The Stamps of Canada Part 18

On this, his first voyage, Cartier discovered Newfoundland, and, sailing on, anch.o.r.ed off the northerly coast of the Gaspe Peninsula, by which the River St. Lawrence sweeps into the gulf of the same name. The season was very late, however, and bad weather was to be expected, so Cartier was obliged to set sail for France without delay. He took with him to France two sons of an Indian chief, and they caused great excitement in Paris.

King Francis I was so pleased with this exploit that on October 31, 1534, he nominated Captain Jacques Cartier to be "Royal Pilot"

(_Pilote Royale_), and had three more ships prepared for him to make a second voyage to Newfoundland. Preparations for the departure were hurried on at St. Malo, Cartier's birthplace, and at the beginning of May all was ready for the departure.

Three ships took part in the voyage, viz.: _La Grande Hermione_, _La Pet.i.te Hermione_, and _La Hermionette._ The first two were vessels rated at 120 and 80 tons respectively, and the last was a galleon of 40 tons. On the after part of the first two vessels there were no less than three decks as superstructure, while forward there was only one deck. They were provided with the full naval armament of the sixteenth century; on the gunwale were mounted small cannon, and also a battery of mortars or similar weapons.

The galleon was a long slender ship of extremely low freeboard, rakish rigged as a single-master, both sails and oars being used as a means of propulsion; two small cannon were mounted forward, and a round dozen arquebuses were also carried. The total company and pa.s.sengers of the three ships were only 110 all told.

On the morning of May 19th, 1535, the little flotilla set forth on its long voyage of exploration after having saluted the town with every gun on board.

On September 14th of the same year Cartier sighted land, which spread itself out on either side of the ships as far as the eye could reach, and found signs of a village; the place was called Canada by the natives, the meaning of the word in the native language being "The Town". This village was the seat of "government", and was occupied by an Indian chief called Donnacona; it was situate right on the sh.o.r.e of the bay formed by the junction of the rivers St. Charles and St. Lawrence. The village seemed to consist of huts built irregularly on the steep sides of a mountain, the spot later being the position of the southerly and easterly quarters of Quebec.

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The historical moment of the arrival of Cartier's brave little "fleet"

is interestingly depicted on the 20c value of the tercentenary series.

Samuel de Champlain, whose portrait is also shown on the 1c denomination, was born in 1570 and died in 1635. Again we are indebted to the article in _Gibbons' Stamp Weekly_ for the following particulars:--

In 1603 he was commissioned by King Henry IV of France to found a settlement in Canada. On his first voyage he sailed up the St.

Lawrence, and established friendly relations with the various native chiefs of the tribes inhabiting the country through which the river flowed. On his second voyage he was accompanied by only thirty people, and on July 3rd, 1608, he landed at the village of Canada, which was mentioned above. His first thought was to find a site suitable for the erection of an "_abitation_" where he might pa.s.s the winter that was coming on. "I could find no more comfortable or better spot than the land around Quebec, where countless nut trees were to be seen," wrote Champlain. That was exactly the same place where Cartier had built his fort sixty years before.

Thanks to extreme industry, winter quarters were rapidly erected.

The habitation consisted of three princ.i.p.al buildings, each two stories high. Two of these buildings measured 18 ft. long by 9 ft.

wide, and the third, used as a storehouse, was 36 ft. long by 18 ft. wide and had a large cellar. In the first building Champlain lived with a few of the workmen in the lower story; in the other the remaining workpeople lived, and had with them the arms and ammunition of the whole party. An annexe was attached to one of the buildings, and it was used as a smithy; a few of the people also slept there. The whole of the buildings were enclosed by a trench or moat 15 ft. wide and 9 ft. deep, to protect the settlers from the ravages of wild beasts.

Champlain had earthworks thrown up on the inner side of the moat, on which cannons were mounted. Between the encampment and the river there remained a strip only 24 ft. wide; and behind, on the side of the mountain, there was a plot of arable land a little more than 100 ft. long and 60 ft. wide, where Champlain had corn sown and vines planted.

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This "abitation" is shown on the 5c value of the series, while on the 10c is shown the city of Quebec as it had grown by 1700 from such small and modest beginnings.

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In the following May Champlain decided to explore the river and his departure on this momentous journey is depicted on the 15c stamp.

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On the 7c denomination are portraits of the two famous generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, both of whom were killed fighting each other on the heights of Quebec. Again, to quote from the article in _Gibbons' Stamp Weekly:_--

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So early as 1628 Quebec was captured by the English, in spite of Champlain's brave defence; but Canada was restored to France by one of the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was concluded in 1632. Richelieu at once sent Champlain back to Quebec as Governor-General of Canada.

Twice more, in 1690 and 1711, the English besieged Quebec, but they were not able to capture the town. But in 1759 General James Wolfe was ordered by Pitt to clear the French right out of Canada. The French troops were under the command of Marquis Ludwig Joseph Montcalm, of Saint-Veran. Although the latter was in command of only a small force, he was able to claim several victories, but finally he was besieged in Quebec by General Wolfe, at the head of 30,000 men. He was obliged to give battle under unequal conditions, and on September 13th was mortally wounded at the battle of the Heights of Abraham and died two days later. The victorious English general was also killed in the same battle.

The names of both these leaders, enemies though they were, have graven themselves inseparably on the memories of the inhabitants of Quebec. In 1827 the Governor of Canada, Lord Dalhousie, erected a marble monument to their memory, on which is a Latin inscription, which may be rendered freely thus:--

"Their courage caused their death.

History praises them both.

Posterity erects this monument to their honour."

No advance information was published as to the numbers printed of the several values in the series, as in the case of the Jubilee set, so that little attempt at cornering any particular values was made by speculators. True, large quant.i.ties of the 1/2c value were bought up by people who imagined it would be as rare as the corresponding value of the Jubilee stamps, but as there were two million of these they did not turn out to be the gold-mine it was fondly imagined they would. By September, 1908, all values except the 10c, 15c and 20c had been exhausted and by the end of October these three values were sold out as well. The numbers issued were later given out by the Postmaster-General in answer to two questions propounded to him in the House of Commons by Mr. Perley, a member. The Canadian _Hansard_ gives this data as follows:--

1.--What was the total amount received by the Post Office Department from the sale of the special Tercentenary stamps?

2.--What part of this sum would probably have been received as ordinary revenue if there had been no special issue of stamps?

To these questions the Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General, responded: The following was the issue to Postmasters of the Tercentenary postage stamps:

_Denominations._ _Quant.i.ties._ _Value._ 1/2 cent 2,000,000 $10,000 1 cent 22,530,000 $225,300 2 cent 35,100,000 $702,000 5 cent 1,200,000 $60,000 7 cent 700,000 $49,000 10 cent 500,000 $50,000 15 cent 300,000 $45,000 20 cent 304,200 $60,840 ---------- --------- Totals, 62,634,200 $1,202,140

The department has no knowledge whether the stamps in question have all been sold, as during their issue the ordinary postage stamps were also on sale, both issues being in use as preferred by the public. The proceeds derived from the sale of stamps of the two issues were not kept separately, but treated as arising from a common source. It is, therefore, impossible to state to what extent the issue of the Tercentenary postage stamps may have affected the ordinary revenue.

The fact that the Prince of Wales was an ardent stamp collector resulted in the presentation to him of a specially mounted set as shown by the following paragraph from the WEEKLY:--

As the Prince of Wales is an enthusiastic collector of stamps, His Royal Highness will no doubt be very pleased to receive the set of the special tercentenary stamps which will be presented to him at Quebec. The stamps will be held in small gold boxes, enclosed in a handsome large box of Morocco leather. A second set accompanies the gift in a special gold box, on the cover of the large box is the Prince's crest and a gold plate inscribed as follows: "Set of Canadian postage stamps issued upon the occasion of the Quebec tercentenary, 1908. Presented to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales by Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of Canada." Sets of these stamps, in boxes with appropriate crests and monograms, will be presented to Earl Grey, Sir Wilfred Laurier and Hon.

Rudolphe Lemieux.

_Reference List._

1908. Engraved and printed by the American Bank Note Co., Ottawa. No wmk. Perf. 12.

85. 1/2c dark brown, Scott's No. 96.

86. 1c blue green, Scott's No. 97.

87. 2c carmine, Scott's No. 98.

88. 5c dark blue, Scott's No. 99.

89. 7c olive green, Scott's No. 100.

90. 10c dark violet, Scott's No. 101.

91. 15c red orange, Scott's No. 102.

92. 20c yellow brown, Scott's No. 103.

CHAPTER XXIV.

_The King George Stamps._

On May 6th, 1910, King George V succeeded to the throne but the Dominion of Canada did not take steps towards issuing a series of stamps bearing the portrait of the new monarch until some time later. The 1c and 2c denominations were recorded in the _Monthly Journal_ for January, 1912, so they were doubtless on sale on the 1st day of that month. The other values--5c, 7c, 10c, 20c and 50c--were placed on sale very soon afterwards and we believe the full series was in circulation before the end of January.

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The new stamps form a highly attractive set and they are without question the handsomest set of "George" stamps issued by any of the British Colonies. The portrait, which shows His Majesty in an admiral's uniform, three-quarter face to left, is, as the _Monthly Journal_ states "the best portrait of King George that has yet appeared on stamps." The portrait is contained within an oval above which the words CANADA POSTAGE are curved in bold sans-serif capitals. Below is the value ONE CENT, etc., in words while in each of the lower angles the value is shown in figures on a plain square as in the case of the King Edward stamps. In the upper corners are crowns, again like the King Edward labels, but the treatment of the stamp as a whole is widely dissimilar.

The portrait oval is smaller than before so that in place of the almost microscopical maple leaves shown on the King Edward stamps we now find a spray of these leaves, beautifully drawn, in each of the lower spandrels.

The stamps were printed in sheets of 100 as before with the usual arrangement of marginal imprint and plate numbers. No record seems to have been made of the plates but that a very large number of the 2c at any rate were used is obvious from the high numbers found.