FRENCH W. I. COMPANY, ECCLESIASTICAL MISSION ABOLISHED. 13

expenditure of the public monies and the establishment of inferior Courts at Three Rivers and Montreal.

This change of Canada from an Ecclesiastial Mission to a temporal government, was owing to the great Colbert, who was animated by the example of Great Britain, to improve the navigation and commerce of his country by colonial establishments. The enlightened policy of the justly renowned financial Minister of Louis XIV., was followed by the success which it deserved to a regulated civil government was added increased military protection against the Iroquois Indiansthe emigration of French settlers to New France was promoted by every possible means, and a martial spirit was imparted to the population by the location in the colony of the disbanded soldiers of the Carignan regiment (consisting of 1000 foot,) and other troops, whose officers became the principal seigneurs of the colony, on condition of making cessions of land under the feudal tenure, as it still exists, to the soldiers and other inhabitants. The ambitious projects of Louis XIV. require no comment,-they were not confined to Europe,--but embraced every part of the globe, wherever the wily monarch or politic Colbert thought it practicable for Frenchmen to find a footing. With this view the French West India Company was re-modelled and Canada added to their possessions, subordinate to the crown of France, with powers controlled by His Majesty's Governors and Intendants in the different Colonies. The royal edict conferring civil and military powers on the West India Company, similar to those granted to our East India Company, after stating the motives of the sovereign, thus proceeds:

We hereby establish a West India Company, to be composed of persons already interested in the Continent of America, and others of our Subjects who may wish to become Stockholders, for the purpose of carrying on the Commerce of that Country, from the River Amazon to the Oronoco, likewise the Islands Antilles, (possessed by Frenchmen,) Canada, L'Acadie, both Continent and Islands, from the North of Canada, to Virginia and Florida; also the Coast of Africa, from Cape Verd, to the Cape of Good Hope, so far as the said Company may be able to penetrate, whether the said Countries may now appertain to us, as being, or having been occupied

14 POWER, OBJECT AND INTENTIONS OF W. I. CANADA COMPANY.

by Frenchmen, or in so far as the said Company shall establish itself by exterminating or conquering the Natives or Colonists of such European Nations as are not our allies.'

The following curious particulars shew the object and intentions of the founders of this once celebrated Company more clearly:

1. 'The Company is bound to carry out a sufficient number of Priests, and to build Churches and Houses for their accommodation, and for the performance of their Holy Functions. 2. An interest in the Company should not derogate from the privileges of the nobility of the Kingdom. 3. The Stock or Shares were made transferable, and the revenue or profits of them alone, could be attached for Debts owing by the Holders, even to the King himself. 4. The Company was to enjoy a monopoly of the Territories and the Trade of the Colonies thus conceded, for forty years: it was not only to enjoy the exclusive Navigation, but His Majesty conferred a bounty of thirty Livres on every ton of Goods exported to France; and such imported Colonial Merchandise as had paid the Custom and other duties on consumption, could be re-exported by the Company, without any charge of export duty. 5. The Company was not only endowed as Seigneur with all the unconceded lands, but invested with the right of extinguishing the titles of Seigniories granted or sold by previous Companies, on condition of reimbursing the Grantees and Purchasers for their costs and improvements. 6. The King assumed all claims of previous Companies established in the Colonies by himself or his predecessors; and the new Company was invested with all the Seigniorial rights and dues already borne by the Inhabitants, as Seigniorial Vassals, with power to commute or modify them, as well as to make new Grants or Sales. 7. The Company was to have a right to all Mines and Minerals, the power of levying and recruiting Soldiers within the Kingdom, manufacturing arms and ammunition for the defence of their possessions, building forts, and even declaring and carry ing on war by Sea and Land against the native Indians or neighbouring foreign Colonies, in case of insult. 8. To add to the splendour of the Company, a Coat of Arms was also granted; but it was ordered that when those Arms should be affixed to warlike instruments and equipments, they should be surmounted by the Royal Arms of France. 9. The administration of justice was to be according to the Laws and Ordinances of the Kingdom, and the custom of Paris, and no other custom was to be introduced into the Colonies. 10. To encourage emigration, as well as to gratify the present Inhabitants, all Colonists and Converts professing the Romish Faith, were declared capable of enjoying the same rights in France and in the Colonies, as if they had been born and resided within the Kingdom. 11. Lastly, in this munificent Edict, His Majesty agrees to advance one tenth of the whole stock, without interest, for four years,

FAILURE OF CANADIAN MONOPOLY.

15

subject to a proportion of all losses which might be incurred during that period, by the Company.'

As might have been expected the proceedings of this Company soon excited general murmers in Canada, and in two years, namely, the 8th of April 1666, the Royal Arrêt of the Council of State granted to the Canadians (as the French colonists are termed), the trade in furs, subject to an allowance of one-fourth of all beaver skins, and one-tenth of all buffalo skins, and the total reservation to the Company of the trade of Tadoussac, situate about 75 miles below Quebec, at the mouth of the Saguenay river. This arrangement, although intended to diminish the temptation to smuggling, which exclusive privileges and high duties engender, failed to produce the expected result, and the records of the colony present the usual routine of contraband artifices for evading the payment of heavy duties on merchandize. War was continued to be waged by the French Colonists against the Iroquois, or Mohawk Indians, (who were in alliance with the English colonists, then occupying the territories around New York); and a French army, consisting of 28 companies of regular troops, and the whole militia of the colony marched 700 miles from Quebec into the Mohawk territory, during the depth of winter, for the purpose of utterly extirpating the Indians, who, however, retired, leaving only a few women, children, and sachems (old men), who were mercilessly slain by the disappointed Frenchmen. For purposes of military defence, forts were constructed at the mouths of the river Sorel or Chambly, and by a royal edict the Canadians were directed to concentrate their settlements, no lands being permitted to be cleared or cultivated but such as were contiguous to each other;* this circumstance accounts for the

* There was good cause for this edict by reason of the retaliation of the Iroquois, for the murder of their wives and children, and the transhipment of their warriors in chains to the galleys in France whenever the French colonists could come upon their villages by surprize. The Marquis de Tracy made one incursion into an Iroquois settlement; the Indians saved themselves by flight, but a few old men, and women, and children, were slaughtered by the French, and the massacre was celebrated by a Te Deum, in the cathedral of Quebec, by order of the Governor General!

16 FRENCH KING RESUMES THE W. I. C. RIGHTS IN CANADA.

peculiar military style of the French Canadian townships, and is one of the causes of the N. E. frontier having been nearly deserted and exposed to the territorial pretensions of the United States.

To the misfortune of the colonists the Governor General, (than more than 70 years of age), confirmed in 1667, to the West India Company within Canada the same rights, privileges, and authorities, as had been enjoyed by the unfortunate Company of 100 partners, before mentioned; but Monsieur De Talon, the Intendant, a man of profound views, soon perceived the natural interest of the Company to be averse to colonization; he represented to the minister Colbert the absolute necessity of the total resumption of the rights of the crown; drew his attention to the means of obtaining abundance of warlike instruments and naval stores within the colony, pointed out the iron mines of St. Maurice, the oak and pine masts on the borders of the St. Lawrence for ship building, the capabilities of the soil for growing abundance of hemp, &c., and, in fact, at last prevailed, so that in 1674, the King of France resumed his rights to all the territories conceded to the West India Company, assumed their debts and the current value of their stock, and appointed a Governor, Council, and Judges, for the direction of the Canadian colonies.

A minute detail of local occurrences would be out of place in a work of this nature,* it may be sufficient to say that from this period, (1674) when the population, embracing converted Indians, did not exceed 8,000; the French settlement in Canada rapidly progressed, and as it rose in power, and assumed offensive operations on the New England frontier, the jealousy of the British colonists was roused, and both parties aided alternately by the Indians, carried on a destructive and harassing border warfare. And here it may not be

In 1682, the Mississippi (which the Canadian Indians had previously discovered to the French), was descended to the sea by M. de la Sales, and all the country watered by that mighty river, taken nominal possession of in the name of Louis XIV., in honour of whom it was called Louisiana.

BARBARITY OF INDIAN WARFARE.

17

amiss to observe, how much the progress of the British colonists in New York, New England, &c., and the prosperity of the French in Canada was influenced during successive years, by the strength and moral character of their respective sovereigns. I may allude, for instance, to the licentious reign of Louis XV., and the vigorous administration of William III. during whose governments the progress of their respective colonies was retarded or advanced, by the example or stimulus given from the mother country, thus demonstrating how, under a monarchy, the character and happiness of a nation is influenced by the principles and habits of a ruler.

For many years the French in Canada made head against the assaults of their less skilful, but more persevering neighbours, owing to the active co-operation and support which they received from their Indian allies, whom the British were by nature less adapted for conciliating, but at length the latter seeing the necessity of native co-operation, conciliated the favour of the Aborigines, and turned the tide of success in their favour. The hostilities waged by the Indians were dreadful; setting little value on life, they fought with desperation, and gave no quarter; protected by the natural fastnesses of their country, they chose with safety their own time for action, and when they had enclosed their enemies in a defile or amidst the intricacies of the forest, the war whoop of the victor, and the death shriek of the vanquished was almost simultaneously heard; and while the bodies of the slain served for food* to the savage, the scalped head of the white man was a trophy of glory, and a booty of no inconsiderable value to its possessor. The Canadians themselves sometimes experienced the remorseless fury of their Indian forces. On the 26th of July, 1688, Le Rat, a chief of the Huron tribe, mortified by the pretension of the French commanders to negotiate a peace with the Iroquois or Five

* According to the French historians of the day,

For every human scalp delivered into the Canadian War Department, a sum of 40 livres was paid; to our credit, be it said, such barbarisin was not pursued by the New England Colonies.