Crimes of a serious nature were not unfrequently committed against the French by Indians belonging to tribes, with which they were at profound peace. On one occasion two men, who were conducting cattle by land from Cape Tourmente to Quebec, were assassinated in a cowardly manner. Champlain demanded of the chiefs that they should deliver to him the perpetrators of the crime. They expressed genuine sorrow for what had taken place, but were unable to obtain the criminals. At length, after consulting with the missionary, Le Caron, they offered to present to Champlain three young girls as pledges of their good faith, that he might educate them in the religion and manners of the French. The gift was accepted by Champlain, and these savage maidens became exceedingly attached to their foster-father, as we shall see in the sequel.

The end of the year 1627 found the colony, as usual, in a depressed state. As a colony, it had never prospered. The average number composing it had not exceeded about fifty persons. At this time it may have been somewhat more, but did not reach a hundred. A single family only appears to have subsisted by the cultivation of the soil. [91] The rest were sustained by supplies sent from France. From the beginning disputes and contentions had prevailed in the corporation. Endless bickerings sprung up between the Huguenots and Catholics, each sensitive and jealous of their rights. [92] All expenditures were the subject of censorious criticism. The necessary repairs of the fort, the enlargement and improvement of the buildings from time to time, were too often resisted as unnecessary and extravagant. The company, as a mere trading association, was doubtless successful. Large quantities of peltry were annually brought by the Indians for traffic to the Falls of St. Louis, Three Rivers, Quebec, and Tadoussac. The average number of beaver-skins annually purchased and transported to France was probably not far from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand, and in a most favorable year it mounted up to twenty-two thousand. [93] The large dividends that they were able to make, intimated by Champlain to be not far from forty per centum yearly, were, of course, highly satisfactory to the company. They desired not to impair this characteristic of their enterprise. They had, therefore, a prime motive for not wishing to lay out a single unnecessary franc on the establishment. Their policy was to keep the expenses at the minimum and the net income at the maximum. Under these circumstances, nearly twenty years had elapsed since the founding of Quebec, and it still possessed only the character of a trading post, and not that of a colonial plantation. This progress was satisfactory neither to Champlain, to the viceroy, nor the council of state. In the view of these several interested parties, the time had come for a radical change in the organization of the company. Cardinal de Richelieu had risen by his extraordinary ability as a statesman, a short time anterior to this, into supreme authority, and had assumed the office of grand master and chief of the navigation and commerce of France. His sagacious and comprehensive mind saw clearly the intimate and interdependent relations between these two great national interests and the enlargement and prosperity of the French colonies in America. He lost no time in organizing measures which should bring them into the closest harmony. The company of merchants whose finances had been so skilfully managed by the Caens was by him at once dissolved. A new one was formed, denominated La Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, consisting of a hundred or more members, and commonly known as the Company of the Hundred Associates. It was under the control and management of Richelieu himself. Its members were largely gentlemen in official positions about the court, in Paris, Rouen, and other cities of France. Among them were the Marquis Deffiat, superintendent of finances, Claude de Roquemont, the Commander de Razilly, Captain Charles Daniel, Sébastien Cramoisy, the distinguished Paris printer, Louis Houêl, the controller of the salt works in Brouage, Champlain, and others well known in public circles.

The new company had many characteristics which seemed to assure the solid growth and enlargement of the colony. Its authority extended over the whole domain of New France and Florida. It provided in its organization for an actual capital of three hundred thousand livres. It entered into an obligation to send to Canada in 1628 from two to three hundred artisans of all trades, and within the space of fifteen years to transport four thousand colonists to New France. The colonists were to be wholly supported by the company for three years, and at the expiration of that period were to be assigned as much land as they needed for cultivation. The settlers were to be native-born Frenchmen, exclusively of the Catholic faith, and no foreigner or Huguenot was to be permitted to enter the country. [94] The charter accorded to the company the exclusive control of trade and all goods manufactured in New France were to be free of imposts on exportation. Besides these, it secured to the corporators other and various exclusive privileges of a semifeudal character, supposed, however, to contribute to the prosperity and growth of the colony.

The organization of the company, having received the formal approbation of Richelieu on the 29th of April, 1627, was ratified by the Council of State on the 6th of May, 1628.

ENDNOTES:

84. The character of Étienne Brulé, either for honor or veracity, is not improved by his subsequent conduct. He appears in 1629 to have turned traitor, to have sold himself to the English, and to have piloted them up the river in their expedition against Quebec. Whether this conduct, base certainly it was, ought to affect the credibility of his story, the reader must judge. Champlain undoubtedly believed it when he first related it to him. He probably had no means then or afterwards of testing its truth. In the edition of 1632, Brulé's story is omitted. It does not necessarily follow that it was omitted because Champlain came to discredit the story, since many passages contained in his preceding publications are omitted in the edition of 1632, but they are not generally passages of so much geographical importance as this, if it be true. The map of 1632 indicates the country of the Carantouanais; but this information might have been obtained by Champlain from the Hurons, or the more western tribes which he visited during the winter of 1615-16.—Vide ed. 1632, p. 220.

85. Henry de Montmorency II was born at Chantilly in 1595, and was beheaded at Toulouse Oct 30, 1632. He was created admiral at the age of seventeen. He commanded the Dutch fleet at the siege of Rochelle. He made the campaigns of 1629 and 1630 in Piedmont, and was created a marshal of France after the victory of Veillane. He adopted the party of Gaston, the Duke of Orleans, and having excited the province of Languedoc of which he was governor to rebellion, he was defeated, and executed as guilty of high treason. He was the last scion of the elder branch of Montmorency and his death was a fatal blow to the reign of feudalism.

86. Among other annoyances which Champlain had to contend against was the contraband trade carried on by the unlicensed Rochellers, who not only carried off quantities of peltry, but even supplied the Indians with fire-arms and ammunition. This was illegal, and endangered the safety of the colony—Vide Voyages par De Champlain, Paris, 1632, Sec Partie, p 3.

87. Vide ed 1632, Sec Partie, Chap III.

88. Vide Hist. New France, by Charlevoix, Shea's. Trans., Vol. II. p. 32.