Colbert and Talon were devoting themselves to the encouragement of
manufactures and commerce. When the Company of the Hundred Associates,
who appear to have been robbed by their agents in the colony, fell to
pieces, they were replaced by a large organisation, known as the
Company of the West, to which was given very important privileges
throughout all the French colonies and dependencies. The company,
however, never prospered, and came to an end in 1674, after ten years'
existence, during which it inflicted much injury on the countries where
it was given so many privileges. The government hereafter controlled
all commerce and finance. Various manufactures, like shipbuilding,
leather, hemp, and beer, were encouraged, but at no time did Canada
show any manufacturing or commercial enterprise. Under the system of
monopolies and bounties fostered by Colbert and his successors, a
spirit of self-reliance was never stimulated. The whole system of
government tended to peculation and jobbery--to the enrichment of
worthless officials. The people were always extremely poor. Money was
rarely seen in the shape of specie. The few coins that came to the
colony soon found their way back to France. From 1685 down to 1759 the
government issued a {162} paper currency, known as "card money,"
because common playing cards were used. This currency bore the crown
and fleur-de-lis and signatures of officials, and gradually became
depreciated and worthless.
[Illustration: Card issue of 1729, for 12 livres.]
While the townsfolk of Massachusetts were discussing affairs in
town-meetings, the French inhabitants of Canada were never allowed to
take part in public assemblies but were taught to depend in the most
trivial matters on a paternal government. Canada was governed as far
as possible like a province of France. In the early days of the
colony, when it was under the rule of the Company of the Hundred
Associates, the governors practically exercised arbitrary power, with
the assistance of a nominal council chosen by themselves. When,
however, {163} the King took the government of the colony into his own
hands, he appointed a governor, an intendant, and a supreme or--as it
was subsequently called--a sovereign council, of which the bishop was a
member, to administer under his own direction the affairs of the
country. The governor, who was generally a soldier, was nominally at
the head of affairs, and had the direction of the defences of the
colony, but to all intents and purposes the intendant, who was a man of
legal attainments, had the greater influence. He was the finance
minister, and made special reports to the King on all Canadian matters.
He had the power of issuing ordinances which had the effect of law, and
showed the arbitrary nature of the government to which the people were
subject. Every effort to assemble the people for public purposes was
systematically crushed by the orders of the government. A public
meeting of the parishioners to consider the cost of a new church could
not be held without the special permission of the intendant. Count
Frontenac, immediately after his arrival, in 1672, attempted to
assemble the different orders of the colony, the clergy, the _noblesse_
{164} or _seigneurs_, the judiciary, and the third estate, in imitation
of the old institutions of France. The French king promptly rebuked
the haughty governor for this attempt to establish a semblance of
popular government.
[Illustration: Fifteen sol piece.]
From that moment we hear no more of the assembling of "Canadian
Estates," and an effort to elect a mayor and aldermen for Quebec also
failed through the opposition of the authorities. An attempt was then
made to elect a syndic--a representative of popular rights in
towns--but M. de Mésy, then governor, could not obtain the consent of
the bishop, who knew that his views were those of the King. The result
of the difficulties that followed was the dismissal of the governor,
who died soon afterwards, but not until he had confessed his error, and
made his peace with the haughty bishop whom he had dared to oppose.
The administration of local affairs throughout the province was
exclusively under the control of the King's officers at Quebec. The
ordinances of the intendant and of the council were the law. The
country was eventually subdivided into the following divisions for
purposes of government, settlement, and justice: 1. Districts. 2.
Seigniories. 3. Parishes. The districts were simply established for
judicial and legal purposes, and each of them bore the name of the
principal town within its limits--viz., Quebec, also called the
_Prévoté de Quebec_, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In each of these
districts there was a judge, appointed by the king, to adjudicate on
all civil and criminal matters. An appeal was allowed in the most
trivial cases to the {165} supreme or superior council, which also
exercised original jurisdiction. The customary law of Paris, which is
based on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, and
still governs the civil rights of the people.
The greater part of Canada was divided into large estates or
seigniories, with the view of creating a colonial _noblesse_, and of
stimulating settlement in a wilderness. It was not necessary to be of
noble birth to be a Canadian seigneur. Any trader with a few louis
d'or and influence could obtain a patent for a Canadian lordship. The
seignior on his accession to his estate was required to pay homage to
the King, or to his feudal superior in case the lands were granted by
another than the King. The seignior received his land gratuitously
from the crown, and granted them to his vassals, who were generally
known as _habitants_, or cultivators of the soil, on condition of their
making small annual payments in money or produce known as _cens et
rente_. The _habitant_ was obliged to grind his corn at the seignior's
mill (_moulin banal_), bake his bread in the seignior's oven, give his
lord a tithe of the fish caught in his waters, and comply with other
conditions at no time onerous or strictly enforced in the days of the
French régime. This system had some advantages in a new country like
Canada, where the government managed everything, and colonisation was
not left to chance. The seignior was obliged to cultivate his estate
at a risk of forfeiture, consequently it was absolutely necessary that
he should exert himself to bring settlers upon his lands. The
obligation of the _habitant_ to grind his corn in the seignior's {166}
mill was clearly an advantage for the settlers. In the early days of
the colony, however, the seigniors were generally too poor to fulfil
this condition, and the _habitants_ had to grind corn between stones,
or in rude hand mills. The seigniors had the right of dispensing
justice in certain cases, though it was one he very rarely exercised.
As respects civil affairs, however, both lord and vassal were to all
intents and purposes on the same footing, for they were equally ignored
in matters of government.
In the days of the French régime, the only towns for many years were
Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In remote and exposed places--like
those on the Richelieu, where officers and soldiers of the
Carignan-Salières Regiment had been induced to settle--palisaded
villages had been built. The principal settlements were, in course of
time, established on the banks of the St. Lawrence, as affording in
those days the easiest means of intercommunication. As the lots of a
seigniorial grant were limited in area--four arpents in front by forty
in depth--the farms in the course of time assumed the appearance of a
continuous settlement on the river. These various settlements became
known in local phraseology as Côtes, apparently from their natural
situation on the banks of the river. This is the origin of Côte des
Neiges, Côte St. Louis, Côte St. Paul, and of many picturesque villages
in the neighbourhood of Montreal and Quebec. As the country became
settled, parishes were established for ecclesiastical purposes and the
administration of local affairs. Here the influential men were the
curé, the seignior, and the captain of the militia. The seignior, from
{167} his social position, exercised a considerable weight in the
community, but not to the degree that the representative of the Church
enjoyed. The church in the parishes was kept up by tithes, regulated
by ordinances, and first imposed by Bishop Laval for the support of the
Quebec Seminary and the clergy. Next to the curé in importance was the
captain of the militia. The whole province was formed into a militia
district, so that, in times of war, the inhabitants might be obliged to
perform military service under the French governor. In times of peace
these militia officers in the parishes executed the orders of the
governor and intendant in all matters affecting the King. In case it
was considered necessary to build a church or presbytery, the intendant
authorised the _habitants_ to assemble for the purpose of choosing from
among themselves four persons to make, with the curé, the seignior, and
the captain of the militia, an estimate of the expense of the
structure. It was the special care of the captain of the militia to
look after the work, and see that each parishioner did his full share.
It was only in church matters, in fact, that the people of a parish had
a voice, and even in these, as we see, they did not take the
initiative. The Quebec authorities must in all such cases first issue
an ordinance.
Under these circumstances it is quite intelligible that the people of
Canada were obliged to seek in the clearing of the forest, in the
cultivation of the field, in the chase, and in adventure, the means of
livelihood, and hardly ever busied themselves about public matters in
which they were not allowed to take even a humble part.
{168}
XII.
THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY:
PRIESTS, FUR-TRADERS, AND COUREURS DE BOIS
IN THE WEST.
(1634-1687.)
We have now come to that interesting period in the history of Canada,
when the enterprise and courage of French adventurers gave France a
claim to an immense domain, stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
indefinitely beyond the Great Lakes, and from the basin of those island
seas as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The eminent intendant, Talon,
appears to have immediately understood the importance of the discovery
which had been made by the interpreter and trader, Jean Nicolet, of
Three Rivers, who, before the death of Champlain, probably in 1634,
ventured into the region of the lakes, and heard of "a great water"--no
doubt the Mississippi--while among the Mascoutins, a branch of the
Algonquin stock, whose villages were generally found in the valley of
the Fox River. He is considered to have been the first European who
reached Sault Ste. Marie--the strait between Superior and {169}
Huron--though there is no evidence that he ventured beyond the rapids,
and saw the great expanse of lake which had been, in all probability,
visited some years before by Etienne Brulé, after his escape from the
Iroquois. Nicolet also was the first Frenchman who passed through the
straits of Mackinac or Michillimackinac, though he did not realise the
importance of its situation in relation to the lakes of the western
country. It is told of him that he made his appearance among the
Winnebagos in a robe of brilliant China damask, decorated with flowers
and birds of varied colours, and holding a pistol in each hand. This
theatrical display in the western forest is adduced as evidence of his
belief in the story that he had heard among the Nipissings, at the
head-waters of the Ottawa, that there were tribes in the west, without
hair and beards, like the Chinese. No doubt, he thought he was coming
to a country where, at last, he would find that short route to the
Chinese seas which had been the dream of many Frenchmen since the days
of Cartier. We have no answer to give to the question that naturally
suggests itself, whether Champlain ever saw Nicolet on his return, and
heard from him the interesting story of his adventures. It was not
until 1641, or five years after Champlain's death, that Father Vimont
gave to the world an account of Nicolet's journey, which, no doubt,
stimulated the interest that was felt in the mysterious region of the
west. From year to year the Jesuit and the trader added something to
the geographical knowledge of the western lakes, where the secret was
soon to be {170} unlocked by means of the rivers which fed those
remarkable reservoirs of the continent. In 1641 Fathers Raymbault and
Jogues preached their Faith to a large concourse of Indians at the
Sault between Huron and Superior, where, for the first time, they heard
of the Sioux or Dacotah, those vagrants of the northwest, and where the
former died without realising the hope he had cherished, of reaching
China across the western wilderness. Then came those years of terror,
when trade and enterprise were paralysed by those raids of the
Iroquois, which culminated in the dispersion of the Hurons. For years
the Ottawa valley was almost deserted, and very few traders or
_coureurs de bois_ ventured into the country around the western lakes.
An enterprising trader of Three Rivers, Médard Chouart, Sieur de
Grosseilliers, is believed to have reached the shores of Lake Superior
in 1658, and also to have visited La Pointe, now Ashland, at its
western extremity, in the summer of 1659, in company with Pierre
d'Esprit, Sieur Radisson, whose sister he had married. Some critical
historians do not altogether discredit the assumption that these two
venturesome traders ascended the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and even
reached the Mississippi, twelve years before Jolliet and Marquette.
With the peace that followed the destruction of the Mohawk villages by
Tracy and Courcelles, and the influx of a considerable population into
Canada, the conditions became more favourable for exploration and the
fur trade. The tame and steady life of the farm had little charm for
many restless spirits, {171} who had fought for France in the Carignan
Regiment. Not a few of them followed the roving Canadian youth into
the forest, where they had learned to love the free life of the
Indians. The priest, the _gentilhomme_, and the _coureur de bois_,
each in his way, became explorers of the western wilderness.
From the moment the French landed on the shores of Canada, they seemed
to enter into the spirit of forest life. Men of noble birth and
courtly associations adapted themselves immediately to the customs of
the Indians, and found that charm in the forest and river which seemed
wanting in the tamer life of the towns and settlements. The English
colonisers of New England were never able to win the affections of the
Indian tribes, and adapt themselves so readily to the habits of forest
life as the French Canadian adventurer.
A very remarkable instance of the infatuation which led away so many
young men into the forest, is to be found in the life of Baron de
Saint-Castin, a native of the romantic Bernese country, who came to
Canada with the Carignan Regiment during 1665, and established himself
for a time on the Richelieu. But he soon became tired of his inactive
life, and leaving his Canadian home, settled on a peninsula of
Penobscot Bay (then Pentagoët), which still bears his name. Here he
fraternised with the Abenaquis, and led the life of a forest chief,
whose name was long the terror of the New England settlers. He married
the daughter of Madocawando, the implacable enemy of the English, and
so influential did he become that, at his summons, all the tribes on
{172} the frontier between Acadia and New England would proceed on the
warpath. He amassed a fortune of three hundred thousand crowns in
"good dry gold," but we are told he only used the greater part of it to
buy presents for his Indian followers, who paid him back in beaver
skins. His life at Pentagoët, for years, was very active and
adventurous, as the annals of New England show. In 1781 he returned to
France, where he had an estate, and thenceforth disappeared from
history. His son, by his Abenaqui Baroness, then took command of his
fort and savage retainers, and after assisting in the defence of Port
Royal, and making more than one onslaught on the English settlers of
Massachusetts, he returned to Europe on the death of his father. The
poet Longfellow has made use of this romantic episode in the early life
of the Acadian settlements:
"The warm winds blow on the hills of Spain,
The birds are building and the leaves are green,
The Baron Castine, of St. Castine,
Hath come at last to his own again."
[Illustration: Canadian trapper, from La Potherie.]
Year after year saw the settlements almost denuded of their young men,
who had been lured away by the fascinations of the fur trade in the
forest fastnesses of the west. The government found all their plans
for increasing the population and colonising the country thwarted by
the nomadic habits of a restless youth. The young man, whether son of
the _gentilhomme_, or of the humble _habitant_, was carried away by his
love for forest life, and no enactments, however severe--not even the
penalty of {174} death--had the effect of restraining his restlessness.
That the majority of the _coureurs de bois_ were a reckless, dare-devil
set of fellows, it is needless to say. On their return from their
forest haunts, after months of savage liberty, they too often threw off
all restraint, and indulged in the most furious orgies. Montreal was
their favourite place of resort, for here were held the great fairs for
the sale of furs. The Ottawas, Hurons, and other tribes came from
distant parts of the North and West, and camped on the shores in the
immediate vicinity of the town. When the fair was in full operation, a
scene was represented well worthy of the bold brush of a Doré. The
royal mountain, then as now, formed a background of rare sylvan beauty.
The old town was huddled together on the low lands near the river, and
was for years a mere collection of low wooden houses and churches, all
surrounded by palisades. On the fair ground were to be seen Indians
tricked out in their savage finery; _coureurs de bois_ in equally
gorgeous apparel; black-robed priests and busy merchants from all the
towns, intent on wheedling the Indians and bush rangers out of their
choicest furs.
The principal rendezvous in the west was Mackinac or Michillimackinac.
Few places possessed a more interesting history than this old
headquarters of the Indian tribes and French voyageurs. Mackinac may
be considered, in some respects, the key of the upper lakes. Here the
tribes from the north to the south could assemble at a very short
notice and decide on questions of trade or war. It was long the
metropolis of a large portion of the Huron {175} and Ottawa nations,
and many a council, fraught with the peace of Canada, was held there in
the olden times. It was on the north side of the straits that Father
Marquette--whose name must ever live in the west--some time in 1671
founded the mission of St. Ignace, where gradually grew up the most
important settlement which the French had to the northwest of Fort
Frontenac or Cataraqui. The French built a chapel and fort, and the
Hurons and Ottawas lived in palisaded villages in the neighbourhood.
The _coureurs de bois_ were always to be seen at a point where they
could be sure to find Indians in large numbers. Contemporary writers
state that the presence of so many unruly elements at this distant
outpost frequently threw the whole settlement into a sad state of
confusion and excitement, which the priests were at times entirely
unable to restrain. Indians, soldiers, and traders became at last so
demoralised, that one of the priests wrote, in his despair, that there
seemed no course open except "deserting the missions and giving them up
to the brandy-sellers as a domain of drunkenness and debauchery."
But it would be a mistake to judge all the _coureurs de bois_ by the
behaviour of a majority, who were made up necessarily from the ruder
elements of the Canadian population. Even the most reckless of their
class had their work to do in the opening up of this continent.
Despising danger in every form, they wandered over rivers and lakes and
through virgin forests, and "blazed" a track, as it were, for the
future pioneer. They were the first to lift the {176} veil of mystery
that hung, until they came, on many a solitary river and forest. The
posts they raised by the side of the western lakes and rivers, were so
many videttes of that army of colonisers who have built up great
commonwealths in that vast country, where the bushranger was the only
European two centuries ago. The most famous amongst their leaders was
the quick-witted Nicholas Perrot--the explorer of the interior of the
continent. Another was Daniel Greysolon Duluth, who became a Canadian
Robin Hood, and had his band of bushrangers like any forest chieftain.
For years he wandered through the forests of the West, and founded
various posts at important points, where the fur trade could be
prosecuted to advantage. Posterity has been more generous to him than
it has been to others equally famous as pioneers, for it has given his
name to a city at the head of Lake Superior. Like many a forest which
they first saw in its primeval vastness, these pioneers have
disappeared into the shadowy domain of an almost forgotten past, and
their memory is only recalled as we pass by some storm-beat cape, or
land-locked bay, or silent river, to which may still cling the names
they gave as they swept along in the days of the old régime.
{177}
XIII.
THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY:
FRANCE IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
(1672-1687.)
Sault St. Marie was the scene of a memorable episode in the history of
New France during the summer of 1671. Simon François Daumont, Sieur
St. Lusson, received a commission from the government of Quebec to
proceed to Lake Superior to search for copper mines, and also to take
formal possession of the basin of the lakes and its tributary rivers.
With him were two men, who became more famous than himself--Nicholas
Perrot and Louis Jolliet, the noted explorers and rangers of the West.
On an elevation overlooking the rapids, around which modern enterprise
has built two ship-canals, St. Lusson erected a cross and post of
cedar, with the arms of France, in the presence of priests in their
black robes, Indians bedecked with tawdry finery, and bushrangers in
motley dress. In the name of the "most high, mighty, and redoubted
monarch, Louis XIV. of that name, most Christian King of France and of
{178} Navarre," he declared France the owner of Sault Ste. Marie, Lakes
Huron and Superior, and Isle of Mackinac, and "all of adjacent
countries, rivers, and lakes, and contiguous streams." As far as
boastful words and, priestly blessings could go, France was mistress of
an empire in the great West.
Three names stand out in bold letters on the records of western
discovery: Jolliet, the enterprising trader, Marquette, the faithful
missionary, and La Salle, the bold explorer. The story of their
adventures takes up many pages in the histories of this fascinating
epoch. Talon may be fairly considered to have laid the foundations of
western exploration, and it was left for Louis de Baude, Comte de
Frontenac, who succeeded Courcelles as governor in 1672, to carry out
the plans of the able intendant when he left the St. Lawrence.