Count Frontenac / Makers of Canada, Volume 3

by William Dawson LeSueur

CHAPTER II

CANADA BEFORE FRONTENAC

1632 TO 1672

Canada had fallen into the hands of the English before the new company organized by Cardinal Richelieu was able to enter on the rights and privileges secured to it by the edict of incorporation, or even so much as to set foot in the country. Whatever there might be at Quebec in the way of buildings, fortifications, etc., was the property of the preceding company, of which one William de Caën was the head. It seemed advisable, therefore, to Cardinal Richelieu to send William de Caën, or some one deputed by him, out to Quebec to accept transfer of the country on behalf of the French king from Louis Kirke, who had remained in command there. De Caën named his brother Emery for this duty, and the latter, provided with all necessary papers and instructions, set sail from France towards the end of April 1632, and arrived at Quebec on the 5th of July. An order from King Charles of England, of which he was bearer, required Kirke to evacuate the place within eight days. The order was complied with, and the French resumed possession of Quebec three years, all but a month, after yielding it up to the English. Mention has been made of the one genuine settler or habitant at Quebec, Louis Hébert. He had died some time before the capitulation; but his widow and her son-in-law, who had between them some seven acres of land under good cultivation, had remained in the country during the whole period of the English occupation. The Jesuit Relations tell of the joy of the widow at welcoming her own countrymen again, and particularly of the delight she manifested when her house was used as a chapel for the first celebration of mass after the French re-occupation. In the spring of the following year Champlain, who had been recommended by the new company as governor, and had received his appointment as such at the hands of the cardinal, set sail for Canada with three vessels, carrying in all about two hundred persons, more than half being intending colonists. The ships brought besides a liberal supply of stores, the company, in the new-broom stage of its existence, being desirous of improving on the methods and practices of its predecessors. Arriving at Quebec on the 23rd of May, Champlain took over the keys of the place from de Caën. His first care was to put the fort and other buildings, which were found to be in a ruinous condition, in proper repair. He next erected a chapel to replace the one formerly in use which had been destroyed; and, at the earnest request of the Huron Indians, he established a fort at Three Rivers to assist in protecting them against the incursions of the implacable Iroquois.

De Caën had brought out one or two Jesuit fathers with him, and others came with Champlain. Why the Récollets did not seize the first opportunity of returning to Canada is not very clear. In the year 1635 they had made arrangements for returning, but were requested by the intendant of the company in France to delay their departure. The next year they were plainly informed that the cardinal did not wish them to go to Canada. They were thus shut out from a mission-field which they had been the first to occupy, and it is not surprising that they felt considerably aggrieved, nor that they were disposed to attribute their exclusion to the machinations of the Jesuit order. The responsibility in the matter seems to have rested with the cardinal. It was he who sent out the Jesuit fathers; and not improbably he thought that there would be less friction and more progress if the field of New France were entrusted to a single order of ecclesiastics than if it were divided between two.

The laborious, useful, and heroic life of Champlain was now drawing to a close. One of the last subjects that engaged his attention was the sale of liquor by traders and colonists to the Indians, a practice against which he issued the most stringent prohibitions, but which, as we shall have further occasion to see, proved a very difficult one to control. In the summer of 1635 he took advantage of the presence at Quebec of a large number of Hurons from the upper country to summon them and the French residents to a general assembly, in order that he might have an opportunity of urging upon them the duty and advantage of espousing the religion professed by the French. If their friendship with the French, he said, was to be maintained and strengthened, they must embrace the faith of the latter; and in that case God, who was all-powerful, would bless and protect them, and give them the victory over their enemies. They would also learn the arts of civilization, and in every way enjoy great happiness and prosperity. What impression this discourse made is not stated. In point of fact the Jesuits, who devoted themselves specially to mission work amongst the Hurons, had eventually a considerable measure of success in converting them to Christianity; but the unhappy tribe, instead of triumphing in war, became a more and more helpless prey to their heathen enemies, and, in about fifteen years from this date, were almost obliterated from the face of the earth.[2]

Not long after the convoking of this assembly Champlain was smitten with paralysis; and on Christmas Day, 1635, he died in the sixty-ninth year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by the Superior of the Jesuits, Father Le Jeune, and he was buried with all due honour in—as the Jesuit narrative tells us—a "sépulcre particulier"; but a careless posterity soon forgot even the place of his interment, and to-day the question as to where he was laid is a matter of antiquarian debate. The contingency of his death had been provided for by the company, who had placed in the hands of Father Le Jeune, a sealed letter, giving authority to a M. de Châteaufort to act as interim governor. The following summer M. de Montmagny came out from France as second governor of Canada. He appears to have been a man of firm and upright character, but the position to which he succeeded was an extremely difficult and critical one. The Jesuits were as yet having very limited success in the conversion of the native tribes, and were even incurring a dangerous amount of suspicion and hostility. They were accused of witchcraft; and it began to be commonly said amongst the savages that baptism was a sure precursor of death. There was truth in the allegation just to this extent, that the fathers, for the most part, were only allowed to baptize those who were already in a dying condition, particularly children. The confusion between post hoc and propter hoc is so common among the civilized and instructed, that we cannot be surprised if Hurons and Algonquins were not proof against it. The Iroquois at the same time were becoming more and more daring in their attacks, while the resources of the colony for repelling them were sadly inadequate. The Company of the Hundred Associates had made a fair beginning in the matter of sending out colonists and supplies—forty-five new settlers came out with Montmagny—but in a few years their capital began to run short, and it became a question whether the magnificent powers and privileges they possessed represented a very profitable business arrangement. The consequence was that, just as before under successive trading companies, the interests both of colonization and of defence were neglected.

But, if the company was lapsing into inertness, other agencies, not of a commercial character, were at work laying the foundations of institutions destined to exert a most important and lasting influence on the future life of the colony. The year in which Champlain died witnessed the establishment at Quebec by the Jesuit, M. de Rohault, son of the Marquis de Gamache, of a college for boys. Four years later, in 1639, a vessel arrived from France bearing two ladies, of note, Madame de la Peltrie and Madame Guyard, Mère de l'Incarnation, whose mission was to establish a school for girls, white and Indian, and whose names are illustrious as the founders of the Ursuline Convent. On the same vessel were a number of nuns sent out by the Duchess d'Aiguillon to perform hospital duties: this was the origin of the Hôtel Dieu. In the year 1641 M. de Maisonneuve, a pious layman, conducted to Canada a small band of trusty followers whose destination was the Island of Montreal, where it was proposed to form a strictly Christian colony. With M. de Maisonneuve was a pious lady, Mdlle. Mance, who three years later became the founder of the Hôtel Dieu at Montreal, funds for the purpose having been supplied by a rich benefactress in France, Madame de Bullion. Looking forward nine years, that is to say to 1653, we find the admirable Sister Margaret Bourgeoys establishing at Montreal the Congrégation de Notre Dame for the education of girls. As Garneau well says, "the love of learning and charity gave birth in Canada to all the great establishments destined for public instruction and the alleviation of human suffering."

The question may naturally be asked how it happened that Canada, at this very early stage of its history, attracted so much attention as a field for missionary and educational effort. An explanation is to be found in the fact that the Jesuits, from the time when they first entered on their work in this country, made a practice, under instructions from the head of their order, of writing year by year a narrative of their doings, which they despatched to France, and which was there published and circulated amongst those who were interested in religious work. These narratives constituted the celebrated Relations des Jésuites, which form the chief source of information regarding the history of Canada for a period of over forty years. Of these interesting annals, forty volumes of which in all were published, Parkman has said: "The closest examination has left me no doubt that these missionaries wrote in perfect good faith, and that the Relations hold a high place as authentic and trustworthy historical documents." On the other hand the latest historian of the Jesuits in New France, the Rev. Father Rochemonteix, while also asserting the substantial accuracy of the Relations, acknowledges that "they do not reflect the complete physiognomy of New France; they only show one side of it, the most attractive, the most consoling, namely, the progress of Christianity, its toils and heroic struggles, and the valiant achievements of the colonists. The rest is intentionally left in the shade, passed over in silence. The other side of the physiognomy is omitted, or nearly so. What we have is history, but incomplete history."[3]