The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 2 of 2)

s on the North American continent, before entering upon the relation of th

hrift and adventure of the merchant, with the sober industry of the mechanic, and the daring hardihood of the fisherman, was the glorious battle won. Against weapons such as these the chivalry of Montcalm and of his splendid veteran regiments vainly strove. To them victory brought glory without gain, inaction dan

ely more savage than themselves, over the prairies, and on the shores of the great lakes and rivers of the West. The settlements on both shores below Quebec were then almost as advanced as now: small white houses, dainty in the distance, stretched in rows for many miles along the level banks, or dotted the hill side in picturesque irregularity. Here and there, neat wooden churches, of a peculiarly quaint architecture, stood the centers of hamlets and knots of fa

r's eye. The shores of the great lakes, or, rather, expansions of the stream, were dreary swamps and thickets, and the slopes of the distant hills still bore the primeval forest. On the sandy flats of Three Rivers, in a scattered village, dwelt a population more numerous than that

ty, at times called Ville Marie in old maps, ranged somewhat irregularly for more than a mile along the river sid

f justice in the city, and erected a stately church of cut stone at a great expense. The Knights Hospitallers also possessed a very handsome building. A large, sol

ere, also, the best market for the plentiful crops of the adj

the streets, now engaged in bloody strife, again sunk in brutal intoxication. The French used every effort to prevent the sale of ardent spirits, but in vain, although sentinels were posted night and day to forbid the supply of the maddening liquor, and to preserve something of order in the wild gathering: all precautions proved ineffectual, and the drunkard frequently became al

nto, where 20,000 British subjects now ply their prosperous industry, myriads of wild fowl then found undisturbed refuge from the stormy waters of the lake. At Niagara there was a small village round the fort

ld the great highway of Canada as if by a gate. No doubtful or hostile vessel could elude their vigilance; more than one powerful fleet had already recoiled shamed and crippled from before their embattled city. Here were deposited the public records, with most of the arms, ammunition, and resources of the colony; h

rly together, with the well-built private dwellings of the wealthier inhabitants, formed the upper town. The

some, and adorned with two stately pavilions. There, also, in a commanding situation, stood the Jesuits' college and their church, which was al

wall on the inner side. Further on, a large work of great design, but not yet finished, crowned the height of Cape Diamond:[150] from the northern angle of this work, an irregular lin

e. The only edifice of note, however, was the church of N?tre Dame de Victoire, built to commemorate Phipps's defeat in 1690. The defense of this part of the city was a large platform battery on the m

irregular streets of mean and temporary houses. A large portion of the now valuable space was unoccupied, and here and there the rocky hill side remai

tivated gardens and rich orchards, met the eye, and, on the slopes beyond, the trim villages of Charlesburg, Lorette, and Bea

uth of the River St. Charles, and the bridge, about a quarter of a mile high up the stream, was protected by a "tête du pont." All these various works and forti

osed to the licensed plunder of cruel and avaricious officials, or served but as a sign where the domineering soldiery of Old France might find free quarters. He that sowed the seed knew not who might reap the crop. Often, when the golden fields were almost ripe for the sickle, the war-summons sounded in the Canadian hamlets, and the whole male population were hurried away to stem some distant Indian onslaught, or to inflict on some British settlement a ruin scarcely more complete than their own. In the early wars with the fierce Iroquois, this rude militia had ever answered their leaders' call with ready zeal, and fought with worthy courage; when the haughty savage was subdued and

h was lost in their neglect, and the clothing of this simple peasantry was chiefly of a coarse gray woollen stuff, the produce of their own wheels and loom

olized by a privileged few, through the corrupt connivance of the authorities. In the official returns of the colonial customs, there appears every year an enormous surplus of imports over exports, which can only be accounted for by the clandestine shipment of great quantities of furs and other goods, to restore in some measure the necessary bala

ated price was fixed for each skin, and on the hunter presenting it at the store, he received a receipt which became current in the colony as money, and was held to the last in higher estimation than the notes of the royal treasury.

ir several offices. No voluntary influx of ambitious, truculent, but energetic men swelled the population or disturbed the fatal repose of the young nation; no free development was permitted to its infant form, but, clothed in the elaborate garments of maturer years, the limbs were cramped, and the goodly proportions of nature dwarfed into a feeble frame. No safety-valve offered itself to the

nous conditions of their ecclesiastic and feudal organization, healthy action was impeded, and the seed, thus freely sown and carefully tended, grew up into a weak and sickly exotic. Experience has amply proved, as wisdom might have suggested, that in colonies, certainly, "the best government is that which governs least." When bold and vigorous men struggle forth from among the crowded thousands of the old communities, let them start in a fai

rivileged class was altogether supported by royal patronage. Some enjoyed grants of extensive seigneuries;[153] others were speedily enriched by an appointment to the command of a distant post, where a

ual justice, a large portion of the fruits of the earth from their peasant vassals. The feeble complaints of poverty against oppression were seldom loud enough to awake the attention of judges who were themselves often as guilty as the accused. From the especial favor enjoyed by the Canadian

strictest form of these iron laws; but, as the country became more populous and of increasing importance, a variety of modifications was gradually introduced, tending to curb the exorbitant power of the seigneurs, and proportionally to elevate the condition of their vassals. By degrees, many of

155] the means, often unscrupulously procured, were squandered with careless profusion, and they generally endeavored to keep up an appearance of wealth beyond that which they really possessed. Henri de Pont Brian, bishop of Quebec, in his remarkable address to the Canadian people immediately before the conquest, draws a dark picture of the religious and moral condition of the inhabitants at the time, and attributes the threatened danger to the "especial wrath of

h the curate's reverend awe of his alien prelate, whose lessons of humility were often less strongly inculcated by example than by precept. Although many of the country priests exerted themselves zealously against the English, under the impression that a heretic conquest would be the ruin of their Church, they were not altogether contented with the intimacy of the connection that bound them to France. The idea had arisen, increased, and ripened among them, that from their own body a discriminating government could have selected wise and holy men upon whose heads the apostolic miter might have been judiciously placed. The arrival of a new bishop or other ecclesiastical dignitary from France was no more a matter of re

e granted lands was bestowed upon the Church establishment, and the several religious, educational, and charitable institutions of the c

ken root, the traces of their vampire energy were plainly and painfully visible. We can not, however, but regard with admiration the courage and unquenchable zeal of these extraordinary men; their union of strange and contradictory qualities astounds us: the strong will of the tyrant, the enterprise of the freeman

ism to the ferocious customs of the Indians. On one occasion, when the Christian Hurons were about to torture and slay some heathen Iroquois taken in battle, the missionary, by bribes and prayers, gained permission to baptize the victims, but made no intercession to save them from an agonizing death: while under the torments of the fire and the

s. When, in 1667, M. de Talon, the intendant, urged by the far-sighted Colbert, endeavored to introduce the language and civilization of Europe among the savages, he was defeated by the determined opposition of the missionaries, who alone at that time exercised influence over the red children of the forest. Nearly twenty years afterward the same policy was pressed upon M. de Denonville, and by him attempted; but, as Charlevoix complacently says, when the French were brought

not to be separated as they are from the settlements of the French, but that free intercourse should be encouraged between the Indians and Europea

at perpetual issue with the formidable brotherhood; the Canadian people generally concurred with their temporal ru

that things have somewhat changed on this point (native civilization) since our arrival in this country; some of the Indians already begin to provide for future wants in case of the failure of the chase, but it is to be feared that this may go too far, and by creating superfluous wants, render them more unhappy than they now are in thei

ense; they therefore redoubled their endeavors to sanctify, and prepare for the worst fate, those whom they could not preserve from it. In this respect the Indian proved perfectly docile, and became readily imbued with the sentiments suitable to his perilous position: he was, in

habits of industry and forethought, and to give their converts a taste for the comforts of life. In every instance of successful effort in the cause of civilization, from the earliest time to th

orm and ceremony of his faith, but nothing more. He was the mind and the soul of the community; he alone exercised forethought, guarded against danger, and measured out enjoyment; to a certain extent he improved the temporary circumstances of his disciples, but he robbed them of their native energy, and crushed al

The necessity of taking thought for himself, and living by the sweat of his brow, seems indispensable to the healthy action of man's nature. It can not be denied that many of these communities have held together for generations free from the corroding cares and corrupting vices of civilization; amply supplied (superstition apart) with religious instruction, and free

hope of his order's universal sway; in darkness and secrecy, with patience and invincible perseverance, he works on at the labor of centuries, devoted to the one great purpose, the fulfillment of which his dilating eye sees through the vista of unborn generations. Yet this wonderful organization holds the eternal passion of its deep heart riveted upon an object ever unattainable; for the J

e of the connection with the parent state. The trading classes may therefore be counted as generally hostile to the British power, but their importance was very small; like all the French race, they were more inclined to small trading transactions than those on a larger scale, and preferred enterprise to industry. It has been seen that one of the leading objects in the establishment

ns which emanated from their superiors. Chiefly of Norman origin, they inherit many ancestral characteristics: litigious, yet impetuous and thoughtless; brave and adventurous, but with little constancy of purpose. The resemblance of the interior of a peasant's dwelling in Normandy, and on the banks of the St. Lawrence, was

l be built according to rule: this ordinance proved useless, as it would have been necessary for the habitans to commence the toilsome task of new clearing, and to abandon the lands where their fathers had dwelt. In 1685, however, the French government again renewed the attempt to alter this pernicious system, but Charlevoix says that "every one agreed that their neighbor was in danger, but no one could be got to fear for himself in particular." Even those who had been the victims of this imprudence were not rendered wiser by experience;[159] any losses that

ettling in closer neighborhood, would be fully capable of defending themselves. Thus, while the king could not understand the difficulty of the habitans giving up their old and cherished homes to seek others closer together, o

the absence of all endemic diseases, in a fertile soil and an unlimited domain. These advantages might at least have retained in the colony those to whom it gave birth, and who could not be ignorant of its advantages; but love

treasures without restraint or consideration. Like all people in isolated communities, they had a high opinion of their own merits: this was not without some advantages, as it strengthened self-reliance, and gave spirit to overcome difficulti

tient study and application: I can not, however, answer for the justice of this remark, for we have never yet seen any one attempting to follow such pursuits." He giv

ge contest: they were more to be depended upon for a sudden effort than for the continuous operations of a campaign, and in a time of excitement and under a commander whom they could trust, they have shown themselves capable of deeds of real da

sources, amounted to something under ￡14,000 sterling the year of the conquest, and the aid from the coffers of France to the ecclesiastical, civil, and military establishments was nearly ￡4

lonels, or the town majors, transmitted the order of levy to the captains, who chose the required numbers, and conducted them under escort to the town; there each man received a gun, ammunition, and a rude sort of uniform: they were then marched to their destination. This force was generally reviewed once or twice a year for the inspection of their arms; that of

ity of quartering the troops abroad in small detachments, had relaxed the rigor of European discipline, but the loss in this respect was more than counterbalanced by the knowledge of the country, and the habit of braving the severity of the climate. Their high military virtue was still

ndisturbed by the white man's neighborhood; while some, in attempting a feeble and fatal imitation of civilized life, had dwindled to a few wretched families, who had cast away the virtues of savage life, and adopted instead only the vices of Europe. The Hurons of Jeune Lorette, near Quebec, were, however, as yet, a happy exception to this general demoralization. Many years before, they had been driven from the fertile

TNO

Appendix,

om de Lévi. C'est que la Nouvelle France a en successivement pour Vice-Rois l'Ami

ices militaires; ils en seront moins opulents, mais plus robustes, plus braves, plus vertueux, c'est à dire, plus propre à

sal on this condition. Many of their officers had obtained lands with all the rights of seigneurs: they established themselves in the country, married there, and their posterity are

rté qui les rend fort agréables dans le commerce de la vie, et nulle part ailleurs on ne parle

ion used with regard to French Canada by a late English traveler, 'that it was a province of Old France, without its brilliancy or its vices.' My friend's remark

ladies in Canada had got into the pernicious custom of taking too much care of their dress, and squandering

h, to their brilliant valor, to their fondness for the chase, and, indeed, for the savage life, as if the highest de

Mr. N. is by no means without hopes that, in a generation or two, these Indians may become quite civilized: they are giving up their wandering habits, and settling rapidly upon farms throughout their territory; and in consequence, probably, of this change in their mode of life, t

nary success (only arrested by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes), and may be said to have created the French navy. 'Je vous dois tout, sire,' said the

thought of nothing but peace, the savages came suddenly upon them, and slew of them 347 men, women, and children.... This massacre happened by reason they had built their plantations remote from one another in above thirty sev

Revolutionary war, and received in compensation a settlement in Canada of 160,000 acres. Si