THE PROGRESS OF THE COLONY
This year, 1668, would have brought only consolations to Mgr. de Laval,
if, unhappily, M. de Talon had not inflicted a painful blow upon the
heart of the prelate: the commissioner obtained from the Sovereign
Council a decree permitting the unrestricted sale of intoxicating drinks
both to the savages and to the French, and only those who became
intoxicated might be sentenced to a slight penalty. This was opening the
way for the greatest abuses, and no later than the following year Mother
Mary of the Incarnation wrote: "What does the most harm here is the
traffic in wine and brandy. We preach against those who give these
liquors to the savages; and yet many reconcile their consciences to the
permission of this thing. They go into the woods and carry drinks to the
savages in order to get their furs for nothing when they are drunk.
Immorality, theft and murder ensue.... We had not yet seen the French
commit such crimes, and we can attribute the cause of them only to the
pernicious traffic in brandy."
Commissioner Talon was, however, the cleverest administrator that the
colony had possessed, and the title of the "Canadian Colbert" which
Bibaud confers upon him is well deserved. Mother Incarnation summed up
his merits well in the following terms: "M. Talon is leaving us," said
she, "and returning to France, to the great regret of everybody and to
the loss of all Canada, for since he has been here in the capacity of
commissioner the country has progressed and its business prospered more
than they had done since the French occupation." Talon worked with all
his might in developing the resources of the colony, by exploiting the
mines, by encouraging the fisheries, agriculture, the exportation of
timber, and general commerce, and especially by inducing, through the
gift of a few acres of ground, the majority of the soldiers of the
regiment of Carignan to remain in the country. He entered every house to
enquire of possible complaints; he took the first census, and laid out
three villages near Quebec. His plans for the future were vaster still:
he recommended the king to buy or conquer the districts of Orange and
Manhattan; moreover, according to Abbé Ferland, he dreamed of connecting
Canada with the Antilles in commerce. With this purpose he had had a
ship built at Quebec, and had bought another in order to begin at once.
This very first year he sent to the markets of Martinique and Santo
Domingo fresh and dry cod, salted salmon, eels, pease, seal and porpoise
oil, clapboards and planks. He had different kinds of wood cut in order
to try them, and he exported masts to La Rochelle, which he hoped to see
used in the shipyards of the Royal Navy. He proposed to Colbert the
establishment of a brewery, in order to utilize the barley and the
wheat, which in a few years would be so abundant that the farmer could
not sell them. This was, besides, a means of preventing drunkenness, and
of retaining in the country the sum of one hundred thousand francs,
which went out each year for the purchase of wines and brandies. M.
Talon presented at the same time to the minister the observations which
he had made on the French population of the country. "The people," said
Talon, "are a mosaic, and though composed of colonists from different
provinces of France whose temperaments do not always sympathize, they
seem to me harmonious enough. There are," he added, "among these
colonists people in easy circumstances, indigent people and people
between these two extremes."
But he thought only of the material development of the colony; upon
others, he thought, were incumbent the responsibility for and defence of
spiritual interests. He was mistaken, for, although he had not in his
power the direction of souls, his duties as a simple soldier of the army
of Christ imposed upon him none the less the obligation of avoiding all
that might contribute to the loss of even a single soul. The disorders
which were the inevitable result of a free traffic in intoxicating
liquors, finally assumed such proportions that the council, without
going as far as the absolute prohibition of the sale of brandy to the
Indians, restricted, nevertheless, this deplorable traffic; it forbade
under the most severe penalties the carrying of firewater into the woods
to the savages, but it continued to tolerate the sale of intoxicating
liquors in the French settlements. It seems that Cavelier de la Salle
himself, in his store at Lachine where he dealt with the Indians, did
not scruple to sell them this fatal poison.
From 1668 to 1670, during the two years that Commissioner Talon had to
spend in France, both for reasons of health and on account of family
business, he did not cease to work actively at the court for his beloved
Canada. M. de Bouteroue, who took his place during his absence, managed
to prejudice the minds of the colonists in his favour by his exquisite
urbanity and the polish of his manners.
It will not be out of place, we think, to give here some details of the
state of the country and its resources at this period. Since the first
companies in charge of Canada were formed principally of merchants of
Rouen, of La Rochelle and of St. Malo, it is not astonishing that the
first colonists should have come largely from Normandy and Perche. It
was only about 1660 that fine and vigorous offspring increased a
population which up to that time was renewed only through immigration;
in the early days, in fact, the colonists lost all their children, but
they found in this only a new reason for hope in the future. "Since God
takes the first fruits," said they, "He will save us the rest." The wise
and far-seeing mind of Cardinal Richelieu had understood that
agricultural development was the first condition of success for a young
colony, and his efforts in this direction had been admirably seconded
both by Commissioner Talon and Mgr. de Laval at Quebec, and by the
Company of Montreal, which had not hesitated at any sacrifice in order
to establish at Ville-Marie a healthy and industrious population. If the
reader doubts this, let him read the letters of Talon, of Mother Mary of
the Incarnation, of Fathers Le Clercq and Charlevoix, of M. Aubert and
many others. "Great care had been exercised," says Charlevoix, "in the
selection of candidates who had presented themselves for the
colonization of New France.... As to the girls who were sent out to be
married to the new inhabitants, care was always taken to enquire of
their conduct before they embarked, and their subsequent behaviour was a
proof of the success of this system. During the following years the same
care was exercised, and we soon saw in this part of America a generation
of true Christians growing up, among whom prevailed the simplicity of
the first centuries of the Church, and whose posterity has not yet lost
sight of the great examples set by their ancestors.... In justice to the
colony of New France we must admit that the source of almost all the
families which still survive there to-day is pure and free from those
stains which opulence can hardly efface; this is because the first
settlers were either artisans always occupied in useful labour, or
persons of good family who came there with the sole intention of living
there more tranquilly and preserving their religion in greater security.
I fear the less contradiction upon this head since I have lived with
some of these first colonists, all people still more respectable by
reason of their honesty, their frankness and the firm piety which they
profess than by their white hair and the memory of the services which
they rendered to the colony."
M. Aubert says, on his part: "The French of Canada are well built,
nimble and vigorous, enjoying perfect health, capable of enduring all
sorts of fatigue, and warlike; which is the reason why, during the last
war, French-Canadians received a fourth more pay than the French of
Europe. All these advantageous physical qualities of the
French-Canadians arise from the fact that they have been born in a good
climate, and nourished by good and abundant food, that they are at
liberty to engage from childhood in fishing, hunting, and journeying in
canoes, in which there is much exercise. As to bravery, even if it were
not born with them as Frenchmen, the manner of warfare of the Iroquois
and other savages of this continent, who burn alive almost all their
prisoners with incredible cruelty, caused the French to face ordinary
death in battle as a boon rather than be taken alive; so that they
fight desperately and with great indifference to life." The consequence
of this judicious method of peopling a colony was that, the trunk of the
tree being healthy and vigorous, the branches were so likewise. "It was
astonishing," wrote Mother Mary of the Incarnation, "to see the great
number of beautiful and well-made children, without any corporeal
deformity unless through accident. A poor man will have eight or more
children, who in the winter go barefooted and bareheaded, with a little
shirt upon their back, and who live only on eels and bread, and
nevertheless are plump and large."
Property was feudal, as in France, and this constitution was maintained
even after the conquest of the country by the English. Vast stretches of
land were granted to those who seemed, thanks to their state of fortune,
fit to form centres of population, and these seigneurs granted in their
turn parts of these lands to the immigrants for a rent of from one to
three cents per acre, according to the value of the land, besides a
tribute in grain and poultry. The indirect taxation consisted of the
obligation of maintaining the necessary roads, one day's compulsory
labour per year, convertible into a payment of forty cents, the right of
_mouture_, consisting of a pound of flour on every fourteen from the
common mill, finally the payment of a twelfth in case of transfer and
sale (stamp and registration). This seigniorial tenure was burdensome,
we must admit, though it was less crushing than that which weighed upon
husbandry in France before the Revolution. The farmers of Canada uttered
a long sigh of relief when it was abolished by the legislature in 1867.
The habits of this population were remarkably simple; the costume of
some of our present out-of-door clubs gives an accurate idea of the
dress of that time, which was the same for all: the garment of wool, the
cloak, the belt of arrow pattern, and the woollen cap, called tuque,
formed the national costume. And not only did the colonists dress
without the slightest affectation, but they even made their clothes
themselves. "The growing of hemp," says the Abbé Ferland, "was
encouraged, and succeeded wonderfully. They used the nettle to make
strong cloths; looms set up in each house in the village furnished
drugget, bolting cloth, serge and ordinary cloth. The leathers of the
country sufficed for a great portion of the needs of the population.
Accordingly, after enumerating the advances in agriculture and industry,
Talon announced to Colbert with just satisfaction, that he could clothe
himself from head to foot in Canadian products, and that in a short time
the colony, if it were well administered, would draw from Old France
only a few objects of prime need."
The interior of the dwellings was not less simple, and we find still in
our country districts a goodly number of these old French houses; they
had only one single room, in which the whole family ate, lived and
slept, and received the light through three windows. At the back of the
room was the bed of the parents, supported by the wall, in another
corner a couch, used as a seat during the day and as a bed for the
children during the night, for the top was lifted off as one lifts the
cover of a box. Built into the wall, generally at the right of the
entrance, was the stone chimney, whose top projected a little above the
roof; the stewpan, in which the food was cooked, was hung in the
fireplace from a hook. Near the hearth a staircase, or rather a ladder,
led to the loft, which was lighted by two windows cut in the sides, and
which held the grain. Finally a table, a few chairs or benches completed
these primitive furnishings, though we must not forget to mention the
old gun hung above the bed to be within reach of the hand in case of a
night surprise from the dreaded Iroquois.
In peaceful times, too, the musket had its service, for at this period
every Canadian was born a disciple of St. Hubert. We must confess that
this great saint did not refuse his protection in this country, where,
with a single shot, a hunter killed, in 1663, a hundred and thirty wild
pigeons. These birds were so tame that one might kill them with an oar
on the bank of the river, and so numerous that the colonists, after
having gathered and salted enough for their winter's provision,
abandoned the rest to the dogs and pigs. How many hunters of our day
would have displayed their skill in these fortunate times! This
abundance of pigeons at a period when our ancestors were not favoured in
the matter of food as we are to-day, recalls at once to our memory the
quail that Providence sent to the Jews in the desert; and it is a fact
worthy of mention that as soon as our forefathers could dispense with
this superabundance of game, the wild pigeons disappeared so totally and
suddenly that the most experienced hunters cannot explain this sudden
disappearance. There were found also about Ville-Marie many partridge
and duck, and since the colonists could not go out after game in the
woods, where they would have been exposed to the ambuscades of the
Iroquois, the friendly Indians brought to market the bear, the elk, the
deer, the buffalo, the caribou, the beaver and the muskrat. On fast days
the Canadians did not lack for fish; eels were sold at five francs a
hundred, and in June, 1649, more than three hundred sturgeons were
caught at Montreal within a fortnight. The shad, the pike, the wall-eyed
pike, the carp, the brill, the maskinonge were plentiful, and there was
besides, more particularly at Quebec, good herring and salmon fishing,
while at Malbaie (Murray Bay) codfish, and at Three Rivers white fish
were abundant.
At first, food, clothing and property were all paid for by exchange of
goods. Men bartered, for example, a lot of ground for two cows and a
pair of stockings; a more considerable piece of land was to be had for
two oxen, a cow and a little money. "Poverty," says Bossuet, speaking
of other nations, "was not an evil; on the contrary, they looked upon it
as a means of keeping their liberty more intact, there being nothing
freer or more independent than a man who knows how to live on little,
and who, without expecting anything from the protection or the largess
of others, relies for his livelihood only on his industry and labour."
Voltaire has said with equal justice: "It is not the scarcity of money,
but that of men and talent, which makes an empire weak."
On the arrival of the royal troops coin became less rare. "Money is now
common," wrote Mother Incarnation, "these gentlemen having brought much
of it. They pay cash for all they buy, both food and other necessaries."
Money was worth a fourth more than in France, thus fifteen cents were
worth twenty. As a natural consequence, two currencies were established
in New France, and the _livre tournois_ (French franc) was distinguished
from the franc of the country. The Indians were dealt with by exchanges,
and one might see them traversing the streets of Quebec, Montreal or
Three Rivers, offering from house to house rich furs, which they
bartered for blankets, powder, lead, but above all, for that accursed
firewater which caused such havoc among them, and such interminable
disputes between the civil and the religious power. Intoxicating liquors
were the source of many disorders, and we cannot too much regret that
this stain rested upon the glory of New France. Yet such a society,
situated in what was undeniably a difficult position, could not be
expected to escape every imperfection.
The activity and the intelligence of Mgr. de Laval made themselves felt
in every beneficent and progressive work. He could not remain
indifferent to the education of his flock; we find him as zealous for
the progress of primary education as for the development of his two
seminaries or his school at St. Joachim. Primary instruction was given
first by the good Récollets at Quebec, at Tadousac and at Three Rivers.
The Jesuits replaced them, and were able, thanks to the munificence of
the son of the Marquis de Gamache, to add a college to their elementary
school at Quebec. At Ville-Marie the Sulpicians, with never-failing
abnegation, not content with the toil of their ministry, lent themselves
to the arduous task of teaching; the venerable superior himself, M.
Souart, took the modest title of headmaster. From a healthy bud issues a
fine fruit: just as the smaller seminary of Quebec gave birth to the
Laval University, so from the school of M. Souart sprang in 1733 the
College of Montreal, transferred forty years later to the Château
Vaudreuil, on Jacques Cartier Square; then to College Street, now St.
Paul Street. The college rises to-day on an admirable site on the slope
of the mountain; the main seminary, which adjoins it, seems to dominate
the city stretched at its feet, as the two sister sciences taught
there, theology and philosophy, dominate by their importance the other
branches of human knowledge.
M. de Fénelon, who was already devoted to the conversion of the savages
in the famous mission of Montreal mountain, gave the rest of his time to
the training of the young Iroquois; he gathered them in a school erected
by his efforts near Pointe Claire, on the Dorval Islands, which he had
received from M. de Frontenac. Later on the Brothers Charron established
a house at Montreal with a double purpose of charity: to care for the
poor and the sick, and to train men in order to send them to open
schools in the country district. This institution, in spite of the
enthusiasm of its founders, did not succeed, and became extinct about
the middle of the eighteenth century. Finally, in 1838, Canada greeted
with joy the arrival of the sons of the blessed Jean Baptiste de la
Salle, the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, so well known throughout
the world for their modesty and success in teaching.
The girls of the colony were no less well looked after than the boys; at
Quebec, the Ursuline nuns, established in that city by Madame de la
Peltrie, trained them for the future irreproachable mothers of families.
The attempts made to Gallicize the young savages met with no success in
the case of the boys, but were better rewarded by the young Indian
girls. "We have Gallicized," writes Mother Mary of the Incarnation, "a
number of Indian girls, both Hurons and Algonquins, whom we subsequently
married to Frenchmen, who get along with them very well. There is one
among them who reads and writes to perfection, both in her native Huron
tongue and in French; no one can discern or believe that she was born a
savage. The commissioner was so delighted at this that he induced her to
write for him something in the two languages, in order to take it to
France and show it as an extraordinary production." Further on she adds,
"It is a very difficult thing, not to say impossible, to Gallicize or
civilize them. We have more experience in this than any one else, and we
have observed that of a hundred who have passed through our hands we
have hardly civilized one. We find in them docility and intelligence,
but when we least expect it, they climb over our fence and go off to run
the woods with their parents, where they find more pleasure than in all
the comforts of our French houses."
At Montreal it was the venerable Marguerite Bourgeoys who began to teach
in a poor hovel the rudiments of the French tongue. This humble school
was transformed a little more than two centuries later into one of the
most vast and imposing edifices of the city of Montreal. Fire destroyed
it in 1893, but we must hope that this majestic monument of Ville-Marie
will soon rise again from its ruins to become the centre of operations
of the numerous educational institutions of the Congregation of
Notre-Dame which cover our country. M. l'abbé Verreau, the much
regretted principal of the Jacques Cartier Normal School, appreciates in
these terms the services rendered to education by Mother Bourgeoys, a
woman eminent from all points of view: "The Congregation of Notre-Dame,"
says he, "is a truly national institution, whose ramifications extend
beyond the limits of Canada. Marguerite Bourgeoys took in hand the
education of the women of the people, the basis of society. She taught
young women to become what they ought to be, especially at this period,
women full of moral force, of modesty, of courage in the face of the
dangers in the midst of which they lived. If the French-Canadians have
preserved a certain character of politeness and urbanity, which
strangers are not slow in admitting, they owe it in a great measure to
the work of Marguerite Bourgeoys."