CANADA BEFORE FRONTENAC
1632 TO 1672
Canada had fallen into the hands of the English before the new company
organized by Cardinal Richelieu was able to enter on the rights and
privileges secured to it by the edict of incorporation, or even so much
as to set foot in the country. Whatever there might be at Quebec in the
way of buildings, fortifications, etc., was the property of the
preceding company, of which one William de Caen was the head. It seemed
advisable, therefore, to Cardinal Richelieu to send William de Caen, or
some one deputed by him, out to Quebec to accept transfer of the country
on behalf of the French king from Louis Kirke, who had remained in
command there. De Caen named his brother Emery for this duty, and the
latter, provided with all necessary papers and instructions, set sail
from France towards the end of April 1632, and arrived at Quebec on the
5th of July. An order from King Charles of England, of which he was
bearer, required Kirke to evacuate the place within eight days. The
order was complied with, and the French resumed possession of Quebec
three years, all but a month, after yielding it up to the English.
Mention has been made of the one genuine settler or _habitant_ at
Quebec, Louis Hebert. He had died some time before the capitulation; but
his widow and her son-in-law, who had between them some seven acres of
land under good cultivation, had remained in the country during the
whole period of the English occupation. The _Jesuit Relations_ tell of
the joy of the widow at welcoming her own countrymen again, and
particularly of the delight she manifested when her house was used as a
chapel for the first celebration of mass after the French re-occupation.
In the spring of the following year Champlain, who had been recommended
by the new company as governor, and had received his appointment as such
at the hands of the cardinal, set sail for Canada with three vessels,
carrying in all about two hundred persons, more than half being
intending colonists. The ships brought besides a liberal supply of
stores, the company, in the new-broom stage of its existence, being
desirous of improving on the methods and practices of its predecessors.
Arriving at Quebec on the 23rd of May, Champlain took over the keys of
the place from de Caen. His first care was to put the fort and other
buildings, which were found to be in a ruinous condition, in proper
repair. He next erected a chapel to replace the one formerly in use
which had been destroyed; and, at the earnest request of the Huron
Indians, he established a fort at Three Rivers to assist in protecting
them against the incursions of the implacable Iroquois.
De Caen had brought out one or two Jesuit fathers with him, and others
came with Champlain. Why the Recollets did not seize the first
opportunity of returning to Canada is not very clear. In the year 1635
they had made arrangements for returning, but were requested by the
intendant of the company in France to delay their departure. The next
year they were plainly informed that the cardinal did not wish them to
go to Canada. They were thus shut out from a mission-field which they
had been the first to occupy, and it is not surprising that they felt
considerably aggrieved, nor that they were disposed to attribute their
exclusion to the machinations of the Jesuit order. The responsibility in
the matter seems to have rested with the cardinal. It was he who sent
out the Jesuit fathers; and not improbably he thought that there would
be less friction and more progress if the field of New France were
entrusted to a single order of ecclesiastics than if it were divided
between two.
The laborious, useful, and heroic life of Champlain was now drawing to a
close. One of the last subjects that engaged his attention was the sale
of liquor by traders and colonists to the Indians, a practice against
which he issued the most stringent prohibitions, but which, as we shall
have further occasion to see, proved a very difficult one to control. In
the summer of 1635 he took advantage of the presence at Quebec of a
large number of Hurons from the upper country to summon them and the
French residents to a general assembly, in order that he might have an
opportunity of urging upon them the duty and advantage of espousing the
religion professed by the French. If their friendship with the French,
he said, was to be maintained and strengthened, they must embrace the
faith of the latter; and in that case God, who was all-powerful, would
bless and protect them, and give them the victory over their enemies.
They would also learn the arts of civilization, and in every way enjoy
great happiness and prosperity. What impression this discourse made is
not stated. In point of fact the Jesuits, who devoted themselves
specially to mission work amongst the Hurons, had eventually a
considerable measure of success in converting them to Christianity; but
the unhappy tribe, instead of triumphing in war, became a more and more
helpless prey to their heathen enemies, and, in about fifteen years from
this date, were almost obliterated from the face of the earth.[2]
Not long after the convoking of this assembly Champlain was smitten with
paralysis; and on Christmas Day, 1635, he died in the sixty-ninth year
of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by the Superior of the
Jesuits, Father Le Jeune, and he was buried with all due honour in--as
the Jesuit narrative tells us--a "_sepulcre particulier_"; but a
careless posterity soon forgot even the place of his interment, and
to-day the question as to where he was laid is a matter of antiquarian
debate. The contingency of his death had been provided for by the
company, who had placed in the hands of Father Le Jeune, a sealed
letter, giving authority to a M. de Chateaufort to act as interim
governor. The following summer M. de Montmagny came out from France as
second governor of Canada. He appears to have been a man of firm and
upright character, but the position to which he succeeded was an
extremely difficult and critical one. The Jesuits were as yet having
very limited success in the conversion of the native tribes, and were
even incurring a dangerous amount of suspicion and hostility. They were
accused of witchcraft; and it began to be commonly said amongst the
savages that baptism was a sure precursor of death. There was truth in
the allegation just to this extent, that the fathers, for the most part,
were only allowed to baptize those who were already in a dying
condition, particularly children. The confusion between _post hoc_ and
_propter hoc_ is so common among the civilized and instructed, that we
cannot be surprised if Hurons and Algonquins were not proof against it.
The Iroquois at the same time were becoming more and more daring in
their attacks, while the resources of the colony for repelling them
were sadly inadequate. The Company of the Hundred Associates had made a
fair beginning in the matter of sending out colonists and
supplies--forty-five new settlers came out with Montmagny--but in a few
years their capital began to run short, and it became a question whether
the magnificent powers and privileges they possessed represented a very
profitable business arrangement. The consequence was that, just as
before under successive trading companies, the interests both of
colonization and of defence were neglected.
But, if the company was lapsing into inertness, other agencies, not of a
commercial character, were at work laying the foundations of
institutions destined to exert a most important and lasting influence on
the future life of the colony. The year in which Champlain died
witnessed the establishment at Quebec by the Jesuit, M. de Rohault, son
of the Marquis de Gamache, of a college for boys. Four years later, in
1639, a vessel arrived from France bearing two ladies, of note, Madame
de la Peltrie and Madame Guyard, Mere de l'Incarnation, whose mission
was to establish a school for girls, white and Indian, and whose names
are illustrious as the founders of the Ursuline Convent. On the same
vessel were a number of nuns sent out by the Duchess d'Aiguillon to
perform hospital duties: this was the origin of the Hotel Dieu. In the
year 1641 M. de Maisonneuve, a pious layman, conducted to Canada a
small band of trusty followers whose destination was the Island of
Montreal, where it was proposed to form a strictly Christian colony.
With M. de Maisonneuve was a pious lady, Mdlle. Mance, who three years
later became the founder of the Hotel Dieu at Montreal, funds for the
purpose having been supplied by a rich benefactress in France, Madame de
Bullion. Looking forward nine years, that is to say to 1653, we find the
admirable Sister Margaret Bourgeoys establishing at Montreal the
Congregation de Notre Dame for the education of girls. As Garneau well
says, "the love of learning and charity gave birth in Canada to all the
great establishments destined for public instruction and the alleviation
of human suffering."
The question may naturally be asked how it happened that Canada, at this
very early stage of its history, attracted so much attention as a field
for missionary and educational effort. An explanation is to be found in
the fact that the Jesuits, from the time when they first entered on
their work in this country, made a practice, under instructions from the
head of their order, of writing year by year a narrative of their
doings, which they despatched to France, and which was there published
and circulated amongst those who were interested in religious work.
These narratives constituted the celebrated _Relations des Jesuites_,
which form the chief source of information regarding the history of
Canada for a period of over forty years. Of these interesting annals,
forty volumes of which in all were published, Parkman has said: "The
closest examination has left me no doubt that these missionaries wrote
in perfect good faith, and that the _Relations_ hold a high place as
authentic and trustworthy historical documents." On the other hand the
latest historian of the Jesuits in New France, the Rev. Father
Rochemonteix, while also asserting the substantial accuracy of the
_Relations_, acknowledges that "they do not reflect the complete
physiognomy of New France; they only show one side of it, the most
attractive, the most consoling, namely, the progress of Christianity,
its toils and heroic struggles, and the valiant achievements of the
colonists. The rest is intentionally left in the shade, passed over in
silence. The other side of the physiognomy is omitted, or nearly so.
What we have is history, but incomplete history."[3]
It was from these narratives, so carefully and skilfully edited for
purposes of edification, that the impulse proceeded which moved pious
souls to contribute, in some cases their labours, in others their
wealth, to the advancement of the cause of religion in the wilds of
Canada. The fathers told of their difficulties and discouragements; but
they told also of the many signs vouchsafed that Heaven was interested
in their self-sacrificing efforts. Sometimes they made direct appeals
for assistance. A Jesuit school for boys had been established, as
already mentioned, as early as 1635. A few years later Father Le Jeune
writes in the _Relations_: "Is there no charitable and virtuous lady who
will come to this country to gather up the blood of Christ by teaching
His word to the little Indian girls?" The call was answered in the
establishment of the Ursuline Convent. It is not easy, in these days of
swift, safe, and luxurious travel, to imagine what it was in the earlier
part of the seventeenth century for women of delicate nurture to leave
friends and home and civilized surroundings, and, braving the Atlantic
storms in small, ill-equipped and comfortless vessels, to set their
faces towards a continent lost in the distant west, amid whose forests a
handful of pioneers were doubtfully holding their ground against the
scowling hordes of savagery. The historian, Parkman, devotes two
chapters of his _Jesuits in North America_ to an account of these
enterprises, and of the holy women whose names are inseparably connected
with them. In Madame Guyard, Mere de l'Incarnation, who became Superior
of the convent, he recognizes a very true woman, full of tender feeling,
yet endowed with practical abilities of the first order. Of Margaret
Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation de Notre Dame at Montreal, he
speaks with equal enthusiasm. "Her portrait," he says, "has come down to
us; and her face is a mirror of frankness, loyalty, and womanly
tenderness. Her qualities were those of good sense, conscientiousness,
and a warm heart. Her religion was of the affections, and was manifested
in an absorbing devotion to duty." He recognizes "in the martial figure
of Maisonneuve, and the fair form of this gentle nun, the true heroes of
Montreal."[4]
Maisonneuve was the true type of the Christian warrior. An association
of religious persons at Paris, of whom M. Jean Olier, founder of the
Seminary of St. Sulpice, and M. Royer de la Dauversiere were chief, had
obtained from the Company of New France a grant of the greater portion
of the Island of Montreal, and a considerable block of land to the east
thereof on the north shore of the river St. Lawrence. To effect this it
had been necessary to pay a considerable sum of money to extinguish a
prior claim of one M. de Lauson, an officer of the company, to the same
territory. Marvellous stories are told of the supernatural
communications received by MM. Olier and Dauversiere, by which the duty
was laid upon them of sending a colony for purposes of evangelization
to the Island of Montreal, of the existence of which, it is averred,
they had no previous knowledge. However this may have been--natural
means of knowledge, it may be observed, were available in the _Relations
of the Jesuits_--an association was formed under the title of the
Associates of Montreal; money was liberally subscribed; the island was
purchased; and the members of the projected colony were brought
together. A "Greatheart" was needed to conduct the little band; and
Maisonneuve, who was home from the wars of the Low Countries, hearing of
the holy enterprise, placed his sword and his life at the service of the
association. In the month of May 1641 two small vessels sailed from La
Rochelle, one bearing M. de Maisonneuve and twenty-five men, the other
Mdlle. Mance, a Jesuit priest, and twelve other men. Both arrived safely
at Quebec in the month of August. Governor Montmagny wished to keep what
he regarded as a valuable reinforcement at Quebec; but Maisonneuve
insisted on carrying out his mission. He went up to Montreal accordingly
before the navigation closed, in company with the governor, to take
formal possession of the island, but returned to winter in Quebec. In
the spring he took his whole party up the river, arriving at Montreal on
the 18th of May. Madame de la Peltrie leaving her own work at Quebec
accompanied him, only to return, however, after a short stay. An altar
was erected on the riverside, and mass was celebrated by the Jesuit
father, Vincent, who afterwards delivered an address, in which he said
he doubted not that the grain of mustard seed they were then sowing was
designed by Providence to become a mighty tree.
The prophecy has been amply fulfilled, but many anxious years had to
pass before the destiny of the tree was at all assured. The position of
Montreal was far more precarious than that of Quebec, as it was so much
more accessible to the sworn enemies of the colony, the Iroquois. For
twenty-four years Maisonneuve held the post of military governor,
edifying all by his piety, and inspiring confidence in all by his
bravery and vigilance. The story of his trials and of his prowess, is it
not told, with a rich blending of supernatural elements, in the naive
record of Dollier de Casson, and the more comprehensive and systematic,
but equally naive, history of the learned and unfailingly interesting
Abbe Faillon? And yet--such is the irony of human events--when a very
pious governor, the Marquis de Tracy, came out in 1665 as the king's
lieutenant-general for all his North American possessions, one of his
first acts, inspired, it is said, by the council at Quebec, was to
dismiss this veteran warrior as being unfit for his position. Making no
demur, attempting no self-justification, but bowing to the stroke, which
he regarded as an intimation of the will of Providence, the brave
Maisonneuve retired quietly to France, where he spent the remainder of
his days.
After a service of twelve years as governor M. de Montmagny was relieved
in 1648, and replaced by M. d'Ailleboust, who had previously exercised
judicial functions at Montreal in close association with M. de
Maisonneuve, whom he resembled in the exalted and ascetic character of
his piety. The name of Montmagny had been translated by the Indians into
"Onontio," signifying "Great Mountain"; and henceforth all French
governors were, in Indian parlance, "Great Mountains." M. d'Ailleboust
retained office only three years. During his administration, as during
that of his predecessor, the Iroquois were incessant in their
depredations, which they would sometimes carry on under the very
palisades of Montreal. They succeeded during this period in all but
exterminating the Hurons, their traditional foes and now allies of the
French. One or two treaties were made with the aggressive savages, and
once or twice they were repelled with loss; but the treaties were not to
be depended on, nor were the defeats such as to give them serious check.
One event which marked the latter part of M. de Montmagny's
administration must not be overlooked. The Company of New France, or of
the Hundred Associates, had, as we have seen, begun operations upon the
retrocession of the colony by England in 1632. According to their
charter their work was to be one of colonization as well as of trading;
but ten years later the total French population of Canada, Montreal
included, did not exceed two hundred souls. The country, instead of
being developed, was being strangled, the company having absolute
control, not only of the fur trade, but of its commerce generally, which
it hampered in every possible way. Meantime the company itself was
losing money. Negotiations were therefore entered into between the
inhabitants, represented by M. de Repentigny, who went to France for the
purpose, and the officers of the company. The result being that, in the
month of January 1645, a treaty, as it was called, was made between the
company on the one hand, and the inhabitants, through their delegate, on
the other, by which the former, while retaining all their sovereign
proprietary and feudal rights, with power of nominating the governor and
the judges, threw open to the latter, not individually but as a
community, the fur trade of Canada on condition that they should assume
all expenses of civil administration and military defence, pay the
salaries of the clergy, bring into the country every year twenty new
colonists, and finally hand over to the company annually one thousand
pounds weight of assorted beaver skins. The inhabitants were, by this
arrangement, which received the royal sanction on the 6th March 1645,
formed into a corporation, afterwards called the "New Company," to
distinguish it from the Company of New France or the "Old Company." It
was understood that the New Company would elect its own managers; while
the Old Company reserved the right to keep certain officials of its own
in the country to watch over its interests, throwing the cost of their
maintenance, however, on the inhabitants in their corporate capacity.
This arrangement was received at the time with some satisfaction by the
colonists, but in reality it was a most illiberal one, under which it
was impossible for the country to thrive. Its immediate effect was to
send nearly all the men of the settlement into the woods, and to turn
the wilder and more daring spirits into _coureurs de bois_, a class of
men who will figure largely in our subsequent narrative. Two years later
we find the inhabitants complaining to the king that the new scheme was
working very badly, and giving rise to serious "abuses and
malversations." The king did not know very well what to do about it; but
by the advice of certain of his ministers he decided to place the
government of the colony on a slightly wider basis, with just the least
particle in it of a representative element. To this end he created a
council which was to consist of the governor, the ex-governor, if he
were in the country, the superior of the Jesuits, pending the
appointment of a bishop, and two inhabitants to be selected by the
council, or three if the ex-governor were not residing in the country.
In addition, the three settlements of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers
could each elect a "syndic," to hold office for three years, and to have
a deliberative voice in the council, but no vote.
The effect of this measure, which seems to have been adopted without
consulting the Company of New France, was to give the council full
control of the fur trade of the country. That trade had to bear all the
expenses of government, as well as provide for the toll to be paid to
the Old Company; and it rested with the council to fix the proportion
which the inhabitants should contribute out of the gross proceeds of the
furs they either bought from the Indians or procured by the chase. If
they bought from the Indians they would have to pay for them with goods
purchased at the general stores, which again were controlled by the
council or its nominees; and it was a constant matter of complaint that
the prices of these goods were so high that it was impossible to trade
with the Indians on any favourable terms; the latter, as a rule, having
sense enough to put up their prices accordingly. A more burdensome
system, or one more liable to abuse, could not easily be imagined.
In 1651, M. de Lauson was sent to replace M. d'Ailleboust. The question
at this time was seriously debated whether the colony would not have to
be abandoned. The settlement at Montreal was in imminent danger of
extinction. Maisonneuve saw clearly that, with the scanty force he had,
it was only a matter of time when the place would be at the mercy of the
foe. He therefore sailed in this year for France, determined, if he
could not obtain reinforcements, to return to Canada and bring all his
people back to France. The position of matters at Quebec was little
better. Mere de l'Incarnation writes: "The Iroquois have made such
ravages in this part of the country that for a time we thought we should
all have to return to France." Maisonneuve succeeded in his mission; but
he was two years absent from the country, and meantime anxiety both at
Quebec and at Montreal was at the highest pitch. He arrived in the month
of September 1653, bringing with him over one hundred soldiers carefully
chosen and well equipped, furnished, not by the government or the
Hundred Associates, who were tolerably indifferent to the fate of
Montreal, but by the company which had sent him out in the first place.
The governor was anxious to keep the whole force at Quebec; and
Maisonneuve had to exercise considerable firmness in order to be
permitted to take them all with him to Montreal. It was in the vessel
which brought out this detachment that Margaret Bourgeoys, whose name
has already been mentioned, came to Canada. She was struck on her
arrival by the desperately poverty-stricken look of the country. "There
were at the time in the Upper Town" (of Quebec), she says, "only five or
six houses, and in the Lower Town only the storehouse of the Jesuits and
that of the Montreal people. The hospital nuns were dressed in grey. The
poverty on all sides was something pitiable." The Quebec Ursulines were
desirous that Sister Bourgeoys should join their community, and
afterwards perhaps assist them in establishing a branch of their convent
in Montreal; but the future foundress of the Congregation de Notre Dame
knew her own mind. Her purpose in coming to Canada was to establish a
school for girls at Montreal, and to Montreal she would go.
The weakness of the colony was painfully exhibited about this time in
its dealings with the Iroquois. The principal remnant of the Huron
nation, whose original settlements occupied the country between the
Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe, had taken refuge from their cruel enemies
in the Island of Orleans just below Quebec. Even here, they were not
left in peace. In the month of February 1654 a number of Iroquois came
down to Quebec ostensibly to negotiate for peace, but secretly
nourishing deadly designs against the unfortunate Hurons. What they
proposed was that those who were settled on the Island of Orleans should
leave their habitations there, go to the Iroquois country, and
incorporate themselves, as a portion of their nation had already done,
with the Iroquois confederacy. They also asked that a French colony,
including a certain number of priests--"black robes," as they called
them--should be planted in their territory. Although these propositions
were believed to mask the most murderous intentions, it was considered
imprudent to reject them, as the colony was in no condition to withstand
the general attack which it was feared would in that case ensue. After
some delay, therefore, a colony consisting of over fifty French left
Quebec in the early summer of 1656, the understanding being that the
Hurons would follow later.
The Iroquois nation or confederacy comprised, as is generally known,
five separate tribes, occupying the central and north-western portion of
what is now the state of New York, and known--to mention them in
geographical order from east to west--as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, and Senecas. There was a keen competition between the Mohawks
and the Onondagas, both for the French colony and for the possession of
the remnant of the Hurons. The colony was sent to the Onondagas; and the
Mohawks in a spirit of revenge made a descent on the Island of Orleans,
killed a number of Hurons, and carried over eighty into captivity. In
their retreat they also committed various depredations under the very
walls of Quebec--in so deplorable a condition of helplessness was even
the citadel of French power in Canada. Two years later the French colony
established among the Onondagas made its escape from impending massacre
in a manner little short of miraculous; but meantime, in defiance and
contempt of French authority, numbers of unfortunate Hurons had been
slaughtered or carried into captivity.
M. de Lauson, the governor, does not seem to have been a man of any
great force of character. Moreover he was now over seventy years of age,
and, considering the helpless condition in which he was
left--practically abandoned by the Old Company and very feebly
supported by the New--it is scarcely surprising that he should have
anticipated the conclusion of his term of office, and returned to France
in the summer of 1656. His son, M. de Charny-Lauson, replaced him for a
year, when he too sailed for France without awaiting the arrival of his
successor, M. d'Argenson. At his request M. d'Ailleboust consented to
act as interim governor.
To the credit of the ecclesiastics it must be said that, whoever
despaired of the situation in Canada, they never did. At the very time
when the fortunes of the colony were at the lowest ebb, and the secular
chiefs were debating whether it would not be necessary to retire, bag
and baggage, the subject which chiefly occupied the minds of the clergy
was the organization and government of the church. M. de Maisonneuve had
brought out with him four Sulpician priests to minister to the needs of
the inhabitants of Montreal, and one of them, M. de Queylus, was the
bearer of letters from the Archbishop of Rouen, to whose diocese New
France was attached, creating him vicar-general for the whole colony.
Availing himself of the powers so conferred, M. de Queylus assumed the
direction of the church in Canada; and when some signs of reluctance to
recognize his authority manifested themselves in Quebec, he went to that
city, took personal charge of the parish, and enforced at least an
outward show of submission. The Sulpicians had hoped that M. de Queylus
would be made bishop; but the Jesuits, who for many years had been in
exclusive charge of the religious interests of the colony, were
considered to have the best right to make the nomination. They chose,
with characteristic wisdom, a man who was destined to fill a most
important place in the history of Canada, Francois Xavier de
Laval-Montmorency, Abbe de Montigny. The negotiations for the
appointment of the new prelate were of a very perplexed and protracted
character, and it was not till the summer of 1659 that he arrived in
Quebec, and then not as bishop of Quebec, but as vicar-apostolic, with
the title of Bishop of Petraea _in partibus_. Laval was a man of great
piety, and inflexible determination; and for a time there was friction
between him and M. de Queylus, who, in his capacity as vicar-general of
the Archbishop of Rouen, was disposed to claim an independent position
for himself. Laval cut the controversy short by persuading the governor
to ship M. de Queylus off to France; and, when he returned the following
year, to ship him back again. This time the Sulpician had to remain at
home for several years; and the descendant of the Montmorencys achieved
the first of a long series of victories over opposing forces.
In mentioning these incidents, however, we have run ahead by two or
three years of the strict sequence of events. Argenson, the new
governor, arrived on the 11th July 1658. He had hardly been twenty-four
hours at his post before the Iroquois gave him a hint what to expect by
making a raid in the immediate neighbourhood of Quebec. In the following
year the whole country, but particularly Quebec, was thrown into
trepidation over the news that an army composed of twelve hundred
warriors, gathered from the five Iroquois nations, was advancing with
fixed determination to wipe out all the French settlements. It would be
needless to repeat here, even if the limits of a very cursory narrative
permitted it, the glorious feat of arms by which this great danger was
turned aside from the colony. The story of our Canadian Thermopylae is
familiar to every school-boy and school-girl in Canada. Suffice it to
say that the constancy of Dollard and the handful of companions who
perished with him in defending a position they had hastily fortified on
the river Ottawa, directly in the path of the invaders, so disheartened
the latter that they relinquished their enterprise. When so few could
hold so many at bay, what might not be expected when attack should be
made on the fortified posts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec? The
abandonment, however, of their larger design did not involve any
discontinuance of their accustomed mode of warfare. We hear of horrible
butcheries committed on settlers in the neighbourhood of Montreal and
even of Quebec; it seemed as if the colony could never get rest from its
tormentors. The new governor was a man of courage and ability, but he
lacked the means of effectually guarding against these treacherous
attacks, while the destitute condition in which he found the colony
filled him with discouragement. Whether general starvation or massacre
was the more imminent danger was sometimes a grave question. Other
difficulties arose. Argenson and Laval, the civil and religious heads of
the state, found themselves at variance on points of ceremony and
precedence; and the bishop, whose self-confidence was unbounded,
undertook to give the governor certain doubtless well-meant admonitions,
which the latter did not take in good part. The governor's health may,
or may not, have been good, but he alleged that he was suffering from
physical infirmities, and asked for his recall. He left for France in
September 1661, his successor, Baron Dubois d'Avaugour, having arrived a
few weeks previously. A remark which he made respecting the head of the
Canadian church, in a letter written a year before his departure, may
perhaps be put on record: "I can say with truth that his zeal on many
occasions bears close resemblance to an extraordinary attachment to his
own opinions, and a strong desire to encroach on the rights and duties
of others."
The Baron d'Avaugour only remained two years in the country. When he
arrived an earnest effort was being made by the clergy, headed by the
bishop, to have the law against selling liquor to the Indians strictly
enforced. The law was not popular in the country, and Avaugour thought
it altogether too severe; still he allowed it to take effect in the case
of two men who had been sentenced to death, and of one who had been
condemned to be publicly whipped. Shortly afterwards a woman was
imprisoned for a similar offence, and the Jesuit father, Lalemant,
having pleaded for a relaxation of the law in her case, Avaugour, glad
of a pretext to do away with it altogether, said that if the woman was
not to be punished, no one should be. The result was that liquor began
to be sold to the natives almost without restraint, and with effects
which one of the ecclesiastics said he had no ink black enough to
describe. Doubtless they were bad enough. The bishop fulminated from his
episcopal throne against the practice, and launched excommunications
right and left, but with little effect. He then decided on going to
France and laying the whole matter before the government. He left in the
summer of 1662; and it was while he was absent, that is to say in
February of the following year, that an earthquake occurred of which the
most extraordinary descriptions have come down to us. The only moderate
account is that given by Avaugour himself, who says in a despatch: "On
the 5th of February we had an earthquake, which continued during half a
quarter of an hour, and was sufficiently strong to extort from us a good
act of contrition. It was repeated from time to time during nine days,
and was perceptible until the last of the month, but steadily
diminishing." This was all an unimaginative mind like that of the baron
could make of it, but not so with minds of another order. One pious
soul saw four demons tugging at the four corners of the sky, and
threatening universal ruin, which they would have effected had not a
higher spirit appeared on the scene. We read that the air was filled
with howlings as of lost spirits, and flashings of strange, unearthly
lights, not to speak of a little detail of blazing serpents flying
abroad on wings of fire. But the marvels that took place in the aerial
regions were surpassed, if possible, by those that were witnessed on the
solid earth. To take only one example out of many: some sailors coming
from Gaspe, as Pere Charlevoix relates, saw a mountain "skipping like a
ram," after which it spun round several times, and finally sank out of
sight. Houses swayed to and fro till their walls nearly touched the
street, and yet righted themselves in the end. Quebec and Montreal,
which, even at this early period, did not pull well together, were
somewhat at variance concerning the significance of the phenomenon. At
Montreal the favourite theory was that the devil was enraged to find God
so well served in the colony; at Quebec the humbler view prevailed that
the earthquake was a solemn warning to the people to abandon their evil
ways, and be obedient to the teachings of the clergy. Considering that,
despite the prohibitions of the clergy, the liquor traffic was just then
at its height, the admonition could not have come more opportunely.
Laval, whose reputation for piety gave him great influence, the Abbe
Faillon tells us, at the not altogether puritanical court of Louis XIV,
was completely successful in his mission. Not only was the uncomplying
Avaugour recalled, but the bishop himself was requested to nominate a
successor. If the bishop had consulted the men by whom he had himself
been chosen, he would likely have got good advice; but he followed his
own judgment entirely and made a terrible blunder, as he did in a still
more important matter some years later. His choice fell on a M. de Mezy,
recommended to him by the possession of an exalted and almost hysterical
type of piety; and the two embarking on the same vessel arrived at
Quebec on the 15th September 1663.
It would be taking a very one-sided and radically unjust view of Laval's
character to consider him simply as a man of ability with a strong
propensity to autocratic rule. A man of ability he was, and his temper
was unbending; but that, from first to last, he took the deepest and
most unselfish interest in the welfare of the Canadian people, and also
of the Indian tribes, is not open to a moment's question; nor can it be
denied that his views on the whole were broad and statesmanlike. It was
when he was in France, in 1662, that he arranged for the establishment
of that historic institution, the Quebec Seminary, the higher
development of which is seen in the Laval University of to-day. A few
years after his return he established the Lesser Seminary (Petit
Seminaire), as a school where boys could get a sound education under
religious auspices, and whence the more promising among them might be
drafted into the Grand Seminaire with a view to their preparation for
the priesthood. Memorable also were the services rendered by him in the
organization of a parochial system for Canada, which before his advent
had been treated almost wholly as a mission field.
In February of the year 1663, the Company of New France, whose affairs
had been going from bad to worse, made a voluntary surrender of all
their rights and privileges to the king, leaving it to his discretion to
make them such compensation as might be just for the capital they had
sunk in their not very well-directed efforts. The king accepted the
surrender, and, as a means of providing for the better administration of
justice in the colony, and also the due control of its finances, he
created by royal edict a Sovereign Council, which was to consist of the
governor, the bishop, or other senior ecclesiastic, and five councillors
chosen by them jointly. A year later he proceeded to charter a
completely new company--as if the regime of companies had not been
sufficiently tried--under the name of the West India Company. To it the
entire trade of all the French possessions in America and on the west
coast of Africa was transferred. The new company was virtually the
creation of the great administrator, Colbert; and it may be assumed that
he trusted to his own vigorous oversight and control to make it a
success. He hoped, in fact, to succeed where a Richelieu had failed;
experience had yet to teach him that no administrative ability, however
eminent, can obtain prosperity from a system of close monopoly.
It was not long before Laval and his pocket governor (as he had hoped
Mezy would be) found themselves at daggers drawn. The quarrel was of so
trifling a character that its details need not detain us; suffice it to
say, that Laval represented the case to the court and procured his
nominee's dismissal. The unfortunate man, however, whose weak mind was
assailed with the most distressing spiritual fears, when he found
himself under the ban of the church, accomplished a hasty reconciliation
with the offended powers, and died, desperately penitent, before his
successor reached Canada.
The West India Company was empowered by its charter to nominate the
governor of Canada, but had voluntarily ceded that power to the king.
The latter, under the inspiration probably of Colbert, was now taking a
great interest in Canada. He was not going to leave it any longer at the
mercy of the Iroquois, if a thousand or more good French soldiers could
avail for its protection. As lieutenant-general over all his possessions
in America, he appointed a brave old soldier of much distinction, the
Marquis de Tracy; as governor of Canada in particular, M. de Courcelles;
and as intendant--a new office--M. Jean Baptiste Talon. The
Carignan-Salieres Regiment, about twelve hundred strong, had been
detailed for service in Canada, and was sent out in detachments, which
arrived at intervals during the summer; Tracy himself with four
companies reaching Quebec in June. Many of the men were landed sick of
fever; twenty had died on shipboard in the St. Lawrence. Mere
l'Incarnation, in one of her letters, attributes the malady to their
having opened the portholes when they got into the river, and let in the
fresh air too suddenly. In these days one is apt to conjecture that it
was the confined air, not the fresh air, that did the mischief, and that
the portholes might with advantage have been opened earlier.
Tracy was eager to move against the enemy, but, as he was obliged to
await the arrival of the rest of his troops, he improved the interval by
erecting forts on the line of his intended march, one at the mouth of
the river Richelieu, known at that time as the Iroquois River, a second
at Chambly, some forty miles up the stream, and two others at points
still higher up. While this work was in progress Courcelles, the
governor, Talon, the intendant, and the remainder of the troops reached
Quebec (September 1665). Courcelles was even more eager for war than his
superior officer; and as it was too late when the forts were finished,
and the health of the troops had been sufficiently restored, to attempt
a summer campaign, he obtained the consent of the marquis to organize a
midwinter one. Old inhabitants, who knew something of the rigour of the
climate and the difficulties to be encountered on the march, tried to
dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain. With a fatuity, of which
military history furnishes too many examples, Courcelles despised all
such counsels of prudence. He started with five hundred men on the 10th
of January, marching on the frozen St. Lawrence. The cold was fearful,
and the expedition had proceeded but a short distance when the
sufferings of the men became almost unendurable. At Three Rivers a
number had to be left behind who had been disabled by frost-bites. Some
reinforcements having been obtained at that point, the little army again
set forth. Two hundred men out of the whole force were Canadians, and
these naturally proved the fittest for the undertaking; nor did their
superior quality fail to impress Courcelles. At last the expedition
reached the Mohawk country, but the enemy were not there; they had gone
off on some warlike adventure of their own. There was some burning of
deserted cabins; but the position of the invading force began to be a
precarious one, for the winter was now merging into spring, and there
was danger that if the ice melted in the streams, their retreat would be
cut off. The Mohawks were already hovering in their rear. By the time
they reached the nearest of their forts they had lost sixty men by cold
and hunger. The only thing that can be said in favour of the expedition
is that it greatly impressed the minds of the Iroquois, as proving that
the French had now the means of turning the tables on them and carrying
the war into their own country.
The Iroquois showed some disposition to negotiate for peace; but nothing
came of it, and in September a larger expedition set out, commanded by
Tracy himself, with Courcelles as second in command. This time they not
only reached the Iroquois country, but, the savages having fled in
panic, they were able at their ease to destroy a number of fortified
villages and large quantities of food that had been laid up for the
winter. The Iroquois were deeply impressed by these vigorous
proceedings. They saw that a great change had come over the situation
and resources of the French colony, when, instead of submitting
helplessly to attack, they could equip two expeditions in one year to
seek them out in their own habitations. They hastened, therefore, to
renew their propositions of peace, and, as this time they were clearly
in earnest, Tracy concluded a peace with them which held good for
several years. The colony now had a rest, and the beneficial effects of
it were soon evident. Two years later the Jesuit annalist writes: "It is
beautiful now to see nearly all the banks of our river St. Lawrence
occupied by new settlements, stretching along more than eighty leagues,
making navigation not only more agreeable by the sight of houses dotting
the riverside, but also more convenient through an increase in the
number of resting-places." A charming picture is here given in very
simple words.
We have already had occasion to mention incidentally the dismissal by
Tracy of Maisonneuve. Whatever the motive of this harsh act may have
been, its consequences were most unhappy. Maisonneuve was a man of
incorruptible integrity. His successor, Francois Marie Perrot, was a man
of good family and fine appearance, who enjoyed considerable protection
at court and needed it all, for he had simply the instincts of a
dishonest trader, and used his office for the sole purpose of personal
gain. Tracy's connection with Canada was brief, for he was recalled in
the year following that in which he made his campaign against the
Iroquois, and the government of the country was left in the hands of
Courcelles and Talon; the former, as governor, representing the king in
a military, political, and high administrative capacity; while the
latter, as intendant, was entrusted with all that concerned the finances
of the colony and its industrial and commercial development. The two
heads of the state seem to have worked together at first, and for a
considerable time, with commendable harmony. The governor was a
judicious and capable administrator; the intendant, a man of wide views,
of singular discretion, and of indefatigable industry. The Abbe
Gosselin, in his _Life of Laval_, says that Talon "troubled himself
little about the moral condition of the colony so long as he saw its
commerce and industry flourishing"; and again that "he was never well
disposed to the clergy, whose influence he feared, dreading that they
might become too rich." It is probably the case that he was not very
sympathetic with the ecclesiastical powers of the day, but he certainly
did apply himself to promote the material prosperity of the colony.
Amongst other things he caused three vessels to be built which were
despatched to the West Indies with cargoes of dried fish, staves, and
lumber; and also established a brewery at Quebec, in the hope of abating
the consumption of imported spirits. If he did not achieve a larger
measure of success, it was because little was possible under a system of
combined monopoly and paternalism. His reports to the home government
speak of the country as prosperous. In 1670 he writes that the money
granted by the king for the encouragement of families, and the different
industries established, have had such a good effect, that now no one
dares to beg, unless perhaps some unprotected child too young to work,
or some man too old to work or incapacitated by accident or disease.
A census of the country taken by the intendant in the year 1666 showed a
total population of 3418. The estimated number of men capable of bearing
arms being 1344. The old Company of the Hundred Associates was, by the
terms of its contract to have brought 4000 settlers to the colony in
fifteen years, dating from 1633; but Talon's figures proved that, in
more than twice fifteen years, the whole population still fell
considerably short of that number. The population of Quebec at this time
was 555, of Montreal 584, and of Three Rivers 461. The seigniory of
Beaupre below Quebec had 678 inhabitants and the Island of Orleans 471.
The French government had for some years been showing much zeal in
sending out settlers to Canada, and it was chiefly owing to its efforts
that the population had increased to the extent indicated by the census.
The total number of state-directed immigrants from 1664 to the close of
the year 1671 is estimated at over 2500--a most substantial addition to
the strength of the colony. The Sulpicians must also be credited with
some useful activity in the cause of colonization. Their settlers were
of course directed to Montreal, and, as the figures above quoted show,
the population of that place already exceeded that of Quebec.
The patent granted to the Company of New France, or of the Hundred
Associates, had made them lords of the whole territory of Canada, with
power to concede seigniories therein of varying degrees of extent,
importance and dignity. A few seigniories were established by that
company; but, as we have seen, the country under its management was
practically at a standstill. All the rights which it had in the
disposition of the land were transferred to the West India Company; and
under Talon's regime the creation of seigniories proceeded much more
rapidly, owing mainly to the fact that there were suitable applicants
for them in the officers of the regiments which the king had sent out.
The last few weeks he spent in the country were mainly occupied in this
way. In one month he issued sixty patents.[5] This was entirely in
accordance with the intentions of the French government, which had
promised lands to any of the officers or soldiers of the Carignan
Regiment who might elect to settle in the country. A large number
accepted the proposition; and to provide wives for the excess of men
existing in the colony the government was assiduous in sending out
marriageable girls, on the whole very carefully selected, who as a rule
were snapped up immediately on arrival by wistful bachelors or
disconsolate widowers. If any were slow in finding partners owing to
lack of visible attractions, they were bonused in money and household
goods, which usually had the effect desired. Bounties were moreover paid
throughout the colony for early and fruitful marriages; and the
administrators were instructed to see that special respect was paid to
the fathers of large families, and particularly to those who, having
large families, had succeeded in marrying off their boys and girls at an
early age. Contrariwise, fathers whose children showed backwardness in
entering on matrimony were to be the objects of official displeasure.
Parkman expresses the truth with his usual picturesque force when he
says that, "throughout the length and breadth of Canada, Hymen, if not
Cupid, was whipped into a frenzy of activity." A gratifying success
attended these practical measures. By the year 1671 the total population
had increased to six thousand. There were in that year seven hundred
baptisms; and the bishop, from doubtless reliable sources of
information, was able to promise the governor eleven hundred for the
next year. Unfortunately infant mortality was in those days extremely
high; or the population would indeed have been increasing by leaps and
bounds.
It is a matter of regret that the early historians of Canada feel
themselves obliged to record a decline in the morals of the country,
dating from the arrival of the king's troops in 1665. Up to that time,
we are told, the inhabitants--those in the Montreal district at
least--had lived in a condition of pristine simplicity and innocence,
recalling that of the early Christians. No one locked his house by day
or night, the crime of theft being unknown. The ordinances of the church
were strictly observed by the whole population; but, if on occasion any
one failed in his duty, punishment promptly followed. For example, a man
on the Island of Orleans, having eaten meat on a Friday, was fined
twenty-five francs, half of which went to the parish church, and
threatened with corporal punishment if he repeated the offence. "Here,"
observes the Abbe Faillon with quiet enthusiasm, "we see the true
destination of the secular power."
But--ages of gold have a tendency to vanish away, and the Astraea of the
French colony took her sad flight shortly after the Carignan-Salieres
Regiment arrived. These men had the pleasure-loving ways of soldiers,
and war had not trained them to a very strict regard for personal rights
or clerical admonitions. A ball was given at Quebec--the first ever held
in the country--on the 4th February 1667. The clergy held their breath,
not knowing what might follow. Many abuses, it would seem, followed:
morals began to be relaxed; thefts became sufficiently common to bring
bolts and locks into requisition; a Seneca chief was cruelly murdered by
three soldiers; and shortly afterwards six Indians were massacred in
their sleep by some settlers near Montreal. The object of the latter
crime was to obtain possession of a large quantity of furs which the
Indians had brought down to sell. That peace with the natives was
gravely imperilled by these atrocious deeds may readily be imagined. It
took all the firmness and tact of the governor to avoid an outbreak. The
three soldiers were shot by his orders in the presence of a number of
Indians. The other criminals seem to have escaped punishment by flight.
The last important act of Courcelles was to undertake a journey up the
St. Lawrence as far as the outlet of Lake Ontario. The object of this
adventure was to impress upon the more distant Iroquois tribes, who had
boasted that they were out of reach of the French arms, that such was
not the case. The idea which these savages had was that the only route
by which the French could penetrate into their country was by way of the
river Richelieu and Lake Champlain, in which case they would have first
to pass through the "buffer" territory of the eastern Iroquois tribes.
The rapids of the St. Lawrence, they thought, would effectually bar
approach by way of Lake Ontario. To demonstrate their error, Courcelles
gave orders for the construction of a flat-boat of two or three tons
burden, which could be rowed in smooth water, and dragged up difficult
places on the rapids. When this craft was ready, he manned it with a
crew of eight men; and, taking also thirteen bark canoes, he ascended
the river successfully with a party of over fifty men, including the
governor of Montreal and other leading officials. The Iroquois (Cayugas
and Senecas) took due note of the feat and revised their opinions
accordingly.
In the following year both Courcelles and Talon were recalled at their
own request. There had been friction between them for some time, and
they seem to have thought that it would be best for the king's service
that they should both retire. Whatever the causes of difference may have
been, they did not squabble in public like some of their successors. The
services of both were highly appreciated by the French government, and
the departure of both from Canada was very generally and sincerely
regretted.
[Footnote 2: According to the _Jesuit Relations_ for 1643-4, the Hurons
cried out in their despair: "The Iroquois, our mortal enemies, do not
believe in God, have no love for prayer, commit all kinds of crimes, and
nevertheless they prosper. We, since we have abandoned the customs of
our fathers, are slaughtered and burnt, our villages are destroyed. What
good do we get by lending ear to the Gospel, if conversion and death
walk hand in hand?" Garneau, who quotes this passage, adds: "One tribe
of them that had counted its warriors by hundreds was now reduced to
thirty."]
[Footnote 3: _Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle France._ Vol. i. Introduction,
p. xv. More than two centuries earlier the pious Superior of the
Ursuline Convent, Mere de l'Incarnation, had referred, in her own gentle
way, to their incompleteness. "If," she says, "any one is disposed to
conclude that the labours of the convent are useless because no mention
is made of them in the _Relations_, the inference must equally be drawn
that Monseigneur the Bishop is useless; that his Seminary is useless;
that the Seminary of the Jesuit fathers themselves is useless; that the
ecclesiastics of Montreal are useless; and that finally the Hospital
nuns are useless; because of none of these persons or things do the
_Relations_ say a word. Nothing is mentioned save what relates to the
progress of the Gospel; and, even so, lots of things are cut out after
the record gets to France."--_Letires Spirituelles_, edition of 1681, p.
259.]
[Footnote 4: _Jesuits in North America_, chap. xv.]
[Footnote 5: See the excellent monograph by M. Thos. Chapais, _Jean
Talon, Intendant de la Nouvelle France_, Quebec, 1904.]