CANADIAN TYPES OF THE OLD REGIME C.W. COLBY f /03d BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg ^. Sage 1891 A.-*.<=l'vo-4t°V v-v.\.xr\vs:.- 3777 Cornell University Library 1030 C68 Canadian types of the old regime, 1608-1 oiin 3 1924 028 892 382 DATE DUE DEC i 2 mC - ^ ^ iA4^ ihi^JL Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028892382 o w m w o a> o o H CANADIAN TYPES OF THE OLD REGIME I 608 -I 698 BY CHARLES W. COLBY Professor of History in M*Gill University _#iA; -'ISHt^ '^M. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1910 A (^ ^ /t)30 COPTSIOBT, 1908, BT HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Pul>lwhed July, ippS PREFACE The chapters of this book represent lectures which were deUvered recently in Ottawa before the May Court Club. They contain no new mate- rial, and use with freedom the works of others. At the same time historical facts can be employed in a large number of different combinations, and here the life of Canada during the Old Regime is approached by a route which as yet seems not to have been followed. The author's aim is to dis- cuss various aspects of French colonisation, with- out at any point straying far from the concrete. To secure distinctness the examples have been drawn, chapter by chapter, from some one career. Or rather, a single personage has been made the representative of a class, and in considering the large subject with which he is connected, certain features of his experience are rendered promi- nent. But this method does not involve the exact portraiture of individuals, nor does it exclude minor figures from the field of the discussion. IV Preface One gives a hostage to fortune in publishing a volume which discloses his conception of what a popular lecture should attempt. But History does not exist simply for the benefit of the erudite, and there are always some to whom a book is recom- mended by the absence of specific gravity. June lath, igoS. CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Historical Background of New France Two Backgrounds, i. The Background of the Wilderness, 2. The Historical Background, 3. The Renaissance, 7. The Reformation, 10. France, 14. The Resources of France in the Seventeenth Century, 17. The Ascendency of France in the Seventeenth Century, 18. The Power of the King, 20. The French Aristocracy, 25. Henry IV., 27. Rich- elieu, 29. Colbert, 35. The Church in France, 36. Gal- licanism, 38. New France and New England, 40. Colonial Theory, 42. CHAPTER II The Explorer — Champlain The Love of Adventure, 46. The Appeal of America to Europe, 48. Voltaire on Canada, 51. The Wilderness, 52. The Indians, 53. The Motives of the Explorer, 58. Cham- plain's Antecedents and Early Life, 60. Champlain in Acadia, 64. Champlain at Quebec, 66. The First Battle of the French with the Iroquois, 69. Champlain's Expedi- tion against the Onondagas, 73. Champlain and Vignau, 74. La SaUe, 76. Champlain and La Salle, 77. The Dol- lar Sign, 80. CHAPTER III The Missionary — BRfisEUF The Attitude of the Roman Catholic towards Missions, 82. The Attitude of the Calvinist towards Missions, 83. St. Francis Xavier, 87. Biard and Massi at Port Royal, 88. The vi Contents R^coUets among the Htwons, 90. The Jesuits among the Hurons, 91. Br6beuf's Personality, 92. Br^beuf and Jogues, 93. The Jesuit Relations, 96. Br^beuf as a Writer, 98. The Destruction of the Hurons, loi. The Heroism of the Jesuits, 104. The Founding of Montreal, 105. Olier and Dauversi^re, 107. Maisonneuve, 109. The Sulpicians. CHAPTER IV The Colonist — Hebert Recent French Books on Canada, 114. The Tenacity of the French Colonist, 116. Colonists and Convicts, 117. The Monopoly of the Fur Trade, 119. Louis H6bert in Acadia, 121. Hubert at Quebec, 124. Hubert's Difficulties and Success, 125. Richelieu and the Hundred Associates, 132. The Exclusion of the Huguenots, 134. The Seigniorial Regime, 137. The Colonising Seigneur — Robert Giffard, 139. The censitaire and his Obligations, 142. The Sub- division of a Seigniory, 146. The Carignan Regiment, 147. The Growth of Population, 149. The coureur de bois, 151. CHAPTER V The Soldier — D'Iberville Military Virtues of the French Canadian, 154. The Prestige of French Arms in the Seventeenth Century, 155. Maison- neuve and the Iroquois, 156. DoUard at the Long Sault, 159. The Courage of the Colonist, 166. Early Conflicts of the English and French in America, 168. The Mission of Druillettes, 170. Dongan and Denonville, 172. King William's War, 174. Frontenac's Raids against the Eng- lish, 175. Frangois Hertel, 178. The Exploits of D'lber- ▼ille, 179. CHAPTER VI The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut Bad Reputation of the coureur de bois, 185. Testimony of La Hontan and Carheil, 187. Profits of the Fur Trade, 189. The Government and the Private Trader, 191. The Ex- citement of Forest Life, 194. The Beaver, 195. Coureurs Contents vii de bois and Explorers, 196. Groseilliers and Radisson, 198. Their Early Life, 199. Expeditions of 1658-1663, 203. The Founding of the Hudson's Bay Company, 207. Radis- son and Colbert, 208. Radisson at Hudson's Bay in 1684, 209. The Early Life of Du Lhut, 210. Frontenac and the Fur Traders, 212. Du Lhut's First Experiences in the West, 213. Du Lhut and La Salle, 215. Du Lhut's Treat- ment of the Indians, 217. Du Lhut and Hennepin, 218. The Case of Folle Avoine, 225. Nicolas Perrot, 228. CHAPTER VII The Intendant — Talon The Importance of Talon, 230. Chapais on Talon, 231. Talon's Early Life, 233. The Office of Intendant in France, 236. Talon's Duties in Canada, 239. The Question of Popula- tion, 240. The filles du rot, 245. Talon's Zeal for his Work, 246. The Development of Agriculture, 247. The Birth of Manufactures, 249. Shipbuilding, 250. The Brewery, 250. The Miscellaneous Activities of Talon, 252. Talon and the Sovereign Council, 253. The Intendant as a Symbol of the Old Regime, 256. CHAPTER VIII The Bishop — Laval French Canada and the Roman Church, 260. Diflference be- tween the Religious Evolution of New France and New England, 261. Missionaries and Parish Priests, 263. Piety of the Early Canadians, 265. Strifes of the Canadian Church, 270. The Archbishop of Rouen, 272. The Crea- tion of the Bishopric, 272. Queylus and Laval, 273. Laval's Character, 275. Church and State at Quebec. 280. The cur^, 281. The Two Seminaries, 283. The Movable cur^, 286. The Canadian Church and Education, 287. CHAPTER IX The Governor — Frontenac Frontenac's Pre-eminence as Governor, 291. His Early Career, 293. The Comtesse de Frontenac, 294. The Contradictory Qualities of Frontenac, 295. Frontenac and the Iroquois viii Contents at Cataraqui, 297. Frontenac at Quebec, 300. Front^nac and Duchesneau, 305. La Barre, 309. Denonville, 310. Frontenac's Return to Canada, 310. His War against the English, 311. The Repulse of Phips, 311. The entente cordiale, 315. French and English in Canada, 315. The Restilts of the English Conquest, 317. CHAPTER X The Woman Contrast between the Women of France and Canada in the Seventeenth Century, 322. Poverty of New France, 323. Peter Kalm's Account of Canadian Women, 324. The Wife and the Nun, 330. The Wife: Dearth of Biographical Detail, 330. Social Antecedents, 331. Filles du rot, 332. Dowries, 336. Life of the habitant's Wife, 336. Demoi- selles, 337. Madeleine de Verchferes, 338. The Nun: Wealth of Records, 343. Paucity of Women in Early Days of the Colony, 345. La Jeune's Appeal to Pious Ladies in France, 346. The Duchesse d'Aiguillon and the Hospital at Quebec, 347. Madame de la Peltrie and the Ursulines, 349. Marie de I'lncamation, 350. The Influence of the Ursulines on Canadian Life, 352. Jeanne Mance and the Hospital at Montreal, 353. Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Nuns of the Congregation, 355. ILLUSTRATIONS Philippe de Champagne.) PAGB Frontispiece The Rock op Quebec, 1759 Chateau de Ramezay Cardinal Richelieu (From the Portrait by Colbert . Champlain Champlain's Habitation (From Champlain's Voyages, Ed. 1613, by the courtesy of the New York Public Library, Lenox, Astor, and Tilden Foundations.) Champlain's First Fight with the Iroquois (From Champlain's Voyages, Ed. 1613, by the courtesy of the New York Public Library, Lenox, Astor, and Tilden Foundations.) La Salle ........ The Martyrdom of the Canadian Jesuits (From Du Creux's Hisloria Canadensis, Paris, 1664.) Olier ......... 107 D'Iberville ........ 180 Frontispiece to Hennepin's Voyages . . . 124 Talon ......... 233 Laval 275 Marie de l'Incarnation 350 Marguerite Bourgeoys 356 24 30 35 60 68 73 76 103 CANADIAN TYPES OF THE OLD REGIME CHAPTER I THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF NEW FRANCE TO be precise, the early life of Canada has two backgrounds. The one is the wilderness, against which the rock of Quebec stands out in sharp, impressive lines. Along the waterways that radiate from the valley of the St. Lawrence, the trader, the missionary, and the soldier enter the shade of the forest, there to vanish for long periods from every trace of civilisation. Even the colonist who clears his single arpent at the edge of the great stream is encompassed on three sides by depths of pine and hemlock wherein lurk the wolf, the bear, and the Iroquois. Nerved by the sense of danger, hopeful of great gain, longing to redeem the souls of savages from the flames of hell — it matters not what may be their incentive — the pioneers are ready to bury themselves from the sight and memory of Europe among the re- cesses of an unknown continent. It is far from being a martyrdom, this new life of hardship. One has only to read the classic narratives of Canadian exploration to see how a reward for the rough and dirty fare of the woods was found in the strange sights and fresh adventures which every day afforded. Voyaging among so many 2 The Historical Background of New France novelties of earth and sky, the humblest atten- dant of Champlain or La Salle felt himself a dis- coverer. Birds, flowers, trees, and animals, all seemed of a different world. For the ear there were the groan of the frozen lake in winter and the thunder of Niagara. For the eye there were the glorious ranges of the Adirondacks as they stand disclosed by the morning sun from the waves of Lake Champlain, the birch-fringed rapids of the Riviere des Prairies, and the inland oceans of the West. Any one of us who from a crest of the Laurentians has seen the sun go down in crim- son and gold over an unbroken landscape of lake and forest, wiU realise what a splendid setting the wilderness makes for the hfe of Canada in its infancy. But this is simply the background we get in gazing westward from the foot of Cape Diamond. And with it one cannot contrive to connect much historical interest before the coming of Jacques Cartier. American archaeology is an exciting pastime to the devotee, and it would be ungrateful to deny the value of the results attained by those who have laboured among the dim beginnings of the Iroquois and the Algon- quins. Yet where so much is conjecture, and so much barbarism; where so little is illuminated by personal achievement and where nothing can be linked with lofty literature, it becomes difficult to quicken the modern imagination by prehistoric peeps of aboriginal hatred and strife. Milton saw in the history of Heptarchic England nothing but a war of kites and crows — a narrowness of The Historical Background of New France 3 vision which speaks ill for his knowledge at this point. More excuse, however, could be found for one who called the annals of Iroquois and Algon- quins a thing of kites and crows down to the time when Cartier cast anchor at the mouth of the St. Charles. To those rightly instructed no bit of human experience can be without value, but looking forth from Stadacona the historical back- ground must be sought to the East rather than the West. Horace warns the young poet not to begin his epic on the Trojan War with the loves of Jove and Leda. The historian likewise may take profit by this counsel, for nothing can be made more tedious than a prolix tale of origins. At the same time history when written without some sense of perspective becomes a mere catalogue of events in which great and little are jumbled together, heedless of weight or quality. How it should be written, and whether it is a science, or an art, or a fable, are questions over which ink continues to be shed without remorse. Into such high mat- ters it is impossible to enter here, but let us assume that if history means more than a village tale, we must have standards of comparison whereby to estimate the nature and significance of events. One type of historian always finds readers — the good raconteur. However the taste of mankind may change from age to age, Herodotus will never lack his audience, because he is entertaining and can tell a plain tale without making it seem bald. For the rest, we live in a generation which demands reasons, craves to know the causes of things, and 4 The Historical Background of New France will not be put off with rhetoric however glib, or rhapsody however eloquent. If we are to comply with the demand of the comparative method in historical research, we shall not rest content when we have finished Champlain's Voy- ages, or the Relations des /^suites, or DoUier de Casson's Histoire du Montreal. Even after these texts, and more like them, have been mastered, it remains to see how the Ufe of the French in Can- ada stands related to that of France, the mother land, and to that, also, of the Enghsh in America, whose contrasted ideals and methods are no less instructive than the ideals and methods which were brought to the St. Lawrence from the Seine. Let us now try to translate into definite terms what is meant by this phrase, ' ' The Historical Background of New France." In 1534 one finds a French sea-captain entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at intervals during the next seventy-three years ships from St. Malo, Brouage, and Honfleur, sail up the great stream even to the foot of the Lachine Rapids. Connected with this broad fact is a corresponding question, ' ' What general impulse, if any, prompted the voyages of trade and exploration, which from the time of Cartier brought French seamen to Gaspe Basin and Tadoussac, to Stadacona and Hochelaga?" In 1608 a colony is planted by Champlain on Cape Diamond, and there follows an attempt, more or less resolute, to build up a French com- munity in the land of the Algonquin and the beaver. Again it may be asked, " What were the resources The Historical Background of New France 5 of the state whose more adventurous sons found their way to a region so remote from the land of their birth? Did France enter upon a colonial career with any reasonable hope of success, or was her attempt to build up a dominion over seas foredoomed to failure?" One stage further. These emigrants who dot their hamlets along the shores of the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Montreal are not self-governing. They live in strict dependence on a king from whose court at Fontainebleau or Versailles pro- ceed orders which become for the colony its fun- damental law, neither to be resisted nor tampered with. And in its turn this fact raises a query regarding the power possessed at home by a sov- ereign whose will is omnipotent at the distance of a thousand leagues. To take yet another example. Seven years after the founding of the colony, Champlain brings Recollets to Quebec, and ten years later still, the Jesuits. In 1642, OUer, working through Maisonneuve and MUe. Mance, estabUshes the religious settlement of Montreal. Then a little later a bishopric is created, and Canada finds its place within the hierarchical system of the Roman Catholic Church. Need it be pointed out that each of these matters takes us at once to some phase of European life in the seventeenth cen- tury; either to the missionary efforts of the relig- ious orders, or to the marvellous vitality of the Society of Jesus, or to the pietism which gave birth to the Sulpicians, or to the battle royal be- tween GaUican and Ultramontane? Illustrations 6 The Historical Background of New France might be multipUed without end, but the few cases just cited will show how constantly events which occur in New France carry us back for their inter- pretation to the European home. If a further example be needed, consider how much of ancient history is represented by RicheUeu's refusal to let Huguenots pass the winter in Canada! It is to the development of certain affihations among those just mentioned, and of others similar in character, that we shall address ourselves in the present study. From the nature of time and space the illustrations chosen must be partial and fragmentary. But at least we shall be able to make out some striking features both of similarity and contrast, as we place the colony side by side with the parent state. To divorce any chapter of colonial life in America from its European antecedents is to curtail its interest and signifi- cance by at least one half. Upon Spaniard, French- man, and Englishman ahke, the New World lays its touch, modifying and at times almost seeming to transform. None the less America is the daugh- ter of Europe as Europe is not the daughter of Asia. Let us begin, then, with those distant days when the French first came to the St. Lawrence; and, furthermore, let us assume that it is worth our while to connect through historical associa- tions two continents which nature has sundered by the breadth and storms of the Atlantic. Hav- ing gone thus far it only remains to hmit or extend the scope of the inquiry. Shall we make France the historical background of New France to the The Historical Background of New France 7 exclusion of every other country, and indeed of Europe at large, or shall we discuss the subject from a standpoint broadly European? That France alone would furnish us with a far richer wealth of material than could be used, is evident; and per- haps it would be safer to confine our survey to the relations of Canada with this one state. But just as the history of the colony relies for its inter- pretation on the ideals and institutions of the mother land, so these point to forces which were shaping the life of Europe at large in the era of discovery and colonisation. It is an old story, yet one cannot avoid taking for his point of departure the glories and enthusiasms of the Renaissance. At the date when Columbus set sail from the port of Palos, Europe had reached an interesting, not to say exciting, stage in its development. It was fast altering its point of view towards some of the gravest subjects which can occupy the atten- tion of man. For a thousand years prior to 1400, the progress of knowledge had been retarded by certain fixed ideas. One of these was that secular or profane learning, if not positively harm- ful, is useless in comparison with theology, whose aim it is to know and glorify God. According to a view now held by many, God may be glorified through the careful study of His works. But such a conception was not grasped during the Middle Ages. Sacred and secular were then marked off from each other in a way that killed science. Roger Bacon, the ablest of mediaeval investigators, was imprisoned for ten years as a dangerous character. 8 The Historical Background of New France A century before Columbus^ began the :^reat intellectual awakening which we associate with the word Renaissance. The first feature of ^Ris movement was a return to the classics of Greece and Rome. From the writings of pagan poets and pagan philosophers it was discovered that man had once looked upon nature with eyes open to all impressions; that he had found no sin in knowledge; that he had not shrunk from human joy because he feared to lose salvation by loving too much the activities of the presAt life. The earliest of those who rediscovered the world as the Greeks had known it, were the Italians; and from their enthusiasm sprang modern scholarship and modern art. What the revival of learning, the study of classical masterpieces, meant to Italy, may be seen from a select list of names. Petrarch, Boccaccio, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Leo- nardo, Michel Angelo, Titian, Ariosto, and Machia- velli are but a few outstanding figures among the writers and artists of the Italian Renaissance. In the field of westward exploration an undis- puted primacy belongs to the same nation. Co- lumbus, John Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, and Ver- razano were all Italians. But the Renaissance was an intellectual impulse which quickened every part of Europe, producing in Germany, Reuchlin; in Holland, Erasmus; in France, Montaigne, Rabelais, and Descartes; in Spain, Cervantes; in England, Spenser, Shak- spere, and Francis Bacon. Two years after Colum- bus set out on his first voyage, Charles VIII. of France entered upon his memorable invasion of The Historical Background of New France 9 Italy: The same expedition which raised Savo- narola to the height of fame at Florence was a meSns of spreading broadcast through northern Europe the ideas and the culture which had made the Itahans the most refined nation in Christen- dom. The effect was immediate and profound. Aglow with a new love of learning, emancipated from the idea that secular knowledge is dan- gerous, Germany, England, and France gave them- selves over to a full and free use of human faculty. The study di Greek had enlarged the European mind by accentuating the value and dignity of hfe upon this planet. Columbus had expanded the intellectual horizon still further, by discover- ing the New World. Northern Europe made its contribution to the general enlargement of out- look by the astronomical discoveries of Coper- nicus. The Ptolemaic system had declared the earth to be the centre of the universe. Coperni- cus, a true son of the Renaissance, taught the plurality of worlds and the insignificance of our own sphere in relation to the starry heavens. All these ideas, then, were surging in the mind of Europe during the generation which followed Columbus. Between them, the Genoese naviga- tor and the PoUsh astronomer gave mankind a new heaven and a new earth. To see what the Renaissance did in another direction one need only compare the plays of Shakspere with the Divine Comedy of Dante — the humanism of the one with the other- worldhness of the other. New Spain, New France, New England — these European outposts beyond the Atlantic — first came in view I o The Historical Background of New France when hterature, art, and science were being transformed by a fresh, overmastering idea, the idea that knowledge is power. The age of the Renaissance in northern Europe is also the age of the Reformation. At the date of Columbus's first voyage, Luther was nine years old, and Calvin published his Institutio just at the moment when Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There is no larger fact in the historical background of New France and New England than that both were founded amidst the burning strifes of Catholic and Protestant. For- tunately we have no personal knowledge of such rancours as were kindled by the theological debates of the sixteenth century. Between 1560 and 1570 France went through three wars of religion. "In the first," says Agrippa d'Aubigne, "we fought Uke angels, in the second like men, in the third like devils." If they fought hke devils before 1570 it may be imagined how they fought fifteen years later during the wars of the League, when the ambitions of the Three Henries were turning the richest portions of France into a desert. Were there need, page after page could be quoted from BrantOme, L'Estoile, and a host of other memoir writers to show how the realm was lacerated by reUgious hate in the boyhood of Samuel de Cham- plain. The blame for murder and violence is to be shared pretty evenly by both parties. L'Estoile who was among the few fair-minded observers of the period says: "The vices and disorders were as great on one side as the other." And L'Estoile's most recent editor observes: "Catho- The Historical Background of New France 1 1 lies and Protestants marauded, ravaged, sacked, burned, \^/ith the same barbarism. By both parties the poor were pillaged and the people devoured, for if on one side there were many robbers, there was no lack of brigands on the other." It would be unfair to dwell alone upon the hatreds that were begotten by the religious agi- tation of the sixteenth century. In many cases, indeed, religious motives were advanced as an excuse by those who sought a cloak for schemes of selfish ambition. Catholics, Lutherans, and Cal- vinists all suffered from the presence in their midst of the turbulent and godless noble. But the heroism prompted by real belief is to be seen in every one of these three great camps, shedding lustre upon a strife which without it would be a ghastly tale of carnage. Theological interests permeated every class of society. Merchants dis- cussed grace and good works over the dinner table. Freebooters said prayers, and even Benvenuto Cellini sometimes thought of his eternal welfare. Never have the contrasts been more violent among men united under the same banner. On the Prot- estant side one finds the reformer who wiU gladly endure martyrdom for a dogma, in company with the prince whose chief wish is to plunder the mon- astic lands. On the Catholic side the Jesuit mis- sionary, heedless of his life, supports the same cause with the noble who wiU sell the liberties of his country for Spanish gold. The pity of it is to see the most sinful rancours masquerading under a reUgious name, for as Stubbs has pointed out, ' ' No truth is more certain than this, that the 1 2 The Historical Background of New France real motives of religious action do not work on men in masses; and that the enthusiasm which creates Crusaders, Inquisitors, Hussites, Puritans, is not the result of conviction, but of passion pro- voked by oppression or resistance, maintained by self-will, or stimulated by the mere desire of victory." Now the age of the Reformation was the age of discovery and colonisation. Cortez and Pi- zarro were the contemporaries of Luther and Cal- vin. Plymouth was founded just after the Thirty Years' War began, and Montreal was founded some time before the same struggle closed. Take the period of the Reformation as extending from Luther's Wittenberg Theses in 1517, to the Revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. If these dates are applied to the history of New France, it will be seen that they cover everything from Cartier's first voyage, to the time of Frontenac. In other words Canada was discovered, explored, and col- onised just when the main interest of the European world centred in matters of religious controversy. This is a fact which looms large in the historical background of New France. But Canada was not alone among European colonies in being affected by the Reformation and the issues it had raised. Whether Spanish, Eng- lish, or French, every part of the Atlantic sea- board, from Florida to Quebec, was influenced in its development by the religious discords of Europe. Ribaut, who strove to establish a col- ony of French Protestants in Florida, was set upon by the Spaniards, under Menendez, and The Historical Background of New France 13 destroyed with nearly his whole band. Doubt- less the Spaniards desired to be rid of interlop- ers, but the reason assigned for the massacre of the French in Florida was that they were heretics. English readers are apt to dwell most upon Spanish cruelty and lack of scruple, but Sir Francis Drake always felt entitled to board a Spanish treasure ship, whether England was at war with Spain or not. Here again the sense of religious animosity inflamed national ambitions. Farther north it was the same. The French ex- cluded Protestants from Canada. The Puritans of Massachusetts forbad the Jesuits on pain of death to take up residence in their colony. But if the life of the New World reflects the religious feuds of Europe, it can likewise show examples of that true faith and courage which shine out in both the Protestant Revolution and the Catholic Revival. The colonial movement did not, by any means, have its sole root in the desire to find gold mines or beaver skins. The Indepen- dent Congregation of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire left England for HoUand that it might win free- dom of worship, and when Holland proved an unsuitable place of residence, it took ship in the Mayflower for Cape Cod. Here undoubtedly is a case where peril and privation were faced to secure liberty of conscience. How much the sacri- fice entailed may be judged from the fact that of those who came in the Mayflower one half died during the first winter. The founding of Montreal, twenty-two years later, represents an impulse no less sincere and heroic. Villemarie was estab- 1 4 The Historical Background of New France lished by Olier and Dauversifere as a mission colony, whose members should set aside all hope of lucre, and give up their whole lives to the con- version of the savages. One can see any day over the entrance of the Sulpician College in Montreal the historic legend. Hie evangelizaban- tur Indi — ' ' Here the Gospel is preached to the Indians" — and every man who went forth from Maisonneuve's stockade knew that he was taking his life in his hand. As in Europe so in America, the reHgious schism which inappropriately we style the Reformation was a cause of inhuman cruelty and superhuman self-sacrifice. A lady once said to J. R. Green that she thought the Renaissance the most delightful part of his- tory, only she could never remember just where it came in. We have already seen, however, where the discovery of America comes in with reference to the Renaissance, and how the settle- ment of European races in America occurred dur- ing the period of the Reformation. These things affected New France as they affected all Euro- pean colonies at the time of their infancy, but for the special background of Canadian life under the Old Regime, we must turn to France herself. The land whence Canada drew her first colo- nists has had many foes in the past, and still finds many critics. But De Tocqueville went to the heart of the matter in saying that France was a country which the world might view with aston- ishment, or admiration, or hatred, but never with indifference. To the French, nature has been bounti- ful as to no other European people. Corn and wine The Historical Background of New France 1 5 and oil, noble rivers and fertile plains, the snows of Mont Blanc and the blue of the Mediterranean, the forests of the Vosges and the long seaboard of the Atlantic — it is in vain that one tries to enumerate the resources of this nation to which has been denied neither the fruits of the South nor the vigour of the North, neither the daring which comes from the ocean nor the wealth which comes from the soil. At present we see in France a land which Germany has cut off from the Rhine, and outstripped in population. Mr. Bodley decries her politics. From the morning paper we hear daily of her ecclesiastical disturbances. But reacting at different ages to different ideals, France has never ceased to chain the world's attention by cleverness, or heroism, or patience. It was France that led the Crusades, and made the University of Paris the beacon of European thought, and achieved the most superb triumphs of Gothic architecture. Later stiU, with changed aspirations, it was France that mastered Spain for the pohtical leadership of Europe, lorded it over a disunited Germany, and dared to proclaim the reign of reason no less loudly than she had once sworn to defend the faith. With the Great Revolution and the bewildering crises of the Napoleonic age, come fresh dreams and hopes, often doomed to bitter frustration and sometimes to Waterloo or Sedan. Yet even now those who think that the brightest days of France are ended may prophesy too soon, for in more ways than one she has often disappointed mankind. If Tennyson disliked ' ' the blind hys- terics of the Celt" and railed against "the red i6 The Historical Background of New France fool-fury of the Seine," Mrs. Browning caught another aspect of French purpose when she wrote: "And so, I am strong to love this noble France, This poet of the nations, who dreams on For ever, after some ideal good. Some equal poise of sex, some unvowed love Inviolate, some spontaneous brotherhood. Some wealth that leaves none poor and finds none tired. Some freedom of the many that respects The wisdom of the few. Heroic dreams!"* In the sphere of colonial expansion the experi- ence of France has been very singular. Here is a state which at the time when the chief colonies were being founded, held a distinct primacy in Europe. By virtue of wealth, population, and political unity, the French nation enjoyed splen- did advantages when it entered upon overseas competition with the Spaniards, the English, and the Dutch. Nothing seemed to be wanting. For centuries the mariners of Normandy and Brittany had been toilers of the sea, excelling in bold- ness and knowledge of their craft. It is true that one often hears the Frenchman called a poor colonist. But when Canadians say this I wonder what they mean. Obviously the first merit of a colonist is power to take root and hold his own, whether against the aborigines or the * During the recent debate on Morocco, M. Ribot broke out in these words against M. Jaur^s: "Non, ce n'est pas ainsi qu'il faut parler de la France. Si nous avous des diffi- cultes aujourd'hui, nous y ferons face, nous les envisagerons sanS faiblesse, mais la France reste ce qu'elle 6tait hier, une grande personne dont il ne faut pas parler comme vous I'avez fait." The Historical Background of New France 1 7 forces of nature. If we judge by this criterion, the French in Canada are among the best colonists of whom we have any record. Left with an axe in his hand amid the sohtudes of a primeval forest, the French settler knows what to do, even though, like Louis Hebert, he is a Parisian apoth- ecary. And as for initiative, where can more enterprising explorers be found than the whole hne of those who from Champlain to La Veren- drye lay bare the recesses of North America, while the English were content to linger between the Atlantic and the AUeghanies? As was said above, the experiences of France in colonisation have been exactly what one would expect them not to be. Starting out with power and wealth, with a good marine and a robust peasantry, with a westward outlook and geographical curiosity, the French have nothing to-day in the Western Hemisphere but two barren islets off the coast of Newfoundland; Guadaloupe and Martinique among the West Indies; and a foothold on the pestilen- tial coast of Guiana. Nor is it enough to say by way of explanation that the French emigrant is a poor colonist. A few statistics and comparisons will empha- sise the fact that France had good reason to embark with confidence upon a pohcy of expansion. Her population in the days of Louis XIV. and Colbert has been placed as high as 22,000,000, and at the lowest estimate could have been little under 20,000,000. The population of England and Wales, at the same time, was not one third of this figure. The military power of France was even greater 1 8 The Historical Background of New France than could be inferred from a statement regarding the numbers of the population. In summing up his account of the Roman army and navy, Gibbon concludes: "The most liberal computation will not allow us to fix the entire establishment by sea and land at more than 450,000 men; a mih- tary power, which, however formidable it may seem, was equalled by a monarch of the last cen- tury, whose kingdom was confined within a single province of the Roman Empire." The monarch in question is, of course, Louis XIV. Translating these figures into geographical terms, Louis XIV., who ruled over a region not so large as Gaul, had forces equal to those of the Roman Empire, which extended from Scotland to the Persian Gulf, and from Morocco to the Caspian. We cannot attempt to foUow in detail the course of French pohtics and war during the seventeenth century. Every one who has heard of the Norman Conquest and the battle of Water- loo is familiar also with the prestige which France gained during the era of Louis XIV. Macaulay does not go beyond the truth when he says: "France, indeed, had at that time an empire over mankind, such as even the Roman Republic never attained. For when Rome was politically domi- nant she was in art and letters the humble pupil of Greece. France had, over the surrounding coun- tries, at once the ascendency which Rome had over Greece, and the ascendency which Greece had over Rome." The illustrations which can be brought forward to support this statement are endless. During the years when Frontenac up- The Historical Background of New France 1 9 held the authority of Louis XIV. in Canada, his native land was dictating treaties on the one hand, and prescribing rules of cookery on the other. It is said that Louis XIV. 's cook killed himself because the fish was bad. One does not mean that cooks aJl over Europe followed his example under like circumstances. But everywhere there was the same disposition to foUow French leader- ship in things domestic and personal, as well as in things intellectual and pohtical. For more than a thousand years Latin had been the tongue of scholarship and diplomacy, but in the days of Louis XIV. it yielded to French. This is a single example taken from a midtitude. Macaulay, if one may quote from him once more, defines the range of French attainments by a contrast between great things and httle. ' ' She had forced the Cas- tiUan pride to yield her the precedence. She had summoned ItaHan princes to prostrate themselves at her footstool. Her authority was supreme on aU matters of good breeding from a duel to a minuet. She determined how a gentleman's coat must be cut, how long his peruke must be, whether his heels must be high or low, and whether the lace on his hat must be broad or narrow." Such, speaking broadly, was the European position of France during those very years when Colbert and Talon were pushing forward the work of colonisation, and trying to build up on the banks of the St. Lawrence a state which should keep the EngUsh from becoming the dominant power in North America. Towards the close of his reign Louis XIV. fell upon evil times. He 20 The Historical Background of New France was carried beyond all bounds by dynastic ambi- tion. His attempt to wipe out the Pyrenees, making both France and Spain the property of the Bourbons, was foolish and disastrous. His generals met more than their match in Marlborough, and any gains he had to show when the War of the Spanish Succession was over had been won too dearly by the blood and tears of his people. But this latter part of the reign does not come within our view. At the death of Frontenac, France still held the undisputed primacy of conti- nental Europe, and possessed resources which be- longed to no other colonising power, not excepting England. The development of Canada under the Old Regime was affected at all points by the personal power of the king. France had to work out her colonial system in harmony with the spirit which permeated her institutions during the seventeenth century. At home the hand of the king was visi- ble everywhere, and so it was in the colony. When one has been reading a series of instructions sent out by Colbert to Talon or Duchesneau, he feels a sense of oppression. And when the intendant gives orders to the colony, this impression is deep- ened. Everything is managed and ordered down to the last detail. Merchants are told that they must bring their invoices before the Council, and take no more profit than the government allows them. Public meetings are put under the ban, and traders are not even permitted to compare notes regarding the state of trade. The propor- tion of men to women entering the colony is regu- The Historical Background of New France 21 lated year by year. Nowhere can one turn with- out seeing Thou shalt, or Thou shall not. Major Hume says wittily of Philip II.: "He looked upon himself as though he were a kind of jimior partner with Providence." One would need to be a junior partner with Providence to regulate wisely all the matters which Colbert, and other ministers of the crown, managed for New France. Under the first three Bourbons — Henry IV., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. — France could be made to yield her king everything she possessed, or ever5i:hing, at least, which the cleverness of the government could exact from a submissive people. Louis XIV. was, as he declared himself to be, the State. Moreover it was not a crude despotism, but a reign of order which received the full sanction of pubhc opinion. Both law and reUgion accepted the fullest claims of the monarch. On one occasion the Parlement of Paris declared to the king in person: "This company sees in you the Uving image of the Divine." Like- wise Bossuet, the most eloquent prelate of the reign, says: "AU the State is summed up in the King. The wiU of the whole people is enclosed in his." Thus Louis XIV. was by general consent the owner of the land and its inhabitants. If he wished to tax he could tax at will, there being no hmit but that of human endurance. The reason why French kings in the seven- teenth century should have possessed unbounded prerogative must be plain to aU who know the origin of the French nation. When the Capetian ruler of Pcuis was accepted as sovereign by the 22 The Historical Background of New France other nobles of France, his own territories were limited to a radius of some fifty miles from his capital. Within this small region he was direct feudal lord. Outside it he was only suzerain, coping with a Duke of Normandy or Brittany, a Count of Champagne, or Flanders, or Aquitaine, whose power might be equal to his own. While such divisions as these existed, French nationality could not take form. The great fiefs were too strong; the kingship, too weak. But important forces fought for the king against the ambition of his vassals. All largeness of outlook, all love of peace, implied the power of the crown. The king's very name was a potent charm. As lion of justice, as fountain of honour, he had advantages which no mere noble could possess, however able or active. When one adds to these reasons the further fact that the He de France, centring in Paris, proved the most vigorous part of the whole land, the sources of royal power in France became evident. Step by step, from Louis le Gros to Louis XL, the Capetian kings gain fief after fief, until the headship of each district is theirs by personal right rather than feudal overlordship. The Reformation gave the aristocracy its last chance to clip the king's wings. But when the great wars of rehgion ended with the vic- tory of Henry IV. and his acceptance of Catholi- cism, the sovereign had won a firm seat in the saddle. From 1600 the chief nobles of France are no longer territorial princes — coining their own money and hanging malefactors, or enemies, from their own gallows. They have sunk to the inferior The Historical Background of New France 23 rank of covirtiers. When Versailles was built, those who flocked to it were, poUticjdly speaking, but captives in a gilded cage. The king had con- quered the forces of feudaUsm, and through him as its rallying-point the nation had come into being. The king, indeed, was the embodiment of the national idea, and hence flowed his supremacy. By this process, then, upgrew the despotism which conditioned the whole course of French colonisation, and, in particular, made the poUti- cal life of New France what it was from Champlain to Frontenac. But we are not without visible, tangible proof of this royal greatness, existing till to-day in stone and mortar. Of all the various routes whereby Canadian history can be approached, none is more deUghtful, and few are more direct, than that which leads past the chateaux of Tou- raine to Champlain's habitation at Quebec. A building is so much easier of interpretation than a written document. On the banks of the Loire, the Cher, and the Indre, may still be seen (and with the utmost ease by any tourist) the palaces built by French kings in the age when Jacques Cartier and Roberval were first exploring the St. Law- rence. At Blois and Amboise, at Chambord and Chenonceaux and Azay-le-Rideau, certain facts are proclaimed by every stone in the vast edifice. What must have been the might of rulers who reared these sumptuous residences for their own deUght, or as gifts to their favourites!* In scale, in rich- * Strictly speaking, not all the chief chateaux of Tottraine ■were erected by the crown, but the most important of those erected by subjects soon passed into the hands of the king. 24 The Historical Background of New France ness, in beauty, northern Europe has elsewhere no such group of chateaux to display, and even at Venice the palaces of the Grand Canal, which are much smaller, can hardly be considered more extraordinary. Whether Francis I. was promoting the welfare or happiness of the French nation by building a mansion like Chambord, may perhaps be questioned; but for us it is convincing witness to the power of the French crown, the archi- tectural genius of the Renaissance, and the degree of forwardness which the French had reached in the march of civilisation. Not fortified strong- holds like Coucy and the Bastille, not palaces like Versailles and the Tuileries which seem to sug- gest the impossibility of war — these chateaux of Touraine stand midway between the era of feudal warfare and the era of industrial security, bearing in their structure the signs of their association with both the Middle Ages and modern times. So much for the ch&teaux of the Loire consid- ered in themselves. Then when their vastness, and beauty and splendour have sunk into the soul, turn suddenly to the Chateau St. Louis as it was in its best days, or to the Chateau de Rame- zay, as we see it now. A bare comparison will reveal the hopeless inferiority of the colony in wealth and architectural attainment. But to make this contrast complete, we must put side by side with it a comparison between the best colonial architecture of New England, New York, and Vir- ginia, and the contemporary domestic architecture of the Jacobean or Georgian period in England. The resources of the Enghsh in America do not < w s < w Q D < H <<: O The Historical Background of New France 25 enable them to vie with the architecture of the mother country, but they come much nearer to overtaking it thaxi ever the builders of New France came to rivalling the chiteaux on the Loire. The best country seats and town houses of the Enghsh in America have considerable pretensions. The most ambitious residences and public buildings of the Old Regime in Canada are pitiful when placed beside corresponding edifices in France. With the absence of monumental building in New France, we must connect the poverty of the colonial noblesse. And this in its turn reveals another important fact. That Canada could boast an aristocratic class in the days of Talon and Fron- tenac, no one is hkely to forget. The modern novelist is able to give his tales of New France a touch of the picturesque by sprinkling them over with the names of seigneurs, barons, and even counts. Probably most of those who read romances about French Canada have an exaggerated impres- sion of the affluence and social standing which the seigniorial landholders possessed. One need say nothing here about their conspicuous poverty, but it does seem worth while to point out that not a nobleman in the first rank of wealth and power at home ever came to the colony during the hundred and fifty years of French rule. Bishop Laval, through his connection with the Mont- morency line, may be called in some sense a repre- sentative of the haute noblesse, yet even he was far from having the status at court of the famous Constable, Anne de Montmorency, or of the lead- ing Montmorency nobles who flourished in the 26 The Historical Background of New France seventeenth century. Frontenac came of good hneage, but did not belong to the upper stratum of the French aristocracy. A few of the great nobles ventured to take a speculative risk in the profits of the fur trade. As for accepting admin- istrative posts in the colony, they would have gone as quickly to Patagonia. Much light is thrown on the habits of the French aristocracy at this period by an entertaining vol- ume of the Vicomte Georges d'Avenel — La Noblesse Franpaise sous Richelieu. In France, where every child of a noble was a noble, the divisions of the aristocracy became far more intricate than in Eng- land, where the number of lords was narrowly restricted. In Lescarbot's Relation Demise there is an impressive list of princes and great dames who have consented to be sponsors for one hundred and forty wretched Micmacs converted at Port Royal in 1610. Among the notables acting in this capacity are the Prince and the Princesse de Conde, the Prince and the Prin- cesse de Conti, the Comte and the Comtesse de Soissons, the Due and the Duchesse de Nevers, the Due and the Duchesse de Guise, the Duchesse de Longueville, the Prince de Joinville, the Prince de Tingry, the Comte de Tonnerre, and many others. But having vouchsafed to become godparents for Indians whom they would not have allowed within -their kitchens, the great nobles of France there- upon proceeded to leave Acadia and Canada severely alone. It does not therefore follow that the names of the great and powerful are wholly absent from The Historical Background of New France 27 the annals of New France. The Prince de Conde and the Comte de Soissons may seldom send their thoughts to the hungry handful of settlers at Quebec, but mightier than they at times dream of extending French power over vast areas in North America. Francis I. cannot be credited with very persistent aspirations in the colonial sphere, though he gave Cartier the Hermine, and on one occasion ordered his treasurer to pay the discoverer of Hochelaga fifty crowns, in part for salary and in part for the keep of kidnapped sav- ages. Aside from Francis none of the Valois did much for westward exploration, and the last three kings of that line could not have done much owing to the reUgious wars. With the seven- teenth century, however, we reach an age when the kings and ministers of France begin to feel a more or less genuine concern for the estabUsh- ment of colonies in the Western Hemisphere. The motive is twofold. Even more important than to get profit for oneself from these new enterprises, is the duty of preventing one's neighbour from getting any. We meet, therefore, in Canadian history with the names of Henry IV., Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIV., and Colbert. As politicians, these are the four most prominent Frenchmen of the seven- teenth century, and each has his place in the his- torical background of New France. Port Royal and Quebec were both founded dur- ing the reign of Henry IV. — the king whose white plume waved at the battle of Ivry, and whose wish it was that every peasant should have a fowl 28 The Historical Background of New France in his pot on Sunday. Henry of Navarre, the first of the Bourbons, was the most popular king France had seen for three centuries. He did not lack certain personal weaknesses which cropped out again in his grandson Charles II. of England, and which every reader of memoirs, or of Dumas, must have observed. Yet for the nation these were counterbalanced by intelligence, patriotism, and generosity. When he came to the throne — or rather after he had conquered his throne — he found the government disorganised by thirty years of civil war, and the country in a state of extreme distress. Henry IV. is thought by many to have been, in his youth at least, a great bulwark of the Protestant cause. But religion at all times sat on him very lightly. By temperament he was not devout, and whether as Huguenot prince or CathoUc king, his talents pointed to a career of politics. Many dislike him for having abjured the faith of his childhood. But the great fact which appealed to him was this. After a generation of bloodshed, the vast majority of the French people remained Catholic. To make them Protestant at the point of the sword was impossible. Henry did abjure his religion to secure the crown, yet this act gained for the Huguenots what they could hardly have secured in any other way. By issuing the Edict of Nantes he gave his former allies toleration. And toleration was some- thing which a heretical minority seldom got any- where in those days. Henry IV., then, was not a religious enthusiast or even a moral hero. But he was a clear-sighted The Historical Background of New France 29 statesman with a sense of pubhc duty. What he did for France in a reign of fifteen years is almost incredible. By sound and honest government he gave the land a degree of prosperity which she had never had before, and which no other state in Europe could parallel. The Due de Sully, his chief minister, was the friend of agriculture, the staple industry of France then, as now. The king himself took a deep interest in manufactures, and among other activities created that silk trade which means so much to Lyons and the valley of the Rhone to-day. Improved roads, purified courts, lower taxes were but a few features of his reforms at home. Abroad, his pohcy was not to side with Protestants against Catholics or with Cathohcs against Protestants, but to oppose the House of Hapsburg, which held the thrones of Austria and Spain. Catholic king though he was, he felt himself to be first, last, and always a French- man, and king of all the French. Like Richeheu after him, he preferred a French Protestant to a Spanish CathoUc. His leagues with other powers were dictated by considerations purely pohtical, and at the moment when the hand of an assassin struck him down, he was about to engage in a general European war with the Protestants of Germany for his allies, against the Catholic king of Spain. While Henry IV. witnessed the beginning of French settlement in Canada, it was under Louis XIII. and Richeheu that the colony first received serious attention from the crown. The face of the great Cardinal no one can forget who has seen it 30 The Historical Background of New France either in the portrait of Michel Lasne or of PhiUppe de Champagne. The intellectual brow, the piercing eye, the firm mouth, the deUcately, but strongly modelled chin are features which go to make up a visage of rare dignity and force even among the leaders of mankind. For nearly twenty years at a critical point in her annals, France was ruled by this prince of the Church, this "man in the grand style if ever there was one," as Matthew Arnold has well said. Richelieu had his limita- tions. In the details of domestic administration he was not the equal of Sully or of Colbert. He was a poor financier. He did not see the evils of state paternalism in the world of industry. But when one has pointed out his failure to organise the routine of administration in harmony with the best business methods, the main defect of his genius has been indicated. Every great states- man, like every great poet, is full of imagination. Outwardly he may not be demonstrative, but he believes in certain things and works to accom- phsh definite ends, however much he may shift his means under stress of circumstances. As for Richelieu he has told us in plain terms what he sought to accompUsh. "My first aim," he says, "was the majesty of the king; my second was the greatness of the kingdom." In extending the royal power Richelieu fol- lowed the main tendency of French pohtics. Prior to the Revolution of 1789 national feeling found its expression almost exclusively through support of the king against the dukes, counts, and barons, whose triumph would have spUt the land < S d The Historical Background of New France 3 1 into many fragments and left it helpless. For France the choice was one between the despotism of the crown and the anarchy which was certain to arise if the nobles proved stronger than the crown. The English expedient of keeping the monarchy strong, but limiting its power, was never followed in France. Only once in the eight hundred years between Hugh Capet and the Revo- lution did the people gain control of the govern- ment, even for a moment. In 1356 after King John had been captured by the English at the battle of Poitiers, and the whole realm was in con- fusion, the Commons or Third Estate did snatch power for a moment. But their leader Etienne Marcel soon lost his life, and the cause of the peo- ple perished. Richelieu, when he tried to make the king supreme, was not running athwart the genius of the constitution, hke his contemporary Strafford in England. He was simply carrying to their legitimate conclusion principles which the French nation at large had long since accepted. It is under this aspect that RicheUeu's wars against the Huguenots should be viewed. Few men of his age had the persecuting spirit in a less degree. But as a poUtician he saw the special privileges possessed by the Huguenots within their cities of refuge. Towns Hke La RocheUe, Saumur, and Montauban were in his eye permanent centres of intrigue against the king. The right of the Huguenots to hold their own special assemblies, modelled in form upon the States-General, was distasteful to him. In short, Richelieu when fighting the Protestants of France regarded them 32 The Historical Background of New France far less as heretics than as enemies of national union, and subjects who gave the crown but a divided allegiance. It was, however, in the field of foreign affairs that the Cardinal found scope for the exercise of his highest and rarest talents. He was a diplo- matist, not by training but by the grace of God. Seeing with perfect clarity of vision the real weak- ness of Spain, he did not hesitate to attack this old rival whose armies and gold mines had for a hundred and fifty years been a standing menace to France. When Richelieu first crossed the path of Spain, the Spanish infantry had the reputation of being the best troops in Europe. To create a force which could meet them in open fight and beat them at their own game was a work of great daring. But the born diplomatist is brave as well as cautious, and when the Thirty Years' War was over, France, thanks to Richelieu, had made the House of Hapsburg in both branches take second place. The cost was great, and the Cardi- nal's ambition may not have been the noblest. But fighting with the weapons at his hand and according to the methods of his time, he won Alsace and raised his country to the rank of premier power upon the Continent. The relations of Richelieu with Louis XHI. were always singular, and often very difficult. The Cardinal's talents were such that the king could not be blind to them, and in the main the instinct of self-preservation led him to support the minister whose deeds brought glory to the reign. But though admiring RicheUeu, Louis never The Historical Background of New France 33 really liked him, and several times he listened to those who told him that his chief servant was a traitor. Against the Cardinal were Marie de MediciSj the queen mother, Anne of Austria, the queen, Gaston d' Orleans, the king's brother, and a host of other notables including personal favour- ites hke Cinq-Mars. Surrounded by plots and spies, RicheUeu showed himself at home as much the superior of his personal enemies as abroad he was superior to the enemies of France. Richelieu was at the noontide of his strength and fame during the last years of Champlain's hfe, and the early fortunes of New France are bound up with his general policy towards things colonial. The nature of his views regarding French expansion beyond seas we shall consider at a later stage. For the present it will be enough to observe that he favoured the creation of large commercial companies, similar to those which the English and Dutch had organised for exploiting the trade of the Indian Ocean and the Spice Islands. The history of the East India Company illustrates what can be done by a private corporation of merchants working in harmony with the national government. And Richelieu proposed to give the trans-Atlantic traders of France a degree of sup- port which the East India Company did not re- ceive from the British crown tiU the days of Chve and Warren Hastings. The Company of One Hun- dred Associates proved a failure, for any project, however good, can be spoiled by mismanagement. But Richelieu was accepting a sound idea when he told the French notables in 1626 that no 34 The Historical Background of New France kingdom was so well situated as France to become mistress of the sea, or so well provided with the necessary means; and that like her neighbours she must begin by building up strong trading companies which should receive direct support from the royal navy. At the close of 1642 Richelieu died, and on the death of Louis XIII., five months later, the gov- ernment of France passed into the hands of Car- dinal Mazarin. Thanks to a wealth of memoirs, few characters in history are better known than this Italian prelate whom accident made the ruler of France for seventeen years. As a figure in the historical background of Canada, Mazarin is chiefly memorable for two things. At home he prevented the rebellious nobles of the Fronde from destroying all government during the stormy boy- hood of Louis XIV. And in foreign affairs he was able, despite the troubled state of France, to pre- vent his adoptive fatherland from losing that European primacy which RicheUeu had won. For the rest, we must pass him by, nor can we pause to examine the rdle of Louis XIV. in building up New France. During the period from 1663 to 1670 he took an active interest in America, giving his colonial subjects more direct support than they had ever received from Henry IV., or Richelieu, or Mazarin. Afterwards his zeal for colonisation flags proportionately to the growth of his Euro- pean ambitions. And so we must pass by with a single word the king whose name heads the longest and the most dazzling chapter in the history of the Bourbons. Colbert The Historical Background of New France 35 To leave out Colbert is not so easy, for the career of this statesman is more intimately bound up with the colonising of Canada than that of any other minister, Richelieu not excepted. At the moment when Louis XIV. took over the reins of government in 1661, Colbert was quite unknown to the majority of the French people. He was bom at Reims in north-eastern France, and came from a well-to-do, middle-class family. His fortune was made on the day when he entered the service of Mazarin, who was quick to see his talent for finance and all other forms of business. Colbert is to be thought of as the soul of thorough- ness. Nature endowed him with excellent judg- ment, and that "infinite capacity for taking pains" which is for most politicians so much more service- able than undisciplined talent. He was austere but honest, and few Frenchmen have equalled him in genuine love of country. His devotion did not take a brilliant, spectacular form, but without him the successes of Louis XIV. in war and peace would have been impossible. When in a mag- nificent piece of Gobelins tapestry one sees Louis XIV. at the siege of Maestricht, amid all the pomp and panoply of war, surrounded by generals and cavaliers in the most glorious array, one is apt to forget Colbert. But Colbert was largely the cause of it all. Working day and night in his office at Paris, it was he whose intelligence arranged the scheme of taxes, developed indus- try, promoted foreign trade, and gave order to a vast web of administrative detail which but for him would have been a hopeless tangle. He was 36 The Historical Background of New France a man of science applying clearrsighted methods to the management of public affairs. He awak- ened little enthusiasm for his own person. He was too frigid, perhaps too preoccupied with his work for the realm. But contrast, if you will, Colbert with the great Conde, whose fame became univer- sal because he directed a few daring cavalry charges. I dwell upon this contrast because men of Colbert's type are in modern times quietly giving a new aspect to civilisation. Take, for example, Pasteur. "Pasteur," says Henry Holt, "shut up in his laboratory until he came out half-paralysed, with a greater boon for humanity than any conqueror ever bore, may not yet thrill us as the conquerors do, but he will." Likewise the steady, silent toil of Colbert in his office enabled Louis XIV. to pose before Europe as the Sun-king and mightiest of mortals. We have now glanced at crown, nobles, and ministers, as they stand related to the origins of French life in Canada. But it remains to ask, "What of the Church?" Indeed this question might well seem to demand first place, since the fortunes of the French-Canadian race have been linked with Rome more continuously, if not more closely, than with Paris. By the French Church one means the Roman Catholic Church in France, constituting a great national branch of the Latin communion. The presence of the Huguenots in the realm did not, for practical purposes, destroy the right of the Roman Church in France to be called national. From whatever reason, whether force or convic- The Historical Background of New France 37 tion, a vast majority had rejected the doctrines of Calvin and clung to the Mass. Paris, ever the heart of the kingdom, was bitterly opposed to the Huguenots, and though these French Protestants have many claims upon our sympathy, they were in numbers but a remnant. What they might have accomplished in the colonies, it is interesting to conjecture, for they were niuiured on the same beliefs which inspired the Puritajis, the Covenant- ers, and the Dutch. There is more than enough evidence to show that they would gladly have taken the risk of expatriation if encouraged by the government, or rather if not prevented by it. Even despite the many obstacles which withstood their desire to emigrate, one finds them, for brief moments, on the coast of Florida, in Acadia, and at Quebec. The Romanist and the Huguenot might wage war over points of dogma — the Romanist of Paris or Lyons supporting the claims of the Pope to the headship of the Church. Yet though the French nation rejected Protestant theology, both Lutheran and Calvinist, it did not lose a sense of its independence in matters of chxurch government. The faith of the Church is one thing, its adminis- tration is another. France remained true to the Roman faith, but that the Pope should name French bishops, or claim to rank in authority above a General Council, was something which Louis XIV. would not admit. Throughout a great part of his reign two ecclesiastical disputes went on side by side. Of these the strife between Jesmt £md Jansenist had almost no effect upon 38 The Historical Background of New France the ecclesiastical affairs of Canada, but with the antagonism of GalUcan and Ultramontane, it was far otherwise. The term GalUcanism has associations which might easily carry us back to the Middle Ages, but we cannot trace the stages of its development. In short, it implies a resolve on the part of the French king, or the French clergy, or both, that the Pope shall not be supreme in the government of the French Church. At times under this name the bishops seek to extend their powers. At other times it is the king who thrusts himself into the ecclesiastical sphere by claiming the right to nominate bishops and abbots, or to take over the revenue of a vacant bishopric or abbey. By the Pragmatic Sanction of 1438 the French bishops had gained important concessions from King and Pope. By the Concordat of 1516 these privileges were largely lost, King and Pope uniting to encroach upon the powers of the bishops. In the reign of Louis XIV. the conflict became one between King and Pope, Louis opposing in particular Pope Inno- cent XI. This phase of the controversy affects Canada during the period of Talon, Laval, and Frontenac. How to draw the line between Church and State has been one of the world's vexed questions for nearly nineteen centuries. Ever since Christians first heard the command Render unto Ccesar, attempts have been made to fix a scientific fron- tier between the two domains. At times the Church, asserting that things spiritual are higher than things temporal, has denied the State all The Historical Background of New France 39 claim to independent authority. But what had been urged by Gregory VII. and Innocent III. could not be supported in France during the era of Louis XIV. Emrope then saw the Most Christian King acting towards the Holy See in a spirit of inde- pendence which almost suggests Erastianism, and certainly reflects the disUke so long felt by the French crown for the decrees of Trent. Thus when Innocent XI. denied the right of the French crown to appropriate the revenues of a vacant see, it was the eloquent Bossuet who stated these four fundamentals of the Galilean Church, i. In things temporal the civil authority is not subject to the ecclesiastical. 2. The Council of Constance has rightly decreed that a General Council is superior to the Pope. 3. The Pope's power should be exercised conformably with the usage of particu- lar churches. 4. Unless the Church consent, the Pope's authority is not unalterable even in matters of faith. These words may seem dry and technical, but Bossuet was referring to the Pope when he said in language more highly coloured: "Ocean itself, immense though it be, has its hmits, and to break through at its own caprice would be to lay desolate the world." Which party had the right in this contest, it would be rash to inquire, unless one could give the subject a separate volume. The capital fact for students of Canadian history is that GaUican- ism finds a reflection in many acts of Governor and Intendant, while no stronger champion of Ultramontanism than Laval coidd have been 40 The Historical Background of New France found at the Vatican, or within the walls of Rome. And here we must pause, confronted by limita- tions of space. It is true that a comprehensive notice of the contact between France and New France would need to touch on many other themes: the main divisions of the realm as they are associated with the emigration; the life and la- bours of the peasant; the state of trade; the condition of the merchant marine, and the hopes of those brave sailors who steered for the Great Bank in crazy boats of a hundred tons. Through the investigation of subjects like these we are made to feel the living, human interest of a bygone age, and to realise the infinite diversity of man's achievement. But suggestion rather than com- pleteness is the aim which must be kept in view, and for a concluding touch we turn from France to New England. Heine, who was not fond of England, said that it would be an excellent place of residence save for two things, fog and Englishmen. Similarly, the first Frenchmen who came to Canada may have thought it delightful save for frost and Iro- quois. At the close of the seventeenth century, however, the least desirable features of hfe in Can- ada must have seemed to be frost and EngUsh neighbours. Through hard and keen rivalry, the EngUsh of America deserve a place in the histor- ical background of New France. The raids against Schenectady and Deerfield give one vivid touch to the relations of the two races in their western homes, and when the great The Historical Background of New France 41 crisis comes, it is embellished by the names of Carillon and Louisbourg. But what points more prophetically to the issue than any narrative of recriminations is the disparity in numbers. At the time Canada passed into the hands of the British crown, there were forty English colonists in America for every Frenchman. What this im- pUes regarding the initiative of the two races, or the pohcy of the respective governments, is clear, for no one can pretend that the native of Massa- chusetts or Pennsylvania had more children than the French Canadian. When it comes to a con- trast of institutions as illustrated by the episodes of colonial history, the path lengthens out to an interminable vista. For example, the resistance of Massachusetts to Sir Edmund Andros is a standard whereby to measure what the French of Canada did not do in protesting against inter- ference with trade and personal privileges. One must avoid the danger of overpraising the English because they multiplied and were suc- cessful. They had their characteristic short-com- ings in sufficient measure. Yet the factions of Massachusetts and Virginia were a healthier sign in politics than the bhghting patemaUsm which seemed to stifle so much in New France without destroying its loyalty. To be successful a colony must have its own Ufe and its own ambitions. A system under which private initiative is crushed by government control becomes in the end suici- dal. What the daring and genius of the French could accomplish may be seen in America from the deeds alike of the explorers, and of the French- 42 The Historical Background of New France Canadian soldiery. The men and women who came to the St. Lawrence from Normandy, and Perche, and the lie de France, could brave every hardship and face every danger. But the power of the king and their traditions of loyalty kept them from working out their own destinies in the new home. We now have a great deal of illumi- nating experience to guide us in forming a judg- ment on such matters. We know perfectly well that a colony need not be disloyal to the mother land because it has local pride and ambitions. This Lord Dufferin saw with perfect clearness. Writing to Lord Carnarvon in 1874, he says: " If then this growing consciousness of power should stimulate the pride of Canadians in the resources and future of their country, nay, even if it should sometimes render them jealous of any interfer- ence on the part of England with their Parliamen- tary autonomy, I do not think that we shall have any cause of complaint. On the contrary, we should view with favour the rise of a high-spirited, proud, national feeling amongst them. Such a sentiment would neither be antagonistic to our interests, nor inimical to the maintenance of the tie which now subsists between us." Two hundred years, however, separated Col- bert from Lord Dufferin, and France had to work out her colonial system in harmony with the spirit which permeated her institutions during the sev- enteenth century. To speak of colonial theory, all the European states — Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and England — made mistakes which from our point of view must seem incredible. Still, The Historical Background of New France 43 there is consolation, for after following a long record of failure and misapplied effort, it is stimu- lating to see the true ideal emerge at last. The nature of this fuller, nobler faith is revealed to us most perfectly by Burke in his speech On Concilia- tion with America : " My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protec- tion. These are ties, which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government; they will chng and grapple to you; and no force under heaven would be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it once be understood that your government may be one thing, and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation; the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple conse- crated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their eyes to you. The more they multi- ply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love Uberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have every- where. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all feehng of your true interest and your national 44 The Historical Background of New France dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monoply. This is the true act of navigation, which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this participation of free- dom, and you break that sole bond, which orig- inally made, and must stiU preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagi- nation as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your clearances, are what form the great securi- ties of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office and your instructions, and your suspending clauses are the things that hold together the great contexture of this mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English constitution, which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigor- ates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member." Not improbably Bossuet could have been just as eloquent in praise of selfless loyalty to the king. But the world inclines to judge by results, and apparently the logic of events justifies Burke's doctrine regarding the proper attitude of the mother to the daughter state. Amid all that this final contrast implies we at last pause. For the rami- fications of history are endless, and one must rest content to follow the highway a short distance. The Historical Background of New France 45 Otherwise the historical background of Bossuet and Burke would need to be sought in the thir- teenth century — Bossuet standing out against the France of St. Louis, Burke against the England of Simon de Montfort. CHAPTER n THE EXPLORER— CHAMPLAIN DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, sipping his twelfth cup of tea, found it hard to understand why people should take the trouble of visiting out- landish and savage places. To him it seemed absurd that one should run the risk of starving or breaking his neck, when he could sit comfortably at home and conceive the spectacle of rugged hiUs and solitary wastes. Fleet Street, in short, was the centre of the universe, and those who wan- dered beyond easy reach of it were fools for their pains. But many of us are lighter on our feet than Dr. Johnson, and even he was lured by Bos- well into the wilds of the Hebrides. As between society and solitude, however, the question is much older than Johnson's time. "Now am I in Arden," quoth Touchstone. "When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.'-' Probably many of Shakspere's con- temporaries said this to themselves in some form or other, when they became weary of sailing beneath the Southern Cross, or toiling through the trackless wilderness of America. But despite disappointment repeated and well-nigh crushing, 46 The Explorer — Champlain 47 the explorers kept at their work with unflagging enthusiasm. It is not difficult to understand why this should have been so, albeit Dr. Johnson found the matter a puzzle. Stevenson gives us the exact reason when he says in his stirring essay on the Enghsh Admirals: "Instead of having a taste for being successful merchants and retir- ing at thirty, some people have a taste for high and what we call heroic forms of excitement." That certainly was what the early explorers got when they came to America. High and heroic forms of excitement abounded on every hand. For men hke Champlain and La Salle the wilder- ness was full of mystery and charm. They longed to know its secrets, as the boy who first reads Grimm's Fairy Tales longs to plimge into the forest, where dwell the charcoal burners and the dwarfs with their hoards of emeralds and rubies, where the enchanted castle is buried from view among primeval oaks, and where unless one is on his guard he may be turned into a wolf or a stag by drinking from an enchanted spring. Amer- ica, for its first explorers, was seen through a golden haze of romance and adventure. Ponce de Leon, seeking for the Fountain of Youth, is the true type of these knights errant whose heads were as fuU of vision as the brain of Don Quixote. Many of the discoverers died miserably, like Pi- zarro and La Salle. Others received but pitiful rewards, like John Cabot, to whom in his royal bounty Henry VII. gave the magnificent sum of £10. Those who lost health or fortune in striv- ing to unlock the secrets of the New World were 48 The Explorer — Champlain many. Those of the explorers who came into a quiet harbour at the close of life were few. The appeal of America to the European imag- ination was irresistible and could be illustrated at great length. In the first place the discoverers were not niggardly in their use of colours. Whether because they were sanguine in temperament, or because they wished to magnify their own exploits, or simply because they were fond of telhng a good story, they loaded their pages with marvels that made the slowest pulse beat quick. The Spanish conquerors of Mexico — the famous Conquista- dores — told of a wealth and civilisation which in many ways surpassed the highest attainments of Europe. John Cabot, when he returned from his voyage of 1497, said that he had found a region of redwood and of silk, a fairly long bow when one considers that his landfall could not have been farther south than Cape Breton. When Bar- low and Amidas returned from their voyage to Virginia in 1587, they reported that Granganimeo, the chief they found in possession of the coast, had a great box of pearls, that the savages were decked out in ornaments of copper and gold, that corn was ready to harvest two months after seed- time, and that peas reached the height of fourteen inches within ten days from the time when they were put into the ground. On every hand there abounded tales of gold and silver mines which would not disgrace a modern prospectus. Stimulated by these reports of the explorers, part fact and part fable, the curiosity of Europe regarding the New World became insatiable. The The Explorer — Champlain 49 land, its inhabitants, and its resources were all subjects of an excited interest. Shakspere says in the Tempest that Enghshmen who will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. And for that matter the whole setting of the Tempest is suggested by stories of trans- Atlantic adventure. From what was said a moment ago regarding the greediness for marvels, a somewhat false inference might be drawn. It was not the vulgar alone who lay awake at night to think upon the riches and de- Hghts of the New World. The greatest wits of England, France, and Spain were touched by a like enthusiasm, or perhaps one might better say by a curiosity which was no less keen than that of the vulgar, though it was more refined. This can be seen from the form in which Sir Thomas More clothes his romance of Utopia. It appears clearer still in the essays of Montaigne. It is an essential factor of Bacon's New Atlantis. Visions of an idyUic society beyond the seas floated before the imagination of those master spirits whose ideals soared above gold mines and pearl fisheries. Far away from the wars and vices of Europe was there not some spot where mankind dwelt in peace, virtue, and innocence? Mr. Cunninghame Graham has called his book on the Jesuit Mission in Paraguay, A Vanished Arcadia. It was indeed Arcadia that the European optimist hoped some discoverer might find in the heart of the Ameri- can wilderness. The literature of exploration is large, for any book about the New World was sure to find readers. 50 The Explorer — Champlain An amusing account could be given of the way in which unscrupulous bookmakers stole and modi- fied, in order to catch the ear of the public. Many a volume on America which purported to be new, and of original authority, was a barefaced compila- tion from works already in existence. In other cases men like Hennepin or La Hontan, who actu- ally had been in the wilderness, enlarged their experience for the sake of fame, or to make out a more marketable story. Thus La Hontan invented his journey to the River Long; thus Hennepin embroidered his adventures in the val- ley of the Mississippi. It is particularly interest- ing to see how quiet Church-of-England clergy- men like Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas were carried away by their love of this hterature. Passing their lives amid the hum-drum routine of quiet parishes, their thoughts were over the sea in the land of the Aztecs or on the island of Roan- oke. Each of these divines edited a series of travels so extensive that taken together the two works fiU forty volumes of a modern edition. And Purchas says of himself: "I, which have written so much of travellers and travels, never travelled two hundred miles from Thaxted in Essex, where I was born." In France one finds a hke fondness for trans- Atlantic literature. The Relations des /^suites were read out of their covers, and though issued in large editions from the press of Sebastian Cramoisy are now extremely rare. Whether we ascribe the avidity of purchasers and readers to their zeal for the mission or to their love of adven- turous literature, these reports from the forests The Explorer — Champlain 51 of Lake Huron were read as the school-boy reads Tom Brown at Rugby. In the case of Canada some elements of romance were lacking. A shght investigation sufficed to show that on the banks of the St. Lawrence gold mines and sUver mines were conspicuous by their absence. The wealth of the country lay in beaver skins, and obviously it was less exciting to hunt the industrious beaver than to prospect for gold. Moreover no explorer brought back from the inte- rior of New France reports of a native civilisation equEil to that of the Aztecs in Mexico. Another depressing circumstance was the rigour of the climate. From the first moment of French settle- ment in Canada until the Seven Years' War, there were those who scoffed at the idea of founding a colony under the shadow of the North Pole. We aU know how Voltaire called Canada a patch of snow, but unless one uses the index to Voltaire's seventy volumes he will hardly realise how often this author recurs to the same idea. He comments upon the poverty of Louisbourg in contrast to the affluence of the city of Mexico, where there are fifteen thousand carriages; and to that of Lima, where, he says, the number of carriages is larger still. He styles Canada a wretched country for the sake of which the French are always kept in war, either -with the natives or with the Eng- Ush. He says it is covered with snow and ice for eight months in the year, and inhabited by bar- barians, bears, and beavers. Speaking of Kirke's expedition in 1628, Voltaire further observes: "He took possession of the whole of Acadia. That is 52 The Explorer — Champlain to say, he destroyed the huts of a few fisher- men." Thus one quick-witted Frenchman thought Can- ada a bad investment. But this was not the only side to the picture. The grandeur of the St. Law- rence and the Great Lakes, the abundance of fish and game, the joys of open-air hfe in the sum- mer, and the possibilities of the fur trade were strong and sufficient inducements to the explorer. Manifestly Canada was not a place for those whose idea of life in the New World was to bask in an even temperature of 75 degrees and eat bananas; but it was soon dicovered that melons would ripen on the island of Montreal, and that even winter had its joys and compensations. At any rate those who complain and criticise are not the explorers. Almost uniformly the explorer speaks in tones of buoyancy and hope. New France might seem less favoured by nature than Florida or Peru, but Champlain and men hke him gave little thought to such comparisons. The charm of the unknown was the same, whether in high latitudes or low. Leaving Quebec the pioneer plunged into the heart of the wilderness, there to brave the red man and the fatigues of the portage. One of the first foes he encountered was the mosqviito. The records of exploration abound with reference to birds, animals, and insects, but not even the worthy beaver furnishes a larger subject for comment than the melodious and persevering mosquito. Thus Father Paul Le Jeune, writing in August, 1632, tells how he ventured to go ashore near The Explorer — Champlain 53 Tadoussac. "I thought," he says, "I would be eaten by the mosquitoes, which are httle flies, troublesome in the extreme. The great forests here engender several species of them; there are common flies, gnats, fireflies, mosquitoes, large flies, and a number of others; the large flies sting furiously, and the pain from their sting, which is very piercing, lasts for a long time; there are but few of these large flies. The gnats are very small, hardly visible, but very perceptibly felt; the fire- flies do no harm; at night they look like sparks of fire, casting a greater light than the glowworms I have seen in France. Taking one of these flies and holding it near a book, I could read very easily. As for the mosquitoes, they are disagreeable beyoi;id description. They war, however, upon some peo- ple more than others." From all of which, and much else to the same effect, it would appear that the insect life of Canada has suffered little change during the past two hundred and seventy-five years. However deep an interest the pioneer might take in the flora and fauna of the forest, its human inhabitants had a still stronger claim upon his attention. Most of those who owe their sole knowledge of the American Indian to the novels of J. Fenimore Cooper will be surprised to learn that the numbers of the red man in the northern part of the continent were singularly small. Owing to the fact that the Western Hemisphere was lacking in animals which could be domesticated, agriculture was backward, and without agriculture there could be no large population. Among the 54 The Explorer — Champlain Eskimo, at the present day, the struggle for existence is so severe that as a rule the aged are abandoned to their fate. In the part of America occupied by New France the conditions were somewhat less rigorous than in the Arctic Circle, but save for the tribes which cultivated maize the food supply was most precarious. A tribe of the Montagnais roving through the Laurentian country in winter was always face to face with starvation, and farther south, throughout the region where winter was less trying, intertribal wars caused dreadful loss of hfe. Epidemic diseases were another scourge. When we consider all these facts in conjunction with each other, we can under- stand why the Indian population should have been so small. Speaking in more precise terms, it may be doubted whether aJl the Indians between Kentucky and the Ottawa (from south to north), and between Lake Superior and the Atlantic (from west to east), numbered above 100,000 souls. Nearly three quarters of this total is repre- sented by the Algonquins, who occupied the greater part of the territory just defined. The Micmacs, the Penobscots, the Montagnais, the Ottawas, and the lUinois, are but a few of the tribes belonging to the Algonquin family. While somewhat more amenable to civilisation than the Iroquois, the Algonqviins are not to be thought of as a peaceful group of Indians. Wherever they practised agriculture at aU, their tillage was very poor, and in general they depended for food upon hunting and fishing. Over against them may be placed the much smaller group of Huron-Iroquois. The Explorer — Champlain §$ By speaking of the Hurons and the Iroquois in conjunction, one does not mean to imply that they were good friends. In the end the Huron nation was virtually exterminated by the Iroquois, these family feuds cropping out at times even among races. A parallel case is furnished in the annals of Europe by the hatreds of Goths and Vandals who were first cousins, but the bitterest foes to each other of all the German tribes that entered the Roman Empire. The Hurons had their head- quarters in the district neighbouring Georgian Bay. The Iroquois Uved south of Lake Ontario, and controlled the region between the Hudson and the Ohio. The Five Nations, as the English called them, were the keenest, the bravest, the crudest, and the most daring Indians with whom the French came in contact. With an average of hardly more than three thousand inhabitants to a tribe, the Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onon- dagas, and Cayugas were terrorising the whole Indian world at the moment when Champlain came to Quebec. The mjrth of the noble red man is hard to dispel, and even when you have dispelled it you are vexed by the Ungering feeUng that after all you may not be right. If one should press against the North American Indian the worst things that have been said about him by those who knew him well, he would seem more devilish than the head- hunters of Borneo, and more indecent than the Hottentots. The inhuman delight he showed in the torture of prisoners is perhaps the worst item in the indictment against him, though many dis- 56 The Explorer — Champlain gusting details have been preserved about his private life. On the other hand, the backward races must be viewed in the light of the fact that moral standards are constantly changing. The red man had certain standards of honour and decency by which, with a certain degree of force, he might claim to be tried. Courage, patience, gener- osity, politeness, and independence are fine traits, and the Indians were credited by many observers with possessing all of these characteristics. There is also much testimony to show that among them- selves, members of a given tribe were peaceable. On the whole the council is the institution which shows them off to the best advantage. It was said of the Normans, by one of their own histori- ans, that they were orators from the cradle. The Indians, especially the Hurons and the Iroquois, had a natural eloquence which impressed almost every European explorer. At their marriages and feasts speaJiing had a place which was quite equal to that of oratory in post-prandial exercises at the present day. The Indian loved rhetoric for its own sake, and at times could be rhetorical in the bad sense of that term. But more often he was dignified and polished, loved a logical treatment of his subject, and relied for his effect mainly on the force of his reasons. The council of the tribe was a gathering in which these gifts of speech found free scope for exercise. On great occasions a platform was erected for the orators, and as a rule those who could best persuade were held in highest honour. One is particularly interested to see how the first of the French in America were The Explorer — Champlain 57 impressed by the eloquence and the reasoning powers of the savage. In 1636 Le Jeune says that a chieftain of the Montagnais at Tadoussac speaks like a Roman Senator. In 1649 ^^e Huron refugees who sought aid from the French after the greater part of their nation had been extermi- nated by the Iroquois, spoke for more than three hours with an eloquence that could not have been surpassed in France. No feature of Indian life and character awakened more sincere admiration among European explorers than this facihty in pubUc speech. A certain aptitude for civilisation seems to be suggested by other facts which the explorers observed. The Iroquois had crops of maize, and kept a certain food supply in reserve. They had their villages, and built palisades as a safeguard against surprise or siege. They had made some progress in the primitive arts, particu- larly in weaving. But when one has prepared the best possible brief on behalf of the North American Indian, he must admit that only by a suppression of essential facts can the red man be turned into material for romance. What of the wigwam, with its vile smoke and its horrid dirt? What of Indian cook- ery, crude and gross, with its chief delicacy in bear's fat? What of the torture, with its cruelties wanton and fiendish almost beyond beUef? Wil- liam of Malmesbury, who lived shortly after the Norman Conquest, states that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were accustomed to eat until they were surfeited, and to drink till they were sick. But there is a wide gulf between Anglo-Saxon revel 58 The Explorer — Champlain and the festin (i manger tout of the Iroquois. We need not dwell at length on the darker side of Indian character, or try to discriminate between what is best, and what worst. One fact stands out from all others. The North American Indian had not enough self-control, or enough capacity for education, to resist the vices of European society. Fire-water was his chief bane, but even where he did not destroy himself by the excessive potation of bad brandy, he assimilated the least desirable things which the French and Enghsh had to teach him. One cannot generaUse hght- heartedly about men in the mass, whether white or black, red or yellow. Honest and self-sacrificing Indians doubtless existed, but the race at large was doomed from the first moment of its contact with Europeans. It had not reached the stage where it could appreciate and profit by the best in European example. Its inbred love of animal pleasures and the nomadic hfe was far stronger than any culture impulses impelling it to accept European discipline and knowledge. From the wilderness and its inhabitants, let us now turn to the Explorer who, through love of gain, adventure or fame, braved the perils of the unknown. It does not take long to discover his motives. The true explorer goes exploring T^ecause he likes it, an explanation which lies at the root of all decent accomplishment. You may say that the St. Lawrence and its tributaries were explored because a good cargo of beaver skins brought in a profit of 200 per cent. But leaving aside the missionary motive, which in the present The Explorer — Champlain 59 case was quite as important as the desire for large profits, no genuine explorer is a mere money getter. He may talk about fame, or serving his king, or extending the borders of science, but in reality he has a quick imagination which takes fire at the thought of strange sights and untried excitements. If he is to succeed he must have, besides imagina- tion, strong nerves and robustness of character. The born explorer has been sketched for us to the life by Tennyson in his Ulysses. "Come, my friends," exclaims the aged king of Ithaca to the comrades of his youth: "Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and setting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." In this spirit America was discovered. In this spirit the recesses of the continent were laid bare. Many were they who entered upon the work with unconquerable hopes and sinews of steel, but among them all, from Columbus to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, will not be found an explorer of a finer 6o The Explorer— Champlain temper or a more native genius than Samuel de Champlain. Fortunately we have the record of his life in his own words — not as a definite autobiography, but in the form of his Voyages or travels. In 1870 the complete works of Champlain were published with sumptuous paper and print, by Laval Uni- versity, under the editorial care of the Abbe Laverd- ifere. And this editor has summed up well when, in the first sentence of his introduction, he writes: "It may be said that the whole life of Champlain is to be had from his works." It becomes, there- fore, the chief duty of a lecturer on Champlain to emphasise the sovereign importance of the explorer's narrative. The most complete English translation is that which was made some twenty- five years ago by Professor C. P. Otis. This ver- sion, originally issued by the Prince Society of Boston, has been repubUshed recently under the care of Dr. Jameson and Mr. W. L. Grant. An- other serviceable translation of the early Voyages will be found in the Trail Makers' series. Best of all, however, is Champlain's own text for those who can read French of the seventeenth century — an exercise of no great difficulty. It seems probable that Champlain became an author through happy accident. In 1603, when asked to join De Chastes' expedition, he accepted under the condition that the king gave him express permission. Not only did Henry IV. grant the desired leave, but he ordered Champlain to present on his return a minute account of all that had been discovered. Accordingly the founder of Que- Champlain The Explorer— Champlain 6 1 bee made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence, not only under royal warrant, but in the capacity of geographer to the king. I think there is noth- ing to show that Champlain sought this post, or had it in mind when he asked for the king's san(^tion. But once he was distinguished by special appoint- ment, he took his duties of geographer and hydrog- rapher very seriously, and in consequence we have a priceless record of adventure. Champlain writes with great simpUcity and directness, lopping off those ornaments of style which can weU be dis- pensed with in such a narrative, and never suffer- ing the action to lag. He uses the first person with great frequency, but not in a strain of boast- fulness. He had unusual experiences to describe, and knew that a plain tale would be most effective. From what he did, rather than from what he says about his deeds, we infer the nature of his greatness as an explorer, but it is clear that he had the cheerfulness, the determination, and the zest in his task which hghten aU burdens. At the date when Champlain first sailed for the St. Lawrence, he was thirty-six years old. Like Cartier, he came of a seafaring family, but unhke Cartier, he had seen service in war before he entered upon his larger career of navigator. Bom at Brouage in Saint Onge, he was christened Samuel, a name common among the Huguenots. Whether Champlain started life in the ranks of the Calvinists is a matter of shght practical impor- tance. In adult years he was a convinced and enthusiastic CathoUc, who rendered conspicuous service to his Church, and was held by her in high 62 The Explorer — Champlain honour. Despite the part which he took in the wars of the League, his heart from boyhood was set upon the sea. Looking back to this period, he once said: "I loved the sea in my early years, and through my whole life I have met its perils on the ocean and on the coasts of New France, with the hope of seeing the lily of France able to protect there the holy Catholic rehgion." By an interesting freak of fortune, Champlain first saw the New World under Spanish auspices. Relieved from mihtary duties at the Peace of Ver- vins in 1598, he at once took to his chosen element, and sailed for Cadiz with a load of Spanish soldiers who had been serving in France during the reh- gious wars. WhUe in Spain he became known as an expert seaman, and in command of a freight boat visited the West Indies and Mexico. His ship sailed in company with a royal squadron, and he had every chance to see the most valuable part of the Spanish possessions in America. Mex- ico delighted him, both city and country. He went to Panama, and reflected upon the possibility of piercing the isthmus by a canal. In short he was personally famUiar with the Spanish part of North America before he became a founder of French power in Canada. From such a standard of comparison, he must have gained great profit in later life. This first of Champlain's trans-Atlantic expedi- tions occupied over two years, and furnished him with material for a httle book — his Voyage to the West Indies. The book in turn enhanced the honourable reputation which he had gained as a The Explorer— Champlain 63 soldier, and brought him the favourable notice of Henry IV. It needs to be pointed out that Cham- plain, throughout the whole period when he was working so hard for France in Canada, received faithful support from leading personages like the Comte de Soissons, the Prince de Conde, the Due de Montmorency, and RicheUeu himself. Many of the explorers were weakened by the machina- tions of enemies at court; Champlain, on the con- trary, enjoyed the rare and honourable distinction of being trusted. This fact alone should give us some impression of his character. From 1603 forward, information regarding Champlain' s movements is so abundant that we shall be unable to follow the details of his career. For us his chief exploits are associated with the St. Lawrence basin and the Great Lakes. But while this is so, it must not be forgotten that before he finally committed himself to Laurentian explora- tion, he had done splendid work on the Atlantic seaboard. In point of time, the relation between the Acadian episode and the founding of Quebec can best be indicated as foUows: Champlain made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence in 1603, sail- ing aboard a ship which was commanded by Pont- grave, the famous mariner of St. Malo. On this occasion he reached Tadoussac towards the close of April, and left it for the homeward voyage on the i6th of August. During the interval he sailed up the Saguenay for a considerable distance — farther than any of the French traders had gone — and ascended the St. Lawrence to the foot of the Lachine Rapids. As a second side excursion (that 64 The Explorer — Champlain up the Saguenay being the first), he followed the Richeheu until he reached the rapid at Chambly. Returning to Tadoussac in July, he went thence to Gaspe, had a gUmpse of the Isle Percee, looked into the Bay of Chaleurs, and thence returned to Tadoussac for a cargo of furs. Besides beaver skins, Champlain took back to France with him, from this voyage, several Indians. It was in 1603 that he named Lake St. Peter and the Falls of Montmorency. His imagination was also excited by what the Indians told him about great lakes lying far above the Lachine Rapids. One part of this tale was that beyond a stupendous cataract there lay a sea of salt water. All this, one might think, should have brought Champlain back to the St. Lawrence the follow- ing spring; but as matters turned out, he was not to see it for nearly five years after he first left Tadoussac. De Chastes, who had prompted the expedition of 1603, died before his ships returned. The result was that for the next few years, French effort in North America was deflected from the St. Lawrence to Acadia. De Monts, upon whom De Chastes' mantle immediately fell, sought to estabUsh a colony, but desired for it a more salu- brious climate than that of Tadoussac. How the French strove to gain a foothold at St. Croix Island and Port Royal, every one knows. For the pres- ent we are concerned only with Acadian colon- isation as an episode in the life and exploration of Champlain. During the seasons from 1604 to iboy he was engaged in studying the Americaji cozist line from Nova Scotia to Martha's Vineyard. The Explorer — Champlain 65 In his r61e of geographer, he made exact observa- tions, gave names to the most important physical features, and prepared a series of maps. At pres- ent this region is frequented in summer by thousands of pleasure-seekers from both Canada and the United States. But the tourist who goes to the coast of Maine, to the Bay of Fundy, or to the south- ern shore line of Nova Scotia, is imperfectly equipped unless he carries Champlain' s Voyages. No one before him had examined this coast with any degree of accuracy, or charted the sinuosities of cape and island. Without multiplying exam- ples, it is to Champlain that we owe the names of Port Royal, the St. John River, and Mount Desert. Meanwhile the efforts of De Monts to buUd up French colonies in Acadia had been a failure, and Champlain seized the occasion to bring the St. Lawrence once more into prominence. For nearly seventy-five years the French had been familiar with the course of the great river as far as Mon- treal. Jacques Cartier opened that path. But until 1608 there had been no genuine attempt to create a permanent settlement, even of fur traders. The nearest approach to such an attempt was made in 1600 by Chauvin, a merchant of Honfleur, who left sixteen men to winter at Tadoussac. Though on good terms with the Indians, most of them died before spring, and for the next few years French ships entered the St. Lawrence only in quest of beaver skins. It is clear that Quebec, during its first twenty years, was little more than an outpost of the fur trade. At this period Champlain occupied a some- 66 The Explorer — Champlain what difficult position. He was a born explorer whom financial exigencies placed in dependence upon men of business. De Monts had lost money in Aca- dia, and Champlain pointed out that he might make good his losses by venturing a Uttle more in another quarter. But Champlain was not in- spired by a love of profit. We have, fortunately, an express statement regarding his aims, from one who knew him well in Acadia. I refer to that vivacious and dehghtful writer Marc Lescarbot, the earliest historian of Port Royal. In the very year after Champlain landed his twenty-seven colonists at Quebec, Lescarbot pubhshed his His- toire de la Nouvelle France, wherein will be found this passage: "Let us admit that France owes these discoveries to the Sieur de Monts, at whose expense they have been made; and she is hkewise indebted to the courage of Champlain in exposing his hfe in these explorations, and in bearing some of the charge. Champlain promises never to cease his efforts until he has found either a western sea or a northern sea, opening the route to China, which so many have thus sought in vain." Much emphasis should be placed upon this pas- sage from Lescarbot, for it brings out the motive of Champlain' s whole career. Though he founded Quebec, he cannot be styled the Sir Walter Raleigh of France. He was first and foremost a geographer, — a geographer in the highest sense of the word, — one who discovers and who sets down his dis- coveries in scientific form. On a smaller scale De Monts may perhaps be called the French Ra- leigh. Champlain is a practical seaman like his The Explorer — Champlain 67 friend Pontgrave, but with superior knowledge, a larger intelligence, and a more abundant share of pubhc spirit. We have seen how he came to the St. Lawrence in 1603. When he returned to it in 1608, he was a man of much wider experience. He came the second time with an estabhshed repu- tation, and the sense of confidence which springs from success. A superb constitution fitted him to endure the exposures of the wilderness, and to with- stand the attack of scurvy. To these qualities and attainments may be added unfhnching courage, both physical and moral. Haxdly had Champlain reached Quebec in 1608 than he was given a chance to show his resolution. There were in the St. Lawrence some traders from those Basque provinces which are situated on the confines of France and Spain. These men sought to make up a cargo of beaver skins in defiance of the monopoly given by Henry IV. to De Monts. Trouble had arisen with them at Tadoussac, and shortly after Champlain disembarked at Quebec, he discovered a mutiny among a section of his followers. The plot was to kill him and place the settlement in the hands of the interloping Basques. After due trial before a court martial, which acted upon sworn evidence, Duval, the ringleader, was sentenced and executed. Three years later Henry Hudson, the great English navigator, feU victim to just such a conspiracy as that which was nipped in the bud at Quebec. At later stages we shaU consider the fortunes of the colony which Champlain planted upon the promontory of Cape Diamond. For the present 68 The Explorer — Champlain it must suffice to indicate how small was the scale of the enterprise, and how dreadful were the suf- ferings of the first settlers. Out of the twenty- eight, including Champlain, who remained at Que- bec when Pontgrave sailed away in September of 1608, only seven, besides the leader, were alive at the beginning of the next summer. This dreadful tale of mortality is not, however, by any means unusual in the annals of early colonisation, as may be seen from the experience of the EngKsh in both Virginia and Massachusetts. Swept by scurvy, and sparsely recruited from home, the colonists at Quebec remained a mere handful until after the first capture of the place by the EngUsh in 1629. During this early period, the most valuable, by far, of the colonists were Louis Hebert and his family. They alone took to the land with the determination that they would make it yield them a hving. The rest had httle interest in the coun- try outside the profits of the fur trade. Weak though it was at the outset, Quebec fur- nished Champlain with a useful point of departure for journeys into the wUderness. Of these the three most remarkable were the expeditions of 1609, 1613, and 1615. In 1609 he discovered Lake Cham- plain, and had his first battle with the Iroquois. In 1613 he was lured up the Ottawa by false infor- mation regarding a great body of salt water. In 1615 he joined forces with a number of Algonquins and Hurons in an attempt to destroy the strong- hold of the Onondagas. Each of these expeditions merits some further notice. Considered from one standpoint, 1609 was a e ^ u The Explorer — Champlain 69 critical year in the life of the French colony, for it was then that Champlain took the serious step of attacking the Iroquois. When one remembers how this race became the scourge of the French for almost a century, the wisdom of attacking them may well be challenged. The Abbe Faillon, for example, has passed severe strictures on our explorer, and even his admirer Charlevoix thinks he went too far when he lead the Algonquins into action. Justin Winsor remarks playfully that Champlain was fond of a hunt, and neglected to consider whether his game was a squirrel or an Iro- quois. For myself, I believe him to have been swayed by general motives of expediency. The Indian world was then torn by a war of Hurons and Algonquins against Iroquois. Now the Hurons and Algonquins inhabited the region from which the French drew their furs, and without their help the peltry trade would dwindle. Champlain doubt- less considered it good poUcy to accept their prof- fered friendship, and show proof of his sincerity by helping them against their hated foes.* Whether *The most significant statement on this subject which we have from Champlain himself occurs in the Voyage of 1615, where he describes his motives in going against the Onondagas, as the ally of the tribes who came to traffic at the Lachine Rapids (Sault St. Louis). " Whereupon Sieur Pontgrav^ and myself con- cluded that it was very necessary to assist them, not only in order to put them the more under obligations to love us, but also to facilitate my undertakings and explorations which, as it seemed, could be accomplished only by their help, and also as this would be a preparatory step to their conversion to Chris- tianity. Therefore I resolved to go and explore their country and assist them in their wars, in order to oblige them to show me what they had so many times promised to do." 70 The Explorer — Champlain he would have acted otherwise in the Ught of fuller information about the Iroquois than he possessed, we can only guess. There is no part of his writ- ings which is better worth reading than his account of how he discovered the noble lake that bears his name, and how he routed his savage enemies. The fight took place not far from Carillon or Ticonderoga. Stepping out twenty paces in front of his allies, Champlain in armour, with arquebus and plumed helmet, dealt death among the Iroquois with a weapon which they then saw for the first time. But here we must leave the explorer to tell his own story, for though it oversteps the ordinary bounds of a quotation, there is no better example of Champlain' s style in narrative, while the first clash between French and Iroquois is, of itself, a striking episode. "When it was evening, we embarked in our canoes to continue our course; and, as we advanced very quietly and without making any noise, we met on the 29th of the month the Iro- quois, about ten o'clock at evening, at the extrem- ity of a cape which extends into the lake on the western bank. They had come to fight. We both began to utter loud cries, aU getting their arms in readiness. We withdrew out on the water, and the Iroquois went on shore, where they drew up aU their canoes close to each other and began to feU trees with poor axes, which they acquire in war sometimes, using also others of stone. Thus they barricaded themselves very well. " Our forces also passed the entire night, their canoes being drawn up close to each other, and The Explorer — Champlain 71 fastened to poles, so that they might not get sep- arated, and that they might be all in readiness to fight, if occasion required. We were out upon the water, within arrow range of their barricades. When they were armed and in array, they despatched two canoes by themselves to the enemy to inquire if they wished to fight, to which the latter replied that they wanted nothing else; but they said that, at present, there was not much light, and that it would be necessary to wait for daylight, so as to be able to recognise each other; and that, as soon as the sun rose, they would offer us battle. This was agreed to by our side. Meanwhile, the entire night was spent in dancing and singing, on both sides, with endless insults and other talk; as, how httle courage we had, how feeble a resist- ance we would make against their arms, and that, when day came, we should realise it to our ruin. Ours also were not slow in retorting, telling them they would see such execution of arms as never before, together with an abundance of such talk as is not unusual in the siege of a town. After this singing, dancing, and bandjdng words on both sides to the fill, when day came, my companions and myself continued under cover, for fear that the enemy would see us. We arranged our arms in the best manner possible, being, however, sep- arated, each in one of the canoes of the savage Montagnais. After arming ourselves with light armour, we each took an arquebus and went on shore. I saw the enemy go out of their barricade, nearly two hundred in number, stout and robust in appearance. They came at a slow pace towards 72 The Explorer — Champlain us, with a dignity and assurance which greatly impressed me, having three chiefs at their head. Our men also advanced in the same order, telling me that those who had three large plumes were the chiefs, and that they had only these three, and that they could be distinguished by these plumes, which were much larger than those of their com- panions, and that I should do what I could to kill them. I promised to do all in my power, and said that I was very sorry they could not under- stand me, so that I might give order and shape to their mode of attacking their enemies, and then we should, without doubt, defeat them all; but that this could not now be obviated, and that I should be very glad. to show them my courage and good will when we should engage in the fight. "As soon as we had landed, they began to run for some two hundred paces towards their enemies, who stood firmly, not having as yet noticed my companions, who went into the woods with some savages. Our men began to caU me with loud cries; and, in order to give me a passageway, they opened in two parts, and put me at their head, where I marched some twenty paces in advance of the rest, until I was within about thirty paces of the enemy, who at once noticed me, and, halting, gazed at me, as I did also at them. When I saw them making a move to fire at us, I rested my musket against my cheek, and aimed directly at one of the three chiefs. With the same shot, two fell to the ground; and one of their men was so wounded that he died some time after. I had loaded my musket with four balls. When our side saw this o a o w X o The Explorer — Champlain 73 shot so favourable for them, they began to raise such loud cries that one could not have heard it thunder. Meanwhile, the arrows flew on both sides. The Iroquois were greatly astonished that two men had been so quickly kiUed, although they were equipped with armour woven from cotton thread, and with wood which was proof against their arrows. This caused great alarm among them. As I was loading again, one of my com- panions fired a shot from the woods, which aston- ished them anew to such a degree that, seeing their chiefs dead, they lost courage, and took to flight, abandoning their camp and fort, and fleeing into the woods, whither I pursued them, killing still more of them. Our savages also killed several of them, and took ten or twelve prisoners. The remainder escaped with the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen were wounded on our side with arrow shots; but they were soon healed. "After gaining the victory, our men amused themselves by taking a great quantity of Indian com and some meal from their enemies, also their armour, which they had left behind that they might run better. After feasting sumptuously, dancing and singing, we returned three hours after, with the prisoners. The spot where this attack took place was in latitude 43° and some minutes, and the lake was called Lake Champlain." * The fight of 1609 was hardly more than a skir- mish, but in 1615 Champlain committed himself to * The passage quoted is taken from the translation of Cham- plain's Voyages, which was made by the late Professor C. P. Otis for the Prince Society of Boston. 74 The Explorer — Champlain war with the Iroquois on a grand scale. This does not mean that he led a French army into the woods. He had only ten of his fellow countrymen with him when the expedition began. But he was accom- panied by a large band of Indian alUes, and the campaign was planned with great care. It also involved great effort since the fort of the Onon- dagaSj which it was hoped to destroy, could not safely be reached except by a roundabout march of more than a thousand miles. Worst of all the attempt proved a fiasco. Once more Champlain and his men did much damage with their firearms, but the Indian alhes disobeyed orders, attacked the fort too soon, and could not be brought into hne after the first repulse. To increase the misfortune^ Champlain was wounded by an arrow, and suffered agonies in the retreat. Besides courage and energy, the explorer re- quired unconquerable patience. The power to bear rebuff, to suffer fools gladly, and make the best of a bad predicament, was the most serviceable endowment that he could have. Champlain en- dured countless checks and disappointments from the promoters of the fur trade. The colony lan- guished in spite of all his efforts. The English sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1629 and forced him to surrender Quebec. But even remembering all these things we may still doubt whether Champlain was ever more sorely tried than when Nicolas de Vignau led him up the Ottawa in search of salt water which did not exist. Vignau was a young Frenchman who had come over with Cham- plain in 1610, and been permitted by him to winter The Explorer — Champlain y^ among the Algonquins. Two years later he reap- peared at Quebec, swearing that he had followed the Ottawa up to a large lake, and thence by another stream reached a salt sea, where he saw the wreck of an English ship. Vignau professed a willingness to lead Champlain thither, and actu- ally decoyed him to a point far up the Ottawa. Then it was learned from the Algonquins that when Vignau professed to have been discovering salt seas, he was quietly spending the winter with the Indians. Remembering how Champlain longed to find the western passage, his heartbreaking grief at this fraud may be imagined. These are but a few of the thousand incidents; which filled the life of Champlain during the. long period when he was striving for the develop- ment of French interests in North America. The capture of Quebec by the EngUsh seemed at the moment to destroy aU his work. But it did not. When France regained Canada by the Peace of St. Germain, no one but Champlain could be thought of as her governor, and he returned to end his days with honour in the colony which he had founded. What form his activity took in later days — that is to say after he had given over the work of exploring for that of administration — we cannot pause to inquire, but certain aspects of his career as an explorer can be thrown into high relief by a comparison with La Salle. New France had many adventurous spirits among its colonists and missionaries. Sagard, Nico- let, Radisson, Joliet, Marquette, and Du Lhut are but a few among those who plunged deep into the •jb The Explorer— Champlain wilderness, during the seventy-five years which followed the founding of Quebec. But among them all, not one of Champlain's successors is so distinctively the explorer as La SaUe. Radisson went primarily in search of beaver skins. Mar- quette was primarily interested in converting savages. La Salle on the contrary was primarily an explorer. For the conversion of the Indians he cared nothing. For trade he cared something, because he had debts to pay and heavy expenses to meet. But even more than Champlain, La Salle was an explorer. In later life the care of a colony divided Champlain's attention, whereas La Salle concentrated his effort upon solving the problem of the Mississippi. Champlain died on Christmas day, 1635. L^- Salle first came to Canada in the spring of 1666. A full generation, therefore, separates the two explorers, and in that time the frontier of the known had been pushed farther and farther west, until for geographical novelties it was necessary to go beyond the St. Lawrence basin, even beyond the Great Lakes. In Champlain's day the relation of the Great Lakes to each other, and to the valley of the Ottawa, was but imperfectly understood' In the age of La Salle there were French forts or missions at the outlet of Lake Ontario, at Niagara, MichiUimackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie. Every year traders or missionaries were passing from Quebec to the fays A' en haul — the back country which lay around the five inland seas. The successive stages of discovery we cannot stop to trace, but what must be noted without fail is j|,jjffij»ilj(lll(il|DiiJ|lltJtltW] La Salle The Explorer— Champlain 77 that the efforts of Champlain and La Salle are connected with totally different regions. La Salle he^^n not where Champlain left off, but where Radisson, Joliet, and Marquette left off. Above all else the name of La Salle is connected with the Mississippi. He did not discover it. That was the achievement of Joliet and Marquette in 1673.* La Salle did not begin his grand enterprise till 1678, though the scheme was in his mind long before. His earliest associations in Canada are with Lachine, where he had a seigniory, and when his imagination was first fired by dreams of adven- ture in the wilderness, his hope was to find the western passage. The discovery of the Mississippi changed the Une of his ambition. He saw in fancy a land far richer and warmer than Canada, watered by a noble stream and unappropriated by any European nation. To lay bare its wealth and seize upon it for France became the dream of his life. It is through La SaUe that there grew up the proj- ect of a French Empire in America, which should comprise the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the whole course of the Mississippi, and Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico. In coupling the names of Champlain and La Salle, I would single these men out from the other French explorers in North America as being both by spirit and accomplishment the greatest. Of the two La Salle has to his credit the most bril- liant tour de force, since no single exploit of Cham- plain equals in daring the descent of the Mississippi * For a discussion of the claim that the Mississippi was discov- ered by Groseilliers and Radisson, see pp. 203-205. jB The Explorer — Champlain to the Gulf. Champlain ran endless risks, but he came out of the wilderness alive, and ended his life in peace and honour. La Salle's career is the more striking of the two, for its hghts and shadows are in stronger contrast. After high hopes comes a series of heartbreaking disappointments. Then follows the one extraordinary success. After this the bad luck returns, and the most original, if the most wayward, of the French explorers, is mur- dered by his own companions.* * The following account of La Salle's death and character is taken from the Journal kept by Joutel, who accompanied him on his last expedition. At the point where the quota- tion begins, La Salle has just been firing at an eagle. " The conspirators, hearing the shot, concluded that it was M. La Salle who was come to seek them. They made ready their arms and provided to surprise him. Duhaut passed the river with Larcheveque. The first of them spying M. La Salle at a distance, as he was coming towards them, advanced and hid himself among the high weeds, to wait his passing by, so that M. La Salle, suspecting nothing, and having not so much as charged his piece again, saw the aforesaid Larcheveque at a good distance from him, and immediately asked for his nephew Morganget, to which Larcheveque answered that he was along the river. At the same time the traitor Duhaut fired his piece and shot M. La Salle through the head, so that he dropped down dead on the spot, without speaking one word. " Father Anastasius, who was then by his side, stood stock- still in a fright, expecting the same fate, and not knowing whether he should go forwards or backwards; but the mur- derer Duhaut put him out of that dread, bidding him not to fear, for no hurt was intended him; that it was despair that had prevailed with him to do what he saw; that he had long desired to be revenged on Morganget, because he had designed to ruin him, and that he was partly the occasion of his uncle's death. This is the exact relation of that murder, as it was presently after told me by Father Anastasius. " Such was the unfortunate end of M. La Salle's life, at a The Explorer — Champlain 79 But notwithstanding the dramatic interest of La Salle's character and deeds, Champlain deserves to head the long and honourable list of French dis- coverers. He had a poise and self-control which La Salle lacked. He had a greater regard for the rights of others, and elicited a much heartier co- operation from his associates. La Salle could inspire a disciple hke Tonty with boundless devo- tion, but his arrogance must be called a serious and inbred fault. It doubtless was a work of gen- ius to annex for France the whole Mississippi val- ley, but schemes which depended for their success upon a disinterested combination of talent lay outside La Salle's powers. Finally, Champlain worked well with the Church while La Salle antag- onised at least one important section of the clergy, and so damaged his cause. Little is gained by setting the leaders of mankind in sharp antith- esis, saying that one is greater than the other. In the present case I merely mean to state that Champlain seems the most effective of the French time when he might entertain the greatest hopes as the reward of his labours. He had a capacity and talent to make his enterprise successful; his constancy and courage and his extraordinary knowledge in arts and sciences, which rendered him fit for anything, together with an indefatigable body, which made him surmount all difficulties, would have pro- cured a glorious issue to his undertaking, had not all those excellent qualities been counterbalanced by too haughty a behaviour, which sometimes made him insupportable, and by a rigidness towards those that were under his command, which at last drew on him an implacable hatred, and was the occasion of his death." By way of contrast, see the account of Champlain's edify- ing end which Le Jeune gives in the Relation for 1636. The Jesuit Relations, edited by R. G. Thwaites, vol. ix, p. 206. 8o The Explorer — Champlain explorers, and the best rounded in character. His stability, thoroughness, and personal virtues were such that Canadians may forever revere the founder of New France. In concluding, I cannot resist the temptation to introduce a bit of history, which, besides being quaint and not very well known, has a bearing upon the subject under discussion. One useful thing about history is that it explains many things, some trivial and some important, which otherwise would remain unintelligible. Thus on the back of one's frockcoat are two buttons, add- ing little perhaps to the beauty of the garment, but not placed there by the vagaries of modem fashion. They are a historical survival from days when every gentleman wore his sword, and required buttons to support the belt. But what I started to speak about was the dollar sign, which we write every day of our lives. It goes back to this some- what singular origin. Prior to the discovery of America, the town of Seville in Spain had for its coat of arms a shield upon which were blazoned the two piUars of Hercules, with the motto between, Ne plus ultra or Nee plus ultra. About thirty years after Columbus discovered America, Marhani, an ItaUan physician, suggested to Charles V. that he should take over the motto of Seville as his own device, simply dropping the negative. Hence plus ultra or plus oultre (it was used equally in Latin and French) became the motto of a Spanish king. Charles had it woven on the sails of his galleons and graven upon his suits of armoiu:. Using the same device with its special reference to the New The Explorer — Champlain 8i World, early Spanish writers on America, like Oviedo, Las Casas, and Gomara, placed plus ultra with the pillars of Hercules upon the title pages of their books. Presently the same motto and emblem began to appear on the Spanish dollars, or pieces of eight. Here the device could be indicated only in miniature. The pillars of Hercules became hardly more than vertical strokes across which wound a scroll enclosing the legend plus ultra. Finally for purposes of contraction the motto drops out altogether, the scroll being retained as a kind of letter S which winds across two vertical lines. It results that for the origin of this weU-known sym- bol, in daily use among us, we are taken back to the arms borne by a town in southern Spain long before America was known to Europe. The foregoing story is here told, not simply because it is singular in itself, but because plus ultra — more beyond — is the true motto of every individual explorer. Francis Bacon, who, hke Newton, voyaged through strange seas of thought alone, placed plus ultra upon the title page of the Advancement of Learning. It was in the spirit of this motto that Champlain pierced to Lake Huron, and La Salle floated down the current of the Mis- sissippi. Plus ultra — More beyond. What watch- word bears a stronger stimulus, a nobler incentive than this to the nation or to the human soul? CHAPTER III THE MISSIONARY— BREBEUF WHEN Columbus first unfolded his great proj- ect to Isabella of Castile, he included among his chief arguments the possibiUty of converting new races to the Christian faith. This was not a subsidiary part of his scheme. It stood in the very forefront of the enterprise which he outlined to the Spanish court. Columbus was not thinking of savages in general, the mere barbarians whom he might chance to meet. Sailing for the Far East, he proposed nothing less than the conversion of the Grand Khan of Tartary. At present this proposal may sound fantastic, but with Isabella the Catholic it carried weight. Consequently when Columbus was starting upon his first voyage, letters of introduction to the Grand Khan were given him by the Spanish crown. The note thus sounded at the outset continued to ring in the ears of Catholic Europe aU through the age of discovery and colonisation. To glorify God by the conversion of native races became a prime object with pious sovereigns, and with the Latin Church in general. For a variety of reasons the Protestant churches were less active in this work than members of the Roman communion. It is not that their comparative apathy concern- 82 The Missionary — Brebeuf 83 ing the salvation of the heathen should be ascribed altogether to a lower degree of spiritual force than existed in the CathoHc Church. For one thing, the Protestants had to put forth a vast anaount of effort in securing their own position at home. Secondly, they lacked the machinery for mission work which was provided by the presence in the Catholic Church of reUgious orders like the Domin- icans, the Franciscans, and the Jesuits. And finally, their theological views were of a type which, though not discouraging missions, encouraged them less directly than did the doctrines of the Catholics. "What one has most in mind is this. The Protes- tants rejected the sacramental scheme of salvation which Europe had accepted for many centuries before the time of Luther, and by rejecting it they placed a different emphasis upon baptism. The Catholic missionary who baptised an infant Iro- quois sick unto death was convinced that he had saved a soul from perdition. On the other hand the Calvinist missionary had no such confidence, inasmuch as his theology was less reassuring on this point. Even among the baptised, those only were saved whom God predestined to salvation. Here we have a difference of outlook that could not fail to affect the attitude of CathoUc and Prot- estant towards missions. Though he failed with adults, the CathoUc missionary might hope to effect the regeneration of infants by the score or the hundred. The Calvinist, accepting predestina- tion, had a less strong incentive to give his reli- gious activities this particular bent. One says "the Calvinist," in contrast to the 84 The Missionary — Brebeuf Catholic, because Lutheranism was confined to Germany and Scandinavia, which were not colonis- ing countries. Of the Protestants, those who went over seas belonged with few exceptions to the Reformed or Calvinistic Church, hke the Huguenots, the Dutch, and the Puritans. While on this subject I might point out that the Calvinists did not wholly neglect the task of preaching the Gospel to the aborigines. The Dutch pastors claimed to have made three hundred thousand conversions in the East Indies. John Eliot founded an Indian Church at Natick in Massachusetts, translated the Bible into Indian dialect, and gave up his whole hfe to missionary effort. It was among the first func- tions of Harvard College to train ministers for work among the savages, and to educate those of them who could be brought into the way of higher learning. Dartmouth College in New Hampshire was by origin a missionary institution. Clearly the Calvinists considered that they had a duty in the matter, and made some attempt to perform it. But when all possible allowance has been made for circumstance and difference of theo- logical outlook, Protestant missions in the age of colonisation are a small, indeed a puny, thing com- pared with the mighty missions of the Roman Church. The Enghsh and the Dutch went to the East Indies for spices, and not for sotils. From what we know regarding the attitude of the Dutch towards lower races, one has grave doubts about the three hundred thousand converts the Dutch pastors reported that they had made. As for the Pilgrim Fathers, though they were directed to Ply- The Missionary— Brebeuf 85 mouth by a rehgious motive, it was no part of their original purpose to convert the savages. With the Cathohcs of Europe, on the contrary, mission work was among the foremost causes of colonial enterprise. Not even the love of gold mines was sufficient to obscure it. What could the Aztecs, the Incas, and the in- habitants of the Spice Islands have thought, when they saw the Christian nations bringing them the scourge in one hand, and the Gospel in the other? The wrongs that the native races of both hemi- spheres suffered from the trader and the viceroy cannot be spoken. PiUage, torture, enslavement, and a hundred forms of low brutality were meted out to the unfortunate aborigines by one class of the conquerors. Then came people of the same race to bind up wounds, preach peace and mercy, educate and humanise. The first thing an intel- ligent missionary did was to get the natives as completely as possible under his control. The Jesuits in Paraguay and in Canada were accused of ambition, of claiming exclusive rights over their converts. But in the main the missionary stood between the savage and the worst forms of oppres- sion. It is in the case of the Spaniards that the contrast stands out most violently. Consider the difference between the brutal Conquistadores of Mexico and Peru, and the good Las Casas who won the title, "Universal Protector of the Indians." Nowhere in colonial annals is there anything worse than Spanish rapacity and its consequences. No- where is there an5rthing nobler than the unselfish- ness, the humanity of Las Casas. 86 The Missionary — Brebeuf The missionary activities of the CathoUc Church were prosecuted almost altogether by the great reli- gious orders, some of which had been founded in the Middle Ages, while others had their birth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Chief among those orders of mediaeval origin which entered the mission field outside Europe were the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Of the newer orders the Jesuits, founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola, were far the most conspicuous.* The Capuchins and the RecoUets were sixteenth-cen- tury orders based upon Franciscanism. The Sul- picians who had so much to do with missionary effort about Montreal, were an order of secular priests dating from the middle years of the seven- teenth century. These powerful rehgious broth- erhoods, whose members had no parochial duties, were in an excellent position to take up special labours among the heathen at the ends of the earth, f The same sort of work which the Irish and the Benedictine monks had wrought in Europe during the Dark Ages, other orders now undertook in the New World. Among the missions thus founded, those of the Jesuits were by far the most numerous, the most active, and the most effective. Regard- ing the history of the Jesuits in Europe, it is not *The Society of Jesus really dates from the vow of Mont- martre, 1534. Its formal organisation and recognition by the Holy See are to be connected with Paul III.'s Bull., Regimini tnilitantis Ecclesia, Sept. 27, 1540. tThe Sulpicians, though here mentioned together with the Capuchins, the Rdcollets, and the Jesuits, discharged parochial duties in addition to their labours as missionaries. The Missionary — Brebeuf 87 necessary that one should speak in detail. They came into being at a time of acute religious friction, and were impressed by their founder with a more militant spirit than marked any other religious fraternity in Christendom. Striving, in the terms of their own motto, for "the greater glory of God," they opposed the heresy of Lutheran and the Cal- vinist with uncompromising hostility. An equal determination they displayed in the mission field, from the very moment of their institution. Here the outstanding name is that of St. Francis Xavier. Eight years after the first httle band of Jesuits had taken its famous vow at Montmartre, Xavier landed at Goa, the capital of the Portuguese possessions in India. Proceeding thence he began those efforts which extended Jesuit influence to the Far East, and opened up the long course of Jesuit missions. His deeds in Cochin, Madura, and Travancore were known to the world at a time when his European brethern were just emerging from obscurity, and when he died at San Chan the noblest field of Jesuit enterprise had been disclosed. Charles Legobien exclaims at the beginning of the Lettres Edifiantes: "From the time of St. Ignatius and of St. Francis Xavier, the zeal for foreign missions has been, as it were, the soul and spirit of our Society." The Apostle to the Indies remained for the Jesuits the supreme type of missionary hero, and the mem- bers of the order in Canada drew daily inspiration from his example. "A thousand times," says one of them, "the thought of St. Francis Xavier passes through our minds and has great power over us." 88 The Missionary— Brebeuf The earliest of the Jesuits who followed the flag of France to the shores of North America were Pierre Biard and Ennemond Masse. They landed at Port Royal in 1611, afterwards went to St. Sauveur on Mt. Desert Island, and were hving among the Indians at that point when ArgaU and a band of Englishmen from Virginia swooped down upon the settlement, broke it up and sent the Jesuits back to France. This ill-starred adven- ture in Acadia was not, however, to deter the Society from beginning operations in Canada at the first opportunity. What without fail should be made clear is that the Jesuits had behind them a long record of experience and success in mission work, before ever Biard and Masse came to Acadia. Seventy years had elapsed since St. Francis Xav- ier sailed for Goa, and in the interval they had learned much. From a close study of the savage mind they knew how primitive races must be approached. Their methods were fixed. Xavier and his immediate followers had taught them how to proceed in dealing with tribes whose language they did not speak, and whose cast of mind was still unfamiUar to them. In short, before the Jes- uits turned towards Canada, their experience embraced India, the Malay Archipelago, Japan and China, Mexico and Peru, Brazil and Paraguay. To sum up what has just been said, the Catholic missions during the colonial era were more impor- tant than the Protestant, the Catholic mission- aries came from the reUgious orders, and among the reUgious orders the Jesuits loomed largest in the mission fields of both East and West. In Can- The Missionary — Brebeuf 89 ada, however, the Jesuits were not alone, They had for associates and rivals the two other orders of RecoUets and Sulpicians. One does not care to accentuate the idea of rivalry, but competition did form a certain element in the relations of the three orders. This can be seen from a large variety of evidence, some of which may be touched upon later. In the meantime all one need say is that the Jesuit missions had more permanent vitality than those of the RecoUets, and covered a wider area than those of the Sulpicians. Fur- thermore, there exists in connection with the Jesuit missions a body of literature which enables us to follow their progress as we cannot follow the progress of either RecoUets or Sulpicians. I refer to the Relations des /^suites, a series of documents that possesses the greatest value, not only for the conversion of the savages, but for their customs and for the general history of the colony. Before discussing the Jesuit Relations as litera- ture, it will be well to see at what point the Recol- lets and Sulpicians enter the life of New France. How the Jesuits came to Acadia in 1611 we akeady know. But there were only two of them, and those two were sent back to France by the English in 1613. This was five years after the founding of Quebec, but the Jesuits driven out of Acadia did not at once transfer their efforts to Canada. Cham- plain was extremely anxious to bring over mis- sionaries, that the Indians might be christianised and civiUsed at the same time. He did not, however, approach the Jesuits until after he had enhsted a band of RecoUets and sent them out 90 The Missionary — Brebeuf among the Hurons. It was in 1615 that the first of these missionaries, four in number, reached Quebec, and plunged into the task of redeeming the Indians from their native superstitions. On the whole the fruits of the RecoUet mission were disappointing, though through no fault of the indi- viduals who represented the order in Canada. The effort of those who remained on the shores of the St. Lawrence was largely absorbed in strife with Huguenot fur traders. Those who went to the Huron country found it impossible to procure interpreters, and could only learn the language bit by bit, at great pains. So tr5dng were the obstacles that after ten years the Recollets felt quite ready to welcome assistance. Accordingly when the Jesuits offered aid it was accepted in a friendly spirit. Some rivalry between the orders sprang up when they were brought side by side in Canada. But it was not of long duration. After the capture of Quebec by the English in 1629, both Jesuits and RecoUets left the country. As soon as Canada was restored to France by the Peace of St. Germain (1632), the Jesuits returned, but the RecoUets never re-established their mission among the Hurons. At intervals between 1632 and 1642 there was talk of their return, but they did not come back until 1670. The Jesuits were thus left in fuU possession until the appearance of the Company which founded Montreal. After 1642 there are two distinct headquarters of mis- sionary enterprise: Quebec, where the Jesuits reigned supreme, and Montreal, which became the home of the Sulpicians. The exact relation of The Missionary — Brebeuf 91 the Sulpicians to the founders of Montreal we shall examine presently. The first band of Jesuits to land at Quebec disembarked in June, 1625, twelve years after the Jesuit mission in Acadia had been broken up, and ten years after the arrival of the RecoUets in Can- ada. The party contained four members, of whom two were destined to become famous among the Jesuits of Canada. These were Jean de Brebeuf and Charles Lalemant. Lalemant was a very clever linguist and enjoyed some repute as a writer, but from the three hundred and twenty Jesuits who first and last laboured in Canada under the Old Regime, I would single out Jean de Brebeuf as the central, the commanding figure. The grounds upon which one would justify such an opinion are these. In the first place, Brebeuf was a perfect type of the Norman, and Normandy con- tributed to New France her strongest strain of blood. Brebeuf was bom in the diocese of Bayeux and entered the Jesuit order at Rouen. But he was not merely a Norman by birth. He was a Norman by firmness of character, by inflexibility of resolve . How superb was his physical courage we shall soon see, and for determination he might have stood in direct line of descent from William the Conqueror. He was of gentle birth. One of his ancestors had fought at Hastings; another had commanded the Norman nobles at the siege of Damietta, in the first crusade of St. Louis. A still better idea of his ancestry may be conveyed in saying that from the English branch of the family is descended the Duke of Norfolk, the premier duke of the United Kingdom. 92 The Missionary — Brebeuf Jean de Brebeuf was a man of magnificent stature, nobility of mind, and complete self-control. Rochemonteix, the official historian of the Jesuits in New France, says that he had in him the spirit of Francis Xavier. Suite, who is by no means an official historian of the Jesuits, seems hardly less emphatic when he writes: "The name of Brebeuf is surrounded by an aureole of greatness which time can never diminish." In the annals of the Ursu- Hnes at Quebec he is styled "the personification of greatness and courage." Parkman, to take a writer of still another type, exhausts the vocabu- lary of praise in describing his deeds. "In Bre- beuf," says Parkman, "an enthusiastic devotion was grafted on an heroic nature. His bodily endowments were as remarkable as the temper of his mind. His manly proportions, his strength and his endurance, which incessant fasts and pen- ances could not undermine, had always won for him the respect of the Indians, no less than a cour- age unconscious of fear, and yet redeemed from rashness by a cool and vigorous judgment." These are but a few of the abundantly numer- ous paneg3Tics which Brebeuf by his life and death has extorted from writers of every school. It is not to every saint or even to every martyr that the quick sympathy of the modern layman goes out, but, as KipUng has said in one of his most animated ballads: "But there is neither East nor West, Border nor breed nor birth, When two brave men stand face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth." The Missionary — Br6beuf 93 In matters of religious conviction one may stand at the ends of the earth from Brebeuf, but it is impossible not to feel the sense of power which radiates from his robust^ self-sacrificing personality. If we may believe Frederick Myers, there are only two kinds of people that men of the world will listen to; namely, other men of the world and saints. Now Brebeuf is exactly the type of saint whom the man of the world can understand and reverence — not a plaster saint whose human robust- ness has suffered at the hands of other-worldly aspi- ration, but a flesh and blood being who can dare and suffer what most heroes would shrink from in horror. For some reasons it may seem unjust to place Brebeuf, as the representative Jesuit martyr, before Isaac Jogues. But on the whole his claims are greater. Jogues, indeed, appeals to us at one point even more irresistibly than Brebeuf, because he had more obstacles of nature to overcome. It is said that life resembles a game of cards. The credit comes not so much from playing a good hand well, as from making the most out of a bad hand. Nature gave Brebeuf a large and generous disposition, amplitude of outlook, vigour, nobility. Jogues had a quick temper and was physically timid. The following reference to this weakness of the flesh comes from the pen of Jerome Lale- mant, one of the leading Jesuits at Quebec, and is to be found in the annual report, or Relation, for 1647. "He was," says Lalemant, of Jogues, "quite timid, which highly exalts his courage and shows that his constancy came from above. He saw in a moment all the difficulties which might 94 The Missionary — Brebeuf occur in a matter, and he felt the hurt naturally caused by them. This kept him in profound humil- ity and made him say that he was only a coward; and yet the Superiors who knew him depended on him as firmly as on a rock." And well they might depend on Jogues. Having been terribly tortured by the Iroquois, the Dutch saved him from destruc- tion and sped him on his way to France. There his sufferings brought him such renown that the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, summoned him to court and kissed the lacerated stumps of his fingers. To be tortured once by the Iroquois might well have seemed enough, but after recovering his health somewhat Jogues returned to them and suffered martyrdom in their midst. His attitude towards his tormentors is expressed by Lalemant in these words: "Never did he feel in the midst of his sufferings, or in the greatest cruelties of those treacherous people any aversion against them. He looked at them with an eye of compassion as a mother looks at a child of hers stricken with a raging disease. At other times he regarded them as rods which our Lord employed for punishing his crimes." In point of courage and constancy, then, Bre- beuf cannot be called supreme among the Jesuits, since Jogues possessed moral courage of the toughest fibre, producing physical courage by the sheer dominance of soul over body. But Brebeuf had the more vitality, the more effectiveness, the more power. He was a pillar of strength for the whole mission, a landmark to be seen from afar, — by the Indians in their forests, no less by the Jesuit The Missionary — Brebeuf 95 brethren from their central house of Notre Dame des Anges at Quebec. Goethe said that the older he grew the more he prized the gifts which were God-given, and much as we may value the virtue of plodding, mankind naturally bows before the man who leads by the grace of God, by natural faculty. Brebeuf was of this sort, and, besides, he stands at the head of the most important mis- sion which the Jesuits founded in North America — the mission to the Hurons. The Hurons were not so numerous as the Five Nations of the Iroquois taken together, but they were far more numerous than any one of the five nations. Probably there were from ten to fifteen thousand Hurons as against seventeen thousand of the Iroquois. Man for man the Iroquois were stronger in war, and from their relations with the French, Dutch, and English they reach an histor- ical eminence which the Hurons do not share. In their country, too, the Jesuits had singular adven- tures and conducted their mission on a large scale. The double sacrifice of Jogues, the daring journey of Le Moyne, and the hairbreadth escape of the Fathers from the Onondaga country — these are exploits which it is difficult to surpass even among the records of the Jesuits. But still the classical period of their work in North America comes between 1632 and 1649. The mission to the Hurons depicts every soul-stirring feature of Jesuit life among the Indians, plus the added attraction of novelty. The struggle with the language diffi- culty ending in success, the struggle with suspi- cion ending in partial success, the struggle with 96 The Missionary — Brebeuf savage unbelief and malevolence ending at best in partial failure, the alterations of hope and despair; all these trials and excitements mount to a dreadful tragedy, the overthrow of a nation, and the ruin of a church which the Jesuits had created amid blood and tears. The modem reader, at least, does not find the same freshness of interest in the record of subsequent work among the Iro- quois, who destroyed the Hurons, as in the story of early struggles against the barbarism and super- stition of the Hurons. Now Brebeuf is the leader and hero of the Huron mission, and St. Ignace, the spot where he suf- fered martyrdom, comes within what is now the County of Simcoe. Fortunately we have an abun- dance of information regarding this episode, and, in fact, regarding all the Jesuit missions in Canada between 1632 and 1673. During these years there appeared from the press of Sebastian Cramoisy at Paris, the long series of Jesuit Relations which is so invaluable for the hght it throws upon both Indian customs and the hfe of New France. To understand the nature of these volumes we must go back to the earUest days of the Jesuit order — to the lifetime of Xavier himself. Writing to Gaspard Barzee, in charge of the mission at Ormuz, he says: "You will send periodical letters to the college at Goa, wherein are set forth the various labours which you undertake to secure the increase of the divine glory, the methods which you foUow, and the spiritual results with which God crowns your feeble efforts." And Xavier instructs Beira, another of his subordinates, to inform Loyola and The Missionary — Brebeuf 97 Rodriguez of ever5rthing "which, when known in Europe, will lead the hearer to glorify God." In compliance with these instructions, Jesuit missionaries had been sending home to Europe reports upon their work for over eighty years before Brebeuf first went to the Huron country. There is a large body of this literature in the Lettres Edifiantes and elsewhere. The confessed object of the Jesuit Relations was edification, but in addi- tion to details concerning the mission, a vast num- ber of facts were included which bore upon the life of the natives, the aspect of the New World, its birds, its animals, its fish, the life of the French in their Canadian home, and other miscellaneous subjects that inevitably came up for discussion. It is not to be pretended that the Relations con- tained the whole truth concerning Jesuit work in Canada. Side by side with them there went home to Europe private letters designed for members of the Society. These, as Father de Rochemon- teix points out, are the natural complement to the Relations. They depict the dark side of the mission, the discouragements and failures, the mood which is created by reaction from an undue con- fidence. "The Relations," wrote Father Claude Boucher to Father Bagot in 1663, "say only good, and the letters only bad." "The Relations," he continues, "should not be read with the idea that they say everything, but merely what is edifying." Such in scope and purport are the Relations des J^suites, which with allied documents Mr. Thwaites has recently pubUshed in a definitive edition of seventy-three volumes. Their chief Umi- 98 The Missionary — Brebeuf tation is that they are marked by a note of undue optimism. The success of the mission is the first thought. Whatever retards it is suffered to drop out of sight. But even when we have subtracted something from their value on this score, they remain our best authority for the Kfe of the Indians, and an indispensable authority for the life of the colony. To take a single striking example, the Abbe FaiUon, in his Histoire de la Colonie Franfaise, champions Montreal at the expense of Quebec, and the Sulpicians at the expense of the Jesuits. Despite this animus he cannot refrain from citing the Relations on almost every page, and in the aggre- gate they are the largest single source from which he draws. During the greater part of the time that Bre- beuf passed among the Hurons, the superior of the Jesuits in Canada was Paul Le Jeune. Le Jeune made his headquarters at Quebec, received reports from the different missions, and based upon them the annual report, or Relation, which was sent to the Provincial of the Jesuits at Paris. In many cases the identity of the individual missionary is lost, as the Relation sweeps in materials from eight or ten scattered districts. But the reports from the Huron country had special importance, and there exist many of the letters which Brebeuf sent either to Quebec, or to leading members of the Society in Europe. These are among the most Uving docu- ments of that period — fresh, direct, and entertain- ing. One of the best is the letter of 1635, in which Brebeuf describes his return to the Hurons. He had been among them before the Jesuit mission The Missionary — Brebeuf 99 was broken up by Kirke's capture of Quebec. His account of the steps which the Jesuits took to re- estabhsh their hold over the Hurons when the French came back to Canada, is as graphic as any- thing in the Relations. Intellectually the Indians, with all their cunning and oratorical skill, were much like children. Before they could be instructed they had to be interested, and Brebeuf shows us how this was done. In certain respects the Jes- uits had a good grasp of kindergarten methods long before the days of Froebel. One of the arti- cles taken by the Fathers into the wilderness was a clock. "They think it hears," says Brebeuf, "when for a joke one of our Frenchmen calls out at the last stroke of the hammer, 'That's enough,' and then it immediately becomes silent. They call it the Captain of the day. When it strikes, they say it is speaking; and they ask when they come to see us how many times the Captain has already spoken. They ask us about its food; they remain a whole hour and sometimes several, in order to be able to hear it speak. They used to ask at first what it said. We told them two things that they have remembered: one, that when it sounded four o'clock of the afternoon during winter, it was saying, 'Go away, go away that we may close the door'; the other, that at midday it said, 'Come, put on the kettle.' " So much for the clock. Other objects which aroused the curiosity and admiration of the Hurons were the magnet, a glass with eleven facets, a Uttle phial in which a flea appeared as large as a beetle, and carpenters' tools. Most of all, they marvelled loo The Missionary — Brebeuf at writing, "for," says Brebeuf, "they cannot con- ceive how what one of us has put down in writing can be repeated by another many miles away when he sees the letter." "I believe," he continues, "they have made a hundred trials of it. All this serves to gain their affections, and to render them more docile when we introduce the admirable and incomprehensible mysteries of our faith; for the belief they have in our intelligence and capacity causes them to accept without reply what we say to them." The religion of the Hurons was reaUy demon worship. The Jesuits tried to give them a better outlook by dwelling on the beauty and the beneficence of nature, rather than on its cruelty. "And what is there," said Brebeuf to his hearers, "so wonderful as the beauty of the sky and the sun? What is there so wonderful as to see every year the trees, which have looked dead during the winter, resume without fail every spring a new hfe and a new dress? The corn that you plant rots, and from its decay spring up beautiful stalks and the fuU ear. And yet you do not say 'He who made so many beauties, and who every year displays before our eyes so many marvels, must be some benevolent oki.' " The passages just quoted from Brebeuf 's letter of 1635 will show how the Jesuits sought to pre- pare the Indian's mind for, the reception of Chris- tian truth. Of the superstitions to be dethroned, the most rooted centred in dreams. In Brebeuf's report for 1636 there is a long and most entertain- ing passage on this subject. The dream, he says, is the most absolute master the Hurons have. "If The Missionary — Brebeuf loi a Captain speaks one way and a dream another, the Captain might shout his head off in vain. The dream will be obeyed. . . . The dream often pre- sides in their councils; traific, fishing, and hunting are undertaken usually under its sanction. They hold nothing so precious that they would not deprive themselves of it for the sake of a dream. A dream will sometimes take away from them their whole year's provisions. It prescribes their feasts, their dances, their songs, their games — in a word the dream does everything, and is in truth the princi- pal God of the Hurons." One thing which added an element of zest and uncertainty to the life of the Jesuits among the Hurons and Iroquois was that if a brave dreamed he had killed a missionary, his first thought on awaking was to go and do it. The above examples, drawn from Brebeuf s letters, will show what intimate details are to be found in the Jesuit Relations regarding the life and manners of the Indians. But this part of the sub- ject is inexhaustible. As for the sufferings which the Jesuits endured, they are touched on by the missionaries themselves with reserve; that is to say, no one dilates upon his own sufferings. But one Father, writing about the labours of another, especially if he has suffered martyrdom, feels at liberty to tell the whole tale of privation, physical pain, and strife with the powers of darkness. Noth- ing, however, in the Relations equals, for pathos and tragedy, the story of Brebeuf's death. In 1649 the Iroquois came against the Hurons, over- came them, and put hundreds to death with inde- scribable barbarity. Of the Jesuit Fathers, Bre- I02 The Missionary — Brebeuf beuf and Gabriel Lalemant perished at this time with their Huron disciples. The circumstances of Brebeuf s death we shall pass by, since they are too shocking for repetition. Any who may desire the details of a heartrending tragedy can get them from Parkman, or, better stiU, from the original account given by Christopher Regnaut in the Jes- uit Relations. Let this suffice, that Brebeuf bore without flinching, pains and insults which it seems inconceivable a human being should be able to endure for ten minutes, let alone hours. The tale of his death is grander, and far more awful, than anything feigned by the master genius which created King Lear. After the destruction of the Hurons the Jes- uits prosecuted with fresh vigour their work among the Iroquois. Jogues had been martyred by the Mohawks three years before the death of Brebeuf. Undeterred by his fate the Black Robes made a dehberate and systematic attempt to convert the Five Nations, organising their work on a larger scale than had been tried in the region around Georgian Bay. It was in the period between 1650 and 1675 that the mission to the Iroquois was most active. Outside infant baptism, however, the re- sults were not very gratifying. One vestige of this mission is stiU to be seen in the Indian village of Caughnawaga, opposite Lachine. The ancestors of the Caughnawaga Indians, who are daily visible in the Windsor St. Station of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal, were Iroquois converts trans- ferred by the Fathers, for safekeeping, to the banks of the St. Lawrence. The present representatives ^*f^%.£ -^s*; A ''' r3 o 3 2: S O 2 cq B f. o m ^ H *^ fc •^ o n 4-J '^J -''■' O O « O >^ ;3 rf U hn s ,C § a r! o ^ w ^ K V] H o ^ ;3 rr! hn +-> o •— 1 The Missionary — Brebeuf 103 of the Five Nations as thus seen in the Windsor Station are considerably stouter than the squaws of the seventeenth century. Considering the way in which the Iroquois women were compelled to work, we may doubt whether any two of them ever equalled in weight one of the modern basket sellers. It has been pointed out that the Iroquois mission lacks the elements of novelty and freshness which belong to the early mission among the Hurons. But it is hardly less heroic. And in parting for the present with the Jesuit missionaries, we must come back once more to the utter courage with which they faced death and hardship in the wilderness. As to the results of their work, considered from a religious standpoint, there is doubtless room for discussion. M. Suite, who is not a Protestant, thinks that the number of converts is greatly exag- gerated by the writers of the Relations. M. Lorin, who has written an excellent book on Frontenac, holds the same opinion. In the seventeenth cen- tury Sulpicians and RecoUets anticipated these judgments to some extent, though neither Le Clercq nor De Galinee goes so far as M. Suite. "We are told," says Suite, "that numerous conversions were made among the Hurons. One of my friends has calculated that the Jesuit Relations mention sixty thousand of these conversions. Now the Hurons at the period of their greatest power never exceeded ten thousand." It is difficult to decide whether or not M. Suite's friend was making a httle joke, but many writers have thought the Jesuits too optimistic in counting up the number I04 The Missionary — Brebeuf of their proselytes. Others consider that the mis- sions were a means of antagonising the Indians, and therefore a source of harm to the colony. These moot questions we cannot consider here. But all must agree that the Jesuit Relations are above everjrthing else a splendid record of heroism. The stripes which the missionaries bore for the filthy, cruel, and indifferent savage are beyond belief. They tramped with him among the cedar swamps, they were asphyxiated by the smoke of his wigwam, they starved with him, and — what was still more trying — they ate his food. "It is," says Steven- son, "but a pettifogging, pickthank ^business to decompose actions into small personal motives, and explain heroism away." Among the Jesuits of New France one may look in vain for little per- sonal motives, and to decompose a religious ideal into the impulses which have so often been called fanaticism and superstition would be least pleas- ant of all. The tortures of Jogues and Brebeuf are known everywhere, and form a fertile theme for perorations. More obscure but hardly less glorious were Buteux's march through the melt- ing snows of the Laurentian hiUs, with the docile but wretched White Fish; the hfe of DruiUettes among the Abenakis, which won him the honour of Winthrop, Bradford, and Eliot at a time when the General Court of Massachusetts was forbidding the presence of Jesuits within its jurisdiction; and Cr^pieul's sufferings among the Montagnais of the Saguenay Basin. Bravery is one great virtue, unselfishness is another. And when the two are joined in religious ministration to a species of man- The Missionary — Brebeuf 105 kind like the drunken Huron, or the fiendish Iro- quois, the record must be kept forever. The Jesuit mission deserves, and has received, the greater part of our attention. We have seen that the active period of the Recollet mission lasted only from 1615 to the capture of Quebec by the English in 1629. In literature the two most nota- ble memorials which it has left are Sagard's Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons, and his Histoire du Canada* But if the presence of the Recol- lets in New France is a minor incident, the pres- ence of the Sulpicians at Montreal is a fact of capital importance. Let us now put the found- ing of Montreal into line with both the missionary movement, and the creation of the Sulpician order. As might be expected, the estabhshment of French settlements in Canada followed the course of the St. Lawrence, those higher up the river being later in origin than those on the lower course of the stream. Thus an abortive attempt was made to fix a colony at Tadoussac as early as 1600. Quebec was actually settled in 1608, Three Rivers in 1634, and Montreal in 1642. Through- out the whole period from Champlain to Frontenac, the only centres of population which can be dig- nified with the name of towns were Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. Of the three, Montreal has the most interesting origin. That is to say, Quebec and Three Rivers came into being, as most towns do, because cer- * After their return to Canada in 1670 the R&oUets re-entered the mission' field, but not ambitiously. Le Clercq's Premier etab- Ussement de la joi belongs to this second period. io6 The Missionary — Brebeuf tain people wished to make a profit out of trade. One does not disparage this motive in itself when he says that the impulse which Ues behind the founding of Montreal was more unselfish, more ideal. So far as I know, Montreal is the only large city in the world which has arisen out of a mission colony. This city, with whose present standing in Canada we are all so familiar, took its rise from an idea, the offshoot of religious enthusiasm, and divorced from all thought of selfish interest. Before even mentioning the names of those who first con- ceived of this project, let me state its exact nature. The design was to found on the island of Montreal, one hundred and eighty miles above Quebec, a fortified town which should be both a bulwark against the Iroquois, and a centre whence the light of the Gospel might shine forth among the Indian tribes. Moreover, and this is an essential point, the colonists were not to be healthy men and women taken at random, but fervent CathoHcs who longed in their actions to revive the life of the primitive Church. The relation of the colonists to the natives was also thought out beforehand. The Indians were to be encouraged to settle immedi- ately about the town, for two reasons. In this way they would receive training in the arts of civilisa- tion, and they would also see Christianity exem- plified in the actions of the citizens. Let no one for a moment suggest that at the present day Mon- treal is unworthy of its origin, but the ideal with which it set out was lofty, and at all points, per- haps, it is not quite realised in our own times. The town was placed under the protection of the Holy Olier The Missionary — Brebeuf 107 Family, and dedicated especially to the Virgin. ViUemarie, the city of Mary, is a name eloquent of the aspiration which prompted the founders of Montreal. It was hoped that in process of time a bishopric might be estabhshed there, and colonies be sent out thence to disseminate Catholicism through the New World. Now aU this was to be done at the expense of private persons. Neither king, clergy, nor people were asked for financial assistance. Certain asso- ciates brought together for the purpose were to bear the whole cost, and undertake the whole labour. How careful they were to make profession of dis- interested zeal may be seen from the memorial which they placed before Pope Urban VIII. in ask- ing his benediction. "Most Holy Father," say the Associates, "a certain number of persons, put- ting away from themselves all thought of worldly profit or commercial interest, and proposing no other aim than the glory of God and the establishment of religion in New France, have entered into this Society with the hope of spreading the faith among savage nations through their own effort, their own means, and their own emigration beyond the sea." Such, then, was the project. In passing to its authors and to those whom they enlisted in the work, one must first mention Jean Jacques Olier. In 1636, when the scheme first took definite form, Olier was a priest rather less than twenty-eight years old, resident near Paris. In collaboration with Jerome le Royer de la Dauversiere, a layman of La Fleche in Anjou, he began to plan means io8 The Missionary — Brebeuf for the erection at Montreal of such a colony as has been described. How almost simultaneously Dauversiere and Oher had visions prompting them to undertake this work, is described at length in all the histories dealing with the enterprise. The inspiration first came to Dauversiere, but Oher's name should be given more prominence because of the two he was much the greater. The chief financial supporter of the project was the Baron de Fancamp, a friend of Dauversiere. The original subscription amounted to the considerable sum of seventy-five thousand livres, but the Associates who at the outset formed the Society of Notre- Dame de Montreal, numbered only six. The first step was to secure a grant of the island of Montreal, of which the Society became the seigneur, with power to appoint a governor and have its own courts. As part of the scheme OUer was to organise a seminary of priests, and Dau- versiere to form a community of hospital nuns. By 1640 the band of six associates had grown to one of forty-five, including many devout ladies who subscribed largely to its funds. In this year the last details of the expedition were arranged, and the first band of MonMalistes set out during the summer of 1641. There were forty men and four women. The party wintered at Quebec, which they left behind them on the 8th of May, 1642. After ascending the river for nine days, they came in sight of Montreal, where, as soon as they had gone ashore, they began life in their new home with a celebration of the Holy Com- munion. The officiating clergyman was the Jes- The Missionary — Brebeuf 109 uit Father, Barthelemy Vimont, who had accom- panied them from Quebec. Neither OUer nor Dauversi^re came in per- son. Among the men, the outstanding figure of this infant community was its chieftain, Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve. Parkman has hkened Maisonneuve to Godfrey, the leader of the First Crusade, and it was certainly in the spirit of a crusader that he came to Montreal. France had had more to do with the Crusades than aU the other countries of Europe together, and it is like a gUmpse of the twelfth century to see these French men and women braving the perils of the wilderness for love of a cause. Indeed, Maisonneuve and his followers could claim a disinterestedness which few of the crusaders possessed. That many of these mediaeval war- riors were prompted in the main by religious fervour need not be denied, but in almost aU cases there was a mixture of motives, worldly promptings having their place in the crusader's heart along with his love of the Holy Sepulchre. But Maisonneuve was like the rarer spirits, hke Godfrey and St. Louis, who aimed not at their own advancement, but at winning victories for the faith. As Maisonneuve stands out from among the men who founded Villemarie, so Jeanne Mance was the most notable of the women. She, hke most of the others, came to Montreal under the impulse of a special vocation, and was prepared to hve as one whose sole aims were the worship of God and the service of His people. Marguerite no The Missionary — Brebeuf Bourgeoys, afterwards so prominent in all good works, did not arrive until 1653, or eleven years after the original pioneers had begun their work of clearing the forest and erecting their colony on the cornerstone of reUgion. While Maisonneuve was building his palisades and driving back the Iroquois, while Mile. Mance was nursing the sick and cheering the whole com- munity by her gentle ways, OUer, who had remained at home, was founding the Society of St. Sulpice. The Sulpicians do not form a monastic order. They are a body of secular priests whose mem- bers take no vow. The tie which binds them is zeal for one object clearly defined by Olier, and associated in point of origin with the colony of Villemarie. This is the training of young men for orders, and the ecclesiastical duties connected therewith. In other words they are a body of seminary priests, concerned first of all with the education of the clergy. Outside of France their chief centre to the present day is the Seminary in Montreal, whence was founded the Canadian Seminary at Rome. There are also important Sulpician seminaries at Baltimore, Washington, New York, Boston, and San Francisco. The semi- naries of St. Sulpice in France number twenty-six. Organised under letters patent, and vested with the power to accept property, the priests of St. Sulpice became the clergy of Montreal. Outside the island they made few attempts to reach the Indians. Abb6 Fenelon, on the Bay of Quinte, and Abbe Picquet, near Ogdensburg, opened Sul- pician missions, but it was the wish of the The Missionary — Brebeuf 1 1 1 Seminary to gather its disciples closely about it. On the island of Montreal the Sulpicians minis- tered to the Indians as long as there were any left. In the main the Society aimed at the con- sohdation of its interests rather than at expansion. Its resources were meagre in comparison with those of the Jesuits, and it preferred to concen- trate its energies on what it had a chance of doing well. How the Sulpicians gained the island of Mon- treal, and how discord arose between them and the Jesuits, are further questions. For the pres- ent, let us think of ViUemarie as it was on that 17th of May, 1642, when Maisonneuve and Mile. Mance with their forty-two companions began amid hymns of praise to lay the foundations of a reUgious commonwealth — a commonwealth which should be unsmirched by thought of self-seeking, a commonwealth whose members had consecrated their lives to God. The scene has been simply but dehcately sketched by DoUier de Casson, the earliest historian of Montreal. From him we know how the simple altar was raised near the river bank, and how it was decorated by Mile. Mance and Mme. de la Peltrie. His, too, is the picture of Father Vimont celebrating High Mass, while the entire band bowed before him, and asked the favour of the Lord upon the work that they were undertaking in His name. And, finally, to him we owe the preservation of those words in which the priest blessed Maisonneuve and his scanty followers. "You are a grain of mustard-seed that shall rise and grow, till its branches overshadow 1 1 2 The Missionary — Br6beuf the earth. You are few, but your work is the work of God, His smile is on you, and your chil- dren shall fill the land." Under such auspices was Montreal founded in 1642. In order to raise the figure of Br^beuf in high reUef, little has been said regarding Paul Le Jeune. Both as apostle and writer, this Father stands in the front rank of Jesuit missionaries. His Relation of 1634 is, on the whole, the classic narrative of religious effort among the North American Indians, and year after year he continued to write or compile the report which was sent home to France. His account of the winter he spent among the Montagnais has been put to good use by Parkman. Below will be found a passage from Le Jeune on the rigours of the Canadian winter, which shows how the climate impressed a determined and optimistic Jesuit in 1633. This quotation is given as a t}rpical example, proving that missionaries in New France could write with Ught, anecdotal touch, and that they often discussed matters quite uncon- nected with the conversion of the savages. Unfortunately none of them allows himself quite the same latitude which Borrow took in The Bible in Spainl "On the loth of January the cold was very severe. I see daylight a great part of the winter only through ice. The crusts of ice gather upon the windows of my cell, or little room, and fall like a lozenge, or a piece of glass, when the cold relaxes. It is through this crystal that the sun sends us his Ught. Sev- eral times I have found large pieces of ice, formed by my breath, attached to my blanket in the morning; and, forgetting to shake them off, I have found them still there in the evening. I have sometimes seen them in France, but rarely, and they were very small compared with these. "As we have neither a spring nor a well, we are obliged to go for water every day to the river, from which we are distant about two hundred steps. But to get it, we must first break the ice with heavy blows from an axe; and after that we must wait until the sea comes up, for when the tide is low you cannot get water because of the thickness of the ice. We throw this water into a barrel which is not far from a good fire ; and yet we must be careful to break the layer of ice every The Missionary — Br6beuf 1 1 3 morning; otherwise, in two nights, it would be one mass of ice, even if the barrel were full. " One of our countrymen was thirsty, when in the woods, and so thought to lap a little snow from the axe which he held ; when he touched the iron his tongue stuck fast, and froze so quickly and so solidly that, in suddenly withdrawing the axe on account of the cold that he felt, he at the same time tore almost all the skin from his tongue. " All this would have almost made me believe in France that this country is unbearable. I admit that some days are very cold and penetrating, but they are few, and the rest is more than tolerable. Here they roll on the snow as they do in France upon the grass of our meadows, so to speak; I do not mean to say that it is less cold than it is white, but the days are fine, and the sun is warmer than in many parts of France. We are, they say, on the same parallel with La Rochelle. The least exercise we take generally dispels the rigour of the cold. " How often, when coming to a hill or a mountain which I must descend, I have rolled down to the bottom on the snow, experiencing no other discomfort than to change for a little while my black habit for a white one, and all this is done with much laughter. For if you do not stand firmly upon your raquettes, you will whiten your head as well as yotir feet. ' ' How many times have I done this also upon the icy heights of the river banks along which I was going. It was a savage who taught me this trick, known to everybody here; he went ahead of me, and, seeing that his head was in danger of reach- ing the river before his feet, he let himself roll the whole length of the ice, and I after him. The best of it is that you have to do it only once, in order to understand the trick. I was afraid, at first ; for the rising tide, lifting up those great blocks of ice, cracks them in many places, and the water, splashing up on the banks of the river, makes a thin layer of ice over the thicker one. When you try walking upon the thin ice it breaks under you. The first time I tried it, I thought it was all going to sink under me. But I do not beUeve that a cannon could crack the thickest ice. When you walk upon it in the Spring, it is then that there is danger of stepping into a hole and going under." CHAPTER IV THE COLONIST— HEBERT IT is an interesting s5miptom that of late France has begun to regard Canada with a new curi- osity. This at least may be inferred from the appearance of several books which hardly would have been written but for the increasing impor- tance of the French race in America. One passes over such a work as Father de Rochemonteix's three volumes on Les Jdsuites et la Nouvelle-France, for here the author may be prompted by a sense of professional duty. But Lorin's Le Comte de Fron- tenac, Siegfried's Le Canada, and Salone's La Colonisation de la Nouvelle-France, draw their inspiration from the behef that the French race as it has developed beyond the Atlantic is worthy of careful observation. Nor is this a mistaken idea. Take, for example, one marvellous phe- nomenon. When Levis surrendered at Montreal in 1760, the French of the mother country num- bered about twenty millions, whUe there were sixty-five thousand French Canadians. At present the population of France is forty millions, whereas there are in America at least three mUhon French Canadians. In other words, while the inhabitants 114 The Colonist — Hebert 1 1 5 of the home land have not quite doubled, those of the colony have multiplied nearly fifty-fold. Father Vimont was a true prophet when he told the first colonists of Montreal that their children would fiU the land. Now, when Frenchmen of the present day, like Siegfried and Salone, fix their gaze upon Can- ada, they cannot fail to be impressed by the sta- tistics which have just been cited. "La race canadienne," says Salone in closing his book, "a pris racine." Siegfried goes farther stiU in discussing the whole relationship of France to French Canada. Aspirations for a political con- nection are, of course, out of the question. At no moment since 1760 have France and French Canada seemed so little likely, as at present, to yearn for a renewal of the poUtical bond. But, says Siegfried, France has too long neglected the fortunes of these French in Canada, cut off from the old home by fate and history. Quite apart from any thought of pohtical union which, he frankly states, is to be put altogether aside, there are affiliations of language and sentiment which survive. Let France, he concludes, think more of Canada than she has done in the past, for the French in America are by no means a negUgible part of the French race. This new disposition among the French, besides being a striking fact in itself, has a direct bearing upon the subject which we are about to consider. If the French of America had done no more than multiply in the same ratio with the French at home, there would be less than one hundred and 1 1 6 The Colonist — Hebert fifty thousand of them to-day, and one could not expect to find Siegfried or Salone writing serious books about a population of one hundred and fifty thousand. When we speak of the French colony as it was under the Old Regime, we must first acknowledge that, judged by one most impor- tant standard, it was a success. To speak more precisely, the French settler in Canada showed from the first a marked aptitude for seizing upon the soil and clinging to it. If the French race in the seventeenth century did not colonise on a large scale, the fact was due to conditions which prevailed in France. Once carry the Norman over seas, and he braves the wilderness with a soul of iron. Despite unfortunate restrictions placed by the state upon his freedom of action, despite a defective system of agriculture, he wiU make his way. Speaking poHticaUy, the settle- ment of Canada by the French was a failure; or perhaps it would be better to say that viewed from the standpoint of the Bourbon monarchy, it was a failure. But considered from the stand- point of race, it was far from being a failure, since the individual Frenchman, in spite of his own government and of many natural obstacles, clung to the soil. Napoleon used to say that every state is a political creation. Never did a more wrong-headed idea enter the mind of a great man. A state is much more than a political creation. It is a collection of people, and the people remain after the form of government has been changed. Remembering this, we must recognise that the colonisation of New France was not so much a The Colonist — Hebert 117 failure as it might have seemed to be in the autumn of 1760. Singtilar and amusing views prevailed in the days when Europe first began to send her children into distant continents. The original idea was that any kind of human being would answer admirably as a colonist. Miss Austen, in North- anger Abbey, says of the numerous Morland chil- dren: "A family of ten will always be called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number." Likewise, if only a band of colonists had heads and arms and legs enough for the number, they were apt to pass muster in the sixteenth century. Exactly what is meant can be made out from a single illustra- tion. The most interesting contemporary narra- tive of John Cabot's landfall comes to us from an Italian, Raimondo Soncino, who in 1497 was the ambassador of Milan at the EngUsh court. Writ- ing to his master about Cabot's discovery, Soncino says among other things: "And in the spring he says that his Majesty will arm some ships and will give him aU the criminals, so that he may go to this country and plant a colony there." Even now it is not quite polite to ask a native of New South Wales whether his ancestors were among the first settlers, but Botany Bay did not stand alone in this respect. Centuries before the colonisation of Austraha, convicts had been sent over seas for their country's good, and inciden- tally to lay the cornerstone of a new common- wealth. Booker Washington says that the mem- bers of his race are alone in having come to America 1 1 8 The Colonist— Hebert with their passage paid. Apparently, however, he is labouring under a misapprehension on this point. If we may beheve John Fiske, England alone contributed to the Western Hemisphere some fifty thousand emigrants of white complexion who came over with their passage paid. Closely connected with the exportation of con- victs as colonists, is the idea that the colony exists for the benefit of the mother land, — not indirectly for its benefit through enhancement of prestige and through the normal intercourse of trade, but directly through the payment of imposts to the home government, and the shackhng of com- merce for the benefit of the home merchants. Were there space, it would be well worth while to examine how this notion affected the colonising projects of Spain and England, for neither country escaped its influence. In the case of France and Canada, the one valuable commodity which could be sent home was the beaver skin. At least this is true of the days when the colony was being founded. To secure a monoply of the fur trade was therefore the prime object of capitahsts who invested their money in trans- Atlantic ventures. Such a monopoly could be had only from the crown. Court favour counted for much on the side of the apphcant, but the government could not afford to grant away valuable privileges with- out making stipulations. The first of these, per- force, related to colonisation. If the English were to be kept out of the St. Lawrence valley, some one must hold it for France. And it was not easy to inspire an interest in emigration when all the The Colonist— Hebert 119 world knew how closely the cUmate of Canada resembled that of Norway. The crown often agreed to grant a monoply of the fur trade, but every intelligent king insisted that the persons who received it should take over a certain number of colonists. As a rule the promise was evaded, and even where it was fulfilled, the holder of the monopoly treated the colonist more like a servant, than like an independent freeman who had taken up his home in a continent where there was land enough for aU. The foregoing statements can well be illus- trated by reference to the settlement of New France during the time of Champlain. To begin at the beginning, it was Henry IV. who set the precedent of giving a monopoly. This happened at the very close of the sixteenth century, and in each case the beneficiary was bound to take out a fixed number of colonists. In 1597 La Roche proposed to found a colony on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. No decent emigrants being procurable, he arranged with the govern- ment to transport sturdy vagrants from the gaols of Normandy and Brittany. He was told that he might have as many as he liked, and he took two hundred. On La Roche's death, Chauvin, a Huguenot of Honfleur, received a monopoly of the fur trade on condition that he would take over fifty colonists a year for ten years. This promise he flagrantly evaded, his largest effort in the field of colonisation being represented by the cynical abandonment of sixteen unfortunates, who were left to winter at Tadoussac in 1600. I20 The Colonist — Hebert De Monts, the most eminent of these early adven- turers, approached his duties more seriously, but having lost money in Acadia, he came to the St. Lawrence as a last resort. Champlain was acting as De Monts' agent when he landed at Quebec in 1608, and his twenty-seven companions were merely sent out to fulfil the condition upon which the monopoly was granted — the condition, namely, that the holder should transport and establish colonists. If the monopolist failed to discharge his obli- gation, it was not because he went unwatched. The grant which a benevolent king had given him injured the interests of many shipowners at St. Malo, Dieppe, La Rochelle, and other French ports, — small traders who would gladly have bar- tered with the Indians for furs, but were without court favour. Their plea was that men like Chau- vin, De Chastes, and De Monts, the successive holders of the monopoly, did nothing to promote colonisation, and yet kept scores of people from carrying on a profitable trade. In 1609 Henry IV. Ustened to these lesser merchants, and took away De Monts' monopoly. Then followed four years of free trading, but the experiment was not a suc- cess, and in 1613 Marie de Medicis revived the monopoly for the benefit of a great noble, the Prince de Conde. It was in conjunction with Conde that Champlain organised the company which brought to Canada its first bona fide colo- nist, Louis Hubert. The career of this settler is so characteristic that we must examine it in some detail. The Colonist— Hebert 1 2 1 Hebert's early training could not have pre- pared him very well for the rough Ufe of a fanner in Canada. Among the French of that age the typical colonist is to be found in the Norman peasant, whose muscles have been hardened by years of spade work and mowing. But Hubert was neither a Norman nor a peasant. He came from Paris, and by profession was an apothecary. That one of his modest ambitions should have lacked a contemporary biographer, need give no cause for surprise. The facts of his career, so obscure and yet so admirable, must be pieced together from scraps of information which occur here and there in the different narratives of early Hfe at Port Royal and Quebec. Without ever doing a brilliant deed or writing a hne of htera- ture, Hebert deserves aU the praise which belongs to a brave, a persevering, and a useful man. Unlike Champlain, or DTberville, or Frontenac, he is not a celebrity; but in selecting an individual colonist who shall prefigure the whole class, one finds that his claims are paramount. As an emigrant, Hebert first appears among the followers of Poutrincourt. What led him to leave his home in Paris must remain a matter of conjecture, save for this. It was no light whim which made him dream of a home in America. Had he drifted into Poutrincourt' s band of colo- nists through accident, his experiences of the New World must have caused him to remain joyfully in France at the time of his first return. Instead, however, of reopening his shop on the banks of the Seine and reviling the hardships of Acadia 122 The Colonist — Hebert for the pleasure of his customers, he pursued his chosen task with unflinching energy.* We can think of him, therefore, as a colonist from con- viction rather than by chance. Or was it that he went out with Poutrincourt merely in the character of an apothecary, and became fond of the New World after he had come to know it with aU its dangers and privations? Some colour is lent to the latter view by a passage in which Lescarbot describes the agri- cultural efforts of Poutrincourt. "And there," says the historian of Port Royal, "he sowed com and planted vines, with the aid of our apothecary, M. Louis Hebert, who, apart from the training he possessed in his profession, took great pleasure in working the soil." From these words it would appear that Hebert was, first of all, the medical of&cer of the colony at Port Royal, incidentally amusing himself in the garden. But even though he may have been taken out with the expedition to dispense drugs, his agricultural proclivities make him by common consent the first true colonist of Acadia. Others might seek to gain a fortune rapidly through the fur trade. Hebert, on the contrary, was by instinct a farmer. We should pass over his Acadian experiences with a mere allusion, were they not needed to fill out the meagre story of his deeds. As it is, one * It is true that for a time, between his final return from Acadia and his departure for Canada, Hubert did reopen his •shop in Paris. But this was only because he had been driven out of Acadia by the destruction of the settlement, and was not in a position to take his family to Quebec without an invitation from the Company. The Colonist— Hebert 123 must make use of every circumstance which throws Ught on Hebert's character. Of his per- sonal adventures at Port Royal there is scant record. Lescarbot emphasises his special interest in the cultivation of grapes. Biard, the Jesuit missionary, calls him "a well-known master in pharmacy." It is certain that he revisited France in 1607 and then returned to Port Royal, where he remained till the colony was broken up by the English in 1613. During his second residence he was clearly considered to be the leading per- sonage among the permanent inhabitants. The best evidence of this fact is that Biencourt, Pou- trincourt's son, named him as his representative during frequent absences from Port Royal, and though the number of colonists was very small, such an appointment implies trust. The longest single reference to the position which Hebert held under Biencourt occurs in Biard' s Relation for 1616, where an account is given of La Saus- saye's arrival [May, 1613]. "At Port Royal they found only five persons; namely, the two Jesuits, their servant, the Apoth- ecary Hebert, and another. Sieur de Biencourt and the rest of his people were all quite far away, some here, some there. Now because Hubert was taking the place of the Sieur, they presented to him the Queen's letters, which contained the royal copimand to release the Jesuits and to let them go wherever they pleased; so the Jesuits took away their property in great peace. And on that day as well as on the following, they made it as pleasant for Hebert and his company as they 124 The Colonist — Hebert could, so that this arrival would not be a cause of sadness to them. At their departure (although they were not in need of anything) they left them a barrel of bread and some bottles of wine, that the farewell might be received with equally good grace." Shortly after this the French colony at Port Royal was destroyed, and Hebert found himself once more in France. But he was not discour- aged by what he had undergone, and readily con- sented to pass from the day of small things in Acadia to things almost equally small at Quebec. And here it is pleasant to remember the friendship between Champlain and Hebert, both good men and true, who from old acquaintance in Acadia were familiar with each other's virtues. Con- cerning the details of their early relationship, we know nothing. Champlain was mapping the Atlan- tic seaboard from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod when Hebert first reached Port Royal. Two years later, when the explorer left Acadia to found Quebec, they must have drifted apart. But Champlain knew enough about Hebert to feel certain, in 1617, that he would be an invaluable member of the little group then struggling for existence at the base of Cape Diamond. The following passage, taken from Le Clercq's First Establishment of the Faith (1691), contains a sufficiently clear account of the circumstances under which Hebert came to Canada. "Monsieur de Champlain, on his part, forgot nothing to sustain his enterprise, in spite of aU the obstacles which he met at every step. He The Colonist— Hebert 125 steadily prepared a shipment greater even than the last, but we may say that the most fortunate thing he effected was his persuading Sieur Hebert to go to Canada with all his family, which has produced, and will hereafter produce, good sub- jects, the most important and zealous in the colony." To a large extent Hebert was victimised by the Company of which Champlain was the leading spirit. This may seem a harsh statement, and one requiring explanation. Therefore the facts should be recited; and they are worth repetition for the light they throw upon colonial methods in that age. After the destruction of Port Royal, Hebert returned to Paris and his profession. He had a shop, a family, and a little capital, aU these being considerations of importance to himself and his biographer. When it became a question of estab- lishing this excellent apothecary at Quebec, the negotiations were carried on by Champlain, whose business associates authorised him to offer attrac- tive terms. In short, Hebert before leaving Paris was promised that he and his family should be supported for two years, and that he should receive in cash two hundred crowns for three years. On this understanding he sold his house and shop, bought an equipment for the new home in Quebec, and set off with his family to embark at Honfleur. Here, however, he found that the Company was not prepared to stand by its agreement. It beat him down from two hundred to one hundred crowns a year, and stipulated that he with all his family, and his domestic, should serve the Com- 126 The Colonist — Hebert pany for the three years during which the grant was payable. Even at the end of three years, when he found himself at liberty to till the soil, he was bound to sell produce to the Company at the prices prevalent in France. The Company was to have his perpetual service as a chemist for nothing, and he must promise in writing to take no part in the fur trade. Hebert had cut off his retreat and accepted these hard terms, but is it strange that under such conditions colonists should have been few? Sagard, the RecoUet mis- sionary, says the Company treated Hebert so badly because it wished to discourage colonisation. What it wanted was the benefit of the monopoly, without the obligation of finding settlers who had to be brought over for nothing. A man of honour, like Champlain, could not have tricked Hebert into the bad bargain he made, and their friendship survived the incident. So far as one can see, the Company repudiated the terms which in good faith Champlain had made on its behalf. In any case Hebert did not suffer his spirit to be crushed by injustice. This apoth- ecary from Paris took up his work with a hearti- ness which augured well for the future of the French race in America. Prior to 1617 the recruits brought over by Champlain had been pure adventurers, greedy for quick returns and ready to sing In exitu Israel whenever they could leave the country. But Hebert cleared land, cultivated it with hds own hands, married his daughters to genuine colo- nists, acquired a fief, and became, save for Cham- plain, the leading citizen of Quebec. The Colonist— Hebert 127 The incidents of such a life do not lend them- selves to picturesque treatment, and yet Hebert's labours are so meritorious that posterity should preserve with pious care whatever is known about him. From the moment he reached Canada till his death ten years later, incessant toil seems to have filled his days. At the same time he was not a drudge. Possessed of some education and a little property, confident in the future of the New World, and eager to do something for the Christian faith, he combined with his industry both intelligence and purpose. In 1617 all the buildings which had been erected at Quebec lay by the water's edge. Hubert, like the true pioneer he was, left the httle group of fur traders where they were at the foot of the cUff, and looking for some soil that could be cul- tivated, began to make a clearing on the heights. His first domain covered less than ten acres, but even this small area of stumps must have been a severe tax upon his powers. Once in occupa- tion of a pied ii terre, he began building, and soon had a stone house which was thirty-eight feet long, by nineteen wide. There is reason to believe that his agricultural operations were confined to the spade, though in the year after his death his wife set up a plough. Besides sowing Indian corn and the ordinary vegetables, he planted apple trees and vines. He also managed to support some cattle. When one considers what all this imphes in the way of food and comfort, it may be guessed that the fur traders, wintering down below on salt pork and smoked eels, must have 1 28 The Colonist— Hebert felt much respect for the farmer in his stone man- sion on the cliff. But Hebert and his family were not only intel- ligent and hardworking; we have abundant evi- dence to prove that they were charitable. The RecoUets and Jesuits, whose attitude toward indi- viduals was not always the same, both speak in the highest praise of them. Indeed the longstanding friendship between this household and the reli- gious began during the voyage of 1617, when in the midst of great peril among the icebergs, Madame Hebert held up her youngest child to be blessed by Father Le Caron, who was preparing all on board for the hour of death. But the ship did not go down, and having faced danger together on the deep, they cheerfully set out to brave star- vation on Cape Diamond. For years, Hebert and the RecoUets were working side by side in com- plete amity. And the valiant farmer went to his rest in the RecoUet cemetery. As for the Jesuits, it was not until after Hebert's death that they began to send home their reports from Quebec, but in Le Jeune's early Relations there occur sev- eral encomiums of Madame Hebert. At her house Mass was celebrated for the first time after the French returned to Quebec in 1632. When a nurse was needed, the Fathers went to her. She and her children appear in the chronicles of the Jesuits as "the old family," "the estimable family that is settled here," or "this worthy family who have lived here quite a long time." While Hebert could hardly grow rich in ten years from the produce of a few arpents planted The Colonist — Hebert 129 with peas and onions, he had his share of modest prosperity. In 162 1 we find him at Tadoussac as a Ueutenant of De Caen. Afterwards he is Royal Procurator. Finally, in the year before his death (1626), he secures the seigniory of St. Joseph, situated on the river St. Charles, and with it the title Sieiir d'Espinay.* The difficulties which he overcame, especially in his relations with the Company, are referred to with much feeUng by both Sagard and Champlain. Sagard says that the merchants wished to treat Hebert and his family as though they were servants, "or slaves rather," and grudged them the fruit of their labours. "O God," he exclaims, "everywhere the great fish eat the little ones!" And this statement in Sagard is substantiated by one equally distinct in Champlain. Therefore any success which Hebert achieved, he won by dint of tireless, unremitting effort. No other single passage about the first colonist is so long as that which Sagard devotes to his last moments. For this RecoUet friar, Hebert is the type of the good man whose virtues are an ensam- ple to future generations. In him both French and savages have lost a true father, a steadfast friend. That Hebert made a pious end in the midst of his family, is clear from what follows this exordium, and two pages are devoted to his parting words. Of equal interest is Le Clercq's tribute written more than sixty years later. "We had at this time another grief. Monsieur Hebert, *He had already in 1623 been given the small seigniory of Sault au Matelot. 130 The Colonist— Hebert the first settler of the colony, of whom we have spoken in the beginning of our history, fell sick, exhausted by the hardships he had undergone, and after lingering some days he paid the debt of nature. His death was universally regretted. He may be called the Abraham of the colony, the father of the hving and faithful, since his pos- terity has become as numerous as we have here- tofore said.* It has produced many officers, civil and military, able merchants, worthy ecclesiastics, finally a great number of good Christians, many of whom have suffered much, and others have been killed by the Indians in the common cause." These words, which go back to 1691, are confirmed by the biography of the last two hundred years. M. Salone has summed up Hebert' s career tersely in these words: "And so this Parisian chemist became not only the first Acadian and the first Canadian, but the first seigneur of New France." However there is more to foUow. From Hebert are descended some of the best-known French- Canadian families; for example, those of Joliet, De Lery, De Ramezay, D'Eschambault, and Four- nier. Mgr. Taschereau, Mgr. Tache, and Arch- * This is a reference to Le Clercq's account of the first wed- ding in Canada. "Meantime after the departure of the ships, the Father-Comissary celebrated, with the usual solemnities, the first marriage made in Canada. It was between the Sieur Stephen Jonquest, a native of Normandy, and Sieur Hubert's eldest daughter. He married the second some years after to Sievu: Couillard, whose posterity has become so numerous in Canada that they number now over two htmdred and fifty persons, while there are at least nine hundred connected with the family." The Colonist— Hebert 1 3 1 bishop Blanchet are also among his descendants. Madame Hebert, whose personal virtues have already been mentioned, was as good a colonist as her husband. Her attachment to Canada was tested in 1629 when the EngUsh captured Quebec. Neither she nor any of her family went back to France. The Heberts had taken root and become Canadians. We have from Champlain's own lips a valuable statement as to the condition of things at Quebec in 1627, the year when Louis Hebert died. ' ' We were in all," he says, "sixty-five souls, including men, women, and children." Of the sixty-five only eighteen were adult males fit for hard work, and this small number must be reduced to two or three if we include only the tillers of the soU. Besides the French at Quebec, a few adventurous spirits were away in the woods, living among the Indians, learning their language and endeavour- ing to exploit the beaver trade. Such, in short, was the state of things at the end of thirty years from the time when a monopoly of trade had first been given out, and after that monopoly had passed through seven or eight hands. No one seemed able to persuade respectable citizens to emigrate in any numbers, or rather the fur companies sys- tematically eluded their promises to promote colo- nisation. At this juncture Richelieu appears on the scene. In 1626 he had told the Assembly of Nota- bles that there was every reason why France should control the sea, and draw wealth from the operations of great trading companies. But in 132 The Colonist — Hebert his opinion a company conducting business over seas on a large scale must be strong and represen- tative. His diagnosis of the failure to build up New France was that the right people had not taken hold of the project. He felt the folly of losing all hold upon the American continent, and threw himself with much vigour into a plan for the active development of Canada. Hence there arose the Company of New France, which is more commonly called the Company of the Hundred Associates. Richelieu undoubtedly hoped that this organisation would do for French inter- ests in America what the East India Company succeeded in doing for English interests in India. His own name heads the list of members, followed by those of the Minister of Finance and the Min- ister of Marine. The other associates were drawn from every part of France, even from Champagne on the eastern fringe of the country, far away from the sea. Nobles, wealthy merchants, and small traders were all represented in this venture which Richeheu hoped would assume a thoroughly national character. Twelve titles of nobiUty were distributed among the shareholders to help in the enlistment of capital, and with bright prospects the Company began its existence in 1627. Obviously the Company of the Hundred Asso- ciates was a larger and more important concern than any which had attempted to develop Canada before 1627. It received a monopoly of trade for fifteen years, and promised in return to take out three hundred colonists a year during the whole period covered by the grant. The Company also The Colonist — Hubert 133 received the St. Lawrence valley in full ownership. One notable provision of the charter was that only Roman CathoUcs should be sent to New France as colonists, and the Company was placed under special obUgation to maintain three priests in each settlement, until the colony could support its own clergy. When we remember that this Company of the Hundred Associates controlled the affairs of Canada for thirty-six years (save for the three years when the Enghsh were in possession), its importance becomes manifest. Moreover, the gen- eration which falls between 1627 and 1663 was just the time when the English colonies from Virginia to Massachusetts were taking form and gaining soUdity. What, at this critical moment when England and France were laying the ground- work of their colonial systems, can be said for the Company of the Hundred Associates? Did it render any great service to France? Did it live up to its obUgations? Did it manage to derive profit from the fur trade, and at the same time to promote active, healthy colonisation? The plain answer to such questions is that the Company lost its charter in 1663 because it had not discharged the duties which it assumed along with the monopoly. We may take its operations really to begin with 1632, when the Enghsh gave back Canada to France. Had the original promise been fulfilled, the Company should have brought over in the next eleven years, that is, before the expiration of its first monopoly, three thousand three hundred settlers. But in 1642, when Mon- 134 liie Colonist — Hubert treal was founded, the entire colony contained, according to Dollier de Casson, but two hundred and forty inhabitants. M. Rameau places the number at three hundred, but this is the largest estimate. And there are included in the three hundred every man, woman, and child from Tadous- sac to Lake St. Louis. Not a great showing, surely! We cannot, of course, follow the growth of the population, step by step, but in 1663, when the Company went out of existence, the inhabi- tants of New France numbered twenty-five hun- dred. This very moderate total includes both sexes, all ages, and the descendants of the earher settlers, no less than adults brought out by the Company. Much time might be consumed in describing the difficulties which the Company of the Hundred Associates encountered, and the stages of its decline. But here we are more concerned with the colonists and their hfe in Canada than with the fortunes of the corporation which brought them to the banks of the St. Lawrence. A great deal of dis- cussion has arisen over the wisdom, or unwisdom, of excluding Huguenots. On the one hand, it is pointed out that serious trouble would have arisen from bringing into the colony the rehgious dis- cords of the mother land. How could Richelieu, it is asked, fight Calvinism in France and suffer it to spread in New France? Another objection to letting Huguenots settle in Canada may be found in the hkeUhood that dislike of the Catholics might have led them to join hands with the Calvinistic Dutch, on the Hudson, or the The Colonist— Hubert 135 Calvinistic English of Massachusetts. The whole question seems to hinge on this point. Would the Huguenots, if permitted to settle in Canada, have acted as Frenchmen first, or Protestants first? If as Frenchmen, they must have proved an invaluable aid in opening up the West, and in aU other forms of colonial activity. If, on the con- trary, they would have acted first as Protestants, they might well have wrecked French interests in America from the outset, — by which is meant that they might have wrecked French interests as conceived of by Richelieu. In connection with this subject it may be worth while to mention Mr. Fosdick's book entitled The French Blood in America. Mr. Fosdick, despite his title, has nothing whatever to say about the French on the St. Lawrence. By The French Blood in America, he means The Huguenots in the United States. His main proposition, which may appear fantastic, is that the alertness, the mental quickness, the inventiveness, the "knack" which the people of the United States possess, are aU due to their French origin. Whatever makes the American less stupid than the Englishman, flows, Mr. Fosdick thinks, from a French source. In support of this view he gives a long list of distinguished Americans who were, or are, descended from Huguenot refu- gees, — a list which includes the Reveres, Faneuils, Danas, Fremonts, Girards, Thoreaus, Bowdoins, and Lecontes. We need not turn aside from our subject to discuss the larger issue. This much, however, may be said. The Calvinist, whether EngUsh, 136 The Colonist — Hebert French, or Dutch, has made an extremely tena- cious colonist in all quarters of the globe. But time was required to prove this. Moreover, the Huguenots had often been guilty of factious opposi- tion to the French crown. It seems clear that France as a nation suffered grievous loss by not letting the Huguenots form colonies of their own, with the sanction of the home government. StiU, we must look at the predicament from RicheUeu's standpoint. If he suffered Huguenots to enter New France, local broils would be sure to arise, and he played for safety in keeping them out. Huguenots might trade in the colony if they would not worship openly, but after 1628 they were expressly forbidden to settle there, or even to spend the winter. One reason why the Company of the Hundred Associates did not succeed better, is that Richelieu failed to enhst among its members the elite of the French nobihty. Its movements were also ham- pered by lack of capital. Though strong in com- parison with previous companies controlling the fur trade, it was not strong enough. Finally, Richelieu looked upon New France as though it were simply another province of France, to be ruled autocratically from Paris through the usual mechanism of governor and intendant. No large number of Frenchmen would expatriate them- selves unless they saw that they could better their condition. The inducements held out were not adequate. A modern immigration agent of the Dominion of Canada could have furnished Cardinal Richeheu with many useful suggestions. The Colonist— Hubert 1 37 Nevertheless one must not dwell too much upon the discouraging side of French colonisation prior to 1663. From 1632 onward one finds an ever-increasing number of settlers who belong in the same class with Louis Hebert; that is, of colonists who have made Canada their permanent home, and are not mere hangers-on of the fur trade. Presently we shall consider the character of the immigrants who arrived after 1632, and connect them with the districts in France from which they came. But before doing this it seems best to say a few words about the seigniorial system, and its general effect upon the settlement of Canada. No feature of life under the Old Regime is more gen- erally famous than the presence in the colony of seigneurs, with their fiefs, their tenants, and their manor houses. In the eyes of many, a glamour of romance is shed upon the toU and privations of New France by the trappings of a belated feu- dahsm. Unfortunately a good deal of haziness exists upon two important points: first, the nature of feudaUsm in Europe, and secondly, the relations between feudahsm and the seigniorial system. Here we encounter a question of some practical moment, as one shaU hope to explain. M. Suite opens his chapter on Seigniorial Ten- ure with these words: "A wide-spread misunder- standing has been caused by the confusion of our system of land tenure with the feudal system. The feudal system no more corresponds to the seigniorial regime in Canada than the term Yankee defines an Englishman, though the two people are by origin the same." "The feudal regime," 138 The Colonist— Hebert continues M. Suite, "as it existed in New France, has proved a great stumbling-block to historians of English speech. The word feudalism takes them back to the Middle Ages, and there they become lost." It seems to me that here we have a very useful warning against a common error. And the error is not one of the harmless variety. Many EngHsh Canadians of imperfect education look upon the French habitant of the Old Regime as though he were a down-trodden serf, with no rights, no freedom of spirit, and no backbone. Nor is the opinion confined to the man in the street. Let me quote a passage which occurs on page 388 of Mr. A. G. Bradley's Fight with France for North America. Referring to the French Canadians as they were before 1760, he says: "They had been, in fact, slaves — slaves to the corvees and unpaid mihtary service — ' debarred from education and crammed with gross fictions and superstitions as an aid to their dociUty and their value as food for powder." There is more than one mistake in this sentence, but what I am concerned to point out just now is that the habitant was not a slave. The seigniorial system in Canada dates from 1627, when Richeheu founded the Company of the Hundred Associates. This Company received from Louis XIII. the whole of New France with full ownership, seigniory, and justice. It had in conformity with this general grant the right to create out of the enfiefed land even duchies and marquisates — subject to the royal consent. How- ever, to create duchies in a land without inhabi- The Colonist— Hubert 1 39 tants would have been absurd, and so the Com- pany contented itself with erecting seigniories. The right, then, to found seigniories was granted in 1627, but the general estabUshment of the seigniorial regime in Canada dates only from the restoration of the country to France in 1632.* Having already suffered heavy losses the Company found it impossible to fulfil the promises it had made regarding colonisation. A clever idea then suggested itself. Instead of incurring expense to bring over settlers, why not create seigniories for the benefit of those who, in return, would undertake this duty? In other words, the Com- pany was wilUng to sublet a portion of its obliga- tions to men of enterprise in France, who would people Canada in return for seigniories and sei- gniorial status. One does not observe any great rush of dukes, marquises, and counts to the banks of the St. Lawrence. The grandees of France were quite content to remain at home. The seigniories offered by the Company of the Hundred Associates had no charm for them — the owners of chateaux on the Loire and the Garonne. But there was a t5T)e of man in France to whom this suggestion appealed with some force. The colonising seigneur is seen to perfection in Robert Giffard, to whom was granted in 1634 the seigniory of Notre-Dame de Beauport, near Quebec, stretching for a league along the river and running back a league and *Only three seigniories had been granted prior to 1627; those, namely, in favour of Louis Hubert, Guillauxne de Caen, and the Jesuit Fathers. 140 The Colonist — Hebcrt a half. Giffard was a physician who had been in Canada before the capture of Quebec by Kirke. In France he had httle chance of becoming an important person. In Canada, on the contrary, there was no reason why he should not gain the status of a gentleman, if only he could exploit his seigniory by subdividing it among a certain number of tenants. The Company gave him the fief on terms which made it advantageous for him to colonise it, and in turn stipulated that every settler he brought to Canada should count in diminution of the number for which the Company was responsible. Giffard, having been treated liberally by the Hundred Associates, acts liberally towards his tenants. He returns to his native district of La Perche, and enhsts colonists from the neighbourhood of Mortagne. Mark that he is not looking for convicts. He wants hardwork- ing, self-respecting, hardy people who will give real assistance in the development of that sei- gniory at Beauport. Giffard has been in Canada, knows the country well, and selects his retainers with an eye to their fitness. Everything is done in order and with regard to law. For example, Giffard before a notary grants a fief of a thousand arpents to Jean Guyon. Jean Guyon is only a simple artisan, but presumably he is a good worker. Doubtless he is ambitious. Instead of having an arpent at Mortagne is it not better to have a thou- sand at Beauport? Sancho Panza wanted the governorship of an island. Robert Giffard, a phy- sician, wishes to live like a gentleman on his own seigniory. Jean Guyon, an artisan, wishes to have The Colonist— Hebert 141 a farm of a thousand arpents. Altogether, Giffard stands credited with having stimulated that emi- gration from La Perche which gave French Can- ada some of its best blood. The example thus set in 1634 had a considerable effect, and before 1640 twelve more seigniories had been granted by the Company on terms which stimulated colonisation through private effort. Of these perhaps the most interesting was that established at Beaupre in favour of La Regnard- iere, a lawyer attached to the Parlement of Paris. The exploitation of individual seigniories we can- not follow in detail, nor can we pause to see how this form of colonial activity was checked by Jean de Lauson. It must suffice to examine rapidly the position of the seigneur, and the nature of the relations which existed between him and his ten- ant, or censitaire. The seigneur received his land without money payment — first from the Company of the Hundred Associates, and then, after 1663, from the crown. His tenure was that of foi et hommage. If he sold the fief he had to pay one fifth of the purchase price to his feudal superior, though a liberal dis- count was allowed for cash. But while the seigneur paid nothing in money, he accepted one heavy obligation. He was given a certain length of time in which to clear his seigniory. If at the expiration of this period the land was not cleared, his title to it became forfeit. Most of the seigneurs were men of little means, and they really constituted themselves middlemen between the Company, or the crown, and the habitants. 142 The Colonist— Hubert They reallotted the land in lesser pieces, receiving a small rent instead of a purchase price, and im- posing upon their tenants, or censitaires, the same obligation to clear away the woods which had been laid upon them. Most of the seigniories were simple fiefs which did not carry with them a title of nobility. But towards the close of the seventeenth century, several baronies and one earldom were created in Canada by Louis XIV. The best known of these is the barony of Longueuil, with which was connected a patent of nobility that has been recog- nised by the British Government. As a rule the gentry were poor, and unable to maintain any establishment but the very simplest. To compare the manor house of a Canadian seigneur with a manor house in Normandy or Touraine would be absurd. The domestic architecture of New France was far less elaborate and beautiful than that of either Virginia or Massachusetts. Where stone was used it differed httle from the simplest rubble construction. In short the poverty, if nothing else, of the seigneurs prevented them from build- ing castles and oppressing the masses. The censitaire takes his name from the payments which, under the form of cens et rentes, he made to his superior. With relation to the seigneur the tenant was a censitaire, but speaking generally we are more familiar with members of this class under the name of habitants. The first fact which must be emphasised in speaking of the censitaire is that he was not a serf. He was really a free peasant. He cannot be styled a vassal, since into vassalage those only could enter who were of gentle The Colonist— Hubert 143 birth. At the same time he is marked off with equal clearness from the mediaeval serf. Even in the eleventh century there had been free censi- taires, holding farms from which they could not be removed so long as they paid their stated rent, unlike serfs who were attached to the soil and at a sale went with it like cattle. In New France the censitaire is not a serf who changes with the land. He occupies a farm of from one to two hundred arpents, for which he pays annually not more than two sous an arpent, and as a rule less. Part of this rent is payable in money, but a large proportion takes the form of natural prod- uce, such as grain, eggs, and fowls. If the censi- taire sells his farm, one twelfth of the purchase price goes to the seigneur under the name of lods et ventes. There were certain other customary rights, or banaliUs, which may have been to a certain extent vexatious, but were in no sense burdensome. The most famous of these were the seigneur's right to have the censitaire grind his grain at the seigniorial mill, and bake his bread at the seigniorial oven. In France the right of grinding did often constitute an oppression, but in Canada the case was quite otherwise. In the first place the right of the oven was almost never enforced, and as for the right of the mill, it was a burden to the seigneur rather than an advantage. That is to say, he had to maintain a mill for the convenience of the censitaires, and the toUs which he was permitted to exact by no means compensated him for his outlay in erecting it and keeping it open. There 144 The Colonist — Hebert is direct evidence to show that some of the seigneurs would gladly have closed their nulls. The government, however, prevented them from doing so. Another banaliU which, I imagine, did not weigh heavily upon the censitaire was that of giving the seigneur every eleventh fish caught in the river upon which the seigniory fronted. As for dancing around the seigneur's May-pole, it was, in most cases, a pleasant exercise, hke dancing on the bridge of Avignon. One may doubt whether it was looked upon in the days of the Old Regime as a badge of servUity. The heaviest burden which the seigniorial regime entailed was that of the corvee. Under this obligation the tenant was bound to render a certain amount of personal service for the land he received, in addition to the payments above specified. Personal service always suggests slav- ery, but those who were subject to the corvee in New France do not resemble slaves. In the first place the corvSe was not a badge of serviHty fixed upon certain unfortunate individuals, but an obh- gation assumed by landholders in proportion to the area they received from the seigneur. Profes- sor W. iB. Munro, to whom we are indebted for the most complete and thorough study of this subject, says that very rarely did the seigniorial demand amount to more than six days' labour in the year. Secondly, this obhgation of personal service could be commuted by a small payment in money. For example, on the seigniory of La Chevrotiere in 1716 the censitaire holding a farm of a hundred and twenty arpents could commute The Colonist— Hebert 145 for the corvde by paying twenty sous a year. There was, in addition, the king's corvee, which resembled the statute labour requirement still to be found in some parts of the Eastern Townships. What the crown exacted under this head was more burdensome than the obhgation of the habi- tant to the seigneur. But in a land that was almost destitute of money, roads and bridges could hardly have been built in any other way. We do not think of our Saxon ancestors as slaves because they were bound to give the state unpaid ser- vice of the same kind. Thus it seems clear that New France was far less injured in its development by the seigniorial system than by the restrictions which the government placed upon all its subjects in respect to trade and Uberty of private action. In other words, the Canadians as a whole had just cause for complaint against the system of administration, but the censitaires suffered httle from the operation of the seigniorial regime. Both socially and poUtically the habitant may have been less advantageously placed than the freehold proprietor of New England. But we must remember that for centuries before the colonial movement began, France and England had been reacting to different ideals. The essen- tial fact, so far as the seigniorial regime in Canada is concerned, is this. Based upon feudalism it omitted all the harsher, more tyrannical features of European feudaUsm. The censitaire, the habi- tant, was not a serf. He was very much a freeman, in his actions and in the temper with which he faced the toils and dangers of the wilderness. 146 The Colonist— Hebert Rameau and others have laid stress upon the service which the seigniorial system rendered in bringing about the colonisation of Canada. Sei- gneur and censitaire were alike given an incentive to clear the land and settle upon it permanently. It amounted to this, that land could be had for the asking by any one who would cultivate it as a bona fide settler, while the speculator was kept out by the provision which threw back an uncleared seigniory into the hands of the grantor. This point seems well taken, but in the end the sei- gniorial system placed a check upon good agricul- ture. The seigniory had a comparatively narrow frontage on a great river like the St. Lawrence or the RicheUeu, and ran back a long distance towards the interior. When subdivided, each censi- taire received a small frontage with a great depth. Such an arrangement answers well enough at first, before farms come to be subdivided among the children. But after subdivision has been carried on for several generations, there appear pieces of land which are mere strips or ribands, with an infinitesimal frontage on the stream, and a depth which makes each farm look like a fish-rod. Agri- culture could not reach its highest development under such circumstances. The seigniorial regime gave the banks of the St. Lawrence, and its princi- pal tributaries, a cheerful appearance, but did Uttle for the improvement of the back country. The Company of the Hundred Associates col- lapsed in 1663. After this date the most interest- ing episode in the colonisation of New France is the disbanding of the Carignan Regiment. This The Colonist— Hebert 147 body of troops was the first detachment of regu- lars to be sent against the Iroquois. It reached Canada in 1665, and at once took a leading part in Tracy's famous chastisement of the Mohawks. Shortly afterwards, the greater part of the regi- ment was recalled to France, only four companies remaining for the protection of the colony. But as at this moment Louis XIV. and Colbert wished to build up the population of Canada, it was determined that the regiment should be disbanded, and its members converted into colo- nists. The king did not actually compel the officers and men to become settlers, but he offered special inducements and made it difficult for them to decUne. In many cases the change was welcomed with alacrity. Even as early as 1666, six captains of the regiment and ten sub- alterns had decided of their own accord to remain in Canada. Altogether, the king set apart about 20,000 livres to assist officers and men in buying what they needed for their equipment as colonists. The officers became seigneurs and the men were transformed into censitaires. It wiU be seen at once how valuable an addition to the colony was such a body of settlers — ^men who had been trained in the best discipline of European warfare, and could organise the Canadian mihtia for expedi- tions against either the Iroquois or the English. Altogether the Regiment of Carignan-Salieres was a fine body of troops. The name Carignan it took from the Prince de Carignan, who recruited it. The name SaU^res recalls the colonel under whom it came to Canada. Before leaving Europe 148 The Colonist— Hebert it had served with distinction in the wars of the Fronde, and in the defence of Christendom against the Sultan. Few regiments of that age could have had a more singular experience. In 1664 it was fighting against the Turks. In 1665 it was fighting against the Mohawks. In 1666, and the years next following, it was beating its swords into plough-shares on the banks of the RicheKeu and the St. Lawrence. The officers of the Carignan Regiment gave New France the nucleus of an aristocracy. With their settlement in the colony we come upon a long fist of well-known names. Verch^res, La Durantaye, Saint Ours, Chambly, Deschamps, Berthier, Baby, Rene Gautier de Varennes, La Mothe, Fromont, and Contrecceur were among the most eminent of the warriors who founded families in Canada, and took to the work of clearing the forest. Many of them sought wives among the daughters of earlier settlers, and once estabUshed on Canadian soil, these newcomers began to feel pride in a land where they immediately took rank as natural leaders. In the eighteenth cen- tury, indeed during the crisis of the Seven Years' War, acute friction arose between French regulars and French officials on the one side, and the native- bom Canadians on the other. We are quite famil- iar with the existence of a similar feeUng in New England and New York, but it is well to remember that the French colonists became no less proud of their local traditions than were the descendants of the Puritans. Not all the seigneurs had equal success in coping with the labours of the wilder- The Colonist — Hebert 149 ness. Some of them lacked energy and suffered their families to become impoverished, but the best soldiers of New France came from the sei- gniorial stock, and while there was war the sons of the Carignan Regiment never lacked employment. In Macaulay's account of English society as it was at the accession of James II., one is impressed by the figure of the country squire, who looks like a tenant farmer and seeks his occupations in farm- ing or hunting, but who has a pride of birth that could hardly be exceeded in a Plantagenet. A French-Canadian seigneur of noble birth Uved a rough life among the habitants and the Indians, but he never forgot who he was. When war took him from the clearing where stood his rude manor house, he strove to win fame by brilliant deeds, and at home if he was not a tyrant, he at least could act the patriarch. The population of New France advanced from two thousand five hundred in 1663 to fifteen thou- sand in 1698. This notable increase was due largely to the special efforts put forth by Colbert and Louis XIV. in conjunction with Talon. What measures were then adopted to people Canada, we shall see in a subsequent chapter, when consider- ing Talon's policy and achievements. But for the present it must suffice to mention one further subject which touches closely upon the origins of French Canada. From what provinces of France did the ancestors of the colony come, and in what proportions are these provinces represented among the immigrants? Now, it is well known that though France in the days of Louis XIII. and Louis 150 The Colonist— Hebert XIV. was under the absolute rule of the king, provincial divisions stiU counted for much, and provincial characteristics marked off the French people into a number of distinct groups. The Baron La Hontan,- who came from Gascony, had many traits which suggest that engaging modern, Tartarin de Tarascon; but Robert Giffard, who, as we have seen, was a son of La Perche, represents a different type altogether. Thanks to the labours of Ferland, Faillon, and Rameau, we can tell with certainty whence almost every French Canadian came, who entered the colony between 1615 and 1666. Ferland's list contains four hundred and six names, and throws a flood of light upon the origin of the early colonists. The Norman group is considerably the largest, including one hundred and twenty-five names out of the four hundred and six, and claiming the families of Nicolet, Marsolet, Legardeur, Tilly, Repentigny, Hertel, and Le Moyne. Perche suppHes fifty-one names, including, besides Giffard, the famiUes of Guyon, Cloutier, Mercier, Maheu, Paradis, and Gagnon. Third in the Ust come the colonists from Maine and Anjou. The Poitevins, with those from St. Onge, number seventy-two, including the Gameau. Smaller detachments came from Brittany and the lie de France, but prior to 1666 the south of France does not contribute a single name. In a larger work it would be well worth while to take up the legends of French Canada as they are associated with those of different provinces in the mother land, but this is a theme which, how- The Colonist— Hebert 151 ever interesting, must be passed over. And for another chapter we must reserve a remarkable type of Frenchman who lived in Canada, not as a colonist tilling the soil and leading a regular Hfe acceptable to Church and State, but as a wild adventurer. This mauvais sujet roamed the forest at wiU, married one or more Indian wives, drank whiskey blanc ad libitum rather than (i discretion, and gave himself up generally to the impulses of the natural man. He was the despair of the intendant who could not keep him at home, and the bite noir of the missionary, who disliked him because he sold brandy to the Indians. Without feeUng disposed to present an apology for the coureur de bois, I submit that he represents, in an exaggerated form, the energy, the dash, the bold- ness, which aU the early settlers in New Fra,nce displayed to some extent. He may not have exhaled the odour of sanctity from his brandy flask and his pouch of bad tobacco, but at least he was not effete. Thanks to a splendid system of parish registers, the French Canadians are able to trace their ancestry with unexampled confidence, from the first days of the colony. No one can realise what the life of New France means until he has used the Abbe Tanguay's Dictionnaire Gin^alogique, which goes back family by family to the begin- ning, and follows the descent of the race until recent times. I find myself always thinking of New France and New England in comparison, or in contrast. Despite their democratic aspirations in poUtics, it may be doubted whether anywhere 152 The Colonist—Hebert is greater store set upon ancestry than among the old famiUes of New England. As early as 1668 William Stoughton said, in a sermon which he preached before the General Court of Massa- chusetts, "God sifted a whole nation that He might send choice grain over into this wilder- ness." To-day the same spirit is revealed in the existence of societies hke the Colonial Dames, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Some one has even suggested that the Sons of the Steer- age Passengers should form an association. Cer- tainly it is not for the historian to quarrel with these fraternities or sisterhoods, but what may be pointed out is this. When the famihes of Hebert and Baby, of Le Moyne and Gagnon, of Gameau and Mercier wish to form a society in commemoration of those who redeemed the Lau- rentian valley from the wilderness, no one need question their right to membership. CHAPTER V THE SOLDIER— D'IBERVILLE SOME time ago there appeared in Fliegende Blatter a pair of pictures which were designed to satirise one aspect of modern civilisation. In the first, a benevolent and aged chemist, sur- rounded by retorts and test tubes, is holding up an elixir which will lengthen life and check the ravages of disease. In the second, another chem- ist, with eyes fierce and excited, is exclaiming that he has invented an explosive which will kiU twice as many men as can be slain by the most vigorous form of cordite or melinite. In contra- diction of this grim jest, Nobel left part of the fortune which he had made through the invention of high explosives, to endow a Peace Prize; and soldiers have often declared that they end the conflicts which others begin. For example, General Sherman once addressed a large gathering of clergymen in these words: "You are the true authors of war, while I and men of my profession receive all the odium of the cruelty which it involves." An acknowledged master of military history has stated that he wrote on Napoleon's campaigns and kindred subjects, because they interested him from an intellectual standpoint. 153 154 The Soldier— D' Iberville "As for war itself," he said, "I hate it, and look upon it as a brutal, unreasonable way of setthng disputes." AU attacks upon war sound perfectly common- place, because hardly any one, in the abstract, defends this legalised way of destropng human life. Yet it is possible to have strong convictions regarding the general iniquity of bloodshed without being bUnd enough to ignore two things: first, that the fighting instinct has been imbedded in man by unnumbered centuries of struggle for existence, and secondly, that war throws out in high rehef some of the noblest of human quahties, besides many of the worst. We have now to con- sider the military virtues which the French Cana- dian displayed during the seventeenth century. To condemn him because he fought well against the English and the Iroquois, would be to judge past times by the aspirations of the Hague Con- ference — a most ridiculous proceeding. That the French Canadian of the Old Regime did fight well, is a fact which many English Cana- dians seem to ignore. Over and over again one hears conversations which, if they mean anything, resolve themselves into logic of this kind. "The French Canadians haven't the stuff that good soldiers are made of. See how easily they were "beaten by Wolfe." People who talk thus must have given shght attention even to the Seven Years' War, where Oswego, Carillon, and Ste. Foye are no less conspicuous than the great dis- parity of forces. But leaving aside the last struggle, the exploits of the French-Canadian soldiers in The Soldier— D'lberville 155 the seventeenth century are always striking and often brilliant. As proof, it is possible to adduce a long series of examples. The age which extends from Champlain to Frontenac was illuminated in both hemispheres by the deeds of the French soldier. At the pres- ent moment France still stands, more or less, under the shadow of Sedan, but for the historian a single reverse, however overwhelming, cannot blot out the memory of centuries. The bonds of all nations are held by fate, and it will not do to generalise sweepingly from Sedan. In the seven- teenth century, at any rate, France ranked first among the powers of Europe. For a hundred and thirty years before Richelieu plunged his country into war with Spain and Austria, the best troops in Europe had been the Spanish infantry. From Gonsalvo da Cordova in 1500 to Gustavus Adolphus in 1630, nothing could stand against them. The art of war, however, was revolutionised by Gus- tavus, who made his little army of Swedes the best fighting machine of their age. This he did by introducing much greater mobiUty of action, and by perfecting his artillery service. When Gustavus fought against the Imperialists at Breiten- feld, his cannon fired three shots for every one that was fired by the cannon of TiUy. After Gustavus' s death the best officer on his staff entered the service of France. This was Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, who conquered Alsace for Riche- lieu, and in his turn gave the French the benefit of what he learned from the Swedes. Then eight years after Champlain' s death came the astound- 156 The Soldier— D' Iberville ing victory of Rocroi, in which Conde destroyed the flower of the Spanish infantry, and won for France the same kind of prestige which Spain had so long held. There soon followed Turenne's spectacular invasion of Bavaria, and the extraor- dinary successes that marked the opening of Louis XIV.'s reign. I dwell for a moment upon these facts because the whole French nation was aglow with military ardour at the time when the colonisation of Canada was taking place. Every backwoodsman who fired at an Iroquois from behind a tree, felt that he belonged to the same stock with Conde and Turenne. Germany was suffering endless humiliations at the hands of France in the days when DoUard fought at the Long Sault, and when Tracy led the Carignan Regiment into the heart of the Mohawk country. It would not be difficult to tabulate the quali- ties which the French Canadian displayed in his wars with the Iroquois and the English, but a list of qualities is not what we want at this stage. Let us, first of aU, review some of the most striking incidents in the strife which raged for generations with these two foes of New France. Then we shall see the qualities of our Canadian in action, and be better able to draw a few conclusions regard- ing his merits and prowess as a warrior. One large subject is to be found in the wars which were waged by the people of Montreal against the Iroquois. These, as an outstanding chapter in the history of New France, may be said to extend from 1644 to 1689, that is, from the time when Maisonneuve repelled the first The Soldier— D'lberville 157 attack upon his stockade, until the Lachine Mas- sacre. The first brush between the Montr dalistes and the savages occurred in 1643, the year after the colony was founded. Losing little time in their attack upon the new settlement, the Iro- quois came in considerable force at the close of the first winter, and surprised six Frenchmen who were at work just outside the fort. Three of these they killed outright; the other three had the worse fate of being carried off as prisoners. A few days afterwards the same band of Iroquois ambushed a party of Hurons who were bringing down furs for the French, killed a large num- ber, and carried off the cargo in triumph. This foray of 1643 should be looked upon rather as a reconnaissance in force than as a deter- mined attack upon the httle company at Mon- treal. But at the close of the following March the Iroquois returned with a band which outnum- bered the French by about three to one. Since Champlain's day, trade with the Dutch had put them in possession of firearms, and on this occasion some of the braves were supplied with muskets. As soon as it became known that Indians were in the neighbourhood, many of Mai- sonneuve's followers began to clamour for action. The event showed how intrepid was the leader's spirit, but recognising the danger of sallying out from the fort, he held his people in check until the foe could be attacked without disad- vantage. On the day when the Montr batistes first met the Iroquois in open fight, the alarm was given by an intelligent dog named Pilot, 158 The Soldier— D' Iberville which had already done good service in warning the French of their enemy's presence. Willing at last to try conclusions, Maisonneuve left the stockade at the head of his picked men, thirty strong, and aU on their guard against surprise. But in woodcraft and ambuscade the Iroquois were better versed than the most highly civilised of Europeans, and despite Maisonneuve' s wari- jiess, the war-whoop of a hundred braves sounded upon the startled ears of the advancing French when they were least expecting it. Maisonneuve at once ordered his men to get behind trees and fight each for himself. While ammunition lasted the colonists held their ground, though three of the thirty were killed and several others wounded. To retreat with steadiness when they had lost all means of self-protection was a difficult matter, especially as the snow had been rendered treach- erous by a March sun. After floundering about for some time under a galling fire of musket baUs and arrows, the retreating party struck a sledge track which had been beaten hard in drawing logs to the fort. From this point it was sauve qui pent, aU running peU-mell for shelter save Maisonneuve who, as though on parade, brought up the rear. In each hand he held a pistol that had not yet been discharged, and kept the sav- ages at bay until the others had come within can- non shot of the fort. Seeing in him the leader, the Iroquois were anxious not to kill one whom it would be much more creditable to take alive and torture. In the last moments of this drama it became a duel between the Iroquois chief and The Soldier— D'Iberville 159 Maisonneuve, the chief greedy to gain the renown of capturing a French hero with his own hand. After Maisonneuve' s first pistol had missed fire the hopes of Montreal grew for an instant dim, but with the second he shot the chief through the head, and made good his escape while the Iroquois were occupied in carrjdng off their dead leader. The scene of this exploit was perhaps the very spot where Maisonneuve' s statue now stands in the Place d'Armes of Montreal; if not exactly in the Place d'Armes, it could not have been more than a stone's throw distant. There is an interesting passage in FaUlon's Histoire de la Colonie Franfaise, where this Sulpician author points out how for twenty-six years Maisonneuve ran innumerable risks in war against the Iroquois, but escaped from every predicament into which his bravery and devotion brought him. No one can doubt that he came to Montreal in the spirit of a martyr, expecting to be slain by the Iro- quois, and anticipating the eternal reward which those gain who perish in a holy war. It is impossible to describe all the encounters that took place between the Iroquois and the little band of colonists at Montreal; but among them there is one deed of surpassing valour — the most heroic in Canadian history. This was Bol- lard's fight at the Long Sault. At Thermopylae the Spartans and their allies were not doomed to certain destruction. Save for an unexpected act of treachery, they might have come off with a comparatively small loss. But for Dollard and his men there was no chance of escaping death. i6o The Soldier— D' Iberville This they knew from the outset, and consider the doom which wotild have been theirs had the Iroquois taken them alive! The war of Greek and Persian was honest warfare in which life might be taken on a large scale, but without needless barbarity. Those who fought the Iroquois with the certainty of defeat knew that capture meant something beyond words more hideous than death in battle. It is no bombast to style this combat at the Long Sault, the Canadian Thermopylae. The story of DoUard's exploit comes down to us from three main sources. First, from a letter of Mother Marie de ITncarnation written shortly afterwards; secondly, from the Jesuit Relations under the year 1660; and thirdly, from DoUier de Casson's Histoire du Montreal, written a few years later, but representing contemporary evi- dence in the strictest sense. The account of the fight itself was pieced together from the reports of some traitorous Hurons, who abandoned DoUard and escaped through their treachery. No single Frenchman survived to tell the tale. Of course, what DoUard and his band did up to the time of the fight is known from abundant testimony besides that of the Hurons. The facts in their sheer simpUcity are these, and no amount of rhetoric can make them more impressive. In the spring of 1660 it became known at Montreal that the Iroquois were gath- ering, partly on the upper waters of the Ottawa and partly on the Richelieu, for a raid which should eclipse anything they had yet attempted. Alto- gether nearly a thousand braves, as the event The Soldier— D'Iberville i6i showed, were mustering for a descent on Mon- treal, whose adult male defenders at that date could have been little more than a hundred. There had recently come to this outpost of New France a youth named Dollard, or Daulac, who longed to do some great feat of arms that might save the colony from its cruel foes. Maisonneuve had never been able to risk offensive warfare owing to poverty of numbers. One bad blow in the open would have meant complete ruin, so he hung to his defences. Dollard's project was good strategy, but its execution involved almost super- human courage. A thrust, said Moltke, is often the best parry. Anticipating this dictum, Dollard proposed to ambush the Iroquois on their way down the Ottawa, and give them such a taste of French courage that they would not dare go on with their expedition. The comrades he singled out for this desperate enterprise numbered six- teen, though more would have been glad to join but for the duty of putting in the year's crop. From the notarial records of Montreal the name of each volunteer can be made out, together with his profession and the amount of his property; for each made his will before starting, and received the Sacrament. The party set out in canoes on the 20th of April, 1660, but they were inexperienced paddlers and found much trouble in getting into the Lake of Two Mountains. However, by keeping at it for ten days they succeeded not only in doing this, but in passing the current at Carillon. By May ist they had reached the foot of the Long 1 62 The Soldier— D'Iberville Sault on the Ottawa, and there found a spot which the Iroquois in descending would be sure to pass. Some Algonquins had recently built a rude, poorly constructed fort at the foot of the rapid, and this DoUard at once occupied. Here, also, he was joined by a party of over forty Hurons and Algon- quins, who professed great zeal to fight the Iro- quois, but whose deeds, in the event, by no means equalled their professions. The confederates were not long kept waiting. Shortly after DoUard had arranged his ambush, a small band of Iroquois, moving ahead of the main party, descended the river and fell into the snare. But not all were slain. Two or three escaped and gave the alarm to the rest who, instead of being ambushed, began a deUberate attack upon DoUard' s fort, first erecting a stronghold of their own nearby. Seeing that he would be besieged DoUard improved his defences, and built a breastwork of earth and stones which was pierced by loopholes. The French had no chance of retreat, for the Iroquois made haste to seize and destroy their canoes. It was a fight without hope of escape, or of mercy. The savages began by attempting to burn out the French, but before the fierceness of the musketry fire which met them, they recoiled, hav- ing lost among many others the chieftain of all the Senecas. After three successive attacks had been beaten back, the Iroquois paused to consider the situation more carefully. Taking counsel, their resolve was that messengers should be sent to a war party of five hundred which had descended The Soldier— D'Iberville 163 the Richelieu, and was waiting, near Sorel, the appearance of this band that Dollard had way- laid. In the meantime the French were so care- fully hemmed in that it became almost impossible to fetch water from the Ottawa. For five days they fasted and thirsted, while reinforcements were on their way to swell the ranks of the Iro- quois. When the two war parties had come together, there were some seven hundred shriek- ing savages outside the rude pile of logs which DoUard was defending with his sixteen French- men, forty Hurons, and four Algonquins. Hardly had the attack been renewed when most of the Hurons deserted, so that during the last three days of the fight Dollard could muster less than twenty-three followers, all told, as against seven hundred. The best resource of the French was in a number of large musketoons, which carried a very heavy charge and scattered widely. These caused such havoc in the ranks of the Iroquois that some were for giving up the attack altogether. But thought of the shame which would follow upon repulse by so small a band, nerved the majority. Leaders of a forlorn hope were selected, and after many unsystematic assaults had been foiled, it was resolved that there should be a grand, concerted attack. This, it must be remembered, was after the Frenchmen within the fort had been holding out for ten days on dry hominy, and such water as they could get by digging a hole in the ground, until it reached the level of the river. Almost no water seems to have been brought from the river itself, and the moisture 1 64 The Soldier— D' Iberville collected in the hole must have been half mud. Massena's defence of Genoa in 1800 was stub- born, but it contains no episode like this. When the Iroquois rushed forward in their last grand attack, DoUard had still one resource. By filling a musketoon with powder, he impro- vised a rude grenade, and as the savages came on in a dense mass this was hurled into the air to aUght in their midst. But here occurred a mischance which seems the most tragic incident in the whole affair. The musketoon, instead of falling among the Iroquois, struck the branch of an overhanging tree, and falling back into the fort exploded among the French. Some were kUled and others badly wounded. "But," says DoUier de Casson, "despite this catastrophe every man fought as though he had the heart of a Hon, defending himself with sword thrusts and pistol shots." Dollard was among the first to be slain, but undeterred by his death the rest fought on with sword and hatchet till they were cut down one by one. Fortunately when the fight was over, the Iroquois found only a single survivor who was enough aUve to be kept for torture. Three who were not quite dead, they burned. Thus ended a feat of arms which must be called the most heroic episode in Canadian history. Many other Canadians, both French and Enghsh, have died bravely and ungrudgingly, doing what it was given them to do. But the splendid daring of Bollard's fight, the boldness of its conception, the certainty of death for every man who joined this band of heroes, the agonies endured for ten The Soldier— D' Iberville 165 days in that wretched fort at the foot of the Long Sault — all these form a combination of circum- stances which were quite unparalleled, until recent times. The Japanese have shown us what it is to fight in the spirit of Dollard — ^with the same dlan, the same self-abnegation. And in both cases the inspiring motive was the spirit of martyrdom, rather than patriotism, as commonly apprehended. The sequel of Bollard's fight justified the hope which prompted this sally into the jaws of death. The Iroquois found that they had had fighting enough for one season, with foes who outdid them in hardihood, besides possessing better weapons. At a sacrifice of seventeen men, Montreal was saved a loss which must have been far greater had the savages carried out their first plan of harrying the colony with their full strength. And how, at the present day, does Montreal remember the man who has given her the most glorious deed in her annals? Is it by statue, or boulevard, or pubUc square? No, not by these. But between two important streets, Notre-Dame and St. James, there runs a httle lane about sixty paces long, and seven or eight paces wide. This bears the name of DoUard. Elsewhere, there is nothing which can recall by daily association the hero of the Long Sault. Mayors, aldermen, specula- tors in land — for these and other undistinguished people we name our streets in hordes, but the sole monument to Dollard is a lane so obscure and insignificant that not one Montrealer in ten could tell you where it is. A skilful rhetorician would keep the story 1 66 The Soldier— D'lberville of Bollard for the end, as it may well seem an anticlimax to pass from this feat of arms to any other which falls within our period. But if less thrilling, less brilliant than Bollard's fight, there are many contests between French and Indians which stand out in high relief from the common- place. Life in the wilderness made every one brave. New France was no country for weak nerves, and the kind of heroism which the dangers of frontier life demanded was not the sensational, but the quiet, genuine type. Bessaix, leading a decisive charge at Marengo, is in the eye of the whole world; but what, suggests Montaigne, shall we say regarding the courage of the man who is asked to dislodge a rascally musketeer from a barn? No glory is to be got from an adventure of that kind, though it may be just as perilous as leading a charge of dragoons. In the settle- ments of New France, men, women, and children had to be ready for Iroquois' raids at any moment; and there is no more characteristic tale which comes down from this period than that of Made- leine de Vercheres. A girl of fourteen who with two soldiers, an old man and two small boys could defend a rickety stockade for ten days, was not such stuff as dreams are made of. True self- possession, unsleeping courage, the willingness to take long odds were traits that the circum- stances of every-day life required from those who opened up the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Richeheu. Fifty-five years after the found- ing of Quebec, the French population in Canada numbered only two thousand five hundred, and The Soldier— D'Iberville 167 there were seventeen thousand Iroquois. The French certainly had an advantage in point of knowledge, equipment, and discipUne, but the Iro- quois who possessed the stealth and cunning of the panther, whose knowledge of woodcraft was perfect, and whose courage was only less conspic- uous than their fierceness, proved a terrible foe. As the colonists became more numerous, the dan- ger of attack grew relatively less, — the more so since the savages were decimated by epidemics and drunkenness. But down to the death of Frontenac, one great peril always loomed in the background. Were there opportunity it would be proper to contrast a typical triumph of the French, like Tracy's chastisement of the Mohawks in 1665, with a typical triumph of the Iroquois, like the Lachine Massacre of 1689. But the incidents of the Indian war, waged as it was year by year, we must omit, if we are to consider the atti- tude of the French towards their other great enemy, the EngUsh. So much remains to be said regarding this second part of the subject that we must pass on to it without further delay. After aU, the duel between New France and New England is of much more historical importance than the contest between French and Iroquois. The Indians were doomed from the moment Euro- peans came among them. The question of vital moment was not whether Europeans or Aborigines were to possess North America, but whether the French would be able to hold their own against the encroachments of the English. i68 The Soldier— D' Iberville At no time was there any likeUhood that the English would be driven out by the French. Why the English colonies were the more populous, we need not stop to inquire. The broad fact is that from 1650 forward they were vastly more popu- lous, and even to reach them by land from the valley of the St. Lawrence was a heavy under- taking. That the thing could be done was proved by Frontenac's raids, but a swift raid followed by an equally swift retreat is quite different from a war of conquest. Had France gained a clear supremacy upon the sea, she might have troubled the Enghsh colonies in America a great deal, but it is doubtful whether even then she could have overwhelmed them. As it was she never be- came supreme at sea, and seldom proved very formidable on that element. Hence the coast line of New England was virtually exempt from the danger of French invasion. A similar immunity, however, the shores of New France did not possess. In 1613 ArgaU, a freebooter from Virginia, captured and destroyed the French station at St. Sauveur on the island of Mount Desert, and then proceeded to do dam- age at Port Royal. In 1628 Acadia was once more ravaged by the Enghsh under David Kirke, who thence sailed for the St. Lawrence with intent to drive the French from Quebec. Kirke's first success in Canadian waters was the capture of a fleet sent out by the Company of the Hundred Associates to Champlain, who was awaiting it at Quebec. But the Enghsh did not lay siege to Fort St. Louis that year. Kirke contented The Soldier— D'Iberville 169 himself with sending Champlain a threatening let- ter, and then sailed away for England. In 1629 he returned to the St. Lawrence, and from Tadous- sac despatched his two brothers against Quebec in overwhelming force. The total population of the place was only eighty, and the preceding win- ter had been one of great hardship. Kirke having intercepted the expected fleet, the inhabitants were forced to live for eight months on eels, and whatever else they could get through fishing and hunting. Thus when Louis and Thomas Kirke appeared in July of 1629, they came more as saviours than enemies. The French, reduced by starvation, could make no resistance, and Quebec fell for the first time into the hands of the English. Had Charles I. held what the Kirke brothers gained for him, the subsequent history of Canada would have been quite different. But England cared nothing for a waste of snow, then consid- ered httle more valuable than Labrador and Ungava are thought to be at the present day. Three years after Champlain's surrender, the French regained Canada by the Treaty of St. Germain, and began actually to occupy it. For the next forty years (1632-72) the relations of England and France were such that neither coun- try cared to provoke a quarrel over the valley of the St. Lawrence. France was taken up with her part in the Thirty Years' War, and after that with the wars of the Fronde. England during the same period was absorbed in the struggle between Charles I. and Parliament, followed by the rule of Cromwell. In foreign politics, the lyo The Soldier— D' Iberville Protector was an ally of France and helped Car- dinal Mazarin against the Spaniards. After the Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, Charles II. became a pensioner of Louis XIV., and during the early part of his reign did nothing which could be construed as hostile to French interests in America. Thus it happened that Canada was not drawn into any great contest between Eng- land and France between 1632 and 1672. There remain to be considered the local rival- ries of the French and EngUsh colonists, but prior to 1675 these had not forced their way to the front. A wide stretch of wilderness separated the north- ern edge of the EngUsh zone from the southern edge of the French zone, and both races were too much absorbed by Indian wars and the fight against famine to think of quarrelling with each other. On the contrary, there was at one moment a project for making common cause against the Iroquois. I refer here to the interesting, though fruitless, mission of Gabriel Druillettes. This envoy was a Jesuit who had worked with much success among the Abenakis of the Kennebec valley, and gained by his virtues the respect of the English, as their settlements crept along the seaboard from Massachusetts towards Acadia. In 1646 Dniillettes visited a number of EngUsh posts between the Kennebec and Penobscot, meeting everywhere with great courtesy and kindness. Shortly afterwards the General Court of Massachu- setts approached the Company of the Himdred Associates with a proposal for reciprocity of trade. Under these circumstances it was resolved at The Soldier— D'Ibcrville 171 Quebec that Druillettes should go to Plymouth and Boston as a special envoy, charged with two duties. In the first place he was to discuss closer trade relations, in a spirit of friendship and com- promise. But what the French really wanted was the help of New England against the Iroquois. DruiUettes had, then, for his second object the task of persuading the New England colonies to join in a general crusade against the Five Nations. Here the French possessed two arguments. ' 'Join in this war," they said, "and we will grant the greater freedom of trade which you desire; and if you do not feel disposed to quarrel with the Iroquois for the sake of trade, consider the position of the Christian Indians. The Abenakis and the other tribes are being raided by the Mohawks. Help to preserve them, and you will be enlarging the king- dom of Christ." Thus in 1650 Druillettes descended the Kenne- bec once more, and made his way from the mouth of that river to Boston and Plymouth. Three years earlier the colony of Massachusetts Bay had passed stern laws against the Jesuits, but Druillettes was received with all the honours of an ambassador, and the respect due to his own character. His account of the journey and of his reception by the Puritans, is among the best pieces of narrative in the Jesuit Relations. That at Plymouth he should have been given fish on Friday was a mark of consideration, though we may guess that at Pl5miouth fish was not an infre- quent food on other days. Of more real meaning was the thoughtfulness of the Bostonians, who 172 The Soldier -D'Iberville placed at his disposal a room wherein he could pursue his devotions without fear of interruption. But, most striking incident of all, the Rev. John Eliot, the great apostle of New England to the Indians, met DruiUettes and asked him to be his guest for the whole winter. The mission bore no fruits, but it was conducted in a spirit of mutual friendliness, and with every mark of good breeding. In considering thus at some length the visit of DruiUettes to New England, we may seem to stray from our main subject, the French Canadian as a soldier. But it is worth pointing out that the burning feuds of New France and New Eng- land do not begin until towards the close of the seventeenth century. When they do arise, the issues at stake are not petty, but involve the des- tiny of the whole continent. The immediate cause of trouble was French exploration in the West. Joliet and Marquette had discovered the Mississippi in 1673. A few years later La Salle annexed for France, in name at least, the entire valley of this stream. If his claims meant anything they gave France the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi down to the Gulf of Mexico. Such a; programme of expansion implied that the English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard would be hmited in their westward growth by the Alle- ghanies and the headwaters of the Ohio. The first to take fright at this prospect was Thomas Dongan, Governor of New York. Don- gan was an Irish Cathohc appointed by Charles II., but more closely associated with James II. Owing The Soldier — D'Iberville 173 to the personal friendship which existed between James and Louis XIV., he could not expect much help from his government in resisting the advance of French Canada. But he conspired with the Iroquois on his own account, and may be looked upon as the earliest representative of an active anti-French policy among the English of America. 1684 was the date of his earhest intrigues with the Iroquois against the French. The period at which Dongan began to form plans for keeping the French out of the West, falls within the interval between Frontenac's two terms of office. The Governor of the moment was the inefficient Denonville. It is true that, in a variety of ways, he tried to defeat the schemes of Dongan, but on the whole he proved a poor guardian of French interests. How he faUed to control the Iroquois can be gathered from the dreadful details of the Lachine Massacre. Two hundred victims killed on the spot, and one hundred and twenty carried into the horrors of captivity, prove that Denonville was not the Governor required for the stormy times which were now approaching.* The battle royal between New France and New England was precipitated by the English Revolu- * The number of the slain as here given comes from Charle- voix, who repeats what Frontenac said in a despatch written just after his return to Canada. Judge Girouard, in his Lake St. Louis, Old and New, maintains that only twenty-four were killed at Lachine and forty-two in the massacre at La^Chesnaye, a short time afterwards. These figures are based on an exam- ination of parish registers. Whatever the loss of life, there can be no doubt that the blow was felt from end to end of the colony, and deemed greater than any which had yet been suffered. 174 The Soldier— D'lberville tion of 1688-89. The same train of events which drove James II. from his throne, plunged the colonies into a more dire conflict than had been known in America since French and Enghsh came to its shores. Despite the machinations of Dongan and the counter schemes of Denonville, James II. and Louis XIV. remained good friends. But with WUliam of Orange on the Enghsh throne, the situation was fundamentally altered. France and England then entered into a war which was prosecuted with vigour in every part of the globe where the two nations came into contact. Frontenac was sent back to Canada in 1689 because of his merits as a war Governor. Certainly he did not disappoint expectation. Throwing his whole heart into the struggle he dealt blows at New England and New York, which were as fierce as they were unexpected. In considering the subject of Frontenac's raids, it must be remembered that the Governor of New France had in view two aims. The first, of course, was to injure the English. The sec- ond, and this Frontenac kept ever before him, was to impress the Indians with the superior coinage and enterprise of the French. During the seven years of his absence from Canada (1682-1689), the Iroquois had been led, by a number of events, to beheve that the French were growing weak. Frontenac sought at once to disabuse their minds of this idea, and the methods which he pursued were those most hkely to affect the imagination of the savage. 1690 was the year in which New France and The Soldier— D'Iberville 175 New England entered upon their stem struggle for the sovereignty of North America. One need not give a series of statistics to show how much greater was the strength of the English in wealth and numbers, for a single illustration will suffice. The single colony of New York had half again as many inhabitants as the whole of New France. But if Frontenac was at a great disadvantage in point of numbers, his forces were more readily available. Not only could he control his troops with fuller authority than was possessed by any colonial governor in New England, but New France, for mihtary purposes, formed a unit, whereas the English colonies were separate, even rival, states. Moreover every French Canadian over eighteen years of age was an active militia-man, inured to hardship and fond of war. New France has one phenomenon, which, I think, cannot be matched in New England. This is the family of from eight to fourteen sons, every one of whom is a redoubt- able fighter. The EngUsh colonists were brave, and it would be invidious to draw a com- parison between the races in point of courage. But famiUes Uke those of Hertel and Le Moyne do not, at least to my knowledge, appear in the annals of New England. It is at such soldiers as Frangois Hertel, Hertel de RouviUe, Le Moyne d' Iberville and his brother Bienville, that, in conclusion, we must glance. These men, and scores of others like them, may be connected with the war between French and English which raged from i6go to 1697. The distinctive feature of this war, considered 176 The Soldier— D'Iberville from the standpoint of Canada, is the series of swift, destructive raids which the French with their Indian alUes made upon the EngUsh settle- ments. These began in i6go with the three war- parties organised under Frontenac's orders at Mon- treal, Quebec, and Three Rivers. The largest band set out from Montreal and was directed against Schenectady. It contained a hundred and four- teen Frenchmen and ninety-six Indians, com- manded by D'Aillebout de Mantel and Le Moyne de Sainte Hel^ne. The second party, proceeding from Three Rivers, numbered twenty-four French- men and twenty-nine Indians, under the leader- ship of Frangois Hertel. It was aimed against Dover, Pemaquid, and other settlements of Maine or New Hampshire. The Quebec party, under Port- neuf, comprised fifty Frenchmen and sixty Indians. Its objective point was the EngUsh colony on Casco Bay, where the city of Portland now stands. AU three were successful in accomplishing what they aimed at, namely, the destruction of Enghsh settlements amid fire and massacre. All three employed Indians, and suffered these allies to commit barbarities which are now against the rules of the game as played by civilised nations. To fall upon an unsuspecting hamlet and slay its inhabitants with the tomahawk, seems much worse than to kill your opponents in open battle. But so far as adult males are concerned, the difference is more apparent than real. When nations are at open war with each other, each is supposed to keep on its guard. If caught napping, it must take the consequences. On the other hand, the The Soldier— D'Iberville 177 massacre of women and children cannot be exten- uated. There is this, however, to bear in mind, that during the Thirty Years' War, which closed only a generation before the raids of Frontenac, European warfare abounded with just such atroci- ties as were perpetrated at Schenectady, Dover, Pemaquid, Salmon Falls, and Casco Bay. The sack of Magdeburg, and many another episode of European warfare in the seventeenth century, will match whatever was done by the Indian alUes of Frontenac. Both are unspeakable, but the savage was no worse than the German and the Spaniard. Those killed were, in almost all cases, killed outright, and the slaughter was not indiscriminate. At Schenectady John Sander Glen, with his whole famUy and all his relations, was spared because he and his wife had shown kindness to French prisoners taken by the Mohawks. Altogether sixty people were kiUed at Schenec- tady; thirty-eight men, ten women, and twelve children. Nearly ninety were carried captive to Canada. Sixty old men, women, and children were left unharmed. It is not worth while to take up the details of the other raids. They were of much the same sort — no better and no worse. Where a garrison surrendered under promise that it would be spared, the promise was observed so far as the Indians could be controlled; but Eng- hsh and French aUke, when they used Indian aUies, knew well that their excesses could not be prevented, though they might be moderated. The captives as a rule were treated with kindness and clemency when once the northward march had 1 78 The Soldier— D'Iberville ended. One of them, Esther Wheelwright, became Mother Esther of the Infant Jesus, and Mother Superior of the Ursulines at Quebec. Bishop Plessis of Quebec, who preached the famous ser- mon on the Battle of the Nile, was descended from another of these New England captives. It is much more the business of history to explain than to condemn, or to extenuate. "How could a man like Francois Hertel lead one of these raids, without sinking to the moral level of his Indian followers?" Some such question may, not unnaturally, rise to the lips of a modem reader who for the first time comes upon the story of Dover and Salmon Falls. But fuUer knowledge breeds respect for Frangois Hertel. When eight- een years old he was captured by the Mohawks and put to the torture. One of his fingers they burned off in the bowl of a pipe. The thumb of the other hand they cut off. In the letter which he wrote on birch-bark to his mother after this dread- ful experience, there is not a word of his sufferings. He simply sends her his love and asks for her prayers, signing himself by his childish nickname, "Your poor Fanchon." As he grew up he won from an admiring community the name of "The Hero." He was not only brave but religious. From his standpoint, it was all legitimate war- fare. If he slew others, he ran a thousand risks himself and endured terrible privations for his king and the home he was defending. See him stand at the bridge over Wooster River, sword in hand, when pressed on his retreat by an over- whelming force of English. Hertel holds the pass The Soldier— D' Iberville 179 till all his men are over. He was forty-seven years old at the time. The three eldest of his nine sons were vi^ith him in that Uttle band of twenty-six Frenchmen, and two of his nephews. "To the New England of old," says Parkman, who can honour a brave man even though he is a CathoUc: ""To the New England of old, Frangois Hertel was the abhorred chief of Popish malignants and mur- dering savages. The New England of to-day will be more just to the brave defender of his country and his faith." The same note of appreciation is struck by another modem representative of New England, Miss Ahce Baker, whose book on the English Captives in Canada contains a eulo- gistic notice of Frangois Hertel and his third son, Hertel de Rouville. The exploits of the Hertel family would easUy supply material for a whole chapter, but we must not pass over DTberville, who, without doubt, is the most versatile, the most distinguished of French-Canadian soldiers. If Dollard's fight seems to surpass any single achievement of DTberville, it must be pointed out that Dollard was not in the strict sense of the term a French Canadian. He was neither bom nor bred at Montreal. He had passed only one winter there before he went forth on his heroic mission. DTberville, on the contrary, was a French Canadian to his finger tips — a scion of the most remarkable Canadian family with which we meet during the seven- teenth century. His father, Charles Le Moyne, hke the Hertels, came from Normandy, and had the fighting blood of the Vikings. The deeds of i8o The Soldier— D'Iberville the numerous progeny who branched off from this stock are almost epic in their profusion and dar- ing. A Boston schoolgirl once said that she could not endure the history of Massachusetts, it was so cluttered up with Adamses. Likewise the his- tory of French Canada is cluttered up with Le Mojmes. This line even reminds one of that other Norman famUy, the great house of HauteviUe, which in the eleventh century sent out its twelve sons — Drogo, Humphrey, Wilham of the Iron Arm, Robert Guiscard, Roger, and the rest — ^to conquer Naples and Sicily. D'Iberville, the most remarkable of Charles Le Mo5nie's eleven sons, had a career of the highest distinction on both land and sea. His exploits are by no means confined to Canada and New England. From Hudson's Bay to Louisiana he displayed a resourcefulness, a daring and a genius for command which were unequalled among the Canadians of his time. The first expedition in which he won distinction was a fihbustering raid upon the English forts in Hudson's Bay. D'Iber- ville, then twenty-five years old, was one of a small party that left Montreal in the early spring of 1686, went up the Ottawa and thence struck north for James's Bay. The laurels of this raid, which resulted in the capture of three EngHsh forts, were shared by D'Iberville with his two brothers, Sainte-Hel^ne and Maricourt, but his own part stands out first in a splendid tale of dash, endurance, and clear-headedness. Twice after this he returned to the same scene of action in command of French ships, and furnished the Hud- mm v^ ^P^ 1 • Eg: ' '(- :n9HIK . . ■ D'Iberville The Soldier— D' Iberville i8i son's Bay Company with the most brilliant dis- play of military genius and naval skill which is to be found in its long annals. 1696 and 1697 were the years of D'Iberville's greatest triumph in northern waters. Half-way between the mouth of the Kennebec and the mouth of the Penobscot stood the fort of Pema- quid, which the English had taken care to strengthen after its capture by Hertel in 1690. In 1696, with the exception of Boston, it was their chief stronghold on the Atlantic. The forces which the French brought against it were two warships under DTberville, and a force of three hundred Abenakis under Saint-Castin. The siege lasted a little less than twenty-four hours, for so hot was the attack that Chubb, the English commander, quickly agreed to yield on a promise that the garrison should be spared. After D' Iberville had seen to the exact fulfilment of this condition, he sailed for Newfoundland, where he captured the EngUsh fort at St. John's, and then pro- ceeded to attack the remaining posts, one by one. At the head of a hundred and twenty-five French- men, mostly Canadians, he made a winter cam- paign along the coast, burning settlement after settlement until only the fortress of Bonavista remained in English hands. This D'Iberville would undoubtedly have captured like the rest, but in May, 1697, a fleet of French vessels appeared with orders from Paris that he should take command. The objective point of this expedition was Port Nelson in Hudson's Bay, which D'Iberville had captured three years before, but which the 1 8 2 The Soldier— D'lberville English had regained while he was seizing Pemaquid. Nothing that D'lberville did before or after quite equals his conduct of this expedition to Hudson's Bay in 1697. On coming to the mouth of the Straits he found that a fleet of the Hudson's Bay Company was just ahead of him. The French had five ships to four, but owing to the ice floes a battle could not be forced in the Straits. With his own ship, the Pelican, D'lberville managed to slip past the English fleet and enter the Bay alone. Having reached Port Nelson he formed his plan of siege, and then waited for his squadron to appear. It was the Company's fleet, however, that came up first. In this predicament D'lberville had to choose between giving up his attack on the fort, which would have meant the failure of the expedition, or fighting one ship against three. Characteristically, he chose the latter course, and by superb seamanship sank the Hampshire, and captured the Hudson's Bay, which was the EngUsh flagship. The third escaped only by flight. But this was by no means the end of the exploit. A fierce storm with bUnding snow struck the battered Pelican, forced her from her anchorage and drove her into shoal water where she was pounded aU night by the storm. When daylight came, D'lberville persuaded his men that it would be better to die in front of Fort Nelson than be drowned. Thereupon those who had not been wounded in the fight jumped into the icy bay and waded ashore with the water up to their necks. A good many died from exposure, but the rest The Soldier— D' Iberville 183 managed to bviild fires of driftwood and live on seaweed or steeped moss, till the rest of the French fleet arrived. Then D' Iberville proceeded to storm Fort Nelson, using as much cleverness and strategy on land as he had done in fighting the Pelican against three EngUsh ships. Soon after this the Peace of Ryswick put an end to that war, and in the succeeding interval of peace DTbervUle came forward with his project for the colonising of Louisiana. The rest of his career we cannot follow, save to point out that the same quaUties which he had displayed at Schenectady, Pemaquid, Hudson's Bay, and New- foundland were illustrated at the mouth of the Mississippi. Louisiana was more a Canadian than a French colony. The leaders of the enterprise were the Le Moynes, for BienviUe, DTberville's brother, founded Mobile and New Orleans,* and a large number of the most noted pioneers came from Canada. As soldier and seaman in one, DTberviUe finds new rivals in the history of any country. Such was the French-Canadian fighter of the seventeenth century — a man who thought nothing of winter campaigns in high latitudes, where the * At Mobile, Alabama, there is a memorial to Bienville which bears the following inscription: "To Jean-Baptiste Le Mo3me, Sieur de Bienville, Native of Montreal, Canada; Naval Officer of France; Founder of the First Capital, Mobile. Bom 1680, died 1768. With the genius to create an Empire, and the courage to maintain it amid faction, successful even in defeat, he brought his settlement the prosperity of civilisation, and the happiness of true Christianity. He who founds a city builds himself a live-long monument." 1 84 The Soldier— D' Iberville party camped on the open snow or waded to their waists through melting drifts. Few though they were in number, the Canadian miUtia and their officers were picked troops, every one of them conscious of the odds against him, but self-reliant and cool in danger. We have it on the authority of Wellington himself that during the Peninsular War the French captured more than one strong place in Spain without any provision of buUets, save those fired at them by their enemies, having trusted to this chance when they formed the siege. This is a good story, but one could under- take to match it from the exploits of the Canadians who followed Frangois Hertel, Hertel de Rouville, Le Moyne de Sainte-H616ne, and Pierre Le Mo5me D'IberviUe. CHAPTER VI THE COUREUR DE BOIS— DU LHUT AT first glance the coureur de hois has the appear- ance of a rollicking, dare-devil creature whose character conceals no psychological enigmas. And it is under this guise that he comes down to our own time in the folk-lore of French Canada. The legend of La Chasse Gallerie, which gave Drum- mond the subject of "Phil-o-rum Juneau," recalls a vagabond of the wilderness, and nothing more. As the phantom canoe flies through the heavens on New- Year's eve, its spectral occupants sing of "Le Canayen Errant" and his dusky loves. The hour has come when toils of paddle and portage are to be forgotten. The wanderer revisits the haunts of man, and his first call will not be at the door of the curi. Moreover there is much documentary evidence in support of this view. La Hontan was no friend of the Jesuits, but he and they have the same story to tell about the coureur de bois. The Baron says he was once at Montreal when fifty or seventy-five rovers returned to civilisation, and he describes how they acted after they had sold their furs. It is a picture which might have been drawn in the California of '49 or in the Aus- i8s 1 86 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut tralia of '51. La Hontan's description sets before us the ancestors of those who rushed from the gold-diggings to places where they could play at tenpins with bottles of champagne. The coureur seems to have had a finer taste for dress, but other- wise the only difference one can perceive is an exception in favour of the seventeenth-century husband. "Such of 'em as are married," says the EngUsh edition of 1703, "have the wisdom to retire to their own Houses; but the Batchelors act just as our East-India Men and Pirates are wont to do; for they Lavish, Eat, Drink, and Play all away as long as the Goods hold out; and when these are gone, they e'en sell their Embroidery, their Lace, and their Cloaths. This done, they are forc'd to go upon a new Voyage for Subsist- ence." La Hontan, a mercurial son of the Midi, does not write thus in order to condemn. At other stages of his narrative he praises the valour of the coureur, and accepts as truthful his reports of life in the forest. But when the Jesuit takes up his pen to describe the actions of this repro- bate, it is in a mood of stern censure. Par- ticularly at the time of Frontenac does the tone of the Fathers become charged with grief and upbraiding. From the missionary's standpoint the coureur was bad enough even when the govern- ment opposed him; but, whether rightly or wrongly, it was said that Frontenac and these vagabonds were allied. Hence the Jesuits felt their position in the Far West threatened by a compact between two forces, both inimical to them. The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 187 and either of which alone might have caused them concern. The unceasing complaints are that no sooner has the missionary begun to lead the savage into the right path than an unscrupulous French trader appears on the scene^ with his brandy bottle and his evil example. "What hope can we have," exclaim the Jesuits, "of bringing the Indians to Christ, when all the sinners of the colony are permitted to come here and give Chris- tianity the he by an open exhibition of bad morals!" One finds much sameness in the charges which are brought against the coureur de bois by his enemies. When the advanced races first come into contact with their retarded brethren, "the white man's burden" is usually a bag of bullion or a pack of beaver skins. Theft, l5dng, and cruelty are the stepping stones by which too often the adventurous European has advanced to the control of distant continents. But in the case of the coureur de bois, it is plain that the worst sins were not incurred. Of anything like whole- sale terrorism we find no trace. The French who frequented MichiUimackinac displayed polyga- mous aptitudes, and were willing to promote trade by the sale of fire-water. But judging from negative evidence, they avoided the lowest forms of brutality and extortion. The worst that has ever been said against them occurs in a letter from Carheil, Jesuit missionary at Mackinac, to Callieres, the Governor who succeeded Frontenac. This long indictment (which Mr. Thwaites has pubHshed in the sixty-fifth volume of the Jesuit Relations) contains a host of unpleasant details. 1 88 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut but does not point to conditions comparable with those created by the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru. Carheil is arguing against the Ucense to sell brandy, and the substance of his whole repre- sentation will be found in the following words: "If that license be not revoked by orders to the contrary, we need no longer remain in any of our missions here, to waste the remainder of our hves and all our efforts in purely useless labour, under the dominion of continual drunkenness and of universal immorality — which are no less permitted to the traders in brandy than is the trade itself, of which they are both the accompaniment and the sequel." We may conclude, then, from the statements of La Hontan, Carheil, and others, that the coureur de bois stood outside the pale of respectable society. And the inhabitants of the parishes were so respect- able! Remembering the austere piety of the first settlers, it is not hard to understand why these tales which came back from the forest should have given cause for scandal. But unfortunately there is a spice to evil which makes it linger in the memory of even the most circumspect. Hence the coureur, though profane and disreputable, was interesting. His recklessness kindled a spark of admiration. The turmoil of his adventures con- trasted sharply with the tameness of the life which was led beneath the shadow of the church at Beau- pre. He might be a very bad fellow, but the habitant did not forget him. The Chasse Gallerie, indeed, shows that his memory was cherished with a certain Ungering fondness. The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 189 Somewhat different from the attitude of the missionary or the habitant must be that of the modern historian. Carheil was shocked by the wickedness of the French at Mackinac, but the historian is very famihar with analogous varieties of sinning, and therefore asks whether the coureur was better or worse than men of other nationaU- ties, acting under Uke circumstances. As was just indicated he seems much less cruel than the Spaniard, and for one I should hold him less cul- pable than the Dutch pioneers of the Far East. But leaving aside the question of comparative iniquity, it is not judicious to condemn without distinction the members of a whole class. Further- more the coureur is an historical phenomenon of high importance. His deeds and ambitions are so characteristic that, if for no other purpose, they are valuable as throwing reflex light upon the life of the vast majority who remained fixed in their homes on the lower reaches of the great stream. In considering the coureur de bois as a social type, we are brought face to face with the fur trade. At the time Quebec was founded, French capitalists did not embark their money in schemes for the development of Canadian agriculture. The soil of Virginia might be worth tilUng for its tobacco crop, but no one could expect large dividends from the stump fields of the Laurentian valley, still less from the rocks of Tadoussac. The one Canadian product that yielded a large profit was the beaver skin, and but for the beaver Cham- plain would have found it impossible to secure 190 The Coureur de Bois Du Lhut the funds he needed in prosecuting his work of exploration. Then, as now, there were specula- tors who would take long risks on the chance of making an exceptional profit. Experience soon proved that beaver skins, bought from the sav- ages with gimcracks, axe-heads, and fire-water, yielded enormous returns — if the cargo reached France in safety. The period in question covers almost the whole of the seventeenth century. Towards the close of Frontenac's regime the mar- ket became glutted with this commodity, and merchants resorted to the expedient of destroy- ing a part in order that the price of the rest might be maintained. But in the days when coureurs de bois were most active, profits ruled high. Throughout the colony the beaver skin was the chief unit of value, being freely exchanged in lieu of bullion. That the European investor had rea- son to expect a good return may be gathered from the dividends which the Hudson's Bay Com- pany paid in its early days. When two beaver skins, bought at Port Nelson for a comb and look- ing-glass, could be sold at Garraway's for fifty- five shillings each, it is no wonder the trade throve. In 1688 the Hudson's Bay Company paid a divi- dend of fifty per cent; in 1689, of twenty-five per cent; and in 1690, of seventy-five per cent. The fur trade, of course, had its vicissitudes, and the biography of La Salle shows what disap- pointments it could often bring the adventurer who sought to traffic at first hand with the Indians of the pays d'en haut. On the other hand, such a cargo as Groseilliers brought back in 1660 was enough The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 191 to excite the imagination of all New France. But the coureur de bois did not enter the wilder- ness solely in the hope of gain. Large wages can be had by those who will work in diving bells and dynamite factories; yet society is seldom disor- ganised by a rush of the labouring class to these occupations. In abandoning the settlements for the wilderness, the Canadian went on a double quest. If asked, he might have said that it was the high pay, or the chances of great profit, which attracted him. But in reaUty the excitement of the game counted for quite as much as the mate- rial reward. The wages of virtue, says the poet, is the opportunity of action. " She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just, To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer sky; Give her the wages of going on, and not to die." The coureur de bois was neither virtuous nor poetical, but we may well believe that the best pay he got was the chance to test his powers in wresthng with the obstacles he encountered. Had there been restraint, the joy would have disap- peared. But to escape from the stifling restric- tions of state control, to indulge in the liberty and license of the forest — there lay the temptation. The toil and the dangers were not to be concealed, yet elsewhere life held out no such promise of exciting pleasures. The first risk which the coureur ran was that of being punished by the government. In a com- munity where wealth could be gained in no other way than through the fur "trade, every one wished 192 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut to traffic with the Indians. A large part of the private trading thus carried on was an infringe- ment of the monopoly, and therefore a breach of law The crown cannot be said to have followed a consistent policy in dealing with offenders, but it always placed restrictions of some kind on bar- ter for peltries. These ranged from a complete prohibition of private trading to the grant of a license at the Governor's discretion. In view of the fact that the king had a long arm, the defiance of his commands involved grave danger. StiU, the coureur de hois was not without plausible argu- ments. When told that he must not hunt in the forest at the distance of more than a league from his house, he asked how the king meant to extend his authority over the continent if no one explored it. And obviously exploration could not go forward without the help of trade. Whoever entered the land of the Indians must carry presents, and unless permission were given to trade, how could the costs of the expedition be met? A second argument was that far beyond Lake Supe- rior were tribes who never brought their furs to the market at Montreal. If this source of wealth could be tapped, so much the better for the colony; but no one would risk his life among the Sioux, if the government told him he must refrain from buying their beaver skins. Such were some of the points which the coureur de hois raised with the civil authorities. Likewise when the Church hurled anathemas at him for selling fire-water, he was ready with an answer. "If you prevent me from taking good brandy The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 193 to Mackinac, is it that you want the Indians to buy bad rum from the EngUsh and the Dutch?" On one occasion when Laval had succeeded in securing a prohibition of the brandy trade, the re- port spread that a party of Iroquois, bringing a large convoy of furs to Montreal, had swerved from their course. Hearing of the new law at a distance of thirty leagues, they turned aside and carried the goods to Albany. The coureur' s most ingenious argument re- lated to the question of faith. Turning on the mission- ary, he said: "If you make the savages go south for rum, by cutting off their supply of brandy, you will throw them into the arms of the Calvinists. There- fore it is your fault if they become heretics." Whatever the threats of the Governor and Intendant, they never could prevent an important part of the population from taking to the woods. The Intendant Duchesneau, who dishked the cou- reurs intensely, said in 1680 that they numbered eight hundred, or forty per cent of the adult males. This doubtless is an exaggeration. At the same time it must be borne in mind that one who could endure the hardships of daily life in the wilder- ness was, physically speaking, a picked man. If he remained at home in the parish he would found a family, and bring up vahant sons to resist the Iroquois and the English. Once let him set up his tepee in the West, and he was a lost body as well as a lost soul. Both Church and State were much more concerned that there should be a progeny of vahant habitants on the banks of the Richelieu, than that the valley of the Wisconsin should be peopled with mMs. 194 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut But the West, still more magnetic than the North, would not be gainsaid. How far the glories of nature appealed to the coureur we can decide only after we have made up our minds regarding the way in which nature touches the human soul. The peasant who dwells under the shadow of Mont Blanc would probably speak in very commonplace language about the effect which scenery produced upon him. Yet Renan says that in the school where he studied at Paris, a Savoyard killed himself from homesickness. When these swearing, hard-drinking Frenchmen of the seventeenth century mounted the Ottawa through the primeval forest, they gave little thought to subjective emotions or aesthetic criticism. Nevertheless they loved the wilderness, and paid it the sincere compHment of hving there tiU their heaJth gave out. Parkman, who lavished upon the woods the affection of an intense nature, is led to stray from his treatment of this subject into one of the most lyrical passages he ever wrote — laying bare the heart of the ancient wood as its beauty moved the recesses of his being. Yet his conclusion is that the coureur de hois " liked the woods because they emancipated him from restraint." Here Parkman is thinking of the lower stratum, of the man whom he calls "half-savage." Doubtless a large majority of the class belonged to this type, but among the leaders can be found men who were not half-savage, and may have liked the forest for something better than ' ' the lounging ease of the camp-fire and the Ucense of Indian villages." The Coureur de Bois— Du Lhut 195 When speaking of the woodsman it is proper to mention his prey, the intelligent emd worthy beaver. This animal has a very distinct place in the literature of New France. Though slaugh- tered without remorse, its virtues were appre- ciated almost to the point of canonisation. No account of the wilderness was thought complete if it failed to contain some fresh and authentic anecdote of the beaver's intelligence. Its skiU, its forethought, its architectural talents, are per- ennial themes of the missionary and the explorer. Paul Le Jeune cannot get away from the subject. In Relation after Relation he returns to it with enthusiasm. For example: "These dams are about nineteen feet broad, and in length more or less, according to the width of the river or brook. Sieur OUvier informs me that he crossed over one of these dams which was more than two hundred steps long. Sieur Nicolet has seen another of almost a quarter of a league, so strong and so well built that he was filled with astonishment. The waters that are checked by this dam become deep and form, as it were, a beautiful pond in which the beaver goes to swim. I am told even this, that when soil is lacking in the place where they do this great work, they go and get it else- where, bringing it upon their backs. I do not know what to believe of this except thai: mirabilis Deus in omnibus operibus suis." La Hontan, fifty years later, is equally impressed by the sagacity of the beaver, which even leads him to make invid- ious comparisons. ' ' The savages of Canada, reflect- ing on the excellent quahties of the beavers, are 196 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut wont to say, ' that they cannot believe their souls die with their bodies.' They add that if they were permitted to reason about things invisible, and which fall not under their senses, they durst maintain that they are immortal like ours. But not to insist on this chimerical fancy, it must be allowed that there are an infinite number of men upon the earth (without mentioning the Tartars, the peasants of Muscovy, of Norway, and a hun- dred other sorts of people) who have not the hun- dredth part of the understanding which these animals have." This testimony might be multi- plied ad infinitum, but a little of it will explain why the Canadian of to-day feels complacent in comparing the habits of the beaver with those of the lion and the eagle. In casting about for representative coureurs de bois, one is immediately forced to consider where the line should be drawn between them and explorers. Nor is the distinction unimportant. The one name dignifies, the other disparages. We always think of La Salle as an explorer, yet he traded. Du Lhut comes down to us as a coureur de bois, yet he holds a distinguished place in this history of exploration. If it be said that La Salle thought much more about discoveries than about trade, the statement may be quite true. None the less, he strove hard for the success of those commercial ventures upon which he had built such large hopes. Du Lhut we group with the coureurs, because, whether rightly or wrongly, we believe his explorations to have been undertaken, in the main, for the sake of enlarging his fortune. The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 197 But this may be jumping at conclusions. There is a long and earnest letter in which Du Lhut assures Seignelay that he journeyed to the Sioux country in fulfilment of a long cherished and dis- interested ambition. A use of language which places La SaUe and Du Lhut in different classes may to some appear quite indefensible. Every explorer was compelled to win over the savages with gifts which cost good money, and could best be padd for by a cargo of furs. Conversely, none of the traders could stray far from the St. Law- rence or the Great Lakes without enlarging the range of geographical knowledge. The coureurs de bois do not become notably numerous until the second half of the seventeenth century. Champlain sent several of his followers into the woods to qualify as interpreters, and pursue the waterways in search of trade routes. These men are, in a certain sense, coureurs de bois, Nicolet being a good representative of the class, and Vignau a poor one. But it was not until 1650, or after, that the number of volunteer rovers began to cause the government grave concern. When adventurers like GroseHliers and Radisson go off in the forest frankly aiming at great profits and palpably gaining them, the parishes begin to take notice of what can be done by independ- ent, though illegal, effort. After a few exam- ples of spectacular success, the youth of the colony become subjected to a temptation which grows stronger and stronger as the severe standards of the first settlers are relaxed. It would be inter- esting to know how many of those who set out 198 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut to found Villemarie yielded to the lure of the forest. And if it could be proved that few of Maison- neuve's band joined the coureur s de bois, we might still expect to find many of their sons at Detroit, Ste. Marie, and Mackinac. How the coureur dressed, what he ate, what objects he used in barter with the Indians — all these are matters about which there exists much categorical infor- mation. But the quickest way to gain a proper idea of his character is to watch him in action. In stud5dng the hves of individual bushrangers, it is true that we are taking the leaders — ^the men of force and talent who reached eminence by the possession of exceptional gifts or energy. Of these, in several cases, records remain. The common, wayfaring woodsmen did not reach the level of Radisson or GroseiUiers, of Du Lhut or Nicolas Perrot. Among them, as elsewhere, good mate- rial is found in baffling intermixture with what is base. The fact remains that the biography of the more famous coureurs de bois, while por- tra5dng a type which is higher than the average, gives us our best means of understanding what manner of Ufe was led by the Frenchmen of the forest. For some reasons one is tempted to see in Radis- son the typical bushranger. Even if we beheve only half he says, his writings furnish material for a tale of breathless adventure. And apart from the interest awakened by his personality and exploits, he had a leading share in one great enterprise. What without his talents and ras- calities would have been the early annals of The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 199 the Hudson's Bay Company? Taken separately, he and GroseiUiers are sufficiently rare specimens of the genus homo; considered as a pair they cannot be matched in all the chronicles of the forest. Here, the fatal objection to attempting a portrait of Radisson or GroseiUiers is that between New France, New England, Old France, and Old England, their exploits are too kaleidoscopic for the limits prescribed. On this account neither of them is permitted to figure in the title of the present chapter. But leaving aside aU thought of careful portraiture, it may still be possible to present the main facts of their lives in a hasty sketch. Radisson and GroseiUiers were united by ties of comradeship which held firm through nearly forty years, and survived the most startling turns of fortune. Both were born in France but came to Canada at an early age. GroseiUiers, the senior by more than ten years, took his origin from either Brie or Touraine. The birthplace of Radisson was St. Malo. In Canada their famiUes lived at Three Rivers, they themselves passing most of the time on expeditions to distant parts. Equally endowed with energy and imagination, they longed to win fortune amid the hardships and adventures of the West. It was GroseiUiers who led the way. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six he was a donn^, or servant, of the Jes- uits. Charged with duties that led him to make constant journeys between Quebec and Ste. Marie, he learned Huron and Algonquin almost in his boyhood. After a decade of this apprenticeship 200 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut he left the Fathers, and began trading for himself. The date was 1646, twelve years after Nicolet had made his famous journey past Lake Michi- gan to the country of the Wisconsins. Since 1634 the French, though often at Lake Huron, had never gone beyond the shores of Lake Supe- rior. Groseilliers is among the earliest of those who opened the Far West to European commerce. Radisson does not appear on the scene till 165 1. This was the year in which Groseilliers lost his first wife, Helen, the daughter of Abraham Martin and the goddaughter of Champlain. In 1652, Radisson's half-sister. Marguerite, lost her husband, Jean Veron de Grandmenil. Before the close of 1653 widow and widower decided that they would console each other, and thus the two men became brothers-in-law. But Radisson throughout his writings calls Groseilliers "my brother," and they stood by each other in the spirit of the most perfect kinship. However they might treat the rest of the world, it is clear that through sun and storm they were the truest friends. Unfortunately, when the widow Veron put off her weeds, Radisson was unable to attend the wedding. With a daring which in youth amounted to rashness, he had gone hunting when the Iroquois were known to be in the neighbour- hood of Three Rivers. The result was his cap- ture by the Mohawks, who spared his life and adopted him into their tribe. Dissatisfied with the joys of the wigwam, Radisson after a few months of captivity plotted to escape in the company of an Algonquin. Their first step was The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 201 to kill three Mohawks; their second, to hasten towards the St. Lawrence as fast as they could travel. In their flight they had reached Lake St. Peter, and were almost out of danger, when they fell into another ambush of the Iroquois. The Algonquin was at once despatched, while Radisson again found himself a prisoner, under circumstances which required a good deal of explanation. Taken back to the Mohawks, he was tortured by having several of his finger nails pulled out. Then, after a course of still other cruelties, his life was spared at the intercession of his adoptive parents. Altogether he remained among the Mohawks for over a year. In the lat- ter part of 1653 he escaped to the Dutch at Orange, and by their aid was enabled to reach France, via Amsterdam. From La Rochelle he sailed for Que- bec by a ship which entered the St. Lawrence at the opening of navigation. Before the close of May he was back among his people after an absence of nearly two years. It used to be thought that Groseilliers and Radisson joined a party of Ottawas in August, 1654, and travelled in the West until 1656. The Jesuit Relations, without mentioning names, state that two Frenchmen visited the pays d'en haut in this way and at this time. For several reasons it seemed natural to identify the unknown pair with GroseilUers and Radisson. Thus, in 1882, when Suite wrote his Histoire des Franpais-Cana- diens, he beUeved that they were the men in ques- tion. Since then, however, he has changed his opinion, as may be seen from a paper delivered 202 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut before the Royal Society of Canada in 1903. The strongest proof that these explorers were not Groseilliers and Radisson is to be found in the complete absence of any reference in Radisson's writings to such an expedition. He was not one to conceal his great deeds, and this would have been a fine occasion for parading them. The unknown travellers who set out in 1654 returned in 1656, accompanied by two hundred and fifty Indians, and bringing fifty canoes laden with iurs. They also brought back a report of the Winnebagoes, the Illinois, the Sioux, and the Crees. What pleased the Fathers most, they had baptised over three hundred infants, and taught the beauties of the Christian faith to tribes dwell- ing in the Far West, beyond the Great Lakes. Quite apart from the marked inactivity of GroseiUiers and Radisson in spreading the Gospel, negative evidence is strongly against their part in this expedition. But how they were occupied during the interval is not known. In 1657 Radis- son accompanied the two Jesuits, Ragueneau and Peron, on their memorable mission to the Onon- dagas, and was conspicuous in the exciting escape of the French from the Iroquois country through the ruse of the festin h manger tout. Arrived at Three Rivers in the spring of 1658, Radisson again met GroseUhers, who had returned the season before from a trip to Lake Huron. No sooner were they together than Groseilliers pro- posed something more ambitious than either of them had yet attempted. In short, his plan was that they should enter the wilderness on the The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 203 farther side of JLake Michigan or Lake Superior, and develop trade with tribes who never descended to Montreal. On hearing a plan so attractive, Radisson was tormented by a desire to feel him- self once more in the bottom of a canoe. Their decision taken, the brothers lost little time over preparations, and by the middle of June they set out with the resolve not to return until they had made new discoveries. Incidents happened at the very outset. The band of seventy French and Indians, which Radis- son and GroseiUiers joined at Montreal, soon fell into an ambush of the Iroquois and was broken up, with a loss of thirteen kUled or captured.. Thereupon most of the party returned, but the two brothers, undismayed, kept up the St. Law- rence to Lake Ontario, and thence by an overland route reached Lake Huron. Exactly where they went during the next eighteen months, it is not easy to make out. Radisson speaks of meeting^ Crees, and hearing from them about Hudson's Bay. There is also a strong probabihty that he and GroseilUers crossed the headwaters of the. Mississippi, and traversed a large part of the Sioux country. The Relation for 1660 contains this pas- sage: "During the winter season our two French- men made divers excursions to the surrounding tribes. Among other things, they saw, six days* journey beyond Lake Superior towards the south- west, a tribe composed of the remnants of the Hurons of the Tobacco Nation, who have been, compelled by the Iroquois to forsake their native land, and bury themselves so deep in the forest 204 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut that they cannot be found by their enemies. These poor people — fleeing and pushing their way over mountains and rocks, through these vast unknown forests — fortunately encountered a beautiful river, large, deep, wide, and worthy of comparison, they say, with our great river St. Lawrence. On its banks they found the great nation of the Ali- miwec [Illinois] who gave them a very kind reception. . . . Let us return to our Frenchmen. They visited the forty villages of which the Sioux nation is composed, in five of which there are reckoned as many as five thousand men. But we must take leave of these people without much ceremony, and enter the territories of another nation which is warlike, and which with its bows and arrows has rendered itself as redoubtable among the upper Algonquins, as the Iroquois among the lower." The Relation then proceeds to describe the customs of the Assiniboines, plainly basing its account upon what Radisson and Gro- seilliers have reported. The largest question which arises from this passage is whether GroseiUiers and Radisson dis- covered the Mississippi in 1659, fourteen years before it was reached by Joliet and Marquette. That in making their way to the Sioux country they crossed its headwaters, is a reasonable con- jecture. But to caU them in any proper sense the discoverers of the Mississippi seems inadmis- sible. Though fugitives of the Tobacco Nation told them of a great stream, there is no evidence to show that they identified this with any of the rivers which they crossed in journeying south- The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 205 west from Lake Superior. The problem of the Mississippi as a vast continental artery they did not grapple with^ and if they stumbled upon one of its upper branches, the fact did not impress them. The most sagacious observation on this subject which I have yet seen comes from Father J. Tailhan — the Jesuit who in 1864 published, for the first time, Nicolas Perrot's M^moire on the customs of the Indians. His remark is as foUows: 'Tt may well be that in the infant Mis- sissippi disguised under a Sioux name, our two travellers did not recognise the large and mighty stream of which the Hurons spoke to them under its Algonquin name. In this case they would, without knowing it, have been the first in the seventeenth century to see the Mississippi, which in the sixteenth had been discovered by De Soto." But if we cannot give Radisson and Groseilliers the credit for having in any conscious manner forestalled Joliet, Marquette, and La SaUe, they had the satisfaction of traversing a wide stretch of territory which hitherto had gone unexplored. Moreover, in July, 1660, they returned to Mon- treal with three hundred Indians and a cargo of furs worth 200,000 livres. It is interesting to conjecture what might have happened to them and their booty if DoUard and his fellows had not sold their lives so dearly at the Long Sault, three months before. As it was, the Iroquois did not intercept them, and they reached their home at Three Rivers in triumph. Having achieved an extraordinary success, Groseilliers and Radisson were not long content 2o6 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut to remain inactive. In one quarter, however, good fortune told against them. Unless they could secure a license, it was illegal to frequent the lands of the Sioux and the Assiniboines. Groseillier promptly asked D'Avaugour for his permission, but the Governor's cupidity was aroused by what he had heard of the profits. To blackmail a cou- reur de bois seemed fair play at the Chiteau St. Louis, and D'Avaugour proposed that an agent of his own should go with the expedition, receiving half the proceeds. Groseillier rejected this sug- gestion as wholly unreasonable, and after rest- ing a twelvemonth the two partners left for the wilderness without leave. They were gone two years, and probably carried their explorations to the Lake of the Woods. The beUef that they arrived at the shore of Hudson's Bay seems not well founded. Once more they accumulated a large freight of furs, with which they returned in 1663. We now reach the turning point in the career of these robust adventurers. So far from reward- ing them for their discoveries, D'Avaugour remem- bered their surreptitious leave-taking with a heavy fine. The amount was so exorbitant that in per- son they carried their protest to France. Find- ing no redress at court, they began that long series of intrigues with the English which was destined to ruin their reputations without bringing them much solid advantage. From what the Crees had told them of the hunting about Hudson's Bay, they conceived the idea that unprecedented profits might be reaped from the opening up of maritime trade with the Far North. This was The Coureur de Bois— Du Lhut 207 the prize which they dangled before the merchants of Boston in 1664, and before the EngUsh court from 1665 to 1668. It is an incredible turn of the wheel which carries these coureurs de bois from the untracked wilderness beyond Lake Supe- rior to the Whitehall of Charles II. None the less they became the promoters of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the same sense that Prince Rupert is its founder. The social adaptability of the French is illustrated to perfection by the way in which Radisson and GroseiUiers met whatever chances fortune brought them. They must have known that by going to Boston and London, they would cut themselves off from New France. But risks did not daunt them, and their imaginations always took fire at fresh schemes. As a result of their representations the stock book of the Hudson's Bay Company was opened in 1667, and the year following they set off for Rupert's River in two EngUsh ships. That Radisson had found an English wife in the daughter of Sir John Kirke is a further detail of some interest. In Hudson's Bay our Frenchmen met with adventures more extraordinary than any which had befallen them among the Assiniboines and Sioux. On the voyage of 1668 the Eaglet, with Radisson aboard, was compelled by a furious storm to turn back, but GroseiUiers in the Non- such Ketch entered the Bay, and did not return to England without a good cargo. Other voyages foUowed during the next few seasons, and Radis- son, like his brother, sailed to Rupert's River in an English ship. 2o8 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut But a life of peace was not what suited the temper of this restless pair. After dealing with the English for ten years, they became dissatisfied. From London to Paris is not a long journey, and in 1674 they crossed the Channel, saw Colbert, and placed themselves at his disposal. Their recep- tion was neither very good nor very bad. Col- bert declined to give them lucrative employment, but they must have received an assurance that they might safely revisit Canada. In 1675 they both landed at Quebec, and cast an eye about to see what chances were offering. GroseiUiers, who was no longer young, then settled for a time at Three Rivers in the midst of an indulgent family. Radisson, not liking the prospect, returned to France and took service in the navy under the Due D'Estrees. For the next three years he was fighting against the Dutch in the West Indies — apparently to the satisfaction of the Admiral, for on leaving the navy in 1678 he received a gratuity of a hundred louis. By this time Radis- son began to pine for another glimpse of the North- west, and after failing to procure a commission from the Hudson's Bay Company, he connected himself with La Chesnaye, one of the richest men in Canada and a person of speculative instincts. The result of this association was that Radis- son, GroseiUiers, and Groseilliers' son, Jean-Bap- tiste, went together to Hudson's Bay in 1682 with two boats provided by La Chesnaye. Here they met a number of EngHsh who formerly had been their colleagues, but whom it now became The Coureur de Bois— Du Lhut 209 Radisson's duty to outwit. Having done this with great cleverness and want of scruple, he and Groseilliers left Jean-Baptiste at the Bay and returned to Quebec with a fine cargo of furs, a ship captured from the English, and greatly en- hanced prestige. The two allies then sailed for France. Their last escapade was to desert the French once more. In the spring of 1684, at the instance of Sir Wiliam Young, they went back to the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Doubtless their exploit of the year before had revived confidence in their talents — and as for honesty, they could be watched. The terms of their fresh treachery were settled just before the Company's boats left for the Bay in 1684. Groseilhers did not go on the voyage, but Radisson in the Happy Return sailed for Hayes River, found his nephew Jean- Baptiste, and having talked him over from the French side to the English, brought back a record cargo of beaver skins. This was the last adventure of Radisson. Gro- seilliers had grown too old for hard work in the wilderness, and the Hudson's Bay Company seems to have felt that in pensioning these two French- men of superabundant activity, it had made sure they would not cause further trouble. The old age of Groseilliers and Radisson is a somewhat ignominious comment upon the exploits of their youth, but no coureurs de bois ever had such a range of experience. If, resisting temptation, they had not turned against their country because D'Avaugour tried to blackmail them, they might 2IO The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut have employed their talents no less serviceably and preserved a brighter fame. The coureur de bois is seen at his best in Daniel de GresoUon, Sieur Du Lhut. It is hard to believe that GroseiUiers and Radisson ever fixed their ambitions on a loftier object than the exploita- tion of new territory for their private advantage. However much they loved novelty and the excite- ment which comes from danger, the business chance was uppermost in their thoughts. Like them, Du Lhut traded with the Indians, but nature had given him a larger mind, a more imper- sonal outlook. The fact that he was better born might of itself mean httle, but taken in conjunc- tion with the whole course of his actions, it points towards a higher and clearer sense of pubUc respon- sibility. The late WiUiam M'Lennan entitled his admirable sketch of Du Lhut, "A Gentleman of the Royal Guard." The phrase was well chosen, for this woodsman, "the king of the coureur s de bois," acted in a manner which bespeaks inherited standards. Unless one is much mistaken, he was a fearless, judicious, self-respecting pioneer, work- ing for French ascendency in the West, and worthy to be trusted with the care of large interests. Du Lhut's father belonged to the gentry, and on his mother's side he came from the upper bour- geoisie. His birthplace was St. Germain-en-Laye, and, while the exact year is not known, he must have been born not later than 1650. In a letter written towards the close of 1681, he says that he had been twice in Canada before 1674, but the circumstance of most importance in his early life The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 211 was his enrolment among the Royal Guard — a regiment whose very privates were required to show quarterings. At the great battle of Senef he had cliarged with the household troops, when Conde at their head won victory from the Prince of Orange. The capture of a hundred flags left the French covered with glory. The slaughter of nearly thirty thousand men showed that it was war. Besides Du Lhut, another survivor of this dreadful day at Senef was Louis Hennepin. Shortly after the campaign of Senef, Du Lhut, for some reason unknown, took up permanent residence in Canada. Continuing to hold his mili- tary rank and to draw half-pay, he settled for a time at Montreal. Here he built a good house in the best part of the town, and lived like a well- to-do citizen who had abandoned the career of arms for business. With him in Canada were his brother, Claude GresoUon de la Tourette; his uncle, Jacques Patron, a prosperous merchant from Lyons; his brother-in-law, De Lussigny, an officer of Fron- tenac's guard; and his cousin, Henri Tonty, the enthusiastic disciple of La SaUe. During the quar- rel between Frontenac and Duchesneau, it was often said by the Intendant and his friends that the Governor and Du Lhut were in league to gain mutual profit from illicit trade. This charge Fron- tenac repudiated with his usual vehemence, making counter accusations against Duchesneau. What the truth was, it is difficult to discover. At the same time we may feel sure that a soldier of Du Lhut's antecedents and training would be more Ukely to win Frontenac' s confidence than the common cou- 212 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut reur de hois, who was by birth a habitant and had seen nothing of the world. If Du Lhut won a place for himself in the West, it was through his own talents, but as filling a quasi-political role in the management of Indian tribes, he knew how to carry out Frontenac's policy of conciliation. Whatever the understanding may have been be- tween coureur and Governor — if any understand- ing existed — the two men must have made each other's acquaintance during the years 1675-1677, when Du Lhut was building and occupjdng his house at Montreal. We have seen how GroseiUiers and Radisson prepared trouble for themselves by going into the wilderness without a license. Seventeen years later when Du Lhut began to hear the call of the forest, the regulations against unauthorised com- merce had become stricter stiU. By an edict of 1676 the Governor was prevented from issuing a congi to the private trader whom he might deem a proper recipient of such a favour. The com- plaint then arose that this measure cut off the colony from many nations dwelling to the west of Lake Superior. Frontenac, who was by no means a bUnd champion of the coureurs de bois, disapproved of the edict and to some extent nullified it. He could not give a cong^, but he could grant a hunting license, and he could despatch messen- gers to tribes of distant Indians. Throughout his first term of office the question was incessantly debated. Governor and Intendant besieged the home government with conflicting representations. The king, in turn, found it impossible to judge The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 2 1 3 who was right. In 1679 La Toupine, a subordinate of Du Lhut, was arrested by the Intendant. His defence was that he had an order from the Gov- ernor. The point was important, for the law condemned an inveterate coureur de bois to the galleys. Finally the matter was compromised on a basis favourable to the view of Front enac. By an edict of 1681, all coureurs then in the wilder- ness were offered a chance to come home in peace. It was an express condition that there should be no delay, but to the repentant woodsman an amnesty was held out. For the future, the Gov- ernor was allowed to issue twenty-five hcenses, each good for a year and enabling the holder to send out one canoe with three men. These congas were granted expressly for the benefit of poor gentlemen, and officers with children. But the grantees might sell them, as may be seen from the fact that Radisson's ally, La Chesnaye, acquired twelve. Such was the attitude of the government towards coureurs de hois at the time when Du Lhut was making himself the chief figure among them. To some it has seemed strange that he should sell his new house at Montreal, and dis- appear in the forest. But if we trust his own account of the matter, there is no difficulty. Writ- ing to Seignelay in 1681, he makes a statement regarding his motives, which is both distinct and reasonable. This is to the effect that from the time of his earliest acquaintance with New France, he had been eager to discover the country of the Sioux. He heard every one harping upon the obsta- 214 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut cles and saying no trade could be established there, because it was eight hundred leagues away and the Sioux were always at war with their neigh- bours. "But," says Du Lhut, "this difficulty made me resolve to go to them." For a time his own affairs prevented. Then after the campaign of Senef he returned to Canada, where as soon as he had arrived his former resolve became strength- ened. His first step was to make himself known among the savages, and when they had shown proof of friendship by giving him three slaves, he set out from Montreal with these and seven Frenchmen on September i, 1678. His design, after discovering the unknown Sioux and Assini- boines, was to effect a peace between them and all the nations dweUing about Lake Superior. This is Du Lhut's own story. One must point out that it occurs in an exculpatory letter, writ- ten at a time when he wished to clear up his posi- tion with the authorities. In short, he had gone away without a hcense, and could best justify himself by putting the love of exploration in the foreground. Even so the tale is far from being improbable, and shovild difficulty arise over his residence in Montreal, the explanation is not inadequate. Du Lhut accounts for his delay in going to the Sioux country on his return from the campaign of Senef, by stating that he wished to make himself well known among the Indians. Montreal, the great fur market, was where they chiefly congregated, and, in this view of the case, Du Lhut's residence there would simply have been the means towards an end. The point is The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 2 1 5 significant. Are we to believe Du Lhut's own story, which minimises the motive of trade, or shall we look upon it as a cloak? The best answer to such a question will be found in what followed. For the next thirty years Du Lhut gave himself up to extending French power among the western tribes. His record of deeds is what gives us his measure, and judged by it he is not to be distrusted. Whether as explorer reporting his discoveries with terseness and modesty, or as a warrior throwing his heart into the defence of the colony against the Iroquois, or as a commandant entrusted with the charge of Lachine, Cataraqui, and Mackinac, he equalled the confidence which was placed in him. First reaching prominence under the regime of Fron- tenac, each successive governor was glad to make use of his services, until at last, crippled by gout, he could only wait for the end. And when the end came Vaudreuil, in announcing his death to the Minister, gave him an epitaph in these words: "He was a very honest man." In all the long period of Du Lhut's residence among the Indians, the only two men who speak ill of him are Duchesneau and La Salle. Henne- pin damns him with faint praise, but this is obvi- ously because the friar had been put under obliga- tions which his vanity made him unwilling to recognise at their proper value. Duchesneau's con- demnation is traceable to the belief, whether real or assumed, that Du Lhut was Frontenac's active agent in the field of illicit trade. La Salle's sharp words have their root in personal soUcitude, for 21 6 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut he wanted no rival in the valley of the Mississippi. The language of depreciation to which he resorts in mentioning Du Lhut's exploits is merely a sign of his own nervousness. Under the fear of being injured by the presence in his vicinity of anotlier capable and enterprising leader, he says things which do discredit to his great talents. Here are some of his charges. Du Lhut at the head of twenty coureurs de bois goes about boasting that he wiU compel the government to give him an amnesty. Among the Indians he plays the part of an envoy, while his subordinates industriously pick up beaver skins. He has stolen away one of La SaUe's interpreters. He is not the discov- erer of the Sioux country, since Hennepin and Accault were there before him. Furthermore the region is worthless because it has no navigable rivers, and is fiUed only with wild rice. La SaUe's last shaft is that Du Lhut's rescue of Hennepin and Accault was a small affair, not worth speak- ing about. None the less La Salle is at great pains to take away his last shred of character. The very vigour of the abuse is testimony to his competitor's success. Another indirect compli- ment comes from Duchesneau. Less than two years after Du Lhut entered the forest, the Inten- dant calls him the chief of the coureurs de hois. The vindication of Du Lhut may seem in turn a disparagement of La Salle. But the foregoing paragraph has not been written with such intent. Nothing Du Lhut ever did is so brilUant as La Salle's descent of the Mississippi to the Gulf. These two lovers of the wilderness had different The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 217 gifts, and each expressed himself in his own way. Du Lhut had a steadiness and sagacity which were lacking in La Salle. He could put his talents into joint stock with those of other people. La Salle in his self-centred isolation, his intensity, his hauteur, is more impressive, but it may be doubted whether he was more useful to his country. Du Lhut's task was to explore thoroughly the lands of the Sioux, through only a part of which Radis- son and GroiseilHers had passed, to build forts among the Crees and Assiniboines, to establish the reign of peace among these western tribes, and to bring them all into cordial relations with France. Between them, he and Nicolas Perrot were worth more to their nation than a regiment of regulars. AU this impUes that Du Lhut possessed cer- tain qualities. Without a peculiar combination of gifts it was impossible to impress the Indian mind and establish a lasting alliance. Eloquence, generosity, and a fine bearing were the best cre- dentials which a French envoy could take with him to the wilderness. But having through their help created a good effect, the solid virtues of hon- our and straightforwardness were needed to render the friendship permanent. In many ways the savage was a chUd, and just as a child must never be told a falsehood, the Indian treasured up acts of treachery in his heart. He also had an instinct for detecting signs of weakness. The white man who would win his respect must be firm and truth- ful, fulfilling his engagements to the letter and exacting justice when the savage himself was the 21 8 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut offender. Neither Du Lhut nor Perrot gained their ascendency over the western tribes by debauching them with strong drink. They were good judges of character — open-handed, tactful, fearless. The establishment of a general peace was their object, and not the destruction of the natives through drunkenness. One must always distinguish between the sordid, ignoble coureur de bois, who would commit murder for a pack of beaver skins, and the leaders of larger outlook, who sought to establish a bond between the white man and the red, on the basis of mutual advan- tage. A detailed sketch of Du Lhut's career would carry us far beyond our present limits, but in conclusion we may fitly consider two matters which throw hght upon his character and methods. Of these, the first is the story of his relations with Hennepin. The second, is the course of his pro- cedure in dealing with FoUe Avoine on a charge of murder. Louis Hennepin, RecoUet friar and hneal descendant of Sir John Maundeville, came to Canada in 1675, having for companions on the voyage Laval and La SaUe. He remained for a time at Quebec, and was then sent as a missionary to Fort Front enac. If a guileless world believed his tale, nothing great that was done in the valley of the Mississippi originated with others. To repre- sent the missionary interest, he accompanied La Salle on the expedition of 1678. Tonty disliked him, and is credited by Hennepin with feeUngs of acute jealousy. La Salle accused him of Ijdng, The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 219 but softened the charge by saying that on account of his disposition he could not help it. The mod- ern reader cannot fail to love his smooth and cheer- ful mendacity, his complacent egotism, and the manner in which he exalts himself from the low estate of supercargo to the headship of the whole enterprise. On February 20th, 1680, La Salle despatched from Fort Cr^vecoeur a small exploring party headed by Michel Accault, and comprising, be- sides the leader, Hennepin and a Picard named Augel. Their function was to report upon the valleys of the Illinois and Mississippi for some distance below Fort Cr^vecoeur, while La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac in search of further supplies. After following the Mississippi south- ward for some time and finding no furs, Accault decided to ascend the river. The consequence of this change in their route was that Hennepin and his companions were caught by a war party of Sioux, who dragged them about in their train for several months. Towards the close of the sum- mer, Du Lhut appeared upon the scene and extri- cated the three Frenchmen from a most unpleasant predicament. When Hennepin came to write his book he was placed in a dilemma. On the one hand, he wished to magnify the dangers he had encountered; on the other, he was anxious to avoid giving Du Lhut credit for having rescued him. In consequence, his narrative turns some very sharp corners. Du Lhut, writing to Seignelay, touches the subject briefly and simply. His story is that, on reaching 220 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut the edge of the Sioux country in 1680, he heard of three Frenchmen who had been captured by this tribe, and sold as slaves among them. Thereupon he hastened with only an interpreter and two French followers to the spot where they were, trav- eUing eighty leagues by canoe in forty-eight hours.* On his arrival he found Hennepin encompassed by over a thousand savages, and his condition such that Du Lhut writes: "Le peu de cas qu'on fai- soit du Reverend P^re me fascha." His first step was to call Hennepin his elder brother. He then took the friar, with Accault and Augel, to the part of country where he was staying, and eight days later held a council with the Indians. To this assembly he explained that they had been guilty of bad conduct in reducing three French- men to slavery, and in taking from the Reverend Father his sacerdotal garments. He insisted that the captives should be released to him, and car- ried them away in safety, though it had been his purpose to keep on to the western sea. As he told Hennepin, it would not do to suffer an insult of such a nature without showing some resent- ment. Over all these matters Hennepin ghdes grace- fully without a word, until he reaches the Council. To judge from his narrative the two Frenchmen might have been meeting in the heart of Paris. Speaking of Du Lhut and his party, the friar says: "They desired us, because we had some knowl- edge of the language of the Issati, to accompany them back to the villages of those people. I * This was a league of two miles. The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 221 readily agreed to their request, especially when I understood that they had not received the sacra- ments in the whole two years and a half that they had been out upon their voyage." He also vouch- safes that one of the Sioux said to Du Lhut: "Father Louis is greater than thou. His robe is finer than what thou wearest." When it comes to the Council, Hennepin does not even mention Du Lhut, but puts himself and his speech boldly into the foreground. He also describes how Ouasi- coude, the chief captain of the Sioux, "marked with a piece of pencil, which I had left, the course we were to keep for four hundred leagues together. In short, this natural geographer described our way so exactly that this chart served us as well as my compass could have done. For by observ- ing it punctually we arrived at the place which we designed, without losing our way in the least." Du Lhut, then, counted for nothing. Henne- pin consented to go with him because these cou- reurs de bois had not received the sacraments for two and a half years. The Sioux preferred his appearance to that of Du Lhut. He it was who dominated the Council, and into his hands Ouasi- coude delivered the chart which enabled them to return in safety. Why he had not done all this several months before. Father Louis does not condescend to explain. Had Du Lhut known how his services would be described, he might not have taken the trouble to travel eighty leagues in forty-eight hours! Of the return journey to Mackinac, Hennepin says a good deal, but the best bit is his account 2 22 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut of a dispute which arose between Du Lhut and himself. This is so good that a large part of it must be given in his own words, following the English translation of 1698. "AU things being ready, we disposed ourselves to depart, being eight Europeans of us in all, . . . We fell down the river of St. Francis, and then that of the Meschasipi. Two of our men, without sapng anything, had taken down two robes of castor, from before the fall of St. Anthony of Padua, where the barbarians had hung them upon a tree as a sort of sacrifice. Hereupon arose a dispute between the Sieur du Luth and myself. I com- mended what they had done, sa3dng, 'The bar- barians might judge by it that we disapproved their superstition.' On the contrary the Sieur du Luth maintained that they ought to have left the things alone in that place where they were, for that the savages would not fail to revenge the affront which we had put upon them by this action, and that it was to be feared lest they should pur- sue and insult us by the way. "I own he had some grounds for what he said, and that he argued according to the rules of human prudence. But the two men answered him that the things fitted them, and therefore that they should not trouble their heads about the savages nor their superstitions. The Sieur du Luth fell into so violent a passion at these words that he had like to have struck the fellow that spake them; but I got between and reconciled the matter; for the Picard and Michael Ako began to side with those that had taken away the things in question, which The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 223 might have proved of ill consequence. I assured the Sieur du Luth that the savages durst not hurt us, for that I was persuaded their grand captain Ouasicoude would always make our cause his own, and that we might rely on his word, and the great credit he had amongst those of his nation. Thus the business was peaceably made up, and we sailed down the river together as good friends as ever, hunting the wild beasts as we went." But this was not the end of the affair. Shortly afterwards, the Sioux overtook them. For what ensued we must return to Hennepin. "The Sieur du Luth had reason to believe that the three savages but now mentioned were really spies sent to observe our actions; for indeed they knew that we had taken away the robes of castor from before the fall of St. Anthony. He could not forego his fears, but told me we should serve the feUow right if we should force him to carry them back and leave them in the place where he found them. I foresaw discord would be our destruction, and so made myself mediator of the peace once more. I appeased the fray by remon- strating that God, who had preserved us hitherto in the greatest dangers, would have a more peculiar care of us on this occasion because the man's action was good in itself. "Two days after, all our provisions being dressed and fit to keep, we prepared to depart. But the Sieur du Luth was mightily surprised when he perceived a fleet of an hundred and forty canoes, carrying about an hundred and fifty men, bearing down directly upon us. Our men's consternation 224 T'he Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut was no less than the Sieur's; but when they saw me take out from amongst our equipage a calumet of peace which the Issati had given us as a pledge of their friendship and protection, they took heart and told me they would act as I should direct. "I ordered two of them to embark with me in a canoe, to meet the savages. But the Sieur desired me to take a third to row, that, by stand- ing in the middle of the canoe, I might the better show the pipe of peace, which I carried in my hand to appease the barbarians, whose language I understood indifferently well. The other four of our men I left with the Sieur du Luth, and told them in case any of the young warriors should land and come up to them, they should by no means discourse or be familiar with them; but that they should keep their arms ready fixed. Having given these orders I went into my canoe, to the barbarians who were a-coming down the river in theirs. " Seeing no chief amongst them, I called out as loud as I could, Ouasicoude, Ouasicoude, repeat- ing his name several times. At last I perceived him rowing up towards me; all this while none of his people had affronted us, which I looked upon as a good omen. I concealed my reed of peace, the better to let them see how much I relied upon their word. Soon after, we landed and entered the cabin where the Sieur du Luth was, who would have embraced their captain. Here we must observe that 'tis not the custom of the savages to embrace after the manner of the French. I told the Sieur du Luth that he need only present Frontispiece to Hennepin's Voyages The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut 225 him with a piece of the best boiled meat that he had, and that in case he eat of it we were safe. " It happened according to our wish; all the rest of the captains of this little army came to visit us. It cost our folks nothing but a few pipes of Martinico tobacco, which these people are pas- sionately fond of, though their own be stronger, more agreeable, and of a much better scent. Thus the barbarians were very civU to us, without ever mentioning the robes of castor. The chief Ouasi- coude advised me to present some pieces of Mar- tinico tobacco to the Chief Aquipaguetin, who had adopted me for his son. This civility had strange effects upon the barbarians, who went off shouting and repeating the word Louis, which, as we said, signifies the Sun. So that I must say, without vanity, my name wiU be as it were immor- tal amongst these people by reason of its jumping so accidentally with that of the Sun." No further comment upon Hennepin is required, save this. Du Lhut must have breathed deep when he parted with companions who sought to cure the savages of superstition by steahng their votive offerings. The affair with FoUe Avoine must be consid- ered much more briefly. In 1684 Du Lhut was commander of the fort at Mackinac, the chief French outpost of the Far West. His position made him responsible for the preservation of order throughout the whole region around Lake Superior, and for the maintenance of French pres- tige among the western tribes. In these circum- stances he was apprised that two Frenchmen had 226 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut been murdered by the Indians. Who the mur- derers were, remained to be proved, but from the outset only four men came under suspicion. These were Folle Avoine, Achiganaga, and two of Achi- ganaga's sons whose names are not given. Achi- ganaga was the head of a tribe, and Folle Avoine could also command a following. Presently, through Father Albanel, news reached Du Lhut that FoUe Avoine was at Satdt Ste. Marie. The French there, numbering only twelve, were afraid to arrest the suspect, since the savages threatened a general massacre if Folle Avoine were touched. On receiving the message Du Lhut made up his mind. Going at once to Father Enjalran, the Jesuit in charge of the Mackinac mission, he told him how things stood, and unfolded his plan. This was to leave Mackinac the next morning at daybreak, with six Frenchmen, and in person ap- prehend FoUe Avoine despite his threats. Enjal- ran agreed to the wisdom of the course and offered himself as a companion. Fearing lest FoUe Avoine shovdd escape, Du Lhut divided his band a league outside the village. Sending the others forward, he, attended by Enjal- ran and two more, turned aside to arrest the accused. This done, a guard was set over him, and preparations for the trial began. When it came to collecting evidence, all the savages of the Sault declared that Folle Avoine was inno- cent. The murderer, they said, was Achiganaga, and since Achiganaga remained at large with his own people about him, there seemed little chance of sifting the case to Ihe bottom. All Du Lhut The Coureur de Bois— Du Lhut 227 could do was to carry off FoUe Avoine with him as a prisoner, and send a detachment out for Achi- ganaga. The errand was full of danger, but Jean P6re, to whom it was entrusted, had lived long in the Indian world and feared nothing. A month later, when Du Lhut was beginning to feel very anxious about the fate of this party, Pere returned with Achiganaga and his four sons. The next day the trial began in full council of Indians and French. FoUe Avoine was first exam- ined, and his answers, taken down in writing, were read over to him for confirmation. He was then removed from the Council under guard. Next, the two sons of Achiganaga, who were suspected, went through a similar examination. Subsequently there was a cross-examination. By general consent Achi- ganaga was acquitted, but the guilt of his two sons and FoUe Avoine admitted no doubt. The Indians themselves were convinced, and the elders said: 'Tt is enough. You accuse one another. Your fate is now in the hands of the Frenchmen." Apparently the Indians thought that this would be the end of the matter. But Du Lhut was determined to execute the sentence. Instead of giving the pardon which was expected, he held another council. The four hundred Indians there assembled began to sulk, and Du Lhut knew that the tribes of the back country openly declared they would have vengeance if their people were harmed. Undeterred by silence in his presence and murmuring from without, Du Lhut told the savages that the murder having been committed by members of two tribes, one from each must 228 The Coureur de Bois — Du Lhut die. He would forgive the younger son of Achi- ganaga, but not the elder nor Folle Avoine. Then two chiefs made a plea for the condemned. To their supplication Du Lhut replied that prisoners of war he could spare, but not murderers. After this he told the Jesuits to baptise the culprits if they so desired. An hour later, standing at the head of forty-two Frenchmen in the presence of four hundred savages, Du Lhut gave his men orders to execute the sentence. A little later the goods for which the murder had been committed were recovered. But we can follow the deeds of Du Lhut no farther. The adventures of the coureur s de bois were so numerous that one is tempted to enlarge undtdy upon them. If more space were avail- able, the career of Nicolas Perrot would come next. Of his long intercourse with the savages there remains a striking record in his Treatise on the Manners, Customs, and Religion of the North American Indians. Pere and Le Sueur are two other members of this group about whom much might be said. After all, the coureur de bois belongs in a special sense to those who are under twenty. John Bur- roughs says that if a time ever comes when you do not like apples, you may conclude you are no longer young. And the same sad thought must occur to all who read with flagging interest the Leather-stocking Romances, or the exploits of Gro- seiUiers, Radisson, and Du Lhut. CHAPTER Vn THE INTENDANT— TALON THE prosperity of the wicked has been a source of scandal and regret to many a pious soul ever since the days of the Psalmist. It is another bit of perversity in human affairs that the most useful people are by no means the most sure to win our gratitude and affection. Alfieri, for exam- ple, and Lord Byron had troops of admirers in an age when John Howard, the prison reformer, and Sir Samuel RomiUy, the reformer of the crimi- nal law, were all but ignored by the pubUc at large. In more recent times the elder Dumas, through the hvely talent which inspired Monte Christo and the Three Musketeers, became a popu- lar hero, while Pasteur was overlooked, as he plodded along in the quiet laboratory where he was revolutionising the theory of disease. The plain fact is that mankind, in the mass, has an idolatrous worship of the picturesque, and refuses to be interested in what is not picturesque. These remarks are placed at the head of the present chapter because Talon was not a man to dazzle even his contemporaries, still less pos- terity. He is one of those quiet workers who, so far from blazoning their names in crimson and 229 230 The Intendant — Talon gold upon the page of history, are quite content to write it modestly in black. If it were not in- cumbent to give a correct idea of Canadian hfe under the Old Regime, he might be omitted from this book altogether. In no case can he be decked out with theatrical trappings. He was simply a business man, endowed with a rare capacity for business and instinct with public spirit. Yet, on the whole, he appears to have furthered the cause of the French race in America beyond any other of&cial whom the French crown ever sent to the banks of the St. Lawrence. In short, he did more than any one else to build up the population of the colony, to improve its agriculture, to stimulate its industry, to extend its trade. At the date of his arrival (1665) the state of New France was wretched, if not critical. Seven years later, when he left Quebec for the last time, the French race had been established in America on a firm foun- dation. True, it might be overcome in war, but that it would survive was rendered certain by the work of those seven years. Without pretending to give Talon the whole credit for the forward movement, his share in it was by far the greatest. Such, speaking broadly, is my own conception of Talon's rdle in the upbuilding of the French- Canadian race. However, for a more complete and authoritative statement on this point, let us refer to M. Thomas Chapais. One need hardly state that four years ago M. Chapais published the most thorough and detailed account of Talon's career which has yet appeared in either language. The tone of this work is by no means one of blind The Intendant— Talon 231 adulation. In Talon's attitude toward the Church, M. Chapais finds ground for severe censure. Yet he recognises ungrudgingly the pricelessness of the service that Talon rendered to French Canada. Indeed it is rather difficult to select any single passage for quotation, where Chapais devotes so many to the merits and services of the Great Intendant. The one I shall take portrays Talon standing at the window of his house in the Upper Town of Quebec, and gazing upon the magnifi- cent panorama spread out before him. "As he hstened," asks Chapais, "to the sounds of Ufe which had their source in the impulse given by his own keen intelligence, did his thought, detach- ing itself from present sights and conditions, plunge into the future? Did he foresee the scope of the work which he had begun? Did he under- stand the whole grandeur of the task which he had wrought among so many risks and obstacles? In a word, did he guess that his efforts would have, as their result, the increase and victorious expan- sion of a New France on the soil of America? We cannot doubt it when we remember the words he spoke to Louis XIV.: 'This part of the French monarchy is destined to greatness.' No, no, the patriotic foresight of our illustrious intendant was not at fault when he wrote these fines! This part of the French monarchy has truly become some- thing great. Separated from the old mother coun- try after long struggles, she has turned toward new horizons. She has passed through the most dreadful storms and survived the most perilous crises. The fittle group of French Canadians which 232 The Intendant — Talon then dwelt upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, is now a people whose invincible vitaUty defies aU attack. The poor Quebec of 1671 is, after two centuries and a third, transformed into a fair and populous city. The humble Villemarie of Mai- sonneuve and Jeanne Mance ranks to-day among the thirty or forty largest towns of the world. And French Canada, proud of its origins, strong in its traditions, marches on with firm tread toward the accomplishment of the destiny ordained for it by Providence." As will be observed, the foregoing passage mounts to a rhetorical climax which illustrates the pride of the French Canadians in the tradi- tions that have come down to them from the sev- enteenth century. It is here quoted, however, because M. Chapais does not hesitate to make Talon the author of such success as has followed the efforts of the French in Canada. His are the zeal and foresight which must be credited with the grand result the world now sees — to wit, the three milUon French of North America. Whether Chapais is over-generous we need not now inquire. The" essential fact is that the most learned of Talon's biographers derives from the brain of this official whatever was best in the execution of Louis XIV.' s plans for the upbuilding of French power in North America. A certain amount of excitement always attends a quarrel, and one could best awaken interest in Talon by dwelling upon his misunderstandings with Laval. But more important are the charac- ter of the duties he discharged, and his outlook Talon The Intendant — Talon 233 toward problems then presented by the state of Canada. These subjects I shall keep in the fore- ground rather than any of the small altercations which arose between him and his contemporaries at Quebec, over differences of policy. Talon's life presents few incidents for the biographer outside such labours as were connected with his discharge of public duty. He belonged to a clever family, several of whom distinguished themselves at the bar. There were, indeed, no better lawyers in France during the age of Louis XIV. than Denis and Omer Talon. Some his- torians of the family have ascribed their ability to an Irish origin, but as the fact is disputed we need not discuss the inference. Jean Talon, the intendant, was born at Chalons-sur-Mame in Champagne, the year of his birth probably being 1625 — the year when the Jesuits first came to Canada. Talon was educated chiefly at Paris in an advanced school called the College de Cler- mont, which the Jesuits conducted. By a some- what curious coincidence, Laval was studying the- ology at the College de Clermont at the very time when Talon was a student in the academic department. But apparently the two men did not know each other until they met at Quebec. In forming our impression of Talon, we derive a good deal of assistance from the portrait which shows him as he was in the prime of mental power and physical vitaUty. One thinks of him as a business man, and this, par excellence, he was. But in aspect he by no means resembled the mod- ern man of business with whom we are all more 234 The Intendant— Talon or less familiar. Take a captain of industry like the President of the Canadian Pacific Railway, or the General Manager of the United States Steel Co. Whatever quahties and endowments he may possess, we do not expect him to look hke a trou- badour. Now, Talon resembles Blondel or Ber- tram de Born, as these Provencal sonneteers and love poets of the twelfth century appear to the eye of fancy. He has the mobile features, the impressionable face of the poet rather than the commanding, self-controlled countenance of the great banker or the great administrator. In short, we may ascribe to Talon an imaginative quaUty which is by no means common in the world of commerce, though it is never wholly absent from business men of the highest stamp. And in his case breadth of outlook did not interfere with the minutest grasp of detail. Like Colbert, Talon rose in the world by attach- ing himself to the fortunes of Mazarin. He was a younger man than Colbert, and had not reached a place of any great prominence at the time when Louis XIV. ended his minority. Yet what he had done he had done well, and it was on the strength of his success as Intendant of Hainault that he received his Canadian appointment. And here we encounter a celebrated term. Talon had been an intendant in France; he became an intendant in Canada. What was this office of intendant which we meet with whenever we open any book on the Old Regime in Canada? To many minds such a question wUl inevitably suggest thoughts of Bigot, the most notorious of The Intendant — Talon 235 the Canadian intendants, and, except Talon, the cleverest. Bigot is one of those picturesque ras- cals whose misdeeds are a fixed asset of the his- torical novelist. Nemesis did overtake him, but not until he had lavished the treasures of France upon riotous living, at a time when the fate of Canada was hanging in the balance. Following Dr. Doughty' s opinion, Vaudreuil had no brains, but was full of vanity. Bigot inspired him with that sense of idolatrous admiration which stupid men so often feel for those who are clever. In consequence, Vaudreuil was encouraged to believe that he could let Bigot do aU the work while he received all the credit. Such, at least, is a plausible view of the attitude adopted by the most celebrated intendant towards the governor who envied and thwarted Montcalm. Knowing about Bigot, we are inclined to suppose that because he and his gang grew rich in office, all the inten- dants were thieves. But this is a mistake. As a class, the intendants of New France were an earnest, hard-working lot of men, labouring on wrong lines, but doing their duty without thought of self-enrichment at the cost of the colony. Before going farther, we must see what powers the inten- dant possessed, and what, also, was the nature of his duties. For all who care to go a little below the surface of things, these are matters of deep significance. Nothing distinguishes the life of Can- ada under French rule from its life under British rule so completely as the presence of the inten- dant in the French period, and the complete absence of anything like the intendant in the 236 The Intendant — Talon British period. The intendant went on his way with less pomp than the governor, but beyond doubt he was the most important representative of France in the New World. Since the office itself is so unlike anything with which we are now familiar, and since it was filled by several men of marked capacity, it is well to remember how the intendant first enters the history of France, and how from France he was transplanted to Canada. France in the days of Louis XIV. was an abso- lute monarchy, but it had not always been so. During the Middle Ages the power of great nobles like the Dukes of Normandy and Brittany, the Counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Toulouse, fettered the independence of the crown. The king became supreme by absorbing into his own personal possessions the fiefs of these feudal mag- nates. The means of acquisition involved con- quest, marriage, inheritance, and purchase, — a process covering centuries and marked by many famous episodes. What Louis le Gros had com- menced in the twelfth century was finished by Louis XL, who died, owner of the whole realm, in 1485. At the same time the power of the aris- tocracy had not quite vanished. In the age of the Reformation there were still nobles of much local prestige who acted as governors, under the crown, of whole provinces like Normandy and Brittany, Champagne and Provence. These gov- ernors were uniformly of ancient lineage, and never forgot that their ancestors had been princes in their own right. It was the natural ambition The Intendant — Talon 237 of each to place the crown at a disadvantage in the hope of recovering an ancient prestige which every duke or count had lost through the rise of the monarchy. As a rule, the governor of Normandy in the North, or of Gascony in the South, thought much more about how he could harm than help a Valois king. The dissensions caused by the Reformation gave restless nobles a last chance to recover their former territorial independence. Many of those who joined the Protestant side did so because it gave them a chance to fight the king with some decent show of excuse. The king, on his part, grew tired of having as his representatives a class of men whose natural promptings and ambitions stood between them and the proper discharge of their duties. Accordingly, during the wars of the League, that is to say, in the period from 1575- 95, one finds a new type of official coming into view.* This is the intendant, a person who has no dignity of private rank, and is therefore the less likely to prove a traitor. He is a royal agent and nothing else. The king has made his fortunes by promoting him to a post of power, but once the royal favour is withdrawn, the inten- dant has no vast family estates or powerful con- nections to fall back on. Selfish interest binds him to the crown, just as selfish interest makes the provincial governor his king's opponent. The earliest of the intendants were civilians sent by Henry III., the last of the Valois, to repre- * Speaking exactly, the Catholic League in France was not formed till 1584. 238 The Intendant— Talon sent him in the army. They had to do with the payment of the troops, the purchase of provisions, and the supervision of all those matters in which the general was bound to consult the civil author- ity. They also acted as a check upon the gen- eral, and sent reports to the king regarding what- ever went on. Thus several ends were served at the same time. The intendant was a business man charged with the task of introducing busi- ness methods into the field of army expenditure. He was also the king's agent, with a roving commission to report on anything that affected the royal interest. Under Richelieu this system received a great extension, and from his day until the Revolution France was ruled by a body of intendants which numbered, at different times, from thirty to forty. To be sure the king, in conjunction with his prime minister, shaped the main lines of public policy, but the whole task of executing details was thrown upon the shoulders of the intendants. As Rambaud has well said, "it was through the intendants that the monarchy accomplished all the good and all the evil which it wrought in France during a hundred and fifty years of absolutism. It was they who reduced to complete dependence the bishops, the leading nobles, and the cities; it was they who organised the vast armies, the vast fleets of Louis XIV., the manufactures of Colbert." Any clear-sighted foreigner travelling through France in the eight- eenth century could see how completely public business was vested in the hands of the intendants. For example, John Law said in so many words The Intendant — Talon 239 that the France of 1720 was ruled by thirty inten- dants, upon whose government hung the happi- ness or wretchedness of each district; its poverty, or its abundance. There was really nothing which could not be brought within the commission given by the crown to an intendant. For his own special district he controlled the administration of justice, the payment of troops and sailors, the system of agriculture, the construction of public works, such as roads and canals, the government of the towns; in short, everything. It would be tedious to name all the powers of the intendant; it would be impossible to find any large national interest with which he was not connected. In English the word intendant is strange to us, but we are all familiar with superintendent — especially in connection with Sunday-schools. Had there been Sunday-schools in France under the Old Regime, this official would doubtless have looked after them as he looked after everything else. Such were the powers of the intendant in France at the time when Talon came to Canada, and it was the design of Louis XIV. that the colony should be ruled according to the same principles which prevailed at home. For this reason we have examined the steps whereby the office arose, and made itself the distinctive feature of provincial government in France. The intendant did not come to Canada hke a Persian satrap or like a viceroy of the Grand Mogul, who had full free- dom of action, on condition that he supplied his royal master with so much money and so many troops. Louis XIV. was careful not to let any 240 The Intendant — Talon of his representatives grow too independent. Still, within the terms of his commission, Talon had wide latitude of action. The king told him in general terms to build up industry, to make the land prosperous, to bring up the people in the fear of God and reverence for the royal person. But these were all glittering generalities. Every- thing depended on how the agent carried out his instructions. Louis XIV. and Colbert knew Talon, trusted him on the strength of his record in France, and were intelligent enough to leave him much freedom in the choice of means. It was, nevertheless, a heavy task which faced the Great Intendant when he landed at Quebec in 1665. The population of the colony was barely three thousand. The Company of the Hundred Associates had proved a complete failure. Its successor, the Company of the West Indies, held a monopoly of trade which was crushing the Ut- tle handful of settlers in the valley of the St. Law- rence. Not only were moose and beaver skins to be bought and sold by the Company alone, but all imports were to be brought out in its ships, and sold at its prices. Thus there were hardly any people in the country, and these few found themselves most unpleasantly situated between the Mohawks, on the one hand, and the monopo- lists of trade, on the other. Talon perceived at once that the crux of the matter was numbers. The king was send- ing over the Carignan Regiment to fight the Mohawks, and this of itself was much. But once in the country, any man of discernment The Intendant — Talon 241 could see that Canada held out homes to a popu- lation larger than that of France. In all the extensive correspondence which Talon conducted with Colbert, no other subject bulks so large as that of immigration. And Talon was the more insistent because he did not consider this ques- tion from the standpoint of the Laurentian valley alone. He had a prophetic sense of what would result from the exploration of the country beyond Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. More than any one else of the official class — more than Fron- tenac himself — he was the pioneer, of that west- ward movement which was carried on with such brilliant success by Joliet, Marquette, Du Lhut, and La Salle. The copper of Lake Superior set him to thinking about the mineral wealth of this distant region, and the means of rendering it available. The strategic position of New York caught his attention and opened up a long vista of racial projects, racial ambitions, national wealth. But how, without men, could New York be purged of the EngUsh and a French Empire be created in the valley of the Mississippi? Every one of Talon's broader, more statesmanhke plans hinged upon the question of population. Clearly the valley of the St. Lawrence could spare few of its three thousand settlers to the Far West. In 1665, at the moment when Talon reached Quebec, the Iroquois peril was so great that beyond the island of Montreal no genuine colonisation had been attempted. From Lachine to MichUlimackinac a few forts dotted the waterways at strategic points. But these were mere outposts of the fur traders. 242 The Intendant — Talon To the intendant' s mind it was clear that without aid from the king the French in America could not make use of the vast areas which priority of exploration gave them. And for Talon, aid from the king meant, first, last, and always, more colo- nists. This throughout his administration was the paramount issue. During the first ten years after his personal government began, Louis XIV. was sincerely in- terested in Canada, and felt himself able to do something for this most desolate portion of his dominions. His resources had not yet been drained by wars of ambition in Europe. He saw how the English and the Dutch were profiting from the success of their trading companies. The Hudson's Bay Company was being created by Prince Rupert at the very time of Talon's reginie in Canada. There were, in fact, many motives both of poUtics and commerce which prompted the king to turn his eyes toward Quebec. The substitution of the West Indies' Company for the Company of the Hundred Associates was one sign of Louis' personal interest in the col- ony. Another, and a more important one, was the despatch of the Carignan Regiment — ^the first body of regulars ever to set foot in New France. The mere fact that so good a man as Talon was sent to reorganise Canada is proof positive of the royal interest. None the less, both Louis XIV. and Colbert faUed to realise how completely the Canadian problem hinged upon the upbuilding of popula- tion. It is true that they put forth between The Intendant — Talon 243 1665 and 1675 the most serious effort which the French crown ever made to estabUsh the French race in the New World. Yet their efforts, in this direction, were pitiful when compared with Talon's demands. So much depends on how the case is stated. It seems very grand to say that during the seven years of Talon's intendancy, the population of Canada more than doubled. But when we come to exact figures and say that the number of inhabitants increased from three thousand to seven thousand, the proposition is less imposing. No doubt Louis XIV. thought he was doing a great deal in loaning one regiment to Canada for a single campaign against the Mohawks, and in giving the country four thou- sand new colonists. But we have only to read Talon's correspondence with Colbert, to realise how utterly inadequate was this provision. In almost every letter there is a direct reference, or an indirect allusion, to the one matter upon which all else depended. It is not polite to be in- sistent, and Talon could not importune his sover- eign, or that sovereign's prime minister, without a certain regard to what these great people would stand. If one is looking for amusement in senous official correspondence, it occasionally can be found. "Even in a palace," said Marcus Aurehus, "Ufe may be well spent." Likewise even in a blue book there is sometimes a glint of humour. For example, Canning's celebrated lines, "In matters of business the fault of the Dutch Is giving too little and asking too much." 244 The Intendant — Talon occur in an official despatch to the British Ambas- sador at the Hague on a treaty with Holland. As for Talon, the element of humour in his formal and decorous correspondence with Colbert is sup- plied by the skilfulness of his hints regarding the overwhelming need of more colonists. At first Colbert is sympathetic, then he begins to point out the difficulties which prevent him from send- ing as many people as Talon wants, then he becomes a httle curt when reference is made to emigration, and finally he blurts out that he has no intention of depopulating France to people Canada. It wiU be remembered that the population of France was about 20,000,000. Had Colbert sent Talon fifty thousand men and women, the drain on the mother country would have been only a quarter of one per cent. What the influx of fifty thousand French at that date would have meant to North America can be made out by a little computation. The contest of French and English would have proved far more stubborn, far more uncertain in its issue, and even had the French been vanquished, there easily might be to-day on the North Ameri- can continent a French population of 20,000,000. There is an old Latin saying that a question well put is half answered. Talon not only stated to Colbert the problems of French life in Canada under their proper form, but he suggested the answer. It was no fault of his that Louis XIV. cared more for ten thousand square miles on the banks of the Rhine than for three million square miles in America. With all the restrictions which were placed The Intendant— Talon 245 upon the Great Intendant, his part in bringing out settlers has suppUed the historians of Canada with one of their favourite subjects. The dearth of the feminine element in a new country is almost always noticeable, and in New France special measures were required to redress the disparity of sexes. Every one has heard of the solicitude which Louis XIV. felt for the bachelors of Canada, and is more or less famiUar with the expedients he employed to rescue them from their soUtude. Especially after the Carignan Regiment had dis- banded, there seemed to be need of sending to Quebec, year by year, a convoy of marriageable damsels. A good many of the intendant's duties have already been enumerated, but none was more delicate than that of finding suitable husbands for the filles du roi. How matters were expedited may be inferred from a letter written by Talon to Colbert on November 10, 1670. "Of aU the hundred and sixty-five young women who came to the colony this year, only thirty remain unmar- ried. As soon as the soldiers who came out this season shall have had time to build houses, they, too, wiU be looking around for wives; for which reason I hope His Majesty may be pleased to send a hundred and fifty or two hundred more young women." In his zeal for the colony, Talon takes care to recommend that all women sent over under royal auspices shall have good looks — or at least that they shall not be displeasing in appear- ance. His other specifications are that they shall be healthy and strong enough for work in the fields, or, at the very least, that they shall have 246 The Intendant — Talon some aptitude for manual labour. In other words it is clear that he has in view healthy peasant women, rather than girls who have been bred in cities and possess no aptitude for coping with the toils of the wilderness. The wonderful vigour and vitahty of the French-Canadian race prove that he was successful in getting colonists of the type he desired. One lays most stress upon Talon's endeavour to secure immigrants, because, for the reasons mentioned, it was the central fact in his pohcy. It remains to give some idea of the activities which marked his administration of Canada at a time when the colony was aglow with hope, beheving, as it did, that the king meant to do great things for it. There could have been no better advance agent of prosperity than Talon. By the terms of his original arrangement with the crown, he was to be away from France only two or three years. The king evidently felt that he was asking a clever man to bury himself for a time in a region where there would be much privation and httle reward. EngUshmen going to India have always expected high pay and short terms of service. In the sev- enteenth century, Canada inspired much the same sentiment among Frenchmen. As it was asking much of Talon to absent himself from the sphere where promotion was most rapid, he had promise of a quick recall. Two facts, however, are con- spicuous. Talon remained nearly three times as long in the country as had first been planned; and, secondly, he threw himself heart and soul into its life, as one might do who expected to make The Intendant — Talon 247 the New World his permanent home. There is more in his desire to help Canada than profes- sional zeal. It is true that the spirit of the ser- vice was strong among the intendants, and great reputations might be gained from success in the discharge of their office. Thus Turgot, the most eminent of French statesmen on the eve of the Revolution, first attracted notice from the way in which he improved the district of Limoges by enlightened government. Shortly afterwards he became chief adviser to Louis XVI. Talon, like Turgot, had a strong sense of professional duty and a desire to gain advancement in the king's service. But the whole tenour of his acts shows that he felt a deep personal interest in Canadian affairs. Let us now follow him in his attempt to make the banks of the St. Lawrence fertile, pros- perous, and happy. Talon, Uke Sir Walter Raleigh before him, and Mr. J. J. HiU in our own time, saw that good agriculture is the firm foundation of national wealth. Most writers have associated his name with the attempt to develop manufactures, rather than stimulate and improve the culture of the soil. The fact is, he encouraged both interests in due proportion. Not only were his first efforts associated with farming, but he never suffered his subsequent interest in commerce, shipbuild- ing, mines, and manufactures to eclipse his desire that there should be two blades of grass where one had been before. Here, as everywhere else, he believed it right to set an example of activity. Hence we find him acquiring the uncleared sei- 248 The Intendant — Talon gniory of des Islets near Quebec, in order to show by an object lesson how the wilderness could be turned into meadow and pasture. In writing Colbert on the subject of this private venture, he says that only two arpents out of a large estate were cleared at the time he bought the land. In the vicinity of Quebec he also founded his three model villages of Bourg Royal, Bourg la Reine, and Bourg Talon. Here it was a question of combining agriculture with something else. All the villagers in these three settlements worked on the land, but for society and defence against the Indians it was well that they should be gathered together in little hamlets, rather than scattered singly through clearings in the forest. Thanks to the success of Tracy's campaign against the Iroquois, farm life for a time became secure. Indeed, the twenty years of peace \vith the Mohawks, which followed this war of 1665, saw a transformation in the physical aspect of New France. As early as 1668, Father Le Mercier, writing in the Jesuit Relations, bursts into a paean over the change which has been wrought by the increased security, and the consequent labours of the people upon their land. During almost the whole of the period between Champlain and Talon, Canada had been unable to produce its own food, or all of its own food. Talon resolved that not only should food staples be produced within the country on a scale large enough to make it self-supporting, but that there should be wheat and flour for export. This hope might have seemed chimerical at the time when he The Intendant — Talon 249 arrived in the colony, but before his departure Canada was actually shipping wheat to France. It cannot be pretended that the export trade was very large, but the stage of helpless dependence had been outgrown. Closely connected with agri- cultural improvement is the enlargement of the acreage available for cultivation. During the seven years of Talon's regime the area of cleared land increased twofold. We speak very often, and lightly enough, about the progress of the world, the progress of civilisa- tion, and other forms of progress; but I doubt whether many of us have sought to define for ourselves wherein progress consists. Herbert Spencer tried to elucidate this problem by stat- ing that progress means advance from the homo- geneous to the heterogeneous, from the simple to the complex. Those who have warm humani- tarian instincts and long for the coming of the Golden Age may think this a somewhat frigid definition. But Talon, for one, would have under- stood its bearing upon the development of Can- ada. He believed in diversified activity. The fur trade was not enough. Even agriculture was not enough. He longed to find occupation which would train the hand and occupy the mind, dur- ing the long months of a rigorous winter. With this design he turned his attention to shipbuild- ing. The very year after his arrival he caused a schooner of a hundred and twenty tons to be built, and before the close of 1667 he writes Col- bert that he is urging some of the leading mer- chants to join with the government in building a 250 The Intendant — Talon ship of three or four hundred tons, which shall be equipped for trade with the West Indies. Talon's lively imagination was impressed from the out- set by the possibihties of trade with the Antilles. Salt fish, grain, and lumber were to be exported, and molasses or sugar brought back. In most cases the traders of New France threw the burden of industrial development upon the shoulders of the government, but Talon met with considerable success in his attempt to enUst capital for ship- building from private individuals. It is a notable fact that the intendant, active though he was and brimful of interests, did not rush inconsequently from one project to another. To take this case of shipbuilding alone, it remained until the last an object of his untiring care. The year before he left Canada he wrote Colbert that three hun- dred and fifty men were engaged in this persuit alone — and this at a time when the total popu- lation was under seven thousand. Besides trade with the West Indies, he kept in view the need of developing fisheries on the lower St. Lawrence, not only for cod and salmon, but for porpoises and seals. Fish oil was one large item among his exports, and he did much to convince the people of Quebec that they could draw steady profit Ijy exploiting the waters of the great river on a much larger scale than had been attempted before he came. Among the manufactures which Talon set on foot were flour mills, and a rather celebrated brewery. The need for flour mills requires no comment, but the subject of the brewery opens The Intendant — Talon 251 up a large and fertile field of discussion. Even the Puritans did not shrink from the use of rum, and brandy made its way to the St. Lawrence as early as the first of the French traders began to bargain with the Indians. Brandy is not a liquid about which one cares to make any universal statement, but in the seventeenth century man- kind seems not to have been able to take it in large quantities without damage. How it affected the Indians can be realised only by those who have followed step by step their diminution in numbers. The missionaries were perhaps the most pronounced enemies of the brandy trade, but their strong sentiment against eau de vie was shared by the parish clergy. The Church attacked the sale of brandy to the Indians on obvious grounds of Christian duty. Where it could it also prevented the habitants from becom- ing heavy drinkers. Any one entering for the first time in 1665 could see at a glance how large an issue this was, in its relation to both the colo- nist and the savage. Talon, with his acute intel- ligence, recognised its true importance, and with his usual promptness took such action as com- mended itself to his judgment. When he first broached to Colbert his plan of starting a brewery, he estimated that the Canadians were spending^ a hundred thousand livres a year on expensive and potent drinks like wine and brandy. Always alert to see how the colony could make or save money, he protested against the expenditure of this large sum on beverages which could not be produced in the country. More striking than 252 The Intendant — ^Talon any single sentence in Talon's application to Col- bert for his sanction, is a portion of the minister's reply. Colbert grasps at once both points, the moral and the economic. He also seems to have been impressed by the fact that the erection of a brewery would prevent scandal. "Henceforth," says Colbert, "we may expect that the vice of drunkenness will cause us no more reproach, by rea- son of the cold nature of beer, the vapours whereof rarely deprive men of the use of judgment." In trying to connect past with present, one may perhaps claim that Talon was the pioneer of both the Geological Survey and the Intercolonial Railway, He planned the construction of a road from Quebec to Acadia, and made a small begin- ning at it, though his resources were wholly inade- quate to the task. His interest in western explo- ration has been mentioned already, and it should be added that he planned the journey of Father, Albanel to Hudson's Bay. His interest in the mineral wealth of Canada is evident from many facts. He investigated the iron deposits of Bale St. Paul and the bog ores of the St. Maurice. The copper of Lake Superior seemed to him a valuable asset of that western empire which he desired France to occupy, and he had hope that silver mines might be opened up at Gasp6 Basin. In the end smelting operations proved too costly, but Talon used every means to lay bare the resources of a country in whose future he thor- oughly beUeved. The catalogue of the Intendant's acts is by no means exhausted, but we have seen the nature The Intendant — Talon 253 of that energy and enthusiasm which in less than a decade gave Canada hope of becoming some- thing more than a depot of beaver skins. Among other things which Talon did for the people under his charge, were these. He introduced the cul- ture of hemp and flax, and persuaded the king to send him wool from which cloth was made by the wives of the habitants. He opened a tan- nery and a shoe factory. It cannot quite be said that he began the manufacture of soap, but he induced a Sieur Fohn to undertake the estab- ment of this industry. Here Canada is not very far behind a much older country. Until 161 9 the demand for soap in Scotland was apparently so small that it could be quite well supplied by impor- tations from Flanders. The first soap factory, north of the Tweed, was established at Leith dur- ing the reign of James I. and VI. In considering Talon's career we must not forget that the greater part of his time was consumed by routine duties of administration. The intendant was the moving spirit in the Sovereign Council, which had under its control the whole public life of the colony. For one thing, the Council could fix the percentage of profit on merchandise, and even establish a maximum price for special articles. Just before Talon's arrival in Canada, merchants had been allowed by the Council a profit of 55 % on their dry goods, of 100 % on the more expensive spirits, and 120% on Uquors that were imported in the cask. In 1666, by way of modification, the price of claret per cask was placed at eighty livres, and the price of Brazilian tobacco per pound at 254 The Intendant— Talon forty sous. In fact, every few months the Coun- cil was hkely to change its regulations according to the rise and fall of prices in Europe. Natu- rally, the importers resented such attempts to cur- tail their profits, and little good resulted from this incessant interference. However, it was a part of the French colonial system, and no inten- dant could avoid giving much of his time to the details of such work. Talon was far from being an expert in matters of political economy. He was no Quesnay, with radical views regarding the folly of state interference. He simply accepted the system in vogue and made the best of it. Besides supervising the merchants, the Sovereign Council undertook to superintend the morals of the colony. It sat in trial upon crimi- nal cases, as well as civil. It decreed what public works should be undertaken, and how they should be conducted. Governor, bishop, and com- mander of troops, — if there was a special general of regulars in the country, — all had seats in the Sovereign Council. But this board was the inten- dant' s playground. Save at times of crisis when some Utigation arose between Church and State, his views were not likely to be opposed by any one. Naturally, the details of all this business, much of which seems very petty now, were a severe drain upon the energies of the official who Wcis responsible to the king for the every-day concerns of the colony. How much business was trans- acted by the Sovereign Council, those only can appreciate who have worked £unong its volumi- nous records. The Intendant — Talon 255 Another large item in Talon's routine was his correspondence with the home authorities. Gov- ernor and intendant were both expected to keep the king supplied with full information regard- ing what went on in Canada. Often they were jealous of each other, and then their recrimina- tions filled page after page in each despatch. Even when on good terms there was a good deal which each was expected to say about the other, for Louis XIV. exacted minute accounts of the way in which each official was discharging his duties. The governor was expected to let the king know whether or not the intendant was successful, and vice versa. The Archives of the Marine at Paris are filled with these despatches, and we can still trace therein the daily concerns of Quebec as they appealed to the mind of both intendant and gov- ernor. Hence Talon was a busy man. If this be doubted, let the reader glance at a passage from the terms of his commission. "Since nothing can better encourage the people to be industrious than entering into the details of their households and of aU their little affairs, it will not be amiss that Sieur Talon visit all their settlements, one by one, in order to learn their true condition, pro- vide as much as possible for their wants, and, performing the duty of a good head of a family, put them in the way of making a profit." Talon took up this part of his work in the most Uteral sense. His domiciliary rounds have been noticed by more than one writer of that time, with much detail. Perhaps the most striking account of 256 The Intendant — Talon them can be found in the pages of Dollier de Cas- son, who describes the incessant activity of the Intendant during his visit to Montreal in 1667. "At this time," says Dollier, "he made the entire circuit of the island, house by house, in order to see if all, down to the very poorest, were being treated with justice and equity, and to discover for himself whether there were not some whose necessities demanded a share of his alms and liberality." These things Talon did in Canada during his two terms of office which covered the years 1665- 72. What, in conclusion, are we to think of the man, of his works, and of the system which he represented on the American continent? As for the spirit in which Talon discharged his public services, it is wholly admirable. He was the model intendant — alert, intelligent, resourceful, just. A mood of optimism suggested his more impor- tant undertakings, and had the king followed his advice in the matter of colonisation, France would have strengthened vastly her hold upon America. The virtues of Talon, however, set off in high relief the faults of the French colonial sys- tem. Had an Enghsh king, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, asked the people of Virginia or Massachusetts how he could best help them, they probably would have replied: "Leave us alone, forget that we exist, and we shall get along very well." There need not have been in these words any hint of political alienation. The Enghsh colonist simply felt that he could look after his own affairs much better than any home The Intendant — Talon 257 government (especially than any home govern- ment in the seventeenth century) could look after them for him. At this time of day, the benefits of private initiative are well recognised on every hand. Self-help, made famous by Dr. Samuel Smiles, has been naturalised in almost all the languages of Europe — mostly under the form of Selfelp. If one goes back far enough, it wiU be found that the Roman Empire did much to prepare its decline and fall, by interfering and intermeddling with the common man. Mankind used to think that the State could do everything. There are certainly some things which the State can do better than private individuals or corpora- tions, but that it cannot do everything, the merest tyro in matters of public policy now knows. New France suffered disastrously from the ignorance or the prepossessions, on this subject, of the home government. At the best, the intendant, how- ever much he may have started of his own intel- ligent forethought, checked private enterprise. At the worst, he was a pedantic or dishonest med- dler whose petty spirit or greed of gain might lay a blight upon the whole commerce of the country. What Canada could suffer from the intendant was seen in the time of Bigot. But take things at the best, that is, under Colbert and Talon. The curse of their policy was to encourage the belief that government could, and would, do everything for the people. Sometimes one ob- serves an intelUgent, conscientious government try- ing to help forward a sluggish, indifferent nation. Spain, for example, under Charles III. was ruled 258 The Intendant — Talon by a king who made a great number of improve- ments. Taxes were reduced, pubUc works under- taken, prisons reformed, a regime of honesty sub- stituted for one of peculation. At the moment, no country in Europe seemed to be making such rapid progress. Presently, however, the king died, and things were worse than before. No response had been elicited from the nation, and without national co-operation every government must fail to achieve results of lasting value. At times the loyalty and discipUne of the French in Canada, under the Old Regime, fur- nish an edifying contrast to the eager, self-seeking, mutinous restlessness of the EngUsh colonists to the south of them. But the English, when it came to the eighteenth century, were going ahead by bounds, while Canada under its intendant was standing still. We must not minimise the phys-- ical advantages which the English possessed dur- ing the half century which preceded the age of Montcalm and Wolfe. But they had an outlook which helped them in national competition eve a more than the fortuitous advantages that were given them by nature. An official hke the inten- dant of New France, they would have thrown out of the window, and from a sense of their self- interest, rightly so. It would have been a pity to see the excellent Talon thus treated, but he was identified with a cramping, retarding system. That system, the product of the French trend towards absolutism, was artificially transplanted to the New World where the natural conditions all met it with open defiance. The mood of The Intendant— Talon 259 political self-assertiveness can be carried too far, but something of it is needed by a race that would undertake the development of the American con- tinent. And while the Conquest meant momen- tary bitterness to New France, her people had much soUd profit to derive by their emancipation from a regime of which the Intendant was the most conspicuous type. CHAPTER Vin THE BISHOP— LAVAL THE one motive which pervades the life of French Canada from first to last is its alle- giance to the Roman Catholic Church. In politics there is no such unity. Prior to the Cession the political allegiance of the French Canadian was claimed by the French crown. Since the Ces- sion it has been claimed by the British crown. The fortunes of war have worked a revolution in the political development of French Canada. But in the sphere of reUgion, what was under the Old Regime is now. One does not forget that a few French Canadians have become Protestants. A few more, perhaps, have become sceptics of one kind or another. But in both cases the number of deserters from the Roman Catholic fold is extremely small. AH the distinctive traditions of French Canada are associated with Catholic faith. The Church, looking with disfavour upon mixed marriages, has done far more than any other agency to preserve the race as a unit. And this, one must point out, it has been able to do without ever having a quarrel with the British government. To see how important in Canada has been the 260 The Bishop— Laval 261 r61e of the Catholic Church, let us take as a stand- ard of contrast the spectacle which is furnished by New England. We often speak of the Eng- hsh colonies in America as though all of them in the seventeenth century accepted the ideals of Puritanism. But in point of fact there was no such unanimity. The Anglicans were dominant in Virginia, the Puritans in Massachusetts, the Catholics in Maryland, the Quakers in Pennsyl- vania. Most singular of all, the constitution which John Locke drew up for the CaroUnas provided that any group of seven inhabitants should have absolute freedom of conscience and worship. Even in New England proper, where the Puritans had their chief stronghold, grave divergences of beUef were not slow to disclose themselves. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson in Massachusetts and Roger WiUiams in Rhode Island were both active schismatics who carried with them a group of earnest, deter- mined followers. Thus from the outset no one form of Christian faith was accepted by the Enghsh in America. StiU less can it be said that a single religious motive furnishes unity to the whole life of the English colonies from first to last. Take, for example, the religious history of Massachusetts during the past hundred years. The first half of the nine- teenth century witnessed the rise of Unitarianism which rent the Congregational or Calvinistic church in twain. The second half of the nine- teenth century was marked by two striking changes: first, the rapid advance of the Episcopal Church, gaining adherents from both the Congregational- 262 The Bishop — Laval ists and the Unitarians; secondly, the transfor- mation of Congregational theology as attested by the Andover lawsuit. The English in America have gone through a political revolution leading to a change of allegiance. For the British crown there has been substituted the federal authority of the United States. And at the same time it is impossible to find any one ecclesiastical bond which unites past and present, as past and pres- ent are united in French Canada by the Roman Cathohc Church. The English colonists brought with them from the mother land several different forms of religious behef, and even that Calvinism which in the days of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards seemed so rigorous, so uncompromising, no longer exists. In such a book as this, one is not ceiUed upon to express any theological opinions whatever. Was the Calvinism of the seventeenth century a higher form of faith than Cathohcism? Have the French of Canada done ill in retaining Catholi- cism? Have the Enghsh of Massachusetts done well in dropping Calvinism? Questions like these do not concern us here. But in order to appreciate the practical importance of the subject which is now before us, we must remember that since the days of Champlain the Christianity of French Canada has been unswervingly Roman. No single dogma has been cast aside. Not once has the Canadian branch of the Latin Church hesitated in devotion to its head, the Pope. Since the time when the bishopric of Quebec was estab- lished and Laval undertook the religious organisa- The Bishop— Laval 263 tion of New France, there has been on the banks of the St. Lawrence a highly centraUsed eccle- siastical regime, which under both French rule and Enghsh rule must be called the central fact in the life of the French Canadians. During Champlain's generation and for twenty- five years after his death, the missionary was a more conspicuous figure than the parish priest. For one thing, the colonists were forced to seek rehgious ministrations in large part from the mis- sionary orders, and even where independent curis appear, they are overshadowed by the Jesuits. An exception to this statement must be made in the case of Montreal, for there the priests of Saint Sulpice reigned supreme, but speaking broadly the early years of the Roman Church in Canada be- long to the RecoUet and the Jesuit rather than to the parish priest. The heroism and earnestness of the missionaries need no further praise, but it is quite clear that in the long run the spiritual wants of the colonists were more important than the conversion of the savages. The number of Indians who made sat- isfactory Christians was but small, while as the Aborigines dwindled, the French population was increasing. A time, therefore, came when any one could see that the interests of the mission must take second place. This date may -be fixed at about 1672, the beginning of Frontenac's first term as governor. I do not mean to say that in 1672 every Jesuit missionary would have admitted the inferiority of the mission interest, but it should have been possible for an impartial outsider to 264 The Bishop — Laval see by then how much more good the Church could do among the colonists than among the Indians. There was no deep-seated reason why missionaries and parish priests should not work together in amity, each cultivating his own field. As a matter of fact some friction did arise, owing to divergence of view regarding the importance of the mission. But at present we are not con- cerned with this difference of opinion. It is enough to distinguish two periods in the ecclesi- astical history of New France. From the time when Champlain first brought over the RecoUets, until the coming of Frontenac, missionary enter- prise is a more prominent feature in colonial Hfe than the regular work of the parish clergy among their parishioners. After 1672 the mis- sions, little by Uttle, dechne while the routine work of the parish priests among their own people becomes of prime importance. Before taking up the ecclesiastical problems of New France, it wiU be well to consider the piety of its people during the period when they were few and struggling. And here let me make a distinction which seems very real to the historian. Religion is one thing, and the Church another. The raison d'etre of the Church is reUgion, but as ecclesiastical institutions grow complex and elab- orate, much that is secular becomes connected with them. There is church property which has to be administered. There are rights of the Church which must be guarded against the encroachments of the State. In a large variety of ways the Church becomes immersed in business that seems largely The Bishop— Laval 265 secular. This statement does not apply to the Roman Catholic Church in particular. It con- templates every great ecclesiastical organisation — the Greek Church and the leading Protestant churches as well as the Roman Church. From the very nature of things certain ecclesiastics must devote much attention to matters which have Uttle effect in stimulating their reUgious sense. But all ecclesiastical institutions have for their point of departure the genuine piety of individual men and women. Hence, before taking up the organisation of the Church in New France, we must realise that the people of the colony were, as individual men and women, pious. Naturally, one can discover exceptions. For persons of a certain habit of mind, the discovery of such excep- tions is always an agreeable occupation. In Can- ada the coureur de hois was not pious — far from it. After the coming of the Carignan Regiment, there was a decline in the standard of morals. The Abbe FaiUon devotes a whole chapter in his Histoire de la Colonic Franfaise to the bad example set by both officers and men, tracing to this source a love of dissipation unknown before 1665. On February 4, 1667, the officers of the Carignan Regiment gave a ball at Quebec — the first ball to be given in Canada and this (observe) was nearly sixty years after the founding of the colony. Worse still, drinking at saloons grew more fre- quent. The colonists began to forget their orig- inal sense of brotherhood. Some of them tried to establish a "comer" in grain. Weights and 266 The Bishop — Laval measures were tampered with for the first time. Even at Montreal, where an attempt had been made to reproduce the life of the primitive Chris- tians, a trial for theft took place in March of 1670. Such are the signs of change, of decadence, which become noticeable after a worldly element has entered the colony with the Carignan Regi- ment. But for almost sixty years from its foun- dation New France was pervaded by a spirit of piety that finds few parallels anywhere. The fur traders and the bushrangers might be pure pagans, but the bona fide colonists, like Hebert, Giffard, and the early settlers of Montreal, Uved above reproach. Champlain, you will remember, was confessedly devout. "Through my whole life," he wrote when an old man, "I have faced the perils of the ocean, with the hope of seeing the Lily of France able to protect in Canada the Holy Catholic religion." Maisonneuve was still more devout than Champlain. For above twenty- five years after the founding of Montreal its in- habitants had no keys to their houses, to their cellars, or to their boxes. When they took their grain to the mill they left it at the door, never even telhng the miller how much the sacks con- tained. We have already seen how high were the religious standards set by OUer and Dauver- si^re in their original apphcation to the Pope for a charter. Beyond doubt the founders of Ville- marie exemplified these professions of reUgious faith in their lives. The early piety of Quebec is reflected in the Journal des /^suites and the letters of Marie de The Bishop— Laval 267 r Incarnation; that of Montreal, in the Mters of Marguerite Bourgeoys and the History of Dol- lier de Casson. How boys were educated in Three Rivers about 1660 can be seen from one of the two letters written by Frangois Hertel at the time of his captivity among the Mohawks. The letter sent by Hertel to his mother was mentioned in the last chapter. But he wrote another, also on birch bark, to one of the Jesuit missionaries. Father Le Moyne. It begins: "My Reverend Father: The very day when you left Three Rivers I was captured, at about three in the afternoon, by three Iroquois of the Mohawk tribe. I would not have been taken alive if, to my sorrow, I had not feared that I was not in a fit state to die. If you came here, my Father, I could have the hap- piness of confessing to you. There are three of us Frenchmen alive here. I commend myself to your good prayers, and particularly to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. I pray you. Father, to say a Mass for me. I pray you give my dutiful love to my poor mother, and console her, if it pleases you." * This boy of eighteen then gives a few details concerning the way in which he has been tortured by the Mohawks. If piety is conspicuous among the men, it is to the women of New France that we must go for the brightest examples of fervour and devo- tion. Mme. de la Peltrie, Marie de 1' Incarnation, and Marie de St. Bernard, at Quebec; Jeanne *For the full text of both these letters, see Parkman's "Old Regime in Canada," p. 67, or the originals in the Jesuit Rela- tions. Ed. Thwaites, vol. xlvii, p. 83. 268 The Bishop — Laval Mance, Marguerite Bourgeoys, and Jeanne Le Ber, at Montreal, lived the other-vi^orldly life vi^ith an intensity which breathes through all their acts and writings. Hospital work and teaching were among the activities of the nuns, no less than personal devotions. At times mysticism has been able to take the individual so far from the world as to break all social bonds; but such was the need of real workers in the struggUng colony of New France that there piety assumed an active form. From the Journal des /^suites and the letters of Mother Marie de 1' Incarnation can be made out with photographic clearness the nature of the duties which the clergy and the sisters assumed at Quebec. From the same sources, also, we get a perfect reflex of the devotion which the first colonists felt for the Church. In the upper circles of colonial society this mood is illustrated to perfection by the life of Mme. D'Aillebout, who, besides being the wife of one governor, was sought in marriage by another, De CourceUe, as weU as by Talon, the Great Intendant. In Canada she represents the same type of religious emo- tion which in France one associates with Mme. de Guy on. Not only did she carry her piety to the point of asceticism, not only did she divide her wealth between the General Hospital and the H6tel Dieu, but she was said to be endowed with the gift of prophecy and the power to converse with spirits. We need not go farther in seeking to under- stand the hold which religion had upon the first colonists of New Frauee. Prior to 1663 this The Bishop — Laval 269 community, never numbering above two thousand five hundred souls, maintained a standard of aus- tere self-denial that comported well with its pro- fessions of piety. After Louis XIV. and Colbert began to build up the colony by sending it troops and shiploads of settlers, the laity grew less relig- ious. There was no sharp reaction against religion — a reaction attended by atheism and profligacy. But it proved impossible to preserve the devout- ness of a time when almost every colonist was a sincere, sober-minded CathoUc. French Canada remains, till this day, a land whose loyalty to the Roman Church is above reproach, or suspicion. Yet one cannot say that the same type of piety which flourished at Quebec in the days of Paul Le Jeune, and at Montreal in the days of Mai- sonneuve and Jeanne Mance, is to be found in the colony during the period of Frontenac. Passing from the subject of individual piety, let us now take up the organisation of the Church in Canada. As Huguenots were carefully excluded, there was but the one Church. It is not to be supposed, however, that because the feud of Prot- estant and Cathohc was avoided, all ecclesias- tical problems and troubles were absent. The discords which arise in churches over questions of policy and administration are less acute than those arising from differences of religious belief. At the same time, a long experience shows how grave may be the misunderstandings which spring up among members of the same communion. Strife of this sort the Roman Catholic Church in Canada did not escape. 270 The Bishop — Laval It will be remembered that in the middle and latter years of the seventeenth century, two seri- ous differences distracted the CathoUcs of France. The first was the strife between Jesuits and Jan- senists; the second, the strife between Gallicans and Ultramontanes. It would be beside our pres- ent purpose to discuss either of these controversies at any length. The quarrel of Jesuits and Jansen- ists turned in part upon matters of doctrine, inas- much as the Jesuits detected Calvinistic heresy in the writings of Jans^nius. The Jansenists replied with a defence of their orthodoxy and an attack upon the morals of the Jesuits. Canada was not altogether free from Jansenism. The works of Amauld and Pascal's Lettres Provinciales found their way to the colony and gained a few adher- ents. But in the main the destinies of the Cana- dian Church were less affected by Jansenism than by the strife between GaUican and Ultramontane. At an earlier stage we considered the chief issues which were involved in this controversy. It wiU be remembered that the Gallicans, while in no sense heretics, sought to place a definite check upon the powers exercised by the Pope over the Roman Catholic Church in France. Stated under another form, they made a sharp distinction between the government of the Church and its faith. The Mass, purgatory, the saints, confession, and the celibacy of the priest, all meant as much to the Gallican as to the Ultra- montane. Nor did the Pope's headship prove a stumbUng block in so far as it was limited to things spiritual. It is true that the GaUican, The Bishop — Laval 271 going back to the decrees of Constance and Basel, asserted the subjection of the Pope to a General Council. But this in the seventeenth century was a theoretical contention. What Louis XIV. and Bossuet strove for was the limitation of papal power in matters affecting property and pohtical control. The appointment of bishops and abbots, the contribution of the Church to the needs of the State, and the priest's standing as a subject of the king, were questions upon which GaUican and Ultramontane differed in the days of Laval. It is clear, therefore, that the clergy of New France had no choice but to decide between one line of pohcy or another. Either they must ac- cept the king's view of the situation, or the Pope's. The alternatives were sharply presented, and even the breadth of the ocean did not afford a means of escape from the responsibility of decision. Whether they took a GaUican or an Ultramontane tone may have mattered little to Europe, but to the French race in America it signified much whether the Canadian Church at the outset should range itself on the side of Louis XIV., or of Inno- cent XL With Laval at Quebec the issue could not remain doubtful, and never since his time has Gallicanism made headway among the Cath- olics of Canada. Thus the central fact in the ecclesiastical annals of New France is that from the time the Bishopric of Quebec was established, the Canadian Church has been in direct relations with Rome, and also in direct dependence upon it. At first glance this may well seem a paradox. 272 The Bishop — Laval Is it not singular that Louis XIV. should have failed to possess in Canada the same powers which he possessed at home, or, to use a phrase of Gar- neau, "that the liberties of the Church in the mother country should not have been extended to the colony"? But from the time when Laval first crossed the Atlantic, the Canadian clergy were placed in direct touch with Rome. At the outset, indeed, a special jurisdiction over Canada was claimed by the Archbishop of Rouen. This was due to the fact that in 1629 New France had been placed, in civil matters, under the Parlement of Rouen. Civil jurisdiction being regulated in this way, the Archbishop of Rouen assumed that he had the episcopal juris- diction and acted for some time in this sense. In 1652 Mother Marie de ITncarnation writes: "As there is no bishop in Canada, the Archbishop of Rouen has declared that the country comes under his jurisdiction." A long passage in the Journal des /^suites for 1653 shows a wiUingness on the part of the Jesuits to accept the same view. It was not till 1657 that active steps were taken to secure the creation of a Canadian bishop- ric. By a rule of the order, no Jesuit could become a bishop, but the Sulpicians were free from such limitations. Montreal, their special stronghold, set up a demand in 1657 for a Canadian bishopric, and with it was coupled the name of the Abbe Queylus. This Father was already in Canada, and had been named superior of the Sulpicians at Montreal by Olier himself. When the matter came forward The Bishop — Laval 273 in this definite form, the Archbishop of Rouen offered no objection. With his consent the Abbe Queylus was named Vicar-General of all Canada, thus taking rank before the superior of the Jesuits, and being placed in possession of fuU episcopal powers. The title of bishop he did not have, but as Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Rouen, he was in a position to exercise aU the rights which belonged to that prelate — and these hitherto had not been disputed. On receiving word of his appointment as Vicar-General, Queylus left Father Souart in charge of the parish at Montreal, and took into his own hands the parish of Quebec. But it was soon to appear that the Archbishop of Rouen was not the Pope. The Jesuits had come to Canada seventeen years before the Sulpicians; they had sent out far more men as missionaries; they were a stronger, more important order in the Church. Altogether, they did not see why, if a new bishop were to be appointed, he should be named by the Sulpicians rather than by them- selves. They had large interests in the colony to protect, and were prepared to protect them. Furthermore, the Abbe Queylus was personally objectionable to them. He was not a man of temperate speech, and improved matters httle by likening the Jesuits to the Pharisees in a ser- mon which he preached at Quebec. As a result of the opposition which the Jesuits offered to the Sulpician nominee, two things happened: the Abbe Queylus lost his chance of becoming a bishop, being supplanted by Laval; and, secondly, the Canadian Church was taken 274 The Bishop — Laval away from the Archbishop of Rouen to be placed directly under the Pope. The dispute over the bishopric would furnish a fine subject for a special essay, but here we are concerned with the results rather than with the circumstances of that dispute. The Jesuits had a powerful friend in Anne of Austria, the Queen Mother and Regent. Moreover, the Papacy was not averse to having the Canadian Church placed directly under its control, to the exclusion of such claims as had been advanced by the Archbishop of Rouen. The ground taken by the Holy See was that the appointment of missionary bishops belonged to the Pope. Before 1657 the eccle- siastical interests of Canada certainly had centred in the mission, though New France was a royal colony. As debated in France the issue involved a crossing of swords between the Ultramontanes, or the extreme papal party, and the GalUcans who supported the Archbishop of Rouen. Not only did the Jesuits possess more influence than the Sulpicians with Anne of Austria; they had the ear of the Pope. Accordingly, it was arranged that, instead of the Abbe Queylus, the new bishop should be a churchman whose name had been suggested by the Jesuits. This was Frangois Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, known to us all by the shorter title of Bishop Laval. The Sul- picians, the Archbishop of Rouen, the Parlement of Rouen, and even the Parlement of Paris remon- strated, but in vain. It was arranged between the crown and the Pope that the Canadian Church should henceforth be recognised as coming directly Laval The Bishop— Laval 275 under the jurisdiction of Rome. The one stipu- lation insisted upon by the crown was that the new prelate should take the oath of allegiance. Montreal, the Sulpicians, and the Archbishop of Rouen had proved a poor match for Quebec, the Jesuits, and the Holy See. The trouble did not end with the appointment of Laval. Queylus was unwilhng to accept deposition. Laval reached Canada in the spring of 16^9. For two years longer Queylus actively defended his own cause, opposing Laval and disobeying royal orders. It was not until 1661 that peace was restored to the Canadian Church, by the intervention of the crown. Acting under royal orders, Argenson, the governor, sent Queylus back to France. There he remained tiU 1668, when a formal reconciliation took place between him and Laval. The Sulpician, after duly acknowledging his submission, was permitted to enter Canada once more as a missionary. Having seen how Bishop Laval first became connected with New France, we must now exam- ine his character and policy. That Laval was a man of strong traits and self-denying habits, aU are agreed. His energy, concentration, and administrative talents are also conspicuous. The fervour of his piety was such that servants and others who came in close personal contact with him, looked upon him as a saint. These things are undisputed, and yet his character has been estimated very differently by different writers. The latest life of Laval is that pubhshed a few months ago by M. Leblond de Brumath in the Makers of Canada series. Here the tone is one 276 The Bishop — Laval of unshackled and limitless eulogy. I cite one passage only, but there are many, many pages in the same strain. In mentioning Laval's death, M. Leblond de Brumath says: "It was with a quiver of grief, which was felt in aU hearts through- out the colony, that men learned the fatal news. The banks of the great river repeated this great woe to the valleys; the sad certainty that the father of all had disappeared forever, sowed deso- lation in the homes of the rich as well as in the thatched huts of the poor. A cry of pain, a deep sob arose from the bosom of Canada which would not be consoled because its incomparable bishop was no more." If M. Leblond de Brumath is Laval's rhapso- dist, Parkman may be taken as a type of the critic who views his career with a total want of sym- pathy for its ideals. "He fought lustily, in his way," says Parkman, "against the natural man; and humility was the virtue to the culture of which he gave his chief attention, but soil and climate were not favourable. His life was one long asser- tion of the authority of the Church, and this au- thority was lodged in himself. In his stubborn fight for ecclesiastical ascendency, he was aided by the impulses of a nature that loved to rule, and could not endure to yield. His principles and his instinct of domination were acting in perfect unison, and his conscience was the hand- maid of his fault. Austerities and mortifications could avail httle against influences working so powerfully and so insidiously to stimulate the most subtle of human vices." The Bishop— Laval 277 These two passages are not placed side by side because the one represents the Roman Cath- ohc, and the other the Protestant, view of Laval's character. In the first place, Parkman was a rehgious radical rather than a Protestant in the ordinary sense of that word. And, secondly, there are a good many Roman Catholics who would hardly care to accept the interpretation of Laval's hfe and deeds which is given by M. Leblond de Brumath. For example, Garneau says: "He was endowed with much talent and great activity; but his spirit was absolute and domineering; he wished to make all yield to his wiU. In his case rehgious zeal confirmed this tendency which still further, on a small stage, often degenerated into quarrels with pubhc men, religious communities, and even with individuals. He was convinced that he could not err in his judgments so long as he acted in the interest of the Church. This idea led him to undertake projects which in Europe would have seemed most exorbitant. As bishop he strove to make his clergy a passive soldiery, obedient to its chief as the Jesuits to their general. The civU power he wished to disarm or render the instrument of his designs." Thus Garneau wrote sixty years ago, and in recent times Mr. Suite has expressed the same view even more pungently. The sixth chapter of his fourth volume begins thus: "It has been asked whether Mgr. de Laval represented the national clergy of Canada. We say, NO. From 1657 to 1674 at least he was no more than an instrument in the hands of the Jesuits." Most 278 The Bishop — Laval interesting of all, to me, is the studied silence which the chief Sulpician historian, the Abhe Faillon, preserves on the subject of Laval's char- acter. So far as I am able to discover, his His- toire de la Colonic Franfaise passes over the matter altogether. Laval, of course, is mentioned hundreds of times. At one important juncture he is expressly given credit for uprightness of motive, but no attempt is made to plumb the depths of his nature, or to appreciate the merits of his work. Faillon is eloquent regarding the qualities of Oher, Maisonneuve, and Queylus, but as to the personaUty of Laval — ^not a syllable. The historian is loath to lay stress upon negative evidence, which is often most fallacious. But one cannot think that here we have an acciden- tal omission. When Faillon reaches that part of his narrative where Queylus enters, he heads the section, "Quahtes et travaux de M. de Quey- lus," — a title which introduces a eulogistic appre- ciation. When he has occasion, however, to introduce Laval, he simply caUs him a very vir- tuous priest who wished to work with the Jesuits for the salvation of the Indians, because in Can- ada he would be forced to undergo the most severe privations. This, unless I am much mis- taken, is all the praise which Bishop Laval gets from the Abbe Faillon. From what has just been said it must be clear that there are more than two judgments of Laval — a laudatory judgment of the Cathohc, and an unfavourable judgment of the Protestant. So far as we are concerned here, the question of Catholic The Bishop — Laval 279 and Protestant does not come in at all. Laval was a prelate of vigorous character and definite views, who had a distinct policy regarding the organisation of the Canadian Church in its infancy. Any one of his clear-cut views and personal deter- mination was likely to create antagonism. In carrying out the programme which he consid- ered the best for the Church, he ran athwart established interests and convictions little less pronounced than his own. The extreme central- isation that he longed for could be attained only through a large sacrifice of independence on the part of the secular clergy. Hence arose differ- ences of which a faint echo can still be heard. Let us now consider some of Laval's more impor- tant acts as head of the Canadian Church. First of all, one observes his determination to defend the dignity of his office. So far I have neglected to state that when he came to Canada he was not Bishop of Quebec. He was an apos- tolic vicar, appointed by the Pope. That is to say, he was a bishop duly consecrated by papal nuncio, but at the moment no fixed diocese had been created for him in New France. This step was delayed until arrangements could be con- cluded between the Pope and the French crown regarding the status of the Canadian Church. In the meantime Laval took his title from Petrsea in Arabia, being thus a titular bishop, without a diocese definitely marked out inside the limits of Christendom. That is to say he was a bishop in partibus infidelium, with the exact title Mon- seigneur de Petraea. The Bishopric of Quebec 28 o The Bishop — Laval was created by papal bull in 1670, but the buU WJis not published till 1674, fifteen years after Laval came to Canada. Yet though not at first a Bishop of Quebec, Laval was Vicar ApostoUc, and as such claimed a precedence in the colony which the governor felt unwiUing to allow. It is clear that he who placed humihty first among the virtues was not seeking to exalt himself, albeit a Montmorency and a descendant of the Great Constable. He was simply giving his view of the proper relation between Church and State — of the proper rela- tion between the Pope's representative and the King's representative. Laval reached Quebec on June i6th, 1659. In the Journal des /^suites under September 7th of the same year may be seen the following entry: "There was at this time a sharp dispute respecting the position in church of the seats of Mgr. the Bishop and M. the Gov- ernor. M. D'Ailleboust intervened, and it was agreed that the seat of Mgr. the Bishop should be within the altar rails, and that of M. the Gov- ernor outside the rails in the body of the Church." On December 2, the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the record is: "No one was invited to the refec- tory for dinner. The principal reason for this was, that to invite the Bishop without the Gov- ernor, or the other way about, would cause jealousy, and neither will yield the other precedence." At Christmas of the same year, a really sharp quar- rel arose between Argenson and Laval, because at midnight Mass the Bishop had the Deacon offer the incense first to him, after which a The Bishop— Laval 281 lesser ministrant was sent to offer it to the Governor. All these things happened before Laval had been in Quebec seven months, and many more misunderstandings of a like character are set down under subsequent dates in the Journal des Jdsuites. But the difficulties which the Bishop had with Argenson were nothing compared with those which arose between him and two later governors — D'Avaugour and De Mezy. With D'Avaugour the question in dispute related to the punishment of those who sold brandy to the Indians. With De M^zy it hinged upon personal matters connected with the Sovereign Council. In both cases Laval was able to secure the recall of the obnoxious governor. D'Avaugour fell in 1663, and De Mezy in 1664. The strife, however, between Bishop and Gov- ernor is a matter of slight moment compared with Laval's plans for the organisation of the Canadian Church. And here two subjects stand out before all others: the question of the cures and the question of the seminary. To be sure, the seminary was created for the education of the curSs, but for present purposes it will be more convenient to observe a distinction between the two subjects. Before we examine Laval's attitude towards the parish priests, a word should be said regarding the status of the parochial clergy at the time when he came to the colony. Under the seigniorial regime, the seigniory furnished a normal basis for the parish, but the poverty of Canada was such 282 The Bishop — Laval that it proved impossible at the outset to support a cur^ on each seigniory. During the reign of Louis XIV. there were thousands of cures in France who lived on two hundred livres a year, but in Canada, with the greater cost of necessaries, five hundred livres was the least sum which could be allotted to the support of a parish priest. Before the time of Laval this sum proved in most cases prohibitive, and one cur& had to do duty among the inhabitants of several seigniories. He was, in fact, a missionary to the habitants, as the Recol- lets and Jesuits were missionaries to the Indians. During the period of Montmagny (1636-1648), the number of the secular clergy was small in proportion to the number of the Jesuits, and few of the priests were in any sense stationary. Father Le Sueur and Father Nicolet were to all intents curSs of Beauport and other suburbs of Quebec, but that was simply because the region around the capital happened to have more inhabi- tants than other parts of the country. Down to the time of Laval not one man bom in New France had been ordained priest. The first curS of Canadian birth was Germain Morin, who received his consecration in 1665. Between this date and 1700 the number of Canadian priests reached only twenty-three, as opposed to more than a hundred and fifty priests who came out from France during the same period, and eighty- two Jesuits. Altogether, between 1665 and the date of the conquest, there were a hundred and seventy-nine priests of Canadian origin in the colony as opposed to five hundred and seventy- The Bishop— Laval 283 two priests who came from France. In other words the proportion of French priests to Canadians, even after the period of Laval, was as three to one. These figures are worth citing because some debate has arisen over an important point which may be connected with them. Did Laval create a national Canadian clergy? Parkman, for one, credits him with the wish to do so. 'Tf Laval," he says, "had to wait for his mitre he found no delay and no difficulty in attaining another object no less dear to him. He wished to provide priests for Canada, drawn from the Canadian population, fed with sound and wholesome doctrine, reared under his eye, and moulded to his hand. To this end he proposed to estabhsh a seminary at Que- bec." M. Svdte, on the contrary, will not admit that Laval is in any sense a representative of the national, the Canadian clergy. According to his contention Laval did not check in any way the coming of ecclesiastics, especially of Jesuits from France. Accordingly the Canadian Church was filled with outsiders, the native-born clergy being so few down to the conquest as to have no part in the control of ecclesiastical affairs. Viewed from his standpoint the habitants had a grievance from beginning to end of the Old, Regime. They asked for curh and they got Jes- uits. They asked for a native clergy and what they got was a clergy sent out from France. So far Suite. Before trying to adjust the balance between him and those who maintain that Laval was a true friend of the Canadian clergy let us see where the Seminary comes in. There 284 The Bishop — Laval were in fact two seminaries: the first estab- lished by the Bishop four years after he came to Canada and designed for the education of the clergy; the second, or Little Seminary, founded in 1668, and designed as a preliminary school for boys who intended later on to enter the priesthood. The Seminary was more than a teaching institution. Laval intended it to be a powerful corporation which should control and make efficient the work of the secular clergy. Placed under a superior who was chosen by the bishop, it had every hkelihood of becoming an important factor in the scheme of centralisation. Now, two things are certain. The Seminary was founded to educate for orders youths bom in the colony. If one may use a phrase common in academic circles, it had no chance of attract- ing students from France or New England. It was a purely local institution. And secondly, there can be no doubt as to Laval's enthusiasm for it. He lavished upon it his affection. He endowed it with the lands which had been given him in Canada, including the great seigniory of Beaupre. In a word, it became as large a part of his life as anything mundane could be. These facts, it seems to me, are undeniable, and yet one part of Suite's contention cannot be disregarded. The native element in the Cana- dian Church remained a small factor both in Laval's time and throughout the Old Regime. My own view in the matter is this. Laval was extremely anxious to stimulate the rehgious life of Canada, to make the Canadians a religious peo- The Bishop — Laval 285 pie. Such an aim obviously involved the training of Canadian priests, and these could not be trained without the creation of an institution like the Seminary. But Laval, though he took for his task the finn estabhshment of CathoUcism in Canada, looked at the problem from the view- point of the Church at large. He was willing, indeed anxious, that there should be a Canadian clergy, but he could not fail to see that the com- munity from which these native priests were drawn was a small one. It was impossible at once to provide machinery for educating the Canadian cur& up to the point that had been reached by priests who could be brought over from France. Many practical difficulties stood in the way of making the clergy of Canada pre- dominantly Canadian. And above all Laval was a believer in cen- tralisation, even rigorous centraUsation. If it be urged against him that he was not a Canadian in feeling, neither was he a Frenchman. He was a Churchman. By this it is not impUed that one who lets the ecclesiastical interest in his hfe come first is prevented thereby from having a deep fondness for a particular country. But should a clash arise between Church and State, a prelate of Laval's ideals thinks first of the Church. He came to Canada as a papal representative, and though a Montmorency he never suffered the national traditions of France to deflect him from utter loyalty to the Pope. The GalUcans who, like Bossuet, contended that a General Council was above the Pope, were of another spirit than 286 The Bishop — Laval his. Laval looked upon the Church of his native France as tainted with Gallicanism. Local inde- pendence within the Church CathoUc was not his ideal. He believed in papal autocracy for the whole Church, and in the autocracy of the bishop within his own diocese. It is a fact of profound significance that the Canadian Church in his day, and with his active co-operation, should have become closely linked with Rome. Since 1659 it has been in direct communication with and dependence upon the Holy See. Free from Galli- canism, and finding its highest incentive in devo- tion to the Petrine Chair, the Catholic Church in French Canada has progressed in harmony with the principles which were dear to Laval. And when we remember that the Church has been the surest anchor of French sentiment in Canada, the importance of Laval in our annals wiU be stiU more clearly apprehended. Much might be said upon the subject of mov- able curls. Laval wished that the priests should not be rooted to a single parish, but stand ready to go wherever the bishop saw fit. Reasons for this unusual arrangement existed in local condi- tions, the land being so thinly inhabited that priests must needs travel a great deal to perform their ministrations. Objections, however, were raised both by the people of New France and the king, and of the many conflicts in which Laval was engaged, this proved the most difficult. In Laval's eyes the matter was one which simply concerned his own administration of the diocese; Louis XIV., on the other hand, saw in it an undue The Bishop— Laval 287 extension of episcopal power, and opposed Laval because the crown could not afford to have him too absolute. For the sake of examining large issues connected with the Canadian Church, we have avoided the details of Laval's biography, and the intricate course of his contests with Queylus, D'Avaugour, De Mezy, and the crown. Before leaving this subject, there are two more topics which should come before us — the labours of the missionary curl and the state of education in New France. No one who is at aU familiar with his efforts can speak of the Canadian curS without words of warmest praise. Underpaid and overworked, he endured the most trying privations to fulfil the duties of his office. On the south shore of the Lower St. Lawrence, Father Morel had a parish eighty-one miles long, with a total popula- tion of about three hundred souls. At Kamou- raska he had one parishioner; at Lacombe there were five famihes; at St. Denis, two, and so on. With a servant to paddle him and carry his port- able chapel, the curi of the seventeenth century spent his hfe in making a perpetual series of rounds, through rivers, lakes, and forests, at all weathers, in all seasons. For the heroic period of New France, the missionary and the itinerant curS are the most striking figures in the -ecclesiastical world. Yet one must not forget the priests of Saint Sulpice, teaching the Indians and working among the colonists at Montreal, when that hamlet was still an outpost against the Iroquois. In coming, finally, to the subject of education. 288 The Bishop — Laval I must touch, though with some reluctance, upon what would seem to be the greatest hmitation of New France. The boldness and genius of the explorer, the unflinching faith of the missionary, the stubborn industry of the colonist, and the infinite daring of the soldier, have all been touched upon in these chapters. But much as I admire the best accomplishment of New France, I cannot but describe the intellectual side of its Ufe as wofuUy deficient. In speaking thus strongly, one does not set up an impossible standard. The difficulties of colonial life, the sparseness of the population, the need for action rather than for study, the lack of wealth and leisure, — none of these considera- tions is forgotten. In Laval's time one does not exact from the native population of Canada a Racine or a Bossuet, still less a Descartes or a Pascal. But what I mean to convey can be expressed with perfect clearness by a single fact. During the hundred and fifty-two years of the Old Regime, from the founding of Quebec to Levis' surrender. New France did not have a printing-press. According to M. Phileas Gagnon, two mandements issued by Bishop Pontbriand in 1759 came from a local press. But the point is doubtful, and for purposes of the present state- ment, of no importance whatever. Bishop Pont- briand may, or may not, have had a printing-press with which to strike off his mandements when Wolfe was besieging Quebec. The broad fact is that the first printing-press in Canada was that set up at Quebec by Brown and Gilmore as late as 1764.* * Towards the close of the French period, La Galissoni^re The Bishop— Laval 289 In no case could we expect to find printers working at Quebec before the advent of Laval in 1659, or before 1663, when Louis XIV. and Colbert began to build up the colony. However, at some period during the Ufetime of Laval — and he did not die till 1708 — one might hope to hear of a printing-press at Quebec, had the Church favoured general education. That such a con- jecture is not unreasonable may be judged from two other episodes in the history of printing. The colony of Massachusetts was founded in 1630, and eight years later there was a press at Cam- bridge. Massachusetts did in eight years what New France did not do in a hundred and fifty- eight. The other example is more striking still. Cortez conquered Mexico between 15 19 and 152 1. In 1535 that country had a printing-press, and the Spaniards are not thought very progressive in such matters. One can only account for the absence of print- ing in Canada under the Old Regime on the hjrpoth- esis that the Church did not care to encourage general intellectual activities. It had its own programme of education drafted on ecclesiastical lines, and designed to promote the religious wel- fare of the colony. Whether its attitude towards wished to establish a printing-press. The government replied (May 4, 1749) that the plan would only be considered " if a printer presents himself for the privilege, when the conditions on which it can be granted will be examined." See Report of the Dominion Archives for 1905, vol. i, p. 116. Peter Kalm who visited Canada during the summer of 1 749 says that though then the colony had no printing-press, it possessed one formerly. This statement seems to be based on false information. ^^ 290 The Bishop — Laval secular education was judicious, each of us must determine for himself. Of late the world has seen, with admiration, among the Roman Catholic laity of France intellectual leaders like Montalembert and Pasteur. Pasteur, the greatest benefactor of mankind in recent ages, was a Catholic whose faith did not suffer from its contact with science. I do not for a moment suggest that in the seven- teenth century Canada could reasonably be expected to produce a Catholic layman like Montalembert or Pasteur, but had the Church so chosen the laity might have received an education which they did not receive. The English colonies in America produced before the Revolution men like Copley, the artist, Benjamin Franklin, and Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. One does not pretend that Frank- lin and Rumford had all the virtues of Champlain and Maisonneuve, but if there is to be material progress in a community, and the improvement of the human lot which comes from material prog- ress, men of that type must be produced. That New France did not produce them, or try to pro- duce them, is a notable fact. I shall refrain from all attempt to estimate its bearing upon the spir- itual well-being of the colony. But having regard to every other interest, we should deem the absence of a printing-press during the Old Regime to be even a greater misfortune than any which Canada suffered from the unwise paternalism of the French crown. CHAPTER IX THE GOVERNOR— FRONTENAC FRONTENAC, the most famous, the most the- atrical governor of New France, is also the only one who reaches our expectation of what a governor should be.* He had grave faults of temper, and he was often injudicious, but his qualities went well with the r6le he had to play. If we compare him with the other governors of the colony, it is easy to see how, by virtue of gifts or fortune, he stands off from all who pre- ceded or followed him in the same office. Both rank and opportunity place him above Cham- plain, Montmagny, or D'Avaugour, who were the chief representatives of France in Canada during the regime of the trading companies. After Louis XIV. took Canada into his own hand, the func- tions of the governor became more closely defined. He was less the agent of a corporation, and more a viceroy. His political status gave him greater dignity, though with the intendant at his side it is doubtful whether he had greater powers. And even apart from the variation in terms between Frontenac's commission and those of Champlain, Montmagny, and D'Avaugour, the circumstances * Unfortunately no portrait of Frontenac exists. 291 292 The Governor — Frontenac of his period were very different. At no moment during Champlain's hfetime were there more than one hundred and fifty Frenchmen in Canada. During the twelve years of Montmagny's term, the population could not have averaged more than four hundred. A" man may have heaven- born qualities of leadership, but they seldom disclose themselves when the community over which he is placed resembles the puny Canada of 1650. Thus, as compared with the founders of the colony, Frontenac was favoured by fortune in that the scale of operations had by his time grown sufficiently large to furnish scope for the exercise of commanding qualities. To be sure, at no time had he beneath his sway more than sixteen thou- sand people, but there is a great difference between five hundred subjects and sixteen thousand. Com- pared with his successors in the post of governor, Frontenac is pre-eminent by virtue of a bom gift for leadership, by his force of will, even by the hotness of his temper. Among the governors of the eighteenth century, the elder Vaudreuil cuts a better figure than the younger; but neither of them, nor any other representative of France during the closing years of French rule, is on any- thing like even terms with Frontenac. For some reasons he seems out of place in Canada. On the ecclesiastical side, particularly, his temper was not that of the colony ^t large. But the more for this reason, his figure catches one's attention and holds it. There can be no doubt as to who is the governor of Canada under the Old Regime. The Governor — Frontenac 293 In rank and connections Frontenac was greatly the superior of most governors. During the early days it was the worst form of banishment to be sent to Canada. At least no one in the direct line of promotion, either at court or in the army, could have received without the most painful regret an order from his sovereign to sail for Que- bec. By 1672 the office was better worth having, but no layman of high family had set foot in Can- ada before 1670. Some of the gentry had come over, and a few of the lesser nobles, but from first to last the haute noblesse gave Canada the cold shoulder. Frontenac ranked much higher in the French aristocracy than most of the governors, but even he does not belong by birth with the Conde, the Conti, or the Montmorency. In point of lineage Bishop Laval was the most exalted personage who ever had a prominent part in Canadian life during the French period. If we place Frontenac in the middle grade of the aris- tocracy at home, it is as lofty a position as mere ancestry will enable him to claim. But compared with most of those whom he encountered in Can- ada, he was a great aristocrat. We need not investigate Frontenac's anteced- ents and early career. When he first came to Canada he was fifty-two years old, an age at which one's character is fully formed, and at which his attitude towards the larger questions of life is not likely to be transformed by a new environment. Frontenac, however, was quite without experience of the work which he had undertaken to perform. Hitherto his training had been purely European, 294 The Governor — Frontenac and though a soldier by profession there was a vast difference between campaigning on the banks of the Rhine, and firing at a Mohawk from behind a tree. Judged by the standards of European warfare, Frontenac was an accompUshed ofiicer who united with the disciphne and experience of a veteran marked talent for every part of his profession. Three years before he came to Can- ada, Turenne had named him to defend Crete against the Turks, thus bringing him before the eyes of all Europe. The odds were overwhelm- ingly against him in this campaign, but he issued from it with enhanced reputation, and was at the time he sailed for Canada in the first fUght of French commanders. The willingness of such a man to bury him- self in the wilderness requires an explanation, and the fighter authors of that day do not shrink from giving one. The passage most often quoted occurs in the Memoirs of Saint Simon. "Fronte- nac," says Saint Simon, "was a man of excellent parts, fiving much in society, and completely ruined. He found it hard to bear the imperious temper of his wife, and was given the government of Canada to defiver him from her, and afford him some means of fiving." When we consider that Frontenac' s salary as governor was only 8,000 fivres, we must draw a very unfavourable conclusion regarding the temper of his Countess. But we should do the lady an injustice if we dis- missed her with no further notice than is paid her by Saint Simon in the passage just cited. She was both ambitious and clever. Frontenac had The Governor — Frontenac 295 married her for love, and the two never became so alienated that the wife was not wilUng to work hard at court for her husband's interests. Unfor- tunately each had an aggressive, independent spirit, which bore resistance ill and demanded a good deal of sea-room for its operation. Madame de Frontenac had been accustomed to adulation all her life, and perhaps exacted more of it than her fiery husband felt disposed to pay. On his side there were several unpleasant traits. Fron- tenac was not only quick tempered, but extrava- gant and boastful. He loved to make vaunts about his plate, his table, and his horses, whereas, in fact, he was usually hard pressed for small change. He had the manners of a grand seigneur who expects deferential treatment from every one, together with a hotness of speech which did not make for peace. It is not strange that he and his wife were wilhng to have the ocean between them. The real singularity is that after their many disagreements she should have felt willing to support him actively against his enemies. But in exposing the weaknesses of Frontenac, one must guard against portraying him as a mere braggart or bully. We hear much nowadays of double consciousness, and are all famiUar with a mixture of personahties in our friends, if not in ourselves. The Duke of WelUngton has left a most interesting account of his one and only meet- ing with Nelson — a meeting which took place just before the hero's departure for Trafalgar. The Duke relates how, during the early part of this interview. Nelson was boasting about him- 296 The Governor — Frontenac self and his deeds in a manner which made him seem Ughtheaded. But presently something turned his thought into another channel, and the Duke did not leave him without reaUsing how fuUy his talents equalled his reputation. So with Fron- tenac. He undoubtedly was vain, spectacular, and impulsive. But behind it all he had soUd parts — firmness and that longing to do great deeds which always warms the imagination of the reader, as of the actor. When once we get Frontenac on Canadian soil, we become the more impressed with the sense of his contradictions. He who often was so brusque could at times be the most tactful of men. Arrogance and adaptability were so mingled in his character that his actions must have been a source of constant surprise to the people of Que- bec. As we have seen, no previous experience had given him personal knowledge of the condi- tions which he was forced to meet in the New World. Yet though he was over fifty and fuU of prepossessions, he fitted into the life of the wilderness amazingly well. No other colonial gov- ernor, whether French or Enghsh, ever made so deep an impression upon the savages. In dealing with them he had no false pride, whatever may have been his faiUngs in that respect where his equals were concerned. He and the savages both loved display. They were alike in their fondness for eloquent language, fine costume, and all the trappings which could set off a formal conference between the representatives of two great races. The Iroquois may not have been a very great The Governor — Frontenac 297 race, but they thought themselves such, and Frontenac was willing to treat them with consid- eration. To be sure, he always assumed a patri- archal tone in his orations. He would not caU them brethren. They were always children. But if he took pains to impress them with a sense of their dependence upon the French king, he did it with civility and courtesy. His grand manners, which were yet tempered by great friendhness, the pomp and splendour of his equipment, his impressive way of doing things, all had their effect. The best single example of these conferences is furnished by the meeting which was held on the shores of Lake Ontario during the construction of Fort Frontenac. As the Iroquois were quite clever enough to see how the erection of a French strong- hold at this point was a menace to their safety, it became necessary to act towards them with both suavity and firmness. Frontenac had been in the country only a few months when he deter- mined that there should be a French fort at the point where the St. Lawrence leaves Lake Ontario. Considering his lack of experience in such things, it is marvellous that he should have read the Indian mind so well, and been able to treat even with the Iroquois on his own terms. At this juncture La Salle appears in an impor- tant role. It was he who was sent on special mission to the Five Nations in the spring of 1673, bidding them meet Onontio at Cataraqui. There- upon great discussion arose in the Iroquois world. On the one side there was dread, for every one remembered the chastisement which the Mohawks 298 The Governor — Frontenac had received from Tracy and the Carignan Regi- ment eight years before. Along with dread, sus- picion was always blended in the Indian mind. As soon as it was known that Frontenac meant to build a fortified post at Cataraqui, there seemed real ground for distrust. However, it was decided to send envoys, and on the 13th of July the con- ference took place. In making his preparations Frontenac had omitted nothing which could awe or interest the savage. He had brought with him all the troops that safely could be spared from Quebec, and fur- nished them with the best possible equipment. Before the arrival of the Iroquois, he built on Lake Ontario two great barges which were armed with small cannon and brilliantly painted. When it was time for the savages to arrive, the whole flotilla, including a multitude of canoes arranged in the form of squadrons, was put in battle array. First came four squadrons of canoes; then the two barges; next Frontenac himself, surrounded by his personal attendants and the regulars; after that the Canadian militia, with a squadron from Three Rivers on the left flank, and on the right a great gathering of Hurons and Algonquins. The rear guard was composed of two more squad- rons. Never had such a display been seen on the Great Lakes. Having impressed the envoys of the Five Nations with his strength, Frontenac proceeded to hold solemn and stately conference with them. But this he did not do on the day of the great naval procession. He wished to let this spec- The Governor — Frontenac 299 tacle take effect before he approached the business that had brought him there. It was not until the 13th that the meeting opened. At seven o'clock on the morning of this day, the French troops, in their^ best accoutrement, were all on parade, drawn up in files before the Governor's tent, where the meeting was to take place. Out- side the tent itself large canopies of canvas had been erected to shelter the Iroquois from the sun, while Frontenac, in his most brilliant military costume, and surrounded by an improvised staff, assumed all the state he could. In treating with Indians haste was impossible, nor did Frontenac desire that the speech-making should begin at once. His fort was hardly more than begun, and he wished the Iroquois to see how swiftly and how well the French could build defences. When the proceedings opened there were the Usual long harangues, followed by daily negotia- tions between the Governor and the Iroquois chiefs. It was a conspicuous feature of Fronte- nac' s diplomacy to reward the friendly, and win over malcontents by presents, or personal atten- tion. Each day some of the chiefs dined with the Governor, who gave them the food they liked, adapted his style of speech to their ornate and metephorical language, played with their chil- dren, and regretted, through the interpreter Le Mo3me, that he was as yet unable to speak their tongue. Never had such pleasant flattery been launched at the head of an Indian. At the same time Frontenac did not fail to insist upon his power, indeed, upon his supremacy. As a matter 300 The Governor — Frontenac of fact it had been a great effort to make all this display at Cataraqui. In his discourses, however, he laid stress upon the ease with which he had mounted the rapids, and launched barges with cannon upon Lake Ontario. The sum and sub- stance of all his harangues was this. "I am your good, kind father, loving peace and shrinking from war. But you can see my power, and I give you fair warning. If you choose war, you are guilty of self-destruction; your fate is in your own hands." Apart from his immediate success in building a fort at the outlet of Lake Ontario, under the eyes of the Iroquois themselves, Frontenac profited greatly by entering the heart of the Indian world in person. He was able, for a time at least, to check those tribal wars of the Indians which inter- fered with trade, and were always likely to drag in the colonists. He gave open proof to the French of resourcefulness. He gained much information at first hand about the pays d'en haul. But none of these matters concerns us so much, at this moment, as the bearing of the Cataraqui confer- ence upon Frontenac's own disposition. It shows him to have been gifted by nature with just the quahties that were needed in dealing with the North American Indian — firmness, good humour, and dramatic talent. In taking up the duties of governor, Frontenac was favoured by circumstances. For two years after he reached Quebec, he was the one great man in Canada. I am not forgetting that Talon had not yet gone back to France, but his apphca- The Governor — Frontenac 301 tion for leave to return had been granted months before Frontenac' s arrival. He felt that his term of office was over, and had no wish to assert himself, still less to make trouble, during the few days which remained. Hence he was politically negligible, and no other intendant had been named to replace him. It is certain that he and Fron- tenac, arriving simultaneously in Canada, would have quarrelled as to who should be the ruhng spirit in the Sovereign Council. Talon, the Inten- dant, had held first place there during his term of office. Frontenac, the Governor, in spite of spirited opposition at times, was the strong man of the Council in his day. Had they been liv- ing side by side at Quebec, incessant friction must have arisen through dispute as to what powers the intendant possessed against the gov- ernor, and the governor against the intendant. Happily for New France, each of these men, so useful to it in his own way, had his own period of ascendency. Frontenac enjoyed a great advan- tage from inheriting the fruits of Talon's activity. The revival, or rather the birth, of confidence, the improvement of trade, the upbuilding of manufactures, all antedate 1672. It proved most fortunate for Frontenac that he could stand on Talon's shoulders, and was not forced to have him as a natural adversary. In another respect circumstances favoured the ambitions of the new governor. Not only was Talon on the eve of his departure when Frontenac arrived, but Laval was away in France, whence he did not return for three years. It is true that 302 The Governor — Frontenac some trouble arose between the Governor and the clergy before 1675, but it was slight in comparison with the discords which followed Laval's return. Frontenac, one must be sure to point out, was a good Catholic. No one has ever credited him with extreme fervour, but his orthodoxy stood above reproach, and doubtless he was as rehgious as a man of his temperament could be. Judged solely by his relations with the RecoUets, Fronte- nac was a sincere friend of the Church. He cher- ished these Franciscans who, in his eyes, had the virtue of keeping well within the frontier of reli- gion. Among the RecoUet historians Frontenac finds warm friends. They praised him loudly during his hfetime, and did not forget him when he was gone. The Governor himself would have denied that he opposed the Church. Considered from his standpoint, the ecclesiastical disputes of his regime were simply caused by his resolve to check the political encroachments of the Jesuits and their friend, the Bishop. In part, Frontenac' s attitude towards the Jes- uits is traceable to that spirit of Gallicanism which made so much headway in France during the early years of Louis XIV. Colbert, and all the of&cial class, suspected the Jesuits of a desire to poach, in the name of religion, upon the sacred preserves of royal prerogative. When Talon came to Canada, his orders were to watch the Jesuits and keep them from waxing great at the Crown's expense. Frontenac, also, received a direct moni- tion on this subject, but he was far more anxious than Talon to cut a figure before the world. The Governor — Frontenac 303 The king's majesty, for Canada at least, meant the supreme dignity of that king's delegate — to wit, Frontenac. Thus of his own accord he determined, immediately after his arrival in Canada, to hold an assembly of the Three Estates — Clergy, Nobles, and Commons. He had no trouble in finding representatives of clergy and commons, and though nobles were very scarce in the colony, he finally discovered a few gentle- men who could be made to serve in that capacity. I cite this gathering of the Three Estates as a sign of Frontenac' s spirit. Colbert had not instructed him to summon any such body. On the contrary, he met the news with a reprimand. But Frontenac felt that he would be acting Uke a great provincial governor at home if, when he assumed office, he had deputies from the Three Estates to greet him. Quite apart, however, from any leaning towards Gallicanism, the Governor's attitude towards the Jesuits was affected by the fact that he found them to a considerable extent independent of his own pleasure or displeasure. It is so easy for us to deceive ourselves. Frontenac may have believed that in a spirit of self-sacrifice he was fighting to safeguard the king's majesty and power. But his strong love of authority doubtless led him to find fault with a body which had a position so assured that in the past it had made and un- made governors. Thus he reached Quebec at the close of August, 1672. On November 2 he writes to Colbert in terms of complaint about the ascendency of the Jesuits. He accuses them of having spies everywhere, of intermeddling with 304 The Governor — Frontenac families, of setting wives against husbands and children against parents. "All of which," he adds satirically, "they do for the greater glory of God." Apart from general prepossessions against this most powerful of the religious orders, Frontenac found during the first months of his regime two special grounds of accusation. In his own pres- ence one of the Jesuit preachers had declared that the king was going beyond his rights in Ucens- ing the brandy trade, when the bishop had said it was a sin. To be sure, the Governor makes a certain admission. As soon as he complained to the Superior of the Jesuits, an apology for the sermon was offered, but it is clear from Frontenac' s lan- guage that he thought it insincere. His second cause of complaint related to the attitude of the Jesuits towards the Indians. The king, Colbert, and Frontenac, all wished to have the savages learn French in the hope of making them more faithful subjects. The Jesuits, looking at the mat- ter from a spiritual rather than from a poUtical standpoint, feared with good reason to have the morals of their converts corrupted by contact with the vices of civilisation. Here again the Governor does not shrink from the use of harsh language in his reports to Colbert. " The Jesuits," he says, "wiU not civihse the Indians, because they wish to keep them in perpetual wardship. They think more of beaver skins than of souls, and their missions are pure mockeries." During the first three years of Frontenac's residence in Canada, there was incipient trouble between him and the clergy, arising in the way The Governor — Frontenac 305 that has just been indicated. But discord did not become acute for nearly three years, or until after Laval's return, and the coming of Talon's successor, the Intendant Duchesneau. In the com- bination of forces, Frontenac, with a certain amount of moral support from the RecoUets, was opposed to Laval, Duchesneau, and the Jesuits. Amid the incessant quarrels of the next seven years, two matters were being confused — the antagonism of Frontenac towards what he held to be ecclesias- tical encroachment upon the sphere of the state, and bickerings between him and Duchesneau as to their respective powers. Among the immediate causes of conflict, some were old, Uke the brandy question and the matter of precedence in church, while others were new, such as the warfare against coureurs de bois and tie reconstitution of the Sovereign Council. If we were casting about for historical analogies, we should find that the dis- putes between Frontenac and Duchesneau antici- pate those of Warren Hastings and Sir Philip Francis in India. How paralysing to administration were these disputes, how subversive of discipline throughout the colony, can be seen at a glance. In the Sov- ereign Council forces were fairly evenly divided. In other words a deadlock was always imminent, especially after the autumn ships had sailed for France, and Quebec was cut off for many months from contact with the Court. During the winter both Governor and Intendant occupied themselves with writing endless letters to Colbert, in which each accused the other of the most scandalous 306 The Governor — Frontenac practices. Illicit trade bulked very large in these mutual complaints. Duchesneau even charged Frontenac with spreading the report among the Indians of the Great Lakes that a pestilence had broken out in Montreal. Hence the Governor's private agents among the coureurs de hois were enabled to buy up beaver skins cheaply, afterwards selling them on his account to the English. Fron- tenac rejoined by accusing the Intendant of having his own warehouses at Montreal and along the Lower St. Lawrence, of being truculent, a slave to the Bishop, and incompetent. But back of Duchesneau, Frontenac constantly keeps saying, are the Jesuits and the Bishop, from whom the spirit of faction really springs. One of his most frequent charges is that the Jesuit missions are trading posts rather than centres of Christianity. Among many of these tirades, the most elaborate is the long memorial sent by Frontenac to Colbert in 1677, on the general state of Canada. Here are some of the items which occur in this document. The Jesuits keep spies in Frontenac's own house. The Bishop says he has the power to excommuni- cate the Governor if necessary. The Jesuit mis- sionaries tell the Iroquois they are equal to Onontio. Other charges are that the Jesuits meddle in aU civil affairs, that their revenues are enormous in proportion to the poverty of the coimtry, and that they are bound to domineer at whatever cost. When we consider how Canada from end to end was affected by these disputes, it seems strange that Colbert and the King should have let them rage so long. By 1682 the state of things had The Governor — Frontenac 307 become unbearable. Partisans of Frontenac and Duchesneau attacked each other in the streets. Duchesneau accused Frontenac of having struck the young Duchesneau, aged sixteen, and torn the sleeve of his jacket. He also declared it necessary to barricade his house. Frontenac retorted by saying that these were gross hbels. With matters at such a pass Colbert rightly thought the time had come to take decisive action. Three alternatives were open to him. The Bishop and the Jesuits, who came into the matter as belligerents, he could not recall. But both the Governor and the Intendant stood within his power. One alternative was to dismiss Frontenac; another, to dismiss Duchesneau. What Colbert actually did was to choose the third course and dismiss them both. Frontenac, at the time of his recall, had been in Canada ten years. That he had made many enemies in the higher circles of society is very plain. Not only was Duchesneau his opponent, not only were the Jesuits hostile to him, as he to them, but the Sulpicians of Montreal had discovered grounds of grievance in many of his acts.* In the Sover- eign Council the clergy, both Jesuit and Sulpician, found champions enough among the laity to give the Governor endless trouble over matters which did not directly touch the Church. On the other hand, Frontenac had been successful past all precedent in his dealings with the Indians. Inside * Much resentment was felt by the Sulpicians at Frontenac's action in imprisoning Perrot, whom they had appointed Gov- ernor of Montreal. 308 The Governor — Frontenac the colony itself, though his deadlock with Duches- neau had dislocated the routine of government, there was no one who did not feel the force of his character. I think I can bring out the feeling entertained towards him in Canada, by quoting the words wdth which Mr. W. F. Lord closes his life of Sir Thomas Maitland. "To many the name of 'King Tom' will always be anathema maranatha; but the rest of us wiU say, may Eng- land never want for Maitlands at a pinch." Like- wise when Frontenac sailed away, almost all the clergy save the RecoUets were glad, but the mass of the population must have felt that at a pinch the man they wanted for leader was the Onontio to whom the Iroquois had bowed in tame sub- mission. Eight years afterwards Frontenac came back. He was then seventy, the age at which Moltke entered the Franco-German war. A surprisingly large number of men have reached their highest level of attainment after fifty, but for a soldier to win his brightest laurels after seventy is most exceptional. Frontenac owes his chief fame to what he achieved between the ages of seventy and seventy-eight. Even cutting off twenty years, it would have been unusual to restore him to the post from which he had been recalled in half dis- grace. Yet at a time of desperate need he was sent back to Canada in his seventy-first year. Under the circumstances this reappointment is a sufficient proof of the effect which his highest qualities had produced upon the royal mind. The events of the interval between Frontenac's The Governor — Frontenac 309 two terms of office must be passed over rapidly. On his recall in 1682 there had been sent to New France, as governor, a soldier of much experience and some standing, named La Barre. But never was a man of less insight employed by the king of France to administer his American possessions. With the Indians he made a complete failure. This, it wiU be remembered, was just the time when the English in New York, under Governor Dongan, were beginning to shape an aggressive policy against their northern neighbours. Nine- teen years after Tracy's march against the Mo- hawks, the Iroquois had forgotten what they suffered at the hands of the Carignan Regiment. The young braves, who had only seen war against ,the lUinois, clamoured for an attack upon the ancient enemy. The English with their strong outpost at Albany were always ready to supply arms, and to point out the growing weakness of the French. From many sources La Barre learned that in the Indian world there was unrest. But to cope with the Five Nations was beyond his power. Not that the resources of Canada were inadequate. The colony had never been so strong, and never more ready for action. Unfortunately La Barre seems to have feared the Indians and misjudged them. He indulged in a show of blus- ter which could hardly have deceived the Micmacs, let alone the Senecas and Mohawks. The details of his advance to Fort Frontenac, and of his utter failure there, we must pass by. The substance of La Barre's administration is this. He became an object of contempt to the Iroquois; his col- 3IO The Governor — Frontenac league, the Intendant Meulles, disUked and de- nounced him; the colony of Canada stagnated under his care; and after two years of office he was suddenly recalled. Denonville, La Barre's successor, remained longer in Canada and, perhaps for that reason, did more damage. In his day the Iroquois peril reached its height, and at the same time the situa- tion was comphcated by the appearance of a more open mood of antagonism among the Eng- Ush. When Frontenac returned in 1689, Canada was completely demoraUsed by the Lachine Mas- sacre (which represents the most signal triumph ever won by the Iroquois over the French), and by the danger threatening from the Enghsh. The crisis required no mere bluffer hke La Barre, no mere trickster like Denonville; but a strong man whose judgment was not clouded by conceit and self-will, even though these might be his besetting sins. I shall not attempt to justify the methods which Frontenac used during his second term, but certain things must be kept in mind. When he returned Canada stood on the verge of destruc- tion. A population stiU scanty was committed to the defence of a vast frontier against both sav- ages and Enghsh. From the Atlantic, Enghsh warships threatened the ports of the St. Lawrence, while the frontiersmen of Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, and New York were certain to co-operate with the home forces by a northward march. Frontenac knew the Indian nature from its sur- face to its depths, and the policy he adopted The Governor — Frontenac 311 was the one best calculated to save Canada from destruction. How the three war parties were organised in Montreal, Quebec, and Three Rivers, need not be retold. The ghastly atrocities which marked the capture of Pemaquid, Casco Bay, Sal- mon Falls, and Schenectady, are fit food for the moralist who mourns man's inhumanity to man. But they saved the day, and if Frontenac was not scrupulous about means, he was fighting with his back to the wall. Parkman is among the descend- ants of those into whose homes he carried fire and sword, and for this reason I cite the following passage: "What," says Parkman, "perhaps may be least forgiven him is the barbarity of the war- fare that he waged, and the cruelties he permitted. He had seen too many towns sacked to be much subject to the scruples of modern humanitarianism; yet he was no whit more ruthless than his times and his surroundings, and some of his contem- poraries find fault with him for not allowing more Indian captives to be tortured. Many surpassed him in cruelty; none equalled him in capacity and vigour. When civiUsed enemies were once within his power, he treated them according to their degree, with a chivalrous courtesy or a generous kindness. ... A more remarkable figure, in its bold and salient individuality, and sharply marked light and shadow, is nowhere seen in American history." Frontenac appears to the best advantage when defending Quebec against the fleet of Sir WiUiam Phips in i6go. At some points this siege recalls PeppereU's attack upon Louisbourg, and at others, 312 The Governor — Frontenac the great duel of Montcalm and Wolfe in 1759. Like PeppereU, Phips commanded a band of New England miUtiamen, and thus the attack of 1690 may be said to represent the first attempt of the Bastonnais to subdue New France by water.* The events of 1759 are anticipated by the way in which Phips conducted his campaign. His first attempt was a landing on the Beauport shore, not far above the spot where Wolfe met his repulse. And more interesting still, there is definite evi- dence to show that the English received infor- mation regarding the precise spot at the Anse de Foulon where Wolfe landed, and from which he made his ascent. Frontenac throughout the whole attack displayed promptitude, foresight, and cau- tion. Some regulars were engaged, but on the French side the honours of the fight belong chiefly to three brothers from Montreal — Ste. Helene, Bienville, and Longueuil, the sons of Charles Le Mo5me. Sir Clements Markham has written a book on The Fighting Veres. It is time for some Canadian to write a book on The Fighting Le Moynes. At Quebec Ste. Helfene was killed, and Longueuil severely wounded. D' Iberville, the greatest of them all, was occupied elsewhere. Phips' s repulse, and the three war parties, gave Canada a breathing space. John Schuyler might attack Laprairie in 1690, and Peter Schuyler return to the charge in 1691, but Frontenac proved quite able to drive off all assailants, whether by land or sea. Some idea of the havoc wrought among * The French Canadians called Boston Baston, and em- ployed Bastonnais as a generic term for New-Englanders. The Governor — Frontenac 313 the Iroquois by his spirited conduct of the war may be gathered from this single fact. During the eleven years between his resumption of office and the time when his successor De Callieres renewed the peace with them, they had lost half their braves. Thenceforth to the end of the Old Regime the Five Nations were never a menace to the existence of Canada. Now and then, in fact, one finds them fighting on the French side. Having driven off both English and Iroquois, Frontenac could feel that he had brought his people from the brink of ruin to honour and security. The Chateau St. Louis was a very different sort of citadel during his last years, from what it had been in the days of La Barre and Denonville. Here he died in 1698, having received last unction from the hands of a RecoUet, Father Goyer. If in this chapter I have left many of Fronte- nac's deeds untouched, it is partly because, before closing, I wish to make a few general observations. Art, according to one definition, is selection, and History is so far an art that the very essence of it is a choice between what is more and what is less important. To register all the facts of Cana- dian history in a short book is plainly impossible. One must accept hmitations, take what seems essential, and throw away the rest. Now, in all the archives of the past it is the human document which is the most valuable. Institutions man frames for his convenience, but they exist only for the convenience of man. The human being stands out, or should be made to stand out, from 314 The Governor — Frontenac the background of the past in high rehef. We must know under what circumstances he acts, what are his inherited ideas, what are the helps offered him by nature, or the hindrances which nature places in his way. Whatever else History may mean to us — whether it be a science or an art — let us cUng fast to the central idea that it deals with actual people, who should be as clearly imaged to our minds as those we know to- day. One cannot hope to have made Champlain and Brebeuf, D' Iberville and Laval, Talon and Frontenac, very well known in the little time we have devoted to their careers. For us they have been not merely individuals, but types, repre- senting more or less adequately many besides themselves. Yet I shall have failed utterly if I have not dispelled the idea that the Frenchman who founded European life in Canada was, as A. G. Bradley calls him, "a slave." Circum- stances have for centuries thrown French and English into different camps, and the prejudices sprung from conflict do not readily disappear. It would be scandalous to mention the name which the French gave the English common soldier in the era of Joan of Arc. But the term in ques- tion, shocking though it is, was simply the oath ■which was commonest in use among the EngUsh soldiery of that time. More recently the EngUsh have retaliated by referring to breach of parole as French leave, while the French, in their turn, have invented an equivalent expression and turned it against the English. The days, however, when The Governor — Frontenac 315 Nelson told his middies to hate the French as they hated the devil, are over, for the present at least. No one can open the Times without seeing illustrations of that friendliness which has sprung out of the entente cordiale. English Chambers of Commerce send their delegates to Lyons and Bordeaux. French prefects are banqueted at the Guildhall. Naval reviews abound, and it heis been thought timely to revive the Channel Tunnel. PoUtical prophecy, as Mr. Bryce tells us, is the most dangerous of pastimes, but we must at least hope that the present good feeling between England and France has its root in something more permanent than poUtical expediency. In Canada the European relations of French and English, though interesting, are not essential. Siegfried speaks of the French in Canada as having been cut off from the main body of their race by history and circumstance. They have indeed been cut off, and the schism means much more than any one can tell who has not studied closely the events of the last hundred years. The French Canadians set store by their ancestry, but their chief pride centres in their own achievements wrought on American soU. It seems to me a thousand pities that of EngUsh Canadians not one in ten understands the sentiments and aspirations of French Canada. Whether or not the man of Gait or Woodstock S5mipathises with his fellow- citizen of Chambly or Riviere du Loup, he ought to understand from first-hand knowledge why the habitant thinks, feels, and acts as he does. 3i6 The Governor — Frontenac The passage from Chapais' Talon, in which occurs that outburst regarding the invincible vitahty of French Canada and its advance along the way prepared for it by Providence, reveals a state of mind that it is ridiculous to ignore, or make light of. M. Suite's Histoire des Franfais- Canadiens and the speeches of M. Bourassa are further illustrations of a mood which we should know the causes of, even though the phenomenon may seem an obstacle to the accomphshment of certain political ideals. The French Canadian loves this land because he has taken root in it. He feels that his ancestors fought the savage and tamed the wilderness, without much help from outside. His face is not set toward France, nor, so far as I can make out, is it set toward Europe at all — save in matters of religion. Mme. Hebert, the wife of the first genuine colonist, declined to take her children back to France when Quebec fell before the English in 1629. She had fixed her fortunes in the New World and meant to remain. There is something symbolical in this. Retentive of the soil and narrowing their political outlook to the affairs of this country, what has been the position of French Canadians since 1760? Obviously it is impossible to form any general statement which wiU reconcile the views expressed freely by the individuals who form a large community. But some considera- tions stand out so clearly as not to be mistaken. Among these is the solid advantage which French Canada has derived from the overthrow of the The Governor — Frontenac 317 government that prevailed when Admiral Saun- ders and General Wolfe first came in sight of Que- bec. At the close of the Inferno, Dante explains how he was able to escape from the bottom of the pit, and reach the entrance of Purgatory. Grasping the waist of Lucifer he turned suddenly about, and thence began the ascent which led him from the lowest depths of HeU to the mount of purifying penance. The force of the allegory is that only by grappling with uttermost evil can man rise to salvation. Applying this figure to politics, the French of Canada in 1759 and 1760 grappled with the worst fortune that can exist for a proud and self-respect- ing people. That is, they lost the battle which they were fighting against an ancient foe, and were torn from their old allegiance. Yet this descent to the bottom of the pit, trying though it proved to the followers of Levis, placed them and their descend- ants upon what was, in politics at least, the upward path. The conquered must always go under some kind of a yoke, if it be only the smart of defeat. But in aU the history of mankind I doubt whether you wiU find a lighter yoke than that which the French Canadians were asked to wear in the days of General Murray and Sir Guy Carleton. We all know how Murray, by his mild- ness towards the vanquished, infuriated the EngUsh Canadians, then hardly more than three or four hundred as against sixty-five thousand of the French. Less famous but even more interesting is the correspondence of Carleton with Lord Shel- burne, especially the letters written in 1767 and 318 The Governor — Frontenac 1768. From 1760 to 1775, the whole of America, to the north of the Spanish possessions, was in British hands. During this period, when the people of Massachusetts and the people of Quebec were feUow-subjects, the former found cause for bitter grief in the generosity of the terms accorded to the fallen French. The humane dispositions of Sir Guy Carleton took form in the Quebec Act, to the dis- content of many in New England. But passing by the controversies of 1774, let us glance for a moment at the sermon delivered by Bishop Plessis of Quebec on January loth, 1799. The occasion was the service of thanksgiving held to commemorate the Battle of the Nile. Nel- son for destro5dng a French fleet is applauded in the Cathedral of Quebec by a prelate of the Canadian Church, whose loftiness of character prevented him from speaking mere phrases. "God forbid," says Plessis, "that I should profane the sanctity of this place by base adulation or plaudits that have their roots in selfish interest. I only bear witness to what truth and gratitude demand, nor do I fear contradiction from any who know the spirit of the British government. A wise moderation presides over its actions. In its steady march there is no haste, no empty ecstasy, no headlong love of change. What care has it not taken to safeguard the property of its subjects? What effort and ability has it not put forth to render the cost of government the hghtest of bur- dens? Have you even heard in the forty years which have elapsed since the Conquest, of those taxes or those imposts under which so many The Governor — Frontenac 319 nations groan, of those arbitrary demands for vast sums which an unjust victor would impose upon the vanquished? Have you ever been re- duced through the fault of the present govern- ment to those famines which formerly afflicted the colony, and which are still remembered with horror? Have you since the Conquest been sub- jected to military service? Have you paid a single sou toward the cost of the war that Great Britain has carried on for the last six years? Almost the whole of Europe is now given up to fire, sword, and carnage. Do you not see this, and also that in the midst of war you enjoy all the advantages of peace? To whom, after God, are you, my brothers, indebted for these favours if not to the vigilance of an empire which in peace as in war has at heart your interest even more than its own? What return do all these benefits demand from us — a lively sentiment of gratitude toward Great Britain; an ardent desire never to be separated from her; a deep beUef that her interests are not different from ours; that our happiness is bound up in hers; and that if some- times we have had to mourn her losses, we should rejoice in the day of her glory, and look upon her last victory as an event no less consoUng to us than glorious for her." Doubtless Bishop Plessis was scandalised at the excesses and atheism of the French Revolu- tionists, but it is not for these reasons alone that he speaks in the words which have been quoted. He is convinced that the new political institutions are better than the old. He so far admires the 320 The Governor — Frontenac English criminal law as to call it the masterpiece of human intelligence. In a word, he recognises the soUd advantage which was gained by the French Canadian in passing from the Old Regime to the New. It is quite true that these advantages were less appreciated by Louis Joseph Papineau than by Bishop Plessis, nor if we have responsible government in Canada to-day are the French to be denied their share in its attainment. Yet no disinterested Frenchman can fail to reahse how clearly the Battle of the Plains meant for him and his compatriots the career open to talent. If the English Canadian must be on his guard against thinking that the habitant of the Old Regime was a slave, the French Canadian must likewise refrain from ideahsing too much the days of Talon, D'IberviUe, and Frontenac. There were heroes and patriots in that age, but also a restric- tion of opportunity, a wrong-headedness of method which belonged pecuharly to French colonisa- tion. And yet it is so hard to give up the early dreams of racial greatness! The Battle of the Plains meant the kneU of hope for that Western Empire which Talon and La SaUe had seen in vision, flour- ishing under the fleur de lis. It meant the triumph of the Bastonnais. It must have seemed at the moment to mean that all the brave deeds of Bol- lard, of Hertel, of D'IberviUe, of the men who held the fort at Carillon, had been done in vain. True, for the prophet there might be hope of a fuller, richer day. But we shall have little sympathy or The Governor — Frontenac 321 imagination, if, when we read the story of Levis' surrender, we cannot say: "I honour the man who wins the prize The world has cried for a thousand years, But to him who struggles and suffers and dies, I give great glory and worship and tears." CHAPTER X THE WOMAN WERE one endeavouring to portray the life of France in the seventeenth century, femi- nine types would suggest themselves in profusion: For Regent, Anne of Austria; for PoUtician, Mme. de LongueviUe; for Mystic, Mme. Guy on; for Court Favourite, Mme. de Montespan; for Bluestocking, the Marquise de Rambouillet; for Adventuress, the Duchesse de Mazarin; for Criminal, the Marquise de BrinvilHers. And this is but a small selection, taken from the reign of Louis XIV. If the whole century be included, the list of representative women would run well beyond a score. On turning to Canada during the same period a great contrast is observable. At Montreal there was no coterie of ladies intellectual. At Quebec the recriminations of Frontenac and Duchesneau did not spring from rivalry in love, and ran their course without once being affected by feminine intrigue. In an advanced, diversified society the activities of women seem hardly less extensive than those of men. But on the banks of the St. Lawrence the social organism was not complex. Amidst the harsh, relentless poverty which then 322 The Woman 323 prevailed, the woman could not escape from daily toil and sordid cares. She had no leisure for the improvement of her mind. To expect that she should write like Mme. de Sevigne, or paint like Vigee Le Brun, would be absurd. Woman has far more to gain than man through the embel- Ushment of life by art, and letters, and all that we call culture. But these things were not for New France. It was in point of fundamental virtues, rather than of polite accomplishments, that Canadian women proved strong during the Old Regime. One child, we are told, takes all a mother's time, and twelve cannot take more. If this were true, the French-Canadian matron would have enjoyed no greater leisure during the eighteenth century than at the death of Champlain. In other words, the duties which remained to her even after the worst pinch of hardship was over must have been well-nigh crushing. But into any care- ful calculation the question of degree must always enter, and some women undoubtedly did profit by the gradual improvement of the common lot. To the last New France remained poor, but its poverty became less acute after the period of Talon. At the beginning one meets with few signs of worldliness and idle mirth, partly because the religious motive was predominant, and partly because temptations to seek amusement did not exist. The coming of the Carignan Regiment, however, introduced an element of change, and within a century from the founding of Quebec a certain part of the community did not shun 324 The Woman mundane pleasures. It is well to make an explicit statement on this point, for though most women in New France toiled day and night with but small share of gaiety, the disappearance of abject want gave some the means of providing themselves with linen and fine raiment. Feminine levity in New France reached its height at Quebec during the ascendency of Bigot — that is to say, in the last days of the Old Regime. But whatever scandals may have arisen at this time were limited to a small circle, and must not be deemed typical of colonial Ufe in any stage. If a ball is to be looked on as unlawful dissipation, there were undoubtedly a few sinners. On the other hand, the more heinous offences contra bonos mores were conspicuously rare even in the eight- eenth century. Perhaps the most detached and impartial observer who described Canadian life at the close of the French period was the Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm. In the summer of 1749 he visited Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec, taking notes wherever he went and making it a point to meet the most important people of the colony. The knowledge which can only come from a long sojourn, he did not possess, but the first impressions of an intelligent and honest stranger are always worth a good deal. For this reason we shall glance at what Kalm says regard- ing Canadian women. At Montreal he was received by the Baron de Longueuil, given most generous entertainment, and, to use his own words, "loaded with greater favours than I could expect or imagine." Notwithstanding the cordiality of The Woman 325 his reception, Kalm tries to give a just and dis- criminating appreciation of what he sees. "The difference," he says, "between the man- ners and customs of the French in Montreal and Canada, and those of the EngUsh in the American colonies, is as great as that between the manners of those two nations in Europe. The women in general are handsome here; they are well bred and virtuous, with an innocent and becoming freedom. They dress out very fine on Sundays; and though on the other days they do not take much pains with the rest of their dress, yet they are very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which is always curled and powdered, and orna- mented with glittering bodkins and aigrettes. Every day but Sunday they wear a httle neat jacket, and a short petticoat which hardly reaches half the leg, and in this particular they seem to imitate the Indian women. The heels of their shoes are high and very narrow, and it is surpris- ing how they walk on them. In their knowledge of economy they greatly surpass the English women in the plantations, who, indeed, have taken the hberty of throwing all the burden of housekeeping upon their husbands, and sit in their chairs all day with folded arms. " The women in Canada, on the contrary, do not spare themselves, especially among the common people, where they are always in the fields, meadows, stables, etc., and do not dislike any work what- soever. However, they seem rather remiss in regard to the cleaning of the utensils and apartments; for sometimes the floors, both in the town and country. 326 The Woman are hardly cleaned once in six months, which is a disagreeable sight to one who comes from amongst the Dutch and English, where the constant scour- ing and scrubbing of the floors is reckoned as important as the exercise of reUgion itself. To prevent the thick dust which is thus left on the floor from being noxious to the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it more consistent, repeating the aspersion as often as the dust is dry and rises again. Upon the whole, however, they are not averse to taking a part in aU the business of housekeeping; and I have with pleasure seen the daughters of the better sort of people, and of the Governor himself, not too finely dressed, and going into kitchens and cel- lars, to look that everything be done as it ought." From Montreal Kalm went to Quebec, where he remained for a month, afterwards revisiting Montreal. The result of his peregrinations is that he feels qualified to take up the delicate task of instituting a comparison between the ladies of the two places. Quebec, he points out, enjoys the advantage of being frequented by the king's ships, which seldom go to Montreal. Hence the ladies of Quebec equal the French in good breed- ing, whereas those of Montreal, shut out from intercourse with the officers and their wives, are less polished in manner. Ever57where, but espe- cially at Montreal, it is a habit of fashionable people to show signs of amusement when a stranger blunders in speaking. This, to Kalm, seems quite natural and excusable. On the whole his preference would seem to incline towards the The Woman 327 ladies of Montreal. But here his views can best be set forth in his own words. "One of the first questions a Canadian lady proposes to a stranger is whether he is married? The next, how he Ukes the ladies of the country, and whether he thinks them handsomer than those of his own country? And the third, whether he will take one home with him? There are some differences between the ladies of Quebec and those of Montreal. Those of the last place seemed to be generally handsomer than those of the former. Their behaviour, Ukewise, seemed to me to be somewhat too free at Quebec, and of a more becom- ing modesty at Montreal. The ladies at Quebec, especially the unmarried ones, are not very indus- trious. A girl of eighteen is reckoned very poorly off if she cannot enumerate at least twenty lovers. These young ladies, especially if of a higher rank, get up at seven and dress tiU nine, drinking their coffee at the same time. When they are dressed they place themselves near a window that opens into the street, take up some needlework, and sew a stitch now and then; but turn their eyes into the street most of the time. When a young feUow comes in, whether they are acquainted with him or not, they immediately lay aside their work, sit down by him, and begin to chat, laugh, joke, and invent double-entendres; and this is reckoned being very witty. In this manner they frequently pass the whole day, leaving their mothers to do aU the business in the house. " In Montreal the girls are not quite so volatile, but more industrious. They are always at their 328 The Woman needlework, or doing some necessary business in the house. They are Ukewise cheerful and content; and nobody can say that they want either wit or charms. Their fault is that they think too well of them- selves. However, the daughters of people of aU ranks, without exception, go to market and carry home what they have bought. They rise as soon, and go to bed as late, as any of the people in the house. I have been assured that, in general, their fortunes are not considerable, owing to the smaUness of the family income and the large number of children. The girls at Montreal are very much displeased that those at Quebec get husbands sooner than they. The reason of this is that many young gentlemen who come over from France with the ships are captivated by the ladies at Quebec, and marry them. But as these gentlemen seldom go up to Montreal, the girls there are not often so happy as those of the former place." The information supplied by Kalm does not point to an elaborate style of Hving, even at the middle of the eighteenth century. And in the passages which have been quoted he is writing about a small minority — the town population as he saw it when the guest of the chief officials in Canada. His account of hfe in the parishes is brief and fragmentary. He observed a high state of cultivation along the St. Lawrence, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the towns. But there is nothing in his description of the habitants, to qualify the impression of wide-spread poverty which comes to us from other sources. "The common The Woman 329 people in the country seem to be very poor. They have the necessaries of Ufe and but Uttle else. They are content with meals of dry bread and water, bringing all other provisions, such as but- ter, cheese, flesh, poultry, eggs, etc., to town in order to get money for them, for which they buy clothes and brandy for themselves, and dresses for their women. Notwithstanding their poverty, they are always cheerful and in high spirits." In the present instance, Kalm is not quoted as a final authority on the social Ufe of Canada, still less as one whose judgment of Canadian women should be accepted without reserve. From a variety of evidence we have good reason to believe that sprightliness, natural grace, and a love of good company abounded among the ladies of Quebec and Montreal at the period when he wrote. For us the chief value of Kalm hes in his disclo- sure of conditions which were stiU largely primi- tive. And if in 1749 he does not present us with anything like a complex, highly organised society, what must we think of the simplicity that pre- vailed at the time of Laval and Frontenac? The truth is that after searching the seven- teenth century for types of Canadian women, we find two and two only. These are the wife and the nun. Each in her own day had a distinct duty to perform, and each stands out before pos- terity with perfect clearness. Beyond them it would be profitless to go. There was no vice- regal court, centring in the wife of the governor. No contemporary of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson fomented discord among the faithful. No witch 330 The Woman was burned. Aside from Madeleine de Verch^res, the heroine of a single incident, no Canadian woman figured prominently in arms. No ruler drew his inspiration from an Egeria of Quebec. No poetess aroused the colony by her lays. There remain the wife and the nun. Of these, the last is the easier to portray. For the life of the religious we have documents in abundance. Their archives embrace a long series of letters, dating from founders like Marie de ITncarnation and Marguerite Bourgeoys. Their good deeds were described by aU who wrote of Canada in that day, as in this. But the wife of the habitant is inarticulate. Even in cases where she could use the pen, she had scant time for cor- respondence. Early in life she had taken up serious duties, for the authorities of both Church and State held that, if possible, she should marry at fifteen. In the writings of Tanguay and Suite we often come upon the phrase, "elle epousa." For the woman of New France marriage meant great and heroic usefulness, but in one sense these two words may be called an epitaph. They sound for her of whom they are written, the knell of personal identity. The woman who marries at fifteen, and becomes the mother of from eight to eighteen children, loses her personal ambitions and hves for the advancement of the family. It could hardly be otherwise amidst wealth and comfort. What, then, must it have been on a clearing in the forest? The woman who helped her husband fight famine at Dautre did not think often of her biographer. Her chief ambitions were to feed the The Woman 331 children, keep them from the Iroquois, and teach them the catechism. Thus outside the ranks of the rehgious we look in vain for celebrated names. But though the average woman of New France is less famous than Jeanne d'Arc, her just praise should not be withheld simply because she neglected to startle the world by spectacular performances. Aulard, who admires the French Revolution, says that its true hero is neither Mirabeau, nor Danton, nor Robespierre, but the French nation. Likewise the anonymous, unvaunted labours of the French- Canadian wife should be remembered with admira- tion, not only by her descendants, but by all who prize courage and unselfishness. In taking up the question of antecedents and qualifications, two things are noticeable. It has been said, " Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood." The women of New France had both simple faith and Norman blood. True, they did not possess the hneage of Lady Clara Vere de Vere, but though peasants their strongest strain of race came from ancestors whom Rollo led in triumph to the Seine, and WiUiam, to the Thames. As for faith, they saw in the curi their spiritual guide, and in the Church, the ark of their salvation. I refer here to the first comers. As we have seen, the most heroic era in the development of Canada hes before 1663, when the colony strove with daily perils and privations. Then the population was homo- 332 The Woman geneous, drawn largely from northwestern France and unified by religious aspiration. At this dis- tance of time it would be rash to say that all the sifted grain came over during the period of the Hundred Associates, the settlers brought in by Talon being of much poorer quaUty. But it is significant that Normandy, Perche, and the He de France supplied such a large proportion of the settlers who hved through war and famine dur- ing the first fifty years. In Canada, as in many other European colonies, the men formed for some time a large majority of the population. Talon's effort to reduce this disparity of the sexes, and promote colonisation through wedlock, is the most conspicuous feature of his pohcy. He it was who brought over the filles du roi, placed bounties on marriage, and further encouraged the bachelor to select a mate by fining him while he remained single. This whole episode is worthy of careful study for what it implies. Canada was built up by the king, and its settlement does not represent any strong initiative on the part of the nation. The com- munities founded by colonising seigniors like Gif- fard and Repentigny are one phenomenon. An- other is to be seen in the Villemarie of Maison- neuve, which represents a strong private incentive taking its rise from religion. But with exceptions here and there the colony was the work of the crown, unlike the Enghsh settlements in America which were the fruit of private enterprise. It would have been a burlesque to fine the inveterate bachelor so long as the scarcity of women The Woman 333 prevented him from securing a wife. The king, therefore, in his character of wise and indulgent father must provide enough marriageable damsels to meet the demand; This need was one which Louis XIV. could not view without lively and sjmipathetic concern. Rising to the occasion, he ordained that women for Canada should be found. Where he got them, how they were selected, under what arrangements they were conveyed to Quebec, and how they were disposed of on their arrival, are subjects which have provoked abundant discussion. The circumstances of the case were urgent, and the king did not propose that the bachelors of his realm overseas should go forlorn. But in recent centuries it is not often that wives have been supplied en masse for expec- tant lovers, who stand ready on the beach to await their landing. Our first statement regarding these brides elect we may take from Marguerite Bourgeoys. "The filles du roi were young girls, who, having lost their parents or suffered misfortune at an early age, received their nurture at the cost of the state in the General Hospital of Paris." This is an exact definition of what the phrase originally meant. But it took on a wider significance dur- ing the progress of the emigration. Orphans brought up in Paris did not prove strong enough for the rough work put on them in Canada, and after a little experience the terms of the specification were changed. To quote again from Marguerite Bourgeoys: "Therefore in 1670 M. Colbert asked M. de Harlay, the Archbishop of Rouen, to have 334 The Woman chosen by the curds of thirty or forty parishes around Rouen, one or two girls from each parish who might be sent to Canada instead of the filles du roi." Here we see the second step in the process. Finally, all young women sent over to Canada under royal auspices received the name of filles du roi. A passage in the Nouveaux Voyages of the Baron La Hontan has given rise to some con- troversy regarding these recruits. His story is that they were no better than they should be, and on reaching Canada found husbands in a manner hasty and undignified. Dressed out with details which the Baron also furnishes, it makes a readable passage, and that is chiefly what the author wanted. Writing at a time when his for- tunes were very low, he strove to produce a book that would sell. The marriage market at Quebec supplied him with just such a subject as he needed, and he turned it to his own purpose. Not improb- ably loose characters shpped in now and then. A singular passage in The Despatches of William Perwich would seem to indicate that this might have been the case.* But considered in the light of a general attack on the filles du roi, La Hontan' s gossip breaks down altogether under the cross- examination to which it has been subjected. At present the weight of opinion is wholly against it. Talon desired that the habitant should have for his wife a healthy peasant girl, who was strong * See The Despatches of William Perwich, English Agent in Paris, 166Q-J677. Edited for the Royal Historical Society by M. Beryl Curran, London, 1903. P. 13 (Letter of May 22, 1669). The Woman 335 enough to face hardships, and was not above her work. Canada, far away, was known as the home of barbarians, bears, and beavers. Hence for ladies of deUcate tastes or sensibilities, the prospect of settUng on a bush farm would have been intolerable. But the filles du roi were not born to the purple, neither did they possess dis- ordered nerves. Judging from results, the climate of Canada agreed with their health, and in most cases emigration must have been followed by a distinct enhancement of status. When we think of the French peasantry as described by La Bruy^re, we shall expend the less sentiment on the fille du roi in her new home. Once arrived at Quebec her courtship may have been brief, and her wed- ding unmarked by the usual delays. But the romance of a three-volume novel is not for every one in this world, and manages de convenance are not always failures. La Hontan says: "After the choice was deter- mined, the marriage was concluded upon the spot, in the presence of a priest and a public notary; and the next day the Governor-General bestowed upon the married couple a bull, a cow, a hog, a sow, a cock, a hen, two barrels of salted meat, and eleven crowns." To this extent the Baron is accurate, that little time was wasted in tying the knot, and that the king held out a bounty on marriage. The inducements varied from time to time, but La Hontan does not exaggerate the extent of the royal generosity. Colbert wrote Talon that "as a general rule never to be departed from," youths should marry at eighteen or nine- 336 The Woman teen, and girls at fourteen or fifteen. This is a solemn injunction, which the Intendant must con- vey to the whole people in their own interest. Apart from what the king gave, every girl was expected to bring her husband a dowry of some sort. At best it was little, and it might be no more than a barrel of bacon. But whatever the value of the dot, or the form which it assumed, particulars were carefully set down in the mar- riage contract. Of these documents none is more interesting than that which shows what Madeleine Boucher, a sister of Pierre Boucher, Governor of Three Rivers, received in 1647 from her family. The items include "two hundred francs, four sheets, two table-cloths, six napkins, a mattress, two blankets, two dishes, six spoons and six tin plates, a pot and a kettle, a table and two benches, a kneading trough, a chest with lock and key, a cow, and a pair of hogs." From this survey of what the more prosperous possessed, much may be inferred. Even when Kalm wrote, seventy-five years later, it was customary for guests at a din- ner to produce their own knives and forks. There are those who can say "paix et peu, don de Dieu." But with the Iroquois in the neighbourhood, a habitant's wife could derive little solace from such a proverb. When her husband had been slain by the Mohawks, or she received a letter like that which Frangois Hertel wrote home after he had been tortured, poverty did not seem the worst blow. Yet to some danger is more supportable than ennui, and, psycholog- ically speaking, the toil of clearing the forest may The Woman 337 have been relieved by the very risks which were entailed. If the family throve the mother had her reward, and no unreasonable degree of thriv- ing was asked for. Food, raiment, and health were the three fundamentals. With an adequate supply of these, more distant ambitions did not disturb the home of the early habitant. Dante has left us a picture of the simple and beautiful hfe which was led in old Florence — ^the old Flor- ence of his imagination. There the mother kept careful watch over the cradle, and comforted her children with the prattle which is so dear to parents. Again, drawing the tresses from her distaff, she told her household tales of the Trojans, and of Fiesole and of Rome. Likewise in the forests of New France the mother repeated folk-lore brought from across the seas, and sang the chansons which are still so dear to the French-Canadian race. The day of small things is often remembered with regret by those who find that possessing is not more enjoyable than striving; and happiness was not banished from the potato patch and the raspberry bushes of the clearing. First, then, among the women of the colony we have the filles du roi, and others whose early training had fitted them to work with their own hands. A step higher in the social scale are the demoiselles. These young ladies also left France at the instance of the crown, and were designed to become the wives of officers. In 1667 Talon reports that a consignment of one hundred and nine girls has arrived from Dieppe and La Rochelle, including "fifteen or twenty of pretty good birth; 338 The Woman several of them axe really demoiselles and tolerably well brought up." In 1670 he wanted a few more of the better bom, and named four in his request. Fifteen came, and the Intendant, overwhelmed by the response, wrote back that he now had an abundance of this class and advised against send- ing more. Undoubtedly the seignior's wife relied to some extent upon the help of servants. But all were poor together, and it was not as a chdte- laine that the young lady "tolerably well brought up" entered the wilderness. Within the house and without it, she, too, may have used her hands more often than those think who speak in flowing language about Canadian feudalism. New France had no Maid of Orleans, no Maid of Saragossa, but a girl of fourteen, sprung from seigniorial stock, performed one feat of arms which reflects clearly the conditions and the temper of that age. This was Madeleine de Ver- chferes, daughter of an ensign in the Carignan Regiment, and heroine par excellence of the Indian wars. The date was 1692, a year when the colony sustained the double attack of Iroquois and Eng- lish. Nothing could be thought of but the war. Frangois Hertel and D' Iberville had attacked the English. Du Lhut, La Durantaye, and Calli^res had exchanged fierce blows with the Iroquois. Pemaquid and Schenectady in ashes were one sign of the struggle. In retaliation Phips had besieged Quebec, and twice the English had marched overland in vain to the St. Lawrence. As a result. New France became a camp, or rather The Woman 339 each log house was turned into a miniature for- tress. It was a time when no man could remain with his family. The active fighting force of Canada ranged the woods in small war parties, or garrisoned strategic points. At home, in the parishes, things must get on as best they could, with grandfathers and young girls in the reserve. The tale of Madeleine de Verch^res comes to us from her own pen; not as a bit of vainglory, but as a plain recital of facts set down in after years at the order of a governor, the Marquis de Beauharnais. Parkman has translated a large part of her narrative in the detailed account which he gives of this incident, and to him, or to the original in Ferland's Collection, the reader must go for full particulars. But in brief epitome the story runs as follows: The seigniory granted to J arret de Verchferes lay on the south side of the St. Lawrence, midway between Montreal and the mouth of the Richelieu. Along the same shore stretched a group of other seigniories which were created at the same time in favour of his brother officers — Varennes, Contre- coeur, St. Ours, and Sorel. At the close of October, 1692, Verch^res was serving under Frontenac at Quebec, and for some reason his wife had gone to Montreal, twenty miles away. The defences of the seigniory were a fort and a blockhouse, which had to be kept in good order, for the Richeheu was "the Iroquois path." On the 22d of October, the habitants of Verchferes, free from thought of danger, were outside the fort, working in the open field. Inside the defences were some women 34° The Woman and children, two soldiers, a man of eighty, and the two sons of the seigneur. Of these the elder was a boy of twelve, the younger being ten. Made- leine, aged fourteen, was outside the fort near the river, but not far away from shelter. Her first hint of danger was a sound of musket fire from the field. Then looking up she saw forty or fifty Iroquois rush from the wood. With all her speed she ran ,to the fort amid whistling bullets. At the gate she found two women crying for their husbands, who had just been killed. After she had driven them in, she shut the gate and began to look for ammunition. This quest took her to the blockhouse where the supplies were kept. Finding the two soldiers there in a state of fright, she drove them out, provided herself and her brothers with guns, put on a man's hat, and prepared for resistance to the end. By this time the two soldiers had recovered their wits and were of some assistance. After putting her garrison in state of siege, Madeleine fired a cannon with the double design of impressing the Indians, and giving a signal to some of her own people who were in the woods. Those in the field she could not save, and they were killed by the savages under her eyes. Pres- ently on the river side she saw some refugees, a habitant named Fontaine, bringing his family to the shelter of the fort. Between the landing and the gate was a fire zone which the fugitives must cross. The Iroquois, thinking the place well defended, were at some distance, but the two soldiers decUned to issue forth in aid of the Fon- The Woman 341 taine family. Hoping that the savages would think this a ruse, Madeleine opened the gate, reached the landing, and brought back the little party in fuU sight of the foe. She then ordered that as often as an Indian showed himself in the open, he should be shot at. These tactics, born of desperation, had their effect. Deceived by so much noise and activity, the Iroquois decided not to attempt a coup de main. But in the uncertainty it must have been a terrible night for the besieged. To increase the display of force, Madeleine divided her followers. Assuming the post of greatest danger, she remained in the fort with her brothers, the old man of eighty, and a servant named Laviolette. The two soldiers and Fontaine she placed in the blockhouse to guard the women and children. A wooden gallery between maintained the line of communication, but if the fort fell the block- house was stiU defensible. It was a fierce night with a tempest of snow and hail — the very moment for an assault. Well aware of their danger the garrison gave up no time to sleep, even by watches. In the fort Madeleine occupied one bastion, in each of two others she stationed a young brother, and the old man occupied a fourth. Despite wind, snow, and hail, they all remained at their posts, exchanging cries of "All's well" between the fort and blockhouse, with such other augmentation of the din as was possible. "One would have thought," says Madeleine in her narrative, "that the place was full of soldiers." Next morning all felt weU satisfied with the 342 The Woman result of these singular efforts, and took heart of grace to continue the defence. But they were not out of danger, for the Iroquois maintained the siege throughout the next week. The con- cluding scene must be described in Madeleine's own words. "At last M. de la Monnerie, a lieu- tenant sent by M. de Calli^res, arrived in the night with forty men. As he did not know whether the fort was taken or not, he approached as silently as possible. One of our sentinels, hearing a sUght sound, cried, 'Qui vive?' I was at the time dozing, with my head on a table and my gun lying across my arms. The sentinel told me that he heard a voice from the river. I went up at once to the bastion to see whether it was French or Indians. I asked, 'Who are you?' One of them answered, 'We are Frenchmen; it is La Monnerie, who comes to bring you help.' I caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel there, and went down to the river to meet them. As soon as I saw M. de la Monnerie, I saluted him, and said, 'Monsieur, I surrender my arms to you.' He answered gal- lantly, 'Mademoiselle, they are in good hands.' 'Better than you think,' I returned. He inspected the fort, and found everything in order, and a sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time to reheve them, Monsieur,' said I; 'we have not been off our bastions for a week.' " This conversation with La Monnerie shows that the heroine of Verch^res not only knew how to do a brave deed, but knew how to do it in good style. "Pla5dng the game" with all the spirit which a lively Celtic disposition could impart. The Woman 343 she remains a bright, alluring figure, perennially young, like the maidens on Keats's Grecian Urn. It is unfortunate that so much of the heroism displayed by Canadian women has gone unchron- icled. Thanks to the Marquis de Beauharnais, we have the story given above. It was extraor- dinary, and therefore has been preserved. On the other hand, many acts of self-control and courage dropped hopelessly out of sight in a country where to be brave was the law of Ufe. At the present time we cannot easily think of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal as frontier towns. But each in its turn was the Umit of civilisation, and the hne of seigniories had to be carried westward step by step. Throughout the course of this process the frontiersman's wife is a distinct type, sharing her husband's dangers and privations, taking more than her share of the toU, and uprearing that large family which has prevented the French race from becoming extinct in America. Yet one must regret that we know, and can know, so little of the individuals who strove thus for their kin and country in the vieux temps. In the case of the nun our records are far more complete and satisfactory. The wife of the habi- tant, who was almost always illiterate, could not leave written memorials of her life and thoughts. But the nun, besides being able to use the pen, was engaged in pursuits which required that it should be constantly employed. Each convent had official records of some kind. Ecclesiastical business involved correspondence with the bishop and other 344 The Woman authorities in the Church. In Europe there were many who desired information regarding the nature of the work which the sisters were carrying on among the Indians. And when naming these different classes of documents, one must not for- get personal letters to friends and relatives. Coming to Canada, as they did, at an early date, the nuns at once established an impregnable place in the community, and their archives extending to the present day are a mine of historical infor- mation. Moreover it is not merely a question of the different sisterhoods, each possessing a special character and following out its own line of work. While as an independent corporation each of these bodies has a separate hfe, the student of the past is not compelled to fix his attention upon the corporation alone. There were the Ursulines, the Nuns of the Congregation, the Grey Nuns, and others. But apart from the records which enable us to examine each community as an insti- tution, there exists a wealth of biographical mate- rial. Giving force and impact to these societies are the women who form them — human beings whose acts can be traced with certainty, and whose sacrifices add lustre to the annals of the French race in Canada. Whether engaged in teaching, nursing, or religious contemplation, they are clear- cut individuals upon whom the biographer can seize, as upon Champlain or Frontenac. Without speaking of vows or orders, let us first run over a list of names: Mme. de la Peltrie, Marie de r Incarnation, Jeanne Mance, Marguerite Bour- The Woman 345 geoys, Mme. D'Ailleboust, and Jeanne Le Ber. Omitting these women, the history of New France would lose an element as important as that which is represented by Brebeuf and Jogues, by Laval and Saint- Vallier. To appreciate the position of the nuns during the first years of their residence at Quebec, we must bear in mind one feature of difference between French and English colonisation. When the May- flower came to anchor at Plymouth, men, women, and children left its deck for the naked shore. The Puritan emigration, from the outset, comprised both sexes and all ages. But Champlain's colony at Cape Diamond began with only a handful of fur traders. Nine years elapsed before Louis Hebert brought over his family, and even after a start had been made the infiltration of women was very slow. The founding of Villemarie is another example. In 1641, when Maisonneuve's band set sail from La RocheUe, it consisted of forty men and four women. Moreover, of these four two were devoted to religion, and thus stood outside the range of matrimony. It was to a land where family life was not well established that the first nuns came. Such women as had arrived before them were toiling for their husbands and children, with scant leisure to lavish upon those outside their home circle. Works of mercy could not be undertaken systematically and on a large scale without feminine help, and in the circum- stances this meant the presence of nuns. The wants of the infant colony were made known to the pious in France through the medium 346 The Woman of the Jesuit Relations. Le Jeune's annual reports as they issued from the press of Sebastian Cramoisy at Paris were read and reread in a hundred con- vents. With him, naturally, the mission claimed first place, and the opportunity which his writings disclosed was that of labour among the Indians. The earUest of his Relations, appearing in 1632, kindled an instantaneous interest, and after the next two had been devoured by the religious, he began to receive letters from volunteers. This can be seen from a passage which is given promi- nent place in the preface to the Relation for 1635. Here he expresses surprise that "many young nuns, consecrated to our Lord, wish to join us — overcoming the fear natural to their sex, in order to come and help the poor girls and poor women among these savages. There are so many of these who write to us, and from so many convents, and from various Orders in the Church, of the strictest discipline, that you would say each is first to laugh at the hardships of the sea, the riotous waves of the ocean, and the barbarism of these countries." Le Jeune seeks to restrain enthusiasm within bounds by pointing out the present lack of ac- commodations. 'T must give this advice to all these good sisters — that they be very care- ful not to urge their departure until they have here a good house, well built, and well endowed; otherwise they would be a burden to our French, and could accomphsh little for these peoples. Men can extricate themselves much more easily from difficulties; but, as for the nuns, they must have a good house, some cleared land, and a good The Woman 347 income upon which to Uve, and relieve the pov- erty of the wives and daughters of the savages." But having shown the nature of the difficulty, he does not propose that the obstacle shall remain. At the close of his preface he exclaims: "Is it possible that earthly possessions are of greater concern to us than life itself! Behold these tender and delicate virgins aU ready to haz- ard their lives upon the waves of the ocean, to come seeking httle souls in the rigours of an air much colder than that of France, to endure hard- ships at which even men would be appalled; and will not some brave lady be found who will give a passport to these Amazons of the great God, endowing them with a house in which to praise and serve His divine Majesty in this other world? I cannot persuade myself that our Lord will not dispose some one to this act." The Jesuits, then, set forth in the most emphatic manner the need there was at Quebec for nuns. Nor did Le Jeune's appeal go long unheard. In the Relation for 1636 he is able to write: "I sought last year a brave soul who might plant the great standard of charity in these lands. The mighty God of bounties has provided one. I learn that Madame de Combalet wishes to put her hand to the work, and found a hospital in New France. See how it has pleased her to inform me of it: 'God having given me the desire to aid in the salvation of the poor savages, it has seemed to me, after reading the account which you have written of it, that what you consider can best serve for their conversion is the establishment 348 The Woman in New France of Hospital Nuns. I have there- fore resolved to send thither this year six work- men, to clear some land and to construct a lodging for these good sisters. I entreat that you will take care of this estabUshment. I have asked Father Chastelain to speak to you about it for me, and to explain to you my plans more in detail. If I can do anything else for the salvation of these poor people, for whom you take so much trouble, I shall consider myself happy.' " Aid from Madame de Combalet meant a great deal, since she was Richelieu's niece. Better known as the Duchesse D'AiguiUon, she remained conspicuous for good works throughout a long generation, and her gift of the hospital at Quebec is only one among her many acts of generosity. The letter from which Le Jeune quotes shows that her thought, like his, was rather the conver- sion of savages than the care of French colonists. Anticipating the idea which in our own time is represented by the medical missionary, she be- lieved that the souls of the heathen could best be reached through the affectionate care of their bodies. The enthusiasm which then touched pious hearts in France was for the salvation of the natives. But the course of events is not easy to forecast, and though the habitant suffered some neglect at the outset, he eventually derived the fuU benefit of many charitable institutions which were established in the interest of the savage. By the close of 1638 the first hospital building in Canada was completed and ready for occupa- tion. The next spring the Archbishop of Rouen, The Woman 349 prompted by the Duchesse D'Aiguillon, sent over to it three sisters taken from the Hospital Nuns at Dieppe. But they did not come alone. On the same ship were four women who represented another religious project, and were equally pre- pared to pass the remainder of their days among the savages. These were Madame de la Peltrie, M^re Marie de I'lncarnation, Sister St. Joseph, and Sister Cecile de la Croix. The Duchesse D'Aiguillon was not the only benefactress to be touched by Le Jeune's appeal. In quite another part of France it awakened a response which seems still more remarkable. Mme. de la Peltrie was by birth a Norman of noble family. At the time she read Le Jeune's Relation of 1635, she was. a rich widow, not much over thirty. Of an emotional temperament and strong religious instincts, she took fire when she heard this call from Canada. Soon afterwards she fell ill, but on recovering was more eager to set forth than before. The objections raised by her relatives she either broke down or eluded. Like so many of the religious who went to New France, she felt that she had received a special vocation. Hers was to build a seminary at Quebec for the train- ing of little Indian girls. The Duchesse D'Aiguil- lon had been content to provide funds, but Mme. de la Peltrie did not stop short at the gift of money. Her two chief resolves were that she should go to Quebec in person, and that her seminary should be placed in the hands of the Ursulines. As Mme. de la Peltrie was not herself a nun, it remained to select a Mother Superior for the 35° The Woman new convent. The Jesuits, who were called on for advice, named an UrsuUne of Tours, Mfere Marie de 1' Incarnation. It was a wise choice. Rehgious enthusiasm Mme. de la Peltrie possessed in abundance, but her character was not remark- able for poise. Marie de 1' Incarnation, with a greater clearness of purpose and a greater depth of nature, combined administrative gifts which exactly fitted her for the task she was asked to assume. She, even more than Mme. de la Peltrie, is the founder of the Ursuline order in Canada. The birth name of Marie de 1' Incarnation was Marie Guyard. From early childhood she pos- sessed rehgious instincts which pointed towards the convent, but to please her parents she mar- ried at seventeen a silk manufacturer called Mar- tin. After two years of marriage her husband died, leaving her with a boy baby. The history of her inner, spiritual hfe is traced in full detail by her biographers, of whom Charlevoix and the late Abbe Casgrain are the chief. To the fervour of the mystic she joined that strong sense of the actual which marked Odo of Cluny and Bernard of Clairvaux. Discouragements which came from without could not break her resolve. In the labours of her office she must at times have found rehef from the alternating experiences of rehgious exaltation and rehgious depression. The numerous letters which were written by Marie de F Incarnation from Quebec are an his- torical record of the utmost value, and besides these there exists much information regarding the activities of the Ursuhnes in her day. Like the Marie de l'Incarnation The Woman 351 missionaries, the nuns set themselves at once to learn the speech of the savages. Thus, immedi- ately after the first little company had landed, Marie de ITncamation took up the study of the Algonquin and Montagnais dialects, while Sister St. Joseph appUed herself to Huron. The con- struction of the first Ursuline convent was finished in 1642, and the mms were then enabled to occupy a stone building, roughly finished inside, which measured ninety-two feet by twenty-eight. This, thdir pride and joy, constructed at a cost of fifty thousand livres, was burned in 1650. At first the blow seemed crushing, for in the hope of erecting a home which might be final and permanent, they had expended aU their money on this edifice that the flames consumed in an hour. The blow was the more severe from coming immediately after the destruction of the Huron mission. Not only were the sisters crushed with grief at the martyr- dom of Lalemant and Br^beuf, but the flight of many Hurons to Quebec thrust upon them fresh duties just when they had lost their home. In France the burning of the convent appeared to some a divine intimation, signifying that the Ursuhnes should return from Canada. But it was not so interpreted by Marie de ITncarnation. Through dint of faith and energy she soon pro- vided the sisters with a new building, in which they prosecuted their work of training Indian girls. Yet, while this was the task that brought the Ursuhnes to Canada, they soon found them- selves confronted with a larger duty. As the savages diminished, the colonists increased, and 352 The Woman even during the Ufetime of Marie de 1' Incarnation the education of French girls became the most important occupation of the UrsuUnes. In 1669 the number of Indian children under their charge varied from twenty to thirty, and there was a growing number of French girls who were able to pay one hundred and twenty livres for board and education. Moreover, from as early a date as 1652 Marie de 1' Incarnation made it a point of settled pohcy to select novices from among the Canadian population. She recognised that sisters from France might wish to return, and that the effectiveness which comes from continuity could best be secured from developing a permanent body of Canadian nuns. As teachers of French girls, the Ursuhnes be- came a great force in the life of New France. Marie de 1' Incarnation says that without the in- struction which they were able to give, the daugh- ters of the colonists would be worse than savages. Nor was this an exaggeration. Apart from its insistence upon reUgion, the convent education of that day aimed at preserving purity of speech, at inculcating courtesy, and at humanising the pupil through the medium of such polite accomplishments as seemed suited to the needs of a young country. From then till now the Ursuhnes have received the gratitude of French Canada. At the outset they identified themselves with the land, and ever since they have gained credit for being thoroughly local in their attachments. M. Suite is referring to the Ursuhnes when he says, speaking distinctively from the standpoint of a French Canadian: "Bet- The Woman 353 ter educated than we, they preserved in the family the accent, the vocabulary, the grace, the 'tone of good company' which the clearer of the forest, the coureur de bois, and the canoe-man were so often led to forget. Who was it that softened the boisterous songs of France, and made them those beautiful melodies of which we are so proud? The women, beyond doubt. Certainly it was not the men. The diction, alike poUshed and suited to the speech of the land, reveals no common influence. These songs have passed through the hands of the nuns." Marie de 1' Incarnation lived until 1672, having made it for over thirty years a labour of love to serve the people of New France, both French and Indian. As St. Louis administered justice beneath the oak of Vincennes, tradition shows her seated beneath an ancient ash that stiU shelters the cloister of the Ursulines at Quebec. There, sur- rounded by a little group of savages to whom she is teaching the rudiments of Christianity, she remains in the memory of French Canada an apostle of love and faith amidst the savagery of an untamed wilderness. What Marie de 1' Incarnation was for Quebec, Marguerite Bourgeoys proved to be for Montreal. She was not, however, the first woman who under- took works of religion and charity at Villemarie. This honour belongs to Jeanne Mance, a native of Nogent-le-Roi, and the fearless supporter of Maisonneuve amid dangers and privations which have seldom been equalled. At both Quebec and Montreal the Hospital preceded the Convent, and 354 The Woman in both cases the endowment was provided by the munificence of a pious lady. The original gift of the Duchesse D'Aiguillon to the H6tel Dieu of Quebec was 22,400 livres — a sum which she soon after increased by a second grant of 40,000 livres. The benefactress of the hospital at Villemarie was Madame de Bullion, and the original endowment amounted to 42,000 livres. But if one gave the money which created the institution, another supplied the ungrudging effort which made it a blessing. To appreciate what was wrought by Mile. Mance and her companions, we must read the History of Dollier de Casson. At the farthest outpost of Christian colonisation, this band of zealous men and women encountered dangers which at Quebec were unknown. "In the midst of life we are in death" was a saying which the people of ViUemarie could not forget for a single day. During the first twenty-five years they lay exposed to the attack of the Iroquois, who lurked in the hospital garden, and carried off the inhabitants from within a hundred yards of their homes. In 1657 a labourer was shot and killed while mend- ing a roof. In 1660 a priest named Le Maistre was set upon and killed within a stone's throw of the settlement. Later on in the same year Vignal, another priest, was attacked, killed, burned, and eaten within a mile from the fort. Those who were with him suffered the worst fate of capture and torture. At the beginning of 1661 Major Closse, the Miles Standish of ViUemarie, was slain a short distance from the fort, owing to the fact that both his pistols missed fire. Just after that The Woman 355 thirteen colonists were captured by the Iroquois. In March ten more fell into the hands of the sav- ages. In May another party suffered severe loss within gunshot of the chief redoubt. The exploits of Maisonneuve and DoUard are what we remem- ber most easily. But let it not be forgotten that the nuns of Villemarie Uved for twenty-five years without any adequate protection among all the dreadful dangers which war with the Iroquois implied. Mademoiselle Mance, who was not a nun, came in 1642 to found the hospital. In 1653 came Sister Marguerite Bourgeoys from the Congrega- tion of Notre-Dame at Troyes. Throughout the most trying time in the history of Montreal, she and Jeanne Mance were the leading spirits among that group of reUgious women who almost seemed to seek death beneath the shadow of Mount Royal. Marguerite Bourgeoys was the younger by thirteen years. She had at first joined the Congregation of Notre-Dame without taking vows, but several years before her departure for Canada she became a fuU member of the community. Maisonneuve, who was born in the same part of France, met her on revisiting his home, and found that she had long been awaiting an opportunity to throw in her lot with the struggling enthusiasts of ViUe- marie. From the moment of her arrival in New France she became a source of inspiration to all about her. Less austere than Mile. Mance, less mystical than Marie de ITncamation, she com- bined fervour with an abundance of those virtues which have their root in human affection. It is 356 The Woman not too much to say that for almost half a century she was by influence and attainment the first woman in Montreal. She founded the Church of Notre-Dame de Bonsecours. She was the moving spirit among the Nuns of the Congregation. Good- ness radiated from her benign personaUty, and her work bore the more lasting results from the wisdom of her methods. What she was may be judged from her portrait. No face of greater goodness and tenderness has come down from that period. But above ever5rthing else Marguerite Bour- geoys was a teacher. When she began, her re- sources were much fewer than those of the Ursu- Unes. She opened her first school in a barn, which was also a dormitory. The class met for recitation on the ground floor, while teacher and pupils both found their sleeping rooms in what had been designed for a hay-loft. With a true genius for instructing the young, Scaur Bourgeoys never suffered her attention to be deflected from this work. As Mother Superior she carried the Nuns of the Congregation through the period of risk and doubt. Before her death in 1700, they were lodged in a large stone building on Notre-Dame Street, and freed from all fear that poverty would force them to discontinue their labours. But before posterity Marguerite Bourgeoys stands out as an individual teacher, rather than as an organiser of education. Nor could one close the story of her life better than by quoting the first Unes of Newman's poem "On St. PhiUp Neri in His School." Marguerite Bourgeoys The Woman 357 " This is the Saint of gentleness and kindness, Cheerful in penance, and in precept winning; Patiently healing of their pride and blindness Souls that are sinning." Told at length, the acts of the Canadian nuns would fill a voluminous chronicle. We have only been able to glance at the work begun by a few leaders. But in the second rank are many others who displayed equal courage and unselfishness: The merry Soeur Saint Joseph, among the Ursu- lines; the unfhnching Mere St. Ignace, among the Hospital Nuns of Quebec; and among the Hospital Nuns of Montreal, Soeur Br^soUes, caring for the wounded when the Iroquois could be seen just outside the gate, and the weaker sisters were faint- ing from fright. Whether it be leaders or follow- ers, the underlying motive is the same — religious faith prompting to lives of sacrifice. And when the biographer has finished his sketch of Marie de I'lncamation or Marguerite Bourgeoys, he had best remain content with his plain narrative. Women like these do not ask for eulogy. Their best praise is the record of their deeds, written without comment in the impressive simplicity of truth. INDEX Abenakis, 170. Acadia, 26, 37, 63-65, 120, 122, 168, 170. Accault, Michel, 219. Achiganaga, 226-28. Aiguillon, Duchesse d', 348- 49. Aillebout, de Mantelt, 176. Aillebout, Governor d', 280. Aillebout, Mme. d', 268. Albanel, Father, 226, 252. Algonquins, 2, 3, 54, 69. Alsace, 32. America, its appeal to the imagination of Europe, 47- Andover lawsuit, 262. Andros, Sir Edmund, 41. Anne of Austria, 33, 94, 274. Argall, 168. Argenson, 275, 280. Arnold, Matthew, 30. Assiniboines, 204, 206. Aubign6, Agrippa d', 10. Aulard, A., 331. Avaugour, Baron d', 206-07, 209, 281, 291. Avenel, Vicomte Georges d', 26. Aztecs, 85. B Bacon, Francis, 49. Bacon, Roger, 7. Baker, Alice, 179. Barlow and Amidas, 48. Basque poachers, 67.' Bastonnais, 312, 320. Bay of Chaleurs, 64. Beauhamais, Marquis de, 339- Beauport, Seigniory of, 139, 141. Beaupr^, Seigniory of, 141. Beaver, habits of, 195-96. Beaver skins, value of, 189- 190. Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, 155 Biard, Pierre, 123. Biencourt, 123. Bienville, memorial to, at Mo- bile, 183. Bigot, 234, 257. Bossuet, 21, 39, 44, 271. Boston, 171. Boucher, Madeleine, dowry of, 336. Bourassa, Henri, 316. Bourgeoys, Marguerite, 110, 267- 333, 355-57- Bradley, A. G., 138, 214. Brandy question, 251. Brant6me, 10. Br6beuf, Jean de, sketch of, 91-102. Br^soUes, Sister, 357. Brouage, 4, 61. Brown and Gilmore's print- ing-press, 288. Browning, E. B., 16. Bryce, James, 315. Bullion, Mme. de, 354. Burke, Edmund, 43. Burroughs, John, 228. Buteux, Father, 104. 359 360 Index Cabot, John, 8, 47, 48, 117. Caen, E. de, 129. Caen, Guillatune de, 139. Calliferes, 313. Calvin, 10. Canada, passim. Canning, George, 243. Cape Diamond, 2. Carheil, Father, 187. Carignan Regiment, 147-49 240, 242-43, 26s, 298. Carillon, 40, 70. Carleton, Sir Guy, 317. Cartier, Jacques, 2, 3, 4, 10, 23. 27. 65. Casco Bay, 176. Casgrain, Abb6, 350. Cataraqiu, Conference of, 297-300. Catholic Revival, 13. Caughnawaga Indians, 102. Cellini, Benvenuto, 11. Champlain, Samuel de. Out- line of his career, 60-7 5 . First fight with the Iro- quois, 70-73. War with Onondagas, 74. Compared with La Salle, 75-79- Voyages, 60, 62. Habitation, 23. miscellaneous references, 2, 4, S. 10. 52. 120, 124-26, 266, 290. Chapais, Thomas, 230, 316. Charles I. of England, 169, 170. Charles III. of Spain, 257. Chasse Gallerie, La, 185, 188. Chateau de Ramezay, 24. Chateau St. Louis, 24. Chauvin, 65, 119. Closs6, Major, 354. Colbert, character of, 35-36. and Talon, 240-52. general references, 17, 19, 21, 30, 208, 305- 07. 333- College de Clermont, 233. Columbus, 7, 8, 9, 82. Combalet, Mme. de, 347. Company of New France, or of the Hundred Associates, 132-36. 138-39. 242. Company of the West Indies, 242. Concordat of 1516. Cond6, Prince de, 26, 27, 63, 120. Cond6, the Great, 36, 156. Conquistadores, 48, 85. Convicts as colonists, 117-18. Cooper, J. P., 53. Copernicus, 9. Copley, J. S., 290. Cortez, 12. Couillard, 130. Coureur debois, 151, 185-228, 306. Cramoisy, Sebastian, 50, 96. Crdpieul, Father, 104. Cr6vecoeur, Fort, 219. Curi, position of, in Canada, 263, 281-83, 286-87. Dante, 9, 337. Dartmouth College, 84. Dauversifere, Jerome le Royer de la, 14, 107-09, 266. DeChastes, 60, 64, 120. Deerfield, 40. Denonville, 173-74, 310. Dollar sign, origin of, 80-81. Dollard, 159-64, 205, 355. DoUier de Casson, 4, iii, 134, 160, 164, 256, 267, 354. Dominicans, 86. Dongan, Thomas, 172. Doughty, A. G., 172. Dover, 176. Drake, Sir Francis, 13. Dreams in superstition of Indians, 100-101. Druillettes, Gabriel, 104, 170- 72. Drummond, W. H., 85. Duchesneau, 20, 193, 211, 215, 305-08. Index 361 DufEerin, Lord, 42. Du Lhut, 7S, 196, 210-28. Dumas, 229. Dutch in the East Indies, 33. East India Company, 33. Edict of Nantes, 28. Revocation of, 12. Edwards, Jonathan, 262. Eliot, John, 84, 172. Enjalran, Father, 226. Estr6es, Due d', 208. Fontainebleau, 5. Faillon, Abb6, 98, 159, 265, 278. Fancam^p, Baron de, 158. Fenelon, Abb6, no. Ferland, Ahh6, 339. Festin d manger tout, 58. Filles du roi, 245, 332-35. Fiske, John, 118. Florence, 337. FoUe Avome, trial of, 225- 28. Fosdick, L. J., 135. France, place in history, 14- 16. colonial expansion, 16- in era of Louis XIV., 17- 20. absolutism of sovereign, 20-21. development of the mon- archy in, 21-23. architecture of sixteenth century in, 23-24. aristocracy of, as asso- ciated with Canada, 25-26. Roman Catholic Church in, 36-40. Francis I., 24, 27. Francis, Sir P., 305. Franciscans, 86. Franklin, Benjamin, 290. Fronde, wars of the, 34, 169. Frontenac, career of, 291- .313- his war parties, 174-78. and the coureurs de bois, 186. and Du Lhut, 211-13. general reference, 18, 20, 23, 26. Frontenac, Mme. de, 294-95. Fur trade as a monopoly, 118- 20. profits of, 189-190. G Gagnon, PhiMas, 288. Gallicanism, 5, 38-39. in Canada, 270-74. Gameau, F. X., 277. Gasp6, 4, 64. Gibbon, 18. Giffard, Robert, 139, 266. Girouard, Judge, 173. Gomara, 81. Gonsalvo da Cordova, 155. Goyer, Father, 313. Graham, Cunninghame, 49. Gregory VII., Pope, 39. Groseilliers (Medard Chou- art), 77, 197-209. Gustavus Adolphus, 155. Guyon, Jean, 140. H Hakluyt, Richard, 50. Hapsburg, House of, 29, 32. Harvard College, 84. Hastings, Warren, 305. H6bert, Louis, sketch of, 68, 121-31, 266. Hubert, Mme., 128, 131. Heine, 40. Hennepin, Louis, 50, 218-25. Henry III. of France, 237. Henry IV. of France, 21, 22, 27-29, 60, 63, 67, 119. Herodotus, 3. Hertel, Francois, 176, 178- 79. 267, 336. 362 Index Hill, J. J., 247. Hochelaga, 4. Holt, Henry, 36. Honfleur, 4, 65, 125. Horace, 3, 67. Hospital at Montreal, 353- 55- at Quebec, 347-49. Hudson's Bay, 206. Hudson's Bay Company, 181, 190, 207-09, 242. Huguenots, relations with Richelieu, 31. exclusion from Canada, 134-36. general references, 6, 36, 37- 90- Hundred Associates, Com- pany of, 132-36, 138-39. (See also Company of New France.) Hurons, 54, 57. 69, 95, 98- 103. Hutchinson, Anne, 261. Iberville, Pierre d', 179-83. Incas, 85. Indians, North American. Their characteristics, 53- S8. Innocent III., Pope, 39. Innocent XI., Pope, 38-39. Intendant, evolution of the office of, 236-40. Iroquois, 1, 2, 3, 23, 40, 47, 54, 57, 69, 95, 297-300. Isabella of Castile, 82. James II., 172. James Bay, 180. Jansenists, 37. Jans6nius, 270. Jesuit Relations, character of, 96-98, 104, 171. Jesuits, origin of, 86. in Acadia, 88. on coureurs de hois, 186- 88. Jesuits, and Frontenac, 302- 08. general references, 5, 13, 37- Jogues, Father, 93-95, loa. Johnson, Samuel, 46. Joliet, 75, 77, 204-205. Jonquest, Etienne, 130. Journal des Jisuites, 27a, 280. Joutel on death of La Salle, 78, 79- K Kalm, Peter, 289, 324-29. Kipling, R., 92. Kirke, David, 99, 140, 168. Kirke, Louis and Thomas, 169. L La Barre, 309. La Bruyfere, 335. La Chesnaye, 208, 213. La Chesnaye, massacre at, 173- Lachine Massacre, 157, 167, 173.310- Lachine Rapids, 63, 69. La Galissonifere, 288. La Hontan, Baron, 50. on the coureurs de hois, 185-86. on the filles du roi^ 334. on the beaver, 195. Lake Champlain, 2, 68, 73. Lake of the Woods, 206. Lake St. Peter, 64. Lalemant, Charles, 91. Lalemant, Gabriel, 102. Lalemant, Jerome, 93. La Perche, 140. Laprairie, 312. La Regnardi&re, 141. La Roche, 119. La Rochelle, 31. La Salle, 2, 47, 190, 196-97, 215-17. compared with Cham« plain, 75-78. Las Casas, 85. Index 363 La Toupine, 213. Lauson, Jean de, 141. Laval, Bishop, 25, ^g, 232. career of, 274-88. Law, John, 238. League, wars of, 237. Le Ber, Jeanne, 268. Leblond de Brumath, 275-76. Le Brun, Vig^e, 323. Le Caron, Father, 128. Le Clercq, Father, 103, 105, 124, 129-30. Le Jetine, Paul, 52, 57, 98, 112-13, 195, 346-48. Le Moyne, Charles, 80. sons of, at siege of Que- bec, 1690, 312. Le Moyne, Father, 95. Lescarbot, Marc, 26, 66, 122- 23- L'Estoile, 10. Le Sueur, coureurde bois, 228. Le Sueur, Father, 282. Lettres Edifiantes, 87, 97. Locke, John, 261. Loire, chateaux of the, 23, 25- Longueuil, barony of, 142. Lord, W. F., 308. Lorin, Henri, 103, 114. Louis XIII., 21, 32-33. Louis XIV., 17, 18, 19, 21, 27. 34. 172. Louisbourg, 40, 51, 311. Louisiana, 77, 183. Loyola, 86, 87. Luther, 10. M Macaulay, Lord, 18-19, i49- M'Lennan, William, 210. Madeleine de Verchferes, 166, 338-43- Maisoimeuve, Paul de Cho- medy, Sieur de, 14, 109-11, 157-59, 266, 290. Maitland, Sir T., 308. Mance, Jeanne, 5, iio-ii, 267, 353-55- , , Manufactures, development of, by Talon, 249-53. Marcel, Etienne, 31. Maricourt, 180. Marie de I'lncamation, 267, 272. 3SO-S3- Markham, Sir Clements, 312. Marlborough, 20. Marquette, Father, 75, 77. Massachusetts, 41, 170, 261, Mass6, Father, 88. Mather, Cotton, 262. Mayflower, the, 13. Mazarin, 34, 35, 170, 234. M6dicis, Marie de, 33. Menendez, 12. Meulles, 310. Mexico, 51, 298. M&y, de, 281. Michillimackinac, 76, 187, 225. Micmacs, 26, 54. Milton, 2. Missions, 83-85, 263. Mississippi, 77, 172, 203-05. Mohawks, 55. Moltke, 308. Montagnais, 54, 57. Montaigne, 49. Montalembert, 290. Montmagny, 291-92. Montmorency, Anne de, 25. Montreal, founding of, 105- 12. general references, 5, 12, 157-59. 176, 211, 253. Monts, de, 64-67, 120. More, Sir T., 49. Morel, Father, 287. Morin, Germain, 282. Mortagne, 140. Mosquitoes, Le Jeune's de- scription of, 53. Mount Desert Island, 65, 168. Munro, W. B., 144. Murray, General, 317. N Nelson, 295. New England, rivalry with New France, 40. architecture of, 24. 364 Index Newfoundland, D'Iberville in, 181. New France, passim. architecture of, 24. Newman, Cardinal, 356. Nicolet, 75, 195, 197, 200. Notre-Dame de Bonsecours, 356. Notre-Dame des Anges, 95. Notre-Dame, Society of, 107. Nuns in Canada, 343-57. Nuns of the Congregation, 355-57- Olier, Jean Jacques, 5, 14, 107-11, 266, 272. Onondagas, 55, 74, 95. mission to, 202. Origin of the Canadian pop- ulation, 149-50. Otis, C. P., 60, 73. Ottawa, the, 68, 74. Ouasicoude, 224-25. Oviedo, 81. Panama, 62. Papineau, L. J., 320. Paraguay, Jesuits in, 85. Parkman, Francis, 92, 102, 112, 179, 194. Parlement of Paris, 21, 274. Pascal, 270. Pasteur, 36, 229, 289. Peltrie, Mme. de la, iii, 267, 349-50- Pemaquid, 176, i8r. Pepperell, Sir W., 311. P6rl, Jean, 227. P6ron, Father, 202. Perrot, Nicolas, 198, 205, 217-18, 228. Perwich, William, De- spatches of, 334. Petraea, Mgr. de, 279. Phips, Sir W., at Quebec, 216-17. Picquet, Abb6, no. Pizarro, 12, 47. Plessis, Bishop, Sermon on Battle of the Nile, 178, 318- 20. Pl3miouth, 12, 171. Ponce de Leon, 47. Pontbriand, Bishop, 288. Pontgrav6, 63, 67, 68, 69. Port Nelson, 181. Portneuf, 176. Port Royal, 27, 65, 125, 168. Pragmatic Sanction of 1438, 38- Printmg in Canada, 288-90. Purchas, Samuel, 50. Puritans, 13, 37. Q Quebec, passim. Quebec Act, 318. Queylus, Abb6, 272-73. R Radisson, career of, 75, 77, 197-209. Ragueneau, Father, 202. Raleigh, Sir W., 66. Rambaud, Alfred, 238. Rameau, 134. R&oUets, 5, 86, 89-90, 302, 308, 313. Reformation, 10-14. Regnaut, Christopher, 102. Renaissance, 7-10, 14, 24. Renan, 194. Repentigny, 332. Ribaut, 12. Ribot, 16. Richelieu, Cardinal, character of, 29-34. and the Company of the Hundred Associates, 131-36. general references, 6, 27, 63. 155. 2?8, 348. Riviere des Prairies, 2. Rochemonteix, Father C. de, 92, 97, 114. Rocroi, battle of, 156. Index 365 Roman Catholic Chtirch in Canada, 260—90. Rouen, Archbishop of, 272. Rumford, Count, 290. Rupert, Prince, 207, 242. Ryswick, Peace of, 183. Sable Island, 119. Sagard, 75, 105, 126, 129. Saguenay, 63. St. Anthony, Falls of, 222. St. Castin, 181. St. Charles River, 3. St. Croix Island, 64. St. Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 75, 90, 169. Ste.-H616ne, 176, 180. St. Ignace, Mere, 357. St. Joseph, Soeur, 351, 357. St. Lawrence, passim. St. Malo, 4, 63. St. Sauveur, 168. St. Simon on Frontenac, 294. Saliferes, 147. Salmon Falls, 177. Salone, E., 1 14-16, 130. Schenectady, 40, 176-78. Schuyler, John, 312. Peter, 312. Scrooby, Congregation of, 13. Seignelay, 197, 213, 219. Seigniorial system in Canada, 137-49- Seminary at Quebec, 283-86. Senecas, 55. Senef, battle of, 211, 214. S6vign6, Mme. de, 323. Shakspere, 8, 46, 49. Siegfried, Andr6, 1 14-16. Sioux, 204, 206, 213-25. Soissons, Comte de, 26, 27. Soncino, Raimondo, 117. Sovereign Council, 253-54, 3°S' 307- Spain, 19, 32. Spanish Succession, war of, 20. Spencer, Herbert, 249. Stadacona, 3, 4. Stevenson, R. L., 47. Stoughton, William, 152. Stubbs, Bishop, 11. Sully, Due de, 29, 30. Sulpicians, 5, 14, 86, 90, 105, no. Suite, B., 92, 103, 137-38, 201, 277, 283, 316, 330, 352- Tadoussac, 4, 63, 65, 67, 119. Tailhan, J., 205. Talon, career of, 229-59. general references, 19, 20, 149, 300-02, 337. Tanguay, Abb6, 151, 330. Tartary, Grand Khan of, 82. Tennyson, 15, 59, 191. Three Rivers, 105, 176. Thwaites, R. G., 97. Tobacco Nation, 253. Tocqueville, A. de, 14. Tonty, Henri, 79, 211, 218. Touraine, chateaux of, 23. Tracy's expedition against the Mohawks, 147, 298. Trade, development of by Talon, 249-53. Trent, Council of, 39. Turenne, 156. U Ultramontanes, 5, 38-39, Urban VIII., Pope, 107. Ursulines, 349-53- V Vaudreuil, the elder, 215. Vaudreuil, the younger, 235. Venice, 24. Verazzano, 8. Versailles, 5, 23. Vignau, Nicolas de, 74-75, 197. Villemarie, 13, 107, 109, no 198, 266, 332,354. 366 Index Vimont, Barthel6my, 109, III, IIS- Virginia, 41. Voltaire, 51. W Wellington, Duke of, 184, 295 Wheelwright, Esther, 178. William of Malmesbury, 57. Williams, Roger, a6i. Wolfe, 313. Xavier, St. Francis. 87, 88. 92, 96. Young, Sir W., 109. WIIIXAM DE MORGAN'S IT NEVER CAN HAPPEN AGAIN The story of the great love of "Blind Jim" and his little girl, and of the affairs of a successful novelist. Fourth printing, "William De Morgan at his very hest."—Indttfdent. "Another long delightful voyage with the best English company. The story of a child certainly not less appealing to our generation than Little Nell was to hers."— Ai»c York Times Saturday Review. 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