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PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD
PIONEERS OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. Part One PREFATORY NOTE TO THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA. CHAPTER I. -- 1512-1561.--EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. CHAPTER II -- 1550-1558--VILLEGAGNON. CHAPTER III. -- 1562-1563--JEAN RIBAUT. CHAPTER IV. -- 1564--LAUDONNIERE. CHAPTER V. -- 1564-1565--CONSPIRACY. CHAPTER VI. -- 1564-1565--FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. CHAPTER VII. -- 1565--MENENDEZ. CHAPTER VIII -- 1565--MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. CHAPTER IX. -- 1565-1567--CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. CHAPTER X. -- 1567-1583--DOMINIQUE DE GOURG
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
The springs of American civilization, unlike those of the elder world, lie revealed in the clear light of History. In appearance they are feeble; in reality, copious and full of force. Acting at the sources of life, instruments otherwise weak become mighty for good and evil, and men, lost elsewhere in the crowd, stand forth as agents of Destiny. In their toils, their sufferings, their conflicts, momentous questions were at stake, and issues vital to the future world,—the prevalence of races, the
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PREFATORY NOTE TO THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA.
PREFATORY NOTE TO THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA.
The story of New France opens with a tragedy. The political and religious enmities which were soon to bathe Europe in blood broke out with an intense and concentrated fury in the distant wilds of Florida. It was under equivocal auspices that Coligny and his partisans essayed to build up a Calvinist France in America, and the attempt was met by all the forces of national rivalry, personal interest, and religious hate. This striking passage of our early history is remarkable for the fullness and p
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain achieved her final triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious through all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zeal and romantic daring which a long course of Moorish wars had called forth were now exalted to redoubled fervor. Every ship from the New World came freighted with marvels which put the fictions of chivalry to shame; and to the Spaniard of that day America was a region of
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
VILLEGAGNON. In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow. Her old feudal liberties were gone, absorbed in the despotism of Madrid. A tyranny of monks and inquisitors, with their swarms of spies and informers, their racks, their dungeons, and their fagots, crushed all freedom of thought or speech; and, while the Dominican held his reign of terror and force, the deeper Jesuit guided the mind from infa
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
JEAN RIBAUT. In the year 1562 a cloud of black and deadly portent was thickening over France. Surely and swiftly she glided towards the abyss of the religious wars. None could pierce the future, perhaps none dared to contemplate it: the wild rage of fanaticism and hate, friend grappling with friend, brother with brother, father with son; altars profaned, hearth-stones made desolate, the robes of Justice herself bedrenched with murder. In the gloom without lay Spain, imminent and terrible. As on
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
LAUDONNIERE. ON the twenty-fifth of June, 1564, a French squadron anchored a second time off the mouth of the River of May. There were three vessels, the smallest of sixty tons, the largest of one hundred and twenty, all crowded with men. Rene de Laudonniere held command. He was of a noble race of Poiton, attached to the house of Chatillon, of which Coligny was the head; pious, we are told, and an excellent marine officer. An engraving, purporting to be his likeness, shows us a slender figure, l
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
CONSPIRACY. In the little world of Fort Caroline, a miniature France, cliques and parties, conspiracy and sedition, were fast stirring into life. Hopes had been dashed, and wild expectations had come to naught. The adventurers had found, not conquest and gold, but a dull exile in a petty fort by a hot and sickly river, with hard labor, bad fare, prospective famine, and nothing to break the weary sameness but some passing canoe or floating alligator. Gathered in knots, they nursed each other's wr
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CHAPTER VI. 1564, 1565.
CHAPTER VI. 1564, 1565.
FAMINE. WAR. SUCCOR. While the mutiny was brewing, one La Roche Ferriere had been sent out as an agent or emissary among the more distant tribes. Sagacious, bold, and restless, he pushed his way from town to town, and pretended to have reached the mysterious mountains of Appalache. He sent to the fort mantles woven with feathers, quivers covered with choice furs, arrows tipped with gold, wedges of a green stone like beryl or emerald, and other trophies of his wanderings. A gentleman named Grotau
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
MENENDEZ. The monk, the inquisitor, and the Jesuit were lords of Spain,—sovereigns of her sovereign, for they had formed the dark and narrow mind of that tyrannical recluse. They had formed the minds of her people, quenched in blood every spark of rising heresy, and given over a noble nation to a bigotry blind and inexorable as the doom of fate. Linked with pride, ambition, avarice, every passion of a rich, strong nature, potent for good and ill, it made the Spaniard of that day a scourge as dir
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
MASSACRE OF THE HERETICS. In suspense and fear, hourly looking seaward for the dreaded fleet of Jean Ribaut, the chaplain Mendoza and his brother priests held watch and ward at St. Augustine in the Adelantado's absence. Besides the celestial guardians whom they ceased not to invoke, they had as protectors Bartholomew Menendez, the brother of the Adelantado, and about a hundred soldiers. Day and night they toiled to throw up earthworks and strengthen their position. A week elapsed, when they saw
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
CHARLES IX. AND PHILLIP II. The state of international relations in the sixteenth century is hardly conceivable at this day. The Puritans of England and the Huguenots of France regarded Spain as their natural enemy, and on the high seas and in the British Channel they joined hands with godless freebooters to rifle her ships, kill her sailors, or throw them alive into the sea. Spain on her side seized English Protestant sailors who ventured into her ports, and burned them as heretics, or consigne
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. There was a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, Dominique de Gourgues, a soldier of ancient birth and high renown. It is not certain that he was a Huguenot. The Spanish annalist calls him a "terrible heretic;" but the French Jesuit, Charlevoix, anxious that the faithful should share the glory of his exploits, affirms that, like his ancestors before him, he was a good Catholic. If so, his faith sat lightly upon him; and, Catholic or heretic, he hated the Spaniards with a mortal ha
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY FRENCH ADVENTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commer
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
LA ROCHE.—CHAMPLAIN.—DE MONTS. Years rolled on. France, long tossed among the surges of civil commotion, plunged at last into a gulf of fratricidal war. Blazing hamlets, sacked cities, fields steaming with slaughter, profaned altars, and ravished maidens, marked the track of the tornado. There was little room for schemes of foreign enterprise. Yet, far aloof from siege and battle, the fishermen of the western ports still plied their craft on the Banks of Newfoundland. Humanity, morality, decency
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
ACADIA OCCUPIED. De Monts, with one of his vessels, sailed from Havre de Grace on the seventh of April, 1604. Pontgrave, with stores for the colony, was to follow in a few days. Scarcely were they at sea, when ministers and priests fell first to discussion, then to quarrelling, then to blows. "I have seen our cure and the minister," says Champlain, "fall to with their fists on questions of faith. I cannot say which had the more pluck, or which hit the harder; but I know that the minister sometim
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
LESCARBOT AND CHAMPLAIN. Evil reports of a churlish wilderness, a pitiless climate, disease, misery, and death, had heralded the arrival of De Monts. The outlay had been great, the returns small; and when he reached Paris, he found his friends cold, his enemies active and keen. Poutrincourt, however, was still full of zeal; and, though his private affairs urgently called for his presence in France, he resolved, at no small sacrifice, to go in person to Acadia. He had, moreover, a friend who prov
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
THE JESUITS AND THEIR PATRONESS. Poutrincourt, we have seen, owned Port Royal in virtue of a grant from De Monts. The ardent and adventurous baron was in evil case, involved in litigation and low in purse; but nothing could damp his zeal. Acadia must become a new France, and he, Poutrincourt, must be its father. He gained from the King a confirmation of his grant, and, to supply the lack of his own weakened resources, associated with himself one Robin, a man of family and wealth. This did not sa
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
JESUITS IN ACADIA. The voyage was one of inordinate length,—beset, too, with icebergs, larger and taller, according to the Jesuit voyagers, than the Church of Notre Dame; but on the day of Pentecost their ship, "The Grace of God," anchored before Port Royal. Then first were seen in the wilderness of New France the close black cap, the close black robe, of the Jesuit father, and the features seamed with study and thought and discipline. Then first did this mighty Proteus, this many-colored Societ
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
LA SAUSSAYE.—ARGALL Pending these squabbles, the Jesuits at home were far from idle. Bent on ridding themselves of Poutrincourt, they seized, in satisfaction of debts due them, all the cargo of his returning vessel, and involved him in a network of litigation. If we accept his own statements in a letter to his friend Lescarbot, he was outrageously misused, and indeed defrauded, by his clerical copartners, who at length had him thrown into prison. Here, exasperated, weary, sick of Acadia, and anx
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
RUIN OF FRENCH ACADIA. "Praised be God, behold two thirds of our company safe in France, telling their strange adventures to their relatives and friends. And now you will wish to know what befell the rest of us." Thus writes Father Biard, who with his companions in misfortune, fourteen in all, prisoners on board Argall's ship and the prize, were borne captive to Virginia. Old Point Comfort was reached at length, the site of Fortress Monroe; Hampton Roads, renowned in our day for the sea-fight of
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CHAPTER—IX.
CHAPTER—IX.
CHAMPLAIN AT QUEBEC. A LONELY ship sailed up the St. Lawrence. The white whales floundering in the Bay of Tadoussac, and the wild duck diving as the foaming prow drew near,—there was no life but these in all that watery solitude, twenty miles from shore to shore. The ship was from Honfleur, and was commanded by Samuel de Champlain. He was the AEneas of a destined people, and in her womb lay the embryo life of Canada. De Monts, after his exclusive privilege of trade was revoked and his Acadian en
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
LAKE CHAMPLAIN. It was past the middle of June, and the expected warriors from the upper country had not come,—a delay which seems to have given Champlain little concern, for, without waiting longer, he set out with no better allies than a band of Montagnais. But, as he moved up the St. Lawrence, he saw, thickly clustered in the bordering forest, the lodges of an Indian camp, and, landing, found his Huron and Algonquin allies. Few of them had ever seen a white man, and they surrounded the steel-
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
WAR.—TRADE.—DISCOVERY. Champlain and Pontgrave returned to France, while Pierre Chauvin of Dieppe held Quebec in their absence. The King was at Fontainebleau,—it was a few months before his assassination,—and here Champlain recounted his adventures, to the great satisfaction of the lively monarch. He gave him also, not the head of the dead Iroquois, but a belt wrought in embroidery of dyed quills of the Canada porcupine, together with two small birds of scarlet plumage, and the skull of a gar-fi
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
THE IMPOSTOR VIGNAU. The arrangements just indicated were a work of time. In the summer of 1612, Champlain was forced to forego his yearly voyage to New France; nor, even in the following spring, were his labors finished and the rival interests brought to harmony. Meanwhile, incidents occurred destined to have no small influence on his movements. Three years before, after his second fight with the Iroquois, a young man of his company had boldly volunteered to join the Indians on their homeward j
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
DISCOVERY OF LAKE HURON. In New France, spiritual and temporal interests were inseparably blended, and, as will hereafter appear, the conversion of the Indians was used as a means of commercial and political growth. But, with the single-hearted founder of the colony, considerations of material advantage, though clearly recognized, were no less clearly subordinate. He would fain rescue from perdition a people living, as he says, "like brute beasts, without faith, without law, without religion, wi
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE GREAT WAR PARTY. The lot of the favored guest of an Indian camp or village is idleness without repose, for he is never left alone, with the repletion of incessant and inevitable feasts. Tired of this inane routine, Champlain, with some of his Frenchmen, set forth on a tour of observation. Journeying at their ease by the Indian trails, they visited, in three days, five palisaded villages. The country delighted them, with its meadows, its deep woods, its pine and cedar thickets, full of hares
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
HOSTILE SECTS.—RIVAL INTERESTS. At Quebec the signs of growth were faint and few. By the water-side, under the cliff, the so-called "habitation," built in haste eight years before, was already tottering, and Champlain was forced to rebuild it. On the verge of the rock above, where now are seen the buttresses of the demolished castle of St. Louis, he began, in 1620, a fort, behind which were fields and a few buildings. A mile or more distant, by the bank of the St. Charles, where the General Hosp
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ENGLISH AT QUEBEC. The first care of the new Company was to succor Quebec, whose inmates were on the verge of starvation. Four armed vessels, with a fleet of transports commanded by Roquemont, one of the associates, sailed from Dieppe with colonists and supplies in April, 1628; but nearly at the same time another squadron, destined also for Quebec, was sailing from an English port. War had at length broken out in France. The Huguenot revolt had come to a head. Rochelle was in arms against th
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. On Monday, the fifth of July, 1632, Emery de Caen anchored before Quebec. He was commissioned by the French Crown to reclaim the place from the English; to hold for one year a monopoly of the fur-trade, as an indemnity for his losses in the war; and, when this time had expired, to give place to the Hundred Associates of New France. By the convention of Suza, New France was to be restored to the French Crown; yet it had been matter of debate whether a fulfillment of this engag
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END NOTES:
END NOTES:
1 ( return ) [ Herrera, Hist. General, Dec. I. Lib. LX. c. 11; De Laet, Novus Orbis, Lib. I. C. 16 Garcilaso, Just. de la Florida, Part I. Lib. I. C. 3; Gomara, Ilist. Gin. des Indes Occidentales, Lib. II. c. 10. Compare Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. VII. c. 7, who says that the fountain was in Florida. The story has an explanation sufficiently characteristic, having been suggested, it is said, by the beauty of the native women, which none could resist, and which kindled the fires of yo
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The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century
The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century
France and England in North America A Series of Historical Narratives Part Second BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1867. Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by Francis Parkman, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON....
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Few passages of history are more striking than those which record the efforts of the earlier French Jesuits to convert the Indians. Full as they are of dramatic and philosophic interest, bearing strongly on the political destinies of America, and closely involved with the history of its native population, it is wonderful that they have been left so long in obscurity. While the infant colonies of England still clung feebly to the shores of the Atlantic, events deeply ominous to their future were
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THE HURONS.
THE HURONS.
More than two centuries have elapsed since the Hurons vanished from their ancient seats, and the settlers of this rude solitude stand perplexed and wondering over the relics of a lost people. In the damp shadow of what seems a virgin forest, the axe and plough bring strange secrets to light: huge pits, close packed with skeletons and disjointed bones, mixed with weapons, copper kettles, beads, and trinkets. Not even the straggling Algonquins, who linger about the scene of Huron prosperity, can t
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THE HURON-IROQUOIS FAMILY.
THE HURON-IROQUOIS FAMILY.
And now, before entering upon the very curious subject of Indian social and tribal organization, it may be well briefly to observe the position and prominent distinctive features of the various communities speaking dialects of the generic tongue of the Iroquois. In this remarkable family of tribes occur the fullest developments of Indian character, and the most conspicuous examples of Indian intelligence. If the higher traits popularly ascribed to the race are not to be found here, they are to b
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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
In Indian social organization, a problem at once suggests itself. In these communities, comparatively populous, how could spirits so fierce, and in many respects so ungoverned, live together in peace, without law and without enforced authority? Yet there were towns where savages lived together in thousands with a harmony which civilization might envy. This was in good measure due to peculiarities of Indian character and habits. This intractable race were, in certain external respects, the most p
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THE IROQUOIS.
THE IROQUOIS.
The Iroquois were a people far more conspicuous in history, and their institutions are not yet extinct. In early and recent times, they have been closely studied, and no little light has been cast upon a subject as difficult and obscure as it is curious. By comparing the statements of observers, old and new, the character of their singular organization becomes sufficiently clear. [46] [46] Among modern students of Iroquois institutions, a place far in advance of all others is due to Lewis H. Mor
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RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS.
RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS.
The religious belief of the North-American Indians seems, on a first view, anomalous and contradictory. It certainly is so, if we adopt the popular impression. Romance, Poetry, and Rhetoric point, on the one hand, to the august conception of a one all-ruling Deity, a Great Spirit, omniscient and omnipresent; and we are called to admire the untutored intellect which could conceive a thought too vast for Socrates and Plato. On the other hand, we find a chaos of degrading, ridiculous, and incoheren
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CHAPTER I. 1634.
CHAPTER I. 1634.
Opposite Quebec lies the tongue of land called Point Levi. One who, in the summer of the year 1634, stood on its margin and looked northward, across the St. Lawrence, would have seen, at the distance of a mile or more, a range of lofty cliffs, rising on the left into the bold heights of Cape Diamond, and on the right sinking abruptly to the bed of the tributary river St. Charles. Beneath these cliffs, at the brink of the St. Lawrence, he would have descried a cluster of warehouses, sheds, and wo
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
It was an evil day for new-born Protestantism, when a French artilleryman fired the shot that struck down Ignatius Loyola in the breach of Pampeluna. A proud noble, an aspiring soldier, a graceful courtier, an ardent and daring gallant was metamorphosed by that stroke into the zealot whose brain engendered and brought forth the mighty Society of Jesus. His story is a familiar one: how, in the solitude of his sick-room, a change came over him, upheaving, like an earthquake, all the forces of his
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CHAPTER III. 1632, 1633.
CHAPTER III. 1632, 1633.
In another narrative, we have seen how the Jesuits, supplanting the Récollet friars, their predecessors, had adopted as their own the rugged task of Christianizing New France. We have seen, too, how a descent of the English, or rather of Huguenots fighting under English colors, had overthrown for a time the miserable little colony, with the mission to which it was wedded; and how Quebec was at length restored to France, and the broken thread of the Jesuit enterprise resumed. [1] [1] "Pioneers of
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CHAPTER IV. 1633, 1634.
CHAPTER IV. 1633, 1634.
On a morning in the latter part of October, Le Jeune embarked with the Indians, twenty in all, men, women, and children. No other Frenchman was of the party. Champlain bade him an anxious farewell, and commended him to the care of his red associates, who had taken charge of his store of biscuit, flour, corn, prunes, and turnips, to which, in an evil hour, his friends had persuaded him to add a small keg of wine. The canoes glided along the wooded shore of the Island of Orleans, and the party lan
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CHAPTER V. 1633, 1634.
CHAPTER V. 1633, 1634.
Le Jeune had learned the difficulties of the Algonquin mission. To imagine that he recoiled or faltered would be an injustice to his Order; but on two points he had gained convictions: first, that little progress could be made in converting these wandering hordes till they could be settled in fixed abodes; and, secondly, that their scanty numbers, their geographical position, and their slight influence in the politics of the wilderness offered no flattering promise that their conversion would be
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CHAPTER VI. 1634, 1635.
CHAPTER VI. 1634, 1635.
Where should the Fathers make their abode? Their first thought had been to establish themselves at a place called by the French Rochelle , the largest and most important town of the Huron confederacy; but Brébeuf now resolved to remain at Ihonatiria. Here he was well known; and here, too, he flattered himself, seeds of the Faith had been planted, which, with good nurture, would in time yield fruit. By the ancient Huron custom, when a man or a family wanted a house, the whole village joined in bu
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CHAPTER VII. 1636, 1637.
CHAPTER VII. 1636, 1637.
Mention has been made of those great depositories of human bones found at the present day in the ancient country of the Hurons. [1] They have been a theme of abundant speculation; [2] yet their origin is a subject, not of conjecture, but of historic certainty. The peculiar rites to which they owe their existence were first described at length by Brébeuf, who, in the summer of the year 1636, saw them at the town of Ossossané. [1] See Introduction. [2] Among those who have wondered and speculated
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CHAPTER VIII. 1636, 1637.
CHAPTER VIII. 1636, 1637.
Meanwhile from Old France to New came succors and reinforcements to the missions of the forest. More Jesuits crossed the sea to urge on the work of conversion. These were no stern exiles, seeking on barbarous shores an asylum for a persecuted faith. Rank, wealth, power, and royalty itself, smiled on their enterprise, and bade them God-speed. Yet, withal, a fervor more intense, a self-abnegation more complete, a self-devotion more constant and enduring, will scarcely find its record on the page o
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CHAPTER IX. 1637.
CHAPTER IX. 1637.
Before pursuing farther these obscure, but noteworthy, scenes in the drama of human history, it will be well to indicate, so far as there are means of doing so, the distinctive traits of some of the chief actors. Mention has often been made of Brébeuf,—that masculine apostle of the Faith,—the Ajax of the mission. Nature had given him all the passions of a vigorous manhood, and religion had crushed them, curbed them, or tamed them to do her work,—like a dammed-up torrent, sluiced and guided to gr
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CHAPTER X. 1637-1640.
CHAPTER X. 1637-1640.
The town of Ossossané, or Rochelle, stood, as we have seen, on the borders of Lake Huron, at the skirts of a gloomy wilderness of pine. Thither, in May, 1637, repaired Father Pijart, to found, in this, one of the largest of the Huron towns, the new mission of the Immaculate Conception. [1] The Indians had promised Brébeuf to build a house for the black-robes, and Pijart found the work in progress. There were at this time about fifty dwellings in the town, each containing eight or ten families. T
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CHAPTER XI. 1638-1640.
CHAPTER XI. 1638-1640.
We have already touched on the domestic life of the Jesuits. That we may the better know them, we will follow one of their number on his journey towards the scene of his labors, and observe what awaited him on his arrival. Father François Du Peron came up the Ottawa in a Huron canoe in September, 1638, and was well treated by the Indian owner of the vessel. Lalemant and Le Moyne, who had set out from Three Rivers before him, did not fare so well. The former was assailed by an Algonquin of Allume
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CHAPTER XII. 1639, 1640.
CHAPTER XII. 1639, 1640.
It had been the first purpose of the Jesuits to form permanent missions in each of the principal Huron towns; but, before the close of the year 1639, the difficulties and risks of this scheme had become fully apparent. They resolved, therefore, to establish one central station, to be a base of operations, and, as it were, a focus, whence the light of the Faith should radiate through all the wilderness around. It was to serve at once as residence, fort, magazine, hospital, and convent. Hence the
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CHAPTER XIII. 1636-1646.
CHAPTER XIII. 1636-1646.
I have traced, in another volume, the life and death of the noble founder of New France, Samuel de Champlain. It was on Christmas Day, 1635, that his heroic spirit bade farewell to the frame it had animated, and to the rugged cliff where he had toiled so long to lay the corner-stone of a Christian empire. Quebec was without a governor. Who should succeed Champlain? and would his successor be found equally zealous for the Faith, and friendly to the mission? These doubts, as he himself tells us, a
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CHAPTER XIV. 1636-1652.
CHAPTER XIV. 1636-1652.
Quebec , as we have seen, had a seminary, a hospital, and a convent, before it had a population. It will be well to observe the origin of these institutions. The Jesuits from the first had cherished the plan of a seminary for Huron boys at Quebec. The Governor and the Company favored the design; since not only would it be an efficient means of spreading the Faith and attaching the tribe to the French interest, but the children would be pledges for the good behavior of the parents, and hostages f
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CHAPTER XV. 1636-1642.
CHAPTER XV. 1636-1642.
We come now to an enterprise as singular in its character as it proved important in its results. At La Flèche, in Anjou, dwelt one Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, receiver of taxes. His portrait shows us a round, bourgeois face, somewhat heavy perhaps, decorated with a slight moustache, and redeemed by bright and earnest eyes. On his head he wears a black skull-cap; and over his ample shoulders spreads a stiff white collar, of wide expanse and studious plainness. Though he belonged to the nob
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CHAPTER XVI. 1641-1644.
CHAPTER XVI. 1641-1644.
The waters of the St. Lawrence rolled through a virgin wilderness, where, in the vastness of the lonely woodlands, civilized man found a precarious harborage at three points only,—at Quebec, at Montreal, and at Three Rivers. Here and in the scattered missions was the whole of New France,—a population of some three hundred souls in all. And now, over these miserable settlements, rose a war-cloud of frightful portent. It was thirty-two years since Champlain had first attacked the Iroquois. [1] The
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CHAPTER XVII. 1641-1646.
CHAPTER XVII. 1641-1646.
Two forces were battling for the mastery of Canada: on the one side, Christ, the Virgin, and the Angels, with their agents, the priests; on the other, the Devil, and his tools, the Iroquois. Such at least was the view of the case held in full faith, not by the Jesuit Fathers alone, but by most of the colonists. Never before had the fiend put forth such rage, and in the Iroquois he found instruments of a nature not uncongenial with his own. At Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, and the little fort o
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CHAPTER XVIII. 1642-1644.
CHAPTER XVIII. 1642-1644.
Let us now ascend to the island of Montreal. Here, as we have seen, an association of devout and zealous persons had essayed to found a mission-colony under the protection of the Holy Virgin; and we left the adventurers, after their landing, bivouacked on the shore, on an evening in May. There was an altar in the open air, decorated with a taste that betokened no less of good nurture than of piety; and around it clustered the tents that sheltered the commandant, Maisonneuve, the two ladies, Mada
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CHAPTER XIX. 1644, 1645.
CHAPTER XIX. 1644, 1645.
In the damp and freshness of a midsummer morning, when the sun had not yet risen, but when the river and the sky were red with the glory of approaching day, the inmates of the fort at Three Rivers were roused by a tumult of joyous and exultant voices. They thronged to the shore,—priests, soldiers, traders, and officers, mingled with warriors and shrill-voiced squaws from Huron and Algonquin camps in the neighboring forest. Close at hand they saw twelve or fifteen canoes slowly drifting down the
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CHAPTER XX. 1645, 1646.
CHAPTER XX. 1645, 1646.
There is little doubt that the Iroquois negotiators acted, for the moment, in sincerity. Guillaume Couture, who returned with them and spent the winter in their towns, saw sufficient proof that they sincerely desired peace. And yet the treaty had a double defect. First, the wayward, capricious, and ungoverned nature of the Indian parties to it, on both sides, made a speedy rupture more than likely. Secondly, in spite of their own assertion to the contrary, the Iroquois envoys represented, not th
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CHAPTER XXI. 1646, 1647.
CHAPTER XXI. 1646, 1647.
The peace was broken, and the hounds of war turned loose. The contagion spread through all the Mohawk nation, the war-songs were sung, and the warriors took the path for Canada. The miserable colonists and their more miserable allies woke from their dream of peace to a reality of fear and horror. Again Montreal and Three Rivers were beset with murdering savages, skulking in thickets and prowling under cover of night, yet, when it came to blows, displaying a courage almost equal to the ferocity t
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CHAPTER XXII. 1645-1651.
CHAPTER XXII. 1645-1651.
Before passing to the closing scenes of this wilderness drama, we will touch briefly on a few points aside from its main action, yet essential to an understanding of the scope of the mission. Besides their establishments at Quebec, Sillery, Three Rivers, and the neighborhood of Lake Huron, the Jesuits had an outlying post at the island of Miscou, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near the entrance of the Bay of Chaleurs, where they instructed the wandering savages of those shores, and confessed the F
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CHAPTER XXIII. 1645-1648.
CHAPTER XXIII. 1645-1648.
It was a strange and miserable spectacle to behold the savages of this continent at the time when the knell of their common ruin had already sounded. Civilization had gained a foothold on their borders. The long and gloomy reign of barbarism was drawing near its close, and their united efforts could scarcely have availed to sustain it. Yet, in this crisis of their destiny, these doomed tribes were tearing each other's throats in a wolfish fury, joined to an intelligence that served little purpos
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CHAPTER XXIV. 1645-1648.
CHAPTER XXIV. 1645-1648.
How did it fare with the missions in these days of woe and terror? They had thriven beyond hope. The Hurons, in their time of trouble, had become tractable. They humbled themselves, and, in their desolation and despair, came for succor to the priests. There was a harvest of converts, not only exceeding in numbers that of all former years, but giving in many cases undeniable proofs of sincerity and fervor. In some towns the Christians outnumbered the heathen, and in nearly all they formed a stron
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CHAPTER XXV. 1648, 1649.
CHAPTER XXV. 1648, 1649.
The River Wye enters the Bay of Glocester, an inlet of the Bay of Matchedash, itself an inlet of the vast Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Retrace the track of two centuries and more, and ascend this little stream in the summer of the year 1648. Your vessel is a birch canoe, and your conductor a Huron Indian. On the right hand and on the left, gloomy and silent, rise the primeval woods; but you have advanced scarcely half a league when the scene is changed, and cultivated fields, planted chiefly with
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CHAPTER XXVI. 1648.
CHAPTER XXVI. 1648.
In the summer of 1647 the Hurons dared not go down to the French settlements, but in the following year they took heart, and resolved at all risks to make the attempt; for the kettles, hatchets, and knives of the traders had become necessaries of life. Two hundred and fifty of their best warriors therefore embarked, under five valiant chiefs. They made the voyage in safety, approached Three Rivers on the seventeenth of July, and, running their canoes ashore among the bulrushes, began to grease t
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CHAPTER XXVII. 1649.
CHAPTER XXVII. 1649.
More than eight months had passed since the catastrophe of St. Joseph. The winter was over, and that dreariest of seasons had come, the churlish forerunner of spring. Around Sainte Marie the forests were gray and bare, and, in the cornfields, the oozy, half-thawed soil, studded with the sodden stalks of the last autumn's harvest, showed itself in patches through the melting snow. At nine o'clock on the morning of the sixteenth of March, the priests saw a heavy smoke rising over the naked forest
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CHAPTER XXVIII. 1649.
CHAPTER XXVIII. 1649.
On the morning of the twentieth, the Jesuits at Sainte Marie received full confirmation of the reported retreat of the invaders; and one of them, with seven armed Frenchmen, set out for the scene of havoc. They passed St. Louis, where the bloody ground was strown thick with corpses, and, two or three miles farther on, reached St. Ignace. Here they saw a spectacle of horror; for among the ashes of the burnt town were scattered in profusion the half-consumed bodies of those who had perished in the
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CHAPTER XXIX. 1649, 1650.
CHAPTER XXIX. 1649, 1650.
All was over with the Hurons. The death-knell of their nation had struck. Without a leader, without organization, without union, crazed with fright and paralyzed with misery, they yielded to their doom without a blow. Their only thought was flight. Within two weeks after the disasters of St. Ignace and St. Louis, fifteen Huron towns were abandoned, and the greater number burned, lest they should give shelter to the Iroquois. The last year's harvest had been scanty; the fugitives had no food, and
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CHAPTER XXX. 1649.
CHAPTER XXX. 1649.
Late in the preceding autumn the Iroquois had taken the war-path in force. At the end of November, two escaped prisoners came to Isle St. Joseph with the news that a band of three hundred warriors was hovering in the Huron forests, doubtful whether to invade the island or to attack the towns of the Tobacco Nation in the valleys of the Blue Mountains. The Father Superior, Ragueneau, sent a runner thither in all haste, to warn the inhabitants of their danger. There were at this time two missions i
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CHAPTER XXXI. 1650-1652.
CHAPTER XXXI. 1650-1652.
As spring approached, the starving multitude on Isle St. Joseph grew reckless with hunger. Along the main shore, in spots where the sun lay warm, the spring fisheries had already begun, and the melting snow was uncovering the acorns in the woods. There was danger everywhere, for bands of Iroquois were again on the track of their prey. [1] The miserable Hurons, gnawed with inexorable famine, stood in the dilemma of a deadly peril and an assured death. They chose the former; and, early in March, b
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CHAPTER XXXII. 1650-1866.
CHAPTER XXXII. 1650-1866.
Iroquois bullets and tomahawks had killed the Hurons by hundreds, but famine and disease had killed incomparably more. The miseries of the starving crowd on Isle St. Joseph had been shared in an equal degree by smaller bands, who had wintered in remote and secret retreats of the wilderness. Of those who survived that season of death, many were so weakened that they could not endure the hardships of a wandering life, which was new to them. The Hurons lived by agriculture: their fields and crops w
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CHAPTER XXXIII. 1650-1670.
CHAPTER XXXIII. 1650-1670.
It was well for the European colonies, above all for those of England, that the wisdom of the Iroquois was but the wisdom of savages. Their sagacity is past denying; it showed itself in many ways; but it was not equal to a comprehension of their own situation and that of their race. Could they have read their destiny, and curbed their mad ambition, they might have leagued with themselves four great communities of kindred lineage, to resist the encroachments of civilization, and oppose a barrier
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
With the fall of the Hurons, fell the best hope of the Canadian mission. They, and the stable and populous communities around them, had been the rude material from which the Jesuit would have formed his Christian empire in the wilderness; but, one by one, these kindred peoples were uprooted and swept away, while the neighboring Algonquins, to whom they had been a bulwark, were involved with them in a common ruin. The land of promise was turned to a solitude and a desolation. There was still work
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France and England in North America
France and England in North America
The year that each book was published is printed and enclosed by parenthesis after the title of each volume. In some cases, there are two years in parenthesis. These indicate that a volume with major revisions was published. The revised version of Pioneers of France contains new descriptions of Florida and some changes to the section on Samuel Champlain. Parkman revised Discovery of the West after obtaining access to Margry's collection. The revised version of The Old Régime includes three new c
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Transcription notes:
Transcription notes:
This book was originally transcribed from Volume 20. While making a batch of corrections, a decision was made to base this etext on Volume 1 for three reasons: 1) Parkman's subsequent revisions were virtually insignificant; 2) Volume 1, released in 1867, is available at the New York Public Library through Hathitrust, and thus, can readily be consulted for future claims of errata, and 3) In the Notes on the Texts prepared for the The Library of America reprint (1983), David Levin opined that usin
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Detailed Notes Section:
Detailed Notes Section:
• Chapter 5: Capitalize Thwarted and Begun in the topics list. • Chapter 16: Capitalize Tortured in the topics list. • Chapter 19: Capitalize Confirmed in the topics list. • Chapter 26: Capitalize Destroyed in the topics list. • Page xix , add Indian before "Social and Political Organization" to match topics list in Table of Contents. • Page xxxv , in footnote 0-18 , the word "come" is printed with a straight line over the "o," not only in Volume 1, but also in Volume 7. The Library of America v
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PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.
When the earlier editions of this book were published, I was aware of the existence of a collection of documents relating to La Salle, and containing important material to which I had not succeeded in gaining access. This collection was in possession of M. Pierre Margry, director of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at Paris, and was the result of more than thirty years of research. With rare assiduity and zeal, M. Margry had explored not only the vast depository with which he has been off
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PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION.
PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION.
The discovery of the "Great West," or the valleys of the Mississippi and the Lakes, is a portion of our history hitherto very obscure. Those magnificent regions were revealed to the world through a series of daring enterprises, of which the motives and even the incidents have been but partially and superficially known. The chief actor in them wrote much, but printed nothing; and the published writings of his associates stand wofully in need of interpretation from the unpublished documents which
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The Spaniards discovered the Mississippi. De Soto was buried beneath its waters; and it was down its muddy current that his followers fled from the Eldorado of their dreams, transformed to a wilderness of misery and death. The discovery was never used, and was well-nigh forgotten. On early Spanish maps, the Mississippi is often indistinguishable from other affluents of the Gulf. A century passed after De Soto's journeyings in the South, before a French explorer reached a northern tributary of th
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I.
I.
EARLY UNPUBLISHED MAPS OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE GREAT LAKES. Most of the maps described below are to be found in the Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine et des Colonies, at Paris. Taken together, they exhibit the progress of western discovery, and illustrate the records of the explorers. 1. The map of Galinée, 1670, has a double title,— Carte du Canada et des Terres découvertes vers le lac Derié, and Carte du Lac Ontario et des habitations qui l'environnent ensemble le pays que Mess rs. Dolier et Ga
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II.
II.
THE ELDORADO OF MATHIEU SÂGEAN. Father Hennepin had among his contemporaries two rivals in the fabrication of new discoveries. The first was the noted La Hontan, whose book, like his own, had a wide circulation and proved a great success. La Hontan had seen much, and portions of his story have a substantial value; but his account of his pretended voyage up the "Long River" is a sheer fabrication. His "Long River" corresponds in position with the St. Peter, but it corresponds in nothing else; and
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NEW LIBRARY EDITION.
NEW LIBRARY EDITION.
Printed from entirely new plates, in clear and beautiful type, upon a choice laid paper. Illustrated with twenty-six photogravure plates executed by Goupil from historical portraits, and from original drawings and paintings by Howard Pyle, De Cost Smith, Thule de Thulstrup, Frederic Remington, Orson Lowell, Adrien Moreau, and other artists. Thirteen volumes, medium octavo, cloth, gilt top, price, $26.00; half calf, extra, gilt top, $58.50; half crushed Levant morocco, extra, gilt top, $78.00; ha
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The discovery of the "Great West," or the valleys of the Mississippi and the Lakes, is a portion of our history hitherto very obscure. Those magnificent regions were revealed to the world through a series of daring enterprises, of which the motives and even the incidents have been but partially and superficially known. The chief actor in them wrote much, but printed nothing; and the published writings of his associates stand wofully in need of interpretation from the unpublished documents which
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The Youth of La Salle.—His Connection with the Jesuits.—He goes to Canada.—His Character.—His Schemes.—His Seigniory at La Chine.—His Expedition in Search of a Western Passage to India. The French in Western New York.—Louis Joliet.—The Sulpitians on Lake Erie.—At Detroit.—At Saut Ste. Marie.—The Mystery of La Salle.—He discovers the Ohio.—He descends the Illinois.—Did he reach the Mississippi? The Old Missions and the New.—A Change of Spirit.—Lake Superior and the Copper Mines.—Ste. Marie.—La Po
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
The Spaniards discovered the Mississippi. De Soto was buried beneath its waters; and it was down its muddy current that his followers fled from the Eldorado of their dreams, transformed to a dismal wilderness of misery and death. The discovery was never used, and was well-nigh forgotten. On early Spanish maps, the Mississippi is often indistinguishable from other affluents of the Gulf. A century passed after De Soto's journeyings in the South, before a French explorer reached a northern tributar
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CHAPTER I. 1643-1669. CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.
CHAPTER I. 1643-1669. CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.
Among the burghers of Rouen was the old and rich family of the Caveliers. Though citizens and not nobles, some of their connections held high diplomatic posts and honorable employments at Court. They were destined to find a better claim to distinction. In 1643 was born at Rouen Robert Cavelier, better known by the designation of La Salle. [Footnote: The following is the acte de naissance , discovered by Margry in the registres de l'état civil , Paroisse St. Herbland, Rouen. "Le vingt- deuxième j
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CHAPTER II. 1669-1671. LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS.
CHAPTER II. 1669-1671. LA SALLE AND THE SULPITIANS.
La Chine was the starting-point, and the combined parties, in all twenty- four men with seven canoes, embarked on the Lake of St. Louis. With them were two other canoes, bearing the party of Senecas who had wintered at La Salle's settlement, and who were now to act as guides. They fought their way upward against the perilous rapids of the St. Lawrence, then scarcely known to the voyager, threaded the romantic channels of the Thousand Islands, and issued on Lake Ontario. Thirty days of toil and e
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CHAPTER III. 1670-1672. THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.
CHAPTER III. 1670-1672. THE JESUITS ON THE LAKES.
What were the Jesuits doing? Since the ruin of their great mission of the Hurons, a perceptible change had taken place in them. They had put forth exertions almost superhuman, set at naught famine, disease, and death, lived with the self-abnegation of saints and died with the devotion of martyrs; and the result of all had been a disastrous failure. From no short-coming on their part, but from the force of events beyond the sphere of their influence, a very demon of havoc had crushed their incipi
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CHAPTER IV. 1667-1672. FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION OF THE WEST.
CHAPTER IV. 1667-1672. FRANCE TAKES POSSESSION OF THE WEST.
Jean Talon, Intendant of Canada, was a man of no common stamp. Able, vigorous, and patriotic,—he was the worthy lieutenant and disciple of the great minister Colbert, the ill-requited founder of the prosperity of Louis XIV. He cherished high hopes for the future of New France, and labored strenuously to realize them. He urged upon the king a scheme which, could it have been accomplished, would have wrought strange changes on the American continent. This was, to gain possession of New York, by tr
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CHAPTER V. 1672-1675. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
CHAPTER V. 1672-1675. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
If Talon had remained in the colony, Frontenac would infallibly have quarrelled with him; but he was too clear-sighted not to approve his plans for the discovery and occupation of the interior. Before sailing for France, Talon recommended Joliet as a suitable agent for the discovery of the Mississippi, and the Governor accepted his counsel. [Footnote: Lettre de Frontenac au Ministre , 2 Nov . 1672; Ibid 14 Nov . 1674. MSS] Louis Joliet was the son of a wagon-maker in the service of the Company o
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CHAPTER VI. 1673-1678. LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.
CHAPTER VI. 1673-1678. LA SALLE AND FRONTENAC.
We turn from the humble Marquette, thanking God with his last breath that he died for his Order and his faith; and by our side stands the masculine form of Cavelier de la Salle. Prodigious was the contrast between the two discoverers: the one, with clasped hands and upturned eyes, seems a figure evoked from some dim legend of mediaeval saintship; the other, with feet firm planted on the hard earth, breathes the self-relying energies of modern practical enterprise. Nevertheless, La Salle was a ma
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CHAPTER VII. 1674-1678. LA SALLE AND THE JESUITS.
CHAPTER VII. 1674-1678. LA SALLE AND THE JESUITS.
A curious incident occurred soon, after the building of the fort on Lake Ontario. A violent quarrel had taken place between Frontenac and Perrot, the Governor of Montreal, whom, in view of his speculations in the fur- trade, he seems to have regarded as a rival in business; but who, by his folly and arrogance, would have justified any reasonable measure of severity. Frontenac, however, was not reasonable. He arrested Perrot, threw him into prison, and set up a man of his own as governor in his p
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CHAPTER VIII. 1678. PARTY STRIFE.
CHAPTER VIII. 1678. PARTY STRIFE.
One of the most curious monuments of La Salle's time is a long memoir, written by a person who made his acquaintance at Paris, in the summer of 1678, when, as we shall soon see, he had returned to France, in prosecution of his plans. The writer knew the Sulpitian Galinée, [Footnote: Ante , p. 11.] who, as he says, had a very high opinion of La Salle; and he was also in close relations with the discoverer's patron, the Prince de Conti. [Footnote: Louis-Armand de Bourbon, second Prince de Conti. I
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CHAPTER IX. 1677-1678. THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.
CHAPTER IX. 1677-1678. THE GRAND ENTERPRISE.
When La Salle gained possession of Fort Frontenac, he secured a base for all his future enterprises. That he meant to make it a permanent one is clear from the pains he took to strengthen its defences. Within two years from the date of his grant he had replaced the hasty palisade fort of Count Frontenac by a regular work of hewn stone; of which, however, only two bastions, with their connecting curtains, were completed, the enclosure on the water side being formed of pickets. Within, there was a
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CHAPTER X. 1678-1679. LA SALLE AT NIAGARA.
CHAPTER X. 1678-1679. LA SALLE AT NIAGARA.
Hennepin was all eagerness to join in the adventure, and, to his great satisfaction, La Salle gave him a letter from his Provincial, Father Le Fèvre, containing the coveted permission. Whereupon, to prepare himself, he went into retreat, at the Récollet convent of Quebec, where he remained for a time in such prayer and meditation as his nature, the reverse of spiritual, would permit. Frontenac, always partial to his Order, then invited him to dine at the chateau; and having visited the Bishop an
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CHAPTER XI. 1679. THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN."
CHAPTER XI. 1679. THE LAUNCH OF THE "GRIFFIN."
A more important work than that of the warehouse at the mouth of the river was now to be begun. This was the building of a vessel above the cataract. The small craft which had brought La Motte and Hennepin with their advanced party had been hauled to the foot of the rapids at Lewiston, and drawn ashore with a capstan to save her from the drifting ice. Her lading was taken out, and must now be carried beyond the cataract to the calm water above. The distance to the destined point was at least twe
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CHAPTER XII. 1679. LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES.
CHAPTER XII. 1679. LA SALLE ON THE UPPER LAKES.
The "Griffin" had lain moored by the shore, so near that Hennepin could preach on Sundays from the deck to the men encamped along the bank. She was now forced up against the current with tow-ropes and sails, till she reached the calm entrance of Lake Erie. On the seventh of August, the voyagers, thirty-four in all, embarked, sang Te Deum , and fired their cannon. A fresh breeze sprang up; and with swelling canvas the "Griffin" ploughed the virgin waves of Lake Erie, where sail was never seen bef
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CHAPTER XIII. 1679-1680. LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS.
CHAPTER XIII. 1679-1680. LA SALLE ON THE ILLINOIS.
On the third of December, the party re-embarked, thirty-three in all, in eight canoes, [Footnote: Lettre de Duchesneau à —, 10 Nov . 1680, MS.] and ascended the chill current of the St. Joseph, bordered with dreary meadows and bare gray forests. When they approached the site of the present village of South Bend, they looked anxiously along the shore on their right to find the portage or path leading to the headquarters of the Illinois. The Mohegan was absent, hunting; and, unaided by his practis
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CHAPTER XIV. 1680. FORT CRÈVECOEUR.
CHAPTER XIV. 1680. FORT CRÈVECOEUR.
La Salle now resolved to leave the Indian camp, and fortify himself for the winter in a strong position, where his men would be less exposed to dangerous influence, and where he could hold his ground against an outbreak of the Illinois or an Iroquois invasion. At the middle of January, a thaw broke up the ice which had closed the river; and he set out in a canoe, with Hennepin, to visit the site he had chosen for his projected fort. It was half a league below the camp, on a little hill, or knoll
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CHAPTER XV. 1680. HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE.
CHAPTER XV. 1680. HARDIHOOD OF LA SALLE.
The winter had been a severe one. When La Salle and his five companions reached Peoria Lake, they found it sheeted from shore to shore with ice that stopped the progress of their canoes, but was too thin to bear the weight of a man. They dragged their light vessels up the bank and into the forest, where the city of Peoria now stands; made two rude sledges, placed the canoes and baggage upon them, and, toiling knee-deep in saturated snow, dragged them four leagues through the woods, till they rea
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CHAPTER XVI. 1680. INDIAN CONQUERORS.
CHAPTER XVI. 1680. INDIAN CONQUERORS.
And now La Salle's work must be begun afresh. He had staked all, and all had seemingly been lost. In stern relentless effort he had touched the limits of human endurance; and the harvest of his toils was disappointment, disaster, and impending ruin. The shattered fabric of his enterprise was prostrate in the dust. His friends desponded; his foes were blatant and exultant. Did he bend before the storm? No human eye could pierce the veiled depths of his reserved and haughty nature; but the surface
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CHAPTER XVII. 1680. TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS.
CHAPTER XVII. 1680. TONTY AND THE IROQUOIS.
When La Salle set out on his rugged journey to Fort Frontenac, he left, as we have seen, fifteen men at Fort Crèvecoeur,—smiths, ship-carpenters, housewrights, and soldiers, besides his servant l'Esperance and the two friars Membré and Ribourde. Most of the men were ripe for mutiny. They had no interest in the enterprise, and no love for its chief. They were disgusted at the present, and terrified at the future. La Salle, too, was for the most part a stern commander, impenetrable and cold; and w
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THE ILLINOIS TOWN.
THE ILLINOIS TOWN.
The site of the great Illinois town.—This has not till now been determined, though there have been various conjectures concerning it. From a study of the contemporary documents and maps, I became satisfied, first, that the branch of the River Illinois, called the "Big Vermilion," was the Aramoni of the French explorers; and, secondly, that the cliff called "Starved Rock" was that known to the French as Le Rocher , or the Rock of St. Louis. If I was right in this conclusion, then the position of
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CHAPTER XVIII. 1680. THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN.
CHAPTER XVIII. 1680. THE ADVENTURES OF HENNEPIN.
It was on the last day of the winter that preceded the invasion of the Iroquois, that Father Hennepin, with his two companions, Accau and Du Gay, had set out from Fort Crèvecoeur to explore the Illinois to its mouth. It appears from his own later statements, as well as from those of Tonty, that more than this was expected of him, and that La Salle had instructed him to explore, not alone the Illinois, but also the Upper Mississippi. That he actually did so, there is no reasonable doubt; and, cou
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CHAPTER XIX. 1680, 1681. HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX.
CHAPTER XIX. 1680, 1681. HENNEPIN AMONG THE SIOUX.
As Hennepin entered the village, he beheld a sight which caused him to invoke St. Anthony of Padua. In front of the lodges were certain stakes, to which were attached bundles of straw, intended, as he supposed, for burning him and his friends alive. His concern was redoubled when he saw the condition of the Picard Du Gay, whose hair and face had been painted with divers colors, and whose head was decorated with a tuft of white feathers. In this guise, he was entering the village, followed by a c
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CHAPTER XX. 1681. LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW.
CHAPTER XX. 1681. LA SALLE BEGINS ANEW.
In tracing the adventures of Tonty and the rovings of Hennepin, we have lost sight of La Salle, the pivot of the enterprise. Returning from the desolation and horror in the valley of the Illinois, he had spent the winter at Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph, by the borders of Lake Michigan. Here he might have brooded on the redoubled ruin that had befallen him: the desponding friends, the exulting foes; the wasted energies, the crushing load of debt, the stormy past, the black and lowering future. B
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CHAPTER XXI. 1681-1682. SUCCESS OF LA SALLE.
CHAPTER XXI. 1681-1682. SUCCESS OF LA SALLE.
The season was far advanced. On the bare limbs of the forest hung a few withered remnants of its gay autumnal livery; and the smoke crept upward through the sullen November air from the squalid wigwams of La Salle's Abenaki and Mohegan allies. These, his new friends, were savages, whose midnight yells had startled the border hamlets of New England; who had danced around Puritan scalps, and whom Puritan imaginations painted as incarnate fiends. La Salle chose eighteen of them, "all well inured to
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CHAPTER XXII. 1682-1683. ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS.
CHAPTER XXII. 1682-1683. ST. LOUIS OF THE ILLINOIS.
Louisiana was the name bestowed by La Salle on the new domain of the French crown. The rule of the Bourbons in the West is a memory of the past, but the name of the Great King still survives in a narrow corner of their lost empire. The Louisiana of to-day is but a single State of the American republic. The Louisiana of La Salle stretched from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains; from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to the farthest springs of the Missouri. [Footnote: The boundaries are laid down o
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CHAPTER XXIII. 1684. A NEW ENTERPRISE.
CHAPTER XXIII. 1684. A NEW ENTERPRISE.
From the wilds of the Illinois,—crag, forest, and prairie, squalid wigwams, and naked savages,—La Salle crossed the sea; and before him rose the sculptured wonders of Versailles, that world of gorgeous illusion and hollow splendor, where Louis the Magnificent held his court. Amid its pomp of weary ceremonial, its glittering masquerade of vice and folly, its carnival of vanity and pride, stood the man whose home for sixteen years had been the wilderness, his bed the earth, his roof the sky, and h
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CHAPTER XXIV. 1684-1685. LA SALLE IN TEXAS.
CHAPTER XXIV. 1684-1685. LA SALLE IN TEXAS.
The four ships sailed on the twenty-fourth of July; but the "Joly" soon broke her bowsprit, and they were forced to put back. [Footnote: La Salle believed that this mishap, which took place in good weather, was intentional.— Mémoire autographe de l'Abbé Jean Cavelier sur la Voyage de 1684, MS. Compare Joutel, 15.] On the first of August, they again set sail. La Salle, with the principal persons of the expedition, and a crowd of soldiers, artisans, and women, the destined mothers of Louisiana, we
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CHAPTER XXV. 1685-1687. ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.
CHAPTER XXV. 1685-1687. ST. LOUIS OF TEXAS.
Of what avail to plant a colony by the mouth of a petty Texan river? The Mississippi was the life of the enterprise, the condition of its growth and of its existence. Without it, all was futile and meaningless; a folly and a ruin. Cost what it might, the Mississippi must be found. But the demands of the hour were imperative. The hapless colony, cast ashore like a wreck on the sands of Matagorda Bay, must gather up its shattered resources, and recruit its exhausted strength, before it essayed ane
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CHAPTER XXVI. 1687. ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE.
CHAPTER XXVI. 1687. ASSASSINATION OF LA SALLE.
The travellers were crossing a marshy prairie towards a distant belt of woods, that followed the course of a little river. They led with them their five horses, laden, with their scanty baggage, and with what was of no less importance, their stock of presents for Indians. Some wore the remains of the clothing they had worn from France, eked out with deer- skins, dressed in the Indian manner; and some had coats of old sail-cloth. Here was La Salle, in whom one would have known, at a glance, the c
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CHAPTER XXVII. 1687, 1688. THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.
CHAPTER XXVII. 1687, 1688. THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.
Father Anastase Douay returned to the camp, and, aghast with grief and terror, rushed into the hut of Cavelier. "My poor brother is dead!" cried the priest, instantly divining the catastrophe from the horror-stricken face of the messenger. Close behind came the murderers, Duhaut at their head. Cavelier, his young nephew, and Douay himself, all fell on their knees, expecting instant death. The priest begged piteously for half an hour to prepare for his end; but terror and submission sufficed, and
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CHAPTER XXVIII. 1688-1689. FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY.
CHAPTER XXVIII. 1688-1689. FATE OF THE TEXAN COLONY.
Henri de Tonty, on his rock of St. Louis, was visited in September by Couture, and two Indians from the Arkansas. Then, for the first time, he heard with grief and indignation of the death of La Salle, and the deceit practised by Cavelier. The chief whom he had served so well was beyond his help; but might not the unhappy colonists left on the shores of Texas still be rescued from destruction? Couture had confirmed what Cavelier and his party had already told him, that the tribes south of the Ar
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APPENDIX. APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX. APPENDIX I.
Most of the maps described below are to be found in the Dépôt des Cartes of the Marine and Colonies, at Paris. Taken together, they exhibit the progress of western discovery, and illustrate the records of the explorers. This map has a double title: Carte du Canada et des Terres découvertes vers le lac Derié , and Carte du Lac Ontario et des habitations qui l'enuironnent ensemble le pays que Messrs. Dolier et Galinée, missionnaires du seminaire de St. Sulpice, ont parcouru . It professes to repre
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APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
Father Hennepin had among his contemporaries two rivals in the fabrication of new discoveries. The first was the noted La Hontan, whose book, like his own, had a wide circulation and proved a great success. La Hontan had seen much, and portions of his story have a substantial value; but his account of his pretended voyage up the "Long River" is a sheer fabrication. His "Long River" corresponds in position with the St. Peter, but it corresponds in nothing else; and the populous nations whom he fo
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GEORGE EDWARD ELLIS, D.D.
GEORGE EDWARD ELLIS, D.D.
My dear Dr. Ellis: When, in my youth, I proposed to write a series of books on the French in America, you encouraged the attempt, and your helpful kindness has followed it from that day to this. Pray accept the dedication of this volume in token of the grateful regard of Very faithfully yours,...
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
“The physiognomy of a government,” says De Tocqueville, “can best be judged in its colonies, for there its characteristic traits usually appear larger and more distinct. When I wish to judge of the spirit and the faults of the administration of Louis XIV., I must go to Canada. Its deformity is there seen as through a microscope.” The monarchical administration of France, at the height of its power and at the moment of its supreme triumph, stretched an arm across the Atlantic and grasped the Nort
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I. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. CHAPT I. 1653-1658. THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA.
I. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. CHAPT I. 1653-1658. THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA.
The Iroquois War.—Father Poncet.—His Adventures.—Jesuit Boldness.—Le Moyne’s Mission.—Chaumonot and Dablon.—Iroquois Ferocity.—The Mohawk Kidnappers.—Critical Position.—The Colony of Onondaga.—Speech of Chaumonot.—Omens of Destruction.—Device of the Jesuits.—The Medicine Feast.—The Escape....
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CHAPT II. 1642-1661. THE HOLT WARS OF MONTREAL.
CHAPT II. 1642-1661. THE HOLT WARS OF MONTREAL.
Duversière.—Mance and Bourgeoys.—Miracle.—A Pious Defaulter.—Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Montreal in 1659.—The Hospital Nuns.—The Nuns and the Iroquois.—More Miracles—The Murdered Priests.—Brigeac and Closse.—Soldiers of the Holy Family....
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CHAPT III. 1660, 1661. THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT.
CHAPT III. 1660, 1661. THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT.
Suffering and Terror.—François Hertel.—The Captive Wolf.—The threatened Invasion.—Daulac des Ormeaux.—The Adventurers at the Long Saut.—The Attack.—A Desperate Defence.—A Final Assault.—The Fort taken....
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CHAPT IV. 1657-1668. THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC.
CHAPT IV. 1657-1668. THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC.
Domestic Strife.—Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Abbé Queylus.—François de Laval.—The Zealots of Caen.—Gallican and Ultramontane.—The Rival Claimants.—Storm at Quebec.—Laval Triumphant....
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CHAPT V. 1659, 1660. LAVAL AND ARGENSON.
CHAPT V. 1659, 1660. LAVAL AND ARGENSON.
François de Laval.—His Position and Character.—Arrival of Argenson.—The Quarrel....
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CHAPT VI. 1658-1663. LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR.
CHAPT VI. 1658-1663. LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR.
Reception of Argenson.—His Difficulties.—His Recall.—Dubois d’Avaugour.—The Brandy Quarrel.—Distress of Laval.—Portents.—The Earthquake....
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CHAPT VII. 1661-1661. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL.
CHAPT VII. 1661-1661. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL.
Péronne Dumesnil.—The Old Council.—Alleged Murder.—The New Council.—Bourdon and Villeray.—Strong Measures.—Escape of Dumesnil.—Views of Colbert....
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CHAPT VIII. 1657-1665.
CHAPT VIII. 1657-1665.
LAVAL AND MÉZY. The Bishop’s Choice.—A Military Zealot.—Hopeful Beginnings.—Signs of Storm.—The Quarrel.—Distress of Mézy.—He Refuses to Yield.—His Defeat and Death....
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CHAPT IX. 1662-1680. LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY.
CHAPT IX. 1662-1680. LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY.
Laval’s Visit to Court.—The Seminary.—Zeal of the Bishop.—His Eulogists.—Church and State.—Attitude of Laval....
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II. THE COLONY AND THE KING. CHAPT X. 1661-1665. ROYAL INTERVENTION.
II. THE COLONY AND THE KING. CHAPT X. 1661-1665. ROYAL INTERVENTION.
Fontainebleau.—Louis XIV.—Colbert.—The Company of the West.—Evil Omens.—Action of the King.—Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon.—The Regiment of Carignan-Salières.—Tracy at Quebec.—Miracles.—A Holy War....
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CHAPT XI. 1666, 1667. THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED.
CHAPT XI. 1666, 1667. THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED.
Courcelle’s March.—His Failure and Return.—Courcelle and the Jesuits.—Mohawk Treachery.—Tracy’s Expedition.—Burning of the Mohawk Towns.—French and English.—Dollier de Casson at St. Anne.—Peace.—The Jesuits and the Iroquois....
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CHAPT XII. 1665-1672. PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
CHAPT XII. 1665-1672. PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
Talon.—Restriction and Monopoly.—Views of Colbert.—Political Galvanism.—A Father of the People....
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CHAPT XIII. 1661-1673. MARRIAGE AND POPULATION.
CHAPT XIII. 1661-1673. MARRIAGE AND POPULATION.
Shipment of Emigrants.—Soldier Settlers.—Importation of Wives.—Wedlock.—Summary Methods.—The Mothers of Canada.—Bounties on Marriage.—Celibacy Punished.—Bounties on Children.—Results....
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CHAPT XIV. 1665-1672. THE NEW HOME.
CHAPT XIV. 1665-1672. THE NEW HOME.
Military Frontier.—The Canadian Settler.—Seignior and Vassal.—Example of Talon.—Plan of Settlement.—Aspect of Canada.—Quebec.—The River Settlements.—Montreal.—The Pioneers....
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CHAPT XV. 1663-1763. CANADIAN FEUDALISM.
CHAPT XV. 1663-1763. CANADIAN FEUDALISM.
Transplantation of Feudalism.—Precautions.—Faith and Homage. —The Seignior.—The Censitaire.—Royal Intervention.—The Gentilhomme.—Canadian Noblesse....
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CHAPT XVI. 1663-1763. THE RULERS OF CANADA.
CHAPT XVI. 1663-1763. THE RULERS OF CANADA.
Nature of the Government.—The Governor.—The Council.—Courts and Judges.—The Intendant.—His Grievances.—Strong Government.—Sedition and Blasphemy.—Royal Bounty.—Defects and Abuses....
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CHAPT XVII. 1663-1763. TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
CHAPT XVII. 1663-1763. TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
Trade in Fetters.—The Huguenot Merchants.—Royal Patronage.—The Fisheries.—Cries for Help.—Agriculture.—Manufactures.—Arts of Ornament.—Finance.—Card Money.—Repudiation.—Imposts.—The Beaver Trade.—The Fair at Montreal.—Contraband Trade.—A Fatal System.—Trouble and Change.—The Coureurs de Bois.-The Forest.—Letter of Carheil....
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CHAPT XVIII. 1663-1702. THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION.
CHAPT XVIII. 1663-1702. THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION.
The Jesuits and the Iroquois.—Mission Villages.—Michillimackinac.—Father Carheil.—Temperance.—Brandy and the Indians.—Strong Measures.—Disputes.—License and Prohibition.—Views of the King.—Trade and the Jesuits....
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CHAPT XIX. 1663-1763. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE.
CHAPT XIX. 1663-1763. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE.
Church and State.—The Bishop and the King.—The King ana the Cure's.—The New Bishop.—The Canadian Curé.—Ecclesiastical Rule.—Saint-Vallier and Denonville.—Clerical Rigor.—Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Courcelle and Châtelain.—The Recollets.—Heresy and Witchcraft.—Canadian Nuns.—Jeanne Le Ber.—Education.—The Seminary.—Saint Joachim.—Miracles of Saint Anne.—Canadian Schools....
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CHAPT XX. 1640-1763. MORALS AND MANNERS
CHAPT XX. 1640-1763. MORALS AND MANNERS
Social Influence of the Troops.—A Petty Tyrant.—Brawls.—Violence and Outlawry.—State of the Population.—Views of Denonville.—Brandy.—Beggary.—The Past and the Present.—Inns.—State of Quebec.—Fires.—The Country Parishes.—Slavery.—Views of La Hontan.—Of Hocquart.—Of Bougainville—Of Kalm.—Of Charlevoix....
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CHAPT XXI. 1663-1763. CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM.
CHAPT XXI. 1663-1763. CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM.
Formation of Canadian Character.—The Rival Colonies.—England and France.—New England.—Characteristics of Race.—Military Qualities.—The Church.—The English Conquest....
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CHAPTER I. 1653-1658. THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA.
CHAPTER I. 1653-1658. THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA.
The Iroquois War.—Father Poncet.—His Adventures.—Jesuit Boldness.—Le Moyne’s Mission.—Chaumonot and Dablon.—Iroquois Ferocity.—The Mohawk Kidnappers.—Critical Position.—The Colony of Onondaga.—Speech op Chaumonot.—Omens of Destruction.—Device of the Jesuits.—The Medicine Feast.—The Escape. I n the summer of 1653, all Canada turned to fasting and penance, processions, vows, and supplications. The saints and the Virgin were beset with unceasing prayer. The wretched little colony was like some puny
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1642-1661. THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL.
1642-1661. THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL.
Dauversière.—Mance and Bourgeoys.—Miracle.—A Pious Defaulter.— Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Montreal in 1659.—The Hospital Nuns.—The Nuns and the Iroquois.—More Miracles.—The Murdered Priests.—Brigeac and Closse.—Soldiers of the Holy Family. O n the 2d of July, 1659, the ship “St. André” lay in the harbor of Rochelle, crowded with passengers for Canada. She had served two years as a hospital for marines, and was infected with a contagious fever. Including the crew, some two hundred persons were on boar
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CHAPTER III. 1660, 1661. THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT.
CHAPTER III. 1660, 1661. THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT.
Suffering and Terror.—Francois Hertel.—The Captive Wolf—The threatened Invasion.—Daulac des Ormeaux.—The Adventurers at the Long Saut.—The Attack.—A Desperate Defence.—A Final Assault.—The Fort taken. C anada had writhed for twenty years, with little respite, under the scourge of Iroquois war. During a great part of this dark period the entire French population was less than three thousand. What, then, saved them from destruction? In the first place, the settlements were grouped around three for
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CHAPTER IV. 1657-1668. THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC.
CHAPTER IV. 1657-1668. THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC.
Domestic Strife.—Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Abbé Queylus.—Francois de Laval.—The Zealots of Caen.—Gallican and Ultramontane.—The Rival Claimants.—Storm at Quebec—Laval Triumphant. C anada, gasping under the Iroquois tomahawk, might, one would suppose, have thought her cup of tribulation full, and, sated with inevitable woe, have sought consolation from the wrath without in a holy calm within. Not so, however; for while the heathen raged at the door, discord rioted at the hearthstone. Her domestic qua
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CHAPTER V. 1659, 1660. LAVAL AND ARGENSON.
CHAPTER V. 1659, 1660. LAVAL AND ARGENSON.
François de Laval.—His Position and Character.—Arrival of Argenson.—The Quarrel. W e are touching delicate ground. To many excellent Catholics of our own day Laval is an object of veneration. The Catholic university of Quebec glories in bearing his name, and certain modern ecclesiastical writers rarely mention him in terms less reverent than “the virtuous prelate,” or “the holy prelate.” Nor are some of his contemporaries less emphatic in eulogy. Mother Juchereau de Saint-Denis, Superior of the
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CHAPTER VI. 1658-1663. LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR.
CHAPTER VI. 1658-1663. LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR.
Reception of Argenson.—His Difficulties.—His Recall.—Dubois d’Avaugour.—The Brandt Quarrel.—Distress of Laval.—Portents.—The Earthquake. W hen Argenson arrived to assume the government, a curious greeting had awaited him. The Jesuits asked him to dine; vespers followed the repast; and then they conducted him into a hall, where the boys of their school—disguised, one as the Genius of New France, one as the Genius of the Forest, and others as Indians of various friendly tribes—made him speeches by
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CHAPTER VII. 1661-1664. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL
CHAPTER VII. 1661-1664. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL
Péronne Dumesnil.—The Old Council.—Alleged Murder.—The New Council.—Bourdon And Villeray.—Strong Measures.—Escape Of Duhesnil.—Views Of Colbert. T hough the proposals of Avaugour’s memorial were not adopted, it seems to have produced a strong impression at court. For this impression the minds of the king and his minister had already been prepared. Two years before, the inhabitants of Canada had sent one of their number, Pierre Boucher, to represent their many grievances and ask for aid. * Bouche
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CHAPTER VIII. 1657-1665. LAVAL AND MÉZY.
CHAPTER VIII. 1657-1665. LAVAL AND MÉZY.
The Bishop’s Choice.—A Military Zealot.—Hopeful Beginnings.—Signs of Storm.—The Quarrel.—Distress of Mézy.—He Refuses to Yield.—His Defeat and Death. W e have seen that Laval, when at court, had been invited to choose a governor to his liking. He soon made his selection. There was a pious officer, Saffray de Mézy, major of the town and citadel of Caen, whom he had well known during his long stay with Bernières at the Hermitage. Mézy was the principal member of the company of devotees formed at C
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CHAPTER IX. 1662-1680. LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY.
CHAPTER IX. 1662-1680. LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY.
LaVal’s Visit to Court.—The Seminary.—Zeal oF the Bishop.—His Eulogists.—Church and State.—Attitude of Laval. T hat memorable journey of Laval to court, which caused the dissolution of the Company of New France, the establishment of the Supreme Council, the recall of Avaugour, and the appointment of Mézy, had yet other objects and other results. Laval, vicar apostolic and titular bishop of Petræa, wished to become in title, as in fact, bishop of Quebec. Thus he would gain an increase of dignity
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CHAPTER X. 1661-1665. ROYAL INTERVENTION.
CHAPTER X. 1661-1665. ROYAL INTERVENTION.
Fontainebleau.—Louis XIV.—Colbert.—The Company of the West.—Evil Omens.—Action op the King.—Tracy, Coürcelle, And Talon.—The Regiment Of Carignan-Sallères.—Tracy at Quebec.—Miracles.—A Holy War. L eave Canada behind; cross the sea, and stand, on an evening in June, by the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. Beyond the broad gardens, above the long ranges of moonlit trees, rise the walls and pinnacles of the vast chateau; a shrine of history, the gorgeous monument of lines of vanished kings, hau
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CHAPTER XI. 1666, 1667. THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED.
CHAPTER XI. 1666, 1667. THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED.
Courcelle’s March.—His Failure and Return.—Courcelle and the Jesuits.—Mohawk Treachery.—Tracy’s Expedition.—Burning of the Mohawk Towns.—French and English.—Dollier de Casson at St. Anne.—Peace.—The Jesuits and the Iroquois. T he governor, Courcelle, says Father Le Meircier, “breathed nothing but war,” and was bent on immediate action. He was for the present subordinate to Tracy, who, however, forebore to cool his ardor, and allowed him to proceed. The result was an enterprise bold to rashness.
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CHAPTER XII. 1665-1672. PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER XII. 1665-1672. PATERNAL GOVERNMENT.
Talon.—Restriction and Monopoly.—Views of Colbert.—Political Galvanism.—A Father of the People. T racy’s work was done, and he left Canada with the glittering noblesse in his train. Courcelle and Talon remained to rule alone; and now the great experiment was begun. Paternal royalty would try its hand at building up a colony, and Talon was its chosen agent. His appearance did him no justice. The regular contour of his oval face, about which fell to his shoulders a cataract of curls, natural or su
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CHAPTER XIII 1661-1673. MARRIAGE AND POPULATION.
CHAPTER XIII 1661-1673. MARRIAGE AND POPULATION.
Shipment of Emigrants.—Soldier Settlers.—Importation of Wives.—Wedlock.—Summary Methods.—The Mothers of Canada.—Bounties on Marriage.—Celibacy Punished.—Bounties on Children.—Results. T he peopling of Canada was due in the main to the king. Before the accession of Louis XIV. the entire population, priests, nuns, traders, and settlers, did not exceed twenty-five hundred; * but scarcely had he reached his majority when the shipment of men to the colony was systematically begun. Even in Argenson’s
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CHAPTER XIV. 1665-1672. THE NEW HOME.
CHAPTER XIV. 1665-1672. THE NEW HOME.
Military Frontier.—The Canadian Settler.—Seignior and Vassal.—Example of Talon.—Plan of Settlement.—Aspect of Canada.—Quebec.—The River Settlements.—Montreal.—The Pioneers. W e have seen the settler landed and married; let us follow him to his new home. At the end of Talon’s administration, the head of the colony, that is to say the island of Montreal and the borders of the Richelieu, was the seat of a peculiar colonization, the chief object of which was to protect the rest of Canada against Iro
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CHAPTER XV. 1663-1763. CANADIAN FEUDALISM.
CHAPTER XV. 1663-1763. CANADIAN FEUDALISM.
Transplantation Of Feudalism.—Precautions.—Faith And Hope —Age.—The Seignior.—The Censitaire.—Royal Intervention.—The Gentilhomme.—Canadian Noblesse. C anadian society was beginning to form itself, and at its base was the feudal tenure. European feudalism was the indigenous and natural growth of political and social conditions which preceded it. Canadian feudalism was an offshoot of the feudalism of France, modified by the lapse of centuries, and further modified by the royal will. In France, as
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CHAPTER XVI. 1663-1763. THE RULERS OF CANADA.
CHAPTER XVI. 1663-1763. THE RULERS OF CANADA.
Nature Of The Government.—The Governor.—The Council, Courts and Judges.—The Intendant.—His Grievances.—Strong Government.—Sedition and Blasphemy.—Royal Bounty.—Defects and Abuses. T he government of Canada was formed in its chief features after the government of a French province. Throughout France the past and the present stood side by side. The kingdom had a double administration; or rather, the shadow of the old administration and the substance of the new. The government of provinces had long
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CHAPTER XVII. 1663-1763. TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
CHAPTER XVII. 1663-1763. TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
Trade in Fetters.—The Hüguenot Merchants.—Royal Patronage.—The Fisheries.—Cries for Help.—Agriculture.—Manufactures.—Arts of Ornament.—Finance.—Card Money.—Repudiation.—Imposts.—The Beaver Trade.—The Fair at Montreal.—Contraband Trade.—A Fatal System.—Trouble and Change.—The Coureurs de Bois.—The Forest.—Letter of Carheil. W e have seen the head of the colony, its guiding intellect and will: it remains to observe its organs of nutrition. Whatever they might have been under a different treatment,
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CHAPTER XVIII. 1663-1702. THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION.
CHAPTER XVIII. 1663-1702. THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION.
The Jesuits and the Iroquois.—Mission Villages.—Michillimackinac. —Father Carheil.—Temperance.—Brandy and the Indians.—Strong Measures.—Disputes.—License and Prohibition.—Views of the King.—Trade and the Jesuits. F or a year or two after De Tracy had chastised the Mohawks, and humbled the other Iroquois nations, all was rose color on the side of that dreaded confederacy. The Jesuits, defiant as usual of hardship and death, had begun their ruined missions anew. Bruyas took the Mission of the Mart
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CHAPTER XIX. 1663-1763. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XIX. 1663-1763. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE.
Church and State.—The Bishop and the King.—The King and the Cures.—The New Bishop.—The Canadian Cure.—Ecclesiastical Rule.—Saint-Vallier and Denonville.—Clerical Rigor.—Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Courcelle and Châtelain.—The Recollets.—Heresy and Witchcraft.—Canadian Nuns.—Jeanne Le Ber.—Education.—The Seminary.—Saint Joachim.—Miracles op Saint Anne.—Canadian Schools. W hen Laval and the Jesuits procured the recall of Mézy, they achieved a seeming triumph; yet it was but a defeat in disguise. While o
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CHAPTER XX. 1640-1763. MORALS AND MANNERS.
CHAPTER XX. 1640-1763. MORALS AND MANNERS.
Social Influence of the Troops.—A Petty Tyrant.—Brawls.—Violence and Outlawry.—State of the Population.—Views of Denonville.—Brandy.—Beggary.—The Past and the Present.—Inns.—State of Quebec.—Fires.—The Country Parishes.—Slavery.—Views of La Hontan.—Of Hocquart.—Of Bougainville.—Of Kalm.—Of Charlevoix. T he mission period of Canada, or the period anterior to the year 1663, when the king took the colony in charge, has a character of its own. The whole population did not exceed that of a large Fren
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CHAPTER XXI. 1663-1763. CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM.
CHAPTER XXI. 1663-1763. CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM.
Formation op Canadian Character.—The Rival Colonies.—England and France.—New England.—Characteristics op Race.—Military Qualities.—The Church.—The English Conquest. N ot institutions alone, but geographical position, climate, and many other conditions unite to form the educational influences that, acting through successive generations, shape the character of nations and communities. It is easy to see the nature of the education, past and present, which wrought on the Canadians and made them what
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Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV.
Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV.
by Francis Parkman Author of "Pioneers of France in the New World," "The Jesuits in North America," "The Discovery of the Great West," and "The Old Régime in Canada." Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1877. Entered According to Act of Congress in the year 1877, by Francis Parkman, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son....
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The events recounted in this book group themselves in the main about a single figure, that of Count Frontenac, the most remarkable man who ever represented the crown of France in the New World. From strangely unpromising beginnings, he grew with every emergency, and rose equal to every crisis. His whole career was one of conflict, sometimes petty and personal, sometimes of momentous consequence, involving the question of national ascendancy on this continent. Now that this question is put at res
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CHAPTER I. 1620-1672.
CHAPTER I. 1620-1672.
At Versailles there is the portrait of a lady, beautiful and young. She is painted as Minerva, a plumed helmet on her head, and a shield on her arm. In a corner of the canvas is written Anne de La Grange-Trianon, Comtesse de Frontenac . This blooming goddess was the wife of the future governor of Canada. Madame de Frontenac, at the age of about twenty, was a favorite companion of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the grand-daughter of Henry IV. and daughter of the weak and dastardly Gaston, Duke of O
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CHAPTER II. 1672-1675.
CHAPTER II. 1672-1675.
Frontenac was fifty-two years old when he landed at Quebec. If time had done little to cure his many faults, it had done nothing to weaken the springs of his unconquerable vitality. In his ripe middle age, he was as keen, fiery, and perversely headstrong as when he quarrelled with Préfontaine in the hall at St. Fargeau. Had nature disposed him to melancholy, there was much in his position to awaken it. A man of courts and camps, born and bred in the focus of a most gorgeous civilization, he was
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CHAPTER III. 1673-1675.
CHAPTER III. 1673-1675.
Not long before Frontenac's arrival, Courcelle, his predecessor, went to Lake Ontario with an armed force, in order to impose respect on the Iroquois, who had of late become insolent. As a means of keeping them in check, and at the same time controlling the fur trade of the upper country, he had recommended, like Talon before him, the building of a fort near the outlet of the lake. Frontenac at once saw the advantages of such a measure, and his desire to execute it was stimulated by the reflecti
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CHAPTER IV. 1675-1682.
CHAPTER IV. 1675-1682.
While writing to Frontenac in terms of studied mildness, the king and Colbert took measures to curb his power. In the absence of the bishop, the appointment and removal of councillors had rested wholly with the governor; and hence the council had been docile under his will. It was now ordained that the councillors should be appointed by the king himself. [1] This was not the only change. Since the departure of the intendant Talon, his office had been vacant; and Frontenac was left to rule alone.
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CHAPTER V. 1682-1684.
CHAPTER V. 1682-1684.
When the new governor, La Barre, and the new intendant, Meules, arrived at Quebec, a dismal greeting waited them. All the Lower Town was in ashes, except the house of the merchant Aubert de la Chesnaye, standing alone amid the wreck. On a Tuesday, the fourth of August, at ten o'clock in the evening, the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu were roused from their early slumbers by shouts, outcries, and the ringing of bells; "and," writes one of them, "what was our terror to find it as light as noonday, the fla
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CHAPTER VI. 1684.
CHAPTER VI. 1684.
The Dutch colony of New Netherland had now become the English colony of New York. Its proprietor, the Duke of York, afterwards James II. of England, had appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan its governor. He was a Catholic Irish gentleman of high rank, nephew of the famous Earl of Tyrconnel, and presumptive heir to the earldom of Limerick. He had served in France, was familiar with its language, and partial to its king and its nobility; but he nevertheless gave himself with vigor to the duties of his
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CHAPTER VII. 1685-1687.
CHAPTER VII. 1685-1687.
Denonville embarked at Rochelle in June, with his wife and a part of his family. Saint-Vallier, the destined bishop, was in the same vessel; and the squadron carried five hundred soldiers, of whom a hundred and fifty died of fever and scurvy on the way. Saint-Vallier speaks in glowing terms of the new governor. "He spent nearly all his time in prayer and the reading of good books. The Psalms of David were always in his hands. In all the voyage, I never saw him do any thing wrong; and there was n
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CHAPTER VIII. 1687.
CHAPTER VIII. 1687.
A host of flat-boats filled with soldiers, and a host of Indian canoes, struggled against the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and slowly made their way to Fort Frontenac. Among the troops was La Hontan. When on his arrival he entered the gate of the fort, he saw a strange sight. A row of posts was planted across the area within, and to each post an Iroquois was tied by the neck, hands, and feet, "in such a way," says the indignant witness, "that he could neither sleep nor drive off the mosquitoes."
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CHAPTER IX. 1687-1689.
CHAPTER IX. 1687-1689.
When Dongan heard that the French had invaded the Senecas, seized English traders on the lakes, and built a fort at Niagara, his wrath was kindled anew. He sent to the Iroquois, and summoned them to meet him at Albany; told the assembled chiefs that the late calamity had fallen upon them because they had held councils with the French without asking his leave; forbade them to do so again, and informed them that, as subjects of King James, they must make no treaty, except by the consent of his rep
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CHAPTER X. 1689, 1690.
CHAPTER X. 1689, 1690.
The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. From a morning of unexampled brilliancy it had mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon; but the hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemy of France was on the throne of England, turning against her from that new point of vantage all the energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid built the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid battered and defaced the imposing structure: two potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies, Richelieu and Will
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CHAPTER XI. 1690.
CHAPTER XI. 1690.
While striving to reclaim his allies, Frontenac had not forgotten his enemies. It was of the last necessity to revive the dashed spirits of the Canadians and the troops; and action, prompt and bold, was the only means of doing so. He resolved, therefore, to take the offensive, not against the Iroquois, who seemed invulnerable as ghosts, but against the English; and by striking a few sharp and rapid blows to teach both friends and foes that Onontio was still alive. The effect of his return had al
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CHAPTER XII. 1690.
CHAPTER XII. 1690.
When Frontenac sent his war-parties against New York and New England, it was in the hope not only of reanimating the Canadians, but also of teaching the Iroquois that they could not safely rely on English aid, and of inciting the Abenakis to renew their attacks on the border settlements. He imagined, too, that the British colonies could be chastised into prudence and taught a policy of conciliation towards their Canadian neighbors; but he mistook the character of these bold and vigorous though n
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CHAPTER XIII. 1690.
CHAPTER XIII. 1690.
The delay at Boston, waiting aid from England that never came, was not propitious to Phips; nor were the wind and the waves. The voyage to the St. Lawrence was a long one; and when he began, without a pilot, to grope his way up the unknown river, the weather seemed in league with his enemies. He appears, moreover, to have wasted time. What was most vital to his success was rapidity of movement; yet, whether by his fault or his misfortune, he remained three weeks within three days' sail of Quebec
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CHAPTER XIV. 1690-1694.
CHAPTER XIV. 1690-1694.
One of Phips's officers, charged with the exchange of prisoners at Quebec, said as he took his leave, "We shall make you another visit in the spring;" and a French officer returned, with martial courtesy, "We shall have the honor of meeting you before that time." Neither side made good its threat, for both were too weak and too poor. No more war-parties were sent that winter to ravage the English border; for neither blankets, clothing, ammunition, nor food could be spared. The fields had lain un
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CHAPTER XV. 1691-1695.
CHAPTER XV. 1691-1695.
While the Canadians hailed Frontenac as a father, he found also some recognition of his services from his masters at the court. The king wrote him a letter with his own hand, to express satisfaction at the defence of Quebec, and sent him a gift of two thousand crowns. He greatly needed the money, but prized the letter still more, and wrote to his relative, the minister Ponchartrain: "The gift you procured for me, this year, has helped me very much towards paying the great expenses which the cris
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CHAPTER XVI. 1690-1694.
CHAPTER XVI. 1690-1694.
Amid domestic strife, the war with England and the Iroquois still went on. The contest for territorial mastery was fourfold: first, for the control of the west; secondly, for that of Hudson's Bay; thirdly, for that of Newfoundland; and, lastly, for that of Acadia. All these vast and widely sundered regions were included in the government of Frontenac. Each division of the war was distinct from the rest, and each had a character of its own. As the contest for the west was wholly with New York and
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CHAPTER XVII. 1690-1697.
CHAPTER XVII. 1690-1697.
"This stroke," says Villebon, speaking of the success at Oyster River, "is of great advantage, because it breaks off all the talk of peace between our Indians and the English. The English are in despair, for not even infants in the cradle were spared." [1] [1] "Ce coup est très-avantageux, parcequ'il rompte tous les pour-parlers de paix entre nos sauvages et les Anglois. Les Anglois sont au désespoir de ce qu'ils ont tué jusqu'aux enfants au berceau." Villebon au Ministre , 19 Sept ., 1694. I ha
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CHAPTER XVIII. 1693-1697.
CHAPTER XVIII. 1693-1697.
No Canadian, under the French rule, stands in a more conspicuous or more deserved eminence than Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In the seventeenth century, most of those who acted a prominent part in the colony were born in Old France; but Iberville was a true son of the soil. He and his brothers, Longueuil, Serigny, Assigny, Maricourt, Sainte-Hélène, the two Châteauguays, and the two Bienvilles, were, one and all, children worthy of their father, Charles Le Moyne of Montreal, and favorable types o
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CHAPTER XIX. 1696-1698.
CHAPTER XIX. 1696-1698.
On the fourth of July, Frontenac left Montreal, at the head of about twenty-two hundred men. On the nineteenth he reached Fort Frontenac, and on the twenty-sixth he crossed to the southern shore of Lake Ontario. A swarm of Indian canoes led the way; next followed two battalions of regulars, in bateaux, commanded by Callières; then more bateaux, laden with cannon, mortars, and rockets; then Frontenac himself, surrounded by the canoes of his staff and his guard; then eight hundred Canadians, under
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CHAPTER XX. 1698.
CHAPTER XX. 1698.
In November, when the last ship had gone, and Canada was sealed from the world for half a year, a mortal illness fell upon the governor. On the twenty-second, he had strength enough to dictate his will, seated in an easy-chair in his chamber at the château. His colleague and adversary, Champigny, often came to visit him, and did all in his power to soothe his last moments. The reconciliation between them was complete. One of his Récollet friends, Father Olivier Goyer, administered extreme unctio
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CHAPTER XXI. 1699-1701.
CHAPTER XXI. 1699-1701.
It did not need the presence of Frontenac to cause snappings and sparks in the highly electrical atmosphere of New France. Callières took his place as governor ad interim , and in due time received a formal appointment to the office. Apart from the wretched state of his health, undermined by gout and dropsy, he was in most respects well fitted for it; but his deportment at once gave umbrage to the excitable Champigny, who declared that he had never seen such hauteur since he came to the colony.
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APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
Count Frontenac 's grandfather was Antoine de Buade, Seigneur de Frontenac, Baron de Palluau, Conseiller d'État, Chevalier des Ordres du Roy, son premier maître d'hôtel, et gouverneur de St. Germain-en-Laye. By Jeanne Secontat, his wife, he had, among other children, Henri de Buade, Chevalier, Baron de Palluau et mestre de camp ( colonel ) du régiment de Navarre, who, by his wife Anne Phélippeaux, daughter of Raymond Phélippeaux, Secretary of State, had, among other children, LOUIS DE BUADE, Com
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France and England in North America
France and England in North America
The year that each book was published is printed and enclosed by parenthesis after the title of each volume. In three cases, there are two listings for a line item. For those parts, Parkman issued a volume with major revisions subsequent to the initial release of the book. The revised version of Pioneers of France (Part One) contains new descriptions of Florida and some changes to the section on Samuel Champlain. Parkman revised Discovery of the West (Part Three) after obtaining access to Margry
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Introduction
Introduction
This transcription is based on the original version of the book, published in 1877, by Little, Brown, and Company. This e-book was proofread with the book scanned on Hathitrust, courtesy of Tufts University. The footnotes have been produced using the Project Gutenberg ™ standard. Footnotes follow the paragraph in which they were mentioned. Footnotes have been set in smaller print and have larger margins than regular text. Footnotes are numbered sequentially and reset after each chapter. This tex
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Detailed Notes Section:
Detailed Notes Section:
Block-house and block-houses are hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing in the text. We have transcribed these words as blockhouse and blockhouses. In this e-book, there are twenty-one instances of blockhouse and blockhouses. In the text, several exchanges between the Orator and the Critic do not have a closing quote. These were exchanges that ended in an mdash. We added the closing quotes for these items because our error-checker listed them as an error without the closing quote. He
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