Voyages of Samuel De Champlain Volume I Part 10

84. The character of etienne Brule, either for honor or veracity, is not improved by his subsequent conduct. He appears in 1629 to have turned traitor, to have sold himself to the English, and to have piloted them up the river in their expedition against Quebec. Whether this conduct, base certainly it was, ought to affect the credibility of his story, the reader must judge. Champlain undoubtedly believed it when he first related it to him. He probably had no means then or afterwards of testing its truth. In the edition of 1632, Brule's story is omitted. It does not necessarily follow that it was omitted because Champlain came to discredit the story, since many pa.s.sages contained in his preceding publications are omitted in the edition of 1632, but they are not generally pa.s.sages of so much geographical importance as this, if it be true. The map of 1632 indicates the country of the Carantouanais; but this information might have been obtained by Champlain from the Hurons, or the more western tribes which he visited during the winter of 1615-16.--_Vide_ ed. 1632, p. 220.

85. Henry de Montmorency II was born at Chantilly in 1595, and was beheaded at Toulouse Oct 30, 1632. He was created admiral at the age of seventeen He commanded the Dutch fleet at the siege of Roch.e.l.le. He made the campaigns of 1629 and 1630 in Piedmont, and was created a marshal of France after the victory of Veillane. He adopted the party of Gaston, the Duke of Orleans, and having excited the province of Languedoc of which he was governor to rebellion, he was defeated, and executed as guilty of high treason. He was the last scion of the elder branch of Montmorency and his death was a fatal blow to the reign of feudalism.

86. Among other annoyances which Champlain had to contend against was the contraband trade carried on by the unlicensed Roch.e.l.lers, who not only carried off quant.i.ties of peltry, but even supplied the Indians with fire-arms and ammunition This was illegal, and endangered the safety of the colony--_Vide Voyages par De Champlain_, Paris, 1632, Sec Partie, p 3.

87. _Vide_ ed 1632, Sec Partie, Chap III.

88. _Vide Hist. New France_, by Charlevoix, Shea's. Trans., Vol. II. p. 32.

89. The house of the Recollects on the St. Charles was erected in 1620, and was called the _Conuent de Nostre Dame Dame des Anges_. The Father Jean d'Olbeau laid the first stone on the 3d of June of that year.--_Vide Histoire du Canada_ par Gabriel Sagard, Paris, 1636, Tross ed., 1866, p. 67; _Decouvertes et etabliss.e.m.e.nts des Francais, dans Pouest et dans le sud de L'Amerique Septentrionale_ 1637, par Pierre Margry, Paris, 1876, Vol. I. p. 7.

90. _Hundred and eight feet_, dix-huiet toyses. The _toise_ here estimated at six feet. Compare _Voyages de Champlain_, Laverdiere's ed., Vol. I.

p. lii, and ed. 1632, Paris, Partie Seconde, p. 63.

91. There was but one private house at Quebec in 1623, and that belonged to Madame Hebert, whose husband was the first to attempt to obtain a living by the cultivation of the soil.--_Vide Sagard, Hist, du Canada_, 1636, Tross ed. Vol. I. p. 163 There were fifty-one inhabitants at Quebec in 1624, including men, women, and children.--_Vide Champlain_, ed. 1632, p. 76.

92. _Vide Champlain_, ed. 1632, pp. 107, 108, for an account of the attempt on the part of the Huguenot, emeric de Caen, to require his sailors to chaunt psalms and say prayers on board his ship after entering the River St. Lawrence, contrary to the direction of the Viceroy, the Duke de Ventadour. As two thirds of them were Huguenots, it was finally agreed that they should continue to say their prayers, but must omit their psalm-singing.

93. Father Lalemant enumerates the kind of peltry obtained by the French from the Indians, and the amount, as follows. "En eschange ils emportent des peaux d'Orignac, de Loup Ceruier, de Renard, de Loutre, et quelquefois il s'en rencontre de noires, de Martre, de Blaireau et de Rat Musque, mais princ.i.p.alement de Castor qui est le plus grand de leur gain. On m'a dit que pour vne annee ils en auoyent emporte iusques 22000. L'ordinaire de chaque annee est de 15000, ou 20000, une pistole la piece, ce n'est pas mal alle."--_Vide Relation de la Nouvelle France en l'Annee_ 1626, Quebec ed. p. 5.

94. This exclusiveness was characteristic of the age. Cardinal Richelieu and his a.s.sociates were not qualified by education or by any tendency of their natures to inaugurate a reformation in this direction. The experiment of amalgamating Catholic and Huguenot in the enterprises of the colony had been tried but with ill success. Contentions and bickerings had been incessant, and subversive of peace and good neighborhood. Neither party had the spirit of practical toleration as we understand it, and which we regard at the present day as a priceless boon. Nor was it understood anywhere for a long time afterward. Even the Puritans of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay did not comprehend it, and took heroic measures to exclude from their commonwealth those who differed from them in their religious faith. We certainly cannot censure them for not being in advance of their times. It would doubtless have been more manly in them had they excluded all differing from them by plain legal enactment, as did the Society of the Hundred a.s.sociates, rather than to imprison or banish any on charges which all subsequent generations must p.r.o.nounce unsustained _Vide Memoir of the Rev. John Wheelwright_, by Charles H. Bell, Prince Society, ed. 1876, pp. 9-31 _et pa.s.sim; Hutchinson Papers_, Prince Society ed., 1865, Vol. I. pp.

79-113. American _Criminal Trials_, by Peleg W. Chandler, Boston, 1841, Vol. I. p. 29.

CHAPTER X.

THE FAVORABLE PROSPECTS OF THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE.--THE ENGLISH INVASION OF CANADA AND THE SURRENDER OF QUEBEC--CAPTAIN DANIEL PLANTS A FRENCH COLONY NEAR THE GRAND CIBOU--CHAMPLAIN IN FRANCE, AND THE TERRITORIAL CLAIMS OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH STILL UNSETTLED

The Company of New France, or of the Hundred a.s.sociates, lost no time in carrying out the purpose of its organization. Even before the ratification of its charter by the council, four armed vessels had been fitted out and had already sailed under the command of Claude de Roquemont, a member of the company, to convoy a fleet of eighteen transports laden with emigrants and stores, together with one hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance to fortify their settlements in New France.

The company, thus composed of n.o.blemen, wealthy merchants, and officials of great personal influence, with a large capital, and Cardinal Richelieu, who really controlled and shaped the policy of France at that period, at its head possessed so many elements of strength that, in the reasonable judgment of men, success was a.s.sured, failure impossible. [95]

To Champlain, the vision of a great colonial establishment in New France, that had so long floated before him in the distance, might well seem to be now almost within his grasp. But disappointment was near at hand. Events were already transpiring which were destined to cast a cloud over these brilliant hopes. A fleet of armed vessels was already crossing the Atlantic, bearing the English flag, with hostile intentions to the settlements in New France. Here we must pause in our narrative to explain the origin, character, and purpose of this armament, as unexpected to Champlain as it was unwelcome.

The reader must be reminded that no boundaries between the French and English territorial possessions in North America at this time existed. Each of these great nations was putting forth claims so broad and extensive as to utterly exclude the other. By their respective charters, grants, and concessions, they recognized no sovereignty or ownership but their own.

Henry IV. of France, made, in 1603, a grant to a favorite n.o.bleman, De Monts, of the territory lying between the fortieth and the forty-sixth degrees of north lat.i.tude. James I. of England, three years later, in 1606, granted to the Virginia Companies the territory lying between the thirty-fourth and the forty-eighth degrees of north lat.i.tude, covering the whole grant made by the French three years before. Creuxius, a French historian of Canada, writing some years later than this, informs us that New France, that is, the French possessions in North America, then embraced the immense territory extending from Florida, or from the thirty-second degree of lat.i.tude, to the polar circle, and in longitude from Newfoundland to Lake Huron. It will, therefore, be seen that each nation, the English and the French, claimed at that time sovereignty over the same territory, and over nearly the whole of the continent of North America. Under these circ.u.mstances, either of these nations was prepared to avail itself of any favorable opportunity to dispossess the other.

The English, however, had, at this period, particular and special reasons for desiring to accomplish this important object. Sir William Alexander, [96] Secretary of State for Scotland at the court of England, had received, in 1621, from James I., a grant, under the name of New Scotland, of a large territory, covering the present province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and that part of the province of Quebec lying east of a line drawn from the head-waters of the River St. Croix in a northerly direction to the River St. Lawrence. He had a.s.sociated with him a large number of Scottish n.o.blemen and merchants, and was taking active measures to establish Scottish colonies on this territory. The French had made a settlement within its limits, which had been broken up and the colony dispersed in 1613, by Captain Samuel Argall, under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale, governor of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. A desultory and straggling French population was still in occupation, under the nominal governorship of Claude La Tour. Sir William Alexander and his a.s.sociates naturally looked for more or less inconvenience and annoyance from the claims of the French. It was, therefore, an object of great personal importance and particularly desired by him, to extinguish all French claims, not only to his own grant, but to the neighboring settlement at Quebec. If this were done, he might be sure of being unmolested in carrying forward his colonial enterprise.

A war had broken out between France and England the year before, for the ostensible purpose, on the part of the English, of relieving the Huguenots who were shut up in the city of Roch.e.l.le, which was beleaguered by the armies of Louis XIII, under the direction of his prime minister, Richelieu, who was resolved to reduce this last stronghold to obedience. The existence of this war offered an opportunity and pretext for dispossessing the French and extinguishing their claims under the rules of war. This object could not be attained in any other way. The French were too deeply rooted to be removed by any less violent or decisive means. No time was, therefore, lost in taking advantage of this opportunity.

Sir William Alexander applied himself to the formation of a company of London merchants who should bear the expense of fitting out an armament that should not only overcome and take possession of the French settlements and forts wherever they should be found, but plant colonies and erect suitable defences to hold them in the future. The company was speedily organized, consisting of Sir William Alexander, junior, Gervase Kirke, Robert Charlton, William Berkeley, and perhaps others, distinguished merchants of London. [97] Six ships were equipped with a suitable armament and letters of marque, and despatched on their hostile errand. Capt. David Kirke, afterwards Sir David, was appointed admiral of the fleet, who likewise commanded one of the ships. [98] His brothers, Lewis Kirke and Thomas Kirke, were in command of two others. They sailed under a royal patent executed in favor of Sir William Alexander, junior, son of the secretary, and others, granting exclusive authority to trade, seize, and confiscate French or Spanish ships and destroy the French settlements on the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence and parts adjacent.

Kirke sailed, with a part if not the whole of his fleet, to Annapolis Basin in the Bay of Fundy, and took possession of the desultory French settlement to which we have already referred. He left a Scotch colony there, under the command of Sir William Alexander, junior, as governor. The fleet finally rendezvoused at Tadoussac, capturing all the French fishing barques, boats, and pinnaces which fell in its way on the coast of Nova Scotia, including the Island of Cape Breton.

From Tadoussac, Kirke despatched a shallop to Quebec, in charge of six Basque fishermen whom he had recently captured. They were bearers of an official communication from the admiral of the English fleet to Champlain.

About the same time he sent up the river, likewise, an armed barque, well manned, which anch.o.r.ed off Cape Tourmente, thirty miles below Quebec, near an outpost which had been established by Champlain for the convenience of forage and pasturage for cattle. Here a squad of men landed, took four men, a woman, and little girl prisoners, killed such of the cattle as they desired for use and burned the rest in the stables, as likewise two small houses, pillaging and laying waste every thing they could find. Having done this, the barque hastily returned to Tadoussac.

We must now ask the reader to return with us to the little settlement at Quebec. The proceedings which we have just narrated were as yet unknown to Champlain. The summer of 1628 was wearing on, and no supplies had arrived from France. It was obvious that some accident had detained the transports, and they might not arrive at all. His provisions were nearly exhausted. To subsist without a resupply was impossible. Each weary day added a new keenness to his anxiety. A winter of dest.i.tution, of starvation and death for his little colony of well on towards a hundred persons was the painful picture that now constantly haunted his mind. To avoid this catastrophe, if possible, he ordered a boat to be constructed, to enable him to communicate with the lower waters of the gulf, where he hoped he might obtain provisions from the fishermen on the coast, or transportation for a part or the whole of his colony to France.

On the 9th of July, two men came up from Cape Tourmente to announce that an Indian had brought in the news that six large ships had entered and were lying at anchor in the harbor of Tadoussac. The same day, not long after, two canoes arrived, in one of which was Foucher, the chief herds-man at Cape Tourmente, who had escaped from his captors, from whom Champlain first learned what had taken place at that outpost.

Sufficiently allured of the character of the enemy, Champlain hastened to put the unfinished fort in as good condition as possible, appointing to every man in the little garrison his post, so that all might be ready for duty at a moment's warning. On the afternoon of the next day a small sail came into the bay, evidently a stranger, directing its course not through the usual channel, but towards the little River St. Charles. It was too insignificant to cause any alarm. Champlain, however, sent a detachment of arquebusiers to receive it. It proved to be English, and contained the six Basque fishermen already referred to, charged by Kirke with despatches for Champlain. They had met the armed barque returning to Tadoussac, and had taken off and brought up with them the woman and little girl who had been captured the day before at Cape Tourmente.

The despatch, written two days before, and bearing date July 8th, 1628, was a courteous invitation to surrender Quebec into the hands of the English, a.s.signing several natural and cogent reasons why if would be for the interest of all parties for them to do so. Under different circ.u.mstances, the reasoning might have had weight; but this English admiral had clearly conceived a very inadequate idea of the character of Champlain, if he supposed he would surrender his post, or even take it into consideration, while the enemy demanding it and his means of enforcing it were at a distance of at least a hundred miles. Champlain submitted the letter to Pont Grave and the other gentlemen of the colony, and we concluded, he adds, that if the English had a desire to see us nearer, they must come to us, and not threaten us from so great a distance.

Champlain returned an answer declining the demand, couched in language of respectful and dignified politeness. It is easy, however, to detect a tinge of sarcasm running through it, so delicate as not to be offensive, and yet sufficiently obvious to convey a serene indifference on the part of the French commander as to what the English might think it best to do in the sequel. The tone of the reply, the air of confidence pervading it, led Kirke to believe that the French were in a far better condition to resist than they really were. The English admiral thought it prudent to withdraw.

He destroyed all the French fishing vessels and boats at Tadoussac, and proceeded down the gulf, to do the same along the coast.

We have already alluded, in the preceding pages, to De Roquemont, the French admiral, who had been charged by the Company of the Hundred a.s.sociates to convoy a fleet of transports to Canada. Wholly ignorant of the importance of an earlier arrival at Quebec, he appears to have moved leisurely, and was now, with his whole fleet, lying at anchor in the Bay of Gaspe. Hearing that Kirke was in the gulf, he very unwisely prepared to give him battle, and moved out of the bay for that purpose. On the 18th of July the two armaments met. Kirke had six armed vessels under his command, while De Roquemont had but four. The conflict was unequal. The English vessels were unenc.u.mbered and much heavier than those of the French. De Roquemont [99] was soon overpowered and compelled to surrender His whole fleet of twenty-two vessels, with a hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance, together with supplies and colonists for Quebec, were all taken.

Kirke returned to England laden with the rich spoils of his conquest, having practically accomplished, if not what he had intended, nevertheless that which satisfied the avarice of the London merchants under whose auspices the expedition had sailed. The capture of Quebec had from the beginning been the objective purpose of Sir William Alexander. The taking of this fleet and the cutting off their supplies was an important step in this undertaking. The conquest was thereby a.s.sured, though not completed.

Champlain, having despatched his reply to Kirke, naturally supposed he would soon appear before Quebec to carry out his threat. He awaited this event with great anxiety About ten days after the messengers had departed, a young Frenchman, named Desdames, armed in a small boat, having been sent by De Roquemont, the admiral of the new company, to inform Champlain that he was then at Gaspe with a large fleet, bringing colonists, arms, stores, and provisions for the settlement. Desdames also stated that De Roquemont intended to attack the English, and that on his way he had heard the report of cannon, which led him to believe that a conflict had already taken place. Champlain heard nothing more from the lower St. Lawrence until the next May, when an Indian from Tadoussac brought the story of De Roquemont's defeat.

In the mean time, Champlain resorted to every expedient to provide subsistence for his famishing colony. Even at the time when the surrender was demanded by the English, they were on daily rations of seven ounces each. The means of obtaining food were exceedingly slender. Fishing could not be prosecuted to any extent, for the want of nets, lines, and hooks. Of gunpowder they had less than fifty pounds, and a possible attack by treacherous savages rendered it inexpedient to expend it in hunting game.

Moreover, they had no salt for curing or preserving the flesh of such wild animals as they chanced to take. The few acres cultivated by the missionaries and the Hebert family, and the small gardens about the settlement, could yield but little towards sustaining nearly a hundred persons for the full term of ten months, the shortest period in which they could reasonably expect supplies from France. A system of the utmost economy was inst.i.tuted. A few eels were purchased by exchange of beaver-skins from the Indians. Pease were reduced to flour first by mortars and later by hand-mills constructed for the purpose, and made into a soup to add flavor to other less palatable food. Thus economising their resources, the winter finally wore away, but when the spring came, their scanty means were entirely exhausted. Henceforth their sole reliance was upon the few fish that could be taken from the river, and the edible roots gathered day by day from the fields and forests. An attempt was made to quarter some of the men upon the friendly Indians, but with little success.

Near the last of June, thirty of the colony, men, women, and children, unwilling to remain longer at Quebec, were despatched to Gaspe, twenty of them to reside there with the Indians, the others to seek a pa.s.sage to France by some of the foreign fishing-vessels on the coast. This detachment was conducted by Eustache Boulle, the brother-in-law of Champlain. The remnant of the little colony, disheartened by the gloomy prospect before them and exhausted by hunger, continued to drag out a miserable existence, gathering sustenance for the wants of each day, without knowing what was to supply the demands of the next.

On the 19th of July, 1629, three English vessels were seen from the fort at Quebec, distant not more than three miles, approaching under full sail [100] Their purpose could not be mistaken. Champlain called a council, in which it was decided at once to surrender, but only on good terms; otherwise, to resist to their utmost with such slender means as they had.

The little garrison of sixteen men, all his available force, hastened to their posts. A flag of truce soon brought a summons from the brothers, Lewis and Thomas Kirke, couched in courteous language, asking the surrender of the fort and settlement, and promising such honorable and reasonable terms as Champlain himself might dictate.

To this letter Champlain [101] replied that he had not, in his present circ.u.mstances, the power of resisting their demand, and that on the morrow he would communicate the conditions on which he would deliver up the settlement; but, in the mean time, he must request them to retire beyond cannon-shot, and not attempt to land. On the evening of the same day the articles of capitulation were delivered, which were finally, with very little variation, agreed to by both parties.

The whole establishment at Quebec, with all the movable property belonging to it, was to be surrendered into the hands of the English. The colonists were to be transported to France, nevertheless, by the way of England. The officers were permitted to leave with their arms, clothes, and the peltries belonging to them as personal property. The soldiers were allowed their clothes and a beaver-robe each; the missionaries, their robes and books.

This agreement was subsequently ratified at Tadoussac by David Kirke, the admiral of the fleet, on the 19th of August, 1629.

On the 20th of July, Lewis Kirke, vice-admiral, at the head of two hundred armed men, [102] took formal possession of Quebec, in the name of Charles I., the king of England. The English flag was hoisted over the Fort of St.

Louis. Drums beat and cannon were discharged in token of the accomplished victory.

The English demeaned themselves with exemplary courtesy and kindness towards their prisoners of war. Champlain was requested to continue to occupy his accustomed quarters until he should leave Quebec; the holy ma.s.s was celebrated at his request; and an inventory of what was found in the habitation and fort was prepared and placed in his hand, a doc.u.ment which proved to be of service in the sequel. The colonists were naturally anxious as to the disposition of their lands and effects; but their fears were quieted when they were all cordially invited to remain in the settlement, a.s.sured, moreover, that they should have the same privileges and security of person and property which they had enjoyed from their own government.

This generous offer of the English, and their kind and considerate treatment of them, induced the larger part of the colonists to remain.

On the 24th of July, Champlain, exhausted by a year of distressing anxiety and care, and depressed by the adverse proceedings going on about him, embarked on the vessel of Thomas Kirke for Tadoussac, to await the departure of the fleet for England. Before reaching their destination, they encountered a French ship laden with merchandise and supplies, commanded by emeric de Caen, who was endeavoring to reach Quebec for the purpose of trade and obtaining certain peltry and other property stored at that place, belonging to his uncle, William de Caen. A conflict was inevitable. The two vessels met. The struggle was severe, and, for a time, of doubtful result.

At length the French cried for quarter. The combat ceased. De Caen asked permission to speak with Champlain. This was accorded by Kirke, who informed him, if another shot were fired, it would be at the peril of his life. Champlain was too old a soldier and too brave a man to be influenced by an appeal to his personal fears. He coolly replied, It will be an easy matter for you to take my life, as I am in your power, but it would be a disgraceful act, as you would violate your sacred promise. I cannot command the men in the ship, or prevent their doing their duty as brave men should; and you ought to commend and not blame them.

De Caen's ship was borne as a prize into the harbor of Tadoussac, and pa.s.sed for the present into the vortex of general confiscation.

Champlain remained at Tadoussac until the fleet was ready to return to England. In the mean time, he was courteously entertained by Sir David Kirke. He was, however, greatly pained and disappointed that the admiral was unwilling that he should take with him to France two Indian girls who had been presented to him a year or two before, and whom he had been carefully instructing in religion and manners, and whom he loved as his own daughters. Kirke, however, was inexorable. Neither reason, entreaty, nor the tears of the unhappy maidens could move him. As he could not take them with him, Champlain administered to them such consolation as he could, counselling them to be brave and virtuous, and to continue to say the prayers that he had taught them. It was a relief to his anxiety at last to be able to obtain from Mr. Couillard, [103] one of the earliest settlers at Quebec, the promise that they should remain in the care of his wife, while the girls, on their part, a.s.sured him that they would be as daughters to their new foster-parents until his return to New France.

Quebec having been provisioned and garrisoned, the fleet sailed for England about the middle of September, and arrived at Plymouth on the 20th of November. On the 27th, the missionaries and others who wished to return to France, disembarked at Dover, while Champlain was taken to London, where he arrived on the 29th.

At Plymouth, Kirke learned that a peace between France and England had been concluded on the 24th of the preceding April, nearly three months before Quebec had been taken; consequently, every thing that had been done by this expedition must, sooner or later, be reversed. The articles of peace had provided that all conquests subsequent to the date of that instrument should be restored. It was evident that Quebec, the peltry, and other property taken there, together with the fishing-vessels and others captured in the gulf, must be restored to the French. To Kirke and the Company of London Merchants this was a bitter disappointment. Their expenditures had been large in the first instance; the prizes of the year before, the fleet of the Hundred a.s.sociates which they had captured, had probably all been absorbed in the outfit of the present expedition, comprising the six vessels and two pinnaces with which Kirke had sailed for the conquest of Quebec. Sir William Alexander had obtained, in the February preceding, from Charles I., a royal charter of THE COUNTRY AND LORDSHIP OF CANADA IN AMERICA, [104] embracing a belt of territory one hundred leagues in width, covering both sides of the St. Lawrence from its mouth to the Pacific Ocean. This charter with the most ample provisions had been obtained in antic.i.p.ation of the taking of Quebec, and in order to pave the way for an immediate occupation and settlement of the country. Thus a plan for the establishment of an English colonial empire on the banks of the St.

Lawrence had been deliberately formed, and down to the present moment offered every prospect of a brilliant success. But a cloud had now swept along the horizon and suddenly obscured the last ray of hope. The proceeds of their two years of incessant labor, and the large sums which they had risked in the enterprise, had vanished like a mist in the morning sun. But, as the cause of the English became more desperate, the hopes of the French revived. The losses of the latter were great and disheartening; but they saw, nevertheless, in the distance, the long-cherished New France of the past rising once more into renewed strength and beauty.

On his arrival at London, Champlain immediately put himself in communication with Monsieur de Chateauneuf, the French amba.s.sador, laid before him the original of the capitulation, a map of the country, and such other memoirs as were needed to show the superior claims of the French to Quebec on the ground both of discovery and occupation. [105] Many questions arose concerning the possession and ownership of the peltry and other property taken by the English, and, during his stay, Champlain contributed as far as possible to the settlement of these complications. It is somewhat remarkable that during this time the English pretended to hold him as a prisoner of war, and even attempted to extort a ransom from him, [106]