It is now 1632, the year of the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye when Acadia and Canada were again ceded to the French. For three years Louis Kerth kept Quebec in the name of England and on July 13, he formally handed over a heap of ruins to Emery de Caen, who conducted the first contingent of the returning French. "But for our habitation," says Champlain, "my people have found it utterly consumed along with good beaver skins valued at 40,000 livres."
Meanwhile, the Company of the Hundred Associates was again empowered to resume possession and Champlain was commissioned anew as acting governor of all the country along the St. Lawrence, and was appointed commander of the fleet of three vessels bearing new colonists. He arrived at Quebec with a good nucleus for the revived colony on May 23, 1633, and was received by a salute of cannon by Emery de Caen. Among the colonists brought by him there were persons of distinction who, wearied with religious dissensions in their own provinces, sought in New France that tranquility denied them in the old, and many rural labourers and artisans of different trades. As these were mostly from the diocese of Rouen, the clergy now arriving were the Jesuits, Fathers Massé and Brébeuf, sent under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Rouen. The Recollects were no longer allowed to return, on the ground that, theirs being an order which could not own property or revenues, they were unsuitable for a country where means were needed to gather together the Indians in settlements in buildings in which they could band together to be instructed. The chapel of the Recollects destroyed by the English was rebuilt. The work of reconstruction of the settlement now began in earnest. What interests us now is to learn that on July 1st of this year Champlain, at the request of the Indian allies, sent many workmen to Three Rivers to construct a fort and a fur factory there. Although Three Rivers had been used as a trading post, it had only been so temporarily, in the same manner that Montreal, or the post of the Sault St. Louis, had been the meeting place for the natives and traders engaged in the fur traffic.
This view of Fort Amsterdam on the Manhattan is copied from an ancient engraving executed in Holland. The fort was erected in 1623, but finished upon the above model by Governor Van Twiller in 1635.
At Quebec there was now great harmony. A lasting colony was established. Piety and religion flourished and the seeds of a good and noble population for Canada were sown. After many struggles success seemed now to be rewarding the efforts of Champlain. One shudders to think of what the future of Canada had been if the "convict" colonies of Roberval and la Roche had come to any permanency. We may note now two important movements helping to civilize the natives, which show the real desire of the new régime to fulfill its vocation. The first was the endeavour made by Champlain to nip in the bud the sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives in exchange for peltry already introduced by the preceding companies and by the English under Kerth. Champlain forbade anyone to trade wine or eau de vie with the natives under penalty of corporal punishment and the loss of their salaries as servants of the company. The second was the establishment by the Jesuits of a free boarding school for boys in the house of Notre Dame des Anges left them by the Recollects for the instruction of the Huron children. This method of civilization of the natives already employed by the Recollects was considered a most useful preliminary to the civilization of the natives by thus Gallicizing and Christianizing them, and attracted many.
CHAMPLAIN'S FORTIFIED RESIDENCE AT QUEBEC
That all these institutions were in line with Champlain's policy we see in Champlain's letter to Cardinal Richelieu, dated August 15, 1635. After saying that some of the Indians were sedentary and lived in villages and towns, while others were migratory hunters and fishers, all led by no other desire than to have a number of Frenchmen and religious teachers to instruct them in the faith, he adds, "We require but 120 men light armed for protection against the arrows. Possessing them, with two or three thousand more Indians, our allies, in a year we can render ourselves absolute masters of all these peoples by bringing among them the necessary good government and this policy would increase the worship of religion and an inconceivable commerce. The whole for the glory of God." In the last phrase we may see Champlain's whole policy unfolded.