The Project Gutenberg EBook of Canada, by J. G. Bourinot
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Title: Canada
Author: J. G. Bourinot
Release Date: September 10, 2007 [EBook #22557]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA ***
Produced by Al Haines
[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 numbers
enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page
breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project
Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, a page number has been placed
only 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
{v}
PREFATORY NOTE
In writing this story of Canada I have not been able to do more, within
the limited space at my command, than briefly review those events which
have exercised the most influence on the national development of the
Dominion of Canada from the memorable days bold French adventurers made
their first attempts at settlement on the banks of the beautiful basin
of the Annapolis, and on the picturesque heights of Quebec, down to the
establishment of a Confederation which extends from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean. Whilst the narrative of the French régime, with its
many dramatic episodes, necessarily occupies a large part of this
story, I have not allowed myself to forget the importance that must be
attached to the development of institutions of government and their
effect on the social, intellectual, and material conditions of the
people since the beginning of the English régime. Though this story,
strictly speaking, ends with the successful accomplishment of the
federal union of all the provinces in 1873, when Prince Edward Island
became one of its members, I have deemed it necessary to refer briefly
to those events which have {vi} happened since that time--the second
half-breed rebellion of 1885, for instance--and have had much effect on
the national spirit of the people. I endeavour to interest my reader
in the public acts of those eminent men whose names stand out most
prominently on the pages of history, and have made the deepest impress
on the fortunes and institutions of the Dominion. In the performance
of this task I have always consulted original authorities, but have not
attempted to go into any historical details except those which are
absolutely necessary to the intelligent understanding of the great
events and men of Canadian annals. I have not entered into the
intrigues and conflicts which have been so bitter and frequent during
the operation of parliamentary government in a country where
politicians are so numerous, and statesmanship is so often hampered and
government injuriously affected by the selfish interests of party, but
have simply given the conspicuous and dominant results of political
action since the concession of representative institutions to the
provinces of British North America. A chapter is devoted, at the close
of the historical narrative, to a very brief review of the intellectual
and material development of the country, and of the nature of its
institutions of government. A survey is also given of the customs and
conditions of the French Canadian people, so that the reader outside of
the Dominion may have some conception of their institutions and of
their influence on the political, social, and intellectual life of a
Dominion, of whose population they form so important and influential an
element. {vii} The illustrations are numerous, and have been carefully
selected from various sources, not accessible to the majority of
students, with the object, not simply of pleasing the general reader,
but rather of elucidating the historical narrative. A bibliographical
note has also been added of those authorities which the author has
consulted in writing this story, and to which the reader, who wishes to
pursue 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 to
bring this work up to date had to be entrusted to another hand.
Accordingly, Mr. William H. Ingram has kindly undertaken the task, and
has contributed the very judiciously selected information now embodied
in 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 time
he describes. Mr. Ingram has also made other revisions of considerable
value.
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 original
book. 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 lived
for years in one of the buildings of the Fort of Saint Louis which he
first erected, and the name château is often applied to that structure;
but the château, properly so-called, was not commenced until 1647, and
it as well as its successors was within the limits of the fort. It was
demolished in 1694 by Governor Frontenac, who rebuilt it on the
original foundations, and it was this castle which, in a remodelled and
enlarged 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 and
E. Ramé (Paris, 1867). L'Escarbot's _New France_, in French, Tross's
ed. (Paris, 1866), which contains an account also of Cartier's first
voyage. 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 of
the Savages_, in French (Paris, 1724). Charlevoix's _History of New
France_, 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 _French
Canadians_, in French (Montreal, 1882-84). F. Parkman's series of
histories of French Régime, viz.; _Pioneers of France in the New World;
The Jesuits in North America; The old Régime; Frontenac; The Discovery
of the Great West; A Half Century of Conflict; Montcalm and Wolfe;
Conspiracy of Pontiac_ (Boston, 1865-1884). Justin Winsor's _From
Cartier to Frontenac_ (Boston, 1894). Hannay's _Acadia_ (St. John, N.
B., 1870). W. Kingsford's _History of Canada_, 8 vols. so far (Toronto
and London, 1887-1896), the eighth volume on the war of 1812 being
especially valuable. Bourinot's "Cape Breton and its Memorials of the
French 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 _Nova
Scotia_ (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 _Canada
Since the Union of 1841_ (Toronto, 1880-81). Turcotte's _Canada under
the Union_, in French (Quebec, 1871). Bourinot's _Manual of
Constitutional History_ (Montreal, 1888), "Federal Government in
Canada" (_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, {xx} Baltimore, 1889), and
_How Canada is Governed_ (Toronto, 1895). Withrow's _Popular History
of 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 of
Upper Canada in Peace and War_ (Toronto, 1890). Porritt's _Sixty Years
of 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 _Canada
1535 to Present Day_ (London, 1913). A. Shortland and A. G. Doughty's
_Canada and its Provinces_ (Toronto, 1913). W. L. Grant's _High School
History of Canada_ (Toronto, 1914). G. Bryce's _Short History of the
Canadian People_ (London, 1914). D. W. Oates's _Canada To-day and
Yesterday_ (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 of
Canada's War Finance_ (Montreal, 1921). Prof. Skelton's _Life of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier_ (Toronto, 1922). And _Review of Historical
Publications Relating to Canada_ by the University of Toronto.
For a full bibliography of archives, maps, essays, and books relating
to the periods covered by the Story of Canada, and used by the writer,
see appendix to his "Cape Breton and its Memorials," in which all
authorities bearing on the Norse, Cabot, and other early voyages are
cited. Also, appendix to same author's "Parliamentary Government in
Canada" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Can._, vol. xi., and American Hist. Ass.
Report, Washington, 1891). Also his "Canada's Intellectual Strength
and Weakness" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Can._, vol. xi, and separate volume,
Montreal, 1891). Also, Winsor's _Narrative_ and _Critical History of
America_ (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 of
Quebec, the ancient capital of Canada, cannot fail to impress the
imagination of the statesman or student versed in the history of the
American continent, as well as delight the eye of the lover of the
picturesque. Below the heights, to whose rocks and buildings cling so
many memories of the past, flows the St. Lawrence, the great river of
Canada, bearing to the Atlantic the waters of the numerous lakes and
streams of the valley which was first discovered and explored by
France, and in which her statesmen saw the elements of empire. We see
the tinned roofs, spires and crosses of quaint churches, hospitals and
convents, narrow streets winding among the rocks, black-robed priests
and {2} sombre nuns, _habitans_ in homespun from the neighbouring
villages, modest gambrel-roofed houses of the past crowded almost out
of sight by obtrusive lofty structures of the present, the massive
buildings of the famous seminary and university which bear the name of
Laval, the first great bishop of that Church which has always dominated
French Canada. Not far from the edge of the terrace stands a monument
on which are inscribed the names of Montcalm and Wolfe, enemies in life
but united in death and fame. Directly below is the market which
recalls the name of Champlain, the founder of Quebec, and his first
Canadian home at the margin of the river. On the same historic ground
we see the high-peaked roof and antique spire of the curious old
church, Notre-Dame des Victoires, which was first built to commemorate
the repulse of an English fleet two centuries ago. Away beyond, to the
left, we catch a glimpse of the meadows and cottages of the beautiful
Isle of Orleans, and directly across the river are the rocky hills
covered with the buildings of the town, which recalls the services of
Lévis, whose fame as a soldier is hardly overshadowed by that of
Montcalm. The Union-jack floats on the tall staff of the citadel which
crowns the summit of Cape Diamond, but English voices are lost amid
those of a people who still speak the language of France.
As we recall the story of these heights, we can see passing before us a
picturesque procession: Sailors from the home of maritime enterprise on
the Breton and Biscayan coasts, Indian warriors in their paint and
savage finery, gentlemen-adventurers and pioneers, {3} rovers of the
forest and river, statesmen and soldiers of high ambition, gentle and
cultured women who gave up their lives to alleviate suffering and teach
the young, missionaries devoted to a faith for which many have died.
In the famous old castle of Saint Louis,[1] long since levelled to the
ground--whose foundations are beneath a part of this very
terrace--statesmen feasted and dreamt of a French Empire in North
America. Then the French dominion passed away with the fall of Quebec,
and the old English colonies were at last relieved from that pressure
which had confined them so long to the Atlantic coast, and enabled to
become free commonwealths with great possibilities of development
before them. Yet, while England lost so much in America by the War of
Independence, there still remained to her a vast northern territory,
stretching far to the east and west from Quebec, and containing all the
rudiments 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 the
palace of Versailles, and ceded Canada finally to England, the
statesmen of the provinces of this northern territory, which was still
a British possession,--statesmen of French as well as English
Canada--assembled in an old building of this same city, so rich in
memories of old France, {4} and took the first steps towards the
establishment of that Dominion, which, since then, has reached the
Pacific shores.
It is the story of this Canadian Dominion, of its founders, explorers,
missionaries, soldiers, and statesmen, that I shall attempt to relate
briefly in the following pages, from the day the Breton sailor ascended
the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga until the formation of the confederation,
which united the people of two distinct nationalities and extends over
so wide a region--so far beyond the Acadia and Canada which France once
called her own. But that the story may be more intelligible from the
beginning, it is necessary to give a bird's-eye view of the country,
whose history is contemporaneous with that of the United States, and
whose territorial area from Cape Breton to Vancouver--the sentinel
islands of the Atlantic and Pacific approaches--is hardly inferior to
that of the federal republic.
Although the population of Canada at present does not exceed nine
millions of souls, the country has, within a few years, made great
strides in the path of national development, and fairly takes a place
of considerable importance among those nations whose stories have been
already told; whose history goes back to centuries when the Laurentian
Hills, those rocks of primeval times, looked down on an unbroken
wilderness of forest and stretches of silent river. If we treat the
subject from a strictly historical point of view, the confederation of
provinces and territories comprised within the Dominion may be most
conveniently grouped into {5} several distinct divisions. Geographers
divide the whole country lying between the two oceans into three
well-defined regions: 1. The Eastern, extending from the Atlantic to
the head of Lake Superior. 2. The Central, stretching across the
prairies and plains to the base of the Rocky Mountains. 3. The
Western, comprising that sea of mountains which at last unites with the
waters of the Pacific. For the purposes of this narrative, however,
the Eastern and largest division--also the oldest historically--must be
separated into two distinct divisions, known as Acadia and Canada in
the early annals of America.
The first division of the Eastern region now comprises the provinces of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, which, formerly,
with a large portion of the State of Maine, were best known as
Acadie,[2] a memorial of the Indian occupation before the French
régime. These provinces are indented by noble harbours and bays, and
many deep rivers connect the sea-board with the interior. They form
the western and southern boundaries of that great gulf or eastern
portal of Canada, which maritime adventurers explored from the earliest
period of which we have any record. Ridges of the Appalachian range
stretch from New England to {6} the east of these Acadian provinces,
giving picturesque features to a generally undulating surface, and find
their boldest expression in the northern region of the island of Cape
Breton. The peninsula of Nova Scotia is connected with the
neighbouring province of New Brunswick by a narrow isthmus, on one side
of which the great tides of the Bay of Fundy tumultuously beat, and is
separated by a very romantic strait from the island of Cape Breton.
Both this isthmus and island, we shall see in the course of this
narrative, played important parts in the struggle between France and
England for dominion in America. This Acadian division possesses large
tracts of fertile lands, and valuable mines of coal and other minerals.
In the richest district of the peninsula of Nova Scotia were the
thatch-roofed villages of those Acadian farmers whose sad story has
been told in matchless verse by a New England poet, and whose language
can still be heard throughout the land they loved, and to which some of
them returned after years of exile. The inexhaustible fisheries of the
Gulf, whose waters wash their shores, centuries ago attracted fleets of
adventurous sailors from the Atlantic coast of Europe, and led to the
discovery of Canada and the St. Lawrence. It was with the view of
protecting these fisheries, and guarding the great entrance to New
France, that the French raised on the southeastern shores of Cape
Breton the fortress of Louisbourg, the ruins of which now alone remain
to tell of their ambition and enterprise.
Leaving Acadia, we come to the provinces which {7} are watered by the
St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, extending from the Gulf to the head
of Lake Superior, and finding their northern limits in the waters of
Hudson's Bay. The name of Canada appears to be also a memorial of the
Indian nations that once occupied the region between the Ottawa and
Saguenay rivers. This name, meaning a large village or town in one of
the dialects of the Huron-Iroquois tongue, was applied, in the first
half of the sixteenth century, to a district in the neighbourhood of
the Indian town of Stadacona, which stood on the site of the present
city of Quebec. In the days of French occupation the name was more
generally used than New France, and sometimes extended to the country
now comprised in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, or, in other
words, to the whole region from the Gulf to the head of Lake Superior.
Finally, it was adopted as the most appropriate designation for the new
Dominion that made a step toward national life in 1867.
The most important feature of this historic country is the remarkable
natural highway which has given form and life to the growing nation by
its side--a river famous in the history of exploration and war--a river
which has never-failing reservoirs in those great lakes which occupy a
basin larger than Great Britain--a river noted for its long stretch of
navigable waters, its many rapids, and its unequalled Falls of Niagara,
around all of which man's enterprise and skill have constructed a
system of canals to give the west a continuous navigation from Lake
Superior to the ocean for over two thousand miles. {8} The Laurentian
Hills--"the nucleus of the North American continent"--reach from
inhospitable, rock-bound Labrador to the north of the St. Lawrence,
extend up the Ottawa valley, and pass eventually to the northwest of
Lakes Huron and Superior, as far as the "Divide" between the St.
Lawrence valley and Hudson's Bay, but display their boldest forms on
the north shore of the river below Quebec, where the names of Capes
Eternity and Trinity have been so aptly given to those noble precipices
which tower above the gloomy waters of the Saguenay, and have a history
which "dates back to the very dawn of geographical time, and is of hoar
antiquity in comparison with that of such youthful ranges as the Andes
and the Alps." [3]
From Gaspe, the southeastern promontory at the entrance of the Gulf,
the younger rocks of the Appalachian range, constituting the
breast-bone of the continent, and culminating at the north in the White
Mountains, describe a great curve southwesterly to the valley of the
Hudson; and it is between the ridge-like elevations of this range and
the 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 than
a million and a quarter of people, speaking the language and {10}
professing the religion of their forefathers, continue to occupy the
country which extends from the Gulf to the Ottawa, and have made
themselves a power in the intellectual and political life of Canada.
Everywhere do we meet names that recall the ancient régime--French
kings and princes, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, explorers, and
adventurers, compete in the national nomenclature with priests and
saints. This country possesses large tracts of arable land, especially
in the country stretching from the St. Lawrence to Lake Champlain, and
watered by the Richelieu, that noted highway in Canadian history. Even
yet, at the head-waters of its many rivers, it has abundance of timber
to 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 it
largely lies by the side of the lake which the Hurons and more famous
Iroquois called "great." It extends from the river of the Ottawas--the
first route of the French adventurers to the western lakes as far as
the northwesterly limit of Lake Superior, and is the most populous and
prosperous province of the Dominion on account of its wealth of
agricultural land, and the energy of its population. Its history is
chiefly interesting for the illustrations it affords of Englishmen's
successful enterprise in a new country. The origin of the province
must be sought in the history of those "United Empire Loyalists," who
left the old colonies during and after the War of Independence and
founded new homes by the St. Lawrence and great lakes, as well as in
Nova Scotia {11} and New Brunswick, where, as in the West, their
descendants have had much influence in moulding institutions and
developing enterprise.
In the days when Ontario and Quebec were a wilderness, except on the
borders of the St. Lawrence from Montreal to the Quebec district, the
fur-trade of the forests that stretched away beyond the Laurentides,
was not only a source of gain to the trading companies and merchants of
Acadia and Canada, but was the sole occupation of many adventurers
whose lives were full of elements which assume a picturesque aspect at
this distance of time. It was the fur-trade that mainly led to the
discovery of the great West and to the opening up of the Mississippi
valley. But always by the side of the fur-trader and explorer we see
the Recollet or Jesuit missionary pressing forward with the cross in
his hands and offering his life that the savage might learn the lessons
of his Faith.
As soon as the Mississippi was discovered, and found navigable to the
Gulf of Mexico, French Canadian statesmen recognised the vantage-ground
that the command of the St. Lawrence valley gave them in their dreams
of conquest. Controlling the Richelieu, Lake Champlain, and the
approaches to the Hudson River, as well as the western lakes and rivers
which gave easy access to the Mississippi, France planned her bold
scheme of confining the old English colonies between the Appalachian
range of mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, and finally dominating the
whole continent.
So far we have been passing through a country {12} where the lakes and
rivers of a great natural basin or valley carry their tribute of waters
to the Eastern Atlantic; but now, when we leave Lake Superior and the
country known as Old Canada, we find ourselves on the northwestern
height of land and overlooking another region whose great
rivers--notably the Saskatchewan, Nelson, Mackenzie, Peace, Athabasca,
and Yukon--drain immense areas and find their way after many circuitous
wanderings to Arctic seas.
The Central region of Canada, long known as Rupert's Land and the
Northwestern Territory, gradually ascends from the Winnipeg system of
lakes, lying to the northwest of Lake Superior, as far as the foothills
of the Rocky Mountains, and comprises those plains and prairies which
have been opened up to civilisation within two decades of years, and
offer large possibilities of power and wealth in the future development
of the New Dominion. It is a region remarkable for its long rivers, in
places shallow and rapid, and extremely erratic in their courses
through the plains.
[Illustration: Rocky Mountains at Donald, B.C.]
Geologists tell us that at some remote period these great central
plains, now so rich in alluvial deposits, composed the bed of a sea
which extended from the Arctic region and the ancient Laurentian belt
as far as the Gulf of Mexico and made, in reality, of the continent, an
Atlantis--that mysterious island of the Greeks. The history of the
northwest is the history of Indians hunting the buffalo and fur-bearing
animals in a country for many years under the control of companies
holding royal charters of exclusive {14} trade and jealously guarding
their game preserves from the encroachments of settlement and attendant
civilisation. French Canadians were the first to travel over the wide
expanse of plain and reach the foothills of the Rockies a century and a
half ago, and we can still see in this country the Métis or half-breed
descendants of the French Canadian hunters and trappers who went there
in the days when trading companies were supreme, and married Indian
women. A cordon of villages, towns, and farms now stretches from the
city of Winnipeg, built on the site of the old headquarters of the
Hudson's Bay Company, as far as the Rocky Mountains. Fields of golden
grain brighten the prairies, where the tracks of herds of buffalo, once
so numerous but now extinct, still deeply indent the surface of the
rich soil, and lead to some creek or stream, on whose banks grows the
aspen or willow or poplar of a relatively treeless land, until we reach
the more picturesque and well-wooded and undulating country through
which the North Saskatchewan flows. As we travel over the wide expanse
of plain, only bounded by the deep blue of the distant horizon, we
become almost bewildered by the beauty and variety of the flora, which
flourish on the rich soil; crocuses, roses, bluebells, convolvuli,
anemones, asters, sunflowers, and other flowers too numerous to
mention, 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 Rocky
Mountains we come to the Western region, known as British Columbia,
comprising within a width varying from four to six hundred miles at the
widest part, several ranges of great mountains which lie, roughly
speaking, parallel to each other, and give sublimity and variety to the
most remarkable scenery of North America. These mountains are an
extension of the Cordilleran range, which forms the backbone of the
Pacific coast, and in Mexico rises to great volcanic ridges, of which
the loftiest are Popocatepétl and Iztaccíhuatl. Plateaus and valleys
of rich, gravelly soil lie within these stately ranges.
Here we find the highest mountains of Canada, some varying from ten to
fifteen thousand feet, and assuming a grandeur which we never see in
the far more ancient Laurentides, which, in the course of ages, have
been ground down by the forces of nature to their relatively diminutive
size. Within the recesses of these stupendous ranges there are rich
stores of gold and silver, while coal exists most abundantly on
Vancouver [Transcriber's note: Island?].
The Fraser, Columbia, and other rivers of this region run with great
swiftness among the cañons and gorges of the mountains, and find their
way at last to the Pacific. In the Rockies, properly so called, we see
stupendous masses of bare, rugged rock, crowned with snow and ice, and
assuming all the grand and curious forms which nature loves to take in
her most striking upheavals. Never can one forget the picturesque
beauty and impressive grandeur of the Selkirk range, and the ride by
the side of {17} the broad, rapid Fraser, over trestle-work, around
curves, and through tunnels, with the forest-clad mountains ever rising
as far as the eye can reach, with glimpses of precipices and cañons, of
cataracts and cascades that tumble down from the glaciers or snow-clad
peaks, and resemble so many drifts of snow amid the green foliage that
grows on the lowest slopes. The Fraser River valley, writes an
observer, "is one so singularly formed, that it would seem that some
superhuman sword had at a single stroke cut through a labyrinth of
mountains for three hundred miles, down deep into the bowels of the
land." [4] Further along the Fraser the Cascade Mountains lift their
rugged heads, and the river "flows at the bottom of a vast tangle cut
by nature through the heart of the mountains." The glaciers fully
equal in magnitude and grandeur those of Switzerland. On the coast and
in the rich valleys stand the giant pines and cedars, compared with
which the trees of the Eastern division seem mere saplings. The coast
is very mountainous and broken into innumerable inlets and islands, all
of them heavily timbered to the water's edge. The history of this
region offers little of picturesque interest except what may be found
in the adventures of daring sailors of various nationalities on the
Pacific coast, or in the story of the descent of the Fraser by the
Scotch fur-trader who first followed it to the sea, and gave it the
name which it still justly bears.
The history of the Western and Central regions of the Dominion is given
briefly towards the end of this {18} narrative, as it forms a national
sequence or supplement to that of the Eastern divisions, Acadia and
Canada, where France first established her dominion, and the
foundations were laid for the present Canadian confederation. It is
the story of the great Eastern country that I must now tell in the
following pages.
[1] The first terrace, named after Lord Durham, was built on the
foundations of the castle. In recent years the platform has been
extended and renamed Dufferin, in honour of a popular governor-general.
[2] _Akade_ means a place or district in the language of the Micmacs or
Souriquois, the most important Indian tribe in the Eastern provinces,
and is always united with another word, signifying some natural
characteristic of the locality. For instance, the well-known river in
Nova Scotia, _Shubenacadie_ (Segebun-akade), the place where the
ground-nut or Indian potato grows. [Transcriber's note: In the
original 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" and
the 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 a
monument of bronze which some Scandinavian and historical enthusiasts
have raised to the memory of Leif, son of Eric the Red, who, in the
first year of the eleventh century, sailed from Greenland where his
father, an Icelandic jarl or earl, had founded a settlement. This
statue represents the sturdy, well-proportioned figure of a Norse
sailor just discovering the new lands with which the Sagas or poetic
chronicles of the North connect his name. At the foot of the pedestal
the artist has placed the dragon's head which always stood on the prow
of the Norsemen's ships, and pictures of which can still be seen on the
famous Norman tapestry at Bayeux.
The Icelandic Sagas possess a basis of historical truth, and there is
reason to believe that Leif Ericson discovered three countries. The
first land he made after leaving Greenland he named Helluland on
account of its slaty rocks. Then he came to a {20} flat country with
white beaches of sand, which he called Markland because it was so well
wooded.
After a sail of some days the Northmen arrived on a coast where they
found vines laden with grapes, and very appropriately named Vinland.
The exact situation of Vinland and the other countries visited by Leif
Ericson and other Norsemen, who followed in later voyages and are
believed to have founded settlements in the land of vines, has been
always a subject of perplexity, since we have only the vague Sagas to
guide us. It may be fairly assumed, however, that the rocky land was
the coast of Labrador; the low-lying forest-clad shores which Ericson
called Markland was possibly the southeastern part of Cape Breton or
the southern coast of Nova Scotia; Vinland was very likely somewhere in
New England. Be that as it may, the world gained nothing from these
misty discoveries--if, indeed, we may so call the results of the
voyages of ten centuries ago. No such memorials of the Icelandic
pioneers have yet been found in America as they have left behind them
in Greenland. The old ivy-covered round tower at Newport in Rhode
Island is no longer claimed as a relic of the Norse settlers of
Vinland, since it has been proved beyond doubt to be nothing more than
a very substantial stone windmill of quite recent times, while the
writing on the once equally famous rock, found last century at Dighton,
by the side of a New England river, is now generally admitted to be
nothing more than a memorial of one of the Indian tribes who have
inhabited the country since the voyages of the Norsemen.
{21}
Leaving this domain of legend, we come to the last years of the
fifteenth century, when Columbus landed on the islands now often known
as the Antilles--a memorial of that mysterious Antillia, or Isle of the
Seven Cities, which was long supposed to exist in the mid-Atlantic, and
found a place in all the maps before, and even some time after, the
voyages of the illustrious Genoese. A part of the veil was at last
lifted from that mysterious western ocean--that Sea of Darkness, which
had perplexed philosophers, geographers, and sailors, from the days of
Aristotle, Plato, Strabo, and Ptolemy. As in the case of Scandinavia,
several countries have endeavoured to establish a claim for the
priority of discovery in America. Some sailors of that Biscayan coast,
which has given so many bold pilots and mariners to the world of
adventure and exploration--that Basque country to which belonged Juan
de la Cosa, the pilot who accompanied Columbus in his voyages--may have
found their way to the North Atlantic coast in search of cod or whales
at a very early time; and it is certainly an argument for such a claim
that John Cabot is said in 1497 to have heard the Indians of
northeastern America speak of Baccalaos, or Basque for cod--a name
afterwards applied for a century and longer to the islands and
countries around the Gulf. It is certainly not improbable that the
Normans, Bretons, or Basques, whose lives from times immemorial have
been passed on the sea, should have been driven by the winds or by some
accident to the shores of Newfoundland or Labrador or even Cape Breton,
but such theories are not {22} based upon sufficiently authentic data
to bring them under the consideration of the serious historian.
It is unfortunate that the records of history should be so wanting in
definite and accurate details, when we come to the voyages of John
Cabot, a great navigator, who was probably a Genoese by birth and a
Venetian by citizenship. Five years after the first discovery by
Columbus, John Cabot sailed to unknown seas and lands in the Northwest
in the ship _Matthew_ of Bristol, with full authority from the King of
England, Henry the Seventh, to take possession in his name of all
countries 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 hero
of the hour and received from Henry, a very economical sovereign, a
largess of ten pounds as a reward to "hym that founde the new ile." In
the following year both he and his son Sebastian, then a very young
man, who probably also accompanied his father in the voyage of 1497,
sailed again for the new lands which were believed to be somewhere on
the road to Cipango and the countries of gold and spice and silk. We
have no exact record of this voyage, and do not even know whether John
Cabot himself returned alive; for, from the day of his sailing in 1498,
he disappears from the scene and his son Sebastian not only becomes
henceforth a prominent figure in the maritime history of the period,
but has been given by his admirers even the place which his father
alone fairly won as the leader in the two voyages on which {23} England
has based her claim of priority of discovery on the Atlantic coast of
North America. The weight of authority so far points to a headland of
Cape Breton as the _prima tierra vista_, or the landfall which John
Cabot probably made on a June day, the four hundredth anniversary of
which arrived in 1897, though the claims of a point on the wild
Labrador coast and of Bonavista, an eastern headland of Newfoundland,
have also some earnest advocates. It is, however, generally admitted
that the Cabots, in the second voyage, sailed past the shores of Nova
Scotia and of the United States as far south as Spanish Florida.
History here, at all events, has tangible, and in some respects
irrefutable, evidence on which to dwell, since we have before us a
celebrated map, which has come down from the first year of the
sixteenth century, and is known beyond doubt to have been drawn with
all the authority that is due to so famous a navigator as Juan de la
Cosa, the Basque pilot. On this map we see delineated for the first
time the coast apparently of a continental region extending from the
peninsula of Florida as far as the present Gulf of St. Lawrence, which
is described in Spanish as _mar descubierta por los Ingleses_ (sea
discovered by the English), on one headland of which there is a _Cavo
de Ynglaterra_, or English Cape. Whether this sea is the Gulf of St.
Lawrence and the headland is Cape Race, the south-eastern extremity of
Newfoundland, or the equally well-known point which the Bretons named
on the southeastern coast of Cape Breton, are among the questions which
enter into the domain of {24} speculation and imagination. Juan de la
Cosa, however, is conclusive evidence in favour of the English claim to
the first discovery of Northern countries, whose greatness and
prosperity have already exceeded the conceptions which the Spanish
conquerors formed when they won possession of those rich Southern lands
which so long acknowledged the dominion of Spain.
But Cabot's voyages led to no immediate practical results. The Bristol
ships brought back no rich cargoes of gold or silver or spices, to tell
England that she had won a passage to the Indies and Cathay. The idea,
however, that a short passage would be discovered to those rich regions
was to linger for nearly two centuries in the minds of maritime
adventurers 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 natural
features of the islands and countries which inclose the Gulf of St.
Lawrence we find many memorials of the early Portuguese and French
voyagers. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Gaspar Cortereal
made several voyages to the northeastern shores of Newfoundland and
Labrador, and brought back with him a number of natives whose sturdy
frames gave European spectators the idea that they would make good
labourers; and it was this erroneous conception, it is generally
thought, gave its present name to the rocky, forbidding region which
the Norse voyagers had probably called Helluland five hundred years
before. Both Gaspar Cortereal and his brother Miguel disappeared from
history somewhere in the waters of Hudson's {26} Bay or Labrador; but
they were followed by other adventurous sailors who have left mementos
of 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 the
north-eastern waters of North America.
Some enterprising sailors of Brittany first gave a name to that Cape
which lies to the northeast of the historic port of Louisbourg. These
hardy sailors were certainly on the coast of the island as early as
1504, and Cape Breton is consequently the earliest French name on
record in America. Some claim is made for the Basques--that primeval
people, whose origin is lost in the mists of tradition--because there
is a Cape Breton on the Biscayan coast of France, but the evidence in
support of the Bretons' claim is by far the strongest. For very many
years the name of Bretons' land was attached on maps to a continental
region, which included the present Nova Scotia, and it was well into
the middle of the sixteenth century, after the voyages of Jacques
Cartier and Jehan Alfonce, before we find the island itself make its
appearance in its proper place and form.
It was a native of the beautiful city of Florence, in the days of
Francis the First, who gave to France some claim to territory in North
America. Giovanni da Verrazano, a well-known corsair, in 1524,
received a commission from that brilliant and dissipated king, Francis
the First, who had become jealous of the enormous pretensions of Spain
and 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 his
sole heirs to the earth." Verrazano's voyage is supposed on good
authority to have embraced the whole North American coast from Cape
Fear in North Carolina as far as the island of Cape Breton. About the
same time Spain sent an expedition to the northeastern coasts of
America under the direction of Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese pilot, and
it is probable that he also coasted from Florida to Cape Breton. Much
disappointment was felt that neither Verrazano nor Gomez had found a
passage through the straits which were then, and for a long time
afterwards, supposed to lie somewhere in the northern regions of
America and to lead to China and India. Francis was not able to send
Verrazano on another voyage, to take formal possession of the new
lands, as he was engaged in that conflict with Charles which led to his
defeat at the battle of Pavia and his being made subsequently a
prisoner. Spain appears to have attached no importance to the
discovery by Gomez, since it did not promise mines of gold and silver,
and happily for the cause of civilisation and progress, she continued
to confine herself to the countries of the South, though her fishermen
annually ventured, in common with those of other nations, to the banks
of Newfoundland. However, from the time of Verrazano we find on the
old maps the names of Francisca and Nova Gallia as a recognition of the
claim of France to important discoveries in North America. It is also
from the Florentine's voyage that we may date the {28} discovery of
that mysterious region called Norumbega, where the fancy of sailors and
adventurers eventually placed a noble city whose houses were raised on
pillars of crystal and silver, and decorated with precious stones.
These travellers' tales and sailors' yarns probably originated in the
current belief that somewhere in those new lands, just discovered,
there would be found an El Dorado. The same brilliant illusion that
led Ralegh to the South made credulous mariners believe in a Norumbega
in the forests of Acadia. The name clung for many years to a country
embraced within the present limits of New England, and sometimes
included Nova Scotia. Its rich capital was believed to exist somewhere
on the beautiful Penobscot River, in the present State of Maine. A
memorial of the same name still lingers in the little harbours of
Norumbec, or Lorambeque, or Loran, on the southeastern coast of Cape
Breton. Enthusiastic advocates of the Norse discovery and settlement
have confidently seen in Norumbega, the Indian utterance of Norbega,
the ancient form of Norway to which Vinland was subject, and this
belief has been even emphasised on a stone pillar which stands on some
ruins unearthed close to the Charles River in Massachusetts. _Si non é
vero è ben trovato_. All this serves to amuse, though it cannot
convince, the critical student of those shadowy times. With the
progress of discovery the city of Norumbega was found as baseless as
the fables of the golden city on the banks of the Orinoco, and of the
fountain 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 the
domain of precise history. The narratives of the voyages of Jacques
Cartier of St. Malo, that famous port of Brittany which has given so
many sailors to the world, are on the whole sufficiently definite, even
at this distance of three centuries and a half, to enable us to follow
his routes, and recognise the greater number of the places in the gulf
and river which he revealed to the old world. The same enterprising
king who had sent Verrazano to the west in 1524, commissioned the
Breton sailor to find a short passage to Cathay and give a new dominion
to France.
At the time of the departure of Cartier in 1534 for the "new-found
isle" of Cabot, the world had made considerable advances in
geographical knowledge. South America was now ascertained to be a
separate continent, and the great Portuguese Magellan had {30} passed
through the straits, which ever since have borne his name, and found
his way across the Pacific to the spice islands of Asia. As respects
North America beyond the Gulf of Mexico and the country to the North,
dense ignorance still prevailed, and though a coast line had been
followed from Florida to Cape Breton by Cabot, Gomez, and Verrazano, it
was believed either to belong to a part of Asia or to be a mere
prolongation of Greenland. If one belief prevailed more than another
it was in the existence of a great sea, called on the maps "the sea of
Verrazano," in what is now the upper basin of the Mississippi and the
Great Lakes of the west, and which was only separated from the Atlantic
by a narrow strip of land. Now that it was clear that no short passage
to India and China could be found through the Gulf of Mexico, and that
South America was a continental region, the attention of hopeful
geographers and of enterprising sailors and adventurers was directed to
the north, especially as Spain was relatively indifferent to enterprise
in that region. No doubt the French King thought that Cartier would
find his way to the sea of Verrazano, beyond which were probably the
lands visited by Marco Polo, that enterprising merchant of Venice,
whose stories of adventure in India and China read like stories of the
Arabian Nights.
[Illustration: Jacques Cartier]
Jacques Cartier made three voyages to the continent of America between
1534 and 1542, and probably another in 1543. The first voyage, which
took place in 1534 and lasted from April until September, was confined
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which he {32} explored with some
thoroughness after passing through the strait of Belle Isle, then
called the Gulf of Castles (Chasteaux). The coast of Labrador he
described with perfect accuracy as extremely forbidding, covered with
rocks and moss and "as very likely the land given by God to Cain." In
one of the harbours of the Labrador coast he found a fishing vessel
from La Rochelle, the famous Protestant town of France, on its way to
the port of Brest, then and for some time after a place of call for the
fishermen who were already thronging the Gulf, where walrus, whales,
and cod were so abundant. A good deal of time has been expended by
historical writers on the itinerary of this voyage, the record of which
is somewhat puzzling at times when we come to fix Cartier's names of
places on a modern map. Confining ourselves to those localities of
which there is no doubt, we know he visited and named the isle of Brion
in honour of Admiral Philip de Chabot, Seigneur de Brion, who was a
friend and companion of Francis, and had received from him authority to
send 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 are
writers who recognise in his description a headland of Prince Edward
Island, but it is not certain that he visited or named any of the bays
or lagoons of that island which lies so snugly ensconced in the Gulf.
We recognise the bay of Miramichi (St. Lunaire) and the still more
beautiful 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 had
pleasant interviews with the natives, who danced and gave other
demonstrations of joy when they received some presents in exchange for
the food they brought to the strangers. These people were probably
either Micmacs or Etchemins, one of the branches of the Algonquin
nation who inhabited a large portion of the Northern continent.
Cartier was enchanted with the natural beauties of "as fine a country
as one would wish to see and live in, level and smooth, warmer than
Spain, where there is abundance of wheat, which has an ear like that of
rye, and again like oats, peas growing as thickly and as large as if
they had been cultivated, red and white barberries, strawberries, red
and white roses, and other flowers of a delightful and sweet perfume,
meadows of rich grasses, and rivers full of salmon"--a perfectly true
description of the beautiful country watered by the Restigouche and
Metapedia rivers. Cartier also visited the picturesque bay of Gaspé,
where the scenery is grand but the trees smaller and the land less
fertile than in the neighbourhood of Chaleur and its rivers. On a
point at the entrance of the harbour of Gaspé--an Indian name having
probably reference to a split rock, which has long been a curiosity of
the coast--Cartier raised a cross, thirty feet in height, on the middle
of which there was a shield or escutcheon with three fleurs-de-lis, and
the inscription, _Vive le Roy de France_. Cartier then returned to
France by way of the strait of Belle Isle, without having seen the
great river to whose mouth he had been so close {34} when he stood on
the hills of Gaspé or passed around the shores of desolate Anticosti.
Cartier brought back with him two sons of the Indian chief of a tribe
he saw at Gaspé, who seem to have belonged to the Huron-Iroquois nation
he met at Stadacona, now Quebec, when he made the second voyage which I
have to describe. The accounts he gave of the country on the Gulf
appear to have been sufficiently encouraging to keep up the interest of
the King and the Admiral of France in the scheme of discovery which
they had planned. In this second voyage of 1535-36, the most memorable
of all he made to American waters, he had the assistance of a little
fleet of three vessels, the _Grande Hermine_, the _Petite Hermine_, and
the _Emérillon_, of which the first had a burden of one hundred and
twenty tons--quite a large ship compared with the two little vessels of
sixty tons each that were given him for his first venture. This fleet,
which gave Canada to France for two centuries and a quarter, reached
Newfoundland during the early part of July, passed through the strait
of Belle Isle, and on the 10th of August, came to a little bay or
harbour on the northern shore of the present province of Quebec, but
then known as Labrador, to which he gave the name of St. Laurent, in
honour of the saint whose festival happened to fall on the day of his
arrival. This bay is now generally believed to be the port of Sainte
Geneviève, and the name which Cartier gave it was gradually transferred
in the course of a century to the whole gulf as well as to the river
itself which the Breton sailor was the first to place {35} definitely
on the maps of those days of scanty geographical knowledge. Cartier
led his vessels through the passage between the northern shores of
Canada and the island of Anticosti, which he called Assomption,
although it has long since resumed its old name, which has been
gradually changed from the original Natiscotic to Naticousti, and
finally to Anticosti. When the adventurers came near the neighbourhood
of Trinity River on the north side of the Gulf, the two Gaspé Indians
who were on board Cartier's vessel, the Grande Hermine, told them that
they were now at the entrance of the kingdom of Saguenay where red
copper was to be found, and that away beyond flowed the great river of
Hochelaga and Canada. This Saguenay kingdom extended on the north side
of the river as far as the neighbourhood of the present well-known Isle
aux Coudres; then came the kingdom of Canada, stretching as far as the
island of Montreal, where the King of Hochelaga exercised dominion over
a number of tribes in the adjacent country.
Cartier passed the gloomy portals of the Saguenay, and stopped for a
day or two at Isle aux Coudres (Coudrières) over fifty miles below
Quebec, where mass was celebrated for the first time on the river of
Canada, and which he named on account of the hazel-nuts he found "as
large and better tasting than those of France, though a little harder."
Cartier then followed the north shore, with its lofty, well-wooded
mountains stretching away to the northward, and came at last to an
anchorage not far from Stadacona, somewhere between the present Isle of
{36} Orleans and the mainland. Here he had an interview with the
natives, who showed every confidence in the strangers when they found
that the two Gaspé Indians, Taignoagny and Domagaya, were their
companions. As soon as they were satisfied of this fact--and here we
have a proof that these two Indians must have belonged to the same
nation--"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 joy
and welcome." After looking about for a safe harbour, Cartier chose
the mouth of the present St. Charles River, which he named the River of
the 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 Frenchmen
with a speech of welcome, "while the women danced and sang without
ceasing, standing in the water up to their knees."
Moored in a safe haven, the French had abundant opportunity to make
themselves acquainted with the surrounding country and its people.
They visited the island close by, and were delighted with "its
beautiful trees, the same as in France," and with the great quantities
of vines "such as we had never before seen." Cartier called this
attractive spot the Island of Bacchus, but changed the name
subsequently to the Isle of Orleans, in honour of one of the royal sons
of France. Cartier was equally {37} charmed with the varied scenery
and the fruitful soil of the country around Stadacona.
It was now the middle of September, and Cartier determined, since his
men had fully recovered from the fatigues of the voyage, to proceed up
the river as far as Hochelaga, of which he was constantly hearing
accounts from the Indians. When they heard of this intention,
Donnacona and other chiefs used their best efforts to dissuade him by
inventing stories of the dangers of the navigation. The two Gaspé
Indians lent themselves to the plans of the chief of Stadacona. Three
Indians 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 and
white dogs." These devils were declared to be emissaries of the Indian
God at Hochelaga, called Cudragny, who warned the French that "there
was so much snow and ice that all would die." The Gaspé Indians, who
had so long an acquaintance with the religious customs and
superstitions of the French, endeavoured to influence them by appeals
to "Jesus" and "Jesus Maria." Cartier, however, only laughed at the
tricks of the Indians, and told them that "their God Cudragny was a
mere fool, and that Jesus would preserve them from all danger if they
should believe in Him." The French at last started on the ascent of
the river in the _Emérillon_ and two large boats, but neither
Taignoagny nor Domagaya could be induced to accompany the expedition to
Hochelaga.
Cartier and his men reached the neighbourhood of Hochelaga, the Indian
town on the island of {38} Montreal, in about a fortnight's time. The
appearance of the country bordering on the river between Stadacona and
Hochelaga pleased the French on account of the springs of excellent
water, the beautiful trees, and vines heavily laden with grapes, and
the quantities of wild fowl that rose from every bay or creek as the
voyagers passed by. At one place called Achelay, "a strait with a
stony and dangerous current, full of rocks,"--probably the Richelieu
Rapids[1] above Point au Platon--a number of Indians came on board the
_Emérillon_, warned Cartier of the perils of the river, and the chief
made him a present of two children, one of whom, a little girl of seven
or eight years, he accepted and promised to take every care of.
Somewhere on Lake St. Peter they found the water very shallow and
decided 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 and
their visitors, and the exchange of presents between them, Cartier
returned to his boat in the stream. "All that night," says the
narrative, "the savages remained on the shore near our boats, keeping
up fires, dancing, crying out 'Aguaze,' which is their word for welcome
and joy." The king or chief of this Indian domain was also called
Agouahana, 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 as
superior beings, endowed with supernatural powers. Cartier was called
upon to touch the lame, blind, and wounded, and treat all the ailments
with which the Indians were afflicted, "as if they thought that God had
sent him to cure them."
Cartier's narrative describes the town as circular, inclosed by three
rows of palisades arranged like a pyramid, crossed at the top, with the
middle stakes standing perpendicular, and the others at an angle on
each side, all being well joined and fastened after the Indian fashion.
The inclosing wall was of the height of two lances, or about twenty
feet, and there was only one entrance through a door generally kept
barred. At several points within the inclosure there were platforms or
stages reached by ladders, for the purpose of protecting the town with
arrows, and rocks, piles of which were close at hand. The town
contained fifty houses, each about one hundred feet in length and
twenty-five or thirty in width, and constructed of wood, covered with
bark and strips of board. These "long houses" were divided into
several apartments, belonging to each family, but all of them assembled
and 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 which
they cooked also on hot rocks. This tribe lived, Cartier tells us, "by
ploughing and fishing alone," and were "not nomadic like the natives of
Canada and the Saguenay."
{41}
Cartier and several of his companions were taken by the Indians to the
mountain near the town of Hochelaga, and were the first Europeans to
look on that noble panorama of river and forest which stretched then
without a break over the whole continent, except where the Indian
nations had made, as at Hochelaga, their villages and settlements.
From that day to this the mountain, as well as the great city which it
now overlooks in place of a humble Indian town, has borne the name
which Cartier gave as a tribute to its unrivalled beauty. As we look
from the royal mountain on the beautiful elms and maples rising in the
meadows and gardens of an island, bathed by the waters of two noble
rivers--the green of the St. Lawrence mingling with the blue of the
Ottawa--on the many domes and towers of churches, convents, and
colleges, on the stately mansions of the rich, on the tall chimneys of
huge factories and blocks upon blocks of massive stores and warehouses,
on the ocean steamers on their way to Europe by that very river which
Cartier would not ascend with the _Emérillon_; as we look on this
beauteous and inspiriting scene, we may well understand how it is that
Canada has placed on Montreal the royal crown which Cartier first gave
to the mountain he saw on a glorious October day when the foliage was
wearing the golden and crimson tints of a Canadian autumn.
On Cartier's return to Stadacona he found that his officers had become
suspicious of the intentions of the Indians and had raised a rude fort
near 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 the
intense cold to which they were unaccustomed. They were attacked by
that dreadful disease, the scurvy, which caused the death of several
men, and did not cease its ravages until they learned from an Indian to
use a drink evidently made from spruce boughs. Then the French
recovered with great rapidity, and when the spring arrived they made
their 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 take
them to France "to relate to the king the wonders of the world
Donnacona [evidently a great story-teller] had seen in these western
countries, for he had assured us that he had been in the Saguenay
kingdom, where are infinite gold, rubies, and other riches, and white
men dressed in woollen clothing." In the vicinity of the fort, at the
meeting of the St. Croix and Lairet, Cartier raised a cross,
thirty-five feet in height under the cross-bar of which there was a
wooden 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 French
Canadians, in the presence of an English governor-general of Canada, a
French Canadian lieutenant-governor and cardinal {43} archbishop, many
ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries, assisted in the unveiling of a
noble monument in memory of Jacques Cartier and his hardy companions of
the voyage of 1535-36, and of Jean de Brebeuf, Ennemond Massé, and
Charles Lalemant, the missionaries who built the first residence of the
Jesuits nearly a century later on the site of the old French fort, and
one of whom afterwards sacrificed his life for the faith to which they
were all so devoted.
On the return voyage Cartier sailed to the southward of the Gulf, saw
the picturesque headlands of northern Cape Breton, remained a few days
in some harbours of Newfoundland, and finally reached St. Malo on the
sixteenth of July, with the joyful news that he had discovered a great
country 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, was
relatively of little importance. Donnacona and the other Indians of
Stadacona, whom the French carried away with them, never returned to
their forest homes, but died in France. During the year Cartier
remained in Canada he built a fortified post at Cap Rouge, about seven
miles west of the heights of Quebec, and named it Charlesbourg in
honour of one of the sons of Francis the First. He visited Hochelaga,
and attempted to pass up the river beyond the village, but was stopped
by the dangerous rapids now known as the St. Louis or Lachine. He
returned to France in the spring of 1542, with a few specimens of
worthless metal resembling gold which he found among the rocks of Cap
Rouge, and some pieces of quartz crystal which he believed were
diamonds, and which have given the name to the bold promontory on which
stand the ancient fortifications of Quebec.
[Illustration: The "Dauphin Map" of Canada, _circa_ 1543, showing
Cartier's Discoveries.]
{45}
Cartier is said to have returned on a fourth voyage to Canada in
1543--though no record exists--for the purpose of bringing back
Monsieur Roberval, otherwise known to the history of those times as
Jean François de la Roque, who had been appointed by Francis his
lieutenant in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle,
Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay (St. Lawrence), and Baccalaos, as well
as lord of the mysterious region of Norumbega--an example of the lavish
use of titles and the assumption of royal dominion in an unknown
wilderness. Roberval and Cartier were to have sailed in company to
Canada in 1541, but the former could not complete his arrangements and
the latter sailed alone, as we have just read. On his return in 1542
Cartier is said to have met Roberval at a port of the Gulf, and to have
secretly stolen away in the night and left his chief to go on to the
St. Lawrence alone. But these are among historic questions in dispute,
and it is useless to dwell on them here. What we do know to a
certainty is that Roberval spent some months on the banks of the St.
Lawrence,--probably from the spring of 1542 to late in the autumn of
1543,--and built a commodious fort at Charlesbourg, which he renamed
France-Roy. He passed a miserable winter, as many of the colonists he
had brought with him had been picked up amongst the lowest classes of
France, and he had to govern his ill-assorted company with a rigid and
even cruel hand. Roberval is said to have visited the Saguenay and
explored its waters and surrounding country for a considerable
distance, evidently hoping {46} to verify the fables of Donnacona and
other Indians that gold and precious stones were to be found somewhere
in that region. His name has been given to a little village at Lake
St. John, on the assumption that he actually went so far on his
Saguenay expedition, while romantic tradition points to an isle in the
Gulf, the Isle de la Demoiselle, where he is said to have abandoned his
niece Marguérite,--who had loved not wisely but too well--her lover,
and an old nurse. This rocky spot appears to have become in the story
an isle of Demons who tormented the poor wretches, exposed to all the
rigours of Canadian winters, and to starvation except when they could
catch fish or snare wild fowl. The nurse and lover as well as the
infant died, but Marguérite is said to have remained much longer on
that lonely island until at last Fate brought to her rescue a passing
vessel and carried her to France, where she is said to have told the
story 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 of
Limoilou, now in ruins, in the neighbourhood of St. Malo. He was
allowed by the King to bear always the name of "Captain"--an
appropriate title for a hardy sailor who represented so well the
heroism and enterprise of the men of St. Malo and the Breton coast.
The results of the voyages of Cartier, Roberval, and the sailors and
fishermen who frequented the waters of the Great Bay, as the French
long called it, can be seen in the old maps that have come down to us,
and show the increasing geographical knowledge. {47} To this
knowledge, a famous pilot, Captain Jehan Alfonce, a native of the
little village of Saintonge in the grape district of Charente, made
valuable contributions. He accompanied Roberval to Canada, and
afterwards made voyages to the Saguenay, and appears to have explored
the Gulf and the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and even Maine as
far as the Penobscot, where he believed was the city of Norumbega.
After the death of Francis there came dark days for France, whose
people were torn asunder by civil war and religious strife. With the
return of peace in France the Marquis de la Roche received a commission
from Henry the Fourth, as lieutenant-general of the King, to colonise
Canada, but his ill-fated expedition of 1597 never got beyond the
dangerous sandbanks of Sable Island. French fur-traders had now found
their way to Anticosti and even Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay,
where the Indians were wont to assemble in large numbers from the great
fur-region to which that melancholy river and its tributary lakes and
rivers give access, but these traders like the fishermen made no
attempt to settle the country.
From a very early date in the sixteenth century bold sailors from the
west country of Devon were fishing in the Gulf and eventually made the
safe and commodious port of St. John's, in Newfoundland, their
headquarters. Some adventurous Englishmen even made a search for the
land of Norumbega, and probably reached the bay of Penobscot. Near the
close of the century, Frobisher attempted to open up {48} the secrets
of the Arctic seas and find that passage to the north which remained
closed to venturesome explorers until Sir Robert McClure, in 1850,
successfully passed the icebergs and ice-floes that barred his way from
Bering Sea to Davis Strait. In the reign of the great Elizabeth, when
Englishmen were at last showing that ability for maritime enterprise
which was eventually to develop such remarkable results, Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of
Virginia, the Old Dominion, took possession of Newfoundland with much
ceremony in the harbour of St. John's, and erected a pillar on which
were inscribed the Queen's arms. Gilbert had none of the qualities of
a coloniser, and on his voyage back to England he was lost at sea, and
it was left to the men of Devon and the West coast in later times to
make a permanent settlement on the great island of the Gulf.
The first years of the seventeenth century were propitious for
important schemes of colonisation and trade in the western lands. The
sovereign of France was Henry the Fourth, the intrepid Prince of Béarn,
as brave a soldier as he was a sagacious statesman. Henry listened
favourably--though his able minister, Sully, held different views--to
the schemes for opening up Canada to commerce and settlement that were
laid before him by an old veteran of the wars, and a staunch friend,
Aymar de Chastes, governor of Dieppe. Pontgravé, a rich Breton
merchant of St. Malo, had the charge of the two vessels which left
France in the spring of 1603, but it is a fact that a great man, Samuel
Champlain, accompanied the {49} expedition that gives the chief
interest to the voyage. Champlain, who was destined to be the founder
of New France, was a native of Brouage in the Bay of Biscay, and
belonged to a family of fishermen. During the war of the League he
served in the army of Henry the Third, but when Henry of Navarre was
proclaimed King of France on the assassination of his predecessor, and
abjured the Protestant faith of which he had previously been the
champion, Champlain, like other Frenchmen, who had followed the Duke of
Guise, became an ardent supporter of the new régime and eventually a
favourite of the Bernese prince. He visited the West Indies in a
Spanish ship and made himself well acquainted with Mexico and other
countries bordering on the Gulf. He has described all his voyages to
the Indies and Canada in quaint quarto volumes, now very rare, and
valuable on account of their minute and truthful narrative--despite his
lively and credulous imagination--and the drawings and maps which he
made rudely of the places he saw. His accounts of the Indians of
Canada are among the most valuable that have come to us from the early
days of American history. He had a fair knowledge of natural history
for those times, though he believed in Mexican griffins, and was versed
in geography and cartography.
In 1603 Pontgravé and Champlain ascended the River St. Lawrence as far
as the island of Montreal, where they found only a few wandering
Algonquins of the Ottawa and its tributaries, in place of the people
who had inhabited the town of Hochelaga in the days of Cartier's
visits. Champlain attempted to {50} pass the Lachine rapids but was
soon forced to give up the perilous and impossible venture. During
this voyage he explored the Saguenay for a considerable distance, and
was able to add largely to the information that Cartier had given of
Canada and the country around the Gulf. When the expedition reached
France, Aymar de Chastes was dead, but two months had hardly elapsed
after Champlain's return when a new company was formed on the usual
basis of trade and colonisation. At its head was Sieur de Monts,
Pierre du Guast, the governor of Pons, a Calvinist and a friend of the
King. After much deliberation it was decided to venture south of
Canada and explore that ill-defined region, called "La Cadie" in the
royal commission given to De Monts as the King's lieutenant in Canada
and adjacent countries, the first record we have of that Acadia where
French and English were to contend during a century for the supremacy.
For a few moments we must leave the valley of the St. Lawrence, where
France was soon to enthrone herself on the heights of Quebec, and visit
a beautiful bay on the western coast of Nova Scotia, where a sleepy old
town, full of historic associations, still stands to recall the efforts
of gentlemen-adventurers to establish a permanent settlement on the
shores of the Atlantic.
{51}
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 Nova
Scotia, not only do we tread on historic ground, but we see in these
days a landscape of more varied beauty than that which so delighted the
gentlemen-adventurers of old France nearly three centuries ago. In
this country, which the poem conceived by Longfellow amid the elms of
Cambridge has made so famous, we see the rich lands reclaimed from the
sea, which glistens a few miles to the north, and every day comes
rushing up its estuaries. There to the north is dark, lofty
Blomidon--whose name is probably a memorial of a Portuguese
voyager--with its overhanging cliff under which the tumultuous tides
struggle and foam. Here, in a meadow close by, is a long row of
Lombardy poplars, pointing to another race and another country. There,
on a slight acclivity, among the trees, is a pile of white college
buildings, there a tall white spire {52} rises into the pure blue sky.
We see cottages covered with honeysuckle and grapevine; with their
gardens of roses and lilies, and many old-fashioned flowers. In the
spring, the country is one mass of pink and white blossoms, which load
the passing breeze with delicate fragrance; in autumn the trees bend
beneath rosy and yellow apples.
We drive through a fertile valley, where runs a placid river amid many
meadows, gardens, and orchards, until at last it empties into a
picturesque basin, where the landscape shows a harmonious blending of
mountain and water, of cultivated fields and ancient forest trees.
Here we see a quiet old town, whose roofs are green with the moss of
many years, where willows and grassy mounds tell of a historic past,
where the bells of ox-teams tinkle in the streets, and commerce itself
wears a look of reminiscence. For we have come to the banks of that
basin where the French, in the first years of the seventeenth century,
laid the foundations of a settlement which, despite all its early
misfortunes, has lasted until the present time, though it is the
English tongue that is now spoken and the Englishman who is now the
occupant.
Early in the leafy month of June, 1604, the French under De Monts
sailed into this spacious basin, and saw for the first time its grassy
meadows, its numerous streams, its cascades tumbling from the hills,
its forest-clad mountains. "This," said Champlain, who called it Port
Royal, "was the most commodious and pleasant place that we had yet seen
in this country."
{53}
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 to
give De Monts and his associates an entire monopoly of the fur-trade
throughout the wide domain of which he was to be the viceroy. The
expedition was chiefly supported by the merchants of the Protestant
town of La Rochelle, and was regarded with much jealousy by other
commercial cities. Protestants were to enjoy in the new colony all the
advantages they were then allowed in France. The Catholics were
appeased by the condition that the conversion of the natives should be
reserved especially for the priests of their own church.
The man of most note, after De Monts and Champlain, was Jean de
Biencourt, a rich nobleman of Picardy, better known in Acadian history
as the Baron de Poutrincourt, who had distinguished himself as a
soldier in the civil wars. A man of energy and enterprise, he was well
fitted to assist in the establishment of a colony.
De Monts and his associates reached without accident the low
fir-covered shores of Nova Scotia, visited several of its harbours, and
finally sailed into the Bay of Fundy, which was named Baie Française.
The French explored the coast of the bay after leaving Port Royal, and
discovered the river which the Indians called Ouigoudi, or highway, and
De Monts renamed St. John, as he saw it first on the festival of that
saint. Proceeding along the northern shores of the bay the expedition
came to a river which falls into Passamaquoddy Bay, and now forms the
{54} boundary between the United States and the eastern provinces of
Canada. This river ever since has been called the river of the Holy
Cross (Sainte-Croix) though the name was first given by De Monts to an
islet, well within the mouth of the stream, which he chose as the site
of the first French settlement on the northeast coast of America.
Buildings were soon erected for the accommodation of some eighty
persons, as well as a small fort for their protection on the rocky
islet. [1]
While the French settlement was preparing for the winter, Champlain
explored the eastern coast from the St. Croix to the Penobscot, where
he came to the conclusion that the story of a large city on its banks
was evidently a mere invention of the imaginative mind. He also was
the first of Europeans, so far as we know, to look on the mountains and
cliffs of the island--so famous as a summer resort in these later
times--which he very aptly named Monts-Déserts. During the three years
Champlain remained in Acadia he made explorations and surveys of the
southern coasts of Nova Scotia from Canseau to Port Royal, of the
shores of the Bay of Fundy, and of the coast of New England from the
St. Croix to Vineyard Sound.
Poutrincourt, who had received from De Monts a grant of the country
around Port Royal, left his companions in their dreary home in the
latter part of August and sailed for France, with the object of making
arrangements for settling his new domain in {55} Acadia. He found that
very little interest was taken in the new colony of which very
unsatisfactory reports were brought back to France by his companions
though he himself gave a glowing account of its beautiful scenery and
resources.
While Poutrincourt was still in France, he was surprised to learn of
the arrival of De Monts with very unsatisfactory accounts of the state
of affairs in the infant colony. The adventurers had very soon found
St. Croix entirely unfitted for a permanent settlement, and after a
most wretched winter had removed to the sunny banks of the Annapolis,
which was then known as the Equille,[2] and subsequently as the
Dauphin. Poutrincourt and De Monts went energetically to work, and
succeeded in obtaining the services of all the mechanics and labourers
they required. The new expedition was necessarily composed of very
unruly characters, who sadly offended the staid folk of that orderly
bulwark of Calvinism, the town of La Rochelle. At last on the 13th of
May, 1606, the _Jonas_, with its unruly crew all on board, left for the
new world under the command of Poutrincourt. Among the passengers was
L'Escarbot, a Paris advocate, a poet, and an historian, to whom we are
indebted for a very sprightly account of early French settlement in
America. De Monts, however, was unable to leave with his friends.
On the 27th July, the _Jonas_ entered the basin of Port Royal with the
flood-tide. A peal from the rude bastion of the little fort bore
testimony to the {56} joy of the two solitary Frenchmen, who, with a
faithful old Indian chief, were the only inmates of the post at that
time. These men, La Taille and Miquellet, explained that Pontgravé and
Champlain, with the rest of the colony, had set sail for France a few
days previously, in two small vessels which they had built themselves.
But there was no time to spend in vain regrets. Poutrincourt opened a
hogshead of wine, and the fort was soon the scene of mirth and
festivity. Poutrincourt set energetically to improve the condition of
things, by making additions to the buildings, and clearing the
surrounding land, which is exceedingly rich. The fort stood on the
north bank of the river--on what is now the Granville side--opposite
Goat Island, or about six miles from the present town of Annapolis.
L'Escarbot appears to have been the very life of the little colony. If
anything occurred to dampen their courage, his fertile mind soon
devised some plan of chasing away forebodings of ill. When
Poutrincourt and his party returned during the summer of 1606 in ill
spirits from Malebarre, now Cape Cod, where several men had been
surprised and killed by the savages, they were met on their landing by
a procession of Tritons, with Neptune at their head, who saluted the
adventurers with merry songs. As they entered the arched gateway, they
saw above their heads another happy device of L'Escarbot, the arms of
France and the King's motto, "_Duo protegit unus_," encircled with
laurels. Under this were the arms of De Monts and Poutrincourt, with
their 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. Key
to illustration: A, Workmen's dwelling; B, Platform for cannon; C,
Storehouse; D, Residence for Champlain and Pontgravé; E, Blacksmith's
forge; F, Palisade; G, Bakehouse; H, Kitchen; I, Gardens; K, Burying
ground; 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 the
daily supply of fresh provisions, for he created a new order for the
especial benefit of the principal table, at which Poutrincourt, he
himself, and thirteen others sat daily. These fifteen gentlemen
constituted themselves into _l'Ordre de Bon Temps_, one of whom was
grandmaster 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 they
were able to gather from the {58} surrounding country, and the
consequence was, Poutrincourt's table never wanted any of the luxuries
that the river or forest could supply. At the dinner hour the
grandmaster, with the insignia of his order, a costly collar around his
neck, a staff in his hand, and a napkin on his shoulder, came into the
hall at the head of his brethren, each of whom carried some dish. The
Indians were frequent guests at their feasts, especially old Membertou,
a famous Micmac or Souriquois chief, who always retained a warm
attachment for the pale-faced strangers. Songs of La Belle France were
sung; many a toast was drunk in some rare vintage,--the flames flew up
the huge chimney,--the Indians squatted on the floor, laughing like the
merry Frenchmen. When the pipe went around--with its lobster-like bowl
and tube elaborately worked with porcupine quills--stories were told,
and none excelled the Indians themselves in this part of the
entertainment. At last, when the tobacco was all exhausted, the
grandmaster resigned his regalia of office to his successor, who lost
no time in performing his duties. Thus the long winter evenings passed
in that lonely French fort at the verge of an untamed continent.
Then came bad news from France. Late in the spring of 1607, a vessel
sailed into the basin with letters from De Monts that the colony would
have to be broken up, as his charter had been revoked, and the Company
could no longer support Port Royal. The Breton and Basque merchants,
who were very hostile to De Monts's monopoly, had {59} succeeded in
influencing the government to withdraw its patronage from him and his
associates. Soon afterwards the little colony regretfully left Port
Royal, which never looked so lovely in their eyes as they passed on to
the Bay of Fundy, and saw the whole country in the glory of mid-summer.
The Indians, especially Membertou, watched the departure of their new
friends with unfeigned regret, and promised to look carefully after the
safety of the fort and its contents.
As soon as Poutrincourt reached his native country he did his best to
make friends at the Court, as he was resolved on returning to Acadia,
while Champlain decided to venture to the St. Lawrence, where I shall
take up his memorable story later. Poutrincourt's prospects, for a
time, were exceedingly gloomy. De Monts was able to assist him but
very little, and the adventurous Baron himself was involved in debt and
litigations, but he eventually succeeded in obtaining a renewal of his
grant from the King, and interesting some wealthy traders in the
enterprise. Then some difficulties of a religious character threatened
to interfere with the success of the expedition. The society of
Jesuits was, at this time, exceedingly influential at court, and, in
consequence of their representations, the King ordered that Pierre
Biard, professor of theology at Lyons, should accompany the expedition.
Though Poutrincourt was a good Catholic, he mistrusted this religious
order, and succeeded in deceiving Father Biard, who was waiting for him
at 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. Here
they were agreeably surprised to find the buildings and their contents
perfectly safe, and their old friend Membertou, now a centenarian,
looking as hale as ever, and overwhelmed with joy at the return of the
friendly palefaces. Among the first things that Poutrincourt did,
after his arrival, was to make converts of the Indians. Father Fléché
soon convinced Membertou and all his tribe of the truths of
Christianity. Membertou was named Henri, after the king; his chief
squaw Marie, after the queen. The Pope, the Dauphin, Marguérite de
Valois, and other ladies and gentlemen famous in the history of their
times, became sponsors for the Micmac converts who were gathered into
mother church on St. John's day, with the most imposing ceremonies that
the French could arrange in that wild country.
Conscious of the influence of the Jesuits at Court, and desirous of
counteracting 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 in
converting the natives of the new colony.
When this youthful ambassador reached France, Henry of Navarre had
perished 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, and
it was decided that Fathers Biard and Ennemond Massé should accompany
Biencourt to Acadia. The ladies of the Court, especially Madame de
Guercheville, wife of Duke de la Rochefoucauld de Liancourt, whose
reputation could not be assailed by the tongue of scandal, even in a
state of society when virtue was too often the exception, interested
themselves in the work of converting the savages of Acadia. The
business of the Protestant traders of Dieppe was purchased and made
over to the Jesuits. Thus did these indefatigable priests, for the
first time, engage in the work of converting the savage in the American
wilderness.
The vessel which took Biencourt and his friends back to Port Royal
arrived on the 22nd of July, 1611, off the fort, where Poutrincourt and
his colonists were exceedingly short of supplies. His very first act
was to appoint his son as vice-admiral, while he himself went on to
France 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 in
hand. The two priests suffered many hardships, but they bore their
troubles with a patience and resignation which gained them even the
admiration of those who were not prepossessed in their favour. Massé,
who had gone to live among the Indians, was nearly starved and smoked
to death in their rude camps; but still he appears to have persevered
in that course of life as long as he possibly {62} could. About this
time the priests had the consolation of performing the last offices for
the veteran Membertou, the staunch friend of the French colonists. On
his death-bed he expressed a strong desire to be buried with his
forefathers, but the arguments of his priestly advisers overcame his
superstition, and his remains were finally laid in consecrated ground.
Matters looked very gloomy by the end of February, when a ship arrived
very opportunely from France with a small store of supplies. The news
from Poutrincourt was most discouraging. Unable to raise further funds
on his own responsibility, he had accepted the proffer of assistance
from Mme. de Guercheville, who, in her zeal, had also bought from De
Monts all his claims over the colony, with the exception of Port Royal,
which belonged to Poutrincourt. The King not only consented to the
transfer but gave her a grant of the territory extending from Florida
to Canada. The society of Jesuits was therefore virtually in
possession 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 a
continent, that the British laid claims to the same region and had
already established a colony in Virginia, which was then an undefined
territory, extending from Florida to New France. Both France and
England were now face to face on the new continent, and a daring
English adventurer was about to strike in Acadia the first blow for
English supremacy.
Such was the position of affairs at the time of the {63} arrival of the
new vessel and cargo, which were under the control of Simon Imbert, who
had formerly been a servant to Poutrincourt. Among the passengers was
another Jesuit father, Gilbert Du Thet, who came out in the interests
of Mme. de Guercheville and his own order. The two agents quarrelled
from the very day they set out until they arrived at Port Royal, and
then the colony took the matter up. At last the difficulties were
settled by Du Thet receiving permission to return to France.
A few months later, at the end of May, 1613, another French ship
anchored off Port Royal. She had been sent out with a fine supply of
stores, not by Poutrincourt, but by Mme. de Guercheville, and was under
the 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 a
number of colonists. Poutrincourt, it appeared, was in prison and ill,
unable to do anything whatever for his friends across the ocean. This
was, indeed, sad news for Biencourt and his faithful allies, who had
been anxiously expecting assistance from France.
At Port Royal the new vessel took on board the two priests Biard and
Massé, and sailed towards the coast of New England; for Saussaye's
instructions were to found a new colony in the vicinity of Pentagoët
(Penobscot). In consequence of the prevalent sea-fogs, however, they
were driven to the island of Monts-Déserts, where they found a harbour
which, it was decided, would answer all their purposes on the western
side of Soames's Sound. Saussaye and {64} his party had commenced to
erect buildings for the new colony, when an event occurred which placed
a very different complexion on matters.
A man-of-war came sailing into the harbour, and from her masthead
floated, not the fleur-de-lis, but the blood-red flag of England. This
new-comer was Samuel Argall, a young English sea captain, a coarse,
passionate, and daring man, who had been some time associated with the
fortunes of Virginia. In the spring of 1613 he set sail in a stout
vessel of 130 tons, carrying 14 guns and 60 men, for a cruise to the
coast of Maine for a supply of cod-fish, and whilst becalmed off
Monts-Desérts, some Indians came on board and informed him of the
presence of the French in the vicinity of that island. He looked upon
the French as encroaching upon British territory, and in a few hours
had destroyed the infant settlement of St. Sauveur. Saussaye was
perfectly paralysed, and attempted no defence when he saw that Argall
had hostile intentions; but the Jesuit Du Thet did his utmost to rally
the men to arms, and was the first to fall a victim. Fifteen of the
prisoners, including Saussaye and Massé, were turned adrift in an open
boat; but fortunately, they managed to cross the bay and reach the
coast of Nova Scotia, where they met with some trading vessels
belonging to St. Malo. Father Biard and the others were taken to
Virginia by Argall. Biard subsequently reached England, and was
allowed 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 of
Port Royal was hanging in the scale? As we have previously stated, he
had been put into prison by his creditors, and had there lain ill for
some months. When he was at last liberated, and appeared once more
among his friends he succeeded in obtaining some assistance, and
fitting out a small vessel, with a limited supply of stores for his
colony. In the spring of 1614 he entered the basin of Annapolis for
the 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 he
and his friends had expended so much time and money. The fate of Port
Royal may be very briefly told. The Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas
Dale, was exceedingly irate when he heard of the encroachments of
France on what he considered to be British territory by right of prior
discovery--that of John Cabot--and immediately sent Argall, after his
return from St. Sauveur, on an expedition to the northward. Argall
first touched at St. Sauveur, and completed the work of destruction,
and next stopped at St. Croix, where he also destroyed the deserted
buildings. To such an extent did he show his enmity, that he even
erased the fleur-de-lis and the initial of De Monts and others from the
massive stone on which they had been carved. Biencourt and nearly all
the inmates of the fort were absent some distance in the country, and
returned to see the English in complete possession.
The destruction of Port Royal by Argall ends the first period in the
history of Acadia as a French colony. Poutrincourt bowed to the
relentless fate that {66} drove him from the shores he loved so well,
and returned to France, where he took employment in the service of the
king. Two years later he was killed at the siege of Méri on the upper
Seine, during the civil war which followed the successful intrigues of
Marie de' Medici with Spain, to marry the boy king, Louis XIII., to
Anne of Austria, and his sister, the Princess Elisabeth, to a Spanish
prince. On his tomb at St. Just, in Champagne, there was inscribed an
elaborate 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 or
the English were the victors in the long struggle that ensued for the
possession of Acadia. But before we continue the story of its varying
fortunes in later times, we must proceed to the banks of the St.
Lawrence, where the French had laid the foundation of Quebec and New
France in the great valley, while Poutrincourt was struggling vainly to
make a new home for himself and family by the side of the river of Port
Royal.
[1] Now known as Douchet Island; no relics remain of the French
occupation.
[2] Champlain says the river was named after a little fish caught
there, _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 second
time, in 1608, after his three years' explorations in Acadia, and laid
the foundation of the present city of Quebec, the only Europeans on the
Atlantic coast of America were a few Spaniards at St. Augustine, and a
few Englishmen at Jamestown. The first attempt of the English, under
the inspiration of the great Raleigh, to establish a colony in the fine
country to the north of Spanish Florida, then known as Virginia, is
only remembered for the mystery which must always surround the fate of
Virginia Dare and the little band of colonists who were left on the
island of Roanoke. Adventurous Englishmen, Gosnold, Pring, and
Weymouth, had even explored the coast of the present United States as
far 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 the
point named Malebarre by the French. It was not, however, until 1607
that Captain Newport, representing the great company of Virginia, to
whom King James II. gave a charter covering the territory of an empire,
brought the first permanent English colony of one hundred persons up
the James River in Chesapeake Bay.
[Illustration: Champlain.]
From this time forward France and England became rivals in America. In
the first years of the seventeenth century were laid the foundations
not only of the Old Dominion of Virginia, which was in later times to
form so important a state among the American commonwealths, but also of
the New Dominion whose history may be said to commence on the shores of
Port Royal. But Acadia was not destined to be the great colony of
France--the centre of her imperial aspirations in America. The story
of the French in Acadia, from the days of De Monts and Poutrincourt,
until the beginning of the eighteenth century when it became an English
possession, is at most only a series of relatively unimportant episodes
in the history of that scheme of conquest which was planned in the
eighteenth century in the palace of Versailles and in the old castle of
St. Louis on the heights of Quebec, whose interesting story I must now
tell.
When Champlain returned to France in 1607 De Monts obtained from Henry
the Fourth a monopoly of the Canadian fur-trade for a year, and
immediately fitted out two vessels, one of which was given to
Pontgravé, who had taken part in previous expeditions to the new world.
Champlain was appointed {70} by De Monts as his representative, and
practically held the position of lieutenant-governor under different
viceroys, with all necessary executive and judicial powers, from this
time 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 Algonquin
tribes, in whose language _Kebec_ means such a strait or narrowing of a
river as actually occurs at this part of the St. Lawrence. The French
pioneers began at once to clear away the trees and dig cellars on an
accessible point of land which is now the site of Champlain market in
what is called "the lower town" of the modern city. Champlain has left
us a sketch of the buildings he erected--_habitation_ as he calls
them--and my readers will get from the illustration opposite an idea of
the plan he followed. Champlain made one of the buildings his
headquarters for twelve years, until he built a fort on the heights,
which was the beginning of that famous Fort and Castle of St. Louis to
which reference is so constantly made in the histories of New France.
Champlain was obliged immediately after his arrival at Quebec to punish
some conspirators who had agreed to murder him and hand over the
property of the post to the Basque fishermen frequenting Tadousac. The
leader, Jean du Val, was hanged after a fair trial and three of his
accomplices sent to France, where they expiated their crime in the
galleys. Great explorers had in those days to run such risks among
their followers and crews, not affected {71} by their own enthusiasm.
Only three years later a famous sailor and discoverer of new seas and
lands, was left to die among the waste of waters which ever since have
recalled the name of Henry Hudson.
[Illustration: Habitation de Quebec, from Champlain's sketch. Key to
illustration: A, Storehouse; B, Dovecote; C, Workmen's lodgings and
armoury; D, Lodgings for mechanics; E, Dial; F, Blacksmith's shop and
workmen's lodgings; G, Galleries; H, Champlain's residence; I, Gate and
drawbridge; 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 of
the Algonquin and Huron Indians of Canada against the Iroquois, whose
country lay between the Hudson and Genesee rivers and westward of a
beautiful lake which he found could be reached by the river, then known
as the River of {72} the Iroquois--because it was their highway to the
St. 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 the
ablest and bravest Indians of North America. Nowhere in his own
narrative of his doings in the colony does he give us an inkling of the
motives that influenced him. We may, however, fairly believe that he
underrated the strength and warlike qualities of the Iroquois, and
believed that the allied nations of Canada would sooner or later, with
his assistance, win the victory. If he had shown any hesitation to
ally himself with the Indians of Canada, he might have hazarded the
fortunes, and even ruined the fur-trade which was the sole basis of the
little colony's existence for many years. The dominating purpose of
his life in Canada, it is necessary to remember, was the exploration of
the unknown region to which the rivers and lakes of Canada led, and
that could never have been attempted, had he by any cold or
unsympathetic conduct alienated the Indians who guarded the waterways
over which he had to pass before he could unveil the mysteries of the
western wilderness.
In the month of June Champlain and several Frenchmen commenced their
ascent of the Richelieu in a large boat, in company with several bark
canoes filled with sixty Canadian Indians. When they reached the
rapids near the lovely basin of Chambly--named after a French officer
and seignior in later times--the French boat could not be taken any
{73} further. It was sent back to Quebec while Champlain and two
others, armed with the arquebus, a short gun with a matchlock, followed
the Indians through the woods to avoid this dangerous part of the
river. The party soon reached the safe waters of the Richelieu and
embarked once more in their canoes. For the first time Champlain had
abundant opportunities to note the customs of the Indians on a
war-path, their appeals to evil spirits to help them against their
enemies, their faith in dreams, and their methods of marching in a
hostile country. The party passed into the beautiful lake which has
ever since that day borne the great Frenchman's name; they saw its
numerous islets, the Adirondacks in the west, and the Green Mountains
in the east. Paddling cautiously for some nights along the western
shore, they reached at last on the evening of the 29th of July a point
of land, identified in later days as the site of Ticonderoga, so
celebrated in the military annals of America. Here they found a party
of Iroquois, who received them with shouts of defiance, but retreated
to the woods for the night with the understanding on both sides that
the fight would take place as soon as the sun rose next morning. The
allies remained in their canoes, dancing, singing, and hurling insults
at their foes, who did not fail to respond with similar demonstrations.
Next morning, two hundred stalwart Iroquois warriors, led by three
chiefs with conspicuous plumes, marched from their barricade of logs
and were met by the Canadian Indians. Champlain immediately fired on
the chiefs with such success that two of {74} them fell dead and the
other was wounded and died later. "Our Indians," writes Champlain,
"shouted triumphantly, and then the arrows began to fly furiously from
both parties. The Iroquois were clearly amazed that two chiefs should
have been so suddenly killed although they were protected from arrows
by a sort of armour made of strong twigs and filled with cotton. While
I was reloading, one of my men, who was not seen by the enemy, fired a
shot from the woods and so frightened the Iroquois, no longer led by
their chiefs, that they lost courage and fled precipitately into the
forest, where we followed and succeeded in killing a number and taking
ten 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 an
illustration of their cruelty towards their captives. When they had
harangued the Iroquois and narrated some of the tortures that his
nation had inflicted on the Canadians in previous times, he was told to
sing, and when he did so, as Champlain naïvely says, "the song was sad
to hear."
A fire was lit, and when it was very hot, the Indians seized a burning
brand and applied it to the naked body of their victim, who was tied to
a 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. They
opened his arm near the wrists, and pulled at his tendons and when they
would not come off, they used their knives. The poor wretch was forced
to 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 much
courage and stoicism that he seemed as if he were not suffering at all.
Champlain remonstrated with them, and was at last allowed to put a
speedy end to the sufferings of the unhappy warrior. But even when he
was dead, they cut the body into pieces and attempted to make the
brother of the victim swallow his heart. Champlain might well say that
it was better for an Indian to die on the battlefield or kill himself
when wounded, than fall into the hands of such merciless enemies.
Soon after this memorable episode in the history of Canada, Champlain
crossed the ocean to consult De Monts, who could not persuade the king
and his minister to grant him a renewal of his charter. The merchants
of the seaboard had combined to represent the injury the trade of the
kingdom would sustain by continuing a monopoly of Canadian furs. De
Monts, however, made the best arrangements he could under such
unfavourable conditions, and Champlain returned to the St. Lawrence in
the spring of 1610. During the summer he assisted the Canadian allies
in a successful assault on a large body of the Iroquois who had raised
a fortification at the mouth of the Richelieu, and all of whom were
killed. It was on this occasion, when a large number of Canadian
nations were assembled, that he commenced the useful experiment of
sending Frenchmen into the Ottawa valley to learn the customs and
language of the natives, and act as interpreters afterwards.
The French at Quebec heard of the assassination {76} of Henry the
Fourth who had been a friend of the colony. Champlain went to France
in 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 Mont
Royal where he proposed establishing a post where the allied nations
could meet for purposes of trade and consultation, as he told the
Ottawa Indians at a later time when he was in their country. He made a
clearing 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 of
the Grey Nuns was subsequently built. It was not, however, until
thirty years later that the first permanent settlement was made on the
island, and the foundations laid of the great city which was first
named Ville-Marie.
During the next twenty-four years Champlain passed some months in
France at different times, according to the exigencies of the colony.
One of the most important changes he brought about was the formation of
a new commercial association, for the purpose of reconciling rival
mercantile interests. To give strength and dignity to the enterprise,
the Count de Soissons, Charles of Bourbon, one of the royal sons of
France, was placed at the head, but he died suddenly, and was replaced
by Prince de Condé, Henry of Bourbon, also a royal prince, best known
as 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 that
he entered into an engagement with a rich Calvinist, Nicholas Boulle,
to marry his daughter Helen, then a child, {77} when she had arrived at
a suitable age, on the condition that the father would supply funds to
help the French in their Canadian experiment. The marriage was not
consummated until ten years later, and Champlain's wife, whose
Christian name he gave to the pretty islet opposite Montreal harbour,
spent four years in the settlement. The happiness of a domestic life
was not possible in those early Canadian days, and a gentle French girl
probably soon found herself a mere luxury amid the savagery of her
surroundings. Helen Champlain has no place in this narrative, and we
leave her with the remark that she was converted by her husband, and on
his death retired to the seclusion of an Ursuline convent in France.
No child was born to bear the name and possibly increase the fame of
Champlain.
On his return to Canada, in the spring of 1613, Champlain decided to
explore 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 China
which so many have so far sought in vain." While at Paris, during the
winter of 1612, Champlain saw a map which gave him some idea of the
great sea which Hudson had discovered. At the same time he heard from
a Frenchman, Nicholas de Vignau, who had come to Paris direct from the
Ottawa valley, that while among the Algonquin Indians he had gone with
a party to the north where they had found a salt water sea, on whose
shores were the remains {78} of an English ship. The Indians had also,
according to Vignau, brought back an English lad, whom they intended to
present to Champlain when he made his promised visit to the Upper
Ottawa.
Champlain probably thought he was at last to realise the dream of his
life. Accompanied by Vignau, four other Frenchmen, and an Indian
guide, he ascended the great river, with its numerous lakes, cataracts,
and islets. He saw the beautiful fall to which ever since has been
given the name of Rideau--a name also extended to the river, whose
waters make the descent at this point--on account of its striking
resemblance to a white curtain. Next he looked into the deep chasm of
mist, foam, and raging waters, which the Indians called Asticou or
Cauldron (Chaudière), on whose sides and adjacent islets, then thickly
wooded, now stand great mills where the electric light flashes amid the
long steel saws as they cut into the huge pine logs which the forests
of the Ottawa yearly contribute to the commerce and wealth of Canada.
At the Chaudière the Indians evoked the spirits of the waters, and
offered them gifts of tobacco if they would ward off misfortune. The
expedition then passed up the noble expansion of the river known as the
Chats, and saw other lakes and cataracts that gave variety and grandeur
to the scenery of the river of the Algonquins, as it was then called,
and reached at last, after a difficult portage, the country around
Allumette lake, where Nicholas de Vignau had passed the previous
winter. Two hundred and fifty-four years later, on an August day, a
farmer unearthed on this old {79} portage route in the district of
North Renfrew, an old brass astrolabe of Paris make, dated 1603; the
instrument used in those distant days for taking astronomical
observations and ascertaining the latitude. No doubt it had belonged
to Champlain, who lost it on this very portage by way of Muskrat and
Mud lakes, as from this place he ceases to give us the correct
latitudes which he had previously been able to do.
[Illustration: Champlain's lost astrolabe.]
Among the Algonquin Indians of this district, who lived in rudely-built
bark cabins or camps, and were hunters as well as cultivators of the
soil, he soon found out that there was not a word of truth in the story
which Nicholas de Vignau had told him {80} of a journey to a northern
sea, but that it was the invention of "the most impudent liar whom I
have seen for a long time." Champlain did not punish him, though the
Indians urged him to put him to death.
Champlain remained a few days among the Indians, making arrangements
for future explorations, and studying the customs of the people. He
was especially struck with their method of burial. Posts supported a
tablet or slab of wood on which was a rude carving supposed to
represent the features of the dead. A plume decorated the head of a
chief; his weapons meant a warrior; a small bow and one arrow, a boy; a
kettle, 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 treasures
which they might like to have in the far-off country to which they had
gone; for, as Champlain says, "they believe in the immortality of the
soul."
Champlain made no attempt to proceed further up the river. Before
leaving the Upper Ottawa, he made a cedar cross, showing the arms of
France--a custom of the French explorers, as Cartier's narrative tells
us--and fixed it on an elevation by the side of the lake. He also
promised Tessouat to return in the following year and assist him
against the Iroquois.
The next event of moment in the history of the colony was the arrival
in 1615 of Fathers Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, and Joseph Le Caron, and
{81} the lay brother Pacifique du Plessis, who belonged to the
mendicant order of the Recollets, or reformed branch of the
Franciscans, so named from their founder, St. Francis d'Assisi. They
built near the French post at Quebec a little chapel which was placed
in charge of Father Jamay and Brother Du Plessis, while Jean d'Olbeau
went to live among the Montagnais and Joseph Le Caron among the Hurons
of the West.
During the summer of 1615 Champlain fulfilled his pledge to accompany
the 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 he
obtained of the lake region, but of the loss of prestige he must have
sustained among both Iroquois and Canadian Indians who had previously
thought the Frenchman invincible. The enemy were reached not by the
usual route of the Richelieu and Lake Champlain, considered too
dangerous from their neighbourhood to the Iroquois, but by a long
detour by way of the Ottawa valley, Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, and the
portages, rivers, and lakes that lead into the River Trent, which falls
into 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 the
Nipissings, where he had interviews with {82} the Indians who were
dreaded by other tribes as sorcerers.
The canoes of the adventurous Frenchmen went down French River, and at
last 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 hapless
race that once made their home in that wild region. Passing by the
western shore of the picturesque district of Muskoka, the party landed
at the foot of the bay and found themselves before long among the
villages of the Hurons, whose country lay then between Nottawasaga Bay
and Lake Simcoe. Here Champlain saw the triple palisades, long houses,
containing several households, and other distinctive features of those
Indian villages, one of which Cartier found at the foot of Mont Royal.
In the village of Carhagouaha, where the palisades were as high as
thirty-five feet, Champlain met Father Le Caron, the pioneer of these
intrepid missionaries who led the way to the head-waters and
tributaries of the great lakes. For the first time in that western
region the great Roman Catholic ceremony of the Mass was celebrated in
the presence of Champlain and wondering Indian warriors. At the town
of Cahiague, the Indian capital, comprising two hundred cabins, and
situated within the modern township of Orillia, he was received with
great rejoicings, and preparations immediately made for the expedition
against the Iroquois. Stephen Brulé undertook the dangerous mission of
communicating with the Andastes, a friendly nation near the {83}
headwaters of the Susquehanna, who had promised to bring five hundred
warriors to the assistance of the Canadian allied forces.
[Illustration: Onondaga fort in the Iroquois country; from Champlain's
sketch.]
The expedition reached the eastern end of Lake Ontario at the beginning
of October by the circuitous route I have already mentioned, crossed to
the other side somewhere near Sackett's harbour, and soon arrived in
the neighbourhood of the Onondaga fort, which is placed by the best
authorities a few miles to the south of Lake Oneida. It was on the
afternoon of the 10th of October, when the woods {84} wear their
brightest foliage, that the allied Indians commenced the attack with
all that impetuosity and imprudence peculiar to savages on such
occasions. The fort was really a village protected by four concentric
rows of palisades, made up of pieces of heavy timber, thirty feet in
height, and supporting an inside gallery or parapet where the defenders
were relatively safe from guns and arrows. The fort was by the side of
a pond from which water was conducted to gutters under the control of
the besieged for the purpose of protecting the outer walls from fire.
Champlain had nine Frenchmen under his direction--eight of them having
accompanied Father Le Caron to the Huron village. It was utterly
impossible to give anything like method to the Indian assaults on the
strong works of the enemy. Champlain had a high wooden platform built,
and placed on it several of his gunners who could fire into the
village, but the Iroquois kept well under cover and very little harm
was done. The attempts to fire the palisades were fruitless on account
of the want of method shown by the attacking parties. At last the
allied Indians became disheartened when they saw Champlain himself was
wounded and no impression was made on the fort. They returned to the
cover of the woods, and awaited for a few days the arrival of Stephen
Brulé and the expected reinforcements of Andastes. But when nearly a
week had passed, and the scouts brought no news of Indians from the
Susquehanna, the Canadians determined to return home without making
another attack on the village. And here, I may {85} mention, that
Stephen Brulé was not seen at Quebec until three years later. It
appeared then, from his account of his wanderings, that he succeeded
after some vexatious delay in bringing the Andastes to Oneida Lake only
to find that they had left the country of the Iroquois, who tortured
him for a while, and then, pleased with his spirit, desisted, and
eventually gave him his liberty. He is reported to have reached in his
wanderings 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 other
wounded men in baskets made of withes. They reached the Huron villages
on the 20th of December after a long and wearisome journey. Champlain
remained in their country for four months, making himself acquainted
with their customs and the nature of the region, of which he has given
a graphic description. Towards the last of April, Champlain left the
Huron villages, and arrived at Quebec near the end of June, to the
great delight of his little colony, who were in doubt of his ever
coming back.
Another important event in the history of those days was the coming
into the country of several Jesuit missionaries in 1625, when the Duke
of Ventadour, a staunch friend of the order, was made viceroy of the
colony in place of the Duke of Montmorency, who had purchased the
rights of the Prince of Condé when he was imprisoned in the {86}
Bastile for having taken up arms against the King. These Jesuit
missionaries, 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, were
received very coldly by the officials of Quebec, whose business
interests were at that time managed by the Huguenots, William and
Emeric Caen. They were, however, received by the Recollets, who had
removed to a convent, Notre-Dame des Anges, which they had built by the
St. Charles, of sufficient strength to resist an attack which, it is
reported on sufficiently good authority, the Iroquois made in 1622.
The first Jesuit establishment was built in 1625 on the point at the
meeting of the Lairet and St. Charles, where Cartier had made his
little fort ninety years before.
We come now to a critical point in the fortunes of the poor and
struggling colony. The ruling spirit of France, Cardinal Richelieu, at
last intervened in Canadian affairs, and formed the Company of New
France, generally called the company of the Hundred Associates, who
received a perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade, and a control of all
other commerce for sixteen years, beside dominion over an immense
territory extending from Florida to the Arctic Seas, and from the Gulf
of St. Lawrence to the great Fresh Water Sea, the extent of which was
not yet known. Richelieu placed himself at the head of the enterprise.
No Huguenot thenceforth was to be allowed to enter the colony under any
conditions. The company was bound to send out immediately a {87}
number of labourers and mechanics, with all their necessary tools, to
the St. Lawrence, and four thousand other colonists in the course of
fifteen years, and to support them for three years. Not only was the
new association a great commercial corporation, but it was a feudal
lord as well. Richelieu introduced in a modified form the old feudal
tenure of France, with the object of creating a Canadian _noblesse_ and
encouraging men of good birth and means to emigrate and develop the
resources of the country. This was the beginning of that seigniorial
tenure which lasted for two centuries and a quarter.
Champlain was re-appointed lieutenant-governor and had every reason to
believe that at last a new spirit would be infused into the affairs of
the colony. Fate, however, was preparing for him a cruel blow. In the
spring of 1628, the half-starved men of Quebec were anxiously looking
for the provisions and men expected from France, when they were
dismayed by the news that an English fleet was off the Saguenay. This
disheartening report was immediately followed by a message to surrender
the fort of Quebec to the English admiral, David Kirk. War had been
declared between England and France, through the scheming chiefly of
Buckingham, the rash favourite of Charles the First, and an intense
hater of the French King for whose queen, Anne of Austria, he had
developed an ardent and unrequited passion. English settlements were
by this time established on Massachusetts Bay and England was ambitious
of extending her dominion over North {88} America, even in those
countries where France had preceded her.
Admiral Kirk, who was the son of a gentleman in Derbyshire, and one of
the pioneers of the colonisation of Newfoundland, did not attempt the
taking of Quebec in 1628, as he was quite satisfied with the capture
off the Saguenay, of a French expedition, consisting of four armed
vessels and eighteen transports, under the command of Claude de
Roquemont, who had been sent by the new company to relieve Quebec.
Next year, however, in July, he brought his fleet again to the
Saguenay, and sent three ships to Quebec under his brothers, Lewis and
Thomas. Champlain immediately surrendered, as his little garrison were
half-starved and incapable of making any resistance, and the English
flag floated for the first time on the fort of St. Louis. Champlain
and his companions, excepting thirteen who remained with the English,
went on board the English ships, and Lewis Kirk was left in charge of
Quebec. On the way down the river, the English ships met a French
vessel off Malbaie, under the command of Emeric Caen, and after a hot
fight she became also an English prize.
When the fleet arrived in the harbour of Plymouth, the English Admiral
heard to his amazement that peace had been declared some time before,
and that all conquests made by the fleets or armies of either France or
England after 24th April, 1629, must be restored. The Kirks and
Alexander used every possible exertion to prevent the restoration of
Quebec and Port Royal, which was also in the {89} possession of the
English. Three years elapsed before Champlain obtained a restitution
of his property, which had been illegally seized. The King of England,
Charles I., had not only renewed a charter, which his father had given
to a favourite, Sir William Alexander, of the present province of Nova
Scotia, then a part of Acadia, but had also extended it to the "county
and lordship of Canada." Under these circumstances Charles delayed the
negotiations for peace by every possible subterfuge. At last the
French King, whose sister was married to Charles, agreed to pay the
large sum of money which was still owing to the latter as the balance
of the dower of his queen. Charles had already commenced that fight
with his Commons, which was not to end until his head fell on the
block, and was most anxious to get money wherever and as soon as he
could. The result was the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed on
March 29, 1632. Quebec as well as Port Royal--to whose history I shall
refer in the following chapter--were restored to France, and Champlain
was again in his fort on Cape Diamond in the last week of May, 1633. A
number of Jesuits, who were favoured by Richelieu, accompanied him and
henceforth took the place of the Recollets in the mission work of the
colony. In 1634, there were altogether eight Jesuit priests in the
country. They appear to have even borrowed the name of the Recollet
convent, _Notre Dame des Anges_, and given it to their own
establishment and seigniory by the St. Charles.
During the last three years of Champlain's life in Canada no events of
importance occurred. The {90} Company of the Hundred Associates had
been most seriously crippled by the capture of the expedition in 1628,
and were not able to do very much for the colony. The indefatigable
lieutenant-governor, true to his trust, succeeded in building a little
fort in 1634 at the mouth of the St. Maurice, and founded the present
city of Three Rivers, as a bulwark against the Iroquois. It had,
however, been for years a trading place, where Brother Du Plessis spent
some time in instructing the Indian children and people in the Catholic
religion, and was instrumental in preventing a rising of the Montagnais
Indians who had become discontented and proposed to destroy the French
settlements.
On Christmas Day, 1635, Champlain died from a paralytic stroke in the
fort, dominating the great river by whose banks he had toiled and
struggled for so many years as a faithful servant of his king and
country. Father Le Jeune pronounced the eulogy over his grave, the
exact site of which is even now a matter of dispute.
What had the patient and courageous Frenchman of Brouage accomplished
during the years--nearly three decades--since he landed at the foot of
Cape Diamond? On the verge of the heights a little fort of logs and a
château of masonry, a few clumsy and wretched buildings on the point
below, a cottage and clearing of the first Canadian farmer Hébert, the
ruins of the Recollet convent and the mission house of the Jesuits on
the St. Charles, the chapel of Notre-Dame de Recouvrance, which he had
built close to the fort to commemorate the restoration of {91} Quebec
to the French, the stone manor-house of the first seignior of Canada,
Robert Giffard of Beauport, a post at Tadousac and another at Three
Rivers, perhaps two hundred Frenchmen in the whole valley. These were
the only visible signs of French dominion on the banks of the St.
Lawrence, when the cold blasts of winter sighed Champlain's requiem on
the heights whence his fancy had so often carried him to Cathay. The
results look small when we think of the patience and energy shown by
the 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 some
idea of the existence of a great lake beyond Lake Huron, and of the
Niagara Falls, though he had seen neither. He died, however, ignorant
of the magnitude, number, and position of the western lakes, and still
deluded 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 come
founders of states, and the Jesuit historian Charlevoix has, with
poetic justice, called him the "Father of New France."
[1] Brulé was murdered by the Hurons in 1634 at Toanché, an Indian
village in the West.
{92}
VII.
GENTLEMEN-ADVENTURERS IN ACADIA.
(1614-1677.)
We must now leave the lonely Canadian colonists on the snow-clad
heights of Quebec to mourn the death of their great leader, and return
to the shores of Acadia to follow the fortunes of Biencourt and his
companions whom we last saw near the smoking ruins of their homes on
the banks of the Annapolis. We have now come to a strange chapter of
Canadian history, which has its picturesque aspect as well as its
episodes of meanness, cupidity, and inhumanity. As we look back to
those early years of Acadian history, we see rival chiefs with their
bands of retainers engaged in deadly feuds, and storming each other's
fortified posts as though they were the castles of barons living in
mediaeval times. We see savage Micmacs and Etchemins of Acadia, only
too willing to aid in the quarrels and contests of the white men who
hate each with a malignity that even the Indian cannot excel; closely
shorn, ill-clad mendicant friars who see only good in those who {93}
help their missions; grave and cautious Puritans trying to find their
advantage in the rivalry of their French neighbours; a Scotch nobleman
and courtier who would be a king in Acadia as well as a poet in
England; Frenchmen who claim to have noble blood in their veins, and
wish to be lords of a wide American domain; a courageous wife who lays
aside the gentleness of a woman's nature and fights as bravely as any
knight for the protection of her home and what she believes to be her
husband's rights. These are among the figures that we see passing
through the shadowy vista which opens before us as we look into the
depths of the Acadian wilderness two centuries and a half ago.
Among the French adventurers, whose names are intimately associated
with the early history of Acadia, no one occupies a more prominent
position than Charles de St. Etienne, the son of a Huguenot, Claude de
la Tour, who claimed to be of noble birth. The La Tours had become so
poor that they were forced, like so many other nobles of those times,
to seek their fortune in the new world. Claude and his son, then
probably fourteen years of age, came to Port Royal with Poutrincourt in
1610. In the various vicissitudes of the little settlement the father
and his son participated, and after it had been destroyed by Argall,
they remained with Biencourt and his companions. In the course of
time, the elder La Tour established a trading post on the peninsula at
the mouth of the Penobscot--in Acadian history a prominent place, as
often in possession of the English as the French.
{94} Biencourt and his companions appear to have had some accessions to
their number during the years that followed the Virginian's visit.
They built rude cabins on the banks of the Annapolis, and cultivated
patches of ground after a fashion, beside raising a fort of logs and
earth near Cape Sable, called indifferently Fort Louis or Lomeron. It
has been generally believed that Biencourt died in Acadia about 1623,
after making over all his rights to Charles La Tour, who was his
personal friend and follower from his boyhood. Recently, however, the
discovery of some old documents in Paris throws some doubt on the
generally accepted statement of the place of his death.[1]
It is quite certain, however, whether Biencourt died in France or
Acadia, young La Tour assumed after 1623 the control of Fort St. Louis
and all other property previously held by the former. In 1626 the
elder La Tour was driven from the Penobscot by English traders from
Plymouth who took possession of the fort and held it for some years.
He now recognised the urgent necessity of having his position in Acadia
ratified and strengthened by the French king, and consequently went on
a mission to France in 1627.
About this time the attention of prominent men in England was called to
the fact that the French had settlements in Acadia. Sir William
Alexander, afterwards the Earl of Stirling, a favourite of King James
the Fourth of Scotland and First of England, and an author of several
poetical tragedies, wished {95} to follow the example of Sir Frederick
Gorges, one of the promoters of the colonisation of New England. He
had no difficulty in obtaining from James, as great a pedant as
himself, a grant of Acadia, which he named Nova Scotia. When Charles
the First became king, he renewed the patent, and also, at the
persuasion of the ambitious poet, created an order of Nova Scotia
baronets, who were obliged to assist in the settlement of the country,
which was thereafter to be divided into "baronies." Sir William
Alexander, however, did not succeed in making any settlement in Nova
Scotia, and did not take any definite measures to drive the French from
his princely, though savage, domain until about the time Claude de la
Tour was engaged in advocating the claims of his son in Europe, where
we must follow him.
The elder La Tour arrived at an opportune time in France. Cardinal
Richelieu had just formed the Company of the Hundred Associates, and it
was agreed that aid should at once be sent to Charles de la Tour, who
was to be the King's lieutenant in Acadia. Men and supplies for the
Acadian settlement were on board the squadron, commanded by Roquemont,
who was captured by Kirk in the summer of 1628. On board one of the
prizes 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, and
established on the Granville side a small Scotch colony as the
commencement of a larger settlement in the {96} future. Charles de la
Tour does not appear to have remained in Port Royal, but to have
retired to the protection of his own fort at Cape Sable, which the
English did not attempt to attack at that time.
In the meantime the elder La Tour was in high favour at London. He won
the affections of one of the Queen's maids of honour, and was easily
persuaded by Alexander and others interested in American colonisation,
to pledge his allegiance to the English king. He and his son were made
baronets of Nova Scotia, and received large grants of land or
"baronies" in the new province. As Alexander was sending an expedition
in 1630 with additional colonists and supplies for his colony in Nova
Scotia, Claude de la Tour agreed to go there for the purpose of
persuading his son to accept the honours and advantages which the King
of England had conferred upon him. The ambitious Scotch poet, it was
clear, still hoped that his arguments in favour of retaining Acadia,
despite the treaty of Susa, made on the 24th of April, 1629, would
prevail with the King. It was urged that as Port Royal was on soil
belonging to England by right of Cabot's discovery, and the French had
not formally claimed the sovereignty of Acadia since the destruction of
their settlement by Argall, it did not fall within the actual
provisions of a treaty which referred only to conquests made after its
ratification.
Charles de la Tour would not yield to the appeals of his father to give
up the fort at Cape Sable, and obliged the English vessels belonging to
Alexander to retire to the Scotch settlement by the Annapolis {97}
basin. The elder La Tour went on to the same place, where he remained
until his son persuaded him to join the French at Fort St. Louis, where
the news had come that the King of France was determined on the
restoration of Port Royal as well as Quebec. It was now decided to
build a new fort on the River St. John, which would answer the double
purpose of strengthening the French in Acadia, and driving the British
out of Port Royal. Whilst this work was in course of construction,
another vessel arrived from France with the welcome news that the
loyalty of Charles de la Tour was appreciated by the King, who had
appointed 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 and
were inclined to pay more attention to the work of colonisation.
Richelieu sent out an expedition to take formal possession of New
France, and Isaac de Launoy de Razilly, a military man of distinction,
a Knight of Malta, and a friend of the great minister, was appointed
governor of all Acadia. He brought with him a select colony, composed
of artisans, farmers, several Capuchin friars, and some gentlemen,
among whom were two whose names occupy a prominent place in the annals
of Acadia and Cape Breton. One of them was Nicholas Denys, who became
in later years the first governor of Cape Breton, where he made
settlements at Saint Anne's and Saint Peter's, and also wrote an
historical and descriptive account of the French Atlantic possessions.
The most prominent {98} Frenchman after Razilly himself, was Charles de
Menou, 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's
council of state at the time the disputes between his son and Charles
de la Tour were at their height. Charles de Menou, or d'Aunay, as I
shall generally name him, was made Razilly's deputy, and consequently
at the outset of his career assumed a prominence in the country that
must have deeply irritated young La Tour, who still remained one of the
King's lieutenants and probably expected, until Razilly's arrival, to
be the head of the colony.
Captain Forrester, in command of the Scotch colony at Port Royal, gave
up the post to Razilly in accordance with the orders of the English
king, who had acted with much duplicity throughout the negotiations.
The fort was razed to the ground, and the majority of the Scotch, who
had greatly suffered from disease and death, left Acadia, though
several remained and married among the French colonists. This was the
end of Alexander's experiment in colonising Acadia and founding a
colonial _noblesse_.
Razilly made his settlement at La Hève, on the Atlantic shore of Nova
Scotia, and Denys had a mill and trading establishment in the vicinity.
Port Royal was improved and the post at Penobscot occupied. D'Aunay
was given charge of the division west of the St. Croix, and during the
summer 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 year
later La Tour {99} also seized the "trading wigwam" at Machias, in the
present State of Maine, but not before two of the English occupants
were killed. La Tour had by this time removed from Cape Sable to the
mouth of the River St. John, where he had built a strong fort on,
probably, Portland Point, on the east side of the harbour of the
present city of St. John, and was engaged in a lucrative trade in furs
until a quarrel broke out between him and D'Aunay.
Soon after Razilly's death in the autumn of 1635, D'Aunay asserted his
right, as lieutenant-governor of Acadia and his late chief's deputy, to
command in the colony. He obtained from Claude de Razilly, brother of
the governor, all his rights in Acadia, and removed the seat of
government from La Hève to Port Royal, where he built a fort on the
site of the present town of Annapolis. It was not long before he and
La Tour became bitter enemies.
La Tour considered, with much reason, that he had superior rights on
account of his long services in the province that ought to have been
acknowledged, and that D'Aunay was all the while working to injure him
in France. D'Aunay had certainly a great advantage over his opponent,
as he had powerful influence at the French Court, while La Tour was not
personally known and was regarded with some suspicion on account of his
father being a Huguenot, and friendly to England. As a matter of fact,
the younger La Tour was no Protestant, but a luke-warm Catholic, who
considered creed subservient to his personal interests. This fact
explains why the Capuchin friars always had a good word to say for
{100} his rival who was a zealous Catholic and did much to promote
their mission.
The French Government attempted at first to decide between the two
claimants and settle the dispute, but all in vain. La Tour made an
attempt in 1640 to surprise D'Aunay at Port Royal, but the result was
that he as well as his bride, who had just come from France, were
themselves taken prisoners. The Capuchin friars induced D'Aunay to set
them all at liberty on condition that La Tour should keep the peace in
future. The only result was an aggravation of the difficulty and the
reference of the disputes to France, where D'Aunay won the day both in
the courts and with the royal authorities. La Tour's commission was
revoked and D'Aunay eventually received an order to seize the property
and person of his rival, when he proved contumacious and refused to
obey the royal command, on the ground that it had been obtained by
false 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 appeal
to the government of Massachusetts for assistance. In 1630, the town
of Boston was commenced on the peninsula of Shawmut, and was already a
place of considerable commercial importance. Harvard College was
already open, schools were established, town meetings were frequent,
and a system of representative government was in existence. Not only
so, the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth
had formed themselves into {101} a confederacy "for preserving and
propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own
mutual safety and welfare."
Much sympathy was felt in Boston for La Tour, who was a man of very
pleasing manners, and was believed to be a Huguenot at heart. He
explained the affair at Machias and his relations with the French
Government to the satisfaction of the Boston people, though apparently
with little regard to truth. The desire to encourage a man, who
promised to be a good customer of their own, finally prevailed over
their caution, and the cunning Puritans considered they got out of
their quandary by the decision that, though the colony could not
directly contribute assistance, yet it was lawful for private citizens
to charter their vessels, and offer their services as volunteers to
help La Tour. The New Englanders had not forgotten D'Aunay's action at
Penobscot some years before, and evidently thought he was a more
dangerous man than his rival.
Some Massachusetts merchants, under these circumstances, provided La
Tour with four staunch armed vessels and seventy men, while he on his
part gave them a lien over all his property. When D'Aunay had tidings
of the expedition in the Bay of Fundy, he raised a blockade of Fort La
Tour and escaped to the westward. La Tour, assisted by some of the New
England volunteers, destroyed his rival's fortified mill, after a few
lives were lost on either side. A pinnace, having on board a large
quantity of D'Aunay's furs, was captured, and the {102} booty divided
between 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 to
Acadia with an overwhelming force. Thereupon he presented himself
again in Boston, and appealed to the authorities for further
assistance, but they would not do more than send a remonstrance to
D'Aunay and ask explanations of his conduct.
At this critical moment, La Tour's wife appeared on the scene. Unable
to do anything in France for her husband, she had found her way to
London, where she took passage on a vessel bound for Boston; but the
master, instead of carrying her directly to Fort La Tour, as he had
agreed, spent some months trading in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on
the coast of Nova Scotia. D'Aunay was cruising off Cape Sable, in the
hope of intercepting her, and searched the vessel, but Madame La Tour
was safely concealed in the hold, and the vessel was allowed to go on
to Boston. On her arrival there, Madame La Tour brought an action
against the master and consignee for a breach of contract, and
succeeded in obtaining a judgment in her favour for two thousand
pounds. When she found it impossible to come to a settlement, she
seized the goods in the ship, and on this security hired three vessels
and sailed to rejoin her husband. In the meantime an envoy from
D'Aunay, a Monsieur Marie, always supposed to be a Capuchin friar,
presented himself to the Massachusetts authorities, and after making a
strong {103} remonstrance against the course heretofore pursued by the
colony, proffered terms of amity in the future on the condition that no
further aid was given to La Tour. After some consideration the
colonial government, of which Governor Endicott was now the head,
agreed to a treaty of friendship, which was not ratified by D'Aunay for
some time afterwards, when La Tour was a fugitive. Then the terms were
sanctioned by the commissioners of the confederated colonies.
Having succeeded in obtaining the neutrality of the English colonists
through his agent Marie, D'Aunay then determined to attack La Tour's
fort on the St. John, as he had now under his control a sufficient
number of men and ships. In the spring of the same year, however, when
La Tour was absent, D'Aunay mustered all his vessels and men, and laid
siege to the fort, but he met with most determined resistance from the
garrison, nerved and stimulated by the voice and example of the heroic
wife. The besiegers were almost disheartened, when a traitor within
the walls--a "mercenary Swiss," according to a contemporary
writer--gave them information which determined them to renew the
assault with still greater vigour. D'Aunay and his men again attempted
to scale the walls, but were forced to retire with a considerable
force. Then D'Aunay offered fair terms if the fort was immediately
given up. Madame La Tour, anxious to spare the lives of her brave
garrison, which was rapidly thinning, agreed to the proposal, and
surrendered the fort; and then D'Aunay is said to have broken {104} his
solemn pledge, and hanged all the defenders except one, whose life was
spared on the condition of his acting as executioner.
One would fain not believe what the contemporary historian adds, that
D'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 assisted
her in defending the fort. The poor lady did not long survive this
tragedy, as she died a prisoner a few weeks later. All the acts of her
adventurous and tragic career prove her to have been a good woman and a
courageous wife, and may well be an inspiring theme for poetry and
romance.[2]
D'Aunay now reigned supreme in Acadia. He had burdened himself heavily
with debt in his efforts to ruin his rival, but he had some
compensation in {105} the booty he found at St. John. By the capture
of his fort La Tour lost jewels, plate, furniture, and goods valued at
ten thousand pounds, and was for a time a bankrupt. His debts in
Boston were very heavy, and Major Gibbons, who had sent vessels to Fort
La Tour in 1643, was never able to recover the mortgage he had taken on
his estate. Bereft of wife and possessions, La Tour left Acadia and
sought aid from Sir David Kirk, who was then governor of Newfoundland,
but to no purpose. Various stories are told of his career for two
years or longer, and it is even reported that he robbed a Boston vessel
in his necessities, "whereby it appeared, as the Scripture saith,"
mournfully exclaims Governor Winthrop, "that there is no confidence in
any unfaithful or carnal man." Boston merchants and sailors had
suffered a good deal from both D'Aunay and La Tour, and such a story
would naturally obtain credence among men who found they had made a bad
investment in Fort La Tour and its appendages. D'Aunay continued his
work of improving Port Royal and surrounding country, and the colony he
founded was the parent of those large settlements that in the course of
time stretched as far as the isthmus of Chignecto. He was accidentally
drowned in the Annapolis River some time in 1650. French Canadian
writers call him cruel, vindictive, rapacious, and arbitrary, but he
has never been the favourite of historians. His plans of settlement
had a sound basis and might have led to a prosperous and populous
Acadia, had he not wrecked them by the malignity with which he followed
La Tour and his wife.
{106}
La Tour, in the year 1648, visited Quebec, where he was received with
the most gratifying demonstrations of respect by his countrymen, who
admired his conduct in the Acadian struggle. Then D'Aunay died and La
Tour immediately went to France, where the government acknowledged the
injustice with which it had treated him in the past, and appointed him
governor of Acadia, with enlarged privileges and powers. In 1653 he
married D'Aunay's widow, Jeanne de Motin, in the hope--to quote the
contract--"to secure the peace and tranquillity of the country, and
concord and union between the two families." Peace then reigned for
some months in Acadia; many new settlers came into the country, the
forts were strengthened, and the people were hoping for an era of
prosperity. But there was to be no peace or rest for the French in
Acadia.
One of D'Aunay's creditors in France, named Le Borgne, came to America
in 1654 at the head of a large force, with the object of obtaining
possession of D'Aunay's property, and possibly of his position in
Acadia. He made a prisoner of Denys, who was at that time engaged in
trade in Cape Breton, and treated him with great harshness. After a
short imprisonment at Port Royal, which was occupied by Le Borgne,
Denys was allowed to go to France, where he succeeded eventually in
obtaining a redress of his grievances, and an appointment as governor
of Cape Breton.
Whilst Le Borgne was preparing to attack La Tour, the English appeared
on the scene of action. By this time the civil war had been fought in
{107} England, the King beheaded, and Cromwell proclaimed Lord
Protector of the Commonwealth. In 1653 very strong representations
were made to the latter by the colonists of New England with respect to
the movements of the French in Acadia, and the necessity of reducing
the country to the dominion of England. Peace then nominally prevailed
between France and Great Britain, but we have seen, as the case of
Argall proved, that matters in America were often arranged without much
reference to international obligations. A fleet, which had been sent
out by Cromwell to operate against the Dutch colony at Manhattan,
arrived at Boston in June, 1654, and the news came a few days later
that peace had been proclaimed between the English and Dutch.
Thereupon an expedition was organised against the French under the
command of Major Robert Sedgewick of Massachusetts. Le Borgne at Port
Royal and La Tour on the St. John immediately surrendered to this
force, and in a few days all Acadia was once more in the hands of the
English. Denys was almost ruined by these events and obliged to retire
for 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 follow
all the efforts of France to establish herself in Nova Scotia. No
doubt the injuries he had received from his own countrymen, together
with the apathy which the French Government always displayed in the
affairs of Acadia, were strong arguments, if any were needed, to induce
him to place himself under the protection of the English. The
representations he {108} made to the Protector met with a favourable
response, and obtained for him letters patent, dated August 9, 1656,
granting to him, Sir Charles La Tour, in conjunction with Sir Thomas
Temple and William Crowne, the whole territory of Acadia, the mines and
minerals alone being reserved for the government. Sir Thomas Temple, a
man of generous disposition and remarkably free from religious
prejudices, subsequently purchased La Tour's rights, and carried on a
large trade in Acadia with much energy. La Tour now disappears from
the scene, and is understood to have died in the country he loved in
the year 1666, at the ripe age of seventy-four. He left several
descendants, none of whom played a prominent part in Acadian history,
though there are persons still in the maritime provinces of Canada who
claim a connection with his family. His name clings to the little
harbour near Cape Sable, where he built his post of Lomeron, and
antiquaries now alone fight over the site of the more famous fort at
the mouth of the St. John, where a large and enterprising city has
grown up since the English occupation. About the figure of this bold
gentleman-adventurer the romance of history has cast a veil of interest
and generous appreciation on account of the devotion of his wife and of
the obstinate fight he waged under tremendous disadvantages against a
wealthy rival, supported by the authority of France. He was made of
the same material as those brave men of the west coast of England who
fought and robbed the Spaniard in the Spanish Main, but as he plundered
only Puritans by giving them worthier {109} mortgages, and fought only
in the Acadian wilds, history has given him a relatively small space in
its 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 closely
connected with those of the greater and more favoured colony of France
in 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 of
Denys (Description Géographique et Historique de l'Amérique
Septentrionale, Paris, 1672), who was in Acadia at the time and must
have had an account from eyewitnesses of the tragedy. The details
which make D'Aunay so cruel and relentless are denied by a Mr. Moreau
in his _Histoire de l'Acadie Française_ (Paris, 1873). This book is
confessedly written at the dictation of living members of the D'Aunay
family, and is, from the beginning to the end, an undiscriminating
eulogy of D'Aunay and an uncompromising attack on the memory of La Tour
and his wife. He attempts to deny that the fort was seized by
treachery, when on another page he has gone so far as to accuse some
Recollets of having made, at the instigation of D'Aunay himself, an
attempt to win the garrison from Madame La Tour who was a Protestant
and disliked by the priests. He also admits that a number of the
defenders of the fort were executed, while others, probably the
traitors, had their lives spared. The attacks on Madame La Tour's
character are not warranted by impartial history, and clearly show the
bias 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 forces
that were to influence the fortunes of French Canada--the English
colonies growing up by the side of the Atlantic and the Iroquois, those
dangerous foes, already irritated by the founder of Quebec. These
Indians were able to buy firearms and ammunition from the Dutch traders
at Fort Orange, now Albany, on the beautiful river which had been
discovered by Hudson in 1609. From their warlike qualities and their
strong natural position between the Hudson and Niagara rivers, they had
now become most important factors in the early development of the
French and English colonies, and it is consequently important to give
some particulars of their character and organisation. In the first
place, however, I shall refer to those Indian tribes who lived in
Canada, and were closely identified with the interests of the French
settlements. These Indians also became possessed of {112} firearms,
sold to them from time to time by greedy traders, despite the interdict
of 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 Stadacona
and Hochelaga. The tribes which had frequented the St. Lawrence
seventy years before had vanished, and in their place he saw bands of
wandering Algonquins. It was only when he reached the shores of
Georgian Bay that he came to Indian villages resembling that Hochelaga
which had disappeared so mysteriously. The St. Lawrence in Cartier's
day had been frequented by tribes speaking one or more of the dialects
of the Huron-Iroquois family, one of the seven great families that then
inhabited North America east of the Mississippi, from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Hudson's Bay. The short and imperfect vocabulary of
Indian words which Cartier left behind, his account of Hochelaga, the
intimacy of the two Gaspé Indians with the inhabitants of
Stadacona--these and other facts go to show that the barbarous tribes
he 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 generation
to generation, from century to century, however, tradition has told of
the deeds of ancestors, and given us vague stories of the origin and
history of the tribes. It is only in this folk-lore--proved often on
patient investigation to be of historic value--that we can find some
threads to guide us through the labyrinth of mystery to which we come
in the prehistoric {113} times of Canada. Popular tradition tells us
that the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the same family, speaking
dialects of one common language, were living at one time in villages
not far from each other--the Hurons probably at Hochelaga and the
Senecas on the opposite side of the mountain. It was against the law
of the two communities for their men and women to intermarry, but the
potent influence of true love, so rare in an Indian's bosom, soon broke
this command. A Huron girl entered the cabin of an Iroquois chief as
his wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the husband killed the wife in
an angry moment. This was a serious matter, requiring a council
meeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged, or liberal
compensation given to the friends of the dead. The council decided
that the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please all her
relatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquois
warrior. Then both tribes took up the hatchet and went on the warpath
against each other, with the result that the village of Hochelaga, with
all the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who were
probably beaten, left the St. Lawrence, and eventually found a new home
on Lake Huron.[1]
Leaving this realm of tradition, which has probably a basis of fact, we
come to historic times. In Champlain's interesting narrative, and in
the Jesuit _Relations_, we find very few facts relating to Indian
history, though we have very full information {114} respecting their
customs, superstitions, and methods of living. The reports of the
missionaries, in fact, form the basis of all the knowledge we have of
the Canadian tribes as well as of the Five Nations themselves.
It is only necessary that we should here take account of the Algonquins
and Huron-Iroquois, two great families separated from one another by
radical differences of language, and not by special racial or physical
characteristics. The Eskimo, Dacotah, Mandan, Pawnee, and Muskoki
groups have no immediate connection with this Canadian story, although
we shall meet representatives of these natural divisions in later
chapters when we find the French in the Northwest, and on the waters of
the Missouri and Mississippi. The Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois
occupied the country extending, roughly speaking, from Virginia to
Hudson's Bay, and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. The Algonquins
were by far the most numerous and widely distributed. Dialects of
their common language were heard on the Atlantic coast all the way from
Cape Fear to the Arctic region where the Eskimo hunted the seal or the
walrus in his skin kayak. On the banks of the Kennebec and Penobscot
in Acadia we find the Abenakis, who were firm friends of the French.
They were hunters in the great forests of Maine, where even yet roam
the deer and moose. The Etchemins or Canoemen, inhabited the country
west 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 the
Micmacs {115} or Souriquois, a fierce, cruel race in early times, whose
chief, Membertou, was the first convert of the Acadian missionaries.
They were hunters and fishermen, and did not till the soil even in the
lazy fashion of their Algonquin kindred in New England. The climate of
Nova Scotia was not so congenial to the production of maize as that of
the more southern countries. It was the culture of this very prolific
plant, so easily sown, gathered, and dried, that largely modified and
improved the savage conditions of Indian life elsewhere on the
continent. It is where the maize was most abundant, in the valley of
the Ohio, that we find relics of Indian arts--such as we never find in
Acadia or Canada.
On the St. Lawrence, between the Gulf and Quebec, there were wandering
Algonquin tribes, generally known as Montagnais or Mountaineers, living
in rude camps covered with bark or brush, eking a precarious existence
from the rivers and woods, and at times on the verge of starvation,
when they did not hesitate at cannibalism. Between Quebec and the
Upper Ottawa there were no village communities of any importance; for
the _Petite Nation_ of the river of that name was only a small band of
Algonquins, living some distance from the Ottawa. On the Upper Ottawa
we meet with the nation of the Isle (Allumette) and the Nipissings,
both Algonquin tribes, mentioned in a previous chapter. They were
chiefly hunters and fishermen, although the former cultivated some
patches of ground. On Georgian Bay we come to a nation speaking one of
the dialects of a language quite distinct from that {116} of the
Algonquins. These were Hurons, numbering in all some twenty thousand
souls, of whom ten thousand or more were adults, living in thirty-two
villages, comprising seven hundred dwellings of the same style as
Cartier saw at Hochelaga. These villages were protected by stockades
or palisades, and by some natural features of their situation--a river,
a lake, or a hill. Neither the long houses nor the fortifications were
as 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 they
greased their hair and bodies. Their very name meant "Shock-heads"--a
nickname originating from the exclamation of some Frenchmen, when they
first saw their grotesque way of wearing their hair, "_Quelles hures!_"
(What a head of hair!) Champlain speaks of a tribe whom he met after
leaving Lake Nipissing, in 1615, and called the _Cheveux Relevés_, or
people with the stiff hair, but they were wandering Algonquins.
Champlain called the Hurons, Attigouantans, though their true name was
Ouendat, afterwards corrupted to Wyandot, which still clings to a
remnant of the race in America.
They were brave and warlike, with perhaps more amiable qualities than
the more ferocious, robust Iroquois. The nation appears to have been a
confederacy 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 of
local or self-government--to use a phrase applicable to modern federal
conditions--consisting of chiefs and council. The federal organisation
was not, however, so carefully framed and adjusted as that of their
kin, the Iroquois. At council meetings all the principal men attended
and votes were taken with the aid of reeds or sticks, the majority
prevailing in all cases. The whole organisation was essentially a
democracy, as the chiefs, although an oligarchy in appearance, were
controlled by the voices and results of the councils. In this as in
other American savage nations, the rule governing the transmission of
hereditary honours and possessions was through the female line.
Beyond the Huron villages, south of Nottawasaga Bay--so named probably
from the Nottaways, a branch of the same family, driven by war to the
south--we come to the Tionotates or Tobacco tribe, who were kin in
language and customs to their neighbours and afterwards joined their
confederacy. The Neutral Nation, or Attiwandaronks of Iroquois stock,
had their homes on the north shore of Lake Erie, and reached even as
far as the Niagara. They were extremely cruel, and kept for a long
while 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 previous
chapter, they were famous warriors, and for years held their own
against the Iroquois, but {118} eventually both these nations yielded
to 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 of
the long house" (_Ho-dé-no-sau-nee_), because they dwelt in a line of
villages 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 Charlevoix
and other writers to be originally French; derived from "Hiro" (I have
spoken)--the conclusion of all their harangues--and Koué, an
exclamation of sorrow when it was prolonged, and of joy when pronounced
shortly. They comprised five nations, living by the lakes, that still
bear their names in the State of New York, in the following order as we
go 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 to
hold from five to twenty families. Each family was a clan or
kin--resembling the _gens_ of the Roman, the _genos_ of the Greek--a
{119} group of males and females, whose kinship was reckoned only
through females--the universal custom in archaic times in America. As
among these people the marriage tie was easily sundered and chastity
was the exception,--remarkably so among the Hurons, their kindred--it
is not strange that all rank, titles, and property should be based on
the rights of the woman alone. The child belonged consequently to the
clan, not of the father, but of the mother. Each of these tenement
houses, as they may well be called, was occupied by related families,
the mothers and their children belonging to the same clan, while the
husbands and the fathers of these children belonged to other clans;
consequently, the clan or kin of the mother easily predominated in the
household.[2] Every clan had a name derived from the animal world, as
a rule, and a rude picture {120} of the same was the "totem" or
coat-of-arms of the kin or _gens_, found over the door of a long house
or tattooed on the arms or bodies of its members. The Tortoise, Bear,
and Wolf, were for a long time the most conspicuous totems of the
Iroquois. These people were originally a nation of one stock of eight
clans, and when they separated into five tribes or sections, each
contained parts of the original clans. Consequently, "all the members
of the same clan, whatever tribe they belonged to, were brothers or
sisters to each other in virtue of their descent from the same common
female ancestor, and they recognised each other as such with the
fullest cordiality."
Whatever was taken in the hunt, or raised in cultivation, by any member
of the household--and the Iroquois were good cultivators of maize,
beans, and squash--was used as a common stock for that particular
household. No woman could marry a member of her own clan or kin. The
marriage might be severed at the will of either party. Yet, while the
Iroquois women had so much importance in the household and in the
regulation of inheritance, she was almost as much a drudge as the squaw
of the savage Micmacs of Acadia and the Gulf.
The tribe was simply a community of Indians of a particular family or
stock, speaking one of the dialects of its language. For instance, the
Five Nations or Tribes spoke different dialects of the Iroquoian stock
language, but each could understand the other sufficiently for all
purposes of deliberation and discussion. Each tribe was governed by
its {121} own council of sachems and chiefs--the latter inferior in
rank--elected by their respective clans, but invested with office by
the whole tribe. For all purposes of tribal government the tribes had
separate territories and jurisdiction. For common purposes they united
in a confederation in which each tribe occupied a position of complete
equality--the exception being the Tuscaroras--Dusgaóweh or
"shirt-wearing people"--who came from the south at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and made up the "Six Nations." If a tribe made
peace it would not bind the other tribes unless they had given their
consent 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 were
created in perpetuity in certain clans of the several tribes and
invested with office by the general council. They were also sachems in
their respective tribes, and with other clan-chiefs formed the council
which was supreme over all matters appertaining to the tribe
exclusively. Women, too, had their clan and other councils, and could
make their wishes known through the delegates they appointed to the
council of the league. In the federal council the sachems voted by
tribes, and unanimity was essential before action was taken or a
conclusion arrived at. The general council was open to the whole
community for the discussion of public questions, but the council alone
decided. The council of each tribe had power to convene the general
council, but the latter could not convene itself. {122} With the
object of preventing the concentration of too much power in one man's
hands, the federal council appointed two war chiefs, equal in
authority. The council fire or brand was always burning in the valley
of the Onondagas, where the central council met as a rule in the
autumn, or whenever a tribe might consider a special meeting necessary.
The Onondagas had also the custody of the "Wampum," or mnemonic record
of their structure of government, and the Tadodä'ho, or most noble
sachem of the league, was among the same tribe. The origin of the
confederacy is attributed in legendary lore to Hä-yo-went'-hä, the
Hiawatha of Longfellow's poem.
These are the main features of that famous polity of the Iroquois which
gave them so remarkable a power of concentration in war, and was one
reason of their decided superiority over all the other nations of
America. In council, where all common and tribal affairs were decided,
the Iroquois showed great capacity for calm deliberation, and became
quite eloquent at times. Their language was extremely figurative,
though incapable of the expression of abstract thought, as is the case
with Indian tongues generally. The Indian--essentially a
materialist--could only find his similes, metaphors, and illustrations
in the objects of nature, but these he used with great skill. The
Iroquois had a very keen appreciation of their interests, and were well
able to protect them in their bargains or contracts with the white men.
In war they were a terrible foe, and a whisper of their neighbourhood
brought consternation to Indian camps and cabins, from the Kennebec
{123} to the Delaware, from the Susquehanna to the Illinois. They have
been well described as "the scourge of God upon the aborigines of the
continent." In their political organisation, their village life, their
culture of the soil, their power of eloquence, their skill as
politicians as well as warriors, they were superior to all the tribes
in America as far as New Mexico, although in the making of pottery and
other arts they were inferior to the mound-builders of the Ohio and the
Mississippi--probably the Allegewi who gave their names to the
Alleghanies and are believed by some writers to have been either
exterminated by a combination of Algonquin and Iroquois or driven
southward where they were absorbed in other nations. At no time could
the Iroquois muster more than 3000 warriors; and yet they were the
scourge and dread of all the scattered tribes of Algonquins, numbering
in the aggregate probably 90,000 souls, and eventually crushed the
Hurons and those other tribes of their own nationality, who did not
belong to their confederacy and had evoked their wrath.
The Algonquin and Huron-Iroquois nations had many institutions and
customs in common. Every clan had some such totem as I have described
in the case of the Iroquois. Every tribe had its chiefs as military
leaders and its councils for deliberation and decision. Consequently
the democratic principle dominated the whole organisation. Eloquence
was always prized and cultivated as a necessity of the system of
government. 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 against
the enemies of the tribe. They had no written records, but their
memories were aided in council or otherwise by reeds or sticks and rude
pictures; strings of wampum--cleverly manufactured from shells--served
as annals, which the skilled men of a tribe could decipher and explain.
The wampum belts performed an important part in the declaration of war
or peace, and the pipe was equally effective in the deliberations of
council and in the profession of amity. Murder might be expiated by
presents to the family or relatives of the dead, and crime was rarely
followed by death except there was a question of other nations, who
would not be content unless the blood of their kinsman was washed away
by blood. Charity and hospitality were among the virtues of the Indian
race, especially among the Iroquois, and while there was food in a
village no one need starve. The purity of love was unknown to a savage
nature, chiefly animated by animal passion. Prisoners were treated
with great ferocity, but the Iroquois exceeded all nations in the
ingenuity of torture. Stoicism and endurance, even heroic, were
characteristics of Indians generally, when in the hands of their
enemies, and the cruellest insult that a warrior could receive was to
be called a woman. Sometimes prisoners were spared and adopted into
the tribe, and among most nations the wife or mother or sister of a
dead chief might demand that he be replaced by a prisoner to whom they
may have taken a fancy. After torture parts {125} of the bodies of the
victim would be eaten as a sort of mystic ceremony, but this custom was
peculiar to the Hurons and Iroquois only. In their warlike expeditions
they had no special discipline, and might be successfully met on the
open field or under the protection of fortified works. Their favourite
system was a surprise or furious onslaught. A siege soon exhausted
their patience and resources. They were as treacherous as they were
brave. In the shades of the forest, whose intricacies and secrets they
understood so well, they were most to be feared. Behind every tree
might 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, tomahawk
their sleeping foes, and take many scalps, was the height of an
Indian's bliss. Curious to say, the Indians took little precautions to
guard against such surprises, but thought they were protected by their
manitous or guardian spirits.
A spirit of materialism prevailed in all their superstitions. They had
no conception of one all-pervading, omniscient divine being, governing
and watching over humanity, when the missionaries first came among
them. It was only by making use of their belief in the existence of a
supreme chief for every race of animals, that the priests could lead
their converts to the idea of a Great Spirit who ruled all creation.
In their original state of savagery or barbarism, any conception an
Indian might have of a supernatural being superior to himself was
frittered away by his imagining that the whole material world was under
the influence of innumerable mysterious {126} powers. In the stirring
of the leaves, in the glint of the sunbeam amid the foliage, in the
shadow on his path, in the flash of the lightning, in the crash of the
thunder, in the roar of the cataract, in the colours of the rainbow, in
the very beat of his pulse, in the leap of the fish, in the flight of
the birds, he saw some supernatural power to be evoked. The Indian
companions of Champlain, we remember, threw tobacco to the genius or
Manitou of the great fall of the Ottawa. The Manitou of the
Algonquins, and the Okies or Otkons of the Hurons and Iroquois were not
always 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 Iroquois
confederacy, and Glooscap, the favourite of Micmac legends. The
Manitou or Oki might even be a stone, a fish-bone, a bird's feather, or
a serpent's skin, or some other thing in the animate or inanimate
world, revealed to a young man in his dreams as his fetich or guardian
through life. Dreams were respected as revelations from the spirit
world. As Champlain tells us, during his first expedition to Lake
Champlain, the Indians always questioned him as to his dreams, and at
last he was able to tell them that he had seen in a vision some
Iroquois drowning in the lake, and wished to help them, but was not
permitted to do so by the Indians of his own party. This dream, in
their opinion, was a portent in their favour.
A fetich became at last even the object of an Indian's worship--to be
thanked, flattered, {127} expostulated with, according to the
emergency. It can be easily seen that in this Indian land of
mysterious agencies, of manitous and spirits, the medicine-man and
conjuror 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 of
importance to individual or nation. Even in case of illness and
disease he found more value in secret communications with the
supernatural world, and in working on the credulity of his tribesmen,
than in the use of medicines made from plants. The grossest
superstition dominated every community. All sorts of mystic
ceremonies, some most cruel and repugnant to every sense of decency,
were usual on occasions when supernatural influences had to be called
into action.
Every respect was paid to the dead, who were supposed to have gone on a
journey to a spirit land. Every one had such a separate scaffold or
grave, generally speaking, as Champlain saw among the Ottawas, but it
was the strange custom of the Hurons to collect the bones of their dead
every few years and immure them in great pits or ossuaries with
weirdlike ceremonies very minutely described in the _Relations_. In a
passage previously quoted Champlain gave credit to the Indians for
believing in the immortality of the soul. The world to which the
Indian's imagination accompanied the dead was not the Heaven or Hell of
the Jew or Christian. Among some tribes there was an impression rather
than a belief that a distinction was made in the land of the Ponemah or
Hereafter 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 Shades
where 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 American
Folklore_, Cambridge, Mass., 1894.
[2] In this necessarily very imperfect description of the organisation
and customs of the Five Nations I depend mainly on those valuable and
now rare books, _The League of the Iroquois_, and _Houses and Home Life
of the Aborigines_, by Lewis H. Morgan. The reader should also consult
Horatio 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 June
morning, two hundred and eighty-three years ago, illustrated the spirit
that animated the founders of Canada. At the foot of a cross knelt the
Governor, Charles Hault de Montmagny, Knight of Malta, who had come to
take the place of his great predecessor, Samuel Champlain, whose
remains were buried close by, if indeed this very cross did not
indicate the spot. Jesuits in their black robes, soldiers in their gay
uniforms, officials and inhabitants from the little town below, all
followed the example of Montmagny, whose first words were, according to
Father Le Jeune, the historian of those days: "Behold the first cross
that I have seen in this country, let us worship the crucified Saviour
in his image." Then, this act of devotion accomplished, the procession
entered the {130} little church dedicated by Champlain to Notre Dame de
la Recouvrance, where the priests solemnly chanted the _Te Deum_ and
offered up prayers for the King of France.
The Church was first, the State second. After the service the new
governor entered the fort of St. Louis, only a few steps from the
sacred building, received the keys amid salutes of cannon and musketry,
and was officially installed as head of the civil and military
government of Canada, at this time controlled by the Company of the
Hundred Associates. Then he was called upon to act as god-father for a
dying Indian who desired baptism. In the smoky cabin packed with
Indians Montmagny stood by the earnest Jesuit and named the Algonquin
Joseph. "I leave you to think," says Father Le Jeune, "how greatly
astonished were these people to see so much crimson, so many handsomely
dressed 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 of
the most famous educational and religious institutions of the country.
The Hotel Dieu was founded in 1639, by the Soeurs Hospitalières from
the convent of St. Augustine, in Dieppe, through the benefactions of
the Duchess d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu. Rich,
fascinating, and beautiful women contributed not only their fortunes
but their lives to the service of the Church. Marie Madeleine de
Chauvigny, who belonged to a noble family in Normandy, married at a
very early age a M. de la Peltrie, who left her a young widow of
twenty-two years of age, without {132} any children. Deeply attached
to her religion from her youth, she decided to devote her life and her
wealth to the establishment of an institution for the instruction of
girls in Canada. Her father and friends threw all possible obstacles
in the way of what they believed was utter folly for a gentle cultured
woman, but she succeeded by female wiles and strategy in carrying out
her plans. On the first of August, 1639, she arrived at Quebec, in
company with Marie Guyard, the daughter of a silk manufacturer of
Tours, best known to Canadians as Mère de l'Incarnation, the mother
superior of the Ursulines, whose spacious convent and grounds now cover
seven acres of land on Garden Street in the ancient capital. She had a
vision of a companion who was to accompany her to a land of mists and
mountains, to which the Virgin beckoned as the country of her future
life-work. Canada was the land and Madame de la Peltrie the companion
foreshadowed in that dream which gave Marie Guyard a vocation which she
filled for thirty years with remarkable fidelity and ability.
Madame de la Peltrie and Marie Guyard were accompanied by Mdlle. de
Savonnière de la Troche, who belonged to a distinguished family of
Anjou, and was afterwards known in Canada as Mère de St. Joseph, and
also 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 the
God of Heaven, and kissed {133} the earth of their near country, as
they now called it." A _Te Deum_ followed in the Jesuits' church which
was now completed on the heights near their college, commenced as early
as 1635--one year before the building of Harvard College--through the
generosity of Réné Rohault, eldest son of the Marquis de Gamache. The
first visit of the nuns was to Sillery, four miles to the west of
Quebec, on the north bank of the river, where an institution had been
established 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 deep
interest in the settlement of Canada and proved it by his bounty.
Madame de la Peltrie and her companions, the Jesuit historian tells us
naïvely, embraced the little Indian girls "without taking heed whether
they were clean or not."
It was during Montmagny's term of office that the city of Montreal was
founded by a number of religious enthusiasts. Jérôme le Royer de la
Dauversière, receiver of taxes at La Flêche in Anjou, a noble and
devotee, consulted with Jean Jacques Olier, then a priest of St.
Sulpice in Paris, as to the best means of establishing a mission in
Canada. Both declared they had visions which pointed to the island of
Mont Royal as the future scene of their labours. They formed a company
with large powers as seigniors as soon as they had obtained from M. de
Lauzon, one of the members of the Company of Hundred Associates, a
title to the island. They interested in the project Paul de Chomedey,
Sieur {134} de Maisonneuve, a devout and brave soldier, an honest and
chivalric gentleman, who was appointed the first governor by the new
company. Mdlle. Jeanne Mance, daughter of the attorney-general of
Nogent-le-Roi, among the vine-clad hills of Champagne, who had bound
herself to perpetual chastity from a remarkably early age, gladly
joined in this religious undertaking. The company had in view the
establishment of communities of secular priests, and of nuns to nurse
the 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 justly
considered 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 attempt
an establishment on the island. Governor de Montmagny and others at
Quebec disapproved of the undertaking which had certainly elements of
danger. The governor might well think it wisest to strengthen the
colony by an establishment on the island of Orleans or in the immediate
vicinity of Quebec, instead of laying the foundations of a new town in
the most exposed part of Canada. However, all these objections availed
nothing against the enthusiasm of devotees. In the spring of 1642,
Maisonneuve and his company left Quebec. He was accompanied by
Governor de Montmagny, Father Vimont, superior of the Jesuits, and
Madame de la Peltrie, who left the Ursulines very abruptly and
inconsiderately {135} under the conviction that she had a mission to
fill at Mont Royal.
[Illustration: Portrait of Maisonneuve.]
On the 17th May, Maisonneuve and his companions landed on the little
triangle of land, the Place Royale of Champlain, formed by the junction
of a stream with the St. Lawrence. They fell immediately on their
knees and gave their thanks to the {136} Most High. After singing some
hymns, they raised an altar which was decorated by Madame de la Peltrie
and Mdlle. Mance, and celebrated the first great mass on the island.
Father Vimont, as he performed this holy rite of his Church, addressed
the new colonists with words which foreshadowed the success of the
Roman Catholic Church in the greatest Canadian city, which was first
named Ville-Marie.
A picket enclosure, mounted with cannon, protected the humble buildings
erected for the use of the first settlers on what is now the
Custom-house Square. The little stream--not much more than a rivulet
except in spring--which for many years rippled between green, mossy
banks, 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 of
caprice. Mdlle. Mance, who was Madame de Bullion's friend, remained at
the head of the Hotel Dieu. The Sulpicians eventually obtained control
of the spiritual welfare, and in fact of the whole island, though from
necessity and policy the Jesuits were at first in charge. It was not
until 1653 that one of the most admirable figures in the religious and
educational history of Canada, Margaret Bourgeoys, a maiden of Troyes,
came to Ville-Marie, and established the parent house in Canada of the
Congregation de Notre-Dame, whose schools have extended in the progress
of centuries from Sydney, on the island of Cape Breton, to the Pacific
coast.
{137}
Yet during these years, while convents and hospitals were founded,
while brave gentlemen and cultured women gave up their lives to their
country and their faith, while the bells were ever calling their
congregations to mass and vespers, the country was defended by a mere
handful of inhabitants, huddled together at Quebec, at Three Rivers,
and at the little settlement of Ville-Marie. The canoes of the
Iroquois were constantly passing on the lakes and rivers of Canada,
from Georgian Bay to the Richelieu, and bands of those terrible foes of
the French and their Indian allies were ever lurking in the woods that
came so dangerously close to the white settlements and the Indian
villages.
In 1642, Father Isaac Jogues was returning from the missions on Lake
Huron, with Couture, an interpreter, and Goupil, a young medical
attendant--both donnés or lay followers of the Jesuits. They were in
the company of a number of Hurons who were bringing furs to the traders
on the St. Lawrence, when the Iroquois surprised them at the western
end of Lake St. Peter's. The prisoners were taken by the Richelieu to
the Mohawk country and Father Jogues was the first Frenchman to pass
through Lake George[1]--with its picturesque hills and islets--which in
a subsequent journey he named Lac du Saint-Sacrament, because he
reached it on the eve of Corpus Christi. The Frenchmen were carried
from village to village of the Iroquois, and {138} tortured with all
the cruel ingenuity usual in such cases. Goupil's thumb was cut off
with a clam shell, as one way of prolonging pain. At night the
prisoners were stretched on their backs with their ankles and wrists
bound to stakes. Couture was adopted into the tribe, and was found
useful in later years as an intermediary between the French and
Mohawks. Goupil was murdered and his body tossed into a stream rushing
down a steep ravine. Despite his sufferings Father Jogues never
desisted from his efforts to baptise children and administer the rites
of his Church to the tortured prisoners. On one occasion he performed
the sacred office for a dying Huron with some rain or dewdrops which
were still clinging to an ear of green corn which had been thrown to
him for food. After indescribable misery, he was taken to Fort Orange,
where the Dutch helped him to escape to France, but he returned to
Canada in the following year.
Bands of Iroquois continued to wage war with relentless fury on all the
Algonquin tribes from the Chaudière Falls of the Ottawa to the upper
waters of the Saguenay. Bressani, a highly cultured Italian priest,
was taken prisoner on the St. Lawrence, while on his way to the Huron
missions, and carried to the Mohawk villages, where he went through the
customary ordeal of torture. He was eventually given to an old woman
who had lost a member of her family, but when she saw his maimed
hands--one split between the little finger and the ring-finger--she
sent him to the Dutch, who ransomed and sent him to France, whence he
came back like Jogues, a year later.
{139}
In 1645 the Mohawks made peace with the French, but the other members
of the Five Nations refused to be bound by the treaty. Father Isaac
Jogues ventured into their country in 1646, and after a successful
negotiation returned to consult the governor at Quebec; but unhappily
for him he left behind a small box, filled with some necessaries of his
simple life, with which he did not wish to encumber himself on this
flying visit. The medicine-men or sorcerers, who always hated the
missionaries as the enemies of their vile superstitious practices, made
the Indians believe that this box contained an evil spirit which was
the origin of disease, misfortune, and death. When Father Jogues came
back, he found the village divided into two parties--one wishing his
death, the other inclined to show him mercy, and after infinite
wrangling between the factions, he was suddenly killed by a blow from a
tomahawk as he was entering a long-house, to attend a feast to which he
had been invited. His body was treated with contumely, and his head
affixed to a post of the palisades of the village. He was the first
martyr who suffered death at the hands of the Iroquois.
The "black robe" was now to be seen in every Indian community of
Canada; among the Hurons and Algonquins as far as Lake Huron, among the
White Fish tribe at the head-waters of the Saguenay, and even among the
Abenakis of the Kennebec. Father Gabriel Druillétes, who had served an
apprenticeship among the Montagnais, was in charge of this Abenaki
mission, and in the course of years {140} visited Boston, Plymouth, and
Salem, in the interests of the Canadian French, who wished to enter
into commercial relations with New England, and also induce its
governments to enter into an alliance against the Iroquois. The
authorities of the New England confederacy eventually refused to evoke
the hostility of the dangerous Five Nations. Father Druillétes,
however, won for Canada the enduring friendship of the Abenakis, as
Acadian history shows.
It is impossible within the limited space of this chapter to give any
accurate idea of the spirit of patience, zeal, and self-sacrifice which
the Jesuit Fathers exhibited in their missions among the hapless
Hurons. For years they found these Indians very suspicious of their
efforts to teach the lessons of their faith. It was only with
difficulty the missionaries could baptise little children. They would
give sugared water to a child, and, apparently by accident, drop some
on its head, and at the same time pronounce the sacramental words.
Some Indians believed for a long time that the books and strings of
beads were the embodiment of witchcraft. But the persistency of the
priests was at last rewarded by the conversion, or at all events the
semblance of conversion, of large numbers of Hurons. It would seem,
according as their fears of the Iroquois increased, the Hurons gave
greater confidence to the French, and became more dependent on their
counsel. In fact, in some respects, they lost their spirit of
self-reliance. In some villages the converts at last exceeded the
number of unbelievers. By {141} 1647 there were eighteen priests
engaged in the work of eleven missions, chiefly in the Huron country,
but also among the Algonquin tribes on the east and northeast of Lake
Huron or at the outlet of Lake Superior. Each mission had its little
chapel, and a bell, generally hanging on a tree. One central mission
house had been built at Ste. Marie close to a little river, now known
as 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 its
pictures attracted the special admiration of the Indians, whose
imagination was at last reached by the embellished ceremonies of the
Jesuits' church. The priests, thoroughly understanding the
superstitious character of the Indians, made a lavish use of pictorial
representations of pain and sufferings and rewards, allotted to bad and
good. Father Le Jeune tells us that "such holy pictures are most
useful object-lessons for the Indians." On one occasion he made a
special request for "three, four, or five devils, tormenting a soul
with a variety of punishments--one using fire, another serpents, and
another pincers." The mission house was also constantly full of
Indians, not simply enjoying these pictures, but participating also in
the generous hospitality of the Fathers.
It was in 1648 that the first blow descended on this unhappy people who
were in three years' time to be blotted out as a warlike, united nation
in {142} America. In that year the Iroquois attacked the mission of
St. Joseph (Teanaustayé), fifteen miles from Ste. Marie, where in 1638
a famous Iroquois, Ononkwaya, had been tortured. All the people had
been massacred or taken prisoners in the absence of the warriors who
were mostly in pursuit of a band of Iroquois. Father Daniel, arrayed
in the vestments of his vocation, was among the first to fall a victim
to the furious savages, who instantly cast his body into the flames of
his burning chapel,--a fitting pyre for the brave soldier of the Cross.
St. Ignace, St. Louis, and other missions were attacked early in the
following year. Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were
tortured and murdered at St. Ignace. From village after village the
shrieks of helpless women and men and children, tied to stakes in
burning houses, ascended to a seemingly pitiless Heaven. Many persons
were tortured on the spot, but as many or more reserved for the sport
of the Iroquois villages. Father Brebeuf was bound to a stake, and
around his neck was thrown a necklace of red-hot tomahawks. They cut
off his lower lip, and thrust a heated iron rod down his throat. It
was doubtless their delight to force a groan or complaint from this
stalwart priest, whose towering and noble figure had always been the
admiration of the Canadian Indians, but both he and Lalemant, a
relatively feeble man, showed themselves as brave as the most
courageous 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 missionaries
on the ground, and carried them to the mission house, where they were
buried in sacred earth. The skull of the generous, whole-souled
Brebeuf is still to be seen within a silver bust in the Hotel Dieu of
Quebec. Father Gamier was killed at the mission of St. Jean (Etarita),
in the raids which the Iroquois made at a later time on the Tobacco
Nation, the kindred of the Hurons. Father Chabanel, who was on his way
from St. Jean to Ste. Marie, was never heard of, and it is generally
believed that he was treacherously killed and robbed by a Huron.
The Hurons were still numerous despite the losses they had
suffered--counting even then more families than the Five Nations--but
as they looked on the smoking ruins of their villages and thought of
the undying hatred which had followed them for so many years they lost
all courage and decided to scatter and seek new homes elsewhere.
Father Ragueneau, the superior of the Jesuits, after consultation with
the Fathers and Frenchmen at Ste. Marie, some fifty persons altogether,
felt they could no longer safely remain in their isolated position when
the Hurons had left the country. They removed all their goods to the
Isle of St. Joseph, now one of the Christian Islands, near the entrance
of Matchedash Bay, where they erected a fortified post for the
protection of several thousand Hurons who had sought refuge here.
Before many months passed, the Hurons believed that their position
would be untenable when the Iroquois renewed their attacks, and
determined to leave the island. Some ventured {144} even among the
Iroquois and were formally received into the Senecas and other tribes.
A remnant remained a few months longer on the island, but they soon
left for Quebec after killing some thirty of the bravest Iroquois
warriors, who had attempted to obtain possession of the fort by a base
act of treachery. A number belonging to the Tobacco Nation eventually
reached the upper waters of the Mississippi where they met the Sioux,
or Dacotahs, a fierce nation belonging to a family quite distinct from
the Algonquins and Iroquois, and generally found wandering between the
head-waters of Lake Superior and the Falls of St. Anthony. After
various vicissitudes these Hurons scattered, but some found their rest
by the side of the Detroit River, where they have been always known as
Wyandots. Some three hundred Hurons, old and young, left St. Joseph
for Quebec, where they were most kindly received and given homes on the
western end of the Isle of Orleans, where the Jesuits built a fort for
their security; but even here, as we shall see, the Iroquois followed
them, and they were eventually forced to hide themselves under the guns
of Quebec. War and disease soon thinned them out, while not a few cast
in their lot with the Iroquois who were at last themselves seeking
recruits. The Huron remnant finally found a resting-place at Lorette
on the banks of the St. Charles, a few miles from the heights of the
Capital.
The only memorials now in Canada of a once powerful people, that
numbered at least twenty thousand souls before the time of their ruin
and {145} dispersion, are a remnant still retaining the language of
their tribe on the banks of the Detroit; a larger settlement on the
banks of the St. Charles, but without the distinguishing
characteristics of their ancestors who came there from Isle St. Joseph;
the foundations of the old mission house of Ste. Marie, and the
remarkable graves and ossuaries which interest the student and
antiquary as they wander in the summer-time through the picturesque
country where the nation was once supreme.
[1] It was so called in 1753, after the reigning sovereign of England
by an ambitions and politic Irishman, Sir William Johnson, whose name
is constantly occurring in the history of the wars between England and
France.
{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 were
startled by the remarkable spectacle of a long line of bark canoes
drawn up on the river immediately in front of the town. They could
hear the shouts of the Mohawk warriors making boast of the murder and
capture of unhappy Hurons, whom they had surprised on the Isle of
Orleans close by. The voices of Huron girls--"the very flower of the
tribe," says the Jesuit narrator--were raised in plaintive chants at
the rude command of their savage captors, who even forced them to dance
in sight of the French, on whose protection they had relied. The
governor, M. de Lauzon, a weak, incapable man, only noted for his
greed, was perfectly paralysed at a scene without example, even in
those days of terror, when the Iroquois were virtually masters of the
St. Lawrence valley from Huron to Gaspé.
{147}
At this very time a number of Frenchmen--probably fifty in all--were in
the power of the Iroquois, and the governor had no nerve to make even
an effort to save the Hurons from their fate. To understand the
situation of affairs, it is necessary to go back for a few years.
After the dispersion of the Hurons, the Iroquois, principally the
Mohawks, became bolder than ever on the St. Lawrence. M. du
Plessis-Bochat, the governor of Three Rivers, lost his life in a
courageous but ill-advised attempt to chastise a band of warriors that
were in ambush not far from the fort. Father Buteux was killed on his
way to his mission of the Attikamegs or White Fish tribe, at the
headwaters of the St. Maurice. In 1653, Father Poucet was carried off
to a Mohawk village, where he was tortured in the usual fashion, and
then sent back to Canada with offers of peace. The Senecas and Cayugas
were then busily engaged in exterminating the Eries, who had burned one
of their most famous chiefs, whose last words at the stake were
prophetic: "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, a
missionary of great tact and courage, who was the first Frenchman to
ascend the St. Lawrence as far as the Thousand Isles, ventured into the
Iroquois country, where he soon became a favourite. As a result of the
negotiations which followed this mission, Governor de Lauzon was
persuaded to send a colony to the villages of the Onondagas. This
colony 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, and
had brought back the request for a colony, accompanied the expedition,
which left Quebec in the month of June, 1656. On the way up the river
the Onondagas were attacked by a band of Mohawks, when the boats
carrying the French had gone ahead and were not within sight. Some of
the Onondagas were killed and wounded, and then the Mohawks found out
that they had surprised and injured warriors belonging to a tribe of
their own confederacy. They endeavoured to explain this very serious
act of hostility against their own friends and allies by the excuse
that they had mistaken them for Hurons, whom they were on the way to
attack. There is little doubt that they well understood the character
of the expedition, and attacked it through envy of the success of the
Onondagas in obtaining the settlement of Frenchmen in their villages.
When the Mohawks had made their explanations, they allowed the angry
Onondagas to proceed on their journey, while they themselves went on to
Quebec where, as we have already seen, they showed their contempt of
the French by assailing the Hurons under the very guns of the fort of
St. Louis. As soon as the French colony arrived at the Onondaga
villages, they took possession of the country in the name of Jesus. On
an eminence overlooking the lake they erected the mission of St. Mary
of Gannentaha, the correct Iroquois name for Onondaga, {149} in the
vicinity of the present city of Syracuse. The Onondagas generally
appeared delighted at the presence of the French, though at this very
time the Mohawks continued to paddle up and down the St. Lawrence to
the consternation of the French and Canadian Indians alike. The Jesuit
priest Garreau was killed in one of these excursions while accompanying
a party of Ottawas to Lake Superior.
The colonists at Gannentaha at last found that their own lives were
threatened by a conspiracy to destroy them, but they succeeded in
deceiving the Indians and in escaping to Canada in the month of March,
after living only two years among the Onondagas. Whilst the Indians
were sleeping away the effects of one of those mystic feasts, at which
they invariably stuffed themselves to repletion, the Frenchmen escaped
at night and reached the Oswego River, which they successfully
descended by the aid of flat-boats which they had secretly constructed
after the discovery of the plot. The party reached the French
settlement with the loss of three men, drowned in the descent of the
rapids of the St. Lawrence, probably the Cedars. The enterprise was
most hazardous at this season when the ice had to be broken on the
rivers before the boats could be used. But this very fact had its
advantage, since the bark canoes of the Indians would have been useless
had they followed the party. This exploit is one of the most
remarkable ever performed by the French in those early days, and shows
of what excellent material those pioneers of French colonisation were
made.
In the spring of 1660 it was discovered that an {150} organised attack
was to be made on all the settlements by a large force of over a
thousand Iroquois, who were to assemble at the junction of the Ottawa
and St. Lawrence rivers. It is stated on credible authority that
Montreal--Canada in fact--was saved at this critical juncture by the
heroism of a few devoted Frenchmen. Among the officers of the little
garrison 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 wintering
in large numbers on the upper Ottawa. Sixteen brave fellows, whose
names are all recorded in the early records of Montreal, took a solemn
oath to accept and give no quarter, and after settling their private
affairs and receiving the sacrament, they set out on their mission of
inevitable death. Dollard and his band soon reached the impetuous
rapids of the Long Sault of the Ottawa, destined to be their
Thermopylae. There, among the woods, they found an old circular
inclosure of logs, which had been built by some Indians for defensive
purposes. This was only a wretched bulwark, but the Frenchmen were in
a state of exalted enthusiasm, and proceeded to strengthen it. Only
two or three days after their arrival, they heard that the Iroquois
were descending the river. The first attacks of the Iroquois were
repulsed, and then they sent out scouts to bring up a large force of
five hundred warriors who were at the mouth of the Richelieu. In the
meantime they continued harassing the inmates of the fort, who were
suffering for food and {151} water. A band of Hurons who had joined
the 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 the
yells of the Iroquois, when reinforced. Still Dollard and his brave
companions never faltered, but day after day beat back the astonished
assailants, who knew the weakness of the defenders, and had anticipated
an easy victory. At last a general assault was made, and in the
struggle Dollard was killed. Even then the survivors kept up the
fight, and when the Iroquois stood within the inclosure there was no
one to meet them. Four Frenchmen, still alive, were picked up from the
pile of corpses. Three of these were instantly burned, while the
fourth was reserved for continuous torture a day or so later. The
faithless Hurons gained nothing by their desertion, for they were put
to death, with the exception of five who eluded their captors, and took
an account of this remarkable episode to the French at Montreal. The
Iroquois were obviously amazed at the courage of a few Frenchmen, and
decided to give up, for the present, their project of attacking
settlements defended by men so dauntless.
Even the forces of nature seemed at this time to conspire against the
unfortunate colony. A remarkable earthquake, the effects of which can
still be seen on the St. Lawrence,--at picturesque Les Eboulements,
which means "earth slips," for instance,--commenced in the month of
February, 1663, and did not cease entirely until the following summer.
{152}
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, especially
by M. d'Avaugour, who recommended that three thousand soldiers be sent
to the colony, and allowed to become settlers after a certain term of
service. By 1663, the total population of Canada did not exceed two
thousand souls, the large majority of whom were at Quebec, Montreal,
and Three Rivers. It was at the risk of their lives that men ventured
beyond the guns of Montreal. The fur-trade was in the hands of
monopolists. The people could not raise enough food to feed
themselves, but had to depend on the French ships to a large extent.
The Company of the Hundred Associates had been found quite unequal to
the work of settling and developing the country, or providing adequate
means of defence. Under the advice of the great Colbert, the King,
young Louis Quatorze, decided to assume the control of New France and
make it a royal province. The immediate result of the new policy was
the coming of the Marquis de Tracy, a veteran soldier, as
lieutenant-general, with full powers to inquire into the state of
Canada. He arrived at Quebec on the 30th June, 1665, attended by a
brilliant retinue. The Carignan-Salières Regiment, which had
distinguished itself against the Turks, was also sent as a proof of the
intention of the King to defend his long-neglected colony. In a few
weeks, more than two thousand persons, soldiers and settlers, had come
to Canada. Among {153} the number were M. de Courcelles, the first
governor, and M. Talon, the first intendant, under the new régime.
Both were fond of state and ceremony, and the French taste of the
Canadians was now gratified by a plentiful display of gold lace,
ribbons, wigs, ornamented swords, and slouched hats. Probably the most
interesting feature of the immigration was the number of young women as
wives for the bachelors--as the future mothers of a Canadian people.
The new authorities went energetically to work. The fortifications at
Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were strengthened, and four new
forts erected from the mouth of the Richelieu to Isle La Mothe on Lake
Champlain. The Iroquois saw the significance of this new condition of
things. The Onondagas, led by Garacontié, a friend of the Jesuits,
made overtures of peace, which were favourably heard by "Onontio," as
the governor of Canada had been called ever since the days of
Montmagny, 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 large
force of regular soldiers and fur hunters, but missed the trail to
their villages, and found himself at the Dutch settlements, where he
learned, to his dismay, that the English had become the possessors of
the New Netherlands. On its return, the expedition suffered terribly
from the severe cold, and lost a number of persons who were killed by
the Indians, always hovering in the rear. The Mohawks then {154}
thought it prudent to send a deputation to treat for peace, but the
Marquis de Tracy and Governor de Courcelles were suspicious of their
good faith, and sent a Jesuit priest to their country to ascertain the
real sentiment of the tribe. He was recalled, while on the way, on
account of the news that several French officers--one of them a
relative of the lieutenant-general--had been murdered by the Mohawks.
The lieutenant-general and governor at once organised a powerful
expedition of the regular forces and Canadian inhabitants--some
thirteen hundred in all--who left Quebec, with those two distinguished
officers in command, on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, the
14th September, 1666, as every effort was made to give a religious
aspect to an army, intended to avenge the death of martyred
missionaries, as well as to afford Canada some guarantees of peace. It
took the expedition nearly a month to reach the first village of the Mo
hawks, but only to find it deserted. It was the same result in three
other villages visited by the French. The Mohawks had made
preparations for defence, but their courage failed them as they heard
of the formidable character of the force that had come into the
country. They deserted their homes and great stores of provisions.
Villages and provisions were burned, and the Iroquois saw only ashes
when they returned after the departure of the French. It was a great
blow to these formidable foes of the French. Peace was soon made
between the Five Nations and the French. The Marquis de Tracy then
returned to France, and for twenty years {155} Canada had a respite
from the raids which had so seriously disturbed her tranquillity, and
was enabled at last to organise her new government, extend her
settlements, and develop her strength for days of future trial.
{156}
XI.
CANADA AS A ROYAL PROVINCE--CHURCH AND STATE.
(1663-1759.)
We have now come to that period of Canadian history when the political
and social conditions of the people assumed those forms which they
retained, with a few modifications from time to time, during the whole
of the French régime. Four men now made a permanent impress on the
struggling colony so long neglected by the French Government. First,
was the King, Louis Quatorze, then full of the arrogance and confidence
of a youthful prince, imbued with the most extravagant idea of his
kingly attributes. By his side was the great successor of Mazarin,
Jean Baptiste Colbert, whose knowledge of finance, earnest desire to
foster the best resources of the kingdom, acknowledged rectitude, as
well as admirable tact, gave him not only great influence in France,
but enabled him to sway the mind of the autocratic king at most
critical junctures. Happily for Colbert and Canada, Louis was a most
industrious {157} as well as pleasure-seeking sovereign, and studied
the documents, which his various servants, from Colbert to the
intendants in the colonies, sent him from time to time respecting their
affairs.
In Canada itself the great minister had the aid of the ablest intendant
ever sent by the King to Canada. This was Jean Baptiste Talon, who was
not inferior to Colbert for his knowledge of commerce and finance, and
clearness of intellect.
We see also in the picture of those times the piercing eyes and
prominent nose of the ascetic face of the eminent divine who, even more
than Colbert and Talon, has moulded the opinions of the Canadian people
in certain important respects down to the present time. Monseigneur
Laval was known in France as the Abbé de Montigny, and when the Jesuits
induced 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 the
Abbé de Montigny as a bishop they had made an experiment with the Abbé
Queylus, one of the four Sulpician priests who came to Montreal in
1657, to look after the spiritual, and subsequently its temporal,
interests. The Abbé had been appointed vicar-general of Canada by the
Archbishop of Rouen, who claimed a certain ecclesiastical jurisdiction
in the country, and the Jesuits at Quebec were at first disposed to
make him bishop had they found him sufficiently ductile. After some
experience of his opinions and character, they came to the conclusion
that he was not a friend of their {158} order, and used all their
influence thenceforth to drive him from Canada. Then they chose the
Abbé de Montigny, between whom and the Abbé Queylus there ensued a
conflict of authority, which ended eventually in the defeat of the
latter, as well as of the Archbishop of Rouen. The Abbé, divested of
his former dignity and pretensions, returned in later years to the
island of Montreal, of which the Sulpicians had become the seigniorial
proprietors, when the original company were too weak to carry out the
objects of their formation. The same order remains in possession of
their most valuable lands in the city and island, where their seminary
for the education of priests and youth generally occupies a high
position among the educational institutions of the province.
Bishop Laval was endowed with an inflexible will, and eminently fitted
to assert those ultramontane principles which would make all temporal
power subordinate to the Pope and his vicegerents on earth. His claim
to take precedence even of the governor on certain public occasions
indicates the extremes to which this resolute dignitary of the Church
was 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 the
establishment of those famous seminaries at Quebec, which have been
ever since identified with the religious and secular instruction of the
French Canadians, and now form part of the noble university which bears
his name.
{159}
With a man like Laval at the head of the Church in Canada at this early
period, it necessarily exercised a powerful influence at the council
board, and in the affairs of the country generally. If he was
sometimes too arbitrary, too arrogant in the assertion of his
ecclesiastical dignity, yet he was also {160} animated by very
conscientious motives with respect to temporal questions. In the
quarrel he had with the governor, Baron Dubois d'Avaugour, an old
soldier, as to the sale of brandy to the Indians, he showed that his
zeal in the discharge of what he believed to be a Christian and
patriotic duty predominated above all such mercenary and commercial
considerations as animated the governor and officials, who believed
that the trading interests of the country were injured by prohibition.
Laval saw that the very life-blood of the Indians was being poisoned by
this traffic, and succeeded in obtaining the removal of D'Avaugour.
But all the efforts of himself and his successor, Saint-Vallier, could
not practically restrain the sale of spirituous liquors, as long as the
fur-trade so largely depended on their consumption.
At this time, and for a long time afterwards, Protestantism was unknown
in Canada, for the King and Jesuits had decided to keep the colony
entirely free from heresy. The French Protestants, after the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, gave to England and the Netherlands
the benefit of their great industry and manufacturing knowledge. Some
of them even found their way to America, and stimulated the gathering
strength of the southern colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas.
The new régime under Colbert was essentially parental. All emigration
was under the direction of the French authorities. Wives were sent by
shiploads for the settlers, newly-wedded couples received liberal
presents suitable to their condition in a new country; early marriages
and large families were {161} encouraged by bounties. Every possible
care was taken by the officials and religious communities who had
charge of such matters, that the women were of good morals, and
suitable 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 of
manufactures and commerce. When the Company of the Hundred Associates,
who appear to have been robbed by their agents in the colony, fell to
pieces, they were replaced by a large organisation, known as the
Company of the West, to which was given very important privileges
throughout all the French colonies and dependencies. The company,
however, never prospered, and came to an end in 1674, after ten years'
existence, during which it inflicted much injury on the countries where
it was given so many privileges. The government hereafter controlled
all commerce and finance. Various manufactures, like shipbuilding,
leather, hemp, and beer, were encouraged, but at no time did Canada
show any manufacturing or commercial enterprise. Under the system of
monopolies and bounties fostered by Colbert and his successors, a
spirit of self-reliance was never stimulated. The whole system of
government tended to peculation and jobbery--to the enrichment of
worthless officials. The people were always extremely poor. Money was
rarely seen in the shape of specie. The few coins that came to the
colony soon found their way back to France. From 1685 down to 1759 the
government issued a {162} paper currency, known as "card money,"
because common playing cards were used. This currency bore the crown
and fleur-de-lis and signatures of officials, and gradually became
depreciated and worthless.
[Illustration: Card issue of 1729, for 12 livres.]
While the townsfolk of Massachusetts were discussing affairs in
town-meetings, the French inhabitants of Canada were never allowed to
take part in public assemblies but were taught to depend in the most
trivial matters on a paternal government. Canada was governed as far
as possible like a province of France. In the early days of the
colony, when it was under the rule of the Company of the Hundred
Associates, the governors practically exercised arbitrary power, with
the assistance of a nominal council chosen by themselves. When,
however, {163} the King took the government of the colony into his own
hands, he appointed a governor, an intendant, and a supreme or--as it
was subsequently called--a sovereign council, of which the bishop was a
member, to administer under his own direction the affairs of the
country. The governor, who was generally a soldier, was nominally at
the head of affairs, and had the direction of the defences of the
colony, but to all intents and purposes the intendant, who was a man of
legal attainments, had the greater influence. He was the finance
minister, and made special reports to the King on all Canadian matters.
He had the power of issuing ordinances which had the effect of law, and
showed the arbitrary nature of the government to which the people were
subject. Every effort to assemble the people for public purposes was
systematically crushed by the orders of the government. A public
meeting of the parishioners to consider the cost of a new church could
not be held without the special permission of the intendant. Count
Frontenac, immediately after his arrival, in 1672, attempted to
assemble the different orders of the colony, the clergy, the _noblesse_
{164} or _seigneurs_, the judiciary, and the third estate, in imitation
of the old institutions of France. The French king promptly rebuked
the haughty governor for this attempt to establish a semblance of
popular government.
[Illustration: Fifteen sol piece.]
From that moment we hear no more of the assembling of "Canadian
Estates," and an effort to elect a mayor and aldermen for Quebec also
failed through the opposition of the authorities. An attempt was then
made to elect a syndic--a representative of popular rights in
towns--but M. de Mésy, then governor, could not obtain the consent of
the bishop, who knew that his views were those of the King. The result
of the difficulties that followed was the dismissal of the governor,
who died soon afterwards, but not until he had confessed his error, and
made his peace with the haughty bishop whom he had dared to oppose.
The administration of local affairs throughout the province was
exclusively under the control of the King's officers at Quebec. The
ordinances of the intendant and of the council were the law. The
country was eventually subdivided into the following divisions for
purposes of government, settlement, and justice: 1. Districts. 2.
Seigniories. 3. Parishes. The districts were simply established for
judicial and legal purposes, and each of them bore the name of the
principal town within its limits--viz., Quebec, also called the
_Prévoté de Quebec_, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In each of these
districts there was a judge, appointed by the king, to adjudicate on
all civil and criminal matters. An appeal was allowed in the most
trivial cases to the {165} supreme or superior council, which also
exercised original jurisdiction. The customary law of Paris, which is
based on the civil law of Rome, was the fundamental law of Canada, and
still governs the civil rights of the people.
The greater part of Canada was divided into large estates or
seigniories, with the view of creating a colonial _noblesse_, and of
stimulating settlement in a wilderness. It was not necessary to be of
noble birth to be a Canadian seigneur. Any trader with a few louis
d'or and influence could obtain a patent for a Canadian lordship. The
seignior on his accession to his estate was required to pay homage to
the King, or to his feudal superior in case the lands were granted by
another than the King. The seignior received his land gratuitously
from the crown, and granted them to his vassals, who were generally
known as _habitants_, or cultivators of the soil, on condition of their
making small annual payments in money or produce known as _cens et
rente_. The _habitant_ was obliged to grind his corn at the seignior's
mill (_moulin banal_), bake his bread in the seignior's oven, give his
lord a tithe of the fish caught in his waters, and comply with other
conditions at no time onerous or strictly enforced in the days of the
French régime. This system had some advantages in a new country like
Canada, where the government managed everything, and colonisation was
not left to chance. The seignior was obliged to cultivate his estate
at a risk of forfeiture, consequently it was absolutely necessary that
he should exert himself to bring settlers upon his lands. The
obligation of the _habitant_ to grind his corn in the seignior's {166}
mill was clearly an advantage for the settlers. In the early days of
the colony, however, the seigniors were generally too poor to fulfil
this condition, and the _habitants_ had to grind corn between stones,
or in rude hand mills. The seigniors had the right of dispensing
justice in certain cases, though it was one he very rarely exercised.
As respects civil affairs, however, both lord and vassal were to all
intents and purposes on the same footing, for they were equally ignored
in matters of government.
In the days of the French régime, the only towns for many years were
Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. In remote and exposed places--like
those on the Richelieu, where officers and soldiers of the
Carignan-Salières Regiment had been induced to settle--palisaded
villages had been built. The principal settlements were, in course of
time, established on the banks of the St. Lawrence, as affording in
those days the easiest means of intercommunication. As the lots of a
seigniorial grant were limited in area--four arpents in front by forty
in depth--the farms in the course of time assumed the appearance of a
continuous settlement on the river. These various settlements became
known in local phraseology as Côtes, apparently from their natural
situation on the banks of the river. This is the origin of Côte des
Neiges, Côte St. Louis, Côte St. Paul, and of many picturesque villages
in the neighbourhood of Montreal and Quebec. As the country became
settled, parishes were established for ecclesiastical purposes and the
administration of local affairs. Here the influential men were the
curé, the seignior, and the captain of the militia. The seignior, from
{167} his social position, exercised a considerable weight in the
community, but not to the degree that the representative of the Church
enjoyed. The church in the parishes was kept up by tithes, regulated
by ordinances, and first imposed by Bishop Laval for the support of the
Quebec Seminary and the clergy. Next to the curé in importance was the
captain of the militia. The whole province was formed into a militia
district, so that, in times of war, the inhabitants might be obliged to
perform military service under the French governor. In times of peace
these militia officers in the parishes executed the orders of the
governor and intendant in all matters affecting the King. In case it
was considered necessary to build a church or presbytery, the intendant
authorised the _habitants_ to assemble for the purpose of choosing from
among themselves four persons to make, with the curé, the seignior, and
the captain of the militia, an estimate of the expense of the
structure. It was the special care of the captain of the militia to
look after the work, and see that each parishioner did his full share.
It was only in church matters, in fact, that the people of a parish had
a voice, and even in these, as we see, they did not take the
initiative. The Quebec authorities must in all such cases first issue
an ordinance.
Under these circumstances it is quite intelligible that the people of
Canada were obliged to seek in the clearing of the forest, in the
cultivation of the field, in the chase, and in adventure, the means of
livelihood, and hardly ever busied themselves about public matters in
which they were not allowed to take even a humble part.
{168}
XII.
THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY:
PRIESTS, FUR-TRADERS, AND COUREURS DE BOIS
IN THE WEST.
(1634-1687.)
We have now come to that interesting period in the history of Canada,
when the enterprise and courage of French adventurers gave France a
claim to an immense domain, stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence
indefinitely beyond the Great Lakes, and from the basin of those island
seas as far as the Gulf of Mexico. The eminent intendant, Talon,
appears to have immediately understood the importance of the discovery
which had been made by the interpreter and trader, Jean Nicolet, of
Three Rivers, who, before the death of Champlain, probably in 1634,
ventured into the region of the lakes, and heard of "a great water"--no
doubt the Mississippi--while among the Mascoutins, a branch of the
Algonquin stock, whose villages were generally found in the valley of
the Fox River. He is considered to have been the first European who
reached Sault Ste. Marie--the strait between Superior and {169}
Huron--though there is no evidence that he ventured beyond the rapids,
and saw the great expanse of lake which had been, in all probability,
visited some years before by Etienne Brulé, after his escape from the
Iroquois. Nicolet also was the first Frenchman who passed through the
straits of Mackinac or Michillimackinac, though he did not realise the
importance of its situation in relation to the lakes of the western
country. It is told of him that he made his appearance among the
Winnebagos in a robe of brilliant China damask, decorated with flowers
and birds of varied colours, and holding a pistol in each hand. This
theatrical display in the western forest is adduced as evidence of his
belief in the story that he had heard among the Nipissings, at the
head-waters of the Ottawa, that there were tribes in the west, without
hair and beards, like the Chinese. No doubt, he thought he was coming
to a country where, at last, he would find that short route to the
Chinese seas which had been the dream of many Frenchmen since the days
of Cartier. We have no answer to give to the question that naturally
suggests itself, whether Champlain ever saw Nicolet on his return, and
heard from him the interesting story of his adventures. It was not
until 1641, or five years after Champlain's death, that Father Vimont
gave to the world an account of Nicolet's journey, which, no doubt,
stimulated the interest that was felt in the mysterious region of the
west. From year to year the Jesuit and the trader added something to
the geographical knowledge of the western lakes, where the secret was
soon to be {170} unlocked by means of the rivers which fed those
remarkable reservoirs of the continent. In 1641 Fathers Raymbault and
Jogues preached their Faith to a large concourse of Indians at the
Sault between Huron and Superior, where, for the first time, they heard
of the Sioux or Dacotah, those vagrants of the northwest, and where the
former died without realising the hope he had cherished, of reaching
China across the western wilderness. Then came those years of terror,
when trade and enterprise were paralysed by those raids of the
Iroquois, which culminated in the dispersion of the Hurons. For years
the Ottawa valley was almost deserted, and very few traders or
_coureurs de bois_ ventured into the country around the western lakes.
An enterprising trader of Three Rivers, Médard Chouart, Sieur de
Grosseilliers, is believed to have reached the shores of Lake Superior
in 1658, and also to have visited La Pointe, now Ashland, at its
western extremity, in the summer of 1659, in company with Pierre
d'Esprit, Sieur Radisson, whose sister he had married. Some critical
historians do not altogether discredit the assumption that these two
venturesome traders ascended the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and even
reached the Mississippi, twelve years before Jolliet and Marquette.
With the peace that followed the destruction of the Mohawk villages by
Tracy and Courcelles, and the influx of a considerable population into
Canada, the conditions became more favourable for exploration and the
fur trade. The tame and steady life of the farm had little charm for
many restless spirits, {171} who had fought for France in the Carignan
Regiment. Not a few of them followed the roving Canadian youth into
the forest, where they had learned to love the free life of the
Indians. The priest, the _gentilhomme_, and the _coureur de bois_,
each in his way, became explorers of the western wilderness.
From the moment the French landed on the shores of Canada, they seemed
to enter into the spirit of forest life. Men of noble birth and
courtly associations adapted themselves immediately to the customs of
the Indians, and found that charm in the forest and river which seemed
wanting in the tamer life of the towns and settlements. The English
colonisers of New England were never able to win the affections of the
Indian tribes, and adapt themselves so readily to the habits of forest
life as the French Canadian adventurer.
A very remarkable instance of the infatuation which led away so many
young men into the forest, is to be found in the life of Baron de
Saint-Castin, a native of the romantic Bernese country, who came to
Canada with the Carignan Regiment during 1665, and established himself
for a time on the Richelieu. But he soon became tired of his inactive
life, and leaving his Canadian home, settled on a peninsula of
Penobscot Bay (then Pentagoët), which still bears his name. Here he
fraternised with the Abenaquis, and led the life of a forest chief,
whose name was long the terror of the New England settlers. He married
the daughter of Madocawando, the implacable enemy of the English, and
so influential did he become that, at his summons, all the tribes on
{172} the frontier between Acadia and New England would proceed on the
warpath. He amassed a fortune of three hundred thousand crowns in
"good dry gold," but we are told he only used the greater part of it to
buy presents for his Indian followers, who paid him back in beaver
skins. His life at Pentagoët, for years, was very active and
adventurous, as the annals of New England show. In 1781 he returned to
France, where he had an estate, and thenceforth disappeared from
history. His son, by his Abenaqui Baroness, then took command of his
fort and savage retainers, and after assisting in the defence of Port
Royal, and making more than one onslaught on the English settlers of
Massachusetts, he returned to Europe on the death of his father. The
poet Longfellow has made use of this romantic episode in the early life
of the Acadian settlements:
"The warm winds blow on the hills of Spain,
The birds are building and the leaves are green,
The Baron Castine, of St. Castine,
Hath come at last to his own again."
[Illustration: Canadian trapper, from La Potherie.]
Year after year saw the settlements almost denuded of their young men,
who had been lured away by the fascinations of the fur trade in the
forest fastnesses of the west. The government found all their plans
for increasing the population and colonising the country thwarted by
the nomadic habits of a restless youth. The young man, whether son of
the _gentilhomme_, or of the humble _habitant_, was carried away by his
love for forest life, and no enactments, however severe--not even the
penalty of {174} death--had the effect of restraining his restlessness.
That the majority of the _coureurs de bois_ were a reckless, dare-devil
set of fellows, it is needless to say. On their return from their
forest haunts, after months of savage liberty, they too often threw off
all restraint, and indulged in the most furious orgies. Montreal was
their favourite place of resort, for here were held the great fairs for
the sale of furs. The Ottawas, Hurons, and other tribes came from
distant parts of the North and West, and camped on the shores in the
immediate vicinity of the town. When the fair was in full operation, a
scene was represented well worthy of the bold brush of a Doré. The
royal mountain, then as now, formed a background of rare sylvan beauty.
The old town was huddled together on the low lands near the river, and
was for years a mere collection of low wooden houses and churches, all
surrounded by palisades. On the fair ground were to be seen Indians
tricked out in their savage finery; _coureurs de bois_ in equally
gorgeous apparel; black-robed priests and busy merchants from all the
towns, intent on wheedling the Indians and bush rangers out of their
choicest furs.
The principal rendezvous in the west was Mackinac or Michillimackinac.
Few places possessed a more interesting history than this old
headquarters of the Indian tribes and French voyageurs. Mackinac may
be considered, in some respects, the key of the upper lakes. Here the
tribes from the north to the south could assemble at a very short
notice and decide on questions of trade or war. It was long the
metropolis of a large portion of the Huron {175} and Ottawa nations,
and many a council, fraught with the peace of Canada, was held there in
the olden times. It was on the north side of the straits that Father
Marquette--whose name must ever live in the west--some time in 1671
founded the mission of St. Ignace, where gradually grew up the most
important settlement which the French had to the northwest of Fort
Frontenac or Cataraqui. The French built a chapel and fort, and the
Hurons and Ottawas lived in palisaded villages in the neighbourhood.
The _coureurs de bois_ were always to be seen at a point where they
could be sure to find Indians in large numbers. Contemporary writers
state that the presence of so many unruly elements at this distant
outpost frequently threw the whole settlement into a sad state of
confusion and excitement, which the priests were at times entirely
unable to restrain. Indians, soldiers, and traders became at last so
demoralised, that one of the priests wrote, in his despair, that there
seemed no course open except "deserting the missions and giving them up
to the brandy-sellers as a domain of drunkenness and debauchery."
But it would be a mistake to judge all the _coureurs de bois_ by the
behaviour of a majority, who were made up necessarily from the ruder
elements of the Canadian population. Even the most reckless of their
class had their work to do in the opening up of this continent.
Despising danger in every form, they wandered over rivers and lakes and
through virgin forests, and "blazed" a track, as it were, for the
future pioneer. They were the first to lift the {176} veil of mystery
that hung, until they came, on many a solitary river and forest. The
posts they raised by the side of the western lakes and rivers, were so
many videttes of that army of colonisers who have built up great
commonwealths in that vast country, where the bushranger was the only
European two centuries ago. The most famous amongst their leaders was
the quick-witted Nicholas Perrot--the explorer of the interior of the
continent. Another was Daniel Greysolon Duluth, who became a Canadian
Robin Hood, and had his band of bushrangers like any forest chieftain.
For years he wandered through the forests of the West, and founded
various posts at important points, where the fur trade could be
prosecuted to advantage. Posterity has been more generous to him than
it has been to others equally famous as pioneers, for it has given his
name to a city at the head of Lake Superior. Like many a forest which
they first saw in its primeval vastness, these pioneers have
disappeared into the shadowy domain of an almost forgotten past, and
their memory is only recalled as we pass by some storm-beat cape, or
land-locked bay, or silent river, to which may still cling the names
they gave as they swept along in the days of the old régime.
{177}
XIII.
THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY:
FRANCE IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
(1672-1687.)
Sault St. Marie was the scene of a memorable episode in the history of
New France during the summer of 1671. Simon François Daumont, Sieur
St. Lusson, received a commission from the government of Quebec to
proceed to Lake Superior to search for copper mines, and also to take
formal possession of the basin of the lakes and its tributary rivers.
With him were two men, who became more famous than himself--Nicholas
Perrot and Louis Jolliet, the noted explorers and rangers of the West.
On an elevation overlooking the rapids, around which modern enterprise
has built two ship-canals, St. Lusson erected a cross and post of
cedar, with the arms of France, in the presence of priests in their
black robes, Indians bedecked with tawdry finery, and bushrangers in
motley dress. In the name of the "most high, mighty, and redoubted
monarch, Louis XIV. of that name, most Christian King of France and of
{178} Navarre," he declared France the owner of Sault Ste. Marie, Lakes
Huron and Superior, and Isle of Mackinac, and "all of adjacent
countries, rivers, and lakes, and contiguous streams." As far as
boastful words and, priestly blessings could go, France was mistress of
an empire in the great West.
Three names stand out in bold letters on the records of western
discovery: Jolliet, the enterprising trader, Marquette, the faithful
missionary, and La Salle, the bold explorer. The story of their
adventures takes up many pages in the histories of this fascinating
epoch. Talon may be fairly considered to have laid the foundations of
western exploration, and it was left for Louis de Baude, Comte de
Frontenac, who succeeded Courcelles as governor in 1672, to carry out
the plans of the able intendant when he left the St. Lawrence.
Jolliet, a Canadian by birth, was wisely chosen by Talon--and Frontenac
approved of the choice--to explore the West and find the "great water,"
of which vague stories were constantly brought back by traders and
bushrangers. Jolliet was one of the best specimens of a trader and
pioneer that Canadian history gives us. His roving inclinations were
qualified by a cool, collected brain, which carried him safely through
many a perilous adventure. He had for his companion Father Marquette,
who was then stationed at the mission of St. Ignace, and had gathered
from the Indians at his western missions--especially at La Pointe on
Lake 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 La
Salle, he was in full accord with their objects. Marquette possessed
those qualities of self-sacrifice and religious devotion which entitle
him to rank with Lalemant, Jogues, and Brebeuf. While Jolliet was
inspired by purely ambitious and trading instincts, the missionary had
no other hope or desire than to bring a great region and its savage
communities under the benign influence of the divine being whose
heavenly face seemed ever present, encouraging him to fresh efforts in
her service. It was in the spring of 1673 that these two men started
with five companions in two canoes on their journey through that
wilderness, which stretched beyond Green Bay--an English corruption of
Grande Baie. Like Nicolet, they ascended the Fox River to the country
of the Mascoutins, Foxes, and Kickapoos, where they obtained guides to
lead them across the portage to the Wisconsin. The adventurers had now
reached the low "divide" between the valleys of the Lakes and the
Mississippi. The Fox River and its affluents flowed tranquilly to the
great reservoirs of the St. Lawrence, while the Wisconsin, on which
they now launched their canoes, carried them to a mighty river, which
ended they knew not where. A month after leaving St. Ignace they found
themselves "with a great and inexpressible joy"--to quote Marquette's
words--on the rapid current of a river which they recognised as the
Missipi. As they proceeded they saw the low-lying natural meadows and
prairies where herds {180} of buffalo were grazing, marshes with a
luxuriant growth of wild rice, the ruined castles which nature had in
the course of many centuries formed out of the rocks of the western
shores, and the hideous manitous which Indian ingenuity had pictured on
the time-worn cliffs. They had pleasant interviews with the Indians
that were hunting the roebuck and buffalo in this land of rich grasses.
Their canoes struggled through the muddy current, which the Missouri
gave as its tribute to the Missipi, passed the low marshy shores of the
Ohio, and at last came near the mouth of the Arkansas, where they
landed at an Indian village which the natives called Akamsea. Here
they gathered sufficient information to enable them to form the
conclusion that the great river before their eyes found its way, not to
the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, but to the Gulf of Mexico. Then they
decided not to pursue their expeditions further at that time, but to
return home and relate the story of their discovery. When they came to
the mouth of the Illinois River, they took that route in preference to
the one by which they had come, followed the Des Plaines River,--where
a hill still bears Jolliet's name--crossed the Chicago portage, and at
last found themselves at the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. It
was then the end of September, and Jolliet did not reach Canada until
the following summer. When nearly at his journey's end, Fate dealt him
a cruel blow, his canoe was capsized after running the Lachine Rapids
just above Montreal, and he lost all the original notes of his journey.
Frontenac, however, received from {181} him a full account of his
explorations, and sent it to France.
Two centuries later than this memorable voyage of Jolliet, a French
Canadian poet-laureate described it in verse fully worthy of the
subject, 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 of
many years of usefulness in new missions among the tribes of the
immense region claimed by France. In the spring of 1675 he died by the
side of a little stream which finds its outlet on the western shore of
Lake Michigan, soon after his return from a painful journey he had
taken, while in a feeble state of health, to the Indian communities of
Kaskaskia between the Illinois and {183} Wabash rivers. A few months
later his remains were removed by some Ottawas, who knew and loved him
well, and carried to St. Ignace, where they were buried beneath the
little mission chapel. His memory has been perpetuated in the
nomenclature of the western region, and his statue stands in the
rotunda of that marble capitol which represents, not the power and
greatness of that France which he loved only less than his Church, but
the national development of those English colonies which, in his time,
were only a narrow fringe on the Atlantic coast, separated from the
great West by mountain ranges which none of the most venturesome of
their people had yet dared to cross.
The work that was commenced by Jolliet and Marquette, of solving the
mystery that had so long surrounded the Mississippi, was completed by
Réné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, a native of Rouen, who came to
Canada when quite a young man, and obtained a grant of land from the
Sulpician proprietors of Montreal at the head of the rapids, then known
as St. Louis. Like so many Canadians of those days he was soon carried
away by a spirit of adventure. He had heard of the "great water" in
the west, which he believed, in common with others, might lead to the
Gulf of California. In the summer of 1669 he accompanied two Sulpician
priests, of Montreal, Dollier de Casson and Gallinée, on an expedition
they made, under the authority of Governor Courcelles, to the extreme
western end of Ontario, where he met Jolliet, apparently for the first
time, and probably had many conversations {184} with him respecting the
west and south, and their unknown rivers. He decided to leave the
party and attempt an exploration by a southerly route, while the
priests went on to the upper lakes as far as the Sault. Of La Salle's
movements for the next two years we are largely in the dark--in some
respects entirely so. It has been claimed by some that he first
discovered the Ohio, and even reached the Mississippi, but so careful
an historian as Justin Winsor agrees with Shea's conclusion that La
Salle "reached the Illinois or some other affluent of the Mississippi,
but made no report and made no claim, having failed to reach the great
river." It was on his return from these mysterious wanderings, that
his seigniory is said to have received the name of La Chine as a
derisive comment on his failure to find a road to China. In the course
of years the name was very commonly given, not only to the lake but to
the rapids of St. Louis.
[Illustration: Réné Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle]
We now come to sure ground when we follow La Salle's later
explorations, on which his fame entirely rests. Frontenac entered
heartily into his plans of following the Mississippi to its mouth, and
setting at rest the doubts that existed as to its course. He received
from the King a grant of Fort Frontenac and its surrounding lands as a
seigniory. This fort had been built by the governor in 1673 at
Cataraqui, now Kingston, as an advanced trading and defensive post on
Lake Ontario. La Salle considered it a most advantageous position for
carrying on his ambitious projects of exploration. He visited France
in 1677 and received from the King letters-patent {186} authorising him
to build forts south and west in that region "through which it would
seem a passage to Mexico can be discovered." On his return to Canada
he was accompanied by a Recollet friar, Father Louis Hennepin, and by
Henry de Tonty, the son of an Italian resident of Paris, both of whom
have associated their names with western exploration. Of all his
friends and followers, Tonty, who had a copper hand in the place of the
one blown off in an Italian war, was the most faithful and honest,
through the varying fortunes of the explorer's career from this time
forward. To Father Hennepin I refer in another place.
Both Hennepin and Tonty accompanied La Salle on his expedition of 1678
to the Niagara district, where, above the great falls, near the mouth
of Cayuga Creek, he built the first vessel that ever ventured on the
lakes, and which he named the "Griffin" in honour of Frontenac, whose
coat-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 a
great blow to La Salle, who, from this time until his death, suffered
many misfortunes which might well have discouraged one of less
indomitable will and fixity of purpose. On the banks of the Illinois
River, a little below the present city of Peoria, he built Fort
Crèvecoeur, 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 not
far from Cataraqui, and severely punished.
{187}
In the meantime, three Frenchmen, Father Hennepin, Michel Accaut, and
one Du Gay, in obedience to La Salle's orders, had ventured to the
upper waters of the Mississippi, and were made prisoners by a wandering
tribe of Sioux. Not far from the falls of St. Anthony Father Hennepin
met with the famous forest ranger, Duluth, who was better acquainted
with the Sioux country than any other living Frenchman, and was forming
ambitious designs to explore the whole western region beyond Lake
Superior. Father Hennepin, who had been adopted by an aged Sioux
chief, was free to follow Duluth back to the French post at the Straits
of Mackinac. This adventure of Father Hennepin is famous in history,
not on account of any discoveries he actually made, but on account of
the claim he attempted to establish some years after his journey, of
having followed the Mississippi to the Gulf. In the first edition of
his book, printed in 1683--_Description de la Louisiane_--no such claim
was ever suggested, and it was only in 1697 that the same work appeared
in an enlarged form,--_La Nouvelle Découverte_--crediting Hennepin with
having descended the great river to its outlet. It is not necessary
here to puncture a falsehood which was long ago exposed by historical
writers. His history of having reached the Gulf of Mexico is as
visionary as the traveller's tales of Norumbega. Indeed, he could not
even claim a gift of fertile invention in this case, as the very
account of his alleged discovery was obviously plagiarised from Father
Membré's narrative of La Salle's voyage of 1682, which appears in Le
Clercq's _Premier Établissement de la Foy_.
{188}
When La Salle was again able to venture into the west he found the
villages of the Illinois only blackened heaps of ruins--sure evidence
of the Iroquois having been on the warpath. During the winter of 1681
he remained at a post he had built on the banks of the St. Joseph in
the Miami country, and heard no news of his faithful Tonty. It was not
until the spring, whilst on his way to Canada for men and supplies,
that he discovered his friend at Mackinac, after having passed through
some critical experiences among the Iroquois, who, in conjunction with
the Miamis, had destroyed the villages of the Illinois, and killed a
number of those Indians with their customary ferocity. Tonty had
finally found rest and security in a village of the Pottawattomies at
the head of Green Bay.
On the 6th of February, 1682, La Salle passed down the swift current of
the Mississippi on that memorable voyage which led him to the Gulf of
Mexico. He was accompanied by Tonty, and Father Membré, one of the
Recollet order, whom he always preferred to the Jesuits. The Indians
of the expedition were Abenakis and Mohegans, who had left the far-off
Atlantic coast and Acadian rivers, and wandered into the great west
after the unsuccessful war in New England, which was waged by the
Sachem Metacomet, better known as King Philip, and only ended with his
death in 1676, and the destruction of many settlements in the colony of
Plymouth.
They met with a kindly reception from the Indians encamped by the side
of the river, and, for the first time, saw the villages of the Taënsas
and {189} Natchez, who were worshippers of the sun. At last on the 6th
of April, La Salle, Tonty, and Dautray, went separately in canoes
through the three channels of the Mississippi, and emerged on the bosom
of the great Gulf. Not far from the mouth of the river where the
ground was relatively high and dry, a column was raised with the
inscription:
"_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 ceremonies
as had distinguished a similar proceeding at Sault Ste. Marie eleven
years before. It can be said that Frenchmen had at least fairly laid a
basis for future empire from the Lakes to the Gulf. It was for France
to show her appreciation of the enterprise of her sons and make good
her claim to such a vast imperial domain. The future was to show that
she was unequal to the task.
The few remaining years of La Salle's life were crowded with
misfortunes. Duchesneau, the intendant, who had succeeded Talon, was
an enemy of both Frontenac and the explorer. The distinguished
governor was recalled by his royal master, who was tired of the
constant complaints of his enemies against him, and misled by their
accusations. La Barre, the incompetent governor who followed
Frontenac, took possession of Fort St. Louis, which La Salle had
succeeded, after his return from the Gulf of Mexico, in erecting at
Starved Rock on the banks of the Illinois not far from the present city
of Ottawa, where a large number of Indians had {190} returned to their
favourite home. In France, however, the importance of his discovery
was fully recognised, and when he visited his native country in 1683-4
he met with a very cordial reception from the King, and Seignelay, who
had succeeded his father, Colbert, when he resigned. The King ordered
that La Salle's forts be restored to him, and gave him a commission to
found colonies in Louisiana, as the new country through which the
Mississippi flowed had been called since 1682. By a strange irony of
Fate, the expedition of 1684 passed the mouth of the Mississippi, and
La Salle made the first French settlement on the Gulf somewhere in the
vicinity of Matagorda Bay, in the present State of Texas. Misery was
the lot of the little colony from the very first moment it landed on
that lonely shore. When his misfortunes were most grievous, La Salle
decided to make an effort to reach the Illinois country, but he was
assassinated by two of his own men---Duhaut and Liotot--near a branch
of the Trinity River. His nephew Moranget, Nika, a faithful Shawnee
who had been by his side for years, and Sayet, his own servant,
suffered the same fate. The leader of the murderers was killed soon
afterwards by one of his accomplices, and the others found a refuge
among the Indians; but of their subsequent fate we know nothing
positively, except that they were never brought to justice, if any one
of them returned to Canada or France. The few Frenchmen remaining in
Texas were either killed or captured by unfriendly Indians, before the
Spaniards could reach the place to expel these intruders on their
domain. La Salle {191} himself never found a burial place, for his
body was left to wolves and birds of prey. His name has not been
perpetuated in Louisiana, though it has been given to a county of Texas
as well as to a city and county of Illinois, which was originally
included in French Louisiana. The most noteworthy tribute to his
memory has been paid by the historian Parkman, who has elevated him
almost to the dignity of a hero. La Salle's indomitable energy, his
remarkable courage in the face of disaster, his inflexibility of
purpose under the most adverse circumstances, must be always fully
recognised, but at the same time one may think that more tact and skill
in managing men, more readiness to bend and conciliate, might have
spared him much bitterness and trouble, and even saved his life at the
end. That he did good service for France all will admit, though his
achievement in reaching the Mississippi was rendered relatively easy
after the preliminary expedition of Jolliet and Marquette.
[1] Mr. W. Wilfrid Campbell, F.R.S.C., a well-known English-Canadian
poet, has translated for "The Story of Canada" these verses of his
French 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 Count
de Frontenac took in stimulating the enterprise of La Salle and other
explorers, and it now remains for me to review those other features of
the administration of that great governor, which more or less
influenced 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 of
difficulty, as bold to conceive as he was quick to carry out a design,
dignified and fascinating in his manner when it pleased him, arrogant
and obstinate when others thwarted him, having a keen appreciation of
the Indian character, selfish where his personal gain was concerned,
and yet never losing sight of the substantial interests of France in
America, the Count de Frontenac was able, for nineteen years, to
administer the affairs of New France with remarkable ability, despite
his {194} personal weaknesses, to stimulate and concentrate her
energies and resources, and to make her when he died a power in America
far beyond what her population or actual strength seemed to justify.
The Iroquois learned at last to tremble at his name, and the Indian
allies of Canada, from the Abenakis of Acadia to the Illinois of the
West, could trust in his desire and ability to assist them against
their ferocious enemy. As is the case with all great men, his faults
and virtues have been equally exaggerated. The Recollets, whom he
always 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 on
the details of Frontenac's administration of public affairs during the
first years of his régime (1672-1682), which were chiefly noted for the
display of his faults of character--especially his obstinacy and
impatience of all opposition. He was constantly at conflict with the
bishop, who was always asserting the supremacy of his Church, with the
intendant Duchesneau, who was simply a spy on his actions, with the
Jesuits, whom he disliked and accused of even being interested in the
sale of brandy, and with traders like Governor Perrot of Montreal who
eventually found himself in the Bastile for a few days for having
defied the edict of the King against the _coureurs de bois_ who were
under his influence and helped him in the fur trade.
The complaints against Frontenac from influential people in Canada at
last became so numerous that {195} he was recalled to France in 1682.
His successor, La Barre, proved himself thoroughly incapable. The
interests of the province were seriously threatened at that time by the
intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois and divert the
western traffic to the Dutch and English, whose carriers they wished to
become. La Barre was well aware how much depended on the protection of
the Illinois and the fidelity of the Indians on the lakes. La Hontan,
a talkative but not always veracious writer, who was in Canada at this
time, gives us an insight into the weakness of the governor, whose
efforts to awe the Iroquois ended in an abortive expedition which was
attacked by disease and did not get beyond La Famine, now Salmon River,
in the Iroquois country. The famous "La Grande Gueule," or Big
Mouth,--so called on account of his eloquence,--made a mockery of the
French efforts to deceive him by a pretence of strength, and openly
declared the intention of the Iroquois to destroy the Illinois, while
La Barre dared not utter a defiant word in behalf of his allies. This
incapable governor was soon recalled and the Marquis de Denonville, an
officer of dragoons, sent in his place. One of the most notable
incidents of the new administration was the capture of the fortified
trading-posts belonging to the English Company of Hudson's Bay, by the
Chevalier de Troyes and a number of Canadians from Montreal, among whom
were the three famous sons of Charles Le Moyne, Iberville,
Sainte-Hélène, and Maricourt, the former of whom became ere long the
most distinguished French Canadian of his time. The next {196} event
of importance was the invasion of the country of the Senecas, and the
destruction of their villages and stores of provisions. This was a
most doubtful triumph, since it left the Senecas themselves unhurt.
How ineffectual it was even to awe the Iroquois, was evident from the
massacre of La Chine, near Montreal, in the August of 1689, when a
large band fell upon the village during a stormy night, burned the
houses, butchered two hundred men, women and children, and probably
carried off at least one hundred and twenty prisoners before they left
the island of Montreal, where the authorities and people seemed
paralysed for the moment. The whole history of Canada has no more
mournful story to tell than this massacre of this unhappy settlement by
the side of the beautiful lake of St. Louis. The Iroquois had never
forgiven the treachery of the governor during the winter of 1687, at
Fort Frontenac, where he had seized a large number of friendly Indians
of the Five Nations who had settled in the neutral villages of Kenté
(now Quinté) and Ganneious (now Gananoque), not many miles from the
fort. 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 that
had been committed by Denonville, who is immediately responsible for
the massacre of La Chine. The Iroquois never forgot or forgave.
The French authorities soon recognised the fact {197} that Denonville
was entirely unequal to the critical condition of things in Canada, and
decided in 1689 to send Frontenac back. During his second term, which
lasted for nearly ten years, there was now and then some friction
between himself and the intendant, on matters of internal government,
and between himself and the bishop and the Jesuits with respect to
amusements which the clergy always discountenanced; but he displayed on
the whole more tact and judgment in his administration of public
affairs. Undoubtedly the responsibilities now resting upon him tasked
the energies of a man of seventy-two years of age to the utmost. In
Acadia, whose interests were now immediately connected with those of
Canada, he had to guard against the aggressive movements of New
England. The English of New York and the adjacent colonies were
intriguing with the Iroquois and the Foxes, always jealous of French
encroachments in the northwest, and encouraging them to harass the
French settlers. The efforts of the English to establish themselves in
Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland, had to be met by vigorous action on the
part of Canadians. In fact, we see on all sides the increasing
difficulties of France in America, on account of the rapid growth of
the English colonies.
When Frontenac arrived in Canada, war had been, declared between France
and England. James II. had been deposed and William of Orange was on
the English throne. Before the governor left France a plan had been
devised at the suggestion of Callières, the governor of Montreal, for
the conquest {198} of New York. An expedition of regular troops and
Canadian volunteers were to descend from Canada and assault New York by
land, simultaneously with an attack by a French squadron from the sea.
Unforeseen delays prevented the enterprise from being carried out, when
success was possible. Had New York and Albany been captured, Callières
was to have been the new governor. Catholics alone would be allowed to
remain in the province, and all the other inhabitants would be
exiled--an atrocious design which was to be successfully executed sixty
years later, by the English authorities, in the Acadian settlements of
Nova Scotia.
Count de Frontenac organised three expeditions in 1690 against the
English colonies, with the view of raising the depressed spirits of the
Canadians and showing their Indian allies how far Onontio's arm would
reach. The first party, led by Mantet and Sainte-Hélène, and
comprising among the volunteers Iberville, marched in the depth of
winter on Corlaer (Schenectady), surprised the sleeping and negligent
inhabitants, killed a considerable number, took many prisoners, and
then burned nearly all the houses. The second party, under the command
of François Hertel, destroyed the small settlement of Salmon Falls on
the Piscataqua, and later formed a junction with the third party, led
by Portneuf of Quebec, and with a number of Abenakis under Baron de
Saint-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 with
additional terrors.
While Frontenac was congratulating himself on the success of this
ruthless border warfare, and on the arrival at Montreal of a richly
laden fleet of canoes from the west, the English colonies concerted
measures of retaliation in a congress held at New York. The blow first
fell on Acadia, which had been in the possession of France since the
treaty of Breda. Port Royal was taken without difficulty in 1690 by
Sir William Phipps, and the shore settlements at La Hève and Cape Sable
ravaged by his orders.
Another expedition organised in New York and Connecticut to attack
Montreal, was a failure, although a raid was made by Captain John
Schuyler into the country, south of Montreal, and a number of persons
killed at La Prairie. A more important expedition was now given to the
command of Phipps, a sturdy figure in colonial annals, who had sprung
from humble parentage in Maine, and won both money and distinction by
the recovery of the riches of a Spanish galleon which had been wrecked
on the Spanish Main half a century before. His fleet, consisting of
thirty-two vessels--including several men-of-war, and carrying 2300
troops, exclusively provincials, fishermen, farmers, and
sailors--appeared in the middle of October, 1690, off Quebec, whose
defences had been strengthened by Frontenac, and where a large force
had assembled from the French towns and settlements. As soon as the
fleet came to an anchorage, just below the town, Phipps {200} sent a
messenger to present a letter to Frontenac, asking him to surrender the
fort. This envoy was led blindfolded up the heights and brought into
the presence of the governor, who was awaiting him in the fort,
surrounded by a number of officers dressed in the brilliant uniform of
the French army. As soon as he had recovered from the surprise which
for the moment he felt, when the bandage was taken off his eyes, and he
saw 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 government
of the colony of New England," demanded "the surrender of the forts and
castles undemolished, and of all munitions untouched, as also an
immediate surrender of your persons and property at my discretion."
The envoy, when the whole letter was read, took out his watch, and
remarking that it was ten o'clock, asked that he be sent back by
eleven. Count de Frontenac's answer was defiant. He refused to
recognise William of Orange as the lawful sovereign of England, and
declared him an "usurper." The haughty governor continued in the same
strain for a few moments longer, and when he had closed, Phipps's
messenger 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 your
general 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 the
way of Beauport, {201} simultaneously with a fierce cannonading by the
fleet. A considerable force, under the command of Major Walley,
landed, and after some days of unhappy experiences, during which Phipps
showed his incapacity to manage the siege, the former was obliged to
find refuge in the ships, without having succeeded in crossing the St.
Charles. By this time Frontenac had at least three thousand men, many
of them veterans, in Quebec, and Phipps considered it his only prudent
course to return to Boston, where he arrived with the loss of many
vessels and men, chiefly from disasters at sea. The French had lost
very few men by the cannonading and in the skirmishing on the St.
Charles--probably not more than sixty killed and wounded--and
celebrated their victory with great enthusiasm. Religious processions
marched through the streets to the cathedral and churches, _Te Deums_
were chanted, the colonial admiral's flag, which had been cut down by a
lucky shot from the fort, was borne aloft in triumph, a new church was
consecrated to _Notre Dame de la Victoire_, and a medal was struck in
Paris in commemoration of the event. In Boston, the people received
with dismay the news of the failure of an expedition which had ended so
ignobly and involved them so heavily in debt.
The Iroquois, in league with the English of New York, where the able
governor Dongan and his successor Andros, carefully watched over the
interests of their colony, continued to be a constant menace to the
French on the St. Lawrence, and to their allies in the West. In order
to strengthen {202} themselves with the Five Nations, the New York
authorities sent Major Peter Schuyler, with a force of Mohawks, Dutch,
and English, to harass the settlements near Montreal. An obstinate
fight occurred at La Prairie between him and a considerable force of
troops, Canadians, Hurons, and Iroquois of the Canadian mission under
Varennes, an able officer, but Schuyler succeeded in breaking through
the ranks of his enemies and reaching the Richelieu, whence he returned
to Albany without further losses. In Acadia, however, the French
gained an advantage by the recovery of Port Royal by Villebon.
At this time occurred an interesting episode. A young girl of only
fourteen years, Magdeleine, daughter of the seigneur of Verchères, on
the south side of the St. Lawrence, ten miles from Montreal
successfully held her father's fort and block-house against a band of
Iroquois, with the aid of only six persons, two of whom were boys, and
one an old man. Day and night, for a week, she was on the watch
against surprise by the Indians, who were entirely deceived by her
actions, and supposed the fort was held by a garrison. At last a
reinforcement came to the succour of the brave girl, and the Indians
retreated. The courage displayed by this Canadian heroine is an
evidence of the courage shown by the people of Canada generally, under
the trying circumstances that so constantly surrounded them throughout
the whole of the French régime.
In 1693 the Mohawks were punished by an expedition composed of
regulars, militia, and bush-rangers, with a large Indian contingent,
chiefly {203} drawn from the Iroquois mission near Montreal, the modern
settlement of Caughnawaga. This force was led by Mantet, Courtemanche,
and La Noue, who succeeded in destroying the Mohawk villages after a
fierce fight, in killing a large number, and in capturing several
hundreds. The English, who had early information of the invasion, sent
Major Peter Schuyler to pursue the retreating force, but it was too
late. The immediate result of this success was a revival of trade. A
large fleet of canoes came down from the upper lakes with a rich store
of furs, that had been accumulating at Mackinac and other posts for
nearly three years, on account of the Iroquois. Frontenac's triumph
was 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 that
the French arms triumphed in 1696 at Pemaquid, always an important
point in those days of border warfare.
The fort, which was of some pretensions, was captured by the French
under Iberville and the Abenakis under Saint-Castin, and after its
destruction Iberville went on to Newfoundland, where the French ruined
the English settlements at St. John and other places. Then the fleet
proceeded to Hudson's Bay, where the French recaptured the trading
posts which had been retaken a short time previously by the English.
In the meantime Frontenac had decided on an expedition against the
Onondagas. Early in July, 1696, despite his age, he led the expedition
to Fort {204} Frontenac, which he had restored, and after a delay of a
few days he went on to the Onondaga town, which he destroyed with all
its stores of provisions, and its standing fields of maize. The Oneida
village was also destroyed, and a number of men taken prisoners as
hostages for their good behaviour. The Onondagas had fled, and the
only one captured was an aged chief, who was wantonly tortured to
death. It was now clear to the Iroquois that the English of New York
could not defend them from the constant raids of the French, and they
now made offers of peace, provided it did not include the western
allies of France. Frontenac, however, was resolved to make no peace,
except on terms which would ensure the security of the French for many
years. He died in the November of 1698 amid the regrets of the people
of 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 was
smoked and peace duly signed, in a great council held in the August of
1701, at Montreal, where assembled representatives of the Indian
nations of the West, of the Abenakis, and of the Iroquois. From that
time forward, Canada had no reason to fear the Iroquois, who saw that
the French were their masters. The trade with the West was now free
from 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 five
years. 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 for
his own family, and brought him into conflict with England when he
recognised the Pretender as the rightful heir to the English Crown.
Queen Anne, the daughter of James II. and sister of Mary, queen of
William III., had succeeded to the throne, and the war which was
declared on the 15th May, 1702, was thereafter known in America by her
name. The Abenakis, who had promised peace, broke their pledges, and
joined the French Canadian bands in attacking Wells, Saco, and
Haverhill, and the annals of New England tell many a sad story of
burning homes, of murdered men and women. The people of New England
retaliated on Acadia, and several ineffective attempts were made to
take Port Royal by Colonels Church and Wainwright, who proved their
incapacity. A movement was then made for the conquest of Canada by the
English colonists, but it failed in consequence of an European
emergency having diverted the British squadron intended for America to
the shores of Portugal. An expedition was next organised in 1710,
under the command of Colonel Nicholson, a man of much sagacity and
audacity, though of little or no military experience, for the capture
of Port Royal, which was surrendered by the governor, Subercase, and
from that day this historic place has been known as Annapolis Royal, in
honour of the reigning sovereign. It was not until the following year
that the British Government yielded to the urgent representations of
the colonies, {207} and sent to America a powerful armament to attempt
the conquest of Canada. The fleet was under the orders of Sir Hovenden
Walker, whose incapacity was only equalled by that of the commander of
the troops, Colonel Hill. After the loss of eight transports and
nearly nine hundred men in a storm near the Isle aux Oeufs, at the
entrance of the St. Lawrence, the incapable admiral decided to give up
the project of besieging Quebec, and without even venturing to attack
the little French post of Plaisance, he returned to England, where he
was received with marks of disfavour on all sides, and forced soon
afterwards to retire to South Carolina. While New England was sadly
disappointed by this second failure to take Quebec, the French of
Canada considered it a providential interposition in their behalf, and
the church, which had been first named after the defeat of Phipps, was
now dedicated to _Notre Dame des Victoires_.
All this while the French dominion was slowly and surely extending into
the great valleys of the West and South. A fort had been built
opposite to the Jesuit mission of St. Ignace, on the other side of the
Strait of Michillimackinac, and it was now also proposed to make the
French headquarters at Detroit, which had been founded by Antoine de la
Mothe-Cadillac, despite the opposition of the Jesuits, who wished to
have the mission field of the West in their own hands, and resented the
intention to establish Recollets and other priests at the new post. As
soon as the French established themselves permanently at this key to
the Lakes and West, the {208} English practically gave up for fifty
years the hope of acquiring the Northwest, and controlling the Indian
trade. French pioneers were pushing their way into the valleys of the
Illinois and the Wabash. Perrot and Le Sueur had taken possession of
the 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 one
of the most admirable figures of Canadian history, Henry de Tonty, who
had left his fort on the Illinois. In 1711 Louisiana was made a
separate government, with Mobile as the capital, and included the whole
region from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the Alleghanies to the
Rocky Mountains. By the time of the Treaty of Utrecht the Indian
tribes of the West were, for the most part, in the interest of the
French, with the exception of the Sioux, Sauks, and Foxes, whose
hostility was for a long time an impediment to their progress on the
upper 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 of
Utrecht, which was a triumph for England, since it gave her possession
of Acadia, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland (subject to the rights of France
in the fisheries), and made the important concession that France should
never molest the Five Nations under the dominion of Great Britain.
Such questions as the limits of Acadia, and the bounds of the territory
of the Iroquois, were to be among the subjects of fruitful controversy
for 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 naturally
directed to Cape Breton, which, like the greater island of
Newfoundland, 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 by
sailors of all nationalities. Plaisance, the Placentia of the
Portuguese, had been for years the headquarters of the French fisheries
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but when Newfoundland was ceded to the
English, all the French officials and fishermen removed to English
Harbour, on the eastern coast of Cape Breton, ever since known as
Louisbourg. The island itself was called Île Royale, and its first
governor was M. de Costabelle, who had held a similar position at
Plaisance. It was not, however, until 1720, that France commenced the
{211} construction of the fortifications of Louisbourg, which
eventually cost her over ten million dollars of modern money, and even
then, they were never completed in accordance with the original design,
on account of the enormous expense which far exceeded the original
estimates. The fortifications were built on an oblong neck of land on
the southern shore of the port, which lies only two leagues from that
famous cape from which the island takes its name. The fortress
occupied an area of over one hundred acres, and was planned on the best
system of Vauban and other great masters of engineering skill, who
intended it should be, as indeed it was, despite some faulty details of
construction, the most complete example of a strongly fortified city in
America. The harbour was also defended by batteries on an island at
the entrance, and at other important points, while there were fortified
works and small garrisons at Port Toulouse (St. Peter's) and Port
Dauphin (St. Anne's). The government of the island was modelled on
that of Canada, to which it was subordinate, and the governor was
generally a military man. During the years the fortress was in
possession of the French, there were probably, on an average, nearly
two thousand people living in the town and vicinity, but this number
was increased in the time of war by the inhabitants of the adjacent
ports and bays.
[Illustration: View of Louisbourg in 1731.--From a sketch in the Paris
Archives.]
During the thirty years that elapsed between the Treaty of Utrecht and
the breaking out of war between France and Great Britain, the people of
New England found that the merely nominal possession of Acadia by the
English was of little security to {212} them, while the French still
held the island of Cape Breton and had the fealty of the Indians and
Acadians, who were looking forward to the restoration of the country to
its former owners. England systematically neglected Nova Scotia,
where, until the foundation of Halifax, her only sign of sovereignty
was the dilapidated fort at Annapolis, with an insignificant garrison,
utterly unable to awe the Acadian French, and bring them completely
under the authority of the British Crown. French emissaries, chiefly
priests,--notably the treacherous Le Loutre--were constantly at work
among the Acadians, Micmacs, and Abenakis, telling them that France
would soon regain her dominion in Acadia. For years the Abenakis
tomahawked the helpless English colonists that had made their homes in
the present State of Maine, in the vicinity of the Kennebec and the
Penobscot. The insidious policy of Vaudreuil and other governors of
Canada, acting under instructions from France, was to keep alive the
hostility of the Abenakis so as to prevent the settlement of that
region known as Northern New England, one of whose rivers, the
Kennebec, gave easy access to the St. Lawrence near Quebec. From
Annapolis to Canseau the Micmacs destroyed life and property, and kept
the English posts in constant fear.
New England took a signal revenge at last on the cruel and treacherous
Abenakis, and inflicted on them a blow from which they never recovered.
At Norridgewock perished the famous missionary, Sebastian Rale, beneath
whose black robe beat the heart of a dauntless soldier, whose highest
{213} aspirations were to establish his creed and promote the ambitious
designs of France in Acadia. A peace was made in 1726 between the
colonists and the Abenakis, but New England felt she had no efficient
security for its continuance while Acadian and Indian could see in the
great fortress of Cape Breton powerful evidence that France was not yet
willing to give up the contest for dominion in Acadia. Northern New
England became now of relatively little importance in view of the
obvious designs of France to regain Nova Scotia.
We have now come to an important period in the history of America as
well as of Europe. In 1739 Walpole was forced to go to war with Spain,
at the dictation of the commercial classes, who wished to obtain
control of the Spanish Main. Then followed the War of the Austrian
Succession, 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 the
Emperor was dead, France and other Powers proceeded to promote their
own ambitious and selfish designs. France wished to possess the rich
Netherlands, and Spain, Milan; Frederick of Prussia had no higher
desire than to seize Silesia, and to drive Austria from Germany.
Bavaria claimed the Austrian duchy of Bohemia. Maria Theresa was to
have only Hungary and the duchy of Austria. The King of England was
jealous of Prussia, and thought more of his Hanoverian throne than of
his English crown. It became the interest of England to assist Austria
and {214} prevent the success of France, now the ally of Spain; forced
to defend her colonial possessions in America. The complications in
Europe at last compelled France and England to fight at Dettingen in
1743, and George II. won a doubtful victory, but war was not actually
declared between these two nations until some months later. England
had no reason to congratulate herself on the results, either in Europe
or America. Her fleet met only with disaster, and her commerce was
destroyed on the Spanish Main. Four years later she won a victory over
the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, but hardly had her people
ceased celebrating the event, than they heard that the combined forces
of Hanover, Holland, and England, under the Duke of Cumberland, had
been badly beaten by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy.
It was at this time, when the prospects of England were so gloomy on
the continent of Europe, that Englishmen heard, with surprise and
gratification, that the strong fortress of Louisbourg in French America
had surrendered to the audacious attack of four thousand colonists of
New England.
A combination of events had aided the success of the brave enterprise.
The news of the declaration of war reached Louisbourg at least two
months before it was known in Boston, and the French Governor, M.
Duquesnel, immediately sent out expeditions to capture the English
posts in Nova Scotia. Canseau, at the entrance of the strait of that
name, was easily taken, and the garrison carried to Louisbourg, but
Annapolis Royal was successfully defended by Colonel Mascarene, then
governor of {215} Nova Scotia. All these events had their direct
influence on the expedition which New England sent in the spring of
1745 against Louisbourg. The prisoners who had been captured at
Canseau had remained until the autumn in Louisbourg, and the accounts
they brought back of its condition gave Shirley and others reason to
believe that if an expedition was, without loss of time, sent against
it, there would be a fair chance of success. Not only did they learn
that the garrison was small, but that it was discontented, and a mutiny
had actually broken out on account of the soldiers not having received
the usual additions to their regular pay for work on the
fortifications. The ramparts were stated to be defective in more than
one place, while gales and other causes had delayed the arrival of the
ships which arrived every year with provisions and reinforcements.
These facts gave additional confidence to Governor Shirley of
Massachusetts, William Vaughan of New Hampshire, and many influential
men who had already conceived the idea of striking a blow at the French
which would give the English control of the whole coast from Cape Sable
to 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 the
Piscataqua, who had command, with the title of lieutenant-general, was
a 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. Captain
Edward Tyng, a capable colonial sailor, was the commodore of the little
fleet of thirteen vessels, carrying in all about two hundred guns. The
Puritan spirit of New England had much influence in organising an
expedition, and whose flag had a motto suggested by the Methodist
revivalist, Whitfield: "_Nil desperandum Christo duce_." The story of
the success of the New England troops, in conjunction with the small
English fleet, under the command of Commodore Warren, has been often
told, and we need not dwell on its details. M. Duchambon was at the
time governor of Louisbourg, and maintained the defence for nearly
forty days. The capitulation of the fortress was hastened by the fact
that the English fleet captured the French frigate _Vigilante_, on
whose arrival the garrison had been depending for weeks. On the
afternoon of June 17th, General Pepperrell marched at the head of his
army through the West or Dauphin gate into the town, and received the
keys from the commandant, who, with his garrison drawn up in line,
received him in the King's bastion. One hundred and fifty years later
a granite column was raised on the same historic ground in honour of
this famous victory, which caused such rejoicings throughout England
and America.
By the articles of capitulation, the garrison and residents of
Louisbourg, probably two thousand persons in all, were transported to
France. The settlement of Port Toulouse and Port Dauphin had been
captured, the first before, and the other during {217} the siege. The
leader of the New England expedition was rewarded with a baronetcy, the
first distinction of the kind ever given to a colonist, while Warren
was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.
If the English Government had fully understood the necessities of their
American colonies, they would have immediately followed the advice of
Governor Shirley, who was a man of statesmanlike views and bold
conception, though he possessed no capacity as a leader of military
operations, as his later career in America proved. He suggested that
an expedition should attack Montreal by the usual route of Lake
Champlain, while an English fleet ascended the St. Lawrence and
besieged Quebec. All the colonies set to work with considerable energy
to carry out this scheme, but it came to nought, in consequence of the
failure of the Duke of Newcastle, the most incapable statesman ever at
the head of imperial affairs, to redeem his promise. It was then
proposed to attack Fort Frederick at Crown Point, on the western side
of Lake Champlain, where it contracts to a narrow river, but its
progress was arrested by the startling news that the French were
sending out a fleet to take Cape Breton and Acadia, and attack Boston
and other places on the Atlantic sea-board.
France had heard with dismay of the loss of Cape Breton, which she
recognised as a key to the St. Lawrence, and made two efforts to
recover it before the war closed in 1748. One of the noblest fleets
that ever sailed from the shores of France left {218} Rochelle in 1746
for Cape Breton, under the command of M. de la Rochefoucauld, the Duke
d'Anville, an able, sensitive man, who, however, had had no naval
experience. Storm and pestilence attacked the fleet, which found a
refuge in the harbour of Chebouctou, afterwards Halifax, where the
unfortunate Admiral died from an apoplectic seizure. His successor, M.
d'Estournelle, committed suicide in a fit of despondency caused by the
responsibility thrown upon him, when men were dying by hundreds every
day on those lonely Acadian shores. The French lost between two and
three thousand men by disease or casualties, and the remnant of the
great fleet, which was to have restored the fortunes of France in
America, returned home under the command of M. de la Jonquière without
having even attempted to capture the half-ruined fort at Annapolis.
Another fleet in 1747, under M. de St. George and the Marquis de la
Jonquière, the latter of whom became subsequently Governor of Canada,
never reached its destination, but was defeated off Cape Finisterre by
a more powerful fleet under Admirals Anson and Warren.
The Canadian Government, of which the Marquis de Beauharnois was then
the head, had confidently expected to regain Acadia, when they heard of
the arrival of the Duke d'Anville's fleet, and immediately sent M. de
Ramesay to excite the Acadians, now very numerous--probably ten
thousand altogether--to rise in arms against the few Englishmen at Port
Royal. 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 crippled
the fleet, forced him to give up his plan of attacking Annapolis, and
to withdraw to the isthmus of Chignecto, where he built a small fort at
Baie Verte. In the following year, 1747, he succeeded in surprising
and capturing Colonel Arthur Noble and a considerable force of New
England troops who had taken possession of the houses of the Acadian
French at Grand Pré, one of the most fertile and beautiful districts of
the province, afterwards still more famous in poetry and history. This
exploit, however, did not materially change the aspect of things in
Acadia, where the French Acadians had entirely disappointed the hopes
of Ramesay and his government. Had they been as active or enterprising
as their compatriots on the banks of the St. Lawrence, they might
easily, at that time, have won back Acadia for France. As it was,
however, Ramesay was not able to gain a firm foothold beyond the
isthmus. Even the success he won was neutralised by the activity of
Governor 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 the
island of Cape Breton to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in
return for the commercial post of Madras, which had been taken by the
French in the East Indies where England and France were now rivals for
the 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 nation
was threatened by a Catholic pretender, and disheartened at the results
of the war on the continent. Weary of the struggle and anxious for a
breathing space, England deserted Maria Theresa and made peace with
France.
{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 the
ambitious designs conceived by French statesmen soon after the Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle. We see the names of many posts and forts intended
to keep up communications between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe the
English colonies then confined to a relatively narrow strip of
territory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that they
had made in giving up Acadia, the French now claimed that its "ancient
limits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto--in other words,
included only Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct the
forts of Gaspereau and Beauséjour on that neck of land, and also one on
the St. John River, so that they might control the land and sea
approaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence where Quebec, enthroned
on her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the {222} confluence of the
Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approaches
by the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by the
fort of St. John near the northern extremity of the lake, and by the
more formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point--to give
the better known English name--on a peninsula at the narrows towards
the south. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until
they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at
the head of Lake Sacrement, afterwards called Lake George by General
Johnson--a sheet of water always famed for its picturesque charms. At
the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in
American history, General Johnson, a clever, ambitious Irishman, a
nephew of Sir Peter Warren, in 1755, erected Fort William Henry, about
fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Lyman, at the great carrying place
on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and
the lakes, we find Fort Frontenac or Cataraqui at the eastern end of
Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands. Within the
limits of the present city of Toronto, La Galissonnière built Fort
Rouillé 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 Governor
Burnet of New York and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake
Ontario. At the other extremity of this lake was Fort Niagara, the key
to the West.
{223}
At Detroit, Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie the French continued to hold
possession of the Great Lakes and the country to the west and south.
Their communications, then, between the West and Quebec were
established, but between the great valleys of the St. Lawrence and the
Mississippi, over which they claimed exclusive rights, there was
another valley which became of importance in the execution of their
scheme of continental dominion. In the years succeeding the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle the English colonists awakened to the importance of the
valley of the Ohio, and adventurous frontiersmen of Virginia and
Pennsylvania were already forcing their way into its wilderness, when
France's ambition barred the way to their further progress. That
astute Canadian, Governor La Galissonnière, in 1749, recognised the
importance of the Ohio in relation to the Illinois and Mississippi, and
sent Céloron, a captain in the French service, to claim possession of
the valley of the former river and its tributaries. This officer made
a long and enterprising journey, in the course of which he affixed at
different points the arms of France to trees, and buried leaden plates
bearing the inscription, that they were memorials of the "renewal of
the possession of the Ohio and all its affluents" originally
established by arms and treaties, particularly those of Ryswick,
Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle. Under the instructions of Governor
Duquesne, who possessed all the sagacity of La Galissonnière, forts
were established at Presqu'ile (Erie) and on French Creek, a tributary
of the Alleghany. Virginians saw with dismay the entrance {224} of the
French into a region on which they were now casting a longing eye.
Their government had secured from the Iroquois a doubtful deed which
gave them, as they urged, a title to the Great West, and a company was
even formed to occupy the Ohio. In 1754 the English commenced the
construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio, but it was easily
captured by Contrecoeur, who completed and renamed it in honour of the
Governor of Canada, Duquesne. Washington, who now first appears in
American history, was defeated by Chevalier de Villiers at Fort
Necessity, a mere intrenchment at Great Meadows, and the French held
entire possession of the Ohio valley, where no English trader or
pioneer dared show himself. By 1755 the French dominion was complete
from the Ohio to the Illinois, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, so far as a slender line of communication by means of widely
separated posts and settlements could make it so. On the St. Joseph,
the Maumee, the Wabash, and the Illinois, there were small forts. Fort
Chartres in the Illinois country was the only post of any thorough
construction. At Cahokia, opposite the modern city of St. Louis, and
at Kaskaskia, at the junction of the river of that name with the
Mississippi, there were small and relatively prosperous French
villages. In Louisiana the French had the towns of Mobile, Biloxi, New
Orleans, and a few other settlements, where the African blacks far
outnumbered the whites. That colony had had many difficulties to
surmount before it could be considered established. Wars with the
Natchez and Chickasaws {225} had been constant. Crozat's experiment
had been followed by the establishment of the Mississippi or Western
Company, which was to develop gold mines, that never existed except in
the imaginations of its reckless promoter, John Law, a Scotchman. When
the Mississippi bubble burst, and so many thousands were ruined in
France, Louisiana still continued under the control of the company,
which was eventually obliged to give up its charter after heavy
expenditures which had produced very small results, and the colony
became a royal province. With its chequered future must be always
associated the name of the Canadian Bienville, who was for some years
its governor and justly earned the title of "Father of Louisiana."
Insignificant as was its progress, France prized its possession, and
had she been alive to her opportunities she might have colonised it
with Huguenots and made it a power in the conflict between herself and
England in America.
France, busy with her ambitious designs in Europe, gave but a meagre
and too often half-hearted support to the men who had dreams of
founding a mighty empire in America. When France and England met for
the great struggle on that continent, the thirteen colonies had reached
a population of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, exclusive of
the negroes in the South, while the total number of the people in
Canada and Louisiana did not exceed eighty thousand. In wealth and
comfort there was the same disproportion between the French and English
colonies. In fact at the time of the last {226} war, Canadian commerce
was entirely paralysed, farms neglected, and the towns barely able to
live. In 1757 food was so scarce in Quebec and Montreal that the
soldiers and people had to use horse flesh. The combined forces of
Canadian militia and regular troops were always much inferior in number
to the British and colonial armies when united for the invasion of
Canada, with the support of a powerful fleet; but the great strength of
the French colony lay in the natural barriers between the English
colonies and the keys to New France, Quebec, and Montreal, and in the
skill with which the approaches by way of Lake Champlain had been
defended by forts at every important point. If the French force was
insignificant in number, it was, as a rule, skilfully managed, and in
the early part of the struggle the English had no commander to compare
with Montcalm for military genius. In some respects the French
Canadians were more manageable in war than the English colonists. No
legislative bodies existed in Canada to interfere with and thwart the
plans and orders of military commanders, but the whole Canadian people
acted as a unit to be moved and directed at the will of the King's
officers. The Indian tribes from Acadia to the Mississippi, the Ohio,
and the Illinois, were, with the exception of the Five Nations, always
friendly to the French since the days of Champlain--the warm allies of
a people who fraternised naturally with them; and it would have been an
unhappy day for the English colonists had eighty or a hundred thousand
Canadians been able to arm and, under the skilful {227} generalship of
Montcalm, swoop down with their savage allies on the English colonial
settlements. But the French of Canada were never able, as a rule, to
do more than harass by sudden raids and skirmishes--by a system of
_petite guerre_, or petty warfare--the English of America, and at no
time in colonial history was the capture of Boston or of New York
actually attempted by a land force from Canada, though it was suggested
more than once. At the outbreak of the war the Mohawks were the only
Indian tribe on whom the English could place much dependence, and that
was largely owing to the energy and discretion of Sir William Johnson,
who had long lived in their country and gained not only their
confidence but even their affection. The tribes in the Ohio valley had
been won by the success of the French in driving out the Virginians,
while in the further west the Foxes and other communities who had been
unfriendly to the French had been beaten into submission--the Foxes in
fact almost destroyed--by the raids of the French and their Indian
allies. The great current of active thought and enterprise which
develops a nation was always with the English colonies, and though
large schemes of ambition stimulated the energies of the bold and
adventurous men to whom the destinies of France were entrusted from the
days of La Salle to those of Montcalm, their ability to found a new
empire in America under the lilies of France was ever hindered by the
slow development of the French settlements, by the incapacity of the
King and his ministers in France to grasp the importance of the
situation on this {228} continent, and by their refusal to carry out
the projects of men like La Galissonnière, who at once recognised the
consequences of such neglect and indifference, but found no one ready
to favour his scheme of establishing large settlements of French
peasantry in Canada and Louisiana. France, we see now, had her great
opportunity in America, and lost it forever at Quebec in 1759.
Before we proceed to the record of the events which led to the conquest
of Canada, it is necessary that we should briefly review the history of
the period which elapsed between the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the
commencement of the Seven Years' War. When English statesmen were
informed of the mistake they had made in restoring Cape Breton to
France with such reckless haste, they began to reflect on the best
means of retrieving it as far as possible; and at the suggestion of
Shirley and other colonists they set to work to bring an English
population into Nova Scotia, and to make it a source of strength
instead of weakness to the New England communities. In 1749, the year
of the formal surrender of Louisbourg, the city of Halifax was founded
on the west side of the admirable harbour, long known in Acadian
history as Chebouctou. Here, under the direction of Governor
Cornwallis, a man of great ability, a town slowly grew up at the foot
and on the slopes of the hill which was in later times crowned by a
noble citadel, above which has always floated the flag of Great
Britain. Then followed the erection of a fort at Chignecto, known as
Fort Lawrence in honour of the English officer who {229} built
it--afterwards governor of Nova Scotia--and intended to be a protection
to the province, constantly threatened by the French and Indians, who
were always numerous at the French posts and settlements on the
isthmus. The French constructed on the northern bank of the Missiquash
a fort of five bastions known as Beauséjour, and a smaller one at Bay
Verte, with the object, as previously stated, of keeping up
communication with Louisbourg, which they were strengthening in some
measure. At Fort Beauséjour the treacherous priest Le Loutre continued
to pursue his insidious designs of creating dissatisfaction among the
French Acadians and pressing on them the necessity of driving the
English from the former possessions of France.
Though war was not formally proclaimed between France and England until
many months later, the year 1755 was distinguished in America by
conflicts between the English and French--a prelude to the great
struggle that was only to end in the fall of New France. The French
frigates _Alcide_ and _Lys_ were captured on the coast of Newfoundland
by vessels of a fleet under Admiral Boscawen, who had been sent by the
English Government to intercept a French fleet which had left France
under Admiral de la Mothe, having on board troops under Baron Dieskau
and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Duquesne in the
government of Canada.
In Acadia, in the valley of the Ohio, and at Lake George, the opposing
forces of England and France also met in conflict. In the spring an
English force of regular and colonial troops, chiefly the latter, {230}
under the command of Colonel Monckton, who has given his name to a
prosperous city on the isthmus of Chignecto, and of Colonels Winslow
and Scott, captured the two French forts and took a good many
prisoners, among whom were a considerable number of French Acadians,
forced by the French to assist in the defence of Beauséjour. Le Loutre
succeeded during the confusion on the surrender of the fort, in evading
capture, but only to find himself eventually taken prisoner by an
English ship while on his way to France, and sent to the island of
Jersey, where he was kept in confinement until the end of the war, and
from that time disappears from American history.
In the same year General Braddock, an arrogant though experienced
soldier, was sent in command of a large force of regular and colonial
troops into the valley of the Ohio to attack Fort Duquesne and drive
the French from that region, but chiefly through his want of caution
and his ignorance of Indian methods of warfare in the American
wilderness, he was surprised on the Monongahela by a small force of
Indians and French under the Canadian Beaujeu, who were concealed in
ravines, from which they were able in perfect security to prevent the
advance of the English, and literally riddle them with bullets until
they fled in dismay and confusion, leaving behind them a great store of
munitions and provisions besides a large sum of money in specie.
Braddock died from the wounds he received, and the remnant of his
beaten regiments retired precipitately beyond the Alleghanies. This
unhappy {231} disaster was followed by a succession of Indian raids
along hundreds of miles of frontier, and the _petite guerre_ of the
Abenakis and French in Acadia and New England, with all its horrors,
was repeated by the Indians of the West. The southern colonies were
paralysed for the moment, and the authorities of Pennsylvania gave
evidences of indifference, if not of cowardice, that are discreditable
features of its early history.
General Johnson, of the Mohawk country, at the head of a large colonial
force, defeated Baron Dieskau at the foot of Lake George, which then
received its present name in honour of the King of England, and the
French general himself was taken prisoner. It was for his services on
this occasion that Johnson was made a baronet, though he had not
succeeded in the original object of his expedition, the capture of
Crown Point. General Shirley, however, was not so fortunate as
Johnson, for he abandoned the project of attacking Fort Niagara when he
heard that it had received reinforcements.
The most memorable event of this time, which has been the subject of
warm controversy between French and English historians and the theme of
a most affecting poem, was the expulsion of the Acadian French from
Nova Scotia. When Halifax was founded it was decided, as a matter of
necessity, to bring the Acadians more entirely under the control of the
English authorities. They had probably increased since the Treaty of
Utrecht to at least twelve thousand souls, living for the most part in
the Annapolis valley, by the Gaspereaux and Avon rivers, {232} at Grand
Pré, at Mines, and at Chignecto. When they were asked to take the oath
of allegiance by Governor Lawrence, they refused to do so unless it was
qualified by the condition that they should not be obliged at any time
to take up arms. Many years before a considerable number, if not the
majority, of the same people had taken this qualified oath, although it
is also claimed that no one had legal authority to make such a
condition with them. Under the treaty of 1713 the Acadian French had a
year to choose between leaving the country or giving their submission
to the British Government and becoming its subjects. It was natural
that they should have hesitated to leave the humble though comfortable
homes which their own industry had made on the most fertile lands of
Nova Scotia, but it is also quite certain that every obstacle was
thrown in the way of their removal by the English governors. Had the
British authorities adopted from the very commencement a firm and
decided policy towards them, they might have given an unreserved
allegiance to the British Crown and eventually become peaceable and
contented inhabitants. As it was, the British Government
systematically neglected the country, and left the little garrison at
Annapolis for many years practically at the mercy of the Acadians, who
could have often half starved them, and even captured the only English
post of the least importance in the province, had they been led at any
time by a man of courage and determination. It was only the
watchfulness of the government of Massachusetts, who fully recognised
the {233} importance of Nova Scotia in relation to New England, that
retained the province in English hands during the time when English
statesmen like Newcastle were even ignorant of the existence or
situation of Annapolis. If French emissaries were often able to make
these credulous and ignorant people believe that France would soon
regain her dominion in Acadia, it was largely owing to the fact that
the English showed such weakness in all their relations with the
Acadians, and made no earnest or sustained effort to assert their
sovereignty. At last when England decided to settle and strengthen
Nova Scotia, a feeling of uneasiness was naturally created by the
presence of a large and increasing population who were naturally in
sympathy with the French, and had assumed an attitude quite
irreconcilable with the security of English interests on the Atlantic
coast of eastern America. It must be admitted that the position of the
Acadians was one deserving of sympathy, tossed about as they were for
many years between French and English. They were considered by the
French of Canada and Cape Breton as mere tools to carry out the designs
of French ambition. England, however, had at some time or other to
assert her sovereignty in Nova Scotia, and to assure its security,
seemingly threatened by the presence of people who would not formally
declare themselves British subjects. The position of Nova Scotia
between Cape Breton and Canada gave reason for constant alarm, and when
Halifax was founded some decisive step was felt to be necessary by
Cornwallis and his successors. {234} No doubt the feeling that had
been created against the Acadians, by their refusal to take an
unconditional oath of allegiance to Great Britain--the only oath that
could be possibly offered to them by a self-respecting and strong
government--was intensified by the notorious fact that a number of them
had been actually captured at Fort Beauséjour with arms in their hands,
though in this case they appear to have been really the mere tools of
Le Loutre and French emissaries who grossly misled them. The people of
New England were much prejudiced against them and asserted that they
could never enjoy any security while the Acadians continued to maintain
their attitude of neutrality. They had always supplied Louisbourg with
provisions and helped to build the French forts on the isthmus, and it
was difficult for Lawrence and his officers to obtain any assistance
from them in the same way. When the Indians harassed the English
settlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled the
raids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with some
reason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula.
The war between the French and English had never really ceased in
America, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would be
broken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger that
threatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing the
presence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in a
country which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where they
could and did enjoy an {235} amount of political and religious liberty
which no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeat
of Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France was
preparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase her
dominions in America.
It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of Nova
Scotia--a determined and harsh military man--no doubt at the
instigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determined
to secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of all
possible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians.
It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewed
in these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the stern
action of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. The
responsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on the
imperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation.
Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, and
the noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried out
the measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of that
great majority of people who think only of the deed and its
consequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is a
matter for deep regret that the men who represented England in those
days had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than have
driven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homes
by the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers {236} of Nova Scotia, and
scattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where their
treatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec were
coldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food.
Poetry and sentiment have not exaggerated the sorrow and misery of
these hapless exiles, so ill-fitted to go out into the bitter world of
hardship and destitution.
{237}
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 which
was to end in driving her hereditary rival from the eastern and western
hemispheres, and in the establishment of the German Empire by the
military genius of Frederick the Great. For a while, however, the
conflict in America was chiefly remarkable for the incapacity of
English commanders on land and sea. Earl Loudoun, the sluggish
commander-in-chief, of whom it was said, "he is like St. George on the
signs; always on horseback, but never rides on," arranged a campaign
against the French on Lake Champlain and against Louisbourg which ended
only in disaster and humiliation for England. The forts at Oswego,
always regarded as a menace by the French who occupied {238} Fort
Frontenac on the opposite side of Lake Ontario, were successfully
attacked and destroyed by Montcalm,[1] who was sent to Canada in 1756
to make a supreme effort for France. The energetic French general then
proceeded a year later to storm Fort William Henry, and largely owing
to the incapacity or timidity of General Webb, who could have marched
to the assistance of the besieged from Fort Edward, the brave Scotch
officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, then in command of this important
defence of the northeastern frontier, was obliged to surrender. After
the capitulation of this fort a large number of helpless men, women,
and children were barbarously murdered by the body of Indians that
accompanied the French--one of the saddest episodes in American
history, which must always dim the lustre of Montcalm's victory, though
it is now generally admitted that the French general himself was not
responsible for the treachery of his Indian allies, but used his most
earnest efforts--even at the risk of his own life--to save the English
when the savages were mad with lust for the blood of their enemies.
[Illustration: Montcalm]
At sea the results were equally discouraging for the English. Fifteen
ships-of-the-line and three frigates, under the orders of Admiral
Holbourne, and twelve thousand troops under the command of Earl Loudoun
himself, assembled in the harbour of Halifax in the July of 1757; but,
owing to the absence {240} of energy and celerity of movement from the
very day the project was decided upon in England until after the
arrival of the fleet in America, the French were able to get
reinforcements of ships and men into Louisbourg, and the English
admiral and general came to the resolve--so strange for Englishmen in
time of war--to run no risk in attacking the fortress. Loudoun
returned to New York, but too late to retrieve the injury he had done
to the northern colonies by withdrawing so large a force from the
frontier at a critical period, when Montcalm was marching on Fort
William Henry with such unfortunate results for English interests.
Holbourne sailed with his fleet for Louisbourg, and after a
half-hearted attempt to draw the French fleet, then safely moored under
the guns of the town, into an engagement, even the elements combined
against him, and when he had lost a number of his vessels on the rocky
Cape Breton coast, he returned to England to tell the story of his
failure.
It was at this critical period, when England so sadly needed a bold and
wise statesman at the head of her government in the place of weak and
incompetent men like Newcastle, that the great Pitt, better known as
Chatham at a later day, was called to office by the unanimous opinion
of the English people outside, perhaps, of a small selfish clique of
the aristocracy. It was his good fortune to be successful far beyond
the hopes of the majority of statesmen suddenly called upon to retrieve
national disaster. It was mainly through his inspiration--through the
confidence with which he inspired all {241} those who served the
country at this momentous epoch--that England became the centre of a
vast colonial empire such as the world never saw, even in the days when
Rome was mistress.
When Pitt was recalled to office in July, 1757, it was too late to
prevent the humiliation of England through the incompetency of
Holbourne, Loudoun, and Webb, and the year 1757 closed with Montcalm
triumphant in America. But while France neglected to give adequate
support to her brave sons in Canada, England rallied to the support of
Pitt, and the whole nation felt a confidence in the future which it had
never had during the administration of his predecessors. On the
continent of Europe, Pitt contented himself with giving the largest
possible subsidies of money to his great ally Frederick, and by
entrusting the command of the English and Hanoverian forces to the best
of his generals, Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick, in place of the
incompetent Duke of Cumberland. The victories of Rossbach, Leuthen,
and Minden were the answers that Frederick gave to the English minister
for the confidence he reposed in his ability to cope with the four
great Powers then combined with Saxony to destroy Prussia and bring
England to the feet of France, by invading her territory and marching
into her very capital. Hanover was saved by the memorable victory on
the Weser, and England was spared the humiliation and perils of an
invasion by the destruction of a French fleet by Admiral Hawke in
Quiberon Bay.
While the military genius of Frederick and the {242} inspiring
statesmanship of Pitt were successfully thwarting the ambitious plans
of France and her allies in Europe, the English minister had decided on
a vigorous campaign in America. With that intuitive sagacity which he
possessed above most men for recognising ability in others for the
purpose in view, he chose General Amherst, Admiral Boscawen, and
Brigadier-General Wolfe, not because of their aristocratic or political
influence, but because of their military capacity, the want of which in
Loudoun and Holbourne had brought disaster upon the English arms.
Unhappily he was forced, for the time being, by strong influences
around him to retain General Abercromby at the head of one of the
expeditions in America, but he hoped that the co-operation of Lord Howe
would keep up the courage of the army, and prevent any blunders on the
part of the slow and obtuse soldier in command. The plan of the
campaign which opened in 1758 was to send three expeditions
simultaneously against the three all-important French positions held by
the French in the Ohio valley, on Lake Champlain, and at the entrance
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. General Forbes, a resolute Scotch
veteran, was to march on Fort Duquesne, General Abercromby was to lay
siege to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and General Amherst, with Admiral
Boscawen, was to attack the fortress of Louisbourg, which was
acknowledged as the key of the St. Lawrence.
The English fleet anchored in Gabarus Bay, to the southward of
Louisbourg, on the 2nd of June, 1758. It was composed of over fifty
ships, {243} twenty-two of which were "liners," and carried eighteen
hundred guns altogether. The army comprised between eleven and twelve
thousand men, including a small force of provincial rangers. The
fortress, which had been considerably strengthened since 1745, was
defended by over three thousand regular troops, and a small number of
Indians and inhabitants. A fleet of fourteen men-of-war, with a crew
of nearly three thousand men, and five hundred and sixty-two guns, were
in the harbour. Chevalier Drucour was governor of the island, and
conducted the defences with skill and resolution, and had Admiral
Desgouttes been as brave and capable as the former, Louisbourg would
hardly have fallen so easily. On the morning of the 27th July, the
English took possession of the West gate, and the cross of St. George
was hoisted on the citadel of a fortress which was destined from that
time to disappear from the pages of the world's history. In 1763 the
fortress was levelled to the ground, and now a few mounds of turf alone
represent the ambitions of France a century and a half ago. Nature has
resumed dominion over the site of the once famous fortress, and the
restless ocean, which stretches away beyond to the eastward without a
break to Europe, brings no message of the fleets that came once, richly
freighted, to this historic fort. Louisbourg is now only a place of
memories--of associations which connect Cape Breton with most glorious
episodes of England's history, with times when the genius of Pitt
triumphed over France.
After the taking of Louisbourg, the English {244} occupied the island
of St. John, now Prince Edward, where there were several prosperous
settlements at Port La Joye (Charlottetown), St. Pierre, and other
places on the bays of the low-lying coast. The population was composed
chiefly of Acadians, who had commenced to cross from Nova Scotia after
the Treaty of Utrecht, and probably numbered in 1758 four thousand
souls, engaged in fishing and farming. These people were able to
supply Louisbourg with provisions, as no agricultural operations of
importance 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 same
painful duty in the valley of the St. John River. Acadia, according to
its "ancient limits," was at last completely in the possession of
England.
The news of the capture of Louisbourg was received in America and
Europe with many rejoicings, and the eleven stands of colours won at
this 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 of
Lake Champlain. With a splendid force of regular and provincial
troops, from fourteen to fifteen thousand altogether, but entirely
destitute of artillery,--an evidence of extraordinary incapacity, or of
culpable negligence,--he had thrown himself upon most formidable
entrenchments of fallen trees, with their sharp ends pointing outwards,
that the French had ingeniously constructed in front of Carillon, which
was still incomplete, and defended by less than three thousand men
under Montcalm and Lévis. The most unhappy incident of this disaster
was the death of Lord Howe, described by Wolfe, who knew him well, "as
the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best
soldier in the British army." Abercromby hurriedly retired to the head
of Lake George, and was soon afterwards superseded by the cautious
Amherst. Montcalm was greatly encouraged by the spirit of his soldiers
throughout the attack, and erected a cross on the battle ground with
the following inscriptions of his own--the latter his paraphrase of the
first:
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 by
Colonel Bradstreet, who had assisted in the first siege of Louisbourg.
The capture of this fort was regarded with every reason by the French
as "of greater injury to the colony than the loss of a battle." Fort
Duquesne, which was the key to the Ohio country, was abandoned by
Ligneris on the approach of Brigadier Forbes, a very capable Scotch
officer, but not until the French had beaten with considerable loss an
advance of the main forces commanded by Major Grant. Ligneris withdrew
his troops to Fort Machault (Venango), where he remained until the
following year. Fort Duquesne was renamed in honour of Pitt, and a
great manufacturing city has grown up on its site in the beautiful
valley which, in 1758, passed away forever from the French who had only
held possession of it for six short years.
[1] His full name was Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de
Saint-Véran, whose family seat was Candiac, near Nismes, in the south
of 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 in
Canada not far from twenty thousand men, regulars, militia, and
Indians--one-fifth only being French regiments. At Detroit there was a
very insignificant garrison, as it was of minor importance compared
with 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, was
stationed, with authority to call to his assistance the French forces
at Presqu'ile, Le Boeuf, and Venango--some three thousand men
altogether, made up mostly of colonial forces and Indian auxiliaries.
At Fort Rouillé (Toronto) there was no force worth mentioning, as it
was a mere dependency of Niagara. Fort Frontenac had been destroyed by
the English, and the French had no posts from that point as far as
Montreal except at {248} Point-au-Baril (near Ogdensburgh), and Île
Galops, by the side of the well-known rapids of that name. The
security of Montreal depended mainly on the French continuing to hold
control of Lake Champlain, and Île-aux-Noix which they now set to work
to fortify. Bourlamaque, an able officer, was in command at the French
forts of the lake with a force of over two thousand men, of whom
one-half were Canadian, and had orders to abandon Carillon and Crown
Point, if necessary, and advance to Île-aux-Noix. At Quebec, probably
fourteen thousand men, of whom four thousand were the pick of the
French regiments in Canada, were under command of Montcalm, Lévis, and
Vaudreuil, and were entrenched on a height of land stretching for
nearly six miles from the St. Charles River, to the southeast of the
fortress, as far as Montmorency River, where its current rushes wildly
forward for its tremendous leap of over two hundred and fifty feet into
a deep and rocky abyss, and forms that glistening sheet of billowy foam
which, 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 Nova
Scotia in the year of the Duke d'Anville's disastrous expedition. The
city was ill-provided with provisions for any sustained siege, despite
the opportune arrival of some relief from France in the spring. The
whole country had been impoverished by the continuous drain on the
agricultural and labouring population during the war, and the Canadians
themselves began {249} to lose courage, and assembled at the call of
the authorities with less spirit than they had hitherto shown. Canada
was literally on the brink of ruin, after so many years of war and
privation. Corruption had eaten into the very body of Canadian life
and government. The Intendant Bigot had been for years amassing riches
at the expense of the country, and had, in imitation of his lord and
master at Versailles, his fair Canadian Pompadour to bedeck with jewels
and favours from the proceeds {250} of his ill-gotten gains. The names
of Péan, Varin, Cadet, Estèbe, and Clavery are the most conspicuous
amongst those officials who became rich on Canadian misery and
misfortune, and are dishonourably associated with the darkest hours of
Canadian history. "What a country," said Montcalm, "where all the
knaves grow rich, and honest men are ruined." Not the least
discouraging feature of matters in Canada at this critical time, when
unity and harmony were so necessary, was the jealousy that Governor de
Vaudreuil, a weak, vain man, but honest and attached to his native
province, entertained of Montcalm, who was himself imbued by the
loftiest 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 nine
thousand men, and the fleet under Admiral Saunders, should attack
Quebec; that the Commander-in-Chief, Amherst, should advance against
Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, and that Brigadier Prideaux and Sir
William Johnson should lead a considerable force against Niagara. The
English fleet arrived before Quebec on the 20th June, and no time was
lost in commencing operations against the fortress. Wolfe was well
supported by such able soldiers as Monckton, Murray, and Carleton, the
latter of whom became famous in later Canadian history as Lord
Dorchester. Brigadier Townsend, however capable, was irritable and
egotistic. The soldiers admired Wolfe for his soldierly qualities, and
loved him for his thoughtfulness for everyone above or below him.
Admiral Saunders {252} was well aided by Holmes and Durell, and gave a
loyal and ready response to the plans of Wolfe. The regiments had seen
service at Louisbourg, and were fully animated by the courage and
spirit of their general. The siege lasted for eleven weeks, and was
then only ended by an act of boldness on the part of Wolfe, which took
the French entirely by surprise.
[Illustration: Siege of Quebec, 1759.]
The principal events between the 26th June and the 12th September, when
the last act in this great international drama was played, can be
described in a few pages. One of the most important incidents was the
occupation by the English of the heights of Lévis, whence the fortress
was 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 a
position. So destructive was the bombardment that, when the English
took possession of Quebec, they found all the churches and buildings of
importance in ruins, and the Ursuline Convent alone was saved from
complete destruction.
The English sustained a severe repulse near the Montmorency end of the
French lines. They had made an attack on an outwork at that point, and
the grenadiers had been carried away by excitement and dashed up the
slope of the heights, where from twelve to fourteen thousand French
soldiers were strongly intrenched. A furious storm of bullets assailed
the reckless and brave grenadiers, who could not even gain a firm
footing on the slippery slope, {253} while the rain came down in
torrents, and their blood reddened the rivulets of water. This was,
however, the only serious disaster that the English suffered throughout
the siege. The fire ships of the French had been ill-managed, and
failed to do any damage as they were sent down against the fleet.
Montcalm, sure of his impregnable position, refused to be drawn from
his intrenchments and to offer battle to Wolfe. He knew that delay was
everything to him, for the autumn was drawing near. In a few weeks
storm and frost would drive the Englishmen from the river. Wherever
Montcalm looked, his position seemed unassailable. The high cliffs
that stretched for miles above Quebec offered a guaranty of security in
that direction, and to prevent any doubt, Bougainville, a capable
officer--in later years famous as a navigator--was on the alert with a
force of upwards of two thousand soldiers. He had double work to do,
to guard these apparently impregnable cliffs, and to assure the arrival
of provisions from the country by river and land. It was the expected
arrival of a convoy of provisions that proved an important factor in
the successful accomplishment of a plan that Wolfe had devised for the
capture of the city.
While the siege was in progress, the news from the west and from Lake
Champlain was discouraging for the French. Niagara had been
surrendered by Pouchot to Sir William Johnson, who had taken command on
the death of Prideaux--killed at the beginning of operations--and a
large force that was brought up by Ligneris from the Ohio valley to
{254} succour the post had been severely defeated. Crown Point and
Ticonderoga had been abandoned by Bourlamaque, and there was for a time
some 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 defences
of Montreal, but the sluggish English general wasted his time on the
banks of Lake Champlain.
It was quite clear to Wolfe and Saunders that Amherst was not to give
them any assistance in the difficult work before them. It was on the
night of the 12th of September that Wolfe carried out the project which
had been for some time forming in his mind. He had managed to
concentrate a force of four thousand men above the fortress without
awakening the suspicions of the French, who were confident that
Bougainville was fully able to prevent any force from attempting so
impossible and foolhardy an exploit as the ascent of the high cliffs.
The visitor to the historic places around Quebec will be deeply
interested 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 path
led from this cove to the top of the height, and Wolfe conceived the
hope that it was possible to gain access in this way to the table-land
where he could best give battle to Montcalm. He saw that the cliff at
this point was defended by only a small guard, under the command, as it
afterwards appeared, of Vergor, who had been tried and acquitted for
his questionable surrender of Beauséjour. When the {255} English boats
dropped down the river with the tide at midnight, on the 12th of
September, there was no moon, and the stars alone gave a faint light.
Montcalm had no conception of the importance of the movement of troops
which, it had been reported to him, was going on for some days above
Quebec, and his attention was diverted by the constant bombardment on
the town from Lévis, and a fierce cannonading that was kept up against
Beauport by Saunders. Wolfe's thoughts on that memorable night as his
boat passed under the shadow of the dark cliff, we can imagine from an
incident that is related by one who was present. Hardly a dip of an
oar was heard from the flotilla as it was borne down the river, but
from Beauport and Lévis came the constant roar of cannon. Every moment
was carrying him to fame and death, and perhaps it was some foreboding
of his fate that led him to repeat the words of Gray's Elegy, which
from 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's
Highlanders who spoke French well. "_À quel regiment?_" again
challenged the suspicious soldier. "_De la Reine_," answered the same
officer, who happily remembered that some companies of this regiment
were with Bougainville. {256} Fate that eventful night was on the side
of the bold Englishman. The French were expecting a convoy of
provisions, and the sentinel called out, "_Passe!_" Another sentry,
more suspicious, ran down to the water's edge, and asked, "_Pourquoi
est-ce que vous ne parlez plus haut?_" The captain replied with
wonderful coolness, "_Tais-toi, nous serons entendus!_"--an answer
which satisfied the guard. In this way the English boats were able to
steal into the cove without being stopped. A few minutes later the
heights were gained, the guard was overpowered, and the British
regiments were climbing to the level land without hindrance. By six
o'clock Wolfe was able to form his army of nearly four thousand men in
line of battle on the Plains of Abraham.[1] "This is a serious
business," exclaimed Montcalm, as he saw the red line of the English
regiments on the table-land behind Quebec. He appears to have almost
immediately come to the conclusion that it was necessary to fight the
English before they received any accessions of strength, and not to
wait for Bougainville, who would probably come up in time with his
force of two thousand men. By ten o'clock the two armies--that of
Montcalm outnumbering the English probably by fifteen hundred--were
advancing on each other. The French as they drew near poured a volley
into the ranks of the British regiments, but the latter reserved their
fire until they were within forty yards of their enemy, when they
discharged their guns with most deadly effect. The {257} French fell
in heaps, and as the bullets crashed amongst their faltering ranks,
they broke and retreated. The battle was literally won in a few
minutes. Wolfe, who had been wounded in the wrist at the beginning of
the fight, was leading a charge of the grenadiers, who had shown such
fateful precipitancy at Montmorency, when he was fatally wounded. He
was removed to a redoubt in the rear and laid on the ground, where he
remained for a few minutes in a swoon or stupour. "They run! See how
they run!" exclaimed one of the men watching their wounded chief. "Who
run?" 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's
regiment down to the St. Charles River, and cut off the fugitives to
the bridge." He turned on his side and said: "God be praised, I now
die in peace." Then, in a moment later, he passed into the great
silent land. Montcalm also received his death blow while he was
endeavouring to give some order to his beaten army. He was borne along
by the crowd of retreating soldiers through the St. Louis gate into the
town. A few hours later, on the 14th September, he breathed his last.
His last words were in commendation of Chevalier de Lévis--a soldier in
no way inferior to himself in military genius.
Monckton, who was next to Wolfe in rank, had been also severely wounded
in the battle, and {258} consequently by a strange irony of fate,
Townshend, who had been unfriendly to Wolfe, and had doubted his
military capacity, was called upon to take command. Lévis was absent
at Montreal, unfortunately for French interests at this very critical
juncture, and Vaudreuil's opinion prevailed for a retreat to Jacques
Cartier. When Lévis arrived and Vaudreuil consented to march to the
support of Quebec it was too late. Ramesay had decided to capitulate,
in view of the ruined condition of the city and walls, the scarcity of
rations, and the unwillingness of the Canadian troops and citizens to
continue the defence, when they found that the English were about to
resume the attack. When the French army was moving towards Quebec, the
English were in possession, and the _fleur-de-lis_ had given place to
the red cross of England on the old fort of St. Louis. By the terms of
capitulation the troops were to be allowed to march out with the
honours of war, and to be landed in France; the inhabitants were not to
be disturbed; the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was
allowed, and safeguards granted to houses of clergy and communities.
All conditions were provisional until a treaty was arranged between the
Powers.
The body of Montcalm was buried beneath the floor of the Ursuline
Convent, in a grave which had been already partly hollowed out by a
bursting shell. Many years later an English governor-general, Lord
Aylmer, placed in the chapel of the convent a plain marble slab, with
the following graceful tribute to the memory of a great soldier of whom
English 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 with
every demonstration of respect that a grateful nation could give. In
Europe and America the news of this victory had made the people wild
with 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 Walhalla
of great Englishmen, Westminster Abbey, records that he "was slain in a
moment of victory." On the heights of Quebec, in the rear of its noble
terrace, still stands the stately obelisk which was erected in 1828
under the inspiration of the Earl of Dalhousie in honour of Montcalm
and Wolfe, and above all others attracts the interest of the historical
student since it pays a just tribute to the virtue and valour of the
two great commanders in the following simple but well conceived
language:
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 of
Abraham. Montcalm was still in the prime of life, having just passed
forty-seven years. Both were equally animated by the purest dictates
of honour and truth, by a love for the noble profession of arms, and by
an ardent desire to add to the glory of their respective countries.
Montcalm was a member of the French nobility, and a man of high
culture. His love for his mother, wife, and children is shown in his
published letters, written while in Canada, and he was ever looking
forward to the time when he could rejoin them in his beloved château of
Candiac, and resume the studies he liked so well. Some Canadian
writers have endeavoured to belittle Montcalm, that they may more
easily explain away the failings of Vaudreuil, a native Canadian, who
thwarted constantly the plans of a greater man; but an impartial
historian can never place these two men on the same high level.
Wolfe's family was of respectable origin, and he inherited his military
tastes from his father, who became a general in the English army. He
had few advantages of education in his youth, though in later life he
became studious, and had much love for mathematics. A soldier's life
was his ambition, and fame was his dominating impulse. His indomitable
spirit governed his physical weakness. The natural kindness of his
nature rose superior to the irritability sometimes caused by his
ill-health, and made him always sympathise with the joys, sorrows, and
feelings of all classes among whom he lived. He had that magnetic
power of {262} inspiring his soldiers and companions with his own
confidence 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 of
female companionship, and was looking forward hopefully to a woman's
love, and to a home of his own, when Fate ruthlessly struck him down
before the walls of Quebec at the moment of victory.
It is impossible within the limited space of this story to dwell at any
length on the events that followed from the taking of the Canadian
capital until the cession of Canada three years later. General Murray,
who was afterwards the first governor-general of Canada, had charge of
the fortress during the winter of 1759-60, when the garrison and people
suffered much from cold and disease--firewood being scarce, and the
greater 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 the
French ships were able to come down from near Sorel, where they had
been laid up all the winter. Towards the last of April, Murray marched
out of the fortress and gave battle at St. Foy to the French army,
which largely outnumbered his force. His object was to attack the
French before they were able to place themselves thoroughly in position
before Quebec, but he suffered a considerable loss, and was obliged to
retire hurriedly within the walls of the town, which was then regularly
invested by Lévis and the French ships. The opportune arrival of the
English fleet dashed the rising hopes of the French to the ground,
{264} and Lévis was obliged to retreat to Montreal. In the month of
September of the same year General Amherst descended the St. Lawrence,
after having captured the fort at Île Galops--afterwards Fort William
Augustus. Brigadier Haviland left Lake Champlain, captured
Île-aux-Noix, and then marched on Montreal; Brigadier Murray came up
from Quebec. All these forces concentrated on the same day on the
island of Montreal, and Vaudreuil had no alternative except to
capitulate. By the terms of capitulation, which were drawn up, like
those of Quebec, in French, Great Britain bound herself to allow the
French Canadians the free exercise of their religion, and certain
specified fraternities, and all communities of _religieuses_ were
guaranteed the possession of their goods, constitutions, and
privileges, but a similar favour was denied to the Jesuits, the
Franciscans, or Recollets, and the Sulpicians, until the King should be
consulted on the subject. The same reservation was made with respect
to the parochial clergy's tithes. On the 10th of February, 1763, by
the Treaty of Paris, France ceded to Great Britain Canada, with all its
dependencies, the island of Cape Breton, and the Laurentian Isles. By
this treaty the King pledged himself "to give the most effectual
orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of
their religion, according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, as
far as the laws of Great Britain permit." All the pretensions of
France to Acadia were at last formally renounced. England also
received all the country east of the River Mississippi, except the city
of New {266} Orleans and the neighbouring district, as well as Florida
from Spain in return for Havana. Subsequently France gave up New
Orleans to Spain, as well as the great region of Louisiana westward of
the Mississippi. France was allowed to retain the barren islands of
St. Pierre and Miquelon, and certain fishing rights on the coasts of
Newfoundland, which she had previously given by the Treaty of Utrecht.
George II. had died during 1760, and George III. was now King of
England. Pitt was forced to resign, and the King's favourite, the
incapable Bute, who became premier, made peace without delay. Pitt
opposed the fishery concessions to France, but Bute attached relatively
little importance to them, and they have ever since remained to torment
the people of Newfoundland, and create complications in case that
island consents to enter the Canadian Dominion. Still, despite these
concessions, England gained great advantages from the peace, and became
the 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 great
Englishman consecrated by their deaths on the same battlefield the
future political union of two races on the northern half of the
continent, 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 last
a period of rest. They were allowed the ministrations of their
religion without hindrance, and all that was required of the parochial
clergy was that they should not take part in civil affairs, but should
attend exclusively to their clerical duties. The seigniors and
priests, no doubt, did not give up for some time the hope that Canada
would be restored to France, but they, too, soon bowed to the necessity
of things, and saw that their material and spiritual interests were
quite secure under the new government. None of the _habitants_ ever
left Canada after the war. A few members of the seigniorial nobility,
the officials and some merchants--perhaps three hundred in all--may
have gone back to France. Men like Bigot and Varin on their return
were severely punished, and forced to give up as much as possible of
their ill-gotten {268} gains. Governor de Vaudreuil himself was cast
into the Bastile, but it was ascertained after investigation that he
had no connection with the crimes of the worthless parasites that had
so long fattened on the necessities of the unhappy province. He died
soon after his imprisonment; the iron of humiliation had probably eaten
into the heart of a man who, whatever his faults, had many estimable
qualities, and loved his native country.
For several years Canada was under what has been generally called the
military régime; that is to say, the province was divided into the
three districts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, of which the
government was administered by military chiefs; in the first place by
General Murray, Colonel Burton, and General Gage respectively. These
military authorities--notably General Murray--endeavoured to win the
confidence of the people by an impartial and considerate conduct of
affairs. Civil matters in the parishes were left practically under the
control of the captains of militia, who had to receive new commissions
from the British Crown. Appeal could be always made to the military
chief at the headquarters of the district, but, as a matter of fact,
the people generally managed their affairs among themselves, in
accordance with their old usages and laws. Military councils tried
criminal cases according to English law.
While the French Canadians were in the enjoyment of rest on the banks
of the St. Lawrence and its tributary rivers, the Western Indians, who
had been the allies of France during the war, suddenly arose and seized
nearly all the forts and posts which {269} had been formerly built by
the French on the Great Lakes, in the valley of the Ohio, and in the
Illinois country. After the taking of Montreal, Captain Robert Rogers,
the famous commander of the Colonial Rangers, whose name occurs
frequently in the records of the war, was sent by General Amherst to
take possession of the forts at Presqu'ile, Detroit, Michillimackinac,
Green Bay, and other places in the West. In the course of a few months
there were in all these western posts small garrisons of English
soldiers. In the neighbourhood of Detroit and Michillimackinac there
were French Canadian villages, conspicuous for their white cottages
with overhanging bark roofs and little gardens, orchards, and meadows.
Forts Chartres and Vincennes were still in the possession of the
French, and there was a population of nearly two thousand French
Canadians or Louisiana French living in the Illinois country, chiefly
at Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi. The Indian tribes that
took part in the rising of 1763 were the Ottawas, Pottawattomies,
Ojibways (Chippeways), Wyandots (Hurons), and Kickapoos, who lived in
the vicinity of the upper lakes; the Delawares (Loups or Lenapes) and
the Shawanoes, who had their villages on the Ohio and its tributary
rivers, especially on the Muskingkum and the Scioto; the Sauks or Saks,
who encamped on the Wisconsin; the Senecas, who lived not far from the
Niagara. All these Indians, except the Wyandots and Senecas, were
members of the Algonquin family. The Senecas were the only tribe of
the Six Nations that took part in the alliance against {270} England;
the other tribes were, happily for English interests, under the
influence of Sir William Johnson.
French emissaries from the settlements on the Mississippi made the
Indians believe that they would be soon driven by the English from
their forest homes and hunting grounds, and that their only hope was in
assisting France to restore her power in America. Many of these Indian
tribes, as well as French settlers, believed until the proclamation of
the treaty of Paris that Canada would be restored to the French.
Indian sympathy for France was intensified by the contumely and neglect
with which they were treated by the English traders and authorities.
The French, who thoroughly understood the Indian character, had never
failed to administer to their vanity and pride--to treat them as allies
and friends and not as a conquered and subject race. By the judicious
distribution of those gifts, on which the tribes had begun to depend
and receive as a matter of right, the French cemented the attachment of
the Indians. The English, on the other hand, soon ceased to make these
presents, and neglected the Indians in other ways, which excited their
indignation and wounded their pride.
Among the Western chiefs was Pontiac, whose name is as prominent in the
history of the past as the names of the Onondaga Garangula, the Huron
Kondiaronk (Rat), the Mohawk Thayendenagea (Brant), and the Shawanoese
Tecumseh. He was the son of an Ottawa chief and an Ojibway mother, and
had a high reputation and large influence among the {271} tribes of the
upper lakes. He showed in his career all the strength and weaknesses
of the Indian character--great courage, treachery, vanity, and
generosity, according to the impulses of the moment. The war in which
he took so prominent a part is generally called by his name; his is the
central figure in the striking drama which was enacted in the Western
and Ohio country for two years and a half before peace generally
reigned and Canada could be considered secure from Indian attacks.
At Detroit, where Major Gladwin was in command, Pontiac hoped to seize
the fort by a stratagem. The Ottawas and other Indians under that
chief were to meet the English officers in council within the fort at
an appointed time. They had filed off the tops of the barrels of their
muskets so as to conceal them easily under their garments. While in
council Pontiac was to give a signal which would tell the assembled
warriors that the time had come for falling on the garrison and taking
possession of the fort.[1] Some writers give credence to the story
that an Indian maiden, the mistress of Gladwin, warned him of the
scheme of the Indian chief, who came to the council, in accordance with
his intention, and found the garrison in arms and ready for any
treacherous movement on his part. He left the fort in anger, and soon
afterwards attacked it with all his force, though to no purpose, as
Gladwin 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 the
treachery of a Delaware girl gave Fort Miami and its little garrison to
the Indians encamped on the Maumee. Holmes, the commandant, was her
lover, and believed her when she told him that a squaw, who was
seriously ill in one of the wigwams, wished to see him. He proceeded
on his charitable mission, and was shot dead while about entering the
place of his destination. At Michillimackinac Captain Etherington was
surprised by a clever piece of strategy on the part of a body of Sacs
and Ojibways, who invited him to witness a contest between them at
their favourite sport of Lacrosse, which in these modern times has been
made the national game of Canadians. While the game was going on, the
gate was left open while the officers and soldiers stood in groups
outside, close to the palisades, watching the Indians as they tossed
the ball to and fro between the goals on the level ground opposite the
fort. The squaws, wrapped in their blankets, passed in and out the
fort, without attracting any attention from the interested spectators.
Suddenly, when the game was most hotly contested, the ball was
violently driven in the direction of the pickets of the fort. A crowd
of the savage players tumultuously followed the ball, and in a moment
were inside the fort where they snatched weapons from the squaws. One
officer and several soldiers were instantly killed, but Etherington and
the remainder of the garrison were taken prisoners. Etherington and a
well-known trader of the West, Alexander Henry, eventually escaped,
after having {273} been on several occasions on the point of death. In
six 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 and
destroyed by the Indians, except Fort Pitt at the forks of the Ohio,
the one at Green Bay which was abandoned, and another at Ligonier. The
garrisons were massacred or made prisoners, and in many cases tortured
and even eaten. The frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania were laid
waste 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 Quaker
element still prevailed--were aroused from their apathy and gave the
requisite aid to an expedition under the command of an able officer,
Colonel Bouquet, who had been one of Brigadier Forbes's officers during
the campaign of 1759 in the Ohio valley. He rescued Fort Pitt, after
administering to the Indians a severe defeat at Bushy Run. A year
later he succeeded in taking a large force into the very heart of a
country where the Indians thought themselves safe from any attack of
their white enemy. His unexpected appearance on the banks of the
Muskingkum awed the Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes, who gladly
agreed to terms of peace, especially as they knew that Colonel
Bradstreet was in their rear on the banks of Lake Erie. The prisoners,
whom the Indians had taken during their raids on the frontier
settlements of Virginia and {274} Pennsylvania, were restored to their
friends and relatives who had, in the majority of cases, never hoped to
see them again. The annals of those days tell us strange stories of
the infatuation which some young women felt for the savage warriors
whom they had wedded in Indian fashion. Some children had forgotten
their mothers, and Parkman relates in his graphic narrative of those
memorable times that one girl only recalled her childhood when she
heard her distracted mother sing a song with which she had often lulled
her daughter to sleep in happier days.
Peace again reigned in the West. Detroit, after repulsing Pontiac so
successfully, was at last relieved, and the red cross of England
floated above the forts of Chartres and Vincennes, which were given up
by the French.
By the end of the autumn of 1765 France possessed only a few acres of
rock, constantly enveloped in fog, on the southern coast of
Newfoundland, of all the great dominion she once claimed in North
America. Pontiac now disappears from history, and is believed to have
been killed by an Indian warrior of the Illinois nation, after a
drunken bout at the village of Cahokia--an ignominious ending to the
career of a great chief whose name was for so many months a menace to
English authority in that wilderness region, which was declared in
later years by an imperial statute, the Quebec Act, to be a part of
Canada'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 North
America; {275} Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. The
governors were empowered to summon general assemblies, and to make laws
and ordinances for good government with the consent of the councils.
and the representatives of the people, and to establish courts of
justice. Members elected to the proposed assemblies had to take the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the declaration against
transubstantiation. No assembly, however, ever met, as the French
Canadian population were unwilling to take the test oath, and the
government of the province was carried on solely by the
Governor-General--General Murray--with the assistance of an executive
council, composed of certain officials and leading residents in the
colony. From 1763 to 1774 the province remained in a very unsettled
state, chiefly on account of the uncertainty that prevailed as to the
laws actually in force. The "new subjects," or French Canadians,
contended that justice, so far as they were concerned, should be
administered in accordance with their ancient customs and usages. On
the other hand, "the old," or English subjects, argued from the
proclamation of 1763, that it was His Majesty's intention at once to
abolish the old jurisprudence of the country, and to establish English
law in its place.
Not the least important part of the proclamation of 1763 was that
relating to the Indians, who were not to be disturbed in the possession
of their hunting grounds. Lands could be alienated by the Indians only
at some public meeting or assembly called for that special purpose by
the Governor or {276} commander-in-chief where such lands were
situated. This was the commencement of that just and honest policy
towards the Indians which has ever since been followed by the
government of Canada. One hundred and ten years later, an interesting
spectacle was witnessed in the great Northwest Territory of Canada.
The lieutenant-governor of the new province of Manitoba, constituted in
1870 out of the prairie lands of that rich region, met in council the
representatives of the Indian tribes, and solemnly entered into
treaties with them for the transfer to Canada of immense tracts of
prairie lands where we now see wide stretches of fields of nodding
grain.
Governor Murray conducted his government on principles of justice and
forbearance towards the French Canadians, and refused to listen to the
unwise and arbitrary counsel of the four or five hundred "old
subjects," who wished to rule the province. He succeeded in inspiring
the old inhabitants of the province, or "new subjects," with confidence
in his intentions. The majority of the "old subjects," who were
desirous of ruling Canada, are described by the Governor in a letter to
Lord 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 time
were 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 the
province of Quebec, as defined by the proclamation of {277} 1763. On
one side, the province now extended to the frontiers of New England,
Pennsylvania, New York province, the Ohio, and the left bank of the
Mississippi; on the other, to the Hudson's Bay Territory. Labrador,
Anticosti, and the Magdalen islands, annexed to Newfoundland by the
proclamation of 1763, were made part of the province of Quebec.
The Quebec Act created much debate in the House of Commons. The Earl
of Chatham, in the House of Lords, described it as "a most cruel, and
odious measure." The opposition in the province was among the British
inhabitants, who sent over a petition for its repeal or amendment.
Their principal grievance was that it substituted the laws and usages
of Canada for English law. The Act of 1774 was exceedingly unpopular
in the English-speaking colonies, then at the commencement of the
revolution on account of the extension of the limits of the province so
as to include the country long known as the old Northwest in American
history, and the consequent confinement of the Thirteen Colonies
between the Atlantic coast and the Alleghany Mountains, beyond which
the hardy and bold frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania were
already passing into the great valley of the Ohio. Parliament,
however, appears to have been influenced by a desire to adjust the
government of the province so as to conciliate the majority of the
Canadian people at this critical time.
The advice of Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, who
succeeded General Murray as {278} Governor-General, had much to do with
the liberality of the Quebec Act towards the French Canadians. After a
careful study of the country he came to the conclusion that the French
civil law ought to be retained, although he was met by the earnest
advice to the contrary of two able lawyers, Chief-Justice Hay and
Attorney-General Masères, who believed a code adopted from English and
French principles was preferable. Masères, who was of Huguenot descent
and much prejudiced against Roman Catholics, was also an advocate of a
legislative assembly to be exclusively Protestant--in other words, of
giving all power practically into the hands of a small British
minority. When the subject of a new Canadian Constitution came to be
discussed in England, Carleton crossed the Atlantic in 1769 and
remained absent from Canada for four years. He returned to carry out
the Quebec Act, which was the foundation of the large political and
religious liberties which French Canada has ever since enjoyed.
The new constitution came into force in October, 1774. It provided
that Roman Catholics should be no longer obliged to take the test oath,
but only the oath of allegiance. The government of the province was
entrusted to a governor and a legislative council, appointed by the
Crown, inasmuch as it was "inexpedient to call an assembly." This
council had the power, with the consent of the Governor, to make
ordinances for the good government of the province. In all matters of
controversy, relative to property and civil rights, recourse should be
had to the French civil procedure, whilst the law of {279} England
should obtain in criminal cases. Roman Catholics were permitted to
observe their religion with perfect freedom, and their clergy were to
enjoy their "accustomed dues and rights," with respect to such persons
as professed that creed.
Sir Guy Carleton nominated a legislative council of twenty-three
members, of whom eight were Roman Catholics. This body sat, as a rule,
with closed doors; both languages were employed in the debates, and the
ordinances agreed to were drawn up in English and French. In 1776 the
Governor-General called to his assistance an advisory privy council of
five members.
When Canada came under the operation of the Quebec Act, the Thirteen
Colonies were on the eve of that revolution which ended in the
establishment of a federal republic, and had also most important
influence on the fortunes of the country through which the St. Lawrence
flows.
[1] The siege of Detroit by Pontiac inspired one of the best historic
novels ever written by a Canadian--_Wacousta, or the Prophecy_, by
Major 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 important
periods of their history. Their country was invaded, and for a time
seemed on the point of passing under the control of the congress of the
old Thirteen Colonies, now in rebellion against England. The genius of
an able English governor-general, however, saved the valley of the St.
Lawrence for the English Crown, and the close of the war for American
independence led to radical changes in the governments of British North
America. A large population, imbued with the loftiest principles of
patriotism and self-sacrifice, came in and founded new provinces, and
laid the basis of the present Dominion of Canada.
During the revolution emphatic appeals were made to the Canadian French
to join the English colonies in their rebellion against England. With
a curious ignorance of the conditions of a people, {281} who could not
read and rarely saw a printed book, and never owned a printing-press[1]
during the French régime, references were made by the congress that
assembled at Philadelphia in September in 1774, to the writings of
Beccaria and the spirit of the "immortal Montesquieu." The delegates
attacked the Quebec Act as an exhibition of Roman Catholic tyranny at
the very time they were asking the aid and sympathy of French Canadians
in the struggle for independence. A few weeks later the same congress
ignored the ill-advised address and appealed to the Canadians to join
them on the broad grounds of continental freedom. The time, however,
was too short to convince the clergy and leading men of the province
that there was a change in the feeling of the majority in the congress
with respect to the Roman Catholic religion. The mass of the French
Canadians, especially in the rural districts, no doubt looked with
great indifference on the progress of the conflict between the King of
England and his former subjects, but in Quebec and Montreal,
principally in the latter town, there were found English, as well as
French-speaking persons quite ready to welcome and assist the forces of
congress when they invaded Canada. On the other hand, the influences
of the Quebec Act and of the judicious administrations of Murray and
Carleton were obvious from the outset, and the bishop, Monseigneur
Briand--who had been chosen with the silent acquiescence of the English
Government--the {282} clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the
leading seigniors combined to maintain Canada under the dominion of a
generous Power which had already given such undoubted guaranties for
the preservation of the civil and religious rights of the "new
subjects." In fact, the enemies of England were to be found chiefly
among the "old subjects," who had attempted to obtain an assembly in
which the French Canadians would be ignored, and had been, and were
still bitterly antagonistic to the Quebec Act, with its concessions to
the French Canadian majority. Many of these disaffected persons were
mere adventurers who were carrying on a secret correspondence with the
leaders of the American Revolution, and even went so far as to attempt
to create discontent among the French Canadians by making them believe
that their liberties were in jeopardy, and that they would have to
submit to forced military service, and all those exactions which had so
grievously burdened them in the days of the French dominion. The
_habitants_, ignorant and credulous, however, remained generally inert
during the events which threatened the security of Canada. It was left
to a few enlightened men, chiefly priests and officers of the old
French service, to understand the exact nature of the emergency, and to
show their appreciation of what England had done for them since the
cession.
When the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, on September
5, 1774, the colonies were on the eve of independence as a result of
the coercive measures forced on Parliament by the King's pliable
ministers, led by Lord North. The "declaration," {283} however, was
not finally proclaimed until nearly two years later--on July 4,
1776,--when the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves "free and
independent States," absolved of their allegiance to the British Crown.
But many months before this great epoch-making event, war had actually
commenced on Lake Champlain. On an April day, in the now memorable
year, 1775, the "embattled farmers" had fired at Concord and Lexington,
the shots "heard round the world," and a few weeks later the forts of
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, then defended by very feeble garrisons,
were in the possession of Colonial troops led by Ethan Allen and Seth
Warner, two of the "Green Mountain Boys," who organised this
expedition. Canada was at this time in a very defenceless condition.
Only eight hundred regular troops altogether were in the colony, very
many of the English residents of Montreal and Quebec were of doubtful
loyalty, the majority of the French Canadians were indifferent, and
could not be induced to rally in any numbers to the defence of the
province. Happily for the best interests of Canada at this crisis
there was at the head of the administration one of the ablest men who
have ever been sent to Canada--a governor-general who may well be
compared with Frontenac as a soldier and Lord Elgin as a statesman--and
that was Sir Guy Carleton, the friend of Wolfe, with whom he had served
at Quebec. His conciliatory attitude towards the French Canadian
population, and his influence in moulding the Quebec Act, gave him
great weight with the bishop and clergy of the Roman Catholic {284}
faith and leading men of the majority. The British Government, with
culpable neglect of his warnings and appeals, left him unsupported
until the very last moment, when the fate of Canada was literally
trembling in the balance. In the autumn of 1775 General Montgomery, at
the head of a considerable force of congress troops, captured the forts
of Chambly and St. Johns on the Richelieu, and a few days later
occupied Montreal, which had been hastily evacuated by Carleton, who at
once recognised the impracticability of defending it with any chance of
success, since he had an insufficient force, and could not even depend
on the fealty of the inhabitants. Quebec, at this juncture, was the
key to Canada, and there he determined to make his fight. He passed in
the night-time the batteries which the congress troops had built at
Sorel and the adjacent islands. The oars of his boat were muffled, and
when in close proximity to the enemy the men used the palms of their
hands. He reached Quebec safely, and at once inspired the garrison and
loyal residents with his courageous spirit. He arrived not a moment
too soon. General Benedict Arnold--a name discredited in history--had
succeeded in reaching Quebec by the route of the Kennebec and Chaudière
rivers--a route which in early times had been followed by the Abenakis,
those firm allies of the Canadians. Arnold was not able to commence
any active operations against Quebec until the arrival of Montgomery
from Montreal, with a force of fifteen hundred men, of whom a very
small number were French Canadians. At this time there were in {285}
Quebec only some eighteen hundred regular and militia troops, of whom
over five hundred were French Canadians, under Colonel Voyer. No doubt
the American commanders confidently expected to find in Quebec many
active sympathisers who would sooner or later contrive to give the town
into their hands, when these learned that all Canada except the capital
was in the possession of the invading forces.
Many of their men were sick, and the artillery was insufficient for the
siege of the fortress. It was decided then to attempt to seize the
town by a piece of strategy, which was very simple though it had some
chance of success. Arnold was well acquainted with the locality and
entered heartily into the plan which was devised by Montgomery for a
combined attack on Lower Town. Late at night on the 31st December,
during a heavy snowstorm, Montgomery marched from Anse-au-Foulon along
a 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 Champlain
Street. Arnold at the same time advanced from the direction of the St.
Charles. It was arranged that the two parties should meet at the lower
end of Mountain Street and force Prescott Gate, then only a rough
structure of pickets. While the two bodies were carrying out this
plan, attacks were made on the western side of the fortress to distract
the attention of the defenders. Carleton, however, was not taken by
surprise as he had had an intimation of what was likely to happen.
Consequently the garrison was on the alert and {286} Montgomery's force
was swept by a sudden discharge of cannon and musketry as they came to
Près-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 approach
to the lower town was intercepted by a battery. Montgomery, his two
aides, and a considerable number of his soldiers were instantly killed.
In the meantime Arnold had led his party from the St. Charles to the
Sault-au-Matelot, where he captured the first barrier defended by two
guns. Arnold was wounded in the knee, and his force was obliged to
proceed without him under the command of Captain Morgan, to the attack
of the second battery near the eastern end of the narrow street, known
as Sault-au-Matelot from the most early times. They succeeded in
obtaining possession of some houses in the street, but it was not long
before they were surrounded by Carleton's men and forced to surrender
to the number of several hundreds. Arnold remained, during the winter,
in command of the congress troops, who suffered severely from
small-pox, the cold, and even want of sufficient provisions. In the
spring he was superseded by General Wooster who brought with him a
reinforcement, but the arrival of English frigates with troops and
supplies, forced him to raise the siege and retire hastily to Montreal.
A few weeks later General Burgoyne, with seven regiments, including a
large German contingent under General Frederick Riedesel, arrived at
Quebec, and arrangements were made for an active campaign against the
rebellious colonists. Arnold found it {287} prudent immediately to
leave Montreal which was again occupied by English troops. The forts
on the Richelieu were regained by the English, Carleton destroyed the
congress fleet under the command of Arnold on Lake Champlain, and Crown
Point was partly destroyed and abandoned by the retreating Americans.
Soon after these occurrences in 1775, Carleton found to his chagrin
that the command of the forces was given to Burgoyne, a much inferior
man, who had influence with Lord Germain, better known in English
history as that Lord George Sackville who had disgraced himself on the
battlefield of Minden, but had subsequently found favour with the King,
who made him one of his ministers, and gave him virtually the direction
of the campaign in America. Carleton, however, remained
Governor-General until 1778, when he was replaced at his own request by
General Haldimand, a very energetic and capable man, to whom Canadian
historians have, as a rule, never rendered adequate justice. During
these years Carleton had his difficulties arising out of the unsettled
condition of things in the province, the prospects of invasion, and the
antagonism of Chief-Justice Livius, who replaced a far better man, Hey,
and was himself superseded by the Governor-General on account of his
efforts to weaken the authority of the government at a time when
faction and rivalry should have ceased among those who wished to
strengthen British interests in America. Livius appealed to the home
authorities, and through the influence of Lord George Germain was
reinstated, though he did not find even in this {288} quarter an
approval in words of his own conduct, and never returned to fill his
former position in Canada.
It is not necessary to dwell here on the events of a war whose history
is so familiar to every one. Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga, and
his army, from which so much was expected, made prisoners of war. This
great misfortune of the British cause was followed by the alliance of
France with the States. French money, men, and ships eventually
assured the independence of the republic whose fortunes were very low
at times, despite the victory at Saratoga. England was not well served
in this American war. She had no Washington to direct her campaign.
Gage, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis were not equal to the responsibilities
thrown 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 was
never in the war, and to the acknowledgment by England, a few months
later, of the independence of her old colonies. Before this decisive
victory in the south, the Ohio valley and the Illinois country were in
the possession of the troops of congress. George Rogers Clark, the
bold backwoodsman of Kentucky, captured Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and
Vincennes, and gave the new States that valid claim to the west which
was fully recognised in the treaty of peace.
The definitive treaty of peace, which was signed in 1783, acknowledged
the independence of the old English colonies, and fixed the boundaries
of the {289} new republic and of Canada, and laid the foundation of
fruitful controversies in later times.
The United States now controlled the territory extending in the east
from Nova Scotia (which then included New Brunswick) to the head of the
Lake of the Woods and to the Mississippi River in the west, and in the
north from Canada to the Floridas in the south, the latter having again
become Spanish possessions. The boundary between Nova Scotia and the
Republic 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 two
countries. In the far west the line of division was to be drawn
through the Lake of the Woods "to the most northwestern point thereof,
and from thence on a due west course to the River Mississippi"--a
physical impossibility, since the head of the Mississippi, as was
afterwards found, was a hundred miles or so to the south. In later
times this geographical error was corrected, and the curious distortion
of the boundary line that now appears on the maps was necessary at the
Lake of the Woods in order to strike the forty-ninth parallel of north
latitude, which was subsequently arranged as the boundary line as far
as the Rocky Mountains. Of the difficulties that arose from the
eastern boundary line I shall speak later.
From 1778 until 1783 the government of Canada was under the direction
of General Haldimand, who possessed that decision of character
absolutely essential at so critical a period of Canadian history. The
Congress of the States had never despaired of obtaining the assistance
of the French Canadians, and of {290} bringing the country into the new
republic. Haldimand had to arrest Du Calvet, Mesplet, and Jotard, as
leaders in a seditious movement against England. Fleury Mesplet put up
in Montreal the first printing-press, which gave him and his friends
superior facilities for circulating dangerous appeals to the restless
element of the population. Du Calvet was a French Protestant, in
active sympathy with Congress, and had a violent controversy with
Haldimand, who was, at last, forced to take severe measures against
him. While on his way to England he was drowned, and the country
spared more of his dangerous influence. Jotard, a French attorney, was
a contributor to a paper owned by Mesplet, and a warm sympathiser with
the efforts of Admiral D'Estaing and General Lafayette to win back the
allegiance of the French Canadians. The appeals of these two
distinguished men to the memories of the old subjects of France had no
immediate effect except upon a very small class, although it might have
been different had French troops made their appearance on the St.
Lawrence. One Canadian priest, La Valinière, who was connected with
the seminary of St. Sulpice in Montreal, was sent to England with the
approval of the bishop, for his openly expressed sympathy with France.
Happily Monseigneur Briand and the great majority of the clergy stood
always 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 most
important events in the history of Canada occurred as a result of the
American war for independence. This event was the coming to the
provinces of many thousand people, known as United Empire Loyalists,
who, during the progress of the war, but chiefly at its close, left
their old homes in the thirteen colonies. When the Treaty of 1783 was
under consideration, the British representatives made an effort to
obtain some practical consideration from the new nation for the claims
of this unfortunate people who had been subject to so much loss and
obloquy during the war. All that the English envoys could obtain was
the insertion of a clause in the treaty to the effect that Congress
would recommend to the legislatures of the several States measures of
restitution--a provision which turned out, as Franklin intimated at the
time, a perfect nullity. The English Government subsequently {292}
indemnified these people in a measure for their self-sacrifice, and
among other things gave a large number of them valuable tracts of land
in the provinces of British North America. Many of them settled in
Nova Scotia, others founded New Brunswick and Upper Canada, now
Ontario. Their influence on the political fortunes of Canada has been
necessarily very considerable. For years they and their children were
animated by a feeling of bitter animosity against the United States,
the effects of which could be traced in later times when questions of
difference arose between England and her former colonies. They have
proved with the French Canadians a barrier to the growth of any
annexation party, and as powerful an influence in national and social
life 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 of
the Loyalists from their homes, of their trials and struggles in the
valley of the St. Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepest
sympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only compared
with the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the French
population from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution they
comprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, in
all the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, where
they were in the majority until the peace. They were generally known
as Tories, whilst their opponents, who supported independence, were
called Whigs. Neighbour was arrayed against {293} neighbour, families
were divided, the greatest cruelties were inflicted as the war went on
upon men and women who believed it was their duty to be faithful to
king and country. As soon as the contest was ended, their property was
confiscated in several States. Many persons were banished and
prohibited from returning to their homes. An American writer, Sabine,
tells us that previous to the evacuation of New York, in the month of
September, 1783, "upwards of twelve thousand men, women, and children
embarked at the city, at Long and Staten Islands, for Nova Scotia and
the Bahamas." Very wrong impressions were held in those days of the
climate and resources of the provinces to which these people fled.
Time was to prove that the lot of many of the loyalists had actually
fallen in pleasant places, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Upper
Canada; that the country, where most of them settled, was superior in
many respects to the New England States, and equal to the State of New
York from which so many of them came.
It is estimated that between forty and fifty thousand people reached
British North America by 1786. They commenced to leave their old homes
soon after the breaking out of the war, but the great migration took
place in 1783-84. Many sought the shores of Nova Scotia, and founded
the town of Shelburne, which at one time held a population of ten or
twelve thousand souls, the majority of whom were entirely unsuited to
the conditions of the rough country around them, and soon sought homes
elsewhere. Not a few settled in more favourable parts {294} of Nova
Scotia, and even in Cape Breton. Considerable numbers found rest in
the beautiful valley of the St. John River, and founded the province of
New Brunswick. As many more laid the beginnings of Upper Canada, in
the present county of Glengarry, in the neighbourhood of Kingston and
the Bay of Quinté, on the Niagara River, and near the French
settlements on the Detroit. A few also settled in the country now
known as the Eastern Townships of French Canada. A great proportion of
the men were officers and soldiers of the regiments which were formed
in several colonies out of the large loyal population. Among them were
also men who had occupied positions of influence and responsibility in
their respective communities, divines, judges, officials, and landed
proprietors, whose names were among the best in the old colonies, as
they are certainly in Canada. Many among them gave up valuable estates
which had been acquired by the energy of their ancestors. Unlike the
Puritans who founded New England, they did not take away with them
their valuable property in the shape of money and securities, or
household goods. A rude log hut by the side of a river or lake, where
poverty and wretchedness were their lot for months, and even years in
some cases, was the refuge of thousands, all of whom had enjoyed every
comfort in well-built houses, and not a few even luxury in stately
mansions, some of which have withstood the ravages of time and can
still be pointed out in New England. Many of the loyalists were quite
unfitted for the rude experiences of a pioneer life, and years passed
{295} before they and their children conquered the wilderness and made
a livelihood. The British Government was extremely liberal in its
grants of lands to this class of persons in all the provinces.
The government supplied these pioneers in the majority of cases with
food, clothing, and necessary farming implements. For some years they
suffered many privations; one was called "the year of famine," when
hundreds in Upper Canada had to live on roots, and even the buds of
trees, or anything that might sustain life. Fortunately some lived in
favoured localities, where pigeons and other birds, and fish of all
kinds, were plentiful. In the summer and fall there were quantities of
wild fruit and nuts. Maple sugar was a great luxury, when the people
once learned to make it from the noble tree, whose symmetrical leaf may
well be made the Canadian national emblem. It took the people a long
while to accustom themselves to the conditions of their primitive
pioneer life, but now the results of the labours of these early
settlers and their descendants can be seen far and wide in smiling
fields, richly laden orchards, and gardens of old-fashioned flowers
throughout the country which they first made to blossom like the rose.
The rivers and lakes were the only means of communication in those
early times, roads were unknown, and the wayfarer could find his way
through the illimitable forests only by the help of the "blazed" trees
and the course of streams. Social intercourse was infrequent except in
autumn and winter, when the young managed to assemble as they always
will. Love and courtship went on {296} even in this wilderness, though
marriage was uncertain, as the visits of clergymen were very rare in
many places, and magistrates could alone tie the nuptial knot--a very
unsatisfactory 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 records
behind them. As we wander among the old burying grounds of those
founders of Western Canada and New Brunswick, and stand by the gray,
moss-covered tablets, with names effaced by the ravages of years, the
thought will come to us, what interesting stories could be told by
those who are laid beneath the sod, of sorrows and struggles, of hearts
sick with hope deferred, of expectations never realised, of memories of
misfortune and disaster in another land where they bore so much for a
stubborn and unwise king. Yet these grass-covered mounds are not
simply memorials of suffering and privation; each could tell a story of
fidelity to principle, of forgetfulness of self-interest, of devotion
and self-sacrifice--the grandest story that human annals can tell--a
story that should be ever held up to the admiration and emulation of
the young men and women of the present times, who enjoy the fruits of
the labours of those loyal pioneers.
Although no noble monument has yet been raised to the memory of these
founders of new provinces--of English-speaking Canada; although the
majority lie forgotten in old graveyards where the grass has {297}
grown rank, and common flowers alone nod over their resting-places, yet
the names of all are written in imperishable letters in provincial
annals. Those loyalists, including the children of both sexes, who
joined 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. A
Canadian of these modern days, who traces his descent from such a
source, is as proud of his lineage as if he were a Derby or a Talbot of
Malahide, or inheritor of other noble names famous in the annals of the
English peerage.
The records of all the provinces show the great influence exercised on
their material, political, and intellectual development by this devoted
body of immigrants. For more than a century they and their descendants
have been distinguished for the useful and important part they have
taken in every matter deeply associated with the best interests of the
country. In New Brunswick we find among those who did good service in
their day and generation the names of Wilmot, Allen, Robinson, Jarvis,
Hazen, Burpee, Chandler, Tilley, Fisher, Bliss, Odell, Botsford; in
Nova 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 Anglican
clergyman), 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 of
Wilmot, Howe, and Huntingdon, who were among the fathers of responsible
government; those of Tilley, Tupper, Chandler, and Fisher, who were
among the fathers of confederation; of Ryerson, who exercised a most
important influence on the system of free education which Ontario now
enjoys. Among the eminent living descendants of U. E. Loyalists are
Sir Charles Tupper, long a prominent figure in politics; Christopher
Robinson, a distinguished lawyer, who was counsel for Canada at the
Bering Sea arbitration; Sir Richard Cartwright, a liberal leader
remarkable for his keen, incisive style of debate, and his knowledge of
financial questions; Honourable George E. Foster, a former finance
minister of Canada. We might extend the list indefinitely did space
permit. 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 during
the American revolution, we see the famous Iroquois chief, Joseph
Brant, best known by his Mohawk name of Thayendanegea, who took part in
the war, and was for many years wrongly accused of having participated
in the massacre and destruction of Wyoming, that beauteous vale of the
Susquehanna. It was he whom the poet Campbell would have consigned to
eternal infamy in the verse:
{300}
"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 not
present at this sad episode of the American war, and the poet in a note
to a later edition admitted that the Indian chief in his poem was "a
pure and declared character of fiction." He was a sincere friend of
English interests, a man of large and statesmanlike views, who might
have taken an important part in colonial affairs had he been educated
in these later times. When the war was ended, he and his tribe moved
into the valley of the St. Lawrence, and received from the government
fine reserves of land on the Bay of Quinté, and on the Grand River in
the western part of the province of Upper Canada, where the prosperous
city and county of Brantford, and the township of Tyendinaga--a
corruption of Thayendanegea--illustrate the fame he has won in Canadian
annals. The descendants of his nation live in comfortable homes, till
fine farms in a beautiful section of Western Canada, and enjoy all the
franchises of white men. It is an interesting fact that the first
church built in Ontario was that of the Mohawks, who still preserve the
communion service presented to the tribe in 1710 by Queen Anne of
England.
General Haldimand's administration will always be noted in Canadian
history for the coming of the {301} loyalists, and for the sympathetic
interest he took in settling these people on the lands of Canada, and
in alleviating their difficulties by all the means in the power of his
government. In these and other matters of Canadian interest he proved
conclusively that he was not the mere military martinet that some
Canadian writers with inadequate information would make him. When he
left Canada he was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, then elevated to the
peerage as Lord Dorchester, who was called upon to take part in great
changes in the constitution of Canada which must be left for review in
the following chapter.
{302}
XXII.
FOUNDATION OF NEW PROVINCES--ESTABLISHMENT
OF REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS.
(1792-1812.)
The history of the Dominion of Canada as a self-governing community
commences with the concession of representative institutions to the old
provinces now comprised within its limits. By 1792 there were provincial
governments established in Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. From 1713 to 1758 the government of
Nova Scotia consisted of a governor, or lieutenant-governor, a council
possessing legislative, executive, and even judicial powers. In October,
1758, an assembly met for the first time in the town of Halifax, which
had been the capital since 1749. New Brunswick had been separated from
Nova Scotia in 1784, but a representative assembly did not assemble until
1786, when its form of government was identical with that of the older
province. Prince Edward Island was a part of Nova Scotia until 1769 when
it was created a distinct province, {303} with a lieutenant-governor, a
combined executive and legislative council, and also an assembly in 1773.
The island of Cape Breton had a lieutenant-governor and executive
council, and remained apart from Nova Scotia until 1820 when it was
included in its government. In 1791 the province of Upper Canada was
formally separated from the province of Quebec by an act of the imperial
parliament, and was called Upper Canada, while the French section
received the name of Lower Canada. At that time the total population of
British North America did not exceed a quarter of a million of souls, of
whom at least a hundred and forty thousand lived on the banks of the St.
Lawrence and its tributary streams, and almost entirely represented the
language, institutions, and history of the French régime. In the French
province there was also a small British population, consisting of
officials, commercial men, and loyalists who settled for the most part in
the Eastern Townships. The population of Upper Canada, about twenty-five
thousand, was almost exclusively of loyalist stock--a considerable number
having migrated thither from the maritime provinces. Beyond the Detroit
River, the limit of English settlement, extended a vast region of
wilderness which was trodden only by trappers and Indians.
The Constitutional Act of 1791, which created the two provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, caused much discussion in the British Parliament and in
Canada, where the principal opposition came from the English inhabitants
of the French province. These opponents of the act even sent Mr. Adam
{304} Lymburner, a Quebec merchant of high standing, to express their
opinions at the bar of the English House of Commons. The advocates of
the new scheme of government, however, believed that the division of
Canada into two provinces would have the effect of creating harmony,
since the French would be left in the majority in one section, and the
British in the other. The Quebec Act, it was generally admitted, had not
promoted the prosperity or happiness of the people at large. Great
uncertainty still existed as to the laws actually in force under the act.
In not a few cases the judges were confessedly ignorant--Chief Justice
Livius, for instance--of French Canadian jurisprudence. The increase of
the English population was a strong argument for a grant of
representative institutions. Accordingly the constitutional act provided
for an assembly, elected by the people on a limited franchise, in each
province, and for a legislative council, appointed by the Crown. The
sovereign might annex hereditary letters of honour to the right of
summons to the legislative council, but no attempt was ever made to
create a Canadian aristocracy, or distinct class, under the authority of
this section of the act. The British Government reserved the right of
imposing, levying, and collecting duties of customs, and of appointing or
directing their payment, though it left the exclusive apportionment of
all moneys levied in this way to legislature. The free exercise of the
Roman Catholic religion was permanently guaranteed. A seventh part of
all uncleared Crown lands was reserved for the use of the Protestant
clergy--a {305} provision that caused much trouble in the future. The
civil law of French Canada was to regulate property and civil rights in
that province. English criminal law was to prevail in both the Canadas.
The Governor-General of Quebec and Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada
were each assisted by an executive council chosen by those functionaries,
and having a right to sit also in the legislative council. Lord
Dorchester was the first governor-general, not only of Canada, but
likewise of the other provinces by virtue of separate commissions to that
effect. The heads of the executive in all the provinces except Quebec
were called lieutenant-governors, but they became only directly
subordinate to the governor-general when he was present in a province in
his official capacity.
The city where the first assembly of Lower Canada met in 1792 was one of
great historic interest. The very buildings in which the government
transacted its business had echoed to the tread of statesmen, warriors,
and priests of the old régime. The civil and military branches of the
government 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, was
an old stone building, generally known as the Bishop's Palace. Like all
the ancient structures of Quebec, this building had no claims to elegance
of form, although much labour and expense had been bestowed on its
construction. The chapel of this building, situated near the
communication with the lower {306} town, was converted into a chamber, in
which were held the first meetings of the representatives of Lower Canada.
On the 17th of December, the two houses assembled in their respective
chambers in the old palace, in obedience to the proclamation of
Major-General Alured Clarke, who acted as lieutenant-governor in the
absence of the governor-general, Lord Dorchester. Among the officers who
surrounded the throne on that occasion, was probably his Royal Highness
the Duke of Kent, who was in command of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, then
stationed in the old capital. On so momentous an occasion, the
assemblage was large, and comprised all the notabilities of English and
French society. In the legislature were not a few men whose families had
long been associated with the fortunes of the colony. Chaussegros de
Léry, St. Ours, Longueuil, Lanaudière, Rouville, Boucherville, Salaberry,
and Lotbinière, were among the names that told of the old régime, and
gave a guaranty to the French Canadians that their race and institutions
were at last protected in the legislative halls of their country. M.
Panet, a distinguished French Canadian, was unanimously elected the
speaker 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, and
visit the humble village of Newark, where Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe
opened his first legislature under the new constitution in the autumn of
1792. Across the rapid river was the territory of the Republic, which
was engaged in a grand experiment of government. The roar of the {308}
mighty cataract of Niagara could be heard in calm summer days. On the
banks of this picturesque river was the residence of the
lieutenant-governor, known as Navy Hall, where the legislators of Upper
Canada probably met. This was but a mean parliament house, compared with
the massive pile which was chosen for a similar purpose in Quebec; and
yet each was appropriate in its way. The Bishop's Palace illustrated an
old community, which had aimed at the conquest of the larger part of
America, and had actually laid the foundations of an empire; the
legislative cabin of Newark was a fit type of the ruggedness and newness
of western colonial life. The axe was whirring amid the forests, and
only here and there, through a vast wilderness, could be seen the humble
clearings of the pioneers.
The session was opened with the usual speech, which was duly reported to
the house of assembly by the speaker, Mr. McDonnell of Glengarry, and
immediately taken into consideration by the representatives of the
yeomanry of the western province. It is said that on more than one
occasion, the representatives were forced to leave their confined chamber
and finish their work under the trees before the door. If the attendance
was small on this occasion, it must be remembered that there were many
difficulties to overcome before the two Houses could assemble in
obedience to the governor's proclamation. The seven legislative
councillors and sixteen members who represented a population of only
25,000 souls, were scattered at very remote points, {309} and could only
find their way at times in canoes and slow sailing craft. Nor must it be
forgotten that in those early days of colonisation men had the stern
necessities of existence to consider before all things else. However
urgent the call to public duty, the harvest must be gathered in before
laws could be made.
Such were the circumstances under which the legislatures were opened in
the 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 the
public business, were of practical habits and fully alive to the value of
time in a new country, as they sat for only five weeks and passed the
same number of bills that it took seven months at Quebec to pass.
The history of Canada, during the twenty years that elapsed between the
inauguration of the constitution of 1792 and the war of 1812, does not
require any extended space in this work. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, who
had distinguished himself during the war for independence as a commander
of the Queen's Rangers, was a skilful and able administrator, who did his
best 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 American
frontier, although the Lieutenant-Governor would have preferred the site
of the present city of London, on the River {310} Thames, then known as
La Tranche. Mainly through his efforts a considerable immigration was
attracted from the United States. Many of the new settlers were loyal
and favourable to British institutions, but in the course of time there
came into the country not a few discontented, restless persons, having
radical and republican tendencies. Among the important measures of his
administration 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 the
province, but to the opening up of arteries of communication, of which
Yonge and Dundas Streets--still well-known names--were the most noted.
The founder of an important settlement in the west, an eccentric Irishman
of noble ancestry, Colonel Thomas Talbot, was a member of the
Lieutenant-Governor's staff, and eventually made his home in the western
part of the province, where he became a useful and influential pioneer.
Among the most desirable immigrants were the Scotch Highlanders, who
settled and named the county of Glengarry, and came to the country by the
advice of the energetic and able priest, Macdonell, afterwards the first
Roman Catholic bishop of Upper Canada. In Nova Scotia a number of Scotch
settled in Pictou county as early as 1773, and were followed in later
years by many others who found homes in the same district, in Antigonishe
and Cape Breton, where their descendants are still greatly in the
majority. In Prince Edward Island, Lord Selkirk, the founder of the
{311} Red River settlement, to whose history I shall refer in a later
chapter, established a colony of thrifty Scotch in one of the deserted
settlements of the French. Charlottetown was founded in those days on
the bay first known as Port La Joye, and is now a pleasing example of the
placid dignity and rural tranquillity that a capital may attain even in
these restless modern times. In this island, the seeds of {312}
discontent were planted at a very early time by the transfer of nearly
all its lands in one day by ballot to a few English landlords, whose
absenteeism long retarded its advancement, and whose claims of
proprietorship were not settled until after the confederation of the
provinces.
[Illustration: Lieutenant-General Simcoe.]
The political condition of the provinces from the beginning of the
nineteenth century began to assume considerable importance according as
the assemblies became discontented with their relatively small share in
the government of the country. In all the provinces there was a
persistent contest between the popular assemblies and prerogative, as
represented by the governors, and upper houses appointed by the same
authority. Charles the First, with all his arrogance, never treated his
parliament with greater superciliousness than did Sir James Craig, when
governor-general, on more than one occasion when the assembly had crossed
his wishes. In the absence of a ministry responsible to the assembly, a
conflict was always going on between that body and the representative of
the Crown. The assembly began now to claim full control over the taxes
and revenues which belonged to the people of the provinces. The presence
of judges in the legislature was a just cause for public discontent for
years, and although these high functionaries were eventually removed from
the assembly they continued to sit in the upper house until 1840. The
constant interference of the Imperial Government in matters of purely
local concern also led to many unfortunate misunderstandings.
{313}
In Lower Canada, where the population was the largest, and the racial
distinctions strongly accentuated, the political conflict was, from the
outset, more bitter than in other sections. The official class, a little
oligarchy composed exclusively of persons brought from the British Isles,
treated the French Canadians with a studied superciliousness, and
arrogated to themselves all the important functions of government. This
element dominated the executive and legislative councils, and practically
the governors, who, generally speaking, had extreme views of their
prerogative, and were cognisant of the fact that the colonial office in
England had no desire to entrust the Canadian Government with much larger
powers than those possessed by a municipal organisation. In the assembly
the French Canadians were largely in the majority--the English element
had frequently not more than one-fifth of the total representation of
fifty members. The assembly too often exhibited a very domineering
spirit, and attempted to punish all those who ventured to criticise,
however moderately, their proceedings. The editor of the _Quebec
Mercury_, an organ of the British minority, was arrested on this ground.
_Le Canadien_ was established as an organ of the French Canadian majority
with the motto, _Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_. By its
constant attacks on the government and the English governing class it did
much harm by creating and perpetuating racial antagonisms and by
eventually precipitating civil strife. As a result of its attacks on the
government, the paper was seized, and the printer, as well as {314} M.
Bedard and several other members of the assembly who were understood to
be contributors to its pages, or to control its opinions, were summarily
arrested by the orders of Sir James Craig. Though some of these persons
obtained their release by an expression of regret for their conduct, M.
Bedard would not yield, and was not released until the Governor-General
himself gave up the fight and retired to England where he died soon
afterwards, with the consciousness that his conduct with respect to
Bedard, and other members of the assembly, had not met with the approval
of the Imperial authorities, although he had placed the whole case before
them by the able agency of Mr. Ryland, who had been secretary for years
to successive governors-general, and represented the opinions of the
ruling official class.
In Upper Canada there were no national or racial antipathies and
rivalries 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, which
had more recently come into the country, and now desired to exercise
political influence. Lieutenant-governors, like Sir Francis Gore,
sympathised with the official class, and often with reason, as the
so-called radical leaders were not always deserving of the sympathy of
reasonable men. One of these leaders was Joseph Willcocks, for some time
sheriff of the Home district--one of the four judicial divisions of the
province--and also the proprietor and editor of the _Upper Canada
Guardian_, {315} the second paper printed in Upper Canada--the first
having been the _Upper Canada Gazette_, or the _American Oracle_, which
appeared 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 of
the majority of the assembly ordering his arrest for expressing some
unfavourable opinion of their proceedings in his paper.
In the maritime provinces the conflict between the executive and the
assemblies was less aggravated than in the St. Lawrence country, although
Sir John Wentworth, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, who had been
a governor of New Hampshire before the revolution, had a very exalted
idea of the prerogative, and succeeded in having an acrimonious
controversy with Mr. Cottnam Tonge, the leader of the popular party, and
the predecessor of a far greater man, Joseph Howe, the father of
responsible government.
Such, briefly, was the political condition of the several provinces of
British North America when events occurred to stifle discontent and
develop a broader patriotism on all sides. The War of 1812 was to prove
the fidelity of the Canadian people to the British Crown and stimulate a
new spirit of self-reliance among French as well as English Canadians,
who were to win victories which are among the most brilliant episodes of
Canadian history.
{316}
XXIII.
THE WAR OF 1812-1815--PATRIOTISM OF THE CANADIANS.
At the outbreak of the unfortunate War of 1812 the United States
embraced an immense territory extending from the St. Lawrence valley to
Mexico, excepting Florida--which remained in the possession of Spain
until 1819--and from the Atlantic indefinitely westward to the Spanish
possessions on the Pacific coast, afterwards acquired by the United
States. The total population of the Union was upwards of eight million
souls, of whom a million and a half were negro slaves in the south.
Large wastes of wild land lay between the Canadian settlements and the
thickly populated sections of New England, New York, and Ohio. It was
only with great difficulty and expense that men, munitions of war, and
provisions could be brought to the frontier during the contest.
The principal causes of the war are quite intelligible to the
historical student. Great Britain was engaged in a great conflict not
only for her own national security but also for the integrity of {317}
Europe, then dominated by the insatiable ambition of Bonaparte. It was
on the sea that her strength mainly lay. To ensure her maritime
supremacy, she found it necessary, in the course of events, to seize
and condemn neutral American vessels whenever there was conclusive
evidence 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 way
to the mother country. But such an interruption of a commerce, which
had been carried on for years at a great profit by American merchants,
was by no means so serious an affair as the stoppage of American
vessels on the high seas, and the forcible abduction and impressment,
by British naval officers, of sailors who were claimed as British
subjects, even when they had been naturalised in the United States. To
such an extent did Great Britain assert her pretensions, that one of
her frigates, the _Leopard_, actually fired into the American cruiser
_Chesapeake_, off the coast of the bay of the same name, and made
prisoners of several men who were claimed as deserters from an English
man-of-war--a national outrage for which Great Britain subsequently
made an apology and gave a measure of reparation. Then came the
British orders in council which forbade American trade with any country
from which the British flag was excluded, allowed direct trade from the
United States to Sweden only in American products, and permitted
American trade with other parts of Europe only on condition of touching
at English ports and paying duties. Napoleon retaliated with decrees
which {318} were practically futile while England was victorious on the
ocean, but which nevertheless threw additional difficulties in the way
of the commerce of a country like the United States, which possessed
such exceptional facilities for its development from its position as a
neutral nation, and its great maritime and mercantile enterprise. The
British measures meant the ruin of an American commerce which had
become very profitable, and the Washington government attempted to
retaliate by declaring an embargo in their own ports, which had only
the result of still further embarrassing American trade. In place of
this injudicious measure a system of non-intercourse with both England
and France was substituted as long as either should continue its
restrictive measures against the United States. The Democratic
governing party practically fell under the influence of France, and
believed, or at least professed to believe, that Napoleon had abandoned
his repressive system, when, as a matter of fact, as the English
ministry declared, it still existed to all intents and purposes. The
Democratic leaders, anxious to keep in power, fanned the flame against
England, whose naval superiority enabled her to inflict an injury on
American commercial interests, which France was entirely powerless to
do. The Democrats looked to the South and West for their principal
support in holding power. In these sections the interests were
exclusively agricultural, while in New England, where the
Federalists--the peace party--were in the majority--and the war was
very unpopular--the commercial and maritime {319} element largely
prevailed. In the West there had been for years an intense feeling
against England on account of the fact that after the definitive treaty
of peace in 1783, the English Government continued to occupy the
Western posts and dependent territory for thirteen years, nominally on
the ground of the harsh treatment meted out to the loyalists in
violation of its terms, and of the non-payment of debts due to English
creditors, but probably also with the view of keeping control of the
fur trade. The feeling prevailed among the western frontiersmen that
the English secretly instigated Indian attacks on the new settlements,
a belief proved by recent investigations to be groundless. Even after
the victories of Mayne in 1794, and of Harrison in 1811, when the
Indian power was effectively broken, this bitter sentiment still
existed in the West against English and Canadians, and had much
influence 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 to
agree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to the
presidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the passage
of a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, and
the formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. On
the previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders in
council, but it was too late to induce the war party in the United
States to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which were
already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the
governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard
the news of the actual declaration of hostilities.
With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing
whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was
their duty to assist England with all their might and submit to any
sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a
country which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, then
Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the
only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to
the end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a great
amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to
Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for
years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be
easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be
used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be
united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however,
that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit
of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large
region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to
Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to
England.
No doubt the American Government had been led to believe from the
utterances of Willcocks in the _Guardian_, as the representative of the
discontented element in Upper Canada, that they would find not {321}
only sympathy but probably some active co-operation in the western
country as soon as the armies of the Republic appeared on Canadian soil
and won, as they confidently expected, an easy victory over the small
force which could be brought to check invasion and defend the province.
General Hull's proclamation, when he crossed the Detroit River at the
commencement of hostilities, was so much evidence of the belief that
was entertained in the United States with regard to the fealty of the
Canadians. Willcocks proved himself a disloyal man, for he eventually
joined the American forces and fell fighting against the country which
he and a very small disaffected class would willingly have handed to a
foreign invader. The forces at the disposal of the Canadian
authorities certainly appeared to be inadequate for the defence of a
country with so long and exposed a frontier. In the provinces of
Canada there were, in 1812, only four thousand five hundred regular
troops, and of these hardly one-third were stationed above Montreal.
The Canadian militia, however, rallied with extraordinary readiness to
the call of the authorities. The majority of the loyal population that
had come into the country had been engaged in military services, and
even the old settlers, who were exempted from active duty, voluntarily
came forward, and exercised, as General Sheaffe, said, "a happy
influence on the youth of the militia ranks." The legislative bodies
of all the provinces responded liberally to the call of the executive
and placed at the disposal of the government all their resources. Army
bills were issued to a {322} large amount, and found a most valuable
currency throughout the war.
[Illustration: Major-General Brock.]
During the first year of the war, there was a continuous record of
success for Canada. The key to the upper lakes, Michillimackinac, was
captured and held by a small force of English regulars and Canadian
voyageurs. The immediate consequence of this victory was to win the
confidence and alliance of the western Indians, then led by Tecumseh,
the famous Shawanoese chief, who had been driven from Tippecanoe by
General Harrison. Then followed the capitulation of General Hull and
his army, who had invaded Canada and were afterwards forced to retreat
to Detroit, where they surrendered to General Brock with a much
inferior force. By this capitulation, which led to the disgrace and
nearly to the execution of Hull on his return to his own country, the
whole territory of Michigan, over two thousand five hundred troops, and
a large quantity of munitions of war and provisions fell into the
possession of the British. The next important event of this memorable
year was the defeat of the attempt of Van Rensselaer to occupy
Queenston Heights, with the object of establishing there a base of
future operations against Upper Canada. The Americans were routed with
great loss and many of the men threw themselves down the precipice and
were drowned in the deep and rapid river. At the beginning of the
battle, General Brock was unhappily slain while leading his men up the
heights, and the same fate befell his chivalrous aide-de-camp, Colonel
McDonell, the attorney-general of the province. It {324} was left for
General Sheaffe to complete the victory, which gave many prisoners to
the English force, and drove the remainder of the beaten American army
across the beautiful river. General Smyth, a most incompetent man, who
succeeded to the command of the American army on the resignation of Van
Rensselaer, subsequently attempted to storm and carry Fort Erie, but
Colonel Bisshopp successfully held this important post, which
controlled the outlet of Lake Erie into the Niagara River. When the
campaign closed, in 1812, Canada was free from the invader, chiefly
through the energy and sagacity with which the gallant General Brock
had made his preparations to repel invasion.
In 1813 the campaign commenced with a signal victory by General
Procter, who was in command at Detroit, over a considerable American
force at Frenchtown, on the Raisin River, under the command of
Brigadier Winchester. Then came a successful attack by Colonel
McDonnell on Ogdensburgh (La Présentation of the French régime), in
retaliation for raids on Gananoque and Elizabethtown, subsequently
named Brockville--now a beautiful city near the Thousand Isles--in
honour of the gallant soldier who perished on the heights of Queenston.
Commodore Chauncey, in command of a small American fleet organised at
Sackett's Harbour, an important base of naval and military operations
for the Americans, attacked the little capital of York, now Toronto,
which was evacuated by General Sheaffe, then administrator of the
government, who retired to Kingston, the strongest position {325} to
the west of Montreal. The invaders burnt the legislative and other
public buildings. The small library and public records were not even
spared by the pillaging troops. No precautions had been taken by
Sheaffe to improve defences which at the best were of little strength.
During the summer, the American army was so much superior to the
English forces that they were able to occupy the whole Niagara frontier
from Fort Erie to Fort George, both of which were captured by General
Dearborn. Major-General Vincent, the English commander, was compelled
to retire to Burlington Heights, overlooking the present city of
Hamilton. Sir George Prevost, who proved himself a most irresolute and
incapable commander-in-chief, retreated ignominiously from Sackett's
Harbour, although Commodore Chauncey and his fleet were absent and the
post was defended by only a small garrison. This discreditable
failure, which cannot be in any way excused, was soon forgotten when
the news came of the success of Colonel Harvey, afterwards a
lieutenant-governor of the maritime provinces, at Stoney Creek, quite
close to Burlington Bay. With an insignificant detachment from
Vincent's main body, Harvey succeeded in surprising at night a large
American force, commanded by Brigadiers Chandler and Winder, both of
whom, as well as one hundred officers and men, were taken prisoners.
This serious disaster and the approach of Admiral Yeo's fleet from the
eastward forced the invading army to retire to Fort George, where they
concentrated their strength, after abandoning Fort {326} Erie and other
posts on the frontier. It was during the campaign of this year that
Laura Secord, the courageous daughter of a sturdy loyalist stock which
has given the name of Ingersoll to a Canadian town, afforded a
memorable example of the devotion which animated Canadian women in
these years of trial. General Dearborn had ordered Colonel Boerstler
to surprise and attack the Canadian outposts at Twelve Mile Creek, now
St. Catharine's, and at De Ceu's farm, close to the present town of
Thorold. Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, with a picket of thirty men, was
stationed at De Ceu's. A Canadian militiaman, James Secord, who lived
at Queenston, heard of the proposed attack, but as he had been severely
wounded in the attack on Queenston Heights in the previous October, he
was unable to warn Fitzgibbon. His wife, a woman of nearly forty
years, volunteered for the hazardous duty, and started at dawn for a
journey of twenty miles, through dense woods, where the paths were few
and had to be avoided for fear of meeting American marauders or
suspicious Indians who might take her for a spy. It took her all day
to reach her destination, where she first disturbed an encampment of
Indians who received her with yells, which dismayed her for the moment.
However, she was taken to the commanding officer, who made his
arrangements immediately to surprise Boerstler, who soon made his
appearance with five hundred men at least. The Americans were forced
to surrender to what they believed was a vastly superior force, so
cleverly had Fitzgibbon succeeded in deceiving them. In fact, he had
only at first {327} thirty soldiers, and two hundred and forty Indians,
and when a captain and twenty troopers of the Chippewa cavalry came up
Boerstler was quite ready to surrender.
All the successes in the west, however, were now rendered worthless by
the unfortunate defeat at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie of the English
flotilla under Captain Barclay, by Commodore Perry, who had command of
a large number of vessels, with a superior armament and equipment. The
result of this victory was to give the control of Lake Erie and of the
State of Michigan to the Americans. Procter retreated from Detroit,
and was defeated near Moraviantown, an Indian village, about sixty
miles from Sandwich, by General Harrison, who had defeated Tecumseh in
the northwest, and now added to his growing fame by his victory over
the English army, who were badly generalled on this occasion.
Tecumseh, the faithful ally of the Canadians, fell in the battle, and
his body was treated with every indignity, his skin, according to
report, having been carried off to Kentucky as a trophy. Procter fell
into 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 the
commander-in-chief.
Passing by such relatively unimportant affairs as a successful attack
on Black Rock, near Buffalo, by Colonel Bisshopp, and a second attack
on 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 campaign
of 1813 which compensated Canada for Procter's disasters in the west.
The Americans had decided to make an attack on Montreal by two
forces--one coming by the St. Lawrence and the other by Lake
Champlain--which were to form a junction at Châteauguay on Lake St.
Louis. General Wilkinson, with eight thousand men, descended the river
from Sackett's Harbour, landed below Prescott, and then proceeded
towards Cornwall. Some two thousand five hundred men, under Colonel
Boyd, protected the rear of the main body, and was compelled to fight a
much inferior force, under Colonel Morrison, on Chrystler's farm, near
what is now known as Cook's Point on the north bank of the St.
Lawrence. The Americans gave way in all directions, and sustained a
heavy loss. Boyd rejoined Wilkinson at the foot of the Long Sault
rapids, in the neighbourhood of the present town of Cornwall, and here
the news arrived that General Hampton had received a serious repulse.
Hampton, leading an army of probably seven thousand men, had been
routed near the junction of the Châteauguay and Outarde rivers by an
insignificant force of Canadian Fencibles and Voltigeurs under Colonel
de Salaberry, a French Canadian in the English military service, with
the aid of Colonel McDonnell, in command of seven companies of Lower
Canadian militia. These combined forces did not exceed nine hundred
men, all French Canadians, with the exception of Colonel McDonnell and
several other officers. Three hundred French Canadian Voltigeurs and
Fencibles formed the front {329} of the line, and when the former gave
way to the onslaught of the four thousand men who advanced against them
Salaberry held his ground with a bugler, a mere lad, and made him sound
lustily. Colonel McDonnell, with a remarkably keen understanding of
the situation, immediately ordered his buglers to play, and to continue
doing 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 the
yells of the Indians, the American force halted as if they were
paralysed. Then, believing from the noises that filled the forest in
every direction that they were to be attacked in front and rear by an
overwhelming force, they broke and fled tumultuously. Salaberry and
the Canadians had won a victory that has only a few parallels in
warlike annals. Hampton retreated as rapidly as possible to
Plattsburg, while Wilkinson found his way to Salmon River. These two
victories of Chrystler's farm and Châteauguay were won almost entirely
by Canadian prowess and skill, and must be always mentioned among the
glorious episodes of Canadian history.
[Illustration: Colonel De Salaberry.]
Before the end of the year, General McClure, in command of the American
troops on the Niagara frontier, evacuated Fort George, when he heard of
the advance of the English forces under General Murray. McClure
committed the cowardly outrage of destroying the town of Newark. All
the houses except one were burned, and no pity was shown even to the
weak and helpless women, all of whom were driven from their comfortable
houses and forced to stand on the snow-clad earth, while they saw the
flames ascend from their homes and household treasures. As an act of
retribution the British troops destroyed all the posts and settlements
from Fort Niagara to Buffalo. When the campaign of 1813 closed, Lake
Erie was still in the possession of the Americans, but the Niagara
district on both sides of the river had been freed from the American
{331} forces, and not an inch of Canadian territory except Amherstburg
was in possession of the enemy.
In the following year the campaign commenced by the advance of a large
force of American troops under General Wilkinson into Lower Canada, but
they did not get beyond Lacolle Mill, not far from Isle aux Noix on the
Richelieu, where they met with a most determined resistance from the
little garrison under Colonel Handcock. Wilkinson retreated to
Plattsburg, and did not again venture upon Canadian territory. Sir
Gordon Drummond took Oswego, and succeeded in destroying a large amount
of public property, including the barracks. The greatest success of
the year was won in the Niagara country, where the English troops under
Drummond and Riall had been concentrated with the view of opposing the
advance of an American army into Upper Canada. The Americans occupied
Fort Erie, and Riall sustained a repulse at Street's Creek--now known
as Usher's--near Chippewa, although General Brown, who was in command
of a much superior force, did not attempt to follow up his advantage,
but allowed the English to retreat to Fort George. Then followed, on
the 25th of July, the famous battle of Lundy's Lane, where the English
regulars and Canadian militia, led by General Drummond, fought from six
in the evening until midnight, a formidable force of American troops,
commanded by General Brown and Brigadiers Ripley, Porter, and
Scott--the latter the future hero of the Mexican war. The darkness
through this hotly contested engagement was intense, and the English
{332} more than once seemed on the point of yielding to sheer
exhaustion as they contested every foot of ground against overpowering
numbers of well handled troops. The undaunted courage and persistence
of the British and Canadian soldiery won the battle, as the Americans
retired from the field, though with a remarkable perversion of the
facts this memorable event is even claimed by some American writers as
a success on their side. This was the last great fight of the war, and
will be always cited by Canadians as illustrating the mettle of their
own militia in old times.
[Illustration: Monument at Lundy's Lane.]
Drummond did not win other successes, and even failed to capture Fort
Erie. The American army, however, did not make another advance into
the country while he kept it so well guarded. Erie was eventually
evacuated, while the Americans concentrated their strength at Buffalo.
Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi was captured in this same summer by
the English, and the Americans were repulsed in an attempt to seize the
fort at Michillimackinac. In eastern Canada there was no such record
of victory to show as Drummond and his officers had made in the west.
Prevost again gave a signal proof of his incapacity. His fleet
sustained a complete defeat on Lake Champlain, and so great was his
dismay that he ordered the retreat to Montreal of a splendid force of
over ten thousand troops, largely composed of peninsula veterans,
though Plattsburg and its garrison must have fallen easily into his
hands had he been possessed of the most ordinary resolution. This
retreat was confessedly a disgrace to the {334} English army, which
Canadian and English writers must always record with a feeling of
contempt for Prevost.
It is not necessary to dwell at any length on other features of this
war. The American navy, small though it was, won several successes
mainly through the superiority of their vessels in tonnage, crew, and
armament. The memorable fight between the British frigate _Shannon_,
under Captain Broke, and the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, under
Captain Lawrence, off Massachusetts Bay, illustrates equally the
courage of British and American sailors--of men belonging to the same
great stock which has won so many victories on the sea. The two ships
were equally matched, and after a sharp contest of a quarter of an hour
the _Chesapeake_ was beaten, but not until Captain Lawrence was fatally
wounded and his victorious adversary also severely injured. During the
war Nova Scotia and the other maritime provinces were somewhat harassed
at times by American privateers, but the presence of a large fleet
constantly on their coasts--Halifax being the rendezvous of the British
navy in American waters--and the hostility of New England to the war
saved these sections of British America from invasion. On the other
hand, all the important positions on the coast of Maine from the
Penobscot to the St. Croix, were attacked and occupied by the English.
The whole American coast during the last year of the war was blockaded
by the English fleet with the exception of New England ports, which
were open to neutral vessels. The public buildings of Washington,
{335} the federal capital, were destroyed by an English army, in
retaliation for the burning of York, Newark, and Moraviantown. The
attempt to take Baltimore failed, and a bold man from Tennessee, Andrew
Jackson--in later years President--drove Pakenham from New Orleans.
The taking of Mobile by British ships was the closing incident of the
war on the Atlantic coast. In fact peace was happily declared by the
Treaty of Ghent on the 24th December, 1814, or a fortnight before the
defeat of the English at New Orleans. The two nations gladly came to
terms. It is questionable if the heart of either was ever deeply
enlisted in this unhappy war which should never have been fought
between peoples so closely connected by language and race. It was
mainly a war of Western and Southern politicians, and when it ended New
England, whose interests had been so seriously affected, was showing
signs of serious restlessness which had broken out in the Hartford
convention, and might have even threatened the integrity of the Union.
Although the war ended without any definite decision on the questions
at issue between the United States and Great Britain, the privileges of
neutrals were practically admitted, and the extreme pretensions of
Great 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 fishermen
on the coasts of British North America were not again conceded, {336}
and the convention of 1818, which followed the peace of 1815, is the
basis of the rights which Canadians have always maintained in disputes
between themselves and the United States as to the fisheries on their
coasts. Looking, however, to its general results, the war gave no
special advantages to the Canadian people. When peace was proclaimed
not an inch of Canadian territory, except the village of Amherstburg,
was held by the American forces. On the other hand, Great Britain
occupied the greater part of the sea-board of Maine, and her flag flew
over Michillimackinac, the key to the Northwest. Had British statesmen
seized this opportunity of settling finally the western boundary of New
Brunswick, Canada would have obtained a territory most useful to the
commercial development of the present Dominion. England, however, was
very desirous of ending the war--perhaps the humiliating affair at
Plattsburg had some effect on the peace--and it was fortunate for the
provinces that they were allowed in the end to control their most
valuable fisheries.
The people of Canada will always hold in grateful recollection the
names of those men who did such good service for their country during
these momentous years from 1812 to 1815. Brock, Tecumseh, Morrison,
Salaberry, McDonnell, Fitzgibbon, and Drummond are among the most
honourable 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, and
recalls {337} the services of the gallant soldiers, Brock and McDonell,
whose remains rest beneath. A beautiful village, beyond which
stretches historic Lundy's Lane, recalls the name and deeds of
Drummond. As the steamers pass up and down the St. Lawrence they see
on the northern bank the obelisk which the Canadian Government has
raised on the site of the battlefield where Morrison defeated Boyd. On
the meadows of Châteauguay, another monument has been erected by the
same national spirit in honour of the victory won by a famous
representative of the French Canadian race, who proved how courageously
French Canadians could fight for the new régime under which they were
then, 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 the
union of the Canadas in 1840, illustrates the folly and misery of
faction, when intensified by racial antagonisms. In Lower Canada the
difficulties arising from a constant contest for the supremacy between
the executive and legislative authorities were aggravated by the fact
that the French Canadian majority dominated the popular house, and the
English-speaking minority controlled the government. "I found," wrote
Lord Durham, in 1839, "two nations warring in the bosom of a single
state; I found a struggle not of principles but of races." It is true
that some Englishmen were found fighting for popular liberties on the
side of the French Canadian majority. Mr. John Neilson, who was for
years editor of the _Quebec Gazette_, was a friend of the French
Canadians, and in close sympathy with the movement for the extension of
public rights, but he was never prepared to go beyond {339} the
legitimate limits of constitutional agitation and threaten British
connexion. On the other hand, Dr. Wolfred Nelson, descended from a
loyalist stock, was one of the leaders of the majority that controlled
the assembly of Lower Canada, and did not hesitate to join in the
rebellion to which his rash and impetuous chief, Louis Joseph Papineau,
led him at last. But while undoubtedly there were many persons among the
British people, who were disgusted with the arrogance of some of the
governing class, and discontented with the methods of government, they
were gradually alienated by the demagogism of the French Canadian
majority, who did not hesitate to profess their desire to make French
Canada exclusively a French dominion. The tyranny of the majority was
exhibited in the assembly by the attempt to impeach Chief Justices Sewell
and Monk, on charges which had no justification in law or justice. Mr.
Robert Christie, the member for Gaspé, who subsequently wrote a useful
history of Lower Canada, was expelled several times because he was
believed to have procured the dismissal from the magistracy of some
members of the assembly who were inimical to the executive government.
On the other hand, Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general, in 1827, refused
to approve of the election of Mr. Papineau as speaker of the assembly,
because he had reflected in strong terms in a manifesto on the public
conduct of the former. Mr. Louis J. Papineau, the future leader of the
rebellion in 1837, was a man of fine presence, gifted with remarkable
powers of rhetoric and persuasion, but {340} he was entirely wanting in
discretion, and in the qualities which make a great statesman. When the
assembly refused to reconsider its action and elect another speaker, Lord
Dalhousie prorogued the legislature, which did not again meet until he
was recalled and sent to India as commander-in-chief. Like other
governors, Lord Dalhousie attempted to govern to the best of his ability,
and what mistakes he committed arose from the contradictory and
perplexing instructions he received from the officials in Downing Street,
who were quite incapable at times of understanding the real condition of
affairs in the province.
[Illustration: Louis J. Papineau, Aet. 70.]
The disputes at last between the contending parties in Lower Canada
prevented the working of the constitution. The assembly fought for years
for the independence of Parliament and the exclusive control of the civil
list and supply. When at last the assembly refused to vote a civil list
and other necessary expenditures, the government were obliged to use the
casual and territorial revenues--such as the proceeds of the sales and
leases of Crown lands--and these funds were inadequate for the purpose.
So carelessly were these funds managed that one receiver-general, engaged
in business, became a heavy defaulter. The governors dissolved the
legislatures with a frequency unparalleled in political history, and were
personally drawn into the conflict. Public officials, including the
judges, were harassed by impeachments. Bills were constantly rejected by
the legislative council on various pretexts--some of them
constitutionally correct--and the disputes {341} between the two branches
of the legislature eventually made it impossible to pass even absolutely
necessary measures. Appeals to the home government were very common, and
concessions were made time and again to the assembly. In fact, the
contest as to the revenues and expenditures ought to have closed, in a
great measure, with the abandonment, in 1832, by the government of every
portion of the {342} previously reserved revenue, but, as Lord Durham
pointed out, the assembly, "even when it obtained entire control over the
public revenues," refused the civil list because it was determined "not
to give up its only means of subjecting the functionaries of government
to any responsibility." The conflict was carried on to the bitter end.
It does not appear, however, that the majority in the assembly at all
understood the crucial difficulty. They devoted their whole strength to
attacks on the legislative council, and to demands for an elective body.
The famous ninety-two resolutions of 1834, in which Papineau's party set
forth their real or fancied grievances, did not contain a single
paragraph laying down the principles of parliamentary or responsible
government as worked out in England, and ably supported by the moderate
Upper Canadian Reformers like Robert Baldwin. The home government ought
to have appreciated the gravity of the situation, but they were not yet
prepared to introduce into these colonies the principles of parliamentary
government. In 1835 they appointed a commission to inquire into the
nature of the grievances and the best method of remedying them. The
governor-general, Lord Gosford, was the head of this commission, but it
failed because Papineau and his party were not now prepared to listen to
moderate and conciliatory counsels. When in 1837 the assembly continued
to refuse supply for the payment of public officials, and of the arrears,
which up to that time amounted to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand
pounds sterling, Lord John Russell {343} carried in the English House of
Commons a series of resolutions, rejecting the demand for an elective
legislative council and other changes in the constitution, and empowering
the executive government to defray the expenses of the public service out
of the territorial and casual revenues. This action of the imperial
government increased the public discontent, and gave an opportunity to
Papineau and his followers to declare that no redress of grievances could
be obtained except by a resort to arms. In this year the rebellion broke
out, but before I refer to it, it is necessary to review briefly the
condition of things in the other provinces.
In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the disputes between the executive and
legislative authorities were characterised by much acrimony, but
eventually the public revenues were conceded to the assemblies. In
Prince Edward Island the political difficulties arose from the land
monopoly, and the efforts of the lieutenant-governors to govern as much
as possible without assemblies. In these provinces, as in Canada, we
find--to cite Lord Durham--"representative government coupled with an
irresponsible executive, the same abuse of the powers of the
representative bodies, and the same constant interference of the imperial
administration in matters which should be left wholly to the provincial
governments." In the maritime provinces, however, no disturbance
occurred, and the leaders of the popular party were among the first to
assist the authorities in their efforts to preserve the public
tranquillity, and to express themselves emphatically in favour of the
British connection.
{344}
In Upper Canada an official class held within its control practically the
government of the province. This class became known, in the parlance of
those days, as the "family compact," not quite an accurate designation,
since its members had hardly any family connection, but there was just
enough ground for the term to tickle the taste of the people for an
epigrammatic phrase. The bench, the pulpit, the banks, the public
offices were all more or less under the influence of the "compact." The
public lands were lavishly parcelled out among themselves and their
followers. Successive governors, notably Sir Francis Gore, Sir Peregrine
Maitland, and Sir Francis Bond Head, submitted first to its influence and
allowed it to have the real direction of affairs. Among its most
prominent members were John Beverly Robinson, for some years
attorney-general, and eventually an able chief-justice, and the recipient
of a baronetage; William Dummer Powell, a chief-justice; John Henry
Boulton, once attorney-general; John Strachan, the first bishop of the
Episcopal Church in Upper Canada; Jonas Jones, the Sherwoods, and other
well-known names of residents of York, Niagara, Kingston, and Brockville.
It was not until 1820 that a strong opposition was organised in the
assembly against the ruling bureaucracy. The cruel treatment of Robert
Gourlay, an erratic Scotch land-agent, by the ruling class who feared his
exposure of public abuses, had much to do with creating a reform party in
the legislature. Gourlay was a mere adventurer, who found plenty of
material in the political condition of the province {345} for obtaining
the notoriety that he coveted. In the course of some inquiries he made
in connexion with a statistical work he published in later years, he
touched 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 occasions
for libelling the government, but acquitted. Then his enemies conspired
to 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 arrested
and kept in prison for seven months. When he was at last tried at
Niagara, the home of Toryism, he was a broken-down man, hardly in full
possession of his senses. A severe judge and prejudiced jury had no
pity, and he was forced to leave the province, to which he did not return
until happier times. The injustice which was meted out to a man who had
thrown some light on public corruption, stimulated the opponents of the
"family compact" to united action against methods so dangerous to
individual liberty and so antagonistic to the redress of public
grievances.
The disputes between the reformers and the "family compact" were
aggravated by the "clergy reserves" question, which was largely one
between the Episcopalians and the dissenting bodies. This question grew
out of the grant to the Protestant Church in Canada of large tracts of
land by the imperial act of 1791, and created much bitterness of feeling
for a quarter of a century and more. The {346} reformers found in this
question abundant material for exciting the jealousies of all the
Protestant sects who wished to see the Church of England and the Church
of Scotland deprived of the advantages which they alone derived from this
valuable source of revenue. The British Government for years were on the
side of the "family compact," whose leading adherents belonged to the
Church of England, and who opposed every effort that was made to dispose
of these lands for the support of education and other public purposes.
The Methodists, who outnumbered the Church of England, had for years an
additional grievance in the fact that their ministers were not allowed to
solemnise marriages, and it was not until 1829 that this disability was
removed by the legislature.
[Illustration: Bishop Strachan.]
Among the minds that dominated the "family compact" was the eminent
divine, John Strachan, who was originally a Presbyterian, and came to the
country as a teacher at the request of the Honourable Richard Cartwright,
a prominent U. E. Loyalist, but eventually joined the Episcopalian
Church, and became its bishop. Like his countryman, John Knox, he had
extraordinary tenacity of purpose and desire for rule. He considered the
interests of the Church as paramount to all other considerations. He
became both an executive and a legislative councillor, and largely
moulded the opinions and acts of the governing classes. It was chiefly
through his influence that Sir John Colborne established a number of
rectories out of the clergy reserves, and thereby gave additional offence
to those religious {347} bodies who had no share in these lands. He
hoped 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 to
all denominations--the foundation of Toronto University--he devoted all
his energies to the establishment of Trinity College, which is the
noblest monument of the zealous prelate.
{348}
[Illustration: William Lyon Mackenzie.]
Another Scotchman, who came to the country some years later than the
bishop, was William Lyon Mackenzie, who was always remarkable for his
impulsiveness and rashness, which led him at last into difficulties and
wrecked his whole career. He had a deep sense of public wrongs, and
placed himself immediately in the front rank of those who were fighting
for a redress of undoubted grievances. He was thoroughly imbued with the
ideas of English radicalism, and had an intense hatred of Toryism in
every form. He possessed little of that strong common sense and power of
acquisitiveness which make his countrymen, as a rule, so successful in
every walk of life. When he felt he was being crushed by the intriguing
and corrupting influences of the governing class, aided by the
lieutenant-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 very
make-up the erratic character of the man. He was a pungent writer, who
attacked adversaries with great recklessness of epithet and accusation.
So obnoxious did he become to the governing class that a number of young
men, connected with the best families, wrecked his office, but the
damages he recovered in a court of law enabled him to give it a new lease
of existence. When the "family compact" had a majority in the assembly,
elected in 1830, he was expelled five times for libellous reflections on
the government and house, but he was re-elected by the people, who
resented the wrongs to which he was {350} subject, and became the first
mayor of Toronto, as York was now called. He carried his grievances to
England, where he received much sympathy, even in conservative circles.
In a new legislature, where the "compact" were in a minority, he obtained
a committee to consider the condition of provincial affairs. The result
was a famous report on grievances which set forth in a conclusive and
able manner the constitutional difficulties under which the country
laboured, and laid down clearly the necessity for responsible government.
It would have been fortunate both for Upper Canada and Mackenzie himself
at this juncture, had he and his followers confined themselves to a
constitutional agitation on the lines set forth in this report. By this
time Robert Baldwin and Egerton Ryerson, discreet and prominent
reformers, had much influence, and were quite unwilling to follow
Mackenzie in the extreme course on which he had clearly entered. He lost
ground rapidly from the time of his indiscreet publication of a letter
from Joseph Hume, the English radical, who had expressed the opinion that
the improper proceedings of the legislature, especially in expelling
Mackenzie, "must hasten the crisis that was fast approaching in the
affairs of Canada, and which would terminate in independence and freedom
from the baneful domination of the mother-country." Probably even
Mackenzie and his friends might have been conciliated and satisfied at
the last moment had the imperial government been served by an able and
discreet lieutenant-governor. But never did the imperial authorities
make a greater mistake than {351} when they sent out Sir Francis Bond
Head, who had no political experience whatever.
From the beginning to the end of his administration he did nothing but
blunder. He alienated even the confidence of the moderate element of the
Reformers, and literally threw himself into the arms of the "family
compact," and assisted them at the elections of the spring of 1836, which
rejected all the leading men of the extreme wing of the Reform party.
Mackenzie was deeply mortified at the result, and determined from that
moment to rebel against the government which, in his opinion, had no
intention of remedying public grievances. At the same time Papineau,
with whom he was in communication, had made up his mind to establish a
republic, _une nation Canadienne_, on the banks of the St. Lawrence.
The disloyal intentions of Papineau and his followers were made very
clear by the various meetings which were held in the Montreal and
Richelieu districts, by the riots which followed public assemblages in
the city of Montreal, by the names of "Sons of Liberty" and "Patriots"
they adopted in all their proceedings, by the planting of "trees," and
raising of "caps" of liberty. Happily for the best interests of Canada
the number of French Canadians ready to revolt were relatively
insignificant, and the British population were almost exclusively on the
side of the government. Bishop Lartigue and the clergy of the Roman
Catholic Church now asserted themselves very determinedly against the
dangerous and seditious utterances of {352} the leaders of the
"Patriots." Fortunately a resolute, able soldier, Sir John Colborne, was
called from Upper Canada to command the troops in the critical situation
of affairs, and crushed the rebellion in its very inception. A body of
insurgents, led by Dr. Wolfred Nelson, showed some courage at St. Denis,
but Papineau took the earliest opportunity to find refuge across the
frontier. Thomas Storrow Brown, an American by birth, also made a stand
at St. Charles, but both he and Nelson were easily beaten by the
regulars. A most unfortunate episode was the murder of Lieutenant Weir,
who had been captured by Nelson while carrying despatches from General
Colborne, and was butchered by some insurgent _habitants_, in whose
custody he had been placed. At St. Eustache the rebels were severely
punished by Colborne himself, and a number burned to death in the steeple
of a church where they had made a stand. Many prisoners were taken in
the course of the rebellious outbreak. The village of St. Benoit and
isolated houses elsewhere were destroyed by the angry loyalists, and much
misery inflicted on all actual or supposed sympathisers with Papineau and
Nelson. Lord Gosford now left the country, and Colborne was appointed
administrator. Although the insurrection practically ended at St. Denis
and St. Charles, bodies of rebels and American marauders harassed the
frontier settlements for some time, until at last the authorities of the
United States arrested some of the leaders and forced them to surrender
their arms and munitions of war.
In Upper Canada the folly of Sir Francis Head {353} would have led to
serious consequences had Mackenzie and Rolph been capable of managing a
rebellious movement. The Lieutenant-Governor allowed all the troops to
go to Lower Canada, and the capital was entirely at the mercy of the
rebels, had they acted with any spirit or energy. Dr. Rolph, a clever
intriguer--who was to be the president of the new republic--was playing a
fast and loose game, and temporised until the loyal forces from Hamilton
were able to advance to the assistance of Head. Had the rebels, who were
concentrating at Montgomery's tavern on Yonge Street, marched immediately
on the capital, it could have been easily captured, in consequence of the
neglect of Head to take the most ordinary precautions against surprise.
Toronto was mainly saved by the men of the Gore district, led by Allan
MacNab, an ardent loyalist, afterwards a baronet and premier of Canada.
The insurgents, who at no time exceeded eight hundred in all, were routed
at 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 prisoners
taken. Among the latter were Samuel Lount, an ardent reformer, the first
to arm for the rebellion, and Colonel Von Egmond, one of Napoleon's
soldiers, the leader of the "patriot army." Marshall Spring Bidwell, an
able and moderate leader of the Reformers, for some years speaker, does
not appear to have taken any active part in the rebellious movement, but
he availed himself of a warning given him by Head, who wished {354} to
get 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 to
the Republic, and industriously set to work to violate the neutrality of
the country by inciting bands of ruffians to invade Canada.
As in the case of the Fenian invasion many years later, the authorities
of the United States were open to some censure for negligence in winking
at these suspicious gatherings avowedly to attack a friendly country.
The raiders seized an island just above Niagara Falls, on the Canadian
side, as a base of operations, and a steamer, called the _Caroline_, was
freely allowed to ply between the island and the mainland with supplies.
It became necessary to stop this bold attempt to provide the freebooters
on Navy Island with the munitions of war, and a Canadian expedition was
accordingly 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 consider
consequences from the point of view of international law. She was cut
from her moorings on the American side, her crew taken prisoners, one man
killed, and the vessel set on fire and sent over the Falls of Niagara.
Until the month of December, 1838, Upper Canada was disturbed from time
to time by bands of marauders, instigated by Mackenzie and others, but
they were easily beaten back by the bravery of loyal Canadian volunteers
commanded by Colonels Prince, MacNab, Cameron, Fitzgibbon, and other
patriotic {355} defenders of the country. Whatever sympathy may have
been felt for Mackenzie by some persons at the outset of the
insurrection, was alienated from him by his conduct after he crossed the
border. He suffered much misery himself while he remained in the United
States, and was a prisoner for some months when the American Government
awoke to the necessity of punishing a man who had so nearly embroiled
them with England by his violation of the municipal law of a friendly
territory, and of the obligations that rest upon political refugees.
When Sir Francis Bond Head was very properly recalled from the province
whose affairs he had so badly administered, he was succeeded by Sir
George Arthur, who had been governor of Van Diemen's Land. Both Samuel
Lount and Peter Matthews suffered death. Von Shoultz, and a number of
Americans who had invaded the country in 1838, were also executed, and
some persons in both provinces were transported to New Holland or sent to
the penitentiary, but in the majority of cases the Crown showed clemency.
The outbreak was an unfortunate episode in the history of Canada, but it
caused the "family compact" to break up, and brought about a better
system of government.
The immediate result of the rebellion in Lower Canada was the
intervention of the imperial authorities by the suspension of the
constitution of that province, and the formation of a special council for
purposes of temporary government. Lord Durham, a nobleman of great
ability, who had won distinction in imperial politics as a Reformer, was
sent out {356} to Canada as governor-general and high commissioner to
inquire into and adjust provincial difficulties. This distinguished
statesman remained at the head of affairs in the province from the last
of May, 1838, until the 3rd of November in the same year, when he returned
to England, where his ordinance of the 28th of June, sentencing certain
British subjects in custody to transportation without a form of trial,
and subjecting them and others not in prison to death in case of their
return to the country, without permission of the authorities, had been
most severely censured in England as quite unwarranted by law. By this
ordinance Wolfred Nelson, Bouchette, Viger, and five others, then in
prison, were banished to Bermuda, while Papineau, Cartier, O'Callaghan,
Robert Nelson, and others beyond Canadian jurisdiction, were threatened
with death if they returned to the province. Lord Durham's action was
certainly in conflict with the principles of English law, but it was an
error of judgment on the side of clemency. He was unwilling to resort to
a court-martial--the only tribunal open to the authorities. A trial in
the courts of justice was impracticable under existing conditions, as it
was shown later. Lord Durham left Canada in deep indignation at the
manner in which his acts had been criticised in England, largely through
the influence of Lord Brougham, his personal enemy. The most important
result of his mission was a report, the credit for the authorship of
which was long denied to him through the misrepresentations of his
enemies, though it is now clear that he and not his secretary was the
author.
{357}
Soon after the departure of Lord Durham, who died a few months later, Sir
John Colborne became governor-general. He was called upon to put down
another rebellious movement led by Robert Nelson, brother of Wolfred
Nelson, 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 upon
loyal inhabitants near the frontier, but in a few months these criminal
attempts to disturb the peace of the province ceased entirely. The
government now decided to make an example of men who had not appreciated
the clemency previously shown their friends. Twelve men were executed,
but it was not possible to obtain a verdict from a jury against the
murderers of Weir and Chartrand--the latter a French Canadian volunteer
murdered under circumstances of great brutality while a prisoner.
The rebellion opened the eyes of the imperial government to the gravity
of the situation in Canada, and the result of Lord Durham's report was
the passage of an imperial act reuniting the provinces into one, with a
legislature of two houses. The constitutional act of 1791, which had
separated French and English, as far as possible, into two sections, was
clearly a failure. An effort was now to be made to amalgamate, if
possible, the two races. The two provinces were given an equal
representation in one legislature, and the French language was placed in
a position of inferiority, compared with English in parliamentary and
official {358} proceedings and documents. At the same time the British
Government recognised the necessity of giving a larger expansion of local
self-government.
[Illustration: Judge Haliburton ("Sam Slick").]
During the period of which I am writing Canada had given evidences of
material, social, and intellectual progress. With the close of the War
of 1812, and the downfall of Napoleon, large bodies of immigrants came
into the province and settled some of the finest districts of Upper and
Lower Canada. Scotch from the highlands and islands of Scotland
continued until 1820 to flock into Nova Scotia and other maritime
provinces. Although the immigration had been naturally stopped by the
troubles of 1836 and 1838, the population of Canada had increased to over
a million of souls, of whom at least four hundred and fifty thousand were
French Canadians. The Rideau, Lachine, and Welland Canals date from this
period, and were the commencement of that noble system of artificial
waterways that have, in the course of time, enabled large steamers to
come all the way from Lake Superior to tide-water.[1] In 1833 the _Royal
William_, entirely propelled by steam, crossed the ocean--the pioneer in
ocean steam navigation. A few years later Samuel Cunard, a native Nova
Scotian, established the line that has become so famous in the world's
maritime history. In Lower Canada the higher education was confined to
the Quebec Seminary, and a few colleges and institutions, under the
direction of the {359} Roman Catholic clergy and communities. Among the
habitants generally there were no schools, and the great majority could
neither read nor write. In Upper Canada high schools for the education
of the upper classes were established at a very early day, and the
Cornwall Grammar School, under the superintendence of Dr. John Strahan,
for some years was {360} the resort of the provincial aristocracy. Upper
Canada College dates from these early times. But in 1838 there were only
twenty-four thousand children at school out of a total population of four
hundred thousand. In the maritime provinces things were not much better,
but in Nova Scotia the foundation of King's,--the oldest university in
Canada--Dalhousie, and Acadia Colleges, as well as Pictou Academy, shows
the deep interest that was taken in higher education. In all the
provinces there was an active and even able newspaper press, although its
columns were too much disfigured by invective and personalities. In 1836
there were at least forty papers printed in Upper Canada alone. The
names of Cary, Neilson, Mackenzie, Parent, Howe, and Young are among the
names 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 of
intellectual development. The only original literary works of importance
were those of Judge Haliburton, who had already given us the clever,
humorous creation of "Sam Slick," and also written an excellent history
of Nova Scotia. In the happy and more prosperous times that followed the
union of 1840, and the establishment of political liberty, intellectual
development kept pace with the progress of the country in wealth and
population.
[1] Governor Haldimand first established several small canals between
Lakes 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 era
in the constitutional history of Canada as well as of the other
provinces. The most valuable result was the admission of the
all-important principle that the ministry advising the governor should
possess the confidence of the representatives of the people assembled
in parliament. Lord Durham, in his report, had pointed out most
forcibly the injurious consequences of the very opposite system which
had so long prevailed in the provinces. His views had such influence
on the minds of the statesmen then at the head of imperial affairs,
that Mr. Poulett Thomson, when appointed governor-general, received her
Majesty's commands to administer the government of the united provinces
"in accordance with the well-understood wishes and interests of the
people," and to employ in the {362} public service only "those persons
who, by their position and character, have obtained the general
confidence and esteem of the inhabitants of the province." During the
first session of the Canadian legislature the assembly passed certain
resolutions which authoritatively expressed the views of the supporters
of responsible government.
[Illustration: Joseph Howe in 1865]
Nevertheless, during the six years that elapsed after the passage of
this formal expression of the views of the large majority of the
legislature, "Responsible Government" did not always obtain in the
fullest sense of the phrase, and not a few misunderstandings arose
between the governors and the supporters of the principle as to the
manner in which it should be worked out. In Canada Lord Metcalfe, who
succeeded Baron Sydenham--the title of Mr. Poulett Thomson--on his
sudden death at Kingston in 1841, brought about a political crisis in
consequence of his contention for the privilege--utterly inconsistent
with the principles of responsible government--of making appointments
to office without the advice of his council. In Nova Scotia Sir Colin
Campbell, who was more suited to the military camp than to the
political arena, endeavoured to throw obstacles in the way of the new
system, but he was soon recalled. His successor, Lord Falkland, a vain
nobleman, was an unhappy choice of the colonial office. He became the
mere creature of the Tory party, led by James W. Johnston, a very able
lawyer and eloquent speaker, and the open enemy of the liberals led by
Joseph Howe, William Young, James Boyle Uniacke, and Herbert {363}
Huntington. The imperial government recognised their mistake, and
replaced Lord Falkland by Sir John Harvey, the hero of Stoney Creek in
1813, who had done much to establish parliamentary government in New
Brunswick. In 1847 Lord Elgin--the son-in-law of Lord Durham--was
appointed governor-general, and received positive instructions "to act
generally upon the advice of {364} his executive council, and to
receive as members of that body those persons who might be pointed out
to him as entitled to do so by their possessing the confidence of the
assembly." No act of parliament was necessary to effect this important
change; the insertion and alteration of a few paragraphs in the
Governor's instructions were sufficient. By 1848 the provinces of
Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and by 1851 Prince Edward
Island, were in the full enjoyment of a system of self-government,
which had been so long advocated by their ablest public men; and the
results have proved, on the whole, despite the excesses and mistakes of
party, eminently favourable to political as well as material
development.
[Illustration: Robert Baldwin.]
In the historic annals of the great contest that was fought for
responsible government, some names stand out most prominently.
Foremost is that of Joseph Howe, the eminent Liberal, whose eloquence
charmed the people of Nova Scotia for many years. In his early life he
was a printer and an editor, but he became a leader of his party soon
after he entered the legislature, and died a lieutenant-governor of his
native province. In New Brunswick, Lemuel A. Wilmot, afterwards a
judge and lieutenant-governor, was a man of much energy, persuasive
eloquence, and varied learning. Robert Baldwin, of Upper Canada, was a
statesman of great discretion, who showed the people how their
liberties could be best promoted by wise and constitutional agitation.
Louis Hyppolite Lafontaine was one of the most distinguished and
capable men that French Canada has {365} ever given to the legislature
and the bench. By his political alliance with Mr. Baldwin, the
principles of responsible government were placed on a durable basis.
In the parent state the names of Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, and
Earl Grey--colonial secretaries from 1839 to 1852--are especially
associated with the concession of those great principles which have
enlarged the sphere of self-government in the colonies of the English
Crown.
{366}
During the quarter of a century that elapsed from 1842 to 1867--the
crucial period of national development--an industrious population
flowed steadily into the country, the original population became more
self-reliant and pursued their vocations with renewed energy, and
confidence increased on all sides in the ability of the provinces to
hold their own against the competition of a wonderfully enterprising
neighbour. Cities, towns, and villages were built up with a rapidity
not exceeded even on the other side of the border. In those days
Ontario became the noble province that she now is by virtue of the
capacity of her people for self-government, the energy of her
industrial classes, the fertility of her soil, and the superiority of
her climate. The maritime industry of the lower provinces was
developed most encouragingly, and Nova Scotia built up a commercial
marine not equalled by that of any New England State. The total
population of the provinces of British North America, now comprised
within the confederation of 1867, had increased from a million and a
half in 1840 to three millions and a quarter in 1861--the ratio of
increase in those years having been greater than at any previous or
later period of Canadian history. It was during this period that the
Grand Trunk Railway, which has done so much to assist the material
progress of the old province of Canada, was constructed. In 1850 there
were only fifty miles of railway in operation throughout Canada, but by
1867 there were nearly three thousand miles, and that magnificent
example of engineering skill, the Victoria Bridge, carried passengers
across {367} the St. Lawrence at Montreal, and connected Canada with
the great railway system of the United States. With railway
development must always be associated the name of Sir Francis Hincks,
an able statesman of the Liberal party, who recognised the necessities
of a new country.
So far from the act of 1840, which united the Canadas, acting
unfavourably to the French Canadian people it gave them eventually a
predominance in the councils of the country. French soon again became
the official language by an amendment to the union act, and the claims
providing for equality of representation proved a security when the
upper province increased more largely in population than the French
Canadian section. The particular measure which the French Canadians
had pressed for so many years on the British Government, an elective
legislative council, was conceded. When a few years had passed the
Canadian legislature was given full control of taxation, supply, and
expenditure, in accordance with English constitutional principles. The
clergy reserves difficulty was settled and the land sold for public or
municipal purposes, the interest of existing rectors and incumbents
being guarded. The great land question of Canada, the seigniorial
tenure of Lower Canada, was disposed of by buying off the claims of the
seigniors, and the people of Lower Canada were freed from exactions
which had become not so much onerous as vexatious. Municipal
institutions of a liberal nature were established, and the people of
the two Canadian provinces exercised that control of their local
affairs in the {368} counties, townships, cities, and parishes which is
necessary to carry out public works indispensable to the comfort,
health, and convenience of the community, and to supplement the efforts
made by the legislature, from time to time, to provide for the general
education of the country. With the magnificent system of public
schools now possessed by Ontario must always be associated the name of
Dr. Egerton Ryerson, a famous Methodist, the opponent of Mackenzie's
seditious action, and for many years the superintendent of education.
In Nova Scotia it was chiefly through the foresight of Sir Charles
Tupper, when premier, that the foundations were laid of the present
admirable system. During the same period the schools of New Brunswick
and Prince Edward Island were also placed on an excellent basis. In
the maritime provinces no express legal provision was made for separate
or denominational schools, as in Upper and Lower Canada--schools now
protected by the terms of the federal union of 1867. The civil
service, which necessarily plays so important a part in the
administration of government, was placed on a permanent basis.
The anxiety of the British Government to bury in oblivion the
unfortunate events of 1837-38 was proved by an amnesty that was granted
soon after the union of 1841, to the banished offenders against the
public peace and the Crown. William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis Joseph
Papineau, 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 in
the racial antagonism which was still slumbering in the bosom of the
State. In the first session of the Union Parliament, compensation was
granted to those loyalists of Upper Canada, whose property had been
unnecessarily or wantonly {370} destroyed during the outbreak. The
claim was then raised on behalf of persons similarly situated in Lower
Canada. The Conservative Draper government of 1845 agreed to pay a
small amount of rebellion losses as a sequence of a report made by
commissioners appointed to inquire into the subject. At a later time,
when Lord Elgin was governor-general, the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry
brought down a measure to indemnify all those persons who had not taken
part in the rebellion, but were justly entitled to compensation for
actual losses. The Tory opposition raised the cry, "No pay to rebels,"
and some of them in their anger even issued a manifesto in favour of
annexation. The parliament house at Montreal was burned down, a great
number of books and records destroyed, and Lord Elgin grossly insulted
for having assented to the bill. This very discreditable episode in
the political history of Canada proved the extremes to which even men,
professing extreme loyalty, can be carried at times of political
passion and racial difficulty.
[Illustration: L. A. Wilmot.]
The union of 1841 did its work, and the political conditions of Canada
again demanded another radical change commensurate with the material
and political development of the country, and capable of removing the
difficulties that had arisen in the operation of the act of 1840. The
claims of Upper Canada to larger representation, equal to its increased
population since 1840, owing to the great immigration which had
naturally sought a rich and fertile province, were steadily resisted by
the French Canadians as an unwarrantable interference with the {371}
security guaranteed to them under the act. This resistance gave rise
to great irritation in Upper Canada, where a powerful party made
representation by population their platform, and government at last
became practically impossible on account of the {372} close political
divisions for years in the assembly. At the head of the party
demanding increased representation was Mr. George Brown, an able man of
Scotch birth, who became the conductor of a most influential organ of
public opinion, _The Toronto Globe_, and the leader of the "Grits," or
extreme wing of the Reformers or Liberals. In opposition to him were
allied Mr. George Etienne Cartier, once a follower of Papineau, but now
a loyal leader of his race, and Mr. John Alexander Macdonald, who had
occupied a prominent position for years as a Conservative leader.
The time had come for the accomplishment of a great change foreshadowed
by Lord Durham, Chief-Justice Sewell, Mr. Howe, Sir Alexander Gait, and
other public men of Canada: the union of the provinces of British North
America. The leaders of the different governments in Canada, and the
maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward
Island combined with the leaders of the opposition with the object of
carrying out this great measure. A convention of thirty-three
representative men[1] was held in the autumn of 1864 in {373} the
historic city of Quebec, and after a deliberation of several weeks the
result was the unanimous adoption of a set of seventy-two resolutions
embodying the terms and conditions on which the provinces through their
delegates agreed to a federal union. These resolutions had to be laid
before the various legislatures and adopted in the shape of addresses
to the Queen, whose sanction was necessary to embody the wishes of the
provinces in an imperial statute.
The consent of the legislature was considered sufficient by the
governments of all the provinces except one, though the question had
never been discussed at the polls. In New Brunswick alone was the
legislature dissolved on the issue, and it was only after a second
general election that the {374} legislature agreed to the union. In
Nova Scotia, after much discussion and feeling, the legislature passed
a resolution in favour of the measure, though a popular sentiment
continued to exist against the union for several years. In the
December of 1866 a second conference of delegates from the governments
of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, was held at the Westminster
Palace Hotel in London, and some modifications were made in the Quebec
resolutions, chiefly with a view of meeting objections from the
maritime provinces. In the early part of 1867 the imperial parliament,
without a division, passed the statute known as the "British North
America Act, 1867," which united in the first instance the province of
Canada, now divided into Ontario and Quebec, with Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, and made provisions for the coming in of the other provinces
of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, British Columbia, and the
admission of Rupert's Land and the great Northwest.
From 1840 to 1867 the relations of Canada and the United States became
much closer, and more than once assumed a dangerous phase. In 1840 the
authorities of New York arrested one Macleod on the charge of having
murdered a man employed in the _Caroline_, when she was seized by the
loyalists during the outbreak of 1837. The matter gave rise to much
correspondence between the governments of Great Britain and the United
States, and to a great deal of irritation in Canada, but happily for
the peace of the two countries the courts acquitted Macleod, as the
evidence was clear he had {375} nothing to do with the seizure of the
vessel. In 1842 the question of the boundary between Maine and New
Brunswick was settled by what is generally known in Canada as "the
Ashburton Capitulation." As a result of the settlement made by Mr.
Daniel Webster on the part of the United States, and of Mr. Alexander
Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, on behalf of Great Britain, the
State of Maine now presses like a huge wedge into the provinces of New
Brunswick and Quebec, and a Canadian railway is obliged to pass over
American territory, which many Canadians still believe ought to be a
part of the Canadian Dominion. In 1846 Great Britain yielded to the
persistency of American statesmen, and agreed to accept the line 49
degrees to the Pacific coast, and the whole of Vancouver Island, which,
for a while, seemed on the point of following the fate of Oregon, and
becoming exclusively American territory. But the question of boundary
was not even then settled, as the Island of San Juan, which lies in the
channel between Vancouver and the mainland, and is mainly valuable as a
base of offensive and defensive operations in times of war, was, in
later years, handed over to the Republic as a result of its successful
diplomacy.
During this period the fishery question again assumed considerable
importance. American vessels were shut out from the waters of certain
colonial bays, in accordance with the convention of 1818, and a number
of 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 in
abeyance for twelve years by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, which
opened up the provincial fisheries to the people of the United States,
on condition of free trade between the provinces and that country in
certain natural products of the mines, fisheries, and farms of the two
peoples. This measure was in itself an acknowledgment of the growing
importance of the provinces, and of the larger measure of
self-government now accorded them. The treaty only became law with the
consent of the provincial legislatures; and, although the Canadian
governments were not directly represented by any of their members, the
governor-general, Lord Elgin, who personally conducted the negotiations
on the part of England at Washington, in this, as in all other matters
touching colonial interests, was assisted by the advice of his
responsible ministers. The treaty lasted until 1866, when it was
repealed by the action of the United States in accordance with the
provision bringing it to a conclusion after one year's notice from one
of the parties interested.
The commercial classes in the Eastern and Western States were, on the
whole, favourable to an enlargement of the treaty, so as to bring in
British Columbia and Vancouver Island, now colonies of the Crown, and
to include certain other articles the produce of both countries, but
the real cause of its repeal was the prejudice in the North against the
provinces for their supposed sympathy for the Confederate States during
the War of the Rebellion. A {377} large body of men in the North had
brought themselves foolishly to believe that the repeal of the treaty
would, sooner or later, force the provinces into annexation. A raid
made by a few rash Confederates who had found refuge in Canada, on the
St. Albans Bank, in the State of Vermont, deeply incensed the people of
the North, though at no time could it be proved that the Canadian
authorities had the least suspicion of the proposed expedition. On the
contrary, they brought the culprits to trial, placed companies of
volunteers along the frontier, and even paid a large sum of money in
acknowledgment of an alleged responsibility when some of the stolen
money was returned to the robbers on their release by a Montreal
magistrate. When we review the history of those times and consider the
difficult position in which Canada was necessarily placed, it is
remarkable how honourably her government discharged its duties of a
neutral between the belligerents.
No doubt the position of Canada was made more difficult at that
critical time by the fact that she was a colony of Great Britain,
against whom both North and South entertained bitter feelings by the
close of the war; the former mainly on account of the escape of
Confederate cruisers from English ports, and the latter because she did
not receive active support from England. The North had also been much
excited by the promptness with which Lord Palmerston had sent troops to
Canada when Mason and Slidell were seized on an English packet on the
high seas, and the bold tone held by some Canadian {378} papers when it
was doubtful if the prisoners would be released.
Contemporaneously with the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty came the
raids of the Fenians--bands of men who did dishonour to the cause of
Ireland, under the pretence of striking a blow at England through
Canada, where their countrymen have always found happy homes, free
government, and honourable positions. For months before the invasion
American newspapers were full of accounts of the assembling and arming
of these bands on the frontiers of Canada. They invaded the Dominion
in 1866, property was destroyed, and a number of Canadian youth lost
their lives near Ridgeway, in the Niagara district, but one O'Neil and
his collection of disbanded soldiers and fugitives from justice were
forced back by the Canadian forces to the country whose neutrality they
had outraged. The United States authorities had calmly looked on while
all the preparations for these raids were in progress. Proclamations
were at last issued by the government when the damage had been done,
and a few raiders were arrested; but the House of Representatives
immediately sent a resolution to the President, requesting him "to
cause the prosecutions, instituted in the United States courts against
the Fenians, to be discontinued if compatible with the public
interest"--a request which was complied with. In 1870 another raid[2]
was attempted on the {379} Lower Canadian frontier, but it was easily
repulsed, and the authorities of the United States did their duty with
promptitude. For all the losses, however, that Canada sustained
through these invasions of her territory, she has never received any
compensation whatever.
Out of the very circumstances which were apparently calculated to do
much injury to Canada, her people learned lessons of wisdom and
self-reliance, and were stimulated to go vigorously to work to carry
out that scheme of national development which had its commencement in
the Quebec conference of 1864, and was constitutionally inaugurated in
1867 when the provinces entered on the new era of federal union.
[1] The delegates to the Quebec conference, held the following
positions 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. George
Etienne Cartier, M.P.P., attorney-general of Lower Canada; Hon. George
Brown, 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., commissioner
of public works; Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, M.P.P., minister of
agriculture; Hon. Hector L. Langevin, M.P.P., solicitor-general for
Lower 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 and
premier; Hon. William A. Henry, M.P.P., attorney-general; Hon. Robert
B. Dickey, M.L.C.; Hon. Adams G. Archibald, M.P.P.; Hon. Jonathan
McCully, M.L.C.
_New Brunswick_: Hon. Samuel L. Tilley, M.P.P., provincial secretary
and 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. Edward
Palmer, 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 the
House of Assembly; Hon. Ambrose Shea, M.P.P.
[2] In the autumn of 1871, a body of Fenians were prevented from
raiding the new province of Manitoba by the prompt action of the troops
of 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 and
Canada, and it became the immediate duty of its public men to complete
the union by the admission of Prince Edward Island and British
Columbia, and by the acquisition of the vast region which had been so
long under the rule of a company of fur-traders. In the language of
the eloquent Irishman, Lord Dufferin, when governor-general, "the
historical territories of the Canadas--the eastern sea-boards of New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Labrador--the Laurentian lakes and valleys,
corn lands and pastures, though themselves more extensive than half a
dozen European kingdoms, were but the vestibules and antechambers to
that, till then, undreamt {381} of dominion whose illimitable
dimensions alike confound the arithmetic of the surveyor and the
verification of the explorer."
The history of this northwest, whose rolling prairies now constitute so
large a proportion of the wealth of Canada was, until 1867, entirely
the history of the fur trade. Two centuries and a half ago a company
of traders, known as the "honourable company of adventurers from
England trading into Hudson's Bay," received from Charles II. a royal
licence in what was long known as Rupert's Land, and first raised its
forts on the inhospitable shores of the great bay, only accessible to
European vessels during the summer months. Among the prominent members
of this company was the cousin of the King, Prince Rupert, that gallant
cavalier. The French in the valley of the St. Lawrence looked with
jealousy on these efforts of the English to establish themselves at the
north, and Le Moyne d'Iberville, that daring Canadian, had destroyed
their trading-posts. Still the Hudson's Bay Company persevered in
their enterprise, and rebuilt their forts where they carried on a very
lucrative trade with the Indians who came from all parts of that
northern region to barter their rich furs for the excellent goods which
the company always supplied to the natives. In the meantime, while the
English were established at the north, French adventurers, the Sieur de
La Vérendrye, a native of Three Rivers, and his two sons, reached the
interior of the northwest by the way of Lake Superior and that chain of
lakes and rivers which extends from Thunder Bay {382} to Lake Winnipeg.
These adventurous Frenchmen raised rude posts by the lakes and rivers
of this region, and Vérendrye's sons are said to have extended their
explorations in January, 1743, to what was probably the Bighorn Range,
an outlying buttress of the Rocky Mountains, running athwart the
sources of the Yellowstone. The wars between France and England,
however, stopped French trade in that northwestern region, and the
Hudson's Bay Company's posts at the north were the only signs of
European occupation when Wolfe and Montcalm fell on the Plains of
Abraham, and the fleur-de-lis was struck on the old fort of the
Canadian capital.
Towards the latter part of the eighteenth century, the merchants of
Canada, who were individually dealing in furs, formed an association
which, under the title of the Northwest Company, was long the rival of
the Hudson's Bay adventurers. Both these companies were composed of
Englishmen and Scotchmen, but they were nevertheless bitter enemies,
engaged as they were in the same business in the wilderness. The
employés of the Hudson's Bay Company were chiefly Scotch, while the
Canadian Company found in the French Canadian population that class of
men whom it believed to be most suitable to a forest life. The
differences in the nationality and religion of the servants of the
companies only tended to intensify the bitterness of the competition,
and at last led to scenes of tumult and bloodshed. The Northwest
Company found their way to the interior of Rupert's Land by the Ottawa
River and the Great Lakes. Their posts were seen {383} by the
Assiniboine and Red rivers, even in the Saskatchewan and Athabascan
districts, and in the valley of the Columbia among the mountains of the
great province which bears the name of that noble stream. The
Mackenzie River was discovered and followed to the Arctic Sea by one of
the members of the Northwest Company, whose name it has always borne.
At a later time a trader, Simon Fraser, first ventured on the river
whose name now recalls his famous journey, and David Thompson, a
surveyor of the Northwest Company, discovered the river of the same
name. Previous, however, to these perilous voyages, the Hudson's Bay
Company had been forced by the enterprise of its rival to reach the
interior and compete for the fur traffic which was being so largely
controlled by the Canadian Company. In 1771, Samuel Hearne, one of the
Hudson's Bay Company's employés, discovered the Coppermine River, and
three years later established a fort on the Saskatchewan, still known
as Cumberland House. In later years, Sir John Franklin, George Back,
and Thomas Simpson added largely to the geographical knowledge of the
northern parts of the great region watered by the Coppermine, the Great
Fish--also called the Back,--and other streams which fall into the
Arctic Seas. As we glance at the map of this vast region, we still see
the names of the numerous posts where the servants of the fur companies
passed their solitary lives, only relieved by the periodical visits of
Indian trappers, and the arrival of the "trains" of dogs with supplies
from Hudson's Bay. Forts Enterprise, Providence, Good {384} Hope, and
Resolution are among the names of posts which tell in eloquent terms
the story of the courage, endurance, and hope that first planted them
throughout that solitary land.
It was on the banks of Red River, where it forms a junction with the
Assiniboine, that civilisation made the first effort to establish
itself in the illimitable domain of fur-traders, always jealous of
settlement which might interfere with their lucrative gains. The first
person to erect a post on the Red River was the elder Vérendrye, who
built Fort Rouge about 1735 on the site of the present city of
Winnipeg. The same adventurer also built Fort La Reine at Portage La
Prairie. In 1811 an enterprising Scotch nobleman, the Earl of Selkirk,
who had previously made a settlement in Prince Edward Island, became a
large proprietor of Hudson's Bay stock, and purchased from the company
over a hundred thousand square miles of territory, which he named
Assiniboia. In 1812 he made on the banks of the Red River a settlement
of Highland Scotch and a few Irishmen. The Northwest Company looked
with suspicion on this movement of Lord Selkirk, especially as he had
such large influence in the rival company. In 1816, the employés of
the former, chiefly half-breeds, destroyed Fort Douglas and murdered
Governor Semple, who was in charge of the new Scotch settlement. As
soon as the news of this outrage reached Lord Selkirk, he hastened to
the succour of his settlement, and by the aid of some disbanded
soldiers, whom he hired in Canada, he restored order. Subsequently he
succeeded in {385} bringing to a trial at York several partners and
persons in the service of the Northwest Company on the charges of "high
treason, murder, robbery, and conspiracy," but in all cases the accused
were acquitted. The Northwest Company had great influence at this time
throughout Canada, and by their instigation actions were brought
against Lord Selkirk for false imprisonment, and for conspiring to ruin
the trade of the company, and he was mulcted in heavy damages. Two
years later Lord Selkirk died in France, and then the two companies,
which had received great injury through their rivalry, were
amalgamated, and the old Hudson's Bay Company reigned supreme in this
region until 1870. The Red River settlement became the headquarters of
the company, who established in 1835 a system of local government--a
president and council and a court of law--and built Fort Garry on the
site of a fort also bearing the same name--that of a director of the
company. The new fort was a stone structure, having walls from ten to
twelve feet high, and flanked by bastions defended by cannon and
musketry. In 1867 the houses of the settlers occupied the banks of the
Red River at short intervals for twenty-four miles. Many evidences of
prosperity and thrift were seen throughout the settlement; the churches
and school-houses proved that religion and education were highly valued
by the people. The most conspicuous structure was the Roman Catholic
Church of St. Boniface, whose bells at matins and vespers were so often
a 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 of
civilisation amid the prairies. The descendants of the two
nationalities dwelt apart in French and British parishes, each of which
had their separate schools and churches. The houses and plantations of
the British settlers, and of a few French Canadians, indicated thrift,
but the majority of the French half-breeds, or _Métis_, the descendants
of French Canadian fathers and Indian mothers, continued to live almost
entirely on the fur trade, as voyageurs, trappers, and hunters. They
exhibited all the characteristics of those hardy and adventurous men
who were the pioneers of the west. Skilful hunters but poor
cultivators of the soil, fond of amusement, rash and passionate,
spending their gains as soon as made, too often in dissipation, many of
them were true representatives of the _coureurs de bois_ of the days of
Frontenac. This class was numerous in 1869 when the government of
Canada first presented itself to claim the territory of the {387}
Northwest as a part of the Dominion. After years of negotiation the
Hudson's Bay Company had recognised the necessity of allowing the army
of civilisation to advance into the region which it had so long kept as
a fur preserve. The British Government obtained favourable terms for
the Dominion, and the whole country from line 49 degrees to the Arctic
region, and from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains became a portion
of the Canadian domain, with the exception of small tracts of land in
the vicinity of the company's posts, which they still continue to
maintain wherever the fur trade can be profitably carried on. In 1869
the Canadian ministry, of which Sir John Macdonald was premier, took
measures to assume possession of the country, where they proposed to
establish a provisional government. Mr. William McDougall, a prominent
Canadian Liberal, one of the founders of confederation, always an
earnest advocate of the acquisition of the Northwest, was appointed to
act as lieutenant-governor as soon as the formal transfer was made.
This transfer, however, was not completed until a few months later than
it was at first expected, and the government of Canada appears to have
acted with some precipitancy in sending surveyors into the country, and
in allowing Mr. McDougall to proceed at once to the scene of his
proposed government. It would have been wise had the Canadian
authorities taken measures to ascertain the wishes of the small but
independent population with respect to the future government of their
own country. The British as well as French settlers resented the {388}
hasty action of the Canadian authorities. The halfbreeds, little
acquainted with questions of government, saw in the appearance of
surveying parties an insidious attempt to dispossess them eventually of
their lands, to which many of them had not a sound title. The British
settlers, the best educated and most intelligent portion of the
population, believed that a popular form of government should have been
immediately established in the old limits of Assiniboia, as soon as it
became a part of Canada. Some of the Hudson's Bay Company's employés
were not in their hearts pleased at the transfer, and the probable
change in their position in a country where they had been so long
masters. Although these men stood aloof from the insurrection, yet
their influence was not exercised at the commencement of the troubles,
in favour of peace and order, or in exposing the plans of the
insurgents, of which some of them must have had an idea. The
appearance of Mr. McDougall on the frontier of the settlement, was the
signal for an outbreak which has been dignified by the name of
rebellion. The insurgents seized Fort Garry, and established a
provisional government with Mr. John Bruce, a Scotch settler, as
nominal president, and Mr. Louis Riel, the actual leader, as secretary
of state. The latter was a French half-breed, who had been
superficially educated in French Canada. His temperament was that of a
race not inclined to steady occupation, loving the life of the river
and plain, ready to put law at defiance when their rights and
privileges were in danger. This restless man and his half-breed {390}
associates soon found themselves at the head and front of the whole
rebellious movement, as the British settlers, while disapproving of the
action of the Canadian Government, were not prepared to support the
seditious designs of the French Canadian _Métis_. Riel became
president, and made prisoners of Dr. Schultz, in later times a
lieutenant-governor of the new province, and of a number of other
British settlers who were now anxious to restore order and come to
terms with the Canadian Government, who were showing every disposition
to arrange the difficulty. In the meantime Mr. McDougall issued a
proclamation which was a mere _brutum fulmen_, and then went back to
Ottawa, where he detailed his grievances and soon afterwards
disappeared from public life. The Canadian authorities by this time
recognised their mistake and entered into negotiations with Red River
delegates, representing both the loyal and rebellious elements, and the
result was most favourable for the immediate settlement of the
difficulties. At this critical juncture the Canadian Government had
the advantage of the sage counsels of Sir Donald Smith, then a
prominent official of the Hudson's Bay Company, who at a later time
became a prominent figure in Canadian public life. Chiefly through the
instrumentality of Archbishop Taché, whose services to the land and
race he loved can never be forgotten by its people, an amnesty was
promised to those who had taken part in the insurrection, and the
troubles would have come to an end had not Riel, in a moment of
recklessness, characteristic of his real nature, tried {391} one Thomas
Scott by the veriest mockery of a court-martial on account of some
severe words he had uttered against the rebels' government, and had him
mercilessly shot outside the fort. As Scott was a native of Ontario,
and an Orangeman, his murder aroused a widespread feeling of
indignation throughout his native province. The amnesty which was
promised to Archbishop Taché, it is now quite clear, never contemplated
the pardon of a crime like this, which was committed subsequently. The
Canadian Government were then fully alive to the sense of their
responsibilities, and at once decided to act with resolution. In the
spring of 1870 an expedition was organised, and sent to the North-west
under the command of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, later a peer, and
commander-in-chief of the British army. This expedition consisted of
five hundred regulars and seven hundred Canadian volunteers, who
reached Winnipeg after a most wearisome journey of nearly three months,
by the old fur-traders' route from Thunder Bay, through an entirely
unsettled and rough country, where the portages were very numerous and
laborious. Towards the end of August the expedition reached their
destination, but found that Riel had fled to the United States, and
that they had won a bloodless victory. Law and order henceforth
prevailed in the new territory, whose formal transfer to the Canadian
Government had been completed some months before, and it was now formed
into a new province, called Manitoba, with a complete system of local
government, and including guaranties with {392} respect to education,
as in the case of the old provinces. The first lieutenant-governor was
Mr. Adams Archibald, a Nova Scotian lawyer, who was one of the members
of the Quebec conference, and a statesman of much discretion.
Representation was also given immediately in the two houses of the
Dominion parliament. Subsequently the vast territory outside of the
new prairie province was divided into six districts for purposes of
government: Alberta, Assiniboia, Athabasca, Keewatin, and Saskatchewan.
Out of these districts in 1905 were erected the provinces of Alberta
and Saskatchewan, which were then given responsible government. In
1908, when the boundaries of the provinces were again defined, Keewatin
was incorporated in the Province of Manitoba. In 1896 four new
provisional districts were, marked out in the great northern unsettled
district 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 the
site of old Fort Garry, and with the construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway--a national highway built with a rapidity remarkable
even in these days of extraordinary commercial enterprise--and the
connection of the Atlantic sea-board with the Pacific shores, villages
and towns have extended at distant intervals across the continent, from
Port Arthur to Vancouver, the latter place an instance of western
phenomenal growth. Stone and brick buildings of fine architectural
proportions, streets paved and lit by electricity, huge elevators, busy
mills, are the characteristics of {393} some towns where only yesterday
brooded silence, and the great flowery stretches of prairie were only
crushed by the feet of wandering Indians and voyageurs.
Fourteen years after the formation of the province of Manitoba, whilst
the Canadian Pacific Railway was in the course of construction, the
peace of the territories was again disturbed by risings of half-breeds
in the South Saskatchewan district, chiefly at Duck Lake, St. Laurent,
and Batoche. Many of these men had migrated from Manitoba to a country
where they could follow their occupation of hunting and fishing, and
till little patches of ground in that shiftless manner characteristic
of the _Métis_. The total number of half-breeds in the Saskatchewan
country were probably four thousand, of whom the majority lived in the
settlements just named. These people had certain land grievances, the
exact nature of which it is not easy even now to ascertain; but there
is no doubt that they laboured under the delusion that, because there
was much red-tapeism and some indifference at Ottawa in dealing with
their respective claims, there was a desire or intention to treat them
with injustice. Conscious that they might be crowded out by the
greater energy and enterprise of white settlers--that they could no
longer depend on their means of livelihood in the past, when the
buffalo and other game were plentiful, these restless, impulsive,
illiterate people were easily led to believe that their only chance of
redressing their real or fancied wrongs was such a rising as had taken
place on the Red River in {394} 1869. It is believed that English
settlers in the Prince Albert district secretly fomented the rising
with the hope that it might also result in the establishment of a
province on the banks of the Saskatchewan, despite its small
population. The agitators among the half-breeds succeeded in bringing
Riel into the country to lead the insurrection. He had been an exile
ever since 1870, and was at the time teaching school in Montana. After
the rebellion he had been induced to remain out of the Northwest by the
receipt of a considerable sum of money from the secret service fund of
the Dominion Government, then led by Sir John Macdonald. In 1874 he
had been elected to the House of Commons by the new constituency of
Provencher in Manitoba; but as he had been proclaimed an outlaw, when a
true bill for murder was found against him in the Manitoba Court of
Queen's Bench, and when he had failed to appear for trial, he was
expelled from the house on the motion of Mr. Mackenzie Bowell, a
prominent Orangeman, and, later, premier of the Canadian Government.
Lepine, a member also of the so-called provisional government of Red
River, had been tried and convicted for his share in the murder of
Scott, but Lord Dufferin, when governor-general, exercised the
prerogative of royal clemency, as an imperial officer, and commuted the
punishment to two years' imprisonment. In this way the Mackenzie
government was relieved--but only temporarily--of a serious
responsibility which they were anxious to avoid, at a time when they
were between the two fires: of the people of Ontario, {395} anxious to
punish the murderers with every severity, and of the French Canadians,
the great majority of whom showed a lively sympathy for all those who
had taken part in the rebellion of 1869. The influence of French
Canada was also seen in the later action of the Mackenzie government in
obtaining a full amnesty for all concerned in the rebellion except
Riel, Lepine, and O'Donohue, who were banished for five years. The
popularity enjoyed by Riel and his associates in French Canada, as well
as the clemency shown to them, were doubtless facts considered by the
leaders in the second rising on the Saskatchewan as showing that they
had little to fear from the consequences of their acts. Riel and
Dumont--the latter a half-breed trader near Batoche--were the leaders
of the revolt which broke out at Duck Lake in the March of 1885 with a
successful attack on the Mounted Police and the Prince Albert
Volunteers, who were defeated with a small loss of life. This success
had 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 communities
living on the Indian reserves, went on the warpath. Subsequently
Battleford, then the capital of the Territories, was threatened by
Indians and _Métis_, and a force under Big Bear massacred at Frog Lake
two Oblat missionaries, and some other persons, besides taking several
prisoners, among whom were Mrs. Delaney and Mrs. Gowanlock, widows of
two of the murdered men, who were released at the close {396} of the
rising. Fort Pitt, on the North Saskatchewan, thirty miles from Frog
Lake, was abandoned by Inspector Dickens--a son of the novelist--and
his detachment of the Mounted Police, on the approach of a large body
of Indians under Big Bear. When the news of these outrages reached
Ottawa, the government acted with great promptitude. A French
Canadian, now Sir Adolphe Caron, was then minister of militia in Sir
John Macdonald's ministry, and showed himself fully able to cope with
this, happily, unusual, experience in Canadian Government. From all
parts of the Dominion--from French as well as English Canada--the
volunteers patriotically rallied to the call of duty, and Major-General
Middleton, a regular officer in command of the Canadian militia, led a
fine force of over four thousand men into the Northwest. The Canadian
Pacific Railway was now built, with the exception of a few breaks of
about seventy-two miles in all, as far as Qu'Appelle, which is sixteen
hundred and twenty miles from Ottawa and about two hundred and
thirty-five miles to the south of Batoche. The Canadian troops,
including a fine body of men from Winnipeg, reached Fish Creek, fifteen
miles from Batoche, on the 24th of April, or less than a month after
the orders were given at Ottawa to march from the east. Here the
insurgents, led by Dumont, were concealed in rifle-pits, ingeniously
constructed and placed in a deep ravine. They checked Middleton, who
does not appear to have taken sufficient precautions to ascertain the
position of the enemy--thoroughly trained marksmen who were able to
shoot down a considerable {397} number of the volunteers. Later, at
Batoche, the Canadian troops, led with great bravery by Colonels
Straubenzie, Williams, Mackeand, and Grassett, scattered the
insurgents, who never made an attempt to rally. The gallantry of
Colonel Williams of the Midlanders--an Ontario battalion--was
especially conspicuous, but he never returned from the Northwest to
receive the plaudits of his countrymen, as he died of fever soon after
the victory he did so much to win at Batoche. Colonel Otter, a
distinguished officer of Toronto, had an encounter with Poundmaker at
Cut Knife Creek on Battle River, one of the tributaries of the North
Saskatchewan, and prevented him from making any hostile demonstrations
against Battleford and other places. Riel's defeat at Batoche cowed
these Indians, who gave up their arms and prisoners to Otter.
Elsewhere in the Territories all trouble was prevented by the prompt
transport of troops under Colonel Strange to Fort Edmonton, Calgary,
and other points of importance. The Blackfeet, the most formidable
body of natives in the Territories, never broke the peace, although
they were more than once very restless. Their good behaviour was
chiefly owing to the influence of Chief Crowfoot, always a friend of
the 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 captured
after the fight at Batoche, was executed at Regina after a most
impartial trial, in which he had the assistance of very able counsel
brought 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 their
stern 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 for
the murders at Frog Lake. Sir John Macdonald was at the head of the
Canadian Government, and every possible effort was made to force him to
obtain the pardon of Riel, but he felt that he could not afford to
weaken the authority of law in the west, and his French Canadian
colleagues, Sir Hector Langevin, then minister of public works, Sir
Adolphe Chapleau, then secretary of state,--now lieutenant-governor of
Quebec--Sir Adolphe Caron, then minister of militia, exhibited
commendable courage in resisting the passionate and even menacing
appeals of their countrymen, who were carried away at this crisis by a
false sentiment, rather than by a true sense of justice. Happily, in
the course of no long time, the racial antagonisms raised by this
unhappy episode in the early history of confederation disappeared under
the influence of wiser counsels, and the peace of this immense region
has never since been threatened by Indians or half-breeds, who have now
few, if any, grievances on which to brood. The patriotism shown by the
Canadian people in this memorable contest of 1885 illustrated the
desire of all classes to consolidate the union, and make it secure from
external and internal dangers, and had also an admirable influence in
foreign countries {400} which could now appreciate the growing national
strength of the Dominion. In the cities of Ottawa, Toronto, and
Winnipeg, monuments have been raised to recall the services of the
volunteers who fought and died at Fish Creek and Batoche. On the banks
of the Saskatchewan a high cairn and cross point to the burial place of
the men who fell before the deadly shot of the half-breed sharpshooters
at 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 of
Canada, nearly one thousand strong, now maintains law and order
throughout a district upwards of three hundred thousand square miles in
area, and annually cover a million and a half miles in the discharge of
their onerous duties. The half-breeds now form but a very small
minority of the population, and are likely to disappear as a distinct
class under the influence of civilisation. The Indians, who number
about thirty thousand in Manitoba and the Northwest, find their
interests carefully guarded by treaties and statutes of Canada, which
recognise their rights as wards of the Canadian Government. They are
placed on large reserves, {402} where they can carry on farming and
other industrial occupations for which the Canadian Government, with
commendable liberality, provide means of instruction. Many of the
Indians have shown an aptitude for agricultural pursuits which has
surprised those who have supposed they could not be induced to make
much progress in the arts of civilised life. The average attendance of
Indian children at the industrial and other schools is remarkably large
compared even with that of white children in the old provinces. The
Indian population of Canada, even in the Northwest territory, appear to
have reached the stationary stage, and hereafter a small increase is
confidently expected by those who closely watch the improvement in
their methods of life. The high standard which has been reached by the
Iroquois population on the Grand River of Ontario, is an indication of
what we may even expect in the course of many years on the banks of the
many rivers of the Northwest. The majority of the tribes in Manitoba
and the Northwest--the Crees and Blackfeet--belong to the Algonquin
race, and the Assiniboines or Stonies, to the Dacotahs or Sioux, now
only found on the other side of the frontier. The Tinneh or Athabaskan
family occupy the Yukon and Mackenzie valleys, while in the Arctic
region are the Eskimo or Innuits. In British Columbia[1] there are at
least eight distinct stocks; in the interior, Tinneh, Salish or
Shuswap; on the coast, Haida, Ishimsian, Kwakiool (including Hailtzuk),
Bilhoola, Aht, {403} or Nootka, and Kawitshin, the latter including
several names, probably of Salish affinity, living around the Gulf of
Georgia. The several races that inhabit Canada, the Algonquins, the
Huron-Iroquois, the Dacotah, the Tinneh, and the several stocks of
British Columbia, have for some time formed an interesting study for
scholars, who find in their languages and customs much valuable
archaeological and ethnological lore. The total number of Indians that
now inhabit the whole Dominion is estimated at over one hundred
thousand souls, of whom one-third live in the old provinces.
[1] Dr. Geo. M. Dawson, F.R.S., has given me this division of Indian
tribes.
{404}
XXVII.
COMPLETION OF THE FEDERAL UNION--MAKERS OF THE DOMINION.
(1871-1891.)
Within three years after the formation of the new province of Manitoba
in the Northwest, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia came into
the confederation, and gave completeness to the federal structure.
Cook and Vancouver were among the adventurous sailors who carried the
British flag to the Pacific province, whose lofty, snow-clad mountains,
deep bays, and many islands give beauty, grandeur, and variety to the
most glorious scenery of the continent. Daring fur-traders passed down
its swift and deep rivers and gave them the names they bear. The
Hudson's Bay Company held sway for many years within the limits of an
empire. The British Government, as late as 1849, formed a Crown colony
out of Vancouver, and in 1858, out of the mainland, previously known as
New Caledonia. In 1866 the two provinces were united with a simple
form of government, consisting of a lieutenant-governor, and a
legislative council, partly appointed by the Crown and partly elected
by the people; but in 1871, when it entered into the Canadian union, a
{406} complete system of responsible government was established as in
the other provinces. Prince Edward Island was represented at the
Quebec conference, but it remained out of confederation until 1873,
when it came in as a distinct province; one of the conditions of
admission was the advance of funds by the Dominion government for the
purchase of the claims of the persons who had held the lands of the
island for a century. The land question was always the disturbing
element in the politics of the island, whose history otherwise is
singularly uninteresting to those who have not had the good fortune to
be among its residents and to take a natural interest in local
politics. The ablest advocate of confederation was Mr. Edward Whelan,
a journalist and politician who took part in the Quebec conference, but
did not live to see it carried out by Mr. J. C. Pope, Mr. Laird, and
others.
[Illustration: John A. Macdonald.]
At Confederation the destinies of old Canada were virtually in the hands of
three men--the Honourable George Brown, Sir George Cartier, and Sir John
Macdonald, to give the two latter the titles they received at a later time.
Mr. Brown was mainly responsible for the difficulties that had made the
conduct of government practically impossible, through his persistent and
even rude assertion of the claims of Upper Canada to larger representation
and more consideration in the public administration. No one will deny his
consummate ability, his inflexibility of purpose, his impetuous oratory,
and his financial knowledge, but his earnestness carried him frequently
beyond the {407} limits of political prudence, and it was with reason that
he was called "a governmental impossibility," as long as French and English
Canada continued pitted against each other, previous to the union of 1867.
The journal which he conducted with so much force, attacked French Canada
and its institutions with great violence, and the result was the increase
of racial antagonisms. Opposed to him was Sir George Etienne Cartier, who
had found in the Liberal-Conservative party, and in the principles of
responsible government, the means of strengthening the French Canadian race
and making it a real power in the affairs of the country. Running
throughout his character there was a current of sound sense and excellent
judgment which came to the surface at national crises. A solution of
difficulties, he learned, was to be found not in the violent assertion of
national claims, but in the principles of compromise and conciliation. With
him was associated Sir John Macdonald, the most successful statesman that
Canada has yet produced, on account of his long tenure of office and of the
importance of the measures that he was able to carry in his remarkable
career. 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 raised
himself from the humble position of stonemason to the highest place in the
councils of the country, by dint of his Scotch shrewdness, his tenacity of
purpose, his public honesty, and his thorough comprehension of {408}
Canadian questions, though he was wanting in breadth of statesmanship. Many
generations must pass away before the personal and political merits of Sir
John Macdonald can be advantageously and impartially reviewed. A lawyer by
profession, but a politician by choice, not remarkable for originality of
conception, but possessing an unusual capacity for estimating the exact
conditions of public sentiment, and for moulding his policy so as to
satisfy that opinion, having a perfect understanding of the ambitions and
weaknesses of human nature, believing that party success was often as
desirable as the triumph of any great principle, ready to forget his
friends and purchase his opponents when political danger was imminent,
possessing a fascinating manner, which he found very useful at times when
he had to pacify his friends and disarm his opponents, fully comprehending
the use of compromise in a country of diverse nationalities, having a firm
conviction that in the principles of the British constitution there was the
best guaranty for sound political progress, having a patriotic confidence
in the ability of Canada to hold her own on this continent, and become, to
use his own words, a "nation within a nation,"--that is to say, within the
British Empire--Sir John Macdonald offers to the political student an
example of a remarkable combination of strength and weakness, of qualities
which make up a great statesman and a mere party politician, according to
the governing circumstances. Happily for the best interests of Canada, in
the case of confederation the statesman prevailed. But his ambition at this
crisis {410} would have been futile had not Mr. Brown consented to unite
with him and Cartier. This triple alliance made a confederation possible on
terms acceptable to both English and French Canadians. These three men were
the representatives of the antagonistic elements that had to be reconciled
and cemented. The readiness with which Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Leonard
Tilley, the premiers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, co-operated with the
statesmen of the upper provinces, was a most opportune feature of the
movement, which ended in the successful formation of a confederation in
1867. Although the Liberal leaders in Nova Scotia, Mr., afterwards Sir,
Adams Archibald, and Mr. Jonathan McCully, like Brown, Howland, Mowat, and
McDougall in old Canada, supported the movement with great loyalty, the
people of the province were aroused to a passionate opposition mainly
through the vigorous action of the popular leader, Mr. Joseph Howe, who had
been an eloquent advocate of colonial union before it assumed a practical
shape, but now took the strong ground that the question should not be
forced on the country by a legislature which had no mandate whatever to
deal 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 maritime
provinces. Mr. Howe subsequently obtained "better terms" for Nova Scotia by
every available means of constitutional agitation--beyond which he was
never willing to go, however great might be public grievances--and then he
yielded to {412} the inevitable logic of circumstances, and entered the
Dominion government, where he remained until he became lieutenant-governor
of his native province. The feelings, however, he aroused against
confederation lasted with some intensity for years, although the cry for
repeal died away, according as a new generation grew up in place of the one
which remembered with bitterness the struggles of 1867.
[Illustration: George Brown.]
Mr. George Brown died from the wound he received at the hands of a
reckless printer, who had been in his employ, and Canadians have
erected to his memory a noble monument in the beautiful Queen's Park of
the city where he laboured so long and earnestly as a statesman and a
journalist. Sir George Cartier died in 1873, but Sir John Macdonald
survived his firm friend for eighteen years, and both received State
funerals. Statues of Sir John Macdonald have been erected in the
cities of Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Kingston. In Ottawa on one
side of the Parliament building we see also a statue of the same
distinguished statesman, and on the other that of his great colleague,
Sir George Cartier. It was but fitting that the statues of these most
famous representatives of the two distinct elements of the Canadian
people should have been placed alongside of the national legislature.
They are national sentinels to warn Canadian people of the dangers of
racial or religious conflict, and to illustrate the advantages of those
principles of compromise and justice on which both Cartier and
Macdonald, 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, the
Dominion had had ten Parliaments. During the first thirty years the
Conservatives were almost continuously in office. They were defeated
in the general election of 1874, owing to some grave scandals in
connection with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway; but were
again returned to office in 1878. In the election of 1878 they were
returned on a platform of protection for Canadian industry, and in 1879
Parliament enacted a National Policy Tariff, which was at once
vehemently attacked by the Liberal Opposition. Seventeen years,
however, elapsed before the Liberals had the opportunity of revising
the tariff, and it was not until 1897 that there was any modification
in the protective duties. In 1896, however, after several years of
profound depression in trade in the Dominion, the Liberals succeeded in
obtaining a large majority, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier succeeded to {414}
the premiership, which after the death of Sir John Macdonald had been
held successively by Sir J. J. C. Abbott, Sir John Thompson, who died
at Windsor, where he had gone to take the oath of office of privy
councillor, 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 bounties
for the encouragement of industry which had been commenced in 1883.
The tariff was modified, however, by the establishment of a preference
for Great Britain, which, beginning at a reduction of one-eighth from
the general tariff, was increased to one-fourth, and finally in 1900 to
one-third. This reduction remained in force until 1906-7, when the
tariff was again revised and arranged in three lists--general,
intermediate, and British preference. The intermediate tariff was
intended as a basis of negotiation whereby Canada might obtain
concessions from foreign countries. After the concession of the
British preference in 1897, Great Britain, at the request of Canada,
denounced her commercial treaties with several foreign countries, under
the terms of which concessions granted by the colonies to the mother
country would have had to be extended to the treaty countries. Germany
was one of these countries, and on the expiration of the treaty Germany
showed her resentment by applying her maximum tariff to Canada. Canada
retaliated by the imposition of a surtax on German goods, and a tariff
war ensued, which resulted in a much higher degree of {416} protection
for Canadian manufacturers whose products came into competition with
imports from Germany. The British preference was extended by Canada to
other British colonies, which in return granted advantages to Canada,
and in 1908, with the consent of Great Britain, Canada negotiated a
commercial 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 short
length of line from La Prairie to St. John's, in the Province of
Quebec, was opened for traffic. The first link in what is now known as
the Grand Trunk Railway was constructed in 1845, when Montreal was
connected with the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway, now the Portland
(Maine) Division of the Grand Trunk System. In 1851 the Grand Trunk
Railway Company was incorporated, and took over about a hundred miles
of constructed line. Soon afterwards the Legislature of the United
Provinces of Quebec and Ontario passed the measure which is now known
as the Guarantee Act. Under this enactment Government aid was given to
railways of not less than seventy miles in length; and it was with this
aid that the great development of the Grand Trunk system began. In
1854 the Grand Trunk line from Toronto to Montreal was opened. By 1856
Toronto was connected, _viâ_ Sarnia, with the State of Michigan. In
1859 Toronto was brought into railway communication with Detroit; and
by 1869 the Grand Trunk had leased the International Bridge across the
Niagara River, and by this means {417} its system was connected with
the State of New York and the numerous centres of population in the
Eastern States, which are reached _viâ_ Buffalo.
Most of this development of the Grand Trunk system had preceded
Confederation; but at Confederation the greatest need of the Dominion
was easy means of communication between the provinces heretofore known
as Upper and Lower Canada. One of the first undertakings of the new
Dominion Government was the construction of the Intercolonial Railway,
the object of which was to connect the maritime provinces with each
other and with Quebec, and the building of which by the Government was
one of the conditions on which the maritime provinces had consented to
Confederation. It still remained to push out a railway to the far
west, and in 1881 work was begun on the Canadian Pacific Railway. In
four years this great highway across the continent was ready for use,
and in 1887 the Canadian Pacific Railway established a line of
steamships across the Pacific in connection with its Pacific terminals.
With the opening of the great North-west and the creation of the new
provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905,[1] the railway
communication was found to be insufficient, and a new line to the
Pacific was begun by the Grand Trunk Railway, which had been the
pioneer in railway work in Ontario, and which before the beginning of
the new line had already over 3,000 miles of road. {418} The Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway is divided into two sections. The eastern runs
from Moncton to Winnipeg, a distance of 1,875 miles, and is being built
by the Government. On its completion it is to be leased to the Grand
Trunk Railway Company for fifty years. The western section runs from
Winnipeg to Prince Rupert on the Pacific, a distance of 1,480 miles,
and is being constructed and equipped by the Company, the Government
granting a subsidy, and guaranteeing the Company's bonds up to 75 per
cent. of the cost of construction. The first stretch of the new line
to be completed was that from Winnipeg to Wainwright, a distance of 666
miles. It went into service in September, 1908, and was completed by
the end of 1915.
At the same time, the Great Northern began to push out to the
North-west, for the sake of the immense trade in grain which the
opening up of the new provinces had created. A little later work was
also begun on the Hudson's Bay Railway, which was intended to connect
the more northern waters with Ontario and the Great Lakes. In 1908 the
Dominion had twenty-two thousand miles of railway completed, in
addition to the long stretches then under construction. In 1918 it was
38,879 miles.
Almost as important to Canada as her railways are her canals and her
waterways. In 1897, on the accession of the Liberal Government to
office, it was determined to deepen the St. Lawrence canals and enlarge
the locks sufficiently to allow the passage from the great lakes to the
sea of vessels {419} drawing not more than fourteen feet of water.
These canals afford a through water route, with a minimum depth of
fourteen feet, from Montreal to Port Arthur on Lake Superior, a
distance of 1,223 miles, 73 of which are by canal. The total
expenditure of the Dominion on canals up to 1919 amounted to over
$127,000,000.
Alongside the improvement in the means of communication--railways and
canals--has gone a considerable growth of Canadian manufacturing
industries. The iron and steel industry was scarcely in existence at
Confederation. The Marmora plant at Long Point, Ontario, and a smaller
plant at Three Rivers, Quebec, had been in existence since the forties;
but the iron and steel industry, as it exists to-day in Canada, is
largely the creation of the national policy of protective tariffs and
bounties. The bounty system was instituted in 1883, chiefly for the
benefit of a blast furnace of 100 tons capacity at Londonderry, Nova
Scotia, which was then in difficulties. Besides this furnace, only two
others--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 at
New Glasgow, Radnor, and Hamilton, and the aggregate daily capacity of
the furnaces of the Dominion was then 445 tons.
At the revision of the tariff in 1897 the bounty system was greatly
extended, and under its aegis two great modern iron and steel
plants--one at Sydney, N.S., and one at Sault Ste. Marie, O., came
{420} into existence. Modern furnaces have also been established at
North Sydney, Hamilton, Welland, Midland, and Port Arthur, and in 1908
the output of pig-iron from all these plants was a little over 600,000
tons. A large proportion of this pig-iron is converted at the Sault
Ste. Marie and the Sydney plants into steel rails, for which the
constant extension of the railways furnishes a steady market.
Next to iron and steel the most important manufacturing industries are
the textiles. Both woollens and cottons were manufactured in Canada in
small quantities before Confederation. A small woollen mill was
established at Coburg, Ontario, in 1846, and even earlier than this
there were woollen mills in Nova Scotia which had made the province
notable for their Halifax tweeds. In 1908, however, the woollen
industry generally was not in a flourishing condition. Of the 157
mills in existence when the census of 1901 was taken, 28 had
disappeared before 1908, and several of the 129 that remained were
closed either permanently or temporarily. The value of the woollen
goods 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. The
mills, of which there are about twenty-three, are large, modern, and
well-equipped, and the value of their output is more than double that
of the woollen mills of the Dominion.
The industry which ranks next in importance is probably the manufacture
of farm implements and {421} machinery, which is located at Brantford
and Hamilton. Hamilton is also the centre of the manufacture of
electrical equipment, stoves, wire, steel castings, hardware, and many
other products of metal. At Montreal are the Angus shops, which rank
with the finest on the North American Continent, at which locomotives
are built for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1908 the Grand Trunk
Railway established similar shops on a correspondingly modern scale for
locomotive building at Stratford, Ontario.
Shipbuilding was an important industry in the maritime provinces and
Quebec in the old days of wooden sailing ships; but with the incoming
of steamships of iron and steel the maritime provinces entirely lost
their old pre-eminence and world-wide reputation for shipbuilding. It
was July, 1908, before a steel ocean-going vessel was launched in the
maritime provinces. This was a three-masted schooner of 900 tons
burden, the _James William_, which was built in the Matheson Yard, at
New Glasgow, N.S. Steel vessels had, however, been built for lake
service at Toronto, Collingwood, and Bridgeburg from 1898 onward. At
Collingwood and Bridgeburg the largest and finest types of lake
freighters and passenger vessels are built. In 1908 a new steel
shipbuilding yard was installed at Welland, and plans were completed
for the establishment of a large yard at Dartmouth on Halifax Harbour.
Until the development of the prairie provinces, all manufacturing in
the Dominion was carried on {422} east of the great lakes. With the
opening out of the great wheat-growing regions of Manitoba, Alberta,
and Saskatchewan, however, Winnipeg is gradually becoming a great
manufacturing city, and many miscellaneous industries on a factory
scale have been established there. The most western iron
plant--puddling furnaces and a rolling mill--is situated on the
outskirts of the city.
According to the figures of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, as
given 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 either
members of the Association or were eligible for membership. These
firms employed either on salary or wages 392,330 men, women, and
children. This number includes 80,000 engaged in the lumbering
business--the largest number engaged in any one trade. Lumbering is
carried on in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick, and the annual value of the product is over one hundred
million dollars--a value only exceeded by the food products of the
Dominion.
More important than all other industries put together is farming. The
extent of this industry may be judged from the fact that each year from
1900 to 1908 from 20,000 to 40,000 homesteads were taken up. The usual
size of these homesteads is 160 acres, and the acreage thus newly under
cultivation varied during the eight years from one to twelve million
square miles a year. In 1907 alone the new farms represented an
immigration {423} of 105,420 persons. The total number of farms in the
Dominion in 1908 was estimated at 600,000, representing a population
directly dependent upon farming of over three millions. The principal
crops in the prairie provinces are oats, wheat, and barley. The total
crop of wheat in 1908 was about 130,000,000 bushels, of oats
270,000,000, 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 have
taken the place of grain crops. In 1908 Canada had gained a strong
position in the markets of Great Britain for cheese, butter, and canned
goods, a position which was largely due to the work of the Dominion
Agricultural Department in providing cold storage for farm products on
the railways and steamers, and also to the educational work which the
Department had been steadily pushing among the farmers.
The Dominion is rich in metals and minerals, and mining is an important
industry in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and British Columbia. The largest
coal-fields of Canada are in Cape Breton and in Pictou and Cumberland
Counties, Nova Scotia, from which over five million tons of coal are
mined each year. There are no coal measures between New Brunswick and
Manitoba, and the lignite beds of Manitoba yield a much less valuable
coal than that of Nova Scotia. The coal area of the Rocky Mountains,
though not so large as that of the maritime provinces, yields the best
coal so far found in the Dominion. The centre of this formation is at
the Crow's Nest Pass. {424} There is another coal area on the Pacific
Coast 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 include
petroleum, asbestos, and corundum. Diamonds have been found in Quebec
in a formation not unlike the diamond fields of Kimberley. Gold is
found chiefly in the Klondike country and in British Columbia; but some
gold is also obtained from Nova Scotia, and a fair amount from Ontario
and Quebec.
Ever since the settlement of the maritime provinces fishing has been an
important industry on their shores, and many of the disputes with the
United States have arisen out of the privileges granted to United
States fishermen in the treaty of 1818. These disputes have, however,
concerned Newfoundland more closely than the Dominion, and the final
settlement of all questions between the sister colony and the great
republic is hardly yet in sight. A _modus vivendi_ pending settlement
was again signed in August, 1908. The fishing industry is not confined
to the maritime provinces. River and lake fishing are carried on in
Ontario, Manitoba, and the new provinces; and British Columbia has
fisheries and canneries of great importance on her coast and rivers.
The total value of the yield of the fisheries for 1908 was about
twenty-five million dollars.
The population of the Dominion in 1908 was {425} estimated to be about
six and a half millions, with a yearly immigration of between 150,000
and 200,000. The French Canadians numbered about 1,500,000, and of the
rest the majority were English, Scotch, and Irish. The new immigration
is introducing each year a large number of non-English-speaking people,
and also some very desirable settlers in the American farmers from the
Western States. Among the more important foreign settlements are those
of the Doukhobors, who were received in Canada as refugees from
persecution in Russia, and who have repeatedly given trouble to the
authorities on account of their fanatical resistance to orderly
government.
The revenue of Canada for 1907-8 was $96,054,505, and the expenditure
was $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, and
other public works are the assets which Canada has to set against this
debt, which represents the expenditure necessary for the development of
a new and widely extended country.
In education the Dominion ranks almost equal to the Northern States of
America. Every province has a public school system, and the primary
and grammar schools, especially of Ontario, are a pride and a credit to
the people of the province. In 1908 there were seventeen universities
in the Dominion. Among them may be mentioned McGill in Montreal, Laval
in Quebec, Queen's in Kingston, Dalhousie {426} in Halifax, University
of Toronto in Toronto, and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. The
University of Alberta was founded in 1906, that of Saskatchewan in
1907, and British Columbia in 1908.
Every city in Canada and every town of any size has its newspaper or
newspapers--daily, bi-weekly, or weekly. Canadian journalism has a
character quite of its own, leaning more to American ideals than to
those of England. A great change in this respect has come over the
Canadian Press since about 1885, up to which time the more important
daily newspapers in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, and St. John had been
on 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 of
the political structure lie those municipal institutions which, for
completeness, are not excelled in any other country. It is in the
enterprising province of Ontario that the system has attained its
greatest development. The machinery of these municipalities is used in
Ontario to raise the taxes necessary for the support of public schools,
Free libraries can be provided in every municipality whenever the
majority of the taxpayers choose. Then we go up higher to the
provincial organisations governed by a lieutenant-governor, nominated
and removable by the government of the Dominion, and advised by a
council responsible to the people's representatives, with a legislature
composed, in only two of the provinces, of two houses--a council
appointed by the Crown, and an elective assembly; in all the other
provinces, there is simply an assembly {428} chosen by the people on a
very liberal franchise, manhood suffrage in the majority of cases. The
fundamental law, or the British North America Act of 1867, gives
jurisdiction to the provincial governments over administration of
justice (except in criminal matters), municipal, and all purely local
affairs. The North-West Territories are under the Department of the
Interior. Yukon Territory is governed by a Gold Commissioner,
appointed by the Governor-General in Council, and a Council of three
members elected by the people, The central or general government of
the Dominion is administered by a governor-general, with the assistance
of a ministry responsible to a Parliament, composed of a Senate
appointed by the Crown, and a House of Commons elected under an
electoral franchise, practically on the very threshold of universal
suffrage. 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 other
matters of a general or national import. Education is under the
control of the provincial governments, but the rights and privileges of
a religious minority with respect to separate or denominational schools
are protected by the constitution. The common law of England prevails
in all the provinces except in French Canada, where the civil law still
exists. The criminal law of England obtains throughout the Dominion.
The central government appoints all the judges, who are irremovable
except for cause. Although the constitution places in the central
government the {429} residue of all powers, not expressly given to the
provincial authorities, conflicts of jurisdiction are constantly
arising between the general and local governments. Such questions,
however, are being gradually settled by the decisions of the
courts--the chief security of a written constitution--although at times
the rivalry of parties and the antagonisms of distinct nationalities
and creeds tend to give special importance to certain educational and
other matters which arise in the operation of the constitution. All
these are perils inseparable from a federal constitution governing two
distinct races.
The relations of Canada with the United States have been increasingly
close and cordial as years have gone on. Many old standing causes of
friction have been removed; and in other cases, such as the fisheries
dispute, and the extremely high duties levied on Canadian goods in the
Dingley Tariff, there has been no recent aggravation of the irritation.
In 1894 an end was made to the dispute over the right of America to
exclude other nations from taking the seals of the Aleutian Islands
outside the three-mile limit. Canadian vessels had been seized and
confiscated by America, and a state of high tension existed, which was
relieved by a reference of the dispute to arbitration. This time the
award was in favour of Canada. The exclusive right of pelagic sealing
was denied to the United States, and damages amounting to $464,000 were
awarded to the Canadian fishermen.
The year 1896 is memorable, not only for the general election which
brought Sir Wilfrid Laurier {430} into power, and for the beginning of
an uplift in trade which lasted until October, 1907, but also for the
discovery of gold in the Yukon and in Alaska. The great rush of
adventurers induced by these discoveries continued for the next two
years, and Dawson city grew up with mushroom haste as the metropolis of
this Arctic region. Gold discoveries in both Canadian and American
territory brought to a crisis the long-pending dispute over the
international boundary in the far North-west. In 1898 a joint High
Commission was created, whose duties were to settle a number of
questions which had long caused friction between Canada and the United
States. The sessions of this Commission extended over eight months
without accomplishing anything. No formal ending was made to the work
of the Commission, but it never re-assembled after its adjournment in
February, 1899.
It was not until 1903 that an agreement was reached between Great
Britain and the United States concerning the Alaskan boundary line. In
that year a treaty was concluded by which this long-disputed question
was relegated to a Commission of six jurists, three British and three
American, who by a majority vote were empowered to determine the
boundary line. The British members of the Commission were Lord
Alverstone, Chief Justice of England, who was made president, with a
casting vote in case of a tie, and two Canadians, Sir Louis Jette and
Mr. A. B. Aylesworth, both eminent jurists. The American members were
Mr. Henry C. Lodge, Mr. Elihu Root, and Mr. George Turner. The {431}
report of the Commission, which was transmitted to the Governments of
the United States and Great Britain in October, 1903, was somewhat
disappointing to Canadians, as, on the whole, the Americans gained
their contentions. Canada was shut out from water communication with
the Yukon as far south as Portland Channel. The treaty in which this
report was incorporated, and which was finally ratified in 1905, was,
however, beneficial in removing a long-standing cause of irritation
between the two nations, and Canada's need for a port was met in some
degree by bonding concessions at the American ports on the Alaskan
coast. An International Commission to mark out the boundary line was
at work in Alaska in the summer of 1908.
Serious disturbance to a number of Canadian interests, especially those
of the lumbermen, was caused by the passing of the Dingley Act, with
its high duties on all Canadian exports except some raw materials. To
the attack on Canadian lumber Ontario replied by prohibiting the export
of saw logs cut on Crown timber limits, a step which led to the
transfer of a considerable number of saw mills to the Canadian side of
the border line. Another cause of complaint against the United States
has been the strict and harsh enforcement of the contract labour laws
on the American side of the boundary line.
It is the not unfounded boast of Canadians that as the nineteenth
century was the century of growth and development of the United States,
so the twentieth is to be the century of Canada; and the outstanding
feature of Canadian development in {432} the last decade of the
nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth is the
awakening of her national consciousness. In all her relations with
Great Britain this sense of nationality has been continuously manifest.
In the Colonial Conferences which have been held at intervals in London
since the first Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, Canada has been
acknowledgedly first among the self-governing colonies. In 1897,
partly as a result of the enthusiasm created by enactment of the
preference for Great Britain by the Dominion Parliament, Sir Wilfrid
Laurier was the foremost figure among the colonial statesmen who were
in London for the Diamond Jubilee. Another evidence of loyalty and of
the close connection between Canada and Great Britain in the Jubilee
year was the institution of two cent postage between Great Britain and
Canada. Canada's domestic rate of letter postage from 1868 had been
three cents, a rate which was extended to the United States by a postal
convention, by which the domestic rate of Canada was made applicable to
all letters and papers entering the United States, and that of the
United States to all mail matter for Canada. This rate of three cents
remained in force until January, 1899, when the two cent rate was made
general for Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. In 1907, the
rate for newspapers and periodicals between Great Britain and Canada
was again lowered, and in August, 1908, a one cent rate for letters
within the area of a town or city was adopted by the Canadian Post
Office.
When the South African War broke out in 1899, {433} Canada was the
first of the colonies to come to the help of the mother country; and
the Canadian contingents, the first of which left Canada for South
Africa in October, 1899, rendered excellent service in the Boer War,
especially in such work as scouting and the guerilla fighting in which
the Boers were so adept.
The treaty-making power is still withheld from the Dominion; but since
the Alaskan boundary treaty Great Britain has given more and more
attention to the demands and needs of Canada when treaties have been in
negotiation, and in 1907 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mr. W. S. Fielding,
Minister of Finance, and the Hon. Mr. L. P. Brodeur went to Paris to
negotiate directly a commercial treaty with the French Government.
During the years from 1904 to 1907 the British Government gradually
withdrew all the troops and warships which had been stationed in the
Dominion. Canada assumed control of the fortifications of Halifax and
Esquimalt in July, 1905, and the replacing of British by Canadian
soldiers was complete by February, 1906. The naval dockyard at Halifax
was handed over to the Canadian Government authorities in January,
1907; and from end to end of the Dominion Canada is now in complete and
undivided control of her own territory.
[1] The boundaries of the new provinces were finally settled by an Act
of Parliament passed in 1908--an Act which also greatly enlarged the
boundaries of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.
{434}
XXIX.
FRENCH CANADA.
As this story commenced with a survey from the heights of Quebec of the
Dominion of Canada from ocean to ocean, so now may it fitly close with
a review of the condition of the French Canadian people who still
inhabit the valley of the St. Lawrence, and whose history is
contemporaneous with that of the ancient city whose picturesque walls
and 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 America
have been razed to the ground, and the French flag is never seen in the
valley of the St. Lawrence, except on some holiday in company with
other national colours, nevertheless on the continent where she once
thought to reign supreme, France has been able to leave a permanent
impress. But this impress is not in the valley of the Mississippi. It
is true that a number of French still live on the banks of the great
river, that many a little village where a French {436} patois is spoken
lies hidden in the sequestered bayous of the South, and that no part of
the old city of New Orleans possesses so much interest for the European
stranger as the French or Creole quarter, with its quaint balconied
houses and luxuriant gardens; but despite all this, it is generally
admitted that the time is not far distant when the French language will
disappear from Louisiana, and few evidences will be found of the days
of the French occupancy of that beautiful State of the Union. On the
banks of the St. Lawrence, however, France has left behind her what
seem likely to be more permanent memorials of her occupation. The
picturesque banks of the St. Lawrence, from the Atlantic to the great
lakes of the West, are the home of a large and rapidly increasing
population whose language and customs are so many memorials of the old
régime 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 all
sides the evidence that he is passing through a country of French
origin. Here and there in Quebec and Montreal, or in some quiet
village sequestered in a valley or elevated on the Laurentian Hills, he
sees houses and churches which remind him of many a hamlet or town he
has visited in Brittany or Normandy. The language is French from the
Saguenay to the Ottawa, and in some remote communities even now English
is never spoken, and is understood only by the curé or notary. Nor is
the language so impure or degenerated as many persons may naturally
suppose. On {438} the contrary, it is spoken by the educated classes
with a purity not excelled in France itself. The better class of
French Canadians take pride in studying the language of the country of
their ancestors, and are rarely guilty of Anglicisms, though these have
necessarily crept into the common parlance of mixed communities, where
people are forced to speak both French and English. In some rural
districts, isolated from large towns, the people retain the language as
it was spoken two centuries ago--though without the accent of the old
provinces of their origin--and consequently many words and phrases
which are rarely now heard in France, still exist among the peasantry
of French Canada, just as we find in New England many expressions which
are not pure Americanisms but really memorials of old English times.
In French Canada the Anglicisms are such as occur under the natural
condition of things. The native of old France has no words for
"clearing" the forest, making maple sugar, "blazing" a way through the
woods or over the ice and snow of the rivers and lakes, and
consequently the vocabulary of the French Canadian has been
considerably enlarged by local circumstances. In the summer resorts of
the lower St. Lawrence the influence of the English visitors, now very
numerous, is becoming more evident every year, and French habits are
becoming modified and the young folks commence to speak English fairly
well. Away from the St. Lawrence, however, and the path of the
tourists, the French Canadians remain, relatively speaking, untouched
by English customs.
{439}
_Nos institutions, notre langue, et nos lois_ has been the key-note of
French Canadian politics for over a century. At the present time the
records and statutes of the Dominion are always given in the two
languages, and the same is true of all motions put by the Speaker.
Though the reports of the debates appear daily in French, English
prevails in the House of Commons and in the Senate. The French
Canadians are forced to speak the language of the majority, and it is
some evidence of the culture of their leading public men, that many
among them--notably Sir Wilfrid, the eloquent leader of the Liberals,
and first French Canadian premier since 1867--are able to express
themselves in English with a freedom and elegance which no
English-speaking member can pretend to equal in French. In the
legislature of the province of Quebec, French has almost excluded
English, though the records are given in the two languages. In the
supreme court of the Dominion the arguments may be in French, and the
two Quebec judges give their decisions in their own tongue.
The people of French Canada are very devout Roman Catholics. The
numerous churches, colleges, and convents of the country attest the
power and wealth of the Church, and the desire of the French Canadians
to glorify and perpetuate it by every means in their power. The whole
land is practically parcelled out among the saints, as far as the
nomenclature of the settlements and villages is concerned. The
favourite saint appears to be Ste. Anne, whose name appears constantly
on the banks {440} of the St. Lawrence. We have Ste. Anne de la
Pérade, Ste. Anne de la Pocatière, and many others. We all remember
the 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 Ottawa
rivers, is generally known as Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and still retains
some of the characteristics of a French Canadian village,
notwithstanding its close neighbourhood to the English-speaking
settlements of Ontario. Jesuits, Sulpicians, and Recollets have done
much to mould the thought and control the political destiny of the
people under their spiritual care. The universities, colleges, and
schools are mainly directed by the religious orders. The priests, as
this story has shown, have been very active and conscientious workers
from the earliest days of Canadian history.
Canada, too, has her Notre Dame de Lourdes, to whose shrine the
faithful flock by thousands. Some twenty miles east of Quebec, on the
banks 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 has
won fame in Canada for miraculous cures for two centuries at least.
[Illustration: Old church at Bonne Ste. Anne, where miracles were
performed.]
This historic place rests under the shelter of a lofty mountain of the
Laurentides, on a little plateau which has given it the name of the
"beautiful meadow." The village itself consists of a {442} straggling
street of wooden houses, with steep roofs and projecting eaves, nearly
all devoted to the entertainment of the large assemblage that annually
resorts to this Canadian Mecca, probably some sixty thousand in the
course of the summer. Here you will see on the fete of Ste. Anne, and
at other fixed times, a mass of people in every variety of costume,
Micmacs, Hurons, and Iroquois--representatives of the old Indian tribes
of Canada--French Canadians, men, women, and children, from the valleys
of the Ottawa, and the St. Maurice, and all parts of Quebec, as well as
tourists from the United States. The handsome grey stone church--now
dignified as a "basilica"--which has been built of late years, attests
the faith of many thousands who have offered their supplications at the
shrine of La bonne Ste. Anne for centuries.[1] Piles of crutches of
every description, of oak, of ash, of pine, are deposited in every
available corner as so many votive offerings from the countless
cripples that claim to have been cured or relieved. The relic through
which all the wonderful cures are said to be effected, consists of a
part of the finger bone of Ste. Anne, which was sent in 1668 by the
Chapter of Carcassonne to Monseigneur de Laval. The church also
possesses several pictures of merit, one of them by Le Brun, presented
by the Viceroy Tracy in 1666. The situation of many of the French
Canadian {443} villages is exceedingly picturesque, when they nestle in
some quiet nook by the side of a river or bay, or overlook from some
prominent hill a noble panorama of land and water. The spire of the
stone church rises generally from the midst of the houses, and the
priest's residence or presbytère is always the most comfortable in size
and appearance. The houses are for the most part built of wood. The
roofs are frequently curved, with projecting eaves, which afford a sort
of verandah under which the family sit in summer evenings. Some of the
most pretentious structures, especially the inns, have balconies
running directly across the upper story. Many of the barns and
outhouses have thatched roofs, which are never seen in any other part
of Canada. The interiors are very plainly furnished, in many cases
with chairs and tables of native manufacture. A high iron stove is the
most important feature of every dwelling in a country where the cold of
winter is so extreme. Whitewash is freely used inside and outside, and
there is on the whole an air of cleanliness and comfort in the humblest
cottage.
The loom is still kept busy in some villages, and a coarse, warm
homespun is even yet made for everyday use. The _habitant_ also wears
in winter moccasins and a _tuque bleue_, or woollen cap, in which he is
always depicted by the painter of Canadian scenes. But with the growth
of towns and the development of the railway system a steady change is
occurring year by year in the dress of the inhabitants, and it is only
in the very remote settlements that we can find the homely stuffs of
former times. Old dresses {444} and old customs are gradually
disappearing with the old-fashioned caleche, in which tourists once
struggled to admire French Canadian scenes. As a rule, however, the
people live very economically, and extravagance in dress is rather the
exception. On gala days the young wear many ribbons and colours,
though arranged with little of the taste characteristic of the French
people. Both old and young are very sociable in their habits, and love
music and dancing. The violin is constantly played in the smallest
village, and the young people dance old-fashioned cotillons or _danses
rondos_. The priests, however, do not encourage reckless gaieties or
extravagance in dress. Now and then the bishop issues a Pastoral in
which the waltz and other fast dances, and certain fashionable modes of
dress, are expressly forbidden, and though his mandates are no doubt
soon forgotten in the cities and towns, they are, on the whole,
religiously observed in the rural communities. The feasts of the
Church are kept with great zeal,--especially the _fêtes
d'obligation_--and consequently the French Canadian has holidays
without number.
[Illustration: A Canadian calèche of old times.]
No class of the population of Canada is more orderly or less disposed
to crime than the French Canadians. The standard of the morality of
the people is high. Early marriages have been always encouraged by the
priests, and large families--fifteen children being very common--are
the rule in the villages. The _habitant_ is naturally litigious, and
the amount in dispute is, in his opinion, trifling compared with the
honour of having a case in court, {446} which demands the attendance of
the whole village. The temperate habits of the French Canadian make
them necessarily valuable employés in mills and manufactories of all
kinds. Indeed, they prefer this life to that of the farm, and until
very recently there was a steady exodus of this class to the
manufacturing towns of Lowell, Holyoke, and other places in New
England. A large proportion of the men employed in the lumbering
industry of Canada is drawn from the province of Quebec. As their
forefathers were _coureurs de bois_ in the days of the French régime,
and hunted the beaver in the wilderness, even venturing into the
illimitable Northwest region, so in these modern times the French
Canadians seek the vast pine woods which, despite axe and fire, still
stretch over a large area watered by the Ottawa and other rivers.
In commercial and financial enterprise, the French Canadians cannot
compete with their fellow-citizens of British origin, who practically
control the great commercial undertakings and banking institutions of
Lower Canada, especially in Montreal. Generally speaking, the French
Canadians cannot compare with the English population as agriculturists,
Their province is less favoured than Ontario with respect to climate
and soil. The French system of sub-dividing farms among the members of
a family has tended to cut up the land unprofitably, and it is a
curious sight to see the number of extremely narrow lots throughout the
French settlements. It must be admitted, too, that the French
population has less enterprise, and less disposition to adopt new {447}
machines and improved agricultural implements, than the people of the
other provinces.
As a rule, the _habitant_ lives contentedly on very little. Give him a
pipe of native tobacco, a chance of discussing politics, a gossip with
his fellows at the church door after service, a visit now and then to
the county town, and he will be happy. It does not take much to amuse
him, while he is quite satisfied that his spiritual safety is secured
as long as he is within sound of the church bells, goes regularly to
confession, and observes all the _fêtes d'obligation_. If he or one of
his family can only get a little office in the municipality, or in the
"government," then his happiness is nearly perfect. Indeed, if he were
not a bureaucrat, he would very much belie his French origin. Take him
all in all, however, Jean-Baptiste, as he is familiarly known, from the
patron saint of French Canada, has many excellent qualities. He is
naturally polite, steady in his habits, and conservative in his
instincts. He is excitable and troublesome only when his political
passions are thoroughly aroused, or his religious principles are at
stake; and then it is impossible to say to what extreme he will go.
Like the people from whom he is descended--many of whose
characteristics he has never lost since his residence of centuries on
the American continent--he is greatly influenced by matters of feeling
and sentiment, and the skilful master of rhetoric has it constantly in
his power to sway him to an extent which is not possible in the case of
the stronger, less impulsive Saxon race, with whom reason and argument
prevail to a large degree.
{448}
In the present, as in the past, the Church makes every effort to
supervise with a zealous care the mental food that is offered for the
nourishment of the people in the rural districts, where it exercises
the greatest influence. Agnosticism is a word practically unknown in
the vocabulary of the French Canadian _habitant_, who is quite ready to
adhere without wavering to the old belief which his forefathers
professed. Whilst the French Canadians doubtless lose little by
refusing to listen to the teachings which would destroy all
old-established and venerable institutions, and lead them into an
unknown country of useless speculation, they do not, as a rule, allow
their minds sufficient scope and expansion. It is true that a new
generation is growing up with a larger desire for philosophic inquiry
and speculation. But whilst the priests continue to control the public
school system of the province, they have a powerful means of
maintaining the current of popular thought in that conservative and too
often narrow groove, in which they have always laboured to keep it
since the days of Laval.
[Illustration: Louis Fréchette.]
It is obvious, however, to a careful observer of the recent history of
the country that there is more independence of thought and action
showing itself in the large centres of population--even in the rural
communities--and that the people are beginning to understand that they
should be left free to exercise their political rights without direct
or undue interference on the part of their spiritual advisers. English
ideas in this respect seem certainly to be gaining ground.
{450}
In the days of the French régime there was necessarily no native
literature, and little general culture except in small select circles
at Quebec and Montreal. But during the past half century, with the
increase of wealth, the dissemination of liberal education, and the
development of self-government, the French Canadians have created for
themselves a literature which shows that they inherit much of the
spirituality and brilliancy of their race. Their histories and poems
have attracted much attention in literary circles in France, and one
poet, Mr. Louis Fréchette, has won the highest prize of the French
Institute for the best poem of the year. In history we have the names
of Garneau, Ferland, Sulte, Tassé, Casgrain; in poetry, Crémazie,
Chauveau, Fréchette, Poisson, Lemay; in science, Hamel, Laflamme, De
Foville; besides many others famed as savants and littérateurs. In art
some progress has been made, and several young men go to the Paris
schools from time to time. The only sculptor of original merit that
Canada has yet produced is Hébert, a French Canadian, whose monuments
of eminent Canadians stand in several public places. Science has not
made so much progress as belles-lettres and history, though Laval
University--the principal educational institution of the highest
class--has among its professors men who show some creditable work in
mathematics, geology, and physics. In romance, however, very little
has been done.
The French Canadians have a natural love for poetry and music. Indeed
it is a French Canadian by birth and early education--Madame
Albani--who {451} not long ago won a high distinction on the operatic
stage. No writer of this nationality, however, has yet produced an
opera or a drama which has won fame for its author. The priesthood,
indeed, has been a persistent enemy of the theatre, which consequently
has never attained a successful foothold in French Canada. Sacred
music, so essential a feature of a Roman Catholic service, has been
always cultivated with success.
The _chansons populaires_, which have been so long in vogue among the
people of all classes in the province of Quebec are the same in spirit,
and very frequently in words, as those which their ancestors brought
over with them from Brittany, Normandy, Saintonge, and Franche-Comté.
Some have been adapted to Canadian scenery and associations, but most
of them are essentially European in allusion and spirit. The Canadian
lumberer among the pines of the Ottawa and its tributaries, the _Métis_
or half-breeds of what was once the great Lone Land, still sing
snatches of the songs which the _coureurs de bois_, who followed Duluth
and other French explorers, were wont to sing as they paddled over the
rivers of the West or camped beneath the pines and the maples of the
great forests. It is impossible to set the words of all of them to the
music of the drawing-room, where they seem tame and meaningless; but
when they mingle with "the solemn sough of the forest," or with the
roar of rushing waters, the air seems imbued with the spirit of the
surroundings. It has been well observed by M. Gagnon, a French
Canadian, that "many of them have no beauty {452} except on the lips of
the peasantry." There is "something sad and soft in the voices that
imparts a peculiar charm to these monotonous airs, in which their whole
existence 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 the
time of the _Grand Monarque_. Of its popularity with the French
Canadians, we have an example in General Strange's reply to the 65th, a
French Canadian regiment, during the second Northwest rebellion. One
morning, after weeks of tedious and toilsome marching, just as the men
were about to fall in, the General {454} overhead the remark--"Ah! when
will 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 the
famous old air and the march was resumed without a murmur.
These _chansons populaires_ of French Canada afford some evidence of
the tenacity with which the people cling to the customs, traditions,
and associations of the land of their origin. Indeed, a love for Old
France lies still deep in the hearts of the people, and both young and
old study her best literature, and find their greatest pride in her
recognition of their poets and writers. But while there exists among
the more influential and cultured class a sentimental attachment to Old
France, there is a still deeper feeling, strengthened by the political
freedom and material progress of the past forty years, that the
connection with the British Empire gives the best guaranty for the
preservation of their liberties and rights. This feeling has found
frequent expression in the forcible utterances of Sir Wilfrid, the late
Premier of the Dominion. No doubt the influence of the Roman Catholic
priesthood has had much to do with perpetuating the connexion with
England. They feel that it is {455} not by a connexion with France or
the United States that their religious and civil institutions can be
best conserved.
All classes now agree as to the necessity of preserving the federal
system in its entirety, since it ensures better than any other system
of government the rights and interests of the French Canadian
population in all those matters most deeply affecting a people speaking
a language, professing a religion, and retaining certain institutions
different from those of the majority of the people of the Dominion.
[Illustration: A characteristic snapshot of Sir Robert Borden at the
Peace Conference, 1919.]
No French Canadian writer or politician of weight in the country now
urges so impossible or suicidal a scheme as the foundation of an
independent French nationality on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The
history of the fifty years that have elapsed since the dark days of
Canada, when Papineau wished to establish a "Nation Canadienne," goes
to show that the governing classes of the English and French
nationalities have ceased to feel towards each other that intense
spirit of jealousy which was likely at one time to develop itself into
a dangerous hatred. The spirit of conciliation and justice, which has
happily influenced the action of leading English and French Canadian
statesmen in the administration of public affairs, has been so far
successful in repressing the spirit of passion and demagogism which has
exhibited itself at certain political crises, and in bringing the two
nationalities into harmony with each other. As long as the same wise
counsels continue to prevail in Canada that {456} have heretofore
governed her, and carried her successfully through critical periods,
the integrity of the confederation is assured, and the two races will
ever work harmoniously together, united by the ties of a common
interest,--always the strongest bond of union--and a common allegiance
to the Empire to whose fostering care they already owe so much.
[1] The illustration represents the ancient church which was built in
1658, but was taken down a few years ago on account of its dangerous
condition, and rebuilt on the old site near the basilica, in exactly
the 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 should
have closed with an account of the old French Province of Quebec, its
people, their characteristics and their progress. But so much has
happened in the second decade of the twentieth century that the impress
of France is slowly being obliterated by a Canadianism which is
peculiar to itself. Of course this does not mean that the French
language is disappearing or that all the customs of the old régime are
giving way to new. But _autres temps, autres moeurs_. For this the
Great War has been largely responsible. Previous to it, the average
French Canadian had been too prone to dwell on the ties which bound him
to La Belle France. But a part in the world-conflict convinced him
that in the hundred and fifty years he had been disassociated from the
country of his birthright, he had worked out his destiny along lines
essentially Canadian. This view is likewise affecting and influencing
the standpoint of those who have settled in the Great Northwest. The
result is a stronger feeling of Canadian nationality in that
association {458} of nations which we are pleased to term the British
Empire.
[Illustration: Silver mines at Cobalt, Ontario.]
After the tragic death of Sir John Thompson in 1892 Canada struggled
along politically under several Conservative Premiers which undoubtedly
prepared the way for Sir Wilfrid Laurier's great victory four years
afterwards. Then, surrounded by the men who had been so many years in
opposition with him, he evolved those practical principles of
Liberalism which kept his party firmly in power until he advocated free
trade in 1911. Since that time both Liberals and Conservatives have
come to the conclusion that a protective policy is the one best suited
for Canada's growing needs and future prospects. It is interesting to
recall, however, that in the dying days of Conservative rule, Nicholas
Flood Davin, a prominent member on the Government benches, introduced a
Bill for Woman's Suffrage, a reform which was not realised in the
Dominion until 1917. As for Quebec it has adhered steadily to manhood
franchise, although there is a decided possibility that women will
receive the vote in 1922. Some three years afterwards, or, to be
exact, September 29, 1898, a Prohibition plebiscite was carried in
Canada, but it was fully twenty years before it was put into effect by
the various provinces, always with the same exception--that of Quebec,
It will therefore be seen that in some respects the old province of
Lower Canada does not adopt innovations lightly, or, at least, until
they have been first tried and found to be worthy of some measure of
support.
When the outbreak of the Boers startled Canada and roused in her the
dormant desire to respond {460} to the call of the Motherland, it was
Sir Wilfrid Laurier who took up the challenge of non-intervention or
neutrality.
We acted in the full independence of our sovereign power. What we did
we did of our own free will. . . . If it should be the will of the
people of Canada at any future stage to take part in any war of
England, the people of Canada will have to have their way. . . . The
work of union and harmony between the chief races of this country is
not yet complete. . . . But there is no bond of union so strong as the
bond 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 their
way again, erected monuments in all the leading cities to commemorate
their losses, little thinking that the courage and traditions achieved
would be perpetuated at the second battle of Ypres, Vimy Ridge, and the
Somme.
The general election of 1900 sustained Sir Wilfrid, and from that time
until 1911 he gave to his country a vision and a courage worthy of the
great statesman who had preceded him in the premiership during many
years. Possibly the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York the
following year also opened up new vistas to him of the Empire upon
which the sun never sets. At any rate life flowed on evenly enough for
him and the Canadian people until there came one of those imperial acts
of negotiation which sorely, perhaps unwarrantably, tried the loyalty
and patience of everyone in the Dominion, irrespective of race, party,
or creed. As a result of it {461} any future Dominion Government would
be very brave indeed if it agreed to an arbitration affecting common
Canadian and American interests where the negotiators were not of
themselves. However, if the Alaska Boundary Award 1903 gave the United
States command of the ports leading to the Klondike it also gave to the
Canadians a very clear lead as to what they should do when treaties
affecting their own interests came up for consideration. Happily both
Motherland and Dominion now see eye to eye in this regard, and no
greater evidence of the solidarity resulting can be seen than in the
signing of the recent Treaty of Versailles by the Overseas delegates.
Deep as was the chagrin at the time, internal expansion and growing
wants diverted the attention of most of the settlers to the new problem
being worked out in the West. Immigrants were pouring in ceaselessly.
A charter for a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway had just been given by the
Dominion House. Everyone was ambitious. All these reasons created a
desire upon the part of the people for full provincial organisation
instead of the territorial system which could not possibly satisfy the
demands of a virile Northwest. The Autonomy Bills of Saskatchewan and
Alberta were soon presented by the Dominion Government, and on
September 1, 1905 two provinces were formally constituted from the old
territories.
There were many in the Eastern Provinces who viewed these evidences of
expansion not without certain misgivings. Most of the newly arrived
settlers were intelligent Americans of considerable {462} means. They
had brought their household furniture, agricultural implements, and
herds of horses and cattle with them. All this, however, was desirable
and praiseworthy. But what worried the older settlers of the west and
particularly the residents in the east was, did they intend to
disseminate their previous Republican ideas? In justice to them it
must be affirmed that they did not. On the contrary, they settled down
as resident Canadians, loyally supporting existing institutions and the
Crown. Many of them, however, were Canadians by birth, returning to
their native land, or the children of Canadians. But whether Canadian
by parentage or naturalisation they are a splendid asset to the west.
And their knowledge of modern farming methods is by no means the least
important of their accomplishments. In their train, there has also
arrived a large number of skilled and unskilled European labourers.
When the House of Commons on May 22, 1919, adopted a recommendation of
an address to the King not to grant further titles to Canadians, it was
asserted by some that it was primarily caused by this western invasion.
But it can be rightly maintained that such action was caused by
conditions 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 Medes
and the Persians.
Side by side with this agricultural expansion there has been an era of
discovery in the Dominion unequalled even by the golden age of '49.
Alexander {463} Macdonald, a Scotchman from New Brunswick, found a
fortune in the great Klondike rush of 1894-8 and other Canadians did
the same at Cobalt, Ontario, in 1903, where a member of a railway
construction gang picked up a silver nugget by accident, thereby
disclosing to an eager continent the famous Cobalt silver fields.
Canada has, as a result, one of the greatest gold and silver-mining
centres in the world.
As if to keep pace with this unexpected development, Dr. Charles E.
Saunders, of the Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, announced his
successful evolution of Marquis wheat. The Doctor had been
experimenting with mid-European Red Fife and Red Calcutta ever since
1903. By successfully crossing the two, an early ripening, hard red
spring wheat with excellent milling and baking qualities was evolved.
Marquis wheat, as it was named, is now the dominant spring wheat
throughout America. Over three hundred million bushels are produced
annually, and it was largely owing to Canadian Marquis that the Allies
were able to overcome the food crisis in 1918. The wealth of the world
has thus been increased enormously by it.
In 1911 Sir Wilfrid, who had been attending the Imperial Conference in
London during May and June of that year, returned home determined to
place himself again in the hands of the electorate. Unfortunately he
had either not profited by the lesson of 1891 or he now believed that
the Dominion was ripe for reciprocity with the United States. The
contest resulted in the overwhelming defeat of his ministry. For
fifteen years he had enjoyed the same confidence of the people as was
extended to {464} Sir John A. Macdonald, and the story of his
premiership was practically the political history of Canada for that
period.
The Hon. Sir Robert Borden, who had led the Conservative party after
Sir Charles Tupper had resigned in 1901, now succeeded, and a new era
opened in Canadian politics. Throughout the ten years of his two terms
of office he invariably viewed the questions and problems before him
from a judicial standpoint. At the end of his term of office he
carried into his semi-retirement the respect and honour of the Canadian
people. If he lacked the personality and the fire of Sir John A. and
Sir Wilfrid, on the hustings and in the House, he made up for it by a
mind well balanced in statesmanship. Never was this seen to greater
advantage than on those occasions when he participated in the Imperial
Conferences and at the Peace negotiations ir Versailles.
Early in the winter of 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, an Icelander from
Manitoba, set out on one of his explorations of the Arctic regions of
Canada. Public opinion had been so roused and excited over Admiral
Peary reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1909, that the Canadian
Government felt that they owed it to the Empire to make some attempt at
charting the northern regions for the Dominion. Under Government
organisation and supervision the enterprise lasted for five years.
Thousands of square miles were added to Canadian territory within the
Arctic Circle, many of which, contrary to popular conception, are green
and habitable. The geography of certain lands and seas was amplified
and corrected, interesting and useful {465} scientific material was
obtained, and much light thrown on general conditions prevailing in
those latitudes which had escaped the observation of Roald Amundsen
when he accomplished the navigation of the Northwest Passage during
1903-6.
The opening years of the second decade of the twentieth century,
however, had not been without their toll of the Empire makers in
Canada. Just before the Great War broke on an unsuspecting Dominion,
Lord Strathcona passed away in his 94th year. From an apprentice clerk
in Hudson's Bay Company he had passed from honour to honour until his
death, when he was High Commissioner for Canada in London. Not many
months later he was followed by the last surviving Father of
Confederation, Sir Charles Tupper, who had preceded him in the office.
Both of these pioneers in Canadian life wielded an influence very far
reaching in the interests of the British Empire.
At the outbreak of the war similar losses in Canadian public life
passed without much notice in the stress and strain of the struggle to
which Canada was to devote herself during the ensuing years.
The prompt action of Sir Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia, the
sending of 400,000 men overseas to fight the great fight, the seemingly
never-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 Sir
Arthur Currie, appear too vivid in the mind as yet to be regarded as
history.
{466}
Something of the spirit of the Canadians in sharing the common
sacrifice is reflected in the beautiful though poignant lines of
Colonel Macrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, who himself made the
supreme 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-long
annals of the Empire, no words can express their thoughts better than
those of Laurence Binyon at the entrance of the British Museum in
London, 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 she
had been content to be {467} regarded as a Dominion with a definite
place in the Empire, proud of her position in that Association of
Nations but not unmindful of her shortcomings. The world-conflict,
however, caused her to realise her own constructive ability and
possibilities only limited by population. Under the Imperial Munitions
Board factories were converted into munition works, old plants were
enlarged, and new machinery installed, so that the country is
industrially equipped to supply a population considerably larger than
it is to-day. Not only was wooden ship building revived, but also
steel ship building plants were laid down. As a result there is a
Government Merchant Marine arranged in conjunction with the Government
railways, sailing the high seas to wherever Canadian produce can find a
market. Closer international relationships are being fostered instead
of considered as outside of the Dominion's power and her desire. These
cords of commerce will undoubtedly strengthen British hegemony in the
years to come.
The General Election of December 1917, passed quietly, making no change
in the political situation, although there was a strong feeling in
Quebec against conscription, which was the dominant issue in that
province. On that question the Hon. W. L. Mackenzie King supported Sir
Wilfrid Laurier in his opposition to compulsory service, being one of
the few English Canadian Liberals to do so. In fact several of them
had already joined Sir Robert Borden so that a Coalition Government
could be formed. It was largely owing to Mr. King's support of Sir
Wilfrid on this issue that the former was chosen to {468} succeed the
latter as leader of the Liberal Party in the Convention held at Ottawa
August 5-7, 1919. The country, however, was too intent on the struggle
before it to worry about politics. If it did anything it placed Sir
Robert Borden more firmly in power to carry on the task before him,
especially endorsing the Military Service Act (Conscription) which had
been passed on August 29, previously.
It is true that the people were stunned by the disasters which occurred
in 1916 and 1917 when the Parliament Building at Ottawa was burned and
Halifax was almost razed to the ground by the explosion resulting from
the ramming of an ammunition ship. But outside of the great toll of
life these losses could be repaired and were speedily made up in the
erection of new Parliament Buildings and the creation of a more modern
city of Halifax to dominate the entrance of the great highway from the
East.
Early in the autumn of 1914, the Bank of England, realizing that it
would be impossible for American firms to ship gold to London in
payment of maturing indebtedness there, announced that deposits of gold
by such firms with the Receiver-General at Ottawa would be regarded as
if received by the Bank at London. Under this arrangement many million
dollars of the precious metal were shipped to the Dominion Capital,
where a Branch of the Royal Mint had already been established in
January, 1908. The amount in the vaults at Ottawa during the war
became almost twice the total amount held by British financial
institutions in 1913. As part of it was raw gold, the Ottawa Branch of
the Royal Mint {469} had to construct a new refinery in 1917 which had
a refining capacity of one million ounces of fine gold per month. The
Branch Mint had thus a larger capacity than any other Mint or gold
refinery in the world. Shilling blanks were also produced for the
Royal Mint in London as well as silver and bronze pieces for
Newfoundland and nickel-copper pieces for Jamaica.
Later on the gold was returned to the United States when the British
exchange became unfavourable owing to the huge purchases made in that
country. Many Canadian business men at this time advocated a
moratorium, but the Government steadfastly resisted such a suggestion
until ultimately it was found unnecessary.
Financially, the Canadian people from 1915 to 1919 were not unmindful
of their national obligations. Six domestic loans were issued during
the war period amounting to 2,203 million dollars, while War Savings
Certificates accounted for another 12 1/2 millions.
On the announcement of the Armistice in November, 1918, the Government
with the same energy and foresight which characterised their entrance
into the conflict, began to demobilise the army which they had sent
overseas. Within six months the bulk of the men were back in their
homes. The opportunity was then taken of offering to the returned men
land grants and loans for the purchase of farming implements. Up to
the end of 1920, over 3 1/2 million acres had been disposed of in this
way. In the Western Provinces alone about one million acres of it are
under cultivation {470} by returned men. As a result of this action,
new careers have been provided for men whose love of outdoor life was
stimulated by their military experience. It has at the same time
opened up from virgin soil fresh tracts of rich, arable land. As for
pensions, up to February, 1921, the Dominion has paid out 82 million
dollars and her annual pension bill now represents over 33 million
dollars. Truly Canada is a country "fit for heroes to live in."
All this, however, has been accomplished not without some internal
difficulty. At Winnipeg in May, 1919, some thousands of workmen came
out on strike for more pay, shorter hours, and the principle of
collective bargaining. Rioting took place among some of the more
disorderly elements. But after negotiation by the Hon. Arthur Meighen
and a fellow minister, aided by strong measures on the part of the
Mayor and ex-Service men, the rioters returned to work.
[Illustration: New Parliament Buildings, Ottawa.]
But the great work of construction and restoration has progressed. In
September, 1917, the Quebec Cantilever Bridge, one of the engineering
triumphs of the world, even larger than the famous Forth Bridge, was
completed at a cost of 15 million dollars. The special importance of
this structure is, that by connecting the Government railway lines on
the south of the River St. Lawrence with those on the north, it
shortens the distance between Halifax and Winnipeg by two hundred
miles. The necessity for good roads has not been overlooked.
Parliament authorised under the Canada Highways Act of 1919, a grant of
20 million dollars, {472} for the purpose of road construction and
improvement. This sum allotted to the various provinces is granted on
condition that the amount should be supplemented by the provinces
themselves. The 250,000 miles of public highways will therefore be
extended gradually but effectively in the future.
In the same year, there occurred the death at Ottawa of one whom Canada
could ill afford to lose; a statesman whose prestige at home and abroad
stood out on the pages of the Dominion's history. Nominally the leader
of the Liberal Party, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was more than that. He was a
great national figure. As a statesman of broad imperialistic views, as
an orator of brilliant gifts, as a zealous guardian of all that he
considered to be for Canada's best interest, he will rank high among
the makers of the Empire.
Fortunately the visit of the Prince of Wales came at a time when the
Dominion badly needed royal encouragement. Arriving in the late summer
of 1919, he was enthusiastically received. As the Quebec Bridge had
just been completed he formally opened it for traffic, and later on, as
a good Mason, laid the foundation stone of the tower of the new
Parliament Buildings at Ottawa. Becoming enamoured with the
possibilities of the two new provinces in the Northwest, he purchased a
ranch of 1,600 acres in Alberta, under the foothills of the Rocky
Mountains, proceeded to stock it with horses and cattle of the best
English pedigree, and engaged a number of ex-Service men to manage the
property. If there had been any doubt in the minds of the western
settlers about His Royal {473} Highness, this removed it. To-day east
and west vie in acclaiming the present Heir-Apparent to the British
throne with an affection as genuine as it is evident.
When the Dominion Government, owing to the exigencies of war, began to
impose restriction on the manufacture, importation and sale of
intoxicating liquors in Canada, the old question of Prohibition came to
the fore again. It was remembered that a plebiscite in favour of it
had been carried on September 29, 1898, but never taken advantage of by
the Federal authorities; Temperance organizations throughout the
country took it up, and in order to meet the popular clamour the
various provincial Assemblies passed some form of legislation which
resulted in the country going "dry." Quebec, however, has only agreed
to an amendment of the Canada Temperance Act by which the Dominion
Government can prohibit the importation of intoxicants, but cannot
prevent the province from making and selling under Government control
such wine, spirits or beer as the people may desire. British Columbia
afterwards voted for Government control in October, 1920.
In July, 1920, after nine years of power laden with some of the
heaviest responsibilities ever imposed upon a Canadian statesman, Sir
Robert Borden was compelled to resign the premiership through ill
health. His efforts for the autonomy of the Dominion, consistent with
Empire unity, culminating in her inclusion as a separate and equal
nation at the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919, and the right to appoint
her own Minister at Washington {474} will make for him a prominent
place in the history of Canada.
The leadership of the Coalition Government which was elected in 1917
passed to the Hon. Arthur Meighen, who was Minister of the Interior in
the Borden administration.
A year afterwards, having completed the full tenure of office, His
Excellency the Governor-General, the Duke of Devonshire, returned to
England, and was succeeded by General Lord Byng of Vimy, the hero of
the Canadian soldiers in the war.
When the Annual Imperial Conference was called in July, 1921, the
acting Premier, the Hon. Mr. Meighen, repaired to London to gain some
insight into the many intricate problems which came before the Council.
On his return home he decided that the political situation demanded a
general election. In this, no doubt, he was influenced by the rise of
a 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-operative
society, finally growing into a strong political party in provincial
and federal politics. Ontario and Alberta soon fell to their prowess,
and it was thought that the same result would happen in the Dominion
arena. The ideas advocated by the new third party were a more modified
protection to home industries as opposed to the decidedly protectionist
policy of the Coalition Government; opposition to the return of the
Government controlled railways to {475} private ownership; stimulation
of immigration along definite lines; and the creation of means whereby
capital for production could be supplied to settlers on safe and sound
lines.
Whether the Progressive party will continue to be a factor in Canadian
politics is for the future to decide. The net result of the general
election of 1921 was the almost complete disappearance of the Coalition
party and the meagre election of the out and out Liberals under the
Hon. William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had been a minister in Sir
Wilfrid's cabinet some ten years previously. The number of
Progressives elected did not come up to the general expectation, but
they represent a considerable number, in fact being second in strength
to the party called upon to form the Government. Their leader, the
Hon. T. A. Crerar, who had resigned from the Coalition Cabinet of Sir
Robert Borden two years previously, is a leader of some force and
ability. But Mr. King has surrounded himself with a cabinet of
considerable Parliamentary experience, so there is every reason to
expect that the Liberal Party will be in power for the usual life of a
Parliamentary term.
Perhaps the most outstanding event of the year in which Canada was
interested, was the Disarmament Conference at Washington, where she was
represented by Sir Robert Borden. If it did anything, it certainly
paved the way for saving billions of dollars by restricting the
construction of capital ships, and in this Canada was no mean factor.
But before all, it is domestic problems which concern the Dominion
particularly. No country {476} realises better than she does that it
is coal and comfort which will attract settlers from the Motherland to
till her fields, build up her factories and engage in the trade which
makes a nation truly great. As Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have no
coal mines, "white coal" is a vital necessity. Not long ago the
Dominion Water Power Branch took a census, and found that Canada has
available nineteen million horse-power. Of this practically 90 per
cent. of the Central Station power is derived from water power, 95 per
cent. being in the above-named provinces, which have to import their
coal supplies from other provinces and the United States. As far back
as 1911 the Province of Ontario realised this, and began to arrange for
the building of the Chippawa-Queenston Power Canal and plant, which
represents an investment of almost a hundred million dollars. The
plant will have a capacity of 650,000 horse-power, which will be
distributed throughout Canada and possibly the neighbouring States, and
will be an important addition to the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power
Transmission System which was inaugurated at Kitchener, Ontario, in
October, 1911.
Elsewhere in the Dominion the fuel problem is being met by fresh
discoveries. In the Mackenzie River district gushers of oil have been
struck, in one case producing a flow at the rate of 1,000 barrels a
day. Already several large companies are operating in that district.
As for comfort, not only Canada but also the world realises that the
day of hand power is past. Without agricultural implement machinery
driven {477} by motor force, it would be impossible for the great
Northwest to yield the harvests which she does without a labour to
which new settlers would be unaccustomed. By means of the
hydro-electric commission homes are warmed in winter, lighted all the
year round, as indeed are the cities, towns and villages, and cooking
for the family accomplished with a modicum of trouble. Electric
railways connect communities and settlements. The telephone is in
almost everyone's home. So that with the pianola, the gramophone, and
other means of diversion, the winter nights are not what they were to
the people in the years of the nineteenth century.
In railroad facilities Canada, if anything, is fifty years ahead of her
time, 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 on
its completion to the Grand Trunk Railway Company for fifty years.
Owing to the war, and the financial difficulties in which the
constructing company found itself, the system of 22,000 miles of line
was taken over by the Government in 1921, after an arbitration which
excited much comment on both sides of the Atlantic. The decision
regarding it was given by the Canadian Grand Trunk Arbitration Board at
Montreal, headed by Sir Walter Cassels, and one of the members of the
Board was no less a person than ex-President Taft, now Chief Justice of
the United States. As a conspicuous result of political action the
{478} construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is still more the
subject of politics than of history, and it is quite likely to remain
in that phase for some time.
The year 1921 will also be memorable for the work of the joint
American-Canadian Commission appointed to investigate the possibility
of the proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterways. It was estimated
that the initial cost of canalising the St. Lawrence River,
constructing six dams in the rapids and improving the St. Claire and
Detroit Rivers will be 253 million dollars, the up-keep requiring 2 1/2
million dollars annually. Fortunately considerable revenue can be made
through the sale of the five million horse-power obtained from the dams
which will pay a large part of the carrying charges. The great value
of such a public work is in the relief from congestion on the railways,
particularly the American, at crop-moving time. One of the most
important results will be that Port Arthur, Ontario will virtually
become a seaport.
In all this work of expansion and progress the women of Canada have
taken their place. This was recognised when the War Committee of the
Borden Cabinet called a Conference of representatives of women's
organisations in February, 1918. The initiative was rewarded by a
closer co-operation on the part of these societies with the Government,
especially in connection with the conservation of food, the compilation
of a National Register and the increased production in industrial
occupations. Later in 1918, an Act was passed by which Canadian {479}
women received the Federal electoral vote on the same basis as men. In
addition to electing a woman as member of the provincial legislature,
the British Columbia Assembly had the honour first of choosing one of
the fair sex for Speaker which, however, was declined, Mrs. Mary E.
Smith, the Labour candidate-elect, maintaining that she could be more
useful as a private member than either as Speaker or a member in the
Government. When Mrs. Irene Parlby was similarly successful in
Lacombe, Alberta, she was not so modest when Premier Greenfield offered
her a position without portfolio in the United Farmers' Cabinet. To
those who have the feminine movement at heart, these instances will
certainly be a source of much encouragement.
But, perhaps, the west of Canada is more willing to depart from the
established order than the east. Then, again, the conditions are
different. The maritime provinces have been living in peace and amity
with their neighbours for many years. The immigration problem,
carrying with it different races, conflicting ideas and unsatisfied
ambitions, does not present itself in the same way. Halifax and
Quebec, 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 in
1907, when the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux was sent by the Dominion
Government to Tokio to make representations to the Japanese Government
regarding the restriction of its nationals from emigrating to Canada
which was resulting in {480} racial riots. The Nippon Cabinet received
the _démarche_ in the right spirit, and so any cause for
misunderstanding was removed. That was why the Dominion of Canada
adhered to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty when it was renewed in 1913, and
why the Japanese battleship _Asama_, after grounding on the coast of
Lower California, was refitted at Esquimault. At that naval station in
1914 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 the
Pacific Coast to assist in preventing opium smuggling, has almost
removed the reason for retaining even that vessel. But it is still
equipped as a training ship for the Royal Canadian Navy which, after
the close of the war, was strengthened by the addition of three
cruisers, the _Aurora_, _Patriot_ and _Patricia_.
Fortunately the naval treaty between the British Empire, the United
States and Japan, signed in February, 1922, will at least remove any
doubt about Canada's pacific intentions in her developments of the
west. By that agreement the above nations will respect the _status
quo_ in regard to fortifications and naval bases on their coast
territories. No new ones are to be established. Moreover, no measures
shall be taken to increase the existing naval facilities for the repair
or maintenance of naval forces.
Thus with prosperity at home, and peace with those abroad, people of
the land of the Maple Leaf and the Beaver will look upon the twentieth
century {481} as peculiarly their own. But in doing so it will not be
without a wrench to see old institutions alter and in some cases pass
away. One of these is the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, which in
November, 1919, became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provision
being made for the absorption of the Dominion Police which during the
Great War acted as a secret service to counteract enemy plots against
the country. Recently the force has been bitterly opposed by Labour,
on the ground that its real purpose is to break strikes, an objection
originating in the force's very efficient action during the Winnipeg
riots. Otherwise there would be no grounds for its disbandonment
except economy, before which even history and tradition must bow.
The growth of labour organisations in Canada, however, ranks _pari
passu_ with that of the large cities. To gauge the extent one has only
to mention that in 1911 there were 133,132 members in the labour
unions, but in 1920 there were 373,842, or almost three times as many.
Of the definite groups the railway employees stand first, representing
23.45 per cent. This explains why the railway situation in Canada is
always a matter of no small interest to the people. As most of the
organised workers are members of international unions, which cover the
whole of the United States and Canada, their electoral power may be
readily estimated. In justice to them, it must be said that labour, as
compared with that in other countries, is remarkably safe and sane.
During the war, trade union restrictions were subordinated to the
country's {482} need, and now that it is over the one desire in the
ranks is to keep industry on its feet, so that there may be a busy and
contented Dominion. If at times there is a louder outcry against
immigration, it is largely owing to the idea that the new-comers cannot
be assimilated under existing conditions. But every Canadian,
irrespective of class or calling, recognises that if the premier
Dominion is to maintain its position and prestige in the Empire--and
for that matter in the world--there must be more population.
In these days some people are inclined to speak of the near
disappearance of free land in Canada. If by free land it is meant that
there is no longer the liberty to settle at random without any
qualifications for so doing, then there is truth in such a statement.
But the history of Canada during the past two decades proves that if
the Dominion is to prosper, there must be settlers who either have the
necessary farming knowledge or the ability to acquire it. In either
case the Government or the Railways will grant land as near free land
as it can be made.
To train young farmers in the science and practice of agriculture,
colleges and experimental farms have been established, and both
Canadians and new-comers have taken advantage of them. For instance,
in 1874 there were twenty-eight students at the Ontario Agricultural
College at Guelph. To-day the total enrolment is about 2,400. It can
be seen, then, that there is a real desire upon the part of the rising
generation for a scientific knowledge of farming, without which even
virgin {483} soil cannot yield indefinitely. It is admitted that there
may be more comfortable conditions in other countries, but Canada still
remains the land of opportunity towards which the people always extend
a beckoning hand.
When the grain is on the stalk, and the fields of wheat extend as far
as the eye can see, the glowing red sun sinks beneath a golden horizon
at the end of a summer's day. But, like young Canada, it rises again
the next to breathe life on the land and destiny of the Empire's Great
Dominion.
[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
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