1516-1627
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE EARLY TRADING COMPANIES
OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH COLONIZATION, A CHRISTIANIZING MOVEMENT--THE CROSS
AND THE CROWN--ROBERVAL'S COMMISSION TO COLONIZE CANADA AND
HOCHELAGA--FEUDALISM PROJECTED--CRIMINALS AND MALEFACTORS TO BE
SENT AS COLONISTS--JACQUES CARTIER SAILS IN ADVANCE--CHARLESBOURG
ROYAL, THE FIRST COLONY, STARTED--CARTIER SAILS FOR HOCHELAGA AND
PASSES TUTONAGUY--CARTIER SAILS SECRETLY FOR FRANCE--CHARLESBOURG
A FAILURE--DEATH OF CARTIER--HIS GREAT NEPHEW, NOEL, VISITS
THE GREAT SAULT IN 1557--THE FIRST PRIVATE MONOPOLY TO NOEL
AND OTHERS--THE FIRST ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY TO DE LA ROCHE--THE
EDICT OF NANTES--CHAUVIN, A HUGUENOT, SECURES A TRADE
MONOPOLY--TADOUSSAC, THE COURT OF KING PETAUD--EYMARD DE CHASTES
RECEIVES A COMMISSION AND ENGAGES THE SERVICES OF A ROYAL
GEOGRAPHER, SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN's FIRST VISIT TO THE
SAULT--DE MONTS, SUCCEEDING DE CHASTES, RETAINS CHAMPLAIN AS
HIS LIEUTENANT--QUEBEC CHOSEN BY CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN BECOMES
A COMPANY PROMOTER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE SHAREHOLDERS
BEING MOSTLY HUGUENOTS, THE PRINCE DE CONDE, GOVERNOR
GENERAL--CHAMPLAIN's BLUNDER IN ALLYING HIMSELF WITH THE
ALGONQUINS AND HURONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, AFTERWARDS THE CAUSE
OF IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE COMING
OF THE "RECOLLECTS"--CHAMPLAIN'S ATTEMPT AT A REAL COLONIZING
SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC--THE JESUITS ARRIVE--THE COMPANY OF ONE
HUNDRED ASSOCIATES.
As the origin of Montreal is bound up so closely with the history of
the colonization of La Nouvelle France, it is well to place it in
relation with this movement, otherwise Montreal will appear as detached
from its mission in the growth and development of Canada.
The date usually assigned for the discovery of Canada is April 5,
1409, but the knowledge of Canada begins only with Jacques Cartier.
Long, however, before him, the fishing grounds of Newfoundland had
seen navigators from Dieppe, St. Malo, La Rochelle, Honfleur and other
ports of France, besides those of Cornwall, Devonshire and the Channel
Islands. Brave mariners, Normands, Bretons and Basques, besides being
familiar with Newfoundland, knew vaguely of the existence of Canada,
although that name had not been yet attached to this country. Other
nations also were represented in these fishing regions, but it was
reserved to Cartier definitely to discover it, and to Francis I of
France, to attempt to colonize and christianize it.
It must be conceded that the religious policy played a great part, as
the commissions granted to Cartier, Champlain, and others, as well
as the report of these and the relations of their discoveries, amply
testify. Lescarbot, no good Catholic, acknowledges that: "Our kings in
enterprising these movements for discovery, have had another end than
that of our neighbours (the English and the Dutch). For I see by their
commissions that these smack only of the advancement of the Christian
religion without any present profit."
It is this lofty missionary spirit that we must read into the
adventurous motives of the first discoverers and founders of Canada--La
Nouvelle France--of Quebec and Montreal in particular, else nothing
but a sordid desire for trade, mixed perhaps with adventure, is to be
the story of the origin of our great country. Unless the religious
character and close touch with the supernatural, possessed by the first
inhabitants are appreciated, the romance of the accounts of the early
historians will have no attraction for our readers nor will the key to
the understanding of the history of Canada till the occupation by the
British in 1760 be supplied.
We must look upon Jacques Cartier, when as the bearer of a Royal
Commission, he left St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, to conquer new lands
for Christianity, as dignified by this side of his duty--to promote
the glory of God and that of France. Consequently his progress up the
River St. Lawrence to Hochelaga is marked by such incidents as the
distribution of rosaries and pious objects, emblems of the faith he
believed in, and the planting at Gaspé of a cross thirty feet high, in
the middle of which was a shield with three _fleurs de lis_, with the
inscription, cut into the wood, "Vive Le Roi de France." His course
and that of Champlain, up the St. Lawrence is strewn with a number
of places named after the festivals of the church, all dignifying an
otherwise prosaic catalogue of discoveries. The cross and the crown of
France may therefore be considered the emblems of the French occupation.
It is not the purpose of this book to detail Cartier's voyages, three
of which we have recounted by himself, those of 1534, 1535-36, and
1540. We have, however, chosen several extracts from the second voyage,
as these relate especially to Montreal. We wish to gather the results
of his work. He left no permanent settlement and established no trading
posts but he claimed the land for France and his accounts to the king
and the ministers and his published voyages of the country of Canada,
Hochelaga and Saguenay, kept before his countrymen the existence of a
great land in the West worth the colonizing.
Cartier's commission in the first voyage was that of "Captain and
Master Pilot of the King;" in the second, "Captain General and Master
Pilot." When he was sent on his third voyage, a new element entered
into the view of Canada. At the head of the expedition was placed a
gentleman of Picardy, Jean François de la Rocque Seigneur de Roberval,
whom Francis I playfully styled the Petty King of Vimeux, and whom he
appointed his lieutenant and governor in the countries of Canada and
Hochelaga, with Jacques Cartier as "the Captain General and leader of
the ships." His commission is dated October 20, 1540. This was to be
the first colonizing movement.
Jean François de la Rocque's letters patent were granted by Francis
I, on January 15, 1540. It reads, having learnt of the discovery
of countries, "the which have been found furnished with very good
commodities, and the people thereof well formed in body and limb and
well disposed in disposition and understanding, of which have also
been brought us others having the appearance of good inclination. In
consideration of which things we have considered and determined to
send again into the same countries of Canada and Hochelaga and others
circumjacent, as well as into all transmarine and maritime countries
inhabited, not possessed nor granted, by any Christian princes, some
goodly number of gentlemen, our subjects, as well men of war as common
people of each sex, and other craftsmen and mechanics in order to
enter further into the said countries; and as far as into the land of
the Saguenay and all other countries aforesaid, for the purpose of
discoursing with the said peoples therein, if it can be done, and to
dwell in the said lands and countries, there to construct and build
towns and forts, temples and churches in the communication of our Holy
Catholic Faith and Christian doctrine, to constitute and establish
laws in our name, together with officers of justice to make them live
according to equity and order and in the fear and love of God, to the
end that they may better conform to our purpose and do the things
agreeable to God, our Creator, Saviour and Redeemer, which may be to
the sanctification of His Holy Name and to the increase of our Holy
Faith and the growth of our Mother of the Holy Catholic Church, of the
which we are said to be and entitled the first son," etc.
The text of the letters patent following is a very long one, it enters
most minutely, and in a most legal and formal manner, into the details
of the powers of the governor which are to be very great and foresee a
thoroughly organized kingdom with all the elements of feudalism with
his fiefs and seigneuries--in fact a Nouvelle France!
On January 15th, Roberval's Royal Commission empowering him to take
the means for the equipment, was signed at Fontainebleau. It gave to
"our said lieutenant full authority, charge, commission and special
mandate to provide and furnish of himself all things necessary to
said army and to levy or cause to be levied in all parts, places and
precincts of our realm as shall seem to him good, paying therefor
reasonably, and as is meet, and to take men of war, or artisans and
others of divers conditions in order to carry them with him on the said
voyage, provided that this may be of their own good will and accord,
and likewise also provisions, victuals, arms, artillery, arquebuses,
powder, saltpeter, pikes and other offensive and defensive weapons, and
generally all clothing, instruments and other things suitable for the
equipment, despatch and efficiency of this army," etc. The supply of
volunteers for this expedition does not seem to have been sufficiently
encouraging, for, dated February 7th, we have an order by Francis I,
for delivery of prisoners to Jehan François de la Rocque. This document
after re-stating the terms of the commissions, already given, in view
of the wish of the King that the expedition shall sail on the 15th
of April, at the latest, states "and on account of the long distance
from the said country and the fear of shipwreck and maritime risks,
and others regretting to leave their goods, relatives and friends,
fearing to make the said voyage; and, peradventure as a number, who
would willingly make the same journey, might object to remain in the
same country after the return of our said lieutenant, by means of
which, through want of having a competent number of men for service,
and other volunteers to people the said countries, the undertaking of
the said voyage could not be accomplished so soon, and as we desire,
and as it is requisite for the weal of the human creatures dwelling
in the said country without law and without knowledge of God and of
his holy faith, which we wish to increase and augment by a great zeal,
a thing if it were not accomplished, which would cause us very great
regret, considering the great benefit and public weal which would
proceed from the said enterprise, and as we have enjoined and verbally
commanded our said lieutenant to diligently execute our said will and
intention, to depart and commence the said voyage by the fifteenth of
April next ensuing, at farthest if it can be accomplished," etc. * * *
"We desire to employ clemency, in doing a good and meritorious work,
towards some criminals and malefactors, that by this they may recognize
the Creator by rendering him thanks and amending their lives, we have
thought proper to have given and delivered to our said lieutenant,
his clerks and deputies, to the full number that he shall advise of
the said criminals and malefactors detained in the jails and state
prisons of our parliament and of other jurisdictions, * * * such as
they shall desire to choose and select, condemned and judged as has
been said, always excepting the imprisoned criminals to whom we are not
accustomed to give pardon * * * commuting the penalty of death into an
honest and useful voyage, with the condition that when the said persons
return home again from the said voyage without permission from us, they
shall be executed in the place in which they may have been condemned,
immediately and without hope of pardon."
An extract from the Parliament Registers at Rouen of March 9th, giving
power to Roberval to have the prisoners transferred from its jails to
him limits the choice somewhat by "excepting the prisoners who shall
be held in cases and crimes of heresy and high treason in the first
degree, of counterfeiting money and other too monstrous cases and
crimes."
Roberval could not get his party together for April. Indeed it seemed
that he needed Jacques Cartier's assistance, for on October 17, 1540,
we find him receiving a commission similar to Roberval's to take over
fifty prisoners. In this charge he is allowed and permitted "to take
the little galleon, called L'Emerillon which he now has of us, the
which is already old and rotten, in order to serve in repairing those
of the ships which shall have need of it," without rendering any
account of it. But it was not till May 23d of the year following, 1541,
that Cartier set sail with five ships, well furnished and victualed
for two years. He went without Roberval, because as the King had sent
Cartier letters "whereby he did expressly charge him to depart and
set sail immediately upon the sight and receipt thereof, on pain of
incurring his displeasure, and as Roberval had not got his artillery,
powder and ammunitions ready he told Cartier to go on ahead and he
would prepare a ship or two at Honfleur whither he expected his things
were to come. Having mustered and reviewed "the gentleman soldiers and
mariners which were retained and chosen for the performance of the said
voyage, he gave unto Captain Cartier full authority to depart and go
before and to govern all things as if he had been there in person."
So Cartier sailed away, on May 23d. We will leave the misfortunes on
the way to be read in Cartier's memoir of the third voyage. At last,
however, Cartier arrived at the mouth of what is now Cape Rouge River
and found a spot where a fort should be built on the high point now
called Redclyffe. This fort he called Charlesbourg Royal, doubtless
after Charles, Duke of Orléans, son of Francis I. He put three of the
vessels in haven, and after the two others were emptied of all that
was destined for the colony, Cartier sent them back and with them
in command Marc Jalobert, his brother-in-law, and Etienne Noël, his
nephew, to tell King Francis that they had begun to construct a fort,
but that Monsieur de Roberval was not yet come and that he feared
that by occasion of contrary winds and tempests he was driven back to
France. They departed for St. Malo on September 2d.
Things were progressing at the fort; the land was tilled and the fort
was begun to be built; but now a party consisting of Cartier, Martin
de Painport, with other gentlemen, and the remnant of the mariners,
departed with two boats "with victuals to go as far as Hochelaga of
purpose to view and understand the fashion of the Saults of water."
The Viscount de Beaupré stayed behind for the guarding and government
of all things in the fort. Cartier's party reached the rapids passing
Tutonaguy, which we identify as the site of Montreal, but we have no
record of his staying there. Cartier's memoirs of the voyage break off
here. However, as we are interested only in the colonizing movement,
we get sufficient information from Roberval's account of his voyage of
the fate of the Charlesbourg attempt. Roberval says that Cartier left
for France at the end of September, 1541, and that he himself after
having set sail from Honfleur, on the 16th of April, 1542, arrived at
Newfoundland on the 7th of June following, where he found Cartier on
his way home. Cartier explained that he had left the fort because he
had not been able, with his little troupe, to resist the savages who
roamed daily around the fort, and were very harassing. However, Cartier
and his men praised the country highly, as being very rich and fertile,
adding that they had taken away many diamonds, and a certain quantity
of gold ore which Roberval examined and found good. Roberval had
arrived with three great vessels fitted out at the expense of the King,
with 200 souls, men and women and some gentlemen, among them being the
Sieur de Lenneterre, his lieutenant, Lespinay, his ensign, the Captain
Guinecourt, and the pilot, Jean Alphonse. He ordered Cartier to retrace
his steps to Charlesbourg, believing that the new recruitment was able
to resist the attacks of the enemy. But Cartier, and his following,
departed secretly the following night. Whether or not this flight was
disloyal, or born of fear, or of vainglory, since Roberval asserted,
that Cartier had fled being desirous of getting first to France to
acquaint the king of his discoveries, certain it is that it was wise.
For this first royal colonizing party composed of so many men and women
from the jails of France was fated to be a most lamentable failure.
Famine and lawlessness marked its sojourn at Charlesbourg. It was well
that New France should not be born of such material for citizenship.
This voyage has an interest for Montrealers in that Roberval passed by
it on a voyage to the Sault.
Cartier never seems to have been blamed by the king for his desertion
of Roberval, but, it is said, he was sent back to recall him for more
useful service in France. Of this fourth voyage of Jacques Cartier
we have no record. We find him settled in France, ennobled and known
as the Sieur de Limoilou, although there is a tradition, not well
founded, that he made a fifth voyage to Canada. He lived an honoured
man in St. Malo to his death. In the margin of the old record of the
Town of St. Malo under date of September 1, 1557, we find the following:
"This said Wednesday about five o'clock in the morning died
Jacques Cartier."
Cartier's name is no longer to be associated with the further history
of Canada, except in the memory of a grateful people, who will come to
admire the memory of this brave sailor, daring adventurer, missionary
and historian--the discoverer of Canada and Montreal. We shall see,
however, how this spirit of enterprise for Canadian extension was
carried on by his nephews.
We cannot help feeling sorry for Roberval. He was a young man of
energy and had great ideas as a colonizer. He went out, according to
Charlevoix, with the Royal Commission as "Lord of Norumberga, Viceroy
and Lieutenant General of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland,
Belle-Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay and Baccalaos." He was
recalled for more useful service!
After Cartier had ceased visiting the St. Lawrence, the care of the
French government for the development and colonization of Canada seems
to have been neglected from 1543 to 1603. Cartier's discoveries were
not appreciated; it was reserved for Champlain three-quarters of a
century later, to follow in his footsteps. As Champlain is the trader
_par excellence_ of Canada and of Montreal, we may now briefly trace
the history of our trade.
Although discovery and colonization were so long abandoned still the
banks of Newfoundland and the mouth of the St. Lawrence were frequented
yearly by hardy Normans and Bretons as before, for the cod and whale
fishery there.[21] Trading with the natives in peltry became insensibly
mingled with the occupation of fisherman and Tadoussac grew to be a
public market for this sort of commerce and exchange. There we would
have found many good friends of Jacques Cartier, among them Capt. Marc
Jalobert, his brother-in-law, who visited Hochelaga in 1535 and Etienne
Noël, his nephew, also a sturdy captain under Cartier in his third
voyage. There, too, would have been Jacques Noël, his great-nephew,
who reports in a letter of 1557 that he had gone on his uncle's
traces up the St. Lawrence as far as the Great Sault. This visit to
Hochelaga makes us interested in him, the more so, as it was this Noël,
associated with Sieur de la Jaunaye-Chaton and the nephew of Jacques
Cartier, who in 1558 applied to Henry III for a charter similar to that
granted by Francis I to their uncle, appealing for this favour on the
ground that their uncle had spent, from his own pocket in the service
of the king in the voyage of 1541, a sum in excess of that which he had
received from the king, and had been allowed no recompense; nor had
indeed his heirs. Warned by the failures and the expenses of the past
the King demurred. Cartier's nephew then compromised. They offered to
renew their uncle's design and to form a French colony in Canada to
Christianize the savages, all at their own expense, provided that the
king would grant them the sole privilege for twelve years of trading
with the inhabitants, principally in peltry and that he would forbid
interference of rivals with them in this privilege and in the
exploitation of a mine discovered by them. To this the King consented
by a favour of January 14, 1588. This monopoly, the first of its kind,
was soon revoked at the instance of jealous rival traders of St. Malo
who obtained a revocation of the charter on the 5th of May following
for they considered that the good things coming from Jacques Cartier's
discoveries were to be shared in by all of St. Malo, since they
belonged to all and not to his nephews alone.
This attempt to obtain a private monopoly having failed, we are
surprised to find a monopoly being granted in 1589 by Henry IV to a
gentleman of Brittany, the Sieur de la Roche, apparently in accordance
with a promise given verbally or otherwise by Henry III at sometime
before his assassination in August, 1659. This document was one similar
to that granted by Francis I to Roberval and it made de la Roche
the king's lieutenant governor in New France--with real vice-regal
privileges. The commission differed in this from Roberval's that it
gave power to the lieutenant general to choose merchants to accompany
him and forbade all others to trade in the same regions without his
consent under penalty of confiscation of merchandise and vessels.
Again a miserable fiasco was to take place. The lieutenant governor
had to draw upon the jails and galleys for his colonists. He arrived
with sixty men under the direction of pilot Chedotel at Sable Island,
twenty-five leagues to the south of the Island of Cape Breton. Arrived
there he disembarked, according to Lescarbot, the greater part of those
he had drawn from the prisons, left them provisions and merchandise,
and promised to return for them as soon as he had found on the
mainland, a suitable place for settlement. Taking a little bark, he
went to the Acadian coast, but on returning was surprised by so violent
a wind that he was driven back to France in less than twelve days. The
fate of the abandoned colonists had better be told by Champlain. In
the description of his voyages, dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu and
published in 1632, Champlain's criticism of de la Roche's expedition
was "that the fault of this attempt at colonizing was that this
marquis did not have some one experienced in such matters explore and
reconnoitre, before assuming so excessive an outlay." On the other hand
we can be glad that Canada did not start her origin as a colony with
such stuff as composed the greater part of Roberval's and de la Roche's
consignments.
In 1598 the Edict of Nantes had been published in France and it was
soon to affect Canada in this wise. In France it had restored civil and
religious liberty to the Huguenots, Protestants or French Calvinists.
The spirit of conciliation was in the air and Huguenots now began to
take their place in the judicature and financial posts, and in the
army. Next year we find a sailor merchant of St. Malo named Dupont
Gravé soliciting a commission for Sieur Chauvin, of Normandy, a
Huguenot, a man of great skill and experience in navigation, captain
in the King's navy and of some influence at the court. As the King
remembered the good services of M. Chauvin he granted a monopoly to
him on the condition that no one should trade in Canada unless he had
Chauvin's permission and should settle in the country and make a home
there. Chauvin was to bear all the expenses, and he was to take 500 men
to fortify the country and defend it, and to teach the Catholic faith
to the Indians.
Tadoussac was chosen as the headquarters. Thither Chauvin and Dupont
Gravé and a Huguenot, Pierre Dugas, Sieur de Monts, a prospector who
came out on "pleasure," went with an advance party. Tadoussac had
been well enough for a summer trading post but, says Champlain, "if
there is an ounce of cold forty leagues up the river there is a pound
at Tadoussac." However, they fixed up a guardlike building of wood, 25
feet long by 18 wide, and 8 feet high. This was to harbour seventeen
men and provisions. "Behold them there very warm for the winter,"
chuckles Champlain, who had no love for the Huguenots. The leaders went
to France and during the winter the settlement at Tadoussac was "the
Court of King Pétaud; each one wished to command. Laziness, idleness,
and the diseases that attacked those remaining, reduced them to great
want and obliged them to give themselves up to the savages, who kindly
harboured them and they left their lodging. Some died miserably; others
suffered a great deal while waiting for the return of the ships." In
the next year a second voyage as fruitless as the first was made, by
Chauvin. He assayed another but fell into an illness which sent him to
another world. We have Champlain's comment in the account published
in 1632 on this attempt at colonization. "The trouble with this
undertaking was giving to a man of opposing religion a commission to
establish a nursery for the Catholic Apostolic and Roman faith[22] of
which the heretics have such a horror and abomination. These are the
defects that must be mentioned in regard to the enterprise."
After the death of Chauvin, the same commission of lieutenant general
was applied for, by Eymard de Chastes, Knight of Malta, Commander of
Lormetan, Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus and Governor of
Dieppe. Henry IV granted it and de Chaste should have made a good
colonizer for he intimated that in making his application it was in the
intention of betaking himself thither in person and of devoting the
rest of his years to the service of God and that of his king, but he
was not to live long. In order to meet the expenses of the expedition
Commander de Chastes formed a company of several of the principal
merchants of Rouen and elsewhere. He chose the explorer, Dupont Gravé,
to direct the flotilla as before to Tadoussac, and he desired him to
associate with himself in his further explorations for which he had
received a commission from the king, a young captain of Saintonge,
who had already given undoubted proof of his ability as a zealous,
courageous and intelligent explorer.
This was none other than Samuel de Champlain, whose name is to be
connected this very year of 1603 with Montreal and more lastingly in
1611. He is to become entitled to be called the founder of La Nouvelle
France. De Champlain had been living at Dieppe after his return from
a visit of two years to the West Indies and New Spain, for which he
had started early in 1599 in command of a French ship chartered by the
Spanish authorities and in which he had sailed under his uncle, a man
of distinction, in the previous year. During this period he had the
opportunity of observing and studying a European colony before trying
to found one himself. His "_Brief discours des choses plus remarquables
que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a reconnues aux Indes Occidentales, au
voyage qu' il y a fait_," was the result of this experience.
Champlain was now thirty-six years of age, having been born about the
year 1567 at Brouage, a small seaport town in the old province of
Saintonge, southeast of Rochefort and opposite the island of Oléron.
Champlain's father was a sailor, being a captain of the marine; his
uncle's position we have seen. Hence we do not wonder, when he tells
us of himself: "From my earliest years the art of navigation attracted
me, made me love the sea and drove me to expose myself nearly all
my life to the wild waves of the ocean. It has made me explore the
coasts of a part of the lands of America, and principally those of 'La
Nouvelle France,' where I have always had the desire to cause the lily
to flourish with the only Catholic religion, Apostolic and Roman." But
Champlain was also a soldier, for, having taken up the cause of Henry
IV in the troublous times of the League, he had served in Brittany
under Maréchals de Daumont de St. Luc and de Brissac and held during
several years the rank of Maréchal de Logis in the royal army. He held
this position till May 2, 1598, when peace between France and Spain
was established by the treaty of Vervins. Then again he turned to the
sea and went with his uncle to Spain, and afterward to Spanish America
as we have said. On his return he seems to be in favour with, and in
the service of, the King. He is in receipt of a pension, either for
his services in the army, or, as it has been supposed, because the
King, having been shown the notes and topographical sketches taken
by Champlain in his late voyage, had given him the title of Royal
Geographer; but when Commander de Chastes, who doubtless also had seen
the manuscripts, offered him a post in his new expedition, Champlain
told him he must obtain the king's permission for him to embark as
indeed de Chastes did. Moreover, the king commissioned Champlain to
report faithfully on his discoveries.
So Dupont Gravé and Champlain set out for Tadoussac and on the 18th of
June, reaching it, made for the Grand Sault. They passed by Quebec,
"which is a strait of the River of Canada, and anchored till Monday,
June 28th, and thence proceeding examined and named Three Rivers and
found it good for a future settlement." Finally on Wednesday, July 2,
the feast of the Visitation, they reached the entrance of the Sault. We
will reserve this visit to its proper chapter. After their exploration
on July 4th they turned back to Tadoussac and thence to France, where
they learned of the death of the worthy Commander de Chastes at Dieppe
on Tuesday, May 13, 1603. To replace de Chastes, that same Sieur de
Monts, who prospected Tadoussac with Chauvin, now took command of the
reins of government as lieutenant general, having applied for a similar
charter as the last. He was a Huguenot and was Governor of Paris for
the Protestant party. He continued the same association, employing
Dupont Gravé and Champlain. With them was the gentleman adventurer, the
Sieur de Poutrincourt. They set sail from Havre on the 7th of March,
1604, this time for Acadia. A site, since called "Port Royal," was
chosen by Poutrincourt and granted on condition he should return.
After having abandoned Acadia in 1607, de Monts now turned his
attention to Canada. He did this the more readily because the king
gave him for one year the exclusive right of the fur trade. Champlain,
hitherto a man subordinate, was charged by the lieutenant general as
his lieutenant. Champlain sailed from France on the 13th of April,
arrived at Tadoussac on the 3d of June and ascending the St. Lawrence,
named Cape Tourment and Montmorency Falls and, reaching Stadaconé,
he chose that place called Kébec by the natives and began to take
possession of it in the name of M. de Monts, and to construct a fort.
Champlain's instinct as a city planner was distinctly manifested
in the choice of the bold promontory whose bases are washed by the
Rivers St. Lawrence, Cap Rouge and St. Charles and whose outlook from
the promontory above is one of the grandest in the world. There were
twenty-eight men sent by de Monts for the expedition. A plot having
arisen among these to kill Champlain, one of the conspirators was
beheaded and three others were sent back to France. Soon, also, some
twenty died of scurvy or of dysentery caused by the eating of eels to
excess. The colony was now a cipher. Meanwhile, in France, de Monts'
one year's monopoly was revoked owing to the jealousy of the merchants
there. The question of the sale of the habitation of Quebec came up,
as the post appeared to be unnecessary if there was to be no monopoly.
Sieur de Monts remained governor general. Seeing the danger of de
Monts' enterprise breaking up, through the trading with the savages
being thrown open to other traders, Champlain began to look out for
himself and to cast his eyes on the Great Sault as a trading post for
himself. Thither he now went, as shall be related hereafter.
About this time, as the prohibition of trading had been removed from
private individuals, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the river was a scene
of rival barks of greedy, avaricious, envious people without harmony
and without chief. On his return to France as de Monts wished to
resign his command, Champlain went to court to get permission to form
a company with exclusive rights and he was advised to invite Charles
de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, to accept the governor generalship on
the ground that his powerful protectorate would control order among
the traders in Canadian waters. This was accepted, and after the
necessary documents had been made out, but before being published,
the count died. The Prince de Condé, Henri de Bourbon, then accepting
the protectorate, received his commission, and named Samuel de
Champlain his lieutenant. But the commission was not published, owing
to representations being made to the Prince de Condé that such an
association was prejudicial to trade. The delay was doubtless annoying
to Champlain. However, as the old company was not yet dissolved,
Champlain, not wishing to lose the fur trade for the current year, ran
off again to Canada. On his return to France he went to Fontainebleau,
where the King and the Prince of Condé were.
Champlain was now successful as a company promoter. He contrived to get
his opposing merchants to come into the scheme themselves, and form a
company, of which they made him the managing director in Canada, with
a yearly salary of two hundred écus for looking after their interests.
The Prince of Condé became the governor general and the commission gave
a monopoly for eleven years. The usual powers were given as we have
seen before of absolute power, the proviso of bringing the savages
to the light of the Holy Roman and Catholic and Apostolic religion
being included as usual. This seems strange considering that all the
merchants of the new company were Huguenot Protestants.
On arriving in Canada Champlain soon made his first great mistake. He
was about to commence the great work of colonization of La Nouvelle
France, in which he was to succeed, but his first important step was
a great blunder and one from which La Nouvelle France was to suffer
for many years. The whole story of the Iroquois attacks, which
terrorized the French settlements and Montreal for so many years, is
bound up in the policy now initiated by the colonial builder of Canada.
It will be remembered that in the commissions granted to those sent
out to Canada, side by side with the duty of taking every means to
attract the natives to Christianity, was the privilege to contract
alliances with the natives and if they did not keep their treaties to
force them by open warfare, and to make peace or war--but all this,
be it understood, in accordance with the dignity of a great power and
following established methods of diplomacy. Champlain's fault lies
in this, that having arrived in Canada in the spring of 1605 as the
representative of the king of France, he was tempted, for the sake of
the petty reason of securing traffic facilities, to jeopardize the
future by taking sides with the Algonquins and Hurons, who were then in
open warfare with the Iroquois. Instead of remembering that the future
peace of the colony depended on his neutrality, he went with the few
men of the colony against the Iroquois, and with his modern weapons
caused deadly havoc among the bewildered Iroquois, who thenceforth
became the irreconcilable enemy of the Frenchmen. They never forgot
this needless intrusion of the Frenchmen into their quarrels; thus
they were implacable in their attacks on their Algonquin allies, and
were ready later to ally themselves with the English in their campaign
against the colony. It certainly made the work of Christianizing and
civilizing the people later very difficult. Champlain's blunder at
the battle of Lake Champlain on July 29, 1609, has been avoided in
subsequent colonization schemes of other nations as far as possible.
This is one of the uses of history.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S PICTURE OF HIS FIGHT WITH THE IROQUOIS]
So far we have seen that the two chief conditions, on which the trading
companies were granted their monopolies, were those of taking steps to
colonize and to Christianize. Neither had been observed. The merchants
were there for business and nothing else. Be it said, however, to
Champlain's credit that he was more ready than any of the others to
carry out both conditions. In 1615 he secured the four Recollect
Fathers of whom we shall speak. Their memoirs reveal a pitiable state
of irreligion, and apathy towards the policy of French colonization and
Christianizing the natives. Thus in Quebec, in 1617, there were only
fifty to sixty Frenchmen, in 1620 only sixty men, women and children
and religious all told. There seems to have been only one family,
that of the colonist, Louis Hébert, and he had a sorry time to make
a living. Louis Hébert was an apothecary and thus he was useful to
be tolerated, by the merchants. Some day Hébert will have a monument
raised to Him to commemorate his efforts to commence agriculture in
Canada.
Towards the end of the year Champlain's blunder begins to have its
fruits, for the savages around Quebec determined to exterminate the
French settlement. In the sequel, they satisfied their vengeance
by killing only two secretly, but it was a sign of more to follow.
Meanwhile what were the gentlemen with the high sounding titles
of governor general and viceroy of the king doing to carry on the
wonderful scheme outlined in their commissions? They were like modern
titled directors of speculating companies, drawing their fees. Thus
the Prince of Condé drew 1,000 _écus_, then while he was in prison
his successor to the fees, the Maréchal de Thémines drew 5,000, to
be followed by 11,000 drawn by the Duke de Montmorency, a young man
of twenty-five years, appointed governor general in 1618. This was
a drain on the merchants. Still it was better than losing their
privileges.
The new governor general, Montmorency, appointed Champlain his
particular lieutenant. In fact, Champlain may be called the acting
governor. This looked at last like a real attempt to make a true
settlement. Champlain now brought Madame de Champlain out and others,
and with them Madame Champlain brought her furniture. The Recollect
Father, Denis Jamay, came back with two other Recollects. The day after
arrival at Quebec, after mass and a sermon in the chapel exhorting all
the colonists to obedience to the king, they all assembled and the
commission of His Majesty to Montmorency was read, as well as that of
Montmorency to Champlain as his lieutenant. The cannon spoke amid the
cries of "Vive le Roi" and Champlain took possession of the Habitation
in the name of the Duke of Montmorency. It became Government House.
Obliged by his commission to carry on justice, Champlain now looked out
for the most capable men in the country to act with him on the bench
of justice. The king's procuratorship fell to Louis Hébert, while the
office of _lieutenant de prevost_ was taken by Gilbert Coursera, and a
man named Nicholas became the clerk of the Court of Quebec. Champlain
took the direction of the "_police_."
Building activities were now taking place. The Recollects commenced
the foundations for a convent and a seminary, for the native children,
under the name of Notre Dame des Anges, the stone being laid by Father
Jean d'Olbeau on June 3d. Champlain began to build another habitation
on the hill which he named the Fort St. Louis. He also began tilling
the ground and making a garden, a work which he delighted in. He was
seconded in such enterprises by the Recollects. He next prepared to
receive cattle. But there were only forty-five people at the habitation
and the company was not sending more. In order to better things
Montmorency in 1621 formed another company opposed to that of which
M. de Monts was still head and he placed in command two Huguenots,
Guillaume de Caen and Emery de Caen, uncle and nephew. The new company
was opposed to the old but a union was effected between them: still
with no better results. In the beginning of 1625 Henri de Lévy, Duke
de Vantadour, a pious nobleman who afterwards became a religious,
succeeded his uncle, the Duke de Montmorency, as governor general.
Negotiations pending the introduction of Jesuits, on the request of the
Recollects, were now concluded. Accordingly he sent at his own expense
Fathers Lalement, Brébeuf, Massé and two lay brothers, who arrived
in the absence of Champlain and were coldly received by de Caen, who
offered them no hospitality. The Recollects, however, entertained them
at their convent, for two years and a half, until their own buildings
were ready. In 1627, a year of great famine, the above company was
supplanted by the famous Company of One Hundred Partners or Associates.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] For the purposes of trade the connection with Canada never ceased.
In 1578 there were 100 French vessels at Newfoundland besides 200
Spanish, Portugese and English vessels. (Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 12.)
[22] In a note by Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 24, he wishes to substantiate
his theory that Champlain was Huguenot by quoting his words: "C'est
plus facile de planter la fois Chrestienne" as meaning Christianity
distinguished from the Roman Catholic point of view. Taken in
conjunction with these words above Kingsford's theory cannot be upheld.