1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL
SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL--THE ENGLISH
IN 1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC--1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE
FRENCH--1633, THE COMING OF THE JESUITS--THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT
RETURN--THREE RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED--DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL
LIFE AT QUEBEC--DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635--THE RELIGIOUS
INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL--THE "RELATIONS
DES JESUITES"--THE IROQUOIS BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS--THE NEWS OF A
REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS
ITS HEADQUARTERS.
On April 29, 1627, Richelieu, the Superintendent of Marine and
Commerce, securing the resignation of the Duke de Vantadour and
annulling the privileges of de Caen and his associates with suitable
indemnities, formed a new association under the title of the "Hundred
Associates of the Company of New France," among whom were many
gentlemen of rank. It was resolved that in the following year of 1628
a colony of two to three hundred men of all trades, all professing the
Catholic religion, would be sent over--to be increased in the following
fifteen years to four thousand, of both sexes. At that time the sole
population of New France was seventy-six souls.
It is well here to consider the conditions of the charter now
given, for it is the ground plan of all subsequent French Canadian
colonization schemes, and Montreal will be affected by it. We have seen
the Huguenots were now to be excluded (not, however, from engaging in
commerce in Canada, but only from _settling_ there). From all points
of view, political and religious and colonial, this was necessary. To
show that there was to be no harshness in the execution of this we may
only point out that Champlain was in charge and he knew Huguenots well
and had worked harmoniously with them. We have seen that since the
companies had been mainly Huguenots, colonization had not succeeded
owing to mutual jealousies. If Canada was to be saved, it was by
colonization, and this could never be carried out with a divided
people. Even Huguenots realized this point. For at the time they were
enjoying full privileges of citizenship as has been said. Hence it was
only by imposing law and order and uniformity of religious belief,
that happy and contented communities could be expected to spread in
Canada.
Richelieu at this time was eager to form a powerful navy and he thought
the possession of thriving colonies would advance the scheme. Hence it
was a wise policy that was now inaugurated. Unfortunately engrossing
interests at home did not allow Richelieu to pursue his scheme for
government promotion of colonization on the broad basis originally
projected by him.
To carry out the conditions of receiving the number of colonists the
King obliged the Company of One Hundred Associates to lodge, board and
maintain for three years all the French they should transport to the
colony. After which, they could be discharged from their obligation,
if they had put the colonists in the way of making their own living,
either by distributing them on cleared land and supplying them with
grain for a first crop, or otherwise. To provide for the maintenance
of the established church there should be three ecclesiastics in each
of the settlements to be formed during fifteen years, maintained in
food and lodging and in everything necessary for the exercise of their
ministry. In compensation for their outlay in advance, the king handed
over to the Associates the Seigneury of Quebec and of the whole of New
France, with the reserve of fealty and homage and a crown of gold of
the weight of eight marks, to be paid at each succeeding reign, and
finally, of the institution of officers of Sovereign Justice to be
nominated and presented by the Associates, when it should be deemed
proper to have them appointed. Moreover, Louis XIII made a gift to the
Associates of two war vessels of three hundred tons, ready equipped for
sailing, and four culverins, with this clause, however, that if at the
end of the first ten years they had not carried over fifteen hundred
French of both sexes, they should pay the price of the aforesaid
vessels. Among other privileges the king granted twelve patents of
nobility signed, sealed and delivered, with a blank space left for the
names of those of the Associates who shall be presented by the company
and who shall enjoy with their heirs, born in lawful wedlock, these
privileges for all time, thus starting the Seigneurial Land Tenure
system which in 1854 yielded to that of freehold.
With regard to commerce, the company should have perpetual privileges
in the peltry traffic of New France, and for fifteen years only, all
other commerce by land and sea with the reservation of the cod and
whale fishery which should be free to all French traders. The colonists
not maintained at the expense of the Associates should be free to trade
with the natives for peltry provided that they forthwith hand over the
peltry to the company which shall be obliged to purchase at the rate of
forty _sols_, Tours currency, for each beaver skin. In consequence, the
privileges accorded previously to Guillaume de Caen and his associates
were revoked by the same edict, and trade in Canada was interdicted
to them and other subjects of the kingdom, under pain of confiscation
of their vessels and merchandise to the benefit of the new company.
Cardinal Richelieu, however, allowed Guillaume de Caen, the privilege
of the peltry trade for one year in indemnification for the loss of his
charter.
So started the Company of the One Hundred Associates under the happiest
auspices, endowed with almost sovereign power and having a leader
of the state as its patron, for at its head was Cardinal Richelieu,
who, without the title of lieutenant general which he perhaps thought
unnecessary, seeing that he connected the work of colonization with
his position as head of the navy, exercised the same authority. On
the 27th of April, 1628, Louis XIII sent Champlain his commission as
"commander in New France in the absence of our very dear and well
beloved cousin, the Cardinal de Richelieu, grand master, chief and
superintendent of the navigation and commerce of France." Champlain did
not receive his commission on behalf of the company until he reached
Dieppe in 1629, after the occupation of Quebec by the English.
The first attempt to carry out the charter was in 1628, when vessels
were equipped and victualled under the orders of de Roquemont, one of
the chief associates. Their first object was to succour Quebec, then
in famine. A number of artisans and their families started and never
reached their destination, for in the gulf their ships were seized
by David Kerth, a master mariner of Dieppe in pay of the English
government and in command of its fleet attacking the colonies. War had
broken out between England and France and hostilities soon extended to
America, and a fleet of ships was sent to invade the settlements of New
France and in particular to capture Quebec.
It is not our duty to tell the story of Quebec or to recount the noble
defence of Champlain till the fall of the city on July 29, 1629, when
Louis Kerth, the brother of the admiral, installed himself as the
governor general, representing the English. The state of the colony at
the end of this siege interests us. Of the French, there only remained
at Quebec the families of the widow of Hébert and of their son-in-law,
Couillard, and these intended to leave after the harvest, but in the
event they were constrained to stay. The rest passed over by way of
Tadoussac into France and with them Champlain, who went to England to
call upon the French ambassador, urging him to demand the restitution
of Quebec on the ground that it had been captured two months after
the expiration of the short war between the two nations. Canada as a
province _quoad civilia_ was under Normandy, and hence it became to be
believed that it was also _quoad sacra_ under Normandy.
[Illustration: THE TAKING OF QUEBEC IN 1629
(From Hennepin, Edition 1698.)]
It is now 1632, the year of the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye when
Acadia and Canada were again ceded to the French. For three years Louis
Kerth kept Quebec in the name of England and on July 13, he formally
handed over a heap of ruins to Emery de Caen, who conducted the first
contingent of the returning French. "But for our habitation," says
Champlain, "my people have found it utterly consumed along with good
beaver skins valued at 40,000 _livres_."
Meanwhile, the Company of the Hundred Associates was again empowered
to resume possession and Champlain was commissioned anew as acting
governor of all the country along the St. Lawrence, and was appointed
commander of the fleet of three vessels bearing new colonists. He
arrived at Quebec with a good nucleus for the revived colony on May
23, 1633, and was received by a salute of cannon by Emery de Caen.
Among the colonists brought by him there were persons of distinction
who, wearied with religious dissensions in their own provinces, sought
in New France that tranquility denied them in the old, and many rural
labourers and artisans of different trades. As these were mostly from
the diocese of Rouen, the clergy now arriving were the Jesuits, Fathers
Massé and Brébeuf, sent under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop
of Rouen. The Recollects were no longer allowed to return, on the
ground that, theirs being an order which could not own property or
revenues, they were unsuitable for a country where means were needed
to gather together the Indians in settlements in buildings in which
they could band together to be instructed. The chapel of the Recollects
destroyed by the English was rebuilt. The work of reconstruction of
the settlement now began in earnest. What interests us now is to learn
that on July 1st of this year Champlain, at the request of the Indian
allies, sent many workmen to Three Rivers to construct a fort and a fur
factory there. Although Three Rivers had been used as a trading post,
it had only been so temporarily, in the same manner that Montreal, or
the post of the Sault St. Louis, had been the meeting place for the
natives and traders engaged in the fur traffic.
[Illustration: This view of Fort Amsterdam on the Manhattan is copied
from an ancient engraving executed in Holland. The fort was erected
in 1623, but finished upon the above model by Governor Van Twiller in
1635.]
At Quebec there was now great harmony. A lasting colony was
established. Piety and religion flourished and the seeds of a good and
noble population for Canada were sown. After many struggles success
seemed now to be rewarding the efforts of Champlain. One shudders to
think of what the future of Canada had been if the "convict" colonies
of Roberval and la Roche had come to any permanency. We may note now
two important movements helping to civilize the natives, which show
the real desire of the new régime to fulfill its vocation. The first
was the endeavour made by Champlain to nip in the bud the sale of
intoxicating liquors to the natives in exchange for peltry already
introduced by the preceding companies and by the English under Kerth.
Champlain forbade anyone to trade wine or _eau de vie_ with the natives
under penalty of corporal punishment and the loss of their salaries
as servants of the company. The second was the establishment by the
Jesuits of a free boarding school for boys in the house of Notre Dame
des Anges left them by the Recollects for the instruction of the Huron
children. This method of civilization of the natives already employed
by the Recollects was considered a most useful preliminary to the
civilization of the natives by thus Gallicizing and Christianizing
them, and attracted many.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S FORTIFIED RESIDENCE AT QUEBEC]
That all these institutions were in line with Champlain's policy we see
in Champlain's letter to Cardinal Richelieu, dated August 15, 1635.
After saying that some of the Indians were sedentary and lived in
villages and towns, while others were migratory hunters and fishers,
all led by no other desire than to have a number of Frenchmen and
religious teachers to instruct them in the faith, he adds, "We require
but 120 men light armed for protection against the arrows. Possessing
them, with two or three thousand more Indians, our allies, in a year we
can render ourselves absolute masters of all these peoples by bringing
among them the necessary good government and this policy would increase
the worship of religion and an inconceivable commerce. The whole for
the glory of God." In the last phrase we may see Champlain's whole
policy unfolded.
But the days of Samuel de Champlain, Sieur de Brouage, were drawing to
a close. To found this colony he had suffered many perils by land and
sea, many fatigues, privations and opposition of friends and enemies.
Paralysis now weakened his splendid physique and sturdy form, and after
two months and a half of suffering he died on Christmas day, December
25, 1635. His death was most edifying, as the Jesuit chronicler
relates. His obsequies were attended by the grief-stricken colony in a
body, the settlers, the soldiers, the captains and the religious.
Father Lalemant officiated and Father Lejeune pronounced the funeral
oration: Samuel de Champlain merits well of Canada. His death was
apparently foreseen, for after the above ceremony while the
gathering was still present, letters which had been left in the
hands of Father Lejeune by the Company, to be opened after the death
of Champlain, were publicly read announcing the appointment by
letters patent of the Messieurs de la Compagnie of M. Bras-de-Fer de
Chateaufort, the commandant of the young fort at Three Rivers, as
acting governor _ad interim_ for Mgr. the Duke of Richelieu, while
awaiting the successor of Champlain to be named by the king.
The arrival of the ships from France, the next year, were eagerly
looked forward to, albeit with some anxiety, for France being at war
with Spain many doubted whether they would arrive, but to their delight
they came in greater number than could have been expected, and on the
night preceding the eleventh day of June, the new governor nominated
by the Company and approved by the king arrived. This was Charles
Hualt de Montmagny, Knight of Malta. The reception he received next
morning was most imposing. He was met officially at the harbour, and
conducted to the chapel of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, and thence to
the parish church where a Te Deum was sung with prayers for the king.
Then he mounted to the fortress where M. de Chateaufort, the temporary
governor, handed over the keys amid the roar of cannon and the salvos
of musketry. With M. de Montmagny there arrived a convoy of forty-five
colonists--a notable increase. Among these were some families of
note such as those of M. de Repentigny and M. de la Potherie. Next
year, there came others, with many persons of distinction. A certain
element of official dignity now began to prevail. It was de Montmagny's
chief work to organize and strengthen the defences of the colony in
preparation against the attacks of the Iroquois. At Quebec the governor
reinforced the redoubt built by Champlain on the river by a platform
and added more cannon to the battery. This new military aspect of the
colony is described by the chronicler in the "Relations of the Jesuits
for 1636."
"The morning gun (or the beat of the drum at dawn in the garrison)
awakens us every morning. We see the sentinels put on post; the guard
house is always well manned; each squad has its days of duty. It is a
pleasure to see our soldiers at military exercises in the sweet time of
peace ... in a word, our fortress of Quebec is guarded in peace so as
to be a place of importance, in the heat of war."
With the assistance of M. Chateaufort, reinstated as commandant of
the growing fort at Three Rivers, the palisaded stockade there was
reinforced with two main buildings, a storehouse and a platform for
the cannons. These external signs of power were necessary to impress
the natives, both their allies, the Hurons and Algonquins, should
they prove treacherous, as well as the fierce Iroquois, the deadly
enemies of both. The little garrisons had need to be well prepared for
eventualities.
At this time several foundations in the colony were established, by
private charity, to Christianize the natives and to encourage them
to live a sedentary life and to till the ground. A mission village
was built for them by the Jesuits in 1638 at Sillery, on the banks of
the St. Lawrence, at a distance of four miles from Quebec, the funds
being supplied by the charity of a member of the Hundred Associates,
a distinguished commander of Malta, Noël Brulart de Sillery, a former
Minister of State. At Three Rivers in 1641 similar action was taken.
A third was desired by the missionaries at the Rivière des Prairies
at the north of the Island of Montreal, as a central position for
missionary effort among the up-country tribes.
Tadoussac was visited by the missionaries from time to time, but was
too desolate a spot to attract the natives to dwell there permanently.
The Jesuits had thought of establishing themselves at Ile Jésus, for
there is an act of August 16, 1638, giving it to them at Three Rivers
and signed by Montmagny.
We have seen the establishment of a school for the Indian boys by
the Jesuits. We are now to record a similar one for girls, but who
should undertake inch a work for them? Two noble ladies of France were
to answer this question. The year 1639 saw the arrival at Quebec,
on August 1st, of a party of brave ladies whom we may know as the
pioneers of all those numerous philanthropic organizations and good
works controlled by the devoted women of Canada of today. These were
the ladies sent from France by Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the
niece of Cardinal Richelieu, and by Madame de la Peltrie, to assist the
struggling colony there.
I will here introduce the reader to what are known as the "Relations."
These are a series of letters or reports which were written by the
Jesuit missionaries in Nouvelle France, starting from the arrival of
Fathers Lalemant and Lejeune and continued long after. They have now
been collected and published, and are the most valuable historical
sources of this early period. They are written to the superiors of
their order in France, sent by the Company's boats, and were the source
of encouragement and inspiration to their religious brethren who
eagerly read them and desired to follow in their writers' footsteps in
the mission field of New France. Many others besides the Jesuits saw
these letters. The news contained in them was eagerly looked for by
many good ladies and gentlemen of France who were interested in the
progress of this romantic settlement among the savages in a far-off
land. The birth struggles of the new colony, the devotion and self
sacrifices of the pioneers, attracted their imagination and stirred
their sympathy and generosity.[35]
In 1634-35 Father Lejeune had written exposing the need of some
establishment to take care of the girls abandoned by the Indians and of
another for education similar to that, for boys, already constructed.
This "Relation" was read by the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, Madame
la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and she wrote to the Jesuits: "God having
given me the desire to aid in the salvation of these poor savages,
after having read the report you have made of them, it seems to me
that what you believe would be of most service to their conversion is
the establishment of the Religeuses Hospitalières in New France; in
consequence I have resolved to send there this year six labourers to
clear the land and construct dwellings for these good ladies."
[Illustration: PAUL LEJEUNE
The first writer in the Jesuit "Relations."]
The foundation of a community of Ursuline nuns to undertake the
education of the young Indian girls was also similarly inspired this
year, by a good lady whose name is associated with the foundation
of Montreal. This was Madeleine de Chauvigny, the widow of M. de la
Peltrie, a gentleman of means who had died five and a half years
previously. Madame de la Peltrie had long felt impelled to the
religious life, but had been obliged by her father to marry. Being
now free she was anxious to devote her life to good works. But not
having decided whether it should be in New France or elsewhere she fell
dangerously ill, whereupon she made a vow that if she regained her
health she would devote her life and her property to New France. She
recovered quickly. It is related that the physician on visiting her,
remarked in surprise: "Madame, your illness has fled to Canada." The
coincidence of this remark with her own thoughts struck her imagination
and her only thought was now to make the necessary preparations.
[Illustration: MADAME DE LA PELTRIE]
There was at Tours an Ursuline nun named Mother Marie de l'Incarnation,
who was very interested in New France. This was known to Madame de la
Peltrie who now approached her so that shortly permission was granted
by the Archbishop of Tours to Mother Marie to be joined by Mother Marie
de Savonnine de St. Joseph of the same convent, and by Mother Cécile de
Ste. Croix from the Ursuline convent of Dieppe. Thus it was that Madame
de la Peltrie found herself at Quebec with these three and the three
"Hospitalières" sent by Madame d'Aiguillon, viz.: Sisters Marie de St.
Ignace, Superior, Anne de St. Bernard and Marie de St. Bonaventure.
[Illustration: VENERABLE MERE MARIE DE L'INCARNATION]
We must imagine the religious enthusiasm of the colonists at their
arrival and the eagerness with which the two new institutions were
begun, that of the hospital at Quebec and of the Ursuline convent at
Sillery.
But soon gloom was cast upon the little colony. Money and workmen from
the Company in France were needed and they came not. The explanation is
that the small sum of 300,000 _livres_, the original capital subscribed
by the One Hundred Associates, was dwindling, the expenses being
necessarily great, and the company of ladies and gentlemen composing
it, not being as practical as they were pious, so that although they
placed the commercial side of their affairs in the hands of traders,
these mainly looked after their own interests rather than those of the
colony.
The development of the struggling institutions lately mentioned was
hindered. To add to the general distress, on the 4th day of June,
1640, a fire quickly consumed the Church of Notre Dame de Recouvrance,
the house of the Jesuits and the governor's chapel, which were all of
resinous wood.
What a loss this must have been to the handful of colonists who
numbered in all in the year 1641 only 200! The mention of this number
reminds us of the charter given to the Company in 1627, and the reader
is advised to turn back and see how its conditions of colonization have
been filled. Outside the three religious communities and the persons
engaged in their service, the rest was composed of the servants of
the Company engaged in commerce. To add to their other troubles the
Iroquois again began their hostilities, declaring war against the
French and the Hurons. In the autumn of 1640 they captured two of the
French belonging to the garrison of Three Rivers. These were eventually
recaptured and the governor, M. de Montmagny, offered terms of peace if
they would conclude a universal peace with the Huron allies. During the
night, which the Iroquois had demanded to think over this proposition,
they treacherously laid plans to fall upon the French next day, in
which they were routed, escaping however at night in the shadows of the
woods.
Meanwhile news had also arrived of the ill treatment of the Jesuit
missionaries, Chaumont, Garnier, Poncet and Pijart, scattered away the
Indian tribes. All Quebec was in alarm and consternation, and nowhere
was there more fear than at the Indian village under the charge of
the Hospitalières sisters at Sillery, four miles from the garrison.
Such was the depression in the colony that in 1641 Father Viniont, now
superior of the Jesuits in Quebec, wrote home:
"It is going to be destroyed if it is not strongly and quickly
succoured. The trade of the Company, the colony of the French and the
religion which is now beginning to flourish among the savages, are at
the lowest point, if they do not quell the Iroquois. Fifty Iroquois,
since the Dutch have given them fire-arms, are capable of driving the
200 colonists out of the country."
It was in these desperate straits that news came of a reinforcement to
be sent to the colony; but what must have been their disappointment
and misgivings when they realized that the new Company had resolved
upon Montreal, sixty leagues away up at the Sault St. Louis, as their
rendezvous. And that the projected expedition was determined on
definitely, was made clear when the supply of provisions for the new
colony arrived at Quebec in 1840, very opportunely, however, for they
served for the use of the famished garrison, since the Company of One
Hundred Associates had neglected to provide their usual supply.
FOOTNOTE:
[35] The earliest relation was written in 1614; then follows one
for 1626; and after a break of six years, they proceed in regular
succession from 1632-1672.