades with the spirit of insubordination. They mutinied, it +was said, about their rations, as to the 'butter and bacon' which the +King supplied. In Louisbourg, as elsewhere in Canada, peculation was +rife, and officers and commissaries made profit at the privates' +expense. The Governor, Duquesnel, had died in the previous October. +His successor, Duchambon, was not the man for a crisis. The walls +were there and brave men behind them, but confidence in a determined +and prescient leader was wanting; and, as the consequence of +maladministration, we read that 'the regular soldiers were +distrusted, so that it was necessary to charge the inhabitants with +the most dangerous duties.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> It is difficult to make out from the <i>Lettre d'un +habitant</i> whether or not the 1,300 to 1,400 men included the +regulars, but probably not.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote307"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English land<br> + in Gabarus Bay.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Grand Battery<br> + occupied by<br> + the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page201"></a> +<p>Having waited for about three weeks at Canso, and rebuilt and +garrisoned the blockhouse, the New Englanders went on to their +destination. On April 30 the transports sailed into Gabarus Bay, +making for Flat Point, three miles due west of Louisbourg. A small +French force was detached to oppose them; but the boats made good +their landing, two miles further to the west, at a little inlet +called Freshwater Cove. Here the whole force of 4,000 men was +disembarked; and, two days later, a party under Vaughan, having +marched behind the town, found the Grand Battery deserted and +occupied it, turning its guns in due course upon their rightful +owners. The precipitate abandonment of this battery by the French, on +the ground that its defences were inadequate, proved a fatal blunder, +giving the besiegers a firm position in the rear of the town, whereas +the direct attack was over swamp and marsh.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote308"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Beginning of the siege.<br> + <br> + <br> + Capture of the 'Vigilant.'</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The siege now began in earnest. Warren's squadron, which was at a +later stage reinforced from England, blockaded the harbour, and on +May 19 achieved an important success in capturing the <i>Vigilant,</i> a +large French ship of war, whose supplies of food and ammunition, +destined for the garrison, passed instead into the hands of the +besiegers. Warren could not however enter the harbour, as long as the +Island Battery commanded the entrance.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote309"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Spirit of the<br> + New Englanders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The bulk of the work fell on the land force, and well they did it. +Ill clothed, ill housed, suffering so much from exposure and +privations, that at one time out of 4,000 men little more than +one-half were fit for duty, without transport, dragging the guns +themselves across the morasses, without skilled engineers, and with +hardly any trained gunners, they none the less pushed the siege with +boisterous audacity, mingling religious fervour with schoolboy +recklessness. They fought better in this way—their own way—than by +adhering to strict military rule, and their commander, William +Pepperell, knew his men. His was a difficult task. <a name="page202"></a>There was some +little friction between the King's man and the colonist, but, on the +whole, Warren on the sea and Pepperell on the land worked in harmony, +due in no small measure to the tact and good sense of the New England +commander.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote310"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The besiegers threatened<br> + from the mainland.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was a further danger to the besiegers, of attack from the +mainland side. Canadians and Indians were reported to be marching to +the relief of the garrison. They were a party sent from Canada to +besiege Annapolis, who drew off and marched for Louisbourg on +receiving an urgent message for help from Duchambon, but arrived only +in time to hear that the town had surrendered and to retreat again in +safety into Acadia.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote311"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Attempt on the<br> + Island Battery,<br> + which fails.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As long as the Island Battery remained intact, it was or seemed +impossible to attack from the sea. Accordingly an attempt was made to +take it. At midnight, on May 26, a storming party put out in boats +from the Grand Battery, and rowed to the strongly fortified rock on +which the Island Battery stood. The result was an entire failure. +Firing under cover, the French wrecked many of the boats, and shot +down the soldiers who landed. The English lost 189 men, being nearly +half the attacking force, 119 of whom were taken prisoners. It was +clear that the battery could not be taken by assault, and the +besiegers proceeded gradually to cripple it by mounting guns on +Lighthouse Point, being the opposite side of the narrow entrance to +the harbour. These guns did good execution, and, while the Island +Battery lost its sting, the defences of the town on the land side +were steadily weakened by the besiegers' fire.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote312"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Final assault<br> + threatened.<br> + <br> + <br> + The town<br> + capitulates.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At length Warren and Pepperell decided that the time had come to +assault the town simultaneously by land and sea. The French saw what +was intended; they were worn with fatigue and anxiety; their houses +were riddled with shot and shell; and the townspeople urged the +Governor to capitulate. Fair terms were granted by the English +commanders, who knew that their own position was none too secure. The +<a name="page203"></a>garrison was allowed to march out with the honours of war, and safe +transport to France was guaranteed to the officers and men, as well +as to the inhabitants of Louisbourg, on the promise that none should +bear arms against England for the space of a year. On these +conditions Duchambon surrendered, and on June 17, after a siege of +forty-seven days, the English became masters of Louisbourg.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote313"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Warren and<br> + Pepperell.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The capitulation was made jointly to Pepperell and Warren. The French +eye-witness of the siege is at pains to distinguish between them; for +Warren he has nothing but praise, for Pepperell the reverse. 'Mr. +Warren,' he writes, 'is a young man about thirty-five years old, very +handsome, and full of the noblest sentiments.' Against Pepperell he +brings charges of bad faith in carrying out the terms of the +capitulation, adding, 'What could we expect from a man who, it is +said, is the son of a shoemaker at Boston?' As a matter of fact, +Pepperell, on occupying Louisbourg, kept his undisciplined men well +in hand, much to their disgust, and little loot rewarded their weeks +of toil and suffering. To Warren's sailors, on the other hand, there +accrued a large amount of prize-money; for, by the device of keeping +the French flag flying after the surrender of the town had taken +place, various French vessels were decoyed and captured.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote314"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The success<br> + mainly<br> + due to the<br> + colonists.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In after years, when the American colonies had taken arms against the +mother country, men argued as to whether the taking of Louisbourg was +due to the English sailors and their commander, or to the colonists. +As a matter of fact, neither without the other could have achieved +success, but the enterprise was conceived by the colonists, on the +colonists fell the brunt of the fighting, and to them, not to +England, the chief credit was due. 'The enterprise,' says the French +writer already quoted, 'was less that of the nation or of the King +than of the inhabitants of New England alone.' It was in truth a +wonderful feat, and till our own times it was never sufficiently +appreciated.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote315"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reception of the<br> + news in England,<br> + and at Boston.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page204"></a> +<p>There was rejoicing in England; but England in the year 1745, the +year of the Jacobite rebellion, had other sights before her eyes, and +other sounds in the ears of her people. It may well have been, too, +that joy at success over the enemy of the nation was alloyed by +uneasy and unworthy consciousness of the growing strength and +self-confidence of the New England beyond the sea. But to Boston the +tidings were tidings of unmixed joy and pride. The Lord had risen to +fight for His chosen people, the dour and stubborn Puritan, and the +stronghold of the idolaters was laid low.</p> + +<p>'Good Lord,' said the old and usually long-winded Chaplain Moody, in +his grace before dinner at the end of the siege, 'we have so much to +thank Thee for that time will be too short, and we must leave it for +eternity.'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Quoted in Parkman's <i>A Half Century of Conflict</i> (1892 +ed.), vol. ii, p. 153.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote316"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Sermon at<br> + Boston on<br> + the event.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A General Thanksgiving was held at Boston on Thursday July 18, 1745. +At the South Church in that city the Rev. Thomas Prince, one of the +pastors, preached on the great New England victory. He took for his +text 'This is the Lord's doing: it is marvellous in our eyes'; and +his sermon, which has been preserved to us,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> well illustrates the +view which the Puritans of Massachusetts took of their success. The +hand of the Lord was visible to them in every detail of the 'most +adventurous enterprise against the French settlements at Cape Breton +and their exceeding strong city of Louisbourg, for warlike power the +pride and terror of these northern seas.' The preacher recounted the +advantages which the island gave to France, its abundance of pit +coal, its commodious harbours, 'its happy situation in <a name="page205"></a>the centre of +our fishery at the entrance of the Bay and River of Canada.' He noted +the natural and artificial strength of the walled city, added to for +thirty years, until Louisbourg became 'the Dunkirk of North America, +and in some respects of greater importance.' He traced the finger of +God in the circumstances preliminary to and attending its capture; +how the British prisoners, carried to Louisbourg, on their return to +Boston brought information 'whereby we came to be more acquainted +with their situation and the proper places of landing and attacking'; +how the New Englander had accounts 'of the uneasiness of the Switzers +there for want of pay and provision'; how the weather was fair, the +men were willing, supplies were plentiful; how God guided the +decision of the Court of Representatives, and timed the arrival of +'the brave and active Commodore Warren, a great friend to these +Plantations.' The landing, the taking of the Grand Battery, the +'happy harmony between our various officers,' even disease, reverse, +toil and labour, all were signs of a particular Providence working +out His great design and leading His people into a place of shelter. +Thus was Louisbourg taken 'by means of so small a number, less than +4,000 land men, unused to war, undisciplined, and that had never seen +a siege in their lives.' 'As it was,' said the preacher, referring to +the Treaty of Utrecht, 'one of the chief disgraces of Queen Anne's +reign to resign this island to the French, it is happily one of the +glories of King George II's to restore it to the British empire.' The +measure of joy at the taking of Louisbourg must also have been the +measure of disappointment at its subsequent retrocession by the terms +of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> <i>Extraordinary events, the doings of God, and marvellous +in pious eyes</i>. Illustrated in a sermon at the South Church in Boston +(New England), on the General Thanksgiving, Thursday, July 18, 1745. +Occasioned by taking the city of Louisbourg, on the isle of Cape +Breton, by New England soldiers, assisted by a British squadron. By +Thomas Prince, M.A. Pamphlet, Boston and London, 5th ed. 1746. +Dedicated to H. E. William Shirley.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote317"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Subsequent career<br> + of Pepperell</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Of the two men who led the English to victory on this memorable +occasion, Pepperell was made a baronet—the first colonist to receive +that honour: he lived to help his countrymen still further in their +struggle with France. Through his exertions a royal regiment was +raised in <a name="page206"></a>America, and the New England shipping yards added a fine +frigate to the British navy. He died in 1759, holding the commission +of Lieutenant-General in the British army.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote318"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and Warren.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Warren, in 1747, took part, as second in command, in Anson's naval +victory over the French off Cape Finisterre, and in the same year he +was elected member of Parliament for Westminster. He died in 1752, at +the age of forty-nine, one of the richest commoners in England; and a +monument to him stands in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. It +tells that he was a 'Knight of the Bath, a Vice Admiral of the Red +Squadron of the fleet, and member of the City and Liberty of +Westminster'; but it does not tell how close was his sympathy with +the English in America, married, as he was, to an American lady, and +owner of estates in Manhattan Island and on the Mohawk river; nor, +amid the verbiage of eighteenth-century adulation, is there any +mention of the part which he took in helping the New England +colonists to conquer Louisbourg.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote319"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The New Englanders<br> + garrison Louisbourg.<br> + <br> + <br> + Relieved by<br> + regular troops.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The New Englanders garrisoned Louisbourg for the better part of a +year. The soldiers were discontented, with some reason. Their success +had brought them little or no profit: they wanted to be back on their +farms: the town which they occupied was dismantled and insanitary; +pestilence broke out, and 'the people died like rotten sheep.'<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> +Shirley came up from Boston to keep the soldiers quiet, but not till +April, 1746, were the colonists relieved by regular troops, sent from +Gibraltar. Warren then took sole command for a short time, being +succeeded by another sailor, Commodore Knowles.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> Quoted in Parkman's <i>A Half Century of Conflict,</i> vol. +ii, p. 166.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote320"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Preparations for<br> + invasion of Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + The plan miscarries.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Shirley intended the capture of Louisbourg to be but the beginning of +the end, the end being the conquest of Canada. The French Government, +on the other hand, were determined to recover their fortress. Each +was for the time disappointed. In the early months of 1746, the +colonies, <a name="page207"></a>elated by their recent and great success, cheerfully +answered to the call for soldiers to invade Canada. The home +Government promised eight battalions, and had them ready for +embarkation at Portsmouth; the plan of campaign—the usual plan of +dual invasion by the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain—was duly +outlined; Quebec was thrown into a state of alarm and hurried +preparation, when, as so often before, all came to nothing, owing to +the shuffling and delays of the ministers of the Crown, in this +instance the incompetent Duke of Newcastle. The troops destined for +America were diverted to Europe; one more opportunity was lost; one +more nail was driven into the coffin of colonial loyalty. Realizing, +as the autumn of 1746 drew on, that an invasion of Canada was now out +of the question, Shirley determined to attack the French advanced +position at Crown Point with the New York and Massachusetts levies; +but this plan, too, was frustrated by news of a coming fleet from +France, and the fears of Quebec were transferred to Boston.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote321"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Failure of<br> + a counter<br> + expedition<br> + by the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The fleet in question left La Rochelle at midsummer in the year 1746. +It consisted of twenty-one ships of war and a number of transports, +carrying 3,000 troops. The whole was under the command of the +Duc d'Anville. Disaster in the form of tempest and pestilence +attended the expedition from first to last. The ships were scattered +on the ocean, and it was not until the end of September that the +admiral, with three ships, reached Chebucto (now Halifax) harbour. +Here, while waiting for the rest of the fleet, he died; and the +vice-admiral, D'Estournel, arriving immediately afterwards, saw no +hope for the shattered expedition but to return to France. His +officers, on the other hand, urged an attack on Annapolis, and +D'Estournel, in a fit of mortification and mental distress, put an +end to his life. The command now devolved on the Marquis de la +Jonquičre, a naval officer, who had gone out on board the fleet to +take over the <a name="page208"></a>government of Canada. He waited into October at +Chebucto, the Acadians brought him provisions, but his men still died +of disease day by day. He sailed for Annapolis, but encountered fresh +storms off Cape Sable; and at length the miserable remains of the +fleet made their way back to France, the loss of life having been, it +was said, 2,500 men. In the following year, 1747, La Jonquičre again +set out from France in another fleet, but again he failed to reach +Canada; the ships were encountered and defeated off Cape Finisterre +by Anson and Warren, and the outgoing Governor of Canada was carried +a prisoner to England.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote322"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canadian<br> + raids.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The main operations of the war were supplemented by the usual series +of raids from Canada. In the winter of 1745, Fort Saratoga, +thirty-six miles from Albany, was attacked and taken by French and +Indians from Crown Point; the place was burnt, and its inhabitants +were carried into captivity. It was again reoccupied by the English, +but in 1747 was evacuated and burnt as indefensible, to the disgust +of the Five Nation Indians, who looked upon the proceeding as +evidence of weakness and cowardice. Another successful French attack +was made, in August, 1746, on Fort Massachusetts, standing on an +eastern tributary of the Hudson, on the line of communication between +Albany and the Connecticut river. In short, for three years, the +borders of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were harried by +Canadians and Indians, using the French fort at Crown Point as their +base.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote323"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French success<br> + at Grand Pré.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But the most notable success in this petty warfare was achieved on +the Acadian frontier. The isthmus of Chignecto, which connects the +Nova Scotian peninsula with the mainland, was, at the time of +D'Anville's expedition, held by a comparatively strong force of +Canadians under De Ramesay. Fearing for the safety of Annapolis and +the rest of Acadia, Shirley sent reinforcements from Massachusetts, +consisting of some 500 men under Colonel Noble, who in December, +<a name="page209"></a>1746, reached the Basin of Mines, and occupied the village of Grand +Pré. They were quartered throughout the village, taking no sufficient +precautions against surprise; Ramesay therefore, on hearing of the +position, determined towards the latter end of January to attack +them. He had with him the best of the Canadian partisan leaders; and +unable, owing to an accident, to take personal charge of the +expedition, he placed the command in the hands of Coulon de Villiers.</p> + +<p>In the depth of winter, with sledges and snow-shoes, the French set +out; they started from the isthmus on January 23, on February 10 they +were on the outskirts of Grand Pré. Under cover of night, one party +and another attacked the detached houses in which the English were +lodged; Colonel Noble and over seventy of his followers were killed; +sixty were wounded, fifty-four were taken prisoners. The rest +capitulated, on condition of safe return to Annapolis; and on +February 14 they marched out, leaving Grand Pré in the hands of the +French, who in their turn shortly afterwards retired to their old +position at Chignecto. It was a brilliant feat of arms, but, like +most of these border attacks, had no lasting effect. Grand Pré was in +a few weeks' time reoccupied by the English; and not long afterwards +the French retired from the Acadian frontier into Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote324"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Peace of<br> + Aix-la-Chapelle.<br> + <br> + <br> + Louisbourg given<br> + back to France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The war, known in history as the War of the Austrian Succession, had +brought to none of the combatants much honour or profit. On the +continent the Austrians and their English allies met with little +success, on the sea the French were equally unsuccessful. The end was +a peace, as between England and France, based on the principle of +mutual restitution, such a peace as left the seeds of future war. +England gave back Louisbourg and Cape Breton Island, France gave back +Madras, which had surrendered in 1746 to Labourdonnais. The treaty +contained the somewhat humiliating <a name="page210"></a>provision, that English hostages +should be given to France until the restitution of Louisbourg had +actually taken place.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote325"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Foundation<br> + of Halifax.<br> + <br> + <br> + The peace<br> + from the<br> + English and<br> + from the<br> + colonial<br> + point of view.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In July, 1749, the French re-entered their fortress; and in the same +year a large body of settlers was sent out by the British Government +to Chebucto harbour, where the city of Halifax was founded. The +settlement was designed to be a rival to Louisbourg. Its foundation +was evidence that the Imperial Government was at length not wholly +indifferent to the value of Acadia; and Halifax is almost unique, +among English cities in America, in having owed its origin to the +direct action of the State. But no founding of new townships, we may +well imagine, could compensate the New Englanders for losing the +fruits of their victory. It is said that the first answer of King +George II, when pressed to give back Louisbourg to France was that it +belonged not to him but to the people of Boston. If these were his +words, he spoke truly; the Massachusetts men had won the town, and +England gave it away. Yet on no other terms could peace be secured; +and it is not easy to pass a fair criticism on the transaction. Then, +as now, England had to reckon with conflicting interests within her +Empire. Then, as now, she had self-governing colonies which +necessarily did not see eye to eye on all points with the mother +country. The horizon of New England was bounded by the Atlantic, and +the fate of a factory in the East Indies, or even international +arrangements on the continent of Europe, were beyond the colonists' +ken. They saw only that their blood and their money had been given in +vain, and that the fortress, which they had wrested from France, was +hers again. English statesmen, on the other hand, looked east as well +as west; and near home, across the Channel, was the spectacle of +campaigns that brought more loss than gain. As successful war in +Europe had given Acadia to the English, so want of success in the +<a name="page211"></a>same quarter reacted on America. The account was made up, the balance +was struck, and the retrocession of Louisbourg was the price of +peace. But it was a heavy price to pay, for it seemed to have been +paid by the American colonists alone; and, had not another war soon +followed, and Louisbourg been again taken by a general whom the +Americans loved, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle might have passed into +history as not merely a disappointment but an irretrievable disaster.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote326"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Western<br> + discovery.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>French exploration in North America followed, as has been seen, the +line of the lakes and the rivers. From Louisiana, in the first half +of the eighteenth century, various expeditions were made in a +westerly direction—up the Red River, the Arkansas, the Missouri, and +its tributary the Kansas river—the object of the French explorers +being to enter into friendly relations with the Comanches and other +Indians of the western plains, and gradually to open up trade with +New Mexico and the city of Santa Fé; in other words, to reach Spanish +America, an object which did not commend itself to Spain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote327"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Knowledge gained of<br> + Lake of the Woods<br> + and Lake Winnipeg.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort built in<br> + the Sioux country.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Before the year 1700, the course of the upper Mississippi was known. +Nicolas Perrot, in or about 1685, is said to have established posts +where the river widens out into Lake Pepin; and further north, French +<i>coureurs de bois,</i> or <i>voyageurs,</i> as they began to be called, +gained information of the Lake of the Woods, and of the Lac des +Assiniboines, now Lake Winnipeg. The principal Indian tribes in the +regions of the upper Mississippi were Sioux; and, with a view to +making them friends to France, and penetrating through their country +to the western sea, the Jesuit traveller Charlevoix recommended, in +1723, that a mission should be established among them. A few years +later, in 1727, a company was formed for trading in the Sioux +country, and built a new fort on Lake Pepin called, after the then +Governor of Canada, Fort Beauharnois. The Sioux, however, <a name="page212"></a>proved +intractable neighbours, and ten years later the fort was abandoned.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote328"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Verendrye.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1728, there was a small French outpost at Nipigon, at the western +end of Lake Superior, on its northern side—where the river Nipigon +flows from the lake of the same name into Lake Superior. The +commander was Pierre de Varennes de la Verendrye, son of a lieutenant +of the Carignan Regiment, who had settled at and been Governor of +Three Rivers. As a young man, La Verendrye had crossed the sea to +fight in the armies of France, and had been badly wounded on the +field of Malplaquet. He lived to leave his name high in the list of +western explorers. At his distant station on Lake Superior, he heard +the stories that Indians brought, mixture of fact and fable, of +waters to the west that led to the long-sought-for sea; he offered to +follow up the clue, and, with the usual opposition from jealous +Canadian merchants, and the usual barren authority from the French +Government to explore at his own expense, in return for the grant of +a monopoly of the fur trade to the west and north of Lake Superior, +he gave the rest of his life to western discovery.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote329"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The water-parting<br> + on the west of<br> + Lake Superior.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As the water-parting between the basin of the St. Lawrence and that +of the Mississippi is hardly marked by any height of land, so the +divide between the chain of lakes which feed the St. Lawrence and the +more westerly waters, of which Lake Winnipeg is the centre, is a +slight rise of ground which it is difficult to distinguish on the +maps. A low range of hills runs round the western end of Lake +Superior, at the highest point not more than 1,000 feet above the +level of the lake. These uplands separate the tributaries of Lake +Superior and the St. Lawrence from the feeders of Lake Winnipeg. +There were two routes across the divide, one leaving Lake Superior at +Thunder Bay, near the point where Port Arthur now stands, and +following for a short distance the present line of the Canadian +Pacific Railway; <a name="page213"></a>the other a little further south, leaving the lake +at or near Pigeon river, and going westward along the present +boundary line between Canada and the United States. On this latter +route was the Grand Portage, by which the <i>voyageurs</i> crossed the +water-parting at about sixty miles distance from Lake Superior, and +reached Rainy Lake. Rainy Lake drains into the Lake of the Woods, and +the Lake of the Woods drains into Lake Winnipeg. This last great +lake, fed by the Saskatchewan, the Assiniboine, the Red River, and +many other rivers and lakes, finds its outlet by the Nelson river to +Hudson Bay, and a chain of posts carried from Lake Superior to Lake +Winnipeg would tend to divert the western fur trade from Hudson Bay +to the St. Lawrence.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote330"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Verendrye's<br> + journeys and forts.<br> + <br> + <br> + His sons near the<br> + Rocky mountains.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the summer of 1731, La Verendrye started west by the Grand +Portage; and in the next eight or nine years established posts along +the water line, from Rainy Lake to where the Saskatchewan river +enters Lake Winnipeg from the north-west. One of these forts or +stations was Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine river, which formed the +starting-point for an advance over the western plains through what is +now the State of Dakota. In 1742, two of his sons made their way from +the Assiniboine to the Missouri, crossed the latter river, and, +traversing the prairies in a westerly and south-westerly direction, +reached the country drained by the tributaries of the Yellowstone +river. How far they went is matter of conjecture, and doubt is thrown +on their claim to have been the first discoverers of the Rocky +mountains. It is stated that, on January 1, 1743, they came in sight +of high mountains, which are supposed to have been the Bighorn range +in Wyoming and Montana, an eastern buttress of the Rocky mountains, +lying in front of the Yellowstone National Park; but no mention is +made in the story of snowy peaks, such as would indicate discovery of +the great mountain barrier of America. The explorers <a name="page214"></a>came back in +fifteen months' time. Their father died in 1749, and, like other +pioneers, they reaped but little fruit, in honour or in profit, from +all their labours. They did not find the western sea, they possibly +did not descry the Rocky mountains; but to La Verendrye and his sons +it must be credited that a new water area in the far west was fully +made known to the world, and that trade routes were opened beyond the +basin of the St. Lawrence and the basin of the Mississippi, reaching +to the great Saskatchewan river and to the waters which flow into +Hudson Bay.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote331"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Rocky<br> + mountains.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Rocky mountains, as we know them, were not known in the +eighteenth century.<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> In 1793 Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them +far in the North, by the line of the Peace river, and reached the +Pacific Ocean on the coast of British Columbia; but the full +revelation of the main range dates from the year 1805, when Lewis and +Clarke followed the Missouri to its source, and thence made their way +over the mountain barrier to the western sea. In short, as long as +Canada was New France, and for years afterwards, it was for trading +and for colonizing purposes a region of inland waters; it was not +also, as it now is, a land of plains, with a background of giant +mountains, and behind them the further ocean. Yet it was to reach the +further ocean that Europeans first came into Canada, and the earnest +expectation of the earliest <a name="page215"></a>explorers has in our own time found more +than fulfilment in a Dominion from sea to sea.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> In Jeffreys' <i>American Atlas,</i> 1775, the Assiniboils +(sic) or St. Charles river is prolonged to the Pacific by a dotted +line, entitled the 'River of the West.' Below it a range of mountains +is traced from north to south, with the note, 'Hereabouts are +supposed to be the mountains of bright stones mentioned in the map of +the Indian Ochagach.' In Carver's <i>Travels through North America in +1766-8,</i> published in 1778, p. 121, the Rocky mountains 'are called +the Shining Mountains from an infinite number of chrystal stones of +amazing size with which they are covered, and which, when the sun +shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great +distance.' Morse's <i>American Geography,</i> 1794, shows the Rocky +mountains on the map of America. In the text they are called 'Shining +Mountains.' In Arrowsmith's <i>Map of North America,</i> dated 1795-6, +they are called Stony Mountains. In a later edition of 1811 the name +'Rocky Mountains' appears.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the substance of the above chapter, see<br> +<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. iii;<br> + P<small>ARKMAN'S</small> <i>A Half Century of Conflict;</i><br> + Sir J. B<small>OURINOT'S</small> <i>Cape Breton</i> (referred to <a href="#page34">above</a>, note); + and<br> + <i>Louisbourg in 1745,</i> the anonymous <i>Lettre d'un habitant de + Louisbourg,</i> edited and translated by Professor W<small>RONG</small>, (Toronto, + 1897).</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap8"></a><a name="page216"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> +<center>T<small>HE</small> P<small>RELUDE TO THE</small> S<small>EVEN</small> +Y<small>EARS'</small> W<small>AR</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<p>The fifteen years from the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 to the +Peace of Paris in 1763 include the most stirring and picturesque +times in the history of Canada. They were masculine years, when, in +all parts of the world, great men did great things. They were the +years when Montcalm and Wolfe fought and died on the St. Lawrence; +when Robert Clive mastered India; when Chatham redeemed England from +littleness; and when Frederick of Prussia became known for all time +as Frederick the Great, by standing grimly foursquare against the +continent of Europe in the Seven Years' War.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote332"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The southern<br> + colonies<br> + drawn into<br> + the struggle<br> + with France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Seven Years' War only began in 1756; but before that date, before +war between France and England had formally been proclaimed, French +and English were fighting hard in North America. We have the same +sphere of war as before, and in large measure the same plans of +campaign, trouble and conflict in and on the borders of Acadia, siege +and capture of Louisbourg, attack up the St. Lawrence against +Quebec—at last a successful attack, and prolonged fighting along the +line of Lakes George and Champlain. The Five Nation Indians played +their part in the war, though a more subordinate part than in earlier +times; the cantons most within range of the English remaining under +English influence and being more adroitly managed than in earlier +days, while the westernmost tribes, the Senecas, inclined to the +French side. But a new feature came into the struggle, the <a name="page217"></a>result of +the inevitable advance of white men on either side in the course of +years. The English colonies to the south of New York began to take a +more active part than formerly in the conflict with France. The +Virginians appeared on the scene, and among the Virginians was +prominent the name of George Washington. The great French scheme of +holding the rivers of North America and their basins implied that the +English colonies should not cross the Alleghany mountains. Great +schemes never allow for the ordinary every day work of nature and +man. It was certain that, as the English multiplied, they would go +further and further afield; and in due time, from Pennsylvania and +from Virginia, English traders and backwoodsmen made their way into +the valley of the Ohio.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote333"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Ohio.<br> + <br> + <br> + Celeron de<br> + Bienville.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Ohio, which La Salle first made known to the world, is, as has +been pointed out, the connecting link on the inner line of the North +American waterways—starting from the confines of the St. Lawrence +basin near the shores of Lake Erie, and reaching the Mississippi +comparatively low down in its course. The outer line is much more +extensive, continuing along the great lakes until from Lake Michigan +the Mississippi is reached by the Wisconsin or the Illinois. Along +this outer line the French had hitherto worked. It took them more +directly to the far West; and, passing along it, they only skirted +instead of traversing the region where the Iroquois were in strength; +but, had they allowed the English to lay firm hold of the Ohio +valley, Canada and Louisiana would have been severed, and down the +Ohio would have come a challenge to French sovereignty over the West. +Thus it was that, in the year 1749, the year after the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, the Governor of Canada, the Marquis de la +Galissoničre, sent one of his officers, Celeron de Bienville, to +register the claims of France to the Ohio river and the lands which +it watered and drained.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote334"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His mission<br> + to the Ohio.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Starting up the St. Lawrence from the island of Montreal, <a name="page218"></a>Celeron +landed on the shores of Lake Erie; and, making a portage to Lake +Chautauqua, reached the head waters of the Ohio. Down stream he went, +into the Alleghany, down the Alleghany to where, meeting the +Monongahela, it becomes the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the confluence +of the Miami river, not far from the site of Cincinnati city. Here he +left the Ohio, and, ascending the Miami, crossed overland to the +Maumee river, on which there was a small French post. The Maumee +flows into the south-western end of Lake Erie, and down its stream he +returned to Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote335"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>English<br> + intrusion<br> + into the<br> + Ohio<br> + valley.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At various points along the route he buried leaden plates, with +inscriptions asserting the title of the King of France to the lands +of the Ohio and its tributaries; and he affixed to trees the arms of +France on sheets of tin, to tell all comers that the French were +lords of the country. It was time that some assertion of French +claims was made in these regions. He found parties of English +traders, as he went, and the Indians showed no love for France. There +had been for some time past a migration of Indians into the Ohio +valley. Many of the Iroquois had settled there: and if among the +various races, notably among the Delawares, there were those whose +traditional sympathies were with the owners of Canada, there were +more who appreciated the present benefit of English trade. Prominent +among the friends of the English were the Indians of the Miami +confederacy, whose centre was at Pique Town or Pickawillany on the +Miami river.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote336"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Ohio<br> + company.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Celeron came and went. He had made a demonstration on behalf of +France, but not a demonstration in force. His expedition was +memorable as the prelude to coming events; but no definite action was +taken for about three years. La Galissoničre was succeeded as +Governor of Canada by the Marquis de la Jonquičre,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> who died in +1752, and was <a name="page219"></a>followed by the Marquis Duquesne. Meantime, an Ohio +company was formed on the English side, consisting mainly of +Virginians, and English traders and emissaries were active among the +Indians of the Ohio. Yet the English, like the French, achieved no +tangible results. Pennsylvania and Virginia were jealous of each +other, and the Legislature in each state opposed the Governor. Both +Assemblies were invited to build a fort at the junction of the +Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, which formed the key of the +position; but both refused.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> De la Jonquičre had been named Governor of Canada in +1746, and made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Quebec, one in that +year on board D'Anville's fleet, and a second in 1747, when he was +taken prisoner in the fight off Cape Finisterre (see <a href="#page207">above</a>). +He finally arrived in 1749.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote337"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + attack<br> + the Miamis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Thus matters drifted on until, in June, 1752, a Frenchman, Langlade, +came down from the lakes with a band of Indian warriors, attacked the +Miamis at Pickawillany, took the town, and killed its chief—who was +known to the French as La Demoiselle, and who was feared by them as a +warm friend of their English rivals. The place was a centre of +English trade, there were English traders in it when the attack was +made, and this French success was the beginning of action, on a +larger scale than had hitherto been attempted, for the conquest and +control of the Ohio valley.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote338"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Halifax.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Founded in 1749, Halifax, on the coast of Nova Scotia, was, in 1752, +a town of 4,000 inhabitants. Had the settlement been made thirty +years earlier, immediately after the Peace of Utrecht instead of +after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the story of Acadia would have +been a different and probably a happier one. Mascarene at Annapolis, +and Shirley at Boston, saw the necessity of introducing English +settlers into the peninsula in order to balance the French +malcontents, and the British Government, when giving back Louisbourg +to France, recognized at length that steps must be taken to +strengthen the English hold on Nova Scotia. It was determined to +recruit the English, or at any rate the Protestant, <a name="page220"></a>element in the +population from Europe, from the North American colonies, and from +the ranks of the men who were withdrawn from Louisbourg; and Chebucto +harbour on the Atlantic coast of the Nova Scotian peninsula was +selected as the scene of a new township to be well fortified and +strongly garrisoned.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote339"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The first<br> + settlers<br> + at Halifax.<br> + <br> + <br> + Cornwallis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Here was created the city of Halifax, called after the Earl of +Halifax, at the time 'First Lord of Trade and Plantations.' In +founding it, the English had regard to the methods by which the +French had established their colonies on the St. Lawrence. Halifax +was in its origin a military colony. The first settlers consisted +largely of officers and privates of the army and navy, who, when +peace was concluded, received their discharge and who were +supplemented by a certain number of labourers and artizans. +Parliament voted £40,000 in aid of the initial expenses. Free +passages, free grants of land, and the cost of subsistence for a year +after landing were provided, privileges which secured a considerable +number of colonists; 1,400 immigrants were landed from the first +batch of transports at Chebucto harbour,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> and others followed. A +good Governor was appointed, Colonel Edward Cornwallis, uncle of Lord +Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown and ruled India.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> It is difficult to make out the numbers. The above +figure is given by Cornwallis in a letter to the Lords of Trade, July +24, 1749 (see Mr. Brymer's <i>Catalogue of Canadian Archives,</i> 'Nova +Scotia,' p. 142). On the other hand passages were taken for over +2,500 (p. 138). Haliburton says, 'in a short time 3,760 adventurers +with their families were entered for embarkation.' Parkman puts the +number at about 2,500, including women and children, Kingsford at +1,176 settlers with their families. Parliament for some years +continued to make annual grants for the colonization of Nova Scotia, +'which collected sums,' says Haliburton, 'amounted to the enormous +sum of £415,584 14<i>s.</i> 11<i>d</i>.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote340"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + Lunenburg<br> + settlement.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Old soldiers do not always make good colonists, and Cornwallis wrote +home complaining of their want of industry, contrasting the English +unfavourably with a few Swiss who were among the newcomers, and +suggesting that an effort <a name="page221"></a>should be made to introduce Protestant +emigrants from Germany. Accordingly, German Lutherans were brought +over through an agent at Rotterdam, the majority of whom were, in +1753, planted out at Lunenburg, a little to the south-west of +Halifax, on the same side of the peninsula. Thus the outer margin of +Nova Scotia was being sparsely colonized with English, Swiss, and +German Protestants, while on the side towards the mainland, along the +shores of the Bay of Fundy, the Roman Catholic Acadians remained +French in heart and sympathies.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote341"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + commissioners<br> + to fix the<br> + limits of Acadia.<br> + <br> + <br> + Designs of<br> + the French<br> + on Acadia.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For three years following the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French +and English commissioners, appointed to determine the limits of the +French and English possessions in North America, wrangled at Paris, +William Shirley being one of the English delegates; but they never +came to any conclusion. The French now refused even to concede that +the whole of the Acadian peninsula belonged to England, and wished to +confine English sovereignty to its southern coasts. They were in fact +resolved by bluff or by force either to regain Acadia, or, in default +of attaining that object, to make its condition one of permanent +insecurity and unrest. As related in the last chapter,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> immediately +after the Peace of Utrecht the intention of the French Government had +been to transplant the Acadians to French soil, to Cape Breton Island +and to Prince Edward Island, then known as Île St. Jean. For this +policy they subsequently substituted the more dangerous plan of not +removing the Acadians, but encouraging them to consider themselves +still as French subjects while remaining under the British flag. +After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, however, they reverted +to their project of transplantation, finding that the British +Government were resolved no longer to treat their subjects in Acadia +as neutrals, and realizing that the Governor had now force at his +back.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> See <a href="#page193">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote342"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Position of<br> + the Acadians.<br> + <br> + <br> + Attitude of<br> + Cornwallis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page222"></a> +<p>The Acadians claimed to be exempt from bearing arms in defence of +their country and their country's rulers, in other words against the +French and the Indian allies of the French. They were not free +agents; they were terrorized by the French Government and the French +priests, notorious among whom was a ruffian named Le Loutre, +Vicar-General of Acadia. Spiritual excommunication and Indian +hostility threatened them, if they acted with loyalty to the British +King, whose subjects they had been for nearly forty years. How +faithless and unscrupulous was the policy of the French is abundantly +shown by official dispatches, proving that the Canadian Governor, La +Jonquičre, with the sanction of the French Government at home, +accepted and endorsed Le Loutre's villainous schemes for preventing +the Acadians from taking the full oath of allegiance, and for +instigating the Indians of the peninsula to murder the English +settlers. Cornwallis treated the Acadians with kindly firmness. Some +of them asked to be allowed to leave the country, and he promised +permission to those who should obtain passports, when peace and +tranquillity were restored. For the moment he declined to allow them +to cross the frontier, as it would mean sending them among French and +Indians, who would compel them to bear arms against the English +Government.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote343"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Beaubassin<br> + occupied by<br> + English troops.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort Lawrence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The frontier, as far as any line was provisionally recognized, was a +little stream on the isthmus of Chignecto. On the mainland side the +French had occupied a hill called Beauséjour, on the Nova Scotian +side was the village of Beaubassin. In April, 1750, Cornwallis sent a +force of some 400 men under Major Lawrence to occupy a position at or +near Beaubassin, and to guard the isthmus. On his arrival, Lawrence +found Beaubassin in flames. Le Loutre and his Indians had set fire to +the place, and compelled the hapless residents to cross over to the +French lines. The English left, but returned in September in stronger +force; their landing was disputed by Le Loutre's savages, who were +driven off, <a name="page223"></a>and a fort was built and garrisoned, called after the +name of the commander, Fort Lawrence.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote344"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Murder of<br> + Captain Howe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>French and English now faced each other across a narrow stream, the +French completed their fort at Beauséjour, and the temper of Le +Loutre's Indians was shown by a horrible incident, the murder of an +English officer, Captain Howe. Howe had gone out in answer to a flag +of truce, which appeared from the French lines; but the bearer of the +white flag was an Indian disguised in French uniform, who lured the +Englishman into an ambush, where he was mortally wounded. The French +themselves attributed this act of wanton wickedness to Le Loutre.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote345"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Colonel<br> + Lawrence.<br> + <br> + <br> + Acadian<br> + emigration.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In 1752 Cornwallis returned to England, and was succeeded as Governor +of Acadia by Colonel Hopson, who had been in command at Louisbourg, +when that town was given back to France; the latter was, in the +autumn of 1753, succeeded by Colonel Lawrence. The Acadian +population, which in 1749 numbered between 12,000 and 13,000 souls, +five years later was reduced to little more than 9,000. The +emigration which caused the reduction in numbers was largely the +result of a French terror, and on the mainland, or in the Île St. +Jean, the unfortunate emigrants endured misery unknown in their old +homes in Acadia. Those who find in the subsequent rooting up of +Acadian settlement an instance of English cruelty with little +parallel in history, would do well to remember that the process had +already been going on at the hands of the French; and the lot of the +Acadians under the French flag was in no wise preferable to the +fortunes of those who were carried, as it were, into captivity in the +English colonies.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote346"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>De Vergor.<br> + <br> + <br> + Surrender of<br> + the French<br> + fort Beauséjour.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The catastrophe, of which so much has been made in prose and verse, +happened in the year 1755. It was not an isolated incident, but part +of a general plan—which for the time miscarried—of breaking the +French power in North America. The commandant of the French fort at +<a name="page224"></a>Beauséjour was De Vergor, son of Duchambon who surrendered Louisbourg +in 1745. He owed his position to Bigot, the notorious Intendant of +Canada. By his side, and with as much or more authority, was Le +Loutre, the evil genius of Acadia. The French contemplated attack on +the English: Lawrence, in communication with Shirley, determined to +forestall them. Some two thousand men came up from Massachusetts, +enlisted under John Winslow—a name which New Englanders +honoured—and, landing at the isthmus early in June, joined the +English garrison at Fort Lawrence, the whole force being under +Colonel Monckton. In a few days' time the bombardment of the French +fort began; but, before there had been any serious fighting, De +Vergor surrendered. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, +and Fort Beauséjour was renamed Fort Cumberland.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote347"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + driven from<br> + Acadia.<br> + <br> + <br> + <br> + End of<br> + Le Loutre.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This success was speedily followed by the capitulation of another +French fort at Baie Verte, at the northern end of the isthmus, and by +the evacuation of a post on the mainland, at the mouth of the river +St. John. The whole of Acadia on both sides of the isthmus thus +passed into English hands. De Vergor some time afterwards was put on +trial at Quebec for his feeble and incapable conduct, but influential +friends procured his acquittal; and he remained in Canada to earn +further obloquy, as commandant of the French outpost which was +surprised by Wolfe in his memorable climb by night up to the Plains +of Abraham.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> Le Loutre disappeared from the scene of his wickedness +in North America. He fled in disguise to Quebec, and, sailing for +France, was taken prisoner and spent eight years in captivity in the +island of Jersey. He seems to have died in his bed in France—a +better fate than he deserved.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See <a href="#page306">below</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote348"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + expulsion<br> + of the<br> + Acadians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The victory of the English arms was followed by the removal of the +bulk of the Acadian population from Acadia. This policy had been +determined upon as the only practicable <a name="page225"></a>alternative to unqualified +obedience. Such obedience, until it was too late and the die had +already been cast, the Acadians refused to give. They would not swear +heart-whole allegiance to King George; they had abetted his enemies +year after year; many of them had actually borne arms against the +English; and with Louisbourg in threatening strength in the immediate +neighbourhood, with manifold other difficulties to face—for before +the actual expulsion Braddock's defeat and death on the Monongahela +river had occurred—it was absolutely necessary for the English +authorities to make the Nova Scotian peninsula permanently safe. The +time to strike was while there was an adequate force on the spot, and +before the Massachusetts contingent returned to Boston.</p> + +<p>Sternly and relentlessly Governor Lawrence took his measures; at +Beaubassin, at Annapolis, round the shores of the Basin of Mines, +where the most pleasing features of Acadian settlement were to be +found, the majority of able-bodied men were secured; and, as the +transports came up, groups of peasants were carried off to other +lands. In the actual work of expulsion, no unnecessary harshness +appears to have been used; families were as a rule kept together, and +went out hand in hand into exile; but they were taken, an ignorant +and bewildered crowd, from the homes of their childhood, and were +transported, helpless and hopeless, to distant countries, where there +was another religion and another race. The pity of it was that, after +forty years of so-called English government, the Acadians never +believed that that Government, when it threatened or decreed, would +be as good as its word. When therefore the blow came, it stunned a +people who had been bred in the belief that much would be said and +nothing would be done.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote349"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The number<br> + transported.<br> + <br> + <br> + Their fate.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Some 6,000 in all were removed, out of a total population of a little +over 9,000. Of these, over 3,000 had had their homes round the Basin +of Mines, the majority of whom <a name="page226"></a>were dwellers in the village and +district of Grand Pré. The others came from the isthmus, or from +Annapolis. They were dispersed abroad among the English colonies in +North America, from Massachusetts southwards; but the colonies were +not all willing to receive them, and from Virginia and South Carolina +many were sent on to England. Some, it is said, found their way to +Louisiana, while of those who had escaped transportation a certain +number took refuge at Quebec. A considerable remnant was left behind +in Acadia, and some of the exiles 'wandered back to their native land +to die in its bosom';<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> but those who were left behind in Acadia, +and those who returned, were not enough to leaven to any great extent +the future history of the peninsula.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> From Longfellow's <i>Evangeline</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote350"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Different views<br> + as to the policy<br> + of expulsion.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>What judgment may fairly be passed upon this measure of expulsion? +The traditional view has been that the removal of the Acadians from +Acadia was an injustice and a crime—an arbitrary and cruel act, +parallel on a smaller scale to the earlier expulsion of the Huguenots +from France. According to this view the English were oppressors, +rooting out and carrying captive a harmless and innocent peasantry—</p> + +<blockquote><small>Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,<br> + Darkened by shadows of earth but reflecting an image of heaven.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Longfellow has given us this picture in <i>Evangeline,</i> and it has been +drawn in similar outlines by various hands. In the foreground are +bands of terror-stricken peasants, driven on board ship amid mourning +and lamentation. In the background are burning homesteads, emptiness +where there had been plenty, desolation where yesterday the children +played.</p> + +<p>A different view is given by later writers who have more closely +tested the facts. Their conclusion is that the expulsion of the +Acadians, stern and even cruel as it was, was more or less a +political necessity; that the Acadians <a name="page227"></a>themselves were sinners as +well as sinned against; and that they were sinned against more by men +of their own race and religion than by the English.</p> + +<p>This latter view is probably nearer the truth. There is always, +especially in England, a tendency to sympathize unreasonably with the +weak against the strong, and, when severe measures are taken, to +condemn those measures almost unheard. The Acadians, in their +primitive agricultural life, in their farms gathered round the +village church, were picturesque objects of sympathy; and, whenever a +fine or a punishment is inflicted on a whole district or on a whole +community, the innocent no doubt suffer with the guilty. But there +are conditions under which no lasting effect can be produced without +collective dealing, and the Acadians were not transported beyond the +sea until for many years half-measures had been tried, and tried in +vain. These farmers had been gently treated under English rule; many +of them had been born and brought up under it; a large proportion of +their number had requited the treatment by actively abetting or +tacitly conniving at the unceasing petty warfare, by which French +borderers and Indian savages year after year took English lives and +pillaged English homes. Was it unreasonable that, if they would not +be loyal subjects in Acadia, they should be moved elsewhere, and +that, instead of being sent to increase the hostile population of +Canada, they should be dispersed among the British colonies on the +North American coast?</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that the tale of their sufferings has probably +not been minimized. French writers would naturally exaggerate what +actually occurred, and American accounts, until recent years, would +not be likely to be unduly friendly to England. It must be +remembered, too, that half as many as were transported by the English +had already been induced or forced by the French to emigrate to their +possessions; and we have it on French evidence that those who, <a name="page228"></a>when +the sentence of expatriation was passed, took refuge in Canada, +suffered as much as or more than their compatriots suffered in the +English colonies.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote351"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>True causes<br> + of the<br> + catastrophe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It is difficult to blame Colonel Lawrence for the step which he took +under the conditions of the time and place. On the other hand, it is +difficult to believe that the Acadians fully deserved their doom. The +responsibility for the wholesale misery, in which a small community +was involved, must be shared between the French Government and its +agents on the one hand, notably the priests, and on the other the +British Government in earlier years. Had the French been loyal to the +terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, had they ceased to instil the spirit +of disaffection into the minds of men who were no longer their +subjects, had they discountenanced instead of encouraging acts of +barbarity, had they not made religion a cloak for maliciousness, and +used the ministers of religion as political agitators of the worst +and most unscrupulous type, Acadia and the Acadians would have +prospered under the British Government as Canada and the Canadians +prospered in after years. Again if, when Acadia was ceded by the +treaty, Great Britain had recognized her responsibilities, had given +adequate protection and enforced the law, loyalty and obedience would +have brought happiness in its train, and a generation would have +grown up not attempting the impossible task of serving two masters. +The true verdict of history on the melancholy episode is this. The +misery which befell the Acadians was the result of not using force at +the right time, and of the evil potency of priestcraft.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote352"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French forts<br> + established<br> + on the route<br> + from the<br> + great lakes<br> + to the Ohio.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Before Acadia had been depopulated, much had happened in the west. +Always unready, the English colonies let slip the opportunity of +occupying the upper valley of the Ohio, and the French seized the +opening which their rivals might have closed. Early in 1753, the +Canadian Governor, Duquesne, sent a force of considerable strength +under an <a name="page229"></a>old and tried officer, Marin, to establish communication +between the great lakes and the Ohio, and to hold the route by a +chain of forts. Launched upon Lake Erie, Marin and his men held their +way past the point where Celeron had landed; and, instead of taking +the portage to Chautauqua, disembarked further along the southern +shore of the lake at Presque Île, where the town of Erie now stands. +Here a fort was built, and a road cut southwards through the woods +for about 21 miles to the Rivičre aux Boeufs. This stream, now known +as French Creek, flows into the Alleghany river, and is navigable for +canoes when the water is high. Where the road struck the river a +second fort was built, called Fort Le Boeuf. Thus the way was cleared +from the lakes to the sources of the Ohio, and either end of the +portage was guarded by a blockhouse.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote353"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Distress of<br> + the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>So far the enterprise had succeeded, and success had produced the +usual effect upon the wavering Indian mind, inclining the tribes of +the Ohio to the side which took the initiative and gave outward and +visible signs of strength. But the French were only at the outset of +their enterprise. As the year wore on, their ranks were thinned by +disease; their commander, Marin, died; and, when winter came, but +three hundred men were left to hold the forts on Lake Erie and French +Creek. The intention had been to push down the latter river, and, +where it joined the Alleghany, to build a third fort. This fort in +turn was to be a starting-point for a further advance to the main +objective, the junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela rivers.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote354"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The routes<br> + to the Ohio.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort<br> + Cumberland.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>All through early Canadian history, we find the clue to the various +movements on either side is studying the waterways. As in the centre +of the two conflicting lines of advance, the English moved up the +Hudson and the French up the Richelieu, to find their battleground on +Lakes George and Champlain, so further to the west, in the region of +the Ohio, the Alleghany and its feeders brought the French down from +<a name="page230"></a>Canada, while the English moved north along the line of the +Monongahela and its tributary the Youghiogany. These streams take +their rise amid the parallel ranges of the Alleghanies, in that +border country of the three States of Virginia, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, which was the scene of the hardest fighting between +North and South in the American Civil War. Near where the Monongahela +starts on its northern course to the Ohio, but divided by mountains, +is the source of the northern branch of the Potomac, which runs into +the Atlantic. This latter river flows at first north-east between two +mountain ranges; and, where it turns to the east, cutting its way +through the hills, a small stream, known as Wills Creek, joins it +from the north. At this point was a station of the Ohio Company, +shortly afterwards called Fort Cumberland, after the English duke. +This was the base of the British advance; but mountains had to be +crossed to reach the Monongahela valley; it was easier to come down +from Canada to the Ohio than to march upon it from the Atlantic side.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote355"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Robert<br> + Dinwiddie.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, in the year 1753, the titular +Governor being in England, was Robert Dinwiddie, a cross-grained +Scotchman. He had none of the arts of popularity, but none the less +was a watchful guardian of his country's interests. Like William +Shirley in Massachusetts, he was a determined opponent of French +pretensions; but he was less tactful than Shirley in managing a +colonial Legislature, and less happily placed, in that the +Legislatures of the southern provinces were far behind the New +Englanders in public spirit. Hearing of the French advance from Lake +Erie, he lost no time in making a counter claim, and sent a messenger +to Fort Le Boeuf to warn off foreign trespassers from what he +conceived to be the domain of the King of England. The messenger was +George Washington, just come to man's estate.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote356"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>George<br> + Washington's<br> + first mission.<br> + <br> + <br> + Apathy of the<br> + southern<br> + colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In November, 1753, Washington left Wills Creek. In <a name="page231"></a>January, 1754, he +returned to Virginia, having in the depth of winter traversed the +frost-bound backwoods, and risked his life in crossing the Alleghany +river. His journey in either direction took him by the old Indian +town of Venango, at the confluence of the French Creek with the +Alleghany, where there had been an English trading house: this was +now occupied by a French outpost. There could be no doubt that the +Governor of Canada intended to be master of the Ohio. Still the +British colonies remained apathetic or half-hearted. Virginia voted +£10,000; North Carolina gave some money; a handful of troops in +Imperial pay was placed at Dinwiddie's disposal; but the money and +the men were utterly inadequate to the occasion, and Pennsylvania, +the state which, with Virginia, was most concerned, did nothing at +all. For Pennsylvania was the home of Quakers and Germans, the former +averse to war on principle, the latter indifferent to the conflicting +claims of alien races.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote357"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + build Fort<br> + Duquesne.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The crisis came on apace. In February, 1754, a month after +Washington's return, Dinwiddie sent a small detachment over the +mountains to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and +Alleghany. While the work was in hand, a strong Canadian force came +down in April from the north and overpowered the Virginians. A fort +was built, but it was a French fort, and became memorable in history +under the name of Fort Duquesne. Dinwiddie determined to drive the +French back, if possible, from this new position, and he set +Washington to the task—impossible to perform with the only available +troops, amounting to 300 or 400 men.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote358"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Washington<br> + marches on<br> + Fort Duquesne.<br> + <br> + <br> + Death of<br> + Jumonville.<br> + <br> + <br> + Surrender of<br> + Fort Necessity<br> + and retreat of<br> + Washington.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>From Wills Creek to Fort Duquesne was a distance of 120 to 140 miles, +with two ranges of mountains to be crossed, before half the journey +was accomplished, and the Monongahela reached. Making a road over the +first range, the main range of the Alleghanies, Washington, about the +end of May, reached open ground known as the Great Meadows, having +still in front of him the Laurel hills, through which <a name="page232"></a>the two +branches of the Monongahela find their way to the Ohio. A few miles +further on, guided by Indian scouts, he surprised an advance party +sent out from Fort Duquesne, and killed their commander, Jumonville. +Assassination was the term which the French applied to the death of +this officer, claiming that he was the peaceful bearer of a summons +to the English to retire from the land; but there is no reason to +doubt that Washington was justified in using force, and that the +Frenchman was killed in fair fight. Returning to his camp, and +entrenching it under the suitable name of Fort Necessity, the English +commander awaited a counter attack. Small reinforcements reached him, +and he pushed on over the Laurel ridge; but, hearing that the French +were advancing in force, fell back again to Fort Necessity. Stronger +in numbers, the French, from their base at Fort Duquesne, marched +forward under Jumonville's brother, Coulon de Villiers; and, after a +nine hours' fight, Fort Necessity surrendered; the English, under the +terms of the surrender, retreated across the Alleghanies, and the +French returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne. For the time, they were +beyond dispute masters of the Ohio valley, and the young Virginian, +whose name now stands first in the great history of the United States +of America, crawled back over the mountains, defeated and undone.</p> + +<p>American history is great as a whole, but the back records of its +component parts are full of what is mean and contemptible. We are +accustomed, in the chronicles of the English race, to trace the +errors of its rulers, and to find them put right by the good sense +and strong character of the people; but, if we turn to the provincial +annals of the American States, when the fate of the continent seemed +to be trembling in the balance, the rulers sent out from home must be +credited with patriotism and some measure of foresight, while the +peoples were or appeared to be selfish and blind. New England alone +stands out in a brighter light, ready to <a name="page233"></a>sacrifice money and men in +the national cause. With the enemy on their borders, the New +Englanders knew what the danger was; further south the Alleghany +mountains bounded the horizon of the colonists. State Assemblies +squabbled with their Governors, each little province was passively +indifferent to or actively jealous of its neighbour, all alike were +with good reason suspicious of the mother country; while on the other +side the fighting strength of Canada, centralized under a despotic +Government, one in aim and sympathy, was menacing and dangerous out +of all proportion to the resources of the country or the numbers of +its people.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote359"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Movement<br> + towards<br> + union of<br> + the English<br> + colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet some attempt had been made at concerted action on the part of the +English colonies. It emanated from the Government at home. In +September, 1753, the Lords of Trade wrote round to the Governors of +the various North American provinces, directing them to invite their +respective Legislatures to adopt a uniform policy towards the +Indians. In consequence, a conference was held at Albany, at which +seven of the colonies were represented—Massachusetts, New Hampshire, +Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The +Commissioners met representatives of the Five Nation Indians, whose +hereditary friendship for the English cause was fast turning into +hatred and contempt. They pacified the angry Indians to some extent, +and renewed the old covenant of friendship, then turned to +constitution-making, at the instance of Franklin, one of the +Commissioners from Pennsylvania.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote360"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Franklin's<br> + scheme.<br> + <br> + <br> + It is not<br> + accepted.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Franklin had a scheme for North American union, comprising a +President appointed by the Crown, and a general Council elected by +the taxpayers of the colonies, the number of representatives of each +colony to be determined by the amount of taxes paid. Plenary powers +were to be given to the President and Council, including even power +to make war and peace. Had the scheme been carried out, North America +would have become one great self-governing colony, <a name="page234"></a>in some respects +more independent, in others more restricted than the self-governing +colonies of Great Britain at the present day. Franklin's proposals, +though his fellow commissioners were inclined to approve them, +pleased neither the colonies nor the mother country. They were +premature. The colonies were too jealous of their local liberties to +accept the scheme. The mother country still distrusted the colonies, +and dreaded the strength which union would bring. Moreover, the +immediate necessity was united action, not constitutional change. The +French must first be driven back; and with this object Dinwiddie made +an earnest appeal to the ministry in England.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote361"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Troops sent<br> + from England<br> + and from France.<br> + <br> + <br> + The 'Alcide'<br> + and the 'Lys'<br> + intercepted<br> + by Admiral<br> + Boscawen.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The appeal was not made in vain; two regiments of infantry, the 44th +and 48th, now the Essex and Northampton regiments, were ordered to +embark for Virginia, and sailed from Cork in January, 1755, with +Major-General Braddock in command. The French Government, taking +alarm, ordered out 3,000 men under Baron Dieskau, a German serving in +the French army; and at the beginning of May, 1755, eighteen French +ships sailed from Brest carrying to Canada the troops and their +commander, and taking out at the same time a new Governor-General, +the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Most of the vessels reached their +destination in safety; but two, the <i>Alcide</i> and <i>Lys,</i> were +intercepted by the English Admiral Boscawen, off the coast of +Newfoundland, were fired into, and compelled to surrender.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> There +was still supposed to be peace between Great Britain and France, but +the backwoods of America and the waters of the Atlantic echoed to the +sounds of war.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> The <i>Alcide</i> was overpowered by the <i>Dunkirk,</i> commanded +by the afterwards famous Admiral Lord Howe.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote362"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Scheme of<br> + the English<br> + campaign<br> + against<br> + Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At four points, according to the English plan of campaign Canada was +to be threatened and the French advance was to be checked. Braddock, +with his two English regiments, was to march on Fort Duquesne. From +Albany the second and <a name="page235"></a>the third expeditions were to start. One, +marching due north, was to master Crown Point on Lake Champlain; the +other, taking the route of the Five Nation cantons, and having for +its advanced base Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to reduce the French +fort at Niagara. The fourth effort was to be made in Acadia. This +last enterprise proved successful, as has already been seen, Shirley +having previously prepared the way by building a fort on the mainland +behind the peninsula, at the portage between the Kennebec and the +Chaudičre rivers. What fate befell the other expeditions must now be +told.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote363"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>General<br> + Braddock.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>History has been unkind to General Braddock. His name is associated +for ever with a great disaster in North America, as the name of Wolfe +is linked to a crowning victory. Like Wolfe, Braddock was mortally +wounded on the field of battle; he was defeated, and obloquy was +heaped on his name. Wolfe triumphed, and all men spoke well of him. +The accounts of Braddock are largely derived from the spiteful gossip +collected by Horace Walpole, and from the writings of Franklin—never +a lover of the mother country, and, after the War of Independence, +glad, like others of his countrymen, to throw the blame of an English +defeat upon a commander sent out from England. We have a portrait +given us of a brutal, blustering, and incompetent soldier, a man of +coarse habits and broken fortunes, with little to recommend him but +personal honesty and courage. 'Braddock is a very Iroquois in +disposition,'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> writes Horace Walpole. Before the fatal battle the +same writer tells us in the same letter, 'the duke (of Cumberland) is +much dissatisfied at the slowness of General Braddock, who does not +march as if he was at all impatient to be scalped.' After the +disaster he writes, 'Braddock's defeat still remains in the situation +of the longest battle that ever was fought with nobody.'<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> The +<a name="page236"></a>Braddocks of England, with all their failings, have deserved better +of their country than the Horace Walpoles.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole</i> (Bohn's ed., 1861), vol. ii, +p. 459 (Letter of Aug. 25, 1755).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> Ibid. p. 473 (Letter of Sept. 30, 1755).</small></blockquote> + +<p>Born in 1695, the son of an officer in the Coldstream Guards, and an +officer of the Guards himself, he was sixty years old when sent out +to America by the Duke of Cumberland. He had the reputation of being +a very severe disciplinarian, and yet we have Walpole's own admission +that while serving at Gibraltar, 'he made himself adored.'<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> He was +criticized by Franklin as being too self-confident, and as having too +high an opinion of European as compared with colonial troops; but, on +the other hand, the scanty colonial levies which reached him had not +shown high fighting qualities, and his care for transport and +supplies, together with his anxiety to conciliate and use the Indians +on the line of march, were evidence of prudence and military +forethought. Burke wrote of him as 'abounding too much in his own +sense for the degree of military knowledge he possessed';<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> but +probably Wolfe's judgement upon him was sound, that 'though not a +master of the difficult art of war, he was yet a man of sense and +courage,'<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> and we may reasonably infer that the shortcomings of +the colonists were unjustly visited on his head.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> p. 461 (Letter of Aug. 28, +1755).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> <i>Annual Register,</i> 1758, p. 4.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. 324.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote364"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Braddock's<br> + march on<br> + Fort<br> + Duquesne.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Late in February, 1755, the English troops and their commander +reached Hampton in Virginia, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. In +due course they were sent up the Potomac to Alexandria, where in +April Braddock met the Governors of the various colonies, including +Shirley, and settled with them the plan of campaign. He himself +prepared to march on Fort Duquesne by the route which Washington had +taken, but found endless difficulty in obtaining horses, wagons, and +supplies. Virginia and Pennsylvania were still half-hearted, and +inclined to think that the danger <a name="page237"></a>of French invasion was a scare +created in the interests of the Ohio Company. It was not the first +time, and not the last, that a real crisis has been interpreted as +the work of a designing few. However, a base was established, as +before, at Fort Cumberland on Wills Creek, and early in June the +march began.</p> + +<p>The force consisted of about 2,000 men, 1,350 of whom belonged to the +two regiments of the line. There were some 250 Virginia rangers, and +the rest were detachments from New York, Maryland, and the Carolinas. +The troops were formed in two brigades, under Sir Peter Halkett and +Colonel Dunbar. Washington, ill with fever, was attached to +Braddock's staff, by the General's own request. Steadily and well the +advance on Fort Duquesne was made; a road was cleared through forests +and over mountains; and every precaution was taken against surprise. +But progress was inevitably slow; and, at a distance of forty miles +from Fort Cumberland, Braddock, on Washington's advice, resolved to +push forward with the larger half of his troops, leaving the +remainder with the heavy baggage to follow under charge of Colonel +Dunbar. The object was to reach Fort Duquesne before reinforcements +could arrive from Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote365"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The fight on the<br> + Monongahela.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the end of the first week in July, Braddock was eight miles +distant from the French fort, at a point where a little stream, +called Turtle Creek, flows into the Monongahela. He was on the same +side of the latter river as the fort, which stood on the right bank +of the Monongahela, in the angle which it forms with the Alleghany; +but the direct route passed through country suitable for ambuscade; +and he therefore resolved to make a short détour, crossing the +Monongahela, and recrossing it lower down the stream. On July 9, the +movement was successfully carried out; no opposition at either ford +being offered by the enemy. The troops moved on; and, early in the +afternoon, at a little distance from the river, as the line of march +crossed a shallow <a name="page238"></a>forest-clad ravine, there was a sudden check; a +French officer sprang out in front of the advancing column, and +forthwith, in a moment, at his signal, the thickets were alive with +foes.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote366"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Rout of<br> + the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The scene which followed was one not uncommon in the story of +colonial warfare. The first attack was answered by artillery fire; +the French commander, De Beaujeu, was killed, and many of the +Canadians fled. But the majority of the enemy, with whom the English +had to deal, were Indians, who dispersed on this side and on that, +hiding behind trees, and attacking either flank of the column, active +and noisy out of all proportion to their numbers. The English +vanguard fell back, the supports crowded up, the redcoated soldiers +stood in close formation, an easy mark for the invisible foe. They +fired at nothing, for nothing could be seen; all around was a hideous +din, from every side came bullets dealing death. The men were +bewildered, the ammunition began to fail, confusion turned into +panic, and, when at length the order for retreat was given, there was +a headlong flight.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote367"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Braddock<br> + mortally<br> + wounded.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The survivors rushed across the river, taking with them the General +mortally wounded; no stand was made at the first crossing or at the +second; and when, in about two days' time, the fugitives reached +Dunbar's camp, many miles distant, they found panic prevailing there +also. The retreat was continued to Fort Cumberland, stores, guns, and +wagons being abandoned; and not many days after Fort Cumberland had +been reached, Dunbar marched off with the remains of the regular +troops to Philadelphia.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote368"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Braddock.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Braddock had shown conspicuous bravery, if not conspicuous judgment, +on the battlefield. He was shot through the lungs as the retreat +began, and bade his men leave him where he fell. They carried him, +however, from the fight; and for four days he lingered, reaching +Dunbar's camp, and dying at Great Meadows on July 13. Of 1,460 +<a name="page239"></a>British and colonial officers and men who took part in the battle, +nearly 900 were killed or wounded. Those who escaped, escaped with +their lives alone. On the French side the numbers engaged appear not +to have exceeded 900, three-fourths of whom were Indians. The English +force included over 1,200 regulars; the battle therefore resulted in +a crushing defeat of troops of the line by a smaller number of +Indians, with a sprinkling of Frenchmen and Canadians, led by French +officers.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote369"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Blame for<br> + the disaster.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The disaster was attributed to the incompetence of the General, and +the bad quality of the regular troops; it was said that the few +Virginians who were present fought well, in contrast to their English +comrades; that, knowing bush fighting, and taking cover, they were +driven into the open by Braddock, only to be shot down like the rest. +These accounts must be taken with reserve; the testimony of +Washington and others was prejudiced in favour of the colonial and +against the British soldier; Braddock did not live to give his own +version of the matter; and the two regular regiments, having been +brought up to strength since their arrival in America, included many +colonists in their ranks. Yet it must be supposed that, as the column +neared its destination unopposed, there was some slackening of +precaution, for which the General must be held to blame; while Wolfe +set down the defeat to the bad conduct of the infantry, writing in +strong terms of the want of military training in the English army, as +compared with the armies of the continent.<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. 324.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote370"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Bad conduct<br> + of the<br> + colonies of<br> + Virginia and<br> + Pennsylvania.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But, even if the defeat and rout on the Monongahela was due to the +shortcomings of the English troops and their commander, we may well +ask why troops from the mother country were needed to protect the +frontiers of the two strong colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. +The whole story shows these colonies in the worst possible light. +They <a name="page240"></a>had ample warning of the importance of securing Fort Duquesne; +they allowed it to fall into the hands of the French; they threw on +the mother country the onus of recovering it: they hindered Braddock +rather than helped him; and, when he failed, they debited him and his +men with the whole blame of failure. It was not wonderful that +soldiers fresh from England should be stampeded at their first +venture in forest warfare, but it was wonderful that the men on the +spot should be so utterly indifferent to the calls, both of +patriotism and of self-interest, as to contribute to the disaster.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote371"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>They suffer<br> + in consequence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Bad as was the failure, it was a blessing in disguise. The colonies +concerned were for a time left to bear their own burdens; French and +Indians harried their frontiers; homesteads and villages were burnt; +women and children were butchered or carried into captivity. While +sleek Quakers and garrulous Assembly men prated of peace and local +liberties, the outlying settlements were given over to fire and +sword; until the southern colonists began to learn the lesson, which +New England had long since learnt, that the first duty of any +community is self-defence.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote372"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>William<br> + Johnson.<br> + <br> + <br> + His influence<br> + with the<br> + Five Nation<br> + Indians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On the Mohawk river, about thirty miles to the north-west of Albany, +there lived a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, named William Johnson. He +had come out to America in 1738, when he was twenty-three years old, +to manage estates which his uncle had bought on the confines of the +Five Nation Indians. He lived a semi-savage life, in a house +constructed as a fort and named Fort Johnson or Mount Johnson, taking +to wife first a German woman, and then an Iroquois. His position +among the Indians was not unlike that which the Baron de Castin had +held in bygone years on the Penobscot. He knew and understood the +natives and their ways, he spoke their language, and his honest +dealings contrasted favourably with the rascalities of the border +traders. He was a type of man, more common on the French side than on +the English, <a name="page241"></a>who lived within, not outside, the circle of native +life; and, having these versatile attributes, it is almost +superfluous to add that he was an Irishman. For the rest, Johnson was +a man of force and energy, whose tact and talents were by no means +confined to the backwoods. He did good service to his King and +country, and was not at all inclined to hide his light under a +bushel. His value to the English cause in North America cannot be +overestimated. His personal influence among the Mohawks +counterbalanced the influence of the Frenchman Joncaire among the +Senecas at the other end of the confederacy; and, being appointed +Superintendent of, or Commissioner for, Indian affairs, he, and he +alone, kept alive the old covenant of friendship between the English +and the Five Nation Indians.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote373"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He commands<br> + the expedition<br> + against<br> + Crown Point.<br> + <br> + <br> + Building of<br> + Fort Edward.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>When it was decided to send an expedition against Crown Point, +Shirley gave him the command, and Braddock confirmed the appointment. +He had no military experience, though he was a colonel of militia; +but the whole force under him consisted of colonists, preferring to +be led by a man who knew the country and its people than by a trained +soldier. Preparations were made for raising 6,000 to 7,000 men. +Massachusetts, as usual, contributed the largest levy; the other New +England colonies and New York sent or promised smaller forces, and +some 300 Mohawk Indians joined the expedition, finding that it was +commanded by the white man, whom of all others they trusted and +loved. The actual numbers engaged, however, did not much exceed 3,000 +fighting men. In July they met at Albany and moved up the Hudson, for +about forty-five miles, to the 'Carrying Place,' the spot where the +portage begins to the waters which run to the St. Lawrence. Here, on +the eastern side of the Hudson, a beginning was made of a fort, +called for the time Fort Lyman, after Phineas Lyman, second in +command of the expedition, but a little later rechristened Fort +Edward.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote374"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Course of<br> + the Hudson.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Hudson river rises in the Adirondack mountains, to <a name="page242"></a>the west of +Lake George, and flows in a south-easterly direction, until it +reaches a point south-west by south of the southern end of the lake. +Here for some miles it takes a due easterly course, at right angles +to the line of the lake, until, at Sandy Hill, near where Fort Edward +was founded, it turns due south, and flows due south into the +Atlantic. It appears to prolong to southward the line of Lake George +and Lake Champlain; but the watersheds are distinct, the two lakes in +question drain to the north, and eventually discharge through the +Richelieu river into the St. Lawrence.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote375"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Lakes George<br> + and Champlain.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>They form a long narrow basin running north and south between the +Adirondacks on the west and the Green mountains of Vermont on the +east. No stream of any size feeds Lake George; it stretches for +between thirty and forty miles from south-west to north-east, +overshadowed by the Adirondacks; and, narrowing at the northern end, +finds an outlet into Lake Champlain by a semicircular channel, which +enters the larger lake from west to east. This channel is broken by +rapids, and in the angle which it forms with Lake Champlain stands +Ticonderoga.</p> + +<p>Lake Champlain is here a broad river rather than a lake, having +narrowed into the similitude of a river from where, fifteen miles +further north, the isthmus of Crown Point juts out on the western +side of the lake. But it does not end at Ticonderoga, where it meets +the waters of Lake George. It continues southwards in a direct line, +very roughly parallel to Lake George, still narrowing in its upward +course, through the marshes known as the Drowned Lands, past a little +subsidiary lake on the western side known as South Bay, over against +which now stands the small town of Whitehall, and ending in a stream +known as Wood Creek. The sources of Wood Creek are but a few miles +distant from the point, already noted, where the Hudson turns south +to form the central valley of New York State, and where Johnson, in +the summer of 1755, was busy constructing Fort Lyman.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote376"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Johnson encamps<br> + at the end of<br> + Lake George.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page243"></a> +<p>Johnson's objective was Crown Point; and to reach it he had a choice +of two parallel routes, either of which involved a portage from the +Hudson watershed to that of Lake Champlain. He could take either the +western line by Lake George, or the eastern line by Wood Creek. He +chose the former, and making a road for fourteen miles from Fort +Lyman to the head—the southern end—of Lake George, encamped there +at the end of August with over 2,000 men, leaving 500 men behind to +garrison Fort Lyman.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote377"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Dieskau at<br> + Crown Point.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The French in the meantime had not been idle. When Dieskau arrived in +Canada with his troops, it was intended that he should operate on +Lake Ontario, and reduce the English outpost at Oswego; but, as soon +as news came of Johnson's expedition, the plan was changed, and he +hurried up the Richelieu with reinforcements to protect Crown Point. +By the time that Johnson reached Lake George, there were assembled at +Crown Point over 3,500 men—French soldiers, Canadians, and Indians.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote378"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>He advances to<br> + Ticonderoga<br> + and up the<br> + southern arm of<br> + Lake Champlain,</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The two alternative routes from Fort Lyman to Crown Point converged +at Ticonderoga, or, as the French called it, Carillon. Dieskau +therefore moved forward to that place, to block the English advance. +He had not yet learnt that Johnson was encamped at Lake George, but +was under the impression that the advanced guard of the English, +instead of the rearguard, was at Fort Lyman. Accordingly, he laid his +plans to push rapidly up the southern arm of Lake Champlain, and to +take Fort Lyman before reinforcements could arrive; or, if Johnson +had already marched to Lake George, to cut the line of his +communications. French and English were in fact advancing, or +preparing to advance, south and north respectively, on parallel +lines.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote379"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and cuts Johnson's<br> + communications.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A flying column of 1,500 men set out from Ticonderoga; the water +carried them as far as South Bay, where they left their boats, and +marching thence through the forest between Lake George and Wood +Creek, they struck the road which <a name="page244"></a>Johnson had made from Fort Lyman to +the lake, at a point three miles from the fort, eleven from the lake. +They had thus intercepted Johnson's communications and cut him off +from his base of supplies. From prisoners Dieskau learnt the +disposition of Johnson's forces, and he took counsel whether to +attack the fort or the encampment by the lake. Capture of the fort +had been the original object of the march; but in deference to the +Indians, who little loved assault on fortified positions, it was +decided to take the second alternative and advance on the lake.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote380"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Johnson's<br> + counter plan.<br> + <br> + <br> + The English<br> + fall into<br> + an ambush.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Meanwhile, warned of what had happened, Johnson prepared a +counter-stroke. What Dieskau had done, he could do also; if the +Frenchman had cut his communications, he in his turn could intercept +Dieskau's line of retreat; and, with this object, on the morning of +the eighth of September, a force of 1,000 men was sent out from the +camp to strike the French in the rear. The whole formed a pretty +picture of backwood manoeuvres; but, like the Boers in South Africa, +the Canadians proved themselves more mobile than the English, and +more skilful in ambuscade. At three miles distance from the camp, +after an hour's march, the English fell into a carefully-laid trap. +On the road in front were the French regulars; in the forest on +either flank Canadians and Indians lay in wait for their prey. +Advancing without due precaution, though they had a band of Mohawks +with them, the English were completely surprised; the head of the +column was driven in on the rear, the whole force became (in +Dieskau's words) like a pack of cards, and fell back with heavy loss +in rout to the camp, the retreat being partially covered by a +detachment sent out by Johnson on hearing of the engagement.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote381"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + attack the camp<br> + and are defeated.<br> + <br> + <br> + Dieskau taken<br> + prisoner.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the camp hasty preparations were made for defence, behind wagons +and fallen trees, and in a short time the enemy appeared. The French +regulars attacked boldly and well, but the Canadians and Indians were +out of hand, the <a name="page245"></a>commander of the Canadians, Legardeur de Saint +Pierre, having already been killed. For three or four hours there was +furious firing; but the English had artillery, the French had not, +and this advantage, coupled with the lines of defence, decided the +issue. Dieskau was disabled by a wound; the attack slackened; at +length the defenders left their entrenchments and charged their foes, +and late in the afternoon the whole French force was routed and fled, +leaving their wounded General in the hands of the enemy. Some of the +Canadians and Indians had already fallen back to the scene of the +morning's fight, intent on scalps and plunder. Here a scouting party +from Fort Lyman fell upon them, and, after a hard struggle, drove +them into further retreat.</p> + +<p>Both sides lost heavily, but the balance of the day's fighting was +unquestionably in favour of the English. On the French side the +regulars showed to more advantage than their colonial and Indian +allies, and Dieskau deserved a better fate than wounds and captivity. +While lying wounded, we read, he was again shot by a French deserter, +and, when he was brought into the English camp, the Mohawks, whose +chief had been killed, threatened his life. Johnson, however, who had +himself been wounded, took every care of his prisoner; in due course +he was sent over to England; and eventually, disabled for further +service, he returned to France, where he died in 1767.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote382"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Results of<br> + the fight.<br> + <br> + <br> + Fort<br> + William<br> + Henry.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The most was made of this repulse of the French. It came as a set-off +to the defeat of Braddock. Johnson was made a baronet and received +£5,000. The Lac du Sacrement he had already renamed Lake +George, the encampment at the head of the lake blossomed out into +Fort William Henry, and another of the King's sons provided the name +of Fort Edward for the fort at the Carrying Place. Yet the object of +the expedition was not achieved; no attempt was made at a further +advance; the French were unmolested in their retreat, and retained +their hold on Crown Point and <a name="page246"></a>Ticonderoga also. Johnson remained +encamped by the lake, with a force raised to a total of 3,600 men, +until November was drawing to a close, when, a garrison being left to +hold Fort William Henry through the winter, the rest of the army +disbanded to their homes.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote383"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Shirley's<br> + advance to<br> + Lake Ontario.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>While Johnson was moving north from Albany to attack Crown Point, +William Shirley went west, with the intention of reducing the French +fort at Niagara and cutting off Canada from the upper lakes. He +started from Albany in July with some 1,500 men, mainly colonial +troops in Imperial pay, and took his way along the line of the Five +Nation cantons. He moved up the Mohawk river, past Schenectady and +past Johnson's home, made the portage from the Mohawk to the stream +called, like the feeder of Lake Champlain, Wood or Wood's Creek, +which runs into Lake Oneida, and by the outlet of that lake, now the +Oswego river, to Lake Ontario.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote384"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Oswego and<br> + Niagara.<br> + <br> + <br> + The<br> + expedition<br> + abandoned.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Where the river joined Lake Ontario stood the small English fort of +Oswego, founded in 1727, and regarded with the utmost jealousy by the +French.<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> The French fort at +Niagara was 130 to 140 miles to the +west of Oswego, while due north of the latter place, at a distance of +over fifty miles across Lake Ontario, was Fort Frontenac. The +garrisons of both the French forts had been reinforced on hearing of +Shirley's advance, and an attack on Fort Niagara involved the danger +of a counter attack on Oswego from Fort Frontenac. On the other hand, +Fort Frontenac was fully strong enough to repel any direct attempt to +take it. The English, moreover, experienced great difficulty in +collecting provisions or an adequate fleet of boats, and after some +weeks' delay it was resolved to abandon the expedition. Before +October ended, Shirley returned to Albany by the way he went, leaving +700 men to garrison Oswego and strengthen its defences, +communications with Albany being maintained by two blockhouses which +had been built at either end of the <a name="page247"></a>four miles' portage between the +Mohawk river and Wood Creek—Fort Williams on the Mohawk river, where +the town of Rome now stands, and Fort Bull on Wood Creek.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> See <a href="#page196">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote385"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Results of<br> + the year's<br> + campaign</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Thus the campaigning of the busy year 1755 came to an end. The main +forces on either side disbanded, or went into garrison for the +winter; Washington and a few hundred Virginians tried to safeguard +the harried frontiers of the southern colonies; Robert Rogers, +boldest of New England rangers, went scouting up the line of Lake +George. The forts stood isolated in the wintry backwoods, waiting for +the stirring times which were coming on forthwith.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote386"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>in favour<br> + of the<br> + French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Neither French nor English had much cause to boast of the results of +the year's fighting. On either side a General had been sent out from +Europe; the English General had been killed, the French General had +been wounded and taken prisoner. But, on the whole, the French had +undoubtedly gained and the English had lost. The English had taken +the offensive, they had planned attack all along the line, and in the +main their schemes had conspicuously failed. Only in the extreme east +had they achieved substantial success. Acadia had been permanently +secured, if there could be security as long as the fortress of +Louisbourg remained in French hands. In the extreme west they had +been badly beaten, and the French had acquired full control of the +Ohio valley. On Lake Ontario they had done nothing at all. On the +main central line of advance they had set out to take Crown Point, +and had to be content with repelling a counter attack by the French. +The more New England had been concerned in the war, the better the +English had fared; the further west or south they operated, the +greater was their want of success.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote387"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Effect of<br> + geography<br> + on the<br> + English side<br> + of the war.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The most striking feature to notice in the events of the year is the +effect of distance, when not counteracted by steam and telegraphy. It +will be noted how far removed in every sense was America from Europe +in the middle of the <a name="page248"></a>eighteenth century, and how far removed in every +sense were the American colonies from one another. Here was fighting +going on at all points on the border line of French and English +America, and yet France and England were nominally at peace. New +England was raising her levies with patriotism and spirit, meeting a +common foe with common feeling, and, it may be added, with common +sense. New York and Virginia could, on the other hand, scarcely be +prevailed upon to move; while Pennsylvania was as indifferent as +though the fighting had been on another continent. We may and must +put down much to political causes, to social and religious +prejudices; and Canada proved that, even in the eighteenth century, +long distances did not necessarily preclude concerted action; but, +where settlement had begun and continued for generations at widely +different points on the American continent, and on absolutely +separate and independent lines, war and peace were alike localized, +and there was little or no cohesion between the colonies and the +mother country, or between one colony and another. The history of the +English North American colonies had been the history not of one but +of many communities. No uniform system held them together, no +sentiment of the distant past was strong enough to counteract +geography. Only, as colonization spread in the long course of years, +the dwellers in one province came into contact with the dwellers in +another, and both the one and the other came face to face with the +French advance. Then the pressure of common danger made for union, +and the race instinct gathered strength. The mother country sent out +soldiers; colonists were enlisted in royal regiments to supplement +the provincial militias; and in clumsy, most imperfect fashion, the +English in North America began to shape themselves into a nation.</p> + +<p>One keen English observer, at any rate—General Wolfe—saw at once the +present defects of the English colonies in North America, and the +great future which lay before them. <a name="page249"></a>'These colonies,' he wrote in +1758, 'are deeply tinged with the vices and bad qualities of the +mother country.' But he added, 'This will, some time hence, be a vast +empire, the seat of power and learning. Nature has refused them +nothing, and there will grow a people out of our little spot, +England, that will fill this vast space, and divide this great +portion of the globe with the Spaniards, who are possessed of the +other half.'<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> Wolfe to his mother, Louisbourg, Aug. 11, 1758 +(Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. 454).</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the above see<br> +<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. iii, and<br> + P<small>ARKMAN'S</small> <i>Montcalm and Wolfe</i>.</small></p> + +<p><small>The period dealt with in this and the two succeeding chapters is +covered by<br> +<br> + A. G. B<small>RADLEY'S</small> recent work, <i>The Fight with France for North + America</i> (1900).</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap9"></a><a name="page250"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> +<center>T<small>HE</small> C<small>ONQUEST OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small></center> +<br> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote388"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Seven<br> + Years' War.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In May, 1756, Great Britain declared war against France. In June, +France declared war against Great Britain. The war between these two +nations formed part of the Seven Years' War, one of the most widely +extended and, in its results, one of the most decisive in history. In +the first number of the <i>Annual Register,</i> for the year 1758,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> +Edmund Burke wrote: 'The war, into which all parties and interests +seem now to be so perfectly blended, arose from causes which +originally had not the least connexion, the uncertain limits of the +English and French territories in America, and the mutual claims of +the houses of Austria and Brandenburg on the Duchy of Silesia.' After +three years of the war, in September, 1759, Horace Walpole wrote in +his laughing style, 'I believe the world will come to be fought for +somewhere between the north of Germany and the back of Canada.'<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> p. 2.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, p. 249 (Letter of +Sept. 13, 1759).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote389"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Numerical<br> + superiority<br> + of the English<br> + in America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On the continent of Europe, Great Britain had Frederick of Prussia +for an ally; on the other side were France, Austria, Russia, and +Sweden. Beyond the Atlantic, a French population in Canada, Acadia, +and Louisiana of less than 90,000 souls was ranged against British +colonies with a population at least thirteen times as numerous. One +or other of the larger British colonies, taken alone, was better +peopled with white colonists than Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote390"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Official<br> + corruption<br> + in Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + Bigot and<br> + his gang.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page251"></a> +<p>Nor was want of numbers the only disadvantage under which Canada +laboured. The currency, principally paper money, was depreciated. +Provisions were scarce, seeing that the farmers were constantly +called away to fight, and that supplies from beyond the sea were +liable to be intercepted. The government was corrupt, and the high +officials cheated the King on the one hand and the <i>habitans</i> on the +other with the greatest impartiality. Canadian history, all through +its course, as long as Canada was a province of France, was tainted +by official corruption. The officials were traders also, and the +public service was largely in the hands of commercial rings. What +happened in the mother country happened also in her greatest colony. +One official's wife became another official's mistress, and the +husband who gave up the wife was rewarded with pickings at the +expense of the public and of the Crown. The evil was at its worst in +the last days of New France. The Intendant was then Bigot, a clever +Frenchman who had come out in 1748, and round him gathered a gang of +unscrupulous adventurers, whose misdeeds were fully brought to light +after the crisis was over and the colony was lost. Among them were +Cadet, butcher and contractor, who was made Commissary-General; Péan, +Varin, and others, who, one at Quebec and another at Montreal, formed +stores and created monopolies, buying and selling at artificial +prices, sucking the life-blood of an extravagant Government in France +and of a poor community in America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote391"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Vaudreuil.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In past years, supreme authority in Canada had been shared between +the Governor and the Intendant, and quarrels in abundance had arisen +between the holders of the two offices; but, at the time when the +Seven Years' War began, the Governor and the Intendant were at one. +The Intendant Bigot, and the Governor De Vaudreuil, were on excellent +terms. Vaudreuil, son of a previous Governor-General of Canada, +received his appointment in 1755, having <a name="page252"></a>already been Governor of +Louisiana. He was a vain man, of some but not great capacity, called +to high office in a difficult time, and not equal to the task which +was imposed upon him. Surrounded by cleverer and more unscrupulous +men of Bigot's type, he did nothing to check the evils which were +ruining Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote392"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Division<br> + between<br> + Canadians<br> + and Frenchmen.<br> + <br> + <br> + Different<br> + classes of<br> + troops engaged<br> + in the war.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The principal point to note about him is that he was a Canadian by +birth. This fact was the source of mischief. In lieu of the old feud +between the Governor and the Intendant, there came into being a new +line of cleavage, which tended to divide the mother country from the +colony. The Governor had always been supreme in military matters; +but, when war in North America grew to be more than a series of +border forays, it became necessary to send out skilled generals from +France. Dieskau was sent, and after him came a greater man, Montcalm. +Friction then arose between the Governor and the General, accentuated +in consequence of the Governor being a Canadian. All the Governors of +Canada, including Vaudreuil, had seen service, or had at any rate +been trained to war, but they were usually either sailors or +connected with the forces which were attached to the navy and under +the Minister of Marine. On both the English and the French side in +North America there were, at the time of the Seven Years' War, three +classes of troops engaged. On the English side there were the regular +regiments sent out from home, and brought up to strength by +recruiting in the colonies. There were also regiments entirely raised +in the colonies, but still royal regiments in the pay of the Crown, +such for instance as the four battalions of Royal Americans, first +raised by Loudoun's orders, and famous in after times as the 60th or +the King's Royal Rifle Corps.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> Lastly, there were the purely +colonial levies. On <a name="page253"></a>the French side there were in the first place +regiments of the line from France. In the second place there were the +<i>troupes de la Marine,</i> regiments or companies mainly raised in +France, but permanently stationed in Canada, to form a standing +garrison and to develop into military colonists. In the third place +there was the Canadian militia, including all the adult males between +the years of fifteen and sixty. Only the first of these three classes +of troops was under the direct command of the General from France. +After Montcalm's arrival they numbered rather over 4,000 men, about +one-fourth of whom were in garrison at Louisbourg. The <i>troupes de la +Marine</i> amounted at most to about 2,500 men. The Canadian militia on +paper numbered 15,000, but very few of them were to be found in the +field at any given time or place. The General corresponded with the +Minister for War; when in action he took command of all the forces +present, but the nominal Commander-in-Chief was the Governor, who was +by way of directing the campaign, and who reported to the Minister of +Marine. Thus, both at home and in Canada, there was divided +responsibility at a time when all depended on the most complete +co-operation and single control.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> They were originally the 62nd or Royal American Regiment +of foot. The men were chiefly German and Swiss Protestants, and about +one-third of the officers were of the same nationalities. On the +disbanding of Shirley's and Pepperell's Regiments, which were +numbered 50th and 51st, the Royal Americans became the 60th Regiment. +Their motto, 'Celer et audax,' is said, without much authority, to +have been first given them by Wolfe.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote393"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The strength<br> + of Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The strength of Canada, on the other hand, consisted in the divisions +of her adversaries, the separate grumbling English colonies; in the +incompetence of the English Government at home; in the fact that the +routes for attack from Canada favoured quick movement from the base; +and most of all in the support which the Frenchmen received from the +red men, notably from the mission Indians. The Indians went hand in +hand with the Canadians; the one and the other loved irregular +warfare; the one and the other answered <a name="page254"></a>to the call of the Governor +of Canada, rather than of the General who looked on war as he had +known it in Europe—more scientific, more continuous, better +controlled, and more humane than the savage outbursts of killing and +plundering which were the product of American backwoods.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote394"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canadian raid<br> + on the route<br> + between Albany<br> + and Oswego.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As winter turned into spring, in 1756, before war had been proclaimed +in Europe, and before Montcalm had come out, the Canadians made a +move. The most distant and isolated English outpost was Oswego on +Lake Ontario. Its communication with Albany depended on the two +little forts which, as told in the last chapter,<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> had been +constructed to guard the four miles' portage between the Mohawk river +and Wood Creek, the stream which feeds Lake Oneida. Towards the end +of March, a party of Canadians and Indians, sent by Vaudreuil and +commanded by an officer named De Léry, surprised the fort on the +latter river, Fort Bull, killed or captured the small garrison, and +destroyed the building with all its contents. The damage was repaired +by Shirley, in whose eyes Oswego was of supreme importance, and who, +in the winter of 1755, had formulated new schemes for a comprehensive +campaign against Canada, including as before the reduction of the +French forts on Lake Ontario.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See <a href="#page246">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote395"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Weakness<br> + of Oswego.<br> + <br> + <br> + Colonel<br> + Bradstreet.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>If this last object was to be achieved, it was absolutely necessary +that Oswego should be made so strong in men and munitions, as not +merely to hold its own, but to dominate the rival forts at Frontenac, +Toronto, and Niagara. These conditions were very far from being +fulfilled, and Shirley can hardly be acquitted of blame in the +matter. The garrison of Oswego was weakened by winter sickness, the +fortifications were hopelessly incomplete, the supplies were scanty +and uncertain. The French raid in March was followed by a +strengthening of the French positions on Lake Ontario, and Coulon de +Villiers, a well-known Canadian leader, took up new ground at Sandy +Creek to eastward of, and at no <a name="page255"></a>great distance from, the English +fort. From Albany, early in the summer, Shirley sent up supplies to +Oswego in charge of a strong body of colonists under Colonel John +Bradstreet, a New Englander who did other good service later in the +war. Bradstreet reached his destination in safety, but on his return +up the Oswego river, at the beginning of July, was attacked by +Villiers, whom he beat off after heavy fighting and considerable loss +on either side.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote396"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French designs<br> + on Oswego.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Vaudreuil was as determined to drive the English from Lake Ontario, +as Shirley was to secure for his countrymen control over the +navigation of the lake; and at the time that Bradstreet's fight took +place, Montcalm had already been some weeks in Canada. The French +knew from the reports of their scouts the weakness of Oswego, they +knew too that the English were concentrating in another direction for +an attack on Ticonderoga: an advance in force on Oswego was likely to +succeed: if not successful, it would at least draw off some of the +English troops from the main campaign. Accordingly, an expedition was +taken in hand, commanded by Montcalm in person.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote397"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montcalm<br> + marches<br> + against it.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In July, Montcalm was at Ticonderoga. Returning rapidly to Montreal, +he pushed up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac; and early in August, +moving his troops by night, crossed Lake Ontario, at the outlet of +the St. Lawrence, passing to Wolfe Island, and thence to Sackett's +Harbour in the south-eastern corner of the lake. Here a force of +Canadians, including the remains of Villiers' troops, was awaiting +him; and he advanced with about 3,000 men, including three regiments +of the line, and an adequate supply of artillery, some of the guns +having been taken from General Braddock's force. Undiscovered by the +English, the expedition moved westward, the main body coasting the +shore, the Canadians marching on land, until at night time, on August +10, they took up a position at little more than a mile's distance +from Oswego.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote398"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Position<br> + of Oswego.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page256"></a> +<p>There were at this time, in consequence of Shirley's efforts, three +forts at Oswego or Chouaguen, as the French called it. The old fort +and trading house stood on the western bank of the Onondaga or Oswego +river, where it enters the lake. On the same side of the river, about +600 yards to the westward, was a 'small unfinished redoubt, badly +enough entrenched with earth on two sides.'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> It was called a fort, +and pompously named Fort George, but, as a matter of fact, it was +used as, and was little better than, a cattle-pen. On the eastern +side of the river, over against the old fort, at a distance of 470 +yards, was a newly-built, square-shaped blockhouse, known as Fort +Ontario. It was built wholly of timber; and, while strong enough to +resist such firearms as Indians could bring, it was of no avail +against artillery.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> See 'Papers relating to Oswego,' in O'Callaghan's +<i>Documentary History of New York,</i> vol. i, pp. 488-503.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote399"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + attack.<br> + <br> + <br> + Oswego<br> + surrenders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The French prepared to bombard this eastern fort, but, before their +trenches were complete, it was evacuated, and the garrison was +withdrawn across the river. The abandonment was inevitable, but it +sealed the fate of the main fort, which, for protection on the lake +and river side, depended on Fort Ontario. One day's fighting saw the +conclusion of the matter. The French brought their guns into position +by the side of the abandoned fort; and, firing across the river, +riddled Fort Oswego. At the same time, Canadians and Indians forded +the river higher up, and attacked on the southern side. The English +commander, Colonel Mercer, was killed: the troops, consisting mainly +of convalescents and recruits, were not in condition for a stubborn +defence; women and children found no shelter from the enemy's fire; +the position was hopeless, and the garrison surrendered. The +prisoners, who were carried off, numbered about 1,600; guns, boats, +and supplies fell into the hands of the French, the forts were burnt +to the ground, and every vestige of British occupation was for the +time obliterated.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote400"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Effect of<br> + the fall of<br> + Oswego.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page257"></a> +<p>The news of the fall of Oswego, after so many years of British +occupation, caused consternation in England. Colonel Daniel Webb, who +at the time was bringing up reinforcements along the line of the +Mohawk and Wood Creek rivers, beat a hurried and discreditable +retreat, burning the forts at the Carrying Place<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> and blocking the +waterway with fallen timber. In England the blow followed on that of +the capture of Minorca, for which Byng was made a scapegoat. 'Minorca +is gone, Oswego gone, the nation is in a ferment,' wrote Horace +Walpole; and again, 'Oswego, of ten times more importance even than +Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot learn the particulars.'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> +It was in truth a great success for France, the result of a plan +boldly conceived and brilliantly executed. The garrison had been +taken completely by surprise; in four days from the date when +Montcalm landed within reach of the forts, he had achieved his +object, and left the English no foothold on Lake Ontario. The defeat +of Braddock had given to France command of the Ohio; the fall of +Oswego gave her undisputed mastery of the lakes. All the west, and +all the ways to the west, were now in her hands, and her forces could +be concentrated on the central line of advance to the south up Lake +Champlain. There already some way had been made, for, in addition to +holding Crown Point, the French were now firmly planted at +Ticonderoga.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Fort Williams was rebuilt in 1758, and named Fort +Stanwix. See <a href="#page282">below</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, pp. 41, 42 +(Letter of Nov. 4, 1756).</small></blockquote> + +<p>Great as were the immediate material results of Montcalm's success, +the indirect moral advantage which the French derived from it was +greater still. Oswego, Burke reminds us in the <i>Annual Register</i> for +1758,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> was 'designed to cover the country of the Five Nations, to +secure the Indian trade, to interrupt the communication between the +<a name="page258"></a>French northern and southern establishments, and to open a way to our +arms to attack the forts of Frontenac and Niagara.' A few pages +later, he describes the effect of the disaster in the following +words: 'Since Oswego had been taken, the French remained entirely +masters of all the lakes, and we could do nothing to obstruct their +collecting the Indians from all parts, and obliging them to act in +their favour. But our apprehensions (or what shall they be called?) +did more in favour of the French than their conquests. Not satisfied +with the loss of that important fortress, we ourselves abandoned to +the mercy of the enemy all the country of the Five Nations, the only +body of Indians who preserved even the appearance of friendship to +us. The forts we had at the Great Carrying Place were demolished, +Wood Creek was industriously stopped up and filled with logs, by +which it became evident to all those who knew that country that our +communication with our allied Indians was totally cut off, and, what +was worse, our whole frontier left perfectly uncovered to the +irruption of the enemy's savages.'</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> pp. 13, 29.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote401"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Iroquois<br> + discouraged.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The effect of what had happened on the minds of the Five Nation +Indians was disastrous. Oswego had covered their cantons, it had been +the entrepôt of trade between them and the west. They saw it swept +away with little or no resistance. They saw Webb hurry back towards +Albany, only anxious, as it seemed, to quit the country unmolested. +Hesitating constantly between the French and English alliance, they +had now every reason to prefer the former; and, had it not been for +Johnson's influence with the Mohawks, the Iroquois would, for the +time at any rate, have abandoned the English cause in disgust and +contempt.<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> Sir William Johnson, writing to the Lords of Trade on +Sept. 10, 1756, says: 'Oswego in our hands, fortified and secured by +us, and our having a navigation on Lake Ontario, was not only a curb +to the power of the French that way, but esteemed by the Six Nations, +whenever they joined our arms, as a secure cover to them and their +habitations against the resentment of the French.' Later in the same +letter he speaks of the fort as 'the barrier of the Six Nations,' and +says that, in consequence of its capture, 'the spirit they had +recently shown in our favour was sunk and overawed by the success of +the French' (O'Callaghan's <i>Documentary History of New York,</i> vol. +ii, pp. 733, 734).</small></blockquote> +<a name="page259"></a> +<p>Moreover, the achievement differed in kind from the ordinary Canadian +raid. Troops had been moved, artillery brought up, transport +organized in rapid, skilful fashion, which betokened leadership of no +ordinary kind; the new General from France had at once made himself +felt, and friend and foe alike recognized that Canada was being +defended and the English colonies attacked by a soldier of high order +in the Marquis de Montcalm.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote402"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montcalm.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Few characters in colonial history are so interesting and attractive +as that of Montcalm. Interest attaches to him not only on account of +his own personality, but also because he illustrates the better side +of the soldier-aristocrats of France. Born in 1712, near Nîmes in the +south of France, he came out in middle life to North America, having +seen hard fighting in various parts of the continent, and owing the +Canadian command to his own merits, not to Court influence. He was +the head of his family, owner of the ancestral estate, straitened in +means, and with ten children to provide for; loving his home, loving +his mother, his wife and children, following arms as his profession +for honour and for a livelihood. He was well educated, and in every +sense a gentleman of France, with a quick, impetuous Southern spirit, +but the heart of an affectionate and chivalrous man. His coming +lifted the war on the Canadian side to a higher plane; he used the +savage tools which he found to hand, but he did not love them,<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> +nor did he love the corruption and chicanery which made the +Government of New France a squalid <a name="page260"></a>reproduction of the Government at +home. A great man—Champlain—brought New France to birth; her end +was ennobled by the death of Montcalm. Of his military talent it +would be difficult even for an expert to judge, for it must always be +a matter of doubt how far Montcalm, like Wolfe, may have been 'felix +opportunitate mortis.' Neither the one nor the other was tried in the +command of big battalions on European battlefields; but in quick +aggressive movement, such as resulted in the capture of Oswego, as +well as in the patient defensive tactics which he displayed at +Quebec, Montcalm proved himself to be a skilful commander.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> This is contrary to what Wolfe wrote, when before +Louisbourg, to Amherst. 'Montcalm has changed the very nature of war, +and has forced us, in some measure, to a deterring and dreadful +vengeance' (Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> pp. 440, 441). But none the +less it was the case that, with Montcalm's arrival, war on the French +side became what it never had been before, something more than a +series of semi-savage raids.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote403"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Levis, Bourlamaque,<br> + and Bougainville.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He was ably supported by his second in command, De Levis, who lived +to be a duke and a marshal of France, and a third good officer, +Bourlamaque, came out at the same time. Montcalm's own aide de camp +was De Bougainville, more famed in after years on sea than land. His +name stands first in the list of French navigators; he was the rival +and contemporary of Captain Cook. Good leaders France sent out to +America in the spring of 1756, but she sent few troops with them. The +campaign on the continent absorbed her strength, and New France was +lost in consequence.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote404"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + leaders. Webb,<br> + Abercromby,<br> + and Loudoun.<br> + <br> + <br> + Recall of<br> + Shirley.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Montcalm and his officers arrived in May; in June and July three +English commanders appeared on the scene—Colonel Daniel Webb, +General Abercromby, and Lord Loudoun. Of these three, Webb in a +subordinate command and Loudoun as Commander-in-Chief were failures. +Abercromby, possibly the best of the three, was not a success; he was +in Wolfe's opinion 'a heavy man.'<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> The trio were a type of the +soldiers that the English Government chose, while England, to quote +the Prussian King Frederick's words, was in labour, and before she +brought forth a man. While sending out inadequate officers from home, +the Government recalled William Shirley, who, whatever his faults may +have been, embodied more than any one man in America <a name="page261"></a>enterprising and +heart-whole resistance to the national foe. He left on the arrival of +Loudoun, having to the last used all his influence to prepare +manfully for the coming campaign. Thus the summer of 1756 found the +two sides ill matched in point of commanders; if the chances of war +were at all even, the forces led by Montcalm could not fail to outwit +and surprise the troops which were guided by the slow-moving Scotch +laird, the Earl of Loudoun.<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. 451.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, had served in the +Highland campaign of 1745. In America he appears to have shown +himself wanting in quickness, in tact, and in strategical ability. +Franklin accused him of indecision. The colonial saying about him was +that he was like the sign of St. George over an inn, always on +horseback but never moving on. There is a pleasant notice of him in +Boswell's <i>Life of Johnson,</i> when Boswell and Johnson dined at his +house on the tour to the Hebrides.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote405"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Robert<br> + Rogers.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet the English had some useful men among them, though not in the +first rank. William Johnson has already been noticed. John Winslow, +who had adequately commanded the New England contingent in Acadia, +was now in charge of the provincial troops at Fort William Henry, +near Johnson's old camping-ground at the southern end of Lake George. +In the same force was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, whose name is +still borne by a cliff on Lake George, known as 'Rogers' Rock.' +Rogers raised and commanded companies of New England scouts, known as +the Rangers, which were multiplied as the war went on, and as the +value of the men and their leader became more apparent. His journal +is a model of clear, concise military writing, recounting in +straightforward fashion feats of extraordinary daring and hardihood. +As Johnson in his mastery over the Indians rivalled and perhaps +excelled the French, so no Canadian partizan understood border +warfare better than Robert Rogers. We read that on one occasion, when +he had been reported as killed and the report proved false, the +Indians in the French interest, who had been committing atrocities, +repented from fear when they learnt that Rogers was still alive, and +blamed <a name="page262"></a>the French for encouraging them, as they said, to do the +actions for which vengeance awaited them. It was something to have on +the English side men who, in the Canadian style of fighting, were as +good as or better than the Canadians themselves; and, in the absence +of competent generals, fighting backwoodsmen, like Robert Rogers, at +least served to remind Canada that the English colonies had a nasty +sting.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote406"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>End of the<br> + campaign<br> + of 1756.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The programme for 1756—Shirley's programme—had included an advance +to and from Oswego, and an advance from Fort William Henry against +Ticonderoga. When Loudoun arrived, he countermanded the first +movement, though he subsequently sent Webb too late up the Mohawk +river in order to reinforce Oswego. Montcalm's swift action then +disconcerted all English plans, Oswego was lost, the forward move +down Lake George was countermanded, and the summer ended with nothing +for the English to record but one crushing defeat.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote407"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fruitless<br> + French attack<br> + on Fort<br> + William Henry.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In November, the main body of the troops on either side went back +into winter quarters, and Fort William Henry was left in charge of a +small garrison of between 400 and 500 men, belonging to the 44th +Regiment and the Rangers, commanded by Major Eyre. In the early +spring of 1757, an attempt was made to surprise them by an expedition +sent up from Montreal under the command of Rigaud de Vaudreuil, +brother of the Governor of Canada. The attacking force started +towards the end of February, and on March 19 appeared before the +fort. The next day they offered terms of surrender, which were +refused; and, after vainly attempting to reduce the fort till the +twenty-fourth, they retreated down Lake George, having burnt some +boats and outbuildings, but otherwise inflicted little loss.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote408"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Loudoun's<br> + abortive<br> + expedition<br> + against<br> + Louisbourg.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The spring came on, and the early summer, and Loudoun matured a plan, +which he had formed for attacking Louisbourg in force, as a +preliminary to a further attack on Quebec. <a name="page263"></a>His plan was accepted in +London, and the Government determined to send out a strong fleet to +co-operate with him, the rendezvous to be the harbour of Halifax. +Like previous schemes of the same kind, the enterprise failed through +untoward delays. The fleet under Admiral Holborne, consisting of +fifteen ships of the line, and conveying transports with from 5,000 +to 6,000 men on board, did not sail till May 5, and did not reach +Halifax till early in July. Loudoun, meanwhile, had drawn off the +bulk of his troops, including Rogers and his Rangers, from the New +York frontier; and, after vainly waiting at New York for news of the +English Admiral, set sail for Halifax on June 20, reaching his +destination on the last day of that month.</p> + +<p>The combined forces were nearly 12,000 strong, but the time for +attack had gone by. Hearing of the English preparations, the French +Government had sent a fleet at least as strong as Holborne's across +the Atlantic, under Admiral La Motte; and the English commanders +learnt that Louisbourg was being defended by ships as numerous as +their own, and by a garrison in which the troops of the line alone +were said to number 6,000 men. The enterprise was accordingly +abandoned. In the middle of August Loudoun re-embarked the majority +of his troops for New York. Holborne twice reconnoitred Louisbourg in +the hope of bringing on a sea-fight. The second time, in the middle +of September, a storm shattered his vessels, and the whole expedition +utterly collapsed.<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> 'It is +time,' wrote Horace Walpole<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> in +despondent terms, 'for England to slip her own cables and float away +into some unknown ocean.' On <a name="page264"></a>his way back to New York, Loudoun was +met with bad news—that Fort William Henry had fallen.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> While Loudoun's troops were waiting at Halifax, he +employed them in raising vegetables. In consequence, Lord Charles +Hay, who was third in command, charged him with expending the +nation's wealth 'in making sham fights and planting cabbages.' Lord +Charles Hay was sent back to England, and a court-martial was held +upon him, but the incident served to bring ridicule on the +expedition.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, p. 103 (Letter +of Sept. 3, 1757, written before the final break-up of the fleet).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote409"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montcalm<br> + prepares to<br> + attack Fort<br> + William Henry.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>When he started for Louisbourg, he left Webb in command of the small +forces which remained to cover the New York frontier. He seems to +have thought that the troops were sufficient not only to hold the +French in check, but also to threaten Ticonderoga. Montcalm, on the +other hand, saw his opportunity and determined, while he had superior +numbers, to strike a blow which should rival his former achievement +at Oswego. Throughout July the French troops concentrated at +Ticonderoga, provisions were brought up, and a road was made past the +rapids, by which Lake George discharges into Lake Champlain. A number +of Indians were gathered from all quarters to join in the expedition, +mission Indians taught to kill the heretic English, and savages from +the wild and barbarous west. Scouting parties went forth, some along +Lake George, others up the parallel southern arm of Lake Champlain; +and, with Robert Rogers far away in Nova Scotia, they did much +damage, on one occasion killing or taking prisoners two out of three +hundred New Englanders. At the end of the month the main advance +began.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote410"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The fort and its<br> + surroundings.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Fort William Henry was about thirty miles distant from the French +lines. It was a strong square fort, built near the southern edge of +Lake George, a little to the west of the spot where Sir William +Johnson two years before had formed his camp. The road from the fort +to Fort Edward ran for a short distance due east, skirting the shore +of the lake, and then turned inland to the south and south-east. On +rising ground to the east of the road, beyond the point where it took +the southward turn, the English had an entrenched camp, separated +from the fort by swampy ground. After the attack on the fort in the +preceding spring, Major Eyre and his troops had been replaced by +others under the command of Colonel Monro, the main body consisting +of 600 <a name="page265"></a>men of the 35th, now the Sussex Regiment. When news came that +the French were on the point of advancing, Webb sent up 1,000 +colonial troops from Fort Edward; and, when the attack began, Monro +had with him about 2,400 men, while Webb, who had only 1,600 men left +at Fort Edward, sent urgent messages to New York for reinforcements.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote411"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + advance.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On July 30, Levis moved forward with the French vanguard, marching +along the western shore of Lake George; the main body of troops under +Montcalm followed in boats on August 1, the whole force amounting to +between 7,000 and 8,000 men. Two detachments, one commanded by La +Corne, the other by Levis, marched round the fort, and took up +positions on its southern side, to cut off communication with Webb; +La Corne occupied the road to Fort Edward, while Levis encamped a +little further to the west. Montcalm landed his big guns at a little +inlet, still called Artillery Cove, about half a mile in a direct +line from the fort, and, after a summons to surrender on August 3, +began his trenches on the night of the fourth.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote412"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The fort<br> + surrenders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A far better defence was made than at Oswego. For four days the +garrison held out bravely, hoping for relief from the south. Their +guns were heard at Fort Edward; the urgency of their case was known; +but Webb, though some 2,000 militia had reached him, felt himself too +weak to make any advance. At length the situation became hopeless, +and on August 9 Monro surrendered. The terms of capitulation were +that the garrison should be escorted to Fort Edward, on condition +that they would not serve again for eighteen months, and that all +French prisoners taken in the war should be restored. The fort with +all that it contained was handed over to the French. The surrender +included the entrenched camp as well as the fort: the fort was +evacuated; and the whole garrison, with the exception of a few sick +and wounded, were gathered into the camp, retaining their arms, but +without ammunition.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote413"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The massacre<br> + of Fort<br> + William Henry.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page266"></a> +<p>Before night fell, the French Indians plundered the fort, and +butchered some of the sick. Early on the following morning, the +English troops began their march to Fort Edward; the Indians broke in +among them, seizing and stripping men, women, and children; and, at a +signal given by the Christian Abenakis from the Penobscot—Indians +who had known the teaching and training of men like Le Loutre—a +wholesale massacre began. Montcalm and his officers, however, used +every effort to protect the English, with the result that not more +than fifty were murdered, and 600 carried off, 400 of whom were +promptly recovered; and the broken band of fugitives in due course +found their way to Fort Edward.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote414"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Blame attaching<br> + to the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This was the episode well known in colonial annals as the massacre of +Fort William Henry, told of in history and in romance.<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> The +horrors have no doubt been exaggerated, if, as appears to have been +the case, the death-roll did not exceed the number given above. Still +it was a horrible incident, and brought righteous discredit on the +French cause. Though Montcalm, when the mischief had begun, acted +with promptitude and vigour, it was well within his power to have +prevented the possibility of any such outrage. His Indians numbered +but 1,800, and he had 3,000 regular troops from France to hold them +in check. The Canadian militia, too, numbered 2,500 men; but probably +the seed of the evil lay in the disinclination of the colonial French +and their officers to interfere with their Indian allies. It had +become the tradition in Canada to live down to the Indians in matters +of war, to attach them and to hold them by humouring their savage +instincts; and it may well be believed that, if Canadian soldiers or +Canadian officers were concerned in seeing the terms of capitulation +carried out, they would prefer injuring the English to offending the +Indians. Three years later, in the advance on Montreal, we read of +<a name="page267"></a>Sir William Johnson, under Amherst's orders, strongly repressing the +Iroquois' lust for French blood, and Amherst reporting that not a +peasant woman or child had been hurt, nor a house burnt, since he +entered the enemy's country. Better control of the savages in their +employ gave the English fewer friends among them, but in the end it +was one, and not the least, of the causes of their gaining the +supremacy in North America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> e.g. in Fennimore +Cooper's <i>Last of the Mohicans</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote415"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Webb's<br> + conduct.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was disputed at the time, and is still matter of dispute, whether +Webb from Fort Edward might have saved the fort by the lake. The view +generally taken of his conduct was probably coloured by the memory of +his frightened retreat down the Mohawk river in the preceding year. +He could muster but 4,000 men all told; and, had he advanced and met +with disaster, no force would have been left to keep Montcalm from +marching on Albany, and possibly on New York itself. He risked +nothing, and possibly he was wise; but the catastrophe which happened +within his reach was in part, rightly or wrongly, debited to his +account, and the feeling deepened in England and in America that on +the English side leaders of men were sadly wanting.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote416"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + raid the<br> + German Flats.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>One more success was scored by the French before the winter came on. +In October, Vaudreuil sent out from Montreal a raiding party of the +old type, consisting of about 300 Canadians and Indians under an +officer named Belętre. They went up the St. Lawrence into Lake +Ontario, landed on its southern shore, at some distance east of the +ruins of Oswego, crossed to the portage between the Mohawk and Wood +Creek, where the forts were no longer standing, and moved down the +Mohawk to raid the outlying settlements. Between the head waters of +the Mohawk and Schenectady, on the northern side of the river, was +the district known as the German Flats, where German colonists had +been planted about the year 1720. They came from the Palatinate, and +their group of houses bore the name of the settlement or village <a name="page268"></a>of +the Palatines. In the second week of November, Belętre's party broke +in among them, burnt houses and barns, killed cattle, horses, and +some of the inhabitants, carried off over a hundred prisoners, and +retired in safety in face of a weak detachment from a little English +fort on the other side of the river, and of a stronger body of troops +whom Lord Howe brought up from Schenectady too late to retrieve the +disaster.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote417"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The French<br> + triumphant in<br> + North America.<br> + <br> + <br> + William Pitt.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This was the end of the campaign, the high-water mark of French +successes in North America. At the end of 1757, the English had been +beaten at all points. They had failed to attack Louisbourg, they had +been driven from Lake George, the country of the Five Nation Indians +was nearly cut off, all hold on the rivers and the lakes was gone. +The outlook was dark in the extreme: it is always darkest before +dawn, and as a matter of fact dawn had already begun; for William +Pitt, who had been dismissed from office in April, was recalled by +the unanimous voice of the people of England before the end of June, +and, leaving to the incompetent Duke of Newcastle the name of Prime +Minister, controlled, as Secretary of State and Leader of the House +of Commons, the soldiers, the sailors, the subsidies and the foreign +policy of his country.<small><small><sup>16</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>16</sup></small> Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son dated May 18, +1758 (1775 ed., vol. iv, p. 137, Letter 298), wrote as follows of the +Newcastle-Pitt combination: 'The Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt jog +on like man and wife, that is, seldom agreeing, often quarrelling, +but by mutual interest upon the whole not parting.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote418"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Want of a<br> + leader on the<br> + English side.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The wars of England have usually run the same course. They have begun +with blunders and reverses, but ended in success. The English do not +love war, and are rarely prepared for it. They begin fighting in +half-hearted fashion, before the nation makes up its mind that the +cause is worth a real effort and serious expenditure of money and +life. There is groping about for a leader, for some one who will say +distinctly what is to be done, and will prove as good as <a name="page269"></a>his word. If +such a man is found, the people will follow; they forgive a man who +makes mistakes provided, as the saying is, that he makes something. +Then the resources of the country are concentrated and utilized, and +under articulate and sympathetic leadership the cause of the nation +prospers. If England in the year 1757 needed some one controlling +will, much more was the want felt in her North American colonies. The +demoralization caused by feeble ministries in England had its baleful +effect in America; nerveless government at home strengthened the +centrifugal tendencies of the colonies. Nothing but common danger +gave them any common life; and, though Pitt's advent to power +partially corrected the evil, Pitt was in England not in America. To +the end the uniting force came from without rather than from within: +the colonies followed the lead of Pitt and his generals, but to the +mother country not to the colonies was due the conquest of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote419"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Distress<br> + in Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>That Canada must be conquered, when England made her effort, was +inevitable. The French appeared triumphant; they had moved forward; +they had struck heavy blows; but behind the fighting line, even on +the surface, they were in straits. The garrison of Fort William Henry +had not been taken prisoners to Canada, because Canada could hardly +feed them;<small><small><sup>17</sup></small></small> and the winter of 1757, which followed the brilliant +campaign, was a winter of distress. Bread was wanting; horses were +eaten for meat; the troops were mutinous and only kept in order by +Levis' firmness and tact; the finances were in a ruinous condition; +there were winter gaieties and winter gambling, but Canada before its +conquest was in much the same condition as the mother country on the +brink of the Revolution.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>17</sup></small> Similarly, after the fall of Oswego, Horace Walpole +wrote, 'The massacre at Oswego happily proves a romance; part of the +two regiments that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at +Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit +additional numbers.' <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, pp. 44, +45 (Letter of Nov. 13, 1756).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote420"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French plan<br> + of campaign<br> + for 1758.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page270"></a> +<p>Both sides laid their plans for the coming year. The French scheme +included a movement by Levis from Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, +across to the site of Oswego, and thence, after securing the alliance +or the allegiance of the Iroquois, down the Mohawk valley, so as to +co-operate with the main army under Montcalm advancing from +Ticonderoga. The success of this project of Vaudreuil's, which was +never carried into effect, presupposed that the bulk of the English +troops would again be drawn off to attack Louisbourg, for it was +known or suspected in Canada that another attempt on Louisbourg was +in contemplation.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote421"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Pitt's<br> + plan.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Pitt's plan of campaign was not new or original. The experience of +long years had painfully taught what were the points where Canada +must be attacked, if any permanent success was to be achieved. First +and foremost was Louisbourg. With Louisbourg in English hands, the +St. Lawrence could be blocked and Canada starved out. But the English +minister had no intention of denuding the inland frontier of the +British colonies, in order to take the French fortress in Cape +Breton. On the contrary, he laid his plans also for an advance on +Ticonderoga, and for the recovery of Fort Duquesne. He conceived no +new scheme, but into old schemes he put new life. The novelties which +he introduced were abundance of English troops, prompt instead of +dilatory movement, and above all capable leaders—inspired with his +own spirit, and in their turn inspiring the men whom they led. There +was to be an end of the 'delays, misfortunes, disappointments and +disgraces,'<small><small><sup>18</sup></small></small> which had so long been associated in the English mind +with war in America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>18</sup></small> <i>Annual Register</i> for 1758, p. +70.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote422"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Strong English<br> + forces sent<br> + to America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On December 30, 1757, he addressed a circular letter to the Governors +of the North American colonies, asking for levies of 20,000 men. On +February 19, 1758, a strong fleet set sail for Halifax, to be +directed against Louisbourg, while other English squadrons blocked +the French ports <a name="page271"></a>in Europe, and kept the enemy's ships from crossing +the Atlantic. It was a rare thing for an English expedition for +America to start betimes, instead of waiting for orders and counter +orders, until the season for active work was far spent. It was +unheard of, too, for so many English troops to be sent into the New +World. Twelve thousand soldiers, nearly all regulars, took part in +the Louisbourg expedition. Abercromby on Lake George commanded, when +summer came on, 15,000 men, of whom fully 6,000 were regulars. Six +thousand men took part in the march against Fort Duquesne, of whom +1,600 were Imperial troops. Thus in the year 1758 England had more +than 20,000 regular soldiers employed in North America, enough force, +as Lord Chesterfield thought, when coupled with the colonial troops, +'to eat up the French alive in Canada, Quebec, and Louisbourg, if we +have but skill and spirit enough to exert it properly.'<small><small><sup>19</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>19</sup></small> Lord Chesterfield to his son, Feb. 8, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 124; Letter 293).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote423"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + commanders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The skill and the spirit were forthcoming also, though not at once in +full measure, and not at all points. Loudoun was recalled. Abercromby +was left to take his place, but with him was placed as brigadier a +young officer of rare promise, Lord Howe. Jeffrey Amherst was picked +out to command the troops against Louisbourg, and of his three +brigadiers one was Lawrence, the Governor of Nova Scotia, and another +was Wolfe. In the further west, the command of the expedition against +Fort Duquesne was given to a resolute Scotch soldier, Forbes. +Gradually in his choice of officers Pitt sifted the chaff from the +grain, young men were brought to the front, merit was preferred to +seniority. Amherst was forty-one years of age, Wolfe was thirty-one, +Howe was thirty-three. Lord Chesterfield wrote of them in February, +1758, 'Abercromby is to be the sedentary and not the acting +commander. Amherst, Lord Howe, and Wolfe are to be the acting and I +hope the active officers. I wish they may agree.'<small><small><sup>20</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>20</sup></small> Ibid.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote424"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The fleet sails<br> + for Louisbourg.<br> + Admiral Boscawen.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page272"></a> +<p>The fleet which sailed for North America, carrying the hopes and the +fortunes of England, was commanded by Admiral Boscawen. He had seen +service in the East and West, off Cartagena and Pondicherry; and it +was he who in the year 1755, before France and England were at war, +had, as has already been told, attacked and taken the two French +ships, the <i>Alcide</i> and the <i>Lys,</i> off the North American coast.<small><small><sup>21</sup></small></small> +He had Churchill blood in his veins, for Arabella Churchill was his +grandmother; and he was known as 'Old Dreadnought,' after a ship of +that name which he had commanded. He was a determined, hard-fighting +sailor, with little respect for neutrality in time or place if there +was a chance of striking a blow for England.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>21</sup></small> See <a href="#page234">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote425"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>His colleague, General Amherst, like Wolfe, was born in Kent. Joining +the Guards in 1731, he made his name on the Continent. He was present +at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and served on the Duke of Cumberland's +staff. Unlike most of the commanders of the time, he lived to be an +old man, and was Commander-in-Chief of the English army before he +died; but his good work was all done in America in the years 1758-60, +while he was still in early middle age, and when he conquered Canada. +He was a good soldier of the cautious type, not wanting either in +vigour or determination, but making sure of each point before he +moved further. What Carlyle says of the Parliamentary general, Lord +Essex, might be said of Amherst—he was a 'somewhat elephantine' man.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote426"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The first<br> + and second<br> + siege of<br> + Louisbourg<br> + compared.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The ships took time to go over the sea, and did not reach Halifax +until well into May. On the second of June they sailed into Gabarus +Bay and came in sight of Louisbourg. The second siege and capture of +Louisbourg was very similar to the first, except that in 1758 much +larger forces were engaged on either side, and more military skill +was shown than in 1745. The earlier siege was, on the English side, +<a name="page273"></a>as far as the land forces were concerned, purely a colonial venture. +On the later occasion very few colonial troops were employed. The +French had in garrison 3,000 regulars, and the residents of the town +who bore arms made up nearly another thousand, the besiegers on land +outnumbering the besieged in the proportion of three to one. In +harbour there were twelve French ships of war, with a complement of +3,000 men—no match for Boscawen's overpowering fleet. The +fortifications of Louisbourg were strong, but not so strong as they +were reputed. It was stated that prior to 1755 nothing had been done +to repair the damage done in the first siege.<small><small><sup>22</sup></small></small> The French had a +good commander, the Chevalier de Drucour; and his wife, according to +the accounts of the time, was as brave as himself. In 1758 the +English landed in the same place as in 1745; the siege took almost +exactly the same number of days; the Grand Battery on the north shore +of the harbour was, as before, evacuated by the French; once more the +English mounted guns on Lighthouse Point, from which the French had +retired, and battered to pieces the Island Battery, which guarded the +mouth of the harbour. Again, as in 1745, a small force of Canadians +and Indians tried to make a diversion from inland, and again the +attempt was quite ineffectual. The seas and the skies, however, in +spite of the time of year, were far less kind to the besiegers on the +later than on the earlier occasion.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>22</sup></small> In the <i>Annual Register</i> for 1758, pp. 179-81, is given +a translation of a letter from Drucour, the French Governor of +Louisbourg, after he had been taken prisoner to England. It is dated +Andover, Oct. 1, 1758. Referring to the defences of Louisbourg, he +speaks of 'a fortification (if it could deserve the name) crumbling +down in every flank, face, and courtine, except the right flank of +the King's bastion, which was remounted the first year after my +arrival.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote427"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Landing<br> + effected<br> + by Wolfe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The real difficulty was the initial difficulty, that of landing on an +awkward coast in bad weather, with an enemy lining the shore. The +French had made full preparations, and had <a name="page274"></a>their men, guns, and +batteries ready along the fringe of Gabarus Bay; while, for nearly a +week, surf and fog made any attempt at landing impracticable. At +length, at daybreak on June 8, three strong parties under the three +brigadiers put out in boats from the transports, and rowed for the +shore at three separate points. The main effort was intended to be +made on the extreme left, at Freshwater Cove, by the party commanded +by Wolfe. As the boats neared the land, the French opened a heavy +fire, and Wolfe signalled a retreat; but, by happy accident or by +design, one or more of the boats misinterpreted the sign, and made +good their landing a little to the right of the cove, where the cliff +gave some slight shelter from the enemy's fire. The rest then +followed in support, and, with no slight loss of men and boats, the +English carried the French position, and drove their opponents back +within range of the Louisbourg guns.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote428"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The siege<br> + pressed.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The disembarkation now went on under difficulties. On June 18 the +siege guns were landed, and gradually the English formed their +encampment, drew their lines, and opened their trenches, beleaguering +the fortress on the western side, where the peninsula on which the +town of Louisbourg stood joined the mainland. The lines started from +the sea at Flat Point cove, and extended in a semicircle for about +two miles inland. Meanwhile, on the twelfth of June, Wolfe had +marched round the harbour, and subsequently mounted his guns at +Lighthouse Point on the opposite side. By the twenty-fifth he had +silenced the Island Battery, and thus commanded the mouth of the +harbour, where the French in consequence sunk several of their ships +to bar any attack by Boscawen.</p> + +<p>The town was now fully invested by land and sea; such French ships as +still remained were cooped up in the harbour, and the fall of +Louisbourg was merely a question of time. But the operations took +time. The besiegers had the same difficulty as had been experienced +in 1745, in advancing <a name="page275"></a>across a belt of swamp. Day and night passed in +incessant work, under fire of the enemy's guns, and interrupted by +sorties of the garrison; but slowly and surely the trenches were +drawn nearer to the town. On the twenty-first of July three out of +the five remaining French ships took fire from a shell and were +destroyed, and on the twenty-fifth the two last were successfully +attacked by a detachment of English sailors, who rowed into the +harbour at night time, and among whom was James Cook, not yet known +to fame. One ship was grounded and burnt, the other was towed off by +its captors.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote429"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The town<br> + surrenders.<br> + <br> + <br> + Louisbourg<br> + dismantled.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This bold feat brought matters to a climax. The land defences were in +ruins, the garrison was worn out, there was nothing to stop a general +assault by land and sea. On the twenty-sixth the French Governor +asked for terms. Unconditional surrender was demanded and refused; +but before the message of refusal reached the English camp, it was +withdrawn, at the instance, it was said, of the Intendant or +Commissary-General, who represented the civilian element in the town. +The articles of capitulation were signed, between 5,000 and 6,000 +French soldiers and sailors became prisoners of war, and on July 27 +the English forces entered Louisbourg. Two years later, in 1760, all +the fortifications were demolished, and the town was practically +blotted out. No chance was left of again handing back to France a +fortress which had so long threatened English interests in America. +Halifax was henceforth to be unrivalled on the coast; and at the +present day the once famous harbour of Louisbourg is in the keeping +of Cape Breton fishermen.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote430"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's services<br> + at Louisbourg.<br> + <br> + <br> + Time lost by<br> + the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The English Parliament voted thanks to Amherst and Boscawen; but to +Wolfe, who as a subordinate was not mentioned, the thanks of the +nation were mainly due. He 'shone extremely at Louisbourg,'<small><small><sup>23</sup></small></small> wrote +Horace Walpole, and Walpole owns that he did not love him. Had he +been <a name="page276"></a>in supreme command, the siege would probably have ended earlier, +and greater results would have been achieved. His own view, at any +rate, as expressed in a private letter written after his return to +England, was that both during the siege and after it valuable time +was lost.<small><small><sup>24</sup></small></small> It is certain that when the expedition was sent out, +more was hoped from it than the capture of Louisbourg alone. On May +18, 1758, Lord Chesterfield wrote: 'By this time I believe the French +are entertained in America with the loss of Cape Breton, and, in +consequence of that, Quebec; for we have a force there equal to both +those undertakings, and officers there now that will execute what +Lord L—— (Loudoun) never would so much as attempt.'<small><small><sup>25</sup></small></small> The French +on their side, as we learn from a subsequent letter from Drucour, +were aware of the importance of prolonging the siege, in order to +prevent Abercromby being reinforced, or an attack being made on +Quebec;<small><small><sup>26</sup></small></small> and all honour +is due to the memory of the brave <a name="page277"></a>French +commander for the determined stand which he made. Before the siege +ended, Abercromby had been beaten back from Ticonderoga, and +breathing time had been given to the defenders of Canada.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>23</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, p. 207 (Letter +of Feb. 9, 1759).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>24</sup></small> 'We lost time at the siege, still more after the siege, +and blundered from the beginning to the end of the campaign' (from a +letter written Dec. 1, 1758; Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. 465). +Similarly, Wolfe wrote from the camp before Louisbourg, on July 27, +1758, the day after the capitulation: 'If this force had been +properly managed, there was an end of the French colony in North +America in one campaign' (Wright, p. 449).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>25</sup></small> Lord Chesterfield to his son, May 18, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 136; Letter 298).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>26</sup></small> See the letter already quoted above, p. 273, note. +Drucour is explaining why he would not allow the French ships to +leave Louisbourg harbour, 'It was our business to defer the +determination of our fate as long as possible. My accounts from +Canada assured me that M. de Montcalm was marching to the enemy and +would come up with them between July 15 and 20. I said then "if the +ships leave the harbour on June 10 (as they desire), the English +admiral will enter it immediately after," and we should have been +lost before the end of the month, which would have put it in the +power of the generals of the besiegers to have employed the months of +July and August in sending succours to the troops marching against +Canada, and to have entered the river St. Lawrence at the proper +season.' In a 'Scheme for taking Louisbourg,' which was submitted to +Pitt by Brigadier Waldo (who had been on Pepperell's expedition) on +Nov. 7, 1757, fourteen days were given to Louisbourg to hold out when +once duly invested, and an attack on Quebec was contemplated as the +immediate result of its fall (Brymer's <i>Report on Canadian Archives,</i> +1886, pp. 151-3).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote431"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe returns<br> + to England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Yet it was but the end of July when Louisbourg fell, and, if Wolfe +had had his way, the ships would have gone on to Quebec. Even Amherst +might have gone on but for the bad news from Abercromby, which +confirmed his habitual caution, and retarded instead of quickening +his movements. One officer, Lord Rollo, was sent to reduce the Île +St. Jean; another, Monckton, cleared the valley of the St. John river +on the mainland. Wolfe was dispatched to Gaspé Bay and the mouth of +the St. Lawrence, to harry the settlers and the fishermen; and when +he had accomplished his task, which was little to his taste, he +sailed for home angry and disappointed that more had not been done, +and that his advice had not been taken. Amherst, in the meantime, had +gone with six regiments to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote432"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Maritime<br> + Provinces<br> + finally<br> + secured<br> + to England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The capture of Louisbourg secured to England all that should have +been hers when the Treaty of Utrecht was being negotiated. The +English were now in full occupation of the Maritime Provinces of +Canada. More than half of the comparatively small French population +of Cape Breton was, at the people's own wish, shipped to France; and +of the residents in the Île St. Jean, mainly Acadian refugees, a +large proportion was similarly transported, while others found their +way to Canada. Cape Breton was attached to Nova Scotia, to be +subsequently separated from that province and again rejoined. The Île +St. Jean was placed under the same Government, and before the century +ended, in the year 1799, its name was changed to Prince Edward Island +in honour of the Duke of Kent, the father of Her late Majesty Queen +Victoria.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote433"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Abercromby's<br> + advance.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>By Loudoun's recall, Abercromby was left in chief command of the +British forces in North America. He had with him, <a name="page278"></a>as one of his +brigadiers, Lord Howe, who commanded the 55th Regiment. In May, 1758, +he was at Albany preparing for the summer's work. In June he moved up +to the end of Lake George, where his force, amounting to 15,000 men, +gathered to drive the French back on Canada. The colonies had +answered well to Pitt's appeal, and contributed 9,000 men to the +total. On July 5 the army embarked in boats; on the sixth they landed +without opposition at the northern end of the lake, on the western +side of the water, and began their march on Ticonderoga through the +forest, having on their right the semicircular stream which connects +Lake George and Lake Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote434"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Lord Howe<br> + killed.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The right centre column was led by Lord Howe, and, as the soldiers +groped their way through the dense thickets, they stumbled across a +party of French, who had been sent out to reconnoitre, had also lost +their way, and found their retreat cut off. A confused skirmish +followed, with more numerical loss to the French than to the English; +but Howe was shot dead, and his life by common consent meant the life +of the expedition. All night the army remained under arms in the +forest, and on the morning of the seventh marched back to the +landing-place.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote435"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The approach<br> + to the French<br> + position at<br> + Ticonderoga.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was a matter of very few miles to the French position. The river, +which carries the waters of Lake George into Lake Champlain, and +enters the latter lake at Ticonderoga, has a course of about eight +miles; but they are eight miles of a semicircle, and the distance in +a straight line from Lake George to Ticonderoga is much shorter. The +English had landed at the head of the river; about two miles lower +down rapids begin, and here was the portage leading from the head to +the bottom of the rapids, and forming the chord of an arc, the arc +being between three and four miles of broken water. The lower bridge +of the portage, where there was a sawmill, was well within two miles +of the French Fort Carillon. At the head of the rapids the French had +held an advanced <a name="page279"></a>post, which was withdrawn on the approach of +Abercromby's army, and, when the main force of that army landed to +wander in the forest, a detachment was sent on down the river and +occupied the deserted position. On the seventh, while the main body +again was resting at the landing-place, Bradstreet was sent forward +to the post at the bottom of the rapids, which was also found to be +deserted, and here on the evening of the seventh the main body +encamped, the bridge being repaired, and the encampment being on the +same side of the river as Ticonderoga.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote436"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montcalm's<br> + dispositions.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Montcalm, who was joined by Levis on the night of the seventh, had +with him rather under 4,000 men, the majority of whom were regulars. +Outnumbered as he was by three or four to one, his position was +perilous in the extreme, for his retreat could easily be cut off. He +determined, however, to make a stand, and on rising ground on the +inland—the western—side of the little peninsula on which Fort +Carillon or Ticonderoga<small><small><sup>27</sup></small></small> was built, at a distance of rather over +half a mile from the fort, he formed at the eleventh hour +entrenchments of timber, fringed on the outside by a network of +'felled trees, the branches pointed outwards,'<small><small><sup>28</sup></small></small> and carefully laid +so as to entangle and annoy the enemy.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>27</sup></small> Ticonderoga, according to Rogers' <i>Journals</i> (p. 22, +note), is an 'Indian name signifying the meeting or confluence of +three waters.'</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>28</sup></small> Abercromby's dispatch +to Pitt, July 12, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote437"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + repulse at<br> + Ticonderoga.<br> + <br> + <br> + Retreat of<br> + Abercromby.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Against this position Abercromby ordered an attack on July 8. He had +been told by French prisoners that Montcalm's force was stronger than +it actually was, and that further reinforcements were shortly to +arrive. In consequence he hurried his movements, and without bringing +up any guns, which apparently he had left behind him, he determined, +thinking that the entrenchment had not been completed, to trust +entirely to the bayonet. The result was the inevitable result of a +frontal attack, delivered in the open, against an enemy fighting +under cover and undisturbed by <a name="page280"></a>artillery fire. For four hours charge +after charge was made, and at the close of the day the English had +achieved nothing and had lost nearly 2,000 men. The casualties in the +Black Watch alone amounted to 500. Abercromby had still 13,000 men +left, but he had no stomach for further fighting. On the following +day he ordered a retreat, and the whole force went back to the +southern end of Lake George.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote438"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Triumph of<br> + Montcalm.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At Oswego and at Fort William Henry, Montcalm had shown how to +concentrate superior forces at a given point rapidly and effectively, +and how to use them when concentrated to the best possible advantage. +At Ticonderoga, he showed how to make the most of very inferior +numbers, by utilizing every natural and artificial advantage, and +every mistake of the foe. It was a great triumph for him; it produced +joy in Canada, and discouragement in England; but, as Mr. Parkman +points out, it is difficult to see how he could possibly have +succeeded, if Abercromby had taken any other course than the one +which he actually took. Wolfe summed up the matter aright, when, in +the following December, he referred in a private letter to 'the +famous post at Ticonderoga, where Mr. Abercromby by a little +soldiership and a little patience might, I think, have put an end to +the war in America.'<small><small><sup>29</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>29</sup></small> Wright's <i>Life of +Wolfe,</i> p. 469.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote439"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Tribute to<br> + Lord Howe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Almost as disastrous as the repulse itself was the death of Lord +Howe, which preceded it. The eldest of three distinguished brothers, +the second of whom was the famous admiral, and the third the not so +successful general in the American War of Independence, he was not +thirty-four years old when he was killed, and had only landed in +America in the previous year. Yet he had lived long enough for all +men to speak well of him, and all to love him. In his dispatch giving +an account of the operations, Abercromby wrote: 'He was very +deservedly universally beloved and respected through <a name="page281"></a>the whole +army.'<small><small><sup>30</sup></small></small> Pitt testified in more stilted phrases that 'he was by the +universal voice of army and people a character of ancient times, a +complete model of military virtue in all its branches.'<small><small><sup>31</sup></small></small> Wolfe +loved him dearly, and his letters show how highly he valued 'his +abilities, spirit and address.'<small><small><sup>32</sup></small></small> He writes of him as 'the very +best officer in the King's service,' as 'the noblest Englishman that +has appeared in my time,' as 'truly a great man.' 'This country has +produced nothing like him in my time; his death cannot be enough +lamented.' Similar testimony is given by Robert Rogers, the Ranger, +who was with the force when he fell: 'This noble and brave officer +being universally beloved by both officers and soldiers of the army, +his fall was not only most sincerely lamented, but seemed to produce +an almost universal consternation and langour through the whole.'<small><small><sup>33</sup></small></small> +But the most striking honour to his name and memory was paid by the +province of Massachusetts. In 1759 the Court of Assembly ordered a +monument to him to be placed in Westminster Abbey, which still +records 'the sense they had of his services and military virtues, and +of the affection their officers and soldiers bore to his command.' +Burke, in the <i>Annual Register</i> for 1758,<small><small><sup>34</sup></small></small> gives the clue to the +affection with which the colonists regarded Lord Howe: 'From the +moment he landed in America he had wisely conformed, and made his +regiment conform, to the kind of service which the country required.' +Howe's life, he adds, was 'long enough for his honour, but not for +his country.' In truth, had he lived, and had Wolfe lived, the +history of the English in America might have been widely different. +Two men who in youth had so inspired their time, and so impressed +American colonists with the sense of leadership, might well <a name="page282"></a>have +averted the War of Independence, or by military genius have given it +another issue.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>30</sup></small> Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>31</sup></small> <i>Grenville Correspondence,</i> vol. i, p. 262.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>32</sup></small> Wright, pp. 426, 448, 450, 465, 469.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>33</sup></small> Rogers' <i>Journals,</i> p. 114, note.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>34</sup></small> pp. 72, 73.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote440"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Bradstreet<br> + takes Fort<br> + Frontenac.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>From July to October Abercromby remained at one end of Lake George, +and Montcalm, who had received heavy reinforcements, at the other. +Parties of Rangers and Canadians attacked each other on the Wood +Creek line, but the main bodies were inactive. The presence of the +English force had the advantage, however, of holding in their front +so large a number of the enemy that the latter were unable adequately +to protect other positions, and in consequence they lost Fort +Frontenac. That competent officer, Colonel Bradstreet, had already +proposed an expedition against this point, and when he renewed his +proposal after the battle of Ticonderoga, Abercromby gave his +consent, and spared him 3,600 men for the purpose, noting that 'he is +not only very active, but has great knowledge of the country.'<small><small><sup>35</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>35</sup></small> Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In August he moved up the Mohawk, took his troops past the Carrying +Place from that river, where, on the site of Fort Williams, General +Stanwix was busy building a new fort, reached the ruins of Oswego, +put out across the lake, and on August 25 landed close to Fort +Frontenac. By the twenty-seventh he had the fort at the mercy of his +guns, and the small garrison of a little over a hundred men +surrendered. The prisoners were sent on parole to Montreal, to be +exchanged for a corresponding number of English; the fort was burnt, +and guns, ships, and supplies were carried off or destroyed. It was +an excellent piece of work for the English side; 'a great stroke,' as +Wolfe wrote on hearing of it.<small><small><sup>36</sup></small></small> Great material damage was caused to +the French by, temporarily at any rate, cutting their communications +with the west, and intercepting supplies which had been intended for +<a name="page283"></a>the forts on the Ohio and on the upper lakes. The moral effect was +greater still. The time-honoured French fort on Lake Ontario, the +earliest French post on the lakes, had been with little effort taken +and blotted out, reminding the waverers among the Five Nation Indians +that, in spite of reverses, the English arm was strong and +far-reaching, and the English alliance was for them a valuable asset.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>36</sup></small> Letter of Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> p. +457). In another letter (p. 465) he writes: 'Bradstreet's coup was +masterly. He is a very extraordinary man.'</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote441"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst becomes<br> + Commander-in-Chief<br> + in North America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Early in October Amherst came up to Abercromby's camp, and the two +generals decided not to make a further attempt on Ticonderoga until +the following year. 'General Amherst,' wrote Wolfe, 'thought the +entrenchments so improved as to require more ceremony in the second +attack than the season would allow of.'<small><small><sup>37</sup></small></small> The troops were +accordingly sent into winter quarters, and in November Abercromby +received a letter of recall. Amherst became in his stead +Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>37</sup></small> Wright's <i>Life of +Wolfe,</i> p. 469.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote442"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The expedition against<br> + Fort Duquesne.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>By the end of October campaigning was over for the year in the east, +and in the centre; but it was not so in the west, where +Brigadier-General Forbes was marching on Fort Duquesne.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote443"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>General<br> + Forbes.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Forbes was an older man than the other English commanders, who +achieved success in the war; and he seems to have been over sixty in +the year 1758.<small><small><sup>38</sup></small></small> He proved himself to be a man of great fortitude +and resolution, tactful in dealing with colonists or Indians, a +brave, sure, and careful soldier. His task was to give security to +the harried frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and to clear the +French out of the Ohio valley. With this end he had to collect and +equip a force, the large majority of whom were provincials; to get +money and men out of two colonies, which were very jealous alike of +the mother country and of <a name="page284"></a>each other; to make choice between two +conflicting routes, and to detach the Ohio Indians as far as possible +from the French cause.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>38</sup></small> For his age see Kingsford's <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. +iv, p. 192, note. He has been generally put down as a younger man.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote444"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reasons why<br> + the expedition<br> + made slow<br> + progress.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A long time was taken over the preliminaries, and over the expedition +itself, the object of which was not attained until the end of +November; but the delays were not only the consequence of want of +transport, and of Forbes' own ill health, they were also the result +of design. The longer the English kept their enemies waiting to be +attacked, the fewer those enemies were likely to be; for the Indians, +and the militia of New France, did not love to keep the field for any +long time together. Moreover, as Forbes wrote to Pitt,<small><small><sup>39</sup></small></small> October +and November were the best hunting months for the Indians, which they +were therefore not willing to devote to war; while, on the other +hand, they were months when the leaves fell and left the backwoods +easier to reconnoitre and less easy for ambuscade.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>39</sup></small> Letter of Forbes to Pitt, +Oct. 20, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote445"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Preparation<br> + for advance.<br> + <br> + <br> + A new route<br> + taken.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Forbes came to Philadelphia in April; and through the early summer +months his force gradually assembled, and moved to the front. When +the numbers were complete, they amounted to over 6,000 men, in the +main southern colonists, but including a strong regiment of +Highlanders. The second in command was a good man for the work, +Bouquet, one of the Swiss officers of the Royal Americans. The +advanced base was formed at Raestown, now Bedford, in Pennsylvania, +distant about ninety miles from Fort Duquesne. It was some thirty +miles north-east of Fort Cumberland, from which Braddock had started +on his disastrous march; and a keen controversy arose as to whether +the old route should be followed, or a new road taken. Opening a road +to the Ohio meant, when the fighting was over, giving to the State, +within or near whose boundaries the road ran, control of the trade. +Virginia accordingly pressed for the old and more southerly route, +Pennsylvania for the northern line. In spite <a name="page285"></a>of Washington's +arguments, the latter was chosen; it was shorter and more direct, and +on the whole presented fewer natural difficulties than the other. The +first forty miles led due west over the main Alleghany range and the +Laurel hills, to a place called Loyalhannon; and by the end of August +Bouquet had a road cut to this place, a dépôt established, and +preparations made for carrying on the track through fifty miles of +less difficult country to Fort Duquesne.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote446"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>An advance attack<br> + on Fort Duquesne<br> + repulsed with loss.<br> + <br> + <br> + The Ohio Indians<br> + desert the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Every care was being taken by the commanders; but notwithstanding, +before the end came, there was in a smaller measure a repetition of +Braddock's reverse. In the middle of September, Major Grant, an +officer of the Highlanders, obtained permission from Bouquet to march +out from Loyalhannon with between 700 and 800 men,<small><small><sup>40</sup></small></small> for the +purpose of reconnoitring Fort Duquesne. He arrived at night time +close to the fort; intended a night attack, which miscarried; +repeated the attempt to attack on the following day, and having +broken up his force into small parties, was badly beaten and himself +taken prisoner. The total British casualties numbered about 280, the +survivors finding their way back to Bouquet at Loyalhannon. 'This was +a most terrible check to my small army,' wrote Forbes,<small><small><sup>41</sup></small></small> but the +reverse was more than counterbalanced shortly afterwards by a success +of a different kind. From the first Forbes had spared no pains to +secure the friendship of the Indians; and in October, in large +measure through the good offices of a Moravian missionary, a general +council was held, at which the tribes of the Ohio made their peace +with the English, deserting the French cause as rats leave a sinking +ship.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>40</sup></small> Forbes' own dispatch mentions 900.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>41</sup></small> Forbes to Pitt, Raestown, +Oct. 20, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote447"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The final advance<br> + on Fort Duquesne.<br> + <br> + <br> + The fort abandoned<br> + by the French<br> + and occupied<br> + by the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was November before Forbes joined Bouquet at Loyalhannon. He was +broken in body, but resolute to carry <a name="page286"></a>through the expedition, in +spite of the lateness of the season. The road had been cut to within +easy reach of the French fort; and, on November 18, 2,500 men, picked +out of the force, advanced in three columns, carrying with them only +what was absolutely necessary in the way of supplies, and their brave +commander on a litter. At a day's march from Fort Duquesne, it was +reported that the fort had been evacuated and burnt; and when the +English reached it on the twenty-fifth, they found that the news was +true. Weakened by the desertion of the Indians, and by having +disbanded some of the militia, whom he could not feed, in want of the +provisions which Bradstreet had intercepted at Fort Frontenac, the +French commander, De Ligneris, saw no alternative but to blow up the +fort, and retreat more than a hundred miles up the Alleghany to the +junction of that river with French Creek, leaving the valley of the +Ohio in English hands, as events proved, for ever.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote448"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Foundation<br> + of Pittsburg.<br> + <br> + <br> + Death of<br> + Forbes.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>For the moment Forbes' chief care was to build at once on the site of +Fort Duquesne a temporary stockade, which could be held by a small +garrison through the winter. In the following year a permanent fort +was built. The name of Fort Duquesne was exchanged for that of Fort +Pitt, and the city of Pittsburg still recalls the statesman who +recovered for the British colonies the rich western lands which are +watered by the Ohio. 'I have used the freedom of giving your name to +Fort Duquesne,' wrote Forbes to Pitt two days after he had reached +the fort, 'as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by +your spirit that now makes us masters of the place.'<small><small><sup>42</sup></small></small> The honest +soldier, whom the English minister sent to do the work, and who did +it when the colonies concerned should have done it for themselves, +did not long survive his success. Patient and suffering, John Forbes +was carried back to Philadelphia, where he <a name="page287"></a>died in the following +March, having shown a steadfast, single-minded devotion to duty, rare +even in the rich record of British soldiers.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>42</sup></small> Forbes to Pitt, Pittsburg, +Nov. 27, 1758.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote449"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Results of the<br> + campaign of 1758.<br> + <br> + <br> + Canada receives<br> + little help<br> + from France.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With the English occupation of Fort Duquesne, the campaigning of 1758 +in North America came to an end. It been a long season, and for +England distinctly a successful though also to a certain extent a +disappointing one. 'I do not reckon that we have been fortunate this +year in America,' wrote Wolfe on December 1; 'our force was so +superior to the enemy's that we might hope for greater success.'<small><small><sup>43</sup></small></small> +He wrote in ignorance that Fort Duquesne had been taken, but, +notwithstanding, his view of the situation was the true one. At +Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac, Fort Duquesne, there had been great and +substantial successes. At Ticonderoga there had been a bad check; but +the French had made nothing of it afterwards. They were now on the +defensive and playing a losing game. Yet that more might and should +have been done by the English commanders with their great superiority +of numbers cannot be doubted. Had Wolfe been in Amherst's place, and +Lord Howe in Abercromby's, the year 1758 might well have been the +last year of French rule in North America. But the end was only +postponed for a short time, the resources of Canada in men and in +supplies were becoming insufficient to sustain the war: the country +was practically in a state of blockade; and Bougainville, who was +sent at the beginning of winter to France to plead the cause of +Canada, met with little success. A very few soldiers, some supplies, +and honours for the generals, were the result of his mission. France +was engrossed in the war in Europe, and not as many hundreds were +sent to North America as England sent thousands. Vaudreuil, in the +meantime, was intriguing against Montcalm, whose genius and +determination had prolonged the unequal <a name="page288"></a>fight, and on whom, with +Levis and Bourlamaque, lay the heavy burden of defending a ruined +State, and checking, at this point and at that, the flowing tide of +English invasion.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>43</sup></small> Wright, p. 464.</small></blockquote> + +<br> +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the above see, among modern books,<br> +<br> + K<small>INGSFORD'S</small> <i>History of Canada,</i> vols. iii and iv;<br> + P<small>ARKMAN'S</small> <i>Montcalm and Wolfe;</i> and<br> + W<small>RIGHT'S</small> <i>Life of Wolfe</i>.</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap10"></a><a name="page289"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> +<center>T<small>HE</small> C<small>ONQUEST OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small> <i>(continued)</i></center> +<br> +<br> +<p>When Wolfe reached England from Louisbourg in November, 1758, he +wrote to Pitt offering himself for further service in America, 'and +particularly in the river St. Lawrence, if any operations are to be +carried on there.'<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> Before Christmas, Pitt had appointed him to +command an expedition in the coming year against Quebec.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Wolfe to Pitt, Nov. 22, 1758 (Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> +p. 464). There was some misunderstanding as to his return to England. +See the correspondence quoted by Mr. Kingsford in the note to vol. +iv, p. 155, of his <i>History</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote450"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's early<br> + life and<br> + character.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Wolfe was born at Westerham, in Kent, on January 2, 1727, and was +therefore not thirty-three years old when he was killed at Quebec in +September, 1759. He was the son of a soldier, and received his first +commission before he was fifteen. He was present at Dettingen, and at +Culloden; and, subsequently to the latter battle, after an interval +of fighting in the Netherlands, where he distinguished himself at the +battle of Laffeldt, he was stationed for a considerable time in +Scotland. Service in the Highlands, it may be noted, in Jacobite +times, was not bad training for service in North America. In +September, 1757, after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, he took +part in the expedition against Rochefort, to the south of La +Rochelle, on the west coast of France—an enterprise as utterly +barren of results as was the Duke of Buckingham's venture against the +same area of coast when Charles I was King. Lord Howe and Wolfe <a name="page290"></a>were +among the few who gained any credit from the expedition. In the +following year, Wolfe served at Louisbourg.</p> + +<p>Horace Walpole writes of him: 'Ambition, activity, industry, passion +for the service, were conspicuous in Wolfe. He seemed to breathe for +nothing but fame, and lost no moments in qualifying himself to +compass his object.'<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> These words are partly true, but do not tell +the whole truth. Wolfe was ambitious, active, and industrious, but he +cared for more than fame alone. His dramatic death in the hour of +victory, while he was still very young, makes it impossible to form +an adequate estimate of his real worth as a soldier; but all that is +known of him points to his having been, in spite of persistent ill +health, a great military genius, and a rare leader of men. He seems +to have resembled Nelson in his fighting qualities, and to have had +the same lovable nature, coupled with a higher standard of life. Like +Nelson, in warfare he always took the offensive if possible—took it, +as at Quebec, in spite of smaller numbers and a less favourable +position. 'An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the Indians and +ruin the French,' were his words to Amherst in a letter written after +the taking of Louisbourg.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Walpole's <i>Memoirs of the Reign of King George II</i> (1847 +ed.), vol. iii, p. 171.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Louisbourg, Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright, p. 457).</small></blockquote> + +<p>Like Nelson, he loved his men, and his men loved him. According to +the old story, when the Duke of Newcastle told the King that Wolfe +was mad, the King expressed a wish that he would bite his other +generals. This was precisely what Wolfe did. He infected to some +extent those above him, to a great extent those under his command. He +was a man after Pitt's own heart; wherever he was, he made himself +felt, giving a living fire and force to the army. Coupled with this +vitality was a thorough knowledge of his profession, gained not only +on actual battlefields and <a name="page291"></a>training-grounds, but also from voluminous +reading.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> Nature gave him a hot temper and fearless independence of +spirit; he was in consequence impatient, and perhaps unduly critical, +of the mistakes of those above him; but he was the soul of honour and +chivalry, and his private life was marked by tender love for his +mother, stanch attachment to his friends, and kindness to all +dependent upon him, including dumb animals. In his lifetime he +enjoyed 'a large share of the friendship and almost the universal +goodwill of mankind.'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> In a word, English history has produced no +truer type of hero than James Wolfe.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> In Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> pp. 342-5, is given a +letter of Wolfe's, dated July, 1756, recommending a long list of +books for a young soldier to read. Reference is made at the beginning +of the letter to a French book recently published (Turpin's <i>Essai +sur l'art de la guerre</i>), and it is interesting to find that Forbes, +in a letter to Pitt from Raestown, dated Oct. 20, 1758, stated that +in his march on Fort Duquesne he was acting on the principles laid +down in that book.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> From the 'Character of General Wolfe' in the <i>Annual +Register</i> for 1759, p. 282.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote451"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's brigadiers.<br> + <br> + Monckton.<br> + <br> + Murray.<br> + <br> + George Townshend.<br> + <br> + Carleton.<br> + <br> + Howe.<br> + <br> + Admiral Saunders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the siege of Louisbourg, Wolfe was one of three brigadiers under +General Amherst. When he was given the command of the expedition +against Quebec, three brigadiers were placed under him—Monckton, +Townshend, and Murray. They were all of noble birth, and two of them +at any rate were good soldiers. Monckton, the senior of the three, +had shown his efficiency in Acadia, and at the siege of Louisbourg. +Murray proved his worth both before and after the capture of Quebec, +in a civil as well as in a military capacity. The least satisfactory +of the three was George Townshend, elder brother of the better known +Charles Townshend, not wanting in capacity, but deficient in loyalty +to his commander; a somewhat jealous and bitter-natured man, who had +the backing of political and aristocratic connexion. Horace Walpole +writes of him as a man 'whose proud and sullen and contemptuous +temper never suffered him to wait for thwarting his superiors till +risen to a level <a name="page292"></a>with them. He saw everything in an ill-natured and +ridiculous light—a sure prevention of ever being seen himself in a +great or favourable one.'<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> The Quartermaster-General of the force +was Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, well known in Canadian +history, a great personal friend of Wolfe's, though out of favour +with the King. Howe, younger brother of the man whose untimely death +Wolfe so deeply lamented, commanded the light infantry, and led them +in the van of the force up the cliffs of Quebec. Lastly, an admirable +officer was in charge of the fleet, Saunders, who nineteen years +before had sailed round the world with Lord Anson in the <i>Centurion</i>.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> <i>Memoirs of the Reign of King George II</i> (1847 ed.), +vol. iii, pp. 171, 172.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote452"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Small number<br> + of troops<br> + commanded<br> + by Wolfe.<br> + <br> + <br> + Start of the<br> + expedition.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The troops, whom Wolfe and his officers commanded, were too few for +the difficult task with which they were entrusted. They were to have +numbered 12,000; as a matter of fact their total did not reach 9,000. +Some were in America already, but the large majority sailed from +England with Wolfe and Saunders, leaving England in the middle of +February, anchoring at Halifax at the end of April, moving on to +Louisbourg in May, when the ice was disappearing, and arriving in +front of Quebec towards the end of June—a small squadron, under +Admiral Durell, having already ascended the St. Lawrence in advance +of the main fleet. As they went up the river, 'the prevailing +sentimental toast amongst the officers' was 'British colours on every +French fort, port, and garrison in America.'<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> From Knox's <i>Historical Journal of the Campaigns in +North America</i> (London, 1769), vol. i, p. 279.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote453"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>General plan<br> + of campaign<br> + in North<br> + America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The expedition against Quebec was only part of a general plan of +campaign. While Wolfe was operating in the St. Lawrence, it was +intended that Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief, with a larger army, +should move northward by way of Lake Champlain; and, reducing the +French forts at <a name="page293"></a>Ticonderoga and Crown Point, make his way to the St. +Lawrence, in time to co-operate with Wolfe's force, or to draw off a +number of the defenders of Quebec for the protection of Montreal. As +events turned out, Amherst gave little support to Wolfe. On the +contrary, the main French army under Montcalm went to and remained at +Quebec; and Wolfe, with the smaller force and far the more difficult +enterprise to undertake, had to rely on his own resources alone. +Montcalm had probably gauged the respective merits of Amherst and +Wolfe. Had Amherst been in command of the Quebec expedition, and +Wolfe leading the central advance, it is reasonable to suppose that +the French general would have entrusted the defence of Quebec to a +smaller force, and with the bulk of his army would have confronted +the more dangerous English leader on the line of Lake Champlain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote454"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst's<br> + difficulties.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Amherst, however, it is fair to note, had, as Commander-in-Chief, to +direct his attention to other points as well as the direct northern +line of advance. When the spring opened, the forts on the Mohawk +river had been re-established, and Fort Duquesne was held by the +small garrison which Forbes had placed there. But Oswego was still +desolate, and the English had no post on Lake Ontario. The French +held a strong position at Niagara; they commanded the routes from the +lakes to Fort Duquesne; they could bring reinforcements of Canadians +and Indians from the west as well as up the St. Lawrence—if any +could be spared from this quarter. Forbes, the leader in the west, +was dead. Under these circumstances a cautious commander, though not +perhaps a brilliant one, might hesitate to invade central Canada +until some further security was attained on the western side.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote455"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Prideaux<br> + sent against<br> + Niagara.<br> + <br> + <br> + Haldimand<br> + attacked<br> + at Oswego:<br> + he beats<br> + off the<br> + French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>General Stanwix was accordingly sent to reinforce Fort Duquesne, and, +having made that position secure, to press forward, if possible, up +the Alleghany and French Creek rivers, in order to co-operate with +another force which, under General Prideaux, was ordered to ascend +the Mohawk river, <a name="page294"></a>reoccupy Oswego, and from Oswego as the base to +attack Niagara. Prideaux concentrated his troops at Schenectady +towards the end of May, about 5,000 in number, including two +regiments of regulars. Sir William Johnson joined him with Indian +warriors from the Five Nations; and with him too, as second in +command, was Colonel Haldimand, like Bouquet a Swiss by birth, and +twenty years later Governor-General of Canada. Strengthening the +outposts on the line of communication as he advanced, Prideaux made +his way to Oswego, and, leaving Haldimand there to rebuild the fort, +started westwards on July 1 for Niagara, carrying his men in boats +along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Soon after he left, +Haldimand's force at Oswego was attacked by 1,000 Canadians and +Indians, who came up the St. Lawrence under the command of St. Luc de +la Corne; but, though taken by surprise, the garrison beat off their +assailants with little loss.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote456"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fort<br> + Niagara.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The French fort at Niagara was in good condition for defence. It +stood in the angle between the Niagara river and the lake, on what is +now the American side of the river; a road had been made past the +falls, and there were two outposts, one above and the other below the +falls. A competent French officer, Pouchot, was in command; his +garrison, when the English appeared, numbered 500 men more or less, +and he sent messages to bring up reinforcements from the forts on the +Ohio route—Presque Île, Fort Leboeuf, and Machault or Venango—in +addition to Indians and Rangers from Detroit and the west, who were +already coming down to the aid of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote457"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Prideaux.<br> + <br> + <br> + Johnson takes<br> + command and<br> + defeats the<br> + French<br> + relief force.<br> + <br> + <br> + Surrender<br> + of Niagara.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On July 8 Prideaux summoned the fort to surrender, and, his summons +being rejected, began to invest the place. No great skill was shown +in the investment, and on July 20 the English general was +accidentally killed by the bursting of a shell from one of his own +guns. The command devolved on Johnson, who heard that a relief <a name="page295"></a>force +was coming down Lake Erie—a force which numbered at least 1,200 men +all told, and was led by some of the best border fighters in Canada, +including Ligneris, who had in the preceding year been in charge of +Fort Duquesne. Johnson marched out to intercept them on the road +between the fort and the falls, attacked them at once in front and on +the flank, and gained a complete victory. The French officers were +taken prisoners, their troops were utterly routed and broken up, and +the survivors retreated westward to Detroit, abandoning Lake Erie and +the whole of the Ohio country. It was on July 24 that the fight took +place, and on the following day Pouchot, having verified the news of +the French defeat, surrendered Niagara. One of the terms of the +surrender was that the prisoners should be protected from the Indians +by an English escort, the massacre at Fort William Henry being +evidently borne in mind; and on this condition six hundred Frenchmen +were sent to New York.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote458"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Result of<br> + its fall.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Thus, for the second time, Sir William Johnson had rendered signal +service to the English cause; and with the fall of Niagara the French +lost all command of the lower lakes. Their only communication now +with Detroit and the far West was by the old route of the Ottawa +river, and their scheme of conquest in the lands of the Ohio was +wholly and for ever undone. 'The taking of Niagara broke off +effectually that communication, so much talked of and so much +dreaded, between Canada and Louisiana; and by this stroke one of the +capital political designs of the French, which gave occasion to the +present war, was defeated in its direct and immediate object.'<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> On +hearing of the success, Amherst sent up General Gage to replace +Prideaux, with orders to come down the St. Lawrence and join in the +combination against central Canada; but the force was small, Gage, +like Amherst, was cautious, and the summer passed <a name="page296"></a>away without any +further success by the troops on Lake Ontario.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> <i>Annual Register</i> for 1759, p. +34.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote459"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst's<br> + advance.<br> + <br> + <br> + The French<br> + abandon<br> + Ticonderoga<br> + and Crown<br> + Point.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>While Prideaux and Johnson were operating against Niagara, Amherst +had begun his northward movement. He had carefully secured his +communications by fortified posts, and, before June ended, had +gathered a force of 11,000 men at the southern end of Lake George, +the scene of so many encampments and so much fighting. On July 21 he +embarked his troops, followed the line of Abercromby's advance in the +previous year, found the famous entrenchment, which had foiled +Abercromby's troops, deserted, but the fort itself still held. On the +evening of the twenty-sixth, however, deserters brought news that the +garrison was in retreat, and shortly afterwards a loud explosion told +its own tale. Ticonderoga had been abandoned and blown up. The French +commander opposed to Amherst was Bourlamaque, and his orders were to +fall back before the English to the outlet of Lake Champlain, where a +small island in the Richelieu river, the Île aux Noix, could easily +be defended, blocking the enemy's advance on Montreal. He had a force +of over 3,000 men, the rearguard of which, consisting of 400 men, had +held Ticonderoga for two or three days, to cover the retreat of the +main force. On August 1, Crown Point was found to be abandoned also, +and the way north, down Lake Champlain, lay open to the invaders of +Canada. Amherst entered Crown Point on August 4, and on the following +day wrote to Pitt: 'I shall take fast hold of it, and not neglect at +the same time to forward every measure I can to enable me to pass +Lake Champlain.'</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote460"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst's<br> + inaction.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Now was the time for the quick aggressive movement which Wolfe +practised and preached, but the Commander-in-Chief fell miserably +short of the occasion. August went by, and September, but Robert +Rogers and his Rangers, who harried the French Indians on the river +St. Francis <a name="page297"></a>north-east of Lake Champlain, were the only fighting +members of Amherst's army. Time was spent in constructing a new fort +at Crown Point; in making a road eastward from Lake Champlain, +opposite Crown Point, to the Connecticut river; in building vessels +to overpower four little armed sloops, which represented French naval +enterprise on the lake. In the middle of October Amherst embarked his +troops to go north, met with wind and storm, returned to Crown Point, +and made all snug for the winter. This was not the way to conquer +Canada: the real work was done by another man at another place. While +the main English army loitered on the shores of Lake Champlain, Wolfe +had laid down his life in victory on the Plains of Abraham.</p> + +<a name="map4"></a> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="map4"> + <tr> + <td width="740"> + <img src="images/4.jpg" alt="Map of Quebec"> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote461"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The harbour<br> + of Quebec.<br> + <br> + <br> + The northern<br> + bank of<br> + the St.<br> + Lawrence.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>By a Canadian Act of 1858, the harbour of Quebec, for the purposes of +the Act, is defined as extending from the Cap Rouge river, about +eight miles above Quebec, to the Montmorency, about the same distance +below the city. At Quebec, and for many miles above, the St. Lawrence +is a tidal river. Below Quebec the river flows due north-east, and is +divided into two channels by the island of Orleans, which also lies +due north-east and south-west, being twenty miles long with a maximum +breadth of six miles. The inland—the south-western—end of the +island points directly at the rock of Quebec, which runs out from the +northern shore of the St. Lawrence, facing straight down the river, +at four miles distance from the island. The two channels, looking up +stream, unite at the end of the island, and form a semicircular basin +just below Quebec, where the northern shore recedes. Immediately +above this basin the rock of Quebec on the north of the river, and +Point Levis on the southern mainland, jut out towards each other, +narrowing the St. Lawrence to a breadth of considerably less than a +mile. Above Quebec the upward course of the river is still south-west +by west. The northern bank is continuously steep, and at five to six +miles' distance from Quebec on this side is Sillery Cove. <a name="page298"></a>Between two +and three miles further on, nearly due west, is Cap Rouge. Over +against Sillery the Chaudičre river flows in from the south, forming +in old days a possible route to the St. Lawrence for those who +followed up the course of the Kennebec from the coast of Maine.<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> See <a href="#page123">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Miles of river-side cliff culminate in the promontory on which Quebec +stands, and the south-western end of which is known as Cape Diamond. +From the river above the town, Quebec, if man combined with nature, +was almost inaccessible. Below, the eastern side of the city is girt +by the winding River St. Charles, beyond which are the meadows of +Beauport, with shoals in front and high ground behind; and, past the +little Beauport river, which is very roughly equidistant from the St. +Charles and the Montmorency, the northern bank of the St. Lawrence is +again more or less fringed with steep ground as far as, and beyond, +the falls, over which the Montmorency takes its way into the great +river.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote462"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The strength<br> + of the French<br> + position.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Nature had given Quebec a position of unique strength; man had added +fortifications; and, when Wolfe came before it, 16,000 soldiers, +including French, Canadians, and Indians, were mustered for its +defence, under one of the most skilful generals of his day. There was +a garrison in Quebec itself; but the main army was encamped below the +city, and lined entrenchments from the St. Charles to the +Montmorency, Montcalm's head quarters being on the further side of +the Beauport river. To defeat an army nearly double the strength of +his own, and to take the citadel which, since the days of Kirke and +Champlain, had proved impregnable, was the hopeless task assigned to +Wolfe. It was a task which he accomplished.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote463"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's troops<br> + superior<br> + in quality<br> + to Montcalm's.<br> + <br> + <br> + Importance of<br> + commanding<br> + the river.<br> + <br> + <br> + Co-operation of<br> + English army<br> + and navy.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Over and above his own leadership, he had two points in his favour. +His troops were better than those commanded by Montcalm. The majority +of Montcalm's men were Canadian militia, disinclined for long +continuous service, <a name="page299"></a>which kept them away from their farms, and, while +excellent for raiding purposes or for fighting under cover, not to be +relied on if ever they should be brought face to face with English +regiments in the open field. Wolfe, moreover, gained complete command +of the river. Such ships as the French possessed had been sent high +up the St. Lawrence out of harm's way; and, though the guns of Quebec +commanded the river strait immediately below the rock, as the siege +went on some of the English vessels, and many boats, were taken past +the promontory, so that the St. Lawrence was securely held both below +and above the city. In war and in peace English sailors and soldiers +have known how to support each other. At the sieges of Louisbourg the +admirals co-operated in every possible way with the leaders of the +land forces, and equally hearty was the co-operation of the two arms +of the service before Quebec. Admiral Saunders, with Durell and +Holmes, did all that men could do to second Wolfe in his difficult +enterprise.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote464"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The island<br> + of Orleans<br> + occupied.<br> + <br> + <br> + Vaudreuil's<br> + fireships.<br> + <br> + <br> + Point Levis<br> + occupied.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Piloted by Canadian prisoners or by their own determined seamen, the +British ships had threaded their way up the St. Lawrence, and on June +26 anchored on the southern side of the Isle of Orleans. That night a +party of Rangers landed on the island, meeting with some slight +opposition, and the next day the whole force disembarked and marched +across the island towards its westernmost point, the Point of +Orleans. There the city of Quebec came in full view, 'at once a +tempting and a discouraging sight.'<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> Hardly had the troops landed +when, on the same day, a heavy storm broke upon the English ships, +and drove some of the transports ashore; while, little more than +twenty-four hours later, a new danger threatened the fleet in the +form of fireships sent down from Quebec. This was a pet scheme of +Vaudreuil, but, like the author of the scheme, the ships did nothing +more than splutter and make a noise, scaring the <a name="page300"></a>English outpost at +the Point of Orleans. Some stranded, others were towed ashore by the +English sailors—none of them reached the fleet which they were +intended to destroy. On the evening of the next day, the +twenty-ninth, part of Monckton's brigade was carried across the mile +and a half of water which separates the island of Orleans at its +westernmost point from the mainland on the southern shore; on the +thirtieth the rest of the brigade was landed, and occupied Point +Levis. Here batteries were erected under fire from Quebec; and, after +a futile, half-hearted attempt had been made to dislodge the English +by a party of Canadians, who crossed the river higher up on the night +of July 12, the guns opened fire on the city opposite, and began the +work—which went on for weeks—of knocking its buildings to pieces.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> <i>Annual Register</i> +for 1759, p. 35.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote465"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Landing effected<br> + on the northern<br> + shore below<br> + the Montmorency.<br> + <br> + <br> + Division of<br> + Wolfe's force.<br> + <br> + <br> + The English ships<br> + gain the<br> + upper river.<br> + <br> + <br> + Montcalm on<br> + the defensive.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Before the batteries at Point Levis were complete, Wolfe had sent +troops across to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, lower down +the river, and occupied the heights on the eastern side of the +Montmorency river, which more or less commanded the extreme left of +the French line, where Levis was stationed. The movement was not +effected without some loss to the Rangers, who were ambushed by a +party of Indians. The latter had crossed the Montmorency by a ford +above the falls, but the ford was too securely guarded on the French +side to justify any attempt on the part of Wolfe's small force to +attack in this direction. It was the English general's plan to +reconnoitre and threaten every point in turn of the French position, +to divide the enemy's forces if possible, and if possible to induce +Montcalm to take the offensive. With this object, Wolfe ran great +risks. One part of his army was at Point Levis, another below the +Montmorency, a third small detachment held the Point of Orleans. On +July 18 his ships began to run the gauntlet of the Quebec batteries +and reach the upper river, while boats were dragged overland by Point +Levis to co-operate above the city. A still further division of the +attacking force <a name="page301"></a>was then made, and Carleton was sent some eighteen +miles up stream to land and raid on the northern shore. But though +the movement drew off a certain number of French troops from the +Beauport lines to watch the enemy above Quebec, Montcalm persisted in +playing a waiting game, in making no attack, and running no risk. His +policy was no doubt a sound one. It is true that Quebec was being +riddled with shot and shell, that the farmers and villagers in the +country round were suffering, that the Canadians and Indians were +losing heart at the apparent inaction of their leaders, but time and +place were on the side of the French, and as the weeks went on the +wisdom of patient defence became more and more apparent.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote466"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Frontal attack<br> + on the French<br> + lines by the<br> + Montmorency.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the end of July, Wolfe determined to try to force the French +entrenchments where they abutted on the Montmorency river. The plan +involved a frontal attack on a very strong position, and it was only +possible to make the attempt when the tide was out. At low tide the +Montmorency could be forded below the falls, and the General proposed +to land Monckton's brigade on the shore of the St. Lawrence, above +the Montmorency, in face of the French lines, and to support it by +marching Townshend's and Murray's troops, who held the heights below +the Montmorency, across the ford at the mouth of the latter river. +The two forces converging were to carry an advanced French redoubt +which stood on the flat a little beyond high-water mark, and, if the +French still refused battle, to assault the heights beyond.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote467"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + repulsed with<br> + heavy loss.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Monckton's men, embarked mainly at Point Levis, were moved up and +down the river through the day, keeping the French in doubt as to +where the attack would be made. A ship of war was anchored in a +position to cover the ford of the Montmorency, while two large +flat-bottomed boats carrying guns, or, as Knox called them, 'two +armed transport cats (catamarans) drawing little water,'<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> were +taken in <a name="page302"></a>close to shore, and left to be stranded as the tide went +out. Towards evening the water was low, the guns opened fire, and, +after some delay in finding a landing-place, the men began to +disembark on the muddy edge of the river. The Grenadiers, with some +of the Royal Americans, who were first landed, rushed forward and +seized the redoubt, which the French abandoned. They then hurried on, +without waiting for the main body of troops, to attack the higher +ground behind. This premature movement ruined the enterprise. +Advancing without order or formation up slippery slopes, in a storm +of rain, under heavy fire, the Grenadiers were hurled back to the +redoubt with a loss of over 400 men, and were brought off by Wolfe, +who saw the uselessness of repeating the attack in the deepening +shades of evening. Some of the troops were re-embarked, the others +retreated in good order across the ford, and the day ended in +failure, though the bulk of the English army had taken no part in the +fight. In his General Order on the following day Wolfe commented +severely, and with reason, upon the 'impetuous, irregular, and +unsoldierlike proceedings' of the Grenadiers, reminding them that +'the Grenadiers could not suppose that they alone could beat the +French army.'<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small> The blame for the disaster rested solely with the +soldiers of the advanced party, who, in eagerness to attack, lost all +order and discipline; but the effect was much the same as though the +leaders had blundered. The small English army had lost a number of +men, who could ill be spared; the defenders of Quebec gained heart, +their enemies were correspondingly dispirited.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Knox, vol. i, p. 354.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 1.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote468"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Operations<br> + on the upper<br> + river.<br> + <br> + <br> + Levis sent<br> + to Montreal<br> + to oppose<br> + Amherst.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Wolfe still held his ground below the Montmorency, but moved more of +his men than before above Quebec. Here Murray was placed in command, +with Admiral Holmes in charge of the ships and boats. Bougainville, +with 1,500 men, was detached by Montcalm to watch the enemy's +<a name="page303"></a>movements and to guard the northern shore; but, on both sides of the +river, both above and below the town, the English spread havoc and +destroyed supplies. The waterway being blocked by Holmes' vessels and +the country round Quebec being desolated, Montcalm's army could only +be fed by a toilsome overland transport of many miles, until the +means of transport failed, when provisions were again sent down the +river, running the blockade usually under cover of night. Meanwhile, +early in August, the French had learnt of the fall of Niagara and the +abandonment of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and to meet Amherst's +expected advance Levis was sent up to Montreal with 800 men. In this +respect, and in no other, Amherst's operations helped Wolfe. As +events turned out, it was of incalculable importance to the English +that, when the battle of Quebec took place, Montcalm's able +lieutenant was not on the field.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote469"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Critical position<br> + of Wolfe.<br> + <br> + <br> + His illness.<br> + <br> + <br> + His brigadiers<br> + recommend an<br> + attempt above<br> + the city.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The position of the French was critical, but that of the English was +more critical still. The summer was waning. The English troops were +dwindling in numbers from casualties and disease. Worst of all, when +the middle of August was past, worn in mind and body, Wolfe was laid +low with fever in the camp at Montmorency. On his life, as the +soldiers who loved him knew, hung all the hopes of the expedition. +While recovering, but still unable to move, he submitted to his +brigadiers three alternative plans for attacking Montcalm's lines. +They met on August 29, and, rejecting all three proposals, counselled +an attempt above the city. 'We are of opinion,' they wrote, 'that the +most probable method of striking an effectual blow is to bring the +troops to the south shore, and to carry the operations above the +town. If we can establish ourselves on the north shore, the Marquis +de Montcalm must fight us on our own terms. We are between him and +his provisions, and between him and the army opposing General +Amherst.'<small><small><sup>13</sup></small></small> Their +<a name="page304"></a>advice, which was unanimous, was taken without +demur, and Wolfe proceeded with the desperate task of putting it into +execution.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>13</sup></small> Wright, p. 545.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote470"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's<br> + despondency.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>That he had little hope of success is shown by the tone of his +correspondence. In his last dispatch to Pitt, dated September 2, he +wrote, 'there is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at +a loss how to determine.'<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> To Admiral Saunders, two or three days +before, he had written of himself as 'a man that must necessarily be +ruined';<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> and in his last letter to his mother, written on August +31, he spoke of being determined to leave the service at the earliest +opportunity.<small><small><sup>14</sup></small></small> Townshend, meanwhile, in private, criticized him +much as Wolfe himself had criticized his superior officers the year +before. 'General Wolfe's health,' he wrote to his wife, 'is but very +bad: his generalship, in my poor opinion, is not a bit better.'<small><small><sup>15</sup></small></small> +Yet, sick and despondent as he was, Wolfe did not lie down in the +furrow. For past failures he blamed no one but himself; manfully he +faced the future in all its gloom; and, if Townshend felt little +confidence in his leading, the soldiers knew better; and he led them +to victory.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>14</sup></small> Wright, pp. 548, 549, 553.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>15</sup></small> From the <i>Townshend Papers</i>. The letter is quoted in +full by Kingsford in his <i>History of Canada,</i> vol. iv, p. 226, note.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote471"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Disposition of<br> + Wolfe's army<br> + at the end<br> + of August.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the end of August, the following was the disposition of the +English forces. Murray, with Admiral Holmes, was operating above the +city; Monckton was at Point Levis, and near him Admiral Saunders, +with the main English fleet, was anchored in the basin of Quebec. +Wolfe himself, with Townshend, was still encamped on the northern +shore below the Montmorency; and Admiral Durell, with the rearguard +of the fleet, was watching the river below. Amherst's successes were +known to Wolfe and his colleagues, but they soon learnt also that no +help could be expected from him. September was on them, and at the +end of September, or at <a name="page305"></a>latest by the middle of October, the campaign +would close. Whatever had to be done must be done quickly.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote472"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The camp at the<br> + Montmorency<br> + broken up, and<br> + the troops moved<br> + up the river.<br> + <br> + <br> + Montcalm deceived.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On September 3 the English camp by the Montmorency was broken up, and +the troops were moved to the Point of Orleans and Point Levis. On the +fifth, Murray's troops, which had returned to Point Levis, were +marched up the southern shore and embarked on Holmes' vessels; they +were followed by battalions of Monckton's and Townshend's brigades; +and by September 7 nearly 4,000 troops, with the necessary supplies, +were moving up and down the river above Quebec, menacing a landing at +this point or at that, wearying Bougainville's force, now raised to +3,000 men, which, with its head quarters at Cap Rouge, was required +to keep pace with the enemy's fleet, and to guard the heights on the +northern bank of the St. Lawrence. Montcalm knew that the English +force above Quebec had been strengthened; but he seems not to have +known the full extent of Wolfe's preparations. English forces at +Point Levis and on the island of Orleans still faced the Beauport +lines, while Saunders' fleet lay directly off Quebec. The French +general regarded Wolfe's movements on the upper river as feints; the +main attack, if attack there should be, he expected below the town.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote473"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Preparation<br> + for the final<br> + attack.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There was bad weather on September 7 and 8, and Wolfe landed a large +proportion of his men from the crowded transports high up on the +southern shore. Early on the twelfth they were put on board again, +and orders were issued for the coming night. Two days' provisions +each soldier took with him; and in the General Order, the last which +Wolfe issued, officers and men alike were bid to 'remember what their +country expects from them.' It was a signal such as Nelson gave at +the battle of Trafalgar.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote474"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The<br> + landing-place<br> + selected.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On September 10, looking through his telescope from the southern +shore across the river, Wolfe had noted a path running up the +opposite bank from a little cove rather more <a name="page306"></a>than a mile and a half +higher up the river than the citadel of Quebec. The place was known +as the Anse au Foulon, and now bears the name of Wolfe's Cove. The +bank is between 200 and 300 feet high, and at the top were to be seen +the tents of a French outpost. Here he determined to attempt a +landing. On the night of the twelfth the troops, whom he had on +board, were to drop down the river with the ebbing tide, half going +on in boats, the rest following in the transports, while another +smaller force, left under Colonel Burton at Point Levis, was to move +up the southern shore, to be ferried across in support of the attack. +Saunders, meanwhile, as night came on, was to threaten the Beauport +lines.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote475"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fortune<br> + favours<br> + Wolfe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Fortune had hitherto been unkind to Wolfe; now all went well. The +many chances which a night attack involves, when the crisis came, all +favoured the English. Their boats, as they came down stream, were +taken by the sentries for French provision boats, which had been +expected. Bougainville, who, before night fell and before the tide +turned, had seen the ships drift up stream instead of down, was +completely misled. Montcalm looked for danger from the fleet in front +of him, and knew not what the tide was bringing down.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote476"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The descent<br> + of the river.<br> + <br> + <br> + The landing.<br> + <br> + <br> + French picket<br> + surprised.<br> + <br> + <br> + The heights gained<br> + and line of<br> + battle formed.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was about two o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth when the +boats cast off from the ships, and took their way down stream. Howe +led with twenty-four men of the light infantry, who had volunteered +for the first ascent. Close behind was Wolfe himself; and it has been +told in many books, how, as the stream bore him on in darkness to +glory and the grave, he repeated the well-known lines of Gray's +Elegy.<small><small><sup>16</sup></small></small> The leading boat was carried a little below the spot where +the path runs down to the shore. About four o'clock in the morning, +an hour before daybreak, the men scrambled up the side of the wooded +cliff, and surprised the French picket at the top. Its commander, +Vergor, who had surrendered <a name="page307"></a>Fort Beauséjour in Acadia, was wounded +when trying to escape, and taken prisoner. The way being clear, the +rest of the troops followed. The boats, having discharged their first +cargo, brought off the remainder of the force from the transports, +and carried over Burton's men from the opposite bank. About six +o'clock, the daylight of a cloudy morning showed the whole army at +the top of the cliffs; and, moving forward towards Quebec, Wolfe +formed his line of battle within a mile of the city, on the part of +the plateau known as the Plains of Abraham.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>16</sup></small> Gray's <i>Elegy written in a Country Churchyard</i> was +first published in 1751.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Between four and five thousand men had been landed; but some were +kept in reserve, or left to guard the landing, and less than 4,000 +men formed the fighting line. Monckton's brigade on the right abutted +on the edge of the cliffs. Murray held the centre with three +regiments, the 47th, the 58th, and the 78th Highlanders.<small><small><sup>17</sup></small></small> +Townshend was posted on the left. The left could be turned, for the +force was too small to extend across the plain; and therefore, while +the rest of the troops faced Quebec, Townshend's men, drawn up at +right angles to their comrades, fronted the high ground known as the +Côte St. Genevičve, which overlooks the river St. Charles above the +city. Howe's light infantry covered the rear. One gun<small><small><sup>18</sup></small></small> had been +dragged up the cliff; but, when the fight began, the English had no +other artillery. The French in this respect were in not much better +case, <a name="page308"></a>for they hurried to the battlefield with few big guns to back +them. The fight was one of infantry alone.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>17</sup></small> The 78th Highlanders, who fought with Wolfe, were not +the ancestors of the present regiment of that number. The regiments +of the present day who carry Quebec on their colours are the 15th +(1st battalion East Yorkshire Regiment), the 28th (1st battalion +Gloucestershire Regiment), the 35th (1st battalion Royal Sussex), the +43rd (1st battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry), the 47th (1st +battalion Loyal North Lancashire), the 48th (1st battalion +Northamptonshire Regiment), the 58th (2nd battalion Northamptonshire +Regiment), and the 60th Rifles (two battalions).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>18</sup></small> Townshend's dispatch of Sept. 20 says distinctly 'we +had been able to bring up but one gun.' Knox, on the other hand, +says, 'About eight o'clock we had two pieces of short brass +six-pounders playing on the enemy' (Knox, vol. ii, pp. 70, 128).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote477"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Montcalm<br> + hurries to<br> + give battle.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Saunders' pretence at landing on the Beauport shore had kept +Montcalm's army on the alert all the night. At six in the morning, +riding towards Quebec, the French general learnt that the English had +landed, and saw in the distance the enemy's lines. He brought his +troops from Beauport with what speed he could; crossed the St. +Charles; passed by or through the city; and marshalled his force +beyond for instant fight. He had with him, it would seem, not more +than 5,000 men. The garrison of Quebec remained within the walls, and +a large proportion of the army did not leave their encampment, for +the further lines by the Montmorency were some miles distant, and the +shore had still to be protected. He might have waited to bring up +more troops, and to give time to Bougainville to operate in the +enemy's rear; but his communications were threatened, his supplies +were short, Wolfe, if given breathing space, could throw up +entrenchments, and with his command of the river, make his position +absolutely safe. The one hope was to hurl him back over the cliffs, +while yet his foothold was insecure; and to strike before the ardour +of the Canadians and Indians had time to cool.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote478"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The battle<br> + of Quebec.<br> + <br> + <br> + Defeat of<br> + the French.<br> + <br> + <br> + Death of<br> + Wolfe.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Between nine and ten o'clock the French were in battle array, and +advanced over a little ridge which lay between Wolfe's army and +Quebec. Wolfe's soldiers had had two hours' rest, and steadily moved +forward, reserving their fire by the General's orders. At forty +yards' distance the word of command was given; and two volleys of +musketry decided the battle. The fire came from the whole English +line, the French fell like corn under the reaper's scythe, a charge +with bayonets and claymores followed, 'the Highlanders chased them +vigorously towards Charles river, and the 58th to the suburb close to +John's Gate.'<small><small><sup>19</sup></small></small> Montcalm's army +<a name="page309"></a>became a routed rabble. Stricken +already earlier in the fight, Wolfe on the right, while preparing to +lead the final charge, received his death wound. He was carried to +the rear; heard, while still conscious, that the enemy were in +flight; turned on his side, thanked God, and died in peace.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>19</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 71.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote479"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Death of<br> + Montcalm.<br> + <br> + <br> + Monckton<br> + wounded.<br> + <br> + <br> + Townshend<br> + in command.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It was all over before noon. The English casualties numbered between +six and seven hundred, the French lost double that number, and they +too were bereft of their leader. As Montcalm retreated towards Quebec +with his flying troops, he was shot through the body. He reached a +house in the city, lingered for some hours, and, before the following +day broke, like Wolfe he had gone to his rest. 'It was a very +singular affair,' was Horace Walpole's cold-blooded comment; 'the +generals on both sides slain, the second in command wounded; in +short, very near what battles should be, in which only the principals +ought to suffer.'<small><small><sup>20</sup></small></small> The French lost not only Montcalm, but also the +officer next in rank on the field. On the English side, Monckton, who +would have succeeded Wolfe, was severely wounded, though he was able, +on the fifteenth, to sign a short and simple dispatch, reporting the +'very signal victory'; and the command devolved on Townshend. +Threatened by Bougainville, who came up too late from behind with +2,000 men, and retreated again, Townshend recalled his troops and +entrenched them; cannon and supplies were brought up from the river, +and communication with the ships was made safe.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>20</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, p. 258 (Letter +of Oct. 19, 1759).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote480"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Disorderly<br> + retreat of<br> + the French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Behind the St. Charles the French were all in confusion. Vaudreuil +called a council of war, and determined on an immediate retreat, +abandoning all the lines which Montcalm had held so long and so well, +and leaving the garrison of Quebec to surrender, as soon as +provisions failed. The retreat began that same night with no +semblance of order; and, circling inland past the English lines, the +fugitives made <a name="page310"></a>their way towards Montreal, hurrying in panic far +beyond Cap Rouge, where Bougainville was still stationed, to Jacques +Cartier, thirty miles distant from Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote481"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Siege of Quebec.<br> + <br> + <br> + Levis rallies the<br> + French too late.<br> + <br> + <br> + The city<br> + surrenders.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With Wolfe and Montcalm expired the genius of either army. It was +characteristic of Wolfe that, while dying, he sent an order to cut +off the French retreat; but in the interval between the battle on the +thirteenth and the capitulation of Quebec on the eighteenth, we do +not read that any attempt was made to intercept the French, nor did +Saunders land men to occupy the deserted Beauport lines. Townshend +steadily made his trenches and besieged in form; while the French +commandant of Quebec, Ramesay, with a weak garrison, and little or no +food, was urged by his own people to capitulate. He had orders from +Vaudreuil to surrender in due time, and, though counter messages +came, they came too late. Too late Levis at Montreal had heard of the +disaster; hurrying back, he turned the beaten troops at Jacques +Cartier; he started with them on the eighteenth to save Quebec; but +on that very morning Quebec was given up. The afternoon before, an +assault on the town was threatened above, while a landing from the +river was threatened below. Distrusting the promises of relief, +Ramesay yielded to the pressure put on him by soldiers and civilians +alike; at eight o'clock, on the morning of the eighteenth, the terms +of surrender were signed; and that same day advanced parties of the +English army held the gates of Quebec.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote482"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Murray left<br> + in charge.<br> + <br> + <br> + Saunders<br> + sails for home,</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The English commanders debated whether or not they could hold the +city through the coming winter, and determined at all hazards to do +so. Murray was placed in command with a garrison of about 7,000 men; +a month passed in repairing the fortifications, in landing and +storing supplies; and on October 18, Admiral Saunders, with the first +portion of the fleet, set sail for England. As he neared home, at the +entrance of the Channel, he learnt that Hawke was about to engage a +French fleet from Brest. He sailed <a name="page311"></a>off to join him 'without landing +his glory,'<small><small><sup>21</sup></small></small> but came too late, for Hawke had already fought his +fight and won his victory in Quiberon Bay. Saunders had deserved well +of his country, for without his active, untiring support the land +forces would never have taken Quebec. He outlived Wolfe for sixteen +years, and was privately buried in Westminster Abbey in December, +1775.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>21</sup></small> Letter from Horace Walpole dated 'November 30th, of the +great year' (1759), vol. iii, p. 268.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote483"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and Townshend.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Townshend, too, went home, his enemies said, to exaggerate his own +merits and belittle Wolfe's memory. An anonymous letter to 'an +honourable brigadier-general,' attributed to Junius among others,<small><small><sup>22</sup></small></small> +appeared in the following year, and attacked him with bitterness, +some of which he probably deserved. He passed into political life, +and as Viceroy of Ireland achieved a doubtful repute.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>22</sup></small> See the <i>Grenville Papers,</i> 1852, 3rd ed. Introductory +notes relating to Lord Temple and the authorship of Junius at the +beginning of vol. iii, pp. lxxxviii-xc.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote484"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Wolfe's body<br> + brought to England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Wolfe's body was brought to England, and buried where his father had +been laid earlier in the year, in the vaults of Greenwich parish +church. A monument to him, voted by Parliament, stands in Westminster +Abbey, and his name lives, and will for ever live, in the hearts of +men.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote485"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Cotton's letters<br> + to Grenville.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The news of his victory and death, and of the fall of Quebec, reached +England on October 17. It came but two or three days after his latest +dispatches, which gave little hope of success. There are two +interesting letters among the <i>Grenville Papers,</i> written to +Grenville by the Rev. Nathaniel Cotton, from on board the <i>Princess +Amelia</i> at Île Madame in the St. Lawrence. The first is dated August +27 to September 6; the second bears the date of September 20. The +first, repeating former letters, is not hopeful. It points out the +insufficiency of Wolfe's force, the necessity of co-operation on the +part of Amherst; and it refers to 'unrevealed causes' militating +against the enterprise, <a name="page312"></a>which may be taken to mean want of harmony +between Wolfe and Townshend. The later letter begins with the +following words: 'I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that +through the smiles of Providence we are in safe and quiet possession +of Quebec.'<small><small><sup>23</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>23</sup></small> <i>Grenville Papers,</i> vol. i, +pp. 318-26.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote486"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reception of<br> + the news<br> + in England.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Very dramatic was the revulsion of feeling in England, when all was +known. No submarine cables then told the story of the war from day to +day. Only a few dispatches and letters at long intervals were brought +over the Atlantic, recording at first slow progress, then reverse, +disappointment, and the General's sickness and despondency. The rock +of Quebec seemed still impregnable; and, as the bright summer waned +into autumn, public confidence gave place to gloom. Then in +mid-October, when to North American lands the Indian summer gives a +second brightness, tidings came from over the sea that the victory +was won, and that the price paid for it was the life of Wolfe. There +followed, as Burke well said, a 'mourning triumph.'<small><small><sup>24</sup></small></small> Joy was +sobered by the sense of loss, and the picture of a desolate home +appealed, as it always appeals, to Englishmen's minds. They thought +of the mother, lately widowed, now childless, whose sickly son had +been her joy and pride; and many, we may not doubt, thought also of +the French home, whose master had gone out and came not again.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>24</sup></small> <i>Annual Register</i> +for 1759, p. 43.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote487"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Was Wolfe's<br> + attack<br> + a great<br> + military feat?</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The question naturally suggests itself, whether Wolfe's landing and +attack was a desperate venture, justified only by success, the last +throw of the dice by a man who had described himself as one who must +necessarily be ruined; or whether it was the supreme effort of a +military genius? It is impossible to study the story without coming +to the conclusion that the second is the true view. No doubt fortune +favoured him; no doubt the enterprise was full of risk; but from +first to last as little as possible was left to <a name="page313"></a>chance, and from +first to last a master mind made itself felt. The main point to +remember is that he had secured absolute command of the river; +wherever therefore he landed, on high ground not commanded by the +enemy's guns, if for a few hours only he could make good his landing, +his way of retreat was absolutely safe. Montcalm knew this, and hence +his immediate attack. Then we have the movements which baffled +Montcalm and Bougainville alike; we have time and place calculated to +a nicety, every commander and every man told what to do and doing it, +the landing effected by break of day, the battlefield carefully +selected, the men duly rested, the battle line cautiously and safely +formed, the respective merits of the two forces accurately +gauged—the one, in Wolfe's own words, a small number of good +soldiers, the other 'a numerous body of armed men (I cannot call it +an army).'<small><small><sup>25</sup></small></small> There was no rush or hurry about the landing, the +advance, or the fight. The soldiers kept their fire till told to use +it: they charged when and not until their leader bade them. The whole +was a thought-out feat of steady daring.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>25</sup></small> Wolfe to his mother, Aug. 31, and to Lord Holderness, +Sept. 9 (Wright's <i>Life of Wolfe,</i> pp. 553, 563).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote488"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>If Wolfe<br> + had not<br> + succeeded.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Another question which is worth considering is: What would have been +the result if Wolfe had not succeeded, if Quebec had not been taken, +and the English fleet had sailed off down the St. Lawrence, either +carrying the army home, or leaving it, as at one time during the +siege had been contemplated, to go into winter quarters at the Île +aux Coudres lower down the river? A failure would have been recorded, +and Wolfe above all others would have so regarded it; but, +notwithstanding, the expedition would not have been in vain. Quebec +would have been left in ruins, the banks of the St. Lawrence, with +emptied farms and homesteads, would have been a scene of desolation; +though Montcalm would have lived to fight again, Canada in all human +probability <a name="page314"></a>must have fallen. For Canada was being starved out; and, +if the French Government a year before could spare but few troops and +supplies for New France, much less were the necessary troops and +supplies likely to be forthcoming after another year of exhausting +war on the Continent. On December 16, Amherst wrote to Pitt from New +York: 'From the present posts His Majesty's army is now in possession +of, if no stroke was to be made, Canada must fall or the inhabitants +starve.' He wrote with information given him by one of his officers, +Major Grant, who had been a prisoner in Canada. Grant's words were: +''Tis believed that the colony, though in great distress, may subsist +for a year, without receiving supplies from France'; but it could +only subsist by using up all the live stock in the land. The English +command of the water was killing Canada, the farmers and peasantry +were sickening of the war; though Amherst wrote after the fall of +Quebec, the saving of Quebec would in no way have fed Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote489"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Results of<br> + his success<br> + on the future<br> + history<br> + of Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Unless, then, some great reversal of existing conditions had taken +place, or unless peace had been declared, Canada would have been +conquered, even if Wolfe had not triumphed and Quebec had not fallen +in September, 1759. But widely different would have been the result +on after history, and herein lies the true lesson to be drawn from +the record of the siege and capture of Quebec, and of the death of +Wolfe and Montcalm. It is the most conclusive answer, if answer were +needed, to those—fifty years ago they were many—who ignore or +minimize the effect of sentiment on the making and the preserving of +nations. The noble picturesqueness of the story, its accompaniments +of heroism and death, were of untold value in the work of +reconciliation; and of untold value was the legacy to a yet unformed +people of one of the great landmarks in history. In a sense, which it +is easier to feel than to express, two rival races, under two rival +leaders, unconsciously joined hands on the Plains of Abraham. The +<a name="page315"></a>noise of war seemed to be stilled, the bitterness of competing races +and creeds to be allayed, by sharing in an episode which appealed to +all time and to all mankind. The dramatic ending of the old order +blessed the birth of the new; the instinct of human pathos brought +men together; and out of divergent elements made a nation. Born far +away in different lands, in death Wolfe and Montcalm were not +divided; and the soil on which they died has become the sacred +heritage of a people, whose union is stronger than the divisions of +religion, language, and race.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote490"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Successes<br> + of England<br> + in 1759.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the <i>Annual Register</i> for 1759,<small><small><sup>26</sup></small></small> summing up the results of the +year to Great Britain, Burke wrote: 'In no one year since she was a +nation, has she been favoured with so many successes, both by sea and +land, and in every quarter of the globe.' It was a bright year for +England in every sense of the word. The sun had shone upon her soil +and upon her arms. In America, in India, at Minden, at Quiberon, she +had triumphed. 'I call it this ever warm and victorious year,' wrote +Walpole on October 21, 'we have not had more conquest than fine +weather. One would think we had plundered East and West Indies of +sunshine.'<small><small><sup>27</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>26</sup></small> p. 56.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>27</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, p. 259 (Letter +of Oct. 21, 1759).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote491"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The winter<br> + at Quebec.<br> + <br> + <br> + Levis' plans<br> + for recovering<br> + the city.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The winter which followed was a trying one for the garrison at +Quebec. They held the battered town, amid constant rumours of attack, +ill provided with warm clothing, with scanty supplies of firewood, +suffering much from sickness, and, as Knox tells us, in arrears of +pay, 'from which they might derive many comforts and refreshments +under their present exigencies.'<small><small><sup>28</sup></small></small> Outposts were established at +Point Levis, Sainte Foy, Lorette, and Cap Rouge; and here and there +skirmishes took place with parties of the enemy. Levis was at +Montreal, bent upon recovering Quebec. When the English fleet had +left, he sent messages to France to ask that <a name="page316"></a>provisions might be sent +as early as possible in the coming year, with ships of war, timed to +arrive in the St. Lawrence before the English should return, and +numerous enough to hold the river for France. Meanwhile, he debated +whether or not to attack Quebec in mid-winter, and attempt to carry +it by a <i>coup de main;</i> but eventually determined to await the coming +of spring and the opening of the waters. Thus the anxious winter +passed, and the middle of April came. Attack became imminent, and +Murray knew it. He ordered the French residents to leave Quebec, +called in his outposts, and with a force sadly reduced by sickness +awaited Levis' army.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>28</sup></small> vol. ii, p. 241.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote492"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>His advance<br> + in the spring<br> + of 1760.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>At the end of October the effective strength of the garrison had been +7,313. On March 1 the number of fighting men, owing to scurvy and +other diseases, was reduced to 4,800;<small><small><sup>29</sup></small></small> and, though April, with its +milder weather, saw the beginning of recovery, the English force was +greatly outmatched by the enemy, for Levis had with him, all told, at +least 10,000 men.<small><small><sup>30</sup></small></small> About April 20, the French advance from +Montreal began. The troops were brought down the river in ships and +boats, and, landing some thirty miles above Quebec, crossed the Cap +Rouge river and marched on to Lorette and Sainte Foy.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>29</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 267.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>30</sup></small> Knox gives the French numbers as 15,000, against 3,140 +English (p. 295).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote493"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The battle of<br> + Sainte Foy,<br> + and defeat of<br> + the English.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>On April 27, Murray offered battle at Sainte Foy; but the French made +no move, and he fell back to Quebec, leaving Levis to occupy Sainte +Foy that same night. Before seven o'clock on the next morning he +marched out again, bent on fighting, if possible, before Levis had +secured his position, and anxious not to be cooped up behind the +fortifications of Quebec, too weak to withstand a vigorous +bombardment. The English force numbered 3,140 men, with eighteen +pieces of cannon; and, as the men carried entrenching tools, it <a name="page317"></a>would +seem that Murray contemplated throwing up lines outside the city. The +battle took place on the same plateau where Wolfe and Montcalm had +fought; it lasted about the same time, for two hours; but the result +was widely different. Seeing the French still on the march, and not +yet in battle order, Murray ordered an immediate attack. His +artillery did good execution, and, on the right and left wings, the +light infantry and the Rangers respectively won an initial success. +But the tide soon turned. On the right the advancing English were +drawn into swampy ground; on the left they came under fire from +French troops covered by the woods. Outnumbered and outflanked, the +whole force was compelled to retreat into Quebec, having lost their +guns and 1,100 men. The French losses appear to have been heavier, +numbering according to some accounts from 1,800 to 2,000 men.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote494"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Critical<br> + position<br> + of Murray.<br> + <br> + <br> + Levis loses his<br> + opportunity.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Murray's position was now exceedingly critical. Two days after the +battle no more than 2,100 soldiers were returned as fit for duty; but +the General and his men were fully determined not to lose Quebec. On +May 1 he sent off a frigate to Louisbourg and Halifax to hasten +relief; and, day and night alike, officers and men worked with common +spirit, strengthening the defences, and mounting the guns. The French +lost their opportunity. Had they attacked the town at once, before +the garrison had recovered from the effects of the defeat, 'Quebec +would,' in Captain Knox's opinion, 'have reverted to its old +masters';<small><small><sup>31</sup></small></small> and the leisurely nature of Levis' operations seems to +bear out the view, to which French prisoners gave currency, that he +had only intended to invest the town, and wait the arrival of a +French fleet.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>31</sup></small> p. 301.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote495"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Relief of<br> + Quebec.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>He landed his stores and munitions at the Anse au Foulon, Wolfe's +landing-place, and gradually pushed forward his lines, while the +English position in front of him steadily <a name="page318"></a>grew stronger, and in the +besieged garrison confidence took the place of despondency. A storm +on the river, it was reported in the city, cost the French guns, +provisions, and ammunition. Bourlamaque, who, as an engineer by +training, was placed in charge of the siege, was wounded; and when, +on the forenoon of May 9, a strange ship sailed up the river into the +basin of Quebec, and hoisted the English colours, little doubt could +be left that any attempt to regain the city would be in vain. The +ship in question was the <i>Lowestoft</i> frigate, and she brought 'the +agreeable intelligence of a British fleet being masters of the St. +Lawrence, and nigh at hand to sustain us.'<small><small><sup>32</sup></small></small> The news, in Captain +Knox's words, was as grateful as when the garrison of Vienna, hard +pressed by the Turks, beheld Sobieski's army marching to their +relief.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>32</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 310.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote496"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Retreat<br> + of Levis.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But one swallow does not make a summer, and some days passed before +any other British ships appeared. On May 11 the French batteries +opened, answered by 150 guns from Quebec: and bombardment went on +without much damage, until, on the evening of the fifteenth, the +<i>Vanguard</i> ship of war and the <i>Diana</i> frigate anchored before +Quebec. The next morning the British ships passed up the river at +flood tide, and attacked a small French squadron above the city. The +French commander, Vauquelin, made a brave fight, but his few little +vessels were nearly all destroyed. On that night and on the +seventeenth, the French were in full retreat with the English at +their heels. Guns, scaling ladders, baggage, ammunition, sick and +wounded, were left behind. The siege of Quebec was raised, the +English, after the disastrous battle of April 28, not having lost +more than thirty men; and Murray, by his brave and able defence, made +more than amends for his previous reverse.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote497"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Reception in<br> + England of<br> + the news of<br> + Murray's<br> + defeat and<br> + subsequent<br> + relief.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In England the news of his defeat, followed after a short interval by +the news of his relief, resulted in a curious reproduction of the +excitement of the previous year. In a letter <a name="page319"></a>dated June 19, 1760, Mr. +Jenkinson in London wrote to Grenville, 'We all here blame Mr. +Murray, and are not at all satisfied with the reasons he assigns for +leaving the town to attack the enemy ... As it is, however, I +understand that there are no expectations that it (Quebec) can be +saved, and indeed I am told that Murray himself gives little reason +to hope it. The relief from Amherst is certainly impossible, and I do +not think that he has ever shown activity enough to make one hope +that he would make an attempt vigorous enough, even if there was a +mere chance of success.'<small><small><sup>33</sup></small></small> On the following ninth of July, we have +in the same <i>Grenville Papers</i> a letter from the Duke of Newcastle to +Lord Temple, referring to 'the great and almost unexpected event of +recovering Quebec and turning the loss entirely upon the French.'<small><small><sup>33</sup></small></small> +Similarly Horace Walpole, on hearing the bad news, wrote: 'We are on +a sudden reading our book backwards.' The good news came, and he +chronicled it with 'Quebec is come to life again.'<small><small><sup>34</sup></small></small> Many cold and +hot fits had been the result of news from North America since the +year 1755; but, with the failure of Levis to retake Quebec, English +anxiety as to the issue of the strife was finally dispelled. What was +left was work for which Amherst was eminently suited, steady crushing +out of the remains of resistance, slow and certain invasion, where no +brilliant effort was needed or required.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>33</sup></small> <i>Grenville Papers,</i> +vol. i, pp. 343-5.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>34</sup></small> <i>Letters of Horace Walpole,</i> vol. iii, pp. 317, 323 +(Letters of June 20 and 28, 1760).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote498"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The final<br> + advance on<br> + Montreal.<br> + <br> + <br> + Murray<br> + ascends<br> + the river.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A threefold English advance on Montreal was planned. Murray was to +move up the river from Quebec. Brigadier Haviland was to force the +passage of the Île aux Noix at the end of Lake Champlain, and strike +the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. Amherst himself, with the main +army, starting from Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to come down the +river from the west. Murray was first in motion. He embarked <a name="page320"></a>2,400 +men on ships and boats, and on July 14 took his way up stream, +followed and joined on August 17 by two regiments from Louisbourg, +which was being dismantled and abandoned. The troops went slowly up +the river, passed French outposts at various points, landed here and +there, here and there exchanged shots, and were often supplied with +provisions by the peasantry, who preferred bargaining to fighting, +and many of whom took the oath of allegiance. At Sorel, at the mouth +of the Richelieu river, Bourlamaque was stationed with a +comparatively strong force to prevent a junction between Murray and +Haviland, who was coming down from Lake Champlain; but no battle took +place, and, after Murray had reluctantly burnt the deserted houses of +the inhabitants of Sorel, who were absent in arms, the English on the +river, and the French on either bank, moved onward side by side +towards Montreal. By the end of August, Murray was encamped on an +island a few miles below Montreal, gradually gathering intelligence +of Haviland's and Amherst's advance; and on September 7 he landed on +the island of Montreal itself. During the voyage up the river two +facts had become manifest. One was that the country higher up the St. +Lawrence was less impoverished, and supplies were more plentiful, +than in the neighbourhood of Quebec. The other was that the +Canadians, who still had something to lose, were anxious for peace. +The constant advance of the English, the obvious futility of +Vaudreuil's boasts and threats, the good treatment of the inhabitants +who offered no resistance, had due effect. The country side +surrendered, the militia deserted, the French regulars began to +follow suit; and the few remaining troops, driven back on Montreal, +recognized the hopelessness of their position.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote499"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Haviland's<br> + advance.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Haviland started from Crown Point on August 11 with about 3,500 men, +including Rogers with some of his Rangers, and a few Indians. He took +with him also some <a name="page321"></a>light artillery. The boats which carried the force +made their way to the northern end of Lake Champlain, entered the +Richelieu river, and on the twentieth landed some of the troops on +the eastern bank of the river, over against the Île aux Noix. Here +Bougainville was stationed with a considerable force, behind +fortifications which had been strengthened in the previous winter. +Some miles further on down the Richelieu river, at St. John's, +another French force was in position, under an officer named +Roquemaure. Bougainville gave Haviland, in Knox's words, 'the trouble +to break ground and erect batteries';<small><small><sup>35</sup></small></small> but the English, having +attacked and taken the French vessels which lay below the Île aux +Noix, and cut off the garrison's retreat by the river, Bougainville +crossed from the island to the western bank on the twenty-seventh, +and made his way with difficulty through the woods to St. John's, +where he joined Roquemaure. On the twenty-eighth the few men left on +the Île aux Noix surrendered; on the twenty-ninth the French +abandoned St. John's also; the fort at Chambly surrendered on +September 1; as Haviland advanced, the Canadians deserted wholesale; +and the remains of Bougainville's and Roquemaure's troops, falling +back to the St. Lawrence, joined Bourlamaque's force, and were +carried over to the island of Montreal. By September 6, Haviland's +army was encamped at Longueuil on the southern shore of the river, +directly opposite Montreal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>35</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 394.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote500"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst's<br> + advance.<br> + <br> + <br> + La Présentation.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>By the end of July, Amherst's army was assembling at Albany. The +colonial troops came up slowly, and valuable time was lost. The +General moved on to Schenectady, left that place on June 21, and +reached Oswego on July 9. At Oswego he stayed for a month, waiting +for the full complement of the expedition, and collecting the boats +on which the force was to descend the St. Lawrence. Sir William +Johnson joined him with a number of Indians, <a name="page322"></a>while the white troops +reached a total of 10,000 men, rather more than half of whom were +regulars. On August 10 the army embarked. They sailed and rowed to +the end of Lake Ontario, entered the St. Lawrence, made their way +through the Thousand Islands, and by the fifteenth reached the French +mission station of La Présentation, now Ogdensburg, at the mouth of +the Oswegatchie river, where the Abbé Piquet—the apostle of the +Iroquois, as he was called—had, since the year 1749, endeavoured to +win the Five Nations to the French.<small><small><sup>36</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>36</sup></small> See <i>Documentary History of New York,</i> vol. i, pp. +433-40 (Papers relating to the early settlement at Ogdensburg). The +Abbé Piquet retired in this year (1760) to Louisiana, and thence to +France, where he died in 1781. His mission on the Oswegatchie river, +or Rivičre de la Présentation, was a good sample of the aggressive +French missions in Canada. Its object was to bring over the western +tribes of the Five Nations to the French religion and French +interests.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote501"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Fort<br> + Levis<br> + taken.<br> + <br> + <br> + Amherst<br> + before<br> + Montreal.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>A little lower down, on an island in the St. Lawrence, at the head of +the rapids, the French had a fortified outpost. They called the +island Île Royale, and the fort upon it Fort Levis. The officer in +charge was Pouchot, who had commanded at Niagara in the preceding +year, and had been exchanged with other prisoners. From the +eighteenth to the twenty-fourth of August, Amherst attacked the fort. +From either bank, and from the neighbouring islands, the British guns +poured in their fire, supported by the armed vessels of the +expedition; and on the twenty-fifth, after a brave defence, Pouchot +surrendered. On the thirty-first, Amherst began the descent of the +rapids, watched by La Corne and a band of Canadians. A number of +boats were lost, and eighty-four men were drowned; but the main body +was carried safely onward, and by September 5 reached the Île Perrot, +a few miles above the island of Montreal. On the sixth, Amherst +landed at Lachine, and, marching forward, encamped that night +directly in front of Montreal.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote502"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Negotiations<br> + for surrender.<br> + <br> + <br> + Montreal<br> + capitulates,<br> + and with it<br> + the whole<br> + of Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The next day the French commanders negotiated for <a name="page323"></a>surrender, Murray +having meanwhile landed on the island, and begun his march towards +Montreal, on the opposite side to that on which Amherst was encamped. +Vaudreuil and Levis tried to extract better terms from Amherst than +the latter was inclined to grant; and Levis, in particular, strove +hard to modify the provision that all the French troops in Canada +should lay down their arms, and not serve again during the war. His +protests were in vain. Amherst returned answer in strong words, that +he was resolved by the terms of the capitulation to mark his sense of +the infamous conduct of which the French troops had been guilty, in +exciting the savages to barbarities in the course of the war. With +2,400 men opposed to about 17,000 in the three English forces, the +Frenchmen had no option but to surrender. On September 8 the terms of +capitulation were signed, and the whole of Canada passed into the +keeping of Great Britain.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote503"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Amherst on<br> + the conduct of<br> + the French<br> + Indians.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Amherst's reference to French dealings with the Indians, and to the +dealings of the Indians in French employ, the authority for which is +Captain Knox's book, deserves to be noted. When two white races are +pitted against each other in savage lands, the final mastery will +rest with the one which, less than the other, comes down to the +savage level. The French had sinned more than the English in this +respect; and it is significant that, at the surrender of Niagara, +they stipulated for protection against the Indian allies of the +English, and that at the surrender of Montreal they made a similar +request. On the second occasion Amherst answered, and answered truly, +that no cruelties had been committed by the Indians on the English +side. A few days before, at the taking of Fort Levis, a large +proportion of Johnson's Indians had deserted when not allowed to use +their scalping knives; and probably the majority of the English +shared Captain Knox's opinion of them, that 'this is quite uniform +with their conduct on all occasions whenever <a name="page324"></a>opportunity seems to +offer for their being serviceable to us.'<small><small><sup>37</sup></small></small> The truth was that the +English did not love the Indians or Indian ways; they suffered in +consequence while the fate of war was still in the balance; but in +the end they gained, as a ruling race, for the humanity of Amherst +and the men whom he commanded stood to the credit of Great Britain in +the coming time.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>37</sup></small> Knox, vol. ii, p. 413. According to Knox, Johnson +collected 1,330 Indians belonging to seventeen tribes. This number +was reduced at the time of embarkation to 706, and afterwards by +desertion to 182.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote504"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>End of<br> + the war.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With the capitulation of Montreal, the war in North America ended. +Already in the past July some French ships bringing supplies, which +had reached the Baie des Chaleurs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had +been followed up and destroyed in the Restigouche river by Commander +Byron; and while Montreal was being given up, a detachment from the +English garrison at Quebec reduced the French outpost at Jacques +Cartier. The surrender of Montreal included all Canada, and Robert +Rogers was sent by Amherst to take over Detroit, Michillimackinac, +and other of the western outposts of New France. They were peaceably +occupied at the time, but three years later were the scene of hard +fighting in consequence of the dangerous Indian rising under Pontiac. +Amherst himself left Canada almost immediately, but remained in +America as Commander-in-Chief, having his head quarters at New York, +until peace was signed, when he returned to England. Vaudreuil and +his subordinates went back to France, to be brought heavily to +account for their shortcomings; and until the peace, or rather until +Pontiac's revolt had been put down a year later, Canada remained +under military rule.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote505"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada under<br> + military rule.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There were three Governors, subordinate to the +Commander-in-Chief—General Murray at Quebec, Colonel Burton at Three +Rivers, and General Gage, who eventually took over <a name="page325"></a>Amherst's command, +at Montreal. Matters seem to have gone in the main smoothly. The +Canadian people, worn with war, desired only rest and fair dealing, +and fair dealing they received at the hands of the British +commanders, among whom Murray was a conspicuously humane man. +Criminal jurisdiction was placed in the hands of British officers, +but civil cases were left to be settled by the captains of militia in +the various parishes according to the custom of the people, with the +right of appeal to the Governor. More publicity was given by +proclamation to the orders and regulations of the Governors than had +been the case in French times; and though the status was one of +military occupation, there was a nearer approach to freedom, or at +any rate more even-handed justice, than in the days when Bigot and +his confederates robbed the peasantry in the name of the French King.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote506"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Events in<br> + Europe.<br> + <br> + <br> + Death of<br> + King George II.<br> + <br> + <br> + Rise of Bute<br> + and resignation<br> + of Pitt.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Meanwhile events moved fast in Europe. The fall of Montreal was +followed in a few weeks' time by the death of King George II. He died +on October 25, 1760, and with the accession of George III there came +a change in English policy. The 'King's friends,' as they were +called, by intrigue and bribery gradually gained power. Bute, the +royal favourite, led them, and strongly supported a peace policy. In +March, 1761, he became a Secretary of State, and in the following +October Pitt resigned. Success had perhaps told against the great +English minister. The main work to which he had put his hand had been +accomplished; among the colleagues who intrigued against him, or who +resented his imperious leadership, there may well have been in some +minds an honest wish to give the country rest and to lighten the +heavy burdens which war imposed. Already peace negotiations with +France had been opened, but the discovery that the French Government +had formed a secret compact with Spain stiffened Pitt's policy, and +he urged the desirability of striking the first blow and declaring +war against <a name="page326"></a>Spain. On this issue he parted company with the other +ministers, except Lord Temple, and retired from office. A few months +later, in May, 1762, Newcastle resigned, and Bute was left supreme.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote507"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Greatness<br> + of Pitt.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>No eulogy on Pitt can exaggerate the services which he rendered to +England. 'He revived the military genius of our people, he supported +our allies, he extended our trade, he raised our reputation, he +augmented our dominions.'<small><small><sup>38</sup></small></small> He gave to the world a splendid +illustration of an English statesman who was as good as his word; +who, unlike the ordinary run of Parliamentary leaders, did not shift +his course or seek for compromise. He believed in the destiny of his +country, and shaped that destiny on world-wide lines. His faults, +which were not few, are forgiven by his countrymen, for he loved +England much.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>38</sup></small> <i>Annual Register</i> +for 1761, p. 47.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote508"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>War with Spain.<br> + <br> + <br> + English reverse<br> + in Newfoundland.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The mean men who supplanted him could not undo what he had done. The +beginning of the year 1762 saw them at war with Spain, and still +Englishmen struck blow after blow. In 1761, while Pitt was still in +office, Belle Île, off the French coast, had been taken, and in the +West Indies and in India there had been gains. In 1762 more West +Indian islands were captured, and Spain lost for the time Havana in +the West, the Philippines in the East. Curiously enough the one +reverse experienced by the English was in North America, St. John's +in Newfoundland being surprised and taken in June, 1762, though it +was recovered in the following September.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote509"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Peace<br> + of Paris.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In spite of continued success Bute was resolved on peace, the +negotiations being entrusted to the Duke of Bedford, who was one of +the extreme peace party. The preliminaries were concluded in +November, 1762; they were approved by Parliament, and on February 10, +1763, the Peace of Paris was signed. Under its provisions the French +King renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia or Acadia, and ceded +'in full <a name="page327"></a>right Canada with all its dependencies, as well as the +island of Cape Breton and all the other islands and coasts in the +gulf and river St. Lawrence.' A line drawn down the middle of the +river Mississippi defined the inland frontier; all territory on the +left side of the river, 'except the town of New Orleans and the +island in which it is situated,' being ceded to Great Britain. Two +clauses, however, in the treaty marred the completeness of the +cession. They renewed the rights of fishing and drying on part of the +Newfoundland coast, which had been given to French subjects by the +Treaty of Utrecht; and they ceded in full right to the King of France +the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, to serve as a shelter to +French fishermen, on condition that the islands should not be +fortified. Here were the seeds of future trouble, sown by other hands +than those of Pitt. Yet, considering the character and inclinations +of the men who held power in England at this critical time, the +country had reason to congratulate itself on the result of the +negotiations.<small><small><sup>39</sup></small></small> Spain paid for her interference in the quarrel with +France by the loss of Florida, which became a British possession; in +turn she received from France Louisiana. Thus the Seven Years' War +ended, <a name="page328"></a>closing the story of New France; and on the line of the St. +Lawrence, under British rule, grew up the Canadian nation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>39</sup></small> Lord Chesterfield's views on the preliminaries of the +Peace of Paris, not yet fully known when he wrote, are interesting. +In a letter dated Nov. 13, 1762 (1775 ed., vol. iv, pp. 190, 191, +Letter 328), he writes, 'We have by no means made so good a bargain +with France (i.e. as with Spain), for in truth what do we get by it +except Canada, with a very proper boundary of the river Mississippi, +and that is all? As for the restrictions upon the French fishery in +Newfoundland, they are very well <i>per la predica,</i> and for the +Commissary whom we shall employ, for he will have a good salary from +hence to see that those restrictions are complied with, and the +French will double that salary, that he may allow them all to be +broken through. It is plain to me that the French fishery will be +exactly what it was before the war.... But, after all I have said, +the articles are as good as I expected with France, when I considered +that no one single person, who carried on this negotiation on our +parts, was ever concerned or consulted in any negotiation before. +Upon the whole then the acquisition of Canada has cost us four score +millions sterling.'</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p><small>N<small>OTE</small>.—For the above, see the books specified at the end of the +preceding chapter.</small></p> + +<p><small>In these two chapters the original dispatches have been consulted, +and much use has been made of<br> +<br> + K<small>NOX'S</small> <i>Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America</i> + (London, 1769).</small></p> +<br> +<br><a name="chap11"></a><a name="page329"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> +<center>G<small>ENERAL</small> S<small>UMMARY</small></center> +<br> + +<p>In order to sum up the story of New France, it is proposed in the +present chapter to try to answer the four following questions. What +effect had geography on the history of Canada down to the year 1763? +Why did France lose Canada? What were the respective merits and +defects of the French and English systems and policies in North +America? And lastly, was the contest between the two powers and the +victory of one inevitable, and was it beneficial? These four +questions overlap each other, and the answers involve considerable +repetition of what has gone before; but a short general summary may +be useful to those who care to study the earlier history of Canada in +reference to the general history of colonization.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote510"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Position of<br> + the French<br> + among<br> + colonizing<br> + nations.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>From the time of Columbus down to the middle of the nineteenth +century, five nations, all on the western side of Europe, were mainly +concerned in carrying European trade, conquest, and settlement into +other parts of the world. They were the Spaniards, the Portuguese, +the Dutch, the French, and the English. Of these five nations, the +Spaniards had what may be called a continental career. They overran +and mastered an immense area of mainland. The Portuguese, the Dutch, +and the English, on the other hand, while they differed from each +other in many points, were alike in this, that they were traders and +seafarers, not so much attempting an inland dominion, as securing +footholds on sea coasts, peninsulas, and islands. The French stood +midway between the Spaniards and the other three nations. They were +not <a name="page330"></a>continental conquerors to the same extent as the Spaniards, they +did not confine themselves to the fringes of the land to the same +extent as the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English. They were what +France made them to be.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote511"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Twofold<br> + character<br> + of France<br> + and the<br> + French.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>France is an integral part of the continent of Europe; but it is +also, with the exception of the Spanish peninsula, the westernmost +province of that continent; and it has a long indented seaboard open +to the Atlantic. The country has a double outlook, its people have +had a twofold character and a double history. It is noteworthy that, +while the French, to judge from the greatest event in their +history—the French Revolution—and to judge from their writing and +thought, have been the most thorough and logical, the most +uncompromising of peoples, their record has yet been in a sense one +of continual compromise, or at least one of perpetual combination of +opposite extremes. The northern and southern races, the northern and +southern religions, have had their meeting-ground in France. France, +which has been notable for violent political changes, had and has the +strongest element of conservatism in its population. No nation is +more quick-witted than the French, yet in none is there more plodding +industry.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote512"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada well<br> + suited to<br> + be a sphere<br> + of French<br> + colonization.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the fullness of time, the French people had their call to take +part in the over-sea expansion of Europe, and they found their way to +Canada. They entered the New World at its widest point, where the +American continent extends furthest from west to east; but they +entered it also at the point where the interior of the continent is +most accessible from the sea by means of a great navigable river and +a group of lakes. Thus the advent of the French into Canada meant the +coming of a people, who in their old home were partly continental, +partly sea-going, into a sphere of colonization, which was a vast +extent of continent, but which at the same time was more intersected +and more dominated by water than perhaps any other portion of the +mainland of the globe. <a name="page331"></a>Like came to like when the French came to +Canada. Their old home had given them at once the instincts of land +conquerors, and the knowledge of men whose way is on the waters. +Quick to move and loving motion, they found the route into the New +World to be one which invited and facilitated quick movement; for, +important as is inland water communication at the present day, it was +all important before the days of railways. The great highroad of +North America was the St. Lawrence, and that highroad became owned by +a quick, ambitious people, who were not content to remain as traders +by the side of the sea.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote513"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Greatness<br> + of the<br> + St. Lawrence<br> + water system.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The combination of accessibility from the open sea, of length of +navigable waters, and of volume of waters, makes the St. Lawrence +basin almost, if not quite unique. Up to Three Rivers, 330 miles from +the sea, the St. Lawrence is a tidal river. Up to the Falls of +Niagara, 600 miles from the sea—nearly as far as London is from +Berlin—there is no break of navigation. From the westernmost point +of Lake Superior to the Atlantic is a distance of 2,000 miles—much +further than is the distance from London to St. Petersburg. Lake +Superior alone is larger in size than Scotland.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote514"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>It is almost connected<br> + with the basin of<br> + the Mississippi,<br> + of Hudson Bay, and<br> + of the Hudson river.<br> + <br> + <br> + Colonization in Canada<br> + was colonization by<br> + water.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Further, this wonderful chain of waters, as has been pointed out, is +nearly continuous with the Mississippi basin on the southern side, +and on the north-western side with the lakes and rivers which drain +into Hudson Bay; while one of the smaller affluents of the St. +Lawrence, the Richelieu river, carries into the St. Lawrence the +waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George, the southern end of Lake +George being but very few miles distant from the upper waters of the +Hudson river, which flows into the Atlantic. In short, Canada, within +its ancient limits, was a network of inland waters. Here was a +continent to be conquered and settled by water rather than by land, +and the congenial task of conquering and attempting to settle it was +allotted by Providence to the French.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote515"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The geography<br> + of Canada<br> + favoured<br> + motion.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page332"></a> +<p>Canada then suited the French, and the French suited Canada; but the +effect of the geography of Canada on an incoming race, with the +instincts and the characteristics of the French, was to stimulate +their natural inclination to attempt too much and to go too fast and +too far. The incomers moved quickly along the lines of communication, +and went into the heart of the continent; but permanent settlement +lagged behind, and was confined to the edges of the inland waters. +For, while nature had given to Canada, in her rivers and lakes, the +best of roads, away from those rivers and lakes the land was +difficult to penetrate. Thus Canada was colonized only by the water +side, and what settlement there was, was characterized by length +without breadth; while, beyond the point where continuous settlement +ended, the very easiness of movement carried forward enterprising +French officers, priests, and traders, until there was a skeleton +outline of French dominion, which was never filled in, from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote516"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Settlement held<br> + close to the<br> + water side.<br> + <br> + <br> + Two distinct<br> + kinds of colonists<br> + in Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Geography, too, had this effect upon the population. The rivers were +so entirely all in all, that they made the settled portion of the +French Canadians very settled, and the fluid portion very fluid. +Those who wished to stay in one place stayed by the river bank, which +was the roadside, because it was the roadside, and because behind and +away from the river there was not open ground but dense forest. +Those, on the other hand, who were inclined to roam, were carried by +the waters wheresoever they wished, with the backwoods at hand, +should hiding-places be required. Thus Canada bred two distinct +species of colonists, the <i>habitans</i> of the central St. Lawrence, and +the <i>voyageurs</i> or <i>coureurs de bois</i>. As in their old home, so still +more in their new, the French race comprised contradictory elements.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote517"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Effect of the<br> + Canadian climate<br> + on colonization.<br> + <br> + <br> + It made against<br> + continuity</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Climate counts for much in the formation of a people, and in +determining its history. The climate of Eastern <a name="page333"></a>Canada inclines to +extremes. It favours quickness but not continuity of action. The +summer is short, but very hot and bright; the winter is long and +severe, but again not unfavourable to movement over the frozen +surface of water and ground. Eastern Canada is not by nature a land +open all the year round to steady work, but one in which settlers +have a limited time wherein to till the ground, followed by a long, +close season; while wanderers can in summer and winter alike indulge +their vagrant instincts. The tendency therefore of the Canadian +climate, as regards its influence on an incoming race, with a +restless and impatient element in its character, was to stimulate the +restlessness, and to discourage colonization in the sense of +attachment to the soil.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote518"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>and against<br> + the policy of<br> + the French<br> + Government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In winter, the St. Lawrence is closed to shipping. Consequently New +France was for several months in each year cut off from all +communication with the mother country. Here again the effect of +climate was to break continuity of colonization; and, moreover, the +forces of nature were employed against the policy of the French +Government, for the effect of long breaks in communication must have +been to develop a separate life in New France, evidence of which is +to be found in the jealousy existing, in Vaudreuil's and Montcalm's +time, between natives of France and natives of Canada; whereas the +unaltering aim of French Kings and ministers was simply to reproduce +France in America, and to keep the colony under constant and rigid +control from home. The effects of the summer, therefore, on Canada +were counteracted by winter isolation; and one more element of +contradiction was introduced into French history in North America.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote519"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada had<br> + no minerals.<br> + <br> + <br> + This was one<br> + cause of<br> + the small<br> + population.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The natural products of a country are an important factor in making +its people. Canada, as compared with most other fields of +colonization, with Spanish America for instance, or the East Indies, +was a poor land. It had practically no mineral wealth, though traces +of iron and copper were found <a name="page334"></a>in the region of Lake Superior. In the +earlier part of the eighteenth century Charlevoix wrote: 'The first +source of the ill fortune of this country, which is honoured with the +name of New France, was the report which was at first spread through +the kingdom that it had no mines; and they did not enough consider +that the greatest advantage that can be drawn from a colony is the +increase of trade. And to accomplish this, it requires people, and +these peoplings must be made by degrees, so that it will not appear +in such a kingdom as France.'<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> The great weakness of Canada was the +paucity of the white population. Had mines been discovered, the +colony would no doubt have been much stronger, for a far greater +number of colonists would have come out from France; and, while the +character of the people would have been, in a sense, at least as +restless as it actually was, the restlessness would have been +localized in the mining areas, which would have become large centres +of population.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Charlevoix's <i>Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguičres,</i> +giving an account of a voyage to Canada (Eng. translation, 1763, p. +31). The letters began in 1720.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote520"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Agriculture,<br> + fisheries, and<br> + fur-trading.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the absence of minerals Canada depended on agriculture, fisheries, +and fur-trading. Of these three industries, agriculture alone +conduced to permanent settlement. The fisheries did not directly much +concern the life of the colony up the St. Lawrence river, for the +fishing-grounds were mainly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the +coasts of Newfoundland and Acadia; nor did fishing, when the +fishermen found their principal market in Europe, and were in great +measure domiciled in Europe, contribute much to the colonization of +North America. Fur-trading again, the great speciality of Canada, +made for movement and for wandering life, not for colonization. This +is pointed out by Charlevoix, who dwells upon the evil results of +giving licences to trade, as encouraging vagabondism, and notes as +<a name="page335"></a>the second cause of the ill fortune of Canada, the want of resolution +in its people, and their constant moving from place to place, instead +of carefully selecting a place for settlement and staying there.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Charlevoix (as above), pp. 31-5.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The real wealth of Eastern Canada was, as it still is, agricultural; +but the history of colonization proves that agricultural colonies, +while very sound and sure, progress very slowly; and to the +impatient, enterprising Frenchman, who was inclined to seek fortune +over the seas, farming in Canada, with a Canadian winter to face, +offered little attraction. It is true that the English North American +colonies were also agricultural colonies; but they had a great +advantage over New France, in that their coasts were open all the +year round, resulting in a maritime trade, which could never be +enjoyed by Canada. Moreover New England, at any rate, was peopled by +colonists who went out, not to make their fortunes, and not to build +up a dominion for their King, but to make their homes, and their +children's homes, on the agricultural pattern, in as kindly a soil +as, and in a kindlier climate than, that of Canada.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote521"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada better<br> + suited for war<br> + than peace.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>New France then was a country where movement was easy, and where the +incentives to settlement were not great; and in its white population, +or at any rate in a large proportion of that population, there was a +strong element of restlessness, added to great power of conciliating +and assimilating savages; while the religious and political policy of +its rulers was, in the main, a forward policy. The result was that +the Canadians were more successful in motion than at rest, in making +war than in keeping peace. 'The English Americans,' writes +Charlevoix, 'are entirely averse to war because they have much to +lose; they do not regard the savages, because they think they have no +occasion for them. The youth of the French, for the contrary reasons, +hate <a name="page336"></a>peace, and live well with the savages, whose esteem they gain +during a war and have their friendship at all times.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Charlevoix (as above), +p. 27.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote522"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The Canadians<br> + as fighters.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The Canadians were to the English settlers in New England or New +York, very much what the Highlanders of Scotland, in past centuries, +were to the dwellers in the Lowlands. Their forte was in raiding +their English rivals; and, as they were better qualified to excel in +war than in peace, so in war they were more capable of quick, +spasmodic action, than of bearing continuous and steady strain. 'They +seem not to be masters of a certain impetuosity, which makes them +fitter for a <i>coup de main,</i> or a sudden expedition, than for the +regular and settled operations of a campaign. It has also been +remarked, that amongst a great number of brave men, who have +distinguished themselves in the late war, there have been few found +who had talents to command. This was perhaps because they had not +sufficiently learnt how to obey.'<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> On the other hand, it must be +remembered that Canada also contained a stationary population on the +banks of the St. Lawrence, who more and more, as years went on, +learnt what war meant and preferred peace; and that the colony was +not devoid of trading centres, the largest of which were Quebec and +Montreal, and all of which, including for instance, Niagara, Detroit, +and Michillimackinac, were inland ports.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Charlevoix (as above), +p. 104.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote523"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English had the<br> + better position<br> + in North America,<br> + larger numbers,<br> + and command<br> + of the sea.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>If the above was the effect of geography on the history of France in +North America, it is not difficult to answer the question, Why did +the French lose Canada? They lost it because the English had the +better position in North America; because the English population in +North America largely outnumbered the French; because, when the +crisis came, the English made their main effort in North America, +whereas the French devoted their resources and their energies +primarily to continental war in Europe; and lastly, because <a name="page337"></a>the +English secured command of the sea, and in consequence command of the +St. Lawrence also. But then the further question arises: What +produced this balance of advantage on the English side?</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote524"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>There is no valid<br> + reason why the<br> + English originally<br> + secured the better<br> + geographical<br> + position in<br> + North America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It is not easy to determine why the better lot in North America, as +regards geography, fell to Great Britain and not to France. It was +hardly a question of prior discovery. The first pioneer for England, +Cabot, struck the New World at Newfoundland or Cape Breton, far north +of what became the main sphere of British colonization. The first +authenticated pioneer on behalf of France, Verrazano, found his way +to the present shores of the United States. The French connexion with +the St. Lawrence dated from Cartier's voyages; but those voyages, +though they gave the right of discovery, did not result at the time +in effective occupation. It was little more than an accident that the +English settled in Virginia and New England, and the French in Acadia +and on the St. Lawrence; though the fact of having found the St. +Lawrence, and the attraction of a great river, which might be the +long-wished-for, and long-dreamt-of, highroad to the far East, may +well have dictated to French instincts where New France should be. At +any rate, the English gained the great initial advantage of a far +larger seaboard, open at all times of the year, and a climate which +was more favourable to European colonization. 'Along the continent of +America which we possess,' wrote Wolfe from Louisbourg in 1758, +'there is a variety of climate, and, for the most part, healthy and +pleasant.... Such is our extent of territory upon this fine +continent, that an inhabitant may enjoy the kind influence of +moderate warmth all the year round.'<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> Wolfe to his mother, +Aug. 11, 1758 (Wright, p. 454).</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote525"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>English superiority<br> + in numbers mainly<br> + due to French<br> + policy towards<br> + the Huguenots.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>With this advantage, it was natural that there should be greater +immigration into the English colonies than into Canada. But this was +not the only, or the main, cause of the superior numbers in the +English colonies. The main <a name="page338"></a>cause was the policy of the French +Government, and especially its religious policy. The most fatal +mistake made by the French in regard to North America was the +exclusion of the Huguenots. The men who wished to leave England went +to the present United States. The men who wished to leave France were +not allowed to go to Canada, and went in considerable numbers to +England and her colonies. The effect, therefore, of Roman Catholic +exclusiveness was that, though France had a far greater population +than England, the greatest French colony failed for want of +colonists. Nor was it only a matter of quantity, but a matter of +quality also. The Huguenots were the type of men who would make +homes, create business, and build up communities beyond the seas. +They were of the same strong fibre as the New England Puritans. In +the competition of the coming time, New France was doomed in +consequence of being closed to the French Protestants.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote526"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Numerical<br> + superiority<br> + of the English<br> + forces in North<br> + America in the<br> + Seven Years' War.<br> + <br> + <br> + Canada was<br> + conquered<br> + by Great Britain,<br> + not by the<br> + English colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>When the Seven Years' War came, the English colonists in North +America outnumbered the French by thirteen to one; but, at the +moment, superiority in numbers was largely counterbalanced by the +want of union in the English colonies, whereas Canada was one. +Therefore the issue largely depended on the forces and the leaders +sent out by the two mother countries respectively. England, inspired +by Pitt, sent out abundant troops. France, inspired by Madame de +Pompadour, kept nearly all her troops to fight Frederick of Prussia, +with his few English and Hanoverian allies. The result was the defeat +of the French in North America, and the British conquest of Canada. +Whatever might have been the result if the crisis had been postponed, +it was not the British colonists but the troops from England, who, in +1758-60, decided the fate of North America. It is customary, in +writing accounts of the colonial wars of Great Britain, to emphasize +the merits of the colonial soldiers, who have the advantage of +knowing the country and the mode of <a name="page339"></a>fighting appropriate to it; and +to depreciate the regulars sent from home. Reverses, like that of +Braddock, are written and read from a colonial point of view; and in +America, more especially, the colonists' side has been emphasized in +consequence of the results of the subsequent War of Independence. +But, as a matter of fact, excellent as were some of the colonial +troops, such as Robert Rogers' Rangers, Canada was conquered by +soldiers from England under able English generals like Wolfe and +Amherst; and similarly the burden of the defence of Canada fell +mainly on Montcalm and the few regiments which had been spared to him +from France.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote527"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + command of<br> + the water.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>As the French kept for war on the continent of Europe the troops +which should have been sent to North America, so they allowed the +English to gain control of the water, over which alone troops and +supplies could be sent to New France. 'The possession of Canada,' +writes Captain Mahan, 'depended upon sea power.'<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> After the victory +of Hawke in Quiberon Bay, and other English successes on sea, Burke, +in the <i>Annual Register</i> for 1760,<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> wrote that France 'was obliged +to sit, the impotent spectator of the ruin of her colonies, without +being able to send them the slightest succour. It was then she found +what it was to be inferior at sea.' Especially important was the +command of the water to those who would hold Canada, for two reasons; +because Canada, poor and undeveloped, was dependent on supplies from +Europe, to a greater extent than the English colonies<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> in North +America; and because she could and must be attacked by the St. +Lawrence.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> <i>Influence of Sea Power upon History</i> (6th ed.), p. +294.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> p. 9.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> Thus Charlevoix (as above, p. 38) says Canada 'has +always had more from France than it could pay.'</small></blockquote> + +<p>The command of the sea meant the command of the St. Lawrence; and the +command of the St. Lawrence was indispensable for the reduction of +Quebec and Montreal. The downfall of New France began when the Treaty +of <a name="page340"></a>Utrecht took from her, in Acadia, the best part of her scanty +seaboard; the downward process was arrested when Louisbourg, taken by +Massachusetts, was restored to the French; it began again with the +second capture of Louisbourg. The seaport was taken in one year; in +the next the river port, Quebec, was lost also. This would not have +happened had the French not divided their energies so completely as +to give Great Britain superiority on the water. They attempted too +much at home, and the same fault, if we turn to consider their system +and policy in North America, was carried into the New World.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote528"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French and English systems<br> + and policies in North<br> + America compared.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It is roughly true to say that in North America the French had a +definite policy and a definite system; but the policy, though +brilliant in conception, was quite impracticable, and the system was +radically unsound. The English in North America, on the other hand, +had rarely any policy and never any system.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote529"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Hopelessness<br> + of the French<br> + scheme for<br> + dominion in<br> + North America.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The French policy was an imperial policy. It was clear, consistent, +and far-reaching. The object aimed at was a French dominion in North +America, the lines of communication being the two great rivers, the +St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. Canada and Louisiana were to be +joined; the English were to be kept between the Alleghanies and the +Atlantic; the French King was to be lord of all; the French religion +was to be supreme; the Indians were to be converted and made French +in sympathies and interests. The scheme was brilliant, but it was +impossible; and it is difficult to understand why it is considered by +historians to have been so dangerous to the future of the British +colonies. White men of one race, sparsely scattered over two sides of +a gigantic triangle, were to control white men of another but equally +masculine race, thirteen times as numerous, who held the base of the +triangle, the base being the seaboard. The attempt became more +impracticable every year, for every year the actual preponderance of +numbers on the English <a name="page341"></a>side increased, and every year the white men +gained on the red men, who alone could make the realization of the +French dream even conceivably possible.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote530"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>French<br> + native<br> + policy.<br> + <br> + <br> + Its merits.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Ample reference has already been made to the dealings of the French +with the Indians. There is much to praise and much to blame in what +may be called the native policy of France in North America. The +object of the French Government was, as Charlevoix points out, to +'frenchify' the savages;<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> and, as an instance of the value of the +Indians to the cause of France in America, he cites 'the Abenaquis, +who, though few in numbers, were during the two last wars the +principal bulwark of New France against New England.'<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> With the +exception of the Five Nation Indians, the natives of North America +were almost wholly on the side of the French as against the English, +in spite of the fact that the English offered them a better market +and sold them better wares. The reason was that the French relations +to the Indians were more human than those of the English. No doubt, +among the English colonists were Quakers and Moravians, whose tenets +bade them deal gently with the people of the soil; and on the New +York frontier, from Dutch times, there had been friendship, sometimes +warmer sometimes cooler, between the Dutch and the English colonists +on the one hand, and the Iroquois on the other. But the ordinary +English colonist's view of the red man was the Old Testament +view—hard, exclusive, and often cruel. The Puritan New Englander +took the land of the heathen in possession, and from his standpoint +there was not room in it for him and them. Widely different was the +French view. The Indians were not to be excluded from, but +incorporated in, the French dominion. The King of France, and his +representative the Governor of Canada, were to be the fathers, and +the Indians were to be the obedient and trusting children. The +missions taught the <a name="page342"></a>same lesson. The Indians were not to be +exterminated, but to be fruitful and multiply as dutiful children of +France and of the Roman Catholic Church. On these lines the French +acted consistently from first to last; and their unaltering policy +contrasted favourably with the halting, uncertain dealings of the +English, which changed from year to year, and were different in the +different colonies. The way to win a black man's or a red man's +affections is to treat him, if not as an equal, at least as a man, +and to be constant in the treatment. For this reason, the Indians +loved the French better than the English. Very rarely on the English +side appeared a man, like Sir William Johnson, who possessed the +mixture of firmness and sympathy which attracted and conciliated the +Indians, and which was common among the French.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> Charlevoix (as above), +pp. 34, 35.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote531"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Its defects.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>But there was a very dark side to the French policy and system in +regard to the North American Indians. In the first place, as has been +abundantly shown in the preceding pages, the French authorities, +temporal and spiritual, kept the savages on their side by +sanctioning, or at least not repressing, their savagery; and notably +the mission Indians of Canada, the special protégés of the priests, +were foremost in barbarous warfare against white Christians of a +different shade of religion. In the second place, the political +system of Canada, which indirectly created the Canadian vagrants, the +<i>coureurs de bois,</i> produced, in doing so, indianized Frenchmen, +differing little from frenchified Indians. Here again we can take +Charlevoix's testimony. He writes that 'some vagabonds, who had taken +a liking to independency and a wandering life, had remained among the +savages, from whom they could not be distinguished but by their +vices.'<small><small><sup>10</sup></small></small> If the French were more human than the English in their +dealings with the Indians, they were more human for evil as well as +for good; and, whatever was the result on the Indians, <a name="page343"></a>there is no +question as to the result on the French and English respectively, of +their different lines of action towards the red men. The English race +gained greatly in the end in soundness and in progress, from keeping +outside the Indian circle and not coming down to the Indian level.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>10</sup></small> Charlevoix (as above), +p. 34.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote532"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Merits of<br> + French<br> + settlement<br> + in Canada.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>It has been said above that the French system in North America was +radically unsound. It was unsound, in that it was based on political +and religious exclusiveness. There was the one great fundamental +mistake of excluding the Huguenots, and there were various other +important defects. But, on the hypothesis that the most independent +and most progressive element in France was to have no place in New +France, it is open to question whether the system of colonization, +which Louis XIV, Colbert, and Talon devised, and which remained the +basis of the colony, deserves the somewhat severe criticism which it +has received at the hands of historians. It is true that the system +was most artificial, that it contained no element of freedom or +self-government, and that when, long years after it came into being, +many of the restrictions were removed in consequence of the English +conquest of Canada, the colonists were deeply sensible of the relief. +It is true, too, that reaction against these restrictions, while +still in existence, produced the semi-savage race of <i>coureurs de +bois,</i> and that, through placing the power in the hands of a few +individuals, without providing any check of local representation or +local public opinion, an atmosphere of wholesale corruption and +intrigue was produced. But none the less there was an undoubted +element of soundness and strength in the settlement of New France; +and a considerable amount of shrewdness was shown in taking a certain +material from the old country and placing it in the New World, under +familiar conditions. The military side of the colonization was +skilfully handled; and the peasants, who had been in tutelage in +France to lord, to King, and to Church, found themselves in their new +homes <a name="page344"></a>under similar guidance, instead of being turned into strange +ways, for which by bringing up they were not fitted. The system, +artificial as it was, produced permanent settlement of considerable +strength and great tenacity, which, under a more liberal régime, has +resulted in the French-speaking Canadian people of the present day.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote533"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Canada, as compared<br> + with the English<br> + colonies, was one.<br> + <br> + <br> + The English colonies<br> + were separate from<br> + the mother country,<br> + and from each other.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>There were divisions in Canada, and various contradictory elements in +its history; but, as against foreign rivals and for purposes of +offence and defence, the colony was one, under one Government and one +Church, and in line with the mother country. Widely different was the +case of the English colonies. They were rarely in harmony with the +mother country, or with each other. They had little or no instinct of +imperialism. They had the instinct of self-preservation, and if +seriously attacked were to some extent prepared, unless Quaker +influence was dominant, to protect themselves, and to accept aid from +the mother country. But their traditions and their inclinations made +for peace, not for war; for isolation, not for union. Their +forefathers' aim and object had been to create and maintain separate +and self-dependent communities, not to be in substance amenable to +home control. Here is a French view of the New Englanders given by +the anonymous eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745: 'These +singular people have a system of laws and protection peculiar to +themselves, and their Governor carries himself like a monarch.'<small><small><sup>11</sup></small></small> +If the fault of the Canadian system was too rigid uniformity and too +complete subordination to the mother country, the English colonies +suffered from the opposite extreme, from utter want of uniformity and +complete absence of system. Different constitutions, different shades +of religious beliefs, different phases of settlement—all created +disunion. Common origin made a bond with the mother country, but the +Governors <a name="page345"></a>sent from England could tell those who sent them how +deficient was the habit of obedience to the British Crown.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>11</sup></small> Professor Wrong's +translation, p. 37.</small></blockquote> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote534"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>The English<br> + colonists alone<br> + no match for<br> + Canada.<br> + <br> + <br> + Shortcomings<br> + of the home<br> + Government.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Common danger alone produced occasional signs of common action. The +New England colonies, whose borders were most within reach of French +raids, and whose shores reached to Acadia, showed far the most public +spirit, and far the most power of combination. The southern colonies +awoke only when the French in the Ohio valley did them active and +present hurt; but, with many times the numbers of the Canadian +population, the English colonies as a rule showed themselves to be no +match for Canada. The first decisive treaty in North America—the +Peace of Utrecht, which gave Acadia to Great Britain—was the result +of fighting by English, not colonial soldiers, and not in America, +but in Flanders under Marlborough. The second decisive treaty, the +Peace of Paris in 1763, was the result of fighting in America, but +mainly by British not colonial troops, and under British generals. +The 'Bostonnais' alone among the English colonists were objects of +apprehension to the French; and, if it were not for the record of +Massachusetts and her smaller neighbours, the English colonies in +North America before the year 1763 would in manhood and public spirit +compare poorly with Canada. With equal truth it may be said that, in +the matter of having a clear and consistent policy in North America, +Great Britain compared very poorly with France; and the apathy of the +colonies may fairly be attributed in large measure to their +uncertainty as to what on any particular occasion might be the +attitude of the King and the ministers in England; whether support +would be forthcoming or withheld, and whether, if forthcoming, it +would involve some sacrifice in return. It is very noticeable how +often a promised force from home either was never sent or sent too +late; it is noticeable too how difficult it was for Governors who +opposed French claims and pretensions, such as Dongan of New York, in +the seventeenth century, and William Shirley <a name="page346"></a>of Massachusetts, in the +eighteenth, to persuade the home Government of the justice of their +views. Like her colonies, England was as a rule averse to war; and as +her colonies were inclined to keep her at arm's length, so she was +inclined to leave them, within limits, to take care of themselves.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote535"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>English<br> + compromise.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>In the case of North America, while French and English were competing +there, the English through their Government acted as they always have +acted, during the whole course of their foreign and colonial history. +They did, they undid, they compromised, until at length in Pitt there +came a man who gripped the nettle, and the end was reached which +might with infinitely greater ease have been attained many years +before. When Quebec was in its infancy, the English under Kirke +conquered it; the English King gave it back, and then the French +dominion in North America took root. After Marlborough's wars the +Peace of Utrecht gave Acadia to England, but gave it in terms so +vague that the French continued to claim much or most of it; at the +same time it left Cape Breton Island to France, and sowed the seeds +of an apparently perennial controversy between Great Britain and +France with regard to fishing rights on the coast of Newfoundland. +There was more war, and the colonists took Cape Breton Island. Under +the terms of the next treaty the English Government restored it to +France. Then came the final war and the final peace; England gained +all Canada, but, with that strange liking which Englishmen seem to +have for leaving a frayed end in their treaty arrangements, the +British Government confirmed the fishing rights of France on the +Newfoundland coast, and added thereto possession of the two small +islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.</p> + +<p>It was not policy, it was not system, which gave North America to the +English rather than to the French, and yet there was a certain gain +even from the utter absence of both policy and system. Natural forces +had more play on the English side than on the French, and in a sense +it might <a name="page347"></a>be said of the English colonies that their strength was to +sit still.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote536"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>Was the contest between<br> + Great Britain and France<br> + in North America<br> + inevitable and beneficial?</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The last question to be asked, and if possible to be answered, is: +Was the contest between France and Great Britain in North America, +and the victory of one of the two powers, inevitable, and was it +beneficial? From the English point of view, the answer to part of +this question is a foregone conclusion. If there was to be a contest, +it seems evident, if we look back on the past, that the English must +have in the end prevailed. It is impossible to imagine that the +French colony of Canada, with a population at the time of the +conquest of considerably under 100,000, could dominate the English +colonies with a million and a quarter inhabitants. Equally certain +does it appear that to Canada the British conquest was a blessing in +disguise, and the Canadians in a very short time realized what they +had gained by the change of administration. In Mr. Parkman's words, 'a +happier calamity never befell a people than the conquest of Canada by +the British arms.'<small><small><sup>12</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>12</sup></small> <i>The Old Régime in Canada</i> (end).</small></blockquote> + +<p>But the question, whether a decisive war between the two races in +North America was inevitable, is one which may well be asked and +answered, inasmuch as a similar question has in our own day troubled +many minds in regard to other parts of the world where colonizing +races have been side by side. Surely, it might be said, and probably +was said, there was room enough in the great continent of North +America for both French and English to work out their national +destinies, without trying to supplant each other. In a sense this was +no doubt true; and the truth is not vitiated by the fact that the +French scheme of policy was not compatible with the presence of the +English race in North America, on the supposition that the latter +race would be allowed to extend its bounds by natural increase and +progressive settlement <i>pari passu</i> with the French.</p> + +<table align="right" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="sidenote537"> + <tr> + <td><small><i>No natural frontier<br> + between New France<br> + and the English<br> + colonies.</i></small></td> + </tr> +</table> +<a name="page348"></a> +<p>The interesting point, however, to notice is that there was no +natural frontier between Canada and the English colonies, at the time +when they came into serious competition; for the line of the +Alleghanies, even if recognized, could fully delimit only the more +southerly colonies. To use a modern term, two separate spheres of +influence in North America had not been marked out by nature. But in +new countries, unless there is some strongly defined natural line of +division, it is true to say, however paradoxical it may appear, that +there is not room for two incoming white races to colonize as equals +side by side. It is precisely when the land is thinly populated, and +when therefore the population is in a fluid condition, that +collisions will and must occur. Given a continent like Europe at the +present day, the geography of which is accurately known, the +resources of whose soil in every part have been fully gauged, and +whose surface has been for many generations parcelled out in +effective occupation, one province to one race, another to another; +then, when the peoples are crystallized in their respective moulds, +war is not inevitable; and when war arises, it is the artificial +result of political naughtiness and ambition, unless indeed it be the +effect of some inaccuracy in the map, which needs to be adjusted. In +new fields of colonization, on the other hand, wars are not +artificial; they are natural, and not only natural but sometimes +absolutely necessary to future happiness and welfare. Just as Europe +was herself once in the melting-pot, so the lands which Europeans +have settled and are settling, if they are to be the homes of strong +peoples in days to come, must, when rival races are planted there, be +the scenes of armed strife.</p> + +<p>Colonial wars which end where they began, with indecisive treaties +tending to further bloodshed, may well be the subject of national +sorrow and regret; but it is otherwise when a great issue has been +achieved, and when it has been decided once for all what lines shall +be laid down for the <a name="page349"></a>future of a great country, not yet peopled as it +will be in the coming time. Then the millions of money, which seem to +have been wasted, are found to have been invested for the good of +men; and the mourners for the lost sorrow not as without hope, +inasmuch as those who have gone have died that others may live. The +foundations of peoples are the nameless dead, who have been laid amid +North American forests or under the bare veldt of South Africa.</p> +<br> +<br><a name="app1"></a><a name="page350"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>APPENDIX I</h3> +<center>L<small>IST OF</small> F<small>RENCH</small> G<small>OVERNORS OF</small> C<small>ANADA</small></center> +<br><br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="french governors"> + <tr> + <td> </td><td align="center">P<small>ERIOD</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Samuel de Champlain</td><td>1632-1635</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Chevalier de Montmagny</td><td>1636-1648</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Chevalier d'Ailleboust</td><td>1648-1651</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Jean de Lauzon</td><td>1651-1657</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Vicomte d'Argenson</td><td>1658-1661</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Baron d'Avaugour</td><td>1661-1663</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Sieur de Mésy</td><td>1663-1665</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de Tracy</td><td>1665-1667</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Chevalier de Courcelles<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small></td><td>1665-1672</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Comte de Frontenac</td><td>1672-1682</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Sieur de la Barre</td><td>1682-1685</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de Denonville</td><td>1685-1689</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Comte de Frontenac</td><td>1689-1698</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Chevalier de Calličres</td><td>1699-1703</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de Vaudreuil</td><td>1703-1725</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de Beauharnois</td><td>1726-1747</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Comte de la Galissoničre</td><td>1747-1749</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de la Jonquičre</td><td>1749-1752</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis Duquesne</td><td>1752-1755</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Marquis de Vaudreuil<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small></td><td>1755-1760</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> While Tracy was in Canada he was Governor-General, and +Courcelles was Governor.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Son of the previous Governor of that name.</small></blockquote> +<br> +<br><a name="app2"></a><a name="page351"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>APPENDIX II</h3> +<center>D<small>ATES OF THE</small> P<small>RINCIPAL</small> +E<small>VENTS IN THE</small> H<small>ISTORY OF</small> C<small>ANADA DOWN +TO</small> 1763</center> +<br> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="french governors"> + <tr> + <td> </td><td align="center">Y<small>EAR</small> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">North America discovered by Cabot</td> + <td valign="top">1497</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Cartier's first voyage</td> + <td valign="top">1534</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Cartier's second voyage and discovery of the St. Lawrence</td> + <td valign="top">1535</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Champlain's first voyage to North America</td> + <td valign="top">1603</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Founding of Port Royal</td> + <td valign="top">1605</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Quebec founded by Champlain</td> + <td valign="top">1608</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Hudson discovers the Hudson River</td> + <td valign="top">1609</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Hudson discovers Hudson Bay</td> + <td valign="top">1610</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Port Royal destroyed by Argall</td> + <td valign="top">1613</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Grant of Acadia to Sir W. Alexander</td> + <td valign="top">1621</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Company of the One Hundred Associates incorporated</td> + <td valign="top">1627</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Quebec taken from the French by Kirke</td> + <td valign="top">1629</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Canada restored to France</td> + <td valign="top">1632</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Death of Champlain</td> + <td valign="top">1635</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Founding of Montreal</td> + <td valign="top">1642</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Acadia taken by the English</td> + <td valign="top">1645</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Destruction of the Huron Missions</td> + <td valign="top">1648-50</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Company of One Hundred Associates dissolved and Canada taken + over by the French Crown</td> + <td valign="top">1663</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">New York taken by Great Britain</td> + <td valign="top">1664</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Expedition of Tracy and Courcelles against the Five Nations</td> + <td valign="top">1666</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">La Salle comes to Canada</td> + <td valign="top">1666</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Treaty of Breda. Acadia restored to the French</td> + <td valign="top">1667</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">La Salle supposed to have discovered the Ohio</td> + <td valign="top">1669-71</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company</td> + <td valign="top">1670</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Count Frontenac's first government</td> + <td valign="top">1672-82</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Founding of Fort Frontenac</td> + <td valign="top">1673</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Joliet and Marquette reach the Mississippi from Lake Michigan</td> + <td valign="top">1673</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Treaty of Westminster. New York finally ceded to Great Britain</td> + <td valign="top">1674</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">La Salle descends the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico</td> + <td valign="top">1682</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">La Salle's expedition to Texas</td> + <td valign="top">1684-5</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Treaty of Whitehall</td> + <td valign="top">1686</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Forts in Hudson Bay raided by Iberville</td> + <td valign="top">1686</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Death of La Salle</td> + <td valign="top">1687</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Massacre of Lachine</td> + <td valign="top">1689</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Count Frontenac's second government</td> + <td valign="top">1689-98</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Port Royal taken by Phipps</td> + <td valign="top">1690</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Phipps' expedition against Quebec</td> + <td valign="top">1690</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Peace of Ryswick</td> + <td valign="top">1697</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">First colonization of Louisiana by Iberville</td> + <td valign="top">1699</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Founding of Detroit</td> + <td valign="top">1701</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Calličres' Treaty with the Five Nation Indians</td> + <td valign="top">1701</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Five Nation Indians acknowledge supremacy of Great Britain</td> + <td valign="top">1701</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Port Royal taken by Nicholson</td> + <td valign="top">1710</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Expedition of Walker and Hill against Quebec</td> + <td valign="top">1711</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Peace of Utrecht. Hudson Bay and Acadia ceded to Great Britain</td> + <td valign="top">1713</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">English fort built at Oswego</td> + <td valign="top">1727</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Western discoveries by the Verendryes</td> + <td valign="top">1731-43</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">First siege and capture of Louisbourg</td> + <td valign="top">1745</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle</td> + <td valign="top">1748</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Halifax founded</td> + <td valign="top">1749</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Fort Duquesne built by the French</td> + <td valign="top">1754</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Expulsion of the Acadians</td> + <td valign="top">1755</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">The <i>Alcide</i> and the <i>Lys</i> taken by Boscawen</td> + <td valign="top">1755</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Braddock defeated on the Monongahela</td> + <td valign="top">1755</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Johnson's victory over Dieskau at Lake George</td> + <td valign="top">1755</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Oswego taken by Montcalm</td> + <td valign="top">1756</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">William Shirley recalled</td> + <td valign="top">1756</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Abortive attempt against Louisbourg by Loudoun and Holborne</td> + <td valign="top">1757</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Fort William Henry taken by Montcalm</td> + <td valign="top">1757</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Pitt comes into power</td> + <td valign="top">1757</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Louisbourg taken by Amherst and Wolfe</td> + <td valign="top">1758</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Abercromby defeated at Ticonderoga and Lord Howe killed</td> + <td valign="top">1758</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Fort Frontenac taken by Bradstreet</td> + <td valign="top">1758</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Fort Duquesne taken by Forbes</td> + <td valign="top">1758</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Fort Niagara taken by Johnson</td> + <td valign="top">1759</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Ticonderoga and Crown Point taken by Amherst</td> + <td valign="top">1759</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Battle of Quebec. Deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm. Quebec + surrendered to the English</td> + <td valign="top">1759</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Surrender of Montreal and final conquest of Canada</td> + <td valign="top">1760</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Resignation of Pitt. Bute comes into power</td> + <td valign="top">1761</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">War between Great Britain and Spain</td> + <td valign="top">1762</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Peace of Paris. Canada ceded to Great Britain</td> + <td valign="top">1763</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page354"></a> +<br> +<br> +<h3>INDEX</h3> +<br> + +Abbitibbi River, the, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br> +Abenakis, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page135">135</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page194">194</a>, +<a href="#page195">195</a>, +<a href="#page266">266</a>.<br> +<br> +Abercromby, General, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page276">276</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>, +<a href="#page280">280</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>.<br> +<a name="acadia"></a><br> +Acadia, meaning of name, +<a href="#page36">36 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br>— and Acadians, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-90</a>, +<a href="#page192">192-4</a>, +<a href="#page221">221-8</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Adirondack Mountains, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br> +Adventurers to Canada, Company of, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>.<br> +<br> +Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, +<a href="#page192">192</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br> +<br> +Albanel, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Albany, +<a href="#page56">56 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page64">64</a>, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page116">116</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page125">125-7</a>, +<a href="#page130">130</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page278">278</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br>— River, the, +<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br> +<br> +Albemarle, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Albert de Prado, +<a href="#page25">25</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Alcide,</i> the, +<a href="#page234">234 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br> +<a name="alexander"></a><br> +Alexander, Sir William, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page173">173-6</a>.<br> +<br> +Alexandria, +<a href="#page236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Algonquins, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page62">62</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>.<br> +<br> +Alleghany Mountains, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page230">230-3</a>, +<a href="#page285">285</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>.<br> +<br>— River, the, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page217">217-9</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br> +Amazon, the, +<a href="#page2">2</a>.<br> +<br> +Amherst, Lord, +<a href="#page259">259 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page290">290</a>, +<a href="#page291">291</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>, +<a href="#page304">304</a>, +<a href="#page311">311</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>, +<a href="#page319">319-24</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Amidas, +<a href="#page32">32</a>.<br> +<br> +Andastes, the, +<a href="#page90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +Andros, +<a href="#page183">183</a>.<br> +<br> +Annapolis and Harbour, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page143">143</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page177">177</a>, +<a href="#page193">193</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page202">202</a>, +<a href="#page207">207-9</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page225">225</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br> +<br> +Anne of Brittany, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br>— Queen, +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page144">144</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>.<br> +<br> +Anse au Foulon, +<a href="#page306">306</a>, +<a href="#page317">317</a>.<br> +<br> +Anson, Admiral, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page292">292</a>.<br> +<br> +Argall, Samuel, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>.<br> +<br> +Arkansas River, the, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>, +<a href="#page167">167</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Arlington, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Arthur, Port, +<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br> +<br> +Artillery Cove, +<a href="#page265">265</a>.<br> +<br> +Ashley, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Assiniboine, the, +<a href="#page213">213</a><br> +<br> +Aubert of Dieppe, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Baccalaos, +<a href="#page15">15 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page16">16 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Bacon, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page12">12</a>.<br> +<br> +Baffin, +<a href="#page27">27</a>, +<a href="#page44">44</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay, +<a href="#page7">7 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Baie des Puans. <i>See</i> +<a href="#greenbay">Green Bay</a>.<br> +<br>— Françoise. <i>See</i> +<a href="#bayoffundy">Bay of Fundy</a>.<br> +<br>— Verte, +<a href="#page224">224</a>.<br> +<br> +Barlow, +<a href="#page32">32</a>.<br> +<br> +Basques, the, +<a href="#page5">5</a>, +<a href="#page11">11</a>, +<a href="#page14">14-17</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>.<br> +<br> +Beaubassin, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page222">222</a>, +<a href="#page225">225</a>.<br> +<br> +Beauharnois, Fort, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Beaujeu, Admiral, +<a href="#page165">165</a>, +<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br> +<br>— de, +<a href="#page238">238</a>.<br> +<br> +Beauport River and Shore, +<a href="#page132">132</a>, +<a href="#page133">133 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page306">306</a>, +<a href="#page308">308</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>.<br> +<br> +Beauséjour, +<a href="#page222">222-4</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>.<br> +<br> +Bedford, +<a href="#page284">284</a>.<br> +<br>— Duke of, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br> +Belętre, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page268">268</a>.<br> +<br> +Belle Île, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br>— — Straits of, +<a href="#page1">1</a>, +<a href="#page21">21</a>, +<a href="#page22">22</a>.<br> +<br> +Biencourt, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>.<br> +<br> +Bienville, +<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br> +<br> +Bighorn Mountains, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Bigot, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page252">252</a>, +<a href="#page325">325</a>.<br> +<br> +Biloxi, +<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br> +<br> +Bjarni Herjulfson, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Bolingbroke, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page144">144</a>.<br> +<br> +Bonavista, Cape, +<a href="#page19">19</a>.<br> +<br> +Boscawen, Admiral, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page272">272-5</a>.<br> +<br> +Boston, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page126">126</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page133">133</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page178">178</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page204">204 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br> +<br> +'Bostonnais,' the, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Bougainville, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page302">302</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page308">308-10</a>, +<a href="#page313">313</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Bouquet, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page285">285</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<br> +Bourbon, Fort, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Bourgeoys, Marguerite, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Bourlamaque, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page288">288</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page318">318</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Braddock, General, +<a href="#page225">225</a>, +<a href="#page234">234-41</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page285">285</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Bradstreet, Colonel, +<a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>, +<a href="#page282">282 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>.<br> +<br> +Breboeuf, +<a href="#page84">84</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>.<br> +<br> +Breda, Peace of, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +Bristol, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page18">18</a>, +<a href="#page19">19</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Brittany and Bretons, +<a href="#page11">11</a>, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page15">15</a>, +<a href="#page16">16</a>, +<a href="#page22">22</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +Buckingham, Duke of, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +Bull, Fort, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>.<br> +<br> +Burke, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page312">312</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Burnet, Governor, +<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br> +<br> +Burton, Colonel, +<a href="#page306">306</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Bute, Lord, +<a href="#page325">325</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br> +Button, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Button's Bay, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Bylot, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Cabots, the, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page5">5</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page12">12-19</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>.<br> +<br> +Caens, the De, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page77">77 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Calličres, +<a href="#page112">112</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page119">119</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>.<br> +<br> +Canada and Canadians, +<a href="#page12">12-14</a>, +<a href="#page21">21</a>, +<a href="#page244">244</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page269">269</a>.<br> +<br>— meaning of name, +<a href="#page24">24 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Canso, Cape, +<a href="#page177">177 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page179">179 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page197">197-9</a>.<br> +<br>— Gut of, +<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br> +<br> +Cap Rouge River, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page316">316</a>.<br> +<a name="capebretonisland"></a><br> +Cape Breton Island, +<a href="#page16">16</a>, +<a href="#page19">19</a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page77">77 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page144">144-6</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-4</a>, +<a href="#page179">179 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page191">191</a>, +<a href="#page192">192</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page204">204 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page276">276</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Carignan, Prince of, +<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Carignan-Saličres Regiment, +<a href="#page101">101</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br> +<br> +Carillon. <i>See</i> +<a href="#ticonderoga">Ticonderoga</a>.<br> +<br> +Carleton, Guy, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>.<br> +<br> +Cartier, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page21">21-4</a>, +<a href="#page37">37</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>.<br> +<br> +Casco Bay, +<a href="#page129">129-31</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br> +<br> +Castine, +<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br> +<br> +Cataraqui, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br> +<br> +Cathay, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page19">19</a>, +<a href="#page26">26-8</a>.<br> +<br> +Cats, Nation of the. <i>See</i> +<a href="#eries">Eries</a>.<br> +<br> +Caughnawaga, +<a href="#page116">116 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Cavelier, Abbé, +<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br> +<br> +Cavendish, Thomas, +<a href="#page32">32</a>.<br> +<br> +Cayuga Creek, +<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br> +<br> +Cayugas, the, +<a href="#page56">56 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Celeron, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br> +<br> +Chabot, Brian, +<a href="#page21">21</a>.<br> +<br> +Chaleurs Bay, +<a href="#page21">21</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Chambly, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Champlain, +<a href="#page24">24</a>, +<a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page40">40-3</a>, +<a href="#page52">52-4</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page65">65-70</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page78">78</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br>— Lake, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page278">278</a>, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br> +Chancellor, Richard, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Charles I, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page174">174</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br>— II, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br>— V, +<a href="#page25">25</a>.<br> +<br>— VIII, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br> +<br> +Charlevoix, +<a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page334">334</a>, +<a href="#page335">335</a>, +<a href="#page339">339 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>, +<a href="#page342">342</a>.<br> +<br> +Chastes, de, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>.<br> +<br> +Chaudičre Falls, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page195">195</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br> +Chautauqua Lake, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br> +<br> +Chauvin, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Chebucto, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, +<a href="#page220">220</a>. <i>See also</i> +<a href="#halifax">Halifax</a>.<br> +<br> +Chedabucto, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br> +<br> +Chesapeake Bay, +<a href="#page20">20</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Chesterfield, Lord, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page276">276</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>.<br> +<br> +Chignecto Bay, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>.<br> +<br>— Isthmus of, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +Chouaguen. <i>See</i> +<a href="#oswego">Oswego</a>.<br> +<br> +Chubb, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br> +<br> +Chudleigh, Cape, +<a href="#page1">1</a>.<br> +<br> +Church, Major, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +Churchills, the, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br> +<br> +Cincinnati, City of, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br> +<br> +Clarke, +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<br> +Colbert, +<a href="#page94">94</a>, +<a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page101">101</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page343">343</a>.<br> +<br> +Coligny, Admiral, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +Columbus, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page5">5 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page8">8</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>.<br> +<br> +Comanches, the, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Compagnie du Nord, +<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br> +<br> +Company of the West, +<a href="#page93">93</a>.<br> +<br> +Condé, +<a href="#page67">67</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>.<br> +<br> +Connecticut, River, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>.<br> +<br>— State of, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>.<br> +<br> +Convers, +<a href="#page135">135</a>.<br> +<br> +Cook, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>.<br> +<br> +Corlaer. <i>See</i> +<a href="#cuyler">Cuyler</a>.<br> +<br> +Cornwallis, Colonel E., +<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br> +<br>— Lord, +<a href="#page220">220</a>, +<a href="#page222">222</a>.<br> +<a name="cortereal"></a><br> +Corte Reals, the, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page17">17 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page19">19</a>, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Cotton, Rev. N., +<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br> +<br> +Courcelles, De, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page105">105</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>.<br> +<br> +Cousin of Dieppe, +<a href="#page5">5 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Crčvecoeur, Fort, +<a href="#page159">159-63</a>.<br> +<br> +Cromwell, +<a href="#page179">179 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>.<br> +<br> +Crown Point, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page245">245-7</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +Crowne, William, +<a href="#page180">180</a>.<br> +<br> +Cumberland, Duke of, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page238">238</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>.<br> +<a name="cuyler"></a><br> +Cuyler, +<a href="#page65">65</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +D'Ailleboust, +<a href="#page82">82</a>.<br> +<br> +Dakota, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +D'Anville, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page218">218 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +D'Argenson, +<a href="#page82">82</a>.<br> +<br> +Darien, Isthmus of, +<a href="#page2">2</a>, +<a href="#page8">8</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br> +<br> +D'Aunay, +<a href="#page176">176-80</a>.<br> +<br> +D'Avaugour, +<a href="#page82">82</a>.<br> +<br> +Davies, Sylvanus, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page130">130</a>.<br> +<br> +Davis, +<a href="#page27">27</a>.<br> +<br>— Strait, +<a href="#page27">27</a>.<br> +<br> +Deerfield, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +Delawares, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Delight,</i> the, +<a href="#page31">31</a>.<br> +<br> +Denonville, Marquis de, +<a href="#page110">110-4</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br> +Denys, Nicholas, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page179">179 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>.<br> +<br>— of Honfleur, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Des Groseilliers, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br> +<br> +Des Plaines, the, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br> +<br> +D'Estournel, Admiral, +<a href="#page207">207</a>.<br> +<br> +Detroit, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page89">89</a>, +<a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>.<br> +<br> +Dettingen, Battle of, +<a href="#page192">192</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +Diamond, Cape, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Diana,</i> the, +<a href="#page318">318</a>.<br> +<br> +Dieppe, +<a href="#page20">20</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Dieskau, Baron, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page243">243-5</a>, +<a href="#page252">252</a>.<br> +<br> +Dinwiddie, Robert, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Discovery,</i> the, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Dongan, Governor, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page111">111 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page120">120</a>, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Donnaconna, +<a href="#page22">22</a>.<br> +<br> +Drake, Sir Francis, +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page33">33</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>.<br> +<br> +'Drowned Lands,' the, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br> +Drucour, Chevalier de, +<a href="#page273">273 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page276">276 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Duchambon, Governor, +<a href="#page200">200</a>, +<a href="#page202">202</a>, +<a href="#page203">203</a>, +<a href="#page224">224</a>.<br> +<br> +Duchesnau, +<a href="#page107">107</a>.<br> +<br> +Dudley, Governor, +<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br> +<br> +Du Luth, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br> +<br> +Dummer, Jeremiah, +<a href="#page142">142</a>.<br> +<br> +Dunbar, Colonel, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page238">238</a>.<br> +<br> +Dunkirk, +<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br> +<br>— the, +<a href="#page234">234 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Duquesne, Fort, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page232">232</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page283">283-7</a>, +<a href="#page291">291 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>.<br> +<br>— Governor, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br> +<br> +Duquesnel, +<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br> +<br> +Durell, Admiral, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>.<br> +<br> +Dutch, the, +<a href="#page46">46</a>, +<a href="#page47">47</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page62">62-4</a>, +<a href="#page77">77</a> +<a href="#page79">79</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page330">330</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>.<br> +<br> +Duvivier, +<a href="#page197">197</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Edward, Fort, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page264">264-7</a>.<br> +<br>— VI, +<a href="#page25">25</a>, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Egg Islands, +<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br> +<br> +Elizabeth, Queen, +<a href="#page28">28</a>, +<a href="#page30">30</a>, +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>.<br> +<br> +Emmanuel, King, +<a href="#page14">14</a>.<br> +<br> +Eric the Red, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Erie, Lake, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page90">90</a>, +<a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br> +<br>— Town of, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br> +<a name="eries"></a><br> +Eries, the, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +Eyre, Major, +<a href="#page262">262</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Falmouth, +<a href="#page129">129</a>.<br> +<br> +Fernando Gorges, +<a href="#page174">174</a>.<br> +<br> +Finisterre, Cape, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page218">218 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Five Nations. <i>See</i> +<a href="#iroquois">Iroquois</a>.<br> +<br> +Flat Point, +<a href="#page201">201</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br> +<br> +Florida, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>, +<a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>.<br> +<br> +Fontenoy, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br> +<br> +Forbes, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page283">283-6</a>, +<a href="#page291">291 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>.<br> +<a name="forthayes"></a><br> +Fort Albany, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>, +<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br> +<br>— Hayes, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br>— le Boeuf, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br> +<br>— Orange, +<a href="#page63">63</a>.<br> +<br> +Fox Channel, +<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br> +<br> +Foxe, Luke, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +France and the French, +<a href="#page12">12 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page14">14-24</a>, +<a href="#page35">35-7</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page77">77</a>, +<a href="#page78">78</a>, +<a href="#page113">113-9</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>.<br> +<br> +Francis I, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Franciscans, the, +<a href="#page71">71</a>.<br> +<br> +Franklin, +<a href="#page28">28</a>, +<a href="#page233">233-6</a>, +<a href="#page261">261 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Frederick the Great, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>.<br> +<a name="frenchcreek"></a><br> +French and English, +<a href="#page123">123-46</a>, +<a href="#page216">216-24</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>.<br> +<br>— Creek, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>.<br> +<br> +Freshwater Cove, +<a href="#page201">201</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br> +<br> +Frobisher, Martin, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page26">26-8</a>, +<a href="#page30">30</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Frontenac, Count, +<a href="#page96">96 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page105">105-10</a>, +<a href="#page112">112-21</a>, +<a href="#page127">127-33</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>, +<a href="#page155">155</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page117">117</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page163">163</a>, +<a href="#page165">165</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page254">254-5</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>.<br> +<a name="bayoffundy"></a><br> +Fundy, Bay of, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Gabarus Bay, +<a href="#page200">200</a>, +<a href="#page201">201</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br> +<br> +Gage, General, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Galissoničre, Marquis de la, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br> +<br> +Galveston Bay, +<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br> +<br> +Garnier, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Gaspé Bay, +<a href="#page144">144</a>, +<a href="#page177">177</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>.<br> +<br>— Peninsula, +<a href="#page21">21</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Genoa and Genoese, +<a href="#page7">7</a>, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +George Lake, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page261">261</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page265">264</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page278">278</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br>— II, +<a href="#page194">194</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, +<a href="#page225">225</a>, +<a href="#page325">325</a>.<br> +<br>— III, +<a href="#page325">325</a>.<br> +<br> +Georgian Bay, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br> +<br> +'German Flats,' the, +<a href="#page267">267</a>.<br> +<br> +Germans, the, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>.<br> +<br> +Gibbons, Captain, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Gibraltar, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Gilbert, Sir H., +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page15">15</a>, +<a href="#page16">16 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page28">28-32</a>.<br> +<br> +Gillam, Captain Zachariah, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Giraudičre, +<a href="#page179">179 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Golden Hind,</i> the, +<a href="#page29">29</a>.<br> +<br> +Gomez, +<a href="#page14">14</a>.<br> +<br> +Gordon, Sir R., +<a href="#page174">174</a>.<br> +<br> +Gourgues, Domenic de, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Grand Battery, the, +<a href="#page200">200-2</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page273">273</a>.<br> +<br> +Grand Pré, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br> +<br> +Grande Baie. <i>See</i> +<a href="#greenbay">Green Bay</a>.<br> +<br> +Grandfontaine, +<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br> +<br> +Grant, Major, +<a href="#page285">285</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>.<br> +<br> +Great Meadows, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page238">238</a>.<br> +<a name="greenbay"></a><br> +Green Bay, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page152">152-4</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page160">160</a><br> +<br>— Mountains, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br> +Greenland, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page7">7</a>, +<a href="#page27">27</a>.<br> +<br> +Grenville, Sir R., +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Gunnbiorn, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Guyard, Marie, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Haldimand, Colonel, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<a name="halifax"></a><br> +Halifax City and Harbour, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, +<a href="#page219">219-21</a>, +<a href="#page263">263 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>, +<a href="#page292">292</a>.<br> +<br> +Halkett, Sir Peter, +<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br> +<br> +Hampton, +<a href="#page236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Harley, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page144">144</a>.<br> +<br> +Haverhill, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +Haviland, +<a href="#page319">319-21</a>.<br> +<br> +Hawke, Admiral, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page311">311</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Hawkridge, Captain, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Hay, Lord C., +<a href="#page263">263 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Hayes, E., +<a href="#page15">15</a>, +<a href="#page16">16 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page28">28</a>, +<a href="#page29">29</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Helluland, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Hennepin, Father, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br> +<br> +Henry, IV, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page67">67</a>, +<a href="#page72">72</a>.<br> +<br>— VII, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page17">17</a>, +<a href="#page18">18</a>.<br> +<br>— Prince of Wales, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a><br> +<br> +Hill, Abigail, +<a href="#page144">144</a>.<br> +<br>— General, +<a href="#page144">144-6</a>.<br> +<br> +Hispaniola, +<a href="#page32">32</a>.<br> +<br> +Hochelaga, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page22">22 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page24">24 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Holborne, Admiral, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page302">302-5</a>.<br> +<br> +Hopson, Colonel, +<a href="#page223">223</a>.<br> +<br> +Hore, +<a href="#page25">25</a>.<br> +<br> +Howard of Effingham, Lord, +<a href="#page127">127</a>.<br> +<br> +Howe, Captain, +<a href="#page223">223</a>.<br> +<br>— Colonel, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page306">306-7</a>.<br> +<br>— Lord, +<a href="#page268">268</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page278">278</a>, +<a href="#page280">280</a>, +<a href="#page281">281</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +Hudson, the, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page50">50 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page62">62-5</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page130">130</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-90</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>, +<a href="#page214">214</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay Company, +<a href="#page186">186-9</a>.<br> +<br>— Henry, +<a href="#page27">27</a>, +<a href="#page44">44</a>, +<a href="#page53">53 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br>— Straits, +<a href="#page26">26</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +Huguenots, the, +<a href="#page37">37</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page72">72-4</a>, +<a href="#page77">77</a>, +<a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>, +<a href="#page338">338</a>, +<a href="#page343">343</a>.<br> +<br> +Hundred Associates, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page72">72</a>, +<a href="#page80">80-2</a>, +<a href="#page93">93</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>.<br> +<br> +Huron, Lake, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br> +<br> +Hurons, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page62">62</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page86">86-92</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Iberville, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Iceland, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Île aux Noix, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Île des Allumettes, +<a href="#page67">67</a>.<br> +<br> +Île de St. Jean. <i>See</i> +<a href="#princeedwardisland">Prince Edward Island</a>.<br> +<br> +Île Madame, +<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br> +<br> +Île Perrot, +<a href="#page322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Île Royale, 322. <i>See</i> +<a href="#capebretonisland">Cape Breton Island</a>.<br> +<br> +Illinois, the, +<a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>, +<a href="#page163">163</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>.<br> +<br> +Independence, War of, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page280">280</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Indians, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page342">342</a>, &c.<br> +<br> +Indies, the, +<a href="#page10">10</a>, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Irondequoit Bay, +<a href="#page111">111</a>.<br> +<a name="iroquois"></a><br> +Iroquois, the, +<a href="#page54">54-62</a>, +<a href="#page64">64-6</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, +<a href="#page108">108-23</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>, +<a href="#page258">258 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>.<br> +<br> +Island Battery, the, +<a href="#page200">200-2</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Jacques Cartier, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<a name="jamesii"></a><br> +James, Captain T., +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br>— I, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page174">174</a>.<br> +<br>— II, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page187">187-9</a>.<br> +<br> +Jamestown, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>.<br> +<br> +Jemseg, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br> +<br> +Jesuits, the, +<a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page70">70-2</a>, +<a href="#page82">82-91</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>, +<a href="#page155">155</a>.<br> +<br> +Jogues, Isaac, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Johnson, Fort, +<a href="#page240">240</a>.<br> +<br>— Sir William, +<a href="#page240">240-6</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page261">261</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page294">294-6</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>, +<a href="#page323">323</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>, +<a href="#page342">342</a>.<br> +<br> +Joliet, Louis, +<a href="#page152">152-4</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br> +<br> +Joncaire, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br> +<br> +Joutel, +<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br> +<br> +Jumonville, +<a href="#page232">232</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Kankakee, the, +<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br> +<br> +Kansas River, the, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Kennebec, the, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page195">195</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br> +Kingston, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page108">108</a>.<br> +<br> +Kirkes, the, +<a href="#page74">74-7</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a> +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page173">173-5</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Kittery Point, +<a href="#page199">199</a>.<br> +<br> +Knowles, Commodore, +<a href="#page206">206</a>.<br> +<br> +Knox, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page307">307 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page317">317</a>, +<a href="#page318">318</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>, +<a href="#page323">323</a>, +<a href="#page324">324 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +La Barre, +<a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page111">111</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>, +<a href="#page163">163</a>, +<a href="#page165">165</a>.<br> +<br> +Labrador, +<a href="#page1">1</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page19">19</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br> +<br> +La Cadie. <i>See</i> +<a href="#acadia">Acadia</a>.<br> +<br> +Lac des Assiniboines. <i>See</i> +<a href="#lakewinnipeg">Lake Winnipeg</a>.<br> +<br> +Lac des Illinois. <i>See</i> +<a href="#lakemichigan">Lake Michigan</a>.<br> +<br> +Lachine, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page112">112</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page116">116 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +La Corne, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +'La Demoiselle,' +<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br> +<br> +La Famine, +<a href="#page110">110</a>.<br> +<br> +Laffeldt, Battle of, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +La Héve, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page177">177 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +La Hogue, Battle of, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +La Jonquičre, Marquis de, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page218">218 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page222">222</a>.<br> +<br> +Lake of the Woods, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Lalemant, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +La Mothe Cadillac, +<a href="#page121">121</a>.<br> +<br> +La Motte, Admiral, +<a href="#page263">263</a>.<br> +<br> +Lane, Ralph, +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Langlade, +<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br> +<br> +La Peltrie, Madame de, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +La Plata, the, +<a href="#page2">2</a>.<br> +<br> +La Pointe, +<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br> +<br> +La Prairie, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>.<br> +<br> +La Reine, Fort, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +La Roche, Marquis de, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +La Rochelle, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page72">72</a>, +<a href="#page74">74</a>, +<a href="#page78">78</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page165">165</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +La Salle, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>, +<a href="#page154">154-69</a>.<br> +<a name="fortlatour"></a><br> +Latour, Fort, +<a href="#page173">173</a>.<br> +<br>— — +<a href="#page175">175</a>, +<a href="#page178">178</a>.<br> +<br> +La Tours, the, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page175">175</a>, +<a href="#page177">177-80</a>.<br> +<br> +Laudonničre, René de, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +Laurel Hills, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page232">232</a>, +<a href="#page285">285</a>.<br> +<br> +Lauzon, De, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Laval, Bishop, +<a href="#page84">84</a>, +<a href="#page97">97</a>.<br> +<br> +La Valličre, +<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +La Verendrye, +<a href="#page212">212-4</a>.<br> +<br> +Lawrence, Fort, +<a href="#page223">223</a>, +<a href="#page224">224</a>.<br> +<br>— Governor, +<a href="#page222">222-5</a>, +<a href="#page228">228</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>.<br> +<br> +Leboeuf, Fort, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Borgne, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Caron, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page86">86</a>.<br> +<br> +Legardeur de St. Pierre, +<a href="#page245">245</a>.<br> +<br> +Leif, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page7">7</a>.<br> +<br> +Leisler, Jacob, +<a href="#page126">126</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Loutre, +<a href="#page222">222-4</a>, +<a href="#page266">266</a>.<br> +<br> +Le Moyne, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>.<br> +<br> +Léry, +<a href="#page254">254</a>.<br> +<br>— Baron de, +<a href="#page16">16 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page20">20</a>.<br> +<br> +Levis, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>, +<a href="#page288">288</a>, +<a href="#page300">300</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page315">315-7</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page323">323</a>.<br> +<br>— Point, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page300">300</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page304">304-6</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>.<br> +<br> +Lewis, +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<br> +Lighthouse Point, +<a href="#page202">202</a>, +<a href="#page273">273</a>, +<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br> +<br> +Ligneris, +<a href="#page286">286</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br> +<br> +Lok, Michael, +<a href="#page27">27</a>.<br> +<br> +L'Omeroy, Fort. <i>See</i> +<a href="#fortlatour">Fort Latour</a>.<br> +<br> +Longueuil, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Lorette, +<a href="#page89">89</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page316">316</a>.<br> +<br> +Loudoun, Earl of, +<a href="#page252">252</a>, +<a href="#page260">260-4</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page276">276</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>.<br> +<br> +Louis XIII, +<a href="#page72">72</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>.<br> +<br>— XIV, +<a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page107">107</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>, +<a href="#page164">164</a>, +<a href="#page192">192</a>, +<a href="#page343">343</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort. <i>See</i> +<a href="#fortlatour">Fort Latour</a>.<br> +<br> +Louisbourg, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page191">191-214</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page220">220</a>, +<a href="#page223">223-5</a>, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page253">253</a>, +<a href="#page259">259 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page262">262-4</a>, +<a href="#page270">270-7</a>, +<a href="#page289">289-92</a>, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page317">317</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, +<a href="#page344">344</a>.<br> +<br> +Louisiana, +<a href="#page36">36</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page162">162 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page252">252</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Lowestoft,</i> the, +<a href="#page318">318</a>.<br> +<br> +Loyal, Fort, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page130">130</a>.<br> +<br> +Loyalhannon, +<a href="#page285">285</a>.<br> +<br> +Lunenburg, +<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br> +<br> +Lutherans, +<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br> +<br> +Lyman, Fort, +<a href="#page241">241-5</a>.<br> +<br>— Phineas, +<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Lys,</i> the, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Machault. <i>See</i> +<a href="#venango">Venango</a>.<br> +<br> +Machias, +<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br> +<br> +Mackenzie, Sir A., +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<br> +Maine, State of, +<a href="#page23">23</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page130">130</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-2</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br> +Maisonneuve, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Mance, Jeanne, +<a href="#page84">84</a>.<br> +<br> +Manhattan Island, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page64">64</a>, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page206">206</a>.<br> +<br> +March, Colonel, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +Marin, +<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br> +<br> +Markland, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Marlborough, Duke of, +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page144">144</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Marquette, Jacques, +<a href="#page152">152-4</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br> +<br> +Martha's or Martin's Vineyard, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Maryland, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br> +<br> +Mascarene, Major, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br> +<br> +Massachusetts, +<a href="#page131">131-3</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page138">138-43</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page147">147</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page195">195</a>, +<a href="#page197">197-9</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page281">281</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page208">208</a>.<br> +<br> +Matagorda Bay, +<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Mathew,</i> the, +<a href="#page18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Mattawa River, the, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a>.<br> +<br> +Maumee River, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br> +<br> +May, River of, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Mazarin, +<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br> +<br> +Menendez, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Meneval, Governor, +<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +Mercer, Colonel, +<a href="#page256">256</a>.<br> +<br> +Merchants Discoverers' Company, +<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Merrimac,</i> the, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Meta Incognita,</i> the, +<a href="#page27">27</a>.<br> +<br> +Mexico, +<a href="#page17">17</a>, +<a href="#page155">155</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page164">164</a>, +<a href="#page165">165</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br> +<br>— Gulf of, +<a href="#page2">2</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page155">155</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page164">164-6</a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page332">332</a>.<br> +<br> +Miami Fort, +<a href="#page159">159-61</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br> +<br> +Miamis, the, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br> +<a name="lakemichigan"></a><br> +Michigan, Lake, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page89">89</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page157">157-61</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>.<br> +<br> +Michillimackinac, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page117">117</a>, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page158">158-62</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>.<br> +<br> +Micmacs, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>.<br> +<br> +Minden, Battle of, +<a href="#page315">315</a>.<br> +<br> +Mines, Basin of, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page225">225</a>.<br> +<br> +Miquelon, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Mississippi, the, +<a href="#page2">2-4</a>, +<a href="#page36">36</a>, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page159">159-62</a>, +<a href="#page166">166</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>.<br> +<br> +Missouri, the, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>, +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<br> +Mobile Bay, +<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br> +<br> +Mohawk River, the, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page55">55 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page56">56 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page240">240</a>, +<a href="#page246">246-7</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>.<br> +<br> +Mohawks, the, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page64">64</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page105">105</a>, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page115">115</a>, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page244">244</a>, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>.<br> +<br> +Mohicans, the, +<a href="#page64">64</a>.<br> +<br> +Monckton, Colonel, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page291">291</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>.<br> +<br> +Monongahela River, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page225">225</a>, +<a href="#page229">229-32</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>.<br> +<br> +Monro, Colonel, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>.<br> +<br> +Montagnais, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>.<br> +<br> +Montcalm, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page252">252-5</a>, +<a href="#page259">259-62</a>, +<a href="#page264">264-7</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page276">276 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page279">279</a>, +<a href="#page280">280</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page300">300-3</a>, +<a href="#page305">305-10</a>, +<a href="#page313">313-5</a>, +<a href="#page333">333</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Montmagny, De, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>.<br> +<br> +Montmorency, Duc de, +<a href="#page70">70</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page300">300-5</a>, +<a href="#page308">308</a><br> +<a name="montreal"></a><br> +Montreal, +<a href="#page22">22-4</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page67">67</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page95">95</a>, +<a href="#page102">102</a>, +<a href="#page108">108-15</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page319">319-25</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Monts, de, +<a href="#page40">40-3</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page73">73</a>.<br> +<br> +Moody, Chaplain, +<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br> +<br> +Moose Fort. <i>See</i> +<a href="#forthayes">Fort Hayes</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br> +Moravians, the, +<a href="#page285">285</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>.<br> +<br> +Murray, +<a href="#page291">291</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page302">302</a>, +<a href="#page304">304</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page316">316-20</a>, +<a href="#page323">323-5</a>.<br> +<br> +Muscovy Company, the, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Nantucket, +<a href="#page132">132</a>.<br> +<br> +Narragansetts, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>.<br> +<br> +Naxouat, Fort, +<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br> +<br> +Necessity, Fort, +<a href="#page232">232</a>.<br> +<br> +Nelson, Fort, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Nesmond, Marquis de, +<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br> +<br> +Netherlands East India Company, +<a href="#page46">46</a>, +<a href="#page79">79</a>.<br> +<br>— West India Company, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page79">79</a>, +<a href="#page181">181 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Neutral Nation, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +New Amsterdam, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>.<br> +<br>— Biscay, +<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br> +<br>— Brunswick, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-2</a>.<br> +<br> +Newcastle, Duke of, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page268">268 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page290">290</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br> +New England, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page11">11</a>, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page147">147</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page197">197-9</a>, +<a href="#page210">210</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page248">248</a>, +<a href="#page335">335-7</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>, +<a href="#page344">344</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Newfoundland, +<a href="#page1">1</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page11">11</a>, +<a href="#page13">13-25</a>, +<a href="#page30">30</a>, +<a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page37">37</a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page106">106</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page178">178</a>, +<a href="#page179">179 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page334">334</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +New France, +<a href="#page22">22-4</a>, +<a href="#page35">35</a>, +<a href="#page66">66 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page67">67</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page97">97</a>, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page335">335</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>.<br> +<br>— Hampshire, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page135">135</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>.<br> +<br>— Jersey, +<a href="#page6">6 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>.<br> +<br>— Mexico, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br>— Netherlands, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>.<br> +<br>— Orleans, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>.<br> +<br>— Scotland, +<a href="#page174">174</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br> +<br>— York, Town and State of, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page65">65 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page147">147</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page248">248</a>, +<a href="#page263">263</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>.<br> +<br> +Niagara, Falls of, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page111">111 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a>, +<a href="#page196">196</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page293">293-6</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page90">90</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page196">196</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<br> +Nicholson, Colonel, +<a href="#page141">141-3</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>.<br> +<br> +Nicollet, Jean, +<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br> +<br> +Nicolls, Colonel, +<a href="#page127">127</a>.<br> +<br> +Nipigon, Fort and River, +<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br> +<br> +Nipissing Indians, +<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br> +<br>— Lake, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>.<br> +<br> +Noble, Colonel, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Nonsuch,</i> the, +<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br> +<br> +Norridgewocks, the, +<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br> +<br> +Norsemen, +<a href="#page5">5</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +North-West Passage, +<a href="#page183">183-6</a>.<br> +<br> +Norumbega, +<a href="#page23">23 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Nova Scotia, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page36">36</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page170">170-6</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Ogdensburg, +<a href="#page322">322 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Ohio, the, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page156">156</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page162">162 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page217">217-9</a>, +<a href="#page232">232</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page283">283-6</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Oneida, Lake, +<a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>.<br> +<br> +Oneidas, the, +<a href="#page56">56 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>.<br> +<br> +Oneigra, +<a href="#page111">111 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Onondaga, +<a href="#page116">116</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page196">196 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Onondagas, the, +<a href="#page56">56 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page59">59</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>.<br> +<br> +Ontario, Fort, +<a href="#page256">256</a>.<br> +<br>— Lake, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page51">51-6</a>, +<a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page108">108-11</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page196">196</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page254">254-8</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Orleans, Island of, +<a href="#page85">85</a>, +<a href="#page89">89</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page300">300</a>.<br> +<br>— Point of, +<a href="#page300">300</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>.<br> +<br> +Oswegatchie River, +<a href="#page322">322 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<a name="oswego"></a><br> +Oswego, +<a href="#page196">196 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page254">254-8</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page269">269 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page280">280</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Ottawa, City of, +<a href="#page52">52</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page66">66-9</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br> +<br> +Oyster River, +<a href="#page135">135</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Paris, Peace of, +<a href="#page15">15</a>, +<a href="#page93">93</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Péan, +<a href="#page251">251</a>.<br> +<br> +Pemaquid, Fort, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Penalossa, Count, +<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br> +<br> +Pennsylvania, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page233">233</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>, +<a href="#page248">248</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>.<br> +<br> +Penobscot, the, +<a href="#page23">23 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page136">136</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page181">181 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page195">195</a>, +<a href="#page240">240</a>, +<a href="#page266">266</a>.<br> +<br> +Pentegoet, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +Pepin, Lake, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Pepperell, W., +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page202">202</a>, +<a href="#page203">203</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page252">252 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Pequods, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>.<br> +<br> +Perrot, Governor, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page113">113</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Philadelphia, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>.<br> +<br> +Philip's War, +<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br> +<br> +Philipps, Governor, +<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br> +<br> +Phipps, William, +<a href="#page131">131-4</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>.<br> +<a name="pickawillany"></a><br> +Pickawillany, +<a href="#page218">218</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br> +<br> +Pigeon River, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Pique Town. <i>See</i> +<a href="#pickawillany">Pickawillany</a>.<br> +<br> +Piquet, Abbé, +<a href="#page322">322 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Pitt, +<a href="#page15">15 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page268">268 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page269">269</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>, +<a href="#page291">291 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page304">304</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>, +<a href="#page325">325-7</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Pittsburg, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page286">286</a>.<br> +<br> +Placentia, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Plains of Abraham, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>, +<a href="#page314">314</a>.<br> +<br> +Points de Monts, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br> +<br> +Pontgravé, +<a href="#page39">39-41</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page66">66</a>.<br> +<br> +Pontiac, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Portland, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page150">150</a>.<br> +<br> +Port Royal, +<a href="#page41">41-3</a>, +<a href="#page77">77 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page135">135</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page171">171-3</a>, +<a href="#page175">175-7</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a>, +<a href="#page198">198</a>.<br> +<br> +Portsmouth, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>.<br> +<br> +Portugal and Portuguese, +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page8">8-10</a>, +<a href="#page14">14-9</a>, +<a href="#page29">29 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>, +<a href="#page79">79</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page330">330</a>.<br> +<br> +Potomac, the, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>.<br> +<br> +Pouchot, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>, +<a href="#page322">322</a><br> +<br> +Poutrincourt, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>.<br> +<br> +Presque Île, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<br> +Prideaux, General, +<a href="#page293">293-6</a>.<br> +<br> +Prima Terra Vista, +<a href="#page16">16</a>.<br> +<a name="princeedwardisland"></a><br> +Prince Edward Island, +<a href="#page170">170</a>, +<a href="#page179">179 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>.<br> +<br>— Rev. T., +<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br> +<br>— Rupert, +<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br> +<br> +Prudhomme, Fort, +<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br> +<br> +Puans, the. <i>See</i> +<a href="#winnebagos">Winnebagos</a>.<br> +<br> +Puritans, the, +<a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page85">85</a>, +<a href="#page204">204</a>, +<a href="#page338">338</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Quakers, the, +<a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page240">240</a>, +<a href="#page341">341</a>, +<a href="#page344">344</a>.<br> +<br> +Quebec, +<a href="#page22">22-4</a>, +<a href="#page35">35-78</a>, +<a href="#page95">95</a>, +<a href="#page97">97</a>, +<a href="#page102">102</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page179">179</a>, +<a href="#page186">186</a>, +<a href="#page207">207</a>, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page269">269 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page276">276 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>, +<a href="#page291">291-3</a>, +<a href="#page297">297-320</a>, +<a href="#page336">336</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Quiberon Bay, +<a href="#page311">311</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Radisson, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br> +<br> +Raestown, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page291">291 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Raleigh, Sir W., +<a href="#page3">3</a>, +<a href="#page28">28</a>, +<a href="#page29">29</a>, +<a href="#page33">33</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>.<br> +<br>— City of, +<a href="#page33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Ramesay, +<a href="#page141">141</a>.<br> +<br>— +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page209">209</a>.<br> +<br>— +<a href="#page310">310</a>.<br> +<br> +Rasle, Sebastian, +<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br> +<br> +Razilly, de, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page177">177 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Recollet Friars, the, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br> +<br> +Red River, the, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br>— — — +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Rensselaer and Rensselaerswyck, +<a href="#page63">63</a>.<br> +<br> +Restigouche, +<a href="#page324">324</a>.<br> +<br> +Rhode Island, +<a href="#page233">233</a>.<br> +<br> +Ribault, Jean, +<a href="#page38">38</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Richelieu, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page72">72</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page80">80</a>, +<a href="#page94">94</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page174">174</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page81">81</a>.<br> +<br>— River, the, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, +<a href="#page102">101</a>, +<a href="#page102">102</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page114">114</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br> +Rideau Canal, +<a href="#page52">52</a>.<br> +<br> +Rio Janeiro, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +Rivičre aux Boeufs, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page229">229</a>. +<i>See also</i> +<a href="#frenchcreek">French Creek</a>.<br> +<br> +Roanoke, +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Roberval, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page23">23</a>.<br> +<br> +Rochefort, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +Rocky Mountains, +<a href="#page46">46</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>, +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<br> +Rogers, Robert, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page261">261-4</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br> +Rogers' Rock, +<a href="#page261">261</a>.<br> +<br> +Rollo, Lord, +<a href="#page277">277</a>.<br> +<br> +Roman Catholics, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page73">73</a>, +<a href="#page83">83</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br> +<br> +Rome, +<a href="#page247">247</a>.<br> +<br> +Roquemaure, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Rouen, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br> +<br>— and St. Malo Company, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>.<br> +<br> +Rouillé, Fort, +<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br> +<br> +Royal Americans, +<a href="#page252">252 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page302">302</a>.<br> +<br>— Mount. <i>See</i> +<a href="#montreal">Montreal</a>.<br> +<br> +Rupert, Fort or House, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page187">187</a>, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br>— Land, +<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br> +<br>— River, +<a href="#page185">185</a>, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br> +Ryswick, Peace of, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Sable Cape, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>.<br> +<br>— Island, +<a href="#page16">16 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page31">31</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br> +Sackett's Harbour, +<a href="#page255">255</a>.<br> +<br> +Saguenay River, +<a href="#page13">13</a>, +<a href="#page24">24 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>.<br> +<br> +St. Anne, Fort, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br>— Anthony, Falls of, +<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br> +<br>— Augustine, Town of, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br>— Castin, Baron de, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page240">240</a>.<br> +<br>— Charles, River, +<a href="#page89">89</a>, +<a href="#page132">132</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>, +<a href="#page307">307-9</a>.<br> +<br>— Clair, Lake and River, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br> +<br>— Croix, River, +<a href="#page41">41</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>.<br> +<br>— — — +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br> +<br>— Esprit, Mission of, +<a href="#page151">151</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br> +<br>— Francis, River of, +<a href="#page296">296</a>.<br> +<br>— Frederick, Fort, +<a href="#page197">197</a>.<br> +<br>— Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page77">77 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page175">175</a>.<br> +<br>— Ignace, Mission of, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br> +<br>— John's, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br>— — (New Brunswick), +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>, +<a href="#page177">177 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>.<br> +<br>— — (Newfoundland), +<a href="#page29">29-31</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br>— — Lake, +<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br> +<br>— — River (Florida), +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br>— Joseph, River of, +<a href="#page159">159-61</a>.<br> +<br>— Lawrence, Gulf of, +<a href="#page20">20</a>, +<a href="#page24">24 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page171">171</a>, +<a href="#page334">334</a>.<br> +<br>— — River of, +<a href="#page2">2-4</a>, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page9">9</a>, +<a href="#page12">12 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page35">35-8</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page46">46</a>, +<a href="#page48">48-55</a>, +<a href="#page65">65-71</a>, +<a href="#page108">108</a>, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>, +<a href="#page173">173</a>, +<a href="#page191">191</a>, +<a href="#page212">212</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page289">289</a>, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page298">298-301</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>, +<a href="#page331">331-4</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br>— Louis, Fort of (Illinois), +<a href="#page163">163</a>, +<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br> +<br>— — — (Quebec), +<a href="#page71">71</a>.<br> +<br>— — — (Texas), +<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br> +<br>— Malo, +<a href="#page37">37</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>.<br> +<br>— Marie, Station of, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>.<br> +<br>— Mary's Straits. <i>See</i> +<a href="#saultstmarie">Sault St. Marie</a>.<br> +<br>— Maurice, River of, +<a href="#page50">50</a>.<br> +<br>— Peter, Lake, +<a href="#page50">50</a>.<br> +<br>— Pierre, Island of, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +Sainte Foy, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page316">316</a>.<br> +<br> +Saličres, Colonel de, +<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Salmon Falls, +<a href="#page129">129</a>.<br> +<br> +Sandy Creek, +<a href="#page254">254</a>.<br> +<br>— Hill, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br> +Santa Fé, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Saratoga, Fort, +<a href="#page208">208</a>.<br> +<br> +Saskatchewan, the, +<a href="#page213">213</a>, +<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br> +<a name="saultstmarie"></a><br> +Sault St. Louis, +<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br> +<br>— — Marie, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br> +<br> +Saunders, Admiral, +<a href="#page292">292</a>, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page304">304-6</a>, +<a href="#page308">308</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br> +<br> +Saurel, Monsieur de, +<a href="#page81">81 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Schenectady, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page128">128</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page267">267-8</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>, +<a href="#page321">321</a>.<br> +<br> +Schuyler, +<a href="#page126">126</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a>.<br> +<br> +Scots Fort, +<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br> +<br> +Sedgewick, Major-General, +<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br> +<br> +Seignelay, +<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br> +<br> +Seigniors, the, +<a href="#page100">100</a>, +<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br> +<br> +Senecas, the, +<a href="#page55">55 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page56">56 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page91">91</a>, +<a href="#page109">109-11</a>, +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page158">158</a>, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br> +<br> +Seven Years' War, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page250">250-2</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page338">338</a>.<br> +<br> +Shirley, William, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page206">206-8</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page241">241</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page252">252 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page254">254-6</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>.<br> +<br> +Sillery, +<a href="#page297">297</a>, +<a href="#page298">298</a>.<br> +<br> +Simcoe, Lake, +<a href="#page52">52</a>, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page68">68</a>, +<a href="#page87">87</a>, +<a href="#page196">196 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Sioux, the, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br> +Smith, John, +<a href="#page34">34</a>.<br> +<br> +Soissons, Count de, +<a href="#page67">67</a>.<br> +<br> +Sorel, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>.<br> +<br> +South Africa, +<a href="#page46">46</a>, +<a href="#page47">47</a>.<br> +<br>— Bay, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br>— Carolina, +<a href="#page145">145</a>, +<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br> +<br> +Spain and Spaniards, +<a href="#page8">8-21</a>, +<a href="#page34">34</a>, +<a href="#page39">39</a>, +<a href="#page79">79</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page162">162</a>, +<a href="#page211">211</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>, +<a href="#page329">329</a>, +<a href="#page330">330</a>.<br> +<br> +Spanish America, +<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br> +<br>— Succession, War of, +<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Squirrel,</i> the, +<a href="#page31">31</a>.<br> +<br> +Stadaconé, +<a href="#page22">22 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Stanwix, Fort, +<a href="#page257">257 <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br>— General, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>.<br> +<br> +Stirling, Earl of. <i>See</i> +<a href="#alexander">Alexander</a>.<br> +<br> +Stoughton, +<a href="#page136">136</a>.<br> +<br> +Stuarts, the, +<a href="#page76">76</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br> +<br> +Sulpicians, the, +<a href="#page108">108</a>.<br> +<br> +Superior, Lake, +<a href="#page48">48</a>, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page88">88</a>, +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page149">149</a>, +<a href="#page151">151-3</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page212">212</a>, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +Susa, Convention of, +<a href="#page76">76 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>.<br> +<br> +Susquehanna River, +<a href="#page55">55</a>, +<a href="#page90">90</a>.<br> +<br> +Sweden and Swedes, +<a href="#page124">124</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>.<br> +<br> +Swift, +<a href="#page145">145 and <i>n</i></a>.<br> +<br> +Sydney Harbour, +<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Tadoussac, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page75">75</a>, +<a href="#page93">93</a>.<br> +<br> +Talon, +<a href="#page101">101</a>, +<a href="#page104">104-6</a>, +<a href="#page152">152</a>, +<a href="#page343">343</a>.<br> +<br> +Temiscaming, Lake, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br> +Temple, Lord, +<a href="#page319">319</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br>— Sir T., +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br> +<br> +Terra de Corte Reall. <i>See</i> +<a href="#cortereal">Corte Real</a>.<br> +<br> +Texas, +<a href="#page165">165</a>, +<a href="#page166">166</a>, +<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br> +<br> +Thorne, Robert, +<a href="#page13">13</a>.<br> +<br> +Thousand Islands, the, +<a href="#page51">51</a>, +<a href="#page322">322</a>.<br> +<br> +Three Rivers, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page81">81</a>, +<a href="#page82">82</a>, +<a href="#page92">92</a>, +<a href="#page95">95</a>, +<a href="#page112">112</a>, +<a href="#page129">129</a>, +<a href="#page131">131</a>, +<a href="#page331">331</a>.<br> +<br> +Thunder Bay, +<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br> +<a name="ticonderoga"></a><br> +Ticonderoga, +<a href="#page66">66</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page278">278-80</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page293">293</a>, +<a href="#page296">296</a>, +<a href="#page303">303</a>.<br> +<br> +Tonty, Henri de, +<a href="#page155">155</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a>, +<a href="#page159">159-63</a>, +<a href="#page167">167-9</a>.<br> +<br> +Toronto, +<a href="#page196">196 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>.<br> +<br> +Tourmente, Cape, +<a href="#page75">75</a>.<br> +<br> +Townshend, +<a href="#page291">291</a>, +<a href="#page301">301</a>, +<a href="#page304">304</a>, +<a href="#page305">305</a>, +<a href="#page307">307</a>, +<a href="#page309">309-12</a>.<br> +<br> +Trent River, the, +<a href="#page68">68</a>.<br> +<br> +Trinity River, +<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Troupes de la Marine,</i> +<a href="#page253">253</a>.<br> +<br> +Troy, +<a href="#page49">49</a>.<br> +<br> +Troyes, de, +<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br> +<br> +Turtle Creek, +<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br> +<br> +Tuscaroras, the, +<a href="#page61">61</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Utrecht, Treaty of, +<a href="#page122">122 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page126">126</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page145">145 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a>, +<a href="#page170">170</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page183">183</a>, +<a href="#page190">190-2</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page221">221</a>, +<a href="#page228">228</a>, +<a href="#page277">277</a>, +<a href="#page327">327</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>, +<a href="#page340">340</a>, +<a href="#page345">345</a>, +<a href="#page346">346</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Valois, House of, +<a href="#page24">24</a>, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Vanguard,</i> the, +<a href="#page318">318</a>.<br> +<br> +Varin, +<a href="#page251">251</a>.<br> +<br> +Vasco de Gama, +<a href="#page8">8</a>.<br> +<br> +Vaudreuil, Governor (father), +<a href="#page118">118</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br> +<br>— (son), +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page251">251</a>, +<a href="#page252">252</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page255">255</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>, +<a href="#page270">270</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page299">299</a>, +<a href="#page309">309</a>, +<a href="#page310">310</a>, +<a href="#page320">320</a>, +<a href="#page323">323</a>, +<a href="#page324">324</a>, +<a href="#page333">333</a>.<br> +<br>— Rigaud de, +<a href="#page262">262</a>.<br> +<br> +Vaughan, William, +<a href="#page198">198</a>, +<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br> +<br> +Vauquelin, +<a href="#page318">318</a>.<br> +<a name="venango"></a><br> +Venango, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br> +<br> +Venice and Venetians, +<a href="#page13">13 and <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page18">18</a>.<br> +<br> +Ventadour, Duc de, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page71">71</a>.<br> +<br> +Verchčres, Madeleine de, +<a href="#page115">115</a>.<br> +<br>— Seignory of, +<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br> +<br> +Vergor, de, +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page306">306</a>.<br> +<br> +Vermont, +<a href="#page49">49</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br> +Verrazano, +<a href="#page7">7 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page12">12</a>, +<a href="#page14">14</a>, +<a href="#page20">20</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>.<br> +<br> +Vetch, Samuel, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page143">143</a>.<br> +<br> +<i>Vigilant,</i> the, +<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br> +<br> +Vignau, Nicholas de, +<a href="#page67">67</a>.<br> +<br> +Villebon, +<a href="#page135">135</a>, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br> +<br> +Villegagnon, +<a href="#page38">38</a>.<br> +<br> +Ville Marie, +<a href="#page85">85</a>. <i>See</i> +<a href="#montreal">Montreal</a>.<br> +<br> +Villiers, Coulon de, +<a href="#page209">209</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page255">255</a>.<br> +<br> +Vinland, +<a href="#page6">6</a>.<br> +<br> +Virginia, +<a href="#page11">11</a>, +<a href="#page25">25</a>, +<a href="#page31">31-4</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page43">43</a>, +<a href="#page45">45</a>, +<a href="#page53">53 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page110">110</a>, +<a href="#page123">123</a>, +<a href="#page127">127</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page234">234</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>, +<a href="#page248">248</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page284">284</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>.<br> +<br>— Company, +<a href="#page42">42</a>.<br> +<br> +Virginians, the, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page219">219</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Walker, Admiral, +<a href="#page144">144-6</a>.<br> +<br> +Walley, Major, +<a href="#page132">132</a>.<br> +<br> +Walpole, Horace, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page250">250</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page263">263</a>, +<a href="#page269">269 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page275">275</a>, +<a href="#page276">276</a>, +<a href="#page290">290</a>, +<a href="#page291">291</a>, +<a href="#page309">309</a>, +<a href="#page315">315</a>, +<a href="#page319">319</a>.<br> +<br> +Warren, Commodore, +<a href="#page199">199-203</a>, +<a href="#page205">205</a>, +<a href="#page206">206</a>, +<a href="#page208">208</a>, +<a href="#page240">240</a>.<br> +<br> +Washington, George, +<a href="#page217">217</a>, +<a href="#page230">230-2</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page285">285</a>.<br> +<br> +Webb, Colonel D., +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page265">265</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>.<br> +<br> +Wells, +<a href="#page135">135</a>, +<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br> +<br> +Westerham, +<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br> +<br> +West Indies, the, +<a href="#page1">1</a>, +<a href="#page8">8-10</a>, +<a href="#page32">32</a>, +<a href="#page103">103</a>, +<a href="#page134">134</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page199">199</a>, +<a href="#page326">326</a>.<br> +<br> +Westminster, Treaty of, +<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br> +<br>— — — +<a href="#page63">63</a>.<br> +<br> +Wheeler, Admiral, +<a href="#page134">134</a>.<br> +<br> +White, John, +<a href="#page33">33</a>.<br> +<br> +Whitehall, Town of, +<a href="#page242">242</a>.<br> +<br>— Treaty of, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br> +Whitfield, George, +<a href="#page199">199</a>.<br> +<br> +William III, +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br> +<br>— Henry, Fort, +<a href="#page245">245</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page261">261</a>, +<a href="#page262">262</a>, +<a href="#page264">264</a>, +<a href="#page266">266</a>, +<a href="#page269">269</a>, +<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br> +<br> +Williams, Fort, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page257">257 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>.<br> +<br>— Rev. J., +<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br> +<br> +Willoughby, Sir Hugh, +<a href="#page26">26</a>.<br> +<br> +Wills Creek, +<a href="#page230">230</a>, +<a href="#page231">231</a>, +<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br> +<br> +Winnebago, Lake, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br> +<a name="winnebagos"></a><br> +Winnebagos, the, +<a href="#page152">152</a>.<br> +<a name="lakewinnipeg"></a><br> +Winnipeg, Lake, +<a href="#page211">211-3</a>.<br> +<br> +Winslow, J., +<a href="#page224">224</a>, +<a href="#page261">261</a>.<br> +<br> +Winthrop, Governor, +<a href="#page123">123</a>.<br> +<br> +Wisconsin, River, +<a href="#page148">148</a>, +<a href="#page150">150</a>, +<a href="#page153">153</a>, +<a href="#page161">161</a>, +<a href="#page217">217</a>.<br> +<br> +Wolfe, General, +<a href="#page216">216</a>, +<a href="#page235">235</a>, +<a href="#page236">236</a>, +<a href="#page239">239</a>, +<a href="#page248">248</a>, +<a href="#page253">253 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page259">259 <i>n.</i></a>, +<a href="#page260">260</a>, +<a href="#page271">271</a>, +<a href="#page272">272</a>, +<a href="#page274">274-7</a>, +<a href="#page281">281</a>, +<a href="#page283">283</a>, +<a href="#page287">287</a>, +<a href="#page289">289-93</a>, +<a href="#page296">296-317</a>, +<a href="#page337">337</a>, +<a href="#page339">339</a>.<br> +<br>— Island, +<a href="#page255">255</a>.<br> +<br> +Wolfe's Cove, +<a href="#page306">306</a>.<br> +<br> +Wood Creek (Lake Champlain), +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page144">144</a>, +<a href="#page242">242</a>, +<a href="#page243">243</a>, +<a href="#page282">282</a>.<br> +<br>— — (Lake Oneida), +<a href="#page56">56</a>, +<a href="#page246">246</a>, +<a href="#page247">247</a>, +<a href="#page254">254</a>, +<a href="#page257">257</a>, +<a href="#page258">258</a>, +<a href="#page267">267</a>.<br> +<br> +Wyandots, the, +<a href="#page54">54</a>, +<a href="#page89">89</a>.<br> +<br> +Wye, the, +<a href="#page87">87</a>.<br> +<br> +Wyoming, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Yellowstone Park and River, +<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br> +<br> +York, Duke of, +<a href="#page63">63</a>, +<a href="#page104">104</a>, +<a href="#page125">125</a>, +<a href="#page182">182</a>. +<i>See also</i> +<a href="#jamesii">James II</a>.<br> +<br>— Fort, +<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br> +<br>— Settlement of, +<a href="#page135">135</a>.<br> +<br> +Yorktown, +<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br> +<br> +Youghiogany, the, +<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br> +<br> +<br> +Zeni, the brothers, +<a href="#page5">5</a>, +<a href="#page13">13 <i>n</i></a>.<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Historical Geography of the British +Colonies, by Charles Prestwood Lucas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + +***** This file should be named 34080-h.htm or 34080-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/8/34080/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Historical Geography of the British Colonies + Vol. V, Canada--Part I, Historical + +Author: Charles Prestwood Lucas + +Release Date: October 16, 2010 [EBook #34080] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +HISTORY OF CANADA + +PART I (NEW FRANCE) + +_C. P. LUCAS_ + + + + +HENRY FROWDE, M.A. + +PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + +LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE + + + + +A HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE BRITISH COLONIES VOL. V + +CANADA--PART I HISTORICAL + + +BY + +C. P. LUCAS, C.B. + +OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD AND THE COLONIAL OFFICE + + +OXFORD + +AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + +MDCCCCI + + + + +OXFORD + +PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS + +BY HORACE HART, M.A. + +PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +CHAP. I. EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS IN NORTH AMERICA TO THE END OF + THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + +CHAP. II. SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC . . . . 35 + +CHAP. III. THE SETTLEMENT OF CANADA AND THE FIVE NATION INDIANS 79 + +CHAP. IV. FRENCH AND ENGLISH DOWN TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT . . 123 + +CHAP. V. THE MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + +CHAP. VI. ACADIA AND HUDSON BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + +CHAP. VII. LOUISBOURG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + +CHAP. VIII. THE PRELUDE TO THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR . . . . . . . . 216 + +CHAP. IX. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 + +CHAP. X. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (_continued_) . . . . . . . . 289 + +CHAP. XI. GENERAL SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 + +APPENDIX I. LIST OF FRENCH GOVERNORS OF CANADA . . . . . . . . 350 + +APPENDIX II. DATES OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF + CANADA DOWN TO 1763 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 + + + + +LIST OF MAPS + + +1. Map of the French and English possessions in North America in + the middle of the eighteenth century + +2. Map of New England, New York, and Central Canada, showing the + waterways + +3. Map of Louisbourg + +4. Map of Quebec + + + + +[Illustration: Map of the French and English Possessions in NORTH +AMERICA in the Middle of the 18th Century] + + + + +{1} + +HISTORY OF CANADA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EUROPEAN DISCOVERERS IN NORTH AMERICA TO THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH +CENTURY + + +[Sidenote: _The British possessions in North America._] + +The British possessions in North America consist of Newfoundland and +the Dominion of Canada. Under the Government of Newfoundland is a +section of the mainland coast which forms part of Labrador, extending +from the straits of Belle Isle on the south to Cape Chudleigh on the +north. + +The area of these possessions, together with the date and mode of +their acquisition, is as follows:-- + + _Name._ _How acquired._ _Date._ _Area in square miles._ + + Newfoundland Settlement 1583-1623 40,200 + and Labrador 120,000 + + Canada Cession [Quebec] 1763 3,653,946 + +[Sidenote: _British possessions in North America and West Indies +contrasted._] + +In the Introduction to a previous volume,[1] it was pointed out that +all the British possessions in the New World have one common feature; +viz. that they have been, in the main, fields of European settlement, +and not merely trading stations or conquered dependencies; but that, +in other respects--in climate, in geography, and in what may be +called the strata of colonization--the West Indian and North American +provinces of the Empire stand at opposite poles to each other. It may +be added that, in North America, European colonization was later in +time and slower in development than {2} in the central and southern +parts of the continent; and, in order to understand why this was the +case, some reference must be made to the geography of North America, +more especially in its relation to Europe, and also to its first +explorers, their motives, and their methods. + +[Footnote 1: Vol. ii, _West Indies_, pp. 3, 4.] + +[Sidenote: _Geographical outline of America._] + +The Old World lies west and east. In the New World the line of length +is from north to south. The geographical outline of America, as +compared with that of Europe and Asia, is very simple. There is a +long stretch of continent, with a continuous backbone of mountains, +running from the far north to the far south. The mountains line the +western coast; on the eastern side are great plains, great rivers, +broken shores, and islands. Midway in the line of length, where the +Gulf of Mexico runs into the land, and where, further south, the +Isthmus of Darien holds together North and South America by a narrow +link, the semicircle of West Indian islands stand out as +stepping-stones in the ocean for wayfarers from the old continent to +the new. + +[Sidenote: _North and South America._] + +The two divisions of the American continent are curiously alike. They +have each two great river-basins on the eastern side. The basin of +the St. Lawrence is roughly parallel to that of the Amazon; the basin +of the Mississippi to that of La Plata. The North American coast, +however, between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and that of the +Mississippi, is more varied and broken, more easy of access, than the +South American shores between the Amazon and La Plata. On the other +hand, South America has an attractive and accessible northern coast, +in strong contrast to the icebound Arctic regions; and the Gulf of +Venezuela, the delta of the Orinoco, and the rivers of Guiana, have +called in traders and settlers from beyond the seas. + +[Sidenote: _South America colonized from both sides, North America +only from the eastern side._] + +The history of colonization in North America has been, in the main, +one of movement from east to west. In South America, on the other +hand, the western side played almost from the first at least as +important a part as the eastern. {3} The story of Peru and its Inca +rulers shows that in old times, in South America, there was a +civilization to be found upon the western side of the Andes, and the +shores of the Pacific Ocean. European explorers penetrated into and +crossed the continent rather from the north and west than from the +east; and Spanish colonization on the Pacific coast was, outwardly at +least, more imposing and effective than Portuguese colonization on +the Atlantic seaboard. The great mass of land on the earth's surface +is in the northern hemisphere; and in the extreme north the shores of +the Old and New Worlds are closest to each other. Here, where the +Arctic Sea narrows into the Behring Straits, it is easier to reach +America from the west than from the east, from Asia than from Europe; +but to pass from the extremity of one continent to the extremity of +another is of little avail for making history; and the history of +North America has been made from the opposite side, which lies over +against Europe, where the shores are indented by plenteous bays and +estuaries, and where there are great waterways leading into the heart +of the interior. + +[Sidenote: _The rivers of North America._] + +[Sidenote: _English colonization in North America._] + +The main outlets of North America are, as has been said, the St. +Lawrence and the Mississippi; while, on the long stretch of coast +between them, the most important river is the Hudson, whose valley is +a direct and comparatively easy highroad from the Atlantic to Lake +Champlain and the St. Lawrence basin; and here it may be noticed +that, though a Bristol ship first discovered North America, and +though, from the time of Ralegh onwards, North America became the +main scene of British colonization, the English allowed other nations +to secure the keys of the continent, and ran the risk of being cut +off from the interior. The French forestalled them on the St. +Lawrence, and later took possession of the mouth of the Mississippi. +The Dutch planted themselves on the Hudson between New England and +the southern colonies, and New York, the present chief city of +English-speaking America, was once New Amsterdam. Of all {4} +colonizing nations the English have perhaps been the least scientific +in their methods; and in no part of the world were their mistakes +greater than in North America, where their success was eventually +most complete. There was, however, one principle in colonization to +which they instinctively and consistently held. While they often +neglected to safeguard the obvious means of access into new-found +countries, and, as compared with other nations, made comparatively +little use of the great rivers in any part of the world, they laid +hold on coasts, peninsulas, and islands, and kept their population +more or less concentrated near to the sea. Thus, when the time of +struggle came, they could be supported from home, and were stronger +at given points than their more scientific rivals. If the French laid +their plans to keep in their own hands the Mississippi, the Ohio, and +the St. Lawrence, and thereby to shut off the colonies of the +Atlantic seaboard from the continent behind, those colonies had the +advantage of close contact with the sea, of comparatively continuous +settlement, and of yearly growing power to break through the weak and +unduly extended line with which the competing race tried to hem them +in. + +But this contest between French and English, based though it was on +geographical position, belongs to the Middle Ages of European +colonization in America: let us look a little further back, and see +how the Old and the New Worlds first came into touch with each other. + +[Sidenote: _Bacon on the discovery of North America._] + +In his history of King Henry VII, Bacon refers to the 'memorable +accident' of the Cabots' great discovery, in the following +passage:--'There was one Sebastian Gabato, a Venetian living in +Bristow, a man seen and expert in cosmography and navigation. This +man, seeing the success and emulating perhaps the enterprise of +Christopherus Columbus in that fortunate discovery towards the +south-west, which had been by him made some six years before, +conceited with himself that lands might likewise be discovered +towards {5} the north-west. And surely it may be he had more firm and +pregnant conjectures of it than Columbus had of his at the first. For +the two great islands of the Old and New World, being in the shape +and making of them broad towards the north and pointed towards the +south, it is likely that the discovery first began where the lands +did nearest meet. And there had been before that time a discovery of +some lands which they took to be islands, and were indeed the +continent of America towards the north-west.'[2] Bacon goes on to +surmise that Columbus had knowledge of this prior discovery, and was +guided by it in forming his own conjectures as to the existence of +land in the far west; and it is at least not unlikely that, when he +visited Iceland in 1477, he would have heard tales of the Norsemen's +voyages to America.[3] + +[Footnote 2: Spedding's edition of Bacon's works, 1870, vol. vi, p. +196.] + +[Footnote 3: For this visit, see Washington Irving's _Life and +Voyages of Columbus_, bk. i, ch. vi.] + +[Sidenote: _Pre-Columbian explorations._] + +It would be out of place in this book to make more than a passing +reference to the much-vexed question, how far the New World was known +to Europeans before the days of Columbus and the Cabots. Indeed, if +all the stories on the subject were proved, the fact would yet remain +that, for all practical purposes, America was first revealed to the +nations of Europe, when Columbus took his way across the Atlantic. It +was likely that, when his discovery had been made, men would rise up +to assert that it was not so great and not so new as had been at +first imagined. The French claimed priority for a countryman of their +own;[4] stories of Welsh and Irish settlement in America passed into +circulation; the romance of the brothers Zeni was published, a tale +of supposed Venetian adventure in the fourteenth century to the +islands of the far north; and it was contended, more prosaically and +with greater show of reason, that Basque fishermen had frequented {6} +the banks of Newfoundland, before that island was discovered for +England and thereby earned its present name. + +[Footnote 4: Cousin of Dieppe, who claimed to have discovered America +in 1488, four years before Columbus reached the West Indies.] + +[Sidenote: _Voyages of the Norsemen._] + +The story of the Norsemen's voyages has a sounder foundation than any +other of these early traditions and tales. Iceland is nearer to +Greenland than to Norway: it has been abundantly proved that colonies +were established and fully organized in Greenland in the Middle Ages; +and it seems on the face of it unlikely that the enterprise and +adventure of the seafaring sons of the north would have stopped short +at this point, instead of carrying them on to the mainland of +America. + +[Sidenote: _Their alleged discovery of North America._] + +The Norse are said to have come to Iceland about 875 A.D., where +Christian Irish had already preceded them; and, in the following +year, rocks far to the west were sighted by Gunnbiorn. A century +later, in 984, Eric the Red came back from a visit to Gunnbiorn's +land, calling it by the attractive name of Greenland. About 986, +Bjarni Herjulfson, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, sighted land to +the south-west; and, a few years later, about the year 1000, Leif, +the son of Eric, who had brought the Christian religion to Greenland, +sailed in search of the south-western land which Bjarni had seen. The +record of his voyage claims to be the record of the discovery of +America. He found the rocky barren shores of Labrador and +Newfoundland, and called them from their appearance Helluland, or +'slateland.' He passed on to the mouth of the St. Lawrence and to +Nova Scotia, calling it Markland, or the 'land of woods.' Then +sailing still further south, he came to a land where vines grew wild, +and which he called Vinland. This last was, it would seem, the New +England coast, between Boston and New York; and here in after times, +for a like reason, English settlers gave the name of Martha's or +Martin's Vineyard to an island, which lies close to the shore south +of Cape Cod.[5] In Vinland, it is stated, a Norse colony was {7} +founded a few years after Leif's visit; and trade--mainly a timber +trade--was carried on with Greenland down to the year 1347, after +which all is a blank. + +[Footnote 5: A little further to the south on the coast of New +Jersey, or Maryland, Verrazano 'saw in this country many vines +growing naturally' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 360, 1810 ed.).] + +No authentic inscriptions or remains, indicating Scandinavian +discovery or settlement in America, have, it is said, been found +anywhere outside Greenland, except at one point in the very far +north;[6] and in their absence these northern tales cannot be +absolutely verified. It can only be said that, in all probability, +America was known to the Northmen in the Middle Ages, but that what +happened in these dark days in the extreme north of Europe and the +extreme north of America has no direct bearing upon the history of +European colonization. + +[Footnote 6: See Justin Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of +America_, (vol. i, chap. ii) on 'Pre-Columbian Explorations.' The +writer says, 'Nowhere in America, except on an island on the east +shore of Baffin's Bay, has any authentic runic inscription been found +outside of Greenland.' Reference should be made to the first chapter +of Mr. Raymond Beazley's _John and Sebastian Cabot_ ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898), in which the dates and particulars of +the Norse discovery of America, as given above, are somewhat +modified.] + +[Sidenote: _The way to the East._] + +At the time when modern history opens, there were two parts of the +world which were--to use the Greek philosopher's phrase--'ends in +themselves.' One was Europe or rather Southern Europe, the other was +the East Indies; and the great problem was to find the best and +shortest way from the one point to the other. + +[Sidenote: _Africa and America places on the road._] + +The overland trade routes through Syria and Egypt--by which Genoa, +Venice, and the other city states of the Middle Ages had grown +rich--had fallen in the main under Moslem control; and, accordingly, +the growing nations of Europe began to take to the open sea. On the +ocean, India can be reached from Europe either by going east or by +going west. In the former case Africa comes in the way, in the latter +America; and the position of these {8} two continents in the modern +history of the world is, in their earliest stage, that of having been +places on the road, not final goals. + +The Portuguese tried the way by Africa and succeeded. Vasco de Gama +rounded the Cape, sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, and crossed +to India. The Spaniards set sail in the opposite direction, and, +failing in their original design, found instead a New World. + +Let us suppose that the conditions had been reversed, that Southern +Africa, when reached, had proved as attractive as the West Indies; +that its shores had been fertile and easy of access; that its rivers +had been navigable, and that its turning-point had been as distant as +Cape Horn; that, on the contrary, Columbus had discovered a channel +through America, where he sought for it at the Isthmus of Darien, had +found the American coasts and islands as little inviting as Africa, +and behind them an expanse of sea no wider than the Indian Ocean. In +that case America would have remained the Dark Continent, to be +passed by, as Africa was passed by, on the way to the East; and +hinging on this one central fact, that the Indies were the goal of +discovery, the whole history of colonization would have been changed. +As it was, the Spaniards, in the first place, found their way barred +by America; and, in the second place, found America too good to be +passed by, even if a thoroughfare had been found. Thus they assumed +that they had really reached the Indies on their furthest side; and, +by the time that the mistake had been finally cleared up, the riches +and wonders of the New World had given it a position and standing of +its own, over and above all considerations respecting the best way to +the East. + +America then was discovered by being taken on the way to some other +part of the world; it could not be passed by like Africa; and it was +more attractive than Africa. Thus it was early colonized, while the +great mass of the African {9} continent was left, almost down to our +own day, unexplored and unknown. + +[Sidenote: _Reasons why the discovery and settlement of North America +was later than that of Central and South America._] + +This statement, however, only holds true of that part of America +which the Spaniards made their own; and the further question +arises--Why was the discovery and settlement of North America a much +slower process than the Spanish conquest and colonization of Central +America and the West Indies? The north of Newfoundland is in the same +latitude as the south of England; the mouth of the St. Lawrence lies +directly over against the ports of Brittany; a line drawn due east +from New York would almost pass through Madrid: therefore it seems as +though sailors going westward from Europe would naturally make their +way in the first instance to the North American coast; and, as a +matter of fact, Cabot probably sighted the shores of Newfoundland, +Nova Scotia, or Labrador before Columbus set foot upon the mainland +of South America. + +[Sidenote: _Spain and Portugal the natural centres for Western +discovery._] + +[Sidenote: _The Spaniards went to the south-west._] + +There are, however, ample historical and geographical reasons for the +fact that, at the beginning of modern history, the stream of European +discovery and colonization took a south-westerly rather than a +westerly direction. The main course of European civilization has on +the whole been from south-east to north-west. Its centre gradually +shifted from Asia Minor and Phoenicia to Greece, from Greece to Rome, +and finally from the shores of the Mediterranean to those of the +Atlantic. The peninsula of Spain and Portugal stands half-way between +the inner and the outer sea, and accordingly geography marked out +this country to be the birthplace of the new and wider history of the +world. Further, at the time when modern history begins, the Spaniards +and Portuguese were better trained, more consolidated, more nearly +come to their prime, more full of expansive force than the peoples of +Northern Europe; so that their history combined with their +geographical position to place them in {10} the front rank among the +movers of the world. But Spain and Portugal look south-west: both +countries are hot, sunny lands, and, while adventurers to the unknown +would in any case be more attracted to regions where they would +expect light and heat and tropical growth and colour, than to the +bare, bleak stretches of the north, most of all would a southern race +set out to find a new world in a southerly or south-westerly +direction. Again, as has been seen, the early explorers were seeking +for a sea-road to the Indies; and, as the tales of the Indies were +glowing tales of glowing lands, men were more likely at first to +start in search of them by way of the Equator than by way of the +Pole. + +And they had guidance in their course. The Canaries, Madeira, and the +Azores, lying away in the ocean to the south-west, were the +half-mythical goals of ancient navigation. The Spaniards would +naturally make for them in the first instance, and so far help +themselves on their westward way. Wind and tide would prescribe the +same line of discovery. The way to the West Indies is made easy by +the north-easterly trade winds, whereas the passage to North America +is in the teeth of the prevailing wind from the west. Those who take +ship from Europe to North America meet the opposing force of the Gulf +Stream; voyagers to the south-west, on the contrary, are borne by the +Equatorial Current from the African coast to the Caribbean Sea. + +[Sidenote: _The West Indies more attractive than North America._] + +Easier to reach than North America, the West Indies and Central +America were also more attractive when reached. The Spaniards found +riches beyond their hopes, pearls in the sea, gold and silver in the +land, and a race of natives who could be forced to fish for the one +and to mine for the other. When they had discovered the New World, +there was every inducement to make them forthwith conquer and +colonize in countries where living promised to be more luxurious than +in their own land. Adventurers to North America, on the contrary, +found greater cold than they had {11} left behind them in the same +latitudes in Europe, desolate shores, little trace of precious metal, +and natives whom it was dangerous to offend and impossible to +enslave. In the far north the cod fisheries were discovered, and furs +were to be obtained by barter from the North American Indians; but +such trade was not likely to lead to permanent settlement in the near +future. Its natural outcome was not the founding of colonies, the +building of cities, and the subjugation of continents, but, at the +most, repeated visits in the summer time to the Newfoundland banks, +or spasmodic excursions up the course of the St. Lawrence. Thus, for +a century after Columbus first sailed to the west, while Central and +South America became organized into a collection of Spanish +provinces, the extreme north was left to Basque, Breton, and English +fishermen; and the coast between the St. Lawrence and the +Mississippi, where the English race was eventually to make its +greatest effort and achieve its greatest success--this, the present +territory of the United States, was, with the exception of Florida, +little visited and scarcely known. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of finding mineral wealth in Central America._] + +The discovery of minerals in a district brings about dense population +and a hurried settlement. Men come to fisheries or hunting-grounds at +stated times, and leave to come again. The progress of agricultural +colonization, if steady and continuous, is usually very slow. Thus, +where Central America gave gold and silver, there adventurers from +Europe hurried in and stayed. The fisheries of Newfoundland saw men +come and go; the sea was there the attraction, not the land. The +agricultural resources of Virginia and New England were left +undeveloped by Europeans, until the time came when business-like +companies were formed by men who could afford to wait, and when +enthusiasts went over the Atlantic not so much to make money as to +live patiently and in the fear of God. + +[Sidenote: _The North-West Passage._] + +But, though the sixteenth century passed away before men's eyes, +which were dazzled with the splendour of the {12} tropics, had given +more than passing glances to the sober landscape of North America, +discoverers from Cabot onwards were not idle; and from the first, the +ever powerful hope of finding a new road to the Indies took +adventurers to the north-west in spite of cold and wind and tide. +Because North America was unattractive in itself, therefore men seem +to have imagined that it must be on the way to something better; and +also, because it was unattractive in itself, they did not wait to see +what could be made out of it, but kept perpetually pushing on to a +further goal. They argued, as Bacon shows in the passage already +quoted, and argued rightly, that in the north the Old and New Worlds +were nearest together, and that here therefore was the point at which +to cross from one to the other. They found sea channels evidently +leading towards the west; they saw the great river of Canada[7] come +widening down from the same quarter; and thus, long after the quest +of the Indies had in Central America been swallowed up in the riches +found on the way, in North America it remained the one great object +of the men who went out from Europe, and of the Kings who sent them +out. + +[Footnote 7: The idea that there was a way to the Indies by the St. +Lawrence long continued. Thus Lescarbot writes (_Nova Francia_, +Erondelle's translation, 1609, chap. xiii, p. 87) of the great river +of Canada as 'taking her beginning from one of the lakes which do +meet at the stream of her course (and so I think), so that it hath +two courses, the one from the east towards France, the other from the +west towards the south sea.'] + +As the first discoverer, Cabot, set sail to find the passage to +Cathay, 'having great desire to traffic for the spices as the +Portingals did,'[8] so all who came after during the century of +exploration kept the same end firmly in view. Francis I of France +dispatched Verrazano to find the passage to the East; Cartier, the +Breton sailor, came back from the St. Lawrence with tales which +savoured of the Indies, of 'a river that goeth south-west, from +whence there is a whole {13} month's sailing to go to a certain land +where there is neither ice nor snow seen'[9]--of a 'country of +Saguenay, in which are infinite rubies, gold and other +riches'[10]--of 'a land where cinnamon and cloves are gathered';[11] +and his third voyage was, in his King's words, 'to the lands of +Canada and Hochelaga, which form the extremity of Asia towards the +west.'[12] Frobisher's voyage in 1576 led to the formation of a +company of Cathay. As early as 1527, Master Robert Thorne wrote 'an +information of the parts of the world' discovered by the Spaniards +and Portuguese, and 'of the way to the Moluccas by the north.' Sir +Humphrey Gilbert published 'a discourse' 'to prove a passage by the +north-west to Cathaia and the East Indies'; and Richard Hakluyt +himself, in the 'epistle dedicatory' to Philip Sydney, which forms +the preface to his collection of _Divers Voyages touching the +discovery of America_,[13] sums up the arguments for the existence of +'that short and easy passage by the north-west which we have hitherto +so long desired.' In short, the record of the sixteenth century in +North America was, in the main, a record of successive voyagers +seeking after a way to the East, supplemented by the fishing trade +which was attracted to the shores of Newfoundland. + +[Footnote 8: Gomara, quoted by Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 30 (1810 ed.).] + +[Footnote 9: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 10: Ibid. p. 281.] + +[Footnote 11: Ibid. p. 285.] + +[Footnote 12: See Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_ +(25th ed., 1888), p. 217.] + +[Footnote 13: Published in 1582; edited by the Hakluyt Society in +1850.] + +[Sidenote: _The early voyagers to North America were of various +nationalities._] + +The two men who opened America to Europe were of Italian +parentage--Columbus the Genoese, and Cabot, born at Genoa, domiciled +at Venice.[14] The two great trading republics of the Middle Ages at +once crowned their work in the world, and signed their own death +warrant, in providing Spain and England with the sailors whose +discoveries transferred the centre of life and movement from the +Mediterranean {14} to the Atlantic. The King of France too turned to +Italy for a discoverer to rival Columbus and Cabot, and sent +Verrazano the Florentine, at the end of 1523, to search out the +coasts of North America. + +[Footnote 14: As to Cabot's parentage see below, p. 18. If the +voyages of the Zeni were genuine, the Venetians could have claimed a +yet older share in the record of European connexion with America.] + +At the first dawn of discovery those coasts were not wholly given +over to French or English adventurers. Though Florida was the +northern limit of Spanish conquest and settlement, Spanish claims +extended indefinitely over the whole continent; and the French King's +scheme for the colonization of Canada, in 1541, under the leadership +of Cartier and Roberval, roused the suspicion of the Spanish court as +an attempt to infringe an acknowledged monopoly. The Portuguese at +the very first took part in north-western discovery, and with good +reason; for it was their own Indies which were the final goal, and +they could not afford to leave to other nations to find a shorter way +thither than their own route round the Cape. Thus it was that Corte +Real set out from Lisbon for the north-west in the year 1500, having +'craved a general license of the King Emmanuel to discover the +Newfoundland,' and 'sailed unto that climate which standeth under the +north in 50 degrees of latitude.'[15] We find, too, records of +Portuguese working in the same direction under foreign flags. In 1501 +two patents were granted by Henry VII of England to English and +Portuguese conjointly to explore, trade, and settle in America;[16] +and, in 1525, Gomez, who had served under Magellan, and who, like +Magellan, was a Portuguese in the service of Spain, set out from the +Spanish port of Corunna to search for the North-West Passage.[17] + +[Footnote 15: See Purchas' _Pilgrims_, pt. 2, bk. x, chap. i. A brief +'collection of voyages, chiefly of Spaniards and Portugals, taken out +of Antoine Galvano's Book of the Discoveries of the World.'] + +[Footnote 16: See Doyle's _History of the English in America_, vol. +i, chap. iv.] + +[Footnote 17: See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, p. 10.] + +[Sidenote: _The Basque fishermen._] + +Basque fishermen were among the very first visitors to Newfoundland, +and, even after the North American continent {15} was becoming a +sphere of French and English colonization, to the exclusion of the +southern nations of Europe, the Spaniards and Portuguese still held +their own in the fisheries. The record of almost every voyage to +Newfoundland notices Spanish or Portuguese ships plying their trade +on the banks.[18] A writer[19] in the year 1578, on 'the true state +and commodities of Newfoundland,' tells us that, according to his +information, there were at that date above one hundred Spanish ships +engaged in the cod fisheries, in addition to twenty or thirty whalers +from Biscay; that the Portuguese ships did not exceed fifty, and that +those owned by French and Bretons numbered about one hundred and +fifty. Edward Hayes, the chronicler of Gilbert's last voyage in 1583, +relates how the Portuguese at Newfoundland provisioned the English +admiral's ships for their return voyage, and adds that 'the Portugals +and French chiefly have a notable trade of fishing upon this +bank.'[20] + +[Footnote 18: See Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_ +(25th ed., 1888), pp. 189, 190, and notes.] + +[Footnote 19: Anthony Parkhurst. The letter was written to Hakluyt, +and published in his collection, vol. iii, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 20: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 190.] + +In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Spanish Government still +claimed for its subjects the right to fish on the Newfoundland coast, +among other grounds on that of prior discovery, a claim which was +only finally relinquished under the provisions of the Peace of Paris +in 1763;[21] and, writing {16} about the same date, the author of the +_European Settlements in America_ noted that the Spaniards still +shared in the fishery.[22] + +[Footnote 21: As to the question whether Basque fishermen had found +their way to Newfoundland before Cabot, see the note to p. 189 of Mr. +Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_. The reasons for +thinking that these fishermen forestalled Cabot seem to be--(1) the +argument of probability; (2) assertions of old writers to that +effect; (3) the application of the Basque name 'Baccalaos' to +Newfoundland, and the statement of Peter Martyr that Cabot found that +word in use for codfish among the natives; (4) the claim advanced by +the Spanish Government to right of fishing at Newfoundland on the +ground of prior discovery by Biscayan fishermen. As to this last +point, see _Papers relative to the rupture with Spain, 1762_. One +source of friction at this time between Great Britain and Spain was +what Pitt styles in a dispatch (p. 3) 'the stale and inadmissible +pretensions of the Biscayans and Guipuscoans to fish at +Newfoundland.' As to this claim, the Earl of Bristol, British +minister at Madrid, writes (p. 53), 'With regard to the Newfoundland +fishery, Mr. Wall urged, what I have also conveyed in some former +despatches, that the Spaniards indeed pleaded, in favour of their +claim to a share of the Bacallao trade, the first discovery of that +island.'] + +[Footnote 22: _European Settlements in America_, pt. 6, chap. xxviii, +'Newfoundland.' The author (? Burke) says, 'The French and Spaniards, +especially the former, have a large share (in the fishery).'] + +Hayes, who has just been quoted, tells us that more than thirty years +before he wrote, i.e. about 1550, the Portuguese had touched at Sable +Island and left there 'both neat and swine to breed.' In the same way +they left live stock at Mauritius on their way to and from the East; +and in like manner the Spaniards landed pigs at the Bermudas[23] on +their early voyages to the West Indies. + +[Footnote 23: See vol. i of this series, p. 163, and vol. ii, p. 6 +and note. Lescarbot states that the French Baron de Lery, who +attempted to found a colony in North America in 1518, left cattle on +Sable Island. See Parkman's _Pioneers of France_, p. 193, and Doyle's +_History of the English in America_, vol. i, chap. v, p. 111.] + +[Sidenote: _Names in North America indicate visits from Southern +Europe._] + +If evidence were wanted that, in the oldest days of movement from +Europe to the West, southern sailors did not go only to tropical +America, it would be found in the naming of the North American coasts +and islands. The first point on the coast of North America, sighted +by the first discoverer--the Italian Cabot--was spoken of under the +Italian name of Prima Terra Vista. The name Baccalaos[24] tells of +voyages of the Basques, as Cape Breton of visitors from Brittany; +and, {17} after Corte Real's voyages, the east coast of Newfoundland +was, as old maps testify, christened for a while Terra de Corte +Reall.[25] Soon, however, the Spaniards found Mexico, Peru, and +Central America enough and more than enough to absorb their whole +attention; the Portuguese were over-weighted by their eastern empire +and Brazil: and North America was given over, first to be explored +and then to be settled, by the peoples of the north of Europe; who +gathered strength as their southern rivals declined, and whose work +was more lasting because more slow. + +[Footnote 24: 'Baccalaos' is the Spanish name for codfish. It is of +Basque origin. Cabot, it is stated, gave the name generally to the +lands which he found. The name was subsequently applied more +especially to Newfoundland. Thus Edward Hayes in his account of Sir +Humphrey Gilbert's last voyage, under the heading 'a brief relation +of the Newfoundland and the commodities thereof' (Hakluyt, iii, 193), +speaks of 'that which we do call the Newfoundland and the Frenchmen +Bacalaos.' Various small islands, however, in these parts were also +given this name by different writers. At the present day, on the maps +of Newfoundland, an islet off the east coast, at the extreme north of +the peninsula of Avalon, bears the name of Baccalieu. See Parkman, p. +189 note as above, and the chapter on the voyages of the Cabots in +Justin Winsor's history, vol. iii.] + +[Footnote 25: The name 'Labrador' is supposed to have been derived +from the fact that some North American natives, brought back in one +of the ships which accompanied Corte Real on this second voyage, were +said to be 'admirably calculated for labour and the best slaves I +have ever seen.' Hence the name 'Laboratoris terra,' or Labrador. On +Thorne's map (1527) printed in the _Divers Voyages to America_, there +appears 'Nova terra Laboratorum dicta.' Sir Clements Markham, in his +edition of the _Journal of Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real_ (Hakluyt +Society, 1893, Int. p. 51, note), says: 'There is no reference to +Labrador in any of the authorities for the voyages of Corte Real. The +King of Portugal is said to have hoped to derive good slave labour +from the lands discovered by Corte Real. That is all. The name +Labrador is not Portuguese; and Corte Real was never on the Labrador +coast.' Another derivation given is: 'This land was discovered by the +English from Bristol, and named Labrador because the one who saw it +first was a labourer from the Azores.' One more derivation is that +Labrador was the name of the Basque captain of a fishing-vessel. See +Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, pp. 2, 46, and Parkman's _Pioneers +of France in the New World_, p. 216, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The Cabots._] + +On March 5, 1496, King Henry VII of England granted a patent to 'John +Cabot, citizen of Venice,' and to his three sons--Lewis, Sebastian, +and Sancius--empowering them 'to discover unknown lands under the +king's banner.'[26] Under this patent--'the earliest surviving +document which connects England with the New World'[27]--North +America was discovered. + +[Footnote 26: Quoted from the marginal note to the patent. See +Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages touching the discovery of America_, +published by the Hakluyt Society, 1850, p. 21.] + +[Footnote 27: From Doyle's _History of the English in America_, vol. +i, chap. iv.] + +Almost every point connected with the voyages of the Cabots is dark +and doubtful. What the father did and what {18} the son, whence they +came, and whither they went, is all uncertain. The tale of Columbus +and his voyages is known to all the world; but readers are left to +grope after the Cabots, as the latter groped after the strange wild +regions of the north-west. + +John Cabot, it would seem, was a Genoese who settled in Venice. There +he was admitted to the rights of citizenship. He married a Venetian +lady, and in Venice probably his three sons were born and passed +their childhood. He travelled on the sea, visiting the coasts of +Arabia, and forming, it may be, schemes to discover a new route to +the far East. He came to England, having previously attempted to gain +support for his projected voyages in Spain and Portugal, and he took +up his residence in either London or Bristol. The exact date of his +arrival in this country is unknown; but, either shortly before or +shortly after he came, Columbus crossed the Atlantic for the first +time in 1492. The news gave a stimulus to other would-be discoverers, +and encouraged the Kings of Europe to further their plans. Hence +Cabot and his sons obtained their patent in 1496. It was little that +King Henry VII gave to the Italian sailors. Their voyages were to be +made 'upon their own proper costs and charges,' and in return for his +licence, the King was to receive a fifth of the profits. The +enterprise was countenanced but not supported by the state, and the +English Government in these early days, as in the times which came +after, left the work of discovery and colonization in the hands of +private adventurers. Bristol was the port of departure, and a Bristol +book contains the following notice of the voyage:--'In the year 1497, +the 24th of June, on St. John's day, was Newfoundland found by +Bristol men in a ship called the _Matthew_.'[28] John Cabot and +Sebastian his son probably both sailed in the _Matthew_, and they +commanded a crew of English sailors. The voyage {19} was a short +summer venture, beginning in May and ending with the close of July or +the beginning of August. America was seen and touched, the land-fall +being either the northern end of Cape Breton island, or the coast of +Labrador, or Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland. The English flag was +planted on American soil, but no exploration took place; nothing was +achieved but the one great fact of discovery. In the following +February, new letters patent were issued--on this occasion to John +Cabot alone; and a second time, in the summer of 1498, the ships +started from Bristol. Again, it is conjectured, both father and son +were on board; and this time the North American coast seems to have +been skirted from the region of icebergs and the banks of +Newfoundland as far south as the Carolinas. In reference to this +second voyage, Sebastian Cabot wrote that he sailed 'unto the +latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a half under the North Pole,' and +'finding still the open sea without any manner of impediment, he +thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaio +which is in the East.'[29] The way to the East, however, was left +unopened, to tantalize after-comers, and to be a kind of 'will o' the +wisp,' leading men on to barren shores and Arctic seas, though the +continent which they had already found was worth all the riches of +the Indies. + +[Footnote 28: Barrett's _History and Antiquities of Bristol_ +(Bristol, 1789), p. 172.] + +[Footnote 29: From Ramusio, quoted in 'a note of Sebastian Cabot's +voyage of discovery' (Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, p. 25). For the +much-vexed question of the Cabots and their voyages, reference should +be made to _John Cabot the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian +his son_, by Henry Harrisse, London, 1896; to the _Journal of +Columbus, Cabot, and Corte Real_, edited for the Hakluyt Society by +Sir Clements Markham, 1893; to Doyle's _History of the English in +America_, vol. i, Appendix B, 'The Cabots and their Voyages'; and to +Mr. Raymond Beazley's _John and Sebastian Cabot_ ('Builders of +Greater Britain' series, 1898). The result of a great deal of +learning is after all little but conjecture.] + +[Sidenote: _Corte Real._] + +The next great voyager to North America was Gaspar Corte Real, a +Portuguese. Twice he sailed to the north-west, in 1500 and 1501, on +the earlier voyage sighting Greenland {20} and the east coast of +Newfoundland, and on the later working north from Chesapeake Bay. He +was lost on the second voyage; and his brother Miguel, who went in +search of him in 1502, after finding 'many entrances of rivers and +havens,' was lost also.[30] + +[Footnote 30: The voyages of the Corte Reals are given in Purchas' +_Pilgrims_, pt. 2, bk. x. See Justin Winsor, vol. iv, chap. i, on +Cortereal, Verrazano, &c. See also the volume of the Hakluyt Society +referred to in the previous note.] + +[Sidenote: _French explorers._] + +At the beginning of the sixteenth century, if not earlier, Frenchmen +took their place among the explorers of the world, and the Norman and +Breton seaports began to send their ships across the Atlantic. Denys +of Honfleur is said to have reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1506; +in 1508, Aubert of Dieppe brought American Indians back to France; +and in 1518 Baron de Lery made the first, a stillborn, attempt to +found a French colony in North America.[31] + +[Footnote 31: See above, p. 16, note 23.] + +[Sidenote: _Verrazano._] + +At the end of the fifteenth century, the consolidation of France had +been completed by the marriage of Charles VIII with Anne of Brittany, +and from this time France began to compete with Spain. Francis I came +to the throne in 1515, and his personal rivalry with Charles V, +German Emperor and Spanish King in one, quickened the competition +between the French and Spanish peoples. Thus it was that the French +court turned its attention to the work of exploration, and Francis +sent forth the Italian Verrazano with four ships from Dieppe 'to +discover new lands by the ocean.'[32] Sailing at the end of 1523, +Verrazano was driven back by tempest; but, starting again, he left +Madeira to cross the Atlantic on January 17, 1524. He reached the +shores of Carolina; then coasted northward, landing at various +points; and, having sailed as far north as {21} Newfoundland--'the +land that in times past was discovered by the Britons (Bretons), +which is in fifty degrees'--he 'concluded to return into France.' + +[Footnote 32: From 'The relation of John Verarzanus,' given in +Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, p. 55, and there also headed 'The +Discovery of Morum Bega' (Norumbega). It is given too in the ordinary +collection, vol. iii, p. 357.] + +He brought home to his King a sober and systematic report of the +North American coast--a report which meant business, and was not +tricked out with vague surmises and impossible tales; but, within a +year from his return, the strength of France was for a while broken +at the battle of Pavia. He himself died soon afterwards, hanged, it +is said, by the Spaniards as a pirate; and for ten years there is no +record of any French explorer following in his steps, though French +ships found their way over the ocean to the cod-fisheries of +Newfoundland. + +[Sidenote: _Cartier._] + +The year 1534 is a memorable one in the annals alike of France and of +North America. It is the year from which must be dated the first +beginnings of New France on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The +discoverer of Canada was Jacques Cartier, a Breton sailor of St. +Malo. He went out to explore the unknown world, not at his own risk, +but as the agent of Brian Chabot, High Admiral of France. Sailing +from St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, he came to Newfoundland, passed +through the straits of Belle Isle, and entered the Gulf of St. +Lawrence. He sailed into Chaleurs Bay under the July sun, describing +the country as 'hotter than the country of Spain, and the fairest +that can possibly be found';[33] and, having set up a cross on Gaspe +Peninsula, he reached St. Malo again on September 5, bringing with +him two Indian children as living memorials of his voyage. + +[Footnote 33: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 257.] + +He had discovered a hot, fair land, widely different from the bleak +and rock-bound coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador; and the good +report which he brought of his discoveries was more than enough to +find him backing for a second venture. Accordingly, in the following +year, on May 19, 1535, he sailed again from St. Malo, and, reaching +{22} the straits of Belle Isle after storm and tempest, took his way, +the first of European explorers, up the great river of Canada. He +moored his three ships below the rock of Quebec--then the site of +Stadacone, a native Indian village, and the dwelling-place of a chief +Donnaconna, who is styled in the narrative the Lord of Canada. There +he left his two larger vessels, and pushed on in his pinnace and +boats to the town of Hochelaga. That town, the Indians had told him, +was the capital of the land; and he found it, palisaded and fortified +in native fashion, where Montreal now stands.[34] The Frenchmen were +received as gods by the Indians; they were asked, like the Apostles +of old, to touch and heal the sick; and, ever mindful of the duty of +spreading the Christian religion, they read the gospel to their +savage admirers in the strange French tongue, to cure their souls if +they could not mend their bodies. + +[Footnote 34: As Mr. Parkman points out (_Pioneers of France_, p. +212), Quebec and Montreal were in old days, as now, the centres of +population in Lower Canada. 'Stadacone and Hochelaga, Quebec and +Montreal, in the sixteenth century, as in the nineteenth, were the +centres of Canadian population.'] + +Returning down stream to their ships, they passed the winter +underneath Quebec, amid ice and snow, stricken with scurvy, and +distrustful of their Indian neighbours; and at length, on the return +of summer, they set sail for France, carrying away the Indian chief +Donnaconna and some of his companions, to die in a far-off land. They +reached St. Malo in the middle of July, 1536, and so ended Cartier's +second voyage to 'the New found lands by him named New France.'[35] + +[Footnote 35: End of the narrative of Cartier's second voyage in +Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 285.] + +[Sidenote: _Failure of Roberval's attempt at colonization._] + +Between four and five years passed, and then the Breton sailor set +out again. This time a definite scheme of settlement was projected, +the instructions were more elaborate than before, the preparations +were on a larger scale. The money {23} was found by the crown, and +the King was to receive one-third of the profits. A French nobleman, +De Roberval, was to go out as the King's lieutenant in the New World, +and was given the title of Lord of Norumbega,[36] while Cartier was +appointed Captain-General. The objects of the expedition were to +explore, to colonize, and to convert the heathen; and its leaders +were, like Columbus, empowered to recruit colonists from the prisons +at home. Cartier set out in advance of Roberval, in May, 1541. Again +he sailed up the St. Lawrence, reached in his boats a point above +Montreal, and, as before, wintered on the river; but this time at the +mouth of the Cap Rouge, some way higher up than Quebec. His leader, +Roberval, did not start till April, 1542; and, when in June he +reached St. John's harbour in Newfoundland, he was met by Cartier, +who had broken up his colony in disgust, and was on his way home to +France. In spite of Roberval's remonstrances, Cartier left by night +on his return voyage, and the Lord of Norumbega went on alone to the +St. Lawrence. He planted his settlement at Cap Rouge, where Cartier +had last sojourned, but it proved a miserable failure. The supplies +were insufficient, the Governor turned out a savage despot, and after +about a year the colony came to an end. + +[Sidenote: _Norumbega._] + +[Footnote 36: As to Norumbega, see Parkman's _Pioneers of France_, +pp. 216 and 253, notes, and Justin Winsor, vol. iii, chap. vi, on +'Norumbega and its English explorers.' The writer of this latter +chapter (p. 185) says the territory of Norumbega never included +Baccalaos, 'though Baccalaos, an old name of Newfoundland, sometimes +included New England.' Norumbega, an Indian name, covered the +district now included in the state of Maine, and was sometimes +extended to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the north, and part of +New England on the south. Michael Loki's map (1582) makes Norumbega +the whole district between the river and gulf of St. Lawrence and the +Hudson. The river of Norumbega was the Penobscot, and on it a city of +Norumbega was given a fabulous existence. Lescarbot (_Histoire de la +Nouvelle France_, 1609, bk. i, chap. i) speaks of 'pais qu'on a +appelle d'un nom Alleman Norumbega, lequel est par les quarante cinq +degrez.'] + +With this disappointing and disastrous failure, the curtain fell on +the prologue of the great drama of New France, and did not rise again +for more than fifty years. For the French, {24} as for the English, +the sixteenth century was a time of exploring, of training, of making +experiments; and it was not till the seventeenth century dawned that +permanent colonization began. Then in the Bourbons the French had +rulers who, with all their faults, were abler and stronger than the +princes of the house of Valois; and in Champlain they had a leader as +daring as, and more statesmanlike than, Cartier. But it was by +Cartier that the ground had been broken and the seed first sown. His +voyages made Canada[37] in some sort familiar to Europeans. He opened +the St. Lawrence to be the highway into North America,[38] and he +gave to the hill above the native town of Hochelaga the name of the +Royal Mount, which is still perpetuated in Montreal. He brought the +French into Canada, and, though his settlement failed, the French +connexion remained. Fishermen and fur-traders followed in his steps, +and in fullness of time the New France, which his discoveries +conceived, was brought to birth and grew to greatness. + +[Footnote 37: For the meaning of the name 'Canada,' see Parkman's +_Pioneers of France_, p. 202, note. It is of Indian origin, probably +meaning 'town.' Cartier called the country about Quebec Canada, +having Saguenay below and Hochelaga above. Donnaconna, the native +chief at Quebec, was called Lord of Canada.] + +[Footnote 38: On his second voyage Cartier sailed into a bay at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, where he stayed from the eighth to the +twelfth of August, and 'named the said gulf St. Lawrence his bay' +(Hakluyt, iii, 263), St. Lawrence's Day being the 10th of August. +Hence the river, which he called the river of Hochelaga or the great +river of Canada, derived its name. See Parkman, p. 202.] + +[Sidenote: _English exploration in North America in the sixteenth +century._] + +[Sidenote: _Hore's voyage._] + +[Sidenote: _Acts of Parliament relating to the Newfoundland +fisheries._] + +A Bristol ship[39] having first discovered North America, it might +have been expected that the years succeeding Cabot's voyages would +have been fruitful in English adventure to the West; but, as far as +records show, little was done by Englishmen during the first half of +the sixteenth century to open up the New World; and even Cartier's +bold exploits roused little or no spirit of rivalry in Great Britain. +Indeed, all through {25} this century no English voyager seems to +have turned his mind to Canada and its river. The explorers went to +the Arctic seas, the would-be colonizers to Newfoundland or Virginia. +Between 1500 and 1550 two voyages alone have been actually +chronicled, though passing reference is made to others. Of these two, +the first was in 1527, when Albert de Prado, a canon of St. Paul's, +sailed with two ships in search of the Indies, reaching Newfoundland +and the North American coast. The second was in 1536, under a leader +named Hore--a voyage of which a graphic account is given in Hakluyt. +On the coast of Newfoundland the adventurers suffered the last +extremes of starvation, until at length even cannibalism began among +them; and the survivors owed their safety to the coming of a French +ship, which they seized and in which they returned home. It is clear, +however, that before the middle of the century the Newfoundland +fisheries had become a recognized branch of English trade, for the +traffic was safeguarded by two Acts of Parliament, one passed in +1540, in Henry VIII's reign, the other in 1548, in the reign of King +Edward VI. The object of the second Act was to prohibit the exaction +of any dues by way of licence from men engaged in the Iceland or +Newfoundland fishing trade, and Hakluyt's note upon it is that 'by +this Act it appeareth that the trade out of England to Newfoundland +was common and frequented about the beginning of the reign of Edward +VI, namely, in the year 1548.'[40] + +[Footnote 39: For this passage, see Doyle's _History of the English +in America_, vol. i, chap. iv.] + +[Footnote 40: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 170.] + +[Sidenote: _Return of Sebastian Cabot to England._] + +About this date Sebastian Cabot again appears upon the scene. In 1512 +he had entered the Spanish service; and, after a visit to England, +had returned to Spain, where, from 1518 to 1547, he held the +appointment of Pilot-Major to the King and Emperor Charles V.[41] At +the end of 1547 or the beginning of 1548, he was induced in his old +age to come back to the land, for and from which, more than half a +century {26} before, his or his father's great discovery had been +made; and King Edward VI rewarded his services by appointing him +Grand Pilot in England. His mind was still set on finding a way to +the Indies by the Northern Sea. He became governor of 'the mystery +and company of the Merchant Adventurers for the discovery of regions, +dominions, islands, and places unknown'; and in Hakluyt's pages[42] +may be found his instructions 'for the direction of the intended +voyage for Cathay.' + +[Footnote 41: See _The Dictionary of National Biography_, s. v.] + +[Footnote 42: Vol. i, p. 251.] + +[Sidenote: _The North-East Passage and Sir Hugh Willoughby._] + +[Sidenote: _The Muscovy Company._] + +The company was not finally incorporated by royal charter till +1554-5, but in the preceding year, 1553, they sent out an expedition +of three ships to try for a North-East Passage. The leader of the +expedition, Sir Hugh Willoughby, was, with the crews of two ships, +frozen to death on the coast of Lapland; but Richard Chancellor, the +captain of the third ship, reached the port on which the town of +Archangel now stands, and made his way overland to Moscow. This was +the beginning of British trade with Russia. The Merchant Adventurers +became known as the Muscovy Company, and their efforts were directed +to the overland traffic between Asia and Europe, which came by +Bokhara, Astrakhan, and the Volga, to the meeting of the east and +west at Novgorod. + +[Sidenote: _Martin Frobisher._] + +But, important as was this new development of trade, the British +explorers, whose names have lived, still took their way for the most +part over the Atlantic, making ever for the West. In June, 1576, +Martin Frobisher sailed from Blackwall to the north-west 'for the +search of the straight or passage to China.'[43] He sighted +Greenland; and, sailing west, came to the inlet in the American +coast, north of the Hudson Straits, which, after him, was called +Frobisher Bay. This arm of the sea he took to be a passage between +the two continents, the right-hand coast, as he went west, seeming to +be Asia, the left-hand coast America. He came back {27} to Harwich in +October, bringing with him a sample of black stone supposed to +contain gold; and thus, to the vain hope of a short passage to the +Indies, he added the more dangerous attraction of possible mineral +wealth in the Arctic regions. Men's hopes were raised; a company of +Cathay was formed, with Michael Lok for governor; and, as their +Captain-General, Frobisher sailed again in May, 1577, 'for the +further discovering of the passage to Cathay.'[44] Again he sighted +Greenland. Again he reached the bay which had been the turning-point +of his former voyage. He took possession of the barren northern land +in his Queen's name; and, when he came back in September, 'Her +Majesty named it very properly Meta Incognita, as a mark and bound +utterly hitherto unknown.'[45] The voyage was fruitless, but the +stones brought home were still thought to promise gold, and so, in +the following May, Frobisher started once more on a third voyage to +the north. Fifteen ships went with him from Harwich, bearing 'a +strong fort or house of timber'[46] to be set up on arrival in the +Arctic regions, and intended to shelter one hundred men through the +coming winter. The hundred men included miners, goldfiners, +gentlemen, artisans, 'and all necessary persons'[46]--as though this +desolate region were to become the scene of a thriving colony. They +set sail, reached the coast of Greenland, and claimed it in the +Queen's name. They fell in with the Esquimaux; they crossed the +channel now known as Davis Strait to the Meta Incognita; and they +came back in the autumn with no result beyond the report of a new +imaginary island. This was the end of Frobisher's enterprise, but in +the next forty years other English sailors followed where he had gone +before, and opened up to geographical knowledge fresh stretches of +icebound coast and wintry sea. Davis, Hudson, Baffin, and others, +gave their names to straits and bays, but it is impossible here to +trace the record of their courage and endurance. {28} No quest has +ever been so fruitful of daring, patient seamanship, none has ever +been so barren of practical results, as that for the North-West +Passage. What Frobisher went to find in the sixteenth century, +Franklin still sought in the nineteenth: and through all the ages of +British exploration has run the ever receding hope of finding a short +way through ice and snow to the sunny lands of the East. + +[Footnote 43: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 52.] + +[Footnote 44: Ibid. p. 56.] + +[Footnote 45: Ibid. p. 104.] + +[Footnote 46: Ibid. p. 105.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir Humphrey Gilbert._] + +In Great Britain the sixteenth century was the age of adventurers, +casting about for ways to other worlds, or freebooting where Spain +and Portugal claimed ownership of land and sea; but in that time two +men stand out as having had definite views of settlement, and as +having been colonizers in advance of their age. They are Sir Humphrey +Gilbert and his half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh. Edward Hayes, the +author of a narrative of Gilbert's attempt to found a colony in +Newfoundland, speaks of him as 'the first of our nation that carried +people to erect an habitation and government in those northerly +countries of America,'[47] and no nobler Englishman could well be +found to head the list of English colonizers of the New World. +Chivalrous in nature, bold in action, he was at the same time 'famous +for his knowledge both by sea and land';[48] and it was his +_Discourse to prove a passage by the north-west to Cathaia and the +East Indies_, which is said to have determined Frobisher to explore +the north. + +[Footnote 47: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 185.] + +[Footnote 48: From Fuller's _Worthies of Devonshire_.] + +[Sidenote: _His patent of colonization._] + +In June, 1578, Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth his celebrated +patent 'for the inhabiting and planting of our people in +America.'[49] The grant was a wide one. It gave him full liberty to +explore and settle in any 'remote heathen and barbarous lands, +countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian +prince or people'; and it constituted him full owner of the land +where he settled, within {29} a radius of two hundred leagues from +the place of settlement. It was subject only to a reservation to the +Crown of one-fifth of the gold and silver found, and to a condition +that advantage should be taken of the grant within six years. For +three or four years Gilbert's efforts to colonize under this patent +were fruitless; he organized an expedition which came to nothing, and +other men, to whom he temporarily resigned his rights, were equally +unsuccessful. + +[Footnote 49: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 174.] + +[Sidenote: _His voyage to Newfoundland._] + +At length, on June 11, 1583, he set sail from Cawsand Bay, near +Plymouth, to try his luck for the last time in the western world. +There were five ships, one of which was fitted out by Ralegh,[50] and +one, the _Golden Hind_, had for its captain and owner, Edward Hayes, +the chronicler of the voyage. The company numbered 260 men all told, +including shipwrights, carpenters, and other artisans, 'mineral men +and refiners,' 'morris dancers' and other caterers of amusement 'for +solace of our people and allurement of the savages.'[51] These last +were evidence that more was projected than mere temporary +exploration. It was intended, writes Hayes, 'to win' the savages 'by +all fair means possible'; and with this end in view the freight of +the ships included 'petty haberdashery wares to barter with those +simple people.' On the third of August the little fleet entered the +harbour of St. John's in Newfoundland, where they found thirty-six +ships of all nations. They came expecting resistance, but met with +none. When Gilbert made known his intention to proclaim British +sovereignty over the island, the sailors and fishermen present seem +to have willingly acquiesced; and when he wanted to revictual and +refit his ships, the necessary supplies were readily forthcoming.[52] + +[Footnote 50: This ship deserted soon after starting.] + +[Footnote 51: Hakluyt, vol. iii, pp. 189, 190.] + +[Footnote 52: Hayes says, 'The Portugals (above other nations) did +most willingly and liberally contribute' (Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 192). +See above, p. 15.] + +[Sidenote: _Newfoundland declared to be a British possession._] + +The want of a settled authority, of some guarantee for law {30} and +order, in the harbours and on the coasts of Newfoundland, was no +doubt felt by those who came year by year to the fisheries, and Sir +Humphrey Gilbert's name and high repute may well have been known to +others than his own countrymen. Two days after his arrival he took +formal possession of the land, with ceremony of rod and turf, in the +name of his sovereign; the arms of England were set up; three simple +laws were enacted--providing that the recognized religion should be +in accordance with the forms of the Church of England, safeguarding +the sovereign rights of the Queen of England, and enjoining due +respect for her name; and then Gilbert issued land grants as +proprietor of the soil. In the words of one of the accounts which +Hakluyt has preserved,[53] 'he did let, set, give, and dispose of +many things as absolute Governor there, by virtue of Her Majesty's +letters patents.' + +[Footnote 53: Peckham's account, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 209.] + +Thus was Newfoundland declared to be a British possession, and such +are its claims to be our oldest colony. The annexation was complete +in form and substance; no protest was entered against it by those +whom it concerned; land was granted by the recognized proprietor, and +nothing was wanting to constitute a claim which should last, and has +lasted, to all time. Frobisher proclaimed the sovereignty of England +over Arctic lands, but his proclamation was as barren as the shores +over which it extended. Gilbert, on the contrary, went to a place +where European sailors had long foregathered; he went there as an +English Governor; his authority was unquestioned, his grants were +accepted, and when he read his commission and set up the arms of +England at the harbour of St. John, he took the first step, and a +very long step, towards British dominion in the New World. + +[Sidenote: _Gilbert's death._] + +Gilbert had great hopes of finding precious metal in Newfoundland; +and his principal mining expert, a Saxon, {31} promised him a rich +yield of silver from the ore which was collected in the island. That +ore, however, was lost early on the voyage home, and the miner +himself was lost with it in the wreck of the largest ship--the +_Delight_. A far greater loss, however, was in store for the +ill-fated expedition. They left St. John's on August 20, making for +Sable Island, which had been stocked years before by the +Portuguese.[54] In a few days the _Delight_ foundered on a rock; and +the weather became so bad that, at the end of the month, Gilbert +consented to make for home. He was in the smallest ship, the +_Squirrel_, a little ten-ton vessel, as being the best suited to +explore the creeks and inlets of the American coast; and, in spite of +the remonstrances of his companions, he would not leave her on the +return voyage. 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' were his +last words, before the ship went down in the middle of the Atlantic +with all on board; and thus, fearless and faithful unto death, he +found his resting-place in the sea. The story is one which stands out +to all time in the annals of English adventure and English +colonization. It was meet and right that the founder of the first +English colony should be a Devonshire sailor of high repute, of +stainless name, chivalrous, unselfish, strong in the fear of God. It +was no less meet that his grave should be in the stormy Atlantic, +midway between the Old World and the New. Thus those who came after +had a forerunner of the noblest type; and the ships, which from that +time to this have carried Englishmen to America, may ever have been +passing by where Humphrey Gilbert went to his rest. + +[Footnote 54: See above, p. 16.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir Walter Ralegh._] + +[Sidenote: _His attempts to colonize Virginia._] + +Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, was cast in the same +mould, but the record of his doings lies in the main beyond the range +of this book. Virginia and Guiana were the scenes of his attempts at +colonization, not Newfoundland or the coasts and rivers of Canada. In +1584, the year after {32} Gilbert had been lost at sea, Ralegh +obtained from Queen Elizabeth a patent which was practically the same +as Gilbert's grant of 1578; and, at the end of April, he sent out two +ships, commanded by two captains named Amidas and Barlow, to explore +and report upon a likely place for an English settlement.[55] + +[Footnote 55: Accounts of this and the following voyages are given in +the third volume of Hakluyt. See also the first book of John Smith's +general history of Virginia, _The English Voyages to the Old +Virginia_, in Mr. Arber's edition, _The English Scholar's Library_.] + +They sailed more towards the south than previous English explorers, +and eventually reached the island of Roanoke, which is now within the +limits of North Carolina. Everything seemed bright and sweet and +healthful, and the natives of the country were friendly and +hospitable, 'such as live after the manner of the golden age.'[56] So +they came back in the autumn with a story full of hope for the +future, and the virgin Queen christened the land of promise Virginia. + +[Footnote 56: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 304.] + +Ralegh lost no time in sending out settlers. In the next year, 1585, +seven ships started with 108 colonists on board. The expedition was +commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and among other captains with him +was Thomas Cavendish, afterwards celebrated, like Drake, for sailing +round the world. Ralph Lane, a soldier of fortune, was chosen to +remain in charge of the colony, and with him was Amidas, the explorer +of the previous year, who was styled 'Admiral of the country.' They +went by the West Indies, touching at the Spanish islands of Porto +Rico and Hispaniola, and, at the end of June, they reached Roanoke. +Here they formed their settlement, and, when Grenville and his ships +left in August and September, they brought back as bright a report as +Amidas and Barlow had given the year before. + +Already, however, before Grenville's departure, there had been +friction between the Indians and the new-comers; and, as months went +on, the new-born colony became in constant {33} danger of +extermination. Still Lane contrived to hold his own, exploring north +and west, gleaning reports of pearls and mines, and a possible +passage to the south sea, until the winter and spring were past and +the month of June had come again. A fleet of twenty-three ships was +then seen out at sea, and, to the joy of the settlers, proved to be +an English expedition under Sir Francis Drake, who was returning home +laden with spoils from the Spanish main. Drake, at Lane's request, +placed one of his ships with seamen and supplies at the disposal of +the colony; but a storm arose, and the ship was blown out to sea. +Daunted by this fresh trouble, the settlers determined to give up +their enterprise and return home. They asked for passages on board +Drake's vessels: the request was granted; and they abandoned Roanoke +only a fortnight before Grenville arrived with relief, long expected +and long delayed. Finding the island deserted, Grenville left fifteen +men in possession and himself came home. + +So far, Ralegh's scheme had failed; but the failure was due to +untoward circumstances, not to the nature of the country, and he +still persevered in his efforts. The very next year, in 1587, he sent +out a fresh band of settlers, 150 in number; giving them for a leader +John White, who had taken part in the former expedition. The +arrangements for forming a colony were more fully organized than +before; and to White and twelve Assistants Ralegh 'gave a charter and +incorporated them by the name of Governor and Assistants of the city +of Ralegh in Virginia.'[57] When the colonists reached Roanoke, they +found that the fifteen men left by Grenville had disappeared, driven +out, as they learnt, by the Indians. Notwithstanding, they renewed +the old settlement; and, in the face of native enmity, began again +the work of colonizing America. Before the end of the summer, White +sailed for England, to give an account of what had been done; and, on +his return home, Ralegh prepared to send {34} relief to the colony. +But war with Spain was now on hand, freebooting was more attractive +than colonizing, one attempt and another to send ships to Virginia +miscarried; and when at length, late in 1589, White reached the scene +of his settlement, he found it dismantled and deserted. So ended the +first attempt to colonize Virginia. Success was not to come for a few +more years, until the sixteenth century had passed and gone. + +[Footnote 57: Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 341.] + +[Sidenote: _General results of the sixteenth century._] + +Before 1600, Newfoundland had been annexed by Great Britain, but not +one single English or French colony had as yet taken root in America. +Nevertheless the century was far from barren of results. The way had +been made plain, the ground had been cleared, the wild oats of +adventure and knight-errantry had been sown, and the peoples were +sobering down to steadier and more prudent enterprise. Beaten on the +sea, raided and plundered in their own tropical domain, the Spaniards +were ceasing to be a terror and a hindrance to the nations of +Northern Europe; and, as the latter grew from youth to lusty manhood, +the map of the great North American continent unfolded itself before +their eyes. Then Champlain went to work in Canada, and John Smith in +Virginia; Jesuits on the St. Lawrence, and Puritans in the New +England states; and so the grain of mustard-seed, cast into American +soil, grew into a great tree, which already, before three centuries +have ended, bids fair to overshadow the earth. + + +N.B.--The references to Hakluyt made in the notes above are to the +1810 edition. + + +Among modern books most use has been made in this chapter of:-- + + PARKMAN'S _Pioneers of France in the New World_; + DOYLE'S _History of the English in America_, vol. i; and + JUSTIN WINSOR'S _Narrative and Critical History of America_. + +Reference should also be made to Sir J. BOURINOT'S monograph on 'Cape +Breton,' first published in the _Proceedings and Transactions of the +Royal Society of Canada_, vol. ix, 1891, and since published +separately. + + + + +{35} + +CHAPTER II + +SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE FOUNDING OF QUEBEC + + +The history of Canada has been so often and so well told, that an +attempt simply to reproduce the narrative would be worse than +superfluous. The scheme of the present series is, in the field of +colonization and within the present limits of the British Empire, to +trace the connexion between history and geography; and from this +point of view more especially the story of New France will be +recorded. + +[Sidenote: _New France._] + +Various parts of the world, now British possessions, were once owned +by other European nations, notably by the Dutch or French. The last +volume of the series dealt with what was in past times a dependency +of the Netherlands, the Cape Colony, the mother colony of South +Africa. The present volume deals with a land which the French made +peculiarly their own; where, as hardly anywhere else, they settled, +though not in large numbers; not merely conquering or ruling the +conquered, not only leaving a permanent impress of manners, law, and +religion, but slowly and partially colonizing a country and forming a +nation. + +Lower Canada, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was rightly included +under the wider name of New France, for here France and the French +were reproduced in weakness and in strength. It was a land well +suited to the French character and physique. Much depended on tactful +dealings with the North American Indians, a species of diplomacy in +which Frenchmen excelled. The commercial value of Canada consisted +mainly in the fur trade, an adventurous kind of traffic more +attractive to the {36} Frenchman of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries than plodding agriculture or the life of a counting-house. +On the rivers and lakes, coming and going was comparatively easy; the +short bright summers and the long winters made the country one of +strong contrasts. To a bold, imaginative, somewhat restless people +there was much to charm in Canada. + +But Canada meant far less in earlier days than now it means. It meant +the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and of the lakes +from which it flows. The Maritime Provinces of the present Dominion, +or at any rate Nova Scotia, were not in Canada properly so called, +but bore the name of La Cadie or Acadia,[1] and the great North-West +was an unknown land. + +[Footnote 1: For the derivation of the name 'Acadia,' see Parkman's +_Pioneers of France in the New World_, p. 243, note. _Cadie_ is an +Indian word meaning place or region. 'It is obviously a Micmac or +Souriquois affix used in connexion with other words to describe the +natural characteristics of a place or locality' (Bourinot's monograph +on 'Cape Breton,' _Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society +of Canada_, vol. ix, sec. 2, p. 185). For the name 'Canada,' see +above, p. 24. note 37.] + +By the end of the seventeenth century the French had three spheres of +influence and colonization in North America--the country of the St. +Lawrence, the seaboard between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the +New England colonies, and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi. +To join them and encircle the English colonies was the aim of French +statesmanship. It was an impossible aim, inevitably frustrated by +geographical conditions and by want of colonists; but the conception +was a great one, large as the new continent in which it was framed, +and able men tried to work it out, but tried in vain. + +[Sidenote: _The French as colonizers._] + +Much has been written of French methods of colonization; writers have +been at pains to enumerate the shortcomings of the French, and have +carefully explained whence those mistakes arose. But there is less to +wonder at in the failures than in the great successes to be credited +to France. Being {37} part of the continent of Europe, and ever +embroiled in continental politics, when she competed with England as +a colonizing power, she competed with one hand tied.[2] Changeable, +it is said, were the French and their policy; their kings and +courtiers may have been changeable, but the charge does not lie +against the French nation. + +[Footnote 2: This is pointed out in Professor Seeley's _Expansion of +England_, course i, lecture 5.] + +They were trading up the Senegal early in the seventeenth century, +and there they are at the present day. From the dawn of their +colonial enterprise they tried to obtain possession of Madagascar; +they have their object now. Nearly four centuries ago they fished off +the coasts of Newfoundland, and England has good cause to know that +they fish there still. To the St. Lawrence went Cartier from St. +Malo, and by the same route generations of Frenchmen entered steadily +into America, until Quebec had fallen and the St. Lawrence was theirs +no more. The French were versatile in their colonial dealings; they +were quickly moving and constantly moving; but they saw clearly and +they followed tenaciously; they were strong and staunch, and they +proved themselves to be a wonderful people. + +Yet there must have been some element of weakness in the French +character, in that they bred and obeyed bad rulers who did not live +for France, but for whom France was sacrificed; who crushed liberty, +political and religious, who drove out industry with the Huguenots, +and squandered the heritage of the nation. Englishmen, comparatively +early in their history, reckoned with priests first and with kings +afterwards. They did most of their work at home before they made +their colonial empire; they colonized new worlds as a reformed +people; the French tried to colonize under absolutism and +priestcraft. It might not have been so, it probably would not have +been so, if the religious policy of the French Government had been +other than it was. {38} The Huguenots, if not persecuted and +eventually in great measure driven out, would have given France the +one thing wanting to make her colonization successful, the spirit of +private enterprise independent of court favour, the child and the +parent of freedom, the determined foe of a deadening religious +despotism. + +[Sidenote: _Attempts at French colonization in Brazil and Florida._] + +In the sixteenth century, after Cartier's voyages to the St. +Lawrence, we hear little of the French in North America. The Breton +fishermen followed their calling, crossed the Atlantic year after +year, and came back with cargoes of fish and with furs procured by +barter with the Indians; but no French settlement was founded either +in Canada or in Acadia. In France itself the last half of the century +was a time of civil war; the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place, +the house of Valois came to an end, and in 1589 Henry of Navarre +became King of France. Before his accession to the Crown, two +attempts at French colonization were made, in Brazil and in Florida. +The colonists were mainly Huguenots, and their enterprise was backed +by the great Protestant leader Coligny. The earlier attempt, designed +to plant a settlement on the harbour of Rio Janeiro, was short-lived, +because ill led by a violent tyrannical man, Villegagnon. The first +settlers arrived in 1555; by the end of 1558 they had all +disappeared. Still more tragical was the outcome of the venture in +Florida. In 1562 a band of would-be colonists sailed from Dieppe, +under the command of Jean Ribault. They reached Florida in safety, +and built a small fort towards the northern end of the peninsula, in +which thirty men were left behind while Ribault returned to France. +In the following year, the survivors of the thirty came back to +Europe, having abandoned the fort and experienced every extremity of +thirst and hunger while crossing the Atlantic in a ship of their own +making. Again in 1564, a Huguenot expedition, under Rene de +Laudonniere, sailed for Florida, and the settlers planted themselves +on the {39} St. John's river, then known as the river of May. In 1565 +Ribault joined them with reinforcements and supplies. Well known from +its surpassing horror is the story of the French settlement. A +Spanish force under Menendez, a fanatic as treacherous and as savage +as Philip II himself, took up a position to the south where the town +of St. Augustine now stands, and overpowering the Frenchmen in +detachments, butchered them with every accompaniment of cruelty and +guile. The French fort passed into Spanish hands, but within three +years time an avenging freebooter came from France, Domenic de +Gourgues; the Spaniards in their turn were shot and hung, and the +banks of the St. John's river were left desolate. + +Ill managed, badly supported were these French ventures to Brazil and +Florida. Had they been well led and given some little encouragement +and assistance, the result might have been far different. Protestants +might have gained a firm foothold in Central and Southern America. +France might have won from Spain and Portugal a great domain. As it +was, the attempts resulted in utter failure, and great opportunities +were lost never to be regained. + +[Sidenote: _La Roche's patent._] + +As the sixteenth century drew to a close, a patent was issued by the +French King to a Breton nobleman, the Marquis de la Roche, to +colonize in North America. The terms of the patent were +preposterously wide, conferring sovereignty over Canada, together +with a monopoly of trade. The results were proportionately small. La +Roche set sail in 1598, in a single ship with a cargo of convicts. He +landed them at Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, and sailed +back to France, leaving them to their fate. Five years later, in +1603, eleven of the number, who had survived, were rescued and +brought home again. + +[Sidenote: _Chauvin and Pontgrave._] + +[Sidenote: _De Chastes._] + +About a year after La Roche's fruitless voyage, in 1599 or 1600, two +other Frenchmen, Chauvin, a sea captain, and Pontgrave, a St. Malo +merchant, also obtained a patent to {40} colonize in Canada. Their +object was to monopolize the fur trade, and they attempted a +settlement at Tadoussac, where the Saguenay river flows into the St. +Lawrence. During a whole winter a small party was left at the +station, but no permanent colony was formed; and a second and third +voyage had no lasting results. Chauvin died, and in 1602 or 1603 a +new patent was granted to De Chastes, a man of rank and station, who +associated with himself Pontgrave, and secured the services of Samuel +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Samuel Champlain._] + +In order of time, Champlain's name stands second in the list of the +men to whom New France in America was due. It stands second in time +to the name of Cartier; in order of merit it heads the list. Cartier +was a great explorer, but his work ended with discovery; Champlain +founded a colony. The history of Canada as a French possession has +gained in attractiveness, in that it began and ended with a +high-minded, chivalrous leader. It began with Champlain, it ended +with Montcalm. Born on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, the +adventurous son of a seafaring father, Champlain fought for the King +in Brittany, and was given by him a retainer in the shape of a small +pension. The war over, he travelled for two years in the Spanish +Indies, and, visiting Panama, conceived the idea of a ship canal +across the isthmus. After his return home, he took service under De +Chastes' company, and in 1603 sailed with Pontgrave for the St. +Lawrence. The voyage was one of exploration only. Champlain ascended +the river as far as Montreal, gathering geographical information from +the Indians, but attempting no settlement; and when he returned to +France in a few months' time, he found that his employer, De Chastes, +was dead. + +[Sidenote: _De Monts' patent._] + +[Sidenote: _The first French settlement in Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal._] + +Yet another royal patent was granted, in 1603, to De Monts, a +Huguenot gentleman of the French court, its object being the +colonization of Acadia, and Acadia being defined as extending from +the fortieth degree of north latitude, which runs {41} through[3] +Philadelphia, to the forty-sixth degree, which is north of Montreal. +De Monts took into partnership the members of De Chastes' company, +and in 1604 two vessels sailed for America. They carried a mixed +freight, Huguenots and Roman Catholics, gentlemen of fortune, and +vagrants impressed under the King's commission. De Monts and +Champlain were on board the first ship, Pontgrave followed in the +second, with supplies for the future colony. They steered not for the +St. Lawrence, but for the coast of Nova Scotia; and entering the Bay +of Fundy they discovered Annapolis harbour, which was given the name +of Port Royal. The first settlement, however, was made on an islet +off the mouth of the St. Croix river, which now forms the boundary +between New Brunswick and the state of Maine; and there through the +winter De Monts and Champlain stayed with a scurvy-stricken company, +numbering seventy-nine in all, of whom nearly half died. On the +return of spring and the advent of relief from France, the leaders +coasted south along the shores of Maine, and of what were in after +years the New England states; and coming back to their station in +August, they moved the settlement across the Bay of Fundy, and +established themselves on the inlet of Annapolis harbour. De Monts +then returned to France, leaving Pontgrave and Champlain to hold the +post through the winter of 1605. + +[Footnote 3: For De Monts' patent see the _Calendar of State Papers_, +Colonial, 1574-1660, p. 4, entry 10, Nov. 8, 1603. It was a patent +'for inhabiting Acadia, Canada, and other places in New France,' and +De Monts was appointed the French King's Lieutenant-General 'for to +represent our person in the countries, territories, coasts, and +confines of La Cadia from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree.'] + +[Sidenote: _Lescarbot._] + +In the following summer, ships came back from France just in time to +prevent the settlement at Port Royal from being broken up in despair. +They brought with them the advocate Lescarbot, the historian of New +France. Again there was exploring down the American coast, and again +Champlain and his associates held their own through the winter. The +{42} outlook of the little colony was promising. The season was mild, +the natives were friendly, supplies were plentiful, gardens were laid +out and corn was sown. But in the late spring of 1607 news came from +home that the patent had been cancelled, and before the summer ended +Port Royal was abandoned. + +[Sidenote: _De Poutrincourt._] + +[Sidenote: _Jesuit influence._] + +For nearly three years the place was left desolate, and then, in +1610, one of De Monts' associates came back again. It was the Baron +de Poutrincourt, to whom the harbour, when first discovered, had been +granted by De Monts. The Jesuits were at the time strong at the +French court, stronger still after the assassination of King Henry IV +in this same year. They, or the ladies of the court, who were their +tools, bought shares in the venture, and Jesuit priests went out to +Acadia, thwarting and quarrelling with Poutrincourt and his son. Both +the two great dangers which always threatened and finally ruined the +French power in North America came into being at this date, the +exclusive influence of the Jesuits and English competition. + +[Sidenote: _Argall's raid from Virginia._] + +[Sidenote: _Destruction of Port Royal._] + +In 1606 the Virginia company was incorporated, and in the following +year British colonization on the mainland of North America began with +the founding of Jamestown. There are many miles of coast between +Acadia and Virginia, between the Bay of Fundy and Chesapeake Bay, but +French and English soon crossed each other's paths. In 1613 a ship +sailed from France, sent out under Jesuit influence, with a view to +founding a settlement on the North American coast. After touching at +Port Royal, the party sailed southwards to the coast of Maine, and +landed in the region of the Penobscot river. Hardly had their tents +been set up on the shore, when an English ship came in sight, +captured the French vessel, which was lying at anchor, uprooted the +would-be colony, and took all the Frenchmen prisoners. The invaders +hailed from Jamestown; they were commanded by Samuel Argall, an +unscrupulous freebooter. {43} His pretext was that the Frenchmen were +taking up ground within the limits of the patents granted by the +English King to his subjects, but his act was little more than +piracy. Some of the Frenchmen were set adrift in an open boat, and +eventually reached France in safety; the rest were carried prisoners +to Jamestown, whence Argall set sail again, commissioned by the +governor of Virginia to attack Port Royal. He reached, plundered, and +burnt the fort, its commander, Biencourt, with the rest of the +settlers, being absent in the fields, for it was harvest time; but +the colony was not finally blotted out, and the French still kept a +foothold in Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Champlain on the St. Lawrence._] + +Champlain's first voyage to North America in 1603 had taken him to +the St. Lawrence. From 1604-7 Acadia had been the scene of his +labours, until De Monts' patent had been revoked. In 1608 he returned +to the river of Canada. On the line of the St. Lawrence he carried +out the work of his life, and by its banks he died. In the course +which French colonization in America and its first great leader took, +may be traced the influence on history of geography and race. + +[Sidenote: _Comparison of English and French colonization in North +America._] + +[Sidenote: _English colonial enterprise in the seventeenth century +the result of private co-operation._] + +In English colonial history, as writers on the subject have pointed +out,[4] the age of adventure was distinct from the age of settlement. +Ralegh was the latest product of the times of romance, an his +attempts at colonization were premature and unsuccessful. To some +extent a similar distinction may be made in French colonial history: +Cartier may be taken as a representative of the earlier age, +Champlain of the later; but the line of demarcation is much fainter, +much less real, in the case of the French than in that of the +English. To English and French alike adventure had meant private +enterprise, usually but not always countenanced by kings, generally +carried out under cover of royal licences or patents, so vague as to +be almost meaningless, granted one day, liable to be {44} cancelled +the next. When the age of romance passed away in England with the +passing of the sixteenth century, adventurers in the ordinary sense +in great measure disappeared, with the exception of the Arctic +explorers, who, like Hudson and Baffin, still sailed to the desolate +North. Private enterprise, on the other hand, not only survived, but +it grew stronger, more business-like, more independent of court +favour. It was private enterprise still, but under new forms, the +enterprise not of individual freebooters, or of knights errant, but +of associations of citizens, some of the associations being chartered +commercial companies, while others were bands of colonizers and +colonists united by a common antagonism and a common creed. Their +objects were not in the air, they did not live in dreamland, they +went out or sent out others, not so much to discover new lands, as to +occupy and appropriate lands which had already been found, to make +new English homes on the other side of the Atlantic. + +[Footnote 4: See e.g. Doyle's _History of the English in America_, +vol. i, chap. vi.] + +[Sidenote: _The new patents of English colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _Motives of English colonization in the seventeenth +century._] + +[Sidenote: _The English kept near to the sea._] + +In theory the commercial companies were, like the individual +patentees of the former generation, working under the authority of +the Crown. Indeed that authority was far more strongly proclaimed +than before, and for vague generalities were substituted very +definite restrictions; but this was only a sign of a new time. It +indicated that a stage had been reached when more was known, when +practical business was being taken in hand, and when, therefore, the +slipshod patents, which had hitherto sufficed, would no longer avail. +Because private enterprise really meant more, therefore the +Government said more, and the very defining of the work and +circumscribing of its sphere made the results sounder, more lasting, +and more substantial. It was not the lust of conquest, it was not the +glamour of adventure, it was not a wish to proselytize in religion or +to add new provinces to the domain of a European kingdom which made +the English colonize North America. There were two {45} main motives +at work. One was the desire to find or to do something which would +pay, the other was a longing to live under more independent +conditions than existed in the mother country. The settlers went to +lands where natives dwelt, and, therefore, dealings with the North +American Indians in war and peace ensued; but the English did not go +to the New World in the main to conquer or to convert the Indians, +they went to live and to make their living pay. Instinct was at work +in English colonization, the instinct of self-preservation, of +extension, of always moving a little further and winning a little +more; but there was no high scheme of universal dominion for the +English King or the English creed. Against any such views the New +England colonies were a living protest, and in Virginia, Maryland, or +Carolina they found no place. All of these colonies were prosaic, +unromantic communities: they were groups of Englishmen, living, +grumbling, working and squabbling, with varieties of opinions and +differences of outward forms, half protected, half worried by the +home Government, building up unconsciously, illogically, amid much +that was mean and small, what was to be in the end a mighty nation. +Instinct, too, kept the colonists for the most part near to the sea. +They fringed the Atlantic over which they had come, and ever renewed +their strength as more emigrants came in; they strayed no doubt to +some extent as years went on, taking up farms inland and clearing the +backwoods; but, on the whole, there was continuity of colonization, a +gradual widening of the belt of settlement, expansion on the part of +the settlers themselves, as opposed to planting in the heart of the +continent military outposts, or isolated mission stations. + +[Sidenote: _The French colonized inland._] + +[Sidenote: _Comparison of French colonization in Canada and Dutch +colonization in South Africa._] + +With the French in Canada the case was different. Except in Acadia +and Cape Breton Island, and to a limited extent in Newfoundland, they +had no hold on the sea coast: and Acadia had for many years little +connexion with the {46} land of the St. Lawrence. Canada, as a sphere +of colonization, began when the open sea had been left far behind. It +was an inland territory with a great river and great lakes. No two +parts of the world are more unlike than Canada and South Africa. +Canada has a river highway into it, excellent water communication by +lake and stream, and, until the Rocky mountains are reached, no +mountain barriers are interposed to cut off the interior from the +coast regions or one district from another. South Africa is almost +devoid of natural harbours, its rivers are valueless for purposes of +navigation. Its ranges of hills or mountains rise one behind the +other, barring the way from the coast to the interior, severing one +section of the territory from another. Yet, curiously enough, +somewhat similar results followed from diametrically opposite +geographical conditions. No two races in the world were and are more +unlike each other than the Dutch and the French, unlike in character, +in tradition, in political and religious training. But the Dutch in +South Africa and the French in Canada resembled each other in this, +that they were and remained very few in number, planted in an +unlimited area, and that men lived in either case under a rigid +system. The restrictive rule of the Netherlands East India Company in +South Africa led to trekking, to wandering in the wilderness, and the +difficulties of communication increased the wandering tendency, +because the wanderers, who wished no longer to be controlled by the +government at Cape Town, could not easily be followed up. The French +rule in Canada was restrictive too, restrictive in matters of +politics, of commerce, and of religion. It was a despotism which +allowed no vestige of freedom or self-government; but it was a far +stronger and more active despotism than that of the Netherlands +Company. The Dutch sought a trade monopoly, the French a territorial +dominion. The Dutch were at pains to minimize their responsibilities. +The French policy was {47} one of conquest and conversion; they +looked to holding in subjection the lands and the peoples of the New +World. They worked under a government which was absolute, but whose +absolutism, in the main, encouraged perpetual moving forward, and +they worked in a land where moving forward was comparatively easy. +Thus dispersion ensued on a greater scale than in South Africa. The +negative force which promoted trekking in the Cape Colony was present +also in Canada--antipathy to a rigid system, to hard and fast rules; +and the counterpart of the Dutch voortrekkers, though under very +different conditions, was to be found in the Canadian fur-traders and +_coureurs de bois_. But in South Africa the positive force was +wanting which shaped Canadian history, the forward policy of an +ambitious state. The agents of the French Government in Canada, +military and religious, went far afield--adventurous and +enterprising, intriguing with savage races, establishing outposts in +the interior, strong to carry out a preconceived plan of a great +French dominion. The malcontent Dutchmen in South Africa moved slowly +and sleepily away in their wagons to be out of reach; the country +aided their intent by being difficult of access. Along the rivers and +the lakes of Canada the Frenchmen lightly passed, those who worked +the will of the Government as well as those who were impatient of +control. + +[Sidenote: _Contrast between English and French in North America._] + +The rivalry then between the two European nations who colonized North +America, the English and the French, was rivalry at every point. It +was a conflict of race, of religion, of geographical conditions, of +new and old, of European government and American colonists. On the +one side were seaboard settlements, comparatively continuous, in +which there was much instinct and little policy, much freedom and +little system; where the population steadily grew by natural causes +and by immigration, democratic communities in which the real work was +done from below, the products of {48} a wholly different era from +that which preceded it, and in which picturesque adventurers had +failed to colonize. On the other side were the beginnings of +continental colonization along the natural lines of communication. +The dispersion was great, the settlers were few, the settlements were +weak. All was done from above, except where unlicensed adventurers +roamed the woods. The elements of an older day were preserved and +stereotyped, attractive but unprogressive. Old forms transplanted to +a New World did not lose their life, but renewed it. Feudal customs +took root in the soil. Despotism, supported by the Roman Catholic +Church, did not survive merely, but grew stronger. The adventurer +remained an adventurer, and did not turn into a businesslike +colonist. There was much that was great, there was more that was +uniform, but there was little or no growth. + +[Sidenote: _Elements of strength on the French side._] + +The ultimate outcome of such a contest must necessarily have been, in +the course of generations, the triumph of the side on which were the +forces and the views of the coming time. But, while the struggle +lasted, the French gained not a little from being less vulnerable +than the English, as being more dispersed; from being better situated +for purposes of attack; from being organized, so far as there was +organization, under one government and one system instead of many; +from the extraordinary energy and quickness of some of the French +leaders in Canada; from the strong military element in the +population; from the fanatical devotion of the French missionaries; +and last, but not least, from the Frenchmen's better handling of the +natives. + +[Sidenote: _The waterways of North America._] + +The sources of the Mississippi are close to the western end of Lake +Superior, and the eastern half of North America is therefore nearly +an island, created by the Mississippi, the great lakes, the St. +Lawrence, and the sea. An inner circle is formed by the Mississippi, +the Ohio, Lakes Erie, Ontario, and the St. Lawrence, the head waters +of the Ohio river being within easy distance of Lake Erie. The course +of the Ohio {49} is from north-east to north-west. It flows, very +roughly, parallel to the Alleghany mountains, and drains their +western sides. The Alleghanies in their turn are parallel to the +Atlantic, and between them and the sea is a coast belt from north to +south. Here was the scene of the English settlements. Here, cut off +by mountain ranges from the Mississippi valley and from the inland +plains, the Virginians and the New Englanders made their home. 'The +New England man,' writes Parkman, 'had very little forest experience. +His geographical position cut him off completely from the great +wilderness of the interior. The sea was his field of action.'[5] + +[Footnote 5: _The Old Regime in Canada_, chap. xxi, p. 399 (14th ed., +1885).] + +[Sidenote: _The Hudson river and Lake Champlain._] + +But there is one direct route, with nearly continuous waterways, from +the Atlantic seaboard to the St. Lawrence. It runs due north up the +Hudson river, is continued by Lakes George and Champlain between the +Adirondack mountains on the west, and on the east the Green mountains +of Vermont; and from the northern end of Lake Champlain it follows +the outlet of that lake, the Richelieu river, for seventy to eighty +miles into the St. Lawrence. The head waters of the Hudson are hard +by Lake George, but at the present day navigation ceases at Troy, 151 +miles from the sea, where is the confluence of the Mohawk river, and +from whence the Champlain canal runs direct to Lake Champlain. The +distance from Troy to Lake George is in straight line about fifty +miles. This route was all-important for attack and defence in the +wars between England and France, and it was well for Great Britain +that, at a comparatively early stage in the colonization of America, +she took over the Dutch settlements in the valley of the Hudson, +gaining control of that river and linking New England to the southern +colonies. + +[Sidenote: _The St. Lawrence._] + +From the mouth of the Hudson at New York to where the Richelieu joins +the St. Lawrence, a straight line drawn on {50} the map from south to +north measures rather under 400 miles. It is much the same distance, +on a very rough estimate, from the confluence of the Richelieu and +the St. Lawrence to the point where the St. Lawrence opens into the +sea. This point is generally taken to be the Point de Monts, which is +on the northern bank of the river, in north latitude 49 degrees 15 +minutes, and west longitude 67 degrees 30 minutes, though the Gaspe +peninsula, on the southern side of the estuary, extends much further +to the east. Thus the centre of the St. Lawrence basin is equidistant +from the mouth of that river and from the mouth of the Hudson,[6] and +between these two points, before the days of railways, there was no +easily accessible route from the sea to Montreal. + +[Footnote 6: Hennepin in _A New Discovery of a vast Country in +America_ (English ed., London, 1698, pt. 2, p. 129), speaking of the +St. Lawrence, says: 'The middle of the river is nearer to New York +than to Quebec, the capital town of Canada.' This is of course +incorrect, but it shows appreciation of the directness of the route +to the St. Lawrence by the Hudson river.] + +Following up the St. Lawrence from the Point de Monts, at about a +distance of 140 miles, the mouth of the Saguenay is reached on the +northern side. There stood and stands Tadoussac, in old days a great +centre of the fur trade, and the earliest foothold of the French in +Canada. From the mouth of the Saguenay to Quebec is about 120 miles, +and from Quebec to Montreal is rather over 160. Nearly halfway +between Quebec and Montreal, over seventy miles from the former and +over ninety from the latter, is the town of Three Rivers, situated on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at its confluence with the St. +Maurice river, one of the oldest and one of the most important French +settlements in Canada. Here is the limit of the tideway, and above +this point the St. Lawrence expands for some thirty miles into Lake +St. Peter. At the upper end of this lake or expanse of river, on the +southern side, the Richelieu joins the St. Lawrence, with the town of +Sorel at {51} its mouth, and forty-five miles higher up is Montreal. +From Montreal to Kingston, where the St. Lawrence issues from Lake +Ontario, is a distance of 180 to 190 miles by river, past rapids well +known to readers and to tourists, and past the Thousand islands. Thus +the total length of the St. Lawrence, from the lakes to the opening +into the gulf, is rather over 600 miles. + +[Sidenote: _The great lakes._] + +The great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin cover a surface of nearly +100,000 square miles--an area larger than that of Great Britain. +Lakes Ontario and Erie, connected by the Niagara river, continue the +direct line of the St. Lawrence, Lake Erie more especially lying due +south-west and north-east; but from the extreme end of this +last-named lake the channel of communication takes a sharp curve to +the north in the Detroit river, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair +river, which link together Lakes Erie and Huron. Lake Huron, the +centre of the whole group, stretches back towards the east and +south-east in Georgian Bay, while on the north-west it is connected +with Lake Michigan by the straits of Michillimackinac or Mackinac, +and with Lake Superior by St. Mary's straits and rapids, the Sault +St. Marie. The rivers which feed Lake Superior are the head waters of +the St. Lawrence, and one of them, the St. Louis, which enters the +lake at its extreme western end, has its source hard by the source of +the Mississippi. The total length of lake and river on the line of +the St. Lawrence is over 2,000 miles. + +[Sidenote: _The route of the Ottawa river._] + +It has been said that Lakes Ontario and Erie continue the main course +of the St. Lawrence in its south-westerly and north-easterly +direction, that the channel which feeds Lake Erie at its western end +comes down from the north, and that the central lake which is then +reached--Lake Huron--breaks back towards the east. Thus the direct +line from Montreal to the centre of the lake system is not up the St. +Lawrence, but along one of its largest tributaries, which enters the +main river at Montreal. This tributary is the Ottawa, flowing {52} +from the north-west in a course broken by falls and rapids. One +hundred and thirty miles from its confluence with the St. Lawrence, +just below the Chaudiere falls, now stands the city of Ottawa, the +capital of the Canadian Dominion, connected with Lake Ontario by the +Rideau canal; and rather under 200 miles above Ottawa, where the +Mattawa river enters from the west, there is nearly continuous water +communication in a due westerly direction with Lake Nipissing, which +lake is in turn connected by the French river with the great inlet of +Lake Huron known as Georgian Bay. Champlain early explored this +route--the direct route to the west, and along it as far as Lake +Nipissing now runs the Canadian Pacific Railway. French river flows +into the northern end of Georgian Bay. At its south-easternmost end, +that bay runs into the land in the direction of Lake Ontario; and in +the middle of the broad isthmus between the two lakes lies Lake +Simcoe. + +[Sidenote: _Canada a geographical federation._] + +Such in rough outline is the basin of the St. Lawrence. It is a +network of lakes and rivers which finds no parallel, unless it be in +Central Africa. The present Dominion of Canada is not merely a +political federation; it is a federation of regions which are +geographically separate from each other. There is the eastern +seaboard, the old Acadia; there is the basin of the St. Lawrence; +there are the plains of the North-West and the regions of the Hudson +Bay; and there are the lands of the Pacific coast. Only one of these +four regions, the basin of the St. Lawrence, was the main scene of +early Canadian history. Acadia comes into the story, it is true, but +until the eighteenth century only indirectly, in connexion with the +English colonies on the Atlantic coast rather than with the French in +Canada. English and French collided on the shores of Hudson Bay; they +collided also in Newfoundland; but Hudson Bay and Newfoundland alike +were outside the sphere of Canada. The great prairies of the +North-West were a possibility of the distant future; but not {53} +till the days of railways did the western half of the present +Dominion come within the range of practical politics. Along the St. +Lawrence and its tributaries the drama of Canadian history was +played; the furthest horizon was the Mississippi and the whole line +of the lakes; a nearer view was bounded by the Ohio valley; while the +immediate foreground was formed by the St. Lawrence from Quebec to +Lake Ontario, the centremost point being the confluence of the +Richelieu with the main river. + +Movement, constant movement, these waterways suggested; exploration, +adventure, and ultimately conquest; pressing onward by strength or +skill through a boundless area, with something unknown always beyond; +making portages round impossible rapids, forcing paths through +interminable forests, dealing with half-hidden foes. The land was one +for the traveller, the explorer, the missionary, the soldier, the +hunter, the fur-trader, but not so much for the settler and the +agriculturist. Thus it was that the age of adventurers was +perpetuated along the St. Lawrence, while the English colonists +between the Alleghanies and the sea were living steady lives attached +to the soil. + +[Sidenote: _The main object of North American exploration was a route +to the East._] + +The great motive force of modern adventure was, as has been seen, the +search for a direct route to the East. Engaged in this search Henry +Hudson, in 1609, piloted the Dutch into the Hudson river.[7] +Champlain's first expedition up the Ottawa was due to a lying tale +that along that river had been found a way to the sea. La Salle, the +explorer of the Mississippi, had his mind ever set on the East, and +his Seigniory above Montreal was named La Chine; for, 'like {54} +Champlain and all the early explorers, he dreamed of a passage to the +south sea, and a new road for commerce to the riches of China and +Japan.'[8] Many long years passed before the geography of North +America was known with any accuracy, and in the meantime the recesses +of the continent, from which the rivers flowed, seemed to hide the +secret of a thoroughfare by the West to the East. Similarly, from the +time when Columbus sought for and thought he had found the Indies in +the New World, down to our own day, the natives of America have been +known as Indians. + +[Footnote 7: Hudson in 1609 sought for a North-West Passage about the +fortieth degree of latitude. 'This idea had been suggested to Hudson +by some letters and maps which his friend Captain Smith had sent him +from Virginia, and by which he informed him that there was a sea +leading into the western ocean by the north of Virginia.' See _A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to New Netherland_, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Mueller, 1868), Introd. pp. xxv, xxvi.] + +[Footnote 8: Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West_ +(1885 ed.), p. 8.] + +[Sidenote: _The Indians of North America._] + +[Sidenote: _The Algonquins._] + +The two native races, with which the history of Canada is mainly +concerned, are the Algonquins and the Huron Iroquois. The former were +far the more numerous of the two, and were spread over a much larger +area. They included under different names the Indians of the lower +St. Lawrence, of Acadia, New England, and the Atlantic states as far +as the Carolinas--the Montagnais, the Abenakis, the Micmacs, the +Narragansetts, the Pequods, and others. The Delawares, too, were +members of the race, and Algonquin tribes were to be found on the +Ottawa, at Lake Nipissing, on the further shores of the great lakes, +in Michigan and Illinois. From the day when Champlain joined forces +with them against their hereditary foes the Iroquois, they ranged +themselves for the most part on the side of the French. + +[Sidenote: _The Huron Iroquois._] + +The Hurons or Wyandots and the Iroquois were distinct from the +Algonquins and akin to each other. When Cartier visited the St. +Lawrence, the native towns which he found on the sites of Quebec and +Montreal seem to have been inhabited by Indians of this race; but by +Champlain's time the towns had disappeared, and those who dwelt in +them had sought other strongholds. Though related in blood and +speech, these two groups of tribes were deadly foes of each other. +The Hurons, like the Algonquins, were allied to the {55} French; the +Iroquois, guided partly by policy and partly by antipathy to the +European intruders into Canada and their Indian friends, were as a +rule to be found in amity with the English. The region of the upper +St. Lawrence and of Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, was the home of +the Huron Iroquois race. The Huron country lay between Georgian Bay +of Lake Huron and Lake Simcoe. South of the Hurons, the northern +shore of Lake Erie and both sides of the Niagara river were held by +the Neutral Nation, neutral as between the Iroquois and the Hurons, +and akin to both. The Eries on the southern side of Lake Erie, and +the Andastes on the lower Susquehanna, were also of Huron Iroquois +stock; but the foremost group of the race, the strongest by far, +though not the most numerous, of all the North American Indians, were +the Iroquois themselves, the celebrated Five Nations of Canadian +story. + +[Sidenote: _The country of the Five Nations._] + +The Erie canal, which, in its 352 miles of length, connects Lake Erie +at Buffalo with the Hudson river at West Troy and Albany, runs +through the country of the Five Nations. That country extended along +the southern side of Lake Ontario from the Genesee river on the west +to the Hudson on the east, while due north of the Hudson, the outlet +of Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu river, was in +old days known as the river of the Iroquois. The Mohawk river, along +which the Erie canal is now carried, was, on the Atlantic side, the +highway to the land of the Iroquois, and it bore the name of the best +known of the Five Nations, the whole confederacy being sometimes +spoken or written of as Mohawks.[9] The route up the river provided +nearly continuous communication by water between the Hudson and Lake +Ontario. From its confluence with the Hudson the Mohawk was followed +to the head of its navigation, whence there was a short portage of +about four miles {56} to Wood Creek, a stream running into the Oneida +lake, and the Oneida lake was linked to Lake Ontario by the Oswego +river. All this line was under Iroquois control; and the westernmost +of the Five Nations, the Senecas, commanded also the trade route to +Lake Erie. + +[Footnote 9: The Mohawks, however, were not the strongest of the five +in number. They were outnumbered by the Senecas.] + +[Sidenote: _The Five Nations._] + +The name 'Iroquois' is said to be of French origin: the true title of +the Five Nations was an Indian word,[10] signifying 'people of the +long house.' Their dwellings were oblong in form, often of great +length; and, as were their dwellings, so also was their +dwelling-place. Side by side the Five Nations stretched in line from +west to east, as may be told by lakes and rivers in New York State, +which to this day bear their names. Farthest to the west were the +Senecas; next came the Cayugas, the people of the marsh. The third in +line, the central people of the league, within whose borders was the +federal Council house, were the Onondagas, the mountaineers; the +Oneidas followed; and easternmost of all were the Mohawks.[11] + +[Footnote 10: Hodenosaunee.] + +[Footnote 11: In a report of a committee of the Council held at New +York, Nov. 6, 1724, on the subject of a petition of the London +merchants against the Act of 1720, given in Colden's _History of the +Five Indian Nations of Canada_ (3rd ed., London, 1755), p. 226, the +Five Nations are placed as follows: the Mohawks but 40 miles due west +of Albany, and within the English settlements; the Oneidas about 100 +miles west of Albany, and near the head of the Mohawk river; the +Onondagas about 130 miles west of Albany; the Cayugas 160; and the +Senecas 240.] + +[Sidenote: _Small numbers of the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Their geographical position. They held the border line +between French and English._] + +In all the history of European colonization no group of savages, +perhaps, ever played so prominent a part as the Iroquois; none were +so courted and feared; none made themselves felt so heavily for a +long period of years together. This fact was not due to their +numbers, for they were comparatively few, and Parkman estimates that +'In the days of their greatest triumphs their united cantons could +not have mustered four thousand warriors.'[12] Yet they attacked and +{57} blotted out other Indian races equal to or outnumbering +themselves. They nearly destroyed the French settlements in Canada; +and all through the contest between Great Britain and France in +America, they were a force to be reckoned with by either side. Their +alliance was sought, their enmity was dreaded. Their strength was due +to the geographical position which they held, and to their national +characteristics; while their policy was influenced by the differing +conditions of the white people with whom they had to deal. Their home +has been described. It was the southern frontier of central Canada, +the borderland between the French and English spheres of trade and +settlement. Here they lived, in a position where a weak race would +have been ground in pieces between opposing forces, but where a +strong race, conscious of its advantages and able to use them, could +more than hold its own. 'Nothing,' wrote Charlevoix, 'has contributed +more to render them formidable than the advantage of their situation, +which they soon discovered, and know very well how to take advantage +of it. Placed between us and the English, they soon conceived that +both nations would be obliged to court them; and it is certain that +the principal attention of both colonies, since their settlement, has +been to gain them or at least to engage them to remain neuter.'[13] + +[Footnote 12: _Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (1885 ed.), vol. i, chap. i, p. +21. Charlevoix says: 'All their forces joined together have never +amounted to more than 5,000 or 6,000 fighting men' (_Letters to the +Duchess of Lesdiguieres_, Engl. tr., London, 1763, p. 185). On the +other hand, in _A Concise Account of North America_, by Major Robert +Rogers (London, 1765), p. 206, it is stated that 'when the English +first settled in America they (the Iroquois) could raise 15,000 +fighting men.'] + +[Footnote 13: Charlevoix, as above, pp. 184-5.] + +[Sidenote: _Their strength of character and policy._] + +A strong race the Iroquois were. In cruelty and endurance, in bold +conception and swift execution, they had few, if any, rivals among +the natives of North America, and in their grasp of something like +state policy they had no equals. As savages, pure and simple, they +reached the highest level; they might indeed have had a greater and +more lasting future, if their level had not been so high. The Kaffir +races of South Africa in our own time have produced good {58} +fighting material; some of their leaders have shown skilful +generalship and no small statecraft; but they have been loosely knit +together, little bound as a whole by the ties of country or of kin; +and from this very weakness has come their salvation, in that they +could and can be recast in a new mould. It was not so with the North +American Indians, least of all with the Iroquois. They were +stereotyped in savagery, and, when the white men came among them, it +was too late for them to change; but, as savages of the most +ferocious type, as ruthless murdering hunters of men, they developed +an organization which was evidence at once of intellectual and +physical strength, and of a wild kind of moral discipline. + +[Sidenote: _Their political organization._] + +It is rare to find among savages a confederacy which will outlive a +single expedition or one season's war. When there is cohesion, it is +usually under savage despots like the Zulu Kings, who habituate their +followers to military discipline, and keep them attached partly by +fear and partly by the memory or hope of successful bloodshed; but +among the Five Nations the rule of one man had no place, and, though +warring was their normal condition, the federation lasted in peace as +well. They were doubly federated. Not only were there five nations or +tribes, but there were also eight clans which included the whole of +the Five Nations, members of each clan being found in each nation. +The five nations had in fact originally been one, composed of eight +clans. Each clan was named after some beast or bird, which formed its +totem or coat of arms, the three leading clans bearing those of the +tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.[14] The {59} clan tie was a family +tie; the members of each clan, to whichever nation they belonged, +were as brothers and sisters, and there was no intermarrying between +them. Inheritance ran in the female line, and the children belonged +to the mother's clan. The clans gave the chieftains to the separate +nations and to the confederacy. The highest chiefs were known as +_sachems_, a civil rather than a military title, and the Council of +fifty sachems formed the principal governing body of the league, the +place of honour being given to the head sachem of the Onondagas. +There was also a Council of subordinate chiefs, and a wider body, a +Senate--in whose deliberations men of age and experience took part, +irrespective of hereditary rank. The form of government was the same +for each of the five nations as for the whole confederacy. There was +no law but much custom, despotism was unknown, and so was anarchy. +There was something Homeric about the Iroquois. Like the Greeks of +the legendary age, they were perpetually fighting in spasmodic +fashion, with great cruelty, with every form of guile as well as +force; and when not fighting they held innumerable councils, making +many and long-winded speeches. Apart from personal bravery, the one +sound element in their system and character was, strange as it may +appear, some measure of what the early Greeks valued under the term +[Greek: aidos] or reverence. The Iroquois reverenced long-standing +customs, social position, and the voice of age. War was their trade, +but the highest dignities attached to the civil chieftain more than +to the successful warrior. They dealt out shameless violence to all +beyond their pale, but within the ranks of their own people they +recognized much more than mere physical strength or skill in +butchery. + +[Footnote 14: These three leading clans so put into the shade all the +others that in some old writers these alone are recognized. Thus +Colden says (vol. i, p. 1): 'Each of these nations is again divided +into three tribes or families, who distinguish themselves by three +different arms or ensigns, the tortoise, the bear, and the wolf.' A +full account of the Iroquois organization is given by Parkman in the +first chapter of the _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, and in the introduction +to _The Jesuits in North America_. See also the chapter on Canadian +and Iroquois Indians in Sir J. G. Bourinot's _Canada_, in the 'Story +of the Nations' series. It will be seen from the note to the +Introduction, p. lv, of _The Jesuits in North America_ (1885 ed.), +that the number of the clans as given above, and their presence in +each tribe, is not absolutely certain.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois in some respects resembled the Spartans._] + +In their organization they had advanced beyond the stage {60} which +is outlined in the Iliad. They were far more democratic than the +Greeks of Homeric time. In savage sort they framed and kept a polity +of the kind which Aristotle tells us is the most perfect type of +constitution, being a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. The +hereditary principle was strong, but chieftainship did not pass from +father to son owing to the rule of female succession. The councils of +the nation found place for all whose qualifications were for the +public good. High standing, age, experience, eloquence, strength of +arm, all were recognized in this strange community. To Sparta Colden +likens the confederacy of the Five Nations, in that, in either case, +the national customs trained the minds and the bodies of the people +for war;[15] but the likeness extends to other points as well. As far +as a Greek state and a band of North American savages can be +compared, in their social and political training, in their inflexible +rules, in their recognition of merit combined with unswerving +adherence to the principle of priority of families and clans, no less +than in their heartless indifference to pain whether inflicted on +themselves or others, the Iroquois Indians resembled the citizens of +the famous Greek state. But whatever comparison may be made with +either ancient or modern communities, the story of the Five Nations +presents the curious problem of a group of savages of the very worst +type, who yet in some sort solved the difficulties which the most +civilized peoples find so great--those of reconciling democracy with +hereditary privileges, and federal union with local independence. + +[Footnote 15: P. 14., 'On these occasions the state of Lacedaemon +ever occurs to my mind, which that of the Five Nations in many +respects resembles, their laws and customs being in both framed to +render the minds and bodies of the people fit for war.' Parkman, too, +says of them, 'Never since the days of Sparta were individual life +and national life more completely fused into one'; see _The Jesuits +in North America_ (1885 ed.), Introduction, p. lx.] + +[Sidenote: _Principle of adoption among the Iroquois._] + +Constantly weakened by the strain of war, to some extent {61} they +renewed their strength by the principle of adoption.[16] Of the +prisoners whom they took, most were put to death with nameless +tortures, but many were admitted to their tribes; and in one instance +they incorporated a whole people. This was the Tuscaroras, a kindred +tribe from the Carolinas, driven north by war with the colonists +early in the eighteenth century. About 1715, they were admitted into +the league as a sixth nation, though not on equal terms, and were +assigned a dwelling-place among the Oneidas and Onondagas. + +[Footnote 16: 'They strictly follow one maxim, formerly used by the +Romans to increase their strength, that they encourage the people of +other nations to incorporate with them' (Colden, p. 5).] + +[Sidenote: _Their sphere of influence._] + +[Sidenote: _Their feud with the French._] + +The tribes of the Huron Iroquois stock were agriculturists to a +greater extent than the Algonquins. In other words, they had passed +out of the nomad stage and made permanent homes. Still, they lived in +great measure by the chase; they were born hunters as they were born +warriors, and furs and beaver skins were the products which they +bartered for the white man's goods. The Five Nations hunted and +raided far beyond the limits of their cantons. In 1687, Dongan, +Governor of New York, wrote of them: 'The Five Nations are the most +warlike people in America, and are a bulwark between us and other +tribes. They go as far as the South Sea, the North-West Passage, and +Florida to war.'[17] Their interests as well as their pride demanded +that on the upper St. Lawrence, as well as on Lakes Erie and Ontario, +their power should be paramount. As far as other groups of Indians +were concerned, they ensured their object, conquering and in great +measure exterminating the Hurons, the Neutral Nation, and the Eries; +but they knew well that the few Frenchmen in Canada were more +dangerous to their ascendency, and possibly to their existence, than +any native tribe or race, however numerous. The French began by +making the Iroquois their foes. Champlain had hardly {62} settled at +Quebec, when he joined the Hurons and Algonquins in an expedition +against them. Thenceforward the Five Nations were the enemies of +France. This result would probably have followed in any case, and it +is difficult to suppose that one early action determined all +succeeding history. It was rather the beginning of an inevitable +struggle for the control of the upper St. Lawrence and of the +Canadian fur trade. On all sides of their own country the Iroquois, +like other masterful peoples, extended their sphere of influence; but +their real outlet was to the north, towards the lakes and the great +river. On this side the white men were most active and restless, ever +sending their emissaries a little further on, ever putting themselves +in evidence in some new tribe or village.[18] The French were not +content to live outside the Indians; nor were they content, having +found a resting-place, to stay there. To be in and among the natives, +to control and to convert them, to be the recognized protectors of +the land and its peoples, to be the ultimate recipients of the +produce of the country, and the guardians of the channels by which +the produce was conveyed--no smaller aims sufficed for the French in +Canada. In the pursuit of these objects they directly competed with +the Iroquois Indians. Great was the territory, few in number were the +Frenchmen and Iroquois alike; but they were rivals for ascendency on +the same river, and there was not room for both. + +[Footnote 17: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1685-8, No. 1160, +pp. 328-9, Dongan to the Lords of Trade, March, 1687.] + +[Footnote 18: 'But this justice must be done to the French, that they +far exceeded the English in the daring attempts of some of their +inhabitants, in travelling very far among unknown Indians, +discovering new countries, and everywhere spreading the fame of the +French name and grandeur' (Colden, p. 35).] + +Because they were enemies of the French, the Iroquois naturally +became the allies of the English; but before they had much, if any +experience of the latter, they had come into contact with a third +European people, the Dutch on the Hudson river. + +[Sidenote: _The Dutch on the Hudson river._] + +[Sidenote: _New Netherland._] + +In 1609, the year after the founding of Quebec, Henry {63} Hudson, an +Englishman in the Netherlands service, sailed at the beginning of +September into the river which still bears his name, seeking, as he +sought till his death, a North-West Passage to Asia. The name of New +Netherland was formally given to the scene of his discovery in 1614, +and in 1615 a small fort was built on Manhattan Island--the first +little seed of the city of New York. In 1621, the Netherlands West +India Company came into being; and in the following year New +Netherland, with the beaver trade, which was its chief attraction, +was placed in the hands of the company. In settling on the Hudson the +Dutch conflicted with English claims, and the Government of the +Netherlands seem to have recognized that there was a flaw in their +title. However, the existence of New Netherland as a Dutch possession +continued till the year 1664, when it was surrendered to an English +force sent out by the Duke of York, who had obtained from his +brother, Charles II, a grant of the territory. The English occupation +was confirmed by the Peace of Breda in 1667; and though a Dutch fleet +recovered the colony in 1673, in the following year, by the Treaty of +Westminster, it was finally given up to the English. + +New Amsterdam, afterwards New York, was the chief settlement of New +Netherland; but Dutch trade and colonization extended up the valley +of the Hudson, where tracts of land were obtained by _patroons_ or +large landowners, who were granted exclusive privileges by the +company on condition of planting families of settlers upon their +holdings. The chief inland colony was Rensselaerswyck, called after +an Amsterdam merchant of the name of Rensselaer, and its centre was +Fort Orange, now Albany; while on the Mohawk river, about twenty +miles above its confluence with the Hudson, and rather less in a +direct line from Albany, was the settlement of Schenectady.[19] + +[Footnote 19: For an account of the Dutch on the Hudson see _A +Bibliographical and Historical Essay on the Dutch Books and Pamphlets +relating to {64} New Netherland_, by G. M. Asher, LL.D. (Amsterdam, +Frederick Mueller, 1868), referred to above. See also Justin Winsor's +_Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iv, chap. viii.] + +[Sidenote: _Friendship between the Dutch and the Iroquois._] + +Traders wherever they went, all the world over, the Dutchmen were at +pains to keep peace with the Iroquois. Their dealings with them were +on the same lines as the dealings of their countrymen with the +Hottentots in the early days of the Cape Colony.[20] They bought and +sold, and got good value for their money, paying, for instance, no +more than forty florins for Manhattan Island. But the mere fact of +paying for what they took was in their favour, for it was a +recognition that the natives were the rightful owners of the land. In +course of time they came into conflict with the Mohican Indians along +the banks of the Hudson; but with the Five Nations, the nearest of +whom were the Mohawks, they were ever in friendship. They were not +actually in the Mohawk country, but on its borders; they were +neighbours, not intruders; they took the furs which the Indians had +to barter, giving in exchange European goods, and notably firearms. +Thus Albany became a friendly meeting-place between the Iroquois +Indians and the white men of the Hudson colony. The two peoples did +not clash with one another in any way, but met as friends and equals, +and supplied each others' wants. + +[Footnote 20: See vol. iv of this series, chap. ii, p. 43.] + +The one object of the Dutch being to trade, and the whole people +being traders, a twofold result followed, promoting friendly +relations between them and the Mohawks. Not only did the Indians +realize that they had nothing to fear, and much to gain, from having +for their neighbours Europeans who had no views of war or conquest, +and through whose agency they could arm themselves against the more +aggressive Europeans on the Canadian side; but also, as we may well +suppose, the Dutch traders included the best of the Dutchmen, which +was not the case with either the French or the English. At any rate, +we read that the Dutch in the Hudson valley 'gained the hearts of the +Five Nations by {65} their kind usage',[21] and in memory of a +Dutchman named Cuyler, whom the Indians held in special honour, the +Iroquois in after years always gave to the British Governor of New +York the title of 'Corlaer'.[22] + +[Footnote 21: Colden, vol. i, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 22: Parkman's _Count Frontenac_ (1885 ed.), p. 93, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The English inherited the Iroquois alliance._] + +Into this kindly heritage the English entered;[23] and, though their +treatment of the Indians left much to be desired, the alliance, if +often strained, was, in the case of the Mohawks at any rate, never +sundered; and finally, at the close of the War of Independence, many +of the Five Nation Indians, after fighting for England, migrated into +Canada, and were assigned lands in the province of Ontario, where +their descendants are still to be found. In the words of the Indian +orators, a chain of friendship held together the English and the +Iroquois. 'Our chain,' they said, 'is a strong chain, it is a silver +chain, it can neither rust nor be broken';[24] and it would be +difficult to overrate the advantage which accrued to the English +colonies from their traditional alliance with the strongest natives +of North America. + +[Footnote 23: Colden, as above, 'In 1664, New York being taken by the +English, they likewise entered into a friendship with the Five +Nations.'] + +[Footnote 24: Colden, p. 125.] + +[Sidenote: _The founding of Quebec._] + +In the summer of 1608, Champlain founded the first French settlement +at Quebec. A year before, the English had settled at Jamestown in +Virginia. A year later, the Dutch found their way to the Hudson. Till +his death, at the end of 1635, the story of Champlain is the story of +Canada. His colleagues in the new enterprise were men with whom he +had already worked in Acadia--De Monts and Pontgrave. De Monts had +obtained from the King one year's monopoly of the Canadian fur trade, +and two ships which he sent to the St. Lawrence were in charge of +Pontgrave and Champlain respectively. Pontgrave, the merchant, stayed +at Tadoussac through the summer, bartering with the Indians and +coming to blows with Basque traders, who held {66} the French King's +patent of little account. Champlain, the explorer, went higher up the +river, and erected wooden buildings by the water-side, on the site of +the lower town of Quebec. There he stayed through the winter, while +his friend went home, and, when Pontgrave returned in the following +summer, travels and adventures began which made Champlain's name +great among the Indian tribes of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Champlain's explorations and collision with the +Iroquois._] + +His first expedition, in 1609, was to the lake which is still called +after him. He went as an ally of the Huron and the Algonquin Indians +against their enemies the Iroquois. Up the St. Lawrence, up the +Richelieu, and on to Lake Champlain he took his way, and at the head +of the lake, somewhere near the site where Fort Ticonderoga +afterwards stood, the white men's firearms dispersed the warriors of +the Five Nations and won a victory. The summer of 1609 ended, and +Champlain went back to France, returning to Canada in the following +spring.[25] + +[Footnote 25: Canada was first known as New France after Champlain's +return to Europe, in 1609 (Charlevoix's _Histoire Generale de la +Nouvelle France_, 1744 ed., vol. i, bk. iv, p. 149).] + +[Sidenote: _His difficulties in France._] + +De Monts' monopoly had expired and had not been renewed, but none the +less he and his associates persevered in their enterprise, opening up +the trade of the St. Lawrence, while others shared the profits. Again +Champlain joined forces with the friendly Indians against the +Iroquois, and a second victory was the result. Before the summer of +1610 ended, he was back in Europe, having learnt in the meantime that +his friend and patron, King Henry IV, had been stabbed to death in +the streets of Paris. On his next visit to Canada, in 1611, he +cleared the ground for a future settlement at Montreal, having noted +its advantages as a meeting-place for the Indian tribes from the +Ottawa and the great lakes. The late months of that year and the +whole of 1612 he spent in France, trying to devise some organization +under which the work of building up the French power in Canada {67} +might be successfully carried on. There was now no company in +existence, there was no royal mandate; personal favour and protection +had passed away with the death of Henry of Navarre. The French court +was a scene of growing priestly influence and of numberless +intrigues; while New France on the St. Lawrence was a 'no man's +land,' infested in summer time by crowds of fur-traders, who owned no +rule and knew no law, in winter deserted by white men, except the few +struggling settlers at Quebec. To form some kind of trade's union +under an acknowledged authority was the one thing needful, and with a +view to this end Champlain sought for and obtained the patronage of a +member of the royal house. The Count de Soissons, a Bourbon prince, +was appointed Lieutenant-General of the King for New France, and when +he died, shortly after his appointment, the place was taken by +another Bourbon, the Prince of Conde. The deputy of these princes was +Champlain himself; he was given control over the Canadian fur trade, +and he endeavoured to reconcile the rival interests of the western +ports of France by forming a combination of traders, to which all +could be admitted who had an interest in Canada. The scheme was +partially carried out, but unfortunately jealousies, commercial and +religious, precluded the establishment of a single united company. + +[Sidenote: _The imposture of Nicolas de Vignau._] + +To make money by trade for himself or others was not the first object +of Champlain's life. Exploration, with the Indies as its final goal, +was in his mind, and the formation of a colony which should indeed be +New France. While he still sojourned in Europe, a Frenchman, Nicolas +de Vignau, came back from Canada, telling a tale that up the Ottawa +river and beyond its sources he had found an outlet to the sea. Early +in 1613 Champlain recrossed the Atlantic, went up the St. Lawrence to +Montreal Island, and thence, taking De Vignau with him, followed the +course of the Ottawa as far as the Ile des Allumettes. He went no +further. The {68} story of a way to the sea was exposed, as a +cunningly devised fable, by the Indians of the upper Ottawa, among +whom the impostor had sojourned when he concocted his lies; and, but +for Champlain's interposition, he would then and there have paid for +his falsehood with his life. Champlain, however, spared him, retraced +his steps, and went back again to France, where he spent a year and +more before he again visited Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Recollet friars._] + +[Sidenote: _Le Caron._] + +[Sidenote: _The first mission to the Hurons._] + +Towards the end of May, 1615, he reached Quebec. He brought with him +this time a small band of missionaries, four friars of the Recollet +branch of the Franciscan order; and now mission work began in Canada. +One of the friars, Le Caron, with twelve other Frenchmen in the +company, visited for the first time the Huron country, and Champlain +followed close upon his steps. Ascending the Ottawa for the second +time, he passed the point which he had reached two years before, and +by the Mattawa river and Lake Nipissing came to the shores of Lake +Huron. Coasting southward along Georgian Bay, he found himself at +length among the Huron towns, where Le Caron was already busy +preaching a new faith to the heathen. An expedition against the +Iroquois had been determined on, and with the Huron warriors and +their allies, Champlain set out for the enemy's land. His route took +him across Lake Simcoe, down the series of small lakes which feed the +river Trent, and by that river to Lake Ontario, then seen by him for +the first time. Crossing the lake, he landed at the site of Oswego, +and marched into the midst of the Five Nations' cantons. From the +military point of view the expedition was a disastrous failure, for +an attack on a palisaded Iroquois town miscarried, Champlain himself +was wounded, and the invaders retreated beaten and disheartened. +Among the Hurons Champlain spent the winter; next year, returning +down the Ottawa, he came back to Quebec, in the midsummer of 1616, +and subsequently he sailed for France. + +{69} [Sidenote: _Result of the first eight years of New France._] + +Eight years had now passed since the founding of Quebec. Lakes Huron +and Ontario had been reached, the Ottawa route had been explored, the +friendship of the Hurons had been secured at the price of enmity with +the Iroquois, missionaries were converting or trying to convert the +Indians, and fur trading was briskly carried on; but colonization had +made as yet little or no way. There were a few permanent residents at +Quebec; but lower down at Tadoussac, and higher up at Three Rivers +and Montreal, where in the summer white men and coloured foregathered +to exchange their wares, in the winter no Frenchmen were to be found, +unless it were one or other of the much enduring Recollet +missionaries. In France it was the trade of Canada, not its +settlement, that was matter of concern. As in the case of +Newfoundland, the merchants of the western seaports of England set +themselves to keep the island from being permanently colonized, +anxious that the fishing traffic should remain in their own hands: so +in the case of Canada, the merchants of the western seaboard of +France regarded colonization as at best a useless expense, at worst a +measure by which they might lose command of the fur trade. The +climate of Newfoundland and of the St. Lawrence region was not such +as to induce Englishmen or Frenchmen to make these lands their homes. +Rather they seemed places for summer trips alone, to be left in +winter icebound and desolate. Trade interests and nature combined to +check the colonization of Canada; that anything was done in the way +of settlement in the early years of the seventeenth century was due +to missionary enthusiasm and to the foresight and tenacity of +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Dispute among French traders._] + +[Sidenote: _Company of the One Hundred Associates formed by +Richelieu._] + +He had formed a company of merchants, chiefly connected with Rouen +and St. Malo, who nominally controlled the trade of the St. Lawrence; +but they were not at one amongst themselves, some were Catholics, +others were Huguenots, while the merchants of La Rochelle refused to +join the combination, {70} and traded in defiance of the monopoly +which the rival towns claimed to possess. Various changes followed. +About the beginning of 1620, Conde was succeeded as Viceroy of New +France by the Duc de Montmorency, and in 1625 the latter sold his +office to his nephew the Duc de Ventadour. In 1621, the privileges +enjoyed by the Rouen and St. Malo company were transferred to two +Huguenot merchants, the brothers De Caen: the result was ill feeling, +and on the St. Lawrence open feuds between the old and the new +monopolists, until in 1623 some kind of union was formed. Eventually, +in 1627, all former privileges were annulled, and the control of +Canada passed into the hands of a new strong company, known as the +One Hundred Associates, at the head of which was Richelieu. + +[Sidenote: _Building of the fort at Quebec._] + +During these troubled years, amid the squabbles of conflicting +interests, the one source of strength and steadfastness for the +Frenchmen on the St. Lawrence was Champlain's own personality, while +the two principal events were the building of the fort at Quebec, and +the coming of the Jesuit missionaries. As Lieutenant of the King and +representative of the Viceroys of New France, Champlain's difficult +task was to hold the balance even between the rival traders and to +maintain some semblance of law and order along the water highway of +Canada. In former years, as an explorer he had obtained unrivalled +influence among the Indians; now, as Governor, he brought the same +qualities of tact and firmness into play in keeping the peace among +his turbulent countrymen. From 1620 to 1624, he was continuously in +Canada, and on the rock of Quebec he built a fort stronger and more +substantial than the wooden buildings which abutted on the river +below. Well situated, able to withstand ten thousand men,[26] such +was an English account a few years later of this fort, when enlarged +and completed--the fort {71} St. Louis at Quebec. The merchants +grudged the money and the men for the work, but the building of a +substantial fortress on the St. Lawrence was a step forward towards +the French dominion of Canada. + +[Footnote 26: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1574-1660, p. +139, under the year 1632.] + +[Sidenote: _Coming of the Jesuits to Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Their policy._] + +[Sidenote: _Supported by the French Government._] + +The year 1625 was the year in which the first Jesuit missionaries +came into Canada. In that year the Duc de Ventadour became Viceroy of +New France: he was closely connected with the Jesuit order, and began +his regime by sending out priests at his own expense. Their coming +marked an epoch in Canadian history. The Franciscan brethren, who +were already in the field, and who welcomed the new-comers on their +arrival, were men of a different stamp. Devoted missionaries, they +kept to their work; they claimed, outwardly at least, no religious +monopoly; they had no wish to control the temporal power; and they +lived at peace with all men. The Jesuits, on the other hand, imported +religious despotism. The Jesuit emissaries were brave men, none more +so; they were self-sacrificing to an extreme, venturesome and +tenacious, indifferent to danger, and fearless of death. They were +tactful in their dealings with the Indians, and were trained in a +school of diplomacy which has never been excelled. But they were the +champions of exclusiveness, and the enemies of freedom. Their coming +meant that one form of religion was to supplant all others--that the +spiritual power was, as far as in them lay, to dominate all things +and all men; and that while much was to be done, it was to be done +for instead of by the colonists and the natives, from above instead +of from below, on a rigid system--strong in itself but inimical to +healthy growth, to that variety of life, of thought, and of outward +form which helps on the expansion of a young community. From their +training and their organization, the Jesuits would in any case have +had great influence on the fortunes of the land to which they came; +but their influence was greater in that their despotic views +harmonized for the time being with the policy {72} of the Bourbon +Kings and their ministers. For absolute monarchy had taken root in +France; and in the French dependencies, as in the mother country, +there was to be henceforth political and religious despotism. That +the spiritual power might grow too strong was a distant danger, and +in France hardly a practical possibility. In the meantime Kings and +priests went hand in hand, co-operating against liberty in church and +state alike. Protestantism meant liberty. The Jesuits abhorred the +Huguenots because they deemed them heretics: the French Kings and +their ministers oppressed them rather on political than on religious +grounds, but were glad to use the religious argument in support of +political aims. + +[Sidenote: _Oppression of the Huguenots in France._] + +[Sidenote: _Its effects in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Huguenots excluded from New France._] + +On the death of Henry IV in 1610, his young son, Louis XIII, became +King of France. In 1624 Richelieu became his minister. In 1627 the +discontent of the Huguenots culminated in the open revolt of the town +of La Rochelle; and its fall, after a ten months' siege, gave the +King and the cardinal mastery over the Protestants of France. The +effect on Canada of this unsuccessful rising was twofold. It involved +the exclusion of Huguenot settlers, and it involved also the +hostility of England. The patent granted in 1627 to the company of +New France, known as the One Hundred Associates, provided that every +colonist who went out to Canada must be a Catholic, and when in the +following year Richelieu received the submission of the Rochellois, +he was well able to enforce this arbitrary provision. It is difficult +at the present day to comprehend a policy, initiated and approved by +a statesman of consummate ability, which could not but result in +blighting the infancy of the greatest French colony. The English +colonies were in the main pre-eminently homes of freedom, +dwelling-places for men whose political and religious opinions found +scant favour in the United Kingdom. For the English race the New +World redressed the balance of the Old; and though the {73} colonists +who went out from Europe to America, were in their turn prejudiced +and narrow-minded, their want of tolerance was not forced upon them +from without, and members of one or other unpopular sect, when +persecuted in one province, could find refuge in another. Maryland +was a British colony, founded under Roman Catholic auspices; its +neighbour, Pennsylvania, was founded and dominated by Quaker +influence; throughout British North America there were examples of +all opinions and of all creeds. The men on the spot quarrelled with +and persecuted each other; but persecution and exclusion were not +ordained from home. It would have been bad for the British Empire if +from all settlements, which the English formed and maintained, Roman +Catholics had been rigidly kept out; but it was far worse for France +when her Kings and ministers closed the French colonies to the +Huguenots. + +[Sidenote: _Merits of the Huguenots as colonists._] + +[Sidenote: _War between England and France._] + +The Huguenots were the best of the French traders; they were men of +substance; they were capable, enterprising, and resolute. They were +beyond others of their countrymen, the pioneers of trade and +colonization, and had led the way in the New World. De Monts was a +Huguenot, the De Caens were Huguenots, Champlain himself is said to +have been of Huguenot parentage. The exclusion of the French +Protestants from Canada meant depriving Canada of the class of +Frenchmen who were most capable of colonizing the country and +developing its trade. Their fault, in the eyes of the French +Government, was their independence; that they did not conform to the +state religion, and that by not conforming they were politically an +element of danger. But what was deemed a fault in France would, in +colonizing America, have been a virtue; inasmuch as in the field of +adventure, trade, and settlement in new lands, the men who are least +bound by old-world systems and traditional views are of most value. +If fair play had been given to the French Protestants, Canada would +have been far stronger than it {74} ever was while it belonged to +France, and probably it would have continued to belong to France down +to the present day. For the closing of Canada to the Huguenots, +followed as it was afterwards by their ejection from France, not only +weakened France and her colonies, but strengthened the rival nations +and their colonies. The French citizens who had begun to build up the +French colonial empire, helped to build up instead the colonial +empires of other European nations; and the oppressions which they +suffered brought them the sympathy, at times the armed sympathy, of +the Protestant nations of Europe. The rising of the citizens of La +Rochelle was accompanied by war between England and France. +Buckingham's expedition for the relief of the city, ill planned and +ill led, was a fiasco, completing the ruin of the Rochellois instead +of bringing them relief; but on the other side of the Atlantic, where +English adventurers could take advantage of a time of war without +being hampered by court favourites, there was a different tale to +tell. + +[Sidenote: _David Kirke_] + +Sir William Alexander,[27] a Scotch favourite of James I, had in the +year 1621 obtained from the King a grant of Acadia, or, as it was +styled in the patent, Nova Scotia. The patent was renewed by Charles +I. When war broke out between Great Britain and France, Alexander +combined with certain London merchants, styled 'Adventurers to +Canada,' or 'Adventurers in the Company of Canada,' to strike a blow +at the French in North America. Prominent among these merchants was +George Kirke, a Derbyshire man, who had married the daughter of a +merchant of Dieppe. Three ships were fitted out under the command of +Kirke's three sons, David, Lewis, and Thomas, David Kirke being in +charge of the expedition. The Kirkes were furnished with letters of +marque from the King, authorizing {75} them to attack French ships +and French settlements in America; and, well armed and equipped, they +sailed over the Atlantic, entering the St. Lawrence at the beginning +of July, 1628. + +[Footnote 27: A further account of Sir William Alexander is given +below, p. 173.] + +[Sidenote: _attacks the French on the St. Lawrence_] + +[Sidenote: _and destroys a French fleet._] + +Below Quebec was the trading station at Tadoussac, and higher up than +Tadoussac, less than thirty miles below Quebec, there was a small +farming establishment--a 'petite ferme'--at Cape Tourmente, whence +the garrison at Quebec drew supplies. Kirke took up his position at +Tadoussac, and sent a small party up the river, who burnt and rifled +the buildings at Cape Tourmente and killed the cattle. He then +dispatched some of his prisoners to Quebec and called upon Champlain +to surrender. The summons was rejected, though the garrison was in +sore straits. The Iroquois had been of late on the warpath, and the +inroads of Indians on the one hand and of English on the other, meant +starvation to the handful of men on the rock of Quebec. Yet Richelieu +had not been unmindful of Canada. While these events were happening, +a French fleet of eighteen vessels had sailed from Dieppe, laden with +arms and supplies, and bringing also some settlers with their +families, and the inevitable accompaniment of priests. It was the +first effort made by the newly formed French company, an earnest of +their intention to give strength and permanence to New France. The +expedition reached Gaspe Point, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence; +but between them and Quebec were the Kirkes and their ships. Instead +of moving up the river to attack Quebec, the English admiral went +down the river to intercept the new-comers. The English ships were +but three to eighteen; but the three ships were fitted and manned for +war. The French vessels were transports only, freighted with stores +and non-combatants, unable either to fight or to escape. On July 18, +Kirke attacked them, and seventeen out of the eighteen ships fell +into his hands. Ten vessels he emptied and burnt, the rest of his +prizes, {76} with all the cargo and prisoners, he carried off in +triumph to Newfoundland. + +[Sidenote: _First English capture of Quebec._] + +There was bitterness in France when the news came of this great +disaster; there was distress and hopelessness at Quebec, where +Champlain still held out through the following winter. Kirke had gone +back to England; but when July came round again in 1629, he +reappeared in the St. Lawrence, with a stronger fleet than before. +The Frenchmen at Quebec were by this time starved out, they had no +alternative but to surrender; and on July 22, 1629, the English flag +was for the first time hoisted on the rocky citadel of Canada. There +was little booty for the conquerors, nothing but beaver skins, which +were subsequently sequestrated, and Canadian pines were cut down to +freight the English ships. Kirke's ships carried back to England +Champlain and his companions, who thence returned to their homes in +France; and Quebec was left in charge of an English garrison. + +[Sidenote: _Convention of Susa and Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada given back to France._] + +The Merchant Adventurers had done their work well. With little or no +loss, unaided by the Government, they had driven the French from +Canada and annexed New France. Had Queen Elizabeth been on the throne +of England, she would have scolded and then approved; and would have +kept for her country the fruits of English daring and English +success. The bold freebooter, Kirke, would have found favour in her +eyes; she would have honoured and rewarded him, as she honoured and +rewarded Drake. But the Stuarts were cast in a different mould, and +no English minister at the time was a match for Richelieu. Before +Quebec had fallen, Charles of England and Louis of France had +concluded the Convention of Susa, on April 24, 1629; and the Treaty +of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed nearly three years later, on March 29, +1632, definitely restored to France her possessions in North +America.[28] No consideration was {77} embodied in the treaty for the +surrender of Canada, but State Papers have made clear that the price +was the unpaid half of Queen Henrietta Maria's marriage dowry. For +this sum, already due and wrongly outstanding, Canada was sold. It +was a pitiful proceeding, unworthy of an English King, but typical of +a Stuart. It is noteworthy that early in the seventeenth century both +the Cape and Canada might have become and remained British colonies. +In 1620 two sea captains formally annexed the Cape, before any +settlement had as yet been founded at Table Bay; but their action was +never ratified by the Government at home.[29] Nine years later Kirke +took Quebec, and again the work was undone. So the Dutch in the one +case, and the French in the other, made colonies where the English +might have run their course; and generations afterwards, Great +Britain took again, with toil and trouble, what her adventurers, with +truer instinct than her rulers possessed, had claimed and would have +kept in earlier days. It is noteworthy, too, that state policy was in +great measure responsible for the earlier French loss of Canada, as +it was mainly responsible for the later. It is true that Quebec was +taken while the French Protestants were still to some extent +tolerated, and that a Protestant, De Caen, was selected to receive it +back again, when the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye was carried into +effect. But there were Huguenots on board Kirke's ships, serving +under a commander whose mother was of Huguenot blood; and the schism +which had broken out in France and {78} culminated for the time in +the siege and fall of La Rochelle, left the best of the French +traders and colonizers half-hearted servants of France. Canada was +given back, but it was given back to the French Government rather +than to the French people; and, as years went on, the St. Lawrence +saw no more of the stubborn, strong heretics who had sung their +Protestant hymns on its banks. Frenchmen, as gallant as they were, +had afterwards the keeping of Canada; but, state-ridden and +priest-ridden, they lacked initiative and commercial enterprise. +Freedom was to be found in the backwoods among the _coureurs de +bois_, but it was the freedom of lawlessness, unleavened by the +steadfast sobriety which marked the Calvinists of France. + +[Footnote 28: The Convention of Susa provided that all acts of +hostility should cease, and that the articles and contracts as to the +marriage of the English Queen should be confirmed. The Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye, or rather one of two treaties signed on the same +day, provided for the restitution to France of all places occupied by +the English in New France, Acadia, and Canada. Instructions to make +restitution were to be given to the commanders at Port Royal, Fort +Quebec, and Cape Breton. General de Caen was named in the treaty as +the French representative to arrange for the evacuation of the +English. The places were to be restored in the same condition as they +had been in at the time of capture, all arms taken were to be made +good, and a sum was to be paid for the furs, &c., which had been +carried off.] + +[Footnote 29: See vol. iv of this series, pt. 1, p. 19.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Champlain._] + +In July, 1632, the French regained Quebec. In May, 1633, Champlain +came back to Canada. For two and a half years he governed it under +the French company, and on Christmas Day, 1635, he died at Quebec in +the sixty-ninth year of his age. New France owed all to him. Amid +every form of difficulty and intrigue, in Europe and in America, +among white men and among red, he had held resolutely to his purpose. +His life was pure, his aims were high, his judgment sound, and his +foresight great. He lived for the country in which he was born and +for that in which he died; but 'the whole earth is the sepulchre of +famous men',[30] and not in France or Canada alone is lasting honour +paid to his name. + +[Footnote 30: Thuc., bk. ii, chap. xliii (Jowett's translation).] + + +NOTE.--For Canadian history down to the death of Champlain, see, +among modern books, more especially + + PARKMAN'S _Pioneers of France in the New World_, and + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. i. + + + + +{79} + +CHAPTER III + +THE SETTLEMENT OF CANADA AND THE FIVE NATION INDIANS + + +[Sidenote: _Colonization by the medium of Chartered Companies +characteristic of the nations of Northern Europe._] + +To trade and to colonize through the medium of Chartered Companies +has been characteristic of the nations of Northern Europe. Chartered +Companies have not been peculiar to England. The Dutch worked +entirely through two great companies; the Danes adopted the same +system; and various companies played their part in the early history +of French colonization. Herein lay the main difference, in the field +of colonial enterprise, between the northern peoples and the +southerners who had preceded them. In the case of Spain and Portugal +all was done under the immediate control of the Crown. These two +nations were concerned with conquest rather than with settlement; +and, if the Portuguese were traders, their commerce was not the +result of private venture, but was created and supported by the +Government. The Spaniards and Portuguese were first in the field. +East and West lay before them, and they divided the world in secure +monopoly. The northerners came in--they came in tentatively; policy +kept the Governments in the background for fear of incurring war, and +freedom of individual action was more ingrained in these races than +in the Latin peoples of the south. So freebooters sailed here and +there, at one time honoured, at another in disgrace; merchants took +shares in this or that venture, and Chartered Companies came into +being. + +[Sidenote: _French Chartered Companies._] + +In the case of Holland, the Netherlands East India Company and the +Netherlands West India Company practically {80} included the whole +nation: the state and the companies were co-extensive. In England, +the companies were really private concerns, licensed by the +Government, often thwarted by the Government, but, in the main, +working out their own salvation or their own ruin, as the case might +be. In France there was a mixture of the northern and the southern +systems, as of the northern and the southern blood. There, as in +England, the companies were private associations, but Court favour +was to them the breath of life. Kings and ministers constantly +interfered, created and undid, conferred licences and revoked them, +until in no long time the Chartered Company system lost all that +makes it valuable, and Frenchmen learnt to look to the Crown alone. + +[Sidenote: _The company of the One Hundred Associates._] + +Trade jealousies hampered the beginnings of Canadian settlement; +there was neither free trade in Canada nor unquestioned monopoly. To +cure this evil Richelieu, in 1627, brought into being the company of +the One Hundred Associates, nominally a private association, really +the offspring of the Government. Its sphere extended from Florida to +the North Sea, and from east to west as far as discovery should +extend along the rivers of Canada. It controlled all trade except the +fisheries, and it enjoyed sovereign rights in so far that it was +entitled to confer titles and tenures, subject to the approval of the +Crown. The chief officers were to be nominated by the King, but under +the Sovereign the company was feudal lord of New France; of its soil +and its inland waters, with all that they produced. A statesman +projected the company, and, with keen insight into the wants of New +France, Richelieu laid down as one of the terms of its charter that +settlers were to be introduced in specified numbers, especially and +immediately settlers of the artisan class; but these provisions were +made to a large extent barren by excluding the Huguenots. At the +outset the new French company, with all its backing, was foiled in +its efforts by the English Merchant Adventurers. The first transports +{81} sent out, bearing settlers and supplies, were captured by Kirke. +Quebec fell and New France was lost. The Convention of Susa and the +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye were signed and executed, and the One +Hundred Associates resumed their charge of Canada. Under them +Champlain held the government of New France till he died, being +succeeded by a soldier, M. de Montmagny, who reached Quebec in June, +1636. + +[Sidenote: _Three Rivers. Montreal. Sorel._] + +In 1634, while Champlain was still alive, a fort was begun at Three +Rivers. The first permanent settlement at Montreal dates from the +spring of 1642, and in the same year Fort Richelieu was founded on +the site of the present town of Sorel,[1] where the Richelieu--the +river of the Iroquois--joins the St. Lawrence. For many years Quebec, +Three Rivers, and Montreal practically comprised New France. Outside +them were fur-traders and Jesuit missionaries, carrying their lives +in their hands. A few farms were taken up along the river above and +below Quebec, but colonization was almost non-existent, and small +groups of priests and soldiers at two or three points on the St. +Lawrence feebly upheld the power of France in North America. + +[Footnote 1: 'So called from M. de Saurel, who reconstructed the fort +in 1665' (Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. i, p. 185).] + +[Sidenote: _Slow progress of Canada up to 1663._] + +The company of the One Hundred Associates lasted till 1663, and +little they did for the land or for themselves. At the end of their +tenure, the whole French population of Canada hardly reached 2,500 +souls. It had been an integral part of the company's programme to +people Canada with French men and French women, but, inasmuch as +Huguenots were rigidly excluded, the motive for emigration was +wanting. The Catholic citizens of France were comfortable at home. +They might wish to trade with Canada, but they did not wish to spend +their lives there. The soldiers of France went out only under orders; +they looked for brighter battlefields than the North American +backwoods. Priests and nuns {82} alone felt a call to cross the +Atlantic, to face the most rigorous winters and the most savage foes. +The French religion was firmly planted in North America during these +early years, but the French people were left behind. + +De Montmagny was Governor for twelve years, till 1648. His successors +under the company's regime were D'Ailleboust, De Lauzon, the Vicomte +d'Argenson, and Baron d'Avaugour. Under the Governors there were +commandants of the garrisons at Three Rivers and Montreal; and from +1636 onwards there was some kind of Council for framing ordinances +and regulating the administration of justice, the Governor and the +leading ecclesiastics being always members, and representatives of +the settlers being from time to time admitted. In 1645, moreover, the +company was reorganized, and the fur trade, which had been vested in +the Associates, was handed over to the colonists. Notwithstanding, +there was little increase of strength and little growth of population +till the year 1663, and up to that date the history of Canada is no +more than a record of savage warfare and missionary enterprise. + +[Sidenote: _The foundation of Montreal._] + +Religious enthusiasts founded Montreal, and the foundation of +Montreal was a challenge to the Iroquois. Always the enemies of the +French, the Five Nations saw in the settlement a new menace to their +power. Above the Richelieu river, they looked on the St. Lawrence as +more especially within their own domain; and when Frenchmen took up +ground on the island of Montreal, the Indians resented the intrusion +with savage bitterness and with more than savage foresight. On the +part of the French, state policy had nothing to say to the new +undertaking, nor was it a commercial venture. It was simply and +solely the outcome of religious zeal untempered by discretion. + +[Sidenote: _The Jesuits in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _They did not promote colonization._] + +The Jesuits had abundantly advertised in France the spiritual needs +of Canada. They had much to tell, and they told it well, skilful in +narrative as they were bold in action. {83} They attracted money to +the missionary cause, they enlisted brave men, and, still more, brave +and beautiful women. Convents were founded in America, and hospitals; +priests and nuns led and lost heroic lives, to widen the influence of +the Roman Catholic Church, and to convert the heathen. The deeds +done, and the sufferings endured, commanded, and still command +admiration, yet withal there was an element of barrenness in the +work; it was magnificent, but it was not colonization. It was unsound +in two main essentials. First and foremost, liberty was wanting. The +white men and the red were to be dominated alike: North America and +its peoples were to be in perpetual leading strings, prepared for +freedom in the world to come by unquestioning obedience on this side +the grave. The Protestant, however narrow and prejudiced in his +dealings and mode of life, in theory held and preached a religion +which set free, a gospel of glorious liberty. The Roman Catholic +missionary preached and acted self-sacrifice so complete, that all +freedom of action was eliminated. There was a second and a very +practical defect in the system. What Canada wanted was a white +population, married settlers, men with wives and children. What the +Jesuits asked for, and what they secured, was a following of +celibates, men and women sworn to childlessness. The Protestant +pastor in New England lived among his flock as one of themselves; he +made a human home, and gave hostages to fortune; a line of children +perpetuated his name, and family ties gave the land where he settled +another aspect than that of a mission field. The Roman Catholic +priest was tied to his church, but to nothing else. At her call he +was here to-day, and, it might be, gone to-morrow. He more than +shared the sufferings and the sorrows of those to whom he ministered, +but his life was apart from theirs, and he left no children behind +him. Martyrs and virgins the Roman Catholic Church sent out to +Canada, but it did not send out men and women. In comparing {84} +English and French colonization in America, two points of contrast +stand out above all others--the much larger numbers of English +settlers, and the much greater activity of French missionaries. Both +facts were in great measure due to the influence of the Roman +Catholic religion, and notably to the celibacy of its ministers. + +[Sidenote: _Religious enthusiasts in Canada._] + +Histories of Canada give full space to the names, the characters, and +the careers of the bishops, priests, and nuns who moulded the +childhood of New France, and to the struggle for supremacy between +the Jesuits and rival sects. We have portraits of the Jesuit heroes +Breboeuf, Lalemant, Garnier, Isaac Jogues, and many others; of the +ladies whose wealth or whose personal efforts founded the Hotel Dieu +at Quebec and at Montreal; of Madame de la Peltrie, Marie Guyard the +Mere de l'Incarnation, Jeanne Mance, and Marguerite Bourgeoys; of +Laval the first of Canadian bishops; but the record of their devoted +lives has only an indirect bearing on the history of colonization. It +will be enough to notice very shortly the founding of Montreal, and +the episode of the Huron missions, as being landmarks in Canadian +story. + +[Sidenote: _Montreal settled by a company connected with St. +Sulpice._] + +Montreal, it will be remembered, had been in Cartier's time the site +of an Indian town, which afterwards disappeared. Champlain had marked +it out as a place for a future settlement, and the keen eyes of the +Jesuits looked to the island as a mission centre. It had become the +property of De Lauzon, one of the One Hundred Associates and +afterwards Governor of Canada, and he transferred his grant to a +company, the Company of Montreal, formed exclusively for the service +of religion, and especially connected with the priests of St. +Sulpice. The first settlers numbered about sixty in all, in charge of +a chivalrous soldier, De Maisonneuve, and including one of the +religious heroines of the time, Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, who was +entrusted with funds by a rich French lady to found a hospital. They +arrived in Canada in 1641, {85} and in spite of the warnings of the +Governor, who urged that they should settle within reach of Quebec on +the Island of Orleans, they chose their site at Montreal in the same +autumn, and in the following spring began to build a settlement. +Ville Marie was the name given to it at the time, the enterprise +being dedicated to the Virgin. At the first ceremony, on landing, a +Jesuit priest bade the little band of worshippers be of good courage, +for they were as the grain of mustard seed; and now the distant, +dangerous outpost of France in North America, which a few +whole-hearted zealots founded, has become the great city of Montreal. + +[Sidenote: _The influence of religion on colonization._] + +Religion has been a potent force in colonial history. On the one hand +it has promoted emigration. It carried the Huguenots from France to +other lands. It peopled New England with Puritans. On the other hand, +it has sent forerunners of the coming white men among the coloured +races, bearers of a message of peace, but too often bringing in their +train the sword. As explorers and as pioneers, missionaries have done +much for colonization; but from another point of view they have +endangered the cause by going too fast and too far. In South Africa, +a hundred years ago, the work, the speeches, and the writings of +Protestant missionaries led indirectly to the dispersion of +colonists, to race feuds, and to political complications which, but +for this agency, would certainly have been postponed, and might +possibly never have arisen. Similarly in Canada, Jesuit activity and +forwardness added to the difficulties and dangers with which the +French settlers and their rulers had to contend. + +[Sidenote: _Montreal and the Five Nations._] + +The Governor, who vainly attempted to dissuade the founders of +Montreal from going so far afield, was right in his warnings. Very +few were the French in North America, their struggle for existence +was hard, their enemies were watchful and unrelenting. Safety lay in +concentration, in making Quebec a strong and comparatively populous +centre, in keeping aloof from the Iroquois, instead of straying +within {86} their range. To form a weak settlement 160 miles higher +up the river than Quebec, within striking distance of the Five +Nations, was to provoke the Indians and to offer them a prey. This +was the immediate result of the foundation of Montreal. Year after +year went by, and there was the same tale to tell: a tale of a hand +to mouth existence, of settlers cooped up within their palisades, +ploughing the fields at the risk of their lives, cut off by twos and +threes, murdered or carried into captivity. Moreover, between +Montreal in its weakness and the older and stronger settlement at +Quebec, there was an element of jealousy. What with rival commandants +and rival ecclesiastics, controversy within and ravening Iroquois +without, the early days of the French in Canada were days of sorrow. + +[Sidenote: _The Huron missions._] + +Far away from civilization in the seventeenth century was Montreal, +but further still was the Huron country. The first white man to visit +the Hurons was the Recollet friar, Le Caron, in the year 1615, and +from that date onward, till Kirke took Quebec, a very few Franciscan +and Jesuit priests preached their faith by the shores of Georgian +Bay. Suspended for a short time, while the English held Canada, the +missions were resumed by the Jesuits in 1634, foremost among the +missionaries being Father de Breboeuf, who had already worked among +the Hurons, and came back to work and die. + +Few stories are so dramatic, few have been so well told[2] as the +tale of the Huron missions. No element of tragedy is wanting. The +background of the scene gives a sense of distance and immensity. The +action is comprised in very few years, years of bright promise, +speedily followed by absolute desolation. The contrast between the +actors on either side is as great as can be found in the range of +human life, between savages almost superhuman in savagery, and +Christian preachers almost superhuman in endurance and {87} +self-sacrifice; and all through there runs the pity of it, the pathos +of a religion of love bearing as its first-fruits barren martyrdom +and wholesale extermination. + +[Footnote 2: By Francis Parkman in _The Jesuits in North America_.] + +Between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay the Hurons dwelt, accessible to +the Frenchmen only by the Ottawa river and Lake Nipissing, for the +Iroquois barred the alternative route up the St. Lawrence and by Lake +Ontario. Montreal was left far behind, and many miles of a toilsome, +dangerous route were traversed, until by the shores of the great +freshwater sea were found the homes of a savage but a settled people. +To men inspired by religion and by Imperial views of religion, who +looked to be the ministers of a world-wide power, including and +dominating all the kingdoms of the earth, the greatness of the +distances, the remoteness of the land, the unbounded area of unknown +waters stretching far off to the west, were but calls to the +imagination and incentives to redoubled effort. + +But, ambitious as they were, the Jesuits were not mere enthusiasts: +they were practical and politic men, diplomatists in the American +backwoods as at the Court of France. Not wandering outcasts, like the +Algonquins of the lower St. Lawrence; not, like the Iroquois, wholly +given to perpetual murder; with some peaceful impulses, traders to a +small extent, and tillers of the ground, and above all, since +Champlain first came among them, sworn allies of the French--the +Hurons seemed such a people as might be moulded to a new faith, and +become a beacon attracting other North American natives to the light +of Christianity. So the Jesuit fathers went among them in 1634, and +in 1640 built and fortified a central mission station--St. Marie--a +mile from where a little river--the Wye--flows into an inlet of Lake +Huron. + +To convert a race of suspicious savages is no easy task. The priests +carried their lives in their hands. They were pitted against native +sorcerers, they were called upon to give {88} rain, they were held +responsible for small-pox. Yet year by year, by genuine goodness and +by pious fraud, they made headway, until some eleven mission posts +were in existence among the Hurons and the neighbouring tribes, the +most remote station being at the outlet of Lake Superior. The promise +was good. Money was forthcoming from France. There were eighteen +priests at work, there were lay assistants, there was a handful of +French soldiers. Earthly as well as spiritual wants were supplied at +St. Marie, and far off in safety at Quebec was a seminary for Huron +children. It seemed as though on the far western horizon of discovery +and colonization, the Roman Catholic Church was achieving a signal +triumph, its agents being Frenchmen, and its political work being +credited to France. Yet after fifteen years all was over, and the +land was left desolate without inhabitants. The heathen learnt from +their Christian teachers to obey and to suffer, but in learning they +lost the spirit of resistance and of savage manhood. As in Paraguay, +a more submissive race, under Jesuit influence, dwindled in numbers, +so even the Hurons, after the French priests came among them, seem to +have become an easier prey than before to their hereditary foes. + +[Sidenote: _Destruction of the missions by the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Dispersion of the Hurons._] + +In July, 1648, the mission station of St. Joseph, fifteen miles from +St. Marie, was utterly destroyed, the priest in charge was shot dead, +and 700 prisoners were carried off. In the following year 1,200 +warriors of the Five Nations swept like a torrent through the Huron +cantons, fifteen native towns were attacked, ravaged, and burnt, and +the brave priest, De Breboeuf, was tortured and slain. Other devoted +missionaries shared his fate; the shepherds were slaughtered, and the +survivors of the flock were scattered abroad. For the Hurons made +little or no attempt to defend themselves; fear came upon them and +trouble; they fell down, and there was none to help them. The fort at +St. Marie stood, for even the Iroquois hesitated to attack armed +walls; but its purpose {89} was gone with the slaughter and +dispersion of the Huron clans. The priests who still lived abandoned +it, and spent a miserable winter with a crowd of Indian fugitives on +a neighbouring island in Lake Huron. There too they built a fort; but +famine and the Iroquois followed them, and in 1650 they left the +country, taking with them to Quebec some 300 Huron converts. The +refugees were settled on the Isle of Orleans; yet even there, five or +six years later, they were attacked by the Iroquois, and at length +they found a secure abiding-place at Lorette, near the banks of the +river St. Charles. The rest of their kinsfolk were scattered abroad. +Some were incorporated in the Five Nations. Others, driven from point +to point, were found in after years at the northern end of Lake +Michigan or at Detroit, and, under the new name of Wyandots, played +some part in later Canadian history; but the Huron nation was blotted +out, the Huron country became a desert, and the light which had shone +brightly for a few years in the far-off land was put out for ever. + +[Sidenote: _Weakness of the French in Canada._] + +Most readers of the story of the Huron missions will study it mainly +as an episode in religious enterprise. They will note the heroism of +the Jesuit priests--their faithfulness unto death, their constancy +under torture and suffering not surpassed by the stoicism of the +North American Indians themselves. They will mourn the failure of +their efforts, the butchery, the martyrdom, but will record that all +was not absolutely thrown away; for even in the lodges of the Five +Nations we read that some of the nameless Hurons held to the faith +which their French teachers loved and served so well. But this is not +the true moral of the story. The significance of the events lay in +proving the French to be weak and the Iroquois to be strong, in +demonstrating with horrible thoroughness that the white men in Canada +were powerless to protect their friends, in thus making more +difficult what was difficult enough already, in retarding the +progress of {90} European colonization in Canada. The want of +concentration, the attempt to do too much, the somewhat paralysing +influence of the particular form of the Christian religion which the +French brought with them--all these elements of weakness came out in +connexion with the Huron missions; and meanwhile precious years were +lost to France which could not be afterwards made good; for in these +same years the English, not producing martyrs and heroes, so much as +fathers of families, were taking firm root in North American soil, +plodding slowly but surely along the road to colonization. + +[Sidenote: _The strength and ferocity of the Iroquois._] + +The Iroquois were like man-eating tigers. The taste of human blood +whetted their appetite for more. Fresh from the slaughter of the +Hurons, in 1650-1 they fell upon the Neutral Nation, whose home was +on the northern shore of Lake Erie, stretching to the east across the +Niagara river. The Neutrals had held aloof from Iroquois and Huron +alike, whence their name; but their neutrality did not protect them +from utter extermination at the hands of the Five Nations. Over +against them on the southern side of the lake were the Eries, second +to none as ferocious savages, and known to the French as the 'Nation +of the Cats.' Their turn came next, in 1654-5. They fought hard, +behind palisades and with poisoned arrows; but they too were blotted +out, and only on the south were left native warriors to cope with the +conquering Iroquois. These were the Andastes, on the line of the +Susquehanna river, who year after year gave blow for blow, until they +too succumbed to superior numbers. + +Nothing withstood the Five Nations; yet their fighting men were few, +and their losses great. For the time they nearly ruined the French +cause in Canada, but in the end their work of destruction rendered +the triumph of the white man more inevitable and more complete. They +broke up and killed out tribes, whose forces, if united to their own, +might have overwhelmed the Europeans; and in doing so {91} they +sapped their own strength. They kept up their numbers only by the +incorporation of natives who had learned to look to Europeans for +guidance and support; and in course of time, fallen from their high +estate, they found salvation not as leaders of red men but as allies +of white. + +[Sidenote: _Mission of Le Moyne to the Five Nations._] + +It seems marvellous that the confederation held together, and there +were, it is true, occasional outbursts of inter-tribal jealousy and +suspicion. Difference of geographical position tended to difference +of policy. The most determined foes of the French were the +Mohawks--the easternmost nation, supplied with firearms by the +Dutchmen at Albany, and having easy access to the St. Lawrence. At +the other end of the line the Senecas had their hands full in the +Erie war, and were little disposed, while it lasted, to molest the +Europeans. In the centre, the Onondagas, always few in numbers and +already recruited by captive Hurons, were minded to attract to their +ranks the Huron refugees at Quebec. So about the autumn of 1653, +overtures of peace were made to the French, even the Mohawks for the +moment dissembling their enmity; and in the following year a Jesuit +priest, Le Moyne, was sent as an envoy to the Iroquois country. + +The mission was notable in more ways than one. Le Moyne was the first +white man to follow up the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Lake +Ontario, and his journey marked the beginning of diplomatic relations +between the French and the Iroquois. Thenceforward there was always +the nucleus of a French party among the Five Nations, the elements of +a divided policy in lieu of solid hostility to the French. Here was +an illustration too of the value of the Jesuit priests to the French +cause, as well as of the danger of employing them. None equalled +these priests in the statecraft necessary for dealing with savages, +but none were at the time in question so ready in season or out of +season to promote a forward policy, involving future complications +and dispersion of strength. + +{92} [Sidenote: _Attempt at a French settlement among the Five +Nations._] + +Le Moyne's mission was to the Onondagas, and its result was an +application from that tribe that a French settlement should be +established among them. The invitation was accepted; and in the +summer of 1656 between forty and fifty Frenchmen established +themselves on Lake Onondaga, in the very heart of the Iroquois +country. It was a desperate enterprise. The men could ill be spared +from Quebec, and they were but hostages among the Five Nations. The +Indians pretended peace, but even while the Onondagas were escorting +the Frenchmen up the river, the Mohawks attacked the expedition, and +subsequently under the very guns of Quebec carried off Huron captives +from the Isle of Orleans. For a little less than two years, the small +band of French colonists remained amid the Onondagas, in hourly peril +of their lives; and finally, towards the end of 1658, at dead of +night, while the Indians were overcome by gluttony and debauch, they +launched their boats and canoes on the Oswego river, reached Lake +Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and found themselves once more at +Montreal. + +It was a fit ending to the first stage of Canadian history--a +hopeless venture, a confession of weakness, a hairsbreadth escape. So +far there had been no colonization of Canada. There had been one +wise, far-seeing man--Champlain. Brave soldiers had come from France, +and still braver priests. There had been going in and out among the +natives, toil and hardship, adventure and loss of life. But the +French had as yet no real hold on Canada. Between Quebec and the +Three Rivers--between the Three Rivers and Montreal, not they but the +Iroquois were masters of the St. Lawrence. A trading company claimed +to rule: its rule was nothingness. Within Quebec bishops and +Governors quarrelled for precedence: under its walls the Mohawks +yelled defiance. Montreal, the story goes, was only saved by a band +of Frenchmen, who, in a log hut on the Ottawa, sold their lives as +dearly as the heroes of Greek or Roman legend; and to crown it all, +{93} at the beginning of 1663, the shock of a mighty earthquake was +felt throughout the land, making the forts and convents tremble, +sending, as it were, a shiver through the feeble frame of New France. + +[Sidenote: _The One Hundred Associates surrender their charter._] + +It was the prelude of a better time. In March, 1663, the One Hundred +Associates surrendered their charter to the Crown. A century later, +by the Peace of Paris in 1763, France lost Canada. In those hundred +years a fair trial was given to French colonization. How much was +done to leave the impress of a great nation on Canada, the province +of Quebec to-day will testify. Wherein the work was found wanting is +told in history. + +[Sidenote: _The Company of the West._] + +In 1663, we read, Canada became a Royal Province. It passed out of +the keeping of a company and came under the direct control of the +French King and his ministers. The statement requires some +modification, for in 1664 Colbert created a new Chartered Company, +the Company of the West, whose sphere, like that of the Netherlands +West India Company, included the whole of the western half of the +world, so far as it was or might be French--America North and South, +the West Indies, and West Africa. Canada was within the terms of its +charter, which included a monopoly of trade for forty years and, on +paper, sovereign rights within the wide limits to which the charter +extended. Thus the members of the company claimed to be feudal +Seigniors of the soil of New France and to nominate the Council of +Government, with the exception of the Governor and Intendant; while +from the dues which they levied the cost of government was to be +defrayed. + +Such was the outline and the intention of the scheme: the actual +result was that the carrying trade was monopolized by the company, +together with one-fourth of the beaver skins of all Canada, and the +whole of the traffic of the lower St. Lawrence, which centred at +Tadoussac. Out of their monopoly they paid all or part of the +expenses of government, {94} but the administration practically +remained in the hands of the Crown. Like its predecessor, this +company was a miserable failure. It lasted for ten years only, and +during those years it was an incubus on Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Chartered Companies ill suited to France._] + +The truth was that Chartered Companies were alien to the genius of +France, or at any rate of Roman Catholic France--the France of the +Bourbons. Her greatest ministers, Richelieu and Colbert, were, it is +true, loth to discard the system. They wished to give French +merchants a direct interest in building up a colonial empire. They +saw the English working by means of companies. They saw the Dutch +giving to the state the outward semblance of private enterprise. +Companies, they argued, would promote French trade and colonization, +as they had promoted the trade and colonization of rival nations. But +Richelieu and Colbert were despotic ministers of arbitrary Kings; the +companies which they created were as lifeless and as helpless as +their titles were high-sounding and pretentious. They lasted as long, +and only as long, as they were backed by the Crown. They were swept +away as easily as they were formed; and they left no lasting impress +on French colonial history. + +[Sidenote: _Canada under the Crown._] + +We may take it then that, in 1663, Canada in effect passed to the +French King and became what would now be styled a Crown Colony. +Strong hands ministered to it, and it grew in strength. New France +was fostered, was ruled and organized, was supplied, though sometimes +sparingly, with means of defence and offence. It was developed on +rigidly prescribed lines. It was given a social and political system. +Capable and enterprising men were concerned in making its history, +and its history was made on a distinct type imported from the Old +World, and little modified by the New. What this system was, and how +far under it the colonists were able to cope with their coloured +foes, will be told in the remaining pages of this chapter. + +[Sidenote: _The Government of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Supreme Council._] + +The Government of Canada was a despotism. Under the {95} King of +France, whose word was law, the whole power was centred in the +Governor, the Intendant, and the Council, known at first as the +Supreme Council, afterwards as the Superior or the Sovereign Council. +This Council was created by royal edict in April, 1663. It was at +once a legislative body, and a High Court of Justice. It consisted of +the Governor, the Intendant, the bishop, and five other councillors, +afterwards increased to seven, and again to twelve. The councillors +were appointed by the King, and held office usually for life. They +deliberated, they legislated, they judged, they wrangled among +themselves; they followed the lead of Governor, Intendant, or bishop, +according as one or the other was strongest for the time being, and +the strongest for the time being was the man who had the ear of the +King and his minister. + +[Sidenote: _The law of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The courts of justice._] + +The law of the land was the Customary Law of Paris, supplemented by +three kinds of ordinances. There were the royal edicts sent out from +France and registered by the Council in Canada; there were the +decrees made by the Council; and in the third place, there were the +ordinances of the Intendant, who was invested with legislative +authority by the King. The Council, as has been stated, was a +judicial as well as a legislative body. It was the court of appeal +for the colony, and in early days it was also a court of first +instance. There were minor courts of justice, too, established by the +Council, and three judges of the three districts of Quebec, Three +Rivers, and Montreal respectively, appointed by the King. In +addition, the feudal Seigniors[3] of Canada exercised a petty, and +usually little more than nominal, jurisdiction among their vassals, +while the Intendant enjoyed {96} extensive judicial powers, emanating +from and subordinate to the King alone. + +[Footnote 3: The judicial powers of the Seignior varied. In a very +few cases the Seignior could administer _haute justice_, i.e. try +crimes on the Seigniory which were punishable with death. For all +important cases there was right of appeal. See Kingsford's _History +of Canada_, vol. i, p. 365, and Parkman's _Old Regime in Canada_ +(14th ed.), pp. 252, 269.] + +[Sidenote: _The Governor._] + +The highest executive officer was the Governor. He had control of the +armed forces, and was responsible for the peace and safety of New +France. He called out the militia when he thought fit; foreign policy +and native policy were in his charge. In old and troubled times +distance gave to the Governors of colonies and provinces actual power +far exceeding the terms or the intent of their commission. They were +the men on the spot. They held the sword; and, when a serious crisis +arose, their word was obeyed. Especially was this the case in Canada, +cut off for half the year from communication with France, and girt +with foreign and with savage foes. Few years passed without wars or +rumours of wars. Each Canadian settlement was a garrison; and +strength, if not full authority, tended to centre in the hands of the +commander of the forces, the trained soldier who held for the time +the Governorship of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Intendant._] + +Yet, unless he had, like Count Frontenac, great force of character, +or was in favour at the Court of Versailles, and when war was not +imminent, his influence was hardly more, it was often less, than that +of the Intendant. The Governor was the representative of the Crown. +The Intendant was the King's agent, the steward of his province, his +own man. He was a civilian, usually a lawyer, and therefore, in most +cases, of greater business capacity, and more skilled in penmanship, +than the Governor with his military training. His intimate relations +with King and minister, coupled with experience of legal advocacy, +tended to give more weight to his representations than to those of +the Governor at the Court of France. The Intendant, not the Governor, +presided at the Council; and as legislator or judge, he was +responsible to the King alone. In time of peace, and in matters of +internal administration, he had perhaps more real power than the +Governor, and even when fighting times called the {97} soldier to the +front, the Intendant, dealing with supplies and accounts, controlled +in great measure the sinews of war. + +[Sidenote: _The bishop._] + +By the side of the Governor and the Intendant at the council sat the +bishop, spiritually supreme, and with power by no means confined to +spiritual matters. How strong, politically, was the Church in France +before the Revolution, the cardinal prime ministers bear witness, and +the priest-ridden wives and mistresses of the Bourbon Kings. It was +stronger still in Canada. Priests formed no small part of the scanty +population of New France; they made a large part of its history. The +schools and hospitals were built by the Church, and the Church owned +much of the land. Well organized and disciplined, with clear and +definite aims, the ministers of the Church made their power felt in +council chamber and in palace; too often they ruled the rulers; and +the first and greatest bishop of Canada, Bishop Laval, made or unmade +the Governors of New France. + +[Sidenote: _Defects in the political system of New France. +Centralization of power._] + +Such was the political system of Canada, while Canada was a province +of France. Power was centralized, and the ordinary safeguards of +freedom were wholly wanting. Executive, legislative, and judicial +functions were placed in the same hands. There was not a shred of +popular representation, there was not even a vestige of municipal +rights.[4] Canada was good for priests and, to some extent, for +soldiers; there was room in it and a living for an agricultural +peasantry, and for the trapper and backwoodsman, who was a law to +himself. Where the St. Lawrence flowed by the island of Montreal, or +under the rock of Quebec, there were the beginnings of cities with +dwellers in them, but there were no citizens in Canada. + +[Footnote 4: Count Frontenac on first arriving in Canada attempted to +give the Canadians some voice in the government by calling together +the three estates, and by allowing the citizens of Quebec to elect +three aldermen. He incurred the royal displeasure by his proceedings, +and his measures came to nothing. See Parkman's _Count Frontenac and +New France_ (14th ed.), pp. 16, &c., and see below, p. 107.] + +{98} [Sidenote: _Friction between the officials._] + +Though power was centralized, it was not entrusted locally to one man +alone. The maxim of despotism is _Divide et impera_; and on this +principle the Kings of France ruled Canada. The Governor and the +Intendant each corresponded directly with the King and his minister. +Each was wholly independent of the other, and yet their respective +functions were not clearly enough defined to prevent friction and +deadlock. The other members of the Council were subordinate neither +to the Governor nor to the Intendant, in so far that they were +appointed, and could be removed, by the King alone. For this division +of authority there was some excuse. On the assumption that both the +Governor and the Intendant might be thieves, it was prudent to set a +thief to catch a thief. The system minimized the possibility of +tyranny in a distant dependency, where the colonists had no voice in +making the laws, and no control over the administration. One +all-powerful officer might have become a tyrant; but two or more, if +evilly disposed, might be trusted to expose each other's misdoings +with a view to securing favour at home. Chartered Companies took the +same line in this respect as the French Kings. The British East India +Company held their Governor-General in check through his Council; the +Dutch East India Company created in their dependencies the office of +Independent Fiscal, which corresponded in great measure to that of +Intendant.[5] But the plan devised by Louis XIV and Colbert for the +government of Canada had grave defects. Division of authority meant +weakness, where strength was urgently needed; it led to personal +jealousy, to party feeling, to corruption, and to intrigue; it +lessened the sense of responsibility, for each officer could throw +the blame on another; and it left the fortunes of Canada in the hands +of the man who, for the time being, had, irrespective of any office +he held, the {99} strongest character, or the least scruple, or the +largest share of Court favour. + +[Footnote 5: See vol. iv of this series, pt. 1, p. 75 and notes.] + +[Sidenote: _Emigration from France to Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The settlers and_] + +The King of France created the government of Canada. He created also +the people. In less than ten years from the date when he took the +colony in hand the population was more than doubled. Shiploads of +male emigrants were sent out from France, and cargoes of future wives +and mothers. Wedlock was prescribed, celibacy was proscribed, +bounties were, in Roman fashion, given to early marriages and to +large families. The privilege of remaining single was reserved for +priests and nuns; the lay members of the community were bidden to be +fruitful and multiply, and they obeyed the King's commands with much +success. They were honest folk, the Canadian settlers, not convicted +felons sent out from French prisons. No doubt there were among the +emigrants men and women who were glad to leave France, and of whom +France was glad to be rid; but there was no convict strain in the +population, and the _coureurs de bois_, unlicensed though they were, +were not mere outlaws, like the Australian bushrangers. + +[Sidenote: _the Feudal System._] + +[Sidenote: _Canadian feudalism was purely artificial._] + +When an emigrant came to Canada, he could not return to France +without a passport, but he might possibly drift into the backwoods or +to the Dutch or English colonies. Efforts were therefore made to +attach him to the soil. For this purpose a kind of Feudal System was +introduced, somewhat diluted to suit the place and the time. The +essence of feudalism in bygone days had been military tenure and +oligarchy. Time had been in France when the nobles were stronger than +the King, but in the reign of Louis XIV they were little more than +courtiers. They had become ornamental rather than useful; yet even +under a Bourbon despotism, tradition, long descent, ownership of wide +and well-cultivated lands, and rights over a considerable number of +serfs or peasants, gave the French noblesse considerable social +influence. In Canada feudalism had no military {100} aspect. There +was, it is true, a Canadian militia, but it had no connexion with the +feudal tenure of land. Very few of the Canadian Seigniors were of +noble birth, all were poor, their honours were brand new, their +domains were backwoods with occasional clearings, their vassals were +nearly as good men as themselves. The Feudal System in Canada was not +born of the soil, it was simply a device of a benevolent despot for +allotting and settling land, for artificially grading and classifying +an artificially-formed people, and for giving to a new country some +element of old-world respectability. + +[Sidenote: _The Seigniors._] + +[Sidenote: _The Habitans and their tenure._] + +The Seignior held his land, in most cases, directly from the Crown. +He held it as a free gift from the King by title of faith and homage. +He held it on condition of bringing it into cultivation; and, if he +sold his Seigniory, one-fifth of the price as a rule was paid to the +Crown. There was no immemorial title to the land. The title was given +by an arbitrary overlord, and by the same could be revoked. The +condition of cultivation was annexed in order to promote settlement, +and inasmuch as most Seigniors, owing to poverty and the size of the +holdings, could not themselves fulfil the condition, they granted +lands in turn to other settlers, who held of them as they held of the +King. These other settlers were the _Habitans_, the cultivators of +the soil, and their tenancy was the tenure of _cens et rente_, whence +they were known in legal phrase as _Censitaires_. In other words, +they paid a small rent in money, or in kind, or in both. If they sold +their holdings, the Seignior received one-twelfth of the +purchase-money. They were required to grind their corn at the +Seignior's mill, to pay for the privilege of fishing one fish in +every eleven caught, and to comply with sundry other small demands, +in addition to having justice meted out occasionally at the +Seignior's hands. + +These conditions may have been found in some instances petty and +annoying, but to Frenchmen of the seventeenth {101} and eighteenth +century they can hardly have been onerous. They were limited and +safeguarded, as they had been created, by the royal will; and it was +not till the year 1854, after Canada had known British rule for +nearly a hundred years, that they were swept away. That a purely +artificial system should have lasted so long and caused apparently so +little friction and discontent, argues no little skill in those who +invented it, and proves that it was not ill suited to the wants, and +harmonized with the traditions, of the colonists of Canada. It is +impossible to imagine the Puritan settler in New England submitting +to such minute regulations, taking his corn to a Seignior's mill, +baking his bread at a Seignior's oven, paying homage to another +settler set over him by a distant King. But Frenchmen could be +drilled and organized. They understood being planted out in rows, +like so many trees. Their religion and their training tended to +unquestioning obedience, and they throve in quiet sort under +restrictions which the grim and stubborn New Englander would have +trodden under foot. + +[Sidenote: _Military colonization in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The Carignan Regiment._] + +Though feudalism on the St. Lawrence had no military basis, military +colonization played a great part in the early settlement of Canada. +The Intendant, Talon, Colbert's right-hand man in his Canadian +schemes, took in this matter the Romans for his model. As the Romans +planted military colonies along the frontiers of their provinces, +including Gaul itself, so Colbert and Talon determined to ensure the +security of Canada by placing a barrier of soldier-colonists on the +border. There was a famous French regiment known as the +Carignan-Salieres Regiment. It had been raised in Savoy by a Prince +of Carignan. It had lately fought with distinction side by side with +the Austrians against the Turks, and in 1665, under Colonel de +Salieres, was sent out to Canada, the first regiment of the line +which had ever landed in New France. The main outlet for Iroquois +incursions was the line of the Richelieu river. On that river forts +were {102} built and garrisoned, and along its banks and also along +the St. Lawrence, between the mouth of the Richelieu and the island +of Montreal, time-expired soldiers were planted out as settlers. +Officers and men alike were given grants of land and bounties in +money, and the soldiers were kept for a year by the King, while +building their houses and clearing their land. The theory was that +the officers should be Seigniors, and that the soldiers who had +served under them should become tenants of their old commanders. +Where the lands were most exposed, the houses were grouped together +within palisades. Elsewhere they were detached from one another, +forming a line of dwellings along the river-side, whence the +settlements were known as _cotes_. + +[Sidenote: _Size of the Seigniories._] + +The usual size of a Seigniory, whether granted to a soldier or to a +civilian, was four arpents in front by forty in depth. In other +words, an arpent[6] being rather less than an acre, the frontage of a +Seigniory was about 260 yards long, while the depth was about 2,600, +or a mile and a half. This long hinterland contained the corn land, +the timber, and the hunting-grounds, but the most valuable and +distinctive feature in the Seigniories was the river frontage. In a +word, Canadian colonization consisted of a series of river-side +settlements, forming a long, narrow, military frontier, with a +wilderness behind. + +[Footnote 6: The _arpent de Paris_ was .845 of an acre or 36801.7 +English square feet; therefore one side of the arpent was about 64 +yards.] + +[Sidenote: _Strong contrasts in Canadian history._] + +Such was the colony, its land, and its people. There is no exact +parallel to be found in the story of other European colonies. None of +them, perhaps, started with such very strong contrasts. Canada was +not a seaboard colony, it was a purely inland colony; yet its +settlements were so many little ports, and its active life was mainly +by, and on, the water. It was pre-eminently not a colony of towns or +of townsfolk, yet Quebec was as much the heart of Canada as Paris was +of France, and the conquest of Canada consisted {103} in the taking +of Quebec and Montreal. It was not a plantation colony, it was not a +mining colony, it was not a pastoral colony; it was a colony of +agriculturists and hunters, and its trade, such as it was, came not +so much from agriculture as from the chase. No colonists were ever +more carefully drilled and organized than the Canadian +agriculturists; none ever lived a life of more unbounded freedom than +the Canadian _coureurs de bois_. The drilling and organization of the +one element, and the roving enterprise of the other, combined to +produce a good fighting population; but the extremes in either case +were too great to result in forming a community, which should be at +once stable and progressive. What was natural in Canada was not +colonization. What was colonization, that is to say permanent +European settlement in the land, was purely artificial. The system of +settlement was cleverly conceived, and skilfully as well as humanely +carried into effect; but it depended not on law so much as on the +personal will of an absolute master. It was wanting in safeguards, it +was wanting in elasticity, it stunted individual effort, and it +contained no element of growth. A full-blown colony was called into +being under regulations which implied childhood, and the result was +to leave the Canadians contented so long as they knew no other rules +of life, but to leave them standing still, while their English +rivals, neither too lawless nor too conservative, grew out of infancy +into clumsy manhood, and proved their strength when the fullness of +the time was come. + +[Sidenote: _Arrival of De Tracy, De Courcelles, and Talon._] + +On June 30, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy arrived at Quebec. He had been +appointed by the King of France Lieutenant-General for the time being +of all his American possessions, including the West Indies; and, +before coming to Canada, he had visited Cayenne and the French West +India Islands. His mission was temporary, to put the colony in a +proper state of defence, and to inaugurate the system of +administration devised by the King. The new Governor {104} of Canada, +De Courcelles, and the Intendant, Talon, landed in September of the +same year. They were good men for their respective posts--the one a +keen soldier, the other, Talon, a born administrator, whose power of +organization and creative genius left a lasting mark on New France. + +[Sidenote: _Operations against the Iroquois._] + +The most pressing need of the colony was security against Iroquois +raids. Before the year 1665 ended, three forts had been built on the +Richelieu; one, Sorel, at its mouth, a second below the rapids at +Chambly, a third at some little distance above the rapids. The line +of communication was strengthened by the construction of sixteen or +seventeen miles of road from Chambly to the bank of the St. Lawrence +opposite Montreal, and in the following year a fourth fort was built +near the northern end of Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Expedition of Courcelles;_] + +The Frenchmen determined to strike soon and hard at the Five Nations. +In January, 1666, in dead of winter, Courcelles led an expedition +against them up the Richelieu, by Lakes Champlain and George, on to +the head waters of the Hudson river. The route, well known in after +years, was unfamiliar then, and instead of turning to the west into +the country of the Mohawks, the Frenchmen found themselves in the +middle of February near the small Dutch settlement of Schenectady, +where they were challenged as invaders of an English province, for in +1664 the Duke of York had become proprietor of New Netherland. It was +news to the French commander that the valley of the Hudson had passed +into British hands--unwelcome news, and would have been more +unwelcome, had he foreseen the results of the change on after +history. Of all events which strengthened the English cause in +America against the French, the most important perhaps was the +substitution of English for Dutch ownership of the present State of +New York. At the time, no rupture took place between French and +English, and, after an interchange of courtesies, Courcelles led his +troops back to Canada, losing men through cold and privation, and +{105} by the hands of the Mohawks, who dogged his retreat. He had +achieved nothing, yet the daring of his venture seems to have +impressed the Indians, and he had gained knowledge which was soon to +tell. + +[Sidenote: _and of Tracy._] + +In September of the same year he set out again with 1,300 men, the +whole commanded by Tracy in person. This time no mistake was made as +to the route. The hearts of the Mohawks failed them. They fled before +the invaders, leaving their strongholds empty and undefended. Each +village in turn was burnt to the ground, the stores were destroyed or +carried off, and, homeless and starving, the Indians were glad to +make peace with the French, leaving Canada unmolested for some years +to come. During those years the colony grew stronger, the +administration was recast, the settlements were organized, and, +beyond the line of colonization, explorers carried French influence +further to the west. + +In 1667, Tracy returned to France. In 1671, Courcelles and Talon +followed him. In 1672, Count Frontenac came out as Governor to +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Prominence of individual leaders in the early history of +Canada._] + +It has been noted above how great are the contrasts in the story of +Canada, and, so far as it was colonized, how much in the system was +artificial, how little was the result of natural growth. The record +of Canada, as compared with that of the English colonies in America, +is much more a series of biographies, much less a chronicle of a +community. Of the great men, whose lives and doings make up Canadian +history in French times, it may be said that some created Canada, +while others were Canada's own creations. In other words, some were +in but not of Canada; they came out from France to make, to rule, to +save, or to try to save, the French colony on the St. Lawrence; while +others, though many of them also came out from home, and all of them +were in their way builders of New France, yet were the outcome of +Canada itself, the result of the unbounded freedom of its backwoods, +{106} their deeds being done and their lives spent mainly beyond the +limits of the Canadian settlements. To the first class belong, among +others, Champlain (though Champlain's name might in truth appear in +either list), Talon, Frontenac, and Montcalm. The second class +comprises the names of explorers such as La Salle, of Du Luth, the +noted _coureur de bois_, and of Iberville, the bold guerilla chief, +who raided the English in Newfoundland and on Hudson Bay, who carried +out La Salle's unfinished work in Louisiana, and of whom, when dead, +Charlevoix wrote: 'The late M. d'Iberville, who had all the good +qualities of his country without any of its defects, would have led +them (his countrymen) to the end of the world.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: Charlevoix's _Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres_, +Eng. tr., 1763, p. 104.] + +Of these last there will be more to tell. Of the former class it may +be said that, while not children of Canada, their influence on the +history of the colony and their distinction in Canadian annals was in +proportion to the extent to which New France was the land of their +adoption. If we except discoverers, the three greatest names in +Canadian history are Champlain, Frontenac, and Montcalm, all three of +whom died at Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Count Frontenac._] + +The strongly marked contrasts characteristic of Canada and its story +are illustrated in the case of Count Frontenac. Like other Governors, +before and after him, he came out from the very centre of +civilization, the Court of France: from serving in the finest army in +the world, he came to rule a barbarous borderland, and to command +troops, the majority of whom were backwoodsmen or native Indians, or +at best a half-disciplined militia. He did not come young to the +work. He was fifty-two on his arrival. When he was appointed Governor +for the second time, in 1689, he was in his seventieth year. He had +great merits and great defects. He was pretentious, arrogant, violent +and overbearing, {107} insubordinate to his employers, somewhat +unscrupulous in his policy, and not cleanhanded in repairing his +broken fortunes. On the other hand, he was resourceful, fearless, and +determined; he stood by his friends, he was not unkindly, he had in +many respects broad views, and above all he believed in Canada, its +fortunes, and its peoples. He had in a high degree the admirable +French quality of adapting himself to places and to men. He was +trusted and revered by the Indians beyond any other French or English +Governor, for, while he refused to treat them as equals, he humoured +their customs and to some extent walked in their ways. His force of +character impressed native and colonist alike. He took Canada in hand +at a time of danger and disorganization. When he died, he left her on +the lines of prosperity and possible greatness. + +[Sidenote: _His first government._] + +The term of his first government lasted for ten years, from 1672 to +1682. They were years of constant wrangling and worry. He was at +daggers drawn with the Jesuits, and his quarrels with his colleagues +on the Council, notably the Intendant, Duchesnau, were similar to the +disputes between Warren Hastings and Francis at another time and +place. The end of it was that both Frontenac and Duchesnau were +recalled; but Frontenac had left his mark, and after seven years' +interval, during which two governors failed, he was sent back at a +critical time to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _His attempt to introduce political representation._] + +[Sidenote: _Jealousy between Quebec and Montreal._] + +Two incidents in his first administration may be picked out as +illustrating the boldness of his character, and implying foresight +and breadth of view unusual in a French Governor under Louis XIV. The +first was his crude attempt, already noticed,[8] to form a kind of +Canadian parliament on the old French model, with the three estates +of clergy, nobles, and people. It was a rash step to take immediately +after his arrival, when he could not have known the conditions of the +colony, and must have known well the wishes of the King. {108} It +brought upon him a severe reprimand from home, and his scheme came to +nothing. But the step, if ill timed, was in the right direction. Some +semblance of popular assembly would have done much for Canada, if +only as tending to create a national sentiment and to allay local +jealousies. For among the many elements of weakness in the colony in +its early days was the semi-independence of Montreal. Montreal was +the commercial depot for the upper St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the +great lakes. It was the meeting-place of French and native +fur-traders. In it centred the natural wealth of Canada, and to it +resorted the most enterprising and the least settled part of the +population. It was jealous of the older settlement of Quebec, which +was the seat of government, the centre of law and order, and which, +being nearer the sea, commanded the import and export trade with +Europe. Under its feudal Seigniors, the Sulpician monks, Montreal +claimed to have some voice in the appointment of the local Governor; +and Perrot its Governor, in the early days of Frontenac's first +administration, defied within the limits of his district the +authority of the Governor-General, and imprisoned his officers. + +[Footnote 8: See above, p. 97, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Founding of Fort Frontenac._] + +The second event to be specially noted was the building of a fort on +the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, at the point where it flows +out of Lake Ontario. The place was known to the Indians as Cataraqui. +It is now the site of the town of Kingston. The new fort, built in +1673, the year after Frontenac came to Canada, was named after him, +Fort Frontenac. Its building marked the onward movement of the +French. Hitherto their main concern had been to secure mastery of the +central St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal, together with the +command of the Richelieu river. Among the Iroquois, they had fought +chiefly with the Mohawks, the easternmost and nearest of the Five +Nations. But before Frontenac came, and long before the central St. +Lawrence was wholly safe, traders and missionaries had {109} gained +knowledge of the western lakes, and Fort Frontenac was built to be at +once a new outpost of the colony, guarding the upper reaches of the +St. Lawrence, and a starting-point for further exploiting the trade +routes of the west. By building it, the Frenchmen made good their +claim to the river of Canada for its whole length from the lakes to +the sea, and planted themselves at the entrance of a new and vast +system of waterways. + +As the St. Lawrence on its upward course broadens into Lake Ontario, +so, as the French went further west, the story of Canada widens out. +From the tale of two or three river settlements it slowly grows into +the history of a continent. The struggle becomes more and more a +struggle not so much for bare existence as for supremacy. The +Iroquois were a deadly danger still, but the danger largely consisted +in the fact that behind them was a strong and, as a rule to them, a +friendly European colony--the English State of New York. Every year +intensified the rivalry between French and English. Every year showed +that both sought to control the trade of the west. The main practical +issue, for the time being, was whether the furs from the lake region +should come down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, or be +diverted to Albany through the country of the Five Nations. The +Iroquois held the key of the position, and they knew it. Unless they +could be taught either to fear or to love the French, there was +little hope for Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The French come into contact with the Senecas._] + +As the French moved up the St. Lawrence, and along Lake Ontario, they +passed along the line of the Five Nations, and came directly into +conflict with the furthermost and the strongest of the five, the +Senecas. After Tracy's successful expedition against the Mohawks in +1666, the Iroquois gave comparatively little trouble for some years. +They knew well the difference between a strong and a weak _Onontio_, +as they styled the Governor of Canada, and for Courcelles, and his +successor Frontenac, they had a wholesome respect. {110} When +Frontenac was recalled, in 1682, there was a different tale to tell. + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac recalled and succeeded by La Barre._] + +His successor in that year was La Barre, an old soldier of some +distinction, who had been Governor of Cayenne, which he recaptured +from the English. In Canada he proved to be an irresolute commander +and an incapable administrator, notable even among Canadian officials +for greed of gain. The Iroquois became more and more menacing. The +Senecas especially, at the western end of the line, who had never yet +felt in any measure the weight of the French arm, raided the Indians +of the Illinois, who were nominally under French protection, +threatened the tribes of the lakes, and were in a fair way to master +the trade on which Canada depended. There had been some prospect of a +rupture between the Five Nations and the English, owing to border +forays on Virginia and Maryland; but in 1684, at a great council held +at Albany, the old alliance was solemnly renewed. There was no hope +from this quarter for the French. + +[Sidenote: _His expedition against the Iroquois._] + +[Sidenote: _Its failure._] + +[Sidenote: _He is succeeded by De Denonville._] + +La Barre, whatever may have been his faults, was in a most difficult +position, but made up his mind to take the offensive, hoping by a +demonstration of force to bring the Iroquois to terms. Having +collected troops and native allies, he moved up the St. Lawrence in +the summer of 1684, from Montreal to Fort Frontenac. There he waited +while his force sickened with malarial fever. After delay he moved +his men across to the southern side of Lake Ontario, and encamped at +a place called La Famine, where more men went down with fever. There, +at length, deputies of the Iroquois came to meet him. He talked +swelling words, but the state of his camp gave them the lie. He made +a kind of truce, in which the Indians practically dictated the terms, +and he retreated down the river again, having encouraged his enemies, +disgusted his allies, brought embarrassment on the colony, and +procured his own recall. He was succeeded in the following year by +the Marquis de Denonville. + +{111} [Sidenote: _His expedition against the Senecas._] + +[Sidenote: _Posts placed at Niagara and Detroit._] + +Denonville was at once more capable and more honest than La Barre, +but he had still greater difficulties to contend with. The Iroquois +were now quite out of hand, and Dongan, the able Governor of New +York, was taking a stronger line than was the wont of most Governors +in the English colonies, making a bold bid for the control of the +lake region. However, ample reinforcements were sent from France with +orders to attack the Five Nations, and in the summer of 1687 the +French Governor set out with an overwhelming force against the +Senecas. His troops, nearly 3,000 in all, mustered at Irondequoit +Bay, halfway along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. From thence a +route led southwards to the chief town of the Senecas. Many of the +Seneca warriors were out of the country at the time, and the French, +advancing in strength, dispersed the savages who remained, reached +the town, already burnt and deserted, and after destroying corn and +devastating the neighbouring land, returned to the lake. A fort was +then built at the further end of the lake, below Niagara,[9] to +command the junction of Lakes Erie and Ontario, as in the previous +year a stockade had been constructed on the strait of Detroit, to +control the passage from Lake Huron to Lake Erie; after which the +Governor returned to Montreal. + +[Footnote 9: In March of this same year Dongan was urging on the +Lords of Trade the building of an English fort at Niagara, or as he +called it, Oneigra, 'near the great lake on the way whereby our +people go hunting and trading. It is very necessary for our trade and +correspondence with the Indians, and for securing our right to the +country' (_Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1685-8, p. 328).] + +[Sidenote: _Fruitlessness of the expedition._] + +[Sidenote: _The massacre of Lachine._] + +The French, to quote Colden's words,[10] had 'got nothing but dry +blows by this expedition.' Denonville had not done enough. He had +enraged the confederate Indians without crippling them. A few months +before, with odious treachery, he had ordered some friendly Iroquois +to be kidnapped and sent to France to serve in the galleys. The +tribesmen of the prisoners neither forgave nor forgot, and in less +than two {112} years' time they paid the debt. On the island of +Montreal, some eight miles above the town to the south-west, at the +head of rapids now cut by a canal, and at the lower end of the broad +reach of the St. Lawrence--which bears the name of Lake St. +Louis--was the settlement of Lachine. At the beginning of August, +1689, at dead of night and under cover of a storm, many hundred +Iroquois warriors broke in upon the settlers. Two hundred of the +French were butchered there and then. One hundred and twenty were +carried off, some to be tortured and burnt almost within sight of +their countrymen, others to be gradually done to death in the lodges +of the Five Nations. A detachment of eighty French soldiers was also +cut to pieces, and outside forts and palisades the country was a +scene of death and desolation. + +[Footnote 10: _History of the Five Nations_ (3rd ed.), vol. i, chap. +v, p. 82.] + +[Sidenote: _Abandonment of Fort Frontenac. Recall of Denonville and +return of Frontenac._] + +The horrors of Lachine stand out in Canadian history as a kind of +Sicilian Vespers or Massacre of St. Bartholomew. The upper part of +the colony, Montreal and its neighbourhood, was paralysed with +terror, and once more, for a moment, the Iroquois seemed to threaten +the very existence of New France. It was not so in fact. Below Three +Rivers Canada was safe, and the savages did not, as in old days, +parade their triumph beneath the cliffs of Quebec. Meanwhile +Denonville had already been recalled, his last act being to order in +his panic the evacuation and destruction of Fort Frontenac; and the +old Frenchman, after whom that fort had been named, came back in his +seventieth year to save and to rule Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Callieres._] + +Another competent man returned with Frontenac, after a short visit to +France--Callieres, the Governor of Montreal. He was a strong second +in command, and, when Frontenac died, was appointed to succeed him, +and carried on his work. The two commanders arrived in the autumn of +1689, to find all in confusion and distress; but Frontenac was not +forgotten. His presence gave confidence, and even among the {113} +Iroquois his name secured respect. It was his habit to see with his +own eyes, to take his own line, to act with promptitude and decision. +These qualities, when coupled with ten years' previous experience of +the colony, were invaluable at a crisis. He might quarrel with +Intendants, browbeat Councillors, and denounce Jesuit priests; but to +the settlers he gave security, to the adventurous backwoodsmen of the +West he was a congenial leader, and to the Indians he was the great +_Onontio_, whose actions matched his words. + +[Sidenote: _Confidence restored by Frontenac._] + +[Sidenote: _His dealings with the Indians._] + +For the time he was not in a position to carry war into the Iroquois +country, and the Iroquois would not listen to friendly overtures. He +contented himself, therefore, with strengthening the forts and +defences of the colony and with issuing proclamations to the wavering +tribes of the lakes. It was one thing when La Barre or Denonville +spoke, it was another when the words were those of Frontenac. His +next step was to intimidate the English allies of the Five Nations, +and to send three raiding parties into New England and New York. This +was the kind of irregular warfare for which the Canadians were best +suited. All three expeditions were successful; and their success, +coupled with two defeats of parties of Iroquois on the Ottawa, by Du +Luth in 1689 and Nicolas Perrot in 1690, both noted leaders of +_coureurs de bois_, gave new heart to Canada. Before the summer of +1690 ended, the Indians of the upper lakes came down in force to +trade at Montreal, and the grey-headed Governor-General of New France +led the war dance, hatchet in hand, appealing to savages in savage +fashion, as only a versatile Frenchman could. + +It was a typical proceeding. French priests turned heathens into +Christians, but left them on their savage lines. French hunters lived +among Indians, adopting Indian garb and Indian methods; and the great +Governor of Canada, who of all others was a ruler of men, led a +yelling crowd in their native prelude for war, as sure in {114} +self-esteem, as sure in the esteem of his company, as if he were +treading a minuet in stately fashion at the Court of Versailles. The +English had no such address; but not having it they ran less risk for +the future of their kind. They kept the heathen, for the most part, +outside their pale. They did little to convert them. They did little +to befriend or protect them. But the English race remained stronger +and purer in its dour isolation than the assimilated and assimilating +Frenchmen of what was then Upper Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Insecurity of the French settlers above Three Rivers._] + +Raids and counter raids went on. Of the part which the English took +in the fighting, something will be said presently. So far as the +struggle was between the French and the Five Nations, the scene of +action was either the Ottawa river, or the angle between the +Richelieu and the St. Lawrence. Always important, as being the direct +trade route from Lake Huron, the Ottawa was more important now, +seeing that there was a larger population in Canada than in bygone +days dependent on the fur trade, and that since Denonville's abortive +expedition against the Senecas, the massacre of Lachine, and the +evacuation of Fort Frontenac, the French had lost command of the +upper St. Lawrence. + +The corner of land lying between Chambly on the Richelieu and +Montreal was the old battlefield of French and Iroquois. By this +line, before Tracy's expedition of 1666, the Mohawks had raided +Canada; by this line, once more, their war-parties came. Below the +Three Rivers, at Quebec and in its neighbourhood, there was no fear +of the Indians, though there was both apprehension and reality of +English invasion, and distress from English blockade of Canadian +trade. But in the upper half of the colony, of which Montreal was the +centre, there was no security for life or property outside +fortifications and stockades. + +[Sidenote: _Madeleine de Vercheres._] + +Some twenty miles below Montreal, on the southern bank of the St. +Lawrence, in the troubled belt of land between that river and the +Richelieu, was the Seigniory of Vercheres. {115} There was on it a +fort and a blockhouse, which, in the last week of October, 1692, was +the scene of one of the most picturesque episodes in all the annals +of border warfare. The Seignior, a military man, was absent, the fort +was nearly empty, for the able-bodied men were working in the fields, +when the Iroquois came down on the place. The Seignior's daughter, +Madeleine de Vercheres, a girl of fourteen, took charge of the fort, +having for a garrison, over and above women and children, two +terrified soldiers, one hired man-servant, one refugee settler, an +old man of eighty, and two small boys, her brothers. She gave the +command, she placed each at his post, she misled the savages by a +show of imaginary force, and watching day and night she held them at +bay, until, at the end of a week, a party of soldiers came to her +relief from Montreal. Years afterwards the tale of the siege was +taken down from her own lips; and her name lives, and deserves to +live, in the history of Canada. The girl's heroism is the chief, but +not the only, point of the story. That the Mohawks should have +prowled round the fort for a week without seriously attempting to +take it, and without finding out that it was nearly defenceless, +shows how helpless and stupid these noted warriors were when face to +face with a fortification. On the other hand, that a post, only +twenty miles distant from Montreal, was left for a week without +relief, proves how paralysed, or at least how weakened, were the +French by a long series of Indian incursions. This was in Frontenac's +time; but Frontenac had the English on his hands, and was short of +men. Had it been otherwise, there would have been no beleaguering of +girls in forts, and Canada would have lost a pretty story. + +[Sidenote: _Revival of the French cause._] + +As it was, the scale soon turned in favour of the French. In dead of +winter, at the beginning of 1693, a mixed body of Canadians and +Indians broke in upon the Mohawk towns, and, in spite of a somewhat +disastrous retreat, inflicted considerable loss on their persistent +enemies; while later {116} in the year, at the bidding of the sturdy +old Governor, a strong party of _coureurs de bois_ came down the +Ottawa, convoying a long pent-up and most welcome cargo of furs. This +'gave as universal joy to Canada as the arrival of the galleons give +in Spain';[11] and Frontenac was hailed as the father of the people. + +[Footnote 11: Colden's _History of the Five Nations_ (3rd ed.), vol. +i, chap. ix, p. 159.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois complain of English inaction._] + +More soldiers came out from France, and the Iroquois began to lose +heart. Many of their warriors had fallen, and not a few, converted by +the Jesuits, had settled in Canada, being known to their heathen +countrymen as the 'praying Indians.'[12] From the English colonies +little or no help had come, beyond supplies of arms and ammunition. +The councils at Albany produced on the English side pretentious +speeches, criticism, encouragement, and promises which were never +fulfilled; but the words of the Indians were more to the point, 'the +whole burden of the war lies on us alone ... we alone cannot continue +the war against the French by reason of the recruits they daily +receive from the other side the Great Lake.'[13] They had been +faithful to the English alliance, more faithful than the English +deserved, and more faithful than any civilized nation would have been +under like circumstances; but they tired of fighting singlehanded, +and the chain of the covenant began to rust. + +[Footnote 12: The converted Iroquois were settled at Caughnawaga, +which was on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, at the Sault St. +Louis, and directly opposite Lachine. They were often called +Caughnawagas.] + +[Footnote 13: Colden, vol. i, chap. x, p. 176.] + +[Sidenote: _Their policy towards the French._] + +[Sidenote: _Barbarity of Frontenac._] + +In default of active aid from the English, there were two policies +open to them--to make terms with the French, and to detach from the +French cause the Indian tribes of the lakes. They pursued both +policies at once: they invited Frontenac to meet them and the English +at Albany; he refused. He refused also to come to a meeting at +Onondaga. {117} They then sent a deputation to Quebec in 1694; and +Frontenac offered a peace which should include the Indian allies of +the French and exclude the English. Two nations of the confederacy +were ready to accept these terms; the other three rejected them, and +there was no peace. In the meantime the Iroquois intrigued with the +Lake Indians, and, attracted by the prospect of English goods, the +latter came near exchanging the French alliance for combination with +the Five Nations and the English. To prevent this result, Frontenac +and his officers had resort to infamous methods. Not only at the +forest post of Michillimackinac, but at Montreal itself, the French +compelled the wavering Indians to burn Iroquois prisoners to death, +in order to make peace impossible, and joined themselves in the +torture and butchery. Few worse instances of barbarous policy are +recorded in history. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Frontenac reoccupied._] + +Such means alone would not attain the desired end. Nothing, the +Governor knew, would avail except acknowledged mastery over the Five +Nations. The most obvious confession of weakness on the French side +in Denonville's disastrous time had been the evacuation of Fort +Frontenac; and never had Denonville's successor slackened his +determination to reoccupy the post, which, if he had arrived in +Canada a day or two earlier, would not have been abandoned. The time +came in the summer of 1695. A force, secretly and quickly gathered, +was sent up from Montreal; the walls of the fort still standing were +repaired; and the Iroquois were startled by the news that the post, +which they most dreaded, and which most menaced their confederacy, +was again manned by a French garrison. Frontenac was just in time. +The day after the expedition started, orders came from France that +the fort should not be reoccupied; but he refused to recall his +troops, and set himself to justify, by further measures, his +disobedience to the home Government. + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac's expedition against the Five Nations._] + +In July, 1696, he set out from Montreal at the head of {118} over +2,000 men. The military strength of Canada was well represented; +there were French soldiers of the line, Canadian militia, and +friendly Indians. With the old Governor went his best +officers--Callieres leading the van of the march, Vaudreuil bringing +up the rear. The force reached Fort Frontenac, crossed Lake Ontario, +and, landing at the mouth of the Oswego river, worked their way up, +by stream and lake and portage, towards the goal of the +expedition--Onondaga, the central town and meeting-place of the Five +Nations. What had happened before happened again. The Indians +retreated into the forest before superior numbers, leaving the French +a barren conquest over the smouldering ashes of the native town and +the standing corn. The Oneidas' village and maize fields were also +laid waste, and then the invaders retraced their steps. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Frontenac._] + +Though the expedition was recorded by the French as a success, +Frontenac had done no more than Denonville in his march against the +Senecas, and a writer on the English side contemptuously refers to it +as 'a kind of heroic dotage'.[14] The show of force, however, seems +to have had the effect of inclining the Iroquois to peace, of proving +once more that the French were more active than the English, and that +the arm of _Onontio_ was longer than that of the Governor of New +York. Early in 1698 came news of the Peace of Ryswick. The Five +Nations were subjects neither of England nor of France, but both +Canada and New York claimed them. Sturdily to the last, Frontenac +repelled English pretensions and half-hearted Indian advances; but +the hand of death was upon him, and on November 28, 1698, he died at +Quebec, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. + +[Footnote 14: Colden, vol. i, chap. xii, p. 202.] + +[Sidenote: _His services to Canada._] + +He had rid Canada in a great measure from the scourge of murdering +savages. He had humbled the Iroquois to some extent; he had certainly +won their respect. How he withstood the English in open warfare, and +how he {119} encouraged Frenchmen of his own bold type to explore and +to claim the far West, remains to be told. He was a great man for the +time and place, great in fearlessness, in self-reliance, in +foresight, and in unflinching tenacity of purpose. The element of +bombast and arrogance in his character helped him, as it helped other +Frenchmen, whose names have lived, in handling native races. As a +ruler of wild men, whether coloured or white, he was unsurpassed. The +ruthlessness of his policy has left a stain upon his memory; but he +gave life and confidence to Canada in time of trouble, and but for +him there would have been no future for New France. + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois make peace with the French._] + +His deeds and his character bore fruit immediately after his death. +At the invitation of his successor, Callieres, a general meeting of +all the Indian tribes was held at Montreal, in 1701, to which the +Iroquois condescended to send representatives. Peace was made; and +the French, whom the Five Nations had brought to the brink of ruin, +emerged from the contest as acknowledged arbitrators between the +native races of North America. + +[Sidenote: _Causes which inclined the Iroquois to peace. Loss of +numbers._] + +Thus, with the close of the seventeenth century, came in effect the +close of the life-and-death struggle between the Five Nation Indians +and the Canadian settlers. What were the causes which brought the +Iroquois to terms? The first and most potent was loss of numbers. +Continual bloodshed had reduced the male population of the +confederates by half;[15] and mixture by adoption, it may well be +supposed, had brought some alloy into the old fighting breed. When +white men meet coloured men in war, there is always the same tale to +tell. The white men suffer reverses, as long as they are a handful, +and until the native race has lost a certain proportion of its +warriors. Then strength, and knowledge, and discipline prevail; and +the issue is no longer in doubt. But no other coloured race in the +history of colonization fought with Europeans, man for man, like the +Iroquois, and never {120} submitting, treated sullenly as equals only +when the white race were absolutely superior in numbers. Big +battalions in the end usually determine the course of history. They +certainly decided the fate of North America. Numerical strength +turned the scale in favour of the French, as against the Iroquois. It +subsequently turned the scale in favour of the English, as against +the French. + +[Footnote 15: See Parkman's _Count Frontenac_, last page, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Personality of Frontenac._] + +The second cause which influenced the Iroquois was Frontenac's +personality. In dealing with him the Indians dealt, and knew that +they dealt, with a man who in the greatest straits would never give +way an inch. There was no compromise in his policy. He meant to be +master; the savages knew it, and respected him accordingly. He did +not live to complete his work, and it was not thoroughly completed; +but he lived long enough to cripple the Five Nations, and after his +time their strength declined. + +[Sidenote: _Shortcomings of the English._] + +A third cause was the failure of the English. They missed their +opportunities. The path of English colonization has been strewn with +lost opportunities. The end has been achieved in most cases, and in +most parts of the world; but it has been achieved only after long +years of toil, expense, and loss of life, which a little foresight +might well have avoided. There was no Frontenac on the English side, +no man who went in advance of his Government, who framed and forced a +strong policy. One Governor of New York, the Irishman Dongan, was +active and determined, but those who came after did little. The +element of compromise in the English character, and in the policy of +the English Government, made itself felt. Colony was jealous of +colony, petty legislatures wrangled, and farmers resented being +called to fight instead of sowing or harvesting their crops. Over and +above all, whether as friends or as foes, the Frenchmen stretched out +their right hands to the native races of North America; the English +lived their lives apart, and for the time they paid the penalty. + +{121} [Sidenote: _Founding of Detroit._] + +[Sidenote: _La Mothe Cadillac._] + +Thus the Five Nations made peace with the French at Montreal. At the +very same time, at Albany,[16] they gave the English a title to the +lake regions. In the year 1686, by Denonville's orders, Du Luth, with +a party of _coureurs de bois_, established a French outpost on the +strait (Detroit) between Lakes Huron and Erie,[17] his object being +to prevent the fur trade of the upper lakes passing down that way to +the Iroquois country, and thence to the English market at Albany. The +post was not maintained; but some years afterwards a more permanent +occupation took place. Frontenac had died; but he left behind him men +trained in his school, keen on a forward policy, on holding in the +interests of France and in their own the passes of the West. Such a +man was La Mothe Cadillac, who in 1694 had been sent to take command +at Michillimackinac. He urged upon the French Government the +importance of controlling the outlet from Lake Huron to Lake Erie, +and, having obtained their consent, was the founder of the city of +Detroit. He began the work in July, 1701, but before his expedition +actually reached the place, the Five Nations took alarm, recognizing +that Detroit, like Fort Frontenac, would limit their range and +endanger their power. + +[Footnote 16: The great meeting at Montreal was held on Aug. 4, 1701. +The deed of cession referred to in the text was dated July 19, 1701.] + +[Footnote 17: See above, p. 111.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois cede their hunting-grounds to the King of +England._] + +They sent representatives of all their nations to Albany, and there, +on July 19, 1701, ceded to the King of England their 'beaver +hunting-ground,' retaining for themselves the right of free hunting. +The deed was of the most formal character, attested by the totem +marks of all the Five Nations.[18] It is an interesting document, +setting forth that the Iroquois had already subjected themselves and +their lands 'on this side of Cataraqui (Ontario) lake wholly to the +Crown of {122} England,' and conveying to the King a wide area to the +north of the lake, which the Five Nations claimed as their +hunting-ground in right of conquest. The tract was estimated at 800 +miles in length by 400 in breadth, extending on the north to Lake +Superior, on the west to Chicago, and it specifically included +Detroit,[19] the French designs on which were stated as the reason +for making the cession. A white man's hand must have drawn the deed. +It gave away the Iroquois entirely. Hitherto they had stubbornly +rejected any English claim to sovereignty. Brother the Governor of +New York had been, but not father, and no allegiance had been offered +to the King of England; but in the conveyance William III figured as +'the great lord and master' of the Five Nations, and on paper the +acknowledgement of British sovereignty was complete. + +[Footnote 18: A certified copy in manuscript sent home at the time +may be seen at the Record Office, and a printed copy is included in +the New York documents.] + +[Footnote 19: Spoken of in the deed in one place as 'Tiengsachrondio +alias Fort de Tret.'] + +It was a piece of parchment only, and as such and no more the +Iroquois probably regarded it; but it embodied a small element of +fact. These hardheaded, hardhanded Indians were gradually being worn +down by the white men on either side, owing such measure of +independence as they still retained not so much to their own fighting +strength as to the constant enmity between Great Britain and France. +When war broke out again, after Queen Anne's accession, they remained +for the most part neutral; what they had claimed and conveyed as +their hunting-ground passed more and more under French control, +while, as the result of Marlborough's victories on the other side of +the Atlantic, their own land and its cantons was awarded to Great +Britain in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht.[20] + +[Footnote 20: Clause xv of the Treaty of Utrecht ran as follows: 'The +subjects of France inhabiting Canada, and others, shall hereafter +give no hinderance or molestation to the Five Nations or Cantons of +Indians subject to the dominion of Great Britain nor to the other +natives of America who are friends to the same.'] + +[Illustration: Map of New England, New York & Central Canada, showing +the Waterways] + + + + +{123} + +CHAPTER IV + +FRENCH AND ENGLISH DOWN TO THE PEACE OF UTRECHT + + +Down to the date of the Treaty of Utrecht, the Iroquois formed the +first line of the foes of Canada. Behind them were the English. + +[Sidenote: _Little communication in early times between Canada and +the English colonies._] + +[Sidenote: _Route from the Atlantic to Quebec by the line of the +Kennebec._] + +After Quebec had been in 1632 given back to France, the English on +the Atlantic coast, and the French on the St. Lawrence, for many +years came little into contact with each other. In Acadia the two +nations overlapped, with results which are told elsewhere, and it was +the same in Newfoundland; but the French colonists at Quebec and the +English colonists at Boston or in Virginia were far apart. We read of +an English traveller finding his way, in 1640, from the coast of +Maine, up the Kennebec river and by the Chaudiere, to Quebec, his +journey being noted as an explorer's feat with an ultimate design of +reaching the North Sea; while a few years later, in 1647-51, the same +route became better known, and was taken by French emissaries of +peace to the New England states. + +[Sidenote: _Proposals for a treaty between the English and French +colonies._] + +Negotiations were then on foot, at the instance of Winthrop, Governor +of Massachusetts, for a treaty of commerce between the English and +French colonies in North America, and it was suggested that they +should keep peace with each other even in the event of war in Europe +between the respective mother countries.[1] Such a treaty {124} might +have been made and kept, if there had been no native question; but +each side had Indian friends and Indian foes, and could not afford to +alienate the one or add to the number of the other. The French wanted +New England support against the Iroquois, and with the Iroquois the +New Englanders had no quarrel. Thus the friendly overtures between +the two parties came to nothing; but Frenchmen on the river of Canada +and Englishmen by the open sea went their own ways, having no direct +dealings with each other in war or peace. + +[Footnote 1: A like sensible policy was pursued in the little island +of St. Kitts, when first colonized by French and English. They agreed +to keep the peace whether or not France and Great Britain were at +war. See vol. ii of this series, chap. iv, p. 135. See also +Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. ii, p. 426.] + +[Sidenote: _The English take New York._] + +A change came when the English, in 1664, took possession of New York. +They too had now a river--the Hudson--which carried them inland; they +became neighbours and friends of the Five Nations; and their natural +line of expansion was in the direction of the St. Lawrence and the +great lakes. From this time onward collision between French and +English was inevitable, and it was equally inevitable that the colony +of New York should be the central point of the contest. + +[Sidenote: _Want of union between the English colonies._] + +Before the Dutchmen on Manhattan Island and in the valley of the +Hudson became subjects of the British Crown, they had themselves +absorbed the Swedish colonists on the Delaware. The result, +therefore, of New York becoming a British province was to link +together the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. It has been +said above that English colonization in North America was more +compact and more continuous than French. In other words, though the +English colonists many times outnumbered the French, they were less +dispersed through the wilderness. But the compactness and continuity +was comparative only. Continuity of English colonization meant little +more than that the lands claimed by one colony were coterminous with +those claimed by the next, and that no other European nation could +plant {125} a settlement between the Alleghanies and the sea without +committing a trespass and fighting for its place. There was no +continuity of what would now be called effective occupation. Colony +was divided from colony by many miles of forest and backwood. +Separately they were planted. Their surroundings, their traditions, +their interests were all distinct. Sprung in the main from one stock, +and speaking one language, they had little else in common. They had +not even the bond of a common religious creed. + +[Sidenote: _Dissensions in New York._] + +Within each single colony there was division still. Settlements and +homesteads were often far from one another, and political or +religious dissensions supplemented geographical separation. New York +was an instance in point. Alone among the colonies, it had a good +waterway for any distance inland; but there was little community of +interest between the settlers at Albany or Schenectady, and the +seaport at Manhattan Island, except so far as the latter commanded +the import and export trade of the Hudson valley. The settlers at the +mouth of the Hudson were merchants and seafaring men. The settlers +inland were farmers, landholders, and traders with the Indians. The +former were exposed to attack by sea, but recked little of the French +in Canada or their Indian allies. The latter had nothing to fear from +a hostile fleet, but were constantly in danger from an inroad from +Canada. Then there were feuds of race and religion. The English +overpowered the Dutch, and with the English came in the rule of the +Duke of York, Roman Catholic influence, and a policy too often +dictated by France. + +[Sidenote: _Leisler's rebellion._] + +The Revolution, which turned out the Stuarts in England, was followed +by a rising in New York. There was a cleavage, not so much on lines +of race, as on those of politics and religion. The extreme +Protestants and Republicans, whose stronghold was in and about the +town of New York, rose against the existing system, which was upheld +by the more {126} moderate and aristocratic section of the +population, who were stronger up country, and were supported by such +men as Schuyler, the chief magistrate of Albany. Jacob Leisler, a +German, led the revolutionary party, and in 1689, backed by the +militia, he deposed the Lieutenant-Governor and took the government +into his own hands. He played the part of Cromwell for two years +until, in 1691, regular troops were sent out from England, when he +was deserted by his followers, imprisoned, and hanged; and the +ordinary methods of colonial government were resumed. + +[Sidenote: _Want of union made the English impotent against the +French._] + +Colony being thus divided from colony, and the one colony which +directly abutted on Canada being divided against itself, it was long +before the English made any headway against the French on the St. +Lawrence. At almost any given date the French had a larger number of +regular troops available, supported by Canadian rangers, whose life +was spent in border warfare--the whole being under one Governor, who +was, as has been seen, invariably a man of considerable military +experience. On the sea the English could more than hold their own, +but the sea-route from New York or Boston to Quebec was long and +troublesome. If such an expedition was taken in hand, there could be +no secrecy and no speed in the matter. There was gathering of ships +and transports; discussions as to the quota of each colony; selection +of a leader because he was a good neighbour or a popular citizen, +rather than for any naval or military capacity. There was sailing +round the coast, taking Acadia on the way, and finally arrival before +Quebec after men and ships had dropped off and the French had been +forewarned and forearmed. Thus down to the date of the Treaty of +Utrecht English efforts against the French in Canada amounted to +little more than giving arms and supplies to the Five Nations, making +occasional counter raids by land, and still more occasional +demonstrations by sea. + +{127} [Sidenote: _First proposal for joint action against the +French._] + +It will be remembered[2] that in February, 1666, the French +commander, Courcelles, on his bold midwinter expedition against the +Mohawks, strayed from his route, and found himself near Corlaer or +Schenectady, where he learnt that the English had become masters of +New York, and that there was an English garrison at Albany. This was +the first intrusion of the French into the Hudson valley. Tracy's +expedition against the Mohawk towns later in the same year gave +Colonel Nicolls, the first English Governor of New York, occasion to +invite the New England colonies to join him in attacking the French. +They refused, fearing that, if they sided with the Iroquois, they +would be exposed to attack from the Abenakis, who were on their +borders, and who were friends of the French, foes of the Five +Nations. Some twenty years then passed without open rupture. New York +was retaken by the Dutch and regained by the English. The +colonization of Canada went on. The Iroquois remained comparatively +quiet, and in Frontenac's first term of administration western +exploration and western trade began to determine French policy in +Canada and English policy in New York. + +[Footnote 2: See above, p. 104.] + +[Sidenote: _Thomas Dongan._] + +[Sidenote: _Meeting between the English Governors and the chiefs of +the Five Nations._] + +[Sidenote: _Bad feeling between French and English._] + +In 1683, after Frontenac had come to Canada for the first time and +gone again, New York was given in the Irish Catholic, Thomas Dongan, +a Governor of strength and foresight. In the following year, at a +conference held at Albany, at which Lord Howard of Effingham, the +Governor of Virginia, was present, the alliance between the English +and the Five Nations was formally confirmed; and, assured of English +aid and protection, the Iroquois turned their strength against +Canada. Though there was peace between Great Britain and France in +James II's time, the relations between New York and Canada were the +reverse of friendly. The French knew that the Five Nations were +backed by the English. Dongan on his part was resolved that the {128} +trade of the West should not be left exclusively in French hands. +Angry letters passed between him and Denonville, English and Dutch +traders on the lakes were intercepted by the Canadians, and a party +from Montreal captured and looted three English trading posts on +Hudson Bay. In 1688 Dongan was recalled, and in the following year +news reached the American colonies of the Revolution in England. + +[Sidenote: _French plan for attacking New York._] + +[Sidenote: _Frontenac's raiding parties._] + +The expulsion of the Stuarts and the accession of William III to the +throne of Great Britain meant war with France; and at this critical +moment Frontenac came back to Canada. He came back with a plan, +devised by Callieres and approved by the King, for attacking New York +by land and sea. A stillborn scheme it proved, through untoward +delays, but its conception indicated that New York was recognized by +the French Government and its advisers as the key of the position in +North America. While plans were being laid by the French for the +invasion of New York the Iroquois invaded Canada, and the massacre of +Lachine faced Frontenac on his return in 1689. Next year he sent out +against the English colonies the three expeditions which have been +already mentioned.[3] + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 113.] + +[Sidenote: _The capture of Schenectady._] + +The first started from Montreal in depth of winter, following the +familiar route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, and intending to +strike a blow at Albany. The men were picked for the work, Frenchmen +and Indians, about 250 in all, led by the best of Canadian rangers, +such as Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brothers. They toiled through +ice and snow, and, turning off from the path to Albany, in the +darkness of a winter's night they fell upon the Dutch settlement of +Schenectady. It was the time of Leisler's movement, when New York was +in the throes of revolution. The village was unguarded, its gates +were open, its inmates were asleep. A blockhouse manned by eight or +nine militiamen from {129} Connecticut was stormed, and the scene was +one of helpless massacre. + +[Sidenote: _The attack on Salmon Falls and Falmouth._] + +The second party, smaller in number, consisting of some fifty French +and Abenaki Indians, left Three Rivers towards the end of January, +and near the end of March made a night attack on the settlement of +Salmon Falls, on the borders of New Hampshire and Maine. Again the +English, sleeping and unprepared, were murdered in their beds, and +the murderers, making good their retreat, joined forces with the +third and strongest party, which had set out from Quebec to attack +the settlement of Falmouth at Casco Bay. Falmouth stood where the +town of Portland in Maine now stands. There was a fort at the +place--Fort Loyal--into which the outlying settlers gathered with +their families when the attacking force of four or five hundred men +appeared. After a short defence the commander, Sylvanus Davies by +name, surrendered on solemn promise, according to his own +circumstantial account, of quarter and freedom for the whole company. +The terms were immediately broken, and all the English were massacred +or carried into captivity. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of the French raids._] + +Thus three separate raids on the English colonies, sent out under +Frontenac's orders in the year 1690, were all successful. They were +well devised, and carried out with skill, courage, and determination. +The English and Dutch settlers, on their side, showed the greatest +negligence and little stubbornness or competence in self-defence. The +immediate result was to invigorate the French and their Indian +allies; but the causes of their momentary success were the causes of +their ultimate failure; and even at the moment these marauding +exploits threatened new danger to Canada. The French succeeded +because, leagued with savages, they in all things likened themselves +to their companions, they habited themselves in Indian dress, their +warriors were ferocious as Indian warriors, their priests hounded on +to blood. They succeeded because their trade was war not peace, {130} +because they were roving adventurers who had only their lives to +lose, ravening among quiet men of substance who had homes and wives +and children to be plundered and slain. It was as certain that in +course of time the cause of the English colonists would prevail, as +that the Highland clans, who in Scotland marauded their southern +neighbours, would eventually be broken, or that the Five Nations +themselves, if left to fight alone, would eventually go down before +the settled life of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _They tended to unite the English colonists._] + +On this occasion three blows were struck, nearly at the same time, at +three separate points in a long undefended line. The adoption of this +policy by the French, and still more the fact of its success, in +reality tended to remove the one great obstacle to British supremacy +in North America. When Sylvanus Davies, taken at Fort Loyal and +carried prisoner to Quebec, asked Frontenac the reason for the savage +raid on the Casco Bay settlement, he was told that it was reprisal +for the support given to the Iroquois by New York. His rejoinder, +which was to the effect that New England should not be called upon to +answer for the doings of New York, showed how little community of +sentiment or interest existed in the English colonies. The one great +source of weakness to the English cause, the greatest source of +strength to the French, was the disunion of the English colonies and +their indifference to each other. Consolidation could come only +through partnership in suffering, and pressure from a common foe. +This was the lesson which Frontenac taught, when his border ruffians +carried havoc from the head waters of the Hudson to the sea-coast of +Maine. + +[Sidenote: _The colonies determine to attack Canada._] + +The lesson was never fully learnt as long as the Atlantic colonies +were British possessions and Canada was French; but for a time the +French outrages produced some semblance of common action on the other +side; and at a conference held at Albany, in 1690, it was resolved to +attack Canada by land and sea. The land expedition, taking the route +{131} of Lake Champlain, was a failure, ending in a small raid on the +French settlement of La Prairie; and the main effort was made by sea. +On sea the New Englanders showed the way, led by the men of +Massachusetts. + +[Sidenote: _Massachusetts takes the lead._] + +[Sidenote: _Capture of Port Royal._] + +The 'Bostonnais,' as the French called them, were dangerous foes of +Canada. Puritans, Republicans, sea-fighters, sea-traders, they were +all that the Canadians were not. They were strong in numbers too. At +the end of the seventeenth century, Boston was a town of some 7,000 +inhabitants, and the population of the whole colony was estimated at +not far short of 50,000, against less than 15,000 French in Canada. +At the very time that the French and Indian raid on Casco Bay took +place, a fleet of seven or eight ships with 700 men on board sailed +from Boston for Acadia, took possession of Port Royal with other +French settlements on the Acadian coast, and returned in little more +than a month's time with prisoners, booty, and renown. + +[Sidenote: _William Phipps._] + +The commander of the expedition was William Phipps, a typical product +of the seaboard colonies. Starting as a New England ship-carpenter, +he had turned rover and buccaneer; and finding a sunken Spanish +treasure-ship, had won himself riches and a knighthood. He was brave, +not too scrupulous or cleanhanded, a good seaman, and a patriotic +man. He was well fitted for irregular warfare on a small scale, but +his capacity was limited, and he did not rise to the level of +greatness. After his success in Acadia, Phipps seemed obviously the +man to achieve the conquest of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Condition of Quebec._] + +Sixty years had passed since David Kirke took Quebec. A better leader +than Phipps, he had had an easy task in starving out an infant +settlement. The interval had been for Quebec a time of comparative +peace. Sheltered on the land side by Three Rivers, Montreal, and the +military outposts of the Richelieu, the town was practically safe +from the Iroquois, while civil wars and Stuart Kings in England +prevented invasion from the sea. One year and another {132} the furs +which came down the river, or the supplies which were brought from +France, were intercepted; but in the main the capital of New France +enjoyed security and peace. It had grown, but was a very small town +still, ill fortified, except by nature, and, if fortune and skill had +combined, might well have been taken. But in 1690 there was no luck +and little skill on the attacking side. The land campaign, which was +to have kept Frontenac and his best troops at Montreal, failed just +in time to enable all the available French forces to concentrate at +Quebec. England, when asked by Massachusetts to help the expedition +by arms and ammunition, sent nothing; and, while the appeal was being +made, valuable time was lost. Phipps was at first too leisurely and +afterwards too impatient to succeed, and wind and weather befriended +the Frenchmen in Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Phipps' expedition against Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Its failure._] + +It was the ninth of August when the New England commander sailed from +Nantucket with thirty-four ships, and soldiers and sailors to the +number of 2,200 men. It was the sixteenth of October when he anchored +before Quebec. He sent a pompous summons to surrender, which provoked +an insulting reply, and then prepared to land his troops below the +town, to attack it in rear, while his ships opened fire in front. It +was a hopeless enterprise. The night after the English fleet +appeared, strong reinforcements came in from Montreal, and Frontenac +had at his disposal not far short of 3,000 fighting men. On the +eighteenth, the New England levies were landed on the Beauport shore, +having the river St. Charles between them and Quebec. They were +between 1,200 and 1,300 in number, commanded by Major Walley. Short +of food and supplies, sickening in the wet weather, out-numbered by +disciplined troops and Canadian rangers, who fought under cover and +with the advantage of the ground, they could do nothing but prove +themselves brave and stubborn men. Phipps on shipboard gave them no +support, wasting his ammunition in a wild and useless cannonade {133} +against the face of the cliff and the walls of the upper town; and in +ten days time all the men were re-embarked and the ships set sail for +home. + +[Sidenote: _Boldness of the attempt._] + +So ended in complete failure the attempt of Massachusetts to take +Quebec. Yet it was a bold and masterful effort on the part of one +undeveloped English colony. It had in it the elements of strength, +and under different conditions might have earned success. As it was, +the citizen soldiers and sailors of Boston, led by an +ex-ship-carpenter, faced Count Frontenac and all the trained strength +of New France, their retreat was unmolested, and their failure was +hailed as a miraculous deliverance for Quebec.[4] + +[Footnote 4: Phipps, before he made his attack, was told by French +prisoners of the path up the cliff above the town, by which Wolfe +subsequently took Quebec; but he preferred to attack from Beauport.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Phipps._] + +Phipps had not proved himself to be a great commander. He failed too +as Governor of Massachusetts, to which post he was appointed in the +following year; but he had the merit of dogged determination to fight +the French in Canada; and, had he lived longer, he might again have +tried his hand at besieging Quebec. A few weeks after his repulse and +return to Boston, he sailed to England to urge upon the home +Government an active policy against New France, and that policy he +continued to advocate until he died, in 1695, at the early age of +forty-four. + +[Sidenote: _Wheeler's abortive expedition._] + +On either side, the true line of defence was to carry war into the +enemy's country. It was thus that Frontenac defended Canada. It was +by constant raids that the Iroquois maintained their position; and +the counsel which those astute savages gave to their English friends +was to combine and attack Quebec. 'Strike at Quebec,' urged Phipps on +the English Government; 'strike at Boston and New York' was the +advice which the leaders of Canada one after another tendered to King +Louis. No help had been sent from England to the late expedition +against Quebec, but Phipps' {134} subsequent representations led to +an English fleet being dispatched to the West Indies in the winter of +1692, under command of Admiral Wheeler. The ships were intended to +take Martinique, then to go on to Boston, and embarking a force of +New Englanders under Phipps to sail for Quebec. Again there was a +failure. Wheeler lost more than half his soldiers and sailors in the +West Indies from yellow fever; and, when he reached Boston in +midsummer of 1693, bringing the sickness with him, the Massachusetts +Government decided that it was hopeless to attempt to carry out the +scheme. + +[Sidenote: _Fighting on the New York frontier._] + +[Sidenote: _New York protected by the Iroquois._] + +In spite of the massacre at Schenectady, New York suffered less than +New England from border war. In 1691, in a second attack on the +French settlement of La Prairie over against Montreal, the English +and Dutch colonists achieved some success, carrying out the raid +which they had planned, and cutting their way back hand to hand +through a party of French troops who tried to bar their retreat. The +Iroquois were the salvation of New York. Their raids into Canada +safeguarded the rival colony, and when the Five Nations were not on +the warpath, the French hesitated to attack their English allies, for +fear of provoking a fresh incursion of savages. It has been seen that +the Iroquois tended more and more to a policy of neutrality, worn by +constant fighting, tired of English inaction, and discerning that +their true interest lay in siding with neither French nor English. +Still, with the exception of their converted countrymen settled in +Canada, they were not likely to band with the French against the +English. To do so would have been to break with old ties and +traditions, to close their best market, to combine with their +deadliest foes against friends of long standing, whose faults had +been after all but faults of omission. This the French knew well: +they were content to leave New York alone, provided they themselves +were left alone by the Iroquois, and so long as {135} the traders of +New York did not seriously threaten their command of the West. + +[Sidenote: _The Abenakis on the borders of New England._] + +It was otherwise in the case of New England. The Abenaki Indians on +the borders of the New England colonies had always been in the French +interest. Jesuit influence was strong among them: they had been +taught that Christianity could go hand in hand with ferocity, and +that murder of white heretics might be not only a pleasure but a +duty. Here the object of the French was not to keep the Indians +quiet, but to spur them on. As they dreaded lest their Indian allies +on the upper lakes should come to terms with the Iroquois,[5] and +enforced barbarities to make peace impossible, so in the closing +years of the seventeenth century and the early years of the +eighteenth, they incited the Abenaki warriors against the border +settlements of Maine and New Hampshire, butchering, looting, carrying +into captivity, their one object being to keep alive the taste of +blood, lest, lured by the prospect of peaceful and profitable trade +with the neighbouring English, the Abenakis should drift apart from +New France. + +[Footnote 5: See above, p. 117.] + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal reoccupied by the French._] + +[Sidenote: _French and Indian raids on York, Wells, and Oyster +River._] + +A Canadian officer, Villebon, was specially deputed to take charge of +Acadia, and organize war-parties against the English settlers. He +reoccupied Port Royal, and at the beginning of 1692 the work of +massacre was taken seriously in hand. The first point of attack was +the border settlement of York on the sea-coast of Maine: it was laid +waste early in February, with all the usual horrors of Indian +warfare. In June, another seaside settlement--Wells, about twenty +miles to the north of York--was attacked by a large party; but some +thirty militiamen, headed by a determined officer, Convers by name, +made a stubborn defence, and beat off the assailants. Two years later +the settlement at Oyster River was surprised, and its inhabitants +killed or carried off. + +[Sidenote: _Backwardness of the New Englanders in self-defence._] + +There was one way, and one only, to put a stop to this {136} +destructive warfare; to build strong forts in advanced positions; to +give them adequate garrisons under competent officers; to patrol the +frontier constantly with bodies of armed border police, and to harry +the Indian marauders by land and sea. New England--and New England +meant Massachusetts--was perfectly able to adopt and to maintain such +a policy. The New Englanders were many against comparatively few; +they had as a rule command of the sea; but the colonists did not like +the expense or the personal service which was involved; the Boston +citizens did not feel the full force of the blows which struck the +outlying farms and homesteads; and the petifogging Government too +often employed men to command who knew little or nothing of +soldiering. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Pemaquid._] + +[Sidenote: _Chubb's treachery._] + +There was one point, in particular, which should have been strongly +fortified and strongly garrisoned. This was Fort Pemaquid, on the +sea-coast between the mouths of the Kennebec and the Penobscot. It +was to New England, and to the Abenakis, what Fort Frontenac was to +Canada and to the Iroquois, an advanced post covering the English +colonies and menacing the Indians. In 1689, most of the English +garrison having been withdrawn, it had been surprised and taken by +the Abenakis. In 1692, Phipps, then Governor of Massachusetts, acting +under orders from the King, rebuilt and regarrisoned it. Iberville, +sent by Frontenac in the following year, with two ships of war, +reconnoitred the fort but did not venture to attack it. In 1696, it +was in charge of an incompetent commander, Chubb, who made himself +odious to the Indians by a gross act of treachery. Some Abenaki +chiefs had been invited to the fort under pledge of personal safety, +to exchange prisoners; and, acting under instructions from Stoughton, +Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, Chubb laid an ambush for them, +killed some and kidnapped others. + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Pemaquid._] + +It was a proceeding as impolitic as it was immoral, and quickly +brought retribution. Early in 1696, two ships of {137} war came out +from France, and, taking on board troops from Quebec, coasted round +the Acadian peninsula, capturing on the way some English vessels, +including an armed frigate. Off the mouth of the St. John the French +received reinforcements, sent down by Villebon from his Fort Naxouat, +which stood higher up the river; and a further band of Indians joined +them at Pentegoet, the fort of the French adventurer St. Castin, at +the mouth of the river Penobscot. The expedition led by Iberville, +St. Castin, and others sailed on to Pemaquid, and on August 14 +demanded its surrender. Chubb returned a contemptuous reply, and +backed his words by promptly surrendering next day, on condition of +safe conduct for himself and his men. He went back to Boston in +safety and disgrace, and a year later was murdered by Indians. + +[Sidenote: _Abortive French expedition against Boston._] + +The loss of Fort Pemaquid was a serious blow to the English, and in +the next year, 1697, the French Government determined to follow up +their success by attacking Boston. A strong fleet was sent out to +Newfoundland under the Marquis de Nesmond. Its orders were to defeat +any English vessels off that coast, and sailing south to the mouth of +the Penobscot to take up Canadian troops and Indian allies. The +expedition was then to proceed to take Boston, and, having +accomplished this object, to overrun the whole of New England to the +north of that city. Frontenac had the land forces in readiness, +proposing to take command himself; but on this occasion the French +took a leaf out of the English book; the fleet was detained by +contrary winds till the summer was past, the combination failed, and +all the grand scheme came to nothing at all. For Boston read Quebec, +and the record of this failure might be the record of one of the +stillborn enterprises, by which the English from time to time hoped +to reduce Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Treaty of Ryswick._] + +[Sidenote: _War of the Spanish Succession._] + +The Treaty of Ryswick signed in 1697, and formally proclaimed in +America in 1698, settled nothing. It gave {138} breathing-space to +Louis XIV and his enemies, and, while it lasted, there was a respite +from border forays for the English colonies in North America. But no +attempt was made to adjust boundaries, or to remove causes of past +and future disputes, and the only specific provision, which the +treaty contained with regard to America, referred to Hudson Bay. Both +sides knew that the truce was not likely to be long-lived, and its +end came when, in 1701, the King of France promised the exiled James +II on his deathbed to acknowledge his son as rightful King of +England. In the following year war broke out again, the War of the +Spanish Succession, the war which, after Marlborough's victories, +ended with the Peace of Utrecht. + +[Sidenote: _French raids on Wells, Casco Bay, Deerfield, and +Haverhill._] + +It was in Europe that the battle of the American colonies was fought, +in Flanders and at Blenheim, rather than on the St. Lawrence or on +the coasts of Acadia and New England. There was fighting in America, +but it was in the main fighting of the same indecisive kind as had +gone before--murder, pillage, and the like; and history repeated +itself with singular fidelity. On May 4, 1702, war was declared: in +August, 1703, the old work of raiding the New England frontier was +resumed. The settlement at Wells, which had suffered before, was the +first to suffer again; the neighbouring settlements, as far as Casco +Bay, were marauded by the Abenaki Indians; and the fort at Casco was +hard beset, until relieved by an armed vessel from Massachusetts. In +the following year, at the end of February, 1704, the village of +Deerfield was attacked by night by some 250 French and Indians. It +stood on the Connecticut river, on the north-western frontier of +Massachusetts, and at the date of the attack contained in all nearly +300 human beings. Of them about fifty were killed, and over 100 were +carried off, among the latter being the minister of the place, John +Williams, who survived to tell a tale of almost incredible loss and +suffering in a narrative entitled _The Redeemed Captive returning to +Sion_. A similar {139} attack was made, in 1708, on the village of +Haverhill on the Merrimac river, which cost the lives of about fifty +villagers; and one after another the border settlements, during these +troubled years, were infested by savages appearing from and +disappearing in the backwoods under cover of night. The authors of +the outrages were the French rulers of Canada; their agents were in +the main converted Indians; the series of raids was not so much the +spontaneous movement of natives against white men, as a crusade +against heretics, prompted and led by Europeans, and carried out by +Indian warriors on the lines of Indian warfare. There was much +vicarious suffering. The past inroads of the Iroquois into Canada led +to years of retaliation on New England: retaliation on New England +induced the New Englanders in their turn to attack Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Port Royal threatened by Major Church and Colonel +March._] + +In 1691, the year after Phipps had taken Port Royal, a new charter +was granted by the Crown to Massachusetts, which included Acadia +within the limits of the colony. But in the same year, and in the +very month of September in which the charter was given, the Frenchman +Villebon reoccupied Port Royal, and four years later, Massachusetts, +unwilling or unable to make good its claim, petitioned the British +Government to take over its rights and responsibilities in regard to +the Acadian peninsula. Whether in English or in French hands, Port +Royal remained a small, ill-fortified, and poorly defended post, +constantly open to, and constantly threatened with attack. In 1704, +after and in consequence of the French raid on Deerfield, a +buccaneering force from New England, under Major Benjamin Church, +appeared before it, having previously burnt the Acadian settlement of +Grand Pre, but sailed away without venturing to attack the fort. In +1707, a stronger expedition was sent from Massachusetts and the +neighbouring colonies under Colonel John March; but again, though the +troops landed, skirmished, and began a siege, the enterprise came to +nothing. + +{140} [Sidenote: _Samuel Vetch._] + +In 1709 preparations were made for more vigorous and more effective +action. In the previous year the colony of Massachusetts resolved to +appeal to the British Government for help from home to attack Canada. +Their emissary to England was Samuel Vetch, a notable man of the time +in North American history. He was a Scotchman, the son of a +Presbyterian minister, born and bred in Puritan surroundings; he had +served in the Cameronian regiment, and had fought on the continent in +William III's armies. After the Peace of Ryswick he went out with +other would-be colonists to the Isthmus of Darien, and, on the +failure of the scheme, came over to New York. There he married and +engaged in trade with Canada, gaining a knowledge of New France, its +river, and its people, which subsequently stood him in good stead. +Like Phipps, he was a shrewd, self-made man, whose enemies accused +him, apparently with reason, of illicit dealings; like Phipps, he had +seen the world outside New England and New York; and, having seen it +and having taken stock of Canada as well as of the English colonies, +he was a warm advocate, as Phipps had been before him, of united and +aggressive action against the French. + +[Sidenote: _His mission to England._] + +[Sidenote: _British aid promised to New England._] + +Quite recently, in 1705, he had been in Canada, to negotiate exchange +of prisoners and a treaty of peace between Massachusetts and the +French. Both Dudley, the Governor of Massachusetts, and Vaudreuil, +the Canadian Governor, were inclined to peace, but the negotiations +broke down in consequence of Vaudreuil's demand that the other +English colonies in North America should also be included in the +treaty--a condition which Dudley was not in a position to guarantee. +Vetch was for some little time on this occasion both at Quebec and at +Montreal. When, therefore he visited England in 1708, he brought with +him accurate first-hand knowledge of the enemy's land and people. He +was well received. Marlborough's victories supported his plea for a +decisive campaign in America, and early in 1709 he was {141} sent +back over the Atlantic with the promise of a fleet and five regiments +of British troops amounting to 3,000 men. The colonists on their part +were to raise contingents of specified strength, and attack by sea +was to be combined with a land expedition by way of Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Attitude of the colonies._] + +[Sidenote: _Land expedition under Colonel Nicholson._] + +[Sidenote: _Its retreat._] + +Even now some of the colonies hung back. Pennsylvania, out of reach +of French attack and dominated by Quakers, sent no help in men or +money. New Jersey sent money but no men. New York however abandoned +its neutrality, threw in its lot with New England, and persuaded some +of the Five Nations to take up arms again against the French, the +Senecas only, under the influence of a skilful French agent, +Joncaire, holding aloof. Fifteen hundred men were gathered for the +land march, and, under the command of Colonel Francis Nicholson, +advanced to Wood Creek, which is connected with Lake Champlain. He +entrenched himself there, and his outposts came into collision with +the advance guard of a French force sent to surprise him under +Ramesay, Governor of Montreal. The French fell back to Chambly, and +Nicholson waited week after week for news of the English fleet, until +pestilence broke out among his troops, and he was compelled to +retreat. + +[Sidenote: _Non-arrival of the English fleet._] + +Meanwhile at Boston every preparation had been made, according to the +orders of the English Government. Men, stores, transports were +gathered, but all to no purpose, for no fleet came. It was due in +May, and not till October came the news that the ships and men +intended for America had been sent instead to Portugal. Once more +there was a respite for Canada, once more the hearts of the English +colonists were made sick by hope deferred. They had done their part, +and all the trouble and expense and, in Nicholson's army, loss of +life had been for nought. + +[Sidenote: _Fresh representations to the home Government._] + +Yet the representatives of Massachusetts still pressed the home +Government to take action against New France. Nicholson went to +England at the end of the year, and {142} pleaded the cause of the +colonies, pleading it with authority, as having been +Lieutenant-Governor of New York and Governor of Maryland. One of the +Schuylers too followed him to England from New York, bringing a party +of Mohawk chiefs to see and be seen. + +[Sidenote: _Reduction of Port Royal by Nicholson._] + +If Canada were not to be invaded, at least Port Royal might be taken, +and Imperial aid was promised to attain the latter object. An English +force, timed to reach Boston in March, 1710, arrived there in July; +and in September Nicholson sailed for Port Royal at the head of a +strong expedition. He reached it on September 24. For a week there +was some fighting, but the French were hopelessly outnumbered; and on +October 1, the fort surrendered. Port Royal, henceforth known as +Annapolis, now passed in permanence into English hands, and with it +the English became masters of all Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Political changes in England._] + +[Sidenote: _Jeremiah Dummer._] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition of 1711._] + +[Sidenote: _Its arrival at Boston._] + +After taking Port Royal Nicholson returned to London, again to urge +an attack on Canada. Before he arrived, there had been in August, +1710, a change of ministry. Godolphin had been dismissed, and +Marlborough's enemies, Harley and Bolingbroke, were in power. +Bolingbroke had in his service a New Englander, trained at Harvard +University--Jeremiah Dummer--who had become agent of Massachusetts in +England, and who set forth in pamphlets the colonists' case, and +urged the vital importance of conquering Canada. His writings, +combined with the personal representations of Nicholson, persuaded +ministers, who were anxious to father an enterprise which might weigh +in the balance of public opinion against Marlborough's victories; and +in April, 1711, fifteen men of war, with forty-six transports, sailed +for America, carrying seven regiments of the line, five of which were +from the army in Flanders. The regulars numbered 5,000 men, exclusive +of sailors and marines, and they were to be supplemented on arrival +by colonial levies. They reached Boston, after a fair passage, +towards the end of June. + +{143} [Sidenote: _Feeling of the colonists._] + +The force was fully strong enough to take Quebec, provided that two +requisites were forthcoming--the hearty co-operation of the colonists +and capable leaders. The colonists did their part, but not with a +whole heart and not without misgivings. They had asked for British +troops, but, notwithstanding, there was a suspicion in the minds of +many that a strong force landed in America might be used to subvert +colonial liberties, and to reduce the communities of New England to +the position of Crown Colonies. The French knew that such a spirit +was abroad, and did their best to foster it. It was fostered too by +other causes. There was something new in the action of the British +Government. The American settlers were accustomed to refusal of aid +from home, to promises of aid made but not fulfilled, to tardy and +inadequate assistance. But on the present occasion an unusually large +force of veteran troops arrived at Boston at a fortnight's notice. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition sails from Boston._] + +Nicholson landed with the news of the coming fleet on June 8, on the +twenty-fourth the fleet appeared. Its destination had been kept +secret, and it was provisioned only for the voyage to America. On its +arrival, therefore, it was necessary to impress men and supplies: +pilots too were wanted and were not forthcoming: the King's officers +found the colonists difficult to deal with: the colonists resented +peremptory orders, and sheltered deserters from the army and the +fleet. Still the authorities of Massachusetts loyally backed the +expedition; preparations went forward; and on July 30 the ships set +sail for the St. Lawrence, carrying, in addition to the English +forces, two Massachusetts regiments, which numbered about 1,500 men, +and were commanded by Vetch, now Governor of Annapolis. + +[Sidenote: _Nicholson's advance towards Lake Champlain._] + +[Sidenote: _Admiral Walker and General Hill._] + +The orthodox plan of invading Canada involved a twofold attack, by +land on Montreal, by sea on Quebec. Accordingly, while the fleet was +sailing round the North American coast, Nicholson collected troops at +Albany, and advanced as far as {144} Wood Creek at the head of 2,300 +men, 800 of whom were Iroquois. Thence he intended to push his way +down Lake Champlain. He was a competent commander, but the leaders of +the main expedition were not. Little is known of the admiral, Sir +Hovenden Walker, and it does not appear why he was chosen for so +important a post. The general, Hill, familiar enough to London +society as Jack Hill, had hitherto shown no military capacity. +Marlborough had set his face against his promotion, and he owed his +rise entirely to Court favour, for he was brother of Abigail Hill +(Lady Masham), now the ruling favourite of Queen Anne. Sister and +brother alike had been befriended by the Duchess of Marlborough; by +intrigue, Abigail Hill had supplanted her benefactress in the Queen's +favour; and with her aid Harley and Bolingbroke, themselves +arch-intriguers, turned out Godolphin and procured Marlborough's +disgrace. The price of her assistance was the appointment of her +incompetent brother to command seasoned troops well fitted to conquer +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Disaster to the fleet in the St. Lawrence._] + +Rounding Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, the fleet, on August 18, +put into Gaspe Bay. By the evening of the twenty-second it was at the +mouth of the St. Lawrence, and in foggy weather the unskilful +admiral, many miles out of his course, headed straight for the +northern shore of the river, under the impression that he was too +close to land on the southern side. At dead of night he was roused +from his berth with the unwelcome news that the ship was among +breakers; and turned her head just in time to avoid running upon +rocks. The ships which followed his disastrous lead were not so +fortunate, and eight of the transports were dashed to pieces on the +reefs with a loss of about 1,000 lives.[6] The place where the +catastrophe occurred was one of the {145} rocky islets, known as the +Egg Islands, about twenty miles to the north of the Point de Monts. + +[Footnote 6: According to one English account 884 soldiers were lost, +according to another 740 soldiers and women. The number of sailors +lost is not given.] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition abandoned._] + +For two days the ships were busied in picking up survivors from the +wrecks. On the twenty-fifth a council of war was held, and it was +resolved to abandon the expedition. A message was sent to recall +Nicholson and his troops from their advance on Montreal; the fleet +sailed back to Sydney harbour in Cape Breton Island. A suggestion to +attack Placentia in Newfoundland was rejected. The New England +transports returned to Boston, and the English fleet went home to +Portsmouth,[7] where--to complete the fiasco--the admiral's ship blew +up, costing the lives of some 400 seamen. + +[Footnote 7: Swift, in the _Journal to Stella_, says that the ship +blew up in the Thames, but the accident seems to have taken place at +Spithead; see Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. ii, pp. 468-9. +There are various references to this expedition and to Hill in the +_Journal to Stella_. Hill was subsequently placed in command at +Dunkirk, while that port was being held as security for the execution +of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.] + +Of the two commanders, Hill escaped formal censure. Luckily for him, +Swift's bitter pen was at the service of the political clique with +which he was connected. Walker, more culpable, was also less +fortunate: deprived of his command he emigrated first to South +Carolina and afterwards to Barbados, where he died, having written +his own version of the expedition,[8] which in no way tended to +redeem his reputation. + +[Footnote 8: _A full account of the late Expedition to Canada_, by +Sir Hovenden Walker (London, 1720).] + +[Sidenote: _Ignominious end of the expedition._] + +Such was the end of the enterprise, intended to eclipse the great +deeds of Marlborough. There have been many shortcomings and many +disasters in the military annals of England, but few instances are on +record of so much incompetence, verging almost on cowardice. Phipps' +expedition against Quebec was a complete failure, but at least he led +his band of untrained farmers and fishermen safely up and down the +St. Lawrence, and gave Count Frontenac a taste of powder and shot. +Walker and Hill, {146} with the best of ships and the best of men, +blundered and turned back at the mouth of the river; at the first +mishap they abandoned everything. No wonder the Frenchmen deemed that +the saints watched over Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The Treaty of Utrecht._] + +The result can hardly have confirmed the American colonies in their +allegiance to England. As a matter of fact, England had been fighting +their battle against France, but her successes had been on the other +side of the Atlantic; whereas in America, under the eyes of the +colonists, there had been little but failure. One substantial gain +there was--the capture of Port Royal; but this easy feat had been +previously achieved by Massachusetts alone without any aid from home. +The conquest of Canada, which had been well within reach, now seemed +as far off as ever; and the Treaty of Utrecht--which, if Marlborough +had been left to follow up his career of victory, and if a commander +of his choosing had been sent with his troops across the seas, might +have forestalled the famous treaty of fifty years later--did not even +secure the whole seaboard to England, or confine the French to the +river of Canada. Acadia, according to its ancient limits, was ceded +to the British Crown, the French gave up their possessions in +Newfoundland, and their hold on Hudson Bay: but on a section of the +Newfoundland coast they were granted fishing rights, to be a fruitful +source of future trouble; and, keeping Cape Breton Island, they +reared in it the fortress of Louisbourg, to be a stronghold second +only to that of Quebec. Once more England lost her opportunity, and +the settlement, which should have been made in 1713, was postponed +till 1763. + + +NOTE.--For the substance of chaps. iii, iv, and v, see among modern +books, + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vols. i and ii, + +and the following works of Parkman: + + _The Jesuits in North America_; + _The Old Regime in Canada_; + _Count Frontenac and New France_; + _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West_. + + + + +{147} + +CHAPTER V + +THE MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA + + +[Sidenote: _French and English views in North America._] + +What were the French and English fighting for in North America? The +answer seems obvious, for North America itself. But what did North +America mean? It had a different meaning to different interests. The +New Englander cared for little but the New England colonies, and the +immediately adjacent lands and seas. To the Acadian settlers the +Acadian peninsula, to the Canadian _habitant_ the banks of the St. +Lawrence, were all in all. The inland colonists of New York had in +their minds not merely the safety of their colony, within its +ill-defined boundaries, but also paramount influence over the Five +Nations, and unrestricted trade with the western Indians. Longheaded +governors of New York and Massachusetts took a still wider view; but +the widest of all was held by the French Governors of Canada, and by +the roving Canadians, who, with restless spirit and undaunted +enterprise, claimed seas and rivers before they were reached or +known, magnifying tales of far-off lands and peoples, building in the +air and bringing down to earth a fabric of continental dominion. As a +rule, the English view was too circumscribed, the French view was too +diffuse. The strength of the English lay in effective occupation +within narrow limits; the French committed the blunder of perpetually +forcing competition upon rivals who had larger resources; but to them +belonged the great merit of grasping in some sort the true meaning of +North America, and never letting slip the problems of the future. + +{148} [Sidenote: _The search for the Western sea._] + +The explorers' aim was always to reach the further sea. That it must +be somewhere to the west, in the opposite direction to the homes from +whence they came, they knew or conjectured; but of the immense +distance at which it lay, and of the Rocky Mountain barrier which +must be surmounted to find it, they were wholly ignorant. They +followed the water, and, when they had gained some knowledge of the +great lakes, they reached the closely adjoining sources of the +tributaries of the Mississippi, the Wisconsin, the Ohio, and the +Illinois; and, borne with the stream, they came in due course not to +the west but to the south, not to the Pacific but to the Gulf of +Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _The missionaries and Western discovery._] + +There was the usual mixture of motives--love of adventure, love of +gain, political ambition, religious fervour. There was rivalry and +competition. One trader or band of traders was jealous of another. +One man or set of men was backed by the Governor for the time being, +another secured the favour of the Intendant. Missionaries played a +great part in exploration. At first they led the van of discovery; +they were always in or near the front rank; but, as years went on, +and as the simple desire of adding to geographical knowledge, of +opening new fields for France and for Christianity, became more and +more alloyed with commercial greed, the ministers of religion, when +heart-whole themselves, realized that the multiplication of trading +posts in the backwoods meant lawlessness of white men, deterioration +of natives; and they no longer gave hearty support to the bold French +adventurers whose enterprise opened up the West. + +[Sidenote: _The gates of the waterways of Canada._] + +It will be noticed, on reference to a map of Canada--or rather of +that part of the Dominion which was comprised in New France--not only +that there is water communication from end to end, from the extreme +west of Lake Superior to the Atlantic, but also that there are very +distinct points along the way, which are, so to speak, natural +toll-bars, {149} where the waters narrow, where the rivers or lakes +meet. Here the explorer must pass to reach a goal beyond; here the +trader could intercept traffic; here the missionary was sure to find +Indians to be converted, and _coureurs de bois_ to be reclaimed; +these were the places which must be occupied by the would-be +sovereigns of North America. Consequently, at these points of vantage +along the route, at one time and another, mission stations, trading +posts, and forts were planted. + +Montreal itself, at the head of the colony, at the beginning of its +hinterland, commanded the junction of the Ottawa and the St. +Lawrence. At Cataraqui, where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake Ontario, +Fort Frontenac was built. A little above the outlet of the Niagara +river into Lake Ontario and below the falls, another French fort was +reared, Fort Niagara; while on the channel between Lakes Erie and +Huron was the fort of Detroit. The Iroquois, as we have seen, knew as +well as the French the value of these positions: they feared and +resented the building of the forts, as limiting the range of their +power, and taking from them the control of the fur trade. On the +upper lakes there were at least two posts of prime importance: one +was the Sault St. Marie at the junction of Lake Huron and Lake +Superior, the other was Michillimackinac at the junction of Lake +Huron and Lake Michigan. It must not be supposed that the points +mentioned were occupied in chronological order, as they have been +enumerated above; or that there was any regular series of occupants, +that the explorer came first, followed by the missionary, the trader, +and so forth: but the net result was that French enterprise and +French statesmanship took and kept the gateways on the highroad of +Upper Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Lake Michigan._] + +[Sidenote: _Michillimackinac._] + +[Sidenote: _Green Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _The route to the Mississippi from Green Bay,_] + +Lake Michigan was known to the French as the 'Lac des Illinois.' The +narrows where it joins Lake Huron were the straits of +Michillimackinac, now Mackinac or Mackinaw; and on their northern +side stood the trading station of the {150} same name, and the +mission of St. Ignace. Within the straits on the western side, is a +large indentation, forming a sheet of water which runs south-west, +nearly parallel to the main lake. This was at first called, after +certain Indians who lived on its shores, the Baie des Puans; but it +was subsequently named the Grande Baie, and this title was corrupted +into Green Bay, its present name. The Fox river flows into the head +of Green Bay, and, if the upward course of this river is followed +through Lake Winnebago and beyond, a point is reached at which the +waters of the Wisconsin river are not more than a mile and a half +distant. The Wisconsin is a tributary of the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _and from the end of Lake Michigan._] + +A slightly longer portage was needed to reach the Mississippi basin +from the end of Lake Michigan. Still it was a matter of very few +miles to leave the lake, where the city of Chicago now stands, and to +strike one or other of the branches of the Illinois river, the +nearest being the stream known as Des Plaines. Canoes launched on +that stream were carried down into the Illinois, and so to the +Mississippi at a point far south of its confluence with the +Wisconsin. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio route._] + +For adventurers bold enough to diverge from the line of lakes, and to +pass overland within reach of the dreaded Five Nations, there was yet +a third route, more direct than the other two, to the great river. It +was a route well known in after years, and followed the course of the +Ohio. The Ohio, the 'beautiful river,' for such is the meaning of its +name,[1] is formed by the junction of two rivers, the Alleghany and +the Monongahela. At their junction, in the middle of the eighteenth +century, the French founded Fort Duquesne, and where Fort Duquesne +stood is now the city of Pittsburg. The northern branch, the +Alleghany, takes its rise near the southern shore of Lake Erie. One +of its affluents flows out of Lake Chautauqua, about eight miles +south of Lake Erie, at the point where there is now the small town of +Portland; {151} another, the Riviere aux Boeufs, now called French +Creek, is very little further from the lake, over against Presque Ile +and the present town of Erie. A day's march through the forest would +therefore bring a traveller from Lake Erie to a stream which, when in +full volume, would carry his canoe into the Alleghany, the Ohio, and +so to the Mississippi far down its course. No wonder the line of the +Ohio became, when geographical knowledge had made some way, a central +feature in French politics and French strategy in North America. + +[Footnote 1: The name was given it by the Iroquois.] + +[Sidenote: _The head waters of the Mississippi closely adjoin the St. +Lawrence basin._] + +From the above it will be seen how closely the head waters of the +Mississippi adjoin the St. Lawrence basin, how short the land journey +was from the one to the other. The natives of North America made +exploration difficult, but from a geographical point of view, the +discoverer's path was comparatively easy. + +[Sidenote: _Early exploration on the upper lakes._] + +The upper lakes, Lakes Huron and Superior, were visited and explored +before there was any adequate knowledge of Lakes Ontario and Erie, +and there is no record of white men passing from Lake Erie to Lake +Huron by the strait of Detroit before the year 1670. The Five Nations +barred the upper St. Lawrence, and the Niagara river and portage; but +they did not control to the same extent the alternative route from +Montreal to Lake Huron by the Ottawa river. Thus it was that the +Jesuits found their way to the Hurons, on Georgian Bay, long before +any mission enterprise was attempted on the lower lakes, and as early +as 1640 there were Jesuit missionaries at the outlet of Lake +Superior, the Sault St. Marie. Later, after the dispersion of the +Hurons, there was for a while a mission at the western end of Lake +Superior, the place being known as La Pointe, and the mission as the +mission of St. Esprit. + +[Sidenote: _Jean Nicollet._] + +The first white man to reach Lake Michigan was Jean Nicollet. He was +a native of Cherbourg, and had come to Canada as early as 1618. +Sojourning among the Nipissing {152} Indians, he heard from them of +the western tribes; and, listening to Indian tales, seems to have +conjectured that a people might be reached in the far West who could +be none other than Chinese. With these pictures in his mind, he went, +about 1635, as an ambassador of peace to the Puans or Winnebagos, who +dwelt on the Green Bay of Michigan, and arrived among them, so the +story goes, in an embroidered dress of Chinese damask, as being +appropriate to the people whom he hoped to find. He did not find +Chinamen, but came near finding the Mississippi; and a claim was made +in after years on his behalf that he actually was the first +discoverer of that river. The claim however must be disallowed, and +the honour of discovering the great river belongs to the two +Frenchmen, Joliet and Marquette, who did not reach it till 1673. + +[Sidenote: _Promoters of discovery._] + +After the destruction of the Huron missions, it was difficult enough +for some years to keep life in the struggling colony of New France; +and it was not until the King had taken Canada in hand, had sent out +soldiers and settlers, had commissioned Tracy and Courcelles to curb +the Iroquois, and the Intendant, Talon, to introduce order and +system, that progress was made in exploring and opening up the West. +The promoters of exploration were Talon himself, before he returned +to France; and subsequently the Governor, Frontenac; the Sulpician +and Jesuit missionaries, especially the latter; and laymen +adventurers, the foremost of whom was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la +Salle. La Salle's name is for all time connected with the +Mississippi, but Joliet and Marquette were before him in reaching the +main river. + +[Sidenote: _Joliet and Marquette._] + +Of these two companions in travel, Louis Joliet was a layman, though +connected with the Jesuits by early training. Born in Canada, he had +been sent by Talon to look for copper by Lake Superior, and was +subsequently picked out to discover the mysterious river. Jacques +Marquette was a Jesuit priest, of the earlier and purer type--a +saintly man, {153} humble and single in mind, who early wore his life +away in labouring for his faith. He had come out from France in 1666, +and about the year 1668 was sent as a missionary to the upper lakes. +On the shores of Lake Superior he ministered to Huron and Ottawa +refugees at the mission of St. Esprit, where he heard from Illinois +visitors of the great river, and from which point, though he knew it +not, one feeder of the Mississippi, the St. Croix river, is at no +great distance. A Sioux raid broke up the mission, and with the +retreating Hurons he established himself at Michillimackinac, where, +about 1670, he founded the mission of St. Ignace. About the same +time, a mission was also established at the head of Green Bay, and +from this point the two travellers, at the end of May, 1673, went +forward to the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _They reach the Mississippi._] + +The course up the Fox river and across Lake Winnebago had already +been taken by other missionaries, who had not, however, gone as far +as the Wisconsin. That river was now reached, and on June 17 it +carried the explorers' canoes out into the Mississippi. Down stream +they went, past the mouths of the Illinois, the Missouri, and the +Ohio, until they came to the confluence of the Arkansas river. There +they turned, assured in their own minds that the outlet of the +Mississippi was in the Gulf of Mexico--not, as had been supposed, in +the Gulf of California--and fearing lest, if they lost their lives at +the hands of Indians or of Spaniards,[2] the tale of their discovery +might be lost also. They came back by way of the Illinois and Des +Plaines rivers, made the portage to Lake Michigan, and reached Green +Bay at the end of September, having made known to white men the great +river of the West. + +[Footnote 2: The lower Mississippi had long been known to the +Spaniards.] + +[Sidenote: _Their return._] + +[Sidenote: _Marquette's second journey and death._] + +Joliet went back to Quebec to report to the Governor, losing all his +papers by the way in the rapids of Lachine. He lived to visit Hudson +Bay and the coasts of Labrador. Marquette, in broken health, stayed +rather more than a year {154} at the Green Bay mission. Then, in the +winter of 1674-5, accompanied by two French _voyageurs_, he revisited +the Illinois river, carrying for the last time his message of +Christianity to savages, who heard him gladly, and followed him back, +a dying man, as far as Lake Michigan. In the month of May he embarked +on the lake, making for Michillimackinac; but, as he went, the end +came, and he was put on shore to die. His companions buried him at +the lonely spot where he died, but at a later date his bones were +brought to Michillimackinac by Indians who had loved him well, and +were laid to rest with all reverence in the chapel of his own +mission. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle._] + +[Sidenote: _His Seigniory at Lachine._] + +Marquette, like David Livingstone at a later date, was a missionary +explorer. He was carried forward by a faith which could remove +mountains. La Salle was cast in another mould. His gift was not +religious enthusiasm, but the set purpose of a resolute, masterful +man, who made a life-study of his subject. He was born at Rouen, the +birthplace of much western enterprise, and went to Canada in the same +year as Marquette, the year 1666. An elder brother, who was a +Sulpician priest, had gone out before him; and from the Sulpicians, +as feudal lords of the island of Montreal, La Salle obtained a grant +of the Seigniory of Lachine, eight miles higher up the river than +Montreal itself. Here he laid out a settlement, but, as the name 'La +Chine' testifies,[3] his mind was set on finding a route to China and +the East, and in 1669 he gave up his grant, receiving compensation +for improvements, and spent what little money he had in beginning his +work of discovery. + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 53.] + +[Sidenote: _He reaches the Ohio._] + +His early wanderings have not been clearly traced, but there is no +reason to doubt that, in the years 1669-71, he found his way from +Lakes Ontario and Erie through the Iroquois country to the Ohio. It +was perhaps a more difficult feat to accomplish than the subsequent +discovery of {155} the Mississippi by way of the lakes. The land +journey was longer, and took the explorer well within range of the +Five Nations. His success proved his capacity for treating with +natives--a quality in which he resembled his staunch friend and +supporter Count Frontenac. + +[Sidenote: _His character._] + +Among white men he had, like Frontenac, many enemies, suspicious +priests and jealous merchants. The Jesuits had little love for a man +who had no love for them; and the Canadian merchants regarded him as +a dangerous rival, recognizing no doubt the element of tenacity in +his character. It was the character of one who could hold as well as +find, and who was not likely to rest content with the barren honours +of discovery. There were in him contradictory elements, and his +strength was balanced by failings, which became more conspicuous in +the later stages of his adventurous career. He was not in all points +a typical Frenchman. He had, it is true, address in dealing with +North American Indians; he could lay his case well before the Court +and the ministers of France. He enjoyed the friendship and +countenance of Count Frontenac, and from more than one of his +companions in travel, notably Henri de Tonty, he won unbounded +devotion. But he was wanting, as a leader, in tact and sympathy. +Solitary and self-contained, facing all dangers, enduring all +privations, he spared neither himself nor others. Mutiny and +desertion were in consequence rife amongst those who served him, and +in the end he lost his life at the hands of his own followers. He had +statesmanlike conceptions. He mapped out New France, in his own mind, +as extending from sea to sea, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to that +of Mexico. Like other Frenchmen, he went too far and tried to do too +much; but, if he made mistakes, he was at least no visionary. Until +the last stage of his career, his ends were clearly kept in view, and +he measured the means to attain them, though he did not always +measure aright. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle at Fort Frontenac._] + +He gave up one Seigniory to find the Ohio. It was not {156} long +before he obtained another. Count Frontenac came out to govern +Canada, for the first time, in 1672; and determined, as has been +told,[4] to build a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario. Guided, it +would seem, by La Salle's advice, he built it in 1673, at the mouth +of the Cataraqui river. In 1675, La Salle, who had paid a visit to +France in the autumn of the previous year, became by royal grant +Seignior of the new fort and settlement, to which he gave the name of +Fort Frontenac. It was a strong position to hold, whether for making +money by trade or for prosecuting westward discovery; and bitter was +the jealousy against the young Frenchman, who, at thirty-two years of +age, and after no more than nine years' residence in Canada, had in +spite of strong opposition achieved so much. + +[Footnote 4: See above, p. 108.] + +[Sidenote: _His plans for Western discovery._] + +Two years he remained at Cataraqui, rebuilding and strengthening the +fort, clearing the ground and constructing small vessels for trading +purposes on Lake Ontario: then, ready to move forward again, he went +back to France in 1677, and laid before the King and Colbert a +further memorial for permission to discover and colonize the +countries of the West. He asked to be confirmed in his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac, to be allowed to establish two other stations, and to +be given rights as Seignior and Governor over whatever lands he might +discover and colonize within twenty years. He promised, if his +request were granted, to plant a colony at the outlet of Lake Erie, +and to waive all claim to any share in the trade between the Indians +of the western lakes and Canada. + +[Sidenote: _He is given a royal patent._] + +These conditions are worth special note. La Salle was prepared to +assure to France one more link in the chain of rivers and lakes: he +was prepared too to disarm trading jealousy by renouncing any plans +for intercepting the existing fur trade. He asked in return for a +free hand to the south-west, in the lands of the Ohio, the Illinois, +and the Mississippi. The answer of the King, given in May, 1678, was +permission 'to labour at the discovery of the western parts of New +France {157} ... through which to all appearance a way may be found +to Mexico,'[5] and for that purpose to build forts and enjoy +possession of them as at Fort Frontenac. The concession was limited +to five years; and, while a monopoly in buffalo skins was granted to +the petitioner, he was prohibited, as he had contemplated, from +trading with the tribes whose furs came down to Montreal. + +[Footnote 5: Quoted by Parkman in his _La Salle_ (11th ed.), p. 112.] + +[Sidenote: _Henri de Tonty._] + +[Sidenote: _Father Hennepin._] + +Having secured this patent, La Salle raised funds in France for the +furtherance of his enterprise; and in July, 1678, set sail from La +Rochelle to Canada, taking with him an Italian officer, Tonty, who +had been recommended to him by the Prince de Conti, and whose +subsequent faithfulness to his leader became almost proverbial. A +companion of a different kind joined him on his return to Canada, +Father Hennepin, a Flemish friar, a brave and sturdy traveller, but a +man of great personal vanity and convicted of telling more than +travellers' tales. He published an account of his travels in La +Salle's lifetime, and, after his death, put forth a new edition,[6] +claiming to have anticipated La Salle in descending the Mississippi +to the sea. The story has been proved to be an absolute imposture, +the more discreditable that it was an attempt to rob a dead man of +honour dearly bought. + +[Footnote 6: The first book, published at Paris in 1683, was entitled +_Description de la Louisiane nouvellement decouverte_. The second, +published at Utrecht in 1697, was headed _Nouvelle decouverte d'un +tres grand pays situe dans l'Amerique_.] + +[Sidenote: _La Salle builds a fort at Niagara._] + +On his return from France, La Salle dispatched a party of men in +advance to Lake Michigan, to trade and to collect stores against his +own arrival. He then set himself, taking Fort Frontenac as his basis, +to plant a post at the mouth of the Niagara river below the falls; +and, above the falls, to build a ship of some appreciable size for +the navigation of the upper lakes. The plan was well thought out. He +would hold both ends of Lake Ontario; and, the continuity of advance +being broken by the falls of Niagara, he would have, above the {158} +falls, an armed vessel plying for merchandise between Niagara and the +end of Lake Michigan, where again there should be another fort or +factory to safeguard the portage to the waters of the Mississippi. + +[Sidenote: _Suspicions of the Senecas._] + +It was specially necessary to hold both ends of Lake Ontario, for +here was the land of the Senecas. Jealously and sullenly they watched +the Frenchmen's work, through the winter of 1678-9, not wholly +reassured by a visit from La Salle himself to the chief town of the +tribe; but they attempted no armed opposition. Thus the beginning was +made of the first Fort Niagara,[7] on the eastern bank of the river, +in the angle formed by its junction with Lake Ontario; while on the +same side of the water, five miles above the falls, where a stream +called the Cayuga creek enters the main river, a ship was built +bearing the name and the emblem of the _Griffin_, the appropriate +arms of truculent Count Frontenac. + +[Footnote 7: Denonville's fort, referred to above, p 111, was a later +structure.] + +[Sidenote: _The voyage of the 'Griffin' to Michillimackinac._] + +[Sidenote: _Loss of the ship._] + +On August 7, 1679, the _Griffin_ started on her voyage up Lake Erie. +On the tenth--the feast of Sainte Claire--she had passed up the +Detroit river and was in Lake St. Clair. Against the strong current +of the St. Clair river, she found her way into Lake Huron, and, +buffeted by storm and wind, reached in the course of the same month +the mission of St. Ignace at Michillimackinac. Of the advanced party +of traders sent there in the previous year, some had deserted; +others, who remained true, were found at Green Bay with a rich store +of furs; and on the eighteenth of September La Salle parted with his +vessel, sending her to carry back the furs to the portage at Niagara. +He never saw the ship again, and her fate was never known. +Foundering, it would seem, in Lake Michigan, she left her owner to +wait in vain for her return, in want of food, in want of stores for +his onward march, with followers whom he could not trust, with Indian +tribes to master or appease, with winter making the way harder and +the wilderness more drear. + +{159} [Sidenote: _La Salle builds a fort at the end of Lake +Michigan._] + +[Sidenote: _He descends the Illinois river._] + +After dispatching the _Griffin_ homeward, La Salle pushed on in +canoes to the south-eastern end of Lake Michigan. There, at the mouth +of the St. Joseph river, which he called the Miami, he built a fort. +December came on, but forward he went, up the St. Joseph, across to +the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois, and down that stream and +the Illinois river to where the Illinois Indians were encamped for +the time near the present town of Peoria. His plan had been to build +another ship on the Illinois, and sail down that river and the +Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _He builds Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _He returns to Canada._] + +The new year, 1680, opened badly for his enterprise. The Indians were +suspicious, his men were deserting, no news had come of the ill-fated +_Griffin_. Yet he held staunchly to his purpose. Again he reared a +fort--Fort Crevecoeur--a little lower down the Illinois than the +Indian camp, and again in the far-off wilds, in dead of winter, he +turned his men to shipbuilding. Without fittings and supplies it was +impossible to proceed, and, accordingly, he determined to go back +himself and bring the needed stores. Leaving Tonty in charge of the +fort, he retraced his steps to Lake Michigan. At Fort Miami he learnt +beyond question the loss of the _Griffin_. Across the then unknown +peninsula of Michigan he took his way, reached the Detroit river, +struck Lake Erie, and, passing by way of Niagara, arrived at Fort +Frontenac in sixty-five days from leaving the Illinois, having in +March and April achieved a feat of travel almost unparalleled even in +the early history of Canada. Going down to Montreal, he obtained +supplies, and again set his face undaunted to the West. + +[Sidenote: _He goes back to the West._] + +[Sidenote: _Iroquois raid on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _Tonty lost_] + +As he came and went, he heard of nothing but disaster. The men left +at Fort Crevecoeur under Tonty's command broke out in open mutiny, +and some of them were intercepted on their way back to Fort +Frontenac, having destroyed the forts on the Illinois and St. Joseph, +looted their employer's property at Michillimackinac and Niagara, and +being minded {160} to crown their villainy by killing La Salle +himself. They met their fate--were shot or imprisoned--and La Salle +pushed on to Tonty's succour. Towards the close of the year he was +back on the Illinois river, only to find a scene of utter desolation. +In his absence, the Iroquois had invaded the land and swept all +before them. Skeletons of men and women, empty huts, an abandoned +fort, the hull of a half-built ship, all told a tale of brutish +warfare and a ruined enterprise. Tonty was not to be found; and, +after following the Illinois down to its confluence with the +Mississippi, La Salle returned to Lake Michigan, and wintered on the +St. Joseph river at Fort Miami, which had been destroyed by the +mutineers but was again rebuilt. + +[Sidenote: _and found._] + +[Sidenote: _His adventures._] + +With the spring of 1681 there came a gleam of hope. The western +Indians, terror-stricken by the Iroquois--and Indian immigrants from +the east, driven out by the English colonists--gathered for +protection to the brave, enduring Frenchman, took him for their +leader, and hearkened to his word. News came that Tonty was in safety +at Green Bay; and at length, about the end of May, La Salle and he +joined hands again at Michillimackinac. Tonty had a tale of heroism +to tell. Left in charge of the garrison at Fort Crevecoeur, he had +gone, according to his leader's instructions, to prospect a site for +a fort a little higher up the river. When his back was turned, his +followers destroyed the fort, carried off the stores, and left him +with five other Frenchmen, two of whom were Recollet friars, among +the Illinois Indians. True to his trust, he stayed among them, when +the hordes of the Five Nations broke in, bent on destruction. Between +the contending forces he held his life in the balance, vainly +striving to stem the tide of massacre; and, having done all that man +could do, found his way back to the lakes, saved by his own fearless +honesty and by respect for the French name. + +[Sidenote: _Hennepin's travels on the upper Mississippi._] + +[Sidenote: _Du Luth._] + +Of the expedition which started in the ill-fated _Griffin_, there was +still another prominent member to be accounted {161} for. This was +Father Hennepin. Before La Salle turned home from Fort Crevecoeur in +the spring of 1680, he sent two Frenchmen of his company, and with +them Father Hennepin, to explore and to trade on the upper +Mississippi. Hennepin and his companions went down the Illinois; and, +ascending the Mississippi, fell among the Sioux or Dakota Indians. +Carried off to the Sioux lodges, in the present State of Minnesota, +the Frenchmen sojourned among them for some months, half captives and +half guests, until they were found by Du Luth, fur-trader and +_coureur de bois_, who had already explored these regions, and had +crossed from Lake Superior to the Mississippi by the line of the St. +Croix river. In his company, Hennepin returned up the Wisconsin; and, +before the year 1680 ended, was safe at Michillimackinac. In the +following year he went back to Montreal; and soon afterwards, +returning to Europe, published the book to which reference has +already been made. He was the first European to describe the upper +Mississippi and its tributaries, and the Falls of St. Anthony +preserve the name of his patron saint--St. Anthony of Padua. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle descends the Mississippi._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Prudhomme built on the Mississippi._] + +The descent to the sea, which in after years he falsely claimed to +have made, was soon afterwards achieved by La Salle. After rejoining +Tonty at Michillimackinac, he went back with him to Fort Frontenac +and Montreal, and once more procured men and money to renew his +enterprise. Again turning west, he reached Fort Miami late in the +autumn of 1681, and on the shortest day his expedition left Lake +Michigan. Crossing from the St. Joseph to the Chicago creek, and from +the latter to the Des Plaines river, the northern tributary of the +Illinois, they embarked--fifty-four Frenchmen and Indians, including +thirteen women and children--in six canoes, and took their way +steadily down stream. They joined the Mississippi, they passed the +mouths of the Missouri and Ohio. Halfway between the Ohio and the +Arkansas, {162} on the east bank of the Mississippi, they built and +manned a small wooden fort, naming it Fort Prudhomme after one of +their number who for a while lost himself in the woods. Again holding +on their course, under softer skies than those of Canada, they +reached the mouth of the Arkansas river, whence Joliet and Marquette +had turned back; and there, among friendly and wondering Indians, +they proclaimed the French King lord of the land. Below the Arkansas +they came to other Indian tribes, such as the Spaniards had known, +who, under dome-shaped roofs, worshipped the sun. At length the river +parted into three channels, as it neared the sea; and, dividing into +three parties, the bold voyagers soon met again on the shore of the +Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle reaches the Gulf of Mexico._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisiana._] + +It was April 9, 1682, when, on the southernmost edge of the new +domain, a column was reared inscribed with the arms of France and +with the name of _Louis le Grand_. The secret of the great river was +won at last, from its source to its mouth; and, claiming all the +lands which it watered for the Crown of France,[8] La Salle called +them by the name 'Louisiana.' + +[Footnote 8: In La Salle's proclamation the basin of the Ohio was +excluded from Louisiana, as the words are 'from the mouth of the +great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio' (Parkman's _La +Salle_, 12th ed., p. 286).] + +[Sidenote: _He returns up stream._] + +[Sidenote: _The colony on the Illinois._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort St. Louis._] + +His canoes could not face the open sea, so the explorers retraced +their course up stream. They suffered from want of food, the natives +attacked them, and La Salle himself was sorely stricken by fever, +which kept him many weeks at Fort Prudhomme. It was not till +September that he reached Michillimackinac, and rejoined Tonty, who +had gone on before him. The winter of 1682-3 was spent in +establishing a colony of French and Indians on the Illinois. The +place selected for the purpose was on the southern bank of the river, +some distance above the site of Fort Crevecoeur, where a high +precipitous cliff towered over wood and stream. The rock had been +marked by La Salle in his former sojourn on {163} the river, and it +was during Tonty's visit to the spot[9] that Fort Crevecoeur was +looted and left. Had the Illinois river been the Rhine, the rock +would in mediaeval times have been crowned by the castle of a border +noble; and on its summit was now built a wooden fort, Fort St. Louis +of the Illinois. Round the fort the Indians gathered for protection +and for trade, the peasantry as it were of the western wilderness, +clustering under the shelter of a feudal stronghold; for in virtue of +the royal patent, La Salle was the Seignior of the place. It promised +to be a strong outpost of French dominion, if its connexion with +Canada was kept intact. + +[Footnote 9: See above, p. 160. A full description of the rock, known +afterwards as 'Starved Rock,' is given in Parkman's _La Salle_ (12th +ed.), pp. 293-4, and note.] + +[Sidenote: _Opposition to La Salle in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _He returns to France._] + +New France was made by a few individual men, of whom La Salle was +one. Their work was perpetually undone by want of efficient +co-operation, or rather by efficient antagonism, on the part of their +fellow countrymen. Fort Frontenac, Niagara, armed and trading vessels +on the upper lakes, Fort Miami, where the lakes end, a fort on the +Illinois--constituted the basis of a scheme worthy of support, but +support was wanting. Frontenac had been recalled in 1682; and his +successor, La Barre, leagued with the enemies of La Salle, cut off +his supplies, detained his men, maligned him to the King, seized his +Seigniory at Fort Frontenac, and sent an officer to take possession +of the fort on the Illinois. La Salle had but one remedy left, to +appeal to the King in person; and with that object he sailed for +France in 1683, never to see Canada again. His troubled fighting life +was soon to end, and its closing scenes were crowded with disaster. +He seems to some extent to have lost his balance, to have acted with +insufficient knowledge, and to have changed hardihood into +recklessness. Yet in all that he attempted there was continuity of +aim from first to last, and his final wild adventure, as it seemed to +be, had its bearing on the story of the Canadian Dominion. + +{164} The patent, which had been given to him in 1678, authorized +discovery, trade, and the building of forts, but said nothing of +founding colonies. The policy of the French Government was always in +the main a forward policy; but the French King and his ministers had +the good sense to discourage proposals for colonizing the backwoods, +because they saw the obvious danger of dispersing through a large +area the scanty population of New France. It was therefore easy for +La Salle's enemies to denounce his schemes as opposed to the royal +will, as drawing off colonists from the St. Lawrence, where they were +sorely needed, and teaching the able-bodied men of Canada to become +not _habitans_ but _coureurs de bois_. These were the charges which +La Salle had to rebut. He met them by propounding a still bolder plan +than his former ventures, and he induced the King to give his +sanction to an enterprise for French colonization on the shores of +the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _His schemes for colonization on the Gulf of Mexico._] + +It happened that, at the date when he arrived in Paris, there was bad +blood between France and Spain, resulting for a short space in open +war. The Spaniards claimed to exclude French ships from the Gulf of +Mexico, and King Louis, with his minister Seignelay, Colbert's son, +contemplated meeting these claims by taking and holding a post on the +Gulf. Some scheme of the kind had already been submitted to them by a +Spanish refugee from Peru, Count Penalossa by name; and when La Salle +advanced similar proposals, suggesting the establishment of a French +colony on or near the mouth of the Mississippi, to be connected with +Canada, and to be the basis for attacking and conquering the northern +province of Mexico, New Biscay, his words fell on willing ears. He +spoke with authority. Alone among Frenchmen at the Court of France, +he had reached the mouth of the great river, and could tell to a +King, with lust of conquest, a story of lands to be won for France, +and of peoples ready to follow her lead. + +{165} [Sidenote: _The plan accepted, and La Salle reinstated in +favour._] + +The result was that La Salle's rivals in Canada were discomfited, and +peremptory orders were sent to La Barre to restore his Seigniory at +Fort Frontenac and his station on the Illinois; while an expedition, +destined for the Gulf of Mexico, was fitted out at La Rochelle, and +eventually sailed on July 24, 1684. + +[Sidenote: _La Salle's motives._] + +What was in La Salle's mind in suggesting this southern adventure can +only be conjectured. Was it the last desperate stake of a ruined +gambler? Or was it an over-sanguine attempt to realize the great +object of his life, to master the far West by moving up instead of +down its waterways, by entering not through Canada, where every step +would be dogged by jealousy and intrigue, but through the mouths of +the Mississippi, where climate and natives would be less formidable +foes than the Governor of Canada and his unscrupulous clique of +confederates? If, as it is reasonable to suppose, he still clung with +the determination of his character to the western enterprise, in +which he had already achieved so much, he added to it a +highly-coloured picture of conquest in Mexico; and he drew his map of +Mexico as adjoining the lands on the Mississippi, omitting in +ignorance most of the wide area of intervening territory, now +included in the State of Texas. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition sails._] + +[Sidenote: _It reaches the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico._] + +[Sidenote: _Landing on the shores of Texas._] + +Four vessels set sail, freighted with all things necessary to found a +colony, carrying soldiers, artisans, married women, and young girls. +They were a doomed company; from first to last all went wrong. There +was divided command, and Beaujeu, the admiral of the ships, a Norman +like La Salle, had with some reason little confidence in the +expedition or its leader. They made in the first instance for St. +Domingo, but one of the four ships which was carrying the stores was +cut off by Spanish buccaneers before reaching the island. At St. +Domingo, La Salle was laid low with fever; and, while he was between +life and death, his followers rioted and sickened on shore. After a +delay of two months, the {166} expedition started again, weakened by +desertion and disease. The ships entered the Gulf of Mexico, +passed--without knowing it--the mouths of the Mississippi, and on New +Year's Day, 1685, anchored off the coast of Texas. Somewhere on this +coast, in the vicinity either of Matagorda Bay or of Galveston Bay, +La Salle effected a landing, where a series of lagoons that lined the +shore concealed, as he thought, the main outlet of the Mississippi. +Disaster still attended the enterprise: one of the ships was wrecked +on the reefs, the natives of the land proved unfriendly; and when +Beaujeu, the admiral, having given what help he could, sailed away in +the middle of March, he left behind on desolate shores a despondent +band of French men and women groping for a river which could not be +found, in present trouble and without clear guidance for the future. + +[Sidenote: _Founding of Fort St. Louis._] + +[Sidenote: _Distress of the settlement._] + +[Sidenote: _Attempt to reach Canada._] + +Skirting the sea-line, the would-be colonists had reached a large +bay, into the head of which a river ran; and on the banks of this +stream La Salle formed a settlement, to which, as to his colony on +the Illinois, he gave the name of Fort St. Louis. Gathered within +palisades, the settlers worked and waited, dwindling in numbers, +while their leader explored, but explored in vain. Setting out at the +end of October, 1685, La Salle returned in the following March, +having accomplished nothing and having lost his last vessel, a small +frigate, the _Belle_. Again in a month's time, towards the end of +April, 1686, he set out to make his way to Canada; once more, in +October, he returned to the fort, baffled and disappointed. His +followers were sadly reduced in numbers: of some 180, no more than +forty-five were left; and of them he could trust but few. Return to +France was cut off, and from France time had shown that no help was +forthcoming. There was no alternative but to make one more attempt to +reach Canada, and thence to bring rescue to the fort in Texas. + +[Sidenote: _Death of La Salle._] + +It was a forlorn hope at best, but the attempt was made. {167} Half +of the company remained at the fort. The others, including La Salle's +brother, the Abbe Cavelier, and two young nephews, followed La Salle +himself on his northward journey. It was on January 7, 1687, that the +party set out to make their way painfully over prairies, across +rivers, through forest, thicket, and scrub. On March 19, near the +Trinity river, La Salle fell dead, ambushed and shot by his own men. +No career ever had a more squalid or pitiable ending. It ended in +commonplace mutiny and murder. Three or four scoundrels, discontented +and badly handled, nursed their personal grudges against a severe and +domineering leader, until, in an outbreak of irritation, they killed +three of his immediate following and the leader himself. + +[Sidenote: _Fate of his company._] + +The brother escaped; so did one of the nephews, and Joutel, a +gardener's son from Rouen--the most honest and capable of the +band--who afterwards told the unvarnished tale. They companied for a +while with the murderers, roaming among the Indians of the west, +until one and another of the guilty men fell by each other's hands or +strayed into savagery. In the end seven Frenchmen, with the help of +Indian guides, reached the Arkansas river, found an outpost +established there by Tonty, made their way thence to the Illinois, +and so to Canada and France. On the Illinois and in Canada they +concealed, from policy or fear, the fact of La Salle's death. In the +dead man's name his brother, the coward priest, obtained from Tonty +advances for his home journey; and it was not till after he was safe +in Europe, in the autumn of 1688, that the tragedy came to light. + +[Sidenote: _Indifference in France as to La Salle's death._] + +Few seemed to care. A man had gone, who by the age of forty-three had +achieved great deeds, had dared and suffered much; but he was a man +who had few friends and many enemies, and he served a Government in +whose eyes failure was a crime, and to which gratitude was unknown. +{168} An order was given that, if the murderers reappeared in Canada, +they should be arrested, and with that order the name of La Salle +passed out of official ken. + +[Sidenote: _Extermination of the colony in Texas._] + +[Sidenote: _Tonty's faithfulness._] + +The Government made no attempt to relieve the hapless exiles in +Texas. They were left to perish, just as, many years before, the +Huguenot settlers in Florida had been abandoned and betrayed. Tonty +alone was mindful of his friend. Already, in 1686, before La Salle +had started on his last march, he had descended the Mississippi to +its mouth, and had searched the coast in vain, hoping to bring +succour and relief; and when, in the autumn of 1688, he knew the full +truth, again he started, to save if possible the remnant of the +expedition. He penetrated to the Red river and beyond, but could not +reach the fort in Texas; and it was from Spanish sources that the +fate of the last settlers was afterwards known. An expedition from +Mexico, sent to root out the intruders, found the fort a desolate +ruin. The Indians had been beforehand in the work of destruction, and +had butchered or carried off the inmates, two or three of whom +exchanged captivity among savages for Spanish prisons. + +[Sidenote: _Importance of La Salle's work._] + +Such was the end of La Salle's last venture--misery, ruin, death, +and, for the time, comparative oblivion. Yet his name lives in +history and deserves to live, and his work was not all undone. We +look back not merely on his hardihood and his sufferings. We see in +him not only an explorer of the boldest type; but he stands out +pre-eminently as the man, who, above all others, grasped the +conception of a North American dominion, which should be from sea to +sea--based on the great geographical factor in North America, its +nearly continuous water communication--and in which the natives of +North America should be banded together in war and peace, under the +leadership of France. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth +of the Mississippi, by river and lake, his vision was that Frenchmen +and their native subjects should come and go, carrying from fort to +{169} fort, from settlement to settlement, the produce of forest and +prairie, the wealth of the West. + +It was a great conception, too great to be realized; but it +harmonized with the genius of the French people. Their gift was to be +ever moving, their strength was not to sit still. What success they +won was on the lines that La Salle marked out. With all his failures, +he knew the land and he knew his race. + +[Sidenote: _Colonization of Louisiana by Iberville._] + +The eighteenth century had not ended before the colonization of +Louisiana became more than a dream. Tonty continued to urge it. The +English threatened to take it in hand; Spain was reasserting her +claim to the ownership of the Gulf of Mexico; and, lest the French +should be excluded altogether, Le Moyne d'Iberville, best of Canadian +leaders, obtained permission to sail for the Mississippi. More +skilful than La Salle, or better informed, he reached its mouth in +March, 1699; but the first settlements were made to the east of the +river, at Biloxi in the present State of Mississippi, and on Mobile +Bay. It was not till the year 1718 that the city of New Orleans was +first founded by Bienville, Iberville's brother, who at intervals +governed Louisiana for many years. Bandied about from Crown to +company, and from company to Crown, the prey of speculators, the +scene, like Canada itself, of artificial settlement and regulated +colonization, Louisiana made but slow progress. Yet in time it became +a factor to be reckoned with in North American history, and to +connect it with Canada was in the eighteenth century the aim of the +rulers of New France. + +[Sidenote: _The Illinois abandoned by the French._] + +In 1702, Tonty left Fort St. Louis on the Illinois to join Iberville +in the south, and, except for a few years at a little later date, +that fort was abandoned. The Indians, too, who had gathered round it, +dispersed; some of them moved down to the Mississippi; and connexion +between Canada and Louisiana was afterwards sought not so much by the +Illinois river, as by the line of the Ohio, the earliest scene of La +Salle's discoveries. + + + + +{170} + +CHAPTER VI + +ACADIA AND HUDSON BAY + + +In the last chapter the main stream of Canadian history has been +followed down to the Treaty of Utrecht. New France was essentially +the colony on the St. Lawrence; but with the story of Canada proper +the story of Acadia is interwoven, and Acadia under another name now +forms part of the Canadian Dominion. To complete the tale to 1713, it +is necessary to go back to the early days of settlement in the +present Maritime Provinces of the Dominion. Some notice must also be +made of English commercial enterprise on the northern side of Canada, +the shores of Hudson Bay. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia._] + +Acadia, Acadie--a name which the French took from the +Indians[1]--included an ill-defined region. Whoever held it, at any +given time, naturally claimed as large an area as possible, and, +after it was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, the +question of the boundary was a fruitful source of trouble. Under the +French, Acadia was roughly coterminous with the present provinces of +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and part of the State of Maine; but +Acadia proper was the peninsula of Nova Scotia. There, and on the +immediately adjoining coast of the mainland, the fighting and the +raids took place. It was not until after the Peace of Utrecht was +signed that Cape Breton Island, whose name recalls the nationality of +early voyagers to North America, became, under the new title of Ile +Royale, a renowned stronghold of France; while Prince Edward Island, +the Ile de {171} St. Jean, played little part in the early history of +North America. + +[Footnote 1: See above, p. 36, note.] + +[Sidenote: _The peninsula of Nova Scotia._] + +Linked to the continent by the isthmus of Chignecto, sixteen miles in +breadth, the peninsula of Nova Scotia runs for some 300 miles +north-east and south-west, parallel to the North American coast. From +that coast it is separated on the southern side of the isthmus by the +Bay of Fundy--the Baie Francoise as it was called in old days--a bay +into which the sea runs strong and which divides at the head, forming +on the left, the mainland side, Chignecto Bay, on the right the Basin +of Mines. The shores of this latter land-locked basin were in the +eighteenth century a well-known scene of Acadian settlement, and here +stood the village of Grand Pre. On the same side of Nova Scotia, +lower down than the Basin of Mines, is Annapolis harbour, better +known in old days as Port Royal. The opposite sides of New Brunswick +and Maine are deeply indented by the estuaries of various rivers--the +St. John, the St. Croix, now the border stream between Canada and the +United States, and, further south, the Penobscot and the Kennebec, +names that constantly occur in the story of Acadian and New England +warfare. Cape Sable--the sand cape--is the southernmost point of Nova +Scotia: midway on the Atlantic side of the peninsula is Halifax +harbour, formerly known as Chebucto; and on the north the narrow +strait known as the Gut of Canso divides Nova Scotia proper from Cape +Breton Island. Cape Breton Island on the south, Newfoundland on the +north, mark the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are the +buttresses of the main gateway of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Geographical importance of Acadia._] + +Sea-girt and sea-beaten was and is Acadia, with broken shores and +many bays, where fishermen and freebooters came and went: a land to +nurse a hardy race in small and scattered settlements, nestling in +nooks and corners by inlets of the sea. Its importance did not lie in +natural riches, but in its geographical position. It was the +borderland of French and {172} English colonization. Whoever held in +strength Acadia and Cape Breton on the one side, and Newfoundland on +the other, could command the river of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia was in the English sphere of colonization, but was +all important to France._] + +Taking the two spheres of colonization, the seaboard settlements of +the English on the one hand, the inland river settlements of the +French on the other, it is clear that Acadia naturally belonged to +the former; it was within the sphere of which Boston was the centre, +not within that which was ruled by Quebec. The coasts of Maine, of +New Brunswick, and of Nova Scotia prolong the shores of New England: +any dividing line has been made by man not by nature. The Boston +fishermen went faring north, not into strange waters or by foreign +coasts, for land and sea were as their own. Between Quebec and Port +Royal, on the other hand, there was no natural connexion, yet the +possession of Acadia was of more vital importance to France than to +England. With Acadia in French hands the New England colonies could +still grow in strength; but English occupation of Acadia, Cape +Breton, and Newfoundland meant the beginning of the end for New +France, the closing of the St. Lawrence, if England kept command of +the sea. Thus it was that in the negotiations which ended in the +Treaty of Utrecht the French King fought hard to keep Acadia, and, +thwarted in this endeavour, made the most of Cape Breton Island, +rearing in it the strong fortress of Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _Early settlers in Acadia._] + +Acadia then was a borderland, and its history resembled that of other +borderlands. Its first settlers were French, and the majority of the +scanty population remained French in language, in tradition, in +religion, in sympathy; but for years rival adventurers squabbled and +fought, with doubtful allegiance to England or France. + +[Sidenote: _The De la Tours._] + +We have seen how in 1613 the freebooter Argall,[2] sailing up from +Virginia, destroyed Poutrincourt's settlement at Port Royal. In spite +of this disaster, Biencourt, {173} Poutrincourt's son, with a handful +of Frenchmen, few but sturdy, still held fast to the shores of +Acadia. Among them was a French Huguenot, Claude Etienne de la Tour, +who with his son, Charles de la Tour, had come out from France in or +about the year 1609. When the Port Royal settlement was broken up, he +crossed over to the mouth of the Penobscot, and held a station there +until the year 1626, when he was driven out by an expedition from New +England. Biencourt appears to have died either in Acadia or in France +about the year 1623, and the younger La Tour became the foremost man +among the French settlers, holding a small fort near Cape Sable, +which seems to have been known by various names--Fort Louis, Fort +l'Omeroy or Lomeron, and Fort or Port Latour. In 1627, according to +the ordinary account, the father went to France to interest the +French Government in the fortunes of Acadia, and to secure the +position and title of Governor for his son. It was the year in which +Richelieu founded the company of the One Hundred Associates, and in +1628 a French squadron was sent out to America. The ships were +intercepted by David Kirke, and Claude de la Tour, who was on board, +was carried a prisoner to England. + +[Footnote 2: See above, p. 42.] + +[Sidenote: _Sir William Alexander._] + +[Sidenote: _His patent._] + +[Sidenote: _Nova Scotia._] + +Acadia had by this time acquired a second name, its present name of +Nova Scotia. A Scotch scholar of some repute, William Alexander, born +near Stirling, became tutor to Prince Henry, son of James VI of +Scotland and I of England, and rose to high favour at Court. He was a +prolific writer, composed tragedies and sonnets, and after the King's +death completed a metrical version of the Psalms which James had +begun. In 1621 Sir William Alexander, as he then was, obtained from +the King a grant of the Acadian peninsula, Cape Breton Island, and +all the mainland from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, the whole +territory within these wide limits being given the name of New +Scotland or Nova Scotia. + +The terms of the charter were of the most liberal kind, and {174} +Alexander was constituted Lieutenant-General for the King, with +practically sovereign powers. The grant was made as an appanage of +the kingdom of Scotland; and, in seeking for and obtaining it, +Alexander seems to have been stimulated by the fact that an English +charter had lately been given to Fernando Gorges in the region of New +England. In other words, the patent represented the effort of an +energetic Scotchman to bring his country and his people into line +with the English in the field of western adventure. + +[Sidenote: _Alexander's scheme of colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _The baronets of Nova Scotia._] + +Cape Breton Island he made over to another Scotchman, Sir Robert +Gordon, of Lochinvar, and went to work to find settlers for the rest +of his domain. His scheme was not taken up warmly; two ships were +sent out in 1622 and 1623, but no settlement was formed, and he found +himself involved in a debt of 6,000 pounds. He tried to rouse +enthusiasm for the colonization of New Scotland by publishing a +pamphlet entitled _An Encouragement to Colonies_; and, finding that +it met with little response, he hit upon the device of inducing the +King, who a few years before had created baronets of Ulster, to +establish also an order of baronets of New Scotland. The recipients +of the honour were to have grants of land on the other side of the +Atlantic, and the fees which they paid would, it was hoped, recoup +past losses and provide funds for future colonization. + +[Sidenote: _Renewal of the patent by Charles I._] + +King James having died, his successor Charles I, in 1625, renewed +Alexander's patent, and formally ratified the creation of the Nova +Scotian order, the honours being to a certain extent taken up under +pressure from the King. A new expedition was now set on foot, but in +the meantime news came that Richelieu had formed a rival company, and +that the French were preparing to make good their old title to +Acadia. The prospect of foreign competition gave fresh vigour to the +enterprise; Kirke offered his services to Alexander, and in 1628 +captured Richelieu's squadron; while earlier in the same year four +ships in charge of {175} Alexander's son landed a party of settlers +safely at Port Royal, who established themselves on the site of the +old French settlement. In the following year Kirke took Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _The elder La Tour joins Alexander._] + +The elder La Tour, we have seen, was brought a prisoner to England. +There he seems to have transferred his allegiance to Great Britain, +in the words of an old record to have 'turned tenant'[3] to the +English King. According to one account, he married a maid of honour +to the Queen. At any rate, he threw in his lot with Alexander, was +created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and in 1630 received for himself +and his son--also created a baronet--two baronies in the Nova Scotian +peninsula. In the same year he seems to have returned to Acadia with +some more Scotch colonists, and vainly attempted to induce his son, +who was still holding the fort near Cape Sable, to come over to the +British cause, and take up the grant and honours which had been +conferred upon him. The son, we read, would yield neither to +persuasion nor to force, and the elder La Tour apparently went on to +the Scotch settlement at Port Royal. + +[Footnote 3: _Calendar of State Papers_, Colonial, 1574-1660, pp. +119-20.] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Latour built._] + +[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France._] + +Already, in 1629, the Convention of Susa had been signed between the +Kings of England and France. Charles La Tour received a message of +encouragement from France; and, coming to terms with his father, +crossed over to the mainland, where he built Fort Latour at the mouth +of the river St. John.[4] In 1631 he was appointed +Lieutenant-Governor by the French King; and in 1632 the Treaty of St. +Germain-en-Laye restored to France 'all the places occupied in New +France, Acadia, and Canada' by British subjects. + +[Footnote 4: The exact date at which the La Tours founded the fort is +very uncertain.] + +[Sidenote: _The Scotch settlement at Port Royal abandoned._] + +This treaty put an end to Scotch colonization of Acadia, and nothing +is now left to tell of Alexander's enterprise beyond the name of Nova +Scotia. The Scotch emigrants returned {176} home, or were lost among +the outnumbering French, and the old station of Port Royal was either +at the time or a few years afterwards entirely deserted. The site on +the northern or western side of Annapolis Basin was subsequently +known as Scots Fort; but the later Port Royal, which Phipps and +Nicholson took, was situated five miles away, on the other side of +the estuary, and is now the town of Annapolis. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Alexander._] + +Alexander never made good his losses. He died in 1640, in high honour +and position, having been Secretary of State for Scotland and +ennobled as Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada; but he must have +learnt, as all who had dealings with the Stuarts learnt, not to put +his trust in princes; for his well-meant scheme to make a New +Scotland, which should rival New France, ended, through the tortuous +policy of the King whom he served, in utter failure. + +[Sidenote: _Razilly, Denys, and D'Aunay._] + +Isaac de Razilly was sent by Richelieu to receive Acadia back from +Alexander's representatives, upon the conclusion of the Treaty of +1632, and to be Governor of the country. With him went out, among +other settlers, Nicholas Denys, a native of Tours, and Charles de +Menou de Charnizay, known also as the Chevalier d'Aunay. Acadia now +became the scene of intestine feuds between Frenchmen with rival +claims and interests. + +[Sidenote: _French adventurers in Acadia._] + +It is exceedingly difficult to trace the relations between the +various adventurers, where they went and what they did. Razilly, who +was Governor-in-chief, settled at La Heve on the Atlantic coast of +Nova Scotia. D'Aunay seems to have driven out the New Englanders from +the Penobscot, and taken possession of Pentegoet at its mouth. +Charles La Tour held his fort on the estuary of the St. John, his +father having died or disappeared from the story, and raided, in or +about 1633, an outpost established by the Plymouth settlers at +Machias, north of the Penobscot. Denys formed trading stations at +Chedabucto, now Guysboro, at the eastern end of the Nova Scotian +peninsula, and in Cape Breton Island, {177} leaving to posterity an +account of Acadia and Cape Breton, in his book entitled _Description +des Costes de l'Amerique Septentrionale_.[5] + +[Footnote 5: Charlevoix's account is that Acadia was divided into +three provinces, both for government and for ownership. Razilly had +the superior command over all, and was given Port Royal and the +mainland south to New England; Charles La Tour had the Acadian +peninsula, excluding Port Royal; and Denys had the northern district +from Canso to Gaspe, including Cape Breton Island. This leaves out +D'Aunay, and the arrangement, if it existed, was modified, inasmuch +as Razilly settled at La Heve, and Charles La Tour was on the river +of St. John.] + +[Sidenote: _Feud between D'Aunay and Charles La Tour._] + +Razilly died in 1635 or 1636; his brother, Claude de Razilly, +assigned his rights in Acadia to D'Aunay, and between the latter and +Charles La Tour a deadly quarrel ensued. D'Aunay, it would seem, +re-established Port Royal on the present site of Annapolis, making it +the principal settlement of Acadia instead of La Heve. His rival, La +Tour, had strong claims both on France and on Acadia. He had been far +longer in the country than D'Aunay, he had in trying circumstances +retained his allegiance to the Crown of France, he had been given a +commission by the King, and moreover something was owing to him in +virtue of the grants which Alexander had made in 1630 to his father +and himself, which grants appear to have been subsequently construed +into a transfer of the whole of Alexander's patent. However, D'Aunay +had the ear of the French Court. + +It is stated[6] that, in 1638, the King prescribed certain boundaries +between the two rivals, but the delimitation had no effect; for in +1640 La Tour seems to have attacked Port Royal, with the result that +he was taken prisoner with his wife, both being released at the +intercession of French priests. In the next year, 1641, D'Aunay +obtained an order from home which revoked La Tour's commission and +empowered his enemy to seize him, if he refused to submit, and send +him prisoner to France. La Tour now turned for help to New England, +and, in 1643, after long and scriptural {178} debates by the Puritans +as to the lawfulness of aiding 'idolaters,'[7] succeeded in hiring +four ships at Boston to join him in raiding D'Aunay's property. In +the following year, however, an emissary from D'Aunay came to Boston +to protest against English interference; and in October, 1644, a +convention was concluded between the New Englanders and D'Aunay, +providing for mutual peace and free trade. + +[Footnote 6: By Haliburton in his _History of Nova Scotia_, vol. i, +p. 53.] + +[Footnote 7: The younger La Tour was not, like his father, a +Huguenot.] + +[Sidenote: _Madame La Tour._] + +[Sidenote: _D'Aunay gains possession of Fort Latour._] + +D'Aunay had now the upper hand, and Madame La Tour becomes the +heroine of the story. She had followed her husband's fortunes with +undaunted courage, and had been to France to plead his cause. Going +on to London, she took passage on board ship, the master contracting +to take her to Fort Latour. Instead of carrying out his contract, he +wasted time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and finally landed her at +Boston, where she brought an action against him and was awarded +damages of 2,000 pounds. Reaching Fort Latour, she was attacked there +by D'Aunay in 1645,[8] while her husband was absent, and the garrison +reduced to a very few men. She held the fort, notwithstanding, with +so much determination, and in spite of treachery within the walls, +that D'Aunay agreed to a capitulation, by which all the lives of the +defenders were to be spared. The terms were broken as soon as he +obtained possession of the fort, and the whole of the garrison was +put to death, with the exception of Madame La Tour and one man who +was spared to act as hangman to the rest. Madame La Tour herself was +compelled to witness the execution with a rope round her neck, and +three weeks afterwards she died. + +[Footnote 8: According to Haliburton, D'Aunay besieged Madame La Tour +in the fort twice, being beaten off the first time. Kingsford gives +the date of the siege as 1647.] + +[Sidenote: _Later career of Charles La Tour._] + +Ruined and an outlaw, La Tour found his way to Newfoundland, where he +tried in vain to enlist the aid of the {179} English governor, Sir +David Kirke. He is said also to have visited Quebec and Hudson Bay, +and in his distress to have made an ill return for the kindness which +had been shown to him at Boston, by raiding a ship from that port and +ejecting her crew on to the Nova Scotian coast in the middle of +winter. Ultimately, in 1650, D'Aunay died, and La Tour, who must have +had a keen eye to business, some little time after married the widow. +New complications now arose. A creditor of D'Aunay, Le Borgne by +name, came out from France to enforce his claims against D'Aunay's +property, and in virtue of those claims to take possession of Acadia. +He first attacked Denys[9] at Chedabucto, and took him prisoner. He +was next preparing to attack La Tour, when events took a wholly +different turn, and the English again became masters of Acadia. + +[Footnote 9: Denys went to France and secured, in 1654, the +restitution of his property, together with a commission as Governor +from Cape Canso to Cape Rosiers or Race, i.e. of Cape Breton, Prince +Edward Island, and Newfoundland. He was then raided by another +Frenchman, Giraudiere. He seems to have eventually given up his +stations in Cape Breton, and in 1679 was at Quebec, old and blind.] + +[Sidenote: _The English under Sedgwick take Acadia._] + +Cromwell, in 1654, sent out an expedition to take Manhattan Island +from the Dutch, Major-General Sedgwick being in command. Peace being +made with the Netherlands, the force intended to drive the Dutch out +of Manhattan was turned against the French in Acadia; and in quick +succession, Sedgwick reduced the fort at Penobscot, La Tour's station +on the St. John, and Port Royal, where Le Borgne was at the time.[10] +Mazarin attempted to recover these posts under the twenty-fifth +article of the Treaty of Westminster of November 3, 1655; but, less +complaisant than the Kings who {180} preceded or who followed him, +Cromwell refused to entertain the proposals for a transfer. + +[Footnote 10: Sedgwick was shortly afterwards sent to Jamaica, where +he died in June, 1656. In Appendix xxviii to Carlyle's _Oliver +Cromwell_, reference is made to the taking of the French forts in +Acadia, with the following characteristic but not very accurate note: +'Oliver kept his forts and his Acadie through all French treaties for +behoof of his New Englanders. Not till after the Restoration did the +country become French again, and continue such for a century or so.'] + +[Sidenote: _La Tour and Temple become owners of Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of La Tour._] + +La Tour now turned to account the fact that he had been created a +Nova Scotian baronet and received a grant from Alexander; he became a +British subject; and on August 10, 1656, letters patent were issued +by which he became, under the name of Sir Charles La Tour, joint +owner of Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crowne. Very +shortly afterwards he sold his interest to Temple, but appears to +have remained in Acadia, where he died in 1666. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia restored to France by the Treaty of Breda._] + +Temple, who received a commission from Cromwell as Governor of +Acadia, and went out there in 1657, laid out money in the country and +carried on trade with energy and success. He maintained the existing +stations, planted a new settlement at Jemseg on the St. John river, +higher up than Fort Latour, and drove out a son of Le Borgne, who +attempted to reoccupy La Heve; but, like Alexander before him, he +suffered at the hands of the Stuarts, for Charles II, after renewing +his commission as Governor and creating him a baronet of Nova Scotia, +subsequently, in spite of remonstrances from Massachusetts, restored +Acadia to France by the Treaty of Breda, in 1667, in return for +French concessions in the West Indies. Temple attempted to dispute +the extent covered by the treaty, but with no effect; and, in 1670, +the whole area became again a French possession. Temple retired to +Boston with a promise of 16,200 pounds which he never received, and +finally died in London in 1674. + +The above is a bare recital of early days in Acadia, when it was, in +effect, no man's land. The story might be made picturesque, with La +Tour and his first wife for hero and heroine, with some embellishment +of Alexander's scheme, and a little dressing of D'Aunay, Denys, and +the other adventurers who come on the scene; but in truth it is a +very slender record of two or three Frenchmen and Englishmen, who did +a little trade or a little fishing on desolate {181} shores, and who +plundered each other in rather squalid fashion--left to themselves by +their rulers, except when their acts or their claims had a bearing on +international questions. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia under French rule._] + +When Temple retired in 1670 in favour of a new French commander, De +Grandfontaine, the total number of settlers in Acadia did not exceed +400. Some new French colonists now came in: the beginning of +settlement was made at Chignecto and the Basin of Mines, and +communication was for a time opened by land between Acadia and +Quebec. The great majority of the French inhabitants were at Port +Royal; but Pentegoet on the Penobscot was the seat of government, +until, in 1674, it was taken and plundered by a Dutch privateering +vessel, the same fate befalling the fort of Jemseg on the St. John +river. Chambly, who had succeeded Grandfontaine as Commander in +Acadia, was carried off a prisoner to Boston, and Pentegoet was for +the time abandoned by the French. Two years later, in 1676, it was +occupied by the Dutch; but the latter were in their turn driven out +by the New Englanders,[11] and the place passed into the hands of a +Frenchman notable in Acadian border warfare, the Baron de St. Castin. + +[Footnote 11: In the Government records at The Hague, under date Oct. +27, 1678, there is a claim of the Netherlands West India Company +against Great Britain to the forts of Penobscot and St. John in +Acadie and Nova Scotia, and a request that they may be allowed to +remain in quiet and peaceable possession thereof.] + +[Sidenote: _St. Castin at Pentegoet._] + +He was a Bearnese, and had come out to Canada as an officer in the +Carignan Regiment. Finding, like other Frenchmen, a charm in forest +life, he drifted off to Acadia and lived as an Indian among Indians, +a devout Roman Catholic, but in other respects a native chief, with +his squaws and following of savage warriors. He established himself +at Pentegoet, on or near the site of the old fort, where Castine now +stands; he raided and was raided; in time of peace making money by +trade, in time of war joining in the border forays. For Pentegoet was +the southernmost {182} station of the French, standing on soil +claimed by the English, and granted by Charles II to the Duke of +York. Similarly, Pemaquid, near the Kennebec, established in 1677, +was the northernmost post of the English; and, if there was a line +between the two nations, it was between Pentegoet and Pemaquid. But +French influence extended to the Kennebec river, and Indian converts +of French priests were to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of +Pemaquid. + +[Sidenote: _French priests and the Abenaki Indians._] + +In 1676, the war between the New Englanders and the neighbouring +Indians, known as Philip's war, came to an end, leaving bitterness +between the conquered natives and victorious colonists. Hatred of the +English meant love of the French; and the Abenaki Indians of Acadia +and Maine, under the tutelage of fanatical and unscrupulous French +priests, became trained to enmity with the heretics; many of them +migrated to mission stations in Canada; while those who remained +behind were ever ready to obey the call to murder and pillage. In +Acadia, even more than in Canada proper, the Indian as a convert +became the tool of the Frenchman, and the Frenchman lent himself to +the barbarism of the Indian. The full effects of the unnatural blend +were seen and felt a little later on; but for twenty years after the +Treaty of Breda and the restoration of Acadia to France, there was +more often peace than war between the English and the French; and the +Boston fishermen were, about 1678, licensed for the time being by the +French Commandant, La Valliere, to ply their trade on the Acadian +coasts. + +[Sidenote: _French Governors and colonists of Acadia._] + +With some trading of this kind and with a good deal of privateering, +the years passed by. Perrot, who had been Governor of Montreal and +had distinguished himself even among French officials of the time for +corrupt practices, succeeded La Valliere in 1684, with a commission +as Governor of Acadia. Still intent on enriching himself by illicit +trade, he was recalled in 1687, and his place was taken by Meneval. +The latter, like Perrot, was subordinate to the {183} +Governor-General of Canada, and the number of colonists whom he ruled +was, according to a census held in 1686, 858, 600 of whom lived at or +near Port Royal, and the remainder chiefly at Beaubassin at the head +of Chignecto Bay, and on the Basin of Mines. + +[Sidenote: _Acadia ceded to England by the Peace of Utrecht._] + +In 1688, Andros, then Governor of the New England colonies, plundered +St. Castin's station at Pentegoet; the French and Indians retaliated, +taking the fort of Pemaquid in the following year; and there followed +a long series of butcheries and reprisals, of which an account has +already been given in a preceding chapter, the taking of Fort Royal +by Phipps in 1690, and, in 1710, its final surrender to Nicholson. In +the end, the Treaty of Utrecht provided in its twelfth article that +'all Nova Scotia or Accadie with its ancient boundaries' should be +'yielded and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown +for ever.' + +[Sidenote: _Henry Hudson sails to the Arctic regions and is lost._] + +[Sidenote: _The search for the North-West Passage._] + +[Sidenote: _Button._] + +We have seen[12] that, in 1609, Henry Hudson led Dutchmen into the +present State of New York, and left his name to the river on which +the city of New York stands. In the following year, he took service +under an English syndicate, to make a further attempt to find a +North-West Passage to the Indies. In April, 1610, he started in a +small ship, the _Discovery_, found his way through Hudson Straits +into Hudson Bay, wintered at the extreme south-eastern end of James' +Bay, and, cast adrift by his mutinous followers in the following +summer, never saw home again, 'dearly purchasing the honour of having +this large Strait and Bay called after his name.'[13] The Arctic +seas, where he met his death, and where his name has lived through +the centuries, were visited again and again by English explorers, +still seeking for the North-West Passage. One voyager after another +went out, hoping to return by China and the East. In April, 1612, +Captain Button set forth with two ships, one of which was {184} +Hudson's old vessel, the _Discovery_, reached the western coast of +Hudson Bay--which was long called after him, Button's Bay--wintered +at Port Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson river, and returned in the +autumn of 1613. + +[Footnote 12: See above, p. 63.] + +[Footnote 13: Oldmixon's _British Empire in America_ (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 543.] + +[Sidenote: _Royal charter granted to the Merchants Discoverers of the +North-West Passage._] + +His instructions had been drawn up by the young Prince of Wales, +Prince Henry, who died not long afterwards; and three months after +Button started, the merchants at whose expense both his expedition +and Hudson's had been fitted out, were incorporated under royal +charter as the 'Company of the Merchants of London Discoverers of the +North-West Passage,' having the Prince of Wales as governor or +'Supreme Protector,' and including among many well-known names that +of Richard Hakluyt. + +[Sidenote: _Gibbons._] + +[Sidenote: _Bylot and Baffin._] + +In 1614, the _Discovery_ was sent out again under the command of +Captain Gibbons, but returned in the same year, having penetrated no +further than Hudson Strait. In 1615, Bylot and Baffin set sail for +the North, again taking with them the _Discovery_; they too returned +in the same year, concluding that the North-West Passage was not to +be found by the way of Hudson Straits. Once more, in the next year, +1616, the same men went out, and once more the stout old ship, the +_Discovery_, carried them, the voyage resulting in the exploration of +Baffin Bay. For two years after their return there was a respite from +Arctic voyages, but in 1619 Captain Hawkridge led a fresh expedition, +which proved a failure. + +[Sidenote: _Luke Foxe and Thomas James._] + +Much money had now been spent in the attempt to find a North-West +Passage, and little had been achieved; but after an interval of +twelve years, in 1631, two more Arctic voyages took place. One +expedition was commanded by a Yorkshireman, Luke Foxe, the other by +Captain Thomas James, who was connected with Bristol. The former was +backed by London merchants, the latter was a Bristol venture; but +both received sanction and encouragement from the King. James' voyage +was unfortunate and barren of result; but Foxe, {185} though he did +not find the Passage, which was the one aim and object of all these +early attempts, completed the exploration of Hudson Bay, and +penetrated further north than previous sailors by the way of what is +still known as Fox Channel. + +[Sidenote: _The period of discovery in the far North followed by +trading enterprise._] + +With these two voyages the first chapter in Arctic discovery comes to +an end. As in the record of English colonization we have a distinct +break between the time of discovery and adventure on the one hand, +and the time of trade and settlement on the other, so even in the far +North there was a time of exploration, followed after an interval by +a time of trade. All the early voyages, which have been recounted +above, were voyages of discovery, and, though they were fitted out +for the most part by syndicates of merchants, their object was not to +bring back furs, or to establish trading stations, but to search for +a new route to the East.[14] + +[Footnote 14: A most excellent account of the early voyages in search +of a North-West Passage is given in Mr. Miller Christy's Introduction +to the _Voyages of Foxe and James to the North-West_ (Hakluyt +Society, 1894).] + +[Sidenote: _Zachariah Gillam._] + +[Sidenote: _Radisson and Des Groseilliers._] + +Forty years passed away and, in the year 1668, an English ship once +more found its way into Hudson Bay. The ship was named the _Nonsuch_, +her commander was Captain Zachariah Gillam, and Prince Rupert seems +to have had a hand in sending her out. The expedition was designed to +establish trade with the Indians, and Gillam wintered in James Bay, +near where Hudson had wintered in 1610, building a fort called +Charles Fort at the mouth of a river which was named Rupert river. +The fort was subsequently known as Fort Rupert or Rupert House. It is +stated that this new enterprise was undertaken in consequence of +information received from two French settlers in Canada named +Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and that the latter was on board +Gillam's ship, while Radisson had embarked on another vessel which +started from England with Gillam, but put back on account of stress +of weather. + +{186} [Sidenote: _French claims to priority in Hudson Bay._] + +How far these two Frenchmen contributed to the beginning of trade in +Hudson Bay, and to the founding of the Hudson Bay Company, has been a +matter of much controversy. The question was originally of some +importance, for French claims to priority of occupation in the Arctic +regions rested in large measure on the real or the alleged doings of +the two adventurers. Like the rest of the world, they must have heard +of the existence of Hudson Bay, for the voyages to discover the +North-West Passage, though not made by Frenchmen, were not made in +secret; and they had gathered information from the Indians of Canada +as to the possibilities of fur trading in these northern regions. +They had more than once attempted, between 1658 and 1663, to make +their way by land to the bay, but never seem to have reached its +shores; and the first recorded overland visit from Canada, is that of +a French priest, Albanel, who, in 1671-2, journeyed from Quebec to +Lake St. John, and thence, by the line of the Rupert river, came to +the sea, to find an English factory already established at the mouth +of the river. + +[Sidenote: _Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company._] + +[Sidenote: _Rupert's Land._] + +Gillam returned to England in 1669, and on May 2, 1670, the Hudson +Bay Company came into existence. On that day Charles II issued a +royal charter, creating a corporate body under the title of 'The +Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's +Bay.' Prince Rupert was the first Governor; Albemarle, Ashley, and +Arlington were among the original grantees. The preamble of the +charter recited that the persons named had 'at their own great cost +and charges, undertaken an expedition for Hudson's Bay, in the +North-West part of America, for the discovery of a new passage into +the South Sea, and for the finding some trade for furs, minerals, and +other considerable commodities'; and in their corporate capacity the +Company were constituted absolute lords and proprietors, with a +complete monopoly of trade of all the lands and seas 'that lie within +the entrance of the straits, commonly called Hudson's {187} Straits,' +so far as they were not already actually granted to or possessed by +British subjects, or the subjects of any other Christian Prince or +State. The charter enacted that 'the said land' should be 'from +henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our plantations or colonies +in America, called Rupert's Land.' + +[Sidenote: _Operations of the company._] + +Armed with practically unlimited powers over an unlimited area, the +company lost little time in sending out ships and establishing +factories. In addition to Fort Rupert at the south-eastern end of +James Bay, Fort Hayes, or Moose Fort, was constructed at the +south-western end of the bay, at the mouth of the Moose river; and +some distance to the north of the latter fort, Fort Albany was placed +at the outlet of the Albany river. Voyages were also made to the +mouth of the Nelson river, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, but no +attempt was made to plant a factory there till the year 1682. + +[Sidenote: _Collision between French and English in Hudson Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _A Canadian company formed._] + +It was in that year and at Fort Nelson, as it was called, that French +and English first came into collision in the far North. Radisson and +Des Groseilliers, who had taken service with the English in +consequence of being fined by the Governor of Canada for making their +early journeys without his licence, subsequently returned to Canada, +and piloted their countrymen by sea into Hudson Bay. A company was +formed in Canada in 1682, the Compagnie du Nord, and sent out an +expedition from Quebec with these two men on board. They reached the +Nelson river; a few days before they arrived a Boston vessel appeared +on the scene, and a few days subsequently a vessel came from England, +sent by the Hudson Bay Company to build a fort. After a short +interval the French overpowered the English; but two years later, in +1684, Radisson and Des Groseilliers having in the meantime again come +back to the Hudson Bay Company, that company recovered its fort, and +the French lost their footing on Hudson Bay. + +{188} [Sidenote: _Attack made overland from Canada on the English +forts on Hudson Bay._] + +In the following year two Frenchmen passed overland from the bay to +Canada by the Abbitibbi river, Lake Temiscaming, and the Ottawa; and +it was determined to send a Canadian expedition by that route to +attack the factories of the Hudson Bay Company. The rulers of Canada +viewed with distrust English settlements to the north of New France, +as they feared and distrusted the English colonies on the southern +side, and they determined if possible to strangle them in infancy. +Denonville was now Governor of Canada; and early in the year 1686 he +dispatched a party of soldiers and Canadians to attack the forts on +Hudson Bay. It was the kind of expedition in which French Canadians +excelled, indifferent to privation and hardship, trained to toil +through ice and snow, through unknown forests, making the rivers the +highways for sleigh or canoe. Their leader was De Troyes, and with +him went three sons of the celebrated Le Moyne family, including the +most noted of them, Iberville. The Frenchmen followed the line of the +Ottawa and the Abbitibbi, and in June, 1686, surprised and took Fort +Hayes on the outlet of the Moose river. Crossing the eastern end of +James Bay on the floating ice, they next reached Fort Rupert, seized +a ship which was moored in front of the fort, and overpowered the +fort itself. The sea was by this time open to navigation, and in +canoes and the captured vessel the victorious Frenchmen turned west +to attack Fort Albany. There was here some semblance of siege, but +the little English garrison was forced to capitulate, and leaving +Iberville in charge of the fort, which was renamed Fort St. Anne, De +Troyes returned in November to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Complaints of the Hudson Bay Company against the seizure +of their forts._] + +[Sidenote: _The English forts recovered._] + +This successful raid was organized and carried out in a time of peace +between the English and French Crowns; and, when the Englishmen who +had been taken prisoners at the forts found their way home, the +Hudson Bay Company laid the case before the Government, demanding +satisfaction for the wrong done and restitution of their property. +{189} There was little likelihood of redress while James II was King +of England. On November 16, 1686, he concluded a treaty of neutrality +with the French King, the Treaty of Whitehall; and a mixed commission +of French and English was appointed to inquire into the claims of the +company. No settlement was arrived at: in 1688 came the Revolution in +England; in 1692 the battle of La Hogue crippled the French at sea; +and at length, in 1693, an English expedition was sent to Hudson Bay +which recovered all the forts in James Bay. + +[Sidenote: _Iberville takes Port Nelson and the forts in James Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _They are recovered by the English._] + +The northernmost post of the Hudson Bay Company, the post on the +Nelson river, or rather on the Hayes river, which flows into the same +estuary, had not been taken by the French in their buccaneering +expedition of 1686. It was known indifferently as Port Nelson or Fort +York. It was at some distance from the forts in James Bay, and +promised to be an outlet for trade from the regions west of the great +lakes. It had been threatened by the French in 1690, and in October, +1694, the bold and restless Iberville, who had returned to Canada in +1687, appeared before it with two ships. After a short siege it +capitulated, and was renamed Fort Bourbon; and Iberville followed up +his success by recapturing the forts in James Bay. Thus, by the +middle of 1695, the French held every post in Hudson Bay. In the next +year came English ships, and all the positions were regained for +England. + +[Sidenote: _Fresh raid by Iberville._] + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Ryswick._] + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Utrecht._] + +[Sidenote: _Hudson Bay secured to England._] + +Once more, in 1697, Iberville appeared on the scene. He had in the +meantime taken Fort Pemaquid on the Acadian frontier, and overrun +Newfoundland; and starting from Placentia, with four ships of war +sent out from France, he made sail for Hudson Bay. The destination +was Port Nelson; but the vessels became separated, and with a single +ship, Iberville, when nearing the fort, came into collision with +three armed English merchantmen. The bold Frenchman closed with them, +one to three, sank one of the vessels, took a second, {190} while the +third made its escape. A heavy gale came on, his own ship was driven +ashore and broken up; but landing with his men, he was rejoined +shortly afterwards by the rest of the French squadron, and laying +siege to the fort compelled it to capitulate. This feat of arms took +place early in September, 1697; on the twentieth of the same month +the Peace of Ryswick was signed, and under its terms the French were +placed in possession of all the Hudson Bay forts, with the exception +of Fort Albany.[15] They held them down to the year 1713, when the +Peace of Utrecht in no uncertain words gave back to Great Britain 'to +be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits of Hudson, +together with all lands, seas, seacoasts, rivers and places situate +in the same Bay and Straits and which belong thereunto, no tracts of +land or of sea being excepted, which are at present possessed by the +subjects of France.' Boundaries, which by the treaty were to be +defined, were never fixed; but no French ship appeared again with +hostile intent in Hudson Bay until the year 1782. + +[Footnote 15: The manner in which the Treaty of Ryswick worked out in +favour of the French in Hudson Bay is explained, as far as it can be +explained, in Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. iii, pp. 39-41.] + + +NOTE.--For the first part of the above chapter, see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. ii. + Sir J. BOURINOT'S _Cape Breton_ (referred to above, p. 34, note). + The same author's _Canada_, in the 'Story of the Nations' Series, + chap. vii, and + Dr. PATTERSON'S Paper on _Sir William Alexander and the Scottish + Attempt to Colonize Acadia_, published in the _Proceedings and + Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, vol. x, 1892. + +For the second part, see KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii. + +Two books have recently been published on the Hudson Bay Company, +viz: _The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company_, by GEORGE +BRYCE, M.A., LL.D., and _The Great Company (1667-1871)_, by BECKLES +WILSON. + + + + +{191} + +CHAPTER VII + +LOUISBOURG + + +[Sidenote: _Cape Breton Island under the provisions of the Peace of +Utrecht._] + +[Sidenote: _Importance of the island to France._] + +The Treaty of Utrecht provided that 'the island called Cape Breton, +as also all others both in the mouth of the river of St. Lawrence and +in the gulf of the same name, shall hereafter belong of right to the +French, and the Most Christian King shall have all manner of liberty +to fortify any place or places there.' It was an important provision. +Driven from Acadia and Newfoundland, with the reservation of certain +fishing rights along a specified part of the Newfoundland coast, the +French would have lost the seaboard altogether but for the possession +of these islands at the entrance of the river of Canada. + +A French eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745 described, in +a contemporary pamphlet, the value of Cape Breton Island to France. +It was used, he says, to provide a place for the French settlers who +were leaving Newfoundland after the cession of that island to Great +Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, but 'this was not all. It was +necessary that we should retain a position that would make us at all +times masters of the entrance to the River which leads to New +France.'[1] Similar testimony to its value is given by an English +writer. 'Cape Breton Island is a subject no good Englishman can write +or read with pleasure. The giving of it to the French by the Treaty +of Utrecht may prove as great a loss to the Kingdom, as the Sinking +Fund amounts {192} to or even the charge of the last war.'[2] Cape +Breton, in short, kept open for France the mouth of the St. Lawrence, +and the story of New France became more than ever the story of that +river, and of the waterways which connected it with the far West, and +with the newborn French colony in Louisiana. + +[Footnote 1: _Louisbourg in 1745_, the anonymous _Lettre d'un +habitant de Louisbourg_, translated and edited by Professor Wrong +(Toronto, 1897), p. 26.] + +[Footnote 2: Oldmixon's _British Empire in America_ (1741 ed.), vol. +i, p. 37.] + +From 1713, for thirty years, there was nominally peace between Great +Britain and France. In 1743, English troops assisted the Austrians +and defeated the French at the battle of Dettingen; but war was not +formally proclaimed between the two powers until the following year, +1744, when it lasted for four years, being terminated by the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. During the years of so-called peace, French +Governors, French priests, French explorers and border leaders lost +no opportunity of strengthening the French position in North America. + +[Sidenote: _Controversy as to the boundaries of Acadia._] + +Intrigue and covert force were notably at work in Acadia. By the +Treaty of Utrecht, King Louis ceded to Great Britain 'all Nova Scotia +or Accadie with its ancient boundaries.' What were the ancient +boundaries? They were left to be demarcated by commissioners of the +two nations; but no demarcation ever took place, and meanwhile French +on the one hand, and English on the other, construed the term +'Acadia' according to their respective interests. While Acadia was +French, the French widened, the English narrowed, the area to which +the name might apply. When Acadia became English, the contention was +reversed; and the French, who had included in Acadia a large extent +of mainland, claimed that the peninsula of Nova Scotia alone was +covered by the terms of the treaty. + +[Sidenote: _The Acadians and French intrigues._] + +Within that peninsula there were, at the time when the treaty was +signed, some two thousand French settlers--a simple peasantry, +uneducated, priest-ridden, of the same type as the _habitans_ of the +St. Lawrence; but more primitive, {193} more old-fashioned, clinging +to their homes, to their national traditions, to their faith. Under +the fourteenth article of the treaty, French subjects were given +liberty to remove themselves within one year; if they preferred to +remain and become subjects of the British Crown, they were to enjoy +the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion 'as far as the laws +of Great Britain do allow the same.' The Acadians themselves did not +wish to leave their farms and homesteads, nor did the English, when +they took over Acadia, wish to lose the white settlers of the +peninsula, who might reasonably be expected to become loyal and +valuable citizens. The French authorities, on the other hand, desired +to remove them in order to populate their own territories and deplete +the ceded lands. Thus from the outset the intention of the treaty was +frustrated, and the unfortunate Acadians suffered between two +masters. As years went on, English and French views alike changed. +The French, having by priestly influence rendered the Acadians +thoroughly disaffected to English rule, and having year by year +stronger hope of recovering Acadia, wished the Acadians to remain +where they were, a growing hostile population around a weak English +garrison. The English, on the other hand, seeing the impossibility of +securing the loyalty of the peasantry, wished to be rid of them, and +in the end deported large numbers of them to other lands. + +[Sidenote: _Annapolis neglected by the home Government._] + +The main agents of mischief were on the one side French priests, +political and religious fanatics, who threatened and cajoled their +flocks; on the other the British Government, which left Acadia to +take care of itself. It is deplorable to read the accounts given of +Annapolis, as Port Royal was now called, and of the state of its +garrison. What should have been the strong and thriving capital of a +British province, remained for years nothing more than practically a +very weak outpost in the enemy's country. + +[Sidenote: _The Acadians and the oath of allegiance._] + +A long time passed in vainly attempting to make the {194} Acadians +swear allegiance to the King of England. At length, in 1730, Governor +Philipps reported that he had succeeded in persuading each adult +member of the population to 'promise and solemnly swear on the faith +of a Christian that I will be thoroughly faithful and will truly obey +his Majesty George II'; but the adoption of this form of words had +little effect on the minds or the conduct of the French settlers. +Strength to insist on loyalty and to punish traitorous dealing was +not supplied from home; the Governors were unable to enforce their +proclamations, and the governed were irritated by orders which were +not carried into effect. Meanwhile, from 1720 onwards, Louisbourg +grew up in artificial strength, the Dunkirk of America, the most +powerful fortress on the Atlantic coast. Money and soldiers came out +from France, while the British possession almost under the guns of +the fortress was starved and neglected. To reconquer Acadia for the +French, writes the eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745, +'it was only necessary to appear before this English colony ... and +to land a few men'; and yet in 1745 Acadia had been in British +keeping for thirty-five years. + +[Sidenote: _The Abenaki Indians._] + +On the mainland, French policy was the same as in the Acadian +peninsula, nominally to keep the peace, secretly to incite the +natives to war. For generations the Abenaki Indians had raided at +frequent intervals the New England frontier; yet fear and the +necessities of trade might at length have kept them quiet, had it not +been for the instigation of the Canadian Government and its priestly +agents. In 1713, and again in 1717, Abenaki chiefs had come to terms +with Massachusetts; but there could be no peace as long as the +savages were carefully instructed that the English were the enemies +of their religion and the robbers of their lands. The savages were in +truth in a hard case. Peace meant the aggressive growth of the white +men's settlements, inevitable encroachment on the red men's heritage. +War {195} meant cutting off the New England trade, and inadequate +support from France. They sent to Quebec to ask what aid they might +expect from Canada. 'I will send you in secret,' said the Governor +Vaudreuil, 'tomahawks, powder, and shot.' It was such a reply as the +English Governors of New York had been wont to give to the Iroquois; +and the Abenakis, like the Iroquois, were little satisfied with it. +To fight the battles of France while the French looked on, was not +what the Indians wished or understood. Yet their priests taught them +to do it, and the Canadian Government stiffened their resolution by +sending in mission Indians from Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Sebastian Rasle._] + +[Sidenote: _His mission destroyed and himself killed._] + +[Sidenote: _Peace between the Indians and New Englanders._] + +The foremost French emissary among the Abenaki Indians at this time +was a Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rasle, keen in controversy, +uncompromising in zeal, a bitter foe of the English, but not so +utterly inhuman as were some of his colleagues. His mission was among +the Norridgewocks, high up on the Kennebec river, where the head +waters of that river flowing down to the Atlantic are at no very +great distance from the Chaudiere river which runs into the St. +Lawrence. Against this place, in August, 1724, a strong body of men +was sent from Massachusetts. They rowed up the Kennebec in +whaleboats, and, landing at some distance below the Indian village, +marched on it, and took it by surprise. Rasle was shot dead, the +Indians were killed or dispersed, their homes were burnt to the +ground; and the expedition returned in safety, having struck a strong +and relentless blow at a centre of French and Indian hostility to the +English colonists. War went on for some little time longer, and the +English raided the tribes of the Penobscot. At length, in 1726, the +Indians came to terms; and a peace was concluded which lasted for +many years, depots being established at various points, where the +natives could to their advantage barter furs with the traders of New +England. + +[Sidenote: _The Indians were the tools of the French Government and +its agents._] + +The principal point to notice in the dreary record of {196} murder +and pillage is the attitude of the Canadian Government and their +superiors in France. Letters were intercepted, proving beyond dispute +that the Indians were acting under the direct encouragement of the +French authorities. In time of peace and nominal friendship the old +struggle was ever going on. North America was a chessboard. On the +French side the Indians were in front, pawns in the game. Behind them +was the King temporarily in check, bishops or their representatives, +half-breed knights of tortuous movement, and the castles of +Louisbourg and Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Oswego._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Rouille or Toronto._] + +The mouth of the Niagara river had long been held in intermittent +fashion by the French, and by 1720, in spite of jealous opposition on +the part of the Five Nation Indians, a permanent fort was built +there. The English in their turn, in the year 1727, established and +garrisoned a trading fort at Oswego, on the southern shore of Lake +Ontario,[3] Burnet, the Governor of New York, finding the necessary +funds, as the colonial Legislature would not vote the money. The +establishment of this station was a serious blow to French trade, +nullifying to a large extent the advantage of holding Niagara. In +vain the Canadians tried to incite the Five Nations to destroy it; +and in vain, in 1749, they planted a rival post, Fort Rouille, at +Toronto,[4] on the other side of the lake, to command the direct +route to Lake Huron by Lake Simcoe. To Oswego the Indians brought +their furs, and the traffic enriched the Iroquois and their English +neighbours in New York. + +[Footnote 3: See the letter from Governor Burnet to the Board of +Trade, dated New York, May 9, 1727: 'I have this spring sent up +workmen to build a stone house of strength at a place called Oswego, +at the mouth of the Onnondage river, where our principal trade with +the far Nations is carried on. I have obtained the consent of the Six +Nations to build it.' Papers relating to Oswego in O'Callaghan's +_Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, p. 447.] + +[Footnote 4: The name of Toronto appears before the founding of this +fort. On the old maps, i.e. on Delisle's map of Canada, published in +1703, Lake Simcoe appears as Lake Toronto.] + +[Sidenote: _Crown Point._] + +But, menacing as was this outpost on the lake to the {197} commercial +interests of Canada, greater danger threatened both New England and +New York from another move made by the French. Far up on Lake +Champlain, at the point where the lake narrows into a wide river, +stretching many miles to the south, there is a small isthmus on the +western side standing out boldly in the lake. It was known to the +English as Crown Point; and here in 1731, at the instance of a +well-known French officer, the Chevalier Saint Luc de la Corne, the +French built a fort commanding the strait, and named it Fort St. +Frederic. The English colonies protested, but did not use united +force to back their protests; and the position remained, fortified in +time of peace, an evidence of French claims and a base for future +attack. + +[Sidenote: _War between England and France._] + +[Sidenote: _An outpost at Canso overpowered by the French, who +threaten Annapolis._] + +War began again in March, 1744, and in May the French commander at +Louisbourg took action. There was a small fishing village at Canso, +on the narrow arm of the sea which divides Nova Scotia from Cape +Breton Island. It was guarded by a blockhouse, garrisoned by about +eighty English soldiers. A far stronger force from Louisbourg came +against it, the garrison surrendered, and the place was burnt. The +Frenchman who commanded the expedition, Duvivier, a descendant of La +Tour, was then sent to attack Annapolis, and appeared before it in +August. Ill fortified, ill garrisoned, the little town had at least a +good English officer in charge--Major Mascarene, of Huguenot descent. +The French offered terms of capitulation, threatening the arrival of +more troops from Louisbourg; but these reinforcements did not arrive, +the Acadians did not rise in mass, and in September the besiegers +disappeared, having effected nothing. + +[Sidenote: _New England and Acadia._] + +Neglected by the British Government, Acadia was valued by New +England. Massachusetts had in past years taken and held Port Royal, +and knew well that English interests in America were not compatible +with the French regaining the Acadian peninsula. The taking of Canso, +the attempt {198} to take Port Royal or Annapolis, roused the +'Bostonnais,' and led to an enterprise second to none in colonial +history. + +[Sidenote: _William Shirley._] + +The Governor of Massachusetts at the time was William Shirley. A +Sussex man, son of a merchant in the City of London, bred to the law, +he had gone out to Boston in 1731, and in ten years' time, by +judicious pushing, became Governor of the colony. He was a layman +with military instincts, and, taking up the role of Cato, never +ceased to preach to the ministers at home and to his fellow colonists +on the spot, that Canada must be conquered, and the French driven +from North America. His policy was good and clearsighted, his +military ability was of no large order; but, like William Phipps, +while he loved himself, he loved his country also; and eventually, +after falling under a cloud, and being relegated to the government of +the Bahamas, he came back to end his days in Massachusetts as a +private citizen, and was buried at Boston in 1771. + +[Sidenote: _His scheme for attacking Louisbourg._] + +To this enterprising man, it is said, the idea of attacking +Louisbourg with colonial forces was suggested by William Vaughan, a +New Englander, interested in the fishing trade on the coast of Maine. +The scheme seemed a wild one. A fortress strong, as far as the newest +military skill and unlimited money could strengthen it, was to be +attacked and taken by untrained colonists. Yet there were solid hopes +of success, and the dream came true. The English prisoners, carried +from Canso to Louisbourg, had been sent on to Boston, and told of the +actual condition of the French. The garrison at Louisbourg was not +very numerous: they were ill commanded and mutinous. If the +fortifications were formidable, within them were the elements of +weakness. + +[Sidenote: _The scheme adopted by Massachusetts._] + +[Sidenote: _William Pepperell._] + +Shirley called the Massachusetts Assembly together in secret session, +and propounded his scheme for an expedition against Louisbourg. The +scheme was rejected. Soon afterwards a petition in its favour was +presented from Boston and other coast towns: the question came again +before the {199} Assembly, and the proposals were carried by one +vote. All the English colonies down to and including Pennsylvania +were invited to help; but, though New York sent a little money and a +few guns, the enterprise was practically left to New England alone. +Massachusetts contributed about 3,000 men, Connecticut, 500; and +William Pepperell, shipbuilder and merchant of Kittery Point, Maine, +was named as commander. He was of Devonshire descent, a colonel of +militia, and, though he had little military experience, he was a man +of good judgement and common sense. + +[Sidenote: _Admiral Warren._] + +A request had been sent to England for ships of war, and Warren, the +English commodore at Antigua in the West Indies, was asked to bring +his squadron. When the message reached him, he was without orders +from home, and refused to sail; but almost immediately afterwards +permission came, and he left at once for the North American coast, +joining the expedition, which had already started, at their +rendezvous at Canso. + +[Sidenote: _The expedition starts._] + +It was on March 24, 1745 that the New Englanders left Boston; on or +about April 4 the transports began to arrive at Canso. They carried +men who knew little or nothing of scientific warfare, and for whom +amateur strategists had drawn up fantastic plans of campaign; but +they were colonists of tough English breed, their Puritan +proclivities had been strengthened by the Methodist revival, and the +great preacher, George Whitfield, had given to Pepperell for the +motto of the expedition 'Nil desperandum Christo duce.' + +[Illustration: Map of Louisbourg] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg and its surroundings._] + +'Louisbourg is built upon a tongue of land which stretches out into +the sea and gives the town an oblong shape. It is about half a league +in circumference.'[5] The tongue of land in question is part of a +larger peninsula running out to the south and east from the coast of +Cape Breton Island. The little promontory, which was covered by the +{200} town and fortifications of Louisbourg, has an almost due +easterly direction, and it is prolonged to the east by reefs ending +in a small rocky island, on which the French erected a battery to +command the mouth of the harbour, the channel being about half a mile +wide. The harbour lay to the north and north-east of the town; on the +other side was the ocean. To the west of the whole peninsula, of +which the Louisbourg promontory was but a small part, is a large +semicircular bay, known as Gabarus Bay. Surrounded by the sea on all +sides but one, on that one side--the western side--the town was +strongly protected by a ditch and rampart, outside which was marshy +ground. Moreover, almost due north of the town, on the edge of the +harbour, was a battery, known as the Grand Battery, over against the +Island Battery which has been already mentioned. Nature, French +money, and French engineers had combined to make a stronghold, which +seemed almost impregnable. + +[Footnote 5: From the anonymous _Lettre d'un habitant de Louisbourg_, +translated by Professor Wrong, pp. 27, 28.] + +[Sidenote: _The French garrison._] + +The garrison consisted of between 500 and 600 regular troops, with +1,300 to 1,400 militia.[6] Among the regulars were Swiss soldiers, +who had mutinied at the preceding Christmas time and infected their +French comrades with the spirit of insubordination. They mutinied, it +was said, about their rations, as to the 'butter and bacon' which the +King supplied. In Louisbourg, as elsewhere in Canada, peculation was +rife, and officers and commissaries made profit at the privates' +expense. The Governor, Duquesnel, had died in the previous October. +His successor, Duchambon, was not the man for a crisis. The walls +were there and brave men behind them, but confidence in a determined +and prescient leader was wanting; and, as the consequence of +maladministration, we read that 'the regular soldiers were +distrusted, so that it was necessary to charge the inhabitants with +the most dangerous duties.' + +[Footnote 6: It is difficult to make out from the _Lettre d'un +habitant_ whether or not the 1,300 to 1,400 men included the +regulars, but probably not.] + +{201} [Sidenote: _The English land in Gabarus Bay._] + +[Sidenote: _The Grand Battery occupied by the English._] + +Having waited for about three weeks at Canso, and rebuilt and +garrisoned the blockhouse, the New Englanders went on to their +destination. On April 30 the transports sailed into Gabarus Bay, +making for Flat Point, three miles due west of Louisbourg. A small +French force was detached to oppose them; but the boats made good +their landing, two miles further to the west, at a little inlet +called Freshwater Cove. Here the whole force of 4,000 men was +disembarked; and, two days later, a party under Vaughan, having +marched behind the town, found the Grand Battery deserted and +occupied it, turning its guns in due course upon their rightful +owners. The precipitate abandonment of this battery by the French, on +the ground that its defences were inadequate, proved a fatal blunder, +giving the besiegers a firm position in the rear of the town, whereas +the direct attack was over swamp and marsh. + +[Sidenote: _Beginning of the siege._] + +[Sidenote: _Capture of the 'Vigilant.'_] + +The siege now began in earnest. Warren's squadron, which was at a +later stage reinforced from England, blockaded the harbour, and on +May 19 achieved an important success in capturing the _Vigilant_, a +large French ship of war, whose supplies of food and ammunition, +destined for the garrison, passed instead into the hands of the +besiegers. Warren could not however enter the harbour, as long as the +Island Battery commanded the entrance. + +[Sidenote: _Spirit of the New Englanders._] + +The bulk of the work fell on the land force, and well they did it. +Ill clothed, ill housed, suffering so much from exposure and +privations, that at one time out of 4,000 men little more than +one-half were fit for duty, without transport, dragging the guns +themselves across the morasses, without skilled engineers, and with +hardly any trained gunners, they none the less pushed the siege with +boisterous audacity, mingling religious fervour with schoolboy +recklessness. They fought better in this way--their own way--than by +adhering to strict military rule, and their commander, William +Pepperell, knew his men. His was a difficult task. {202} There was +some little friction between the King's man and the colonist, but, on +the whole, Warren on the sea and Pepperell on the land worked in +harmony, due in no small measure to the tact and good sense of the +New England commander. + +[Sidenote: _The besiegers threatened from the mainland._] + +There was a further danger to the besiegers, of attack from the +mainland side. Canadians and Indians were reported to be marching to +the relief of the garrison. They were a party sent from Canada to +besiege Annapolis, who drew off and marched for Louisbourg on +receiving an urgent message for help from Duchambon, but arrived only +in time to hear that the town had surrendered and to retreat again in +safety into Acadia. + +[Sidenote: _Attempt on the Island Battery, which fails._] + +As long as the Island Battery remained intact, it was or seemed +impossible to attack from the sea. Accordingly an attempt was made to +take it. At midnight, on May 26, a storming party put out in boats +from the Grand Battery, and rowed to the strongly fortified rock on +which the Island Battery stood. The result was an entire failure. +Firing under cover, the French wrecked many of the boats, and shot +down the soldiers who landed. The English lost 189 men, being nearly +half the attacking force, 119 of whom were taken prisoners. It was +clear that the battery could not be taken by assault, and the +besiegers proceeded gradually to cripple it by mounting guns on +Lighthouse Point, being the opposite side of the narrow entrance to +the harbour. These guns did good execution, and, while the Island +Battery lost its sting, the defences of the town on the land side +were steadily weakened by the besiegers' fire. + +[Sidenote: _Final assault threatened._] + +[Sidenote: _The town capitulates._] + +At length Warren and Pepperell decided that the time had come to +assault the town simultaneously by land and sea. The French saw what +was intended; they were worn with fatigue and anxiety; their houses +were riddled with shot and shell; and the townspeople urged the +Governor to capitulate. Fair terms were granted by the English +commanders, who knew that their own position was none too secure. The +{203} garrison was allowed to march out with the honours of war, and +safe transport to France was guaranteed to the officers and men, as +well as to the inhabitants of Louisbourg, on the promise that none +should bear arms against England for the space of a year. On these +conditions Duchambon surrendered, and on June 17, after a siege of +forty-seven days, the English became masters of Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _Warren and Pepperell._] + +The capitulation was made jointly to Pepperell and Warren. The French +eye-witness of the siege is at pains to distinguish between them; for +Warren he has nothing but praise, for Pepperell the reverse. 'Mr. +Warren,' he writes, 'is a young man about thirty-five years old, very +handsome, and full of the noblest sentiments.' Against Pepperell he +brings charges of bad faith in carrying out the terms of the +capitulation, adding, 'What could we expect from a man who, it is +said, is the son of a shoemaker at Boston?' As a matter of fact, +Pepperell, on occupying Louisbourg, kept his undisciplined men well +in hand, much to their disgust, and little loot rewarded their weeks +of toil and suffering. To Warren's sailors, on the other hand, there +accrued a large amount of prize-money; for, by the device of keeping +the French flag flying after the surrender of the town had taken +place, various French vessels were decoyed and captured. + +[Sidenote: _The success mainly due to the colonists._] + +In after years, when the American colonies had taken arms against the +mother country, men argued as to whether the taking of Louisbourg was +due to the English sailors and their commander, or to the colonists. +As a matter of fact, neither without the other could have achieved +success, but the enterprise was conceived by the colonists, on the +colonists fell the brunt of the fighting, and to them, not to +England, the chief credit was due. 'The enterprise,' says the French +writer already quoted, 'was less that of the nation or of the King +than of the inhabitants of New England alone.' It was in truth a +wonderful feat, and till our own times it was never sufficiently +appreciated. + +{204} [Sidenote: _Reception of the news in England, and at Boston._] + +There was rejoicing in England; but England in the year 1745, the +year of the Jacobite rebellion, had other sights before her eyes, and +other sounds in the ears of her people. It may well have been, too, +that joy at success over the enemy of the nation was alloyed by +uneasy and unworthy consciousness of the growing strength and +self-confidence of the New England beyond the sea. But to Boston the +tidings were tidings of unmixed joy and pride. The Lord had risen to +fight for His chosen people, the dour and stubborn Puritan, and the +stronghold of the idolaters was laid low. + +'Good Lord,' said the old and usually long-winded Chaplain Moody, in +his grace before dinner at the end of the siege, 'we have so much to +thank Thee for that time will be too short, and we must leave it for +eternity.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: Quoted in Parkman's _A Half Century of Conflict_ (1892 +ed.), vol. ii, p. 153.] + +[Sidenote: _Sermon at Boston on the event._] + +A General Thanksgiving was held at Boston on Thursday July 18, 1745. +At the South Church in that city the Rev. Thomas Prince, one of the +pastors, preached on the great New England victory. He took for his +text 'This is the Lord's doing: it is marvellous in our eyes'; and +his sermon, which has been preserved to us,[8] well illustrates the +view which the Puritans of Massachusetts took of their success. The +hand of the Lord was visible to them in every detail of the 'most +adventurous enterprise against the French settlements at Cape Breton +and their exceeding strong city of Louisbourg, for warlike power the +pride and terror of these northern seas.' The preacher recounted the +advantages which the island gave to France, its abundance of pit +coal, its commodious harbours, 'its happy situation in {205} the +centre of our fishery at the entrance of the Bay and River of +Canada.' He noted the natural and artificial strength of the walled +city, added to for thirty years, until Louisbourg became 'the Dunkirk +of North America, and in some respects of greater importance.' He +traced the finger of God in the circumstances preliminary to and +attending its capture; how the British prisoners, carried to +Louisbourg, on their return to Boston brought information 'whereby we +came to be more acquainted with their situation and the proper places +of landing and attacking'; how the New Englander had accounts 'of the +uneasiness of the Switzers there for want of pay and provision'; how +the weather was fair, the men were willing, supplies were plentiful; +how God guided the decision of the Court of Representatives, and +timed the arrival of 'the brave and active Commodore Warren, a great +friend to these Plantations.' The landing, the taking of the Grand +Battery, the 'happy harmony between our various officers,' even +disease, reverse, toil and labour, all were signs of a particular +Providence working out His great design and leading His people into a +place of shelter. Thus was Louisbourg taken 'by means of so small a +number, less than 4,000 land men, unused to war, undisciplined, and +that had never seen a siege in their lives.' 'As it was,' said the +preacher, referring to the Treaty of Utrecht, 'one of the chief +disgraces of Queen Anne's reign to resign this island to the French, +it is happily one of the glories of King George II's to restore it to +the British empire.' The measure of joy at the taking of Louisbourg +must also have been the measure of disappointment at its subsequent +retrocession by the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. + +[Footnote 8: _Extraordinary events, the doings of God, and marvellous +in pious eyes_. Illustrated in a sermon at the South Church in Boston +(New England), on the General Thanksgiving, Thursday, July 18, 1745. +Occasioned by taking the city of Louisbourg, on the isle of Cape +Breton, by New England soldiers, assisted by a British squadron. By +Thomas Prince, M.A. Pamphlet, Boston and London, 5th ed. 1746. +Dedicated to H. E. William Shirley.] + +[Sidenote: _Subsequent career of Pepperell_] + +Of the two men who led the English to victory on this memorable +occasion, Pepperell was made a baronet--the first colonist to receive +that honour: he lived to help his countrymen still further in their +struggle with France. Through his exertions a royal regiment was +raised in {206} America, and the New England shipping yards added a +fine frigate to the British navy. He died in 1759, holding the +commission of Lieutenant-General in the British army. + +[Sidenote: _and Warren._] + +Warren, in 1747, took part, as second in command, in Anson's naval +victory over the French off Cape Finisterre, and in the same year he +was elected member of Parliament for Westminster. He died in 1752, at +the age of forty-nine, one of the richest commoners in England; and a +monument to him stands in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. It +tells that he was a 'Knight of the Bath, a Vice Admiral of the Red +Squadron of the fleet, and member of the City and Liberty of +Westminster'; but it does not tell how close was his sympathy with +the English in America, married, as he was, to an American lady, and +owner of estates in Manhattan Island and on the Mohawk river; nor, +amid the verbiage of eighteenth-century adulation, is there any +mention of the part which he took in helping the New England +colonists to conquer Louisbourg. + +[Sidenote: _The New Englanders garrison Louisbourg._] + +[Sidenote: _Relieved by regular troops._] + +The New Englanders garrisoned Louisbourg for the better part of a +year. The soldiers were discontented, with some reason. Their success +had brought them little or no profit: they wanted to be back on their +farms: the town which they occupied was dismantled and insanitary; +pestilence broke out, and 'the people died like rotten sheep.'[9] +Shirley came up from Boston to keep the soldiers quiet, but not till +April, 1746, were the colonists relieved by regular troops, sent from +Gibraltar. Warren then took sole command for a short time, being +succeeded by another sailor, Commodore Knowles. + +[Footnote 9: Quoted in Parkman's _A Half Century of Conflict_, vol. +ii, p. 166.] + +[Sidenote: _Preparations for invasion of Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _The plan miscarries._] + +Shirley intended the capture of Louisbourg to be but the beginning of +the end, the end being the conquest of Canada. The French Government, +on the other hand, were determined to recover their fortress. Each +was for the time disappointed. In the early months of 1746, the +colonies, {207} elated by their recent and great success, cheerfully +answered to the call for soldiers to invade Canada. The home +Government promised eight battalions, and had them ready for +embarkation at Portsmouth; the plan of campaign--the usual plan of +dual invasion by the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain--was duly +outlined; Quebec was thrown into a state of alarm and hurried +preparation, when, as so often before, all came to nothing, owing to +the shuffling and delays of the ministers of the Crown, in this +instance the incompetent Duke of Newcastle. The troops destined for +America were diverted to Europe; one more opportunity was lost; one +more nail was driven into the coffin of colonial loyalty. Realizing, +as the autumn of 1746 drew on, that an invasion of Canada was now out +of the question, Shirley determined to attack the French advanced +position at Crown Point with the New York and Massachusetts levies; +but this plan, too, was frustrated by news of a coming fleet from +France, and the fears of Quebec were transferred to Boston. + +[Sidenote: _Failure of a counter expedition by the French._] + +The fleet in question left La Rochelle at midsummer in the year 1746. +It consisted of twenty-one ships of war and a number of transports, +carrying 3,000 troops. The whole was under the command of the Duc +d'Anville. Disaster in the form of tempest and pestilence attended +the expedition from first to last. The ships were scattered on the +ocean, and it was not until the end of September that the admiral, +with three ships, reached Chebucto (now Halifax) harbour. Here, while +waiting for the rest of the fleet, he died; and the vice-admiral, +D'Estournel, arriving immediately afterwards, saw no hope for the +shattered expedition but to return to France. His officers, on the +other hand, urged an attack on Annapolis, and D'Estournel, in a fit +of mortification and mental distress, put an end to his life. The +command now devolved on the Marquis de la Jonquiere, a naval officer, +who had gone out on board the fleet to take over the {208} government +of Canada. He waited into October at Chebucto, the Acadians brought +him provisions, but his men still died of disease day by day. He +sailed for Annapolis, but encountered fresh storms off Cape Sable; +and at length the miserable remains of the fleet made their way back +to France, the loss of life having been, it was said, 2,500 men. In +the following year, 1747, La Jonquiere again set out from France in +another fleet, but again he failed to reach Canada; the ships were +encountered and defeated off Cape Finisterre by Anson and Warren, and +the outgoing Governor of Canada was carried a prisoner to England. + +[Sidenote: _Canadian raids._] + +The main operations of the war were supplemented by the usual series +of raids from Canada. In the winter of 1745, Fort Saratoga, +thirty-six miles from Albany, was attacked and taken by French and +Indians from Crown Point; the place was burnt, and its inhabitants +were carried into captivity. It was again reoccupied by the English, +but in 1747 was evacuated and burnt as indefensible, to the disgust +of the Five Nation Indians, who looked upon the proceeding as +evidence of weakness and cowardice. Another successful French attack +was made, in August, 1746, on Fort Massachusetts, standing on an +eastern tributary of the Hudson, on the line of communication between +Albany and the Connecticut river. In short, for three years, the +borders of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were harried by +Canadians and Indians, using the French fort at Crown Point as their +base. + +[Sidenote: _French success at Grand Pre._] + +But the most notable success in this petty warfare was achieved on +the Acadian frontier. The isthmus of Chignecto, which connects the +Nova Scotian peninsula with the mainland, was, at the time of +D'Anville's expedition, held by a comparatively strong force of +Canadians under De Ramesay. Fearing for the safety of Annapolis and +the rest of Acadia, Shirley sent reinforcements from Massachusetts, +consisting of some 500 men under Colonel Noble, who in December, +{209} 1746, reached the Basin of Mines, and occupied the village of +Grand Pre. They were quartered throughout the village, taking no +sufficient precautions against surprise; Ramesay therefore, on +hearing of the position, determined towards the latter end of January +to attack them. He had with him the best of the Canadian partisan +leaders; and unable, owing to an accident, to take personal charge of +the expedition, he placed the command in the hands of Coulon de +Villiers. + +In the depth of winter, with sledges and snow-shoes, the French set +out; they started from the isthmus on January 23, on February 10 they +were on the outskirts of Grand Pre. Under cover of night, one party +and another attacked the detached houses in which the English were +lodged; Colonel Noble and over seventy of his followers were killed; +sixty were wounded, fifty-four were taken prisoners. The rest +capitulated, on condition of safe return to Annapolis; and on +February 14 they marched out, leaving Grand Pre in the hands of the +French, who in their turn shortly afterwards retired to their old +position at Chignecto. It was a brilliant feat of arms, but, like +most of these border attacks, had no lasting effect. Grand Pre was in +a few weeks' time reoccupied by the English; and not long afterwards +the French retired from the Acadian frontier into Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg given back to France._] + +The war, known in history as the War of the Austrian Succession, had +brought to none of the combatants much honour or profit. On the +continent the Austrians and their English allies met with little +success, on the sea the French were equally unsuccessful. The end was +a peace, as between England and France, based on the principle of +mutual restitution, such a peace as left the seeds of future war. +England gave back Louisbourg and Cape Breton Island, France gave back +Madras, which had surrendered in 1746 to Labourdonnais. The treaty +contained the somewhat humiliating {210} provision, that English +hostages should be given to France until the restitution of +Louisbourg had actually taken place. + +[Sidenote: _Foundation of Halifax._] + +[Sidenote: _The peace from the English and from the colonial point of +view._] + +In July, 1749, the French re-entered their fortress; and in the same +year a large body of settlers was sent out by the British Government +to Chebucto harbour, where the city of Halifax was founded. The +settlement was designed to be a rival to Louisbourg. Its foundation +was evidence that the Imperial Government was at length not wholly +indifferent to the value of Acadia; and Halifax is almost unique, +among English cities in America, in having owed its origin to the +direct action of the State. But no founding of new townships, we may +well imagine, could compensate the New Englanders for losing the +fruits of their victory. It is said that the first answer of King +George II, when pressed to give back Louisbourg to France was that it +belonged not to him but to the people of Boston. If these were his +words, he spoke truly; the Massachusetts men had won the town, and +England gave it away. Yet on no other terms could peace be secured; +and it is not easy to pass a fair criticism on the transaction. Then, +as now, England had to reckon with conflicting interests within her +Empire. Then, as now, she had self-governing colonies which +necessarily did not see eye to eye on all points with the mother +country. The horizon of New England was bounded by the Atlantic, and +the fate of a factory in the East Indies, or even international +arrangements on the continent of Europe, were beyond the colonists' +ken. They saw only that their blood and their money had been given in +vain, and that the fortress, which they had wrested from France, was +hers again. English statesmen, on the other hand, looked east as well +as west; and near home, across the Channel, was the spectacle of +campaigns that brought more loss than gain. As successful war in +Europe had given Acadia to the English, so want of success in the +{211} same quarter reacted on America. The account was made up, the +balance was struck, and the retrocession of Louisbourg was the price +of peace. But it was a heavy price to pay, for it seemed to have been +paid by the American colonists alone; and, had not another war soon +followed, and Louisbourg been again taken by a general whom the +Americans loved, the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle might have passed into +history as not merely a disappointment but an irretrievable disaster. + +[Sidenote: _Western discovery._] + +French exploration in North America followed, as has been seen, the +line of the lakes and the rivers. From Louisiana, in the first half +of the eighteenth century, various expeditions were made in a +westerly direction--up the Red River, the Arkansas, the Missouri, and +its tributary the Kansas river--the object of the French explorers +being to enter into friendly relations with the Comanches and other +Indians of the western plains, and gradually to open up trade with +New Mexico and the city of Santa Fe; in other words, to reach Spanish +America, an object which did not commend itself to Spain. + +[Sidenote: _Knowledge gained of Lake of the Woods and Lake +Winnipeg._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort built in the Sioux country._] + +Before the year 1700, the course of the upper Mississippi was known. +Nicolas Perrot, in or about 1685, is said to have established posts +where the river widens out into Lake Pepin; and further north, French +_coureurs de bois_, or _voyageurs_, as they began to be called, +gained information of the Lake of the Woods, and of the Lac des +Assiniboines, now Lake Winnipeg. The principal Indian tribes in the +regions of the upper Mississippi were Sioux; and, with a view to +making them friends to France, and penetrating through their country +to the western sea, the Jesuit traveller Charlevoix recommended, in +1723, that a mission should be established among them. A few years +later, in 1727, a company was formed for trading in the Sioux +country, and built a new fort on Lake Pepin called, after the then +Governor of Canada, Fort Beauharnois. The Sioux, however, {212} +proved intractable neighbours, and ten years later the fort was +abandoned. + +[Sidenote: _Verendrye._] + +In 1728, there was a small French outpost at Nipigon, at the western +end of Lake Superior, on its northern side--where the river Nipigon +flows from the lake of the same name into Lake Superior. The +commander was Pierre de Varennes de la Verendrye, son of a lieutenant +of the Carignan Regiment, who had settled at and been Governor of +Three Rivers. As a young man, La Verendrye had crossed the sea to +fight in the armies of France, and had been badly wounded on the +field of Malplaquet. He lived to leave his name high in the list of +western explorers. At his distant station on Lake Superior, he heard +the stories that Indians brought, mixture of fact and fable, of +waters to the west that led to the long-sought-for sea; he offered to +follow up the clue, and, with the usual opposition from jealous +Canadian merchants, and the usual barren authority from the French +Government to explore at his own expense, in return for the grant of +a monopoly of the fur trade to the west and north of Lake Superior, +he gave the rest of his life to western discovery. + +[Sidenote: _The water-parting on the west of Lake Superior._] + +As the water-parting between the basin of the St. Lawrence and that +of the Mississippi is hardly marked by any height of land, so the +divide between the chain of lakes which feed the St. Lawrence and the +more westerly waters, of which Lake Winnipeg is the centre, is a +slight rise of ground which it is difficult to distinguish on the +maps. A low range of hills runs round the western end of Lake +Superior, at the highest point not more than 1,000 feet above the +level of the lake. These uplands separate the tributaries of Lake +Superior and the St. Lawrence from the feeders of Lake Winnipeg. +There were two routes across the divide, one leaving Lake Superior at +Thunder Bay, near the point where Port Arthur now stands, and +following for a short distance the present line of the Canadian +Pacific Railway; {213} the other a little further south, leaving the +lake at or near Pigeon river, and going westward along the present +boundary line between Canada and the United States. On this latter +route was the Grand Portage, by which the _voyageurs_ crossed the +water-parting at about sixty miles distance from Lake Superior, and +reached Rainy Lake. Rainy Lake drains into the Lake of the Woods, and +the Lake of the Woods drains into Lake Winnipeg. This last great +lake, fed by the Saskatchewan, the Assiniboine, the Red River, and +many other rivers and lakes, finds its outlet by the Nelson river to +Hudson Bay, and a chain of posts carried from Lake Superior to Lake +Winnipeg would tend to divert the western fur trade from Hudson Bay +to the St. Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Verendrye's journeys and forts._] + +[Sidenote: _His sons near the Rocky mountains._] + +In the summer of 1731, La Verendrye started west by the Grand +Portage; and in the next eight or nine years established posts along +the water line, from Rainy Lake to where the Saskatchewan river +enters Lake Winnipeg from the north-west. One of these forts or +stations was Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine river, which formed the +starting-point for an advance over the western plains through what is +now the State of Dakota. In 1742, two of his sons made their way from +the Assiniboine to the Missouri, crossed the latter river, and, +traversing the prairies in a westerly and south-westerly direction, +reached the country drained by the tributaries of the Yellowstone +river. How far they went is matter of conjecture, and doubt is thrown +on their claim to have been the first discoverers of the Rocky +mountains. It is stated that, on January 1, 1743, they came in sight +of high mountains, which are supposed to have been the Bighorn range +in Wyoming and Montana, an eastern buttress of the Rocky mountains, +lying in front of the Yellowstone National Park; but no mention is +made in the story of snowy peaks, such as would indicate discovery of +the great mountain barrier of America. The explorers {214} came back +in fifteen months' time. Their father died in 1749, and, like other +pioneers, they reaped but little fruit, in honour or in profit, from +all their labours. They did not find the western sea, they possibly +did not descry the Rocky mountains; but to La Verendrye and his sons +it must be credited that a new water area in the far west was fully +made known to the world, and that trade routes were opened beyond the +basin of the St. Lawrence and the basin of the Mississippi, reaching +to the great Saskatchewan river and to the waters which flow into +Hudson Bay. + +[Sidenote: _The Rocky mountains._] + +The Rocky mountains, as we know them, were not known in the +eighteenth century.[10] In 1793 Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them +far in the North, by the line of the Peace river, and reached the +Pacific Ocean on the coast of British Columbia; but the full +revelation of the main range dates from the year 1805, when Lewis and +Clarke followed the Missouri to its source, and thence made their way +over the mountain barrier to the western sea. In short, as long as +Canada was New France, and for years afterwards, it was for trading +and for colonizing purposes a region of inland waters; it was not +also, as it now is, a land of plains, with a background of giant +mountains, and behind them the further ocean. Yet it was to reach the +further ocean that Europeans first came into Canada, and the earnest +expectation of the earliest {215} explorers has in our own time found +more than fulfilment in a Dominion from sea to sea. + +[Footnote 10: In Jeffreys' _American Atlas_, 1775, the Assiniboils +(sic) or St. Charles river is prolonged to the Pacific by a dotted +line, entitled the 'River of the West.' Below it a range of mountains +is traced from north to south, with the note, 'Hereabouts are +supposed to be the mountains of bright stones mentioned in the map of +the Indian Ochagach.' In Carver's _Travels through North America in +1766-8_, published in 1778, p. 121, the Rocky mountains 'are called +the Shining Mountains from an infinite number of chrystal stones of +amazing size with which they are covered, and which, when the sun +shines full upon them, sparkle so as to be seen at a very great +distance.' Morse's _American Geography_, 1794, shows the Rocky +mountains on the map of America. In the text they are called 'Shining +Mountains.' In Arrowsmith's _Map of North America_, dated 1795-6, +they are called Stony Mountains. In a later edition of 1811 the name +'Rocky Mountains' appears.] + + +NOTE.--For the substance of the above chapter, see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii; + PARKMAN'S _A Half Century of Conflict_; + Sir J. BOURINOT'S _Cape Breton_ (referred to above on p. 34, note); + and + _Louisbourg in 1745_, the anonymous _Lettre d'un habitant de + Louisbourg_, edited and translated by Professor WRONG, (Toronto, + 1897). + + + + +{216} + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE PRELUDE TO THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR + + +The fifteen years from the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 to the +Peace of Paris in 1763 include the most stirring and picturesque +times in the history of Canada. They were masculine years, when, in +all parts of the world, great men did great things. They were the +years when Montcalm and Wolfe fought and died on the St. Lawrence; +when Robert Clive mastered India; when Chatham redeemed England from +littleness; and when Frederick of Prussia became known for all time +as Frederick the Great, by standing grimly foursquare against the +continent of Europe in the Seven Years' War. + +[Sidenote: _The southern colonies drawn into the struggle with +France._] + +The Seven Years' War only began in 1756; but before that date, before +war between France and England had formally been proclaimed, French +and English were fighting hard in North America. We have the same +sphere of war as before, and in large measure the same plans of +campaign, trouble and conflict in and on the borders of Acadia, siege +and capture of Louisbourg, attack up the St. Lawrence against +Quebec--at last a successful attack, and prolonged fighting along the +line of Lakes George and Champlain. The Five Nation Indians played +their part in the war, though a more subordinate part than in earlier +times; the cantons most within range of the English remaining under +English influence and being more adroitly managed than in earlier +days, while the westernmost tribes, the Senecas, inclined to the +French side. But a new feature came into the struggle, the {217} +result of the inevitable advance of white men on either side in the +course of years. The English colonies to the south of New York began +to take a more active part than formerly in the conflict with France. +The Virginians appeared on the scene, and among the Virginians was +prominent the name of George Washington. The great French scheme of +holding the rivers of North America and their basins implied that the +English colonies should not cross the Alleghany mountains. Great +schemes never allow for the ordinary every day work of nature and +man. It was certain that, as the English multiplied, they would go +further and further afield; and in due time, from Pennsylvania and +from Virginia, English traders and backwoodsmen made their way into +the valley of the Ohio. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio._] + +[Sidenote: _Celeron de Bienville._] + +The Ohio, which La Salle first made known to the world, is, as has +been pointed out, the connecting link on the inner line of the North +American waterways--starting from the confines of the St. Lawrence +basin near the shores of Lake Erie, and reaching the Mississippi +comparatively low down in its course. The outer line is much more +extensive, continuing along the great lakes until from Lake Michigan +the Mississippi is reached by the Wisconsin or the Illinois. Along +this outer line the French had hitherto worked. It took them more +directly to the far West; and, passing along it, they only skirted +instead of traversing the region where the Iroquois were in strength; +but, had they allowed the English to lay firm hold of the Ohio +valley, Canada and Louisiana would have been severed, and down the +Ohio would have come a challenge to French sovereignty over the West. +Thus it was that, in the year 1749, the year after the Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, the Governor of Canada, the Marquis de la +Galissoniere, sent one of his officers, Celeron de Bienville, to +register the claims of France to the Ohio river and the lands which +it watered and drained. + +[Sidenote: _His mission to the Ohio._] + +Starting up the St. Lawrence from the island of Montreal, {218} +Celeron landed on the shores of Lake Erie; and, making a portage to +Lake Chautauqua, reached the head waters of the Ohio. Down stream he +went, into the Alleghany, down the Alleghany to where, meeting the +Monongahela, it becomes the Ohio, and down the Ohio to the confluence +of the Miami river, not far from the site of Cincinnati city. Here he +left the Ohio, and, ascending the Miami, crossed overland to the +Maumee river, on which there was a small French post. The Maumee +flows into the south-western end of Lake Erie, and down its stream he +returned to Canada. + +[Sidenote: _English intrusion into the Ohio valley._] + +At various points along the route he buried leaden plates, with +inscriptions asserting the title of the King of France to the lands +of the Ohio and its tributaries; and he affixed to trees the arms of +France on sheets of tin, to tell all comers that the French were +lords of the country. It was time that some assertion of French +claims was made in these regions. He found parties of English +traders, as he went, and the Indians showed no love for France. There +had been for some time past a migration of Indians into the Ohio +valley. Many of the Iroquois had settled there: and if among the +various races, notably among the Delawares, there were those whose +traditional sympathies were with the owners of Canada, there were +more who appreciated the present benefit of English trade. Prominent +among the friends of the English were the Indians of the Miami +confederacy, whose centre was at Pique Town or Pickawillany on the +Miami river. + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio company._] + +Celeron came and went. He had made a demonstration on behalf of +France, but not a demonstration in force. His expedition was +memorable as the prelude to coming events; but no definite action was +taken for about three years. La Galissoniere was succeeded as +Governor of Canada by the Marquis de la Jonquiere,[1] who died in +1752, and was {219} followed by the Marquis Duquesne. Meantime, an +Ohio company was formed on the English side, consisting mainly of +Virginians, and English traders and emissaries were active among the +Indians of the Ohio. Yet the English, like the French, achieved no +tangible results. Pennsylvania and Virginia were jealous of each +other, and the Legislature in each state opposed the Governor. Both +Assemblies were invited to build a fort at the junction of the +Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, which formed the key of the +position; but both refused. + +[Footnote 1: De la Jonquiere had been named Governor of Canada in +1746, and made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Quebec, one in that +year on board D'Anville's fleet, and a second in 1747, when he was +taken prisoner in the fight off Cape Finisterre (see above, pp. 207, +208). He finally arrived in 1749.] + +[Sidenote: _The French attack the Miamis._] + +Thus matters drifted on until, in June, 1752, a Frenchman, Langlade, +came down from the lakes with a band of Indian warriors, attacked the +Miamis at Pickawillany, took the town, and killed its chief--who was +known to the French as La Demoiselle, and who was feared by them as a +warm friend of their English rivals. The place was a centre of +English trade, there were English traders in it when the attack was +made, and this French success was the beginning of action, on a +larger scale than had hitherto been attempted, for the conquest and +control of the Ohio valley. + +[Sidenote: _Halifax._] + +Founded in 1749, Halifax, on the coast of Nova Scotia, was, in 1752, +a town of 4,000 inhabitants. Had the settlement been made thirty +years earlier, immediately after the Peace of Utrecht instead of +after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the story of Acadia would have +been a different and probably a happier one. Mascarene at Annapolis, +and Shirley at Boston, saw the necessity of introducing English +settlers into the peninsula in order to balance the French +malcontents, and the British Government, when giving back Louisbourg +to France, recognized at length that steps must be taken to +strengthen the English hold on Nova Scotia. It was determined to +recruit the English, or at any rate the Protestant, {220} element in +the population from Europe, from the North American colonies, and +from the ranks of the men who were withdrawn from Louisbourg; and +Chebucto harbour on the Atlantic coast of the Nova Scotian peninsula +was selected as the scene of a new township to be well fortified and +strongly garrisoned. + +[Sidenote: _The first settlers at Halifax._] + +[Sidenote: _Cornwallis._] + +Here was created the city of Halifax, called after the Earl of +Halifax, at the time 'First Lord of Trade and Plantations.' In +founding it, the English had regard to the methods by which the +French had established their colonies on the St. Lawrence. Halifax +was in its origin a military colony. The first settlers consisted +largely of officers and privates of the army and navy, who, when +peace was concluded, received their discharge and who were +supplemented by a certain number of labourers and artizans. +Parliament voted 40,000 pounds in aid of the initial expenses. Free +passages, free grants of land, and the cost of subsistence for a year +after landing were provided, privileges which secured a considerable +number of colonists; 1,400 immigrants were landed from the first +batch of transports at Chebucto harbour,[2] and others followed. A +good Governor was appointed, Colonel Edward Cornwallis, uncle of Lord +Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown and ruled India. + +[Footnote 2: It is difficult to make out the numbers. The above +figure is given by Cornwallis in a letter to the Lords of Trade, July +24, 1749 (see Mr. Brymer's _Catalogue of Canadian Archives_, 'Nova +Scotia,' p. 142). On the other hand passages were taken for over +2,500 (p. 138). Haliburton says, 'in a short time 3,760 adventurers +with their families were entered for embarkation.' Parkman puts the +number at about 2,500, including women and children, Kingsford at +1,176 settlers with their families. Parliament for some years +continued to make annual grants for the colonization of Nova Scotia, +'which collected sums,' says Haliburton, 'amounted to the enormous +sum of 415,584 pounds 14_s_. 11_d_.'] + +[Sidenote: _The Lunenburg settlement._] + +Old soldiers do not always make good colonists, and Cornwallis wrote +home complaining of their want of industry, contrasting the English +unfavourably with a few Swiss who were among the newcomers, and +suggesting that an effort {221} should be made to introduce +Protestant emigrants from Germany. Accordingly, German Lutherans were +brought over through an agent at Rotterdam, the majority of whom +were, in 1753, planted out at Lunenburg, a little to the south-west +of Halifax, on the same side of the peninsula. Thus the outer margin +of Nova Scotia was being sparsely colonized with English, Swiss, and +German Protestants, while on the side towards the mainland, along the +shores of the Bay of Fundy, the Roman Catholic Acadians remained +French in heart and sympathies. + +[Sidenote: _The commissioners to fix the limits of Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _Designs of the French on Acadia._] + +For three years following the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French +and English commissioners, appointed to determine the limits of the +French and English possessions in North America, wrangled at Paris, +William Shirley being one of the English delegates; but they never +came to any conclusion. The French now refused even to concede that +the whole of the Acadian peninsula belonged to England, and wished to +confine English sovereignty to its southern coasts. They were in fact +resolved by bluff or by force either to regain Acadia, or, in default +of attaining that object, to make its condition one of permanent +insecurity and unrest. As related in the last chapter,[3] immediately +after the Peace of Utrecht the intention of the French Government had +been to transplant the Acadians to French soil, to Cape Breton Island +and to Prince Edward Island, then known as Ile St. Jean. For this +policy they subsequently substituted the more dangerous plan of not +removing the Acadians, but encouraging them to consider themselves +still as French subjects while remaining under the British flag. +After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, however, they reverted +to their project of transplantation, finding that the British +Government were resolved no longer to treat their subjects in Acadia +as neutrals, and realizing that the Governor had now force at his +back. + +[Footnote 3: See above, p. 193.] + +{222} [Sidenote: _Position of the Acadians._] + +[Sidenote: _Attitude of Cornwallis._] + +The Acadians claimed to be exempt from bearing arms in defence of +their country and their country's rulers, in other words against the +French and the Indian allies of the French. They were not free +agents; they were terrorized by the French Government and the French +priests, notorious among whom was a ruffian named Le Loutre, +Vicar-General of Acadia. Spiritual excommunication and Indian +hostility threatened them, if they acted with loyalty to the British +King, whose subjects they had been for nearly forty years. How +faithless and unscrupulous was the policy of the French is abundantly +shown by official dispatches, proving that the Canadian Governor, La +Jonquiere, with the sanction of the French Government at home, +accepted and endorsed Le Loutre's villainous schemes for preventing +the Acadians from taking the full oath of allegiance, and for +instigating the Indians of the peninsula to murder the English +settlers. Cornwallis treated the Acadians with kindly firmness. Some +of them asked to be allowed to leave the country, and he promised +permission to those who should obtain passports, when peace and +tranquillity were restored. For the moment he declined to allow them +to cross the frontier, as it would mean sending them among French and +Indians, who would compel them to bear arms against the English +Government. + +[Sidenote: _Beaubassin occupied by English troops._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Lawrence._] + +The frontier, as far as any line was provisionally recognized, was a +little stream on the isthmus of Chignecto. On the mainland side the +French had occupied a hill called Beausejour, on the Nova Scotian +side was the village of Beaubassin. In April, 1750, Cornwallis sent a +force of some 400 men under Major Lawrence to occupy a position at or +near Beaubassin, and to guard the isthmus. On his arrival, Lawrence +found Beaubassin in flames. Le Loutre and his Indians had set fire to +the place, and compelled the hapless residents to cross over to the +French lines. The English left, but returned in September in stronger +force; their landing was disputed by Le Loutre's savages, who were +driven off, {223} and a fort was built and garrisoned, called after +the name of the commander, Fort Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Murder of Captain Howe._] + +French and English now faced each other across a narrow stream, the +French completed their fort at Beausejour, and the temper of Le +Loutre's Indians was shown by a horrible incident, the murder of an +English officer, Captain Howe. Howe had gone out in answer to a flag +of truce, which appeared from the French lines; but the bearer of the +white flag was an Indian disguised in French uniform, who lured the +Englishman into an ambush, where he was mortally wounded. The French +themselves attributed this act of wanton wickedness to Le Loutre. + +[Sidenote: _Colonel Lawrence._] + +[Sidenote: _Acadian emigration._] + +In 1752 Cornwallis returned to England, and was succeeded as Governor +of Acadia by Colonel Hopson, who had been in command at Louisbourg, +when that town was given back to France; the latter was, in the +autumn of 1753, succeeded by Colonel Lawrence. The Acadian +population, which in 1749 numbered between 12,000 and 13,000 souls, +five years later was reduced to little more than 9,000. The +emigration which caused the reduction in numbers was largely the +result of a French terror, and on the mainland, or in the Ile St. +Jean, the unfortunate emigrants endured misery unknown in their old +homes in Acadia. Those who find in the subsequent rooting up of +Acadian settlement an instance of English cruelty with little +parallel in history, would do well to remember that the process had +already been going on at the hands of the French; and the lot of the +Acadians under the French flag was in no wise preferable to the +fortunes of those who were carried, as it were, into captivity in the +English colonies. + +[Sidenote: _De Vergor._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of the French fort Beausejour._] + +The catastrophe, of which so much has been made in prose and verse, +happened in the year 1755. It was not an isolated incident, but part +of a general plan--which for the time miscarried--of breaking the +French power in North America. The commandant of the French fort at +{224} Beausejour was De Vergor, son of Duchambon who surrendered +Louisbourg in 1745. He owed his position to Bigot, the notorious +Intendant of Canada. By his side, and with as much or more authority, +was Le Loutre, the evil genius of Acadia. The French contemplated +attack on the English: Lawrence, in communication with Shirley, +determined to forestall them. Some two thousand men came up from +Massachusetts, enlisted under John Winslow--a name which New +Englanders honoured--and, landing at the isthmus early in June, +joined the English garrison at Fort Lawrence, the whole force being +under Colonel Monckton. In a few days' time the bombardment of the +French fort began; but, before there had been any serious fighting, +De Vergor surrendered. The garrison marched out with the honours of +war, and Fort Beausejour was renamed Fort Cumberland. + +[Sidenote: _The French driven from Acadia._] + +[Sidenote: _End of Le Loutre._] + +This success was speedily followed by the capitulation of another +French fort at Baie Verte, at the northern end of the isthmus, and by +the evacuation of a post on the mainland, at the mouth of the river +St. John. The whole of Acadia on both sides of the isthmus thus +passed into English hands. De Vergor some time afterwards was put on +trial at Quebec for his feeble and incapable conduct, but influential +friends procured his acquittal; and he remained in Canada to earn +further obloquy, as commandant of the French outpost which was +surprised by Wolfe in his memorable climb by night up to the Plains +of Abraham.[4] Le Loutre disappeared from the scene of his wickedness +in North America. He fled in disguise to Quebec, and, sailing for +France, was taken prisoner and spent eight years in captivity in the +island of Jersey. He seems to have died in his bed in France--a +better fate than he deserved. + +[Footnote 4: See below, pp. 306, 307.] + +[Sidenote: _The expulsion of the Acadians._] + +The victory of the English arms was followed by the removal of the +bulk of the Acadian population from Acadia. This policy had been +determined upon as the only practicable {225} alternative to +unqualified obedience. Such obedience, until it was too late and the +die had already been cast, the Acadians refused to give. They would +not swear heart-whole allegiance to King George; they had abetted his +enemies year after year; many of them had actually borne arms against +the English; and with Louisbourg in threatening strength in the +immediate neighbourhood, with manifold other difficulties to +face--for before the actual expulsion Braddock's defeat and death on +the Monongahela river had occurred--it was absolutely necessary for +the English authorities to make the Nova Scotian peninsula +permanently safe. The time to strike was while there was an adequate +force on the spot, and before the Massachusetts contingent returned +to Boston. + +Sternly and relentlessly Governor Lawrence took his measures; at +Beaubassin, at Annapolis, round the shores of the Basin of Mines, +where the most pleasing features of Acadian settlement were to be +found, the majority of able-bodied men were secured; and, as the +transports came up, groups of peasants were carried off to other +lands. In the actual work of expulsion, no unnecessary harshness +appears to have been used; families were as a rule kept together, and +went out hand in hand into exile; but they were taken, an ignorant +and bewildered crowd, from the homes of their childhood, and were +transported, helpless and hopeless, to distant countries, where there +was another religion and another race. The pity of it was that, after +forty years of so-called English government, the Acadians never +believed that that Government, when it threatened or decreed, would +be as good as its word. When therefore the blow came, it stunned a +people who had been bred in the belief that much would be said and +nothing would be done. + +[Sidenote: _The number transported._] + +[Sidenote: _Their fate._] + +Some 6,000 in all were removed, out of a total population of a little +over 9,000. Of these, over 3,000 had had their homes round the Basin +of Mines, the majority of whom {226} were dwellers in the village and +district of Grand Pre. The others came from the isthmus, or from +Annapolis. They were dispersed abroad among the English colonies in +North America, from Massachusetts southwards; but the colonies were +not all willing to receive them, and from Virginia and South Carolina +many were sent on to England. Some, it is said, found their way to +Louisiana, while of those who had escaped transportation a certain +number took refuge at Quebec. A considerable remnant was left behind +in Acadia, and some of the exiles 'wandered back to their native land +to die in its bosom';[5] but those who were left behind in Acadia, +and those who returned, were not enough to leaven to any great extent +the future history of the peninsula. + +[Footnote 5: From Longfellow's _Evangeline_.] + +[Sidenote: _Different views as to the policy of expulsion._] + +What judgment may fairly be passed upon this measure of expulsion? +The traditional view has been that the removal of the Acadians from +Acadia was an injustice and a crime--an arbitrary and cruel act, +parallel on a smaller scale to the earlier expulsion of the Huguenots +from France. According to this view the English were oppressors, +rooting out and carrying captive a harmless and innocent peasantry-- + + Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, + Darkened by shadows of earth but reflecting an image of heaven. + +Longfellow has given us this picture in _Evangeline_, and it has been +drawn in similar outlines by various hands. In the foreground are +bands of terror-stricken peasants, driven on board ship amid mourning +and lamentation. In the background are burning homesteads, emptiness +where there had been plenty, desolation where yesterday the children +played. + +A different view is given by later writers who have more closely +tested the facts. Their conclusion is that the expulsion of the +Acadians, stern and even cruel as it was, was more or less a +political necessity; that the Acadians {227} themselves were sinners +as well as sinned against; and that they were sinned against more by +men of their own race and religion than by the English. + +This latter view is probably nearer the truth. There is always, +especially in England, a tendency to sympathize unreasonably with the +weak against the strong, and, when severe measures are taken, to +condemn those measures almost unheard. The Acadians, in their +primitive agricultural life, in their farms gathered round the +village church, were picturesque objects of sympathy; and, whenever a +fine or a punishment is inflicted on a whole district or on a whole +community, the innocent no doubt suffer with the guilty. But there +are conditions under which no lasting effect can be produced without +collective dealing, and the Acadians were not transported beyond the +sea until for many years half-measures had been tried, and tried in +vain. These farmers had been gently treated under English rule; many +of them had been born and brought up under it; a large proportion of +their number had requited the treatment by actively abetting or +tacitly conniving at the unceasing petty warfare, by which French +borderers and Indian savages year after year took English lives and +pillaged English homes. Was it unreasonable that, if they would not +be loyal subjects in Acadia, they should be moved elsewhere, and +that, instead of being sent to increase the hostile population of +Canada, they should be dispersed among the British colonies on the +North American coast? + +It must be remembered that the tale of their sufferings has probably +not been minimized. French writers would naturally exaggerate what +actually occurred, and American accounts, until recent years, would +not be likely to be unduly friendly to England. It must be +remembered, too, that half as many as were transported by the English +had already been induced or forced by the French to emigrate to their +possessions; and we have it on French evidence that those who, {228} +when the sentence of expatriation was passed, took refuge in Canada, +suffered as much as or more than their compatriots suffered in the +English colonies. + +[Sidenote: _True causes of the catastrophe._] + +It is difficult to blame Colonel Lawrence for the step which he took +under the conditions of the time and place. On the other hand, it is +difficult to believe that the Acadians fully deserved their doom. The +responsibility for the wholesale misery, in which a small community +was involved, must be shared between the French Government and its +agents on the one hand, notably the priests, and on the other the +British Government in earlier years. Had the French been loyal to the +terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, had they ceased to instil the spirit +of disaffection into the minds of men who were no longer their +subjects, had they discountenanced instead of encouraging acts of +barbarity, had they not made religion a cloak for maliciousness, and +used the ministers of religion as political agitators of the worst +and most unscrupulous type, Acadia and the Acadians would have +prospered under the British Government as Canada and the Canadians +prospered in after years. Again if, when Acadia was ceded by the +treaty, Great Britain had recognized her responsibilities, had given +adequate protection and enforced the law, loyalty and obedience would +have brought happiness in its train, and a generation would have +grown up not attempting the impossible task of serving two masters. +The true verdict of history on the melancholy episode is this. The +misery which befell the Acadians was the result of not using force at +the right time, and of the evil potency of priestcraft. + +[Sidenote: _French forts established on the route from the great +lakes to the Ohio._] + +Before Acadia had been depopulated, much had happened in the west. +Always unready, the English colonies let slip the opportunity of +occupying the upper valley of the Ohio, and the French seized the +opening which their rivals might have closed. Early in 1753, the +Canadian Governor, Duquesne, sent a force of considerable strength +under an {229} old and tried officer, Marin, to establish +communication between the great lakes and the Ohio, and to hold the +route by a chain of forts. Launched upon Lake Erie, Marin and his men +held their way past the point where Celeron had landed; and, instead +of taking the portage to Chautauqua, disembarked further along the +southern shore of the lake at Presque Ile, where the town of Erie now +stands. Here a fort was built, and a road cut southwards through the +woods for about 21 miles to the Riviere aux Boeufs. This stream, now +known as French Creek, flows into the Alleghany river, and is +navigable for canoes when the water is high. Where the road struck +the river a second fort was built, called Fort Le Boeuf. Thus the way +was cleared from the lakes to the sources of the Ohio, and either end +of the portage was guarded by a blockhouse. + +[Sidenote: _Distress of the French._] + +So far the enterprise had succeeded, and success had produced the +usual effect upon the wavering Indian mind, inclining the tribes of +the Ohio to the side which took the initiative and gave outward and +visible signs of strength. But the French were only at the outset of +their enterprise. As the year wore on, their ranks were thinned by +disease; their commander, Marin, died; and, when winter came, but +three hundred men were left to hold the forts on Lake Erie and French +Creek. The intention had been to push down the latter river, and, +where it joined the Alleghany, to build a third fort. This fort in +turn was to be a starting-point for a further advance to the main +objective, the junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela rivers. + +[Sidenote: _The routes to the Ohio._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Cumberland._] + +All through early Canadian history, we find the clue to the various +movements on either side is studying the waterways. As in the centre +of the two conflicting lines of advance, the English moved up the +Hudson and the French up the Richelieu, to find their battleground on +Lakes George and Champlain, so further to the west, in the region of +the Ohio, the Alleghany and its feeders brought the French down from +{230} Canada, while the English moved north along the line of the +Monongahela and its tributary the Youghiogany. These streams take +their rise amid the parallel ranges of the Alleghanies, in that +border country of the three States of Virginia, Maryland, and +Pennsylvania, which was the scene of the hardest fighting between +North and South in the American Civil War. Near where the Monongahela +starts on its northern course to the Ohio, but divided by mountains, +is the source of the northern branch of the Potomac, which runs into +the Atlantic. This latter river flows at first north-east between two +mountain ranges; and, where it turns to the east, cutting its way +through the hills, a small stream, known as Wills Creek, joins it +from the north. At this point was a station of the Ohio Company, +shortly afterwards called Fort Cumberland, after the English duke. +This was the base of the British advance; but mountains had to be +crossed to reach the Monongahela valley; it was easier to come down +from Canada to the Ohio than to march upon it from the Atlantic side. + +[Sidenote: _Robert Dinwiddie._] + +The Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, in the year 1753, the titular +Governor being in England, was Robert Dinwiddie, a cross-grained +Scotchman. He had none of the arts of popularity, but none the less +was a watchful guardian of his country's interests. Like William +Shirley in Massachusetts, he was a determined opponent of French +pretensions; but he was less tactful than Shirley in managing a +colonial Legislature, and less happily placed, in that the +Legislatures of the southern provinces were far behind the New +Englanders in public spirit. Hearing of the French advance from Lake +Erie, he lost no time in making a counter claim, and sent a messenger +to Fort Le Boeuf to warn off foreign trespassers from what he +conceived to be the domain of the King of England. The messenger was +George Washington, just come to man's estate. + +[Sidenote: _George Washington's first mission._] + +[Sidenote: _Apathy of the southern colonies._] + +In November, 1753, Washington left Wills Creek. In {231} January, +1754, he returned to Virginia, having in the depth of winter +traversed the frost-bound backwoods, and risked his life in crossing +the Alleghany river. His journey in either direction took him by the +old Indian town of Venango, at the confluence of the French Creek +with the Alleghany, where there had been an English trading house: +this was now occupied by a French outpost. There could be no doubt +that the Governor of Canada intended to be master of the Ohio. Still +the British colonies remained apathetic or half-hearted. Virginia +voted 10,000 pounds; North Carolina gave some money; a handful of +troops in Imperial pay was placed at Dinwiddie's disposal; but the +money and the men were utterly inadequate to the occasion, and +Pennsylvania, the state which, with Virginia, was most concerned, did +nothing at all. For Pennsylvania was the home of Quakers and Germans, +the former averse to war on principle, the latter indifferent to the +conflicting claims of alien races. + +[Sidenote: _The French build Fort Duquesne._] + +The crisis came on apace. In February, 1754, a month after +Washington's return, Dinwiddie sent a small detachment over the +mountains to build a fort at the junction of the Monongahela and +Alleghany. While the work was in hand, a strong Canadian force came +down in April from the north and overpowered the Virginians. A fort +was built, but it was a French fort, and became memorable in history +under the name of Fort Duquesne. Dinwiddie determined to drive the +French back, if possible, from this new position, and he set +Washington to the task--impossible to perform with the only available +troops, amounting to 300 or 400 men. + +[Sidenote: _Washington marches on Fort Duquesne._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Jumonville._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Fort Necessity and retreat of Washington._] + +From Wills Creek to Fort Duquesne was a distance of 120 to 140 miles, +with two ranges of mountains to be crossed, before half the journey +was accomplished, and the Monongahela reached. Making a road over the +first range, the main range of the Alleghanies, Washington, about the +end of May, reached open ground known as the Great Meadows, having +still in front of him the Laurel hills, through which {232} the two +branches of the Monongahela find their way to the Ohio. A few miles +further on, guided by Indian scouts, he surprised an advance party +sent out from Fort Duquesne, and killed their commander, Jumonville. +Assassination was the term which the French applied to the death of +this officer, claiming that he was the peaceful bearer of a summons +to the English to retire from the land; but there is no reason to +doubt that Washington was justified in using force, and that the +Frenchman was killed in fair fight. Returning to his camp, and +entrenching it under the suitable name of Fort Necessity, the English +commander awaited a counter attack. Small reinforcements reached him, +and he pushed on over the Laurel ridge; but, hearing that the French +were advancing in force, fell back again to Fort Necessity. Stronger +in numbers, the French, from their base at Fort Duquesne, marched +forward under Jumonville's brother, Coulon de Villiers; and, after a +nine hours' fight, Fort Necessity surrendered; the English, under the +terms of the surrender, retreated across the Alleghanies, and the +French returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne. For the time, they were +beyond dispute masters of the Ohio valley, and the young Virginian, +whose name now stands first in the great history of the United States +of America, crawled back over the mountains, defeated and undone. + +American history is great as a whole, but the back records of its +component parts are full of what is mean and contemptible. We are +accustomed, in the chronicles of the English race, to trace the +errors of its rulers, and to find them put right by the good sense +and strong character of the people; but, if we turn to the provincial +annals of the American States, when the fate of the continent seemed +to be trembling in the balance, the rulers sent out from home must be +credited with patriotism and some measure of foresight, while the +peoples were or appeared to be selfish and blind. New England alone +stands out in a brighter light, ready to {233} sacrifice money and +men in the national cause. With the enemy on their borders, the New +Englanders knew what the danger was; further south the Alleghany +mountains bounded the horizon of the colonists. State Assemblies +squabbled with their Governors, each little province was passively +indifferent to or actively jealous of its neighbour, all alike were +with good reason suspicious of the mother country; while on the other +side the fighting strength of Canada, centralized under a despotic +Government, one in aim and sympathy, was menacing and dangerous out +of all proportion to the resources of the country or the numbers of +its people. + +[Sidenote: _Movement towards union of the English colonies._] + +Yet some attempt had been made at concerted action on the part of the +English colonies. It emanated from the Government at home. In +September, 1753, the Lords of Trade wrote round to the Governors of +the various North American provinces, directing them to invite their +respective Legislatures to adopt a uniform policy towards the +Indians. In consequence, a conference was held at Albany, at which +seven of the colonies were represented--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, +Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The +Commissioners met representatives of the Five Nation Indians, whose +hereditary friendship for the English cause was fast turning into +hatred and contempt. They pacified the angry Indians to some extent, +and renewed the old covenant of friendship, then turned to +constitution-making, at the instance of Franklin, one of the +Commissioners from Pennsylvania. + +[Sidenote: _Franklin's scheme._] + +[Sidenote: _It is not accepted._] + +Franklin had a scheme for North American union, comprising a +President appointed by the Crown, and a general Council elected by +the taxpayers of the colonies, the number of representatives of each +colony to be determined by the amount of taxes paid. Plenary powers +were to be given to the President and Council, including even power +to make war and peace. Had the scheme been carried out, North America +would have become one great self-governing colony, {234} in some +respects more independent, in others more restricted than the +self-governing colonies of Great Britain at the present day. +Franklin's proposals, though his fellow commissioners were inclined +to approve them, pleased neither the colonies nor the mother country. +They were premature. The colonies were too jealous of their local +liberties to accept the scheme. The mother country still distrusted +the colonies, and dreaded the strength which union would bring. +Moreover, the immediate necessity was united action, not +constitutional change. The French must first be driven back; and with +this object Dinwiddie made an earnest appeal to the ministry in +England. + +[Sidenote: _Troops sent from England and from France._] + +[Sidenote: _The 'Alcide' and the 'Lys' intercepted by Admiral +Boscawen._] + +The appeal was not made in vain; two regiments of infantry, the 44th +and 48th, now the Essex and Northampton regiments, were ordered to +embark for Virginia, and sailed from Cork in January, 1755, with +Major-General Braddock in command. The French Government, taking +alarm, ordered out 3,000 men under Baron Dieskau, a German serving in +the French army; and at the beginning of May, 1755, eighteen French +ships sailed from Brest carrying to Canada the troops and their +commander, and taking out at the same time a new Governor-General, +the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Most of the vessels reached their +destination in safety; but two, the _Alcide_ and _Lys_, were +intercepted by the English Admiral Boscawen, off the coast of +Newfoundland, were fired into, and compelled to surrender.[6] There +was still supposed to be peace between Great Britain and France, but +the backwoods of America and the waters of the Atlantic echoed to the +sounds of war. + +[Footnote 6: The _Alcide_ was overpowered by the _Dunkirk_, commanded +by the afterwards famous Admiral Lord Howe.] + +[Sidenote: _Scheme of the English campaign against Canada._] + +At four points, according to the English plan of campaign Canada was +to be threatened and the French advance was to be checked. Braddock, +with his two English regiments, was to march on Fort Duquesne. From +Albany the second and {235} the third expeditions were to start. One, +marching due north, was to master Crown Point on Lake Champlain; the +other, taking the route of the Five Nation cantons, and having for +its advanced base Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to reduce the French +fort at Niagara. The fourth effort was to be made in Acadia. This +last enterprise proved successful, as has already been seen, Shirley +having previously prepared the way by building a fort on the mainland +behind the peninsula, at the portage between the Kennebec and the +Chaudiere rivers. What fate befell the other expeditions must now be +told. + +[Sidenote: _General Braddock._] + +History has been unkind to General Braddock. His name is associated +for ever with a great disaster in North America, as the name of Wolfe +is linked to a crowning victory. Like Wolfe, Braddock was mortally +wounded on the field of battle; he was defeated, and obloquy was +heaped on his name. Wolfe triumphed, and all men spoke well of him. +The accounts of Braddock are largely derived from the spiteful gossip +collected by Horace Walpole, and from the writings of Franklin--never +a lover of the mother country, and, after the War of Independence, +glad, like others of his countrymen, to throw the blame of an English +defeat upon a commander sent out from England. We have a portrait +given us of a brutal, blustering, and incompetent soldier, a man of +coarse habits and broken fortunes, with little to recommend him but +personal honesty and courage. 'Braddock is a very Iroquois in +disposition,'[7] writes Horace Walpole. Before the fatal battle the +same writer tells us in the same letter, 'the duke (of Cumberland) is +much dissatisfied at the slowness of General Braddock, who does not +march as if he was at all impatient to be scalped.' After the +disaster he writes, 'Braddock's defeat still remains in the situation +of the longest battle that ever was fought with nobody.'[8] The {236} +Braddocks of England, with all their failings, have deserved better +of their country than the Horace Walpoles. + +[Footnote 7: _Letters of Horace Walpole_ (Bohn's ed., 1861), vol. ii, +p. 459 (Letter of Aug. 25, 1755).] + +[Footnote 8: Ibid. p. 473 (Letter of Sept. 30, 1755).] + +Born in 1695, the son of an officer in the Coldstream Guards, and an +officer of the Guards himself, he was sixty years old when sent out +to America by the Duke of Cumberland. He had the reputation of being +a very severe disciplinarian, and yet we have Walpole's own admission +that while serving at Gibraltar, 'he made himself adored.'[9] He was +criticized by Franklin as being too self-confident, and as having too +high an opinion of European as compared with colonial troops; but, on +the other hand, the scanty colonial levies which reached him had not +shown high fighting qualities, and his care for transport and +supplies, together with his anxiety to conciliate and use the Indians +on the line of march, were evidence of prudence and military +forethought. Burke wrote of him as 'abounding too much in his own +sense for the degree of military knowledge he possessed';[10] but +probably Wolfe's judgement upon him was sound, that 'though not a +master of the difficult art of war, he was yet a man of sense and +courage,'[11] and we may reasonably infer that the shortcomings of +the colonists were unjustly visited on his head. + +[Footnote 9: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, p. 461 (Letter of Aug. 28, +1755).] + +[Footnote 10: _Annual Register_, 1758, p. 4.] + +[Footnote 11: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 324.] + +[Sidenote: _Braddock's march on Fort Duquesne._] + +Late in February, 1755, the English troops and their commander +reached Hampton in Virginia, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. In +due course they were sent up the Potomac to Alexandria, where in +April Braddock met the Governors of the various colonies, including +Shirley, and settled with them the plan of campaign. He himself +prepared to march on Fort Duquesne by the route which Washington had +taken, but found endless difficulty in obtaining horses, wagons, and +supplies. Virginia and Pennsylvania were still half-hearted, and +inclined to think that the danger {237} of French invasion was a +scare created in the interests of the Ohio Company. It was not the +first time, and not the last, that a real crisis has been interpreted +as the work of a designing few. However, a base was established, as +before, at Fort Cumberland on Wills Creek, and early in June the +march began. + +The force consisted of about 2,000 men, 1,350 of whom belonged to the +two regiments of the line. There were some 250 Virginia rangers, and +the rest were detachments from New York, Maryland, and the Carolinas. +The troops were formed in two brigades, under Sir Peter Halkett and +Colonel Dunbar. Washington, ill with fever, was attached to +Braddock's staff, by the General's own request. Steadily and well the +advance on Fort Duquesne was made; a road was cleared through forests +and over mountains; and every precaution was taken against surprise. +But progress was inevitably slow; and, at a distance of forty miles +from Fort Cumberland, Braddock, on Washington's advice, resolved to +push forward with the larger half of his troops, leaving the +remainder with the heavy baggage to follow under charge of Colonel +Dunbar. The object was to reach Fort Duquesne before reinforcements +could arrive from Canada. + +[Sidenote: _The fight on the Monongahela._] + +At the end of the first week in July, Braddock was eight miles +distant from the French fort, at a point where a little stream, +called Turtle Creek, flows into the Monongahela. He was on the same +side of the latter river as the fort, which stood on the right bank +of the Monongahela, in the angle which it forms with the Alleghany; +but the direct route passed through country suitable for ambuscade; +and he therefore resolved to make a short detour, crossing the +Monongahela, and recrossing it lower down the stream. On July 9, the +movement was successfully carried out; no opposition at either ford +being offered by the enemy. The troops moved on; and, early in the +afternoon, at a little distance from the river, as the line of march +crossed a shallow {238} forest-clad ravine, there was a sudden check; +a French officer sprang out in front of the advancing column, and +forthwith, in a moment, at his signal, the thickets were alive with +foes. + +[Sidenote: _Rout of the English._] + +The scene which followed was one not uncommon in the story of +colonial warfare. The first attack was answered by artillery fire; +the French commander, De Beaujeu, was killed, and many of the +Canadians fled. But the majority of the enemy, with whom the English +had to deal, were Indians, who dispersed on this side and on that, +hiding behind trees, and attacking either flank of the column, active +and noisy out of all proportion to their numbers. The English +vanguard fell back, the supports crowded up, the redcoated soldiers +stood in close formation, an easy mark for the invisible foe. They +fired at nothing, for nothing could be seen; all around was a hideous +din, from every side came bullets dealing death. The men were +bewildered, the ammunition began to fail, confusion turned into +panic, and, when at length the order for retreat was given, there was +a headlong flight. + +[Sidenote: _Braddock mortally wounded._] + +The survivors rushed across the river, taking with them the General +mortally wounded; no stand was made at the first crossing or at the +second; and when, in about two days' time, the fugitives reached +Dunbar's camp, many miles distant, they found panic prevailing there +also. The retreat was continued to Fort Cumberland, stores, guns, and +wagons being abandoned; and not many days after Fort Cumberland had +been reached, Dunbar marched off with the remains of the regular +troops to Philadelphia. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Braddock._] + +Braddock had shown conspicuous bravery, if not conspicuous judgment, +on the battlefield. He was shot through the lungs as the retreat +began, and bade his men leave him where he fell. They carried him, +however, from the fight; and for four days he lingered, reaching +Dunbar's camp, and dying at Great Meadows on July 13. Of 1,460 {239} +British and colonial officers and men who took part in the battle, +nearly 900 were killed or wounded. Those who escaped, escaped with +their lives alone. On the French side the numbers engaged appear not +to have exceeded 900, three-fourths of whom were Indians. The English +force included over 1,200 regulars; the battle therefore resulted in +a crushing defeat of troops of the line by a smaller number of +Indians, with a sprinkling of Frenchmen and Canadians, led by French +officers. + +[Sidenote: _Blame for the disaster._] + +The disaster was attributed to the incompetence of the General, and +the bad quality of the regular troops; it was said that the few +Virginians who were present fought well, in contrast to their English +comrades; that, knowing bush fighting, and taking cover, they were +driven into the open by Braddock, only to be shot down like the rest. +These accounts must be taken with reserve; the testimony of +Washington and others was prejudiced in favour of the colonial and +against the British soldier; Braddock did not live to give his own +version of the matter; and the two regular regiments, having been +brought up to strength since their arrival in America, included many +colonists in their ranks. Yet it must be supposed that, as the column +neared its destination unopposed, there was some slackening of +precaution, for which the General must be held to blame; while Wolfe +set down the defeat to the bad conduct of the infantry, writing in +strong terms of the want of military training in the English army, as +compared with the armies of the continent.[12] + +[Footnote 12: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 324.] + +[Sidenote: _Bad conduct of the colonies of Virginia and +Pennsylvania._] + +But, even if the defeat and rout on the Monongahela was due to the +shortcomings of the English troops and their commander, we may well +ask why troops from the mother country were needed to protect the +frontiers of the two strong colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. +The whole story shows these colonies in the worst possible light. +They {240} had ample warning of the importance of securing Fort +Duquesne; they allowed it to fall into the hands of the French; they +threw on the mother country the onus of recovering it: they hindered +Braddock rather than helped him; and, when he failed, they debited +him and his men with the whole blame of failure. It was not wonderful +that soldiers fresh from England should be stampeded at their first +venture in forest warfare, but it was wonderful that the men on the +spot should be so utterly indifferent to the calls, both of +patriotism and of self-interest, as to contribute to the disaster. + +[Sidenote: _They suffer in consequence._] + +Bad as was the failure, it was a blessing in disguise. The colonies +concerned were for a time left to bear their own burdens; French and +Indians harried their frontiers; homesteads and villages were burnt; +women and children were butchered or carried into captivity. While +sleek Quakers and garrulous Assembly men prated of peace and local +liberties, the outlying settlements were given over to fire and +sword; until the southern colonists began to learn the lesson, which +New England had long since learnt, that the first duty of any +community is self-defence. + +[Sidenote: _William Johnson._] + +[Sidenote: _His influence with the Five Nation Indians._] + +On the Mohawk river, about thirty miles to the north-west of Albany, +there lived a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, named William Johnson. He +had come out to America in 1738, when he was twenty-three years old, +to manage estates which his uncle had bought on the confines of the +Five Nation Indians. He lived a semi-savage life, in a house +constructed as a fort and named Fort Johnson or Mount Johnson, taking +to wife first a German woman, and then an Iroquois. His position +among the Indians was not unlike that which the Baron de Castin had +held in bygone years on the Penobscot. He knew and understood the +natives and their ways, he spoke their language, and his honest +dealings contrasted favourably with the rascalities of the border +traders. He was a type of man, more common on the French side than on +the English, {241} who lived within, not outside, the circle of +native life; and, having these versatile attributes, it is almost +superfluous to add that he was an Irishman. For the rest, Johnson was +a man of force and energy, whose tact and talents were by no means +confined to the backwoods. He did good service to his King and +country, and was not at all inclined to hide his light under a +bushel. His value to the English cause in North America cannot be +overestimated. His personal influence among the Mohawks +counterbalanced the influence of the Frenchman Joncaire among the +Senecas at the other end of the confederacy; and, being appointed +Superintendent of, or Commissioner for, Indian affairs, he, and he +alone, kept alive the old covenant of friendship between the English +and the Five Nation Indians. + +[Sidenote: _He commands the expedition against Crown Point._] + +[Sidenote: _Building of Fort Edward._] + +When it was decided to send an expedition against Crown Point, +Shirley gave him the command, and Braddock confirmed the appointment. +He had no military experience, though he was a colonel of militia; +but the whole force under him consisted of colonists, preferring to +be led by a man who knew the country and its people than by a trained +soldier. Preparations were made for raising 6,000 to 7,000 men. +Massachusetts, as usual, contributed the largest levy; the other New +England colonies and New York sent or promised smaller forces, and +some 300 Mohawk Indians joined the expedition, finding that it was +commanded by the white man, whom of all others they trusted and +loved. The actual numbers engaged, however, did not much exceed 3,000 +fighting men. In July they met at Albany and moved up the Hudson, for +about forty-five miles, to the 'Carrying Place,' the spot where the +portage begins to the waters which run to the St. Lawrence. Here, on +the eastern side of the Hudson, a beginning was made of a fort, +called for the time Fort Lyman, after Phineas Lyman, second in +command of the expedition, but a little later rechristened Fort +Edward. + +[Sidenote: _Course of the Hudson._] + +The Hudson river rises in the Adirondack mountains, to {242} the west +of Lake George, and flows in a south-easterly direction, until it +reaches a point south-west by south of the southern end of the lake. +Here for some miles it takes a due easterly course, at right angles +to the line of the lake, until, at Sandy Hill, near where Fort Edward +was founded, it turns due south, and flows due south into the +Atlantic. It appears to prolong to southward the line of Lake George +and Lake Champlain; but the watersheds are distinct, the two lakes in +question drain to the north, and eventually discharge through the +Richelieu river into the St. Lawrence. + +[Sidenote: _Lakes George and Champlain._] + +They form a long narrow basin running north and south between the +Adirondacks on the west and the Green mountains of Vermont on the +east. No stream of any size feeds Lake George; it stretches for +between thirty and forty miles from south-west to north-east, +overshadowed by the Adirondacks; and, narrowing at the northern end, +finds an outlet into Lake Champlain by a semicircular channel, which +enters the larger lake from west to east. This channel is broken by +rapids, and in the angle which it forms with Lake Champlain stands +Ticonderoga. + +Lake Champlain is here a broad river rather than a lake, having +narrowed into the similitude of a river from where, fifteen miles +further north, the isthmus of Crown Point juts out on the western +side of the lake. But it does not end at Ticonderoga, where it meets +the waters of Lake George. It continues southwards in a direct line, +very roughly parallel to Lake George, still narrowing in its upward +course, through the marshes known as the Drowned Lands, past a little +subsidiary lake on the western side known as South Bay, over against +which now stands the small town of Whitehall, and ending in a stream +known as Wood Creek. The sources of Wood Creek are but a few miles +distant from the point, already noted, where the Hudson turns south +to form the central valley of New York State, and where Johnson, in +the summer of 1755, was busy constructing Fort Lyman. + +{243} [Sidenote: _Johnson encamps at the end of Lake George._] + +Johnson's objective was Crown Point; and to reach it he had a choice +of two parallel routes, either of which involved a portage from the +Hudson watershed to that of Lake Champlain. He could take either the +western line by Lake George, or the eastern line by Wood Creek. He +chose the former, and making a road for fourteen miles from Fort +Lyman to the head--the southern end--of Lake George, encamped there +at the end of August with over 2,000 men, leaving 500 men behind to +garrison Fort Lyman. + +[Sidenote: _Dieskau at Crown Point._] + +The French in the meantime had not been idle. When Dieskau arrived in +Canada with his troops, it was intended that he should operate on +Lake Ontario, and reduce the English outpost at Oswego; but, as soon +as news came of Johnson's expedition, the plan was changed, and he +hurried up the Richelieu with reinforcements to protect Crown Point. +By the time that Johnson reached Lake George, there were assembled at +Crown Point over 3,500 men--French soldiers, Canadians, and Indians. + +[Sidenote: _He advances to Ticonderoga and up the southern arm of +Lake Champlain,_] + +The two alternative routes from Fort Lyman to Crown Point converged +at Ticonderoga, or, as the French called it, Carillon. Dieskau +therefore moved forward to that place, to block the English advance. +He had not yet learnt that Johnson was encamped at Lake George, but +was under the impression that the advanced guard of the English, +instead of the rearguard, was at Fort Lyman. Accordingly, he laid his +plans to push rapidly up the southern arm of Lake Champlain, and to +take Fort Lyman before reinforcements could arrive; or, if Johnson +had already marched to Lake George, to cut the line of his +communications. French and English were in fact advancing, or +preparing to advance, south and north respectively, on parallel +lines. + +[Sidenote: _and cuts Johnson's communications._] + +A flying column of 1,500 men set out from Ticonderoga; the water +carried them as far as South Bay, where they left their boats, and +marching thence through the forest between Lake George and Wood +Creek, they struck the road which {244} Johnson had made from Fort +Lyman to the lake, at a point three miles from the fort, eleven from +the lake. They had thus intercepted Johnson's communications and cut +him off from his base of supplies. From prisoners Dieskau learnt the +disposition of Johnson's forces, and he took counsel whether to +attack the fort or the encampment by the lake. Capture of the fort +had been the original object of the march; but in deference to the +Indians, who little loved assault on fortified positions, it was +decided to take the second alternative and advance on the lake. + +[Sidenote: _Johnson's counter plan._] + +[Sidenote: _The English fall into an ambush._] + +Meanwhile, warned of what had happened, Johnson prepared a +counter-stroke. What Dieskau had done, he could do also; if the +Frenchman had cut his communications, he in his turn could intercept +Dieskau's line of retreat; and, with this object, on the morning of +the eighth of September, a force of 1,000 men was sent out from the +camp to strike the French in the rear. The whole formed a pretty +picture of backwood manoeuvres; but, like the Boers in South Africa, +the Canadians proved themselves more mobile than the English, and +more skilful in ambuscade. At three miles distance from the camp, +after an hour's march, the English fell into a carefully-laid trap. +On the road in front were the French regulars; in the forest on +either flank Canadians and Indians lay in wait for their prey. +Advancing without due precaution, though they had a band of Mohawks +with them, the English were completely surprised; the head of the +column was driven in on the rear, the whole force became (in +Dieskau's words) like a pack of cards, and fell back with heavy loss +in rout to the camp, the retreat being partially covered by a +detachment sent out by Johnson on hearing of the engagement. + +[Sidenote: _The French attack the camp and are defeated._] + +[Sidenote: _Dieskau taken prisoner._] + +At the camp hasty preparations were made for defence, behind wagons +and fallen trees, and in a short time the enemy appeared. The French +regulars attacked boldly and well, but the Canadians and Indians were +out of hand, the {245} commander of the Canadians, Legardeur de Saint +Pierre, having already been killed. For three or four hours there was +furious firing; but the English had artillery, the French had not, +and this advantage, coupled with the lines of defence, decided the +issue. Dieskau was disabled by a wound; the attack slackened; at +length the defenders left their entrenchments and charged their foes, +and late in the afternoon the whole French force was routed and fled, +leaving their wounded General in the hands of the enemy. Some of the +Canadians and Indians had already fallen back to the scene of the +morning's fight, intent on scalps and plunder. Here a scouting party +from Fort Lyman fell upon them, and, after a hard struggle, drove +them into further retreat. + +Both sides lost heavily, but the balance of the day's fighting was +unquestionably in favour of the English. On the French side the +regulars showed to more advantage than their colonial and Indian +allies, and Dieskau deserved a better fate than wounds and captivity. +While lying wounded, we read, he was again shot by a French deserter, +and, when he was brought into the English camp, the Mohawks, whose +chief had been killed, threatened his life. Johnson, however, who had +himself been wounded, took every care of his prisoner; in due course +he was sent over to England; and eventually, disabled for further +service, he returned to France, where he died in 1767. + +[Sidenote: _Results of the fight._] + +[Sidenote: _Fort William Henry._] + +The most was made of this repulse of the French. It came as a set-off +to the defeat of Braddock. Johnson was made a baronet and received +5,000 pounds. The Lac du Sacrement he had already renamed Lake +George, the encampment at the head of the lake blossomed out into +Fort William Henry, and another of the King's sons provided the name +of Fort Edward for the fort at the Carrying Place. Yet the object of +the expedition was not achieved; no attempt was made at a further +advance; the French were unmolested in their retreat, and retained +their hold on Crown Point and {246} Ticonderoga also. Johnson +remained encamped by the lake, with a force raised to a total of +3,600 men, until November was drawing to a close, when, a garrison +being left to hold Fort William Henry through the winter, the rest of +the army disbanded to their homes. + +[Sidenote: _Shirley's advance to Lake Ontario._] + +While Johnson was moving north from Albany to attack Crown Point, +William Shirley went west, with the intention of reducing the French +fort at Niagara and cutting off Canada from the upper lakes. He +started from Albany in July with some 1,500 men, mainly colonial +troops in Imperial pay, and took his way along the line of the Five +Nation cantons. He moved up the Mohawk river, past Schenectady and +past Johnson's home, made the portage from the Mohawk to the stream +called, like the feeder of Lake Champlain, Wood or Wood's Creek, +which runs into Lake Oneida, and by the outlet of that lake, now the +Oswego river, to Lake Ontario. + +[Sidenote: _Oswego and Niagara._] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition abandoned._] + +Where the river joined Lake Ontario stood the small English fort of +Oswego, founded in 1727, and regarded with the utmost jealousy by the +French.[13] The French fort at Niagara was 130 to 140 miles to the +west of Oswego, while due north of the latter place, at a distance of +over fifty miles across Lake Ontario, was Fort Frontenac. The +garrisons of both the French forts had been reinforced on hearing of +Shirley's advance, and an attack on Fort Niagara involved the danger +of a counter attack on Oswego from Fort Frontenac. On the other hand, +Fort Frontenac was fully strong enough to repel any direct attempt to +take it. The English, moreover, experienced great difficulty in +collecting provisions or an adequate fleet of boats, and after some +weeks' delay it was resolved to abandon the expedition. Before +October ended, Shirley returned to Albany by the way he went, leaving +700 men to garrison Oswego and strengthen its defences, +communications with Albany being maintained by two blockhouses which +had been built at either end of the {247} four miles' portage between +the Mohawk river and Wood Creek--Fort Williams on the Mohawk river, +where the town of Rome now stands, and Fort Bull on Wood Creek. + +[Footnote 13: See above, p. 196.] + +[Sidenote: _Results of the year's campaign_] + +Thus the campaigning of the busy year 1755 came to an end. The main +forces on either side disbanded, or went into garrison for the +winter; Washington and a few hundred Virginians tried to safeguard +the harried frontiers of the southern colonies; Robert Rogers, +boldest of New England rangers, went scouting up the line of Lake +George. The forts stood isolated in the wintry backwoods, waiting for +the stirring times which were coming on forthwith. + +[Sidenote: _in favour of the French._] + +Neither French nor English had much cause to boast of the results of +the year's fighting. On either side a General had been sent out from +Europe; the English General had been killed, the French General had +been wounded and taken prisoner. But, on the whole, the French had +undoubtedly gained and the English had lost. The English had taken +the offensive, they had planned attack all along the line, and in the +main their schemes had conspicuously failed. Only in the extreme east +had they achieved substantial success. Acadia had been permanently +secured, if there could be security as long as the fortress of +Louisbourg remained in French hands. In the extreme west they had +been badly beaten, and the French had acquired full control of the +Ohio valley. On Lake Ontario they had done nothing at all. On the +main central line of advance they had set out to take Crown Point, +and had to be content with repelling a counter attack by the French. +The more New England had been concerned in the war, the better the +English had fared; the further west or south they operated, the +greater was their want of success. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of geography on the English side of the war._] + +The most striking feature to notice in the events of the year is the +effect of distance, when not counteracted by steam and telegraphy. It +will be noted how far removed in every sense was America from Europe +in the middle of the {248} eighteenth century, and how far removed in +every sense were the American colonies from one another. Here was +fighting going on at all points on the border line of French and +English America, and yet France and England were nominally at peace. +New England was raising her levies with patriotism and spirit, +meeting a common foe with common feeling, and, it may be added, with +common sense. New York and Virginia could, on the other hand, +scarcely be prevailed upon to move; while Pennsylvania was as +indifferent as though the fighting had been on another continent. We +may and must put down much to political causes, to social and +religious prejudices; and Canada proved that, even in the eighteenth +century, long distances did not necessarily preclude concerted +action; but, where settlement had begun and continued for generations +at widely different points on the American continent, and on +absolutely separate and independent lines, war and peace were alike +localized, and there was little or no cohesion between the colonies +and the mother country, or between one colony and another. The +history of the English North American colonies had been the history +not of one but of many communities. No uniform system held them +together, no sentiment of the distant past was strong enough to +counteract geography. Only, as colonization spread in the long course +of years, the dwellers in one province came into contact with the +dwellers in another, and both the one and the other came face to face +with the French advance. Then the pressure of common danger made for +union, and the race instinct gathered strength. The mother country +sent out soldiers; colonists were enlisted in royal regiments to +supplement the provincial militias; and in clumsy, most imperfect +fashion, the English in North America began to shape themselves into +a nation. + +One keen English observer, at any rate--General Wolfe--saw at once +the present defects of the English colonies in North America, and the +great future which lay before them. {249} 'These colonies,' he wrote +in 1758, 'are deeply tinged with the vices and bad qualities of the +mother country.' But he added, 'This will, some time hence, be a vast +empire, the seat of power and learning. Nature has refused them +nothing, and there will grow a people out of our little spot, +England, that will fill this vast space, and divide this great +portion of the globe with the Spaniards, who are possessed of the +other half.'[14] + +[Footnote 14: Wolfe to his mother, Louisbourg, Aug. 11, 1758 +(Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 454).] + + +NOTE.--For the above see + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vol. iii, and + PARKMAN'S _Montcalm and Wolfe_. + +The period dealt with in this and the two succeeding chapters is +covered by + + A. G. BRADLEY'S recent work, _The Fight with France for North + America_ (1900). + + + + +{250} + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CONQUEST OF CANADA + + +[Sidenote: _The Seven Years' War._] + +In May, 1756, Great Britain declared war against France. In June, +France declared war against Great Britain. The war between these two +nations formed part of the Seven Years' War, one of the most widely +extended and, in its results, one of the most decisive in history. In +the first number of the _Annual Register_, for the year 1758,[1] +Edmund Burke wrote: 'The war, into which all parties and interests +seem now to be so perfectly blended, arose from causes which +originally had not the least connexion, the uncertain limits of the +English and French territories in America, and the mutual claims of +the houses of Austria and Brandenburg on the Duchy of Silesia.' After +three years of the war, in September, 1759, Horace Walpole wrote in +his laughing style, 'I believe the world will come to be fought for +somewhere between the north of Germany and the back of Canada.'[2] + +[Footnote 1: p. 2.] + +[Footnote 2: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 249 (Letter of +Sept. 13, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _Numerical superiority of the English in America._] + +On the continent of Europe, Great Britain had Frederick of Prussia +for an ally; on the other side were France, Austria, Russia, and +Sweden. Beyond the Atlantic, a French population in Canada, Acadia, +and Louisiana of less than 90,000 souls was ranged against British +colonies with a population at least thirteen times as numerous. One +or other of the larger British colonies, taken alone, was better +peopled with white colonists than Canada. + +{251} [Sidenote: _Official corruption in Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Bigot and his gang._] + +Nor was want of numbers the only disadvantage under which Canada +laboured. The currency, principally paper money, was depreciated. +Provisions were scarce, seeing that the farmers were constantly +called away to fight, and that supplies from beyond the sea were +liable to be intercepted. The government was corrupt, and the high +officials cheated the King on the one hand and the _habitans_ on the +other with the greatest impartiality. Canadian history, all through +its course, as long as Canada was a province of France, was tainted +by official corruption. The officials were traders also, and the +public service was largely in the hands of commercial rings. What +happened in the mother country happened also in her greatest colony. +One official's wife became another official's mistress, and the +husband who gave up the wife was rewarded with pickings at the +expense of the public and of the Crown. The evil was at its worst in +the last days of New France. The Intendant was then Bigot, a clever +Frenchman who had come out in 1748, and round him gathered a gang of +unscrupulous adventurers, whose misdeeds were fully brought to light +after the crisis was over and the colony was lost. Among them were +Cadet, butcher and contractor, who was made Commissary-General; Pean, +Varin, and others, who, one at Quebec and another at Montreal, formed +stores and created monopolies, buying and selling at artificial +prices, sucking the life-blood of an extravagant Government in France +and of a poor community in America. + +[Sidenote: _Vaudreuil._] + +In past years, supreme authority in Canada had been shared between +the Governor and the Intendant, and quarrels in abundance had arisen +between the holders of the two offices; but, at the time when the +Seven Years' War began, the Governor and the Intendant were at one. +The Intendant Bigot, and the Governor De Vaudreuil, were on excellent +terms. Vaudreuil, son of a previous Governor-General of Canada, +received his appointment in 1755, having {252} already been Governor +of Louisiana. He was a vain man, of some but not great capacity, +called to high office in a difficult time, and not equal to the task +which was imposed upon him. Surrounded by cleverer and more +unscrupulous men of Bigot's type, he did nothing to check the evils +which were ruining Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Division between Canadians and Frenchmen._] + +[Sidenote: _Different classes of troops engaged in the war._] + +The principal point to note about him is that he was a Canadian by +birth. This fact was the source of mischief. In lieu of the old feud +between the Governor and the Intendant, there came into being a new +line of cleavage, which tended to divide the mother country from the +colony. The Governor had always been supreme in military matters; +but, when war in North America grew to be more than a series of +border forays, it became necessary to send out skilled generals from +France. Dieskau was sent, and after him came a greater man, Montcalm. +Friction then arose between the Governor and the General, accentuated +in consequence of the Governor being a Canadian. All the Governors of +Canada, including Vaudreuil, had seen service, or had at any rate +been trained to war, but they were usually either sailors or +connected with the forces which were attached to the navy and under +the Minister of Marine. On both the English and the French side in +North America there were, at the time of the Seven Years' War, three +classes of troops engaged. On the English side there were the regular +regiments sent out from home, and brought up to strength by +recruiting in the colonies. There were also regiments entirely raised +in the colonies, but still royal regiments in the pay of the Crown, +such for instance as the four battalions of Royal Americans, first +raised by Loudoun's orders, and famous in after times as the 60th or +the King's Royal Rifle Corps.[3] Lastly, there were the purely +colonial levies. On {253} the French side there were in the first +place regiments of the line from France. In the second place there +were the _troupes de la Marine_, regiments or companies mainly raised +in France, but permanently stationed in Canada, to form a standing +garrison and to develop into military colonists. In the third place +there was the Canadian militia, including all the adult males between +the years of fifteen and sixty. Only the first of these three classes +of troops was under the direct command of the General from France. +After Montcalm's arrival they numbered rather over 4,000 men, about +one-fourth of whom were in garrison at Louisbourg. The _troupes de la +Marine_ amounted at most to about 2,500 men. The Canadian militia on +paper numbered 15,000, but very few of them were to be found in the +field at any given time or place. The General corresponded with the +Minister for War; when in action he took command of all the forces +present, but the nominal Commander-in-Chief was the Governor, who was +by way of directing the campaign, and who reported to the Minister of +Marine. Thus, both at home and in Canada, there was divided +responsibility at a time when all depended on the most complete +co-operation and single control. + +[Footnote 3: They were originally the 62nd or Royal American Regiment +of foot. The men were chiefly German and Swiss Protestants, and about +one-third of the officers were of the same nationalities. On the +disbanding of Shirley's and Pepperell's Regiments, which were +numbered 50th and 51st, the Royal Americans became the 60th Regiment. +Their motto, 'Celer et audax,' is said, without much authority, to +have been first given them by Wolfe.] + +[Sidenote: _The strength of Canada._] + +The strength of Canada, on the other hand, consisted in the divisions +of her adversaries, the separate grumbling English colonies; in the +incompetence of the English Government at home; in the fact that the +routes for attack from Canada favoured quick movement from the base; +and most of all in the support which the Frenchmen received from the +red men, notably from the mission Indians. The Indians went hand in +hand with the Canadians; the one and the other loved irregular +warfare; the one and the other answered {254} to the call of the +Governor of Canada, rather than of the General who looked on war as +he had known it in Europe--more scientific, more continuous, better +controlled, and more humane than the savage outbursts of killing and +plundering which were the product of American backwoods. + +[Sidenote: _Canadian raid on the route between Albany and Oswego._] + +As winter turned into spring, in 1756, before war had been proclaimed +in Europe, and before Montcalm had come out, the Canadians made a +move. The most distant and isolated English outpost was Oswego on +Lake Ontario. Its communication with Albany depended on the two +little forts which, as told in the last chapter,[4] had been +constructed to guard the four miles' portage between the Mohawk river +and Wood Creek, the stream which feeds Lake Oneida. Towards the end +of March, a party of Canadians and Indians, sent by Vaudreuil and +commanded by an officer named De Lery, surprised the fort on the +latter river, Fort Bull, killed or captured the small garrison, and +destroyed the building with all its contents. The damage was repaired +by Shirley, in whose eyes Oswego was of supreme importance, and who, +in the winter of 1755, had formulated new schemes for a comprehensive +campaign against Canada, including as before the reduction of the +French forts on Lake Ontario. + +[Footnote 4: See above, pp. 246, 247.] + +[Sidenote: _Weakness of Oswego._] + +[Sidenote: _Colonel Bradstreet._] + +If this last object was to be achieved, it was absolutely necessary +that Oswego should be made so strong in men and munitions, as not +merely to hold its own, but to dominate the rival forts at Frontenac, +Toronto, and Niagara. These conditions were very far from being +fulfilled, and Shirley can hardly be acquitted of blame in the +matter. The garrison of Oswego was weakened by winter sickness, the +fortifications were hopelessly incomplete, the supplies were scanty +and uncertain. The French raid in March was followed by a +strengthening of the French positions on Lake Ontario, and Coulon de +Villiers, a well-known Canadian leader, took up new ground at Sandy +Creek to eastward of, and at no {255} great distance from, the +English fort. From Albany, early in the summer, Shirley sent up +supplies to Oswego in charge of a strong body of colonists under +Colonel John Bradstreet, a New Englander who did other good service +later in the war. Bradstreet reached his destination in safety, but +on his return up the Oswego river, at the beginning of July, was +attacked by Villiers, whom he beat off after heavy fighting and +considerable loss on either side. + +[Sidenote: _French designs on Oswego._] + +Vaudreuil was as determined to drive the English from Lake Ontario, +as Shirley was to secure for his countrymen control over the +navigation of the lake; and at the time that Bradstreet's fight took +place, Montcalm had already been some weeks in Canada. The French +knew from the reports of their scouts the weakness of Oswego, they +knew too that the English were concentrating in another direction for +an attack on Ticonderoga: an advance in force on Oswego was likely to +succeed: if not successful, it would at least draw off some of the +English troops from the main campaign. Accordingly, an expedition was +taken in hand, commanded by Montcalm in person. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm marches against it._] + +In July, Montcalm was at Ticonderoga. Returning rapidly to Montreal, +he pushed up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac; and early in August, +moving his troops by night, crossed Lake Ontario, at the outlet of +the St. Lawrence, passing to Wolfe Island, and thence to Sackett's +Harbour in the south-eastern corner of the lake. Here a force of +Canadians, including the remains of Villiers' troops, was awaiting +him; and he advanced with about 3,000 men, including three regiments +of the line, and an adequate supply of artillery, some of the guns +having been taken from General Braddock's force. Undiscovered by the +English, the expedition moved westward, the main body coasting the +shore, the Canadians marching on land, until at night time, on August +10, they took up a position at little more than a mile's distance +from Oswego. + +{256} [Sidenote: _Position of Oswego._] + +There were at this time, in consequence of Shirley's efforts, three +forts at Oswego or Chouaguen, as the French called it. The old fort +and trading house stood on the western bank of the Onondaga or Oswego +river, where it enters the lake. On the same side of the river, about +600 yards to the westward, was a 'small unfinished redoubt, badly +enough entrenched with earth on two sides.'[5] It was called a fort, +and pompously named Fort George, but, as a matter of fact, it was +used as, and was little better than, a cattle-pen. On the eastern +side of the river, over against the old fort, at a distance of 470 +yards, was a newly-built, square-shaped blockhouse, known as Fort +Ontario. It was built wholly of timber; and, while strong enough to +resist such firearms as Indians could bring, it was of no avail +against artillery. + +[Footnote 5: See 'Papers relating to Oswego,' in O'Callaghan's +_Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, pp. 488-503.] + +[Sidenote: _The French attack._] + +[Sidenote: _Oswego surrenders._] + +The French prepared to bombard this eastern fort, but, before their +trenches were complete, it was evacuated, and the garrison was +withdrawn across the river. The abandonment was inevitable, but it +sealed the fate of the main fort, which, for protection on the lake +and river side, depended on Fort Ontario. One day's fighting saw the +conclusion of the matter. The French brought their guns into position +by the side of the abandoned fort; and, firing across the river, +riddled Fort Oswego. At the same time, Canadians and Indians forded +the river higher up, and attacked on the southern side. The English +commander, Colonel Mercer, was killed: the troops, consisting mainly +of convalescents and recruits, were not in condition for a stubborn +defence; women and children found no shelter from the enemy's fire; +the position was hopeless, and the garrison surrendered. The +prisoners, who were carried off, numbered about 1,600; guns, boats, +and supplies fell into the hands of the French, the forts were burnt +to the ground, and every vestige of British occupation was for the +time obliterated. + +{257} [Sidenote: _Effect of the fall of Oswego._] + +The news of the fall of Oswego, after so many years of British +occupation, caused consternation in England. Colonel Daniel Webb, who +at the time was bringing up reinforcements along the line of the +Mohawk and Wood Creek rivers, beat a hurried and discreditable +retreat, burning the forts at the Carrying Place[6] and blocking the +waterway with fallen timber. In England the blow followed on that of +the capture of Minorca, for which Byng was made a scapegoat. 'Minorca +is gone, Oswego gone, the nation is in a ferment,' wrote Horace +Walpole; and again, 'Oswego, of ten times more importance even than +Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot learn the particulars.'[7] +It was in truth a great success for France, the result of a plan +boldly conceived and brilliantly executed. The garrison had been +taken completely by surprise; in four days from the date when +Montcalm landed within reach of the forts, he had achieved his +object, and left the English no foothold on Lake Ontario. The defeat +of Braddock had given to France command of the Ohio; the fall of +Oswego gave her undisputed mastery of the lakes. All the west, and +all the ways to the west, were now in her hands, and her forces could +be concentrated on the central line of advance to the south up Lake +Champlain. There already some way had been made, for, in addition to +holding Crown Point, the French were now firmly planted at +Ticonderoga. + +[Footnote 6: Fort Williams was rebuilt in 1758, and named Fort +Stanwix. See below, p. 282.] + +[Footnote 7: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 41, 42 +(Letter of Nov. 4, 1756).] + +Great as were the immediate material results of Montcalm's success, +the indirect moral advantage which the French derived from it was +greater still. Oswego, Burke reminds us in the _Annual Register_ for +1758,[8] was 'designed to cover the country of the Five Nations, to +secure the Indian trade, to interrupt the communication between the +{258} French northern and southern establishments, and to open a way +to our arms to attack the forts of Frontenac and Niagara.' A few +pages later, he describes the effect of the disaster in the following +words: 'Since Oswego had been taken, the French remained entirely +masters of all the lakes, and we could do nothing to obstruct their +collecting the Indians from all parts, and obliging them to act in +their favour. But our apprehensions (or what shall they be called?) +did more in favour of the French than their conquests. Not satisfied +with the loss of that important fortress, we ourselves abandoned to +the mercy of the enemy all the country of the Five Nations, the only +body of Indians who preserved even the appearance of friendship to +us. The forts we had at the Great Carrying Place were demolished, +Wood Creek was industriously stopped up and filled with logs, by +which it became evident to all those who knew that country that our +communication with our allied Indians was totally cut off, and, what +was worse, our whole frontier left perfectly uncovered to the +irruption of the enemy's savages.' + +[Footnote 8: pp. 13, 29.] + +[Sidenote: _The Iroquois discouraged._] + +The effect of what had happened on the minds of the Five Nation +Indians was disastrous. Oswego had covered their cantons, it had been +the entrepot of trade between them and the west. They saw it swept +away with little or no resistance. They saw Webb hurry back towards +Albany, only anxious, as it seemed, to quit the country unmolested. +Hesitating constantly between the French and English alliance, they +had now every reason to prefer the former; and, had it not been for +Johnson's influence with the Mohawks, the Iroquois would, for the +time at any rate, have abandoned the English cause in disgust and +contempt.[9] + +[Footnote 9: Sir William Johnson, writing to the Lords of Trade on +Sept. 10, 1756, says: 'Oswego in our hands, fortified and secured by +us, and our having a navigation on Lake Ontario, was not only a curb +to the power of the French that way, but esteemed by the Six Nations, +whenever they joined our arms, as a secure cover to them and their +habitations against the resentment of the French.' Later in the same +letter he speaks of the fort as 'the barrier of the Six Nations,' and +says that, in consequence of its capture, 'the spirit they had +recently shown in our favour was sunk and overawed by the success of +the French' (O'Callaghan's _Documentary History of New York_, vol. +ii, pp. 733, 734).] + +{259} Moreover, the achievement differed in kind from the ordinary +Canadian raid. Troops had been moved, artillery brought up, transport +organized in rapid, skilful fashion, which betokened leadership of no +ordinary kind; the new General from France had at once made himself +felt, and friend and foe alike recognized that Canada was being +defended and the English colonies attacked by a soldier of high order +in the Marquis de Montcalm. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm._] + +Few characters in colonial history are so interesting and attractive +as that of Montcalm. Interest attaches to him not only on account of +his own personality, but also because he illustrates the better side +of the soldier-aristocrats of France. Born in 1712, near Nimes in the +south of France, he came out in middle life to North America, having +seen hard fighting in various parts of the continent, and owing the +Canadian command to his own merits, not to Court influence. He was +the head of his family, owner of the ancestral estate, straitened in +means, and with ten children to provide for; loving his home, loving +his mother, his wife and children, following arms as his profession +for honour and for a livelihood. He was well educated, and in every +sense a gentleman of France, with a quick, impetuous Southern spirit, +but the heart of an affectionate and chivalrous man. His coming +lifted the war on the Canadian side to a higher plane; he used the +savage tools which he found to hand, but he did not love them,[10] +nor did he love the corruption and chicanery which made the +Government of New France a squalid {260} reproduction of the +Government at home. A great man--Champlain--brought New France to +birth; her end was ennobled by the death of Montcalm. Of his military +talent it would be difficult even for an expert to judge, for it must +always be a matter of doubt how far Montcalm, like Wolfe, may have +been 'felix opportunitate mortis.' Neither the one nor the other was +tried in the command of big battalions on European battlefields; but +in quick aggressive movement, such as resulted in the capture of +Oswego, as well as in the patient defensive tactics which he +displayed at Quebec, Montcalm proved himself to be a skilful +commander. + +[Footnote 10: This is contrary to what Wolfe wrote, when before +Louisbourg, to Amherst. 'Montcalm has changed the very nature of war, +and has forced us, in some measure, to a deterring and dreadful +vengeance' (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 440, 441). But none the +less it was the case that, with Montcalm's arrival, war on the French +side became what it never had been before, something more than a +series of semi-savage raids.] + +[Sidenote: _Levis, Bourlamaque, and Bougainville._] + +He was ably supported by his second in command, De Levis, who lived +to be a duke and a marshal of France, and a third good officer, +Bourlamaque, came out at the same time. Montcalm's own aide de camp +was De Bougainville, more famed in after years on sea than land. His +name stands first in the list of French navigators; he was the rival +and contemporary of Captain Cook. Good leaders France sent out to +America in the spring of 1756, but she sent few troops with them. The +campaign on the continent absorbed her strength, and New France was +lost in consequence. + +[Sidenote: _The English leaders. Webb, Abercromby, and Loudoun._] + +[Sidenote: _Recall of Shirley._] + +Montcalm and his officers arrived in May; in June and July three +English commanders appeared on the scene--Colonel Daniel Webb, +General Abercromby, and Lord Loudoun. Of these three, Webb in a +subordinate command and Loudoun as Commander-in-Chief were failures. +Abercromby, possibly the best of the three, was not a success; he was +in Wolfe's opinion 'a heavy man.'[11] The trio were a type of the +soldiers that the English Government chose, while England, to quote +the Prussian King Frederick's words, was in labour, and before she +brought forth a man. While sending out inadequate officers from home, +the Government recalled William Shirley, who, whatever his faults may +have been, embodied more than any one man in America {261} +enterprising and heart-whole resistance to the national foe. He left +on the arrival of Loudoun, having to the last used all his influence +to prepare manfully for the coming campaign. Thus the summer of 1756 +found the two sides ill matched in point of commanders; if the +chances of war were at all even, the forces led by Montcalm could not +fail to outwit and surprise the troops which were guided by the +slow-moving Scotch laird, the Earl of Loudoun.[12] + +[Footnote 11: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 451.] + +[Footnote 12: John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, had served in the +Highland campaign of 1745. In America he appears to have shown +himself wanting in quickness, in tact, and in strategical ability. +Franklin accused him of indecision. The colonial saying about him was +that he was like the sign of St. George over an inn, always on +horseback but never moving on. There is a pleasant notice of him in +Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, when Boswell and Johnson dined at his +house on the tour to the Hebrides.] + +[Sidenote: _Robert Rogers._] + +Yet the English had some useful men among them, though not in the +first rank. William Johnson has already been noticed. John Winslow, +who had adequately commanded the New England contingent in Acadia, +was now in charge of the provincial troops at Fort William Henry, +near Johnson's old camping-ground at the southern end of Lake George. +In the same force was Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, whose name is +still borne by a cliff on Lake George, known as 'Rogers' Rock.' +Rogers raised and commanded companies of New England scouts, known as +the Rangers, which were multiplied as the war went on, and as the +value of the men and their leader became more apparent. His journal +is a model of clear, concise military writing, recounting in +straightforward fashion feats of extraordinary daring and hardihood. +As Johnson in his mastery over the Indians rivalled and perhaps +excelled the French, so no Canadian partizan understood border +warfare better than Robert Rogers. We read that on one occasion, when +he had been reported as killed and the report proved false, the +Indians in the French interest, who had been committing atrocities, +repented from fear when they learnt that Rogers was still alive, and +blamed {262} the French for encouraging them, as they said, to do the +actions for which vengeance awaited them. It was something to have on +the English side men who, in the Canadian style of fighting, were as +good as or better than the Canadians themselves; and, in the absence +of competent generals, fighting backwoodsmen, like Robert Rogers, at +least served to remind Canada that the English colonies had a nasty +sting. + +[Sidenote: _End of the campaign of 1756._] + +The programme for 1756--Shirley's programme--had included an advance +to and from Oswego, and an advance from Fort William Henry against +Ticonderoga. When Loudoun arrived, he countermanded the first +movement, though he subsequently sent Webb too late up the Mohawk +river in order to reinforce Oswego. Montcalm's swift action then +disconcerted all English plans, Oswego was lost, the forward move +down Lake George was countermanded, and the summer ended with nothing +for the English to record but one crushing defeat. + +[Sidenote: _Fruitless French attack on Fort William Henry._] + +In November, the main body of the troops on either side went back +into winter quarters, and Fort William Henry was left in charge of a +small garrison of between 400 and 500 men, belonging to the 44th +Regiment and the Rangers, commanded by Major Eyre. In the early +spring of 1757, an attempt was made to surprise them by an expedition +sent up from Montreal under the command of Rigaud de Vaudreuil, +brother of the Governor of Canada. The attacking force started +towards the end of February, and on March 19 appeared before the +fort. The next day they offered terms of surrender, which were +refused; and, after vainly attempting to reduce the fort till the +twenty-fourth, they retreated down Lake George, having burnt some +boats and outbuildings, but otherwise inflicted little loss. + +[Sidenote: _Loudoun's abortive expedition against Louisbourg._] + +The spring came on, and the early summer, and Loudoun matured a plan, +which he had formed for attacking Louisbourg in force, as a +preliminary to a further attack on Quebec. {263} His plan was +accepted in London, and the Government determined to send out a +strong fleet to co-operate with him, the rendezvous to be the harbour +of Halifax. Like previous schemes of the same kind, the enterprise +failed through untoward delays. The fleet under Admiral Holborne, +consisting of fifteen ships of the line, and conveying transports +with from 5,000 to 6,000 men on board, did not sail till May 5, and +did not reach Halifax till early in July. Loudoun, meanwhile, had +drawn off the bulk of his troops, including Rogers and his Rangers, +from the New York frontier; and, after vainly waiting at New York for +news of the English Admiral, set sail for Halifax on June 20, +reaching his destination on the last day of that month. + +The combined forces were nearly 12,000 strong, but the time for +attack had gone by. Hearing of the English preparations, the French +Government had sent a fleet at least as strong as Holborne's across +the Atlantic, under Admiral La Motte; and the English commanders +learnt that Louisbourg was being defended by ships as numerous as +their own, and by a garrison in which the troops of the line alone +were said to number 6,000 men. The enterprise was accordingly +abandoned. In the middle of August Loudoun re-embarked the majority +of his troops for New York. Holborne twice reconnoitred Louisbourg in +the hope of bringing on a sea-fight. The second time, in the middle +of September, a storm shattered his vessels, and the whole expedition +utterly collapsed.[13] 'It is time,' wrote Horace Walpole[14] in +despondent terms, 'for England to slip her own cables and float away +into some unknown ocean.' On {264} his way back to New York, Loudoun +was met with bad news--that Fort William Henry had fallen. + +[Footnote 13: While Loudoun's troops were waiting at Halifax, he +employed them in raising vegetables. In consequence, Lord Charles +Hay, who was third in command, charged him with expending the +nation's wealth 'in making sham fights and planting cabbages.' Lord +Charles Hay was sent back to England, and a court-martial was held +upon him, but the incident served to bring ridicule on the +expedition.] + +[Footnote 14: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 103 (Letter +of Sept. 3, 1757, written before the final break-up of the fleet).] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm prepares to attack Fort William Henry._] + +When he started for Louisbourg, he left Webb in command of the small +forces which remained to cover the New York frontier. He seems to +have thought that the troops were sufficient not only to hold the +French in check, but also to threaten Ticonderoga. Montcalm, on the +other hand, saw his opportunity and determined, while he had superior +numbers, to strike a blow which should rival his former achievement +at Oswego. Throughout July the French troops concentrated at +Ticonderoga, provisions were brought up, and a road was made past the +rapids, by which Lake George discharges into Lake Champlain. A number +of Indians were gathered from all quarters to join in the expedition, +mission Indians taught to kill the heretic English, and savages from +the wild and barbarous west. Scouting parties went forth, some along +Lake George, others up the parallel southern arm of Lake Champlain; +and, with Robert Rogers far away in Nova Scotia, they did much +damage, on one occasion killing or taking prisoners two out of three +hundred New Englanders. At the end of the month the main advance +began. + +[Sidenote: _The fort and its surroundings._] + +Fort William Henry was about thirty miles distant from the French +lines. It was a strong square fort, built near the southern edge of +Lake George, a little to the west of the spot where Sir William +Johnson two years before had formed his camp. The road from the fort +to Fort Edward ran for a short distance due east, skirting the shore +of the lake, and then turned inland to the south and south-east. On +rising ground to the east of the road, beyond the point where it took +the southward turn, the English had an entrenched camp, separated +from the fort by swampy ground. After the attack on the fort in the +preceding spring, Major Eyre and his troops had been replaced by +others under the command of Colonel Monro, the main body consisting +of 600 {265} men of the 35th, now the Sussex Regiment. When news came +that the French were on the point of advancing, Webb sent up 1,000 +colonial troops from Fort Edward; and, when the attack began, Monro +had with him about 2,400 men, while Webb, who had only 1,600 men left +at Fort Edward, sent urgent messages to New York for reinforcements. + +[Sidenote: _The French advance._] + +On July 30, Levis moved forward with the French vanguard, marching +along the western shore of Lake George; the main body of troops under +Montcalm followed in boats on August 1, the whole force amounting to +between 7,000 and 8,000 men. Two detachments, one commanded by La +Corne, the other by Levis, marched round the fort, and took up +positions on its southern side, to cut off communication with Webb; +La Corne occupied the road to Fort Edward, while Levis encamped a +little further to the west. Montcalm landed his big guns at a little +inlet, still called Artillery Cove, about half a mile in a direct +line from the fort, and, after a summons to surrender on August 3, +began his trenches on the night of the fourth. + +[Sidenote: _The fort surrenders._] + +A far better defence was made than at Oswego. For four days the +garrison held out bravely, hoping for relief from the south. Their +guns were heard at Fort Edward; the urgency of their case was known; +but Webb, though some 2,000 militia had reached him, felt himself too +weak to make any advance. At length the situation became hopeless, +and on August 9 Monro surrendered. The terms of capitulation were +that the garrison should be escorted to Fort Edward, on condition +that they would not serve again for eighteen months, and that all +French prisoners taken in the war should be restored. The fort with +all that it contained was handed over to the French. The surrender +included the entrenched camp as well as the fort: the fort was +evacuated; and the whole garrison, with the exception of a few sick +and wounded, were gathered into the camp, retaining their arms, but +without ammunition. + +{266} [Sidenote: _The massacre of Fort William Henry._] + +Before night fell, the French Indians plundered the fort, and +butchered some of the sick. Early on the following morning, the +English troops began their march to Fort Edward; the Indians broke in +among them, seizing and stripping men, women, and children; and, at a +signal given by the Christian Abenakis from the Penobscot--Indians +who had known the teaching and training of men like Le Loutre--a +wholesale massacre began. Montcalm and his officers, however, used +every effort to protect the English, with the result that not more +than fifty were murdered, and 600 carried off, 400 of whom were +promptly recovered; and the broken band of fugitives in due course +found their way to Fort Edward. + +[Sidenote: _Blame attaching to the French._] + +This was the episode well known in colonial annals as the massacre of +Fort William Henry, told of in history and in romance.[15] The +horrors have no doubt been exaggerated, if, as appears to have been +the case, the death-roll did not exceed the number given above. Still +it was a horrible incident, and brought righteous discredit on the +French cause. Though Montcalm, when the mischief had begun, acted +with promptitude and vigour, it was well within his power to have +prevented the possibility of any such outrage. His Indians numbered +but 1,800, and he had 3,000 regular troops from France to hold them +in check. The Canadian militia, too, numbered 2,500 men; but probably +the seed of the evil lay in the disinclination of the colonial French +and their officers to interfere with their Indian allies. It had +become the tradition in Canada to live down to the Indians in matters +of war, to attach them and to hold them by humouring their savage +instincts; and it may well be believed that, if Canadian soldiers or +Canadian officers were concerned in seeing the terms of capitulation +carried out, they would prefer injuring the English to offending the +Indians. Three years later, in the advance on Montreal, we read of +{267} Sir William Johnson, under Amherst's orders, strongly +repressing the Iroquois' lust for French blood, and Amherst reporting +that not a peasant woman or child had been hurt, nor a house burnt, +since he entered the enemy's country. Better control of the savages +in their employ gave the English fewer friends among them, but in the +end it was one, and not the least, of the causes of their gaining the +supremacy in North America. + +[Footnote 15: e.g. in Fennimore Cooper's _Last of the Mohicans_.] + +[Sidenote: _Webb's conduct._] + +It was disputed at the time, and is still matter of dispute, whether +Webb from Fort Edward might have saved the fort by the lake. The view +generally taken of his conduct was probably coloured by the memory of +his frightened retreat down the Mohawk river in the preceding year. +He could muster but 4,000 men all told; and, had he advanced and met +with disaster, no force would have been left to keep Montcalm from +marching on Albany, and possibly on New York itself. He risked +nothing, and possibly he was wise; but the catastrophe which happened +within his reach was in part, rightly or wrongly, debited to his +account, and the feeling deepened in England and in America that on +the English side leaders of men were sadly wanting. + +[Sidenote: _The French raid the German Flats._] + +One more success was scored by the French before the winter came on. +In October, Vaudreuil sent out from Montreal a raiding party of the +old type, consisting of about 300 Canadians and Indians under an +officer named Beletre. They went up the St. Lawrence into Lake +Ontario, landed on its southern shore, at some distance east of the +ruins of Oswego, crossed to the portage between the Mohawk and Wood +Creek, where the forts were no longer standing, and moved down the +Mohawk to raid the outlying settlements. Between the head waters of +the Mohawk and Schenectady, on the northern side of the river, was +the district known as the German Flats, where German colonists had +been planted about the year 1720. They came from the Palatinate, and +their group of houses bore the name of the settlement or village +{268} of the Palatines. In the second week of November, Beletre's +party broke in among them, burnt houses and barns, killed cattle, +horses, and some of the inhabitants, carried off over a hundred +prisoners, and retired in safety in face of a weak detachment from a +little English fort on the other side of the river, and of a stronger +body of troops whom Lord Howe brought up from Schenectady too late to +retrieve the disaster. + +[Sidenote: _The French triumphant in North America._] + +[Sidenote: _William Pitt._] + +This was the end of the campaign, the high-water mark of French +successes in North America. At the end of 1757, the English had been +beaten at all points. They had failed to attack Louisbourg, they had +been driven from Lake George, the country of the Five Nation Indians +was nearly cut off, all hold on the rivers and the lakes was gone. +The outlook was dark in the extreme: it is always darkest before +dawn, and as a matter of fact dawn had already begun; for William +Pitt, who had been dismissed from office in April, was recalled by +the unanimous voice of the people of England before the end of June, +and, leaving to the incompetent Duke of Newcastle the name of Prime +Minister, controlled, as Secretary of State and Leader of the House +of Commons, the soldiers, the sailors, the subsidies and the foreign +policy of his country.[16] + +[Footnote 16: Lord Chesterfield in a letter to his son dated May 18, +1758 (1775 ed., vol. iv, p. 137, Letter 298), wrote as follows of the +Newcastle-Pitt combination: 'The Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt jog +on like man and wife, that is, seldom agreeing, often quarrelling, +but by mutual interest upon the whole not parting.'] + +[Sidenote: _Want of a leader on the English side._] + +The wars of England have usually run the same course. They have begun +with blunders and reverses, but ended in success. The English do not +love war, and are rarely prepared for it. They begin fighting in +half-hearted fashion, before the nation makes up its mind that the +cause is worth a real effort and serious expenditure of money and +life. There is groping about for a leader, for some one who will say +distinctly what is to be done, and will prove as good as {269} his +word. If such a man is found, the people will follow; they forgive a +man who makes mistakes provided, as the saying is, that he makes +something. Then the resources of the country are concentrated and +utilized, and under articulate and sympathetic leadership the cause +of the nation prospers. If England in the year 1757 needed some one +controlling will, much more was the want felt in her North American +colonies. The demoralization caused by feeble ministries in England +had its baleful effect in America; nerveless government at home +strengthened the centrifugal tendencies of the colonies. Nothing but +common danger gave them any common life; and, though Pitt's advent to +power partially corrected the evil, Pitt was in England not in +America. To the end the uniting force came from without rather than +from within: the colonies followed the lead of Pitt and his generals, +but to the mother country not to the colonies was due the conquest of +Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Distress in Canada._] + +That Canada must be conquered, when England made her effort, was +inevitable. The French appeared triumphant; they had moved forward; +they had struck heavy blows; but behind the fighting line, even on +the surface, they were in straits. The garrison of Fort William Henry +had not been taken prisoners to Canada, because Canada could hardly +feed them;[17] and the winter of 1757, which followed the brilliant +campaign, was a winter of distress. Bread was wanting; horses were +eaten for meat; the troops were mutinous and only kept in order by +Levis' firmness and tact; the finances were in a ruinous condition; +there were winter gaieties and winter gambling, but Canada before its +conquest was in much the same condition as the mother country on the +brink of the Revolution. + +[Footnote 17: Similarly, after the fall of Oswego, Horace Walpole +wrote, 'The massacre at Oswego happily proves a romance; part of the +two regiments that were made prisoners there are actually arrived at +Plymouth, the provisions at Quebec being too scanty to admit +additional numbers.' _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 44, +45 (Letter of Nov. 13, 1756).] + +{270} [Sidenote: _French plan of campaign for 1758._] + +Both sides laid their plans for the coming year. The French scheme +included a movement by Levis from Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, +across to the site of Oswego, and thence, after securing the alliance +or the allegiance of the Iroquois, down the Mohawk valley, so as to +co-operate with the main army under Montcalm advancing from +Ticonderoga. The success of this project of Vaudreuil's, which was +never carried into effect, presupposed that the bulk of the English +troops would again be drawn off to attack Louisbourg, for it was +known or suspected in Canada that another attempt on Louisbourg was +in contemplation. + +[Sidenote: _Pitt's plan._] + +Pitt's plan of campaign was not new or original. The experience of +long years had painfully taught what were the points where Canada +must be attacked, if any permanent success was to be achieved. First +and foremost was Louisbourg. With Louisbourg in English hands, the +St. Lawrence could be blocked and Canada starved out. But the English +minister had no intention of denuding the inland frontier of the +British colonies, in order to take the French fortress in Cape +Breton. On the contrary, he laid his plans also for an advance on +Ticonderoga, and for the recovery of Fort Duquesne. He conceived no +new scheme, but into old schemes he put new life. The novelties which +he introduced were abundance of English troops, prompt instead of +dilatory movement, and above all capable leaders--inspired with his +own spirit, and in their turn inspiring the men whom they led. There +was to be an end of the 'delays, misfortunes, disappointments and +disgraces,'[18] which had so long been associated in the English mind +with war in America. + +[Footnote 18: _Annual Register_ for 1758, p. 70.] + +[Sidenote: _Strong English forces sent to America._] + +On December 30, 1757, he addressed a circular letter to the Governors +of the North American colonies, asking for levies of 20,000 men. On +February 19, 1758, a strong fleet set sail for Halifax, to be +directed against Louisbourg, while other English squadrons blocked +the French ports {271} in Europe, and kept the enemy's ships from +crossing the Atlantic. It was a rare thing for an English expedition +for America to start betimes, instead of waiting for orders and +counter orders, until the season for active work was far spent. It +was unheard of, too, for so many English troops to be sent into the +New World. Twelve thousand soldiers, nearly all regulars, took part +in the Louisbourg expedition. Abercromby on Lake George commanded, +when summer came on, 15,000 men, of whom fully 6,000 were regulars. +Six thousand men took part in the march against Fort Duquesne, of +whom 1,600 were Imperial troops. Thus in the year 1758 England had +more than 20,000 regular soldiers employed in North America, enough +force, as Lord Chesterfield thought, when coupled with the colonial +troops, 'to eat up the French alive in Canada, Quebec, and +Louisbourg, if we have but skill and spirit enough to exert it +properly.'[19] + +[Footnote 19: Lord Chesterfield to his son, Feb. 8, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 124; Letter 293).] + +[Sidenote: _The English commanders._] + +The skill and the spirit were forthcoming also, though not at once in +full measure, and not at all points. Loudoun was recalled. Abercromby +was left to take his place, but with him was placed as brigadier a +young officer of rare promise, Lord Howe. Jeffrey Amherst was picked +out to command the troops against Louisbourg, and of his three +brigadiers one was Lawrence, the Governor of Nova Scotia, and another +was Wolfe. In the further west, the command of the expedition against +Fort Duquesne was given to a resolute Scotch soldier, Forbes. +Gradually in his choice of officers Pitt sifted the chaff from the +grain, young men were brought to the front, merit was preferred to +seniority. Amherst was forty-one years of age, Wolfe was thirty-one, +Howe was thirty-three. Lord Chesterfield wrote of them in February, +1758, 'Abercromby is to be the sedentary and not the acting +commander. Amherst, Lord Howe, and Wolfe are to be the acting and I +hope the active officers. I wish they may agree.'[20] + +[Footnote 20: Ibid.] + +{272} [Sidenote: _The fleet sails for Louisbourg. Admiral Boscawen._] + +The fleet which sailed for North America, carrying the hopes and the +fortunes of England, was commanded by Admiral Boscawen. He had seen +service in the East and West, off Cartagena and Pondicherry; and it +was he who in the year 1755, before France and England were at war, +had, as has already been told, attacked and taken the two French +ships, the _Alcide_ and the _Lys_, off the North American coast.[21] +He had Churchill blood in his veins, for Arabella Churchill was his +grandmother; and he was known as 'Old Dreadnought,' after a ship of +that name which he had commanded. He was a determined, hard-fighting +sailor, with little respect for neutrality in time or place if there +was a chance of striking a blow for England. + +[Footnote 21: See above, p. 234.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst._] + +His colleague, General Amherst, like Wolfe, was born in Kent. Joining +the Guards in 1731, he made his name on the Continent. He was present +at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and served on the Duke of Cumberland's +staff. Unlike most of the commanders of the time, he lived to be an +old man, and was Commander-in-Chief of the English army before he +died; but his good work was all done in America in the years 1758-60, +while he was still in early middle age, and when he conquered Canada. +He was a good soldier of the cautious type, not wanting either in +vigour or determination, but making sure of each point before he +moved further. What Carlyle says of the Parliamentary general, Lord +Essex, might be said of Amherst--he was a 'somewhat elephantine' man. + +[Sidenote: _The first and second siege of Louisbourg compared._] + +The ships took time to go over the sea, and did not reach Halifax +until well into May. On the second of June they sailed into Gabarus +Bay and came in sight of Louisbourg. The second siege and capture of +Louisbourg was very similar to the first, except that in 1758 much +larger forces were engaged on either side, and more military skill +was shown than in 1745. The earlier siege was, on the English side, +{273} as far as the land forces were concerned, purely a colonial +venture. On the later occasion very few colonial troops were +employed. The French had in garrison 3,000 regulars, and the +residents of the town who bore arms made up nearly another thousand, +the besiegers on land outnumbering the besieged in the proportion of +three to one. In harbour there were twelve French ships of war, with +a complement of 3,000 men--no match for Boscawen's overpowering +fleet. The fortifications of Louisbourg were strong, but not so +strong as they were reputed. It was stated that prior to 1755 nothing +had been done to repair the damage done in the first siege.[22] The +French had a good commander, the Chevalier de Drucour; and his wife, +according to the accounts of the time, was as brave as himself. In +1758 the English landed in the same place as in 1745; the siege took +almost exactly the same number of days; the Grand Battery on the +north shore of the harbour was, as before, evacuated by the French; +once more the English mounted guns on Lighthouse Point, from which +the French had retired, and battered to pieces the Island Battery, +which guarded the mouth of the harbour. Again, as in 1745, a small +force of Canadians and Indians tried to make a diversion from inland, +and again the attempt was quite ineffectual. The seas and the skies, +however, in spite of the time of year, were far less kind to the +besiegers on the later than on the earlier occasion. + +[Footnote 22: In the _Annual Register_ for 1758, pp. 179-81, is given +a translation of a letter from Drucour, the French Governor of +Louisbourg, after he had been taken prisoner to England. It is dated +Andover, Oct. 1, 1758. Referring to the defences of Louisbourg, he +speaks of 'a fortification (if it could deserve the name) crumbling +down in every flank, face, and courtine, except the right flank of +the King's bastion, which was remounted the first year after my +arrival.'] + +[Sidenote: _Landing effected by Wolfe._] + +The real difficulty was the initial difficulty, that of landing on an +awkward coast in bad weather, with an enemy lining the shore. The +French had made full preparations, and had {274} their men, guns, and +batteries ready along the fringe of Gabarus Bay; while, for nearly a +week, surf and fog made any attempt at landing impracticable. At +length, at daybreak on June 8, three strong parties under the three +brigadiers put out in boats from the transports, and rowed for the +shore at three separate points. The main effort was intended to be +made on the extreme left, at Freshwater Cove, by the party commanded +by Wolfe. As the boats neared the land, the French opened a heavy +fire, and Wolfe signalled a retreat; but, by happy accident or by +design, one or more of the boats misinterpreted the sign, and made +good their landing a little to the right of the cove, where the cliff +gave some slight shelter from the enemy's fire. The rest then +followed in support, and, with no slight loss of men and boats, the +English carried the French position, and drove their opponents back +within range of the Louisbourg guns. + +[Sidenote: _The siege pressed._] + +The disembarkation now went on under difficulties. On June 18 the +siege guns were landed, and gradually the English formed their +encampment, drew their lines, and opened their trenches, beleaguering +the fortress on the western side, where the peninsula on which the +town of Louisbourg stood joined the mainland. The lines started from +the sea at Flat Point cove, and extended in a semicircle for about +two miles inland. Meanwhile, on the twelfth of June, Wolfe had +marched round the harbour, and subsequently mounted his guns at +Lighthouse Point on the opposite side. By the twenty-fifth he had +silenced the Island Battery, and thus commanded the mouth of the +harbour, where the French in consequence sunk several of their ships +to bar any attack by Boscawen. + +The town was now fully invested by land and sea; such French ships as +still remained were cooped up in the harbour, and the fall of +Louisbourg was merely a question of time. But the operations took +time. The besiegers had the same difficulty as had been experienced +in 1745, in advancing {275} across a belt of swamp. Day and night +passed in incessant work, under fire of the enemy's guns, and +interrupted by sorties of the garrison; but slowly and surely the +trenches were drawn nearer to the town. On the twenty-first of July +three out of the five remaining French ships took fire from a shell +and were destroyed, and on the twenty-fifth the two last were +successfully attacked by a detachment of English sailors, who rowed +into the harbour at night time, and among whom was James Cook, not +yet known to fame. One ship was grounded and burnt, the other was +towed off by its captors. + +[Sidenote: _The town surrenders._] + +[Sidenote: _Louisbourg dismantled._] + +This bold feat brought matters to a climax. The land defences were in +ruins, the garrison was worn out, there was nothing to stop a general +assault by land and sea. On the twenty-sixth the French Governor +asked for terms. Unconditional surrender was demanded and refused; +but before the message of refusal reached the English camp, it was +withdrawn, at the instance, it was said, of the Intendant or +Commissary-General, who represented the civilian element in the town. +The articles of capitulation were signed, between 5,000 and 6,000 +French soldiers and sailors became prisoners of war, and on July 27 +the English forces entered Louisbourg. Two years later, in 1760, all +the fortifications were demolished, and the town was practically +blotted out. No chance was left of again handing back to France a +fortress which had so long threatened English interests in America. +Halifax was henceforth to be unrivalled on the coast; and at the +present day the once famous harbour of Louisbourg is in the keeping +of Cape Breton fishermen. + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's services at Louisbourg._] + +[Sidenote: _Time lost by the English._] + +The English Parliament voted thanks to Amherst and Boscawen; but to +Wolfe, who as a subordinate was not mentioned, the thanks of the +nation were mainly due. He 'shone extremely at Louisbourg,'[23] wrote +Horace Walpole, and Walpole owns that he did not love him. Had he +been {276} in supreme command, the siege would probably have ended +earlier, and greater results would have been achieved. His own view, +at any rate, as expressed in a private letter written after his +return to England, was that both during the siege and after it +valuable time was lost.[24] It is certain that when the expedition +was sent out, more was hoped from it than the capture of Louisbourg +alone. On May 18, 1758, Lord Chesterfield wrote: 'By this time I +believe the French are entertained in America with the loss of Cape +Breton, and, in consequence of that, Quebec; for we have a force +there equal to both those undertakings, and officers there now that +will execute what Lord L---- (Loudoun) never would so much as +attempt.'[25] The French on their side, as we learn from a subsequent +letter from Drucour, were aware of the importance of prolonging the +siege, in order to prevent Abercromby being reinforced, or an attack +being made on Quebec;[26] and all honour is due to the memory of the +brave {277} French commander for the determined stand which he made. +Before the siege ended, Abercromby had been beaten back from +Ticonderoga, and breathing time had been given to the defenders of +Canada. + +[Footnote 23: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 207 (Letter +of Feb. 9, 1759).] + +[Footnote 24: 'We lost time at the siege, still more after the siege, +and blundered from the beginning to the end of the campaign' (from a +letter written Dec. 1, 1758; Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 465). +Similarly, Wolfe wrote from the camp before Louisbourg, on July 27, +1758, the day after the capitulation: 'If this force had been +properly managed, there was an end of the French colony in North +America in one campaign' (Wright, p. 449).] + +[Footnote 25: Lord Chesterfield to his son, May 18, 1758 (1775 ed., +vol. iv, p. 136; Letter 298).] + +[Footnote 26: See the letter already quoted above, p. 273, note. +Drucour is explaining why he would not allow the French ships to +leave Louisbourg harbour, 'It was our business to defer the +determination of our fate as long as possible. My accounts from +Canada assured me that M. de Montcalm was marching to the enemy and +would come up with them between July 15 and 20. I said then "if the +ships leave the harbour on June 10 (as they desire), the English +admiral will enter it immediately after," and we should have been +lost before the end of the month, which would have put it in the +power of the generals of the besiegers to have employed the months of +July and August in sending succours to the troops marching against +Canada, and to have entered the river St. Lawrence at the proper +season.' In a 'Scheme for taking Louisbourg,' which was submitted to +Pitt by Brigadier Waldo (who had been on Pepperell's expedition) on +Nov. 7, 1757, fourteen days were given to Louisbourg to hold out when +once duly invested, and an attack on Quebec was contemplated as the +immediate result of its fall (Brymer's _Report on Canadian Archives_, +1886, pp. 151-3).] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe returns to England._] + +Yet it was but the end of July when Louisbourg fell, and, if Wolfe +had had his way, the ships would have gone on to Quebec. Even Amherst +might have gone on but for the bad news from Abercromby, which +confirmed his habitual caution, and retarded instead of quickening +his movements. One officer, Lord Rollo, was sent to reduce the Ile +St. Jean; another, Monckton, cleared the valley of the St. John river +on the mainland. Wolfe was dispatched to Gaspe Bay and the mouth of +the St. Lawrence, to harry the settlers and the fishermen; and when +he had accomplished his task, which was little to his taste, he +sailed for home angry and disappointed that more had not been done, +and that his advice had not been taken. Amherst, in the meantime, had +gone with six regiments to reinforce Abercromby at Lake George. + +[Sidenote: _The Maritime Provinces finally secured to England._] + +The capture of Louisbourg secured to England all that should have +been hers when the Treaty of Utrecht was being negotiated. The +English were now in full occupation of the Maritime Provinces of +Canada. More than half of the comparatively small French population +of Cape Breton was, at the people's own wish, shipped to France; and +of the residents in the Ile St. Jean, mainly Acadian refugees, a +large proportion was similarly transported, while others found their +way to Canada. Cape Breton was attached to Nova Scotia, to be +subsequently separated from that province and again rejoined. The Ile +St. Jean was placed under the same Government, and before the century +ended, in the year 1799, its name was changed to Prince Edward Island +in honour of the Duke of Kent, the father of Her late Majesty Queen +Victoria. + +[Sidenote: _Abercromby's advance._] + +By Loudoun's recall, Abercromby was left in chief command of the +British forces in North America. He had with him, {278} as one of his +brigadiers, Lord Howe, who commanded the 55th Regiment. In May, 1758, +he was at Albany preparing for the summer's work. In June he moved up +to the end of Lake George, where his force, amounting to 15,000 men, +gathered to drive the French back on Canada. The colonies had +answered well to Pitt's appeal, and contributed 9,000 men to the +total. On July 5 the army embarked in boats; on the sixth they landed +without opposition at the northern end of the lake, on the western +side of the water, and began their march on Ticonderoga through the +forest, having on their right the semicircular stream which connects +Lake George and Lake Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Lord Howe killed._] + +The right centre column was led by Lord Howe, and, as the soldiers +groped their way through the dense thickets, they stumbled across a +party of French, who had been sent out to reconnoitre, had also lost +their way, and found their retreat cut off. A confused skirmish +followed, with more numerical loss to the French than to the English; +but Howe was shot dead, and his life by common consent meant the life +of the expedition. All night the army remained under arms in the +forest, and on the morning of the seventh marched back to the +landing-place. + +[Sidenote: _The approach to the French position at Ticonderoga._] + +It was a matter of very few miles to the French position. The river, +which carries the waters of Lake George into Lake Champlain, and +enters the latter lake at Ticonderoga, has a course of about eight +miles; but they are eight miles of a semicircle, and the distance in +a straight line from Lake George to Ticonderoga is much shorter. The +English had landed at the head of the river; about two miles lower +down rapids begin, and here was the portage leading from the head to +the bottom of the rapids, and forming the chord of an arc, the arc +being between three and four miles of broken water. The lower bridge +of the portage, where there was a sawmill, was well within two miles +of the French Fort Carillon. At the head of the rapids the French had +held an advanced {279} post, which was withdrawn on the approach of +Abercromby's army, and, when the main force of that army landed to +wander in the forest, a detachment was sent on down the river and +occupied the deserted position. On the seventh, while the main body +again was resting at the landing-place, Bradstreet was sent forward +to the post at the bottom of the rapids, which was also found to be +deserted, and here on the evening of the seventh the main body +encamped, the bridge being repaired, and the encampment being on the +same side of the river as Ticonderoga. + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm's dispositions._] + +Montcalm, who was joined by Levis on the night of the seventh, had +with him rather under 4,000 men, the majority of whom were regulars. +Outnumbered as he was by three or four to one, his position was +perilous in the extreme, for his retreat could easily be cut off. He +determined, however, to make a stand, and on rising ground on the +inland--the western--side of the little peninsula on which Fort +Carillon or Ticonderoga[27] was built, at a distance of rather over +half a mile from the fort, he formed at the eleventh hour +entrenchments of timber, fringed on the outside by a network of +'felled trees, the branches pointed outwards,'[28] and carefully laid +so as to entangle and annoy the enemy. + +[Footnote 27: Ticonderoga, according to Rogers' _Journals_ (p. 22, +note), is an 'Indian name signifying the meeting or confluence of +three waters.'] + +[Footnote 28: Abercromby's dispatch to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _The English repulse at Ticonderoga._] + +[Sidenote: _Retreat of Abercromby._] + +Against this position Abercromby ordered an attack on July 8. He had +been told by French prisoners that Montcalm's force was stronger than +it actually was, and that further reinforcements were shortly to +arrive. In consequence he hurried his movements, and without bringing +up any guns, which apparently he had left behind him, he determined, +thinking that the entrenchment had not been completed, to trust +entirely to the bayonet. The result was the inevitable result of a +frontal attack, delivered in the open, against an enemy fighting +under cover and undisturbed by {280} artillery fire. For four hours +charge after charge was made, and at the close of the day the English +had achieved nothing and had lost nearly 2,000 men. The casualties in +the Black Watch alone amounted to 500. Abercromby had still 13,000 +men left, but he had no stomach for further fighting. On the +following day he ordered a retreat, and the whole force went back to +the southern end of Lake George. + +[Sidenote: _Triumph of Montcalm._] + +At Oswego and at Fort William Henry, Montcalm had shown how to +concentrate superior forces at a given point rapidly and effectively, +and how to use them when concentrated to the best possible advantage. +At Ticonderoga, he showed how to make the most of very inferior +numbers, by utilizing every natural and artificial advantage, and +every mistake of the foe. It was a great triumph for him; it produced +joy in Canada, and discouragement in England; but, as Mr. Parkman +points out, it is difficult to see how he could possibly have +succeeded, if Abercromby had taken any other course than the one +which he actually took. Wolfe summed up the matter aright, when, in +the following December, he referred in a private letter to 'the +famous post at Ticonderoga, where Mr. Abercromby by a little +soldiership and a little patience might, I think, have put an end to +the war in America.'[29] + +[Footnote 29: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 469.] + +[Sidenote: _Tribute to Lord Howe._] + +Almost as disastrous as the repulse itself was the death of Lord +Howe, which preceded it. The eldest of three distinguished brothers, +the second of whom was the famous admiral, and the third the not so +successful general in the American War of Independence, he was not +thirty-four years old when he was killed, and had only landed in +America in the previous year. Yet he had lived long enough for all +men to speak well of him, and all to love him. In his dispatch giving +an account of the operations, Abercromby wrote: 'He was very +deservedly universally beloved and respected through {281} the whole +army.'[30] Pitt testified in more stilted phrases that 'he was by the +universal voice of army and people a character of ancient times, a +complete model of military virtue in all its branches.'[31] Wolfe +loved him dearly, and his letters show how highly he valued 'his +abilities, spirit and address.'[32] He writes of him as 'the very +best officer in the King's service,' as 'the noblest Englishman that +has appeared in my time,' as 'truly a great man.' 'This country has +produced nothing like him in my time; his death cannot be enough +lamented.' Similar testimony is given by Robert Rogers, the Ranger, +who was with the force when he fell: 'This noble and brave officer +being universally beloved by both officers and soldiers of the army, +his fall was not only most sincerely lamented, but seemed to produce +an almost universal consternation and langour through the whole.'[33] +But the most striking honour to his name and memory was paid by the +province of Massachusetts. In 1759 the Court of Assembly ordered a +monument to him to be placed in Westminster Abbey, which still +records 'the sense they had of his services and military virtues, and +of the affection their officers and soldiers bore to his command.' +Burke, in the _Annual Register_ for 1758,[34] gives the clue to the +affection with which the colonists regarded Lord Howe: 'From the +moment he landed in America he had wisely conformed, and made his +regiment conform, to the kind of service which the country required.' +Howe's life, he adds, was 'long enough for his honour, but not for +his country.' In truth, had he lived, and had Wolfe lived, the +history of the English in America might have been widely different. +Two men who in youth had so inspired their time, and so impressed +American colonists with the sense of leadership, might well {282} +have averted the War of Independence, or by military genius have +given it another issue. + +[Footnote 30: Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +[Footnote 31: _Grenville Correspondence_, vol. i, p. 262.] + +[Footnote 32: Wright, pp. 426, 448, 450, 465, 469.] + +[Footnote 33: Rogers' _Journals_, p. 114, note.] + +[Footnote 34 pp. 72, 73.] + +[Sidenote: _Bradstreet takes Fort Frontenac._] + +From July to October Abercromby remained at one end of Lake George, +and Montcalm, who had received heavy reinforcements, at the other. +Parties of Rangers and Canadians attacked each other on the Wood +Creek line, but the main bodies were inactive. The presence of the +English force had the advantage, however, of holding in their front +so large a number of the enemy that the latter were unable adequately +to protect other positions, and in consequence they lost Fort +Frontenac. That competent officer, Colonel Bradstreet, had already +proposed an expedition against this point, and when he renewed his +proposal after the battle of Ticonderoga, Abercromby gave his +consent, and spared him 3,600 men for the purpose, noting that 'he is +not only very active, but has great knowledge of the country.'[35] + +[Footnote 35: Abercromby to Pitt, July 12, 1758.] + +In August he moved up the Mohawk, took his troops past the Carrying +Place from that river, where, on the site of Fort Williams, General +Stanwix was busy building a new fort, reached the ruins of Oswego, +put out across the lake, and on August 25 landed close to Fort +Frontenac. By the twenty-seventh he had the fort at the mercy of his +guns, and the small garrison of a little over a hundred men +surrendered. The prisoners were sent on parole to Montreal, to be +exchanged for a corresponding number of English; the fort was burnt, +and guns, ships, and supplies were carried off or destroyed. It was +an excellent piece of work for the English side; 'a great stroke,' as +Wolfe wrote on hearing of it.[36] Great material damage was caused to +the French by, temporarily at any rate, cutting their communications +with the west, and intercepting supplies which had been intended for +{283} the forts on the Ohio and on the upper lakes. The moral effect +was greater still. The time-honoured French fort on Lake Ontario, the +earliest French post on the lakes, had been with little effort taken +and blotted out, reminding the waverers among the Five Nation Indians +that, in spite of reverses, the English arm was strong and +far-reaching, and the English alliance was for them a valuable asset. + +[Footnote 36: Letter of Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. +457). In another letter (p. 465) he writes: 'Bradstreet's coup was +masterly. He is a very extraordinary man.'] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst becomes Commander-in-Chief in North America._] + +Early in October Amherst came up to Abercromby's camp, and the two +generals decided not to make a further attempt on Ticonderoga until +the following year. 'General Amherst,' wrote Wolfe, 'thought the +entrenchments so improved as to require more ceremony in the second +attack than the season would allow of.'[37] The troops were +accordingly sent into winter quarters, and in November Abercromby +received a letter of recall. Amherst became in his stead +Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America. + +[Footnote 37: Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, p. 469.] + +[Sidenote: _The expedition against Fort Duquesne._] + +By the end of October campaigning was over for the year in the east, +and in the centre; but it was not so in the west, where +Brigadier-General Forbes was marching on Fort Duquesne. + +[Sidenote: _General Forbes._] + +Forbes was an older man than the other English commanders, who +achieved success in the war; and he seems to have been over sixty in +the year 1758.[38] He proved himself to be a man of great fortitude +and resolution, tactful in dealing with colonists or Indians, a +brave, sure, and careful soldier. His task was to give security to +the harried frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and to clear the +French out of the Ohio valley. With this end he had to collect and +equip a force, the large majority of whom were provincials; to get +money and men out of two colonies, which were very jealous alike of +the mother country and of {284} each other; to make choice between +two conflicting routes, and to detach the Ohio Indians as far as +possible from the French cause. + +[Footnote 38: For his age see Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. +iv, p. 192, note. He has been generally put down as a younger man.] + +[Sidenote: _Reasons why the expedition made slow progress._] + +A long time was taken over the preliminaries, and over the expedition +itself, the object of which was not attained until the end of +November; but the delays were not only the consequence of want of +transport, and of Forbes' own ill health, they were also the result +of design. The longer the English kept their enemies waiting to be +attacked, the fewer those enemies were likely to be; for the Indians, +and the militia of New France, did not love to keep the field for any +long time together. Moreover, as Forbes wrote to Pitt,[39] October +and November were the best hunting months for the Indians, which they +were therefore not willing to devote to war; while, on the other +hand, they were months when the leaves fell and left the backwoods +easier to reconnoitre and less easy for ambuscade. + +[Footnote 39: Letter of Forbes to Pitt, Oct. 20, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _Preparation for advance._] + +[Sidenote: _A new route taken._] + +Forbes came to Philadelphia in April; and through the early summer +months his force gradually assembled, and moved to the front. When +the numbers were complete, they amounted to over 6,000 men, in the +main southern colonists, but including a strong regiment of +Highlanders. The second in command was a good man for the work, +Bouquet, one of the Swiss officers of the Royal Americans. The +advanced base was formed at Raestown, now Bedford, in Pennsylvania, +distant about ninety miles from Fort Duquesne. It was some thirty +miles north-east of Fort Cumberland, from which Braddock had started +on his disastrous march; and a keen controversy arose as to whether +the old route should be followed, or a new road taken. Opening a road +to the Ohio meant, when the fighting was over, giving to the State, +within or near whose boundaries the road ran, control of the trade. +Virginia accordingly pressed for the old and more southerly route, +Pennsylvania for the northern line. In spite {285} of Washington's +arguments, the latter was chosen; it was shorter and more direct, and +on the whole presented fewer natural difficulties than the other. The +first forty miles led due west over the main Alleghany range and the +Laurel hills, to a place called Loyalhannon; and by the end of August +Bouquet had a road cut to this place, a depot established, and +preparations made for carrying on the track through fifty miles of +less difficult country to Fort Duquesne. + +[Sidenote: _An advance attack on Fort Duquesne repulsed with loss._] + +[Sidenote: _The Ohio Indians desert the French._] + +Every care was being taken by the commanders; but notwithstanding, +before the end came, there was in a smaller measure a repetition of +Braddock's reverse. In the middle of September, Major Grant, an +officer of the Highlanders, obtained permission from Bouquet to march +out from Loyalhannon with between 700 and 800 men,[40] for the +purpose of reconnoitring Fort Duquesne. He arrived at night time +close to the fort; intended a night attack, which miscarried; +repeated the attempt to attack on the following day, and having +broken up his force into small parties, was badly beaten and himself +taken prisoner. The total British casualties numbered about 280, the +survivors finding their way back to Bouquet at Loyalhannon. 'This was +a most terrible check to my small army,' wrote Forbes,[41] but the +reverse was more than counterbalanced shortly afterwards by a success +of a different kind. From the first Forbes had spared no pains to +secure the friendship of the Indians; and in October, in large +measure through the good offices of a Moravian missionary, a general +council was held, at which the tribes of the Ohio made their peace +with the English, deserting the French cause as rats leave a sinking +ship. + +[Footnote 40: Forbes' own dispatch mentions 900.] + +[Footnote 41: Forbes to Pitt, Raestown, Oct. 20, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _The final advance on Fort Duquesne._] + +[Sidenote: _The fort abandoned by the French and occupied by the +English._] + +It was November before Forbes joined Bouquet at Loyalhannon. He was +broken in body, but resolute to carry {286} through the expedition, +in spite of the lateness of the season. The road had been cut to +within easy reach of the French fort; and, on November 18, 2,500 men, +picked out of the force, advanced in three columns, carrying with +them only what was absolutely necessary in the way of supplies, and +their brave commander on a litter. At a day's march from Fort +Duquesne, it was reported that the fort had been evacuated and burnt; +and when the English reached it on the twenty-fifth, they found that +the news was true. Weakened by the desertion of the Indians, and by +having disbanded some of the militia, whom he could not feed, in want +of the provisions which Bradstreet had intercepted at Fort Frontenac, +the French commander, De Ligneris, saw no alternative but to blow up +the fort, and retreat more than a hundred miles up the Alleghany to +the junction of that river with French Creek, leaving the valley of +the Ohio in English hands, as events proved, for ever. + +[Sidenote: _Foundation of Pittsburg._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Forbes._] + +For the moment Forbes' chief care was to build at once on the site of +Fort Duquesne a temporary stockade, which could be held by a small +garrison through the winter. In the following year a permanent fort +was built. The name of Fort Duquesne was exchanged for that of Fort +Pitt, and the city of Pittsburg still recalls the statesman who +recovered for the British colonies the rich western lands which are +watered by the Ohio. 'I have used the freedom of giving your name to +Fort Duquesne,' wrote Forbes to Pitt two days after he had reached +the fort, 'as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by +your spirit that now makes us masters of the place.'[42] The honest +soldier, whom the English minister sent to do the work, and who did +it when the colonies concerned should have done it for themselves, +did not long survive his success. Patient and suffering, John Forbes +was carried back to Philadelphia, where he {287} died in the +following March, having shown a steadfast, single-minded devotion to +duty, rare even in the rich record of British soldiers. + +[Footnote 42: Forbes to Pitt, Pittsburg, Nov. 27, 1758.] + +[Sidenote: _Results of the campaign of 1758._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada receives little help from France._] + +With the English occupation of Fort Duquesne, the campaigning of 1758 +in North America came to an end. It been a long season, and for +England distinctly a successful though also to a certain extent a +disappointing one. 'I do not reckon that we have been fortunate this +year in America,' wrote Wolfe on December 1; 'our force was so +superior to the enemy's that we might hope for greater success.'[43] +He wrote in ignorance that Fort Duquesne had been taken, but, +notwithstanding, his view of the situation was the true one. At +Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac, Fort Duquesne, there had been great and +substantial successes. At Ticonderoga there had been a bad check; but +the French had made nothing of it afterwards. They were now on the +defensive and playing a losing game. Yet that more might and should +have been done by the English commanders with their great superiority +of numbers cannot be doubted. Had Wolfe been in Amherst's place, and +Lord Howe in Abercromby's, the year 1758 might well have been the +last year of French rule in North America. But the end was only +postponed for a short time, the resources of Canada in men and in +supplies were becoming insufficient to sustain the war: the country +was practically in a state of blockade; and Bougainville, who was +sent at the beginning of winter to France to plead the cause of +Canada, met with little success. A very few soldiers, some supplies, +and honours for the generals, were the result of his mission. France +was engrossed in the war in Europe, and not as many hundreds were +sent to North America as England sent thousands. Vaudreuil, in the +meantime, was intriguing against Montcalm, whose genius and +determination had prolonged the unequal {288} fight, and on whom, +with Levis and Bourlamaque, lay the heavy burden of defending a +ruined State, and checking, at this point and at that, the flowing +tide of English invasion. + +[Footnote 43: Wright, p. 464.] + + +NOTE.--For the above see, among modern books, + + KINGSFORD'S _History of Canada_, vols. iii and iv; + PARKMAN'S _Montcalm and Wolfe_; and + WRIGHT'S _Life of Wolfe_. + + + + +{289} + +CHAPTER X + +THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (_continued_) + + +When Wolfe reached England from Louisbourg in November, 1758, he +wrote to Pitt offering himself for further service in America, 'and +particularly in the river St. Lawrence, if any operations are to be +carried on there.'[1] Before Christmas, Pitt had appointed him to +command an expedition in the coming year against Quebec. + +[Footnote 1: Wolfe to Pitt, Nov. 22, 1758 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, +p. 464). There was some misunderstanding as to his return to England. +See the correspondence quoted by Mr. Kingsford in the note to vol. +iv, p. 155, of his _History_.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's early life and character._] + +Wolfe was born at Westerham, in Kent, on January 2, 1727, and was +therefore not thirty-three years old when he was killed at Quebec in +September, 1759. He was the son of a soldier, and received his first +commission before he was fifteen. He was present at Dettingen, and at +Culloden; and, subsequently to the latter battle, after an interval +of fighting in the Netherlands, where he distinguished himself at the +battle of Laffeldt, he was stationed for a considerable time in +Scotland. Service in the Highlands, it may be noted, in Jacobite +times, was not bad training for service in North America. In +September, 1757, after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, he took +part in the expedition against Rochefort, to the south of La +Rochelle, on the west coast of France--an enterprise as utterly +barren of results as was the Duke of Buckingham's venture against the +same area of coast when Charles I was King. Lord Howe and Wolfe {290} +were among the few who gained any credit from the expedition. In the +following year, Wolfe served at Louisbourg. + +Horace Walpole writes of him: 'Ambition, activity, industry, passion +for the service, were conspicuous in Wolfe. He seemed to breathe for +nothing but fame, and lost no moments in qualifying himself to +compass his object.'[2] These words are partly true, but do not tell +the whole truth. Wolfe was ambitious, active, and industrious, but he +cared for more than fame alone. His dramatic death in the hour of +victory, while he was still very young, makes it impossible to form +an adequate estimate of his real worth as a soldier; but all that is +known of him points to his having been, in spite of persistent ill +health, a great military genius, and a rare leader of men. He seems +to have resembled Nelson in his fighting qualities, and to have had +the same lovable nature, coupled with a higher standard of life. Like +Nelson, in warfare he always took the offensive if possible--took it, +as at Quebec, in spite of smaller numbers and a less favourable +position. 'An offensive, daring kind of war will awe the Indians and +ruin the French,' were his words to Amherst in a letter written after +the taking of Louisbourg.[3] + +[Footnote 2: Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_ (1847 +ed.), vol. iii, p. 171.] + +[Footnote 3: Louisbourg, Sept. 30, 1758 (Wright, p. 457).] + +Like Nelson, he loved his men, and his men loved him. According to +the old story, when the Duke of Newcastle told the King that Wolfe +was mad, the King expressed a wish that he would bite his other +generals. This was precisely what Wolfe did. He infected to some +extent those above him, to a great extent those under his command. He +was a man after Pitt's own heart; wherever he was, he made himself +felt, giving a living fire and force to the army. Coupled with this +vitality was a thorough knowledge of his profession, gained not only +on actual battlefields and {291} training-grounds, but also from +voluminous reading.[4] Nature gave him a hot temper and fearless +independence of spirit; he was in consequence impatient, and perhaps +unduly critical, of the mistakes of those above him; but he was the +soul of honour and chivalry, and his private life was marked by +tender love for his mother, stanch attachment to his friends, and +kindness to all dependent upon him, including dumb animals. In his +lifetime he enjoyed 'a large share of the friendship and almost the +universal goodwill of mankind.'[5] In a word, English history has +produced no truer type of hero than James Wolfe. + +[Footnote 4: In Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 342-5, is given a +letter of Wolfe's, dated July, 1756, recommending a long list of +books for a young soldier to read. Reference is made at the beginning +of the letter to a French book recently published (Turpin's _Essai +sur l'art de la guerre_), and it is interesting to find that Forbes, +in a letter to Pitt from Raestown, dated Oct. 20, 1758, stated that +in his march on Fort Duquesne he was acting on the principles laid +down in that book.] + +[Footnote 5: From the 'Character of General Wolfe' in the _Annual +Register_ for 1759, p. 282.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's brigadiers. Monckton. Murray. George Townshend. +Carleton. Howe. Admiral Saunders._] + +At the siege of Louisbourg, Wolfe was one of three brigadiers under +General Amherst. When he was given the command of the expedition +against Quebec, three brigadiers were placed under him--Monckton, +Townshend, and Murray. They were all of noble birth, and two of them +at any rate were good soldiers. Monckton, the senior of the three, +had shown his efficiency in Acadia, and at the siege of Louisbourg. +Murray proved his worth both before and after the capture of Quebec, +in a civil as well as in a military capacity. The least satisfactory +of the three was George Townshend, elder brother of the better known +Charles Townshend, not wanting in capacity, but deficient in loyalty +to his commander; a somewhat jealous and bitter-natured man, who had +the backing of political and aristocratic connexion. Horace Walpole +writes of him as a man 'whose proud and sullen and contemptuous +temper never suffered him to wait for thwarting his superiors till +risen to a level {292} with them. He saw everything in an ill-natured +and ridiculous light--a sure prevention of ever being seen himself in +a great or favourable one.'[6] The Quartermaster-General of the force +was Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, well known in Canadian +history, a great personal friend of Wolfe's, though out of favour +with the King. Howe, younger brother of the man whose untimely death +Wolfe so deeply lamented, commanded the light infantry, and led them +in the van of the force up the cliffs of Quebec. Lastly, an admirable +officer was in charge of the fleet, Saunders, who nineteen years +before had sailed round the world with Lord Anson in the _Centurion_. + +[Footnote 6: _Memoirs of the Reign of King George II_ (1847 ed.), +vol. iii, pp. 171, 172.] + +[Sidenote: _Small number of troops commanded by Wolfe._] + +[Sidenote: _Start of the expedition._] + +The troops, whom Wolfe and his officers commanded, were too few for +the difficult task with which they were entrusted. They were to have +numbered 12,000; as a matter of fact their total did not reach 9,000. +Some were in America already, but the large majority sailed from +England with Wolfe and Saunders, leaving England in the middle of +February, anchoring at Halifax at the end of April, moving on to +Louisbourg in May, when the ice was disappearing, and arriving in +front of Quebec towards the end of June--a small squadron, under +Admiral Durell, having already ascended the St. Lawrence in advance +of the main fleet. As they went up the river, 'the prevailing +sentimental toast amongst the officers' was 'British colours on every +French fort, port, and garrison in America.'[7] + +[Footnote 7: From Knox's _Historical Journal of the Campaigns in +North America_ (London, 1769), vol. i, p. 279.] + +[Sidenote: _General plan of campaign in North America._] + +The expedition against Quebec was only part of a general plan of +campaign. While Wolfe was operating in the St. Lawrence, it was +intended that Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief, with a larger army, +should move northward by way of Lake Champlain; and, reducing the +French forts at {293} Ticonderoga and Crown Point, make his way to +the St. Lawrence, in time to co-operate with Wolfe's force, or to +draw off a number of the defenders of Quebec for the protection of +Montreal. As events turned out, Amherst gave little support to Wolfe. +On the contrary, the main French army under Montcalm went to and +remained at Quebec; and Wolfe, with the smaller force and far the +more difficult enterprise to undertake, had to rely on his own +resources alone. Montcalm had probably gauged the respective merits +of Amherst and Wolfe. Had Amherst been in command of the Quebec +expedition, and Wolfe leading the central advance, it is reasonable +to suppose that the French general would have entrusted the defence +of Quebec to a smaller force, and with the bulk of his army would +have confronted the more dangerous English leader on the line of Lake +Champlain. + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's difficulties._] + +Amherst, however, it is fair to note, had, as Commander-in-Chief, to +direct his attention to other points as well as the direct northern +line of advance. When the spring opened, the forts on the Mohawk +river had been re-established, and Fort Duquesne was held by the +small garrison which Forbes had placed there. But Oswego was still +desolate, and the English had no post on Lake Ontario. The French +held a strong position at Niagara; they commanded the routes from the +lakes to Fort Duquesne; they could bring reinforcements of Canadians +and Indians from the west as well as up the St. Lawrence--if any +could be spared from this quarter. Forbes, the leader in the west, +was dead. Under these circumstances a cautious commander, though not +perhaps a brilliant one, might hesitate to invade central Canada +until some further security was attained on the western side. + +[Sidenote: _Prideaux sent against Niagara._] + +[Sidenote: _Haldimand attacked at Oswego: he beats off the French._] + +General Stanwix was accordingly sent to reinforce Fort Duquesne, and, +having made that position secure, to press forward, if possible, up +the Alleghany and French Creek rivers, in order to co-operate with +another force which, under General Prideaux, was ordered to ascend +the Mohawk river, {294} reoccupy Oswego, and from Oswego as the base +to attack Niagara. Prideaux concentrated his troops at Schenectady +towards the end of May, about 5,000 in number, including two +regiments of regulars. Sir William Johnson joined him with Indian +warriors from the Five Nations; and with him too, as second in +command, was Colonel Haldimand, like Bouquet a Swiss by birth, and +twenty years later Governor-General of Canada. Strengthening the +outposts on the line of communication as he advanced, Prideaux made +his way to Oswego, and, leaving Haldimand there to rebuild the fort, +started westwards on July 1 for Niagara, carrying his men in boats +along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Soon after he left, +Haldimand's force at Oswego was attacked by 1,000 Canadians and +Indians, who came up the St. Lawrence under the command of St. Luc de +la Corne; but, though taken by surprise, the garrison beat off their +assailants with little loss. + +[Sidenote: _Fort Niagara._] + +The French fort at Niagara was in good condition for defence. It +stood in the angle between the Niagara river and the lake, on what is +now the American side of the river; a road had been made past the +falls, and there were two outposts, one above and the other below the +falls. A competent French officer, Pouchot, was in command; his +garrison, when the English appeared, numbered 500 men more or less, +and he sent messages to bring up reinforcements from the forts on the +Ohio route--Presque Ile, Fort Leboeuf, and Machault or Venango--in +addition to Indians and Rangers from Detroit and the west, who were +already coming down to the aid of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Death of Prideaux._] + +[Sidenote: _Johnson takes command and defeats the French relief +force._] + +[Sidenote: _Surrender of Niagara._] + +On July 8 Prideaux summoned the fort to surrender, and, his summons +being rejected, began to invest the place. No great skill was shown +in the investment, and on July 20 the English general was +accidentally killed by the bursting of a shell from one of his own +guns. The command devolved on Johnson, who heard that a relief {295} +force was coming down Lake Erie--a force which numbered at least +1,200 men all told, and was led by some of the best border fighters +in Canada, including Ligneris, who had in the preceding year been in +charge of Fort Duquesne. Johnson marched out to intercept them on the +road between the fort and the falls, attacked them at once in front +and on the flank, and gained a complete victory. The French officers +were taken prisoners, their troops were utterly routed and broken up, +and the survivors retreated westward to Detroit, abandoning Lake Erie +and the whole of the Ohio country. It was on July 24 that the fight +took place, and on the following day Pouchot, having verified the +news of the French defeat, surrendered Niagara. One of the terms of +the surrender was that the prisoners should be protected from the +Indians by an English escort, the massacre at Fort William Henry +being evidently borne in mind; and on this condition six hundred +Frenchmen were sent to New York. + +[Sidenote: _Result of its fall._] + +Thus, for the second time, Sir William Johnson had rendered signal +service to the English cause; and with the fall of Niagara the French +lost all command of the lower lakes. Their only communication now +with Detroit and the far West was by the old route of the Ottawa +river, and their scheme of conquest in the lands of the Ohio was +wholly and for ever undone. 'The taking of Niagara broke off +effectually that communication, so much talked of and so much +dreaded, between Canada and Louisiana; and by this stroke one of the +capital political designs of the French, which gave occasion to the +present war, was defeated in its direct and immediate object.'[8] On +hearing of the success, Amherst sent up General Gage to replace +Prideaux, with orders to come down the St. Lawrence and join in the +combination against central Canada; but the force was small, Gage, +like Amherst, was cautious, and the summer passed {296} away without +any further success by the troops on Lake Ontario. + +[Footnote 8: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 34.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's advance._] + +[Sidenote: _The French abandon Ticonderoga and Crown Point._] + +While Prideaux and Johnson were operating against Niagara, Amherst +had begun his northward movement. He had carefully secured his +communications by fortified posts, and, before June ended, had +gathered a force of 11,000 men at the southern end of Lake George, +the scene of so many encampments and so much fighting. On July 21 he +embarked his troops, followed the line of Abercromby's advance in the +previous year, found the famous entrenchment, which had foiled +Abercromby's troops, deserted, but the fort itself still held. On the +evening of the twenty-sixth, however, deserters brought news that the +garrison was in retreat, and shortly afterwards a loud explosion told +its own tale. Ticonderoga had been abandoned and blown up. The French +commander opposed to Amherst was Bourlamaque, and his orders were to +fall back before the English to the outlet of Lake Champlain, where a +small island in the Richelieu river, the Ile aux Noix, could easily +be defended, blocking the enemy's advance on Montreal. He had a force +of over 3,000 men, the rearguard of which, consisting of 400 men, had +held Ticonderoga for two or three days, to cover the retreat of the +main force. On August 1, Crown Point was found to be abandoned also, +and the way north, down Lake Champlain, lay open to the invaders of +Canada. Amherst entered Crown Point on August 4, and on the following +day wrote to Pitt: 'I shall take fast hold of it, and not neglect at +the same time to forward every measure I can to enable me to pass +Lake Champlain.' + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's inaction._] + +Now was the time for the quick aggressive movement which Wolfe +practised and preached, but the Commander-in-Chief fell miserably +short of the occasion. August went by, and September, but Robert +Rogers and his Rangers, who harried the French Indians on the river +St. Francis {297} north-east of Lake Champlain, were the only +fighting members of Amherst's army. Time was spent in constructing a +new fort at Crown Point; in making a road eastward from Lake +Champlain, opposite Crown Point, to the Connecticut river; in +building vessels to overpower four little armed sloops, which +represented French naval enterprise on the lake. In the middle of +October Amherst embarked his troops to go north, met with wind and +storm, returned to Crown Point, and made all snug for the winter. +This was not the way to conquer Canada: the real work was done by +another man at another place. While the main English army loitered on +the shores of Lake Champlain, Wolfe had laid down his life in victory +on the Plains of Abraham. + +[Illustration: Map of Quebec] + +[Sidenote: _The harbour of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _The northern bank of the St. Lawrence._] + +By a Canadian Act of 1858, the harbour of Quebec, for the purposes of +the Act, is defined as extending from the Cap Rouge river, about +eight miles above Quebec, to the Montmorency, about the same distance +below the city. At Quebec, and for many miles above, the St. Lawrence +is a tidal river. Below Quebec the river flows due north-east, and is +divided into two channels by the island of Orleans, which also lies +due north-east and south-west, being twenty miles long with a maximum +breadth of six miles. The inland--the south-western--end of the +island points directly at the rock of Quebec, which runs out from the +northern shore of the St. Lawrence, facing straight down the river, +at four miles distance from the island. The two channels, looking up +stream, unite at the end of the island, and form a semicircular basin +just below Quebec, where the northern shore recedes. Immediately +above this basin the rock of Quebec on the north of the river, and +Point Levis on the southern mainland, jut out towards each other, +narrowing the St. Lawrence to a breadth of considerably less than a +mile. Above Quebec the upward course of the river is still south-west +by west. The northern bank is continuously steep, and at five to six +miles' distance from Quebec on this side is Sillery Cove. {298} +Between two and three miles further on, nearly due west, is Cap +Rouge. Over against Sillery the Chaudiere river flows in from the +south, forming in old days a possible route to the St. Lawrence for +those who followed up the course of the Kennebec from the coast of +Maine.[9] + +[Footnote 9: See above, p. 123.] + +Miles of river-side cliff culminate in the promontory on which Quebec +stands, and the south-western end of which is known as Cape Diamond. +From the river above the town, Quebec, if man combined with nature, +was almost inaccessible. Below, the eastern side of the city is girt +by the winding River St. Charles, beyond which are the meadows of +Beauport, with shoals in front and high ground behind; and, past the +little Beauport river, which is very roughly equidistant from the St. +Charles and the Montmorency, the northern bank of the St. Lawrence is +again more or less fringed with steep ground as far as, and beyond, +the falls, over which the Montmorency takes its way into the great +river. + +[Sidenote: _The strength of the French position._] + +Nature had given Quebec a position of unique strength; man had added +fortifications; and, when Wolfe came before it, 16,000 soldiers, +including French, Canadians, and Indians, were mustered for its +defence, under one of the most skilful generals of his day. There was +a garrison in Quebec itself; but the main army was encamped below the +city, and lined entrenchments from the St. Charles to the +Montmorency, Montcalm's head quarters being on the further side of +the Beauport river. To defeat an army nearly double the strength of +his own, and to take the citadel which, since the days of Kirke and +Champlain, had proved impregnable, was the hopeless task assigned to +Wolfe. It was a task which he accomplished. + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's troops superior in quality to Montcalm's._] + +[Sidenote: _Importance of commanding the river._] + +[Sidenote: _Co-operation of English army and navy._] + +Over and above his own leadership, he had two points in his favour. +His troops were better than those commanded by Montcalm. The majority +of Montcalm's men were Canadian militia, disinclined for long +continuous service, {299} which kept them away from their farms, and, +while excellent for raiding purposes or for fighting under cover, not +to be relied on if ever they should be brought face to face with +English regiments in the open field. Wolfe, moreover, gained complete +command of the river. Such ships as the French possessed had been +sent high up the St. Lawrence out of harm's way; and, though the guns +of Quebec commanded the river strait immediately below the rock, as +the siege went on some of the English vessels, and many boats, were +taken past the promontory, so that the St. Lawrence was securely held +both below and above the city. In war and in peace English sailors +and soldiers have known how to support each other. At the sieges of +Louisbourg the admirals co-operated in every possible way with the +leaders of the land forces, and equally hearty was the co-operation +of the two arms of the service before Quebec. Admiral Saunders, with +Durell and Holmes, did all that men could do to second Wolfe in his +difficult enterprise. + +[Sidenote: _The island of Orleans occupied._] + +[Sidenote: _Vaudreuil's fireships._] + +[Sidenote: _Point Levis occupied._] + +Piloted by Canadian prisoners or by their own determined seamen, the +British ships had threaded their way up the St. Lawrence, and on June +26 anchored on the southern side of the Isle of Orleans. That night a +party of Rangers landed on the island, meeting with some slight +opposition, and the next day the whole force disembarked and marched +across the island towards its westernmost point, the Point of +Orleans. There the city of Quebec came in full view, 'at once a +tempting and a discouraging sight.'[10] Hardly had the troops landed +when, on the same day, a heavy storm broke upon the English ships, +and drove some of the transports ashore; while, little more than +twenty-four hours later, a new danger threatened the fleet in the +form of fireships sent down from Quebec. This was a pet scheme of +Vaudreuil, but, like the author of the scheme, the ships did nothing +more than splutter and make a noise, scaring the {300} English +outpost at the Point of Orleans. Some stranded, others were towed +ashore by the English sailors--none of them reached the fleet which +they were intended to destroy. On the evening of the next day, the +twenty-ninth, part of Monckton's brigade was carried across the mile +and a half of water which separates the island of Orleans at its +westernmost point from the mainland on the southern shore; on the +thirtieth the rest of the brigade was landed, and occupied Point +Levis. Here batteries were erected under fire from Quebec; and, after +a futile, half-hearted attempt had been made to dislodge the English +by a party of Canadians, who crossed the river higher up on the night +of July 12, the guns opened fire on the city opposite, and began the +work--which went on for weeks--of knocking its buildings to pieces. + +[Footnote 10: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 35.] + +[Sidenote: _Landing effected on the northern shore below the +Montmorency._] + +[Sidenote: _Division of Wolfe's force._] + +[Sidenote: _The English ships gain the upper river._] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm on the defensive._] + +Before the batteries at Point Levis were complete, Wolfe had sent +troops across to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, lower down +the river, and occupied the heights on the eastern side of the +Montmorency river, which more or less commanded the extreme left of +the French line, where Levis was stationed. The movement was not +effected without some loss to the Rangers, who were ambushed by a +party of Indians. The latter had crossed the Montmorency by a ford +above the falls, but the ford was too securely guarded on the French +side to justify any attempt on the part of Wolfe's small force to +attack in this direction. It was the English general's plan to +reconnoitre and threaten every point in turn of the French position, +to divide the enemy's forces if possible, and if possible to induce +Montcalm to take the offensive. With this object, Wolfe ran great +risks. One part of his army was at Point Levis, another below the +Montmorency, a third small detachment held the Point of Orleans. On +July 18 his ships began to run the gauntlet of the Quebec batteries +and reach the upper river, while boats were dragged overland by Point +Levis to co-operate above the city. A still further division of the +attacking force {301} was then made, and Carleton was sent some +eighteen miles up stream to land and raid on the northern shore. But +though the movement drew off a certain number of French troops from +the Beauport lines to watch the enemy above Quebec, Montcalm +persisted in playing a waiting game, in making no attack, and running +no risk. His policy was no doubt a sound one. It is true that Quebec +was being riddled with shot and shell, that the farmers and villagers +in the country round were suffering, that the Canadians and Indians +were losing heart at the apparent inaction of their leaders, but time +and place were on the side of the French, and as the weeks went on +the wisdom of patient defence became more and more apparent. + +[Sidenote: _Frontal attack on the French lines by the Montmorency._] + +At the end of July, Wolfe determined to try to force the French +entrenchments where they abutted on the Montmorency river. The plan +involved a frontal attack on a very strong position, and it was only +possible to make the attempt when the tide was out. At low tide the +Montmorency could be forded below the falls, and the General proposed +to land Monckton's brigade on the shore of the St. Lawrence, above +the Montmorency, in face of the French lines, and to support it by +marching Townshend's and Murray's troops, who held the heights below +the Montmorency, across the ford at the mouth of the latter river. +The two forces converging were to carry an advanced French redoubt +which stood on the flat a little beyond high-water mark, and, if the +French still refused battle, to assault the heights beyond. + +[Sidenote: _The English repulsed with heavy loss._] + +Monckton's men, embarked mainly at Point Levis, were moved up and +down the river through the day, keeping the French in doubt as to +where the attack would be made. A ship of war was anchored in a +position to cover the ford of the Montmorency, while two large +flat-bottomed boats carrying guns, or, as Knox called them, 'two +armed transport cats (catamarans) drawing little water,'[11] were +taken in {302} close to shore, and left to be stranded as the tide +went out. Towards evening the water was low, the guns opened fire, +and, after some delay in finding a landing-place, the men began to +disembark on the muddy edge of the river. The Grenadiers, with some +of the Royal Americans, who were first landed, rushed forward and +seized the redoubt, which the French abandoned. They then hurried on, +without waiting for the main body of troops, to attack the higher +ground behind. This premature movement ruined the enterprise. +Advancing without order or formation up slippery slopes, in a storm +of rain, under heavy fire, the Grenadiers were hurled back to the +redoubt with a loss of over 400 men, and were brought off by Wolfe, +who saw the uselessness of repeating the attack in the deepening +shades of evening. Some of the troops were re-embarked, the others +retreated in good order across the ford, and the day ended in +failure, though the bulk of the English army had taken no part in the +fight. In his General Order on the following day Wolfe commented +severely, and with reason, upon the 'impetuous, irregular, and +unsoldierlike proceedings' of the Grenadiers, reminding them that +'the Grenadiers could not suppose that they alone could beat the +French army.'[12] The blame for the disaster rested solely with the +soldiers of the advanced party, who, in eagerness to attack, lost all +order and discipline; but the effect was much the same as though the +leaders had blundered. The small English army had lost a number of +men, who could ill be spared; the defenders of Quebec gained heart, +their enemies were correspondingly dispirited. + +[Footnote 11: Knox, vol. i, p. 354.] + +[Footnote 12: Knox, vol. ii, p. 1.] + +[Sidenote: _Operations on the upper river._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis sent to Montreal to oppose Amherst._] + +Wolfe still held his ground below the Montmorency, but moved more of +his men than before above Quebec. Here Murray was placed in command, +with Admiral Holmes in charge of the ships and boats. Bougainville, +with 1,500 men, was detached by Montcalm to watch the enemy's {303} +movements and to guard the northern shore; but, on both sides of the +river, both above and below the town, the English spread havoc and +destroyed supplies. The waterway being blocked by Holmes' vessels and +the country round Quebec being desolated, Montcalm's army could only +be fed by a toilsome overland transport of many miles, until the +means of transport failed, when provisions were again sent down the +river, running the blockade usually under cover of night. Meanwhile, +early in August, the French had learnt of the fall of Niagara and the +abandonment of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and to meet Amherst's +expected advance Levis was sent up to Montreal with 800 men. In this +respect, and in no other, Amherst's operations helped Wolfe. As +events turned out, it was of incalculable importance to the English +that, when the battle of Quebec took place, Montcalm's able +lieutenant was not on the field. + +[Sidenote: _Critical position of Wolfe._] + +[Sidenote: _His illness._] + +[Sidenote: _His brigadiers recommend an attempt above the city._] + +The position of the French was critical, but that of the English was +more critical still. The summer was waning. The English troops were +dwindling in numbers from casualties and disease. Worst of all, when +the middle of August was past, worn in mind and body, Wolfe was laid +low with fever in the camp at Montmorency. On his life, as the +soldiers who loved him knew, hung all the hopes of the expedition. +While recovering, but still unable to move, he submitted to his +brigadiers three alternative plans for attacking Montcalm's lines. +They met on August 29, and, rejecting all three proposals, counselled +an attempt above the city. 'We are of opinion,' they wrote, 'that the +most probable method of striking an effectual blow is to bring the +troops to the south shore, and to carry the operations above the +town. If we can establish ourselves on the north shore, the Marquis +de Montcalm must fight us on our own terms. We are between him and +his provisions, and between him and the army opposing General +Amherst.'[13] Their {304} advice, which was unanimous, was taken +without demur, and Wolfe proceeded with the desperate task of putting +it into execution. + +[Footnote 13: Wright, p. 545.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's despondency._] + +That he had little hope of success is shown by the tone of his +correspondence. In his last dispatch to Pitt, dated September 2, he +wrote, 'there is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at +a loss how to determine.'[14] To Admiral Saunders, two or three days +before, he had written of himself as 'a man that must necessarily be +ruined';[14] and in his last letter to his mother, written on August +31, he spoke of being determined to leave the service at the earliest +opportunity.[14] Townshend, meanwhile, in private, criticized him +much as Wolfe himself had criticized his superior officers the year +before. 'General Wolfe's health,' he wrote to his wife, 'is but very +bad: his generalship, in my poor opinion, is not a bit better.'[15] +Yet, sick and despondent as he was, Wolfe did not lie down in the +furrow. For past failures he blamed no one but himself; manfully he +faced the future in all its gloom; and, if Townshend felt little +confidence in his leading, the soldiers knew better; and he led them +to victory. + +[Footnote 14: Wright, pp. 548, 549, 553.] + +[Footnote 15: From the _Townshend Papers_. The letter is quoted in +full by Kingsford in his _History of Canada_, vol. iv, p. 226, note.] + +[Sidenote: _Disposition of Wolfe's army at the end of August._] + +At the end of August, the following was the disposition of the +English forces. Murray, with Admiral Holmes, was operating above the +city; Monckton was at Point Levis, and near him Admiral Saunders, +with the main English fleet, was anchored in the basin of Quebec. +Wolfe himself, with Townshend, was still encamped on the northern +shore below the Montmorency; and Admiral Durell, with the rearguard +of the fleet, was watching the river below. Amherst's successes were +known to Wolfe and his colleagues, but they soon learnt also that no +help could be expected from him. September was on them, and at the +end of September, or at {305} latest by the middle of October, the +campaign would close. Whatever had to be done must be done quickly. + +[Sidenote: _The camp at the Montmorency broken up, and the troops +moved up the river._] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm deceived._] + +On September 3 the English camp by the Montmorency was broken up, and +the troops were moved to the Point of Orleans and Point Levis. On the +fifth, Murray's troops, which had returned to Point Levis, were +marched up the southern shore and embarked on Holmes' vessels; they +were followed by battalions of Monckton's and Townshend's brigades; +and by September 7 nearly 4,000 troops, with the necessary supplies, +were moving up and down the river above Quebec, menacing a landing at +this point or at that, wearying Bougainville's force, now raised to +3,000 men, which, with its head quarters at Cap Rouge, was required +to keep pace with the enemy's fleet, and to guard the heights on the +northern bank of the St. Lawrence. Montcalm knew that the English +force above Quebec had been strengthened; but he seems not to have +known the full extent of Wolfe's preparations. English forces at +Point Levis and on the island of Orleans still faced the Beauport +lines, while Saunders' fleet lay directly off Quebec. The French +general regarded Wolfe's movements on the upper river as feints; the +main attack, if attack there should be, he expected below the town. + +[Sidenote: _Preparation for the final attack._] + +There was bad weather on September 7 and 8, and Wolfe landed a large +proportion of his men from the crowded transports high up on the +southern shore. Early on the twelfth they were put on board again, +and orders were issued for the coming night. Two days' provisions +each soldier took with him; and in the General Order, the last which +Wolfe issued, officers and men alike were bid to 'remember what their +country expects from them.' It was a signal such as Nelson gave at +the battle of Trafalgar. + +[Sidenote: _The landing-place selected._] + +On September 10, looking through his telescope from the southern +shore across the river, Wolfe had noted a path running up the +opposite bank from a little cove rather more {306} than a mile and a +half higher up the river than the citadel of Quebec. The place was +known as the Anse au Foulon, and now bears the name of Wolfe's Cove. +The bank is between 200 and 300 feet high, and at the top were to be +seen the tents of a French outpost. Here he determined to attempt a +landing. On the night of the twelfth the troops, whom he had on +board, were to drop down the river with the ebbing tide, half going +on in boats, the rest following in the transports, while another +smaller force, left under Colonel Burton at Point Levis, was to move +up the southern shore, to be ferried across in support of the attack. +Saunders, meanwhile, as night came on, was to threaten the Beauport +lines. + +[Sidenote: _Fortune favours Wolfe._] + +Fortune had hitherto been unkind to Wolfe; now all went well. The +many chances which a night attack involves, when the crisis came, all +favoured the English. Their boats, as they came down stream, were +taken by the sentries for French provision boats, which had been +expected. Bougainville, who, before night fell and before the tide +turned, had seen the ships drift up stream instead of down, was +completely misled. Montcalm looked for danger from the fleet in front +of him, and knew not what the tide was bringing down. + +[Sidenote: _The descent of the river._] + +[Sidenote: _The landing._] + +[Sidenote: _French picket surprised._] + +[Sidenote: _The heights gained and line of battle formed._] + +It was about two o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth when the +boats cast off from the ships, and took their way down stream. Howe +led with twenty-four men of the light infantry, who had volunteered +for the first ascent. Close behind was Wolfe himself; and it has been +told in many books, how, as the stream bore him on in darkness to +glory and the grave, he repeated the well-known lines of Gray's +Elegy.[16] The leading boat was carried a little below the spot where +the path runs down to the shore. About four o'clock in the morning, +an hour before daybreak, the men scrambled up the side of the wooded +cliff, and surprised the French picket at the top. Its commander, +Vergor, who had surrendered {307} Fort Beausejour in Acadia, was +wounded when trying to escape, and taken prisoner. The way being +clear, the rest of the troops followed. The boats, having discharged +their first cargo, brought off the remainder of the force from the +transports, and carried over Burton's men from the opposite bank. +About six o'clock, the daylight of a cloudy morning showed the whole +army at the top of the cliffs; and, moving forward towards Quebec, +Wolfe formed his line of battle within a mile of the city, on the +part of the plateau known as the Plains of Abraham. + +[Footnote 16: Gray's _Elegy written in a Country Churchyard_ was +first published in 1751.] + +Between four and five thousand men had been landed; but some were +kept in reserve, or left to guard the landing, and less than 4,000 +men formed the fighting line. Monckton's brigade on the right abutted +on the edge of the cliffs. Murray held the centre with three +regiments, the 47th, the 58th, and the 78th Highlanders.[17] +Townshend was posted on the left. The left could be turned, for the +force was too small to extend across the plain; and therefore, while +the rest of the troops faced Quebec, Townshend's men, drawn up at +right angles to their comrades, fronted the high ground known as the +Cote St. Genevieve, which overlooks the river St. Charles above the +city. Howe's light infantry covered the rear. One gun[18] had been +dragged up the cliff; but, when the fight began, the English had no +other artillery. The French in this respect were in not much better +case, {308} for they hurried to the battlefield with few big guns to +back them. The fight was one of infantry alone. + +[Footnote 17: The 78th Highlanders, who fought with Wolfe, were not +the ancestors of the present regiment of that number. The regiments +of the present day who carry Quebec on their colours are the 15th +(1st battalion East Yorkshire Regiment), the 28th (1st battalion +Gloucestershire Regiment), the 35th (1st battalion Royal Sussex), the +43rd (1st battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry), the 47th (1st +battalion Loyal North Lancashire), the 48th (1st battalion +Northamptonshire Regiment), the 58th (2nd battalion Northamptonshire +Regiment), and the 60th Rifles (two battalions).] + +[Footnote 18: Townshend's dispatch of Sept. 20 says distinctly 'we +had been able to bring up but one gun.' Knox, on the other hand, +says, 'About eight o'clock we had two pieces of short brass +six-pounders playing on the enemy' (Knox, vol. ii, pp. 70, 128).] + +[Sidenote: _Montcalm hurries to give battle._] + +Saunders' pretence at landing on the Beauport shore had kept +Montcalm's army on the alert all the night. At six in the morning, +riding towards Quebec, the French general learnt that the English had +landed, and saw in the distance the enemy's lines. He brought his +troops from Beauport with what speed he could; crossed the St. +Charles; passed by or through the city; and marshalled his force +beyond for instant fight. He had with him, it would seem, not more +than 5,000 men. The garrison of Quebec remained within the walls, and +a large proportion of the army did not leave their encampment, for +the further lines by the Montmorency were some miles distant, and the +shore had still to be protected. He might have waited to bring up +more troops, and to give time to Bougainville to operate in the +enemy's rear; but his communications were threatened, his supplies +were short, Wolfe, if given breathing space, could throw up +entrenchments, and with his command of the river, make his position +absolutely safe. The one hope was to hurl him back over the cliffs, +while yet his foothold was insecure; and to strike before the ardour +of the Canadians and Indians had time to cool. + +[Sidenote: _The battle of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Defeat of the French._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Wolfe._] + +Between nine and ten o'clock the French were in battle array, and +advanced over a little ridge which lay between Wolfe's army and +Quebec. Wolfe's soldiers had had two hours' rest, and steadily moved +forward, reserving their fire by the General's orders. At forty +yards' distance the word of command was given; and two volleys of +musketry decided the battle. The fire came from the whole English +line, the French fell like corn under the reaper's scythe, a charge +with bayonets and claymores followed, 'the Highlanders chased them +vigorously towards Charles river, and the 58th to the suburb close to +John's Gate.'[19] Montcalm's army {309} became a routed rabble. +Stricken already earlier in the fight, Wolfe on the right, while +preparing to lead the final charge, received his death wound. He was +carried to the rear; heard, while still conscious, that the enemy +were in flight; turned on his side, thanked God, and died in peace. + +[Footnote 19: Knox, vol. ii, p. 71.] + +[Sidenote: _Death of Montcalm._] + +[Sidenote: _Monckton wounded._] + +[Sidenote: _Townshend in command._] + +It was all over before noon. The English casualties numbered between +six and seven hundred, the French lost double that number, and they +too were bereft of their leader. As Montcalm retreated towards Quebec +with his flying troops, he was shot through the body. He reached a +house in the city, lingered for some hours, and, before the following +day broke, like Wolfe he had gone to his rest. 'It was a very +singular affair,' was Horace Walpole's cold-blooded comment; 'the +generals on both sides slain, the second in command wounded; in +short, very near what battles should be, in which only the principals +ought to suffer.'[20] The French lost not only Montcalm, but also the +officer next in rank on the field. On the English side, Monckton, who +would have succeeded Wolfe, was severely wounded, though he was able, +on the fifteenth, to sign a short and simple dispatch, reporting the +'very signal victory'; and the command devolved on Townshend. +Threatened by Bougainville, who came up too late from behind with +2,000 men, and retreated again, Townshend recalled his troops and +entrenched them; cannon and supplies were brought up from the river, +and communication with the ships was made safe. + +[Footnote 20: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 258 (Letter +of Oct. 19, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _Disorderly retreat of the French._] + +Behind the St. Charles the French were all in confusion. Vaudreuil +called a council of war, and determined on an immediate retreat, +abandoning all the lines which Montcalm had held so long and so well, +and leaving the garrison of Quebec to surrender, as soon as +provisions failed. The retreat began that same night with no +semblance of order; and, circling inland past the English lines, the +fugitives made {310} their way towards Montreal, hurrying in panic +far beyond Cap Rouge, where Bougainville was still stationed, to +Jacques Cartier, thirty miles distant from Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Siege of Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis rallies the French too late._] + +[Sidenote: _The city surrenders._] + +With Wolfe and Montcalm expired the genius of either army. It was +characteristic of Wolfe that, while dying, he sent an order to cut +off the French retreat; but in the interval between the battle on the +thirteenth and the capitulation of Quebec on the eighteenth, we do +not read that any attempt was made to intercept the French, nor did +Saunders land men to occupy the deserted Beauport lines. Townshend +steadily made his trenches and besieged in form; while the French +commandant of Quebec, Ramesay, with a weak garrison, and little or no +food, was urged by his own people to capitulate. He had orders from +Vaudreuil to surrender in due time, and, though counter messages +came, they came too late. Too late Levis at Montreal had heard of the +disaster; hurrying back, he turned the beaten troops at Jacques +Cartier; he started with them on the eighteenth to save Quebec; but +on that very morning Quebec was given up. The afternoon before, an +assault on the town was threatened above, while a landing from the +river was threatened below. Distrusting the promises of relief, +Ramesay yielded to the pressure put on him by soldiers and civilians +alike; at eight o'clock, on the morning of the eighteenth, the terms +of surrender were signed; and that same day advanced parties of the +English army held the gates of Quebec. + +[Sidenote: _Murray left in charge._] + +[Sidenote: _Saunders sails for home,_] + +The English commanders debated whether or not they could hold the +city through the coming winter, and determined at all hazards to do +so. Murray was placed in command with a garrison of about 7,000 men; +a month passed in repairing the fortifications, in landing and +storing supplies; and on October 18, Admiral Saunders, with the first +portion of the fleet, set sail for England. As he neared home, at the +entrance of the Channel, he learnt that Hawke was about to engage a +French fleet from Brest. He sailed {311} off to join him 'without +landing his glory,'[21] but came too late, for Hawke had already +fought his fight and won his victory in Quiberon Bay. Saunders had +deserved well of his country, for without his active, untiring +support the land forces would never have taken Quebec. He outlived +Wolfe for sixteen years, and was privately buried in Westminster +Abbey in December, 1775. + +[Footnote 21: Letter from Horace Walpole dated 'November 30th, of the +great year' (1759), vol. iii, p. 268.] + +[Sidenote: _and Townshend._] + +Townshend, too, went home, his enemies said, to exaggerate his own +merits and belittle Wolfe's memory. An anonymous letter to 'an +honourable brigadier-general,' attributed to Junius among others,[22] +appeared in the following year, and attacked him with bitterness, +some of which he probably deserved. He passed into political life, +and as Viceroy of Ireland achieved a doubtful repute. + +[Footnote 22: See the _Grenville Papers_, 1852, 3rd ed. Introductory +notes relating to Lord Temple and the authorship of Junius at the +beginning of vol. iii, pp. lxxxviii-xc.] + +[Sidenote: _Wolfe's body brought to England._] + +Wolfe's body was brought to England, and buried where his father had +been laid earlier in the year, in the vaults of Greenwich parish +church. A monument to him, voted by Parliament, stands in Westminster +Abbey, and his name lives, and will for ever live, in the hearts of +men. + +[Sidenote: _Cotton's letters to Grenville._] + +The news of his victory and death, and of the fall of Quebec, reached +England on October 17. It came but two or three days after his latest +dispatches, which gave little hope of success. There are two +interesting letters among the _Grenville Papers_, written to +Grenville by the Rev. Nathaniel Cotton, from on board the _Princess +Amelia_ at Ile Madame in the St. Lawrence. The first is dated August +27 to September 6; the second bears the date of September 20. The +first, repeating former letters, is not hopeful. It points out the +insufficiency of Wolfe's force, the necessity of co-operation on the +part of Amherst; and it refers to 'unrevealed causes' militating +against the enterprise, {312} which may be taken to mean want of +harmony between Wolfe and Townshend. The later letter begins with the +following words: 'I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that +through the smiles of Providence we are in safe and quiet possession +of Quebec.'[23] + +[Footnote 23: _Grenville Papers_, vol. i, pp. 318-26.] + +[Sidenote: _Reception of the news in England._] + +Very dramatic was the revulsion of feeling in England, when all was +known. No submarine cables then told the story of the war from day to +day. Only a few dispatches and letters at long intervals were brought +over the Atlantic, recording at first slow progress, then reverse, +disappointment, and the General's sickness and despondency. The rock +of Quebec seemed still impregnable; and, as the bright summer waned +into autumn, public confidence gave place to gloom. Then in +mid-October, when to North American lands the Indian summer gives a +second brightness, tidings came from over the sea that the victory +was won, and that the price paid for it was the life of Wolfe. There +followed, as Burke well said, a 'mourning triumph.'[24] Joy was +sobered by the sense of loss, and the picture of a desolate home +appealed, as it always appeals, to Englishmen's minds. They thought +of the mother, lately widowed, now childless, whose sickly son had +been her joy and pride; and many, we may not doubt, thought also of +the French home, whose master had gone out and came not again. + +[Footnote 24: _Annual Register_ for 1759, p. 43.] + +[Sidenote: _Was Wolfe's attack a great military feat?_] + +The question naturally suggests itself, whether Wolfe's landing and +attack was a desperate venture, justified only by success, the last +throw of the dice by a man who had described himself as one who must +necessarily be ruined; or whether it was the supreme effort of a +military genius? It is impossible to study the story without coming +to the conclusion that the second is the true view. No doubt fortune +favoured him; no doubt the enterprise was full of risk; but from +first to last as little as possible was left to {313} chance, and +from first to last a master mind made itself felt. The main point to +remember is that he had secured absolute command of the river; +wherever therefore he landed, on high ground not commanded by the +enemy's guns, if for a few hours only he could make good his landing, +his way of retreat was absolutely safe. Montcalm knew this, and hence +his immediate attack. Then we have the movements which baffled +Montcalm and Bougainville alike; we have time and place calculated to +a nicety, every commander and every man told what to do and doing it, +the landing effected by break of day, the battlefield carefully +selected, the men duly rested, the battle line cautiously and safely +formed, the respective merits of the two forces accurately +gauged--the one, in Wolfe's own words, a small number of good +soldiers, the other 'a numerous body of armed men (I cannot call it +an army).'[25] There was no rush or hurry about the landing, the +advance, or the fight. The soldiers kept their fire till told to use +it: they charged when and not until their leader bade them. The whole +was a thought-out feat of steady daring. + +[Footnote 25: Wolfe to his mother, Aug. 31, and to Lord Holderness, +Sept. 9 (Wright's _Life of Wolfe_, pp. 553, 563).] + +[Sidenote: _If Wolfe had not succeeded._] + +Another question which is worth considering is: What would have been +the result if Wolfe had not succeeded, if Quebec had not been taken, +and the English fleet had sailed off down the St. Lawrence, either +carrying the army home, or leaving it, as at one time during the +siege had been contemplated, to go into winter quarters at the Ile +aux Coudres lower down the river? A failure would have been recorded, +and Wolfe above all others would have so regarded it; but, +notwithstanding, the expedition would not have been in vain. Quebec +would have been left in ruins, the banks of the St. Lawrence, with +emptied farms and homesteads, would have been a scene of desolation; +though Montcalm would have lived to fight again, Canada in all human +probability {314} must have fallen. For Canada was being starved out; +and, if the French Government a year before could spare but few +troops and supplies for New France, much less were the necessary +troops and supplies likely to be forthcoming after another year of +exhausting war on the Continent. On December 16, Amherst wrote to +Pitt from New York: 'From the present posts His Majesty's army is now +in possession of, if no stroke was to be made, Canada must fall or +the inhabitants starve.' He wrote with information given him by one +of his officers, Major Grant, who had been a prisoner in Canada. +Grant's words were: ''Tis believed that the colony, though in great +distress, may subsist for a year, without receiving supplies from +France'; but it could only subsist by using up all the live stock in +the land. The English command of the water was killing Canada, the +farmers and peasantry were sickening of the war; though Amherst wrote +after the fall of Quebec, the saving of Quebec would in no way have +fed Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Results of his success on the future history of Canada._] + +Unless, then, some great reversal of existing conditions had taken +place, or unless peace had been declared, Canada would have been +conquered, even if Wolfe had not triumphed and Quebec had not fallen +in September, 1759. But widely different would have been the result +on after history, and herein lies the true lesson to be drawn from +the record of the siege and capture of Quebec, and of the death of +Wolfe and Montcalm. It is the most conclusive answer, if answer were +needed, to those--fifty years ago they were many--who ignore or +minimize the effect of sentiment on the making and the preserving of +nations. The noble picturesqueness of the story, its accompaniments +of heroism and death, were of untold value in the work of +reconciliation; and of untold value was the legacy to a yet unformed +people of one of the great landmarks in history. In a sense, which it +is easier to feel than to express, two rival races, under two rival +leaders, unconsciously joined hands on the Plains of Abraham. The +{315} noise of war seemed to be stilled, the bitterness of competing +races and creeds to be allayed, by sharing in an episode which +appealed to all time and to all mankind. The dramatic ending of the +old order blessed the birth of the new; the instinct of human pathos +brought men together; and out of divergent elements made a nation. +Born far away in different lands, in death Wolfe and Montcalm were +not divided; and the soil on which they died has become the sacred +heritage of a people, whose union is stronger than the divisions of +religion, language, and race. + +[Sidenote: _Successes of England in 1759._] + +In the _Annual Register_ for 1759,[26] summing up the results of the +year to Great Britain, Burke wrote: 'In no one year since she was a +nation, has she been favoured with so many successes, both by sea and +land, and in every quarter of the globe.' It was a bright year for +England in every sense of the word. The sun had shone upon her soil +and upon her arms. In America, in India, at Minden, at Quiberon, she +had triumphed. 'I call it this ever warm and victorious year,' wrote +Walpole on October 21, 'we have not had more conquest than fine +weather. One would think we had plundered East and West Indies of +sunshine.'[27] + +[Footnote 26: p. 56.] + +[Footnote 27: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, p. 259 (Letter +of Oct. 21, 1759).] + +[Sidenote: _The winter at Quebec._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis' plans for recovering the city._] + +The winter which followed was a trying one for the garrison at +Quebec. They held the battered town, amid constant rumours of attack, +ill provided with warm clothing, with scanty supplies of firewood, +suffering much from sickness, and, as Knox tells us, in arrears of +pay, 'from which they might derive many comforts and refreshments +under their present exigencies.'[28] Outposts were established at +Point Levis, Sainte Foy, Lorette, and Cap Rouge; and here and there +skirmishes took place with parties of the enemy. Levis was at +Montreal, bent upon recovering Quebec. When the English fleet had +left, he sent messages to France to ask that {316} provisions might +be sent as early as possible in the coming year, with ships of war, +timed to arrive in the St. Lawrence before the English should return, +and numerous enough to hold the river for France. Meanwhile, he +debated whether or not to attack Quebec in mid-winter, and attempt to +carry it by a _coup de main_; but eventually determined to await the +coming of spring and the opening of the waters. Thus the anxious +winter passed, and the middle of April came. Attack became imminent, +and Murray knew it. He ordered the French residents to leave Quebec, +called in his outposts, and with a force sadly reduced by sickness +awaited Levis' army. + +[Footnote 28: vol. ii, p. 241.] + +[Sidenote: _His advance in the spring of 1760._] + +At the end of October the effective strength of the garrison had been +7,313. On March 1 the number of fighting men, owing to scurvy and +other diseases, was reduced to 4,800;[29] and, though April, with its +milder weather, saw the beginning of recovery, the English force was +greatly outmatched by the enemy, for Levis had with him, all told, at +least 10,000 men.[30] About April 20, the French advance from +Montreal began. The troops were brought down the river in ships and +boats, and, landing some thirty miles above Quebec, crossed the Cap +Rouge river and marched on to Lorette and Sainte Foy. + +[Footnote 29: Knox, vol. ii, p. 267.] + +[Footnote 30: Knox gives the French numbers as 15,000, against 3,140 +English (p. 295).] + +[Sidenote: _The battle of Sainte Foy, and defeat of the English._] + +On April 27, Murray offered battle at Sainte Foy; but the French made +no move, and he fell back to Quebec, leaving Levis to occupy Sainte +Foy that same night. Before seven o'clock on the next morning he +marched out again, bent on fighting, if possible, before Levis had +secured his position, and anxious not to be cooped up behind the +fortifications of Quebec, too weak to withstand a vigorous +bombardment. The English force numbered 3,140 men, with eighteen +pieces of cannon; and, as the men carried entrenching tools, it {317} +would seem that Murray contemplated throwing up lines outside the +city. The battle took place on the same plateau where Wolfe and +Montcalm had fought; it lasted about the same time, for two hours; +but the result was widely different. Seeing the French still on the +march, and not yet in battle order, Murray ordered an immediate +attack. His artillery did good execution, and, on the right and left +wings, the light infantry and the Rangers respectively won an initial +success. But the tide soon turned. On the right the advancing English +were drawn into swampy ground; on the left they came under fire from +French troops covered by the woods. Outnumbered and outflanked, the +whole force was compelled to retreat into Quebec, having lost their +guns and 1,100 men. The French losses appear to have been heavier, +numbering according to some accounts from 1,800 to 2,000 men. + +[Sidenote: _Critical position of Murray._] + +[Sidenote: _Levis loses his opportunity._] + +Murray's position was now exceedingly critical. Two days after the +battle no more than 2,100 soldiers were returned as fit for duty; but +the General and his men were fully determined not to lose Quebec. On +May 1 he sent off a frigate to Louisbourg and Halifax to hasten +relief; and, day and night alike, officers and men worked with common +spirit, strengthening the defences, and mounting the guns. The French +lost their opportunity. Had they attacked the town at once, before +the garrison had recovered from the effects of the defeat, 'Quebec +would,' in Captain Knox's opinion, 'have reverted to its old +masters';[31] and the leisurely nature of Levis' operations seems to +bear out the view, to which French prisoners gave currency, that he +had only intended to invest the town, and wait the arrival of a +French fleet. + +[Footnote 31: p. 301.] + +[Sidenote: _Relief of Quebec._] + +He landed his stores and munitions at the Anse au Foulon, Wolfe's +landing-place, and gradually pushed forward his lines, while the +English position in front of him steadily {318} grew stronger, and in +the besieged garrison confidence took the place of despondency. A +storm on the river, it was reported in the city, cost the French +guns, provisions, and ammunition. Bourlamaque, who, as an engineer by +training, was placed in charge of the siege, was wounded; and when, +on the forenoon of May 9, a strange ship sailed up the river into the +basin of Quebec, and hoisted the English colours, little doubt could +be left that any attempt to regain the city would be in vain. The +ship in question was the _Lowestoft_ frigate, and she brought 'the +agreeable intelligence of a British fleet being masters of the St. +Lawrence, and nigh at hand to sustain us.'[32] The news, in Captain +Knox's words, was as grateful as when the garrison of Vienna, hard +pressed by the Turks, beheld Sobieski's army marching to their +relief. + +[Footnote 32: Knox, vol. ii, p. 310.] + +[Sidenote: _Retreat of Levis._] + +But one swallow does not make a summer, and some days passed before +any other British ships appeared. On May 11 the French batteries +opened, answered by 150 guns from Quebec: and bombardment went on +without much damage, until, on the evening of the fifteenth, the +_Vanguard_ ship of war and the _Diana_ frigate anchored before +Quebec. The next morning the British ships passed up the river at +flood tide, and attacked a small French squadron above the city. The +French commander, Vauquelin, made a brave fight, but his few little +vessels were nearly all destroyed. On that night and on the +seventeenth, the French were in full retreat with the English at +their heels. Guns, scaling ladders, baggage, ammunition, sick and +wounded, were left behind. The siege of Quebec was raised, the +English, after the disastrous battle of April 28, not having lost +more than thirty men; and Murray, by his brave and able defence, made +more than amends for his previous reverse. + +[Sidenote: _Reception in England of the news of Murray's defeat and +subsequent relief._] + +In England the news of his defeat, followed after a short interval by +the news of his relief, resulted in a curious reproduction of the +excitement of the previous year. In a letter {319} dated June 19, +1760, Mr. Jenkinson in London wrote to Grenville, 'We all here blame +Mr. Murray, and are not at all satisfied with the reasons he assigns +for leaving the town to attack the enemy ... As it is, however, I +understand that there are no expectations that it (Quebec) can be +saved, and indeed I am told that Murray himself gives little reason +to hope it. The relief from Amherst is certainly impossible, and I do +not think that he has ever shown activity enough to make one hope +that he would make an attempt vigorous enough, even if there was a +mere chance of success.'[33] On the following ninth of July, we have +in the same _Grenville Papers_ a letter from the Duke of Newcastle to +Lord Temple, referring to 'the great and almost unexpected event of +recovering Quebec and turning the loss entirely upon the French.'[33] +Similarly Horace Walpole, on hearing the bad news, wrote: 'We are on +a sudden reading our book backwards.' The good news came, and he +chronicled it with 'Quebec is come to life again.'[34] Many cold and +hot fits had been the result of news from North America since the +year 1755; but, with the failure of Levis to retake Quebec, English +anxiety as to the issue of the strife was finally dispelled. What was +left was work for which Amherst was eminently suited, steady crushing +out of the remains of resistance, slow and certain invasion, where no +brilliant effort was needed or required. + +[Footnote 33: _Grenville Papers_, vol. i, pp. 343-5.] + +[Footnote 34: _Letters of Horace Walpole_, vol. iii, pp. 317, 323 +(Letters of June 20 and 28, 1760).] + +[Sidenote: _The final advance on Montreal._] + +[Sidenote: _Murray ascends the river._] + +A threefold English advance on Montreal was planned. Murray was to +move up the river from Quebec. Brigadier Haviland was to force the +passage of the Ile aux Noix at the end of Lake Champlain, and strike +the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. Amherst himself, with the main +army, starting from Oswego on Lake Ontario, was to come down the +river from the west. Murray was first in motion. He embarked {320} +2,400 men on ships and boats, and on July 14 took his way up stream, +followed and joined on August 17 by two regiments from Louisbourg, +which was being dismantled and abandoned. The troops went slowly up +the river, passed French outposts at various points, landed here and +there, here and there exchanged shots, and were often supplied with +provisions by the peasantry, who preferred bargaining to fighting, +and many of whom took the oath of allegiance. At Sorel, at the mouth +of the Richelieu river, Bourlamaque was stationed with a +comparatively strong force to prevent a junction between Murray and +Haviland, who was coming down from Lake Champlain; but no battle took +place, and, after Murray had reluctantly burnt the deserted houses of +the inhabitants of Sorel, who were absent in arms, the English on the +river, and the French on either bank, moved onward side by side +towards Montreal. By the end of August, Murray was encamped on an +island a few miles below Montreal, gradually gathering intelligence +of Haviland's and Amherst's advance; and on September 7 he landed on +the island of Montreal itself. During the voyage up the river two +facts had become manifest. One was that the country higher up the St. +Lawrence was less impoverished, and supplies were more plentiful, +than in the neighbourhood of Quebec. The other was that the +Canadians, who still had something to lose, were anxious for peace. +The constant advance of the English, the obvious futility of +Vaudreuil's boasts and threats, the good treatment of the inhabitants +who offered no resistance, had due effect. The country side +surrendered, the militia deserted, the French regulars began to +follow suit; and the few remaining troops, driven back on Montreal, +recognized the hopelessness of their position. + +[Sidenote: _Haviland's advance._] + +Haviland started from Crown Point on August 11 with about 3,500 men, +including Rogers with some of his Rangers, and a few Indians. He took +with him also some {321} light artillery. The boats which carried the +force made their way to the northern end of Lake Champlain, entered +the Richelieu river, and on the twentieth landed some of the troops +on the eastern bank of the river, over against the Ile aux Noix. Here +Bougainville was stationed with a considerable force, behind +fortifications which had been strengthened in the previous winter. +Some miles further on down the Richelieu river, at St. John's, +another French force was in position, under an officer named +Roquemaure. Bougainville gave Haviland, in Knox's words, 'the trouble +to break ground and erect batteries';[35] but the English, having +attacked and taken the French vessels which lay below the Ile aux +Noix, and cut off the garrison's retreat by the river, Bougainville +crossed from the island to the western bank on the twenty-seventh, +and made his way with difficulty through the woods to St. John's, +where he joined Roquemaure. On the twenty-eighth the few men left on +the Ile aux Noix surrendered; on the twenty-ninth the French +abandoned St. John's also; the fort at Chambly surrendered on +September 1; as Haviland advanced, the Canadians deserted wholesale; +and the remains of Bougainville's and Roquemaure's troops, falling +back to the St. Lawrence, joined Bourlamaque's force, and were +carried over to the island of Montreal. By September 6, Haviland's +army was encamped at Longueuil on the southern shore of the river, +directly opposite Montreal. + +[Footnote 35: Knox, vol. ii, p. 394.] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst's advance._] + +[Sidenote: _La Presentation._] + +By the end of July, Amherst's army was assembling at Albany. The +colonial troops came up slowly, and valuable time was lost. The +General moved on to Schenectady, left that place on June 21, and +reached Oswego on July 9. At Oswego he stayed for a month, waiting +for the full complement of the expedition, and collecting the boats +on which the force was to descend the St. Lawrence. Sir William +Johnson joined him with a number of Indians, {322} while the white +troops reached a total of 10,000 men, rather more than half of whom +were regulars. On August 10 the army embarked. They sailed and rowed +to the end of Lake Ontario, entered the St. Lawrence, made their way +through the Thousand Islands, and by the fifteenth reached the French +mission station of La Presentation, now Ogdensburg, at the mouth of +the Oswegatchie river, where the Abbe Piquet--the apostle of the +Iroquois, as he was called--had, since the year 1749, endeavoured to +win the Five Nations to the French.[36] + +[Footnote 36: See _Documentary History of New York_, vol. i, pp. +433-40 (Papers relating to the early settlement at Ogdensburg). The +Abbe Piquet retired in this year (1760) to Louisiana, and thence to +France, where he died in 1781. His mission on the Oswegatchie river, +or Riviere de la Presentation, was a good sample of the aggressive +French missions in Canada. Its object was to bring over the western +tribes of the Five Nations to the French religion and French +interests.] + +[Sidenote: _Fort Levis taken._] + +[Sidenote: _Amherst before Montreal._] + +A little lower down, on an island in the St. Lawrence, at the head of +the rapids, the French had a fortified outpost. They called the +island Ile Royale, and the fort upon it Fort Levis. The officer in +charge was Pouchot, who had commanded at Niagara in the preceding +year, and had been exchanged with other prisoners. From the +eighteenth to the twenty-fourth of August, Amherst attacked the fort. +From either bank, and from the neighbouring islands, the British guns +poured in their fire, supported by the armed vessels of the +expedition; and on the twenty-fifth, after a brave defence, Pouchot +surrendered. On the thirty-first, Amherst began the descent of the +rapids, watched by La Corne and a band of Canadians. A number of +boats were lost, and eighty-four men were drowned; but the main body +was carried safely onward, and by September 5 reached the Ile Perrot, +a few miles above the island of Montreal. On the sixth, Amherst +landed at Lachine, and, marching forward, encamped that night +directly in front of Montreal. + +[Sidenote: _Negotiations for surrender._] + +[Sidenote: _Montreal capitulates, and with it the whole of Canada._] + +The next day the French commanders negotiated for {323} surrender, +Murray having meanwhile landed on the island, and begun his march +towards Montreal, on the opposite side to that on which Amherst was +encamped. Vaudreuil and Levis tried to extract better terms from +Amherst than the latter was inclined to grant; and Levis, in +particular, strove hard to modify the provision that all the French +troops in Canada should lay down their arms, and not serve again +during the war. His protests were in vain. Amherst returned answer in +strong words, that he was resolved by the terms of the capitulation +to mark his sense of the infamous conduct of which the French troops +had been guilty, in exciting the savages to barbarities in the course +of the war. With 2,400 men opposed to about 17,000 in the three +English forces, the Frenchmen had no option but to surrender. On +September 8 the terms of capitulation were signed, and the whole of +Canada passed into the keeping of Great Britain. + +[Sidenote: _Amherst on the conduct of the French Indians._] + +Amherst's reference to French dealings with the Indians, and to the +dealings of the Indians in French employ, the authority for which is +Captain Knox's book, deserves to be noted. When two white races are +pitted against each other in savage lands, the final mastery will +rest with the one which, less than the other, comes down to the +savage level. The French had sinned more than the English in this +respect; and it is significant that, at the surrender of Niagara, +they stipulated for protection against the Indian allies of the +English, and that at the surrender of Montreal they made a similar +request. On the second occasion Amherst answered, and answered truly, +that no cruelties had been committed by the Indians on the English +side. A few days before, at the taking of Fort Levis, a large +proportion of Johnson's Indians had deserted when not allowed to use +their scalping knives; and probably the majority of the English +shared Captain Knox's opinion of them, that 'this is quite uniform +with their conduct on all occasions whenever {324} opportunity seems +to offer for their being serviceable to us.'[37] The truth was that +the English did not love the Indians or Indian ways; they suffered in +consequence while the fate of war was still in the balance; but in +the end they gained, as a ruling race, for the humanity of Amherst +and the men whom he commanded stood to the credit of Great Britain in +the coming time. + +[Footnote 37: Knox, vol. ii, p. 413. According to Knox, Johnson +collected 1,330 Indians belonging to seventeen tribes. This number +was reduced at the time of embarkation to 706, and afterwards by +desertion to 182.] + +[Sidenote: _End of the war._] + +With the capitulation of Montreal, the war in North America ended. +Already in the past July some French ships bringing supplies, which +had reached the Baie des Chaleurs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, had +been followed up and destroyed in the Restigouche river by Commander +Byron; and while Montreal was being given up, a detachment from the +English garrison at Quebec reduced the French outpost at Jacques +Cartier. The surrender of Montreal included all Canada, and Robert +Rogers was sent by Amherst to take over Detroit, Michillimackinac, +and other of the western outposts of New France. They were peaceably +occupied at the time, but three years later were the scene of hard +fighting in consequence of the dangerous Indian rising under Pontiac. +Amherst himself left Canada almost immediately, but remained in +America as Commander-in-Chief, having his head quarters at New York, +until peace was signed, when he returned to England. Vaudreuil and +his subordinates went back to France, to be brought heavily to +account for their shortcomings; and until the peace, or rather until +Pontiac's revolt had been put down a year later, Canada remained +under military rule. + +[Sidenote: _Canada under military rule._] + +There were three Governors, subordinate to the +Commander-in-Chief--General Murray at Quebec, Colonel Burton at Three +Rivers, and General Gage, who eventually took over {325} Amherst's +command, at Montreal. Matters seem to have gone in the main smoothly. +The Canadian people, worn with war, desired only rest and fair +dealing, and fair dealing they received at the hands of the British +commanders, among whom Murray was a conspicuously humane man. +Criminal jurisdiction was placed in the hands of British officers, +but civil cases were left to be settled by the captains of militia in +the various parishes according to the custom of the people, with the +right of appeal to the Governor. More publicity was given by +proclamation to the orders and regulations of the Governors than had +been the case in French times; and though the status was one of +military occupation, there was a nearer approach to freedom, or at +any rate more even-handed justice, than in the days when Bigot and +his confederates robbed the peasantry in the name of the French King. + +[Sidenote: _Events in Europe._] + +[Sidenote: _Death of King George II._] + +[Sidenote: _Rise of Bute and resignation of Pitt._] + +Meanwhile events moved fast in Europe. The fall of Montreal was +followed in a few weeks' time by the death of King George II. He died +on October 25, 1760, and with the accession of George III there came +a change in English policy. The 'King's friends,' as they were +called, by intrigue and bribery gradually gained power. Bute, the +royal favourite, led them, and strongly supported a peace policy. In +March, 1761, he became a Secretary of State, and in the following +October Pitt resigned. Success had perhaps told against the great +English minister. The main work to which he had put his hand had been +accomplished; among the colleagues who intrigued against him, or who +resented his imperious leadership, there may well have been in some +minds an honest wish to give the country rest and to lighten the +heavy burdens which war imposed. Already peace negotiations with +France had been opened, but the discovery that the French Government +had formed a secret compact with Spain stiffened Pitt's policy, and +he urged the desirability of striking the first blow and declaring +war against {326} Spain. On this issue he parted company with the +other ministers, except Lord Temple, and retired from office. A few +months later, in May, 1762, Newcastle resigned, and Bute was left +supreme. + +[Sidenote: _Greatness of Pitt._] + +No eulogy on Pitt can exaggerate the services which he rendered to +England. 'He revived the military genius of our people, he supported +our allies, he extended our trade, he raised our reputation, he +augmented our dominions.'[38] He gave to the world a splendid +illustration of an English statesman who was as good as his word; +who, unlike the ordinary run of Parliamentary leaders, did not shift +his course or seek for compromise. He believed in the destiny of his +country, and shaped that destiny on world-wide lines. His faults, +which were not few, are forgiven by his countrymen, for he loved +England much. + +[Footnote 38: _Annual Register_ for 1761, p. 47.] + +[Sidenote: _War with Spain._] + +[Sidenote: _English reverse in Newfoundland._] + +The mean men who supplanted him could not undo what he had done. The +beginning of the year 1762 saw them at war with Spain, and still +Englishmen struck blow after blow. In 1761, while Pitt was still in +office, Belle Ile, off the French coast, had been taken, and in the +West Indies and in India there had been gains. In 1762 more West +Indian islands were captured, and Spain lost for the time Havana in +the West, the Philippines in the East. Curiously enough the one +reverse experienced by the English was in North America, St. John's +in Newfoundland being surprised and taken in June, 1762, though it +was recovered in the following September. + +[Sidenote: _The Peace of Paris._] + +In spite of continued success Bute was resolved on peace, the +negotiations being entrusted to the Duke of Bedford, who was one of +the extreme peace party. The preliminaries were concluded in +November, 1762; they were approved by Parliament, and on February 10, +1763, the Peace of Paris was signed. Under its provisions the French +King renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia or Acadia, and ceded +'in full {327} right Canada with all its dependencies, as well as the +island of Cape Breton and all the other islands and coasts in the +gulf and river St. Lawrence.' A line drawn down the middle of the +river Mississippi defined the inland frontier; all territory on the +left side of the river, 'except the town of New Orleans and the +island in which it is situated,' being ceded to Great Britain. Two +clauses, however, in the treaty marred the completeness of the +cession. They renewed the rights of fishing and drying on part of the +Newfoundland coast, which had been given to French subjects by the +Treaty of Utrecht; and they ceded in full right to the King of France +the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, to serve as a shelter to +French fishermen, on condition that the islands should not be +fortified. Here were the seeds of future trouble, sown by other hands +than those of Pitt. Yet, considering the character and inclinations +of the men who held power in England at this critical time, the +country had reason to congratulate itself on the result of the +negotiations.[39] Spain paid for her interference in the quarrel with +France by the loss of Florida, which became a British possession; in +turn she received from France Louisiana. Thus the Seven Years' War +ended, {328} closing the story of New France; and on the line of the +St. Lawrence, under British rule, grew up the Canadian nation. + +[Footnote 39: Lord Chesterfield's views on the preliminaries of the +Peace of Paris, not yet fully known when he wrote, are interesting. +In a letter dated Nov. 13, 1762 (1775 ed., vol. iv, pp. 190, 191, +Letter 328), he writes, 'We have by no means made so good a bargain +with France (i.e. as with Spain), for in truth what do we get by it +except Canada, with a very proper boundary of the river Mississippi, +and that is all? As for the restrictions upon the French fishery in +Newfoundland, they are very well _per la predica_, and for the +Commissary whom we shall employ, for he will have a good salary from +hence to see that those restrictions are complied with, and the +French will double that salary, that he may allow them all to be +broken through. It is plain to me that the French fishery will be +exactly what it was before the war.... But, after all I have said, +the articles are as good as I expected with France, when I considered +that no one single person, who carried on this negotiation on our +parts, was ever concerned or consulted in any negotiation before. +Upon the whole then the acquisition of Canada has cost us four score +millions sterling.'] + + +NOTE.--For the above, see the books specified at the end of the +preceding chapter. + +In these two chapters the original dispatches have been consulted, +and much use has been made of + + KNOX'S _Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America_ + (London, 1769). + + + + +{329} + +CHAPTER XI + +GENERAL SUMMARY + + +In order to sum up the story of New France, it is proposed in the +present chapter to try to answer the four following questions. What +effect had geography on the history of Canada down to the year 1763? +Why did France lose Canada? What were the respective merits and +defects of the French and English systems and policies in North +America? And lastly, was the contest between the two powers and the +victory of one inevitable, and was it beneficial? These four +questions overlap each other, and the answers involve considerable +repetition of what has gone before; but a short general summary may +be useful to those who care to study the earlier history of Canada in +reference to the general history of colonization. + +[Sidenote: _Position of the French among colonizing nations._] + +From the time of Columbus down to the middle of the nineteenth +century, five nations, all on the western side of Europe, were mainly +concerned in carrying European trade, conquest, and settlement into +other parts of the world. They were the Spaniards, the Portuguese, +the Dutch, the French, and the English. Of these five nations, the +Spaniards had what may be called a continental career. They overran +and mastered an immense area of mainland. The Portuguese, the Dutch, +and the English, on the other hand, while they differed from each +other in many points, were alike in this, that they were traders and +seafarers, not so much attempting an inland dominion, as securing +footholds on sea coasts, peninsulas, and islands. The French stood +midway between the Spaniards and the other three nations. They were +not {330} continental conquerors to the same extent as the Spaniards, +they did not confine themselves to the fringes of the land to the +same extent as the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English. They were +what France made them to be. + +[Sidenote: _Twofold character of France and the French._] + +France is an integral part of the continent of Europe; but it is +also, with the exception of the Spanish peninsula, the westernmost +province of that continent; and it has a long indented seaboard open +to the Atlantic. The country has a double outlook, its people have +had a twofold character and a double history. It is noteworthy that, +while the French, to judge from the greatest event in their +history--the French Revolution--and to judge from their writing and +thought, have been the most thorough and logical, the most +uncompromising of peoples, their record has yet been in a sense one +of continual compromise, or at least one of perpetual combination of +opposite extremes. The northern and southern races, the northern and +southern religions, have had their meeting-ground in France. France, +which has been notable for violent political changes, had and has the +strongest element of conservatism in its population. No nation is +more quick-witted than the French, yet in none is there more plodding +industry. + +[Sidenote: _Canada well suited to be a sphere of French +colonization._] + +In the fullness of time, the French people had their call to take +part in the over-sea expansion of Europe, and they found their way to +Canada. They entered the New World at its widest point, where the +American continent extends furthest from west to east; but they +entered it also at the point where the interior of the continent is +most accessible from the sea by means of a great navigable river and +a group of lakes. Thus the advent of the French into Canada meant the +coming of a people, who in their old home were partly continental, +partly sea-going, into a sphere of colonization, which was a vast +extent of continent, but which at the same time was more intersected +and more dominated by water than perhaps any other portion of the +mainland of the globe. {331} Like came to like when the French came +to Canada. Their old home had given them at once the instincts of +land conquerors, and the knowledge of men whose way is on the waters. +Quick to move and loving motion, they found the route into the New +World to be one which invited and facilitated quick movement; for, +important as is inland water communication at the present day, it was +all important before the days of railways. The great highroad of +North America was the St. Lawrence, and that highroad became owned by +a quick, ambitious people, who were not content to remain as traders +by the side of the sea. + +[Sidenote: _Greatness of the St. Lawrence water system._] + +The combination of accessibility from the open sea, of length of +navigable waters, and of volume of waters, makes the St. Lawrence +basin almost, if not quite unique. Up to Three Rivers, 330 miles from +the sea, the St. Lawrence is a tidal river. Up to the Falls of +Niagara, 600 miles from the sea--nearly as far as London is from +Berlin--there is no break of navigation. From the westernmost point +of Lake Superior to the Atlantic is a distance of 2,000 miles--much +further than is the distance from London to St. Petersburg. Lake +Superior alone is larger in size than Scotland. + +[Sidenote: _It is almost connected with the basin of the Mississippi, +of Hudson Bay, and of the Hudson river._] + +[Sidenote: _Colonization in Canada was colonization by water._] + +Further, this wonderful chain of waters, as has been pointed out, is +nearly continuous with the Mississippi basin on the southern side, +and on the north-western side with the lakes and rivers which drain +into Hudson Bay; while one of the smaller affluents of the St. +Lawrence, the Richelieu river, carries into the St. Lawrence the +waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George, the southern end of Lake +George being but very few miles distant from the upper waters of the +Hudson river, which flows into the Atlantic. In short, Canada, within +its ancient limits, was a network of inland waters. Here was a +continent to be conquered and settled by water rather than by land, +and the congenial task of conquering and attempting to settle it was +allotted by Providence to the French. + +{332} [Sidenote: _The geography of Canada favoured motion._] + +Canada then suited the French, and the French suited Canada; but the +effect of the geography of Canada on an incoming race, with the +instincts and the characteristics of the French, was to stimulate +their natural inclination to attempt too much and to go too fast and +too far. The incomers moved quickly along the lines of communication, +and went into the heart of the continent; but permanent settlement +lagged behind, and was confined to the edges of the inland waters. +For, while nature had given to Canada, in her rivers and lakes, the +best of roads, away from those rivers and lakes the land was +difficult to penetrate. Thus Canada was colonized only by the water +side, and what settlement there was, was characterized by length +without breadth; while, beyond the point where continuous settlement +ended, the very easiness of movement carried forward enterprising +French officers, priests, and traders, until there was a skeleton +outline of French dominion, which was never filled in, from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. + +[Sidenote: _Settlement held close to the water side._] + +[Sidenote: _Two distinct kinds of colonists in Canada._] + +Geography, too, had this effect upon the population. The rivers were +so entirely all in all, that they made the settled portion of the +French Canadians very settled, and the fluid portion very fluid. +Those who wished to stay in one place stayed by the river bank, which +was the roadside, because it was the roadside, and because behind and +away from the river there was not open ground but dense forest. +Those, on the other hand, who were inclined to roam, were carried by +the waters wheresoever they wished, with the backwoods at hand, +should hiding-places be required. Thus Canada bred two distinct +species of colonists, the _habitans_ of the central St. Lawrence, and +the _voyageurs_ or _coureurs de bois_. As in their old home, so still +more in their new, the French race comprised contradictory elements. + +[Sidenote: _Effect of the Canadian climate on colonization._] + +[Sidenote: _It made against continuity_] + +Climate counts for much in the formation of a people, and in +determining its history. The climate of Eastern {333} Canada inclines +to extremes. It favours quickness but not continuity of action. The +summer is short, but very hot and bright; the winter is long and +severe, but again not unfavourable to movement over the frozen +surface of water and ground. Eastern Canada is not by nature a land +open all the year round to steady work, but one in which settlers +have a limited time wherein to till the ground, followed by a long, +close season; while wanderers can in summer and winter alike indulge +their vagrant instincts. The tendency therefore of the Canadian +climate, as regards its influence on an incoming race, with a +restless and impatient element in its character, was to stimulate the +restlessness, and to discourage colonization in the sense of +attachment to the soil. + +[Sidenote: _and against the policy of the French Government._] + +In winter, the St. Lawrence is closed to shipping. Consequently New +France was for several months in each year cut off from all +communication with the mother country. Here again the effect of +climate was to break continuity of colonization; and, moreover, the +forces of nature were employed against the policy of the French +Government, for the effect of long breaks in communication must have +been to develop a separate life in New France, evidence of which is +to be found in the jealousy existing, in Vaudreuil's and Montcalm's +time, between natives of France and natives of Canada; whereas the +unaltering aim of French Kings and ministers was simply to reproduce +France in America, and to keep the colony under constant and rigid +control from home. The effects of the summer, therefore, on Canada +were counteracted by winter isolation; and one more element of +contradiction was introduced into French history in North America. + +[Sidenote: _Canada had no minerals._] + +[Sidenote: _This was one cause of the small population._] + +The natural products of a country are an important factor in making +its people. Canada, as compared with most other fields of +colonization, with Spanish America for instance, or the East Indies, +was a poor land. It had practically no mineral wealth, though traces +of iron and copper were found {334} in the region of Lake Superior. +In the earlier part of the eighteenth century Charlevoix wrote: 'The +first source of the ill fortune of this country, which is honoured +with the name of New France, was the report which was at first spread +through the kingdom that it had no mines; and they did not enough +consider that the greatest advantage that can be drawn from a colony +is the increase of trade. And to accomplish this, it requires people, +and these peoplings must be made by degrees, so that it will not +appear in such a kingdom as France.'[1] The great weakness of Canada +was the paucity of the white population. Had mines been discovered, +the colony would no doubt have been much stronger, for a far greater +number of colonists would have come out from France; and, while the +character of the people would have been, in a sense, at least as +restless as it actually was, the restlessness would have been +localized in the mining areas, which would have become large centres +of population. + +[Footnote 1: Charlevoix's _Letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres_, +giving an account of a voyage to Canada (Eng. translation, 1763, p. +31). The letters began in 1720.] + +[Sidenote: _Agriculture, fisheries, and fur-trading._] + +In the absence of minerals Canada depended on agriculture, fisheries, +and fur-trading. Of these three industries, agriculture alone +conduced to permanent settlement. The fisheries did not directly much +concern the life of the colony up the St. Lawrence river, for the +fishing-grounds were mainly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the +coasts of Newfoundland and Acadia; nor did fishing, when the +fishermen found their principal market in Europe, and were in great +measure domiciled in Europe, contribute much to the colonization of +North America. Fur-trading again, the great speciality of Canada, +made for movement and for wandering life, not for colonization. This +is pointed out by Charlevoix, who dwells upon the evil results of +giving licences to trade, as encouraging vagabondism, and notes as +{335} the second cause of the ill fortune of Canada, the want of +resolution in its people, and their constant moving from place to +place, instead of carefully selecting a place for settlement and +staying there.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Charlevoix (as above), pp. 31-5.] + +The real wealth of Eastern Canada was, as it still is, agricultural; +but the history of colonization proves that agricultural colonies, +while very sound and sure, progress very slowly; and to the +impatient, enterprising Frenchman, who was inclined to seek fortune +over the seas, farming in Canada, with a Canadian winter to face, +offered little attraction. It is true that the English North American +colonies were also agricultural colonies; but they had a great +advantage over New France, in that their coasts were open all the +year round, resulting in a maritime trade, which could never be +enjoyed by Canada. Moreover New England, at any rate, was peopled by +colonists who went out, not to make their fortunes, and not to build +up a dominion for their King, but to make their homes, and their +children's homes, on the agricultural pattern, in as kindly a soil +as, and in a kindlier climate than, that of Canada. + +[Sidenote: _Canada better suited for war than peace._] + +New France then was a country where movement was easy, and where the +incentives to settlement were not great; and in its white population, +or at any rate in a large proportion of that population, there was a +strong element of restlessness, added to great power of conciliating +and assimilating savages; while the religious and political policy of +its rulers was, in the main, a forward policy. The result was that +the Canadians were more successful in motion than at rest, in making +war than in keeping peace. 'The English Americans,' writes +Charlevoix, 'are entirely averse to war because they have much to +lose; they do not regard the savages, because they think they have no +occasion for them. The youth of the French, for the contrary reasons, +hate {336} peace, and live well with the savages, whose esteem they +gain during a war and have their friendship at all times.[3] + +[Footnote 3: Charlevoix (as above), p. 27.] + +[Sidenote: _The Canadians as fighters._] + +The Canadians were to the English settlers in New England or New +York, very much what the Highlanders of Scotland, in past centuries, +were to the dwellers in the Lowlands. Their forte was in raiding +their English rivals; and, as they were better qualified to excel in +war than in peace, so in war they were more capable of quick, +spasmodic action, than of bearing continuous and steady strain. 'They +seem not to be masters of a certain impetuosity, which makes them +fitter for a _coup de main_, or a sudden expedition, than for the +regular and settled operations of a campaign. It has also been +remarked, that amongst a great number of brave men, who have +distinguished themselves in the late war, there have been few found +who had talents to command. This was perhaps because they had not +sufficiently learnt how to obey.'[4] On the other hand, it must be +remembered that Canada also contained a stationary population on the +banks of the St. Lawrence, who more and more, as years went on, +learnt what war meant and preferred peace; and that the colony was +not devoid of trading centres, the largest of which were Quebec and +Montreal, and all of which, including for instance, Niagara, Detroit, +and Michillimackinac, were inland ports. + +[Footnote 4: Charlevoix (as above), p. 104.] + +[Sidenote: _The English had the better position in North America, +larger numbers, and command of the sea._] + +If the above was the effect of geography on the history of France in +North America, it is not difficult to answer the question, Why did +the French lose Canada? They lost it because the English had the +better position in North America; because the English population in +North America largely outnumbered the French; because, when the +crisis came, the English made their main effort in North America, +whereas the French devoted their resources and their energies +primarily to continental war in Europe; and lastly, because {337} the +English secured command of the sea, and in consequence command of the +St. Lawrence also. But then the further question arises: What +produced this balance of advantage on the English side? + +[Sidenote: _There is no valid reason why the English originally +secured the better geographical position in North America._] + +It is not easy to determine why the better lot in North America, as +regards geography, fell to Great Britain and not to France. It was +hardly a question of prior discovery. The first pioneer for England, +Cabot, struck the New World at Newfoundland or Cape Breton, far north +of what became the main sphere of British colonization. The first +authenticated pioneer on behalf of France, Verrazano, found his way +to the present shores of the United States. The French connexion with +the St. Lawrence dated from Cartier's voyages; but those voyages, +though they gave the right of discovery, did not result at the time +in effective occupation. It was little more than an accident that the +English settled in Virginia and New England, and the French in Acadia +and on the St. Lawrence; though the fact of having found the St. +Lawrence, and the attraction of a great river, which might be the +long-wished-for, and long-dreamt-of, highroad to the far East, may +well have dictated to French instincts where New France should be. At +any rate, the English gained the great initial advantage of a far +larger seaboard, open at all times of the year, and a climate which +was more favourable to European colonization. 'Along the continent of +America which we possess,' wrote Wolfe from Louisbourg in 1758, +'there is a variety of climate, and, for the most part, healthy and +pleasant.... Such is our extent of territory upon this fine +continent, that an inhabitant may enjoy the kind influence of +moderate warmth all the year round.'[5] + +[Footnote 5: Wolfe to his mother, Aug. 11, 1758 (Wright, p. 454).] + +[Sidenote: _English superiority in numbers mainly due to French +policy towards the Huguenots._] + +With this advantage, it was natural that there should be greater +immigration into the English colonies than into Canada. But this was +not the only, or the main, cause of the superior numbers in the +English colonies. The main {338} cause was the policy of the French +Government, and especially its religious policy. The most fatal +mistake made by the French in regard to North America was the +exclusion of the Huguenots. The men who wished to leave England went +to the present United States. The men who wished to leave France were +not allowed to go to Canada, and went in considerable numbers to +England and her colonies. The effect, therefore, of Roman Catholic +exclusiveness was that, though France had a far greater population +than England, the greatest French colony failed for want of +colonists. Nor was it only a matter of quantity, but a matter of +quality also. The Huguenots were the type of men who would make +homes, create business, and build up communities beyond the seas. +They were of the same strong fibre as the New England Puritans. In +the competition of the coming time, New France was doomed in +consequence of being closed to the French Protestants. + +[Sidenote: _Numerical superiority of the English forces in North +America in the Seven Years' War._] + +[Sidenote: _Canada was conquered by Great Britain, not by the English +colonies._] + +When the Seven Years' War came, the English colonists in North +America outnumbered the French by thirteen to one; but, at the +moment, superiority in numbers was largely counterbalanced by the +want of union in the English colonies, whereas Canada was one. +Therefore the issue largely depended on the forces and the leaders +sent out by the two mother countries respectively. England, inspired +by Pitt, sent out abundant troops. France, inspired by Madame de +Pompadour, kept nearly all her troops to fight Frederick of Prussia, +with his few English and Hanoverian allies. The result was the defeat +of the French in North America, and the British conquest of Canada. +Whatever might have been the result if the crisis had been postponed, +it was not the British colonists but the troops from England, who, in +1758-60, decided the fate of North America. It is customary, in +writing accounts of the colonial wars of Great Britain, to emphasize +the merits of the colonial soldiers, who have the advantage of +knowing the country and the mode of {339} fighting appropriate to it; +and to depreciate the regulars sent from home. Reverses, like that of +Braddock, are written and read from a colonial point of view; and in +America, more especially, the colonists' side has been emphasized in +consequence of the results of the subsequent War of Independence. +But, as a matter of fact, excellent as were some of the colonial +troops, such as Robert Rogers' Rangers, Canada was conquered by +soldiers from England under able English generals like Wolfe and +Amherst; and similarly the burden of the defence of Canada fell +mainly on Montcalm and the few regiments which had been spared to him +from France. + +[Sidenote: _The English command of the water._] + +As the French kept for war on the continent of Europe the troops +which should have been sent to North America, so they allowed the +English to gain control of the water, over which alone troops and +supplies could be sent to New France. 'The possession of Canada,' +writes Captain Mahan, 'depended upon sea power.'[6] After the victory +of Hawke in Quiberon Bay, and other English successes on sea, Burke, +in the _Annual Register_ for 1760,[7] wrote that France 'was obliged +to sit, the impotent spectator of the ruin of her colonies, without +being able to send them the slightest succour. It was then she found +what it was to be inferior at sea.' Especially important was the +command of the water to those who would hold Canada, for two reasons; +because Canada, poor and undeveloped, was dependent on supplies from +Europe, to a greater extent than the English colonies[8] in North +America; and because she could and must be attacked by the St. +Lawrence. + +[Footnote 6: _Influence of Sea Power upon History_ (6th ed.), p. +294.] + +[Footnote 7: p. 9.] + +[Footnote 8: Thus Charlevoix (as above, p. 38) says Canada 'has +always had more from France than it could pay.'] + +The command of the sea meant the command of the St. Lawrence; and the +command of the St. Lawrence was indispensable for the reduction of +Quebec and Montreal. The downfall of New France began when the Treaty +of {340} Utrecht took from her, in Acadia, the best part of her +scanty seaboard; the downward process was arrested when Louisbourg, +taken by Massachusetts, was restored to the French; it began again +with the second capture of Louisbourg. The seaport was taken in one +year; in the next the river port, Quebec, was lost also. This would +not have happened had the French not divided their energies so +completely as to give Great Britain superiority on the water. They +attempted too much at home, and the same fault, if we turn to +consider their system and policy in North America, was carried into +the New World. + +[Sidenote: _French and English systems and policies in North America +compared._] + +It is roughly true to say that in North America the French had a +definite policy and a definite system; but the policy, though +brilliant in conception, was quite impracticable, and the system was +radically unsound. The English in North America, on the other hand, +had rarely any policy and never any system. + +[Sidenote: _Hopelessness of the French scheme for dominion in North +America._] + +The French policy was an imperial policy. It was clear, consistent, +and far-reaching. The object aimed at was a French dominion in North +America, the lines of communication being the two great rivers, the +St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. Canada and Louisiana were to be +joined; the English were to be kept between the Alleghanies and the +Atlantic; the French King was to be lord of all; the French religion +was to be supreme; the Indians were to be converted and made French +in sympathies and interests. The scheme was brilliant, but it was +impossible; and it is difficult to understand why it is considered by +historians to have been so dangerous to the future of the British +colonies. White men of one race, sparsely scattered over two sides of +a gigantic triangle, were to control white men of another but equally +masculine race, thirteen times as numerous, who held the base of the +triangle, the base being the seaboard. The attempt became more +impracticable every year, for every year the actual preponderance of +numbers on the English {341} side increased, and every year the white +men gained on the red men, who alone could make the realization of +the French dream even conceivably possible. + +[Sidenote: _French native policy._] + +[Sidenote: _Its merits._] + +Ample reference has already been made to the dealings of the French +with the Indians. There is much to praise and much to blame in what +may be called the native policy of France in North America. The +object of the French Government was, as Charlevoix points out, to +'frenchify' the savages;[9] and, as an instance of the value of the +Indians to the cause of France in America, he cites 'the Abenaquis, +who, though few in numbers, were during the two last wars the +principal bulwark of New France against New England.'[9] With the +exception of the Five Nation Indians, the natives of North America +were almost wholly on the side of the French as against the English, +in spite of the fact that the English offered them a better market +and sold them better wares. The reason was that the French relations +to the Indians were more human than those of the English. No doubt, +among the English colonists were Quakers and Moravians, whose tenets +bade them deal gently with the people of the soil; and on the New +York frontier, from Dutch times, there had been friendship, sometimes +warmer sometimes cooler, between the Dutch and the English colonists +on the one hand, and the Iroquois on the other. But the ordinary +English colonist's view of the red man was the Old Testament +view--hard, exclusive, and often cruel. The Puritan New Englander +took the land of the heathen in possession, and from his standpoint +there was not room in it for him and them. Widely different was the +French view. The Indians were not to be excluded from, but +incorporated in, the French dominion. The King of France, and his +representative the Governor of Canada, were to be the fathers, and +the Indians were to be the obedient and trusting children. The +missions taught the {342} same lesson. The Indians were not to be +exterminated, but to be fruitful and multiply as dutiful children of +France and of the Roman Catholic Church. On these lines the French +acted consistently from first to last; and their unaltering policy +contrasted favourably with the halting, uncertain dealings of the +English, which changed from year to year, and were different in the +different colonies. The way to win a black man's or a red man's +affections is to treat him, if not as an equal, at least as a man, +and to be constant in the treatment. For this reason, the Indians +loved the French better than the English. Very rarely on the English +side appeared a man, like Sir William Johnson, who possessed the +mixture of firmness and sympathy which attracted and conciliated the +Indians, and which was common among the French. + +[Footnote 9: Charlevoix (as above), pp. 34, 35.] + +[Sidenote: _Its defects._] + +But there was a very dark side to the French policy and system in +regard to the North American Indians. In the first place, as has been +abundantly shown in the preceding pages, the French authorities, +temporal and spiritual, kept the savages on their side by +sanctioning, or at least not repressing, their savagery; and notably +the mission Indians of Canada, the special proteges of the priests, +were foremost in barbarous warfare against white Christians of a +different shade of religion. In the second place, the political +system of Canada, which indirectly created the Canadian vagrants, the +_coureurs de bois_, produced, in doing so, indianized Frenchmen, +differing little from frenchified Indians. Here again we can take +Charlevoix's testimony. He writes that 'some vagabonds, who had taken +a liking to independency and a wandering life, had remained among the +savages, from whom they could not be distinguished but by their +vices.'[10] If the French were more human than the English in their +dealings with the Indians, they were more human for evil as well as +for good; and, whatever was the result on the Indians, {343} there is +no question as to the result on the French and English respectively, +of their different lines of action towards the red men. The English +race gained greatly in the end in soundness and in progress, from +keeping outside the Indian circle and not coming down to the Indian +level. + +[Footnote 10: Charlevoix (as above), p. 34.] + +[Sidenote: _Merits of French settlement in Canada._] + +It has been said above that the French system in North America was +radically unsound. It was unsound, in that it was based on political +and religious exclusiveness. There was the one great fundamental +mistake of excluding the Huguenots, and there were various other +important defects. But, on the hypothesis that the most independent +and most progressive element in France was to have no place in New +France, it is open to question whether the system of colonization, +which Louis XIV, Colbert, and Talon devised, and which remained the +basis of the colony, deserves the somewhat severe criticism which it +has received at the hands of historians. It is true that the system +was most artificial, that it contained no element of freedom or +self-government, and that when, long years after it came into being, +many of the restrictions were removed in consequence of the English +conquest of Canada, the colonists were deeply sensible of the relief. +It is true, too, that reaction against these restrictions, while +still in existence, produced the semi-savage race of _coureurs de +bois_, and that, through placing the power in the hands of a few +individuals, without providing any check of local representation or +local public opinion, an atmosphere of wholesale corruption and +intrigue was produced. But none the less there was an undoubted +element of soundness and strength in the settlement of New France; +and a considerable amount of shrewdness was shown in taking a certain +material from the old country and placing it in the New World, under +familiar conditions. The military side of the colonization was +skilfully handled; and the peasants, who had been in tutelage in +France to lord, to King, and to Church, found themselves in their new +homes {344} under similar guidance, instead of being turned into +strange ways, for which by bringing up they were not fitted. The +system, artificial as it was, produced permanent settlement of +considerable strength and great tenacity, which, under a more liberal +regime, has resulted in the French-speaking Canadian people of the +present day. + +[Sidenote: _Canada, as compared with the English colonies, was one._] + +[Sidenote: _The English colonies were separate from the mother +country, and from each other._] + +There were divisions in Canada, and various contradictory elements in +its history; but, as against foreign rivals and for purposes of +offence and defence, the colony was one, under one Government and one +Church, and in line with the mother country. Widely different was the +case of the English colonies. They were rarely in harmony with the +mother country, or with each other. They had little or no instinct of +imperialism. They had the instinct of self-preservation, and if +seriously attacked were to some extent prepared, unless Quaker +influence was dominant, to protect themselves, and to accept aid from +the mother country. But their traditions and their inclinations made +for peace, not for war; for isolation, not for union. Their +forefathers' aim and object had been to create and maintain separate +and self-dependent communities, not to be in substance amenable to +home control. Here is a French view of the New Englanders given by +the anonymous eye-witness of the siege of Louisbourg in 1745: 'These +singular people have a system of laws and protection peculiar to +themselves, and their Governor carries himself like a monarch.'[11] +If the fault of the Canadian system was too rigid uniformity and too +complete subordination to the mother country, the English colonies +suffered from the opposite extreme, from utter want of uniformity and +complete absence of system. Different constitutions, different shades +of religious beliefs, different phases of settlement--all created +disunion. Common origin made a bond with the mother country, but the +Governors {345} sent from England could tell those who sent them how +deficient was the habit of obedience to the British Crown. + +[Footnote 11: Professor Wrong's translation, p. 37.] + +[Sidenote: _The English colonists alone no match for Canada._] + +[Sidenote: _Shortcomings of the home Government._] + +Common danger alone produced occasional signs of common action. The +New England colonies, whose borders were most within reach of French +raids, and whose shores reached to Acadia, showed far the most public +spirit, and far the most power of combination. The southern colonies +awoke only when the French in the Ohio valley did them active and +present hurt; but, with many times the numbers of the Canadian +population, the English colonies as a rule showed themselves to be no +match for Canada. The first decisive treaty in North America--the +Peace of Utrecht, which gave Acadia to Great Britain--was the result +of fighting by English, not colonial soldiers, and not in America, +but in Flanders under Marlborough. The second decisive treaty, the +Peace of Paris in 1763, was the result of fighting in America, but +mainly by British not colonial troops, and under British generals. +The 'Bostonnais' alone among the English colonists were objects of +apprehension to the French; and, if it were not for the record of +Massachusetts and her smaller neighbours, the English colonies in +North America before the year 1763 would in manhood and public spirit +compare poorly with Canada. With equal truth it may be said that, in +the matter of having a clear and consistent policy in North America, +Great Britain compared very poorly with France; and the apathy of the +colonies may fairly be attributed in large measure to their +uncertainty as to what on any particular occasion might be the +attitude of the King and the ministers in England; whether support +would be forthcoming or withheld, and whether, if forthcoming, it +would involve some sacrifice in return. It is very noticeable how +often a promised force from home either was never sent or sent too +late; it is noticeable too how difficult it was for Governors who +opposed French claims and pretensions, such as Dongan of New York, in +the seventeenth century, and William Shirley {346} of Massachusetts, +in the eighteenth, to persuade the home Government of the justice of +their views. Like her colonies, England was as a rule averse to war; +and as her colonies were inclined to keep her at arm's length, so she +was inclined to leave them, within limits, to take care of +themselves. + +[Sidenote: _English compromise._] + +In the case of North America, while French and English were competing +there, the English through their Government acted as they always have +acted, during the whole course of their foreign and colonial history. +They did, they undid, they compromised, until at length in Pitt there +came a man who gripped the nettle, and the end was reached which +might with infinitely greater ease have been attained many years +before. When Quebec was in its infancy, the English under Kirke +conquered it; the English King gave it back, and then the French +dominion in North America took root. After Marlborough's wars the +Peace of Utrecht gave Acadia to England, but gave it in terms so +vague that the French continued to claim much or most of it; at the +same time it left Cape Breton Island to France, and sowed the seeds +of an apparently perennial controversy between Great Britain and +France with regard to fishing rights on the coast of Newfoundland. +There was more war, and the colonists took Cape Breton Island. Under +the terms of the next treaty the English Government restored it to +France. Then came the final war and the final peace; England gained +all Canada, but, with that strange liking which Englishmen seem to +have for leaving a frayed end in their treaty arrangements, the +British Government confirmed the fishing rights of France on the +Newfoundland coast, and added thereto possession of the two small +islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. + +It was not policy, it was not system, which gave North America to the +English rather than to the French, and yet there was a certain gain +even from the utter absence of both policy and system. Natural forces +had more play on the English side than on the French, and in a sense +it might {347} be said of the English colonies that their strength +was to sit still. + +[Sidenote: _Was the contest between Great Britain and France in North +America inevitable and beneficial?_] + +The last question to be asked, and if possible to be answered, is: +Was the contest between France and Great Britain in North America, +and the victory of one of the two powers, inevitable, and was it +beneficial? From the English point of view, the answer to part of +this question is a foregone conclusion. If there was to be a contest, +it seems evident, if we look back on the past, that the English must +have in the end prevailed. It is impossible to imagine that the +French colony of Canada, with a population at the time of the +conquest of considerably under 100,000, could dominate the English +colonies with a million and a quarter inhabitants. Equally certain +does it appear that to Canada the British conquest was a blessing in +disguise, and the Canadians in a very short time realized what they +had gained by the change of administration. In Mr. Parkman's words, +'a happier calamity never befell a people than the conquest of Canada +by the British arms.'[12] + +[Footnote 12: _The Old Regime in Canada_ (end).] + +But the question, whether a decisive war between the two races in +North America was inevitable, is one which may well be asked and +answered, inasmuch as a similar question has in our own day troubled +many minds in regard to other parts of the world where colonizing +races have been side by side. Surely, it might be said, and probably +was said, there was room enough in the great continent of North +America for both French and English to work out their national +destinies, without trying to supplant each other. In a sense this was +no doubt true; and the truth is not vitiated by the fact that the +French scheme of policy was not compatible with the presence of the +English race in North America, on the supposition that the latter +race would be allowed to extend its bounds by natural increase and +progressive settlement _pari passu_ with the French. + +{348} [Sidenote: _No natural frontier between New France and the +English colonies._] + +The interesting point, however, to notice is that there was no +natural frontier between Canada and the English colonies, at the time +when they came into serious competition; for the line of the +Alleghanies, even if recognized, could fully delimit only the more +southerly colonies. To use a modern term, two separate spheres of +influence in North America had not been marked out by nature. But in +new countries, unless there is some strongly defined natural line of +division, it is true to say, however paradoxical it may appear, that +there is not room for two incoming white races to colonize as equals +side by side. It is precisely when the land is thinly populated, and +when therefore the population is in a fluid condition, that +collisions will and must occur. Given a continent like Europe at the +present day, the geography of which is accurately known, the +resources of whose soil in every part have been fully gauged, and +whose surface has been for many generations parcelled out in +effective occupation, one province to one race, another to another; +then, when the peoples are crystallized in their respective moulds, +war is not inevitable; and when war arises, it is the artificial +result of political naughtiness and ambition, unless indeed it be the +effect of some inaccuracy in the map, which needs to be adjusted. In +new fields of colonization, on the other hand, wars are not +artificial; they are natural, and not only natural but sometimes +absolutely necessary to future happiness and welfare. Just as Europe +was herself once in the melting-pot, so the lands which Europeans +have settled and are settling, if they are to be the homes of strong +peoples in days to come, must, when rival races are planted there, be +the scenes of armed strife. + +Colonial wars which end where they began, with indecisive treaties +tending to further bloodshed, may well be the subject of national +sorrow and regret; but it is otherwise when a great issue has been +achieved, and when it has been decided once for all what lines shall +be laid down for the {349} future of a great country, not yet peopled +as it will be in the coming time. Then the millions of money, which +seem to have been wasted, are found to have been invested for the +good of men; and the mourners for the lost sorrow not as without +hope, inasmuch as those who have gone have died that others may live. +The foundations of peoples are the nameless dead, who have been laid +amid North American forests or under the bare veldt of South Africa. + + + + +{350} + +APPENDIX I + +LIST OF FRENCH GOVERNORS OF CANADA + + PERIOD + Samuel de Champlain . . . . . . . . 1632-1635 + Chevalier de Montmagny . . . . . . . 1636-1648 + Chevalier d'Ailleboust . . . . . . . 1648-1651 + Jean de Lauzon . . . . . . . . . . . 1651-1657 + Vicomte d'Argenson . . . . . . . . . 1658-1661 + Baron d'Avaugour . . . . . . . . . . 1661-1663 + Sieur de Mesy . . . . . . . . . . . 1663-1665 + Marquis de Tracy . . . . . . . . . . 1665-1667 + Chevalier de Courcelles[1] . . . . . 1665-1672 + Comte de Frontenac . . . . . . . . . 1672-1682 + Sieur de la Barre . . . . . . . . . 1682-1685 + Marquis de Denonville . . . . . . . 1685-1689 + Comte de Frontenac . . . . . . . . . 1689-1698 + Chevalier de Callieres . . . . . . . 1699-1703 + Marquis de Vaudreuil . . . . . . . . 1703-1725 + Marquis de Beauharnois . . . . . . . 1726-1747 + Comte de la Galissoniere . . . . . . 1747-1749 + Marquis de la Jonquiere . . . . . . 1749-1752 + Marquis Duquesne . . . . . . . . . . 1752-1755 + Marquis de Vaudreuil[2] . . . . . . 1755-1760 + +[Footnote 1: While Tracy was in Canada he was Governor-General, and +Courcelles was Governor.] + +[Footnote 2: Son of the previous Governor of that name.] + + + + +{351} + +APPENDIX II + +DATES OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF CANADA DOWN TO 1763 + + YEAR + +North America discovered by Cabot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497 + +Cartier's first voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1534 + +Cartier's second voyage and discovery of the St. Lawrence . . . 1535 + +Champlain's first voyage to North America . . . . . . . . . . . 1603 + +Founding of Port Royal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605 + +Quebec founded by Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1608 + +Hudson discovers the Hudson River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1609 + +Hudson discovers Hudson Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610 + +Port Royal destroyed by Argall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1613 + +Grant of Acadia to Sir W. Alexander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621 + +Company of the One Hundred Associates incorporated . . . . . . 1627 + +Quebec taken from the French by Kirke . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1629 + +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Canada restored to France . . . 1632 + +Death of Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1635 + +Founding of Montreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642 + +Acadia taken by the English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645 + +Destruction of the Huron Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1648-50 + +Company of One Hundred Associates dissolved and Canada taken + over by the French Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1663 + +New York taken by Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1664 + +Expedition of Tracy and Courcelles against the Five Nations . . 1666 + +La Salle comes to Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1666 + +Treaty of Breda. Acadia restored to the French . . . . . . . . 1667 + +La Salle supposed to have discovered the Ohio . . . . . . . . 1669-71 + +Incorporation of the Hudson Bay Company . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670 + +Count Frontenac's first government . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1672-82 + +Founding of Fort Frontenac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1673 + +Joliet and Marquette reach the Mississippi from Lake Michigan . 1673 + +Treaty of Westminster. New York finally ceded to Great Britain 1674 + +La Salle descends the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico . . . . 1682 + +La Salle's expedition to Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1684-5 + +Treaty of Whitehall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686 + +Forts in Hudson Bay raided by Iberville . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686 + +Death of La Salle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687 + +Massacre of Lachine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689 + +Count Frontenac's second government . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1689-98 + +Port Royal taken by Phipps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1690 + +Phipps' expedition against Quebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1690 + +Peace of Ryswick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1697 + +First colonization of Louisiana by Iberville . . . . . . . . . 1699 + +Founding of Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1701 + +Callieres' Treaty with the Five Nation Indians . . . . . . . . 1701 + +Five Nation Indians acknowledge supremacy of Great Britain . . 1701 + +Port Royal taken by Nicholson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1710 + +Expedition of Walker and Hill against Quebec . . . . . . . . . 1711 + +Peace of Utrecht. Hudson Bay and Acadia ceded to Great Britain 1713 + +English fort built at Oswego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727 + +Western discoveries by the Verendryes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1731-43 + +First siege and capture of Louisbourg . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1745 + +Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1748 + +Halifax founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1749 + +Fort Duquesne built by the French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1754 + +Expulsion of the Acadians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +The _Alcide_ and the _Lys_ taken by Boscawen . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Braddock defeated on the Monongahela . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Johnson's victory over Dieskau at Lake George . . . . . . . . . 1755 + +Oswego taken by Montcalm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1756 + +William Shirley recalled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1756 + +Abortive attempt against Louisbourg by Loudoun and Holborne . . 1757 + +Fort William Henry taken by Montcalm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1757 + +Pitt comes into power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1757 + +Louisbourg taken by Amherst and Wolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Abercromby defeated at Ticonderoga and Lord Howe killed . . . . 1758 + +Fort Frontenac taken by Bradstreet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Fort Duquesne taken by Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1758 + +Fort Niagara taken by Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Ticonderoga and Crown Point taken by Amherst . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Battle of Quebec. Deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm. Quebec + surrendered to the English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759 + +Surrender of Montreal and final conquest of Canada . . . . . . 1760 + +Resignation of Pitt. Bute comes into power . . . . . . . . . . 1761 + +War between Great Britain and Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1762 + +Peace of Paris. Canada ceded to Great Britain . . . . . . . . . 1763 + + + + +INDEX + + +Abbitibbi River, the, p. 188. + +Abenakis, the, 54, 127, 129, 135, 136, 138, 182, 194, 195, 266. + +Abercromby, General, 260, 271, 276, 277, 279, 280, 282, 283, 287, + 296. + +Acadia, meaning of name, 36 _n_. + +-- and Acadians, 42, 43, 45, 52, 123, 131, 142, 146, 170-90, 192-4, + 221-8, 235, 250, 337, 345, 346. + +Adirondack Mountains, 49, 241, 242. + +Adventurers to Canada, Company of, 74, 76. + +Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 192, 205, 209, 211, 216, 217, 219, 221. + +Albanel, 186. + +Albany, 56 _n._, 63, 64, 91, 109, 110, 116, 121, 125-7, 130, 208, + 234, 241, 246, 258, 267, 278, 321. + +-- River, the, 187. + +Albemarle, 186. + +Albert de Prado, 25. + +_Alcide_, the, 234 and _n._, 272. + +Alexander, Sir William, 74, 173-6. + +Alexandria, 236. + +Algonquins, the, 54, 61, 62, 66, 87. + +Alleghany Mountains, 49, 53, 217, 230-3, 285, 340. + +-- River, the, 150, 151, 217-9, 229, 286, 293, 331. + +Amazon, the, 2. + +Amherst, Lord, 259 _n._, 267, 271, 272, 275, 277, 283, 287, 290, 291, + 296, 297, 303, 304, 311, 314, 319-24, 339. + +Amidas, 32. + +Andastes, the, 90. + +Andros, 183. + +Annapolis and Harbour, 41, 142, 143, 171, 176, 177, 193, 197, 202, + 207-9, 219, 225, 226. + +Anne of Brittany, 20. + +-- Queen, 122, 144, 205. + +Anse au Foulon, 306, 317. + +Anson, Admiral, 206, 208, 292. + +Argall, Samuel, 42, 43, 172. + +Arkansas River, the, 153, 161, 162, 167, 211. + +Arlington, 186. + +Arthur, Port, 212. + +Artillery Cove, 265. + +Ashley, 186. + +Assiniboine, the, 213. + +Aubert of Dieppe, 20. + + +Baccalaos, 15 _n._, 16 and _n._, 23 _n_. + +Bacon, 4, 12. + +Baffin, 27, 44, 184. + +-- Bay, 7 _n_. + +Baie des Puans. _See_ Green Bay. + +-- Francoise. _See_ Bay of Fundy. + +-- Verte, 224. + +Barlow, 32. + +Basques, the, 5, 11, 14-17, 65. + +Beaubassin, 183, 222, 225. + +Beauharnois, Fort, 211. + +Beaujeu, Admiral, 165, 166. + +-- de, 238. + +Beauport River and Shore, 132, 133 _n._, 298, 301, 305, 306, 308, + 310. + +Beausejour, 222-4, 307. + +Bedford, 284. + +-- Duke of, 326. + +Beletre, 267, 268. + +Belle Ile, 326. + +-- -- Straits of, 1, 21, 22. + +Biencourt, 172, 173. + +Bienville, 169. + +Bighorn Mountains, 213. + +Bigot, 224, 251, 252, 325. + +Biloxi, 169. + +Bjarni Herjulfson, 6. + +Bolingbroke, 142, 144. + +Bonavista, Cape, 19. + +Boscawen, Admiral, 234, 272-5. + +Boston, 6, 123, 126, 131, 133, 134, 137, 141, 142, 145, 178, 180, + 181, 198, 199, 204 and _n._, 206, 210. + +'Bostonnais,' the, 131, 198, 345. + +Bougainville, 260, 287, 302, 305, 308-10, 313, 321. + +Bouquet, 284, 285, 294. + +Bourbon, Fort, 189. + +Bourgeoys, Marguerite, 84. + +Bourlamaque, 260, 288, 296, 318, 320, 321. + +Braddock, General, 225, 234-41, 245, 257, 284, 285, 339. + +Bradstreet, Colonel, 255, 279, 282 and _n._, 286. + +Breboeuf, 84, 86, 88. + +Breda, Peace of, 63, 180, 182. + +Bristol, 4, 18, 19, 184. + +Brittany and Bretons, 11, 12, 15, 16, 22, 38. + +Buckingham, Duke of, 74, 289. + +Bull, Fort, 247, 254. + +Burke, 236, 250, 312, 315, 339. + +Burnet, Governor, 196. + +Burton, Colonel, 306, 307, 324. + +Bute, Lord, 325, 326. + +Button, 183, 184. + +Button's Bay, 184. + +Bylot, 184. + + +Cabots, the, 4, 5, 9, 12-19, 337. + +Caens, the De, 70, 73, 77 and _n_. + +Callieres, 112, 118, 119, 128. + +Canada and Canadians, 12-14, 21, 244, 245, 269. + +-- meaning of name, 24 _n_. + +Canso, Cape, 177 _n._, 179 _n._, 197-9. + +-- Gut of, 171. + +Cap Rouge River, 297, 298, 305, 310, 315, 316. + +Cape Breton Island, 16, 19, 45, 77 _n._, 144-6, 170-4, 179 _n._, 191, + 192, 197, 199, 204 and _n._, 209, 221, 270, 276, 277, 326, 346. + +Carignan, Prince of, 101. + +Carignan-Salieres Regiment, 101, 181, 212. + +Carillon. _See_ Ticonderoga. + +Carleton, Guy, 292, 301. + +Cartier, 12, 14, 21-4, 37, 38, 43, 54, 337. + +Casco Bay, 129-31, 138. + +Castine, 181. + +Cataraqui, 108, 121, 149. + +Cathay, 12, 13, 19, 26-8. + +Cats, Nation of the. _See_ Eries. + +Caughnawaga, 116 _n_. + +Cavelier, Abbe, 167. + +Cavendish, Thomas, 32. + +Cayuga Creek, 158. + +Cayugas, the, 56 and _n_. + +Celeron, 217, 218, 229. + +Chabot, Brian, 21. + +Chaleurs Bay, 21, 324. + +Chambly, 104, 114, 141, 181, 321. + +Champlain, 24, 34, 40-3, 52-4, 61, 65-70, 75, 76, 78, 81, 92, 106, + 260, 298. + +-- Lake, 3, 49, 55, 66, 104, 128, 131, 141, 197, 207, 216, 229, 235, + 242, 243, 246, 264, 278, 292, 293, 296, 297, 319, 321, 331. + +Chancellor, Richard, 26. + +Charles I, 74, 76, 174, 289. + +-- II, 63, 180, 182, 186. + +-- V, 25. + +-- VIII, 20. + +-- Fort, 185. + +Charlevoix, 56, 106, 211, 334, 335, 339 _n._, 341, 342. + +Chastes, de, 40, 41. + +Chaudiere Falls, 52, 123. + +-- River, 195, 235, 298. + +Chautauqua Lake, 150, 218, 229. + +Chauvin, 39. + +Chebucto, 171, 207, 210, 220. _See also_ Halifax. + +Chedabucto, 176, 179. + +Chesapeake Bay, 20, 42, 236. + +Chesterfield, Lord, 271, 276, 327. + +Chignecto Bay, 171, 181, 183. + +-- Isthmus of, 171, 208, 209, 222. + +Chouaguen. _See_ Oswego. + +Chubb, 136, 137. + +Chudleigh, Cape, 1. + +Church, Major, 139. + +Churchills, the, 272. + +Cincinnati, City of, 218. + +Clarke, 214. + +Colbert, 94, 98, 101, 156, 343. + +Coligny, Admiral, 38. + +Columbus, 4, 5 and _n._, 8, 9, 13, 14, 54, 329. + +Comanches, the, 211. + +Compagnie du Nord, 187. + +Company of the West, 93. + +Conde, 67, 70. + +Connecticut, River, 138, 208, 297. + +-- State of, 129, 199. + +Convers, 135. + +Cook, 260, 275. + +Corlaer. _See_ Cuyler. + +Cornwallis, Colonel E., 220. + +-- Lord, 220, 222. + +Corte Reals, the, 14, 17 and _n._, 19, 20. + +Cotton, Rev. N., 311. + +Courcelles, De, 104, 105, 109, 127, 152. + +Cousin of Dieppe, 5 _n_. + +Crevecoeur, Fort, 159-63. + +Cromwell, 179 and _n._, 180. + +Crown Point, 197, 207, 208, 235, 245-7, 293, 296, 297, 303, 320. + +Crowne, William, 180. + +Cumberland, Duke of, 235, 236, 272. + +-- Fort, 224, 230, 237, 238, 284. + +Cuyler, 65. + + +D'Ailleboust, 82. + +Dakota, 213. + +D'Anville, 207, 208, 218 _n_. + +D'Argenson, 82. + +Darien, Isthmus of, 2, 8, 140. + +D'Aunay, 176-80. + +D'Avaugour, 82. + +Davies, Sylvanus, 129, 130. + +Davis, 27. + +-- Strait, 27. + +Deerfield, 138, 139. + +Delawares, the, 54, 218. + +_Delight_, the, 31. + +Denonville, Marquis de, 110-4, 118, 121, 128, 188. + +Denys, Nicholas, 176, 179 and _n._, 180. + +-- of Honfleur, 20. + +Des Groseilliers, 185, 187. + +Des Plaines, the, 150, 153, 161. + +D'Estournel, Admiral, 207. + +Detroit, 51, 89, 111, 121, 122, 149, 151, 158, 159, 294, 295, 324, + 336. + +Dettingen, Battle of, 192, 272, 289. + +Diamond, Cape, 298. + +_Diana_, the, 318. + +Dieppe, 20, 38, 74, 75. + +Dieskau, Baron, 234, 243-5, 252. + +Dinwiddie, Robert, 230, 231, 234. + +_Discovery_, the, 183, 184. + +Dongan, Governor, 61, 111 and _n._, 120, 127, 128, 345. + +Donnaconna, 22. + +Drake, Sir Francis, 32, 33, 76. + +'Drowned Lands,' the, 242. + +Drucour, Chevalier de, 273 and _n._, 276 and _n_. + +Duchambon, Governor, 200, 202, 203, 224. + +Duchesnau, 107. + +Dudley, Governor, 140. + +Du Luth, 106, 113, 121, 161. + +Dummer, Jeremiah, 142. + +Dunbar, Colonel, 237, 238. + +Dunkirk, 145. + +-- the, 234 _n_. + +Duquesne, Fort, 150, 231, 232, 234, 236, 237, 270, 271, 283-7, + 291 _n._, 293. + +-- Governor, 219, 228. + +Duquesnel, 200. + +Durell, Admiral, 292, 299, 305. + +Dutch, the, 46, 47, 53, 62-4, 77, 79, 128, 329, 330, 341. + +Duvivier, 197. + + +Edward, Fort, 242, 245, 264-7. + +-- VI, 25, 26. + +Egg Islands, 145. + +Elizabeth, Queen, 28, 30, 32, 76. + +Emmanuel, King, 14. + +Eric the Red, 6. + +Erie, Lake, 48, 51, 55, 56, 61, 90, 111, 121, 149, 151, 154, 158, + 217, 218, 295. + +-- Town of, 151, 229. + +Eries, the, 61, 90. + +Eyre, Major, 262. + + +Falmouth, 129. + +Fernando Gorges, 174. + +Finisterre, Cape, 206, 208, 218 _n_. + +Five Nations. _See_ Iroquois. + +Flat Point, 201, 274. + +Florida, 14, 38, 39, 80, 168, 327. + +Fontenoy, 272. + +Forbes, 271, 283-6, 291 _n._, 293. + +Fort Albany, 187, 188, 190. + +-- Hayes, 187, 188. + +-- le Boeuf, 229, 230. + +-- Orange, 63. + +Fox Channel, 185. + +-- River, 150, 153. + +Foxe, Luke, 184. + +France and the French, 12 and _n._, 14-24, 35-7, 42, 43, 45, 77, 78, + 113-9, 250, 251, 329. + +Francis I, 12, 20. + +Franciscans, the, 71. + +Franklin, 28, 233-6, 261 _n_. + +Frederick the Great, 216, 250, 260. + +French and English, 123-46, 216-24, 329. + +-- Creek, 151, 229, 231, 286, 293. + +Freshwater Cove, 201, 274. + +Frobisher, Martin, 13, 26-8, 30. + +-- Bay, 26. + +Frontenac, Count, 96 and _n._, 105-10, 112-21, 127-33, 146, 152, 155, + 156, 158. + +-- Fort, 108, 109, 114, 117, 118, 121, 136, 149, 156, 157, 159, 161, + 163, 165, 246, 254-5, 258, 270, 282, 286, 287. + +Fundy, Bay of, 41, 42, 171, 221. + + +Gabarus Bay, 200, 201, 272, 274. + +Gage, General, 295, 324. + +Galissoniere, Marquis de la, 217, 218. + +Galveston Bay, 166. + +Garnier, 84. + +Gaspe Bay, 144, 177, 277. + +-- Peninsula, 21, 50, 75. + +Genoa and Genoese, 7, 13, 18. + +George Lake, 49, 104, 216, 229, 242, 243, 245, 261, 262, 264, 265, + 271, 277, 278, 282, 296, 331. + +-- II, 194, 205, 210, 225, 325. + +-- III, 325. + +Georgian Bay, 51, 52, 55, 86, 87, 151. + +'German Flats,' the, 267. + +Germans, the, 231, 267. + +Gibbons, Captain, 184. + +Gibraltar, 206, 236. + +Gilbert, Sir H., 13, 15, 16 _n._, 28-32. + +Gillam, Captain Zachariah, 185, 186. + +Giraudiere, 179 _n_. + +_Golden Hind_, the, 29. + +Gomez, 14. + +Gordon, Sir R., 174. + +Gourgues, Domenic de, 39. + +Grand Battery, the, 200-2, 205, 273. + +Grand Pre, 139, 171, 209, 226. + +Grande Baie. _See_ Green Bay. + +Grandfontaine, 181. + +Grant, Major, 285, 314. + +Great Meadows, 231, 238. + +Green Bay, 150, 152-4, 158, 160. + +-- Mountains, 49, 242. + +Greenland, 6, 7, 27. + +Grenville, Sir R., 32, 33. + +Gunnbiorn, 6. + +Guyard, Marie, 84. + + +Haldimand, Colonel, 294. + +Halifax City and Harbour, 171, 210, 219-21, 263 and _n._, 270, 272, + 275, 292. + +Halkett, Sir Peter, 237. + +Hampton, 236. + +Harley, 142, 144. + +Haverhill, 139. + +Haviland, 319-21. + +Hawke, Admiral, 310, 311, 339. + +Hawkridge, Captain, 184. + +Hay, Lord C., 263 _n_. + +Hayes, E., 15, 16 and _n._, 28, 29. + +-- River, 189. + +Helluland, 6. + +Hennepin, Father, 157, 161. + +Henry, IV, 38, 42, 66, 67, 72. + +-- VII, 4, 14, 17, 18. + +-- Prince of Wales, 173, 184. + +Hill, Abigail, 144. + +-- General, 144-6. + +Hispaniola, 32. + +Hochelaga, 13, 22 and _n._, 24 and _n_. + +Holborne, Admiral, 299, 302-5. + +Hopson, Colonel, 223. + +Hore, 25. + +Howard of Effingham, Lord, 127. + +Howe, Captain, 223. + +-- Colonel, 292, 306-7. + +-- Lord, 268, 271, 278, 280, 281, 287, 289. + +Hudson, the, 3, 23 _n._, 49, 50 and _n._, 53, 62-5, 104, 124, 125, + 130, 208, 229, 241. + +-- Bay, 52, 106, 128, 138, 146, 153, 170-90, 213, 214, 331. + +-- Bay Company, 186-9. + +-- Henry, 27, 44, 53 and _n._, 63, 183, 184. + +-- Straits, 26, 183, 184. + +Huguenots, the, 37, 38, 41, 70, 72-4, 77, 80, 81, 168, 226, 338, 343. + +Hundred Associates, 70, 72, 80-2, 93, 173. + +Huron, Lake, 51, 55, 68, 69, 87, 111, 114, 121, 149, 151, 196. + +Hurons, the, 54, 55, 61, 62, 66, 68, 86-92, 151, 152. + + +Iberville, 106, 128, 136, 137, 169, 188, 189. + +Iceland, 6. + +Ile aux Noix, 296, 319, 321. + +Ile des Allumettes, 67. + +Ile de St. Jean. _See_ Prince Edward Island. + +Ile Madame, 311. + +Ile Perrot, 322. + +Ile Royale, 322. _See_ Cape Breton Island. + +Illinois, the, 110, 148, 150, 153, 154, 156, 159, 162, 163, 217. + +Independence, War of, 65, 280, 282, 339. + +Indians, the, 54, 342, &c. + +Indies, the, 10, 12, 13, 26. + +Irondequoit Bay, 111. + +Iroquois, the, 54-62, 64-6, 75, 81, 82, 108-23, 134, 216, 233, 258 + and _n._, 267. + +Island Battery, the, 200-2, 274. + + +Jacques Cartier, 310, 324. + +James, Captain T., 184. + +-- I, 74, 173, 174. + +-- II, 127, 138, 189. + +-- Bay, 183, 185, 187-9. + +Jamestown, 42, 43, 65. + +Jemseg, 180, 181. + +Jesuits, the, 34, 42, 70-2, 82-91, 151, 152, 155. + +Jogues, Isaac, 84. + +Johnson, Fort, 240. + +-- Sir William, 240-6, 258, 261, 264, 267, 294-6, 321, 323, 324, 342. + +Joliet, Louis, 152-4, 162. + +Joncaire, 141, 241. + +Joutel, 167. + +Jumonville, 232. + + +Kankakee, the, 159. + +Kansas River, the, 211. + +Kennebec, the, 123, 136, 171, 182, 195, 235, 298. + +Kingston, 51, 108. + +Kirkes, the, 74-7, 81, 86, 131, 173-5, 179, 298, 346. + +Kittery Point, 199. + +Knowles, Commodore, 206. + +Knox, 301, 307 _n._, 315, 317, 318, 321, 323, 324 _n_. + + +La Barre, 110, 111, 113, 163, 165. + +Labrador, 1, 6, 9, 19, 153. + +La Cadie. _See_ Acadia. + +Lac des Assiniboines. _See_ Lake Winnipeg. + +Lac des Illinois. _See_ Lake Michigan. + +Lachine, 53, 112, 114, 116 _n._, 128, 153, 154, 322. + +La Corne, 197, 265, 294, 322. + +'La Demoiselle,' 219. + +La Famine, 110. + +Laffeldt, Battle of, 289. + +La Heve, 176, 177 and _n_. + +La Hogue, Battle of, 189. + +La Jonquiere, Marquis de, 207, 218 and _n._, 222. + +Lake of the Woods, 211, 213. + +Lalemant, 84. + +La Mothe Cadillac, 121. + +La Motte, Admiral, 263. + +Lane, Ralph, 32, 33. + +Langlade, 219. + +La Peltrie, Madame de, 84. + +La Plata, the, 2. + +La Pointe, 151. + +La Prairie, 131, 134. + +La Reine, Fort, 213. + +La Roche, Marquis de, 39. + +La Rochelle, 69, 72, 74, 78, 157, 165, 207, 289. + +La Salle, 53, 106, 152, 154-69. + +Latour, Fort, 173. + +-- -- 175, 178. + +La Tours, the, 173, 175, 177-80. + +Laudonniere, Rene de, 38. + +Laurel Hills, 231, 232, 285. + +Lauzon, De, 82, 84. + +Laval, Bishop, 84, 97. + +La Valliere, 182. + +La Verendrye, 212-4. + +Lawrence, Fort, 223, 224. + +-- Governor, 222-5, 228, 271. + +Leboeuf, Fort, 294. + +Le Borgne, 179, 180. + +Le Caron, 68, 86. + +Legardeur de St. Pierre, 245. + +Leif, 6, 7. + +Leisler, Jacob, 126, 128. + +Le Loutre, 222-4, 266. + +Le Moyne, 91, 92. + +Lery, 254. + +-- Baron de, 16 _n._, 20. + +Levis, 260, 265, 270, 279, 288, 300, 303, 310, 315-7, 319, 323. + +-- Point, 297, 300, 301, 304-6, 315. + +Lewis, 214. + +Lighthouse Point, 202, 273, 274. + +Ligneris, 286, 295. + +Lok, Michael, 27. + +L'Omeroy, Fort. _See_ Fort Latour. + +Longueuil, 321. + +Lorette, 89, 315, 316. + +Loudoun, Earl of, 252, 260-4, 271, 276, 277. + +Louis XIII, 72, 76. + +-- XIV, 98, 107, 138, 162, 164, 192, 343. + +-- Fort. _See_ Fort Latour. + +Louisbourg, 146, 172, 191-214, 216, 219, 220, 223-5, 247, 253, + 259 _n._, 262-4, 270-7, 289-92, 299, 317, 320, 337, 340, 344. + +Louisiana, 36, 106, 162 and _n._, 169, 211, 217, 226, 250, 252, 295, + 340. + +_Lowestoft_, the, 318. + +Loyal, Fort, 129, 130. + +Loyalhannon, 285. + +Lunenburg, 221. + +Lutherans, 221. + +Lyman, Fort, 241-5. + +-- Phineas, 241. + +_Lys_, the, 234, 272. + + +Machault. _See_ Venango. + +Machias, 176. + +Mackenzie, Sir A., 214. + +Maine, State of, 23, 41, 42, 123, 129, 130, 170-2, 182, 198, 298. + +Maisonneuve, 84. + +Mance, Jeanne, 84. + +Manhattan Island, 63, 64, 124, 125, 179, 206. + +March, Colonel, 139. + +Marin, 229. + +Markland, 6. + +Marlborough, Duke of, 122, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 345, 346. + +Marquette, Jacques, 152-4, 162. + +Martha's or Martin's Vineyard, 6. + +Maryland, 45, 73, 110, 142, 230, 233, 237. + +Mascarene, Major, 197, 219. + +Massachusetts, 131-3, 136, 138-43, 146, 147, 180, 195, 197-9, 208, + 226, 230, 233, 241, 281, 340, 345. + +-- Fort, 208. + +Matagorda Bay, 166. + +_Mathew_, the, 18. + +Mattawa River, the, 52, 68. + +Maumee River, 218. + +May, River of, 39. + +Mazarin, 179. + +Menendez, 39. + +Meneval, Governor, 182. + +Mercer, Colonel, 256. + +Merchants Discoverers' Company, 184. + +_Merrimac_, the, 139. + +_Meta Incognita_, the, 27. + +Mexico, 17, 155, 157, 164, 165, 168. + +-- Gulf of, 2, 153, 155, 159, 164-6, 169, 332. + +Miami Fort, 159-61. + +-- River, 218. + +Miamis, the, 218, 219. + +Michigan, Lake, 51, 54, 89, 149, 153, 154, 157-61, 217. + +Michillimackinac, 51, 117, 121, 149, 153, 154, 158-62, 324, 336. + +Micmacs, the, 54. + +Minden, Battle of, 315. + +Mines, Basin of, 171, 181, 183, 209, 225. + +Miquelon, 327, 346. + +Mississippi, the, 2-4, 36, 48, 49, 53, 148, 153, 156, 159-62, 166, + 168, 169, 217, 327, 340. + +Missouri, the, 153, 161, 211, 213, 214. + +Mobile Bay, 169. + +Mohawk River, the, 49, 55 and _n._, 56 and _n._, 63, 206, 240, 246-7, + 254, 257, 267, 270, 282, 293. + +Mohawks, the, 55, 64, 65, 91, 92, 104, 105, 108, 109, 114, 115, 127, + 142, 241, 244, 245, 258. + +Mohicans, the, 64. + +Monckton, Colonel, 224, 277, 291, 301, 305, 307. + +Monongahela River, 218, 219, 225, 229-32, 237, 239. + +Monro, Colonel, 264, 265. + +Montagnais, the, 54. + +Montcalm, 106, 216, 252-5, 259-62, 264-7, 270, 276 _n._, 279, 280, + 282, 287, 293, 298, 300-3, 305-10, 313-5, 333, 339. + +Montmagny, De, 81, 82. + +Montmorency, Duc de, 70. + +-- River, 297, 298, 300-5, 308. + +Montreal, 22-4, 41, 50, 51, 54, 66, 67, 69, 81, 82, 92, 95, 102, + 108-15, 131, 134, 145, 154, 157, 161, 217, 251, 255, 262, 267, + 296, 303, 310, 319-25, 336, 339. + +Monts, de, 40-3, 65, 66, 73. + +Moody, Chaplain, 204. + +Moose Fort. _See_ Fort Hayes. + +-- River, 187, 188. + +Moravians, the, 285, 341. + +Murray, 291, 301, 302, 304, 305, 307, 310, 316-20, 323-5. + +Muscovy Company, the, 26. + + +Nantucket, 132. + +Narragansetts, the, 54. + +Naxouat, Fort, 137. + +Necessity, Fort, 232. + +Nelson, Fort, 187, 189. + +-- River, 187, 213. + +Nesmond, Marquis de, 137. + +Netherlands East India Company, 46, 79. + +-- West India Company, 63, 79, 181 _n_. + +Neutral Nation, 55, 90. + +New Amsterdam, 3, 63. + +-- Biscay, 164. + +-- Brunswick, 23 _n._, 41, 170-2. + +Newcastle, Duke of, 207, 268 and _n._, 290, 319, 326. + +New England, 3, 6, 11, 23 _n._, 45, 54, 124, 139, 147, 172, 197-9, + 210, 241, 248, 335-7, 341, 344, 345. + +Newfoundland, 1, 6, 9, 11, 13-25, 30, 34, 37, 45, 52, 69, 76, 106, + 123, 146, 171, 172, 178, 179 _n._, 234, 334, 337, 346. + +New France, 22-4, 35, 66 _n._, 67, 70, 80, 81, 97, 148, 251, 314, + 329, 335, 341. + +-- Hampshire, 129, 135, 208, 233. + +-- Jersey, 6 _n._, 141, 233. + +-- Mexico, 211. + +-- Netherlands, 63, 104. + +-- Orleans, 169, 327. + +-- Scotland, 174, 176. + +-- York, Town and State of, 3, 6, 9, 49, 63, 65 _n._, 124, 128, 134, + 141, 147, 183, 199, 208, 233, 237, 241, 242, 248, 263, 265, 267, + 295, 314, 336. + +Niagara, Falls of, 157, 158, 294, 295, 331. + +-- Fort, 111 and _n._, 149, 158, 159, 196, 235, 246, 254, 258, 293-6, + 303, 336. + +-- River, 51, 90, 151, 157, 196, 294. + +Nicholson, Colonel, 141-3, 145, 183. + +Nicollet, Jean, 151. + +Nicolls, Colonel, 127. + +Nipigon, Fort and River, 212. + +Nipissing Indians, 151. + +-- Lake, 52, 54, 68, 87. + +Noble, Colonel, 208, 209. + +_Nonsuch_, the, 185. + +Norridgewocks, the, 195. + +Norsemen, 5, 6. + +North-West Passage, 183-6. + +Norumbega, 23 and _n_. + +Nova Scotia, 6, 9, 23 _n._, 36, 39, 41, 170-6, 264, 271, 277, 326. + + +Ogdensburg, 322 and _n_. + +Ohio, the, 4, 48, 53, 148, 150, 151, 154, 156, 161, 162 _n._, 169, + 217-9, 232, 257, 283-6, 294, 345. + +Oneida, Lake, 56, 246, 254, 282. + +Oneidas, the, 56 and _n._, 61, 118. + +Oneigra, 111 _n_. + +Onondaga, 116, 118. + +-- River, 196 _n_. + +Onondagas, the, 56 and _n._, 59, 61, 91, 92. + +Ontario, Fort, 256. + +-- Lake, 48, 51-6, 61, 87, 91, 108-11, 118, 149, 151, 154, 158, 196, + 235, 243, 246, 247, 254-8, 267, 270, 283, 293, 294, 319, 322. + +Orleans, Island of, 85, 89, 92, 297, 299, 300. + +-- Point of, 300, 305. + +Oswegatchie River, 322 and _n_. + +Oswego, 196 and _n._, 235, 243, 246, 254-8, 260, 262, 264, 265, 267, + 269 _n._, 270, 280, 293, 294, 319, 321. + +Ottawa, City of, 52. + +-- River, 51, 66-9, 87, 92, 108, 114, 149, 151, 188, 295. + +Oyster River, 135. + + +Paris, Peace of, 15, 93, 326, 327, 345. + +Pean, 251. + +Pemaquid, Fort, 136, 137, 182, 189. + +Penalossa, Count, 164. + +Pennsylvania, 141, 199, 217, 219, 230, 231, 233, 236, 239, 248, 283, + 284. + +Penobscot, the, 23 _n._, 42, 136, 137, 171, 176, 179, 181 and _n._, + 195, 240, 266. + +Pentegoet, 137, 176, 181, 182. + +Pepin, Lake, 211. + +Pepperell, W., 199, 202, 203, 205, 252 _n_. + +Pequods, the, 54. + +Perrot, Governor, 108, 113, 182, 211. + +Philadelphia, 41, 284, 286. + +Philip's War, 182. + +Philipps, Governor, 194. + +Phipps, William, 131-4, 139, 140, 145, 183, 198. + +Pickawillany, 218, 219. + +Pigeon River, 213. + +Pique Town. _See_ Pickawillany. + +Piquet, Abbe, 322 and _n_. + +Pitt, 15 _n._, 216, 268 and _n._, 269, 271, 284, 286, 291 _n._, 296, + 304, 314, 325-7, 346. + +Pittsburg, 150, 286. + +Placentia, 145, 189. + +Plains of Abraham, 224, 297, 307, 314. + +Points de Monts, 50, 145. + +Pontgrave, 39-41, 65, 66. + +Pontiac, 324. + +Portland, 129, 150. + +Port Royal, 41-3, 77 _n._, 131, 135, 139, 142, 146, 171-3, 175-7, + 179, 183, 197, 198. + +Portsmouth, 145, 207. + +Portugal and Portuguese, 3, 8-10, 14-9, 29 _n._, 39, 79, 329, 330. + +Potomac, the, 230, 236. + +Pouchot, 294, 295, 322. + +Poutrincourt, 42, 172. + +Presque Ile, 151, 229, 294. + +Prideaux, General, 293-6. + +Prima Terra Vista, 16. + +Prince Edward Island, 170, 179 _n._, 221, 277. + +-- Rev. T., 204. + +-- Rupert, 185. + +Prudhomme, Fort, 162. + +Puans, the. _See_ Winnebagos. + +Puritans, the, 34, 85, 204, 338, 341. + + +Quakers, the, 73, 231, 240, 341, 344. + +Quebec, 22-4, 35-78, 95, 97, 102, 123, 146, 172, 179, 186, 207, 224, + 226, 251, 260, 262, 269 _n._, 271, 276 and _n._, 289, 291-3, + 297-320, 336, 339, 340, 346. + +Quiberon Bay, 311, 315, 339. + + +Radisson, 185, 187. + +Raestown, 284, 291 _n_. + +Raleigh, Sir W., 3, 28, 29, 33, 43. + +-- City of, 33. + +Ramesay, 141. + +-- 208, 209. + +-- 310. + +Rasle, Sebastian, 195. + +Razilly, de, 176, 177 and _n_. + +Recollet Friars, the, 68, 69, 160. + +Red River, the, 211. + +-- -- -- 213. + +Rensselaer and Rensselaerswyck, 63. + +Restigouche, 324. + +Rhode Island, 233. + +Ribault, Jean, 38, 39. + +Richelieu, 70, 72, 75, 76, 80, 94, 173, 174, 176. + +-- Fort, 81. + +-- River, the, 49, 50, 53, 82, 101, 102, 104, 108, 114, 128, 131, + 229, 242, 243, 296, 320, 321, 331. + +Rideau Canal, 52. + +Rio Janeiro, 38. + +Riviere aux Boeufs, 151, 229. _See also_ French Creek. + +Roanoke, 32, 33. + +Roberval, 14, 23. + +Rochefort, 289. + +Rocky Mountains, 46, 213, 214. + +Rogers, Robert, 247, 261-4, 296, 320, 324, 339. + +Rogers' Rock, 261. + +Rollo, Lord, 277. + +Roman Catholics, 41, 48, 73, 83, 88, 221. + +Rome, 247. + +Roquemaure, 321. + +Rouen, 69, 154. + +-- and St. Malo Company, 69, 70. + +Rouille, Fort, 196. + +Royal Americans, 252 and _n._, 302. + +-- Mount. _See_ Montreal. + +Rupert, Fort or House, 185, 187, 188. + +-- Land, 187. + +-- River, 185, 186. + +Ryswick, Peace of, 118, 137, 140, 190. + + +Sable Cape, 171, 173, 208. + +-- Island, 16 and _n._, 31, 39. + +Sackett's Harbour, 255. + +Saguenay River, 13, 24 _n._, 40, 50. + +St. Anne, Fort, 188. + +-- Anthony, Falls of, 161. + +-- Augustine, Town of, 39. + +-- Castin, Baron de, 137, 181, 183, 240. + +-- Charles, River, 89, 132, 298, 307-9. + +-- Clair, Lake and River, 51, 158. + +-- Croix, River, 41, 171, 173. + +-- -- -- 153, 161. + +-- Esprit, Mission of, 151, 153. + +-- Francis, River of, 296. + +-- Frederick, Fort, 197. + +-- Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 76, 77 and _n._, 81, 175. + +-- Ignace, Mission of, 150, 153, 158. + +-- John's, 321. + +-- -- (New Brunswick), 137, 171, 176, 177 _n._, 180, 181, 277. + +-- -- (Newfoundland), 29-31, 326. + +-- -- Lake, 186. + +-- -- River (Florida), 39. + +-- Joseph, River of, 159-61. + +-- Lawrence, Gulf of, 20, 24 _n._, 171, 334. + +-- -- River of, 2-4, 6, 9, 12 and _n._, 35-8, 43, 46, 48-55, 65-71, + 108, 109, 149, 168, 173, 191, 212, 241, 255, 267, 289, 292, + 298-301, 321, 331-4, 339. + +-- Louis, Fort of (Illinois), 163, 169. + +-- -- -- (Quebec), 71. + +-- -- -- (Texas), 166. + +-- Malo, 37, 39. + +-- Marie, Station of, 87, 88. + +-- Mary's Straits. _See_ Sault St. Marie. + +-- Maurice, River of, 50. + +-- Peter, Lake, 50. + +-- Pierre, Island of, 327, 346. + +Sainte Foy, 315, 316. + +Salieres, Colonel de, 101. + +Salmon Falls, 129. + +Sandy Creek, 254. + +-- Hill, 242. + +Santa Fe, 211. + +Saratoga, Fort, 208. + +Saskatchewan, the, 213, 214. + +Sault St. Louis, 116. + +-- -- Marie, 51, 149, 151. + +Saunders, Admiral, 292, 299, 304-6, 308, 310, 311. + +Saurel, Monsieur de, 81 _n_. + +Schenectady, 63, 104, 125, 128, 134, 246, 267-8, 294, 321. + +Schuyler, 126, 142. + +Scots Fort, 176. + +Sedgewick, Major-General, 179. + +Seignelay, 164. + +Seigniors, the, 100, 101. + +Senecas, the, 55 _n._, 56 and _n._, 91, 109-11, 118, 141, 158, 216, + 241. + +Seven Years' War, 216, 250-2, 327, 338. + +Shirley, William, 198, 206-8, 219, 221, 224, 230, 235, 236, 241, 246, + 252 _n._, 254-6, 260, 345. + +Sillery, 297, 298. + +Simcoe, Lake, 52, 55, 68, 87, 196 and _n_. + +Sioux, the, 153, 161, 211. + +Smith, John, 34. + +Soissons, Count de, 67. + +Sorel, 50, 81, 104, 320. + +South Africa, 46, 47. + +-- Bay, 242. + +-- Carolina, 145, 226. + +Spain and Spaniards, 8-21, 34, 39, 79, 153, 162, 211, 326, 329, 330. + +Spanish America, 211. + +-- Succession, War of, 138. + +_Squirrel_, the, 31. + +Stadacone, 22 and _n_. + +Stanwix, Fort, 257 _n_. + +-- General, 282, 293. + +Stirling, Earl of. _See_ Alexander. + +Stoughton, 136. + +Stuarts, the, 76, 125, 176. + +Sulpicians, the, 108. + +Superior, Lake, 48, 51, 88, 122, 148, 149, 151-3, 161, 212, 213. + +Susa, Convention of, 76 and _n._, 81. + +Susquehanna River, 55, 90. + +Sweden and Swedes, 124, 250. + +Swift, 145 and _n_. + +Sydney Harbour, 145. + + +Tadoussac, 40, 50, 65, 69, 75, 93. + +Talon, 101, 104-6, 152, 343. + +Temiscaming, Lake, 188. + +Temple, Lord, 319, 326. + +-- Sir T., 180, 181. + +Terra de Corte Reall. _See_ Corte Real. + +Texas, 165, 166, 168. + +Thorne, Robert, 13. + +Thousand Islands, the, 51, 322. + +Three Rivers, 50, 69, 81, 82, 92, 95, 112, 129, 131, 331. + +Thunder Bay, 212. + +Ticonderoga, 66, 242, 243, 246, 255, 257, 262, 264, 270, 278-80, 282, + 283, 287, 293, 296, 303. + +Tonty, Henri de, 155, 157, 159-63, 167-9. + +Toronto, 196 and _n._, 254. + +Tourmente, Cape, 75. + +Townshend, 291, 301, 304, 305, 307, 309-12. + +Trent River, the, 68. + +Trinity River, 167. + +_Troupes de la Marine_, 253. + +Troy, 49. + +Troyes, de, 188. + +Turtle Creek, 237. + +Tuscaroras, the, 61. + + +Utrecht, Treaty of, 122 and _n._, 123, 126, 138, 145 _n._, 146, 170, + 172, 183, 190-2, 205, 219, 221, 228, 277, 327, 339, 340, 345, 346. + + +Valois, House of, 24, 38. + +_Vanguard_, the, 318. + +Varin, 251. + +Vasco de Gama, 8. + +Vaudreuil, Governor (father), 118, 140, 195. + +-- (son), 234, 251, 252, 254, 255, 267, 270, 287, 299, 309, 310, 320, + 323, 324, 333. + +-- Rigaud de, 262. + +Vaughan, William, 198, 201. + +Vauquelin, 318. + +Venango, 231, 294. + +Venice and Venetians, 13 and _n._, 18. + +Ventadour, Duc de, 70, 71. + +Vercheres, Madeleine de, 115. + +-- Seignory of, 114. + +Vergor, de, 224, 306. + +Vermont, 49, 242. + +Verrazano, 7 _n._, 12, 14, 20, 337. + +Vetch, Samuel, 140, 143. + +_Vigilant_, the, 201. + +Vignau, Nicholas de, 67. + +Villebon, 135, 137, 139. + +Villegagnon, 38. + +Ville Marie, 85. _See_ Montreal. + +Villiers, Coulon de, 209, 254, 255. + +Vinland, 6. + +Virginia, 11, 25, 31-4, 42, 43, 45, 53 _n._, 110, 123, 127, 172, 219, + 230, 231, 234, 236, 239, 248, 283, 284, 337. + +-- Company, 42. + +Virginians, the, 217, 219, 231, 239. + + +Walker, Admiral, 144-6. + +Walley, Major, 132. + +Walpole, Horace, 235, 236, 250, 257, 263, 269 _n._, 275, 276, 290, + 291, 309, 315, 319. + +Warren, Commodore, 199-203, 205, 206, 208, 240. + +Washington, George, 217, 230-2, 236, 237, 239, 247, 285. + +Webb, Colonel D., 257, 258, 260, 262, 264, 265, 267. + +Wells, 135, 138. + +Westerham, 289. + +West Indies, the, 1, 8-10, 32, 103, 134, 180, 199, 326. + +Westminster, Treaty of, 179. + +-- -- -- 63. + +Wheeler, Admiral, 134. + +White, John, 33. + +Whitehall, Town of, 242. + +-- Treaty of, 189. + +Whitfield, George, 199. + +William III, 122, 140. + +-- Henry, Fort, 245, 246, 261, 262, 264, 266, 269, 295. + +Williams, Fort, 247, 257 _n._, 282. + +-- Rev. J., 138. + +Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 26. + +Wills Creek, 230, 231, 237. + +Winnebago, Lake, 150, 153. + +Winnebagos, the, 152. + +Winnipeg, Lake, 211-3. + +Winslow, J., 224, 261. + +Winthrop, Governor, 123. + +Wisconsin, River, 148, 150, 153, 161, 217. + +Wolfe, General, 216, 235, 236, 239, 248, 253 _n._, 259 _n._, 260, + 271, 272, 274-7, 281, 283, 287, 289-93, 296-317, 337, 339. + +-- Island, 255. + +Wolfe's Cove, 306. + +Wood Creek (Lake Champlain), 141, 144, 242, 243, 282. + +-- -- (Lake Oneida), 56, 246, 247, 254, 257, 258, 267. + +Wyandots, the, 54, 89. + +Wye, the, 87. + +Wyoming, 213. + + +Yellowstone Park and River, 213. + +York, Duke of, 63, 104, 125, 182. _See also_ James II. + +-- Fort, 189. + +-- Settlement of, 135. + +Yorktown, 220. + +Youghiogany, the, 230. + + +Zeni, the brothers, 5, 13 _n_. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Historical Geography of the British +Colonies, by Charles Prestwood Lucas + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY--BRITISH COLONIES *** + +***** This file should be named 34080.txt or 34080.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/8/34080/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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