{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62154/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62154","id":"gutenberg_62154","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62154","summary":null,"tags":["Canada -- History -- 1763-1867","Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)","Category: History - American","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: History - European","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore"],"text":"[Illustration: Cover art]\n\n\n\n\n[Frontispiece: Landing of the Loyalists, 1783 (Page 260)]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Title page]\n\n\n\n\n  ROMANCE OF EMPIRE\n\n\n  CANADA\n\n\n  BY\n\n  BECKLES WILLSON\n\n  AUTHOR OF 'THE GREAT FUR COMPANY,' 'LEDGER AND SWORD,' ETC.\n\n\n\n  WITH TWELVE REPRODUCTIONS FROM ORIGINAL COLOURED DRAWINGS BY\n  HENRY SANDHAM\n\n\n\n  LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD.\n  35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH\n\n  1907\n\n\n\n\n\n  TO MY SON\n\n  GORDON\n\n\n\n\n{vii}\n\nPREFACE\n\nIn the following pages is told the history of my native land, as a\nsagamore of the olden time might tell the legends of the past to the\nyoung braves of his tribe gathered round the lodge fire.  Though\nprimarily intended for youth, yet there is scarce any one of\nintelligence and spirit who may not find some entertainment in\nhearing of the doings of the valiant heroes, the bloodthirsty\nvillains, the virtuous ladies who played their part in the Canadian\ndrama, and then passed for ever away.\n\nElsewhere I have given the story of Hudson's Bay,[1] and what is\nrecounted here of fur-traders and fur-trading forts owes much, as the\nreader will expect, to my former book.\n\n\n[1] _The Great Fur Company_ 1899.\n\n\n\n\n{ix}\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nCARTIER UNFURLS THE FLAG OF THE LILIES\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nPOUTRAINCOURT GOES FORTH TO ACADIA\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nOF THE DOINGS OF GALLANT CHAMPLAIN\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nROMANCE OF THE TWO DE LA TOURS\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE FOUNDING OF MONTREAL\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE FURY OF THE IROQUOIS\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nSTRANGE DOINGS AT PORT ROYAL\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE COMING OF FRONTENAC\n\n\n{x}\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n\"QUEBEC FOR KING LOUIS\"\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nKING LOUIS BUILDS A MIGHTY FORT\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nHOW LOUISBURG SURRENDERED AND WAS GIVEN BACK\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE ACADIANS ARE BANISHED FROM ACADIA\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTERRIBLE FIGHTS OVER THE BORDER\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nHOW THE GALLANT WOLFE TOOK QUEBEC\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nLEVIS AND THE NOBLES RETIRE TO OLD FRANCE\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nHOW CANADA'S ENEMY WAS FOILED\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nTRAITORS, REDCOATS, AND REDSKINS\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n\n\n{xi}\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nLanding of the Loyalists, 1783 ... Frontispiece\n\nJacques Cartier and the Redskins\n\n\"The Order of a Good Time,\" 1606\n\nDe la Tour refuses to yield his Allegiance, 1630\n\nMaisonneuve covering the Retreat of his Followers, 1644\n\nDollard strikes his Last Blow, 1658\n\n\"My Guns will give my Answer,\" Frontenac, 1690\n\nHeroic Defence by Madeleine de Verch\u00e8res and her Brothers, 1692\n\nWolfe's Army scaling the Cliff at Quebec, 1759\n\nLaura Secord intercepted by the Mohawk Scouts\n\nMeeting of the Nor'-Westers at Fort William, 1816\n\nThe Defeat of Louis Riel, Fish Creek, 1885.\n\n\n\n\n{1}\n\nTHE ROMANCE OF CANADA\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nCARTIER UNFURLS THE FLAG OF THE LILIES\n\nNearly four centuries ago, in the spring of the year, the banks of\nthe river Thames from Windsor to Greenwich were lined with a\nmultitude of gaily-dressed lieges.  Artisans and their wives,\ntradesmen and apprentices, farmers in smock frocks, gentlemen in\ndoublets and hose, and ladies in farthingales, all came out to snatch\na peep of a brave spectacle.  From lip to lip ran the news that at\nlast the royal barge in its crimson and gold trappings had set out\nfrom Windsor.  Bluff \"King Hal,\" as the people affectionately termed\ntheir monarch, and his new queen, Anne Boleyn, were that day making\ntheir first voyage together down the Thames to the royal palace at\nGreenwich.\n\nGlance at this spectacle but a moment, for, if an English reader and\nmore familiar with English than with Canadian history, it will serve\nto fix the date of my story's opening firmly in your mind.  The banks\nare re-echoing with loyal cheers, the State {2} bargemen are plying\ntheir oars and the State trumpeters their trumpets, while poor Anne\nBoleyn, little dreaming of the fate awaiting her, smiles and nods\nmerrily at the crowds who wave their silken kerchiefs in the\nsunshine.  So this first water pageant of the season passes along.\n\nNow, History borrowing something of Romance, has so ordered it that\non this self-same day, the 20th of April 1534, when the English King\nwas setting out on the river journey with his new queen, on the other\nside of the English Channel another and very different embarkation\nwas taking place, and a very different voyage was begun.\n\nThe object of this enterprise was far indeed from pleasure, and its\nconsequences were very important and far-reaching, not only to the\nKing of France, but to King Henry the Eighth's successors, the\nEnglish people and the British Empire of our own day.  Different as\nit was, there was here, too, cheering and waving of caps and cries of\n\"Vive le Roi!\" as the soldiers, sailors, and townsfolk on the dock at\nSt. Malo bade lion-hearted Jacques Cartier godspeed on his\nadventurous voyage to the New World.\n\nAt this time, you must bear in mind, more than forty years had\nelapsed since Christopher Columbus had returned to Spain with tidings\nof his glorious discovery on the other side of the Atlantic.  When\nJacques Cartier, son of a Breton mariner, was born, all Europe was\nstill ringing with the news.  As the child grew up he heard tales of\nhow often famous mariners had in turn sailed boldly to the west and\n{3} claimed for Spain, Portugal, and England the lands which might\nlead to India and serve as gateway to the Spice Islands of the East.\nAmongst these sailors were John Cabot and his son Sebastian, who,\nalthough themselves Venetians, sailed from the port of Bristol and\nflew the English flag.  In 1498 the Cabots explored the whole coast\nof North America from Labrador to South Carolina, and were the first\nEuropeans actually to land in the country we to-day know as Canada.\nAfter the Cabots, who claimed the whole northern lands for England,\ncame, a quarter of a century later, a Florentine navigator, named\nVerrazano, who declared the entire region annexed to the French\nCrown.  And now, because of Verrazano's claim, King Francis of France\nwas sending Jacques Cartier forth from St. Malo with two little ships\nand 120 men to explore inland and set up the French flag and a French\ncolony in a New France beyond the sea.  So this Frenchman, valiant,\nlean, and rugged, with his little band of compatriots, sailed away on\nthat April day while Bluff King Hal of England was merrymaking on the\nThames, well content with his little isle of England, giving no\nthought to Empire or distant deeds of discovery and conquest amongst\nthe savage nations of the earth.\n\nStraight towards the setting sun steered Cartier and his men.  As\nthey were not buffeted greatly by the waves, in twenty days' time, on\nthe 10th of May, they reached the straits which led to the gulf and\nriver of St. Lawrence.  How their hearts leapt when they sighted\nland!  On their left they saw the great island of Newfoundland and on\nthe right Labrador's {4} bleak shores stretched before them.\n\"Surely,\" cried Cartier, \"this is Cain's portion of the earth!\"  But\ntheir spirits rose when they sailed into the Gulf and came to rich\nforests of pine, maple, and ash, with abundance of blossom and wild\nberries on every hand.  They had been afraid that the interior was as\ndesolate as their first glimpse of Labrador.  The few Indians on the\nbanks gazed upon them with a wondering but friendly eye.  The\nexplorers were unprepared, too, for the great heat which overtook\nthem.  By day the land was bathed in intense sunshine, and at night a\ngorgeous moon lit up the broad waters, while owls and bats wheeled in\nair heavily perfumed with wild shrubs and flowers.  A bay in which he\nanchored Cartier called Baie des Chaleurs.  Sailing on, he came to a\npromontory, which he christened Cape Gasp\u00e9, where he landed and set\nup a cross 30 feet high.  On its front was a shield with the arms of\nFrance.  As you travel through Eastern Canada to-day you will\nfrequently come upon crosses by the wayside, where the country folk\nkneel and say their prayers.  This at Gasp\u00e9 was the first cross\nerected in New France.  While the pious sailors were erecting it a\nnumber of red-men flocked near and surveyed the proceeding jealously,\nas if the white newcomers were about to charm away their land; but\nCartier explained as best he could to their medicine-men and\ndistributed amongst them some knives and trinkets, of which he had\nbrought out hither a goodly store.\n\nHaving quieted their suspicions, Cartier lured two of the young\nred-men into his ship, wishing to {5} show them, on his return, to\nthe King.  Cartier had meant to continue his voyage much farther\nwestward, but adverse winds met him, wherefore, abandoning this\nresolution, and taking counsel with his officers and pilots, he\ndecided to set sail for France.  As truly as Columbus he had\ndiscovered a new world, and from the two natives whom he bore away\nJacques Cartier had learnt of the existence of the great river St.\nLawrence.  So much interest was awakened in France by Cartier's\nnarrative of his voyage, that there was no difficulty about procuring\nthe money for another expedition.  The French Court and people were\nfilled with enthusiasm about Canada, and so they continued to be for\nmore than two centuries.  How their hope and confidence were rewarded\nwe shall see in due time.\n\nWhen Jacques Cartier again took his departure from St. Malo, in May\n1535, he commanded three ships and 110 sailors.  A number of nobles\nand gentlemen, moreover, belonging to some of the proudest families\nin France, went with him, eager for adventure.  They thought, as\nmarine adventurers often thought in those days, that this time surely\nthey would find the gateway to the passage of Cathay and win wealth\nuntold.  But they were not so lucky as at first; the winds were so\nbad that seven weeks elapsed before Cartier reached the Straits of\nBelle Isle.  From this point the squadron steered for the Gulf St.\nLawrence, so named by Cartier in honour of the saint upon whose day\nit was discovered.  Keeping on, as his Indian interpreters bade him\ndo, he sailed up that stream which the Indians called \"The Great\nRiver of Canada.\"\n\n{6}\n\nCan you wonder at Cartier and his attendant nobles feeling a thrill\nof excitement as the landscape no white man had ever seen before\nslowly unfolded itself to view?  Opposite the great mouth of the\nmysterious Saguenay red-men in birch bark canoes came to greet them.\nTheir two interpreters could exchange language with these, although\ntheir many months' residence in France had made them very different\nin appearance from their brother savages of Canada.  They wore now\nslashed crimson doublets and brilliant striped hose, while the\nmassive feathers in their heads caused the Canadian Indians to regard\nthem as chiefs of great renown.  Cartier led his ships on to what the\nnatives called \"The Kingdom of Canada,\" which stretched along the St.\nLawrence as far as the Island of Montreal, where the King of\nHochelaga held his sway.  To the fertile Isle of Orleans, which\nCartier reached on the 9th of September, he gave the name of Isle of\nBacchus, on account of the abundant grape vines growing upon it.\nFrom here the explorer could see on the north bank of the great river\na towering promontory lit up by the morning sun.  This was Cape\nDiamond, at whose base there crouched the Indian village of\nStadacona.  Cartier anchored here his little fleet, and the chief of\nthe neighbouring tribe, Donacona, came to greet him, with twelve\ncanoes full of warriors.  After a speech of welcome, the women of the\ntribe, or squaws, danced and sang without ceasing, standing in water\nup to their knees.\n\nJacques Cartier was delighted with the country he had discovered, and\nlost no time in deciding to proceed {7} up the river as far as\nHochelaga.  Donacona and the other chiefs, on hearing this, did their\nutmost to dissuade him by inventing stories about the dangers of the\nriver.  Perceiving these made little impression on the sturdy sailor,\nthree Indians were forthwith dressed as devils, \"with faces painted\nas black as coal, with horns as long as the arm, and covered with the\nskins of black and white dogs.\"  Cartier was told that these devils\nwere the servants of the Indian god at Hochelaga, who warned the\nEuropean strangers that \"there was so much snow and ice that all\nwould die.\"  To their astonishment, however, Cartier only laughed at\nsuch tricks, and told them that \"their god was a mere fool, and that\nJesus would preserve them from all danger if they would believe in\nHim.\"  Wishing also to impress upon them his own great power, he\nordered several pieces of artillery to be discharged in the presence\nof the chief and his warriors; whereupon they became filled with\nastonishment and dread.  Never before had they heard such terrible\nsounds.  What were these strangers who could produce thunder at will?\nTo reassure them, the \"pale-face\" chief distributed trinkets, small\ncrosses, beads, pieces of glass, and other trifles amongst them and\nsailed on boldly up the river.\n\nIn a fortnight a town, consisting of about fifty large huts or cabins\nsurrounded by wooden palisades, came into view; 1200 souls belonging\nto a tribe called the Algonquins dwelt here in Hochelaga.  The whole\npopulation assembled on the banks and gave the visitors friendly\nwelcome.  All that night the savages remained on the shore, burning\nbonfires, {8} dancing, and crying out \"Aguaze!\" which was their word\nfor welcome and joy.  The poor Indians took Cartier and his men for\ngods.  He distributed gifts amongst them and professed to heal their\nailments.\n\n[Illustration: Jacques Cartier and the Red-skins]\n\nNear the town of Hochelaga was a mountain, to which the Indians\nconducted their visitors.  From the summit this first band of\nEuropeans in Canada gazed down at the wonderful panorama spread\nbefore their eyes, glistening rivers, green meadows, and forests of\nmaple brilliant in autumn scarlets and yellows.  Naming this lofty\neminence Mount Royal, Jacques Cartier and his companions returned to\nStadacona.  Having decided to spend the winter in Canada, a fort was\nforthwith built on the shore, but before the little colony could be\nmore than half prepared, a fierce Canadian blizzard was upon them.\nNever had they known such cold and such tempests.  From their lack of\nfresh food, scurvy rioted amongst them, and out of 110 men 25 died.\nWhen the disease was at its height an Indian told them that they\ncould be cured by the juice of a spruce tree.  Out of their fort they\nran with the axes, and so quickly did they drink the juice that in\nsix days the whole of a great tree had been consumed.\n\nThus was the little colony made well again.  Lest the Indians should\nknow how weak they were during that terrible winter, they continued\nto dread; but no attack was made upon them, and in the spring Cartier\nmade ready to return to France.  This time Donacona and four other\nchiefs were seized by stratagem and taken on board ship.  A cross 30\nfeet high, with the fleur-de-lys fastened to {9} it, was set up on\nthe shore, and in the middle of May the waters of the St. Lawrence\nbegan to bear them down to the Gulf and the open Atlantic.  Exactly\none month later Cartier was being greeted by the cheers of the people\nof his native St. Malo.\n\nAlas!  Donacona and the other Indian braves whom the French had borne\naway never returned to Stadacona and their forest haunts.  Before\nCartier was ready to make another voyage to Canada, five years later,\nall had pined away and died.  It was then that the Sieur de Roberval,\na nobleman of Picardy, was appointed by King Francis as lieutenant,\nwith the high-sounding titles of Governor of Canada, Hochelaga,\nSaguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay,\nand of Baccalaos, as well as Lord of Norembaga, which latter country\nexisted only in imagination.  Roberval meant to have gone out with\nCartier, but was detained until the following year.  On his third\nvoyage Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga and tried to pass up the\nriver beyond the village, but the dangerous rapids of Lachine caused\nhim to pause.  When he returned to France a year later, he took with\nhim some small transparent stones which he supposed were diamonds,\nbut which were really only quartz crystals; he also carried away what\nhe deemed to be gold ore, but which turned out to be merely mica.  On\nthe way back he met the Sieur de Roberval, who afterwards built a\nfort on the St. Lawrence and explored the surrounding country.  But\nRoberval wrought nothing, and famine at length reduced the survivors\nto a state of abject dependence upon the natives.  In vain Roberval\nentreated the {10} King to come to his rescue with supplies of\ncolonists, food, and ammunition.  Instead of acceding to this\npetition, King Francis despatched orders for his lieutenant to return\nhome to France.  Roberval reluctantly obeyed, and thus this first\nattempt to establish a French colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence\nended in failure.\n\nCartier was allowed by the King to bear always the title of\n\"Captain.\"  He undertook no more voyages into unknown lands, but died\nabout 1577 in his own manor-house close to St. Malo.  While he was\nthus spending his later years in an enforced retirement, eating his\nheart out for want of adventure, a daring Spaniard, De Soto, was\nfacing dangers at the other and southern end of the Continent, close\nto the triple mouths of the Mississippi, which he had discovered.\n\nKing Francis of France, years before, had been stricken by death, and\nthereupon his country became plunged in unhappy civil war.  Catholic\nand Huguenot dipped their blades in each other's blood; but in the\nmidst of the long and deadly strife Canada was not wholly forgotten.\nFrenchmen still spoke with pride of the valiant Cartier and the flag\nof the lilies which he had unfurled in the Western world.\n\n\n\n\n{11}\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nPOUTRAINCOURT GOES FORTH TO ACADIA\n\nIt was a terrible era for France.  Catholics and Huguenots made\nfierce war upon one another, and in the midst of all the fighting and\nmurders and massacres such as that of St. Bartholomew, which you may\nread about in French history, conquest and discovery languished.\nAlthough the King, the Court, and the Cardinals had no time to spare\nto Canada, yet you must not suppose that for the next fifty years\nthere was no connection at all between the New World and France.  The\nred-men, paddling up and down the mighty St. Lawrence, very often met\nwith pale-face mariners eager to exchange guns and hatchets and beads\nfor the furs of the animals trapped in the northern wilderness.  Many\nEuropean ships--often over a hundred sail--came every year to\nNewfoundland to the cod-fisheries off that coast, and some of these\nsailed onward into the Gulf and on to Tadoussac, and even as far as\nThree Rivers.  At these places fur-trading stations were set up, and\nhither repaired each season the hardy mariners, who were not slow to\ndiscover more profit in Europe out of sable and beaver skins than out\nof cod-fish.  Those wild animals, whose fur was esteemed in France\nand {12} other lands, were so plentiful in Canada that in course of\ntime the peltry trade, as it was called, grew to be the principal\nbusiness of the country.  As each spring came round the savage\ntribes, whose hunting-grounds were far in the interior, would pack\ntheir furs in canoes and paddle hundreds of miles down the lakes and\nrivers to the post where the white trader was awaiting them.  When\nthe Indian had bartered his furs, back he paddled again to his own\nhunting-grounds, and the trader in turn sailed back to France, to\nreturn the next season.\n\nMeanwhile, too, English sailors, lieges to the great Elizabeth, had\nbeen visiting the New World which Cabot had claimed for England.\nFirst there came Martin Frobisher in 1576, who, looking for a short\nroute to India, set foot on the shores of Labrador.  Again, on the\nother side of the continent, Sir Francis Drake, sailing round the\nworld, sighted the snowy peaks on the borders of British Columbia,\nwhich afterwards became a part of the Canadian Dominion.  Then came\nSir Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, with 260\nmen and several ships, to plant a colony in Newfoundland.  Sir\nHumphrey's sovereign mistress, Elizabeth, had graciously granted him\na charter of 600 miles in every direction from St. John's, whereby he\nbecame lord and master of what we know to-day as Nova Scotia, New\nBrunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Labrador and Quebec.\nIt was on a serene August morning that the fleet reached harbour.\nDonning his most gorgeous doublet of lace and velvet, and surrounded\nby his stalwart retainers, Sir {13} Humphrey landed at St. John's and\ntook possession of Newfoundland in Elizabeth's name.  When he had\nreconnoitred the coast, our courtier resolved to return with his\npeople to England for provisions and reinforcements.  Nowadays many\nof our bravest sailors would be afraid to trust themselves in the\nlittle ships that formed his fleet.  They were very short, curved,\nand blunt, and, compared to our modern floating castles, were only\ngiant cockle-shells.  A few days out a hurricane arose, and in the\nmidst of the raging seas Sir Humphrey's ship, the _Squirrel_, was\ndoomed.  But not even his dreadful fate, when it loomed around him,\ncould fill the brave commander's soul with fear.  With waves\ncareering mast-high he sat placidly on deck with a Bible on his lap.\n\"Cheer up, lads,\" cried he to his sailors, \"we are as near heaven on\nsea as on land.\"  And so the cruel billows rolled over the\n_Squirrel_, and it and the brave souls it bore were lost for ever.\nThe expedition from which so much had been hoped in England was an\nutter failure.  It was the sons of France who were destined to found\nand people Canada, and to perform such deeds of daring valour and\nendurance as are not to be surpassed in the history of our own island\nmotherland.  Englishmen, it is true, were to have all Canada at last,\nbut nearly two hundred years were to roll by before their soldiers\ncould wrest the mainland from their hereditary rivals.\n\nFifteen years had passed since Sir Humphrey Gilbert went down in the\nlittle _Squirrel_, when a French noble, the Marquis de la Roche,\nreceived a commission from King Henry the Fourth of France {14} to\ncolonise Canada.  With the commission in his pocket the Marquis knew\nnot which way to turn.  It was not easy in those days to find\nFrenchmen ready to live in a country supposed to be ice and snow the\nwhole year round.  But \"where there's a will there's a way,\" and the\nMarquis at last chose fifty sturdy convicts from the prisons and\ngalleys, and, embarking with his retinue, set sail for the West.  A\nlong low sandbank called Sable Island guards the entrance to St.\nLawrence Gulf, and here the Viceroy set forty of his convicts ashore\nwhile he explored the waters roundabout.  At first the marooned\nconvicts were delighted with their freedom.  They roamed hither and\nthither, finding a lagoon of fresh water, frequented by wild cattle\nand coveys of wild ducks.  Sweet berries flourished in abundance.\nDuring all that summer the convicts amused themselves, keeping a\nsharp look-out for the return of their lord and master, the Marquis,\nwho had gone to find them a haven to settle in and build their\ndwellings.  Day succeeded day, week followed week, but the Marquis\nnever came back.  A violent storm had arisen which drove his vessel\neastward across the wide Atlantic to the very shores of France, where\nthe hapless nobleman was seized by a powerful enemy and cast into\nprison.  Can you not picture the rage and despair of the unhappy men\non Sable Island when they realised their plight?  Winter was fast\napproaching, and they had neither proper food, fuel, nor raiment.\nQuarrelling fiercely, they slew one another, while those who were\nleft, huddled together in rude huts formed of wreckage, lived on raw\n{15} flesh and dressed themselves in the hides of wild cattle.  They\ngave themselves up for lost, but at length the Marquis de la Roche,\nfar away in France, was able to tell the King of the predicament of\nthe abandoned convicts.  A ship was sent out to rescue them, and,\nlike so many wild animals, with long matted hair and beards, they\ngrovelled at the feet of their deliverers.  After such hardships as\nthey had undergone, King Henry was not the one to send them back to\nprison; he pardoned them instead, and all who had survived went back\nto their homes.  De la Roche, broken in health and fortune, died soon\nafter, so this project for starting a colony was, as you see, not a\nwhit luckier than Cartier's or Roberval's or Sir Humphrey Gilbert's\nhad been.  Was the next attempt to reap greater success?\n\nIn that summer of 1599, when the convicts were still on Sable Island,\nto the north of them, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, fur-trading ships\npressed forward under full canvas to the westward.  These ships were\nowned by two men of King Henry's Huguenot subjects, named Pontgrav\u00e9\nand Chauvin, who had formed themselves into a partnership to buy and\nsell furs.  No trader could lift a finger in those days without a\nroyal charter or patent, and these men were influential enough to get\na charter from the King bestowing upon them the exclusive right to\nthe fur trade of Canada.  It was hardly likely they could really make\ngood such a right, or that the other Frenchmen who had been buying\nfurs from the Indians would thereafter stop buying them on account of\nit.  But it was a safe precaution, and {16} made their rivals'\noperations illegal.  On their part Pontgrav\u00e9 and Chauvin promised the\nKing that they would settle in Canada 500 colonists.  In this they\nwere promising more than they could perform; the most they actually\ndid do was to induce sixteen men to remain all winter at Tadoussac,\nwith insufficient food, clothing, and shelter.  Alas! when the ships\nfrom France appeared in the St. Lawrence next year, the last year of\nthe sixteenth century, they found most of the sixteen dead.  Their\nsurviving companions had married native wives and gone to live in the\nwigwams of the Indians.  Once more you see this enterprise had not\nfared any better than those which had gone before, and, like the\nothers, Chauvin died recognising bitterly that his scheme was a\nfailure.\n\nHow was it with his partner, Pontgrav\u00e9?  Pontgrav\u00e9 was only a trader,\nbut he was of dogged tenacity.  He saw that if Canada could be\ncolonised by his countrymen, there was a great fortune to be made out\nof the fur trade, and the way to do it, he reasoned, was to bring his\nchief rivals together to form a company, so that, instead of being\nenemies, all would work together to keep out the smaller traders or\n\"pirates,\" and gradually establish proper trading-posts in Canada.\nAn influential and wealthy old soldier named Aymar de Chastes,\nGovernor of Rouen, interested himself in the scheme, and, being high\nin favour with the King of France, he procured a charter and set\nabout seeing if he and his friends could not succeed where the others\nhad been so signally defeated.\n\n{17}\n\nWe have now reached the point in our story at which Samuel de\nChamplain, the real founder of New France, enters upon the scene.\nFor Aymar de Chastes, casting about for an experienced and\nadventurous spirit to help in the new enterprise, bethought him of a\nvalorous naval captain who had recently returned from Mexico and the\nSpanish main, ready for anything which would fill his purse or\nincrease his renown.  Captain de Champlain was a truly great man, no\nmere hot-blooded, roystering swashbuckler, as many adventurers were\nin those days, but romantic, pious, and humane.  He was then about\nthirty-six years old.  Offering with alacrity his sword and his skill\non an exploring expedition up the St. Lawrence, Champlain went, in\ncompany with Pontgrav\u00e9 and another adventure-loving nobleman of the\nCourt, Pierre du Gast, better known as the Sieur de Monts.  When\nthese pioneers reached Tadoussac they left their ships and ascended\nthe river in boats to the farthest point yet reached, the Rapids,\njust above Hochelaga, now the city of Montreal.  Just as Jacques\nCartier had done nearly seventy years before, Champlain toiled up the\nforest-clad slopes of Mount Royal in order to obtain a good view of\nthe surrounding country.  He, too, was charmed with all that met his\neye, and having drawn up a map and written down a narrative of all he\nhad seen, Champlain and his companions re-embarked in the autumn,\nwhen the Canadian woods were brilliant in their browns and purples,\nyellow and crimson foliage, and sailed back across the salt seas to\nFrance.  What was their mortification to discover that during {18}\ntheir absence their patron, De Chastes, had died, and the company he\nhad exerted himself to make prosperous was all but broken up.  But\nChamplain was not to be beaten.  He showed his narrative and his maps\nto the good and wise King Henry, who was perfectly satisfied of his\ngood faith, and agreed to allow De Monts and his friends to continue\nthe work of colonising Canada and organising the fur trade.  De\nMonts, who was a Huguenot, was forthwith appointed the King's Viceroy\nin New France, on condition that he and the others bore all the cost\nof the expedition, and by and by, in the spring of 1604, four vessels\nonce more sailed away.  It was arranged that two of the ships should\nengage in the fur trade on the St. Lawrence, while the other two were\nto carry out the colonists, soldiers, work-people, priests,\ngentlemen, and, as always happened, as always must happen, a few\nrogues, to whichever spot De Monts selected for the purpose.  The\nlittle fleet steered farther south than was done in the last voyage,\nand thus it came to pass that it finally reached that part of New\nFrance then called Acadia, and to-day marked Nova Scotia on the map.\nHow it came by its name of Nova Scotia you shall hear later on.  One\nday, just before De Monts and his heterogeneous crew landed, they\nanchored in a harbour where one of their sheep (_moutons_) jumped\noverboard.  So De Monts, who was not without a vein of humour in\nthese matters, christened the harbour Port Mouton.  All were\ndelighted with the beauty of the landscape, the grassy meadows, the\nsilvery streams replete with fish, the wooded mountains.\n\n{19}\n\nBesides De Monts and Champlain there was a third leader of the\nexpedition, a certain rich nobleman of Picardy named Baron de\nPoutraincourt.  It was Poutraincourt who named the place where he\nwished to found a colony Port Royal.  It was, wrote Champlain\nafterwards, \"the most commodious, pleasant place that we had yet seen\nin this country.\"  Unhappily the leaders could not instantly make up\ntheir minds, and the landing and settlement actually took place many\nleagues farther along on the banks of a river which now forms the\nboundary between the two great countries of America and Canada, which\nriver was then, and ever since has been, called the Holy Cross (Ste.\nCroix) River.  What a scene of joyous bustle ensued!  Eighty people\ndisembarked from the ships, and were soon hard at work building the\nlittle fort and houses of the first French settlement on the coast of\nthe North-American Continent.  While the colony was thus\nindustriously making ready for the winter, Champlain, thinking he\nmight be better employed, went off exploring the coast in his ship,\nsailing up and down what was destined to become long before he died\nthe territory of New England.\n\nGreat trials were in store for the little colony.  Very quickly the\nsettlers found that Holy Cross River was a very uncomfortable place,\nlacking sufficient shelter, with little or no fuel handy.  What was\nfar worse than the winter's cold, scurvy broke out amongst them, and\nby the time the leaves were putting forth their first blossoms\nthirty-six persons had perished of this disease.  Poutraincourt's\nchoice, {20} Port Royal, after all, was best, and there in late\nspring they began to construct a town near what is now called\nAnnapolis.  De Monts and Poutraincourt returned in the autumn to\nFrance, and after much labour and trouble managed to induce a large\nnumber of mechanics and workers to come out to Acadia.  It must be\nconfessed that there were on board Poutraincourt's ship, the _Jonas_,\nwhich sailed from Rochelle in May 1600, some very reckless, unruly\ncharacters.  But their leader felt convinced that they would make\ngood colonists, if they were only shown the way.  Amongst those to\nhelp him he had brought a very clever man, Lescarbot, a lawyer and\npoet, full of enthusiasm for the new project.\n\nIn the meantime what of the founders and original settlers of Port\nRoyal?  Thinking they had been deserted by their leaders, and lacking\nprovisions and clothing, they became almost as discouraged as the\npoor convicts had been on Sable Island.\n\nAs the summer season wore on they constructed two little craft--the\nvery first ships ever built in Canada--and straightway sailed for the\nNewfoundland fishery banks to seek some of their countrymen, leaving\ntwo only of their number and a wise old Indian chief, named\nMeinbertou, to greet the newcomers on board the _Jonas_.  A peal of a\ncannon from the little fort testified to the joy of its inmates that\nthe long-expected succour was at last at hand.  A party was sent to\novertake the little Port Royal ship to bring back the colonists.  No\nsooner were they landed than Poutraincourt broached a hogshead of\nwine, and Port Royal became a scene of mirth {21} and festivity.\nWhen Champlain and Poutraincourt went off to make further\nexploration, Lescarbot was left in charge of the colony.  He set\nbriskly to work to show the people how they should become prosperous.\nHe ordered crops of wheat, rye, and barley to be sown in the rich\nmeadows and gardens to be planted.  Some he cheered, others he shamed\ninto industry, never sparing himself, so that by and by it was not\nwonderful that everybody loved the merry, witty, bustling Lescarbot.\nNot a day passed but he set going some new and useful work.  Until\nnow the people had ground their corn with hand-mills, as their\nfathers and grandfathers had done for hundreds of years; Lescarbot\nshowed them how to make a water-mill.  He also taught them how to\nmake fire-bricks and a furnace, and how to turn the sap of the trees\ninto tar and turpentine.  No wonder the Indians, astonished to see so\nmany novel industries growing up before their eyes, cried out, \"How\nmany things these Normans know!\"  When the explorers returned to Port\nRoyal, rather dispirited, Lescarbot arranged a masquerade to welcome\nthem back, and all the ensuing winter, which was extremely mild, was\ngiven up to content and good cheer.  Then it was that Champlain\nstarted his famous \"Order of a Good Time,\" of which many stories have\ncome down to us.  The members of this order were the fifteen leading\nmen of Port Royal.  They met in Poutraincourt's great hall, where the\ngreat log fire roared merrily.  For a single day each of the members\nwas saluted by the rest as Grand Master and wore round his neck the\nsplendid collar of office, while he busied himself {22} with the duty\nof providing dinner and entertainment.  One and all declared the fish\nand game were better than in Paris, and plenty of wine there was to\ntoast the King and one another in turn.  At the right hand of the\nGrand Master sat the guest of honour, the wrinkled sagamore,\nMembertou, nearly one hundred years old, his eyes gleaming with\namusement as toast, song, and tale followed one another.  On the\nfloor squatted other Indians who joined in the gay revels.  As a\nfinal item on the programme, the pipe of peace, with its huge\nlobster-like bowl, went round, and all smoked it in turn until the\ntobacco in its fiery oven was exhausted.  Then, and not till then,\nthe long winter evening was over.\n\n[Illustration: 'The Order of a Good Time' 1606]\n\nWhat jolly times those were!  If only they could have lasted!  Port\nRoyal might have become a great city and Acadia a populous province.\nBut bad tidings for Port Royal came from France.  The next ship that\nsailed into the harbour brought word that De Monts' charter had been\nrevoked by the King, and his friends would support his scheme with no\nmore money.  So there appeared nothing to do but to bid good-bye to\nPort Royal and their Indian friends, who watched them depart with\nsadness, promising to look after the fort and its belongings until\nthe white men should return from over the wide sea.\n\nChamplain had already in his heart chosen another field--the lands\nfar inland on the St. Lawrence; but as for Poutraincourt, he swore to\ndeal a blow at his enemies in France and come back to take deep root\nin the fertile Acadian soil.  While, therefore, Champlain {23} was\nwith his followers founding Quebec, and De Monts, discouraged, had\nlost all interest in Acadia, Poutraincourt busied himself to such\npurpose that three years later (1610), in spite of all the baffling\nobstacles he met with, he set out again for his promised land with a\nfresh shipload of settlers.\n\nAt this time King Henry the Fourth was surrounded by members of the\nSociety of Jesus (called Jesuits), who had made themselves already\nvery powerful in the politics of Europe.  The King ordered\nPoutraincourt to take out a Jesuit priest to Acadia, but\nPoutraincourt, distrusting the Jesuits, evaded the priest who had\nbeen chosen to accompany him at Bordeaux, and took out one of his own\nchoosing instead, Father La Fl\u00e8che.  What was their joy when they\nlanded in midsummer to find everything at Port Royal just as they had\nleft it!  One may be sure the Indians gave their pale-face friends a\ncordial greeting.  Old Membertou, still alive, embraced Poutraincourt\nand declared that now he was ready to be baptized a Christian.  The\nchristening duly took place, and the ancient sagamore was renamed\nHenri, after the King, and his chief squaw was christened Marie,\nafter the Queen.  There were numerous other Indian converts, and\ngreat celebrations took place, for the colonists were religious\nenthusiasts and believed such doings would give great satisfaction to\nthe King.\n\nBut, alas, the King was never to hear of it!  Even while all this was\nhappening, while the future of the colony promised so well, a\nterrible blow had fallen upon it and the realm of France.  The brave\nand {24} humane Henry the Fourth had been stabbed to death by the\ndagger of the assassin Ravaillac.  The new King, Louis the\nThirteenth, being only a little boy, all the power and influence of\nthe Court fell into the hands of the Queen Dowager, Marie de Medici,\na false and cruel woman.  Her closest friends and advisers were the\nJesuit priests.  Now these Jesuits, although professing Christianity\nand brotherly love, held in horror anybody who did not think exactly\nas they did.  They wanted especially, by whatever means, to make\nconverts of the Canadian savages.  They wanted too, being very\nambitious, to get the direction of the affairs of the New World into\ntheir own hands.\n\nYet ignorant of the royal tragedy, Poutraincourt sent his son,\nBiencourt, a fine youth of eighteen, back in the ship to France, to\nreport to his Majesty the success at Port Royal in converting the\nnatives.  Whereupon the Jesuits decided that the time had come to\nsupplant Poutraincourt.  They announced that they would send back two\nof their priests with young Biencourt.  A number of rich and pious\nCatholic ladies of the Court, headed by Madame de Guercheville,\ninterested themselves so far in the work as to buy up all the rights\nof Poutraincourt's friends and partners, including De Monts, as\nproprietors of Acadia.  Henceforward Poutraincourt was to be under\nthe dependence of the Jesuits.  That was the unwelcome news his son\nsailed back to tell him.  The two priests whom he was obliged to\nreceive--Biard and Ennemond Mass\u00e9--were the very first members of\ntheir famous order to engage in the {25} work of converting the\nNorth-American Indians.  You will see as our story progresses what a\nterrible and dangerous task this was, and how it demanded men of\nboundless zeal and courage to undertake it.\n\nUnder the circumstance, quarrels were to be expected; and quarrels\nenough came.  The Jesuits at Court, finding Poutraincourt\ninsubordinate, seized the trading vessels destined for Port Royal on\none pretext or another, and brought about so many imprisonments and\nlawsuits, that at last Poutraincourt was ruined.  No longer could he\nsend out supplies of provisions, and his people at Port Royal had to\nsubsist through a whole winter upon acorns, beech-nuts, and wild\nroots.  When Madame de Guercheville and her Jesuit friends had thus\ncrippled poor Poutraincourt, she withdrew the priests to other\nlocalities named in her charter, over which she really supposed she\nhad control.  As for the sturdy old sagamore, Membertou or Chief\nHenri, he soon breathed his last.  On his deathbed he prayed to be\nburied with his forefathers, but of course the priests overcame his\nscruples, and his wrinkled body was laid in the little cemetery at\nPort Royal.\n\nYou may be interested to know what were the French Jesuit rights in\nNorth-America.  The charter the young king, or rather the Queen\nDowager, gave to Madame de Guercheville actually included nearly all\nthe territory from the St. Lawrence River to Florida.  Was there no\none at hand to remind the crafty Marie that the continent she thus\ncomplacently handed over was not hers or {26} her son's to bestow;\nthat the English had a far better right than the French to its\npossession; that in that very year an English colony had been settled\nin Virginia, chartered by King James the First of England?  Curious\nto relate, the land which the English king granted was as wide in\nextent, in truth it was almost the very same region as that claimed\nby the French.  So here we have the cause and beginning of a quarrel\nwhich occasioned seas of bloodshed, and was to last, very nearly\nwithout interruption, for just a century and a half, between the\nFrench and the English colonists in North-America.\n\nIn the spring of 1613 the Jesuits despatched a new expedition under a\ncourtier named La Saussaye, who, having landed at Port Royal to take\non board the two priests there, sailed on and founded a new colony at\nMount Desert, now in the American State of Maine.  They had just\ncommenced to erect buildings and put up the walls of a fort, when,\ngreatly to their surprise, a strange war-ship appeared in the little\nharbour.  It drew nearer, and they saw, with misgivings, the\nblood-red cross of St. George floating from the mast-head.  The\ncaptain of the war-ship turned out to be Samuel Argall, a young and\ndaring English mariner, who had joined his fortunes to those of\nVirginia.  While he was cruising with sixty men off the coast of\nMaine on the lookout for codfish, some friendly Indians boarded the\nship and told him that French intruders were hard by, building a\nfort.  By no means a kind, indulgent young man was Argall, and his\neyes kindled angrily.\n\n{27}\n\n\"Oho!\" he exclaimed, with an oath, \"how dare these rascals venture\ninto King James, my master's territory!\"  Whereupon, stimulated by\nhopes of plunder, he unmuzzled his fourteen cannon and assaulted and\nsacked the yet defenceless French settlement, killing several,\nincluding one of the priests, and making prisoners of the rest.  This\ndone, he destroyed every trace of the colony.  Fifteen Frenchmen,\nincluding La Saussaye, he turned adrift in an open boat, while the\nothers he took back with him to Virginia.  Those whom Argall\nabandoned to their fate would surely have perished had it not been\nfor friendly Indians, who gave them food and helped them on their way\nnorth.  There they eventually met a trading vessel and were carried\nback to France.  As to the prisoners, on landing at Jamestown they\nwere treated as pirates by the English settlers there.  Although\nafterwards released, the Virginian governor, Sir Thomas Dale, was so\nincensed at hearing from one of them about Port Royal, that he bade\nArgall return, with three armed ships, and sweep every Frenchman out\nof Acadia.  Argall carried out his instructions only too well; he set\nfire to the fort and settlement of Port Royal, and in a few hours the\nentire place, the gallant Poutraincourt's hope and pride, was a mass\nof smoking ruins.  Luckily for themselves, most of the French\nhappened to be away in the forest at the time, and so saved their\nlives.  Some took permanent refuge with the Indians, and amongst\nthese was young Biencourt.  Others found their way to the colony\nwhich, as we shall now narrate, Champlain had by {28} this time\nformed far away at Quebec.  But it was all over with Port Royal, at\nleast for the present.  With a heavy heart Poutraincourt sailed away\nto France, and soon afterwards in battle laid down his life for his\nsovereign.\n\nSo ends the first chapter in the story of that part of Canada then\ncalled Acadia.  We will return to it again, for the adventurous young\nBiencourt is still there roaming in the woods with a handful of\nfaithful followers, ready to found Port Royal anew.  In the meantime\nwhat was happening to Champlain, who a few years before had sailed a\nthousand miles up the mighty St. Lawrence to found a colony?  It is\nhigh time that we should now turn to his adventures.\n\n\n\n\n{29}\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nOF THE DOINGS OF GALLANT CHAMPLAIN\n\nWhen the Sieur de Monts abandoned Acadia, thinking, as indeed it\nseemed, an evil spell had been cast upon it, he turned his attention\nto Quebec and the river St. Lawrence.  Here, far inland, was a fair\nregion which promised wealth and glory, and over this region he\nappointed Champlain his lieutenant.  Of the two ships which De Monts\nfitted out one was for the fur trade, of which King Henry, ere his\nheart was pierced by the dagger of Ravaillac, gave him a monopoly for\none year; the other was to carry colonists to found a new French\nsettlement.  You have seen how one after another the French colonies\nhad, from this cause or that, come to destruction; but with such a\nwise and strong head as Samuel de Champlain, one now was expected to\nbear better and more lasting fruit.  Truly, whatever their faults,\nthe founders of New France were very determined men, arising fresh\nafter each disaster, resolved to people with their countrymen the\ngreat Western wilderness.  When Champlain's ships, once safely\nthrough the Straits of Belle Isle, reached Tadoussac, Champlain left\nthere his associate Pontgrav\u00e9 to barter for furs with the {30}\nIndians.  He himself continued his voyage up the river until he came\nto the spot where Jacques Cartier had passed the winter of 1535, and\nwith his men consumed a whole spruce-tree in order to drive away the\nscurvy.\n\nIt was at Quebec (a word meaning in the Indian language a strait)\nthat on the third day of July 1607 Champlain gave orders to\ndisembark.  In the shadow of the towering rock of Cape Diamond, the\nfirst thing to be done was to clear a site and erect cabins for\nshelter.  As his men toiled on unceasingly the natives gathered round\nin wonder and admiration.  They were unaccustomed to much manual work\nthemselves, their squaws doing most of the labour.  They saw in a few\nshort weeks the bastions of a fort and cannon set up.  Scarcely had\nthe workmen completed their task and got all snug and tidy for the\nwinter than a plot was formed amongst some of Champlain's followers\nto kill him.  The leader of the plot was a Norman locksmith, Jean\nDuval, a brave and violent fellow who had served with Champlain in\nAcadia, and was impatient under any kind of authority.  According to\nthe plan the conspirators drew up, their leader was to be shot, the\nstores pillaged, and then they were all to fly to Spain with the\nbooty.  Lucky it was for the great and good pioneer that one of the\nplotters, filled with remorse, went to Champlain a few days before\nthe mutiny was to be carried out and confessed all.  Champlain with\ngreat promptitude seized Duval and hanged him to the nearest tree,\nbut the rest he only sent back to France, where the good King, at his\n{31} request, pardoned them.  Meanwhile Pontgrav\u00e9 had collected and\nsailed away with his cargo of furs.  Spring came; the snows melted\nand were replaced by green meadows and blossoming trees; everywhere\nthe birds sang.  Champlain, without waiting for Pontgrav\u00e9's return,\nset off up the river and soon met again friendly Indian chiefs of the\nAlgonquin and Huron tribes, who told him terrible tales of their\nsufferings at the hands of their enemies the Iroquois or the Five\nNations.  In their despair these chiefs sought out the\nMan-with-the-Iron-Breast, as they called Champlain, on account of the\nsteel breast-plate he wore, and asked his help against the\nblood-thirsty Iroquois.  These men of the Five Nations, Mohawks,\nSenecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Oneidas, lived in the forests south\nof Lake Ontario, and were perhaps at once the most intelligent and\nthe most cruel of all the Indians on the continent.  It was the\nIroquois who had destroyed the old Huron towns of Stadacona and\nHochelaga which Cartier had seen and described, and as they bore the\nHurons and Algonquins an implacable enmity, it was natural that they\nwould extend this enmity to the pale-faces who had now come to dwell\nin the Huron country.  They might, it is true, have been propitiated;\nbut Champlain did not stop to consider any questions of policy: he\nfavoured at once the idea of alliance with the surrounding red-men,\nan alliance which was to cost him and his new colony a bloody and\nfearful price.  Champlain, then, made three warlike expeditions into\nthe country of the Iroquois during the next six years.  In the first\nhe paddled in canoes {32} up the Richelieu River and came to a\nbeautiful lake, to which he gave his own name (\"Lake Champlain\").\nMeeting a party of Iroquois of the Mohawk nation or tribe, he fell\nupon them suddenly.  The Mohawks fancied at first that they had only\nto do with Algonquins, and felt confident of victory, until the\nFrenchmen's muskets rang out; then not fast enough could they flee in\npanic from the magic bullets, leaving many slain, including their\nbravest chiefs.  Champlain had only 60 Frenchmen and Indians, while\nthe Mohawks numbered 200; but his victory was complete; not one of\nhis force was killed, and the town of the enemy was wiped from the\nface of the earth.  Notwithstanding Champlain's protests, the\nAlgonquins insisted on torturing one of their Iroquois captives to\ndeath by every device of savage cruelty.  Mercy was not in their\ncode; they neither gave it, nor, when captured, expected it.\n\nDuring the next three years Champlain was kept very busy in\nexplorations, in attacking the Iroquois, and in protecting his\ncolony.  During this time he returned to France, and was favourably\nreceived at Fontainebleau by King Henry, who listened with interest\nto Champlain's tale of his adventures in \"New France.\"  But in spite\nof royal favour, Champlain had so many rivals and enemies that, like\nPoutraincourt in Acadia, he found it impossible to get the charter\nrenewed, and so his friend and patron, De Monts, was obliged to try\nand get along without it.  Equipping two more ships, he sent\nChamplain back with them to Canada.\n\nThe great ambition of Champlain's soul was to {33} find a passage\nthrough the continent to China.  At last it seemed to him that the\nfriendliness of the Hurons and Algonquins would furnish him with the\nmeans of attaining this desire.  He had just made arrangements with\nthe chiefs, when the news came to him of King Henry's assassination,\nand he felt it was necessary for him to return without delay again to\nFrance.  De Monts, his patron, still enjoyed the title of\nLieutenant-General of New France, but his resources and influence had\nbeen sadly crippled by the King's death, and the cost of keeping up\nQuebec, Tadoussac, and Acadia was very great.  He had no longer the\nmonopoly, that is to say, the sole right of buying and selling\nCanadian furs--it was a right thrown open to other traders; and when\nChamplain on his next voyage back from France once more sailed up the\nSt. Lawrence, he found many strange fur-traders trafficking with the\nsavages.\n\nThe leader had now more to do and think about than ever; he wished,\nmoreover, to prepare a fitting home for a fair and youthful partner\nwho was ever in his thoughts.  During his absence in Paris he had\nespoused a charming Huguenot girl named Helen Bouill\u00e9, daughter of\nthe murdered King's private secretary.  Her name survives to-day in\n\"Helen's Island\" in the river opposite Montreal.  So many traders did\nChamplain find in the vicinity of this island, that he built a fort\nthere and resolved to turn the site of Hochelaga into a trading\nstation.  Two uneventful years passed by, and then, in the very year\nArgall was destroying hapless Port Royal (1613), Champlain's\nimagination was kindled by the {34} astonishing tale of a certain\nNicholas Vignau.  This adventurer had passed a winter amongst the\nred-men of the upper Ottawa River.  Vignau told his chief that, in\ncompany with some Algonquins, he had once arrived at a remote\nsea-shore, where his eyes had beheld the fragments of a wrecked\nEnglish ship.  Champlain's heart bounded with joy; he thought his\nhopes were now about to be realised.  Taking Vignau, two white\nfollowers, and an Indian guide, the explorer passed the dangerous\nrapids of the Ottawa and made the acquaintance, one after another, of\nits lakes, cataracts, and islands.  He pressed on, passed the Rideau\n(Curtain) Falls, so named because of the resemblance of this sheet of\nwater to a great white curtain.  He and his awe-struck companions\nstared at the raging, foaming cauldron of the Chaudi\u00e8re, close to\nwhere the city of Ottawa, capital of the Canadian Dominion, now\nstands, while the Indians cast into the waters gifts of tobacco and\nother things to propitiate the angry god of the waters.  At last the\nparty reached Allumette Island.  Here dwelt a friendly Algonquin\nchief named Tessouat, who received the Frenchmen hospitably and\ninvited them to a banquet.  Tessouat knew Vignau; he knew also how he\nhad passed his time amongst the men of his tribe.  So when Champlain\nrelated at the feast what Vignau had told him of his journey to the\nsea-shore, Tessouat bluntly told his guest that Vignau, though a\npale-face, was a liar, and that he had never been on such a journey.\nFor a while the shock of this discovery overwhelmed Champlain with\nrage and sorrow.  {35} Tessouat was so indignant at the way the\nFrench leader had been deceived, that he wanted Vignau to be put to\ndeath, but Champlain was of too noble and forgiving a nature for\nthat, and contented himself with rebuking the offender.  At the same\ntime, although Vignau confessed his falsehood, we are able to see\nto-day a certain foundation for his story which was obscured from\nCanada's founder.  We happen to know now what Champlain centuries ago\ndid not dream of: that only three hundred miles separate Allumette\nIsland from the southern end of the great inland sea, Hudson's Bay.\nThis body of water two or three brief seasons before had been\ndiscovered by an Englishman, who, like Champlain, had tried to find a\nshort route to China and the East Indies.\n\nIn 1610 Henry Hudson, in the pay of the Dutch, sailed up the river\nwhich now bears his name, and paved the way for the Dutch colony,\nafterwards called the New Netherlands.  A year later, in the service\nof England, he sailed northwards in the _Half Moon_, passed through\nthe narrow Hudson's Straits, and so on into the ice-bound inland sea.\nThere his terrified crew mutinied, turning their brave commander\nadrift in an open boat, together with his son and two of his faithful\ncompanions.  Thus perished Henry Hudson, who was never heard of\nagain.  As for the craven mutineers, when they stole back guiltily to\nEngland, they were seized and made to pay the penalty of their crime.\nThree ships were sent out to search for Hudson, but, alas, it was\nthen too late.\n\nOf this inland sea Vignau may have heard stories {36} from the\nIndians.  It may be that those who told him had really seen the wreck\nof poor Henry Hudson's boat on the shores, but this we shall never\nreally know until the great Day of Judgment comes, when the sea gives\nup its dead and all secrets of the deep are known.\n\nIn the discovery of Lake Ontario, two years later, Champlain found\nsome compensation for his disappointment.  He was the first European\nto visit the \"freshwater sea,\" as he called it.  He penned a\ndescription of all he had seen, and carried it to France, where it\nwas eagerly read.  One of Champlain's mottoes was that \"the salvation\nof a single soul was worth more than the conquest of an Empire.\"  Up\nto now Quebec had been wholly without priests, but when Champlain\nreturned to the colony he brought out four priests of the Order of\nthe Recollets, pious men who had taken vows of poverty and\nself-denial.  These set about converting the savages to Christianity.\nOne of them, Joseph Le Caron, went forward to the distant Huron\ncountry, which had not yet been visited by any European.  Champlain\nhimself accompanied the priest from Quebec.  On reaching the rapids\njust above Montreal, the Governor held a conference with the Hurons,\nwho had come from their homes in the West to meet him and induce him\nto fulfil his pledge to attack the Iroquois.  This expedition was one\nof the most fateful episodes in Champlain's life.  He knew nothing\nabout Iroquois history or character.  If he had had any suspicion of\nwhat his present action was to cost his countrymen in Canada, he\nwould rather have died {37} than provoke the enmity of so terrible a\nfoe.  Champlain chose this time to take a most round-about route,\nmeasuring full 300 leagues, he and his men often carrying on their\nbacks the canoes and baggage, living on coarse food, and suffering\nmany hardships.  Even the priest was obliged to take his share of the\nhardest work, paddling his oar until the sweat mantled his brow,\nstaggering through the forest with a load such as a mule might carry,\nand with it all obliged, with the whole party, to hasten at full\nspeed for fear of falling behind into the hands of Iroquois.  In\nthose days when there were no roads and hardly even any long paths,\ntravellers made their way by following the rivers and lakes in\ncanoes.  When they came to the end of one waterway and wished to\nreach the beginning of another, they followed what were called the\nportages or carrying-places, paths in the woods, sometimes only a few\nyards long and sometimes as long as nine or ten miles.\n\nFor many weeks did Champlain sojourn in the Huron country, and then,\nin early autumn, he departed from their chief town, Carhagonha, on\nLake Simcoe, with several hundred red warriors, to inflict\nchastisement on the painted warriors of the Five Nations.\n\nCrossing Lake Simcoe, Champlain and his followers travelled slowly\nand with much hardship through the country north of Lake Ontario,\nuntil by this very roundabout route the whole party came in a month's\ntime to the fort of the Onondagas, which they intended to attack.  As\nthey drew near, the French {38} and Indians fell in with outlying\nbands of this tribe, capturing many prisoners.  Champlain strove\nunceasingly to induce his Huron allies to show mercy to the captives,\nbut the Indian warrior always deemed mercy a pitiful sign of\nweakness.  He wanted not only to cut off the hands and feet of the\nmale prisoners, gouge out their eyes and burn them alive, but to\ntorture the women and children as well.  Only was it when Champlain\nthreatened to withdraw his French soldiers altogether that the Huron\nchiefs consented to confine their barbarities to the men alone.  When\nthe allies got closer to the Onondaga fort they found it was much\nmore strongly defended than they had supposed.  It consisted of four\nrows of strong stakes, and a thick wall made of heavy branches of\ntrees.  On the top of this wall were gutters of wood to conduct water\nto any part which the enemy should set on fire.  The water was drawn\nfrom a small pond inside the fortification, where all the Onondagas\nwere assembled in little houses, having a large store of bows and\narrows, stones and hatchets.  Provisions, too, were plentiful, for\nthe Indian harvest was just over.  Champlain saw at once that to take\nsuch a fort was not an easy task, and advised his Indian allies to be\nprudent.  But the young Hurons were foolhardy and rushed at the\nfour-fold palisade with ear-splitting war-whoops, flourishing their\ntomahawks.  The consequence was as Champlain foresaw: they were shot\ndown or killed by a shower of stones by the enemy.  After a time,\nwhen they had lost heavily, the Hurons were ready to listen to\nreason.  A plan was devised.  In the {39} night-time Champlain had a\nhigh wooden platform built; upon it he placed several of his\nmusketeers so that they could fire into the fort, while 300 Hurons\nwere stationed close by to set fire to the palisade.  These measures\nmight have succeeded, but the wind unluckily was in the wrong\ndirection and blew the flames of the Huron torches away from the\nfort.  Champlain himself, while trying to make the unruly Hurons obey\nhis orders, was twice wounded, and many of his followers were killed.\nThen it was that the foolish Huron chiefs became disheartened.  They\nlost faith in the \"Man -with -the -Iron -Breast\" and decided to give\nup the attempt and retreat homewards before the winter set in.  In\nvain Champlain besought them; they were obdurate.  As it was, when\nthey got to the place, eighty miles away, where their canoes had been\nleft, high winds and snowstorms had begun, and their wounded,\nincluding Champlain, suffered much.  Solemnly had they promised the\nFrench leader that after the attack on the Iroquois they would carry\nhim down the St. Lawrence to Hochelaga, but now they became traitors\nto their word and refused him even two guides for such a journey.\nThere was nothing else to do: Champlain was obliged to go back with\nthem and spend the whole of the succeeding winter in their lodges.\nOn the way they made many halts to allow the Hurons time to procure\nstores of fish and game, which were very plentiful in the region\nnorth of Lake Ontario.  Not until two days before Christmas was the\njourney ended.\n\nChamplain was not idle that winter, for when his {40} wounds had\nhealed he moved amongst the tribes, making himself acquainted with\nthe country and the language.  The woods were filled with June\nflowers ere he returned to Quebec, where he had been mourned as one\ndead.  You can imagine how rejoiced were the band of martial pioneers\nthere to see their leader once more alive and well.  They cheered and\nsang songs and waved flags in his honour, and even discharged the\ngreat cannon, whose echoes startled the Indians prowling afar on the\ngreen banks of the St. Lawrence.\n\nVerily the part which Samuel de Champlain and his little band of\nFrenchmen had played in giving armed assistance to the Hurons and\nAlgonquins was to have terrible results.  It threw the Iroquois into\nfriendship with the Dutch and other enemies of the French, who\nsupplied them with firearms.  It caused them to bear a hate to\nChamplain and all his countrymen almost as great as the hate they\nbore to the dusky Hurons.\n\nAll this time Champlain, great as was his ambition, can only be\nregarded as the agent or manager of a company of men in France whose\nfirst wish was to make money out of the fur trade.  These men in\ntheir hearts had very little sympathy for Champlain's schemes of\ncolonisation and conversion of the savages, and, becoming\ndissatisfied with the profits Champlain was making for them, they\ntried repeatedly to procure his recall.  In order to baffle the\nintrigues against him and explain to the King himself the importance\nof Canada to the kingdom of France, Champlain sailed away yet again\nfor home, {41} leaving sixty men, the entire French population of\nCanada, behind him in Quebec.  By his zeal and eloquence he was able\nto obtain some fresh supplies for his colony, and also some more\nsoldiers and workers.  Amongst these was an apothecary named Louis\nH\u00e9bert, who is often spoken of as the first emigrant to Canada,\nbecause he took with him his wife and two children, intending to\nsettle as a farmer on the land.  Direct descendants of H\u00e9bert are\nalive in Canada to this day.  Two years later Champlain managed to\nbring a body of eighty colonists out to New France, and the next year\n(1620) his own wife, Helen de Champlain, accompanied him for the\nfirst time to the colony.  This time he had triumphed over those who\nwished to depose him, and was now confirmed in his title of Viceroy\nof New France, and all seemed in the general rejoicings on his return\nto promise well for his enterprise.  Not only the French in Quebec,\nbut the Indians were delighted at the beauty and manners of the\nGovernor's wife, then only twenty-two years of age.  They tell of her\nthat she wore always a small mirror suspended from her neck,\naccording to the custom of the ladies in those days.  When the\nred-men who drew near her looked in the little mirror they saw each,\nto his astonishment, his own face reflected there, and went about\ntelling one another that the beautiful wife of the white chief\ncherished an image of each in her heart.\n\nOnce in Quebec, Champlain lost no time in laying the foundation of a\nGovernment House, since known as the Ch\u00e2teau of St. Louis, reared on\nthe heights of {42} the rock.  This building came to be the residence\nof every succeeding Governor of Canada for two hundred years, until\none night it was wholly destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.  In the\nyear it was begun, too, the Recollet priests began to build their\nconvent, and other large buildings arose.\n\nSo now you see quite a flourishing little town was fast growing up in\nthe midst of the Canadian wilderness.  But with the advancement of\nhis schemes came many new troubles for the lion-hearted Champlain.\nIn the first place, the Indians had acquired a passion for strong\ndrink--\"fire-water\" they called it,--and although people of their\nfierce, reckless disposition should never have been allowed to touch\na drop, yet the fur-traders were so callous and greedy as to be\nalways ready to supply them with gallons and hogsheads of the fatal\nbrandy.  The consequences were what might have been expected, and\nChamplain was very angry as he looked upon the scenes of riot and\nbloodshed.  But his efforts to keep liquor from the Indians only made\nthe traders hate him more bitterly.  To this source of anxiety was\nadded another: the bloodthirsty feud between the Iroquois and the\nAlgonquins and Hurons, which occasioned constant bloody massacres and\nmade the life of the French colonists at Quebec, Three Rivers, and\nTadoussac one of never-ending danger.  On a certain night a band\ncrept down the St. Lawrence silently to Quebec, having sworn an oath\nto wipe the city of the pale-faces from the face of the earth.  But\nthe stone buildings, the cannon and muskets in the hands of the\ndetermined Frenchmen {43} daunted them and they beat a retreat.  Not\nto be wholly balked of blood, they fell upon the Algonquins, who were\nbringing furs to Quebec, slaughtering them without mercy.  Then there\nwere plots against Quebec, even amongst the tribes which Champlain\nconsidered friendly, for savages were, and ever will be, fickle, and\noften the most trifling incident will tempt them to treachery.\n\nMeantime Champlain's friends in France, the associated merchants, had\nlost their fur-trading monopoly because they had failed to fulfil\ntheir pledges.  In consequence of this, the monopoly was handed over\nby the King to two Huguenot gentlemen, William and Emery de Caen, an\nuncle and nephew.  The uncle was a merchant and the nephew was a sea\ncaptain, and, although Protestants themselves, they were charged not\nto settle any but Catholics in the colony.  This arrangement turned\nout a very bad one.  The Huguenots and Catholics quarrelled in New\nFrance, as they had been quarrelling in Old France, and finally, so\nviolent grew the disputes, that the King joined the two associations\ninto one under the title of \"the Company of Montmorency,\" with\nChamplain still as Viceroy.  Matters thereafter went so much more\nsmoothly that Champlain decided to take the opportunity of paying\nanother visit to his native country.  With him he took his beautiful\nyoung wife, Helen de Champlain, who had had nearly five years amongst\nthe Indians and the rough fur-traders, and had endured many hardships\nand faced many dangers.  You must bear in mind that when she sailed\naway she left behind only fifty of her {44} fellow-countrymen in\nQuebec.  This is a very small number, but they were for the most part\nvery much in earnest, very hardy and rugged, and inspired by\nChamplain in a strong belief in the future of the country.  Before we\nhave finished our history you will see whether that belief was\njustified or not.\n\n\n\n\n{45}\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nROMANCE OF THE TWO DE LA TOURS\n\nTwo years did the doughty hero Champlain linger in Old France.  To\neverybody he met, king, courtier, priest, and peasant, he had but one\nsubject: Canada, never ceasing all this while to urge the needs of\nthe colony across the sea and to further its interests by tongue and\npen.  It needed all his influence.  The Duke of Montmorency, becoming\ndisgusted by the perpetual squabbles of the merchants, sold his\nrights as patron of Canada to the Duke de Ventadour, a religious\nenthusiast, whose passion was not trade nor settlement, but saving\nhuman souls.  Although bred a soldier, he had actually entered a\nmonkish order, vowing to spend the rest of his days in religious\nexercises, and it was this nobleman who now sent out to Quebec the\nfirst little body of Jesuit priests, five in all, that arrived in\nthat colony.  Now these Jesuits were the very last people either\nChamplain or the Huguenots wanted in Canada.  They belonged to a very\npowerful, crafty order.  They could sway both king, queen, and\nminister to their wishes.  De Caen and the Huguenot traders received\nthe five priests when they arrived at Quebec as coldly as\nPoutraincourt had done in Acadia, but the {46} Recollets generously\ngave them shelter in their convent until they could build one for\nthemselves.  This they soon did on the very spot where, ninety years\nbefore, Jacques Cartier had laid out his little fort.  These five\npriests were destined to have some thrilling experiences and to meet\nwith terrible ends, all of which you shall hear in due time.\n\nMeanwhile Champlain at home in France saw with eagle eye that\nHuguenot and Catholic could never live together in peace across the\nwide waste of waters.  They were always quarrelling.  The colony did\nnot grow as it should, in spite of the fact that in a single year\n22,000 beaver skins were sent by the De Caens to France.  Nor was\nreligion attended to as devoutly as he thought the Huguenots ought to\nattend to it.  But perhaps this was because the Huguenots did not\nacknowledge the authority of the Pope.  So he wrote strongly to De\nCaen about it, and the letter fell into the hands of the most\npowerful, most crafty man of that era, far more powerful than King\nLouis the Thirteenth himself.  Cardinal Richelieu was the King's\nPrime Minister.  Having at length accomplished great things for his\nmaster in France, Richelieu now turned his attention to Canada.  With\na stroke of the pen he abolished the monopoly of the De Caens and\nfounded the \"Company of the Hundred Associates,\" with himself at the\nhead.  Thence-forward no Huguenot was to be permitted to enter the\ncolony under any conditions.  The new Company was given a perpetual\nmonopoly of the fur trade and control of other commerce, besides\nbeing made lord of {47} an enormous territory extending from the\nArctic Ocean to Florida.  Moreover, the Company was bound to send out\nat once a number of labourers and mechanics and 4000 other colonists.\nChamplain was made one of the Associates, and continued in his\ncommand of Quebec.  Canada was now to be governed directly by the\nKing, just as if it were one of the provinces of Old France, and\nnobles were to be created who would take their titles from their\nestates.\n\nAll then seemed bright and rosy for the colony on the St. Lawrence.\nBut the best-laid plans, you know, \"gang aft agley\"; Richelieu, with\nall his strength and cunning, had no power over English ships, and\nEnglish sailors would only laugh at his pretensions.  At the very\nmoment when Champlain saw all his hopes about to be realised, the\nmost cruel blow that had yet fallen fell upon him.  War had been\ndeclared between France and England, and King Charles of England,\nseeing his American colonies already prosperous, wished to extend his\nroyal sway over the whole continent.  Thus, while the little band of\nFrenchmen in Quebec were nearly starving, owing to supplies running\nshort during the winter of 1628, and were straining their eyes for\nthe arrival of the great fleet of eighteen ships sent out by\nRichelieu, an English admiral sailed coolly up the St. Lawrence.  Sir\nDavid Kirke commanded a stout little fleet for King Charles, and it\noccurred to him that it would be very good policy to capture Quebec.\nImagine the dismay of Champlain, the priests, the traders, farmers,\nand soldiers of the colony when, {48} having waited for succour until\nlong past midsummer, the oncoming ships turned out to be English, and\nthey received a summons from the English admiral to surrender!  How\nweak his fort was Champlain well knew, but that did not prevent him\nfrom replying firmly and with dignity to the summons, saying that he\nwould defend his post until death.  Secretly he hoped that the French\nfleet he expected would come in time.  Although he intended to take\nQuebec, Kirke did not press his advantage just then.  He had now a\nfar better plan: to lie and wait for this same French fleet, and\ncripple the colony in that way.  His reward duly came.  Off Gasp\u00e9,\nKirke met the squadron from France, and after a fierce struggle\ncaptured all the ships but one, together with much booty.\n\nWhat a plight was the brave Champlain now in!  Cut off from all\ncommunication with France, for at least ten months must his forlorn\nband wait before assistance could arrive.  He set to work to grapple\nwith the difficulty by sending all his men farming, and hunting, and\nfishing.  Very little land was cleared as yet; it hardly seemed worth\nwhile clearing it as long as the dreaded Iroquois were allowed to\nshoot the farmers as they worked, and afterwards to swoop down and\nburn up the crops.  Worst of all to Champlain's mind, the Hurons and\nAlgonquins whom he had befriended chose such a time as this to\nmanifest their enmity to him.  Instead of helping, they refused him\nsuccour.  But food of some sort must be got.  He set his people\ndigging up wild roots in the woods, and despatched a boat down the\n{49} river to search the gulf for a friendly trader or fisherman who\nwould give them dried codfish.  At the end of a long year of\nhardship, when no French ship came to his relief, Champlain was\nready, in sheer desperation, to march his hungry little garrison\nagainst the Iroquois, capture one of their towns, and pillage it of\ncorn.  But before he could really carry out this dangerous scheme the\nEnglish admiral once more showed his face in the St. Lawrence.  This\ntime it seemed far better to surrender to such an enemy as the\nEnglish than to perish miserably from starvation in the wilderness.\nKirke offered honourable terms, and Champlain, perceiving how utterly\nuseless was resistance, gave up for a time the fort, magazine, and\ndwellings of Quebec.  On the 24th July 1629 Champlain and ten priests\nand a number of others embarked on board one of the English ships to\nbe carried to England, and from thence to France.  For the first time\nin its history, the flag of England was hoisted, amidst great\ncheering on the part of the lusty English mariners, over Quebec.\n\nYou must not suppose the English abused their victory.  All the\nsettlers who chose were allowed to remain on their property.  Lewis\nKirke was installed as English Governor, and treated all with\nkindness, giving them bounteous provisions.\n\nOn the way down the river the ship bearing away Champlain met, near\nTadoussac, Emery de Caen, returning with supplies for Quebec.  Too\nlate!  Kirke turned his guns on the Frenchmen, and De Caen was forced\nat the cannon's mouth to surrender.  But although he did so, young De\nCaen told the {50} Englishman that which completely spoilt Kirke's\nrest that night.  \"I have heard,\" quoth De Caen, \"that peace hath\nbeen declared between the two Crowns, and that when you captured\nQuebec and the sixteen French ships, King Louis and King Charles had\nbeen friends for a good two months.  You have, therefore, done a\ngross and unlawful thing.\"\n\nDe Caen spoke not falsely, for so it turned out to be.  When Kirke\nanchored in Plymouth harbour he learnt, to his chagrin, that peace\nhad really been made some time before, and that all conquests from\nFrance must be restored.  The doughty, scarred old Governor,\nChamplain, posted in hot haste to London, and unfolded the tale of\nQuebec's surrender to King Louis' ambassador.  But, strange as it may\nappear, King Louis was in no hurry to get back Quebec into his hands\nagain.  It seemed to His Majesty, fond of his ease and pleasure, that\nall Canada was far more trouble than it was worth.  The capture of\nQuebec did not mean the loss of the whole of New France.  Several\nplaces in Acadia still belonged to King Louis, besides the Island of\nCape Breton.  But even these possessions only seemed to promise more\nexpense and bloodshed and wrangling.\n\nIn the meanwhile another personage--a Scotsman--had appeared on the\nscene and laid claim to a large part of the country.  Sir William\nAlexander was a man of letters and a successful courtier.  Being a\ngreat favourite of old King James the First, as long ago as 1621 that\nmonarch had listened graciously to Alexander when he averred that, by\nreason of Cabot's discoveries, the whole North-American {51}\nContinent belonged to England by right.  \"As there is already a New\nEngland, your Majesty should go further and found a New Scotland.\"\nKing James desired nothing better.  He gave Sir William a grant of\nthe Acadian Peninsula and a great deal of the adjoining mainland for\nhis ambitious and patriotic purpose.  As the King was fond of Latin,\ninstead of New Scotland the country was christened Nova Scotia.  The\nEnglish set out modestly at first to people the country.  As Sir\nWilliam was satisfied for some years in sending out a trading ship\neach year to Nova Scotia and in exploring the region, there was no\nfighting, or even ill-feeling, between the French and the English.\nWhen in 1625 King James died, King Charles not only confirmed\nAlexander's charter, but actually allowed his enterprising subject to\nestablish an Order of Knights-Baronets of Nova Scotia.  Any wealthy\nand respectable person could, by paying a certain sum towards the\nfunds of the new colony, obtain an estate of 18 square miles and\nbecome a baronet; and over one hundred persons did this, and some of\ntheir descendants are baronets in Great Britain to this day.\n\nSir William had no desire to drive away the French settlers in\nAcadia, which, you remember, was more or less in the hands of\nBiencourt, son of Poutraincourt.  Besides Biencourt there lived in\nAcadia at this time the two La Tours, father and son.  Claude de la\nTour, the father, was a brave and courtly Huguenot.  He occupied a\ntrading post on the borders of what is now Maine; while Charles, his\nson, held a strong little fort called St. Louis, near {52} Cape\nSable.  When Biencourt died he bequeathed his title and all his\ninterests in Acadia to young Charles, because he had been his friend\nand companion from boyhood.\n\nYou have seen that soon after this a war broke out between France and\nEngland--the war in which Admiral Kirke captured the French fleet and\nsummoned Quebec to surrender.  On board one of the captured ships of\nthe French fleet was the hope of Acadia, in the person of Claude de\nla Tour.  He had gone home to France, and was now bringing out men\nand arms and provisions to make Port Royal strong enough to resist\nthe new English pretensions to this fair region.  While the valiant\nChamplain saw himself shut up starving in Quebec, Claude de la Tour\nwas buffeting the waves on the way to England as Kirke's prisoner of\nwar.  De la Tour, being a Protestant of noble birth and of charming\nmanners, was well received in London, and made much of.  The very\nbest people were anxious to make his acquaintance.  He, on his side,\nfound the English most agreeable, and ended by courting one of the\nMaids of Honour of Queen Henrietta Maria and marrying her.  Sir\nWilliam Alexander quickly saw how useful he would be, and soon had\nhim created a baronet of Nova Scotia.  After this La Tour took\nservice in the English Royal Navy, and having obtained a grant of\nterritory in Nova Scotia, undertook to found there an English\nsettlement.  Not only this, but he promised to bring his son into the\nEnglish service.  Sir William Alexander readily agreed to the plan of\nmaking La Tour's son, {53} Charles, a baronet also, and this was\naccordingly brought about.\n\nAll this while young Charles de la Tour, rightful lord of Acadia\nunder Poutraincourt's charter, knew nothing of his good fortune or of\nthese proceedings on the part of his father.  It remained for the\nelder De la Tour to break the glad news to his son.  Two ships of war\nwere put under his orders, and in these, with his pretty young\nEnglish bride and many Scotch colonists, the old man set sail.  His\ntask turned out to be a far harder one than he had thought.  When he\ngot to his destination on the other side of the Atlantic he demanded\nan interview of his son, who was, surprising to relate, most\nungrateful.  What astonished him most was to find his father in\ncommand of an English ship, and wearing the dress of an English\nAdmiral.  Claude began by telling his son Charles of the flattering\nreception he had met with in London, and the honours that had been\nheaped upon him.\n\n\"I am an English Baronet,\" he exclaimed, embracing the youth, \"and,\nwhat is more, so also are you.  Rejoice, therefore, at the good\nfortune that has befallen us, and fly the proud blood-red cross of\nSt. George from yonder staff.\"\n\nBut Charles, far from showing joy, seemed thunderstruck.  Disengaging\nhimself from his sire's embraces, he replied haughtily that \"if those\nwho sent you on this errand think me capable of betraying my country,\neven at the solicitation of a parent, they have greatly mistaken me.\nI am not disposed to purchase the honours now offered me by\ncommitting a crime.  I do not undervalue the proffer of the King of\nEngland; {54} but the Prince in whose service I am is quite able to\nreward me; and whether he do so or not, the inward consciousness of\nmy fidelity to him will be in itself a recompense to me.  The King of\nFrance has confided the defence of this place to me.  I shall\nmaintain it, if attacked, till my latest breath.\"\n\n[Illustration: De la Tour refuses to yield his Allegiance.  1630]\n\nAfter this, what could the disappointed father do but return\ncrestfallen to his ship?  After writing his son a letter urging him\nto obedience, Sir Claude bethought him of the effect of cannon and\nmuskets as arguments.  He would bring the ungrateful youth to reason\nby force.  Thrice he landed his soldiers and sailors and tried to\nstorm Fort St. Louis; but in vain.  His men were repulsed, and soon\nbecame disgusted with the whole enterprise.  Eventually they all\nrepaired to Port Royal and took up settlement with the other Scotch\ncolonists there.  It might be supposed that in this extremity the\nyoung English girl to whom Sir Claude had promised power and luxury\non his Nova Scotian estates would now desire to return to England,\nand he begged her to do so.  But she refused.\n\n\"I have shared your prosperity, Sir Claude,\" she said gently, \"I will\nnow share your evil fortunes.\"\n\nAnd evil, indeed, they turned out to be.\n\nIn 1632 came the shameful treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, by which\nCanada and Nova Scotia were ceded back to France by King Charles, who\nwas afraid that by his refusal he would not receive from King Louis\nthe wedding dowry promised to his sister, Queen Henrietta Maria of\nEngland.  This treaty made a great difference to the fortunes of the\nFrenchmen {55} in the New World--to Champlain and the De la Tours.\nIt deprived Sir Claude of his hopes, even of his refuge at Port\nRoyal.  Not daring or wishing to return either to France or England,\nhe was obliged to throw himself on his son's protection.  Charles\ngave him and his pretty stepmother a house hard by Fort St. Louis.\nHe was rewarded.  The story of Charles de la Tour's loyalty reached\nthe ears of his monarch, who graciously made him a\nLieutenant-Governor, and sent out men, stores, and ammunition of war\nto uphold his faithful subject in the lands and forts he had guarded\nso zealously.\n\nWe must now, for a little while, leave Charles de la Tour and his\nfortunes.  We will return to them anon, but meanwhile it behoves us\nto see what was happening to Champlain and Quebec.  You will remember\nthat the great Cardinal Richelieu had placed himself at the head of\nthe Company of the Hundred Associates.  He had made Canada a royal\nprovince, with a nobility of its own and with Champlain as Viceroy.\nThe war with England and the captures of Kirke brought this great\nscheme to a halt for some years, but the treaty of St.\nGermain-en-Laye was signed at last, and the Hundred Associates were\nready to begin their operations.  By the end of May 1633 Champlain\nwas back again in his fort on Cape Diamond.  This time he had with\nhim two hundred persons and great equipments.  In his Company also\nwere a number of Jesuits, to take the place of the Recollets.  With\nsuch zeal did they administer their charge that life at Quebec became\npious and orderly, and many Indian conversions to Christianity were\n{56} made.  A new fort was built at the old trading station of Three\nRivers, at the mouth of St. Maurice River, as a protection against\nthe Iroquois, but otherwise not very much happened worth describing\nhere during the last two years of Champlain's life.  The veteran was\nnow but two years short of the allotted span, and could survey the\nfruits of his long labours in Canada with satisfaction.  He had not,\nit was true, made Canada full of towns and cities and filled her\ncountryside with prosperous farms and peasantry.  But he had trod out\na path through the forest and had sown the seed of future greatness.\nIf only he had not also sown the seed of future hatred--if only he\nhad made the Iroquois a friend instead of a foe!  Nevertheless, when\nhe fell sick on Christmas Day 1635 and his heroic spirit passed away\nfor ever from the land he loved, Samuel de Champlain had well earned\nthe name by which he is to-day called on the banks of the St.\nLawrence, the \"Father of Canada.\"\n\nIn his prime Champlain had a handsome countenance, a noble and\nsoldierly bearing, and an iron constitution.  In an age when fifty\nmiles was considered a great journey, he travelled many thousands by\nsea and by land, crossing the ocean at least twenty times to defend\nor promote the colony's interests in Old France.  His wife survived\nhim nearly twenty years, and having founded a convent at Meaux, in\nFrance, became herself a nun, and as Sister Helen, beloved by the\nother nuns, she died.\n\nAfter Champlain's lamented death a new Governor, Charles de\nMontmagny, a pious soldier and knight of Malta, was sent out to\nCanada.  On his landing {57} at the foot of Cape Diamond a striking\nscene took place.  Amidst a crowd of black-robed Jesuits and soldiers\nin brilliant uniforms and the officials and people in their gayest\napparel, Montmagny knelt down at the foot of a cross marking\nChamplain's grave and cried out, \"Behold the first cross that I have\nseen in this country.  Let us worship the crucified Saviour in his\nimage.\"  The procession straightway climbed the hill to the church,\nchanted the Te Deum, and prayed for King Louis.  Montmagny was a\ndevout believer in the Jesuits, who ruled with great severity.  If a\nFrench colonist failed to attend church regularly, he was sent off to\nprison.  They cared nothing for the good things of this world; their\nonly desire was for the salvation of souls.  It mattered nothing to\nthem whether the Company of the Hundred Associates made money out of\nthe buying and selling of furs or not.  The great ambition of the\nJesuits was to make Christians out of the Canadian savages, however\nremote, and as the Iroquois absolutely refused to be converted, and\nhated the Jesuits, the priests did not hesitate to join hands with\nthe Hurons and Algonquins to destroy them.  So there began to rage a\nterrible war.  The Iroquois, who if not more numerous, were braver\nand fiercer than the Hurons, swore by the great Manitou never to bury\nthe war-hatchet as long as a single Huron was left alive above the\nground.  Assault followed assault, the Iroquois braves coming close\nto the walls of Quebec and burning and torturing their prisoners\nunder the very eyes of the horrified \"black robes.\"  On their part\nthe priests, besides being pious, were {58} very brave men and cared\nnothing for danger.  They would push fearlessly past the Iroquois\nconcealed in ambush and carry the gospel amongst the most distant\ntribes.  After a time their letters home describing their adventures\nmade a great stir in France, and a number of wealthy and influential\npeople came forward to help them in their great work.  It was at this\ntime that the famous colleges and convents and hospitals of Quebec\nwere founded.  The Marquis de Gamache founded a Jesuit college;\nanother priest-nobleman, Noel de Sillery, built a home for Indian\nconverts; the Duchess of Aiguillon, a niece of Cardinal Richelieu,\nprovided the money for the Hotel Dieu, or God's Hospital.  Then there\nwas a wealthy young widow, Madame de la Peltrie, who, having no\nchildren of her own, decided to devote her life and fortune to\nestablish a seminary for young girls in Canada.  In the summer of\n1639 she arrived in Quebec in company with Marie Guyard, a silk\nmanufacturer's daughter who had taken vows as a nun and became \"Mary\nof the Incarnation,\" the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent.\nAll of these as soon as they had landed fell down and kissed the\nearth and evinced great enthusiasm over their future work.  When they\nvisited the first Indian settlement, we are told by one of the\npriests that Madame de la Peltrie and the rest embraced the little\nIndian girls, \"without taking heed whether they were clean or not.\"\nYet at home in Paris these fine ladies would probably not have cared\nto take the poor dirty little French children to their bosoms.\n\nThe Jesuits quickly spread themselves everywhere.  {59} No hardship,\nno danger, no cold was too great for them.  Amongst the Huron Indians\nthey soon found their greatest success.  There numbered 30,000 Hurons\nbefore disaster befell them, considered the most intelligent and\nprogressive of the Canadian Indians.  Three fathers, led by the\nindomitable Jean de Br\u00e9beuf, went forth to establish missions amongst\nthem.  Br\u00e9beuf came of a noble family in Normandy, a tall strong man,\nwho seemed born for a soldier.  He could perform wonderful feats of\nstrength and endurance.  He penetrated the wilderness in spite of\nevery obstacle, and established a mission at Thonatiria, on Georgian\nBay.  At first the Jesuits were opposed by the tribe, who foolishly\nregarded all their sacraments and services as the deeds of sorcerers.\nWhenever any evil happened to any of them, when the crops were\nfrost-bitten, or even when a child fell ill, the Hurons put it all\ndown to the incantations of the \"Black Robes,\" as they called the\nmissionaries.  But gradually the Jesuits lived down all such\nprejudice.  The Hurons saw they were strong, wise men, and at last\nplaced themselves unreservedly in their hands.  While the Jesuit\nfathers made their central station at St Mary on the Wye, a little\nriver emptying into Matchedash Bay, they founded other missions, St.\nLouis, St. Jean, St. Michael, St. Joseph, in all the country round\nabout.  In course of a very few years the missionaries came almost to\nbe the rulers of all the tribes there settled.  But the Iroquois hate\nagainst the Hurons was fast fanning into flame.  Having sworn\nvengeance upon them because of their alliance {60} with the French,\nsooner or later they would find them out, and then, alas, the most\ndreadful, thrilling scenes in the whole history of Canada would\nhappen.  While the Hurons and their ministering Jesuits were living\nin fancied security in their corner of the west, the French in Quebec\nand Three Rivers were in constant dread of the Iroquois.  Day by day\nthe redskins grew bolder.  At first, terrified by the French cannon\nand muskets, they did not venture to approach too near the walls of\nthe French forts.  But by degrees that fear wore away, and the\nsentries, looking out from the bastions, would often see a dozen or\ntwo Iroquois braves lurking about the fort in the hopes of catching\nsome straggler unawares and scalping him.  One day indeed they were\nrewarded.  Two Frenchmen named Godefroy and Fran\u00e7ois Margerie were\ncaptured and dragged away to their lodges.  The Iroquois chief,\nsummoning all his forces, prepared a plan.  He resolved to offer\npeace to the French at Three Rivers if they would give up their\nIndian allies, the Algonquins, against whom and the Hurons the\nIroquois were engaged in a war of extermination.  As Margerie spoke\nthe Indian tongue, he was told that his life for the present would be\nspared, that he was to go under a flag of truce back to the fort at\nThree Rivers and offer these terms to his countrymen.  If he did not\nreturn, his fellow-captive, Godefroy, would be tortured and slain.\nThe heroic Margerie did not shrink from his task.  He journeyed back\nto the fort and urged the Commandant to reject so dishonourable a\nproposal.  Then, fully counting the cost of his action, he returned\nto the {61} Iroquois and to his companion Godefroy.  Luckily for him,\nin the meantime, the Governor arrived from Quebec with soldiers to\nreinforce the garrison at Three Rivers.  The Iroquois perceived that\nit would be hopeless now to storm the fort, and wisely decided to\naccept ransom for their prisoners.  So the brave Margerie and his\nfriend, who had boldly faced death, were now free.\n\n\n\n\n{62}\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE FOUNDING OF MONTREAL\n\nOf all the great cities of the world you will not find one that has\nhad so romantic a beginning as Montreal.  The stories sent home by\nthe Jesuits had stirred all France, and made the more pious and\nenterprising spirits more than ever resolved to teach the wicked\nredskins a lesson in Christianity and plant the fear of God in their\nhearts.  The French said they did not believe in treating the savages\nof the New World in the cruel way the Spaniards had done in Peru and\nMexico; they preferred to win them over to civilised ways by kindness\nand the force of good example.\n\nOne night a certain Jerome de la Dauversi\u00e9re had a dream after he had\nreturned from his office in the little town of La Fl\u00e8che, in Anjou,\nwhere he was receiver of taxes.  In this dream an angel came and told\nhim that the surest way to win the red-men of Canada over to\nChristianity was to set up a great mission on the Island of Mount\nRoyal.  This island in the river St. Lawrence, you remember, Jacques\nCartier had visited one hundred years before, and had been struck not\nonly by its beauty but by the friendliness of the Indians who lived\nthere.  Their town they {63} called Hochelaga.  Since Cartier's time\nHochelaga had mysteriously vanished (probably owing to one of the\nfrequent redskin feuds), and the French Governor and people of Quebec\nhad made as yet no settlement there.  Dauversi\u00e9re, who was a very\nholy and zealous man, went to Paris, and to Father Olier, a friendly\npriest, related his dream.  It appeared that the worthy father also\nhad had a vision, in which Mount Royal was pointed out as the future\nscene of pious labours.  Whereupon the two set to work and formed a\ncompany of forty persons to build on this island, 3000 miles away, in\nthe heart of New France, a French town, well fortified and able to\nresist the onslaughts of the infidel savages.  The Company of the\nHundred Associates agreed to sell them the land, for, of course, the\nHundred Associates at this time controlled all the land of New France\nunder a charter from King Louis.  All that the promoters of the plan\nhad finally to do was to find a proper person to take charge of the\nnew settlement, which it was decided to call Ville Marie de Montreal,\nor, as we would call it, Marytown of Mount Royal, in honour of the\nHoly Virgin.  They were fortunate to find just the one they sought in\nPaul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a brave and pious soldier, who\nwas forthwith appointed the first Governor of Ville Marie.\n\nWith Maisonneuve, when he sailed away from France in the spring of\n1641, went Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance.  This young woman had dedicated\nher whole life to nursing the sick and teaching little children, and\nwas to take charge of a hospital in the new colony.\n\n{64}\n\nSlow sailing it was in those days, and when Maisonneuve's ship\nreached Quebec the sweltering heats of August oppressed the city.\nGovernor de Montmagny bade the pioneers welcome, and, after listening\nto their scheme, told them flatly that he thought it was all a\nmistake.  Instead of venturing their lives so far inland amongst the\ntreacherous Iroquois, much better was it to choose a spot nearer\nQuebec for their town.  But Maisonneuve and his companions, although\nprevailed upon to spend the winter in Quebec, were resolved to reach\nMount Royal, even though, as Maisonneuve said, \"every tree on the\nisland were an Iroquois.\"  And so in the spring all set off boldly up\nthe Great River.  When they saw the leader's resolution, Governor de\nMontmagny, Father Vimont, Superior of the Jesuits, and Madame de la\nPeltrie, head of the Ursuline Convent, consented to accompany them in\ntheir ship.\n\nOn the 17th May the memorable landing took place.  All of the\nexpedition--some fifty in number--fell upon their knees, and from\ntheir lips fell a prayer of thankfulness to Almighty God.  But they\ndid not deceive themselves as to their danger.  They all knew--even\nthe women--that there was to be more work and fighting than praying.\nAs yet no treacherous red-man, tomahawk in hand, lurked behind the\ntall trees, but the alarm was sure to come, and no time was to be\nlost.  So to the task of chopping and hewing and hammering they flew\nwithout delay.  The site was quickly enclosed with palisades and\nseveral cannon brought from the ship {65} and put in position.  As\nfor the hospital which Mademoiselle de Mance had been given the money\nto build, it could safely be reared outside the walls, being of stone\nand almost a little fortress of itself.  For two centuries and a half\nthis hospital withstood all the attacks of the Iroquois, until a\nmighty city pressing in upon it forced it to a peaceful surrender to\nthe interests of trade and commerce.\n\nWinter came and went.  Spring found Ville Marie quite snug and\ncomfortable, and the inhabitants wondering where the Iroquois were.\nThey had not long to wait.  A solitary Algonquin one day fled within\nthe palisades for refuge.  He told Maisonneuve that he was being\npursued by the Iroquois, coveting his scalp.  In a few hours his\npursuers had discovered Ville Marie, and, shaking their tomahawks at\nits inhabitants, vowed vengeance on the bold pale-faces who had\nventured to settle in a part of Canada which they had cruelly decreed\nshould for ever remain a desert.  Thereafter they patrolled the\nborders of the town, watching stealthily where they might strike down\nman, woman, or child.  No longer was it possible in safety to sow or\nreap.  Nor were the wooden palisades strong enough for protection.\nStout walls and bastions were needed, and accordingly stone was\nquarried across the river, and willing hands toiled night and day to\nbuild what was henceforth little more than a prison.  When the colony\nwas two years old, the Iroquois summoned all their braves.\n\n\"Let us destroy these insolent Frenchmen,\" {66} said their chief;\n\"let us carry off their white girls to drudge for us in our lodges.\"\n\n[Illustration: Maisonneuve covering the Retreat of his Followers,\n1644]\n\nMaisonneuve, hearing that they had collected a large force, unwisely\nsallied out to give them battle.  It was springtime, but the deep\nsnow had not yet melted.  The little company of French settlers,\ntheir hearts beating high with valour and courage, looked about for\nthe foe.  Not finding him at first, they were drawn farther and\nfarther into the surrounding forest.  Then it was that the redskins,\nhidden behind trees, darted forth a volley of arrows, and the\nfounders of Ville Marie became an easy target and fell by the dozen.\nThey were unused to this kind of warfare, the only kind the red-men\nreally knew.  Maisonneuve, shocked but undaunted, gave the signal for\nretreat, and the French drew back to the walls of Ville Marie,\ndragging their dead and wounded with them.  Close followed the enemy\nwith ear-splitting yells and flourishing their blood-stained\ntomahawks.  Maisonneuve, pistol in hand, was the last man to enter\nthe gate.  Just as he was crossing the threshold an Iroquois chief\nsprang forward to drag him back, but quick as the savage was, not\nquick enough was he.  The Governor's pistol rang out, and the chief\ndropped in his tracks.  His baffled companions, shrieking in anger\nand dismay, saw the gates of the little town shut, and for that day\nthe rest of its defenders were safe.  To-day, if you should chance to\nvisit the great city of Montreal, you may see the very spot where\nthis encounter took place.  It is called the Place d'Armes, and in\nthe middle is a bronze statue of the brave {67} Maisonneuve, on whose\npedestal is a representation of his narrow escape from death.\n\nSuch terrible experiences were not confined to Montreal alone, or\neven to Quebec and Three Rivers.  About the whole country the\nIroquois prowled like wild beasts.  Especially did they frequent the\nnorthern outlets of the Ottawa River to waylay the friendly Hurons in\ntheir passage to the St. Lawrence, bringing furs for barter to the\nFrench.  Observing this, Governor Montmagny set about building a fort\nat the mouth of the Richelieu River, and notwithstanding the attempts\nof 700 Iroquois to destroy it and kill the workmen, it was completed\nin a short time and christened Fort Richelieu.  Forced to retreat,\nthe savages managed to carry off with them a Jesuit priest, Father\nIsaac Jogues, and two young students named Goupil and Couture, who\nwere coming down the river with a party of fur-hunters.  They did not\nkill their prisoners at once, as they expected, but, after putting\nthem through a course of dreadful tortures, carried them to the home\nof one of their tribes, the Mohawks.  After cutting off Goupil's\nthumb with a clam-shell, so as to prolong the pain, they scalped him\nand flung his body down a steep waterfall.  Couture, adopted into the\ntribe, turned Mohawk in order to save his life.\n\nAfter a time Father Jogues was taken by the Iroquois in one of their\ntrading visits to the Dutch of New Netherlands, now called New York.\nThis is the first time any of the French in Canada had any\ncommunication with the European settlers to {68} the south of them,\nin what are now known as the United States.  The Dutch Governor of\nAlbany took pity on the poor Jesuit priest and helped him to escape.\nUltimately he was sent back in a ship to France, where he thrilled\nthe King and Court by the sight of his wounds and the story of his\nwonderful adventures.  Never once had he lost courage, but went on\nbaptizing Indian children and giving the sacrament to the dying.\nOnce when no water was forthcoming to baptize a Huron prisoner in the\nthroes of death, Jogues shook off a few scant drops of dew which\nstill clung to an ear of maize that had been thrown to him for food.\n\nAfter all the intrepid father's starvation and sufferings you would\nthink he had had enough of mission work amongst the red-men and would\nremain in a peaceful French curacy for the rest of his days.  But\nthat is because you do not understand what kind of men these Jesuit\npriests were.  Undaunted by pains or privations, they wished nothing\nbetter than to be martyred in the cause of their religion.  Isaac\nJogues went back again to Canada a year later.  In his absence the\nMohawks had made peace with the French, and the intrepid priest took\nup his residence in one of their villages.  When it became necessary\nto visit the Governor of Quebec on business, Jogues left behind him a\nsmall box containing a few medicine bottles and other simple things.\nNo sooner was the priest's back turned than the medicine-man or\nsorcerer of the tribe, who hated the missionaries because they\nexposed their foolish practices, told the Mohawks that this innocent\nbox contained magic, which would {69} bring all of them ill-luck,\ndisease, and death.  Some believed this story, others were\nincredulous; so that when Father Jogues came back, he found the\nvillage divided on the question of killing him or sparing his life.\nHe was invited to a feast, which he dared not refuse.  As he entered,\na tomahawk clove its way to his brain, and the priest was made a\nmartyr at last.  Poor brave Father Jogues was the first to suffer\nmartyrdom in New France.  The savages cut off his head and fastened\nit to a long pole, and the savage children threw pebbles at it in\nsport.\n\nAlas, the fate of Jogues was destined to be that of the other priests\nwho had established missions in the Huron country.\n\n\"Do not imagine,\" wrote the Father Superior, \"that the rage of the\nIroquois and the loss of many Christians and converts can bring to\nnought the mystery of the Cross.  We shall die, we shall be captured,\nburned, and butchered.  So be it.  Those who die in their beds do not\nalways die the best death.  I see none of our company cast down.  On\nthe contrary, they ask leave to go up to the Hurons, and some of them\nprotest that the fires of the Iroquois are one of their motives for\nthe journey.\"\n\nIn the summer of 1648 the Hurons wished very much to pay a visit to\nthe French in Eastern Canada.  Many canoes had they full of furs\nwhich they could exchange for the kettles, hatchets, and knives of\nthe traders.  They resolved, therefore, to brave the Iroquois and\nmake the long journey.  Five distinguished chiefs accompanied 250 of\ntheir best warriors, and by the middle of July, Three Rivers {70} was\nreached in safety.  The Hurons ran their canoes ashore amongst the\nbulrushes, and began to spread on their war-paint and adorn\nthemselves with feathers and wampum so as to make a distinguished\nappearance at the fort of the pale-faces.  Suddenly an alarm was\nsounded.  The Iroquois were on their track.  Snatching their arms,\nthe Hurons ran to meet the foe.  This time the Iroquois were\noutnumbered and were defeated, and the Hurons eventually set out for\nhome, flushed with victory and bearing a number of Iroquois scalps.\n\nAt home news of a terrible disaster awaited the victorious Hurons.\nTaking advantage of their absence, the Iroquois had attacked the\nHuron town of Teanaustaye, or St. Joseph, where the Jesuit, Father\nDaniel, was in charge.  St. Joseph was one of the chief towns of the\nHuron nation; it had 2000 inhabitants, and was surrounded by a strong\npalisade.  But on one fatal July day it was all but defenceless:\nscarce a warrior was to be seen.  The arrival of the Iroquois flung\nthe crowd of old men, women, and children into a panic.  Daniel, in\nall his radiant priestly vestments, came to meet the foe at the\nchurch door, undismayed by their dreadful war-whoops.  There he died.\nA dozen Iroquois bent their bows and pierced him as he stood, while\nthe chief, armed with a gun he had bought from the Dutch, sent a\nbullet through the brave priest's heart.  The town was set on fire.\nWhen the flames reached the church, Daniel's body was thrown into it,\nand both were consumed together.  Nearly one thousand Hurons were\nkilled or taken captive.\n\n{71}\n\nEight months passed, and in the early spring-time the Iroquois came\nagain.  This time the Indian converts at St. Mary on the Wye saw\nheavy smoke curling above the forest three miles away, and cried out,\n\"The Iroquois!  the Iroquois!  They are burning St. Louis!\"  And so\nit was.  Had the Hurons acted with better judgment and more valour\nthey might have averted their doom.  But ever since the massacre and\ndestruction of St. Joseph they seemed to have lost spirit.  The two\npriests who were stationed here, Br\u00e9beuf and Lalement, did their best\nto arouse them, but they would not take measures to foil an Iroquois\nassault.  Br\u00e9beuf and Lalement, implored to flee while there was yet\ntime, both scorned such counsel.  Uttering savage yells, the Iroquois\nswarmed towards the palisades, hacking at them with their hatchets,\nand they broke through at last, burning and slaying.  The two brave\npriests were seized and stripped and beaten with clubs along the road\nto St. Ignace, which post the Iroquois had also captured.  The fate\nof St. Mary itself was now trembling in the balance.  Here were some\n40 Frenchmen, well armed, and besides a large Huron population, 300\nmore Huron braves were outside the gates, hoping to waylay some of\ntheir victorious foes.  A battle between the two tribes of red-men\nensued, and although this time the Hurons fought with a will, they\nwere obliged at last to give way.  Hundreds had been killed or lay\nweltering in their blood.  Only twenty were captured alive by the\nIroquois.  The enemy's chief was badly wounded, and they themselves\nhad lost a hundred of their best {72} warriors in this fierce battle.\nYou may imagine how the French and Christian Indians shut up in St.\nMary waited for the issue of the fight.  When they knew that their\nouter guard was defeated, they gave themselves over to prayer,\nbelieving all was lost.  They well knew how inflammable were their\npalisades of wood.  When a hundred torches came to be applied only a\nmiracle could save them.  At this critical moment panic seized the\nIroquois camp.  A rumour had spread that a mighty army of Hurons were\ndescending upon them, and they resolved, in spite of their chiefs, to\nretreat at once.  But before fleeing from their imaginary foe, they\ntook nearly all their prisoners and thrust them, bound hand and foot,\ninto the bark dwellings of St. Ignace.  They spared neither men nor\nwomen, young nor old, not even tiny babes.  When they had done this\nthey applied the torch to the town.\n\nOf the two priests, the giant, Jean de Br\u00e9beuf, was led apart and\nfastened to a stake.  From thence he called to the others, exhorting\nthem to suffer patiently and God would reward them.  They tortured\nhim, but he still stood erect, tall and masterful, and addressed his\npeople.  For this the angry Iroquois cut away his lower lip and\nthrust a red-hot iron down his throat.  Round the naked body of\nFather Lalement they tied strips of bark steeped in pitch and set him\nin a blaze.  As if this were not enough agony, on the heads of both\nthey poured boiling water and cut strips of flesh from Br\u00e9beuf's\nlimbs.\n\n\"You told us,\" cried the fiends, laughing, \"that {73} the more one\nsuffers on earth the happier he is in heaven.  We wish to make you\nhappy.  We torment you in this way because we love you; and you ought\nto thank us for it!\"\n\nStill from Br\u00e9beuf came no sign of flinching.  Baffled in devising\nfurther tortures, they cut off his head and tore his body in pieces.\nThe heart of this great man, the founder of the ill-fated Huron\nmission, was seized by an Iroquois chief and devoured.  His friend\nLalement, after being tortured all night, was killed by a blow from a\nhatchet.\n\nTwo or three days afterwards, when the fleeing Iroquois were leagues\naway, the Jesuits at St. Mary came to the smoking ruins of St.\nIgnace.  The scorched and mangled remains of the two martyrs met\ntheir horrified gaze.  These they carried back to St. Mary and\nburied, all but Br\u00e9beuf's skull, which they preserved as a holy\nrelic.  At the Hotel Dieu at Quebec it is shown to the visitor,\nenclosed in a silver bust of the martyr, which his family sent to the\ngood nuns from France.\n\nUpon the Hurons such a disaster as this told with crushing force.\nFlight from their country was all they could think of now.  Two weeks\nlater they abandoned for ever fifteen towns to roam northward and\neastward in the barren, inhospitable wilderness.  In various places\nthe fugitives found refuge, some with this tribe, some with that, but\nas a strong, separate nation they soon ceased to be, and the fort and\nmission of St. Mary on the Wye was left solitary in the middle of a\ngreat waste.\n\nAll the love and labour of the Jesuit missionaries {74} for ten years\nhad been in vain.  With aching hearts the priests resolved to break\nup the mission and betake themselves to some less dangerous and more\nuseful station.  Several of them followed the wandering Hurons, but a\nnumber of priests, with forty soldiers and labourers, established\nthemselves on St. Joseph Island, at the entrance of Matchedash Bay.\nIt is one of three--now known as Faith, Hope, and Charity--islands.\nHere they toiled, together with a number of Huron converts, in\nbuilding a stronghold which would defy the dreaded Iroquois.  Six or\neight thousand souls came to people the island.  There not being food\nfor so many, what with hunger and disease, by springtime half had\nperished.  The despairing survivors, resolving to brave the\nsurrounding Iroquois, who roamed on the mainland, and escape, one by\none fell into the hands of their lynx-like foes.  No refuge was there\nfor the poor persecuted race but in the shadow of the French guns at\nQuebec.\n\n\"Take us to Quebec,\" cried one of the Huron chiefs to the Jesuit\nfathers.  \"Do not wait until war and famine have destroyed us to the\nlast man.  We are in your hands.  Death has taken more than ten\nthousand of us.  If you wait longer, not one will remain alive.\"\n\nAt last the Jesuits resolved to grant their petition.  On the 10th of\nJune 1650 the whole population of St. Joseph (or Charity) Island\nembarked in canoes, which were packed with all their earthly goods,\nand paddled sadly towards the east.  On the Ottawa River, which was\nnow desolate of native hut or wigwam, they met a large party of {75}\nFrench soldiers and Hurons on the way to help the Huron mission.\n\nToo late!  The mission, with all its forts and settlements, had been\nabandoned for ever.  The entire party kept on to Montreal, where the\nHurons could not be induced to stay because it was too open to\nIroquois attacks; and about the end of July the great heights of\nQuebec came in sight.  All disembarked and were hospitably received\nby the Governor, the priests, the nuns, and the people.  Yet the new\narrivals could not have come at a worse time, for food was scarce and\nnearly all were poor.\n\n\n\n\n{76}\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE FURY OF THE IROQUOIS\n\nWhen the poor harassed \"Black Robes\" and their panic-stricken Indian\ncharges finally rested under the sheltering walls of Quebec,\nMontmagny was no longer Governor.  He had, after twelve years'\nservice, gone back to France, and a new Governor had arrived in his\nstead.  But the Indians still called the new Governor, and all the\nGovernors who came afterwards, by the name of \"Onontio.\"  They were\ntold that Montmagny in French signified \"Great Mountain,\" Onontio in\nthe Huron tongue, and supposed it was a title bestowed by the\npale-faces on all their rulers in Canada.\n\nDespite the unspeakable horrors, bloodshed, and martyrdom related in\nthe last chapter, nothing of lasting value was accomplished by the\nhapless mission to the Hurons except a knowledge of the great Lake\nSuperior, which an interpreter, named Jean Nicollet, had discovered a\nfew years before.\n\nSeason now followed season, and each saw the French but little better\nthan prisoners in their three towns on the St. Lawrence.  If they\nventured very far out of these fortified posts, it was only to give\nthe Iroquois a chance to spring upon them and bear {77} back their\nscalps in triumph to their lodges in the wilderness.  The French\nmight have made a treaty of alliance with their English neighbours in\nNew England, who had now set up a number of towns and were\nflourishing, although they too were at the mercy of the surrounding\nsavages.  But the French Governor made it a condition of the treaty\nthat the New Englanders should help Canada to exterminate the\nterrible Iroquois.  This the English colonists were loath to do; they\nhad no wish to bring the Iroquois tomahawks down upon their heads\nalso, as the French had done; and so the plan fell through.  After a\ntime one of the Iroquois tribes, having lost a great many of their\nfighting men in the long war, began to think of making recruits.  The\nidea occurred to them that the unfortunate Hurons and Algonquins, who\nhad joined their fortunes to the French, would be the very men for\ntheir purpose, if they could only induce them to desert the alliance.\nForthwith they sent courtiers to announce to the Hurons that they no\nlonger bore them any grudge and were willing to adopt them--to\nreceive them into the bosom of their lodges.  But it soon appeared\nthat all the Iroquois were not unanimous in their approval of this\nplan, and as their treachery was well known, the Hurons and\nAlgonquins, now settled on the Isle of Orleans near Quebec, naturally\nhesitated about accepting the offer.  The few foolish ones who\ntrusted in Iroquois good faith were actually tomahawked by their\nso-called friends on the way to the Iroquois lodges.  In attempting\nto punish a band of Iroquois ambushed near his fort, Du Plessis\nBochat, the Governor of {78} Three Rivers, lost his life; Father\nButeaux was killed on his way to his mission, and another priest,\nFather Poucet, was borne away to a Mohawk village, and after being\ntortured was sent back to Quebec to offer peace to the French.  Peace\nwas indeed welcome, but the French were naturally still suspicious.\nThe truth was that the Iroquois were then too busily engaged in\ndestroying the Eries, a tribe which had burned one of their most\nillustrious chiefs, to spare time to massacre the pale-faces.  As the\nchief, a Seneca, had stood with unquivering nerve at the stake he had\ncried out, \"Eries, you burn in me an entire nation!\" for he knew the\nSenecas would avenge his death.  Much, then, as the Governor, De\nLauzon, wanted peace, neither he nor his Indian allies knew how far\nthey could trust the Iroquois.  It was at last decided that if the\nOnondagas, one of the five Iroquois nations, would receive a Jesuit\nmission, a body of Hurons should be sent under escort to be adopted\ninto their tribe.  From the Onondagas there came a message to say\nthey would agree to this, and in June 1656 the expedition set out\nfrom Quebec.  It consisted of a large body of Hurons, as well as\nOnondagas, fifty French soldiers, led by the brave captain, Dupuy,\nand two priests, Dablon and Chaumonot.  Scarcely was the party well\nunder way, when a band of Mohawks fell upon them, and before they\npretended to discover that they were attacking members of their own\nconfederacy, they had killed and wounded a number of Onondagas.\nProfuse excuses and apologies followed, the Mohawks explaining that\nthey took them, the Onondagas, for Hurons.  {79} The expedition was\nsuffered to proceed.  The truth is, the Mohawks were jealous of the\nOnondagas in obtaining an alliance with the French and Hurons.  To\nshow their power and their contempt of the pale-faces, they continued\ntheir journey eastward to the Isle of Orleans, and under the very\nguns of the fort of Quebec surprised the defenceless Hurons who dwelt\nthere, and fiercely murdered or captured all they came upon, even the\nwomen and children.  In broad daylight they paddled their fleet of\nbark canoes in front of Quebec, laughing and yelling defiance to the\nFrench, and making their unhappy captives join in dancing and songs\nof triumph.  The Governor this time was a weak man, and all he could\ndo was to wring his hands and regret bitterly that he had ever sent\nany mission to the Onondagas.  He began to fear for their safety.\n\nNot wholly unfounded were the Governor's alarms.  At first all went\nsmoothly enough with the little band of Frenchmen in the heart of the\nOnondaga country.  This particular tribe of the Iroquois appeared\ndelighted at the coming of the French.  But quickly signs of danger\nbegan to multiply.  The pale-face soldiers grew aware that a plot was\non foot to murder them in the little fort they had built, close to\nwhere the present prosperous city of Syracuse now stands.  Dupuy,\nbeing an able and courageous man, resolved by some means or another\nto foil the savages and escape back to Canada.  This is the stratagem\nhe hit upon; it was the custom of these Indians to hold mystic\nfeasts, at which it was a point of honour to eat everything that was\nset before them {80} by their hosts.  If a man failed to eat the\nwhole of a dish--even to the fifth helping--it was taken by the host\nas a personal insult.  Dupuy planned such a feast, and arranged to\nstuff them so plentifully that not a single brave would be capable of\nrising from the banquet.  The plan worked perfectly, the Indians not\nobserving that the French concealed most of their food instead of\neating it, so that by midnight the gorged and drunken Onondagas were\nsunk in a gluttonous sleep.  Dupuy had taken good care beforehand to\nbuild secretly within his fort a number of large, light,\nflat-bottomed skiffs, and now when dawn came the Frenchmen stole\naway, carrying these with them to the Oswego River, reaching Quebec\nat last, in spite of ice and rapids, with the loss of only three men,\nwho were drowned.  The Indians pursued, but their birch-bark canoes\nwere useless on the icy stream, and they had to give up the chase.\n\nThe escape from the Onondagas was a very clever and daring deed, and\nshows the material the colonists of New France were made of in those\ndays.  A deed still more daring and important was to follow.  The\nIroquois threw off the mask and determined to deal the French in\nCanada a deadly blow.  A mighty force of the Five Nations was\norganised, to meet at the junction of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence\nrivers, and swoop down first upon Montreal and then upon the other\nsettlements.  It so happened that there lived in Ville Marie at this\ntime a young nobleman, Daulac des Ormeaux, who chose to be known to\nthe other colonists as Adam Dollard.  Having left France in order to\nescape the consequences of {81} some rash act, he burned for some\nchance to retrieve the honour of his name.  The valiant youth now saw\nwith joy the long-looked-for opportunity arrive at his door, and he\nobeyed the summons.  From the Governor did Dollard obtain leave to\nlead a party of volunteers against the savage foe.  Gathering sixteen\ngallant fellows about him, all swore a solemn oath to give or take no\nquarter, but by sheer force of their arms break the force of the blow\nwhich was about to descend on their beloved town.  A mad enterprise\ntruly did it seem, but for sheer valour nothing finer has been known\nsince fearless Leonidas and his handful of Greeks held the pass at\nThermopylae.  The seventeen heroes, together kneeling, took the\nSacrament at the hands of the pale priest, and set forth for the Long\nSault (or Rapids) of the Ottawa.  There in the dense woods they found\na disused old Indian stockade by which the invading host had to pass.\nEntrenching themselves as well as they could, they waited.  A few\nfriendly Hurons and Algonquins joined them, wondering at the\nhardihood of the pale-face warriors, and shamed into lending them a\nhelping hand.  The storm broke.  A horde of 700 screaming savages,\npicked men of the Iroquois, flung themselves upon them.  Easy work it\nseemed to crush out this feeble band.  To their astonishment, Dollard\nand his men beat them back.  Again and again they came on, and again\nand again were they repulsed.  By this time, appalled at the fearful\nodds against them, the friendly Indians had fled from the side of the\nbesieged, all but one Huron chief, Annahotaha, and four Algonquins.\nThese stood firm.  {82} Every loophole in the stockade darted its\ntongue of fire; so faultless was the aim that nearly every time a\nmusket rang out an Iroquois fell dead.  Fortunately Dollard had\nbrought plenty of ammunition.  Some musketoons of large calibre, from\nwhose throats scraps of lead and iron belched forth, slew and wounded\nseveral of the enemy at a single discharge.  Thus three days wore\naway and still the terrible struggle came to no end.  In the\nintervals, by day and night, Dollard and his men offered up prayers\nto Heaven on their knees in the melting snow.  Their food was now\ngone, and, worse still, they had no water.  No hope now remained save\nto keep the Iroquois a few hours longer at bay; they were certain\nonly of a martyr's reward.  On the part of the besiegers so many men\nhad they lost that they sickened of the fight, and some amongst them\neven counselled going home.  But other chiefs shrank from such a\ndisgrace.\n\n\"Shall we,\" they cried, \"confess ourselves beaten by so paltry an\nenemy?  Our squaws would laugh in our faces!  Let us now rather band\nourselves together and storm the fort of the white men, at whatever\ncost.\"\n\nA general assault was made.  So high by this time was piled the\nbodies of the Iroquois, that their fellows could now leap over the\nstockade.  Dollard fell, and one after another of the exhausted\ndefenders was slain, although each fought like a madman, a sword or\nhatchet in one hand and a knife in the other.  Amongst the heap of\ncorpses one Frenchman still breathed, and he was dragged out and {83}\ntortured.  This was the end; thus perished Dollard and his valiant\nsixteen, whose names are imperishably written in the annals of\nMontreal.  Nor did they offer their lives to the Iroquois hatchets in\nvain.  The Iroquois had been taught a lesson, and to their lodges the\ntribe slunk back like whipped curs.  \"If,\" said they, \"seventeen\nFrenchmen, four Algonquins, and one Huron can, behind a picket fence,\nhold seven hundred of our best warriors at bay, what defence would\ntheir hundreds do behind yonder ramparts of stone?\"  And so the\ncolony of New France was saved.\n\nThe cowardly native allies of the French in this fight were not to\nescape the penalty of their treacherous desertion.  The Iroquois\nturned upon them, burning some on the spot, and making captives of\nothers.  Five only succeeded in escaping to carry the tale of the\ndefence, the butchery, and the martyrdom to Ville Marie.\n\nIt seemed, however, as if Canada had only been saved in order to\nperish from other causes.  The colony was impoverished and torn,\nbesides, with civil and religious dissensions.  The Society of Notre\nDame of Montreal, those rich and influential persons in France who\nhad founded the city, now wearied of their enterprise.  It was turned\nover to the great Seminary of St. Sulpicius, and a number of\nSulpician fathers were sent out to take charge and to found a\nseminary in Montreal.  Amongst these was the Abbe de Queylus, who\nhoped the King would eventually make him a bishop.  But the Jesuits\nwere too powerful not to prevent any priest but a {84} Jesuit from\nreceiving such an appointment, and at last succeeded in getting\nFran\u00e7ois de Laval, Bishop of Petr\u00e6a, appointed to control the Church\nin Canada.  A striking figure was Laval, playing a great part in the\nearly history of Canada; but in spite of his virtue, he was\nnarrow-minded and domineering, perpetually quarrelling with the\nvarious Governors of the colony during the next thirty-five years.\n\nSo desperate did the people of New France become at the dangers which\nsurrounded them, at the quarrels between the Bishop and the Governor,\nat the excesses of the fur-traders, who insisted on intoxicating the\nIndians and themselves with brandy, that it hardly needed the\nterrible earthquake which took place in 1663 to make them lose heart\naltogether.  The total population then was some two thousand souls,\nand the Company of the Hundred Associates had been found powerless to\nsettle, develop, and defend the country properly.  Thinking only of\nthe profits of the fur trade, it had shamefully neglected its\npromises, and when any of its officials made money in Canada, they at\nonce went home to spend it.  All this was pointed out by the Marquis\nd'Avaugour when the Governorship at last fell from his hands; and\nremembering that others, including Laval, had made the same charge,\nColbert, the new Minister of young King Louis the Fourteenth, decided\nto plead the cause of Canada to his master.  It was on his advice\nthat King Louis resolved to take the government directly into his own\nhands.  By royal edict was revoked the charter of the Hundred\nAssociates, and three men appointed as a {85} Sovereign Council in\nCanada to carry out royal authority.  These three officials were the\nGovernor, the Bishop, and the Intendant, the latter having charge of\nthe commerce and finances of the colony.  To the post of Governor the\nSieur de Courcelle was appointed, and Jean Baptiste Talon became\nIntendant.  The office of Bishop, of course, continued to be filled\nby Laval.\n\n[Illustration: Dollard strikes his Last Blow, 1658]\n\nAnd now the drooping fortunes of New France began to revive.\nSoldiers and settlers began to pour into the country.  Besides De\nCourcelle, the King sent also his Viceroy for the whole of his\nTrans-atlantic domains, the veteran Marquis de Tracy, to report to\nhim personally upon the state of Canada.  When De Tracy set sail a\nthrong of eager young nobles accompanied him.  Their imagination had\nbeen stirred by the tales they had heard of the country by the St.\nLawrence River.  They thirsted for adventure and renown.  There came\nalso the famous disbanded regiment, called the Carignan-Calli\u00e8res,\nafter the names of its commanders, the first regiment of regular\ntroops ever sent to Canada by the King.  It had lately been serving\nin the wars of France against the Turks, and had provoked the\nadmiration of the Turkish Sultan.\n\nOn the last day of June 1665 a brilliant scene was witnessed in\nQuebec.  On that glowing summer's day the gallant Marquis and the\ntroops landed at the flowery base of towering Cape Diamond.  What a\ndifferent scene was now presented from that which had taken place but\na few seasons before, when the impudent Iroquois had shaken their\nhatchets from {86} their canoes at the trembling and helpless\nGovernor!  The population had doubled as if by magic; thousands were\non the ramparts shouting a welcome to the broad white standard\nblazoned with the arms of France, which floated proudly from fleet\nand fortress.  The river-banks echoed with the hoarse note of cannon.\nThe bells of the church and seminaries pealed in a frenzy of joy.\nTracy, a giant six feet and a half high, and his officers stepped\nashore, all gorgeously attired in crimson and white and gold.  In the\nvanguard of the procession which climbed that day the heights of\nQuebec were twenty-four guards in the King's livery, followed by four\npages and six valets.  On arrival at the square, Laval, in his\nresplendent pontificals, received them, and noted with pleasure that\nthe old marquis, although suffering from fever caught in the tropics,\nknelt on the bare pavement.  A new order of things everywhere was\nbegun.  With the 2000 settlers came young women for wives, as well as\nhorses, oxen, and sheep in abundance.  It became Tracy's duty to look\nto the colony's protection in order that it might increase and\nmultiply, and the only way to accomplish this was by curbing the\npower of the Iroquois.  No time was lost in taking measures to this\nend.  The forts at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal were\nstrengthened, three new forts, St. Theresa, Sorel, and Chambly, were\nbuilt on the Richelieu River.  Reports of the arrival of the troops,\nand of all their preparations, naturally spread far and wide amongst\nthe Indians, and very soon four of the Five Nations thought it\nprudent to sue for peace.  The fierce {87} Mohawks alone remained\ndefiant; they were not to be cowed by all this martial pomp, and at\nlast Courcelle, the Governor, with Tracy, the Viceroy's, permission,\nresolved to chastise them as soundly as they deserved.  He would take\nthem when they least expected it: surprise them in their lodges in\nthe depths of winter, when his soldiers could travel over the frozen\nrivers as though on a paved highway.  Many who had had experience of\nwinter journeyings in Canada sought to dissuade him from the attempt,\nbut the new Governor was anxious to distinguish himself, and win the\napproval of the Viceroy and his King.  Early in January he and his\n500 men began to march.  Before they had reached Three Rivers many\nhad their ears, noses, and fingers frozen, while some of the\nnewly-arrived troops were so disabled by the cold, that they had to\nbe left behind.  But the old Indian fighters and native Canadians, of\nwhom there were nearly a hundred, pressed forward bravely in the van,\nin spite of the heavy loads which all were obliged to carry.  For six\nweeks they travelled to reach the Iroquois lodges, but they lost\ntheir way, and came at last to the Dutch settlement of Schenectady.\nHere they learnt that the Mohawks had gone far afield on a war-like\nexpedition, and that the country they were now in belonged to the\nDuke of York, afterwards James II.  New Netherlands having thus\npassed into English hands, Courcelle and his troops were asked to\nquit the territory at once.  There was nothing, therefore, to do but\nto steal away to Canada, whence they had come.  It was not an easy\nfeat, for a body of Mohawks hung at {88} their heels tomahawking\nstragglers.  The cold was intense, and, to make matters worse, the\nprovisions gave out.  Sixty men perished on the march.  Nevertheless,\nunlucky as Courcelle had been, his expedition had served to convince\nthe Mohawks that they and their families were no longer safe in their\nlodges.  There was no telling what these Frenchmen would do next, so\nthey sent a deputation to offer peace.  The Viceroy, in his turn,\nsent a priest as his ambassador to visit their deputation, but he had\nscarcely left when tidings came that a party of seven French officers\nout hunting near Lake Champlain had been set upon and killed by the\nMohawks.  A cousin of Tracy's had been captured, and a nephew had\nbeen slain.\n\n\"Now, by the Virgin!\" cried the sick old soldier, bringing down his\ngiant palm on the table, \"they have gone far enough.  Recall the holy\nfather.  We must teach these savages a lesson.\"  But the cup of his\nanger was not yet full.  A couple of boastful Mohawk deputies arrived\nin Quebec and came to his house.  When the indignant Tracy happened\nto mention the murder of his nephew, one of them actually had the\neffrontery to laugh and exclaim, as he stretched out his arm, \"Yes,\nthis is the hand that split the head of that young man!\"\n\nThe Viceroy, veteran soldier as he was, and used to deeds of\nviolence, shuddered with horror.\n\n\"Very well,\" he said, \"never shall it slay any one else.  Take that\nbase wretch out,\" he added to one of the guard, \"and hang him in the\npresence of his fellows!\"\n\n{89}\n\nIt was September.  Tracy himself and Courcelle, commanding 1300 men,\nput the heights of Quebec behind them.  Traversing mountains, swamps,\nrivers, lakes, and forests, they held steadily on their way to the\ncountry of the Mohawks.  When the gout seized the commander they bore\nhim on a litter, a mighty load.  All day long were the drums beating\nand the trumpets blowing; when provisions had grown low, luckily they\ncame upon a huge grove yielding chestnuts, on which they largely fed.\nThe Mohawks heard of this martial procession and were terrified.\nThey had no wish now to face the French, whose numbers rumour\nmagnified, and whose drums they took for devils.  At the last moment\nthey retreated from their towns, one after another.  Tracy pursued\nthem, capturing each place as he arrived at it.  At the fourth town\nhe thought he had captured them all, but a squaw told him there was\nstill another, and stronger than any they had yet seen.  To this town\nhe sent an officer, who prepared for an assault, but, to the surprise\nof the French, they found within only an old man, a couple of aged\nsquaws, and a little child.  These told the French that the Mohawks\nhad just evacuated, crying, \"Let us save ourselves, brothers!  The\nwhole world is coming against us!\"  All loaded with corn and\nprovisions as it was, to the town the French that night applied the\ntorch.  A mighty bonfire lit up the forest.  In despair at losing all\ntheir possessions, the two squaws flung themselves headlong into the\nflames.  All the other places were destroyed, and then, chanting the\nTe Deum and reciting mass, the victors set out on {90} the return\nmarch.  They had burned the food of the Mohawks, who they knew must\nnow feel the dread pangs of hunger.  Terrible was the blow, and the\nMohawks suffered much that winter.  Their pride was humbled.  By\nthese means was a treaty of peace between the French and all the\nIroquois declared, and for twenty years Canada enjoyed the sweets of\npeace.\n\nOld Marquis de Tracy had done his work well, and could now go back to\nFrance with his resplendent bodyguard, his four pages, and his six\nvalets, and leave Courcelle and Talon to rule Canada alone.\n\nAfter this, when they went amongst the Iroquois, cross and breviary\nin hand, Jesuit missionaries met with no danger or refusal.  They\nmade many converts.  Not content with their labours amongst the\ntribes close at hand, they pierced the distant forests north of Lake\nSuperior, established permanent missions at Michilimackinac and Sault\nSte. Marie, which joins the Lakes Huron and Michigan.  On the banks\nof the St. Lawrence a new era began.  For when the Carignan-Calli\u00e8res\nregiment was disbanded, the soldiers turned their swords into\nploughshares, and the wise and prudent Intendant, Talon, had the\nsatisfaction of seeing farms arise in the wilderness and yield\nabundant harvests.  Talon's hand was seen everywhere; he spared no\npains to make Canada prosperous and self-supporting.  He set about\nestablishing the fisheries in the St. Lawrence river and gulf, and\nencouraged the seal-hunts, by which much oil was obtained and\nexported to France.  He ordered the people to grow hemp, and taught\nthe women to spin wool.  He also devoted much attention to the {91}\ntimber trade, and to him is owing the first tannery seen in Canada.\nBy the year 1688 as many as 1100 vessels had in a single season\nanchored in the Quebec roadstead, laden with every kind of\nmerchandise.  According to a letter written by one of the chief nuns,\n\"M. Talon studied with the affection of a father how to succour the\npoor and cause the colony to grow; entered into the minutest\nparticulars; visited the houses of the inhabitants and caused them to\nvisit him; learned what crop each was raising; taught those who had\nwheat to sell it at a profit; helped those who had none, and\nencouraged everybody.\"\n\nBut in nothing were Talon's efforts so extraordinary to us as in his\nproviding wives for the colonists of New France.  In his first few\nyears of office 1200 girls were shipped out from France.  These\nFrench maidens were chosen from the country rather than from the\ncity, strong and accustomed to work.  But there was also a\nconsignment of \"select young ladies\" as wives for the officers.  When\nthey arrived in Quebec or Montreal, the girls, tall and short, blonde\nor brunette, plump and lean, were gathered in a large building, and\nthe young Canadian came and chose a wife to his liking.  A priest was\nin readiness, and they were married on the spot, in batches of thirty\nat a time.  Next day, we are told, the Governor caused the couple to\nbe presented with an ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two\nbarrels of salted meat, and eleven crowns in money.  Besides this\nbounty, twenty livres were given to each youth who married before he\nwas twenty years old, and to each girl who married before {92}\nsixteen.  All bachelors were heavily taxed.  To be unmarried was\nregarded by the Intendant and the King as a crime.  In short, as has\nbeen said, the new settler was found by the King, sent over by the\nKing, and supplied by the King with a wife, a farm, and even a house.\n\nNow amongst free-born Britons all this royal interference would have\nbeen resented.  Britons like to manage their own private affairs.\nThey would call Louis the Fourteenth's system \"paternalism,\" and in\ntruth the system was a failure, because it discouraged the principle\nof independence.  No spirit of self-reliance was stimulated amongst\nthe people.  They looked to the Government for everything, not to\nthemselves.  The result was that many of the strongest and most\nself-reliant amongst the young men preferred to live a life of\nfreedom and adventure in the wilderness, hunting, fishing, and\ntrading, rather than suffer the constraints imposed upon them by the\nwell-meaning Talon.  Thus came about the creation of a famous class\ncalled the _coureurs de bois_, or bushrangers, who at last spread\nthemselves all over Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, owning\nno laws but their own, living like Indians, taking unto themselves\nIndian wives, and rearing half-breed children.  Talon and all the\nGovernors, Intendants, and Bishops were very angry with these men,\nwho thus set the wishes of the good King at defiance, and made many\nlaws against them.  But in vain!  The bushrangers, valorous,\npicturesque, and their companions, the _voyageurs_, continued to\nflourish almost until our own day.\n\n\n\n\n{93}\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nSTRANGE DOINGS AT PORT ROYAL\n\nWe left the loyal, undaunted Charles de la Tour, whom his Huguenot\nfather, Sir Claude, had tempted in vain to enter the English service,\nmaster once more of Port Royal in Acadia, and in high favour with\nKing Louis the Thirteenth.  All Acadia as well as Canada was given\nback to the French by the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, and King\nLouis and his Court were now inclined to abandon their policy of\nindifference and begin the work of colonising anew.  In the spring of\n1632 a nephew of Richelieu's, Captain de Razilly, arrived in Acadia\nwith a shipload of colonists, including artisans, farmers, several\nCapuchin friars, and some gentry.  Amongst the latter were Nicholas\nDenys and an extraordinary person, Charles de Menou, Chevalier de\nCharnisay.\n\nThe new Governor-General of Acadia was so struck by the natural\nbeauties of La Heve that he fixed his residence there, in preference\nto Port Royal, which the Scotch had taken care to dismantle before\nsailing away.  Naturally young De la Tour was very jealous at\nRazilly's coming.  He thought the King ought to have appointed him\nGovernor, instead of giving him the mere lordship over a limited\nterritory.  {94} With Razilly's death in the following year De la\nTour thought his chance had come.  But again his hopes were\nfrustrated.  It appeared that Razilly had ceded all his rights to\nCharnisay, his Deputy-Governor, whose first act was to remove from La\nHeve and take up residence at Port Royal, where he built a new fort.\n\nFrom this time forward Charnisay and De la Tour were sworn enemies.\nDe la Tour believed in his heart that it was Charnisay's aim to\ndispossess him of those rights which he had acquired in Acadia by so\nmuch energy and sacrifice.  It is certain that Charnisay had much\nmore influence at home in France than had his rival.  The King tried\nto settle the dispute by fixing the limits of Charnisay's government\nat the New England frontiers on the one hand, and at a line north\nfrom the Bay of Fundy on the other.  Westward of this line was to be\nDe la Tour's province.  But in vain.  Both rivals appealed to their\nmonarch, and Charnisay's friends having poisoned the King's mind by\nalleging that De la Tour was a Huguenot in disguise, orders were sent\nto his foe to arrest him and send him a prisoner to France.  By this\ntime De la Tour was dwelling with his young wife and children, his\nsoldiers and Indian followers, in a strong fort he had built at the\nmouth of the St. John's River, to which he had given his own name.\nWhen, to his amazement, he heard that his foe had succeeded in\ndepriving him of his rank as King's Lieutenant, of his charter, and\nof his share in the fur trade; that Charnisay had, moreover, orders\nto take him a prisoner to France, his indignation was {95}\noverwhelming.  He took instant measures.  Having strengthened Fort la\nTour, he defied his enemy to do his worst.\n\nCharnisay was a crafty man and moved slowly.  Not until the spring of\n1643 was he ready to wreak vengeance on the \"traitor,\" as he called\nDe la Tour.  The snows had scarce melted, the trees were putting\nforth their first pale verdure, when De la Tour perceived several\narmed ships creeping stealthily into the harbour.  Aboard these ships\nwere 500 men whom Richelieu had sent to Charnisay to overpower the\nloyal subject who had, in a time of stress and temptation, held all\nAcadia for the French King.  Duly the attacking force landed, and\nCharnisay, his eye kindling with hate and expected triumph, himself\nled the assault.  But he deceived himself: the fort proved too strong\nand the besieged too valiant.  After an hour of hot fighting,\nCharnisay was fain to acknowledge himself baffled.  Yet although he\ncould not storm the fort, he had another resource.  He could, he\nthought, starve it into capitulation.  Thus was begun a close siege\nby sea and land.  But in spite of Charnisay's care, a loophole in the\nline of ships was left, and through this loophole one day De la\nTour's keen vision saw, far on the horizon, the long-expected ship,\nwith provisions, merchandise, and gunpowder for Fort de la Tour.  To\nreach that ship was now the hope of De la Tour and his wife, no whit\nless valiant than himself.  In it both would sail to Boston, and\nthere seek to obtain reinforcements from the sturdy New Englanders.\nIn his hazardous extremity De la Tour remembered the lesson his\nfather, now dead, {96} had tried to teach him, and what he had tried\nto forget all these years, that he was a baronet of England, doubly\nso, once in his own right and once by right of inheritance.  By\nvirtue of the rank the English King had given him, King Charles's\ntransatlantic subjects would not refuse him succour.  The next night,\ntherefore, De la Tour and his lady slipped unperceived into a waiting\nboat and rowed with muffled oars through the blockade.  The captain\nof the _St. Clement_ was delighted to see De la Tour.  Placing\nhimself under his orders, they sailed for Boston, where, although\nthey dared not give him direct assistance, the Puritan elders of the\nnew town had no objection to striking a bargain, and at a good price\npermitted their visitor to hire four stout ships and seventy men.\nSailing back with his force, De la Tour was able now to make his\nenemy flee before him.  The siege of his own fort being raised, he\nfollowed the foiled Charnisay to Port Royal, captured a shipload of\nrich furs, and would have taken Charnisay himself and his settlement,\nhad it not been for the scruples of his New England allies, who\nsucceeded in patching up a peace.  But none knew better than De la\nTour that there could be no lasting truce between him and Charnisay.\n\nWhile his wife went to France to obtain help, the brave Charles set\nabout strengthening Fort la Tour.  Once across the Atlantic, Madame\nde la Tour had a narrow escape from falling into the hands of their\nenemy, Charnisay, who had also gone to France on the same mission.\nBut she eluded her enemies as well as the King's officers sent to\narrest {97} her, and reached England in safety.  After many months,\nshe took passage home in a small vessel.  She had many adventures.\nOnce she hid in the hold of the vessel while her enemies searched for\nher.  The ship suffered delay after delay ere, to her joy, Fort la\nTour at length was reached.  Her husband received her with raptures,\nand at once set out to bribe the Boston folk once more to lend him a\nhelping hand to avert the danger which again threatened him.  Now was\nCharnisay's opportunity.  Hardly was his rival gone than he mustered\nall his ships and men and fell upon the fort.  What an easy prey it\nseemed!  Charnisay forgot that a woman sometimes can play a man's\npart.  The fort received him with so hot a fire--so hot that\nthirty-three of his men were slain--that Charnisay, with loud curses,\nwithdrew to his ships.  Long he lay in wait for De la Tour, who dared\nnot now return, and after a second onslaught on the fort, Charnisay\nbegan in earnest to despair of success.  At this critical junction a\nscoundrelly traitor, bought by Charnisay's gold, appeared in the\nfort.  In vain the heroic woman spurred on her valiant band to repel\nthe invaders.  The latter had been told that her food and powder were\nnearly spent, and finally, at a signal, the traitor threw open the\nouter gates of the fort, and the host of the enemy rushed in.  Yet\neven then for three days Madame de la Tour kept them at bay, and\nCharnisay at last, weary of the bloodshed, was fain to offer her fair\nterms if she would surrender and depart.  She hesitated a moment,\nbut, to spare the lives of her brave garrison, she {98} caused the\ngates of the inner fort to be opened, and so yielded.\n\nThen it was that Charnisay covered his name to the end of all time\nwith the blackest infamy.  His eyes dwelt on the smallness of the\ngarrison, and, ashamed of the terms he had offered, he cried out, \"I\nhave been deceived!  I have been deceived!  Take these wretches out\nand hang them all one by one!\"  He ordered a halter to be placed\nabout the neck of the splendid heroine, their intrepid mistress,\nMarie de la Tour.  He forced her to witness the cold-blooded murder\nof her men, so that she swooned with horror.  To Port Royal Charnisay\nthen bore her away, where she fell ill, and in three short weeks was\ndead.\n\nAlas, poor Marie de la Tour!  Her husband was now an exile from\nAcadia.  By the capture of the fort he had lost not only his wife,\nbut all his merchandise, jewels, plate, and furniture worth ten\nthousand pounds.  His debts to the Bostonians being heavy, he became\nbankrupt.  So while Charnisay flourished and grew rich at Port Royal,\nreigning supreme throughout Acadia, Charles de la Tour was a wanderer\non the face of the earth.  As a _coureur de bois_ he hunted and\nbartered for furs in the far north.  Years passed, when, through a\nfaithful follower, tidings reached him which filled his breast anew\nwith hope.  His enemy was dead, drowned in an Acadian river in the\nvery flush and midsummer of his success, which, however, by the\nwildest extravagance, he had grossly abused.  No sooner did De la\nTour learn of this event than he took ship {99} immediately for\nFrance and poured out the story of his wrongs at the foot of the\nthrone.  The King acknowledged the injustice with which his faithful\nsubject had been treated, and, to make amends, created him sole\nGovernor of Acadia, with a monopoly of the fur trade.  Once again\nback in the colony he loved, his fortunes grew bright.  His coffers\nsoon filled with gold.  But the sight of the widow and children of\nhis life-long enemy troubled him.  He knew that they regarded him as\nprofiting by their misfortunes.  To make what reparation he could, he\npresented himself before Madame Charnisay.  She did not spurn his\nattentions, and so he courted, then wedded her, and took her children\nunder his protection.\n\nAnd now, you will think, this surely is the end of the drama.  Nay,\nthere is more to come.  Charnisay in his day had had many dealings\nwith a certain merchant of Rochelle named Le Borgne.  This fellow now\ncame forward with a trumped-up tale for De la Tour's undoing.  He\nswore that Charnisay had died owing him a quarter of a million\nlivres, and this story he duly unfolded before Cardinal Mazarin, the\ngreat Richelieu's successor.  Mazarin, an intriguing bigot, suspected\nDe la Tour's loyalty and religion, and ended by giving Le Borgne\npower to seize the dead Charnisay's estate.  On the strength of this\nauthority a force was got together, and Le Borgne sailed away to oust\nDe la Tour and make himself, if possible, master of Acadia.  He fell\nfirst upon Nicholas Denys, who commanded a fort under De la Tour,\ncaptured him, took Port Royal, and made all in readiness to storm\nFort la Tour.  Matters were {100} in this posture when, like a\nbombshell, burst a surprise for all parties.\n\nAt this time, far away across the Atlantic in England, the Civil War\nhad come to an end.  King Charles was beheaded, and Oliver Cromwell\nruled in his stead as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.  When war\nbroke out with Holland, Cromwell despatched a fleet to capture the\nDutch colonies in America; but not long after the ships arrived at\nBoston, where they were to be joined by 500 of the English colonists,\nthe latter were chagrined to hear that the war was over.  The New\nEnglanders had, however, in the meantime been petitioning Cromwell to\nmake himself master of Nova Scotia, which they said was English by\nright and a source of danger to themselves.  A glorious opportunity\nwas now at hand of carrying out their schemes.  The expedition\nintended for the Dutch was turned against the French in Acadia, and\nboth De la Tour and Le Borgne were compelled to surrender.  Nova\nScotia once more flew the English flag, and at Port Royal an English\nGovernor was installed, who made the settlers understand that no harm\nor oppression should befall them.\n\nWhen these things happened, in the year 1654, De la Tour was long\npast his prime.  After waiting a year he began to see how hopeless it\nwas to expect that France would do anything to save Acadia.  He\ncrossed the ocean, this time to England.  As Sir Charles de la Tour\nhe obtained audience of the Lord Protector and stated his case fully\nand frankly.  \"I am the man for that country, {101} my Lord.  For\nmore than sixty years I have laboured there, and settlers and Indians\nknow me.  With me it may prosper; without me it is nothing.\"\nCromwell was a keen judge of character.  He liked De la Tour's\naddress, and decreed that he should come into his own again.  An\nEnglish Company was formed, consisting of De la Tour, Thomas Temple,\none of Cromwell's colonels, and a Puritan minister named William\nCrowne, to take over the whole of Acadia, both the peninsula of Nova\nScotia and the mainland.  The partners were given besides the usual\ntrading monopoly.  Great projects were planned, and so firm was\nTemple's belief in Acadia's future that he spent his whole fortune in\ndeveloping the estate.  Long before his death, in 1666, Charles de la\nTour sold out his interests to his partners.  He divined further\ntrouble, for the Restoration of Charles the Second put a new aspect\non the situation.  His seventy years of strenuous life made him long\nfor peace and quiet.  But the worst he did not live to see.  A year\nafter De la Tour died, King Charles put his royal hand to the\ndisgraceful Treaty of Breda, by which all Acadia, Nova Scotia, New\nBrunswick, and Prince Edward Island, was given back to France, and\nTemple became a ruined man.\n\nFor forty-three years did Nova Scotia remain in the possession of the\nFrench.  At length in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, it passed to\nGreat Britain, and in British possession it remains to this day.  The\nNew Englanders never ceased to regard French Acadia with jealousy.\nThere were constant quarrels about the boundary-line between it and\nNew England, {102} and many deadly raids on both sides.  Among the\nchief characters of Acadia at this time was the Baron St. Castin.  He\nwas a French noble who flung off the mantle of civilisation when he\narrived in Canada with the Carignan-Calli\u00e8res regiment, and, marrying\na squaw, took up his residence with the Indians.  St. Castin dwelt in\na strong fort on the Penobscot River and made himself lord and master\nover hundreds of Abenakis Indians.  He was greatly dreaded by the\nEnglish of Maine and Massachusetts.\n\nDuring this long period, while Frontenac was ruling far away in\nQuebec, the population of Acadia slowly increased.  Settlement was\nmade at Chignecto and in the district called the Basin of Minas.  It\nwas the descendants of these settlers whose opposition to British\nrule caused them in the next century to be banished from the country.\n\nIn the meantime you must bear in mind that by water more than a\nthousand miles separated Port Royal from Quebec.  Communication was\nslow and difficult.  There was no high-road, and consequently the\ncolonists on the St. Lawrence showed for a long time hardly more\ninterest in Acadia's fortunes than if it were one of France's\nfar-distant West Indian possessions.  Louisburg, that mighty fortress\nwhich was to awaken their interest and to centre in itself so much of\nthe power and glory of New France, was not yet built.  It was not yet\neven a dream.\n\n\n\n\n{103}\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE COMING OF FRONTENAC\n\nWhile the wise and prudent Intendant, Talon, was playing his part of\nofficial father to the people, Governor Courcelle was busy with his\nown duties at Quebec.  He found that the Iroquois, although they had\nburied the war-hatchet, had begun to injure Canada's interests in\nanother way by inducing the Northern and Western Indians to trade\nwith the English colonies.  Courcelle made up his mind that the\nproper policy for the French was to secure a stronger hold on the\nmore distant tribes.  A fort and military station was built at a spot\non the north shore of Lake Ontario where Kingston now stands.\nExpeditions were despatched to open up communication with the great\nand unknown territory west and south of the great lakes.  Such was\nthe beginning of a great era of discovery, associated in Canadian\nhistory with the name of Frontenac, Courcelle's successor, whose name\nin Canadian history stands second only to Champlain.  It was during\nCourcelle's governorship, in 1669, that Charles the Second of England\ngranted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, who thereby acquired\nthe right to trade for furs in the mighty region bordering upon {104}\nHudson's Bay.  But although England thus planted her foot in the far\nregions of the north, it was to a couple of intrepid French Canadian\nbushrangers that the idea of the Company was due.  The names of these\nbushrangers were Pierre Esprit Radisson and Chouart de Groseilliers,\nboth emigrants from France.  At an early age they had been thrilled\nby the tales of life and adventure in the distant wilderness across\nthe sea.  They were hardy and enterprising, well fitted for the\narduous life-work which was before them.  From a western tribe of\nIndians called the Assiniboines, Radisson and Groseilliers first\nheard of the character and extent of the great inland sea to the\nnorth, which had long before been named by the English marine\nexplorers Hudson's Bay.  Not only did they glean a description of the\ninland sea, but they also succeeded, while on their wanderings, in\nobtaining information how they might reach it, not as the English\nmight do by sea, but overland.\n\nIn August 1660 the two adventurers found their way back to Montreal\nafter over a year's absence.  They were accompanied by 300 Indians\nand 60 canoes, laden with furs, out of which they made a handsome\nprofit.  But they had to reckon with the jealous fur-trading\nproprietors of Quebec, who sought to restrict them from adventuring\ninto any new fields, and so many obstacles did the pair meet with,\nthat in order to carry out their scheme and establish trading posts\non Hudson's Bay they gave up their overland scheme and decided to\nthrow in their lot with the English.  They crossed over the ocean and\nhad an interview with King Charles's cousin, the gallant {105} Prince\nRupert, and the result was all their hearts could wish for.  Money\nfor the enterprise was found, and an English association founded\nunder charter from the King, which took the title of the Merchants\nand Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, but better\nknown to us as the Hudson's Bay Company.\n\nOn a June morning 1668 the _Nonsuch_, a ketch of only fifty tons'\nburden, left the Thames for Hudson's Bay.  At the end of September it\npassed safely through Hudson's Straits, and all hands were ordered\nashore in Rupert's River to begin the construction of a fort and\ndwellings, called after King Charles.  It was made of logs, in the\nfashion of those made by the Jesuits and traders in Canada.  As some\nprotection from sudden attack it was enclosed by a stockade.\n\nThis, at Rupert's River, was the first of the forts and stations of\nthe Hudson's Bay Company.  After a time other forts and \"factories,\"\nas they were called, began to dot the shores of the bay.\n\nRadisson and Groseilliers did not continue very constant in their\nallegiance; sometimes they were English, sometimes they were French.\nThey were rough-and-ready adventurers both; and it all depended whose\npurse was largest to command their services.  Radisson, however,\nended his days in the receipt of a pension from the Hudson's Bay\nCompany.\n\nNaturally, the French were not at all pleased at this enterprise\nwhich the English had set on foot, and soon began to take measures to\nget the {106} fur trade of the most distant parts into their own\nhands.\n\nGovernor Courcelle despatched an explorer, a brave fellow named\nNicholas Perrot, to summon deputies from the far western tribes to a\nconference, and take them all under the protection of King Louis.  It\nwas while on this expedition that Perrot heard from the Indians of a\nmighty river flowing southwards, which they spoke of as the\nMississippi, or Father of Waters.  The rumour caused great interest\nin Canada.  It was not long, as we shall see, before another\nexpedition started from Quebec to ascertain what truth lay in the\nstory.  But that was in Frontenac's time.\n\nLouis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, was a grandson of one of the\nknightly paladins who had fought with Henry the Fourth in the wars of\nthe League.  He was a very shrewd, courageous, and ambitious man.  He\nentered upon the government of Canada, as he entered upon everything\nhe undertook in his life, with great enthusiasm.  In almost his first\nletter home he wrote: \"I have never seen anything so fair or so grand\nas the site of Quebec.  That city could not have been better placed\nhad it been purposely founded as the expected capital of a great\nEmpire.\"  Soon after lie arrived, Talon retired from his post of\nIntendant, fearing a conflict with the indomitable spirit of the new\nGovernor.  For Frontenac, with all his excellent qualities, could\nendure no opposition.  He chafed at any criticism of his authority.\nAnd opposition and criticism were to be his lot for years.  He soon\nbecame engaged in {107} bitter disputes with the officials of the\ncolony, with Bishop Laval, who was as stern and unbending as himself,\nwith the new Intendant, Duchesneau, and with the Governor of\nMontreal.  Frontenac disliked the Jesuits; he was constantly seeking\nto curb their influence.  This unhappy three-cornered conflict lasted\nall through Frontenac's first governorship of ten years.  He became\nmore and more despotic, banishing members of the Council who offended\nhim, and finally sending Governor Perrot of Montreal, as well as a\nhostile priest named Fenelon, back to France, where the former was\nimprisoned in the Bastille.\n\nHe had many enemies, but Frontenac had also many friends.  These\nidolised him, and to one, the brilliant and adventurous La Salle, he\nstood firm as a rock.  We have seen how Frontenac's predecessor,\nCourcelle, had planned a fort on Lake Ontario.  This plan Frontenac\nwarmly approved, and believing the post ought to be a strong one, he\nsent 400 men to construct the works and to serve as garrison.  He\nalso established another fort at Niagara.  The project of discovering\nthe vast stream which the Indians called the Mississippi also greatly\ninterested the Governor, and a strong and able priest, Father\nMarquette, and a fur-trading explorer named Jolliet left the St.\nLawrence in its quest.  Frontenac, La Salle, and the others still\ncherished in their hearts a vision of a short route to China.  At\nthat time no one knew how far away the Pacific Ocean lay--no one\ndreamt that thousands of miles of mountain range and prairie\nseparated Quebec and New York from its shores.  Marquette and\nJolliet, with a few {108} followers, pushed on to the north-west of\nLake Michigan.  After much paddling and many portages their canoes\nbrought them at last into the swelling flood of the greatest river in\nthe world.  What emotions they felt!  In wonder and triumph they\ndescended the Mississippi, and during the month which followed,\npassed the mouths of three other great rivers, the Illinois, the\nMissouri, and the Ohio.  They had many talks with friendly Indians on\nthe banks; they saw much beautiful scenery and many strange sights.\nAt last they drew near to the mouth of the river of Arkansas, where\nsavages who had never so much as looked on the face of a white man\nwere not so friendly.  Jolliet and his companion deemed that they had\ngone far enough.  By this time they had made up their minds that the\ngreat river emptied not into the Pacific ocean but into the Gulf of\nMexico.  Reluctantly they turned back, and not till the following\nsummer did the two explorers reach Canada again.  All through this\nmemorable journey Jolliet had noted down in a book a description of\nall that had attracted his attention, besides sketching carefully a\nmap of the course.  This book he guarded jealously, intending it for\nthe eyes of the Governor, of King Louis, and the people of France.\nAlas, just as he had run Lachine rapids and was in sight of home, his\ncanoe capsized and the precious volume floated away on the rushing\nwaters!  It was a cruel disappointment for Jolliet.  Frontenac\nreceived him graciously, heard his story, and reported what he had\nheard to his royal master.  As for Jolliet's companion, Father\nMarquette was wholly worn out by {109} his exertions.  Less than two\nyears later he lay down and died by a little river pouring into Lake\nMichigan, baffled in his dream of converting whole tribes of Indians\nin what was then the Far West.  Neither he nor the Canadian-born\nJolliet have been forgotten in this region.  To many towns and\ncounties have their names been given, and their statues in bronze and\nmarble are to be seen in several places in America to-day.\n\nJolliet and Marquette had begun the work; it now remained for another\nstrong, ardent, adventurous spirit to continue it.  Such a one was\nclose at hand in the person of R\u00e9n\u00e9 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la\nSalle.  As a young man he had come to Canada from his native city of\nRouen, filled with the most romantic ideas of winning fame and wealth\nin the wilderness.  To learn the Indian language and ways he had left\nthe towns and led the roving life of a bushranger, making long,\nlonely canoe journeys and dwelling in the Indian wigwams.  He, too,\nhad heard of the Father of Waters, the vast Mississippi, and tried to\nreach it, but, as we have seen, Jolliet was there before him.  But La\nSalle did not accept Jolliet's conclusions.  He refused to believe\nthat the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico--he thought it\nled to the Pacific.  He was full of faith in the existence of a short\nroute to China.  When any one met him on his return from an\nexpedition, however short, they would jokingly ask him, \"Venez vous\nde la Chine?\"  (\"Do you come from China?\")  La Salle had bought an\nestate not far from Montreal, and this estate came at last to be\ncalled in derision {110} La Chine, and Lachine it is called to this\nhour.  But La Salle was not the kind of man to be discouraged.  He\nwas determined to settle the matter one way or another, and into his\nplans Frontenac entered heartily.  But for some years other work\nclaimed La Salle's attention--work of a pioneering sort.  He believed\nthat before the French could lay strong hands on the west, where the\nEnglish had already begun to penetrate, forts and stations ought to\nbe built and a firm alliance made with the Indians.  With Frontenac's\napproval, he assumed control of Fort Cataracoui, on Lake Ontario.\nOnce in his hands, La Salle tore it down, built a stronger one of\nstone, and rechristened it in honour of his patron, Fort Frontenac.\nMoving westward, he began to clear land and to build small ships to\ncarry the cargoes of furs he had bargained for.  The first he built\non Lake Erie in the year 1679 he called the _Griffin_, in which he\nsailed to the Green Bay Mission on Lake Michigan.  There the\n_Griffin_ was packed with costly furs and bade God-speed on her\nreturn voyage eastward.  Weeks passed, then months and years, but the\n_Griffin_ never came back.  Her timbers and the bodies of her crew\nhave long rotted somewhere at the bottom of one of the Great Lakes.\nThe loss was a sad blow to La Salle; it was one of the first of that\nseries of great misfortunes which followed him through his career\nuntil he was cruelly done to death by foul traitors in the remote\nforest.\n\nBut by this time La Salle was not alone in his wanderings.  In Henry\nde Tonti he had a fiery and trusty lieutenant, and a devoted follower\nin a Recollet {111} friar, Father Hennepin.  Before coming to Canada,\nTonti had lost a hand in battle, its place being supplied by one of\nsteel, covered by a glove.  The Indians stood amazed at the blows\nTonti could deal with his mysterious gloved hand, blows which would\nhave shattered their own members to fragments.  Tonti often had\nreason to bless his hand of steel.  Three years after the ill-fated\n_Griffin_ went down, La Salle saw his way clear to carry out his\ngreat purpose.  He embarked on the waters of the Mississippi on a\nvoyage to its source.  The explorer, with Tonti and his party, met\nwith a friendly reception from most of the Indians on their journey.\nSome were disposed to be hostile, and when this happened to be the\ncase, strong, quick paddling soon put the French out of their reach.\nFinally, on the 19th of March, as the sun shone hot and trees and\nflowers were in bloom, their canoes entered the mouth of the Father\nof Waters, which is divided into three channels.  La Salle, in his\ncanoe, entered one, Tonti the second, and Captain d'Autray the third.\nAll disembarked, and on some high, dry ground La Salle caused a\ncolumn to be raised, and upon it this inscription was placed:\n\n  LOUIS THE GREAT,\n  King of France\n  and of Navarre,\n  reigns.\n  The ninth of April 1682.\n\nLa Salle took possession of the country for the King, and bestowed\nupon it the name, in his honour, of {112} Louisiana.  It took the\nexplorers a full year to get back to Quebec, for the current was\nstrong and the difficulties many.  There he received a warm\nreception.  But nothing could console him.  Much to his sorrow and\ndismay, he found a new Governor installed.  The enemies of Frontenac,\nheaded by Laval, had triumphed, and the greatest and strongest man in\nCanada had been recalled by the King.  Never could this measure have\nhappened at a worse time.  For, while La Salle had been absent, after\nyears of peace, the restless Iroquois had dug up the war-hatchet.\nUpon a pretext of having received offence from the Illinois tribe,\nwhich was under French protection, they threatened to deluge the land\nin blood.  To this policy they had been urged by the English Governor\nof New York, Colonel Dongan, who saw with alarm the growing\nenterprise, both in fur trade and exploration of the French.  While\nhe continued in Canada the doughty Frontenac was more than a match\nfor the Iroquois chiefs.  He sent for them instantly to Fort\nFrontenac, saying that if they had been wronged by the Illinois he\nwould see that they had proper satisfaction.  The Iroquois, having\nthe English Governor at their back, at first returned a defiant\nanswer.  \"If you want to see us, friend Onontio,\" they said, \"you\nmust come to our lodges.\"  With flashing eyes and with knitted brows,\nFrontenac sent back the messenger to the Iroquois commanding them to\nkeep their hands off his Indians or take all consequences.  He had,\nhe said, asked them to come and meet him at Fort Frontenac.  Now he\nadded, if the Iroquois wished {113} to see him, they would have to\ncome to Montreal.  His sternness and the fear of his displeasure\novercame the braves of the Five Nations.  Changing their tone, they\nsent an embassy to Montreal, promising the peace which they hated.\nScarcely had they done so than Frontenac the Lion was replaced by La\nBarre, the Lamb.\n\nLike every one else, La Salle, on learning the evil news, saw the\nfolly and danger of the change.  To France straightway he sailed,\nwhere the King heaped him with honours, and, seizing the opportunity,\nhe unfolded a project for establishing a French colony in Louisiana.\nShips were freely given him and many soldiers and supplies to reach\nthe Gulf of Mexico by sea.  But La Salle, though he never would admit\nthe fact, was no sailor.  His navigation was fatally at fault; he\nwholly missed his intended destination, the mouth of the Mississippi,\nsailing hundreds of miles beyond.  He landed, and through the forests\nand swamps, and stricken with fever, he led his colonists.  After\nmuch miserable wandering, in which most of the little army perished,\nhis followers mutinied.  La Salle was murdered and his corpse flung\nto the jackals and vultures.\n\nFar more successful were the adventures of the Chevalier de Troyes.\nThe Chevalier de Troyes was a Canadian nobleman who had long fought\nfor his king, and had seen service on many of the bloody battlefields\nin Europe.  Now, when age began to creep upon him, and scars lined\nhis cheek and brow, he had retired to his estate on the banks of the\nsilvery St. Lawrence, to spend the rest of his days {114} in peace\nand the companionship of his books.  In his retirement the news of\nthe increasing power and wealth of the Hudson's Bay Company reached\nhim; it told him that unless this power was checked the prosperity of\nthe French fur-hunters and fur-traders would be utterly crushed.  An\nidea flashed across the brain of the Chevalier de Troyes, who\nbelieved he now saw an opportunity of winning enduring distinction,\nto rival, and may be surpass, the exploits of Champlain, La Salle,\nand the other hero-pioneers of New France.\n\nIn the depths of winter he summoned all his dependants and all whom\nhis eloquence could attract, locked up his library, and set out for\nQuebec on snow-shoes.  From the Governor he procured, on Christmas\nEve 1685, official permission to steal upon the English and drive\nthem, at the point of the sword, from the shores of Hudson's Bay.  He\nwas empowered to \"search for, seize, and occupy the most advantageous\nposts, to seize the robbers, bushrangers, and others whom we know to\nhave taken and arrested several of our French engaged in the Indian\ntrade, whom we order him to arrest, especially Radisson and his\nadherents, wherever they may be found, and bring them to be punished\nas deserters, according to the rigour of the ordinances.\"  The rigour\nof the ordinances was but another word for death.\n\nFourscore Canadians were selected to make up the expedition against\nthe Hudson's Bay Company's posts by the Chevalier de Troyes.  For his\nlieutenants the leader chose the three sons of a nobleman of New\n{115} France named Charles le Moine.  One, the eldest, a young man of\nonly twenty-five, was to bear an enduring distinction in the annals\nof France as one of her most able and intrepid naval commanders.\nThis was the Sieur d'Iberville.  His brothers, taking their names, as\nhe had done, from places in their native land, were called the Sieurs\nde Sainte-H\u00e9l\u00e8ne and de Marincourt.  Thirty soldiers were directly\nattached to the Chevalier's command, veterans who had, almost to a\nman, seen service in one or other of the great European wars.  That\nthey might not be without the ministrations of religion, Father\nSylvie, a Jesuit priest, accompanied the expedition.\n\n\"The rivers,\" writes a chronicler of the Troyes expedition, \"were\nfrozen and the earth covered with snow when that small party of\nvigorous men left Montreal in order to ascend the Ottawa River as far\nas the height of land, and thence to go down to James's Bay.\"  At the\nbeginning of April they arrived at the Long Sault, where they\nprepared some canoes in order to ascend the Ottawa River.  From Lake\nTemiscamingue they passed many portages until they reached Lake\nAbbitibi, at the entrance or most southern extremity of which they\nbuilt a small fort of stockades.  After a short halt they continued\ntheir course onward to James's Bay.\n\nFirst doomed to conquest by Troyes and his companions was Moose\nFactory, a stockade fort with four bastions.  In the centre stood a\nhouse 40 feet square and as many high, terminating in a platform.\nThis fort was escaladed by the French late at night, and of {116} the\npalisades short work was made by the hatchets of the bushrangers.\n\nNot a man amongst the garrison appears to have attempted a decent\ndefence save the chief gunner, whose skull was split into fragments\nby Iberville, and who thus perished bravely at his post of duty.  A\ncry for quarter went up, and the English were made prisoners on the\nspot.  They were sixteen in number, and as the attack was made at\nnight, they were in a state of almost complete undress.  Troyes found\nin the fort twelve cannon, chiefly six and eight pounders, three\nthousand pounds of powder, and ten pounds of lead.\n\nIt is worth telling that this conquest was made with an amount of\npomp and ceremony calculated to strike the deepest awe into the\nhearts of the fifteen unhappy traders, who knew nothing of fighting,\nnor had bargained for anything so perilous.  For so small a victory\nit was both preceded and followed by almost as much circumstance as\nwould have sufficed for the Grand Monarque himself in one of his\ntheatrical sieges.  The Chevalier announced in a loud voice that he\ntook possession of the fort and island \"in the name of his Most\nChristian Majesty the Most High, Most Mighty, Most Redoubtable\nMonarch Louis XIV. of the Most Christian names, King of France and\nNavarre.\"  According to romantic custom, a sod of earth was thrice\nraised in the air, whilst a cry of \"Vive le Roi\" rang out over those\nwaters wherein, deep down, lay the bodies of Henry Hudson and his\nbrave followers.\n\nFlushed with his triumph, the Chevalier de Troyes {117} next\nbethought him of an attack on either Fort Rupert or Fort Albany.  He\ndid not long hesitate.  News came that a boat containing provisions\nhad left Moose Factory on the previous day bound for Rupert's River.\nIberville was therefore sent with nine men and two bark canoes to\nattack a sloop belonging to the Company, then lying at anchor at the\nmouth of the latter river.  Fourteen souls were aboard, including the\nGovernor.  To accomplish this feat it was necessary to travel forty\nleagues along the sea-coast.  The road was extremely difficult, and\nin places almost impassable.  A small boat was built to carry a\ncouple of small camion.  When he had arranged all his plans, Troyes\nleft for Fort Rupert.\n\nSte. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne was sent on in advance to reconnoitre the English fort.\nHe returned with the information that it was a square structure,\nflanked by four bastions, but that all was in a state of confusion\nowing to repairs and additions then being made.  The cannon had not\nyet been placed, being temporarily accommodated outside on the slope\nof a redoubt.\n\nEre the attack, which could only have one issue, was made by the land\nforces, Iberville had boarded the Company's sloop, surprised captain\nand crew, and made all, including Governor Bridgar, prisoners.  Four\nof the English were killed.\n\nOn the heels of this exploit, Iberville came ashore, rejoined his\nsuperior, and overpowered the almost defenceless garrison of Fort\nRupert.\n\nThe French forces now united, and Ste. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne having been as\nsuccessful as his brother in securing the second of the Company's\nships, all embarked and {118} sailed for the remaining post of the\nCompany in that part of the Bay.\n\nNeither Troyes nor Iberville knew its precise situation; but a little\nreconnoitring soon discovered it.  Fort Albany was built in a\nsheltered inlet forty yards from the borders of the Bay.  Two miles\nto the north-east was an estrapade, on the summit of which was placed\na seat for a sentinel to sight the ships expected from England, and\nto signal them if all was well.  But on this morning, unhappily, no\nsentinel was there to greet with a waving flag the Company's captured\nship, on the deck of which young Iberville held vigilant and\nexpectant watch.\n\nTwo Indians, however, brought Governor Sargeant tidings of the\napproach of the enemy, and his previous successes at Moose and Rupert\nrivers.  The Governor immediately resolved upon making a bold stand;\nall was instantly got in readiness to sustain a siege, and the men\nwere encouraged to behave with fortitude.  Two hours later the\nbooming of cannon was heard, and soon afterwards a couple of\nskirmishers were sighted at a distance.  Despite the Governor's\nexample, the servants at the fort were thrown into the greatest\nconfusion.  Two of their number were deputed by the rest to inform\nthe Governor that they were by no means disposed to sacrifice their\nlives without provision being made for themselves and families in\ncase of a serious issue.  They were prevailed upon by the Governor to\nreturn to their posts, and a bounty was promised them.  Bombardment\nby the French soon afterwards began, and lasted for two {119} days,\noccasionally replied to by the English.  But it was not until the\nevening of the second day that the first fatality occurred, when one\nof the servants was killed, and this brought about a mutiny.  Elias\nTurner, the chief gunner, declared to his comrades that it was\nimpossible for the Governor to hold the place, and that, for his\npart, he was ready to throw himself on the clemency of the French.\nSargeant, overhearing this declaration, drew his pistol and\nthreatened to blow out the gunner's brains if he did not return to\nhis post, and the man slunk back to his duty.  The French now\nprofited by the darkness to bring their cannon through the wood\ncloser to the fort; and by daybreak a series of heavy balls struck\nthe bastions, causing a breach.  Bridgar and Captain Outlaw, then at\nFort Albany, were convinced that the enemy was undermining the powder\nmagazine, in which case they would certainly all be blown to pieces.\n\nFrom the ship the French had thrown up a battery, which was separated\nfrom the moat surrounding the fort by less than a musket-shot.  None\nventured to show himself above ground at a moment of such peril.  A\nshell exploded at the head of the stairway and wounded the cook.  The\ncries of the French could now be distinctly heard outside the\nfort--\"Vive le Roi, Vive le Roi.\"  In their fright and despair the\nEnglish echoed the cry \"Vive le Roi,\" thinking thereby to propitiate\ntheir aggressors.  But the latter mistook the cry for one of\ndefiance, as a token of loyalty to an altogether different monarch,\nand the bullets whistled faster and thicker.  Sargeant {120} desired\nto lower the flag floating above his own dwelling, but there was none\nto undertake so hazardous a task.  Finally, Dixon, the under-factor,\noffered to show himself and placate the French.  He first thrust a\nwhite cloth from a window and waved a lighted torch before it.  He\nthen called in a loud voice, and the firing instantly ceased.  The\nunder-factor came forth, fully dressed, bearing two huge flagons of\nport wine.  Walking beyond the parapets, he encountered both Troyes\nand Iberville, and by the light of a full moon the little party of\nFrench officers and the solitary Englishman sat down on the mounted\ncannon, or on the ground beside it, broached the two flagons and\ndrank the health of the two kings, their masters.\n\n\"And now, gentlemen,\" said Dixon, \"what is it you want?\"\n\n\"Possession of your fort in the name of his Most Christian Majesty,\nKing Louis the Fourteenth.\"\n\nDixon, explaining that he was not master there, offered to conduct\nthis message to his chief, and in a very short time the French\ncommanders were seated comfortably within the house of the Governor.\nThe demand was here repeated, it being added that great offence had\nbeen given by the action of the English in taking captive three\nFrench traders, the previous autumn, and keeping them prisoners on\nground owned and ruled by the King of France.  For this compensation\nwas demanded, and Sargeant was desired at once to surrender the fort.\nThe Governor was surprised at such extreme measures, for which he was\ntotally unprepared, but was willing {121} to surrender upon terms of\ncapitulation.  On the following morning these were arranged.\n\nIt was agreed that Sargeant should continue to keep all his personal\neffects; and further, that his deputy, Dixon, three domestics, and\nhis servant should accompany him out of the fort.  It was also agreed\nthat Troyes should send the clerks and servants of the Company to a\nneighbouring island, there to await the arrival of the Company's\nships from England.  In case of their non-arrival within a reasonable\ntime, Troyes promised to assist them to such vessel as he could\nprocure for the purpose.  The Frenchmen also gave Sargeant the\nprovisions necessary to keep him and his companions from starvation.\nAll quitted the fort without arms, save Sargeant and his son, whose\nswords and pistols hung at their sides.  The Governor and his suite\nwere provided with passage to Hays Island, where he afterwards made\nhis escape to Port Nelson.  The others were distributed between Forts\nMoose and Albany, and were treated by their captors with considerable\nseverity and hardship.\n\nHaving attended to the disposition of his prisoners and their\nproperty, Troyes, accompanied by Iberville, departed on 10th August\nfor Montreal.  The gallant Chevalier and his associates would have\nbeen glad to have pursued their successes by crossing the Bay and\ncapturing York Factory.  But although two ships belonging to the\nCompany had fallen to their lot, yet they could find none competent\nto command them.  The distance between Albany and Port Nelson was by\nwater 250 leagues, and the road overland was {122} as yet unknown to\nthe French.  But it was not their purpose that it should long remain\nso.  In a letter to his official superior at Quebec, Troyes, who\nwanted to plant the fleur-de-lys over the whole bay, boasted that the\nnext year would not pass without his becoming acquainted with it.\n\nWherefore Troyes suffered himself to be prevailed upon by Iberville\nand be content with the victories already won.  They carried with\nthem in their journey more than 50,000 beaver skins as a trophy of\ntheir arms.  Many of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants were\nemployed in bearing the spoils.  During the dreary march several of\nthese unhappy captives were killed through the connivance of the\nFrench with the Indians; and the survivors reached Quebec in a\ndreadfully emaciated and halt condition.\n\nYou may believe that the victories of the Chevalier were blazoned to\nthe skies.  He was hailed in Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec as\nequal to any of the heroes of olden times, and his return was\ncelebrated with great pomp.  As to his future, the career of the\nChevalier de Troyes ended abruptly and tragically in 1687, when he\nand all his men, to the number of ninety, were massacred by the\nIndians at Niagara.\n\nGovernor la Barre, as you have heard, was an altogether different\nsort of man from Count Frontenac.  The Iroquois tribes, especially\nthe Senecas, who had now become the strongest nation, noticed the\ndifference at once when they resumed negotiations.  Instead of the\ndignity of command, La Barre wheedled their deputies, sending them\naway from {123} Montreal loaded with presents.  Soon afterwards, when\nhe despatched a trading expedition to the Illinois region, the\nSenecas stopped it in its course, overhauled the canoes, and\nconfiscated all the valuable goods with which La Barre (with an eye\nto great private profits) had packed them.  Such a high-handed\nproceeding touched the Governor in a very sore place--his pocket.  He\nbecame very wroth with the rascally Senecas, and swore to punish them\nfor their knavery and presumption.  A force of 900 men being raised,\nLa Barre himself led them to the land of the Senecas on the south\nside of Lake Ontario.  But so badly laid and badly carried out were\nhis plans that, having got as far as the spot, since called the Bay\nof Famine, Governor la Barre called a halt and there encamped.  Each\nday saw some of the soldiers stricken down by death and disease.  The\nprospect was so gloomy that finally La Barre thought it best to come\nto terms with the enemy, and he therefore patched up an inglorious\npeace.\n\nThe name of the Seneca deputy at the peace conference was La Grande\nGueule, or Big Jaw, so called from his gift of sustained eloquence.\nBig Jaw openly boasted that the Iroquois had not the slightest\nintention of sparing the Illinois tribe, whether the French liked it\nor not.  Frontenac would have smitten the fellow down where he stood,\nbut La Barre was obliged to pocket this affront, and the next day the\nremnant of his troops, full of anger and indignation, marched away.\n\nSuch a peace could not, of course, long endure.  {124} The Iroquois\ntorch had been kindled, an evil wind was blowing, and it would take\nmore than La Barre's feeble efforts to extinguish it.  Tardy in war\nand too eager for peace had the Governor shown himself, and when he\nreturned to Quebec found, to his mortification, that the King, his\nmaster, had superseded him.  His instant return to France was\nordered, the Marquis de Denonville being appointed in his stead.\nLittle pains did His Majesty take to conceal his dissatisfaction with\nthe treaty, or his anger at the abandonment of the Illinois.\n\nThe new Governor very quickly found that the English colonists were\nintriguing with the Iroquois, upholding and encouraging them in acts\nof hostility against the French.  War, and war in earnest, had to\ncome, and when 800 fresh soldiers arrived from France, Denonville\nbegan to prepare for it.  In this he had the loyal support of the\nbrave and wise man who also came out as the new Governor of Montreal,\nDe Calli\u00e8res.  Unluckily, Denonville began with an act of treachery.\nIt was a strange deed for a soldier and a Christian.  A number of\nIroquois chiefs were enticed to Fort Frontenac, where they were\nseized, and, after being flung into prison, were sent to France to\nwork all the rest of their days in the galleys.  What a fate for such\nhaughty braves, who never worked, but left all labour to their poor\nsquaws!  What wonder the revenge of the Iroquois was terrible!\n\nCreeping along the St. Lawrence with his army, Denonville crossed\nLake Ontario, built a new fort, and leaving 400 men to guard it,\nmarched towards {125} the Seneca lodges.  In the middle of July 1687\na hot battle took place with 800 Senecas, in which, after losing six\nmen killed and twenty wounded, the French drove the foe into the\nforest.  Four hundred thousand bushels of Indian corn (maize) and\nseveral herds of swine were found and destroyed.  In the meantime,\nhowever, while the Senecas were being punished, the danger to\nMontreal and the other towns was imminent, owing to their being\nwithout strong military protection.  To defend Chambly 120\nbushrangers were armed, and on the island of Montreal, Calli\u00e8res\nbuilt twenty small forts for the inhabitants to take refuge in,\nshould the Iroquois descend upon them in force.  For by this time, as\nyou can imagine, the whole of the Five Nations were blazing with\nrage, as if they had been so many bloodthirsty wolves.  Even in their\nrage they were cunning.  They had no intention of attacking Canada in\nforce; that was not their method of warfare.  Crossing the border\nsilently in batches, each singled out his prey, some sleeping\nvillage, or mayhap an unsuspecting farm.  Next day a few mangled\ncorpses here, a heap of smoking ruins there, told the terrible tale\nof the Iroquois raid.\n\nAfter a time the wiser heads amongst the Five Nations began to\nconsider whether a conquest over the French would not make the\nColonial English (whom they called _Ang'ais_ or Yankees) too\npowerful.  Suddenly they openly professed a desire for peace.  A\ndeputation was sent to Canada to say that, strong as the Iroquois\nknew themselves to be, they did not mean to press for all the\nadvantages they had the {126} right and power to demand.  \"We know,\"\nthey said, \"how weak you are.  We can at any time burn the houses of\nyour people, pillage your stores, waste your crops, and raze your\nforts.\"  To this boasting Denonville replied that Colonel Dongan of\nNew York claimed the Iroquois as English subjects.  \"If you are\nEnglish subjects, then you must be at peace with us, for France and\nEngland are not now at war.\"  \"Onontio,\" exclaimed the chief of the\nEnvoys, \"the Five Nations are independent!  We can be friends to one\nor both, or enemies to one or both.  Never have we been conquered by\neither of you.\"\n\nIn the end a truce was proclaimed, but truce or no truce, a great\nmany skirmishes and massacres still went on, on both sides.  All they\ncould do to prevent a peace being signed, the Hurons of\nMichilimackinac, allies of the French, did.  To them peace meant\nutter ruin; their numbers were too few, and they well knew Denonville\ncould not protect them from the fury of the Iroquois.  Amongst the\nHurons was a tall chief famous for his prowess in war and his gift of\neloquence.  He was, according to those who knew him, the bravest and\nmost intelligent chief on the whole Continent.  Kondiaronk, or \"The\nRat,\" was mortally offended that the French should have made even a\ntruce without so much as consulting the wishes of their native\nallies.  To take his revenge on Denonville, he resolved to make peace\nimpossible.  When the Iroquois envoys were on their way to Montreal\nto sign the treaty, \"The Rat\" lay in ambush with a band of his trusty\nHurons.  He surprised and made them all his prisoners, slaying {127}\none.  When they angrily explained that they were peaceful envoys, the\ncrafty Kondiaronk professed to be greatly surprised, because, said\nhe, \"the French Governor himself sent me here on purpose to waylay\nyou.  But if, as I believe, what you say is true, behold, I set you\nat liberty!  May the gods curse Onontio for having committed such an\nact of treachery!\"  Thus saying, he loaded the deputies with gifts\nand bade all but one go free.  After which Kondiaronk, glorying in\nhis perfidy, hastened to Michilimackinac, shaking his fist in triumph\nand crying, \"I have killed the peace!\"  He spoke then the truth.  The\nIroquois prisoner he took with him, under the pretence of adopting\nhim in place of one of his Hurons slain by the deputies on being\nattacked, was handed over to the French Commander of Michilimackinac\nas a spy.  In vain the victim protested that he was an envoy of peace\nbetween the Five Nations and the French.  In vain did he try to\nexplain the circumstances of his capture.  Kondiaronk laughed in his\nface, telling the French Commander he must have taken leave of his\nwits, and the unhappy wretch was led to the stake.  An Iroquois\ncaptive was released by Kondiaronk and bidden to return to his tribe\nwith this message, that while the French were making a show of\nwishing peace, they were secretly slaying and capturing the men of\nthe Five Nations.\n\nMonths passed while the Iroquois brooded on vengeance.  Denonville's\nprotestations were received in contemptuous silence.  There was now\nnothing to prevent formal war, for France and England had recommenced\nhostilities.  King James the Second had {128} fled from his throne\nand palace to France.  William of Orange, the mortal enemy of King\nLouis, reigned in his stead.  A new English Governor, Andros, was\nsent out to New York to foment the deadly feud between the Iroquois\nand the Canadians.\n\nIn the month of August 1689 burst at last the storm of the Iroquois'\nhatred and revenge.  One night, during a heavy shower of hail, 1500\ndusky warriors crossed Lake St. Louis, landing silently and\nstealthily on the beautiful island of Montreal, the \"Garden of\nCanada.\"  By daybreak they had grouped themselves in platoons, one\nplatoon around every large dwelling for several leagues along the\nroad at Lachine almost to the gates of Montreal.  The inhabitants of\nLachine were wrapped in sweet slumber, soon and ruthlessly to be\nexchanged for that other slumber which knows no mortal awakening.\n\nLet us conjure up the terrible picture.  At each door, in war-paint\nand feathers, stands a group of savages with upraised hatchets and\nhuge mallets.  The signal is given; it is the dread Indian war-whoop;\nthe next moment doors and windows are driven inwards.  Sleeping men,\nwomen, and children are dragged from their beds.  In vain they\nstruggle in the hands of their butchers, in vain they appeal to those\nwho know no pity.  They might as well appeal to wild beasts.  A few\nhouses resist their attacks; when these are fired 200 unhappy beings,\nthe hope and pride of the colony, are burnt alive.  Agonising shrieks\nrend the air.  The knife, the torch, and the tomahawk spare none, not\neven {129} the little children.  Those who do not now die under their\ntortures are led away to nameless cruelties, which will furnish rare\nsport to the lodges of the Five Nations.\n\nSuch was the awful massacre of Lachine; such the vengeance of the\nIroquois.  So swift and sudden had been the blow that the citizens of\nMontreal were paralysed.  All that dreadful day the savages moved on,\nand for many days afterwards, and none came to arrest their course.\nGovernor Denonville, to whose policy the calamity was due, seems\nentirely to have lost his nerve.  A few miles from Lachine a body of\n200 troops, led by a brave officer named Subercase, asked to be led\nagainst the murderers of their countrymen.  But Denonville, in a\npanic, ordered Subercase to take refuge in Fort Roland.  All were\nforbidden to stir.  Another body of men, commanded by one Larobeyre,\nattempting to reach Fort Roland, were set upon and cut to pieces.\nMore than half the prisoners were burnt by their conquerors.\nLarobeyre, wounded and unable to flee, was led captive to the\nIroquois wigwams and roasted alive at a slow fire.  The bloodthirsty\ntribes remained by the St. Lawrence as long as they pleased; their\nravages of the countryside continued for many weeks.  Not until\nOctober did the last of them disappear.  A small party sent by\nDenonville to make sure that they had really gone, came upon a canoe\nbearing twenty-two departing Iroquois paddling across the Lake of the\nTwo Mountains.  The chance was not one to be foregone.  Too long held\nin check, the Canadians drew near the savages, {130} who fired upon\nthem without damage.  Then with a fierce joy the white men singled\nout each his man, raised their muskets, and when the explosion came\neighteen Iroquois toppled over into the lake.  But considering the\nhundreds of Canadians who had been massacred, this was a paltry\nretribution indeed.\n\nWhat wonder now that the men and women of Canada longed for the\nstrong right arm and sagacious brain of Frontenac!  Is it any marvel\nthat they rejoiced to hear that, menaced with the loss of his\nNorth-American dominions, King Louis had entrusted the gallant, fiery\nold soldier once more with the government of New France.  Frontenac's\nreturn was hailed by all, nobles, soldiers, merchants, artisans,\nfarmers, even by the Jesuits, who five years before had striven to\nsend him away.  He was escorted to the fort with a multitude of\ntorch-bearers.  Well he knew what a great task awaited him.  He had\nnow to battle not only with the Iroquois, but with the Anglo-American\ncolonies, the Yankees, as they were called by the Indians, just as\nhis master, King Louis, had to combat five powers at once--England,\nGermany, Holland, Spain, and Savoy.\n\nWas Frontenac equal to the task?  Was the strain now to be placed on\nhis shoulders too great for the powers of a hero seventy-two years of\nage?  That question let the next chapter answer.\n\n\n\n\n{131}\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n\"QUEBEC FOR KING LOUIS\"\n\nWhen Count Frontenac arrived at Quebec the massacre at Lachine had\njust thrilled all Canada with horror.  It was time to be up and doing\nif the French Canadians were not to be utterly exterminated, if New\nFrance was to be saved for King Louis, then at the height of his\npower and renown.  Calli\u00e8res, the Governor of Montreal, saw in the\npresence not of the Iroquois but of the English in New York the root\nof all Canada's troubles.  He urged his sovereign to strike, and King\nLouis had resolved to deal them a blow once and for all, from which\nthey would never recover.  He would banish them from New York and\nplant a colony of Frenchmen instead.  The plan was entrusted to\nFrontenac to execute.  Unfortunately for the success of this scheme,\nsufficient ships and troops and money were not forthcoming at the\nright moment from France.  There followed vexatious delays, and when\nthe French fleet at length crossed the ocean and anchored at\nChedabucto, in Acadia, the season was too far advanced to begin\noperations.  Meanwhile Frontenac was not the man to let time dwell on\nhis hands.  Against the English colonies three war-parties were\norganised whose deeds of blood {132} were long remembered in American\nhomesteads and in Indian wigwams.  Frontenac saw that French prestige\nhad sunk so low amongst the northern and western tribes that all were\nready to make peace with the dreaded Iroquois on any terms.  At the\nvery name of Frenchmen the meanest brave amongst the Five Nations\nlaughed and spat contemptuously on the ground.\n\n\"Now, by St. Louis,\" cried Frontenac, \"they shall see how weak we\nare!\"\n\nHis fiery soul could not wait upon the seasons.  The three\nexpeditions he sent forth marched amidst the ice and snow of\nmid-winter, for it was by such a stroke of daring that Canada could\nbe saved.  The first started from Montreal, led by Mantet and Ste.\nH\u00e9l\u00e8ne, one of the three sons of the brave Canadian named Le Moine,\nand after incredible hardships reached the village of Schenectady, on\nthe Hudson.  They burst upon the sleeping, unsuspecting villagers in\nthe middle of the night, killing many and taking numerous prisoners.\nWhen the fighting was over they burned nearly the whole settlement to\nthe ground.  The Indians of the party were indignant at not being\nable to torture the prisoners unhindered, for the French-Canadian\nleaders were not cruel by nature.  They showed gratitude to an\nEnglish colonist named Glen, who, on a previous occasion, had treated\ncertain French prisoners with kindness.  Glen barricaded his house,\nresolved to sell his life dearly, but the Canadian captain called out\nto him to have no fear.  \"We are your debtors, not your enemies.\nMoreover, if you have any kinsmen amongst {133} the captives we have\ntaken, point them out, and they shall go free.\"  The Quebec Indians\nlooked on sulkily while the Englishman took advantage of this\nhandsome offer and named several of the prisoners.  \"This Yankee\npale-face has a terribly large family,\" their chief was heard to\ngrumble.\n\nThe second war-party from Three Rivers, led by the redoubtable\nFran\u00e7ois Hertel, wiped out the village of Salmon Falls, butchering\nmost of the inhabitants; while the third, under the command of\nPortneuf, attacked and captured the fort and settlement at Casco Bay.\nTo the disgrace of Portneuf, he broke faith with the heroic garrison\nwhen they surrendered, and abandoned his prisoners to his Indian\nallies, who scalped and burnt them all.\n\nBy feats such as these the tide was turned.  At last the French had\nexhibited proofs of their prowess, and the Iroquois were not slow in\nacknowledging that they had made a mistake when they branded them\nwith the name of cowards.  Frontenac could strike still as heavy a\nblow as in the past.  The wavering North-West tribes made haste to\nassure him of their support, and the haughty Iroquois, in spite of\nthe arguments of the English, sent deputies to Quebec to congratulate\nOnontio on his return to the land.  The furs which had been\ncollecting for three years in the distant ports, with none daring\nenough to venture upon their transport, now began to pour into\nMontreal in hundreds of canoes.  Trade began to revive, and the\ndrooping spirits of the colonists were exchanged for gladness and\nhope.\n\nCould the redoubtable Frontenac have thought {134} that the English\ncolonists would bear this terrible treatment tamely?  No! every mind\nand bosom there was excited by the desire for revenge.  Moreover,\nthey knew that now France's chief strength lay in Frontenac himself.\nWith England flying at the throat of Old France, the King, to whom\nFrontenac applied, told him bluntly that he had need for all his\nsoldiers in Europe.  \"Your demands,\" wrote King Louis, \"come at a\nwrong time.  A defensive policy is the proper one for you to pursue.\"\nTrue, William the Third of England also could give little help to the\nNew Englanders.  They, too, must fight their own battles.  To their\nown arms was it left to inflict chastisement on the Canadians in the\nnorth.  Accordingly, all the colonies met in consultation, and by\ngreat efforts a fleet of seven vessels and several hundred men was\nraised in Boston.  Sir William Phips led them forth, and Port Royal,\nin Acadia, was taken without much trouble.  Sufficient booty was\ncaptured to cover the cost of this expedition, and the New Englanders\nreturned flushed with triumph and eager for a more daring blow.\nMeanwhile a land force of 1300 men, under Colonel Winthrop, had\nfailed, through sickness and mismanagement, to reach Montreal by way\nof Lake Champlain.  A portion of this little army had followed\nCaptain John Schuyler onwards, and, crossing the Canadian border,\nkilled a few Frenchmen near Montreal.  When it had done that, it beat\na hasty retreat.\n\nSuch raids as these--for raids is all they were--afforded little\nsatisfaction to the English colonists, {135} burning with a desire to\nsweep the lilies of France from the New World.  Silently and speedily\na plot was matured, and by the next summer it was ripe.  Frontenac,\nthinking all was secure for the present, had left Quebec to entertain\na band of Iroquois at Montreal to a great feast and war-dance.  One\nmorning a messenger arrived post-haste to tell him that the enemy in\ntheir ships were sailing up the St. Lawrence.  Not a moment was to be\nlost.  Summoning the Governor of Montreal and De Ramsay of Three\nRivers to follow him with every man who could shoulder a musket, the\nlion-hearted Frontenac pressed forward with all his speed.  Ere he\ncould reach Quebec the enemy's fleet had anchored off the Isle of\nOrleans.  Quebec was almost in a panic, but Frontenac's arrival\ninstantly assuaged their fears.  He filled all with his enthusiasm.\nThey resolved to die rather than yield.  Great trunks of trees and\ncasks filled with stones were hastily heaped up where the walls were\nweakest.  On the enemy were trained the rows of cannon, and 2700 men\nfirmly awaited the onslaught.  Was the danger then so great?  Who was\nthe man--who were the men--who thus hoped to storm the strongest\ncitadel in New France?\n\nA humble blacksmith's son was William Phips, born at Fort Pemaquid,\nin Maine.  In his boyhood he herded a drove of cattle.  But he was a\nclever boy, and having learned ship-carpentry, he built a little\nvessel of his own, and as a trader went to sea.  Phips was a born\nsailor.  In one of his many long voyages he heard stories of a\nSpanish galleon filled {136} with gold and silver sunk off the Island\nof Cuba.  Phips learnt all the particulars, satisfied himself of his\nability, and then determined to raise that ship and make himself\nmaster of her wealth.  At first people laughed at him, but he\npersevered, and at last the King had given him the command of a\nwarship.  As he had promised, so Phips carried out his plan, bringing\nto England a fortune of \u00a3300,000.  With the praise of King Charles\nthe Second ringing in his ears, as Sir William Phips he returned to\nNew England, prepared for any deed of note and valour which fate\nmight offer.\n\nTo Phips, then, his New England fellow-countrymen had entrusted their\nfleet, thirty-two vessels, large and small, with 2000 men.  Phips\nsailed forth in a confident spirit, but when he first cast his eyes\non the great rock of Quebec and the white fleur-de-lys floating above\nin the autumn air, he may have felt some misgivings.  These he\nsternly repressed: it were best to put the boldest front on the\nmatter.  Choosing a young major, he sent him with a peremptory\nsummons to Count Frontenac to surrender the city.  Immediately on\nlanding from the boat with his flag of truce, Phips's emissary was\nblindfolded and led by a roundabout path to the Castle of St. Louis,\nwhere Frontenac and most of the chief men of the colony were\nassembled.  His demands Phips had written out on a sheet of paper.\nHe was anxious, he told Frontenac, to avoid shedding blood, and that\nif the Count would surrender the fort, the city, the stores, and\ntheir persons without delay, they may expect mercy from him as a\nChristian.  Otherwise {137} it would go hard with the French.\nCapitulation was demanded within one hour.\n\nThe bandage was taken from the messenger's eyes and the paper read\nand translated to the company.  Then the New England major took a\nlarge silver watch from his pocket and laid it on the table, saying\nhaughtily, \"Gentlemen, you will perceive it is now ten o'clock.  My\ngeneral expects an answer by eleven.\"\n\nWhereat the French officers assembled, flushed with anger, only\nFrontenac's face remaining impassive.  \"You need not wait so long,\"\nhe said.  He told the envoy that the French rejected the demand.\n\n\"Will your Excellency put that in writing?\" asked the envoy.\n\nFrontenac's eyes darted fire.\n\n[Illustration: My Guns will give my Answer, Frontenac, 1690]\n\n\"It is by the cannon's mouth and by musket-shot that I will send my\nanswer.  I am not in the habit of being addressed in the style he has\nchosen to adopt.  Let your master do his best; I will do mine.\"\n\nOnce more blindfolded, the messenger was escorted to his boat.  A\nlittle later the batteries of Quebec's lower town opened fire on the\nfleet.  Some of the very first shots brought down the flag of Phips's\nown vessel, seeing which from the shore, several bold Canadians\nimmediately swam out, and, regardless of the musket fire from the\nfleet, fished the dripping prize out of the water.  Afterwards this\nflag was hung as a trophy to the ceiling of Quebec Cathedral, and\nthere it remained until the siege and capture of the city by General\nWolfe, when it and the building that sheltered it were consumed by\nfire.\n\n{138}\n\nFor two whole days Phips remained in a state of indecision.  The\nenemy was of sterner stuff than he had supposed, and an effective\nplan must be concerted.  On the 18th of October 1690 Major Walley,\nthe second in command, with 1300 men and some small field cannon,\nlanded at Beauport.  They had resolved to cross the St. Charles River\nthere and attack Quebec in the rear.  At the same time the guns of\nthe ships opened fire.  So vigorously replied the ramparts that Phips\nwas obliged to draw off for a while, not renewing his bombardment\nuntil the next morning.  By this time the New England commander saw\nthat unless the troops on shore could manage to force their way into\nthe city and capture it by assault, his chances of success were gone.\n\nValiantly, doggedly did Walley and his men try to cross the St.\nCharles River.  The banks were covered with deep mud; each time they\ntried to cross, the Indians and bushrangers sent by Frontenac beat\nthem off.  After three days of cold and hunger they were fain to give\nup the attempt.  When they retreated to the ships, five of their\ncannon were left sticking in the Beauport mud.  Yet even had they\nsucceeded, what a task was left them to do!  There was Frontenac\nwatching them sharply, ready, if need be, to go to the rescue of the\noutposts of carabiniers with 2000 men.  In these circumstances Sir\nWilliam Phips's siege of Quebec turned out an utter failure.\nFrontenac was more than a match for him: Quebec was not Port Royal.\n\nOn the following day the townsfolk and soldiers on the heights saw\nthe discomfited fleet of the foe {139} passing out of sight homeward\ndown the St. Lawrence.  They had lost only some sixty killed and\nwounded,--Ste. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne had fallen,--while before Phips got back to\nBoston, what with those slain by bullets and the hundreds drowned on\nthe several ships lost in the November storms, his loss was heavy\nindeed.  While Quebec sang a Te Deum and dedicated a chapel to \"Our\nLady of Victories,\" Boston was plunged in gloom.  Phips's ignoble\nfailure had involved the whole colony in debt and mortification.\nKing Louis the Fourteenth, hearing the good news, ordered a medal to\nbe struck bearing the inscription: \"Francia in Nova Orbe Victrix;\nKebeca Liberata A.D. MDCXC.\"\n\nIf Frontenac hoped that the Iroquois would cease after this to give\nhim trouble, he was destined to disappointment.  All his endeavours\nto conciliate them failed; their chiefs were still convinced that\nthey had more to hope for as allies of the English, and took measures\naccordingly.  English and French colonists now hated one another with\na hate that was never to slumber for the next seventy years, until\nWolfe was to plant the blood-red flag of England on the frowning\nheights of Quebec.\n\nDuring the winter of 1691 and 1692 there were numerous terrible\nborder raids, in one of which the Abenakis devastated more than fifty\nleagues of English territory and utterly destroyed Yorktown.  Both\nFrench and English used the Indians as so many packs of human\nbloodhounds to track their foes to death.  Both sides resorted to the\npractice of paying a price for the bodies, alive or dead, of the\n{140} hostile savages.  A French regular soldier received ten louis\nfor the scalp of an Iroquois; a volunteer received twenty.  If he had\nto hunt the red-man like any other wild animal, he could claim fifty\nlouis for his scalp.  This practice was not confined to the\nCanadians.  Corresponding premiums were paid by the English.\n\nLiving captives were often handed over to their Indian allies to\nappease their delight in human suffering and bloodshed.  Once one of\nFrontenac's officers, ravaging the country of the Oneidas, found a\nsolitary old man in a certain village.  He was nearly a hundred years\nof age, but do not imagine his years awakened any compassion in his\ncaptors, who at once handed him over to their savage allies.  The old\nbrave awaited his fate as calmly as any of those Roman senators whose\ncity was taken by the Gauls.  Father Charlevoix tells us the story.\nHe says it was a strange sight to behold more than four hundred\nsavage tormentors forming a circle round a decrepit object from whom\nthey could not wring a single cry, and who, as long as the breath\nremained in his body, taunted them with being the slaves of weak and\nfoolish Frenchmen.  Only once did he complain, and that was when one\nof his butchers, on purpose to finish the scene, stabbed him\nrepeatedly in the breast.\n\n\"Ah,\" he murmured hoarsely, \"why did you not wait until you had done\nyour worst, so that you might behold how a man ought to die!\"\n\nAt another time Frontenac captured two Mohawk warriors whom he\ncondemned to die by torture.  One of them immediately despatched\nhimself {141} with a knife, which a pitying priest threw him in\nprison.  But his fellow-captive, disdaining such an escape, walked\nboldly to the stake singing his death chant.  In his song he boasted\nthat not all the power of man could extort a groan or a murmur from\nhis lips, and that it was enough happiness for him in the hour of\ntrial to remember that he had made many a Frenchman feel the same\npangs he was about to feel.  When bound to the stake, he looked round\non his executioners, their instruments of torture, and the multitude\nof French spectators with a smile of composure.  For some hours he\nendured a series of barbarities that make our blood even now, as we\nread of it, chill in our veins, and at last a Frenchwoman implored\nthe Governor to order him to be dealt a mortal blow and so put him\nout of his agony.\n\nThanks to the incessant raids of the Iroquois into Canada, the\nfarmers dared not till the fields and sow the seed.  Those who might\nhave protected them were everywhere up in arms, coping with their\nimplacable savage foes, who seemed to rise out of the ground on every\nhand.  In vain was one band beaten and cut to pieces; another sprang\nup to take its place.\n\nMany were the heroic deeds performed by both Canadian men and women,\nbut none is more thrilling than that which is told of a beautiful\nyoung girl of fourteen, Madeleine de la Verch\u00e8res.  She was the\ndaughter of Seigneur of Verch\u00e8res, and lived in the fortified\nseignory ten miles from Montreal, on the south side of the great\nriver St. Lawrence.  One {142} morning her father was absent at\nQuebec, and all the farm-folk were working in the fields.  To guard\nthe fort, her father had left two soldiers, an old man eighty years\nold, her two little brothers, and herself.  Suddenly the terrible\nwar-whoop of the Iroquois pierced the air, and scarce time had the\nsoldiers to barricade the doors and windows before a mighty host\nappeared before the fort.  So fierce was their fire, that the\nsoldiers deemed it useless to continue to struggle.  But not so\nMadeleine.  Seizing a musket, she ordered the falterers to their\nposts.  Day and night for a whole week did this heroic girl hold the\nband of Iroquois at bay.  She taught her little brothers to load and\nfire so rapidly, that the Indians fancied a garrison of twelve men at\nleast held the fort.  At last a reinforcement arrived, and the\nIroquois beat a retreat.  The gates of the fort were flung open, and\nthe pale, weary girl of fourteen, captain of the garrison of\nVerch\u00e8res, flung herself into her father's arms.\n\n[Illustration: Heroic Defence by Madeleine de Verch\u00e8res and her\nBrothers, 1692]\n\nAnd now let us return for a moment to the shores of Hudson's Bay.  It\nwas not likely that the forts which the Chevalier de Troyes had\nwrested from the English would continue to remain in French\npossession without an effort being made to regain them.  One Captain\nMoon, returning from Port Nelson, endeavoured, with twenty-four men,\nto surprise the French at Fort Anne, which was the new name bestowed\nupon the captured Fort Albany.  Moon built a station eight miles\naway, but Iberville, who had been again sent to the Bay, instantly\ngot wind of it, and, marching thither, drove the English out.  {143}\nWhen two Hudson's Bay Company's vessels arrived in these waters,\nwinter overtook them, and they became locked in the ice.  The crews\nlanded, and had nearly built a fort when Iberville fell upon them and\nmade them all prisoners.\n\nBut there was one stronghold in the northern bay which continued to\ndefy the French.  This single fort was considered of so much\nimportance, that the gain or loss of everything in Hudson's Bay\ndepended upon it.  To capture it, however, required a stronger force\nthan Iberville could at present command, whereupon he sailed away to\nFrance to ask assistance from the King.  He revealed to His Majesty\nhis plans for the capture of Fort Nelson, and was at length promised\ntwo ships in the following spring.  The royal promise was duly kept.\nAfter a hot bombardment of three weeks, the English Governor was\nobliged to surrender and the French standard hoisted over the\ncaptured stronghold.  Only for a year, however, did the stronghold\nremain in the enemy's possession, when it was recaptured by the\nCompany, and threescore Frenchmen sent prisoners to England.  When\nIberville heard of this fresh turn which events had taken, he ground\nhis teeth with rage.  \"Am I,\" he cried, \"to go on capturing this fort\nfrom the English, only to have it repeatedly slip through our hands?\"\nHe then and there vowed to have nothing further to do with Hudson's\nBay, he who had fought so many battles and won there so many\nvictories.\n\nAs for the French prisoners, no sooner were they released than they\ncrossed the Channel and sought {144} audience of their King.  Gazing\nupon this emaciated band of fur-hunters and bushrangers, Louis the\nFourteenth would have been craven indeed if he had not attempted to\nretrieve their misfortunes.  Four ships of war were promised them.\n\"And,\" said the King, \"Iberville shall lead you.\"  But Iberville was\nthen at Placentia, in Newfoundland, bent on finding other fields for\nhis energy and martial prowess.  No other man was so well equipped at\nall points, in knowledge of the great bay and of the conditions of\nfighting there, as this hero, so the four captains found him out at\nPlacentia, and, embarking in the _Pelican_, he took command.\n\nIberville's flag-ship mounted fifty guns.  The others of the fleet\nwere the _Palmier_, the _Weesph_, and the _Violent_.  The attack on\nFort Nelson this time was to be no child's play.  Almost at the very\nmoment when the wind was filling the sails of the French ships in the\nChannel, there sailed from Plymouth a fleet belonging to the Hudson's\nBay Company, the _Hampshire_, the _Hudson's Bay_, the _Dering_, and\n_Owner's Love_.  The two first-named vessels were no strangers to the\nBay, and had participated in the conquest of the previous year.\nAlthough each was ignorant of the other's movements, it was a race\nacross the Atlantic, and the English fleet entered the Straits only\nforty hours before the ships of the French, and, like them, was much\nimpeded by the ice, which was unusually troublesome.  Passage was\nmade by the enemy in the English wake.  One French ship, commanded by\nDuqu\u00e9, pushed past the currents, taking a northerly {145} course,\nwhich brought her commander into full view of two of the Company's\nships.  Shots were exchanged; but owing to the difficulties\nengendered by the ice, it was impossible to manoeuvre with such\ncertainty as to cut off the Frenchman's escape.  While this skirmish\nwas in progress, Iberville in the _Pelican_ succeeded in getting past\nthe English unknown to them, and reached the mouth of the Nelson\nRiver in sight of the fort.  His presence, as may be imagined,\ngreatly surprised and disturbed the Governor and the Company's\nservants; for they had believed their own ships would have arrived in\nseason to prevent the enemy from entering the Straits.  Several\nrounds of shot were fired as a signal, in the hope that a response\nwould be made by the Company's ships, which they hourly expected in\nthat quarter.\n\nOn his part the French commander was equally disturbed by the\nnon-arrival of his three consorts, which the exigencies of the voyage\nhad obliged him to forsake.  Two days were passed in a state of\nsuspense.  At daybreak on the 5th of September three ships[1] were\ndistinctly visible; both parties joyfully believed they were their\nown.  So certain was Iberville, that he immediately raised anchor and\nstarted to join the newcomers.  He was soon undeceived, but the\nknowledge of his mistake in no way daunted him.\n\nThe Company's commanders were not prepared {146} either for the\ndaring or the fury of the Frenchman's onslaught.  It is true the\n_Pelican_ was much superior to any of their own craft singly, being\nmanned by nearly 250 men, and boasting 44 pieces of cannon.  The\nCompany's ships lined up, the _Hampshire_ in front, the _Dering_\nnext, with the _Hudson's Bay_ bringing up the rear.\n\nThe combatants being in close proximity, the battle began at\nhalf-past nine in the morning.  The French commander came straight\nfor the _Hampshire_, whose captain, believing it was his enemy's\ndesign to board, instantly let fall his mainsail and set his\nfore-top-sail.  Contact having been by these means narrowly evaded,\nthe scene of battle suddenly shifted to the _Pelican_ and the\n_Dering_, whose mainsail was smitten by the terrific volley.  At the\nsame time the _Hudson's Bay_, veering, received a damaging broadside.\nThe Company's men could distinctly hear the orders shouted by\nIberville to discharge a musket fire into the _Dering's_ forecastle,\nbut in this move he was anticipated by the English sailors, who\npoured a storm of bullets in upon the Frenchman, accompanied by a\nbroadside of grape, which wrought havoc with her sails.  While the\ncries of the wounded on the _Pelican_ could be distinctly heard, all\nthree of the Company's ships opened fire, with the design of\ndisabling her rigging.  But the captain of the _Hudson's Bay_, seeing\nthat he could not engage the _Pelican_ owing to Iberville's tactics,\ndetermined to run in front of her and give her the benefit of a\nconstant hull fire, besides taking the wind from her sails.\nIberville observed the movement; the two {147} English vessels were\nnear; he veered round, and by a superb piece of seamanship came so\nnear to the _Hampshire_ that the crew of the latter saw that boarding\nwas intended.  Every man flew out on the main deck with his pistol\nand cutlass, and a terrific broadside of grape on the part of the\nEnglishman alone saved him.\n\nHotter and fiercer raged the battle.  The _Hampshire's_ salvation had\nbeen only temporary; at the end of three hours and a half she began\nto sink, with all sails set.  When this occurred, Iberville had\nninety men wounded, forty being struck by a single broadside.\nNotwithstanding this, he decided at once to push matters with the\n_Hampshire's_ companions, although the _Pelican_ was in a badly\ndamaged state, especially the forecastle, which was a mass of\nsplinters.\n\nThe enemy made at once for the _Dering_, which besides being the\nsmallest ship, had suffered severely.  She crowded on all sail and\nmanaged to avoid an encounter, and Iberville, being in no condition\nto prosecute the chase, returned to the _Hudson's Bay_, which soon\nsurrendered.  Iberville was not destined, however, to reap much\nadvantage from his prize, the _Hampshire_.  The English flag-ship was\nunable to render any assistance to the _Hudson's Bay_, and soon went\ndown, with nearly all on board.\n\nTo render the situation more distressing, no sooner had some ninety\nprisoners been made than a storm arose, so that it became out of the\nquestion to approach the shore with design of landing.  They were\nwithout a long-boat, and each attempt to {148} launch canoes in the\nboiling surf was attended with failure.\n\nNight fell; the wind instead of calming grew fiercer.  The sea became\ntruly terrible, seeking, seemingly, with all its power to drive the\n_Pelican_ and the _Hudson's Bay_ upon the coast.  The rudders of each\nship broke; the tide rose, and there seemed no hope for the crews,\nwhose destiny was so cruel.  Their only hope, in the midst of the\nbitter blast and clouds of snow which environed them, lay in the\nstrength of their cables.  Soon after nine o'clock the _Hudson's Bay_\nand its anchor parted with a shock.\n\n\"Instantly,\" said one of the survivors, \"a piercing cry went up from\nour forecastle.  The wounded and dead lay heaped up with so little\nseparation one from the other that silence and moans alone\ndistinguished them.  All were icy cold and covered with blood.  They\nhad told us the anchor would hold, and we dreaded being washed up on\nthe shore stiff the next morning.\"\n\nA huge wave broke over the main deck and the ship lurched\ndesperately.  Two hours later the cable parted, and the ship was\nhurled rudderless to and fro in the trough of the sea.\n\nBy the French account, matters were in no more enviable state aboard\nthe _Pelican_; Iberville, however, amidst scenes rivalling those just\ndescribed, did his best to animate his officers and men with a spirit\nequalling his own.\n\n\"It is better,\" he cried, \"to die, if we must, outside the bastions\nof Fort Bourbon than to perish here like pent sheep on board.\"\n\n{149}\n\nWhen morning broke, it was seen by the French that their ship was not\nyet submerged, and it was resolved to disembark by such means as lay\nin their power.  The Company's servants were more fortunate.  The\n_Hudson's Bay_ had drifted eight miles to the south of the fort, and\nwas wrecked on a bank of icy marshland, which at least constrained\nthem to wade no deeper than their knees.  The French, however, were\nforced to make their way through the icy water submerged to their\nnecks, from the results of which terrible exposure no fewer than\neighteen marines and seamen lost their lives.  Once on shore they\ncould not, like the English, look forward to a place of refuge and\nappease their hunger with provisions and drink.  They were obliged,\nin their shivering, half-frozen state, to subsist upon moss and\nseaweed, but for which indifferent nourishment they must inevitably\nhave perished.\n\nThe Company's garrison witnessed the calamities which were overtaking\nthe French, but not knowing how great their number, and assured of\ntheir hostility, did not attempt any acts of mercy.  They perceived\nthe enemy camped in a wood, less than two leagues distant, where,\nbuilding several fires, they sought to restore their spirits by means\nof warmth and hot draughts of boiled herbs.\n\nWhile the fort was being continually recruited by survivors of the\ntwo wrecked ships, the other three French vessels had arrived on the\nscene.  The fourth, the _Violent_, lay at the bottom of the Bay,\nhaving been sunk by the ice.  The _Palmier_ had suffered the loss of\nher helm, but was fortunate in not being also {150} a victim of the\nstorm.  The French forces being now united, little time was lost by\nIberville in making active preparations for the attack upon the fort.\n\nOn the 11th the enemy attained a small wood, almost under the guns of\nthe fort, and having entrenched themselves, lit numerous fires and\nmade considerable noise in order to lend the impression to the\nEnglish that an entrenchment was being thrown up.  This ruse was\nsuccessful, for the Governor gave orders to fire in that direction;\nand Iberville, seizing this opportunity, effected a landing of all\nhis men and armaments from the ships.\n\nThe fort would now soon be hemmed in on all sides, and it were indeed\nstrange if a chance shot or firebrand did not ignite the timbers and\nthe powder magazine were not exploded.  Governor Bailey was holding a\ncouncil of his advisers when one of the French prisoners in the fort\ngave notice of the approach of a messenger bearing a flag of truce.\nHe was recognised as Martigny.  The Governor permitted his advance\nand sent a factor to meet him and insist upon his eyes being bandaged\nbefore he would be permitted to enter.  Martigny was conducted to\nwhere the council was sitting, and there delivered Iberville's\nmessage demanding surrender.  He was instantly interrupted by Captain\nSmithsend, who, with a great show of passion, asked the emissary if\nit were not true that Iberville had been killed in the action.  In\nspite of Martigny's denials, Smithsend loudly persisted in believing\nIberville's death, and held that the French were in sore straits and\nonly {151} made the present attack because no other alternative was\noffered to desperate men to obtain food and shelter.  Bailey allowed\nhimself to be influenced by Smithsend, and declined to yield to any\nof Martigny's demands.  The latter returned, and the French instantly\nset up a battery near the fort and continued, amidst a hail of\nbullets, the work of landing their damaged stores and armaments.\nStragglers from the wreck of the _Hudson's Bay_ continued all day to\nfind their way to the fort, but several reached it only to be shot\ndown in mistake by the cannon and muskets of their own men.  On the\n12th, after a hot skirmish, fatal to both sides, the Governor was\nagain requested, this time by S\u00e9rigny, to yield up the fort to\nsuperior numbers.\n\n\"If you refuse, we will set fire to the place and accord you no\nquarter,\" he wrote to Bailey.\n\n\"Set fire and be d----d to you!\" responded Bailey.\n\nHe then went to work, with Smithsend, whose treatment as a prisoner\nin the hands of the French some years before was still vividly before\nhim, to animate the garrison.\n\n\"Go for them, you dogs!\" cried Bailey.  \"Give it to them hot and\nheavy; I promise you forty pounds apiece for your widows!\"\n\nFighting in these days was attended by fearful mortality, and the\nscarcity of pensions to the hero's family, perhaps, made the offer\nseem handsome.  At any rate it seemed a sufficient bribe to the\nCompany's men, who fought like demons.\n\nA continual fire of guns and mortar, as well as {152} of muskets, was\nkept up.  The Canadians sallied out upon a number of skirmishes,\nfilling the air with a frightful din, borrowing from the Iroquois\ntheir piercing war-cries.  In one of these sallies St. Martin, one of\ntheir bravest men, perished.\n\nUnder protection of a flag of truce, S\u00e9rigny came again to demand a\nsurrender.  It was the last time, he said, the request would be\npreferred.  A general assault had been resolved upon by the enemy,\nwho were at their last resort, living like beasts in the wood,\nfeeding on moss, and to whom no extremity could be odious were it but\nan exchange for their present condition.  They were resolved upon\ncarrying the fort, even at the point of the bayonet and over heaps of\ntheir slain.\n\nBailey decided to yield.  He sent Morrison to carry the terms of\ncapitulation, in which he demanded all the peltries in the fort\nbelonging to the Hudson's Bay Company.  This demand being rejected by\nthe enemy, Bailey later in the evening sent Henry Kelsey with a\nproposition to retain a portion of their armament; this also was\nrefused.  There was now nothing for it but to surrender, Iberville\nhaving granted an evacuation with bag and baggage.\n\nAt one o'clock on the following day, therefore, the evacuation took\nplace.  Bailey, at the head of his garrison, and a number of the crew\nof the wrecked _Hudson's Bay_ and six survivors of the _Hampshire_,\nmarched forth from Fort York with drums beating, flag flying, and\nwith arms and baggage.  They hardly knew whither they were to go, or\nwhat fate awaited them.  A vast, and inhospitable region surrounded\n{153} them, and a winter long to be remembered for its severity had\nbegun.  But to the French it seemed as if their spirits were\nundaunted, and they set forth bravely.\n\nThe enemy watched the retreat of the defeated garrison not without\nadmiration, and for the moment speculation was rife as to their fate.\nBut it was only for a moment.  Too rejoiced to contemplate anything\nbut the termination of their own sufferings, the Canadians hastened\nto enter the fort, headed by Boisbriant, late an ensign in the\nservice of the Compagnie du Nord.  Fort Nelson was once more in the\nhands of the French.\n\n\nOn the St. Lawrence the Count of Frontenac, old as he was, sickening\nof the perpetual raids, led a great war force into the very midst of\nthe Iroquois.  Rebuilding Fort Frontenac, which had been destroyed,\nhe launched his men straight against the Onondaga lodges, wiping out\nall their stores of food and their maize harvests.  He laid low also\nthe land of the Oneidas, and the warriors of both tribes fled before\nhim.  If they could raid and butcher, by St. Louis, so could he!  The\nIroquois looked to the English for help against the French.  Whatever\nthey might have done, their hand was stopped.  News arrived in 1697\nof the signing of the peace at Ryswick between the warring kingdoms\nof England and France.  Tired of the conflict grew the haughty Five\nNations, and deputies were sent to Quebec to bring it to an end.\nThey offered, as before, to cease fighting the French Canadians, but\nnot their Indian allies in the west.  {154} This would not satisfy\nFrontenac: he would make no peace which could not be lasting.  The\nGovernor of New York interfered.\n\n\"The Iroquois,\" he told Frontenac, \"are under the King of England's\nprotection.  They cannot make either war or peace on their own\naccount.  I have told them to be at peace with you.  Henceforward you\nmust not treat them as enemies.\"\n\n\"I will make my peace with the Five Nations,\" Frontenac thundered\nforth to the Indian deputy, \"but it shall be on my own terms.  If we\ncontinue to fight and you aid them, by St. Louis! the blood will be\non your own hands.\"\n\nA few weeks later, when the reward of his firmness was in sight, the\nlion-hearted Frontenac, now in his seventy-eighth year, sickened and\ndied, amidst the sorrow of his people.  It was a great loss to\nCanada, and fortunate was it that his successor was as brave and wise\nas Governor de Calli\u00e8res.\n\n\n\n[1] The fourth, the fire-ship _Owner's Love_, was never more heard\nof.  It is supposed that, separated from the others, she ran into the\nice and was sunk, with all on board.\n\n\n\n\n{155}\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nKING LOUIS BUILDS A MIGHTY FORT\n\nAfar off, in the little Dutch town of Ryswick, the two kings, William\nand Louis, had signed the treaty of peace.  It was agreed that all\nthe places captured by either French or English soldiers during the\nwar should be given back again.  What did this mean to Canada and\nAmerica?  Only this: that all these eight years of bloodshed had been\nin vain.  Neither French nor English were a whit the richer or more\npowerful than before.  You must always remember that what both sides\nwere really fighting for was the mastery of the North-American\ncontinent.  Vast as it was, there was not room enough for both.  One\nside or other must possess it.  Should it be French or English?  No\nlasting peace could there be as long as the question remained\nunsettled.\n\nA great advantage was gained for Canada when the Iroquois at length\ngave way.  Their chiefs, journeying to Montreal in 1701, smoked the\ncalumet with Governor de Calli\u00e8res and handed him the belt of\nwampum--which signified that there should be no more fighting between\nOnontio and the Five Nations.  Never again did the Iroquois make\nserious trouble for the people of Canada, and the fetters {156} which\nhad so long bound the fur trade were for ever removed.\n\nBut the very next year after this had happened the Peace of Ryswick\ncame to an end.  It had lasted only five years, and it was the\nreckless ambition of Louis the Fourteenth that killed it.  He, too,\nlike Kondiaronk, \"The Rat,\" could exclaim to his courtiers, \"I have\nkilled the peace!\"  The new war is known in Europe as the War of the\nSpanish Succession, because Louis wanted to put his Bourbon nephew on\nthe vacant throne of Spain.  In America it is always called \"Queen\nAnne's War.\"  William the Third had died that year, and Queen Anne\nhad succeeded him on the English throne.\n\nThe English colonists were still as much in earnest as ever about the\nimportance of overcoming by any means in their power the \"French\ndanger,\" as they called it.  They did not hesitate to employ the\ntribes of Indians, however remote, in the work of harrying the French\nsettlements, both east and west.  Port Royal was again attacked, only\nthis time the attack was ignominiously repulsed.  Meanwhile the\nFrench were not idle.  De Calli\u00e9res had strongly advised the\nestablishment of several posts on the lake for the reception of furs\nand merchandise.  In June 1701 La Motte Cadillac, with a Jesuit\npriest and 100 men, was despatched to build a fort at Detroit.\nGovernor de Calli\u00e9res hesitated to attack Albany until he could feel\nconfident that the long-dreaded Iroquois Indians would not return to\nthe old allies, the English.  He was still making up his mind when\nillness seized him, and {157} in 1703 he died.  His successor was the\nMarquis de Vaudreuil.\n\nBut if the authorities at Quebec doubted the wisdom of provoking\nIndian hostility in their quarrel with the New Yorkers, Vaudreuil and\nhis friends felt sure of Abenakis friendship.  This famous tribe had\nlong hated the New Englanders with a deadly hate.  They had committed\nterrible outrages for many years upon the unfortunate Yankee\nsettlers.  De Vaudreuil feared that if the Abenakis were to be at\npeace too long, they might forget their hatred and even become on\nfriendly terms with the Americans.  So Canadian priests and soldiers\nwere sent amongst them to stir up their zeal.  They did not want any\npitched battles or long sieges.  Their policy was to persecute and\nslay the outlying farmers and woodmen, to make settlement outside of\nthe large towns impossible.\n\nOne of the most terrible of these raids occurred at Deerfield in\nMassachusetts.  This place was on the river Connecticut.  A party\nunder De Rouville crept up Lake Champlain in mid-winter, and,\nfollowing the river on the ice, reached Deerfield in the dark.  What\nhad happened at Schenectady and Salmon Falls happened here.  The\nsurprised people could make no defence, the town was burnt, fifty\npeople slaughtered, almost without resistance, and a hundred more\ncarried away prisoners.  A man never laid his head on the pillow at\nnight without the fear that a red assassin might scalp it ere morning\ndawned.  A little later the Abenakis were induced to attack the town\nof Haverhill in broad daylight.  Fierce fighting {158} ensued,\nbecause this time there were fifty soldiers present to aid the\ninhabitants in their resistance; but all was in vain.  The massacre\nat Haverhill is still spoken of with horror in New England.  You can\nimagine the storm of indignation which swept through the English\ncolonies when they heard of these dreadful raids, how strong was\ntheir anger against the Abenakis!  Bands of stout colonists were sent\nagainst them, eager for vengeance and showing no mercy, and as a\nresult the chiefs of the Abenakis at length decided that it would be\nsafer for them to cross the border and set up their wigwams in\nCanada.  From Canada they could raid New England as usual.  But, to\ntheir surprise, they were by no means heartily welcomed by the\nFrench.  Canadians well knew by this time the treacherous nature of\nthe Indian.  Guns and food were given them, and a smiling face hid\nthe Governor's real embarrassment.  Fortunate for him if that were to\nbe his only embarrassment!\n\nAlthough repeatedly foiled, the people of both New and Old England\nagain plotted on a large scale the destruction of French power in\nCanada, Acadia, and Newfoundland.  One day a ship reached Quebec with\ntidings that an English army was on its way to join with two other\nforces in an attack upon Quebec.  The report was true, but certain\naccidents occurred which prevented carrying out the plan for that\nseason.  In the following year (1709), however, they fell upon Port\nRoyal.  The English intention was to sail on to Quebec, but the\ndanger of being caught in the ice prevented them, and Nicholson\nappearing before {159} the Acadian capital, called upon the brave\nSubercase to surrender.  Port Royal had not expected an attack; both\npowder and provisions were low, but Subercase was not a man to yield\nwithout firing a shot.  So gallant a resistance did he offer,\nalthough his garrison was in a half-starved state, that when at last\nhe could fight no more, Nicholson granted him the honours of war.\nWith the fleur-de-lys flying in the icy breeze, with the roll of\ndrums and the sound of the trumpet, the last of the shattered band of\nFrenchmen sailed out of Port Royal, which was to be Port Royal no\nmore.  In honour of Queen Anne, Nicholson rechristened the place\nAnnapolis Royal, and thereafter it was held by the Queen's successors\non the English throne.\n\nAcadia now being English and garrisoned by the colonists, it remained\nto deal a deadly blow at Quebec.  Up to this time the chief\ndifficulty had been to procure sufficient soldiers from England, for\nduring all the years since the outbreak of Queen Anne's war England\nhad been drained of her first-class fighting men.  The great\nMarlborough had wanted them for Oudenarde, Ramillies, and those other\ngreat battles which you read of in the history of that time in\nEurope.  But now, flushed and confident with his many victories,\nMarlborough could afford to spare a few regiments for the conquest of\nQuebec.  No child's play it was to be this time, no half-hearted\nattempt.  Nicholson himself was there at the English Court to press\nthe scheme upon Queen Anne and her ministers.  A large and splendid\nfleet of fifteen warships, besides forty-six transports and store\n{160} ships, was got ready, and with the fleet seven of Marlborough's\nbest regiments were ordered to set sail for Canada.\n\nBut it is not always big armaments, many men, many ships, many guns,\nthat win the famous battles of history.  Sometimes, as we have seen,\nso far from winning the battle, they do not even strike a blow.  This\nexpedition was England's shame.  This, which might have conquered\nQuebec for the English flag, melted away in sorrow, disease, and\ndisgrace, all because of the utter incompetency of its leaders.  The\nAdmiral, Sir Hovenden Walker, was both foolish and perverse.  As for\nthe commander of the land forces, Sir John Hill, he was chosen not\nbecause of his war-like talents, but because he was a brother of Mrs.\nMasham, the Queen's great personal friend.\n\nYou may be interested in learning something of his personal history\nas afterwards written by the Duchess of Marlborough.  \"Abigail Hill's\nbrother, whom the bottle man afterwards called 'honest Jack Hill,'\nwas a tall boy whom I clothed (for he was all in rags) and put to\nschool in St. Albans.  I afterwards got my Lord Marlborough to make\nhim groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Gloucester, and though my\nLord always said that Jack Hill was good for nothing, yet to oblige\nme he made him his aide-de-camp and afterwards gave him a regiment.\"\n\nUnder such a commander the fleet and army, crossing the Atlantic,\narrived at Boston.  Here they were joined by two Massachusetts\nregiments under the command of Samuel Vetch, a New Englander, who had\nbeen made Governor of Annapolis.  The {161} plan decided upon was\nthat Canada should be attacked, simultaneously with Quebec and\nMontreal, by 12,000 men.  Surely, with such a force, it seemed\nimpossible to fail!  But failure had marked the enterprise for its\nown.  A dense fog hung over the gulf and river of St. Lawrence.  In\nvain Admiral Walker was warned that to steer to the north was to\nadvance to certain destruction.  Walker simply laughed at the advice.\nBut his laughter had scarcely died away ere the shrieks of drowning\nmen rang in his ears.  Eight ships, packed close with brave soldiers\neager for the fray, were shattered to pieces in the black fog.  A\nterrible night ensued, a night which has no parallel in the annals of\nthe British Navy.  When day dawned, some Indian and French\nfur-traders found 1000 bodies strewn on the beach.  There were some\nwomen amongst them, hapless soldiers' wives, who from early times\nhave accompanied British expeditions, and have been present in defeat\nand victory.\n\nAfter this terrible disaster the question arose whether the attack on\nQuebec should be abandoned or not.  There was still a great land\nforce left, enough to plant the British flag on the heights of Quebec\nif valour and endurance could do it.  The officers and soldiers\nlooked with one accord to General Hill, their commander, who had it\nin his power yet to atone for the disaster which had overtaken his\ncomrade, Admiral Walker.  When Hill spoke, it was not to say,\n\"Gentlemen, we will retrieve our misfortunes,\" but, \"Gentlemen, we\nwill turn back.\"  Vetch implored him to reconsider, but orders were\n{162} given to turn about the prows of the remaining ships.\n\nAfter fatal delays the ill-starred fleet reached Portsmouth again\nabout the middle of October.  But even when safe in dock, misfortune\nwent with it to the last.  The Admiral's flag-ship _Edgar_ by some\naccident blew up, killing 400 seamen, and 30 of the townsfolk of\nPortsmouth who had gone on board to learn from the sailors the\nmelancholy tale of the expedition.  Well might the English people\nhave been angry, and their anger descended swiftly and heavily upon\nthe foolish and stubborn admiral's head.  He was driven from England,\nto die at last, broken in heart, rank, and fortune, on a West Indian\nisland.\n\nBut what further rejoicings in Canada!  What gratitude, what repeated\nTe Deums for the narrow escape the colony had had from almost certain\ndestruction!  General Hill had caused to be printed beforehand, and\ntook with him, a bundle of proclamations, calling upon the French\nCanadians to acknowledge the rule of Queen Anne.  A bundle of these\ndocuments had been washed ashore, and were now distributed amongst\nthe people amidst derisive laughter.  So grateful did the Quebec folk\nfeel to Heaven for having preserved them from such peril, that they\nbuilt a memorial in Our Lady of Victories, as the church in the lower\ntown of Quebec was called.  De Vaudreuil appealed to the people to\nhelp him in making yet stronger the fortifications of Quebec, and he\ndid not appeal in vain.  Fifty thousand \u00e9cus poured into the Treasury\nfor this purpose.\n\n{163}\n\nWhile Quebec and Canada were thus saved, by the Treaty of Utrecht in\n1713 Great Britain obtained cession of Acadia, Newfoundland, and the\ncountries bordering Hudson Bay.  Forced to give up so much, yet the\nFrench retained Cape Breton, with the right to fortify it.  King\nLouis made great efforts to get Nova Scotia back into his power, but\nin vain.  Foiled in this, he well knew the value of Cape Breton, and\nhere it was resolved to erect a great fortress to dominate the whole\nseaboard of Nova Scotia and New England.  In a very few years Cape\nBreton became the centre of intriguing governors and priests, always\nin touch with the French population in Acadia to teach them to be\ndiscontented and dangerous to the English rulers.  Vaudreuil did not\ncease to govern Canada till his death in 1725.  He always clung to\nthe hope of regaining Acadia; he always prevented the Abenakis from\nmaking peace with the colonists of New England, and encouraged them\nto attack the outlying settlements.  Vaudreuil still dreamed, as\nFrontenac had done before him, of France ruling the whole of the\ngreat north and west of the continent, and it was hard to see how\nthat prize could be wrested from her.  As the eighteenth century wore\non, the chain of great inland lakes were as French as those two great\nrivers, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi.  Little by little\nFrench priests and fur-traders pushed their way through the\nwilderness, making peace with new tribes and founding forts at the\nheads or junctions of important rivers.  Before Vaudreuil died, he\nsaw all New France prospering and in peace.\n\n{164}\n\nProfit was even wrested from calamity.  Once a great ship, _La\nSeine_, bearing clothes and merchandise to Quebec and Montreal, had\nbeen captured and carried a prize to England.  The loss had caused\nmuch distress in Canada, because up to this date the people had not\ngrown flax and hemp, and had spun no wool, and their clothing,\ntherefore, came across to them from France.  In this emergency the\nCanadians, particularly the women, were obliged to show their\ningenuity, and soon they began to weave coverings, blankets, and even\nsmall carpets.  They found the fibre of a nettle would make good\ncloth, and the bark of the white wood cotton-tree was pressed into\nservice.  Slowly but surely the industry grew, until there were\ntwenty-five different branches of trade producing druggets, cloths,\nand linens.  The nuns commenced to make bunting for their own dress,\nblack serge for the priests, and blue serge for their pupils.\n\nAt first there were no horses in Quebec or Montreal.  But at the\nbeginning of the eighteenth century hundreds of these animals were\nbeing bred, and to possess and train them became a passion amongst\nthe young men.  The result was that many who had before been very\nskilful in the use of snowshoes soon grew lazy and drove about in\nsleighs.  This came to the notice of the Governor, who told them that\nCanada could not afford to have her young men unaccustomed to\nsnow-shoes.  It was by means of snow-shoes that they were able, even\nwhen a blizzard was blowing, to move silently and swiftly in time of\nwar.  He issued a decree which forbade any {165} habitant to own more\nthan two mares and one colt.  After a certain day any colonist\npossessing more would be visited by an official ordered to kill the\nextra horses, and the order was carried out.\n\nThe population of Canada had now grown to 50,000 souls.  As to life\nin the colony, we get an excellent picture from the writings of\nFather Charlevoix, who visited Canada in 1720, and spent some time in\nmaking personal observations.  He tells us that the country about\nMontreal was wholly unsettled by Europeans excepting several\nfortified posts and block-houses, such as Frontenac, Niagara,\nDetroit, Michilimackinac, and other trading stations in the west.\n\"In Quebec,\" he wrote, \"one finds nothing but what is select and\ncalculated to form an agreeable society.  A Governor-General, with\nhis staff, a high-born officer and his troops, an Intendant with a\nsuperior council and inferior court, a Commissary of Marines and\nother officers, and a Superintendent of Waters and Forests, whose\njurisdiction is certainly the largest in the world; merchants in easy\ncircumstances, or at least living as if they were, a Bishop, a\nseminary, and three convents.\n\n\"Other circles elsewhere are as brilliant as those surrounding the\nGovernor and Intendant.  On the whole, it seems to me there are for\nall classes the means of passing the time agreeably.  Every one\ncontributes to his utmost, people amuse themselves with games and\nexcursions, using caleches in summer, sledges and skates in winter.\nThere is a great deal of hunting, for many gentle folks have no other\nresources for living in comfort.  The news from {166} Europe comes\nall at once, and occupies a great part of the year, furnishing\nsubjects of conversation of the past and future.\"\n\n\"The Canadians,\" continues this eye-witness, \"breathe from their\nbirth the air of liberty, which renders them very agreeable in social\nintercourse.  Nowhere else is our language spoken with greater\npurity.  One observes here no defective accent.  There are here no\nrich people; every one is hospitable, and no one amuses himself with\nmaking money.  If a person cannot afford to entertain friends at\ntable, he at least endeavours to dress well.\"\n\nFrom the foregoing you may be able to form a fair picture of Canada\nunder the Old R\u00e9gime.\n\nTwo hundred years ago, when Newfoundland was ceded to the English,\nall the French officials and fishermen removed to the eastern coast\nof Cape Breton.  Cape Breton, despite its name, is an island, and was\nknown to the French as Isle Royale.  The place whither the French\nretired was a safe and spacious inlet, up to that time known as\nEnglish Harbour, and it was English Harbour that the French king\nchose as the site of the greatest and most celebrated fortress in the\nNew World.  To it was duly given the name of Louisburg.  Vauban, a\ncelebrated engineer of his day, was called upon to design it.  \"Spare\nneither money nor labour,\" said the King; \"we shall make it another\nDunkerque.\"  This Dunkerque, you may remember, was a fortified\nseaport on the north-east coast of France, upon which millions of\nmoney had been spent, and it was generally believed that no enemy\ncould take it.  To {167} build its equal, hundreds of engineers,\nstonecutters, masons, bricklayers, and workmen sailed across the\nAtlantic.  When finished, Louisburg fortress occupied an area of 100\nacres, the harbour being defended by batteries on an island at the\nentrance.  Within the fort and town dwelt never less than 2000\npeople.  With such a stronghold so near at hand, it was not strange\nthat the French in Acadia should dwell firmly in the belief that the\nflag of the lilies would once more wave over them.  If few English\ncolonists came to Nova Scotia, none at all migrated to that portion\nof it which was still called Acadia.\n\nWhile these things were happening in the far east, in the west\nnotable pioneers were forging a path to French dominion.  The far\nnorth-west was opened up by Sieur Verendrye with his three valiant\nsons, a Jesuit priest, and a handful of bushrangers.  Verendrye\nstruck out westward through Michilimackinac.  He had heard of the\ngreat Lake Winnipeg from the Indians and resolved to reach it.\nComing upon the Lake of the Woods, there he built a strong\nfur-trading post, Fort St. Charles, where his party were met by the\nSioux, a fierce western tribe.  In the battle one of Verendrye's sons\nwas slain.  After the explorer had finally reached Lake Winnipeg, he\ncrossed its waters and paddled with his party up the Red River.  One\nmorning they came to where the river Assiniboine joins the Red River,\nand there Verendrye halted and built Fort Rouge.  Hard by a\nsettlement grew up, which settlement has in our day expanded at\nlength into the great and flourishing city of Winnipeg.\n\n{168}\n\nNothing could daunt Verendrye and his sons, neither heat nor cold,\nhunger nor thirst.  They pressed on through the forest and over the\nprairie, exploring and building trading posts.  The news of their\ntravels and successes with the Indians reached Quebec and Montreal,\nand a horde of hardy bush-rangers were soon following their example.\nThe forts in the far wilderness grew closely packed with costly furs.\nHeavily-laden canoes by the hundred found their way by river and lake\nand toilsome portage to the great stone warehouses of Montreal, some\nof which are yet upstanding in the city.\n\nIt was after the leader Verendrye's death that one of his sons, on\nNew Year's Day 1743, first amongst French Canadians, beheld the lofty\nsnow-clad pinnacles of the Rocky Mountains.  Truly, in spite of many\ndiscouragements, the fleur-de-lys was being borne westward valiantly.\n\n\n\n\n{169}\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nHOW LOUISBURG SURRENDERED AND WAS GIVEN BACK\n\nTwenty-seven years of peace!  It was a long respite, but long as it\nwas, French and English were ready to fly at each other's throats\nwith renewed vigour when war broke out again.  Quickly did the flames\nof the conflict spread to the New World.\n\nLooking out from the ramparts of his strong fortress of Louisburg, it\nseemed to the Governor that the moment was a most favourable one to\nrecapture Nova Scotia for France.  The iron was struck while it was\nhot.  One thousand men, led by Duvivier, were despatched to\nAnnapolis, which, under the name of Port Royal, has been the scene of\nso many vicissitudes.\n\nOn the way thither the French easily took Canso, at the entrance of\nthe strait of that name, and sent its garrison prisoners to\nLouisburg.  Flushed with this victory, Duvivier marched by land to\nAnnapolis, held for the English by Paul Mascarene.  But if the French\nthought they would frighten Mascarene into surrendering, they were\nmistaken.  Of Huguenot extraction, Mascarene was yet a brave and\nsturdy Englishman.  \"We are expecting,\" wrote Duvivier, \"the arrival\nof three ships of war, carrying respectively {170} seventy, sixty,\nand forty guns, and a regiment of soldiers.  Not that we need these,\nfor I have already sufficient forces to storm your fort.\"  \"Really,\"\nran Mascarene's reply, \"it will be time to consider the question of\nsurrender when your French fleet is in the harbour.\"  Then it was\nDuvivier sent his brother proposing a truce and asking for the\nconditional capitulation of the garrison.  The brave Mascarene called\nhis officers together and found that they were not disinclined to\naccept the French terms.\n\n\"We have no chance,\" they said; \"we are abandoned and our men losing\nheart; let us capitulate while we can.\"  They spoke so strongly, that\nMascarene allowed three of them to confer with the French commander\nand obtain his proffered terms in writing.  But no sooner had he cast\nhis eye over the paper than Mascarene steadfastly refused to sign.\nIn vain his officers implored him to put his name to the deed of\nsurrender.  He rebuked them and set about with tact and energy to\nraise the spirits of his men and reanimate them with courage.  The\nFrench renewed their attack on the fort.  Day after day and night\nafter night they tried to wear out the garrison, but Mascarene had\nnow, by his patience and good spirits, brought all to his way of\nthinking.  Try as they would, the French could make no impression on\nthe sturdy ramparts of Annapolis.\n\nDuvivier sickened of the siege, and during October returned to\nLouisburg.  No sooner had he gone than the French Acadians were\nfilled with fear.  They had supposed that all Acadia would have been\nwon for King Louis, and, realising their mistake, they {171} hastened\nto send deputies to Mascarene declaring that they had refused to take\nany part in the expedition.  At the same time they wrote to the\ndefeated French commander to say, \"We live under a mild and tranquil\ngovernment, and we have good reason to be faithful to it.  We hope,\ntherefore, that you will not separate us from it, and that you will\ngrant us the favour not to plunge us into utter misery.\"\n\nSoon I will have to tell you how these same Acadians, because of\ntheir continued treachery to the English Government, had to be\ntransported from this land of their birth or adoption.  A great deal\nhas been written about the poor Acadians to excite our sympathy for\nthem at the fate which shortly awaited them.  You will see that they\nbrought it upon themselves, or rather that their leaders and\nill-advisers brought it upon them.  Perfectly happy and contented\nwere they under English rule, but base priests and agitators amongst\nthem tried hard to instil into their minds the idea of a grievance\nand stirred up treachery and disaffection in their hearts.  Bitterest\nand most unscrupulous of these agitators was a priest named Le\nLoutre.  Although an able man, he was a terrible coward, and shrank\nfrom no crime, no falsehood, to gain his ends.  Of Le Loutre and the\nresults of his policy we will speak hereafter.\n\nThe English prisoners taken at Canso spent many weeks shut up in\nLouisburg.  They did not wholly idle away their time, but, examining\nall they saw with such care and to such purpose, they were able on\n{172} regaining their freedom to describe with accuracy the plan and\ncondition of this great fortress.  Once a French officer had said\nthat Louisburg was so strong that it might be held against any\nassault by an army of women.  Yet these English prisoners thought\nthey saw how Louisburg might be taken, and their hopes were eagerly\nseized upon and shared by the Governor of Massachusetts.\n\nGovernor William Shirley was a lawyer by profession, full of energy\nand enterprise, and once he had set his mind to do a thing,\ndifficulties seemed to fade away.  He now set his mind to the capture\nof Louisburg.  He believed that unless the English had control of the\nwhole coast from Cape Sable to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the\nsafety, nay, the very existence of New England was in constant\njeopardy.  Shirley listened eagerly to what the returned prisoners\nhad to tell him.  They had observed the discontent and the bad\ndiscipline of the Louisburg garrison, which consisted of 1300 men.\nTheir plan of the fort showed him that it was built on a point of\nland jutting out into the Atlantic, while all behind it on the land\nside was treacherous marsh.  From 30 to 36 feet high were the walls\non the other side of a ditch 80 feet wide.  One hundred and\nsixty-four guns were mounted on the walls, besides many mortars and\ncohorns.  On a little island opposite Louisburg there was a battery\nmounted with thirty-two heavy cannon.  The ramparts were, however,\nseen to be defective in more than one place, and, besides this, if\nthe French ships which came over sea with provisions and\nreinforcements could {173} be intercepted, Shirley felt there was a\nfair chance of success.  He wrote instantly to London asking King\nGeorge to help him with ships, but without waiting for a reply a\nlittle fleet was raised and a land force of 4000 men hastily got\ntogether.  It was not a very imposing army in appearance, as you may\nimagine.  It was chiefly composed of artisans, farmers, fishermen,\nand labourers, commanded by a merchant named William Pepperell.\nAlthough without any military experience, Pepperell had courage and\ngood judgment, and was anxious to distinguish himself.  On the 24th\nMarch 1745 the ships left Boston, and reached Canso ten days later.\nHere they remained three weeks, waiting for the ice to melt in the\nbays and harbours.  It was at Canso that Pepperell and his brave New\nEnglanders were joined by the English commodore, Warren, whom King\nGeorge had sent to help him in the capture of Louisburg.  Instantly\nPepperell and his army set off, while Warren cruised about with a\nfleet of ten ships to prevent any news or assistance from reaching\nthe fortress.\n\nThe Governor of Louisburg was M. Duchambon.  On the fateful night a\nball was given in the town, which the Governor, his officers, and\nsoldiers attended.  Before the people had got to sleep it was almost\ndawn, and their slumbers were quickly disturbed.  A captain, attired\nin his night-clothes, came rushing into the Governor's chamber to\nreport that a strange fleet had been sighted by the sentries entering\nGabarus Bay, five miles distant.  \"French ships?\" cried Duchambon.\n\"No, sir,\" answered the officer, {174} \"I fear the English are upon\nus.\"  Next moment the cannons were booming loudly from the walls and\na peal of bells rang through the town.  Pepperell made a pretence of\nlanding his troops at a certain point, so as to deceive the French.\nA skirmish took place, in which the French were beaten back and some\nof them taken prisoners.  Before nightfall 2000 of the New Englanders\nhad planted foot on the shore, and the next day they were joined by\nthe rest of their comrades.  The siege of Louisburg was begun.  A\nhard and dangerous task was the landing of the artillery and stores,\nowing to the rolling surf.  There being no wharf, the men had to wade\nthrough the sea to bring the guns, ammunition, and provisions on\nshore.  This alone took an entire fortnight.  Batteries were thrown\nup, in spite of sallies made from the town by French and Indians to\nprevent them.  An outside battery was captured, mounted with\ntwenty-eight heavy guns, which now belched forth shot and shell\namongst the besieged.  Warehouses and other places took fire, and\ngreat columns of smoke hid the fort from view for days at a time.\nThe walls were at last seen to crumble, and when the guns of the\nAmericans began to close up on the fortress, Duchambon was summoned\nto surrender.  He replied that he would surrender when forced to by\nthe cannon of the foe.  The New Englanders at last silenced the\nisland battery, so that the English fleet could enter the harbour and\nturn upon him its 500 guns.  The expected supply ship from France,\nthe _Vigilant_, had been captured, and Duchambon's supply of\ngunpowder was exhausted.  {175} He gave himself up to despair, and\nnow it was that the flag of truce was sent to the British camp asking\nfor terms of capitulation.\n\nThe terms offered by Pepperell were accepted.  For forty-nine days\nDuchambon had defended Louisburg bravely.  He had done his best, and\nwhen the time came to surrender he was permitted to march out his\nsoldiers with colours flying and drums beating.  While he abandoned\nthe fortress by one gate, Pepperell at the head of the victorious\nbesiegers entered by another.  The day wound up with a great banquet;\nall was rejoicing at so glorious a victory.  But terrible was the\ndefeat and humiliation for more than 4000 of the French in Louisburg.\nThey were embarked on ships and sent back to France.\n\nMeanwhile the French flag was not lowered from the parapets, so as to\nlure in any French ships approaching those waters.  The ruse was\nsuccessful.  Two East Indiamen and one South Sea vessel fell into the\ntrap, and these prizes were afterwards found to be worth six hundred\nthousand pounds.  In prize money the share of an ordinary seaman is\nsaid to have been eight hundred guineas.\n\nNo wonder the bells in Boston and Salem rang out with jubilation when\nthe tidings of the capture of Louisburg arrived.  Nor were King\nGeorge II. and his ministers less pleased.  From palace and tower\ncannons fixed their salute of rejoicing; many bonfires were lit in\nLondon, and whole streets were illuminated.  Pepperell was created a\nbaron and a colonel in the Army.  Shirley was also rewarded.  {176}\nWarren was promoted to be an admiral.  There is, however, a\nmelancholy side to this picture.  The troops left in possession of\nLouisburg were too elated by success to behave themselves properly.\nMany men can stand defeat who cannot endure success.  The stores of\nliquor in the fort were stolen, and in spite of all the efforts of\nthe English commandant 1000 men were found every day intoxicated.  A\nterrible illness raged throughout the garrison, and when spring came\nit was found that out of 3000 men 1200 had died.\n\nAt first the people in France and in Canada could not believe the\nnews that Louisburg had fallen.  They had looked upon it as the key\nto French power in North-America.  When at length there could be no\ndoubt that the news was true, one thought, one ambition filled the\nminds of all--the fortress must at all hazards be retaken.  It was\nresolved at Versailles that an expedition should be sent out to Cape\nBreton for that purpose.  One of the finest fleets that ever left the\nshores of France sailed away from Rochelle the following year,\ncommanded by the Duke d'Anville, which consisted of thirty-nine ships\nof war and many of the best soldiers in France.  D'Anville had orders\nto recapture Louisburg and Nova Scotia, to ravage Boston, and turn\nall New England into a scene of desolation.  But man proposes, God\ndisposes.  Not only were two of D'Anville's ships captured by English\ncruisers, but he encountered such a succession of storms and one\nmighty tempest, that the whole squadron was dispersed.  When, at\nChebucto, D'Anville arrived with the remnants of his fleet, his\nmortification {177} was so great as to bring on an apoplectic stroke,\nfrom which he died.\n\nOn an island in what is to-day known as Halifax Harbour, his body was\nburied.  On the afternoon of the very day on which the French\ncommander died, his Vice-Admiral, Destournelles, arrived with three\nmore ships, on board one of which was Canada's new Governor, General\nJonqui\u00e8re.  When Destournelles took command the outlook was most\ndesperate.  More than 2000 men were stricken with fever, and\neventually died.  Destournelles, seeing no hope for success, proposed\nthat the expedition should be abandoned and the vessels return to\nFrance.  Jonqui\u00e8re and most of the officers resisted this plan.  If\nthey could not take Louisburg, at least they could attack Annapolis\nand seize Nova Scotia.  Annapolis was weak and had a small garrison,\nand once it were captured, Acadia was regained for France.  Moreover,\nwas not the priest, Le Loutre, at hand to give the signal to the\nAcadians to rise against their English masters?  On seeing that they\nwere all against him, Admiral Destournelles retired.  He thought it\nreflected on his character and honour, and next morning they found\nhim stabbed through the breast.  He had lost his reason and flung\nhimself upon his sword.\n\nIt was now Jonqui\u00e8re's turn to lead the forlorn expedition.  But ere\nhe could get to Annapolis another great storm arose, scattering his\nfleet, and nothing remained at last but to return dispirited to\nFrance.  At least 2500 brave Frenchmen had been lost in this\nill-fated expedition.  Still undaunted by these terrible reverses,\nnext year the Marquis de la {178} Jonqui\u00e8re made another attempt with\nanother fleet.  But the English admirals, Anson and Warren, were on\nthe watch; a battle was fought off Cape Finisterre, in the Bay of\nBiscay, and a signal defeat inflicted on the French.  This time\nJonqui\u00e8re himself was captured and carried to London.  It seemed as\nif he were fated never to reach his Governor's ch\u00e2teau at Quebec.\n\nBalked in her endeavours to obtain Louisburg again at the point of\nthe sword, France had now recourse to the arts of diplomacy.\n\nIn 1748 was signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.  The French, you\nmay remember, had met with many successes in Europe and in India.\nThey had, for one thing, captured the province of Madras, and so had\nsomething to offer England in exchange for what they considered to be\na greater prize than all they had won.  A bargain was therefore\nstruck between the diplomatists of France and England, the former to\nyield back Madras if the English would give up Louisburg.  King\nGeorge did not consult the New Englanders who had striven so hard and\nso valiantly to win him the prize.  He consented to the exchange, and\nLouisburg was handed back to France.\n\nOf course when the bargain was known in Massachusetts and New York\nthere was great indignation.  But the wiser heads amongst the\ncolonists saw that the welfare of a whole empire is greater than the\nwelfare of any part, and so bided their time, knowing full well that\nanother and final blow would some day be struck.  Meanwhile, all\n{179} the money that the colonists had spent on their expedition was\ngiven back to them by Britain.\n\nAlthough eight years of peace followed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,\nit was a peace only in name.  In Canada and America there were two\nnations who could never be free from war until one had conquered the\nother.  One of the great causes of offence and perpetual squabbling\nwas that as yet neither knew the precise boundaries of French and\nBritish territory.  It seems strange that where so much land existed\nand so few people, that there should be any fighting over boundaries;\nbut if you study the wars of history you will see there is nothing\nthat nations are so ready to quarrel over as this question of\nboundaries.  Besides, there was a vast region constantly being\nexplored, and even surveyed, upon which dwelt tribes of Indians whose\nallegiance was claimed by one of the two parties to the dispute.  So\nwhile the Marquis de la Jonqui\u00e8re languished in an English prison,\nthe acting Governor-General of Canada, Galissoni\u00e8re, was kept\nextremely busy.  It was his idea, and he was never tired of\nexpressing it, that although Acadia had been surrendered to England,\nAcadia meant only the peninsula of Nova Scotia.  As for the great\nregion of the west now known as New Brunswick and Eastern Maine, that\nhe claimed to belong to France.  He sent out several hundred French\nagents to conciliate the Indian tribes, to warn off English traders,\nand to mark out the boundary line between New England and Canada.\nThe Governor ordered forts to be built at Gaspereau and Beaus\u00e9jour,\nand another {180} on the St. John River.  In the west many other\nforts were built, including Fort Ticonderoga, at the head of Lake\nGeorge.  He asked King Louis to send him 10,000 colonists to settle\nalong the line of the Alleghany Mountains, and so form a barrier\nagainst the English on the east.  But, however anxious he was to keep\nNew France, by this time King Louis thought he had lost sufficient of\nhis subjects in the late wars, and refused the request.\n\nThe English traders and frontiersmen were meanwhile pressing\nwestward.  If France's title to all the country on the other side of\nthe Alleghanies was to be something better than waste-paper,\nsomething more must be done to assert it.  Galissoni\u00e8re therefore\nresolved to take swift and effective action.\n\nAnd so the curious episode called \"The Planting of the Leaden Plates\"\nbegan.\n\n\n\n\n{181}\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE ACADIANS ARE BANISHED FROM ACADIA\n\nThe French had really no grounds for their claims to sovereignty over\nthe valley of the Ohio except in the explorations of La Salle in the\nprevious century.  All the country south of Lake Erie was almost\nunknown to the French Canadians.  The regions in the vicinity of the\nOhio River were generally regarded as belonging to the English\ncolonies of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York.\n\nIf you will look at the old maps of America, you will see that the\nmap-makers never gave any boundary-line on the west of the thirteen\ncolonies.  There was no boundary-line.  At this time, as was said in\nthe last chapter, English traders had crossed the Alleghany Mountains\non their fur-trading expeditions, and the Indians, in turn, had\nvisited the people living in the three provinces I have named.  But\nGalissoni\u00e8re had a special reason for wanting the whole Ohio valley\nin French possession.  Canada and Acadia were not the only French\ncolonies on the North American continent.  Far to the south there was\nLouisiana, which since La Salle's time had grown and flourished\nexceedingly.  A Canadian, De Bienville, one of the sons of Charles le\nMoine, had even been {182} sent to govern it.  So, you see, it was of\nthe utmost importance to the French way of thinking that Canada and\nLouisiana should be joined together by a stretch of territory flying\nthe French flag.  It would be fatal for Louisiana to be cut off from\nCanada by English colonies, or even forts and trading posts.  For\nthis reason Galissoni\u00e8re now set about proclaiming French sovereignty\nover the entire Ohio valley, as this region was called.\n\nIn the French service there was a captain named C\u00e9l\u00e8ron, a Chevalier\nof the Order of St. Louis.  This officer the Government despatched in\nthe summer of 1749 with a small force of some 200 French soldiers,\nCanadian bushrangers, and Indians.  With him C\u00e9l\u00e8ron carried a large\nstock of leaden plates with engraved inscriptions.  These plates were\neleven inches long and seven and a half inches wide, and C\u00e9l\u00e8ron was\nordered to bury them at the foot of certain trees marking the\nboundary-line which Galissoni\u00e8re had drawn up on his map.  Besides\nthese leaden plates C\u00e9l\u00e8ron carried an immense stock of tin shields\nbearing the arms of the King of France.  Every time he buried a\nleaden plate at the foot of a tree, he nailed up one of the shields\non the trunk.\n\nNow it so happened that one of these plates was dug up by an Indian\nsoon after the French party had marched on.  It was sent by a Cayugan\nchief to a famous English trader and colonist named William Johnson.\nThe chief asked Johnson to tell him what the French meant by planting\nsuch a plate in their territory.  He thought it might be some sorcery\non the part of the northern pale-faces.  Johnson had no {183} love\nfor the French.  He knew exactly what they were aiming at, and he\nspoke very plainly to the chief of the Cayugas.  \"Brethren,\" said he,\n\"this is an affair of the greatest importance to you.  Nothing less\nthan all your lands and your best hunting-places are concerned.  You\nare to be shut off entirely from us and the rest of your brethren,\nthe Pennsylvanians and the Virginians, who can always supply you with\ngoods at a much lower rate than the French ever did or ever could do.\nUnder our protection you are, and ever will be, safer and better\ntreated than under the French, who are your implacable enemies.  The\nwriting on this piece of lead is sufficient of itself to convince you\nof their villainous designs.\"  The Governor of New York afterwards\nsent the plate to England, where it attracted great attention, for it\nshowed quite clearly what the designs of the French were.\n\nBy this time English statesmen began to consider whether the step\nthey had taken in giving back Cape Breton to France so hastily was\nnot a mistake.  But something to offset it might still be done.\nAlthough Louisburg was no longer theirs, yet they had the power to\nretrieve much of the prestige and many of the advantages they had\nlost.  Governor Shirley dinned constantly into their ears the value\nof settling an English population in Nova Scotia to counter-balance\nthe French Acadians who were planted there.  So at last King George\nwas induced to issue a proclamation offering to all officers and\nprivate men retired from the Army or Navy, and to many others, a free\npassage to Nova Scotia, besides supporting {184} them for a year\nafter landing and giving them arms, ammunition, and a grant of land\nto build a dwelling.  Parliament having voted \u00a340,000, in the summer\nof 1749 more than 2500 settlers, with their families, arrived at\nChebucto, now rechristened in honour of the Earl of Halifax.\n\nThe commander of the expedition and the chief of the new colony was\nColonel Edward Cornwallis, a man both able and lovable.  Owing to his\ncare, a beautiful city gradually arose on the shore of the splendid\nharbour, afterwards to be crowned by the famous citadel of Halifax.\n\nSoon after Cornwallis's arrival he issued a proclamation in French\nand English to the Acadians calling upon them to assist the new\nsettlers.  He did not fail to remind them that while they had so long\nenjoyed possession of their lands and the free exercise of their\nreligion, they had been secretly aiding King George's enemies.  But\nHis Majesty would forgive and forget all this if they were at once to\ntake the oath of allegiance and act in future as British subjects.\n\nSome 13,000 Frenchmen were at this time settled in the ten villages\nof Acadia.  To the northward the French had built a fort of five\nbastions which they called Beaus\u00e9jour, and another one much similar\nat Baie Verte.  Their idea was to keep up communication with\nLouisburg until they could strike a blow against the English and get\nback Acadia again into their own hands.\n\nIt was at Fort Beaus\u00e9jour that the priestly traitor Le Loutre\ncontinued to create dissatisfaction and sow the seeds of revolt\namongst the thrifty, ignorant {185} Acadians, who otherwise would\nhave been happy and contented.  Their minds filled with Le Loutre's\nthreats and promises, they refused to take the oath of allegiance,\nand even to supply the English settlers with labour, timber, or\nprovisions, though good prices for these were offered.  Cornwallis\nwarned them.  \"You will allow yourselves,\" he said, \"to be led away\nby people who find it to their interest to lead you astray.  It is\nonly out of pity for your situation and your inexperience in the ways\nof government that we condescend to reason with you.  Otherwise the\nquestion would not be reasoning, but commanding and being obeyed.\"\n\nHe was very patient with them.  He told them that they had been for\nmore than thirty-four years the subjects of the King of Great\nBritain.  \"Show now that you are grateful for his favours and ready\nto serve your King when your services are required.  Manage to let me\nhave here in ten days fifty of your people to assist the poor to\nbuild their houses to shelter them from the bad weather.  They shall\nbe paid in ready money and fed on the King's provisions.\"\n\nShortly thereafter Le Loutre descended from craft to the crime of\nbloodshed.  He aroused the native Indians of the province, known as\nthe Micmacs, against the English newcomers.  He sent them out\nstealthily to slay and to destroy.  Twenty Englishmen were surprised\nand captured at Canso while gathering hay.  Eight Indians, pretending\nto barter furs, went on board two English ships and tried to surprise\nthem.  Several of the sailors were killed.  A saw-mill had been built\nnear Halifax.  Six {186} unsuspecting men went out unarmed to hew\nsome timber.  Four were killed and scalped, one was captured, and one\nescaped.  So frequent became the Indian attacks that the men of\nHalifax formed themselves into a militia, and a sentry paced the\nstreets every night.  Cornwallis offered \u00a3100 for the head of Le\nLoutre.  Ten guineas were offered for an Indian, living or dead, or\nfor his scalp.\n\nIt now became necessary also to build a fort to counterbalance the\nFort Beaus\u00e9jour of the French.  The latter was erected on the western\nbank of a little stream called the Missiquash which the French\nclaimed as the boundary between Canada and Acadia.  Opposite, at\nChignecto, Colonel Lawrence was sent with 400 men to build the\nEnglish fort.  Le Loutre and his Acadians did their best to prevent\nthe English landing and building the fort which became known as Fort\nLawrence.  The commander of this post was named Captain Howe, a man\nof charming manners who spoke French fluently.  Howe reasoned with\nthe stubborn Acadians, many of whom saw the good sense of his\nremarks, and in a short time the captain became extremely popular.\nAll this Le Loutre saw with misgivings.  He felt that Howe was\nobtaining an influence amongst the Acadians, and so marked him down\nfor destruction.  One bright autumn day a Frenchman in the dress of\nan officer advanced to the opposite side of the stream waving a white\nhandkerchief.  Howe, ever polite, advanced to meet him.  As he did\nso, some Indians who were in ambuscade pointed their guns at him and\nshot him dead.  La Corne, the French commandant, was filled {187}\nwith shame and horror at this treacherous murder.  He would like to\nhave got rid of Le Loutre, but the priest was too strong for him.\nHis influence at Quebec was great, as it was amongst the Acadian\npeople, who dreaded his fierce anger.\n\nNotwithstanding all this, there were a number of Acadians who at last\nconsented to take the oath of allegiance to King George.  When the\nFrench Governor at Quebec heard of their doing so, he issued a\nproclamation that all the Acadians must swear loyalty to France and\nbe enrolled in the Canadian militia, or suffer the penalty of fire\nand sword.  By way of rejoinder, the English Governor of Nova Scotia\nproclaimed that if any Acadian, taking the oath of allegiance to King\nGeorge, should afterwards be found fighting amongst the French\nsoldiers, he would be shot.  Thus were the poor Acadians between two\nfires.  A considerable number of them removed their settlements to\nthe Canadian side of the boundary.  Some travelled even as far as\nQuebec.  But the majority who remained continued to cause great\nanxiety to the English authorities in Nova Scotia.\n\nIn 1754 the French planned an invasion of Nova Scotia, and Halifax\nwas filled with alarm.  For they knew that in the absence of the\nEnglish fleet, Cape Breton could send a force in a few hours to\noverrun the country.  As for provisions, were not the Acadians there\nto furnish them to the French invaders?  In forty-eight hours 15,000\narmed Acadians could be summoned to Fort Beaus\u00e9jour.  The outlying\nEnglish forts would be destroyed and {188} Halifax starved into\nsurrender.  When this had been captured, New England would be the\nnext victim.  So reasoned Lawrence and Governor Shirley of\nMassachusetts.  Taking counsel together, they resolved to strike a\nblow instantly before troops from France or Quebec could arrive.\nThey would seize Fort Beaus\u00e9jour and drive the French out of the\nisthmus.  Two thousand men were raised and the command given to an\nEnglish officer, Colonel Monckton.  On the 1st June 1755 the English\nwar-party arrived in Chignecto Bay.\n\nNo longer was the gallant La Corne commandant at Fort Beaus\u00e9jour;\nanother, dishonest and incompetent, ruled the French stronghold.  His\nname was Vergor.  Vergor thought little of patriotism, but only of\nhis purse and how much money he could make by defrauding his King.\nWhen he saw the English ships approach, Vergor issued a proclamation\nto the Acadians round about to hasten to his defence.  Fifteen\nhundred responded, and three hundred of these he took into the fort.\nThe others he ordered to retire into the woods and stealthily harass\nthe enemy.\n\nWhile the New Englanders prepared to launch their force, the French\nspent the time trying to strengthen their bastions.  The strong,\nsimple Acadians, accustomed to hard labour, were set to work.  Over\nthem stood Le Loutre in his shirt-sleeves with a pipe in his mouth,\nencouraging them to toil.  But in spite of his zeal and his promises,\nso huddled and exposed was their condition inside the fort, that many\nAcadians deserted.\n\n{189}\n\nDuly the bombardment began.  When it was at its height, and Vergor\nwas hourly expecting help from Louisburg, a letter arrived to say\nthat assistance could not come from that quarter.  An English\nsquadron was cruising in front of Louisburg harbour, and so prevented\nthe French frigates from putting out to sea.\n\nWhen this disquieting news leaked out at Beaus\u00e9jour, more Acadians\nbecame disheartened, and in spite of the threats launched against\nthem, deserted by dozens.  The bombardment continued.  Next morning\nat breakfast a shell from an English mortar crashed through the\nceiling of a casemate, killing three French officers and an English\ncaptain who had been taken prisoner.  Vergor saw that he had begun to\nstrengthen his fort too late.  There was now no hope--the guns of the\nEnglish were too near.  He despatched a flag of truce and surrendered\nFort Beaus\u00e9jour.\n\nHaving got Fort Beaus\u00e9jour, henceforward to be known as Fort\nCumberland, into his hands, the victorious Monckton sent summonses to\nthe other French stronghold at Baie Verte to surrender.  Seeing the\nsituation hopeless, the French commandant complied, and the campaign\nwas over.  Immediate danger to English settlers in Nova Scotia was\nhappily removed for ever.\n\nAnd now we come to a tragedy--the most pathetic passage in Canada's\nhistory.  It is known as the expulsion of the Acadians.  You have\nseen the dilemma in which the English found themselves.  They could\nnot trust the Acadians, nor could they {190} spare an army large\nenough to render treachery harmless.  On the other hand, they could\nnot treat all those thousands of people as rebels, for the great\nmajority of them had not fought against them at Beaus\u00e9jour and\nelsewhere, but had remained quiet in their villages.  The long\npatience of the English was now almost worn out.  Yet once again\nGovernor Lawrence urged them to take the oath.  Once again they\nstubbornly refused.\n\nWhat else could be done?  Nothing.  So the decree of exile went\nforth.  Ignorant of the trades and callings by which they could earn\na livelihood in those countries, the Acadians could not be sent to\nFrance or England.  Colonists they were, and the sons of colonists,\nsuited only for a colonial life.  On banishment they would be\ndistributed in batches amongst the English colonies along the\nAtlantic coast.\n\nIt was a terrible thing to do, and many hearts, even among the rude\nsoldiers, beat warmly for the fate of the unhappy Acadians.  Those\nwho had taken the oath were safe in their homesteads.  A number\nescaped into the woods.  As for the rest, the military officers were\ngiven their instructions.  At Beaus\u00e9jour 400 men were seized.\nWithout warning the people, Colonel Winslow marched rapidly to\nGrandpr\u00e9.  He summoned the men of the village to meet him in the\nchapel, and there he read them the decree of banishment.  In vain\nthey tried to escape; the doors were shut and guarded by English\nsoldiers.  The people of village after village were seized, until\n6000 souls had been gathered {191} together.  Many of the Acadians\nnever believed that the threat would be carried out.  For a long time\nthey had to wait for transports to bear them away.  Many had to be\nplaced on the ships by force.  Old and young, men, women, and\nchildren, were marched to the beach.  Sometimes members of the same\nfamily became separated from each other, never to meet again.  But\nthe soldiers did their best to perform their painful duty as humanely\nas they could.  No unnecessary harshness was permitted.\n\nFrom Minas, Chignecto, and Annapolis ship after ship carried away\ntheir weeping burdens to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,\nNew York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.  One of\nthe vessels, hailing from Annapolis, was captured by its cargo of\nexiles, who overpowered the crew and made themselves masters of the\nship.  This they sailed up the river St. John, where they ran it\nashore and escaped to Quebec.  A few decided to struggle southwards,\nhowever, until they reached Louisiana, where some of their\ndescendants are to this day.  Others, after months and even years,\nreturned again to Acadia, where, when Quebec and the French flag had\nfallen, they were no longer a danger to the Government.  Such of the\nAcadians who reached Quebec were treated very coldly and almost died\nof famine.  It is said that they were reduced to four ounces of bread\nper day, and sought in the gutters of Quebec to appease their hunger.\nMany were forced to eat boiled leather during the greater part of the\nwinter.  As if this were not enough, smallpox broke out amongst them,\nand {192} many entire families were destroyed.  Such, alas! was the\nfate of men \"whose attachment to their mother-country was only\nequalled by her indifference.\"\n\nThe expulsion of the Acadians may seem to us a cruel act, but it was\nforced upon the English by the hardest necessity--the necessity of\nself-protection.\n\n\n\n\n{193}\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTERRIBLE FIGHTS OVER THE BORDER\n\nThe Marquis de Jonqui\u00e8re was released at last from his English prison\nand sailed away to succeed Galissoni\u00e8re as Governor of Canada.\n\nJonqui\u00e8re's term of office is looked back upon with shame by the\npeople of Canada, but is it strange that the servants of King Louis\nthe Fifteenth in any quarter of the world where the French flag yet\nflew should be animated by low motives and a desire for gain?  See\nwhat an example their monarch set them!  Jonqui\u00e8re was an able man,\nbut he was mercenary, and thought only of lining his own pockets and\nthose of his creatures with the profits of the Canadian fur trade.\nWith him went Francis Bigot to fill the important office of\nIntendant.  Bigot's is one of the most infamous names in French\nCanadian annals.  He was a lawyer, ambitious, intelligent, and fond\nof luxury and display.  Yet with all his intelligence he fell easily\na prey to the wiles of a certain Madame P\u00e9an, who turned the King's\nservice to her private advantage.  Servants, lackeys, upstarts were,\nby her influence, placed in responsible positions.  If they happened\nto be ignorant and dishonest, it was no bar to their promotion.\nTaxes were multiplied and the {194} poor people of Canada were made\nto suffer.  Bigot and his official band of robbers held office to the\nlast moment of French dominion in Canada, but Jonqui\u00e8re died in the\nmidst of his peculations and money-making schemes.\n\nIn 1752 his successor, the Marquis Duquesne, appeared on the scene.\nBefore setting out from France, the new Governor had been ordered to\narrest the pretensions of the English to the Ohio and western region\nand drive them from the territory.  No English were to be allowed to\ncarry on trade there.  Duquesne began by sending out 300 Canadian\nMilitia to build a French fort on Lake Erie, the command of which was\nafterwards given to Legardeur de St. Pierre.  A second fort was built\ntwenty miles away.\n\nIn the meantime the English colonists continued to cast their eyes\nlovingly on this great and fertile region to the west.  Almost every\nmonth exploring parties went out, and returned full of enthusiastic\nreports of its commercial advantages.  By and by a body was formed\ncalled the Ohio Company, including amongst its members many of the\nleading men of Virginia.  To this Company King George granted 500,000\nacres, on condition that 100 families should be settled on the\nterritory within seven years and that a fort should be built.\n\nSeeing this, the Pennsylvanians became jealous of Virginia and formed\nplans to secure the Ohio region for themselves.  Each told different\nand conflicting stories to the Indians.  The Virginians tried to stir\nup suspicion against the Pennsylvanians, {195} and the Pennsylvanians\nretorted by creating distrust of the Virginians.  The result of all\nthis was that the tribes, who up to now had been faithful to England,\nbegan to look suspiciously upon the actions and the policy of both\nthese colonies.  All this, of course, was playing into the hands of\nthe French.  An English fort or two was built, but in spite of the\nefforts of the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,\nvery little was done for several years to assert English sovereignty.\nThe qualities the Indians admire are vigour and courage.  When the\ntribes saw the bold and daring efforts of Canada to Frenchify the\nwestern country, they were naturally led to range themselves on the\nCanadian side.\n\nAll that happened during the next few years, of the battles and\nskirmishes, the forts that were taken, and the massacres that were\ncarried out, does not properly belong to Canadian history.  It must,\nhowever, be mentioned that it was at this time, when Governor\nDuquesne in his citadel at Quebec was rejoicing at the prospect of\nbringing the western region under French rule, that we first hear of\na young Virginian whose name was destined to be world famous.  The\nname of this youth was George Washington.  He was only twenty-one\nyears of age when Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent him to\nexpostulate with a party of French Canadians who had just captured an\nEnglish trading fort.  Getting no satisfaction from the Commandant\nthere, young Washington went on to Fort Le Breuf, where, as we have\nseen, Legardeur de St. Pierre was in charge.  {196} St. Pierre\nreceived Washington courteously, but could not give him any\nsatisfaction.  The French were there, and there they meant to stay,\nin spite of all the English protests.  It was now plain that there\nwas serious trouble looming ahead.  All these proceedings being\nreported to England, at last, after many delays, King George's\nministers decided to send a large force to America to drive the\nFrench back across the Canadian border.  The command of this force\nwas given to General Braddock, a stern and peppery old soldier,\nwholly ignorant of Indian warfare.  Before Braddock could cross the\nAtlantic with his regiments, English and French were at each other's\nthroats in earnest.  The French had built Fort Duquesne, and Colonel\nWashington, with a force of regulars and backwoodsmen, was sent to\ncapture it.  A bloody battle was fought, in which Washington was\ndefeated; and now the Indians were more than ever on the French side.\nBut the schemes and labour of the last three years had undermined\nGovernor Duquesne's health, and a new Viceroy appeared in Quebec.\nThis was the Marquis de Vaudreuil, a native of Canada, whose father\nhad formerly also been Governor.\n\nVaudreuil entered with spirit upon the duties of his office.  He\nneeded all his faculties, for stirring times were in prospect.\nGeneral Braddock and his Englishmen were in the north awaiting\nsoldiers who were crossing the Atlantic.  The French were also\nresolved to maintain what their Canadian advance guard had won.\nField-Marshal Baron Dieskau was appointed to command six regiments of\nFrench {197} soldiers who left their native shores in a squadron of\nfourteen battleships, four frigates, and many transports.\n\nYou must remember that during all this time there had been no war.\nIf you had asked any of the French courtiers or ambassadors they\nwould have told you that perfect peace existed between the two\nnations.  But that was only a diplomatic fiction.  At all events,\nwhatever was happening in Europe between Old France and Old England,\non the other side of the great ocean New France and New England were\nengaged in a life-and-death conflict.  It was not strange that the\nhand of both mother-countries was extended to help them.  Only if\nEngland could have looked into the future five-and-twenty years and\nseen her ungrateful American children tearing down her noble old flag\nwith taunts and insults, perhaps she might not have given her help or\nspilt her blood so freely to protect America from the French.  After\nall, it may be as well that nations do not know all the evils that\nare to happen.  Their course is to do their duty manfully and\nhonestly for the present; posterity can take care of itself.\nMoreover, the separation of America from England was no real evil,\nbecause that separation was to build the foundation of Canada's\ngreatness in the British Empire and loyalty to the British crown and\nflag.\n\nOn the arrival of General Braddock the various colonial Governors\nheld a consultation.  They decided that the three forts, Duquesne,\nNiagara, and Crown Point, at the head of Lake Champlain, should be\ncaptured.  We have already seen that another {198} French fort,\nBeaus\u00e9jour, was doomed to destruction.  It was while Beaus\u00e9jour was\nbeing surrounded by Monckton and his New Englanders that the other\nexpeditions were setting out for their destinations.  Braddock\ndecided to take Fort Duquesne himself.  Governor Shirley led the\nexpedition against Niagara, and Colonel William Johnson was ordered\nto take Crown Point.  Braddock took 1000 English veterans and 1200\nVirginian Militia into the heart of the wilderness.  The commander of\nFort Duquesne was Contrecoeur.  When he was told the size of\nBraddock's army he saw little hope of standing a siege, but he might\nintercept the English soldiers in the woods.  It was a splendid\nopportunity for the kind of warfare Indians loved.  Two hundred\nFrenchmen and 500 redskins were sent to lie in ambush on the trail\nwhich Braddock would take with drums beating and fifes playing.  On a\nbeautiful July day the scarlet-coated regiments of Braddock moved on\nunconscious to their doom.  Every moment they looked to see the great\nwalls of the Fort Duquesne burst upon their gaze.  Through the forest\nthey came to the river, the Monongahela, and forded it.  Hardly had\nthey crossed, when a strange apparition sprang into the middle of the\nwide woodland path.  He wore war-paint and flaming feathers, but in\nspite of this dress he was really a French officer.  He flung his\nright arm into the air as a signal, and instantly the forest rang\nwith savage yells.  A shower of bullets, fired by unseen hands, fell\nupon the advancing English.  Astonished and taken at such a\ndisadvantage, they yet did not hesitate to return the fire.  The\nintrepid French leader who had given the {199} signal so openly, paid\nfor that act with his life; but it was not easy to fight, however\nvaliantly, against a hidden foe.  Braddock and his officers thought\nit cowardly to fight behind trees; they charged hither and thither in\npursuit of the enemy, and were mowed down like grass.  The troops\nbecame at length huddled together in a panic, shooting, if they shot\nat all, blindly and without aim.  In vain did the General's\naide-de-camp, Washington, urge him to scatter his men singly under\ncover.  Braddock, on horseback, galloped fearlessly in every\ndirection ordering the ranks to advance.  Not until four horses had\nbeen shot dead beneath him did he order a retreat.  The command had\nscarcely passed his lips ere a bullet pierced his body, and he fell,\nto rise no more.  His last words were, \"We shall know better how to\ndeal with them another time.\"  The retreat soon became a disgraceful\nflight.  Arms, baggage, and artillery were abandoned.  Yelling\nIndians pursued them, only stopping in order to scalp the helpless\nwounded.  Had it not been for the hope of plunder, very few of the\nBritish forces would have escaped death or captivity.  Cannons,\nstores, arms, and papers fell into the hands of the victorious\nFrench.  Upwards of sixty British officers had been killed, and of\nall Braddock's army less than half took refuge in the English Fort\nCumberland.\n\nTidings of Braddock's defeat were carried by the swiftest couriers to\nCanada, and there caused much rejoicing.  The Marquis de Vaudreuil\nsent the good news off at once to his King, but his letter never\nreached its destination.  The ship that bore it, _Le {200} Pierre\nAlexandre_, was overhauled by an English man-of-war in August, and\nthe captain threw overboard the bag of Canadian letters.  Not till\nnearly two months after the battle had been fought did the news of\nthe victory reach France by way of England.  But it was otherwise on\nthe American side of the border.  It put an end at once to Shirley's\nexpedition against Niagara.  For a time it was thought that the\nattack on Crown Point would also be given up.  It might have been had\nit been entrusted to another man than Sir William Johnson.  Johnson\nwas a settler on the Upper Hudson River.  He had married Mollie\nBrant, sister of the celebrated Chief Brant of the Mohawks, who had\nacquired great influence with the Iroquois tribes in his locality,\nand it was on his account that the Mohawks refrained from joining the\nFrench.  Johnson was not a skilled soldier, but he was wise and\ndaring.  Braddock's papers, which had fallen into the hands of\nGovernor Vaudreuil at Quebec, convinced him that Crown Point would be\nattacked.\n\nBaron Dieskau was sent with 3500 men, half of them Canadian farmers,\nto go to the defence of Crown Point.  Johnson had behind him some\n5000 men, raw Militia from Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Before\nattacking Crown Point, Johnson deemed it prudent to build another\nfort on the Hudson, known as Fort Edward; from this fort he marched\nto the foot of a large lake, to which he gave the name of his\nsovereign, and there built Fort George.  He was still engaged in\nbuilding it when the French general marched upon Fort Edward.  A\nscout brought {201} Johnson the news, and immediately he despatched\n1000 men to oppose his defence.  Dieskau, remembering the success of\nthe manoeuvres against the hapless Braddock, thought to repeat them\nhere.  He arranged to keep his own men out of sight amongst the trees\nand bushes until the enemy should pass by.  Had this plan been\ncarried out it is probable that none of the English forces would have\nescaped alive.  But the redskins set up their war-whoops a little too\nsoon, and the English, seeing that they were about to fall into an\nambuscade, beat an instant retreat upon Fort Edward.  Dieskau now\nmade a hasty resolve to bring the whole strength of his forces to\nbear upon Fort George.  Johnson had made this fort of great strength,\nprotecting it by forming trees into a sort of breastwork, from behind\nwhich his cannons and musketry could be used with fatal effect, but\nDieskau was not to be turned aside.  He ordered his troops to fling\nthemselves on the fort.  Legardeur de St. Pierre was killed.  Dieskau\nled forth the French veterans unsupported, leaving the Canadians and\nIndians scattered behind the trees.  These, you will remember, were\nprecisely the tactics which had led to Braddock's defeat.  The\nsoldiers advanced gallantly, and, like the English before Fort\nDuquesne, were mowed down like grass.  Dieskau's body was pierced by\nthree bullets.  A Canadian who attempted to drag him from under the\nwalls of the fort was shot dead, falling across his General's legs.\nNone now came to his assistance.  The French were beaten back and\nFort George was saved.  The New England troops left their defences.\nGeneral Dieskau, while leaning {202} against a tree, suffering from\nthe wounds he had received, was fired at and again wounded by a\nrenegade French Canadian, who some years before had deserted.\nDieskau reproached him for firing on a wounded man, but the fellow\nanswered that it was better to kill the devil than be killed by him.\nThe French commander was carried to Johnson's own tent and treated\nkindly.  The Iroquois wanted to torture him to death, but Johnson\nsternly refused.  For this victory Johnson was made a Baronet and\npresented with a purse of \u00a35000.  He had begun his career as a\nprivate in the army, and had risen to distinction from sheer force of\ncharacter.  As for Dieskau, he never recovered from his wounds, and\nalthough he was carried back to France, it was only as a bedridden\ninvalid, to die.\n\nThe French still held the positions at Niagara and Crown Point.\nThree out of the four English expeditions had failed to achieve their\npurpose, the French remained undisputed masters of the Ohio valley,\nand their victory over Braddock enabled them to attack the undefended\nfrontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania.  During the winter of 1755-6\nFrench war-parties from Fort Duquesne repeatedly attacked the\nsettlements of the English, behaving very cruelly, and killing or\ncarrying away as prisoners more than 1000 souls.  In spite of these\ntemporary successes of the French, Vaudreuil and the Indians were not\nhappy.  All this fighting had drawn the farmers away from the soil,\nand the harvest was very scanty.  The necessaries of life became very\ndear, but, worse than all, dishonesty and corruption were eating out\n{203} the very heart of Canada.  The Intendant Bigot was at the\nheight of his infamy; he descended to every trick of rascality to\nachieve his ends.\n\nTrade had almost ceased, the supply of beef given out, and the people\nwere reduced to eat horseflesh.  As the famine increased the Governor\nordered flour to be given to the people; crowds attended at the\nbakers' shops struggling to be served.  At first they were given one\npound apiece, afterwards only half a pound.  Owing to the scarcity of\nmoney, the promises to pay, written on cards, were made to pass as\ncurrency.  Bigot began to issue what were called ordinances; he\nissued these notes recklessly.  Money was sent from time to time from\nFrance, but it was not enough to fill the need.  The value of the\npaper money went down and down, and when England finally acquired\nCanada it was found that 41,000,000 livres of ordinances were in\ncirculation.  Bigot got up a Company to import commodities from\nFrance and to buy up all the grain in the country districts.  The\npoor people had to deal with this Company and to pay their charges.\nThe supplies for the King's service had to be bought from the Company\nin Quebec.  The citizens could procure bread only through the\nCompany's stores, which in the two leading cities were known as \"La\nFriponne\" or \"The Cheat.\"  It was in this way that gigantic frauds\nwere committed which paralysed the colony only to enrich a few\nindividuals.  Canada was costing France 15,000,000 francs a year, and\nFrance had already spent upon her 80,000,000 francs, but, distressed\nas she herself was, she did not grudge these sums to her colony.\n\n{204}\n\nIn the spring of 1756 the people welcomed with joy the arrival of a\nfresh fleet bearing 1000 soldiers, a supply of food and ammunition,\nand a large sum of money.  Almost as great a boon King Louis bestowed\nupon Canada when he sent her the new Commander-in-Chief of the\nCanadian army, the Marquis de Montcalm.  This hero was forty-six\nyears old, a splendid soldier, of high character, culture, and\ndetermination.  Could Canada be saved to the flag of the lilies?  If\nso, surely it was the virtuous Montcalm who could achieve this great\ntask.\n\n\n\n\n{205}\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nHOW THE GALLANT WOLFE TOOK QUEBEC\n\nIf we were to tell the story of Canada faithfully for the next few\nyears, it would be only of further battles, sieges, skirmishes, and\nmassacres between the French and English colonists, aided by savage\nIndian warriors.\n\nNever before had Canada boasted so many French soldiers as were now\narrayed under the command of Montcalm.  He fell upon Oswego and\ndestroyed it, taking 1400 prisoners and great booty.  Against him was\nsent the English Earl of Loudoun, no match for the French commander,\nand afraid to strike an overwhelming blow.  Loudoun at last sailed\naway for Halifax with his army, thinking to make another attack by\nand by on Louisburg, still in French hands.  A terrible mistake this\nof Loudoun's, and just the opportunity Montcalm looked for.  The\nFrench had built a strong fortress at Ticonderoga, and now that the\ndanger of Loudoun's army was removed, 6000 of their troops moved\nswiftly out of the fortress and attacked Fort William Henry.\n\nUndaunted by the great force brought against him, the commander,\nColonel Munro, answered Montcalm's summons to surrender by saying\nthat he would {206} defend his post to the death.  The French planted\ntheir guns and the siege commenced.  Day and night the wooden\nramparts of Fort William Henry were splintered by Montcalm's cannon\nballs.  Munro, brave Scotsman that he was, hoped vainly that the\nEnglish garrison at Fort Edward would come to his rescue, but their\ncommander was afraid to send them over.  He knew that there were\nnearly 2000 bloodthirsty redskins roaming at large in the woods.\nThey dreaded the tomahawk and scalping-knife more than the sword and\nmusket.  Well did they know what their fate would be if they fell\ninto the hands, wounded or prisoners, of those relentless savages.\n\nSo at last one sweltering August day Munro realised that no hope\nremained.  He could hold out no longer.  His fort was nearly a mass\nof ruins, and reluctantly he hoisted the white flag asking Montcalm\nfor terms of capitulation.\n\nThe French commander allowed the brave Munro and his soldiers to\nmarch out with the honours of war, pledging himself to protect them\nfrom his savage followers.  Alas!  Montcalm had reckoned without his\nhost.  He might as well have tried to fetter the summer breeze that\nblew across Lake George as to balk his redskin allies of their\ndestined prey.  They thirsted for the blood of the English.  They\ncould not understand the French code of honour.  Of terms of\ncapitulation they knew nothing.  The soldiers of the garrison, with\ntheir wives and children, with a French escort, filed slowly through\nthe woods on their way to a refuge at Fort Edward.  Suddenly the\nIndians, sending up a terrible war-yell, darted {207} upon them.  One\nof the most dreadful massacres in history now took place.  The\nsoldiers could do nothing to defend themselves, because they had\ngiven up their muskets to the French.  They were scalped by dozens\nand hundreds.  Helpless women were brained by hatchets and little\nchildren were dashed to death against the trunks of trees.\n\nAt the risk of their lives, Montcalm and his officers strove to save\nthe fugitives, but not until nearly 1000 had been slain did they\nsucceed.  Montcalm was pale with horror at the awful disgrace which\nhad stained the French name.  He had given his word that the garrison\nshould march out unharmed, and now his brave foes were lying in heaps\nof mangled corpses in the heart of this once peaceful forest.\n\nIn fear lest he should punish them in his great anger, the\ntreacherous redskins slunk away with their scalps and plunder.  Such\nwas the massacre of Fort William Henry.  Afterwards the fort itself\nwas levelled to the ground.\n\nThis was not the only disaster the English suffered.  Twelve thousand\nsoldiers and eighteen battleships were sent to capture Louisburg, but\nafter cruising about for many weeks and losing several vessels, the\nweak and cowardly Lord Loudoun did not venture upon an attack, and\nsailed back to England to meet the contempt of his fellow-countrymen.\n\nYou can see what a critical period this was in the history of Canada.\nTo many it seemed a critical period in the life of the English\ncolonists in America.  {208} But the French triumph was soon to be\ncut short.  A new and vigorous minister was called by King George to\nhis councils.  The energy and fire of the great William Pitt put new\nlife into the hearts of the English people in every part of the\nEmpire.  Crushing his right hand down upon the map of the New World,\nPitt decreed that French dominion in Canada must be brought to a\nclose.  Easy it was to say this.  Other English ministers had said it\nbefore, but their misfortune was that they did not know how to make\nthe right plans, or to find the right men to carry out their plans.\nThey could not kindle the soldiers into a flame of enthusiasm by\ntheir zeal and eloquence.  Pitt could do this.  He could choose his\ngenerals for their worth and fighting qualities, and when he wanted a\nlive ardent soldier, upon whom he could rely, he chose James Wolfe.\nWho would have dreamt that in the long, gaunt figure, with pale face\nand straight red hair, that shuffled into the minister's ante-chamber\nin the spring of 1758, was the future conqueror of Quebec!\n\nGeneral Wolfe was then thirty-two years old.  His appearance little\nrevealed his character.  A born soldier, he had already distinguished\nhimself on the battlefields of Europe.  In those sleepy days, before\nPitt came, his fellow-officers could not understand Wolfe's\nenthusiasm.  One of them told King George that he believed Wolfe was\nmad.  \"Then,\" cried the King, remembering the defeats his army had\nsuffered, \"I only hope he will bite some of my generals!\"\n\nCourt influence succeeded in giving the nominal command to General\nAmherst, but Wolfe was the {209} real leader.  With Amherst and Wolfe\nsailed a powerful fleet under Admiral Boscawen.  By June 1758 the\nwhole of this great force drew up before the fortress of Louisburg,\nwithin whose walls was a population of 4000 souls.  The garrison\nconsisted of the bravest men the French could furnish, veterans of\nmany battlefields.  The Commandant was Drucour.  But it was in vain\nnow that the French defended their splendid fortress.  After an\nheroic defence, Drucour was at last obliged to surrender, and all the\ngarrison were sent to England as prisoners of war.  Louisburg would\ngive the English trouble and anxiety no more.  As if it were but a\ntiny sandcastle built by children on the seashore, these mighty stone\nbastions were swept away.  After the surrender the English soldiers\nwere ordered to the duty of destroying the stronghold of France in\nCape Breton, pulling it to pieces with pickaxe and crowbar, filling\nthe crevices with gunpowder, until at last hardly a vestige remained.\nIf you ask to see Louisburg to-day, you will be shown only a rolling\nmeadow upon which sheep graze peacefully.\n\nWolfe was now eager to push on to Quebec, but he had to wait nearly a\nyear.  In the meantime the French had triumphed on Lake Champlain.\nGeneral Abercrombie had tried to take Fort Ticonderoga with 15,000\nmen, but Abercrombie was no such soldier as James Wolfe.  He had,\nhowever, with him Lord Howe, a brave and able young officer, who was\nthe second in command.  Had not a stray bullet struck him down on his\nway to the battlefield, the story of Ticonderoga might have had a\ndifferent ending.  He {210} was beloved and trusted by his soldiers,\nand when he died their courage seemed to die away also.\n\nAbercrombie foolishly thought that by his superior numbers he could\nforce Ticonderoga without cannon, but Montcalm knew his strength.  He\nwas surprised when he saw the English general hurling his soldiers in\nfour strong columns upon the front of his fort.  It was a battle in\nwhich superior numbers, bravery, and perseverance were thrown away.\nSix times did the English doggedly come on, and six times did the\ncannon of the French sow carnage amongst them.  There was a regiment\nof Highlanders fighting like tigers, some of them hacking the wooden\nstocks of the outposts with their claymores until a cannon-ball\ncarried away their limbs.  When at last, at the close of that long\nbloody day, Abercrombie drew off his troops, he left 2000 English\ncorpses in the glacis outside the walls of the French fort.\n\nWas it strange that the hearts of the survivors turned against him?\nthat they did not conceal their rejoicing when the King, after this\nfearful defeat, relieved Abercrombie of his command?\n\nIt was not, however, all a tale of repulses and humiliation for the\nEnglish.  Colonel Bradstreet had crossed Lake Ontario and captured\nFort Frontenac.  General Forbes had made the French abandon Fort\nDuquesne.  On its site a new stronghold arose, to which the name of\nFort Pitt was given.  Here in our day is the great and flourishing\ncity of Pittsburg.  This was not all.  In the spring of the fateful\nyear 1759, Fort Niagara fell.\n\n{211}\n\nThe news of the capture of Louisburg, which caused such rejoicings in\nAmerica and England, cast a terrible gloom over French Canada.\nQuebec, that splendid stronghold which had defied the English, was\nnow their last hope.  The town and citadel on the summit of Cape\nDiamond which Champlain had founded and Frontenac guarded so well,\nseemed to laugh at cannon and bayonet.  Stern was the task set before\nthe man who should presume to scale those heights and force the proud\ncity to surrender.  Behind its confident aspect Quebec was the scene\nof despair and corruption.  Amongst the officials reckless\nextravagance reigned.  While Canada's fate was trembling in the\nbalance, the Intendant Bigot, who should have been a pattern to the\ncommunity, spent his nights in riot and gambling.  Although the King\nhad forbidden games of hazard, Bigot would often play amongst a party\nof forty people, losing many thousands of francs in a few hours.  The\nKing sent out his gold to help Canada, the people crushed by taxation\ngave theirs, but all the money found its way into the pocket of Bigot\nand his accomplices.\n\nProvisions and clothing that should have gone to the hungry,\nshivering French soldiers were sold at La Friponne to reap a profit.\nDistant forts held bravely for the French cried aloud for succour,\nbut the scoundrelly Intendant put them off with excuses, and the\nmoney intended for them was devoted to gaming and dissipation.  In\ntwo years alone Bigot's robberies amounted to nearly a million pounds\nsterling.  A time of retribution was at hand.  Montcalm wept at the\nvices and irregularities around him, but, {212} being only military\ncommander, he could do little or nothing.  The Governor, De\nVaudreuil, answered his warnings haughtily, for he was jealous of\nMontcalm.  So the end approached.\n\nNever had England sent out an army so full of zeal, courage, and\ndiscipline as the army which sailed away from her shores under Wolfe\nto take Quebec.  Their commander well knew that he had to attack one\nof the strongest forts in the world, defended by all the soldiers\nthat Montcalm could muster, fighting in defence of their country,\ntheir flag, and their religion.  Wolfe had only 9000 men against the\n18,000 French Canadians, but he rejoiced in his Englishmen.  \"If\nvalour could make amends for want of numbers,\" he wrote to Pitt, \"we\nshall succeed.\"\n\nOn the first day of June 1759, the ships sailed out of the harbour of\nHalifax for the river St. Lawrence.  The harbour rang with the cheers\nof the soldiers, and the bands struck up the old melody \"The Girl I\nleft behind Me.\"  When they reached the mighty river they ran great\ndanger for want of a pilot.  A French prisoner on board began\nwringing his hands, declaring that they would all go to the bottom.\nAn old British captain of a transport laughed in his face: \"I will\nshow you,\" he roared with an oath, \"that an Englishman shall go where\na Frenchman dare not show his nose.\"  And he steered his ship through\nin safety.  The boast was no empty one.  Vaudreuil wrote to France to\nsay \"that the enemy have passed sixty ships of war where we dare not\nrisk a vessel of 100 tons by night or day.\"\n\nIn Quebec, Montcalm during the long days of {213} early summer\nawaited the coming of the English.  Not a man was idle.  Drilling and\nbuilding of earthworks filled up nearly every hour of the day.\nMontcalm's 18,000 men were as strongly entrenched as Nature and the\nart of war could make them.  On the 27th of June the French in Quebec\nsnatched their first glimpse of the masts of the English battleships.\nA few hours later the English fleet had halted before the Isle of\nOrleans, and Wolfe and his red-coated infantry landed on its shores.\nMounting the point of land to the west, the young general took out a\ntelescope and turned it towards the heights of Quebec, four miles\naway.  As he scanned the mighty rock he felt that it was indeed a\nhard task which England had sent him to accomplish.\n\nVaudreuil did not wait for the English commander to make the first\nmove; he attempted to destroy the English fleet with fire-ships.  One\ndark night a number of old vessels, filled with pitch, gunpowder,\nbombs, and antique cannon, packed to the muzzle, were towed out into\nthe channel and set on fire to float to the English fleet.  The whole\ncountryside seemed to burst in lurid flames, and a hail of grapeshot\nand bullets flew in all directions.  But the English soldiers were\nnot frightened; they rowed out in their boats, grappling courageously\nwith the flaming monsters, and towed them to shore.  Vaudreuil's\nexplosive experiments proved a total failure.  During that very night\nWolfe was busy with pen and paper writing his first manifesto to the\nCanadian people.  \"We are sent by King George,\" he said, \"to conquer\nthis province, but not to make war upon women and {214} children, the\nministers of religion, or industrious people.  We lament the\nsufferings which our invasion may inflict upon you, but if you remain\nneutral we proffer safety to person and property, with freedom in\nreligion.  We are masters of the river; no succour can reach you from\nFrance; General Amherst with a large army has sailed to the southern\nfrontier.  Your cause is hopeless, your valour useless.  Your nation\nhas been guilty of great cruelties to our unprotected settlers, but\nwe seek no revenge, we offer you the sweets of peace with the honours\nof war.  England in her strength will befriend you; France in her\nweakness leaves you to your fate.\"  But although the English\ncommander spoke so confidently, he had many misgivings in his heart.\nIf Amherst did not get through to Montreal and down the St. Lawrence\nby the autumn, it meant the winter would be lost, and where was he to\nfind food for his troops?  How could he face amidst the snow and ice\nthe 18,000 men of Montcalm, as brave and as hardy as his own?\n\nVictory was only to be won by quick and vigorous action.  Seizing the\nheights of Point L\u00e9vis opposite Quebec, Wolfe set up his batteries so\nas to bombard the city.  He planted a large force on the north bank\nof the river St. Lawrence, near the Falls of Montmorency, leaving\nsome regiments encamped on the Isle of Orleans.  Fleet and army now\nonly waited a given signal to attack the city.  On board the fleet\nwere some, as yet unknown, officers, who were destined to rise to\ngreat fame in the world.  A young midshipman there was, named Jervis,\nwho became the great English Admiral Earl St. Vincent.  Palliser\n{215} too, who figures in history as Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, was\non board the frigate _Mercury_.  On another vessel was Robison,\ndestined to be a noted Professor of Science in Edinburgh, and the\npartner of James Watt, inventor of the steam-engine.  The humble\nsailing master of the _Mercury_ was none other than James Cook, who\nbecame the most famous scientific navigator that ever left the shores\nof England.\n\nQuickly did the fire of the English ships, joined to that of the\nbatteries, work destruction upon the outer walls of the grim\nfortress.  In the lower town the buildings were soon reduced to\nruins, and even in the upper town many dangerous fires broke out.\nIndeed, before the siege was brought to a close, more than 500\nbuildings fell a prey to the flames, including public and private\nstructures, the Cathedral and other churches.  Yet while the summer\nwore away, in spite of Wolfe's terrible bombardment, Montcalm played\na waiting game.  Wolfe was in despair.  By the end of July half of\nQuebec was shattered away by his cannon-balls, and still the French\ncommander could not be drawn out to a battle; so the Englishman\ndecided to attack the enemy at close quarters, just on the other side\nof the river Montmorency.  But a fierce repulse awaited him; 12,000\nFrench soldiers poured a storm of bullets against the brave\ngrenadiers, who tried to get a footing on the river slopes.  They\nwere beaten back, 500 of Wolfe's best troops having fallen in the\nfatal charge.  Wolfe fretted with impatience; he knew the time was\nprecious.  If he could only draw Montcalm out to battle!  But\nMontcalm was wise; he refused to be drawn.\n\n{216}\n\n\"You may destroy the town,\" came the French message under the flag of\ntruce, \"but you will never get inside it.\"\n\n\"I will take Quebec,\" replied Wolfe, \"if I stay here until November.\"\n\nOne plan only now remained: it was to creep up in the night and scale\nthe heights.  It was a desperate move, but the only one that remained\nthat offered a chance of success.  In the midst of his plans the\nyoung English commander fell ill.  He had always been of a delicate\nconstitution, ever struggling with sickness.  Days elapsed, but his\nheroic spirit conquered, and on the 11th of September the English\ntroops were directed to be ready to land and attack the enemy.  While\na portion of the troops made a feint to the eastward to disguise\nWolfe's intentions from the enemy, Wolfe and his troops drifted up\nstream with the tide.  When the tide began to ebb, boats full of\nsoldiers were cast off, reaching in safety a little cove three miles\nabove Quebec.\n\nIn the first boat to land was the young general himself, who, as the\noarsmen plied their muffled oars, murmured softly to his officers,\nthe famous lines in Gray's _Elegy_:--\n\n  The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,\n    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,\n  Await alike the inevitable hour--\n    The paths of glory lead but to the grave.\n\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" said Wolfe, \"I would rather have written those lines\nthan take Quebec.\"\n\nAs the boat's prow touched the shore, the sentinel's {217} challenge\nrang out in the darkness, \"Qui vive.\"  To hesitate was to be lost.\nInstantly a Scotch captain, who spoke French perfectly, answered, \"La\nFrance!\"\n\n\"A quel r\u00e9giment?\"\n\n\"De la Heine,\" replied the Highlander boldly.\n\nHis quickness averted a calamity.  The sentry was satisfied; his\ncomrades had been expecting provision boats from Montreal, and he\nthought they had arrived.  Sentry after sentry was passed by Wolfe\nand his men with the same result.\n\nUp the dread heights the English soldiers clambered.  Day was just\ndawning when they reached the top.  They could see a cluster of\nFrench tents close at hand, and, dashing forward, they captured their\noccupants.  This was the first outpost.  The victors' huzzas rang\nout, and at this signal all Wolfe's red-coated battalions began\nclimbing the cliffs, and soon joined their companions on the top.\nTheir eyes beheld a great plain stretched out.\n\nIn the early days of the colony Master Abraham Martin had owned this\ntract of ground, which he had planted with corn.  The people called\nit the Plains of Abraham, and Wolfe now chose it for his battlefield.\nOn one side of him was the garrison of Quebec, startled by hearing of\nhis mad adventure; on the opposite side was another French army under\nBougainville; behind was the edge of the steep cliff and the river.\n\nMontcalm, deceived by the firing of the English fleet, was far away.\nBut at six o'clock he mounted and galloped thither as fast as his\nhorse would carry {218} him.  Two miles away he could discern the red\nranks of the British soldiers.\n\n\"This is a serious business,\" he said coolly, riding over the bridge\nof the St. Charles to gather his troops for the fray.  Fervently they\nrallied at his command, never doubting but that they would sweep\nWolfe and his men wholly from the heights.  The eyes of the Indians,\nas did their tomahawks, glittered with expectancy; as did too, the\neyes and bayonets of the white-coated battalions of Old France and\nthe native Canadians, whose homes were at stake.\n\nBrandishing his sword and again putting spurs to his noble war-horse,\nMontcalm led his ranks against the English infantry.\n\n[Illustration: Wolfe's Army scaling the Cliff at Quebec.  1759]\n\nWolfe waited until the French were only forty paces away, and then\nfrom kilted Highlander and English red-coat poured one tremendous\nsheet of flame.  The French staggered, but still came on.  Another\nfatal volley met them, inflicting awful slaughter.  As they wavered,\nWolfe flourished his sword, and amidst the weird uproar of the\nbagpipes, the shrieks and groans of the wounded, the war-whoops of\nthe Indians, the mad shouting of the English, and fierce slogan of\nthe Highlanders, Wolfe pushed on over dead and dying, behind a moving\nwall of bayonets.  A bullet shattered his wrist, another pierced his\nbody, but he kept on; a third lodged in his breast, and Wolfe fell\nupon the ground.\n\nTwo or three stalwart grenadiers bore their beloved general quickly\nto the rear.  \"There is no need for a surgeon,\" he said; \"it is all\nover with me!\"\n\n{219}\n\nOne of the grenadiers looked up and cried out, \"They run!  See how\nthey run!\"\n\nThe dying Wolfe opened his eyes and murmured, \"Who run?\"\n\n\"The enemy, sir; they give way everywhere.\"\n\nThe general roused himself by a superhuman effort.\n\n\"Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton,\" he said in quick terms of\ncommand.  \"Tell him to march Webb's regiment down to Charles River to\ncut off their retreat from the bridge.\"  Then, turning on his side,\nhe whispered faintly, \"Now, God be praised, I die in peace.\"\n\nIn a few moments the gallant Wolfe was no more.\n\nHow fared it meanwhile with his brave enemy, Montcalm?  As he\ngalloped about on horseback the tide of French fugitives pressed him\nback towards the gates of Quebec.  He was nearing the walls when a\nshot passed through his body.  Mortally wounded though he was, he\nkept himself seated in the saddle, two soldiers supporting him on\neither side.\n\nAs his life-blood streamed from Montcalm's body down his horse's\nlimbs, the frightened crowd of women within the gates exclaimed in\ngrief and terror, \"The Marquis is killed! the Marquis is killed!\"\n\n\"It is nothing, it is nothing,\" replied the dying Montcalm: \"do not\nbe troubled for me, my good friends.\"\n\nWhen, some hours later, his spirit had breathed his last, Montcalm\nwas buried under the floor of the Ursuline Convent.  No workman could\nbe found during the panic to make a coffin, and so an {220} old\nservant gathered a few boards and nailed them together into a rough\nbox.  No bell tolled, no cannon fired a salute as Montcalm was laid\nto eternal rest.\n\nNot thus was the funeral of the victorious Wolfe.  His body was\nembalmed and borne across the sea to England, where the greatest and\nmost powerful gathered to do him honour and reverence at his funeral\nin Westminster Abbey.\n\nYet history has struck the balance.  To-day in Quebec, marking the\nscene of the death-struggle on that fateful September day, a single\nshaft of stone rises to heaven to commemorate at the same time a\nvictory and a defeat.  On the one side is graven the single word\n\"MONTCALM\" and on the other \"WOLFE.\"\n\n\n\n\n{221}\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nL\u00c9VIS AND THE NOBLES RETIRE TO OLD FRANCE\n\nIt was while Montcalm, high-spirited and valorous, yet lay dying,\nthat Vaudreuil, now quartered on the Beauport Road, called a council\nof war.  Tumult, fear, and confusion reigned.  Montcalm, seeing the\nsands of his life fast running out, despatched a brief reply.  \"You\nhave a threefold choice,\" he said: \"to fight the English again, to\nretreat to Jacques Cartier, or to surrender the colony.\"\n\nOver which choice to make, Vaudreuil hesitated.  With Bougainville's\ntroops he could muster 3000 men.  These added to the Quebec garrison,\nthe Canadian militia and artillery at Beauport, would give him a\nforce far larger than that which had been mustered by the heroic\nWolfe on the Plains of Abraham.  When he asked the advice of the\ncouncil of war he found, to his chagrin, that all his officers voted\nfor retreat.  \"In vain,\" he reported to the King, \"I told these\ngentlemen that we were superior to the enemy, and should beat them if\nwe mustered.  Still I could not at all change their opinion, and my\nlove for the service and for the colony made me subscribe to the\nvoice of the council.  In fact, if I had attacked the English against\nthe advice of the principal officers, {222} their ill-will would have\nexposed me to the risk of losing the battle and the colony also.\"\nBut the real reason why the officers were against fighting afterwards\nappeared.  It was that they thought their commander, Vaudreuil, unfit\nto lead them to the fray.  So Quebec, which might even now have been\nprevented from falling into the hands of the English, was left to its\nfate.  Weary and footsore, almost dead for want of sleep, leaving\ntheir cannon, tents, and provisions behind them, Vaudreuil and the\nBeauport army set out for the distant hill of Jacques Cartier, where\nthey were certain of a refuge that very night.  Never was such\ndisorder seen before.  \"It was not a retreat,\" wrote one of the\nofficers afterwards, \"but an abominable flight, with such disorder\nand confusion that, had the English but known it, 300 men sent after\nus would have been sufficient to cut all our army to pieces.  The\nsoldiers were all mixed, scattered, dispersed, and running as hard as\nthey could, as if the English army were at their heels.\"\n\nBut the English, under General Townsend, were not so foolish as to\nrisk the fruits of their victory by making an attempt to pursue the\nFrench across the St. Charles River.  The people of Quebec, realising\nthat they were deserted by the army, without provisions or munitions\nof war, and that the defences were insufficient to repulse a\nbombardment and assault, wished to surrender at once.  Seeing that\nthey refused to fight the enemy, the commandant, Ram\u00e9say, could only\nsend out a flag of truce to the hostile camp and begin negotiations\nfor capitulation.\n\n{223}\n\nBut within the walls of Quebec dwelt a doughty patriot, the\ntown-major, named Joann\u00e8s.  He called upon the soldiers and citizens\nto fight with their last breath, to die as Montcalm had done rather\nthan let Quebec pass into the hands of the enemy.  In his rage at the\ncowardice about him he beat two of the garrison with the flat of his\nsword.  When the white flag was raised Joann\u00e8s, the bravest man in\nthe city, instantly hauled it down with his own hands.  But alas! it\nwas but fighting a battle against fate.  His superior officer,\nRam\u00e9say, commanded him sternly to repair to the English camp and get\nthe best terms of peace he could.  Through the pelting rain the\ntown-major of Quebec, his head thrown back defiantly, his hand on his\nempty scabbard, sought the quarters of General Townsend.  There he\nspun out the hours in a parley, hoping against hope that the recreant\nVaudreuil would return and try to succour the city.  Joann\u00e8s kept up\nthe negotiations as long as he could.  Losing patience at last,\nTownsend sent him back to the French general with the message that if\nQuebec were not surrendered before eleven o'clock, he would capture\nit by assault.  Ram\u00e9say, seeing all was lost, put his name to the\narticles of capitulation, and Joann\u00e8s, with a heavy heart, carried\nthe document back to the English commander.  Scarcely had he put the\nwalls of the city he loved behind him, when a troop of sixty Canadian\nhorsemen appeared with the news that the Chevalier de L\u00e9vis was on\nthe way with troops and provisions to rescue Quebec.  The tidings\ncame too late!  The French general had surrendered; he would not now\nbreak his word.  {224} Ram\u00e9say dreaded too much the vengeance of the\nEnglish in case the news borne by the sixty horsemen was not true,\nbut false.  How shall we picture the feelings of the town-major\nJoann\u00e8s?  When he returned he hid himself in a cellar and wept, while\nthe blood-red cross of St. George was flaunted from the summit of the\ncitadel.  Thus at length, on the 18th September 1759, the capital\ntown and rock-bound fortress of New France fell into the hands of the\nEnglish.\n\nGeneral Townsend recognised too well the danger of his position not\nto grant favourable terms to the enemy, whose troops and sailors were\nallowed to march out of the garrison with the honours of war and\ngranted passage in English ships to France.  The persons and property\nof the inhabitants were promised protection, and their religion was\nnot to be interfered with.\n\nBut now the question was with the English, should they keep Quebec or\ndestroy it, as they had destroyed Louisburg?  For a moment the city's\nfate trembled in the balance, and then it was resolved to keep it.\nTen battalions of the artillery and a company of Rangers were ordered\nto remain behind and through the long Canadian winter hold the ruins\nof Quebec against the efforts of L\u00e9vis and the French, for little\nmore than ruins much of Quebec now was.  It needed enormous labour to\nmake the town secure against the enemy, or even habitable.\n\nWhile Townsend sailed away to England, leaving General Murray in\ncharge, many working parties of soldiers were distributed through the\ntown to clear {225} the streets of rubbish and to repair the\nbuildings for occupation.  The palace of the Intendant was turned\ninto winter quarters for an English regiment, which found there\nquantities of unused firearms, iron-mongery, blankets, cloths and\nlinen, trinkets and lace, furs, wine, sugar, moccasins, and other\nstores.  These were seized upon with alacrity.  Nearly 7000 English,\nwith insufficient food and clothing, made ready to face the\napproaching winter.  Outposts in the neighbourhood of Sillery, St.\nFoye, and Lorette were established in order to guard against a\nsurprise and to cover the safety of the detachments sent out to\ngather fuel in the surrounding woods.  Canadian winters are cold, and\nthe English soldiers were not yet hardened to their severities, and\nthis gathering of firewood became a very serious business.  Each\ndetachment could make only one trip a day to the forest, returning\nwith a fair-sized load on a sled drawn by hand.  The soldiers were\nobliged to go armed as they worked, and keep a sharp lookout for fear\nof attacks by the Indians, who were always skulking in the\nneighbourhood.  Winter this year set in even earlier than usual, and\nthe brave soldiers who had served in India and Europe were now face\nto face with an enemy more terrible than the French.  Their faces,\nhands, and feet were often frost-bitten, and on some occasions half\nthe force of a detachment would be borne back entirely disabled.  As\nif this were not enough, fever and scurvy prevailed in the garrison\nthe whole winter long, and the brave fellows perished by scores and\nhundreds.  Those who died were buried in the deep snow to await\ninterment {226} in the spring, for the ground was fast locked by\nfrost.\n\nMeanwhile the inhabitants of the province were disarmed and required\nto take the oath of allegiance to King George.  But they could not\nall be trusted.  The English lived in constant insecurity, and during\nthe winter many rumours came of a projected attack by the French, and\nseveral skirmishes took place.  Once in November it was reported that\nL\u00e9vis was about to march upon Quebec with 15,000 men the next month,\nfor had he not sworn an oath to eat his Christmas dinner under the\nFrench flag within the walls?  So the half-frozen English, each man\nhugging his musket in his frost-bitten fingers, waited for the enemy.\nThe enemy had a fine sense of humour.  In February a party of French\nand Indians sent a message to the English officers that a large\ncompany of expert hairdressers were prepared to wait upon them\nwhenever their services were required!  Needless to say, the English\ntook no notice of this handsome offer to deprive them of their scalps.\n\nNot until April did the long-expected battle occur.  For months L\u00e9vis\nhad been gathering his forces, and now, with an army of 8000 men and\nmany redskins, he set out to recover the lost city of Quebec.  At the\nvillage of St. Foye, five or six miles away, he halted.  So wary had\nbeen his approach, that Murray and his garrison were ignorant of\ndanger.  They might have learnt it too late but for a strange and\nfortunate accident.  It so happened that a frigate called the\n_Racehorse_ had wintered in the {227} dock at Quebec Lower town.  On\nboard this frigate soon after midnight the watch heard a faint cry of\ndistress proceeding from the river.  He ran at once to the captain,\nwho, believing that some one was drowning, ordered a boat to be put\nout to save him.  Guided by the cries, the sailors found a man lying\non a large cake of ice, wet through and half dead with cold.\nCarrying him to the ship and pouring hot cordials down his throat,\nthe man at last found strength to mutter that he was a soldier in\nL\u00e9vis's army; he and his companions had been trying to land just\nabout Cap Rouge, but the boat had overturned, and he was the sole\nsurvivor.  His life had been saved by his clambering upon a cake of\nfloating ice.  \"The army of L\u00e9vis?\" echoed the puzzled ship captain.\n\"Just so,\" answered the soldier; \"there are 12,000 of us.  We are\ncoming to retake Quebec.\"\n\nAlthough it was between two and three o'clock in the morning, the\nrescued soldier was wrapped up warmly, slung in a hammock, and\ncarried straightway up the heights to the commander's quarters.\nGeneral Murray was fast asleep, but, having risen and heard the man's\nstory, he ordered the troops under arms on the instant.  By daybreak\nhalf the English garrison, with ten pieces of cannon, were hurled on\nthe French columns at St. Foye.  But in his rashness and thirst for\nrenown, Murray had not counted well the cost.  The French had thrice\nas many soldiers, and although the English fought gallantly and\ndoggedly, they were compelled at last to fall back.  When the English\ncolumns withdrew again to the city, they had left 1000 dead and dying\nmen on the field of St. Foye.\n\n{228}\n\nThen began what Murray dreaded most--a new siege of Quebec.  Weak his\nmen were with sickness, and feeble with toil, fighting, and hunger,\nbut their spirit was as unquenchable as ever.  While L\u00e9vis set up his\nsiege guns in position and began a steady bombardment of the city,\nthe English garrison worked unceasingly, officers and privates\nhandling spade and pickaxe in the same trenches together.  Not a man\nof them all was idle.  Even the sick in hospital filled sandbags or\nmade wadding for the cannons.  The English fire grew hotter every day\nfrom the 150 cannon which had been planted upon the walls.\n\nAll depended now on the reinforcements of troops expected by both\nsides from England and from France.  Whichever arrived first would\nsettle the question of victory.  It was on a bright May morning, as\nMurray sat pondering over his despatches at headquarters, that an\nofficer burst in to tell him that a ship of war had been sighted far\ndown the river.  The news spread through the town; all were divided\nbetween hope and fear.  Was this warship French or was she English?\nEvery eye was strained on the approaching ship, which displayed no\ncolours at her mast-head.  Slowly, slowly she drew near, and then\nhurrah! there unfurled to the wind the crimson flag of England, and\nthe first boom of a salute of twenty-one guns reverberated across the\nmighty river.  She turned out to be the _Lowestoft_ bringing news\nthat a British squadron was at the mouth of the St. Lawrence and\nwould reach Quebec in a few days.  \"The gladness of the troops,\"\nwrote home one of the {229} garrison, \"is not to be expressed.  Both\nofficers and soldiers mounted the parapet in the face of the enemy\nand huzzaed, with their hats in the air, for almost an hour.  The\ngarrison, the enemy's camp, the bay resounded with our shouts and the\nthunder of our artillery, and the gunners were so elated that they\ndid nothing but load and fire for a considerable time.\"\n\nBut if a French squadron had been first, what a shock to their\nspirits, what a test of their endurance, which they might not have\noverborne!\n\nOn the heart of the gallant Chevalier de L\u00e9vis this news fell, and\nbrought a deadly chill.  He withdrew his troops hastily, and it was\nsoon seen that the French ships, which had wintered high up the\nriver, were fated to destruction.  Of these there were six\naltogether, two frigates, two small armed ships, and two schooners.\nCommanding them was a daring officer named Vauquelin.  Although\nVauquelin fought with dogged determination till all his powder and\nlead was spent, although he refused to lower his colours, the English\nmariners overpowered him and made him their prisoner.  But the\nEnglish knew a brave man when they saw one, and Vauquelin they\ntreated with distinguished honour, inviting him to a banquet and\ntoasting him loudly as a hero.\n\nThis was the deathblow to the hopes of L\u00e9vis.  True, he had Montreal\nstill in his hands, but what was Montreal without ammunition and\nprovisions, with the enemy clamouring at the very gates?  The\nCanadian Militia had deserted to their homes, and Vaudreuil and De\nL\u00e9vis had to defend the city with only 2000 disheartened troops;\nwhile against them {230} was ranged a force of 17,000 English.\nFurther resistance was useless, and so on the 8th of September\nVaudreuil surrendered to General Murray, and Canada and all its\ndependencies passed to the British Crown.\n\nHopeless as the situation had been for a full year past, ever since\nWolfe had laid down his life at the moment of victory on the Plains\nof Abraham, there were some amongst the French to whom the thought of\ndefeat was unbearable pain.  Invincible in spirit, we see emerging\nthrough the mist of a century and a half, the courtly, stalwart,\nchivalrous figure of the Chevalier de L\u00e9vis.  To be conquered while\nhis right arm could grip the handle of a sword was to him unutterable\ndisgrace.  When he heard that his superior, Vaudreuil, had agreed\nthat the French troops should lay down their arms and serve no longer\nduring the war, his manly cheek flushed and he insisted that the\nnegotiations should be broken off.  \"If,\" he said, \"the Marquis de\nVaudreuil must surrender, let us at least withdraw with the troops to\nthe Island of St. Helen in order to uphold there, on our own behalf,\nthe honour of the King's army.\"  But this step Vaudreuil could not,\nof course, permit, and the Chevalier could only grind his teeth in\nmortification and prepare to bid the Canada he loved an eternal\nfarewell.\n\nCanada was now a British colony, and those members of the old French\nCanadian families who were unwilling to become British subjects\nfollowed Vaudreuil and L\u00e9vis back to France.  With them also went the\nrascally Bigot and the traitors and pilferers who had fattened on the\ndistresses of their country.  Nemesis awaited them!  No sooner had\n{231} they touched French soil than they were seized and flung into\nthe Bastille.  At first the brazen Cadet swore, when he faced his\njudges, he was innocent, but afterwards he confessed all.  Bigot too\ndenied his knavery, until the papers signed by himself put him to\nsilence.  His punishment was great, but far less than he deserved; he\nwas banished from France for life, his property confiscated to the\nKing, and he was made to pay a fine of 1,500,000 francs.  Cadet was\nbanished for nine years and fined 6,000,000 francs, while the rest\nwere ordered to be imprisoned until their fines were paid, so that\nmany who had betrayed New France languished in the gaols of Old\nFrance and died within those bare stone walls.\n\nCanada, as you have seen, had now changed masters.  But the red-man,\nso long the friend and ally of the French, standing at the door of\nhis wigwam or stealing noiselessly in his war-paint through the\nforest, was puzzled and angered.  He could not understand how it had\nhappened; he could not understand why the flag of the lilies should\nbe hauled down from every fort and trading-station, and the flag of\nthe English or the \"Boston men,\" as he called them, unfurled.  His\nmind could not grasp the meek submission of the Canadian\npale-faces--the farmers and traders--to the chiefs sent out by King\nGeorge.  \"Why do you not,\" said one of their braves, \"leave your\ntowns and villages and set up your lodges in the forest?  Then, when\nthe English are lulled into security, return and fall upon and slay\nthem?  You can win battles by craft and cunning as well as by numbers\nand cannon.\"  But although the French Canadians smiled and shook\n{232} their heads at this plan, yet at the western settlements, such\nas Michilimackinac, Detroit, and Presqu'Isle, they did not scruple to\ntell the Indians that the English would soon drive them from their\nforest homes and hunting-grounds, and thereby to kindle hate in their\nhearts for the new conquerors.  The French certainly understood the\nIndian character far better than the English, who treated them with\ncontemptuous neglect.  The vanity of the redskin chiefs was no longer\nfostered, and the tribes were told plainly that they were regarded as\nvassals and savages.  For the English--the Boston men--could not\nforget the bloodthirsty cruelty which had been practised upon them\nand their wives and children for so long, and now that they felt that\nall power on the continent was in the hollow of their hands, they\nwould not stoop to truckle to its aboriginal masters.\n\nAt first the haughty redskin chiefs were taken wholly by surprise at\nthe contempt meted out to them; then all their hot savage blood\nmounted in their veins.  All that they needed was a leader, and they\nhad not long to wait.  A leader of their own race, intelligent,\ndaring, treacherous, and vain, suddenly appeared on the scene.\nPontiac was a chieftain of the Ottawas, but so greatly had his fame\nspread that all the braves of the Hurons, the Ojibways, the Sacs, the\nWyandots, the Delawares, and the Senecas looked to him as their guide\nand captain.  In the strange drama which was now to thrill the\nWestern world, Pontiac takes the stage as the central figure.  In\nhistory this drama is called \"The Conspiracy of Pontiac.\"\n\n{233}\n\nIt was not many months after General Murray was ruling Canada in the\nname of his young master, King George III., that Pontiac, the\nchieftain of the Ottawas, saw with a keen eye the danger that\nthreatened his people.  Either the red-man and all the tribes would\nbe crushed under the heel of the pale-faces, or else they must take\nup their dwellings and retreat farther into the western forests.\n\"With the French,\" said Pontiac, \"we can live in friendship, but with\nthe restless English either we must flee afar or we or they must die!\"\n\nA plot grew and took shape in Pontiac's mind of uniting all the power\nof the red-men and driving the English for ever out of the whole\ncountry.  He told his audacious plot to some of the Western French\nfur-traders, who expressed their joy, saying that the King of France\nwould surely help him, and was even then sending out fresh hosts to\nslay the enemy.  With the utmost care did Pontiac lay his plans.  A\nday was chosen, a day in May 1763, when all the Indians who looked to\nPontiac as their leader would rise in their might and fall with\nmusket and tomahawk upon their unsuspecting victims.  At this time\nthe strongest of the western forts was Detroit, and this fort Pontiac\nhad arranged to surprise and seize by strategy.  A council of Indians\narranged to meet Major Gladwin, the commander, and the other English\nofficers within the fort on that day.  They were supposed to be\nentirely unarmed, but beneath his blanket each conspirator concealed\na musket, shortened by its barrel being filed in half.  While they\nconversed pleasantly Pontiac was to give the signal which would {234}\nsound the doom of the garrison.  But the plot failed.  To the love of\nan Indian maiden for Gladwin the English owed their lives.  This\nyoung girl overheard the plot.  She could not sleep the whole of one\nnight, and in the morning stole hurriedly to Gladwin and told him of\nPontiac's intended treachery.  Altogether ignorant of how he had been\nbetrayed, Pontiac and his fellow-conspirators, with faces calm and\nsmiling, for the Indians can wear the most impenetrable mask, arrived\nat the fort to attend the proposed conference.  To Pontiac's\nastonishment, he saw the English soldiers drawn up with loaded\nmuskets as if for battle.  Did he start back cringing and\ndiscomfited?  Nay, not a change of expression passed his impassive\nfeatures; he went on with the conference as if nothing had happened,\nand afterwards, without giving any signal, withdrew.  Next morning\nPontiac again came; this time he was ordered away from the gates of\nthe fort.  Fierce rage filled his heart; he knew then that his plot\nhad been revealed to the English.  Strategy had failed at Detroit, he\nmust now fire the torch of Indian hatred and openly assault the\nstronghold.  He attacked, and for months the red-men were kept at bay\nuntil succour could come to the heroic Gladwin and his men.\n\nBut if the devotion of one Indian maiden had spared Detroit, the\ntreachery of another sacrificed Fort Miami and the garrison of the\nMaumee River.  Captain Holmes, the commandant, had inspired the\njealousy of a young squaw.  She believed he loved another, and lent\nherself to Pontiac's schemes to encompass the English chiefs\ndestruction.  On the {235} fatal morning she came to tell Holmes that\nher sister was seriously ill in one of the wigwams and desired to see\nhim.  All unsuspecting, he set out on his mission of charity, and was\nshot dead on the very threshold of the wigwam.  As for his fort and\ncompany of soldiers, they fell into the hands of the watchful\nIndians.  The same fate was reserved for the forts of De Boeuf,\nPresqu'Isle, and Sandusky.  The blood of the colonists on the\nfrontier of Pennsylvania flowed freely; the scalps of Pontiac's\nvictims adorned many lodges.\n\nIt soon began to appear as if Pontiac's threat against the English\nhad not been in vain.  At Michilimackinac strategy carried the day\nfor the red conspirators.  On King George's birthday, the 4th June,\nCaptain Etherington received an invitation from the Sacs and Ojibways\nto witness their favourite game of lacrosse by way of celebrating the\nday.  Suspecting no danger, the gate of the fort was allowed to be\nleft open, while the officers and soldiers, clustered in groups\noutside, became deeply interested in the progress of this most\nexciting game.  The ball was passed and repassed skilfully between\nthe goals, as, seizing their opportunity, a number of squaws, with\nmuskets and tomahawks hidden under their blankets, stole unseen\nthrough the gates.  Soon the ball bounced against the pallisade, and\ninstantly a swarm of players dashed after it.  In the twinkling of an\neye they had darted through the open gates and snatched their weapons\nfrom the waiting squaws.  Before the garrison could realise what had\nhappened, fifteen of them lay weltering in their blood, and the rest\nwere {236} taken prisoners.  Thus in only six weeks from the day of\nthe first attack of Pontiac on Detroit, all the forts in the western\ncountry, except three, were seized and destroyed and the garrisons\nmassacred or made prisoners.\n\nTo Pontiac and his men Fort Pitt bade defiance.  After some weeks'\ndelay Colonel Bouquet was sent out to reinforce it.  Bouquet met and\ndefeated the Delaware and Shawanoe tribes, and gave them so sound a\nbeating that the tide against the English began to turn.  The\nmisguided chiefs slowly came to see that the power of England was\ngreater than they had supposed, and that of France extinguished for\never.  In the following year several Indian tribes were defeated, and\nPontiac, now deserted by many of his allies, was obliged to fall back\nfarther into the west.  Two years later the mighty chief's power was\nbroken, and he was forced to submit.  So ended the great conspiracy.\nThe hundreds of prisoners whom Pontiac and his Indians had captured\nin their raids were at last restored to families which had, not\nwithout reason, supposed them to be dead.  Parties of rescuers found\nthat some of the young English girls had actually fallen in love with\ntheir savage captors and had wedded them in Indian fashion.  Children\nhad forgotten their parents.  One girl only remembered her childhood\nwhen the strains of a lullaby fell from the lips of her rejoicing\nmother, whose face was strange to her.\n\nPontiac himself vanished with ignominy from history.  Fallen from his\nhigh estate, defeated in his ambitious hopes, he engaged in a drunken\nbout with {237} a warrior of the Illinois nation.  From words the\npair proceeded to blows, tomahawks flashed in the air, and the once\npowerful chieftain was laid low.  Such was the ending to the career\nof a savage enemy whose name had caused the people in the English\ncolonies to tremble for so long.  But Pontiac and his conspiracy had\ntaught the new conquerors a lesson.  Justice and forbearance not only\ntowards the French Canadians but towards the red-men was\nthenceforward the policy of English Canada.\n\nAll seemed now fair sailing for all the colonies under the rule of\nKing George.  But war-clouds were already mounting above the horizon\nwhich would gather in size and intensity as the years ran on.  More\nblood would be spilt in Canada and on the great continent of which\nCanada forms so important a part.\n\n\n\n\n{238}\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE COMING OF THE LOYALISTS\n\nFifteen years after Wolfe's victorious battle the restless American\ncolonists were ready to revolt and cut themselves loose from the\nempire which had been won so painfully, so valiantly, and at such\ncost.  Glad enough had they been of the protection of King George and\nKing George's soldiers when the French menaced them from the north\nand the unsubdued tribes of fierce savages were threatening to drive\nthem into the sea.  But now that the power of both French and Indian\nhad been crushed, when the thousands of brave English soldiers had\nbeen laid at rest amid the Canadian snows, the colonists felt a\nsecurity they had never known before.  They had now at their\nthreshold no foe to fear, and as men dislike all authority which is\nnot of their own choosing, demagogues and agitators quickly set to\nwork to induce the Americans to throw off with violence what was\ncalled \"the British yoke.\"\n\nThe British yoke consisted chiefly in a demand that the colonies\nshould help to pay something of the cost the recent wars had entailed\nupon the mother-country.  The mother-country asked to be helped to\nbear her burden, and in reply her {239} daughterland--America--flew\nat her throat.  But this is not the place in which to tell the story\nof the American Revolution.  It was clear from the very first that\nCanada would be involved, and so certain were the American agitators\nand traitors to the King that Canada would join them, that they set\nup what was called \"The Continental Congress\" at Philadelphia.  To\ntheir intense astonishment and chagrin Canada would have nothing to\ndo with their designs.  \"The Continental Congress!\" cried the loyal\nGovernor, Sir Guy Carleton; \"let me tell you that Canada on this\ncontinent will have none of your disloyalty!\"  So the Americans made\nup their minds to swoop down upon Canada and capture it before\nfurther English troops could come to its assistance.\n\nTiconderoga and Crown Point were surprised in rough-and-ready fashion\nby Ethan Allen and his \"Green Mountain Boys.\"  Through the old\nwar-path leading into Canada, General Richard Montgomery, an Irish\nofficer who had turned against his King, was sent to Montreal with an\narmy of 3000 men.  But as we have seen many times, to capture\nMontreal was not quite the same thing as capturing Quebec.  Yet both\nmight have succeeded if the Canadians had proved false.\n\nFor the mission to Quebec a strong, daring, even reckless character\nwas needed, and such a one sprang up suddenly to notice in the\nAmerican army.  The name of this man was Benedict Arnold.  It is a\nname which history has covered with infamy because of its owner's\nsubsequent treason to the American cause.  But nothing that he\nafterwards did can {240} obliterate the fact that Arnold was\nfearless, enterprising, and generous-minded, and the equal in origin\nand manners of most of the American military officers of that day.\nArnold had been successively druggist, bookseller, horse-dealer,\nshipowner, and shipmaster, and at thirty-five years of age found\nhimself burning with military zeal and anxious to distinguish\nhimself.  He proposed to lead the 1100 men he had raised, by way of\nriver and wilderness, over the mountains of Maine to Quebec and\ncapture that city by surprise.  His little force was composed of the\nroughest elements: ten companies of musketeers and three of riflemen,\nthe latter hailed from the hills of Virginia and Pennsylvania,\nhunters and Indian fighters, wise in woodcraft, handy with the rifle,\nthe hunting-knife, and birch-bark canoe, accustomed to hunger,\nexposure, and fatigue.  They were armed each with a good rifle, a\ntomahawk, a long knife, a small axe, and dressed in a hunting-shirt\nof deer-skin, with moccasins and leggings of the same material.  By\nthe middle of September 1775 Arnold and his daring band were well on\ntheir way through the wilderness.  When not paddling their canoes,\nthe ground across the carrying-places was rough, rocky, and rugged,\ninterspersed with bogs, into which the invaders sank often to their\nknees.  New difficulties faced them daily, and their provisions grew\nscant, until at length they resolved to eat their pork raw and to\nmake but two meals each day.  Never was expedition undertaken more\nrecklessly.  Unacquainted with the distance they had to go, they were\nwithout map or chart; half a biscuit, half a {241} square inch of raw\npork formed their usual meal; but there were worse days to come, days\nwhen these invaders of Canada were called to kill the two faithful\ndogs which accompanied them, to make soup out of their old deer-skin\nmoccasins, to devour roots and leaves greedily.  But the thought of\ncapturing Quebec fired every heart during the memorable six weeks'\nmarch.  Thus it was that a camp at the French Canadian settlement was\nreached.  Hearing of Arnold's arrival with his emaciated followers,\nthe Indians of the country-side began flocking around, eager to know\nwhat had brought him hither.  \"Summon,\" said Arnold, \"your braves in\ncouncil, gather together your young men, and I will tell them why we\nare come.\"\n\nNatanis, the principal chief, forthwith summoned an Indian conclave,\nand, boldly casting truth to one side, Benedict Arnold addressed it\nin these words: \"Brothers, we are children of this English people who\nhave now taken up the hatchet against us.  More than a hundred years\nago we were all as one family; we then differed in our religion and\ncame over to this great country by consent of the King.  Our fathers\nbought land of the red-men, and have grown a great people, even as\nthe stars in the sky.  We have planted the ground and by our labour\ngrown rich.  Now a new King and his wicked great man want to take our\nlands and money without our consent.  The King would not hear our\nprayer, but sent a great army to Boston, and endeavoured to set our\nchildren against us in Canada.  The King's army at Boston came out\ninto the fields and houses, killed {242} a great many women and\nchildren while they were peaceably at work.  The Bostonians sent to\ntheir children in the country, and they came in unto their relief,\nand in six days raised an army of 50,000 men and drove the King's\ntroops on board their ships, killing and wounding 1500 of their men.\nSince that they durst not come out of Boston.  Now we hear the French\nand Indians in Canada have sent to us that the King's troops oppress\nthem and make them pay a great price for their rum and other things,\npressing them to take up arms against the Bostonians, their children,\nwho have done them no hurt.  By the desire of the French and Indians,\nour brethren, we have come to their assistance with an intent to\ndrive out the King's soldiers.  When driven off, we will return to\nour own country and leave this to the peaceable enjoyment of its\nproper inhabitants.  Now, if the Indians, our brethren, will join us,\nwe will be very much obliged to them, and will give them one\nPortuguese dollar per month, two dollars bounty, and find them their\nprovisions and the liberty to choose their own officers.\"\n\nJudge if, at this extraordinary speech, Natanis and his redskins\nlooked their astonishment!  But although they had never heard any of\nthese terrible and unjust deeds on the part of King George before,\ntheir Indian cupidity and bloodthirstiness were excited, and little\nmore persuasion was needed to induce some of them at least to tread\nthe war-path.  Natanis and his brother Sabatis, with about fifty\nwarriors, joined the expedition on the spot.\n\nSome days later Arnold and his men beheld the {243} scene of their\ndestined conquest spread out before them.  The last leaves of the\ntrees in the beautiful valley of the Chaudi\u00e8re had fluttered to the\nground and the sunlight danced upon the hill-tops and on the waters\nof the St. Lawrence, lighting up in the distance the city and the\nfortress they coveted.  The American general, George Washington, had\nbeforehand written a manifesto to the Canadians which had been\ntranslated into French and printed before Arnold's departure.  This\nmanifesto Arnold now caused to be distributed, assuring them of\nAmerican friendship and asking the assistance of the Canadians.\n\nLuckily for the future of Canada under the British flag, a strong,\nbrave man sat in the seat of authority.  Sir Guy Carleton had been a\nfriend of Wolfe, and had served with him before Quebec.  He was as\nbrave as Frontenac and as wise as the coming Haldimand.  Carleton\nneeded all his bravery and wisdom; he had only about 400 regulars and\n600 French Canadian volunteers.  The fortunes of Canada were in his\nhands!  When Montgomery took possession of Montreal, Carleton retired\nto Quebec, escaping capture only by the most daring of stratagems.\nBefore he could reach the fortress, the commandant he had left there\nhad summoned all the loyal citizens together and prepared for battle.\nHe dealt Arnold a blow by burning every boat on the river and\nsentinelling the channel with vessels of war.  If Arnold could have\ncrossed the St. Lawrence immediately on his arrival, he would have\nstood a far better chance of capturing Quebec, but his men had now to\nscour the country for birch-bark canoes.  One dark night {244} he\nsucceeded in eluding a British frigate and sloop and landed 500 men\nat Wolfe's Cove.  On the following morning, at daybreak, Benedict\nArnold led his troops up the steep path and formed them in ranks on\nthe Plains of Abraham above.  His idea was to provoke a sally and\nattack the garrison as Wolfe had done.  He believed that outside the\nwalls were numerous sympathisers with the Americans who would rally\nto his assistance during a fight.  So he marched his men up close to\nthe battlements, as if daring the besieged to come out and fight.\nBut the Commandant was not to be snared into the same trap which had\nproved the undoing of Montcalm.  \"If you want Quebec,\" he said, \"you\nmust come and take it!\"\n\nThe news that Sir Guy Carleton was approaching with reinforcements\nfrom up the river quickly decided Benedict Arnold to retire from the\nHeights of Abraham.  He withdrew his troops to a point some distance\nabove Quebec, there to await the arrival of Montgomery, who was\napproaching with clothing and provisions.  His failure to seduce the\nFrench Canadians to break their oath of loyalty to King George caused\nhim the bitterest chagrin.  If a siege dragged on till spring-time,\nthe British fleet would surely relieve Quebec.  Many of the American\ntroops were sick, and their artillery was insufficient.  Nothing\nremained to Montgomery and Arnold but an attempt to seize Quebec by a\ndaring piece of strategy.\n\nIt was the last day of December.  Snow had been falling heavily all\nday, and now, late at night, it was {245} still falling.  It had been\nplanned that Montgomery should attack the Lower town on the side of\nCape Diamond, and Arnold on the side of St. Roque.  If once the\nstreets near the river could be gained, they could scale the walls to\nthe Upper town.  To distract Carleton's attention from these two\nassaulting columns, two feigned attacks were made on other parts of\nthe city.  In order that they might recognise each other in the\ndarkness, each of the American invaders wore on his cap a band of\nwhite paper on which was written \"Liberty or Death.\"  But Carleton\nwas not to be taken by surprise, and the Quebec garrison was on the\nalert.  Montgomery and Arnold were to meet in the Lower town and\nforce a rough structure of pickets called Prescott gate.  At the head\nof his men, Montgomery found himself intercepted by a party of\nBritish soldiers and seamen.  \"Come on, my brave boys, and Quebec is\nours,\" he shouted.  Flames of fire darted out from a log-house\nbattery which barred his approach to the Lower town.  Montgomery, his\ntwo aides, and ten others were struck down and killed on the spot.\n\nOn the other side of the Lower town Arnold was running forward with\nhis men.  Suddenly in the midst of the wild storm the bells of the\ncity rang out the alarm, the beating of drums was heard, and the\nartillery began to belch forth shot and shell.  Arnold was one of the\nfirst to be struck down, and, wounded in the leg, he retired to the\nrear.  Those who did not follow his example of retreat were compelled\nto surrender.  So ended this ambitious scheme for the conquest of\nQuebec!  When morning came the {246} bodies of Montgomery and others\nwere carried into the city and given proper burial.  Both Richard\nMontgomery, who had sought to tear down the Union Jack from the\ncitadel, and Guy Carleton, who had defended the town and flag, had\nserved under Wolfe in the campaign which made Britain mistress of\nQuebec.\n\nThe Americans, largely reinforced, continued for some time to hang\nabout the city.  British ships sailed up the St. Lawrence at last,\nand the invaders retired in haste.  The coming of the warships was\nthe signal to fall upon the Americans, seize their artillery, and\nturn them into a fleeing mob.  The troops so long awaited from\nEngland arrived at last.  Everywhere the invaders were routed.\nBenedict Arnold at Montreal found it prudent to leave that city, and\nit was at once entered and taken possession of by the English.\nMoreover, the forts on the lakes were retaken.  The fleet which\nArnold had gathered on Lake Champlain was destroyed, and the gates of\nCanada were again barred against the disloyal invader.\n\nFor many months the fate of the thirteen revolting colonies hung in\nthe balance.  Their troops were dispirited, ill-fed, ill-paid,\nill-clad.  Many thousands absolutely refused to serve or to obey\ntheir officers.  A single great battle won by the King's soldiers\nmight have sent them back to their homes willing to accept the terms\nof peace which the mother-country offered to the colonies.  As it\nwas, every third man you would have met, had you travelled from\nBoston to Savannah, was still a Loyalist or Tory openly or at heart.\nAt the beginning of the conflict two-thirds {247} of the entire\npopulation of America, which was then about 3,000,000, were\nLoyalists.  But if you have read the history of the French\nRevolution, you know that peaceful majorities have little power when\nopposed by loud-voiced, vehement, energetic men, with a single\nobject, and perpetually keeping that object in view.  Thus we see as\nthe war dragged on the numbers of Loyalists diminishing.  Many had\nnot dared to avow their fealty to King and Empire; many had not dared\nto express their opinion that America had been in the wrong from the\nfirst.  They shrank from calling Samuel Adams a demagogue, and Tom\nPaine a wicked atheist, because this would have exposed them to the\nhatred of the lawless mob.  For now that the King's authority had\nbeen overthrown, especially in the cities, the lives of peaceful,\nlaw-abiding men were at the mercy of the multitude.  It was no time\nto be neutral.  A man had to choose between his King and the\nPhiladelphia Congress, and, moreover, he had to choose quickly.  In\nmany cases his choice was influenced by immediate fear.  His house or\nshop might be broken into, his goods stolen, his chattels burned,\neven he himself, if he escaped stoning or the fanatic's bullet, might\nbe tarred and feathered.\n\nUnder these circumstances, you see what a painful predicament they\nwere in who in those distant colonies, proud of their imperial\nheritage as Englishmen, grateful for what England had done for them,\nconvinced that the mother-country did not really wish to oppress\nthem, stood firm for their sovereign, flag, and ancient Constitution.\n\n{248}\n\nHistory now shows that the Loyalists were, with a few striking\nexceptions, the best men in America.  Their numbers embraced the most\nnotable judges, the most eminent lawyers, most cultured clergy, most\ndistinguished physicians, most educated and refined of the people,\nboth north and south.  Early in the war, nay, even long before the\nwar broke out, the Boston mobs had set upon them for their loyalty.\nAny official or merchant suspected of sympathising with the British\nArmy or British Government of the day became at once a target for\ntheir insults and persecution.  They began by setting Governor\nHutchinson's mansion in flames; sheriffs and judges were mobbed;\nfeeble old men were driven into the woods, and innocent women\ninsulted.  As the war progressed the violence of the revolutionists\ngrew in intensity.  Thousands sought safety with the King's troops,\nthousands armed themselves and fought valiantly for the King.  Any\nman accused of being a Loyalist was liable to have his estate\nconfiscated and to be punished even with death.  Now we can afford to\nlook back on these things and to bear no ill-will to the good and\nwise Americans who built up the United States.  It happened long ago;\nwe have long forgiven.  But Canadians can never forget.\n\nWhat the Loyalists had suffered during the war, when the issue of the\ncontest still wavered, was far, far less than that which they had to\nendure when the Revolutionists at last triumphed.\n\nThe British Empire had been badly served by the officers England had\nsent out to America.  If she {249} had had a soldier of the stamp of\nWashington to direct her armies, there would have been a different\nconclusion; but all was mismanaged, and her Generals, Gage, Burgoyne,\nand Cornwallis, planned feebly and fought half-heartedly.  If there\nwas any doubt as to the result, that doubt was speedily set at rest\nwhen England's hereditary enemy, France, espoused the cause of the\nAmerican insurgents.  French money, ships, and men poured into\nAmerica.  The Americans fought with French muskets, they were clad in\nFrench clothing, and they were paid with gold which the impoverished\npeople of France could ill spare.  Great is the debt America owes to\nthe French King and statesmen of that time.\n\nThen came the day when Cornwallis found himself shut up at Yorktown\nby the French and American armies under Rochambeau and Washington,\nfour times greater than his own forces.  The French fleet turned its\nguns upon him from the sea; retreat was cut off, and Cornwallis\nsurrendered.  To the hopes of the Loyalists this was the last blow,\nand indeed to the hopes of British King and Parliament.\n\nThe war was all but over, but not yet over was the terrible ordeal\nwhich the men who had stood staunch and faithful to the United Empire\nwere destined to undergo.  They were termed \"traitors\"; they were\npursued through the streets; their families were driven into the\nwoods; they were shot down remorselessly.  Rows of them were hung up\nlike felons.  At the battle of King's Mountains in North Carolina ten\nof the prisoners, men of character and {250} influence, were hanged\nin cold blood.  There were many other instances when prisoners were\nferociously executed.\n\nNew York remained in British hands a year or two longer.  There came\none morning tidings that a Loyalist named Philip White had been\nhanged.  The Loyalists, led by William, the able, stout-hearted son\nof Benjamin Franklin, now resolved to retaliate.  For every Loyalist,\nthey proclaimed, who was murdered they would hang a Congress officer\nfalling into their hands.  Accordingly one Joshua Huddy, who had been\ntaken prisoner by them, was hanged.  On his corpse was fastened this\nnotice: \"We determine to hang man for man, while there is a refugee\nliving.\"  Verily, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!\nNaturally Washington and the Congress were very angry at this, and by\nway of further retaliation condemned a young officer, nineteen years\nof age, Captain Asgill, to die on the gibbet.  Lady Asgill, the\nmother of the young officer, failing to obtain mercy from Congress,\napplied to the French, and De Vergennes requested that young Asgill\nshould be set at liberty, saying: \"Captain Asgill is doubtless your\nprisoner, but he is among those whom the armies of the King, my\nmaster, contributed to place in your hands at Yorktown.\"  Such a\nrequest Congress did not dare refuse, and the destined victim was set\nat liberty.\n\nCanada proper during the war had not again been molested.  But far to\nthe north let us turn our eyes for a moment to witness a scene\noccurring there.\n\nAll this time the vast country bordering upon {251} Hudson's Bay\nremained in undisputed possession of the English Hudson's Bay\nCompany.  Their forts and factories, though capable of offering a\nstrong defence, were built of logs, with bastions of stone.  Only one\nreally noble fort lifted its crest in the sub-Arctic region.  Fifty\nyears before the remembrance of their former posts destroyed by fire\nand the cannon of the redoubtable Iberville induced the Company to\nfortify its best harbour on a splendid scale, and erect in the\nnorthern wilderness, in the hushed solitudes of the moose, the bear,\nand the wolf, a mighty fortress which would evoke the admiration of\nEurope.  A massive 30-feet-wide foundation was begun from the plans\nof the military engineers who had served under the Duke of\nMarlborough, and, after some years, in 1734, Fort Prince of Wales, a\nrival to the French stronghold of Louisburg, 2000 miles away, was\nreared at the mouth of Churchill River.  The walls were 42 feet thick\nat their foundation; three of the bastions had arches for\nstore-houses, and in the fourth was built a magazine 34 feet long and\n10 wide.  For fifty years Fort Prince of Wales stood undisturbed,\nnone daring to offer it insult or attack.  The remote Chippewas and\nfar-off tribes from Athabasca and the Great Slave Lake travelling to\nHudson's Bay gazed with wonder at its masonry and formidable\nartillery.  The great cannon whose muzzles stared grimly from the\nbattlements had been woven into Indian legends.\n\nSo strong did the Company deem it, that no thought of any conquest\nseems to have entered their minds.  The garrison was allowed to wane\nin {252} numbers, until on an August evening 1782 only thirty-nine\ndefenders within its walls witnessed the arrival of three strange\nships in the Bay.  Word ran from mouth to mouth that they were French\nmen-of-war.  All was consternation and anxiety at first, quickly\nsucceeded by dread.  Two score pair of English eyes watched the\nstrangers, as pinnace, gig, and long-boat were lowered, and a number\nof swarthy sailors began busily to sound the approaches to the\nharbour.  Anxious indeed was the night passed in the fort by Governor\nSamuel Hearne and his men.  Daybreak came and showed the strangers\nalready disembarking in their boats, and as the morning sun waxed\nstronger, an array of 400 troops was seen drawn up on the shore of\nChurchill Bay, at a place called Hare Point.  Orders were given to\nmarch, and with the flag of France once more unfurled on these\ndistant northern shores, the French attacking party approached Fort\nPrince of Wales, the Company's stronghold.\n\nFour hundred yards from the walls they halted; two officers were sent\non in advance to summon the Governor to surrender.  The French ships\nturned out to be the _Sceptre_, seventy-four guns, the _Astarte_, and\nthe _Engageante_, of thirty-six guns each; they had, besides, four\nfield-guns, two mortars, and 300 bomb-shells.\n\nIt appears that Admiral la P\u00e9rouse, who commanded this hostile fleet,\nhad counted on arriving just in time to secure a handsome prize in\nthe shape of the Company's ships, for which he had lain in wait in\nthe Bay.  But these luckily eluded him.  At {253} the spectacle of\nthe French attacking force, the Governor of Prince of Wales Fort,\nSamuel Hearne, seems to have become panic-stricken.  Believing\nresistance useless, he snatched up a table-cloth which, to the\nsurprise of the French, was soon seen waving from the parapet of the\nfort.  Without a shot being fired on either side, Fort Prince of\nWales had yielded to the foe.\n\nThe delighted French admiral lost no time in transporting what guns\nhe could find in the fort to his ships, as well as in replenishing\nhis depleted commissariat from its well-filled provision stores.\n\nAfterwards came much noisy rioting on the part of the French soldiers\nand the utter looting of the fort.  An attempt was made, occupying\ntwo days, to demolish it; but although French gunpowder as well as\nEnglish was freely used, yet the walls were of such solid masonry as\nto resist their best efforts.  The artillerymen of the enemy could\nonly displace the upper rows of the massive granite stones, dismount\nits guns, and blow up the gateway, together with the stone outwork\nprotecting it.\n\nThen La P\u00e9rouse sailed away for York Factory, which at this time was\ngarrisoned by sixty English and twelve Indians.  Its defence\nconsisted of thirteen cannon, twelve and nine pounders, which formed\na half-moon battery in front; and it being thought probable that the\nenemy would arrive in the night and turn these guns against the fort,\nthey were overturned into the ditch.  On the ramparts were twelve\nswivel guns mounted on carriages, and within was abundance of small\narms and ammunition.  A rivulet {254} of fresh water ran within the\nstockades to quench the thirst of the besieged; and there were also\nthirty head of cattle and as many hogs, to keep them from hunger.\n\nTwo Indian scouts, sent out to obtain intelligence, returned in about\nthree hours with the information that the enemy were less than a\nleague distant.  Several guns had been heard firing in the\nneighbourhood; and at sunset of that day all could plainly discern a\nlarge bonfire, presumably kindled by the French, about a mile and a\nhalf to the west.  A night of anxiety was passed, and by ten o'clock\nthe next morning the enemy appeared before the gates.  \"During their\napproach,\" says one of those in the fort at the time, \"a most\ninviting opportunity offered itself to be revenged on our invaders by\ndischarging the guns on the ramparts, which must have done great\nexecution.\"\n\nBut here also the Governor was not the man for such an emergency.  He\nknew nothing of war, and had a wholesome dread of all armed and\nequipped soldiery.  Trembling so that he could scarcely stand, he\nbegged the surgeon, \"for God's sake to give him a glass of liquor to\nsteady his nerves.\"  There being none at hand, he swallowed a tumbler\nof raw spirits of wine, and this so far infused courage and\ndetermination into his blood, that he peremptorily declared he would\nshoot the first man who offered to fire a gun.  Dismay filled the\nbosoms of many of the fur Company's servants.  The second in command\nand the surgeon endeavoured to expostulate, and to silence them the\nGovernor caught up a white sheet {255} with his own hand and waved it\nfrom a window of the fort.  This was answered by the French officer\ndisplaying his pocket-handkerchief.\n\nUnder the sanction of this flag of truce a parley took place.  The\nGovernor was ordered to surrender within two hours.  But no such time\nwas needed; the fort was most ingloriously yielded in ten minutes.\nIn vain did some of the English council plead that the fort might\nhave withstood the united efforts of double the number of those by\nwhom it was assailed.  Vainly they showed that, from the nature of\nthe enemy's attack by way of Nelson River, they could not use their\nmortars or artillery, the ground being very bad and full of woods,\nthickets, and bogs.  The miserable Governor was resolved to yield the\nplace, and he carried out his intention, much to the astonishment and\nsatisfaction of the French.\n\nThe fur-trading company never rebuilt Fort Prince of Wales.  The\ndistant traveller may behold its ruins to-day standing to mark the\nmost northern stronghold on the North American continent, a reminder\nof bygone strife, useful now only as a beacon and a resting-place for\nflocks of Arctic birds.\n\nPeace was declared between Britain and America in 1783, but there was\nno peace for the American Loyalists.  When the King's armies sailed\naway from Charleston, the last spectacle they saw was the bodies of\ntwenty-four Loyalists swinging from a row of gibbets.  Of no crime\nwere these men guilty but that of refusing to disunite the glorious\nEmpire, of refusing to fight against him whom they regarded as {256}\ntheir lawful sovereign, and an honest and benevolent prince.\n\nBy the Treaty of Versailles they had been abandoned by the\nmother-country, left to the tender mercies of the American\nconquerors.  No wonder there were men in both Houses of Parliament\nwho were shocked at this treatment.\n\n\"When I consider the case of the colonists,\" cried Wilberforce, \"I\nconfess I there feel myself conquered; I there see my country\nhumiliated; I there see her at the feet of America!\"  \"A peace\nfounded on the sacrifice of these unhappy subjects,\" declared one\nnoble lord, \"must be accursed in the sight of God and man.\"\n\nMonths before the peace was actually signed Canada itself, which was\nto be the Canaan of the Loyalists, was almost lost to the Empire.  A\nFrench fleet of thirty-five ships were assembled at Martinique in the\nWest Indies and about to sail northward for the reconquest of New\nFrance.  America would not have dared to gainsay the wishes of her\nFrench allies to possess Canada, yet there was nothing that the\nAmericans dreaded more.  They knew that the time would come, were\nFrance once again entrenched in Canada, when they would be obliged to\nfight her future Frontenacs and Montcalms for the possession of\nQuebec and the security of their northern frontier.\n\nBut the fears of the Americans were never realised.  The gallant\nsea-dog Rodney fell upon De Grasse in West Indian waters, inflicting\nupon him a crushing defeat, and so Canada was providentially\npreserved to the British flag.\n\n{257}\n\nIt was now time for the Loyalists to journey forth from the new\nrepublic they despised and distrusted.  Somewhere--for most of them\nknew it but vaguely--in the northern wilds, in the virgin forests of\npine and maple and hemlock, in the solitudes of lakes and rivers,\nwhich no man of English blood had ever seen, was the refuge the\nLoyalists sought.  No longer could they hope that their confiscated\nproperty would be restored or even that the little they had left\nwould be secured to them.\n\nIn the month of November 1783 New York was evacuated by the King's\ntroops under Sir Guy Carleton.  With him went all the stores\nbelonging to the Crown, all the baggage and artillery and 40,000\nsouls.  New York was the stronghold of the Loyalists; Pennsylvania\nhad been equally divided between Loyalists and Revolutionists; there\nwere more Loyalists in Virginia than adherents of Congress; and\nGeorgia had at least three Loyalists for every rebel.  Thousands had\nperished; thousands had sought refuge in England; thousands had\nrecanted.  Fifty thousand now set out with their wives and children\nand such belongings as were left to them to traverse the hundreds of\nmiles which lay between them and their new homesteads in Canada.\nThese United Empire Loyalists were the fathers of English Canada.\nComfort came to them in a proclamation that England would not think\nof deserting them.\n\nSeated on the throne at Westminster, King George had addressed to\nParliament these words: \"I trust you will agree with me that a due\nand {258} generous attention ought to be shown to those who have\nrelinquished their property or their possessions from motives of\nloyalty to me, or attachment to the mother-country.\"\n\nDelay, alas, occurred; commissioners had to be appointed to consider\nLoyalists' claims, yet in the end England was not ungrateful; land\nand money were bestowed upon them freely.  Albeit there was a long\nperiod of suffering and privation, of cold and hunger and hardship.\nThere are few tales which history has to tell so stirring and noble\nas the exodus of the Loyalists.  Most of them had been brought up in\ncomfort, and even luxury; their women were tenderly nurtured and\nunaccustomed to hardship.  But one spirit animated them all, one hope\nfired all their bosoms, one faith drove them out of the American\nrepublic into the wilderness.\n\nThe exodus was divided into two main streams, one moving eastward to\nNova Scotia and the country where a century and a half before\nPoutraincourt and De la Tour had fought and flourished.  The other\nmoved westward to the region north of Lake Ontario, which had\nwitnessed the labours of Frontenac and Lasalle and the sufferings of\nBr\u00e9beuf and his brother Jesuits.  These came in by Lake Champlain and\nascended the St. Lawrence in open boats, bivouacking at night,\nresuming their journey by day.  They crossed from Oswego on Lake\nOntario to Kingston and York, and began at once felling trees and\nerecting rude cabins.  Many had travelled by waggons from North\nCarolina and Georgia, exposed to insult and danger all the way.\nThose who followed the eastern {259} course landed at the mouth of\nthe St. John River, New Brunswick, on the 18th May 1783, a day still\ncelebrated in the city of St. John's.  They took up settlements in\nthe meadows of the Bay of Fundy and at Port Rasoir in Nova Scotia.\nThere, like the city in the Arabian tale, there sprang up, as if by\nmagic, the town of Shelburne, with 12,000 inhabitants, where\nyesterday had been but solitude.\n\nAll eastern Canada, all the country indeed which lay between Detroit\nand the ocean, became dotted with the settlements of the Loyalists.\nBy them Canada had been little known.  They found, to their surprise\nand their infinite gratitude to God, that instead of the bleak,\ninhospitable wilderness, they had come into a smiling, sun-kissed,\nfertile land.  Only patience and industry were needed to fell the\ntimber, plough the soil, and reap a harvest.  Many difficulties and\nmuch self-denial there were to undergo, but the United Empire\nLoyalists felt amply repaid when they gazed round in years to come at\ntheir snug and tidy homesteads, at the little church set by the foot\nof the green-clad hill, and saw the flag of their ancestors, rudely\nwrought by loving hands maybe, but oh, how cherished! floating in the\ncrisp, pure air.\n\nOne year was called the Year of Famine in the Lake region, for in\nthat year the crops had failed, and many families had to live on\nroots and beech-nuts.  A sack of flour then, it was said, would have\npurchased an entire farm.  In that year some of the old and feeble\nperished, but none of the living lost courage, none would have\nexchanged their new lot {260} with its prospects for even luxury\nunder the flag of the Republic across the border.\n\nNo one will know, because none has told, all that these brave\npioneers underwent for their devotion and fidelity.  You will see\nto-day on the outskirts of the older settlements little mounds,\nmoss-covered tombstones which record the last resting-places of the\nforefathers of the hamlet.  They do not tell you of the brave hearts\nlaid low by hunger and exposure, of the girlish forms wasted away, of\nthe babes and little children who perished for want of proper food\nand raiment.  They have nothing to tell of the courageous,\nhigh-minded mothers, wives, and daughters who bore themselves as\nbravely as men, complaining never, toiling with the men in the\nfields, banishing all regrets for the life they might have led had\nthey sacrificed their loyalty.\n\nNo distinction that the Congress could give them equalled to their\nminds the distinction which their King accorded them of affixing to\ntheir names the letters U.E.L.  To-day the Canadians who can trace\ntheir descent from the U.E.L. dwell upon it as proudly as if there\nflowed in their veins the blood of the Howards, Vernons, and\nMontmorencys.  No great monument has been raised to their memory;\nnone is needed; it is enshrined for ever in the hearts of every true\nCanadian, and of every one who admires fidelity to principle,\ndevotion, and self-sacrifice.\n\n\n\n\n{261}\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nHOW CANADA'S ENEMY WAS FOILED\n\nSlowly under the labour of the Loyalists and their children did the\nforests of Canada give way to civilisation.  Smiling fields, trim\nhomesteads, and flourishing gardens replaced the rude and solitary\nwigwams of the red-men of Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces\nto the east.  English, Scotch, and Irish emigrants found their way in\nshiploads to Prince Edward Island, which you may remember as the Isle\nSt. Jean of the French.  Lord Selkirk, the founder of the Red River\nSettlement, of which we shall soon hear, brought whole colonies of\nthrifty Scotch families; the name of the island was changed and that\nof the father of the future Queen Victoria bestowed upon it.  For\nPrince Edward, Duke of Kent, was now commander of the British forces\nin Quebec.\n\nIn the midst of the increasing prosperity of the New Empire which was\ngrowing up for Britain in the west, an empire compounded of both\nFrench and English, a war-cloud began to loom upon the Southern\nhorizon.  The American Republic, after thirty-five years of\nindependence, quarrelled once more with the mother-country.  Once\nagain {262} England was, in 1812, as she had been in the days of the\nAmerican Revolution, engaged in a terrible struggle with France.  The\nambition of Napoleon Bonaparte had rendered him an appalling danger\nto the whole of Europe.  It was to quell Napoleon that Britain put\nforth all her strength.  On land she met with alternate victories and\ndefeats, but there was none to gainsay her on the sea.  The embargo\non British goods pronounced by Napoleon in the Continental blockade\nwas America's great opportunity.  A great ship industry, a splendid\ncarrying trade sprang up between America and France.  England\ninsisted on a right of searching any vessels suspected of bringing\n\"aid and comfort\" to the enemy or of harbouring English deserters.\nDozens of times was it shown that the cargoes the American vessels\ncarried were not American products, but had been bought at a French\ncolony and were on their way to France.  Even many of the vessels\nflying the American flag were foreigners or English blockade-runners.\nThis act of self-preservation was all the excuse the Americans wanted\nto declare war and pounce once more upon Canada, in the sure hope\nthis time of success attending their plans.  They declared that their\nobject in taking up arms was to uphold the honour of the Stars and\nStripes.  \"The flag,\" they said, \"covers the cargo; you have no right\nto search for seamen who have deserted or for contraband goods.  If\nyou persist, we will fight you.\"\n\nWherefore, in June 1812, Congress declared war.  It was not so stated\nin the declaration, but its real object was to snatch Canada from\nBritain, and, with {263} the help of Napoleon, extinguish King\nGeorge's maritime and colonial Empire.  True, there were many\nopponents of this war in America.  The people of New England in\nparticular denounced it as wicked and senseless, and in Boston the\nflags were hung at half-mast.  Yet the temptation was too strong for\nthe masses led by Thomas Jefferson.  \"France,\" he said, \"should be\nthe mistress of Europe, America should be mistress of the New World!\"\n\nIt seemed natural to expect that 400,000 people could not stand out\nagainst 8,000,000.  The Stars and Stripes must be planted forthwith\nat Quebec, York (Toronto), Montreal, and Kingston.  \"On to Canada\"\nwas the cry of the war-party.  So while Napoleon, at the head of a\nvast army, was marching on to Moscow, and Wellington in Spain was\nholding Napoleon's marshals at bay, the American army set out once\nmore to conquer Canada.\n\nInnocent of having given any cause of offence to their neighbours,\nthe Canadian people, farmers, lawyers, doctors, school-teachers,\nshouldered their arms to a man and steadfastly waited the foe.\nEnough it was for them to know that the enemy had declared war\nagainst Britain, and that their portion of the Empire was threatened\nwith invasion.  A long frontier it was to guard, 1700 miles, and\nthere were only 5000 regular troops.  But Canada had a host unto\nherself in the gallant, dauntless person of General Isaac Brock,\ncommander in Upper Canada.  Brock had scarce need to call for\nvolunteer battalions before they were already formed.  More men\nflocked to his banners than there were arms with which to {264} equip\nthem.  The Indians, too, well content with British policy and fair\nplay, came tribe after tribe and offered their services.  Chief\namongst them stands the noble figure of Tecumseh, leader of the\nShawanoes.  His tribe had already fought the Americans, and been\ndefeated by them at the battle of Tippecanoe.  After the battle the\nred-men, like the Loyalists, had refused to live under the flag of\nthe Republic and had migrated northward to Canada.  Three distinct\nAmerican armies began the attack.  The leader of one of these,\nGeneral Hull, crossed the Detroit River and, landing in Canada,\nissued a proclamation offering peace, liberty, and security to all\nwho would accept American rule.  To those who refused, all the\nhorrors of war would descend upon their heads.  Instantly another\nproclamation was issued by General Brock.  \"Britain,\" it ran, \"will\ndefend her subjects!\"  Canada, well knowing her duty to herself and\nher sovereign, was not to be bribed nor bullied.  A little band of\nCanadian soldiers and voyageurs appeared before the American fort of\nMichilimackinac, which commanded Lake Michigan, and compelled it to\nsurrender.  Another small body of 350 Canadians, accompanied by\nTecumseh and his zealous Shawanoes, cut off Hull's supplies and\nchecked his progress.  This prompt action greatly astonished the\nbombastic American general.  He set out at once upon a retreat to\nDetroit, and there was quickly followed by Brock.  The Canadian\nleader commanded but little more than half the number of men his\nadversary could boast, but nevertheless Brock was bent on storming\nthe enemy's fort.  He was on the {265} point of giving the signal for\nassault when, to his amazement, a white flag was raised aloft and\nHull offered to capitulate.  The result was that 2500 troops and 33\ncannon and the whole territory of Michigan was surrendered to Canada.\nNo wonder that Brock became a hero, and that the heart of every\nCanadian who heard the tidings was fired with patriotic enthusiasm.\n\nMeanwhile how fared it with the other American armies?  General van\nRensselaer brought his clamorous, eager followers to Niagara, where\nthe mighty torrent of waters scarce could drown their huzzas of\nexpected victory when they sighted from afar Canadian soil.  The\nwoods flamed with crimson and yellow, vineyards were thick with their\npurple harvests when Van Rensselaer led his army to the attack on\nQueenston heights.  The Canadian shore of the Niagara River rose\nsheer and splendid from the foaming rapids below.  At a spot where\nthe river's course is somewhat checked the embarkation took place.\nThe sound of oars caught the ear of a sentinel, and a Canadian\nbattery opened fire.  Too late!  The Americans also had their\nbatteries planted, and they were far more numerous.  Thirteen hundred\nAmericans, led by Captain Wool, moved slowly up the slope and gained\nthe summit.\n\nThe sound of the firing reached Fort George, where General Brock then\nwas.  No time was to be lost; he flew to the fray.  The Americans\nmust be dislodged at the point of the bayonet.  \"Scale the heights!\"\nrang out as the battle-cry.  Waving his sword at the head of the\ncharging lines, Brock's voice {266} could be heard shouting, \"Push\non, ye brave York volunteers!\"  The words had scarce left his lips\nere the brave Brock sank down shot through the breast.\n\nUnder the hot fire from the summit on Queenston heights the ranks of\nhis followers were fast mowed down--so fast, that at length the\nCanadians were fain to halt awhile to gather breath.  They had not\nsuffered without inflicting suffering on the foe.  The American\ngeneral was disabled, many of his troops killed, and his position on\nthe crest far from secure.  Although he still had several hundred\nmore men than the Canadians could bring against him, and 4000 more\nAmerican soldiers were at hand on the other side of the river, the\nfate of the invaders was sealed.  Brock's successor, Roger Sheaffe,\nstormed them on three sides, while on the fourth side was a\nprecipice, 200 feet deep, its base washed by the angry river.  They\nfought madly, but nothing could stop the fury of the Canadian charge.\nBack, back they fell until the very edge of the precipice was\nreached.  There was nothing now but death or surrender, and 1100\nAmericans laid down their arms and became prisoners of war.\n\nWhen the first year's campaign came to an end Canadian soil had been\nfreed from the invader.\n\nNext year, however, the enemy attacked with even greater vigour.\nThey had met with several successes against the English at sea, for\nEngland could not always spare her best ships for the American\nconflict, and America thus felt the late defeats of her generals more\nthan atoned for.  York, afterwards Toronto, was captured, its public\nbuildings burned, the church {267} pillaged, and the public library\nsacked.  A number of private houses were also looted and destroyed.\nBut all this was not to go unavenged.  Before the war was over a\nBritish general in the very capital city of the enemy had exacted\nterrible retribution.  The capitol at Washington was burned and\nseveral other public buildings destroyed by way of retaliation.\n\nWith this campaign is associated in Canadian annals the story of a\nbrave woman, Laura Secord.  It shows the qualities which the\nwomanhood of Canada possessed at a time of storm and stress, when\ntheir country was invaded by the foe.  The American general-in-chief\ndespatched one of his officers, Colonel Boerstler, to capture by\nsurprise two of the Canadian outposts.  Two valiant Canadians held\nthese posts, Fitzgibbon at De Ceu's farm and De Harren at Twelve Mile\nCreek.  On a clear June night the Americans set out from Fort George.\nIn advance of their main body a strong picket roamed the country to\ncapture all the male inhabitants they met, so that no tidings of the\nAmerican approach could reach the threatened garrison.  But although\nthey captured many, there were some they were constrained to spare.\nOf these was a wounded militiaman, named James Secord.  He had lately\nbeen fighting for his country and flag at Queenston heights when an\nAmerican bullet had brought him low.  Deeming him helpless, the\npickets of the enemy spoke freely.  Secord overheard them speaking of\nthe projected attack on De Ceu's farm, where Fitzgibbon's thirty\npicked men slept ignorant of danger.  A pang shot through the hapless\nSecord's breast.  How to warn {268} Fitzgibbon?  How to apprise him\nof the certain doom which awaited him?  He spoke of the matter to his\ntrue-hearted wife, Laura.  She too came of sterling Loyalist stock.\nThe parents of both had suffered much at the hands of the American\nrevolutionists.  They had lost all they possessed and had fled to\nCanada for refuge from persecution.  She saw instantly the danger,\nand said quietly to her husband, \"Fitzgibbon must be warned, and I\nwill warn him.\"  Secord stared at his wife in amazement.  Did she\nrealise the magnitude of such a task?  The roads were swollen with\nrain and almost impassable by reason of the mud.  The woods were deep\nin swamp.  American and Indian marauders abounded.  Twenty miles of\nwilderness had to be traversed, not by a strong, lusty man in the\npride of youth, but by a frail woman, nearly forty years of age, and\nthe mother of five children.  Yet Laura Secord did not shrink.\nSeeing her resolution, her husband bade her God-speed, and she set\noff dauntlessly at daybreak.  After struggling along through\nunfrequented paths for nineteen miles, subject to constant alarms,\nshe came to a branch of a river.  For want of a bridge to cross it,\nshe reached the opposite bank by the aid of a fallen tree-trunk.  At\nnightfall she suddenly found herself in an Indian camp.  The\nmoonlight shone on her figure, and the Indians, seeing her, burst\ninto fearful war-yells.  Laura Secord was almost slain before she\ncould give an account of herself to the chief.  The Indians were\nfriendly and conducted her to Fitzgibbon; to him she quickly imparted\nher tidings.  The Indians suggested that the Canadians {269} should\nwait in ambush for the American column.  Fitzgibbon was a brave,\nintelligent officer and made his plans swiftly.  Sending word to his\nfellow-officer, De Harren, he distributed his dusky allies through\nthe woods and waited.\n\n[Illustration: Laura Secord intercepted by the Mohawk scouts]\n\nAt daybreak Boerstler's advance-guard was received with a murderous,\nunseen fire, accompanied by terrific yells.  Then came the column of\nthe enemy, which was similarly greeted.  Boerstler's men began to\ndrop in their tracks.  Judging by the noise and vigour of the\ninvisible enemy, Boerstler fancied he was being attacked by an\noverpowering force.  He sent back for reinforcements to Fort George,\nand ordered his men to press on with what speed and courage they\ncould.  At this juncture Fitzgibbon, with admirable presence of mind,\ntook advantage of the situation.  Emerging suddenly from the thicket\nwith his little handful of men, he greeted Boerstler with a flag of\ntruce.  It was a white handkerchief which he had tied hastily to his\nsword.  At the sight of the redcoats and their commander the fire\nstopped, \"I wish to avoid bloodshed,\" said Fitzgibbon to the enemy.\n\"In the name of the King, I call upon you to surrender!\"\n\nBy this time Boerstler was greatly alarmed, but he summoned up enough\ncourage to mutter that he was not accustomed to surrender to a force\nwhich he had not seen.  But Fitzgibbon was obdurate.  He knew that\nMajor de Harren with 200 men would soon join him, and he again\npressed for instant surrender.  At the time he made this lofty demand\nhe had scarce forty men at his back!  \"I will give you {270} five\nminutes,\" he said to Boerstler; \"I have no longer power to control my\nIndians.\"  Boerstler believed he had fallen into a trap.  He had\nreceived two wounds in the skirmish.  His mind was greatly agitated,\nand he put his hand to the articles of surrender.  While he was\npenning his name De Harren arrived with his 200 bayonets.\n\nBy this surrender 25 officers, 519 non-commissioned officers and men,\n2 field-guns, 2 ammunition cars, and a large number of horses were\ncaptured by the British.\n\nAs for Laura Secord, she soon recovered the fatigues of her thrilling\nadventure, and lived to be an old lady of ninety-three, greatly\nhonoured by Canadians for her heroism and fidelity to her country's\ncause.\n\nBut the glory and honour of the campaign was offset by a disgraceful\nBritish reverse.\n\nAt Detroit the general, Proctor, was cut off from his supplies, and,\nrecognising his position, resolved to evacuate and fall back on\nBurlington Heights.  In order that the fort at Detroit might be of\nlittle use to the enemy, he dismantled it as much as he could,\ncarried the guns away with him, and beat a retreat up the valley.\nWith his garrison of 900 Canadians went the valiant Tecumseh and 500\nIndian braves.  In the footsteps of this retreating force followed\n3000 of the enemy.  At Moravian Town, on the banks of the river\nThames, Proctor halted.  It was a capital spot for a defence.  On his\nright was a thick cedar swamp which was quickly occupied by Tecumseh\nand his 500 warriors.  Between the swamp and river only about 300\nyards intervened.  But {271} Proctor had made a terrible blunder.  He\nhad not dreamed the enemy were so nearly upon him.  His scouts and\nskirmishers told him nothing.  He felled no trees, he threw up no\nramparts.  In this fancied security, never thinking they would dare\nto attack him until he had time to make preparations, the hardy\nriflemen of Kentucky were swiftly upon him.  They were led by the\nAmerican general, Harrison, who afterwards became President of the\nUnited States.  When they appeared Proctor and his men trembled.\nThere was a momentary indecision.  Perhaps the troops felt that if\nthey had had a brave, wise commander to lead them they might still\ngive battle to the enemy.  A moment later their indecision yielded,\ntheir ranks broke, and the Canadians fled.  Not so, however, Tecumseh\nand his red-men.  Deserted by their white allies, they still held the\nCedar Swamp for the British flag.  But they were six times\noutnumbered; fight as they might, their defeat was a foregone\nconclusion.  Amongst those who fell was the stalwart hero, Tecumseh,\nwhose loss was mourned not more by the Indians than by the white men\nof Canada.  Not even his heroism could save his dead body from the\ndisgrace of mutilation by the foe.  But in so doing the disgrace of\nthe latter was greater than that they inflicted.  In all his battles,\nas in all his life, Tecumseh had ever been humane, just, and\nmoderate.  As for the incompetent general, Proctor, he was\ncourt-martialled for his conduct and dismissed by the King from his\nservice.\n\nIn the autumn of this year (1813) Lower Canada was threatened by a\nforce of 7000 Americans, {272} commanded by General Hampton.  This\narmy advanced from Lake Champlain to the Chateauguay River, designing\nto reach the head of Montreal Island.  At this spot they expected to\nbe joined by 8000 men under General Wilkinson, coming down the St.\nLawrence in boats from Lake Ontario.  To oppose the troops led by\nHampton and prevent them from joining their comrades near Montreal,\nwas a little force of 1600 men, commanded by one of the old French\nCanadian noblesse, Colonel de Salaberry, who had already fought for\nBritain in foreign climes.  He was an experienced soldier; he knew\nthat courage and endurance in the cause of patriotism more than\natoned for want of numbers.  He determined to throw himself in\nHampton's path in the forest, and so prevent his reaching\nChateauguay.  Accordingly he threw up his trenches and waited for the\noncoming of the Americans.\n\nIn due time they came; the battle began, and the first ranks of the\nfoe were mowed down like grass.  De Salaberry had taken the\nprecaution to scatter a dozen buglers through the woods, who sounded\nthe advance at intervals through the fray.  The invaders, hearing the\nrepeated trumpet blasts, thought a vast Canadian army opposed them.\nNevertheless they pressed forward, the defenders purposely giving way\na little.  The hidden buglers blew harder than ever, panic seized the\nenemy at last, and they fled back into the bushes, dropping their\nknapsacks, drums, and muskets as they ran.  Their comrades behind\ntook them for victorious Canadians advancing to a charge, and fired\nupon them.  Discovering their mistake too {273} late, they in turn\nfled, and soon the victory of 380 Canadians over ten times that\nnumber of the enemy was complete.  Miraculous to relate, the Canadian\nloss was only two killed and sixteen wounded; that of the Americans\nwill never be known.  But on the day following the battle nearly 100\ngraves were dug on their bank of the river.\n\nChateauguay was a blow to American pride which required many battles\nand more than one victory on the sea and the Great Lakes to atone for.\n\nMeanwhile what of Wilkinson and his army which was to join Hampton at\nMontreal?  Of the defeat and retreat of Hampton they knew nothing.\nThey supposed him to be advancing triumphantly from the south to join\nthem.  Wilkinson and his Americans could not understand why the\nCanadians took such trouble to oppose him.  For did he not tell them\nhe was come to release them from their fetters? that they would no\nlonger be slaves under the monarchy of King George, but henceforward\nas free as the air under a splendid republic?  He could not\nunderstand it.  He complained bitterly of the \"active, universal\nhostility\" of the male inhabitants of the country; he had come, he\nsaid plainly, to \"subdue the forces of His Britannic Majesty, not to\nwar against his unoffending subjects.\"\n\nThe answer to this kind of talk was supplied by the Canadians at the\nbattle of Chrysler's Farm.  It happened in this wise.  While the\nAmerican general descended the St. Lawrence by water, some 3000 of\nhis troops marched abreast by land on the way to Montreal.  In their\nrear a force of 800 {274} Canadians from Kingston followed them day\nand night, attacking whenever they had the chance.  At last the\ninvaders received their General's command to set upon these Canadian\nskirmishers and \"brush away the annoyance.\"\n\nOn a November afternoon a little force under Colonel Morrison drew up\nat a spot called Chrysler's Farm to receive the foe, three or four\ntimes outnumbering them.  They fought fiercely, and when the struggle\nwas over the Americans had received signal defeat; their general had\nfallen mortally wounded, they had lost several hundred men, and the\nBritish took more than a hundred prisoners.  Thus, completely routed,\nWilkinson's sole hope lay in joining Hampton at Lachine.  But, alas,\nthe news of the defeat at Chateauguay caused him to change his plans;\nthe attack on Montreal was given up, and the army of the invaders\nretired for the winter.\n\nOne of the most hotly-fought contests of this war occurred in the\nfollowing year at Lundy's Lane.  Here 3000 British faced 4600\nAmericans, and this again was a British victory of which Canada has\nreason to be proud.  In the following year the war was over, and an\nAmerican statesman, Quincey, could say in Congress: \"Since the\ninvasion of the Buccaneers, there is nothing in history more\ndisgraceful than this war.\"\n\nAs far as Canada was concerned the enemy had gained nothing.  They\nhad been repeatedly defeated by people fighting against many odds,\nwhose territory they had wantonly invaded.  To retaliate for their\ndestruction of York, the capital of Upper Canada, {275} the American\ncapitol and other public buildings at Washington had been burned,\n3000 of their ships had been captured by Britain, and two-thirds of\ntheir merchants were bankrupt at the close of the war.  But Canada,\nbaptized by fire, came out of the ordeal with a new spirit, a new\nself-reliance and pride in her achievements and destiny.\n\nWhile the forces of America and Canada were eyeing each other angrily\nacross the border, in the far west a new colony which would some day\nform a great and vigorous portion of the Dominion was born.  You may\nremember that all these lands between the Red River in the north and\nHudson's Bay were claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company.  But it seemed\nto many an unfair thing that this large and fertile district should\nbe given up as haunts for the fox and the beaver, the moose and the\nbuffalo.\n\nAccordingly a benevolent Scottish nobleman, the Earl of Selkirk,\nstruck by the poverty of his peasant countrymen, obtained a grant of\nland from the Company and resolved to begin a settlement on a large\nscale at Red River.  Now, at this time the Hudson's Bay Company, as a\nfur-trading enterprise, had a rival in Canada.  This rival was known\nas the North-West Company of Montreal.  The \"Nor'-Westers,\" as they\nwere called, objected to having the solitudes of the north-west\ninvaded by farmers and shepherds, and no pains and misrepresentations\nwere spared to prejudice the public against Lord Selkirk's scheme.\nThey went up and down telling everybody that the country was cold and\nbarren, half waste, half forest, unfit to be the abode of white men.\n\"If you {276} plant a colony out there,\" they told Lord Selkirk,\n\"your colonists will either freeze to death or be massacred by the\nsavages.\"  Nevertheless Selkirk sent out his emigrants in ships\nacross Hudson's Bay, and they made their way from thence slowly\nsouthward to Red River.\n\nThere was, besides the Hudson's Bay traders and their rivals the\nNor'-Westers, another class which bitterly resented this invasion\ninto their hunting haunts.  These were the half-breed bushrangers,\nwho were commonly called the M\u00e9tis or Bois-Brul\u00e9s.  These men, rough\nand untractable, were chiefly the descendants of the French\nfur-hunters and trappers who had married Indian women and settled\ndown on the shore of some distant lake or stream.  In the midst of\nthese French half-breeds there grew up also a number of Englishmen\nand Scotchmen hardly less fond of the wild life of the wilderness\nthan themselves.  These also took Indian wives, and when they or\ntheir children were asked whether they were English, Scotch, or\nIndian, they declared they were not one or the other: \"We belong to\nthe New Nation.\"\n\nIt was only natural that amongst this rude race there should arise a\nleader, a half-breed to whose superior ability and natural advantages\nwas added an education in Montreal, the seat of the co-partnery.\nCuthbert Grant, which was the name this individual bore, was known\nfar and wide amongst the hunters and trappers of Rupert's Land, and\neverywhere commanded homage and respect.  He had risen to be one of\nthe most enterprising and {277} valued agents of the Nor'-Westers,\nand was constantly admitted to their councils.\n\nAt the beginning of spring the \"first brigade\" of immigrants resumed\nits journey to the Red River Valley, arriving at what is now known as\nPoint Douglas late in August 1812.  Hardly had they reached this spot\nthan they were immediately thrown into the greatest fright and\ndisorder.  A band of armed men, painted, disfigured, and apparelled\nlike savages, confronted the little trembling band of colonists and\nbade them halt.  They were told briefly that they were unwelcome\nvisitors in that region, and must depart.  The colonists might have\nbeen urged to make a stand, but to the terrors of hostile Indian and\nhalf-breed was added that of prospective starvation, for none would\nsell them provisions thereabouts.  The painted warriors, who were\nNorth-West Company M\u00e9tis in disguise, urged them to proceed to\nPembina, across the American border, where they would be unharmed,\nand offered to conduct them thither.  They acquiesced, and the\npilgrimage was resumed for seventy miles farther on.  At Pembina they\npassed the winter in tents, according to the Indian fashion,\nsubsisting on the products of the chase, in common with the natives.\n\nSpring came, and it was decided to venture again to plant the colony\non the banks of the Red River.  Means were found to mollify their\nopponents, and log-houses were built and patches of prairie sown with\ncorn.  A small quantity of seed wheat, obtained at Fort Alexander,\nyielded them handsome returns at harvest time, and the lot of the\nsettlers seemed {278} brighter.  Nevertheless they decided to repair\nto Pembina for the winter, and, carefully saving their corn, live by\nhunting until the spring.\n\nWhile affairs were thus proceeding with the colonists, Lord Selkirk,\nin 1813, paid a visit to Ireland, where he secured a large number of\npeople as servants for the fur trade and the colony, in addition to\nthose engaged in the Highlands.\n\nHis colonists spent a winter rendered miserable by the unfriendliness\nof the Indians and half-breeds.  But the Nor'-Westers were not yet\nsatisfied.  They met at their great post of Fort William in the\nspring, and set about planning for the complete destruction of the\ncolony.  It excited the greatest indignation and bitterness.  They\nnow determined to seduce and inveigle away as many of the colonists\nas could be induced to join the North-West standard, and after they\nshould have thus diminished their means of defence, to exhort the\nIndians of Lac Rouge, Fond du Lac, and other places to rise and\ndestroy the settlement.  It was likewise their avowed intention to\nseize the Governor of Red River and carry him to Montreal as a\nprisoner, and so degrade the authority under which the colony was\nestablished in the eyes of the natives of that country.\n\nGradually a number of the settlers were seduced and instigated to\ndisloyalty against their benefactors and the Company.  A large band\nof the Bois-Brul\u00e9s were, for two years, maintained and paraded in\narms.  Now that the preparatory measures had reached this stage the\ntime seemed ripe for more decisive measures.\n\n{279}\n\nThe ruling spirit amongst the half-breed hordes, Cuthbert Grant,\nappeared on the scene, and with him some of his choice dare-devil\ncrew.  The return of the settlers to Red River had filled the minds\nof the Bois-Brul\u00e9s with rage.  The contempt of the wild hunters of\nthe plains for the peaceful tillers of the soil was great.  They\nscorned them for their manual labour; they reproachfully termed them\n\"the workers in gardens,\" and the phrase \"pork-eaters,\" formerly\napplied to the voyageurs east of Fort William, was now used\nderisively towards the Scotch settlers.  All was now ready for a\nfinal blow to the infant colony.\n\nIn June 1815, after the colony at Red River had been deprived of the\nmeans of defence and was in great measure surrounded by its enemies,\na large force of Nor'-Westers, consisting of half-breeds, servants,\nand clerks, sallied forth to make a combined attack on the\nsettlement.  A sharp fire of musketry was kept up for some time on\nthe Governor's house and adjacent buildings.  After a series of\nattacks and skirmishes, Governor M'Donnell was obliged to surrender\nhimself as a prisoner, and under a warrant from a partner in the\nNorth-West Company, sent to Montreal, charged with an undue arrogance\nof authority, to the detriment of the fur trade.\n\nGreat joy filled the breasts of the North-Westers assembled at Fort\nWilliam when these brave tidings were conveyed to their ear.  The\nnews was accompanied by convincing proofs of the great victory gained\nover the enemy in the persons of 134 settlers, including men, women,\nand children!\n\n{280}\n\nDeep were the potations, turbulent was the revelry when the flushed\nNor'-Westers returned from Red River and took their places at the\nboard.  They had gained a victory over the miserable colonists\ndespatched by Lord Selkirk to begin the peopling of the West.  The\nwar between Britain and America was ended, and so further relieved\ntheir dread of punishment.  But decisive as their triumph seemed, it\nwas short-lived.  Even as they rejoiced and made merry, the despised\nsettlers had returned, and affairs at Red River were shaping for a\ntragedy.  A new brigade of immigrants from Scotland also arrived at\nRed River only to gaze upon the embers of the burnt settlement.  With\nthem came a new Governor for the colony, Robert Semple by name.\nGovernor Semple had been appointed to the chief control of all the\nHudson's Bay Company's factories at Rupert's Land.\n\nLord Selkirk himself arrived in Canada and began engaging a number of\ndisbanded troops to help him quell the outrages of the Nor'-Westers\nand inflict vengeance upon them for their murders and misdeeds.  The\nNor'-Westers had not thought of this.\n\nThe war with America being over, the hired European regiments of De\nMeuron, Watteville, and the Glengarry Fencibles in Canada were out of\nemployment.  The privates, as well as their officers, were entitled\non their discharge to grants of lands in Canada, and in the event of\ntheir accepting them, the members of the two first-mentioned\nregiments were not to be sent back to Europe.  Selkirk perceived in\nthem an instrument ready to his hand, and, {281} mustering them\ntogether, he travelled towards the stronghold of the Nor'-Westers,\nFort William.\n\nMeanwhile Cuthbert Grant and his Bois-Brul\u00e9s began final hostilities\nagainst the Red River settlement.  One large post of the Hudson's Bay\nCompany was seized and pillaged, not only of all the English goods,\nfurs, and provisions, but also of the private property of the\nservants.  The Bois-Brul\u00e9s then set out to wipe the colony of Red\nRiver from the face of the earth.\n\nOn a bright June day Governor Semple, on the way from York factory,\nlearnt that he was to be attacked in two days by the Bois-Brul\u00e9s, who\nwere determined to take the fort.  If any resistance were made,\nneither men, women, nor children should be spared.  Two days later,\nwhile he was still gathering the friendly Indians about him, a man in\nthe watch-house called out that the half-breeds were coming.  Semple\nand his officers surveyed the neighbouring plains through their\ntelescopes, and made out the approach of some men on horseback.\n\nSemple, ever a man of peace, said, \"We must go out and meet these\npeople; let twenty men follow me.\"  So they proceeded by the\nfrequented path leading to the settlement.  As they went along they\nmet many of the colonists, who were running towards them, crying:\n\"The half-breeds!  The half-breeds!\"  An advance was made of about\none mile, when some persons on horseback were discerned close at\nhand, and the Governor, somewhat uneasy at the signs of their\nnumbers, had just decided to send for a cannon, when a fearful\nclamour pierced the air, and he saw {282} it was too late.  The\nhalf-breeds galloped forward, their faces painted in the most hideous\nmanner.  All were dressed in the Indian fashion, and surrounded the\nHudson's Bay people in the form of a half-moon.  As they advanced,\nthe latter party retreated, and a North-West hunter named Boucher\nrode up close to Governor Semple and asked what he wanted there?\nSemple replied by demanding of Boucher what he and his party wanted?\nBoucher said, \"We want our fort,\" and the Governor's answer was,\n\"Well, go to your fort.\"  \"You rascal,\" shrieked Boucher, \"you have\ndestroyed our fort.\"  Semple, a man of extremely mild manners and\ncultivated mind, flushed with indignation at such an address.\nIncautiously he laid hand upon the bridle of Boucher's horse.  A few\nhigh words passed.  Two shots rang out in quick succession, by the\nfirst of which an aide fell, and by the second Semple was wounded.\nIn a few minutes the field was covered with bleeding forms; almost\nall Semple's men were either killed or wounded.  Save in a single\ninstance, no quarter was given; the injured were summarily\ndespatched, and on the bodies of the dead were practised all the\nrevolting horrors which characterise the inhuman heart of the savage.\n\nTo Lord Selkirk, on his way westward with a party of about eighty\nsoldiers, the first intelligence of the massacre and destruction of\nthe colony was received when Sault Ste. Marie was reached.  They told\nhim that the settlers and a large part of the property of Red River\nhad been transported to Fort William.\n\nFilled with indignation, and determined to demand {283} an\nexplanation of this further bloody deed, the Earl pressed on with all\nhaste to the rendezvous of the North-West Company.  There, all\nunconscious of his approach, no plan had been made either to defend\nthemselves or to arrest Selkirk's progress.\n\nLet us peep in at Fort William.  On the night preceding the Earl's\narrival the Nor'-West partners and their servants are seated at a\nrude banquet, at which rum and brandy flow like water.  Haunches of\nbeef and venison repose on the board, flanked by many kinds of forest\ngame.  Laughter and toasting deafen the ear.\n\nBut if the scene within was noisy and animated, that without beggars\ndescription.  Hundreds of voyageurs, soldiers, Indians, and\nhalf-breeds were encamped together in the open, holding high revel.\nThey hailed from all over the globe, England, Ireland, Scotland,\nFrance, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland,\nAmerica, the African Gold Coast, the Sandwich Islands, Bengal,\nCanada, with Creoles, various tribes of Indians, and a mixed progeny\nof Bois-Brul\u00e9s or half-breeds.  \"Here,\" wrote one trader, \"were\ncongregated on the shores of the inland sea, within the walls of Fort\nWilliam, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Sun worshippers,\nmen from all parts of the world whose creeds were 'wide as poles\nasunder,' united in one common object, and bowing down before the\nsame idol.\"  Women, soldiers, voyageurs, and Indians, in ever-moving\nmedley, danced, sang, drank, and gambolled about the fort this night.\n\nBut Nemesis was at hand.  The Earl approached {284} the fur-trading\nstronghold swiftly and silently.  He was on them before they realised\nit.  An attempt was made to shut the gate and prevent the troops from\nentering.  The fort people had succeeded in shutting one half of the\ngate, and had almost closed the other by force, when thirty soldiers\nforthwith rushed to the spot and forced their way into the stronghold\nof the Northmen.\n\nThe notes of a bugle rang out across the river.  A fresh force of\nabout thirty other veterans of European battlefields hurried quickly\nover the stream to join their comrades.  Awed by the apparition of so\nmany arms and uniforms, the North-Westers abandoned further\nresistance, and bloodshed was happily averted.  Those who had refused\nobedience to the Earl's commands were seized and taken forcibly to\nthe boats, the others submitting peaceably to arrest.\n\n[Illustration: Meeting of the Nor'-Westers at Fort William, 1816]\n\nFort William and the Nor'-Westers, together with about two hundred\nFrench Canadians and half-breeds, and sixty or seventy Iroquois\nIndians in and about the fort, had been captured by Lord Selkirk.  He\nhad become possessed, to use his own words, \"of a fort which had\nserved, the last of any in the British dominions, as an asylum for\nbanditti and murderers, and the receptacle for their plunder; a fort\nwhich nothing less than the express and special licence of his\nMajesty could authorise subjects to hold; a fort which had served as\nthe capital and seat of government to the traitorously assumed\nsovereignty of the North-West; a fort whose possession could have\nenabled the North-West {285} Company to have kept back all evidence\nof their crimes.\"\n\nThe heads of the evil-doing were summoned to stand their trial in the\neast.  But the Nor'-Westers were bitter against the Earl who had\ndared to plant a colony in the midst of their hunting grounds.\n\n\"That canting rascal and hypocritical villain, Lord Selkirk, has got\npossession of our post at Fort William,\" wrote one of the aggrieved\npartners.  \"Well, we will have him out of that fort,\" he pursued\namiably, \"as the Hudson's Bay knaves shall be cleared, bag and\nbaggage, out of the North-West.\"\n\nBut although no man was destined to see this part of their prophecy\nfulfilled, yet Lord Selkirk, a few weeks later, evacuated Fort\nWilliam.  No sooner had the Earl and his forces left this great post\nthan the sheriff of Upper Canada arrived, took possession of the fort\nand the Nor'-Westers, and restored it to its original owners.\nAfterwards Imperial commissioners appointed in the name of the Prince\nRegent to restore law and order to the region went on to Red River,\nwhither Lord Selkirk had repaired.  Law and order were, however, not\nso easily restored.  The rivalry between the fur-traders was too\nstrong, the memory of bloodshed too recent for perfect peace to be\nestablished in a few weeks or months.\n\nIn the meantime Lord Selkirk left the matter of retribution upon the\nmurderers of Governor Semple to the law and returned to England.\nPunishment was duly meted out to the wrongdoers.  The Red River\ncolony struggled manfully against adversity for several winters, and\nit was not until 1822 that it at {286} last surmounted the evils\nwhich threatened to starve it out of existence.  But the heart of its\nfounder was not to be gladdened by the tidings of its growing\nprosperity.  The Earl had reached England disheartened; his health\nwas shattered by the long and anxious struggle to found a colony at\nRed River, and in April 1820 he breathed his last.  Selkirk may be\ntruly called the founder and father of the prosperous North-West of\nto-day.\n\nSoon after his death the Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies, for\nso long such fierce competitors in the fur trade, joined hands in\nfriendly partnership.\n\nGone now for ever were the old free days of the hunters and trappers,\nthe bushrangers and voyageurs.  The whole fur trade was placed on a\nstrictly commercial basis.  The Nor'-Westers, rough, enterprising\nadventurers, found themselves part of a huge machine operated by a\ngovernor and committee in far-away England.  Smaller and more remote\ngrew the regions where they could roam free and undisturbed.\nRupert's Land extended from the American border to the Pole, and from\nthe Great Lakes to the Pacific, and the officers of the Hudson's Bay\nCompany ruled it and most of those who dwelt there with a rod of iron\nfor the next fifty years.\n\nTrouble, however, was still in store for Red River.  Blood was yet to\nflow before the Bois-Brul\u00e9 could adapt himself to the new order of\nthings.\n\n\n\n\n{287}\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nTRAITORS, REDCOATS, AND REDSKINS\n\nWhen on that memorable morning in June 1837 the young Princess\nVictoria was awakened from her slumber and told that she had become\nmistress of the British Empire, far away, in one part of the Empire,\ntwo men were plotting to overthrow the new Queen's authority.  Canada\nwas again beset by disloyalty and rebellion.  By this time that\nportion of the country which Champlain had founded and Frontenac\nruled, now called Lower Canada, was filled with industrious,\nGod-fearing peasantry, tilling their farms, pursuing the peaceful,\nwholesome life of the village and countryside.  Westward to them lay\nUpper Canada and the towns and homesteads of the Loyalists, into\nwhich many more thousands of settlers had poured since the days of\nKing George III.  Amongst both these people a host of agitators\narose, restless lawyer-politicians for the most part, who cried out\nfor liberty and a republic.  We have seen these crafty-eyed men, with\ntheir loud voices and sardonic smile, stalking all through the pages\nof New World history.  They were the successors of the renegades who\nrevolted against Champlain, just as 150 years before that there were\nthe jealous {288} malcontents who revolted against Christopher\nColumbus and brought him in sorrow to the grave.  Frontenac faced\nthem, and with an effort he put them down; the gallant Lasalle met\nhis death at their hands; under Samuel Adams they achieved a triumph\nin New England which led to the loss of the thirteen American\ncolonies.  A noisy, reckless faction of this kind it was which had\nforced America into the shameful, useless war of 1812.  Now the\nrevolutionists stalked rampant in Canada, and it was high time their\nleaders were overthrown and crushed.  In the English part of Canada,\nthe Upper Provinces, the revolutionaries were led by a rash and\nimpulsive Scotchmen named William Mackenzie.  In Lower Canada, which\nwas chiefly peopled by French Canadians, the rebels looked to Louis\nPapineau as their leader.  When Lord Gosford, the Governor, warned\nthe people of the peril they ran in listening to the counsels of the\ndemagogues who would ruin them, they only met in the streets shouting\n\"Long live Papineau, our deliverer!\"  Daring bands of rebels, called\n\"Sons of Liberty,\" tore down the Governor's proclamation.  In a few\nweeks Papineau gave the signal and his followers flew to arms.  It\nwas the time of harvest; the grain had ripened and was ready for the\nreaper, but the English settlers in Lower Canada, loyal to their\nyoung Queen, dared not use their scythes and sickles for fear of the\nloaded muskets of the French Canadian rebels.  They fled for refuge\nto Montreal, where the first skirmish in the rebellion took place.\nThen the rebels set upon a small body of loyal cavalry marching from\nSt. John's, on the {289} Richelieu River.  Amongst them was a young\nofficer, Lieutenant Weir, the bearer of despatches from Colonel Gore.\nHe was made prisoner and placed in the custody of some of the\ninsurgents, who, regardless of mercy and decency, butchered him in\nbarbarous fashion.  While Weir was being hacked to pieces by\nPapineau's men, the rebel leader learned from the captured despatches\nthat Gore and his soldiers were marching upon them.  At St. Denis,\ntherefore, they entrenched themselves, and for some hours held the\npost, keeping up a deadly fire upon the troops.\n\nFortunately for the English flag in Canada, there was an able man to\ndefend it in the person of Sir John Colborne, one of the generals of\nthe Duke of Wellington.  He sent Colonel Wetherell to take the rebel\npost at St. Charles.  Here a weak and foolish American, who called\nhimself \"General\" Brown, abandoned his men almost at the first\nartillery discharge.  Though they fought on for a time, none the\nworse for their leader's absence, they were soon dispersed by\nassault.  Colborne himself, with a force of regulars and militia,\nmarched to the villages of St. Eustache and St. Benoit.  The parish\nchurch at St. Eustache, built of stone, was turned into a fort, and\nhere, in the sacred edifice, the rebels bade defiance to the soldiers\nof the Queen.  Their fate was a terrible one.  Flames shot through\nthe roof and steeple, and the walls began to fall in.  The rebels\ncontinuing to make a stand until escape was too late, almost the\nwhole number of those who thus held St. Eustache were burnt to ashes.\n\nWhen Colborne marched his men on to St. Benoit {290} the rebels, now\nthoroughly frightened at their misdeeds, sued for peace.  They\nsurrendered ignominiously, but this did not prevent the British\nsettlers, whose homes and harvests they had destroyed, from venting\ntheir anger upon them, so that this village and many houses round\nabout fell a prey to their wrath.  That night the countryside was lit\nup by a terrible glow.  On the morrow it was seen how few amongst the\nvast body of French Canadians were really disloyal to the Government\nwhich had given them political and religious liberty.  In one of the\ndistricts which had been claimed by Papineau, 1500 militiamen put\nthemselves under the French Canadian, Colonel de Hertel, and declared\nthemselves staunch in their allegiance and ready to help in quelling\nthe rebellion.  Although Papineau's men had fled cravenly across the\nborder at the first outbreak of trouble, others still continued to\nfoment war and bloodshed.  Two unhappy brothers named Nelson gained\nan unenviable notoriety.  One of them boldly proclaimed the\n\"Republic\" of Canada; but all they gained for their pains was the\nmelancholy pleasure of seeing their countrymen, of both French and\nEnglish origin, in distress, gaols filled with their deluded\nfollowers, many of whom were afterwards hanged for treason.\n\nWhile this was happening in Lower Canada to cause the young Queen and\nher ministers anxiety, in Upper Canada William Mackenzie and his\nfollowers revelled in riot.  Mackenzie fancied he was another\nWashington; he wrote bombastic letters to his fellow-traitor,\nPapineau, and busied himself with {291} designing a flag for his new\nRepublic, on which were two stars, one for each province.  At last\nMackenzie considered the time had come for war, and he and his\nfriends decided to capture Toronto.\n\nOne bright, cold December day 1000 rebels were entrenched at their\nrendezvous, Montgomery's tavern, a few miles outside Toronto.  An old\nsoldier, who had fought under Napoleon, Van Egmond, undertook to\ndrill them; Sam Lount, a beetle-browed blacksmith, was their\ncommander-in-chief.  To nip their schemes in the bud, against them\nmarched the royal Governor, Sir Francis Head, with 500 militia.  The\nGovernor called upon them to surrender and lay down their arms; they\nrefused, and an exchange of fire took place.  Then the courage of the\ninsurgents oozed out, and they fled, the ringleader, Mackenzie, being\namong the first who took to his heels.  He retired to a little spot\nin the middle of the Niagara River called Navy Island, and proceeded\nto establish what he called a Provisional Government.  Overhead,\ngreatly to his own satisfaction, floated the two-starred flag of the\nCanadian Republic.  Here Mackenzie impudently issued grants of land\nto all who would take up arms in his cause, and despatched them in a\nsteamboat called the _Caroline_.  One dark night a dashing young\nBritish lieutenant seized the rebel _Caroline_, which his American\nsympathisers had lent to \"President\" Mackenzie, set her on fire, and\ndropped her, a burning mass, over the Niagara Falls.\n\nA time soon came when the American sympathisers felt that they had\ngone too far, and their {292} President issued a proclamation warning\nhis people against attacking a friendly power.  In spite of this,\nhowever, several American filibustering expeditions took place before\nthey realised the hopelessness of endeavouring to seize Canada, as\nthey had seized Texas from a friendly nation like Mexico and make it\na part of their Republic.\n\nMackenzie was arrested by the Americans themselves and sentenced to\neighteen months in gaol.  Had he been caught in Canada, he would have\nsuffered the fate of his companions and been hanged, as he richly\ndeserved, for treason.\n\nThe disaffection all came to an end when Queen Victoria's Government,\nacting on the advice of Lord Durham, who had been sent to Canada to\ninquire into the disturbances, united Upper Canada and Lower Canada\ninto one province, and granted the people the power to manage their\nown affairs in a Parliament of their own.  After a time, when the\nCanadian people could not agree upon a spot to be chosen for a\ncapital town for their now united Provinces of Ontario and Quebec,\nthey called upon Queen Victoria to select one for them.  It so\nhappened that there was on the banks of the Ottawa a little village\nnamed Bytown, not far from two beautiful falls, the Rideau and\nChaudi\u00e8re.  It was the scene of a prosperous lumbering camp, and\nseveral sawmills throve there; it was far removed from the stress and\nthe struggle of the French and English parties, and from bitter\npolitical feeling.  So the young Queen, who had seen some sketches of\nthe {293} village, chose it for the meeting-place of Parliament and\nthe residence of her Governor-General.  All parties were pleased, and\nso it came about that Bytown was rechristened Ottawa, and it in\ncourse of a few years became filled with magnificent buildings and\nbeautiful homes.\n\nOttawa was destined to be still more important and famous as the\ncapital of the entire DOMINION OF CANADA.  For as time went on all\nthe British provinces, both of the east and the west, that begun by\nPoutraincourt 250 years before in Acadia, and that founded by Selkirk\non the Red River, all the colonies between the Atlantic and the\nPacific north of the American border, had grown and flourished and\nsought to be welded into a single nation under the British flag.\nThirty years after Papineau's rebellion, therefore, the desired union\ntook place, and in 1867 the Canadian Dominion, under Sir John\nMacdonald's leadership, began its career.\n\nThe new order of things involved many changes.  Amongst others it was\ntime in the Far West that the power of the Hudson's Bay Company over\nthe vast region of Rupert's Land should come to a close.  No longer\nwas it meet and proper that a body of fur-traders should be lords\nparamount over all this territory.  Yet neither the Company nor its\ndependents, the voyageurs, trappers, and hunters, were eager for any\nchange.  The M\u00e9tis or Bois-Brul\u00e9s, of whom we spoke in the last\nchapter, had grown accustomed to the Company's rule.  \"If,\" said\nthey, \"the Company is no longer to govern us, then we should govern\nourselves.\"  When they saw the first {294} advance guard of Canadians\nfrom the east coming in to take their land for farms, to lay out\nroads and townships, the Bois-Bruits met in angry protest; they\ndefied the Canadians to take their country without their consent.\nThey were joined by a number of American immigrants, who regarded any\npolitical trouble with pleasure as hastening the annexation which was\nthe object of their desire.\n\nAgain did a leader step quickly forth from their ranks.  His name was\nLouis Riel.  Half-educated, fanatical, this young man dreamed dreams\nof future power and glory.  In person he was short and stout, with a\nlarge head, a high forehead, and an intelligent eye; above his brow a\nmass of long and thick black hair clustered.  No sooner was it clear\nthat the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company had been sold for\nCanadian gold, than Riel proclaimed himself Dictator of the new\nprovince of Rupert's Land; he issued a bombastic proclamation to his\npeople refusing to recognise the authority of Canada \"coming to rule\nus with a rod of despotism,\" and declaring a Provisional Government,\nas so many agitators had done before him.  A new flag, comprised of\nthe fleur-de-lys and a shamrock, out of compliment to the Irish\nFenians, was hoisted over Fort Garry, a strong stone fortress which\nthe Company had built on the Red River, not far from where the city\nof Winnipeg now stands.\n\nWhen the Canadian Government heard of the trouble that was brewing in\nits newly-acquired territory of Rupert's Land, the greatest alarm was\nfelt, for at that very moment Governor MacDougall was on his {295}\nway to Fort Garry to take charge of the new territory.  The Governor\nhad just set foot across the border when he was met by Riel and three\nor four thousand followers at a barrier built across the roadway.\nTwo courses were open to him: to fight or retreat.  As he had no\ndesire to shed blood, he returned quietly across the border.\n\nRiel could not now keep his hot-headed followers in hand.  Sixty\nprisoners, all who dared to oppose his schemes, were seized and\nlocked up in the fort.  A commissioner was sent from Canada, Donald\nSmith, afterwards Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, to allay the\nexcitement, but his mission had no immediate effect, for Louis Riel\nwas resolved to play a heroic part in the eyes of Indians and M\u00e9tis.\nSeveral of the leading men of the Company were put in irons.  So\noverwhelmed was the Company's governor, that he took to his bed and\nnever recovered.  While he lay in the shadow of death, the pitiless\nRiel stood over him heaping him with abuse.  As for Donald Smith,\nRiel gave orders to his guard, \"Shoot that man,\" said he, \"if he\nmakes an attempt at escape or disobeys my orders.\"  But Donald Smith\nsurvived the ordeal, living to be governor of the territory, and\nafterwards to be known all over the Empire as one of the chief\nbuilders of the Canadian Pacific Railway.\n\nAmongst the prisoners who had dared to defy Riel's power was a\nresolute young Canadian named Thomas Scott.  Scott had refused to bow\nthe knee to the Dictator, and Riel resolved that he should die.  So\non the 4th March 1870 Scott was led outside the gate of the fort,\nwith a white handkerchief bound {296} across his brow; his coffin,\nwith a white sheet thrown upon it, was carried with him; his eyes\nwere then bandaged, he was allowed a few minutes for prayer, and then\ntold to kneel in the snow.  Six half-breeds, who had been plied\nheavily with drink, then raised their muskets; their shots rang out,\nand Scott immediately fell back, pierced by three bullets.  He had\nnot been executed; he had been brutally murdered.  Like wild-fire\nthrough the east flew the news of the death of Scott.  Volunteers and\nregulars were hastily summoned.  At that time there was in Canada an\nable Colonel of the British Army, by name Garnet Wolseley.  Very few\nknew his name then, but he, too, was destined to be world-famous.  He\ninstantly put himself at the head of the Red River brigade and\npressed on to Fort Garry to punish the impudent traitor who had dared\nto set Canada at defiance.  The Red River brigade pressed on through\nbad roads, dense forests; they crossed lakes and turbulent rivers in\nleaky boats.  A number of accidents occurred and many narrow escapes\nfrom rock and rapid.  But at last through the 600 miles of wilderness\nColonel Wolseley and his men of the brigade came to the neighbourhood\nof Fort Garry.  A line of skirmishers was thrown out in advance; it\nwas not yet known what defence \"the little Napoleon,\" as his\nadherents were fond of calling Riel, would offer.  To Wolseley's\nsurprise, no banner floated from the flagstaff and the gates of the\nfort were open.  Through the portals the Colonel and his brigade\nmarched, angry that they had been balked of their prey.  Louis Riel's\ncourage had oozed out at the {297} last moment, and he had fled\nacross the Assiniboine River.\n\n[Illustration: The Defeat of Louis Riel, Fish Creek, 1885]\n\nBut Canada was not yet done with Louis Riel.  Fifteen years passed\naway--years of stirring change.  Thousands of colonists had poured\ninto the new and fertile province now called Manitoba, and a\nflourishing city arose on the site of Fort Garry.  In sullenness the\nhalf-breeds still further withdrew into the heart of the wilderness\nand settled on the banks of the Saskatchewan and the far Saskatchewan\nValley.  Silently they nourished hate against the settlers, looking\nto their leader Riel, who lived in exile across the American border,\nto come some day and avenge their wrongs.\n\nSlowly but surely the farmers and ranchers pushed the half-breeds and\nhunters farther and farther, until they felt the forests slip from\nthem.  When they could bear it no longer, they sent a message to Riel\nto free them from the tyranny of the Canadian immigrants.  Riel\nanswered the call; he rejoiced this time in the title of Liberator,\nfor he told the Indians and Bois-Brul\u00e9s he would liberate their lands\nfrom the harvesters and ranchmen.  Gathering together not only the\nhalf-breeds, but many of the red-men as well, the rebels advanced on\nthe Canadian militia at Duck Lake and inflicted upon them a defeat.\nFlushed with this triumph, Riel sought the chiefs of the Cree and\nBlack Feet tribes; he showed them how the Canadians could be driven\nout of the country, and the old happy, careless, prosperous days of\nthe Indians would return.  Amongst those who listened was Big Bear,\nchieftain {298} of the Crees, and Crow Foot of the warlike Black\nFeet, besides Poundmaker and other chiefs.  War and butchery ensued;\nhelpless settlers were shot down without mercy.  But Nemesis was at\nhand.  Canada was pouring an army of redcoats into the turbulent\nNorth-West, and the fate of Riel and his deluded half-breeds and\nredskin followers was sealed.  He himself was seized, found guilty of\ntreason, and hanged at last for his folly and his crimes.\n\n\nWe have now in the pages of this book marked the Romance of Canada\nfrom that summer day nearly four centuries ago when the adventurous\nCartier sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and marvelled at the\nred-men and the beauty of the Canadian forests; we have marked the\ngallant Poutraincourt plan his picturesque little colony in Acadia;\nnoted the deeds of the valiant Champlain and his loyal trust in the\nland for which he spent and suffered so much.  Can you forget the\nfortitude and unquenchable heroism of the ill-fated Jesuits?  The\npicturesque fidelity and thrilling adventures of Charles de la Tour\nand his brave wife; the heroic achievements of Frontenac; the fierce\nstruggle against fate of hapless Montcalm; the glorious victory of\nWolfe; the zeal and sufferings of the United Empire Loyalists, pass\nin a succession of pictures as we compass those three centuries of\ntime since Canada became the settled habitation of lion-hearted men.\n\nGradually the ferocious red-man with his musket and tomahawk has been\ndriven from his lodges and wigwams in the east, to make way for\nbustling cities {299} and thriving towns and villages.  The lakes and\nrivers, where the birch-bark canoes of the savage, where the daring\nfur-hunters once thronged, laden with the spoils of the forest, now\nbear on their bosoms hundreds of busy steam-boats, freighted with the\nproduce of farm and orchard and factory.  The lonely, dangerous\ntrails along which Champlain, Frontenac, Lasalle, and Verendrye led\ntheir men have given way to steel highroads which traverse the entire\nContinent.  Everywhere the spirit of progress has smiled upon the\nland, and the farms, orchards, and homesteads of Canada smile upward\nto the clear heavens in return.\n\nDo not forget that Romance, though unseen by the bodily eye, never\ndies.  It is as beautiful as the landscape or the setting sun.\nSearch for it in the annals of the past, and each grey lake, every\nsimple river, both hill and dale, have their stirring story to tell\nof valour and heroic sacrifice, of noble endurance, of patriotic deed.\n\nCanada was not easy in the making; much blood flowed and many loyal\nhearts were broken before the Great Dominion arose.\n\n\n\n\n{301}\n\nINDEX\n\nNDX\n\nAbenaki tribe, 139, 157, 158\n\nAbercrombie, General, 209, 210\n\nAbraham, Plains of, 217\n\nAcadia, 18, 28, 101, 159, 179, 184, 187, 190\n\nAix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 178\n\nAlbany, Fort, 118, 142\n\nAlexander, Sir W., 50, 52\n\nAlgonquin tribe, 7, 31, 32, 33, 43, 48, 77\n\nAllan, E., 239\n\nAllumette Island, 34\n\nAmerican revolutionary war, 247\n\nAmerican war of 1812, 262\n\nAmherst, General, 208, 214\n\nAndros, Governor, 128\n\nAnnahotaha (chief), 81\n\nAnnapolis, 20, 159, 169, 177\n\nAnson, Admiral, 178\n\nAnville, Duke d', 176\n\nArgall, S., 26, 27\n\nArnold, B., 239, 245, 246\n\nAsgill, Captain, 250\n\nAssiniboines tribe, 104\n\nAvaugour, Marquis d', 84\n\n\n\nBailey, Governor, 150, 152\n\nBarre, La, Governor, 113, 122, 123\n\nBeaus\u00e9jour, Fort, 184, 188, 198\n\nBiard, Father, 24\n\nBiencourt, Baron de, 24, 27, 51\n\nBig Jaw (chief), 123\n\nBigot, F., 193, 203, 211, 230, 231\n\nBochat, Du Plessis, 77\n\nBoerstler, 269\n\nBois-Brul\u00e9s, 276, 278, 281, 294\n\nBorgne, Le, 99, 100\n\nBoscawen, Admiral, 209\n\nBoucher, 282\n\nBougainville, General, 217, 221\n\nBouill\u00e9, Helen (wife of Champlain), 33, 41, 66\n\nBouquet, Colonel, 236\n\nBraddock, General, 196, 197, 199\n\nBradstreet, Colonel, 210\n\nBrant, Mollie, 200\n\nBr\u00e9beuf, J. de, 59, 71\n\nBreda, Treaty of, 101\n\nBritish Columbia, 12\n\nBrock, I., 263, 264, 265\n\nBurton, Colonel, 219\n\n\n\nCabot, John, 3, 12\n\nCabot, Sebastian, 3\n\nCadet, 231\n\nCadillac, La Motte, 166\n\nCaen, W. and E. de, 43, 45, 49\n\nCalli\u00e8res, De, Governor, 124, 126, 131, 154, 155, 156\n\nCanada, 3, 6, 14; first colonisation of, 16; 18, 165, 203; and the\nAmerican Revolution, 239, 256\n\nCape Breton, 50, 163, 166\n\nCarleton, Sir G., 239, 243, 244, 257\n\nCaron, J. le, 36\n\nCartier, Jacques, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9; dies, 10; 30\n\nCayuga tribe, 31, 182\n\nC\u00e9l\u00e8ron, Chevalier, 182\n\nChaleurs, Baie de, 4\n\nChamplain, Lake, 32\n\nChamplain, S. de, 17, 19, 22, 27, 29, 31, 46, 47, 55, 56\n\nCharles I., 47, 51, 54\n\nCharnisay, Chevalier de, 93, 94\n\nChastes, A. de, 16, 18\n\nChateauguay, battle of, 273\n\nChauvin, 15\n\nChrysler's Farm, battle of, 273\n\nColborne, Sir J., 289\n\nColumbus, C., 2\n\nContrecour, 198\n\nCook, Captain J., 215\n\nCornwallis, E., 184, 185\n\nCornwallis, General, 249\n\nCourcelle, Sieur de, 85, 88, 103\n\nCromwell, Oliver, 100\n\nCrown Point, 200, 239\n\n\n\nDale, Sir T., 27\n\nDaniel, Father, 70\n\nDauversi\u00e9re, J. de la, 62\n\nDeerfield, raid of, 157\n\nDenonville, Marquis de, 124, 126, 129\n\nDestournelles, Admiral, 177\n\nDetroit, 233, 270\n\nDieskau, Baron, 196, 200, 201\n\nDinwiddie, Governor, 195\n\nDixon, 120\n\nDollard, A. (Daulac des Ormeaux), 80\n\nDonacona (chief), 6, 8\n\nDongan, Colonel, 112, 126\n\nDrake, Sir F., 12\n\nDrucour, General, 209\n\nDuchambon, 173, 174\n\nDuchesneau, 107\n\nDuck Lake, battle of, 297\n\nDupuy, Captain, 78, 79\n\nDuquesne, Fort, 197, 198, 201, 210\n\nDuquesue, Marquis, 194, 195, 196\n\nDurham, Earl of, 292\n\nDuval, J., 30\n\nDuvivier, 169, 170\n\n\n\nEdward, Fort, 200\n\nElizabeth, Queen, 12\n\nErie tribe, 78\n\nEtherington, Captain, 235\n\n\n\nFinisterre, Cape, battle of, 178\n\nFitzgibbon, 267\n\nFive Nations (Indian), 31, 37, 125, 153\n\nFl\u00e8che, Father la, 23\n\nFrancis I. (France), 3, 10\n\nFrobisher, Martin, 12\n\nFrontenac, Count of, 103, 106, 112, 113, 130, 135, 137, 153, 154\n\nFrontenac, Fort, 110, 153, 210\n\nFur trade, 11, 16, 33, 43, 104\n\n\n\nGalissoni\u00e8re, Governor, 179, 181, 182\n\nGarry, Fort, 294\n\nGasp\u00e9, Cape, 4, 48\n\nGeorge, Fort, 200, 201\n\nGeorge III., 257\n\nGilbert, Sir H., 12, 13\n\nGladwin, Major, 233\n\nGore, Colonel, 289\n\nGosford, Lord, 288\n\nGrant, C., 276, 279, 281\n\nGreen Mountain Boys, 239\n\nGroseilliers, C. de, 104, 105\n\nGuercheville, Madame de, 24, 25\n\n\n\nHalifax, N.S., 184\n\nHampton, General, 272\n\nHarren, Major de, 269\n\nHarrison, General, 271\n\nHaverhill, massacre of, 158\n\nHead, Sir F., 291\n\nHearne, S., 252\n\nH\u00e9bert, L., 41\n\nHenry IV. (of France), 13, 18, 24\n\nHenry VIII., 1\n\nHertel, F., 133\n\nHill, Sir J., 160, 161\n\nHochelaga, 6, 31, 33, 63\n\nHolmes, Captain, 234\n\nHoly Cross (Ste. Croix) River, 19\n\nHorses, 164\n\nHowe, Captain, 186\n\nHowe, Lord, 209\n\nHudson, H., 35\n\nHudson's Bay, 35, 142, 251, 276\n\nHudson's Bay Company, 103, 105 286, 293\n\nHuguenots, the, 45, 46\n\nHull, General, 264\n\n\"Hundred Associates, Company of the,\" 46, 55, 63, 84\n\nHuron tribe, 31, 33, 36, 48, 57, 59, 69, 73, 77, 79, 126\n\nIberville, Sieur d', 115, 117, 121, 143, 144, 148\n\nIndians, Red, 4, 12, 31, 42, 231, 264 (see also under individual\ntribes)\n\nIroquois tribe, 31, 36, 57, 60, 65, 112, 124, 127, 132, 139, 153,\n155, 202\n\nIsle Royale (Cape Breton), 166\n\n\n\nJames I., 26, 50\n\nJefferson, T., 263\n\nJesuits, 23, 25, 45, 55, 59, 90\n\nJoann\u00e8s, town-major, 223, 224\n\nJogues, Father, 67\n\nJohnson, W., 182, 198, 200, 202\n\nJolliet, 107, 108\n\nJonqui\u00e8re, Marquis de la, 177, 178, 179, 193, 194\n\n\n\nKirke, Sir D., 47, 49\n\nKirke, L., 49\n\nKoudiaronk (chief), 126\n\n\n\nLabrador, 3, 12\n\nLachine, massacre of, 128\n\nLalement, Father, 72\n\nLarobeyre, 129\n\nLaval, F. de, 84, 86, 107, 112\n\nLawrence, Colonel, 186, 188, 190\n\nLeaden plates and shields, the, 182\n\nLescarbot, 20, 21\n\nL\u00e9vis, Chevalier de, 223, 226, 228, 229, 230\n\nLoudon, Earl of, 205, 207\n\nLouis XIII., 24, 50\n\nLouis XV., 193\n\nLouisburg, 166, 169, 172, 174, 178, 209\n\nLouisiana, 112, 113, 181\n\nLount, Sam, 291\n\nLoutre, Father le, 171, 177, 184, 185, 186, 188\n\nLoyalists, American, exodus of, 258\n\nLundy's Lane, battle of, 274\n\n\n\nMacdonald, Sir J., 293\n\nM'Donnell, Governor, 279\n\nM'Dougall, Governor, 294\n\nMackenzie, W., 288, 290, 291, 292\n\nMaisonneuve, Sieur de, 63, 66\n\nMance, Jeanne, 63, 65\n\nMargerie, F. and G., 60\n\nMarie de Medici, Queen, 24\n\nMarquette, Father, 107, 108\n\nMartigny, 150\n\nMascarene, P., 169\n\nMass\u00e9, E., 24\n\nMazarin, Cardinal, 99\n\nMembertou (chief), 20, 22, 23, 25\n\nMenou, C. de, _see_ Charnisay\n\nMicmac tribe, 185\n\nMississippi river, 106, 108\n\nMohawk tribe, 31, 32, 68, 78, 87, 90, 200\n\nMonckton, Colonel, 188, 189, 198\n\nMontcalm, Marquis de, 204, 205, 206, 207, 210, 211, 213, 215, 217,\n218; his death, 219\n\nMontgomery, R., 239, 244, 245\n\nMontmagny, C. de, 56, 64, 76\n\n\"Montmorency, Company of, \" 43\n\nMontmorency, Duke of, 45\n\nMontmorency, river, 215\n\nMontreal, 6, 17, 62, 229, 239\n\nMonts, Sieur de, 17, 22, 24, 29, 32\n\nMoon, Captain, 142\n\nMoose Factory, 115\n\nMorrison, Colonel, 274\n\nMount Desert, 26\n\nMount Royal, 8, 17, 62\n\nMouton, Port, 18\n\nMunro, Colonel, 205, 206\n\nMurray, General, 224, 226, 228, 233\n\n\n\nNapoleon I., 262\n\nNatanis (chief), 241, 242\n\nNelson, Fort, 143\n\nNew Brunswick, 12, 101, 179\n\nNewfoundland, 3, 11\n\n\"New Nation, \" 276\n\nNew Netherlands, 35, 87\n\nNew York, 250, 257\n\nNiagara, Fort, 210\n\nNicollet, J., 76\n\nNicholson, Colonel, 169\n\nNorth-West Company, 275, 277, 278, 279, 286\n\nNova Scotia, 12, 18, 51, 100, 101, 163, 169, 183, 258\n\nNova Scotia, Baronets of, 51\n\n\n\nOhio Company, 194\n\nOneida tribe, 31, 140, 153\n\nOnondaga tribe, 31, 37, 78, 80, 153\n\nOntario, Lake, 36, 258\n\n\"Order of a Good Time, \" 21\n\nOswego, 205\n\nOttawa, city, 34, 293\n\nOttawa, river, 34\n\n\n\nPalliser, Sir H., 215\n\nPapineau, L., 288, 290\n\nP\u00e9an, Madame, 193\n\nPeltrie, Madame de la, 58, 64\n\nPembina, 277, 278\n\nPennsylvania, 194\n\nPepperell, W., 173, 174, 175\n\nP\u00e9rouse, Admiral la, 252\n\nPerrot, Governor, 107\n\nPerrot, N., 106\n\nPhips, Sir W., 134, 135, 138, 139\n\nPitt, Fort, 236\n\nPitt, William, 208\n\nPittsburg, 210\n\nPoint L\u00e9vis, 214\n\nPontgrav\u00e9, 15, 16, 29, 31\n\nPontiac (chief), 232, 233, 236\n\nPortneuf, 133\n\nPort Royal, 19, 20, 25, 27, 52, 99, 158\n\nPoutraincourt, Baron de, 19, 23, 24, 25, 28\n\nPrince Edward Island, 12, 101, 261\n\nPrince of Wales, Fort, 251\n\nProctor, General, 270\n\n\n\nQuebec, 12, 23, 29, 30, 36, 49, 75, 135, 137, 165, 211, 214; storming\nof, 216; 222, 224, 228, 245\n\nQueenston Heights, battle of, 266\n\n\n\nRadisson, P. E., 104, 105, 114\n\nRam\u00e9say, Commandant, 223, 224\n\nRazilly, Captain do, 93\n\nRecollet priests, 36, 42, 46\n\nRed River Settlement, 261, 275, 285\n\nRensselaer, General van, 265\n\nRichelieu, Cardinal, 46\n\nRichelieu, Fort, 67\n\nRiel, L., 294, 295, 296, 298\n\nRoberval, Sieur de, 9\n\nRoche, Marquis de la, 13, 15\n\nRocky Mountains, 168\n\nRodney, Admiral, 256\n\nRupert, Fort, 117\n\nRupert, Prince, 105\n\nRupert's Land, 294\n\nRyswick, Peace of, 153, 156\n\n\n\nSable Island, 14\n\nSt. Castin, Baron de, 102\n\nSt. Foye, battle of, 227\n\nSt. Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 54, 55, 93\n\nSte. H\u00e9l\u00e8ne, Sieur de, 115, 117, 132, 139\n\nSt. John's (N.B.), 12, 259\n\nSt. Joseph, massacre of, 70\n\nSt. Joseph Island, 74\n\nSt. Lawrence river, 3, 5\n\nSt. Louis, Ch\u00e2teau de, 41\n\nSt. Mary on Wye, 71\n\nSt. Pierre, Legardeur de, 194, 195, 201\n\nSt. Vincent, Earl, 214\n\nSalaberry, Colonel de, 272\n\nSalle, Sieur de la, 107, 109, 112, 181\n\nSargeant, Governor, 118\n\nSaussaye, La, 26, 27\n\nSchuyler, J., 134\n\nScott, T., 295\n\nSecord, J., 267\n\nSecord, Laura, 267, 270\n\nSelkirk, Earl of, 261, 275; 278, 280, 282, 285, 286\n\nSemple, R., 280, 281\n\nSeneca tribe, 31, 122, 123, 125\n\nS\u00e9rigny, 151, 152\n\nSheaffe, R., 266\n\nShelburne, 259\n\nShirley, W., 172, 175, 183, 188, 198, 200\n\nSmithsend, Captain, 150\n\nStrathcona, Lord, 295\n\nSubercase, 129, 159\n\nSulpician fathers, 83\n\nSuperior, Lake, 76\n\n\n\nTalon, J. B., 85, 90, 92, 103, 106\n\nTecumseh (chief), 264, 270\n\nTessouat (chief), 34\n\nTiconderoga, Fort, 209, 239\n\nTonti, H. de, 110\n\nToronto, 266, 291\n\nTour, Charles de la, 51, 53, 55, 93, 98, 100, 101\n\nTour, Claude de la, 51, 52\n\nTour, Madame de la, 96, 97, 98\n\nTownsend, General, 222, 223, 224\n\nTracy, Marquis de, 85, 88, 90\n\nTroyes, Chevalier de, 113, 121, 122\n\n\n\n\"U.E.L.,\" 260\n\nUtrecht, Treaty of, 101\n\n\n\nVauban, 166\n\nVaudreuil, Marquis de, 157, 162, 163\n\nVaudreuil, Marquis de (son of above), 196, 199, 202, 212, 213, 221,\n222, 229\n\nVauquelin, 229\n\nVentadour, Duke de, 45\n\nVerch\u00e8res, Madeleine de la, 141\n\nVerendrye, Sieur, 167\n\nVergennes, De, 250\n\nVergor, 188, 189\n\nVerrazano, 3\n\nVersailles, Treaty of, 256\n\nVetch, S., 160\n\nVigneau, N., 34\n\nVille Marie de Montreal, 63, 65\n\nVimont, Father, 64\n\nVirginia, 26, 194\n\n\n\nWalker, Sir H., 160, 161, 162\n\nWalley, Major, 138\n\nWarren, Commodore, 173, 176, 178\n\nWashington, George, 195, 196, 199, 243, 250\n\nWeir, Lieutenant, 289\n\nWilberforce, William, 256\n\nWilkinson, General, 272, 273\n\nWilliam, Fort, 283\n\nWilliam Henry, Fort, 205; massacre of, 207\n\nWinnipeg, Lake, 167\n\nWinslow, Colonel, 190\n\nWinthrop, Colonel, 134\n\nWolfe, J., 137, 208, 209, 212, 216, 216; his death, 219\n\nWolseley, Garnet J., 296\n\nWool, Captain, 265\n\n\n\nYork Factory, 263\n\nYorktown, surrender of, 249\n\nNDX\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY\n  THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.","title":"Canada","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":80315}