Читать книгу The rise of Canada, from barbarism to wealth and civilisation - Charles Roger - Страница 5

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There have been many attempts to discover a northwest passage to the East Indies or China. Some of these attempts have been disastrous, but none fruitless. They have all led to other discoveries of scarcely inferior importance, and so recently as within the past twelve months the discovery of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans has been made. It was in the attempt to find a new passage from Europe to Asia that this country was discovered. In one of these exploring expeditions, England, four centuries ago, employed John Cabot. This Italian navigator, a man of great intrepidity, courage, and nautical skill, discovered Newfoundland, saw Labrador, (only previously known to the Danes) and entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To Labrador he gave, it is alleged, the name of Primavista. But that he so designated that still rugged and inhospitable, but not unimprovable, region, is less than probable. The name was more applicable to the gulf which, doubtless, appeared to Cabot to be a first glimpse of the grand marine highway of which he was in quest, and with which he was so content that he returned to England and was knighted by Henry the Seventh. Sebastian Cabot made the next attempt to reach China by sailing northwest. He penetrated to Hudson's Bay, never even got a glimpse of the St. Lawrence, and returned to England. Fifty years afterwards, Cotereal left Portugal, with the view of following the course of the elder Cabot. He reached Labrador, returned to Portugal, was lost on a second voyage, and was the first subject of a "searching expedition," three vessels having been fitted out with that view by the King of Portugal. Several other attempts at discovery were subsequently made. Two merchants of Bristol, in England, obtained a patent to establish colonies in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in 1527, Henry the Seventh, for the last time, despatched a northwest passage discovery fleet. The formation of English settlements, and the exploration were equally unsuccessful. These facts I allude to, rather with the object of accounting for the name of "Canada," applied to the country through which the St. Lawrence flows, than for any other purpose. In the "Relations des Jesuits," Father Henepin states that the Spaniards first discovered Canada while in search, not of a northwest passage, but of gold, which they could not find, and therefore called the land, so valueless in their eyes, El Capo di Nada—"The Cape of Nothing." But, the Spaniards, who possibly did visit Canada two years before Cabot, whatever the object of their voyage may have been, could not have done anything so absurd. Quebec, not Canada, may have been to them Cape Nothing, and doubtless was. It was the way they looked for. That was as visible to them as to Cabot, and a passage, strath, or way is signified in Spanish by the word Canada. It was not gold but a way to gold that English, Spaniards, Italians, and French sought. It was the cashmeres, the pearls, and the gold of India that were wanted. It was a short way to wealth that all hoped for. And the St. Lawrence has, indeed, been a short way to wealth, if not to China, as will afterwards be shown.[1]

Passing over the exploration of what is now the Coast of the United States, by Verrazzano, I come to the discovery of Gaspé Basin and the River St. Lawrence, by Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, in France. With ships of one hundred and twenty tons, and forty tons, Cartier arrived in the St. Lawrence—as some spring traders of the present day occasionally do—before the ice had broken up, and found it necessary to go back and seek shelter in some of the lower bays or harbours. He left St. Malo in April, 1534, and arrived in the St. Lawrence early in May. Returning to Gaspé, he entered the Bay Chaleur, remained there until the 25th July, and returned to France. Next year, Cartier arrived in the St. Lawrence, after various disasters to his three vessels, and viewed and named Anticosti, which he called L'Isle de L'Assomption; explored the River Saguenay; landed on, and named the Isle aux Coudres, or Island of Filberts; passed the Isle of Bacchus, now Island of Orleans; and at length came to anchor on the "Little River" St. Croix, the St. Charles of these times, on which stood the huts of Stadacona. Cartier chatted with the Indians for a season. He found them an exceedingly good tempered and very communicative people. They told him that there was another town higher up the river, and Cartier determined upon visiting that congregation of birch bark tents or huts, pitched on a spot of land called Hochelaga, now the site of Montreal. At Hochelaga the "new Governor" met with a magnificent reception. A thousand natives assembled to meet him on the shore, and the compliment was returned by presents of "tin" beads, and other trifles. Hochelaga was the chief Indian Emporium of Canada; it was ever a first class city—in Canada. Charlevoix says, even in those days this (Hochelaga) was a place of considerable importance, as the capital of a great extent of country. Eight or ten villages were subject to its sway. Jacques Cartier returned to Quebec, loaded his vessels with supposed gold ore, and Cape Diamonds, which he supposed were brilliants of the first water, and then went home to France, where he told a truly magnificent tale concerning a truly magnificent country. Expeditions for Canada were everywhere set afoot. Even Queen Elizabeth, of England, sent Frobisher on a voyage of discovery, but he only discovered a foreland and tons of mica, which he mistook for golden ore. Martin Frobisher was ruined. His was a ruinous speculation. Talc or mica did not pay the expense of a nine month's voyage with fifteen ships. But all that was then sought for is now found in Canada—and more. To obtain much gold, however, the settlement of a country is necessary. It is the wants of the settlers which extract gold from the ground for the benefit of the trader. The only occupiers of Canada, no farther back than two hundred years, were Indians. The Montagnais, the Hurons, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Outagomies, the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, and the Crowfeet red-faces, were the undisputed possessors of the soil. They held the mine, the lake, the river, the forest, and the township in free and common soccage. They were sometimes merchants and sometimes soldiers. They were all ready to trade with their white invaders, all prone to quarrel among themselves. The Iroquois and Hurons were ever at war with each other. When not smoking they were sure to be fighting.

The first white man who opened up the trade of the St. Lawrence was M. Pontgrave, of St. Malo. He made several voyages in search of furs to Tadousac, and the wealthy merchant was successful. With the aid of a Captain Chauvin, of the French navy, whom he induced to join him, Pontgrave attempted to establish a trading post at Tadousac. He was, however, unsuccessful. Chauvin died in 1603, leaving a stone house for his monument, then the only one in Canada.

It was now determined by the French government to form settlements in Canada. And the military mind of France attempted to carry into effect a plan not dissimilar to that recommended a few years ago by Major Carmychael Smyth, the making of a road to the Pacific through the wilderness by means of convicts. The plan, however, failed, though attempted by the Marquis De la Roche, who actually left on Sable Island forty convicts drawn from the French prisons. A company of merchants having been formed for the purpose of making settlements, Champlain accepted the command of an expedition, and accompanied by Pontgrave, sailed for the St. Lawrence in 1603. They arrived safely at Tadousac, and proceeded in open boats up the St. Lawrence; but did nothing. The effort at settlement was subsequently renewed. In 1608, Champlain, a second time, reached Stadacona or Quebec, on the 3rd July, and struck by the commanding position of Cape Diamond, selected the base of the promontory as the site of a town. He erected huts for shelter; established a magazine for stores and provisions; and formed barracks for the soldiery, not on the highest point of the headland, but on the site of the recently destroyed parliament buildings. There were then a few, and only a few, Indians in Stadacona, that Indian town being situated rather on the St. Charles than on the St. Lawrence. Few as they were, famine reduced them to the necessity of supplicating food from the strangers. The strangers themselves suffered much from scurvy, and after an exploration of the lake which yet bears the name of its discoverer, Champlain returned to France. Two years later the intrepid sailor set out for Tadousac and Quebec with artisans, laborers, and supplies for Nouvelle France, the name then given to Canada, or the Great "Pass" to China. He arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay on the 26th of April, after a remarkably short passage of eighteen days. He found his first settlers contented and prosperous. They had cultivated the ground successfully, and were on good terms with the natives. Champlain, however, desirous of annexing more of the territory of the Indians, stirred them up to strife. He himself joined an hostile expedition of the Algonquins and Montagnais against the Iroquois. What success he met with is not now to be ascertained. Deficient in resources, he again returned to France, and found a partner able and willing to assist the Colony in the person of the Count de Soisson, who had been appointed Viceroy of the new country—a sinecure appointment which the Count did not long enjoy, inasmuch as death took possession of him shortly afterwards. The honorary office of Viceroy, which more resembled an English Colonial Secretaryship of the present day, than a viceroyalty, was, on the death of Soisson, conferred on the Prince de Condé, who sent Champlain from St. Malo for the Colonial Seat of Government, on the 6th March, 1613, as Deputy Governor. Champlain arrived at Quebec on the 7th of May. The infant colony was quiet and contented. Furs were easily obtained for clothing in winter, and in summer very little clothing of any kind was necessary. The chief business of the then colonial merchants was the collection of furs for exportation. There were, properly speaking, no merchants in the country, but only factors, and other servants of the home Fur Company. The country was no more independently peopled than the Hudson's Bay Territory now is. The actual presence of either governor or sub-governor was unnecessary. Champlain only made an official tour of inspection to Mount Royal, explored the Ottawa, and returned to France. He was dissatisfied with the appearance of affairs, and persuaded the Prince of Condé, his chief, to really settle the country. The prince consented. A new company was formed through his influence, and, with some Roman Catholic Missionaries, Champlain again sailed for Canada, arriving at Quebec early in April, 1615—a proof that the winters were not more intense when Canada was first settled than at present. Indeed the intense cold of Lower Canada, compared with other countries in the same latitude, is not so much attributable to the want of cultivation as to the height of the land, and the immense gully formed by the St. Lawrence, and the great lakes which receive the cold blasts of the mountainous region which constitutes the Arctic highlands, and from which the rivers running to the northward into Hudson's Bay, and to the southward into the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, take their rise. The icy breath of the distant north and northwest sweeps down such rivers as the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and the Saguenay, to be gathered into one vast channel, extending throughout Canada's whole extent. And, clear the forest as we may, Canada will always be the same cold, healthy country that it now is. Lower or rather Highland Canada, will be especially so, without, however, the general commercial prosperity of the country suffering much on that account. There are lowlands enough for a population far exceeding that now occupying the United States. But this is a digression. Champlain's Missionaries set themselves vigorously to the work of christianizing the heathen, while Champlain himself industriously began to fight them. He extended the olive branch from his left hand, and stabbed vigorously with a sword in his right hand. The Missionaries established churches, or rather the cross, from the head waters of the Saguenay to Lake Nepissing. Champlain battled the Iroquois from Mont Royal to Nepissing. Rather he would have done so. He did not find them until he reached, overland and in canoes, Lake Huron, the superior character of the land in that neighbourhood attracting his particular attention. He found his "enemy" entrenched by "four successive palisades of fallen trees," says Smith, "enclosing a piece of ground containing a pond, with every other requisite for Indian warfare"—a very Sebastopol, upon which Champlain discharged his fire-arms, driving the Iroquois back to their camp. The place was, however, impregnable, and the siege was reluctantly raised. The Algonquins would only fight as they pleased. They were sadly in want of a head. They would not use fire-arms, but "preferred firing their arrows against the strong wooden defences." Champlain was twice wounded in the leg, and his allies, making the non-arrival of reinforcements an excuse, retreated. Champlain insisted upon going home, but transport was wanting, and he was compelled to winter, as best he could, in a desolate region, with his discomfitted allies. In the following year he got away, and made haste down his Black Sea of Ontario, to his Golden Horn at Tadousac, from thence, on the 10th of Sept., 1616, returning to his native country to find his partner, the Prince of Condé, in disgrace and in confinement, for what the historian knows not. The Prince had possibly been playing Hudson, for we find that the Marshal de Themines was prevailed upon to accept the office, on condition of sharing the emoluments. But he too became involved in "controversy with the merchants," and after only two years presidency of the Company, resigned, when the Duke de Montmorenci obtained the Viceroyalty from Condé, for eleven thousand crowns. The Duke was Lord High Admiral of France, and Champlain was exceedingly glad. Another new colonizing company was formed. Seventy-seven artisans, farmers, physicians, or gentlemen, three friars, horses, cows, sheep, seed-corn, and arms were collected at Rochelle for exportation in 1619. But the laymen, partly Protestants and partly Roman Catholics, began to squabble about the immaculate conception, or something else, equally stupid and unimportant, until Champlain himself got into trouble and nearly lost his Deputy Governorship, and the expedition was delayed. In 1620, Champlain, however, set sail, and on his arrival at his capital, in July, was agreeably surprised to find that a missionary, named Duplessis, had got so far into the good graces of the Hurons, at Trois Rivieres, that he had discovered and frustrated a plan for the massacre of the French colonists. At Tadousac affairs were not at all flattering. The colonists had neglected cultivation. Only sixty white people remained, ten of whom were religiously engaged in keeping school, or were engaged in keeping a religious school. At this period of time it is difficult to say which. Worse than this scurvily decimated condition of the people, was the intrusion of some unprincipled and unprivileged adventurers from Rochelle, who had been bartering fire-arms with the Indians for the Company's furs. Champlain was very wroth, but moderated his anger somewhat on ascertaining that an enfant du sol—a real French-Canadian baby was in the land of the living. Who was the father of the child or who the mother, is neither mentioned by Hennepin nor Charlevoix, and the office of Prothonotary, or Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths had not been instituted. It is not even in the chronicles that Champlain was at the christening, nor is the ceremony alluded to at all. This great, and most interesting event happened on some hour of some unmentioned day in the year 1621. It is possible the mother was of a distinguished Huron family. It is certain that the Hurons were about that time in close alliance with the French, for the Iroquois began to be jealous of the alliance between the Hurons, Algonquins, and the French, and declared war with the view of destroying the settlements. The Iroquois succeeded in burning some Huron villages, but were repulsed by the French both at the Sault St. Louis and at Quebec. Quebec was now a fortified town. There were wooden, but not very extensive, walls around the barracks and the huts. Champlain had, on the whole, great reason to be thankful. His power and authority seemed to be undisputed. He had seen the first of a new world generation, and the means of wealth were seemingly at his feet. But he met with disappointment. The association of merchants who had fitted out his expedition, and from whom he obtained his supplies, were suddenly deprived of all their privileges of trade and colonization, by Montmorenci. The Duke, determined on doing as he pleased with his own, transferred the supremacy of the colonists to the Sieurs de Caen, uncle and nephew. The one de Caen was a merchant, the other a sailor. The sailor was soon at Tadousac. Before Champlain had well known, by a letter of thanks for past services, that he was recalled, or rather superseded, his successor had arrived at the head quarters of Nouvelle France—Tadousac. De Caen solicited an interview with Champlain, which was conceded. Smarting with indignation, Champlain was too polite. His courtesy was so excessive, that De Caen became exacting as if to show who he was. He wanted to seize all Champlain's trading vessels. They belonged, he said, to a company whose privileges had been transferred to him as the representative of another company. The furs with which they were laden belonged to Montmorenci and the De Caens, as his Grace's agents. Champlain demurred, and Captain De Caen peremptorily demanded Du Pont's vessel. Champlain, no longer courteous, flew into a violent passion. Du Pont was the favourite agent of his company, and his own particular friend. Champlain's rage was of no avail. Nor was the sympathy of the colonists of any value. De Caen was supreme, and did as he pleased. The colonists, however, excessively indignant, resolved to leave in a body, unless their opinions were allowed some weight, and a number did take their departure. Although De Caen had brought eighteen new settlers, the colony was reduced to only forty-eight. Champlain, however, remained in Canada. He felt himself to be the chief colonist, and only removed to Quebec, where he erected a stone fort. The fort was partly on that part of the present city on which the old Church of Notre Dame stands, in the Lower Town, and partly where the former Palace of the Roman Catholic Archbishop stood. Champlain pitched his tent outside the walls, which were almost rectangular, under the shadow of a tree, which, until six years ago, threw its leafy arms over St. Anne Street, from the Anglican Cathedral Church yard. While this fort-building, vessel seizing, and unchristian feeling were rending the infant colony to pieces, interfering with trade, and proving vexatious to all, a union had been formed in France between the old and new companies. The coalition was not productive of good. There was so little cordiality and so much contention between the parties, that Montmorenci threw up his viceroyalty in disgust, that is to say, he sold out to the Duke de Ventadour. Ventadour was in a world of difficulties. France was then half Protestant and half Catholic. Ventadour's chief object in purchasing Canada was to diffuse the Catholic Religion throughout the new world. With much energy of character, he was singularly pious. He attended mass regularly at an early hour every morning. His bedroom was religiously fitted up; the symbol of redemption hung constantly over the head of his bed. He was no bigot. He was thoroughly in earnest. He was only not wise. The man who had caused Champlain so much annoyance was himself a Huguenot, and not that only,—to the Duke's mortification, he had taken to Canada chiefly Protestants, and had even caused the Roman Catholic emigrants to attend Protestant worship on shipboard. Two thirds of the crews of his ships were Protestants. They sang psalms on the St. Lawrence. The new viceroy was much annoyed on ascertaining that De Caen had permitted such a state of things. The exercise of the Protestant religion, he had given orders, should be barely tolerated, and he had been disobeyed. Champlain did not trouble himself about religious squabbles. He made himself difficulties with the Indians, leaving religious dissensions to be made by his would be superior. Amid all these difficulties the fur trade languished, and the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, who knew the advantages to be derived from Ventadour's pious missionary effort, revoked the privileges of De Caen's new company, and established a newer company called the Hundred Associates. The associates were not only to colonize, but they were amply to supply necessaries to the colonists. They were to send out a large number of clergymen. Those clergymen were to create churches and erect parsonages. They were to be supported by the Associates for fifteen years. They were to have glebes, or reserved lands, assigned to them for their sufficient support. At a blow the wily cardinal had extinguished psalm singing on the St. Lawrence for at least a century. In 1627 the Hundred Associates were formed. But plans cannot be always carried into effect as soon as determined upon. War was proclaimed by England against France in the following year, 1628. The weakest and the meanest of English kings had caused the Puritans, previously persecuted by Elizabeth, to leave their country. The Puritans, in November, 1607, had settled in New England. The year in which the first Franco-Canadian saw the light of day, Governor Carver, of Plymouth Colony, had entered into a league of friendship, commerce, and mutual defence with Massassoit, the great Sachem of the neighbouring Indians. Some years previously (1619) the Colony of Virginia had received her first Governor General from England, who had instructions to convoke a general legislature. With all his impotent stammering, slobbering, weeping, buffoonery, and pedagoguism, James had an indistinct idea that it was as necessary to hear the voice of the people as the voice of the king. He chose rather to direct than to suppress the expression of opinion. But the Governor General of Virginia was appointed by the London Company, whose privileges were taken away by James on the year preceding his death, which occurred in March, 1625, after the company had expended £100,000 in the first attempt to colonize America. James appointed a viceroy or governor and directed him how to govern. New France, at the breaking out of such a war, had something to dread from New England, so much further advanced in colonization. Cardinal Richelieu's plan of Canadian settlement was roughly interfered with, by the capture of his first emigrant ships by Sir David Kerk, who afterwards proceeded to Tadousac, burned the village, and proceeded to Quebec to summon Champlain to surrender. The brave Frenchman refused and Kerk retreated. But Kerk came back again. He again appeared before the walls of Fort Quebec, and summoned it to surrender. Reduced to great distress by famine, Champlain surrendered, and the whole settlement was taken captive to England. With the exception of a few houses, a barrack, and a fort at Quebec, and a few huts at Tadousac, Trois Rivieres, and Mont Royal, Canada was again as much a wilderness as it ever had been since the Asiatics had stepped across Behring's Straits to replenish the western hemisphere. The great curiosity, the first Franco-Canadian baby, now eight years old, was doubtless carried to the tower, and caged as a curiosity, near the other lions and tigers of London. It was not until the restoration of peace in 1633, that Champlain was reappointed Governor of Canada, which, by the treaty of 1632, was surrendered back to France, on the supposition that it was almost worthless. This time colonization was systematically undertaken by the Jesuits, who only arrived in Canada in time to supply the loss of Champlain, a man of exemplary perseverance, of ambitious views, and of wonderful administrative capacity, for a layman of that day, who died in December, 1635. The foundation of a seminary was laid at Quebec. Monks, Priests, and Nuns were sent out from France. The Church was to settle in the wilderness to be encircled by the godly. If Admiral Kerk had carried off a settlement, Mother Church was to produce other settlements. A new governor was named—Montmagny. Business, however, began to languish. The Indians became exceedingly troublesome. And the Iroquois had subdued the Algonquins, and had nearly vanquished the Hurons. To defend the settlement from these fierce warriors, Montmagny built a fort at Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, down which river the savage enemy usually came. The construction of the fort had the desired effect. Peace with the Indians soon followed, and the colony became happy and contented. The effect of Jesuitical tact and judgment soon began to exhibit itself. An Ursuline Nunnery and a Seminary were established at Quebec, through the instrumentality of the Duchess d'Aiguillon. The religious order of St. Sulpice, at the head of which was the Abbé Olivier, proposed to the King of France to establish a new colony and a seminary at Mont Royal, bearing the name of the order and composed of its members. The proposal was entertained, and the Island of Montreal conceded to the religionists for their support. The Sieur Maisonneuve—a name admirably chosen—was placed at the head of the faithful emigrants, and invested with its government. The third regular governor of Canada was M. d'Aillebout. He succeeded Montmagny, whose term of office had expired. On the death of Champlain, no Governor of Canada was to hold the reins of government longer than three years. D'Aillebout was an exceedingly able man. He was firm, and, on the whole, just. He was left entirely to himself in the management of affairs, and he left the conversion of the Indians to peace and Christianity, to the missionaries, who labored well and earnestly, establishing the Hurons, and even the Iroquois, in villages. The latter, who were never to be trusted, only feigned semi-civilization, and unexpectedly renewing the war, they fell upon their old enemies, the Hurons, with diabolical fury. In the Indian village of Sillery, while a missionary was celebrating mass in the Catholic Church, and none but old men, women, and children were present, a terrible and foul massacre occurred. The Iroquois rushed into the chapel with tomahawk and scalping knife, murdering all the congregation, nor stayed their hands until upwards of four hundred families, being every soul in the village, were slain. About this time our friends south of the line 45°, first began to dream of the annexation of Canada. An envoy from New England visited Quebec, and proposed to the French governor the establishment of a peace between the two colonies of New France and New England, which was not to be broken even should the parent states go to war. Governor Montmagny consented, on condition that the Iroquois were to be put down. He was so willing that he sent an envoy to Boston to ratify a treaty. But the New Englanders would not quarrel with the Iroquois, and no treaty was effected. A more hopeful international commercial alliance, of which the Boston Jubilee of 1851 was indicative, has lately been entertained. Compared to the Iroquois, or even the Algonquins, the Huron tribe of Indians were mild in disposition and peaceably disposed. The French missionaries obtained a powerful hold over them. Great numbers became christianized, and even, to some extent, civilized. Descendants of Nimrod though they were, their wandering habits were partially subdued, and very many began to cultivate the ground. As if there was something in the climate of Quebec to produce such an effect, they were naturally inclined to be supremely tranquil. And notwithstanding the recent horrible massacre they soon sank back into their ordinary state of lethargy. They were fearfully aroused from their lethargy, however, by another series of attacks on the part of the Iroquois. The latter ferocious red men made a descent upon the village of St. Ignace, killing and capturing all the Hurons there. They next attacked St. Louis, and though some women and children managed to escape, both missionaries and Hurons were carried off for the torture. The Huron nation, terribly damaged, seemed to be at the mercy of their more savage enemies. They scattered in every direction. Their settlements were altogether abandoned. Some sought refuge with the Ottawas, some with the Eries, and not a few attached themselves to missionaries, who formed them into settlements on the Island of St. Joseph, in Lake Ontario. Unable, however, to find sufficient subsistence on the island, they were compelled to form villages on the main land, where they were again slaughtered by the Iroquois. So inferior had they become, physically and intellectually, if not numerically, to the Iroquois, that they resolved to put themselves altogether under French protection. This protection the missionaries procured for them, and a new settlement was formed at Sillery. The Iroquois now did what they pleased. They were in full possession of the whole country. The French were literally confined to Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. But that which neither French nor Hurons could do by force, they were made to do themselves. They were destroyed in hundreds by rum. The French appealed to their appetites. Iroquois independence was broken in upon by a mere artifice of taste. Furs were now bought, not with pieces of tin and strings of beads, but with plugs of tobacco and bottles of spirits. Intoxication had its ordinary effect. It caused these naturally hot-blooded, quarrelsome, freemen to butcher each other, and it made them the slaves of the fur trader, whose exertions increased as the favorite narcotic lessened the exertions and weakened the energies of the hunter. So injurious was the effect of the "fire water," and so obvious was the injury to the Indians themselves, that the Chief of the domesticated Indians petitioned the Governor, their great Father, to imprison all drunkards. Whether or no D'Aillebout granted the request is not recorded. Probably it was not then granted. Among the Edits, Ordonnances Royaux, declarations, et arrêts du Counsel d'etat Roi concernant le Canada, nothing concerning Indian intoxication is to be found. D'Aillebout ceased not long afterwards to be governor. In 1650 he was succeeded by Monsieur de Lauzon. So hostile, however, had the feelings of the Iroquois now become, that M. de Lauzon returned to France for a detachment of soldiers. He brought out 100 men in 1653. Then the Iroquois were disposed for peace. They begged for it. Might is right. The power of the new Governor was acknowledged by the Iroquois. One hundred muskets was a powerful argument against even 6,000 bows and arrows. Frenchmen were sent among them. An Iroquois Roman Catholic Church was founded. For two years all was tolerably quiet, but at the end of that time the spirit of insubordination was so great that the French, anticipating massacre, made a moon-light flitting to Quebec.

M. Lauzon was superseded as Governor of Canada, in 1658, by the Viscompte d'Argenson. On the very morning of his arrival a large party of Algonquins were menaced under the very guns of Quebec by the Iroquois, who were driven off, but not captured, by a posse of French troops. In the following year Monseigneur l'Eveque de Petree, arrived at Quebec, to preside over the Catholic Church. François de Petree, a shrewd, energetic, learned prelate, was not, however, appointed to the See of Quebec, by "Notre Saint Pére le Pape Clément X," as he himself tells us, until the 1st October, 1664. In 1663 he established the Seminary of Quebec, and united it with that of the du Bac, in Paris, in 1676. The education of young men for the ministry seemed to be his great object. Trade would develop itself in time. The country could not fail to become great with so much deep water flowing through it. But religion must be provided for, and the Catholic, the most consistent, if not the most enlightened, of any system of Christianity existing, was his religion, and he paved the way for its extension. Four hundred more soldiers had been added to the garrison before François de Laval was even Bishop of Quebec, and they accompanied de Monts, as the Guards did Lord Durham, who was also sent out to enquire into the condition of Canada. In de Mont's time, Canada must have been in a very extraordinary state. In 1668, an edict of the king prohibited swearing and blasphemy. The king ruled that officers of the army had no acknowledged rank in the Church. And in 1670, an arrêt du Conseil encouraged "les marriages des garçons et des filles du Canada."

One of the most remarkable earthquakes of which we have read occurred in Canada, soon after the arrival of the Bishop of Petrea. It happened, too, in winter. On the 5th of February, 1663, at half-past five o'clock in the evening, the earth began to heave so violently, that people rushed in terror into the streets, only to be terrified the more. The roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, then on the other. The walls reeled backward and forward, the stones moving as if they were detached from each other. The church bells rang. Wild and domestic animals were flying in every direction. Fountains were thrown up. Mountains were split in twain. Rivers changed their beds or were totally lost. Huge capes or promontories tumbled into the St. Lawrence and became islands. The convulsion lasted for six months, or from February to August, in paroxysms of half an hour each, and although it extended over a range of country, 600 miles in length by 300 in breadth, not a single human being was destroyed. Beyond question this earthquake altered entirely the features of the country from Montreal to the sea; but, that it did not produce that rent, as some will have it, through which the Saguenay flows, is evident from the fact that the Saguenay existed on Cartier's first visit. It did not even produce those numerous islands with which the Lower St. Lawrence is studded, for some of them are also mentioned by the same daring and skilful navigator. But for the sake of science it is to be regretted that the particular rivers, whose beds were changed or which were entirely obliterated, have not been mentioned. The greater depth of the Saguenay than the St. Lawrence is easily accounted for by the greater height of the banks of the one river than of the other. In the St. Lawrence a large body of water finds an outlet through a chain of mountains forming the banks of a river which is the outlet of a series of lakes or inland seas, in which the rains or snows of a great part of North America are collected, as the Caspian, the Sea of Azof, and the Euxine are the rain basins of Europe and of Asia, and which spreads its waters over breadths of land, great or small, as its shores are steep or otherwise. If Canada is high above the ocean, and on that, as well as on other accounts, intensely cold in winter, it is some consolation to know that that latitude, which is in some sense to be regretted, has produced a river and lake navigation for sea-going ships of upwards of a thousand miles, more valuable than ten thousands of miles of prairie-land. A prairie country might have produced a Mississippi filled with snags, but only a mountainous country could produce such rivers for navigation as the Saguenay and St. Lawrence, and such rivers for manufacturing purposes as the St. Maurice and the Ottawa. But Canada is not all mountainous. There are vast steppes, extensive plains, through which numerous streams roll sluggishly into the great lakes. There are tracts of country of extraordinary extent capable of producing the heaviest crops. There are garden lands around most of the western cities, on which these cities of yesterday subsist and have arisen. And even in Lower Canada there are straths of wonderful fertility. Canada, with any government which will permit trade, cannot fail to become pecuniarily rich, even with the drawback of the towns of Lower Canada being rendered inland for half the year by means of ice. Lower Canada has been crippled by the policy of Cardinal Richelieu, who, by that policy, paradoxical as it may appear, was her first benefactor. A theocratic government, no doubt excellent for the taming of Indians, is not by any means well adapted for an intelligent people. So long as the trade of Canada was confined to furs the Jesuitical policy of Richelieu was advantageous, but now that the Indians are nearly exterminated—two millions of acres under cultivation—millions of feet of pine, birch, oak and other timber used or exported annually—and manufactures abounding—a somewhat more self reliant spirit is requisite than the establishment of Churches under the extraordinary control of a single mitred head will permit. Such a spirit is being gradually aroused, and the more gradual the more permanent will it be. Violence begets violence. Example is more persuasive than force.

De Monts, or rather de Lauzon, was succeeded by the Baron D'Avaugour, the last of the Fur Governors, a weak, stupid man, who had almost by his imbecility and vacillation suffered the business of his employers to be extinguished. The Iroquois most vigorously waged war during his time upon every other tribe of Indians. They altogether exterminated the Eries, and in their very wickedness, did good in rendering their country more susceptible to colonization by Europeans. D'Avaugour was recalled. The Hundred Associates resigned their charter into the hands of the French king, who transferred the company's privileges to the West India Company. M. de Mesy was appointed governor by the Crown, and for a council of advice he had a Vicar Apostolic and five others, one of whom was a kind of Inspector General, and another a Receiver General. To this Governor and Council the power of establishing Courts of Justice, at Three Rivers and Montreal, was confided. Courts of Law were established soon after De Mesy's arrival, and four hundred soldiers were obtained from France to enable His Excellency to cause the law to be respected. De Mesy, of a proud and unbending temper, quarrelled with his Council, sneered at the settlers, and governed with a rod of iron. He cared neither for Vicar Apostolic, nor for Finance Ministers. Nay, he went so far, after quarrelling with the Jesuits, as to send two members of the Company to France, a mistake for which he paid the penalty by being himself recalled. De Mesy was succeeded by the Marquis de Tracy and was the second Chief Crown Governor, or Viceroy. He was not fettered with a Council of Advice, but he was more absurdly hampered with almost co-equals in the shape of assistants. The Seigneur de Courcelles was appointed Governor of the Colony, and Mon. De Talon, Intendant. De Tracy brought with him as settlers the then newly disbanded regiment of Carignan-Sallières, which had returned from fighting, not for the Turks in Hungary, but against them. They had been extraordinarily successful. And France had acquired great influence by her successful efforts to stay Mahometan encroachment. The Turks were then the oppressors not the oppressed. But France then, as now, was playing the balance of power game. The men of the Carignan-Sallières Regiment were admirably adapted for settlement in a country in which constant fighting was being carried on. They were to have a deep interest in subduing the Iroquois. They were some protection against the Round-Heads of Massachusetts. Sixteen hundred and sixty-five other settlers, including many artisans, accompanied them. Cattle, sheep, and horses were for the first time sent to Canada. More priests were sent out, for whom the West India Company were, by their charter, bound to provide churches and houses. The most Christian king had determined upon at least christianizing the country, and upon so retaining it. Without priests and churches the Hungarian Heroes would have been of as little value to France as the cattle, sheep, and horses which accompanied them to Canada. It was a condition of the West India Company's Charter that priests were to be carried out, and parsonages and churches erected. Like most companies chartered for similar purposes, the stock of this company was transferable, but only the revenue, or profits of the revenue could be attached for the debts of the stockholders. The company had a monopoly of the territory, and the trade of the Colony for forty years. Nor was this all. His most Christian Majesty conferred a bounty of thirty livres on every ton of goods imported to France, a kind of protection similar to that still extended by the French government to the Newfoundland fisheries. The company had the right to all mines and minerals—had the power of levying and recruiting soldiers in France—had the power of manufacturing arms and ammunition—had the power of building forts in Canada—and had the power of declaring and carrying on war against the American Indians, or, in case of insult, the Colonial Englishmen of New England, or the Manhattanese Dutch. Justice was to be administered according to the Custom of Paris. All Colonists of, and converts to the Roman Catholic faith, had the same rights in France as Frenchmen born and resident in France had. And for four years the king himself agreed to advance a tenth of the whole stock of the company, without interest, and to bear a corresponding proportion of any loss which the company, in the course of four years, might sustain. These were certainly liberal and prudent privileges, but more ultimate good, or in other words, good would have been sooner realized had the conditions been less liberal and less prudent. These conditions were of too liberal a nature to cause any desire for change to be entertained for a great length of time, and the consequence is that even now Lower Canada is governed according to the "Cotume de Paris," and cultivated as France was cultivated two hundred years back. A year after the Marquis' arrival, the Council of State granted to the Canadian Company the trade in furs on payment of a subsidy of one fourth of all beaver skins, and of one tenth of all Buffalo skins. The trade of Tadousac was excepted. Fort building and church building went on vigorously. The fur trade was easily attended to. Three forts were erected at the mouth of the Richelieu-Sorel. The Indians made sorties repeatedly down this river, always doing much mischief, and the forts were intended to prevent the mischief. But the Iroquois were not to be foiled. They found means to reach the settlements by other roads. Nor was De Tracy to be annoyed. He sent out war parties who did not, however, effect much. The Viceroy, an old man of some seventy summers, took the field himself. With the view of exterminating the Indians, he set out on the 14th Sept., 1666, with a considerable force consisting of regular troops, militia, and friendly Indians. Unfortunately the Commissariat Department was badly conducted, and the exterminating force were nearly themselves exterminated by starvation. They had to pass through a large tract of forest land to meet their foes, and they frequently lost their way. The haversack was soon emptied, and the starving army was only too happy to breakfast, dine, and sup on chestnuts gathered in the bush, until some Indian settlements were reached. They came upon almost a forest of chestnut-trees, and fell upon them like locusts. They ate and filled their haversacks, and it was well that they did so, for the Iroquois had adopted the Russian expedient of abandoning their villages, and suffering the enemy to march through a country altogether wanting in the bare necessaries of life. M. De Tracy marched and countermarched without effecting anything beyond capturing some old men, and one or two women with their children. Luckily he fell in with supplies of corn in one of the abandoned settlements which he took possession of for the benefit of his army. Still more luckily he got to Quebec again safely, but so thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs, that he resigned his government into De Courcelle's hands, and returned to France. De Courcelle was a man of some address. He cajoled the Iroquois and prevented war. He was the founder, but not the builder of Fort Cataraqui or Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He settled Hurons at Michillimacinac. Both fort and settlement were intended to benefit the fur trade. The new settlement was in fact a new hunting ground, and the new fort was for the protection of the hunters. De Courcelle visited personally Cataraqui. He was dragged up the Lachine, the Cedars, and other rapids of the St. Lawrence, in an open boat, but suffered from moisture and exposure to such an extent that, on returning to Montreal, he solicited his recall to France, and was recalled accordingly.

In 1669, the Indians encountered, in the shape of smallpox, a more terrible foe than the musket, the sword, the arrow, or the "firewater." Whole tribes were exterminated by this loathsome disease, which appears not to have been imported, inasmuch as the most distant and least civilized tribes were first attacked and most severely suffered. The Atlikamegues were completely exterminated. Tadousac and Trois Rivieres were abandoned by all the Indians. Fifteen hundred Hurons died at Sillery, and yet the Huron suffered less than any other nation. The remnant of the tribe was collected by Father Chamounat, who established them at Lorette, where some half-breeds are yet to be found.

The Count de Frontenac was the third Viceroy of Canada. He succeeded De Courcelle in 1692, and soon after his arrival erected the fort which his predecessor had decided upon erecting at Cataraqui, giving it his own name—a name which still distinguishes the County, the chief town in which Kingston or Catarqui is. De Frontenac was a man of astonishing energy. His self will and self esteem were only compensated for by ability and a spirit of independence and honesty. It was not to be supposed that such a man could long submit to the whims of his co-equals, as far as governing was concerned. Nor did he. The triumvirate—the Viceroy, the Bishop, and the Intendant—each with an equal vote, were soon at loggerheads. Chesnau, the Intendant, without Frontenac's ability, had all his bad qualities. The Intendant and Viceroy were soon violently opposed to each other, and to make matters worse, the Bishop, supported by his clergy, was annoyed with both. The Bishop considered the sale of spirits to the Indians abominable; De Frontenac thought it profitable; and Chesnau did not think at all. An appeal was made by the clergy to the home government, and both De Frontenac and Chesnau were recalled with censure, and the profitable sale of spirits to the Indians was prohibited by a royal edict. De Frontenac ruled Canada for ten years, and during his administration La Salle discovered the mouths of the Mississippi. Only the year after De Frontenac's arrival in Canada, the Indians reported that there was a large river flowing out to the Atlantic, to the southwest of the colony, and the Reverend Messire Marquette[2] and a merchant of Quebec, were sent on an exploring expedition. Starting in two canoes, with only a crew of six men for both, they found themselves, after an exceedingly tedious voyage, on the Mississippi, and, rejoicing at their success, returned back immediately to report progress. At Chicago, Marquette separated from his companion. In that Indian village of Lake Michigan, now a populous commercial town, the missionary remained with the Miami Indians, while Jollyet went back to Quebec for further instructions. Of course Jollyet was highly communicative at Quebec. The multitude could not travel by steam in those days from Gaspé to Lake Michigan. It was no easy matter at that period to paddle over those great seas, the inland lakes, in a birch-bark canoe. Jollyet had much to boast of and might, without chance of detection, boast of more than either his experience or a strict adherence to truth could warrant. Jollyet was a curiosity. Jollyet was the lion of Quebec, and he was toasted and boasted accordingly. The Sieur La Salle was in Quebec when Jollyet returned. He heard of the merchant's adventures with deep interest. La Salle, a young man of good family, and of sufficient fortune, had emigrated to Canada in search of fame, and with the further view of increasing his pecuniary resources. He expected, like Cabot and some others, to find a passage through Canada, by water, to China, imagining that the Missouri emptied itself into the north Pacific. The narrative of Jollyet made La Salle more sanguinely credulous, that he had the "way" before him. First he gained the sanction of the governor to explore the course of that river, and then he returned to France for support in his enterprise. So plausible a story did he relate, that means were soon forthcoming. The Prince of Conti most liberally entered into La Salle's views, and assisted him to prepare an expedition. The Chevalier de Tonti, an army officer, with one arm, joined him, and on the 14th July, 1678, De La Salle, and De Tonti sailed for Quebec from France, with thirty men. It was two months before they reached Quebec; but no sooner did they arrive than they hastened to the great lakes, accompanied by Father Hennepin. Father Hennepin was the historian of the voyage. He tells a wonderfully interesting story. La Salle built a vessel of 60 tons, and carrying 7 guns, above the Falls of Niagara, having laid the keel in July, 1679. There are always difficulties attending new enterprises, and La Salle's shipbuilding operations were frequently and annoyingly interfered with. The carpenter was an Italian, named Tuti, and he occupied seven months in building the craft. One day, an Indian, pretending to be drunk, attempted to stab the blacksmith, but that worthy son of Vulcan, like Bailie Nicol Jarvie, successfully defended himself with a red hot bar of iron. Again the savages tried to burn the ship, but were prevented by a woman. A squaw gave La Salle's people warning of the Indian's intention. Alarms were frequent, and only for Father Hennepin's exhortations, shipbuilding would have been abandoned to a later period, on the lake. But carpenter Tuti persevered, and amid enthusiastic cheering, the chanting of a Te Deum, and the firing of guns, she was safely launched. The "Cataraqui" was square rigged. She was a kind of brigantine, not unlike a Dutch galliot of the present day, with a broad elevated bow and a broad elevated stern. Very flat in the bottom, she looked much larger than she really was, and when her "great" guns were fired off, the Indians stared marvellously at the floating fort. With the aid of tow-lines and sails the Niagara River was with difficulty ascended, and on the 7th of August, 1679, the first vessel that ever sat upon the lakes entered Lake Erie. The day was beautifully calm, and the explorers chanted Te Deums, and fired off guns, to the no small consternation, perhaps amusement, of the Senecas. In four days they sailed through the lake, and entering the River Detroit they sailed up it to Lake St. Clair, and in twelve days more Lake Huron was entered. In that lake storms and calms were alternately encountered. On one occasion the wind blew so strongly, that La Salle's man of war was driven across to Saginaw Bay. But worse weather was yet in store for La Salle. A tempest swept over the lake, and topmasts and yards were let go by the run. There was neither anchorage nor shelter, and La Salle and all his crew, now terribly frightened, prayed and prepared for death. Only the pilot swore. He anathematized the fresh water. It was bad enough to perish in the open ocean, but something terrible to be drowned in a nasty fresh water lake, to be devoured, perhaps, by an ichthyosaurus. Prayers and curses seemingly had produced the desired effect; indeed, the pilot's anathematizing was prayer; but such prayer is not by any means to be recommended. It would be as well to curse as only to pray when fear is excited. Prayer, doubtless, often is, but never ought to be, the effect of fear. Prayer should be the holy offering up of reasonable desires to the Creator, and in times of danger there should be confidence in the Creator as all powerful, and in ourselves as the instruments of the Creator. However, favored with less adverse winds, the exploring expedition reached Michillimacinac, and anchored in 60 fathoms, living on delicious trout, white fish, and sturgeon. From thence entering Lake Michigan, they proceeded to an Island at the mouth of Green Bay, where La Salle loaded his ship with furs and sent her back to Niagara. The cargo was rich. It was valued at 50,000 livres. The blaspheming pilot and five men were sent off with the vessel, but whether the craft foundered in Lake Huron or was piratically visited by the Indians, she was no more heard of. Two years elapsed before La Salle or Father Hennepin learned the fate of the "Cataraqui" and her blasphemous pilot. They perseveringly pushed their way down the Mississippi and reached the Atlantic, thus discovering the mouths of a stream which has been a great source of wealth to our enterprising neighbours. In two years he turned his steps to Quebec, and going home to France was appointed Governor of the territory he had discovered. He was the first Governor of Louisiana, a territory ceded by Napoleon I. to the United States, in 1803. The unlucky Governor was not destined to reach his government. La Salle, in command of four ships, with settlers, sailed from Rochelle, on the 24th of July, 1689. He was ignorant of the exact geographical situation of the mouths of the Mississippi, but passing through the Antilles, reached Florida, where he was murdered by his own people—a melancholy and lamentable fate for one of whom all Frenchmen may justly boast. Canada now numbered 8,000 souls, including converted Indians; and French America extended from Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia through the St. Lawrence and the great lakes to the Pacific, and from the great lakes again to the ocean through the Mississippi, all the westward of even that stream being French soil. Yet it was only nominally so. The Indians were virtually the owners of the soil, those spots on which forts or trading posts had been erected or established, only excepted.

M. De La Barre now (1682) succeeded Frontenac as Viceroy. The new Governor was of a restless and overbearing disposition. He required, or supposed that he required, a strong government. He certainly needed an able one. The idea of drawing off the trade of the St. Lawrence had first occurred to the English colonists on the Hudson. The Iroquois preferred trading with the "down south" English to trading with the French. Their furs were chiefly carried down the Hudson, to the no small annoyance of the French exporter. De La Barre had no idea of tolerating such a mode of doing business. The furs of Canada were French furs. The Indians were merely hunters for the French, and had no right whatever to dispose of their goods in the dearest market, and buy their necessaries in the cheapest market. De La Barre, weakened though he was in the number of his troops, many men having converted their swords into ploughshares, and their guns into reaping hooks, resolved upon punishing the free-trading children of the woods. He obtained two hundred additional soldiers from France, and proceeded up the St. Lawrence on his labor of love. The Indians only laughed at him. They thought he was in a dream when he pompously required them not to war upon each other, or permit the English to come among them. His troops were sick and starving, and were at the mercy rather of the Indians than the Indians at their mercy. M. De La Barre was compelled to withdraw his troops. The blustering, pompous, mischief-loving De La Barre was recalled by his government, for incompetency, and in 1685 was succeeded by Denonville.

The Marquis Denonville was only more cunning than his predecessor, and perhaps more decided. No sooner had he set foot in the colony, than, with the assistance of the missionaries, he persuaded the Iroquois chiefs to meet him on the banks of Lake Ontario. Denonville and the Indians did meet, and no sooner had they met, than Denonville treacherously caused a number of them to be seized and put in irons, to be sent as prisoners to the King of France, for service in his gallies. Denonville erected a fort at Niagara, became more violent and overbearing to the Indians, treated the remonstrances of the English of New York, concerning the erection of Fort Niagara, with contempt, and at last brought upon himself, as the arrogant generally do, defeat and disgrace. This fort, to which the North West Fur Company of Quebec had offered to contribute 30,000 livres annually, in consideration of a monopoly of the fur trade, was destroyed by the Iroquois, who followed the now retreating French to Cataraqui, made themselves masters of the whole country west of Montreal, and, to crown all, appeared before that city with proposals of peace. Denonville was required to restore the chiefs who had been sent to France, and he was either in a position not to resist, or wished to gain time. He consented to negotiate. The Hurons, his allies, were not now so peaceably disposed. For the first time, they seem to have evinced a warlike spirit. They attacked the deputies, and insinuated to their prisoners that the French Governor had instigated them to do so. The prisoners were allowed to depart; a large party of the Five Nations heard their tale, descended upon Montreal, carried off two hundred of the inhabitants, and retired unmolested. The fort at Cataraqui was blown up, and for a time of course abandoned. Thus, in 1686, French Canada was again virtually reduced to Montreal, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadousac.

It was in 1689 that the Count de Frontenac returned to Canada a second time, as Viceroy, to succeed the incompetent Denonville. He took out the captured chiefs, and attempted to conciliate the Iroquois. But the Indians had been too frequently deceived by his immediate predecessors. They would have nothing to do with him, unless he restored, without stipulation, their captured chiefs. De Frontenac complied. He complied the more readily because he feared an alliance between the Ottawas and the Iroquois. The Ottawas were quite indifferent to French friendship, because the gain, in their estimation, was altogether in favor of the French, whose protectors the Ottawas considered themselves to be. So far from provocation being now given to the Indians, a policy extremely opposite was pursued. The English and Dutch of the New England settlements coveted the Indian trade in furs, and the Indians were more favorably disposed towards the English and Dutch traders than towards the French, because from the former a larger consideration was received. It was De Frontenac's policy to prevent such a union, which would, as he conceived, have injured the trade of the St. Lawrence, and have injured the revenue of the Fur Company. De Frontenac induced the Ottawas to assist him against the English of New England, whom he had resolved to attack, France and England being then at war. He fitted out three expeditions, one against New York, a second against New Hampshire, and a third against the Province of Maine. The party against New York fell upon Schenectady, in February, 1690. The weather was exceedingly cold, and the ground deeply covered with snow. It was never even suspected, that, at such a season, a campaign would be begun. Yet, at the dead of night, while the inhabitants of Schenectady were asleep, and not a sentinel was awake to announce the danger, the war-whoop was raised, every house in the village was simultaneously attacked, buildings were broken into and set on fire, men and women were dragged from their beds, and even mothers, with their sleeping infants at their breasts, were inhumanly murdered. Sixty persons were massacred; thirty were made prisoners, and such as escaped, almost naked, fled through the deep snow, many perishing with the extreme cold, and the most fortunate being terribly frost bitten. At Salmon Falls, the party sent by Frontenac against New Hampshire, killed thirty of the inhabitants, took fifty-four prisoners, and burned the village. At Casco, in Maine, the third party killed and captured one hundred persons. Such was the business of colonists in those days. In Canada the majority had no voice in popular affairs. Governors, Intendants, Seigniors, and Priests, controlled the colonists as they willed. However much the Governor may have despised the Intendant, the Intendant the Seignior, or the Priest all put together, the merchant, artisan, and peasant were of no account. Wealth without title was only a bait for extortion. The peasantry were serfs, and the nobles uneducated despots. Education was in the hands of the clergy, while power was solely vested in the Heads of Military Departments. But if ignorance was particularly characteristic of the Canadians, the New Englanders could lay little claim to superior enlightenment. Harvard's College, in Massachusetts, had apparently done no more for the New Englanders, in 1692, than the Seminary of Quebec, in the way of diffusing a knowledge of letters among the people, from which the desire for freedom invariably springs, had done for Canada. The people of Salem, Andover, Ipswich, Gloucester, and even Boston, were accusing each other of witchcraft. A "contagious" malady, which affected children of ten, twelve or fifteen years of age, it was, oddly enough, said by the learned physicians of the period, was the result of witchcraft. A respectable merchant of Salem, and his wife, were accused of bewitching children; the sons of Governor Bradstreet were implicated in the divinations; and the wife of Sir William Phipps was not above suspicion. One man, for refusing to put himself on trial by jury, was pressed to death. Nor was Giles Correy the only sufferer:—nineteen persons, "members of the Church", were executed, and one hundred and fifty persons were put in prison. It was sometime before the conviction began to spread, that even men of sense, education, and fervent piety could entertain the madness and infatuation of the weak, illiterate, and unprincipled. A disbeliever in witchcraft was an 'obdurate sadducee.' That conviction did at last possess men. The disease which affected the supposed bewitched children somewhat resembled St. Vitus' Dance. It was an involuntary motion of the muscles. The affected were sometimes deaf, sometimes dumb, sometimes blind. Oftentimes, they were at once deaf, dumb, and blind. Their tongues were drawn down their throats, and then pulled out upon their chins to a prodigious length. Their mouths were forced open to such a wideness, that their jaws went out of joint, only to clap again together, with a force like that of a spring lock. Shoulder-blades, elbows, wrists, and knees were similarly affected. Sometimes the sufferer was benumbed, or drawn violently together, and immediately afterwards stretched out and drawn back.

De Frontenac set earnestly to work to pacify his old enemies of the Five Nations. A new and more dreaded enemy had to be encountered. The Puritans of Massachusetts, provoked by De Frontenac's aggressions, resolved to attack Canada, in self-defence. Sir William Phipps, afterwards the first Captain General of Massachusetts, born on the River Kennebec, a man of extraordinary firmness and great energy, who had raised himself to eminence by honesty of purpose, a strong will, and good natural ability, was appointed to the command of an expedition, consisting of seven vessels and eight hundred men. The object of the expedition was the reduction of Port Royal, or Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, which Sir William speedily and easily accomplished. A second expedition, under Sir William, was resolved upon, for the reduction of Montreal and Quebec. Two thousand men were to penetrate into Canada by Lake Champlain, to attack Montreal, at the same time that the naval armament, consisting of between thirty and forty ships, should invest Quebec. The expedition failed. The Commissariat and Pontoon Departments of the land expedition, were sadly deficient, and the naval expedition did not reach Quebec until late in October. The weather became tempestuous, and scattered the fleet, while the land force to Montreal mutinied through hunger. Sir William, on the 22nd of October, re-embarked the soldiers which he had landed, and sailed, without carrying with him his field pieces or ammunition waggons. Humiliating as the repulse was to Massachusetts, it was highly creditable to De Frontenac, who now easily succeeded in winning over the Five Nation Indians. Indeed, matters had so very much changed, that these enemies of his most Christian Majesty solicited the Governor to rebuild the fort at Cataraqui, which was accordingly done. The Indians were not, however, unanimous in their desire for peace. There was a war and a peace party. To show his power, De Frontenac conceived the idea of a great expedition against the Indians. He collected regulars, militia, and all the friendly Indians to be procured, and, marching to Cataraqui, passed into the country of the Onondagos. On entering a lake, it was ascertained by the symbol of two bundles of rushes, that 1,434 fighting men were in readiness to receive them. De Frontenac threw up an earthwork, or log fort, to fall back upon, and proceeded. De Callières, Governor of Montreal, commanded the left wing; De Vaudreuil the right; and De Frontenac, now 76 years of age, was carried, like Menschikoff at Alma, in the centre, in an elbow chair. The Indians fell back, and as they did so, pursued the Russian policy of destroying their own forts by fire. The French never came up with the Onondagos or Oneidas, but contented themselves with destroying grain, and returned to Montreal.

De Frontenac's next expedition was to join Admiral, the Marquis Nesmond,—who had been despatched with ten ships of the line, a galliot, and two frigates,—with a force of 1,500 men at Penobscot, with the view of making a descent on Boston; to range the coast of Newfoundland; and to take New York, from whence the troops were to return overland to Canada, by the side of the River Hudson and Lake Champlain. The junction was not effected, and the expedition failed. A treaty of peace, on the 10th of December, 1697, concluded between France and England, at Ryswick, in Germany, put an end to colonial contention for a short time. By that peace, all the countries, forts, and colonies taken by each party during the war, were mutually given back. De Frontenac, an exceedingly courageous and skilful officer, now became involved with his government at home. The French government began to perceive that advanced posts for the purpose of trading with the Indians for furs, were of little, if, indeed, they were of any advantage, while they were a continued source of war. It was proposed to abolish these stations, so that the Indians might, to the great saving of transport, bring in their furs themselves, to Montreal. De Frontenac demurred. These forts were the sign of power, as they were a source of patronage. The fur trade was a monopoly, carried on by licenses granted to old officers and favorites, which were sold to the inland traders as timber limits are now disposed of. Profits of 400 per cent were made on successful fur adventures, under a license to trade to the extent of 10,000 crowns on the merchandize and 600 crowns to each of the canoemen. Beaver skins, at Montreal, were then worth 2s. 3d. sterling a pound weight. The first fishery was formed at Mount Louis, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about half way between the mouth of the Gulf and Quebec, in 1697. A company formed by the Sieur de Reverin, was tolerably successful. Canada was even now beginning to look up, in a commercial point of view. De Frontenac died in November following, in the 78th year of his age, and the Governor of Montreal, De Callières, succeeded him. De Callières died suddenly, a few years after his elevation, (1703) when the people of Canada petitioned for the appointment of the Marquis De Vaudreuil to the Viceroyalty, and the king granted their prayer. The death of De Callières occurred one year after a new declaration of war between France and England. This war was the result of unsettled boundaries, by the peace of Ryswick. England declared war against both France and Spain. Again Canadians and New Englanders suffered severely. The French of Canada, especially, allowed their Indians to perpetrate the most horrible atrocities. Women prisoners were inhumanly butchered in cold blood, before the very eyes of their husbands, only because they were unable to keep pace with other prisoners, or their captors. Both the French and the English colonists were permitted by the parent states to fight almost unaided, to fight on imperial account, at colonial expense of blood and treasure. To Canada, nearly altogether a military colony, fighting was particularly agreeable, and yet the population had not reached 15,000, while Massachusetts contained 70,000 souls; Connecticut, 30,000: Rhode Island, 10,000; New Hampshire, 10,000; New York, 30,000; New Jersey, 15,000; Pennsylvania, 20,000; Maryland, 25,000; North Carolina, 5,000; South Carolina, 7,000, and in all 142,000 souls. The difficulty of land transport confined hostilities to the border States, and preserved a balance of power between the contending colonists. Indeed, the St. Lawrence afforded a comparatively easy means of communication for the French to that afforded by the mountain passes of Vermont to the New Englanders. The French could more easily pounce upon the outposts of Lake Champlain than the New Englanders could march to defend them. The English colonists resolved upon making a great effort. Massachusetts petitioned Queen Anne for assistance, who promised to send five regiments of regular troops, which, with 1,200 men, raised in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, were to sail from Boston for Quebec. The fleet, with the five regiments on board, never came to hand, having been sent to Portugal; but 1,800 colonists marched against Montreal, by way of Lake Champlain, and penetrated as far as Wood Creek, where the news of the altered destination of the fleet reached them and caused them to return. The French Governor acted on the defensive. He made extraordinary preparations for defence, which were needless, as the Iroquois Indians, having quarrelled with the English, on the ground that Iroquois safety consisted in the jealousies of the French and English, would not fight, and the invaders retreated. Another application being made to the Queen of England for protection, on the part of the New Englanders, Colonel Nicholson came over with five frigates and a bomb ketch, and having been joined by five regiments of troops from New England, he sailed with the frigates and about twenty transports, from Boston, on the 18th September, for Port Royal, which he captured and called, in honor of his Queen, Annapolis. Animated with his success, Nicholson sailed for England, to solicit another expedition to Canada. His request was granted. Orders were immediately sent to the colonies to prepare their quotas of men, and only sixteen days after the orders to that effect were received, a fleet of men of war and transports, under Sir Hovenden Walker, with seven regiments of the Duke of Marlborough's troops, and a battalion of marines, under Brigadier General Hill, arrived at Boston. The fleet had neither provisions nor pilots, but by the prompt exertions of the colonists, 15 men of war, 40 transports, and 6 storeships, with nearly 7,000 men, sailed from Boston for Canada, while Colonel, now General Nicholson, marched at the head of 4,000 provincialists, from Albany towards Canada. The fleet arrived in the St. Lawrence on the 14th of August, (1710) but in proceeding up the river the whole fleet was nearly destroyed. The pilots were ignorant of the channels, and the winds were contrary and strong. About midnight of the 22nd, a part of the fleet were driven among islands and rocks on the north shore, eight or nine transports were cast away, and nearly 1,000 soldiers were drowned. The attempt to take Quebec was again abandoned. The ships of war sailed directly for England, and the transports, having provincial troops on board, returned to Boston. General Nicholson remained at Fort George until he heard of the miscarriage of the St. Lawrence expedition, when he retraced his steps to Albany. The Canadians had made extensive preparations for defence. The greatest possible enthusiasm prevailed in Quebec. The merchants of Quebec, in 1712, raised a subscription and presented the Governor with 50,000 crowns, for the purpose of strengthening the fortifications of the town. The peace of Utrecht was, however, concluded, in 1713, and Canada was left to contend only with the Outagamis, a new Indian enemy, who, in conjunction with the Iroquois, had determined upon burning Detroit, the limit of civilisation to the north west. The French soon caused their Indian enemies to bury their hatchets.

At the peace, Quebec had 7,000 inhabitants, and the population of all Canada amounted to 25,000, of whom 5,000 were capable of bearing arms. Already the banks of the St. Lawrence below Quebec were laid out in seigniories, and the farms were tolerably well cultivated. Some farmers were in easier circumstances than their seigneurs. The imported nobility had dwindled down to the condition of placemen or traders. The Baron Beçancour held the office of Inspector of Highways, and Count Blumhart made ginger beer. Three Rivers contained 800 inhabitants. A few farmers lived in the neighbourhood of the mouth of the St. Francis. Montreal was rising rapidly into importance, having obtained the fur trade of Three Rivers, in addition to its own, and the island having been carefully cultivated, through the well directed efforts of the Jesuits. Above Montreal there was nothing but forts—Fort Kingston or Cataraqui, Fort Niagara, Fort Detroit, and Fort Machillimakinac.

The Marquis de Vaudreuil having ruled Canada for twenty-one years, died on the 10th of April, 1725. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Beauharnois, under whose judicious management of affairs, the province became prosperous. Cultivation was extended. The Indians were so much conciliated, that intermarriages between the French and Indians were frequent. And there was nothing to excite alarm but the growing importance and grasping disposition of the New Englanders and New Anglo-Hollanders. The Governor of New York had erected a fort and trading post at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, with the view of monopolizing the trade of the Lakes. Beauharnois followed the English Governor's example, by building an opposition fort in the neighbourhood of Niagara. Another fort was erected by the Marquis, at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and yet another at Ticonderoga. The English very soon had a more reasonable pretext than a monopoly of the fur traffic, for more active demonstrations against the French. War was again declared in 1745, between France and England, by George II.; and Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, without waiting for instructions from England, determined upon attacking Louisbourg, then considered to be the "Gibraltar of America." Louisbourg, on Cape Breton, was fortified by the French, after the peace of Utrecht, at an expense of $5,500,000. The fortifications consisted of a rampart of stone, nearly 36 feet in height, and a ditch eighty feet wide. There were six bastions, and three batteries, with embrasures for 148 cannon and 6 mortars. On an island at the entrance of the harbor was another battery of 30 cannon, carrying 28 pound shot, and at the bottom of the harbour, opposite the entrance, was situated the royal battery of twenty-eight forty-two pounders, and two eighteen pounders. The entrance of the town, on the land side, was at the west, over a draw-bridge, near which was a circular battery, mounting 16 guns of 24 pounds shot. And these works had been 25 years in building. Louisbourg was a place of much importance to the French. It was a convenient retreat to such privateers as always annoyed and sometimes captured the New England fishing vessels. And the manner of this attack upon it is exceedingly interesting. It was determined on in January, 1745. Massachusetts furnished 3,250 men; Connecticut, 510; Rhode Island and New Hampshire, each 300. The naval force consisted of twelve ships, and in two months the army was enlisted, victualled, and equipped for service. On the 23rd of March, an express boat, which had been sent to Commodore Warren, the Naval Commander in Chief in the West Indies, to invite his co-operation, returned to Boston with the information, that without orders from England he could take no share in a purely colonial expedition. Governor Shirley and General Pepperell nevertheless embarked the army, and the colonial fleet sailed the next morning. The expedition arrived at Canso on the 4th of April, where the troops from New Hampshire and Connecticut joined it. Here, Commodore Warren, with his fleet, very unexpectedly joined the expedition. Shortly after his refusal to join, instructions which had been sent off from the British Government, approving of the attack upon Louisbourg, as proposed by Governor Shirley, and which Pepperell had gone to attack, without waiting for Imperial approval, had reached Commodore Warren, and without loss of time he proceeded direct to Canso, whither it was reported the Colonial fleet had gone. His arrival was the cause of great joy among the colonists. After a short consultation with General Pepperell, the Commodore sailed to cruise before Louisbourg, and was soon followed by the colonial fleet and army, which, on the 30th April, arrived in Cap Rouge Bay. It was not until then that the French were aware that an attack upon them was meditated. Every attempt was made to oppose the landing. They sent detachments to the landing places. But General Pepperell deceived them. He made a feint of landing at one point, and actually landed at another. The story reminds us of Sebastopol. Next morning 400 of the English marched round behind the hills, to the north west of the harbour, setting fire to all the houses and stores, till they came within a mile of the Royal Battery. The conflagration of the stores, in which was a considerable quantity of tar, while it concealed the English troops, increased the alarm of the French so greatly, that they precipitately abandoned the Royal battery. Upon their flight, the English troops took possession of it, and by means of a well directed fire from it, seriously damaged the town. The main body of the army now commenced the siege. For fourteen nights they were occupied in drawing cannon towards the town, over a morass, in which oxen and horses could not be used. The toil was incredible, but men accustomed to draw the pines of the forests, for masts, could accomplish anything. By the 20th of May, several fascine batteries had been erected, one of which mounted five forty-pounders. These batteries, on being opened, did immense execution. While the siege was being proceeded with, Commodore Warren captured the French ship of war "Vigilant," of 74 guns, with her 560 men, and a great quantity of military stores. This capture was of very great consequence, as it not only increased the English force and added to their military supplies, but seriously lessened the strength of the enemy. Shortly after this important capture, the English fleet was considerably augmented by the arrival of several men of war. A combined attack by sea and land was now determined on, and fixed for the 18th of June. Already the inland battery had been silenced; the western gate of the town was beaten down, and a breach effected in the wall; the circular battery of sixteen guns was nearly ruined; and the western flank of the King's bastion was nearly demolished. The besieged were in no condition to resist a joint attack by sea and land. The preparations for such an attack altogether dispirited them. A cessation of hostilities was asked for, on the 15th, and obtained. On the 17th, after a siege of forty-nine days, Louisbourg and the Island of Cap Breton surrendered. Stores and prizes to the amount of nearly a million sterling fell into the hands of the conquerors. Nor was this the only advantage. Security was given to the colonies in their fisheries; Nova Scotia was preserved to England; and the trade and fisheries of France were nearly ruined. The successful General, a New Englander by birth, was created a baronet of Great Britain, in recognition of his important services to the State. Sir William Pepper(w)ell rose on the ruins of Louisbourg. On France the blow fell with great severity. The court, aroused to vengeance, sent the Duke D'Anville, a nobleman of great courage, in 1746, at the head of an armament of forty ships of war, fifty-six transports, with three thousand five hundred men, and forty thousand stand of arms for the use of the French and Indians in Canada, to recover possession of Cape Breton, and to attack the colonies. Four vessels of the line, forming the West India squadron, were to join the expedition, and Canada sent off 1,700 men with the same view. The greatest consternation possessed the English colonists, as part of this immense fleet neared the American coast. But there was, in reality, no cause for fear. The tempest had blasted the hopes of France. Only two or three of the ships, with a few transports, reached Chebucto Bay, in Nova Scotia. Many of the ships of this once formidable expedition were seriously damaged by storms, others were lost, and one was forced to return to Brest, on account of cholera among her crew. On arrival at Chebucto, where Halifax is now situated, the Admiral became so despondent that he poisoned himself, and the Vice Admiral, no more a Roman than his superior, ran himself through the body with his sword. So died both these gallant but unfortunate men, whose moral courage quailed before what they knew must be public opinion in France. Nor were the disasters of the Duke d'Anville's armament yet over. That part of the fleet which had arrived in America, sailed for the purpose of attacking Annapolis, only to be dispersed by a storm, in the Bay of Fundy, and to return to France crest-fallen. Another expedition was however, determined upon. Six men of war, of the largest class, six frigates, and four East Indiamen, with a convoy of thirty merchant vessels, set sail from France, with the Admiral de la Jonquiere appointed to succeed de Beauharnois as Governor of Canada. But a British fleet, under Admiral Anson and Rear Admiral Warren, dispatched to watch, and, if possible, intercept it, fell in with the French fleet on the 3rd of May, and before night all the battle ships had surrendered. The new Governor of Canada found himself a prisoner. The disagreeable intelligence of this second failure reached France on the somewhat sudden and unexpected return of a part of the convoy, which had escaped capture, as night fell, on the day of the surrender of the fleet. Another Governor for Canada was appointed, the Count de la Gallisonière, who arrived safely. De la Gallisonière took an intelligent view of the position of affairs. He saw the folly, in a military point of view, of keeping the frontier a wilderness, and recommended that a large number of settlers should be sent from France, who, by being located on the frontier, would act as a check upon the British. His advice was, however, unheeded, and de la Jonquière having been released from captivity and conveyed to Canada, the Count resigned his trust to the Admiral, and returned to France. De la Jonquière was exceedingly active and able. Shortly after, or about the time of his release from captivity, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, and all conquests—Louisbourg included—made during the war, were mutually restored. But de la Jonquière hated the English cordially, and by his hostile acts against the English fur traders, of the Ohio Company, he brought on that war between France and England, known as "The French and Indian War." Several English traders were seized and carried to a French port, on the south of Lake Erie, and fortifications, at convenient distances, were erected and occupied by French troops, between Fort Presqu'isle and the Ohio. War was ultimately declared, and Colonel George Washington, afterwards President of the United States, was sent, at the head of a regiment of Virginians, by the British Governor Dinwiddie, to put a stop to the fort building, which, although joined by nearly 400 men from New York and South Carolina, he failed to accomplish, having been compelled by De Villiers, at the head of a force of 1,500 French soldiers, to capitulate, with the privilege of marching back to Virginia unmolested. In Canada, De la Jonquière was by no means a favorite. Terribly avaricious, while the Intendant sold licenses to trade, the Governor and his Secretary sold brandy to the Indians. De la Jonquière became enormously wealthy, but his grasping disposition so annoyed the people of Quebec and Montreal, that complaints against him were loudly made, and he was recalled. He died, however, at Quebec, before his successor, the Marquis du Quesne de Menneville, was appointed. The Anglo-Indian French War now raged furiously. The English colonists were recommended by the British Government to unite together in some scheme for their common defence. A convention of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with the Lieut. Governor and Council of New York, was accordingly held at Albany, in 1754, and a plan of a federal union adopted. The plan was simply this:—a Grand Council, to be formed of members chosen by the provincial assemblies, and sent from all the colonies; which Grand Council, with a Governor General appointed by the Crown, having a negative voice, should be empowered to make general laws, to raise money in all the colonies, for their defence, to call forth troops, regulate trade, lay duties, &c. It met, however, neither with the approbation of the Provincial Assemblies nor the King's Council. The Assemblies rejected it because it gave too much power to the Crown, and the King's Council rejected it because it gave too much power to the people. Nevertheless, the Assemblies unreservedl declared, that, if it were adopted, they would undertake to defend themselves from the French, without any assistance from Great Britain. The mother country refused to sanction it. Another plan was proposed, which met with universal disapprobation. A convention was to be formed by the Governors, with one or more of their Council to concert measures for the general defence, to erect fortifications, to raise men, &c., with power to draw upon the British Treasury to defray all charges, which charges were to be reimbursed by taxes upon the colonies, imposed by Acts of Parliament. The English colonies, however, vigorously attempted to repel the encroachments of the French from Canada, and ultimately succeeded, notwithstanding the blundering incompetency of General Braddock and Colonel Dunbar, the afterwards celebrated Washington being Aid-de-Camp to the former on the Ohio. Braddock, in proceeding against Fort du Quesne,[3] with upwards of 2,200 men, one thousand of which were regulars, suffered himself to be surprised by only five hundred French and Indians, had five horses killed under him, was himself mortally wounded, and his troops were defeated. Nay, out of sixty-five officers, sixty-four were killed and wounded, and of the troops engaged, one half were made prisoners, through the ungovernable folly of a man, who advanced without caution, and attempted to form a line when surrounded in a thicket. It was at this time, when the English colonists, not only contemplated a federal union, but had determined upon expeditions—one against the French in Nova Scotia, which completely succeeded; a second against the French on the Ohio; a third against Crown Point; and a fourth against Niagara. The Marquis du Quesne organized the militia of Quebec and Montreal; minutely inspected and disciplined the militia of the seigneuries; and attached considerable bodies of regular artillery to every garrison. Tired of the continual fighting between Canada and the English colonies, the Marquis du Quesne solicited his recall. His request was conceded. His most Christian Majesty appointed the Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac, son of a former Governor to succeed him. De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sailed for the seat of his government with Admiral La Mothe, who was in command of a fleet newly fitted out, at considerable cost, at Brest. The sailing was not unnoticed by the English Channel fleet. Admiral Boscawen gave chase. He had eleven ships of the line, and with these he came up with the French fleet off Newfoundland. A battle ensued, and two French vessels fell into the hands of the British, the remainder of the French ships escaping under cover of a fog. Quebec was reached without further molestation, and Governor De Vaudreuil de Cavagnac was installed. All Canada was, on his arrival, in arms. Every parish was a garrison, commanded by a captain, whose authority was not only acknowledged, but rigidly sustained. Agriculture was, consequently, entirely neglected. Provisions were scarce; the price of food was enormously high; and the fur trade was rapidly declining. Notwithstanding this, the Intendant, Bigot, shipped off large quantities of wheat to the West Indies, on his own account. The Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavagnac sanctioned the avaricious exactions and dealings of Bigot. Practices the most dishonest and demoralizing were winked at or excused. The Governors positively enriched themselves on the miseries of the governed. A high standard value was given to grain in store. It was studiously reported that the farmers were hoarding up their stocks, and prejudice was so excited against them, that it was no difficult matter to confiscate their corn, on pretence that it was absolutely necessary for the city and the troops. De Cavagnac and Bigot bought cheaply and sold extravagantly dear. As the Russian officials cheat the Russian government, so did the French officials cheat both the people and the government of France. But it was little wonder. The Governor had only a salary of £272 sterling, out of which he was expected to clothe, maintain, and pay a guard for himself, consisting of two sergeants and twenty-five soldiers, furnishing them with firing in winter, and other necessary articles. A Governor was compelled to trade to be on a pecuniary level with the merchant.

The hostilities between the colonists of English and French extraction for the two preceding years had been carried on, without any formal declaration of war. It was not until June, 1756, that war was declared by Great Britain against France, and operations were determined upon on a large scale. Lord Loudon was appointed Commander in Chief of the English forces in America, and General the Marquis de Montcalm was appointed Generalissimo in Canada, in room of Dieskau, who was disabled at Lake George. The English commander matured a plan of campaign, formed by his locum tenens, General Abercrombie, which embraced an attack upon Niagara and Crown Point, still in possession of the French, the former being the connecting link in the line of fortifications between Canada and Louisiana, and the latter commanding Lake Champlain, and guarding the only passage at that time to Canada. Loudon was as hesitating and shiftless, as Abercrombie had been an improvident commander. The expedition against Crown Point was unaccountably delayed. General Winslow, at the head of 700 men, was not permitted to advance. Montcalm, as energetic, able, and enterprising as his opponents were indecisive, with 8,000 regulars, Canadians, and Indians, made a rapid descent upon Oswego, at the south-east side of Lake Ontario, and captured it. Sixteen hundred men, one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, fourteen mortars, two ships of war, and two hundred boats and batteaux, fell into the conqueror's hands. Lord Loudon, prone to inactivity, instead of vigorously pushing forward upon Crown Point, to retrieve this great disaster, made the disaster an excuse for relinquishing the enterprise. The failure of the campaign of '56 much annoyed the British Parliament and people, and great preparations were made in the following year to prosecute the war to a successful issue. It was in vain, while Lord Loudon was in command of the colonial army. A fleet of eleven ships of the line, and fifty transports, with more than six thousand troops, arrived at Halifax, for the reduction of Louisbourg, and Lord Loudon ordered a large body of troops, designed to march upon Ticonderoga and Crown Point, to co-operate. But so dilatory was his Lordship, that before the expedition from Halifax was ready to sail, a French fleet of 17 sail had arrived at Louisbourg, with reinforcements, making the garrison nine thousand strong—and this fine specimen of a hereditary commander deemed it inexpedient to proceed, and abandoned the expedition. Montcalm, again profitting by the weakness and indecision of his adversaries, made a descent on Fort William Henry, situated on the north shore of Lake George, with nine thousand men. The fort, garrisoned by three thousand men, was commanded by Colonel Munroe, who obstinately defended it. Nay, had it not been for the silly indifference of General Webb, who was in command of Fort Edward, which was within only fifteen miles of Fort William Henry, and was garrisoned by 4,000 men, the French General might have been unable to make any impression upon it. But Webb, although solicited by his second in command, Sir William Johnston, to suffer his troops to march to the rescue, first hesitated, next granted permission, and then drew back. In six days the garrison surrendered, Munroe and his troops being admitted to an honorable capitulation. Reverses such as these, involving great misery, inasmuch as the Indians too frequently butchered their prisoners in cold blood, could not fail to have an effect upon a ministry which had appointed such incapables to command. A change of ministry was loudly demanded, and most fortunately for the honor of the British arms, and for the salvation of the colonies, there was a change. The great Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, was the Palmerston of that day. Placed at the head of the administration, he breathed into the British Councils a new soul. He revived the energies of the colonies. He gave new life to dependencies, whose loyalty was weakened, and whose means were exhausted by a series of as ill-contrived and unfortunate expeditions as were ever attempted. He addressed circulars to the colonial Governors, assuring them of the determination of the ministry to send a large force to America, and called upon the colonies to raise as many troops as possible, and to act promptly and liberally in furnishing the requisite supplies. The colonies nobly responded. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New England unitedly raised 15,000 men, who were ready to take the field in May. An expedition to Louisbourg, a second to Ticonderoga, and a third against Fort du Quesne were determined upon. The tide of success was on the turn. Admiral Boscawen, with a fleet of twenty ships of the line, eighteen frigates, and an army of fourteen thousand men, under the command of General Amherst, his second in command being General Wolfe, sailed from Halifax, for Louisbourg, on the 28th of May. Louisbourg resisted vigorously, but on the 26th of July this important fortress was a second time in the possession of Great Britain. 5,735 men, 120 cannon, 5 ships of the line, and 4 frigates were captured. Isle Royal and St. John's, with Cape Breton, fell, also, into the hands of the English. Against Ticonderoga the English were not so successful. This central expedition was conducted by General Abercrombie, who had succeeded Lord Loudon as Commander-in-Chief in America, that nobleman having returned home. He had with him 16,000 men and a formidable train of artillery. Ticonderoga was only garrisoned by 3,000 French. The passage of Abercrombie across Lake Champlain was only a little less splendid than that of the British and French armies over the Black Sea, from Varna to Eupatoria, in September, 1854. The morning was remarkably bright and beautiful, and the fleet moved with exact regularity, to the sound of fine martial music. The ensigns waved and glittered in the sunbeams, and the anticipation of future triumphs shone in every eye. Above, beneath, around, the scenery was that of enchantment. It was a complication of beauty and magnificence, on which the sun rarely shines. But General Abercrombie was unequal to the command of such an army. He left to incompetent Aides-de-Camp the task of reconnoitering the ground and entrenchments, and without a knowledge of the strength of the place, or of the points proper for attack, and without bringing up a single piece of artillery, he issued his orders to attempt the lines. The army advanced with the greatest intrepidity, and for upwards of four hours (the duration of the battle of the Alma) maintained the attack with incredible obstinacy. Nearly two thousand of the English were killed or wounded, and a retreat was ordered. On reaching Lake George, his former quarters, the defeated and mortified Abercrombie yielded to the solicitations of Colonel Bradstreet, who desired to be sent against Fort Frontenac, (now Kingston) on Lake Ontario. Three thousand provincials were detached on this expedition, and in two days the fortress had surrendered, and 9 armed vessels, 60 cannon, and sixteen mortars, and a vast quantity of ammunition were taken possession of. Fort du Quesne was evacuated on the approach of General Forbes, with 8,000 men, and was re-named Pittsburg, in honor of the Prime Minister of England, Mr. Pitt.

Elated by success, the entire conquest of Canada was now determined upon by the English. Three powerful armies were simultaneously to enter the French Province by three different routes—Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec were to be attacked as nearly as possible at the same time. On the 22nd of July, 1759, the successor of Abercrombie, General Amherst, attacked, first, Ticonderoga, and then Crown Point, both places being evacuated on his approach, the French retiring to Isle Aux Noix, where General Amherst could not follow them, for want of a naval armament. On the 6th of the same month, Fort Niagara was invested by Sir William Johnston, who succeeded to the command of the Niagara division of the army on the death of General Prideaux, an able and distinguished officer, unfortunately killed, four days previously, by the bursting of a cohorn. A general battle took place on the 24th, which decided the fate of Niagara, by placing it in the hands of the invaders.

The intended campaign of 1759, was early made known to General Montcalm: that on Quebec was made known to him on the 14th of May, by M. de Bougainville, appointed on the Marquis' staff, as Aid-de-Camp. In January, a census of those capable of bearing arms in Canada was taken, when 15,229 were reported as available for service. Montcalm went energetically to work to preserve the country to France. A council of war was held at Montreal, and it was decided that a body of troops, under Montcalm, the Marquis de Levi, and M. de Jennezergus, should be posted at Quebec; that M. de Bourlemaque should hasten to Ticonderoga, blow up the works at the approach of the English, retire by the Lake to Isle-aux-Noix, and there stubbornly resist. With 800 regulars and militia, the Chevalier de la Corne was directed to hold the rapids above Montreal, to entrench himself in a strong position, and hold out to the last. It is, therefore, obvious, that the evacuation of Ticonderoga was determined upon; and that the retention of Niagara was not much desired. The intended march upon Quebec, by a large force from England, caused the greatest uneasiness. Montcalm, hastening to Quebec, pushed on the defences of the city and its outposts vigorously. The buoys, and other marks for the safe navigation of the St. Lawrence were removed. Proclamations, calling upon the people to make a determined resistance, were issued. The people were reminded that they were about to contest with a powerful and ruthless enemy of their religion and their homes. The Church urged the faithful to resist the heretical invaders.

General Wolfe was in the harbour of Quebec before either Ticonderoga or Niagara had fallen. Eight thousand men had been embarked at Louisbourg, under convoy of Admirals Saunders and Holmes. The expedition arrived without accident off the Island of Orleans, where the troops were disembarked, on the 25th of June. General Wolfe, three days afterwards, issued an address to the colonists. He appealed to their fears. General Amherst was approaching in one direction, Sir W. Johnston in another, and he (Wolfe) was at their very doors. Succour from France was unobtainable. To the peasantry he, therefore, offered the sweets of peace, amid the horrors of war. The French colonists, however, were ignorant of the English language as of English customs. They saw no sign of fine feeling towards themselves in so large a fleet and so considerable an army. Every obstacle that could be placed in the way of an invading force, the French colonists patriotically placed in the way of General Wolfe. They readily formed themselves into battalions for defence. They hung about the skirts of that part of the army which had been landed, cutting off foraging parties, and otherwise harassing it. They prayed in the churches for the preservation of their country. The most noble spirit animated the Canadians. General Monckton was sent to drive the French off Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and take possession of the post. He succeeded. Batteries were thrown up and unceasingly worked. The firing was, but however, of little use, only the houses of the town being injured. The fortifications were not only uninjured, they were being rapidly strengthened. More energetic measures were determined upon. Wolfe crossed the river and attacked the enemy in their entrenchments, at Montmorenci. But, some of the boats in which the soldiers had crossed, unluckily grounded, and the attacking party did not all land together. The grenadiers rushed impetuously forward, without even waiting to form, and were mowed down by the enemy's close, steady, and well directed fire. Montcalm's force now advanced to the beach, and the contest waxed hotter. A thunder storm was approaching, and the tide was setting in. Wolfe, fearing the consequences of delay, ordered a retreat, and returned to his quarters, on the Island of Orleans. He lost six hundred of the flower of his army in this unhappy encounter, and left behind him some of his largest boats. The condition of the invaders was far from enviable. Sickness prevailed to an alarming extent in the camp. They had been already five weeks before the city, and many lives had been lost, not only in skirmishes, but by dysentery. Wolfe himself fell sick. Depressed in spirits by the disastrous attempt to land on the Beauport shoals, and worn down with fatigue and watching, he was compelled to take to his bed. It was while lying ill that the plan occurred to him of proceeding up the river, scaling the heights by night, and forcing Montcalm to a general engagement. On his recovery he proceeded to carry his plan into execution. A feint of landing again at Beauport was made. The boats of the fleet, filled with sailors and marines, apparently made for the shore, covered by a part of the fleet, the other part having gone higher up the river. At one hour after midnight, on the 12th September, the fleet being now at anchor at the narrows of Carouge, the first division of the army, consisting of 1,600 men, were placed in flat bottomed boats, which silently dropped down the current. It was intended to land three miles above Cape Diamond, and then ascend to the high grounds above. The current, however, carried the boats down to within a mile and a half of the city. The night was dismally dark, the bank seemed more than ordinarily steep and lofty, and the French were on the qui vive. A sentinel bawled out, "Que vive," who goes there? "La France," was the quick reply. Captain Macdonald, of the 78th Highlanders, had served in Holland, and knew the proper reply to the challenge of a French sentry. "A quel regiment?" asked the sentry, "De la Reine" was the response. "Passe" said the soldier, who made the darkness vibrate as he brought his musket to the carry. Other sentinels were similarly deceived. One was more particularly curious than the others. Something in the voice of the passing friend did not please his ear. Running down to the water's edge, he called "Pour quoi est-ce que vous ne parlez plus haut," why don't you speak louder? "Tais toi, nous serons entendu!" Hush, we shall be overheard and discovered, said the cunning highlander, still more softly. It was enough, the boats passed. Within one hour of daylight a landing was effected, and the British army began to scale the heights, the base of which was then washed by the St. Lawrence. By daylight, the army was drawn up in battle array, on the "Plains of Abraham." The ground was somewhat undulating, and well calculated for manœuvring. Every knoll was taken advantage of. Every little hillock served the purpose of an earthwork. For the invaders it was victory or death. To retreat was impossible. The position of the British army was speedily made known to Montcalm. There was not a moment to be lost. The French General rapidly crossed the St. Charles, and advanced with his whole army, to meet that of Wolfe. Fifteen hundred Indians first ascended the hill, from the valley of the St. Charles, and stationing themselves in cornfields and bushes, fired upon the English, who took no notice of their fire. Between nine and ten o'clock, the two armies met, face to face, and when the main body of the French, advancing rapidly, were within forty yards, the English opened their fire, and the carnage was terrible. The French fought gallantly, but under a galling and well directed fire, they fell, in spite of the exertions of their officers, into disorder. The British Grenadiers charged at this critical moment. The Highlanders rushing forward, with the claymore, hewed down every opponent, and the fate of the battle was no longer doubtful—the French retreated. Wolfe had just been carried to the rear, mortally wounded in the groin. Early in the battle, a ball struck him in the wrist, but binding his handkerchief around it, he continued to encourage his men. It was while in the agonies of death, that he heard the cry of "they flee," "they flee," and on being told that it was the French who fled, exclaimed, "Then I die happy." His second in command, General Monckton, was wounded and conveyed away, shortly after assuming the direction of affairs, when the command devolved upon General Townshend who followed up the victory, rendered the more telling by the death of the brave Montcalm, who fell, mortally wounded, in front of his battalion, and that of his second in command, General Jennezergus, who fell near him. Wolfe's army consisted of only 4,828 men, Montcalm's of 7,520 men, exclusive of Indians. The English loss amounted to 55 killed and 607 wounded, that of the French to nearly a thousand killed and wounded; and a thousand made prisoners. Montcalm was carried to the city; his last moments were employed in writing to the English general, recommending the French prisoners to his care and humanity; and when informed that his wound was mortal, he sublimely remarked:—"I shall not then live to see the surrender of Quebec." On the 14th he died, and on the evening of the 18th the keys of Quebec were delivered up to his conquerors, and the British flag was hoisted on the citadel. French imperial rule had virtually ended in Canada. Not so, French customs. By the capitulation, which suffered the garrison to march out with the honors of war, the inhabitants of the country were permitted the free exercise of their religion; and, afterwards, in 1774, the Roman Catholic Church establishment was recognized; and disputes concerning landed and real property were to be settled by the Coutume de Paris. In criminal cases only was the law of England to apply.

Admiral Saunders, with all the fleet, except two ships, sailed for England, on the 18th of October, Quebec being left to the care of General Murray and about 3,000 men. After the fleet had sailed, several attempts were made upon the British outposts at Point Levi, Cape Rouge, and St. Foy, unsuccessfully. Winter came, and the sufferings of the conquerors and the conquered were dreadful. The Frazer Highlanders wore their kilts, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and provisions were so scarce and dear, that many of the inhabitants died of starvation. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor General of His Most Christian Majesty, busied himself, at Montreal, with preparations for the recovery of Quebec, in the spring. In April, he sent the General De Levi, with an army of 10,000 men, to effect that object. De Levi arrived within three miles of Quebec, on the 28th, and defeated General Murray's force of 2,200 men, imprudently sent to meet him. The city was again besieged, but this time by the French. Indeed, it was only on the appearance of the British ships, about the middle of May, that the siege was raised. De Levi retreated to Jacques Cartier. The tide of fortune was again turning. General Amherst was advancing from New York upon Montreal. By the middle of May, that city, and with it the whole of Canada, including a population, exclusive of Indians, of 69,275 souls, was surrendered to England.

Montcalm, who was not only a general, but a statesman, is said to have expressed himself to the effect, that the conquest of Canada by England would endanger her retention of the New England colonies, and ultimately prove injurious to her interests on this continent. Canada, not subject to France, would be no source of uneasiness or annoyance to the English colonists, who already were becoming politically important, and somewhat impatient of restraint. How far such an opinion was justifiable, is to be gathered from the condition of Canada and the colonies of Great Britain in America, at this hour.

Canada was, in 1763, ceded by His Most Christian Majesty, the King of France, to His Britannic Majesty King George the Second. Emigration from the United Kingdom to Canada was encouraged—not to Canada only, but to Nova Scotia, which then included the present Province of New Brunswick. By the treaty of 1763, signed at Paris, Nova Scotia, Canada, the Isle of Cape Breton, and all the other Islands in the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British Crown. Britain, not only powerful in arms, but, even at this period, great in commerce, was about to change, though almost imperceptibly, the feelings of her new subjects. The old or New England colonies, which had so largely contributed to the subjugation of Canada, were already largely engaged in trade. They had not made much progress in agriculture. They had made no progress in manufactures. It was six years later before their first collegiate institution, at Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded. But, while Canada, perhaps, only loaded a couple of vessels with the skins of the bear, the beaver, the buffalo, the fox, the lynx, the martin, the minx, and the wolf, to prevent the total evaporation of heat from the shoulders of the gentler sex in Paris or London, or to fringe the velvet robes of the courtiers of St. James and the Tuileries, the New Englanders employed, annually, about one thousand and seventy-eight British vessels, manned by twenty-eight thousand nine hundred seamen, while their whale and other fisheries had become of great importance.[4] To change the military character of the sixty-nine thousand inhabitants of Canada ceded by France to England, could not be done immediately. That was as impossible as to make them abjure by proclamation, their religion. All changes, to be lasting, must be gradual, and the government of Great Britain only contemplated a lasting change, by the introduction into Canada of her own people, imbued with somewhat different ideas, religiously, legally, and commercially, from those which actuated the conquered population.