WHEN CANADA
WAS NEW FRANCE
BY
GEORGE H. LOCKE
CHIEF LIBRARIAN OF THE
PUBLIC LIBRARY, TORONTO
[Illustration]
_Love of country is born
of a knowledge of its institutions,
its traditions and history
wherein are revealed
the lives of its people
and their heroic achievements._
WITH SEVEN
ILLUSTRATIONS
PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE
GREAT WAR BY
TORONTO: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.
PARIS: J. M. DENT ET FILS
1919
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
J. M. DENT & SONS
Published September, 1919
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE, 1915.]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION 7
I. CARTIER AND THE ST. LAWRENCE 13
II. CHAMPLAIN AND THE GREAT LAKES 25
III. JOLIET, MARQUETTE AND THE RIVER OF A HUNDRED THOUSAND STREAMS 40
IV. LA SALLE AND THE GREATER NEW FRANCE 48
V. RADISSON AND THE GREAT NORTH WEST 59
VI. MONTCALM AND THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 72
VII. PONTIAC AND THE LAST HOPE OF INDIAN SUPREMACY 82
VIII. THE GRAY GOWNS AND THE BLACK 96
IX. THE IROQUOIS AND THE HURONS 111
X. THE COUREUR-DES-BOIS AND THE VOYAGEUR 126
XI. THE SEIGNIOR AND THE HABITANT 134
XII. STORIES WHICH ILLUSTRATE REFERENCES IN THIS BOOK. 143
XIII. POEMS WHICH ILLUSTRATE REFERENCES IN THIS BOOK. 151
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE LANDING OF THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE, 1914 _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
SENECA HUNTER GROUP 16
THE RETURN OF THE WARRIORS 34
COUNCIL OF THE TURTLE CLAN 68
THE CAYUGA FALSE FACE CEREMONY 86
THE CORN HARVEST 104
TYPICAL IROQUOIS INDUSTRIES 122
INTRODUCTION.
The Great War has had a special meaning for Canadians. Soldiers from our
shores, citizen-soldiers, have been landing on the northern coast of
France in tens of thousands, and passing through the same seaport towns
whence nearly four hundred years ago men sailed forth to the westward to
discover a fabled land.
This country, discovered by the French and colonized by them and by the
English, this land which was now French and now English as the fortune
of war changed in Europe as well as in America, has become a nation, and
when the time of trial came and danger threatened the ancestral homes
in the two Motherlands, Canada hesitated not a moment but offered her
services in the cause of freedom.
Canada has been fighting more truly perhaps than any other nation in what
we speak of as “the common cause,” and it is to make clear to ourselves
as well as to others the great meaning of this in the development of
nationality in our Dominion that this story of the two centuries when
Canada was New France has been told and in this form.
The early history of Canada is a history of men, and if Canada is
to become a great nation, its future history will depend upon the
development of men who can and will inspire, guide and lead us to the
greater things.
This is not intended for children only, but for the youth of every age,
those who are young enough to enjoy a story and who know not, or know
but dimly, our wonderful history during the two hundred years of our
country when its history was bound up with that of the two great empires
of France and England, France of the times of Henry of Navarre and of
Richelieu, England of the days of the Tudors and of the Pitts.
The frontispiece of this little book illustrates a dramatic incident in
our history. The landing of the Canadians at St. Nazaire in 1915 to help
Old France against the ruthless invader brings to one’s mind the landing
of a French exploring expedition under Cartier nearly three hundred years
ago when the flag of France was raised high upon the cliff of Gaspé and
the newly discovered land was called New France. Our thanks are due to
the Canadian War Memorials Committee for permission to reproduce this
picture.
To the kindness of Dr. John M. Clarke, the Director of the New York
State Museum, himself a contributor to the history of New France, we
are indebted for the great privilege of reproducing the illustrations
of the Iroquois Indian Groups which form the Myron H. Clark Memorial
in the Museum at Albany. They portray the aboriginal activities of the
Confederacy of the Six Nations.
GEORGE H. LOCKE.
WHEN CANADA WAS NEW FRANCE
OLD FRANCE.
Le Gaulois semble au saule verdissant:
Plus on le coupe et plus il est naissant,
Et rejetonne en branches davantage,
Prenant vigueur de son propre dommage.
—RONSARD.
The Gaul is like the verdant willow-bush:
The more you prune, the more it’s lithe and lush,
Shooting a crown of branchy twigs all round,
And draws new life and vigour from a wound.
CHAPTER I.
CARTIER AND THE ST. LAWRENCE
“He told them of the river, whose mighty current gave
Its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean’s briny wave;
He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight
What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga’s height,
And of the fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key,
And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from his perils over sea.”
—HON. T. D’ARCY MCGEE.
Almost four hundred years ago, when bluff King Hal ruled over Merry
England and Francis over Sunny France, there were strange stories told in
the ports of the west of England and the north of France of lands away to
the Westward. The voyage of Columbus was the talk of Europe, and while
the Spaniards were joyfully telling how he had come to the edge of a
great new world which would give them a new route to the marvellous East
with all its treasures, John Cabot, of the port of Bristol, the pioneer
of English adventurers, sailed off to the west and it is likely saw
the continent itself as soon as did Columbus. Both Columbus and Cabot
discovered islands first, Columbus on his way to the west, Cabot after he
had passed along the coast.
So, from the northern country of England, as well as from the southern
land of Spain, the men of the seaports talked of nothing as much as the
great land over the sea. It was but natural that the hardy mariners of
the northern French ports should join in the search, and for nearly half
a century vessels manned by the more adventurous spirits visited the cod
banks of Newfoundland and brought back cargoes of fish.
One can picture the interest that would be aroused in a port like Bristol
in England or St. Malo or Dieppe in France when a vessel came back to
harbour after an absence of many months and the mariners spun their tales
of adventure to an eager audience. It was in this kind of an atmosphere,
hearing these stories and wishing that he would grow old quickly so
that he too could go and see these lands, that Jacques Cartier grew up.
He was a clever and ambitious boy and when he became a master mariner
had made such a reputation that the King sent for him to discuss the
possibility of finding an opening in the coast of America in the vicinity
of Newfoundland, which was then thought to be but a projection of the
eastern coast of Asia. There is no doubt that Cartier had made trips to
the fishing banks many times in company with his fellow fishermen of
Brittany, whose enterprise is preserved to us in the name of Cape Breton.
King Francis was anxious that France should have a share in the great
discoveries that so far had been made by England and by Spain. Indeed,
the whole land had been claimed by the King of Spain and Francis is said
to have been so annoyed by this statement that he exclaimed:
“I should like to see the clause in our father Adam’s will which
bequeathed to him this fine heritage.”
It was on an April day in 1534 that Cartier set sail in two ships of 60
tons each to find what was beyond the shores known to the sailors, and in
the hope that he would be able to penetrate to India and the treasures of
the East by a shorter route. On his way out, and in what are known now as
the Straits of Belle Isle, he passed a great ship which had sailed from
Rochelle, thus proving that those straits and the adjacent waters were
known to the French mariners.
[Illustration: SENECA HUNTER GROUP
This group represents a Seneca family clustered about the door-yard
of their hunting lodge, each individual being engaged in his allotted
duties. The old father, who no longer goes to war (indicated by his
clothing and hair), is bringing in a fawn. The mother is busy skiving
a dry deer skin, while the daughter is cutting strips of venison for
“jerking.” The elder son is a hunter and warrior and the younger son is
burning down a tree which obstructs the yard. The wad of clay about the
tree trunk confines the flames. The exterior of the hunting cabin is
shown on the left.
The scene depicts Canandaigua lake with Ganundewa, the sacred hill of the
Senecas, in the distance.
The time is early morning and the season midspring.
The purpose of this group is to depict a Seneca family during the hunting
season. The activities represented show the utility of the deer as a
source of raw material. Deer meat was a favorite food, the skin furnished
leather for mats, bags, clothing and thongs. The antlers and bones were
used for tool material, the jaws for scrapers, the hoofs for ornaments
and the hair for stuffing cushions. The group also faithfully represents
the various costumes ornamented with hair embroidery.]
Cartier and his ships kept on westward, and we can imagine his feelings
when they passed from the cold straits where doubtless he had seen
icebergs, into a part of what is now the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where
the heat of July was so oppressive that he called it the Bay of Chaleur
(heat), a name preserved to this day. On these shores they found
gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and roses growing in abundance
and the rivers were full of salmon. They reached what we call Gaspé on
July 24th, and at once raised a great cross with a shield on which were
the lilies of France and “Vive le Roi de France.”
The Indians (for Cartier thought and hoped that he was on the road to
India) were friendly, and Cartier persuaded two sons of the chief to go
back to France with him. Being unprovided for a longer stay and fearful
of the stormy weather, he set sail for home and entered the harbour of
St. Malo early in September.
For a person of his imagination and daring and with the two Indian
princes to show to the court of France, there were no difficulties in
getting ready an expedition for the next year, and in July, 1535, he left
St. Malo with three small vessels. One can picture the excitement in
that seaport town when the vessels weighed anchor and stood out to sea,
vessels commissioned by the King and commanded by a son of St. Malo who
had proved his worth already, and who had on board the evidence of his
discoveries in the persons of the Indian princes now on their way back
home with him.
In August he was in the great Gulf, and aided by the knowledge of these
princes, he sailed boldly on until he saw the banks drawing together
and he realized that he was going out of the gulf into a great river.
They stopped at the narrows where Quebec now stands and met the Indian
chief, Donnaconna, in his village of Stadacona, which in the language of
the Huron-Iroquois, means “wing,” the formation of land between the St.
Lawrence and St. Charles rivers. This chief they saluted as the Lord of
Canada, the chief of the village or collection of huts. This is the first
time we meet the word “Canada,” a collection of huts, for Cartier had
taken possession of the country as New France.
Nearly four hundred years afterwards, from the same port went forth great
vessels bearing tens of thousands of troops from Canada to help old
France against the ruthless invader.[1]
Cartier was told of the great river which stretched on for miles and that
after many days’ journey there was a large town. He gave the river the
name “St. Lawrence,” and up it he made his way, astonished at the beauty
and grandeur of the ever-changing scene. And in those days it must have
been wonderful, for he tells us that he was impressed with the great
trees on the banks, the oak, the walnut, birch and willow and with the
vines heavy with grapes. It was September, and even to this day with so
many of those features gone, it would be difficult anywhere to find a
more impressive and beautiful journey than from the ancient Quebec to the
almost as ancient Montreal, when autumn tints the trees.
It was in the last days of this autumn month that he entered the
expansion of the river, which is now called Lac St. Pierre, so named
nearly a century afterwards by Champlain and known to many to-day by
Drummond’s famous poem.[2]
Landing on October 2nd he found the well-built town of Hochelaga, and was
welcomed by the inhabitants, the first white man they had ever seen. The
reception must have been impressive to both parties, and was made still
more so by the Indians taking Cartier up on the great hill to which he
gave the name of Mount Royal, and from which he looked over fields of
maize and beans and peas and wild fruits, with the silver river winding
its way among the beautiful foliage of the autumn, and away in the
distance the faint outline of what now are known as the Adirondacks of
New York State and the Green Mountains of Vermont. His men were full of
wonder and it is interesting to read that what attracted them most was “a
great pile of rats, which live in the water and are as large as rabbits
and are wonderfully good to eat.”[3]
He returned to Quebec, where he built huts in which to spend the winter.
Unaccustomed to so severe a climate and not well provisioned, disease
broke out and so many of his men died that when spring came and he set
sail for France he had to abandon one of his vessels, “La Petite Hermine.”
Cartier had a story worth telling. Whereas Columbus had touched the New
World and Cabot had sailed along its shores, Cartier had penetrated
a thousand miles into the continent—“Up the greatest river without
comparison that is known to have ever been seen,” as Cartier told the
King, and when he stood on Mount Royal on that October day he was the
only white man in all that country now known as Canada and the United
States of America. It makes one think of another great adventurer who, at
almost the same time, upon the same continent, is depicted as standing
“silent upon a peak in Darien.”[4]
This was Cortez of Spain and so we have the French and the Spanish in the
North American continent.
To confirm his story and to illustrate the transfer of the land to
France, Cartier took back with him Donnaconna and two other chiefs who
were presented to the King. They really were kidnapped, and sad to tell
they did not live to return to their own land.
When Cartier reached France there were serious political troubles
which prevented the authorities from acting at once, and so it was not
until 1538 that Francis took up the question of New France overseas.
He organized an expedition of which Lord Roberval was to be chief and
Cartier captain-general, and with a crew recruited mainly from the
prisons Cartier left St. Malo in 1541, sailed up the St. Lawrence,
explored the rapids (afterwards known as La Chine), spent a miserable
winter and returned to St. Malo a disappointed man. The Indians had lost
faith in him, for when they welcomed him and asked for their chiefs,
whose loss they had felt keenly, Cartier told them that the chiefs had
stayed in France, whereas they had died. Superseded at home by political
favourites, and distrusted in New France by the natives, Cartier retired
from the sea, his name passes from history and the first chapter of the
history of New France comes to an end.