Читать книгу The rise of Canada, from barbarism to wealth and civilisation онлайн

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De Monts, or rather de Lauzon, was succeeded by the Baron D'Avaugour, the last of the Fur Governors, a weak, stupid man, who had almost by his imbecility and vacillation suffered the business of his employers to be extinguished. The Iroquois most vigorously waged war during his time upon every other tribe of Indians. They altogether exterminated the Eries, and in their very wickedness, did good in rendering their country more susceptible to colonization by Europeans. D'Avaugour was recalled. The Hundred Associates resigned their charter into the hands of the French king, who transferred the company's privileges to the West India Company. M. de Mesy was appointed governor by the Crown, and for a council of advice he had a Vicar Apostolic and five others, one of whom was a kind of Inspector General, and another a Receiver General. To this Governor and Council the power of establishing Courts of Justice, at Three Rivers and Montreal, was confided. Courts of Law were established soon after De Mesy's arrival, and four hundred soldiers were obtained from France to enable His Excellency to cause the law to be respected. De Mesy, of a proud and unbending temper, quarrelled with his Council, sneered at the settlers, and governed with a rod of iron. He cared neither for Vicar Apostolic, nor for Finance Ministers. Nay, he went so far, after quarrelling with the Jesuits, as to send two members of the Company to France, a mistake for which he paid the penalty by being himself recalled. De Mesy was succeeded by the Marquis de Tracy and was the second Chief Crown Governor, or Viceroy. He was not fettered with a Council of Advice, but he was more absurdly hampered with almost co-equals in the shape of assistants. The Seigneur de Courcelles was appointed Governor of the Colony, and Mon. De Talon, Intendant. De Tracy brought with him as settlers the then newly disbanded regiment of Carignan-Sallières, which had returned from fighting, not for the Turks in Hungary, but against them. They had been extraordinarily successful. And France had acquired great influence by her successful efforts to stay Mahometan encroachment. The Turks were then the oppressors not the oppressed. But France then, as now, was playing the balance of power game. The men of the Carignan-Sallières Regiment were admirably adapted for settlement in a country in which constant fighting was being carried on. They were to have a deep interest in subduing the Iroquois. They were some protection against the Round-Heads of Massachusetts. Sixteen hundred and sixty-five other settlers, including many artisans, accompanied them. Cattle, sheep, and horses were for the first time sent to Canada. More priests were sent out, for whom the West India Company were, by their charter, bound to provide churches and houses. The most Christian king had determined upon at least christianizing the country, and upon so retaining it. Without priests and churches the Hungarian Heroes would have been of as little value to France as the cattle, sheep, and horses which accompanied them to Canada. It was a condition of the West India Company's Charter that priests were to be carried out, and parsonages and churches erected. Like most companies chartered for similar purposes, the stock of this company was transferable, but only the revenue, or profits of the revenue could be attached for the debts of the stockholders. The company had a monopoly of the territory, and the trade of the Colony for forty years. Nor was this all. His most Christian Majesty conferred a bounty of thirty livres on every ton of goods imported to France, a kind of protection similar to that still extended by the French government to the Newfoundland fisheries. The company had the right to all mines and minerals—had the power of levying and recruiting soldiers in France—had the power of manufacturing arms and ammunition—had the power of building forts in Canada—and had the power of declaring and carrying on war against the American Indians, or, in case of insult, the Colonial Englishmen of New England, or the Manhattanese Dutch. Justice was to be administered according to the Custom of Paris. All Colonists of, and converts to the Roman Catholic faith, had the same rights in France as Frenchmen born and resident in France had. And for four years the king himself agreed to advance a tenth of the whole stock of the company, without interest, and to bear a corresponding proportion of any loss which the company, in the course of four years, might sustain. These were certainly liberal and prudent privileges, but more ultimate good, or in other words, good would have been sooner realized had the conditions been less liberal and less prudent. These conditions were of too liberal a nature to cause any desire for change to be entertained for a great length of time, and the consequence is that even now Lower Canada is governed according to the "Cotume de Paris," and cultivated as France was cultivated two hundred years back. A year after the Marquis' arrival, the Council of State granted to the Canadian Company the trade in furs on payment of a subsidy of one fourth of all beaver skins, and of one tenth of all Buffalo skins. The trade of Tadousac was excepted. Fort building and church building went on vigorously. The fur trade was easily attended to. Three forts were erected at the mouth of the Richelieu-Sorel. The Indians made sorties repeatedly down this river, always doing much mischief, and the forts were intended to prevent the mischief. But the Iroquois were not to be foiled. They found means to reach the settlements by other roads. Nor was De Tracy to be annoyed. He sent out war parties who did not, however, effect much. The Viceroy, an old man of some seventy summers, took the field himself. With the view of exterminating the Indians, he set out on the 14th Sept., 1666, with a considerable force consisting of regular troops, militia, and friendly Indians. Unfortunately the Commissariat Department was badly conducted, and the exterminating force were nearly themselves exterminated by starvation. They had to pass through a large tract of forest land to meet their foes, and they frequently lost their way. The haversack was soon emptied, and the starving army was only too happy to breakfast, dine, and sup on chestnuts gathered in the bush, until some Indian settlements were reached. They came upon almost a forest of chestnut-trees, and fell upon them like locusts. They ate and filled their haversacks, and it was well that they did so, for the Iroquois had adopted the Russian expedient of abandoning their villages, and suffering the enemy to march through a country altogether wanting in the bare necessaries of life. M. De Tracy marched and countermarched without effecting anything beyond capturing some old men, and one or two women with their children. Luckily he fell in with supplies of corn in one of the abandoned settlements which he took possession of for the benefit of his army. Still more luckily he got to Quebec again safely, but so thoroughly disgusted with the state of affairs, that he resigned his government into De Courcelle's hands, and returned to France. De Courcelle was a man of some address. He cajoled the Iroquois and prevented war. He was the founder, but not the builder of Fort Cataraqui or Kingston, on Lake Ontario. He settled Hurons at Michillimacinac. Both fort and settlement were intended to benefit the fur trade. The new settlement was in fact a new hunting ground, and the new fort was for the protection of the hunters. De Courcelle visited personally Cataraqui. He was dragged up the Lachine, the Cedars, and other rapids of the St. Lawrence, in an open boat, but suffered from moisture and exposure to such an extent that, on returning to Montreal, he solicited his recall to France, and was recalled accordingly.

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