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"Entered according to Act of the Provincial Legislature, for the
Protection of Copy-rights, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six, by P. SINCLAIR, Quebec, in the Office of the Registrar of
the Province of Canada."
THE RISE
OF
CANADA,
FROM
BARBARISM
TO
WEALTH AND CIVILISATION.
BY
CHARLES ROGER,
QUEBEC.
Una manus calamum teneat, manus altera ferrum,
Sic sis nominibus dignus utrinque tuis.
VOLUME I.
QUEBEC: PETER SINCLAIR.
Montreal, H. Ramsay and B. Dawson; Toronto, A. H. Armour & Co.; London,
C. W., Andrews & Coombe; Port Hope, James Ainsley; New York, H. Long &
Brothers, D. Appleton & Co., J. C. Francis; Boston, Little & Brown;
Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston; London, Trubner & Co.
1856.
ST. MICHEL & DARVEAU, JOB PRINTERS,
No. 3, Mountain Street.
TO
JOSEPH MORRIN, ESQUIRE, M. D.,
MAYOR OF QUEBEC,
This Volume
IS DEDICATED, AS THE ONLY MONUMENT, WHICH CAN BE RAISED
TO ACKNOWLEDGED WORTH,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL
FRIEND AND SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
Quebec, December, 1855.
INDEX.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
Canada Discovered 4
Cartier's Arrival in the St. Lawrence 5
Commencement of the Fur Trade 6
Quebec Founded 7
Exploration of the Ottawa 8
The Cold--Lake Huron 9
Sixty White Inhabitants 10
The First Franco-Canadian 11
The Colonists Dissatisfied 12
The Hundred Associates 13
Quebec Surrendered to the English 14
The Restoration--Death of Champlain 15
The Massacre at Sillery 16
The Effect of Rum upon the Iroquois 17
Arrival of Troops--A Moon-Light Flitting 18
Swearing and Blasphemy--The Earthquake 19
The Physical Features of the Country 20
The First Governor and Council 21
First Settlement of old Soldiers 22
The Canada Company 23
Kingston Founded 24
The Small Pox--De Frontenac--Sale of Spirits 25
Marquette--Jollyet--The Sieur La Salle 26
The First Vessel Built in Canada 27
Voyage of the Cataraqui--Tempest on Lake Erie 28
Mouths of the Mississippi--Murder of La Salle 29
Indian Difficulties--Fort Niagara 30
Deception and its Results 31
Massacre of Schenectady 32
Education--Witchcraft 33
Port Royal reduced by Phipps 34
De Frontenac's Penobscot Expedition 35
Trade--War--Population 36
New England Expedition to Canada 37
Gen. Nicholson--Peace of Utrecht 38
Social Condition and Progress 39
Louisbourg--Shirley's Expedition 40
Siege of Louisbourg 41
Surrender of Louisbourg 42
A French Fleet Intercepted 43
The New Englanders' Convention 44
Surprise and Defeat of Braddock 45
Avariciousness of Bigot 46
Capture of Oswego by Montcalm 47
Incompetent Generals--Change of Ministry 48
Abercrombie's attack on Ticonderoga 49
Surrender of Fort Frontenac 50
Wolfe's Invasion 51
The Repulse at Montmorenci 52
The Battle of Quebec 53
Death of Wolfe 54
Death of Montcalm 55
Canada ceded to England 56
Canada and New England 57
Quebec Act--Taxation without Representation 58
CHAPTER II.
Representation in the Imperial Parliament 59
Montgomery's Invasion 60
Arnold--Montgomery--Allen 61
The American Siege--Death of Montgomery 62
Independence Refused by the Catholic Clergy 63
The American Siege Raised 64
Independence--Defeat of Baum 65
The Surrender of Burgoyne 66
Western Canada divided into Districts 67
Divisions of the Province of Quebec 68
Lord Dorchester 69
Governor-General Prescott 70
Governor Milnes 71
The Royal Institution Founded 72
Cultivation of Hemp--Land Jobbing 73
The Lachine Canal--The Gaols Act 74
Trinity Houses Established--An Antagonism 75
Mr. Dunn, Administrator 76
Upper Canada--The Separation Act 77
Debate on the Separation Act 78
Mr. Fox's Speech 79
Mr. Chancellor Pitt's Speech 81
Mr. Burke's Speech 82
Governor Simcoe and his Parliament 83
Parliamentary Proceedings 84
Simcoe's Character 85
London Founded--Simcoe's Prejudices 86
Selection of a Seat of Government 87
Simcoe and the Hon. John Young 88
The Newark Spectator 89
First Parliament of Upper Canada 90
The Hon. Peter Russell 91
General Hunter, Governor 92
Hunter--New Ports of Entry 93
Collectors of Customs appointed 94
Parliamentary Business 95
Grant and Gore 96
Lower Canada--Importance of Parliament 97
Parliament Libelled 98
The Honorable Herman Ryland 99
Mr. Ryland's hatred of Papacy 100
Romanism seriously threatened 101
No Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec 102
Mr. Plessis and Mr. Att'y. Gen'l.--Explanation 103
A New Bishop Made--Ryland Angry 104
Churches and Education 105
Lord Bishop Strachan 106
The Church of England 107
The Dissenters and Episcopacy 108
Gift of £20,000 to the King--Spencer Wood, &c. 109
Garrison Pipeclay--the Habitants 110
A Provincial Agent in London 111
A Speck of War 112
The Chesapeake Difficulty Settled 113
Feeling in the United States 114
War Preparations in Canada 115
Upper Canada--The Parliament 116
Governor General Sir James Craig 117
Ryland's Love for the New Governor 118
Services of Sir James Craig 119
Meeting of Parliament 120
The Judges in Parliament 121
Expulsion of Mr. Hart 122
Prorogation of Parliament 123
Mr. Parent and "The Canadien" 124
Dismissals from the Militia 125
Mr. Panet re-elected Speaker 126
The War--The Judges--Mr. Hart 127
Parliament Angrily Dissolved 128
French Hatred of the British Officials 129
Craig's Opinion of the French Canadians 130
Composition of the Assembly 131
Vilification of the "Gens en Place" 132
The Martello Towers 133
The First Steamboat on the St. Lawrence 134
Death of Washington 135
No Liberty of Discussion in the United States 136
President Burr's Conspiracy 137
Madison--Erskine--and Jackson 138
Washington Diplomacy--A new Parliament 139
The Speech from the Throne 140
The Address in Reply 141
The Civil List 142
Civil List Resolutions 143
The Resolutions Premature 144
Mr. Justice De Bonne 145
An Antagonism--Parliament Dissolved 146
Rumors of Rebellion 147
Seizure of the "Canadien" 148
Sir James' upon Obnoxious Writings 149
A Proclamation 150
A Warning 151
Misgovernment of the Country 152
An Apology for Misgovernment 153
The Red-Tapist and the Colonist 154
Arrogance of the Officials 155
The Craig Road completed 156
Meeting of a New Parliament 157
Mr. Bedard, M.P., in prison 158
Why Mr. Bedard was not liberated 159
Disqualification of the Judges 160
Departure of Sir James Craig 161
Mr. Peel on Canadian Affairs 162
Mr. Peel--Sir Vicary Gibbs 163
Legislation in Upper Canada 164
Brocke--Prevost--The "Little Belt" 165
CHAPTER III.
Sir George Prevost 166
Opening of Parliament 167
Embodiment of the Militia 168
Declaration of War by the United States 169
The Henry Plot 170
Henry's Treachery 171
The American Minority's Fears 172
United States unprepared for War 173
The Feeling in Canada 174
Army Bills--Prorogation of Parliament 175
The Ste. Claire Riot 176
The Commencement of Hostilities 177
Surrender of Michillimackinac 178
General Hull.--Proclamation--Amherstburgh 179
Offensive operations by the British 180
The Battle of Maguago 181
Bombardment of Detroit 182
Surrender of General Hull 183
Hull in Montreal--His Excuse 184
Surrender of H.M.S. "Guerrière"--The Fight 185
The "Guerrière" a wreck 186
Abandonment of the "Guerrière" 187
The Northern States clamorous for peace 188
The Battle of Queenston--Death of Brocke 189
The Victory--The Burial of Brocke 190
The "President" and "Belvidera" 191
The "Frolic" and the "Wasp" 192
The "Macedonian" and "United States" 193
The Lords of the Admiralty 194
The "Constitution" and the "Java" 195
Capture of the "Java"--Spirit of "The Times" 196
Generals Sheaffe and Smyth 197
The Fleets on the Lakes 198
De Salaberry--Lacolle 199
Dearborn's Retreat 200
Smyth's Attempt at Erie 201
Meeting of the Lower Canadian Parliament 202
The Prevalent Feeling--Mr. Jas. Stuart 203
Proceedings of Parliament 204
Mr. Ryland on the Press 205
The "Mercury" upon Mr. Stuart 206
Opening of the next Campaign 207
Battle at the River Raisin 208
Great Exertions on both sides 209
Imperial Misapprehension of Canadian Resources 210
Assault at Ogdensburgh 211
Capture of Toronto 212
Fort George Blown up 213
The Americans Surprised 214
Black Rock--Sacketts Harbour 215
The Affair of Sacketts Harbour 216
Indecision of Sir George Prevost 217
Unsuccessful Assault upon Sandusky 218
Stupidity of the English Military Departments 219
Capture of two War Vessels at Isle Aux Noix 220
Plattsburgh Captured 221
Wisdom thrust upon the Admiralty 222
The "Shannon" and "Chesapeake" 223
The Fight--The Triumph 224
"Argus" & "Pelican"--"Boxer" & "Enterprise" 225
Travelling--The Thousand Islands 226
Goose Creek--The Attack 227
York--Capture of the "Julia" & "Growler" 228
Engagement on Lake Ontario--The Mishap 229
Barclay and Perry 230
The Battle--The Americans victorious 231
Proctor's Retreat-Kentucky Mounted Rifles 232
Death of Tecumseh--Flight of Proctor 233
General Proctor reprimanded and suspended 234
The intended attack upon Montreal 235
De Salaberry and his Voltigeurs 236
The Battle of Chateauguay 237
Excellent effect of music 238
The Canadians Victorious 239
Wilkinson's Descent of the Rapids 240
Chrystler's Farm 241
The Attack on Montreal abandoned 242
Gen. Drummond--Upper Canada 243
Assault and Capture of fort Niagara 244
Nocturnal Attack on Black Rock 245
The Retreat of the Americans 246
Termination of the Campaign 247
Prosperity of Canada during the War 248
Parliament--Upper Canada 249
The Parliament of Lower Canada 250
The Speech and The Reply 251
Proposed Income Tax 252
Mr. Ryland and the Provincial Secretary 253
Mr. James Stuart and Chief Justice Sewell 254
The Rules of Practice 255
Resolutions aimed at Jonathan Sewell 256
The Impeachment 257
An Unpleasant Position 258
Chief Justices Sewell and Monk 259
London Agents of the Province 260
The Prorogation--Russian Mediation 261
Capture of the "Essex" 262
"Frolic" & "Orpheus"--"Epervier" & "Peacock" 263
The "Reindeer" and "Wasp" 264
Prisoners--8th Regt.--Indians 265
The Attack upon Lacolle 266
The Killed and Wounded--Plunder 267
Recaptures of Plunder at Madrid 268
Capture of Oswego 269
The Sandy Creek Business 270
Riall's Defeat 271
The Battle of Chippewa 272
The Battle continued 273
Siege of Fort Erie 274
The Assault 275
A British Fleet on the American Coast 276
Admiral Cockburn & General Ross 277
The Legislative Capital of the U.S. captured 278
The Destruction of the Libraries 279
Capitulation of Alexandria 280
Death of General Ross 281
The Attack on Baltimore 282
Prairie Du Chien and Ste. Marie 283
Moose Island taken possession of 284
The Penobscot Expedition 285
Invasion of the United States 286
The British Fleet defeated in Lake Champlain 287
The Fight & the Surrender 288
The Retreat--Sir George Prevost 289
Character of Sir George Prevost 290
Accusation of Prevost by Sir Jas. Yeo 291
Fort Erie Blown up 292
New Orleans--General Jackson 293
Nature of the Defences of New Orleans 294
Pakenham--The Assault 295
Gallantry of the 93rd Regiment 296
The Defeat--Thornton Successful 297
Capture of Fort Boyer--The Peace 298
Defence of Pakenham's conduct 299
The Hartford Convention 300
Consequences of the War 301
The Canada Militia Disbanded 302
Meeting of Parliament in Lower Canada 303
An Agent--Public Opinion 304
Service of Plate to Sir George Prevost 305
Character of Prevost as a Governor 306
Close of the Session--the Lachine Canal 307
Progress--Recall of Sir George Prevost 308
Legislation in Upper Canada 309
State of Parties in Upper Canada 310
The Newspaper a Pestilence in the Land 311
The Brock Monument--Gore's Return 312
CHAPTER IV.
Drummond Administrator-in-chief 313
The Roads--The Inhabitants 314
The French Canadian character 315
Parliament--Waterloo 316
"My Native City" 317
The Assembly Censured 318
Dissolution of Parliament 319
General Wilson Administrator 320
Information for the Colonial Secretary 321
Sir John Sherbrooke's Notions 322
The New Parliament 323
Suspension of Mr. Justice Foucher 324
The Chief Justice of Montreal 325
"Sub Rosa" Negociation 326
Management of the Commons 327
The Banks of Quebec and Montreal 328
York and Kingston 329
First Steamers on the Lakes 330
Government of Upper Canada 331
Persecutions for Opinion's sake 332
Joseph Wilcocks, M.P.P. 333
Acts of the Upper Canada Legislature 334
The Prorogation 336
Foreign Protestants--Prorogation 337
Durand's Parliamentary Libel 338
Durand Imprisoned--Wyatt _vs._ Gore 339
Lower Canada Civil List 340
The Instructions--Foucher 341
Adjudication of Impeachments 342
Mr. Ryland's Opinion 343
The Chambly Canal 344
The Estimates--St. Peter Street, Quebec 345
Disinterment of Montgomery--Richmond 346
His Grace the Duke of Richmond's Speech 347
Rejection of the Civil List--Lachine Canal 348
Additional Impeachments 349
Some Feeling evinced by the Legislative Council 350
A Paul, Strahan, and Bate's Case 351
A Testy Speech from the Throne 352
Rideau Canal--Population--Banks 353
Upper Canada--Mr. Gourlay 354
Mr. Gourlay's schemes 355
Gourlay arrested 356
Gourlay's ejectment--Parliament 357
Governor Maitland and the Convention 358
Death of the Duke of Richmond 359
Antagonism--Maitland and the L.C. Assembly 360
Arrival of Lord Dalhousie 361
Papineau's speech at Montreal 362
Dalhousie's opening parliamentary speech 363
Facilities for manufacturing in Lower Canada 364
Honorable John Neilson--Appearance and Character 365
Quarrel of the Houses about the Civil List 366
Mr. Andrew Stuart--The Supplies, &c. 367
The Lachine Canal--Sinecure Offices 368
Additions to the Executive Council 369
The Civil List--Antagonism 370
Mr. Marryatt, M.P.--Stoppage of the Supplies 371
The Honorable John Richardson 372
Message from the Governor 373
Despotic conduct of the Assembly 374
Effect of cutting off the supplies 375
The Prorogation--Ryland's Advice 376
Legislative Union of the Provinces 377
Agriculture and commerce in distress 378
The Union Bill 379
The Church--Political Rights 380
Antipathies--Increasing Difficulties 381
Parliament again in session 382
Sir F. Burton--District of St. Francis 383
The Civil List 384
"Times" Libel--Emptiness of the Public Chest 385
The Finances--the Receiver General 386
The Lachine and Chambly Canals 387
The prorogation--Union of the Provinces 388
The Public Accounts of Upper Canada 389
Gourlay's Enlightened Views 390
Construction of Ship Canals recommended 391
Realization of a Dream--Mr. Merritt 392
John Charlton Fisher, LL.D., King's Printer 393
Suspension of Mr. Caldwell 394
Lord Dalhousie's Explanation 395
The defalcation--Tea Smuggling 396
Free navigation of the St. Lawrence demanded 397
Pettishness of the Lower Canada Assembly 398
Occupations Taxed in Upper Canada 399
Drawbacks on Importations 400
The Clergy Reserves 401
Parliament Closed--Tyranny of Maitland 402
The Bidwells and Brodeurs of U.C. 403
W. L. Mackenzie--Appearance and Character 404
Mackenzie Persecuted 405
Press Muzzlings 406
Sir J. Robinson--Patience and Oppression 407
Recall of Sir P. Maitland 408
Matthews--Willis--Robinson 409
The Gentry of Canada 410
The Literary and Historical Society 411
Departure of Lord Dalhousie 412
PREFACE.
The beauty of a book, as of a picture, consists in the grouping of
images and in the arrangement of details. Not only has attitude and
grouping to be attended to by the painter, and by the narrator of
events, but attention must be paid to light and shade; and the same
subject is susceptible of being treated in many ways. When the idea
occurred to me of offering to the public of Canada a history of the
province, I was not ignorant of the existence of other histories.
Smith, Christie, Garneau, Gourlay, Martin and Murray, the narratives
of the Jesuit Fathers, Charlevoix, the Journals of Knox, and many
other histories and books, were more or less familiar to me; but there
was then no history, of _all_ Canada from the earliest period to
the present day so concisely written, and the various events and
personages, of which it is composed, so grouped together, as to
present an attractive and striking picture to the mind of every
reader. It was that want which I determined to supply, and with some
degree of earnestness the self-imposed task was undertaken. My plan
was _faintly_ to imitate the simple narrative style, the
conciseness, the picturesqueness, the eloquence, the poetry, and the
philosophic spirit of a history, the most remarkable of any
extant--that of the world. As Moses graphically and philosophically
has sketched the peopling of the earth; painted the beauties of
dawning nature; shown the origin of agriculture and the arts;
described the social advancement of families, tribes and nations;
exhibited the short-comings and the excellencies of patriarchal and of
monarchical forms of government; exposed the warrings and bickerings
among men; told of the manner in which a people escaped from bondage
and raised themselves on the wreck of thrones, principalities, and
powers, to greatness; published the laws by which that most chosen
people were governed; and dwelt upon the perversity of human nature;
and as other men, divinely inspired, have sublimely represented the
highest stages of Jewish civilisation, so did I propose to myself to
exhibit the rise of Canada from a primitive condition to its present
state of advancement. My first great difficulty was to obtain a
publisher. There could only be a very few persons who would run the
risk of publishing a mere history of Canada, even with all these
fanciful excellencies, produced by one unknown to fame. But "where
there is a will, there is a way," and about the middle of the month of
June last, I had succeeded in disposing of a book, then scarcely
begun, to Mr. Peter Sinclair, Bookseller, John Street, in the City of
Quebec. That gentleman, with characteristic spirit and liberality,
agreed to become my publisher, and until the 17th day of September, I
read and wrote diligently, having written, in round numbers, about a
thousand pages of foolscap and brought to a conclusion the first
rebellion. Then the work of printing was begun, and the correction of
all the proofs together with the editorial management of a newspaper,
have since afforded me sufficient occupation. Mr. McMullen, of
Brockville, has, however, produced a history of this country from its
discovery to the present time, almost as if he had been influenced by
motives similar to those which have influenced me. His pictures,
however, are not my pictures, nor his sentiments my sentiments. The
books--although the facts are the same and necessarily derived from
the same sources--are essentially different. He is most elaborate in
the beginning, I become more and more particular with regard to
details towards the close--I expand with the expansion of the country.
In the first chapter of this first volume, the history of the province
while under French rule is rapidly traced, and the history of the New
England Colonies dipped into, with the view of showing the
progressional resemblance between that country which is now the United
States and our own; in the second chapter the reader obtains only a
glance, as it were, at the American war of independence, when he is
carried again into Canada and made acquainted with the many
difficulties in spite of which Upper and Lower Canada continued to
advance in wealth and civilisation; in the third chapter a history of
the war between England and the United States is given with
considerable minuteness; and the fourth chapter brings the reader up
to the termination of that extraordinary period of mis-government,
subsequent to the American war, which continued until the Rebellion,
and has not even yet been altogether got rid of. There are without
doubt, errors, exceptions, and omissions enough to be found--an island
may have been inadvertently placed in a wrong lake, a date or figure
may be incorrect, words may have been misprinted, and, in some parts,
the sense a little interfered with--but I have set down nothing in
malice, having had a strict regard for truth. I have creamed Gourlay,
Christie, Murray, Alison, Wells, and Henry, and taken whatever I
deemed essential from a history of the United States, without a title
page, and from Jared Sparks and other authors; but for the history of
Lower Canada my chief reliance has been upon the valuable volumes,
compiled with so much care, by Mr. Christie, and I have put the
essence of his sixth volume of revelations in its fitting place.
For valuable assistance in the way of information, I am indebted to
Mr. Christie personally, to the Honble. Henry Black, to the Librarians
of the Legislative Assembly--the Reverend Dr. Adamson and Dr.
Winder--and to Daniel Wilkie, Esquire, one of the teachers of the High
School of Quebec.
C. ROGER.
Quebec, 31st December, 1855.
THE RISE
OF
CANADA
FROM
BARBARISM TO CIVILISATION.
CHAPTER I.
There have been many attempts to discover a northwest passage to the
East Indies or China. Some of these attempts have been disastrous, but
none fruitless. They have all led to other discoveries of scarcely
inferior importance, and so recently as within the past twelve months
the discovery of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans has
been made. It was in the attempt to find a new passage from Europe to
Asia that this country was discovered. In one of these exploring
expeditions, England, four centuries ago, employed John Cabot. This
Italian navigator, a man of great intrepidity, courage, and nautical
skill, discovered Newfoundland, saw Labrador, (only previously known to
the Danes) and entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To Labrador he gave,
it is alleged, the name of Primavista. But that he so designated that
still rugged and inhospitable, but not unimprovable, region, is less
than probable. The name was more applicable to the gulf which,
doubtless, appeared to Cabot to be a first glimpse of the grand marine
highway of which he was in quest, and with which he was so content that
he returned to England and was knighted by Henry the Seventh. Sebastian
Cabot made the next attempt to reach China by sailing northwest. He
penetrated to Hudson's Bay, never even got a glimpse of the St.
Lawrence, and returned to England. Fifty years afterwards, Cotereal
left Portugal, with the view of following the course of the elder
Cabot. He reached Labrador, returned to Portugal, was lost on a second
voyage, and was the first subject of a "searching expedition," three
vessels having been fitted out with that view by the King of Portugal.
Several other attempts at discovery were subsequently made. Two
merchants of Bristol, in England, obtained a patent to establish
colonies in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in 1527, Henry the Seventh,
for the last time, despatched a northwest passage discovery fleet. The
formation of English settlements, and the exploration were equally
unsuccessful. These facts I allude to, rather with the object of
accounting for the name of "Canada," applied to the country through
which the St. Lawrence flows, than for any other purpose. In the
"_Relations des Jesuits_," Father Henepin states that the Spaniards
first discovered Canada while in search, not of a northwest passage,
but of gold, which they could not find, and therefore called the land,
so valueless in their eyes, _El Capo di Nada_--"The Cape of Nothing."
But, the Spaniards, who possibly did visit Canada two years before
Cabot, whatever the object of their voyage may have been, could not
have done anything so absurd. Quebec, not Canada, may have been to them
Cape Nothing, and doubtless was. It was the _way_ they looked for. That
was as visible to them as to Cabot, and a passage, strath, or way is
signified in Spanish by the word Canada. It was not gold but a way to
gold that English, Spaniards, Italians, and French sought. It was the
cashmeres, the pearls, and the gold of India that were wanted. It was a
short way to wealth that all hoped for. And the St. Lawrence has,
indeed, been a short way to wealth, if not to China, as will afterwards
be shown.[1]
[1] The title of Henepin's book is "Nouveau Voyage d'un païs plus
grand que l'Europe, avec les réflections des enterprises du Sieur
de la Salle, sur les Mines de Ste. Barbe, &c., * * * et des
avantages qu'on peut retirer du chemin racourci de la Chine et du
Japon, par le moyen de tant de vastes contrées et de nouvelles
colonies," (published at Utrecht in 1698.)
In the commissions granted to Champlain, on the 15th October,
1612, and 15th February, 1625, the same objects are adverted
to:--"_pour essayer de trouver le chemin faite pour aller par de
dans le dit pays au pays de la Chine et Indes Orientales_."
Passing over the exploration of what is now the Coast of the United
States, by Verrazzano, I come to the discovery of Gaspé Basin and the
River St. Lawrence, by Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, in France. With
ships of one hundred and twenty tons, and forty tons, Cartier arrived
in the St. Lawrence--as some spring traders of the present day
occasionally do--before the ice had broken up, and found it necessary
to go back and seek shelter in some of the lower bays or harbours. He
left St. Malo in April, 1534, and arrived in the St. Lawrence early in
May. Returning to Gaspé, he entered the Bay Chaleur, remained there
until the 25th July, and returned to France. Next year, Cartier arrived
in the St. Lawrence, after various disasters to his three vessels, and
viewed and named Anticosti, which he called L'Isle de L'Assomption;
explored the River Saguenay; landed on, and named the Isle aux Coudres,
or Island of Filberts; passed the Isle of Bacchus, now Island of
Orleans; and at length came to anchor on the "Little River" St. Croix,
the St. Charles of these times, on which stood the huts of Stadacona.
Cartier chatted with the Indians for a season. He found them an
exceedingly good tempered and very communicative people. They told him
that there was another town higher up the river, and Cartier determined
upon visiting that congregation of birch bark tents or huts, pitched on
a spot of land called Hochelaga, now the site of Montreal. At Hochelaga
the "new Governor" met with a magnificent reception. A thousand natives
assembled to meet him on the shore, and the compliment was returned by
presents of "tin" beads, and other trifles. Hochelaga was the chief
Indian Emporium of Canada; it was ever a first class city--in Canada.
Charlevoix says, even in those days this (Hochelaga) was a place of
considerable importance, as the capital of a great extent of country.
Eight or ten villages were subject to its sway. Jacques Cartier
returned to Quebec, loaded his vessels with supposed gold ore, and Cape
Diamonds, which he supposed were brilliants of the first water, and
then went home to France, where he told a truly magnificent tale
concerning a truly magnificent country. Expeditions for Canada were
everywhere set afoot. Even Queen Elizabeth, of England, sent Frobisher
on a voyage of discovery, but he only discovered a foreland and tons of
mica, which he mistook for golden ore. Martin Frobisher was ruined. His
was a ruinous speculation. Talc or mica did not pay the expense of a
nine month's voyage with fifteen ships. But all that was then sought
for is now found in Canada--and more. To obtain much gold, however, the
settlement of a country is necessary. It is the wants of the settlers
which extract gold from the ground for the benefit of the trader. The
only occupiers of Canada, no farther back than two hundred years, were
Indians. The Montagnais, the Hurons, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the
Outagomies, the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, and the
Crowfeet red-faces, were the undisputed possessors of the soil. They
held the mine, the lake, the river, the forest, and the township in
free and common soccage. They were sometimes merchants and sometimes
soldiers. They were all ready to trade with their white invaders, all
prone to quarrel among themselves. The Iroquois and Hurons were ever at
war with each other. When not smoking they were sure to be fighting.
The first white man who opened up the trade of the St. Lawrence was M.
Pontgrave, of St. Malo. He made several voyages in search of furs to
Tadousac, and the wealthy merchant was successful. With the aid of a
Captain Chauvin, of the French navy, whom he induced to join him,
Pontgrave attempted to establish a trading post at Tadousac. He was,
however, unsuccessful. Chauvin died in 1603, leaving a stone house for
his monument, then the only one in Canada.
It was now determined by the French government to form settlements in
Canada. And the military mind of France attempted to carry into effect
a plan not dissimilar to that recommended a few years ago by Major
Carmychael Smyth, the making of a road to the Pacific through the
wilderness by means of convicts. The plan, however, failed, though
attempted by the Marquis De la Roche, who actually left on Sable Island
forty convicts drawn from the French prisons. A company of merchants
having been formed for the purpose of making settlements, Champlain
accepted the command of an expedition, and accompanied by Pontgrave,
sailed for the St. Lawrence in 1603. They arrived safely at Tadousac,
and proceeded in open boats up the St. Lawrence; but did nothing. The
effort at settlement was subsequently renewed. In 1608, Champlain, a
second time, reached Stadacona or Quebec, on the 3rd July, and struck
by the commanding position of Cape Diamond, selected the base of the
promontory as the site of a town. He erected huts for shelter;
established a magazine for stores and provisions; and formed barracks
for the soldiery, not on the highest point of the headland, but on the
site of the recently destroyed parliament buildings. There were then a
few, and only a few, Indians in Stadacona, that Indian town being
situated rather on the St. Charles than on the St. Lawrence. Few as
they were, famine reduced them to the necessity of supplicating food
from the strangers. The strangers themselves suffered much from scurvy,
and after an exploration of the lake which yet bears the name of its
discoverer, Champlain returned to France. Two years later the intrepid
sailor set out for Tadousac and Quebec with artisans, laborers, and
supplies for Nouvelle France, the name then given to Canada, or the
Great "Pass" to China. He arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay on the
26th of April, after a remarkably short passage of eighteen days. He
found his first settlers contented and prosperous. They had cultivated
the ground successfully, and were on good terms with the natives.
Champlain, however, desirous of annexing more of the territory of the
Indians, stirred them up to strife. He himself joined an hostile
expedition of the Algonquins and Montagnais against the Iroquois. What
success he met with is not now to be ascertained. Deficient in
resources, he again returned to France, and found a partner able and
willing to assist the Colony in the person of the Count de Soisson, who
had been appointed Viceroy of the new country--a sinecure appointment
which the Count did not long enjoy, inasmuch as death took possession
of him shortly afterwards. The honorary office of Viceroy, which more
resembled an English Colonial Secretaryship of the present day, than a
viceroyalty, was, on the death of Soisson, conferred on the Prince de
Condé, who sent Champlain from St. Malo for the Colonial Seat of
Government, on the 6th March, 1613, as Deputy Governor. Champlain
arrived at Quebec on the 7th of May. The infant colony was quiet and
contented. Furs were easily obtained for clothing in winter, and in
summer very little clothing of any kind was necessary. The chief
business of the then colonial merchants was the collection of furs for
exportation. There were, properly speaking, no merchants in the
country, but only factors, and other servants of the home Fur Company.
The country was no more independently peopled than the Hudson's Bay
Territory now is. The actual presence of either governor or
sub-governor was unnecessary. Champlain only made an official tour of
inspection to Mount Royal, explored the Ottawa, and returned to France.
He was dissatisfied with the appearance of affairs, and persuaded the
Prince of Condé, his chief, to really settle the country. The prince
consented. A new company was formed through his influence, and, with
some Roman Catholic Missionaries, Champlain again sailed for Canada,
arriving at Quebec early in April, 1615--a proof that the winters were
not more intense when Canada was first settled than at present. Indeed
the intense cold of Lower Canada, compared with other countries in the
same latitude, is not so much attributable to the want of cultivation
as to the height of the land, and the immense gully formed by the St.
Lawrence, and the great lakes which receive the cold blasts of the
mountainous region which constitutes the Arctic highlands, and from
which the rivers running to the northward into Hudson's Bay, and to the
southward into the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, take their rise.
The icy breath of the distant north and northwest sweeps down such
rivers as the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and the Saguenay, to be gathered
into one vast channel, extending throughout Canada's whole extent. And,
clear the forest as we may, Canada will always be the same cold,
healthy country that it now is. Lower or rather Highland Canada, will
be especially so, without, however, the general commercial prosperity
of the country suffering much on that account. There are lowlands
enough for a population far exceeding that now occupying the United
States. But this is a digression. Champlain's Missionaries set
themselves vigorously to the work of christianizing the heathen, while
Champlain himself industriously began to fight them. He extended the
olive branch from his left hand, and stabbed vigorously with a sword in
his right hand. The Missionaries established churches, or rather the
cross, from the head waters of the Saguenay to Lake Nepissing.
Champlain battled the Iroquois from Mont Royal to Nepissing. Rather he
_would_ have done so. He did not find them until he reached, overland
and in canoes, Lake Huron, the superior character of the land in that
neighbourhood attracting his particular attention. He found his "enemy"
entrenched by "four successive palisades of fallen trees," says Smith,
"enclosing a piece of ground containing a pond, with every other
requisite for Indian warfare"--a very Sebastopol, upon which Champlain
discharged his fire-arms, driving the Iroquois back to their camp. The
place was, however, impregnable, and the siege was reluctantly raised.
The Algonquins would only fight as they pleased. They were sadly in
want of a head. They would not use fire-arms, but "preferred firing
their arrows against the strong wooden defences." Champlain was twice
wounded in the leg, and his allies, making the non-arrival of
reinforcements an excuse, retreated. Champlain insisted upon going
home, but transport was wanting, and he was compelled to winter, as
best he could, in a desolate region, with his discomfitted allies. In
the following year he got away, and made haste down his Black Sea of
Ontario, to his Golden Horn at Tadousac, from thence, on the 10th of
Sept., 1616, returning to his native country to find his partner, the
Prince of Condé, in disgrace and in confinement, for what the historian
knows not. The Prince had possibly been playing Hudson, for we find
that the Marshal de Themines was prevailed upon to accept the office,
on condition of sharing the emoluments. But he too became involved in
"controversy with the merchants," and after only two years presidency
of the Company, resigned, when the Duke de Montmorenci obtained the
Viceroyalty from Condé, for eleven thousand crowns. The Duke was Lord
High Admiral of France, and Champlain was exceedingly glad. Another new
colonizing company was formed. Seventy-seven artisans, farmers,
physicians, or gentlemen, three friars, horses, cows, sheep, seed-corn,
and arms were collected at Rochelle for exportation in 1619. But the
laymen, partly Protestants and partly Roman Catholics, began to
squabble about the immaculate conception, or something else, equally
stupid and unimportant, until Champlain himself got into trouble and
nearly lost his Deputy Governorship, and the expedition was delayed. In
1620, Champlain, however, set sail, and on his arrival at his capital,
in July, was agreeably surprised to find that a missionary, named
Duplessis, had got so far into the good graces of the Hurons, at Trois
Rivieres, that he had discovered and frustrated a plan for the massacre
of the French colonists. At Tadousac affairs were not at all
flattering. The colonists had neglected cultivation. Only sixty white
people remained, ten of whom were religiously engaged in keeping
school, or were engaged in keeping a religious school. At this period
of time it is difficult to say which. Worse than this scurvily
decimated condition of the people, was the intrusion of some
unprincipled and unprivileged adventurers from Rochelle, who had been
bartering fire-arms with the Indians for the Company's furs. Champlain
was very wroth, but moderated his anger somewhat on ascertaining that
an _enfant du sol_--a real French-Canadian baby was in the land of the
living. Who was the father of the child or who the mother, is neither
mentioned by Hennepin nor Charlevoix, and the office of Prothonotary,
or Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths had not been instituted.
It is not even in the chronicles that Champlain was at the christening,
nor is the ceremony alluded to at all. This great, and most interesting
event happened on some hour of some unmentioned day in the year 1621.
It is possible the mother was of a distinguished Huron family. It is
certain that the Hurons were about that time in close alliance with the
French, for the Iroquois began to be jealous of the alliance between
the Hurons, Algonquins, and the French, and declared war with the view
of destroying the settlements. The Iroquois succeeded in burning some
Huron villages, but were repulsed by the French both at the Sault St.
Louis and at Quebec. Quebec was now a fortified town. There were
wooden, but not very extensive, walls around the barracks and the huts.
Champlain had, on the whole, great reason to be thankful. His power and
authority seemed to be undisputed. He had seen the first of a new world
generation, and the means of wealth were seemingly at his feet. But he
met with disappointment. The association of merchants who had fitted
out his expedition, and from whom he obtained his supplies, were
suddenly deprived of all their privileges of trade and colonization, by
Montmorenci. The Duke, determined on doing as he pleased with his own,
transferred the supremacy of the colonists to the Sieurs de Caen, uncle
and nephew. The one de Caen was a merchant, the other a sailor. The
sailor was soon at Tadousac. Before Champlain had well known, by a
letter of thanks for past services, that he was re-called, or rather
superseded, his successor had arrived at the head quarters of Nouvelle
France--Tadousac. De Caen solicited an interview with Champlain, which
was conceded. Smarting with indignation, Champlain was too polite. His
courtesy was so excessive, that De Caen became exacting as if to show
who he was. He wanted to seize all Champlain's trading vessels. They
belonged, he said, to a company whose privileges had been transferred
to him as the representative of another company. The furs with which
they were laden belonged to Montmorenci and the De Caens, as his
Grace's agents. Champlain demurred, and Captain De Caen peremptorily
demanded Du Pont's vessel. Champlain, no longer courteous, flew into a
violent passion. Du Pont was the favourite agent of his company, and
his own particular friend. Champlain's rage was of no avail. Nor was
the sympathy of the colonists of any value. De Caen was supreme, and
did as he pleased. The colonists, however, excessively indignant,
resolved to leave in a body, unless their opinions were allowed some
weight, and a number did take their departure. Although De Caen had
brought eighteen new settlers, the colony was reduced to only
forty-eight. Champlain, however, remained in Canada. He felt himself to
be the chief colonist, and only removed to Quebec, where he erected a
stone fort. The fort was partly on that part of the present city on
which the old Church of Notre Dame stands, in the Lower Town, and
partly where the former Palace of the Roman Catholic Archbishop stood.
Champlain pitched his tent outside the walls, which were almost
rectangular, under the shadow of a tree, which, until six years ago,
threw its leafy arms over St. Anne Street, from the Anglican Cathedral
Church yard. While this fort-building, vessel seizing, and unchristian
feeling were rending the infant colony to pieces, interfering with
trade, and proving vexatious to all, a union had been formed in France
between the old and new companies. The coalition was not productive of
good. There was so little cordiality and so much contention between the
parties, that Montmorenci threw up his viceroyalty in disgust, that is
to say, he sold out to the Duke de Ventadour. Ventadour was in a world
of difficulties. France was then half Protestant and half Catholic.
Ventadour's chief object in purchasing Canada was to diffuse the
Catholic Religion throughout the new world. With much energy of
character, he was singularly pious. He attended mass regularly at an
early hour every morning. His bedroom was religiously fitted up; the
symbol of redemption hung constantly over the head of his bed. He was
no bigot. He was thoroughly in earnest. He was only not wise. The man
who had caused Champlain so much annoyance was himself a Huguenot, and
not that only,--to the Duke's mortification, he had taken to Canada
chiefly Protestants, and had even caused the Roman Catholic emigrants
to attend Protestant worship on shipboard. Two thirds of the crews of
his ships were Protestants. They sang psalms on the St. Lawrence. The
new viceroy was much annoyed on ascertaining that De Caen had permitted
such a state of things. The exercise of the Protestant religion, he had
given orders, should be barely tolerated, and he had been disobeyed.
Champlain did not trouble himself about religious squabbles. He made
himself difficulties with the Indians, leaving religious dissensions to
be made by his would be superior. Amid all these difficulties the fur
trade languished, and the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, who knew the
advantages to be derived from Ventadour's pious missionary effort,
revoked the privileges of De Caen's new company, and established a
newer company called the Hundred Associates. The associates were not
only to colonize, but they were amply to supply necessaries to the
colonists. They were to send out a large number of clergymen. Those
clergymen were to create churches and erect parsonages. They were to be
supported by the Associates for fifteen years. They were to have
glebes, or reserved lands, assigned to them for their sufficient
support. At a blow the wily cardinal had extinguished psalm singing on
the St. Lawrence for at least a century. In 1627 the Hundred Associates
were formed. But plans cannot be always carried into effect as soon as
determined upon. War was proclaimed by England against France in the
following year, 1628. The weakest and the meanest of English kings had
caused the Puritans, previously persecuted by Elizabeth, to leave their
country. The Puritans, in November, 1607, had settled in New England.
The year in which the first Franco-Canadian saw the light of day,
Governor Carver, of Plymouth Colony, had entered into a league of
friendship, commerce, and mutual defence with Massassoit, the great
Sachem of the neighbouring Indians. Some years previously (1619) the
Colony of Virginia had received her first Governor General from
England, who had instructions to convoke a general legislature. With
all his impotent stammering, slobbering, weeping, buffoonery, and
pedagoguism, James had an indistinct idea that it was as necessary to
hear the voice of the people as the voice of the king. He chose rather
to direct than to suppress the expression of opinion. But the Governor
General of Virginia was appointed by the London Company, whose
privileges were taken away by James on the year preceding his death,
which occurred in March, 1625, after the company had expended £100,000
in the first attempt to colonize America. James appointed a viceroy or
governor and directed him how to govern. New France, at the breaking
out of such a war, had something to dread from New England, so much
further advanced in colonization. Cardinal Richelieu's plan of Canadian
settlement was roughly interfered with, by the capture of his first
emigrant ships by Sir David Kerk, who afterwards proceeded to Tadousac,
burned the village, and proceeded to Quebec to summon Champlain to
surrender. The brave Frenchman refused and Kerk retreated. But Kerk
came back again. He again appeared before the walls of Fort Quebec, and
summoned it to surrender. Reduced to great distress by famine,
Champlain surrendered, and the whole settlement was taken captive to
England. With the exception of a few houses, a barrack, and a fort at
Quebec, and a few huts at Tadousac, Trois Rivieres, and Mont Royal,
Canada was again as much a wilderness as it ever had been since the
Asiatics had stepped across Behring's Straits to replenish the western
hemisphere. The great curiosity, the first Franco-Canadian baby, now
eight years old, was doubtless carried to the tower, and caged as a
curiosity, near the other lions and tigers of London. It was not until
the restoration of peace in 1633, that Champlain was reappointed
Governor of Canada, which, by the treaty of 1632, was surrendered back
to France, on the supposition that it was almost worthless. This time
colonization was systematically undertaken by the Jesuits, who only
arrived in Canada in time to supply the loss of Champlain, a man of
exemplary perseverance, of ambitious views, and of wonderful
administrative capacity, for a layman of that day, who died in
December, 1635. The foundation of a seminary was laid at Quebec. Monks,
Priests, and Nuns were sent out from France. The Church was to settle
in the wilderness to be encircled by the godly. If Admiral Kerk had
carried off a settlement, Mother Church was to produce other
settlements. A new governor was named--Montmagny. Business, however,
began to languish. The Indians became exceedingly troublesome. And the
Iroquois had subdued the Algonquins, and had nearly vanquished the
Hurons. To defend the settlement from these fierce warriors, Montmagny
built a fort at Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, down which river
the savage enemy usually came. The construction of the fort had the
desired effect. Peace with the Indians soon followed, and the colony
became happy and contented. The effect of Jesuitical tact and judgment
soon began to exhibit itself. An Ursuline Nunnery and a Seminary were
established at Quebec, through the instrumentality of the Duchess
d'Aiguillon. The religious order of St. Sulpice, at the head of which
was the Abbé Olivier, proposed to the King of France to establish a new
colony and a seminary at Mont Royal, bearing the name of the order and
composed of its members. The proposal was entertained, and the Island
of Montreal conceded to the religionists for their support. The Sieur
Maisonneuve--a name admirably chosen--was placed at the head of the
faithful emigrants, and invested with its government. The third regular
governor of Canada was M. d'Aillebout. He succeeded Montmagny, whose
term of office had expired. On the death of Champlain, no Governor of
Canada was to hold the reins of government longer than three years.
D'Aillebout was an exceedingly able man. He was firm, and, on the
whole, just. He was left entirely to himself in the management of
affairs, and he left the conversion of the Indians to peace and
Christianity, to the missionaries, who labored well and earnestly,
establishing the Hurons, and even the Iroquois, in villages. The
latter, who were never to be trusted, only feigned semi-civilization,
and unexpectedly renewing the war, they fell upon their old enemies,
the Hurons, with diabolical fury. In the Indian village of Sillery,
while a missionary was celebrating mass in the Catholic Church, and
none but old men, women, and children were present, a terrible and foul
massacre occurred. The Iroquois rushed into the chapel with tomahawk
and scalping knife, murdering all the congregation, nor stayed their
hands until upwards of four hundred families, being every soul in the
village, were slain. About this time our friends south of the line 45°,
first began to dream of the annexation of Canada. An envoy from New
England visited Quebec, and proposed to the French governor the
establishment of a peace between the two colonies of New France and New
England, which was not to be broken even should the parent states go to
war. Governor Montmagny consented, on condition that the Iroquois were
to be put down. He was so willing that he sent an envoy to Boston to
ratify a treaty. But the New Englanders would not quarrel with the
Iroquois, and no treaty was effected. A more hopeful international
commercial alliance, of which the Boston Jubilee of 1851 was
indicative, has lately been entertained. Compared to the Iroquois, or
even the Algonquins, the Huron tribe of Indians were mild in
disposition and peaceably disposed. The French missionaries obtained a
powerful hold over them. Great numbers became christianized, and even,
to some extent, civilized. Descendants of Nimrod though they were,
their wandering habits were partially subdued, and very many began to
cultivate the ground. As if there was something in the climate of
Quebec to produce such an effect, they were naturally inclined to be
supremely tranquil. And notwithstanding the recent horrible massacre
they soon sank back into their ordinary state of lethargy. They were
fearfully aroused from their lethargy, however, by another series of
attacks on the part of the Iroquois. The latter ferocious red men made
a descent upon the village of St. Ignace, killing and capturing all the
Hurons there. They next attacked St. Louis, and though some women and
children managed to escape, both missionaries and Hurons were carried
off for the torture. The Huron nation, terribly damaged, seemed to be
at the mercy of their more savage enemies. They scattered in every
direction. Their settlements were altogether abandoned. Some sought
refuge with the Ottawas, some with the Eries, and not a few attached
themselves to missionaries, who formed them into settlements on the
Island of St. Joseph, in Lake Ontario. Unable, however, to find
sufficient subsistence on the island, they were compelled to form
villages on the main land, where they were again slaughtered by the
Iroquois. So inferior had they become, physically and intellectually,
if not numerically, to the Iroquois, that they resolved to put
themselves altogether under French protection. This protection the
missionaries procured for them, and a new settlement was formed at
Sillery. The Iroquois now did what they pleased. They were in full
possession of the whole country. The French were literally confined to
Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. But that which neither French nor
Hurons could do by force, they were made to do themselves. They were
destroyed in hundreds by rum. The French appealed to their appetites.
Iroquois independence was broken in upon by a mere artifice of taste.
Furs were now bought, not with pieces of tin and strings of beads, but
with plugs of tobacco and bottles of spirits. Intoxication had its
ordinary effect. It caused these naturally hot-blooded, quarrelsome,
freemen to butcher each other, and it made them the slaves of the fur
trader, whose exertions increased as the favorite narcotic lessened the
exertions and weakened the energies of the hunter. So injurious was the
effect of the "fire water," and so obvious was the injury to the
Indians themselves, that the Chief of the domesticated Indians
petitioned the Governor, their great Father, to imprison all drunkards.
Whether or no D'Aillebout granted the request is not recorded. Probably
it was not then granted. Among the _Edits, Ordonnances Royaux,
declarations, et arrêts du Counsel d'etat Roi concernant le Canada_,
nothing concerning Indian intoxication is to be found. D'Aillebout
ceased not long afterwards to be governor. In 1650 he was succeeded by
Monsieur de Lauzon. So hostile, however, had the feelings of the
Iroquois now become, that M. de Lauzon returned to France for a
detachment of soldiers. He brought out 100 men in 1653. Then the
Iroquois were disposed for peace. They begged for it. Might is right.
The power of the new Governor was acknowledged by the Iroquois. One
hundred muskets was a powerful argument against even 6,000 bows and
arrows. Frenchmen were sent among them. An Iroquois Roman Catholic
Church was founded. For two years all was tolerably quiet, but at the
end of that time the spirit of insubordination was so great that the
French, anticipating massacre, made a moon-light flitting to Quebec.
M. Lauzon was superseded as Governor of Canada, in 1658, by the
Viscompte d'Argenson. On the very morning of his arrival a large party
of Algonquins were menaced under the very guns of Quebec by the
Iroquois, who were driven off, but not captured, by a _posse_ of French
troops. In the following year Monseigneur l'Eveque de Petree, arrived
at Quebec, to preside over the Catholic Church. François de Petree, a
shrewd, energetic, learned prelate, was not, however, appointed to the
See of Quebec, by "Notre Saint Pére le Pape Clément X," as he himself
tells us, until the 1st October, 1664. In 1663 he established the
Seminary of Quebec, and united it with that of the du Bac, in Paris, in
1676. The education of young men for the ministry seemed to be his
great object. Trade would develop itself in time. The country could not
fail to become great with so much deep water flowing through it. But
religion must be provided for, and the Catholic, the most consistent,
if not the most enlightened, of any system of Christianity existing,
was his religion, and he paved the way for its extension. Four hundred
more soldiers had been added to the garrison before François de Laval
was even Bishop of Quebec, and they accompanied de Monts, as the Guards
did Lord Durham, who was also sent out to enquire into the condition of
Canada. In de Mont's time, Canada must have been in a very
extraordinary state. In 1668, an edict of the king prohibited swearing
and blasphemy. The king ruled that officers of the army had no
acknowledged rank in the Church. And in 1670, an arrêt du Conseil
encouraged "_les marriages des garçons et des filles du Canada_."
One of the most remarkable earthquakes of which we have read occurred
in Canada, soon after the arrival of the Bishop of Petrea. It happened,
too, in winter. On the 5th of February, 1663, at half-past five o'clock
in the evening, the earth began to heave so violently, that people
rushed in terror into the streets, only to be terrified the more. The
roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, then on the other.
The walls reeled backward and forward, the stones moving as if they
were detached from each other. The church bells rang. Wild and domestic
animals were flying in every direction. Fountains were thrown up.
Mountains were split in twain. Rivers changed their beds or were
totally lost. Huge capes or promontories tumbled into the St. Lawrence
and became islands. The convulsion lasted for six months, or from
February to August, in paroxysms of half an hour each, and although it
extended over a range of country, 600 miles in length by 300 in
breadth, not a single human being was destroyed. Beyond question this
earthquake altered entirely the features of the country from Montreal
to the sea; but, that it did not produce that rent, as some will have
it, through which the Saguenay flows, is evident from the fact that the
Saguenay existed on Cartier's first visit. It did not even produce
those numerous islands with which the Lower St. Lawrence is studded,
for some of them are also mentioned by the same daring and skilful
navigator. But for the sake of science it is to be regretted that the
particular rivers, whose beds were changed or which were entirely
obliterated, have not been mentioned. The greater depth of the Saguenay
than the St. Lawrence is easily accounted for by the greater height of
the banks of the one river than of the other. In the St. Lawrence a
large body of water finds an outlet through a chain of mountains
forming the banks of a river which is the outlet of a series of lakes
or inland seas, in which the rains or snows of a great part of North
America are collected, as the Caspian, the Sea of Azof, and the Euxine
are the rain basins of Europe and of Asia, and which spreads its waters
over breadths of land, great or small, as its shores are steep or
otherwise. If Canada is high above the ocean, and on that, as well as
on other accounts, intensely cold in winter, it is some consolation to
know that that latitude, which is in some sense to be regretted, has
produced a river and lake navigation for sea-going ships of upwards of
a thousand miles, more valuable than ten thousands of miles of
prairie-land. A prairie country might have produced a Mississippi
filled with snags, but only a mountainous country could produce such
rivers for navigation as the Saguenay and St. Lawrence, and such rivers
for manufacturing purposes as the St. Maurice and the Ottawa. But
Canada is not all mountainous. There are vast steppes, extensive
plains, through which numerous streams roll sluggishly into the great
lakes. There are tracts of country of extraordinary extent capable of
producing the heaviest crops. There are garden lands around most of the
western cities, on which these cities of yesterday subsist and have
arisen. And even in Lower Canada there are straths of wonderful
fertility. Canada, with any government which will permit trade, cannot
fail to become pecuniarily rich, even with the drawback of the towns of
Lower Canada being rendered inland for half the year by means of ice.
Lower Canada has been crippled by the policy of Cardinal Richelieu,
who, by that policy, paradoxical as it may appear, was her first
benefactor. A theocratic government, no doubt excellent for the taming
of Indians, is not by any means well adapted for an intelligent people.
So long as the trade of Canada was confined to furs the Jesuitical
policy of Richelieu was advantageous, but now that the Indians are
nearly exterminated--two millions of acres under cultivation--millions
of feet of pine, birch, oak and other timber used or exported
annually--and manufactures abounding--a somewhat more self reliant
spirit is requisite than the establishment of Churches under the
extraordinary control of a single mitred head will permit. Such a
spirit is being gradually aroused, and the more gradual the more
permanent will it be. Violence begets violence. Example is more
persuasive than force.
De Monts, or rather de Lauzon, was succeeded by the Baron D'Avaugour,
the last of the Fur Governors, a weak, stupid man, who had almost by
his imbecility and vacillation suffered the business of his employers
to be extinguished. The Iroquois most vigorously waged war during his
time upon every other tribe of Indians. They altogether exterminated
the Eries, and in their very wickedness, did good in rendering their
country more susceptible to colonization by Europeans. D'Avaugour was
recalled. The Hundred Associates resigned their charter into the hands
of the French king, who transferred the company's privileges to the
West India Company. M. de Mesy was appointed governor by the Crown, and
for a council of advice he had a Vicar Apostolic and five others, one
of whom was a kind of Inspector General, and another a Receiver
General. To this Governor and Council the power of establishing Courts
of Justice, at Three Rivers and Montreal, was confided. Courts of Law
were established soon after De Mesy's arrival, and four hundred
soldiers were obtained from France to enable His Excellency to cause
the law to be respected. De Mesy, of a proud and unbending temper,
quarrelled with his Council, sneered at the settlers, and governed with
a rod of iron. He cared neither for Vicar Apostolic, nor for Finance
Ministers. Nay, he went so far, after quarrelling with the Jesuits, as
to send two members of the Company to France, a mistake for which he
paid the penalty by being himself recalled. De Mesy was succeeded by
the Marquis de Tracy and was the second Chief Crown Governor, or
Viceroy. He was not fettered with a Council of Advice, but he was more
absurdly hampered with almost co-equals in the shape of assistants. The
Seigneur de Courcelles was appointed Governor of the Colony, and Mon.
De Talon, Intendant. De Tracy brought with him as settlers the then
newly disbanded regiment of Carignan-Sallières, which had returned from
fighting, not for the Turks in Hungary, but against them. They had been
extraordinarily successful. And France had acquired great influence by
her successful efforts to stay Mahometan encroachment. The Turks were
then the oppressors not the oppressed. But France then, as now, was
playing the balance of power game. The men of the Carignan-Sallières
Regiment were admirably adapted for settlement in a country in which
constant fighting was being carried on. They were to have a deep
interest in subduing the Iroquois. They were some protection against
the Round-Heads of Massachusetts. Sixteen hundred and sixty-five other
settlers, including many artisans, accompanied them. Cattle, sheep, and
horses were for the first time sent to Canada. More priests were sent
out, for whom the West India Company were, by their charter, bound to
provide churches and houses. The most Christian king had determined
upon at least christianizing the country, and upon so retaining it.
Without priests and churches the Hungarian Heroes would have been of as
little value to France as the cattle, sheep, and horses which
accompanied them to Canada. It was a condition of the West India
Company's Charter that priests were to be carried out, and parsonages
and churches erected. Like most companies chartered for similar
purposes, the stock of this company was transferable, but only the
revenue, or profits of the revenue could be attached for the debts of
the stockholders. The company had a monopoly of the territory, and the
trade of the Colony for forty years. Nor was this all. His most
Christian Majesty conferred a bounty of thirty livres on every ton of
goods imported to France, a kind of protection similar to that still
extended by the French government to the Newfoundland fisheries. The
company had the right to all mines and minerals--had the power of
levying and recruiting soldiers in France--had the power of
manufacturing arms and ammunition--had the power of building forts in
Canada--and had the power of declaring and carrying on war against the
American Indians, or, in case of insult, the Colonial Englishmen of New
England, or the Manhattanese Dutch. Justice was to be administered
according to the Custom of Paris. All Colonists of, and converts to the
Roman Catholic faith, had the same rights in France as Frenchmen born
and resident in France had. And for four years the king himself agreed
to advance a tenth of the whole stock of the company, without interest,
and to bear a corresponding proportion of any loss which the company,
in the course of four years, might sustain. These were certainly
liberal and prudent privileges, but more ultimate good, or in other
words, good would have been sooner realized had the conditions been
less liberal and less prudent. These conditions were of too liberal a
nature to cause any desire for change to be entertained for a great
length of time, and the consequence is that even now Lower Canada is
governed according to the "Cotume de Paris," and cultivated as France
was cultivated two hundred years back. A year after the Marquis'
arrival, the Council of State granted to the Canadian Company the trade
in furs on payment of a subsidy of one fourth of all beaver skins, and
of one tenth of all Buffalo skins. The trade of Tadousac was excepted.
Fort building and church building went on vigorously. The fur trade was
easily attended to. Three forts were erected at the mouth of the
Richelieu-Sorel. The Indians made sorties repeatedly down this river,
always doing much mischief, and the forts were intended to prevent the
mischief. But the Iroquois were not to be foiled. They found means to
reach the settlements by other roads. Nor was De Tracy to be annoyed.
He sent out war parties who did not, however, effect much. The Viceroy,
an old man of some seventy summers, took the field himself. With the
view of exterminating the Indians, he set out on the 14th Sept., 1666,
with a considerable force consisting of regular troops, militia, and
friendly Indians. Unfortunately the Commissariat Department was badly
conducted, and the exterminating force were nearly themselves
exterminated by starvation. They had to pass through a large tract of
forest land to meet their foes, and they frequently lost their way. The
haversack was soon emptied, and the starving army was only too happy to
breakfast, dine, and sup on chestnuts gathered in the bush, until some
Indian settlements were reached. They came upon almost a forest of
chestnut-trees, and fell upon them like locusts. They ate and filled
their haversacks, and it was well that they did so, for the Iroquois
had adopted the Russian expedient of abandoning their villages, and
suffering the enemy to march through a country altogether wanting in
the bare necessaries of life. M. De Tracy marched and countermarched
without effecting anything beyond capturing some old men, and one or
two women with their children. Luckily he fell in with supplies of corn
in one of the abandoned settlements which he took possession of for the
benefit of his army. Still more luckily he got to Quebec again safely,
but so thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs, that he resigned
his government into De Courcelle's hands, and returned to France. De
Courcelle was a man of some address. He cajoled the Iroquois and
prevented war. He was the founder, but not the builder of Fort
Cataraqui or Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He settled Hurons at
Michillimacinac. Both fort and settlement were intended to benefit the
fur trade. The new settlement was in fact a new hunting ground, and the
new fort was for the protection of the hunters. De Courcelle visited
personally Cataraqui. He was dragged up the Lachine, the Cedars, and
other rapids of the St. Lawrence, in an open boat, but suffered from
moisture and exposure to such an extent that, on returning to Montreal,
he solicited his recall to France, and was recalled accordingly.
In 1669, the Indians encountered, in the shape of smallpox, a more
terrible foe than the musket, the sword, the arrow, or the "firewater."
Whole tribes were exterminated by this loathsome disease, which appears
not to have been imported, inasmuch as the most distant and least
civilized tribes were first attacked and most severely suffered. The
Atlikamegues were completely exterminated. Tadousac and Trois Rivieres
were abandoned by all the Indians. Fifteen hundred Hurons died at
Sillery, and yet the Huron suffered less than any other nation. The
remnant of the tribe was collected by Father Chamounat, who established
them at Lorette, where some half-breeds are yet to be found.
The Count de Frontenac was the third Viceroy of Canada. He succeeded De
Courcelle in 1692, and soon after his arrival erected the fort which
his predecessor had decided upon erecting at Cataraqui, giving it his
own name--a name which still distinguishes the County, the chief town
in which Kingston or Catarqui is. De Frontenac was a man of astonishing
energy. His self will and self esteem were only compensated for by
ability and a spirit of independence and honesty. It was not to be
supposed that such a man could long submit to the whims of his
co-equals, as far as governing was concerned. Nor did he. The
triumvirate--the Viceroy, the Bishop, and the Intendant--each with an
equal vote, were soon at loggerheads. Chesnau, the Intendant, without
Frontenac's ability, had all his bad qualities. The Intendant and
Viceroy were soon violently opposed to each other, and to make matters
worse, the Bishop, supported by his clergy, was annoyed with both. The
Bishop considered the sale of spirits to the Indians abominable; De
Frontenac thought it profitable; and Chesnau did not think at all. An
appeal was made by the clergy to the home government, and both De
Frontenac and Chesnau were re-called with censure, and the profitable
sale of spirits to the Indians was prohibited by a royal edict. De
Frontenac ruled Canada for ten years, and during his administration La
Salle discovered the mouths of the Mississippi. Only the year after De
Frontenac's arrival in Canada, the Indians reported that there was a
large river flowing out to the Atlantic, to the southwest of the
colony, and the Reverend Messire Marquette[2] and a merchant of Quebec,
were sent on an exploring expedition. Starting in two canoes, with only
a crew of six men for both, they found themselves, after an exceedingly
tedious voyage, on the Mississippi, and, rejoicing at their success,
returned back immediately to report progress. At Chicago, Marquette
separated from his companion. In that Indian village of Lake Michigan,
now a populous commercial town, the missionary remained with the Miami
Indians, while Jollyet went back to Quebec for further instructions. Of
course Jollyet was highly communicative at Quebec. The multitude could
not travel by steam in those days from Gaspé to Lake Michigan. It was
no easy matter at that period to paddle over those great seas, the
inland lakes, in a birch-bark canoe. Jollyet had much to boast of and
might, without chance of detection, boast of more than either his
experience or a strict adherence to truth could warrant. Jollyet was a
curiosity. Jollyet was the lion of Quebec, and he was toasted and
boasted accordingly. The Sieur La Salle was in Quebec when Jollyet
returned. He heard of the merchant's adventures with deep interest. La
Salle, a young man of good family, and of sufficient fortune, had
emigrated to Canada in search of fame, and with the further view of
increasing his pecuniary resources. He expected, like Cabot and some
others, to find a passage through Canada, by water, to China, imagining
that the Missouri emptied itself into the north Pacific. The narrative
of Jollyet made La Salle more sanguinely credulous, that he had the
"way" before him. First he gained the sanction of the governor to
explore the course of that river, and then he returned to France for
support in his enterprise. So plausible a story did he relate, that
means were soon forthcoming. The Prince of Conti most liberally entered
into La Salle's views, and assisted him to prepare an expedition. The
Chevalier de Tonti, an army officer, with one arm, joined him, and on
the 14th July, 1678, De La Salle, and De Tonti sailed for Quebec from
France, with thirty men. It was two months before they reached Quebec;
but no sooner did they arrive than they hastened to the great lakes,
accompanied by Father Hennepin. Father Hennepin was the historian of
the voyage. He tells a wonderfully interesting story. La Salle built a
vessel of 60 tons, and carrying 7 guns, above the Falls of Niagara,
having laid the keel in July, 1679. There are always difficulties
attending new enterprises, and La Salle's shipbuilding operations were
frequently and annoyingly interfered with. The carpenter was an
Italian, named Tuti, and he occupied seven months in building the
craft. One day, an Indian, pretending to be drunk, attempted to stab
the blacksmith, but that worthy son of Vulcan, like Bailie Nicol
Jarvie, successfully defended himself with a red hot bar of iron. Again
the savages tried to burn the ship, but were prevented by a woman. A
squaw gave La Salle's people warning of the Indian's intention. Alarms
were frequent, and only for Father Hennepin's exhortations,
shipbuilding would have been abandoned to a later period, on the lake.
But carpenter Tuti persevered, and amid enthusiastic cheering, the
chanting of a _Te Deum_, and the firing of guns, she was safely
launched. The "Cataraqui" was square rigged. She was a kind of
brigantine, not unlike a Dutch galliot of the present day, with a broad
elevated bow and a broad elevated stern. Very flat in the bottom, she
looked much larger than she really was, and when her "great" guns were
fired off, the Indians stared marvellously at the floating fort. With
the aid of tow-lines and sails the Niagara River was with difficulty
ascended, and on the 7th of August, 1679, the first vessel that ever
sat upon the lakes entered Lake Erie. The day was beautifully calm, and
the explorers chanted _Te Deums_, and fired off guns, to the no small
consternation, perhaps amusement, of the Senecas. In four days they
sailed through the lake, and entering the River Detroit they sailed up
it to Lake St. Clair, and in twelve days more Lake Huron was entered.
In that lake storms and calms were alternately encountered. On one
occasion the wind blew so strongly, that La Salle's man of war was
driven across to Saginaw Bay. But worse weather was yet in store for La
Salle. A tempest swept over the lake, and topmasts and yards were let
go by the run. There was neither anchorage nor shelter, and La Salle
and all his crew, now terribly frightened, prayed and prepared for
death. Only the pilot swore. He anathematized the fresh water. It was
bad enough to perish in the open ocean, but something terrible to be
drowned in a nasty fresh water lake, to be devoured, perhaps, by an
ichthyosaurus. Prayers and curses seemingly had produced the desired
effect; indeed, the pilot's anathematizing was prayer; but such prayer
is not by any means to be recommended. It would be as well to curse as
only to pray when fear is excited. Prayer, doubtless, often is, but
never ought to be, the effect of fear. Prayer should be the holy
offering up of reasonable desires to the Creator, and in times of
danger there should be confidence in the Creator as all powerful, and
in ourselves as the instruments of the Creator. However, favored with
less adverse winds, the exploring expedition reached Michillimacinac,
and anchored in 60 fathoms, living on delicious trout, white fish, and
sturgeon. From thence entering Lake Michigan, they proceeded to an
Island at the mouth of Green Bay, where La Salle loaded his ship with
furs and sent her back to Niagara. The cargo was rich. It was valued at
50,000 livres. The blaspheming pilot and five men were sent off with
the vessel, but whether the craft foundered in Lake Huron or was
piratically visited by the Indians, she was no more heard of. Two years
elapsed before La Salle or Father Hennepin learned the fate of the
"Cataraqui" and her blasphemous pilot. They perseveringly pushed their
way down the Mississippi and reached the Atlantic, thus discovering the
mouths of a stream which has been a great source of wealth to our
enterprising neighbours. In two years he turned his steps to Quebec,
and going home to France was appointed Governor of the territory he had
discovered. He was the first Governor of Louisiana, a territory ceded
by Napoleon I. to the United States, in 1803. The unlucky Governor was
not destined to reach his government. La Salle, in command of four
ships, with settlers, sailed from Rochelle, on the 24th of July, 1689.
He was ignorant of the exact geographical situation of the mouths of
the Mississippi, but passing through the Antilles, reached Florida,
where he was murdered by his own people--a melancholy and lamentable
fate for one of whom all Frenchmen may justly boast. Canada now
numbered 8,000 souls, including converted Indians; and French America
extended from Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia through the St. Lawrence
and the great lakes to the Pacific, and from the great lakes again to
the ocean through the Mississippi, all the westward of even that stream
being French soil. Yet it was only nominally so. The Indians were
virtually the owners of the soil, those spots on which forts or trading
posts had been erected or established, only excepted.
[2] The able American Historian, Jared Sparks, in a letter to a
friend at Quebec, speaking of the early missions in Canada,
says;--"For heroic struggles and great sacrifices, the world
affords few examples to be compared with those of the early
Missionaries in Canada."
M. De La Barre now (1682) succeeded Frontenac as Viceroy. The new
Governor was of a restless and overbearing disposition. He required, or
supposed that he required, a strong government. He certainly needed an
able one. The idea of drawing off the trade of the St. Lawrence had
first occurred to the English colonists on the Hudson. The Iroquois
preferred trading with the "down south" English to trading with the
French. Their furs were chiefly carried down the Hudson, to the no
small annoyance of the French exporter. De La Barre had no idea of
tolerating such a mode of doing business. The furs of Canada were
French furs. The Indians were merely hunters for the French, and had no
right whatever to dispose of their goods in the dearest market, and buy
their necessaries in the cheapest market. De La Barre, weakened though
he was in the number of his troops, many men having converted their
swords into ploughshares, and their guns into reaping hooks, resolved
upon punishing the free-trading children of the woods. He obtained two
hundred additional soldiers from France, and proceeded up the St.
Lawrence on his labor of love. The Indians only laughed at him. They
thought he was in a dream when he pompously required them not to war
upon each other, or permit the English to come among them. His troops
were sick and starving, and were at the mercy rather of the Indians
than the Indians at their mercy. M. De La Barre was compelled to
withdraw his troops. The blustering, pompous, mischief-loving De La
Barre was recalled by his government, for incompetency, and in 1685 was
succeeded by Denonville.
The Marquis Denonville was only more cunning than his predecessor, and
perhaps more decided. No sooner had he set foot in the colony, than,
with the assistance of the missionaries, he persuaded the Iroquois
chiefs to meet him on the banks of Lake Ontario. Denonville and the
Indians did meet, and no sooner had they met, than Denonville
treacherously caused a number of them to be seized and put in irons, to
be sent as prisoners to the King of France, for service in his gallies.
Denonville erected a fort at Niagara, became more violent and
overbearing to the Indians, treated the remonstrances of the English of
New York, concerning the erection of Fort Niagara, with contempt, and
at last brought upon himself, as the arrogant generally do, defeat and
disgrace. This fort, to which the North West Fur Company of Quebec had
offered to contribute 30,000 livres annually, in consideration of a
monopoly of the fur trade, was destroyed by the Iroquois, who followed
the now retreating French to Cataraqui, made themselves masters of the
whole country west of Montreal, and, to crown all, appeared before that
city with proposals of peace. Denonville was required to restore the
chiefs who had been sent to France, and he was either in a position not
to resist, or wished to gain time. He consented to negotiate. The
Hurons, his allies, were not now so peaceably disposed. For the first
time, they seem to have evinced a warlike spirit. They attacked the
deputies, and insinuated to their prisoners that the French Governor
had instigated them to do so. The prisoners were allowed to depart; a
large party of the Five Nations heard their tale, descended upon
Montreal, carried off two hundred of the inhabitants, and retired
unmolested. The fort at Cataraqui was blown up, and for a time of
course abandoned. Thus, in 1686, French Canada was again virtually
reduced to Montreal, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadousac.
It was in 1689 that the Count de Frontenac returned to Canada a second
time, as Viceroy, to succeed the incompetent Denonville. He took out
the captured chiefs, and attempted to conciliate the Iroquois. But the
Indians had been too frequently deceived by his immediate predecessors.
They would have nothing to do with him, unless he restored, without
stipulation, their captured chiefs. De Frontenac complied. He complied
the more readily because he feared an alliance between the Ottawas and
the Iroquois. The Ottawas were quite indifferent to French friendship,
because the gain, in their estimation, was altogether in favor of the
French, whose protectors the Ottawas considered themselves to be. So
far from provocation being now given to the Indians, a policy extremely
opposite was pursued. The English and Dutch of the New England
settlements coveted the Indian trade in furs, and the Indians were more
favorably disposed towards the English and Dutch traders than towards
the French, because from the former a larger consideration was
received. It was De Frontenac's policy to prevent such a union, which
would, as he conceived, have injured the trade of the St. Lawrence, and
have injured the revenue of the Fur Company. De Frontenac induced the
Ottawas to assist him against the English of New England, whom he had
resolved to attack, France and England being then at war. He fitted out
three expeditions, one against New York, a second against New
Hampshire, and a third against the Province of Maine. The party against
New York fell upon Schenectady, in February, 1690. The weather was
exceedingly cold, and the ground deeply covered with snow. It was never
even suspected, that, at such a season, a campaign would be begun. Yet,
at the dead of night, while the inhabitants of Schenectady were asleep,
and not a sentinel was awake to announce the danger, the war-whoop was
raised, every house in the village was simultaneously attacked,
buildings were broken into and set on fire, men and women were dragged
from their beds, and even mothers, with their sleeping infants at their
breasts, were inhumanly murdered. Sixty persons were massacred; thirty
were made prisoners, and such as escaped, almost naked, fled through
the deep snow, many perishing with the extreme cold, and the most
fortunate being terribly frost bitten. At Salmon Falls, the party sent
by Frontenac against New Hampshire, killed thirty of the inhabitants,
took fifty-four prisoners, and burned the village. At Casco, in Maine,
the third party killed and captured one hundred persons. Such was the
business of colonists in those days. In Canada the majority had no
voice in popular affairs. Governors, Intendants, Seigniors, and
Priests, controlled the colonists as they willed. However much the
Governor may have despised the Intendant, the Intendant the Seignior,
or the Priest all put together, the merchant, artisan, and peasant
were of no account. Wealth without title was only a bait for extortion.
The peasantry were serfs, and the nobles uneducated despots. Education
was in the hands of the clergy, while power was solely vested in the
Heads of Military Departments. But if ignorance was particularly
characteristic of the Canadians, the New Englanders could lay little
claim to superior enlightenment. Harvard's College, in Massachusetts,
had apparently done no more for the New Englanders, in 1692, than the
Seminary of Quebec, in the way of diffusing a knowledge of letters
among the people, from which the desire for freedom invariably springs,
had done for Canada. The people of Salem, Andover, Ipswich, Gloucester,
and even Boston, were accusing each other of witchcraft. A "contagious"
malady, which affected children of ten, twelve or fifteen years of age,
it was, oddly enough, said by the learned physicians of the period, was
the result of witchcraft. A respectable merchant of Salem, and his
wife, were accused of bewitching children; the sons of Governor
Bradstreet were implicated in the divinations; and the wife of Sir
William Phipps was not above suspicion. One man, for refusing to put
himself on trial by jury, was pressed to death. Nor was Giles Correy
the only sufferer:--nineteen persons, "members of the Church", were
executed, and one hundred and fifty persons were put in prison. It was
sometime before the conviction began to spread, that even men of sense,
education, and fervent piety could entertain the madness and
infatuation of the weak, illiterate, and unprincipled. A disbeliever in
witchcraft was an 'obdurate sadducee.' That conviction did at last
possess men. The disease which affected the supposed bewitched children
somewhat resembled St. Vitus' Dance. It was an involuntary motion of
the muscles. The affected were sometimes deaf, sometimes dumb,
sometimes blind. Oftentimes, they were at once deaf, dumb, and blind.
Their tongues were drawn down their throats, and then pulled out upon
their chins to a prodigious length. Their mouths were forced open to
such a wideness, that their jaws went out of joint, only to clap again
together, with a force like that of a spring lock. Shoulder-blades,
elbows, wrists, and knees were similarly affected. Sometimes the
sufferer was benumbed, or drawn violently together, and immediately
afterwards stretched out and drawn back.
De Frontenac set earnestly to work to pacify his old enemies of the
Five Nations. A new and more dreaded enemy had to be encountered. The
Puritans of Massachusetts, provoked by De Frontenac's aggressions,
resolved to attack Canada, in self-defence. Sir William Phipps,
afterwards the first Captain General of Massachusetts, born on the
River Kennebec, a man of extraordinary firmness and great energy, who
had raised himself to eminence by honesty of purpose, a strong will,
and good natural ability, was appointed to the command of an
expedition, consisting of seven vessels and eight hundred men. The
object of the expedition was the reduction of Port Royal, or Annapolis,
in Nova Scotia, which Sir William speedily and easily accomplished. A
second expedition, under Sir William, was resolved upon, for the
reduction of Montreal and Quebec. Two thousand men were to penetrate
into Canada by Lake Champlain, to attack Montreal, at the same time
that the naval armament, consisting of between thirty and forty ships,
should invest Quebec. The expedition failed. The Commissariat and
Pontoon Departments of the land expedition, were sadly deficient, and
the naval expedition did not reach Quebec until late in October. The
weather became tempestuous, and scattered the fleet, while the land
force to Montreal mutinied through hunger. Sir William, on the 22nd of
October, re-embarked the soldiers which he had landed, and sailed,
without carrying with him his field pieces or ammunition waggons.
Humiliating as the repulse was to Massachusetts, it was highly
creditable to De Frontenac, who now easily succeeded in winning over
the Five Nation Indians. Indeed, matters had so very much changed, that
these enemies of his most Christian Majesty solicited the Governor to
rebuild the fort at Cataraqui, which was accordingly done. The Indians
were not, however, unanimous in their desire for peace. There was a war
and a peace party. To show his power, De Frontenac conceived the idea
of a great expedition against the Indians. He collected regulars,
militia, and all the friendly Indians to be procured, and, marching to
Cataraqui, passed into the country of the Onondagos. On entering a
lake, it was ascertained by the symbol of two bundles of rushes, that
1,434 fighting men were in readiness to receive them. De Frontenac
threw up an earthwork, or log fort, to fall back upon, and proceeded.
De Callières, Governor of Montreal, commanded the left wing; De
Vaudreuil the right; and De Frontenac, now 76 years of age, was
carried, like Menschikoff at Alma, in the centre, in an elbow chair.
The Indians fell back, and as they did so, pursued the Russian policy
of destroying their own forts by fire. The French never came up with
the Onondagos or Oneidas, but contented themselves with destroying
grain, and returned to Montreal.
De Frontenac's next expedition was to join Admiral, the Marquis
Nesmond,--who had been despatched with ten ships of the line, a
galliot, and two frigates,--with a force of 1,500 men at Penobscot,
with the view of making a descent on Boston; to range the coast of
Newfoundland; and to take New York, from whence the troops were to
return overland to Canada, by the side of the River Hudson and Lake
Champlain. The junction was not effected, and the expedition failed. A
treaty of peace, on the 10th of December, 1697, concluded between
France and England, at Ryswick, in Germany, put an end to colonial
contention for a short time. By that peace, all the countries, forts,
and colonies taken by each party during the war, were mutually given
back. De Frontenac, an exceedingly courageous and skilful officer, now
became involved with his government at home. The French government
began to perceive that advanced posts for the purpose of trading with
the Indians for furs, were of little, if, indeed, they were of any
advantage, while they were a continued source of war. It was proposed
to abolish these stations, so that the Indians might, to the great
saving of transport, bring in their furs themselves, to Montreal. De
Frontenac demurred. These forts were the sign of power, as they were a
source of patronage. The fur trade was a monopoly, carried on by
licenses granted to old officers and favorites, which were sold to the
inland traders as timber limits are now disposed of. Profits of 400 per
cent were made on successful fur adventures, under a license to trade
to the extent of 10,000 crowns on the merchandize and 600 crowns to
each of the canoemen. Beaver skins, at Montreal, were then worth 2s.
3d. sterling a pound weight. The first fishery was formed at Mount
Louis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about half way between
the mouth of the Gulf and Quebec, in 1697. A company formed by the
Sieur de Reverin, was tolerably successful. Canada was even now
beginning to look up, in a commercial point of view. De Frontenac died
in November following, in the 78th year of his age, and the Governor of
Montreal, De Callières, succeeded him. De Callières died suddenly, a
few years after his elevation, (1703) when the people of Canada
petitioned for the appointment of the Marquis De Vaudreuil to the
Viceroyalty, and the king granted their prayer. The death of De
Callières occurred one year after a new declaration of war between
France and England. This war was the result of unsettled boundaries, by
the peace of Ryswick. England declared war against both France and
Spain. Again Canadians and New Englanders suffered severely. The French
of Canada, especially, allowed their Indians to perpetrate the most
horrible atrocities. Women prisoners were inhumanly butchered in cold
blood, before the very eyes of their husbands, only because they were
unable to keep pace with other prisoners, or their captors. Both the
French and the English colonists were permitted by the parent states to
fight almost unaided, to fight on imperial account, at colonial expense
of blood and treasure. To Canada, nearly altogether a military colony,
fighting was particularly agreeable, and yet the population had not
reached 15,000, while Massachusetts contained 70,000 souls;
Connecticut, 30,000: Rhode Island, 10,000; New Hampshire, 10,000; New
York, 30,000; New Jersey, 15,000; Pennsylvania, 20,000; Maryland,
25,000; North Carolina, 5,000; South Carolina, 7,000, and in all
142,000 souls. The difficulty of land transport confined hostilities to
the border States, and preserved a balance of power between the
contending colonists. Indeed, the St. Lawrence afforded a comparatively
easy means of communication for the French to that afforded by the
mountain passes of Vermont to the New Englanders. The French could more
easily pounce upon the outposts of Lake Champlain than the New
Englanders could march to defend them. The English colonists resolved
upon making a great effort. Massachusetts petitioned Queen Anne for
assistance, who promised to send five regiments of regular troops,
which, with 1,200 men, raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, were
to sail from Boston for Quebec. The fleet, with the five regiments on
board, never came to hand, having been sent to Portugal; but 1,800
colonists marched against Montreal, by way of Lake Champlain, and
penetrated as far as Wood Creek, where the news of the altered
destination of the fleet reached them and caused them to return. The
French Governor acted on the defensive. He made extraordinary
preparations for defence, which were needless, as the Iroquois Indians,
having quarrelled with the English, on the ground that Iroquois safety
consisted in the jealousies of the French and English, would not fight,
and the invaders retreated. Another application being made to the Queen
of England for protection, on the part of the New Englanders, Colonel
Nicholson came over with five frigates and a bomb ketch, and having
been joined by five regiments of troops from New England, he sailed
with the frigates and about twenty transports, from Boston, on the 18th
September, for Port Royal, which he captured and called, in honor of
his Queen, Annapolis. Animated with his success, Nicholson sailed for
England, to solicit another expedition to Canada. His request was
granted. Orders were immediately sent to the colonies to prepare their
quotas of men, and only sixteen days after the orders to that effect
were received, a fleet of men of war and transports, under Sir Hovenden
Walker, with seven regiments of the Duke of Marlborough's troops, and a
battalion of marines, under Brigadier General Hill, arrived at Boston.
The fleet had neither provisions nor pilots, but by the prompt
exertions of the colonists, 15 men of war, 40 transports, and 6
storeships, with nearly 7,000 men, sailed from Boston for Canada, while
Colonel, now General Nicholson, marched at the head of 4,000
provincialists, from Albany towards Canada. The fleet arrived in the
St. Lawrence on the 14th of August, (1710) but in proceeding up the
river the whole fleet was nearly destroyed. The pilots were ignorant of
the channels, and the winds were contrary and strong. About midnight of
the 22nd, a part of the fleet were driven among islands and rocks on
the north shore, eight or nine transports were cast away, and nearly
1,000 soldiers were drowned. The attempt to take Quebec was again
abandoned. The ships of war sailed directly for England, and the
transports, having provincial troops on board, returned to Boston.
General Nicholson remained at Fort George until he heard of the
miscarriage of the St. Lawrence expedition, when he retraced his steps
to Albany. The Canadians had made extensive preparations for defence.
The greatest possible enthusiasm prevailed in Quebec. The merchants of
Quebec, in 1712, raised a subscription and presented the Governor with
50,000 crowns, for the purpose of strengthening the fortifications of
the town. The peace of Utrecht was, however, concluded, in 1713, and
Canada was left to contend only with the Outagamis, a new Indian enemy,
who, in conjunction with the Iroquois, had determined upon burning
Detroit, the limit of civilisation to the north west. The French soon
caused their Indian enemies to bury their hatchets.
At the peace, Quebec had 7,000 inhabitants, and the population of all
Canada amounted to 25,000, of whom 5,000 were capable of bearing arms.
Already the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec were laid out in
seigniories, and the farms were tolerably well cultivated. Some farmers
were in easier circumstances than their seigneurs. The imported
nobility had dwindled down to the condition of placemen or traders. The
Baron Beçancour held the office of Inspector of Highways, and Count
Blumhart made ginger beer. Three Rivers contained 800 inhabitants. A
few farmers lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the St. Francis.
Montreal was rising rapidly into importance, having obtained the fur
trade of Three Rivers, in addition to its own, and the island having
been carefully cultivated, through the well directed efforts of the
Jesuits. Above Montreal there was nothing but forts--Fort Kingston or
Cataraqui, Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, and Fort Machillimakinac.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil having ruled Canada for twenty-one years, died
on the 10th of April, 1725. He was succeeded by the Marquis de
Beauharnois, under whose judicious management of affairs, the province
became prosperous. Cultivation was extended. The Indians were so much
conciliated, that intermarriages between the French and Indians were
frequent. And there was nothing to excite alarm but the growing
importance and grasping disposition of the New Englanders and New
Anglo-Hollanders. The Governor of New York had erected a fort and
trading post at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, with the view of monopolizing
the trade of the Lakes. Beauharnois followed the English Governor's
example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of
Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on
Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon
had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for
more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared
in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor
Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from
England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be
the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified
by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000.
The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in
height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and
three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an
island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon,
carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the
entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two
pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the
land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a
circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works
had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much
importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such
privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England
fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly
interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts
furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire,
each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months
the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the
23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore
Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his
co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without
orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial
expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless
embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The
expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from
New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with
his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after his
refusal to join, instructions which had been sent off from the British
Government, approving of the attack upon Louisbourg, as proposed by
Governor Shirley, and which Pepperell had gone to attack, without
waiting for Imperial approval, had reached Commodore Warren, and
without loss of time he proceeded direct to Canso, whither it was
reported the Colonial fleet had gone. His arrival was the cause of
great joy among the colonists. After a short consultation with General
Pepperell, the Commodore sailed to cruise before Louisbourg, and was
soon followed by the colonial fleet and army, which, on the 30th April,
arrived in Cap Rouge Bay. It was not until then that the French were
aware that an attack upon them was meditated. Every attempt was made to
oppose the landing. They sent detachments to the landing places. But
General Pepperell deceived them. He made a feint of landing at one
point, and actually landed at another. The story reminds us of
Sebastopol. Next morning 400 of the English marched round behind the
hills, to the north west of the harbour, setting fire to all the houses
and stores, till they came within a mile of the Royal Battery. The
conflagration of the stores, in which was a considerable quantity of
tar, while it concealed the English troops, increased the alarm of the
French so greatly, that they precipitately abandoned the Royal battery.
Upon their flight, the English troops took possession of it, and by
means of a well directed fire from it, seriously damaged the town. The
main body of the army now commenced the siege. For fourteen nights they
were occupied in drawing cannon towards the town, over a morass, in
which oxen and horses could not be used. The toil was incredible, but
men accustomed to draw the pines of the forests, for masts, could
accomplish anything. By the 20th of May, several fascine batteries had
been erected, one of which mounted five forty-pounders. These
batteries, on being opened, did immense execution. While the siege was
being proceeded with, Commodore Warren captured the French ship of war
"Vigilant," of 74 guns, with her 560 men, and a great quantity of
military stores. This capture was of very great consequence, as it not
only increased the English force and added to their military supplies,
but seriously lessened the strength of the enemy. Shortly after this
important capture, the English fleet was considerably augmented by the
arrival of several men of war. A combined attack by sea and land was
now determined on, and fixed for the 18th of June. Already the inland
battery had been silenced; the western gate of the town was beaten
down, and a breach effected in the wall; the circular battery of
sixteen guns was nearly ruined; and the western flank of the King's
bastion was nearly demolished. The besieged were in no condition to
resist a joint attack by sea and land. The preparations for such an
attack altogether dispirited them. A cessation of hostilities was asked
for, on the 15th, and obtained. On the 17th, after a siege of
forty-nine days, Louisbourg and the Island of Cap Breton surrendered.
Stores and prizes to the amount of nearly a million sterling fell into
the hands of the conquerors. Nor was this the only advantage. Security
was given to the colonies in their fisheries; Nova Scotia was preserved
to England; and the trade and fisheries of France were nearly ruined.
The successful General, a New Englander by birth, was created a baronet
of Great Britain, in recognition of his important services to the
State. Sir William Pepper(w)ell rose on the ruins of Louisbourg. On
France the blow fell with great severity. The court, aroused to
vengeance, sent the Duke D'Anville, a nobleman of great courage, in
1746, at the head of an armament of forty ships of war, fifty-six
transports, with three thousand five hundred men, and forty thousand
stand of arms for the use of the French and Indians in Canada, to
recover possession of Cape Breton, and to attack the colonies. Four
vessels of the line, forming the West India squadron, were to join the
expedition, and Canada sent off 1,700 men with the same view. The
greatest consternation possessed the English colonists, as part of this
immense fleet neared the American coast. But there was, in reality, no
cause for fear. The tempest had blasted the hopes of France. Only two
or three of the ships, with a few transports, reached Chebucto Bay, in
Nova Scotia. Many of the ships of this once formidable expedition were
seriously damaged by storms, others were lost, and one was forced to
return to Brest, on account of cholera among her crew. On arrival at
Chebucto, where Halifax is now situated, the Admiral became so
despondent that he poisoned himself, and the Vice Admiral, no more a
Roman than his superior, ran himself through the body with his sword.
So died both these gallant but unfortunate men, whose moral courage
quailed before what they knew must be public opinion in France. Nor
were the disasters of the Duke d'Anville's armament yet over. That part
of the fleet which had arrived in America, sailed for the purpose of
attacking Annapolis, only to be dispersed by a storm, in the Bay of
Fundy, and to return to France crest-fallen. Another expedition was
however, determined upon. Six men of war, of the largest class, six
frigates, and four East Indiamen, with a convoy of thirty merchant
vessels, set sail from France, with the Admiral de la Jonquiere
appointed to succeed de Beauharnois as Governor of Canada. But a
British fleet, under Admiral Anson and Rear Admiral Warren, dispatched
to watch, and, if possible, intercept it, fell in with the French fleet
on the 3rd of May, and before night all the battle ships had
surrendered. The new Governor of Canada found himself a prisoner. The
disagreeable intelligence of this second failure reached France on the
somewhat sudden and unexpected return of a part of the convoy, which
had escaped capture, as night fell, on the day of the surrender of the
fleet. Another Governor for Canada was appointed, the Count de la
Gallisonière, who arrived safely. De la Gallisonière took an
intelligent view of the position of affairs. He saw the folly, in a
military point of view, of keeping the frontier a wilderness, and
recommended that a large number of settlers should be sent from France,
who, by being located on the frontier, would act as a check upon the
British. His advice was, however, unheeded, and de la Jonquière having
been released from captivity and conveyed to Canada, the Count resigned
his trust to the Admiral, and returned to France. De la Jonquière was
exceedingly active and able. Shortly after, or about the time of his
release from captivity, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, and
all conquests--Louisbourg included--made during the war, were mutually
restored. But de la Jonquière hated the English cordially, and by his
hostile acts against the English fur traders, of the Ohio Company, he
brought on that war between France and England, known as "The French
and Indian War." Several English traders were seized and carried to a
French port, on the south of Lake Erie, and fortifications, at
convenient distances, were erected and occupied by French troops,
between Fort Presqu'isle and the Ohio. War was ultimately declared, and
Colonel George Washington, afterwards President of the United States,
was sent, at the head of a regiment of Virginians, by the British
Governor Dinwiddie, to put a stop to the fort building, which, although
joined by nearly 400 men from New York and South Carolina, he failed to
accomplish, having been compelled by De Villiers, at the head of a
force of 1,500 French soldiers, to capitulate, with the privilege of
marching back to Virginia unmolested. In Canada, De la Jonquière was by
no means a favorite. Terribly avaricious, while the Intendant sold
licenses to trade, the Governor and his Secretary sold brandy to the
Indians. De la Jonquière became enormously wealthy, but his grasping
disposition so annoyed the people of Quebec and Montreal, that
complaints against him were loudly made, and he was recalled. He died,
however, at Quebec, before his successor, the Marquis du Quesne de
Menneville, was appointed. The Anglo-Indian French War now raged
furiously. The English colonists were recommended by the British
Government to unite together in some scheme for their common defence. A
convention of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with the Lieut.
Governor and Council of New York, was accordingly held at Albany, in
1754, and a plan of a federal union adopted. The plan was simply
this:--a Grand Council, to be formed of members chosen by the
provincial assemblies, and sent from all the colonies; which Grand
Council, with a Governor General appointed by the Crown, having a
negative voice, should be empowered to make general laws, to raise
money in all the colonies, for their defence, to call forth troops,
regulate trade, lay duties, &c. It met, however, neither with the
approbation of the Provincial Assemblies nor the King's Council. The
Assemblies rejected it because it gave too much power to the Crown, and
the King's Council rejected it because it gave too much power to the
people. Nevertheless, the Assemblies unreservedl declared, that, if it
were adopted, they would undertake to defend themselves from the
French, without any assistance from Great Britain. The mother country
refused to sanction it. Another plan was proposed, which met with
universal disapprobation. A convention was to be formed by the
Governors, with one or more of their Council to concert measures for
the general defence, to erect fortifications, to raise men, &c., with
power to draw upon the British Treasury to defray all charges, which
charges were to be reimbursed by taxes upon the colonies, imposed by
Acts of Parliament. The English colonies, however, vigorously attempted
to repel the encroachments of the French from Canada, and ultimately
succeeded, notwithstanding the blundering incompetency of General
Braddock and Colonel Dunbar, the afterwards celebrated Washington being
Aid-de-Camp to the former on the Ohio. Braddock, in proceeding against
Fort du Quesne,[3] with upwards of 2,200 men, one thousand of which
were regulars, suffered himself to be surprised by only five hundred
French and Indians, had five horses killed under him, was himself
mortally wounded, and his troops were defeated. Nay, out of sixty-five
officers, sixty-four were killed and wounded, and of the troops
engaged, one half were made prisoners, through the ungovernable folly
of a man, who advanced without caution, and attempted to form a line
when surrounded in a thicket. It was at this time, when the English
colonists, not only contemplated a federal union, but had determined
upon expeditions--one against the French in Nova Scotia, which
completely succeeded; a second against the French on the Ohio; a third
against Crown Point; and a fourth against Niagara. The Marquis du
Quesne organized the militia of Quebec and Montreal; minutely inspected
and disciplined the militia of the seigneuries; and attached
considerable bodies of regular artillery to every garrison. Tired of
the continual fighting between Canada and the English colonies, the
Marquis du Quesne solicited his recall. His request was conceded. His
most Christian Majesty appointed the Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac,
son of a former Governor to succeed him. De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac
sailed for the seat of his government with Admiral La Mothe, who was in
command of a fleet newly fitted out, at considerable cost, at Brest.
The sailing was not unnoticed by the English Channel fleet. Admiral
Boscawen gave chase. He had eleven ships of the line, and with these he
came up with the French fleet off Newfoundland. A battle ensued, and
two French vessels fell into the hands of the British, the remainder of
the French ships escaping under cover of a fog. Quebec was reached
without further molestation, and Governor De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac was
installed. All Canada was, on his arrival, in arms. Every parish was a
garrison, commanded by a captain, whose authority was not only
acknowledged, but rigidly sustained. Agriculture was, consequently,
entirely neglected. Provisions were scarce; the price of food was
enormously high; and the fur trade was rapidly declining.
Notwithstanding this, the Intendant, Bigot, shipped off large
quantities of wheat to the West Indies, on his own account. The Marquis
de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sanctioned the avaricious exactions and
dealings of Bigot. Practices the most dishonest and demoralizing were
winked at or excused. The Governors positively enriched themselves on
the miseries of the governed. A high standard value was given to grain
in store. It was studiously reported that the farmers were hoarding up
their stocks, and prejudice was so excited against them, that it was no
difficult matter to confiscate their corn, on pretence that it was
absolutely necessary for the city and the troops. De Cavagnac and Bigot
bought cheaply and sold extravagantly dear. As the Russian officials
cheat the Russian government, so did the French officials cheat both
the people and the government of France. But it was little wonder. The
Governor had only a salary of £272 sterling, out of which he was
expected to clothe, maintain, and pay a guard for himself, consisting
of two sergeants and twenty-five soldiers, furnishing them with firing
in winter, and other necessary articles. A Governor was compelled to
trade to be on a pecuniary level with the merchant.
[3] Now called Pittsburg, and the chief manufacturing town in the
United States.
The hostilities between the colonists of English and French extraction
for the two preceding years had been carried on, without any formal
declaration of war. It was not until June, 1756, that war was declared
by Great Britain against France, and operations were determined upon on
a large scale. Lord Loudon was appointed Commander in Chief of the
English forces in America, and General the Marquis de Montcalm was
appointed Generalissimo in Canada, in room of Dieskau, who was disabled
at Lake George. The English commander matured a plan of campaign,
formed by his _locum tenens_, General Abercrombie, which embraced an
attack upon Niagara and Crown Point, still in possession of the French,
the former being the connecting link in the line of fortifications
between Canada and Louisiana, and the latter commanding Lake Champlain,
and guarding the only passage at that time to Canada. Loudon was as
hesitating and shiftless, as Abercrombie had been an improvident
commander. The expedition against Crown Point was unaccountably
delayed. General Winslow, at the head of 700 men, was not permitted to
advance. Montcalm, as energetic, able, and enterprising as his
opponents were indecisive, with 8,000 regulars, Canadians, and Indians,
made a rapid descent upon Oswego, at the south-east side of Lake
Ontario, and captured it. Sixteen hundred men, one hundred and twenty
pieces of cannon, fourteen mortars, two ships of war, and two hundred
boats and batteaux, fell into the conqueror's hands. Lord Loudon, prone
to inactivity, instead of vigorously pushing forward upon Crown Point,
to retrieve this great disaster, made the disaster an excuse for
relinquishing the enterprise. The failure of the campaign of '56 much
annoyed the British Parliament and people, and great preparations were
made in the following year to prosecute the war to a successful issue.
It was in vain, while Lord Loudon was in command of the colonial army.
A fleet of eleven ships of the line, and fifty transports, with more
than six thousand troops, arrived at Halifax, for the reduction of
Louisbourg, and Lord Loudon ordered a large body of troops, designed to
march upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point, to co-operate. But so dilatory
was his Lordship, that before the expedition from Halifax was ready to
sail, a French fleet of 17 sail had arrived at Louisbourg, with
reinforcements, making the garrison nine thousand strong--and this fine
specimen of a hereditary commander deemed it inexpedient to proceed,
and abandoned the expedition. Montcalm, again profitting by the
weakness and indecision of his adversaries, made a descent on Fort
William Henry, situated on the north shore of Lake George, with nine
thousand men. The fort, garrisoned by three thousand men, was commanded
by Colonel Munroe, who obstinately defended it. Nay, had it not been
for the silly indifference of General Webb, who was in command of Fort
Edward, which was within only fifteen miles of Fort William Henry, and
was garrisoned by 4,000 men, the French General might have been unable
to make any impression upon it. But Webb, although solicited by his
second in command, Sir William Johnston, to suffer his troops to march
to the rescue, first hesitated, next granted permission, and then drew
back. In six days the garrison surrendered, Munroe and his troops being
admitted to an honorable capitulation. Reverses such as these,
involving great misery, inasmuch as the Indians too frequently
butchered their prisoners in cold blood, could not fail to have an
effect upon a ministry which had appointed such incapables to command.
A change of ministry was loudly demanded, and most fortunately for
the honor of the British arms, and for the salvation of the colonies,
there was a change. The great Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, was the
Palmerston of that day. Placed at the head of the administration,
he breathed into the British Councils a new soul. He revived the
energies of the colonies. He gave new life to dependencies, whose
loyalty was weakened, and whose means were exhausted by a series of as
ill-contrived and unfortunate expeditions as were ever attempted. He
addressed circulars to the colonial Governors, assuring them of the
determination of the ministry to send a large force to America, and
called upon the colonies to raise as many troops as possible, and to
act promptly and liberally in furnishing the requisite supplies. The
colonies nobly responded. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New England
unitedly raised 15,000 men, who were ready to take the field in May. An
expedition to Louisbourg, a second to Ticonderoga, and a third against
Fort du Quesne were determined upon. The tide of success was on the
turn. Admiral Boscawen, with a fleet of twenty ships of the line,
eighteen frigates, and an army of fourteen thousand men, under the
command of General Amherst, his second in command being General Wolfe,
sailed from Halifax, for Louisbourg, on the 28th of May. Louisbourg
resisted vigorously, but on the 26th of July this important fortress
was a second time in the possession of Great Britain. 5,735 men, 120
cannon, 5 ships of the line, and 4 frigates were captured. Isle Royal
and St. John's, with Cape Breton, fell, also, into the hands of the
English. Against Ticonderoga the English were not so successful. This
central expedition was conducted by General Abercrombie, who had
succeeded Lord Loudon as Commander-in-Chief in America, that nobleman
having returned home. He had with him 16,000 men and a formidable train
of artillery. Ticonderoga was only garrisoned by 3,000 French. The
passage of Abercrombie across Lake Champlain was only a little less
splendid than that of the British and French armies over the Black Sea,
from Varna to Eupatoria, in September, 1854. The morning was remarkably
bright and beautiful, and the fleet moved with exact regularity, to the
sound of fine martial music. The ensigns waved and glittered in the
sunbeams, and the anticipation of future triumphs shone in every eye.
Above, beneath, around, the scenery was that of enchantment. It was a
complication of beauty and magnificence, on which the sun rarely
shines. But General Abercrombie was unequal to the command of such an
army. He left to incompetent Aides-de-Camp the task of reconnoitering
the ground and entrenchments, and without a knowledge of the strength
of the place, or of the points proper for attack, and without bringing
up a single piece of artillery, he issued his orders to attempt the
lines. The army advanced with the greatest intrepidity, and for upwards
of four hours (the duration of the battle of the Alma) maintained the
attack with incredible obstinacy. Nearly two thousand of the English
were killed or wounded, and a retreat was ordered. On reaching Lake
George, his former quarters, the defeated and mortified Abercrombie
yielded to the solicitations of Colonel Bradstreet, who desired to be
sent against Fort Frontenac, (now Kingston) on Lake Ontario. Three
thousand provincials were detached on this expedition, and in two days
the fortress had surrendered, and 9 armed vessels, 60 cannon, and
sixteen mortars, and a vast quantity of ammunition were taken
possession of. Fort du Quesne was evacuated on the approach of General
Forbes, with 8,000 men, and was re-named Pittsburg, in honor of the
Prime Minister of England, Mr. Pitt.
Elated by success, the entire conquest of Canada was now determined
upon by the English. Three powerful armies were simultaneously to enter
the French Province by three different routes--Ticonderoga and Crown
Point, Niagara and Quebec were to be attacked as nearly as possible at
the same time. On the 22nd of July, 1759, the successor of Abercrombie,
General Amherst, attacked, first, Ticonderoga, and then Crown Point,
both places being evacuated on his approach, the French retiring to
Isle Aux Noix, where General Amherst could not follow them, for want of
a naval armament. On the 6th of the same month, Fort Niagara was
invested by Sir William Johnston, who succeeded to the command of the
Niagara division of the army on the death of General Prideaux, an able
and distinguished officer, unfortunately killed, four days previously,
by the bursting of a cohorn. A general battle took place on the 24th,
which decided the fate of Niagara, by placing it in the hands of the
invaders.
The intended campaign of 1759, was early made known to General
Montcalm: that on Quebec was made known to him on the 14th of May, by
M. de Bougainville, appointed on the Marquis' staff, as Aid-de-Camp. In
January, a census of those capable of bearing arms in Canada was taken,
when 15,229 were reported as available for service. Montcalm went
energetically to work to preserve the country to France. A council of
war was held at Montreal, and it was decided that a body of troops,
under Montcalm, the Marquis de Levi, and M. de Jennezergus, should be
posted at Quebec; that M. de Bourlemaque should hasten to Ticonderoga,
blow up the works at the approach of the English, retire by the Lake to
Isle-aux-Noix, and there stubbornly resist. With 800 regulars and
militia, the Chevalier de la Corne was directed to hold the rapids
above Montreal, to entrench himself in a strong position, and hold out
to the last. It is, therefore, obvious, that the evacuation of
Ticonderoga was determined upon; and that the retention of Niagara was
not much desired. The intended march upon Quebec, by a large force from
England, caused the greatest uneasiness. Montcalm, hastening to Quebec,
pushed on the defences of the city and its outposts vigorously. The
buoys, and other marks for the safe navigation of the St. Lawrence were
removed. Proclamations, calling upon the people to make a determined
resistance, were issued. The people were reminded that they were about
to contest with a powerful and ruthless enemy of their religion and
their homes. The Church urged the faithful to resist the heretical
invaders.
General Wolfe was in the harbour of Quebec before either Ticonderoga or
Niagara had fallen. Eight thousand men had been embarked at Louisbourg,
under convoy of Admirals Saunders and Holmes. The expedition arrived
without accident off the Island of Orleans, where the troops were
disembarked, on the 25th of June. General Wolfe, three days afterwards,
issued an address to the colonists. He appealed to their fears. General
Amherst was approaching in one direction, Sir W. Johnston in another,
and he (Wolfe) was at their very doors. Succour from France was
unobtainable. To the peasantry he, therefore, offered the sweets of
peace, amid the horrors of war. The French colonists, however, were
ignorant of the English language as of English customs. They saw no
sign of fine feeling towards themselves in so large a fleet and so
considerable an army. Every obstacle that could be placed in the way of
an invading force, the French colonists patriotically placed in the way
of General Wolfe. They readily formed themselves into battalions for
defence. They hung about the skirts of that part of the army which had
been landed, cutting off foraging parties, and otherwise harassing it.
They prayed in the churches for the preservation of their country. The
most noble spirit animated the Canadians. General Monckton was sent to
drive the French off Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and take possession
of the post. He succeeded. Batteries were thrown up and unceasingly
worked. The firing was, but however, of little use, only the houses of
the town being injured. The fortifications were not only uninjured,
they were being rapidly strengthened. More energetic measures were
determined upon. Wolfe crossed the river and attacked the enemy in
their entrenchments, at Montmorenci. But, some of the boats in which
the soldiers had crossed, unluckily grounded, and the attacking party
did not all land together. The grenadiers rushed impetuously forward,
without even waiting to form, and were mowed down by the enemy's close,
steady, and well directed fire. Montcalm's force now advanced to the
beach, and the contest waxed hotter. A thunder storm was approaching,
and the tide was setting in. Wolfe, fearing the consequences of delay,
ordered a retreat, and returned to his quarters, on the Island of
Orleans. He lost six hundred of the flower of his army in this unhappy
encounter, and left behind him some of his largest boats. The condition
of the invaders was far from enviable. Sickness prevailed to an
alarming extent in the camp. They had been already five weeks before
the city, and many lives had been lost, not only in skirmishes, but by
dysentery. Wolfe himself fell sick. Depressed in spirits by the
disastrous attempt to land on the Beauport shoals, and worn down with
fatigue and watching, he was compelled to take to his bed. It was while
lying ill that the plan occurred to him of proceeding up the river,
scaling the heights by night, and forcing Montcalm to a general
engagement. On his recovery he proceeded to carry his plan into
execution. A feint of landing again at Beauport was made. The boats of
the fleet, filled with sailors and marines, apparently made for the
shore, covered by a part of the fleet, the other part having gone
higher up the river. At one hour after midnight, on the 12th September,
the fleet being now at anchor at the narrows of Carouge, the first
division of the army, consisting of 1,600 men, were placed in flat
bottomed boats, which silently dropped down the current. It was
intended to land three miles above Cape Diamond, and then ascend to the
high grounds above. The current, however, carried the boats down to
within a mile and a half of the city. The night was dismally dark, the
bank seemed more than ordinarily steep and lofty, and the French were
on the _qui vive_. A sentinel bawled out, "_Que vive_," who goes there?
"_La France_," was the quick reply. Captain Macdonald, of the 78th
Highlanders, had served in Holland, and knew the proper reply to the
challenge of a French sentry. "A quel regiment?" asked the sentry, "De
la Reine" was the response. "Passe" said the soldier, who made the
darkness vibrate as he brought his musket to the carry. Other sentinels
were similarly deceived. One was more particularly curious than the
others. Something in the voice of the passing friend did not please his
ear. Running down to the water's edge, he called "Pour quoi est-ce que
vous ne parlez plus haut," why don't you speak louder? "Tais toi, nous
serons entendu!" Hush, we shall be overheard and discovered, said the
cunning highlander, still more softly. It was enough, the boats passed.
Within one hour of daylight a landing was effected, and the British
army began to scale the heights, the base of which was then washed by
the St. Lawrence. By daylight, the army was drawn up in battle array,
on the "Plains of Abraham." The ground was somewhat undulating, and
well calculated for manoeuvring. Every knoll was taken advantage of.
Every little hillock served the purpose of an earthwork. For the
invaders it was victory or death. To retreat was impossible. The
position of the British army was speedily made known to Montcalm. There
was not a moment to be lost. The French General rapidly crossed the St.
Charles, and advanced with his whole army, to meet that of Wolfe.
Fifteen hundred Indians first ascended the hill, from the valley of the
St. Charles, and stationing themselves in cornfields and bushes, fired
upon the English, who took no notice of their fire. Between nine and
ten o'clock, the two armies met, face to face, and when the main body
of the French, advancing rapidly, were within forty yards, the English
opened their fire, and the carnage was terrible. The French fought
gallantly, but under a galling and well directed fire, they fell, in
spite of the exertions of their officers, into disorder. The British
Grenadiers charged at this critical moment. The Highlanders rushing
forward, with the claymore, hewed down every opponent, and the fate of
the battle was no longer doubtful--the French retreated. Wolfe had just
been carried to the rear, mortally wounded in the groin. Early in the
battle, a ball struck him in the wrist, but binding his handkerchief
around it, he continued to encourage his men. It was while in the
agonies of death, that he heard the cry of "they flee," "they flee,"
and on being told that it was the French who fled, exclaimed, "Then I
die happy." His second in command, General Monckton, was wounded and
conveyed away, shortly after assuming the direction of affairs, when
the command devolved upon General Townshend who followed up the
victory, rendered the more telling by the death of the brave Montcalm,
who fell, mortally wounded, in front of his battalion, and that of his
second in command, General Jennezergus, who fell near him. Wolfe's army
consisted of only 4,828 men, Montcalm's of 7,520 men, exclusive of
Indians. The English loss amounted to 55 killed and 607 wounded, that
of the French to nearly a thousand killed and wounded; and a thousand
made prisoners. Montcalm was carried to the city; his last moments were
employed in writing to the English general, recommending the French
prisoners to his care and humanity; and when informed that his wound
was mortal, he sublimely remarked:--"I shall not then live to see the
surrender of Quebec." On the 14th he died, and on the evening of the
18th the keys of Quebec were delivered up to his conquerors, and the
British flag was hoisted on the citadel. French imperial rule had
virtually ended in Canada. Not so, French customs. By the capitulation,
which suffered the garrison to march out with the honors of war, the
inhabitants of the country were permitted the free exercise of their
religion; and, afterwards, in 1774, the Roman Catholic Church
establishment was recognized; and disputes concerning landed and real
property were to be settled by the _Coutume de Paris_. In criminal
cases only was the law of England to apply.
Admiral Saunders, with all the fleet, except two ships, sailed for
England, on the 18th of October, Quebec being left to the care of
General Murray and about 3,000 men. After the fleet had sailed, several
attempts were made upon the British outposts at Point Levi, Cape Rouge,
and St. Foy, unsuccessfully. Winter came, and the sufferings of the
conquerors and the conquered were dreadful. The Frazer Highlanders wore
their kilts, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and provisions were so
scarce and dear, that many of the inhabitants died of starvation. The
Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor General of His Most Christian
Majesty, busied himself, at Montreal, with preparations for the
recovery of Quebec, in the spring. In April, he sent the General De
Levi, with an army of 10,000 men, to effect that object. De Levi
arrived within three miles of Quebec, on the 28th, and defeated General
Murray's force of 2,200 men, imprudently sent to meet him. The city was
again besieged, but this time by the French. Indeed, it was only on the
appearance of the British ships, about the middle of May, that the
siege was raised. De Levi retreated to Jacques Cartier. The tide of
fortune was again turning. General Amherst was advancing from New York
upon Montreal. By the middle of May, that city, and with it the whole
of Canada, including a population, exclusive of Indians, of 69,275
souls, was surrendered to England.
Montcalm, who was not only a general, but a statesman, is said to have
expressed himself to the effect, that the conquest of Canada by England
would endanger her retention of the New England colonies, and
ultimately prove injurious to her interests on this continent. Canada,
not subject to France, would be no source of uneasiness or annoyance to
the English colonists, who already were becoming politically important,
and somewhat impatient of restraint. How far such an opinion was
justifiable, is to be gathered from the condition of Canada and the
colonies of Great Britain in America, at this hour.
Canada was, in 1763, ceded by His Most Christian Majesty, the King of
France, to His Britannic Majesty King George the Second. Emigration
from the United Kingdom to Canada was encouraged--not to Canada only,
but to Nova Scotia, which then included the present Province of New
Brunswick. By the treaty of 1763, signed at Paris, Nova Scotia, Canada,
the Isle of Cape Breton, and all the other Islands in the Gulf and
River St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British Crown. Britain, not only
powerful in arms, but, even at this period, great in commerce, was
about to change, though almost imperceptibly, the feelings of her new
subjects. The old or New England colonies, which had so largely
contributed to the subjugation of Canada, were already largely engaged
in trade. They had not made much progress in agriculture. They had made
no progress in manufactures. It was six years later before their first
collegiate institution, at Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded. But,
while Canada, perhaps, only loaded a couple of vessels with the skins
of the bear, the beaver, the buffalo, the fox, the lynx, the martin,
the minx, and the wolf, to prevent the total evaporation of heat from
the shoulders of the gentler sex in Paris or London, or to fringe the
velvet robes of the courtiers of St. James and the Tuileries, the New
Englanders employed, annually, about one thousand and seventy-eight
British vessels, manned by twenty-eight thousand nine hundred seamen,
while their whale and other fisheries had become of great
importance.[4] To change the military character of the sixty-nine
thousand inhabitants of Canada ceded by France to England, could not be
done immediately. That was as impossible as to make them abjure by
proclamation, their religion. All changes, to be lasting, must be
gradual, and the government of Great Britain only contemplated a
lasting change, by the introduction into Canada of her own people,
imbued with somewhat different ideas, religiously, legally, and
commercially, from those which actuated the conquered population.
[4] In 1771, however, 471,000 bushels of wheat were exported from
Canada, of which two-thirds, it was computed, were made in the
Sorel District. _See the Journal of Charles Carroll, of
Carollton, page 77._