1668-1670.
Danger Apprehended to French Dominion -- Intendant Talon -- Fur
Trade Extended Westward -- News of the English Expedition
Reaches Quebec -- Sovereign Rights in Question -- English
Priority Established.
[Sidenote: French activity.]
Although neither the Governor, the Fur Company nor the officials of
the Most Christian King at Quebec, had responded favourably to the
proposals of Groseilliers, yet they were not long in perceiving that a
radical change in their trade policy was desirable. Representations
were made to M. Colbert and the French Court. It was even urged that
France's North American dominions were in danger, unless a more
positive and aggressive course were pursued with regard to extension.
These representations, together with the knowledge that the Dutch on
the south side of the St Lawrence and in the valley of the Hudson had
unexpectedly acknowledged allegiance to the King of England,
determined Lewis to evince a greater interest in Canadian affairs than
he had done hitherto.
Mezy was recalled, to die soon afterwards; and Daniel de Remin,
Seigneur de Courcelles, was despatched as Provincial Governor. A new
office was created, that of Intendant of Justice, Police and Finance;
and Jean Talon--a man of ability, experience and energy--was made the
first Intendant. Immediately upon his arrival, he took steps to
confirm the sovereignty of his master over the vast realms in the
West; and to set up the royal standard in the region of the Great
Lakes.
In 1668 Talon returned to France, taking with him one of those hardy
bushrangers (_coureurs de bois_) who passed nearly the whole of their
lives in the interior and in the company of the Hurons. This man seems
to have cut a very picturesque figure. He had been scalped, and bore
about his person many grim mutilations and disfigurements, to bear
witness to his adventures amongst unfriendly tribes. He accompanied
Talon in the capacity of servant or bodyguard, and appears to have had
little difficulty in making himself an object of infinite interest to
the lackeys and concierges of Paris. On the Intendant's return to
Canada, this daring personage, Peray by name, is alluded to as Talon's
most trusted adviser with regard to the western country and the tribes
inhabiting it. In one of the Intendant's letters, dated February 24th,
1669, he writes that Peray had "penetrated among the western nations
farther than any Frenchman; and had seen the copper mine on Lake
Huron. This man offers to go to that mine and explore either by sea,
or by the lake and river--such communication being supposed to exist
between Canada and the South Sea--or to the Hudson's Bay."
French activity had never been so great in the new world as in the
years between Groseilliers' departure from Quebec and the period when
the English fur-traders first came in contact with the French on the
shores of Hudson's Bay, thirteen years later.
In the summer of 1669, the active and intelligent Louis Joliet, with
an outfit of 4,000 livres, supplied him by the Intendant, penetrated
into an unknown region and exhibited the white standard of France
before the eyes of the astonished natives.
This also was the period which witnessed the exploits of La Salle, and
of Saint Lusson. Trade followed quickly on their heels. In March,
1670, five weeks before the charter was granted to the Great Company,
a party of Jesuits arriving at Sault Ste. Marie found twenty-five
Frenchmen trading there with the Indians. These traders reported that
a most lucrative traffic had sprung up in that locality. Coincident
with the tidings they thus conveyed to Talon, the Intendant learnt
from some Algonquins who had come to Quebec to trade, that two
European vessels had been seen in Hudson's Bay.
[Sidenote: Colbert and the Company.]
"After reflecting," he wrote to Colbert, "on all the nations that
might have penetrated as far north as that, I can only fall back on
the English, who, under the conduct of one named Groseilliers, in
former times an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly have attempted
that navigation, of itself not much known and not less dangerous. I
design to send by land some men of resolution to invite the
Kilistinons,[14] who are in great numbers in the vicinity of that Bay,
to come down to see us as the Ottawas do, in order that we may have
the first handling of what the savages bring us, who, acting as retail
dealers between ourselves and those natives (_i.e._, the Kilistinons),
make us pay for this roundabout way of three or four hundred leagues."
The rivalry of French and English north of the St. Lawrence had begun.
With that rivalry began also from this moment that long series of
disputes concerning the sovereignty of the whole northern territories,
which has endured down to our own generation.
[Sidenote: A much vexed controversy.]
Few historical themes have ever been argued at greater length or more
minutely than this--the priority of discovery, occupation, and active
assumption of sovereignty over those lands surrounding Hudson's Bay,
which for two centuries were to be held and ruled by the Hudson's Bay
Company. The wisest jurists, the shrewdest intellects, the most
painstaking students were destined to employ themselves for over a
century in seeking to establish by historical evidence, by tradition
and by deduction, the "rights" of the English or of the French to
those regions.
A great deal of importance has been attached to the fact that in 1627
a charter had been granted by Lewis XIII. to a number of adventurers
sent to discover new lands to the north of the River of St. Lawrence.
The clause of the charter reads as follows:--"Le fort et habitation de
Quebec, avec tout le pays de la Nouvelle France dite Canada, tant le
long des Cotes depuis la Floride que les predecesseurs Rois de Sa
Majeste ont fait habiter en rangeant les Cotes de la Mer jusqu'au
Cercle Artique pour latitude, et de longitude depuis l'Ile de
Terreneuve tirant a l'ouest au Grand Lac dit la Mer douce et au dela
que de dans les terres, et le long des Rivieres qui y passant et se
dechargent dans le fleuve dit St. Laurent, ou autrement la grande
Riviere du Canada, et dans tous les autres fleuves qui se portent a la
mer." But most writers have omitted to verify the fact that in this
charter to the French Company, the only portions of land granted to
the French Company are the lands or portions of lands which had
already been occupied by the Kings of France, and the object of the
charter was simply to give them an exclusive right of trade therein.
Thus it was clearly indicated that the charter did not go further than
the land occupied by the predecessors of Lewis XIV.
"New France was then understood to include the whole region of
Hudson's Bay, as the maps and histories of the time, English and
French, abundantly prove." This is a broad assertion, which is not
supported by the early discoverers nor by the historians of that time.
Charlevoix in his history described New France as being an exceedingly
limited territory. There is in l'Escarbot a description which shows
that at that time the whole territory known as New France extended but
a few miles on each side of the St. Lawrence. Charlevoix says
regretfully at that time that the giving up of this territory did not
amount to much, as New France was circumscribed by very narrow limits
on either side of the St Lawrence.
When an examination is made into the facts of the voyages and
expeditions alleged to have been undertaken by the French prior to
1672, it is difficult to arrive at any but a certain conclusion--that
the French claims had no foundation in fact.
It was then asserted, and long afterwards repeated, that Jean Bourdon,
the Attorney-General in 1656, explored the entire coast of Labrador
and entered Hudson's Bay. For this assertion one is unable to find any
historical support; certainly no record of any kind exists of such a
voyage. There is a record in 1655, it is true, that Sieur Bourdon,
then Attorney-General, was authorized to make a discovery of _Mer du
Nord_; and in order to comply with that _arrét_ of the Sovereign
Council at Quebec, he actually made an attempt at such discovery.
Bourdon left Quebec on May 2nd, 1657, and an entry in the records
proves his return on August 11th of the same year. It is manifestly
impossible that such a voyage could have been accomplished between
these dates. But a reference to this business in the Jesuit relations
of the succeeding year is sufficiently convincing.[15]
It is there recorded that on the "11th of August, there appeared the
barque of M. Bourdon, which having descended the Grand River on the
north side, sailed as far as the 55th degree, where it encountered a
great bank of ice, which caused it to return, having lost two Hurons
that it had taken as guides. The Esquimaux savages of the north
massacred them and wounded a Frenchman with three arrows and one cut
with a knife."
Another statement employed to strengthen the French claim to
sovereignty was, that Father Dablon and Sieur de Valiere were ordered
in 1661 to proceed to the country about Hudson's Bay, and that they
accordingly went thither. All accounts available to the historian
agree that the worthy father never reached the Bay.
[Sidenote: La Couture's mythical voyage.]
Another assertion equally long-lived and equally ill-founded, was to
the effect that one Sieur La Couture, with five men, proceeded
overland to the Bay, and there took possession of it in the King's
name. There is no account of this voyage in _Charlevoix_, or in the
"Relations des Jesuites," or in the memoir furnished by M. de
Callieres to the Marquis de Denonville. This memoir, which was penned
in 1685, or twenty-one years after the time of which it treated, set
forth that La Couture made the journey for purposes of discovery.
Under the circumstances, particularly owing to the strong necessity
under which the French were placed to find some shadow of right for
their pretensions, M. de Callieres' memoir has been declared
untrustworthy by competent authorities.
[Illustration: ENGLISH MAP OF 1782.]
In 1663, Sieur Duquet, the King's Attorney for Quebec, and Jean
L'Anglois, a Canadian colonist, are said to have gone to Hudson's Bay
by order of Sieur D'Argenson, and to have renewed possession by
setting up the King's arms there a second time. Such an order could
hardly have been given by D'Argenson, because he had left Canada on
September 16th, 1671, two years before this pretended order was given
to Sieur Duquet.
[Sidenote: French falsehoods and fallacies.]
It has been attempted to explain the silence of the "Relations of the
Jesuits" concerning Bourdon's voyage, by asserting that they were
naturally anxious that members of their own society should be the
pioneers in discovery, and that therefore many important discoveries
were never brought to light in their relations because they were not
made by Jesuits. It is enough to say that such an argument cannot
apply to the voyage of Dablon. He was a Jesuit, a man in whom the
interests of the society were centred, and if a voyage had been made
by him, no doubt a great deal of prominence would have been given to
it. On the contrary, in the third volume of the "Jesuit Relations,"
1662, we find this Jesuit, Father Dablon, describing an unsuccessful
voyage that he made. There can be no doubt that he attempted a voyage.
A portion of this relation is written by himself, and he calls it,
"Journal du Premier Voyage Fait Vers la Mer du Nord." The first
portion of it is most important and conclusive, as showing that De
Callieres, in his memoir to M. De Seignely, twenty-one years
afterwards, must have been speaking from hearsay, and without any
authentic documents on which to base his assertions. Dablon says that
the highest point which he did reach was Nekauba, a hundred leagues
from Tadoussac, and that subsequently he returned; and this is from a
report of this journey written by himself. Some have attempted to
raise a doubt as to the identity of the Dablon in De Callieres'
memoir, with the Dablon of the "Relations des Jesuites." But at the
end of one of the volumes is a complete list of all the Jesuits,
pioneers both of the faith and in the way of discovery, and there is
only one Dablon mentioned. Another inaccuracy of this memoir is as to
the trip of Duquet, under an order said to have been given by Sieur
D'Argenson. There can be no doubt that at the time this pretended
order was given, D'Argenson had left Canada.
On the whole it may be as well for the reader to dismiss the French
pretensions. They are no longer of interest, save to the
hair-splitting student of the country's annals: but in their day they
gave rise to a wilderness of controversy, through which we in the
twentieth century may yet grope vainly for the light. For all
practical purposes the question of priority was settled forever by the
Ontario Boundary Commission of 1884. Let us turn rather to behold to
what account the Honourable Adventurers turned their new property.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Kristineaux, Crees.
[15] Jean Bourdon was of the Province of Quebec; he was well known to
the Jesuits and trusted by them. He subsequently accompanied Father
Jacques on an embassy to Governor Dongan, the Governor of the Province
of New York.
In Shea's _Charlevoix_, Vol. III, pp. 39, 40, it is stated that Père
Dablon attempted to penetrate to the northern ocean by ascending the
Saguenay. Early in June, two months after they set out, they found
themselves at the head of the Nekauba river, 300 miles from Lake St.
John. Warned of the approach of the Iroquois, they dared not proceed
farther. In the New York Historical Documents (p. 97) there is an
account of Dablon from the time of his arrival in Canada in 1655. He
was immediately sent missionary to Onondaga, where he continued with a
brief interval until 1658. In 1661 he set out overland for Hudson's
Bay, but succeeded only in reaching the head waters of the Nekauba,
300 miles from Lac St. Jean.