[Frontispiece: THE HON. W. L. MACKENZIE KING, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA]

CANADA

By SIR J. G. BOURINOT

K. C. M. G. , LL. D. , LIT. D. 

 SOMETIME CLERK OF THE CANADIAN HOUSE OF COMMONS; HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA; DOCTEUR-ÈS-LETTRES OF LAVAL UNIVERSITY; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY

NEW AND REVISED EDITION, WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTER

BY WILLIAM H. INGRAM, B. A. 

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD

LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE

[Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbersenclosed in curly braces, e. G. {99}. They have been located where pagebreaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with ProjectGutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, a page number has been placedonly at the start of that section. In the HTML version of this book, page numbers are placed in the left margin. ]

 First Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897 Second Impression . . . . . . . . . . . 1901 Second Edition (Third Impression) . . . 1908 Third Edition (Fourth Impression) . . . 1922

Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1897 (for Great Britain)

Copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897 (For the United States of America). 

I DEDICATE THIS STORY OF CANADA

BY PERMISSION

TO

HER EXCELLENCY THE COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN

 WHO HAS WON THE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION OF ALL CLASSES OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE BY THE EARNESTNESS WITH WHICH SHE HAS IDENTIFIED HERSELF WITH EVERY MOVEMENT AFFECTING THE SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS OF THE NEW DOMINION

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PREFATORY NOTE

In writing this story of Canada I have not been able to do more, withinthe limited space at my command, than briefly review those events whichhave exercised the most influence on the national development of theDominion of Canada from the memorable days bold French adventurers madetheir first attempts at settlement on the banks of the beautiful basinof the Annapolis, and on the picturesque heights of Quebec, down to theestablishment of a Confederation which extends from the Atlantic to thePacific Ocean. Whilst the narrative of the French régime, with itsmany dramatic episodes, necessarily occupies a large part of thisstory, I have not allowed myself to forget the importance that must beattached to the development of institutions of government and theireffect on the social, intellectual, and material conditions of thepeople since the beginning of the English régime. Though this story, strictly speaking, ends with the successful accomplishment of thefederal union of all the provinces in 1873, when Prince Edward Islandbecame one of its members, I have deemed it necessary to refer brieflyto those events which have {vi} happened since that time--the secondhalf-breed rebellion of 1885, for instance--and have had much effect onthe national spirit of the people. I endeavour to interest my readerin the public acts of those eminent men whose names stand out mostprominently on the pages of history, and have made the deepest impresson the fortunes and institutions of the Dominion. In the performanceof this task I have always consulted original authorities, but have notattempted to go into any historical details except those which areabsolutely necessary to the intelligent understanding of the greatevents and men of Canadian annals. I have not entered into theintrigues and conflicts which have been so bitter and frequent duringthe operation of parliamentary government in a country wherepoliticians are so numerous, and statesmanship is so often hampered andgovernment injuriously affected by the selfish interests of party, buthave simply given the conspicuous and dominant results of politicalaction since the concession of representative institutions to theprovinces of British North America. A chapter is devoted, at the closeof the historical narrative, to a very brief review of the intellectualand material development of the country, and of the nature of itsinstitutions of government. A survey is also given of the customs andconditions of the French Canadian people, so that the reader outside ofthe Dominion may have some conception of their institutions and oftheir influence on the political, social, and intellectual life of aDominion, of whose population they form so important and influential anelement. {vii} The illustrations are numerous, and have been carefullyselected from various sources, not accessible to the majority ofstudents, with the object, not simply of pleasing the general reader, but rather of elucidating the historical narrative. A bibliographicalnote has also been added of those authorities which the author hasconsulted in writing this story, and to which the reader, who wishes topursue the subject further, may most advantageously refer. 

HOUSE OF COMMONS, OTTAWA, _Dominion Day, 1896_. 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 

Owing to the passing of Sir John Bourinot, the revisions necessary tobring this work up to date had to be entrusted to another hand. Accordingly, Mr. William H. Ingram has kindly undertaken the task, andhas contributed the very judiciously selected information now embodiedin Chapter XXX. On the recent development of Canada. Chapter XXVIII. By Mr. Edward Porritt, author of _Sixty Years of Protection in Canada_, has also been included, as being indicative of the history of the timehe describes. Mr. Ingram has also made other revisions of considerablevalue. 

1, ADELPHI TERRACE. _March, 1922_. 

{ix}

CONTENTS

 PAGE

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xix

I. 

INTRODUCTION--THE CANADIAN DOMINION FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN 1

II. 

THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY IN CANADA (1497-1525) . . . . . . . 19

III. 

A BRETON SAILOR DISCOVERS CANADA AND ITS GREAT RIVER (1534-1536) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

IV. 

FROM CARTIER TO DE MONTS (1540-1603) . . . . . . . . . . . 44

V. 

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF ACADIA AND THE FOUNDATION OF PORT ROYAL (1604-1614) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

VI. 

SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE (1608-1635) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

VII. 

GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS IN ACADIA (1614-1677) . . . . . . . 92

{x}

VIII. 

THE CANADIAN INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS: THEIR ORGANISATION, CHARACTER, AND CUSTOMS . . . . . . . . . . 110

IX. 

CONVENTS AND HOSPITALS--VILLE-MARIE--MARTYRED MISSIONARIES--VICTORIOUS IROQUOIS--HAPLESS HURONS (1635-1652) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

X. 

YEARS OF GLOOM--THE KING COMES TO THE RESCUE OF CANADA--THE IROQUOIS HUMBLED (1652-1667) . . . . . . . . 146

XI. 

CANADA AS A ROYAL PROVINCE--CHURCH AND STATE (1663-1759) 156

XII. 

THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY--PRIESTS, FUR-TRADERS, AND _Coureurs de Bois_ IN THE WEST (1634-1687) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

XIII. 

THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY--FRANCE IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI (1672-1687) . . . . . . . 177

XIV. 

CANADA AND ACADIA--FROM FRONTENAC TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT (1672-1713) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

XV. 

ACADIA AND ÎLE ROYALE--FROM THE TREATY OF UTRECHT TO THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (1713-1748) . . . . . . . 210

XVI. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA--PRELUDE (1748-1756) . . . . . . . . . . . 221

{xi}

XVII. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA--ENGLISH REVERSES AND FRENCH VICTORIES--FALL OF LOUISBOURG AND FORT DUQUESNE (1756-1758) . . . . . . 237

XVIII. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE--CANADA IS WON BY WOLFE ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM (1759-1763) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

XIX. 

A PERIOD OF TRANSITION--PONTIAC'S WAR--THE QUEBEC ACT (1760-1774) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

XX. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION--INVASION OF CANADA--DEATH OF MONTGOMERY--PEACE (1774-1783) . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

XXI. 

COMING OF THE LOYALISTS (1783-1791) . . . . . . . . . . . 291

XXII. 

FOUNDATION OF NEW PROVINCES--ESTABLISHMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS (1792-1812) . . . . . . . . 302

XXIII. 

THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS . . . . 316

XXIV. 

POLITICAL STRIFE AND REBELLION (1815-1840) . . . . . . . . 338

XXV. 

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT AND ITS RESULTS--FEDERAL UNION--RELATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES (1839-1867) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

{xii}

XXVI. 

END OF THE RULE OF FUR TRADERS--ACQUISITION OF THE NORTHWEST--FORMATION OF MANITOBA--RIEL'S REBELLIONS--THE INDIANS (1670-1885) . . . . . . . . . . 380

XXVII. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND ENTER THE UNION--NATIONAL EVENTS SINCE 1867--MAKERS OF THE DOMINION (1867-1891) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

XXVIII. 

CANADA AS A NATION--MATERIAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT--POLITICAL RIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

XXIX. 

FRENCH CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

XXX. 

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

{xiii}

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[Transcriber's note: The page numbers below are those in the originalbook. However, in this e-book, to avoid the splitting of paragraphs, the illustrations may have been moved to preceding or following pages. ]

 PAGE

THE HON. W. L. MACKENZIE KING . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ _Courtesy "Canada. "_

VIEW OF CAPE TRINITY ON THE LAURENTIAN RANGE . . . . . . . 9 _From a photograph by Topley, Ottawa. _

ROCKY MOUNTAINS AT DONALD, BRITISH COLUMBIA . . . . . . . 13 _From Sir W. Van Horne's Collection of B. C. Photographs. _

UPPER END OF FRASER CAÑON, BRITISH COLUMBIA . . . . . . . 15 _Ibid. _

SKETCH OF JUAN DE LA COSA'S MAP, A. D. 1500 . . . . . . . . 25 _From Dr. S. E. Dawson's "Cabot Voyages, " in Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. , 1894. _

* To explain these dates it is necessary to note that Champlain livedfor years in one of the buildings of the Fort of Saint Louis which hefirst erected, and the name château is often applied to that structure;but the château, properly so-called, was not commenced until 1647, andit as well as its successors was within the limits of the fort. It wasdemolished in 1694 by Governor Frontenac, who rebuilt it on theoriginal foundations, and it was this castle which, in a remodelled andenlarged form, under the English régime, lasted until 1834. 

{xiv}

PORTRAIT OF JACQUES CARTIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 _From B. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-Français" (Montreal, 1882-'84). _

ANCIENT HOCHELAGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 _From Ramusio's "Navigationi e Viaggi" (Venice, 1565). _

THE "DAUPHIN MAP" OF CANADA, _circa_ 1543, SHOWING CARTIER'S DISCOVERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 _From collection of maps in Parliamentary Library at Ottawa. _

PLAN OF PORT ROYAL IN ACADIA IN 1605 . . . . . . . . . . . 57 _From Champlain's works, rare Paris ed. Of 1613. _

CHAMPLAIN'S PORTRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 _From B. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-Français. "_

HABITATION DE QUEBEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 _From Champlain's works, rare Paris ed. Of 1613. _

CHAMPLAIN'S LOST ASTROLABE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 _From sketch by A. J. Russell, of Ottawa, 1879. _

ONONDAGA FORT IN THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY . . . . . . . . . . 83 _From Champlain's works, rare Paris ed. Of 1613. _

INDIAN COSTUMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 _From Lafitau's "Moeurs des Sauvages" (Paris, 1724). _

IROQUOIS LONG HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 _From Morgan's "Houses and Home Life of the Aborigines" (Washington, 1881). _

PORTRAIT OF MARIE GUYARD (MÈRE MARIE DE L'INCARNATION) . . 131 _From S. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-Français. "_

PORTRAIT OF MAISONNEUVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 _Ibid. _

PORTRAIT OF LAVAL, FIRST CANADIAN BISHOP . . . . . . . . . 159 _Ibid. _

{xv}

CARD ISSUE (PAPER MONEY) OF 1729, FOR 12 LIVRES . . . . . 162 _From Breton's "Illustrated History of Coins and Tokens Relating to Canada" (Montreal, 1892). _

CANADIAN FIFTEEN SOL PIECE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 _Ibid. _

CANADIAN TRAPPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 _From La Pothérie's "Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale" (Paris, 1753). _

PORTRAIT AND AUTOGRAPH OF CAVELIER DE LA SALLE . . . . . . 185 _B. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-Francais. "_

FRONTENAC, FROM HÉBERT'S STATUE AT QUEBEC . . . . . . . . 193 _From Dr. Stewart's collection of Quebec photographs. _

CAPTURE OF FORT NELSON IN HUDSON BAY, BY THE FRENCH . . . 205 _From La Pothérie's "Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale. "_

PORTRAIT OF CHEVALIER D'IBERVILLE . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 _From a portrait in Margry's "Découvertes et établissements des François dans le Sud de l'Amérique Septentrionale" (Paris, 1876-'83). _

VIEW OF LOUISBOURG IN 1731 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 _From a sketch in the Paris Archives. _

MAP OF FRENCH FORTS IN AMERICA, 1750-60 . . . . . . . . . 221 _From Bourinot's "Cape Breton and its Memorials of the French Régime" (Montreal, 1891). _

PORTRAIT OF MONTCALM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 _From B. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-Français. "_

LOUISBOURG MEDALS OF 1758 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 _From Bourinot's "Cape Breton, " etc. _

{xvi}

PORTRAIT OF WOLFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 _From print in "A Complete History of the Late War, " etc. (London and Dublin, 1774), by Wright. _

PLAN OF OPERATIONS AT SIEGE OF QUEBEC . . . . . . . . . . 251 _Made from a more extended plan in "The Universal Magazine" (London, Dec. , 1859). _

MONTCALM AND WOLFE MONUMENT AT QUEBEC . . . . . . . . . . 261 _From Dr. Stewart's collection of Quebec photographs. _

VIEW OF QUEBEC IN 1760 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 _From "The Universal Magazine" (London, 1760). _

VIEW OF MONTREAL IN 1760 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 _Ibid. _

PORTRAIT AND AUTOGRAPH OF JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA) . . 299 _From Stone's "Life of Joseph Brant, " original ed. (New York, 1838). _

PRESCOTT GATE AND BISHOP'S PALACE IN 1800 . . . . . . . . 307 _From a sketch by A. J. Russell in Hawkins's "Pictures of Quebec. "_

PORTRAIT OF LIEUT. -GENERAL SIMCOE . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 _From Dr. Scadding's "Toronto of Old" (Toronto, 1873). _

PORTRAIT OF MAJ. -GENERAL BROCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 _From a picture in possession of J. A. Macdonell, Esq. , of Alexandria, Ontario. _

PORTRAIT OF COLONEL DE SALABERRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 _From Fennings Taylor's "Portraits of British Americans" (W. Notman, Montreal, 1865-'67). _

MONUMENT AT LUNDY'S LANE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 _From a photograph through courtesy of Rev. Canon Bull, Niagara South, Ont. _

{xvii}

PORTRAIT OF LOUIS J. PAPINEAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 _From Fennings Taylor's "Portraits of British Americans. "_

PORTRAIT OF BISHOP STRACHAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 _Ibid. _

PORTRAIT OF W. LYON MACKENZIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 _From C. Lindsey's "Life and Times of W. L. Mackenzie" (Toronto, 1863). _

PORTRAIT OF JUDGE HALIBURTON, AUTHOR OF "THE CLOCK-MAKER" 359 _From a portrait given to author by Mr. F. Blake Crofton of Legislative Library, Halifax, N. S. _

PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH HOWE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363 _From Fennings Taylor's "Portraits of British Americans. "_

PORTRAIT OF ROBERT BALDWIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 _Ibid. _

PORTRAIT OF L. H. LAFONTAINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 _Ibid. _

PORTRAIT OF L. A. WILMOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 _From Lathern's "Biographical Sketch of Judge Wilmot" (Toronto, 1881). _

FORT GARRY AND A RED RIVER STEAMER IN 1870 . . . . . . . . 389 _From A. J. Russell's "Red River Country" (Montreal, 1870). _

PORTRAIT OF LIEUT. -COLONEL WILLIAMS . . . . . . . . . . . 399 _From a photograph by Topley, Ottawa. _

INDIAN CARVED POSTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA . . . . . . . . . 401 _From photograph by Dr. Dawson, C. M. G. , Director of Geological Survey of Canada. _

PORTRAIT OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 _From L. J. Taché's "Canadian Portrait Gallery" (Montreal, 1890-'93). _

{xviii}

PORTRAIT OF HON. GEORGE BROWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 _From photograph. _

PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 _From B. Sulte's "Histoire des Canadiens-français. "_

SIR WILFRID LAURIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 _From a photograph by Ernest H. Mills. _

OLD PARLIAMENT BUILDING AT OTTAWA . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 _From a photograph by Topley, Ottawa. _

QUEBEC IN 1896 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 _From Dr. Stewart's collection of Quebec photographs. _

STREET SCENE IN A FRENCH CANADIAN VILLAGE NEAR QUEBEC . . 437 _Ibid. _

OLD CHURCH AT BONNE STE. ANNE, WHERE MIRACLES WERE . . . . 441 PERFORMED _Ibid. _

A CANADIAN CALECHE OF OLD TIMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 _From Weld's "Travels in North America" (London, 1799). _

PORTRAIT OF LOUIS FRECHETTE, THE FRENCH CANADIAN POET . . 449 _From L. J. Taché's "Canadian Portrait Gallery. "_

A CHARACTERISTIC SNAPSHOT OF SIR ROBERT BORDEN . . . . . . 456 _Courtesy "Central News. "_

SILVER MINES AT COBALT, ONTARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459 _Courtesy C. P. R. _

NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, OTTAWA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471 _Courtesy C. P. R. _

MAP OF CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At end [Transcriber's note: missing from book. ]

{xix}

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Jacques Cartier's _Voyages_, in English, by Joseph Pope (Ottawa, 1889), and H. B. Stephens (Montreal, 1891); in French, by N. E. Dionne(Quebec, 1891); Toilon de Longrais (Rennes, France), H. Michelant andE. Ramé (Paris, 1867). L'Escarbot's _New France_, in French, Tross'sed. (Paris, 1866), which contains an account also of Cartier's firstvoyage. Sagard's _History of Canada_, in French, Tross's ed. (Paris, 1866). Champlain's works, in French, Laverdiere's ed. (Quebec, 1870);Prince Society's English ed. (Boston, 1878-80). Lafitau's _Customs ofthe Savages_, in French (Paris, 1724). Charlevoix's _History of NewFrance_, in French (Paris, 1744); Shea's English version (New York, 1866). _Jesuit Relations_, in French (Quebec ed. , 1858). Ferland's_Course of Canadian History_, in French (Quebec, 1861-1865). Garneau's_History of Canada_, in French (Montreal, 1882). Sulte's _FrenchCanadians_, in French (Montreal, 1882-84). F. Parkman's series ofhistories of French Régime, viz. ; _Pioneers of France in the New World;The Jesuits in North America; The old Régime; Frontenac; The Discoveryof the Great West; A Half Century of Conflict; Montcalm and Wolfe;Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (Boston, 1865-1884). Justin Winsor's _FromCartier to Frontenac_ (Boston, 1894). Hannay's _Acadia_ (St. John, N. B. , 1870). W. Kingsford's _History of Canada_, 8 vols. So far (Torontoand London, 1887-1896), the eighth volume on the war of 1812 beingespecially valuable. Bourinot's "Cape Breton and its Memorials of theFrench Régime, " _Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. _, vol. Ix, and separate ed. (Montreal, 1891). Casgrain's _Montcalm and Lévis_, in French (Quebec, 1891). Haliburton's _Nova Scotia_ (Halifax, 1829). Murdoch's _NovaScotia_ (Halifax, 1865-67). Campbell's _Nova Scotia_ (Halifax, 1873). Campbell's _Prince Edward Island_ (Charlottetown, 1875). Lord Durham's_Report_, 1839. Christie's _History of Lower Canada_ (Quebec, 1848-1855). Dent's _Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion_ (Toronto, 1855). Lindsey's _W. Lyon Mackenzie_ (Toronto, 1873). Dent's _CanadaSince the Union of 1841_ (Toronto, 1880-81). Turcotte's _Canada underthe Union_, in French (Quebec, 1871). Bourinot's _Manual ofConstitutional History_ (Montreal, 1888), "Federal Government inCanada" (_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, {xx} Baltimore, 1889), and_How Canada is Governed_ (Toronto, 1895). Withrow's _Popular Historyof Canada_ (Toronto, 1888). MacMullen's _History of Canada_(Brockville, 1892). Begg's _History of the Northwest_ (Toronto, 1804). Canniff's _History of Ontario_ (Toronto, 1872). Egerton Ryerson's_Loyalists of America_ (Toronto, 1880). Mrs. Edgar's _Ten Years ofUpper Canada in Peace and War_ (Toronto, 1890). Porritt's _Sixty Yearsof Protection in Canada_ (London, 1907). H. E. Egerton and W. L. Grant's _Canadian Constitutional Development_ (London, 1907). G. R. Parkin's _Sir John A. Macdonald_ (London, 1909). B. Home's _Canada_(London, 1911). W. Maxwell's _Canada of To-Day_ (London, 1911). C. L. Thomson's _Short History of Canada_ (London, 1911). W. L. Griffith's_The Dominion of Canada_ (London, 1911). A. G. Bradley's _Canada_(London, 1912). Arthur G. Doughty's _History of Canada_ (_Year Book_)(Ottawa, 1913). J. A. T. Lloyd's _The Real Canadian_ (London, 1913). E. L. Marsh's _The Story of Canada_ (London, 1913). J. Munro's _Canada1535 to Present Day_ (London, 1913). A. Shortland and A. G. Doughty's_Canada and its Provinces_ (Toronto, 1913). W. L. Grant's _High SchoolHistory of Canada_ (Toronto, 1914). G. Bryce's _Short History of theCanadian People_ (London, 1914). D. W. Oates's _Canada To-day andYesterday_ (London, 1914). F. Fairfield's _Canada_ (London, 1914). Sir C. Tupper's _Political Reminiscences_ (London, 1914). Morang's_Makers of Canada_ (Toronto, 1917). Sir Thomas White's _The Story ofCanada's War Finance_ (Montreal, 1921). Prof. Skelton's _Life of SirWilfrid Laurier_ (Toronto, 1922). And _Review of HistoricalPublications Relating to Canada_ by the University of Toronto. 

For a full bibliography of archives, maps, essays, and books relatingto the periods covered by the Story of Canada, and used by the writer, see appendix to his "Cape Breton and its Memorials, " in which allauthorities bearing on the Norse, Cabot, and other early voyages arecited. Also, appendix to same author's "Parliamentary Government inCanada" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. _, vol. Xi. , and American Hist. Ass. Report, Washington, 1891). Also his "Canada's Intellectual Strengthand Weakness" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. _, vol. Xi, and separate volume, Montreal, 1891). Also, Winsor's _Narrative_ and _Critical History ofAmerica_ (Boston, 1886-89). 

{1}

THE STORY OF CANADA. 

I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE CANADIAN DOMINION FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN. 

The view from the spacious terrace on the verge of the cliffs ofQuebec, the ancient capital of Canada, cannot fail to impress theimagination of the statesman or student versed in the history of theAmerican continent, as well as delight the eye of the lover of thepicturesque. Below the heights, to whose rocks and buildings cling somany memories of the past, flows the St. Lawrence, the great river ofCanada, bearing to the Atlantic the waters of the numerous lakes andstreams of the valley which was first discovered and explored byFrance, and in which her statesmen saw the elements of empire. We seethe tinned roofs, spires and crosses of quaint churches, hospitals andconvents, narrow streets winding among the rocks, black-robed priestsand {2} sombre nuns, _habitans_ in homespun from the neighbouringvillages, modest gambrel-roofed houses of the past crowded almost outof sight by obtrusive lofty structures of the present, the massivebuildings of the famous seminary and university which bear the name ofLaval, the first great bishop of that Church which has always dominatedFrench Canada. Not far from the edge of the terrace stands a monumenton which are inscribed the names of Montcalm and Wolfe, enemies in lifebut united in death and fame. Directly below is the market whichrecalls the name of Champlain, the founder of Quebec, and his firstCanadian home at the margin of the river. On the same historic groundwe see the high-peaked roof and antique spire of the curious oldchurch, Notre-Dame des Victoires, which was first built to commemoratethe repulse of an English fleet two centuries ago. Away beyond, to theleft, we catch a glimpse of the meadows and cottages of the beautifulIsle of Orleans, and directly across the river are the rocky hillscovered with the buildings of the town, which recalls the services ofLévis, whose fame as a soldier is hardly overshadowed by that ofMontcalm. The Union-jack floats on the tall staff of the citadel whichcrowns the summit of Cape Diamond, but English voices are lost amidthose of a people who still speak the language of France. 

As we recall the story of these heights, we can see passing before us apicturesque procession: Sailors from the home of maritime enterprise onthe Breton and Biscayan coasts, Indian warriors in their paint andsavage finery, gentlemen-adventurers and pioneers, {3} rovers of theforest and river, statesmen and soldiers of high ambition, gentle andcultured women who gave up their lives to alleviate suffering and teachthe young, missionaries devoted to a faith for which many have died. In the famous old castle of Saint Louis, [1] long since levelled to theground--whose foundations are beneath a part of this veryterrace--statesmen feasted and dreamt of a French Empire in NorthAmerica. Then the French dominion passed away with the fall of Quebec, and the old English colonies were at last relieved from that pressurewhich had confined them so long to the Atlantic coast, and enabled tobecome free commonwealths with great possibilities of developmentbefore them. Yet, while England lost so much in America by the War ofIndependence, there still remained to her a vast northern territory, stretching far to the east and west from Quebec, and containing all therudiments of national life--

 "The raw materials of a State, Its muscle and its mind. "

A century later than that Treaty of Paris which was signed in thepalace of Versailles, and ceded Canada finally to England, thestatesmen of the provinces of this northern territory, which was stilla British possession, --statesmen of French as well as EnglishCanada--assembled in an old building of this same city, so rich inmemories of old France, {4} and took the first steps towards theestablishment of that Dominion, which, since then, has reached thePacific shores. 

It is the story of this Canadian Dominion, of its founders, explorers, missionaries, soldiers, and statesmen, that I shall attempt to relatebriefly in the following pages, from the day the Breton sailor ascendedthe St. Lawrence to Hochelaga until the formation of the confederation, which united the people of two distinct nationalities and extends overso wide a region--so far beyond the Acadia and Canada which France oncecalled her own. But that the story may be more intelligible from thebeginning, it is necessary to give a bird's-eye view of the country, whose history is contemporaneous with that of the United States, andwhose territorial area from Cape Breton to Vancouver--the sentinelislands of the Atlantic and Pacific approaches--is hardly inferior tothat of the federal republic. 

Although the population of Canada at present does not exceed ninemillions of souls, the country has, within a few years, made greatstrides in the path of national development, and fairly takes a placeof considerable importance among those nations whose stories have beenalready told; whose history goes back to centuries when the LaurentianHills, those rocks of primeval times, looked down on an unbrokenwilderness of forest and stretches of silent river. If we treat thesubject from a strictly historical point of view, the confederation ofprovinces and territories comprised within the Dominion may be mostconveniently grouped into {5} several distinct divisions. Geographersdivide the whole country lying between the two oceans into threewell-defined regions: 1. The Eastern, extending from the Atlantic tothe head of Lake Superior. 2. The Central, stretching across theprairies and plains to the base of the Rocky Mountains. 3. TheWestern, comprising that sea of mountains which at last unites with thewaters of the Pacific. For the purposes of this narrative, however, the Eastern and largest division--also the oldest historically--must beseparated into two distinct divisions, known as Acadia and Canada inthe early annals of America. 

The first division of the Eastern region now comprises the provinces ofNova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, which, formerly, with a large portion of the State of Maine, were best known asAcadie, [2] a memorial of the Indian occupation before the Frenchrégime. These provinces are indented by noble harbours and bays, andmany deep rivers connect the sea-board with the interior. They formthe western and southern boundaries of that great gulf or easternportal of Canada, which maritime adventurers explored from the earliestperiod of which we have any record. Ridges of the Appalachian rangestretch from New England to {6} the east of these Acadian provinces, giving picturesque features to a generally undulating surface, and findtheir boldest expression in the northern region of the island of CapeBreton. The peninsula of Nova Scotia is connected with theneighbouring province of New Brunswick by a narrow isthmus, on one sideof which the great tides of the Bay of Fundy tumultuously beat, and isseparated by a very romantic strait from the island of Cape Breton. Both this isthmus and island, we shall see in the course of thisnarrative, played important parts in the struggle between France andEngland for dominion in America. This Acadian division possesses largetracts of fertile lands, and valuable mines of coal and other minerals. In the richest district of the peninsula of Nova Scotia were thethatch-roofed villages of those Acadian farmers whose sad story hasbeen told in matchless verse by a New England poet, and whose languagecan still be heard throughout the land they loved, and to which some ofthem returned after years of exile. The inexhaustible fisheries of theGulf, whose waters wash their shores, centuries ago attracted fleets ofadventurous sailors from the Atlantic coast of Europe, and led to thediscovery of Canada and the St. Lawrence. It was with the view ofprotecting these fisheries, and guarding the great entrance to NewFrance, that the French raised on the southeastern shores of CapeBreton the fortress of Louisbourg, the ruins of which now alone remainto tell of their ambition and enterprise. 

Leaving Acadia, we come to the provinces which {7} are watered by theSt. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, extending from the Gulf to the headof Lake Superior, and finding their northern limits in the waters ofHudson's Bay. The name of Canada appears to be also a memorial of theIndian nations that once occupied the region between the Ottawa andSaguenay rivers. This name, meaning a large village or town in one ofthe dialects of the Huron-Iroquois tongue, was applied, in the firsthalf of the sixteenth century, to a district in the neighbourhood ofthe Indian town of Stadacona, which stood on the site of the presentcity of Quebec. In the days of French occupation the name was moregenerally used than New France, and sometimes extended to the countrynow comprised in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, or, in otherwords, to the whole region from the Gulf to the head of Lake Superior. Finally, it was adopted as the most appropriate designation for the newDominion that made a step toward national life in 1867. 

The most important feature of this historic country is the remarkablenatural highway which has given form and life to the growing nation byits side--a river famous in the history of exploration and war--a riverwhich has never-failing reservoirs in those great lakes which occupy abasin larger than Great Britain--a river noted for its long stretch ofnavigable waters, its many rapids, and its unequalled Falls of Niagara, around all of which man's enterprise and skill have constructed asystem of canals to give the west a continuous navigation from LakeSuperior to the ocean for over two thousand miles. {8} The LaurentianHills--"the nucleus of the North American continent"--reach frominhospitable, rock-bound Labrador to the north of the St. Lawrence, extend up the Ottawa valley, and pass eventually to the northwest ofLakes Huron and Superior, as far as the "Divide" between the St. Lawrence valley and Hudson's Bay, but display their boldest forms onthe north shore of the river below Quebec, where the names of CapesEternity and Trinity have been so aptly given to those noble precipiceswhich tower above the gloomy waters of the Saguenay, and have a historywhich "dates back to the very dawn of geographical time, and is of hoarantiquity in comparison with that of such youthful ranges as the Andesand the Alps. " [3]

From Gaspe, the southeastern promontory at the entrance of the Gulf, the younger rocks of the Appalachian range, constituting thebreast-bone of the continent, and culminating at the north in the WhiteMountains, describe a great curve southwesterly to the valley of theHudson; and it is between the ridge-like elevations of this range andthe older Laurentian Hills that we find the valley of the St. Lawrence, in which lie the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. 

[Illustration: View of Cape Trinity on the Laurentian Range. ]

The province of Quebec is famous in the song and story of Canada;indeed, for a hundred and fifty years, it was Canada itself. More thana million and a quarter of people, speaking the language and {10}professing the religion of their forefathers, continue to occupy thecountry which extends from the Gulf to the Ottawa, and have madethemselves a power in the intellectual and political life of Canada. Everywhere do we meet names that recall the ancient régime--Frenchkings and princes, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, explorers, andadventurers, compete in the national nomenclature with priests andsaints. This country possesses large tracts of arable land, especiallyin the country stretching from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain, andwatered by the Richelieu, that noted highway in Canadian history. Evenyet, at the head-waters of its many rivers, it has abundance of timberto attract the lumberman. 

The province of Ontario was formerly known as Upper or Western Canada, but at the time of the union it received its present name because itlargely lies by the side of the lake which the Hurons and more famousIroquois called "great. " It extends from the river of the Ottawas--thefirst route of the French adventurers to the western lakes as far asthe northwesterly limit of Lake Superior, and is the most populous andprosperous province of the Dominion on account of its wealth ofagricultural land, and the energy of its population. Its history ischiefly interesting for the illustrations it affords of Englishmen'ssuccessful enterprise in a new country. The origin of the provincemust be sought in the history of those "United Empire Loyalists, " wholeft the old colonies during and after the War of Independence andfounded new homes by the St. Lawrence and great lakes, as well as inNova Scotia {11} and New Brunswick, where, as in the West, theirdescendants have had much influence in moulding institutions anddeveloping enterprise. 

In the days when Ontario and Quebec were a wilderness, except on theborders of the St. Lawrence from Montreal to the Quebec district, thefur-trade of the forests that stretched away beyond the Laurentides, was not only a source of gain to the trading companies and merchants ofAcadia and Canada, but was the sole occupation of many adventurerswhose lives were full of elements which assume a picturesque aspect atthis distance of time. It was the fur-trade that mainly led to thediscovery of the great West and to the opening up of the Mississippivalley. But always by the side of the fur-trader and explorer we seethe Recollet or Jesuit missionary pressing forward with the cross inhis hands and offering his life that the savage might learn the lessonsof his Faith. 

As soon as the Mississippi was discovered, and found navigable to theGulf of Mexico, French Canadian statesmen recognised the vantage-groundthat the command of the St. Lawrence valley gave them in their dreamsof conquest. Controlling the Richelieu, Lake Champlain, and theapproaches to the Hudson River, as well as the western lakes and riverswhich gave easy access to the Mississippi, France planned her boldscheme of confining the old English colonies between the Appalachianrange of mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, and finally dominating thewhole continent. 

So far we have been passing through a country {12} where the lakes andrivers of a great natural basin or valley carry their tribute of watersto the Eastern Atlantic; but now, when we leave Lake Superior and thecountry known as Old Canada, we find ourselves on the northwesternheight of land and overlooking another region whose greatrivers--notably the Saskatchewan, Nelson, Mackenzie, Peace, Athabasca, and Yukon--drain immense areas and find their way after many circuitouswanderings to Arctic seas. 

The Central region of Canada, long known as Rupert's Land and theNorthwestern Territory, gradually ascends from the Winnipeg system oflakes, lying to the northwest of Lake Superior, as far as the foothillsof the Rocky Mountains, and comprises those plains and prairies whichhave been opened up to civilisation within two decades of years, andoffer large possibilities of power and wealth in the future developmentof the New Dominion. It is a region remarkable for its long rivers, inplaces shallow and rapid, and extremely erratic in their coursesthrough the plains. 

[Illustration: Rocky Mountains at Donald, B. C. ]

Geologists tell us that at some remote period these great centralplains, now so rich in alluvial deposits, composed the bed of a seawhich extended from the Arctic region and the ancient Laurentian beltas far as the Gulf of Mexico and made, in reality, of the continent, anAtlantis--that mysterious island of the Greeks. The history of thenorthwest is the history of Indians hunting the buffalo and fur-bearinganimals in a country for many years under the control of companiesholding royal charters of exclusive {14} trade and jealously guardingtheir game preserves from the encroachments of settlement and attendantcivilisation. French Canadians were the first to travel over the wideexpanse of plain and reach the foothills of the Rockies a century and ahalf ago, and we can still see in this country the Métis or half-breeddescendants of the French Canadian hunters and trappers who went therein the days when trading companies were supreme, and married Indianwomen. A cordon of villages, towns, and farms now stretches from thecity of Winnipeg, built on the site of the old headquarters of theHudson's Bay Company, as far as the Rocky Mountains. Fields of goldengrain brighten the prairies, where the tracks of herds of buffalo, onceso numerous but now extinct, still deeply indent the surface of therich soil, and lead to some creek or stream, on whose banks grows theaspen or willow or poplar of a relatively treeless land, until we reachthe more picturesque and well-wooded and undulating country throughwhich the North Saskatchewan flows. As we travel over the wide expanseof plain, only bounded by the deep blue of the distant horizon, webecome almost bewildered by the beauty and variety of the flora, whichflourish on the rich soil; crocuses, roses, bluebells, convolvuli, anemones, asters, sunflowers, and other flowers too numerous tomention, follow each other in rapid succession from May till September, and mingle with

 "The billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine. "

[Illustration: Upper end of Fraser Cañon, B. C. ]

Ascending the foothills that rise from the plains {16} to the RockyMountains we come to the Western region, known as British Columbia, comprising within a width varying from four to six hundred miles at thewidest part, several ranges of great mountains which lie, roughlyspeaking, parallel to each other, and give sublimity and variety to themost remarkable scenery of North America. These mountains are anextension of the Cordilleran range, which forms the backbone of thePacific coast, and in Mexico rises to great volcanic ridges, of whichthe loftiest are Popocatepétl and Iztaccíhuatl. Plateaus and valleysof rich, gravelly soil lie within these stately ranges. 

Here we find the highest mountains of Canada, some varying from ten tofifteen thousand feet, and assuming a grandeur which we never see inthe far more ancient Laurentides, which, in the course of ages, havebeen ground down by the forces of nature to their relatively diminutivesize. Within the recesses of these stupendous ranges there are richstores of gold and silver, while coal exists most abundantly onVancouver [Transcriber's note: Island?]. 

The Fraser, Columbia, and other rivers of this region run with greatswiftness among the cañons and gorges of the mountains, and find theirway at last to the Pacific. In the Rockies, properly so called, we seestupendous masses of bare, rugged rock, crowned with snow and ice, andassuming all the grand and curious forms which nature loves to take inher most striking upheavals. Never can one forget the picturesquebeauty and impressive grandeur of the Selkirk range, and the ride bythe side of {17} the broad, rapid Fraser, over trestle-work, aroundcurves, and through tunnels, with the forest-clad mountains ever risingas far as the eye can reach, with glimpses of precipices and cañons, ofcataracts and cascades that tumble down from the glaciers or snow-cladpeaks, and resemble so many drifts of snow amid the green foliage thatgrows on the lowest slopes. The Fraser River valley, writes anobserver, "is one so singularly formed, that it would seem that somesuperhuman sword had at a single stroke cut through a labyrinth ofmountains for three hundred miles, down deep into the bowels of theland. " [4] Further along the Fraser the Cascade Mountains lift theirrugged heads, and the river "flows at the bottom of a vast tangle cutby nature through the heart of the mountains. " The glaciers fullyequal in magnitude and grandeur those of Switzerland. On the coast andin the rich valleys stand the giant pines and cedars, compared withwhich the trees of the Eastern division seem mere saplings. The coastis very mountainous and broken into innumerable inlets and islands, allof them heavily timbered to the water's edge. The history of thisregion offers little of picturesque interest except what may be foundin the adventures of daring sailors of various nationalities on thePacific coast, or in the story of the descent of the Fraser by theScotch fur-trader who first followed it to the sea, and gave it thename which it still justly bears. 

The history of the Western and Central regions of the Dominion is givenbriefly towards the end of this {18} narrative, as it forms a nationalsequence or supplement to that of the Eastern divisions, Acadia andCanada, where France first established her dominion, and thefoundations were laid for the present Canadian confederation. It isthe story of the great Eastern country that I must now tell in thefollowing pages. 

[1] The first terrace, named after Lord Durham, was built on thefoundations of the castle. In recent years the platform has beenextended and renamed Dufferin, in honour of a popular governor-general. 

[2] _Akade_ means a place or district in the language of the Micmacs orSouriquois, the most important Indian tribe in the Eastern provinces, and is always united with another word, signifying some naturalcharacteristic of the locality. For instance, the well-known river inNova Scotia, _Shubenacadie_ (Segebun-akade), the place where theground-nut or Indian potato grows. [Transcriber's note: In theoriginal book, "Akade" and "Segebun-akade" contain Unicode characters. In "Akade" the lower-case "a" is "a-breve", in "Segebun" the vowels are"e-breve" and "u-breve", and in "akade" the first "a" is "a-macron" andthe second is "a-breve". ]

[3] Sir J. W. Dawson, _Salient Points in the Science of the Earth_, p. 99. 

[4] H. H. Bancroft, _British Columbia_, p. 38. 

{19}

II. 

THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY IN CANADA. 

(1497-1525. )

On one of the noble avenues of the modern part of the city of Boston, so famous in the political and intellectual life of America, stands amonument of bronze which some Scandinavian and historical enthusiastshave raised to the memory of Leif, son of Eric the Red, who, in thefirst year of the eleventh century, sailed from Greenland where hisfather, an Icelandic jarl or earl, had founded a settlement. Thisstatue represents the sturdy, well-proportioned figure of a Norsesailor just discovering the new lands with which the Sagas or poeticchronicles of the North connect his name. At the foot of the pedestalthe artist has placed the dragon's head which always stood on the prowof the Norsemen's ships, and pictures of which can still be seen on thefamous Norman tapestry at Bayeux. 

The Icelandic Sagas possess a basis of historical truth, and there isreason to believe that Leif Ericson discovered three countries. Thefirst land he made after leaving Greenland he named Helluland onaccount of its slaty rocks. Then he came to a {20} flat country withwhite beaches of sand, which he called Markland because it was so wellwooded. 

After a sail of some days the Northmen arrived on a coast where theyfound vines laden with grapes, and very appropriately named Vinland. The exact situation of Vinland and the other countries visited by LeifEricson and other Norsemen, who followed in later voyages and arebelieved to have founded settlements in the land of vines, has beenalways a subject of perplexity, since we have only the vague Sagas toguide us. It may be fairly assumed, however, that the rocky land wasthe coast of Labrador; the low-lying forest-clad shores which Ericsoncalled Markland was possibly the southeastern part of Cape Breton orthe southern coast of Nova Scotia; Vinland was very likely somewhere inNew England. Be that as it may, the world gained nothing from thesemisty discoveries--if, indeed, we may so call the results of thevoyages of ten centuries ago. No such memorials of the Icelandicpioneers have yet been found in America as they have left behind themin Greenland. The old ivy-covered round tower at Newport in RhodeIsland is no longer claimed as a relic of the Norse settlers ofVinland, since it has been proved beyond doubt to be nothing more thana very substantial stone windmill of quite recent times, while thewriting on the once equally famous rock, found last century at Dighton, by the side of a New England river, is now generally admitted to benothing more than a memorial of one of the Indian tribes who haveinhabited the country since the voyages of the Norsemen. 

{21}

Leaving this domain of legend, we come to the last years of thefifteenth century, when Columbus landed on the islands now often knownas the Antilles--a memorial of that mysterious Antillia, or Isle of theSeven Cities, which was long supposed to exist in the mid-Atlantic, andfound a place in all the maps before, and even some time after, thevoyages of the illustrious Genoese. A part of the veil was at lastlifted from that mysterious western ocean--that Sea of Darkness, whichhad perplexed philosophers, geographers, and sailors, from the days ofAristotle, Plato, Strabo, and Ptolemy. As in the case of Scandinavia, several countries have endeavoured to establish a claim for thepriority of discovery in America. Some sailors of that Biscayan coast, which has given so many bold pilots and mariners to the world ofadventure and exploration--that Basque country to which belonged Juande la Cosa, the pilot who accompanied Columbus in his voyages--may havefound their way to the North Atlantic coast in search of cod or whalesat a very early time; and it is certainly an argument for such a claimthat John Cabot is said in 1497 to have heard the Indians ofnortheastern America speak of Baccalaos, or Basque for cod--a nameafterwards applied for a century and longer to the islands andcountries around the Gulf. It is certainly not improbable that theNormans, Bretons, or Basques, whose lives from times immemorial havebeen passed on the sea, should have been driven by the winds or by someaccident to the shores of Newfoundland or Labrador or even Cape Breton, but such theories are not {22} based upon sufficiently authentic datato bring them under the consideration of the serious historian. 

It is unfortunate that the records of history should be so wanting indefinite and accurate details, when we come to the voyages of JohnCabot, a great navigator, who was probably a Genoese by birth and aVenetian by citizenship. Five years after the first discovery byColumbus, John Cabot sailed to unknown seas and lands in the Northwestin the ship _Matthew_ of Bristol, with full authority from the King ofEngland, Henry the Seventh, to take possession in his name of allcountries he might discover. On his return from a successful voyage, during which he certainly landed on the coast of British North America, and first discovered the continent of North America, he became the heroof the hour and received from Henry, a very economical sovereign, alargess of ten pounds as a reward to "hym that founde the new ile. " Inthe following year both he and his son Sebastian, then a very youngman, who probably also accompanied his father in the voyage of 1497, sailed again for the new lands which were believed to be somewhere onthe road to Cipango and the countries of gold and spice and silk. Wehave no exact record of this voyage, and do not even know whether JohnCabot himself returned alive; for, from the day of his sailing in 1498, he disappears from the scene and his son Sebastian not only becomeshenceforth a prominent figure in the maritime history of the period, but has been given by his admirers even the place which his fatheralone fairly won as the leader in the two voyages on which {23} Englandhas based her claim of priority of discovery on the Atlantic coast ofNorth America. The weight of authority so far points to a headland ofCape Breton as the _prima tierra vista_, or the landfall which JohnCabot probably made on a June day, the four hundredth anniversary ofwhich arrived in 1897, though the claims of a point on the wildLabrador coast and of Bonavista, an eastern headland of Newfoundland, have also some earnest advocates. It is, however, generally admittedthat the Cabots, in the second voyage, sailed past the shores of NovaScotia and of the United States as far south as Spanish Florida. History here, at all events, has tangible, and in some respectsirrefutable, evidence on which to dwell, since we have before us acelebrated map, which has come down from the first year of thesixteenth century, and is known beyond doubt to have been drawn withall the authority that is due to so famous a navigator as Juan de laCosa, the Basque pilot. On this map we see delineated for the firsttime the coast apparently of a continental region extending from thepeninsula of Florida as far as the present Gulf of St. Lawrence, whichis described in Spanish as _mar descubierta por los Ingleses_ (seadiscovered by the English), on one headland of which there is a _Cavode Ynglaterra_, or English Cape. Whether this sea is the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the headland is Cape Race, the south-eastern extremity ofNewfoundland, or the equally well-known point which the Bretons namedon the southeastern coast of Cape Breton, are among the questions whichenter into the domain of {24} speculation and imagination. Juan de laCosa, however, is conclusive evidence in favour of the English claim tothe first discovery of Northern countries, whose greatness andprosperity have already exceeded the conceptions which the Spanishconquerors formed when they won possession of those rich Southern landswhich so long acknowledged the dominion of Spain. 

But Cabot's voyages led to no immediate practical results. The Bristolships brought back no rich cargoes of gold or silver or spices, to tellEngland that she had won a passage to the Indies and Cathay. The idea, however, that a short passage would be discovered to those rich regionswas to linger for nearly two centuries in the minds of maritimeadventurers and geographers. 

[Illustration: Sketch of Juan de la Cosa's map, A. D. 1500. ]

If we study the names of the headlands, bays, and other naturalfeatures of the islands and countries which inclose the Gulf of St. Lawrence we find many memorials of the early Portuguese and Frenchvoyagers. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Gaspar Corterealmade several voyages to the northeastern shores of Newfoundland andLabrador, and brought back with him a number of natives whose sturdyframes gave European spectators the idea that they would make goodlabourers; and it was this erroneous conception, it is generallythought, gave its present name to the rocky, forbidding region whichthe Norse voyagers had probably called Helluland five hundred yearsbefore. Both Gaspar Cortereal and his brother Miguel disappeared fromhistory somewhere in the waters of Hudson's {26} Bay or Labrador; butthey were followed by other adventurous sailors who have left mementosof their nationality on such places as Cape Raso (Race), Boa Ventura(Bonaventure), Conception, Tangier, Porto Novo, Carbonear (Carboneiro), all of which and other names appear on the earliest maps of thenorth-eastern waters of North America. 

Some enterprising sailors of Brittany first gave a name to that Capewhich lies to the northeast of the historic port of Louisbourg. Thesehardy sailors were certainly on the coast of the island as early as1504, and Cape Breton is consequently the earliest French name onrecord in America. Some claim is made for the Basques--that primevalpeople, whose origin is lost in the mists of tradition--because thereis a Cape Breton on the Biscayan coast of France, but the evidence insupport of the Bretons' claim is by far the strongest. For very manyyears the name of Bretons' land was attached on maps to a continentalregion, which included the present Nova Scotia, and it was well intothe middle of the sixteenth century, after the voyages of JacquesCartier and Jehan Alfonce, before we find the island itself make itsappearance in its proper place and form. 

It was a native of the beautiful city of Florence, in the days ofFrancis the First, who gave to France some claim to territory in NorthAmerica. Giovanni da Verrazano, a well-known corsair, in 1524, received a commission from that brilliant and dissipated king, Francisthe First, who had become jealous of the enormous pretensions of Spainand Portugal in the new world, and had on one occasion sent word to{27} his great rival, Charles the Fifth, that he was not aware that"our first father Adam had made the Spanish and Portuguese kings hissole heirs to the earth. " Verrazano's voyage is supposed on goodauthority to have embraced the whole North American coast from CapeFear in North Carolina as far as the island of Cape Breton. About thesame time Spain sent an expedition to the northeastern coasts ofAmerica under the direction of Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese pilot, andit is probable that he also coasted from Florida to Cape Breton. Muchdisappointment was felt that neither Verrazano nor Gomez had found apassage through the straits which were then, and for a long timeafterwards, supposed to lie somewhere in the northern regions ofAmerica and to lead to China and India. Francis was not able to sendVerrazano on another voyage, to take formal possession of the newlands, as he was engaged in that conflict with Charles which led to hisdefeat at the battle of Pavia and his being made subsequently aprisoner. Spain appears to have attached no importance to thediscovery by Gomez, since it did not promise mines of gold and silver, and happily for the cause of civilisation and progress, she continuedto confine herself to the countries of the South, though her fishermenannually ventured, in common with those of other nations, to the banksof Newfoundland. However, from the time of Verrazano we find on theold maps the names of Francisca and Nova Gallia as a recognition of theclaim of France to important discoveries in North America. It is alsofrom the Florentine's voyage that we may date the {28} discovery ofthat mysterious region called Norumbega, where the fancy of sailors andadventurers eventually placed a noble city whose houses were raised onpillars of crystal and silver, and decorated with precious stones. These travellers' tales and sailors' yarns probably originated in thecurrent belief that somewhere in those new lands, just discovered, there would be found an El Dorado. The same brilliant illusion thatled Ralegh to the South made credulous mariners believe in a Norumbegain the forests of Acadia. The name clung for many years to a countryembraced within the present limits of New England, and sometimesincluded Nova Scotia. Its rich capital was believed to exist somewhereon the beautiful Penobscot River, in the present State of Maine. Amemorial of the same name still lingers in the little harbours ofNorumbec, or Lorambeque, or Loran, on the southeastern coast of CapeBreton. Enthusiastic advocates of the Norse discovery and settlementhave confidently seen in Norumbega, the Indian utterance of Norbega, the ancient form of Norway to which Vinland was subject, and thisbelief has been even emphasised on a stone pillar which stands on someruins unearthed close to the Charles River in Massachusetts. _Si non évero è ben trovato_. All this serves to amuse, though it cannotconvince, the critical student of those shadowy times. With theprogress of discovery the city of Norumbega was found as baseless asthe fables of the golden city on the banks of the Orinoco, and of thefountain of youth among the forests and everglades of Florida. 

{29}

III. 

A BRETON SAILOR DISCOVERS CANADA AND ITS GREAT RIVER. 

(1534-36. )

In the fourth decade of the sixteenth century we find ourselves in thedomain of precise history. The narratives of the voyages of JacquesCartier of St. Malo, that famous port of Brittany which has given somany sailors to the world, are on the whole sufficiently definite, evenat this distance of three centuries and a half, to enable us to followhis routes, and recognise the greater number of the places in the gulfand river which he revealed to the old world. The same enterprisingking who had sent Verrazano to the west in 1524, commissioned theBreton sailor to find a short passage to Cathay and give a new dominionto France. 

At the time of the departure of Cartier in 1534 for the "new-foundisle" of Cabot, the world had made considerable advances ingeographical knowledge. South America was now ascertained to be aseparate continent, and the great Portuguese Magellan had {30} passedthrough the straits, which ever since have borne his name, and foundhis way across the Pacific to the spice islands of Asia. As respectsNorth America beyond the Gulf of Mexico and the country to the North, dense ignorance still prevailed, and though a coast line had beenfollowed from Florida to Cape Breton by Cabot, Gomez, and Verrazano, itwas believed either to belong to a part of Asia or to be a mereprolongation of Greenland. If one belief prevailed more than anotherit was in the existence of a great sea, called on the maps "the sea ofVerrazano, " in what is now the upper basin of the Mississippi and theGreat Lakes of the west, and which was only separated from the Atlanticby a narrow strip of land. Now that it was clear that no short passageto India and China could be found through the Gulf of Mexico, and thatSouth America was a continental region, the attention of hopefulgeographers and of enterprising sailors and adventurers was directed tothe north, especially as Spain was relatively indifferent to enterprisein that region. No doubt the French King thought that Cartier wouldfind his way to the sea of Verrazano, beyond which were probably thelands visited by Marco Polo, that enterprising merchant of Venice, whose stories of adventure in India and China read like stories of theArabian Nights. 

[Illustration: Jacques Cartier]

Jacques Cartier made three voyages to the continent of America between1534 and 1542, and probably another in 1543. The first voyage, whichtook place in 1534 and lasted from April until September, was confinedto the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which he {32} explored with somethoroughness after passing through the strait of Belle Isle, thencalled the Gulf of Castles (Chasteaux). The coast of Labrador hedescribed with perfect accuracy as extremely forbidding, covered withrocks and moss and "as very likely the land given by God to Cain. " Inone of the harbours of the Labrador coast he found a fishing vesselfrom La Rochelle, the famous Protestant town of France, on its way tothe port of Brest, then and for some time after a place of call for thefishermen who were already thronging the Gulf, where walrus, whales, and cod were so abundant. A good deal of time has been expended byhistorical writers on the itinerary of this voyage, the record of whichis somewhat puzzling at times when we come to fix Cartier's names ofplaces on a modern map. Confining ourselves to those localities ofwhich there is no doubt, we know he visited and named the isle of Brionin honour of Admiral Philip de Chabot, Seigneur de Brion, who was afriend and companion of Francis, and had received from him authority tosend out Cartier's expedition. The Breton saw the great sand-dunes, and red cliffs of the Magdalens rising from the sea like so many cones. It was one of these islands he probably called Alezay, though there arewriters who recognise in his description a headland of Prince EdwardIsland, but it is not certain that he visited or named any of the baysor lagoons of that island which lies so snugly ensconced in the Gulf. We recognise the bay of Miramichi (St. Lunaire) and the still morebeautiful scenery of the much larger bay of Chaleur (Heat) which he so{33} named because he entered it on a very hot July day. There he hadpleasant interviews with the natives, who danced and gave otherdemonstrations of joy when they received some presents in exchange forthe food they brought to the strangers. These people were probablyeither Micmacs or Etchemins, one of the branches of the Algonquinnation who inhabited a large portion of the Northern continent. Cartier was enchanted with the natural beauties of "as fine a countryas one would wish to see and live in, level and smooth, warmer thanSpain, where there is abundance of wheat, which has an ear like that ofrye, and again like oats, peas growing as thickly and as large as ifthey had been cultivated, red and white barberries, strawberries, redand white roses, and other flowers of a delightful and sweet perfume, meadows of rich grasses, and rivers full of salmon"--a perfectly truedescription of the beautiful country watered by the Restigouche andMetapedia rivers. Cartier also visited the picturesque bay of Gaspé, where the scenery is grand but the trees smaller and the land lessfertile than in the neighbourhood of Chaleur and its rivers. On apoint at the entrance of the harbour of Gaspé--an Indian name havingprobably reference to a split rock, which has long been a curiosity ofthe coast--Cartier raised a cross, thirty feet in height, on the middleof which there was a shield or escutcheon with three fleurs-de-lis, andthe inscription, _Vive le Roy de France_. Cartier then returned toFrance by way of the strait of Belle Isle, without having seen thegreat river to whose mouth he had been so close {34} when he stood onthe hills of Gaspé or passed around the shores of desolate Anticosti. 

Cartier brought back with him two sons of the Indian chief of a tribehe saw at Gaspé, who seem to have belonged to the Huron-Iroquois nationhe met at Stadacona, now Quebec, when he made the second voyage which Ihave to describe. The accounts he gave of the country on the Gulfappear to have been sufficiently encouraging to keep up the interest ofthe King and the Admiral of France in the scheme of discovery whichthey had planned. In this second voyage of 1535-36, the most memorableof all he made to American waters, he had the assistance of a littlefleet of three vessels, the _Grande Hermine_, the _Petite Hermine_, andthe _Emérillon_, of which the first had a burden of one hundred andtwenty tons--quite a large ship compared with the two little vessels ofsixty tons each that were given him for his first venture. This fleet, which gave Canada to France for two centuries and a quarter, reachedNewfoundland during the early part of July, passed through the straitof Belle Isle, and on the 10th of August, came to a little bay orharbour on the northern shore of the present province of Quebec, butthen known as Labrador, to which he gave the name of St. Laurent, inhonour of the saint whose festival happened to fall on the day of hisarrival. This bay is now generally believed to be the port of SainteGeneviève, and the name which Cartier gave it was gradually transferredin the course of a century to the whole gulf as well as to the riveritself which the Breton sailor was the first to place {35} definitelyon the maps of those days of scanty geographical knowledge. Cartierled his vessels through the passage between the northern shores ofCanada and the island of Anticosti, which he called Assomption, although it has long since resumed its old name, which has beengradually changed from the original Natiscotic to Naticousti, andfinally to Anticosti. When the adventurers came near the neighbourhoodof Trinity River on the north side of the Gulf, the two Gaspé Indianswho were on board Cartier's vessel, the Grande Hermine, told them thatthey were now at the entrance of the kingdom of Saguenay where redcopper was to be found, and that away beyond flowed the great river ofHochelaga and Canada. This Saguenay kingdom extended on the north sideof the river as far as the neighbourhood of the present well-known Isleaux Coudres; then came the kingdom of Canada, stretching as far as theisland of Montreal, where the King of Hochelaga exercised dominion overa number of tribes in the adjacent country. 

Cartier passed the gloomy portals of the Saguenay, and stopped for aday or two at Isle aux Coudres (Coudrières) over fifty miles belowQuebec, where mass was celebrated for the first time on the river ofCanada, and which he named on account of the hazel-nuts he found "aslarge and better tasting than those of France, though a little harder. "Cartier then followed the north shore, with its lofty, well-woodedmountains stretching away to the northward, and came at last to ananchorage not far from Stadacona, somewhere between the present Isle of{36} Orleans and the mainland. Here he had an interview with thenatives, who showed every confidence in the strangers when they foundthat the two Gaspé Indians, Taignoagny and Domagaya, were theircompanions. As soon as they were satisfied of this fact--and here wehave a proof that these two Indians must have belonged to the samenation--"they showed their joy, danced, and performed various antics. "Subsequently the lord of Donnacona, whose Indian title was Agouahana, came with twelve canoes and "made a speech according to the fashion, contorting the body and limbs in a remarkable way--a ceremony of joyand welcome. " After looking about for a safe harbour, Cartier chosethe mouth of the present St. Charles River, which he named the River ofthe Holy Cross (Sainte Croix) in honour of the day when he arrived. The fleet was anchored not far from the Indian village of Stadacona, and soon after its arrival one of the chiefs received the Frenchmenwith a speech of welcome, "while the women danced and sang withoutceasing, standing in the water up to their knees. "

Moored in a safe haven, the French had abundant opportunity to makethemselves acquainted with the surrounding country and its people. They visited the island close by, and were delighted with "itsbeautiful trees, the same as in France, " and with the great quantitiesof vines "such as we had never before seen. " Cartier called thisattractive spot the Island of Bacchus, but changed the namesubsequently to the Isle of Orleans, in honour of one of the royal sonsof France. Cartier was equally {37} charmed with the varied sceneryand the fruitful soil of the country around Stadacona. 

It was now the middle of September, and Cartier determined, since hismen had fully recovered from the fatigues of the voyage, to proceed upthe river as far as Hochelaga, of which he was constantly hearingaccounts from the Indians. When they heard of this intention, Donnacona and other chiefs used their best efforts to dissuade him byinventing stories of the dangers of the navigation. The two GaspéIndians lent themselves to the plans of the chief of Stadacona. ThreeIndians were dressed as devils, "with faces painted as black as coal, with horns as long as the arm, and covered with the skins of black andwhite dogs. " These devils were declared to be emissaries of the IndianGod at Hochelaga, called Cudragny, who warned the French that "therewas so much snow and ice that all would die. " The Gaspé Indians, whohad so long an acquaintance with the religious customs andsuperstitions of the French, endeavoured to influence them by appealsto "Jesus" and "Jesus Maria. " Cartier, however, only laughed at thetricks of the Indians, and told them that "their God Cudragny was amere fool, and that Jesus would preserve them from all danger if theyshould believe in Him. " The French at last started on the ascent ofthe river in the _Emérillon_ and two large boats, but neitherTaignoagny nor Domagaya could be induced to accompany the expedition toHochelaga. 

Cartier and his men reached the neighbourhood of Hochelaga, the Indiantown on the island of {38} Montreal, in about a fortnight's time. Theappearance of the country bordering on the river between Stadacona andHochelaga pleased the French on account of the springs of excellentwater, the beautiful trees, and vines heavily laden with grapes, andthe quantities of wild fowl that rose from every bay or creek as thevoyagers passed by. At one place called Achelay, "a strait with astony and dangerous current, full of rocks, "--probably the RichelieuRapids[1] above Point au Platon--a number of Indians came on board the_Emérillon_, warned Cartier of the perils of the river, and the chiefmade him a present of two children, one of whom, a little girl of sevenor eight years, he accepted and promised to take every care of. Somewhere on Lake St. Peter they found the water very shallow anddecided to leave the _Emérillon_ and proceed in the boats to Hochelaga, where they arrived on the second of October, and were met by more than"a thousand savages who gathered about them, men, women, and children, and received us as well as a parent does a child, showing great joy. "After a display of friendly feeling on the part of the natives andtheir visitors, and the exchange of presents between them, Cartierreturned to his boat in the stream. "All that night, " says thenarrative, "the savages remained on the shore near our boats, keepingup fires, dancing, crying out 'Aguaze, ' which is their word for welcomeand joy. " The king or chief of this Indian domain was also calledAgouahana, and was a member of the Huron-Iroquois stock. 

[Illustration: Ancient Hochelaga (from Ramusio). ]

{40}

The French visitors were regarded by the Indians of Hochelaga assuperior beings, endowed with supernatural powers. Cartier was calledupon to touch the lame, blind, and wounded, and treat all the ailmentswith which the Indians were afflicted, "as if they thought that God hadsent him to cure them. "

Cartier's narrative describes the town as circular, inclosed by threerows of palisades arranged like a pyramid, crossed at the top, with themiddle stakes standing perpendicular, and the others at an angle oneach side, all being well joined and fastened after the Indian fashion. The inclosing wall was of the height of two lances, or about twentyfeet, and there was only one entrance through a door generally keptbarred. At several points within the inclosure there were platforms orstages reached by ladders, for the purpose of protecting the town witharrows, and rocks, piles of which were close at hand. The towncontained fifty houses, each about one hundred feet in length andtwenty-five or thirty in width, and constructed of wood, covered withbark and strips of board. These "long houses" were divided intoseveral apartments, belonging to each family, but all of them assembledand ate in common. Storehouses for their grain and food were provided. They dried and smoked their fish, of which they had large quantities. They pounded the grain between flat stones and made it into dough whichthey cooked also on hot rocks. This tribe lived, Cartier tells us, "byploughing and fishing alone, " and were "not nomadic like the natives ofCanada and the Saguenay. "

{41}

Cartier and several of his companions were taken by the Indians to themountain near the town of Hochelaga, and were the first Europeans tolook on that noble panorama of river and forest which stretched thenwithout a break over the whole continent, except where the Indiannations had made, as at Hochelaga, their villages and settlements. From that day to this the mountain, as well as the great city which itnow overlooks in place of a humble Indian town, has borne the namewhich Cartier gave as a tribute to its unrivalled beauty. As we lookfrom the royal mountain on the beautiful elms and maples rising in themeadows and gardens of an island, bathed by the waters of two noblerivers--the green of the St. Lawrence mingling with the blue of theOttawa--on the many domes and towers of churches, convents, andcolleges, on the stately mansions of the rich, on the tall chimneys ofhuge factories and blocks upon blocks of massive stores and warehouses, on the ocean steamers on their way to Europe by that very river whichCartier would not ascend with the _Emérillon_; as we look on thisbeauteous and inspiriting scene, we may well understand how it is thatCanada has placed on Montreal the royal crown which Cartier first gaveto the mountain he saw on a glorious October day when the foliage waswearing the golden and crimson tints of a Canadian autumn. 

On Cartier's return to Stadacona he found that his officers had becomesuspicious of the intentions of the Indians and had raised a rude fortnear the junction of the river of St. Croix and the little stream {42}called the Lairet. Here the French passed a long and dreary winter, doubtful of the friendship of the Indians, and suffering from theintense cold to which they were unaccustomed. They were attacked bythat dreadful disease, the scurvy, which caused the death of severalmen, and did not cease its ravages until they learned from an Indian touse a drink evidently made from spruce boughs. Then the Frenchrecovered with great rapidity, and when the spring arrived they madetheir preparations to return to France. They abandoned the little_Hermine_, as the crew had been so weakened by sickness and death. They captured Donnacona and several other chiefs and determined to takethem to France "to relate to the king the wonders of the worldDonnacona [evidently a great story-teller] had seen in these westerncountries, for he had assured us that he had been in the Saguenaykingdom, where are infinite gold, rubies, and other riches, and whitemen dressed in woollen clothing. " In the vicinity of the fort, at themeeting of the St. Croix and Lairet, Cartier raised a cross, thirty-five feet in height under the cross-bar of which there was awooden shield, showing the arms of France and the inscription

 FRANCISCUS PRIMUS DEI GRATIA FRANCORUM REX REGNAT. 

When three centuries and a half had passed, a hundred thousand FrenchCanadians, in the presence of an English governor-general of Canada, aFrench Canadian lieutenant-governor and cardinal {43} archbishop, manyecclesiastical and civil dignitaries, assisted in the unveiling of anoble monument in memory of Jacques Cartier and his hardy companions ofthe voyage of 1535-36, and of Jean de Brebeuf, Ennemond Massé, andCharles Lalemant, the missionaries who built the first residence of theJesuits nearly a century later on the site of the old French fort, andone of whom afterwards sacrificed his life for the faith to which theywere all so devoted. 

On the return voyage Cartier sailed to the southward of the Gulf, sawthe picturesque headlands of northern Cape Breton, remained a few daysin some harbours of Newfoundland, and finally reached St. Malo on thesixteenth of July, with the joyful news that he had discovered a greatcountry and a noble river for France. 

[1] The obstructions which created these rapids have been removed. 

{44}

IV. 

FROM CARTIER TO DE MONTS. 

(1540-1603. )

The third voyage made by Cartier to the new world, in 1541, wasrelatively of little importance. Donnacona and the other Indians ofStadacona, whom the French carried away with them, never returned totheir forest homes, but died in France. During the year Cartierremained in Canada he built a fortified post at Cap Rouge, about sevenmiles west of the heights of Quebec, and named it Charlesbourg inhonour of one of the sons of Francis the First. He visited Hochelaga, and attempted to pass up the river beyond the village, but was stoppedby the dangerous rapids now known as the St. Louis or Lachine. Hereturned to France in the spring of 1542, with a few specimens ofworthless metal resembling gold which he found among the rocks of CapRouge, and some pieces of quartz crystal which he believed werediamonds, and which have given the name to the bold promontory on whichstand the ancient fortifications of Quebec. 

[Illustration: The "Dauphin Map" of Canada, _circa_ 1543, showingCartier's Discoveries. ]

{45}

Cartier is said to have returned on a fourth voyage to Canada in1543--though no record exists--for the purpose of bringing backMonsieur Roberval, otherwise known to the history of those times asJean François de la Roque, who had been appointed by Francis hislieutenant in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay (St. Lawrence), and Baccalaos, as wellas lord of the mysterious region of Norumbega--an example of the lavishuse of titles and the assumption of royal dominion in an unknownwilderness. Roberval and Cartier were to have sailed in company toCanada in 1541, but the former could not complete his arrangements andthe latter sailed alone, as we have just read. On his return in 1542Cartier is said to have met Roberval at a port of the Gulf, and to havesecretly stolen away in the night and left his chief to go on to theSt. Lawrence alone. But these are among historic questions in dispute, and it is useless to dwell on them here. What we do know to acertainty is that Roberval spent some months on the banks of the St. Lawrence, --probably from the spring of 1542 to late in the autumn of1543, --and built a commodious fort at Charlesbourg, which he renamedFrance-Roy. He passed a miserable winter, as many of the colonists hehad brought with him had been picked up amongst the lowest classes ofFrance, and he had to govern his ill-assorted company with a rigid andeven cruel hand. Roberval is said to have visited the Saguenay andexplored its waters and surrounding country for a considerabledistance, evidently hoping {46} to verify the fables of Donnacona andother Indians that gold and precious stones were to be found somewherein that region. His name has been given to a little village at LakeSt. John, on the assumption that he actually went so far on hisSaguenay expedition, while romantic tradition points to an isle in theGulf, the Isle de la Demoiselle, where he is said to have abandoned hisniece Marguérite, --who had loved not wisely but too well--her lover, and an old nurse. This rocky spot appears to have become in the storyan isle of Demons who tormented the poor wretches, exposed to all therigours of Canadian winters, and to starvation except when they couldcatch fish or snare wild fowl. The nurse and lover as well as theinfant died, but Marguérite is said to have remained much longer onthat lonely island until at last Fate brought to her rescue a passingvessel and carried her to France, where she is said to have told thestory of her adventures. 

After this voyage Roberval disappeared from the history of Canada. Cartier is supposed to have died about 1577 in his old manor house ofLimoilou, now in ruins, in the neighbourhood of St. Malo. He wasallowed by the King to bear always the name of "Captain"--anappropriate title for a hardy sailor who represented so well theheroism and enterprise of the men of St. Malo and the Breton coast. The results of the voyages of Cartier, Roberval, and the sailors andfishermen who frequented the waters of the Great Bay, as the Frenchlong called it, can be seen in the old maps that have come down to us, and show the increasing geographical knowledge. {47} To thisknowledge, a famous pilot, Captain Jehan Alfonce, a native of thelittle village of Saintonge in the grape district of Charente, madevaluable contributions. He accompanied Roberval to Canada, andafterwards made voyages to the Saguenay, and appears to have exploredthe Gulf and the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and even Maine asfar as the Penobscot, where he believed was the city of Norumbega. 

After the death of Francis there came dark days for France, whosepeople were torn asunder by civil war and religious strife. With thereturn of peace in France the Marquis de la Roche received a commissionfrom Henry the Fourth, as lieutenant-general of the King, to coloniseCanada, but his ill-fated expedition of 1597 never got beyond thedangerous sandbanks of Sable Island. French fur-traders had now foundtheir way to Anticosti and even Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where the Indians were wont to assemble in large numbers from the greatfur-region to which that melancholy river and its tributary lakes andrivers give access, but these traders like the fishermen made noattempt to settle the country. 

From a very early date in the sixteenth century bold sailors from thewest country of Devon were fishing in the Gulf and eventually made thesafe and commodious port of St. John's, in Newfoundland, theirheadquarters. Some adventurous Englishmen even made a search for theland of Norumbega, and probably reached the bay of Penobscot. Near theclose of the century, Frobisher attempted to open up {48} the secretsof the Arctic seas and find that passage to the north which remainedclosed to venturesome explorers until Sir Robert McClure, in 1850, successfully passed the icebergs and ice-floes that barred his way fromBering Sea to Davis Strait. In the reign of the great Elizabeth, whenEnglishmen were at last showing that ability for maritime enterprisewhich was eventually to develop such remarkable results, Sir HumphreyGilbert, the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder ofVirginia, the Old Dominion, took possession of Newfoundland with muchceremony in the harbour of St. John's, and erected a pillar on whichwere inscribed the Queen's arms. Gilbert had none of the qualities ofa coloniser, and on his voyage back to England he was lost at sea, andit was left to the men of Devon and the West coast in later times tomake a permanent settlement on the great island of the Gulf. 

The first years of the seventeenth century were propitious forimportant schemes of colonisation and trade in the western lands. Thesovereign of France was Henry the Fourth, the intrepid Prince of Béarn, as brave a soldier as he was a sagacious statesman. Henry listenedfavourably--though his able minister, Sully, held different views--tothe schemes for opening up Canada to commerce and settlement that werelaid before him by an old veteran of the wars, and a staunch friend, Aymar de Chastes, governor of Dieppe. Pontgravé, a rich Bretonmerchant of St. Malo, had the charge of the two vessels which leftFrance in the spring of 1603, but it is a fact that a great man, SamuelChamplain, accompanied the {49} expedition that gives the chiefinterest to the voyage. Champlain, who was destined to be the founderof New France, was a native of Brouage in the Bay of Biscay, andbelonged to a family of fishermen. During the war of the League heserved in the army of Henry the Third, but when Henry of Navarre wasproclaimed King of France on the assassination of his predecessor, andabjured the Protestant faith of which he had previously been thechampion, Champlain, like other Frenchmen, who had followed the Duke ofGuise, became an ardent supporter of the new régime and eventually afavourite of the Bernese prince. He visited the West Indies in aSpanish ship and made himself well acquainted with Mexico and othercountries bordering on the Gulf. He has described all his voyages tothe Indies and Canada in quaint quarto volumes, now very rare, andvaluable on account of their minute and truthful narrative--despite hislively and credulous imagination--and the drawings and maps which hemade rudely of the places he saw. His accounts of the Indians ofCanada are among the most valuable that have come to us from the earlydays of American history. He had a fair knowledge of natural historyfor those times, though he believed in Mexican griffins, and was versedin geography and cartography. 

In 1603 Pontgravé and Champlain ascended the River St. Lawrence as faras the island of Montreal, where they found only a few wanderingAlgonquins of the Ottawa and its tributaries, in place of the peoplewho had inhabited the town of Hochelaga in the days of Cartier'svisits. Champlain attempted to {50} pass the Lachine rapids but wassoon forced to give up the perilous and impossible venture. Duringthis voyage he explored the Saguenay for a considerable distance, andwas able to add largely to the information that Cartier had given ofCanada and the country around the Gulf. When the expedition reachedFrance, Aymar de Chastes was dead, but two months had hardly elapsedafter Champlain's return when a new company was formed on the usualbasis of trade and colonisation. At its head was Sieur de Monts, Pierre du Guast, the governor of Pons, a Calvinist and a friend of theKing. After much deliberation it was decided to venture south ofCanada and explore that ill-defined region, called "La Cadie" in theroyal commission given to De Monts as the King's lieutenant in Canadaand adjacent countries, the first record we have of that Acadia whereFrench and English were to contend during a century for the supremacy. For a few moments we must leave the valley of the St. Lawrence, whereFrance was soon to enthrone herself on the heights of Quebec, and visita beautiful bay on the western coast of Nova Scotia, where a sleepy oldtown, full of historic associations, still stands to recall the effortsof gentlemen-adventurers to establish a permanent settlement on theshores of the Atlantic. 

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V. 

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF ACADIA AND THE FOUNDATION OF PORT ROYAL. 

(1604-1614. )

In the western valley of that part of French Acadia, now known as NovaScotia, not only do we tread on historic ground, but we see in thesedays a landscape of more varied beauty than that which so delighted thegentlemen-adventurers of old France nearly three centuries ago. Inthis country, which the poem conceived by Longfellow amid the elms ofCambridge has made so famous, we see the rich lands reclaimed from thesea, which glistens a few miles to the north, and every day comesrushing up its estuaries. There to the north is dark, loftyBlomidon--whose name is probably a memorial of a Portuguesevoyager--with its overhanging cliff under which the tumultuous tidesstruggle and foam. Here, in a meadow close by, is a long row ofLombardy poplars, pointing to another race and another country. There, on a slight acclivity, among the trees, is a pile of white collegebuildings, there a tall white spire {52} rises into the pure blue sky. We see cottages covered with honeysuckle and grapevine; with theirgardens of roses and lilies, and many old-fashioned flowers. In thespring, the country is one mass of pink and white blossoms, which loadthe passing breeze with delicate fragrance; in autumn the trees bendbeneath rosy and yellow apples. 

We drive through a fertile valley, where runs a placid river amid manymeadows, gardens, and orchards, until at last it empties into apicturesque basin, where the landscape shows a harmonious blending ofmountain and water, of cultivated fields and ancient forest trees. Here we see a quiet old town, whose roofs are green with the moss ofmany years, where willows and grassy mounds tell of a historic past, where the bells of ox-teams tinkle in the streets, and commerce itselfwears a look of reminiscence. For we have come to the banks of thatbasin where the French, in the first years of the seventeenth century, laid the foundations of a settlement which, despite all its earlymisfortunes, has lasted until the present time, though it is theEnglish tongue that is now spoken and the Englishman who is now theoccupant. 

Early in the leafy month of June, 1604, the French under De Montssailed into this spacious basin, and saw for the first time its grassymeadows, its numerous streams, its cascades tumbling from the hills, its forest-clad mountains. "This, " said Champlain, who called it PortRoyal, "was the most commodious and pleasant place that we had yet seenin this country. "

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It appears that the adventurers left France in the early part of April. When the King had been once won over to the project, he consented togive De Monts and his associates an entire monopoly of the fur-tradethroughout the wide domain of which he was to be the viceroy. Theexpedition was chiefly supported by the merchants of the Protestanttown of La Rochelle, and was regarded with much jealousy by othercommercial cities. Protestants were to enjoy in the new colony all theadvantages they were then allowed in France. The Catholics wereappeased by the condition that the conversion of the natives should bereserved especially for the priests of their own church. 

The man of most note, after De Monts and Champlain, was Jean deBiencourt, a rich nobleman of Picardy, better known in Acadian historyas the Baron de Poutrincourt, who had distinguished himself as asoldier in the civil wars. A man of energy and enterprise, he was wellfitted to assist in the establishment of a colony. 

De Monts and his associates reached without accident the lowfir-covered shores of Nova Scotia, visited several of its harbours, andfinally sailed into the Bay of Fundy, which was named Baie Française. The French explored the coast of the bay after leaving Port Royal, anddiscovered the river which the Indians called Ouigoudi, or highway, andDe Monts renamed St. John, as he saw it first on the festival of thatsaint. Proceeding along the northern shores of the bay the expeditioncame to a river which falls into Passamaquoddy Bay, and now forms the{54} boundary between the United States and the eastern provinces ofCanada. This river ever since has been called the river of the HolyCross (Sainte-Croix) though the name was first given by De Monts to anislet, well within the mouth of the stream, which he chose as the siteof the first French settlement on the northeast coast of America. Buildings were soon erected for the accommodation of some eightypersons, as well as a small fort for their protection on the rockyislet. [1]

While the French settlement was preparing for the winter, Champlainexplored the eastern coast from the St. Croix to the Penobscot, wherehe came to the conclusion that the story of a large city on its bankswas evidently a mere invention of the imaginative mind. He also wasthe first of Europeans, so far as we know, to look on the mountains andcliffs of the island--so famous as a summer resort in these latertimes--which he very aptly named Monts-Déserts. During the three yearsChamplain remained in Acadia he made explorations and surveys of thesouthern coasts of Nova Scotia from Canseau to Port Royal, of theshores of the Bay of Fundy, and of the coast of New England from theSt. Croix to Vineyard Sound. 

Poutrincourt, who had received from De Monts a grant of the countryaround Port Royal, left his companions in their dreary home in thelatter part of August and sailed for France, with the object of makingarrangements for settling his new domain in {55} Acadia. He found thatvery little interest was taken in the new colony of which veryunsatisfactory reports were brought back to France by his companionsthough he himself gave a glowing account of its beautiful scenery andresources. 

While Poutrincourt was still in France, he was surprised to learn ofthe arrival of De Monts with very unsatisfactory accounts of the stateof affairs in the infant colony. The adventurers had very soon foundSt. Croix entirely unfitted for a permanent settlement, and after amost wretched winter had removed to the sunny banks of the Annapolis, which was then known as the Equille, [2] and subsequently as theDauphin. Poutrincourt and De Monts went energetically to work, andsucceeded in obtaining the services of all the mechanics and labourersthey required. The new expedition was necessarily composed of veryunruly characters, who sadly offended the staid folk of that orderlybulwark of Calvinism, the town of La Rochelle. At last on the 13th ofMay, 1606, the _Jonas_, with its unruly crew all on board, left for thenew world under the command of Poutrincourt. Among the passengers wasL'Escarbot, a Paris advocate, a poet, and an historian, to whom we areindebted for a very sprightly account of early French settlement inAmerica. De Monts, however, was unable to leave with his friends. 

On the 27th July, the _Jonas_ entered the basin of Port Royal with theflood-tide. A peal from the rude bastion of the little fort boretestimony to the {56} joy of the two solitary Frenchmen, who, with afaithful old Indian chief, were the only inmates of the post at thattime. These men, La Taille and Miquellet, explained that Pontgravé andChamplain, with the rest of the colony, had set sail for France a fewdays previously, in two small vessels which they had built themselves. But there was no time to spend in vain regrets. Poutrincourt opened ahogshead of wine, and the fort was soon the scene of mirth andfestivity. Poutrincourt set energetically to improve the condition ofthings, by making additions to the buildings, and clearing thesurrounding land, which is exceedingly rich. The fort stood on thenorth bank of the river--on what is now the Granville side--oppositeGoat Island, or about six miles from the present town of Annapolis. 

L'Escarbot appears to have been the very life of the little colony. Ifanything occurred to dampen their courage, his fertile mind soondevised some plan of chasing away forebodings of ill. WhenPoutrincourt and his party returned during the summer of 1606 in illspirits from Malebarre, now Cape Cod, where several men had beensurprised and killed by the savages, they were met on their landing bya procession of Tritons, with Neptune at their head, who saluted theadventurers with merry songs. As they entered the arched gateway, theysaw above their heads another happy device of L'Escarbot, the arms ofFrance and the King's motto, "_Duo protegit unus_, " encircled withlaurels. Under this were the arms of De Monts and Poutrincourt, withtheir respective mottoes--"_Dabit deus {57} his quoque finem_, " and"_In vid virtuti nulla est via_, "--also surrounded with evergreens. 

[Illustration: Champlain's plan of Port Royal in Acadia in 1605. Keyto illustration: A, Workmen's dwelling; B, Platform for cannon; C, Storehouse; D, Residence for Champlain and Pontgravé; E, Blacksmith'sforge; F, Palisade; G, Bakehouse; H, Kitchen; I, Gardens; K, Buryingground; L, St. Lawrence River; M, Moat; N, Dwelling of De Monts; and O, Ships' storehouse. ]

L'Escarbot's ingenious mind did not fail him, even in respect to thedaily supply of fresh provisions, for he created a new order for theespecial benefit of the principal table, at which Poutrincourt, hehimself, and thirteen others sat daily. These fifteen gentlemenconstituted themselves into _l'Ordre de Bon Temps_, one of whom wasgrandmaster for a day, and bound to cater for the company. Each tried, of course, to excel the other in the quantity of game and fish theywere able to gather from the {58} surrounding country, and theconsequence was, Poutrincourt's table never wanted any of the luxuriesthat the river or forest could supply. At the dinner hour thegrandmaster, with the insignia of his order, a costly collar around hisneck, a staff in his hand, and a napkin on his shoulder, came into thehall at the head of his brethren, each of whom carried some dish. TheIndians were frequent guests at their feasts, especially old Membertou, a famous Micmac or Souriquois chief, who always retained a warmattachment for the pale-faced strangers. Songs of La Belle France weresung; many a toast was drunk in some rare vintage, --the flames flew upthe huge chimney, --the Indians squatted on the floor, laughing like themerry Frenchmen. When the pipe went around--with its lobster-like bowland tube elaborately worked with porcupine quills--stories were told, and none excelled the Indians themselves in this part of theentertainment. At last, when the tobacco was all exhausted, thegrandmaster resigned his regalia of office to his successor, who lostno time in performing his duties. Thus the long winter evenings passedin that lonely French fort at the verge of an untamed continent. 

Then came bad news from France. Late in the spring of 1607, a vesselsailed into the basin with letters from De Monts that the colony wouldhave to be broken up, as his charter had been revoked, and the Companycould no longer support Port Royal. The Breton and Basque merchants, who were very hostile to De Monts's monopoly, had {59} succeeded ininfluencing the government to withdraw its patronage from him and hisassociates. Soon afterwards the little colony regretfully left PortRoyal, which never looked so lovely in their eyes as they passed on tothe Bay of Fundy, and saw the whole country in the glory of mid-summer. The Indians, especially Membertou, watched the departure of their newfriends with unfeigned regret, and promised to look carefully after thesafety of the fort and its contents. 

As soon as Poutrincourt reached his native country he did his best tomake friends at the Court, as he was resolved on returning to Acadia, while Champlain decided to venture to the St. Lawrence, where I shalltake up his memorable story later. Poutrincourt's prospects, for atime, were exceedingly gloomy. De Monts was able to assist him butvery little, and the adventurous Baron himself was involved in debt andlitigations, but he eventually succeeded in obtaining a renewal of hisgrant from the King, and interesting some wealthy traders in theenterprise. Then some difficulties of a religious character threatenedto interfere with the success of the expedition. The society ofJesuits was, at this time, exceedingly influential at court, and, inconsequence of their representations, the King ordered that PierreBiard, professor of theology at Lyons, should accompany the expedition. Though Poutrincourt was a good Catholic, he mistrusted this religiousorder, and succeeded in deceiving Father Biard, who was waiting for himat Bordeaux, by taking his departure from Dieppe in company with {60}Father Fléché, who was not a member of the Jesuits. 

The ship entered Port Royal basin in the beginning of June, 1610. Herethey were agreeably surprised to find the buildings and their contentsperfectly safe, and their old friend Membertou, now a centenarian, looking as hale as ever, and overwhelmed with joy at the return of thefriendly palefaces. Among the first things that Poutrincourt did, after his arrival, was to make converts of the Indians. Father Fléchésoon convinced Membertou and all his tribe of the truths ofChristianity. Membertou was named Henri, after the king; his chiefsquaw Marie, after the queen. The Pope, the Dauphin, Marguérite deValois, and other ladies and gentlemen famous in the history of theirtimes, became sponsors for the Micmac converts who were gathered intomother church on St. John's day, with the most imposing ceremonies thatthe French could arrange in that wild country. 

Conscious of the influence of the Jesuits at Court, and desirous ofcounteracting any prejudice that might have been created against him, Poutrincourt decided to send his son, a fine youth of eighteen years, in the ship returning to France, with a statement showing his zeal inconverting the natives of the new colony. 

When this youthful ambassador reached France, Henry of Navarre hadperished by the knife of Ravaillac, and Marie de' Medici, that wily, cruel, and false Italian, was regent during the minority of her son, Louis XIII. The Jesuits were now {61} all-powerful at the Louvre, andit was decided that Fathers Biard and Ennemond Massé should accompanyBiencourt to Acadia. The ladies of the Court, especially Madame deGuercheville, wife of Duke de la Rochefoucauld de Liancourt, whosereputation could not be assailed by the tongue of scandal, even in astate of society when virtue was too often the exception, interestedthemselves in the work of converting the savages of Acadia. Thebusiness of the Protestant traders of Dieppe was purchased and madeover to the Jesuits. Thus did these indefatigable priests, for thefirst time, engage in the work of converting the savage in the Americanwilderness. 

The vessel which took Biencourt and his friends back to Port Royalarrived on the 22nd of July, 1611, off the fort, where Poutrincourt andhis colonists were exceedingly short of supplies. His very first actwas to appoint his son as vice-admiral, while he himself went on toFrance with the hope of obtaining further aid about the middle of July. 

The total number of persons in the colony was only twenty-two, including the two Jesuits, who immediately commenced to learn Micmac, as the first step necessary to the success of the work they had inhand. The two priests suffered many hardships, but they bore theirtroubles with a patience and resignation which gained them even theadmiration of those who were not prepossessed in their favour. Massé, who had gone to live among the Indians, was nearly starved and smokedto death in their rude camps; but still he appears to have perseveredin that course of life as long as he possibly {62} could. About thistime the priests had the consolation of performing the last offices forthe veteran Membertou, the staunch friend of the French colonists. Onhis death-bed he expressed a strong desire to be buried with hisforefathers, but the arguments of his priestly advisers overcame hissuperstition, and his remains were finally laid in consecrated ground. 

Matters looked very gloomy by the end of February, when a ship arrivedvery opportunely from France with a small store of supplies. The newsfrom Poutrincourt was most discouraging. Unable to raise further fundson his own responsibility, he had accepted the proffer of assistancefrom Mme. De Guercheville, who, in her zeal, had also bought from DeMonts all his claims over the colony, with the exception of Port Royal, which belonged to Poutrincourt. The King not only consented to thetransfer but gave her a grant of the territory extending from Floridato Canada. The society of Jesuits was therefore virtually inpossession of North America as far as a French deed could give it away. But the French king forgot when he was making this lavish gift of acontinent, that the British laid claims to the same region and hadalready established a colony in Virginia, which was then an undefinedterritory, extending from Florida to New France. Both France andEngland were now face to face on the new continent, and a daringEnglish adventurer was about to strike in Acadia the first blow forEnglish supremacy. 

Such was the position of affairs at the time of the {63} arrival of thenew vessel and cargo, which were under the control of Simon Imbert, whohad formerly been a servant to Poutrincourt. Among the passengers wasanother Jesuit father, Gilbert Du Thet, who came out in the interestsof Mme. De Guercheville and his own order. The two agents quarrelledfrom the very day they set out until they arrived at Port Royal, andthen the colony took the matter up. At last the difficulties weresettled by Du Thet receiving permission to return to France. 

A few months later, at the end of May, 1613, another French shipanchored off Port Royal. She had been sent out with a fine supply ofstores, not by Poutrincourt, but by Mme. De Guercheville, and was underthe orders of M. Saussaye, a gentleman by birth and a man of ability. On board were two Jesuits, Fathers Quentin and Gilbert Du Thet and anumber of colonists. Poutrincourt, it appeared, was in prison and ill, unable to do anything whatever for his friends across the ocean. Thiswas, indeed, sad news for Biencourt and his faithful allies, who hadbeen anxiously expecting assistance from France. 

At Port Royal the new vessel took on board the two priests Biard andMassé, and sailed towards the coast of New England; for Saussaye'sinstructions were to found a new colony in the vicinity of Pentagoët(Penobscot). In consequence of the prevalent sea-fogs, however, theywere driven to the island of Monts-Déserts, where they found a harbourwhich, it was decided, would answer all their purposes on the westernside of Soames's Sound. Saussaye and {64} his party had commenced toerect buildings for the new colony, when an event occurred which placeda very different complexion on matters. 

A man-of-war came sailing into the harbour, and from her mastheadfloated, not the fleur-de-lis, but the blood-red flag of England. Thisnew-comer was Samuel Argall, a young English sea captain, a coarse, passionate, and daring man, who had been some time associated with thefortunes of Virginia. In the spring of 1613 he set sail in a stoutvessel of 130 tons, carrying 14 guns and 60 men, for a cruise to thecoast of Maine for a supply of cod-fish, and whilst becalmed offMonts-Desérts, some Indians came on board and informed him of thepresence of the French in the vicinity of that island. He looked uponthe French as encroaching upon British territory, and in a few hourshad destroyed the infant settlement of St. Sauveur. Saussaye wasperfectly paralysed, and attempted no defence when he saw that Argallhad hostile intentions; but the Jesuit Du Thet did his utmost to rallythe men to arms, and was the first to fall a victim. Fifteen of theprisoners, including Saussaye and Massé, were turned adrift in an openboat; but fortunately, they managed to cross the bay and reach thecoast of Nova Scotia, where they met with some trading vesselsbelonging to St. Malo. Father Biard and the others were taken toVirginia by Argall. Biard subsequently reached England, and wasallowed to return home. All the rest of the prisoners taken at St. Sauveur also found their way to France. 

But how prospered the fortunes of Poutrincourt {65} whilst the fate ofPort Royal was hanging in the scale? As we have previously stated, hehad been put into prison by his creditors, and had there lain ill forsome months. When he was at last liberated, and appeared once moreamong his friends he succeeded in obtaining some assistance, andfitting out a small vessel, with a limited supply of stores for hiscolony. In the spring of 1614 he entered the basin of Annapolis forthe last time, to find his son and followers wanderers in the woods, and only piles of ashes marking the site of the buildings on which heand his friends had expended so much time and money. The fate of PortRoyal may be very briefly told. The Governor of Virginia, Sir ThomasDale, was exceedingly irate when he heard of the encroachments ofFrance on what he considered to be British territory by right of priordiscovery--that of John Cabot--and immediately sent Argall, after hisreturn from St. Sauveur, on an expedition to the northward. Argallfirst touched at St. Sauveur, and completed the work of destruction, and next stopped at St. Croix, where he also destroyed the desertedbuildings. To such an extent did he show his enmity, that he evenerased the fleur-de-lis and the initial of De Monts and others from themassive stone on which they had been carved. Biencourt and nearly allthe inmates of the fort were absent some distance in the country, andreturned to see the English in complete possession. 

The destruction of Port Royal by Argall ends the first period in thehistory of Acadia as a French colony. Poutrincourt bowed to therelentless fate that {66} drove him from the shores he loved so well, and returned to France, where he took employment in the service of theking. Two years later he was killed at the siege of Méri on the upperSeine, during the civil war which followed the successful intrigues ofMarie de' Medici with Spain, to marry the boy king, Louis XIII. , toAnne of Austria, and his sister, the Princess Elisabeth, to a Spanishprince. On his tomb at St. Just, in Champagne, there was inscribed anelaborate Latin epitaph, of which the following is a translation:

 "Ye people so dear to God, inhabitants of New France, whom I brought over to the Faith of Christ. I am Poutrincourt, your great chief, in whom was once your hope. If envy deceived you, mourn for me. My courage destroyed me. I could not hand to another the glory that I won among you. Cease not to mourn for me. 

Port Royal, in later years, arose from its ashes, and the fleur-de-lis, or the red cross, floated from its walls, according as the French orthe English were the victors in the long struggle that ensued for thepossession of Acadia. But before we continue the story of its varyingfortunes in later times, we must proceed to the banks of the St. Lawrence, where the French had laid the foundation of Quebec and NewFrance in the great valley, while Poutrincourt was struggling vainly tomake a new home for himself and family by the side of the river of PortRoyal. 

[1] Now known as Douchet Island; no relics remain of the Frenchoccupation. 

[2] Champlain says the river was named after a little fish caughtthere, _de grandeur d'un esplan_. 

{67}

VI. 

SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 

(1608-1635. )

When Samuel Champlain entered the St. Lawrence River for the secondtime, in 1608, after his three years' explorations in Acadia, and laidthe foundation of the present city of Quebec, the only Europeans on theAtlantic coast of America were a few Spaniards at St. Augustine, and afew Englishmen at Jamestown. The first attempt of the English, underthe inspiration of the great Raleigh, to establish a colony in the finecountry to the north of Spanish Florida, then known as Virginia, isonly remembered for the mystery which must always surround the fate ofVirginia Dare and the little band of colonists who were left on theisland of Roanoke. Adventurous Englishmen, Gosnold, Pring, andWeymouth, had even explored the coast of the present United States asfar as the Kennebec before the voyages of Champlain and Poutrincourt, and the first is said to have given the name of Cape {68} Cod to thepoint named Malebarre by the French. It was not, however, until 1607that Captain Newport, representing the great company of Virginia, towhom King James II. Gave a charter covering the territory of an empire, brought the first permanent English colony of one hundred persons upthe James River in Chesapeake Bay. 

[Illustration: Champlain. ]

From this time forward France and England became rivals in America. Inthe first years of the seventeenth century were laid the foundationsnot only of the Old Dominion of Virginia, which was in later times toform so important a state among the American commonwealths, but also ofthe New Dominion whose history may be said to commence on the shores ofPort Royal. But Acadia was not destined to be the great colony ofFrance--the centre of her imperial aspirations in America. The storyof the French in Acadia, from the days of De Monts and Poutrincourt, until the beginning of the eighteenth century when it became an Englishpossession, is at most only a series of relatively unimportant episodesin the history of that scheme of conquest which was planned in theeighteenth century in the palace of Versailles and in the old castle ofSt. Louis on the heights of Quebec, whose interesting story I must nowtell. 

When Champlain returned to France in 1607 De Monts obtained from Henrythe Fourth a monopoly of the Canadian fur-trade for a year, andimmediately fitted out two vessels, one of which was given toPontgravé, who had taken part in previous expeditions to the new world. Champlain was appointed {70} by De Monts as his representative, andpractically held the position of lieutenant-governor under differentviceroys, with all necessary executive and judicial powers, from thistime until his death, twenty-seven years later. 

Champlain arrived on the 3rd of July off the promontory of Quebec, which has ever since borne the name given to it by the Algonquintribes, in whose language _Kebec_ means such a strait or narrowing of ariver as actually occurs at this part of the St. Lawrence. The Frenchpioneers began at once to clear away the trees and dig cellars on anaccessible point of land which is now the site of Champlain market inwhat is called "the lower town" of the modern city. Champlain has leftus a sketch of the buildings he erected--_habitation_ as he callsthem--and my readers will get from the illustration opposite an idea ofthe plan he followed. Champlain made one of the buildings hisheadquarters for twelve years, until he built a fort on the heights, which was the beginning of that famous Fort and Castle of St. Louis towhich reference is so constantly made in the histories of New France. 

Champlain was obliged immediately after his arrival at Quebec to punishsome conspirators who had agreed to murder him and hand over theproperty of the post to the Basque fishermen frequenting Tadousac. Theleader, Jean du Val, was hanged after a fair trial and three of hisaccomplices sent to France, where they expiated their crime in thegalleys. Great explorers had in those days to run such risks amongtheir followers and crews, not affected {71} by their own enthusiasm. Only three years later a famous sailor and discoverer of new seas andlands, was left to die among the waste of waters which ever since haverecalled the name of Henry Hudson. 

[Illustration: Habitation de Quebec, from Champlain's sketch. Key toillustration: A, Storehouse; B, Dovecote; C, Workmen's lodgings andarmoury; D, Lodgings for mechanics; E, Dial; F, Blacksmith's shop andworkmen's lodgings; G, Galleries; H, Champlain's residence; I, Gate anddrawbridge; L, Walk; M, Moat; N, Platform for cannon; O, Garden; P, Kitchen; P, Vacant space; R, St. Lawrence. ]

During the summer of 1609 Champlain decided to join an expedition ofthe Algonquin and Huron Indians of Canada against the Iroquois, whosecountry lay between the Hudson and Genesee rivers and westward of abeautiful lake which he found could be reached by the river, then knownas the River of {72} the Iroquois--because it was their highway to theSt. Lawrence--and now called the Richelieu. 

Canada was to pay most dearly in later years, as these pages will show, for the alliance Champlain made with the inveterate enemies of theablest and bravest Indians of North America. Nowhere in his ownnarrative of his doings in the colony does he give us an inkling of themotives that influenced him. We may, however, fairly believe that heunderrated the strength and warlike qualities of the Iroquois, andbelieved that the allied nations of Canada would sooner or later, withhis assistance, win the victory. If he had shown any hesitation toally himself with the Indians of Canada, he might have hazarded thefortunes, and even ruined the fur-trade which was the sole basis of thelittle colony's existence for many years. The dominating purpose ofhis life in Canada, it is necessary to remember, was the exploration ofthe unknown region to which the rivers and lakes of Canada led, andthat could never have been attempted, had he by any cold orunsympathetic conduct alienated the Indians who guarded the waterwaysover which he had to pass before he could unveil the mysteries of thewestern wilderness. 

In the month of June Champlain and several Frenchmen commenced theirascent of the Richelieu in a large boat, in company with several barkcanoes filled with sixty Canadian Indians. When they reached therapids near the lovely basin of Chambly--named after a French officerand seignior in later times--the French boat could not be taken any{73} further. It was sent back to Quebec while Champlain and twoothers, armed with the arquebus, a short gun with a matchlock, followedthe Indians through the woods to avoid this dangerous part of theriver. The party soon reached the safe waters of the Richelieu andembarked once more in their canoes. For the first time Champlain hadabundant opportunities to note the customs of the Indians on awar-path, their appeals to evil spirits to help them against theirenemies, their faith in dreams, and their methods of marching in ahostile country. The party passed into the beautiful lake which hasever since that day borne the great Frenchman's name; they saw itsnumerous islets, the Adirondacks in the west, and the Green Mountainsin the east. Paddling cautiously for some nights along the westernshore, they reached at last on the evening of the 29th of July a pointof land, identified in later days as the site of Ticonderoga, socelebrated in the military annals of America. Here they found a partyof Iroquois, who received them with shouts of defiance, but retreatedto the woods for the night with the understanding on both sides thatthe fight would take place as soon as the sun rose next morning. Theallies remained in their canoes, dancing, singing, and hurling insultsat their foes, who did not fail to respond with similar demonstrations. 

Next morning, two hundred stalwart Iroquois warriors, led by threechiefs with conspicuous plumes, marched from their barricade of logsand were met by the Canadian Indians. Champlain immediately fired onthe chiefs with such success that two of {74} them fell dead and theother was wounded and died later. "Our Indians, " writes Champlain, "shouted triumphantly, and then the arrows began to fly furiously fromboth parties. The Iroquois were clearly amazed that two chiefs shouldhave been so suddenly killed although they were protected from arrowsby a sort of armour made of strong twigs and filled with cotton. WhileI was reloading, one of my men, who was not seen by the enemy, fired ashot from the woods and so frightened the Iroquois, no longer led bytheir chiefs, that they lost courage and fled precipitately into theforest, where we followed and succeeded in killing a number and takingten or twelve prisoners. On our side only ten or fifteen were wounded, and they very soon recovered. "

On their return to the St. Lawrence, the Indians gave Champlain anillustration of their cruelty towards their captives. When they hadharangued the Iroquois and narrated some of the tortures that hisnation had inflicted on the Canadians in previous times, he was told tosing, and when he did so, as Champlain naïvely says, "the song was sadto hear. "

A fire was lit, and when it was very hot, the Indians seized a burningbrand and applied it to the naked body of their victim, who was tied toa tree. Sometimes they poured water on his wounds, tore off his nails, and poured hot gum on his head from which they had cut the scalp. Theyopened his arm near the wrists, and pulled at his tendons and when theywould not come off, they used their knives. The poor wretch was forcedto cry out now and then in his agony, and it made Champlain {75}heart-sick to see him so maltreated, but generally he exhibited so muchcourage and stoicism that he seemed as if he were not suffering at all. Champlain remonstrated with them, and was at last allowed to put aspeedy end to the sufferings of the unhappy warrior. But even when hewas dead, they cut the body into pieces and attempted to make thebrother of the victim swallow his heart. Champlain might well say thatit was better for an Indian to die on the battlefield or kill himselfwhen wounded, than fall into the hands of such merciless enemies. 

Soon after this memorable episode in the history of Canada, Champlaincrossed the ocean to consult De Monts, who could not persuade the kingand his minister to grant him a renewal of his charter. The merchantsof the seaboard had combined to represent the injury the trade of thekingdom would sustain by continuing a monopoly of Canadian furs. DeMonts, however, made the best arrangements he could under suchunfavourable conditions, and Champlain returned to the St. Lawrence inthe spring of 1610. During the summer he assisted the Canadian alliesin a successful assault on a large body of the Iroquois who had raiseda fortification at the mouth of the Richelieu, and all of whom werekilled. It was on this occasion, when a large number of Canadiannations were assembled, that he commenced the useful experiment ofsending Frenchmen into the Ottawa valley to learn the customs andlanguage of the natives, and act as interpreters afterwards. 

The French at Quebec heard of the assassination {76} of Henry theFourth who had been a friend of the colony. Champlain went to Francein the autumn of 1610, and returned to Canada in the following spring. In the course of the summer he passed some days on the island of MontRoyal where he proposed establishing a post where the allied nationscould meet for purposes of trade and consultation, as he told theOttawa Indians at a later time when he was in their country. He made aclearing on a little point to which he gave the name of Place Royale, now known as Pointe-à-Callières, on a portion of which the hospital ofthe Grey Nuns was subsequently built. It was not, however, untilthirty years later that the first permanent settlement was made on theisland, and the foundations laid of the great city which was firstnamed Ville-Marie. 

During the next twenty-four years Champlain passed some months inFrance at different times, according to the exigencies of the colony. One of the most important changes he brought about was the formation ofa new commercial association, for the purpose of reconciling rivalmercantile interests. To give strength and dignity to the enterprise, the Count de Soissons, Charles of Bourbon, one of the royal sons ofFrance, was placed at the head, but he died suddenly, and was replacedby Prince de Condé, Henry of Bourbon, also a royal prince, best knownas the father of the victor of Rocroy, and the opponent of Marie de'Medici during her intrigues with Spain. It was in this same year thathe entered into an engagement with a rich Calvinist, Nicholas Boulle, to marry his daughter Helen, then a child, {77} when she had arrived ata suitable age, on the condition that the father would supply funds tohelp the French in their Canadian experiment. The marriage was notconsummated until ten years later, and Champlain's wife, whoseChristian name he gave to the pretty islet opposite Montreal harbour, spent four years in the settlement. The happiness of a domestic lifewas not possible in those early Canadian days, and a gentle French girlprobably soon found herself a mere luxury amid the savagery of hersurroundings. Helen Champlain has no place in this narrative, and weleave her with the remark that she was converted by her husband, and onhis death retired to the seclusion of an Ursuline convent in France. No child was born to bear the name and possibly increase the fame ofChamplain. 

On his return to Canada, in the spring of 1613, Champlain decided toexplore the western waters of Canada. L'Escarbot, who published his"New France, " soon after his return from Acadia, tells us that"Champlain promised never to cease his efforts until he has found there[in Canada] a western or northern sea opening up the route to Chinawhich so many have so far sought in vain. " While at Paris, during thewinter of 1612, Champlain saw a map which gave him some idea of thegreat sea which Hudson had discovered. At the same time he heard froma Frenchman, Nicholas de Vignau, who had come to Paris direct from theOttawa valley, that while among the Algonquin Indians he had gone witha party to the north where they had found a salt water sea, on whoseshores were the remains {78} of an English ship. The Indians had also, according to Vignau, brought back an English lad, whom they intended topresent to Champlain when he made his promised visit to the UpperOttawa. 

Champlain probably thought he was at last to realise the dream of hislife. Accompanied by Vignau, four other Frenchmen, and an Indianguide, he ascended the great river, with its numerous lakes, cataracts, and islets. He saw the beautiful fall to which ever since has beengiven the name of Rideau--a name also extended to the river, whosewaters make the descent at this point--on account of its strikingresemblance to a white curtain. Next he looked into the deep chasm ofmist, foam, and raging waters, which the Indians called Asticou orCauldron (Chaudière), on whose sides and adjacent islets, then thicklywooded, now stand great mills where the electric light flashes amid thelong steel saws as they cut into the huge pine logs which the forestsof the Ottawa yearly contribute to the commerce and wealth of Canada. At the Chaudière the Indians evoked the spirits of the waters, andoffered them gifts of tobacco if they would ward off misfortune. Theexpedition then passed up the noble expansion of the river known as theChats, and saw other lakes and cataracts that gave variety and grandeurto the scenery of the river of the Algonquins, as it was then called, and reached at last, after a difficult portage, the country aroundAllumette lake, where Nicholas de Vignau had passed the previouswinter. Two hundred and fifty-four years later, on an August day, afarmer unearthed on this old {79} portage route in the district ofNorth Renfrew, an old brass astrolabe of Paris make, dated 1603; theinstrument used in those distant days for taking astronomicalobservations and ascertaining the latitude. No doubt it had belongedto Champlain, who lost it on this very portage by way of Muskrat andMud lakes, as from this place he ceases to give us the correctlatitudes which he had previously been able to do. 

[Illustration: Champlain's lost astrolabe. ]

Among the Algonquin Indians of this district, who lived in rudely-builtbark cabins or camps, and were hunters as well as cultivators of thesoil, he soon found out that there was not a word of truth in the storywhich Nicholas de Vignau had told him {80} of a journey to a northernsea, but that it was the invention of "the most impudent liar whom Ihave seen for a long time. " Champlain did not punish him, though theIndians urged him to put him to death. 

Champlain remained a few days among the Indians, making arrangementsfor future explorations, and studying the customs of the people. Hewas especially struck with their method of burial. Posts supported atablet or slab of wood on which was a rude carving supposed torepresent the features of the dead. A plume decorated the head of achief; his weapons meant a warrior; a small bow and one arrow, a boy; akettle, a wooden spoon, an iron pot, and a paddle, a woman or girl. These figures were painted in red or yellow. The dead slept below, wrapped in furs and surrounded by hatchets, knives, or other treasureswhich they might like to have in the far-off country to which they hadgone; for, as Champlain says, "they believe in the immortality of thesoul. "

Champlain made no attempt to proceed further up the river. Beforeleaving the Upper Ottawa, he made a cedar cross, showing the arms ofFrance--a custom of the French explorers, as Cartier's narrative tellsus--and fixed it on an elevation by the side of the lake. He alsopromised Tessouat to return in the following year and assist himagainst the Iroquois. 

The next event of moment in the history of the colony was the arrivalin 1615 of Fathers Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, and Joseph Le Caron, and{81} the lay brother Pacifique du Plessis, who belonged to themendicant order of the Recollets, or reformed branch of theFranciscans, so named from their founder, St. Francis d'Assisi. Theybuilt near the French post at Quebec a little chapel which was placedin charge of Father Jamay and Brother Du Plessis, while Jean d'Olbeauwent to live among the Montagnais and Joseph Le Caron among the Huronsof the West. 

During the summer of 1615 Champlain fulfilled his pledge to accompanythe allied tribes on an expedition into the country of the Iroquois. This was the most important undertaking of Champlain's life in Canada, not only on account of the length of the journey, and the knowledge heobtained of the lake region, but of the loss of prestige he must havesustained among both Iroquois and Canadian Indians who had previouslythought the Frenchman invincible. The enemy were reached not by theusual route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, considered toodangerous from their neighbourhood to the Iroquois, but by a longdetour by way of the Ottawa valley, Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, and theportages, rivers, and lakes that lead into the River Trent, which fallsinto the pretty bay of Quinté, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, whence they could pass rapidly into the country of the Five Nations. 

Accompanied by Stephen Brulé, a noted Indian interpreter, a servant, and eight Indians, Champlain left Montreal about the middle of July, ascended the Ottawa, and paddled down the Mattawa to the lake of theNipissings, where he had interviews with {82} the Indians who weredreaded by other tribes as sorcerers. 

The canoes of the adventurous Frenchmen went down French River, and atlast reached the waters of the great Fresh Water Sea, the _Mer Douce_of Champlain's maps, and now named Lake Huron in memory of the haplessrace that once made their home in that wild region. Passing by thewestern shore of the picturesque district of Muskoka, the party landedat the foot of the bay and found themselves before long among thevillages of the Hurons, whose country lay then between Nottawasaga Bayand Lake Simcoe. Here Champlain saw the triple palisades, long houses, containing several households, and other distinctive features of thoseIndian villages, one of which Cartier found at the foot of Mont Royal. 

In the village of Carhagouaha, where the palisades were as high asthirty-five feet, Champlain met Father Le Caron, the pioneer of theseintrepid missionaries who led the way to the head-waters andtributaries of the great lakes. For the first time in that westernregion the great Roman Catholic ceremony of the Mass was celebrated inthe presence of Champlain and wondering Indian warriors. At the townof Cahiague, the Indian capital, comprising two hundred cabins, andsituated within the modern township of Orillia, he was received withgreat rejoicings, and preparations immediately made for the expeditionagainst the Iroquois. Stephen Brulé undertook the dangerous mission ofcommunicating with the Andastes, a friendly nation near the {83}headwaters of the Susquehanna, who had promised to bring five hundredwarriors to the assistance of the Canadian allied forces. 

[Illustration: Onondaga fort in the Iroquois country; from Champlain'ssketch. ]

The expedition reached the eastern end of Lake Ontario at the beginningof October by the circuitous route I have already mentioned, crossed tothe other side somewhere near Sackett's harbour, and soon arrived inthe neighbourhood of the Onondaga fort, which is placed by the bestauthorities a few miles to the south of Lake Oneida. It was on theafternoon of the 10th of October, when the woods {84} wear theirbrightest foliage, that the allied Indians commenced the attack withall that impetuosity and imprudence peculiar to savages on suchoccasions. The fort was really a village protected by four concentricrows of palisades, made up of pieces of heavy timber, thirty feet inheight, and supporting an inside gallery or parapet where the defenderswere relatively safe from guns and arrows. The fort was by the side ofa pond from which water was conducted to gutters under the control ofthe besieged for the purpose of protecting the outer walls from fire. Champlain had nine Frenchmen under his direction--eight of them havingaccompanied Father Le Caron to the Huron village. It was utterlyimpossible to give anything like method to the Indian assaults on thestrong works of the enemy. Champlain had a high wooden platform built, and placed on it several of his gunners who could fire into thevillage, but the Iroquois kept well under cover and very little harmwas done. The attempts to fire the palisades were fruitless on accountof the want of method shown by the attacking parties. At last theallied Indians became disheartened when they saw Champlain himself waswounded and no impression was made on the fort. They returned to thecover of the woods, and awaited for a few days the arrival of StephenBrulé and the expected reinforcements of Andastes. But when nearly aweek had passed, and the scouts brought no news of Indians from theSusquehanna, the Canadians determined to return home without makinganother attack on the village. And here, I may {85} mention, thatStephen Brulé was not seen at Quebec until three years later. Itappeared then, from his account of his wanderings, that he succeededafter some vexatious delay in bringing the Andastes to Oneida Lake onlyto find that they had left the country of the Iroquois, who torturedhim for a while, and then, pleased with his spirit, desisted, andeventually gave him his liberty. He is reported to have reached in hiswanderings the neighbourhood of Lake Superior, where he found copper, but we have no satisfactory information on this point. [1]

On their return to Canada, the Indians carried Champlain and otherwounded men in baskets made of withes. They reached the Huron villageson the 20th of December after a long and wearisome journey. Champlainremained in their country for four months, making himself acquaintedwith their customs and the nature of the region, of which he has givena graphic description. Towards the last of April, Champlain left theHuron villages, and arrived at Quebec near the end of June, to thegreat delight of his little colony, who were in doubt of his evercoming back. 

Another important event in the history of those days was the cominginto the country of several Jesuit missionaries in 1625, when the Dukeof Ventadour, a staunch friend of the order, was made viceroy of thecolony in place of the Duke of Montmorency, who had purchased therights of the Prince of Condé when he was imprisoned in the {86}Bastile for having taken up arms against the King. These Jesuitmissionaries, Charles Lalemant, who was the first superior in Canada, Jean de Brebeuf, Ennemond Massé, the priest who had been in Acadia, François Charton, and Gilbert Buret, the two latter lay brothers, werereceived very coldly by the officials of Quebec, whose businessinterests were at that time managed by the Huguenots, William andEmeric Caen. They were, however, received by the Recollets, who hadremoved to a convent, Notre-Dame des Anges, which they had built by theSt. Charles, of sufficient strength to resist an attack which, it isreported on sufficiently good authority, the Iroquois made in 1622. The first Jesuit establishment was built in 1625 on the point at themeeting of the Lairet and St. Charles, where Cartier had made hislittle fort ninety years before. 

We come now to a critical point in the fortunes of the poor andstruggling colony. The ruling spirit of France, Cardinal Richelieu, atlast intervened in Canadian affairs, and formed the Company of NewFrance, generally called the company of the Hundred Associates, whoreceived a perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade, and a control of allother commerce for sixteen years, beside dominion over an immenseterritory extending from Florida to the Arctic Seas, and from the Gulfof St. Lawrence to the great Fresh Water Sea, the extent of which wasnot yet known. Richelieu placed himself at the head of the enterprise. No Huguenot thenceforth was to be allowed to enter the colony under anyconditions. The company was bound to send out immediately a {87}number of labourers and mechanics, with all their necessary tools, tothe St. Lawrence, and four thousand other colonists in the course offifteen years, and to support them for three years. Not only was thenew association a great commercial corporation, but it was a feudallord as well. Richelieu introduced in a modified form the old feudaltenure of France, with the object of creating a Canadian _noblesse_ andencouraging men of good birth and means to emigrate and develop theresources of the country. This was the beginning of that seigniorialtenure which lasted for two centuries and a quarter. 

Champlain was re-appointed lieutenant-governor and had every reason tobelieve that at last a new spirit would be infused into the affairs ofthe colony. Fate, however, was preparing for him a cruel blow. In thespring of 1628, the half-starved men of Quebec were anxiously lookingfor the provisions and men expected from France, when they weredismayed by the news that an English fleet was off the Saguenay. Thisdisheartening report was immediately followed by a message to surrenderthe fort of Quebec to the English admiral, David Kirk. War had beendeclared between England and France, through the scheming chiefly ofBuckingham, the rash favourite of Charles the First, and an intensehater of the French King for whose queen, Anne of Austria, he haddeveloped an ardent and unrequited passion. English settlements wereby this time established on Massachusetts Bay and England was ambitiousof extending her dominion over North {88} America, even in thosecountries where France had preceded her. 

Admiral Kirk, who was the son of a gentleman in Derbyshire, and one ofthe pioneers of the colonisation of Newfoundland, did not attempt thetaking of Quebec in 1628, as he was quite satisfied with the captureoff the Saguenay, of a French expedition, consisting of four armedvessels and eighteen transports, under the command of Claude deRoquemont, who had been sent by the new company to relieve Quebec. Next year, however, in July, he brought his fleet again to theSaguenay, and sent three ships to Quebec under his brothers, Lewis andThomas. Champlain immediately surrendered, as his little garrison werehalf-starved and incapable of making any resistance, and the Englishflag floated for the first time on the fort of St. Louis. Champlainand his companions, excepting thirteen who remained with the English, went on board the English ships, and Lewis Kirk was left in charge ofQuebec. On the way down the river, the English ships met a Frenchvessel off Malbaie, under the command of Emeric Caen, and after a hotfight she became also an English prize. 

When the fleet arrived in the harbour of Plymouth, the English Admiralheard to his amazement that peace had been declared some time before, and that all conquests made by the fleets or armies of either France orEngland after 24th April, 1629, must be restored. The Kirks andAlexander used every possible exertion to prevent the restoration ofQuebec and Port Royal, which was also in the {89} possession of theEnglish. Three years elapsed before Champlain obtained a restitutionof his property, which had been illegally seized. The King of England, Charles I. , had not only renewed a charter, which his father had givento a favourite, Sir William Alexander, of the present province of NovaScotia, then a part of Acadia, but had also extended it to the "countyand lordship of Canada. " Under these circumstances Charles delayed thenegotiations for peace by every possible subterfuge. At last theFrench King, whose sister was married to Charles, agreed to pay thelarge sum of money which was still owing to the latter as the balanceof the dower of his queen. Charles had already commenced that fightwith his Commons, which was not to end until his head fell on theblock, and was most anxious to get money wherever and as soon as hecould. The result was the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed onMarch 29, 1632. Quebec as well as Port Royal--to whose history I shallrefer in the following chapter--were restored to France, and Champlainwas again in his fort on Cape Diamond in the last week of May, 1633. Anumber of Jesuits, who were favoured by Richelieu, accompanied him andhenceforth took the place of the Recollets in the mission work of thecolony. In 1634, there were altogether eight Jesuit priests in thecountry. They appear to have even borrowed the name of the Recolletconvent, _Notre Dame des Anges_, and given it to their ownestablishment and seigniory by the St. Charles. 

During the last three years of Champlain's life in Canada no events ofimportance occurred. The {90} Company of the Hundred Associates hadbeen most seriously crippled by the capture of the expedition in 1628, and were not able to do very much for the colony. The indefatigablelieutenant-governor, true to his trust, succeeded in building a littlefort in 1634 at the mouth of the St. Maurice, and founded the presentcity of Three Rivers, as a bulwark against the Iroquois. It had, however, been for years a trading place, where Brother Du Plessis spentsome time in instructing the Indian children and people in the Catholicreligion, and was instrumental in preventing a rising of the MontagnaisIndians who had become discontented and proposed to destroy the Frenchsettlements. 

On Christmas Day, 1635, Champlain died from a paralytic stroke in thefort, dominating the great river by whose banks he had toiled andstruggled for so many years as a faithful servant of his king andcountry. Father Le Jeune pronounced the eulogy over his grave, theexact site of which is even now a matter of dispute. 

What had the patient and courageous Frenchman of Brouage accomplishedduring the years--nearly three decades--since he landed at the foot ofCape Diamond? On the verge of the heights a little fort of logs and achâteau of masonry, a few clumsy and wretched buildings on the pointbelow, a cottage and clearing of the first Canadian farmer Hébert, theruins of the Recollet convent and the mission house of the Jesuits onthe St. Charles, the chapel of Notre-Dame de Recouvrance, which he hadbuilt close to the fort to commemorate the restoration of {91} Quebecto the French, the stone manor-house of the first seignior of Canada, Robert Giffard of Beauport, a post at Tadousac and another at ThreeRivers, perhaps two hundred Frenchmen in the whole valley. These werethe only visible signs of French dominion on the banks of the St. Lawrence, when the cold blasts of winter sighed Champlain's requiem onthe heights whence his fancy had so often carried him to Cathay. Theresults look small when we think of the patience and energy shown bythe great man whose aspirations took so ambitious and hopeful a range. It is evident by the last map he drew of the country, that he had someidea of the existence of a great lake beyond Lake Huron, and of theNiagara Falls, though he had seen neither. He died, however, ignorantof the magnitude, number, and position of the western lakes, and stilldeluded by visions, as others after him, of a road to Asia. No one, however, will deny that he was made of the heroic mould from which comefounders of states, and the Jesuit historian Charlevoix has, withpoetic justice, called him the "Father of New France. "

[1] Brulé was murdered by the Hurons in 1634 at Toanché, an Indianvillage in the West. 

{92}

VII. 

GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS IN ACADIA. 

(1614-1677. )

We must now leave the lonely Canadian colonists on the snow-cladheights of Quebec to mourn the death of their great leader, and returnto the shores of Acadia to follow the fortunes of Biencourt and hiscompanions whom we last saw near the smoking ruins of their homes onthe banks of the Annapolis. We have now come to a strange chapter ofCanadian history, which has its picturesque aspect as well as itsepisodes of meanness, cupidity, and inhumanity. As we look back tothose early years of Acadian history, we see rival chiefs with theirbands of retainers engaged in deadly feuds, and storming each other'sfortified posts as though they were the castles of barons living inmediaeval times. We see savage Micmacs and Etchemins of Acadia, onlytoo willing to aid in the quarrels and contests of the white men whohate each with a malignity that even the Indian cannot excel; closelyshorn, ill-clad mendicant friars who see only good in those who {93}help their missions; grave and cautious Puritans trying to find theiradvantage in the rivalry of their French neighbours; a Scotch noblemanand courtier who would be a king in Acadia as well as a poet inEngland; Frenchmen who claim to have noble blood in their veins, andwish to be lords of a wide American domain; a courageous wife who laysaside the gentleness of a woman's nature and fights as bravely as anyknight for the protection of her home and what she believes to be herhusband's rights. These are among the figures that we see passingthrough the shadowy vista which opens before us as we look into thedepths of the Acadian wilderness two centuries and a half ago. 

Among the French adventurers, whose names are intimately associatedwith the early history of Acadia, no one occupies a more prominentposition than Charles de St. Etienne, the son of a Huguenot, Claude dela Tour, who claimed to be of noble birth. The La Tours had become sopoor that they were forced, like so many other nobles of those times, to seek their fortune in the new world. Claude and his son, thenprobably fourteen years of age, came to Port Royal with Poutrincourt in1610. In the various vicissitudes of the little settlement the fatherand his son participated, and after it had been destroyed by Argall, they remained with Biencourt and his companions. In the course oftime, the elder La Tour established a trading post on the peninsula atthe mouth of the Penobscot--in Acadian history a prominent place, asoften in possession of the English as the French. 

{94} Biencourt and his companions appear to have had some accessions totheir number during the years that followed the Virginian's visit. They built rude cabins on the banks of the Annapolis, and cultivatedpatches of ground after a fashion, beside raising a fort of logs andearth near Cape Sable, called indifferently Fort Louis or Lomeron. Ithas been generally believed that Biencourt died in Acadia about 1623, after making over all his rights to Charles La Tour, who was hispersonal friend and follower from his boyhood. Recently, however, thediscovery of some old documents in Paris throws some doubt on thegenerally accepted statement of the place of his death. [1]

It is quite certain, however, whether Biencourt died in France orAcadia, young La Tour assumed after 1623 the control of Fort St. Louisand all other property previously held by the former. In 1626 theelder La Tour was driven from the Penobscot by English traders fromPlymouth who took possession of the fort and held it for some years. He now recognised the urgent necessity of having his position in Acadiaratified and strengthened by the French king, and consequently went ona mission to France in 1627. 

About this time the attention of prominent men in England was called tothe fact that the French had settlements in Acadia. Sir WilliamAlexander, afterwards the Earl of Stirling, a favourite of King Jamesthe Fourth of Scotland and First of England, and an author of severalpoetical tragedies, wished {95} to follow the example of Sir FrederickGorges, one of the promoters of the colonisation of New England. Hehad no difficulty in obtaining from James, as great a pedant ashimself, a grant of Acadia, which he named Nova Scotia. When Charlesthe First became king, he renewed the patent, and also, at thepersuasion of the ambitious poet, created an order of Nova Scotiabaronets, who were obliged to assist in the settlement of the country, which was thereafter to be divided into "baronies. " Sir WilliamAlexander, however, did not succeed in making any settlement in NovaScotia, and did not take any definite measures to drive the French fromhis princely, though savage, domain until about the time Claude de laTour was engaged in advocating the claims of his son in Europe, wherewe must follow him. 

The elder La Tour arrived at an opportune time in France. CardinalRichelieu had just formed the Company of the Hundred Associates, and itwas agreed that aid should at once be sent to Charles de la Tour, whowas to be the King's lieutenant in Acadia. Men and supplies for theAcadian settlement were on board the squadron, commanded by Roquemont, who was captured by Kirk in the summer of 1628. On board one of theprizes was Claude de la Tour, who was carried to London as prisoner. Then to make the position for Charles de la Tour still more hazardous, Sir William Alexander's son arrived at Port Royal in the same year, andestablished on the Granville side a small Scotch colony as thecommencement of a larger settlement in the {96} future. Charles de laTour does not appear to have remained in Port Royal, but to haveretired to the protection of his own fort at Cape Sable, which theEnglish did not attempt to attack at that time. 

In the meantime the elder La Tour was in high favour at London. He wonthe affections of one of the Queen's maids of honour, and was easilypersuaded by Alexander and others interested in American colonisation, to pledge his allegiance to the English king. He and his son were madebaronets of Nova Scotia, and received large grants of land or"baronies" in the new province. As Alexander was sending an expeditionin 1630 with additional colonists and supplies for his colony in NovaScotia, Claude de la Tour agreed to go there for the purpose ofpersuading his son to accept the honours and advantages which the Kingof England had conferred upon him. The ambitious Scotch poet, it wasclear, still hoped that his arguments in favour of retaining Acadia, despite the treaty of Susa, made on the 24th of April, 1629, wouldprevail with the King. It was urged that as Port Royal was on soilbelonging to England by right of Cabot's discovery, and the French hadnot formally claimed the sovereignty of Acadia since the destruction oftheir settlement by Argall, it did not fall within the actualprovisions of a treaty which referred only to conquests made after itsratification. 

Charles de la Tour would not yield to the appeals of his father to giveup the fort at Cape Sable, and obliged the English vessels belonging toAlexander to retire to the Scotch settlement by the Annapolis {97}basin. The elder La Tour went on to the same place, where he remaineduntil his son persuaded him to join the French at Fort St. Louis, wherethe news had come that the King of France was determined on therestoration of Port Royal as well as Quebec. It was now decided tobuild a new fort on the River St. John, which would answer the doublepurpose of strengthening the French in Acadia, and driving the Britishout of Port Royal. Whilst this work was in course of construction, another vessel arrived from France with the welcome news that theloyalty of Charles de la Tour was appreciated by the King, who hadappointed him as his lieutenant-governor over Fort Louis, Port La Tour, and dependencies. 

By the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye the French regained Acadia andwere inclined to pay more attention to the work of colonisation. Richelieu sent out an expedition to take formal possession of NewFrance, and Isaac de Launoy de Razilly, a military man of distinction, a Knight of Malta, and a friend of the great minister, was appointedgovernor of all Acadia. He brought with him a select colony, composedof artisans, farmers, several Capuchin friars, and some gentlemen, among whom were two whose names occupy a prominent place in the annalsof Acadia and Cape Breton. One of them was Nicholas Denys, who becamein later years the first governor of Cape Breton, where he madesettlements at Saint Anne's and Saint Peter's, and also wrote anhistorical and descriptive account of the French Atlantic possessions. The most prominent {98} Frenchman after Razilly himself, was Charles deMenou, Chevalier d'Aunay and son of René de Menou, lord of Charnizay, who was of noble family, and became one of the members of the King'scouncil of state at the time the disputes between his son and Charlesde la Tour were at their height. Charles de Menou, or d'Aunay, as Ishall generally name him, was made Razilly's deputy, and consequentlyat the outset of his career assumed a prominence in the country thatmust have deeply irritated young La Tour, who still remained one of theKing's lieutenants and probably expected, until Razilly's arrival, tobe the head of the colony. 

Captain Forrester, in command of the Scotch colony at Port Royal, gaveup the post to Razilly in accordance with the orders of the Englishking, who had acted with much duplicity throughout the negotiations. The fort was razed to the ground, and the majority of the Scotch, whohad greatly suffered from disease and death, left Acadia, thoughseveral remained and married among the French colonists. This was theend of Alexander's experiment in colonising Acadia and founding acolonial _noblesse_. 

Razilly made his settlement at La Hève, on the Atlantic shore of NovaScotia, and Denys had a mill and trading establishment in the vicinity. Port Royal was improved and the post at Penobscot occupied. D'Aunaywas given charge of the division west of the St. Croix, and during thesummer of 1632 he came by sea to the Plymouth House on the Penobscot, and took forcible possession of the post with all its contents. A yearlater La Tour {99} also seized the "trading wigwam" at Machias, in thepresent State of Maine, but not before two of the English occupantswere killed. La Tour had by this time removed from Cape Sable to themouth of the River St. John, where he had built a strong fort on, probably, Portland Point, on the east side of the harbour of thepresent city of St. John, and was engaged in a lucrative trade in fursuntil a quarrel broke out between him and D'Aunay. 

Soon after Razilly's death in the autumn of 1635, D'Aunay asserted hisright, as lieutenant-governor of Acadia and his late chief's deputy, tocommand in the colony. He obtained from Claude de Razilly, brother ofthe governor, all his rights in Acadia, and removed the seat ofgovernment from La Hève to Port Royal, where he built a fort on thesite of the present town of Annapolis. It was not long before he andLa Tour became bitter enemies. 

La Tour considered, with much reason, that he had superior rights onaccount of his long services in the province that ought to have beenacknowledged, and that D'Aunay was all the while working to injure himin France. D'Aunay had certainly a great advantage over his opponent, as he had powerful influence at the French Court, while La Tour was notpersonally known and was regarded with some suspicion on account of hisfather being a Huguenot, and friendly to England. As a matter of fact, the younger La Tour was no Protestant, but a luke-warm Catholic, whoconsidered creed subservient to his personal interests. This factexplains why the Capuchin friars always had a good word to say for{100} his rival who was a zealous Catholic and did much to promotetheir mission. 

The French Government attempted at first to decide between the twoclaimants and settle the dispute, but all in vain. La Tour made anattempt in 1640 to surprise D'Aunay at Port Royal, but the result wasthat he as well as his bride, who had just come from France, werethemselves taken prisoners. The Capuchin friars induced D'Aunay to setthem all at liberty on condition that La Tour should keep the peace infuture. The only result was an aggravation of the difficulty and thereference of the disputes to France, where D'Aunay won the day both inthe courts and with the royal authorities. La Tour's commission wasrevoked and D'Aunay eventually received an order to seize the propertyand person of his rival, when he proved contumacious and refused toobey the royal command, on the ground that it had been obtained byfalse representations. He retired to his fort on the St. John, where, with his resolute wife and a number of faithful Frenchmen and Indians, he set D'Aunay at defiance. In this crisis La Tour resolved to appealto the government of Massachusetts for assistance. In 1630, the townof Boston was commenced on the peninsula of Shawmut, and was already aplace of considerable commercial importance. Harvard College wasalready open, schools were established, town meetings were frequent, and a system of representative government was in existence. Not onlyso, the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouthhad formed themselves into {101} a confederacy "for preserving andpropagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their ownmutual safety and welfare. "

Much sympathy was felt in Boston for La Tour, who was a man of verypleasing manners, and was believed to be a Huguenot at heart. Heexplained the affair at Machias and his relations with the FrenchGovernment to the satisfaction of the Boston people, though apparentlywith little regard to truth. The desire to encourage a man, whopromised to be a good customer of their own, finally prevailed overtheir caution, and the cunning Puritans considered they got out oftheir quandary by the decision that, though the colony could notdirectly contribute assistance, yet it was lawful for private citizensto charter their vessels, and offer their services as volunteers tohelp La Tour. The New Englanders had not forgotten D'Aunay's action atPenobscot some years before, and evidently thought he was a moredangerous man than his rival. 

Some Massachusetts merchants, under these circumstances, provided LaTour with four staunch armed vessels and seventy men, while he on hispart gave them a lien over all his property. When D'Aunay had tidingsof the expedition in the Bay of Fundy, he raised a blockade of Fort LaTour and escaped to the westward. La Tour, assisted by some of the NewEngland volunteers, destroyed his rival's fortified mill, after a fewlives were lost on either side. A pinnace, having on board a largequantity of D'Aunay's furs, was captured, and the {102} booty dividedbetween the Massachusetts men and La Tour. 

From his wife, then in France, where she had gone to plead his cause, La Tour received the unwelcome news that his enemy was on his return toAcadia with an overwhelming force. Thereupon he presented himselfagain in Boston, and appealed to the authorities for furtherassistance, but they would not do more than send a remonstrance toD'Aunay and ask explanations of his conduct. 

At this critical moment, La Tour's wife appeared on the scene. Unableto do anything in France for her husband, she had found her way toLondon, where she took passage on a vessel bound for Boston; but themaster, instead of carrying her directly to Fort La Tour, as he hadagreed, spent some months trading in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and onthe coast of Nova Scotia. D'Aunay was cruising off Cape Sable, in thehope of intercepting her, and searched the vessel, but Madame La Tourwas safely concealed in the hold, and the vessel was allowed to go onto Boston. On her arrival there, Madame La Tour brought an actionagainst the master and consignee for a breach of contract, andsucceeded in obtaining a judgment in her favour for two thousandpounds. When she found it impossible to come to a settlement, sheseized the goods in the ship, and on this security hired three vesselsand sailed to rejoin her husband. In the meantime an envoy fromD'Aunay, a Monsieur Marie, always supposed to be a Capuchin friar, presented himself to the Massachusetts authorities, and after making astrong {103} remonstrance against the course heretofore pursued by thecolony, proffered terms of amity in the future on the condition that nofurther aid was given to La Tour. After some consideration thecolonial government, of which Governor Endicott was now the head, agreed to a treaty of friendship, which was not ratified by D'Aunay forsome time afterwards, when La Tour was a fugitive. Then the terms weresanctioned by the commissioners of the confederated colonies. 

Having succeeded in obtaining the neutrality of the English coloniststhrough his agent Marie, D'Aunay then determined to attack La Tour'sfort on the St. John, as he had now under his control a sufficientnumber of men and ships. In the spring of the same year, however, whenLa Tour was absent, D'Aunay mustered all his vessels and men, and laidsiege to the fort, but he met with most determined resistance from thegarrison, nerved and stimulated by the voice and example of the heroicwife. The besiegers were almost disheartened, when a traitor withinthe walls--a "mercenary Swiss, " according to a contemporarywriter--gave them information which determined them to renew theassault with still greater vigour. D'Aunay and his men again attemptedto scale the walls, but were forced to retire with a considerableforce. Then D'Aunay offered fair terms if the fort was immediatelygiven up. Madame La Tour, anxious to spare the lives of her bravegarrison, which was rapidly thinning, agreed to the proposal, andsurrendered the fort; and then D'Aunay is said to have broken {104} hissolemn pledge, and hanged all the defenders except one, whose life wasspared on the condition of his acting as executioner. 

One would fain not believe what the contemporary historian adds, thatD'Aunay forced Madame La Tour to remain with a rope round her own neck, and witness the execution of the brave men who had so nobly assistedher in defending the fort. The poor lady did not long survive thistragedy, as she died a prisoner a few weeks later. All the acts of heradventurous and tragic career prove her to have been a good woman and acourageous wife, and may well be an inspiring theme for poetry andromance. [2]

D'Aunay now reigned supreme in Acadia. He had burdened himself heavilywith debt in his efforts to ruin his rival, but he had somecompensation in {105} the booty he found at St. John. By the captureof his fort La Tour lost jewels, plate, furniture, and goods valued atten thousand pounds, and was for a time a bankrupt. His debts inBoston were very heavy, and Major Gibbons, who had sent vessels to FortLa Tour in 1643, was never able to recover the mortgage he had taken onhis estate. Bereft of wife and possessions, La Tour left Acadia andsought aid from Sir David Kirk, who was then governor of Newfoundland, but to no purpose. Various stories are told of his career for twoyears or longer, and it is even reported that he robbed a Boston vesselin his necessities, "whereby it appeared, as the Scripture saith, "mournfully exclaims Governor Winthrop, "that there is no confidence inany unfaithful or carnal man. " Boston merchants and sailors hadsuffered a good deal from both D'Aunay and La Tour, and such a storywould naturally obtain credence among men who found they had made a badinvestment in Fort La Tour and its appendages. D'Aunay continued hiswork of improving Port Royal and surrounding country, and the colony hefounded was the parent of those large settlements that in the course oftime stretched as far as the isthmus of Chignecto. He was accidentallydrowned in the Annapolis River some time in 1650. French Canadianwriters call him cruel, vindictive, rapacious, and arbitrary, but hehas never been the favourite of historians. His plans of settlementhad a sound basis and might have led to a prosperous and populousAcadia, had he not wrecked them by the malignity with which he followedLa Tour and his wife. 

{106}

La Tour, in the year 1648, visited Quebec, where he was received withthe most gratifying demonstrations of respect by his countrymen, whoadmired his conduct in the Acadian struggle. Then D'Aunay died and LaTour immediately went to France, where the government acknowledged theinjustice with which it had treated him in the past, and appointed himgovernor of Acadia, with enlarged privileges and powers. In 1653 hemarried D'Aunay's widow, Jeanne de Motin, in the hope--to quote thecontract--"to secure the peace and tranquillity of the country, andconcord and union between the two families. " Peace then reigned forsome months in Acadia; many new settlers came into the country, theforts were strengthened, and the people were hoping for an era ofprosperity. But there was to be no peace or rest for the French inAcadia. 

One of D'Aunay's creditors in France, named Le Borgne, came to Americain 1654 at the head of a large force, with the object of obtainingpossession of D'Aunay's property, and possibly of his position inAcadia. He made a prisoner of Denys, who was at that time engaged intrade in Cape Breton, and treated him with great harshness. After ashort imprisonment at Port Royal, which was occupied by Le Borgne, Denys was allowed to go to France, where he succeeded eventually inobtaining a redress of his grievances, and an appointment as governorof Cape Breton. 

Whilst Le Borgne was preparing to attack La Tour, the English appearedon the scene of action. By this time the civil war had been fought in{107} England, the King beheaded, and Cromwell proclaimed LordProtector of the Commonwealth. In 1653 very strong representationswere made to the latter by the colonists of New England with respect tothe movements of the French in Acadia, and the necessity of reducingthe country to the dominion of England. Peace then nominally prevailedbetween France and Great Britain, but we have seen, as the case ofArgall proved, that matters in America were often arranged without muchreference to international obligations. A fleet, which had been sentout by Cromwell to operate against the Dutch colony at Manhattan, arrived at Boston in June, 1654, and the news came a few days laterthat peace had been proclaimed between the English and Dutch. Thereupon an expedition was organised against the French under thecommand of Major Robert Sedgewick of Massachusetts. Le Borgne at PortRoyal and La Tour on the St. John immediately surrendered to thisforce, and in a few days all Acadia was once more in the hands of theEnglish. Denys was almost ruined by these events and obliged to retirefor a time from the country. La Tour was now far advanced in years, and did not attempt to resist the evil destiny that seemed to followall the efforts of France to establish herself in Nova Scotia. Nodoubt the injuries he had received from his own countrymen, togetherwith the apathy which the French Government always displayed in theaffairs of Acadia, were strong arguments, if any were needed, to inducehim to place himself under the protection of the English. Therepresentations he {108} made to the Protector met with a favourableresponse, and obtained for him letters patent, dated August 9, 1656, granting to him, Sir Charles La Tour, in conjunction with Sir ThomasTemple and William Crowne, the whole territory of Acadia, the mines andminerals alone being reserved for the government. Sir Thomas Temple, aman of generous disposition and remarkably free from religiousprejudices, subsequently purchased La Tour's rights, and carried on alarge trade in Acadia with much energy. La Tour now disappears fromthe scene, and is understood to have died in the country he loved inthe year 1666, at the ripe age of seventy-four. He left severaldescendants, none of whom played a prominent part in Acadian history, though there are persons still in the maritime provinces of Canada whoclaim a connection with his family. His name clings to the littleharbour near Cape Sable, where he built his post of Lomeron, andantiquaries now alone fight over the site of the more famous fort atthe mouth of the St. John, where a large and enterprising city hasgrown up since the English occupation. About the figure of this boldgentleman-adventurer the romance of history has cast a veil of interestand generous appreciation on account of the devotion of his wife and ofthe obstinate fight he waged under tremendous disadvantages against awealthy rival, supported by the authority of France. He was made ofthe same material as those brave men of the west coast of England whofought and robbed the Spaniard in the Spanish Main, but as he plunderedonly Puritans by giving them worthier {109} mortgages, and fought onlyin the Acadian wilds, history has given him a relatively small space inits pages. 

Acadia remained in possession of England until the Treaty of Breda, which was concluded in July of 1667, between Charles II. And Louis XIV. Temple, who had invested his fortune in the country, was nearly ruined, and never received any compensation for his efforts to develop Acadia. In a later chapter, when we continue the chequered history of Acadia, we shall see that her fortunes from this time become more closelyconnected with those of the greater and more favoured colony of Francein the valley of the St. Lawrence. 

[1] See _Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada_, vol. X. , sec. 2, p. 93. 

[2] This story of the capture of Fort La Tour rests on the authority ofDenys (Description Géographique et Historique de l'AmériqueSeptentrionale, Paris, 1672), who was in Acadia at the time and musthave had an account from eyewitnesses of the tragedy. The detailswhich make D'Aunay so cruel and relentless are denied by a Mr. Moreauin his _Histoire de l'Acadie Française_ (Paris, 1873). This book isconfessedly written at the dictation of living members of the D'Aunayfamily, and is, from the beginning to the end, an undiscriminatingeulogy of D'Aunay and an uncompromising attack on the memory of La Tourand his wife. He attempts to deny that the fort was seized bytreachery, when on another page he has gone so far as to accuse someRecollets of having made, at the instigation of D'Aunay himself, anattempt to win the garrison from Madame La Tour who was a Protestantand disliked by the priests. He also admits that a number of thedefenders of the fort were executed, while others, probably thetraitors, had their lives spared. The attacks on Madame La Tour'scharacter are not warranted by impartial history, and clearly show thebias of the book. 

{110}

VIII. 

THE CANADIAN INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS: THEIR ORGANISATION, CHARACTER, AND CUSTOMS. 

At the time of Champlain's death we see gathering in America the forcesthat were to influence the fortunes of French Canada--the Englishcolonies growing up by the side of the Atlantic and the Iroquois, thosedangerous foes, already irritated by the founder of Quebec. TheseIndians were able to buy firearms and ammunition from the Dutch tradersat Fort Orange, now Albany, on the beautiful river which had beendiscovered by Hudson in 1609. From their warlike qualities and theirstrong natural position between the Hudson and Niagara rivers, they hadnow become most important factors in the early development of theFrench and English colonies, and it is consequently important to givesome particulars of their character and organisation. In the firstplace, however, I shall refer to those Indian tribes who lived inCanada, and were closely identified with the interests of the Frenchsettlements. These Indians also became possessed of {112} firearms, sold to them from time to time by greedy traders, despite the interdictof the French authorities in the early days of the colonies. 

[Illustration: Indian costumes, from Lafitau. 1. Iroquois; 2. Algonquin. ]

Champlain found no traces of the Indians of Cartier's time at Stadaconaand Hochelaga. The tribes which had frequented the St. Lawrenceseventy years before had vanished, and in their place he saw bands ofwandering Algonquins. It was only when he reached the shores ofGeorgian Bay that he came to Indian villages resembling that Hochelagawhich had disappeared so mysteriously. The St. Lawrence in Cartier'sday had been frequented by tribes speaking one or more of the dialectsof the Huron-Iroquois family, one of the seven great families that theninhabited North America east of the Mississippi, from the Gulf ofMexico to the Hudson's Bay. The short and imperfect vocabulary ofIndian words which Cartier left behind, his account of Hochelaga, theintimacy of the two Gaspé Indians with the inhabitants ofStadacona--these and other facts go to show that the barbarous tribeshe met were of the Iroquois stock. 

The Indians have never had any written records, in the European sense, to perpetuate the doings of their nations or tribes. From generationto generation, from century to century, however, tradition has told ofthe deeds of ancestors, and given us vague stories of the origin andhistory of the tribes. It is only in this folk-lore--proved often onpatient investigation to be of historic value--that we can find somethreads to guide us through the labyrinth of mystery to which we comein the prehistoric {113} times of Canada. Popular tradition tells usthat the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the same family, speakingdialects of one common language, were living at one time in villagesnot far from each other--the Hurons probably at Hochelaga and theSenecas on the opposite side of the mountain. It was against the lawof the two communities for their men and women to intermarry, but thepotent influence of true love, so rare in an Indian's bosom, soon brokethis command. A Huron girl entered the cabin of an Iroquois chief ashis wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the husband killed the wife inan angry moment. This was a serious matter, requiring a councilmeeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged, or liberalcompensation given to the friends of the dead. The council decidedthat the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please all herrelatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquoiswarrior. Then both tribes took up the hatchet and went on the warpathagainst each other, with the result that the village of Hochelaga, withall the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who wereprobably beaten, left the St. Lawrence, and eventually found a new homeon Lake Huron. [1]

Leaving this realm of tradition, which has probably a basis of fact, wecome to historic times. In Champlain's interesting narrative, and inthe Jesuit _Relations_, we find very few facts relating to Indianhistory, though we have very full information {114} respecting theircustoms, superstitions, and methods of living. The reports of themissionaries, in fact, form the basis of all the knowledge we have ofthe Canadian tribes as well as of the Five Nations themselves. 

It is only necessary that we should here take account of the Algonquinsand Huron-Iroquois, two great families separated from one another byradical differences of language, and not by special racial or physicalcharacteristics. The Eskimo, Dacotah, Mandan, Pawnee, and Muskokigroups have no immediate connection with this Canadian story, althoughwe shall meet representatives of these natural divisions in laterchapters when we find the French in the Northwest, and on the waters ofthe Missouri and Mississippi. The Algonquins and Huron-Iroquoisoccupied the country extending, roughly speaking, from Virginia toHudson's Bay, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. The Algonquinswere by far the most numerous and widely distributed. Dialects oftheir common language were heard on the Atlantic coast all the way fromCape Fear to the Arctic region where the Eskimo hunted the seal or thewalrus in his skin kayak. On the banks of the Kennebec and Penobscotin Acadia we find the Abenakis, who were firm friends of the French. They were hunters in the great forests of Maine, where even yet roamthe deer and moose. The Etchemins or Canoemen, inhabited the countrywest and east of the St. Croix River, which had been named by De Monts. In Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island, we see theMicmacs {115} or Souriquois, a fierce, cruel race in early times, whosechief, Membertou, was the first convert of the Acadian missionaries. They were hunters and fishermen, and did not till the soil even in thelazy fashion of their Algonquin kindred in New England. The climate ofNova Scotia was not so congenial to the production of maize as that ofthe more southern countries. It was the culture of this very prolificplant, so easily sown, gathered, and dried, that largely modified andimproved the savage conditions of Indian life elsewhere on thecontinent. It is where the maize was most abundant, in the valley ofthe Ohio, that we find relics of Indian arts--such as we never find inAcadia or Canada. 

On the St. Lawrence, between the Gulf and Quebec, there were wanderingAlgonquin tribes, generally known as Montagnais or Mountaineers, livingin rude camps covered with bark or brush, eking a precarious existencefrom the rivers and woods, and at times on the verge of starvation, when they did not hesitate at cannibalism. Between Quebec and theUpper Ottawa there were no village communities of any importance; forthe _Petite Nation_ of the river of that name was only a small band ofAlgonquins, living some distance from the Ottawa. On the Upper Ottawawe meet with the nation of the Isle (Allumette) and the Nipissings, both Algonquin tribes, mentioned in a previous chapter. They werechiefly hunters and fishermen, although the former cultivated somepatches of ground. On Georgian Bay we come to a nation speaking one ofthe dialects of a language quite distinct from that {116} of theAlgonquins. These were Hurons, numbering in all some twenty thousandsouls, of whom ten thousand or more were adults, living in thirty-twovillages, comprising seven hundred dwellings of the same style asCartier saw at Hochelaga. These villages were protected by stockadesor palisades, and by some natural features of their situation--a river, a lake, or a hill. Neither the long houses nor the fortifications wereas strongly or as cleverly constructed as those of the Iroquois. Maize, pumpkins, and tobacco were the principal plants cultivated. Sunflowers were also raised, chiefly for the oil with which theygreased their hair and bodies. Their very name meant "Shock-heads"--anickname originating from the exclamation of some Frenchmen, when theyfirst saw their grotesque way of wearing their hair, "_Quelles hures!_"(What a head of hair!) Champlain speaks of a tribe whom he met afterleaving Lake Nipissing, in 1615, and called the _Cheveux Relevés_, orpeople with the stiff hair, but they were wandering Algonquins. Champlain called the Hurons, Attigouantans, though their true name wasOuendat, afterwards corrupted to Wyandot, which still clings to aremnant of the race in America. 

They were brave and warlike, with perhaps more amiable qualities thanthe more ferocious, robust Iroquois. The nation appears to have been aconfederacy of tribes, each of which was divided into clans or _gentes_on the Iroquois principle, which I shall shortly explain. Two chiefs, one for peace and one for war, assisted by a council of tribal chiefs, {117} constituted the general government. Each tribe had a system oflocal or self-government--to use a phrase applicable to modern federalconditions--consisting of chiefs and council. The federal organisationwas not, however, so carefully framed and adjusted as that of theirkin, the Iroquois. At council meetings all the principal men attendedand votes were taken with the aid of reeds or sticks, the majorityprevailing in all cases. The whole organisation was essentially ademocracy, as the chiefs, although an oligarchy in appearance, werecontrolled by the voices and results of the councils. In this as inother American savage nations, the rule governing the transmission ofhereditary honours and possessions was through the female line. 

Beyond the Huron villages, south of Nottawasaga Bay--so named probablyfrom the Nottaways, a branch of the same family, driven by war to thesouth--we come to the Tionotates or Tobacco tribe, who were kin inlanguage and customs to their neighbours and afterwards joined theirconfederacy. The Neutral Nation, or Attiwandaronks of Iroquois stock, had their homes on the north shore of Lake Erie, and reached even asfar as the Niagara. They were extremely cruel, and kept for a longwhile their position of neutrality between the Hurons and Five Nations. To the south of Lake Erie rose the smoke of the fires of the Eries, generally translated "Cats, " but, properly speaking, the "Raccoons. "Like the Andastes, near the Susquehanna, mentioned in a previouschapter, they were famous warriors, and for years held their ownagainst the Iroquois, but {118} eventually both these nations yieldedto the fury of the relentless confederacy. 

We have now come to the western door of the "long house"(_Ho-dé-no-sote_) of the Iroquois, who called themselves "the people ofthe long house" (_Ho-dé-no-sau-nee_), because they dwelt in a line ofvillages of "long houses, " reaching from the Genesee to the Mohawk, where the eastern door looked toward the Hudson and Lake Champlain. The name by which they have been best known is considered by Charlevoixand other writers to be originally French; derived from "Hiro" (I havespoken)--the conclusion of all their harangues--and Koué, anexclamation of sorrow when it was prolonged, and of joy when pronouncedshortly. They comprised five nations, living by the lakes, that stillbear their names in the State of New York, in the following order as wego east from Niagara:

 IROQUOIS NATIONS. ENGLISH NAMES. FRENCH NAMES. 

 Nundawäona ) Seneca Tsonnontouans Great hill people )

 Guéugwehono ) Cayuga Goyogouin People of the marsh )

 Onundägaono ) Onondaga Onnontague People of the hills )

 Onayotékäono ) Oneida Onneyote Granite people )

 Gäneägaono ) Mohawk Agnier Possessors of the flint )

[Illustration: Iroquois long house (from Morgan). ]

Each tribe lived in a separate village of long houses, large enough tohold from five to twenty families. Each family was a clan orkin--resembling the _gens_ of the Roman, the _genos_ of the Greek--a{119} group of males and females, whose kinship was reckoned onlythrough females--the universal custom in archaic times in America. Asamong these people the marriage tie was easily sundered and chastitywas the exception, --remarkably so among the Hurons, their kindred--itis not strange that all rank, titles, and property should be based onthe rights of the woman alone. The child belonged consequently to theclan, not of the father, but of the mother. Each of these tenementhouses, as they may well be called, was occupied by related families, the mothers and their children belonging to the same clan, while thehusbands and the fathers of these children belonged to other clans;consequently, the clan or kin of the mother easily predominated in thehousehold. [2] Every clan had a name derived from the animal world, asa rule, and a rude picture {120} of the same was the "totem" orcoat-of-arms of the kin or _gens_, found over the door of a long houseor tattooed on the arms or bodies of its members. The Tortoise, Bear, and Wolf, were for a long time the most conspicuous totems of theIroquois. These people were originally a nation of one stock of eightclans, and when they separated into five tribes or sections, eachcontained parts of the original clans. Consequently, "all the membersof the same clan, whatever tribe they belonged to, were brothers orsisters to each other in virtue of their descent from the same commonfemale ancestor, and they recognised each other as such with thefullest cordiality. "

Whatever was taken in the hunt, or raised in cultivation, by any memberof the household--and the Iroquois were good cultivators of maize, beans, and squash--was used as a common stock for that particularhousehold. No woman could marry a member of her own clan or kin. Themarriage might be severed at the will of either party. Yet, while theIroquois women had so much importance in the household and in theregulation of inheritance, she was almost as much a drudge as the squawof the savage Micmacs of Acadia and the Gulf. 

The tribe was simply a community of Indians of a particular family orstock, speaking one of the dialects of its language. For instance, theFive Nations or Tribes spoke different dialects of the Iroquoian stocklanguage, but each could understand the other sufficiently for allpurposes of deliberation and discussion. Each tribe was governed byits {121} own council of sachems and chiefs--the latter inferior inrank--elected by their respective clans, but invested with office bythe whole tribe. For all purposes of tribal government the tribes hadseparate territories and jurisdiction. For common purposes they unitedin a confederation in which each tribe occupied a position of completeequality--the exception being the Tuscaroras--Dusgaóweh or"shirt-wearing people"--who came from the south at the beginning of theeighteenth century, and made up the "Six Nations. " If a tribe madepeace it would not bind the other tribes unless they had given theirconsent in formal council, or by the presence of their representatives. A general council of fifty sachems, equal in rank and authority, administered the affairs of the confederation. These sachems werecreated in perpetuity in certain clans of the several tribes andinvested with office by the general council. They were also sachems intheir respective tribes, and with other clan-chiefs formed the councilwhich was supreme over all matters appertaining to the tribeexclusively. Women, too, had their clan and other councils, and couldmake their wishes known through the delegates they appointed to thecouncil of the league. In the federal council the sachems voted bytribes, and unanimity was essential before action was taken or aconclusion arrived at. The general council was open to the wholecommunity for the discussion of public questions, but the council alonedecided. The council of each tribe had power to convene the generalcouncil, but the latter could not convene itself. {122} With theobject of preventing the concentration of too much power in one man'shands, the federal council appointed two war chiefs, equal inauthority. The council fire or brand was always burning in the valleyof the Onondagas, where the central council met as a rule in theautumn, or whenever a tribe might consider a special meeting necessary. The Onondagas had also the custody of the "Wampum, " or mnemonic recordof their structure of government, and the Tadodä'ho, or most noblesachem of the league, was among the same tribe. The origin of theconfederacy is attributed in legendary lore to Hä-yo-went'-hä, theHiawatha of Longfellow's poem. 

These are the main features of that famous polity of the Iroquois whichgave them so remarkable a power of concentration in war, and was onereason of their decided superiority over all the other nations ofAmerica. In council, where all common and tribal affairs were decided, the Iroquois showed great capacity for calm deliberation, and becamequite eloquent at times. Their language was extremely figurative, though incapable of the expression of abstract thought, as is the casewith Indian tongues generally. The Indian--essentially amaterialist--could only find his similes, metaphors, and illustrationsin the objects of nature, but these he used with great skill. TheIroquois had a very keen appreciation of their interests, and were wellable to protect them in their bargains or contracts with the white men. In war they were a terrible foe, and a whisper of their neighbourhoodbrought consternation to Indian camps and cabins, from the Kennebec{123} to the Delaware, from the Susquehanna to the Illinois. They havebeen well described as "the scourge of God upon the aborigines of thecontinent. " In their political organisation, their village life, theirculture of the soil, their power of eloquence, their skill aspoliticians as well as warriors, they were superior to all the tribesin America as far as New Mexico, although in the making of pottery andother arts they were inferior to the mound-builders of the Ohio and theMississippi--probably the Allegewi who gave their names to theAlleghanies and are believed by some writers to have been eitherexterminated by a combination of Algonquin and Iroquois or drivensouthward where they were absorbed in other nations. At no time couldthe Iroquois muster more than 3000 warriors; and yet they were thescourge and dread of all the scattered tribes of Algonquins, numberingin the aggregate probably 90, 000 souls, and eventually crushed theHurons and those other tribes of their own nationality, who did notbelong to their confederacy and had evoked their wrath. 

The Algonquin and Huron-Iroquois nations had many institutions andcustoms in common. Every clan had some such totem as I have describedin the case of the Iroquois. Every tribe had its chiefs as militaryleaders and its councils for deliberation and decision. Consequentlythe democratic principle dominated the whole organisation. Eloquencewas always prized and cultivated as a necessity of the system ofgovernment. Some tribes had their special orators among the chiefs. Though a general {124} war was dependent on the action of the council, yet any number of warriors might go on the warpath at any time againstthe enemies of the tribe. They had no written records, but theirmemories were aided in council or otherwise by reeds or sticks and rudepictures; strings of wampum--cleverly manufactured from shells--servedas annals, which the skilled men of a tribe could decipher and explain. The wampum belts performed an important part in the declaration of waror peace, and the pipe was equally effective in the deliberations ofcouncil and in the profession of amity. Murder might be expiated bypresents to the family or relatives of the dead, and crime was rarelyfollowed by death except there was a question of other nations, whowould not be content unless the blood of their kinsman was washed awayby blood. Charity and hospitality were among the virtues of the Indianrace, especially among the Iroquois, and while there was food in avillage no one need starve. The purity of love was unknown to a savagenature, chiefly animated by animal passion. Prisoners were treatedwith great ferocity, but the Iroquois exceeded all nations in theingenuity of torture. Stoicism and endurance, even heroic, werecharacteristics of Indians generally, when in the hands of theirenemies, and the cruellest insult that a warrior could receive was tobe called a woman. Sometimes prisoners were spared and adopted intothe tribe, and among most nations the wife or mother or sister of adead chief might demand that he be replaced by a prisoner to whom theymay have taken a fancy. After torture parts {125} of the bodies of thevictim would be eaten as a sort of mystic ceremony, but this custom waspeculiar to the Hurons and Iroquois only. In their warlike expeditionsthey had no special discipline, and might be successfully met on theopen field or under the protection of fortified works. Their favouritesystem was a surprise or furious onslaught. A siege soon exhaustedtheir patience and resources. They were as treacherous as they werebrave. In the shades of the forest, whose intricacies and secrets theyunderstood so well, they were most to be feared. Behind every treemight lurk a warrior, when once a party was known to be on the warpath. To steal stealthily at night through the mazes of the woods, tomahawktheir sleeping foes, and take many scalps, was the height of anIndian's bliss. Curious to say, the Indians took little precautions toguard against such surprises, but thought they were protected by theirmanitous or guardian spirits. 

A spirit of materialism prevailed in all their superstitions. They hadno conception of one all-pervading, omniscient divine being, governingand watching over humanity, when the missionaries first came amongthem. It was only by making use of their belief in the existence of asupreme chief for every race of animals, that the priests could leadtheir converts to the idea of a Great Spirit who ruled all creation. In their original state of savagery or barbarism, any conception anIndian might have of a supernatural being superior to himself wasfrittered away by his imagining that the whole material world was underthe influence of innumerable mysterious {126} powers. In the stirringof the leaves, in the glint of the sunbeam amid the foliage, in theshadow on his path, in the flash of the lightning, in the crash of thethunder, in the roar of the cataract, in the colours of the rainbow, inthe very beat of his pulse, in the leap of the fish, in the flight ofthe birds, he saw some supernatural power to be evoked. The Indiancompanions of Champlain, we remember, threw tobacco to the genius orManitou of the great fall of the Ottawa. The Manitou of theAlgonquins, and the Okies or Otkons of the Hurons and Iroquois were notalways superior, mysterious beings endowed with supernatural powers, like the Algonquin Manabozho, the Great Hare, the king of all animals;or a deified hero, like Hiawatha, the founder of the Iroquoisconfederacy, and Glooscap, the favourite of Micmac legends. TheManitou or Oki might even be a stone, a fish-bone, a bird's feather, ora serpent's skin, or some other thing in the animate or inanimateworld, revealed to a young man in his dreams as his fetich or guardianthrough life. Dreams were respected as revelations from the spiritworld. As Champlain tells us, during his first expedition to LakeChamplain, the Indians always questioned him as to his dreams, and atlast he was able to tell them that he had seen in a vision someIroquois drowning in the lake, and wished to help them, but was notpermitted to do so by the Indians of his own party. This dream, intheir opinion, was a portent in their favour. 

A fetich became at last even the object of an Indian's worship--to bethanked, flattered, {127} expostulated with, according to theemergency. It can be easily seen that in this Indian land ofmysterious agencies, of manitous and spirits, the medicine-man andconjuror exercised a great power among old and young, chiefs and women. He had to be consulted in illness, in peace, in war, at every moment ofimportance to individual or nation. Even in case of illness anddisease he found more value in secret communications with thesupernatural world, and in working on the credulity of his tribesmen, than in the use of medicines made from plants. The grossestsuperstition dominated every community. All sorts of mysticceremonies, some most cruel and repugnant to every sense of decency, were usual on occasions when supernatural influences had to be calledinto action. 

Every respect was paid to the dead, who were supposed to have gone on ajourney to a spirit land. Every one had such a separate scaffold orgrave, generally speaking, as Champlain saw among the Ottawas, but itwas the strange custom of the Hurons to collect the bones of their deadevery few years and immure them in great pits or ossuaries withweirdlike ceremonies very minutely described in the _Relations_. In apassage previously quoted Champlain gave credit to the Indians forbelieving in the immortality of the soul. The world to which theIndian's imagination accompanied the dead was not the Heaven or Hell ofthe Jew or Christian. Among some tribes there was an impression ratherthan a belief that a distinction was made in the land of the Ponemah orHereafter between the great or {128} useful, and the weak or useless;but generally it was thought that all alike passed to the Spirit Land, and carried on their vocations as in life. It was a Land of Shadeswhere trees, flowers, animals, men, and all things were spirits. 

 "By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews In vestments for the-chase arrayed The hunter still the deer pursues, The hunter and the deer a shade. "

[1] See Horatio Hale's "Fall of Hochelaga, " in _Journal of AmericanFolklore_, Cambridge, Mass. , 1894. 

[2] In this necessarily very imperfect description of the organisationand customs of the Five Nations I depend mainly on those valuable andnow rare books, _The League of the Iroquois_, and _Houses and Home Lifeof the Aborigines_, by Lewis H. Morgan. The reader should also consultHoratio Hale's _Iroquois Book of Rites_. 

{129}

IX. 

CONVENTS AND HOSPITALS--VILLE-MARIE--MARTYRED MISSIONARIES--VICTORIOUS IROQUOIS--HAPLESS HURONS. 

(1635-1652. )

A scene that was witnessed on the heights of Quebec on a fine Junemorning, two hundred and eighty-three years ago, illustrated the spiritthat animated the founders of Canada. At the foot of a cross knelt theGovernor, Charles Hault de Montmagny, Knight of Malta, who had come totake the place of his great predecessor, Samuel Champlain, whoseremains were buried close by, if indeed this very cross did notindicate the spot. Jesuits in their black robes, soldiers in their gayuniforms, officials and inhabitants from the little town below, allfollowed the example of Montmagny, whose first words were, according toFather Le Jeune, the historian of those days: "Behold the first crossthat I have seen in this country, let us worship the crucified Saviourin his image. " Then, this act of devotion accomplished, the processionentered the {130} little church dedicated by Champlain to Notre Dame dela Recouvrance, where the priests solemnly chanted the _Te Deum_ andoffered up prayers for the King of France. 

The Church was first, the State second. After the service the newgovernor entered the fort of St. Louis, only a few steps from thesacred building, received the keys amid salutes of cannon and musketry, and was officially installed as head of the civil and militarygovernment of Canada, at this time controlled by the Company of theHundred Associates. Then he was called upon to act as god-father for adying Indian who desired baptism. In the smoky cabin packed withIndians Montmagny stood by the earnest Jesuit and named the AlgonquinJoseph. "I leave you to think, " says Father Le Jeune, "how greatlyastonished were these people to see so much crimson, so many handsomelydressed persons beneath their bark roofs. "

[Illustration: Marie Guyard (Mère Marie de l'Incarnation). ]

During the period of which I am now writing we see the beginnings ofthe most famous educational and religious institutions of the country. The Hotel Dieu was founded in 1639, by the Soeurs Hospitalières fromthe convent of St. Augustine, in Dieppe, through the benefactions ofthe Duchess d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu. Rich, fascinating, and beautiful women contributed not only their fortunesbut their lives to the service of the Church. Marie Madeleine deChauvigny, who belonged to a noble family in Normandy, married at avery early age a M. De la Peltrie, who left her a young widow oftwenty-two years of age, without {132} any children. Deeply attachedto her religion from her youth, she decided to devote her life and herwealth to the establishment of an institution for the instruction ofgirls in Canada. Her father and friends threw all possible obstaclesin the way of what they believed was utter folly for a gentle culturedwoman, but she succeeded by female wiles and strategy in carrying outher plans. On the first of August, 1639, she arrived at Quebec, incompany with Marie Guyard, the daughter of a silk manufacturer ofTours, best known to Canadians as Mère de l'Incarnation, the mothersuperior of the Ursulines, whose spacious convent and grounds now coverseven acres of land on Garden Street in the ancient capital. She had avision of a companion who was to accompany her to a land of mists andmountains, to which the Virgin beckoned as the country of her futurelife-work. Canada was the land and Madame de la Peltrie the companionforeshadowed in that dream which gave Marie Guyard a vocation which shefilled for thirty years with remarkable fidelity and ability. 

Madame de la Peltrie and Marie Guyard were accompanied by Mdlle. DeSavonnière de la Troche, who belonged to a distinguished family ofAnjou, and was afterwards known in Canada as Mère de St. Joseph, andalso by another nun, called Mère Cécile de Sainte-Croix. A Jesuit, Father Vimont, afterwards superior, and author of one of the_Rélations_, and the three Hospital sisters, arrived in the same ship. 

The company landed and "threw themselves on their knees, blessed theGod of Heaven, and kissed {133} the earth of their near country, asthey now called it. " A _Te Deum_ followed in the Jesuits' church whichwas now completed on the heights near their college, commenced as earlyas 1635--one year before the building of Harvard College--through thegenerosity of Réné Rohault, eldest son of the Marquis de Gamache. Thefirst visit of the nuns was to Sillery, four miles to the west ofQuebec, on the north bank of the river, where an institution had beenestablished for the instruction of the Algonquin and other Indians, through the liberality of Noël Brulart de Sillery, a Knight of Malta, and a member of an influential French family, who had taken a deepinterest in the settlement of Canada and proved it by his bounty. Madame de la Peltrie and her companions, the Jesuit historian tells usnaïvely, embraced the little Indian girls "without taking heed whetherthey were clean or not. "

It was during Montmagny's term of office that the city of Montreal wasfounded by a number of religious enthusiasts. Jérôme le Royer de laDauversière, receiver of taxes at La Flêche in Anjou, a noble anddevotee, consulted with Jean Jacques Olier, then a priest of St. Sulpice in Paris, as to the best means of establishing a mission inCanada. Both declared they had visions which pointed to the island ofMont Royal as the future scene of their labours. They formed a companywith large powers as seigniors as soon as they had obtained from M. DeLauzon, one of the members of the Company of Hundred Associates, atitle to the island. They interested in the project Paul de Chomedey, Sieur {134} de Maisonneuve, a devout and brave soldier, an honest andchivalric gentleman, who was appointed the first governor by the newcompany. Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, daughter of the attorney-general ofNogent-le-Roi, among the vine-clad hills of Champagne, who had boundherself to perpetual chastity from a remarkably early age, gladlyjoined in this religious undertaking. The company had in view theestablishment of communities of secular priests, and of nuns to nursethe sick, and teach the children--the French as well as the savages. Madame de Bullion, the rich widow of a superintendent of finance, contributed largely towards the enterprise, and may be justlyconsidered the founder of Hotel Dieu of Montreal. 

Maisonneuve and Mdlle. Mance, accompanied by forty men and four women, arrived at Quebec in August, 1641, when it was far too late to attemptan establishment on the island. Governor de Montmagny and others atQuebec disapproved of the undertaking which had certainly elements ofdanger. The governor might well think it wisest to strengthen thecolony by an establishment on the island of Orleans or in the immediatevicinity of Quebec, instead of laying the foundations of a new town inthe most exposed part of Canada. However, all these objections availednothing against the enthusiasm of devotees. In the spring of 1642, Maisonneuve and his company left Quebec. He was accompanied byGovernor de Montmagny, Father Vimont, superior of the Jesuits, andMadame de la Peltrie, who left the Ursulines very abruptly andinconsiderately {135} under the conviction that she had a mission tofill at Mont Royal. 

[Illustration: Portrait of Maisonneuve. ]

On the 17th May, Maisonneuve and his companions landed on the littletriangle of land, the Place Royale of Champlain, formed by the junctionof a stream with the St. Lawrence. They fell immediately on theirknees and gave their thanks to the {136} Most High. After singing somehymns, they raised an altar which was decorated by Madame de la Peltrieand Mdlle. Mance, and celebrated the first great mass on the island. Father Vimont, as he performed this holy rite of his Church, addressedthe new colonists with words which foreshadowed the success of theRoman Catholic Church in the greatest Canadian city, which was firstnamed Ville-Marie. 

A picket enclosure, mounted with cannon, protected the humble buildingserected for the use of the first settlers on what is now theCustom-house Square. The little stream--not much more than a rivuletexcept in spring--which for many years rippled between green, mossybanks, now struggles beneath the paved street. 

An obelisk of gray Canadian granite now stands on this historic ground. Madame de la Peltrie did not remain more than two years in Ville-Marie, but returned to the convent at Quebec which she had left in a moment ofcaprice. Mdlle. Mance, who was Madame de Bullion's friend, remained atthe head of the Hotel Dieu. The Sulpicians eventually obtained controlof the spiritual welfare, and in fact of the whole island, though fromnecessity and policy the Jesuits were at first in charge. It was notuntil 1653 that one of the most admirable figures in the religious andeducational history of Canada, Margaret Bourgeoys, a maiden of Troyes, came to Ville-Marie, and established the parent house in Canada of theCongregation de Notre-Dame, whose schools have extended in the progressof centuries from Sydney, on the island of Cape Breton, to the Pacificcoast. 

{137}

Yet during these years, while convents and hospitals were founded, while brave gentlemen and cultured women gave up their lives to theircountry and their faith, while the bells were ever calling theircongregations to mass and vespers, the country was defended by a merehandful of inhabitants, huddled together at Quebec, at Three Rivers, and at the little settlement of Ville-Marie. The canoes of theIroquois were constantly passing on the lakes and rivers of Canada, from Georgian Bay to the Richelieu, and bands of those terrible foes ofthe French and their Indian allies were ever lurking in the woods thatcame so dangerously close to the white settlements and the Indianvillages. 

In 1642, Father Isaac Jogues was returning from the missions on LakeHuron, with Couture, an interpreter, and Goupil, a young medicalattendant--both donnés or lay followers of the Jesuits. They were inthe company of a number of Hurons who were bringing furs to the traderson the St. Lawrence, when the Iroquois surprised them at the westernend of Lake St. Peter's. The prisoners were taken by the Richelieu tothe Mohawk country and Father Jogues was the first Frenchman to passthrough Lake George[1]--with its picturesque hills and islets--which ina subsequent journey he named Lac du Saint-Sacrament, because hereached it on the eve of Corpus Christi. The Frenchmen were carriedfrom village to village of the Iroquois, and {138} tortured with allthe cruel ingenuity usual in such cases. Goupil's thumb was cut offwith a clam shell, as one way of prolonging pain. At night theprisoners were stretched on their backs with their ankles and wristsbound to stakes. Couture was adopted into the tribe, and was founduseful in later years as an intermediary between the French andMohawks. Goupil was murdered and his body tossed into a stream rushingdown a steep ravine. Despite his sufferings Father Jogues neverdesisted from his efforts to baptise children and administer the ritesof his Church to the tortured prisoners. On one occasion he performedthe sacred office for a dying Huron with some rain or dewdrops whichwere still clinging to an ear of green corn which had been thrown tohim for food. After indescribable misery, he was taken to Fort Orange, where the Dutch helped him to escape to France, but he returned toCanada in the following year. 

Bands of Iroquois continued to wage war with relentless fury on all theAlgonquin tribes from the Chaudière Falls of the Ottawa to the upperwaters of the Saguenay. Bressani, a highly cultured Italian priest, was taken prisoner on the St. Lawrence, while on his way to the Huronmissions, and carried to the Mohawk villages, where he went through thecustomary ordeal of torture. He was eventually given to an old womanwho had lost a member of her family, but when she saw his maimedhands--one split between the little finger and the ring-finger--shesent him to the Dutch, who ransomed and sent him to France, whence hecame back like Jogues, a year later. 

{139}

In 1645 the Mohawks made peace with the French, but the other membersof the Five Nations refused to be bound by the treaty. Father IsaacJogues ventured into their country in 1646, and after a successfulnegotiation returned to consult the governor at Quebec; but unhappilyfor him he left behind a small box, filled with some necessaries of hissimple life, with which he did not wish to encumber himself on thisflying visit. The medicine-men or sorcerers, who always hated themissionaries as the enemies of their vile superstitious practices, madethe Indians believe that this box contained an evil spirit which wasthe origin of disease, misfortune, and death. When Father Jogues cameback, he found the village divided into two parties--one wishing hisdeath, the other inclined to show him mercy, and after infinitewrangling between the factions, he was suddenly killed by a blow from atomahawk as he was entering a long-house, to attend a feast to which hehad been invited. His body was treated with contumely, and his headaffixed to a post of the palisades of the village. He was the firstmartyr who suffered death at the hands of the Iroquois. 

The "black robe" was now to be seen in every Indian community ofCanada; among the Hurons and Algonquins as far as Lake Huron, among theWhite Fish tribe at the head-waters of the Saguenay, and even among theAbenakis of the Kennebec. Father Gabriel Druillétes, who had served anapprenticeship among the Montagnais, was in charge of this Abenakimission, and in the course of years {140} visited Boston, Plymouth, andSalem, in the interests of the Canadian French, who wished to enterinto commercial relations with New England, and also induce itsgovernments to enter into an alliance against the Iroquois. Theauthorities of the New England confederacy eventually refused to evokethe hostility of the dangerous Five Nations. Father Druillétes, however, won for Canada the enduring friendship of the Abenakis, asAcadian history shows. 

It is impossible within the limited space of this chapter to give anyaccurate idea of the spirit of patience, zeal, and self-sacrifice whichthe Jesuit Fathers exhibited in their missions among the haplessHurons. For years they found these Indians very suspicious of theirefforts to teach the lessons of their faith. It was only withdifficulty the missionaries could baptise little children. They wouldgive sugared water to a child, and, apparently by accident, drop someon its head, and at the same time pronounce the sacramental words. Some Indians believed for a long time that the books and strings ofbeads were the embodiment of witchcraft. But the persistency of thepriests was at last rewarded by the conversion, or at all events thesemblance of conversion, of large numbers of Hurons. It would seem, according as their fears of the Iroquois increased, the Hurons gavegreater confidence to the French, and became more dependent on theircounsel. In fact, in some respects, they lost their spirit ofself-reliance. In some villages the converts at last exceeded thenumber of unbelievers. By {141} 1647 there were eighteen priestsengaged in the work of eleven missions, chiefly in the Huron country, but also among the Algonquin tribes on the east and northeast of LakeHuron or at the outlet of Lake Superior. Each mission had its littlechapel, and a bell, generally hanging on a tree. One central missionhouse had been built at Ste. Marie close to a little river, now knownas the Wye, which falls into Thunder Bay, an inlet of Matchedash Bay. This was a fortified station in the form of a parallelogram, constructed partly of masonry, and partly of wooden palisades, strengthened by two bastions containing magazines. The chapel and itspictures attracted the special admiration of the Indians, whoseimagination was at last reached by the embellished ceremonies of theJesuits' church. The priests, thoroughly understanding thesuperstitious character of the Indians, made a lavish use of pictorialrepresentations of pain and sufferings and rewards, allotted to bad andgood. Father Le Jeune tells us that "such holy pictures are mostuseful object-lessons for the Indians. " On one occasion he made aspecial request for "three, four, or five devils, tormenting a soulwith a variety of punishments--one using fire, another serpents, andanother pincers. " The mission house was also constantly full ofIndians, not simply enjoying these pictures, but participating also inthe generous hospitality of the Fathers. 

It was in 1648 that the first blow descended on this unhappy people whowere in three years' time to be blotted out as a warlike, united nationin {142} America. In that year the Iroquois attacked the mission ofSt. Joseph (Teanaustayé), fifteen miles from Ste. Marie, where in 1638a famous Iroquois, Ononkwaya, had been tortured. All the people hadbeen massacred or taken prisoners in the absence of the warriors whowere mostly in pursuit of a band of Iroquois. Father Daniel, arrayedin the vestments of his vocation, was among the first to fall a victimto the furious savages, who instantly cast his body into the flames ofhis burning chapel, --a fitting pyre for the brave soldier of the Cross. St. Ignace, St. Louis, and other missions were attacked early in thefollowing year. Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant weretortured and murdered at St. Ignace. From village after village theshrieks of helpless women and men and children, tied to stakes inburning houses, ascended to a seemingly pitiless Heaven. Many personswere tortured on the spot, but as many or more reserved for the sportof the Iroquois villages. Father Brebeuf was bound to a stake, andaround his neck was thrown a necklace of red-hot tomahawks. They cutoff his lower lip, and thrust a heated iron rod down his throat. Itwas doubtless their delight to force a groan or complaint from thisstalwart priest, whose towering and noble figure had always been theadmiration of the Canadian Indians, but both he and Lalemant, arelatively feeble man, showed themselves as brave as the mostcourageous Indian warriors under similar conditions. 

When a party from Ste. Marie came a few days later to the ruins of St. Ignace, they found the {143} tortured bodies of the dead missionarieson the ground, and carried them to the mission house, where they wereburied in sacred earth. The skull of the generous, whole-souledBrebeuf is still to be seen within a silver bust in the Hotel Dieu ofQuebec. Father Gamier was killed at the mission of St. Jean (Etarita), in the raids which the Iroquois made at a later time on the TobaccoNation, the kindred of the Hurons. Father Chabanel, who was on his wayfrom St. Jean to Ste. Marie, was never heard of, and it is generallybelieved that he was treacherously killed and robbed by a Huron. 

The Hurons were still numerous despite the losses they hadsuffered--counting even then more families than the Five Nations--butas they looked on the smoking ruins of their villages and thought ofthe undying hatred which had followed them for so many years they lostall courage and decided to scatter and seek new homes elsewhere. Father Ragueneau, the superior of the Jesuits, after consultation withthe Fathers and Frenchmen at Ste. Marie, some fifty persons altogether, felt they could no longer safely remain in their isolated position whenthe Hurons had left the country. They removed all their goods to theIsle of St. Joseph, now one of the Christian Islands, near the entranceof Matchedash Bay, where they erected a fortified post for theprotection of several thousand Hurons who had sought refuge here. Before many months passed, the Hurons believed that their positionwould be untenable when the Iroquois renewed their attacks, anddetermined to leave the island. Some ventured {144} even among theIroquois and were formally received into the Senecas and other tribes. A remnant remained a few months longer on the island, but they soonleft for Quebec after killing some thirty of the bravest Iroquoiswarriors, who had attempted to obtain possession of the fort by a baseact of treachery. A number belonging to the Tobacco Nation eventuallyreached the upper waters of the Mississippi where they met the Sioux, or Dacotahs, a fierce nation belonging to a family quite distinct fromthe Algonquins and Iroquois, and generally found wandering between thehead-waters of Lake Superior and the Falls of St. Anthony. Aftervarious vicissitudes these Hurons scattered, but some found their restby the side of the Detroit River, where they have been always known asWyandots. Some three hundred Hurons, old and young, left St. Josephfor Quebec, where they were most kindly received and given homes on thewestern end of the Isle of Orleans, where the Jesuits built a fort fortheir security; but even here, as we shall see, the Iroquois followedthem, and they were eventually forced to hide themselves under the gunsof Quebec. War and disease soon thinned them out, while not a few castin their lot with the Iroquois who were at last themselves seekingrecruits. The Huron remnant finally found a resting-place at Loretteon the banks of the St. Charles, a few miles from the heights of theCapital. 

The only memorials now in Canada of a once powerful people, thatnumbered at least twenty thousand souls before the time of their ruinand {145} dispersion, are a remnant still retaining the language oftheir tribe on the banks of the Detroit; a larger settlement on thebanks of the St. Charles, but without the distinguishingcharacteristics of their ancestors who came there from Isle St. Joseph;the foundations of the old mission house of Ste. Marie, and theremarkable graves and ossuaries which interest the student andantiquary as they wander in the summer-time through the picturesquecountry where the nation was once supreme. 

[1] It was so called in 1753, after the reigning sovereign of Englandby an ambitions and politic Irishman, Sir William Johnson, whose nameis constantly occurring in the history of the wars between England andFrance. 

{146}

X. 

YEARS OF GLOOM--THE KING COMES TO THE RESCUE OF CANADA--THE IROQUOIS HUMBLED. 

(1652-1667. )

It was noon on the 20th May, 1656, when the residents of Quebec werestartled by the remarkable spectacle of a long line of bark canoesdrawn up on the river immediately in front of the town. They couldhear the shouts of the Mohawk warriors making boast of the murder andcapture of unhappy Hurons, whom they had surprised on the Isle ofOrleans close by. The voices of Huron girls--"the very flower of thetribe, " says the Jesuit narrator--were raised in plaintive chants atthe rude command of their savage captors, who even forced them to dancein sight of the French, on whose protection they had relied. Thegovernor, M. De Lauzon, a weak, incapable man, only noted for hisgreed, was perfectly paralysed at a scene without example, even inthose days of terror, when the Iroquois were virtually masters of theSt. Lawrence valley from Huron to Gaspé. 

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At this very time a number of Frenchmen--probably fifty in all--were inthe power of the Iroquois, and the governor had no nerve to make evenan effort to save the Hurons from their fate. To understand thesituation of affairs, it is necessary to go back for a few years. After the dispersion of the Hurons, the Iroquois, principally theMohawks, became bolder than ever on the St. Lawrence. M. DuPlessis-Bochat, the governor of Three Rivers, lost his life in acourageous but ill-advised attempt to chastise a band of warriors thatwere in ambush not far from the fort. Father Buteux was killed on hisway to his mission of the Attikamegs or White Fish tribe, at theheadwaters of the St. Maurice. In 1653, Father Poucet was carried offto a Mohawk village, where he was tortured in the usual fashion, andthen sent back to Canada with offers of peace. The Senecas and Cayugaswere then busily engaged in exterminating the Eries, who had burned oneof their most famous chiefs, whose last words at the stake wereprophetic: "Eries, you burn in me an entire nation!"

A peace, or rather a truce, was declared formally in the fall of 1653. Then, at the request of the Onondagas, Father Simon le Moyne, amissionary of great tact and courage, who was the first Frenchman toascend the St. Lawrence as far as the Thousand Isles, ventured into theIroquois country, where he soon became a favourite. As a result of thenegotiations which followed this mission, Governor de Lauzon waspersuaded to send a colony to the villages of the Onondagas. Thiscolony was composed {148} of Captain Dupuy, an officer of the garrison, ten soldiers, and between thirty and forty volunteers. Father Dablon, who had previously gone with Father Chaumonot among the Onondagas, andhad brought back the request for a colony, accompanied the expedition, which left Quebec in the month of June, 1656. On the way up the riverthe Onondagas were attacked by a band of Mohawks, when the boatscarrying the French had gone ahead and were not within sight. Some ofthe Onondagas were killed and wounded, and then the Mohawks found outthat they had surprised and injured warriors belonging to a tribe oftheir own confederacy. They endeavoured to explain this very seriousact of hostility against their own friends and allies by the excusethat they had mistaken them for Hurons, whom they were on the way toattack. There is little doubt that they well understood the characterof the expedition, and attacked it through envy of the success of theOnondagas in obtaining the settlement of Frenchmen in their villages. 

When the Mohawks had made their explanations, they allowed the angryOnondagas to proceed on their journey, while they themselves went on toQuebec where, as we have already seen, they showed their contempt ofthe French by assailing the Hurons under the very guns of the fort ofSt. Louis. As soon as the French colony arrived at the Onondagavillages, they took possession of the country in the name of Jesus. Onan eminence overlooking the lake they erected the mission of St. Maryof Gannentaha, the correct Iroquois name for Onondaga, {149} in thevicinity of the present city of Syracuse. The Onondagas generallyappeared delighted at the presence of the French, though at this verytime the Mohawks continued to paddle up and down the St. Lawrence tothe consternation of the French and Canadian Indians alike. The Jesuitpriest Garreau was killed in one of these excursions while accompanyinga party of Ottawas to Lake Superior. 

The colonists at Gannentaha at last found that their own lives werethreatened by a conspiracy to destroy them, but they succeeded indeceiving the Indians and in escaping to Canada in the month of March, after living only two years among the Onondagas. Whilst the Indianswere sleeping away the effects of one of those mystic feasts, at whichthey invariably stuffed themselves to repletion, the Frenchmen escapedat night and reached the Oswego River, which they successfullydescended by the aid of flat-boats which they had secretly constructedafter the discovery of the plot. The party reached the Frenchsettlement with the loss of three men, drowned in the descent of therapids of the St. Lawrence, probably the Cedars. The enterprise wasmost hazardous at this season when the ice had to be broken on therivers before the boats could be used. But this very fact had itsadvantage, since the bark canoes of the Indians would have been uselesshad they followed the party. This exploit is one of the mostremarkable ever performed by the French in those early days, and showsof what excellent material those pioneers of French colonisation weremade. 

In the spring of 1660 it was discovered that an {150} organised attackwas to be made on all the settlements by a large force of over athousand Iroquois, who were to assemble at the junction of the Ottawaand St. Lawrence rivers. It is stated on credible authority thatMontreal--Canada in fact--was saved at this critical juncture by theheroism of a few devoted Frenchmen. Among the officers of the littlegarrison that then protected Montreal, was Adam Daulac or Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, who obtained leave from Maisonneuve, the governor, to lead a party of volunteers against the Iroquois, who were winteringin large numbers on the upper Ottawa. Sixteen brave fellows, whosenames are all recorded in the early records of Montreal, took a solemnoath to accept and give no quarter, and after settling their privateaffairs and receiving the sacrament, they set out on their mission ofinevitable death. Dollard and his band soon reached the impetuousrapids of the Long Sault of the Ottawa, destined to be theirThermopylae. There, among the woods, they found an old circularinclosure of logs, which had been built by some Indians for defensivepurposes. This was only a wretched bulwark, but the Frenchmen were ina state of exalted enthusiasm, and proceeded to strengthen it. Onlytwo or three days after their arrival, they heard that the Iroquoiswere descending the river. The first attacks of the Iroquois wererepulsed, and then they sent out scouts to bring up a large force offive hundred warriors who were at the mouth of the Richelieu. In themeantime they continued harassing the inmates of the fort, who weresuffering for food and {151} water. A band of Hurons who had joinedthe French just before the arrival of the Iroquois, now deserted them, with the exception of their chief, who as well as four Algonquins, remained faithful to the end. The forests soon resounded with theyells of the Iroquois, when reinforced. Still Dollard and his bravecompanions never faltered, but day after day beat back the astonishedassailants, who knew the weakness of the defenders, and had anticipatedan easy victory. At last a general assault was made, and in thestruggle Dollard was killed. Even then the survivors kept up thefight, and when the Iroquois stood within the inclosure there was noone to meet them. Four Frenchmen, still alive, were picked up from thepile of corpses. Three of these were instantly burned, while thefourth was reserved for continuous torture a day or so later. Thefaithless Hurons gained nothing by their desertion, for they were putto death, with the exception of five who eluded their captors, and tookan account of this remarkable episode to the French at Montreal. TheIroquois were obviously amazed at the courage of a few Frenchmen, anddecided to give up, for the present, their project of attackingsettlements defended by men so dauntless. 

Even the forces of nature seemed at this time to conspire against theunfortunate colony. A remarkable earthquake, the effects of which canstill be seen on the St. Lawrence, --at picturesque Les Eboulements, which means "earth slips, " for instance, --commenced in the month ofFebruary, 1663, and did not cease entirely until the following summer. 

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Fervent appeals for assistance were made to the King by Pierre Boucher, the governor of Three Rivers, by Monseigneur Laval, the first bishop, by the Jesuit Fathers, and by the governors of New France, especiallyby M. D'Avaugour, who recommended that three thousand soldiers be sentto the colony, and allowed to become settlers after a certain term ofservice. By 1663, the total population of Canada did not exceed twothousand souls, the large majority of whom were at Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. It was at the risk of their lives that men venturedbeyond the guns of Montreal. The fur-trade was in the hands ofmonopolists. The people could not raise enough food to feedthemselves, but had to depend on the French ships to a large extent. The Company of the Hundred Associates had been found quite unequal tothe work of settling and developing the country, or providing adequatemeans of defence. Under the advice of the great Colbert, the King, young Louis Quatorze, decided to assume the control of New France andmake it a royal province. The immediate result of the new policy wasthe coming of the Marquis de Tracy, a veteran soldier, aslieutenant-general, with full powers to inquire into the state ofCanada. He arrived at Quebec on the 30th June, 1665, attended by abrilliant retinue. The Carignan-Salières Regiment, which haddistinguished itself against the Turks, was also sent as a proof of theintention of the King to defend his long-neglected colony. In a fewweeks, more than two thousand persons, soldiers and settlers, had cometo Canada. Among {153} the number were M. De Courcelles, the firstgovernor, and M. Talon, the first intendant, under the new régime. Both were fond of state and ceremony, and the French taste of theCanadians was now gratified by a plentiful display of gold lace, ribbons, wigs, ornamented swords, and slouched hats. Probably the mostinteresting feature of the immigration was the number of young women aswives for the bachelors--as the future mothers of a Canadian people. 

The new authorities went energetically to work. The fortifications atQuebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were strengthened, and four newforts erected from the mouth of the Richelieu to Isle La Mothe on LakeChamplain. The Iroquois saw the significance of this new condition ofthings. The Onondagas, led by Garacontié, a friend of the Jesuits, made overtures of peace, which were favourably heard by "Onontio, " asthe governor of Canada had been called ever since the days ofMontmagny, whose name, "Great Mountain, " the Iroquois so translated. The Mohawks, the most dangerous tribe, sent no envoys, and Courcelles, in the inclement month of January, went into their country with a largeforce of regular soldiers and fur hunters, but missed the trail totheir villages, and found himself at the Dutch settlements, where helearned, to his dismay, that the English had become the possessors ofthe New Netherlands. On its return, the expedition suffered terriblyfrom the severe cold, and lost a number of persons who were killed bythe Indians, always hovering in the rear. The Mohawks then {154}thought it prudent to send a deputation to treat for peace, but theMarquis de Tracy and Governor de Courcelles were suspicious of theirgood faith, and sent a Jesuit priest to their country to ascertain thereal sentiment of the tribe. He was recalled, while on the way, onaccount of the news that several French officers--one of them arelative of the lieutenant-general--had been murdered by the Mohawks. The lieutenant-general and governor at once organised a powerfulexpedition of the regular forces and Canadian inhabitants--somethirteen hundred in all--who left Quebec, with those two distinguishedofficers in command, on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, the14th September, 1666, as every effort was made to give a religiousaspect to an army, intended to avenge the death of martyredmissionaries, as well as to afford Canada some guarantees of peace. Ittook the expedition nearly a month to reach the first village of the Mohawks, but only to find it deserted. It was the same result in threeother villages visited by the French. The Mohawks had madepreparations for defence, but their courage failed them as they heardof the formidable character of the force that had come into thecountry. They deserted their homes and great stores of provisions. Villages and provisions were burned, and the Iroquois saw only asheswhen they returned after the departure of the French. It was a greatblow to these formidable foes of the French. Peace was soon madebetween the Five Nations and the French. The Marquis de Tracy thenreturned to France, and for twenty years {155} Canada had a respitefrom the raids which had so seriously disturbed her tranquillity, andwas enabled at last to organise her new government, extend hersettlements, and develop her strength for days of future trial. 

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XI. 

CANADA AS A ROYAL PROVINCE--CHURCH AND STATE. 

(1663-1759. )

We have now come to that period of Canadian history when the politicaland social conditions of the people assumed those forms which theyretained, with a few modifications from time to time, during the wholeof the French régime. Four men now made a permanent impress on thestruggling colony so long neglected by the French Government. First, was the King, Louis Quatorze, then full of the arrogance and confidenceof a youthful prince, imbued with the most extravagant idea of hiskingly attributes. By his side was the great successor of Mazarin, Jean Baptiste Colbert, whose knowledge of finance, earnest desire tofoster the best resources of the kingdom, acknowledged rectitude, aswell as admirable tact, gave him not only great influence in France, but enabled him to sway the mind of the autocratic king at mostcritical junctures. Happily for Colbert and Canada, Louis was a mostindustrious {157} as well as pleasure-seeking sovereign, and studiedthe documents, which his various servants, from Colbert to theintendants in the colonies, sent him from time to time respecting theiraffairs. 

In Canada itself the great minister had the aid of the ablest intendantever sent by the King to Canada. This was Jean Baptiste Talon, who wasnot inferior to Colbert for his knowledge of commerce and finance, andclearness of intellect. 

We see also in the picture of those times the piercing eyes andprominent nose of the ascetic face of the eminent divine who, even morethan Colbert and Talon, has moulded the opinions of the Canadian peoplein certain important respects down to the present time. MonseigneurLaval was known in France as the Abbé de Montigny, and when the Jesuitsinduced him to come to Canada he was appointed grand vicar by the Pope, with the title of Bishop of Petrosa. 

Before the Canadian bishops and their agents in France decided on theAbbé de Montigny as a bishop they had made an experiment with the AbbéQueylus, one of the four Sulpician priests who came to Montreal in1657, to look after the spiritual, and subsequently its temporal, interests. The Abbé had been appointed vicar-general of Canada by theArchbishop of Rouen, who claimed a certain ecclesiastical jurisdictionin the country, and the Jesuits at Quebec were at first disposed tomake him bishop had they found him sufficiently ductile. After someexperience of his opinions and character, they came to the conclusionthat he was not a friend of their {158} order, and used all theirinfluence thenceforth to drive him from Canada. Then they chose theAbbé de Montigny, between whom and the Abbé Queylus there ensued aconflict of authority, which ended eventually in the defeat of thelatter, as well as of the Archbishop of Rouen. The Abbé, divested ofhis former dignity and pretensions, returned in later years to theisland of Montreal, of which the Sulpicians had become the seigniorialproprietors, when the original company were too weak to carry out theobjects of their formation. The same order remains in possession oftheir most valuable lands in the city and island, where their seminaryfor the education of priests and youth generally occupies a highposition among the educational institutions of the province. 

Bishop Laval was endowed with an inflexible will, and eminently fittedto assert those ultramontane principles which would make all temporalpower subordinate to the Pope and his vicegerents on earth. His claimto take precedence even of the governor on certain public occasionsindicates the extremes to which this resolute dignitary of the Churchwas prepared to go on behalf of its supremacy. 

[Illustration: Portrait of Laval, first Canadian bishop. ]

No question can be raised as to Bishop Laval's charity and generosity. He accumulated no riches for himself--he spent nothing on the luxuries, hardly anything on the conveniences of life, but gave freely to theestablishment of those famous seminaries at Quebec, which have beenever since identified with the religious and secular instruction of theFrench Canadians, and now form part of the noble university which bearshis name. 

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With a man like Laval at the head of the Church in Canada at this earlyperiod, it necessarily exercised a powerful influence at the councilboard, and in the affairs of the country generally. If he wassometimes too arbitrary, too arrogant in the assertion of hisecclesiastical dignity, yet he was also {160} animated by veryconscientious motives with respect to temporal questions. In thequarrel he had with the governor, Baron Dubois d'Avaugour, an oldsoldier, as to the sale of brandy to the Indians, he showed that hiszeal in the discharge of what he believed to be a Christian andpatriotic duty predominated above all such mercenary and commercialconsiderations as animated the governor and officials, who believedthat the trading interests of the country were injured by prohibition. Laval saw that the very life-blood of the Indians was being poisoned bythis traffic, and succeeded in obtaining the removal of D'Avaugour. But all the efforts of himself and his successor, Saint-Vallier, couldnot practically restrain the sale of spirituous liquors, as long as thefur-trade so largely depended on their consumption. 

At this time, and for a long time afterwards, Protestantism was unknownin Canada, for the King and Jesuits had decided to keep the colonyentirely free from heresy. The French Protestants, after therevocation of the edict of Nantes, gave to England and the Netherlandsthe benefit of their great industry and manufacturing knowledge. Someof them even found their way to America, and stimulated the gatheringstrength of the southern colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas. 

The new régime under Colbert was essentially parental. All emigrationwas under the direction of the French authorities. Wives were sent byshiploads for the settlers, newly-wedded couples received liberalpresents suitable to their condition in a new country; early marriagesand large families were {161} encouraged by bounties. Every possiblecare was taken by the officials and religious communities who hadcharge of such matters, that the women were of good morals, andsuitable for the struggles of a colonial existence. 

While State and Church were providing a population for the country, Colbert and Talon were devoting themselves to the encouragement ofmanufactures and commerce. When the Company of the Hundred Associates, who appear to have been robbed by their agents in the colony, fell topieces, they were replaced by a large organisation, known as theCompany of the West, to which was given very important privilegesthroughout 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 whereit was given so many privileges. The government hereafter controlledall commerce and finance. Various manufactures, like shipbuilding, leather, hemp, and beer, were encouraged, but at no time did Canadashow any manufacturing or commercial enterprise. Under the system ofmonopolies and bounties fostered by Colbert and his successors, aspirit of self-reliance was never stimulated. The whole system ofgovernment tended to peculation and jobbery--to the enrichment ofworthless officials. The people were always extremely poor. Money wasrarely seen in the shape of specie. The few coins that came to thecolony soon found their way back to France. From 1685 down to 1759 thegovernment issued a {162} paper currency, known as "card money, "because common playing cards were used. This currency bore the crownand fleur-de-lis and signatures of officials, and gradually becamedepreciated and worthless. 

[Illustration: Card issue of 1729, for 12 livres. ]

While the townsfolk of Massachusetts were discussing affairs intown-meetings, the French inhabitants of Canada were never allowed totake part in public assemblies but were taught to depend in the mosttrivial matters on a paternal government. Canada was governed as faras possible like a province of France. In the early days of thecolony, when it was under the rule of the Company of the HundredAssociates, the governors practically exercised arbitrary power, withthe assistance of a nominal council chosen by themselves. When, however, {163} the King took the government of the colony into his ownhands, he appointed a governor, an intendant, and a supreme or--as itwas subsequently called--a sovereign council, of which the bishop was amember, to administer under his own direction the affairs of thecountry. The governor, who was generally a soldier, was nominally atthe head of affairs, and had the direction of the defences of thecolony, but to all intents and purposes the intendant, who was a man oflegal attainments, had the greater influence. He was the financeminister, and made special reports to the King on all Canadian matters. He had the power of issuing ordinances which had the effect of law, andshowed the arbitrary nature of the government to which the people weresubject. Every effort to assemble the people for public purposes wassystematically crushed by the orders of the government. A publicmeeting of the parishioners to consider the cost of a new church couldnot be held without the special permission of the intendant. CountFrontenac, immediately after his arrival, in 1672, attempted toassemble the different orders of the colony, the clergy, the _noblesse_{164} or _seigneurs_, the judiciary, and the third estate, in imitationof the old institutions of France. The French king promptly rebukedthe haughty governor for this attempt to establish a semblance ofpopular government. 

[Illustration: Fifteen sol piece. ]

From that moment we hear no more of the assembling of "CanadianEstates, " and an effort to elect a mayor and aldermen for Quebec alsofailed through the opposition of the authorities. An attempt was thenmade to elect a syndic--a representative of popular rights intowns--but M. De Mésy, then governor, could not obtain the consent ofthe bishop, who knew that his views were those of the King. The resultof the difficulties that followed was the dismissal of the governor, who died soon afterwards, but not until he had confessed his error, andmade his peace with the haughty bishop whom he had dared to oppose. 

The administration of local affairs throughout the province wasexclusively under the control of the King's officers at Quebec. Theordinances of the intendant and of the council were the law. Thecountry was eventually subdivided into the following divisions forpurposes of government, settlement, and justice: 1. Districts. 2. Seigniories. 3. Parishes. The districts were simply established forjudicial and legal purposes, and each of them bore the name of theprincipal town within its limits--viz. , Quebec, also called the_Prévoté de Quebec_, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In each of thesedistricts there was a judge, appointed by the king, to adjudicate onall civil and criminal matters. An appeal was allowed in the mosttrivial cases to the {165} supreme or superior council, which alsoexercised original jurisdiction. The customary law of Paris, which isbased on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, andstill governs the civil rights of the people. 

The greater part of Canada was divided into large estates orseigniories, with the view of creating a colonial _noblesse_, and ofstimulating settlement in a wilderness. It was not necessary to be ofnoble birth to be a Canadian seigneur. Any trader with a few louisd'or and influence could obtain a patent for a Canadian lordship. Theseignior on his accession to his estate was required to pay homage tothe King, or to his feudal superior in case the lands were granted byanother than the King. The seignior received his land gratuitouslyfrom the crown, and granted them to his vassals, who were generallyknown as _habitants_, or cultivators of the soil, on condition of theirmaking small annual payments in money or produce known as _cens etrente_. The _habitant_ was obliged to grind his corn at the seignior'smill (_moulin banal_), bake his bread in the seignior's oven, give hislord a tithe of the fish caught in his waters, and comply with otherconditions at no time onerous or strictly enforced in the days of theFrench régime. This system had some advantages in a new country likeCanada, where the government managed everything, and colonisation wasnot left to chance. The seignior was obliged to cultivate his estateat a risk of forfeiture, consequently it was absolutely necessary thathe should exert himself to bring settlers upon his lands. Theobligation of the _habitant_ to grind his corn in the seignior's {166}mill was clearly an advantage for the settlers. In the early days ofthe colony, however, the seigniors were generally too poor to fulfilthis condition, and the _habitants_ had to grind corn between stones, or in rude hand mills. The seigniors had the right of dispensingjustice in certain cases, though it was one he very rarely exercised. As respects civil affairs, however, both lord and vassal were to allintents and purposes on the same footing, for they were equally ignoredin matters of government. 

In the days of the French régime, the only towns for many years wereQuebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In remote and exposed places--likethose on the Richelieu, where officers and soldiers of theCarignan-Salières Regiment had been induced to settle--palisadedvillages had been built. The principal settlements were, in course oftime, established on the banks of the St. Lawrence, as affording inthose days the easiest means of intercommunication. As the lots of aseigniorial grant were limited in area--four arpents in front by fortyin depth--the farms in the course of time assumed the appearance of acontinuous settlement on the river. These various settlements becameknown in local phraseology as Côtes, apparently from their naturalsituation on the banks of the river. This is the origin of Côte desNeiges, Côte St. Louis, Côte St. Paul, and of many picturesque villagesin the neighbourhood of Montreal and Quebec. As the country becamesettled, parishes were established for ecclesiastical purposes and theadministration of local affairs. Here the influential men were thecuré, the seignior, and the captain of the militia. The seignior, from{167} his social position, exercised a considerable weight in thecommunity, but not to the degree that the representative of the Churchenjoyed. The church in the parishes was kept up by tithes, regulatedby ordinances, and first imposed by Bishop Laval for the support of theQuebec Seminary and the clergy. Next to the curé in importance was thecaptain of the militia. The whole province was formed into a militiadistrict, so that, in times of war, the inhabitants might be obliged toperform military service under the French governor. In times of peacethese militia officers in the parishes executed the orders of thegovernor and intendant in all matters affecting the King. In case itwas considered necessary to build a church or presbytery, the intendantauthorised the _habitants_ to assemble for the purpose of choosing fromamong themselves four persons to make, with the curé, the seignior, andthe captain of the militia, an estimate of the expense of thestructure. It was the special care of the captain of the militia tolook 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 hada voice, and even in these, as we see, they did not take theinitiative. The Quebec authorities must in all such cases first issuean ordinance. 

Under these circumstances it is quite intelligible that the people ofCanada were obliged to seek in the clearing of the forest, in thecultivation of the field, in the chase, and in adventure, the means oflivelihood, and hardly ever busied themselves about public matters inwhich they were not allowed to take even a humble part. 

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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 aclaim to an immense domain, stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrenceindefinitely beyond the Great Lakes, and from the basin of those islandseas as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The eminent intendant, Talon, appears to have immediately understood the importance of the discoverywhich had been made by the interpreter and trader, Jean Nicolet, ofThree Rivers, who, before the death of Champlain, probably in 1634, ventured into the region of the lakes, and heard of "a great water"--nodoubt the Mississippi--while among the Mascoutins, a branch of theAlgonquin stock, whose villages were generally found in the valley ofthe Fox River. He is considered to have been the first European whoreached 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 theIroquois. Nicolet also was the first Frenchman who passed through thestraits of Mackinac or Michillimackinac, though he did not realise theimportance of its situation in relation to the lakes of the westerncountry. It is told of him that he made his appearance among theWinnebagos in a robe of brilliant China damask, decorated with flowersand birds of varied colours, and holding a pistol in each hand. Thistheatrical display in the western forest is adduced as evidence of hisbelief in the story that he had heard among the Nipissings, at thehead-waters of the Ottawa, that there were tribes in the west, withouthair and beards, like the Chinese. No doubt, he thought he was comingto a country where, at last, he would find that short route to theChinese seas which had been the dream of many Frenchmen since the daysof Cartier. We have no answer to give to the question that naturallysuggests itself, whether Champlain ever saw Nicolet on his return, andheard from him the interesting story of his adventures. It was notuntil 1641, or five years after Champlain's death, that Father Vimontgave to the world an account of Nicolet's journey, which, no doubt, stimulated the interest that was felt in the mysterious region of thewest. From year to year the Jesuit and the trader added something tothe geographical knowledge of the western lakes, where the secret wassoon to be {170} unlocked by means of the rivers which fed thoseremarkable reservoirs of the continent. In 1641 Fathers Raymbault andJogues preached their Faith to a large concourse of Indians at theSault between Huron and Superior, where, for the first time, they heardof the Sioux or Dacotah, those vagrants of the northwest, and where theformer died without realising the hope he had cherished, of reachingChina across the western wilderness. Then came those years of terror, when trade and enterprise were paralysed by those raids of theIroquois, which culminated in the dispersion of the Hurons. For yearsthe 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 deGrosseilliers, is believed to have reached the shores of Lake Superiorin 1658, and also to have visited La Pointe, now Ashland, at itswestern extremity, in the summer of 1659, in company with Pierred'Esprit, Sieur Radisson, whose sister he had married. Some criticalhistorians do not altogether discredit the assumption that these twoventuresome traders ascended the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and evenreached the Mississippi, twelve years before Jolliet and Marquette. 

With the peace that followed the destruction of the Mohawk villages byTracy and Courcelles, and the influx of a considerable population intoCanada, the conditions became more favourable for exploration and thefur trade. The tame and steady life of the farm had little charm formany restless spirits, {171} who had fought for France in the CarignanRegiment. Not a few of them followed the roving Canadian youth intothe forest, where they had learned to love the free life of theIndians. 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 seemedto enter into the spirit of forest life. Men of noble birth andcourtly associations adapted themselves immediately to the customs ofthe Indians, and found that charm in the forest and river which seemedwanting in the tamer life of the towns and settlements. The Englishcolonisers of New England were never able to win the affections of theIndian tribes, and adapt themselves so readily to the habits of forestlife as the French Canadian adventurer. 

A very remarkable instance of the infatuation which led away so manyyoung men into the forest, is to be found in the life of Baron deSaint-Castin, a native of the romantic Bernese country, who came toCanada with the Carignan Regiment during 1665, and established himselffor a time on the Richelieu. But he soon became tired of his inactivelife, and leaving his Canadian home, settled on a peninsula ofPenobscot Bay (then Pentagoët), which still bears his name. Here hefraternised with the Abenaquis, and led the life of a forest chief, whose name was long the terror of the New England settlers. He marriedthe daughter of Madocawando, the implacable enemy of the English, andso influential did he become that, at his summons, all the tribes on{172} the frontier between Acadia and New England would proceed on thewarpath. 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 tobuy presents for his Indian followers, who paid him back in beaverskins. His life at Pentagoët, for years, was very active andadventurous, as the annals of New England show. In 1781 he returned toFrance, where he had an estate, and thenceforth disappeared fromhistory. His son, by his Abenaqui Baroness, then took command of hisfort and savage retainers, and after assisting in the defence of PortRoyal, and making more than one onslaught on the English settlers ofMassachusetts, he returned to Europe on the death of his father. Thepoet Longfellow has made use of this romantic episode in the early lifeof 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 theforest fastnesses of the west. The government found all their plansfor increasing the population and colonising the country thwarted bythe nomadic habits of a restless youth. The young man, whether son ofthe _gentilhomme_, or of the humble _habitant_, was carried away by hislove for forest life, and no enactments, however severe--not even thepenalty of {174} death--had the effect of restraining his restlessness. That the majority of the _coureurs de bois_ were a reckless, dare-devilset of fellows, it is needless to say. On their return from theirforest haunts, after months of savage liberty, they too often threw offall restraint, and indulged in the most furious orgies. Montreal wastheir favourite place of resort, for here were held the great fairs forthe sale of furs. The Ottawas, Hurons, and other tribes came fromdistant parts of the North and West, and camped on the shores in theimmediate vicinity of the town. When the fair was in full operation, ascene was represented well worthy of the bold brush of a Doré. Theroyal mountain, then as now, formed a background of rare sylvan beauty. The old town was huddled together on the low lands near the river, andwas for years a mere collection of low wooden houses and churches, allsurrounded by palisades. On the fair ground were to be seen Indianstricked out in their savage finery; _coureurs de bois_ in equallygorgeous apparel; black-robed priests and busy merchants from all thetowns, intent on wheedling the Indians and bush rangers out of theirchoicest furs. 

The principal rendezvous in the west was Mackinac or Michillimackinac. Few places possessed a more interesting history than this oldheadquarters of the Indian tribes and French voyageurs. Mackinac maybe considered, in some respects, the key of the upper lakes. Here thetribes from the north to the south could assemble at a very shortnotice and decide on questions of trade or war. It was long themetropolis of a large portion of the Huron {175} and Ottawa nations, and many a council, fraught with the peace of Canada, was held there inthe olden times. It was on the north side of the straits that FatherMarquette--whose name must ever live in the west--some time in 1671founded the mission of St. Ignace, where gradually grew up the mostimportant settlement which the French had to the northwest of FortFrontenac or Cataraqui. The French built a chapel and fort, and theHurons and Ottawas lived in palisaded villages in the neighbourhood. The _coureurs de bois_ were always to be seen at a point where theycould be sure to find Indians in large numbers. Contemporary writersstate that the presence of so many unruly elements at this distantoutpost frequently threw the whole settlement into a sad state ofconfusion and excitement, which the priests were at times entirelyunable to restrain. Indians, soldiers, and traders became at last sodemoralised, that one of the priests wrote, in his despair, that thereseemed no course open except "deserting the missions and giving them upto the brandy-sellers as a domain of drunkenness and debauchery. "

But it would be a mistake to judge all the _coureurs de bois_ by thebehaviour of a majority, who were made up necessarily from the ruderelements of the Canadian population. Even the most reckless of theirclass had their work to do in the opening up of this continent. Despising danger in every form, they wandered over rivers and lakes andthrough virgin forests, and "blazed" a track, as it were, for thefuture pioneer. They were the first to lift the {176} veil of mysterythat hung, until they came, on many a solitary river and forest. Theposts they raised by the side of the western lakes and rivers, were somany videttes of that army of colonisers who have built up greatcommonwealths in that vast country, where the bushranger was the onlyEuropean two centuries ago. The most famous amongst their leaders wasthe quick-witted Nicholas Perrot--the explorer of the interior of thecontinent. Another was Daniel Greysolon Duluth, who became a CanadianRobin Hood, and had his band of bushrangers like any forest chieftain. For years he wandered through the forests of the West, and foundedvarious posts at important points, where the fur trade could beprosecuted to advantage. Posterity has been more generous to him thanit has been to others equally famous as pioneers, for it has given hisname to a city at the head of Lake Superior. Like many a forest whichthey first saw in its primeval vastness, these pioneers havedisappeared into the shadowy domain of an almost forgotten past, andtheir memory is only recalled as we pass by some storm-beat cape, orland-locked bay, or silent river, to which may still cling the namesthey 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 ofNew France during the summer of 1671. Simon François Daumont, SieurSt. Lusson, received a commission from the government of Quebec toproceed to Lake Superior to search for copper mines, and also to takeformal possession of the basin of the lakes and its tributary rivers. With him were two men, who became more famous than himself--NicholasPerrot and Louis Jolliet, the noted explorers and rangers of the West. On an elevation overlooking the rapids, around which modern enterprisehas built two ship-canals, St. Lusson erected a cross and post ofcedar, with the arms of France, in the presence of priests in theirblack robes, Indians bedecked with tawdry finery, and bushrangers inmotley dress. In the name of the "most high, mighty, and redoubtedmonarch, Louis XIV. Of that name, most Christian King of France and of{178} Navarre, " he declared France the owner of Sault Ste. Marie, LakesHuron and Superior, and Isle of Mackinac, and "all of adjacentcountries, rivers, and lakes, and contiguous streams. " As far asboastful words and, priestly blessings could go, France was mistress ofan empire in the great West. 

Three names stand out in bold letters on the records of westerndiscovery: Jolliet, the enterprising trader, Marquette, the faithfulmissionary, and La Salle, the bold explorer. The story of theiradventures takes up many pages in the histories of this fascinatingepoch. Talon may be fairly considered to have laid the foundations ofwestern exploration, and it was left for Louis de Baude, Comte deFrontenac, who succeeded Courcelles as governor in 1672, to carry outthe plans of the able intendant when he left the St. Lawrence. 

Jolliet, a Canadian by birth, was wisely chosen by Talon--and Frontenacapproved of the choice--to explore the West and find the "great water, "of which vague stories were constantly brought back by traders andbushrangers. Jolliet was one of the best specimens of a trader andpioneer that Canadian history gives us. His roving inclinations werequalified by a cool, collected brain, which carried him safely throughmany a perilous adventure. He had for his companion Father Marquette, who was then stationed at the mission of St. Ignace, and had gatheredfrom the Indians at his western missions--especially at La Pointe onLake Superior--valuable information respecting the "great water" then{179} called the "Missipi. " Both had many sympathies in common. Jolliet had been educated by the Jesuits in Canada, but unlike LaSalle, he was in full accord with their objects. Marquette possessedthose qualities of self-sacrifice and religious devotion which entitlehim to rank with Lalemant, Jogues, and Brebeuf. While Jolliet wasinspired by purely ambitious and trading instincts, the missionary hadno other hope or desire than to bring a great region and its savagecommunities under the benign influence of the divine being whoseheavenly face seemed ever present, encouraging him to fresh efforts inher service. It was in the spring of 1673 that these two men startedwith five companions in two canoes on their journey through thatwilderness, which stretched beyond Green Bay--an English corruption ofGrande Baie. Like Nicolet, they ascended the Fox River to the countryof the Mascoutins, Foxes, and Kickapoos, where they obtained guides tolead them across the portage to the Wisconsin. The adventurers had nowreached the low "divide" between the valleys of the Lakes and theMississippi. The Fox River and its affluents flowed tranquilly to thegreat reservoirs of the St. Lawrence, while the Wisconsin, on whichthey now launched their canoes, carried them to a mighty river, whichended they knew not where. A month after leaving St. Ignace they foundthemselves "with a great and inexpressible joy"--to quote Marquette'swords--on the rapid current of a river which they recognised as theMissipi. As they proceeded they saw the low-lying natural meadows andprairies where herds {180} of buffalo were grazing, marshes with aluxuriant growth of wild rice, the ruined castles which nature had inthe course of many centuries formed out of the rocks of the westernshores, and the hideous manitous which Indian ingenuity had pictured onthe time-worn cliffs. They had pleasant interviews with the Indiansthat were hunting the roebuck and buffalo in this land of rich grasses. Their canoes struggled through the muddy current, which the Missourigave as its tribute to the Missipi, passed the low marshy shores of theOhio, and at last came near the mouth of the Arkansas, where theylanded at an Indian village which the natives called Akamsea. Herethey gathered sufficient information to enable them to form theconclusion that the great river before their eyes found its way, not tothe Atlantic or Pacific oceans, but to the Gulf of Mexico. Then theydecided not to pursue their expeditions further at that time, but toreturn home and relate the story of their discovery. When they came tothe mouth of the Illinois River, they took that route in preference tothe one by which they had come, followed the Des Plaines River, --wherea hill still bears Jolliet's name--crossed the Chicago portage, and atlast found themselves at the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. Itwas then the end of September, and Jolliet did not reach Canada untilthe following summer. When nearly at his journey's end, Fate dealt hima cruel blow, his canoe was capsized after running the Lachine Rapidsjust above Montreal, and he lost all the original notes of his journey. Frontenac, however, received from {181} him a full account of hisexplorations, and sent it to France. 

Two centuries later than this memorable voyage of Jolliet, a FrenchCanadian poet-laureate described it in verse fully worthy of thesubject, as the following passage and equally spirited translation[1]go to show:

 LA DÉCOUVERTE DU THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. MISSISSIPPI. 

 Jolliet . . . Jolliet . . . O, Jolliet, what splendid faery quel spectacle féérique dream Dut frapper ton regard, quand Met thy regard, when on that ta nef historique mighty stream, Bondit sur les flots d'or du Bursting upon its lonely grand fleuve inconnu unknown flow, Quel éclair triomphant, à cet Thy keel historic cleft its instant de fièvre, golden tide:-- Dut resplendir sur ton front Blossomed thy lip with what nu? . . . Stern smile of pride? What conquering light shone on thy lofty brow?

 Le voyez-vous là-bas, debout Behold him there, a prophet, comme un prophète, lifted high, L'oeil tout illuminé d'audace Heart-satisfied, with bold, satisfaite, illumined eye, La main tendue au loin vers His hand outstretched toward l'Occident bronzé. The sunset furled, Prendre possession de ce Taking possession of this domain domaine immense, immense, Au nom du Dieu vivant, au nom In the name of the living God, roi de France. In the name of the King Et du monde civilisé? . . . Of France, And the mighty modern world. 

 Puis, bercé par la houle, et Rocked by the tides, wrapt in bercé par ses rêves, his glorious moods, L'oreille ouverte aux bruits Breathing perfumes of lofty harmonieux des grèves, odorous woods, {182}

 Humant l'acre parfum des Ears opened to the shores' grands bois odorants, harmonious tunes, Rasant les îlots verts et les Following in their dreams and dunes d'opale, voices mellow, De méandre en méandre, au fil To wander and wander in the l'onde pâle, thread of the pale billow, Suivre le cours des flots Past islands hushed and errants. . . . Opalescent dunes. 

 A son aspect, du sein des Lo, as he comes, from out the flottantes ramures, waving boughs, Montait comme un concert de A rising concert of murmurous chants et de murmures; song upflows, Des vols d'oiseaux marins Of winging sea-fowl lifting s'élevaient des roseaux, from the reeds; Et, pour montrer la route à la Pointing the route to his swift pirogue frèle. Dripping blade, S'enfuyaient en avant, traînant Then skimming before, tracing leur ombre grèle their slender shade Dans le pli lumineux des eaux. In luminous foldings of the watery meads. 

 Et, pendant qu'il allait voguant And as he journeys, drifting à la dérive, with its flow, On aurait dit qu'au loin, les The forests lifting their glad arbres de la rive, roofs aglow, En arceaux parfumés penchés sur In perfumed arches o'er his son chemin, keel's swift swell, Saluaient le héros dont Salute the hero, whose undaunted l'énergique audace soul Venait d'inscrire encor le nom Had graved anew "LA FRANCE" de notre race on that proud scroll Aux fastes de l'esprit humain. Of human genius, bright, imperishable. 

Jolliet's companion, the Jesuit missionary, never realised his dream ofmany years of usefulness in new missions among the tribes of theimmense region claimed by France. In the spring of 1675 he died by theside of a little stream which finds its outlet on the western shore ofLake Michigan, soon after his return from a painful journey he hadtaken, while in a feeble state of health, to the Indian communities ofKaskaskia between the Illinois and {183} Wabash rivers. A few monthslater his remains were removed by some Ottawas, who knew and loved himwell, and carried to St. Ignace, where they were buried beneath thelittle mission chapel. His memory has been perpetuated in thenomenclature of the western region, and his statue stands in therotunda of that marble capitol which represents, not the power andgreatness of that France which he loved only less than his Church, butthe national development of those English colonies which, in his time, were only a narrow fringe on the Atlantic coast, separated from thegreat West by mountain ranges which none of the most venturesome oftheir people had yet dared to cross. 

The work that was commenced by Jolliet and Marquette, of solving themystery that had so long surrounded the Mississippi, was completed byRéné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, a native of Rouen, who came toCanada when quite a young man, and obtained a grant of land from theSulpician proprietors of Montreal at the head of the rapids, then knownas St. Louis. Like so many Canadians of those days he was soon carriedaway by a spirit of adventure. He had heard of the "great water" inthe west, which he believed, in common with others, might lead to theGulf of California. In the summer of 1669 he accompanied two Sulpicianpriests, of Montreal, Dollier de Casson and Gallinée, on an expeditionthey made, under the authority of Governor Courcelles, to the extremewestern end of Ontario, where he met Jolliet, apparently for the firsttime, and probably had many conversations {184} with him respecting thewest and south, and their unknown rivers. He decided to leave theparty and attempt an exploration by a southerly route, while thepriests went on to the upper lakes as far as the Sault. Of La Salle'smovements for the next two years we are largely in the dark--in somerespects entirely so. It has been claimed by some that he firstdiscovered the Ohio, and even reached the Mississippi, but so carefulan historian as Justin Winsor agrees with Shea's conclusion that LaSalle "reached the Illinois or some other affluent of the Mississippi, but made no report and made no claim, having failed to reach the greatriver. " It was on his return from these mysterious wanderings, thathis seigniory is said to have received the name of La Chine as aderisive comment on his failure to find a road to China. In the courseof years the name was very commonly given, not only to the lake but tothe rapids of St. Louis. 

[Illustration: Réné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle]

We now come to sure ground when we follow La Salle's laterexplorations, on which his fame entirely rests. Frontenac enteredheartily into his plans of following the Mississippi to its mouth, andsetting at rest the doubts that existed as to its course. He receivedfrom the King a grant of Fort Frontenac and its surrounding lands as aseigniory. This fort had been built by the governor in 1673 atCataraqui, now Kingston, as an advanced trading and defensive post onLake Ontario. La Salle considered it a most advantageous position forcarrying on his ambitious projects of exploration. He visited Francein 1677 and received from the King letters-patent {186} authorising himto build forts south and west in that region "through which it wouldseem a passage to Mexico can be discovered. " On his return to Canadahe was accompanied by a Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, and byHenry de Tonty, the son of an Italian resident of Paris, both of whomhave associated their names with western exploration. Of all hisfriends and followers, Tonty, who had a copper hand in the place of theone blown off in an Italian war, was the most faithful and honest, through the varying fortunes of the explorer's career from this timeforward. To Father Hennepin I refer in another place. 

Both Hennepin and Tonty accompanied La Salle on his expedition of 1678to the Niagara district, where, above the great falls, near the mouthof Cayuga Creek, he built the first vessel that ever ventured on thelakes, and which he named the "Griffin" in honour of Frontenac, whosecoat-of-arms bore such a heraldic device. The loss of this vessel, while returning with a cargo of furs from Green Bay to Niagara, was agreat blow to La Salle, who, from this time until his death, sufferedmany misfortunes which might well have discouraged one of lessindomitable will and fixity of purpose. On the banks of the IllinoisRiver, a little below the present city of Peoria, he built FortCrèvecoeur, probably as a memorial of a famous fort in the Netherlands, not long before captured by the French. While on a visit to Canada, this post was destroyed by some of his own men in the absence of Tonty, who had been left in charge. These men were subsequently captured notfar from Cataraqui, and severely punished. 

{187}

In the meantime, three Frenchmen, Father Hennepin, Michel Accaut, andone Du Gay, in obedience to La Salle's orders, had ventured to theupper waters of the Mississippi, and were made prisoners by a wanderingtribe of Sioux. Not far from the falls of St. Anthony Father Hennepinmet with the famous forest ranger, Duluth, who was better acquaintedwith the Sioux country than any other living Frenchman, and was formingambitious designs to explore the whole western region beyond LakeSuperior. Father Hennepin, who had been adopted by an aged Siouxchief, was free to follow Duluth back to the French post at the Straitsof Mackinac. This adventure of Father Hennepin is famous in history, not on account of any discoveries he actually made, but on account ofthe claim he attempted to establish some years after his journey, ofhaving followed the Mississippi to the Gulf. In the first edition ofhis book, printed in 1683--_Description de la Louisiane_--no such claimwas ever suggested, and it was only in 1697 that the same work appearedin an enlarged form, --_La Nouvelle Découverte_--crediting Hennepin withhaving descended the great river to its outlet. It is not necessaryhere to puncture a falsehood which was long ago exposed by historicalwriters. His history of having reached the Gulf of Mexico is asvisionary as the traveller's tales of Norumbega. Indeed, he could noteven claim a gift of fertile invention in this case, as the veryaccount of his alleged discovery was obviously plagiarised from FatherMembré's narrative of La Salle's voyage of 1682, which appears in LeClercq's _Premier Établissement de la Foy_. 

{188}

When La Salle was again able to venture into the west he found thevillages of the Illinois only blackened heaps of ruins--sure evidenceof the Iroquois having been on the warpath. During the winter of 1681he remained at a post he had built on the banks of the St. Joseph inthe Miami country, and heard no news of his faithful Tonty. It was notuntil the spring, whilst on his way to Canada for men and supplies, that he discovered his friend at Mackinac, after having passed throughsome critical experiences among the Iroquois, who, in conjunction withthe Miamis, had destroyed the villages of the Illinois, and killed anumber of those Indians with their customary ferocity. Tonty hadfinally found rest and security in a village of the Pottawattomies atthe head of Green Bay. 

On the 6th of February, 1682, La Salle passed down the swift current ofthe Mississippi on that memorable voyage which led him to the Gulf ofMexico. He was accompanied by Tonty, and Father Membré, one of theRecollet order, whom he always preferred to the Jesuits. The Indiansof the expedition were Abenakis and Mohegans, who had left the far-offAtlantic coast and Acadian rivers, and wandered into the great westafter the unsuccessful war in New England, which was waged by theSachem Metacomet, better known as King Philip, and only ended with hisdeath in 1676, and the destruction of many settlements in the colony ofPlymouth. 

They met with a kindly reception from the Indians encamped by the sideof the river, and, for the first time, saw the villages of the Taënsasand {189} Natchez, who were worshippers of the sun. At last on the 6thof April, La Salle, Tonty, and Dautray, went separately in canoesthrough the three channels of the Mississippi, and emerged on the bosomof the great Gulf. Not far from the mouth of the river where theground was relatively high and dry, a column was raised with theinscription:

 "_Louis le Grand, roy de France et de Navarre, regne; le neuviesme Avril, 1682. _"

And La Salle took possession of the country with just such ceremoniesas had distinguished a similar proceeding at Sault Ste. Marie elevenyears before. It can be said that Frenchmen had at least fairly laid abasis for future empire from the Lakes to the Gulf. It was for Franceto show her appreciation of the enterprise of her sons and make goodher claim to such a vast imperial domain. The future was to show thatshe was unequal to the task. 

The few remaining years of La Salle's life were crowded withmisfortunes. Duchesneau, the intendant, who had succeeded Talon, wasan enemy of both Frontenac and the explorer. The distinguishedgovernor was recalled by his royal master, who was tired of theconstant complaints of his enemies against him, and misled by theiraccusations. La Barre, the incompetent governor who followedFrontenac, took possession of Fort St. Louis, which La Salle hadsucceeded, after his return from the Gulf of Mexico, in erecting atStarved Rock on the banks of the Illinois not far from the present cityof Ottawa, where a large number of Indians had {190} returned to theirfavourite home. In France, however, the importance of his discoverywas fully recognised, and when he visited his native country in 1683-4he met with a very cordial reception from the King, and Seignelay, whohad succeeded his father, Colbert, when he resigned. The King orderedthat La Salle's forts be restored to him, and gave him a commission tofound colonies in Louisiana, as the new country through which theMississippi flowed had been called since 1682. By a strange irony ofFate, the expedition of 1684 passed the mouth of the Mississippi, andLa Salle made the first French settlement on the Gulf somewhere in thevicinity of Matagorda Bay, in the present State of Texas. Misery wasthe lot of the little colony from the very first moment it landed onthat lonely shore. When his misfortunes were most grievous, La Salledecided to make an effort to reach the Illinois country, but he wasassassinated by two of his own men---Duhaut and Liotot--near a branchof the Trinity River. His nephew Moranget, Nika, a faithful Shawneewho had been by his side for years, and Sayet, his own servant, suffered the same fate. The leader of the murderers was killed soonafterwards by one of his accomplices, and the others found a refugeamong the Indians; but of their subsequent fate we know nothingpositively, except that they were never brought to justice, if any oneof them returned to Canada or France. The few Frenchmen remaining inTexas were either killed or captured by unfriendly Indians, before theSpaniards could reach the place to expel these intruders on theirdomain. La Salle {191} himself never found a burial place, for hisbody was left to wolves and birds of prey. His name has not beenperpetuated in Louisiana, though it has been given to a county of Texasas well as to a city and county of Illinois, which was originallyincluded in French Louisiana. The most noteworthy tribute to hismemory has been paid by the historian Parkman, who has elevated himalmost to the dignity of a hero. La Salle's indomitable energy, hisremarkable courage in the face of disaster, his inflexibility ofpurpose under the most adverse circumstances, must be always fullyrecognised, but at the same time one may think that more tact and skillin managing men, more readiness to bend and conciliate, might havespared him much bitterness and trouble, and even saved his life at theend. That he did good service for France all will admit, though hisachievement in reaching the Mississippi was rendered relatively easyafter the preliminary expedition of Jolliet and Marquette. 

[1] Mr. W. Wilfrid Campbell, F. R. S. C. , a well-known English-Canadianpoet, has translated for "The Story of Canada" these verses of hisFrench contemporary Fréchette. 

{192}

XIV. 

CANADA AND ACADIA: FROM FRONTENAC TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT. 

(1672-1713. )

In the previous chapter I have shown the important part that the Countde Frontenac took in stimulating the enterprise of La Salle and otherexplorers, and it now remains for me to review those other features ofthe administration of that great governor, which more or lessinfluenced the fortunes of the province committed to his charge. 

[Illustration: Frontenac, from Hébert's Statue at Quebec. ]

A brave and bold soldier, a man of infinite resources in times ofdifficulty, as bold to conceive as he was quick to carry out a design, dignified and fascinating in his manner when it pleased him, arrogantand obstinate when others thwarted him, having a keen appreciation ofthe Indian character, selfish where his personal gain was concerned, and yet never losing sight of the substantial interests of France inAmerica, the Count de Frontenac was able, for nineteen years, toadminister the affairs of New France with remarkable ability, despitehis {194} personal weaknesses, to stimulate and concentrate herenergies and resources, and to make her when he died a power in Americafar beyond what her population or actual strength seemed to justify. The Iroquois learned at last to tremble at his name, and the Indianallies of Canada, from the Abenakis of Acadia to the Illinois of theWest, could trust in his desire and ability to assist them againsttheir ferocious enemy. As is the case with all great men, his faultsand virtues have been equally exaggerated. The Recollets, whom healways favoured, could never speak too well of him, whilst the Jesuits, whom he distrusted, did all they could to tarnish his reputation. 

It is not profitable or necessary in this story of Canada to dwell onthe details of Frontenac's administration of public affairs during thefirst years of his régime (1672-1682), which were chiefly noted for thedisplay of his faults of character--especially his obstinacy andimpatience of all opposition. He was constantly at conflict with thebishop, who was always asserting the supremacy of his Church, with theintendant Duchesneau, who was simply a spy on his actions, with theJesuits, whom he disliked and accused of even being interested in thesale of brandy, and with traders like Governor Perrot of Montreal whoeventually found himself in the Bastile for a few days for havingdefied the edict of the King against the _coureurs de bois_ who wereunder his influence and helped him in the fur trade. 

The complaints against Frontenac from influential people in Canada atlast became so numerous that {195} he was recalled to France in 1682. His successor, La Barre, proved himself thoroughly incapable. Theinterests of the province were seriously threatened at that time by theintention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois and divert thewestern traffic to the Dutch and English, whose carriers they wished tobecome. La Barre was well aware how much depended on the protection ofthe Illinois and the fidelity of the Indians on the lakes. La Hontan, a talkative but not always veracious writer, who was in Canada at thistime, gives us an insight into the weakness of the governor, whoseefforts to awe the Iroquois ended in an abortive expedition which wasattacked by disease and did not get beyond La Famine, now Salmon River, in the Iroquois country. The famous "La Grande Gueule, " or BigMouth, --so called on account of his eloquence, --made a mockery of theFrench efforts to deceive him by a pretence of strength, and openlydeclared the intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois, whileLa Barre dared not utter a defiant word in behalf of his allies. Thisincapable governor was soon recalled and the Marquis de Denonville, anofficer of dragoons, sent in his place. One of the most notableincidents of the new administration was the capture of the fortifiedtrading-posts belonging to the English Company of Hudson's Bay, by theChevalier de Troyes and a number of Canadians from Montreal, among whomwere the three famous sons of Charles Le Moyne, Iberville, Sainte-Hélène, and Maricourt, the former of whom became ere long themost distinguished French Canadian of his time. The next {196} eventof importance was the invasion of the country of the Senecas, and thedestruction of their villages and stores of provisions. This was amost doubtful triumph, since it left the Senecas themselves unhurt. How ineffectual it was even to awe the Iroquois, was evident from themassacre of La Chine, near Montreal, in the August of 1689, when alarge band fell upon the village during a stormy night, burned thehouses, butchered two hundred men, women and children, and probablycarried off at least one hundred and twenty prisoners before they leftthe island of Montreal, where the authorities and people seemedparalysed for the moment. The whole history of Canada has no moremournful story to tell than this massacre of this unhappy settlement bythe side of the beautiful lake of St. Louis. The Iroquois had neverforgiven the treachery of the governor during the winter of 1687, atFort Frontenac, where he had seized a large number of friendly Indiansof the Five Nations who had settled in the neutral villages of Kenté(now Quinté) and Ganneious (now Gananoque), not many miles from thefort. Some of the men were distributed among the missions of Quebec, and others actually sent to labour in the royal galleys of France, where they remained until the survivors were brought back by Frontenac, when he and other Frenchmen recognised the enormity of the crime thathad been committed by Denonville, who is immediately responsible forthe massacre of La Chine. The Iroquois never forgot or forgave. 

The French authorities soon recognised the fact {197} that Denonvillewas entirely unequal to the critical condition of things in Canada, anddecided in 1689 to send Frontenac back. During his second term, whichlasted for nearly ten years, there was now and then some frictionbetween himself and the intendant, on matters of internal government, and between himself and the bishop and the Jesuits with respect toamusements which the clergy always discountenanced; but he displayed onthe whole more tact and judgment in his administration of publicaffairs. Undoubtedly the responsibilities now resting upon him taskedthe energies of a man of seventy-two years of age to the utmost. InAcadia, whose interests were now immediately connected with those ofCanada, he had to guard against the aggressive movements of NewEngland. The English of New York and the adjacent colonies wereintriguing with the Iroquois and the Foxes, always jealous of Frenchencroachments in the northwest, and encouraging them to harass theFrench settlers. The efforts of the English to establish themselves inHudson's Bay and Newfoundland, had to be met by vigorous action on thepart of Canadians. In fact, we see on all sides the increasingdifficulties of France in America, on account of the rapid growth ofthe English colonies. 

When Frontenac arrived in Canada, war had been, declared between Franceand England. James II. Had been deposed and William of Orange was onthe English throne. Before the governor left France a plan had beendevised at the suggestion of Callières, the governor of Montreal, forthe conquest {198} of New York. An expedition of regular troops andCanadian volunteers were to descend from Canada and assault New York byland, simultaneously with an attack by a French squadron from the sea. Unforeseen delays prevented the enterprise from being carried out, whensuccess was possible. Had New York and Albany been captured, Callièreswas to have been the new governor. Catholics alone would be allowed toremain in the province, and all the other inhabitants would beexiled--an atrocious design which was to be successfully executed sixtyyears later, by the English authorities, in the Acadian settlements ofNova Scotia. 

Count de Frontenac organised three expeditions in 1690 against theEnglish colonies, with the view of raising the depressed spirits of theCanadians and showing their Indian allies how far Onontio's arm wouldreach. The first party, led by Mantet and Sainte-Hélène, andcomprising among the volunteers Iberville, marched in the depth ofwinter on Corlaer (Schenectady), surprised the sleeping and negligentinhabitants, killed a considerable number, took many prisoners, andthen burned nearly all the houses. The second party, under the commandof François Hertel, destroyed the small settlement of Salmon Falls onthe Piscataqua, and later formed a junction with the third party, ledby Portneuf of Quebec, and with a number of Abenakis under Baron deSaint-Castin. The settlement at Casco Bay, defended by Fort Loyal(Portland) surrendered after a short struggle to these combined forces, and the garrison was treated with great inhumanity. The {199}cruelties practised by the Indian allies invested these raids withadditional terrors. 

While Frontenac was congratulating himself on the success of thisruthless border warfare, and on the arrival at Montreal of a richlyladen fleet of canoes from the west, the English colonies concertedmeasures of retaliation in a congress held at New York. The blow firstfell on Acadia, which had been in the possession of France since thetreaty of Breda. Port Royal was taken without difficulty in 1690 bySir William Phipps, and the shore settlements at La Hève and Cape Sableravaged by his orders. 

Another expedition organised in New York and Connecticut to attackMontreal, was a failure, although a raid was made by Captain JohnSchuyler into the country, south of Montreal, and a number of personskilled at La Prairie. A more important expedition was now given to thecommand of Phipps, a sturdy figure in colonial annals, who had sprungfrom humble parentage in Maine, and won both money and distinction bythe recovery of the riches of a Spanish galleon which had been wreckedon the Spanish Main half a century before. His fleet, consisting ofthirty-two vessels--including several men-of-war, and carrying 2300troops, exclusively provincials, fishermen, farmers, andsailors--appeared in the middle of October, 1690, off Quebec, whosedefences had been strengthened by Frontenac, and where a large forcehad assembled from the French towns and settlements. As soon as thefleet came to an anchorage, just below the town, Phipps {200} sent amessenger to present a letter to Frontenac, asking him to surrender thefort. This envoy was led blindfolded up the heights and brought intothe presence of the governor, who was awaiting him in the fort, surrounded by a number of officers dressed in the brilliant uniform ofthe French army. As soon as he had recovered from the surprise whichfor the moment he felt, when the bandage was taken off his eyes, and hesaw so brilliant an array of soldierly men, he read the letter, which, "by the orders of the King and Queen of England and of the governmentof the colony of New England, " demanded "the surrender of the forts andcastles undemolished, and of all munitions untouched, as also animmediate surrender of your persons and property at my discretion. "The envoy, when the whole letter was read, took out his watch, andremarking that it was ten o'clock, asked that he be sent back byeleven. Count de Frontenac's answer was defiant. He refused torecognise William of Orange as the lawful sovereign of England, anddeclared him an "usurper. " The haughty governor continued in the samestrain for a few moments longer, and when he had closed, Phipps'smessenger asked that the answer be given in writing. "No, " he replied, "I have none to give but by the mouth of my cannon; and let yourgeneral learn that this is no way to send a summons to a man like me. Let him do the best on his side, as I am resolved to do on mine. "

Phipps and his officers determined to attack Quebec in the rear by theway of Beauport, {201} simultaneously with a fierce cannonading by thefleet. A considerable force, under the command of Major Walley, landed, and after some days of unhappy experiences, during which Phippsshowed his incapacity to manage the siege, the former was obliged tofind refuge in the ships, without having succeeded in crossing the St. Charles. By this time Frontenac had at least three thousand men, manyof them veterans, in Quebec, and Phipps considered it his only prudentcourse to return to Boston, where he arrived with the loss of manyvessels and men, chiefly from disasters at sea. The French had lostvery few men by the cannonading and in the skirmishing on the St. Charles--probably not more than sixty killed and wounded--andcelebrated their victory with great enthusiasm. Religious processionsmarched through the streets to the cathedral and churches, _Te Deums_were chanted, the colonial admiral's flag, which had been cut down by alucky shot from the fort, was borne aloft in triumph, a new church wasconsecrated to _Notre Dame de la Victoire_, and a medal was struck inParis in commemoration of the event. In Boston, the people receivedwith dismay the news of the failure of an expedition which had ended soignobly and involved them so heavily in debt. 

The Iroquois, in league with the English of New York, where the ablegovernor Dongan and his successor Andros, carefully watched over theinterests of their colony, continued to be a constant menace to theFrench on the St. Lawrence, and to their allies in the West. In orderto strengthen {202} themselves with the Five Nations, the New Yorkauthorities sent Major Peter Schuyler, with a force of Mohawks, Dutch, and English, to harass the settlements near Montreal. An obstinatefight occurred at La Prairie between him and a considerable force oftroops, Canadians, Hurons, and Iroquois of the Canadian mission underVarennes, an able officer, but Schuyler succeeded in breaking throughthe ranks of his enemies and reaching the Richelieu, whence he returnedto Albany without further losses. In Acadia, however, the Frenchgained an advantage by the recovery of Port Royal by Villebon. 

At this time occurred an interesting episode. A young girl of onlyfourteen years, Magdeleine, daughter of the seigneur of Verchères, onthe south side of the St. Lawrence, ten miles from Montrealsuccessfully held her father's fort and block-house against a band ofIroquois, with the aid of only six persons, two of whom were boys, andone an old man. Day and night, for a week, she was on the watchagainst surprise by the Indians, who were entirely deceived by heractions, and supposed the fort was held by a garrison. At last areinforcement came to the succour of the brave girl, and the Indiansretreated. The courage displayed by this Canadian heroine is anevidence of the courage shown by the people of Canada generally, underthe trying circumstances that so constantly surrounded them throughoutthe whole of the French régime. 

In 1693 the Mohawks were punished by an expedition composed ofregulars, militia, and bush-rangers, with a large Indian contingent, chiefly {203} drawn from the Iroquois mission near Montreal, the modernsettlement of Caughnawaga. This force was led by Mantet, Courtemanche, and La Noue, who succeeded in destroying the Mohawk villages after afierce fight, in killing a large number, and in capturing severalhundreds. The English, who had early information of the invasion, sentMajor Peter Schuyler to pursue the retreating force, but it was toolate. The immediate result of this success was a revival of trade. Alarge fleet of canoes came down from the upper lakes with a rich storeof furs, that had been accumulating at Mackinac and other posts fornearly three years, on account of the Iroquois. Frontenac's triumphwas complete, and he was called far and wide "the father of the people, the preserver of the country. "

Returning for the moment to the Atlantic shores of Acadia, we find thatthe French arms triumphed in 1696 at Pemaquid, always an importantpoint in those days of border warfare. 

The fort, which was of some pretensions, was captured by the Frenchunder Iberville and the Abenakis under Saint-Castin, and after itsdestruction Iberville went on to Newfoundland, where the French ruinedthe English settlements at St. John and other places. Then the fleetproceeded to Hudson's Bay, where the French recaptured the tradingposts which had been retaken a short time previously by the English. 

In the meantime Frontenac had decided on an expedition against theOnondagas. Early in July, 1696, despite his age, he led the expeditionto Fort {204} Frontenac, which he had restored, and after a delay of afew days he went on to the Onondaga town, which he destroyed with allits stores of provisions, and its standing fields of maize. The Oneidavillage was also destroyed, and a number of men taken prisoners ashostages for their good behaviour. The Onondagas had fled, and theonly one captured was an aged chief, who was wantonly tortured todeath. It was now clear to the Iroquois that the English of New Yorkcould not defend them from the constant raids of the French, and theynow made offers of peace, provided it did not include the westernallies of France. Frontenac, however, was resolved to make no peace, except on terms which would ensure the security of the French for manyyears. He died in the November of 1698 amid the regrets of the peopleof all classes who admired his great qualities as a leader of men. 

Callières, of Montreal, an able and brave soldier, who succeeded him, soon brought the Iroquois difficulty to an issue. The calumet wassmoked and peace duly signed, in a great council held in the August of1701, at Montreal, where assembled representatives of the Indiannations of the West, of the Abenakis, and of the Iroquois. From thattime forward, Canada had no reason to fear the Iroquois, who saw thatthe French were their masters. The trade with the West was now freefrom the interruptions which had so long crippled it. 

[Illustration: Capture of Fort Nelson, in Hudson's Bay, by the French;from La Potherie. A. French boats. B. Camp. C. Mortar. D. Skirmishers. E. Fort Nelson. ]

The Treaty of Ryswick, which was ratified in 1697, lasted for only fiveyears. Then broke out the great conflict known in Europe as the War of{206} the Spanish Succession. The reckless ambition of Louis XIV. , then in the plenitude of his power, had coveted the throne of Spain forhis own family, and brought him into conflict with England when herecognised the Pretender as the rightful heir to the English Crown. Queen Anne, the daughter of James II. And sister of Mary, queen ofWilliam III. , had succeeded to the throne, and the war which wasdeclared on the 15th May, 1702, was thereafter known in America by hername. The Abenakis, who had promised peace, broke their pledges, andjoined the French Canadian bands in attacking Wells, Saco, andHaverhill, and the annals of New England tell many a sad story ofburning homes, of murdered men and women. The people of New Englandretaliated on Acadia, and several ineffective attempts were made totake Port Royal by Colonels Church and Wainwright, who proved theirincapacity. A movement was then made for the conquest of Canada by theEnglish colonists, but it failed in consequence of an Europeanemergency having diverted the British squadron intended for America tothe shores of Portugal. An expedition was next organised in 1710, under the command of Colonel Nicholson, a man of much sagacity andaudacity, though of little or no military experience, for the captureof Port Royal, which was surrendered by the governor, Subercase, andfrom that day this historic place has been known as Annapolis Royal, inhonour of the reigning sovereign. It was not until the following yearthat the British Government yielded to the urgent representations ofthe colonies, {207} and sent to America a powerful armament to attemptthe conquest of Canada. The fleet was under the orders of Sir HovendenWalker, whose incapacity was only equalled by that of the commander ofthe troops, Colonel Hill. After the loss of eight transports andnearly nine hundred men in a storm near the Isle aux Oeufs, at theentrance of the St. Lawrence, the incapable admiral decided to give upthe project of besieging Quebec, and without even venturing to attackthe little French post of Plaisance, he returned to England, where hewas received with marks of disfavour on all sides, and forced soonafterwards to retire to South Carolina. While New England was sadlydisappointed by this second failure to take Quebec, the French ofCanada considered it a providential interposition in their behalf, andthe church, which had been first named after the defeat of Phipps, wasnow dedicated to _Notre Dame des Victoires_. 

All this while the French dominion was slowly and surely extending intothe great valleys of the West and South. A fort had been builtopposite to the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace, on the other side of theStrait of Michillimackinac, and it was now also proposed to make theFrench headquarters at Detroit, which had been founded by Antoine de laMothe-Cadillac, despite the opposition of the Jesuits, who wished tohave the mission field of the West in their own hands, and resented theintention to establish Recollets and other priests at the new post. Assoon as the French established themselves permanently at this key tothe Lakes and West, the {208} English practically gave up for fiftyyears the hope of acquiring the Northwest, and controlling the Indiantrade. French pioneers were pushing their way into the valleys of theIllinois and the Wabash. Perrot and Le Sueur had taken possession ofthe region watered by the upper Mississippi and its affluents. Iberville and Bienville had made small settlements at Biloxi, Mobile, and on the banks of the Mississippi, and with them was associated oneof the most admirable figures of Canadian history, Henry de Tonty, whohad left his fort on the Illinois. In 1711 Louisiana was made aseparate government, with Mobile as the capital, and included the wholeregion from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Alleghanies to theRocky Mountains. By the time of the Treaty of Utrecht the Indiantribes of the West were, for the most part, in the interest of theFrench, with the exception of the Sioux, Sauks, and Foxes, whosehostility was for a long time an impediment to their progress on theupper reaches of the Mississippi. 

[Illustration: Chevalier D'Iberville. ]

Louis XIV. Was humbled by Marlborough on the battlefields of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde, and obliged to agree to the Treaty ofUtrecht, which was a triumph for England, since it gave her possessionof Acadia, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland (subject to the rights of Francein the fisheries), and made the important concession that France shouldnever molest the Five Nations under the dominion of Great Britain. Such questions as the limits of Acadia, and the bounds of the territoryof the Iroquois, were to be among the subjects of fruitful controversyfor half a century. 

{210}

XV. 

ACADIA AND ÎLE ROYALE, FROM THE TREATY OF UTRECHT TO THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 

(1713-1748. )

The attention of Louis XIV. And his ministers was now naturallydirected to Cape Breton, which, like the greater island ofNewfoundland, guards the eastern approaches to the valley of the St. Lawrence. Cape Breton had been neglected since the days of Denys, though its harbours had been for over two centuries frequented bysailors of all nationalities. Plaisance, the Placentia of thePortuguese, had been for years the headquarters of the French fisheriesin the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but when Newfoundland was ceded to theEnglish, all the French officials and fishermen removed to EnglishHarbour, on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, ever since known asLouisbourg. The island itself was called Île Royale, and its firstgovernor was M. De Costabelle, who had held a similar position atPlaisance. It was not, however, until 1720, that France commenced the{211} construction of the fortifications of Louisbourg, whicheventually cost her over ten million dollars of modern money, and eventhen, they were never completed in accordance with the original design, on account of the enormous expense which far exceeded the originalestimates. The fortifications were built on an oblong neck of land onthe southern shore of the port, which lies only two leagues from thatfamous cape from which the island takes its name. The fortressoccupied an area of over one hundred acres, and was planned on the bestsystem of Vauban and other great masters of engineering skill, whointended it should be, as indeed it was, despite some faulty details ofconstruction, the most complete example of a strongly fortified city inAmerica. The harbour was also defended by batteries on an island atthe entrance, and at other important points, while there were fortifiedworks and small garrisons at Port Toulouse (St. Peter's) and PortDauphin (St. Anne's). The government of the island was modelled onthat of Canada, to which it was subordinate, and the governor wasgenerally a military man. During the years the fortress was inpossession of the French, there were probably, on an average, nearlytwo thousand people living in the town and vicinity, but this numberwas increased in the time of war by the inhabitants of the adjacentports and bays. 

[Illustration: View of Louisbourg in 1731. --From a sketch in the ParisArchives. ]

During the thirty years that elapsed between the Treaty of Utrecht andthe breaking out of war between France and Great Britain, the people ofNew England found that the merely nominal possession of Acadia by theEnglish was of little security to {212} them, while the French stillheld the island of Cape Breton and had the fealty of the Indians andAcadians, who were looking forward to the restoration of the country toits former owners. England systematically neglected Nova Scotia, where, until the foundation of Halifax, her only sign of sovereigntywas the dilapidated fort at Annapolis, with an insignificant garrison, utterly unable to awe the Acadian French, and bring them completelyunder the authority of the British Crown. French emissaries, chieflypriests, --notably the treacherous Le Loutre--were constantly at workamong the Acadians, Micmacs, and Abenakis, telling them that Francewould soon regain her dominion in Acadia. For years the Abenakistomahawked the helpless English colonists that had made their homes inthe present State of Maine, in the vicinity of the Kennebec and thePenobscot. The insidious policy of Vaudreuil and other governors ofCanada, acting under instructions from France, was to keep alive thehostility of the Abenakis so as to prevent the settlement of thatregion known as Northern New England, one of whose rivers, theKennebec, gave easy access to the St. Lawrence near Quebec. FromAnnapolis to Canseau the Micmacs destroyed life and property, and keptthe English posts in constant fear. 

New England took a signal revenge at last on the cruel and treacherousAbenakis, and inflicted on them a blow from which they never recovered. At Norridgewock perished the famous missionary, Sebastian Rale, beneathwhose black robe beat the heart of a dauntless soldier, whose highest{213} aspirations were to establish his creed and promote the ambitiousdesigns of France in Acadia. A peace was made in 1726 between thecolonists and the Abenakis, but New England felt she had no efficientsecurity for its continuance while Acadian and Indian could see in thegreat fortress of Cape Breton powerful evidence that France was not yetwilling to give up the contest for dominion in Acadia. Northern NewEngland became now of relatively little importance in view of theobvious designs of France to regain Nova Scotia. 

We have now come to an important period in the history of America aswell as of Europe. In 1739 Walpole was forced to go to war with Spain, at the dictation of the commercial classes, who wished to obtaincontrol of the Spanish Main. Then followed the War of the AustrianSuccession, in which France broke her solemn pledge to Charles VI. , Emperor of Germany, that she would support his daughter, Maria Theresa, in her rights to reign over his hereditary dominions. But when theEmperor was dead, France and other Powers proceeded to promote theirown ambitious and selfish designs. France wished to possess the richNetherlands, and Spain, Milan; Frederick of Prussia had no higherdesire than to seize Silesia, and to drive Austria from Germany. Bavaria claimed the Austrian duchy of Bohemia. Maria Theresa was tohave only Hungary and the duchy of Austria. The King of England wasjealous of Prussia, and thought more of his Hanoverian throne than ofhis English crown. It became the interest of England to assist Austriaand {214} prevent the success of France, now the ally of Spain; forcedto defend her colonial possessions in America. The complications inEurope at last compelled France and England to fight at Dettingen in1743, and George II. Won a doubtful victory, but war was not actuallydeclared between these two nations until some months later. Englandhad no reason to congratulate herself on the results, either in Europeor America. Her fleet met only with disaster, and her commerce wasdestroyed on the Spanish Main. Four years later she won a victory overthe Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, but hardly had her peopleceased celebrating the event, than they heard that the combined forcesof Hanover, Holland, and England, under the Duke of Cumberland, hadbeen badly beaten by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy. 

It was at this time, when the prospects of England were so gloomy onthe continent of Europe, that Englishmen heard, with surprise andgratification, that the strong fortress of Louisbourg in French Americahad surrendered to the audacious attack of four thousand colonists ofNew England. 

A combination of events had aided the success of the brave enterprise. The news of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg at least twomonths before it was known in Boston, and the French Governor, M. Duquesnel, immediately sent out expeditions to capture the Englishposts in Nova Scotia. Canseau, at the entrance of the strait of thatname, was easily taken, and the garrison carried to Louisbourg, butAnnapolis Royal was successfully defended by Colonel Mascarene, thengovernor of {215} Nova Scotia. All these events had their directinfluence on the expedition which New England sent in the spring of1745 against Louisbourg. The prisoners who had been captured atCanseau had remained until the autumn in Louisbourg, and the accountsthey brought back of its condition gave Shirley and others reason tobelieve that if an expedition was, without loss of time, sent againstit, there would be a fair chance of success. Not only did they learnthat the garrison was small, but that it was discontented, and a mutinyhad actually broken out on account of the soldiers not having receivedthe usual additions to their regular pay for work on thefortifications. The ramparts were stated to be defective in more thanone place, while gales and other causes had delayed the arrival of theships which arrived every year with provisions and reinforcements. These facts gave additional confidence to Governor Shirley ofMassachusetts, William Vaughan of New Hampshire, and many influentialmen who had already conceived the idea of striking a blow at the Frenchwhich would give the English control of the whole coast from Cape Sableto the entrance of the St. Lawrence. 

The expedition against Louisbourg consisted of over four thousand men, of whom Massachusetts, which then included the present State of Maine, contributed nearly one-third. Colonel Pepperrell of Kittery on thePiscataqua, who had command, with the title of lieutenant-general, wasa man of wealth and influence, though without any military experience. His excellent judgment and undaunted {216} courage, however, contributed largely to the success of this bold venture. CaptainEdward Tyng, a capable colonial sailor, was the commodore of the littlefleet of thirteen vessels, carrying in all about two hundred guns. ThePuritan spirit of New England had much influence in organising anexpedition, and whose flag had a motto suggested by the Methodistrevivalist, Whitfield: "_Nil desperandum Christo duce_. " The story ofthe success of the New England troops, in conjunction with the smallEnglish fleet, under the command of Commodore Warren, has been oftentold, and we need not dwell on its details. M. Duchambon was at thetime governor of Louisbourg, and maintained the defence for nearlyforty days. The capitulation of the fortress was hastened by the factthat the English fleet captured the French frigate _Vigilante_, onwhose arrival the garrison had been depending for weeks. On theafternoon of June 17th, General Pepperrell marched at the head of hisarmy through the West or Dauphin gate into the town, and received thekeys from the commandant, who, with his garrison drawn up in line, received him in the King's bastion. One hundred and fifty years latera granite column was raised on the same historic ground in honour ofthis famous victory, which caused such rejoicings throughout Englandand America. 

By the articles of capitulation, the garrison and residents ofLouisbourg, probably two thousand persons in all, were transported toFrance. The settlement of Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin had beencaptured, the first before, and the other during {217} the siege. Theleader of the New England expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy, thefirst distinction of the kind ever given to a colonist, while Warrenwas promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue. 

If the English Government had fully understood the necessities of theirAmerican colonies, they would have immediately followed the advice ofGovernor Shirley, who was a man of statesmanlike views and boldconception, though he possessed no capacity as a leader of militaryoperations, as his later career in America proved. He suggested thatan expedition should attack Montreal by the usual route of LakeChamplain, while an English fleet ascended the St. Lawrence andbesieged Quebec. All the colonies set to work with considerable energyto carry out this scheme, but it came to nought, in consequence of thefailure of the Duke of Newcastle, the most incapable statesman ever atthe head of imperial affairs, to redeem his promise. It was thenproposed to attack Fort Frederick at Crown Point, on the western sideof Lake Champlain, where it contracts to a narrow river, but itsprogress was arrested by the startling news that the French weresending out a fleet to take Cape Breton and Acadia, and attack Bostonand other places on the Atlantic sea-board. 

France had heard with dismay of the loss of Cape Breton, which sherecognised as a key to the St. Lawrence, and made two efforts torecover it before the war closed in 1748. One of the noblest fleetsthat ever sailed from the shores of France left {218} Rochelle in 1746for Cape Breton, under the command of M. De la Rochefoucauld, the Duked'Anville, an able, sensitive man, who, however, had had no navalexperience. Storm and pestilence attacked the fleet, which found arefuge in the harbour of Chebouctou, afterwards Halifax, where theunfortunate Admiral died from an apoplectic seizure. His successor, M. D'Estournelle, committed suicide in a fit of despondency caused by theresponsibility thrown upon him, when men were dying by hundreds everyday on those lonely Acadian shores. The French lost between two andthree thousand men by disease or casualties, and the remnant of thegreat fleet, which was to have restored the fortunes of France inAmerica, returned home under the command of M. De la Jonquière withouthaving even attempted to capture the half-ruined fort at Annapolis. Another fleet in 1747, under M. De St. George and the Marquis de laJonquière, the latter of whom became subsequently Governor of Canada, never reached its destination, but was defeated off Cape Finisterre bya more powerful fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren. 

The Canadian Government, of which the Marquis de Beauharnois was thenthe head, had confidently expected to regain Acadia, when they heard ofthe arrival of the Duke d'Anville's fleet, and immediately sent M. DeRamesay to excite the Acadians, now very numerous--probably tenthousand altogether--to rise in arms against the few Englishmen at PortRoyal. He had with him a considerable force of Indians and Canadians, among the latter {219} such distinguished men as Beaujeu, Saint-Ours, Boishébert, Lanaudière, but the news of the disasters that had crippledthe fleet, forced him to give up his plan of attacking Annapolis, andto withdraw to the isthmus of Chignecto, where he built a small fort atBaie Verte. In the following year, 1747, he succeeded in surprisingand capturing Colonel Arthur Noble and a considerable force of NewEngland troops who had taken possession of the houses of the AcadianFrench at Grand Pré, one of the most fertile and beautiful districts ofthe province, afterwards still more famous in poetry and history. Thisexploit, however, did not materially change the aspect of things inAcadia, where the French Acadians had entirely disappointed the hopesof Ramesay and his government. Had they been as active or enterprisingas their compatriots on the banks of the St. Lawrence, they mighteasily, at that time, have won back Acadia for France. As it was, however, Ramesay was not able to gain a firm foothold beyond theisthmus. Even the success he won was neutralised by the activity ofGovernor Shirley, who was ever alive to the importance of Nova Scotia, and immediately sent another force to occupy the meadows of Grand Pré. 

In 1748 English diplomacy, careless of colonial interests, restored theisland of Cape Breton to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, inreturn for the commercial post of Madras, which had been taken by theFrench in the East Indies where England and France were now rivals forthe supremacy. It was the persistency of the French to regain {220}possession of so valuable a bulwark to their great dominion of Canada, that forced the English cabinet to restore it at a time when the nationwas threatened by a Catholic pretender, and disheartened at the resultsof the war on the continent. Weary of the struggle and anxious for abreathing space, England deserted Maria Theresa and made peace withFrance. 

{221}

XVI. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA--PRELUDE. 

(1748-1756. )

[Illustration: Map of French forts in America, 1750-60. ]

The map that is placed at the beginning of this chapter outlines theambitious designs conceived by French statesmen soon after the Treatyof Aix-la-Chapelle. We see the names of many posts and forts intendedto keep up communications between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe theEnglish colonies then confined to a relatively narrow strip ofterritory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that theyhad made in giving up Acadia, the French now claimed that its "ancientlimits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto--in other words, included only Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct theforts of Gaspereau and Beauséjour on that neck of land, and also one onthe St. John River, so that they might control the land and seaapproaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence where Quebec, enthronedon her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the {222} confluence of theOttawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approachesby the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by thefort of St. John near the northern extremity of the lake, and by themore formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point--to givethe better known English name--on a peninsula at the narrows towardsthe south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French untilthey built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory atthe head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by GeneralJohnson--a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. Atthe foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes inAmerican history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, anephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, aboutfourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying placeon the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence andthe lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end ofLake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within thelimits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonnière built FortRouillé as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North, who were finding their way to the English fort at Choueguen (Oswego), which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by GovernorBurnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of LakeOntario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the keyto the West. 

{223}

At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to holdpossession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south. Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec wereestablished, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and theMississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there wasanother valley which became of importance in the execution of theirscheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty ofAix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of thevalley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia andPennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, whenFrance's ambition barred the way to their further progress. Thatastute Canadian, Governor La Galissonnière, in 1749, recognised theimportance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, andsent Céloron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession ofthe valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer madea long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed atdifferent points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden platesbearing the inscription, that they were memorials of the "renewal ofthe possession of the Ohio and all its affluents" originallyestablished by arms and treaties, particularly those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Under the instructions of GovernorDuquesne, who possessed all the sagacity of La Galissonnière, fortswere established at Presqu'ile (Erie) and on French Creek, a tributaryof the Alleghany. Virginians saw with dismay the entrance {224} of theFrench into a region on which they were now casting a longing eye. Their government had secured from the Iroquois a doubtful deed whichgave them, as they urged, a title to the Great West, and a company waseven formed to occupy the Ohio. In 1754 the English commenced theconstruction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but it was easilycaptured by Contrecoeur, who completed and renamed it in honour of theGovernor of Canada, Duquesne. Washington, who now first appears inAmerican history, was defeated by Chevalier de Villiers at FortNecessity, a mere intrenchment at Great Meadows, and the French heldentire possession of the Ohio valley, where no English trader orpioneer dared show himself. By 1755 the French dominion was completefrom the Ohio to the Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf ofMexico, so far as a slender line of communication by means of widelyseparated posts and settlements could make it so. On the St. Joseph, the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois, there were small forts. FortChartres in the Illinois country was the only post of any thoroughconstruction. At Cahokia, opposite the modern city of St. Louis, andat Kaskaskia, at the junction of the river of that name with theMississippi, there were small and relatively prosperous Frenchvillages. In Louisiana the French had the towns of Mobile, Biloxi, NewOrleans, and a few other settlements, where the African blacks faroutnumbered the whites. That colony had had many difficulties tosurmount before it could be considered established. Wars with theNatchez and Chickasaws {225} had been constant. Crozat's experimenthad been followed by the establishment of the Mississippi or WesternCompany, which was to develop gold mines, that never existed except inthe imaginations of its reckless promoter, John Law, a Scotchman. Whenthe Mississippi bubble burst, and so many thousands were ruined inFrance, Louisiana still continued under the control of the company, which was eventually obliged to give up its charter after heavyexpenditures which had produced very small results, and the colonybecame a royal province. With its chequered future must be alwaysassociated the name of the Canadian Bienville, who was for some yearsits governor and justly earned the title of "Father of Louisiana. "Insignificant as was its progress, France prized its possession, andhad she been alive to her opportunities she might have colonised itwith Huguenots and made it a power in the conflict between herself andEngland in America. 

France, busy with her ambitious designs in Europe, gave but a meagreand too often half-hearted support to the men who had dreams offounding a mighty empire in America. When France and England met forthe great struggle on that continent, the thirteen colonies had reacheda population of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, exclusive ofthe negroes in the South, while the total number of the people inCanada and Louisiana did not exceed eighty thousand. In wealth andcomfort there was the same disproportion between the French and Englishcolonies. In fact at the time of the last {226} war, Canadian commercewas entirely paralysed, farms neglected, and the towns barely able tolive. In 1757 food was so scarce in Quebec and Montreal that thesoldiers and people had to use horse flesh. The combined forces ofCanadian militia and regular troops were always much inferior in numberto the British and colonial armies when united for the invasion ofCanada, with the support of a powerful fleet; but the great strength ofthe French colony lay in the natural barriers between the Englishcolonies and the keys to New France, Quebec, and Montreal, and in theskill with which the approaches by way of Lake Champlain had beendefended by forts at every important point. If the French force wasinsignificant in number, it was, as a rule, skilfully managed, and inthe early part of the struggle the English had no commander to comparewith Montcalm for military genius. In some respects the FrenchCanadians were more manageable in war than the English colonists. Nolegislative bodies existed in Canada to interfere with and thwart theplans and orders of military commanders, but the whole Canadian peopleacted as a unit to be moved and directed at the will of the King'sofficers. The Indian tribes from Acadia to the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Illinois, were, with the exception of the Five Nations, alwaysfriendly to the French since the days of Champlain--the warm allies ofa people who fraternised naturally with them; and it would have been anunhappy day for the English colonists had eighty or a hundred thousandCanadians been able to arm and, under the skilful {227} generalship ofMontcalm, swoop down with their savage allies on the English colonialsettlements. But the French of Canada were never able, as a rule, todo more than harass by sudden raids and skirmishes--by a system of_petite guerre_, or petty warfare--the English of America, and at notime in colonial history was the capture of Boston or of New Yorkactually attempted by a land force from Canada, though it was suggestedmore than once. At the outbreak of the war the Mohawks were the onlyIndian tribe on whom the English could place much dependence, and thatwas largely owing to the energy and discretion of Sir William Johnson, who had long lived in their country and gained not only theirconfidence but even their affection. The tribes in the Ohio valley hadbeen won by the success of the French in driving out the Virginians, while in the further west the Foxes and other communities who had beenunfriendly to the French had been beaten into submission--the Foxes infact almost destroyed--by the raids of the French and their Indianallies. The great current of active thought and enterprise whichdevelops a nation was always with the English colonies, and thoughlarge schemes of ambition stimulated the energies of the bold andadventurous men to whom the destinies of France were entrusted from thedays of La Salle to those of Montcalm, their ability to found a newempire in America under the lilies of France was ever hindered by theslow development of the French settlements, by the incapacity of theKing and his ministers in France to grasp the importance of thesituation on this {228} continent, and by their refusal to carry outthe projects of men like La Galissonnière, who at once recognised theconsequences of such neglect and indifference, but found no one readyto favour his scheme of establishing large settlements of Frenchpeasantry in Canada and Louisiana. France, we see now, had her greatopportunity in America, and lost it forever at Quebec in 1759. 

Before we proceed to the record of the events which led to the conquestof Canada, it is necessary that we should briefly review the history ofthe period which elapsed between the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and thecommencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen wereinformed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton toFrance with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the bestmeans of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion ofShirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an Englishpopulation into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strengthinstead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the yearof the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was foundedon the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadianhistory as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of GovernorCornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the footand on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by anoble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of GreatBritain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known asFort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who {229} builtit--afterwards governor of Nova Scotia--and intended to be a protectionto the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, whowere always numerous at the French posts and settlements on theisthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquasha fort of five bastions known as Beauséjour, and a smaller one at BayVerte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping upcommunication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in somemeasure. At Fort Beauséjour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continuedto pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among theFrench Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving theEnglish from the former possessions of France. 

Though war was not formally proclaimed between France and England untilmany months later, the year 1755 was distinguished in America byconflicts between the English and French--a prelude to the greatstruggle that was only to end in the fall of New France. The Frenchfrigates _Alcide_ and _Lys_ were captured on the coast of Newfoundlandby vessels of a fleet under Admiral Boscawen, who had been sent by theEnglish Government to intercept a French fleet which had left Franceunder Admiral de la Mothe, having on board troops under Baron Dieskauand the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in thegovernment of Canada. 

In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposingforces of England and France also met in conflict. In the spring anEnglish force of regular and colonial troops, chiefly the latter, {230}under the command of Colonel Monckton, who has given his name to aprosperous city on the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Colonels Winslowand Scott, captured the two French forts and took a good manyprisoners, among whom were a considerable number of French Acadians, forced by the French to assist in the defence of Beauséjour. Le Loutresucceeded during the confusion on the surrender of the fort, in evadingcapture, but only to find himself eventually taken prisoner by anEnglish ship while on his way to France, and sent to the island ofJersey, where he was kept in confinement until the end of the war, andfrom that time disappears from American history. 

In the same year General Braddock, an arrogant though experiencedsoldier, was sent in command of a large force of regular and colonialtroops into the valley of the Ohio to attack Fort Duquesne and drivethe French from that region, but chiefly through his want of cautionand his ignorance of Indian methods of warfare in the Americanwilderness, he was surprised on the Monongahela by a small force ofIndians and French under the Canadian Beaujeu, who were concealed inravines, from which they were able in perfect security to prevent theadvance of the English, and literally riddle them with bullets untilthey fled in dismay and confusion, leaving behind them a great store ofmunitions and provisions besides a large sum of money in specie. Braddock died from the wounds he received, and the remnant of hisbeaten regiments retired precipitately beyond the Alleghanies. Thisunhappy {231} disaster was followed by a succession of Indian raidsalong hundreds of miles of frontier, and the _petite guerre_ of theAbenakis and French in Acadia and New England, with all its horrors, was repeated by the Indians of the West. The southern colonies wereparalysed for the moment, and the authorities of Pennsylvania gaveevidences of indifference, if not of cowardice, that are discreditablefeatures of its early history. 

General Johnson, of the Mohawk country, at the head of a large colonialforce, defeated Baron Dieskau at the foot of Lake George, which thenreceived its present name in honour of the King of England, and theFrench general himself was taken prisoner. It was for his services onthis occasion that Johnson was made a baronet, though he had notsucceeded in the original object of his expedition, the capture ofCrown Point. General Shirley, however, was not so fortunate asJohnson, for he abandoned the project of attacking Fort Niagara when heheard that it had received reinforcements. 

The most memorable event of this time, which has been the subject ofwarm controversy between French and English historians and the theme ofa most affecting poem, was the expulsion of the Acadian French fromNova Scotia. When Halifax was founded it was decided, as a matter ofnecessity, to bring the Acadians more entirely under the control of theEnglish authorities. They had probably increased since the Treaty ofUtrecht to at least twelve thousand souls, living for the most part inthe Annapolis valley, by the Gaspereaux and Avon rivers, {232} at GrandPré, at Mines, and at Chignecto. When they were asked to take the oathof allegiance by Governor Lawrence, they refused to do so unless it wasqualified by the condition that they should not be obliged at any timeto take up arms. Many years before a considerable number, if not themajority, of the same people had taken this qualified oath, although itis also claimed that no one had legal authority to make such acondition with them. Under the treaty of 1713 the Acadian French had ayear to choose between leaving the country or giving their submissionto the British Government and becoming its subjects. It was naturalthat they should have hesitated to leave the humble though comfortablehomes which their own industry had made on the most fertile lands ofNova Scotia, but it is also quite certain that every obstacle wasthrown in the way of their removal by the English governors. Had theBritish authorities adopted from the very commencement a firm anddecided policy towards them, they might have given an unreservedallegiance to the British Crown and eventually become peaceable andcontented inhabitants. As it was, the British Governmentsystematically neglected the country, and left the little garrison atAnnapolis for many years practically at the mercy of the Acadians, whocould have often half starved them, and even captured the only Englishpost of the least importance in the province, had they been led at anytime by a man of courage and determination. It was only thewatchfulness of the government of Massachusetts, who fully recognisedthe {233} importance of Nova Scotia in relation to New England, thatretained the province in English hands during the time when Englishstatesmen like Newcastle were even ignorant of the existence orsituation of Annapolis. If French emissaries were often able to makethese credulous and ignorant people believe that France would soonregain her dominion in Acadia, it was largely owing to the fact thatthe English showed such weakness in all their relations with theAcadians, and made no earnest or sustained effort to assert theirsovereignty. At last when England decided to settle and strengthenNova Scotia, a feeling of uneasiness was naturally created by thepresence of a large and increasing population who were naturally insympathy with the French, and had assumed an attitude quiteirreconcilable with the security of English interests on the Atlanticcoast of eastern America. It must be admitted that the position of theAcadians was one deserving of sympathy, tossed about as they were formany years between French and English. They were considered by theFrench of Canada and Cape Breton as mere tools to carry out the designsof French ambition. England, however, had at some time or other toassert her sovereignty in Nova Scotia, and to assure its security, seemingly threatened by the presence of people who would not formallydeclare themselves British subjects. The position of Nova Scotiabetween Cape Breton and Canada gave reason for constant alarm, and whenHalifax was founded some decisive step was felt to be necessary byCornwallis and his successors. {234} No doubt the feeling that hadbeen created against the Acadians, by their refusal to take anunconditional oath of allegiance to Great Britain--the only oath thatcould be possibly offered to them by a self-respecting and stronggovernment--was intensified by the notorious fact that a number of themhad been actually captured at Fort Beauséjour with arms in their hands, though in this case they appear to have been really the mere tools ofLe Loutre and French emissaries who grossly misled them. The people ofNew England were much prejudiced against them and asserted that theycould never enjoy any security while the Acadians continued to maintaintheir attitude of neutrality. They had always supplied Louisbourg withprovisions and helped to build the French forts on the isthmus, and itwas difficult for Lawrence and his officers to obtain any assistancefrom them in the same way. When the Indians harassed the Englishsettlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled theraids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with somereason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula. The war between the French and English had never really ceased inAmerica, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would bebroken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger thatthreatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing thepresence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in acountry which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where theycould and did enjoy an {235} amount of political and religious libertywhich no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeatof Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France waspreparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase herdominions in America. 

It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of NovaScotia--a determined and harsh military man--no doubt at theinstigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determinedto secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of allpossible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians. It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewedin these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the sternaction of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. Theresponsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on theimperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation. Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, andthe noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried outthe measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of thatgreat majority of people who think only of the deed and itsconsequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is amatter for deep regret that the men who represented England in thosedays had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than havedriven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homesby the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers {236} of Nova Scotia, andscattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where theirtreatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec werecoldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food. Poetry and sentiment have not exaggerated the sorrow and misery ofthese hapless exiles, so ill-fitted to go out into the bitter world ofhardship and destitution. 

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XVII. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE GREAT VALLEYS OF NORTH AMERICA: ENGLISH REVERSES AND FRENCH VICTORIES--FALL OF LOUISBOURG AND FORT DUQUESNE. 

(1756-1758. )

In 1756 England was fully engaged in that famous war with France whichwas to end in driving her hereditary rival from the eastern and westernhemispheres, and in the establishment of the German Empire by themilitary genius of Frederick the Great. For a while, however, theconflict in America was chiefly remarkable for the incapacity ofEnglish commanders on land and sea. Earl Loudoun, the sluggishcommander-in-chief, of whom it was said, "he is like St. George on thesigns; always on horseback, but never rides on, " arranged a campaignagainst the French on Lake Champlain and against Louisbourg which endedonly in disaster and humiliation for England. The forts at Oswego, always regarded as a menace by the French who occupied {238} FortFrontenac on the opposite side of Lake Ontario, were successfullyattacked and destroyed by Montcalm, [1] who was sent to Canada in 1756to make a supreme effort for France. The energetic French general thenproceeded a year later to storm Fort William Henry, and largely owingto the incapacity or timidity of General Webb, who could have marchedto the assistance of the besieged from Fort Edward, the brave Scotchofficer, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, then in command of this importantdefence of the northeastern frontier, was obliged to surrender. Afterthe capitulation of this fort a large number of helpless men, women, and children were barbarously murdered by the body of Indians thataccompanied the French--one of the saddest episodes in Americanhistory, which must always dim the lustre of Montcalm's victory, thoughit is now generally admitted that the French general himself was notresponsible for the treachery of his Indian allies, but used his mostearnest efforts--even at the risk of his own life--to save the Englishwhen the savages were mad with lust for the blood of their enemies. 

[Illustration: Montcalm]

At sea the results were equally discouraging for the English. Fifteenships-of-the-line and three frigates, under the orders of AdmiralHolbourne, and twelve thousand troops under the command of Earl Loudounhimself, assembled in the harbour of Halifax in the July of 1757; but, owing to the absence {240} of energy and celerity of movement from thevery day the project was decided upon in England until after thearrival of the fleet in America, the French were able to getreinforcements of ships and men into Louisbourg, and the Englishadmiral and general came to the resolve--so strange for Englishmen intime of war--to run no risk in attacking the fortress. Loudounreturned to New York, but too late to retrieve the injury he had doneto the northern colonies by withdrawing so large a force from thefrontier at a critical period, when Montcalm was marching on FortWilliam Henry with such unfortunate results for English interests. Holbourne sailed with his fleet for Louisbourg, and after ahalf-hearted attempt to draw the French fleet, then safely moored underthe guns of the town, into an engagement, even the elements combinedagainst him, and when he had lost a number of his vessels on the rockyCape Breton coast, he returned to England to tell the story of hisfailure. 

It was at this critical period, when England so sadly needed a bold andwise statesman at the head of her government in the place of weak andincompetent men like Newcastle, that the great Pitt, better known asChatham at a later day, was called to office by the unanimous opinionof the English people outside, perhaps, of a small selfish clique ofthe aristocracy. It was his good fortune to be successful far beyondthe hopes of the majority of statesmen suddenly called upon to retrievenational disaster. It was mainly through his inspiration--through theconfidence with which he inspired all {241} those who served thecountry at this momentous epoch--that England became the centre of avast colonial empire such as the world never saw, even in the days whenRome was mistress. 

When Pitt was recalled to office in July, 1757, it was too late toprevent the humiliation of England through the incompetency ofHolbourne, Loudoun, and Webb, and the year 1757 closed with Montcalmtriumphant in America. But while France neglected to give adequatesupport to her brave sons in Canada, England rallied to the support ofPitt, and the whole nation felt a confidence in the future which it hadnever had during the administration of his predecessors. On thecontinent of Europe, Pitt contented himself with giving the largestpossible subsidies of money to his great ally Frederick, and byentrusting the command of the English and Hanoverian forces to the bestof his generals, Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick, in place of theincompetent Duke of Cumberland. The victories of Rossbach, Leuthen, and Minden were the answers that Frederick gave to the English ministerfor the confidence he reposed in his ability to cope with the fourgreat Powers then combined with Saxony to destroy Prussia and bringEngland to the feet of France, by invading her territory and marchinginto her very capital. Hanover was saved by the memorable victory onthe Weser, and England was spared the humiliation and perils of aninvasion by the destruction of a French fleet by Admiral Hawke inQuiberon Bay. 

While the military genius of Frederick and the {242} inspiringstatesmanship of Pitt were successfully thwarting the ambitious plansof France and her allies in Europe, the English minister had decided ona vigorous campaign in America. With that intuitive sagacity which hepossessed above most men for recognising ability in others for thepurpose in view, he chose General Amherst, Admiral Boscawen, andBrigadier-General Wolfe, not because of their aristocratic or politicalinfluence, but because of their military capacity, the want of which inLoudoun and Holbourne had brought disaster upon the English arms. Unhappily he was forced, for the time being, by strong influencesaround him to retain General Abercromby at the head of one of theexpeditions in America, but he hoped that the co-operation of Lord Howewould keep up the courage of the army, and prevent any blunders on thepart of the slow and obtuse soldier in command. The plan of thecampaign which opened in 1758 was to send three expeditionssimultaneously against the three all-important French positions held bythe French in the Ohio valley, on Lake Champlain, and at the entranceof the Gulf of St. Lawrence. General Forbes, a resolute Scotchveteran, was to march on Fort Duquesne, General Abercromby was to laysiege to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and General Amherst, with AdmiralBoscawen, was to attack the fortress of Louisbourg, which wasacknowledged as the key of the St. Lawrence. 

The English fleet anchored in Gabarus Bay, to the southward ofLouisbourg, on the 2nd of June, 1758. It was composed of over fiftyships, {243} twenty-two of which were "liners, " and carried eighteenhundred guns altogether. The army comprised between eleven and twelvethousand men, including a small force of provincial rangers. Thefortress, which had been considerably strengthened since 1745, wasdefended by over three thousand regular troops, and a small number ofIndians and inhabitants. A fleet of fourteen men-of-war, with a crewof nearly three thousand men, and five hundred and sixty-two guns, werein the harbour. Chevalier Drucour was governor of the island, andconducted the defences with skill and resolution, and had AdmiralDesgouttes been as brave and capable as the former, Louisbourg wouldhardly have fallen so easily. On the morning of the 27th July, theEnglish took possession of the West gate, and the cross of St. Georgewas hoisted on the citadel of a fortress which was destined from thattime to disappear from the pages of the world's history. In 1763 thefortress was levelled to the ground, and now a few mounds of turf alonerepresent the ambitions of France a century and a half ago. Nature hasresumed dominion over the site of the once famous fortress, and therestless ocean, which stretches away beyond to the eastward without abreak to Europe, brings no message of the fleets that came once, richlyfreighted, to this historic fort. Louisbourg is now only a place ofmemories--of associations which connect Cape Breton with most gloriousepisodes of England's history, with times when the genius of Pitttriumphed over France. 

After the taking of Louisbourg, the English {244} occupied the islandof St. John, now Prince Edward, where there were several prosperoussettlements at Port La Joye (Charlottetown), St. Pierre, and otherplaces on the bays of the low-lying coast. The population was composedchiefly of Acadians, who had commenced to cross from Nova Scotia afterthe Treaty of Utrecht, and probably numbered in 1758 four thousandsouls, engaged in fishing and farming. These people were able tosupply Louisbourg with provisions, as no agricultural operations ofimportance were carried on in Cape Breton. 

[Illustration: Louisbourg medals of 1758. ]

Wolfe destroyed the French settlements around the bays of Gaspé, Miramichi, and Chaleurs, while Colonel Monckton performed the samepainful duty in the valley of the St. John River. Acadia, according toits "ancient limits, " was at last completely in the possession ofEngland. 

The news of the capture of Louisbourg was received in America andEurope with many rejoicings, and the eleven stands of colours won atthis gateway of Canada were deposited in St. Paul's Cathedral {245}amid the roar of cannon. This victory came at an opportune moment, since Abercromby had suffered a humiliating repulse on the banks ofLake Champlain. With a splendid force of regular and provincialtroops, from fourteen to fifteen thousand altogether, but entirelydestitute of artillery, --an evidence of extraordinary incapacity, or ofculpable negligence, --he had thrown himself upon most formidableentrenchments of fallen trees, with their sharp ends pointing outwards, that the French had ingeniously constructed in front of Carillon, whichwas still incomplete, and defended by less than three thousand menunder Montcalm and Lévis. The most unhappy incident of this disasterwas the death of Lord Howe, described by Wolfe, who knew him well, "asthe noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the bestsoldier in the British army. " Abercromby hurriedly retired to the headof Lake George, and was soon afterwards superseded by the cautiousAmherst. Montcalm was greatly encouraged by the spirit of his soldiersthroughout the attack, and erected a cross on the battle ground withthe following inscriptions of his own--the latter his paraphrase of thefirst:

 Quid dux? Quid miles? Quid strata ingentia ligna? En signum! en victor! Deus hîc, Deus ipse triumphat. 

 "Chrétien! ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence, Ces arbres renversés, ces héros, ces exploits, Qui des Anglais confus ont brisé l'espérance, C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix. " [2]

{246}

An important event of the year was the taking of Fort Frontenac byColonel Bradstreet, who had assisted in the first siege of Louisbourg. The capture of this fort was regarded with every reason by the Frenchas "of greater injury to the colony than the loss of a battle. " FortDuquesne, which was the key to the Ohio country, was abandoned byLigneris on the approach of Brigadier Forbes, a very capable Scotchofficer, but not until the French had beaten with considerable loss anadvance of the main forces commanded by Major Grant. Ligneris withdrewhis troops to Fort Machault (Venango), where he remained until thefollowing year. Fort Duquesne was renamed in honour of Pitt, and agreat manufacturing city has grown up on its site in the beautifulvalley which, in 1758, passed away forever from the French who had onlyheld possession of it for six short years. 

[1] His full name was Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon deSaint-Véran, whose family seat was Candiac, near Nismes, in the southof France. 

[2] Parkman gives the following paraphrase of the Latin inscription;

 "Soldier and chief and ramparts' strength are nought; Behold the conquering cross! 'T is God the triumph wrought. "

{247}

XVIII. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR DOMINION IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE--CANADA IS WON BY WOLFE ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. 

(1759-1763. )

When the campaign opened in 1759 the French had probably under arms inCanada not far from twenty thousand men, regulars, militia, andIndians--one-fifth only being French regiments. At Detroit there was avery insignificant garrison, as it was of minor importance comparedwith Niagara, which was the key to the Lakes and West. Here Pouchot, an able officer, who has given us an interesting memoir of the war, wasstationed, with authority to call to his assistance the French forcesat Presqu'ile, Le Boeuf, and Venango--some three thousand menaltogether, made up mostly of colonial forces and Indian auxiliaries. At Fort Rouillé (Toronto) there was no force worth mentioning, as itwas a mere dependency of Niagara. Fort Frontenac had been destroyed bythe English, and the French had no posts from that point as far asMontreal except at {248} Point-au-Baril (near Ogdensburgh), and ÎleGalops, by the side of the well-known rapids of that name. Thesecurity of Montreal depended mainly on the French continuing to holdcontrol of Lake Champlain, and Île-aux-Noix which they now set to workto fortify. Bourlamaque, an able officer, was in command at the Frenchforts of the lake with a force of over two thousand men, of whomone-half were Canadian, and had orders to abandon Carillon and CrownPoint, if necessary, and advance to Île-aux-Noix. At Quebec, probablyfourteen thousand men, of whom four thousand were the pick of theFrench regiments in Canada, were under command of Montcalm, Lévis, andVaudreuil, and were entrenched on a height of land stretching fornearly six miles from the St. Charles River, to the southeast of thefortress, as far as Montmorency River, where its current rushes wildlyforward for its tremendous leap of over two hundred and fifty feet intoa deep and rocky abyss, and forms that glistening sheet of billowy foamwhich, seen from a distance, resembles a snowdrift suspended in air. The fortifications of Quebec had been strengthened for some years back, and its defences were entrusted to Ramesay, who had led a force to NovaScotia in the year of the Duke d'Anville's disastrous expedition. Thecity was ill-provided with provisions for any sustained siege, despitethe opportune arrival of some relief from France in the spring. Thewhole country had been impoverished by the continuous drain on theagricultural and labouring population during the war, and the Canadiansthemselves began {249} to lose courage, and assembled at the call ofthe authorities with less spirit than they had hitherto shown. Canadawas literally on the brink of ruin, after so many years of war andprivation. Corruption had eaten into the very body of Canadian lifeand government. The Intendant Bigot had been for years amassing richesat the expense of the country, and had, in imitation of his lord andmaster at Versailles, his fair Canadian Pompadour to bedeck with jewelsand favours from the proceeds {250} of his ill-gotten gains. The namesof Péan, Varin, Cadet, Estèbe, and Clavery are the most conspicuousamongst those officials who became rich on Canadian misery andmisfortune, and are dishonourably associated with the darkest hours ofCanadian history. "What a country, " said Montcalm, "where all theknaves grow rich, and honest men are ruined. " Not the leastdiscouraging feature of matters in Canada at this critical time, whenunity and harmony were so necessary, was the jealousy that Governor deVaudreuil, a weak, vain man, but honest and attached to his nativeprovince, entertained of Montcalm, who was himself imbued by theloftiest spirit that could animate a brave soldier and loyal Frenchman. 

[Illustration: Major-General James Wolfe. ]

It was decided that the army under General Wolfe, less than ninethousand men, and the fleet under Admiral Saunders, should attackQuebec; that the Commander-in-Chief, Amherst, should advance againstMontreal by way of Lake Champlain, and that Brigadier Prideaux and SirWilliam Johnson should lead a considerable force against Niagara. TheEnglish fleet arrived before Quebec on the 20th June, and no time waslost in commencing operations against the fortress. Wolfe was wellsupported by such able soldiers as Monckton, Murray, and Carleton, thelatter of whom became famous in later Canadian history as LordDorchester. Brigadier Townsend, however capable, was irritable andegotistic. The soldiers admired Wolfe for his soldierly qualities, andloved him for his thoughtfulness for everyone above or below him. Admiral Saunders {252} was well aided by Holmes and Durell, and gave aloyal and ready response to the plans of Wolfe. The regiments had seenservice at Louisbourg, and were fully animated by the courage andspirit of their general. The siege lasted for eleven weeks, and wasthen only ended by an act of boldness on the part of Wolfe, which tookthe French entirely by surprise. 

[Illustration: Siege of Quebec, 1759. ]

The principal events between the 26th June and the 12th September, whenthe last act in this great international drama was played, can bedescribed in a few pages. One of the most important incidents was theoccupation by the English of the heights of Lévis, whence the fortresswas bombarded with an effectiveness that surprised the French, who, under the advice of Vaudreuil, and in opposition to that of Montcalm, had not taken adequate measures for the protection of so valuable aposition. So destructive was the bombardment that, when the Englishtook possession of Quebec, they found all the churches and buildings ofimportance in ruins, and the Ursuline Convent alone was saved fromcomplete destruction. 

The English sustained a severe repulse near the Montmorency end of theFrench lines. They had made an attack on an outwork at that point, andthe grenadiers had been carried away by excitement and dashed up theslope of the heights, where from twelve to fourteen thousand Frenchsoldiers were strongly intrenched. A furious storm of bullets assailedthe reckless and brave grenadiers, who could not even gain a firmfooting on the slippery slope, {253} while the rain came down intorrents, and their blood reddened the rivulets of water. This was, however, the only serious disaster that the English suffered throughoutthe siege. The fire ships of the French had been ill-managed, andfailed to do any damage as they were sent down against the fleet. Montcalm, sure of his impregnable position, refused to be drawn fromhis intrenchments and to offer battle to Wolfe. He knew that delay waseverything to him, for the autumn was drawing near. In a few weeksstorm and frost would drive the Englishmen from the river. WhereverMontcalm looked, his position seemed unassailable. The high cliffsthat stretched for miles above Quebec offered a guaranty of security inthat direction, and to prevent any doubt, Bougainville, a capableofficer--in later years famous as a navigator--was on the alert with aforce of upwards of two thousand soldiers. He had double work to do, to guard these apparently impregnable cliffs, and to assure the arrivalof provisions from the country by river and land. It was the expectedarrival of a convoy of provisions that proved an important factor inthe successful accomplishment of a plan that Wolfe had devised for thecapture of the city. 

While the siege was in progress, the news from the west and from LakeChamplain was discouraging for the French. Niagara had beensurrendered by Pouchot to Sir William Johnson, who had taken command onthe death of Prideaux--killed at the beginning of operations--and alarge force that was brought up by Ligneris from the Ohio valley to{254} succour the post had been severely defeated. Crown Point andTiconderoga had been abandoned by Bourlamaque, and there was for a timesome expectation of the advance of Amherst to the St. Lawrence;Montcalm was obliged to weaken his army by sending his ablest general, Lévis, with a force of fifteen hundred men, to look after the defencesof Montreal, but the sluggish English general wasted his time on thebanks of Lake Champlain. 

It was quite clear to Wolfe and Saunders that Amherst was not to givethem any assistance in the difficult work before them. It was on thenight of the 12th of September that Wolfe carried out the project whichhad been for some time forming in his mind. He had managed toconcentrate a force of four thousand men above the fortress withoutawakening the suspicions of the French, who were confident thatBougainville was fully able to prevent any force from attempting soimpossible and foolhardy an exploit as the ascent of the high cliffs. The visitor to the historic places around Quebec will be deeplyinterested in a cove, just above Sillery, now known as Wolfe's Cove, but in old times as the Anse-au-Foulon. A zig-zag and difficult pathled from this cove to the top of the height, and Wolfe conceived thehope that it was possible to gain access in this way to the table-landwhere he could best give battle to Montcalm. He saw that the cliff atthis point was defended by only a small guard, under the command, as itafterwards appeared, of Vergor, who had been tried and acquitted forhis questionable surrender of Beauséjour. When the {255} English boatsdropped down the river with the tide at midnight, on the 12th ofSeptember, there was no moon, and the stars alone gave a faint light. Montcalm had no conception of the importance of the movement of troopswhich, it had been reported to him, was going on for some days aboveQuebec, and his attention was diverted by the constant bombardment onthe town from Lévis, and a fierce cannonading that was kept up againstBeauport by Saunders. Wolfe's thoughts on that memorable night as hisboat passed under the shadow of the dark cliff, we can imagine from anincident that is related by one who was present. Hardly a dip of anoar was heard from the flotilla as it was borne down the river, butfrom Beauport and Lévis came the constant roar of cannon. Every momentwas carrying him to fame and death, and perhaps it was some forebodingof his fate that led him to repeat the words of Gray's Elegy, whichfrom that hour has become more famous in English literature:

 "The boast of heraldy, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour; The paths of glory lead but to the grave. "

As the boats came close to a point on the bank a sentinel challenged, "_Qui vive?_" "_La France!_" replied an officer of Fraser'sHighlanders who spoke French well. "_À quel regiment?_" againchallenged the suspicious soldier. "_De la Reine_, " answered the sameofficer, who happily remembered that some companies of this regimentwere with Bougainville. {256} Fate that eventful night was on the sideof the bold Englishman. The French were expecting a convoy ofprovisions, and the sentinel called out, "_Passe!_" Another sentry, more suspicious, ran down to the water's edge, and asked, "_Pourquoiest-ce que vous ne parlez plus haut?_" The captain replied withwonderful coolness, "_Tais-toi, nous serons entendus!_"--an answerwhich satisfied the guard. In this way the English boats were able tosteal into the cove without being stopped. A few minutes later theheights were gained, the guard was overpowered, and the Britishregiments were climbing to the level land without hindrance. By sixo'clock Wolfe was able to form his army of nearly four thousand men inline of battle on the Plains of Abraham. [1] "This is a seriousbusiness, " exclaimed Montcalm, as he saw the red line of the Englishregiments on the table-land behind Quebec. He appears to have almostimmediately come to the conclusion that it was necessary to fight theEnglish before they received any accessions of strength, and not towait for Bougainville, who would probably come up in time with hisforce of two thousand men. By ten o'clock the two armies--that ofMontcalm outnumbering the English probably by fifteen hundred--wereadvancing on each other. The French as they drew near poured a volleyinto the ranks of the British regiments, but the latter reserved theirfire until they were within forty yards of their enemy, when theydischarged their guns with most deadly effect. The {257} French fellin heaps, and as the bullets crashed amongst their faltering ranks, they broke and retreated. The battle was literally won in a fewminutes. Wolfe, who had been wounded in the wrist at the beginning ofthe fight, was leading a charge of the grenadiers, who had shown suchfateful precipitancy at Montmorency, when he was fatally wounded. Hewas removed to a redoubt in the rear and laid on the ground, where heremained for a few minutes in a swoon or stupour. "They run! See howthey run!" exclaimed one of the men watching their wounded chief. "Whorun?" he called, as he attempted to rise for an instant. "The enemy, sir; 'egad, they give place everywhere!" "Go, one of you, my lads, "ordered the dying General, whose brain was still clear and active, "with all speed to Colonel Burton, and tell him to march Webb'sregiment down to the St. Charles River, and cut off the fugitives tothe bridge. " He turned on his side and said: "God be praised, I nowdie in peace. " Then, in a moment later, he passed into the greatsilent land. Montcalm also received his death blow while he wasendeavouring to give some order to his beaten army. He was borne alongby the crowd of retreating soldiers through the St. Louis gate into thetown. A few hours later, on the 14th September, he breathed his last. His last words were in commendation of Chevalier de Lévis--a soldier inno way inferior to himself in military genius. 

Monckton, who was next to Wolfe in rank, had been also severely woundedin the battle, and {258} consequently by a strange irony of fate, Townshend, who had been unfriendly to Wolfe, and had doubted hismilitary capacity, was called upon to take command. Lévis was absentat Montreal, unfortunately for French interests at this very criticaljuncture, and Vaudreuil's opinion prevailed for a retreat to JacquesCartier. When Lévis arrived and Vaudreuil consented to march to thesupport of Quebec it was too late. Ramesay had decided to capitulate, in view of the ruined condition of the city and walls, the scarcity ofrations, and the unwillingness of the Canadian troops and citizens tocontinue the defence, when they found that the English were about toresume the attack. When the French army was moving towards Quebec, theEnglish were in possession, and the _fleur-de-lis_ had given place tothe red cross of England on the old fort of St. Louis. By the terms ofcapitulation the troops were to be allowed to march out with thehonours of war, and to be landed in France; the inhabitants were not tobe disturbed; the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion wasallowed, and safeguards granted to houses of clergy and communities. All conditions were provisional until a treaty was arranged between thePowers. 

The body of Montcalm was buried beneath the floor of the UrsulineConvent, in a grave which had been already partly hollowed out by abursting shell. Many years later an English governor-general, LordAylmer, placed in the chapel of the convent a plain marble slab, withthe following graceful tribute to the memory of a great soldier of whomEnglish and French Canadians are equally proud. 

{259}

 HONNEUR À MONTCALM

 LE DESTIN EN LUI DÉROBANT LA VICTOIRE L'A RÉCOMPENSÉ PAR UNE MORT GLORIEUSE!

Wolfe's remains were taken to England, where they were received withevery demonstration of respect that a grateful nation could give. InEurope and America the news of this victory had made the people wildwith joy. "With a handful of men, " said Pitt, in the House of Commons, "he has added an empire to English rule. " A monument in that Walhallaof great Englishmen, Westminster Abbey, records that he "was slain in amoment of victory. " On the heights of Quebec, in the rear of its nobleterrace, still stands the stately obelisk which was erected in 1828under the inspiration of the Earl of Dalhousie in honour of Montcalmand Wolfe, and above all others attracts the interest of the historicalstudent since it pays a just tribute to the virtue and valour of thetwo great commanders in the following simple but well conceivedlanguage:

 MORTEM. VIRTUS. COMMUNEM. FAMAM. HISTORIA. MONUMENTUM. POSTERITAS. DEDIT. 

{260}

[Illustration: Montcalm and Wolfe monument at Quebec. ]

Wolfe was only in his thirty-third year when he died on the field ofAbraham. Montcalm was still in the prime of life, having just passedforty-seven years. Both were equally animated by the purest dictatesof honour and truth, by a love for the noble profession of arms, and byan ardent desire to add to the glory of their respective countries. Montcalm was a member of the French nobility, and a man of highculture. His love for his mother, wife, and children is shown in hispublished letters, written while in Canada, and he was ever lookingforward to the time when he could rejoin them in his beloved château ofCandiac, and resume the studies he liked so well. Some Canadianwriters have endeavoured to belittle Montcalm, that they may moreeasily explain away the failings of Vaudreuil, a native Canadian, whothwarted constantly the plans of a greater man; but an impartialhistorian can never place these two men on the same high level. Wolfe's family was of respectable origin, and he inherited his militarytastes from his father, who became a general in the English army. Hehad few advantages of education in his youth, though in later life hebecame studious, and had much love for mathematics. A soldier's lifewas his ambition, and fame was his dominating impulse. His indomitablespirit governed his physical weakness. The natural kindness of hisnature rose superior to the irritability sometimes caused by hisill-health, and made him always sympathise with the joys, sorrows, andfeelings of all classes among whom he lived. He had that magneticpower of {262} inspiring his soldiers and companions with his ownconfidence and courage which must sooner or later give them victory. He was a good son and made a confidant of his mother. He was fond offemale companionship, and was looking forward hopefully to a woman'slove, and to a home of his own, when Fate ruthlessly struck him downbefore the walls of Quebec at the moment of victory. 

It is impossible within the limited space of this story to dwell at anylength on the events that followed from the taking of the Canadiancapital until the cession of Canada three years later. General Murray, who was afterwards the first governor-general of Canada, had charge ofthe fortress during the winter of 1759-60, when the garrison and peoplesuffered much from cold and disease--firewood being scarce, and thegreater number of the buildings in ruins. 

[Illustration: View of Quebec in 1760. ]

Lévis had decided to attack the town in the spring, as soon as theFrench ships were able to come down from near Sorel, where they hadbeen laid up all the winter. Towards the last of April, Murray marchedout of the fortress and gave battle at St. Foy to the French army, which largely outnumbered his force. His object was to attack theFrench before they were able to place themselves thoroughly in positionbefore Quebec, but he suffered a considerable loss, and was obliged toretire hurriedly within the walls of the town, which was then regularlyinvested by Lévis and the French ships. The opportune arrival of theEnglish fleet dashed the rising hopes of the French to the ground, {264} and Lévis was obliged to retreat to Montreal. In the month ofSeptember of the same year General Amherst descended the St. Lawrence, after having captured the fort at Île Galops--afterwards Fort WilliamAugustus. Brigadier Haviland left Lake Champlain, capturedÎle-aux-Noix, and then marched on Montreal; Brigadier Murray came upfrom Quebec. All these forces concentrated on the same day on theisland of Montreal, and Vaudreuil had no alternative except tocapitulate. By the terms of capitulation, which were drawn up, likethose of Quebec, in French, Great Britain bound herself to allow theFrench Canadians the free exercise of their religion, and certainspecified fraternities, and all communities of _religieuses_ wereguaranteed the possession of their goods, constitutions, andprivileges, but a similar favour was denied to the Jesuits, theFranciscans, or Recollets, and the Sulpicians, until the King should beconsulted on the subject. The same reservation was made with respectto the parochial clergy's tithes. On the 10th of February, 1763, bythe Treaty of Paris, France ceded to Great Britain Canada, with all itsdependencies, the island of Cape Breton, and the Laurentian Isles. Bythis treaty the King pledged himself "to give the most effectualorders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship oftheir religion, according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, asfar as the laws of Great Britain permit. " All the pretensions ofFrance to Acadia were at last formally renounced. England alsoreceived all the country east of the River Mississippi, except the cityof New {266} Orleans and the neighbouring district, as well as Floridafrom Spain in return for Havana. Subsequently France gave up NewOrleans to Spain, as well as the great region of Louisiana westward ofthe Mississippi. France was allowed to retain the barren islands ofSt. Pierre and Miquelon, and certain fishing rights on the coasts ofNewfoundland, which she had previously given by the Treaty of Utrecht. George II. Had died during 1760, and George III. Was now King ofEngland. Pitt was forced to resign, and the King's favourite, theincapable Bute, who became premier, made peace without delay. Pittopposed the fishery concessions to France, but Bute attached relativelylittle importance to them, and they have ever since remained to tormentthe people of Newfoundland, and create complications in case thatisland consents to enter the Canadian Dominion. Still, despite theseconcessions, England gained great advantages from the peace, and becamethe greatest colonial and maritime power of the world. 

[Illustration: View of Montreal in 1760. ]

Freedom won on the Plains of Abraham, and a great Frenchman and a greatEnglishman consecrated by their deaths on the same battlefield thefuture political union of two races on the northern half of thecontinent, now known as the Dominion of Canada. 

[1] Named after Abraham Martin, a royal pilot, who, in early times, owned this now historic tract. 

{267}

XIX. 

A PERIOD OF TRANSITION--PONTIAC'S WAR--THE QUEBEC ACT. 

(1760-1774. )

The Canadian people, long harassed and impoverished by war, had at lasta period of rest. They were allowed the ministrations of theirreligion without hindrance, and all that was required of the parochialclergy was that they should not take part in civil affairs, but shouldattend exclusively to their clerical duties. The seigniors andpriests, no doubt, did not give up for some time the hope that Canadawould be restored to France, but they, too, soon bowed to the necessityof things, and saw that their material and spiritual interests werequite secure under the new government. None of the _habitants_ everleft Canada after the war. A few members of the seigniorial nobility, the officials and some merchants--perhaps three hundred in all--mayhave gone back to France. Men like Bigot and Varin on their returnwere severely punished, and forced to give up as much as possible oftheir ill-gotten {268} gains. Governor de Vaudreuil himself was castinto the Bastile, but it was ascertained after investigation that hehad no connection with the crimes of the worthless parasites that hadso long fattened on the necessities of the unhappy province. He diedsoon after his imprisonment; the iron of humiliation had probably eateninto the heart of a man who, whatever his faults, had many estimablequalities, and loved his native country. 

For several years Canada was under what has been generally called themilitary régime; that is to say, the province was divided into thethree districts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, of which thegovernment was administered by military chiefs; in the first place byGeneral Murray, Colonel Burton, and General Gage respectively. Thesemilitary authorities--notably General Murray--endeavoured to win theconfidence of the people by an impartial and considerate conduct ofaffairs. Civil matters in the parishes were left practically under thecontrol of the captains of militia, who had to receive new commissionsfrom the British Crown. Appeal could be always made to the militarychief at the headquarters of the district, but, as a matter of fact, the people generally managed their affairs among themselves, inaccordance with their old usages and laws. Military councils triedcriminal cases according to English law. 

While the French Canadians were in the enjoyment of rest on the banksof the St. Lawrence and its tributary rivers, the Western Indians, whohad been the allies of France during the war, suddenly arose and seizednearly all the forts and posts which {269} had been formerly built bythe French on the Great Lakes, in the valley of the Ohio, and in theIllinois country. After the taking of Montreal, Captain Robert Rogers, the famous commander of the Colonial Rangers, whose name occursfrequently in the records of the war, was sent by General Amherst totake possession of the forts at Presqu'ile, Detroit, Michillimackinac, Green Bay, and other places in the West. In the course of a few monthsthere were in all these western posts small garrisons of Englishsoldiers. In the neighbourhood of Detroit and Michillimackinac therewere French Canadian villages, conspicuous for their white cottageswith overhanging bark roofs and little gardens, orchards, and meadows. Forts Chartres and Vincennes were still in the possession of theFrench, and there was a population of nearly two thousand FrenchCanadians or Louisiana French living in the Illinois country, chieflyat Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. The Indian tribes thattook part in the rising of 1763 were the Ottawas, Pottawattomies, Ojibways (Chippeways), Wyandots (Hurons), and Kickapoos, who lived inthe vicinity of the upper lakes; the Delawares (Loups or Lenapes) andthe Shawanoes, who had their villages on the Ohio and its tributaryrivers, especially on the Muskingkum and the Scioto; the Sauks or Saks, who encamped on the Wisconsin; the Senecas, who lived not far from theNiagara. All these Indians, except the Wyandots and Senecas, weremembers of the Algonquin family. The Senecas were the only tribe ofthe Six Nations that took part in the alliance against {270} England;the other tribes were, happily for English interests, under theinfluence of Sir William Johnson. 

French emissaries from the settlements on the Mississippi made theIndians believe that they would be soon driven by the English fromtheir forest homes and hunting grounds, and that their only hope was inassisting France to restore her power in America. Many of these Indiantribes, as well as French settlers, believed until the proclamation ofthe treaty of Paris that Canada would be restored to the French. Indian sympathy for France was intensified by the contumely and neglectwith which they were treated by the English traders and authorities. The French, who thoroughly understood the Indian character, had neverfailed to administer to their vanity and pride--to treat them as alliesand friends and not as a conquered and subject race. By the judiciousdistribution of those gifts, on which the tribes had begun to dependand receive as a matter of right, the French cemented the attachment ofthe Indians. The English, on the other hand, soon ceased to make thesepresents, and neglected the Indians in other ways, which excited theirindignation and wounded their pride. 

Among the Western chiefs was Pontiac, whose name is as prominent in thehistory of the past as the names of the Onondaga Garangula, the HuronKondiaronk (Rat), the Mohawk Thayendenagea (Brant), and the ShawanoeseTecumseh. He was the son of an Ottawa chief and an Ojibway mother, andhad a high reputation and large influence among the {271} tribes of theupper lakes. He showed in his career all the strength and weaknessesof the Indian character--great courage, treachery, vanity, andgenerosity, according to the impulses of the moment. The war in whichhe took so prominent a part is generally called by his name; his is thecentral figure in the striking drama which was enacted in the Westernand Ohio country for two years and a half before peace generallyreigned and Canada could be considered secure from Indian attacks. 

At Detroit, where Major Gladwin was in command, Pontiac hoped to seizethe fort by a stratagem. The Ottawas and other Indians under thatchief were to meet the English officers in council within the fort atan appointed time. They had filed off the tops of the barrels of theirmuskets so as to conceal them easily under their garments. While incouncil Pontiac was to give a signal which would tell the assembledwarriors that the time had come for falling on the garrison and takingpossession of the fort. [1] Some writers give credence to the storythat an Indian maiden, the mistress of Gladwin, warned him of thescheme of the Indian chief, who came to the council, in accordance withhis intention, and found the garrison in arms and ready for anytreacherous movement on his part. He left the fort in anger, and soonafterwards attacked it with all his force, though to no purpose, asGladwin was able to hold it for many months, until aid reached him from{272} the east. As one Indian woman's devotion saved Detroit, so thetreachery of a Delaware girl gave Fort Miami and its little garrison tothe Indians encamped on the Maumee. Holmes, the commandant, was herlover, and believed her when she told him that a squaw, who wasseriously ill in one of the wigwams, wished to see him. He proceededon his charitable mission, and was shot dead while about entering theplace of his destination. At Michillimackinac Captain Etherington wassurprised by a clever piece of strategy on the part of a body of Sacsand Ojibways, who invited him to witness a contest between them attheir favourite sport of Lacrosse, which in these modern times has beenmade the national game of Canadians. While the game was going on, thegate was left open while the officers and soldiers stood in groupsoutside, close to the palisades, watching the Indians as they tossedthe ball to and fro between the goals on the level ground opposite thefort. The squaws, wrapped in their blankets, passed in and out thefort, without attracting any attention from the interested spectators. Suddenly, when the game was most hotly contested, the ball wasviolently driven in the direction of the pickets of the fort. A crowdof the savage players tumultuously followed the ball, and in a momentwere inside the fort where they snatched weapons from the squaws. Oneofficer and several soldiers were instantly killed, but Etherington andthe remainder of the garrison were taken prisoners. Etherington and awell-known trader of the West, Alexander Henry, eventually escaped, after having {273} been on several occasions on the point of death. Insix weeks' time from the first attack on Detroit, on the 9th of May, 1763, all the forts in the Western and Ohio country had been seized anddestroyed by the Indians, except Fort Pitt at the forks of the Ohio, the one at Green Bay which was abandoned, and another at Ligonier. Thegarrisons were massacred or made prisoners, and in many cases torturedand even eaten. The frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania were laidwaste by hordes of savages, who burned the homes of the settlers, murdered a large number, and carried off many prisoners, men, women, and children, to their savage fastnesses in the western wilderness. The war never ended until Virginia and Pennsylvania--where the Quakerelement still prevailed--were aroused from their apathy and gave therequisite aid to an expedition under the command of an able officer, Colonel Bouquet, who had been one of Brigadier Forbes's officers duringthe campaign of 1759 in the Ohio valley. He rescued Fort Pitt, afteradministering to the Indians a severe defeat at Bushy Run. A yearlater he succeeded in taking a large force into the very heart of acountry where the Indians thought themselves safe from any attack oftheir white enemy. His unexpected appearance on the banks of theMuskingkum awed the Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes, who gladlyagreed to terms of peace, especially as they knew that ColonelBradstreet was in their rear on the banks of Lake Erie. The prisoners, whom the Indians had taken during their raids on the frontiersettlements of Virginia and {274} Pennsylvania, were restored to theirfriends and relatives who had, in the majority of cases, never hoped tosee them again. The annals of those days tell us strange stories ofthe infatuation which some young women felt for the savage warriorswhom they had wedded in Indian fashion. Some children had forgottentheir mothers, and Parkman relates in his graphic narrative of thosememorable times that one girl only recalled her childhood when sheheard her distracted mother sing a song with which she had often lulledher daughter to sleep in happier days. 

Peace again reigned in the West. Detroit, after repulsing Pontiac sosuccessfully, was at last relieved, and the red cross of Englandfloated above the forts of Chartres and Vincennes, which were given upby the French. 

By the end of the autumn of 1765 France possessed only a few acres ofrock, constantly enveloped in fog, on the southern coast ofNewfoundland, of all the great dominion she once claimed in NorthAmerica. Pontiac now disappears from history, and is believed to havebeen killed by an Indian warrior of the Illinois nation, after adrunken bout at the village of Cahokia--an ignominious ending to thecareer of a great chief whose name was for so many months a menace toEnglish authority in that wilderness region, which was declared inlater years by an imperial statute, the Quebec Act, to be a part ofCanada's illimitable domain. 

While this Indian war was going on, George III. , in the autumn of 1763, issued a proclamation establishing four new governments in NorthAmerica; {275} Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. Thegovernors were empowered to summon general assemblies, and to make lawsand ordinances for good government with the consent of the councils. And the representatives of the people, and to establish courts ofjustice. Members elected to the proposed assemblies had to take theoaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the declaration againsttransubstantiation. No assembly, however, ever met, as the FrenchCanadian population were unwilling to take the test oath, and thegovernment of the province was carried on solely by theGovernor-General--General Murray--with the assistance of an executivecouncil, composed of certain officials and leading residents in thecolony. From 1763 to 1774 the province remained in a very unsettledstate, chiefly on account of the uncertainty that prevailed as to thelaws actually in force. The "new subjects, " or French Canadians, contended that justice, so far as they were concerned, should beadministered in accordance with their ancient customs and usages. Onthe other hand, "the old, " or English subjects, argued from theproclamation of 1763, that it was His Majesty's intention at once toabolish the old jurisprudence of the country, and to establish Englishlaw in its place. 

Not the least important part of the proclamation of 1763 was thatrelating to the Indians, who were not to be disturbed in the possessionof their hunting grounds. Lands could be alienated by the Indians onlyat some public meeting or assembly called for that special purpose bythe Governor or {276} commander-in-chief where such lands weresituated. This was the commencement of that just and honest policytowards the Indians which has ever since been followed by thegovernment of Canada. One hundred and ten years later, an interestingspectacle was witnessed in the great Northwest Territory of Canada. The lieutenant-governor of the new province of Manitoba, constituted in1870 out of the prairie lands of that rich region, met in council therepresentatives of the Indian tribes, and solemnly entered intotreaties with them for the transfer to Canada of immense tracts ofprairie lands where we now see wide stretches of fields of noddinggrain. 

Governor Murray conducted his government on principles of justice andforbearance towards the French Canadians, and refused to listen to theunwise and arbitrary counsel of the four or five hundred "oldsubjects, " who wished to rule the province. He succeeded in inspiringthe old inhabitants of the province, or "new subjects, " with confidencein his intentions. The majority of the "old subjects, " who weredesirous of ruling Canada, are described by the Governor in a letter toLord Shelburne, as "men of mean education, traders, mechanics, publicans, followers of the army, "--a somewhat prejudiced statement. As a rule, however, the judges, magistrates, and officials at that timewere men of little or no knowledge. 

In 1774, Parliament intervened for the first time in Canadian affairs, and passed the Quebec Act, which greatly extended the boundaries of theprovince of Quebec, as defined by the proclamation of {277} 1763. Onone side, the province now extended to the frontiers of New England, Pennsylvania, New York province, the Ohio, and the left bank of theMississippi; on the other, to the Hudson's Bay Territory. Labrador, Anticosti, and the Magdalen islands, annexed to Newfoundland by theproclamation of 1763, were made part of the province of Quebec. 

The Quebec Act created much debate in the House of Commons. The Earlof Chatham, in the House of Lords, described it as "a most cruel, andodious measure. " The opposition in the province was among the Britishinhabitants, who sent over a petition for its repeal or amendment. Their principal grievance was that it substituted the laws and usagesof Canada for English law. The Act of 1774 was exceedingly unpopularin the English-speaking colonies, then at the commencement of therevolution on account of the extension of the limits of the province soas to include the country long known as the old Northwest in Americanhistory, and the consequent confinement of the Thirteen Coloniesbetween the Atlantic coast and the Alleghany Mountains, beyond whichthe hardy and bold frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania werealready passing into the great valley of the Ohio. Parliament, however, appears to have been influenced by a desire to adjust thegovernment of the province so as to conciliate the majority of theCanadian people at this critical time. 

The advice of Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, whosucceeded General Murray as {278} Governor-General, had much to do withthe liberality of the Quebec Act towards the French Canadians. After acareful study of the country he came to the conclusion that the Frenchcivil law ought to be retained, although he was met by the earnestadvice to the contrary of two able lawyers, Chief-Justice Hay andAttorney-General Masères, who believed a code adopted from English andFrench principles was preferable. Masères, who was of Huguenot descentand much prejudiced against Roman Catholics, was also an advocate of alegislative assembly to be exclusively Protestant--in other words, ofgiving all power practically into the hands of a small Britishminority. When the subject of a new Canadian Constitution came to bediscussed in England, Carleton crossed the Atlantic in 1769 andremained absent from Canada for four years. He returned to carry outthe Quebec Act, which was the foundation of the large political andreligious liberties which French Canada has ever since enjoyed. 

The new constitution came into force in October, 1774. It providedthat Roman Catholics should be no longer obliged to take the test oath, but only the oath of allegiance. The government of the province wasentrusted to a governor and a legislative council, appointed by theCrown, inasmuch as it was "inexpedient to call an assembly. " Thiscouncil had the power, with the consent of the Governor, to makeordinances for the good government of the province. In all matters ofcontroversy, relative to property and civil rights, recourse should behad to the French civil procedure, whilst the law of {279} Englandshould obtain in criminal cases. Roman Catholics were permitted toobserve their religion with perfect freedom, and their clergy were toenjoy their "accustomed dues and rights, " with respect to such personsas professed that creed. 

Sir Guy Carleton nominated a legislative council of twenty-threemembers, of whom eight were Roman Catholics. This body sat, as a rule, with closed doors; both languages were employed in the debates, and theordinances agreed to were drawn up in English and French. In 1776 theGovernor-General called to his assistance an advisory privy council offive members. 

When Canada came under the operation of the Quebec Act, the ThirteenColonies were on the eve of that revolution which ended in theestablishment of a federal republic, and had also most importantinfluence on the fortunes of the country through which the St. Lawrenceflows. 

[1] The siege of Detroit by Pontiac inspired one of the best historicnovels ever written by a Canadian--_Wacousta, or the Prophecy_, byMajor Richardson, who was the author of several other books. 

{280}

XX. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION--INVASION OF CANADA--DEATH OF MONTGOMERY--PEACE. 

(1774-1783. )

The Canadian people had now entered on one of the most importantperiods of their history. Their country was invaded, and for a timeseemed on the point of passing under the control of the congress of theold Thirteen Colonies, now in rebellion against England. The genius ofan able English governor-general, however, saved the valley of the St. Lawrence for the English Crown, and the close of the war for Americanindependence led to radical changes in the governments of British NorthAmerica. A large population, imbued with the loftiest principles ofpatriotism and self-sacrifice, came in and founded new provinces, andlaid the basis of the present Dominion of Canada. 

During the revolution emphatic appeals were made to the Canadian Frenchto join the English colonies in their rebellion against England. Witha curious ignorance of the conditions of a people, {281} who could notread and rarely saw a printed book, and never owned a printing-press[1]during the French régime, references were made by the congress thatassembled at Philadelphia in September in 1774, to the writings ofBeccaria and the spirit of the "immortal Montesquieu. " The delegatesattacked the Quebec Act as an exhibition of Roman Catholic tyranny atthe very time they were asking the aid and sympathy of French Canadiansin the struggle for independence. A few weeks later the same congressignored the ill-advised address and appealed to the Canadians to jointhem on the broad grounds of continental freedom. The time, however, was too short to convince the clergy and leading men of the provincethat there was a change in the feeling of the majority in the congresswith respect to the Roman Catholic religion. The mass of the FrenchCanadians, especially in the rural districts, no doubt looked withgreat indifference on the progress of the conflict between the King ofEngland and his former subjects, but in Quebec and Montreal, principally in the latter town, there were found English, as well asFrench-speaking persons quite ready to welcome and assist the forces ofcongress when they invaded Canada. On the other hand, the influencesof the Quebec Act and of the judicious administrations of Murray andCarleton were obvious from the outset, and the bishop, MonseigneurBriand--who had been chosen with the silent acquiescence of the EnglishGovernment--the {282} clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and theleading seigniors combined to maintain Canada under the dominion of agenerous Power which had already given such undoubted guaranties forthe preservation of the civil and religious rights of the "newsubjects. " In fact, the enemies of England were to be found chieflyamong the "old subjects, " who had attempted to obtain an assembly inwhich the French Canadians would be ignored, and had been, and werestill bitterly antagonistic to the Quebec Act, with its concessions tothe French Canadian majority. Many of these disaffected persons weremere adventurers who were carrying on a secret correspondence with theleaders of the American Revolution, and even went so far as to attemptto create discontent among the French Canadians by making them believethat their liberties were in jeopardy, and that they would have tosubmit to forced military service, and all those exactions which had sogrievously burdened them in the days of the French dominion. The_habitants_, ignorant and credulous, however, remained generally inertduring the events which threatened the security of Canada. It was leftto a few enlightened men, chiefly priests and officers of the oldFrench service, to understand the exact nature of the emergency, and toshow their appreciation of what England had done for them since thecession. 

When the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, on September5, 1774, the colonies were on the eve of independence as a result ofthe coercive measures forced on Parliament by the King's pliableministers, led by Lord North. The "declaration, " {283} however, wasnot finally proclaimed until nearly two years later--on July 4, 1776, --when the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves "free andindependent States, " absolved of their allegiance to the British Crown. But many months before this great epoch-making event, war had actuallycommenced on Lake Champlain. On an April day, in the now memorableyear, 1775, the "embattled farmers" had fired at Concord and Lexington, the shots "heard round the world, " and a few weeks later the forts ofCrown Point and Ticonderoga, then defended by very feeble garrisons, were in the possession of Colonial troops led by Ethan Allen and SethWarner, two of the "Green Mountain Boys, " who organised thisexpedition. Canada was at this time in a very defenceless condition. Only eight hundred regular troops altogether were in the colony, verymany of the English residents of Montreal and Quebec were of doubtfulloyalty, the majority of the French Canadians were indifferent, andcould not be induced to rally in any numbers to the defence of theprovince. Happily for the best interests of Canada at this crisisthere was at the head of the administration one of the ablest men whohave ever been sent to Canada--a governor-general who may well becompared with Frontenac as a soldier and Lord Elgin as a statesman--andthat was Sir Guy Carleton, the friend of Wolfe, with whom he had servedat Quebec. His conciliatory attitude towards the French Canadianpopulation, and his influence in moulding the Quebec Act, gave himgreat weight with the bishop and clergy of the Roman Catholic {284}faith and leading men of the majority. The British Government, withculpable neglect of his warnings and appeals, left him unsupporteduntil the very last moment, when the fate of Canada was literallytrembling in the balance. In the autumn of 1775 General Montgomery, atthe head of a considerable force of congress troops, captured the fortsof Chambly and St. Johns on the Richelieu, and a few days lateroccupied Montreal, which had been hastily evacuated by Carleton, who atonce recognised the impracticability of defending it with any chance ofsuccess, since he had an insufficient force, and could not even dependon the fealty of the inhabitants. Quebec, at this juncture, was thekey to Canada, and there he determined to make his fight. He passed inthe night-time the batteries which the congress troops had built atSorel and the adjacent islands. The oars of his boat were muffled, andwhen in close proximity to the enemy the men used the palms of theirhands. He reached Quebec safely, and at once inspired the garrison andloyal residents with his courageous spirit. He arrived not a momenttoo soon. General Benedict Arnold--a name discredited in history--hadsucceeded in reaching Quebec by the route of the Kennebec and Chaudièrerivers--a route which in early times had been followed by the Abenakis, those firm allies of the Canadians. Arnold was not able to commenceany active operations against Quebec until the arrival of Montgomeryfrom Montreal, with a force of fifteen hundred men, of whom a verysmall number were French Canadians. At this time there were in {285}Quebec only some eighteen hundred regular and militia troops, of whomover five hundred were French Canadians, under Colonel Voyer. No doubtthe American commanders confidently expected to find in Quebec manyactive sympathisers who would sooner or later contrive to give the towninto their hands, when these learned that all Canada except the capitalwas in the possession of the invading forces. 

Many of their men were sick, and the artillery was insufficient for thesiege of the fortress. It was decided then to attempt to seize thetown by a piece of strategy, which was very simple though it had somechance of success. Arnold was well acquainted with the locality andentered heartily into the plan which was devised by Montgomery for acombined attack on Lower Town. Late at night on the 31st December, during a heavy snowstorm, Montgomery marched from Anse-au-Foulon alonga rough and narrow road between the foot of Cape Diamond and the St. Lawrence, as far as Près-de-ville, or what is now Little ChamplainStreet. Arnold at the same time advanced from the direction of the St. Charles. It was arranged that the two parties should meet at the lowerend of Mountain Street and force Prescott Gate, then only a roughstructure of pickets. While the two bodies were carrying out thisplan, attacks were made on the western side of the fortress to distractthe attention of the defenders. Carleton, however, was not taken bysurprise as he had had an intimation of what was likely to happen. Consequently the garrison was on the alert and {286} Montgomery's forcewas swept by a sudden discharge of cannon and musketry as they came toPrès-de-ville--a defile with a precipice towards the river on one side, and the scarped rock above him on the other--where all further approachto the lower town was intercepted by a battery. Montgomery, his twoaides, and a considerable number of his soldiers were instantly killed. In the meantime Arnold had led his party from the St. Charles to theSault-au-Matelot, where he captured the first barrier defended by twoguns. Arnold was wounded in the knee, and his force was obliged toproceed without him under the command of Captain Morgan, to the attackof the second battery near the eastern end of the narrow street, knownas Sault-au-Matelot from the most early times. They succeeded inobtaining possession of some houses in the street, but it was not longbefore they were surrounded by Carleton's men and forced to surrenderto the number of several hundreds. Arnold remained, during the winter, in command of the congress troops, who suffered severely fromsmall-pox, the cold, and even want of sufficient provisions. In thespring he was superseded by General Wooster who brought with him areinforcement, but the arrival of English frigates with troops andsupplies, forced him to raise the siege and retire hastily to Montreal. A few weeks later General Burgoyne, with seven regiments, including alarge German contingent under General Frederick Riedesel, arrived atQuebec, and arrangements were made for an active campaign against therebellious colonists. Arnold found it {287} prudent immediately toleave Montreal which was again occupied by English troops. The fortson the Richelieu were regained by the English, Carleton destroyed thecongress fleet under the command of Arnold on Lake Champlain, and CrownPoint was partly destroyed and abandoned by the retreating Americans. Soon after these occurrences in 1775, Carleton found to his chagrinthat the command of the forces was given to Burgoyne, a much inferiorman, who had influence with Lord Germain, better known in Englishhistory as that Lord George Sackville who had disgraced himself on thebattlefield of Minden, but had subsequently found favour with the King, who made him one of his ministers, and gave him virtually the directionof the campaign in America. Carleton, however, remainedGovernor-General until 1778, when he was replaced at his own request byGeneral Haldimand, a very energetic and capable man, to whom Canadianhistorians have, as a rule, never rendered adequate justice. Duringthese years Carleton had his difficulties arising out of the unsettledcondition of things in the province, the prospects of invasion, and theantagonism of Chief-Justice Livius, who replaced a far better man, Hey, and was himself superseded by the Governor-General on account of hisefforts to weaken the authority of the government at a time whenfaction and rivalry should have ceased among those who wished tostrengthen British interests in America. Livius appealed to the homeauthorities, and through the influence of Lord George Germain wasreinstated, though he did not find even in this {288} quarter anapproval in words of his own conduct, and never returned to fill hisformer position in Canada. 

It is not necessary to dwell here on the events of a war whose historyis so familiar to every one. Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga, andhis army, from which so much was expected, made prisoners of war. Thisgreat misfortune of the British cause was followed by the alliance ofFrance with the States. French money, men, and ships eventuallyassured the independence of the republic whose fortunes were very lowat times, despite the victory at Saratoga. England was not well servedin this American war. She had no Washington to direct her campaign. Gage, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis were not equal to the responsibilitiesthrown upon them. Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown on the 19th October, 1781, was the death-blow to the hopes of England in North America. This disaster led to the resignation of Lord North, whose heart wasnever in the war, and to the acknowledgment by England, a few monthslater, of the independence of her old colonies. Before this decisivevictory in the south, the Ohio valley and the Illinois country were inthe possession of the troops of congress. George Rogers Clark, thebold backwoodsman of Kentucky, captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia, andVincennes, and gave the new States that valid claim to the west whichwas fully recognised in the treaty of peace. 

The definitive treaty of peace, which was signed in 1783, acknowledgedthe independence of the old English colonies, and fixed the boundariesof the {289} new republic and of Canada, and laid the foundation offruitful controversies in later times. 

The United States now controlled the territory extending in the eastfrom Nova Scotia (which then included New Brunswick) to the head of theLake of the Woods and to the Mississippi River in the west, and in thenorth from Canada to the Floridas in the south, the latter having againbecome Spanish possessions. The boundary between Nova Scotia and theRepublic was so ill-defined that it took half a century to fix the St. Croix and the Highlands which were by the treaty to divide the twocountries. In the far west the line of division was to be drawnthrough the Lake of the Woods "to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the River Mississippi"--aphysical impossibility, since the head of the Mississippi, as wasafterwards found, was a hundred miles or so to the south. In latertimes this geographical error was corrected, and the curious distortionof the boundary line that now appears on the maps was necessary at theLake of the Woods in order to strike the forty-ninth parallel of northlatitude, which was subsequently arranged as the boundary line as faras the Rocky Mountains. Of the difficulties that arose from theeastern boundary line I shall speak later. 

From 1778 until 1783 the government of Canada was under the directionof General Haldimand, who possessed that decision of characterabsolutely essential at so critical a period of Canadian history. TheCongress of the States had never despaired of obtaining the assistanceof the French Canadians, and of {290} bringing the country into the newrepublic. Haldimand had to arrest Du Calvet, Mesplet, and Jotard, asleaders in a seditious movement against England. Fleury Mesplet put upin Montreal the first printing-press, which gave him and his friendssuperior facilities for circulating dangerous appeals to the restlesselement of the population. Du Calvet was a French Protestant, inactive sympathy with Congress, and had a violent controversy withHaldimand, who was, at last, forced to take severe measures againsthim. While on his way to England he was drowned, and the countryspared more of his dangerous influence. Jotard, a French attorney, wasa contributor to a paper owned by Mesplet, and a warm sympathiser withthe efforts of Admiral D'Estaing and General Lafayette to win back theallegiance of the French Canadians. The appeals of these twodistinguished men to the memories of the old subjects of France had noimmediate effect except upon a very small class, although it might havebeen different had French troops made their appearance on the St. Lawrence. One Canadian priest, La Valinière, who was connected withthe seminary of St. Sulpice in Montreal, was sent to England with theapproval of the bishop, for his openly expressed sympathy with France. Happily Monseigneur Briand and the great majority of the clergy stoodalways firm on the side of England. 

[1] The first paper printed in French Canada was the _Quebec Gazette_, which appeared in 1764. 

{291}

XXI. 

COMING OF THE LOYALISTS. 

(1783-1791. )

It was during Governor Haldimand's administration that one of the mostimportant events in the history of Canada occurred as a result of theAmerican war for independence. This event was the coming to theprovinces of many thousand people, known as United Empire Loyalists, who, during the progress of the war, but chiefly at its close, lefttheir old homes in the thirteen colonies. When the Treaty of 1783 wasunder consideration, the British representatives made an effort toobtain some practical consideration from the new nation for the claimsof this unfortunate people who had been subject to so much loss andobloquy during the war. All that the English envoys could obtain wasthe insertion of a clause in the treaty to the effect that Congresswould recommend to the legislatures of the several States measures ofrestitution--a provision which turned out, as Franklin intimated at thetime, a perfect nullity. The English Government subsequently {292}indemnified these people in a measure for their self-sacrifice, andamong other things gave a large number of them valuable tracts of landin the provinces of British North America. Many of them settled inNova Scotia, others founded New Brunswick and Upper Canada, nowOntario. Their influence on the political fortunes of Canada has beennecessarily very considerable. For years they and their children wereanimated by a feeling of bitter animosity against the United States, the effects of which could be traced in later times when questions ofdifference arose between England and her former colonies. They haveproved with the French Canadians a barrier to the growth of anyannexation party, and as powerful an influence in national and sociallife as the Puritan element itself in the Eastern and Western States. 

Among the sad stories of the past the one which tells of the exile ofthe Loyalists from their homes, of their trials and struggles in thevalley of the St. Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepestsympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only comparedwith the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the Frenchpopulation from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution theycomprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, inall the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, wherethey were in the majority until the peace. They were generally knownas Tories, whilst their opponents, who supported independence, werecalled Whigs. Neighbour was arrayed against {293} neighbour, familieswere divided, the greatest cruelties were inflicted as the war went onupon men and women who believed it was their duty to be faithful toking and country. As soon as the contest was ended, their property wasconfiscated in several States. Many persons were banished andprohibited from returning to their homes. An American writer, Sabine, tells us that previous to the evacuation of New York, in the month ofSeptember, 1783, "upwards of twelve thousand men, women, and childrenembarked at the city, at Long and Staten Islands, for Nova Scotia andthe Bahamas. " Very wrong impressions were held in those days of theclimate and resources of the provinces to which these people fled. Time was to prove that the lot of many of the loyalists had actuallyfallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and UpperCanada; that the country, where most of them settled, was superior inmany respects to the New England States, and equal to the State of NewYork from which so many of them came. 

It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reachedBritish North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homessoon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration tookplace in 1783-84. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and foundedthe town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten ortwelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited tothe conditions of the rough country around them, and soon sought homeselsewhere. Not a few settled in more favourable parts {294} of NovaScotia, and even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest inthe beautiful valley of the St. John River, and founded the province ofNew Brunswick. As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, inthe present county of Glengarry, in the neighbourhood of Kingston andthe Bay of Quinté, on the Niagara River, and near the Frenchsettlements on the Detroit. A few also settled in the country nowknown as the Eastern Townships of French Canada. A great proportion ofthe men were officers and soldiers of the regiments which were formedin several colonies out of the large loyal population. Among them werealso men who had occupied positions of influence and responsibility intheir respective communities, divines, judges, officials, and landedproprietors, whose names were among the best in the old colonies, asthey are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave up valuable estateswhich had been acquired by the energy of their ancestors. Unlike thePuritans who founded New England, they did not take away with themtheir valuable property in the shape of money and securities, orhousehold goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or lake, wherepoverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even years insome cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had enjoyed everycomfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in statelymansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and canstill be pointed out in New England. Many of the loyalists were quiteunfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years passed{295} before they and their children conquered the wilderness and madea livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in itsgrants of lands to this class of persons in all the provinces. 

The government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases withfood, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years theysuffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine, " whenhundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots, and even the buds oftrees, or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived infavoured localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of allkinds, were plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities ofwild fruit and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the peopleonce learned to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf maywell be made the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a longwhile to accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitivepioneer life, but now the results of the labours of these earlysettlers and their descendants can be seen far and wide in smilingfields, richly laden orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowersthroughout the country which they first made to blossom like the rose. The rivers and lakes were the only means of communication in thoseearly times, roads were unknown, and the wayfarer could find his waythrough the illimitable forests only by the help of the "blazed" treesand the course of streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except inautumn and winter, when the young managed to assemble as they alwayswill. Love and courtship went on {296} even in this wilderness, thoughmarriage was uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare inmany places, and magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot--a veryunsatisfactory performance to the cooler lovers who loved their church, its ceremonies and traditions, as dearly as they loved their sovereign. The story of those days of trial has not yet been adequately written;perhaps it never will be, for few of those pioneers have left recordsbehind them. As we wander among the old burying grounds of thosefounders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray, moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, thethought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told bythose who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of heartssick with hope deferred, of expectations never realised, of memories ofmisfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for astubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are notsimply memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story offidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotionand self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--astory that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation ofthe young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits ofthe labours of those loyal pioneers. 

Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of thesefounders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although themajority lie forgotten in old graveyards where the grass has {297}grown rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yetthe names of all are written in imperishable letters in provincialannals. Those loyalists, including the children of both sexes, whojoined the cause of Great Britain before the Treaty of Peace in 1783, were allowed the distinction of having after their name the letters U. E. To preserve the memory of their fidelity to a United Empire. ACanadian of these modern days, who traces his descent from such asource, is as proud of his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot ofMalahide, or inheritor of other noble names famous in the annals of theEnglish peerage. 

The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised ontheir material, political, and intellectual development by this devotedbody of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendantshave been distinguished for the useful and important part they havetaken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of thecountry. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service intheir day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis, Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; inNova Scotia, Inglis (the first Anglican bishop in the colonies), Wentworth, Brenton, Blowers (Chief Justice), Cunard, Cutler, Howe, Creighton, Chipman, Marshall, Halliburton, Wilkins, Huntingdon, Jones;in Ontario, Cartwright, Robinson, Hagerman, Stuart (the first Anglicanclergyman), Gamble, Van Alstine, Fisher, Grass, Butler, Macaulay, Wallbridge, Chrysler, Bethune, {298} Merritt, McNab, Crawford, Kirby, Tisdale, and Ryerson. Among these names stand out prominently those ofWilmot, Howe, and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsiblegovernment; those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who wereamong the fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a mostimportant influence on the system of free education which Ontario nowenjoys. Among the eminent living descendants of U. E. Loyalists areSir Charles Tupper, long a prominent figure in politics; ChristopherRobinson, a distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at theBering Sea arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leaderremarkable for his keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge offinancial questions; Honourable George E. Foster, a former financeminister of Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did spacepermit. In all walks of life we see the descendants of the loyalists, exercising a decided influence over the fortunes of the Dominion. 

[Illustration: Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)]

Conspicuous among the people who remained faithful to England duringthe American revolution, we see the famous Iroquois chief, JosephBrant, best known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part inthe war, and was for many years wrongly accused of having participatedin the massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of theSusquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned toeternal infamy in the verse:

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 "The mammoth comes--the foe, the monster, Brandt-- With all his howling, desolating band; These eyes have seen their blade and burning pine Awake at once, and silence half your land. Red is the cup they drink, but not with wine-- Awake and watch to-night, or see no morning shine. "

Posterity has, however, recognised the fact that Joseph Brant was notpresent at this sad episode of the American war, and the poet in a noteto a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "apure and declared character of fiction. " He was a sincere friend ofEnglish interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who mighthave taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educatedin these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe movedinto the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the governmentfine reserves of land on the Bay of Quinté, and on the Grand River inthe western part of the province of Upper Canada, where the prosperouscity and county of Brantford, and the township of Tyendinaga--acorruption of Thayendanegea--illustrate the fame he has won in Canadianannals. The descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, tillfine farms in a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all thefranchises of white men. It is an interesting fact that the firstchurch built in Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve thecommunion service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne ofEngland. 

General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadianhistory for the coming of the {301} loyalists, and for the sympatheticinterest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, andin alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of hisgovernment. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he provedconclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that someCanadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When heleft Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to thepeerage as Lord Dorchester, who was called upon to take part in greatchanges in the constitution of Canada which must be left for review inthe following chapter. 

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XXII. 

FOUNDATION OF NEW PROVINCES--ESTABLISHMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 

(1792-1812. )

The history of the Dominion of Canada as a self-governing communitycommences with the concession of representative institutions to the oldprovinces now comprised within its limits. By 1792 there were provincialgovernments established in Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, NewBrunswick, and Prince Edward Island. From 1713 to 1758 the government ofNova Scotia consisted of a governor, or lieutenant-governor, a councilpossessing legislative, executive, and even judicial powers. In October, 1758, an assembly met for the first time in the town of Halifax, whichhad been the capital since 1749. New Brunswick had been separated fromNova Scotia in 1784, but a representative assembly did not assemble until1786, when its form of government was identical with that of the olderprovince. Prince Edward Island was a part of Nova Scotia until 1769 whenit was created a distinct province, {303} with a lieutenant-governor, acombined executive and legislative council, and also an assembly in 1773. The island of Cape Breton had a lieutenant-governor and executivecouncil, and remained apart from Nova Scotia until 1820 when it wasincluded in its government. In 1791 the province of Upper Canada wasformally separated from the province of Quebec by an act of the imperialparliament, and was called Upper Canada, while the French sectionreceived the name of Lower Canada. At that time the total population ofBritish North America did not exceed a quarter of a million of souls, ofwhom at least a hundred and forty thousand lived on the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributary streams, and almost entirely represented thelanguage, institutions, and history of the French régime. In the Frenchprovince there was also a small British population, consisting ofofficials, commercial men, and loyalists who settled for the most part inthe Eastern Townships. The population of Upper Canada, about twenty-fivethousand, was almost exclusively of loyalist stock--a considerable numberhaving migrated thither from the maritime provinces. Beyond the DetroitRiver, the limit of English settlement, extended a vast region ofwilderness which was trodden only by trappers and Indians. 

The Constitutional Act of 1791, which created the two provinces of Upperand Lower Canada, caused much discussion in the British Parliament and inCanada, where the principal opposition came from the English inhabitantsof the French province. These opponents of the act even sent Mr. Adam{304} Lymburner, a Quebec merchant of high standing, to express theiropinions at the bar of the English House of Commons. The advocates ofthe new scheme of government, however, believed that the division ofCanada into two provinces would have the effect of creating harmony, since the French would be left in the majority in one section, and theBritish in the other. The Quebec Act, it was generally admitted, had notpromoted the prosperity or happiness of the people at large. Greatuncertainty still existed as to the laws actually in force under the act. In not a few cases the judges were confessedly ignorant--Chief JusticeLivius, for instance--of French Canadian jurisprudence. The increase ofthe English population was a strong argument for a grant ofrepresentative institutions. Accordingly the constitutional act providedfor an assembly, elected by the people on a limited franchise, in eachprovince, and for a legislative council, appointed by the Crown. Thesovereign might annex hereditary letters of honour to the right ofsummons to the legislative council, but no attempt was ever made tocreate a Canadian aristocracy, or distinct class, under the authority ofthis section of the act. The British Government reserved the right ofimposing, levying, and collecting duties of customs, and of appointing ordirecting their payment, though it left the exclusive apportionment ofall moneys levied in this way to legislature. The free exercise of theRoman Catholic religion was permanently guaranteed. A seventh part ofall uncleared Crown lands was reserved for the use of the Protestantclergy--a {305} provision that caused much trouble in the future. Thecivil law of French Canada was to regulate property and civil rights inthat province. English criminal law was to prevail in both the Canadas. The Governor-General of Quebec and Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canadawere each assisted by an executive council chosen by those functionaries, and having a right to sit also in the legislative council. LordDorchester was the first governor-general, not only of Canada, butlikewise of the other provinces by virtue of separate commissions to thateffect. The heads of the executive in all the provinces except Quebecwere called lieutenant-governors, but they became only directlysubordinate to the governor-general when he was present in a province inhis official capacity. 

The city where the first assembly of Lower Canada met in 1792 was one ofgreat historic interest. The very buildings in which the governmenttransacted its business had echoed to the tread of statesmen, warriors, and priests of the old régime. The civil and military branches of thegovernment then occupied apartments in the old Château St. Louis, elevated on the brink of an inaccessible precipice. On a rocky eminence, in the vicinity of a battery close to Prescott Gate, erected in 1797, wasan old stone building, generally known as the Bishop's Palace. Like allthe ancient structures of Quebec, this building had no claims to eleganceof form, although much labour and expense had been bestowed on itsconstruction. The chapel of this building, situated near thecommunication with the lower {306} town, was converted into a chamber, inwhich were held the first meetings of the representatives of Lower Canada. 

On the 17th of December, the two houses assembled in their respectivechambers in the old palace, in obedience to the proclamation ofMajor-General Alured Clarke, who acted as lieutenant-governor in theabsence of the governor-general, Lord Dorchester. Among the officers whosurrounded the throne on that occasion, was probably his Royal Highnessthe Duke of Kent, who was in command of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, thenstationed in the old capital. On so momentous an occasion, theassemblage was large, and comprised all the notabilities of English andFrench society. In the legislature were not a few men whose families hadlong been associated with the fortunes of the colony. Chaussegros deLéry, St. Ours, Longueuil, Lanaudière, Rouville, Boucherville, Salaberry, and Lotbinière, were among the names that told of the old régime, andgave a guaranty to the French Canadians that their race and institutionswere at last protected in the legislative halls of their country. M. Panet, a distinguished French Canadian, was unanimously elected thespeaker of the first assembly of French Canada. 

[Illustration: Prescott Gate and Bishop's palace at Quebec in 1830. ]

Now let us leave the Bishop's Palace, among the rocks of old Quebec, andvisit the humble village of Newark, where Lieutenant-Governor Simcoeopened his first legislature under the new constitution in the autumn of1792. Across the rapid river was the territory of the Republic, whichwas engaged in a grand experiment of government. The roar of the {308}mighty cataract of Niagara could be heard in calm summer days. On thebanks of this picturesque river was the residence of thelieutenant-governor, known as Navy Hall, where the legislators of UpperCanada probably met. This was but a mean parliament house, compared withthe massive pile which was chosen for a similar purpose in Quebec; andyet each was appropriate in its way. The Bishop's Palace illustrated anold community, which had aimed at the conquest of the larger part ofAmerica, and had actually laid the foundations of an empire; thelegislative cabin of Newark was a fit type of the ruggedness and newnessof western colonial life. The axe was whirring amid the forests, andonly here and there, through a vast wilderness, could be seen the humbleclearings of the pioneers. 

The session was opened with the usual speech, which was duly reported tothe house of assembly by the speaker, Mr. McDonnell of Glengarry, andimmediately taken into consideration by the representatives of theyeomanry of the western province. It is said that on more than oneoccasion, the representatives were forced to leave their confined chamberand finish their work under the trees before the door. If the attendancewas small on this occasion, it must be remembered that there were manydifficulties to overcome before the two Houses could assemble inobedience to the governor's proclamation. The seven legislativecouncillors and sixteen members who represented a population of only25, 000 souls, were scattered at very remote points, {309} and could onlyfind their way at times in canoes and slow sailing craft. Nor must it beforgotten that in those early days of colonisation men had the sternnecessities of existence to consider before all things else. Howeverurgent the call to public duty, the harvest must be gathered in beforelaws could be made. 

Such were the circumstances under which the legislatures were opened inthe two provinces, representing the two distinct races of the population. Humble as were the beginnings in the little parliament house of Newark, yet we can see from their proceedings that the men, then called to do thepublic business, were of practical habits and fully alive to the value oftime in a new country, as they sat for only five weeks and passed thesame number of bills that it took seven months at Quebec to pass. 

The history of Canada, during the twenty years that elapsed between theinauguration of the constitution of 1792 and the war of 1812, does notrequire any extended space in this work. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, whohad distinguished himself during the war for independence as a commanderof the Queen's Rangers, was a skilful and able administrator, who did hisbest to develop the country. It was during his régime that Toronto, under the name of York, was chosen, by the influence of Lord Dorchester, as the capital in place of Newark, which was too close to the Americanfrontier, although the Lieutenant-Governor would have preferred the siteof the present city of London, on the River {310} Thames, then known asLa Tranche. Mainly through his efforts a considerable immigration wasattracted from the United States. Many of the new settlers were loyaland favourable to British institutions, but in the course of time therecame into the country not a few discontented, restless persons, havingradical and republican tendencies. Among the important measures of hisadministration was an act preventing the future introduction of slaves, and providing for the freedom of children of slaves then in the province. Governor Simcoe devoted his energy not only to the peopling of theprovince, but to the opening up of arteries of communication, of whichYonge and Dundas Streets--still well-known names--were the most noted. The founder of an important settlement in the west, an eccentric Irishmanof noble ancestry, Colonel Thomas Talbot, was a member of theLieutenant-Governor's staff, and eventually made his home in the westernpart of the province, where he became a useful and influential pioneer. Among the most desirable immigrants were the Scotch Highlanders, whosettled and named the county of Glengarry, and came to the country by theadvice of the energetic and able priest, Macdonell, afterwards the firstRoman Catholic bishop of Upper Canada. In Nova Scotia a number of Scotchsettled in Pictou county as early as 1773, and were followed in lateryears by many others who found homes in the same district, in Antigonisheand Cape Breton, where their descendants are still greatly in themajority. In Prince Edward Island, Lord Selkirk, the founder of the{311} Red River settlement, to whose history I shall refer in a laterchapter, established a colony of thrifty Scotch in one of the desertedsettlements of the French. Charlottetown was founded in those days onthe bay first known as Port La Joye, and is now a pleasing example of theplacid dignity and rural tranquillity that a capital may attain even inthese restless modern times. In this island, the seeds of {312}discontent were planted at a very early time by the transfer of nearlyall its lands in one day by ballot to a few English landlords, whoseabsenteeism long retarded its advancement, and whose claims ofproprietorship were not settled until after the confederation of theprovinces. 

[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Simcoe. ]

The political condition of the provinces from the beginning of thenineteenth century began to assume considerable importance according asthe assemblies became discontented with their relatively small share inthe government of the country. In all the provinces there was apersistent contest between the popular assemblies and prerogative, asrepresented by the governors, and upper houses appointed by the sameauthority. Charles the First, with all his arrogance, never treated hisparliament with greater superciliousness than did Sir James Craig, whengovernor-general, on more than one occasion when the assembly had crossedhis wishes. In the absence of a ministry responsible to the assembly, aconflict was always going on between that body and the representative ofthe Crown. The assembly began now to claim full control over the taxesand revenues which belonged to the people of the provinces. The presenceof judges in the legislature was a just cause for public discontent foryears, and although these high functionaries were eventually removed fromthe assembly they continued to sit in the upper house until 1840. Theconstant interference of the Imperial Government in matters of purelylocal concern also led to many unfortunate misunderstandings. 

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In Lower Canada, where the population was the largest, and the racialdistinctions strongly accentuated, the political conflict was, from theoutset, more bitter than in other sections. The official class, a littleoligarchy composed exclusively of persons brought from the British Isles, treated the French Canadians with a studied superciliousness, andarrogated to themselves all the important functions of government. Thiselement dominated the executive and legislative councils, and practicallythe governors, who, generally speaking, had extreme views of theirprerogative, and were cognisant of the fact that the colonial office inEngland had no desire to entrust the Canadian Government with much largerpowers than those possessed by a municipal organisation. In the assemblythe French Canadians were largely in the majority--the English elementhad frequently not more than one-fifth of the total representation offifty members. The assembly too often exhibited a very domineeringspirit, and attempted to punish all those who ventured to criticise, however moderately, their proceedings. The editor of the _QuebecMercury_, an organ of the British minority, was arrested on this ground. _Le Canadien_ was established as an organ of the French Canadian majoritywith the motto, _Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_. By itsconstant attacks on the government and the English governing class it didmuch harm by creating and perpetuating racial antagonisms and byeventually precipitating civil strife. As a result of its attacks on thegovernment, the paper was seized, and the printer, as well as {314} M. Bedard and several other members of the assembly who were understood tobe contributors to its pages, or to control its opinions, were summarilyarrested by the orders of Sir James Craig. Though some of these personsobtained their release by an expression of regret for their conduct, M. Bedard would not yield, and was not released until the Governor-Generalhimself gave up the fight and retired to England where he died soonafterwards, with the consciousness that his conduct with respect toBedard, and other members of the assembly, had not met with the approvalof the Imperial authorities, although he had placed the whole case beforethem by the able agency of Mr. Ryland, who had been secretary for yearsto successive governors-general, and represented the opinions of theruling official class. 

In Upper Canada there were no national or racial antipathies andrivalries to stimulate political differences. In the course of time, however, antagonisms grew up between the Tories, chiefly old U. E. Loyalists, the official class, and the restless, radical element, whichhad more recently come into the country, and now desired to exercisepolitical influence. Lieutenant-governors, like Sir Francis Gore, sympathised with the official class, and often with reason, as theso-called radical leaders were not always deserving of the sympathy ofreasonable men. One of these leaders was Joseph Willcocks, for some timesheriff of the Home district--one of the four judicial divisions of theprovince--and also the proprietor and editor of the _Upper CanadaGuardian_, {315} the second paper printed in Upper Canada--the firsthaving been the _Upper Canada Gazette_, or the _American Oracle_, whichappeared at Newark on the 18th April, 1793. He was a dangerous agitator, not worthy of public confidence, but he was able to evoke some sympathy, and pose as a political martyr, on account of the ill-advised conduct ofthe majority of the assembly ordering his arrest for expressing someunfavourable opinion of their proceedings in his paper. 

In the maritime provinces the conflict between the executive and theassemblies was less aggravated than in the St. Lawrence country, althoughSir John Wentworth, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who had beena governor of New Hampshire before the revolution, had a very exaltedidea of the prerogative, and succeeded in having an acrimoniouscontroversy with Mr. Cottnam Tonge, the leader of the popular party, andthe predecessor of a far greater man, Joseph Howe, the father ofresponsible government. 

Such, briefly, was the political condition of the several provinces ofBritish North America when events occurred to stifle discontent anddevelop a broader patriotism on all sides. The War of 1812 was to provethe fidelity of the Canadian people to the British Crown and stimulate anew spirit of self-reliance among French as well as English Canadians, who were to win victories which are among the most brilliant episodes ofCanadian history. 

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XXIII. 

THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS. 

At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United Statesembraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley toMexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spainuntil 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanishpossessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the UnitedStates. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight millionsouls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south. Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and thethickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It wasonly with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, andprovisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest. 

The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to thehistorical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict notonly for her own national security but also for the integrity of {317}Europe, then dominated by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It wason the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritimesupremacy, she found it necessary, in the course of events, to seizeand condemn neutral American vessels whenever there was conclusiveevidence that their cargoes were not the produce of the United States, but had been actually bought in an enemy's colony and were on their wayto the mother country. But such an interruption of a commerce, whichhad been carried on for years at a great profit by American merchants, was by no means so serious an affair as the stoppage of Americanvessels on the high seas, and the forcible abduction and impressment, by British naval officers, of sailors who were claimed as Britishsubjects, even when they had been naturalised in the United States. Tosuch an extent did Great Britain assert her pretensions, that one ofher frigates, the _Leopard_, actually fired into the American cruiser_Chesapeake_, off the coast of the bay of the same name, and madeprisoners of several men who were claimed as deserters from an Englishman-of-war--a national outrage for which Great Britain subsequentlymade an apology and gave a measure of reparation. Then came theBritish orders in council which forbade American trade with any countryfrom which the British flag was excluded, allowed direct trade from theUnited States to Sweden only in American products, and permittedAmerican trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touchingat English ports and paying duties. Napoleon retaliated with decreeswhich {318} were practically futile while England was victorious on theocean, but which nevertheless threw additional difficulties in the wayof the commerce of a country like the United States, which possessedsuch exceptional facilities for its development from its position as aneutral nation, and its great maritime and mercantile enterprise. TheBritish measures meant the ruin of an American commerce which hadbecome very profitable, and the Washington government attempted toretaliate by declaring an embargo in their own ports, which had onlythe result of still further embarrassing American trade. In place ofthis injudicious measure a system of non-intercourse with both Englandand France was substituted as long as either should continue itsrestrictive measures against the United States. The Democraticgoverning party practically fell under the influence of France, andbelieved, or at least professed to believe, that Napoleon had abandonedhis repressive system, when, as a matter of fact, as the Englishministry declared, it still existed to all intents and purposes. TheDemocratic leaders, anxious to keep in power, fanned the flame againstEngland, whose naval superiority enabled her to inflict an injury onAmerican commercial interests, which France was entirely powerless todo. The Democrats looked to the South and West for their principalsupport in holding power. In these sections the interests wereexclusively agricultural, while in New England, where theFederalists--the peace party--were in the majority--and the war wasvery unpopular--the commercial and maritime {319} element largelyprevailed. In the West there had been for years an intense feelingagainst England on account of the fact that after the definitive treatyof peace in 1783, the English Government continued to occupy theWestern posts and dependent territory for thirteen years, nominally onthe ground of the harsh treatment meted out to the loyalists inviolation of its terms, and of the non-payment of debts due to Englishcreditors, but probably also with the view of keeping control of thefur trade. The feeling prevailed among the western frontiersmen thatthe English secretly instigated Indian attacks on the new settlements, a belief proved by recent investigations to be groundless. Even afterthe victories of Mayne in 1794, and of Harrison in 1811, when theIndian power was effectively broken, this bitter sentiment stillexisted in the West against English and Canadians, and had muchinfluence with the politicians who favoured the war. 

The Southern leaders, Clay of Kentucky and Calhoun of South Carolina, were most inimical to England, and succeeded in forcing Madison toagree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to thepresidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the passageof a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, andthe formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. Onthe previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders incouncil, but it was too late to induce the war party in the UnitedStates to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which werealready near the western {320} Canadian frontier when thegovernor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heardthe news of the actual declaration of hostilities. 

With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothingwhatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it wastheir duty to assist England with all their might and submit to anysacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to acountry which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, thenUpper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was theonly province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning tothe end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a greatamount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On toCanada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States foryears; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could beeasily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could beused as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else beunited to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however, that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spiritof Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a largeregion--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney toSandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful toEngland. 

No doubt the American Government had been led to believe from theutterances of Willcocks in the _Guardian_, as the representative of thediscontented element in Upper Canada, that they would find not {321}only sympathy but probably some active co-operation in the westerncountry as soon as the armies of the Republic appeared on Canadian soiland won, as they confidently expected, an easy victory over the smallforce which could be brought to check invasion and defend the province. General Hull's proclamation, when he crossed the Detroit River at thecommencement of hostilities, was so much evidence of the belief thatwas entertained in the United States with regard to the fealty of theCanadians. Willcocks proved himself a disloyal man, for he eventuallyjoined the American forces and fell fighting against the country whichhe and a very small disaffected class would willingly have handed to aforeign invader. The forces at the disposal of the Canadianauthorities certainly appeared to be inadequate for the defence of acountry with so long and exposed a frontier. In the provinces ofCanada there were, in 1812, only four thousand five hundred regulartroops, and of these hardly one-third were stationed above Montreal. The Canadian militia, however, rallied with extraordinary readiness tothe call of the authorities. The majority of the loyal population thathad come into the country had been engaged in military services, andeven the old settlers, who were exempted from active duty, voluntarilycame forward, and exercised, as General Sheaffe, said, "a happyinfluence on the youth of the militia ranks. " The legislative bodiesof all the provinces responded liberally to the call of the executiveand placed at the disposal of the government all their resources. Armybills were issued to a {322} large amount, and found a most valuablecurrency throughout the war. 

[Illustration: Major-General Brock. ]

During the first year of the war, there was a continuous record ofsuccess for Canada. The key to the upper lakes, Michillimackinac, wascaptured and held by a small force of English regulars and Canadianvoyageurs. The immediate consequence of this victory was to win theconfidence and alliance of the western Indians, then led by Tecumseh, the famous Shawanoese chief, who had been driven from Tippecanoe byGeneral Harrison. Then followed the capitulation of General Hull andhis army, who had invaded Canada and were afterwards forced to retreatto Detroit, where they surrendered to General Brock with a muchinferior force. By this capitulation, which led to the disgrace andnearly to the execution of Hull on his return to his own country, thewhole territory of Michigan, over two thousand five hundred troops, anda large quantity of munitions of war and provisions fell into thepossession of the British. The next important event of this memorableyear was the defeat of the attempt of Van Rensselaer to occupyQueenston Heights, with the object of establishing there a base offuture operations against Upper Canada. The Americans were routed withgreat loss and many of the men threw themselves down the precipice andwere drowned in the deep and rapid river. At the beginning of thebattle, General Brock was unhappily slain while leading his men up theheights, and the same fate befell his chivalrous aide-de-camp, ColonelMcDonell, the attorney-general of the province. It {324} was left forGeneral Sheaffe to complete the victory, which gave many prisoners tothe English force, and drove the remainder of the beaten American armyacross the beautiful river. General Smyth, a most incompetent man, whosucceeded to the command of the American army on the resignation of VanRensselaer, subsequently attempted to storm and carry Fort Erie, butColonel Bisshopp successfully held this important post, whichcontrolled the outlet of Lake Erie into the Niagara River. When thecampaign closed, in 1812, Canada was free from the invader, chieflythrough the energy and sagacity with which the gallant General Brockhad made his preparations to repel invasion. 

In 1813 the campaign commenced with a signal victory by GeneralProcter, who was in command at Detroit, over a considerable Americanforce at Frenchtown, on the Raisin River, under the command ofBrigadier Winchester. Then came a successful attack by ColonelMcDonnell on Ogdensburgh (La Présentation of the French régime), inretaliation for raids on Gananoque and Elizabethtown, subsequentlynamed Brockville--now a beautiful city near the Thousand Isles--inhonour of the gallant soldier who perished on the heights of Queenston. Commodore Chauncey, in command of a small American fleet organised atSackett's Harbour, an important base of naval and military operationsfor the Americans, attacked the little capital of York, now Toronto, which was evacuated by General Sheaffe, then administrator of thegovernment, who retired to Kingston, the strongest position {325} tothe west of Montreal. The invaders burnt the legislative and otherpublic buildings. The small library and public records were not evenspared by the pillaging troops. No precautions had been taken bySheaffe to improve defences which at the best were of little strength. During the summer, the American army was so much superior to theEnglish forces that they were able to occupy the whole Niagara frontierfrom Fort Erie to Fort George, both of which were captured by GeneralDearborn. Major-General Vincent, the English commander, was compelledto retire to Burlington Heights, overlooking the present city ofHamilton. Sir George Prevost, who proved himself a most irresolute andincapable commander-in-chief, retreated ignominiously from Sackett'sHarbour, although Commodore Chauncey and his fleet were absent and thepost was defended by only a small garrison. This discreditablefailure, which cannot be in any way excused, was soon forgotten whenthe news came of the success of Colonel Harvey, afterwards alieutenant-governor of the maritime provinces, at Stoney Creek, quiteclose to Burlington Bay. With an insignificant detachment fromVincent's main body, Harvey succeeded in surprising at night a largeAmerican force, commanded by Brigadiers Chandler and Winder, both ofwhom, as well as one hundred officers and men, were taken prisoners. This serious disaster and the approach of Admiral Yeo's fleet from theeastward forced the invading army to retire to Fort George, where theyconcentrated their strength, after abandoning Fort {326} Erie and otherposts on the frontier. It was during the campaign of this year thatLaura Secord, the courageous daughter of a sturdy loyalist stock whichhas given the name of Ingersoll to a Canadian town, afforded amemorable example of the devotion which animated Canadian women inthese years of trial. General Dearborn had ordered Colonel Boerstlerto surprise and attack the Canadian outposts at Twelve Mile Creek, nowSt. Catharine's, and at De Ceu's farm, close to the present town ofThorold. Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, with a picket of thirty men, wasstationed at De Ceu's. A Canadian militiaman, James Secord, who livedat Queenston, heard of the proposed attack, but as he had been severelywounded in the attack on Queenston Heights in the previous October, hewas unable to warn Fitzgibbon. His wife, a woman of nearly fortyyears, volunteered for the hazardous duty, and started at dawn for ajourney of twenty miles, through dense woods, where the paths were fewand had to be avoided for fear of meeting American marauders orsuspicious Indians who might take her for a spy. It took her all dayto reach her destination, where she first disturbed an encampment ofIndians who received her with yells, which dismayed her for the moment. However, she was taken to the commanding officer, who made hisarrangements immediately to surprise Boerstler, who soon made hisappearance with five hundred men at least. The Americans were forcedto surrender to what they believed was a vastly superior force, socleverly had Fitzgibbon succeeded in deceiving them. In fact, he hadonly at first {327} thirty soldiers, and two hundred and forty Indians, and when a captain and twenty troopers of the Chippewa cavalry came upBoerstler was quite ready to surrender. 

All the successes in the west, however, were now rendered worthless bythe unfortunate defeat at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie of the Englishflotilla under Captain Barclay, by Commodore Perry, who had command ofa large number of vessels, with a superior armament and equipment. Theresult of this victory was to give the control of Lake Erie and of theState of Michigan to the Americans. Procter retreated from Detroit, and was defeated near Moraviantown, an Indian village, about sixtymiles from Sandwich, by General Harrison, who had defeated Tecumseh inthe northwest, and now added to his growing fame by his victory overthe English army, who were badly generalled on this occasion. Tecumseh, the faithful ally of the Canadians, fell in the battle, andhis body was treated with every indignity, his skin, according toreport, having been carried off to Kentucky as a trophy. Procter fellinto disgrace, and was subsequently replaced by Colonel de Rottenburg. On his return to England, Procter was tried, by court-martial, suspended from his rank for six months, and censured by thecommander-in-chief. 

Passing by such relatively unimportant affairs as a successful attackon Black Rock, near Buffalo, by Colonel Bisshopp, and a second attackon York by Chauncey, who took some prisoners and a quantity of stores, we have now to state other facts in the {328} history of the campaignof 1813 which compensated Canada for Procter's disasters in the west. The Americans had decided to make an attack on Montreal by twoforces--one coming by the St. Lawrence and the other by LakeChamplain--which were to form a junction at Châteauguay on Lake St. Louis. General Wilkinson, with eight thousand men, descended the riverfrom Sackett's Harbour, landed below Prescott, and then proceededtowards Cornwall. Some two thousand five hundred men, under ColonelBoyd, protected the rear of the main body, and was compelled to fight amuch inferior force, under Colonel Morrison, on Chrystler's farm, nearwhat is now known as Cook's Point on the north bank of the St. Lawrence. The Americans gave way in all directions, and sustained aheavy loss. Boyd rejoined Wilkinson at the foot of the Long Saultrapids, in the neighbourhood of the present town of Cornwall, and herethe news arrived that General Hampton had received a serious repulse. Hampton, leading an army of probably seven thousand men, had beenrouted near the junction of the Châteauguay and Outarde rivers by aninsignificant force of Canadian Fencibles and Voltigeurs under Colonelde Salaberry, a French Canadian in the English military service, withthe aid of Colonel McDonnell, in command of seven companies of LowerCanadian militia. These combined forces did not exceed nine hundredmen, all French Canadians, with the exception of Colonel McDonnell andseveral other officers. Three hundred French Canadian Voltigeurs andFencibles formed the front {329} of the line, and when the former gaveway to the onslaught of the four thousand men who advanced against themSalaberry held his ground with a bugler, a mere lad, and made him soundlustily. Colonel McDonnell, with a remarkably keen understanding ofthe situation, immediately ordered his buglers to play, and to continuedoing so while they scattered in the woods. As the woods echoed {330}to the call of the bugles, to the shouts of the soldiers, and to theyells of the Indians, the American force halted as if they wereparalysed. Then, believing from the noises that filled the forest inevery direction that they were to be attacked in front and rear by anoverwhelming force, they broke and fled tumultuously. Salaberry andthe Canadians had won a victory that has only a few parallels inwarlike annals. Hampton retreated as rapidly as possible toPlattsburg, while Wilkinson found his way to Salmon River. These twovictories of Chrystler's farm and Châteauguay were won almost entirelyby Canadian prowess and skill, and must be always mentioned among theglorious episodes of Canadian history. 

[Illustration: Colonel De Salaberry. ]

Before the end of the year, General McClure, in command of the Americantroops on the Niagara frontier, evacuated Fort George, when he heard ofthe advance of the English forces under General Murray. McClurecommitted the cowardly outrage of destroying the town of Newark. Allthe houses except one were burned, and no pity was shown even to theweak and helpless women, all of whom were driven from their comfortablehouses and forced to stand on the snow-clad earth, while they saw theflames ascend from their homes and household treasures. As an act ofretribution the British troops destroyed all the posts and settlementsfrom Fort Niagara to Buffalo. When the campaign of 1813 closed, LakeErie was still in the possession of the Americans, but the Niagaradistrict on both sides of the river had been freed from the American{331} forces, and not an inch of Canadian territory except Amherstburgwas in possession of the enemy. 

In the following year the campaign commenced by the advance of a largeforce of American troops under General Wilkinson into Lower Canada, butthey did not get beyond Lacolle Mill, not far from Isle aux Noix on theRichelieu, where they met with a most determined resistance from thelittle garrison under Colonel Handcock. Wilkinson retreated toPlattsburg, and did not again venture upon Canadian territory. SirGordon Drummond took Oswego, and succeeded in destroying a large amountof public property, including the barracks. The greatest success ofthe year was won in the Niagara country, where the English troops underDrummond and Riall had been concentrated with the view of opposing theadvance of an American army into Upper Canada. The Americans occupiedFort Erie, and Riall sustained a repulse at Street's Creek--now knownas Usher's--near Chippewa, although General Brown, who was in commandof a much superior force, did not attempt to follow up his advantage, but allowed the English to retreat to Fort George. Then followed, onthe 25th of July, the famous battle of Lundy's Lane, where the Englishregulars and Canadian militia, led by General Drummond, fought from sixin the evening until midnight, a formidable force of American troops, commanded by General Brown and Brigadiers Ripley, Porter, andScott--the latter the future hero of the Mexican war. The darknessthrough this hotly contested engagement was intense, and the English{332} more than once seemed on the point of yielding to sheerexhaustion as they contested every foot of ground against overpoweringnumbers of well handled troops. The undaunted courage and persistenceof the British and Canadian soldiery won the battle, as the Americansretired from the field, though with a remarkable perversion of thefacts this memorable event is even claimed by some American writers asa success on their side. This was the last great fight of the war, andwill be always cited by Canadians as illustrating the mettle of theirown militia in old times. 

[Illustration: Monument at Lundy's Lane. ]

Drummond did not win other successes, and even failed to capture FortErie. The American army, however, did not make another advance intothe country while he kept it so well guarded. Erie was eventuallyevacuated, while the Americans concentrated their strength at Buffalo. Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi was captured in this same summer bythe English, and the Americans were repulsed in an attempt to seize thefort at Michillimackinac. In eastern Canada there was no such recordof victory to show as Drummond and his officers had made in the west. Prevost again gave a signal proof of his incapacity. His fleetsustained a complete defeat on Lake Champlain, and so great was hisdismay that he ordered the retreat to Montreal of a splendid force ofover ten thousand troops, largely composed of peninsula veterans, though Plattsburg and its garrison must have fallen easily into hishands had he been possessed of the most ordinary resolution. Thisretreat was confessedly a disgrace to the {334} English army, whichCanadian and English writers must always record with a feeling ofcontempt for Prevost. 

It is not necessary to dwell at any length on other features of thiswar. The American navy, small though it was, won several successesmainly through the superiority of their vessels in tonnage, crew, andarmament. The memorable fight between the British frigate _Shannon_, under Captain Broke, and the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, underCaptain Lawrence, off Massachusetts Bay, illustrates equally thecourage of British and American sailors--of men belonging to the samegreat stock which has won so many victories on the sea. The two shipswere equally matched, and after a sharp contest of a quarter of an hourthe _Chesapeake_ was beaten, but not until Captain Lawrence was fatallywounded and his victorious adversary also severely injured. During thewar Nova Scotia and the other maritime provinces were somewhat harassedat times by American privateers, but the presence of a large fleetconstantly on their coasts--Halifax being the rendezvous of the Britishnavy in American waters--and the hostility of New England to the warsaved these sections of British America from invasion. On the otherhand, all the important positions on the coast of Maine from thePenobscot to the St. Croix, were attacked and occupied by the English. The whole American coast during the last year of the war was blockadedby the English fleet with the exception of New England ports, whichwere open to neutral vessels. The public buildings of Washington, {335} the federal capital, were destroyed by an English army, inretaliation for the burning of York, Newark, and Moraviantown. Theattempt to take Baltimore failed, and a bold man from Tennessee, AndrewJackson--in later years President--drove Pakenham from New Orleans. The taking of Mobile by British ships was the closing incident of thewar on the Atlantic coast. In fact peace was happily declared by theTreaty of Ghent on the 24th December, 1814, or a fortnight before thedefeat of the English at New Orleans. The two nations gladly came toterms. It is questionable if the heart of either was ever deeplyenlisted in this unhappy war which should never have been foughtbetween peoples so closely connected by language and race. It wasmainly a war of Western and Southern politicians, and when it ended NewEngland, whose interests had been so seriously affected, was showingsigns of serious restlessness which had broken out in the Hartfordconvention, and might have even threatened the integrity of the Union. 

Although the war ended without any definite decision on the questionsat issue between the United States and Great Britain, the privileges ofneutrals were practically admitted, and the extreme pretensions ofGreat Britain as to the right of search can never again be asserted. One important result of the war, as respects the interests of Canada, was the re-opening of the question of the British American fisheries. Certain privileges extended by the Treaty of 1783 to American fishermenon the coasts of British North America were not again conceded, {336}and the convention of 1818, which followed the peace of 1815, is thebasis of the rights which Canadians have always maintained in disputesbetween themselves and the United States as to the fisheries on theircoasts. Looking, however, to its general results, the war gave nospecial advantages to the Canadian people. When peace was proclaimednot an inch of Canadian territory, except the village of Amherstburg, was held by the American forces. On the other hand, Great Britainoccupied the greater part of the sea-board of Maine, and her flag flewover Michillimackinac, the key to the Northwest. Had British statesmenseized this opportunity of settling finally the western boundary of NewBrunswick, Canada would have obtained a territory most useful to thecommercial development of the present Dominion. England, however, wasvery desirous of ending the war--perhaps the humiliating affair atPlattsburg had some effect on the peace--and it was fortunate for theprovinces that they were allowed in the end to control their mostvaluable fisheries. 

The people of Canada will always hold in grateful recollection thenames of those men who did such good service for their country duringthese momentous years from 1812 to 1815. Brock, Tecumseh, Morrison, Salaberry, McDonnell, Fitzgibbon, and Drummond are among the mosthonourable names in Canadian history. Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, Canadians, Indians, were equally conspicuous in brilliant achievement. A stately monument overlooks the noble river of the Niagara, andrecalls {337} the services of the gallant soldiers, Brock and McDonell, whose remains rest beneath. A beautiful village, beyond whichstretches historic Lundy's Lane, recalls the name and deeds ofDrummond. As the steamers pass up and down the St. Lawrence they seeon the northern bank the obelisk which the Canadian Government hasraised on the site of the battlefield where Morrison defeated Boyd. Onthe meadows of Châteauguay, another monument has been erected by thesame national spirit in honour of the victory won by a famousrepresentative of the French Canadian race, who proved how courageouslyFrench Canadians could fight for the new régime under which they werethen, as now, so happy and prosperous. 

{338}

XXIV. 

POLITICAL STRIFE AND REBELLION. 

(1815-1840. )

The history of the twenty-five years between the peace of 1815 and theunion of the Canadas in 1840, illustrates the folly and misery offaction, when intensified by racial antagonisms. In Lower Canada thedifficulties arising from a constant contest for the supremacy betweenthe executive and legislative authorities were aggravated by the factthat the French Canadian majority dominated the popular house, and theEnglish-speaking minority controlled the government. "I found, " wroteLord Durham, in 1839, "two nations warring in the bosom of a singlestate; I found a struggle not of principles but of races. " It is truethat some Englishmen were found fighting for popular liberties on theside of the French Canadian majority. Mr. John Neilson, who was foryears editor of the _Quebec Gazette_, was a friend of the FrenchCanadians, and in close sympathy with the movement for the extension ofpublic rights, but he was never prepared to go beyond {339} thelegitimate limits of constitutional agitation and threaten Britishconnexion. On the other hand, Dr. Wolfred Nelson, descended from aloyalist stock, was one of the leaders of the majority that controlledthe assembly of Lower Canada, and did not hesitate to join in therebellion to which his rash and impetuous chief, Louis Joseph Papineau, led him at last. But while undoubtedly there were many persons among theBritish people, who were disgusted with the arrogance of some of thegoverning class, and discontented with the methods of government, theywere gradually alienated by the demagogism of the French Canadianmajority, who did not hesitate to profess their desire to make FrenchCanada exclusively a French dominion. The tyranny of the majority wasexhibited in the assembly by the attempt to impeach Chief Justices Sewelland Monk, on charges which had no justification in law or justice. Mr. Robert Christie, the member for Gaspé, who subsequently wrote a usefulhistory of Lower Canada, was expelled several times because he wasbelieved to have procured the dismissal from the magistracy of somemembers of the assembly who were inimical to the executive government. On the other hand, Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general, in 1827, refusedto approve of the election of Mr. Papineau as speaker of the assembly, because he had reflected in strong terms in a manifesto on the publicconduct of the former. Mr. Louis J. Papineau, the future leader of therebellion in 1837, was a man of fine presence, gifted with remarkablepowers of rhetoric and persuasion, but {340} he was entirely wanting indiscretion, and in the qualities which make a great statesman. When theassembly refused to reconsider its action and elect another speaker, LordDalhousie prorogued the legislature, which did not again meet until hewas recalled and sent to India as commander-in-chief. Like othergovernors, Lord Dalhousie attempted to govern to the best of his ability, and what mistakes he committed arose from the contradictory andperplexing instructions he received from the officials in Downing Street, who were quite incapable at times of understanding the real condition ofaffairs in the province. 

[Illustration: Louis J. Papineau, Aet. 70. ]

The disputes at last between the contending parties in Lower Canadaprevented the working of the constitution. The assembly fought for yearsfor the independence of Parliament and the exclusive control of the civillist and supply. When at last the assembly refused to vote a civil listand other necessary expenditures, the government were obliged to use thecasual and territorial revenues--such as the proceeds of the sales andleases of Crown lands--and these funds were inadequate for the purpose. So carelessly were these funds managed that one receiver-general, engagedin business, became a heavy defaulter. The governors dissolved thelegislatures with a frequency unparalleled in political history, and werepersonally drawn into the conflict. Public officials, including thejudges, were harassed by impeachments. Bills were constantly rejected bythe legislative council on various pretexts--some of themconstitutionally correct--and the disputes {341} between the two branchesof the legislature eventually made it impossible to pass even absolutelynecessary measures. Appeals to the home government were very common, andconcessions were made time and again to the assembly. In fact, thecontest as to the revenues and expenditures ought to have closed, in agreat measure, with the abandonment, in 1832, by the government of everyportion of the {342} previously reserved revenue, but, as Lord Durhampointed out, the assembly, "even when it obtained entire control over thepublic revenues, " refused the civil list because it was determined "notto give up its only means of subjecting the functionaries of governmentto any responsibility. " The conflict was carried on to the bitter end. It does not appear, however, that the majority in the assembly at allunderstood the crucial difficulty. They devoted their whole strength toattacks on the legislative council, and to demands for an elective body. The famous ninety-two resolutions of 1834, in which Papineau's party setforth their real or fancied grievances, did not contain a singleparagraph laying down the principles of parliamentary or responsiblegovernment as worked out in England, and ably supported by the moderateUpper Canadian Reformers like Robert Baldwin. The home government oughtto have appreciated the gravity of the situation, but they were not yetprepared to introduce into these colonies the principles of parliamentarygovernment. In 1835 they appointed a commission to inquire into thenature of the grievances and the best method of remedying them. Thegovernor-general, Lord Gosford, was the head of this commission, but itfailed because Papineau and his party were not now prepared to listen tomoderate and conciliatory counsels. When in 1837 the assembly continuedto refuse supply for the payment of public officials, and of the arrears, which up to that time amounted to nearly one hundred and fifty thousandpounds sterling, Lord John Russell {343} carried in the English House ofCommons a series of resolutions, rejecting the demand for an electivelegislative council and other changes in the constitution, and empoweringthe executive government to defray the expenses of the public service outof the territorial and casual revenues. This action of the imperialgovernment increased the public discontent, and gave an opportunity toPapineau and his followers to declare that no redress of grievances couldbe obtained except by a resort to arms. In this year the rebellion brokeout, but before I refer to it, it is necessary to review briefly thecondition of things in the other provinces. 

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the disputes between the executive andlegislative authorities were characterised by much acrimony, buteventually the public revenues were conceded to the assemblies. InPrince Edward Island the political difficulties arose from the landmonopoly, and the efforts of the lieutenant-governors to govern as muchas possible without assemblies. In these provinces, as in Canada, wefind--to cite Lord Durham--"representative government coupled with anirresponsible executive, the same abuse of the powers of therepresentative bodies, and the same constant interference of the imperialadministration in matters which should be left wholly to the provincialgovernments. " In the maritime provinces, however, no disturbanceoccurred, and the leaders of the popular party were among the first toassist the authorities in their efforts to preserve the publictranquillity, and to express themselves emphatically in favour of theBritish connection. 

{344}

In Upper Canada an official class held within its control practically thegovernment of the province. This class became known, in the parlance ofthose days, as the "family compact, " not quite an accurate designation, since its members had hardly any family connection, but there was justenough ground for the term to tickle the taste of the people for anepigrammatic phrase. The bench, the pulpit, the banks, the publicoffices were all more or less under the influence of the "compact. " Thepublic lands were lavishly parcelled out among themselves and theirfollowers. Successive governors, notably Sir Francis Gore, Sir PeregrineMaitland, and Sir Francis Bond Head, submitted first to its influence andallowed it to have the real direction of affairs. Among its mostprominent members were John Beverly Robinson, for some yearsattorney-general, and eventually an able chief-justice, and the recipientof a baronetage; William Dummer Powell, a chief-justice; John HenryBoulton, once attorney-general; John Strachan, the first bishop of theEpiscopal Church in Upper Canada; Jonas Jones, the Sherwoods, and otherwell-known names of residents of York, Niagara, Kingston, and Brockville. 

It was not until 1820 that a strong opposition was organised in theassembly against the ruling bureaucracy. The cruel treatment of RobertGourlay, an erratic Scotch land-agent, by the ruling class who feared hisexposure of public abuses, had much to do with creating a reform party inthe legislature. Gourlay was a mere adventurer, who found plenty ofmaterial in the political condition of the province {345} for obtainingthe notoriety that he coveted. In the course of some inquiries he madein connexion with a statistical work he published in later years, hetouched on some points which exposed the land monopoly and other abuses. He was immediately declared by the "compact" to be a dangerous person, who must be curbed by some means or other. He was tried on two occasionsfor libelling the government, but acquitted. Then his enemies conspiredto accuse him most unjustly of being a seditious and dangerous person, who came under the terms of an alien act passed in 1804. He was arrestedand kept in prison for seven months. When he was at last tried atNiagara, the home of Toryism, he was a broken-down man, hardly in fullpossession of his senses. A severe judge and prejudiced jury had nopity, and he was forced to leave the province, to which he did not returnuntil happier times. The injustice which was meted out to a man who hadthrown some light on public corruption, stimulated the opponents of the"family compact" to united action against methods so dangerous toindividual liberty and so antagonistic to the redress of publicgrievances. 

The disputes between the reformers and the "family compact" wereaggravated by the "clergy reserves" question, which was largely onebetween the Episcopalians and the dissenting bodies. This question grewout of the grant to the Protestant Church in Canada of large tracts ofland by the imperial act of 1791, and created much bitterness of feelingfor a quarter of a century and more. The {346} reformers found in thisquestion abundant material for exciting the jealousies of all theProtestant sects who wished to see the Church of England and the Churchof Scotland deprived of the advantages which they alone derived from thisvaluable source of revenue. The British Government for years were on theside of the "family compact, " whose leading adherents belonged to theChurch of England, and who opposed every effort that was made to disposeof these lands for the support of education and other public purposes. The Methodists, who outnumbered the Church of England, had for years anadditional grievance in the fact that their ministers were not allowed tosolemnise marriages, and it was not until 1829 that this disability wasremoved by the legislature. 

[Illustration: Bishop Strachan. ]

Among the minds that dominated the "family compact" was the eminentdivine, John Strachan, who was originally a Presbyterian, and came to thecountry as a teacher at the request of the Honourable Richard Cartwright, a prominent U. E. Loyalist, but eventually joined the EpiscopalianChurch, and became its bishop. Like his countryman, John Knox, he hadextraordinary tenacity of purpose and desire for rule. He considered theinterests of the Church as paramount to all other considerations. Hebecame both an executive and a legislative councillor, and largelymoulded the opinions and acts of the governing classes. It was chieflythrough his influence that Sir John Colborne established a number ofrectories out of the clergy reserves, and thereby gave additional offenceto those religious {347} bodies who had no share in these lands. Hehoped to create a state church, and the establishment of King's College, afterwards secularised, was a part of his ecclesiastical system. Eventually when King's College became a provincial institution, open toall denominations--the foundation of Toronto University--he devoted allhis energies to the establishment of Trinity College, which is thenoblest monument of the zealous prelate. 

{348}

[Illustration: William Lyon Mackenzie. ]

Another Scotchman, who came to the country some years later than thebishop, was William Lyon Mackenzie, who was always remarkable for hisimpulsiveness and rashness, which led him at last into difficulties andwrecked his whole career. He had a deep sense of public wrongs, andplaced himself immediately in the front rank of those who were fightingfor a redress of undoubted grievances. He was thoroughly imbued with theideas of English radicalism, and had an intense hatred of Toryism inevery form. He possessed little of that strong common sense and power ofacquisitiveness which make his countrymen, as a rule, so successful inevery walk of life. When he felt he was being crushed by the intriguingand corrupting influences of the governing class, aided by thelieutenant-governor, he forgot all the dictates of reason and prudence, and was carried away by a current of passion which ended in rebellion. His journal, _The Colonial Advocate_, showed in its articles and its verymake-up the erratic character of the man. He was a pungent writer, whoattacked adversaries with great recklessness of epithet and accusation. So obnoxious did he become to the governing class that a number of youngmen, connected with the best families, wrecked his office, but thedamages he recovered in a court of law enabled him to give it a new leaseof existence. When the "family compact" had a majority in the assembly, elected in 1830, he was expelled five times for libellous reflections onthe government and house, but he was re-elected by the people, whoresented the wrongs to which he was {350} subject, and became the firstmayor of Toronto, as York was now called. He carried his grievances toEngland, where he received much sympathy, even in conservative circles. In a new legislature, where the "compact" were in a minority, he obtaineda committee to consider the condition of provincial affairs. The resultwas a famous report on grievances which set forth in a conclusive andable manner the constitutional difficulties under which the countrylaboured, and laid down clearly the necessity for responsible government. It would have been fortunate both for Upper Canada and Mackenzie himselfat this juncture, had he and his followers confined themselves to aconstitutional agitation on the lines set forth in this report. By thistime Robert Baldwin and Egerton Ryerson, discreet and prominentreformers, had much influence, and were quite unwilling to followMackenzie in the extreme course on which he had clearly entered. He lostground rapidly from the time of his indiscreet publication of a letterfrom Joseph Hume, the English radical, who had expressed the opinion thatthe improper proceedings of the legislature, especially in expellingMackenzie, "must hasten the crisis that was fast approaching in theaffairs of Canada, and which would terminate in independence and freedomfrom the baneful domination of the mother-country. " Probably evenMackenzie and his friends might have been conciliated and satisfied atthe last moment had the imperial government been served by an able anddiscreet lieutenant-governor. But never did the imperial authoritiesmake a greater mistake than {351} when they sent out Sir Francis BondHead, who had no political experience whatever. 

From the beginning to the end of his administration he did nothing butblunder. He alienated even the confidence of the moderate element of theReformers, and literally threw himself into the arms of the "familycompact, " and assisted them at the elections of the spring of 1836, whichrejected all the leading men of the extreme wing of the Reform party. Mackenzie was deeply mortified at the result, and determined from thatmoment to rebel against the government which, in his opinion, had nointention of remedying public grievances. At the same time Papineau, with whom he was in communication, had made up his mind to establish arepublic, _une nation Canadienne_, on the banks of the St. Lawrence. 

The disloyal intentions of Papineau and his followers were made veryclear by the various meetings which were held in the Montreal andRichelieu districts, by the riots which followed public assemblages inthe city of Montreal, by the names of "Sons of Liberty" and "Patriots"they adopted in all their proceedings, by the planting of "trees, " andraising of "caps" of liberty. Happily for the best interests of Canadathe number of French Canadians ready to revolt were relativelyinsignificant, and the British population were almost exclusively on theside of the government. Bishop Lartigue and the clergy of the RomanCatholic Church now asserted themselves very determinedly against thedangerous and seditious utterances of {352} the leaders of the"Patriots. " Fortunately a resolute, able soldier, Sir John Colborne, wascalled from Upper Canada to command the troops in the critical situationof affairs, and crushed the rebellion in its very inception. A body ofinsurgents, led by Dr. Wolfred Nelson, showed some courage at St. Denis, but Papineau took the earliest opportunity to find refuge across thefrontier. Thomas Storrow Brown, an American by birth, also made a standat St. Charles, but both he and Nelson were easily beaten by theregulars. A most unfortunate episode was the murder of Lieutenant Weir, who had been captured by Nelson while carrying despatches from GeneralColborne, and was butchered by some insurgent _habitants_, in whosecustody he had been placed. At St. Eustache the rebels were severelypunished by Colborne himself, and a number burned to death in the steepleof a church where they had made a stand. Many prisoners were taken inthe course of the rebellious outbreak. The village of St. Benoit andisolated houses elsewhere were destroyed by the angry loyalists, and muchmisery inflicted on all actual or supposed sympathisers with Papineau andNelson. Lord Gosford now left the country, and Colborne was appointedadministrator. Although the insurrection practically ended at St. Denisand St. Charles, bodies of rebels and American marauders harassed thefrontier settlements for some time, until at last the authorities of theUnited States arrested some of the leaders and forced them to surrendertheir arms and munitions of war. 

In Upper Canada the folly of Sir Francis Head {353} would have led toserious consequences had Mackenzie and Rolph been capable of managing arebellious movement. The Lieutenant-Governor allowed all the troops togo to Lower Canada, and the capital was entirely at the mercy of therebels, had they acted with any spirit or energy. Dr. Rolph, a cleverintriguer--who was to be the president of the new republic--was playing afast and loose game, and temporised until the loyal forces from Hamiltonwere able to advance to the assistance of Head. Had the rebels, who wereconcentrating at Montgomery's tavern on Yonge Street, marched immediatelyon the capital, it could have been easily captured, in consequence of theneglect of Head to take the most ordinary precautions against surprise. Toronto was mainly saved by the men of the Gore district, led by AllanMacNab, an ardent loyalist, afterwards a baronet and premier of Canada. The insurgents, who at no time exceeded eight hundred in all, were routedat their headquarters. Rolph had previously thought it prudent to fly, and Mackenzie soon followed. Several lives were lost during this_émeute_, for it was hardly more, and a considerable number of prisonerstaken. Among the latter were Samuel Lount, an ardent reformer, the firstto arm for the rebellion, and Colonel Von Egmond, one of Napoleon'ssoldiers, the leader of the "patriot army. " Marshall Spring Bidwell, anable and moderate leader of the Reformers, for some years speaker, doesnot appear to have taken any active part in the rebellious movement, buthe availed himself of a warning given him by Head, who wished {354} toget rid of him as quietly as possible, and hurried to the United States, where he remained for the remainder of his life. Mackenzie also fled tothe Republic, and industriously set to work to violate the neutrality ofthe country by inciting bands of ruffians to invade Canada. 

As in the case of the Fenian invasion many years later, the authoritiesof the United States were open to some censure for negligence in winkingat these suspicious gatherings avowedly to attack a friendly country. The raiders seized an island just above Niagara Falls, on the Canadianside, as a base of operations, and a steamer, called the _Caroline_, wasfreely allowed to ply between the island and the mainland with supplies. It became necessary to stop this bold attempt to provide the freebooterson Navy Island with the munitions of war, and a Canadian expedition wasaccordingly sent, under the command of Colonel MacNab, to seize the_Caroline_. As it happened, however, she was found on the American side;but at such a time of excitement men were not likely to considerconsequences from the point of view of international law. She was cutfrom her moorings on the American side, her crew taken prisoners, one mankilled, and the vessel set on fire and sent over the Falls of Niagara. 

Until the month of December, 1838, Upper Canada was disturbed from timeto time by bands of marauders, instigated by Mackenzie and others, butthey were easily beaten back by the bravery of loyal Canadian volunteerscommanded by Colonels Prince, MacNab, Cameron, Fitzgibbon, and otherpatriotic {355} defenders of the country. Whatever sympathy may havebeen felt for Mackenzie by some persons at the outset of theinsurrection, was alienated from him by his conduct after he crossed theborder. He suffered much misery himself while he remained in the UnitedStates, and was a prisoner for some months when the American Governmentawoke to the necessity of punishing a man who had so nearly embroiledthem with England by his violation of the municipal law of a friendlyterritory, and of the obligations that rest upon political refugees. When Sir Francis Bond Head was very properly recalled from the provincewhose affairs he had so badly administered, he was succeeded by SirGeorge Arthur, who had been governor of Van Diemen's Land. Both SamuelLount and Peter Matthews suffered death. Von Shoultz, and a number ofAmericans who had invaded the country in 1838, were also executed, andsome persons in both provinces were transported to New Holland or sent tothe penitentiary, but in the majority of cases the Crown showed clemency. The outbreak was an unfortunate episode in the history of Canada, but itcaused the "family compact" to break up, and brought about a bettersystem of government. 

The immediate result of the rebellion in Lower Canada was theintervention of the imperial authorities by the suspension of theconstitution of that province, and the formation of a special council forpurposes of temporary government. Lord Durham, a nobleman of greatability, who had won distinction in imperial politics as a Reformer, wassent out {356} to Canada as governor-general and high commissioner toinquire into and adjust provincial difficulties. This distinguishedstatesman remained at the head of affairs in the province from the lastof May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returnedto England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certainBritish subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial, and subjecting them and others not in prison to death in case of theirreturn to the country, without permission of the authorities, had beenmost severely censured in England as quite unwarranted by law. By thisordinance Wolfred Nelson, Bouchette, Viger, and five others, then inprison, were banished to Bermuda, while Papineau, Cartier, O'Callaghan, Robert Nelson, and others beyond Canadian jurisdiction, were threatenedwith death if they returned to the province. Lord Durham's action wascertainly in conflict with the principles of English law, but it was anerror of judgment on the side of clemency. He was unwilling to resort toa court-martial--the only tribunal open to the authorities. A trial inthe courts of justice was impracticable under existing conditions, as itwas shown later. Lord Durham left Canada in deep indignation at themanner in which his acts had been criticised in England, largely throughthe influence of Lord Brougham, his personal enemy. The most importantresult of his mission was a report, the credit for the authorship ofwhich was long denied to him through the misrepresentations of hisenemies, though it is now clear that he and not his secretary was theauthor. 

{357}

Soon after the departure of Lord Durham, who died a few months later, SirJohn Colborne became governor-general. He was called upon to put downanother rebellious movement led by Robert Nelson, brother of WolfredNelson, then in exile. At Caughnawaga, Montarville Mountain, Beauharnois, and Odelltown the insurgents made a stand from time to time, but were soon scattered. Bands of marauders inflicted some injury uponloyal inhabitants near the frontier, but in a few months these criminalattempts to disturb the peace of the province ceased entirely. Thegovernment now decided to make an example of men who had not appreciatedthe clemency previously shown their friends. Twelve men were executed, but it was not possible to obtain a verdict from a jury against themurderers of Weir and Chartrand--the latter a French Canadian volunteermurdered under circumstances of great brutality while a prisoner. 

The rebellion opened the eyes of the imperial government to the gravityof the situation in Canada, and the result of Lord Durham's report wasthe passage of an imperial act reuniting the provinces into one, with alegislature of two houses. The constitutional act of 1791, which hadseparated French and English, as far as possible, into two sections, wasclearly a failure. An effort was now to be made to amalgamate, ifpossible, the two races. The two provinces were given an equalrepresentation in one legislature, and the French language was placed ina position of inferiority, compared with English in parliamentary andofficial {358} proceedings and documents. At the same time the BritishGovernment recognised the necessity of giving a larger expansion of localself-government. 

[Illustration: Judge Haliburton ("Sam Slick"). ]

During the period of which I am writing Canada had given evidences ofmaterial, social, and intellectual progress. With the close of the Warof 1812, and the downfall of Napoleon, large bodies of immigrants cameinto the province and settled some of the finest districts of Upper andLower Canada. Scotch from the highlands and islands of Scotlandcontinued until 1820 to flock into Nova Scotia and other maritimeprovinces. Although the immigration had been naturally stopped by thetroubles of 1836 and 1838, the population of Canada had increased to overa million of souls, of whom at least four hundred and fifty thousand wereFrench Canadians. The Rideau, Lachine, and Welland Canals date from thisperiod, and were the commencement of that noble system of artificialwaterways that have, in the course of time, enabled large steamers tocome all the way from Lake Superior to tide-water. [1] In 1833 the _RoyalWilliam_, entirely propelled by steam, crossed the ocean--the pioneer inocean steam navigation. A few years later Samuel Cunard, a native NovaScotian, established the line that has become so famous in the world'smaritime history. In Lower Canada the higher education was confined tothe Quebec Seminary, and a few colleges and institutions, under thedirection of the {359} Roman Catholic clergy and communities. Among thehabitants generally there were no schools, and the great majority couldneither read nor write. In Upper Canada high schools for the educationof the upper classes were established at a very early day, and theCornwall Grammar School, under the superintendence of Dr. John Strahan, for some years was {360} the resort of the provincial aristocracy. UpperCanada College dates from these early times. But in 1838 there were onlytwenty-four thousand children at school out of a total population of fourhundred thousand. In the maritime provinces things were not much better, but in Nova Scotia the foundation of King's, --the oldest university inCanada--Dalhousie, and Acadia Colleges, as well as Pictou Academy, showsthe deep interest that was taken in higher education. In all theprovinces there was an active and even able newspaper press, although itscolumns were too much disfigured by invective and personalities. In 1836there were at least forty papers printed in Upper Canada alone. Thenames of Cary, Neilson, Mackenzie, Parent, Howe, and Young are among thenames of eminent journalists. It was only in the press, in the pulpit, at the bar, and in the legislature that we can look for evidences ofintellectual development. The only original literary works of importancewere those of Judge Haliburton, who had already given us the clever, humorous creation of "Sam Slick, " and also written an excellent historyof Nova Scotia. In the happy and more prosperous times that followed theunion of 1840, and the establishment of political liberty, intellectualdevelopment kept pace with the progress of the country in wealth andpopulation. 

[1] Governor Haldimand first established several small canals betweenLakes Saint Louis and Saint Francis, which were used for some years. 

{361}

XXV. 

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT AND ITS RESULTS--FEDERAL UNION--RELATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES. 

(1839-1867. )

The passage of the Union Act of 1840 was the commencement of a new erain the constitutional history of Canada as well as of the otherprovinces. The most valuable result was the admission of theall-important principle that the ministry advising the governor shouldpossess the confidence of the representatives of the people assembledin parliament. Lord Durham, in his report, had pointed out mostforcibly the injurious consequences of the very opposite system whichhad so long prevailed in the provinces. His views had such influenceon the minds of the statesmen then at the head of imperial affairs, that Mr. Poulett Thomson, when appointed governor-general, received herMajesty's commands to administer the government of the united provinces"in accordance with the well-understood wishes and interests of thepeople, " and to employ in the {362} public service only "those personswho, by their position and character, have obtained the generalconfidence and esteem of the inhabitants of the province. " During thefirst session of the Canadian legislature the assembly passed certainresolutions which authoritatively expressed the views of the supportersof responsible government. 

[Illustration: Joseph Howe in 1865]

Nevertheless, during the six years that elapsed after the passage ofthis formal expression of the views of the large majority of thelegislature, "Responsible Government" did not always obtain in thefullest sense of the phrase, and not a few misunderstandings arosebetween the governors and the supporters of the principle as to themanner in which it should be worked out. In Canada Lord Metcalfe, whosucceeded Baron Sydenham--the title of Mr. Poulett Thomson--on hissudden death at Kingston in 1841, brought about a political crisis inconsequence of his contention for the privilege--utterly inconsistentwith the principles of responsible government--of making appointmentsto office without the advice of his council. In Nova Scotia Sir ColinCampbell, who was more suited to the military camp than to thepolitical arena, endeavoured to throw obstacles in the way of the newsystem, but he was soon recalled. His successor, Lord Falkland, a vainnobleman, was an unhappy choice of the colonial office. He became themere creature of the Tory party, led by James W. Johnston, a very ablelawyer and eloquent speaker, and the open enemy of the liberals led byJoseph Howe, William Young, James Boyle Uniacke, and Herbert {363}Huntington. The imperial government recognised their mistake, andreplaced Lord Falkland by Sir John Harvey, the hero of Stoney Creek in1813, who had done much to establish parliamentary government in NewBrunswick. In 1847 Lord Elgin--the son-in-law of Lord Durham--wasappointed governor-general, and received positive instructions "to actgenerally upon the advice of {364} his executive council, and toreceive as members of that body those persons who might be pointed outto him as entitled to do so by their possessing the confidence of theassembly. " No act of parliament was necessary to effect this importantchange; the insertion and alteration of a few paragraphs in theGovernor's instructions were sufficient. By 1848 the provinces ofCanada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and by 1851 Prince EdwardIsland, were in the full enjoyment of a system of self-government, which had been so long advocated by their ablest public men; and theresults have proved, on the whole, despite the excesses and mistakes ofparty, eminently favourable to political as well as materialdevelopment. 

[Illustration: Robert Baldwin. ]

In the historic annals of the great contest that was fought forresponsible government, some names stand out most prominently. Foremost is that of Joseph Howe, the eminent Liberal, whose eloquencecharmed the people of Nova Scotia for many years. In his early life hewas a printer and an editor, but he became a leader of his party soonafter he entered the legislature, and died a lieutenant-governor of hisnative province. In New Brunswick, Lemuel A. Wilmot, afterwards ajudge and lieutenant-governor, was a man of much energy, persuasiveeloquence, and varied learning. Robert Baldwin, of Upper Canada, was astatesman of great discretion, who showed the people how theirliberties could be best promoted by wise and constitutional agitation. Louis Hyppolite Lafontaine was one of the most distinguished andcapable men that French Canada has {365} ever given to the legislatureand the bench. By his political alliance with Mr. Baldwin, theprinciples of responsible government were placed on a durable basis. In the parent state the names of Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, andEarl Grey--colonial secretaries from 1839 to 1852--are especiallyassociated with the concession of those great principles which haveenlarged the sphere of self-government in the colonies of the EnglishCrown. 

{366}

During the quarter of a century that elapsed from 1842 to 1867--thecrucial period of national development--an industrious populationflowed steadily into the country, the original population became moreself-reliant and pursued their vocations with renewed energy, andconfidence increased on all sides in the ability of the provinces tohold their own against the competition of a wonderfully enterprisingneighbour. Cities, towns, and villages were built up with a rapiditynot exceeded even on the other side of the border. In those daysOntario became the noble province that she now is by virtue of thecapacity of her people for self-government, the energy of herindustrial classes, the fertility of her soil, and the superiority ofher climate. The maritime industry of the lower provinces wasdeveloped most encouragingly, and Nova Scotia built up a commercialmarine not equalled by that of any New England State. The totalpopulation of the provinces of British North America, now comprisedwithin the confederation of 1867, had increased from a million and ahalf in 1840 to three millions and a quarter in 1861--the ratio ofincrease in those years having been greater than at any previous orlater period of Canadian history. It was during this period that theGrand Trunk Railway, which has done so much to assist the materialprogress of the old province of Canada, was constructed. In 1850 therewere only fifty miles of railway in operation throughout Canada, but by1867 there were nearly three thousand miles, and that magnificentexample of engineering skill, the Victoria Bridge, carried passengersacross {367} the St. Lawrence at Montreal, and connected Canada withthe great railway system of the United States. With railwaydevelopment must always be associated the name of Sir Francis Hincks, an able statesman of the Liberal party, who recognised the necessitiesof a new country. 

So far from the act of 1840, which united the Canadas, actingunfavourably to the French Canadian people it gave them eventually apredominance in the councils of the country. French soon again becamethe official language by an amendment to the union act, and the claimsproviding for equality of representation proved a security when theupper province increased more largely in population than the FrenchCanadian section. The particular measure which the French Canadianshad pressed for so many years on the British Government, an electivelegislative council, was conceded. When a few years had passed theCanadian legislature was given full control of taxation, supply, andexpenditure, in accordance with English constitutional principles. Theclergy reserves difficulty was settled and the land sold for public ormunicipal purposes, the interest of existing rectors and incumbentsbeing guarded. The great land question of Canada, the seigniorialtenure of Lower Canada, was disposed of by buying off the claims of theseigniors, and the people of Lower Canada were freed from exactionswhich had become not so much onerous as vexatious. Municipalinstitutions of a liberal nature were established, and the people ofthe two Canadian provinces exercised that control of their localaffairs in the {368} counties, townships, cities, and parishes which isnecessary to carry out public works indispensable to the comfort, health, and convenience of the community, and to supplement the effortsmade by the legislature, from time to time, to provide for the generaleducation of the country. With the magnificent system of publicschools now possessed by Ontario must always be associated the name ofDr. Egerton Ryerson, a famous Methodist, the opponent of Mackenzie'sseditious action, and for many years the superintendent of education. In Nova Scotia it was chiefly through the foresight of Sir CharlesTupper, when premier, that the foundations were laid of the presentadmirable system. During the same period the schools of New Brunswickand Prince Edward Island were also placed on an excellent basis. Inthe maritime provinces no express legal provision was made for separateor denominational schools, as in Upper and Lower Canada--schools nowprotected by the terms of the federal union of 1867. The civilservice, which necessarily plays so important a part in theadministration of government, was placed on a permanent basis. 

The anxiety of the British Government to bury in oblivion theunfortunate events of 1837-38 was proved by an amnesty that was grantedsoon after the union of 1841, to the banished offenders against thepublic peace and the Crown. William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis JosephPapineau, and Wolfred Nelson came back and were elected to Parliament, though the two first never exercised any influence in the future. 

{369}

[Illustration: Sir Louis H. Lafontaine. ]

Then occurred an event which had its origin in the rebellion, and inthe racial antagonism which was still slumbering in the bosom of theState. In the first session of the Union Parliament, compensation wasgranted to those loyalists of Upper Canada, whose property had beenunnecessarily or wantonly {370} destroyed during the outbreak. Theclaim was then raised on behalf of persons similarly situated in LowerCanada. The Conservative Draper government of 1845 agreed to pay asmall amount of rebellion losses as a sequence of a report made bycommissioners appointed to inquire into the subject. At a later time, when Lord Elgin was governor-general, the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministrybrought down a measure to indemnify all those persons who had not takenpart in the rebellion, but were justly entitled to compensation foractual losses. The Tory opposition raised the cry, "No pay to rebels, "and some of them in their anger even issued a manifesto in favour ofannexation. The parliament house at Montreal was burned down, a greatnumber of books and records destroyed, and Lord Elgin grossly insultedfor having assented to the bill. This very discreditable episode inthe political history of Canada proved the extremes to which even men, professing extreme loyalty, can be carried at times of politicalpassion and racial difficulty. 

[Illustration: L. A. Wilmot. ]

The union of 1841 did its work, and the political conditions of Canadaagain demanded another radical change commensurate with the materialand political development of the country, and capable of removing thedifficulties that had arisen in the operation of the act of 1840. Theclaims of Upper Canada to larger representation, equal to its increasedpopulation since 1840, owing to the great immigration which hadnaturally sought a rich and fertile province, were steadily resisted bythe French Canadians as an unwarrantable interference with the {371}security guaranteed to them under the act. This resistance gave riseto great irritation in Upper Canada, where a powerful party maderepresentation by population their platform, and government at lastbecame practically impossible on account of the {372} close politicaldivisions for years in the assembly. At the head of the partydemanding increased representation was Mr. George Brown, an able man ofScotch birth, who became the conductor of a most influential organ ofpublic opinion, _The Toronto Globe_, and the leader of the "Grits, " orextreme wing of the Reformers or Liberals. In opposition to him wereallied Mr. George Etienne Cartier, once a follower of Papineau, but nowa loyal leader of his race, and Mr. John Alexander Macdonald, who hadoccupied a prominent position for years as a Conservative leader. 

The time had come for the accomplishment of a great change foreshadowedby Lord Durham, Chief-Justice Sewell, Mr. Howe, Sir Alexander Gait, andother public men of Canada: the union of the provinces of British NorthAmerica. The leaders of the different governments in Canada, and themaritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince EdwardIsland combined with the leaders of the opposition with the object ofcarrying out this great measure. A convention of thirty-threerepresentative men[1] was held in the autumn of 1864 in {373} thehistoric city of Quebec, and after a deliberation of several weeks theresult was the unanimous adoption of a set of seventy-two resolutionsembodying the terms and conditions on which the provinces through theirdelegates agreed to a federal union. These resolutions had to be laidbefore the various legislatures and adopted in the shape of addressesto the Queen, whose sanction was necessary to embody the wishes of theprovinces in an imperial statute. 

The consent of the legislature was considered sufficient by thegovernments of all the provinces except one, though the question hadnever been discussed at the polls. In New Brunswick alone was thelegislature dissolved on the issue, and it was only after a secondgeneral election that the {374} legislature agreed to the union. InNova Scotia, after much discussion and feeling, the legislature passeda resolution in favour of the measure, though a popular sentimentcontinued to exist against the union for several years. In theDecember of 1866 a second conference of delegates from the governmentsof Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, was held at the WestminsterPalace Hotel in London, and some modifications were made in the Quebecresolutions, chiefly with a view of meeting objections from themaritime provinces. In the early part of 1867 the imperial parliament, without a division, passed the statute known as the "British NorthAmerica Act, 1867, " which united in the first instance the province ofCanada, now divided into Ontario and Quebec, with Nova Scotia and NewBrunswick, and made provisions for the coming in of the other provincesof Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, British Columbia, and theadmission of Rupert's Land and the great Northwest. 

From 1840 to 1867 the relations of Canada and the United States becamemuch closer, and more than once assumed a dangerous phase. In 1840 theauthorities of New York arrested one Macleod on the charge of havingmurdered a man employed in the _Caroline_, when she was seized by theloyalists during the outbreak of 1837. The matter gave rise to muchcorrespondence between the governments of Great Britain and the UnitedStates, and to a great deal of irritation in Canada, but happily forthe peace of the two countries the courts acquitted Macleod, as theevidence was clear he had {375} nothing to do with the seizure of thevessel. In 1842 the question of the boundary between Maine and NewBrunswick was settled by what is generally known in Canada as "theAshburton Capitulation. " As a result of the settlement made by Mr. Daniel Webster on the part of the United States, and of Mr. AlexanderBaring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, on behalf of Great Britain, theState of Maine now presses like a huge wedge into the provinces of NewBrunswick and Quebec, and a Canadian railway is obliged to pass overAmerican territory, which many Canadians still believe ought to be apart of the Canadian Dominion. In 1846 Great Britain yielded to thepersistency of American statesmen, and agreed to accept the line 49degrees to the Pacific coast, and the whole of Vancouver Island, which, for a while, seemed on the point of following the fate of Oregon, andbecoming exclusively American territory. But the question of boundarywas not even then settled, as the Island of San Juan, which lies in thechannel between Vancouver and the mainland, and is mainly valuable as abase of offensive and defensive operations in times of war, was, inlater years, handed over to the Republic as a result of its successfuldiplomacy. 

During this period the fishery question again assumed considerableimportance. American vessels were shut out from the waters of certaincolonial bays, in accordance with the convention of 1818, and a numberof them captured from time to time for the infringement of the law. The United States Government attempted to raise issues which would{376} limit Canadian rights, but all these questions were placed inabeyance for twelve years by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, whichopened up the provincial fisheries to the people of the United States, on condition of free trade between the provinces and that country incertain natural products of the mines, fisheries, and farms of the twopeoples. This measure was in itself an acknowledgment of the growingimportance of the provinces, and of the larger measure ofself-government now accorded them. The treaty only became law with theconsent of the provincial legislatures; and, although the Canadiangovernments were not directly represented by any of their members, thegovernor-general, Lord Elgin, who personally conducted the negotiationson the part of England at Washington, in this, as in all other matterstouching colonial interests, was assisted by the advice of hisresponsible ministers. The treaty lasted until 1866, when it wasrepealed by the action of the United States in accordance with theprovision bringing it to a conclusion after one year's notice from oneof the parties interested. 

The commercial classes in the Eastern and Western States were, on thewhole, favourable to an enlargement of the treaty, so as to bring inBritish Columbia and Vancouver Island, now colonies of the Crown, andto include certain other articles the produce of both countries, butthe real cause of its repeal was the prejudice in the North against theprovinces for their supposed sympathy for the Confederate States duringthe War of the Rebellion. A {377} large body of men in the North hadbrought themselves foolishly to believe that the repeal of the treatywould, sooner or later, force the provinces into annexation. A raidmade by a few rash Confederates who had found refuge in Canada, on theSt. Albans Bank, in the State of Vermont, deeply incensed the people ofthe North, though at no time could it be proved that the Canadianauthorities had the least suspicion of the proposed expedition. On thecontrary, they brought the culprits to trial, placed companies ofvolunteers along the frontier, and even paid a large sum of money inacknowledgment of an alleged responsibility when some of the stolenmoney was returned to the robbers on their release by a Montrealmagistrate. When we review the history of those times and consider thedifficult position in which Canada was necessarily placed, it isremarkable how honourably her government discharged its duties of aneutral between the belligerents. 

No doubt the position of Canada was made more difficult at thatcritical time by the fact that she was a colony of Great Britain, against whom both North and South entertained bitter feelings by theclose of the war; the former mainly on account of the escape ofConfederate cruisers from English ports, and the latter because she didnot receive active support from England. The North had also been muchexcited by the promptness with which Lord Palmerston had sent troops toCanada when Mason and Slidell were seized on an English packet on thehigh seas, and the bold tone held by some Canadian {378} papers when itwas doubtful if the prisoners would be released. 

Contemporaneously with the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty came theraids of the Fenians--bands of men who did dishonour to the cause ofIreland, under the pretence of striking a blow at England throughCanada, where their countrymen have always found happy homes, freegovernment, and honourable positions. For months before the invasionAmerican newspapers were full of accounts of the assembling and armingof these bands on the frontiers of Canada. They invaded the Dominionin 1866, property was destroyed, and a number of Canadian youth losttheir lives near Ridgeway, in the Niagara district, but one O'Neil andhis collection of disbanded soldiers and fugitives from justice wereforced back by the Canadian forces to the country whose neutrality theyhad outraged. The United States authorities had calmly looked on whileall the preparations for these raids were in progress. Proclamationswere at last issued by the government when the damage had been done, and a few raiders were arrested; but the House of Representativesimmediately sent a resolution to the President, requesting him "tocause the prosecutions, instituted in the United States courts againstthe Fenians, to be discontinued if compatible with the publicinterest"--a request which was complied with. In 1870 another raid[2]was attempted on the {379} Lower Canadian frontier, but it was easilyrepulsed, and the authorities of the United States did their duty withpromptitude. For all the losses, however, that Canada sustainedthrough these invasions of her territory, she has never received anycompensation whatever. 

Out of the very circumstances which were apparently calculated to domuch injury to Canada, her people learned lessons of wisdom andself-reliance, and were stimulated to go vigorously to work to carryout that scheme of national development which had its commencement inthe Quebec conference of 1864, and was constitutionally inaugurated in1867 when the provinces entered on the new era of federal union. 

[1] The delegates to the Quebec conference, held the followingpositions in their respective provinces:

_Canada_: Hon. Sir Etienne P. Taché, M. L. C. , premier; Hon. John A. Macdonald, M. P. P. , attorney-general of Upper Canada; Hon. GeorgeEtienne Cartier, M. P. P. , attorney-general of Lower Canada; Hon. GeorgeBrown, M. P. P. , president of the executive council; Hon. Alexander T. Galt, M. P. P. , finance minister; Hon. Alexander Campbell, M. L. C. , commissioner of crown lands; Hon. Jean C. Chapais, M. L. C. , commissionerof public works; Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, M. P. P. , minister ofagriculture; Hon. Hector L. Langevin, M. P. P. , solicitor-general forLower Canada; Hon. William McDougall, M. P. P. , provincial secretary;Hon. James Cockburn, M. P. P. , solicitor-general for Upper Canada; Hon. Oliver Mowat, M. P. P. , postmaster-general. 

_Nova Scotia_: Hon. Charles Tupper, M. P. P. , provincial secretary andpremier; Hon. William A. Henry, M. P. P. , attorney-general; Hon. RobertB. Dickey, M. L. C. ; Hon. Adams G. Archibald, M. P. P. ; Hon. JonathanMcCully, M. L. C. 

_New Brunswick_: Hon. Samuel L. Tilley, M. P. P. , provincial secretaryand premier; Hon. Peter Mitchell, M. L. C. ; Hon. Charles Fisher, M. P. P. ;Hon. William H. Steeves, M. L. C. ; Hon. John Hamilton Gray, M. P. P. ; Hon. Edward B. Chandler, M. L. C. ; Hon. John M. Johnson, M. P. P. , attorney-general. 

_Prince Edward Island_: Hon. John Hamilton Gray, M. P. P. , premier; Hon. George Coles, M. P. P. ; Hon. Thomas Heath Haviland, M. P. P. ; Hon. EdwardPalmer, M. P. P. , attorney-general; Hon. Andrew Archibald Macdonald, M. L. C. ; Hon. Edward Whelan, M. L. C. ; Hon. William H. Pope, M. P. P. , provincial secretary. 

_Newfoundland_: Hon. Frederick B. T. Carter, M. P. P. , speaker of theHouse of Assembly; Hon. Ambrose Shea, M. P. P. 

[2] In the autumn of 1871, a body of Fenians were prevented fromraiding the new province of Manitoba by the prompt action of the troopsof the United States stationed on the frontier. 

{380}

XXVI. 

END OF THE RULE OF FUR-TRADERS--ACQUISITION OF THE NORTHWEST--FORMATION OF MANITOBA--RIEL'S REBELLIONS--THE INDIANS. 

(1670-1885. )

In 1867 the Dominion of Canada comprised only the four provinces, formerly contained in the ancient historical divisions of Acadia andCanada, and it became the immediate duty of its public men to completethe union by the admission of Prince Edward Island and BritishColumbia, and by the acquisition of the vast region which had been solong under the rule of a company of fur-traders. In the language ofthe eloquent Irishman, Lord Dufferin, when governor-general, "thehistorical territories of the Canadas--the eastern sea-boards of NewBrunswick, Nova Scotia, and Labrador--the Laurentian lakes and valleys, corn lands and pastures, though themselves more extensive than half adozen European kingdoms, were but the vestibules and antechambers tothat, till then, undreamt {381} of dominion whose illimitabledimensions alike confound the arithmetic of the surveyor and theverification of the explorer. "

The history of this northwest, whose rolling prairies now constitute solarge a proportion of the wealth of Canada was, until 1867, entirelythe history of the fur trade. Two centuries and a half ago a companyof traders, known as the "honourable company of adventurers fromEngland trading into Hudson's Bay, " received from Charles II. A royallicence in what was long known as Rupert's Land, and first raised itsforts on the inhospitable shores of the great bay, only accessible toEuropean vessels during the summer months. Among the prominent membersof this company was the cousin of the King, Prince Rupert, that gallantcavalier. The French in the valley of the St. Lawrence looked withjealousy on these efforts of the English to establish themselves at thenorth, and Le Moyne d'Iberville, that daring Canadian, had destroyedtheir trading-posts. Still the Hudson's Bay Company persevered intheir enterprise, and rebuilt their forts where they carried on a verylucrative trade with the Indians who came from all parts of thatnorthern region to barter their rich furs for the excellent goods whichthe company always supplied to the natives. In the meantime, while theEnglish were established at the north, French adventurers, the Sieur deLa Vérendrye, a native of Three Rivers, and his two sons, reached theinterior of the northwest by the way of Lake Superior and that chain oflakes and rivers which extends from Thunder Bay {382} to Lake Winnipeg. These adventurous Frenchmen raised rude posts by the lakes and riversof this region, and Vérendrye's sons are said to have extended theirexplorations in January, 1743, to what was probably the Bighorn Range, an outlying buttress of the Rocky Mountains, running athwart thesources of the Yellowstone. The wars between France and England, however, stopped French trade in that northwestern region, and theHudson's Bay Company's posts at the north were the only signs ofEuropean occupation when Wolfe and Montcalm fell on the Plains ofAbraham, and the fleur-de-lis was struck on the old fort of theCanadian capital. 

Towards the latter part of the eighteenth century, the merchants ofCanada, who were individually dealing in furs, formed an associationwhich, under the title of the Northwest Company, was long the rival ofthe Hudson's Bay adventurers. Both these companies were composed ofEnglishmen and Scotchmen, but they were nevertheless bitter enemies, engaged as they were in the same business in the wilderness. Theemployés of the Hudson's Bay Company were chiefly Scotch, while theCanadian Company found in the French Canadian population that class ofmen whom it believed to be most suitable to a forest life. Thedifferences in the nationality and religion of the servants of thecompanies only tended to intensify the bitterness of the competition, and at last led to scenes of tumult and bloodshed. The NorthwestCompany found their way to the interior of Rupert's Land by the OttawaRiver and the Great Lakes. Their posts were seen {383} by theAssiniboine and Red rivers, even in the Saskatchewan and Athabascandistricts, and in the valley of the Columbia among the mountains of thegreat province which bears the name of that noble stream. TheMackenzie River was discovered and followed to the Arctic Sea by one ofthe members of the Northwest Company, whose name it has always borne. At a later time a trader, Simon Fraser, first ventured on the riverwhose name now recalls his famous journey, and David Thompson, asurveyor of the Northwest Company, discovered the river of the samename. Previous, however, to these perilous voyages, the Hudson's BayCompany had been forced by the enterprise of its rival to reach theinterior and compete for the fur traffic which was being so largelycontrolled by the Canadian Company. In 1771, Samuel Hearne, one of theHudson's Bay Company's employés, discovered the Coppermine River, andthree years later established a fort on the Saskatchewan, still knownas Cumberland House. In later years, Sir John Franklin, George Back, and Thomas Simpson added largely to the geographical knowledge of thenorthern parts of the great region watered by the Coppermine, the GreatFish--also called the Back, --and other streams which fall into theArctic Seas. As we glance at the map of this vast region, we still seethe names of the numerous posts where the servants of the fur companiespassed their solitary lives, only relieved by the periodical visits ofIndian trappers, and the arrival of the "trains" of dogs with suppliesfrom Hudson's Bay. Forts Enterprise, Providence, Good {384} Hope, andResolution are among the names of posts which tell in eloquent termsthe story of the courage, endurance, and hope that first planted themthroughout that solitary land. 

It was on the banks of Red River, where it forms a junction with theAssiniboine, that civilisation made the first effort to establishitself in the illimitable domain of fur-traders, always jealous ofsettlement which might interfere with their lucrative gains. The firstperson to erect a post on the Red River was the elder Vérendrye, whobuilt Fort Rouge about 1735 on the site of the present city ofWinnipeg. The same adventurer also built Fort La Reine at Portage LaPrairie. In 1811 an enterprising Scotch nobleman, the Earl of Selkirk, who had previously made a settlement in Prince Edward Island, became alarge proprietor of Hudson's Bay stock, and purchased from the companyover a hundred thousand square miles of territory, which he namedAssiniboia. In 1812 he made on the banks of the Red River a settlementof Highland Scotch and a few Irishmen. The Northwest Company lookedwith suspicion on this movement of Lord Selkirk, especially as he hadsuch large influence in the rival company. In 1816, the employés ofthe former, chiefly half-breeds, destroyed Fort Douglas and murderedGovernor Semple, who was in charge of the new Scotch settlement. Assoon as the news of this outrage reached Lord Selkirk, he hastened tothe succour of his settlement, and by the aid of some disbandedsoldiers, whom he hired in Canada, he restored order. Subsequently hesucceeded in {385} bringing to a trial at York several partners andpersons in the service of the Northwest Company on the charges of "hightreason, murder, robbery, and conspiracy, " but in all cases the accusedwere acquitted. The Northwest Company had great influence at this timethroughout Canada, and by their instigation actions were broughtagainst Lord Selkirk for false imprisonment, and for conspiring to ruinthe trade of the company, and he was mulcted in heavy damages. Twoyears later Lord Selkirk died in France, and then the two companies, which had received great injury through their rivalry, wereamalgamated, and the old Hudson's Bay Company reigned supreme in thisregion until 1870. The Red River settlement became the headquarters ofthe company, who established in 1835 a system of local government--apresident and council and a court of law--and built Fort Garry on thesite of a fort also bearing the same name--that of a director of thecompany. The new fort was a stone structure, having walls from ten totwelve feet high, and flanked by bastions defended by cannon andmusketry. In 1867 the houses of the settlers occupied the banks of theRed River at short intervals for twenty-four miles. Many evidences ofprosperity and thrift were seen throughout the settlement; the churchesand school-houses proved that religion and education were highly valuedby the people. The most conspicuous structure was the Roman CatholicChurch of St. Boniface, whose bells at matins and vespers were so oftena welcome sound to the wanderers on the plains. 

{386}

 "Is it the clang of wild-geese, Is it the Indians' yell That lends to the voice of the North wind The tone of a far-off bell?

 "The voyageur smiles as he listens To the sound that grows apace: Well he knows the vesper ringing Of the bells of Saint Boniface. 

 "The bells of the Roman mission That call from their turrets twain, To the boatmen on the river, To the hunters on the plain. "

On all sides there were evidences of comfort in this little oasis ofcivilisation amid the prairies. The descendants of the twonationalities dwelt apart in French and British parishes, each of whichhad their separate schools and churches. The houses and plantations ofthe British settlers, and of a few French Canadians, indicated thrift, but the majority of the French half-breeds, or _Métis_, the descendantsof French Canadian fathers and Indian mothers, continued to live almostentirely on the fur trade, as voyageurs, trappers, and hunters. Theyexhibited all the characteristics of those hardy and adventurous menwho were the pioneers of the west. Skilful hunters but poorcultivators of the soil, fond of amusement, rash and passionate, spending their gains as soon as made, too often in dissipation, many ofthem were true representatives of the _coureurs de bois_ of the days ofFrontenac. This class was numerous in 1869 when the government ofCanada first presented itself to claim the territory of the {387}Northwest as a part of the Dominion. After years of negotiation theHudson's Bay Company had recognised the necessity of allowing the armyof civilisation to advance into the region which it had so long kept asa fur preserve. The British Government obtained favourable terms forthe Dominion, and the whole country from line 49 degrees to the Arcticregion, and from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains became a portionof the Canadian domain, with the exception of small tracts of land inthe vicinity of the company's posts, which they still continue tomaintain wherever the fur trade can be profitably carried on. In 1869the Canadian ministry, of which Sir John Macdonald was premier, tookmeasures to assume possession of the country, where they proposed toestablish a provisional government. Mr. William McDougall, a prominentCanadian Liberal, one of the founders of confederation, always anearnest advocate of the acquisition of the Northwest, was appointed toact as lieutenant-governor as soon as the formal transfer was made. This transfer, however, was not completed until a few months later thanit was at first expected, and the government of Canada appears to haveacted with some precipitancy in sending surveyors into the country, andin allowing Mr. McDougall to proceed at once to the scene of hisproposed government. It would have been wise had the Canadianauthorities taken measures to ascertain the wishes of the small butindependent population with respect to the future government of theirown country. The British as well as French settlers resented the {388}hasty action of the Canadian authorities. The halfbreeds, littleacquainted with questions of government, saw in the appearance ofsurveying parties an insidious attempt to dispossess them eventually oftheir lands, to which many of them had not a sound title. The Britishsettlers, the best educated and most intelligent portion of thepopulation, believed that a popular form of government should have beenimmediately established in the old limits of Assiniboia, as soon as itbecame a part of Canada. Some of the Hudson's Bay Company's employéswere not in their hearts pleased at the transfer, and the probablechange in their position in a country where they had been so longmasters. Although these men stood aloof from the insurrection, yettheir influence was not exercised at the commencement of the troubles, in favour of peace and order, or in exposing the plans of theinsurgents, of which some of them must have had an idea. Theappearance of Mr. McDougall on the frontier of the settlement, was thesignal for an outbreak which has been dignified by the name ofrebellion. The insurgents seized Fort Garry, and established aprovisional government with Mr. John Bruce, a Scotch settler, asnominal president, and Mr. Louis Riel, the actual leader, as secretaryof state. The latter was a French half-breed, who had beensuperficially educated in French Canada. His temperament was that of arace not inclined to steady occupation, loving the life of the riverand plain, ready to put law at defiance when their rights andprivileges were in danger. This restless man and his half-breed {390}associates soon found themselves at the head and front of the wholerebellious movement, as the British settlers, while disapproving of theaction of the Canadian Government, were not prepared to support theseditious designs of the French Canadian _Métis_. Riel becamepresident, and made prisoners of Dr. Schultz, in later times alieutenant-governor of the new province, and of a number of otherBritish settlers who were now anxious to restore order and come toterms with the Canadian Government, who were showing every dispositionto arrange the difficulty. In the meantime Mr. McDougall issued aproclamation which was a mere _brutum fulmen_, and then went back toOttawa, where he detailed his grievances and soon afterwardsdisappeared from public life. The Canadian authorities by this timerecognised their mistake and entered into negotiations with Red Riverdelegates, representing both the loyal and rebellious elements, and theresult was most favourable for the immediate settlement of thedifficulties. At this critical juncture the Canadian Government hadthe advantage of the sage counsels of Sir Donald Smith, then aprominent official of the Hudson's Bay Company, who at a later timebecame a prominent figure in Canadian public life. Chiefly through theinstrumentality of Archbishop Taché, whose services to the land andrace he loved can never be forgotten by its people, an amnesty waspromised to those who had taken part in the insurrection, and thetroubles would have come to an end had not Riel, in a moment ofrecklessness, characteristic of his real nature, tried {391} one ThomasScott by the veriest mockery of a court-martial on account of somesevere words he had uttered against the rebels' government, and had himmercilessly shot outside the fort. As Scott was a native of Ontario, and an Orangeman, his murder aroused a widespread feeling ofindignation throughout his native province. The amnesty which waspromised to Archbishop Taché, it is now quite clear, never contemplatedthe pardon of a crime like this, which was committed subsequently. TheCanadian Government were then fully alive to the sense of theirresponsibilities, and at once decided to act with resolution. In thespring of 1870 an expedition was organised, and sent to the North-westunder the command of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, later a peer, andcommander-in-chief of the British army. This expedition consisted offive hundred regulars and seven hundred Canadian volunteers, whoreached Winnipeg after a most wearisome journey of nearly three months, by the old fur-traders' route from Thunder Bay, through an entirelyunsettled and rough country, where the portages were very numerous andlaborious. Towards the end of August the expedition reached theirdestination, but found that Riel had fled to the United States, andthat they had won a bloodless victory. Law and order henceforthprevailed in the new territory, whose formal transfer to the CanadianGovernment had been completed some months before, and it was now formedinto a new province, called Manitoba, with a complete system of localgovernment, and including guaranties with {392} respect to education, as in the case of the old provinces. The first lieutenant-governor wasMr. Adams Archibald, a Nova Scotian lawyer, who was one of the membersof the Quebec conference, and a statesman of much discretion. Representation was also given immediately in the two houses of theDominion parliament. Subsequently the vast territory outside of thenew prairie province was divided into six districts for purposes ofgovernment: Alberta, Assiniboia, Athabasca, Keewatin, and Saskatchewan. Out of these districts in 1905 were erected the provinces of Albertaand Saskatchewan, which were then given responsible government. In1908, when the boundaries of the provinces were again defined, Keewatinwas incorporated in the Province of Manitoba. In 1896 four newprovisional districts were, marked out in the great northern unsettleddistrict under the names of Franklin, Mackenzie, Yukon, and Ungava. 

[Illustration: Fort Garry and a Red River steamboat in 1870. ]

In the course of a few years a handsome, well-built city arose on thesite of old Fort Garry, and with the construction of the CanadianPacific Railway--a national highway built with a rapidity remarkableeven in these days of extraordinary commercial enterprise--and theconnection of the Atlantic sea-board with the Pacific shores, villagesand towns have extended at distant intervals across the continent, fromPort Arthur to Vancouver, the latter place an instance of westernphenomenal growth. Stone and brick buildings of fine architecturalproportions, streets paved and lit by electricity, huge elevators, busymills, are the characteristics of {393} some towns where only yesterdaybrooded silence, and the great flowery stretches of prairie were onlycrushed by the feet of wandering Indians and voyageurs. 

Fourteen years after the formation of the province of Manitoba, whilstthe Canadian Pacific Railway was in the course of construction, thepeace of the territories was again disturbed by risings of half-breedsin the South Saskatchewan district, chiefly at Duck Lake, St. Laurent, and Batoche. Many of these men had migrated from Manitoba to a countrywhere they could follow their occupation of hunting and fishing, andtill little patches of ground in that shiftless manner characteristicof the _Métis_. The total number of half-breeds in the Saskatchewancountry were probably four thousand, of whom the majority lived in thesettlements just named. These people had certain land grievances, theexact nature of which it is not easy even now to ascertain; but thereis no doubt that they laboured under the delusion that, because therewas much red-tapeism and some indifference at Ottawa in dealing withtheir respective claims, there was a desire or intention to treat themwith injustice. Conscious that they might be crowded out by thegreater energy and enterprise of white settlers--that they could nolonger depend on their means of livelihood in the past, when thebuffalo and other game were plentiful, these restless, impulsive, illiterate people were easily led to believe that their only chance ofredressing their real or fancied wrongs was such a rising as had takenplace on the Red River in {394} 1869. It is believed that Englishsettlers in the Prince Albert district secretly fomented the risingwith the hope that it might also result in the establishment of aprovince on the banks of the Saskatchewan, despite its smallpopulation. The agitators among the half-breeds succeeded in bringingRiel into the country to lead the insurrection. He had been an exileever since 1870, and was at the time teaching school in Montana. Afterthe rebellion he had been induced to remain out of the Northwest by thereceipt of a considerable sum of money from the secret service fund ofthe Dominion Government, then led by Sir John Macdonald. In 1874 hehad been elected to the House of Commons by the new constituency ofProvencher in Manitoba; but as he had been proclaimed an outlaw, when atrue bill for murder was found against him in the Manitoba Court ofQueen's Bench, and when he had failed to appear for trial, he wasexpelled from the house on the motion of Mr. Mackenzie Bowell, aprominent Orangeman, and, later, premier of the Canadian Government. Lepine, a member also of the so-called provisional government of RedRiver, had been tried and convicted for his share in the murder ofScott, but Lord Dufferin, when governor-general, exercised theprerogative of royal clemency, as an imperial officer, and commuted thepunishment to two years' imprisonment. In this way the Mackenziegovernment was relieved--but only temporarily--of a seriousresponsibility which they were anxious to avoid, at a time when theywere between the two fires: of the people of Ontario, {395} anxious topunish the murderers with every severity, and of the French Canadians, the great majority of whom showed a lively sympathy for all those whohad taken part in the rebellion of 1869. The influence of FrenchCanada was also seen in the later action of the Mackenzie government inobtaining a full amnesty for all concerned in the rebellion exceptRiel, Lepine, and O'Donohue, who were banished for five years. Thepopularity enjoyed by Riel and his associates in French Canada, as wellas the clemency shown to them, were doubtless facts considered by theleaders in the second rising on the Saskatchewan as showing that theyhad little to fear from the consequences of their acts. Riel andDumont--the latter a half-breed trader near Batoche--were the leadersof the revolt which broke out at Duck Lake in the March of 1885 with asuccessful attack on the Mounted Police and the Prince AlbertVolunteers, who were defeated with a small loss of life. This successhad much effect on the Indian tribes in the Saskatchewan district, among whom Riel and his associates had been intriguing for some time, and Poundmaker, Big Bear, and other chiefs of the Cree communitiesliving on the Indian reserves, went on the warpath. SubsequentlyBattleford, then the capital of the Territories, was threatened byIndians and _Métis_, and a force under Big Bear massacred at Frog Laketwo Oblat missionaries, and some other persons, besides taking severalprisoners, among whom were Mrs. Delaney and Mrs. Gowanlock, widows oftwo of the murdered men, who were released at the close {396} of therising. Fort Pitt, on the North Saskatchewan, thirty miles from FrogLake, was abandoned by Inspector Dickens--a son of the novelist--andhis detachment of the Mounted Police, on the approach of a large bodyof Indians under Big Bear. When the news of these outrages reachedOttawa, the government acted with great promptitude. A FrenchCanadian, now Sir Adolphe Caron, was then minister of militia in SirJohn Macdonald's ministry, and showed himself fully able to cope withthis, happily, unusual, experience in Canadian Government. From allparts of the Dominion--from French as well as English Canada--thevolunteers patriotically rallied to the call of duty, and Major-GeneralMiddleton, a regular officer in command of the Canadian militia, led afine force of over four thousand men into the Northwest. The CanadianPacific Railway was now built, with the exception of a few breaks ofabout seventy-two miles in all, as far as Qu'Appelle, which is sixteenhundred and twenty miles from Ottawa and about two hundred andthirty-five miles to the south of Batoche. The Canadian troops, including a fine body of men from Winnipeg, reached Fish Creek, fifteenmiles from Batoche, on the 24th of April, or less than a month afterthe orders were given at Ottawa to march from the east. Here theinsurgents, led by Dumont, were concealed in rifle-pits, ingeniouslyconstructed and placed in a deep ravine. They checked Middleton, whodoes not appear to have taken sufficient precautions to ascertain theposition of the enemy--thoroughly trained marksmen who were able toshoot down a considerable {397} number of the volunteers. Later, atBatoche, the Canadian troops, led with great bravery by ColonelsStraubenzie, Williams, Mackeand, and Grassett, scattered theinsurgents, who never made an attempt to rally. The gallantry ofColonel Williams of the Midlanders--an Ontario battalion--wasespecially conspicuous, but he never returned from the Northwest toreceive the plaudits of his countrymen, as he died of fever soon afterthe victory he did so much to win at Batoche. Colonel Otter, adistinguished officer of Toronto, had an encounter with Poundmaker atCut Knife Creek on Battle River, one of the tributaries of the NorthSaskatchewan, and prevented him from making any hostile demonstrationsagainst Battleford and other places. Riel's defeat at Batoche cowedthese Indians, who gave up their arms and prisoners to Otter. Elsewhere in the Territories all trouble was prevented by the prompttransport of troops under Colonel Strange to Fort Edmonton, Calgary, and other points of importance. The Blackfeet, the most formidablebody of natives in the Territories, never broke the peace, althoughthey were more than once very restless. Their good behaviour waschiefly owing to the influence of Chief Crowfoot, always a friend ofthe Canadians. 

[Illustration: Colonel Williams. ]

When the insurrection was over, an example was made of the leaders. Dumont succeeded in making his escape, but Riel, who had been capturedafter the fight at Batoche, was executed at Regina after a mostimpartial trial, in which he had the assistance of very able counselbrought from French Canada. Insanity was pleaded even, in his defence, not only {398} in the court but subsequently in the Commons at Ottawa, when it was attempted to censure the Canadian Government for theirstern resolution to vindicate the cause of order in the Territories. Poundmaker and Big Bear were sent for three years to the penitentiary, and several other Indians suffered the extreme penalty of the law forthe murders at Frog Lake. Sir John Macdonald was at the head of theCanadian Government, and every possible effort was made to force him toobtain the pardon of Riel, but he felt that he could not afford toweaken the authority of law in the west, and his French Canadiancolleagues, Sir Hector Langevin, then minister of public works, SirAdolphe Chapleau, then secretary of state, --now lieutenant-governor ofQuebec--Sir Adolphe Caron, then minister of militia, exhibitedcommendable courage in resisting the passionate and even menacingappeals of their countrymen, who were carried away at this crisis by afalse sentiment, rather than by a true sense of justice. Happily, inthe course of no long time, the racial antagonisms raised by thisunhappy episode in the early history of confederation disappeared underthe influence of wiser counsels, and the peace of this immense regionhas never since been threatened by Indians or half-breeds, who have nowfew, if any, grievances on which to brood. The patriotism shown by theCanadian people in this memorable contest of 1885 illustrated thedesire of all classes to consolidate the union, and make it secure fromexternal and internal dangers, and had also an admirable influence inforeign countries {400} which could now appreciate the growing nationalstrength of the Dominion. In the cities of Ottawa, Toronto, andWinnipeg, monuments have been raised to recall the services of thevolunteers who fought and died at Fish Creek and Batoche. On the banksof the Saskatchewan a high cairn and cross point to the burial place ofthe men who fell before the deadly shot of the half-breed sharpshootersat Fish Creek:

 "Not in the quiet churchyard, near those who loved them best; But by the wild Saskatchewan, they laid them to their rest. A simple soldier's funeral in that lonely spot was theirs, Made consecrate and holy by a nation's tears and prayers. Their requiem--the music of the river's surging tide; Their funeral wreaths, the wild flowers that grow on every side; Their monument--undying praise from each Canadian heart, That hears how, for their country's sake, they nobly bore their part. "

[Illustration: Indian carved posts in British Columbia. ]

One of the finest bodies of troops in the world, the Mounted Police ofCanada, nearly one thousand strong, now maintains law and orderthroughout a district upwards of three hundred thousand square miles inarea, and annually cover a million and a half miles in the discharge oftheir onerous duties. The half-breeds now form but a very smallminority of the population, and are likely to disappear as a distinctclass under the influence of civilisation. The Indians, who numberabout thirty thousand in Manitoba and the Northwest, find theirinterests carefully guarded by treaties and statutes of Canada, whichrecognise their rights as wards of the Canadian Government. They areplaced on large reserves, {402} where they can carry on farming andother industrial occupations for which the Canadian Government, withcommendable liberality, provide means of instruction. Many of theIndians have shown an aptitude for agricultural pursuits which hassurprised those who have supposed they could not be induced to makemuch progress in the arts of civilised life. The average attendance ofIndian children at the industrial and other schools is remarkably largecompared even with that of white children in the old provinces. TheIndian population of Canada, even in the Northwest territory, appear tohave reached the stationary stage, and hereafter a small increase isconfidently expected by those who closely watch the improvement intheir methods of life. The high standard which has been reached by theIroquois population on the Grand River of Ontario, is an indication ofwhat we may even expect in the course of many years on the banks of themany rivers of the Northwest. The majority of the tribes in Manitobaand the Northwest--the Crees and Blackfeet--belong to the Algonquinrace, and the Assiniboines or Stonies, to the Dacotahs or Sioux, nowonly found on the other side of the frontier. The Tinneh or Athabaskanfamily occupy the Yukon and Mackenzie valleys, while in the Arcticregion are the Eskimo or Innuits. In British Columbia[1] there are atleast eight distinct stocks; in the interior, Tinneh, Salish orShuswap; on the coast, Haida, Ishimsian, Kwakiool (including Hailtzuk), Bilhoola, Aht, {403} or Nootka, and Kawitshin, the latter includingseveral names, probably of Salish affinity, living around the Gulf ofGeorgia. The several races that inhabit Canada, the Algonquins, theHuron-Iroquois, the Dacotah, the Tinneh, and the several stocks ofBritish Columbia, have for some time formed an interesting study forscholars, who find in their languages and customs much valuablearchaeological and ethnological lore. The total number of Indians thatnow inhabit the whole Dominion is estimated at over one hundredthousand souls, of whom one-third live in the old provinces. 

[1] Dr. Geo. M. Dawson, F. R. S. , has given me this division of Indiantribes. 

{404}

XXVII. 

COMPLETION OF THE FEDERAL UNION--MAKERS OF THE DOMINION. 

(1871-1891. )

Within three years after the formation of the new province of Manitobain the Northwest, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia came intothe confederation, and gave completeness to the federal structure. Cook and Vancouver were among the adventurous sailors who carried theBritish flag to the Pacific province, whose lofty, snow-clad mountains, deep bays, and many islands give beauty, grandeur, and variety to themost glorious scenery of the continent. Daring fur-traders passed downits swift and deep rivers and gave them the names they bear. TheHudson's Bay Company held sway for many years within the limits of anempire. The British Government, as late as 1849, formed a Crown colonyout of Vancouver, and in 1858, out of the mainland, previously known asNew Caledonia. In 1866 the two provinces were united with a simpleform of government, consisting of a lieutenant-governor, and alegislative council, partly appointed by the Crown and partly electedby the people; but in 1871, when it entered into the Canadian union, a{406} complete system of responsible government was established as inthe other provinces. Prince Edward Island was represented at theQuebec conference, but it remained out of confederation until 1873, when it came in as a distinct province; one of the conditions ofadmission was the advance of funds by the Dominion government for thepurchase of the claims of the persons who had held the lands of theisland for a century. The land question was always the disturbingelement in the politics of the island, whose history otherwise issingularly uninteresting to those who have not had the good fortune tobe among its residents and to take a natural interest in localpolitics. The ablest advocate of confederation was Mr. Edward Whelan, a journalist and politician who took part in the Quebec conference, butdid not live to see it carried out by Mr. J. C. Pope, Mr. Laird, andothers. 

[Illustration: John A. Macdonald. ]

At Confederation the destinies of old Canada were virtually in the hands ofthree men--the Honourable George Brown, Sir George Cartier, and Sir JohnMacdonald, to give the two latter the titles they received at a later time. Mr. Brown was mainly responsible for the difficulties that had made theconduct of government practically impossible, through his persistent andeven rude assertion of the claims of Upper Canada to larger representationand more consideration in the public administration. No one will deny hisconsummate ability, his inflexibility of purpose, his impetuous oratory, and his financial knowledge, but his earnestness carried him frequentlybeyond the {407} limits of political prudence, and it was with reason thathe was called "a governmental impossibility, " as long as French and EnglishCanada continued pitted against each other, previous to the union of 1867. The journal which he conducted with so much force, attacked French Canadaand its institutions with great violence, and the result was the increaseof racial antagonisms. Opposed to him was Sir George Etienne Cartier, whohad found in the Liberal-Conservative party, and in the principles ofresponsible government, the means of strengthening the French Canadian raceand making it a real power in the affairs of the country. Runningthroughout his character there was a current of sound sense and excellentjudgment which came to the surface at national crises. A solution ofdifficulties, he learned, was to be found not in the violent assertion ofnational claims, but in the principles of compromise and conciliation. Withhim was associated Sir John Macdonald, the most successful statesman thatCanada has yet produced, on account of his long tenure of office and of theimportance of the measures that he was able to carry in his remarkablecareer. He was premier of the Dominion from 1867 until his death in 1891, with the exception of the four years of the administration of the Liberals(1873-1878), led by the late Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, who had raisedhimself from the humble position of stonemason to the highest place in thecouncils of the country, by dint of his Scotch shrewdness, his tenacity ofpurpose, his public honesty, and his thorough comprehension of {408}Canadian questions, though he was wanting in breadth of statesmanship. Manygenerations must pass away before the personal and political merits of SirJohn Macdonald can be advantageously and impartially reviewed. A lawyer byprofession, but a politician by choice, not remarkable for originality ofconception, but possessing an unusual capacity for estimating the exactconditions of public sentiment, and for moulding his policy so as tosatisfy that opinion, having a perfect understanding of the ambitions andweaknesses of human nature, believing that party success was often asdesirable as the triumph of any great principle, ready to forget hisfriends and purchase his opponents when political danger was imminent, possessing a fascinating manner, which he found very useful at times whenhe had to pacify his friends and disarm his opponents, fully comprehendingthe use of compromise in a country of diverse nationalities, having a firmconviction that in the principles of the British constitution there was thebest guaranty for sound political progress, having a patriotic confidencein the ability of Canada to hold her own on this continent, and become, touse his own words, a "nation within a nation, "--that is to say, within theBritish Empire--Sir John Macdonald offers to the political student anexample of a remarkable combination of strength and weakness, of qualitieswhich make up a great statesman and a mere party politician, according tothe governing circumstances. Happily for the best interests of Canada, inthe case of confederation the statesman prevailed. But his ambition at thiscrisis {410} would have been futile had not Mr. Brown consented to unitewith him and Cartier. This triple alliance made a confederation possible onterms acceptable to both English and French Canadians. These three men werethe representatives of the antagonistic elements that had to be reconciledand cemented. The readiness with which Sir Charles Tupper and Sir LeonardTilley, the premiers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, co-operated with thestatesmen of the upper provinces, was a most opportune feature of themovement, which ended in the successful formation of a confederation in1867. Although the Liberal leaders in Nova Scotia, Mr. , afterwards Sir, Adams Archibald, and Mr. Jonathan McCully, like Brown, Howland, Mowat, andMcDougall in old Canada, supported the movement with great loyalty, thepeople of the province were aroused to a passionate opposition mainlythrough the vigorous action of the popular leader, Mr. Joseph Howe, who hadbeen an eloquent advocate of colonial union before it assumed a practicalshape, but now took the strong ground that the question should not beforced on the country by a legislature which had no mandate whatever todeal with it, that it should be determined only by the people at the polls, and that the terms arranged at Quebec were unfair to the maritimeprovinces. Mr. Howe subsequently obtained "better terms" for Nova Scotia byevery available means of constitutional agitation--beyond which he wasnever willing to go, however great might be public grievances--and then heyielded to {412} the inevitable logic of circumstances, and entered theDominion government, where he remained until he became lieutenant-governorof his native province. The feelings, however, he aroused againstconfederation lasted with some intensity for years, although the cry forrepeal died away, according as a new generation grew up in place of the onewhich remembered with bitterness the struggles of 1867. 

[Illustration: George Brown. ]

Mr. George Brown died from the wound he received at the hands of areckless printer, who had been in his employ, and Canadians haveerected to his memory a noble monument in the beautiful Queen's Park ofthe city where he laboured so long and earnestly as a statesman and ajournalist. Sir George Cartier died in 1873, but Sir John Macdonaldsurvived his firm friend for eighteen years, and both received Statefunerals. Statues of Sir John Macdonald have been erected in thecities of Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Kingston. In Ottawa on oneside of the Parliament building we see also a statue of the samedistinguished statesman, and on the other that of his great colleague, Sir George Cartier. It was but fitting that the statues of these mostfamous representatives of the two distinct elements of the Canadianpeople should have been placed alongside of the national legislature. They are national sentinels to warn Canadian people of the dangers ofracial or religious conflict, and to illustrate the advantages of thoseprinciples of compromise and justice on which both Cartier andMacdonald, as far as they could, raised the edifice of confederation. 

[Illustration: George Cartier. ]

{413}

XXVIII

CANADA AS A NATION: MATERIAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT--POLITICAL RIGHTS. 

Up to the dissolution of the 1904 Parliament in October, 1908, theDominion had had ten Parliaments. During the first thirty years theConservatives were almost continuously in office. They were defeatedin the general election of 1874, owing to some grave scandals inconnection with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway; but wereagain returned to office in 1878. In the election of 1878 they werereturned on a platform of protection for Canadian industry, and in 1879Parliament enacted a National Policy Tariff, which was at oncevehemently attacked by the Liberal Opposition. Seventeen years, however, elapsed before the Liberals had the opportunity of revisingthe tariff, and it was not until 1897 that there was any modificationin the protective duties. In 1896, however, after several years ofprofound depression in trade in the Dominion, the Liberals succeeded inobtaining a large majority, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier succeeded to {414}the premiership, which after the death of Sir John Macdonald had beenheld successively by Sir J. J. C. Abbott, Sir John Thompson, who diedat Windsor, where he had gone to take the oath of office of privycouncillor, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and Sir Charles Tupper. 

[Illustration: Sir Wilfrid Laurier (_From a photograph by Ernest H. Mills. _)]

The following year (1897) the Liberal Government revised the tariff, retaining the protective features, and enlarging the system of bountiesfor the encouragement of industry which had been commenced in 1883. The tariff was modified, however, by the establishment of a preferencefor Great Britain, which, beginning at a reduction of one-eighth fromthe general tariff, was increased to one-fourth, and finally in 1900 toone-third. This reduction remained in force until 1906-7, when thetariff was again revised and arranged in three lists--general, intermediate, and British preference. The intermediate tariff wasintended as a basis of negotiation whereby Canada might obtainconcessions from foreign countries. After the concession of theBritish preference in 1897, Great Britain, at the request of Canada, denounced her commercial treaties with several foreign countries, underthe terms of which concessions granted by the colonies to the mothercountry would have had to be extended to the treaty countries. Germanywas one of these countries, and on the expiration of the treaty Germanyshowed her resentment by applying her maximum tariff to Canada. Canadaretaliated by the imposition of a surtax on German goods, and a tariffwar ensued, which resulted in a much higher degree of {416} protectionfor Canadian manufacturers whose products came into competition withimports from Germany. The British preference was extended by Canada toother British colonies, which in return granted advantages to Canada, and in 1908, with the consent of Great Britain, Canada negotiated acommercial treaty with France on the basis of the intermediate tariff, though with numerous further concessions. 

Railway building in Canada had begun as far back as 1836, when a shortlength of line from La Prairie to St. John's, in the Province ofQuebec, was opened for traffic. The first link in what is now known asthe Grand Trunk Railway was constructed in 1845, when Montreal wasconnected with the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway, now the Portland(Maine) Division of the Grand Trunk System. In 1851 the Grand TrunkRailway Company was incorporated, and took over about a hundred milesof constructed line. Soon afterwards the Legislature of the UnitedProvinces of Quebec and Ontario passed the measure which is now knownas the Guarantee Act. Under this enactment Government aid was given torailways of not less than seventy miles in length; and it was with thisaid that the great development of the Grand Trunk system began. In1854 the Grand Trunk line from Toronto to Montreal was opened. By 1856Toronto was connected, _viâ_ Sarnia, with the State of Michigan. In1859 Toronto was brought into railway communication with Detroit; andby 1869 the Grand Trunk had leased the International Bridge across theNiagara River, and by this means {417} its system was connected withthe State of New York and the numerous centres of population in theEastern States, which are reached _viâ_ Buffalo. 

Most of this development of the Grand Trunk system had precededConfederation; but at Confederation the greatest need of the Dominionwas easy means of communication between the provinces heretofore knownas Upper and Lower Canada. One of the first undertakings of the newDominion Government was the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, the object of which was to connect the maritime provinces with eachother and with Quebec, and the building of which by the Government wasone of the conditions on which the maritime provinces had consented toConfederation. It still remained to push out a railway to the farwest, and in 1881 work was begun on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Infour years this great highway across the continent was ready for use, and in 1887 the Canadian Pacific Railway established a line ofsteamships across the Pacific in connection with its Pacific terminals. 

With the opening of the great North-west and the creation of the newprovinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, [1] the railwaycommunication was found to be insufficient, and a new line to thePacific was begun by the Grand Trunk Railway, which had been thepioneer in railway work in Ontario, and which before the beginning ofthe new line had already over 3, 000 miles of road. {418} The GrandTrunk Pacific Railway is divided into two sections. The eastern runsfrom Moncton to Winnipeg, a distance of 1, 875 miles, and is being builtby the Government. On its completion it is to be leased to the GrandTrunk Railway Company for fifty years. The western section runs fromWinnipeg to Prince Rupert on the Pacific, a distance of 1, 480 miles, and is being constructed and equipped by the Company, the Governmentgranting a subsidy, and guaranteeing the Company's bonds up to 75 percent. Of the cost of construction. The first stretch of the new lineto be completed was that from Winnipeg to Wainwright, a distance of 666miles. It went into service in September, 1908, and was completed bythe end of 1915. 

At the same time, the Great Northern began to push out to theNorth-west, for the sake of the immense trade in grain which theopening up of the new provinces had created. A little later work wasalso begun on the Hudson's Bay Railway, which was intended to connectthe more northern waters with Ontario and the Great Lakes. In 1908 theDominion had twenty-two thousand miles of railway completed, inaddition to the long stretches then under construction. In 1918 it was38, 879 miles. 

Almost as important to Canada as her railways are her canals and herwaterways. In 1897, on the accession of the Liberal Government tooffice, it was determined to deepen the St. Lawrence canals and enlargethe locks sufficiently to allow the passage from the great lakes to thesea of vessels {419} drawing not more than fourteen feet of water. These canals afford a through water route, with a minimum depth offourteen feet, from Montreal to Port Arthur on Lake Superior, adistance of 1, 223 miles, 73 of which are by canal. The totalexpenditure of the Dominion on canals up to 1919 amounted to over$127, 000, 000. 

Alongside the improvement in the means of communication--railways andcanals--has gone a considerable growth of Canadian manufacturingindustries. The iron and steel industry was scarcely in existence atConfederation. The Marmora plant at Long Point, Ontario, and a smallerplant at Three Rivers, Quebec, had been in existence since the forties;but the iron and steel industry, as it exists to-day in Canada, islargely the creation of the national policy of protective tariffs andbounties. The bounty system was instituted in 1883, chiefly for thebenefit of a blast furnace of 100 tons capacity at Londonderry, NovaScotia, which was then in difficulties. Besides this furnace, only twoothers--charcoal furnaces with an aggregate capacity of fifteen tons, at Drummondsville, Quebec--came on the bounty list in 1884. In 1897, when the Liberals came into office, furnaces had also been erected atNew Glasgow, Radnor, and Hamilton, and the aggregate daily capacity ofthe furnaces of the Dominion was then 445 tons. 

At the revision of the tariff in 1897 the bounty system was greatlyextended, and under its aegis two great modern iron and steelplants--one at Sydney, N. S. , and one at Sault Ste. Marie, O. , came{420} into existence. Modern furnaces have also been established atNorth Sydney, Hamilton, Welland, Midland, and Port Arthur, and in 1908the output of pig-iron from all these plants was a little over 600, 000tons. A large proportion of this pig-iron is converted at the SaultSte. Marie and the Sydney plants into steel rails, for which theconstant extension of the railways furnishes a steady market. 

Next to iron and steel the most important manufacturing industries arethe textiles. Both woollens and cottons were manufactured in Canada insmall quantities before Confederation. A small woollen mill wasestablished at Coburg, Ontario, in 1846, and even earlier than thisthere were woollen mills in Nova Scotia which had made the provincenotable for their Halifax tweeds. In 1908, however, the woollenindustry generally was not in a flourishing condition. Of the 157mills in existence when the census of 1901 was taken, 28 haddisappeared before 1908, and several of the 129 that remained wereclosed either permanently or temporarily. The value of the woollengoods produced in 1908 did not exceed seven million dollars. 

The cotton industry, which is well organised and financially strong, has its largest centres at Montreal and Valleyfield, Quebec. Themills, of which there are about twenty-three, are large, modern, andwell-equipped, and the value of their output is more than double thatof the woollen mills of the Dominion. 

The industry which ranks next in importance is probably the manufactureof farm implements and {421} machinery, which is located at Brantfordand Hamilton. Hamilton is also the centre of the manufacture ofelectrical equipment, stoves, wire, steel castings, hardware, and manyother products of metal. At Montreal are the Angus shops, which rankwith the finest on the North American Continent, at which locomotivesare built for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1908 the Grand TrunkRailway established similar shops on a correspondingly modern scale forlocomotive building at Stratford, Ontario. 

Shipbuilding was an important industry in the maritime provinces andQuebec in the old days of wooden sailing ships; but with the incomingof steamships of iron and steel the maritime provinces entirely losttheir old pre-eminence and world-wide reputation for shipbuilding. Itwas July, 1908, before a steel ocean-going vessel was launched in themaritime provinces. This was a three-masted schooner of 900 tonsburden, the _James William_, which was built in the Matheson Yard, atNew Glasgow, N. S. Steel vessels had, however, been built for lakeservice at Toronto, Collingwood, and Bridgeburg from 1898 onward. AtCollingwood and Bridgeburg the largest and finest types of lakefreighters and passenger vessels are built. In 1908 a new steelshipbuilding yard was installed at Welland, and plans were completedfor the establishment of a large yard at Dartmouth on Halifax Harbour. 

Until the development of the prairie provinces, all manufacturing inthe Dominion was carried on {422} east of the great lakes. With theopening out of the great wheat-growing regions of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, however, Winnipeg is gradually becoming a greatmanufacturing city, and many miscellaneous industries on a factoryscale have been established there. The most western ironplant--puddling furnaces and a rolling mill--is situated on theoutskirts of the city. 

According to the figures of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, asgiven by Mr. E. J. Freysing, President of the Toronto Section, in July, 1908, there were in Canada at that time 2, 465 firms which were eithermembers of the Association or were eligible for membership. Thesefirms employed either on salary or wages 392, 330 men, women, andchildren. This number includes 80, 000 engaged in the lumberingbusiness--the largest number engaged in any one trade. Lumbering iscarried on in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and NewBrunswick, and the annual value of the product is over one hundredmillion dollars--a value only exceeded by the food products of theDominion. 

More important than all other industries put together is farming. Theextent of this industry may be judged from the fact that each year from1900 to 1908 from 20, 000 to 40, 000 homesteads were taken up. The usualsize of these homesteads is 160 acres, and the acreage thus newly undercultivation varied during the eight years from one to twelve millionsquare miles a year. In 1907 alone the new farms represented animmigration {423} of 105, 420 persons. The total number of farms in theDominion in 1908 was estimated at 600, 000, representing a populationdirectly dependent upon farming of over three millions. The principalcrops in the prairie provinces are oats, wheat, and barley. The totalcrop of wheat in 1908 was about 130, 000, 000 bushels, of oats270, 000, 000, and of barley 50, 000, 000. 

In Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces, dairying, fruit-growing, hog-raising--for bacon and ham--and mixed farming havetaken the place of grain crops. In 1908 Canada had gained a strongposition in the markets of Great Britain for cheese, butter, and cannedgoods, a position which was largely due to the work of the DominionAgricultural Department in providing cold storage for farm products onthe railways and steamers, and also to the educational work which theDepartment had been steadily pushing among the farmers. 

The Dominion is rich in metals and minerals, and mining is an importantindustry in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia. The largestcoal-fields of Canada are in Cape Breton and in Pictou and CumberlandCounties, Nova Scotia, from which over five million tons of coal aremined each year. There are no coal measures between New Brunswick andManitoba, and the lignite beds of Manitoba yield a much less valuablecoal than that of Nova Scotia. The coal area of the Rocky Mountains, though not so large as that of the maritime provinces, yields the bestcoal so far found in the Dominion. The centre of this formation is atthe Crow's Nest Pass. {424} There is another coal area on the PacificCoast in the neighbourhood of Nanaimo and in Queen Charlotte's Island. The total amount of coal mined in the Dominion in 1908 was 10, 510, 000. Besides coal, there are in Canada rich deposits of iron ore, lead, nickel, copper, silver, and gold, and the non-metallic minerals includepetroleum, asbestos, and corundum. Diamonds have been found in Quebecin a formation not unlike the diamond fields of Kimberley. Gold isfound chiefly in the Klondike country and in British Columbia; but somegold is also obtained from Nova Scotia, and a fair amount from Ontarioand Quebec. 

Ever since the settlement of the maritime provinces fishing has been animportant industry on their shores, and many of the disputes with theUnited States have arisen out of the privileges granted to UnitedStates fishermen in the treaty of 1818. These disputes have, however, concerned Newfoundland more closely than the Dominion, and the finalsettlement of all questions between the sister colony and the greatrepublic is hardly yet in sight. A _modus vivendi_ pending settlementwas again signed in August, 1908. The fishing industry is not confinedto the maritime provinces. River and lake fishing are carried on inOntario, Manitoba, and the new provinces; and British Columbia hasfisheries and canneries of great importance on her coast and rivers. The total value of the yield of the fisheries for 1908 was abouttwenty-five million dollars. 

The population of the Dominion in 1908 was {425} estimated to be aboutsix and a half millions, with a yearly immigration of between 150, 000and 200, 000. The French Canadians numbered about 1, 500, 000, and of therest the majority were English, Scotch, and Irish. The new immigrationis introducing each year a large number of non-English-speaking people, and also some very desirable settlers in the American farmers from theWestern States. Among the more important foreign settlements are thoseof the Doukhobors, who were received in Canada as refugees frompersecution in Russia, and who have repeatedly given trouble to theauthorities on account of their fanatical resistance to orderlygovernment. 

The revenue of Canada for 1907-8 was $96, 054, 505, and the expenditurewas $76, 641, 451, leaving a surplus of nearly twenty million dollars. At the close of the fiscal year the debt of Canada amounted to$277, 960, 259. Canals, lighthouses, railways, Government buildings, andother public works are the assets which Canada has to set against thisdebt, which represents the expenditure necessary for the development ofa new and widely extended country. 

In education the Dominion ranks almost equal to the Northern States ofAmerica. Every province has a public school system, and the primaryand grammar schools, especially of Ontario, are a pride and a credit tothe people of the province. In 1908 there were seventeen universitiesin the Dominion. Among them may be mentioned McGill in Montreal, Lavalin Quebec, Queen's in Kingston, Dalhousie {426} in Halifax, Universityof Toronto in Toronto, and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. TheUniversity of Alberta was founded in 1906, that of Saskatchewan in1907, and British Columbia in 1908. 

Every city in Canada and every town of any size has its newspaper ornewspapers--daily, bi-weekly, or weekly. Canadian journalism has acharacter quite of its own, leaning more to American ideals than tothose of England. A great change in this respect has come over theCanadian Press since about 1885, up to which time the more importantdaily newspapers in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, and St. John had beenon the English rather than the American model. 

[Illustration: Old Parliament Building at Ottawa. ]

Self-government exists in the full sense of the term. At the base ofthe political structure lie those municipal institutions which, forcompleteness, are not excelled in any other country. It is in theenterprising province of Ontario that the system has attained itsgreatest development. The machinery of these municipalities is used inOntario to raise the taxes necessary for the support of public schools, Free libraries can be provided in every municipality whenever themajority of the taxpayers choose. Then we go up higher to theprovincial organisations governed by a lieutenant-governor, nominatedand removable by the government of the Dominion, and advised by acouncil responsible to the people's representatives, with a legislaturecomposed, in only two of the provinces, of two houses--a councilappointed by the Crown, and an elective assembly; in all the otherprovinces, there is simply an assembly {428} chosen by the people on avery liberal franchise, manhood suffrage in the majority of cases. Thefundamental law, or the British North America Act of 1867, givesjurisdiction to the provincial governments over administration ofjustice (except in criminal matters), municipal, and all purely localaffairs. The North-West Territories are under the Department of theInterior. Yukon Territory is governed by a Gold Commissioner, appointed by the Governor-General in Council, and a Council of threemembers elected by the people, The central or general government ofthe Dominion is administered by a governor-general, with the assistanceof a ministry responsible to a Parliament, composed of a Senateappointed by the Crown, and a House of Commons elected under anelectoral franchise, practically on the very threshold of universalsuffrage. This government has jurisdiction over trade and commerce, post-office, militia and defence, navigation and shipping, fisheries, railways and public works of a Dominion character, and all othermatters of a general or national import. Education is under thecontrol of the provincial governments, but the rights and privileges ofa religious minority with respect to separate or denominational schoolsare protected by the constitution. The common law of England prevailsin all the provinces except in French Canada, where the civil law stillexists. The criminal law of England obtains throughout the Dominion. The central government appoints all the judges, who are irremovableexcept for cause. Although the constitution places in the centralgovernment the {429} residue of all powers, not expressly given to theprovincial authorities, conflicts of jurisdiction are constantlyarising between the general and local governments. Such questions, however, are being gradually settled by the decisions of thecourts--the chief security of a written constitution--although at timesthe rivalry of parties and the antagonisms of distinct nationalitiesand creeds tend to give special importance to certain educational andother matters which arise in the operation of the constitution. Allthese are perils inseparable from a federal constitution governing twodistinct races. 

The relations of Canada with the United States have been increasinglyclose and cordial as years have gone on. Many old standing causes offriction have been removed; and in other cases, such as the fisheriesdispute, and the extremely high duties levied on Canadian goods in theDingley Tariff, there has been no recent aggravation of the irritation. In 1894 an end was made to the dispute over the right of America toexclude other nations from taking the seals of the Aleutian Islandsoutside the three-mile limit. Canadian vessels had been seized andconfiscated by America, and a state of high tension existed, which wasrelieved by a reference of the dispute to arbitration. This time theaward was in favour of Canada. The exclusive right of pelagic sealingwas denied to the United States, and damages amounting to $464, 000 wereawarded to the Canadian fishermen. 

The year 1896 is memorable, not only for the general election whichbrought Sir Wilfrid Laurier {430} into power, and for the beginning ofan uplift in trade which lasted until October, 1907, but also for thediscovery of gold in the Yukon and in Alaska. The great rush ofadventurers induced by these discoveries continued for the next twoyears, and Dawson city grew up with mushroom haste as the metropolis ofthis Arctic region. Gold discoveries in both Canadian and Americanterritory brought to a crisis the long-pending dispute over theinternational boundary in the far North-west. In 1898 a joint HighCommission was created, whose duties were to settle a number ofquestions which had long caused friction between Canada and the UnitedStates. The sessions of this Commission extended over eight monthswithout accomplishing anything. No formal ending was made to the workof the Commission, but it never re-assembled after its adjournment inFebruary, 1899. 

It was not until 1903 that an agreement was reached between GreatBritain and the United States concerning the Alaskan boundary line. Inthat year a treaty was concluded by which this long-disputed questionwas relegated to a Commission of six jurists, three British and threeAmerican, who by a majority vote were empowered to determine theboundary line. The British members of the Commission were LordAlverstone, Chief Justice of England, who was made president, with acasting vote in case of a tie, and two Canadians, Sir Louis Jette andMr. A. B. Aylesworth, both eminent jurists. The American members wereMr. Henry C. Lodge, Mr. Elihu Root, and Mr. George Turner. The {431}report of the Commission, which was transmitted to the Governments ofthe United States and Great Britain in October, 1903, was somewhatdisappointing to Canadians, as, on the whole, the Americans gainedtheir contentions. Canada was shut out from water communication withthe Yukon as far south as Portland Channel. The treaty in which thisreport was incorporated, and which was finally ratified in 1905, was, however, beneficial in removing a long-standing cause of irritationbetween the two nations, and Canada's need for a port was met in somedegree by bonding concessions at the American ports on the Alaskancoast. An International Commission to mark out the boundary line wasat work in Alaska in the summer of 1908. 

Serious disturbance to a number of Canadian interests, especially thoseof the lumbermen, was caused by the passing of the Dingley Act, withits high duties on all Canadian exports except some raw materials. Tothe attack on Canadian lumber Ontario replied by prohibiting the exportof saw logs cut on Crown timber limits, a step which led to thetransfer of a considerable number of saw mills to the Canadian side ofthe border line. Another cause of complaint against the United Stateshas been the strict and harsh enforcement of the contract labour lawson the American side of the boundary line. 

It is the not unfounded boast of Canadians that as the nineteenthcentury was the century of growth and development of the United States, so the twentieth is to be the century of Canada; and the outstandingfeature of Canadian development in {432} the last decade of thenineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth is theawakening of her national consciousness. In all her relations withGreat Britain this sense of nationality has been continuously manifest. In the Colonial Conferences which have been held at intervals in Londonsince the first Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, Canada has beenacknowledgedly first among the self-governing colonies. In 1897, partly as a result of the enthusiasm created by enactment of thepreference for Great Britain by the Dominion Parliament, Sir WilfridLaurier was the foremost figure among the colonial statesmen who werein London for the Diamond Jubilee. Another evidence of loyalty and ofthe close connection between Canada and Great Britain in the Jubileeyear was the institution of two cent postage between Great Britain andCanada. Canada's domestic rate of letter postage from 1868 had beenthree cents, a rate which was extended to the United States by a postalconvention, by which the domestic rate of Canada was made applicable toall letters and papers entering the United States, and that of theUnited States to all mail matter for Canada. This rate of three centsremained in force until January, 1899, when the two cent rate was madegeneral for Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. In 1907, therate for newspapers and periodicals between Great Britain and Canadawas again lowered, and in August, 1908, a one cent rate for letterswithin the area of a town or city was adopted by the Canadian PostOffice. 

When the South African War broke out in 1899, {433} Canada was thefirst of the colonies to come to the help of the mother country; andthe Canadian contingents, the first of which left Canada for SouthAfrica in October, 1899, rendered excellent service in the Boer War, especially in such work as scouting and the guerilla fighting in whichthe Boers were so adept. 

The treaty-making power is still withheld from the Dominion; but sincethe Alaskan boundary treaty Great Britain has given more and moreattention to the demands and needs of Canada when treaties have been innegotiation, and in 1907 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mr. W. S. Fielding, Minister of Finance, and the Hon. Mr. L. P. Brodeur went to Paris tonegotiate directly a commercial treaty with the French Government. During the years from 1904 to 1907 the British Government graduallywithdrew all the troops and warships which had been stationed in theDominion. Canada assumed control of the fortifications of Halifax andEsquimalt in July, 1905, and the replacing of British by Canadiansoldiers was complete by February, 1906. The naval dockyard at Halifaxwas handed over to the Canadian Government authorities in January, 1907; and from end to end of the Dominion Canada is now in complete andundivided control of her own territory. 

[1] The boundaries of the new provinces were finally settled by an Actof Parliament passed in 1908--an Act which also greatly enlarged theboundaries of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. 

{434}

XXIX. 

FRENCH CANADA. 

As this story commenced with a survey from the heights of Quebec of theDominion of Canada from ocean to ocean, so now may it fitly close witha review of the condition of the French Canadian people who stillinhabit the valley of the St. Lawrence, and whose history iscontemporaneous with that of the ancient city whose picturesque wallsand buildings recall the designs of French ambition on this continent. 

[Illustration: Quebec in 1896. ]

Though the fortifications of Louisbourg and Ticonderoga, of Niagara, Frontenac, and other historic places of the French régime in Americahave been razed to the ground, and the French flag is never seen in thevalley of the St. Lawrence, except on some holiday in company withother national colours, nevertheless on the continent where she oncethought to reign supreme, France has been able to leave a permanentimpress. But this impress is not in the valley of the Mississippi. Itis true that a number of French still live on the banks of the greatriver, that many a little village where a French {436} patois is spokenlies hidden in the sequestered bayous of the South, and that no part ofthe old city of New Orleans possesses so much interest for the Europeanstranger as the French or Creole quarter, with its quaint balconiedhouses and luxuriant gardens; but despite all this, it is generallyadmitted that the time is not far distant when the French language willdisappear from Louisiana, and few evidences will be found of the daysof the French occupancy of that beautiful State of the Union. On thebanks of the St. Lawrence, however, France has left behind her whatseem likely to be more permanent memorials of her occupation. Thepicturesque banks of the St. Lawrence, from the Atlantic to the greatlakes of the West, are the home of a large and rapidly increasingpopulation whose language and customs are so many memorials of the oldrégime whose history has taken up so many pages of this story. 

[Illustration: Street in a French Canadian village near Quebec. ]

The tourist who travels through the province of Quebec sees on allsides the evidence that he is passing through a country of Frenchorigin. Here and there in Quebec and Montreal, or in some quietvillage sequestered in a valley or elevated on the Laurentian Hills, hesees houses and churches which remind him of many a hamlet or town hehas visited in Brittany or Normandy. The language is French from theSaguenay to the Ottawa, and in some remote communities even now Englishis never spoken, and is understood only by the curé or notary. Nor isthe language so impure or degenerated as many persons may naturallysuppose. On {438} the contrary, it is spoken by the educated classeswith a purity not excelled in France itself. The better class ofFrench Canadians take pride in studying the language of the country oftheir ancestors, and are rarely guilty of Anglicisms, though these havenecessarily crept into the common parlance of mixed communities, wherepeople are forced to speak both French and English. In some ruraldistricts, isolated from large towns, the people retain the language asit was spoken two centuries ago--though without the accent of the oldprovinces of their origin--and consequently many words and phraseswhich are rarely now heard in France, still exist among the peasantryof French Canada, just as we find in New England many expressions whichare not pure Americanisms but really memorials of old English times. In French Canada the Anglicisms are such as occur under the naturalcondition of things. The native of old France has no words for"clearing" the forest, making maple sugar, "blazing" a way through thewoods or over the ice and snow of the rivers and lakes, andconsequently the vocabulary of the French Canadian has beenconsiderably enlarged by local circumstances. In the summer resorts ofthe lower St. Lawrence the influence of the English visitors, now verynumerous, is becoming more evident every year, and French habits arebecoming modified and the young folks commence to speak English fairlywell. Away from the St. Lawrence, however, and the path of thetourists, the French Canadians remain, relatively speaking, untouchedby English customs. 

{439}

_Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_ has been the key-note ofFrench Canadian politics for over a century. At the present time therecords and statutes of the Dominion are always given in the twolanguages, and the same is true of all motions put by the Speaker. Though the reports of the debates appear daily in French, Englishprevails in the House of Commons and in the Senate. The FrenchCanadians are forced to speak the language of the majority, and it issome evidence of the culture of their leading public men, that manyamong them--notably Sir Wilfrid, the eloquent leader of the Liberals, and first French Canadian premier since 1867--are able to expressthemselves in English with a freedom and elegance which noEnglish-speaking member can pretend to equal in French. In thelegislature of the province of Quebec, French has almost excludedEnglish, though the records are given in the two languages. In thesupreme court of the Dominion the arguments may be in French, and thetwo Quebec judges give their decisions in their own tongue. 

The people of French Canada are very devout Roman Catholics. Thenumerous churches, colleges, and convents of the country attest thepower and wealth of the Church, and the desire of the French Canadiansto glorify and perpetuate it by every means in their power. The wholeland is practically parcelled out among the saints, as far as thenomenclature of the settlements and villages is concerned. Thefavourite saint appears to be Ste. Anne, whose name appears constantlyon the banks {440} of the St. Lawrence. We have Ste. Anne de laPérade, Ste. Anne de la Pocatière, and many others. We all rememberthe verse of Moore's boat song:

 "Faintly as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time, Soon as the woods on shore look dim, We 'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn. "

This village, situated at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawarivers, is generally known as Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and still retainssome of the characteristics of a French Canadian village, notwithstanding its close neighbourhood to the English-speakingsettlements of Ontario. Jesuits, Sulpicians, and Recollets have donemuch to mould the thought and control the political destiny of thepeople under their spiritual care. The universities, colleges, andschools are mainly directed by the religious orders. The priests, asthis story has shown, have been very active and conscientious workersfrom the earliest days of Canadian history. 

Canada, too, has her Notre Dame de Lourdes, to whose shrine thefaithful flock by thousands. Some twenty miles east of Quebec, on thebanks of the St. Lawrence, is the church of Ste. Anne de Beaupré, or, as the Saint is more particularly known, La bonne Ste. Anne, who haswon fame in Canada for miraculous cures for two centuries at least. 

[Illustration: Old church at Bonne Ste. Anne, where miracles wereperformed. ]

This historic place rests under the shelter of a lofty mountain of theLaurentides, on a little plateau which has given it the name of the"beautiful meadow. " The village itself consists of a {442} stragglingstreet of wooden houses, with steep roofs and projecting eaves, nearlyall devoted to the entertainment of the large assemblage that annuallyresorts to this Canadian Mecca, probably some sixty thousand in thecourse of the summer. Here you will see on the fete of Ste. Anne, andat other fixed times, a mass of people in every variety of costume, Micmacs, Hurons, and Iroquois--representatives of the old Indian tribesof Canada--French Canadians, men, women, and children, from the valleysof the Ottawa, and the St. Maurice, and all parts of Quebec, as well astourists from the United States. The handsome grey stone church--nowdignified as a "basilica"--which has been built of late years, atteststhe faith of many thousands who have offered their supplications at theshrine of La bonne Ste. Anne for centuries. [1] Piles of crutches ofevery description, of oak, of ash, of pine, are deposited in everyavailable corner as so many votive offerings from the countlesscripples that claim to have been cured or relieved. The relic throughwhich all the wonderful cures are said to be effected, consists of apart of the finger bone of Ste. Anne, which was sent in 1668 by theChapter of Carcassonne to Monseigneur de Laval. The church alsopossesses several pictures of merit, one of them by Le Brun, presentedby the Viceroy Tracy in 1666. The situation of many of the FrenchCanadian {443} villages is exceedingly picturesque, when they nestle insome quiet nook by the side of a river or bay, or overlook from someprominent hill a noble panorama of land and water. The spire of thestone church rises generally from the midst of the houses, and thepriest's residence or presbytère is always the most comfortable in sizeand appearance. The houses are for the most part built of wood. Theroofs are frequently curved, with projecting eaves, which afford a sortof verandah under which the family sit in summer evenings. Some of themost pretentious structures, especially the inns, have balconiesrunning directly across the upper story. Many of the barns andouthouses have thatched roofs, which are never seen in any other partof Canada. The interiors are very plainly furnished, in many caseswith chairs and tables of native manufacture. A high iron stove is themost important feature of every dwelling in a country where the cold ofwinter is so extreme. Whitewash is freely used inside and outside, andthere is on the whole an air of cleanliness and comfort in the humblestcottage. 

The loom is still kept busy in some villages, and a coarse, warmhomespun is even yet made for everyday use. The _habitant_ also wearsin winter moccasins and a _tuque bleue_, or woollen cap, in which he isalways depicted by the painter of Canadian scenes. But with the growthof towns and the development of the railway system a steady change isoccurring year by year in the dress of the inhabitants, and it is onlyin the very remote settlements that we can find the homely stuffs offormer times. Old dresses {444} and old customs are graduallydisappearing with the old-fashioned caleche, in which tourists oncestruggled to admire French Canadian scenes. As a rule, however, thepeople live very economically, and extravagance in dress is rather theexception. On gala days the young wear many ribbons and colours, though arranged with little of the taste characteristic of the Frenchpeople. Both old and young are very sociable in their habits, and lovemusic and dancing. The violin is constantly played in the smallestvillage, and the young people dance old-fashioned cotillons or _dansesrondos_. The priests, however, do not encourage reckless gaieties orextravagance in dress. Now and then the bishop issues a Pastoral inwhich the waltz and other fast dances, and certain fashionable modes ofdress, are expressly forbidden, and though his mandates are no doubtsoon forgotten in the cities and towns, they are, on the whole, religiously observed in the rural communities. The feasts of theChurch are kept with great zeal, --especially the _fêtesd'obligation_--and consequently the French Canadian has holidayswithout number. 

[Illustration: A Canadian calèche of old times. ]

No class of the population of Canada is more orderly or less disposedto crime than the French Canadians. The standard of the morality ofthe people is high. Early marriages have been always encouraged by thepriests, and large families--fifteen children being very common--arethe rule in the villages. The _habitant_ is naturally litigious, andthe amount in dispute is, in his opinion, trifling compared with thehonour of having a case in court, {446} which demands the attendance ofthe whole village. The temperate habits of the French Canadian makethem necessarily valuable employés in mills and manufactories of allkinds. Indeed, they prefer this life to that of the farm, and untilvery recently there was a steady exodus of this class to themanufacturing towns of Lowell, Holyoke, and other places in NewEngland. A large proportion of the men employed in the lumberingindustry of Canada is drawn from the province of Quebec. As theirforefathers were _coureurs de bois_ in the days of the French régime, and hunted the beaver in the wilderness, even venturing into theillimitable Northwest region, so in these modern times the FrenchCanadians seek the vast pine woods which, despite axe and fire, stillstretch over a large area watered by the Ottawa and other rivers. 

In commercial and financial enterprise, the French Canadians cannotcompete with their fellow-citizens of British origin, who practicallycontrol the great commercial undertakings and banking institutions ofLower Canada, especially in Montreal. Generally speaking, the FrenchCanadians cannot compare with the English population as agriculturists, Their province is less favoured than Ontario with respect to climateand soil. The French system of sub-dividing farms among the members ofa family has tended to cut up the land unprofitably, and it is acurious sight to see the number of extremely narrow lots throughout theFrench settlements. It must be admitted, too, that the Frenchpopulation has less enterprise, and less disposition to adopt new {447}machines and improved agricultural implements, than the people of theother provinces. 

As a rule, the _habitant_ lives contentedly on very little. Give him apipe of native tobacco, a chance of discussing politics, a gossip withhis fellows at the church door after service, a visit now and then tothe county town, and he will be happy. It does not take much to amusehim, while he is quite satisfied that his spiritual safety is securedas long as he is within sound of the church bells, goes regularly toconfession, and observes all the _fêtes d'obligation_. If he or one ofhis family can only get a little office in the municipality, or in the"government, " then his happiness is nearly perfect. Indeed, if he werenot a bureaucrat, he would very much belie his French origin. Take himall in all, however, Jean-Baptiste, as he is familiarly known, from thepatron saint of French Canada, has many excellent qualities. He isnaturally polite, steady in his habits, and conservative in hisinstincts. He is excitable and troublesome only when his politicalpassions are thoroughly aroused, or his religious principles are atstake; and then it is impossible to say to what extreme he will go. Like the people from whom he is descended--many of whosecharacteristics he has never lost since his residence of centuries onthe American continent--he is greatly influenced by matters of feelingand sentiment, and the skilful master of rhetoric has it constantly inhis power to sway him to an extent which is not possible in the case ofthe stronger, less impulsive Saxon race, with whom reason and argumentprevail to a large degree. 

{448}

In the present, as in the past, the Church makes every effort tosupervise with a zealous care the mental food that is offered for thenourishment of the people in the rural districts, where it exercisesthe greatest influence. Agnosticism is a word practically unknown inthe vocabulary of the French Canadian _habitant_, who is quite ready toadhere without wavering to the old belief which his forefathersprofessed. Whilst the French Canadians doubtless lose little byrefusing to listen to the teachings which would destroy allold-established and venerable institutions, and lead them into anunknown country of useless speculation, they do not, as a rule, allowtheir minds sufficient scope and expansion. It is true that a newgeneration is growing up with a larger desire for philosophic inquiryand speculation. But whilst the priests continue to control the publicschool system of the province, they have a powerful means ofmaintaining the current of popular thought in that conservative and toooften narrow groove, in which they have always laboured to keep itsince the days of Laval. 

[Illustration: Louis Fréchette. ]

It is obvious, however, to a careful observer of the recent history ofthe country that there is more independence of thought and actionshowing itself in the large centres of population--even in the ruralcommunities--and that the people are beginning to understand that theyshould be left free to exercise their political rights without director undue interference on the part of their spiritual advisers. Englishideas in this respect seem certainly to be gaining ground. 

{450}

In the days of the French régime there was necessarily no nativeliterature, and little general culture except in small select circlesat Quebec and Montreal. But during the past half century, with theincrease of wealth, the dissemination of liberal education, and thedevelopment of self-government, the French Canadians have created forthemselves a literature which shows that they inherit much of thespirituality and brilliancy of their race. Their histories and poemshave attracted much attention in literary circles in France, and onepoet, Mr. Louis Fréchette, has won the highest prize of the FrenchInstitute for the best poem of the year. In history we have the namesof Garneau, Ferland, Sulte, Tassé, Casgrain; in poetry, Crémazie, Chauveau, Fréchette, Poisson, Lemay; in science, Hamel, Laflamme, DeFoville; besides many others famed as savants and littérateurs. In artsome progress has been made, and several young men go to the Parisschools from time to time. The only sculptor of original merit thatCanada has yet produced is Hébert, a French Canadian, whose monumentsof eminent Canadians stand in several public places. Science has notmade so much progress as belles-lettres and history, though LavalUniversity--the principal educational institution of the highestclass--has among its professors men who show some creditable work inmathematics, geology, and physics. In romance, however, very littlehas been done. 

The French Canadians have a natural love for poetry and music. Indeedit is a French Canadian by birth and early education--MadameAlbani--who {451} not long ago won a high distinction on the operaticstage. No writer of this nationality, however, has yet produced anopera or a drama which has won fame for its author. The priesthood, indeed, has been a persistent enemy of the theatre, which consequentlyhas never attained a successful foothold in French Canada. Sacredmusic, so essential a feature of a Roman Catholic service, has beenalways cultivated with success. 

The _chansons populaires_, which have been so long in vogue among thepeople of all classes in the province of Quebec are the same in spirit, and very frequently in words, as those which their ancestors broughtover with them from Brittany, Normandy, Saintonge, and Franche-Comté. Some have been adapted to Canadian scenery and associations, but mostof them are essentially European in allusion and spirit. The Canadianlumberer among the pines of the Ottawa and its tributaries, the _Métis_or half-breeds of what was once the great Lone Land, still singsnatches of the songs which the _coureurs de bois_, who followed Duluthand other French explorers, were wont to sing as they paddled over therivers of the West or camped beneath the pines and the maples of thegreat forests. It is impossible to set the words of all of them to themusic of the drawing-room, where they seem tame and meaningless; butwhen they mingle with "the solemn sough of the forest, " or with theroar of rushing waters, the air seems imbued with the spirit of thesurroundings. It has been well observed by M. Gagnon, a FrenchCanadian, that "many of them have no beauty {452} except on the lips ofthe peasantry. " There is "something sad and soft in the voices thatimparts a peculiar charm to these monotonous airs, in which their wholeexistence seems to be reflected. "

I give below the most popular and poetical of all the Canadian ballads, and at the same time a translation by a Canadian writer:[2]

 À LA CLAIRE FONTAINE. TRANSLATION. 

 À la claire fontaine Down to the crystal streamlet M'en allant promener, I strayed at close of day; J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters Que je m'y suis baigne. I plunged without delay. Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime, I 've loved thee long and dearly, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. I 'll love thee, sweet, for aye. 

 J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle Into its limpid waters Que je m'y suis baigné, I plunged without delay; Et c'est au pied d'un chêne Then 'mid the flowers springing Que je m'suis reposé. At the oak-tree's foot I lay. 

 Et c'est au pied d'un chêne Then 'mid the flowers springing Que je m'suis reposé; At the oak-tree's foot I lay; Sur la plus haute branche Sweet the nightingale was singing Le rossignol chantait. High on the topmost spray. 

 Sur la plus haute branche Sweet the nightingale was singing Le rossignol chantait; High on the topmost spray; Chante, rossignol, chante, Sweet bird! keep ever singing Toi qui as le coeur gai. Thy song with heart so gay. 

 Chante, rossignol, chante, Sweet bird! keep ever singing Toi qui as le coeur gai; Thy song with heart so gay; Tu as le coeur à rire, Thy heart was made for laughter, Moi je l'ai-t à pleurer. My heart 's in tears to-day. 

{453}

 Tu as le coeur à rire, Thy heart was made for laughter, Moi je l'ai-t à pleurer; My heart 's in tears to-day; J'ai perdu ma maîtresse Tears for a fickle mistress, Sans pouvoir la trouver. Flown from its love away. 

 J'ai perdu ma maîtresse Tears for a fickle mistress, Sans pouvoir la trouver; Flown from its love away, Pour un bouquet de roses All for these faded roses Que je lui refusai; Which I refused in play. 

 Pour un bouquet de roses All for these faded roses Que je lui refusai; Which I refused in play-- Je voudrais que la rose Would that each rose were growing Fut encore au rosier. Still on the rose-tree gay. 

 Je voudrais que la rose Would that each rose were growing Fût encore au rosier, Still on the rose-tree gay, Et que le rosier même And that the fated rose-tree Fût dans la mer jeté. Deep in the ocean lay. Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime, I 've loved thee long and dearly, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. I 'll love thee, sweet, for aye. 

_À la Claire Fontaine_ has been claimed for Franche-Comté, Brittany, and Normandy, but the best authorities have come to the conclusion, from a comparison of the different versions, that it is Norman. In_Malbrouck s'en va-t-en-guerre_, we have a song which was sung in thetime of the _Grand Monarque_. Of its popularity with the FrenchCanadians, we have an example in General Strange's reply to the 65th, aFrench Canadian regiment, during the second Northwest rebellion. Onemorning, after weeks of tedious and toilsome marching, just as the menwere about to fall in, the General {454} overhead the remark--"Ah! whenwill we get home?" "Ah, mes garçons, " laughed the General--

 "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre Mais quand reviendra-t-il?"

 "Malbrouck has gone a-fighting, But when will he return?"

and with their characteristic light-heartedness the men caught up thefamous old air and the march was resumed without a murmur. 

These _chansons populaires_ of French Canada afford some evidence ofthe tenacity with which the people cling to the customs, traditions, and associations of the land of their origin. Indeed, a love for OldFrance lies still deep in the hearts of the people, and both young andold study her best literature, and find their greatest pride in herrecognition of their poets and writers. But while there exists amongthe more influential and cultured class a sentimental attachment to OldFrance, there is a still deeper feeling, strengthened by the politicalfreedom and material progress of the past forty years, that theconnection with the British Empire gives the best guaranty for thepreservation of their liberties and rights. This feeling has foundfrequent expression in the forcible utterances of Sir Wilfrid, the latePremier of the Dominion. No doubt the influence of the Roman Catholicpriesthood has had much to do with perpetuating the connexion withEngland. They feel that it is {455} not by a connexion with France orthe United States that their religious and civil institutions can bebest conserved. 

All classes now agree as to the necessity of preserving the federalsystem in its entirety, since it ensures better than any other systemof government the rights and interests of the French Canadianpopulation in all those matters most deeply affecting a people speakinga language, professing a religion, and retaining certain institutionsdifferent from those of the majority of the people of the Dominion. 

[Illustration: A characteristic snapshot of Sir Robert Borden at thePeace Conference, 1919. ]

No French Canadian writer or politician of weight in the country nowurges so impossible or suicidal a scheme as the foundation of anindependent French nationality on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Thehistory of the fifty years that have elapsed since the dark days ofCanada, when Papineau wished to establish a "Nation Canadienne, " goesto show that the governing classes of the English and Frenchnationalities have ceased to feel towards each other that intensespirit of jealousy which was likely at one time to develop itself intoa dangerous hatred. The spirit of conciliation and justice, which hashappily influenced the action of leading English and French Canadianstatesmen in the administration of public affairs, has been so farsuccessful in repressing the spirit of passion and demagogism which hasexhibited itself at certain political crises, and in bringing the twonationalities into harmony with each other. As long as the same wisecounsels continue to prevail in Canada that {456} have heretoforegoverned her, and carried her successfully through critical periods, the integrity of the confederation is assured, and the two races willever work harmoniously together, united by the ties of a commoninterest, --always the strongest bond of union--and a common allegianceto the Empire to whose fostering care they already owe so much. 

[1] The illustration represents the ancient church which was built in1658, but was taken down a few years ago on account of its dangerouscondition, and rebuilt on the old site near the basilica, in exactlythe original form with the same materials. 

[2] _Songs of Old Canada_. Translated by W. McLennan. 

{457}

XXX

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF CANADA. 

In the ordinary course of events this history of the Dominion shouldhave closed with an account of the old French Province of Quebec, itspeople, their characteristics and their progress. But so much hashappened in the second decade of the twentieth century that the impressof France is slowly being obliterated by a Canadianism which ispeculiar to itself. Of course this does not mean that the Frenchlanguage is disappearing or that all the customs of the old régime aregiving way to new. But _autres temps, autres moeurs_. For this theGreat War has been largely responsible. Previous to it, the averageFrench Canadian had been too prone to dwell on the ties which bound himto La Belle France. But a part in the world-conflict convinced himthat in the hundred and fifty years he had been disassociated from thecountry of his birthright, he had worked out his destiny along linesessentially Canadian. This view is likewise affecting and influencingthe standpoint of those who have settled in the Great Northwest. Theresult is a stronger feeling of Canadian nationality in thatassociation {458} of nations which we are pleased to term the BritishEmpire. 

[Illustration: Silver mines at Cobalt, Ontario. ]

After the tragic death of Sir John Thompson in 1892 Canada struggledalong politically under several Conservative Premiers which undoubtedlyprepared the way for Sir Wilfrid Laurier's great victory four yearsafterwards. Then, surrounded by the men who had been so many years inopposition with him, he evolved those practical principles ofLiberalism which kept his party firmly in power until he advocated freetrade in 1911. Since that time both Liberals and Conservatives havecome to the conclusion that a protective policy is the one best suitedfor Canada's growing needs and future prospects. It is interesting torecall, however, that in the dying days of Conservative rule, NicholasFlood Davin, a prominent member on the Government benches, introduced aBill for Woman's Suffrage, a reform which was not realised in theDominion until 1917. As for Quebec it has adhered steadily to manhoodfranchise, although there is a decided possibility that women willreceive the vote in 1922. Some three years afterwards, or, to beexact, September 29, 1898, a Prohibition plebiscite was carried inCanada, but it was fully twenty years before it was put into effect bythe various provinces, always with the same exception--that of Quebec, It will therefore be seen that in some respects the old province ofLower Canada does not adopt innovations lightly, or, at least, untilthey have been first tried and found to be worthy of some measure ofsupport. 

When the outbreak of the Boers startled Canada and roused in her thedormant desire to respond {460} to the call of the Motherland, it wasSir Wilfrid Laurier who took up the challenge of non-intervention orneutrality. 

We acted in the full independence of our sovereign power. What we didwe did of our own free will. . . . If it should be the will of thepeople of Canada at any future stage to take part in any war ofEngland, the people of Canada will have to have their way. . . . Thework of union and harmony between the chief races of this country isnot yet complete. . . . But there is no bond of union so strong as thebond created by common dangers faced in common. [1]

What a prophecy. How well was it realised fourteen years afterwards. But at the time the Canadians, believing that war would not pass theirway again, erected monuments in all the leading cities to commemoratetheir losses, little thinking that the courage and traditions achievedwould be perpetuated at the second battle of Ypres, Vimy Ridge, and theSomme. 

The general election of 1900 sustained Sir Wilfrid, and from that timeuntil 1911 he gave to his country a vision and a courage worthy of thegreat statesman who had preceded him in the premiership during manyyears. Possibly the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York thefollowing year also opened up new vistas to him of the Empire uponwhich the sun never sets. At any rate life flowed on evenly enough forhim and the Canadian people until there came one of those imperial actsof negotiation which sorely, perhaps unwarrantably, tried the loyaltyand patience of everyone in the Dominion, irrespective of race, party, or creed. As a result of it {461} any future Dominion Government wouldbe very brave indeed if it agreed to an arbitration affecting commonCanadian and American interests where the negotiators were not ofthemselves. However, if the Alaska Boundary Award 1903 gave the UnitedStates command of the ports leading to the Klondike it also gave to theCanadians a very clear lead as to what they should do when treatiesaffecting their own interests came up for consideration. Happily bothMotherland and Dominion now see eye to eye in this regard, and nogreater evidence of the solidarity resulting can be seen than in thesigning of the recent Treaty of Versailles by the Overseas delegates. 

Deep as was the chagrin at the time, internal expansion and growingwants diverted the attention of most of the settlers to the new problembeing worked out in the West. Immigrants were pouring in ceaselessly. A charter for a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway had just been given by theDominion House. Everyone was ambitious. All these reasons created adesire upon the part of the people for full provincial organisationinstead of the territorial system which could not possibly satisfy thedemands of a virile Northwest. The Autonomy Bills of Saskatchewan andAlberta were soon presented by the Dominion Government, and onSeptember 1, 1905 two provinces were formally constituted from the oldterritories. 

There were many in the Eastern Provinces who viewed these evidences ofexpansion not without certain misgivings. Most of the newly arrivedsettlers were intelligent Americans of considerable {462} means. Theyhad brought their household furniture, agricultural implements, andherds of horses and cattle with them. All this, however, was desirableand praiseworthy. But what worried the older settlers of the west andparticularly the residents in the east was, did they intend todisseminate their previous Republican ideas? In justice to them itmust be affirmed that they did not. On the contrary, they settled downas resident Canadians, loyally supporting existing institutions and theCrown. Many of them, however, were Canadians by birth, returning totheir native land, or the children of Canadians. But whether Canadianby parentage or naturalisation they are a splendid asset to the west. And their knowledge of modern farming methods is by no means the leastimportant of their accomplishments. In their train, there has alsoarrived a large number of skilled and unskilled European labourers. 

When the House of Commons on May 22, 1919, adopted a recommendation ofan address to the King not to grant further titles to Canadians, it wasasserted by some that it was primarily caused by this western invasion. But it can be rightly maintained that such action was caused byconditions existing at the time entirely independent of this influence. It may be that in the future the resolution will be withdrawn. Resolutions in Canada are not as fixed as the ancient laws of the Medesand the Persians. 

Side by side with this agricultural expansion there has been an era ofdiscovery in the Dominion unequalled even by the golden age of '49. Alexander {463} Macdonald, a Scotchman from New Brunswick, found afortune in the great Klondike rush of 1894-8 and other Canadians didthe same at Cobalt, Ontario, in 1903, where a member of a railwayconstruction gang picked up a silver nugget by accident, therebydisclosing to an eager continent the famous Cobalt silver fields. Canada has, as a result, one of the greatest gold and silver-miningcentres in the world. 

As if to keep pace with this unexpected development, Dr. Charles E. Saunders, of the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, announced hissuccessful evolution of Marquis wheat. The Doctor had beenexperimenting with mid-European Red Fife and Red Calcutta ever since1903. By successfully crossing the two, an early ripening, hard redspring wheat with excellent milling and baking qualities was evolved. Marquis wheat, as it was named, is now the dominant spring wheatthroughout America. Over three hundred million bushels are producedannually, and it was largely owing to Canadian Marquis that the Allieswere able to overcome the food crisis in 1918. The wealth of the worldhas thus been increased enormously by it. 

In 1911 Sir Wilfrid, who had been attending the Imperial Conference inLondon during May and June of that year, returned home determined toplace himself again in the hands of the electorate. Unfortunately hehad either not profited by the lesson of 1891 or he now believed thatthe Dominion was ripe for reciprocity with the United States. Thecontest resulted in the overwhelming defeat of his ministry. Forfifteen years he had enjoyed the same confidence of the people as wasextended to {464} Sir John A. Macdonald, and the story of hispremiership was practically the political history of Canada for thatperiod. 

The Hon. Sir Robert Borden, who had led the Conservative party afterSir Charles Tupper had resigned in 1901, now succeeded, and a new eraopened in Canadian politics. Throughout the ten years of his two termsof office he invariably viewed the questions and problems before himfrom a judicial standpoint. At the end of his term of office hecarried into his semi-retirement the respect and honour of the Canadianpeople. If he lacked the personality and the fire of Sir John A. AndSir Wilfrid, on the hustings and in the House, he made up for it by amind well balanced in statesmanship. Never was this seen to greateradvantage than on those occasions when he participated in the ImperialConferences and at the Peace negotiations ir Versailles. 

Early in the winter of 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Icelander fromManitoba, set out on one of his explorations of the Arctic regions ofCanada. Public opinion had been so roused and excited over AdmiralPeary reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1909, that the CanadianGovernment felt that they owed it to the Empire to make some attempt atcharting the northern regions for the Dominion. Under Governmentorganisation and supervision the enterprise lasted for five years. Thousands of square miles were added to Canadian territory within theArctic Circle, many of which, contrary to popular conception, are greenand habitable. The geography of certain lands and seas was amplifiedand corrected, interesting and useful {465} scientific material wasobtained, and much light thrown on general conditions prevailing inthose latitudes which had escaped the observation of Roald Amundsenwhen he accomplished the navigation of the Northwest Passage during1903-6. 

The opening years of the second decade of the twentieth century, however, had not been without their toll of the Empire makers inCanada. Just before the Great War broke on an unsuspecting Dominion, Lord Strathcona passed away in his 94th year. From an apprentice clerkin Hudson's Bay Company he had passed from honour to honour until hisdeath, when he was High Commissioner for Canada in London. Not manymonths later he was followed by the last surviving Father ofConfederation, Sir Charles Tupper, who had preceded him in the office. Both of these pioneers in Canadian life wielded an influence very farreaching in the interests of the British Empire. 

At the outbreak of the war similar losses in Canadian public lifepassed without much notice in the stress and strain of the struggle towhich Canada was to devote herself during the ensuing years. 

The prompt action of Sir Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia, thesending of 400, 000 men overseas to fight the great fight, the seeminglynever-ending battles of Ypres, St. Julien, Festubert, Givenchy, St. Eloi, Sanctuary Wood, Vimy Ridge, Loos, Hill 70, Courcelette, Passchendaele, and the Somme, under General Lord Byng and General SirArthur Currie, appear too vivid in the mind as yet to be regarded ashistory. 

{466}

Something of the spirit of the Canadians in sharing the commonsacrifice is reflected in the beautiful though poignant lines ofColonel Macrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, who himself made thesupreme sacrifice in one of the early engagements of 1915:

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Beneath the crosses, row on row That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

 We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. 

 Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you, from falling hands, we throw The torch. Be yours to lift it high! If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies blow In Flanders fields. 

As for those at home, now that the war has passed into the ages-longannals of the Empire, no words can express their thoughts better thanthose of Laurence Binyon at the entrance of the British Museum inLondon, England:

 They shall grow not old As we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them Nor the years condemn, At the going down of the sun And in the morning We will remember them. 

But the years 1914-20 were constructive ones for Canada. Hitherto shehad been content to be {467} regarded as a Dominion with a definiteplace in the Empire, proud of her position in that Association ofNations but not unmindful of her shortcomings. The world-conflict, however, caused her to realise her own constructive ability andpossibilities only limited by population. Under the Imperial MunitionsBoard factories were converted into munition works, old plants wereenlarged, and new machinery installed, so that the country isindustrially equipped to supply a population considerably larger thanit is to-day. Not only was wooden ship building revived, but alsosteel ship building plants were laid down. As a result there is aGovernment Merchant Marine arranged in conjunction with the Governmentrailways, sailing the high seas to wherever Canadian produce can find amarket. Closer international relationships are being fostered insteadof considered as outside of the Dominion's power and her desire. Thesecords of commerce will undoubtedly strengthen British hegemony in theyears to come. 

The General Election of December 1917, passed quietly, making no changein the political situation, although there was a strong feeling inQuebec against conscription, which was the dominant issue in thatprovince. On that question the Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King supported SirWilfrid Laurier in his opposition to compulsory service, being one ofthe few English Canadian Liberals to do so. In fact several of themhad already joined Sir Robert Borden so that a Coalition Governmentcould be formed. It was largely owing to Mr. King's support of SirWilfrid on this issue that the former was chosen to {468} succeed thelatter as leader of the Liberal Party in the Convention held at OttawaAugust 5-7, 1919. The country, however, was too intent on the strugglebefore it to worry about politics. If it did anything it placed SirRobert Borden more firmly in power to carry on the task before him, especially endorsing the Military Service Act (Conscription) which hadbeen passed on August 29, previously. 

It is true that the people were stunned by the disasters which occurredin 1916 and 1917 when the Parliament Building at Ottawa was burned andHalifax was almost razed to the ground by the explosion resulting fromthe ramming of an ammunition ship. But outside of the great toll oflife these losses could be repaired and were speedily made up in theerection of new Parliament Buildings and the creation of a more moderncity of Halifax to dominate the entrance of the great highway from theEast. 

Early in the autumn of 1914, the Bank of England, realizing that itwould be impossible for American firms to ship gold to London inpayment of maturing indebtedness there, announced that deposits of goldby such firms with the Receiver-General at Ottawa would be regarded asif received by the Bank at London. Under this arrangement many milliondollars of the precious metal were shipped to the Dominion Capital, where a Branch of the Royal Mint had already been established inJanuary, 1908. The amount in the vaults at Ottawa during the warbecame almost twice the total amount held by British financialinstitutions in 1913. As part of it was raw gold, the Ottawa Branch ofthe Royal Mint {469} had to construct a new refinery in 1917 which hada refining capacity of one million ounces of fine gold per month. TheBranch Mint had thus a larger capacity than any other Mint or goldrefinery in the world. Shilling blanks were also produced for theRoyal Mint in London as well as silver and bronze pieces forNewfoundland and nickel-copper pieces for Jamaica. 

Later on the gold was returned to the United States when the Britishexchange became unfavourable owing to the huge purchases made in thatcountry. Many Canadian business men at this time advocated amoratorium, but the Government steadfastly resisted such a suggestionuntil ultimately it was found unnecessary. 

Financially, the Canadian people from 1915 to 1919 were not unmindfulof their national obligations. Six domestic loans were issued duringthe war period amounting to 2, 203 million dollars, while War SavingsCertificates accounted for another 12 1/2 millions. 

On the announcement of the Armistice in November, 1918, the Governmentwith the same energy and foresight which characterised their entranceinto the conflict, began to demobilise the army which they had sentoverseas. Within six months the bulk of the men were back in theirhomes. The opportunity was then taken of offering to the returned menland grants and loans for the purchase of farming implements. Up tothe end of 1920, over 3 1/2 million acres had been disposed of in thisway. In the Western Provinces alone about one million acres of it areunder cultivation {470} by returned men. As a result of this action, new careers have been provided for men whose love of outdoor life wasstimulated by their military experience. It has at the same timeopened up from virgin soil fresh tracts of rich, arable land. As forpensions, up to February, 1921, the Dominion has paid out 82 milliondollars and her annual pension bill now represents over 33 milliondollars. Truly Canada is a country "fit for heroes to live in. "

All this, however, has been accomplished not without some internaldifficulty. At Winnipeg in May, 1919, some thousands of workmen cameout on strike for more pay, shorter hours, and the principle ofcollective bargaining. Rioting took place among some of the moredisorderly elements. But after negotiation by the Hon. Arthur Meighenand a fellow minister, aided by strong measures on the part of theMayor and ex-Service men, the rioters returned to work. 

[Illustration: New Parliament Buildings, Ottawa. ]

But the great work of construction and restoration has progressed. InSeptember, 1917, the Quebec Cantilever Bridge, one of the engineeringtriumphs of the world, even larger than the famous Forth Bridge, wascompleted at a cost of 15 million dollars. The special importance ofthis structure is, that by connecting the Government railway lines onthe south of the River St. Lawrence with those on the north, itshortens the distance between Halifax and Winnipeg by two hundredmiles. The necessity for good roads has not been overlooked. Parliament authorised under the Canada Highways Act of 1919, a grant of20 million dollars, {472} for the purpose of road construction andimprovement. This sum allotted to the various provinces is granted oncondition that the amount should be supplemented by the provincesthemselves. The 250, 000 miles of public highways will therefore beextended gradually but effectively in the future. 

In the same year, there occurred the death at Ottawa of one whom Canadacould ill afford to lose; a statesman whose prestige at home and abroadstood out on the pages of the Dominion's history. Nominally the leaderof the Liberal Party, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was more than that. He was agreat national figure. As a statesman of broad imperialistic views, asan orator of brilliant gifts, as a zealous guardian of all that heconsidered to be for Canada's best interest, he will rank high amongthe makers of the Empire. 

Fortunately the visit of the Prince of Wales came at a time when theDominion badly needed royal encouragement. Arriving in the late summerof 1919, he was enthusiastically received. As the Quebec Bridge hadjust been completed he formally opened it for traffic, and later on, asa good Mason, laid the foundation stone of the tower of the newParliament Buildings at Ottawa. Becoming enamoured with thepossibilities of the two new provinces in the Northwest, he purchased aranch of 1, 600 acres in Alberta, under the foothills of the RockyMountains, proceeded to stock it with horses and cattle of the bestEnglish pedigree, and engaged a number of ex-Service men to manage theproperty. If there had been any doubt in the minds of the westernsettlers about His Royal {473} Highness, this removed it. To-day eastand west vie in acclaiming the present Heir-Apparent to the Britishthrone with an affection as genuine as it is evident. 

When the Dominion Government, owing to the exigencies of war, began toimpose restriction on the manufacture, importation and sale ofintoxicating liquors in Canada, the old question of Prohibition came tothe fore again. It was remembered that a plebiscite in favour of ithad been carried on September 29, 1898, but never taken advantage of bythe Federal authorities; Temperance organizations throughout thecountry took it up, and in order to meet the popular clamour thevarious provincial Assemblies passed some form of legislation whichresulted in the country going "dry. " Quebec, however, has only agreedto an amendment of the Canada Temperance Act by which the DominionGovernment can prohibit the importation of intoxicants, but cannotprevent the province from making and selling under Government controlsuch wine, spirits or beer as the people may desire. British Columbiaafterwards voted for Government control in October, 1920. 

In July, 1920, after nine years of power laden with some of theheaviest responsibilities ever imposed upon a Canadian statesman, SirRobert Borden was compelled to resign the premiership through illhealth. His efforts for the autonomy of the Dominion, consistent withEmpire unity, culminating in her inclusion as a separate and equalnation at the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919, and the right to appointher own Minister at Washington {474} will make for him a prominentplace in the history of Canada. 

The leadership of the Coalition Government which was elected in 1917passed to the Hon. Arthur Meighen, who was Minister of the Interior inthe Borden administration. 

A year afterwards, having completed the full tenure of office, HisExcellency the Governor-General, the Duke of Devonshire, returned toEngland, and was succeeded by General Lord Byng of Vimy, the hero ofthe Canadian soldiers in the war. 

When the Annual Imperial Conference was called in July, 1921, theacting Premier, the Hon. Mr. Meighen, repaired to London to gain someinsight into the many intricate problems which came before the Council. On his return home he decided that the political situation demanded ageneral election. In this, no doubt, he was influenced by the rise ofa Progressive Party, or as it is better known, the United Farmers'Organisation. 

Starting as a purely agrarian movement the U. F. O. Became a co-operativesociety, finally growing into a strong political party in provincialand federal politics. Ontario and Alberta soon fell to their prowess, and it was thought that the same result would happen in the Dominionarena. The ideas advocated by the new third party were a more modifiedprotection to home industries as opposed to the decidedly protectionistpolicy of the Coalition Government; opposition to the return of theGovernment controlled railways to {475} private ownership; stimulationof immigration along definite lines; and the creation of means wherebycapital for production could be supplied to settlers on safe and soundlines. 

Whether the Progressive party will continue to be a factor in Canadianpolitics is for the future to decide. The net result of the generalelection of 1921 was the almost complete disappearance of the Coalitionparty and the meagre election of the out and out Liberals under theHon. William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had been a minister in SirWilfrid's cabinet some ten years previously. The number ofProgressives elected did not come up to the general expectation, butthey represent a considerable number, in fact being second in strengthto the party called upon to form the Government. Their leader, theHon. T. A. Crerar, who had resigned from the Coalition Cabinet of SirRobert Borden two years previously, is a leader of some force andability. But Mr. King has surrounded himself with a cabinet ofconsiderable Parliamentary experience, so there is every reason toexpect that the Liberal Party will be in power for the usual life of aParliamentary term. 

Perhaps the most outstanding event of the year in which Canada wasinterested, was the Disarmament Conference at Washington, where she wasrepresented by Sir Robert Borden. If it did anything, it certainlypaved the way for saving billions of dollars by restricting theconstruction of capital ships, and in this Canada was no mean factor. 

But before all, it is domestic problems which concern the Dominionparticularly. No country {476} realises better than she does that itis coal and comfort which will attract settlers from the Motherland totill her fields, build up her factories and engage in the trade whichmakes a nation truly great. As Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have nocoal mines, "white coal" is a vital necessity. Not long ago theDominion Water Power Branch took a census, and found that Canada hasavailable nineteen million horse-power. Of this practically 90 percent. Of the Central Station power is derived from water power, 95 percent. Being in the above-named provinces, which have to import theircoal supplies from other provinces and the United States. As far backas 1911 the Province of Ontario realised this, and began to arrange forthe building of the Chippawa-Queenston Power Canal and plant, whichrepresents an investment of almost a hundred million dollars. Theplant will have a capacity of 650, 000 horse-power, which will bedistributed throughout Canada and possibly the neighbouring States, andwill be an important addition to the Ontario Hydro-Electric PowerTransmission System which was inaugurated at Kitchener, Ontario, inOctober, 1911. 

Elsewhere in the Dominion the fuel problem is being met by freshdiscoveries. In the Mackenzie River district gushers of oil have beenstruck, in one case producing a flow at the rate of 1, 000 barrels aday. Already several large companies are operating in that district. 

As for comfort, not only Canada but also the world realises that theday of hand power is past. Without agricultural implement machinerydriven {477} by motor force, it would be impossible for the greatNorthwest to yield the harvests which she does without a labour towhich new settlers would be unaccustomed. By means of thehydro-electric commission homes are warmed in winter, lighted all theyear round, as indeed are the cities, towns and villages, and cookingfor the family accomplished with a modicum of trouble. Electricrailways connect communities and settlements. The telephone is inalmost everyone's home. So that with the pianola, the gramophone, andother means of diversion, the winter nights are not what they were tothe people in the years of the nineteenth century. 

In railroad facilities Canada, if anything, is fifty years ahead of hertime, so well are they developed. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, from Monckton, New Brunswick to Winnipeg and thence to Prince Rupert, B. C. , which was commenced in 1905, and finished in 1915, was leased onits completion to the Grand Trunk Railway Company for fifty years. Owing to the war, and the financial difficulties in which theconstructing company found itself, the system of 22, 000 miles of linewas taken over by the Government in 1921, after an arbitration whichexcited much comment on both sides of the Atlantic. The decisionregarding it was given by the Canadian Grand Trunk Arbitration Board atMontreal, headed by Sir Walter Cassels, and one of the members of theBoard was no less a person than ex-President Taft, now Chief Justice ofthe United States. As a conspicuous result of political action the{478} construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is still more thesubject of politics than of history, and it is quite likely to remainin that phase for some time. 

The year 1921 will also be memorable for the work of the jointAmerican-Canadian Commission appointed to investigate the possibilityof the proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterways. It was estimatedthat the initial cost of canalising the St. Lawrence River, constructing six dams in the rapids and improving the St. Claire andDetroit Rivers will be 253 million dollars, the up-keep requiring 2 1/2million dollars annually. Fortunately considerable revenue can be madethrough the sale of the five million horse-power obtained from the damswhich will pay a large part of the carrying charges. The great valueof such a public work is in the relief from congestion on the railways, particularly the American, at crop-moving time. One of the mostimportant results will be that Port Arthur, Ontario will virtuallybecome a seaport. 

In all this work of expansion and progress the women of Canada havetaken their place. This was recognised when the War Committee of theBorden Cabinet called a Conference of representatives of women'sorganisations in February, 1918. The initiative was rewarded by acloser co-operation on the part of these societies with the Government, especially in connection with the conservation of food, the compilationof a National Register and the increased production in industrialoccupations. Later in 1918, an Act was passed by which Canadian {479}women received the Federal electoral vote on the same basis as men. Inaddition to electing a woman as member of the provincial legislature, the British Columbia Assembly had the honour first of choosing one ofthe fair sex for Speaker which, however, was declined, Mrs. Mary E. Smith, the Labour candidate-elect, maintaining that she could be moreuseful as a private member than either as Speaker or a member in theGovernment. When Mrs. Irene Parlby was similarly successful inLacombe, Alberta, she was not so modest when Premier Greenfield offeredher a position without portfolio in the United Farmers' Cabinet. Tothose who have the feminine movement at heart, these instances willcertainly be a source of much encouragement. 

But, perhaps, the west of Canada is more willing to depart from theestablished order than the east. Then, again, the conditions aredifferent. The maritime provinces have been living in peace and amitywith their neighbours for many years. The immigration problem, carrying with it different races, conflicting ideas and unsatisfiedambitions, does not present itself in the same way. Halifax andQuebec, where immigration is concerned, are mainly ports of entrance, and intending settlers are generally Europeans. 

It is not the same at Victoria and Vancouver. This was recognised in1907, when the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux was sent by the DominionGovernment to Tokio to make representations to the Japanese Governmentregarding the restriction of its nationals from emigrating to Canadawhich was resulting in {480} racial riots. The Nippon Cabinet receivedthe _démarche_ in the right spirit, and so any cause formisunderstanding was removed. That was why the Dominion of Canadaadhered to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty when it was renewed in 1913, andwhy the Japanese battleship _Asama_, after grounding on the coast ofLower California, was refitted at Esquimault. At that naval station in1914 Canada had only one small cruiser of 3, 600 tons, the _Rainbow_, used more for revenue purposes than for any idea of defence or offence. The new Canadian Air Board, by the introduction of aircraft on thePacific Coast to assist in preventing opium smuggling, has almostremoved the reason for retaining even that vessel. But it is stillequipped as a training ship for the Royal Canadian Navy which, afterthe close of the war, was strengthened by the addition of threecruisers, the _Aurora_, _Patriot_ and _Patricia_. 

Fortunately the naval treaty between the British Empire, the UnitedStates and Japan, signed in February, 1922, will at least remove anydoubt about Canada's pacific intentions in her developments of thewest. By that agreement the above nations will respect the _statusquo_ in regard to fortifications and naval bases on their coastterritories. No new ones are to be established. Moreover, no measuresshall be taken to increase the existing naval facilities for the repairor maintenance of naval forces. 

Thus with prosperity at home, and peace with those abroad, people ofthe land of the Maple Leaf and the Beaver will look upon the twentiethcentury {481} as peculiarly their own. But in doing so it will not bewithout a wrench to see old institutions alter and in some cases passaway. One of these is the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, which inNovember, 1919, became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provisionbeing made for the absorption of the Dominion Police which during theGreat War acted as a secret service to counteract enemy plots againstthe country. Recently the force has been bitterly opposed by Labour, on the ground that its real purpose is to break strikes, an objectionoriginating in the force's very efficient action during the Winnipegriots. Otherwise there would be no grounds for its disbandonmentexcept economy, before which even history and tradition must bow. 

The growth of labour organisations in Canada, however, ranks _paripassu_ with that of the large cities. To gauge the extent one has onlyto mention that in 1911 there were 133, 132 members in the labourunions, but in 1920 there were 373, 842, or almost three times as many. Of the definite groups the railway employees stand first, representing23. 45 per cent. This explains why the railway situation in Canada isalways a matter of no small interest to the people. As most of theorganised workers are members of international unions, which cover thewhole of the United States and Canada, their electoral power may bereadily estimated. In justice to them, it must be said that labour, ascompared with that in other countries, is remarkably safe and sane. During the war, trade union restrictions were subordinated to thecountry's {482} need, and now that it is over the one desire in theranks is to keep industry on its feet, so that there may be a busy andcontented Dominion. If at times there is a louder outcry againstimmigration, it is largely owing to the idea that the new-comers cannotbe assimilated under existing conditions. But every Canadian, irrespective of class or calling, recognises that if the premierDominion is to maintain its position and prestige in the Empire--andfor that matter in the world--there must be more population. 

In these days some people are inclined to speak of the neardisappearance of free land in Canada. If by free land it is meant thatthere is no longer the liberty to settle at random without anyqualifications for so doing, then there is truth in such a statement. But the history of Canada during the past two decades proves that ifthe Dominion is to prosper, there must be settlers who either have thenecessary farming knowledge or the ability to acquire it. In eithercase the Government or the Railways will grant land as near free landas it can be made. 

To train young farmers in the science and practice of agriculture, colleges and experimental farms have been established, and bothCanadians and new-comers have taken advantage of them. For instance, in 1874 there were twenty-eight students at the Ontario AgriculturalCollege at Guelph. To-day the total enrolment is about 2, 400. It canbe seen, then, that there is a real desire upon the part of the risinggeneration for a scientific knowledge of farming, without which evenvirgin {483} soil cannot yield indefinitely. It is admitted that theremay be more comfortable conditions in other countries, but Canada stillremains the land of opportunity towards which the people always extenda beckoning hand. 

When the grain is on the stalk, and the fields of wheat extend as faras the eye can see, the glowing red sun sinks beneath a golden horizonat the end of a summer's day. But, like young Canada, it rises againthe next to breathe life on the land and destiny of the Empire's GreatDominion. 

[1] Speech, House of Commons, March 13, 1900. 

{484}

INDEX. 

 Abbott, Sir J. J. C. , 415 Abenakis, 114; allies of French, 212 Abercromby, General, defeated by Montcalm, 245 Acadia, meaning; of, 5; its modern divisions, 5; occupied by De Monts, 50-54; history of, as French possession, 92-109, 203, 206-208; ceded to England; 208; French inhabitants of, 218; their unhappy fate, 231-236 Acadians, expulsion of, 231-236 Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 219 _À la clair fontaine_, French Canadian ballad, 452 Alaska, discovery of gold in, 430 Alaskan boundary award, 430, 461 _Alcide_ and _Lys_, French frigates, captured by English, 229 Alexander, Sir W. (Lord Stirling), receives rights in Acadia, and names Nova Scotia, 89 Alfonce, Captain Jehan, French pilot, 47 Algonquin Indians, 114; tribal divisions of, 114, 115; customs of, 123-128; illustration of, 111 Alverstone, Lord, Chief Justice of England, 430 American Canadian Waterways Commission, 478 American Revolution, War of, attitude of French Canadians during, 282; Canada invaded, 283, 284; Montreal taken, 283; Quebec besieged, 285-287; death of Montgomery, 285; American troops retire from Canada, 286, 287; defeat of Cornwallis, 288; peace, _ib. _ Amherst, General, 242, 245 Amundsen, Roald, 465 Andastes, 82, 83 Anglo-Japanese Treaty, 480 Annapolis (Port Royal), valley of, 51, 52; old capital of Nova Scotia, 206. _See_ Port Royal _Anse-an-Foulon_ (Wolfe's Cove), Wolfe ascends Quebec heights from, 254-256; Montgomery's march from, 285 Antillia, 21 Archibald, Adams, first Governor of Manitoba, 392 Arctic Exploration, 464 Argall, Samuel, destroys St. Sauveur and Port Royal in Acadia, 64, 65 Arms of the Dominion. _See_ cover of this volume [Transcriber's note: missing from book] Armistice, 469 Arnold, General Benedict, his expedition against Quebec, 284-286; raises siege, 286 Arthur, Sir George, Canadian Governor, 355 Ashburton Treaty, 375 Assembly, Legislative, first at Halifax, 302; at Quebec, 306; in other provinces, 302, 303. _See_ Legislatures, House of Commons Assiniboia. _See_ Red River Association of Nations, 457, 467 Astrolabe, lost by Champlain, 79 Atlantis, island of, 12 Ayleswurth, Mr. A. B. , 430 Autonomy Bills, 461

 Baie Verte, Fort at, 229, 230 Baldwin, Robert, Canadian reformer, 342, 350, 364; portrait of, 365 Ballads of French Canada, 450-453 Bank of England, 468 Barre, La, Canadian Governor, 195 Batoche, fight at (in 1885), 397 Battles, 460, 465 Beaujeu, Captain de, defeats Braddock, 230 Beauséjour, Fort, 229; captured by English, 230 Bedard, French Canadian journalist, 313, 314 Bering Sea question, 324 Biard, Father, Jesuit missionary, 61, 64 Biencourt, son of Baron de Poutrincourt, 60; his Acadian career, 60-65, 94; death of, 94 Bienville, father of Louisiana, 225 Big Bear, Indian chief, 395, 398 Bigot, Canadian Intendant, his crimes, 249; punishment of, 267 Binyon, Laurence, 466 Bishop's Palace, 305, 307 Borden, Sir Robert, 464, 468, 473, 475 Boston, City of, founded, 100 Bougainville, siege of Quebec, 253, 254, 256; his later career, 253 Boundaries of Canada under Quebec Act, 266, 277; treaty of peace of 1783, 289; in 1842 (Ashburton treaty), 375; in 1856 (Oregon), 375; after confederation in 1867, 380; in 1896, 4, 5 Bourgeoys, Margaret, founder of Congregation de Notre-Dame in Canada, 136 Bourgoyne, General, defeated at Saratoga, 288 Bourlamaque, General, 248, 254 Bowell, Mackenzie, Canadian premier, 394, 415 Braddock, General, defeated at Monongahela, 230 Brant, Joseph ("Thayendanegea"), Mohawk chief, 298-300; autograph and portrait of, 299 Brantford, named after Indian chief, 300. _See_ Brant Brebeuf, Jean de, Jesuit Missionary, 86; his heroism and death, 142; relic of, 143 Bressani, Jesuit Missionary, 138 Brion, Seigneur de, French Admiral, 32 British Columbia, scenery of, 16, 17; history of, 404, 405; enters Canadian confederation, 406; Indians of, 402 British North America Act of 1867, unites Canadian provinces, 374, 428 British troops and warships withdrawn, 433 Brock, Major-General, during war of 1812; defeats Hull, 322; dies at battle of Queenston Heights, _ib. _; portrait of, 323; monument to, 336 Brockville, city of, 324 Brodeur, Hon. Mr. L. P. , 433 Brown, George, Canadian journalist and statesman, 372; political career, 372, 406-408; his part in confederation, 372, 410, 412; autograph and portrait of, 409; monument to, 413 Bruce, John, at Red River (1869), 388 Brulé, Etienne, Indian interpreter, 81, 84, 85 Bullion, Madam de, founder of Montreal Hôtel de Dieu, 134 Byng, Lord, 465, 474

 Cabot, John, discovers North American Continent, 21-23 Calèche in French Canada, 443 Callières, Canadian governor, 204; makes peace with Iroquois, _ib. _ Campbell, Sir Colin, Governor of Nova Scotia, 362 Campbell, W. Wilfred, Canadian poet, 181 Canada, divisions of, 1-18; name of, 7; discovery of, 34, 35; river of, 35; Quebec, ancient capital of, 70; government of, under France, 156-167; ceded to England, 263; military régime of, 268; political state from 1763-1867, 338-379; confederation of, 370-374, 391, 392, 404; railway building, 416; canals and waterways, 418; growth of manufacturing industries, 419, 420; bounty system, 419; population of, in 1908, 424, 425; French population of, 425; intellectual progress of, 425-429; revenue and expenditure, 425; government of, 426-429, relations with England, 428-429; awakening of national consciousness, 432; treaty-making power still withheld from, 433; map of (1643), 44; (1745), 221; (1896), opposite p. 1. _See_ French Canadians Canadian Air Board, 480 Canadian Manufacturers' Association, 422 Canadian Pacific Railway, 392, 396, 414, 417 Canals of Canada, 358 Cape Breton, Island of; discovered, 23-26; named Île Royale, 210; ceded to England, 215; restored to France, 219; ceded again to England, 264; government of, under France, 210, 211; part of Nova Scotia, 303. _See_ Louisbourg Card money of French Canada, 162 Carignan-Salières regiment, 152, 166 Carleton, General (Sir Guy), at siege of Quebec, 250; Canadian Governor, 277; saves Canada, 280, 283-287; becomes Lord Dorchester and again Governor, 301 _Caroline_, burning of steamer, 354 Caron, Sir Adolphe, 396 Cartier, Jacques, his voyages, 30-46; autograph and portrait of, 31; discovers Canada, 34; first map of his discoveries, 44; death of, 46 Cartier, Sir George, Canadian statesman, 372; his character and services to Canada, 408-412; autograph and portrait of, 411; monument to, 413 Cartwright, Sir Richard, Canadian statesman, 298 Cascade Mountains, 17 Cataraqui (Kingston), 184 Cayngas, division of Iroquois Confederacy, 118. _See_ Iroquois Celéron, in the Ohio Valley, 223 Chaleur, Bay of, discovered, 32 Champlain, Helen, wife of Samuel Champlain, 77 Champlain, Lake, name of, 73 Champlain, Samuel, 48; first autograph and portrait of, 69; founds Quebec, 70; battles with the Iroquois, 72-75, 81-85; first visit to the Ottawa region, 78-80: his lost astrolabe, 79; discovers Lake Huron (_mer douce_), 82; surrenders Quebec to Kirk, 88; returns to Canada, 89; death of, 90; his services to Canada, 91; visit to Canada, 149 _Chansons_ of French Canada. _See_ Ballads Charlottetown, city of, founded, 311 Chartres, Fort, on the Illinois, 224 Chateau St. Louis, history of, destroyed by fire, _see frontispiece_ Chateauguay, battle of, 328; monument of, 337 _Cheveux Relévés_, 116 Chippawa-Queenston Canal, 476 Chrystler's Farm, battle of. _See_ War of 1812 Clergy Reserves, 346; settled, 367 Coal, 423, 424 Coalition Government, 467, 475 Cobalt, 463 Colbert, French Minister of State, 152-156 Colborne, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief during Canadian rebellion of 1838-39, 352-357 Commons. _See_ House of Commons _Compagnie des Cents Associés_, 86; charter revoked, 152 Confederation of Canada, 370-374, 380, 391, 392, 404, 406 _Congregation de Notre Dame_, founded, 136 Conscription, 467 Constitutional Act of 1791, 303-305; operation of, 309-315, 338-358 Constitution of Dominion of Canada, 426-429 Constitution of Provinces of Canada, 426, 427 Convents in Canada, founded, 130 _et seq. _ Cortereal, Caspar and Miguel, Portuguese voyagers, 24 Cosa, Juan de la, Spanish pilot, his map of 1500, 23, 25 Costabelle, M. De, first governor of Cape Breton, 210 _Côtes_, 166 Coudres, Isle de, named, 35 Courcelles, M. De, Canadian governor, 153 _Coureurs-de-bois_, 170-176 Craig, Sir James, Canadian governor, 312-314 Crerar, Hon. T. A. , 475 Crévecour, Fort, on the Illinois, 186 Crowfoot, Indian chief, 397 Carrie, General Sir Arthur, 465 Cut-Knife Creek, fight at (in 1885), 397

 Dairying, 423 Daniel, Father, Jesuit missionary and martyr, 142 D'Anville, Duke, 217, 218 D'Aunay, Chevalier, 98; his feud with Charles de la Tour, 99-105; death of, 105; marriage of his widow, 106 Dauphin map (1543), 44 D'Avaugour, Baron, Canadian governor, 160 Davin, Nicholas F. , 458 Dawson, Dr. G. M. , Canadian scientist, 401 "Découverte, La Nouvelle, " by Father Hennepin, 187 Demobilization, 469 Demons, Isle of, 46 Denonville, Marquis de, Canadian governor, 195 Denys, Nicholas, in Acadia, 97, 106 Déserts, Isle of, 54, 64 Detroit, history of, 207, 223, 270-272, 274 Devonshire, Duke of, 474 Diamond, Cape, 44 Diamond Jubilee, 423 Dieskau, Baron, defeated by Johnson, 231 Dingley Act, 431 Disarmament Conference, 475 Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, his heroism, 151 Dominion Police, 481 Dominion of Canada. _See_ Canada. Donnacona, Indian King of Stadacona, 36, 42, 43 Dorchester. _See_ Carleton Doukhobors, 425 Druillètes, Gabriel, Jesuit missionary, 139, 140 Drummond, General, wins battle of Lundy's Lane, 331 Dufferin, Lord, Canadian governor, 380, 394 Duhaut, La Salle's murderer, 190 Duluth, Daniel Greysolon, 176, 187 Dumont, Gabriel, half-breed leader in second Red River Rebellion, 395, 397 Duquesne, Canadian governor, 223 Duquesne, Fort, 224, 226 Durham, Lord, Canadian governor, 355; his report on Canadian affairs, 340, 356, 361

 Earthquake of 1663 in Canada, 151 _Eboulements_, Les, 151 Education in Canada, 358, 359, 368, 425-428 Edward (Lyman), Fort, 222 Elections, 1900, 1911, 1917, 1921, 460, 463, 467, 475 Elgin, Lord, Canadian Governor, 363 England and Canada, relations between, 428-429 Eries ("Racoons"), 117 Etchemins ("Canoemen"), 114

 Falkland, Lord, Nova Scotian Governor, 362 "Family Compact, " 344; broken up, 355 Farming, the most important industry, 422-423 Fenian Raids, 378 Fielding, Mr. W. S. , 433 Fish Creek, fight at (in 1855), 396; monument to dead, 400 Fisheries of Canada, 324, 335, 375, 424 Fitzgibbon. _See_ War of 1812 Five Nations. _See_ Iroquois Forbes, General, 243; in Ohio Valley, 246 Foster, George A. , Canadian statesman, 298 Fraser River, 16, 17, 383 Fréchette, Louis, French Canadian poet, 181; his portrait, 449 Frederic (Crown Point), Fort, 222 Free Land, 482 Free libraries, 426 French Canada. _See_ French Canadians French Canadians, language of, 435-438; villages of, 439-442; attachment of, to Roman Catholic religion, 438-440, 447; habits of, 446; literature of, 448; feelings of, towards England, and confederation, 454-456 Frog Lake Massacre (in 1885), 395 Frontenac, Count, Canadian Governor, 194-204; character of, 193; repulses Phipps at Quebec, 199-201; humbles Onondagas, 203; death of, 204; autograph and statue of, 193 Frontenac, Fort, 184, 195, 196, 246; destroyed, 247 Fruit-growing, 423

 Galissonnière, Canadian Governor, 222, 223 Galt, Sir Alexander, Canadian statesman, 372 Gannentaha, Onandaga French Mission, 148, 149 Garmeau, F. X. , French Canadian historian, 449 Garry, Fort, 385, 388, 391; view of, 389 Gaspé, Cape, 8, 33 George, Lake, 137; battle of, 231 Germain, Lord George (Sackville), 287 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 43 Gold, discovery of, in the Yukon and in Alaska, 430 Gomez, Estevan, 27 Gosford, Lord, Canadian Governor, 342, 352 Gourlay, Robert, Canadian reformer, 344; his ill-treatment, 345 Government of Dominion of Canada, 426, 429 Governor-General of Canada, 428 Grand Trunk Railway, 416; Pacific Railway, sections, 418; Government subsidy granted, 418; arbitration, 477 Grasett, Colonel, in Riel's second rebellion (1885), 397 Great Northern, 418 Greenfield, Premier, 479 Griffin, Le Salle's vessel, 186 Grosseilliers, Sieur de, 170 Guarantee Act, 416 Guerchéville, Mme. De, 61 Guyart, Marie (Mere de l'Incarnation), Superior of Ursulines, 132; portrait of, 131

 _Habitants_, of French Canada, 163-167, 442-447 Haldimand, General, Canadian governor, 287, 290, 301 Hale, Horatio, on Indian legends, 113, 119 Haliburton, Judge ("Sam Slick"), 360; portrait of, 359 Halifax, City of, founded, 222; razed, 468 Hampton, General, defeated at Chateauguay, 328 Harvey, Colonel (Sir John), at Stoney Creek, 325; in Nova Scotia, 363 Head, Sir Francis Bond, 350-353, 355 Hébert, French Canadian sculptor, 193, 449 Helluland of the Norsemen, 20 High Commission created, 430 Hincks, Sir Francis, Canadian statesman, 367 Hennepin, Father, his voyages, 187 Hève, La, in Acadia, 98 Hey, Chief Justice, 278 Highways Act, 470 Historians of Canada. _See_ Bibliographical note at beginning of volume Hochelaga (Montreal), Indian village of, 37-41; inhabitants of, 112 Holbourne, Admiral, 240 Hospitals in Canada, 130 Hôtel Dieu of Montreal, 134 Hôtel Dieu of Quebec, 130 House of Commons of Canada, 428 Howe, Joseph, Canadian statesman and father of responsible government, 362, 364; portrait of, 363; action of, with respect to union, 412, 413 Howe, Lord, death of, 245 Hudson's Bay, English trading posts at, attacked by French, 195, 203, 205; Company of, 381-388; Railway, 418 Hughes, Sir Sam, 465 Huron Indians, 115; habits of, 116; habitations of, 82, 116; conquered by Iroquois, 141-143; dispersion of, 143-145

 Iberville, Chevalier d', 198, 203, 207, 208; portrait of, 209 _Ile Royale_. _See_ Cape Breton Imperial Conference, 463, 474 Imperial Munitions Board, 467 Indians of Canada, tribal divisions of, 114, 115; customs of, 115-117, 123-128; English policy towards, 275; present population and development of, 402, 403 Intercolonial Railway, 417 International Commission, 431 Iroquois, or Five Nations, 111, 114; tribal divisions and habitations of, 118, 119; habits and institutions of, 118-123; plan of long-houses of, 119; Canadian raids of, 137, 138, 146, 150; attacks of, on Hurons, 141-143; attacks on Western Indians, 195; French expeditions against, 74, 153, 154, 196, 203; joined by Tuscaroras and become Six Nations, 121

 Japanese Government, 479 Jesuits in Acadia, 61; in Canada, 85, 86, 89; first Canadian martyr, 139; their heroism, 139-143; _Relations_, 113, 114, 127 Jette, Sir Louis, 430 Jogues, Isaac, first Jesuit martyr, 139 Johnson, Sir W. , 227; defeats French at Lake George, 231 Johnston, J. W. , Canadian statesman, 362 Jolliet, Louis, discovers Mississippi, 179, 180 Jonquière, Marquis de la, Canadian governor, 218 Journalism, 426 Judiciary of Canada, 428

 King, Hon. W. L. Mackenzie, 467, 468, 475 King's College in Nova Scotia, 360 Kingsford, William, Canadian author. _See_ Bibliographical Note at the beginning of this volume Kirk, Admiral, captures Quebec, 88 Klondyke rush, 463

 Labour organizations, 481 La Chine, origin of name, 184; massacre at, 196 Lacolle Mill, American defeat at, 331 Lafontaine, Sir L. H. , Canadian statesman, 364; portrait of, 369 La Hontan, 195 Lalemant, Charles, Jesuit superior, 86 Lalemant, Gabriel, Jesuit missionary, his heroic death, 142 La Mothe-Cadillac, founder of Detroit, 207 La Tour, Charles de, in Acadia, 93-109 La Tour, Claude de, in Acadia, 93-97 La Tour, Madame de, her heroism, 102-104 Laurentides, 6; their antiquity, _ib. _ _See_ View of Cape Trinity, 9 Laurier, Wilfrid, Canadian premier, 414, 429, 432, 433, 439, 454, 460, 463, 467, 472 Laval, Mgr. , first Canadian bishop, 157; character of, 158-160; portrait of, 159 Lawrence, Fort, 228 Lawrence, Governor, his part in expulsion of Acadians, 235 Law, systems of, in Canada, 428 Le Borgne, in Acadia, 106 Le Caron, Father, first western missionary, 82 Legislative Council, made elective in Canada, 367 Legislatures, Provincial, constitution of (in 1774), 278; (1792), 302-304; (1840), 357; (1867), 426 Leif Ericson, Norse voyager in America, 19, 20 Le Loutre, French priest in Acadia, 229, 230 Lemieux, Hon. Rodolphe, 479 L'Escarbot, in Acadia, 55, 56 Le Moyne, Simon, Jesuit missionary, 147 Lévis, Chevalier de, 248; Canadian town named after, 2; at battle of St. Foy, 262 Liberal Convention, 468 Liotot, murderer of La Salle, 190 Liquors, sale of, 160 Livius, Chief Justice, 304 Loans, domestic, 469 Local government in French Canada, 164; in English Canada. _See_ Municipal Institutions Lodge, Mr. Henry C. , 430 Long Sault, heroic incident at, 150 Lorette, Hurons of, 144 _L'Ordre de bon temps_, at Port Royal, 57 Loudoun, Earl, 237 Louisbourg, 211; taken by New England expedition, 215-217; by Amherst and Boscawen, 242, 243; destroyed, 243; present aspect of, _ib. _; view of, in 1731, 210 Louisiana, 208, 224, 225, 436 Louis XIV. , his interest in Canada, 152, 156 Lount, Samuel, Canadian Reformer, 353, 355 Loyalists, United Empire, 297; their trials, 292, 293, 294; famous names among, 295; their influence on Canada, 292, 296 Lundy's Lane, battle of, 331; monument at, 333, 337

 Macdonald, Alexander, 463 Macdonald, Sir John Alexander, Canadian statesman and premier, political, career of, 372, 394, 398, 408-413; one of founders of Confederation 372; autograph and portrait of, 405; his tenure, as premier, 408; character of, 408, 410; monuments to, 413 Macdonnell, Bishop, 310 Mackenzie, Alexander, Canadian premier, 408 Mackenzie River, 383 Mackenzie, W. Lyon, Canadian Reformer, 348; career of, 348-351, 343-355, 368; autograph and portrait of, 349 Mackinac or Michillimackinac, 174, 175, 187, 203, 207, 223, 272 (Pontiac's War); 322, 332 (War of 1812) McDonell, Colonel, attorney-general, killed at Queenston, 322 McDonnell, Colonel, captures Ogdensburgh, 324; at Chateauguay, 328 McDougall, William, Canadian statesman, 373; in the Northwest, 387-390 McLeod affair with the United States, 374, 375 McNab, Colonel (Sir Allan), 353, 354 Macrae, Colonel, 466 Magdalen Islands, 32 Maisonneuve, Sieur de, founder of _Ville-Marie_ (Montreal), 133-136; portrait of, 135 Mance, Jeanne, 134-136 Manitoba, province of, 391, 392. _See_ Winnipeg Manufactures in Canada, 419-421 Markland, Norse discovery, 20 Marquette, Father, 178; discovers Mississippi, 179, 180; his death, 182, 183 Marquis wheat, 463 Masères, Attorney-General, 278 Mason and Slidell difficulty, 377 Massé, Father, Jesuit missionary, in Acadia, 61; in Canada, 80 Matagorda Bay, La Salle at, 190 Matthews, Peter, Canadian Reformer, 355 Meighen, Hon. Arthur, 470, 474 Membertou, Micmac chief, 58, 59, 60, 62 Membré, Father, French missionary, 187, 188 Merchant Marine, 467 Metcalfe, Lord, Canadian Governor, 362 _Mêtis_ or half-breeds of Canada, 11, 386; rebellions of (1869), 386-391; (1885), 393-400. _See_ Riel Micmacs (Souriquois), 114, 115 Middleton, General, commands Canadian forces in second Red River Rebellion (1885), 396 Military Service, 468 Mining an important industry, 423 Mississippi, discovery of, 179, 180, 181, 188; France in valley of, 224, 225, 434 Mohawks, division of Iroquois Confederation, 118; settle in Canada, 300, 402. _See_ Iroquois Monckton, General, 230; at siege of Quebec, 250, 257 Money in French Canada, 161, 162 Monongahela, battle of. _See_ Braddock Montagnais Indians, 115 Montcalm, Marquis de, 238; victories of, 237, 238; defeat of, by Wolfe, 256; death of, 257; character of, 260; monument to, 259, 261 Montgomery, General, in Canada, 284; death of, 285 Montgomery's Tavern, near Toronto, Canadian rebels defeated at (1836), 353 Montmagny, Charles Hault de, Canadian governor, 129, 133; called "Onontio, " 153 Montreal, city of, founded as _Ville-Marie_, 134-136; view of, in 1760, 265 Monts, Sieur de, in Acadia, 50-59, 68-75 Morgan, Lewis H. , on the Iroquois, 119 Morrison, Colonel, defeats Americans at Chrystler's Farm, 328 Mounted Police of the Northwest, 401 Municipal Institutions in Canada, 367, 368, 426 Murray, General, at siege of Quebec, 250; defeated by Lévis, 262; Canadian governor, 275-277; character of, 276

 National Policy Tariff, 414 Naval Treaty, 480 Necessity, Fort, 224 Neilson, John, Canadian journalist, 338, 339 Nelson, Wolfred, Canadian reformer, 330, 352, 356, 357, 368 Neutral Nation (Attiwandaronks), 117 Newark (Niagara), 306; burned by American troops, 330 New Brunswick, province of, 5, 6; separated from Nova Scotia, 302; enters Confederation, 373, 374, 412 Newspapers, 426 Niagara, falls of, 186 Niagara, Fort, 231, 247, 253, 426 Nicolet, Jean, 168, 169 Nipissing Lake, 81, 82; Indians of, _ib. _, 115 Non-intervention, 460 Norse voyages to America, 19, 20 Northwest Company, 382-385 Northwest of Canada, 10, 11; history of, 381-401; resources and progress of, 11, 392; mounted police of, 401, 481; Indians of, rebellions in, 387-402; monuments to victims of, 400; government of, 428 Northwest Passage, 465 Norumbega, 28, 54; memorials of, _ib. _ Nova Scotia, 5, 6; named, 96; first assembly of, 302; enters Confederation, 373, 374, 413

 Ocean steamships. _See Royal William_ Ohio, valley of the, contest for, 223, 229, 230, 242; Indian raids in (Pontiac's War), 273 Oil discoveries, 476 Oneidas, division of Iroquois Confederation, 118. _See_ Iroquois Onondagas, division of Iroquois Confederation, 118. _See_ Iroquois Onontio. _See_ Montmagny Ontario, province of, 10; name of, _ib. _, 374; first known as Upper or Western Canada, 303; enters Confederation, 374; Hydro-Electric Commission, 476; Agricultural College, 482 Oregon boundary question, 375 Orleans, Island of, 36 Oswego (Choueguën), Fort, 222, 227 Ottawa River, 78 Otter, Colonel, 397 Ouigoudi (St. John's River, N. B. ), 53

 Papineau, Louis J. , Canadian Reformer, 339; career of, 339, 351, 352, 357, 368; portrait of, 341 Paris, Treaty of, 264, 265 Parlby, Irene, 479 Parliament, House at Quebec, in 1792, 305; at Newark, 306, 307; burned at Montreal in 1849, 370; view of, at Ottawa, 427; constitution of Canadian, 428; at Ottawa burned, 468; rebuilt, 472 Peary, Admiral, 464 Peltrie, Madame de la, 131, 132 Pemaquid, Fort, 213 Pension Bill, 470 Pepperrell, General, 215, 216 Perrot, Nicholas, 176, 177 Phipps, Admiral, attacks Quebec, 199-201 Pitt (Chatham), 240, 241 Poets of French Canada, 450 Pontgravé, 43, 49 Pontiac, Ottawa chief, 270, 271; his war against English, 271-274; death of, 274 Population of Canada; (in 1757), 225; (1792), 303; (1812), 320; (1838), 358; (1861), 366; French population, 358, 425 Port Arthur, 478 Port Royal, founded, 52, 54; destroyed by Argall, 64; restored, 99; taken by Nicholson, 206; called Annapolis Royal, _ib. _; its present aspect, 52 Postage reform, 432 Pouchot, 247 Poundmaker, Indian chief, 395, 398 Poutrincourt, Baron de, founds Port Royal, 54; career of, in America, 53-61; death of, 66 Prescott Gate, 305, 307 Presqu'isle (Erie), 223, 247 Prevost, General, Canadian governor, military incapacity of, 325, 332 Prince of Wales, 472 Prince Edward Island (St. Jean), 5, 243, 244; separated from Nova Scotia, 302; enters Confederation, 403. _See_ Charlottetown Privy Council. _See_ Judicial Committee Proclamation of 1763, 274, 275 Procter, General, 324, 327 Progressive Party, 474 Prohibition, 458, 473 Protective policy, 458

 Quebec Act of 1774, 276-279 Quebec Bridge, 470 Quebec, city of, 1-3; named, 70; founded, 70; taken by Kirk, 88; besieged by Phipps, 199-201; by Wolfe, 248-257; plan of siege of 1759, 251; surrender of, 258; besieged by Lévis, 262; by Arnold and Montgomery, 284-286; view of, in 1760, 270; in 1896, 434. _See_ Château St. Louis Quebec Conference of 1864, Confederation proposed, 372 Quebec, province of, 8, 9; enters Confederation, 374 Queylus, Abbé, 157, 158

 Radisson, Sieur, 17 Railways in Canada, 366, 367 Rale, Sebastian, missionary in Acadia, 212 Ramesay, M. De, in Acadia, 219; surrenders Quebec, 258 Razilly, Isaac de, in Acadia, 97-99 Rebellion Losses, Riots of 1849, 369, 370 Rebellions in Canada; of 1837-38, in Lower Canada, 338-343, 351, 353-357; in Upper Canada, 344-351, 353-355; in the Northwest (1869), 387-392; (1885), 393-400 Reciprocity Treaty, 376 Recollets or Franciscans, 80, 81, 89 Red River settlement (Assiniboia), 384-387; insurrection at (1869-70), 387-392. _See_ Riel Republican ideas, 462 Responsible Government in Canada, 361-365; in Nova Scotia, 362-364; in New Brunswick, 364; in P. E. Island, _ib. _; in British Columbia, 405; famous advocates of, 364, 365 Revenue and Expenditure of Canada, 425 Revolution, American. _See_ American Revolution Richardson, Major, Canadian author, 271 Richelieu, Cardinal, 86 Richelieu River, 72, 73 Riel, Louis, rebels against Canada in 1869-70, 388; in 1885, 393-400; execution of, 379 Roberval, Jean François de la Roque, 45, 46 Robinson, Chief Justice, 344 Robinson, Christopher, 298 Roche, Marquis de la, 47 Rogers, Major Robert, 269 Rolph, Dr. John, Canadian Reformer, 353 Roman Catholics of Canada, freed from civil disabilities, 278 Root, Mr. Elihu, 430 Royal Mint, 468 _Royal William_, first steamship to cross Atlantic, 358 Rupert's Land, 381; history of, under fur traders, 381-386; part of Dominion, 387. _See_ Northwest of Canada Ryerson, Egerton, 350, 368 Ryswick, Treaty of, 204

 St. Alban's Bank, raid on, 377 Saint-Castin, Baron de, in Acadia, 171, 172 St. Croix, Island of, in Acadia, 53, 54 St. Croix River, 36 St. Foy, Battle of, 262 St. Ignace, mission of, attacked by Iroquois, 142 St. John River, 53; La Tour's fort on, 99, 103 St. Joseph, mission of, attacked by Iroquois, 142 St. Lawrence River, discovery of, 34, 35; valley of, 8; mountains of, _ib. _ St. Lawrence, deepening of canals, 418, 419 St. Louis, Château. _See_ Château St. Louis Saint-Lusson, Sieur, in the West, 177 St. Pierre and Miquelon, Isles of, 266 St. Sacrément, Lac du (Lake George), 137 Ste. Anne de Beaupré, Canadian Lourdes, 439, 440; view of church at, 441 Ste. Marie, Jesuit mission, 141, 143, 145 Saguenay River, 35 Salaberry, Colonel de, at Chateaugay, 328; portrait of, 329 Salle, Sieur de la, in the West, 183-188; on the Mississippi, 188, 189; assassination of, 190; autograph and portrait of, 185 "Sam Slick. " _See_ Haliburton San Juan difficulty, 375 Saskatchewan River, Riel's rebellion in district of, 393-400; monument on, 400 Sault-au-Matelot, 286 Sault Ste. Marie, 177, 223 Saunders, Dr. Chas. E. , 463 Schools. _See_ Education Schultz, Dr. , at Red River, 390 Scott, Thomas, murdered by Riel, 390, 391 Secord, Laura, her courage, 326 Seigniorial Tenure, 87, 165; abolition of, 367 Selkirk, Lord, on the Red River, 384; death of, 385 Selkirk Range, 16, 17 Senate of Canada, 428 Senecas, division of the Iroquois Confederation, 118. _See_ Iroquois Shipbuilding, 421 Shirley, General, 231 Sillery, 133 Simcoe, General, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, 306, 309-311; portrait of, 311 Six Nations. _See_ Iroquois Smith, Sir Donald, at Red River, 390 Smith, Mary E. , 479 Souriquois. _See_ Micmacs South African War, 432-433 Stadacona (Quebec), 36 "Starved Rock" on the Illinois, 189 Stoney Creek, battle of, 325 Strachan, Bishop, 342, 347; portrait of, _ib. _ Strathcona, Lord, 465 Strange, Colonel, 397 Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 464 Sulpicians in Canada, 133, 136, 157, 158 Sulte, Benjamin, French Canadian author, 448 Sydenham, Lord. _See_ Thomson, Poulett

 Taché, Archbishop, 390, 391 Talbot, Thomas, 310 Talon, J. Baptiste, Canadian Intendant, 157, 168 Tariff, revision of, 415; war with Germany, 415; British preference, 415, 416; commercial treaty with France, 416 Tecumseh, Indian Chief, 322, 327 Temple, Sir Thomas, in Acadia, 108 Thayendanegea. _See_ Brant, Joseph Thompson, Sir John, Canadian premier, 324, 415, 458 Thomson, Poulett (Lord Sydenham), Canadian governor, 361, 362 Ticonderoga (Carillon), Fort, 222, 248, 434 Tilley, Sir Leonard, Canadian statesman a founder of confederation, 412 Titles, 462 Tobacco Nation (Tionotates), 117, 144 Touty, Henry de (of the copper hand), 186, 188, 208 Toronto (Fort Rouillé), 222, 247; first known as York, 309; University of, 347 Tracy, Marquis de, Canadian viceroy, 152, 155 Trapper, Canadian, 173 Trinity, Cape, 9 Trinity College at Toronto, founded, 347 Tupper, Sir Charles, Canadian statesman, 298, 368; a founder of confederation, 373, 412, 415, 464, 465 Turner, Mr. George, 430 Tuscaroras. _See_ Iroquois. 

 Union Act of 1840, 361-368 United Farmers' Organization, 474 United States, population of, in 1812, 316; relations of Canada with, from 1840 to 1867, 379; present relations, 429 Universities, 347 Upper Canada. _See_ Ontario. _Upper Canada Gazette_, first Upper Canadian newspaper, 315 Ursulines, convent of, 131 Utrecht, Treaty of, 208

 Varennes, 202 Vaudreuil, Marquis de, Canadian governor, 229; at siege of Quebec, 248, 252, 256; capitulates at Montreal, 264; death of, 268 Verchères, Magdeleine de, her heroism, 202 Vérendryes, the, in the West, 381; reach Rockies, 382; on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, 384 Verrazano, Giovanni da, 26, 27 Versailles, Peace of, 461, 464 Victoria Bridge, 367 _Victories, Notre-Dame des_, at Quebec, 2, 201, 207 Vignau, Nicholas, deceives Champlain, 77, 98 _Ville-Marie_. _See_ Montreal Vinland, Norse discovery, 20 Von Egmond, Colonel, during rebellion of 1836, 353, 354

 Walker, Admiral Hovenden, 207 War of 1812-15, causes of, 316, 320; patriotism of Canadians during, 320-322; capitulation of Hull, 322; Battle of Queenston Heights, _ib. _; Procter's victory over Winchester, 324; taking of York (Toronto), _ib. _; American successes on Niagara frontier in 1813, 325; Stoney Creek, _ib. _; Mrs. Secord's exploit, 326; Fitzgibbon's success at De Ceu's, 326; English defeat on Lake Erie, 327; Procter's defeat at Moraviantown, _ib. _; Chrystler's farm, 328; Chateauguay, 328; American outrage at Niagara, 330; English retaliate, 330, 335; Riall's defeat, 331; Lundy's Lane, _ib. _; Prevost's defeat on Lake Champlain, and retreat from Plattsburg, 332; naval fights, 334; peace, 335; effect of, on Canada, 335, 336; conspicuous Canadian actors during, 336, 337; monuments of, 333, 336, 337 War Savings Certificates, 469 Washington, George, at Fort Necessity, 224 Washington, Treaty of, 1871, 324; Minister at, 473 Water-power, 476 Whelan, Edward, Canadian journalist, 406 Willcocks, Joseph, Canadian agitator, 314, 320 William Henry, Fort, 222, 238 Williams, Colonel, his gallantry at Batoche (1885) 397; death of, _ib. _; portrait of, 309 Wilmot, Lemuel A. , Canadian statesman, 364; portrait of, 371 Winnipeg, 14, 315, 382, 392; riots, 470 Wolfe, General James, 242; at Louisbourg, 242; at Quebec, 250-256; wins Canada for England, 256, 257; death of, 257; character of, 260; monuments to, 259, 261; portrait of, 249 Wolseley, Lord, leads British forces against Riel in 1870, 391 Women's Conference, 478 Women's Suffrage, 458, 479 Wyandots (Hurons), 144

 York, Duke and Duchess of, 460 York. _See_ Toronto Yukon, the, discovery of gold in, 430