sovereign in the struggle for power so long waged with Charles V. of
Spain; and Jacques Cartier, ruined in health and fortune, died in France
soon after his arrival there. Roberval on the death of Francis I.
embarked again for Canada in 1549, with his gallant brother Achille, and
a numerous train of enterprising young men; but having never afterwards
been heard of, they are supposed to have perished at sea.
In 1576, Martin Frobisher was sent out by Queen Elizabeth with three
ships on discovery, when Elizabeth’s Foreland, and the Straits which
bear his own name, were discovered. Frobisher mistaking _mica_ or _talc_
for gold ore, brought quantities of it to England, and was despatched by
some merchants with three ships in the following year, to seek for gold,
and to explore the coast of Labrador and Greenland, with the view of
discovering a north-west passage to India. He returned without any other
success than 200 tons of the supposed gold ore, and an Indian man,
woman, and child.
[Illustration: _The Whirlpool on the Niagara._]
In 1578 Martin Frobisher again sailed for the American continent with no
fewer than fifteen ships in search of gold, to the ruin of many
adventurers, who received nothing but mica instead of gold ore; the
fact, however, shows the speculative avidity of mercantile adventurers
at that period.
For fifty years France paid no attention to Canada, and the few settlers
or their descendants left by Cartier or Roberval were unheeded and
unsuccoured; but in 1598 the taste for colonial adventure revived, and
Henry IV. appointed the Marquis de la Roche his lieutenant-general in
Canada, with power to partition discovered lands into seigniories and
fiefs, to be held under feudal tenure, and as a compensation for
military services when required. La Roche fitted out but one vessel, and
unfortunately reinforced his crew with forty malefactors from the
prisons. It is sufficient here to state that Sable Island, a barren sand
bank, and a rude part of Acadia (now called Nova Scotia), were first
settled on and afterwards abandoned; and that to private enterprise,
rather than to royal decree, the French nation were at last indebted for
a permanent and profitable colonisation in Canada. M. Pontgrave, a
merchant of St. Malo, who had distinguished himself by making several
profitable fur voyages to Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay river,
engaged as an associate M. Chauvin, a naval officer who obtained from
Henry IV. in 1600 a commission, granting him an exclusive trade with
Canada, and other privileges. Chauvin associated other persons with him
in his enterprise, and made two successful trading voyages to Tadoussac,
where the Indians gave the most valuable furs in exchange for mere
trifles. Chauvin died in 1603, but Commander De Chatte, or De Chaste,
governor of Dieppe, founded a company of merchants at Rouen, to carry on
the fur trade on an extensive scale; an armament was equipped under
Pontgrave, and a distinguished naval officer named Samuel Champlain, who
sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as Sault St. Louis in 1603. On the
death of Chauvin, which happened in the ensuing year, Pierre Dugast
Sieur de Monts, a Calvinist and gentleman of the bedchamber to Henry IV.
received a patent conferring on him the exclusive trade and government
of the territories situate between 40° and 54° of lat.; and although of
the reformed religion, the Sieur was enjoined to convert the native
Indians to the Roman Catholic tenets. De Monts continued the Company
founded by his predecessors, and fitted out an expedition in 1604 of
four vessels, two of which were destined for Acadia, then an object of
attraction. Suffice it to say, that trading ports were established at
several places: the fur trade prosperously carried on; the Acadian
colony neglected; and Quebec made the capital of the future New France,
founded by Samuel Champlain on the 3d July, 1608. The various Indian
tribes contiguous to the new settlement, namely, the Algonquins, the
Hurons, &c. who were at war with the Iroquois, or Five Nations,
solicited and obtained the aid of the French. Champlain taught them the
use of fire-arms, which the Iroquois also acquired from their English
friends in the adjacent territory; and hence began the ruinous wars,
which have ended in the nearly total extermination of the Indians of the
North American continent, wherever they have come in contact with the
Europeans and their descendants. But little success attended the first
colonization on the banks of the St. Lawrence; in 1622, fourteen years
after its establishment, Quebec had not a population exceeding fifty
souls.[3] The mischievous policy of making religion (and that of the
Jesuit caste) a part of the colonial policy, long hampered the French
settlers; and to remedy the distressed condition of the colony, the
commerce of Canada, heretofore vested in the hands of one or two
individuals, was transferred in 1627 to a powerful association, called
the _Company of a hundred Partners_, composed of clergy and laity, under
the special management of the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu. The primary
object of the Company was the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic
faith, by means of zealous Jesuits; the secondary, an extension of the
fur trade, of commerce generally, and the discovery of a route to the
Pacific Ocean and to China, through the great rivers and lakes of New
France.
This Company held Canada or New France, with the extensive privileges of
a feudal seigniory under the king, to whom were owing fealty and homage,
and the presentation of a crown of gold at every new accession to the
throne. With the right of soil, a monopoly of trade was granted, the
king reserving for the benefit of all his subjects only the cod and
whale fisheries in the gulf and coast of St. Lawrence; and to such
colonists as might not be servants of the Company, was secured the right
of trading with the Indians for _peltries_ (skins), it being understood
that on pain of confiscation they should bring all their beaver skins to
the factors of the Company, who were bound to purchase them at 40 sous
a-piece. Under the new system, “protestants and other heretics,” as well
as Jews, were entirely excluded from the colony, and a Jesuit corps was
to be supported by the Company. Thus monopoly and bigotry went hand in
hand, and no auspicious Providence attended the efforts of such a
selfish and fanatic project.
The very first vessels despatched by the new religio-commercial-company
for Quebec, were captured by the English. In 1628, a squadron of English
vessels, under the command of Sir David Kertk, a French refugee, visited
Tadoussac, and destroyed the houses and cattle about Cape Tourmente;
Kertk and his little band next proceeded to Gaspé bay, where he met M.
de Roquemont, one of the hundred partners, commanding a squadron of
vessels, freighted with emigrant families, and all kinds of provisions.
Roquemont was provoked to a battle, and lost the whole of his fleet,
provisions, &c.; and the last hope of the colony of Quebec was blasted
by the shipwreck of two Jesuit missionaries, on the coast of Nova
Scotia, in a vessel laden with provisions for the starving colonists,
who were now reduced to an allowance of five ounces of bread per day.
Kertk, reinforced by some more English vessels, commanded by his two
brothers, sent them up the St. Lawrence, when they easily captured
Quebec on the 20th July, 1629: and, on the 20th October, Champlain
arrived at Plymouth, on his return to France, most of his countrymen
having, however, remained in Canada. While Quebec was being captured by
Kertk and his English squadron, peace was under ratification between
England and France; and, in 1632, (the latter power having previously
opened a negotiation with England,) Quebec, Acadia, (Nova Scotia,) and
Isle Royal, (Cape Breton,) were ceded to France, and Champlain resumed
the government of Canada. The Jesuits, with their accustomed zeal,
commenced anew their efforts; and from this period to the final British
conquest in 1760, a rivalship and growing hostility, partly religious
and partly commercial, took place between the French and English
settlers in North America, which were evinced by mutual aggressions,
while profound peace existed between their respective sovereigns in
Europe.
A minute detail of local occurrences would be out of place in a work of
this nature; it may be sufficient to say, that from this period, (1674,)
when the population, embracing converted Indians, did not exceed eight
thousand, the French settlement in Canada continued to increase, and as
it rose in power, and assumed offensive operations on the New England
frontier, the jealousy of the British colonists became roused, and both
parties, aided alternately by the Indians, carried on a destructive and
harassing border warfare. And here it may not be amiss to observe, how
much the progress of the British colonists in New York, New England,
&c., and the prosperity of the French in Canada, were influenced during
successive years by the strength and moral character of their respective
sovereigns. I may allude, for instance, to the licentious reign of Louis
XV., and the vigorous administration of William III., during whose
governments the progress of their respective colonies was retarded or
advanced by the example or stimulus afforded by the mother country; thus
demonstrating how much, under a monarchy, the character and happiness of
nations are influenced by the principles and habits of their rulers.
For many years the French in Canada made head against the assaults of
their less skilful, but more persevering neighbours, owing to the active
cooperation and support which the Canadians received from their Indian
allies, whom the British were by nature less adapted for conciliating;
but at length the latter, seeing the necessity for native cooperation,
conciliated the favour of the aborigines, and turned the tide of success
in their own favour. The hostilities waged by the Indians were dreadful.
Setting little value on life, they fought with desperation, and gave no
quarter; protected by the natural fastnesses of their country, they
chose in security their own time for action, and when they had enclosed
their enemies in a defile, or amidst the intricacies of the forest, the
war-whoop of the victor and the death-shriek of the vanquished were
almost simultaneously heard; and while the bodies of the slain served
for food to the savage, the scalped head of the white man was a trophy
of glory, and a booty of no inconsiderable value to its possessor. The
Canadians themselves sometimes experienced the remorseless fury of their
Indian forces. On the 26th of July, 1688, Le Rat, a chief of the Huron
tribe, mortified by the attempt of the French commanders to negotiate a
peace with the Iroquois, or Five Nations, without consulting the wishes
of their Huron allies, urged his countrymen, and even stimulated the
Iroquois, to aid him in an attack on Montreal. The colonists were taken
by surprise, a thousand of them slain, and the houses, crops, and cattle
on the island destroyed. Charlevais, in his history of _La Nouvelle
France_, says of the Indians, “Ils ouvrirent le sein des femmes
enceintes pour en arracher le fruit qu’elles portoient; ils mirent des
enfans tous vivant à la broche, et contraignirent les mères de les
tourner pour les faire rôtir!” The French, reinforced from Europe, sent
a strong force in February, 1690, who massacred the greater part of the
unresisting inhabitants of Shenectaday. According to Colden, (p. 78,)
the Indians whom the French took prisoners in the battle at Shenectaday,
were _cut into pieces and boiled to make soups for the Indian allies who
accompanied the French!_ Such were the desolating effects of European
colonization on the continent of America, equalling, in fact, as regards
the destruction of human life, the miseries inflicted by the Spaniards
on the more peaceful and feeble Indians of the West India islands.
The massacre of the Indians at Shenectaday by the French had the effect
of inducing the Iroquois and other nations to become more closely
attached to the English, and the French were compelled to act on the
defensive, and keep within their own territory. Our countrymen at Albany
were at first so much alarmed at the determined hostility of the French,
that they prepared to abandon the territory; but, at this crisis, the
New England colonists came to an understanding, and formed a coalition
for their mutual defence. Commissioners were sent to New York, and a
mission despatched to London, explaining their views, and soliciting aid
towards the successful completion of the naval and military expedition
which was planned against the French settlements in Canada, in 1690.
[Illustration: _Aylmer, Upper Canada._]
What a signal change had taken place in the views and relative position
of the parties, when, but a few years after, those very colonists sent
to France, whose dominion in Canada they had been the chief instruments
in annihilating, for succour and support in their war of independence
against Great Britain!
The plan of attack on Canada by the New England colonists, which they
fitted out at an expense of £150,000 (a heavy one to them at this
period), was twofold—1st, by land, and inland navigation on the
southern frontier of the French; and 2d, by a fleet, under Sir W.
Phipps, with a small army on board, which was sent round by sea from
Boston to attack Quebec. The force of the English was undisciplined; it
consisted of colonists who were stimulated by deadly resentment to
avenge the murder of their numerous relatives and friends, who had been
slain by the French and their Indian allies. Quebec was formally
summoned by Sir W. Phipps to surrender, and bravely defended by the
Sieur de Frontenac, who compelled his foes to return to Boston with
considerable loss in ships and men, owing to the delay and bad
management of the commander, who, had he persevered in his efforts,
would undoubtedly have starved out the garrison. The attack on Quebec by
land had, without waiting for cooperating with the fleet, previously
failed; so that the French were thus enabled to meet and defeat their
enemies in detail, a policy which a good general, when assailed by
superior numbers, will usually adopt.
The French, feeling secure in their dominions, pushed forward their
outposts with vigour by means of the fur-traders, and more than ever
alarmed the contiguous English colonists, who now became daily convinced
of the impossibility of both nations remaining as rivals on the same
continent; the French seeking dominion by military power and conquest,
the English by an extension of the arts of peace, aided by a liberal
spirit. The latter, therefore, resolved on using every possible means
for the total expulsion of their Gallic neighbours from Canada, who
refused the offer made to them to remain pacific while the mother
countries were at war. The main object of Frontenac was to take
possession of every point calculated to extend the dominion of France,
to cut off the English from the fur-trade, and, finally, to hem them in
between the Highlands of Nova Scotia and the Alleghany mountains. He
began by checking the incursions of the Iroquois, whom he weakened so
much by destructive warfare, and hemmed so closely in by a judicious
distribution of military stations or forts, as to prevent them ever
after from making an impression on Canada, such as they had been wont to
produce. Frontenac’s next step was the preparation, in 1697, of a large
armament to cooperate with a strong force from France, which was
destined for the conquest of New York; but while the brave and active
Canadian Governor was preparing to take the field, the news arrived of
the treaty of peace between France and England, concluded at Ryswick,
11th of September, 1697, much to the dissatisfaction of Frontenac.
The renewal of the war between Great Britain and France in May, 1702,
soon led to acrimony and hostility in America; and the cruel
persecutions of the Protestants in France caused a religious animosity
to be superadded to the hatred entertained by the New Englanders towards
their neighbours, whose numbers had now increased to about 15,000. In
1708 the Marquis de Vandreuil carried his operations into the British
frontier settlements, having previously negotiated for the neutrality of
the Iroquois, who were flattered by being treated as an independent
power; but the destruction of the village of Haverhill, and the massacre
of some of its inhabitants, compelled the Canadians again to assume a
defensive position. The New Englanders made every preparation for an
attack on Montreal by land; but the English forces destined for the
cooperation by the St. Lawrence river were required for Portugal, and
thus the Marquis de Vandreuil had time to make better preparations for
defence. The ensuing year (1709) was spent by the English in reducing
Acadia, now Nova Scotia; and when the combined land and sea expedition
against Canada took place in 1711, it was so ill-managed, and the
British fleet, owing to tempestuous weather and ignorance of the coast,
met with so many disasters,—losing by shipwreck in one day (the 22d of
August) eight transports, 884 officers, soldiers, and seamen—that the
expedition returned to Boston, and the restoration of peace between
France and England by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, left the former
yet a little longer to harass and molest the British colonists along the
Canadian frontier. The Marquis de Vandreuil availed himself of the peace
to strengthen the fortifications of Quebec and Montreal; the training of
the military, amounting to 5,000 in a population of 25,000, was
carefully attended to; barracks were constructed; and a direct
assessment levied on the inhabitants for the support of the troops and
the erection of fortifications. During ten years of foreign and internal
tranquillity, the trade and property of Canada made rapid progress: in
1723 nineteen vessels cleared from Quebec, laden with peltries, lumber,
stones, tar, tobacco, flour, pease, pork, &c.; and six merchant ships
and two men-of-war were built in the colony.
[Illustration: _Long Sault Rapid, on the St. Lawrence._]
The death of the Marquis de Vandreuil in October, 1725, was deservedly
lamented by the Canadians. He was succeeded in 1726 by the Marquis de
Beauharnois, (a natural son of Louis XIV.) whose ambitious
administration excited yet more the alarm and jealousy of the English
colonists of New York and New England; while the intrigues of the
Jesuits with the Indians, contributed not a little to bring about the
final struggle for dominion on the American continent, between the two
most powerful nations of Europe. The war between Great Britain and
France in 1745, led to the reduction in that year of Cape Breton, by a
British naval and military force, combined with the provincial troops of
the New England colonies; but the successful battle of Fontenoy roused
the martial spirit of the Canadians to attempt the re-conquest of Nova
Scotia in 1746 and 1747, in which they failed, and the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 suspended further hostilities. Commissioners
were then appointed to settle a boundary line between the British and
French territories in North America. The object of the French was to
confine the English within the boundary of the Alleghany mountains, and
prevent their approach to the Lakes, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi,
(where the former were now establishing themselves,) and their tributary
streams. The Canadian Government, without any authority from home, and
accompanied by a display of military pomp, calculated to impress on the
minds of the Indians the idea that France would assert her territorial
right to the limits marked, proceeded to survey the projected line of
demarcation between the possessions of France and those which the
Canadian Governor was pleased, _in his liberality_, to assign to
England: leaden plates, bearing the royal arms of France, were sunk at
proper distances, and the whole ceremony was concluded with much
formality. Such an imprudent step, it may be imagined, seriously alarmed
the Indians, as well as the English, and terminated in their active
cooperation for the utter expulsion of the French from North America.
In pursuance of the line of policy marked out by the French consuls at
home and in Canada, the Jesuits were employed to intrigue with the
Acadians, or descendants of the early French inhabitants, with the view
of prevailing on them to quit Nova Scotia, and resort to a military post
now established beyond its frontier, on the Canada side, where a new
colony was to be formed, in aid of which the royal sanction was granted
for an appropriation of 800,000 livres. Cornwallis, the governor of Nova
Scotia, soon convinced the French that he was aware of their
proceedings; he caused a fort to be erected opposite the French, near
the bay of Fundy, on the side of the river Beauhassin; and placed it
under the command of Major Laurence, and caused to be captured at the
mouth of the St. John river, a vessel laden with supplies for the
French. While these measures were in progress, the French commenced
enforcing their power along the line of demarcation they had marked out;
three individuals, who had licenses to trade from their respective
English governors, with the Indians on the Ohio, were seized by the
French, and carried prisoners to Montreal, whence, after severe
treatment and strict examination, they were at length liberated, with
injunctions not to trespass _on the French territories_.