ing into Hudson's Bay - is now open to all on equal

terms.

Fur-trade factories, protected by strong forts, were early planted by the company at the mouths of several French opsub-arctic rivers, such as the Rupert, Moore, position. Albany, Nelson, and Churchill, the only inhabitants being the small garrisons and the company's trading servants. Several expeditions were successively made to Hudson's Bay by French war vessels; much devastation was wrought and blood spilled, until in 1697 the treaty of Ryswick put an end to the trouble, and left the company in undisputed possession. It had lost more than £200,000 in this predatory warfare, but soon regained its position, through the profits of the fur-trade.

After the fall of New France (1763), the Hudson's Bay Company met formidable rivals in the enterprising North

American rivals.

west and American organizations; the story of the fierce competition which ensued, with its effect on American settlement and international boundaries, belongs to the period covered by other volumes of this series.

From the foregoing sketch it will be seen that for all the American colonies to the south of Georgia the English were obliged to fight a changeful battle Summary. with the Spaniards and the French. It was not till after the Revolutionary war that the permanent ownership of the islands was assured to Great Britain. A similar struggle, though briefer and sooner concluded, went on for the possession of the colonies north of Maine. But twelve years before the Revolution the last of them had been yielded to the British. In Nova Scotia, and later in Canada, English residents were not numerous till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay, in colonial times, the settlers were English, but in numbers they were few.

CH. XII.] Bibliography of New France.

245

CHAPTER XII.

THE COLONIZATION OF NEW FRANCE (16081750).

107. References.

Bibliographies. - Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, iv. 12-32, 62-80, 130–134, 149-162, 196-200, 290-316, 356368; v. 63-86, 420-482, 560-622; Foster's Monthly Reference Lists, iv. 19, 34, 35; Allen's History Topics.

Historical Maps.- No. 4, this volume; Maps in Parkman's works and in Winsor; MacCoun's Historical Geography of the United States.

General Accounts. Parkman's works are the prime authority; viz. Pioneers of France in the New World, Jesuits in North America, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, Old Régime in Canada, Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV., and Montcalm and Wolfe. In his Conspiracy of Pontiac, i. 46-171, there is a useful summary of the previous volumes. See also Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, vols. iv., v. ; Bancroft (final ed.), ii. 419–565; Bryant and Gay, iii. 254-389; Hildreth, ii. 433-513; and Hart's Fall of New France. A good French account is Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. Good histories of Canada are: Kingsford's Withrow's (ed., 1885), and MacMullen's (2d ed., 1869).

Special Histories. -Machar's and Marquis's Stories of New France is an entertaining panorama of historic pictures. Hinsdale's Old Northwest, pp. 21-69, presents a general review of French domination in that section. Hebberd's History of Wisconsin under the Dominion of France seeks to show that certain events happening in Wisconsin had an important bearing on the downfall of New France. Dunn's Indiana (American Commonwealths Series), pp. 41-130, gives a graphic picture of life and manners in the old French villages in the Northwest. Consult Bourinot's Local Government in Canada (Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 5th series).

Contemporary Accounts. Cartier's Discovery of New France (1534); Champlain's Voyages, and Radisson's Voyages (in Prince Soc. Pubs.); Baron la Hontan's Travels in Canada (1683); Charlevoix's History and General Description of New France (1720-1723); Jesuit Relations (especially Dablon's, 1672-1673). Savage's Account of the Expedition against Canada (1690), in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st series, vol. xiii.

108. Settlement of Canada (1608–1629).

THE story of early French efforts at colonization in North America, from Cartier's visit (1534) to Champlain's foundation of Quebec (1608), the first permanent French colony in Canada, has already been told (Chapter II.).

It was unfortunate for New France that Champlain incurred at the outset the hostility of the Iroquois (page 196); the French and the Algonkin tribes with whom they maintained friendly relations were long after sorely afflicted by them. Had it not

Effect of Iroquois opposition.

been for the Iroquois wall interposed between Champlain and the South, the French would doubtless have preceded the English upon the Atlantic plain. The presence of this opposition led the founder of New France, in his attempts to extend the sphere of French influence, to explore along the line of least resistance, to the north and west.

In 1611, Montreal was planted at the first rapids in the St. Lawrence, and near the mouths of the Ottawa and Richelieu. Four years later (1615), ChamChamplain on Lake plain reached Lake Huron by the way of the Huron. Ottawa. There were easier highways to the Northwest, but the French were compelled for many years thereafter to take this path, because of its greater security from the all-devouring Iroquois.

To extend the sphere of French influence and the Catholic religion, as well as to induce the savages to patronize French commerce, were objects which inspired both lay and clerical followers of Champlain. Their

1608-1659.]

wonderful zeal illumined the history of New France with a poetic glamour such as is cast over no other part of America north of Mexico. Under ChamExplorers and coureurs plain's guidance and inspired by his example, de bois. traders and priests soon penetrated to the far west, the former bent on trafficking for peltries, and the latter on saving souls. Another large class of rovers, styled coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, wandered far and wide, visiting and fraternizing with remote tribes of Indians; they were attracted by the love of lawless adventure, and conducted an extensive but illicit fur-trade. Many of these explorers left no record of their journeys, hence it is now impossible to say who first made some of the most important geographical discoveries.

109. Exploration of the Northwest (1629–1699).

We know that by 1629, the year before the planting of the Massachusetts Bay colony, one of Champlain's explorEarly dising agents had brought him an ingot of copper coveries in from the shores of Lake Superior. In 1634, the Northwest. Jean Nicolet, another emissary from Champlain, penetrated to central Wisconsin, by way of the Fox River, and thence went overland to the Illinois country, making trading agreements with the savage tribes along his path. Seven years afterwards (1641), Jesuit priests said mass before two thousand naked savages at Sault Ste.-Marie. In the winter of 1658-1659, two French fur-traders, Radisson and Groseilliers, imbued with a desire "to travell and see countreys" and "to be knowne with the remotest people," visited Wisconsin, probably saw the Mississippi, and built a log fort on Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. During 1662 they discovered James's Bay to the far northeast, and became impressed with the fur-trading capabilities of the Hudson's Bay region. Not receiving French support in their enterprise, they sold

their services to England. On the strength of their discoveries, the Hudson's Bay Company was organized (1670). Saint-Lusson took formal possession of the Northwest for the French king, at Sault Ste.-Marie, in 1671. Two years later (1673), Joliet and Marquette made their now famous trip over the Fox-Wisconsin waterway and re-discovered the Mississippi.

La Salle.

Champlain died at Quebec in 1635, having extended the trade and domination of France westward to Wisconsin, by the Ottawa highway. It remained for the fur-trader, La Salle, one of the most brilliant of American explorers, to add the Mississippi valley to French territory (1679–1682), his route being up the Great Lakes and via the Chicago-Illinois portage. It was 1699 before a French settlement was planted in Louisiana (Old Biloxi), and 1718 before New Orleans was founded.

The central geographical fact to be remembered in connection with the history of New France is, that the St. Lawrence and the chain of Great Lakes which serve as its feeders furnish a natural highway to the heart of the continent (page 4).

the Great

It has been shown that the hostility of the Iroquois forced the French, in their earliest explorations westEarly explo- ward, to take the northern, or indirect, route of rations on the Ottawa River, and caused Huron to be Lakes. the first great lake discovered; Ontario, Superior, and Michigan being next unveiled, in the order named. Erie, the last to be seen by whites, was known as early as 1640, but owing to Iroquois warriors blocking the way, was not navigated until 1669, except by coureurs de bois seeking the New York fur-markets. Thus Frenchmen were familiar with the sites of Sault Ste.-Marie, Mackinaw, Ashland, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Chicago before they had visited the site of Detroit (1669). But that place came to be recognized after its