Canada Part 7

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 a.s.sumed those forms which they retained, with a few modifications from time to time, during the whole of the French regime. 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 rect.i.tude, 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 doc.u.ments, 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 Abbe de Montigny, and when the Jesuits induced him to come to Canada he was appointed grand vicar by the Pope, with the t.i.tle of Bishop of Petrosa.

Before the Canadian bishops and their agents in France decided on the Abbe de Montigny as a bishop they had made an experiment with the Abbe Queylus, one of the four Sulpician priests who came to Montreal in 1657, to look after the spiritual, and subsequently its temporal, interests. The Abbe 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 Abbe de Montigny, between whom and the Abbe 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 Abbe, 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 inst.i.tutions of the province.

Bishop Laval was endowed with an inflexible will, and eminently fitted to a.s.sert 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait of Laval, first Canadian bishop.]

No question can be raised as to Bishop Laval's charity and generosity.

He acc.u.mulated 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sertion 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 regime under Colbert was essentially parental. All emigration was under the direction of the French authorities. Wives were sent by s.h.i.+ploads 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 a.s.sociates, 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 s.h.i.+pbuilding, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Card issue of 1729, for 12 livres.]

While the townsfolk of Ma.s.sachusetts were discussing affairs in town-meetings, the French inhabitants of Canada were never allowed to take part in public a.s.semblies 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 a.s.sociates, the governors practically exercised arbitrary power, with the a.s.sistance 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 a.s.semble the people for public purposes was systematically crushed by the orders of the government. A public meeting of the paris.h.i.+oners 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 a.s.semble the different orders of the colony, the clergy, the _n.o.blesse_ {164} or _seigneurs_, the judiciary, and the third estate, in imitation of the old inst.i.tutions of France. The French king promptly rebuked the haughty governor for this attempt to establish a semblance of popular government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fifteen sol piece.]

From that moment we hear no more of the a.s.sembling 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 Mesy, 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 princ.i.p.al town within its limits--viz., Quebec, also called the _Prevote 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 _n.o.blesse_, and of stimulating settlement in a wilderness. It was not necessary to be of n.o.ble birth to be a Canadian seigneur. Any trader with a few louis d'or and influence could obtain a patent for a Canadian lords.h.i.+p. 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 va.s.sals, 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 ba.n.a.l_), bake his bread in the seignior's oven, give his lord a t.i.the 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 regime. 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 va.s.sal 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 regime, 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-Salieres Regiment had been induced to settle--palisaded villages had been built. The princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sumed the appearance of a continuous settlement on the river. These various settlements became known in local phraseology as Cotes, apparently from their natural situation on the banks of the river. This is the origin of Cote des Neiges, Cote St. Louis, Cote 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 cure, 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 t.i.thes, regulated by ordinances, and first imposed by Bishop Laval for the support of the Quebec Seminary and the clergy. Next to the cure 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 a.s.semble for the purpose of choosing from among themselves four persons to make, with the cure, 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 paris.h.i.+oner 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 circ.u.mstances 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 Brule, after his escape from the Iroquois. Nicolet also was the first Frenchman who pa.s.sed 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 Nip.i.s.sings, 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, Medard Chouart, Sieur de Grosseilliers, is believed to have reached the sh.o.r.es 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 a.s.sumption 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 sh.o.r.es of Canada, they seemed to enter into the spirit of forest life. Men of n.o.ble birth and courtly a.s.sociations 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 Pen.o.bscot Bay (then Pentagoet), 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 ama.s.sed 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 Pentagoet, 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 a.s.sisting in the defence of Port Royal, and making more than one onslaught on the English settlers of Ma.s.sachusetts, 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 sh.o.r.es 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 Dore. 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.semble 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 cla.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 regime.