CHAPTER I.

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THE

CONQUEST OF CANADA.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF "HOCHELAGA."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. 1.

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

82 CLIFF STREET.

1850.

INTRODUCTION.

England and France started in a fair race for the magnificent prize of

supremacy in America. The advantages and difficulties of each were much

alike, but the systems by which they improved those advantages and met

those difficulties were essentially different. New France was colonized

by a government, New England by a people. In Canada the men of

intellect, influence, and wealth were only the agents of the mother

country; they fulfilled, it is true, their colonial duties with zeal and

ability, but they ever looked to France for honor and approbation, and

longed for a return to her shores as their best reward. They were in the

colony, but not of it. They strove vigorously to repel invasion, to

improve agriculture, and to encourage commerce, for the sake of France,

but not for Canada.

The mass of the population of New France were descended from settlers

sent out within a short time after the first occupation of the country,

and who were not selected for any peculiar qualifications. They were not

led to emigrate from the spirit of adventure, disappointed ambition, or

political discontent; by far the larger proportion left their native

country under the pressure of extreme want or in blind obedience to the

will of their superiors. They were then established in points best

suited to the interests of France, not those best suited to their own.

The physical condition of the humbler emigrant, however, became better

than that of his countrymen in the Old World; the fertile soil repaid

his labor with competence; independence fostered self-reliance, and the

unchecked range of forest and prairie inspired him with thoughts of

freedom. But all these elevating tendencies were fatally counteracted by

the blighting influence of feudal organization. Restrictions,

humiliating as well as injurious, pressed upon the person and property

of the Canadian. Every avenue to wealth and influence was closed to him

and thrown open to the children of Old France. He saw whole tracts of

the magnificent country lavished upon the favorites and military

followers of the court, and, through corrupt or capricious influences,

the privilege of exclusive trade granted for the aggrandizement of

strangers at his expense.

France founded a state in Canada. She established a feudal and

ecclesiastical frame-work for the young nation, and into that

Procrustean bed the growth of population and the proportions of society

were forced. The state fixed governments at Montreal, Three Rivers, and

Quebec; there towns arose. She divided the rich banks of the St.

Lawrence and of the Richelieu into seigneuries; there population spread.

She placed posts on the lakes and rivers of the Far West; there the

fur-traders congregated. She divided the land into dioceses and

parishes, and appointed bishops and curates; a portion of all produce of

the soil was exacted for their support. She sent out the people at her

own cost, and acknowledged no shadow of popular rights. She organized

the inhabitants by an unsparing conscription, and placed over them

officers either from the Old Country or from the favored class of

seigneurs. She grasped a monopoly of every valuable production of the

country, and yet forced upon it her own manufactures to the exclusion of

all others. She squandered her resources and treasures on the colony,

but violated all principles of justice in a vain endeavor to make that

colony a source of wealth. She sent out the ablest and best of her

officers to govern on the falsest and worst of systems. Her energy

absorbed all individual energy; her perpetual and minute interference

aspired to shape and direct all will and motive of her subjects. The

state was every thing, the people nothing. Finally, when the power of

the state was broken by a foreign foe, there remained no power of the

people to supply its place. On the day that the French armies ceased to

resist, Canada was a peaceful province of British America.

A few years after the French crown had founded a state in Canada, a

handful of Puritan refugees founded a people in New England. They bore

with them from the mother country little beside a bitter hatred of the

existing government, and a stern resolve to perish or be free. One small

vessel--the Mayflower--held them, their wives, their children, and their

scanty stores. So ignorant were they of the country of their adoption,

that they sought its shores in the depth of winter, when nothing but a

snowy desert met their sight. Dire hardships assailed them; many

sickened and died, but those who lived still strove bravely. And bitter

was their trial; the scowling sky above their heads, the frozen earth

under their feet, and sorest of all, deep in their strong hearts the

unacknowledged love of that venerable land which they had abandoned

forever.

But brighter times soon came; the snowy desert changed into a fair scene

of life and vegetation. The woods rang with the cheerful sound of the

ax; the fields were tilled hopefully, the harvest gathered gratefully.

Other vessels arrived bearing more settlers, men, for the most part,

like those who had first landed. Their numbers swelled to hundreds,

thousands, tens of thousands. They formed themselves into a community;

they decreed laws, stern and quaint, but suited to their condition. They

had neither rich nor poor; they admitted of no superiority save in their

own gloomy estimate of merit; they persecuted all forms of faith

different from that which they themselves held, and yet they would have

died rather than suffer the religious interference of others. Far from

seeking or accepting aid from the government of England, they patiently

tolerated their nominal dependence only because they were virtually

independent. For protection against the savage; for relief in pestilence

or famine; for help to plenty and prosperity, they trusted alone to God

in heaven, and to their own right hand on earth.

Such, in the main, were the ancestors of the men of New England, and, in

spite of all subsequent admixture, such, in the main, were they

themselves. In the other British colonies also, hampered though they

were by charters, and proprietary rights, and alloyed by a Babel

congregation of French Huguenots, Dutch, Swedes, Quakers, Nobles,

Roundheads, Canadians, rogues, zealots, infidels, enthusiasts, and

felons, a general prosperity had created individual self-reliance, and

self-reliance had engendered the desire of self-government. Each colony

contained a separate vitality within itself. They commenced under a

variety of systems; more or less practicable, more or less liberal, and

more or less dependent on the parent state. But the spirit of

adventure, the disaffection, and the disappointed ambition which had so

rapidly recruited their population, gave a general bias to their

political feelings which no arbitrary authority could restrain, and no

institutions counteract. They were less intolerant and morose, but at

the same time, also, less industrious and moral than their Puritan

neighbors. Like them, however, they resented all interference from

England as far as they dared, and constantly strove for the acquisition

or retention of popular rights.

The British colonists, left at first, in a great measure, to themselves,

settled on the most fertile lands, built their towns upon the most

convenient harbors, directed their industry to the most profitable

commerce, raised the most valuable productions. The trading spirit of

the mother country became almost a passion when transferred to the New

World. Enterprise and industry were stimulated to incredible activity by

brilliant success and ample reward. As wealth and the means of

subsistence increased, so multiplied the population. Early marriages

were universal; a numerous family was the riches of the parent.

Thousands of immigrants, also, from year to year swelled the living

flood that poured over the wilderness. In a century and a half the

inhabitants of British America exceeded nearly twenty-fold the people of

New France. The relative superiority of the first over the last was even

greater in wealth and resources than in population. The merchant navy of

the English colonies was already larger than that of many European

nations, and known in almost every port in the world where men bought

and sold. New France had none.

The French colonies were founded and fostered by the state, with the

real object of extending the dominion, increasing the power, and

illustrating the glory of France. The ostensible object of settlement,

at least that holding the most prominent place in all Acts and Charters,

was to extend the true religion, and to minister to the glory of God.

From the earliest time the ecclesiastical establishments of Canada were

formed on a scale suited to these professed views. Not only was ample

provision made for the spiritual wants of the European population, but

the labors of many earnest and devoted men were directed to the

enlightenment of the heathen Indians. At first the Church and the civil

government leaned upon each other for mutual support and assistance, but

after a time, when neither of these powers found themselves troubled

with popular opposition, their union grew less intimate; their interests

differed, jealousies ensued, and finally they became antagonistic orders

in the community. The mass of the people, more devout than intelligent,

sympathized with the priesthood; this sympathy did not, however,

interfere with unqualified submission to the government.

The Canadians were trained to implicit obedience to their rulers,

spiritual and temporal: these rulers ventured not to imperil their

absolute authority by educating their vassals. It is true there were a

few seminaries and schools under the zealous administration of the

Jesuits; but even that instruction was unattainable by the general

population; those who walked in the moonlight which such reflected rays

afforded, were not likely to become troublesome as sectarians or

politicians. Much credit for sincerity can not be given to those who

professed to promote the education of the people, when no

printing-press was ever permitted in Canada during the government of

France.

Canada, unprovoked by Dissent, was altogether free from the stain of

religious persecution: hopelessly fettered in the chains of metropolitan

power, she was also undisturbed by political agitation. But this calm

was more the stillness of stagnation than the tranquillity of content.

Without a press, without any semblance of popular representation, there

hardly remained other alternatives than tame submission or open mutiny.

By hereditary habit and superstition the Canadians were trained to the

first, and by weakness and want of energy they were incapacitated for

the last.

Although the original charter of New England asserted the king's

supremacy in matters of religion, a full understanding existed that on

this head ample latitude should be allowed; ample latitude was

accordingly taken. She set up a system of faith of her own, and enforced

conformity. But the same spirit that had excited the colonists to

dissent from the Church of England, and to sacrifice home and friends in

the cause, soon raised up among them a host of dissenters from their own

stern and peculiar creed. Their clergy had sacrificed much for

conscience' sake, and were generally "faithful, watchful, painful,

serving their flock daily with prayers and tears," some among them,

also, men of high European repute. They had often, however, the

mortification of seeing their congregations crowding to hear the ravings

of any knave or enthusiast who broached a new doctrine. Most of these

mischievous fanatics were given the advantage of that interest and

sympathy which a cruel and unnecessary persecution invariably excites.

All this time freedom of individual judgment was the watch-word of the

persecutors. There is no doubt that strong measures were necessary to

curb the furious and profane absurdities of many of the seceders, who

were the very outcasts of religion. On considering the criminal laws of

the time, it would also appear that not a few of the outcasts of

society, also, had found their way to New England. The code of

Massachusetts contained the description of the most extraordinary

collection of crimes that ever defaced a statute-book, and the various

punishments allotted to each.

In one grand point the pre-eminent merit of the Puritans must be

acknowledged: they strove earnestly and conscientiously for what they

held to be the truth. For this they endured with unshaken constancy, and

persecuted with unremitting zeal.

The suicidal policy of the Stuarts had, for a time, driven all the

upholders of civil liberty into the ranks of sectarianism. The advocates

of the extremes of religious and political opinion flocked to America,

the furthest point from kings and prelates that they could conveniently

reach. Ingrafted on the stubborn temper of the Englishman, and planted

in the genial soil of the West, the love of this civil and religious

liberty grew up with a vigor that time only served to strengthen; that

the might of armies vainly strove to overcome. Thus, ultimately, the

persecution under the Stuarts was the most powerful cause ever yet

employed toward the liberation of man in his path through earth to

heaven.

For many years England generally refrained from interference with her

American colonies in matters of local government or in religion. They

taxed themselves, made their own laws, and enjoyed religious freedom in

their own way. In one state only, in Virginia, was the Church of England

established, and even there it was accorded very little help by the

temporal authority: in a short time it ceased to receive the support of

a majority of the settlers, and rapidly decayed. On one point, however,

the mother country claimed and exacted the obedience of the colonists to

the imperial law. In her commercial code she would not permit the

slightest relaxation in their favor, whatever the peculiar circumstances

of their condition might be. This short-sighted and unjust restriction

was borne, partly because it could not be resisted, and partly because

at that early time the practical evil was but lightly felt. Although the

principle of representation was seldom specified in the earlier

charters, the colonists in all cases assumed it as a matter of right:

they held that their privileges as Englishmen accompanied them wherever

they went, and this was generally admitted as a principle of colonial

policy.

In the seventeenth century England adopted the system of transportation

to the American colonies. The felons were, however, too limited in

numbers to make any serious inroad upon the morals or tranquillity of

the settlers. Many of the convicts were men sentenced for political

crimes, but free from any social taint; the laboring population,

therefore, did not regard them with contempt, nor shrink from their

society. It may be held, therefore, that this partial and peculiar

system of transportation introduced no distinct element into the

constitution of the American nation.

The British colonization in the New World differed essentially from any

before attempted by the nations of modern Europe, and has led to

results of immeasurable importance to mankind. Even the magnificent

empire of India sinks into insignificance, in its bearings upon the

general interests of the world, by comparison with the Anglo-Saxon

empire in America. The success of each, however, is unexampled in

history.

In the great military and mercantile colony of the East an enormous

native population is ruled by a dominant race, whose number amounts to

less than a four-thousandth part of its own, but whose superiority in

war and civil government is at present so decided as to reduce any

efforts of opposition to the mere outbursts of hopeless petulance. In

that golden land, however, even the Anglo-Saxon race can not increase

and multiply; the children of English parents degenerate or perish under

its fatal sun. No permanent settlement or infusion of blood takes place.

Neither have we effected any serious change in the manners or customs of

the East Indians; on the other hand, we have rather assimilated ours to

theirs. We tolerate their various religions, and we learn their

language; but in neither faith nor speech have they approached one

tittle toward us. We have raised there no gigantic monument of power

either in pride or for utility; no temples, canals, or roads remain to

remind posterity of our conquest and dominion. Were the English rule

over India suddenly cast off, in a single generation the tradition of

our Eastern empire would appear a splendid but baseless dream, that of

our administration an allegory, of our victories a romance.

In the great social colonies of the West, the very essence of vitality

is their close resemblance to the parent state. Many of the coarser

inherited elements of strength have been increased. Industry and

adventure have been stimulated to an unexampled extent by the natural

advantages of the country, and free institutions have been developed

almost to license by general prosperity and the absence of external

danger. Their stability, in some one form or another, is undoubted: it

rests on the broadest possible basis--on the universal will of the

nation. Our vast empire in India rests only on the narrow basis of the

superiority of a handful of Englishmen: should any untoward fate shake

the Atlas strength that bears the burden, the superincumbent mass must

fall in ruins to the earth. With far better cause may England glory in

the land of her revolted children than in that of her patient slaves:

the prosperous cities and busy sea-ports of America are prouder

memorials of her race than the servile splendor of Calcutta or the

ruined ramparts of Seringapatam. In the earlier periods the British

colonies were only the reflection of Britain; in later days their light

has served to illumine the political darkness of the European Continent.

The attractive example of American democracy proved the most important

cause that has acted upon European society since the Reformation.

Toward the close of George II.'s reign England had reached the lowest

point of national degradation recorded in her history. The disasters of

her fleets and armies abroad were the natural fruits of almost universal

corruption at home. The admirals and generals, chosen by a German king

and a subservient ministry, proved worthy of the mode of their

selection. An obsequious Parliament served but to give the apparent

sanction of the people to the selfish and despotic measures of the

crown. Many of the best blood and of the highest chivalry of the land

still held loyal devotion to the exiled Stuarts, while the mass of the

nation, disgusted by the sordid and unpatriotic acts of the existing

dynasty, regarded it with sentiments of dislike but little removed from

positive hostility. A sullen discontent paralyzed the vigor of England,

obstructed her councils, and blunted her sword. In the cabinets of

Europe, among the colonists of America, and the millions of the East

alike, her once glorious name had sunk almost to a by-word of reproach.

But "the darkest hour is just before the dawn:" a new disaster, more

humiliating, and more inexcusable than any which had preceded, at length

goaded the passive indignation of the British people into irresistible

action. The spirit that animated the men who spoke at Runnymede, and

those who fought on Marston Moor, was not dead, but sleeping. The free

institutions which wisdom had devised, time hallowed, and blood sealed,

were evaded, but not overthrown. The nation arose as one man, and with a

peaceful but stern determination, demanded that these things should

cease. Then, for "the hour," the hand of the All Wise supplied "the

man." The light of Pitt's genius, the fire of his patriotism, like the

dawn of an unclouded morning, soon chased away the chilly night which

had so long darkened over the fortunes of his country.

But not even the genius of the great minister, aided as it was by the

awakened spirit of the British people, would have sufficed to rend

Canada from France without the concurrent action of many and various

causes: the principal of these was, doubtless, the extraordinary growth

of our American settlements. When the first French colonists founded

their military and ecclesiastical establishments at Quebec, upheld by

the favor and strengthened by the arms of the mother country, they

regarded with little uneasiness the unaided efforts of their English

rivals in the South. But these dangerous neighbors rose with wonderful

rapidity from few to many, from weak to powerful. The cloud, which had

appeared no greater than "a man's hand" on the political horizon, spread

rapidly wider and wider, above and below, till at length from out its

threatening gloom the storm burst forth which swept away the flag of

France.

As a military event, the conquest of Canada was a matter of little or no

permanent importance: it can only rank as one among the numerous scenes

of blood that give an intense but morbid interest to our national

annals. The surrender of Niagara and Quebec were but the acknowledgment

or final symbol of the victory of English over French colonization. For

three years the admirable skill of Montcalm and the valor of his troops

deferred the inevitable catastrophe of the colony: then the destiny was

accomplished. France had for that time played out her part in the

history of the New World; during one hundred and fifty years her

threatening power had served to retain the English colonies in

interested loyalty to protecting England. Notwithstanding the immense

material superiority of the British Americans, the fleets and armies of

the mother country were indispensable to break the barrier raised up

against them by the union, skill, and courage of the French.

Montcalm's far-sighted wisdom suggested consolation even in his defeat

and death. In a remarkable and almost prophetic letter, which he

addressed to M. de Berryer during the siege of Quebec, he foretells

that the British power in America shall be broken by success, and that

when the dread of France ceases to exist, the colonists will no longer

submit to European control. One generation had not passed away when his

prediction was fully accomplished. England, by the conquest of Canada,

breathed the breath of life into the huge Frankenstein of the American

republic.

The rough schooling of French hostility was necessary for the

development of those qualities among the British colonists which enabled

them finally to break the bonds of pupilage and stand alone. Some degree

of united action had been effected among the several and

widely-different states; the local governments had learned how to raise

and support armies, and to consider military movements. On many

occasions the provincial militia had borne themselves with distinguished

bravery in the field; several of their officers had gained honorable

repute; already the name of WASHINGTON called a flush of pride upon each

American cheek. The stirring events of the contest with Canada had

brought men of ability and patriotism into the strong light of active

life, and the eyes of their countrymen sought their guidance in trusting

confidence. Through the instrumentality of such men as these the

American Revolution was shaped into the dignity of a national movement,

and preserved from the threatening evils of an insane democracy.

The consequences of the Canadian war furnished the cause of the quarrel

which led to the separation of the great colonies from the mother

country. England had incurred enormous debt in the contest; her people

groaned under taxation, and the wealthy Americans had contributed in

but a very small proportion to the cost of victories by which they were

the principal gainers. The British Parliament devised an unhappy

expedient to remedy this evil: it assumed the right of taxing the

unrepresented colonies, and taxed them accordingly. Vain was the

prophetic eloquence of Lord Chatham; vain were the just and earnest

remonstrances of the best and wisest among the colonists: the time was

come. Then followed years of stubborn and unyielding strife; the blood

of the same race gave sterner determination to the quarrel. The balance

of success hung equally. Once again France appeared upon the stage in

the Western world, and La Fayette revenged the fall of Montcalm.

However we may regret the cause and conduct of the Revolutionary war, we

can hardly regret its result. The catastrophe was inevitable: the folly

or wisdom of British statesmen could only have accelerated or deferred

it. The child had outlived the years of pupilage; the interests of the

old and the young required a separate household. But we must ever mourn

the mode of separation: a bitterness was left that three quarters of a

century has hardly yet removed; and a dark page remains in our annals,

that tells of a contest begun in injustice, conducted with mingled

weakness and severity, and ended in defeat. The cause of human freedom,

perhaps for ages, depended upon the issue of the quarrel. Even the

patriot minister merged the apparent interests of England in the

interests of mankind. By the light of Lord Chatham's wisdom we may read

the disastrous history of that fatal war, with a resigned and tempered

sorrow for the glorious inheritance rent away from us forever.

The reaction of the New World upon the Old may be distinctly traced

through the past and the present, but human wisdom may not estimate its

influence on the future. The lessons of freedom learned by the French

army while aiding the revolted colonies against England were not

forgotten. On their return to their native country, they spread abroad

tidings that the new people of America had gained a treasure richer a

thousand-fold than those which had gilded the triumphs of Cortes or

Pizarro--the inestimable prize of liberty. Then the down-trampled

millions of France arose, and with avaricious haste strove for a like

treasure. They won a specious imitation, so soiled and stained, however,

that many of the wisest among them could not at once detect its nature.

They played with the coarse bawble for a time, then lost it in a sea of

blood.

Doubtless the tempest that broke upon France had long been gathering.

The rays that emanated from such false suns as Voltaire and Rousseau had

already drawn up a moral miasma from the swamps of sensual ignorance:

under the shade of a worthless government these noxious mists collected

into the clouds from whence the desolating storm of the Revolution

burst. It was, however, the example of popular success in the New World,

and the republican training of a portion of the French army during the

American contest, that finally accelerated the course of events. A

generation before the "Declaration of Independence" the struggle between

the rival systems of Canada and New England had been watched by thinking

men in Europe with deep interest, and the importance to mankind of its

issue was fully felt. While France mourned the defeat of her armies and

the loss of her magnificent colony, the keen-sighted philosopher of

Ferney gave a banquet to celebrate the British triumph at Quebec, not as

the triumph of England over France, but as that of freedom over

despotism.[1]

The overthrow of French by British power in America was not the effect

of mere military superiority. The balance of general success and glory

in the field is no more than shared with the conquered people. The

morbid national vanity, which finds no delight but in the triumphs of

the sword, will shrink from the study of this checkered story. The

narrative of disastrous defeat and doubtful advantage must be endured

before we arrive at that of the brilliant victory which crowned our arms

with final success. We read with painful surprise of the rout and ruin

of regular British regiments by a crowd of Indian savages, and of the

bloody repulse of the most numerous army that had yet assembled round

our standards in America before a few weak French battalions and an

unfinished parapet.

For the first few years our prosecution of the Canadian war was marked

by a weakness little short of imbecility. The conduct of the troops was

indifferent, the tactics of the generals bad, and the schemes of the

minister worse. The coarse but powerful wit of Smollett and Fielding,

and the keen sarcasms of "Chrysal," convey to us no very exalted idea of

the composition of the British army in those days. The service had sunk

into contempt. The withering influence of a corrupt patronage had

demoralized the officers; successive defeats, incurred through the

inefficiency of courtly generals, had depressed the spirit of the

soldiery, and, were it not for the proof shown upon the bloody fields

of La Feldt and Fontenoy, we might almost suppose that English manhood

had become an empty name.

Many of the battalions shipped off to take part in the American contest

were hasty levies without organization or discipline: the colonel, a man

of influence, with or without other qualifications, as the case might

be; the officers, his neighbors and dependents. These armed mobs found

themselves suddenly landed in a country, the natural difficulty of which

would of itself have proved a formidable obstacle, even though

unenhanced by the presence of an active and vigilant enemy. At the same

time, there devolved upon them the duties and the responsibilities of

regular troops. A due consideration of these circumstances tends to

diminish the surprise which a comparison of their achievements with

those recorded in our later military annals might create.

Very different were the ranks of the American army from the magnificent

regiments whose banners now bear the crowded records of Peninsular and

Indian victory; who, within the recollection of living men, have stood

as conquerors upon every hostile land, yet never once permitted a

stranger to tread on England's sacred soil but as a prisoner, fugitive,

or friend. In Cairo and Copenhagen; in Lisbon, Madrid, and Paris; in the

ancient metropolis of China; in the capital of the young American

republic, the British flag has been hailed as the symbol of a triumphant

power or of a generous deliverance. Well may we cherish an honest pride

in the prowess and military virtue of our soldiers, loyal alike to the

crown and to the people; facing in battle, with unshaken courage, the

deadly shot and sweeping charge, and, with a still loftier valor,

enduring, in times of domestic troubles, the gibes and injuries of

their misguided countrymen.

In the stirring interest excited by the progress and rivalry of our

kindred races in America, the sad and solemn subject of the Indian

people is almost forgotten. The mysterious decree of Providence which

has swept them away may not be judged by human wisdom. Their existence

will soon be of the past. They have left no permanent impression on the

constitution of the great nation which now spreads over their country.

No trace of their blood, language, or manners may be found among their

haughty successors. As certainly as their magnificent forests fell

before the advancing tide of civilization, they fell also. Neither the

kindness nor the cruelty of the white man arrested or hastened their

inevitable fate. They withered alike under the Upas-shade of European

protection and before the deadly storm of European hostility. As the

snow in spring they melted away, stained, tainted, trampled down.

The closing scene of French dominion in Canada was marked by

circumstances of deep and peculiar interest. The pages of romance can

furnish no more striking episode than the battle of Quebec. The skill

and daring of the plan which brought on the combat, and the success and

fortune of its execution, are unparalleled. There a broad, open plain,

offering no advantages to either party, was the field of fight. The

contending armies were nearly equal in military strength, if not in

numbers. The chiefs of each were men already of honorable fame. France

trusted firmly in the wise and chivalrous Montcalm; England trusted

hopefully in the young and heroic Wolfe. The magnificent stronghold

which was staked upon the issue of the strife stood close at hand. For

miles and miles around, the prospect extended over as fair a land as

ever rejoiced the sight of man; mountain and valley, forest and waters,

city and solitude, grouped together in forms of almost ideal beauty.

The strife was brief, but deadly. The September sun rose upon two

gallant armies arrayed in unbroken pride, and noon of the same day saw

the ground where they had stood strewn with the dying and the dead.

Hundreds of the veterans of France had fallen in the ranks, from which

they disdained to fly; the scene of his ruin faded fast from Montcalm's

darkening sight, but the proud consciousness of having done his duty

deprived defeat and death of their severest sting. Not more than a

musket-shot away lay Wolfe; the heart that but an hour before had

throbbed with great and generous impulse, now still forever. On the face

of the dead there rested a triumphant smile, which the last agony had

not overcast; a light of unfailing hope, that the shadows of the grave

could not darken.

The portion of history here recorded is no fragment. Within a period

comparatively brief, we see the birth, the growth, and the catastrophe

of a nation. The flag of France is erected at Quebec by a handful of

hardy adventurers; a century and a half has passed, and that flag is

lowered to a foreign foe before the sorrowing eyes of a Canadian people.

This example is complete as that presented in the life of an individual:

we see the natural sequence of events; the education and the character,

the motive and the action, the error and the punishment. Through the

following records may be clearly traced combinations of causes, remote,

and even apparently opposed, uniting in one result, and also the

surprising fertility of one great cause in producing many different

results.

Were we to read the records of history by the light of the understanding

instead of by the fire of the passions, the study could be productive

only of unmixed good; their examples and warnings would afford us

constant guidance in the paths of public and private virtue. The narrow

and unreasonable notion of exclusive national merit can not survive a

fair glance over the vast map of time and space which history lays

before us. We may not avert our eyes from those dark spots upon the

annals of our beloved land where acts of violence and injustice stand

recorded against her, nor may we suffer the blaze of military renown to

dazzle our judgment. Victory may bring glory to the arms, while it

brings shame to the councils of a people; for the triumphs of war are

those of the general and the soldier; increase of honor, wisdom, and

prosperity are the triumphs of the nation.

The citizens of Rome placed the images of their ancestors in the

vestibule, to recall the virtues of the dead, and to stimulate the

emulation of the living. We also should fix our thoughts upon the

examples which history presents, not in a vain spirit of selfish

nationality, but in earnest reverence for the great and good of all

countries, and a contempt for the false, and mean, and cruel even of our

own.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: See Appendix, No. I. (see Vol II)]

THE CONQUEST OF CANADA.

CHAPTER I.

The philosophers of remote antiquity acquired the important knowledge of

the earth's spherical form; to their bold genius we are indebted for the

outline of the geographical system now universally adopted. With a

vigorous conception, but imperfect execution, they traced out the scheme

of denoting localities by longitude and latitude: according to their

teaching, the imaginary equatorial line, encompassing the earth, was

divided into hours and degrees.

Even at that distant period hardy adventurers had penetrated far away

into the land of the rising sun, and many a wondrous tale was told of

that mysterious empire, where one third of our fellow-men still stand

apart from the brotherhood of nations. Among the various and astounding

exaggerations induced by the vanity of the narrators, and the ignorance

of their audience, none was more ready than that of distance. The

journey, the labor of a life; each league of travel a new scene; the day

crowded with incident, the night a dream of terror or admiration. Then,

as the fickle will of the wanderer suggested, as the difficulties or

encouragement of nature, and the hostility or aid of man impelled, the

devious course bent to the north or south, was hastened, hindered, or

retraced.

By such vague and shadowy measurement as the speculations of these

wanderers supplied, the sages of the past traced out the ideal limits of

the dry land which, at the word of God, appeared from out the gathering

together of the waters.[2]

The most eminent geographer before the time of Ptolemy places the

confines of Seres--the China of to-day--at nearly two thirds of the

distance round the world, from the first meridian.[3] Ptolemy reduces

the proportion to one half. Allowing for the supposed vast extent of

this unknown country to the eastward, it was evident that its remotest

shores approached our Western World. But, beyond the Pillars of

Hercules, the dark and stormy waters of the Atlantic[5] forbade

adventure. The giant minds of those days saw, even through the mists of

ignorance and error, that the readiest course to reach this distant land

must lie toward the setting sun, across the western ocean.[6] From over

this vast watery solitude no traveler had ever brought back the story of

his wanderings. The dim light of traditionary memory gave no guiding

ray, the faint voice of rumor breathed not its mysterious secrets. Then

poetic imagination filled the void; vast islands were conjured up out of

the deep, covered with unheard-of luxuriance of vegetation, rich in

mines of incalculable value, populous with a race of conquering

warriors. But this magnificent vision was only created to be destroyed;

a violent earthquake rent asunder in a day and a night the foundations

of Atlantis, and the waters of the Western Ocean swept over the ruins of

this once mighty empire.[7] In after ages we are told, that some

Phoenician vessels, impelled by a strong east wind, were driven for

thirty days across the Atlantic: there they found a part of the sea

where the surface was covered with rushes and sea-weed, somewhat

resembling a vast inundated meadow.[8] The voyagers ascribed these

strange appearances to some cause connected with the submerged Atlantis,

and even in later years they were held by many as confirmation of

Plato's marvelous story.[9]

In the Carthaginian annals is found the mention of a fertile and

beautiful island of the distant Atlantic. Many adventurous men of that

maritime people were attracted thither by the delightful climate and the

riches of the soil; it was deemed of such value and importance that they

proposed to transfer the seat of their republic to its shores in case of

any irreparable disaster at home. But at length the Senate, fearing the

evils of a divided state, denounced the distant colony, and decreed the

punishment of death to those who sought it for a home. If there be any

truth in this ancient tale, it is probable that one of the Canary

Islands was its subject.[10]

Although the New World in the West was unknown to the ancients, there is

no doubt that they entertained a suspicion of its existence;[11] the

romance of Plato--the prophecy of Seneca, were but the offsprings of

this vague idea. Many writers tell us it was conjectured that, by

sailing from the coast of Spain, the eastern shores of India might be

reached;[13] the length of the voyage, or the wonders that might lie in

its course, imagination alone could measure or describe. Whatever might

have been the suspicion or belief[14] of ancient time, we may feel

assured that none then ventured to seek these distant lands, nor have we

reason to suppose that any of the civilized European races gave

inhabitants to the New World before the close of the fifteenth century.

To the barbarous hordes of Northeastern Asia America must have long been

known as the land where many of their wanderers found a home. It is not

surprising that from them no information was obtained; but it is strange

that the bold and adventurous Northmen should have visited it nearly

five hundred years before the great Genoese, and have suffered their

wonderful discovery to remain hidden from the world, and to become

almost forgotten among themselves.[15]

In the year 1001 the Icelanders touched upon the American coast, and for

nearly two centuries subsequent visits were repeatedly made by them and

the Norwegians, for the purpose of commerce or for the gratification of

curiosity. Biorn Heriolson, an Icelander, was the first discoverer:

steering for Greenland, he was driven to the south by tempestuous and

unfavorable winds, and saw different parts of America, without, however,

touching at any of them. Attracted by the report of this voyage, Leif,

son of Eric, the discoverer of Greenland, fitted out a vessel to pursue

the same adventure. He passed the coast visited by Biorn, and steered

southwest till he reached a strait between a large island and the main

land. Finding the country fertile and pleasant, he passed the winter

near this place, and gave it the name of Vinland,[16] from the wild vine

which grew there in great abundance.[17] The winter days were longer in

this new country than in Greenland, and the weather was more temperate.

Leif returned to Greenland in the spring; his brother Thorvald succeeded

him, and remained two winters in Vinland exploring much of the coast and

country.[19] In the course of the third summer the natives, now called

Esquimaux, were first seen; on account of their diminutive stature the

adventurers gave them the name of _Skraelingar_.[20] These poor savages,

irritated by an act of barbarous cruelty, attacked the Northmen with

darts and arrows, and Thorvald fell a victim to their vengeance. A

wealthy Icelander, named Thorfinn, established a regular colony in

Vinland soon after this event; the settlers increased rapidly in

numbers, and traded with the natives for furs and skins to great

advantage. After three years the adventurers returned to Iceland

enriched by the expedition, and reported favorably upon the new country.

Little is known of this settlement after Thorfinn's departure till early

in the twelfth century, when a bishop of Greenland[21] went there to

promulgate the Christian faith among the colonists; beyond that time

scarcely a notice of its existence occurs, and the name and situation of

the ancient Vinland soon passed away from the knowledge of man. Whether

the adventurous colonists ever returned, or became blended with the

natives,[22] or perished by their hands, no record remains to tell.[23]

Discoveries such as these by the ancient Scandinavians--fruitless to the

world and almost buried in oblivion--can not dim the glory of that

transcendant genius to whom we owe the knowledge of a New World.

The claim of the Welsh to the first discovery of America seems to rest

upon no better original authority than that of Meridith-ap-Rees, a bard

who died in the year 1477. His verses only relate that Prince Madoc,

wearied with dissensions at home, searched the ocean for a new kingdom.

The tale of this adventurer's voyages and colonization was written one

hundred years subsequent to the early Spanish discoveries, and seems to

be merely a fanciful completion of his history: he probably perished in

the unknown seas. It is certain that neither the ancient principality

nor the world reaped any benefit from these alleged discoveries.[24]

In the middle of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth

centuries, the Venetian Marco Polo[25] and the Englishman Mandeville[26]

awakened the curiosity of Europe with respect to the remote parts of the

earth. Wise and discerning men selected the more valuable portions of

their observations; ideas were enlarged, and a desire for more perfect

information excited a thirst for discovery. While this spirit was

gaining strength in Europe, the wonderful powers of the magnet were

revealed to the Western World.[27] The invention of the mariner's

compass aided and extended navigation more than all the experience and

adventure of preceding ages: the light of the stars, the guidance of the

sea-coast, were no longer necessary; trusting to the mysterious powers

of his new friend, the sailor steered out fearlessly into the ocean,

through the bewildering mists or the darkness of night.

The Spaniards were the first to profit by the bolder spirit and improved

science of navigation. About the beginning of the fourteenth century,

they were led to the accidental discovery of the Canary Islands,[28] and

made repeated voyages thither, plundering the wretched inhabitants, and

carrying them off as slaves.[29] Pope Clement VI. conferred these

countries as a kingdom upon Louis de la Cerda, of the royal race of

Castile; he, however, was powerless to avail himself of the gift, and it

passed to the stronger hand of John de Bethancourt, a Norman baron.[30]

The countrymen of this bold adventurer explored the seas far to the

south of the Canary Islands, and acquired some knowledge of the coast of

Africa.

The glory of leading the career of systematic exploration belongs to the

Portuguese:[31] their attempts were not only attended with considerable

success, but gave encouragement and energy to those efforts that were

crowned by the discovery of a world: among them the great Genoese was

trained, and their steps in advance matured the idea, and aided the

execution of his design. The nations of Europe had now begun to cast

aside the errors and prejudices of their ancestors. The works of the

ancient Greeks and Romans were eagerly searched for information, and

former discoveries brought to light.[32] The science of the Arabians was

introduced and cultivated by the Moors and Jews, and geometry,

astronomy, and geography were studied as essential to the art of

navigation.

In the year 1412, the Portuguese doubled Cape Non, the limit of ancient

enterprise. For upward of seventy years afterward they pursued their

explorations, with more or less of vigor and success, along the African

coast, and among the adjacent islands. By intercourse with the people of

these countries they gradually acquired some knowledge of lands yet

unvisited. Experience proved that the torrid zone was not closed to the

enterprise of man.[33] They found that the form of the continent

contracted as it stretched southward, and that it tended toward the

east. Then they brought to mind the accounts of the ancient Phoenician

voyagers round Africa,[34] long deemed fabulous, and the hope arose that

they might pursue the same career, and win for themselves the

magnificent prize of Indian commerce. In the year 1486 the adventurous

Bartholomew Diaz[35] first reached the Cape of Good Hope; soon afterward

the information gained by Pedro de Covilham, in his overland journey,

confirmed the consequent sanguine expectations of success. The attention

of Europe was now fully aroused, and the progress of the Portuguese was

watched with admiration and suspense. But during this interval, while

all eyes were turned with anxious interest toward the East, a little

bark, leaky and tempest-tossed, sought shelter in the Tagus.[36] It had

come from the Far West--over that stormy sea where, from the creation

until then, had brooded an impenetrable mystery. It bore the richest

freight[37] that ever lay upon the bosom of the deep--the tidings of a

New World.[38]

It would be but tedious to repeat here all the well-known story of

Christopher Columbus;[39] his early dangers and adventures, his

numerous voyages, his industry, acquirements, and speculations, and how

at length the great idea arose in his mind, and matured itself into a

conviction; then how conviction led to action, checked and interrupted,

but not weakened, by the doubts of pedantic ignorance,[40] and the

treachery,[41] coolness, or contempt of courts. On Friday,[42] the 3d

of August, 1492, a squadron of three small, crazy ships, bearing ninety

men, sailed from the port of Palos, in Andalusia. Columbus, the

commander and pilot, was deeply impressed with sentiments of religion;

and, as the spread of Christianity was one great object of the

expedition, he and his followers before their departure had implored the

blessing of Heaven[43] upon the voyage, from which they might never

return.

They steered at first for the Canaries, over a well-known course; but on

the 6th of September they sailed from Gomera, the most distant of those

islands, and, leaving the usual track of navigation, stretched westward

into the unknown sea. And still ever westward for six-and-thirty days

they bent their course through the dreary desert of waters; terrified by

the changeless wind that wafted them hour after hour further into the

awful solitude, and seemed to forbid the prospect of return; bewildered

by the altered hours of day and night, and more than all by the

mysterious variation of their only guide, for the magnetic needle no

longer pointed to the pole.[44] Then strange appearances in the sea

aroused new fears: vast quantities of weeds covered the surface,

retarding the motion of the vessels; the sailors imagined that they had

reached the utmost boundary of the navigable ocean, and that they were

rushing blindly into the rocks and quicksands of some submerged

continent.

The master mind turned all these strange novelties into omens of

success. The changeless wind was the favoring breath of the Omnipotent;

the day lengthened as they followed the sun's course; an ingenious

fiction explained the inconstancy of the needle; the vast fields of

sea-weed bespoke a neighboring shore; and the flight of unknown

birds[45] was hailed with happy promise. But as time passed on, and

brought no fulfillment of their hopes, the spirits of the timid began to

fail; the flattering appearances of land had repeatedly deceived them;

they were now very far beyond the limit of any former voyage. From the

timid and ignorant these doubts spread upward, and by degrees the

contagion extended from ship to ship: secret murmurs rose to

conspiracies, complaints, and mutiny. They affirmed that they had

already performed their duty in so long pursuing an unknown and hopeless

course, and that they would no more follow a desperate adventurer to

destruction. Some even proposed to cast their leader into the sea.

The menaces and persuasions that had so often enabled Columbus to

overcome the turbulence and fears of his followers now ceased to be of

any avail. He gave way to an irresistible necessity, and promised that

he would return to Spain, if unsuccessful in their search for three days

more. To this brief delay the mutineers consented. The signs of land now

brought almost certainty to the mind of the great leader. The

sounding-line brought up such soil as is only found near the shore:

birds were seen of a kind supposed never to venture on a long flight. A

piece of newly-cut cane floated past, and a branch of a tree bearing

fresh berries was taken up by the sailors. The clouds around the setting

sun wore a new aspect, and the breeze became warm and variable. On the

evening of the 11th of October every sail was furled, and strict watch

kept, lest the ships might drift ashore during the night.

On board the admiral's vessel all hands were invariably assembled for

the evening hymn; on this occasion a public prayer for success was

added, and with those holy sounds Columbus hailed the appearance of that

small, shifting light,[46] which crowned with certainty his

long-cherished hope,[47] turned his faith into realization,[48] and

stamped his name forever upon the memory of man.[49]

It was by accident only that England had been deprived of the glory of

these great discoveries. Columbus, when repulsed by the courts of

Portugal and Spain, sent his brother Bartholomew to London,[50] to lay

his projects before Henry VII., and seek assistance for their execution.

The king, although the most penurious of European princes, saw the vast

advantage of the offer, and at once invited the great Genoese to his

court. Bartholomew was, however, captured by pirates on his return

voyage, and detained till too late, for in the mean while Isabella of

Castile had adopted the project of Columbus, and supplied the means for

the expedition.

Henry VII. was not discouraged by this disappointment: two years after

the discoveries of Columbus became known in England, the king entered

into an arrangement with John Cabot, an adventurous Venetian merchant,

resident at Bristol, and, on the 5th of March, 1495, granted him letters

patent for conquest and discovery. Henry stipulated that one fifth of

the gains in this enterprise was to be retained for the crown, and that

the vessels engaged in it should return to the port of Bristol. On the

24th of June, 1497, Cabot discovered the coast of Labrador, and gave it

the name of _Primavista_. This was, without doubt, the first visit of

Europeans to the Continent of North America,[51] since the time of the

Scandinavian voyages. A large island lay opposite to this shore: from

the vast quantity of fish frequenting the neighboring waters, the

sailors called it _Bacallaos_.[53] Cabot gave this country the name of

St. John's, having landed there on St. John's day. Newfoundland has long

since superseded both appellations. John Cabot returned to England in

August of the same year, and was knighted and otherwise rewarded by the

king; he survived but a very short time in the enjoyment of his fame,

and his son Sebastian Cabot, although only twenty-three years of age,

succeeded him in the command of an expedition destined to seek a

northwest passage to the South Seas.

Sebastian Cabot sailed in the summer of 1498: he soon reached

Newfoundland, and thence proceeded north as far as the fifty-eighth

degree. Having failed in discovering the hoped-for passage, he returned

toward the south, examining the coast as far as the southern boundary of

Maryland, and perhaps Virginia. After a long interval, the enterprising

mariner again, in 1517, sailed for America, and entered the bay[54]

which, a century afterward, received the name of Hudson. If prior

discovery confer a right of possession, there is no doubt that the whole

eastern coast of the North American Continent may be justly claimed by

the English race.[55]

Gaspar Cortereal was the next voyager in the succession of discoverers:

he had been brought up in the household of the King of Portugal, but

nourished an ardent spirit of enterprise and thirst for glory, despite

the enervating influences of a court. He sailed early in the year 1500,

and pursued the track of John Cabot as far as the northern point of

Newfoundland; to him is due the discovery of the Gulf of St.

Lawrence,[56] and he also pushed on northward, by the coast of

Labrador,[57] almost to the entrance of Hudson's Bay. The adventurer

returned to Lisbon in October of the same year. This expedition was

undertaken more for mercantile advantage than for the advancement of

knowledge; timber and slaves seem to have been the objects; no less than

fifty-seven of the natives were brought back to Portugal, and doomed to

bondage. These unhappy savages proved so robust and useful, that great

benefits were anticipated from trading on their servitude;[58] the

dreary and distant land of their birth, covered with snow for half the

year, was despised by the Portuguese, whose thoughts and hopes were ever

turned to the fertile plains, the sunny skies, and the inexhaustible

treasures of the East.[59]

But disaster and destruction soon fell upon these bold and merciless

adventurers. In a second voyage, the ensuing year, Cortereal and all his

followers were lost at sea: when some time had elapsed without tidings

of their fate, his brother sailed to seek them; but he too, probably,

perished in the stormy waters of the North Atlantic, for none of them

were ever heard of more. The King of Portugal, feeling a deep interest

in these brothers, fitted out three armed vessels and sent them to the

northwest. Inquiries were made along the wild shores which Cortereal had

first explored, without trace or tidings being found of the bold

mariner, and the ocean was searched for many months, but the deep still

keeps it secret.

Florida was discovered in 1512 by Ponce de Leon, one of the most eminent

among the followers of Columbus. The Indians had told him wonderful

tales of a fountain called Bimini, in an island of these seas; the

fountain possessed the power, they said, of restoring instantly youth

and vigor to those who bathed in its waters. He sailed for months in

search of this miraculous spring, landing at every point, entering each

port, however shallow or dangerous, still ever hoping; but in the weak

and presumptuous effort to grasp at a new life, he wasted away his

strength and energy, and prematurely brought on those ills of age he had

vainly hoped to shun. Nevertheless, this wild adventure bore its

wholesome fruits, for Ponce de Leon then first brought to the notice of

Europe that beautiful land which, from its wonderful fertility and the

splendor of its flowers, obtained the name of Florida.[60]

The first attempt made by the French to share in the advantages of these

discoveries was in the year 1504. Some Basque and Breton fishermen at

that time began to ply their calling on the Great Bank of Newfoundland,

and along the adjacent shores. From them the Island of Cape Breton

received its name. In 1506, Jean Denys, a man of Harfleur, drew a map of

the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Two years afterward, a pilot of Dieppe, named

Thomas Aubert, excited great curiosity in France by bringing over some

of the savage natives from the New World: there is no record whence they

were taken, but it is supposed from Cape Breton. The reports borne back

to France by these hardy fishermen and adventurers were not such as to

raise sanguine hopes of riches from the bleak northern regions they had

visited: no teeming fertility or genial climate tempted the settler, no

mines of gold or silver excited the avarice of the soldier;[61] and for

many years the French altogether neglected to profit by their

discoveries.

In the mean time, Pope Alexander VI. issued a bull bestowing the whole

of the New World upon the kings of Spain and Portugal.[62] Neither

England nor France allowed the right of conferring this magnificent and

undefined gift; it did not throw the slightest obstacle in the path of

British enterprise and discovery, and the high-spirited Francis I. of

France refused to acknowledge the papal decree.[63]

In the year 1523, Francis I. fitted out a squadron of four ships to

pursue discovery[64] in the west; the command was intrusted to Giovanni

Verazzano, of Florence, a navigator of great skill and experience, then

residing in France: he was about thirty-eight years of age, nobly born,

and liberally educated; the causes that induced him to leave his own

country and take service in France are not known. It has often been

remarked as strange that three Italians should have directed the

discoveries of Spain, England, and France, and thus become the

instruments of dividing the dominions of the New World among alien

powers, while their own classic land reaped neither glory nor advantage

from the genius and courage of her sons. Of this first voyage the only

record remaining is a letter from Verazzano to Francis I., dated 8th of

July, 1524, merely stating that he had returned in safety to Dieppe.

At the beginning of the following year Verazzano fitted out and armed a

vessel called the Dauphine, manned with a crew of thirty hands, and

provisioned for eight months. He first directed his course to Madeira;

having reached that island in safety, he left it on the 17th of January

and steered for the west. After a narrow escape from the violence of a

tempest, and having proceeded for about nine hundred leagues, a long,

low line of coast rose to view, never before seen by ancient or modern

navigators. This country appeared thickly peopled by a vigorous race, of

tall stature and athletic form; fearing to risk a landing at first with

his weak force, the adventurer contented himself with admiring at a

distance the grandeur and beauty of the scenery, and enjoying the

delightful mildness of the climate. From this place he followed the

coast for about fifty leagues to the south, without discovering any

harbor or inlet where he might shelter his vessel; he then retraced his

course and steered to the north. After some time Verazzano ventured to

send a small boat on shore to examine the country more closely: numbers

of savages came to the water's edge to meet the strangers, and gazed on

them with mingled feelings of surprise, admiration, joy, and fear. He

again resumed his northward course, till, driven by want of water, he

armed the small boat and sent it once more toward the land to seek a

supply; the waves and surf, however, were so great that it could not

reach the shore. The natives assembled on the beach, by their signs and

gestures, eagerly invited the French to approach: one young sailor, a

bold swimmer, threw himself into the water, bearing some presents for

the savages, but his heart failed him on a nearer approach, and he

turned to regain the boat; his strength was exhausted, however, and a

heavy sea washed him, almost insensible, up upon the beach. The Indians

treated him with great kindness, and, when he had sufficiently

recovered, sent him back in safety to the ship.[65]

Verazzano pursued his examination of the coast with untiring zeal, narrowly

searching every inlet for a passage through to the westward, until he

reached the great island known to the Breton fishermen--Newfoundland. In

this important voyage he surveyed more than two thousand miles of coast,

nearly all that of the present United States, and a great portion of

British North America.

A short time after Verazzano's return to Europe, he fitted out another

expedition, with the sanction of Francis I., for the establishment of a

colony in the newly-discovered countries. Nothing certain is known of

the fate of this enterprise, but the bold navigator returned to France

no more; the dread inspired by his supposed fate[66] deterred the French

king and people from any further adventure across the Atlantic during

many succeeding years. In later times it has come to light that

Verazzano was alive thirteen years after this period:[67] those best

informed on the subject are of opinion that the enterprise fell to the

ground in consequence of Francis I. having been captured by the Emperor

Charles V., and that the adventurer withdrew himself from the service of

France, having lost his patron's support.

The year after the failure of Verazzano's last enterprise, 1525, Stefano

Gomez sailed from Spain for Cuba and Florida; thence he steered

northward in search of the long-hoped-for passage to India, till he

reached Cape Race, on the south-eastern extremity of Newfoundland. The

further details of his voyage remain unknown, but there is reason to

suppose that he entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and traded upon its

shores. An ancient Castilian tradition existed that the Spaniards

visited these coasts before the French, and having perceived no

appearance of mines or riches, they exclaimed frequently, "Aca

nada;"[68] the natives caught up the sound, and when other Europeans

arrived, repeated it to them. The strangers concluded that these words

were a designation, and from that time this magnificent country bore the

name of CANADA.[70]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: "La sphericite de la terre etant reconnue, l'etendue de la

terre habitee en longitude determine, en meme temps la largeur de

l'Atlantique entre les cotes occidentales d'Europe et d'Afrique et les

cotes orientales d'Asie par differens degres de latitude. Eratosthene

(Strabo, ii., p. 87, Cas.) evalue la circonference de l'equateur a

252,000 stades, et la largeur de la _chlamyde_ du Cap Sacre (Cap Saint

Vincent) a l'extremite de la grande ceinture de Taurus, pres de Thinae a

70,000 stades. En prolongeant la distance vers le sud est jusque au cap

des Coliaques qui, d'apres les idees de Strabon sur la configuration de

l'Asie, represente notre Cap Comorin, et avance plus a l'est que la cote

de Thinae, la combinaison des donnees d'Eratosthene offre 74,600 et meme

78,000 stades. Or, en reduisant, par la difference de latitude, le

perimetre equatorial au parallele de Rhodes, des portes Caspiennes et de

Thinae c'est a dire, au parallele de 36 deg. 0' et non de 36 deg. 21', on trouve

203,872 stades, et pour largeur de la terre habitee, par le parallele de

Rhodes, 67,500 stades. Strabon dit par consequence avec justesse, dans

le fameux passage ou il semble predire l'existence du Nouveau Continent,

en parlant de deux terres habitees dans la meme zone temperee boreale

que les terres occupent plus du tiers de la circonference du parallele

qui passe par Thinae. Par cette supposition la distance de l'Iberie aux

Indes est au dela de 236 deg. a peu pres 240 deg.. Ou peut etre surpris de voir

que le resultat le plus ancien est aussi le plus exact de tous ceux que

nous trouvons en descendant d'Eratosthene par Posidonius aux temps de

Marin de Tyr et de Ptolemee. La terre habitee offre effectivement,

d'apres nos connaissances actuelles, entre les 36 deg. et 37 deg. 130 degres

d'etendue en longitude; il y a par consequent des cotes de la Chine au

Cap Sacre a travers l'ocean de l'est a l'ouest 230 degres. L'accord que

je nommerai accidentel de cette vraie distance et de l'evaluation

d'Eratosthene atteint done dix degres en longitude. Posidonius

'soupconne (c'est l'expression de Strabon, lib. ii., p. 102, Cas.), que

la longueur de la terre habitee laquelle est, selon lui, d'environ

70,000 stades, doit former la moitie du cercle entier sur lequel le

mesure se prend, et qu' ainsi a partir de l'extremite occidentale de

cette meme terre habitee, en naviguant avec un vent d'est continuel

l'espace de 70,000 autres stades, ou arriverait dans l'Inde."--Humboldt's

_Geographie du Nouveau Continent_.]

[Footnote 3: "La longueur de la terre habitee comprise entre les

meridiens des iles Fortunees et de Sera etoit, d'apres Marin de Tyr

(Ptol., Geogr., lib. i., cap. 11) de 15 heures ou de 225 deg.. C'etoit

avancer les cotes de la Chine jusqu'au meridien des iles Sandwich, et

reduire l'espace a parcourir des iles Canaries aux cotes orientales de

l'Asie a 135 deg., erreur de 86 deg. en longitude. La grande extension de

23-1/2 deg. que les anciens donnoient a la mer Caspienne, contribuoit

egalement beaucoup a augmenter la largeur de l'Asie. Ptolemee a laisse

intacte, dans l'evaluation de la terre habitee, selon Posidonius, la

distance des iles Fortunees au passage de l'Euphrate a Hierapolis. Les

reductions de Ptolemee ne portent que sur les distances de l'Euphrate a

_la Tour de Pierre_ et de cette tour a la metropole des Seres. Les 225 deg.

de Marin de Tyr deviennent, selon l'Almagest (lib. ii., p. 1) 180 deg.,

selon la Geographie de Ptolemee (lib. i., p. 12) 177-1/4 deg.. Les cotes des

Sinae[4] reculent donc du meridien des iles Sandwich vers celui des

Carolines orientales, et l'espace a parcourir par mer en longitude

n'etoit plus de 135 deg., mais de 180 deg. a 182-3/4 deg.. Il etoit dans les

interets de Christophe Colomb de preferer de beaucoup les calculs de

Marin de Tyr a ceux de Ptolemee et a force de conjectures Colomb

parvient a restreindre l'espace de l'Ocean qui lui restait a traverser

des iles du cap Vert au Cathay de l'Asie orientale a 128 deg." (_Vida del

Almirante_).--Humboldt's _Geographie du Nouveau Continent_, vol. ii., p.

364.]

[Footnote 4: In opposition to the opinion of Malte Brun and M. de

Josselin, Mr. Hugh Murray is considered to have satisfactorily proved

the correctness of Ptolemy's assertion that the Seres or Sinae are

identical with the Chinese.--See _Trans. of the Royal Society of

Edinburgh_, vol. viii., p. 171.]

[Footnote 5: That the vast waters of the Atlantic were regarded with

"awe and wonder, seeming to bound the world as with a chaos," needs no

greater proof than the description given of it by Xerif al Edrizi, an

eminent Arabian writer, whose countrymen were the boldest navigators of

the Middle Ages, and possessed all that was then known of geography.

"The ocean," he observes, "encircles the ultimate bounds of the

inhabited earth, and all beyond it is unknown. No one has been able to

verify any thing concerning it, on account of its difficult and perilous

navigation, its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent

tempests; through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet

there are many islands in it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is

no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or if any have done

so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from

them. The waves of this ocean, though they roll as high as mountains,

yet maintain themselves without breaking; for if they broke it would be

impossible for ship to plow them."--_Description of Spain_, by Xerif al

Edrizi: Conde's Spanish translation. Madrid, 1799.--Quoted by Washington

Irving.]

[Footnote 6: Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny, and Seneca arrived at this

conclusion. The idea, however, of an intervening continent never appears

to have suggested itself.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 7: In the Atlantic Ocean, over against the Pillars of

Hercules, lay an island larger than Asia and Africa taken together, and

in its vicinity were other islands. The ocean in which these islands

were situated was surrounded on every side by main-land; and the

Mediterranean, compared with it, resembled a mere harbor or narrow

entrance. Nine thousand years before the time of Plato this island of

Atlantis was both thickly settled and very powerful. Its sway extended

over Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as the Tyrrhenian

Sea. The further progress of its conquests, however, was checked by the

Athenians, who, partly with the other Greeks, partly by themselves,

succeeded in defeating these powerful invaders, the natives of Atlantis.

After this a violent earthquake, which lasted for the space of a day and

a night, and was accompanied with inundations of the sea, caused the

islands to sink; and for a long period subsequent to this, the sea in

that quarter was impassable by reason of the slime and shoals.--Plato,

_Tim._, 24-29, 296; _Crit._, 108-110, 39, 43. The learned Gessner is of

opinion that the Isle of Ceres, spoken of in a poem of very high

antiquity, attributed to Orpheus, was a fragment of Atlantis. Kircher,

in his "Mundus Subterraneus," and Beckman, in his "History of Islands,"

suppose the Atlantis to have been an island extending from the Canaries

to the Azores; that it was really ingulfed in one of the convulsions of

the globe, and that those small islands are mere fragments of it.

Gosselin, in his able research into the voyages of the ancients,

supposes the Atlantis of Plato to have been nothing more nor less than

one of the nearest of the Canaries, viz, Fortaventura or Lancerote.

Carli and many others find America in the Atlantis, and adduce many

plausible arguments in support of their assertion.--Carli, _Letters

Amer._; Fr. transl., ii., 180. M. Bailly, in his "Letters sur

l'Atlantide de Platon," maintains the existence of the Atlantides, and

their island Atlantis, by the authorities of Homer, Sanchoniathon, and

Diodorus Siculus, in addition to that of Plato. Manheim maintains very

strenuously that Plato's Atlantis is Sweden and Norway. M. Bailly, after

citing many ancient testimonies, which concur in placing this famous

isle in the north, quotes that of Plutarch, who confirms these

testimonies by a circumstantial description of the Isle of Ogygia, or

the Atlantis, which he represents as situated in the north of Europe.

The following is the theory of Buffon: after citing the passage relating

to the Atlantis, from Plato's "Timaeus," he adds, "This ancient tradition

is not devoid of probability. The lands swallowed up by the waters were,

perhaps, those which united Ireland to the Azores, and the Azores to the

Continent of America; for in Ireland there are the same fossils, the

same shells, and the same sea bodies as appear in America, and some of

them are found in no other part of Europe."--Buffon's _Nat. Hist._, by

Smellie, vol. i., p. 507.]

[Footnote 8: The first authentic description of the Mar di Sargasso of

Aristotle is due to Columbus. It spreads out between the nineteenth and

thirty-fourth degrees of north latitude. Its chief axis lies about seven

degrees to the westward of the Island of Corvo. The smaller bank, on the

other hand, lies between the Bermudas and Bahamas. The winds and partial

currents in different years slightly affect the position and extent of

these Atlantic "sea-weed meadows." No other sea in either hemisphere

displays a similar extent of surface covered by plants collected in this

way. These meadows of the ocean present the wonderful spectacle of a

collection of plants covering a space nearly seven times as large as

France.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 9: See Appendix, No. II. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 10: See Aristotle, _De Mirab. Auscult._, cap. lxxxiv., 84, p.

836, Bekk. This work, "A Collection of Wonderful Narratives," is

attributed to Aristotle; the real compiler is unknown. According to

Humboldt, it seems to have been written before the first Punic

war.--Diodorus of Sicily, vol. xix. Aristotle attributes the discovery

of the island to the Carthaginians; Diodorus to the Phoenicians. The

occurrence is said to have taken place in the earliest times of the

Tyrrhenian dominion of the sea, during the contest between the

Tyrrhenian Pelasgi and the Phoenicians. The Island of the Seven Cities

(see Appendix, No. II.) was identified with the island mentioned by

Aristotle as having been discovered by the Carthaginians, and was

inserted in the early maps under the name of Antilla. Paul Toscanelli,

the celebrated physician of Florence, thus writes to Columbus: "From the

Island of Antilia, which you call the Seven Cities, and of which you

have some knowledge," &c. In the Middle Ages conjectures were

religiously inscribed upon the maps, as is proved by Antilia, St.

Borondon (see Appendix), the Hand of Satan, Green Island, Maida Island,

and the exact form of vast southern regions. Humboldt refers the name of

Antilia so far back as the fourteenth century. The earliest date given

by Ferdinand Columbus is 1436. "Beyond the Azores, but at no great

distance toward the west, occurs the Ysola de Antilia, which we may

conclude, even allowing the date of the map to be genuine (in the

library of St. Mark, at Venice, date 1436), to be a mere gratuitous or

theoretic supposition, and to have received that strange name because

the obvious and natural idea of antipodes has been anathematized by

Catholic ignorance." He elsewhere says that "some Portuguese

cosmographers have inserted the island described by Aristotle in maps

under the name of Antilia."--_Hist. of the Discovery of America_, by Don

Ferdinand Columbus, in Ker, vol. iii., p. 3-29.

The origin of the name Antilla, or Antilia, is still a matter of

conjecture. Humboldt attributes to a "litterateur distingue" the

solution of the enigma, from a passage in Aristotle's "De Mundo," which

speaks of the probable existence of unknown lands opposite to the mass

of continents which we inhabit. These countries, be they small or great,

whose shores are opposed to ours, were marked out by the word

_porthornoi_, which in the Middle Ages was translated by _antinsulae_.

Humboldt says that this translation is totally incorrect; however, the

idea of the "litterateur distingue" is evidently the same as Ferdinand

Columbus's. The following is the hypothesis favored by Humboldt:

"Peut-etre meme le nom d'Antilia qui parait pour la premiere fois sur

une carte Venitienne de 1436 n'est il qu'une forme Portuguaise donnee a

un nom geographique des Arabes. L'etymologie que hasarde M. Buace me

parait tres ingenieuse.... La syllabe initiale me parait la corruption

de l'article Arabe. D'al Tinnin et d'Al tin on aura fait peu a peu

Antinna et Antilla, comme par un deplacement analogue de consonnes, les

Espagnols ont fait de crocodilo, corcodilo et cocodrilo. Le Dragon est

_al Tin_, et l'Antilia est peut-etre, l'ile des dragons

marins."--Humboldt's _Ex. Crit._, vol. ii., 211.

Oviedo applies the relation of Aristotle to the Hesperian Islands, and

asserts that they were the "India" discovered by Columbus. "Perche egli

(Colombo) conobbe come era in effetto che queste terre che egli ben

ritrovava scritte, erano del tutto uscite dalla memoria degli uomin; e

io per me non dubito che si sapissero, e possedessero anticamente dalli

Re de Spagna: e voglio qui dire quello che Aristotele in questo caso ne

scrisse, &c.... io tengo che queste Indie siano quelle autiche e famose

Isole Hesperide cose dette da Hespero 12 Re di Spagna. Or come la Spagna

e l'Italia tolsero il nome da Hespero 12 Re di Spagna cosi anco da

questo istesso ex torsero queste isole Hesperidi, che noi diciamo, _onde

senza_ alcun dubbio si de tenere, che in quel tempe questo isole sotto

la signoria della Spagna stessero, e sotto un medesmo Re, che fu (come

Beroso dice) 1658 anni prima che il nostro Salvatore nascesse. E perche

al presente siamo nel 1535 della salute nostra, ne segue che siano ora

tre milo e cento novantatre anni che la Spagna e'l suo Re Hespero

signoreggiavano queste Indie o Isole Hesperidi. E come cosa sua par che

abbia la divina giustizia voluto ritornargliele."--_Hist. Gen. dell'

Indie de Gonzalo Fernando d'Oviedo_, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 80.]

[Footnote 11: "It is very possible that in the same temperate zone, and

almost in the same latitude as Thinae (or Athens?), where it crosses the

Atlantic Ocean, there are inhabited worlds, distinct from that in which

we dwell."[12]--Strabo, lib. i., p. 65, and lib. ii., p. 118. It is

surprising that this expression never attracted the attention of the

Spanish authors, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, were

searching every where in classical literature with the expectation of

finding some traces of acquaintance with the New World.]

[Footnote 12: "The idea of such a locality in a continuation of the long

axis of the Mediterranean was connected with a grand view of the earth

by Eratosthenes (generally and extensively known among the ancients),

according to which the entire ancient continent, in its widest expanse

from west to east, in the parallel of about thirty-six degrees, presents

an almost unbroken line of elevation."--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 13: "D'Anville a dit avec esprit que la plus grande des

erreurs dans la geographie de Ptolemee a conduit les hommes a la plus

grande decouverte de terres nouvelles c'est, a dire la supposition que

l'Asie s'etendait vers l'est, au dela du 180 degre de longitude."

Both Strabo and Aristotle speak of "the same sea bathing opposite

shores," Strabo, lib. i., p. 103; lib. ii., p. 162. Aristotle, _De

Caelo_, lib. ii., cap. 14, p. 297. The possibility of navigating from the

extremity of Europe to the eastern shores of Asia is clearly asserted by

the Stagirite, and in the two celebrated passages of Strabo. Aristotle

does not suppose the distance to be very great, and draws an ingenious

argument in favor of his supposition from the geography of animals.

Strabo sees no obstacle to passing from Iberia to India, except the

immense extent of the Atlantic Ocean. It is to be remembered that

Strabo, as well as Eratosthenes, extend the appellation of Atlantic Sea

to every part of the ocean.--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_.]

[Footnote 14: See Appendix, No. III. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 15: "Au milieu de tant de discussions acerbes qu'une curieuse

malignite et le gout d'une fausse erudition classique firent naitre sur

le merite de Christophe Colomb, parmi ses contemporains, personne n'a

pense aux navigations des Normands comme precurseurs des Genois. Cette

idee ne se presenta que soixante quatre ans apres la mort du grand

homme. On savait par ces propres recits 'qu'il etoit alle a Thule' mais

alors ce voyage vers le nord ne fit naitre aucun soupcon sur la

priorite, de la decouverte.... Le merite d'avoir reconnu la premiere

decouverte de l'Amerique septentrionale par les Normands appartient

indubitablement au geographe Ortelius, qui annonca cette opinion des

l'annee 1570. 'Christophe Colomb, dit Ortelius, a seulement mis le

Nouveau Monde en rapport durable de commerce et d'utilite avec l'Europe'

(_Theatr. Orbis Terr._, on p. 5, 6). Ce jugement est beaucoup trop

severe."--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_.]

[Footnote 16: "Biorn first saw land in the Island of Nantucket, one

degree south of Boston, then in New Scotland, and lastly in

Newfoundland."--Carl Christian Rafn, _Antiquitates Americanae_, 1845, p.

4, 421; Humboldt's _Cosmos_.

"The country called 'the good Vinland' (Vinland it goda) by Leif,

included the shore between Boston and New York, and therefore parts of

the present states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,

between the parallels of latitude of Civita, Vecchia and Terracina,

where, however, the average temperature of the year is between 46 deg. and

52 deg. (Fahr.). This was the chief settlement of the Normans. Their active

and enterprising spirit is proved by the circumstance that, after they

had settled in the south as far as 41 deg. 30' north latitude, they erected

three pillars to mark out the boundaries near the eastern coast of

Baffin's Bay, in the latitude of 72 deg. 55', upon one of the Women Islands

northwest of the present most northern Danish colony of Upernavik. The

Runic inscription upon the stone, discovered in the autumn of 1824,

contains, according to Rask and Finn Magnusen, the date of the year

1135. From this eastern coast of Baffin's Bay, the colonists visited,

with great regularity, on account of the fishery, Lancaster Sound and a

part of Barrow's Straits, and this occurred more than six centuries

before the bold undertakings of Parry and Ross. The locality of the

fishery is very accurately described; and Greenland priests, from the

diocese of Gardar, conducted the first voyage of discovery in 1266.

These northwestern summer stations were called the Kroksjardar, heathen

countries. Mention was early made of the Siberian wood, which was then

collected, as well as of the numerous whales, seals, walrus, and polar

bears."--Rafn, _Antiq. Amer._, p. 20, 274, 415-418, quoted by Humboldt.]

[Footnote 17: One of the objections brought forward by Robertson against

the Norman discovery of America is, that the wild vine has never since

been found so far north as Labrador; but modern travelers have

ascertained that a species of wild vine grows even as far north as the

shores of Hudson's Bay.[18] Since Robertson's time, however, the

locality of the first Norman settlement has been moved further south,

and into latitudes where the best species of wild vines are abundant.]

[Footnote 18: Sir A. Mackenzie's Travels in Iceland, 1812. Preliminary

Dissertation by Dr Holland, p. 46.]

[Footnote 19: Rafn, _Antiq. Amer._]

[Footnote 20: The Esquimaux were at that time spread much further south

than they are at present.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. ii., p. 268.]

[Footnote 21: Eric Upsi, a native of Iceland, and the first Greenland

bishop, undertook to go to Vinland as a Christian missionary in 1121.]

[Footnote 22: "The learned Grotius founds an argument for the

colonization of America by the Norwegians on the similarity between the

names of Norway and La Norimbegue, a district bordering on New

England."--Grotius, _De Origine Gentium Americanarum_, in quarto, 1642.

See, also, the Controversy between Grotius and Jean de Laet.]

[Footnote 23: Accurate information respecting the former intercourse of

the Northmen with the Continent of America reaches only as far as the

middle of the fourteenth century. In the year 1349 a ship was sent from

Greenland to Markland (New Scotland) to collect timber and other

necessaries. Upon their return from Markland, the ship was overtaken by

storms, and compelled to land at Straumfjord, in the west of Iceland.

This is the last account of the "Norman America," preserved for us in

the ancient Scandinavian writings. The settlements upon the west coast

of Greenland, which were in a very flourishing condition until the

middle of the fourteenth century, gradually declined, from the fatal

influence of monopoly of trade, by the invasion of the Esquimaux, by the

black death which depopulated the north from the year 1347 to 1351, and

also by the arrival of a hostile fleet, from what country is not known.

By means of the critical and most praiseworthy efforts of Christian

Rafn, and the Royal Society for Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen, the

traditions and ancient accounts of the voyage of the Normans to

Helluland (Newfoundland), to Markland (the mouth of the River St.

Lawrence at Nova Scotia), and at Winland (Massachusetts), have been

separately printed and satisfactorily commented upon. The length of the

voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the rising and

setting of the sun, are accurately laid down. The principal sources of

information are the historical narrations of Erik the Red, Thorfinn

Karlsefne, and Snorre Thorbrandson, probably written in Greenland

itself, as early as the twelfth century, partly by descendants of the

settlers born in Winland.--Rafn, _Antiq. Amer._, p. 7, 14, 16. The care

with which the tables of their pedigrees was kept was so great, that the

table of the family of Thorfinn Karlsefne, whose son, Snorre

Thorbrandson, was born in America, was kept from the year 1007 to 1811.

The name of the colonized countries is found in the ancient national

songs of the natives of the Faroe Islands.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol.

ii., p. 268-452.]

[Footnote 24: See Appendix, No. IV. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 25: See Appendix, No. V. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 26: See Appendix, No. VI. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 27: See Appendix, No. VII. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 28: The numerous data which have come down to us from

antiquity, and an acute examination of the local relations, especially

the great vicinity of the settlements upon the African coast, which

incontestably existed, lead me to believe that Phoenicians,

Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans, and probably even the Etruscans, were

acquainted with the group of the Canary Islands.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_,

vol. ii., p. 414.

"Porro occidentalis navigatio, quantum etiam fama assequi Plinius

potuit, tantum ad Fortunatas Insulas cursum protendit, earumque

praecipuam a multitudine canum Canariam vocatam refert."--Acosta, _De

Natura Novi Orbis_, lib. i., cap. ii.

Respecting the probability of the Semitic origin of the name of the

Canary Islands, Pliny, in his Latinizing etymological notions,

considered them to be _Dog Islands_! (Vide Credner's Biblical

Representation of Paradise, in Illgen's Journal for Historical Theology,

1836, vol. vi., p. 166-186.)--Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. ii., p. 414.

The most fundamental, and, in a literary point of view, the most complete

account of the Canary Islands, that was written in ancient times, down to

the Middle Ages, was collected in a work of Joachim Jose da Costa de

Macedo, with the title "Memoria cem que se pretende provar que os Arabes

nao connecerao as Canarias autes dos Portuguesques, 1844." (See, also,

Viera y Clavigo, _Notic. de la Hist. de Canaria_.)--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 29: See Appendix, No. VIII. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 30: "Jean de Bethancourt knew that before the expedition of

Alvaro Beccara, that is to say, before the end of the fourteenth

century, Norman adventurers had penetrated as far as Sierra Leone (lat.

8 deg. 30'), and he sought to follow their traces. Before the Portuguese,

however, no European nation appears to have crossed the

equator."--Humboldt.

"Les Normands et les Arabes sont les seules nations qui, jusqu'au

commencement du douzieme siecle, aient partage la gloire des grandes

expeditions maritimes, le gout des aventures etranges, la passion du

pillage et des conquetes ephemeres. Les Normands ont occupe

successivement l'Islande et la Neustrie, ravage les sanctuaires de

l'Italie, ravage la Pouille sur les Grecs, inscrit leurs caracteres

runiques jusque sur les flancs d'un des lions que Morosini enleva au

Piree d'Athenes pour en orner l'arsenal de Venise."--Humboldt's _Geog.

du Nouveau Continent_, vol. ii., p. 86.]

[Footnote 31: "No nation," says Southey, "has ever accomplished such

great things in proportion to its means as the Portuguese." Its early

maritime history does, indeed, present a striking picture of enterprise

and restless energy, but the annals of Europe afford no similar instance

of rapid degeneracy. There was an age when less than forty thousand

armed Portuguese kept the whole coasts of the ocean in awe, from Morocco

to China; when one hundred and fifty sovereign princes paid tribute to

the treasury of Lisbon. But in all their enterprises they aimed at

conquest, and not at colonization. The government at home exercised

little control over the arms of its piratical mariners; the mother

country derived no benefit from their achievements. To the age of

conquest succeeded one of effeminacy and corruption.--Merivale's

_Lectures on Colonization_, vol. i., p. 44.]

[Footnote 32: See Appendix, No. IX. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 33: The zones were imaginary bands or circles in the heavens,

producing an effect of climate on corresponding belts on the globe of

the earth. The frigid zones, between the polar circles and the poles,

were considered uninhabitable and unnavigable, on account of the extreme

cold. The torrid zone, lying beneath the track of the sun, or rather the

central part of it, immediately about the equator, was considered

uninhabitable, unproductive, and impassable, on account of the excessive

heat. The temperate zones, lying between the torrid and the frigid

zones, were supposed to be the only parts of the globe suited to the

purposes of life. Parmenides, according to Strabo, was the inventor of

this theory of the five zones. Aristotle supported the same doctrine. He

believed that there was habitable earth in the southern hemisphere, but

that it was forever divided from the part of the world already known by

the impassable zone of scorching heat at the equator. (Aristot., Met.,

ii., cap. v.) Pliny supported the opinion of Aristotle concerning the

burning zones. (Pliny, lib. i., cap. lxvi.) Strabo (lib. ii.), in

mentioning this theory, gives it likewise his support; and others of the

ancient philosophers, as well as the poets, might be cited, to show the

general prevalence of the belief.--Cicero, _Somnium Scipionis_, cap.

vi.; Geminus, cap. xiii., p. 31; ap. Petavii Opus de Doctr. Tempor. in

quo Uranologium sive Systemata var. Auctorum. Amst., 1705, vol. iii.]

[Footnote 34: See Appendix, No. X. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 35: Barros, Dec. I., lib. iii., cap. iv., p. 190, says

distinctly, "Bartholomeu Diaz, e os de sua compantica per causa dos

perigos, e tormentas, que em o dobrar delle passaram che puyeram nome

Tormentoso." The merit of the first circumnavigation, therefore, does

not belong to Vasco de Gama, as is generally supposed. Diaz was at the

Cape in May, 1487, and, therefore, almost at the same time that Pedro de

Covilham and Alonzo de Payva of Barcelona commenced their expedition. As

early as December, 1487, Diaz himself brought to Portugal the account of

his important discovery. The mission of Pedro Covilham and Alonzo de

Payva, in 1487, was set on foot by King John II., in order to search for

"the African priest Johannes." Believing the accounts which he had

obtained from Indian and Arabian pilots in Calicut, Goa, Aden, as well

as in Sofala, on the eastern coast of Africa, Covilham informed King

John II., by means of two Jews from Cairo, that if the Portuguese were

to continue their voyages of discovery upon the western coast in a

southerly direction, they would come to the end of Africa, whence a

voyage to the _Island of the Moon_, to Zanzibar, and the gold country of

Sofala, would be very easy. Accounts of the Indian and Arabian trading

stations upon the east coast of Africa, and of the form of the southern

extremity of the Continent, may have extended to Venice, through Egypt,

Abyssinia, and Arabia. The triangular form of Africa was actually

delineated upon the map of Sanuto, made in 1306, and discovered in the

"Portulano della Mediceo-Laurenziana," by Count Baldelli in 1351, and

also in the chart of the world by Fra Mauro.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol.

ii., p. 290, 461.]

[Footnote 36: Faria y Sousa complains that "the admiral entered Lisbon

with a vain-glorious exultation, in order to make Portugal feel, by

displaying the tokens of his discovery, how much she had erred in not

acceding to his propositions."--_Europa Portuguesa_, t. ii., p. 402,

403.

Ruy de Pina asserts that King John was much importuned to kill Columbus

on the spot, since, with his death, the prosecution of the undertaking,

as far as the sovereigns of Castile were concerned, would cease, from

want of a suitable person to take charge of it; but the king had too

much magnanimity to adopt the iniquitous measure proposed.--Vasconcellos,

_Vida del Rie Don Juan II._, lib. vi,; Garcia de Resende, _Vide da Dom

Joam II._; Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._, lib. i., cap. lxxiv.; MS. quoted

by Prescott.]

[Footnote 37: See Appendix, No. XI. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 38: "A Castilla y a Leon Nuevo Mumto dio Colon," was the

inscription on the costly monument that was raised over the remains of

Columbus in the Carthusian Monastery of La Cuevas at Seville. "The like

of which," says his son Ferdinand, with as much truth as simplicity,

"was never recorded of any man in ancient or modern times."--_Hist. del

Almirante_, cap. cviii.

His ashes were finally removed to Cuba, where they now repose in the

Cathedral church of its capital.--Navarrete, _Coleccion de Viages_, tom.

ii.

"E dandogli il titol di Don volsero che egli aggiungesse presso all'arme

di casa sua quattro altre, cioe quelle del Regno de Castiglio di Leon, e

il Mar Oceano con tutte l'isole e quattro anchore per dimostrare

l'ufficio d'Almirante, con un motto d'intorno che dicea, 'Per Castiglia

e per Leon, Nuovo Mundo trovo Colon.'"--Ramusio, _Discorio_, tom. iii.

The heir of Columbus was always to bear the arms of the admiral, to seal

with them, and in his signature never to use any other title than simply

"the Admiral."]

[Footnote 39: See Appendix, No. XII. (see Vol II)--In the Middle Ages

the prevalent opinion was that the sea covered but one seventh of the

surface of the globe; an opinion which Cardinal d'Ailly (Imago Mundi,

cap. viii.) founded on the apocryphal fourth book of Ezra. Columbus, who

always derived much of his cosmological knowledge from the cardinal's

work, was much interested in upholding this idea of the smallness of the

sea, to which the misunderstood expression of "the ocean-stream"

contributed not a little. He was also accustomed to cite Aristotle, and

Seneca, and St. Augustine, in confirmation of this opinion.--Humboldt's

_Examen Critique de l'Hist. de la Geographie_, tom. i., p. 186.]

[Footnote 40: See, especially, the details of the conference held at

Salamanca (the great seat of learning in Spain), given in the fourth

chapter of Washington Irving's "Columbus." One of the objections

advanced was, that, admitting the earth to be spherical, and should a

ship succeed in reaching in this way the extremity of India, she could

never get back again; for the rotundity of the globe would present a

kind of mountain, up which it would be impossible for her to sail with

the most favorable wind.--_Hist. del Almirante_, cap. ii.; _Hist. de

Chiapa por Remesel_, lib. ii., cap. 27.]

[Footnote 41: Columbus was required by King John II., of Portugal, to

furnish a detailed plan of his proposed voyages, with the charts and

other documents according to which he proposed to shape his course, for

the alleged purpose of having them examined by the royal counselors. He

readily complied; but while he remained in anxious suspense as to the

decision of the council, a caravel was secretly dispatched with

instructions to pursue the route designated in the papers of Columbus.

This voyage had the ostensible pretext of carrying provisions to the

Cape de Verde Islands; the private instructions given were carried into

effect when the caravel departed thence. It stood westward for several

days; but then the weather grew stormy, and the pilots having no zeal to

stimulate them, and seeing nothing but an immeasurable waste of wild,

trembling waves still extending before them, lost all courage to

proceed. They put back to the Cape de Verde Islands, and thence to

Lisbon, excusing their own want of resolution by ridiculing the project

of Columbus. On discovering this act of treachery, Columbus instantly

quitted Portugal.--_Hist. del Almirante_, cap. viii.; Herrera, Dec. I.,

lib. i., cap. vii.; Munoz, _Hist. del Nuevo Mundo_, lib. ii.--Quoted by

Prescott.]

[Footnote 42: "Le Vendredi n'etant pas regarde dans la Chretiente comme

un jour de bon augure pour le commencement d'une entreprise, les

historiens du 17[me] siecle, qui gemissaient deja sur les maux dont,

selon eux, l'Europe a ete accable par la decouverte de l'Amerique, on

fait remarque que Colomb est parti pour la premiere expedition

_vendredi_, 3 aout 1492, et que la premiere terre d'Amerique a ete

decouverte _vendredi_ 12 Octobre de la meme annee. La reformation du

calendrier appliquee au journal de Colomb, qui indique toujours a la

fois, les jours de la semaine et la date du mois, feroit disparoitre le

pronostic du jour fatal."--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_, vol.

iii., p. 160.]

[Footnote 43: His first landing in the New World partook of the same

character as his departure from the Old.

"Christoforo Colombo--primo con una bandiera nella quale era figurato il

nostro Signore Jesu Christo in croce, salto in terra, e quella pianto, e

poi tutti gli alti smontarono, e inginocchiati baciarono la terra, tre

volti piangendo di allegrezza. Di poi Colombo alzate le mani al cielo

lagrimando disse, Signor Dio Eterno, Signore omnipotente, tu creasti il

cielo, e la terra, e il mare con la tua santa parola, sia benedetto e

glorificato il nome tuo, sia ringraziata la tua Maesta, la quale si e

degnata per mano d' uno umil suo servo far ch' el suo santo nome sia

conosciuto e divulgato in questa altra parte del mondo."--Pietro

Martire, _Dell' Indie Occidentali_, in Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 2; Oviedo,

_Hist. Gen. dell' India_.]

[Footnote 44: Columbus not only has, incontestably, the merit of first

discovering the line where there is no declination of the needle, but

also of first inducing a study of terrestrial magnetism in Europe, by

his observations concerning the increasing declination as he sailed in a

westerly direction from that line. It had been already easily recognized

in the Mediterranean, and in all places where, in the twelfth century,

the declination was as much as eight or ten degrees, even though their

instruments were so imperfect that the ends of a magnetic needle did not

point exactly to the geographical north or south. It is improbable that

the Arabs or Crusaders drew attention to the fact of the compass

pointing to the northeast and northwest in different parts of the world,

as to a phenomenon which had long been known. The merit which belongs to

Columbus is, not for the first observance of the existence of the

declination, which is given, for example, upon the map of Andrew Bianca,

in 1436, but for the remark which he made on the 13th of September,

1492, that about two degrees and a half to the east of the Island of

Corvo the magnetic variation changed, and that it passed over from

northeast to northwest. This discovery of a magnetic line without any

variation indicates a remarkable epoch in nautical astronomy. It was

celebrated with just praise by Oviedo, Casas, and Herrera. If with Livio

Sanuto we ascribe it to the renowned mariner Sebastian Cabot, we forget

that his first voyage, which was undertaken at the expense of some

merchants of Bristol, and which was crowned with success by his touching

the main-land of America, falls five years later than the first

expedition of Columbus.--Humboldt's _Cosmos_, vol. ii., p. 318; Las

Casas, _Hist. Ind._, lib. i., cap. 6.]

[Footnote 45: "In sailing toward the West India Islands birds are often

seen at the distance of two hundred leagues from the nearest

coast."--Sloane's _Nat. Hist. of Jamaica_, vol. i., p. 30.

Captain Cook says, "No one yet knows to what distance any of the Oceanic

birds go to sea; for my own part, I do not believe that there is any one

of the whole tribe that can be relied on in pointing out the vicinity of

land."--_Voyage toward the South Pole_, vol. i., p. 275.

The Portuguese, however, only keeping along the African coast and

watching the flight of birds with attention, concluded that they did not

venture to fly far from land. Columbus adopted this erroneous opinion

from his early instructors in navigation.]

[Footnote 46: "Puesto que el amirante a los diez de la noche vio lumbre

... y era como una candelilla de cera que se alzaba y levantaba, lo cual

a pocos pareciera ser indicio de tierra. Pero el amirante tuvo por

cierto estar junto a la tierra. Por lo qual quando dijeron la 'Salve'

que acostumbran decir y cantar a su manera todos los marineros, y de

hallan todos, vogo y amonestolos el amirante que hiciesen buena guarda

al castillo de proa, y mirasen bien por la tierra."--_Diar. de Colon.

Prem. Viag. 11 de Oct._]

[Footnote 47: "Let those who are disposed to faint under difficulties,

in the prosecution of any great and worthy undertaking, remember that

eighteen years elapsed after the time that Columbus conceived his

enterprise before he was enabled to carry it into effect; that most of

that time was passed in almost hopeless solicitation, amid poverty,

neglect, and taunting ridicule; that the prime of his life had wasted

away in the struggle, and that, when his perseverance was finally

crowned with success, he was about in his fifty-sixth year. This example

should encourage the enterprising never to despair."--Washington

Irving's _Life of Columbus_, vol. i., p. 174.]

[Footnote 48: "While Columbus lay on a sick-bed by the River Belem, he

was addressed in a dream by an unknown voice, distinctly uttering these

words: 'Maravillosamente Dios hizo sonar tu nombre en la tierra; de los

atamientos de la Mar Oceana, que estaban cerradas con cadenas tan

fuertes, te dio las llaves.' (Letter to the Catholic monarch, July 7th,

1503.)"--Humboldt's _Cosmos_.]

[Footnote 49: See Appendix, No. XIII. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 50: "The application to King Henry VII. was not made until

1488, as would appear from the inscription on a map which Bartholomew

presented to the king. Las Casas intimates, from letters and writings of

Bartholomew Columbus, in his possession, that the latter accompanied

Bartholomew Diaz in his voyage from Lisbon, in 1486, along the coast of

Africa, in the course of which he discovered the Cape of Good

Hope."--Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._, lib. i., cap. vii.]

[Footnote 51: "The American Continent was first discovered under the

auspices of the English, and the coast of the United States by a native

of England (Sebastian Cabot told me that he was born in

Bristowe)."--_History of the Travayles in the East and West Indies_, by

R. Eden and R. Willes, 1577. fol. 267. Posterity hardly remembered that

they[52] (the Cabots) had reached the American Continent nearly four

months before Columbus, on his third voyage, came in sight of the

main-land.--Bancroft's _Hist. of the United States_, vol. i., p. 11.

Charlevoix's "Histoire de la Nouvelle France," and the "Fastes

Chronologiques," endeavor to discredit the discoveries of John and

Sebastian Cabot, but the testimonies of cotemporary authors are

decisive. Unfortunately, no journal or relation remains of the voyages

of the Cabots to North America, but several authors have handed down

accounts of them, which they received from the lips of Sebastian Cabot

himself. See Hakluyt, iii., 27; Galearius Butrigarius, in Ramusio, tom.

ii.; Ramusio, Preface to tom. iii.; Peter Martyr ab Angleria, Dec. III.,

cap. vi.; Gomara, _Gen. Hist. of the West Indies_, b. ii., c. vi. In

Fabian's Chronicle, the writer asserts that he saw, in the sixteenth

year of Henry VII., two out of three men who had been brought from

"Newfound Island" two years before. The grant made by Edward VI. to

Sebastian Cabot of a pension equal to L1000 per annum of our money,

attests that "the good and acceptable service" for which it was

conferred was of a very important nature. The words of the grant are

handed down to us by Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 31.--See _Life of Henry

VII._, by Lord Bacon; Bacon's _Works_, vol. iii., p. 356, 357.]

[Footnote 52: "The only immediate fruit of Cabot's first enterprise is

said to have been the importation from America of the first turkeys ever

seen in Europe. Why this bird received the name it enjoys in England has

never been satisfactorily explained. By the French it was called 'Coq

d'Inde,' on account of its American original, America being then

generally termed Western India."--Graham's _Hist. of the United States_,

vol. i., p. 7.]

[Footnote 53: Baccalaos was the name given by the natives to the codfish

with which these waters abounded. Pietro Martire, who calls Sebastian

Cabot his "dear and familiar friend," speaks of Newfoundland as

Baccalaos; also, Lopez de Gomara and Ramusio.]

[Footnote 54: Mr. Bancroft pronounces this "fact to be indisputable,"

though he acknowledges that "the testimony respecting this expedition is

confused and difficult of explanation." Sebastian Cabot wrote "A

Discourse of Navigation," in which the entrance of the strait leading

into Hudson's Bay was laid down with great precision "on a card, drawn

by his own hand."--Ortelius, _Map of America in Theatrum Orbis

Terrarum_; Eden and Willis, p. 223; Sir H. Gilbert, in Hakluyt, vol.

iii., p. 49, 50; Bancroft, vol. i., p. 12.]

[Footnote 55: The learned and ingenious author of the "Memoirs of

Sebastian Cabot" has brought forward strong arguments against the

discovery of the Continent of America by Jean Vas Cortereal in

1494.--Humboldt's _Geog. du Nouveau Continent_, vol. i., p. 279; vol.

ii., p. 25.

"The discoverer of the territory of our country was one of the most

extraordinary men of his age. There is deep cause for regret that time

has spared so few memorials of his career. He gave England a continent,

and no one knows his burial-place."--Bancroft, vol. i., p. 14.]

[Footnote 56: Ramusio, vol. iii., p. 417. This discovery is also

attributed to Jacques Cartier, who entered the gulf on the 10th of

August, 1535, and gave it the name of the saint whose festival was

celebrated on that day.--Charlevoix.]

[Footnote 57: In an old map published in 1508, the Labrador coast is

called Terra Corterealis.]

[Footnote 58: It has been conjectured that the name Terra de Laborador

was given to this coast by the Portuguese slave merchants, on account of

the admirable qualities of the natives as laborers.--_Picture of

Quebec_.]

[Footnote 59: It was an idea entertained by Columbus, that, as he

extended his discoveries to climates more and more under the torrid

influence of the sun, he should find the productions of nature

sublimated by its rays to more perfect and precious qualities. He was

strengthened in this belief by a letter written to him, at the command

of the queen, by one Jayme Ferrer, an eminent and learned lapidary, who,

in the course of his trading for precious stones and metals, had been in

the Levant and in various parts of the East; had conversed with the

merchants of the remote parts of Asia and Africa, and the natives of

India, Arabia, and Ethiopia, and was considered deeply versed in

geography generally, but especially in the nature of those countries

from whence the valuable merchandise in which he dealt was procured. In

this letter Ferrer assured Columbus that, according to his experience,

the rarest objects of commerce, such as gold, precious stones, drugs,

and spices, were chiefly to be found in the regions about the

equinoctial line, where the inhabitants were black, or darkly colored,

and that until the admiral should arrive among people of such

complexions, he did not think he would find those articles in great

abundance.--Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii., Document 68.]

[Footnote 60: Ramusio, vol. iii., p. 347; Charlevoix, vol. i., p. 36;

see Osorio, History of the Portuguese, b. i.; Barrow's Voyages, p.

37-48; Herrera, Dec. 1., lib. vii., cap. ix.; Ensayo Chronologico para

la Historia general de la Florida. En Madrid, 1723.--Quoted by Murray.]

[Footnote 61: "Les demandes ordinaires qu'on nous fait sont, 'Y a-t-il

des tresors? Y a-t-il de l'or et de l'argent?' Et personne ne demande,

'Ces peuples la sont il disposes a entendre la doctrine Chretienne?' Et

quant aux mines, il y en a vraiment, mais il les faut fouiller avec

industrie, labeur et patience. La plus belle mine que je sache, c'est du

bled et du vin, avec la nourriture du bestial; qui a de ceci, il a de

l'argent, et des mines, nous n'en vivons point."--Marc l'Escarbot.]

[Footnote 62: This bold stretch of papal authority, so often ridiculed

as chimerical and absurd, was in a measure justified by the event, since

it did, in fact, determine the principle on which the vast extent of

unappropriated empire in the eastern and western hemispheres was

ultimately divided between two petty states of Europe. Alexander had not

even the excuse that he thought he was disposing of uncultivated and

uninhabited regions, since he specifies in his donation both towns and

castles: "Civitates et castra in perpetuum tenore praesentium donamus."]

[Footnote 63: "What," said Francis I., "shall the kings of Spain and

Portugal divide all America between them, without suffering me to take a

share as their brother? I would fain see the article in Adam's will that

bequeaths that vast inheritance to them."--_Encyclopedia_, vol. iv., p.

695.]

[Footnote 64: "In the latter years of his life, Francis, by a strict

economy of the public money, repaired the evils of his early

extravagance, while, at the same time, he was enabled to spare

sufficient for carrying on the magnificent public institutions he had

undertaken, and for forwarding the progress of discovery, of the fine

arts, and of literature."--Bacon's _Life and Times of Francis I._, p.

399-401.]

[Footnote 65: See Appendix, No. XIV. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 66: "Navigo anche lungo la detta terra l'anno 1524 un gran

capitano del Re Christianissimo Francesco, detto Giovanni da Verazzano,

Fiorentino, e scorse tutta la costa fino alla Florida, come per una sua

lettera scritta al detto Re, particolarmente si vedia la qual sola

abbiamo potuto avere perciocche l'altre si sono smarrite nelli travagli

della povera citta di Fiorenza e nell' ultimo viaggio che esso fece,

avendo voluto smontar in terra con alcuni compagni, furono tutti morti

da quei popoli, e in presentia di coloro che erano rimasi nelle navi,

furono arrostiti e mangeati." (Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 416.) The Baron La

Houtan and La Potherie give the same account of Verazzano's end; they

are not, however, very trustworthy authorities. Le Beau repeats the same

story; but Charlevoix's words are, "Je ne trouve aucun fondement a ce

que quelques uns ont publie, qu'ayant mis pied a terre dans un endroit

ou il voulait batir un fort, les sauvages se jeterent sur lui, le

massacrerent avec tous ses gens et le mangerent." A Spanish historian

has asserted, contrary to all probability, that Verazzano was taken by

the Spaniards, and hung as a pirate.--D. Andres Gonzalez de Barcia,

_Ensayo Chronologico para la Historia della Florida_.]

[Footnote 67: Tiraboschi, _Storia della Literatura Italiana_, vol. vii.,

p. 261, 262.--Quoted in the _Picture of Quebec_, to which valuable work

J.C. Fisher, Esq., president of the Literary and Historical Society of

Quebec, largely contributed.]

[Footnote 68: Signifying "here is nothing." The insatiable thirst of the

Spanish discoverers for gold is justified by the greatest of all

discoverers, the disinterested Columbus himself, on high religious

principles. When acquainting their Castilian majesties with the

abundance of gold[69] to be procured in the newly-found countries, he

thus speaks, "El oro es excelentisimo, del oro se hace tesoro; y con el

quien lo tiene hace quanto quiere en el mundo, y elega a que echa las

animas al paraiso." (Navarrete, _Coleccion de los Viages_, vol. i., p.

309.) A passage which the modern editor of his papers affirms to be in

conformity with many texts of Scripture.]

[Footnote 69: The historian Herrera, writing in the light of experience,

makes use of the strong expression, that "mines were a lure devised by

the evil spirit to draw the Spaniards on to destruction." "L'Espagne,"

says Montesquieu, "a fait comme ce roi insense, qui demanda que tout ce

qu'il toucheroit se convertit en or, et qui fut oblige de revenir aux

Dieux, pour les prier de finir sa misere."--_Esprit des Loix_, lib.

xxi., cap. 22.

"Les mines du Perou et du Mexique ne valoient pas meme pour l'Espagne ce

qu'elle auroit tire du son propre fonds en los cultivant. Avec tant de

tresors Philippe II. fit banqueroute."--Millot. "Paturage et labourage,"

said the wise Sully, "valent mieux que tout l'or du Perou."]

[Footnote 70: Father Hennepin asserts that the Spaniards were the first

discoverers of Canada, and that, finding nothing there to gratify their

extensive desires for gold, they bestowed upon it the appellation of El

Capo di Nada, "Cape Nothing," whence, by corruption, its present

name.--_Nouvelle Description d'un tres grand pays situe dans l'Amerique

entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer Glaciale, depuis l'an_ 1667 _jusqu'

en_ 1670. _Par le Pere Louis Hennepin, Missionaire Recollet a Utrecht_,

1697.

La Potherie gives the same derivation. _Histoire de l'Amerique

Septentrionale par M. de Bacqueville de la Potherie, a Paris_, 1722. The

opinion expressed in a note of Charlevoix (Histoire de la Nouvelle

France, vol. i., p. 13), is that deserving most credit. "D'autres

derivent ce nom du mot Iroquois 'Kannata,' qui se prononce Cannada, et

signifie un amas de cabanes." This derivation would reconcile the

different assertions of the early discoverers, some of whom give the

name of Canada to the whole valley of the St. Lawrence; others, equally

worthy of credit, confine it to a small district in the neighborhood of

Stadacona (now Quebec). _Seconda Relatione di Jacques Cartier_, in

Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 442, 447. "Questo popolo (di Hochelaga) non

partendo mai del lore paese, ne essendo vagabondi, come quelli di Canada

e di Saguenay benche dette di Canada sieno lor suggetti con otte o nove

altri villaggi posti sopra detto fiume." Father du Creux, who arrived in

Canada about the year 1625, in his "Historia Canadensis," gives the name

of Canada to the whole valley of the St. Lawrence, confessing, however,

his ignorance of the etymology: "Porro de Etymologia vocis Canada nihil

satis certe potui comperire; priscam quidem esse, constat ex eo, quod

illam ante annos prope sexaginta passim usurpari audiebam puer."

Duponceau, in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of

Philadelphia, founds his conjecture of the Indian origin of the name of

Canada upon the fact that, in the translation of the Gospel of St.

Matthew into the Mohawk tongue, made by Brandt, the Indian chief, the

word Canada is always used to signify a village. The mistake of the

early discoverers, in taking the name of a part for that of the whole,

is very pardonable in persons ignorant of the Indian language. It is

highly improbable that at the period of its discovery the name of Canada

was extended over this immense country. The migratory habits of the

aborigines are alone conclusive against it. They distinguished

themselves by their different tribes, not by the country over which they

hunted and rode at will. They more probably gave names to localities

than adopted their own from any fixed place of residence. The Iroquois

and the Ottawas conferred their appellations on the rivers that ran

through their hunting grounds, and the Huron tribe gave theirs to the

vast lake now bearing their name. It has, however, never been pretended

that any Indian tribe bore the name of Canada, and the natural

conclusion therefore is, that the word "Canada" was a mere local

appellation, without reference to the country; that each tribe had their

own "Canada," or collection of huts, which shifted its position

according to their migrations.

Dr. Douglas, in his "American History," pretends that Canada derives its

name from Monsieur Kane or Cane, whom he advances to have been the first

adventurer in the River St. Lawrence.--Knox's _Historical Journal_, vol.

i., p. 303.]