It is well here to consider the conditions of the charter now given, for it is the ground plan of all subsequent French Canadian colonization schemes, and Montreal will be affected by it. We have seen the Huguenots were now to be excluded (not, however, from engaging in commerce in Canada, but only from settling there). From all points of view, political and religious and colonial, this was necessary. To show that there was to be no harshness in the execution of this we may only point out that Champlain was in charge and he knew Huguenots well and had worked harmoniously with them. We have seen that since the companies had been mainly Huguenots, colonization had not succeeded owing to mutual jealousies. If Canada was to be saved, it was by colonization, and this could never be carried out with a divided people. Even Huguenots realized this point. For at the time they were enjoying full privileges of citizenship as has been said. Hence it was only by imposing law and order and uniformity of religious belief, that happy and contented communities could be expected to spread in Canada.
Richelieu at this time was eager to form a powerful navy and he thought the possession of thriving colonies would advance the scheme. Hence it was a wise policy that was now inaugurated. Unfortunately engrossing interests at home did not allow Richelieu to pursue his scheme for government promotion of colonization on the broad basis originally projected by him.
To carry out the conditions of receiving the number of colonists the King obliged the Company of One Hundred Associates to lodge, board and maintain for three years all the French they should transport to the colony. After which, they could be discharged from their obligation, if they had put the colonists in the way of making their own living, either by distributing them on cleared land and supplying them with grain for a first crop, or otherwise. To provide for the maintenance of the established church there should be three ecclesiastics in each of the settlements to be formed during fifteen years, maintained in food and lodging and in everything necessary for the exercise of their ministry. In compensation for their outlay in advance, the king handed over to the Associates the Seigneury of Quebec and of the whole of New France, with the reserve of fealty and homage and a crown of gold of the weight of eight marks, to be paid at each succeeding reign, and finally, of the institution of officers of Sovereign Justice to be nominated and presented by the Associates, when it should be deemed proper to have them appointed. Moreover, Louis XIII made a gift to the Associates of two war vessels of three hundred tons, ready equipped for sailing, and four culverins, with this clause, however, that if at the end of the first ten years they had not carried over fifteen hundred French of both sexes, they should pay the price of the aforesaid vessels. Among other privileges the king granted twelve patents of nobility signed, sealed and delivered, with a blank space left for the names of those of the Associates who shall be presented by the company and who shall enjoy with their heirs, born in lawful wedlock, these privileges for all time, thus starting the Seigneurial Land Tenure system which in 1854 yielded to that of freehold.
With regard to commerce, the company should have perpetual privileges in the peltry traffic of New France, and for fifteen years only, all other commerce by land and sea with the reservation of the cod and whale fishery which should be free to all French traders. The colonists not maintained at the expense of the Associates should be free to trade with the natives for peltry provided that they forthwith hand over the peltry to the company which shall be obliged to purchase at the rate of forty sols, Tours currency, for each beaver skin. In consequence, the privileges accorded previously to Guillaume de Caen and his associates were revoked by the same edict, and trade in Canada was interdicted to them and other subjects of the kingdom, under pain of confiscation of their vessels and merchandise to the benefit of the new company. Cardinal Richelieu, however, allowed Guillaume de Caen, the privilege of the peltry trade for one year in indemnification for the loss of his charter.
So started the Company of the One Hundred Associates under the happiest auspices, endowed with almost sovereign power and having a leader of the state as its patron, for at its head was Cardinal Richelieu, who, without the title of lieutenant general which he perhaps thought unnecessary, seeing that he connected the work of colonization with his position as head of the navy, exercised the same authority. On the 27th of April, 1628, Louis XIII sent Champlain his commission as "commander in New France in the absence of our very dear and well beloved cousin, the Cardinal de Richelieu, grand master, chief and superintendent of the navigation and commerce of France." Champlain did not receive his commission on behalf of the company until he reached Dieppe in 1629, after the occupation of Quebec by the English.
The first attempt to carry out the charter was in 1628, when vessels were equipped and victualled under the orders of de Roquemont, one of the chief associates. Their first object was to succour Quebec, then in famine. A number of artisans and their families started and never reached their destination, for in the gulf their ships were seized by David Kerth, a master mariner of Dieppe in pay of the English government and in command of its fleet attacking the colonies. War had broken out between England and France and hostilities soon extended to America, and a fleet of ships was sent to invade the settlements of New France and in particular to capture Quebec.
It is not our duty to tell the story of Quebec or to recount the noble defence of Champlain till the fall of the city on July 29, 1629, when Louis Kerth, the brother of the admiral, installed himself as the governor general, representing the English. The state of the colony at the end of this siege interests us. Of the French, there only remained at Quebec the families of the widow of Hébert and of their son-in-law, Couillard, and these intended to leave after the harvest, but in the event they were constrained to stay. The rest passed over by way of Tadoussac into France and with them Champlain, who went to England to call upon the French ambassador, urging him to demand the restitution of Quebec on the ground that it had been captured two months after the expiration of the short war between the two nations. Canada as a province quoad civilia was under Normandy, and hence it became to be believed that it was also quoad sacra under Normandy.
THE TAKING OF QUEBEC IN 1629
(From Hennepin, Edition 1698.)