THE HABITANT OF THE ST. LAWRENCE SHORE
The earliest white settlers on the shores of the St. Lawrence came from
France, and the country of their adoption was known as New France. To
this very day, not only the language, but the manner of life and most
of the social institutions of the province of Quebec, are still
emphatically French. And yet the French-Canadians, despite their
passionate devotion to their race and their language, their religious
creed (Roman Catholicism), and the customs and manners of their
ancestors, manifest an irreproachable loyalty to the British Crown.
When, soon after the middle of the seventeenth century, the new country
was first settled, the land was granted by the King of France to French
gentlemen, who became known as seigneurs, or lords of the manor. In
return for these grants the seigneurs paid homage to the French King,
and bound themselves by an oath to fight for him in time of need. They
were also bound to have their land cleared of trees within a given
time, otherwise the seigneury was to be taken away from them again.
The seigneur in his turn granted slices of his lands to humbler
arrivals from France--emigrants, as we should call them nowadays,
though they called themselves, and are known to history as,
"habitants." Their relation to their seigneur was something like that
of medieval vassals to their feudal lord.
Now, in the early days these habitants, or emigrants, were mostly
single young men, and naturally, when they settled down on the farms,
which they rented from this or the other seigneur, they soon found that
they required each a wife to help them in their work, and to cook and
stitch for them; but young women were scarce in the colony.
Accordingly, the French King, with the view of meeting this want, used
every year to send out one or two shiploads of young girls as wives for
the habitants. About the time the "bride ships" were expected the
young men of the settlements, dressed in their Sunday best, used to
repair to Quebec, where the ships landed. There, entering the great
hall of the convent of the Ursuline nuns, where the girls were
gathered, they each picked out a bride, led her straightway before the
priest, and were married without an instant's delay.
The habitant of the present day is, as a rule, happy and contented with
his lot, with a great reverence for the customs and habits of his
forefathers, and an unwavering devotion to his church. He is fond of
society, and loves the dance and the song. His leaning is manifested
in the arrangement of the farms in his part of the country. As you
steam down the great River St. Lawrence, you cannot help noticing how
the farms in what was once New France are laid out in long narrow
strips, nearly a mile in length, and all coming down to the river
shore. Along these stand the houses, all near the river and pretty
close one to another. Here the people grow tobacco, vegetables, and
fruit, especially the famous Snow-apple, also known as "Fameuse," with
a bright red skin and snow-white flesh. French Canada is also noted
for its breed of horses.
The present Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier, one of the ablest and most eloquent men in the whole of the
British Empire, is a native of French Canada. He has governed the
destinies of the Dominion for fully twelve years without a break, for
it was in 1896 that he first became Prime Minister of Canada.
[Illustration: MONTREAL AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE. PAGE 79.]
High above the great St. Lawrence stands the city of Quebec, which was
founded by the French explorer and colonial leader, Champlain, in 1608,
over 300 years ago. The city is built partly at the edge of the river
and partly on the summit and slope of a bold cliff overhanging the
stream. On this higher ground is the citadel, occupying the site of
the early fort, which was one of the principal defences of the first
settlers during the whole of the stormy period of the Iroquois wars.
It was here, too, that the heroic Wolfe, the British General of George
III.'s day, defeated the no less heroic French leader Montcalm. Quebec
is the seat of Laval University, the most famous centre of Roman
Catholic learning in Canada.
Higher up the river, too, is Montreal, the largest city in the whole of
the Dominion. In early days it was the chief centre of the fur trade,
and, like Quebec, a bulwark against the invading tides of the Iroquois.
To-day it is the principal commercial city of Canada and the seat of
varied manufactures. Here, again, is a large and famous University, a
seat of Protestant learning--namely, McGill University. Montreal has
also won fame for herself by her magnificent and merry winter carnival
and her great palace built of ice.
The capital of Canada is, however, neither Quebec nor Montreal, nor is
it Toronto, the second largest city in the Dominion and capital of the
province of Ontario, as well as the seat of several affiliated
Universities, and an important manufacturing centre. The place where
the Parliament of Canada meets, and, consequently, the capital of the
country, is Ottawa, on the river of the same name 116 miles by rail
west of Montreal. As a city it is famous for its beautiful and
imposing public buildings, the most stately of them all being the
Houses of Parliament.