OF CANADA HARLES G,D,EOPERTS !l III! ;|i'lM .:i!l!; iliiiilii til I ii> ,i)ij i);!|i| III 1 !'l!!l lipl LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ChapJjAVfeCopyriglit No. Slielf.GLk).^_., UNITED STATES OF AMERJCA. A HISTORY OF CANADA /i L li i .*'-W^'>-UttSv;ffi>r?H. '^'^'*si^-7ff^' ■ ivKII ' ■.^IMU-r- .: . ' AlMaVi;.-.Ui«'.^^.3CStU'>xaaMMBaM>-riM[3!'l A HISTORY OF CANADA BY CHARLES G^''D:' ROBERTS BOSTON, NEW YORK, LONDON LAMSON, WOLFFE, AND COMPANY 1897 Wtl^l ^^ Copyright, 1897, By LAMSON, WOLFFE, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved. Z -/o (o 1:1- Nottaoati 53rc3S J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. > To COmunO Clarence ^teUrnan CONTENTS. FIRST PERIOD. FRENCH DOMINION :~ THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW WORLD EMPIRE. CHAPTER I. FAGB Sections: — i, Introductory. 2, The Northmen. 3, Columbus. 4, The Cabots, and Verrazzano. 5, Cartier's First Voyage. 6, Cartier's Second Voyage. 7, Cartier's Third Voyage, and de Roberval . i CHAPTER II. Sections : — 8, France forgets Canada for a Time. The Enghsh in New- foundland. 9, The Expedition of de la Roche. 10, Champlain and de Monts at St. Croix. 11, Champlain, Poutrincourt, and Lescarbot at Port Royal. 12, Biencourt, and the Jesuits in Acadie. 13, Newfoundland. Henry Hudson 18 CHAPTER III. Sections: — 14, Champlain at Quebec. 15, Champlain explores the Ottawa. 16, The Expedition to the Huron Country. 17, The Lordship of Canada passes from Hand to Hand. 18, First Capture of Quebec by the English. Champlain's Last Days . . -34 CHAPTER IV. Sections: — 19, The Scotch in Acadie. 20, The de la Tours, Father and Son. 21, The Struggle between de la Tour and Charnisay. 22, The Latter Days and Death of Charnisay. Changes in Owner- ship of Acadie .......... 46 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART -Lord Durham's Report 1839 ^ Ashburton Treaty 1842 ■^^ Canadian Gov't proposes Confed'n 1858 Termination of Reciprocity Treaty Confederation accomplished 1867 Manitoba organized Red River Rebellion f '870 Fenian Invasion Hal. Fish. Award 1879 Saskatch'n Reb. Can. Pac. Com. 1886 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE Sections : — 23, The Work of the Jesuits. 24, The Founding of Montreal. 25, The Destruction of the Huron Mission. 26, New France and New England. The Jesuits and the Iroquois. 27, Laval. Dollard. 28, Dissensions in Quebec. The Great Earthquakes . 59 CHAPTER VI. Sections: — 29, The Sovereign Council; and Land-holding in Canada. 30, Talon comes to Canada. The English seize New York. 31, De Tracy comes to Canada, and the Iroquois are chastised. 32, New France reaches out to the Mississippi and Hudson Bay, and secures her hold upon Lake Ontario 74 CHAPTER VII. Sections : — 33, Frontenac comes to Canada. La Salle. 34, Fronte- nac's Recall; and la Barre's Folly. 35, Denonville, Dongan, and the Iroquois. 36, Kondiaronk, " The Rat," kills the Peace. The Lachine Massacre .......... 84 CHAPTER VIII. Sections : — 37, Frontenac strikes the English Colonies. 38, Phips at Port Royal and at Quebec. Madeleine de la Vercheres. Death of Frontenac. 39, D'Iberville in Hudson Bay, Acadie, and New- foundland. 40, War of the Spanish Succession. Final Conquest of Acadie. 41, Repose, Progress, and Western Expansion . . 97 CHAPTER IX. Sections : — 42, The War of the Austrian Succession. Pepperell's Cap- ture of Louisburg. 43, Louisburg restored to France. Boundary Disputes, 44, The English hold tightens on Nova Scotia. 45, Fall of Beausejour, and Expulsion of the Acadians. 46, The Struggle in the West 115 CHAPTER X. Sections: — 47, The Seven Years' War. Fall of F-ort William Henry. 48, The Combatants compared. Louisburg once more. 49, Ti- conderoga. 50, The Beginning of the End ..... 137 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XL PAGE Sections: — 51, Wolfe and Montcalm Face to Face. 52, The Plains of Abraham. 53, Quebec in English Hands 150 CHAPTER XII. Sections : — 54, Population and DweUings at the Close of the French Period. 55, Dress, Arms, Social Customs, Food, etc., during the French Period 164 SECOND PERIOD. ENGLISH DOMINION:— THE STRUGGLE FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER XIII. Sections: — 56, The Conspiracy of Pontiac. 57, The Quebec Act. 58, Affairs in Nova Scotia 173 CHAPTER XIV. Sections : — 59, Trouble brewing between England and the Thirteen Colonies. 60, The War begun, and Canada invaded by the Revo- lutionists. 61, The Revolting Colonies achieve their Independence 182 CHAPTER XV. Sections : — 62, The Loyalists. 63, Experiences of the Loyalists during the War. 64, The Loyalists in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. 65, The Loyalists in Western Canada. 66, Conditions of Life among the Loyalists . . . . .194 CHAPTER XVI. Sections : — 67, Lord Dorchester Governor-General. 68, The Consti- tutional Act. 69, The Two Canadas — Upper and Lower. 70, The Maritime Provinces. 71, Threats of War between England and the United States 208 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. Sections: — 72, War declared by Congress. 73, 1812. The American Plan of Campaign. 74, The Campaign of 1813. 75, The Cam- paign of 1814 ........... 224 CHAPTER XVIII. Sections: — 76, The North-west; 1789-1835. 77, Strife in Politics. Growth in Population. 78, Political Strife in Lower Canada . . 254 CHAPTER XIX. Sections : — 79, Political Strife in Upper Canada. 80, The Struggles in Nova Scotia. 81, Political Strife and other Matters in New Brunswick. 82, Affairs in Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland .......... 269 CHAPTER XX. Sections : — 83, The Rebellion in Lower Canada. 84, The Rebellion in Upper Canada. 85, Lord Durham and his Report. 86, The Canadas united. 87, Responsible Government gained in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ........ 291 CHAPTER XXI. Sections : — 88, The Rebellion Losses Bill. Confederation proposed. 89, The Reciprocity Treaty. 90, Prince Edward Island, New- foundland, the North-west, and British Columbia .... 319 CHAPTER XXII. Sections: — 91, Growth of Confederation Sentiments in the Canadas. 92, The Charlottetown Conference, Quebec Conference, and Quebec Resolutions. 93, How the Quebec Resolutions were received. 94, Confederation accomplished ....... 335 CONTENTS. xi THIRD PERIOD. CANADIAN DOMINION .- — EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION. CHAPTER XXIII, PAGE Sections : — 95, The First Dominion Parliament. 96, Nova Scotia reconciled. 97, The Red River Settlement becomes the Province of Manitoba ........... 354 CHAPTER XXIV. Sections : — 98, British Columbia joins the Dominion. 99, Provincial Afifairs. loo, Prince Edward Island joins the Dominion. Change of Government. loi, The National Policy. The Fisheries Com- mission ............ 368 CHAPTER XXV. Sections : — 102, Causes leading to the Saskatchewan Rebellion. 103, The Saskatchewan Rebellion. 104, The Canadian Pacific Railway .......... ^. . 384 CHAPTER XXVI. Sections : — 105, Fisheries Dispute again. 106, Third Dominion Cen- sus. 107, Afifairs in Newfoundland up to the Present Day . . 403 CHAPTER XXVII. Sections : — 108, Intellectual Progress. 109, Material Progress. no, Present Conditions, and the Outlook . . . . -417 APPENDICES. A. British North America Act 443 B. The Indians of Canada ......... 477 General Index ...... 481 A HISTORY OF CANADA. FIRST PERIOD. FRENCH DOMINION : — THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW WORLD EMPIRE. CHAPTER I. SECTIONS: — i. Introductory. 2, the Northmen. 3, Colum- bus. 4, THE Cabots, and Verrazzano. 5, Cartier's First Voyage. 6, Cartier's Second Voyage. 7, Cartier's Third Voyage, and de Roberval. I. Introductory. — The stage on which the drama of Canadian History unfolds may seem to the world an obscure one. A closer view, however, will reveal that on this stage some of the gravest problems of history have been pressed to a solution ; and we may reasonably expect to find in this drama an answer to some of the weightiest questions of modern politics. Battles were fought on the Rhine, the Elbe, the Danube ; German, Austrian, Spanish thrones were shaken to their fall ; navies grappled in Canadian the Caribbean, and Mahratta hordes were slaughtered refaSmtothe on the rice-fields of India, to decide the struggle which ^°'^^^- ended only upon the Plains of Abraham. Now, in these imperial domains which Wolfe's triumph secured to British sway, a people is taking shape which bids fair to combine the power and genius of the two great races from which it springs. In the hands of this people it will perhaps rest to decide whether the Empire of Greater Britain, built with so much treasure and baptized with 2 A HISTORY OF CANADA. SO much blood, will split into pieces or be drawn into a yet closer and stronger union. The history of Canada ^ falls into three great natural divisions. The first of these is the period of French Dominion ; and its distinguishing feature is the strife between France and England for the mastery of North America. This strife, the real object of which was often vague to the eyes of the contestants, was kept active by the spur of varying rivalries and needs. Out of a tangle of trade jealousies and religious contentions we see it stand forth as the central and controUing influence of the period. It supplies the connection between incidents and actions which would other- The three ^i^^ seem to bear no relation to each other. During Canad°ian°* this period the history of Canada is world-wide in its sig- history. nificance. It is the concern of nations. The second division, lasting from the fall of Montreal, in 1760, to Confedera- tion, is the period of English Dominion. Its central feature is the struggle of the people for the right to govern themselves, after the manner of free Britons in their own land. During this period the foundations of Canada's greatness were firmly laid ; but what went on within the borders of our scattered provinces was little heeded by the world at large. When the right of self-government, commonly known as Responsible Government, was gained, it was by and by enlarged and secured by a union of the provinces ; and on July ist, 1867, Canada entered upon the third div-ision of her history, the period of Confederation. Of this the chief features are expansion and consohdation, with the growth of a national sentiment. And now, having stretched her power over half a continent and drawn her boundaries along three oceans, Canada becomes a matter of interest to the world and begins to feel her hand on the reins of destiny. 2. The Northmen. — The true sources of history he somewhere 1 The name "Canada" is probably derived from the Huron-Iroquois word " Kanata," which means a village. At the time of Cartier's explorations the name applied to the country lying along the St. Lawrence from Isle au Coudres to a point some distance above Stadacona. Lescarbot applies the name to the whole St. Lawrence valley from Hochelaga (now Montreal) to the Gulf. THE NORTHMEN. 3 in the wonder-land of myth and tradition. Canadian history seems to have its proper beginning in that vague atmosphere, coloured with adventure and romance, which surrounds the west- ward voyagings of the Northmen. Though nothing came of these Norse discoveries, they are interesting as the first recorded con- tact of our race with these lands which we now occupy. They are significant, because they were a direct result of that spirit of determined independence which dwells in our blood, xhe west- When Harold Harfager, in the ninth century, under- ^^^ ™°the took to impose feudalism upon Norway, the Vikings Northmen, turned westward their indignant prows, and found a harsh freedom in the commonwealths which they established in Iceland and the Faroes. But theirs were not a sky and soil to encourage indolent content, and ever further westward they pushed restlessly, till, about the year 986 a.d., the coast of Greenland was occupied by Eric the Red. Soon a strong Greenland colony flourished on the western shore, more hospitable then than now, and extended itself northward as far as the seventy-fifth parallel. A Greenland colo- nist, Beorn by name, being caught in a north-east gale while on a coasting voyage, was swept far to the west and south, till he sighted unknown shores. His tale stirred up Leif Ericson, who presently set forth to explore these " New Lands," as they were called (1000 A.D.). The point at which he first touched this continent was probably the coast of Labrador, near Hamilton Inlet. This region, with its austere soil and sea-line, he named Stoneland. Thence sailing south he reached a friendlier shore, which he called Bushland. This, in all likeHhood, was the east- ern coast of Newfoundland, a region of high plateaus covered with thickets. Running westward across the Gulf he reached a pleasant country where the wild grapes ^"P^y'S°?°* grew, and called it therefore Vineland. Whether Vine- colonizes 1 J XT r. Vineland. land was Nova Scotia or the coast of Massachusetts Bay is a question much disputed among historians. Here he established a village called Leif's Booths ; and here his brother Thorwald built him a new ship, on a headland which they called 4 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Keelness. From Leif and his followers went forth good reports of the western country. Ships from Greenland came yearly for cargoes of the Vineland timber, much coveted for masts. A leader named Thorfinn Karlsefni made a larger effort to found a colony. With one hundred and sixty followers, and horned cattle, and grain to sow in the new fields, he led three dragon- ships to Vineland and planted his " booths " in a sheltered haven. But the work of settlement thus bravely begun went to ruin under the arrows of the savages. Then fell a darkness of four centuries. Events in Europe opened richer fields to the yellow-haired free- booters of the North, and Vineland, Bushland, Stoneland were Failure of the forgotten. Even the great Greenland colony, with its Norsemen. stone-built cities, its churches and its bishoprics, its ambitions and its letters and its trade, lapsed soon into decay. The Esquimaux laid it waste ; a hostile fleet completed its de- struction ; and dense fields of floe and berg shut in the devas- tated coast. Of the visit of the Northmen to America there came ^ nothing at last but two Icelandic sagas, in which are told the brave adventures of Eric, and Leif, and Thorfinn. 3. Columbus. — With the name of Columbus we find ourselves in the broad daylight of verified history. Though Columbus neither knew nor considered the northern portions of the conti- nent which he gave to civilization, his achievement is none the less a part of Canadian history. It pointed out the way to the makers of Canada. The sailing of Columbus into the heart of the unknown west, a region which superstitious fancy had peopled with strange terrors, was one of the most daring deeds of man. It may be regarded as the perfect flowering of that age of ro- mantic adventure and restless curiosity. When Columbus, after years of such failure and discourage- 1 The old stone mill at Newport, long supposed to be a Norse relic, was really built by a governor of Rhode Island late in the seventeenth century; and the sup- posed Norse pictures on the Dighton Rock, in Massachusetts, have proved to be the work of Algonquin Indians. A perhaps more credible witness is the Norse rock, at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, bearing an inscription in dotted runes, which seems to point to the presence of the Norsemen in the nth century. COLUMBUS. 5 ment as would have daunted any heart of less heroic fibre, at last set sail from the Spanish port of Palos, his hope and faith were fixed upon the finding of a new pathway to India. He was in reaHty swept westward by a broad and mighty impulse. This impulse was the awakening hunger of the western nations, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and England, for a participa- tion in the gorgeous traffic of the East, which at that time was emptying itself into the laps of the Itahan merchant republics. The only way to the treasures of the spice which moved islands, to the gold and silks and jewels of Cipango and Ceylon, lay through the Mediterranean and the caravan routes of Persia, While the Italian cities held control of these, their monopoly of the eastern trade was safe. Columbus was a skilled mariner, trained in the service of Genoa. An eager stu- dent, he knew whatever of geography there was in that day to be known. A daring dreamer, he had gathered and woven together all there was of floating myth or dim legend that might point to the existence of land in the furthest west. He knew the world was round, though he little knew how great was its circum- ference; and from this knowledge he passed to the belief that the new path to the East lay through the West. The grand idea which his imagination brooded, together with his services in carrying it out, he offered first to his mother land of Genoa. But Genoa did not want a new route to the East. Then he turned, but in vain, to Portugal. The hopes of Portugal were set upon a The straggles passage around the south of Africa, and her captains °^ Columbus, were pushing their keels down the coast of that mysterious conti- nent. To England and to France Columbus held out his wondrous offer ; but these countries were slow and unbelieving. It was to Spain he made his most persistent appeal ; and Spain, to her im- perishable glory, gave ear. The Queen of Spain was little con- cerned with trade ; but she was fired with a dream of winning new worlds to the faith of Christ. When Columbus sailed on his great voyage, he did so under the patronage of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. 6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. The story of that seventy days' voyage of Columbus, with his three cockle-shell craft, and no guide but his faith and the tremulous finger of his compass, is one of the heroic ornaments of time. On the 12th day of October, 1492, he landed on an island of the Bahamas. As he offered up his thanks to God amid a throng of mild-eyed natives, he fancied himself upon the skirts of Asia. To the dark-skinned inhabitants^ therefore, he gave the misleading name of Indians.' Spain, to whom he had TT- t ■ t, given an empire beyond the dreams of pride, heaped honours upon him and made him Admiral of the Ocean. The after voyages of Columbus, and the feats of naviga- tors who followed in his track, are not a part of Canadian history. 4. The Cabots and Other Explorers. — What Columbus had discovered was the island-fringe of the continent. Not till 1497, when Vasco di Gama was rounding the Cape of Good Hope and leading the ships of Portugal to the treasure-houses of India, was the mainland of the New World revealed. Then an expedition from Bristol, under the leadership of John Cabot, reached the continent at a point which is now Canadian territory.^ Cabot sailed under charter from Henry VII ; and England was thus enabled to claim the North American continent on The discov- ery of the the ground of first discovery. In this same mem- mainland. orable year, according to some authorities, a Floren- tine' named Amerigo Vespucci also reached the mainland, at a point within the tropics. It is pretty certain, however, that Ves- pucci never saw the mainland of the New World till 1499, when he took part in an expedition which landed on the coast of Brazil. He did not lead this expedition ; and it is one of the strangest freaks of Fate that a comparatively obscure explorer hke Amerigo Vespucci should have been immortalized in the naming of two continents.^ 1 The Indians of the North American continent are described in Appendix B. 2 Probably a point on the Labrador coast, though some authorities hold it to have been the gulf coast of Nova Scotia. s Amerigo Vespucci wrote an interesting account of his voyages, and Brazil was THE CABOTS AND OTHER EXPLORERS. y The achievements of John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, entitle their names to a place near that of Columbus on the roll of great discoverers. These men, though sailing from the port of Bristol and under the flag of England, were Itahan mariners from Venice. The King's charter was held by John Cabot and his three sons, the greatest of whom, Sebastian, is supposed to have accompanied him on his first voyage. Behind their enterprise lay a number of influences. The King wished a share in the glory and gain, which Spain was reaping through Columbus. The merchants of. Bristol were looking for a great trade in stock-fish. Before the eyes of John Cabot himself gUt- tered visions of golden Cipango ; and like Columbus he appears to have cherished dreams of winning a and English ^^ ° enterprise, new world to the faith of Christ. The Cabots m 1498 explored the whole coast, from Labrador to South Caro- lina. Though the discovery of Newfoundland is credited to them, it is sometimes claimed that the Bank Fisheries were already known to Biscayan fishermen. However this may be, it is certain that English, Norman, Basque, and Breton lost no time in flocking to the rich harvest there revealed. In 15 17, only twenty years after Cabot's discovery, there were no less than fifty vessels on the Banks. In a second expedition, sent out in the following year by Henry VII, the Cabots turned their sails northward, seeking a way to India. They got as far as the •mouth of Hudson's Straits. Then the Arctic ice forced them back. In the reign of Henry VIII a new charter was granted to Sebastian Cabot, who continued that intrepid search for a north-west passage which has lasted nearly down to the present day. It is not too much to claim for these Italian mariners that they showed the way to English enterprise, and laid the founda- tions on which England was to build her maritime and colonial greatness. Their deeds are commemorated only in the late naming of a barren group of islets near Newfoundland. named America in his honour. The name gradually passed to the whole southerni continent, and then to the northern continent as well. 8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Close in the wake of the Cabots followed a Portuguese navi- gator, Cortereal, who in the year 1500 visited the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, and carried away to slavery a ship-load of the red inhabitants. In early Portuguese maps all this region is marked Terra Corierealis, the Land of Cortereal. In 1506 a Frenchman, Denis of Honfleur, visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 15 18 the Baron de L6ry tried to plant a set- tlement on Sable Island. His choice of a site fills one with wonder; and utter failure was the only possible result. The cattle, however, which he left behind him throve on the sandy levels, and their multiplying herds became at length a monument to his vain enterprise. The next important visitor to Cortereal, Denis of Hon- Canadian shores was John Verrazzano. He was a fleur, de Lery, . . . . . , _ , t-- and verraz- Florentme navigator in the service of the rrench King, Francis I. In 1524 Verrazzano hastily examined the coast from somewhere on the Carolina shore northward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and declared the whole region annexed to the French Crown. From Newfoundland he sailed back to France. He had gained much fresh knowledge of the New World's Atlantic borders. At the same time he had repaid the hospi- tality of the natives by kidnapping a child upon the shore. It was by acts like these that the barbarians of America were in- structed in the civilization of Europe. 5. Cartier's First Voyage. — The Old World powers were parting the New World between them ; and on the strength of Verrazzanc's discoveries France made ready to claim her share of the spoil. Though not the first in the field, she outstripped for a time the efforts of her northern rivals. Her wise or fortunate choice of men enabled her to do this. While English navigators, each a picturesque compound of merchant, buccaneer, and hero, were trading to Brazil or the Guinea coast, lording it over the cod- fish fleets in the fogs of Newfoundland, battling with the ships of Spain in the tropics or with ice-floe and famine in the spectral Arctic waters, France was entering Canada by the gates of the St. Lawrence and making good her hold on half a continent. CARTIER'S FIRST VOYAGE. g In the early spring of 1534 Jacques Cartier set sail for the New World from the illustrious port of St. Malo. Cartier was a Breton mariner of good family and repute, strong in the posses- sion of court favour. His patron was an enthusiastic young noble, Philippe de Brion-Chabot, who was deep in the con- jacques fidence of Francis I, and diHgently fostered the King's ^^"^i®"^- dream of New World empire. Cartier was well fitted to the task now put upon him. About forty years of age, dauntless, keen of eye, rugged and lean of countenance, he had successes and intre- pidities already on his record. The company with which he sailed consisted of about one hundred and twenty men, in two small ships. After twenty days of favouring weather they reached the coast of Newfoundland. This was on May the loth. Passing through the Straits of Belle Isle he viewed with little satisfaction the bleak coast of Labrador, which seemed to him Cain's portion of the earth. Thence heading down and across the Gulf he ran through the Magdalen Islands, coasted along Prince Edward cartier visits Island, and came upon the north shore of New Bruns- wick anT^' wick, somewhere to the south of Point Escuminac. ^^^p^- In the mouth of one of the small streams so numerous in that region of water-courses, he found a fertility and abundance that delighted all his company. The forests were rich with pine, maple, and ash. The meadows were purple with vetch-blossoms. Wild berries everywhere tempted the thirsty lip. The voyagers lay awake at night and listened with wonder to the noise of count- less salmon passing the shallows, or to the wings of innumerable wild-pigeons streaming overhead. To add to Cartier's good opin- ion of this favoured land, its inhabitants were friendly and few. Passing northward the explorers crossed the mouth of Miramichi Bay, and came, in early July, to the green and sheltered waters of a bay whose shores wavered through a violet haze of heat. Hence these waters received the name of Bale des Chaleurs. Leaving the bay, whose north shore only he touched, Cartier rounded the east- ern promontory of Gasp6. On the Gasp6 shore he set up a cross thirty feet high, bearing a shield with the arms of France. This lO A HISTORY OF CANADA. ceremony roused the suspicions of the Indians, whose instincts ap- parently detected in it some violation of their rights of sovereignty. They were soon appeased, however, with protestations and trinkets. Taking base advantage of their confidence, Cartier lured two of the young savages into his ship, and carried them away to France. His sudden return, after he had sighted the shores of Anticosti and reached the very threshold of the St. Lawrence,, was due to his dread of the autumn storms. For his treachery to the Indians he was afterwards to pay dear. For the blood and tears which stain the whole Hne of contact between the Old World races and the savages of America, the blame seems to lie chiefly with those whose civilization and creed should have made such a reproach impossible. The record of France, however, in spite of the bar- barity of Cartier and of Verrazzano's cruelties, looks fair enough when compared with the records of some of her rivals. 6. Cartier's Second Voyage. — When Cartier, on the 5th of September, reentered in triumph the harbour of St. Malo, he had missed by a hair's-breadth the discovery of the great river across whose mouth he had sailed ; but he imagined that he had found the gateway of the passage to Cathay. The heart of France Enthusiasm thrilled to his story. Here was empire to be won, Carter -^s "^^"^ here were heathen to be converted, here were riches discovenes. ^^ ^^ gathered in. The king, the priest, and the trader, all awoke to enthusiasm. On the 19th of May, 1535, St. Malo again saw Cartier's sail diminish on the blue horizon, speeded by the prayers of France. On this expedition Cartier had three small ships.^ In his company were representatives of some of the noblest famihes in the kingdom. Presently a storm arose and scattered the little fleet ; and it was not till the end of Cartier July that they came together again, at their rendez- canadawith ^ovl's, on the Straits of Belle Isle. Holding his course three ships, j^iore to the northward than on the previous vo3'age, Cartier passed a large island which he named Assomption, now 1 The Hermine, the Petite Hermine, and the Emerillon. CAR TIER'S SECOND VOYAGE. n Anticosti. To a bay north of Anticosti Cartier gave the name of St. Lawrence, in honour of the saint upon whose festival it was discovered. The name was destined soon to spread not only to the gulf he had just traversed, but also to the great river in whose channel he now found himself. Continuing up the river, which Cartier learned from his kidnapped Indians to call "the great river of Canada," the explorers entered the austere portals of the Saguenay, and floated with awe upon the sombre waters of that gigantic trough. Here they met Indians in birch-bark canoes, with whom they communicated through their guides. Not delay- ing to explore 'the Saguenay they resumed their journey up the main stream, rounded an island rich in hazels, which they called Isle au Coudres, passed the beetling shoulder of Cape Tourmente, and came to a spacious green island so abounding in wild vines that the delighted voyagers called it the Isle of Bacchus.^ Here they cast anchor. Presently from every cdve and inlet came glid- ing the. noiseless, yellow, birchen craft of the natives. Distrustful at first, the savages were quickly conciliated, and thronged with marvelling admiration about the white men and their strange ships. Above the island the shores contracted sharply and the river forced its way between towering battlements of gray rock stained with red. On the northern shore the heights broke off abruptly, forming that majestic promontory now crowned by the citadel of Quebec. Here were huddled the wigwams of Stadacona, the savage metropolis of that region; and here Donnacona, the ruhng chief, who had visited Cartier at his first anchorage on cartier the Isle of Bacchus, extended to the strangers a bar- site of^ *^^ barous but ardent hospitality. Under the shadow of Q"^®^^*^- the cape a small river emptied itself quietly, and in its mouth the Frenchmen found safe harbourage for their ships. The Indians were all friendship, but to Cartier's design of ascending the river they offered a vehement opposition. Argu- 1 Now the fruitful and populous lie d'Orleans. 12 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ment and entreaty failing to dissuade the obstinate stranger, they tried to work upon his fears. A clever masquerade was prepared, and the Frenchmen, leaning over the sides of their vessels, watched with amused perplexity what seemed to be three demons who drifted slowly past them in a canoe. These were medicine men, adorned with monstrous horns, their faces blackened, their eyes glaring with hideous fixity upon the strangers. The chief demon yelled a fierce harangue till the canoe had floated some distance down the current. Then all three paddled ashore, fell down as if dead, and were carried with clamour into a sheltering thicket. Thence presently issued Cartier's two savage interpreters, who explained that the god Coudouagny had sent three messengers to warn the rash white men from their purpose. Dreadful calami- ties of storm and frost were predicted for them ; but Cartier Cartieras- derided the mummery and went on up the river. He La^reMcto ^ook the smallest of his ships, two boats, and a numer- Hocheiaga. ^^g following. The further he advanced the fairer grew the prospect, the more fertile seemed the soil ; and the natives were everywhere friendly. In the shallow expanse of Lake St. Peter he ran his vessel aground, but with his boats he pushed on undaunted. On the second of October he reached the lovely island with its guardian mount, deep in whose green recesses hid the town of Hochelaga. The voyagers were welcomed to the shore by throngs of danc- ing Indians, who overwhelmed them with gifts of fish and fruit and corn. On the following morning, led by their delighted hosts, they marched through the woods by a well-travelled path, till they came out upon an expanse of maize-fields, in the midst of which, against the foot of the mountain, rose the triple palisades of Hochelaga. These palisades were built with galleries along the inside, where heaps of stones were stored for purposes of defence. Hochelaga was a good specimen of the Huron-Iroquois Hochelaga. & & i- i town. It consisted of half-a-hundred large dwellings, one hundred and fifty feet long by forty or forty-five feet wide, built of poles and covered with sheets of bark. Down the long, CAR TIER'S SECOND VOYAGE. 13 unpartitioned centre ran a row of fires, and around each smoky hearth gathered a family. In the middle of the town was an open square, wherein the tribe held its councils. Here the Frenchmen were received with joyous reverence, as if they had been half divine. The adoring excitement grew as Cartier scattered on all sides his presents, — knives, beads, rings, and little sacred images of pewter. The head chief of the tribe, a paralytic and helpless old man, was brought before Cartier on a mat to be cured of his sickness. Cartier was somewhat embarrassed by such faith ; but he treated his unexpected patient as best he could with a prayer for his soul as well as for his body, touched him, and sent him away happy if not healed. Then came all the sick and infirm of the tribe to be treated in like manner. This done, Cartier with- drew himself and his little band from the grateful attentions of their hosts, and set out for the mountain. The Indians guided them to its summit; and with exulting eyes Cartier looked out across the luxuriant forest, already flaming in scarlet and amber under the touch of the early frosts. The mountain he called Mount Royal ; and where his eyes then rested so well content sits now the queenly city of Montreal. From Hochelaga Cartier hastened back to Stadacona, built a fort on the shore by the ships, and made ready for the winter. He knew not what to make ready for, however ; and before the little colony was half prepared the violence of the season broke upon them, such cold and such storms as they had never dreamed of. It seemed to them as if the world could nevermore emerge from the snows which overwhelmed it. Soon a malignant scurvy broke out among them, and they knew not how to combat it by diet or medicine. Out of their company of one hun- Cartier dred and ten men twenty-five died, and all the rest winters at but three or four tottered on the brink of the grave. To hide the weakness of the garrison, Cartier made those who were strong enough pound on the walls with hammers, that the savages might think there were vigour and activity within. But the savages themselves were sore beset with the same plague, 14 A HISTORY OF CANADA. and could give little heed to the strangers. At last Cartier learned from an Indian that the disease might be cured by a decoction of a certain evergreen which he called anieda (probably a spruce or arbor-vitse), and this remedy the Frenchmen tried at once. They tried it with such desperate eagerness that in six days they con- sumed a good-sized tree ; and it proved so efficacious that the disease was stayed, and the invalids rose swiftly back to health. When spring released the ships and brought cheer again to the exiles, Cartier made ready for the return to France. First, having heard from the Indians glowing tales of gold, silver, red copper, rubies, and a race of one-legged men to be found in the interior country, he resolved that he would have witnesses to corroborate his story. Luring the hospitable Donnacona and four Cartier kid- ^ ° ^ . naps the hos- lesser chiefs into an ambush, he imprisoned them in pitable chiefs. ^, ^ ,. , . , . . the ships. The Indians were told that their chiefs were going away of their own free will, being eager to meet the French King and view all the wonders beyond sea. Then, having erected on the shore a cross thirty feet high with the fleur-de-Hs affixed to it, Cartier on the i6th day of May turned his prows toward France. On the 1 6th of June, 1536, he furled his storm- rent sails once more beneath the ramparts of St. Malo. In the same spring, while Cartier was yet ice-bound undei Stadacona, the light of history flashes for a moment upon the coast of Newfoundland. Two ships were sent out from London to America on a fishing venture. After cruising about the Gulf of St. Lawrence they fell short of provisions, and entered a har- bour on the west shore of the island. Finding the natives too _ timorous to traffic with them they were soon in peril English ships ^ . ^ in the Gulf of of Starvation ; but from this strait they were relieved St. Lawrence. . by the timely arrival of a French trading-ship well laden with stores. Though France and England were then at peace, the French ship was promptly seized. It was a time and place not conducive to ceremony. The injured Frenchmen made complaint to the English King, our eighth Henry. That robust monarch decided that the piracy of his subjects was justified C ARTIER 'S LAST VOYAGE. 15 by the pressing nature of their needs ; but he repaid the unfortu- nate Frenchmen's losses out of his own pocket. 7. Cartier's Last Voyage; and de Roberval. — For the next few years the French King, the inconstant Fran'cis, was too much occupied in defending his domains at home to think much of extending them abroad. His great rival, Charles V of Spain, was pressing him with fierce hostility. At length came peace ; and as Francis recovered breath and looked about him, his eyes were once more turned upon Canada, The Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy, was made governor of Canada and all the surrounding regions ; and Cartier, under him, was appointed captain-general. Donnacona and his fellow-captives had died meanwhile ; and Cartier showed a natural reluctance to revisit the spot where he had so cruelly returned the kindness of his hosts. But at length he consented. With five ships, a great company of followers, and stock and implements for founding a colony, he left St. Malo on the 23rd of May, 1541. De Roberval stayed behind, intending to follow close upon his heels with additional ships and supplies. The voyage proved a ^ ^ ^ / to 1- Cartier comes Stormy one. At Newfoundland, where de Roberval a third time to Canada, was to overtake him, Cartier fingered till his patience was outworn. Then, resuming his journey, he crossed the Gulf, and on the 23rd of August he came under the stern front of Stadacona's cape. In great numbers, but not with their old joyous welcome, the Indians crowded about him. Cartier con- fessed to them that Donnacona was dead, but he declared that the other chiefs had married in France, and were living in such splendour that they could not be persuaded to return. This tale the Indians pretended to believe ; but Cartier felt that they were merely covering up a fire of hate which would flame out at the first opportunity of revenge. . He forsook uneasily his old an- chorage in the St. Charles (then called the St. Croix), and moved further up the St. Lawrence to Cap Rouge. Here he watched in vain for de Roberval's expected sails. Sending back two of his ships with tidings to France, he established his colony 1 6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. in a fortified post which he called Charlesbourg Royal. Here he passed an anxious, though not a disastrous winter. In the spring, discouraged apparently by de Roberval's continued absence and by the sullen enmity of the Indians, he gathered the colony back into his ships, bade an ungrateful farewell to the frowning height of Stadacona, and fled away for France. Entering He winters at ' -' ° Charlesbourg the harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, in the early Royal, and . ^ ^ then gives up part of J une, he found there the belated de Rob- his enterprise. , ■ , , ■ r, , i ■ , , ■ erval with his fleet, a year behind his engagement. The fiery viceroy ordered his captain-general back to his post ; but Cartier slipped out of the harbour in the night and made his best haste homeward. In his native St. Malo, or in his neigh- bouring manor-house of Limoilou, Cartier settled down to a life of civil ease, content with the patent of nobility which his voy- ages had won for him. In no gentle humour de Roberval pressed on to Canada. He took possession of the deserted structures of Charlesbourg Royal, cleared fields, sowed crops, cut paths, raised new buildings. His company seems to have been an unruly one, but he governed with a rod of iron, and his harshness kept the peace. He seems, how- ever, to have lacked prudence and foresight ; and when winter came upon the lonely colony it was found that the store of pro- visions was not enough to last till spring. Every one was put on short allowance. Fish and roots, in meagre supply, De Roberval's ' *= fi Ji attempt at were purchased from the Indians. But the dread colonization. plague of the scurvy broke out, and there was no one to teach them Cartier's remedy. Fifty of the settlers died, and by spring de Roberval's enthusiasm was at an end. That summer he carried back to France the pitiful remnants of his colony. In 1549, with his brother Achille, he organized another expedition to Canada, the fate of which is one of the romantic secrets of history. A dim tradition would have us beUeve that the adventurers sailed up the Saguenay, seeking a kingdom of jewels and strange enchantments ; and that no man of the company ever returned through the bleak portals of that wiz- CARRIER'S LAST VOYAGE. 17 ard ^ stream. Another and more credible story tells us, however, that de RobervaP eventually returned to France, and died by vio- lence one night in the streets of Paris. It is interesting to consider that while Cartier. and de Roberval were thus exploring the St. Lawrence and piercing the continent by its eastern portals, the Spaniard de Soto was entering the southern gateway and threading the channels of the Mississippi. 1 A tribe of Indians frequenting the head waters of the Saguenay goes by the name of the Wizards. See W. H. H. Murray's story of " Mamelons." 2 The adventures of Roberval are vividly presented in a drama of that name by Hunter Duvar. CHAPTER II. SECTIONS : — 8, France forgets Canada for a time. The Eng-. LiSH IN Newfoundland. 9, the Expedition of de la Roche. 10, Champlain and de Monts at St. Croix, ii, Champlain, POUTRINCOURT, AND LeSCARBOT AT PORT ROYAL. 12, BlEN- court, and the jesuits in acadie. 1 3, newfoundland. Henry Hudson. 8. Canada forgotten by France. The English in Newfound- land. — For the half century succeeding Roberval's failure, Canada France's was forgotten by France, save that French fishermen engaged'at i^ ^^^^ growing numbers thronged to the Banks of home. Newfoundland. Torn by her religious wars, France could not afford to look beyond her own borders, and had no in- terest to spare for the New World. A French colony, indeed, was Massacre of established in Florida, 1562-65; but it was the fruit guenot colony of private enterprise, and being a colony of Huguenots, the^Span- ^^ ^^ territory claimed by Spain, it invited the most ma- lards. lignant hostiUty of the Spaniards. The butcher Me- nendez was sent out to remove it, which he did by hanging or cutting to pieces men, women, and children alike. This hideous atrocity was avenged by the patriot de Gourgues, who, geanceofde descending on the Spaniards like a whirlwind, capt- Gourgues. t> r » r ured the defences, and hanged the prisoners on the very scene of their crimes. De Gourgues accomplished his ven- geance in 1568. French enterprise was now completely diverted from this conti- nent. England, hitherto absorbed in adventurous voyagings, in 18 THE ENGLISH IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 19 sailing around the globe or pushing into the Arctic ice, was begin- ning to meditate some serious attempts at colonization. In 1576 Martin Frobisher set English feet on Labrador; Drake views but this was like the heedless ahghting of a bird of iaMe^the' passage, for Frobisher went on at once to seek a way Britfs*h co-°* to India. In the next year Sir Francis Drake, on his i^^i^ia. voyage around the world, sailed northward along the Pacific coast to the 48th parallel, and saw the snowy peaks of the moun- tains that keep watch over British Columbia. This is the first appearance in history of our Pacific Province. Six years later the English purpose of colonization began to show active life. This time the scene is Newfoundland, which justly claims the title of " England's Oldest Colony." An expedition was organized, in which Sir Walter Raleigh had large interest. Its leader was Raleigh's half-brother. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, whose g^j-g^j^ j^^ name sheds upon the page of Canadian history a fair Gilbert takes r r o J possession of light of bravery, faith, and gentleness. The expedition Newfound- was well equipped. It consisted of two hundred and sixty men, among whom were all such skilled mechanics as a colony should require. But Fortune had set her face against the enterprise. When but two days out a contagious disease began to spread in one of the ships, and she was compelled to turn back. The rest of the fleet, after a rough passage, entered the safe har- bour of St. John's. This was in August, of the year 1583. Sir Humphrey, in his rich Ehzabethan dress of lace and velvet, was a commanding figure among the rough fishermen and sailors, — French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English, — whose ships thronged the port. After the feudal custom a branch and a sod were pre- sented to him, and he took possession in the name of his Queen, the great Elizabeth. He enacted many laws, and forced the for- eign trading-vessels to acknowledge his authority. His charter gave him no less than six hundred miles in every direction from St. John's ; and his territory therefore included New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Labrador and Quebec. Much energy was spent in exploring, and in searching 20 A HISTORY OF CANADA. for silver. But in one of these explorations Sir Humphrey's largest ship was lost. Provisions grew scarce ; and finding his people alarmed at the approach of winter, the gallant Admiral decided on returning to England. His flagship was the little Squirrel, of ten tons' burden, by far the smallest of the fleet. Death of Sir O^ the homeward voyage a great storm arose. Sir Humphrey. Humphrey refused to go on board a larger ship ; and in the loud darkness of the hurricane the Squirrel went down. It is a heroic picture that flashes upon us out of the terror of that far-off night. We see Sir Humphrey, his Bible in his lap, sitting unmoved in the stern of his puny and foundering vessel ; and we hear his words of comfort to his men — " Cheer up, lads, we are as near heaven at sea. as on land ! " 9. The Expedition of de la Roche. — As the century closed, dreams of colonization again began to stir the hearts of advent- r> 1 r. 1, , urous Frenchmen. In 1598 the titles and privileges convict coio- of the ill-fated de Roberval were transferred to a nists. nobleman of Brittany, the Marquis de la Roche. He, unable to find enough volunteers for his purpose, made a selec- tion of sturdy convicts from the prisons of the land. Shunning the unlucky track of de Roberval, de la Roche steered much further to the south ; and at length the solitary little ship came in sight of the ominous, sandy horns of Sable Island. This long crescent of shifting sand, built up by meeting currents off the coast of Nova Scotia, and spreading its deadly shallows far abroad beneath the surf to devour unwary ships, seemed to de la Roche an excellent spot in which to cage his jail-birds while he went to explore the mainland. The convicts were put ashore, — if such bleak sand- spits could be called shore, — and de la Roche sailed away to find a site for his colony. For a little while the convicts were delighted „^ . ^ with their freedom. The interior of the island was The convicts abandoned on occupied by a long, narrow lasroon of sweet water, Sable Island. r .7 o' & > about whose low shores the grass and shrubs grew abundantly. There was nothing like a tree on the island ; there were no eminences except the hummocks of sand. But wild ducks THE EXPEDITION OF DE LA ROCHE. 21 thronged the shallow pools ; wild cattle, sprung from de Lory's herds, trooped in the long grasses ; various kinds of wild berries were everywhere ripening to their lips; and- they forgot the scourge and chain. Meanwhile, however, a fierce storm had come down on de la Roche and swept him back to France; where, being cast upon the shores of Brittany, he was seized by a powerful foe, the Duke de Mercoeur, and consigned to prison. The convicts on the island, when they realized that they had been abandoned to their fate, cried out in despair for even the very jails of their own land. They fought and slew each other hke beasts, over the too scanty food ; till at last awe and fear drew the remnant together, when their refuge darkened under the autumn hurricanes, and shook horribly to the thunder of the waves. They lived on the raw flesh of the cattle, clothed their bodies in hides, and heaped themselves a rude shelter of timbers from the wrecks that strewed the shore. At length from his captivity de la Roche got word to the King, and a ship was sent out to rescue the unhappy convicts. Like wild creatures, in their shaggy hides and matted hair, they were brought before the King, who pitied them and granted them full pardon. De la Roche, broken in health and fortunes, died soon after their res- cue ; and thus was recorded another failure in the attempt to colonize Canada. While de la Roche was languishing behind the Duke de Mer- coeur 's walls, while the convicts grovelled and despaired on Sable Island, an effort was made to fix a settlement in the chauvinand St. Lawrence valley. A naval officer of Rouen, by ^o°iony^at^'^ the name of Chauvin, entered into partnership with Tadousac. an enterprising trader of St. Malo, named Pontgrave ; and the partners procured a monopoly of the fur-trade of the St. Lawrence region on the condition of establishing a colony. In the fur-trade they succeeded bravely enough ; but their colonizing zeal expended itself in leaving sixteen men, ill housed, ill clothed, ill victualled, to endure the assaults of a Saguenay winter at wind-swept Tadousac. This was in 1599. On the arrival of the trading-ship from France 22 A HISTORY OF CANADA. in the following spring, it was found that of the sixteen unhappy set- tlers most had died, and the rest were scattered among the wigwams of the Indians. The Tadousac experiment was not repeated, but the fur-trade was continued with great profit. In the following year Chauvin made a third voyage, and died in Canada. His enterprise at once fell to pieces. The name of Pontgrav^, how- ever, reappears later in our story, shining with" reflected lustre by association with the immortal name of Champlain. 10. Champlain and de Monts at St. Croix. — No name is borne upon the annals of Canadian history more worthy of reverence Samuel de than that of Champlain. Samuel de Champlain, born Champlain. ^^ Brouage in 1567, was a captain in the French navy and high in the favour of that manly monarch, Henry IV of France. Champlain's was a restless and romantic spirit, intrepid^ devout, humane. He was imaginative in conceiving his plans, practical in carrying them out. On a secret mission, discreetly executed, he had explored a part of Mexico and visited the Span- ish settlements in the West Indies. When, on the threshold of the new century, the veteran Aymar de Chastes, governor of Dieppe, resolved to take up the somewhat He visits the discredited mantles of de Roberval and de la Roche, St. Lawrence, ^j^^^ ^.^ colonize for King and Church the reluctant wilderness of Canada, he saw in Champlain the man his work re- quired. His first step was to send Champlain on an exploring expedition to the St. Lawrence. In the track of the great St. Malo mariner Champlain pressed forward, till he reached the site of Hochelaga — and found the site a soUtude. Savage wars had blotted out the corn-fields and the hospitable lodges. Returning to France with his information, he found that his patron, de Chastes, had died in his absence. Champlain had been accompanied on this journey by Pontgravd. But he had had, also, a more important comrade, an adventure- loving nobleman of the court, Pierre du Guast, the Sieur de Monts. The latter resolved to continue the work which had dropped from the dead hand of de Chastes. Dreading, however, the harsh win- CHAMPLAIN AND DE MONTS AT ST. CROIX. 23 ters of the lower St. Lawrence, de Monts turned his eyes further south. And now the name of Acadie appears upon our page. In the patent of de Monts the Acadian land is a huge ter- He sets out ritory of very cloudy limits, wide enough to take in witt^de^^ Philadelphia on the one hand and Montreal on the ^o^^^^- other. With two ships, and a company of mingled thieves and gentlemen, de Monts went forth in 1604 to colonize this Acadie. Along with him sailed Champlain and the Baron de Poutrincourt ;; and two other ships accompanied the expedition, — the one tO' trade in furs at Tadousac, the other to drive off poachers from the new viceroy's fishing-grounds. Fair winds followed the sails of de Monts. The voyage was preserved from monotony by the frequent bickerings between his Catholic and his Calvinist followers. The first land , He skirts the sighted was Cape La Heve, not far from the present Acadian town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Sailing westward, de Monts entered a fair and spacious harbour, which he named Port Rossignol. The name was given in honour of the captain of a vessel which he found trading in the harbour and promptly confiscated for violation of his charter. In another harbour a sheep jumped overboard ; and as sheep were rare and precious just then in Acadie, de Monts commemorated the event by call- ing the place Port Mouton. De Monts seems to have had a vein of humour. His taste in names certainly differed from that of Champlain, whose nomenclature was wholly derived from a few favoured saints and the members of his own family. From Port Mouton the voyagers sailed to St. Mary's Bay, whose coasts they explored ; and then, rounding a long, narrow promontory, they floated on the tossing tides of the Bay of Fundy. Pres- ently they discerned on their right a majestic defile between fir- crowned steeps of rock ; and sailing in swiftly on the crest of the flood tide, they found themselves on the lovely expanse of what is now called Annapolis Basin. A wide water steeped in sunshine, fenced from fogs and winds by a deep rim of wooded hills, it was a scene of enchantment to the wanderers. The delighted Pou- 24 A HISTORY OF CANADA. trincourt, asking and receiving from de Monts a grant of the sur- rounding shores, named the place Port Royal and resolved to make his home there. From Port Royal the explorers sailed around the Bay of Fundy, and entered, on its northern shore, the mouth of a great The St. John river called by the Indians the Oolastook. In honour Croix^dif-*' ^^ ^^^ saint On whose day it was discovered, Cham- covered, plain renamed it the St. John. Thence still westward coasting, they entered a spacious bay set thick with islands as with innumerable jewels. At the head of this green and restless archi- pelago, to which has clung its Indian name of Passamaquoddy, emptied a large river with an island guarding its mouth. This island they named St. Croix ; and here, strange to say, over- looking the bleakness of the site, they resolved to fix their set- tlement. St. Croix Island became a scene of busy life. The ragged cedars which clothed it were quickly chopped away, leaving but a fringe of them to fence off the north-east winds. Settlement ° on St. Croix Buildings were erected about an open square, — store- Isla.nd. houses, work-shops, lodgings, barracks, with separate dwellings for de Monts and for Champlain. For defence the whole was surrounded with palisades, and a small battery was mounted at one end. On the niggardly soil of the island Cham- plain strove, but in vain, to make a garden. As soon as the colony was under roof, Poutrincourt sailed back to France, and the lonely little settlement was left to face the winter. Soon the crimson and gold of autumn died out on the surrounding shores, and the cheer of the sunshine paled. Storms shrieked down the frozen river, piercing the walls of their hasty shelters and chilling their hearts beneath their too scant garments. The whirling snow- drift Winded them ; the ominous grinding of the ice before the changing tides filled them with gloom. Being on an island where river and tide contended daily for the mastery, they were often cut off from the supplies of fuel and water which only the main- land could afford. And then, when they we^e enfeebled by de- DE MONTS RETURNS TO FRANCE. 25 pression, the scurvy broke out. The old, heart-rending scenes of Stadacona and Charlesbourg Royal were reenacted. Out of the seventy-nine colonists but forty-four survived to greet the spring, — and these survivors were often too weak for the sad task of serving the dying and burying the dead. Only Cham- plain's indomitable courage kept alive the spark of hope in un- happy St. Croix. Late in the spring came Poutrincourt's ship from France, and the long anguish was at an end. During the summer Champlain and de Monts explored the coast as far south as Cape '^ ^ Colony Cod, but found no site for their settlement as favour- removed to Port Royal, able as Port Royal. In August, therefore, the shrunken colony fled over the bay to that kindlier and more sheltered haven. They took with them the greater part of the materials of their buildings. When they were gone the Indians soon completed the work of demolition. There remains upon the island no re- minder of their story, except the ruins of a well which may have been Champlain's. II. Champlain, Lescarbot, and Poutrincourt at Port Royal. — The colony at Port Royal was soon fairly housed ; but de Monts had enemies at court, and to thwart their intrigues he ' ° . De Monts hastened back to France with Poutrincourt, leaving returns to ° France. Pontgrav^ and Champlain to guide the settlement through the perils of another winter. Thanks partly to the friend- ship and support of Membertou, the old sagamore of the Mic- macs, partly to the wiser foresight of its leaders and the better shelter of its situation, the colony underwent no such terrible experience as had befallen it at St. Croix. In the spring the colonists grew anxious over the delay of de Monts and Poutrincourt. As summer wore on, and supplies dwindled, and no sails appeared from France, they built them- selves two little craft, — the pioneers, these, of Nova The arrival of Scotia ship-building, if we except the dragon-ship built ^^^carbot. by Thorwald on Keelness. Leaving Port Royal in charge of two of their number, they set out for the fishing resorts on the east 26 A HISTORY OF CANADA. coast, hoping to meet and get aid from some of their fellow- countrymen. They had been gone but twelve days, however, when Poutrincourt arrived, bringing supplies and more colonists. De Monts, finding his enemies in the ascendant, had remained in France ; but he more than compensated for his absence by send- ing out the wise and witty Lescarbot. This lawyer of Paris, with his scholarship, his shrewdness, his merry humour, and his cour- age, is one of the pleasantest figures on the page of Canadian history. He became not only the hfe of the settlement, but also its best historian. A boat sent out by Poutrincourt overtook the little ships of the party that had gone for aid ; and lively were the rejoicings at Port Royal. Pontgrav6 presently returned to France, while champiain Champlain and Poutrincourt set forth on a voyage of courfgo^ex"-" exploration. Lescarbot, left in charge of the settle- pionng. ment, sowed crops of wheat, rye, and barley in the rich meadows bordering the tide. He planted gardens, too, and kept the settlers happily employed. In November the explorers returned to Port Royal, with nothing but disappointment to show for their summer's effort ; but Lescarbot welcomed them back with a gay masquerade, and the scene of prosperity and comfort revived their cheer. The winter that followed (that of 1606-160 7) was warm and open, so that in January the colonists amused themselves with The Order of boating on the river, and with picnicking on their a Good Time, ^heat-fields in the sun. This was the memorable win- ter when Champlain's "Order of a Good Time" held its benefi- cent sway. The members of the order were the fifteen leading men of the colony ; its temple was Poutrincourt's dark-ceilinged dining-hall; its rule was good-fellowship and mirth. Each mem- ber was adorned in turn with the elaborate collar of Grand Mas- ter, which he wore for one day. During that day it was his duty to cater for the table ; and so well was the duty performed, says Lescarbot, that the order dined much more cheaply and not less sumptuously than they might have done in the restaurants of PORT ROYAL ABANDONED. 2/ Paris. Supplies from France were abundant ; and witli the help of the Indians, who camped in the shadow of the walls, appe- tizing additions of fish and game were made to their bill of fare. The dinner, a feast of much ceremony, held at midday, was ruled by the Grand Master, with napkin on shoulder and staff of office in hand. As guest of honour at the table sat the Sagamore Mem- bertou, deep-wrinkled with -his hundred years, but still a warrior. On the floor around sat other Indian guests, with squaws and children, waiting for biscuits, and watching the great log fire roar up the capacious chimney. Thus well fed, well housed, well cheered, they passed the winter in health. In the spring a water-mill was built, fishing and farm- ing were followed up with zeal, and the success of the venture seemed assured. But suddenly came disaster, like a port Royal bolt from a clear sky. A ship from St. Malo arrived abandoned. with word that de Monts's enemies had triumphed over him, and had got the King to take away his charter. Thus deprived of their support, there was nothing for the colonists to do but give up Port Royal. With deep discouragement, and amid the bitter lamentations of the Indians, they sailed for France. But Poutrin- court, as he forsook the lovely haven framed in its hills, resolved that he would return at a later day with his whole household, and strike deep into Acadian soil the roots of his home. 12. The Jesuits and Biencourt in Acadie. — De Monts now lost interest in Acadie, and set himself to the quest of the north- west passage. Champlain went north to found Quebec and to write his name in characters of heroic achievement De Monts re- all over the St. Lawrence valley. Thither we shall to^pouto'^-'® presently follow him. But Poutrincourt remained ''°'^''*- faithful to Port Royal. In 1610 he set out once more for the place of his desire. This time he took with him a zealous priest, Father La Fleche. Membertou and all his tribe were speedily converted. So ardent a proselyte was the old sagamore that he was for instant war against all the tribes who had not a ready ear for the good priest's teachings. In the following year (161 1) 28 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Poutrincourt's eighteen-year-old son, best known to our history as Biencourt, set sail for France with the official list of baptisms in proof of his father's zeal for the conversion of the heathen. When he reached France he found calamity. The strong King, Henry IV, had died under the knife of the assassin Ravaillac ; and the government was in the hands of the corrupt Queen, Marie de Medicis. It was a dark hour for the lovers of France, whether Catholic or Huguenot. But when patriotism flagged, religious zeal was to take up the work in Acadie. Now appeared on the scene the mysterious, black-robed, indomitable figures of the Jesuits, des- Thejesuits. . , ' , , a- j tvt -c tmed to leave so deep a mark on Canada. Magnifi- cent in peril, meddlesome in peace, oft dreaded by their friends, but extorting the admiration of their enemies, their record in the counsels of Old Canada is one of ceaseless quarrels with the civil power; but their record among the savages is one of im- perishable glory. Their faith was a white and living flame, that purged out all thought of self. Alone, fearless, not to be turned aside, they pierced to the inmost recesses of the wilderness. They thrust themselves upon the savages, they endured filth and ignominy, they shrank not from the anguish of torture, they rejoiced in the crudest forms of death, if thereby they might hope to save a soul. Whatever blame may rightly or wrongly attach to the institution of the Jesuits, it has shown itself able to breed saints and heroes. When young Biencourt sailed back to Port Royal with succour, the Jesuits, represented by Father Biard and Father Enemond Masse, went with him as partners in the enterprise. The Queen and many ladies of the court had opened their purses to help on the pious work. But the chieY patron of the undertaking was Madame de Guercheville, a lady-in-waiting famed no less for her Madame de virtue than for her beauty. She bought out all the Guercheville. ii^tgrests in the venture that were held by the Hugue- not merchants of St. Malo ; and she transferred these interests to the Jesuits. Difficulties soon arose in Port Royal between JESUIT SETTLEMENT AT MOUNT DESERT. 29 the priests and Poutrincourt, who is said to have cried to them once in exasperation, " Show me my path to Heaven. I will show you yours on earth." Presently he returned to strife at Port France, leaving Biencourt in charge. This sagacious ^°y^^- and energetic youth, who had been made vice-admiral in the waters of New France, spent the summer in enforcing his authority and taking tribute from the ships that traded on his coast. Father Biard toiled earnestly to learn the speech of the Indians. He lived much of the summer in their huts, striving to win their sym- pathies and understand their hearts. The winter was one of de- pression, intensified by the death of Membertou. Toward the end of January came a ship from Poutrincourt. Besides supplies, which by this time were sorely needed, it brought a lay-brother of the Jesuit order, sent out as Madame de Guercheville's agent. The power of the Jesuits had mightily expanded since Biencourt's departure from France, for Madame de Guercheville had obtained from Louis XHI a grant of nothing less than the whole territory of North America, from Florida to the St. Lawrence. The Dutch trading-post on the Hudson with the little English settlements at Jamestown in Virginia and at Pemaquid in Maine (begun in 1607) were coolly included in this grant, — a fact of which they rested in happy ignorance. The only spot not embraced in Madame de Guercheville's grant was Poutrincourt's little domain at Port Royal, secured to him by the charter of Henry IV. A fierce quarrel broke out at once between Biencourt and the Jesuits, in which the victory rested with the young vice-admiral. After three months, however, a reconciliation was effected ; and Father Biard wrote home to France a letter filled with Biencourt's praises. In March of the following spring (1613) the Jesuits sent out a new expedition under a courtier named Saussaye. The ships touched at La Heve, and erected there a cross bear- The Jesuit ing the scutcheon of Madame de Guercheville. Stop- at MoSft"^* ping at Port Royal to take up Biard and Masse, they ^^^^'■*- continued down the Atlantic coast till they reached Mount De- 30 A HISTORY OF CANADA. sert. Here they set themselves, amid much bickering, to plant a new colony under the name of St. Sauveur. But the colony was not destined to take root. The bolt which was to destroy it was already speeding to its mark. The event which shattered Madame de Guercheville's enterprise was in itself but the lawless raid of a freebooter ; but it is, never- theless, an event of historic magnitude, because it marks the beginning of the struggle between France and England for the possession of the continent. It chanced that one Samuel Argall, from the English colony in Virginia, was cruising off the Maine coast with a well-armed ship. When he heard of the arrival of the French his wrath was greatly kindled. Such an infringement on the rights of his sovereign King James, who claimed even more of the continent than did Madame de Guercheville, was not to be endured. He swept down on St. Sauveur, Its destruc- . ' tion by seized the stores, turned some of the Frenchmen Argall. adrift in an open boat, and carried off all the rest, Biard among them, to a mild captivity in Virginia. The unfortu- nates whom Argall turned adrift would surely have perished but for the aid of some commiserating Indians. They worked their way northward slowly along the coast till at last they met a trad- ing-vessel and were carried back to France. From their com- rades who were taken to Virginia (from Biard himself, men say), the governor of Jamestown heard of the Port Royal settlement. Just as France claimed all North America by virtue of Verraz- zano's discoveries, England claimed the same territory by virtue of the prior discoveries of Cabot. Port Royal and Virginia, each was in the other's eyes a trespasser. Argall, therefore, was sent northward to eject the French intruders. He found Port Royal defenceless. Biencourt and his men were either away among the Indians, or at work in the fields up river. The buildings were pillaged and burned, and even the standing Argall de- f b » o stroys Port crops were barbarously trodden down. After this Royal. ' ■' exploit Argall returned to Virginia to win fame by his daring and wealth by his knavery, becoming in the end Sir ENGLISH COLONIZATION. 3 1 Samuel Argall ; and the unhappy colonists at Port Royal were left to support themselves through the winter on wild roots and the hospitality of starving Indians. The brave but unlucky Poa- trincourt soon afterwards died a soldier's death in the assault on M^ry, a small town in his native France. But his indomitable son, the young vice-admiral, clung to his Acadian domain, where he hunted, fished, traded, and eventually in part rebuilt Port Royal. Among his companions in this adventurous life was a Huguenot gentleman, Charles de la Tour, destined to play a not- able part in our story. 13. English Colonization. Newfoundland and Hudson Bay. — During the period just described the English were gaining firm foothold in Virginia : ^ but for more than a quarter ° ^ . ^ TheConcep- of a century after the failure of Sir Humphrey Gil- tion bay colony. bert's expedition their eyes were turned away from the stormier north. Their fishermen flocked to the cod-waters of Newfoundland, but not more diligently than the fishermen of France, Spain, and Portugal, over whom they domineered in the harbours and on the curing-grounds. In 16 10, however, the "Company of London and Bristol Adventurers and Planters" was organized, with the illustrious Bacon on its roll of member- ship. This company undertook to plant a settlement at Concep- tion Ba}^, in Newfoundland. One John Guy was at the head of the enterprise, which, though promising much and performing little, nevertheless was not utterly a failure. Guy and most of his followers went home, but a handful remained and became a fixed nucleus for the flourishing fisheries. Then began the rule of the " Fishing Admirals," who, under commission from the Admiralty, governed the island from their vessels' decks in a rough-and-ready fashion, and The fishing wielded sharp sway over the turbulent spirits who ^^"'""^^s. 1 Raleigh's attempted colony on Roanoke Island, Virginia, was begun in 1585. It failed utterly. The first permanent English settlement in America was that of the Virginia Company, in which Captain John Smith was the ruling spirit and Pocahontas the romantic figure. 32 A HISTORY OF CANADA. frequented those turbulent seas. The most noteworthy of the fishing admirals was Captain Richard Whitbourne, sailor, fighter, and writer, with a record for heroism in the wars against Spain. For forty years, off and on, he traded to the Newfoundland coast ; and on his retirement he wrote a book in praise of the island he loved. This work, " A Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland," stirred up a warm interest in Great Britain, and was distributed throughout the kingdom by the order of King James. In 1623 the settlement of Newfoundland was undertaken by Lord Baltimore, on a larger scale and with finer foresight than Lord Baiti- before. He settled on the southern peninsula, which ment'ir"^^' he named Avalon, spent a great sum of money on the Avaion. venture, built himself a stately house at his village of Verulam, and dwelt there with his family, a true settler, for many years. At length, discouraged by the harsh soil of that district and by the frequent attacks of the French, Lord Baltimore for- sook the island. But his influence lingered behind him in the shape of an increased population ; and his village of Verulam, surviving through many vicissitudes, remains to us to-day under the corrupted name of Ferryland. To the time when the " London and Bristol adventurers " were trying to colonize Newfoundland belong the exploits of Henry Henry Hud- Hudson. This brave and ill-fated navigator in 1610 ®°°' ascended the great river which bears his name. He was then in the employ of the Dutch, who, stirred up by his reports, began presently to occupy, by trade and settlement, the region which was later to be called New York. The Dutchmen called it all New Netherlands. Reentering the service of Eng- land, Hudson pushed northward with one ship, whose picturesque name, the Half-Moo7i, lingers in one's fancy. At length he found his way through a stormy strait into a vast semi-arctic inland sea. In the rock-bound desolation of these waters he wintered, hoping in the opening up of spring to find a westward passage. But his crew, terrified out of their manhood by the HENRY HUDSON. 33 cold and solitude, rose up in mutiny. With the baseness of cowards they turned their commander adrift in an open boat upon those pitiless waters. His son, and two of his faithful comrades, shared his fate. On their return to England the mutineers were seized and punished for their crime ; and as soon as possible three ships were sent out to the rescue. But their errand proved fruitless. Hudson had found a grave in the great waters which he had discovered and whose name perpet- uates his fame. ' CHAPTER III. SECTIONS: — 14, Champlain at Quebec. 15, Champlain ex- plores THE Ottawa. 16, the Expedition to the Huron Country. 17, the Lordship of Canada passes from Hand TO Hand. 18, First Capture of Quebec by the English. Champlain's Last Days. 14. Champlain at Quebec. — We must now go back a few years, in order to follow the fortunes of Champlain. As we have seen, The founding he had left Port Royal to Poutrincourt. In 1608 a of Quebec. ^^^ settlement was planned on the St. Lawrence, under the patronage of the much harassed de Monts, who had so far triumphed over his enemies as to secure a renewal of his charter. It was now proposed to make the profits of the fur- trade pay the expenses of colonization ; and along with Cham- plain, the explorer and colonizer, went Pontgrav^, the experienced trader. Stadacona had vanished ; but at the foot of the towering rock whereon it had stood Champlain laid the foundations of Quebec. These consisted of a few rude buildings in the form of an open square. In the middle of the square rose a dove-cote on the top of a pole, fitly symbolizing Champlain's peaceful pur- pose. A wooden wall and a ditch, with bastions and guns, sur- rounded the group of dwellings. Hardly was the work of building done when a dangerous conspiracy was discovered. Champlain was to be murdered ; and the infant colony was to be handed over to the unlicensed fur-traders, who hated his restrictions on their traffic. The plot he handled with rude vigour. The chief conspirator was hung ; four of his fellows, sent in chains to France, 34 CHAMPLAIN'S INDIAN POLICY AT QUEBEC. 35 were condemned to the galleys ; and the rest learned a wholesome lesson. During the winter Champlain met some Indians from the Ottawa country, who implored " the man with the iron breast," as they called him, to help them against the dreaded •^ > r- o Champlain Iroquois. Eager to explore the country, and anxious takes up the ^ ^ ^ . . quarrel of the to Strengthen his influence with his wild allies, Cham- Aigonquins . and Hurons plain lent a ready ear to their request. It is common against the 1 , . • , • 1 , 1 ■ -1 Iroquois. to condemn his course in this, and to charge him with all the bloodshed which Iroquois hate was afterwards to inflict upon New France. But we must bear in mind that the devas- tated sites of Stadacona and Hochelaga bore eloquent witness to the feud, long-standing and implacable, which divided the Iro- quois on the one side from the Aigonquins and their kindred on the other. The Hurons, indeed, who occupied Hochelaga, were related to the Iroquois ; but the destiny of the wilderness had linked their interests and their fate with the Aigonquins. As the French dwelt among these latter as- friends, they would sooner or later have found themselves within the eye of Iroquois vengeance. Had they tried to remain neutral, their neutrality would never have turned aside the Mohawk hatchets. It would have forfeited the trust of their friends without conciliating their inevitable foes. But the policy adopted by Champlain was one which required a strong hand to carry it out. If the strong hand had not so often in later days been lacking, what blood and tears New France might have been spared ! The Iroquois country lay southwestward from Quebec, in what is now northern New York; but the circle of their influence was far wider than their own domain, while the terror of He chastises their name touched savage hearts from the prairies t^^^'^oi'^ois. of the Mississippi to the fringes of the arctic barrens. In the spring of 1609 Champlain took a handful of his Frenchmen, and accompanied a band of Hurons and Aigonquins up the Richelieu.^ 1 Then known as the river of the Iroquois, it being their highway to the north. 36 A HISTORY OF CANADA. He traversed the richly islanded lake which now bears his name, and fell suddenly upon a war-party of the Mohawks. The Mohawks numbered about 200, while in Champlain's band there were but 60. The scorn of the Iroquois for their oft-conquered foes dissolved in terror before a volley from the Frenchmen's muskets. Then this haughty people tasted the ignominy of a panic which long after- wards rankled in their breasts. Their town was blotted out ; and the elated victors hastily fell back across the St. Lawrence. 15. Champlain explores the Ottawa. — In explorations, in attacks upon the Iroquois, and in the ceaseless struggle to protect his colony against the encroachments of the fur- hears the traders, Champlain found the next three years well story of the • » i j ■ impostor occupied. The control of the colonial purse-strings rested in France ; and as this control passed rapidly from one distinguished hand to another, Champlain was often called home. During one of these visits he took to himself a wife, — whose name survives in " Helen's Island," in the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. In 161 3 Champlain's fancy was inflamed by the ingenious lies of a certain Nicolas Vignan, who had spent a winter among the tribes of the upper Ottawa. Vignan narrated to admiring ears a tale of how he had traced the Ottawa to its source in a great lake, had discovered another river flowing northward from the lake, and had come out at length upon an unknown sea. " Surely," cried the willing believers, " the passage to Cathay is discovered ! " and great renown for a Httle while was Vignan's. With Vignan and three followers, in two canoes of birch bark, Champlain set forth to verify the tale. He paddled out of the clear water of the St. Lawrence into the dark current witif Vignan of the Ottawa, deep-dyed with the juices of its fir pafsage'to ^"^^ hemlock forests. The voyagers carried their dfs«)ters^°^ canoes around the fierce rapids that barred their way. beendupe^d. They Stared with awe into the thundering caldron of Chaudiere, where now the saw-mills of Ottawa shriek and hiss. This strange cataract was regarded with awe by the' Indians, who would cast into the gulf tobacco or other offerings CHAM PLAIN EXPLORES THE OTTAWA. 37 to appease the angry manitou of the waters. At last, coming to AUumette Island, they were welcomed by a tribe of friendly Al- gonquins ; and there the impostor Vignan was convicted of his lie.^ Champlain was for a time overwhelmed by the shock of his rage and chagrin ; but with the generosity of a great soul he finally let the liar go unpunished, and returned to Quebec with his bitter disappointment. While Champlain was thus cutting his trail into the very heart of the continent, and resting fearlessly in the red men's wigwams, England had but a few settlers clinging to the Virginia coast, with the tomahawk and scalping- knife await- ing them if they stirred beyond the shadow of their walls. Hitherto the Quebec settlement had done nothing for the spread of the faith ; but now Champlain brought out to Canada four priests of the Order of the R^collets, devout men pledged to poverty and inured to self-denial (i6iO- To ^ ■' . 1 , . r TheRecoUets them was committed the conversion of the savages, come to Canada. and the spiritual care of the colony. Their record, though less brilHant than that of the Jesuits, shows great work quietly done. They were the first of Europeans to pierce the wilderness lying between the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy. Within five years of their coming we find their sandalled feet on the Nepisiquit and on the St. John, at Cape Sable and at Port Royal. When Champlain made his expedition to the Huron country, the Recollet Father le Caron went ahead of him in his zeal, and was thus the first to carry the cross to the tribes of the Great Lakes. 16. The Expedition to the Huron Country. — Champlain's path into the Huron country was somewhat roundabout. With a hand- ful of followers, among them the bold pioneer, Etienne champlain Brul6, he ascended the Ottawa, crossed over to Lake lu^ron coun- Nipissing, followed the course of French River to ^^^ Georgian Bay, coasted along the rugged and myriad-islanded shores to Matchedash Bay, and reached at last a fruitful, rolling 1 It is conceivable that Vignan may have heard of the route to James Bay, by port;ige over the height of land and paddle down the Moose River. This would serve as a basis for his inventions. 38 A HISTORY OF CANADA. country. A broad trail led him to the several Huron towns, and finally to the Huron metropolis, Carhagouha, with its swarm of long lodges and its lofty palisades. Here Father le Caron awaited him ; and here, on the 12th of August, was held a glad service of thanksgiving. The mission to the Hurons was begun. The travellers were enchanted with the land which they had reached through so many obstacles. The fields were gay with the harvest of sun-flowers, maize, and pumpkins ; the thickets were prodigal with fruits and nuts ; the air was filled with grateful warmth and had a tonic vigour. Champlain was pledged to aid his allies in an invasion of the Iroquois land. In September the war-party set out from Car- The Iroquois hagouha. By way of the channel of the Trent they land invaded. (jegcej^(jg(j ^q Lake Ontario, which they crossed not far from its outlet. Hiding their canoes, they filed noiselessly through the deep woods, aglow with the splendours of autumn. At length they saw before them a well- fenced town of the Onon- dagas. In spite of Champlain's angry protests the rabble of young braves rushed yelling to the attack, only to be beaten back with loss. Much crestfallen, they returned to Champlain. The town was defended by a fourfold palisade, with brimming gutters along the top to quench the firebrands of the enemy. Champlain taught his allies to build a movable covered tower from which he and his musketeers might shoot over the wall ; and he taught them also to protect themselves from the Iroquois arrows by mantelets, — wide shields of wicker-work and skins. On the fol- lowing day the tower was pushed in place and the attack began. The French muskets wrought havoc within the walls ; but the hordes of ungovernable savages, casting Champlain's teaching to the winds, flung away their mantelets and shot their arrows wildly in the open. Amid the hideous yelling of the warriors Cham- plain could not make himself heard. He was wounded in the thigh and in the knee. The Hurons, swarming in boldly under a shower of missiles, succeeded in setting fire to the pahsades, but a flood from the gutters above extinguished it. At length, after EXPEDITION TO THE HURON COUNTRY. 39 three hours of great noise and little accomplishment, they drew off quite disheartened. They decided to wait for the arrival of five hundred Eries, who had promised to aid them in Repulse and their enterprise. But after five days of vain waiting retreat of the Hurons. they grew tired ; and all at once they stole off like shadows, carrying with them in a pannier the wounded and humil- iated Champlain. They had lost faith in their " man with the iron breast." Reaching the shores of the great lake, they found their canoes untouched, and made undignified haste to cross to their own shore. The Hurons had sworn solemnly to Champlain that after the attack on the Iroquois they would carry him down the St. Lawrence to Mount Royal ; but now they shamelessly broke faith with him. Their excuses were numerous. The lateness of the season, the approach of the autumn hunting, and above all the champlain awakened watchfulness of the Iroquois, who ranged ^oifg^he the southern shore, — all these served well enough, ^^"^"^is. Champlain was compelled to go back with them and winter among the Huron lodges, where he was hospitably cared for by a chief named Durantal. With Father le Caron he visited the alhed tribes further west, and thus occupied his restless spirit. In the spring, after patching up a quarrel which had arisen between the Hurons and Algonquins (a tribe of whom, from the upper Ottawa, had camped by the pahsades of Carhagouha), he re- traced his steps by Georgian Bay and the Ottawa to Quebec, where he was welcomed as one risen from the dead. 17. The Lordship of Canada passes from Hand to Hand. — The purse-strings of Canada were now controlled by the Associated Merchants of St. Malo and Rouen, under the patronage of the Prince de Cond^. This nobleman cared for his Canadian power and privilege so far only as they could be made to xhe mer- serve his pocket. The Associated Merchants grew ?ne\';)^cham- eager to remove Champlain from his command. The P^^^"^- good traders found him very troublesome. Their only desire was to trade ; but Champlain would not suffer them to forget 40 A HISTORY OF CANADA. that they were pledged to estabUsh a colony and christianize the savages. They harassed him with their intrigues, even as he harassed them with his untiring reminders of their duty. In 1 617 a certain apothecary named Louis Hebert, who had been with the dauntless Biencourt at Port Royal, took his wife and two children to Quebec, and won for his family the memorable distinction of being the pioneer household of Canada. Two years later Champlain got a body of eighty colonists sent out from France. In 1620 he brought his own family to Quebec, where his wife, a woman of beauty and enthusiasm, threw her- self ardently into the task of converting the women and children of the savages. Quebec was just now at a rather low ebb morally, thanks to the greed and recklessness of the fur-traders, who corrupted the Abuses of the savages body and soul with brandy. The savages fur-trade. appeared to have an inborn craving for alcohol ; and once having tasted it they would barter the most costly skins for a few mouthfuls of the delirious fluid. Against such iniquities Champlain set his face like flint ; and fiercely did the fur-traders hate him when they found him in the path cf their evil traffic. In a short time the Associated Merchants lost their privileges for failure to fulfil their pledges. Their monopoly was handed Quarrels Over to Guillaume and Emery de Caen, two Huguenot Cathohcand gentlemen, on condition that they should settle none Huguenot. -^^^ Roman Catholics in the colony. The peace of the little settlement was not promoted by this change, and noisy were the disputes between Catholic settler and Huguenot sailor, as well as between the old and new monopohsts. Champlain had need of all his vigour and all his fortitude. He was sorely tempted at times to throw up his high ambitions, and leave his rapacious charges to prey upon the savages and each other. To his perplexities was presently added a new peril. A band of Iroquois crept down upon Quebec, vowing to blot it out in blood ; but daunted by the Frenchmen's muskets they thought bet- ter of their purpose, and withdrew. They then swarmed like hor- THE JESUITS COME TO QUEBEC. 41 nets upon the stone convent of the R^collets, on the St. Charles ; but here too their courage soon failed them, for the sagacious fathers were well armed and safely fortified. The in- iroquois in- vaders contented themselves with burning two Huron Xigonquiif prisoners before the eyes of the horrified priests, and t'^e^'^^^^'7- then vanished to their own land. The hostility of the Iroquois was only what Champlain had looked for. But a short time after- wards he was cut to the quick by treachery among the Montagnais of the St. Lawrence, an Algonquin tribe whom he had befriended, and fought for, and fed from his own too scanty stores. A band of these fickle savages conspired to seize Quebec and murder their benefactors. Champlain crushed the feeble plot with ease ; and the abashed conspirators were soon suing piteously for his favour and his gifts. These perils happily past, Champlain took his young wife back to France. She had had five years of Quebec, and her taste for colonizing was somewhat more than satisfied. The patronage of Canada now again changed hands. It was purchased by a religious enthusiast, the Duke de Ventadour. Champlain remained a year or two in France, leaving _ ^ ^ ' o /j-jjg Jesuits Emery de Caen in command of the colony. De Ven- come to ■' ■' Quebec, tadour cared neither for trade nor settlement. His one concern was to save souls. To this end he sent out three Jesuit priests. Fathers Lalemant, Masse, and Br^boeuf. Masse we have seen in Acadie, fourteen years before. Their coming was little to the taste of the hardy Huguenot, de Caen; but the R^coUets made them welcome in their convent on the St. Charles. A year later came Fathers Noirot and de la None ; and before long the Jesuits had a convent of their own. Father Br^boeuf set out for the Huron country ; but hearing that the Hurons had just put their R^collet priest to death,^ his heart failed him and he turned back. The heroic zeal which was afterwards to cover his name with glory had not yet been fanned into flame. When Champlain at length returned to Quebec, the colony had 1 This was Father Nicholas Viel, whom the savages drowned in the rapid behind Montreal, thence known as the Sault au Recollet. 42 A HISTORY OF CANADA. been nearly twenty years in existence. It consisted of one hun- dred and five persons in the main settlement, together with an out- Progress of post at Cape Tourmente, and small trading stations Quebec. ^j. Tadousac and Three Rivers. The trade monopoly of the de Caens proved no more beneficial to the colony than that of the Associated Merchants ; but it resulted in a huge slaugh- ter of beavers. In one year twenty-two thousand beaver skins were sent over from the St. Lawrence to France. In the meantime, under very different auspices and of very dif- ferent material, an English colony was taking root on the bleak shores of Massachusetts. While Champlain, as we have seen, was tending and watering with anxious care the growth of his feeble colony, the Pilgrim Fathers were landing from the Quebec and }■>(:> to Massachu- Mayflower (1620). From the shivering group of stern-eyed exiles on the rocks of Plymouth Bay was to grow the destined rival of Quebec. Rivals they were, Quebec and Massachusetts, as different in their growth as in their origin. The one the child of Absolutism, the other of Revolt : the one shaped by the Priest, the other by the Puritan ; the one nourished on interference, the other on neglect. And now Richelieu, the crafty and masterful, having made the monarchy supreme in France and himself the resistless power behind the throne, turned his keen eyes on Canada and saw the evils with which Champlain was wrestling. He strengthened Champlain's hands. He abolished the monopoly of Richelieu the de Caens. He organized what is known as the takes up the ^ cause of "New Company of the Hundred Associates," with 03.113.(13.. himself at its head. The vice-regal authority of de Ventadour came to an end, and again a new power was felt shap- ing the destiny of Canada. The charter of Richelieu's company gave it possession of all New France (Canada, Acadie, Newfound- land, and Florida), on the simple tenure of fealty and homage.^ 1 This consisted in swearing allegiance to the King, and promising military ■service when required. Tribute, in the form of a crown of gold, was to be given .by the colony to each successive occupant of the Throne of France. FIRST CAPTURE OF QUEBEC BY ENGLISH. 43 Religious discord was abolished by the decree that New France should be all Roman Catholic. No Huguenot was to set foot on its soil. The company was bound under penalty to send out three hundred colonists in its first year (1628), and to increase the number to six thousand within the next fifteen years. It was given a perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade, with a monopoly for fifteen years of all other trade but that of the whale and cod fish- eries. Further, as a personal gift from the King, it received two well-armed battle-ships. Champlain was made one of the Associ- ates, and confirmed in his command of Quebec. 18. First Capture of Quebec by the English. Champlain' s Last Days. — While such matters were being arranged in France, Quebec, the cause of argument, was starving (1628). Champlain had put the colony on short allowance, and was strain- r , ., ^ Kirke sum- ing his eyes for the sails of expected succour. De mons Quebec to surrender. Roquemont, sent out by the New Company, had left Dieppe for Quebec with a fleet of eighteen vessels, heavily laden. But war, meanwhile, had been declared between France and Eng- land ) and an English fleet, under Admiral Kirke, was steering for the same destination. Kirke was the first to arrive. Anchoring at Tadousac, he sent a boat up to Quebec and made courteous demand for surrender. With dismay the high-hearted " Father of Canada " surveyed his starving garrison, his empty ammunition room, his ill-built ramparts crumbling under the weather. But to the enemy he turned a fearless front. Sending word that he would abide the issue of combat, he assured the EngUsh admiral that Quebec would not prove an easy prey. Deceived by this show of confidence Kirke with- gg retires on drew. But fate was in his favour. Off" Gasp^ he met defi^t^fe^u- de Roquemont's fleet, which he captured after a hot ®^^' struggle. He gained rich booty, and the hope of Quebec was shattered. The misery of the colony grew deeper as the months dragged on. Champlain set his people digging wild roots in the woods. He sent out a boat to scour the Gaspd coast for a friendly trader. 44 A HISTORY OF CANADA. In the following year he even thought of the desperate expedient of abandoning Quebec, marching into the Iroquois country, and seizing one of those paHsaded towns, wherein, as he He comes ... again in well knew, he might count on finding an abundant force; and puebecpasses store of corn. But ere he could make up his mind hands of to such a Step, Kirke returned. The fort which had last year defied him now hailed him as a deliverer. Joy reigned in the starving colony; and Champlain at once capitulated, obtaining honourable terms from the courteous ad- miral. The settlers were invited to remain on their little hold- ings ; and the flag of England, for the first time, floated over Quebec (1629). Meanwhile peace had been proclaimed at the Convention of Susa, and Kirke's action was therefore unlawful. There was little Peace pro- desire in France, however, to press for the restitution claimed. ^j- Canada, which had fallen under the shadow of royal disfavour. But Champlain was not to be frowned down. He urged upon the court the vast importance of the St. Lawrence, and the necessity of curbing the growth of English power. We may reasonably suppose that he foresaw the nature, though not the issue, of the struggle which had already begun on the continent of North America. At length, in 1632, the Treaty of St. Germain- Canada and en-Laye was signed. One of its conditions was the restored to restoration of Canada and Acadie to France. This France. condition was insisted upon, not because Canada was thought to be of value in itself, but because the honour of France seemed at stake ; and it was accepted by England most unwillingly. As soon as the treaty was signed, Emery de Caen was sent out to Quebec to receive the fort from Kirke. To de Caen was granted the monopoly of the fur-trade for one year, Champlain i ■ ir r i i i • i dies governor that he might recompense himselr tor the losses which the war had brought upon him. In the following year the Hundred Associates again took control, and Champlain became governor of Quebec. And now peace reigned at the foot of the great promontory. The Huguenots were expelled, the R^collets CHAMPLAIN'S LAST DAYS. 45 had removed to other fields, and life in Canada took on a hue of monasticism, austere but not ungracious. Quebec existed, as it seemed, for but one purpose, the conversion of the savages, who were now lured in by kindness instead of by brandy. .. The settlers, some of whom had left a past in France which would not bear looking into, vied with each other in penitence and zeal. The two years that followed were the brightest which Canada had yet seen. Champlain was now sixty-eight years of age. He was beginning to feel that his labours had not been in vain. He was beginning to see that the tree which he had planted with zeal was going to bear good fruit. Amid all this blessed augury he fell sick; and on Christmas Day, 1635, the colony of which he is well called father was orphaned of his wise and faithful care. CHAPTER IV. SECTIONS : — 19, the Scotch in Acadie. 20, the de la Tours, Father and Son. 21, the Struggle between de la Tour and Charnisay. 22, the Latter Days and Death of Charnisay. Changes in Ownership of Acadie. 19. The Scotch in Acadie. — Turning again to Acadie, we find that the struggle between France and England, begun by Argall Sir William ^.t St. Sauveur and Port Royal, continued almost with- and^Nov" ^ut cessation. The contest took on at times — Scotia. though alas, hot often — the peaceful aspect of a mere rivalry in endurance and colonizing skill. A little colony of Scotchmen was planted on the shores of Port Royal Basin ; and between these colonists and the French of Port Royal itself there seems to have been good-will. The Scotch settlement came about in this way. Waking up to the fact that the British Crown, by virtue of Cabot's discoveries, had a claim upon the whole of the North American continent, King James I resolved to assert this claim. In 1614 he granted to the " Association of the Grand Council of Plymouth" all the lands of America lying between the 45th and 48th parallels; and he called the grant New England. Thus America had now a New England, a New Spain, a New France ; and to a patriotic Scotchman, Sir William Alexander, it seemed well that there should be also a New Scotland. Sir William was a man of letters and a courtier. His nimble imagi- nation soon supplied him with a scheme ; and his influence at court enabled him to push the scheme forward. He obtained from the King a grant of the Acadian peninsula with Cape Breton Island and that roomy corner of the mainland now occupied by 46 THE SCOTCH IN A CAD IE. 47 New Brunswick and Gasp6. To the whole of this region Sir William gave the name of Nova Scotia, — a name which time has narrowed down to the peninsula and the island. The name and charter of Nova Scotia were given in 162 1. Sir William began in a very moderate way the peopling of his great dominion. But he did not attempt to dispossess the French settlers. Acadie was in the strong hands of Bien- The claims of court and the de la Tours ; and after sending out one and°charies small detachment of Scotch settlers Sir WiUiam de- ^^ ^^ ^°'"'- cided to wait for a more favourable opportunity. Biencourt, indeed, held from the French King a title by no means agreeable to Sir William's claims, namely that of Commandant of Acadie. Soon after the coming of the Scotch the indomitable Biencourt died, leaving his title and responsibilities to his tried comrade in arms, the younger de la Tour. Charles de la Tour occupied a strong post called Fort Louis, near Cape Sable ; ^ while his father, Claude, held a trading-post on the Penobscot River, in Maine. Sir William Alexander contented himself, for some years, with sending a ship each season to trade and explore in his domains. De la Tour refrained from precipitating a contest, perhaps thinking that when the thrifty Scotchmen had once got well estabhshed they would grow to be a prize worth seizing. When, in 1625, James died, Sir WiUiam's grant was ratified by King Charles. Forthwith the ingenious courtier devised a scheme which, had it been carried out with the backing of a patriotic sovereign, would have resulted in a sohd Scotch Acadia, and would have forced back the edge of battle between France and England to the very banks of the St. Lawrence. This scheme of Sir William's, which, for all the derision so lib- erally showered upon it, was much in harmony with the spirit of that age, was no less than the establishment of an Order _, _ . .^ ° ' The Knights- of Knights-Baronets of Nova Scotia (162s). In re- Baronetsof ^ V 0/ Nova Scotia, turn for certain substantial contributions to the treasury of the colony, and on condition of planting actual settlements on 1 On a harbour now known as Port Latour. 48 A HISTORY OF CANADA. their respective grants, there was given to each of these new Knights-Baronets an estate of eighteen square miles. During the next ten years were issued no fewer than one hundred and seven patents of this new order of nobiUty. Their estates were scat- tered over the peninsula, Cape Breton, New Brunswick, and even the sterile solitudes of Anticosti. While the scheme was ripening, war broke out between France and England ; and Sir VViUiam judged the time was come for him to enter his kingdom. By a strange coincidence. Port Royal ^ ^ ^ ' seized by Richelieu was at the very moment organizing his com- pany of the Hundred Associates. Kirke's expedition, which we have already seen at Tadousac vainly summoning Cham- plain to surrender, was the visible power of Sir William Alexander put forth to grasp his domains. When the English admiral shat- tered de Roquemont's fleet, he destroyed the hope not of Cham- plain only, but also of Charles de la Tour. For with the ill-starred ships of de Roquemont was Claude de la Tour, carrying arms and supplies to put Port Royal in a state of defence. Claude de la Tour was sent with other prisoners to England ; and Kirke, bear- ing down upon Port Royal, found it in no condition to oppose him. He took possession in the name of Sir William Alexander, and presently sailed away, leaving a small garrison in charge to make ready for the coming of colonists. Charles de la Tour, meanwhile, defiant but circumspect, shut himself up in his fort of St. Louis, at Cape Sable, and waited to see what would happen. A year later, about the time of Champlain's surrender of Quebec, an English captain, Lord James Stuart, suddenly realized the strategic importance of Cape Breton as the guar- between dian of the Gulf. He straightway built a fort at the France and . England in eastern corner of the island. But of short life was Cape Breton. , „ , , . . _ . his venture. A French war-ship, under one Captam Daniel, swept down upon the fledgling stronghold, captured the garrison, and demolished the fortifications. At the mouth of the Big Bras d'Or, Daniel erected, under the Lilies of France, a fort of stronger ramparts and heavier guns. The fortune of France THE DE LA TOURS, FATHER AND SON. 49 in the New World and elsewhere seemed nearing eclipse ; but from these lonely defences in Cape Breton, as from de la Tour's undaunted battlements at Cape Sable, it shed an untrembling ray of hope and fortitude. 20. The de la Tours, Father and Son. — These two de la Tours, Claude and his more illustrious son Charles, are picturesque and important figures in our history. Their family name was St. Etienne. Claude de St. Etienne was lord of charies de la Tour. the manor of la Tour, in France ; but, being a Hugue- not, his fortunes were ruined in the civil war which rent his father- land. With his stripling son he had betaken himself to Poutrin- court's colony at Port Royal. Four years later fell the thunderbolt of Argall's raid, and the de la Tours were once more homeless. Claude then established a trading-post at the mouth of the Penobscot River ; while Charles, as we have seen, threw himself into the wild life of the woods and became the broth er-in-arms of Biencourt. In such a life his shrewdness, daring, self-reliance, and patience under reverses, were trained to the highest develop- ment. When he fell heir to Biencourt's powers and possessions, he was able to give a refuge to his father, whom adversity had again overtaken. The jealousy of the New England colonists had driven Claude de la Tour from his post on the Penobscot. Soon after Biencourt's death Charles had removed his headquarters from Port Royal to Cape Sable, where he had built that Fort St. Louis already spoken of. About this time, from among the daughters of his Huguenot countrymen he took to himself a wife, — a woman who, by her beauty and her gentle breeding, her heroism and her misfortunes, was destined to win the most romantic immortality in our annals. When the war broke out between France and England de la Tour strove to strengthen his position. He sent his father home to beg the King for aid. The mission was successful ; ciaude de la and Claude de la Tour was on his way back to Acadie Jv"/to°the with ships, men, and munitions of war enough to have ^"S^^^^- made her impregnable, when, as we have seen, the heavy hand 50 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of Kirke intervened. While the son, shut up with his hardy colonists at Fort St. Louis, upheld through those dark hours his country's flag, his father was being flattered and feasted at the court of England. To Claude de la Tour, as to many of her Hugue- not sons, his own country had proved a harsh step-mother ; and that astute observer of men, Sir William Alexander, saw in him a fit in- strument for the working out of his plans. De la TcHir was heaped with favours. He married a lady of the court. Both he and his son were made Knights- Baronets of Nova Scotia with a more than princely endowment of forty-five .hundred square miles along the Atlantic coast. In return he promised that he would win his son to the English cause, and hand over the whole of Acadie to Sir William. But the ever unfortunate nobleman had promised more than he could perform. With two ships full of colonists he sailed for _ , ., , Nova Scotia in the summer of 1630 ; and within the 11.6 i^llS lO break down walls of Fort St. Louis he unfolded his designs to his his son's _ ° fidelity to son. The Sturdy defender of Acadie would not hear France. him. Charles de la Tour was holding his post for France, and he was neither to be purchased nor persuaded. Find- ing his threats and his entreaties alike vain, the father in despair attempted force ; but his assault was beaten off. The picture is a strange and painful one. In deep humiliation Claude de la Tour withdrew to Port Royal, and landed his settlers among the Scotch already established there. In his distress he begged the lady whom he had married, and to whom he had promised luxury and power in his new possessions, that she would forsake him and return to England ; but she refused, vowing to share his evil fort- unes not less than his prosperity. When two years later, by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, Nova Scotia and Canada were ceded back to France by that short-sighted monarch who could not see beyond his queen's dowry,^ Claude de la Tour was forced to take refuge with his son at Fort St. Louis. He was soon after- wards sent by Charles to build a fort at the mouth of the St. John ; 1 Charles I gave up these territories under the threat of Richelieu that otherwise Queen Henrietta Maria's dowry, 400,000 crowns, would not be paid. ISAAC DE RAZILLY. 51 and from this period he fades out of prominence on the pages of Acadian story. To his son and to his son's wife belongs all the lustre which shines about the name of de la Tour. In recognition of Charles de la Tour's faithful zeal for France, he was commis- sioned in 1 63 1 as the King's lieutenant-general in Acadie. Stores, men, and munition of war were sent out to him, that there might be solid power behind his honour. 21. The Struggle between de la Tour and Charnisay. — When France found herself once more in possession of Canada and Acadie, she apparently awoke to the importance of her New World empire. Her indifference was at an end \ and Growing from this point onward the great struggle between the Canada* and Lilies and the Lions ^ wears a more definite shape, ■^^^'^i^- The acute vision of Richelieu saw into it ; and though Charles of England, neither patriot nor statesman, ignored it, the eyes of the keen pioneers on Massachusetts Bay were not long blind to its drift. The task of dispossessing the Scotch and making Acadie once more a French colony was committed to Isaac de Razilly, a relative of the great Cardinal, and a distinguished captain in the royal navy. In the spring of 1632 he came to Acadie with a shipload of colo- nists, received the submission of the Scotch settlers isaacde at Port Royal, and then fixed his headquarters at La ^^^^^^y- Heve. This harbour was preferred to Port Royal as a more con- venient centre from which to work the rich fisheries of the Atlan- tic coast. With de Razilly came two persons of importance — Nicholas Denys, destined to succeed Lescarbot as the picturesque historian of Acadie, and the Seigneur d'Aulnay Charnisay, doomed to an unenviable fame as the traitorous conqueror of a noble foe. While de Razilly, at La Heve, busied his colonists with good fishing and poor farming, his lieutenant Charnisay was thrusting back the New Englanders. The indefatigable Plymouth Colony, 1 From a very early day the symbol of French royalty, and the distinguishing feature of the French royal standard, was the Lily or Fleur-de-Lys. The Lions of the British standard are derived from the House of Plantagenet, and are, strictly speaking, not lions at all, but leopards. The only true lion on the standard is that of Scotland. 52 A HISTORY OF CANADA. after ousting Claude de la Tour from his post on the Penobscot, had themselves established there a trading-depot. This post Charni- charnisay Say took possession of; and he sent curt warning to the'New^'''^ the New Englanders, saying that, as they were trespass- Engianders. ^^^ ^^ jj^g territory of France, he would come pres- ently and remove them all to the south of Cape Cod. Highly incensed at this confident insolence of the French, the New Eng- landers made ready to chastise it ; but jealousy between Plymouth and Boston prevented them working together. Nothing but joint action could have prevailed against a vigorous foe like Charnisay. A feeble expedition sent out from Plymouth against the Penobscot fort was sharply punished ; and for some years afterwards the French were left in undisturbed possession. Another trading-post had been set up by the New Englanders at Machias, far east of the Penobscot. This was destroyed by de la Tour, who shipped the crestfallen traders back to Plymouth Bay. In spite of these rough measures, which carried the fringe of conflict far south of Acadian soil, there was as yet no malignity of hate in the rivalry between New England and New France. In their contests all the courtesies of battle were observed : and in the intervals of peace their colonists traded amicably. Neither had yet realized that this duel was to the death. But Acadie was now to be torn by the fangs of civil strife. In 1636 the excellent de Razilly died ; and Acadie was left under the divided headship of de la Tour and Charnisay. De la Tour was the lieutenant of the King ; Charnisay had been the lieutenant of de Razilly. Both were ambitious, masterful, untiring. A conflict was inevitable. De la Tour had received a grant of some four hun- De la Tour at dred and fifty square miles around the mouth of the St. John. gj._ Jq1^j;^_ Completing and enlarging the fort which his father had begun, he removed his headquarters thither, leaving his father in charge of Fort St. Louis. The new fort at the St. John's mouth was a strongly palisaded structure one hundred and eighty feet square, with four bastions ; and here, with his wife and his children, his soldiers, his labourers, and his devoted red allies, CHARNISAY INTRIGUES AGAINST DE LA TOUR. 53 he lived in a rough but real sovereignty. Directly across the water, at Port Royal, behind a line of blue heights visible in clear weather from Fort la Tour, dwelt Charnisay, who had fallen heir to no small portion of Razilly's estates and privileges. Charnisay had rebuilt and refortified Port Royal, removing thither most of the La Heve colonists and settling them on the fertile meadows along his threshold river. His aim was to make money by the fur-trade; and the abounding prosperity of his rival over the bay, whose position on the St. John enabled him to intercept the trade of the inland tribes, filled him with wrath. Charnisay set himself to the task of undermining de la Tour's influence at court. At first he met with little success ; but after several years of persistent intrigue, of which his rival , , , , , • Charnisay was aU unconscious, he got what he sought. This was gets orders to take de la an order from the ungrateful and forgetful King, sum- Tour to moning de la Tour back to France to stand trial on a number of trumped-up charges. In case of de la Tour refusing to obey the King's order, Charnisay was authorized to carry him to France by force. When de la Tour learned, with natural astonish- ment, that not only was he deprived of his rank as the King's lieu- tenant-general, of his possessions, and of his means of livehhood, but that he was to be carried a prisoner to France, he was not long in deciding what to do. He refused obedience, and dared his foe to arrest him. Seeing his strong walls and his veteran ranks, Charnisay was afraid to fight. He withdrew to Port Royal, and sent home a formal report of de la Tour's disobedience. Both antagonists now braced themselves for the struggle. Charnisay, strong in the great Cardinal's friendship, sought and found assist- ance in Paris. De la Tour's only supporters were the Huguenot merchants in his wife's city of Rochelle ; and Rochelle was still crippled from the scourge of RicheHeu's hate. Early in the spring of 1643 Charnisay was ready to attack. One morning, as the fog slowly lifted in front of Fort charnisay's la Tour, three ships, with several smaller craft, were *''®* ^t*^*^^- seen gliding into the harbour. Charnisay disembarked a force of 54 A HISTORY OF CANADA. five hundred men, and led them swiftly to the assault. But de la Tour was not caught sleeping. For an hour the storm raged in vain on palisade and bastion. Then in baffled fury Charnisay ordered off his men. Drawing a strict blockade about fort and harbour, he waited for hunger to achieve what his arms could not. But de la Tour was a hard prisoner to hold. When the long-ex- pected ship from Rochelle, with suppUes and reinforcements, ap- peared cautiously off the coast, de la Tour and his wife slipped through the blockade by night with muffled oars, were received on the friendly deck, and made all sail to Boston for aid. They got it, though the prudent men of Boston made them pay well for it. Then, while his rival was doubtless dreaming of a speedy triumph, de la Tour swept down upon his rear with five ships ready for bat- tle. Amazed and overwhelmed, Charnisay fled back to Port Royal, de la Tour close at his heels and chastising him on his own thresh- old. The quarrel might well have been ended then and there, by the capture of Charnisay, and the seizure of Port Royal ; but the scruples of de la Tour's allies now stepped in. The thrifty Puritans were well satisfied with the rich booty of furs which they had secured. They insisted, therefore, on the virtues of moderation, and forced de la Tour to stay his hand when his work was but half done. Knowing that now it must be all fought over again, de la Tour set himself to strengthen his defences, while his wife went to France His second to gather help. Thither, too, had gone Charnisay on attack. j.|^g g^j^g errand, and there he tried to get Madame de la Tour arrested for treason. The lady, however, outwitted him, and made good her escape to England. After a whole year's absence, she found her way, through a host of perils, back to Fort la Tour. Her mission had been partly successful ; and Charnisay, knowing this, postponed his next move. A few months later, however, de la Tour was forced to make another visit to Boston. Promptly on the news of his going came his foe. The watchers on the lonely ramparts by the tide could see Charnisay's cruisers flitting to and fro just beyond the harbour mouth, waiting to catch de la Tour on his return. Within the fort supplies ran low, but LADY DE LA TOUR'S DEFENCE OF THE FORT. 55 cheered by the dauntless courage of their fair leader the garrison kept good heart. Presently traitors were discovered in their midst, two spies of Charnisay. They would have been hxing forthwith from the ramparts, but that Lady de la Tour was too com- passionate. She contented herself with driving them from the gates ; and they slunk off to their master with news that the food was low, the powder nearly all gone, and the garrison too weak to withstand assault. Charnisay's battle-ship at once moved up beneath the walls, and opened fire. But their leader's example had made her men all heroes, and the enemy met so hot a fire that he drew off with a sinking ship and shattered Ladydeia forces. This was in February. Not till April did he fe°ifce ome return to the attack \ but he kept a blockade so rigid **"^*" that no help could reach the doomed fort. De la Tour's ship hung despairing in the offing. One still spring night came the beginning of the end. The sentry on the ramparts caught the sound of rattling cables, the splash of lowering boats. With dawn the struggle began. Char- nisay had disembarked under cover of night. He led his attack against the landward and weaker side of the fort. The courage of the defenders was a courage without hope, for they, as well as their leader, knew that fate had decided against them. Yet from Thursday till Saturday the indomitable woman fronted every charge, and the enemy gave way before her. At last a Swiss mer- cenary in the garrison turned traitor, bought by Charnisay's gold, and threw open the great gates of the fort. But even then, although within the walls, Charnisay was not yet victorious. He was met so desperately that a mean fear seized him, lest he should again endure defeat by a- woman. Professing admiration for such splendid courage, he called for a truce, and offered hon- ourable terms. Wishing to save her faithful followers, charnisay's Lady de la Tour yielded, and set her name to the victor^rand articles of surrender. Then came the act which has '^^^ crime, brought Charnisay's name down in a blaze of infamy. His end once gained, and the fort in his hands, he mocked the woman 56 A HISTORY OF CANADA. whom he could not conquer in fair fight, and tore up the capitula- tion before her face. The brave garrison he took man by man, and hung them in the open yard of the fort ; while their mistress, sinking with horror, was held to watch their struggles, with a halter about her neck. Charnisay carried her to Port Royal ; and there, within three weeks of the ruin of her husband, the destruc- tion of her home, the butchery of her loved and loyal followers, the heroine of Acadie died of a broken heart (1645). 22. Latter Days and Death of Charnisay. Changes in the Ownership of Acadie. — The next few years saw de la Tour a wan- Death of derer ; while Charnisay, supreme in Acadie and secure Charnisay. -^^ court favour, reaped the rich harvest of the fur- trade and made a treaty of amity with New England. The only thorn remaining in his side was the independent holding of Nicholas Denys, in Cape Breton. There Denys, under privileges granted by the King, was growing wealthy on the rich fisheries of the Gulf. Denys and Charnisay had been schoolboy-comrades ; but in Charnisay's eyes such matters were of small account. He attacked his old friend's forts, seized his goods, broke up his settlement, and drove him to take refuge in Quebec. This done, he could look with pride on his achievements. At Port Royal he ruled a fair and flourishing community, farming the rich acres which his dikes had reclaimed from the tide. His own ships, built at Port Royal, throve in trade. On Acadian land or in Acadian waters no one could sell a codfish or barter a beaver- skin without paying tribute to his coffers. Although a robber, a false accuser, a traitor, and a murderer, we have no record to show that his conscience troubled him. Perhaps he felt that these failings might be overlooked, in consideration of the fact that he had been zealous to christianize the Indians. The future looked very fair before him ; but just at the height of his good fortune he chanced to fall into his turbid little river of Port Royal, and was drowned in its deep eddies. During his five years of homeless wandering, chiefly in New England and the St. Lawrence valley, de la Tour had been treated CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP OF ACADIE. 57 everywhere, in spite of his ruined fortunes, with a consideration which is the best witness to his great quahties. Immediately on Charhisay's death he hastened to France, where DeiaTour he speedily confuted the slanders of his er^emy. The "tay^s ^'^^^' King made him the fullest restitution in his power, "^^'^o"'^- giving him back his estates, and appointing him governor of all Acadie. The fur-trade was his, and his fortunes mended rapidly. But at Port Royal there remained an obstacle to his triumph, the widow and children of Charnisay, who were heirs at law to all their father's possessions. The problem here presented, de la Tour soon solved, not with the sword, but with a ceremony. He married the widow of his foe, and took her children under his protection. But fate was preparing yet other surprises for him. Charnisay had got himself overwhelmingly in debt to one Emmanuel le Borgne, a rich merchant of Rochelle. Coming to Acadie to Le Borgne collect his claim, le Borgne conceived the idea of seiz- seizes a part ing the whole country. He overthrew the indefatigable Denys, who had reestabhshed his fisheries in Cape Breton, took Port Royal, and was meditating the capture of de la Tour's fort by stratagem, when the kaleidoscope of fortune gave another turn, and things fell into yet another pattern. The surprise was now le Borgne's. England, under the vigorous rule of Cromwell, had been at war with Holland. An expedition was organized to capture the Dutch settlements of New Amsterdam, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The ships reached Boston, where 500 colonists enlisted in the enterprise. Just then came the unwelcome news of peace between England and Holland. Here was a strong force organ- ized, ready to accomplish anything that might be found for it to do. There was Acadie, a pleasant fruit to be plucked. Boston was never long in making up her mind ; and the English ships were steered for Fort la Tour. Quite unprepared for such an attack, de la Tour surrendered. Port Royal soon followed, after a feeble defence by le Borgne ; and all Acadie was again in English hands (1654). An English 58 A HISTORY OF CANADA. governor was placed in charge of Port Royal ; but the settlers The English were left undisturbed in their possessions, with liberty Boigne^ini^ °^ conscience and of person. The French court whoie^coun- Pressed angrily for disallowance of this act of the New ^^- Englanders, and for the instant restoration of Acadie ; but Cromwell would listen to anything rather than that. He understood the nature of the New World problem. De la Tour was again, to all appearance, ruined. But he, like Ulysses, was no less sagacious than brave. He went at once to England. So skilfully and persuasively did he lay his granted to case before the Iron Protector, pleading the grant Crowne' and made by Charles I to himself and his father, that de la Tour. ^ . -4. j Cromwell, loving a man oi capacity and resource, ga\e him back his own with interest. A vast region on the peninsula and mainland extending far into what is now Maine, was granted to a company consisting of de la Tour, a colonel of Cromwell's named Thomas Temple, and an ambitious divine by the name of William Crowne.^ To this triumvirate was allowed the fullest trade mo- nopoly ; and Temple was made governor. De la Tour, having by this time had enough of vicissitudes, and foreseeing further trouble between France and England, sold out his vast interests to his two partners and sank into the well-earned ease of private life. Temple spent great sums in developing his colony ; but the death of Cromwell, and the Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660, brought him grave embarrassments. He hurried back to England to look after his interests. By his wit and knowledge of men he won the favour of Charles II, and returned to Acadie with the royal confirmation of his privileges. All went well for some years ; till at length war broke out between France and England, a war which no Englishman remembers without shame. When Acadie ceded ° back to the Treaty of Breda was signed, in 1667, Acadie was ignominiously handed back to France in return for a little sugar-island in the West Indies. Thus blind was Charles to the pointing finger of destiny. 1 " Crowne was the father of John Crowne the Dramatist, who was born in Nova Scotia." — Hannay. CHAPTER V. SECTIONS : — 23, the Work of the Jesuits. 24, the Found- ing OF Montreal. 25, the Destruction of the Huron Mission. 26, New France and New England. The Jesuits AND THE Iroquois. 27, Laval. Dollard. 28, Dissensions in Quebec. The Great Earthquakes. 23. The Work of the Jesuits. — While the Acadian corner of New France was thus serving as the plaything of Fortune, affairs had moved more quietly in the valley of the St. Lawrence. Richelieu's One Hundred Associates had begun their work with zeal, yet Quebec grew but slowly. The central figures of this period are the Jesuits, whose missions to the Hurons of the Great Lakes are an imperishable ornament to their record. Their influence was now supreme in Quebec, the Recollets having been recalled. The new governor, de Montmagny, sent out within a few months of Champlain's death, was an ardent supporter of the Jesuits. Church and State appeared inseparable. Life in Quebec became cloistral in its severity. Attendance at church was as strictly required, and absence as sternly punished, as in the austere Boston of the Puritans. From this time date the Relations des Jesuites, or "Jesuit Narra- tions," so important to the early history of Canada, so illuminated with brave deeds and martyrdoms. The glowing ac- The Jesuit counts sent home to France by Father le Jeune stirred Sanations, up the zeal of the devout, and it was now that the chief colleges and hospitals of Quebec were founded. A Jesuit college was endowed by the Marquis de Gamache, in 1636. Another nobleman, Noel 59 6o A HISTORY OF CANADA. de Silleri, established a sort of home for Indian converts, above Quebec, at a spot whose name now commemorates his pious action. The Hotel Dieu was endowed by the Duchess d'Aiguil- lon, and the task of caring for its inmates was undertaken by three devoted hospital nuns of Dieppe. A seminary Religious ^ , '^ ^ •' institutions for the instruction of young girls was the next thing called for by the spiritual directors of the colony ; and this was presently founded by a wealthy young widow, Madame de la Peltrie, who brought her fortune and her services to Canada. While the Jesuits worked in every direction, enduring great hardships of hunger, cold, and filth among the Montagnais and The Jesuit Other tribes of the harsh north-east, their greatest work mHurons "^^s done in the Huron country. The Hurons were begun. j^y |-^j. j.|^g most progressive of the Canadian Indians. The first efforts of Father Breboeuf to reach the Hurons were not successful : but his zeal grew till no obstacle could restrain it. At length, with Fathers Daniel and Davoust, he accomplished his object. A mission was established at Thonatiria on Georgian Bay, near Penetanguishene. The position of these missionaries, though less painful than that of their fellow-workers among the Montagnais, was far more perilous. There was a strong party in the tribe which bitterly opposed them, ascribing to Its success. ^11 ' o their influence every misfortune of the Huron lodges. This party, clinging to their ancient faith, professed to regard the sacraments and services of the Fathers as evil incantations. The leaders of this party were the craftiest of their tribe, the powerful medicine men, who saw in the "Black Robes," as they called the missionaries, the supplanters of their influence. When a baptized child fell sick, when a strange disease appeared, when a hunt turned out badly, when a crop was bitten by the frost, their mur- , murings grew loud and indignities were heaped upon the priests. At such times they dwelt in hourly peril of the crudest death. In the midst of all this they were vexed by scandals at Quebec, where, Thonatiria being well situated for the fur-trade, they were accused of illegally following this traffic. But gradually the THE WORK OF THE JESUITS. 6 1 Fathers, by their patience, their courage, their tender and untir- ing care of the sick, won the affections of the tribe. Their ene- mies were discomfited. Other priests came to the mission, and the whole Huron nation presently bowed to their guidance. They established their central station, called Ste. Marie, on a httle river falhng into Matchedash Bay. Other stations — St. Louis, St. Ignace, St. Jean, St. Michel, St. Joseph — were scattered over the country between Thonatiria and the lake now called Simcoe. Hither fled, from the south and east, trembling remnants of Algonquin and other tribes, scattered before the tomahawks of the Iroquois like sheep before wolves. The hospitality of the Fathers was princely, their authority supreme ; but under their care the Huron warriors grew slothful, and forgot the sleepless menace lurking south of the Great River. Meanwhile the Iroquois were again scourging the lower St. Lawrence. They had lost thefr dread of the French muskets, and they carried their defiance up to the walls of Marguerie Quebec and Three Rivers. In the summer of 1641 f^quofsat the latter post was approached by a large Iroquois Three Rivers, war party. Some months before, they had captured two French- men of the settlement, one Godefroy, and an interpreter named Frangois Marguerie. This man was now sent, under flag of truce, to the commander of the fort, to urge disgraceful terms upon the French. The demand of the invaders was that the French should make peace with them, and abandon their Algonquin allies to the Iroquois hatchet. The heroic Marguerie, a modern Regulus, coun- selled his people to reject the dishonouring offer; and then, to keep his word and save his fellow-captive, returned to face the tortures which he knew would be his fate. But while the negotia- tions were under way the governor arrived from Quebec with a small force ; and the Iroquois, seeing that they had lost their advantage, consented to the ransom of their prisoners. The brave interpreter was saved from the fate whose agonizing horrors had failed to turn him from his duty. Saved, too, was the French honour ; and the Iroquois, after a random skirmish, departed. 62 A HISTORY OF CANADA. 24. The Founding of Montreal. — While Canada was thus aglow with religious fervour, and pious hearts in France were Montreal catching flame from her enthusiasm, Montreal was Island. founded. This proud city, the queen of Canadian commerce, was the child of an uncalculating devotion. The object of its founders was to establish an outpost against the enemies of the faith. The site that commended itself to their rapt vision was the natural vortex for the great currents of trade soon to be set flowing in Canada. The prophetic eye of Cham- plain saw this, as early as 161 1. The settlement came about in this fashion. Certain devout men in France, chief among them Father Olier of the Sulpicians, and Monsieur de la Dauversiere, were fired with zeal to found a college, a hospital, and a seminary in Canada. The Island of Montreal, after much negotiation, they succeeded in The Society ' & 5 / ofNotreDame purchasing from its owner, one of the Hundred Asso- de Montreal. ^ ciates. The Society of Notre Dame de Montreal was organized. The schemes for a seminary and college being set aside for a time, the society resolved to devote its energies to the hospital. The name of Ville- Marie de Montreal was given to the proposed city, which was dedicated to the Holy Family. In the selection of a leader for their enterprise the society made a wise choice. They appointed governor of Ville- The building j ft- o ofViiie-Marie Marie the brave and chivalrous de Maisonneuve, rich de Montreal. . , ill experience of court and camp. To superintend the hospital was chosen an ardent young religionist, Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance ; and a wealthy widow named Madame de Bullion, becoming interested in the scheme, supplied funds wherewith to build it a habitation. In 1 64 1 Maisonneuve sailed from Rochelle, with three ships, and half a hundred settlers for his new city. When the expe- dition arrived at Quebec, the prudent governor, de Montmagny, sought to change their purpose. Realizing the peril that threat- ened Canada from the Iroquois, he was opposed to any scatter- ing of her feeble forces. Already he was finding it hard enough THE FOUNDING OF MONTREAL. 6$ to protect his near outposts. He wished the new plantation, instead of seeking the heart of the hostile wilderness, to take up rather the Island of Orleans, whence it might join hands of brotherhood with Quebec across the channel. But the colonists of Ville-Marie were not to be held back- Maisonneuve vowed that to Montreal he would go though every tree on the island were an Iroquois. That same autumn (October 14th, 1641) the site of Ville-Marie was formally dedicated ; but it was too late in the season to build, and the expedition wintered in Quebec. In the spring work opened with vigour. De Montmagny went with the fearless enthusiasts, aided them in their beginnings, and finally handed over to Maisonneuve this patch of soil destined to such sacrifice and such triumph. The site of Ville-Marie was quickly enclosed with palisades, defended by small cannon. The hospital, built with Madame de Bullion's money, was set outside the walls. A massive stone structure, it was a little fortress in itself. So strong was it, indeed, that it withstood all the assaults of the Iroquois and the stealthier depredations of time, and only gave way, a few years ago, to the inexorable pressure of trade. For a time the infant colony was undisturbed, the Iroquois not knowing of its existence. But in the following year an Algonquin, fleeing before them for his scalp, found refuge within the shelter- ing paUsades, and Ville-Marie was revealed to her mortal foe. The Iroquois were furious at this bold advance of the French into a territory which the terror of their name had made a desert ; and it was their settled policy that neither French nor Indians should be allowed so near their own borders. In parties large and small they thenceforth patrolled the woods about the town, and only in well-armed bands could the settlers venture outside. The stockade was now regarded as a defence Its attack by all too frail ; and solid walls and bastions speedily the Iroquois, , , . ^,.„ ,, . 1 „ , andMaison- replaced it. ViUe-Marie was made a prison ; all hus- neuve's hero- bandry was at an end ; and the cutting of fuel in the woods became a military operation. Early in the spring of 1644 the Iroquois attacked in force, vowing that they would wipe out 4 64 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. the settlement and carry off the "white girls," as they called the nuns, to drudge for them in their lodges. Maisonneuve, yielding to the persuasion of his too hot-headed followers, went out and gave battle beyond the walls. The snow was deep, and soften- ing rapidly in the spring sun. No foe was visible at first, but scarcely had the daring Httle band penetrated the forest, when, as if in answer to Maisonneuve's high protestation, every tree seemed to become an Iroquois. Huddled together in amaze- ment, unused to forest warfare, the Frenchmen gave their foes an easy mark. Taken at such hopeless disadvantage, they were compelled to retreat, carrying their dead and wounded. The exultant savages hung on their rear, harassing them like dogs but not daring to face a hand-to-hand conflict. Maisonneuve, with smoking pistols, covered the retreat of his discomfited followers. He was the last man to enter the gate. As he backed reluctantly to the threshold a tall chief sprang upon him to drag him away for torture ; but the war-wise hand of Maisonneuve was too swift for his savage antagonist,^ who fell gasping in the snow, while the founder of Ville-Marie sprang back into safety. In these invasions the Iroquois followed the current of the Richelieu River, which became known as the " Iroquois track." They thus cut Canada in two. Lying in ambush about Lake St. Peter, they intercepted the fur-trade, and menaced Quebec on the one side as Montreal on the other. To check them de Montmagny in 1642 built a fort at the Richelieu mouth. See- ing what a thorn in their side it would be, the shrewd savages fell upon it at once, but were repulsed. In their retreat they Father managed to carry off a Jesuit missionary. Father Jogues, jogues. whom, after a course of merciless torture, they kept alive in their lodges. Through him came Canada first in contact with New York, — then New Netherlands. The Iroquois, on one of their trading visits to the Dutch of Albany, took Father Jogues with them. The governor of Albany at that time was Van Cor- 1 The " Place d' Amies" in the heart of Montreal, occupies the scene of this adventure, and commemorates it. DESTRUCTION OF THE HURON MISSIONS. 65 laer — and all future governors of New York received from the Indians the same name. Corlaer helped the brave Jesuit to elude his captors, and sent him home to France ; whence, after thrilling Paris with his story and his wounds, he hastened back to Canada to court once more the martyrdom which he had just escaped, — and which his zeal was afterwards to win. 25. The Destruction of the* Huron Missions. — While the Iro- quois were threatening Quebec and attacking Ville-Marie, the Hu- ron Missions, as we have seen, were enjoying a success which lulled them into false security. Early in the summer of 1648 a party of Huron braves from the Mission of St. Joseph descended the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence with the furs of their winter's hunt. At Three Rivers they were attacked by the Iroquois and won a victory. Meanwhile another band of Iroquois had fallen on the all but defenceless village. While service was being held in the little chapel the painted butchers broke Daniel slain, through the palisades and fell with their hatchets upon Mission de- the children and old men. The priest in charge was Father Daniel, a resolute and fearless man, who strove to organ- ize some resistance on the part of his terror-stricken flock. But he fell, riddled with arrows, early in the fight. Seven hundred prisoners were taken. A few of the villagers fled to the woods ; and by sunset the station of St. Joseph was a waste of smoking ashes. The following spring witnessed the finish of the bloody work. The decree of the Iroquois sachems was that the Hurons should be wiped out. A war party of 1 200 men entered the Huron region. First St. Ignace was surprised, and the inhabitants, save those reserved for torture, brained in their sleep. Thirteen other villages were burnt, either taken by storm or abandoned by Deaths of the horror-stricken people. Then, in the gray of dawn, basuf^an^"^^" St. Louis fell ; and the devoted priests Breboeuf and ^^i^mant. Lalemant were made prisoners. Enraged by their indomitable courage, the savages exhausted the last resources of atrocity in torturing them. Breboeuf was scalped, and boiling water poured 66 A HISTORY OF CANADA. on his head in mockery of the rite of baptism ; but no complaint escaped him. After other and unspeakable horrors, both victims were burned at the stake. The enemy were now within a few miles of the head Mission, the fort of Ste. Marie on the Wye. A band of desperate Hurons ste. Marie threw themselves before the tide of death, and fought Hm-on cour- ^ "^^7 "^^i^h a revival of their ancient valour. The ^^®" Iroquois had a certain dread of the little cannons at Ste. Marie, and were not over-anxious to face them. Now, astonished at this resistance of the Hurons, they conceived an idea that all the remnants of the ruined nation were gathering for vengeance ; and suddenly they retired from the country, taking with them such prisoners as were strong enough to carry burdens, and burning the rest. The Mission at Ste. Marie was saved ; but there was no longer sufficient reason for its existence. The rich and populous country of the Hurons was a desert. Tlie fragments of the nation fled in terror to the tribes of west and north, save a few hundreds who took refuge on the islands of Georgian Bay. To one of these islands the Mission of Ste. Marie was removed ; but the Iroquois followed even there, and famine aided their assaults. At last it was resolved to give up the Lake country ; The Huron 3-i^d the disheartened missionaries, gathering their removed to dwindled flock about them, fled toward Quebec. At ^*"^^'' Sorel, under the very guns of the fort, these trembhng survivors of a great people at length found rest and safety. The one permanent result of the Huron Mission, over and above the splendour which it sheds upon the annals of the Jesuits, was a knowledge of Lake Superior. Lake Michigan had been dis- covered some years before by the bold interpreter Jean Nicollet. 26. New France and New England. The Jesuits and the Iroquois. — While Canada was writhing under the scourge of the Iroquois the New England colonies had thriven with a vigorous growth; and about the time of the founding of Ville-Marie they had formed themselves, for purposes of defence, into a confed- eration called " The United Colonies of New England." This THE IROQUOIS SCOURGE. 6/ done, they turned their eyes upon the St. Lawrence valley, and proposed to d'Ailleboust (who had succeeded de Montmagny as governor in 1648) a treaty of perpetual amity and Treaty trade between Canada and New England. The pro- between posal was received with joy, and Father Druilettes was New Eng-^ sent to Boston to negotiate. But just at this time ^^°'^- Canada was being deluged with the blood of the Hurons and her faithful priests. She therefore made it a condition of the treaty that New England should join her in a war of extermination against the Iroquois. To this the New Englanders would not listen. They were at peace with the Iroquois ; and Failure of ne- they minded the adage to let sleeping dogs lie; The gotiations. result of Druilettes's embassy was not peace but war, for the Iro- quois were stirred up to a yet fiercer flame of hate. At the same time the sagacious priest won over the strong tribe of the Abenakis, who were thenceforth unswervmg in their devotion to the French, and a bitter torment to the Puritan settlements. For the next few years the French were practically shut up in Quebec and Three Rivers, no less than in. Montreal. The woods about their lonely settlements were never free from the tomahawk ; and many a French scalp was borne in triumph to the lodges by the side of Lake Champlain. These were years of The Iroquois anguish for Canada. At length, in 1653 ^'^d 1654, scourge, the Iroquois turned the tide of their fury against the tribes along the south of the Great Lakes, and for a time relaxed their hostility to the French. They were busy in extirpating the strong tribe of the Eries. This task they accomplished with their usual thorough- ness, but not without heavy loss to themselves. One ^^ ^ ' -' The Onon- of their cantons, that of the Onondagas,^ became so dagas seek peace, reduced that they wanted to strengthen themselves by adopting the remnants of the Hurous. The Hurons were troubled 1 As shown in the Appendix, the Iroquois were a confederacy of five tribes, or cantons, — the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, — whence they were called the Five Nations. At a later date they took in the Tuscaroras, and became known as the Six Nations. 68 A IJISrOKY OF- CANADA. to know how best to meet these dangerous advances. They were unwilUng to forsake the French, and at the same time they feared to rebuff their terrible suitors. They consulted with the governor, who advised them to consent on condition that the Onondagas should at the same time admit a Jesuit mission to their lodges. To this the Onondagas agreed. The Jesuits had long been anxious to obtain a foothold among the Iroquois, hoping thus to release Canada from her misery. After some negotiations, and a preliminary visit of mission to the Father le Moyne, an expedition was at length sent out Onondagas. , ^ , to plant a station in the Onondaga country. Besides the Hurons who were going to be adopted, there were the Jesuit Fathers Chaumonat and Dablon, with nearly fifty Frenchmen under a brave officer named Dupuy. The undertaking was a mad one ; but the governorship of Canada was then in the incompetent hands „, . of de Lauspn. The expedition excited the jealous The jealousy * "^ ■' of the Mo- wrath of the Mohawks, who attacked it soon after it hawks. had left Quebec. They were beaten off. however, and had to make profuse apologies and excuses to the indignant Onondagas. Then, to show that it was only against their ancient enemies, the Hurons, that they had aimed their attack, they descended upon the Isle of Orleans, and slew or captured all the Hurons whom they found working in the fields. With their prisoners in full view, and in broad daylight, they paddled past the walls of Quebec, shouting their songs of victory, and daring the French to the rescue. This insult de Lauson weakly pocketed ; and French prestige sank in shame. For a little while all went smoothly in the Onondaga country, but soon signs of danger began to thicken. The handful of Frenchmen, alone amid the hordes of their fierce and Escape of the Onondaga fickle entertainers, knew that a thousand knives were mission. ' perpetually itching for their scalps. At length they got wind of a plot to destroy them, after which the whole five nations of the Iroquois were to rise together and stamp out the French name from the St. Lawrence valley. Then appeared the LAVAL COMES TO CANADA. 69 courage and ability of Dupuy, whose rescue of his little command forms one of the most brilhant achievements of those stirring days. Inside the fort, with the utmost secrecy, some very light, flat- bottomed boats were built. Then all the Onondagas were invited to a great feast. So lavish of their hospitality were the Frenchmen that before the end of the banquet the gorged and drunken guests were sunk in sleep. At the approach of dawn, the Frenchmen stole away, carrying their boats. It was March, and the ice was thin. They were able to force a passage down the Oswego River ; but the frail bark canoes of their enemies could not follow them. The voyage from the mouth of the Oswego down the St. Lawrence to Quebec was one of peculiar peril, at that season and in those flat skiffs, but it was triumphantly accomplished. In a short time Father le Moyne, who, with his life in his hands, had been work- ing among the Mohawks, returned in despair to Quebec ; and the Iroquois, scattering to the winds their brief pretence of peace, hunted again like wolves through the trembling settlements. 27. Laval. DoUard. — Ville-Marie was not flourishing under its parent company, so in 1658 the Society of Notre Dame de Montreal handed it over to the care of a powerful and viiie-Marie wealthy organization, the Seminary of St. Sulpicius. totheSuip[- An energetic Sulpician Father, the Abbe de Queylus, ^^^°^- was sent out to Ville-Marie, where he established the long-intended seminary. It was now proposed to raise Canada into a bishopric ; and it had doubtless been the intention when de Queylus was sent out that this honour should fall upon him. But the independent and somewhat liberal Abbe proved by no means acceptable to the Jesuits, who succeeded in preventing his appointment. The glori- ous record which they had made in Canada entitled their wishes to respect, and when they nominated to the high and difiicult ofiice a priest of their own views, the nomination was accepted. But Quebec was not made an episcopal see. After long Laval comes dispute, Francois de Laval, Abb^ de Montigny, was to Canada, consecrated bishop of Petraea and sent out as the Pope's vicar apostolic to take control of the Church in Canada. He was an 70 A HISTORY OF CANADA. iron ascetic, sincere, passionately devoted to his work, but narrow and domineering. And now the boldness of the Iroquois increased. To show their scorn of the French they scalped and slaughtered beneath the very ramparts of Quebec. Finding their stone convents no longer enough protection, the Ursulines and the Hospital nuns fled into The anguish the city. Destruction seemed to- hang low over un- of Canada. happy Canada. Those who could returned to France, despairing of better days. Among those who remained a malig- nant fever broke out. Men imagined they saw in the skies strange portents, ominous of doom ; — blazing canoes, and men wresding with serpents. Their ears heard shrieks and lamenta- tions ; and in reading the chronicles of that day it seems to us as if the long anguish had warped the fibre of men's minds. D'Argenson, the governor, unable to look upon the misery which he had no power to relieve, demanded his recall. In this grievous time took place one of the most splendid epi- sodes in our history. Among the names of the heroes of Canada abides imperishably that of Daulac des Ormeaux, familiarly known The heroism ^^ DoUard. This young nobleman's name had suf- ofDoiiard. fered a stain in France. He came to Montreal in search of an opportunity for some deed that would wipe out the reproach. At length word reached the settlement that a great war party was on its way down the Ottawa to exterminate Ville- Marie. DoUard, with sixteen comrades, vowed to shatter the wave ere it broke on the city, and to restore respect for French valour. They took the sacrament together, and went forth to the fate of Thermopylae. Nor was this new Thermopylae less glorious than that immortal one of old. With a handful of Huron and Algonquin allies they ascended the Ottawa, and entrenched them- selves in the ruins of an old stockade at the pass of the Long Sault rapids. Seven hundred yeUing Iroquois swooped upon them, and were beaten back. Appalled at the terrific odds, most of Dol- lard's Indians forsook him. But one Algonquin chief, and a half- score of the more warhke Hurons, stood faithful. Men were these DISSENSIONS IN QUEBEC. 7 1 savages, of the old, heroic pattern. For three days, — burning with thirst, for there was no spring in the fort, — fainting with hunger, for there was no time to eat, — gasping with exhaustion, for the foe allowed them no respite, these heroes held the pass ; and the bodies of the Iroquois were' piled so deep before them that the palisades ceased to be a shelter. Not till all were slain but five, and these five helpless with wounds, did the enemy win their way in. Of the five, four died at once ; and the last, having life enough left to make it worth while, was tortured. But the Iroquois had been taught a lesson. They slunk back to their lodges ; and Montreal drew breath awhile in peace. 28. Dissensions in Quebec. The Great Earthquakes. — In the year that followed this deed of chivalry, the new governor, d'Avaugour, made a tour of Canada. D'Avaugour was Disputes full of energy, hot-tempered, and obstinate. Laval and bfshop^and*^ he, both dictatorial, soon quarrelled. Laval claimed *^® governor, precedence and authority in all things, as representing the supreme power of the Church. Such extravagant claims d'Avaugour was not the man to grant. At length, over the abuse of the liquor traffic, came an open rupture. For some years this traffic, so deadly to the Indians, had been allowed under severe limitations. Laval, alive to its iniquity, resolved to stamp it out. He got a law passed making it death to sell brandy to the Indians. As in Champlain's day, the traders were enraged at the interference. They could get more furs for their brandy than for the same value in any other article of trade. D'Avaugour enforced the law with military strictness. Two men were shot for transgressing it. At length a woman was caught in the same offence ; and she, too, was to suffer the same penalty. But the Jesuits demanded her pardon, and persisted till the governor lost all patience. He par- doned the woman ; but vowed at the same time that he would punish no more breaches of that law. At once the Laval goes settlement ran not. Brandy flowed everywhere. The back to Fremce. people, feehng themselves at last set free from the hard supervision of the Church, laughed at the bishop's thunders. 72 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Quebec was divided into two camps ; and Laval, no longer able to make his influence felt, carried home his complaint to the King. About this time Pierre Boucher was sent to France (October, 1661) to make known the desperate condition of the colony, and to appeal for aid. In the following year he addressed to Colbert a letter describing the resources, population, and needs £0UC£16r s report to of Canada. The French in all Canada numbered a Colbert. little over two thousand souls, a third of whom were in Quebec itself. The climate and products of the country were extolled. It was shown how many had amassed wealth in the colony, afterwards going home to France to spend it. The one thing needed, in Boucher's view, was a regiment of skilled soldiers to bring the Iroquois under subjection. This letter bore fruit. It turned the eyes of France seriously upon Canadian affairs. It The New was seen that the Company of the Hundred Associates chSter"^^'^ had neglected its duty shamefully, had concerned revoked. -^^^^^^ altogether with the profits of the fur-trade, and had utterly failed to fulfil the terms of its charter. The charter was therefore revoked by royal edict (1663). A certain Mon- sieur Dumont was sent to Canada to examine into affairs ; and with him went a hundred soldiers and some two hundred colonists. The year that saw the revocation of the charter, saw Canada shaken by a series of earthquakes. The disturbances began in February. Their centre seemed to be the Laurentide hill region The great north of the St. Lawrence, and the shocks were most earthquakes, frequent and violent about the weird Saguenay dis- trict ; but they extended all the way south into New England. The ice in the rivers, at that time three or four feet thick, was crumbled into fragments. At Tadousac fell an inch of volcanic ash ; and smoke-clouds belched from the river before Quebec. Gusts of hot air melted the midwinter snow. The earth uttered monstrous noises, now booming like artillery, now crackling and rattling like musket fire, now roaring like an incoming tide. The soil undulated, bells rang, chimneys fell, walls were rent apart, THE GREAT EARTHQUAKES. -JT^ and strange meteors shot across the sky. In the valley of the St. Maurice, above Three Rivers, mountains fell into the channel and the courses of streams were changed. The shore of the St. Lawrence itself, from Cape Tourmente down to Tadousac, was much altered. At a spot ever since called Les Eboulements, near Bay St. Paul, a high promontory nearly a mile in extent was hurled from its base, to form a new island in the river. Men sickened with superstitious fear. All through that summer exhalations of poisonous gas reeked from the ground. And it was not till autumn that the vexed earth recovered her calm. CHAPTER VI. SECTIONS : — 29, THE Sovereign Council ; and Land-holding IN Canada. 30, Talon comes to Canada. The English SEIZE New York. 31, de Tracy comes to Canada, and the Iroquois are chastised. 32, New France reaches out to the Mississippi and Hudson Bay, and secures her Hold upon Lake Ontario. 29, The Sovereign Council ; and Land-holding in Canada. — Canada was now made a royal province under the direct rule of The Sover- the King, who deputed his authority to a committee of eign Council, ^j^j-gg known as the Sovereign Council. A royal com- mission was sent out to receive the oath of allegiance for the King, and to make new regulations for the administration of justice. With him, besides a hundred famihes of settlers, came de Mesy, the new governor-general, and Laval, the ecclesiastical superior. The sovereign council was composed of the governor-general, the ecclesiastical superior or bishop,^ and the intendant, who had power to add to their number by appointing four councillors, a chief clerk, and an attorney-general. The number of these additional councillors was afterwards increased to twelve. The intendant came to Quebec on the return of the royal commis- sioner to France. The first to hold this office was the sagacious and patriotic Talon. To the governor, as the King's representative, belonged the charge of all military matters, the power of war and peace. The bishop was supreme in matters belonging purely to the Church. 1 Quebec was made a bishopric in 1674, and Laval appointed to the see. It_ was as titular bishop of Petrasa, and vicar apostolic of the Pope, that he had come to Quebec in 1659. 74 FEUDAL TENURE OF LAND. 75 The intendant, though ranking below the other two, had in some respects a greater power and responsibihty. As president of the council he held the right to a casting vote : and in his ^^ ^. . . ° o ;- -pjjg division direct control were all civil affairs, such as police, trade, of authority in Quebec, and administration of justice. The sovereign council itself constituted the Supreme Court of the colony ; and inferior courts were established at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. The lands of Canada were held in feudal tenure ; which means that the King is regarded as the owner, and that rent is paid to him not in money but in military services. Large ^ \ ,^ J J ° Feudal Ten- estates were granted on this " tenure of fealty and ure of lands ° . . in Canada. homage " to officers and nobles, or to organizations like the Seminary of St. Sulpicius. An important and imposing ceremony was that at which the lords of manors annually did homage to the King's representative at Quebec. These seigneurs, as they were called, had great powers within their own domains. They were allowed to try and punish all misdemeanours less grave than murder or treason. The seigneurs subdivided their vast estates into small holdings, which they let to cultivators of the soil for a small annual rental. These small holders, called censi- tah-es, became the retainers of their seigneur, depend- seigneursand ent^on him for protection, and compelled to do him ^ensitaires. mihtary service. They had to grind their grain at the seigneur's mill, and pay him a fourteenth of the product. If lands were sold from one censitaire to another, the seigneur was entitled to a twelfth of the price ; —just as the King was entitled to a fifth of the purchase-money if the seigneur sold any portion of his seigneurie. These laws in later days led to troublesome consequences. The results of the laws of inheritance at this time established may even now be seen along the St. Lawrence valley. In some districts the farms are but narrow ribbons of territory, ^aw of in- a few yards wide on the river frorit, and running back ^^"t^'ice. perhaps a mile. The law required both seigneurs and censitaires to leave their estates fairly divided among their children, a some- what larger share, with the title and manor-house, going to the 76 A HISTORY OF CANADA. eldest son. As large families soon came to be the rule in Canada^ estates grew small by ceaseless subdivision. The dividing lines, naturally, were run at right angles to the river, in order that all might have an equal share in the advantages of a water-front. A few small properties were held direct from the king, en franc alleu as the term went. But these were inconsiderable in number, and their proprietors had not the privileges or rank of the seigneurs.^ 30. Talon comes to Canada. The English seize New York. — Fortunately for Canada, the large-minded Colbert was now in charge of financial affairs in France. The King, Louis XIV, had made him comptroller-general of the finances, at the recommen- Coibert dation of Richelieu's powerful successor, Cardinal Sfe welffn- Mazarin. Colbert realized that a new order of things dia Company. -^yQ^i^j soon prevail, under which the power and pres- tige of European states would come to depend more largely on their colonial possessions. He saw that colonization and commerce went hand-in-hand. For the post of intendant at Quebec he chose Monsieur Talon, a man much like himself for breadth of view, diligent patriotism, and freedom fi-om dogmatic prejudice. At the same time (1664) the West India Company was formed, with all the trading privileges of Canada and Acadie, of the French colonies in Florida, Africa, South America, and of the' West Indies. This company was under the same pledges in regard to colonizing the land and converting the natives as those which its predecessor, the New Company of the Hundred As- sociates, had so lamentably failed to perform. The monopoly of the fur-trade thus granted to the W^est India Company excited vehement protest in Canada, where all the colonists were more or less interested in that profitable pursuit. A few years later, on Talon's urgent plea to Colbert, these restrictions were removed as far as Canada was concerned, the company being compensated by a fourth of all the beaver skins and a twelfth of all the buffalo skins exported. The West India Company proved, however, of 1 It was not till 1855 that the seigneuries were abolished, the seigneurs receiving ' from the provincial government compensation for their ancient privileges. RIVALRY OVER THE FUR-TRADE. 77 no more benefit to the colonies than the New Company had been, and m 1674 its charter was revoked. One year after the estabhshment of the sovereign council an event took place far to the south, on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River, which was destined to influence the destinies of Canada. Charles II, claiminsf all the Atlantic coast New Amster- southward to Florida, granted the Dutch settlements dam becomes New York. of the New Netherlands to his brother James, Duke of York. Though England and Holland were then at peace, four English ships presently appeared at New Amsterdam, and de- manded its surrender. The doughty old Dutch governor, Stuyve- sant, was for fight ; but the less warhke citizens persuaded him to accept the mild terms of the English captain — and New Amster- dam became New York. The Dutch settlers were secured in the possession of their own property, their own worship, their own laws ; and they became full English citizens. The English government of New York at once entered into treaty with the Iroquois, and all the cantons of the Five Nations placed themselves under the protection of England's ^ . ^ , ° The English King. This alhance was a boon to the English colo- and the iro- . T , quois. mes, and m later days a sleepless menace to the French. The shrewd savages saw the strength of their own posi- tion between the two great rival races ; and skilfully they main- tained it. Though they kept their treaty faithfully, in the main, yet on several occasions, by withholding their help from the Eng- lish, they saved French power from being crushed. They realized that their importance to the Enghsh depended on the existence of a French Canada. With the presence of the new power on the Hudson there grew up a bitter rivalry between the French and English over the fur- trade. The great duel for New World empire took Rivalry over the ignobl^ disguise of a quarrel about beaver skins, tiie fur-trade. The English sought to divert the fur-trade from the St. Lawrence route to the Hudson ; and the Iroquois mightily seconded their efforts. To all the northern and western tribes who would con- y8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. sent to bring their furs down the Hudson, the Iroquois turned friendly and buried their hatchets deep. Against the tribes who persisted in trading with the French, on the other hand, these shrewd, red schemers made relentless war. The English, more- over, offered higher prices than the French, and gave better goods in exchange, till even those half-wild Frenchmen, the Com-eurs des Bois^ at times sought the more profitable English markets. By these means Canadian trade was much damaged ; and a hatred arose between the rival colonies which was later to bring ruin upon many a border settlement. To add to the vexation of these outside quarrels, there was dis- cord within the walls of Quebec itself. Laval and the governor. Discord in ^e M6sy, were at strife over questions of authority Quebec. ^^^ precedence. It was not long before Laval was petitioning for de M^sy's recall, as he had for the recall of the two former governors. It was clear that nothing short of the completest subserviency could satisfy the demands of this devoted but domineering bishop. Before Laval could bring about the recall of his opponent, however, de Mesy died ; and the Seigneur de Courcelles was apjJbinted in his stead. 31. De Tracy comes to Canada, and the Iroquois are chas- tised. — While the quarrel between de Mesy and Lav^al was at its height, the Marquis de Tracy was sent out as the De Tracy, o ' ^ ^ and the regi- King's viceroy. His mission was to settle all troubles Carignan- in Canada and the West Indies, and to subdue the Iroquois. In 1665 de Tracy landed at Quebec, bring- ing with him not only a number of new colonists, but also the famous regiment of Carignan-Salieres. Quebec was gay with mili- tary pomp. De Tracy lost no time. Three forts, St. Th^rese, Sorel,- 1 The Coureurs des Bois, or Runners of the Woods, were Frenchmen who, breaking away from the restraint of civilized life, had gone to live w^h the Indians, to share their freedom, to explore the wilderness, and to follow the fur-trade with- out restriction. This lawless life proved so attractive that much of the vigorous youth of Canada was led into it. 2 This was the fort built in 1642, and afterwards abandoned. Now M. de Sorel- reconstructed it ; and from him it took its name. JESUITS SPREAD THEIR INFLUENCE. 79 and Chambly, intended to hold back the Iroquois, were built at strategic points on the Richelieu. When report went abroad of the power and invincible courage of the French troops the Iroquois were deeply impressed. Four of the Five Nations at once sent deputies to sue for peace. But the Mohawks, fiercest of the confederacy, remained defiant. A company sent out to scatter one of their war parties fell into an ambuscade, and was cut to pieces. In September of the following year de Tracy moved against the Mohawks. With him went the new governor, de Courcelles, a brave and capable leader, a prudent administrator, _, , ^. ir ^ r /pjjg chastise- to whose memory New France owes much reverence, ment of the ■' Mohawks. De Tracy's force, consisting of thirteen hundred men, with their aged but energetic commander borne on a litter in their midst (for he was sorely afflicted with gout), marched as if in an open country, with the pomp of drum and trumpet. This was not Indian warfare, and in later days would have brought certain destruction. The Mohawks, however, were daunted by the martial display, and fled from their towns at de Tracy's approach. Their lodges were burned to the ground ; their stores of corn, laid up in pits for the winter, were destroyed or carried away ; and the Mohawk country long remembered the visit of de Tracy, The lesson was not lost upon the other tribes of the Iroquois ; and Canada for more than twenty years had peace. The French missionaries now went freely among the Iroquois, made many converts, and gradually gained no small hold upon this haughty people. More daring than soldier or ° ^ ^ . ^ ° . . The Jesuits trader, other priests penetrated the wild regions north spread their * . influence, of Lake Superior, and made French influence felt from the Illinois to Lake Winnipeg. A permanent Mission was established at Sault Ste. Marie, and another at Michilimackinac, on the northern point of the peninsula between Lakes Huron and Michigan. The regiment of Carignan-Salieres was now disbanded, its officers becoming seigneurs with large estates, and the privates censitaires on their seigneuries. The regiment was planted along 8o A HISTORY OF CANADA. the Richelieu and the south shore of the St. Lawrence, right in the track of the Iroquois raids, to be the buhvark of Canada. Under the wise supervision of Talon, whose memory should be honoured from Ontario to the Gulf, the condition of the colony Talon's wise Swiftly improved. The farms yielded abundantly, and management, getders lived in much material comfort. Talon set those colonists who were safely established to the work of clearing lots and building cottages adjoining their own. These he held ready for the occupation of newer immigrants. He looked care- fully into the mineral resources of the country, and discovered the rich iron deposits of the Three Rivers district. Against the bishop and the Jesuits he had some complaints to make, because they obstructed his efforts to civilize the Christian Indians. Believing that the colony should not be wholly dependent on the Jesuits for its religious guidance, he procured from the King per- mission to bring back the RecoUets ; and in 1670 he reestabhshed four of the gray-gowned Fathers in their old monastery on the St. Charles. All through his administration Talon exerted himself to procure in France suitable wives for his colonists, and as many as twelve hundred girls were shipped to Canada between i66t; Importation o x-r j of wives for and 1670. These girls, as a rule, were selected with the colonists. , great care, and usually from the country rather than the city, country girls being found best adapted to the rough life of a new land. Each girl on her marriage — and the weddings took place in batches of thirties as soon as possible after the coming of each ship-load — received a generous dowry from the King, with which to begin her housekeeping. Young men refus- ing to marry were made to feel the royal displeasure, and were not allowed to hunt, fish, or trade. Under these conditions bachelorhood became inconvenient in Canada, and presently un- common. In the year 1667 an event took place which showed that the long-harassed land was passing into the humour of con- tent. The first ball on record in Canada was given in the city of Quebec, on the night of the 4th of February. VOYAGE OF MARQUETTE AND JOLLIET. 8 1 32. New France reaches out to the Mississippi and Hudson Bay, and secures her Hold upon Lake Ontario. — In the year of the recall of the R^coUets, the governor sent out one Nicholas Perrot, a daring explorer much skilled in the Indian dialects, Nicholas Per- to gather the western tribes to a conference. Perrot western**^^ went through the Lake Superior region, and down *"^^^- Lake Michigan to the spot where now stands Chicago. This was the centre of the strong Miami tribe. Early in the next year a throng of delegates met at Sault Ste. Marie, where the King's commissioner explained to them that they were all taken under the royal protection. The whole Lake region was then formally annexed to France. On this expedition Perrot was told by the Indians of a vast river flowing southward, which they called M^chasebe or Mississippi, "The Father of Waters." The tidings impressed Talon. The untiring and unterrified priest, Father Marquette, and a merchant explorer named Jolliet, were promptly despatched to seek the mighty stream. Visions of Cathay still dazzled the imaginations of men ; and they thought this new river might prove the path thereto. The explorers, with a handful of followers, made their way to the north-west shores of Lake Michigan. In two canoes they ascended the Fox River to its source, made a portage . The voyage to the head waters of a tributary of the Wisconsin, of Marquette and Jolliet. paddled down with the current, and on June 17th, 1673, came out on the ample breast of the Mississippi. For a month they descended the great water, passing the mouths of the Ilhnois, the Missouri, the Ohio, and were hospitably received by the tribes along the shore. At the mouth of the Ohio they met Ind- ians armed with muskets and wearing garments of cloth, which showed that they had been trading with the Enghsh settlements of the coast. At the mouth of the Arkansas the savages were hostile, and our little band of explorers had a half-hour of peril ; but the tact of Marquette and Jolhet melted this fierce mood into one of cordial welcome, and instead of slaughter came feastings and the pipe of peace. At this point, however, the explorers de- 82 A HISTORY OF CANADA. cided to turn back, hearing that the tribes below were dangerous. They had come to suspect that the river emptied into the (iulf of Mexico instead of the Pacific ; and they were not anxious to visit the Spanish settlements. The return voyage was made by ascending the Illinois River and crossing over to the waters of Lake Michigan ; and about the end of September they regained the Green Bay Mission whence they had made their start. Less than two years later Marquette died in the wilderness, worn out by his self-sacrificing toil. While Talon was extending his power westward, he was not unmindful of the north with its wealth of fish and furs. Li 1671 Talon sends he sent a party under Father Albanel to seek Hudson po^ses^on of Bay by the way of the Saguenay. The party wintered Hudson Bay. -^ ^j^g Saguenay district, and then descended the River Nepiscaw from the mystic Lake Mistassinni, till they came out upon the vast northern sea. Here they convened representatives of many Hudson Bay tribes ; and Father Albanel, erecting a cross with the royal arms upon it, took formal possession of the country. While Talon was at this time the good genius of Canada, the colony was also fortunate in having de Courcelles for governor. De Courcelles cared little for the internal progress of Canada, but he cared greatly for her miUtary prestige. By his justice and his fearlessness he kept his Indians under control, and the Iroquois themselves were unwilling to join issue with him. But these war- like tribes were growing restless under the restraints of the unac- De Courcelles customed peace. De Courcelles decided on a step atcataracoui. y^\^^^ would give them something to think about, while at the same time making his grip upon them firmer. He invited the chiefs of all the cantons to smoke the pipe of peace with him at a place called Cataracoui, near the foot of Lake Ontario. There he flattered the envoys with his gifts and his gracious compliments, while impressing them with a sense of his invincible resolution. At length he announced to them his intention of building a fort at the place of conference, that DE COURCELLES AT CATARACOUI. 83 the western members of their confederacy might the more easily trade with his people. Presented in this light, the plan was highly pleasing to the sachems ; but later, when war again broke out, they realized the significance and purpose of the fort at Cataracoui. CHAPTER VII. SECTIONS: — 33, Frontenac comes to Canada. La Salle. 34, Frontenac's Recall ; and La Barre's Folly. 35, Denon- VILLE, DONGAN, AND THE IrOQUOIS. 36, KONDIARONK, "THE Rat," kills the Peace. The Lachine Massacre. 33, Frontenac comes to Canada. La Salle. — De Courcelles having asked for release from his command, on account of broken health, he was succeeded by one whose strong figure Louis de ^ BO Buade, Count stands large and Splendid in our storv. Louis de Buade, of Frontenac. ^ .° r , 1 ■ 1 Count of Frontenac, was a man of the highest courage, determination, and energy. To Canada he gave a whole-souled devotion. The Indians dreaded him profoundly ; while the cour- tesy of his bearing won their friendship. During his rule even the Iroquois were afraid to lift the hatchet. In matters of civil government Frontenac showed some serious defects ; but these cannot lessen the reverence due to his memory. He had that rash imperiousness which so often mars a forceful character. He could endure no opposition, no questioning of his judgment and authority. Soon after his arrival the sagacious Talon asked to be recalled. Doubtless he discerned this fault in Frontenac, and dreaded a conflict. With the new intendant, Duchesneau, the fiery governor was soon at swords' points ; and with Laval, no less dictatorial than himself, his quarrels grew to be an open scandal. The proposed building of a fort at Cataracoui met with Fronte- nac's fullest approval ; and as soon as possible after his coming he went in person to superintend the work. High in his favour stood one who sheds the rose-light of romance upon our pages, the gal- lant and adventurous La Salle. He had come to Canada some 84 FORT FRONTENAC. 85 years before, filled with the old, alluring dream of a passage to Cathay. Partly to gratify his restlessness, partly to familiarize him- self with the habits and speech of the tribes whose help he would need, partly to gain by the fur-trade means to carry on his enter- prise, he had disappeared from civilization for a time and dwelt among the Indians. Had he been, indeed, a personage less dis- tinguished, he would undoubtedly have been called a Coureur des Bois. Soon after his arrival he discovered the Ohio River. From the Sulpicians, with whom he had strong influence, he obtained an estate at the west end of Montreal Island, where he planted a set- tlement. This settlement, probably in allusion to or in derision of his search for a passage to China, presently came to be known as Lachine. The fort at Cataracoui, henceforth known as Fort Frontenac, was granted to La Salle soon after its construction, he refunding to the governor its full cost. The grant conveyed also a large tract of land, with the usual responsibilities and de la saUe privileges. La Salle tore down the fort and raised a Fort Fronte- r rr-ii 1 1 • 1 T • ir • 1 nacandbuilds stronger one of stone. Ihen he busied himself with ships on the clearing lands and building small ships for the Lake trade. In 1679 he built a ship on Lake Erie, called the Gj'if- fin, in which he sailed to the Green Bay Mission on Lake Michi- gan. From that point he sent the ship back richly laden with furs. But she came not to her destination. The fate of the ill-starred craft and all her wealth remains a mystery. Wrapped up with that of La Salle is the name of his loyal com- rade and fellow-explorer, Henry de Tonti,^ who was his very right arm in all his greatest achievements. It was not till 1682 that La Salle was able to carry out his main purpose. Crossing over from the foot of Lake Michigan, he descended the current of the lUinois. Early in February his canoes came out on the Mississippi, 1 Tonti, before coming to Canada, had lost a hand in battle. The place of the missing member was supplied by one of steel, which was always kept covered with a glove. The blows which Tonti, in time of need, could deliver with this iron hand, were a source of wondering awe to the Indians. 86 A HISTORY OF CANADA. and turned their yellow prows to the south. The tribes along the banks were sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile ; but in the latter case the broad stream gave him plenty of room to escape their arrows and their bullets. As the explorers slipped swiftly down He descends the tide they emerged from winter into spring, then sfppftoTtV ii^to the glow and luxuriance of summer. On the mouth. j.g^.|^ q£ March they reached the. Mississippi mouth. The country they had traversed was annexed to France in due form, under the musical name of Louisiana. The return voyage, against the stream, was difficult, and many delays were encount- ered ; so that it was not till the spring of 1683 that La Salle got back to Quebec. Thence, in the flush of his triumph, he went home to France, where the favours of the court He leads an ^ , . , , , . expedition to were heaped upon huTi. Under his leadership a strong the Missis- j. u sippi mouth expedition was sent out, sailing from Rochelle, to reach the Mississippi mouth by way of the sea and there establish a colony. But La Salle had miscalculated the posidon of the river, and he sailed his party some hundreds of miles beyond it. Deeply chagrined, he led a little band ashore, and started eastward to seek by land the object of his quest. Be- fore long he got involved in that pathless tangle of forest, swamp, and sluggish water-courses, which de Soto in an earlier day had found so fatal. In the heart of this dread wilder- His death. -r ^ ■,-, , ^ ■,-, •■■,■,■ ^ ■ r ^ • ness La Salle s followers mutinied, hating him for his stern discipline ; and the great explorer died miserably under their vindictive hands. 34. Frontenac's Recall; and La Barre's Folly. — While La Salle was exploring the Mississippi, the old menace of the Iro- quois once more raised its head. The governor of New York was now one Colonel Dongan, an ambitious and rest- Dongan stirs . up the iro- less spirit, who strove to break up the peace between New France and the Five Nations. His immediate aim was to overreach his rivals in the fur- trade ; but he must be ere lited with taking wise alarm at the activity of French exr plorers and French missionaries in the west. All the tribes of FRONTENAC INTIMIDATES THE IROQUOIS. 8/ the Illinois were now in close alliance with the French. Trouble arose through the murder of a Seneca chief by an Illinois warrior. To avenge the wrong, all the Iroquois rose as one tribe, swearing to exterminate the whole Illinois people. At their first blow the valley of the lUinois River was laid waste, and its dwellers scat- tered to their remoter villages. Frontenac called for delegates of the Five Nations to meet him at Cataracoui, promising to secure them full restitution and a peaceable settlement of the quarrel. Acting under Dongan's advice, the Iroquois told Fron- tenac that if he wanted to see them he must come to them in their lodges. But this defiant attitude was one which they could not keep up with Frontenac, before whose imperious force their fierce hearts quailed. He said no more of restitution. ^ Frontenac He spoke no longer of a settlement. But he sent queiisthem again, them a curt command to keep their hands off the Illinois and all the other western tribes. Further, he told them that if they had anything to say to him they would have to come to Montreal. The Iroquois weakened at once, not wanting Fron- tenac's heavy hand bi^ought down upon their villages. They held back the feet of the warriors that were to have gone against the Illinois ; and soon they sent an embassy to Montreal. A little later, in the same year, Frontenac's quarrels with the bishop and the Jesuits led to his recall ; and an old^ officer named La Barre, who had outlived his military vigour, was sent out to govern Canada. It was sending a child to do a strong man's task. La Barre had insight enough to see that Governor Dongan was backing the Iroquois ; and in asking the King for reinforce- ments he urged that the English court should be called upon to check New York's intrigues. Dongan got a reprimand from London ; and La Barre got two hundred soldiers from Paris. But the Iroquois, and in particular their most powerful tribe, the Senecas, were growing daily more insolent. It was as if they already felt the withdrawal of Frontenac's frown. La Barre anxiously noted their temper, and betrayed his weakness by over- 88 A HISTORY OF CANADA. tures of peace. He invited them again to Montreal, where he loaded their deputies with presents, and endured their arrogant avowal that they were going to blot out the Illinois. LaBarretnes ^ o o to conciliate By persuasion, instead of firm command, he got their them. promise that they would not attack the Hurons, Ottawas, and other northern tribes, or plunder the canoes of French traders. We can hardly credit La Barre with special loyalty to the Hurons and Ottawas ; but these tribes were necessary to the illicit fur-trade by which he was greedily enriching himself. At length he sent a trading party, with valuable merchandise, into the Illinois country, not only to buy furs of the Mississippi tribes but also to seize La Salle's fort of St. Louis. The Senecas at this same moment were again pursuing their bloody vengeance. Be- ing in a warlike mood, they were not particular as to whom they War with the Struck. They promptly fell upon La Barre's traders Senecas. ^^^ captured his merchandise. But the rash Senecas by this act had assailed the governor's pocket,- which was more sensitive than his honour. La Barre swore that they should feel the weight of his wrath. He raised a force of nine hundred men and led them to the land of the Senecas. On the south shore of Lake Ontario he encamped, and the little army, ill led and ill fed, shrank rapidly under the pangs of fever and famine.^ In thus attacking the Senecas, La Barre had attacked the whole confederacy ; and now from every village, even to the utmost borders of the Mohawk land, the Iroquois swarmed about him. The whole military force of Canada was represented by this wretched band on the Bay of Famine ; and it began to look as if at length the Iroquois would make good their old boast and sweep the French into the sea. But their policy said no. The shrewd savages had begun to feel a spirit of encroachment in the English. They felt that the English would grow too power- 1 The place of this unhappy encampment was known thereafter as the Bay of Famine. DONG AN AND DENONVILLE. 89 ful if the French were out of the way. Their forest statesmen understood the balance of power, and withheld their hatchets from La Barre's embarrassed followers. But their deputies went before him and talked to him with lordly scorn. They laughed at his tlireats and his demands, swore that they would not spare the Illinois while a man of them remained alive, and only agreed to a treaty with the French themselves on the con- ^^ ignoble dition that La Barre should at once withdraw his P^^*^^- troops. After concluding this wretched treaty La Barre was sum- moned back to France, and the Marquis de Denonville succeeded to his place. 35. Denonville, Dongan, and the Iroquois. — Denonville found Canada in a fever of indignation over La Barre's folly, and in a fever of fear over the grim aspect of the Indian tribes. The northern allies of the French were beginning to long not only for peace with the Iroquois but for trade with the English. With Denonville came a new governor for Montreal, a brave soldier and politic ruler called de Callieres. In internal affairs Canada now enjoyed unwonted peace, for the governor, the intendant, the bishop, and the Jesuits all were of one mind. Soon after his coming Denonville concluded that before all things Denonville the Senecas must be humbled. He made urgent crush the appeal to France for more soldiers. These he got, s^^^^^^- but slowly ; and slowly his scheme ripened. Meanwhile, how- ever, he kept his purpose a secret even from his intimates at Quebec ; and toward the Iroquois he used a mixture of flattery and firmness, planning to ward off their attack until he should be in readiness for it. Between Denonville in Quebec and Dongan in New York now ensued a duel of intrigue, though their royal masters, Louis XIV of France and Tames II of England, were on terms Dongan' sin- of excellent good-will. Blind to the problems of fate trigues with 1 XT -.TT 1 1 1 , , 1 , the Indians. in the New World, the two monarchs had made treaty of neutrality, fixing perpetual peace between their North American possessions. But other eyes had a clearer view than 90 A HISTORY OF CANADA. theirs. The strife was for the mastery of the west. The far- seeing Dongan used his utmost art — flattering chiefs, bribing Coweurs des Bois, paying high prices, and bartering with good merchandise — to turn the trade of the northern and western Indians from the St. Lawrence to the Hudson. The rivalry be- tween these two trade routes is active and undecided to this day. Dongan sent his traders into the land beyond the Lakes, where hitherto had gone no white man but the French. They won a cordial welcome from the Indians ; and to counteract their influence, to keep the fur-trade from turning its full stream toward New York, required the utmost efforts of men like Duluth and Perrot, whom the tribes loved much and feared more. Dongan's policy was to coop the French hard and fast 'in the valley of the St. Lawrence ; a policy which was being well sec- The policy of onded by the raids of the New Englanders on Acadia, and^thr'^'^^' a"d by the planting of English posts on Hudson Bay. EngifshVoio- The policy of the French — which de Courcelles, nies. Talon, Frontenac, La Salle, Denonville, all more or less consciously strove to follow — was to enclose the English settlements in a vast sphere of French influence, leaving them none of the continent but that strip of Atlantic coast on which they had already taken root. Denonville, in spite of the treaty, sent a force up suddenly to Hudson's Bay, and surprised three English forts ^ in that region. This expedition was commanded by the Chevalier de Troyes, of Montreal, under whom went one who afterwards made his mark in Canadian history, the intrepid d'lberville. To both Denonville and Dongan now occurred the idea that a fort at Niagara would give an immense advantage to whichever The Niagara ^ide should succeed in placing it there. Both began region. scheming to that end. As the desired site was in the land of the Senecas, the opinion of that unbending people had to be considered. While New York and Quebec were thus pitted 1 Forts Albany, Hayes, and Rupert. This attack was in the interests of the ' " Company of the North," established to rival the " Company of Hudson Bay." THE SENEGAS CHASTISED. 91 against each other in the continental duel, the powerful New England colonies looked on with small concern. Even so early as 1680 did Boston lack interest in New York. In 1687 Denonville deemed the time ripe for bringing the Senecas to their knees. He mustered swiftly a strong force and moved up the St. Lawrence. Then he committed a Denonviiie's treachery only to be matched by that of Charnisay, t^'^^chery. — an act so base that we cease to be astonished at the later bar- barities of the Iroquois. He invited a number of chiefs to a conference at Fort Frontenac. As soon as he got them within his walls he seized them, and sent them to France as slaves to be worked to death in the King's galleys. To swell the number of these unfortunates he went on to ravage two villages of neutral Iroquois, who had long been thriving peacefully in the neighbour- hood of Fort Frontenac. This act, in its brutaUty, was much like the raids of the African slave-hunter, save that the women and children thus captured — at least such of them as did not die of fear and pestilence in their crowded quarters — were christianized, and distributed among the Mission villages. This memorable deed achieved, Denonville darted across the lake to surprise the Senecas. He was unexpectedly reinforced by a large body of Coureiirs des Bois, Hurons, Ottawas, The senecas and other northern Indians, gathered by Duluth and •^'i^stised. Durantaye and brought down in haste from MichiUmackinac. The Senecas made a brief but fierce resistance in front of their chief town, and then scattered to the forests. All their towns were laid in ashes, their stores of corn and droves of swine destroyed, and a blow was dealt them from which the tribe never quite recovered. Then Denonville marched to Niagara, built the long-proposed fort, and left therein a garrison of one hundred men. Denonville had scored a triumph ; but now came upon the colony a season of anguish. Blazing with rage and iroquois hate at Denonviiie's treachery, and eager to avenge retaliation, the defeat of the Senecas, the whole confederacy of the Iroquois darted like wolves at the throat of Canada. They made no united 92 A HISTORY OF CANADA. movement, such as the disciplined force of the French might have beaten back ; but they hunted in small bands, swift and noiseless as shadows. They left behind them smoking ruins, and the charred bodies of their victims bound to stakes of torture. Every settlement was in a state of siege ; and men could move about only in strong bands armed to the teeth. Every seigneurial mansion was made a fortress, in which the retainers might take refuge with their families and possessions. To add to the misery of the time a plague of smallpox ran through the settlements, fatal as the Iroquois hatchet. Unable to protect the country against an enemy whom he could not bring to bay, Denonville now desired peace, and deputies were Negotiations invited to meet him in Montreal. But they had been for peace. ^^y^ taught by Dongan. They would have no talk of peace, save on condition that their stolen chiefs should be brought back and the fort at Niagara destroyed. Dongan's interference was now open. He justified it on the ground that all the Iroquois were under English protection, and that Denonville's attack on the Senecas was an invasion of English territory. Denonville sent away the delegates, refusing to treat with them on account of their arrogant bearing. Then, in a short time, the Iroquois grew tired of the war, probably fearing another French army among the lodges, or considering that it was time for them to discourage the pretensions of New York. They sent new delegates to Montreal, to treat with Denonville on his own terms. Pending a formal treaty a truce was agreed upon ; and the delegates, leaving hostages, returned to the council-fire of the five tribes. 36. Kondiaronk, "the Rat," kills the Peace. The Lachine Massacre. — The proposed peace, though a boon to the French, The craft of meant ruin to the Hurons of Michilimackinac, who had Kondiaronk. ^XXx^A themselves with Denonville only on his pledge that there should be no peace till the Iroquois were crushed. The Hurons knew that Denonville could not protect them from the rage of the Iroquois. They were to be sacrificed. But one of their chiefs, known as Kondiaronk, or " the Rat," was a man of EXPULSION OF THE ENGLISH PLANNED. 93 great capacity and resource. He resolved to make peace impos- sible. Lying in wait for the envoys, who were on their way to Montreal to sign the treaty, he fell upon them with his Hurons, killed one, and captured the rest, claiming that he was acting on Denonville's own orders. The envoys protested hotly against the outrage, declaring that they were accredited ambassadors on the way to conclude peace with the French. This tale Kondiaronk heard with assumed amazement ; and then, cursing Denonville for having led him into an act of such treachery, he loaded his pris- oners with gifts and set them free, retaining one of them to be adopted, as he said, in place of a Huron slain in the attack. Then he hastened home to Michilimackinac, only pausing at Fort Frontenac to puzzle the commander with these mysterious words — "I have killed the peace. We'll see how the governor is going to get out of this affair." At Michihmackinac no one knew of truce or proposed treaty, and to the French commander of the fort Kondiaronk handed over his Iroquois prisoner as a spy. The unhappy captive shouted his story, but it was not beheved ; and as a spy he was burned. Then Kondiaronk set free another Iroquois prisoner, bidding him go and show his people the treachery of the French. Thus the peace was well killed. In vain did Denonville explain and protest, for the villainy now laid to his charge was no more than that of which he had before been guilty. The Iroquois would not be duped again. Silently they brooded a hideous vengeance. Meanwhile Dongan had been recalled ; but his successor, Major Andros, though he sought to restrain the Iroquois from attacking Canada, was not less firm in his assertion of „ ,. , . J • 1 • J 1 r 1 1 Theexpulsion hnglish sovereignty, and in his demand for the destruc- of the English tion of Fort Niagara. To Denonville and to Callieres Denonville it now appeared that the only hope of peace lay in the expulsion of the English from the continent. They laid before the King a plan for the capture of New York and Albany. At last, after months of suspense, fell the stroke of Iroquois vengeance. This was the massacre of Lachine, the most appal- 94 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ling event in Canadian annals. On the night of August 4th, 1689, under cover of storm and darkness, fifteen hundred Iro- The massacre quois Stole noiselessly into the village of Lachine, atLachine. ^^ j.j^g upper end of Montreal Island. Noiselessly they scattered among the dwellings. Then, with sudden wild screeches, they beat in door and window, and pounced upon the sleepers in their beds. Blessed were they who died thus in the first rage of the attack. Others — men, women, and children aUke — were dragged forth, tied to stakes, and tortured with unspeakable cruelties by the red glare of their blazing homes. The pen shrinks from relating the horrors of that night. Montreal was paralyzed with fear, and the hearts of men became like water. A body of two hundred troops, under an officer named Subercase, was encamped some miles from Lachine ; and as soon as the horrible tidings came this gallant leader marched against the butchers. But Denonville ordered him back within the walls of a strong outpost named Fort Roland. Fiercely protesting, he was forced to obey and leave the captives to their fate. Then the little garrison of Fort R^my, attempting to reach Fort Roland, was cut to pieces. In Montreal and Fort Roland there were troops enough to have crushed the enemy, but manhood seems to have fled from their leaders, the brave Subercase excepted. The Iroquois stayed upon the island just as long as it pleased them, and then marched off with their prisoners ; and from the walls of Montreal men watched their friends and kinsfolk borne away to a death of nameless agonies. Canada lay stricken faint with panic; and from her terror went up a prayer for the strong hand of Frontenac. Meanwhile The return James II had been driven from the throne of Eng- of Frontenac. j^^^^^^ ^^^^ -^^ ^a^ ?,\.t2id. reigned William of Orange, the mortal enemy of France. War had been declared between him and Louis. Denonville was recalled. And Frontenac, his faults forgotten in the face of the need that summoned him, was already on his way back to Canada (1689). Meanwhile what of Acadie, and what of Newfoundland? From AFFAIRS IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 95 the Treaty of Br^da in 1667 to the tune when Frontenac came back to save Canada, nearly a quarter of a century, was a period of little event in Acadian story. Governor succeeded Affairs in governor, and each in turn strove to make the most ■'^'^^'^i^- of his brief hour by ilhcit sale of brandy to the Indians and by a smuggling trade with the English. But population grew stead- ily though slowly, and spread to the fertile regions about the head of the Bay of Fundy. In 1671 Acadie had white inhabitants to the number of four hundred and forty-one, including the sol- diers on the Penobscot. It must be remembered that if Acadie's population was smaller, her territory was large, and took in a goodly extent of Maine. By 1685, however, the population had doubled, partly by immigration and partly by natural increase ; and thenceforth the settlements at Chignecto and Grand Yxt grew steadily, remote from the troubles of Port Royal, till the great ruin of a later century overtook them. The picturesque figure of this period is the brave but lawless wood-ranger, baron, lord of squaws, seigneur of savages, St. Castin, who dwelt in his strong post on the Penobscot and kept the gates of Acadie against the encroachments of New England. St. Castin had married a daughter of the great chief Matakando ; and his influence, backed by fear and sweet- ened by gifts, was felt in all the tribes of Acadie. As far as Newfoundland is concerned, all the half century pre- ceding the accession of William of Orange to the English throne (1689) is little more than a blank in her story. The great fish- merchants of the west of England held her in their selfish grasp ; and lest their fisheries should in some way be hindered, laws were passed forbidding settlement on the island. A resident popula- tion of one thousand in all, iust enough to look after . . ' -^ ^ Affairs in boats and gear m wmter, was the utmost that the fish- Newfound- land. ing-lords would allow ; and no one could build or even repair a house without a license from England. It is not strange that population grew slowly. The wonder is that any were found so bold or so obstinate as to force themselves in against so surly a reception. The main point of interest in this period is the begin- 96 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ning of the French fisheries question. As early as 1635 the French got leave to dry fish on the Newfoundland shores, on a payment of five per cent, of the produce. Pushing this privilege to the utmost, they planted a strong and well-fortified colony at Placentia (1660). Fifteen years later they induced Charles II to remit the five per cent, payment. Then they reached out sturdily in every direction, till a large part of the island was in their hands. When at length King William made war on Louis XIV, the encroachment of France in Newfoundland was given as one of his reasons. CHAPTER VIII. SECTIONS : — 37, Frontenac strikes the English Colonies. 38, Phips at Port Royal and at Quebec. Madeleine de la Vercheres. Death of Frontenac. 39, d'Iberville in Hud- son Bay, Acadie, and Newfoundland. 40, War of the Span- ish Succession. Final Conquest of Acadie. 41, Repose, Progress, and Western Expansion. 37. Frontenac strikes the English Colonies. — The great Louis was now at the summit of his splendour ; and it seemed that in the New World only was his word not law. combined There the rude English thwarted his plans, there the New^Yo^rk presumptuous Iroquois slaughtered his people. He ^^^'^^°^^^- resolved to put into effect the scheme of Denonville and Calheres. He would do nothing less than uproot the New York colony. His purpose was a wholesale expatriation of the eighteen thousand Dutch and English settlers, in comparison with which the later expatriation of the Acadians by the English would appear quite insignificant. The scheme was daring j but the means which Louis provided for executing it were laughably insufficient. Two ships, bearing about sixteen hundred soldiers, were ordered to Chedabucto harbour, in Acadie, there to await instructions. Frontenac, immediately on his arrival at Quebec, was to organize a land-force, and invade New York by way of the Richelieu, send- ing word to the ships at Chedabucto when his army was ready to start, in order that the two forces might cooperate. But endless delays ensued in the fitting of the ships, and further delays from head-winds in crossing the ocean ; and when the ships reached H 97 g8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Chedabucto the season was so far gone that Frontenac saw himself forced to give up the enterprise. Though lacking both troops and money, Frontenac put new life into Canadian hearts, and the Indians felt the firmness of his hand. He had brought back the Iroquois chiefs so Frontenac . resolves to basely kidnapped by Denonville ; and these, after English coio- winning by his kindness their fast friendship, he sent home loaded with gifts. But by this time so low had sunk the French prestige, and so diligent were the intrigues of the English traders, that all the northern and western tribes were on the point of making peace with the Iroquois, and going over in a body to the English. Frontenac saw that he must strike the Eng- lish at once, and strike hard enough to revive in Indian breasts the old terror of his name. In silent haste he organized three war-parties, made up of the fierce and hardy Canadian bush- rangers, and of Christian Indians from the missions. These he launched through the wilderness in the dead of winter, against the English borders. One band started from Quebec, one from Three Rivers, and one from Montreal. That from Montreal, after a march of terrible hardship under which less mighty sinews must The raid on have failed, drew near the village of Schenectady on Schenectady. ^^ Hudson. Its palisades were buried in snow-drifts, the gates stood open and unguarded, the villagers slept in what they deemed security. On a sudden the still and piercing cold of the midnight air was loud with war-whoops ; and the bewildered villagers awoke to find the knives of their enemies at their throats. The massacre was indescribable, and for a time the Christian Indians of the party committed their atrocities unchecked. Then the French interfered to save the poor remnant of the captives. A Mr. Glen, who in former days had treated with kindness such French prisoners as came in his way, was living across the river from Schenectady. He put his house in a state of defence and prepared to sell his life dearly ; but the French declared they were not his enemies, but his debtors. They not only protected his family and his property, but gave up to him such of the captives, SALMON FALLS AND CASCO BAY. 99 with their possessions, as he claimed to be his kin. The Indians grambled that Glen's kinsfolk were astonishingly numerous. The French made no long stay at Schenectady, but hastened back to Montreal with the tidings of their feat. Of the other two parties, that from Three Rivers stole upon the sleeping village of Salmon Falls, in New Hampshire. The terrible scenes of Schenectady were repeated. Men and women, old and young, were butchered ; the settlement was laid in ashes ; and many poor wretches who escaped the hatchet were starved or frozen in the The raids on woods. Such prisoners as were taken here, however, andCasccf^^^ were guarded from the Indians, and sent in safety to ^^^" Quebec. Then the third party arrived, and the combined force moved down Casco Bay. Here they met a sharp resistance. For several days the New Englanders held out. When at last they surrendered the fort, it was upon honourable terms, and on solemn pledge of protection from the Indians. But with shameless bru- tality the pledge was broken. The captives were handed over to the scalping-knife and the stake ; while fort and village were levelled to the ground. The stain of this vile treachery must rest upon Portneuf, the chief in command of the united force. The Three Rivers party, under leadership of Hertel, had shown itself bloody in assault, indeed, but honourable in triumph (1690). Throughout Canada the effect of these blows was visible at once. The north-west tribes made haste to propitiate Frontenac, trembhng to see that his hand was heavy as of old. Success seemed all at once to fill the air. A band of Canadian rangers, after meeting and cutting to pieces a war-party of the Iroquois, brought down to Montreal a vast store of furs which had for three years been accumulating at Michihmackinac. They had been kept back by fear of the Iroquois. This arrival set flowing once more in Canada the long stagnant currents of trade ; and the people praised heaven for their strong-handed governor. But meanwliile the stricken colonies of New York and New England were aflame. The blows which they had suffered were not those of civilized war- fare. The atrocities committed at Casco, Salmon Falls, Schenec- lOO A HISTORY OF CANADA. tady, lighted in the hearts of the Enghsh colonists a thirst for vengeance never to be quenched as long as the flag of the lilies floated in New France. The fight for New World empire now became, not a contest of policy merely, but a death-grapple of mutual hate. 38. Sir William Phips at Port Royal and at Quebec. Madeleine de la Vercheres. Death of Frontenac. — The .English colonies Sir William 110^^ appointed delegates to meet in convention at New ures Port*^' York and discuss the common peril. Finding that there Royal- -yvas no help just then to be got from Great Britain, New England and New York together resolved upon the conquest of Canada. First the New Englanders sent out a force to destroy the hornets' nest of Acadie, whence they had been stung so often. The expedition consisted of seven small vessels under Sir William Phips (1690). Port Royal was in no condition for defence, its ramparts were ruinous, its guns half dismounted ; but Menneval, the governor, put on so bold a face that Phips gave him honourable terms. When he saw, however, the weakness of the place, which he might have had for the taking, the very commercial New Eng- land captain felt that he had been cheated. On a flimsy pretext he pillaged fort and church, and carried off Menneval and his garrison as prisoners of war. Such of the private citizens as would take the oath of allegiance to England were left undisturbed. The rest were shamelessly plundered. But justice bids Canadians con- fess that there were no brutal atrocities, such as had stained the French attacks of the previous winter. On the return of Phips to Boston with his booty, a combined assault on Canada was organ- ized. The great colony of Massachusetts was to send a fleet against Quebec, while New York despatched an army to Montreal. Phips was put in charge of the fleet; while the land-force was led by Colonel Winthrop. The expedition against Montreal (1690) was unlucky from the beginning. Sickness broke out among the troops; the supply of canoes and food was insufficient ; the Iroquois failed to keep their promises of aid ; and the main body of the force got no PHI PS BEFORE QUEBEC. lOI further than Lake Champlain. A httle band of volunteers, how- ever, was allowed to go forward ; and the great enterprise at last fizzled out in a border raid on the village of La Prairie. „ ., ° Failure of Frontenac was then at Montreal, dancing the war- wmthrop's . expedition dance with the Indians of Michiliniackinac. While he against 1 ■ ■ 1 r 1 • 1 Montreal. was plannmg a sharp reprisal for this thrust, he got news which sent him in hot haste back to Quebec. De CalHeres, Montreal's brave governor, was bidden to follow with all his troops, and to muster the militia of the seigneuries on his way. The New England fleet was already at Tadousac. Quebec, since Frontenac's return, had had its defences much strengthened, particularly on the landward and weaker side. Now they were hastily reinforced with huge beams and casks full of stone. The batteries of the Upper Town and along the river's edge were made ready for action. About twenty-seven hundred regular troops and militia were gathered within the walls. The Beauport and Beaupr^ shores below the city, where the enemy might seek to land, were guarded by Canadian woodsmen. At dawn of an October morning, when all was in readiness, the hostile ships appeared, slowly rounding the green shores of Orleans Island. Sir William Phips had thirty-two vessels, large and small, and a force of about twenty-two hundred men. When he found him- self face to face with his heavy task, the stupendous pjjjpg before rock of Quebec with its ramparts and its batteries may Q"^^^'^- well have daunted his rough spirit. There was stir of military pomp in the city, and the Fleur de Lys flapped defiantly on the clear autumnal air. But if the New Englander felt any hesitation, it did not now appear. He sent a herald into the city to demand capitulation within an hour. Blindfolded, and by devious ways, the messenger was led up to Frontenac's chateau, where, in the midst of an imposing company, he delivered his curt message and laid his watch upon the table. But Quebec was not Port Royal. The French officers reddened angrily at the words of Phips, and fiery short was Frontenac's reply that his guns would give his answer. I02 A HISTORY OF CANADA. After some delay the attack began. Major Walley, the second in command, with thirteen hundred men and some small field- pieces, courageously forced a landing on the Beauport shore, while the ships opened fire on the town. The plan was that this land- Phips force should assail the city in the rear under cover of aMQifeljec ^^ bombardment. But the raw New England troops, delivered. harassed ceaselessly by the nimble Indian skirmishers and opposed by a battalion of hardy Canadian veterans, were foiled in every attempt to cross the Charles. After three days of battle, half-starved and half-frozen, they sullenly retreated to their ships. They left five of their cannon stuck in the Beauport mud ; but they had acquitted themselves, as their enemies said, like men. As for the bombardment, it had proved innocent enough against the strong walls of the city; while the ships, on the other hand, had been riddled by the guns of the batteries. Phips realized, at last, the magnitude of his undertaking. He withdrew behind Isle d'0rl6ans to repair his battered hulls ; and then sailed back with his chagrin to Boston. By this defeat Massachusetts was over- whelmed in mortification and in debt ; but Canada held services of praise in all her churches, and dedicated a chapel to " Notre Dame de la Victoire." At the King's command a medal was struck bearing this inscription : — Francia in Nova Orbe Vic- TRix ; Kebeca Liberata A.D. MDCXC. For the next few years the history of Canada presents but a series of raids and counter-raids, together with bitter internal strife between Frontenac and his followers on the one side, the Bishop and the Jesuits on the other. In this quarrel the King was com- pelled to interfere ; and Frontenac appears to have had the best of it. Among the disasters of the period stands out the massacre of La Chesnave, wherein the inhabitants of a whole village The heroine -^ ' . , , ., . of laVer- were slain or taken captive by the Iroquois. Among cheres. the heroic deeds of the time shines that of Madeleine de la Vercheres. This girl of fourteen, daughter of the Seigneur de la Vercheres, dwelt in what has been called the " Castle Dangerous " of Canada, so exposed was it to Iroquois assault. One morning. DEATH OF FRONTENAC. IO3 when her father was away at Quebec, her people out at labour in the fields, and she left in the fort with only two soldiers, her two younger brothers, and an old man of eighty for garrison, the Iroquois came. The men gave up in instant despair; but the heroic girl shamed and threatened them back to manhood. By a show of confidence she held the savages at bay till a few women from the fields gained the fort ; and she conducted the defence so tirelessly and shrewdly that for a week the enemy were foiled. She found no mean assistants in her two small brothers, twelve and ten years old, who handled their guns with wondrous skill and hardihood. Thus the exigencies of the time made heroes of our women and our children. When help arrived from Montreal, instead of smoking ruins and nameless horrors, they found the garrison safe and a girl of fourteen in command. In 1696 Frontenac led a strong force into the heart of the Iroquois country. These proudest of savages durst not face him in battle, but fled at his coming. He burned the chief towns of the Onondagas, including the great council-house of the whole confederacy ; and he devastated the land of the Oneidas. This energetic action steadied once more the ever-wavering tribes of north and west ; and it brought the Iroquois envoys to Quebec with prayers and wampum belts. While negotiations Death of of peace were dragging on, there came word that ^''o^ts'i^*^- England and France had settled their difficulties by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). In November of the following year, dauntless and a ruler of men to the last, the old lion of Canada died (1698). 39. D'Iberville in Hudson Bay, Acadie, and Newfoundland. — Before pursuing events across the threshold of the century, we must go back a few years and see what was being done in the Acadian land. Besides the great struggle over the Three centres possession of the Lakes and the Mississippi, in which North ^ ^^ Canada and New York engaged with so much heat, ^™^"''^- there were three other centres of strife in Nortb America. Amid the icy desolation of Hudson Bay, and about the austere coasts of Newfoundland, France and England were at each other's throats ; I04 A HISTORY OF CANADA. while along between New England and Acadie was a line of blood and fire. On Hudson Bay, after the capture of the three forts, Hayes, Albany, and Rupert, as described in an earlier chapter, only the post of Fort Nelson remained to England. Late in the war the D'lberviuein valiant d'lberviUe, fresh from triumphs in Acadie and Hudson Bay. Newfoundland, entered Hudson Bay and met there three armed English merchantmen. These, after a hot fight, were captured; and soon afterwards Fort Nelson shared their fate. Thus all the Hudson Bay region was brought under the flag of the Bourbons, — but only to be handed back to England by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). As for Acadie, she had long been neglected in favour of the St. Lawrence valley. Though desirable in herself, she was not con- sidered so vital a part of the edifice of French power Disputed . .^^ , , . ,, , . boundaries m America. Her borders were continually changing hands. The PVench claimed the line of the Kenne- bec as the western hmit of Acadie ; and near the mouth of this river stood the fort of Pemaquid, a bone of contention from its birth. The New Englanders claimed that Acadie's western bor- der was the river St. Croix, which now divides New Brunswick from Maine. If, however, Acadie was somewhat neglected by the government, she was by no means forgotten by the Church. Among the Abenakis of the Kennebec and Penobscot, the ]\Ieli- cites of the St. John, and the Micmacs of the peninsula, the influence of the missionaries dwelling among them was all but supreme. We have seen Phips capturing Port Royal in 1690, before his great repulse at Quebec. But though he took it, he could not hold it ; and soon after he left, the French resumed possession. The new governor, Villebon, to be safer from Massachusetts visitors,^ 1 The remoteness of the Nashwaak Fort did not save it from attack. In the autumn of 1696 it received a visit from a Massachusetts force under Colonel Haw- thorne and old Ben Church, the scourge of the Canadian settlements. The New Englanders, however, were beaten off by Villebon and his Indian allies; and their sloops made all haste out of the river. WAJ? ON THE ACADIAN BORDER. 105 removed his headquarters to the mouth of the Nashwaak stream, opposite the point now occupied by Fredericton (1692). Here he built a pahsaded fort, whence he directed the ^ Border war- bloody raids of the Indians against the border settle- fare between Acadie and ment of New England. On these raids Baron St. Cas- NewEng- land. tin did deadly service. The defenceless villages of York and Oyster Bay were laid waste, their ruins reeking with the blood of women and children ; but at Wells the raiders were beaten off by a handful of settlers in a block house. These barbarities were regarded by Frontenac as a necessity, in order to hearten his Indian allies and prevent them going over to the Enghsh. It must be remembered, in explanation rather than excuse, that a vein of cruelty had been temporarily excited in the Canadians by the fiendish cruelties which they had themselves suffered from the Iroquois. To their captives, however, they were by no means cruel. They treated their prisoners so kindly that many of these were most reluctant to be ransomed or exchanged. In 1692 the New Englanders rebuilt Fort William Henry, at Pemaquid, which had been destroyed by the Indians. This time they made it a strong stone structure. It jutted out into the sea, and was a ceaseless threat to the Abenakis, cutting off their expeditions along the coast. A few years later the French sent d'lberville with two ships of war to reduce it. D'lberville DTberville sailed into the Bay of Fundy to take on destroys Fort board Villebon and his Indians. There he fell in with Henry at two English frigates and a Boston sloop, and a fierce but unequal battle took place. One of the English frigates was captured, when on the point of sinking under the enemy's heavy broadsides ; and the other two vessels escaped in the thick fog which had closed about the struggle. The victor then sailed on to Pemaquid, a swarm of St. Castin's Abenakis following in their canoes to aid in the destruction of the hated fort. When sum- moned to surrender, the commandant of Fort William Henry rephed with fine defiance ; but on St. Castin's hint that if his Indians should be enraged by a stubborn resistance he would not I06 A HISTORY OF CANADA. be able to restrain them, the New Englander's valour weakened. On tasting the eifect of a few shells from d'Iberville's big guns, the remnant of it quite faded out, and the fort capitulated. D'lber- ville sent the prisoners away under guard, to protect them from the Indians, who hated the commandant, Chubb, for some past treacheries. The fort was levelled to the ground. After this triumph a daring scheme for the capture of Boston was elaborated, but it fell to pieces through various delays and D'Iberville's accident. D'Iberville, however, continued his exploits. Newfound- He sailed with his htde force to Newfoundland, where ^^'^^' at this time (1696) the French had but one settlement, the strong, fortified colony of Placentia Bay. The English had a fort and settlement at St. John's, with undefended fishing hamlets along the shores, besides a fortified post at Bonavista. Acting with the governor of Placentia, one Brouillan by name, d'lber- ville took St. John's and laid it in ashes. Then, separating from Brouillan, he led his little band with great sufferings through the winter wilderness, and ravaged all the Enghsh settlements but Bonavista and Carbonear. He was making ready to complete the conquest, when with spring came orders for him to go to Hudson Bay. How he fared there we have seen in a former paragraph. Having achieved all these successes in the north, d'lberville-^ turned his invincible energies toward the south and founded for France the great colony of Louisiana. By the Treaty of Ryswick, in which William HI gained the formal recognition of Europe and the hopes of James II were The Treaty forever crushed, France and England restored to each of Ryswick. other all places taken in the war. As far as the colo- nies were concerned, these eight years of bloodshed had brouglit the question of New World empire no nearer a solution. They 1 D'Iberville was a native Canadian, and of a true Canadian type. He was a son of Charles le Moyne of Montreal, a man distinguished for his bravery and for his services to Canada. The greatest of these services may be counted the gift of his eleven sons, ot whom d'Iberville was the greatest, but all were renowned. D'Iberville was born in Montreal in 1661, and died in Cuba, 1706. IVAI? OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. loy had well opened men's eyes, however, especially the eyes of the colonists themselves, to the real nature of the struggle and the real points at issue. There could now be no lasting peace till one side or the other should be acknowledged master of the continent. Soon after Frontenac's death his poHcy was seen triumphant. Callieres, his successor, concluded a lasting peace with the Iroquois, who never again gave any serious trouble. The tribes of north and south grew steady in their allegiance to France. All this was Frontenac's work, which Callieres but completed for him. 40. War of the Spanish Succession, Final Conquest of Acadie. — The peace sealed by the Treaty of Ryswick lasted but five years. Then, in 1702, broke out the war known to history as the War of the Spanish Succession. France and ^^ „, ^ The War of Spain fought against England, Austria, and Holland, the Spanish to decide what prince should sit on the Spanish throne. As far as France and England were concerned, this was really a colonial war. The question of supremacy in the New World was at issue. Louis XIV wished to put his grandson, PhiUp of Anjou, on the throne of Spain, in order that France might share in the huge trade monopoly of Spanish America, and that the two powers together might crush out the commercial life of the Eng- lish colonies, as well as the ocean trade of England herself. The war, therefore, was not a war of kings but a war of commerce. The question of the Spanish crown was a question of the English pocket. England and her allies resolved that not Philip, but the Austrian Archduke Charles, a prince hostile to Louis, should rule the destinies of Spain. The great battles which England's gen- eral, Marlborough, fought and won in Europe — Blenheim, Rami- lies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet — were battles for New World empire, just as much as if they had been fought on the St. Lawrence, the St. John, or the Hudson. In America, however, the struggle took the form of what the French called petite ,s;uerre, — a war of petty raids and surprises. French privateers scourged the English coast settlements, while I08 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the blustering old Puritan, Ben Church, with his fleet of Massa- chusetts whale-boats, harried the Acadian villages around the head Petty war- of the Bay of Fundy. The English colonies were *^''^- rapidly growing in wealth and population, but for lack of united action they were feeble in war. A scheme of union was proposed, and heartily approved by King William ; but the colo- nies, jealous and suspicious' of each other from the beginning, turned a deaf ear to it. /in Acadie the fort on the Nashwaak lost its importance, and Port Royal again became the capital. Early in this war Boston sent another fleet to capture Port Royal, hating it as the lair of the French privateers who marred her commerce ; but the attack was ignominiously beaten off. Mean- while the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who had succeeded Callieres as governor of Canada, despatched a war-party of French and Ind- ians under Hertel, who crept laboriously through the wilderness and fell upon the defenceless village of Haverhill on the Mer- rimac. The old story of ruthless massacre was repeated, women and children falling under the hatchet. Prisoners and booty in abundance were carried off to Quebec. This outrage stirred up the colonies to a fury which nothing less than the conquest of Canada would appease. As in former schemes, this was to be accomplished by two inva- Schemes and counter- sions at once. Quebec was to be assailed by water, schemes. and Montreal by land. When rumour of the scheme reached Canada, Vaudreuil set himself' to checkmate it by an inva- sion of New York. Scheme and counter-scheme alike came to nothing. The ships which were to have sailed from England for Quebec were turned at the last moment against the Spaniards. The army which should have taken Montreal got no further than Lake Champlain, where the Iroquois, pursuing their old policy, withdrew their support. An epidemic, also, weakened the troops, and robbed them of all heart. Vaudreuil's expedition fared no better, but melted away by desertion and disobedience before it came in sight of the English borders. But the colonies were now well aroused. In 1 709 an expedi- PORT ROYAL BECOMES ANNAPOLIS ROYAL. 109 tion under Colonel Nicholson, made up of English ships and colonial soldiers, was organized for the capture of Quebec. By the time it was ready winter was close at hand. It was too late to attempt Quebec, with the risk of being ^^es Port entrapped by the ice ; but Acadie lay within reach, ^names^ft Port Royal was now commanded by the brave Suber- Annapolis case ; but it was ill fortified, ill provisioned, and almost without ammunition. When Nicholson's swarm of ships appeared in the harbour, Subercase knew his plight was hopeless. But he put on a bold front, and resisted so hotly for a time that he got honourable terms for his half- starved garrison. With flying colours and the pomp of drums and bugles he marched his tattered troops out of the fort ; and Port Royal passed, this time finally, into the keeping of England. Nicholson changed its name to Annapolis Royal, in honour of Queen Anne. He repaired its defences, and left it with a strong garrison. On the heels of his departure came the fierce old woodsman, St. Castin, with the hordes of his Indians, and laid close siege to Annapolis Royal ; but the New Englanders came safely through this peril and at last the wearied Indians stole away. Having secured Acadie, Nicholson set his heart upon Quebec. England had scored such triumphs in Europe that she could now spare troops . for America. Seven of Marlborough's best regi-. ments, victors at Oudenarde and Ramilies, were sent 1 ,^ , r>- T , XT.,1 1 , The failure of out under General Sir John Hill ; and the transports SirHoveden • • , • •■ , o . ^; Walker, containing them were convoyed by a fleet of fifteen war-ships under Admiral Sir Hoveden Walker. This great force gathered at Boston to perfect the plan of attack. As usual, an army for the capture of Montreal was organized on the Hudson. It looked as if the inevitable hour had at last come for New France ; but Vaudreuil strengthened the defences of Quebec, posted his veteran troops at Chambly to cover Montreal, and awaited the blow. The blow never fell. Admiral Walker was both obstinate and incompetent. The elements, moreover, fought against him. When at length he entered the St. Lawrence he no A HISTORY OF CANADA. laughed at the warnings of his pilot and led his fleet too near the northern shore. Among the fatal reefs and shoals of the Egg Islands, eight of his tall battle-ships were shattered ; and that desolate coast was sown thick with wreckage and the bodies of the drowned. Stunned by the calamity, Walker fled away to Eng- land with the fragments of his ill-starred force ; and every steeple in Canada rang with the joy of the great dehverance (1710). The land-force, under Nicholson, had left Albany some weeks after the sailing of Walker from Boston. The fatal news over- took it on Lake Champlain. There was nothing left for Nichol- The Treaty son to do but march ingloriously home again. Three of Utrecht. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ (1713) the Treaty of Utrecht brought peace, a peace which marked an enormous expansion of the power and glory of England. From Spain she wrested the Asiento Contract, which gave her a share in the vast traffic ^ of Spanish America. From France she forced the cession of 'Acadie, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay Territory, and the rich island of St Christopher in the West Indies. France retained in Acadie the island of Cape Breton (at that time called He Royale), the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (including what is now known as Prince Edward Island), and certain fishery rights along a part of the Newfoundland coast. At last Fate was beginning to show .which rival she would favour. 41. Repose, Progress, and Westward Expansion. — Great Britain, never before so powerful, was now overtopping all her rivals in Europe, while in America she had made vast The position ^ of theantago- inroads upon the territory of New France. Even yet, nistsatthe ^ ^ 1 • , , r Treaty of however, one misfht have argued with show of reason Utrecht. , , ' r ^ ? , 1 ,• , • that the future of the contment would he rather \n the hands of France than of England. Cape Breton, the gate of the Gulf, was French. French were the two vast waterways, the 1 The most lucrative portion of this was the slave trade. In entering upon this iniquitous trade, England, it must be remembered, was no worse than her neigh- bours. The eyes of tlie civilized world were not then opened to the wickedness of this crime against humanity. THE FOUNDING OF LOUISBURG. \\\ St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. French were those island oceans, the Great Lakes ; and to France lay open all the boundless possibilities of the west. The prospect was a fair one, and it is not strange if she strove by secret means to keep her hold on the hearts of the Acadians, trusting some day to win back their treasured peninsula. Early in the war a noted Canadian fighter and fur-trader, la Motte Cadillac, had established a fort at Detroit, on the waterway between Lakes Erie and Huron, thus completing the ° Detroit, chain of French supremacy in the Lake region and se- curing the connection between the St. Lawrence and Mississippi routes. About this fort, an object of hatred to the English and to the tribes in alliance with them, surged for years an almost cease- less strife ; but the French held their own, and kept the highway open between Canada and Louisiana. For the rest of Canada, however, the Treaty of Utrecht began a long period of peaceful growth. Quebec at this date had some seven thousand inhabi- tants, Montreal three thousand, and all the rest of Canada about sixteen thousand. The French now set themselves to guard the entrance to the Gulf and secure their grip on Cape Breton. Thither were taken the inhabitants of the Placentia Bay settlement. On ■' . The founding a safe and roomy haven, then known as English Har- of Louis- bour, they built the town of Louisburg. The story of Louisburg is a romance. In its fortifications, which were of vast extent and designed by Vauban, the most celebrated engineer of the day, neither money nor toil was spared. So mighty a stronghold was it made, that men knew it as the " Dunkirk ^ of America." Being the headquarters for French privateers in the Atlantic, it was a ceaseless threat to the EngHsh colonies; and its effect on Acadie was dangerous, for it supplied a market to the ^ Dunkirk was a fortified seaport of immense strength on the north-east coast of France. After Louis XIV had improved its fortifications it was regarded as impregnable. 112 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Acadians and kept them from peaceful acceptance of English rule. Seeing this great stronghold close at hand, they could not but think that all Acadie would be brought once more beneath the flag of France. During this period English colonization made no progress in Acadie, which remained practically a French province. The The Aca- English held Annapolis, formerly Port Royal, where, ^^^^^- as in French days, the successive governors resided. They had also a fishing post at Canso, on the eastern extremity of the peninsula. The Acadians dwelt on the rich lands which they had diked in from the sea, having populous settlements on the Annapolis River, on the Basin of Minas, and on the isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with the mainland. These people, with the might of Louisburg in their view, steadily refused to take the oath of allegiance to the English Crown, unless with a reservation that they should never be called upon to fight against France. They professed to be strictly neutral ; but in reality, stirred up by emissaries from Quebec who strove to keep them faithful to French interests, they aided the hostile Indians and their country- men at Louisburg. About this time the fertile island of St. John (now the province of Prince Edward Island) began to be taken up by Acadian families who were unwilling to live beneath the English sway. In Canada there was steady progress under the long rule of Vaudreuil. The inhabitants cultivated flax and hemp, and were Growth of ^t length permitted to manufacture their own clothes Canada. ^^ ^j^^ coarser kind. Though the fur-trade was, as of old, the main support of the colony, yet greater attention began to be paid to the rich shore fisheries. Ship-building flourished, and a considerable traffic in lumber, fish-oil, and pork was opened up with the West Indies. But there was practically no immigra- tion to Canada, such as was filling up the English colonies ; and the population grew very sluggishly. The old rivalry between French and Enghsh remained as keen as ever, but it took forms of stratagem and policy rather than of bloodshed. Gaining VERENDRYE IN THE NORTH-WEST. 113 through then- missionaries the good-will of the Senecas, the French again planted a fortified post at Niagara, on land which was claimed by New York as English territory. The governor of New York retorted by the erection of a fort at Oswego, which undid the advantages of the French post. On the death of Vaudreuil in 1725 the Marquis de Beauharnois was appointed governor. He turned his attention definitely to the purpose of fencing in the Enghsh colonies. He proposed that no English settler should be allowed to behind the ^ ^ ° AUeghanies. plant his cabin beyond the AUeghanies. To prevent the spread of those tenacious pioneers further northward, Beau- harnois built a strong fort at the head of the narrows of Lake Champlain. This became the famous stronghold of Crown Point. But the most memorable achievement of this long peace in Canada was the opening of the far North-west by the Sieur de la Verendrye. In 1731 Verendrye started westward from Michili- mackinac with a party made up of his three sons, a bold Jesuit missionary, and a few picked Coureurs des Bois. The Indians had told him stories of the great Lake Ouinipon ; ^ and this water was the immediate object of his quest. By alternate paddling and portaging through that stern wilderness north-west of Lake Superior, he reached in the following summer a large lake which he called the Lake of the Woods. On and the great North-west, its shores he established the stockaded tradmg-post of Fort St. Charles, and here his party had a skirmish with those Iro- quois of the North-west, the Sioux, in which one of his sons was killed. From the Lake of the Woods they descended the wild current of the Winnipeg River till they reached the lake of their quest. Crossing its turbulent waters, Verendrye ascended Red River, and at its junction with the Assinaboine he built Fort Rouge, where now stands our western metropolis, the city of Winnipeg. Establishing their headquarters in these new regions, 1 Winnipeg. 114 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Verendrye and his sons explored and built trading-posts in every direction, visiting Lakes Manitoba and Winnipegoosis, and as- cending the Saskatchewan to its Forks. In their footsteps fol- lowed other Canadian traders ; and great was the increase in the stream of furs that flowed through the trading-houses of Montreal and Quebec. At length in 1742, one of the younger Verendryes crossed over to the Missouri, pushed up its broad and tuibid flood, and on New Year's Day, 1743, had sight of the far-off, sky-piercing summits of the Rocky Mountains. Other Canadian explorers, pushing eagerly northward, discovered the Athabasca and then the Peace River, and at their junction built Fort Chip- pewyan. In the meanwhile, however, the unwonted peace had come to an end. France and England had again plunged into the struggle. CHAPTER IX. SECTIONS : — 42, the War of the Austrian Succession. Pepperell's Capture of Louisburg. 43, Louisburg re- stored TO France. Boundary Disputes. 44, the English Hold tightens on Nova Scotia. 45, Fall of Beausejour, and Expulsion of the Acadians. 46, the Struggle in the West. 42. The War of the Austrian Succession. Pepperell's Capture of Louisburg. — This long peace, as far as Europe was concerned, had been the mere repose of exhaustion. When the nations had recovered, France and England only awaited an ex- causes of the cuse for flying again at each other's throats. Their '^^^' rivalry in the New World had been intensifying through the twenty-seven years of peace ; and a new jealousy was growing up between them on the thronged plains of India. The excuse for war was given by the death of the Emperor Charles VI, who left the throne of Austria to his daughter, Maria Theresa. The Salic Law, excluding women from the throne, governed in Austria ; but Charles had set it aside and obtained, by what is known to history as the Pragmatic Sanction, the assent of most of the European powers. Immediately after his death, however, France, Spain, and Bavaria sprang forward to drag down the new empress, and to place Charles Albert of Bavaria on the throne. England threw herself into the battle, as the champion of the young empress. This was chivalrous ; but it had a very practical basis, too, for France and Spain were planning to crush England's coloixies and to sweep English commerce off the sea. Il6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Presently the war broke out in Nova Scotia. The governor of Louisburg, judging the time ripe for the recapture of the penin- sula, sent a force of nearly a thousand men under DuVivier attacks du Vivier agamst Annapolis Royal. Canso was de- Annapolis. , , , . , stroyed on the way, and its people sent prisoners to Louisburg. Annapolis was weakly garrisoned, weakly fortified ; but its governor, Paul Mascarene, was indomitable. Harassed night and day he held the feeble post, not to be conquered by violence, not to be deceived by stratagem. At length du Vivier told him that a strong fleet was on its way from Louisburg, whose heavy guns would knock Annapolis down about his ears. If he would capitu- late at once, before the fleet's arrival, du Vivier offered hon- ourable terms. Upon this the Enghsh officers wished to yield, but Mascarene would not hear of it. On his refusal the baffled du Vivier marched his troops off" silently in the night. As a retort to this attack on Annapolis the New Englanders boldly resolved on capturing Louisburg. Governor Shirley of New England Massachusetts, who planned the audacious stroke, was capture of 3. lawyer. Li his ignorance of military matters he Louisburg. \\i\\e reahzed the gigantic task which he was undertak- ing. His ignorance was in this case an advantage, since Fortune smiled on his audacity. Shirley's plan rested upon swiftness of action. Louisburg must be taken before it could be reinforced. The lawyer governor showed fine powers of military organization. In haste a force of four thousand men was gathered, chiefly mechanics and farmers, with little discipline, but with vast enthusi- asm and courage. A small fleet was raised, and in an incredibly short time the expedition was under way. In command of it was William Pepperell, a man of excellent capacity and reputation, but with no experience as a soldier. He began his military life, indeed, as leader of this great and perilous enterprise. The expedition landed at Canso, and waited for the ice to clear away from the front of Louisburg. Here Pepperell was joined by four British battle-ships under Commodore Warren, who had been ordered to cooperate with the New England army. After LOUISE URG. 117 consultation with Pepperell, Warren sailed off to blockade Louis- burg harbour. On April 29th, the ice having moved off the coast, Pepperell got his transports under way ; and a hun- peppereii dred sail, bending before a fair wind, sped along the fng a\^Gaba-" Cape Breton coast. Early next morning the astonished ™^ ^^y* sentries on the ramparts of Louisburg saw the strange fleet enter- ing Gabarus Bay, only five miles distant. There had been a ball the night before; and people had barely got to sleep ere the startling tidings aroused them. Bells pealed loud alarm ; the booming of cannon from the walls called in all hunting parties and stragglers ; and Duchambon, the governor, rushed out with a hundred and fifty men to dispute the enemy's landing. But the New Englanders went ashore with a dash that was irresistible, the handful of French were driven back upon the town, and before night the disembarkation of two thousand soldiers had been tri- umphantly accomplished. Pepperell's army was in camp before Louisburg. It must be remembered that Louisburg was so strongly fortified that a French officer had said it might be held by an army of women against any assault. It was built at the extrem- Louisburg. ity of a low, rocky ridge jutting out into the Atlantic between the harbour and Gabarus Bay. Behind it, on the land side, the ground was chiefly morass, most unfriendly to the pas- sage of troops and artillery. Strong batteries of heavy metal crowned both landward and seaward bastions. In the mouth of the harbour stood a powerful work known as the Island Battery ; and at the back of the inner basin frowned the guns of the Grand Battery. Within the city, under the brave and experienced Duchambon, stood at arms some thirteen hundred troops ; and outside lurked a strong party of French and Indians, recalled from a raid on Annapolis, and threatening the besiegers from the rear. The work of reducing this mighty stronghold, of conquering its veteran defenders, fell entirely upon the raw New England troops with their citizen captains. The fleet under Warren threw never Il8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. a shell into the town. But Warren did indispensable service by keeping the harbour blockaded, and by capturing a strong supply ship (the Vigilant, of 60 guns) which came to the relief of the city. The glory of the achievement, however, must rest with New England. As soon as his troops were landed, Pepperell began forcing his way across the morasses between Gabarus Bay and the walls, erecting batteries to pound ceaselessly on the ramparts and to drop a hail of shells into the streets. One of the har- The siege. bour defences, the exposed Grand Battery, was capt- ured at the very beginning, by a combination of daring and good luck ; and with disastrous effect its heavy guns were turned upon the city. The New Englanders built their batteries in such exposed positions that the work had to be done at night, in order to escape the point-blank volleys from the walls. To silence the Island Battery and let the fleet enter the harbour, an outwork was raised on Lighthouse Point, on the other side of the passage. At length, oh the landward side of the doomed fortress, the New England guns had been pushed up to within two hundred and fifty yards of the west gate. The desperate sallies of the besieged had been again and again hurled back. The walls began to crumble under the ceaseless cannonading. The heaviest bastions went to pieces. And the Island Battery was put to silence by the storm of shot from Lighthouse Point. Duchambon had defied the first summons to surrender. But when he learned of the capture of the Vigilant; when he looked on his decimated garrison and his shattered ram- The capture. parts ; when he saw the fleet with its five hundred guns making ready to sail in, and the tireless New Englanders forming column for assault, — then he raised the white flag and asked for terms. In acknowledgment of his brave defence he was allowed to march out his troops with the honours of war. On taking over the city Pepperell gave a banquet, whereat his officers fraternized pleasantly with their vanquished foes and the' chief citizens of Louisburg. Including the garrison, he found D'ANVILLE'S EXPEDITION. II9 nearly 5000 people in the captured stronghold. These were sent to France. Pepperell and Warren were both rewarded, the one with a baronetcy, the other with the rank of admiral. New Eng- land rang with martial triumph ; but Canada staggered under the unlooked-for and deadly blow (1745). 43. Louisburg restored to France. Boundary Disputes. — To France the loss of Louisburg was intolerable. A great force, under the Duke d'Anville, was speedily gathered at Rochelle — thirty-nine ships of war, with a swarm of transports „. , , J. 116 13. l6 01 carrying some of the choicest regiments of France. d'Anviue's ■^ " ° expedition. Louisburg and Nova Scotia were to be retaken, Boston ravaged, and all New England snatched from Enghsh hands. New England trembled at the tidings; and Canada sent a strong band of her wood-rangers down into Nova Scotia to cooperate with d'Anville on his coming. But Fortune had no favours for the unhappy d'Anville. Before he was clear of the French coast two of his ships were taken by Enghsh cruisers. A succession of storms scattered the fleet, so that when, after ruinous delays, he sailed into the rendezvous at Chebucto Bay with two ships, he found but one other awaiting him. His morti- fication' brought on a stroke of apoplexy, which soon proved fatal ; and fevers thinned the ranks of the troops. Presently Admiral d'Estournelle arrived with other ships, and took com- mand. But on him, too, Fate turned an angry face. He was stricken with insanity, and stabbed himself with his sword. The leadership now fell upon de la Jonquiere, a naval officer of dis- tinction who was on his way to Quebec to relieve the governor- general. Meanwhile a few more of the wandering vessels had come straggling into the rendezvous, and Jonquiere presently set out to take Annapolis. Ere he reached his destination a great storm blew up against him, once more scattering the fleet ; and the discouraged remnant sailed away to France. The Canadian land expedition, in the meantime, had achieved a victory ; but it was a victory after the old bloody fashion of the Indian wars. A company of New Englanders under Colonel Noble were in peace- I20 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ful occupation of Grand Pre settlement, when the Canadians burst upon them under cover of night and killed eighty of their num- ber in their beds. After the ignominious collapse of d'Anville's expedition, the most formidable that had ever sailed for America, France gath- ered her strength for another effort to recapture Fate of ' jonquiere's Louisburg. She sent out )'^et another armament, expedition. , t ■^ t^ t- • i under Jonquiere. But tate was on its track at once. Off Cape Finisterre, in the Bay of Biscay, it was met by an English fleet under the famous Anson, and utterly annihilated (1747). Among the prisoners was Jonquiere himself, once more balked in his effort to reach the governor's throne at Quebec. Soon after the battle of Finisterre peace was concluded by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ( 1 748) . The other European powers which had been fighting were by this time tired of war ; but for France and England, both of whom now realized that the Treatyof Aix- Struggle was for nothing less than colonial empire and la-Chapeiie. ^^ commerce of the world, this peace was but a breathing spell. The key to the peace was Louisburg. That stronghold formed the chief point at issue between France and England. France was victorious in Europe, and in India she had snatched from English grasp the rich province of Madras ; but in America she had suffered a loss which counterbalanced all these gains. England, on the other hand, was embarrassed by civil war. Her energies were required at home to crush the rising of the Young Pretender.^ To regain Louisburg France was ready to give up not only Madras, but all that she had gained in Europe. Thus the remote Cape Breton stronghold bought for England an advantageous peace ; but the New Englanders, whose blood and treasure had won the prize, were filled with indignation. Their treasure, indeed, the mother country handed back to them ; but their other losses she could not restore. 1 Prince Cliarles Edward Stuart, who was striving to overthrow the Gueiph dynasty and regain the English throne for the House of Stuart. C A LOR ON DE BIENVILLE'S LINE. 121 For eight years following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748- 1756) there was nominal peace between France and England. But in America the quarrel over boundaries went on Boundary as bitterly as ever, and there was scarcely even the ^isp"''^^^- pretence of peace along the disputed borders of Canada and Acadie. In India, too, the so-called peace had small effect ; for Clive and Dupleix, the opposing leaders, fought their wild battles just as heartily as if the governments employing them were at open war. In America the two chief centres of conflict were Nova Scotia and the Ohio valley. Acadie had, indeed, been ceded to England, but what Acadie meant had been left unsettled. That active soldier and acute statesman, de la Gallissonniere, who served as governor-general of Canada during the captivity of Jonquiere, maintained that in the act of cession Acadie meant only the peninsula of Nova Scotia ; and he strenuously asserted the claim of France to all that tract which now forms New Bruns- wick and eastern Maine. He kept up, in spite of English protest, his posts on the isthmus of Chignecto and on the St. John River. Along the line of the Alleghanies he proposed to settle ten thou- sand sturdy colonists from France, to stop the westward flow of the EngHsh \ but in this scheme King Louis would not support him, thinking that the late wars had sufficiently depopulated his kingdom. Foiled in his prudent purpose, he sent out one C^loron de Bienville to mark a boundary line. This marking ° Celoron de was done by means of metal plates bearing the arms Bienville's of France, affixed to trees at certain intervals. At the foot of each of these trees was buried a leaden plate inscribed with a proclamation of ownership. The line was drawn all around the valley of the Ohio till it reached the Alleghanies. The first to feel its restrictions were the colonists of Pennsylvania, who were filled with wrath when the French notified them that west of the mountains they would not be permitted to trade. The Ohio valley at this time was a great resort of the English traders, and to expel them Fort Venango on the Alleghany River was built, soon after de Bienville's expedition. The whole question of the boun- 122 A HISTORY OF CANADA. dary was now referred to a board of French and English commis- sioners meeting at Paris. For three years, from 1750 to 1753, the problem was debated, and then the English members of the board withdrew from the vain dispute, doubtless considering that the sword would more speedily settle it. On the release of Jonquiere from his captivity in England he took his place as governor of Canada, displacing the brave Gal- lissonniere. With him began that reign of corrup- La Jonquiere, o o r and the tion which brought such shame on Canada and con- beginning of corruption in tributed SO mightily to the final overthrow of French Canada power on this continent. Avarice was Jonquiere's ruling passion, and by every kind of official corruption he sought to enrich himself. He defrauded Canada. He defrauded the King. The revenues from liquor licenses he appropriated, and sold these licenses to all who would pay for them, till drunkenness ran riot in the colony. He got funds to carry on explorations in the west, and used them, with huge profit, on mere fur-trading ventures. When at length the complaints of Canada won tardy attention in France, and he was called to account, the old miser died in time to escape the expenses of a trial. The Marquis du Quesne was made governor in his stead. But the example which he had set found able imitators, and Canada, as we shall see in a later chapter, fell a prey to a shameless band of official robbers. 44. The English Hold tightens on Nova Scotia. — From the valley of the Ohio let us now turn to the far east and observe the Halifax Struggle in Nova Scotia. Here the English took two founded. ■^j\\_2\ steps toward securing their hold on the country. The first of these was the founding of Hahfax (1749). The second was what is known as the expulsion of the Acadians, about which historians and romancers have so bitterly disputed (1755)- Annapolis Royal was not held a fit place for the capital of Nova Scotia, and immediately after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle it was resolved to build a city on the splendid harbour of Che- bucto. The importance of this site had long been recognized, as TFIE FOUNDING OF HALIFAX. 123 is shown by the fact that it was usually chosen as the Atlantic rendezvous of great naval expeditions to the New World. The scheme was announced in London, and liberal offers were made to desirable settlers, such as retired officers, disbanded soldiers and sailors, mechanics, and cultivators of the soil. To all were offered free grants of land, arms, tools, and a year's provisions, with representative institutions such as they had at home. The proposed city was named Halifax,^ and the Hon. Edward Corn- wallis was made governor. The generous inducements offered by the King brought forward many willing emigrants, and on June 2 1 St (1749), the war-ship Sphinx, with Cornwallis on board, sailed into Chebucto harbour. She was followed by a fleet of thirteen transports ; and a population of two thousand five hundred souls set about the building of the city. All sum- mer rang the astonished wilderness with the din of hammer and axe, while the Indians looked on with hostile eyes ; and by autumn the infant city had three hundred houses to show, defended by a palisade and two forts. Meanwhile a party of soldiers had been sent to drive the French from the north shore of the Bay of Fundy ; and the Acadians had been called to a conference with Governor Cornwallis.. At this conference they were pressed to take the oath of allegiance. When they repeated their old refusal, they were warned very plainly that unless they changed their minds they would not be left much longer in possession of their lands. If they would not become loyal subjects of their new sovereign, King George, they were told that they would have to be treated as his enemies. Stubborn and unconvinced, the Acadians turned back muttering to their homes, and the growth of Halifax went on rapidly. Other settlers came, and built Dart- mouth on the opposite side of the harbour ; and the zealous efforts of the home government, now thoroughly alive to the importance of the colony, brought out a large band of thrifty Ger- man farmers. These pioneers of another speech went apart, and 1 Named after the Earl of Halifax, President of the Board of Trade and Planta- tions, a body which had the supervision of colonial affairs. 124 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. formed the settlement of Lunenburg on a fine harbour westward from Hahfax. The building of Halifax was a proclamation to France that Nova Scotia had passed out of her hands forever. Its effect was to make her the more eager for its recovery. From Quebec and from Louisburg every effort was now put forth to keep the Acadian farmers true to France. Many of the Acadian parish priests, refusing to lend themselves to political intrigue, coun- selled their flocks to be loyal to the government under which they were living. But others were less scrupulous, or else more zealous for France. Chief among these was the famous Abbe le Loutre, head of the Micmac mission at Shubena- LeLoutre. ,. , ^ _ , . , cadie. Le Loutre was a fierce partisan and a tireless political agent. In comparison with the corrupt officials who were now sapping the life-blood of Canada, he shines by the sin- cerity of his zeal. But he was ready to sacrifice others as mer- cilessly as himself in the cause of French dominion. His ideas of war were those which Canada and New England had learned from their struggles with the Indians, — they were those of am- buscade and midnight murder. Against the settlements of Hali- fax, Dartmouth, Lunenburg, the fierce Abb6 sent out his painted followers by stealth, and the old barbarisms ^ of border war were repeated. The Acadians feared him with good cause. Those whom he suspected of leaning to the English he brought back to their allegiance by grim threats. Great numbers he led out from their comfortable homes to endure bitter hardships on new lands north of the bay. To the French governor at Quebec his vigour and sleepless zeal were worth a regiment of veterans. And Governor Cornwallis offered a hundred pounds for his head.- 1 Most conspicuous of these was what is known as the Dartmouth Massacre. One night, in the early spring of 1751, the Indians — accompanied, it is said, by certain Acadian wood-rangers in disguise — burst upon the infant village, scalped and slaughtered many settlers in their beds, and carried off others to captivit>'. The assailants escaped before the garrison of Halifax, aroused by the flames and cries, could come to the rescue. 2 During this period of supposed peace, both French and English were paying a bounty on their enemies' scalps, as if on the snouts of wolves. THE FORTS ON THE MISSIGUASH. 125 The line claimed by France as the boundary between Canada and Nova Scotia was the small tidal stream of the Missiguash, near the southern end of the isthmus of Chignecto. On ° Fort Beause- a spur of upland just north of this stream the French jour and Fort Lawrence, raised a fort, at the building of which the unhappy Acadians of the isthmus had to labour half-starved while the money intended to pay them found its way into the pockets of official rob- bers. This post was called Beaus^jour ; and on the other side of the Missiguash, as a counter-check, the English built Fort Lawrence. Fort Lawrence stood on the site of the once prosperous Acadian village of Beaubassin, which le Loutre and his Indians had burned to prevent the villagers falling under British influence. The Indians fought savagely to prevent the landing of the English force when it came to found Fort Lawrence. But as the landing was south of the Missiguash, on acknowledged Enghsh territory, the French soldiers of Beaus^jour looked on without interfering. This forbearance, however, was not for long. Both sides strove to encroach ; and the turbid little stream dividing their thresholds ran redder than ever with the blood of ceaseless skirmishes. One deed of all that the shores of the Missiguash beheld stands out for its treachery. The commander of Fort Lawrence was a certain Captain Howe, who was winning great influ- ^ ' ° ^ The murder ence among the Acadians and was therefore especially of captain , T ^ . , Howe, obnoxious to le Loutre. One mornmg the sentry on Fort Lawrence saw what he took to be a French officer from Beaus^jour, waving a flag of truce on the further bank of the stream. Howe, with a white flag and three or four men, at once came down to the shore to see what was wanted. The seeming officer, however, was one of the chiefs of the Shubenacadie Mic- macs, dressed in a French officer's uniform ; and hidden behind the dike lay an armed band of his followers. When the English came within easy range the savages sprang up, their muskets blazed across the tide, and Howe fell mortally wounded. At this villainy the French commandant, the fierce but soldierly la Come, was filled with indignant shame. He charged le Loutre 126 A HISTORY OF CANADA. with instigating it ; but the Abbe declared that his Indians had both planned it and carried it out without consulting him. 45. Fall of Beausejour and Expulsion of the Acadians, — And now the days grew dark for the unhappy Acadians. A few, yielding to the English demands, had made oath of allegiance to King George. Others had striven to be neutral. Yet others, lending ear to le Loutre, had aided the marauding savages, and even ioined them in their raids. The French governor The dilemma ^ ° of the Aca- at Quebec now proclaimed that all the Acadians must dians. swear fealty to France and enroll themselves in the Canadian mihtia, on pain of fire and sword. Major Lawrence, then governor of Nova Scotia, issued a counter-proclamation, declaring that any Acadian who, after taking the oath of allegiance to King George, should be found fighting in the ranks of France, would be shot as a deserter. In such perilous dilemma did these unhappy people find themselves, when all they wanted was to be left alone. But inclination, fear of the Indians, and a too great confidence in English toleration misled the Acadians to their ruin. They lis- tened to Quebec rather than to Halifax; and they found the error fatal. Toward the close of 1754 the French planned an invasion of Nova Scotia, from Beausejour as a base of operations. Report of this reaching the English, Lawrence took counsel Capture of o o ? Beausejour with Shirley, the energetic governor of Massachusetts ; planned by .r> t, & , New Eng- and it was resolved to forestall the attack by capturing Beausejour and driving the French out of the isthmus. Both Shirley and Lawrence felt the need of swift action, for they knew that when the French troops entered Nova Scotia ten thou- sand Acadians would rise and flock to their banner. Their plans were perfected with secrecy and haste. A force of two thousand New Englanders, of the same raw but sturdy material as the con- querors of Louisburg, was gathered in Boston. An EngHsh officer, Colonel Monckton, was placed in command, with the New Eng- land colonel, Winslow, under him. On the first of June (1755) the fleet conveying the little army dropped anchor at the head of FALL OF BEAUS&JOUR. 12/ Chignecto Bay, before the bastions of Beaus^jour. The fort was then held by no such redoubtable commander as the brave la Come. It was governed by the corrupt and incompetent Vergor, placed there not to defend the honour of Canada but to defraud the King. On his cowardice the intrepid le Loutre, whom he feared, was able to exercise some check ; but his dishonesty was beyond the Abba's reach. He was a mere creature of Bigot, the intendant, of whose iniquities we shall read in a later paragraph. On news of the approach of the English ships, Vergor had summoned the Acadians of the surrounding country to the defence of Beaus^jour. There were nearly fifteen hundred of them in all. Three hundred he took into the fort to strengthen his garrison. The rest were sent into the woods, to harass the invaders with skirmishing and night attack. The New Englanders paUof landed without opposition, on the southern side of ^eausejour. the Missiguash, and were joined by the garrison of Fort Lawrence. After a sharp engagement they forced the passage of the Missi- guash. A strong position was occupied on the ridge about a mile and a half to the rear of Beausejour. After a few days of entrenching and reconnoitring the lines were pushed closer in, and some mortars were got into position. These hurled shell into the fort, and the French cannon answered hotly. As Beausejour was attacked on but one side, there was free communication between the fort and the surrounding country ; and on the arrival of news that no help could be expected from Louisburg, that city being strictly blockaded, many of the disheartened Acadians walked quietly out of the fort and off into the woods to rejoin their families. Presently, while the English were yet toiHng to get their siege-guns into position, the game was decided. A shell from an English mortar crashed through the vaulted ceiling of a casemate in Beausejour, and by its explosion killed a number of the officers who were sitting there at breakfast. The result was instantaneous. When he was not safe even in his casemates, what could the vahant Vergor do but capitulate ? In spite of the fierce protests of le Loutre and some of the officers, he hoisted 128 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the flag of truce and gave up the fort. The garrison was allowed to march out with the honours of war, and was sent to Louisburg, under pledge that not for six months would they bear arms against the English. The Acadian prisoners were pardoned on the plea that they had fought under compulsion. Beaus^jour, becoming an English stronghold, was renamed Fort Cumberland. After the fall of Beaus^jour came that pathetic tragedy known as the expulsion of the Acadians. Up to the time of the attack on Beaus^iour those Acadians who had deserted their Removal of the Acadians homes' in Nova Scotia had been free to return and decided upon. ..,,,. resume possession of all their property, on the sole condition of allegiance. The Enghsh poUcy toward these people had been one of persistent forbearance and generosity. It was hoped that under such treatment they might become good sub- jects of the British Crown and bring their excellent virtues of industry and frugality to the building up of the province. They had been repeatedly invited to take the oath with the promise that they should not for the time be required to do military service. Under the long years of EngUsh rule they had prospered and multiplied, and unlike their brethren in Canada they had borne no burden of taxes. Doubtless if left to themselves they would have heartily accepted their new rulers, but the policy of France forbade that they should be left to themselves. In their simplicity they were good subjects for political intrigue to work with. Moved by persuasions, fervid appeals, terrifying threats, they became a menace to the English power, all the more dangerous because concealed. They were the enemy within the gates. While professing neutrality they lent ceaseless aid to Louisburg and Beaus^jour; and they hopefully awaited the day when they miglit once more serve their old flag. The Eng- hsh, after gaining Beaus^jour, could not spare enough troops to hold it if it was to remain girdled by a hostile population. Their long patience was by this time exhausted ; and if the step now decided upon seems to us a cruel one, we must remember to judge it by the standards of that day rather than of this. The THE EXPULSION OF THE ACADIANS. 129 whole spirit of border warfare was merciless. It must be re- membered, too, that the argument of necessity is a strong one. The English had been slowly forced to the conclusion that Nova Scotia could not be made an English colony except by ridding it of its French population. When two foes like France and Eng- land were fighting for a continent, it was hardly to be supposed that either would forego a vast advantage on grounds of pure humanity. During the siege of Beaus^jour Governor Lawrence summoned deputies from all the great Acadian settlements at Minas, Grand Pre, and Annapolis, and once more urged them to take the oath. They obstinately refused. He warned them that the time was come when their decision must be final. They would have to choose, and at once, between allegiance and exile. With a few exceptions they turned a deaf ear to even this plain speaking. Thereupon they were dismissed, and went home in a Wind faith that France would succour them. The few who had taken the oath were secured in their possessions ; and the stern decree of exile went forth against the rest. The preparations for carrying this decree into effect went on swiftly and secretly. Monckton, at Beausejour, seized about four hundred men ; but the other inhabitants of that The great region escaped into the wilds. Colonel Winslow, ^^ishment. marching in haste to Grand Pre, summoned the villagers to meet him in the chapel, read them the decree of banishment, shut the doors upon them, and held them all close captives. Captain Murray in like manner seized the men of Piziquid ; and Major Handheld captured those of the Annapolis district. A few active spirits, attentive to the first mutterings of the storm, got away in time, and sought refuge in the forests or across the bay. Then followed a long and trying season, for the transports were not ready. As the ships came in which were to bear them into exile, the men were marched down to the shore in squads, and their families and movable possessions were then distributed to them. The provision ships were long in coming ; and the grievous work I30 A HISTORY OF CANADA. dragged on, amid daily prayers and lamentations, till far into December. The greatest care was taken to avoid the separation of families, and as far as could be managed the inhabitants of each village were sent off together. Down to the flat red shore rumbled and creaked the rude Acadian carts, heaped with house- hold treasures ; and beside the carts moved the weeping peasant women, their bewildered children clinging to their skirts. Ship after ship sailed from Minas, Chignecto, and Annapolis, and distributed their sorrowful burdens among the English colonies of the coast. The numbers of the exiled amounted to more than six thousand.^ One ship-load overcame its crew, ran the vessel ashore at St. John, and escaped to Quebec, whither they were followed by hundreds of those who had in the beginning evaded capture. Some found their way to Louisiana, where they formed a separate colony, and where their sons retain to this day their picturesque and quaint peculiarities. Many, with an unconquer- able thirst for home, forced their way back to Acadie, where, being no longer dangerous, they were suffered to settle down again in peace. Their descendants, and those of the few who had accepted English sway, now form a large and influential part of the population of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. By this great banishment the best lands of Nova Scotia were left empty, and the governor strove to fill them up with an English population ; but it was five years before life began to stir anew on the bosom of those desolated meadows. 46. The Struggle in the West. — Turning back from Acadie to the west, we find the struggle no less fierce on the great river Ohio than on the little muddy stream of the Missiguash. On the The Ohio death of Jonquiere the Marquis Duquesne, as we valley. have seen, had been made governor. Duquesne pushed sharply the claims of France to the whole Ohio val- ley. As soon as the boundary commission at Paris broke up 1 It was something over 18,000 people that Louis XIV had proposed to remove from New York, without a tenth of the provocation that the Acadians had given. THE STRUGGLE IN THE WEST. 131 he got the militia of Canada into fighting trim, foreseeing war. The habitans, as the censitaire farmers of Canada were called, were a more military race than the Acadians. They had been trained in the fur-trade and in the Indian wars. Duquesne sent an expedition down the Alleghany River to the Ohio, to build new forts and strengthen those already estabhshed. This expedition produced a great effect on the western tribes, and many chiefs who had been coquetting with the English hastened to vow fideUty to France. The expedition was marked by Dinwiddle, the watch- ful governor of Virginia, who at once sent messengers to warn it away from what he claimed as English territory. The leader of this difficult and dehcate mission was a youth of twenty-one. His name was George Washington. He accomplished his task with that dauntless energy and courage which he was afterwards to display in a wider sphere. He was courteously received by St. Pierre, the French leader, whom he found established in Fort le Boeuf on the Alleghany ; but his errand, needless to say, proved vain. Seeing the French determined to make good their hold on the Alleghanies, the English organized a strong trading company, called the Ohio Company, which purchased a large port area of land in the region under dispute. The shrewd ^'^"i^^sne. eye of Virginia's governor saw that the key to the Ohio valley was the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, where now stands Pittsburg. Here the Ohio Company began a fort. When it was nearly built the French arrived. They drove out the garri- son, tore down the unfinished structure, and on the foundations raised a more imposing stronghold which they called Fort Du- quesne. They were doubtless grateful to their rivals for pointing out the value of the site. Though there was still the fiction of a peace between France and England, Dinwiddle not unnaturally regarded this act as a declaration of war. Washington was sent out again, this time with a force of regulars and backwoodsmen, to repel all further encroachment, and to take Fort Duquesne. Hearing of Wash- 132 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ington's approach, the commander of the fort despatched a small party to reconnoitre and to warn the trespassers away from French soil. The two parties met. Each suspected the other of treachery. In those great solitudes it was like men fighting in the dark, shocked by strange terrors. The English began the battle ; but how far their action was justifiable it is now hard to decide. The French were cut to pieces ; and French accounts called the affair an assassination. However the case may be, this small but desperate skirmish between two handfuls of men in the wilderness was the spark from which soon sprang a conflagration. Washington's main camp was on what were called the Great Meadows ; and there, expecting immediate assault in force from Fort Duquesne, he made haste to entrench himself. To the „ . . slight defences which he was able to throw up he Washington ° * at Fort gave the name of Fort Necessity; and hither came Necessity. ■' reinforcements of militia and Indians, till he had about three hundred and fifty men inside the feeble lines. To the attack came de Villiers from Fort Duquesne, with an over- whelming array. After a nine hours' fight in drenching storm, the trenches a slough of blood and mire, Fort Necessity surrendered ; and Washington, marching out with honours of war, led his de- spondent little army back across the mountains. When de Villiers returned in triumph to Fort Duquesne he left not a vestige of EngUsh control in all the Ohio valley. The Indians outdid each other in their devotion to the victors ; and in the war which immediately followed their tomahawks and tactics brought disaster on the English more than once. In the following year the English government ordered two regiments to America, under the command of General Braddock. France promptly prepared a much larger force for plan of Canada, under the leadership of Baron Dieskau. At action. the same time she sent out the Marquis de Vaudreuil as governor, to relieve Duquesne, whose health had broken down. Vaudreuil, a son of the former governor of that name, was a native Canadian, and his appointment pleased the people. Both BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION. 1 33 France and England now protested that nothing was further from their thoughts than war ; but both made every effort to get in the first blow. On Braddock's arrival a meeting of the colonial gov- ernors was held, and the reduction of Forts Duquesne, Niagara, and Crown Point was decided upon. The expedition against Beaus^jour, already described, was at this time well under way, thanks to the tireless energy of Shirley. The attack on Fort Du- quesne Brad dock took upon himself; that on Niagara was en- trusted to Shjirley ; and that on Crown Point to Colonel William Johnson.^ While Beaus^jour was crumbling before the New England guns, Braddock was forcing his way through the difficult wilderness between the Virginian settlements and Fort Duquesne. His army consisted of one thousand British regulars expedition^ and twelve hundred of the Virginia militia. Centre- Duouesne"'^* coeur, the commander of Fort Duquesne, felt that there was little hope of withstanding such a force ; but he resolved to throw down the gage of battle ere the enemy could reach his threshold. He threw out into the forest a party of two hundred Frenchmen and five hundred Indians, under the command of a daring officer named Beaujeu. These skirmishers, trained woods- men all, placed themselves in ambush on both sides of the trail along which Braddock was moving. The English army had just crossed the Monongahela, and Braddock was momently expecting the gray walls of the fort to rise upon his view. It was a clear day in July, and the sun beat fiercely down upon the long line of scarlet and blue which filled the path between the deep green forest walls. Suddenly a French officer, wearing the war-paint and head-dress of an Indian, ap- peared in the middle of the road ; and the vanguard halted in 1 Johnson was a settler on the Upper Hudson. He was not a trained soldier, but was brave and sagacious. His influence with the eastern cantons of the Iroquois was enormous, and kept them from going over, like the Senecas, to the French alliance. He was married to Molly Brant, sister of the famous Chief Brant of the Mohawks. 134 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. wonder. At a signal from this apparition there shrilled the daunting war-cry of unseen savages ; and out of the sunny leaf- age on either hand streamed a murderous storm of lead. The English at first fired steadily at their invisible foes ; but know- ing nothing of forest warfare they held solidly to their ranks, and so offered a helpless target. When the main body came up, it caught the confusion of the vanguard ; and the whole army, Braddock's bewildered and cowed by the murderous converging defeat. ^^^ ^^^ l^y ^ sense of utter powerlessrjiess, huddled together in a trembling mass. The Virginian militia, who knew how to fight in the woods, scattered out in skirmish lines behind rock and tree, and would probably have saved the day but for Braddock's folly. He thought it looked cowardly to fight behind trees, and beating them with the flat of his sword he ordered them back into line. Appalling were the heat and tumult. The stupefied soldiery, too stubborn to run, too panic-stricken to see what they were doing, fired at friend and foe alike, or shot their useless weapons into the air. All through the afternoon went on the carnage. Braddock stormed about the melee, fearless and furious. He had four horses shot beneath him. At length he ordered a retreat ; and even as he did so his fate overtook him, and he fell, shot through the lungs. Indomitable to the last, he ordered that he was to be left on the field ; but the militia dis- regarded his words and carried him to the rear. The retreat was covered by Washington with a small party of his Virginians, who, fighting like their foes, were able to hold them in check. Washington had two horses killed under him, and his uniform was torn with bullets. Of the whole force scarce six hundred left the field, and these poor remnants fled trembhng back to Fort Cumberland, with their wounded and their shame, and left the frontier settlements naked to ravage. The mistake made by Braddock was in refusing to adapt his tactics to the situation. He was superbly brave, energetic, vigi- lant, and tenacious. He did not, as he has been accused of doing, lead his men into an ambuscade. His line of march was JOHNSON'S VICTORY AT FORT GEORGE. 135 well arranged, and he had scouting parties out on both sides to guard against surprise. But he scorned the mihtia, on whose experience in Indian warfare he should have depended ; and he thought it unworthy of men to dodge behind cover. His regu- lars, excellent troops for fighting in the open, might have done good service here also had the Virginians been in front to show them how. The unhappy general, as he lay dying, murmured grateful praise to the mihtia, and almost his last words were, " We shall better know how to deal with them another time." There was rejoicing in Canada, lamentation in the colonies. The expedition of Shirley against Niagara was at once aban- doned. But Johnson, with his undisciplined back- Johnson's woodsmen and his Mohawks, was not to be diverted victory at from his attack on Crown Point. Of this plan, how- ever, the French had got timely warning from papers of Brad- dock's found on the bloody field of Monongahela. Baron Dies- kau and his veterans, who were just setting out for the capture of Oswego, were sent instead to Lake Champlain. Johnson built, as his base, a fort on the Hudson, known thereafter as Fort Edward. Thence he marched to the foot of Lake George, fourteen miles distant, and there erected Fort George. While he was thus occupied the French general, with a portion of his force, moved upon Fort Edward. Johnson sent out a thousand men to check him, but this detachment was utterly routed. It saved Fort Edward, however ; for Dieskau, thinking to follow up his advantage, turned swiftly upon Fort George. The Eng- lish hastily threw up breastworks . of logs. Their position was a strong one, and they outnumbered their assailants. Dieskau was impetuous ; and he burned, moreover, to emulate the vic- tory at Monongahela. He hurled his troops — regulars, Cana- dian militia, Indians — against the English front and flank. But vain was his valour. Six hundred of his men were cut down 1 Volunteers of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York. 136 A HISTORY OF CANADA. amid the underbrush. The rest were driven back in wild rout ; and he himself, desperately wounded, was carried a prisoner into the English camp (1755). The Mohawks, furious at the loss of some of their highest chiefs, howled for vengeance upon him. But Johnson held them with a stern hand, and treated his illustrious captive with all courtesy. For this success Johnson was made a baronet ; and on the scene of it was built Fort William Henry. When the year closed it left the French overwhelmingly triumphant in the west ; but checked on Lake George, and beaten in Nova Scotia. CHAPTER X. SECTIONS: — 47, the Seven Years' War. Fall of Fort William Henry. 48, the Combatants compared. Louis- burg ONCE more. 49, TiCONDEROGA. 50, THE BEGINNING OF THE End. 47. The Seven Years' War. Fall of Fort William Henry. — And now, after fierce battles in America, in India, and on the sea, England formally declared war (i7?6). France ' ^ ■' \ i:> J The Seven followed at once, and other European powers rushed Years' war begins. in. With France were allied Austria, Russia, and numerous lesser states. By the side of England stood Prussia, a small kingdom, but terrible in war, because ruled by one of the most wonderful of leaders, King Frederick the Great. Though England came out triumphant from this grim struggle of the Seven Years' War, it must be borne in mind that the glory does not all belong to her. She was able to win victories at Louisburg, at Quebec, and on the plains of Hindostan, because her enemies' hands were kept busy in Europe by her tireless and indomitable ally. If the weak Louis XVI had not been dragged by the intrigues of favourites into attacking Frederick, all the immense military power of France might have been put forth in America and India. The great duel for colonial empire might have had far other ending, and the current of history might have been turned into so different a channel that imagination fails to picture it. At the first of the war the English suffered heavily. The line of the AUeghanies, left open by Braddock's defeat, ran red with 137 138 A HISTORY OF CANADA. blood. The border settlements of Pennsylvania were raided by Indian war-parties, till all the lodges of the Ohio valley were filled with English prisoners and English scalps. The vania'sbor- Quaker assembly at Philadelphia covered itself with shame by refusing to defend the frontier. It cared only to extort concessions from the governor. All the old agonies of border battle were repeated, but now along a border that had never been taught to protect itself — a border naked of forts, block-houses, and warlike defenders. France now sent out to Canada, with some veteran regiments, one of her ablest commanders, the heroic and valiant Montcalm.^ With him were de L^vi, de Bougainville, and de Bourlamaque, worthy lieutenants to such a chief. To oppose Montcalm the Enghsh government, then led by the incompetent Duke Montcalm tot> ',^;^^, comes to of Newcastle, sent out the Earl of Loudoun and Gen- eral Abercrombie. Thus France scored the first ad- vantage, in setting skilled captains to confront the feeble leaders of her foe. Montcalm, full of energy and resource, lost no time. He captured and destroyed Oswego, taking fourteen hundred prisoners and an immense quantity of stores. This was an im- portant success, for Oswego was the base from which the English were about to attack Niagara. The west was thus made secure. Then the tireless commander ascended Lake Champlain, and took up his position at Ticonderoga, a few miles beyond Crown Point. Here, on the thoroughfare between Lake Champlain and Lake George, he entrenched himself securely. The position, naturally strong, his engineers made all but impregnable. By this move he closed and barred the inland gates of Canada. Meanwhile the Earl of Loudoun did nothing but hold councils Loudoun at ^^'^^ reviews. In the following year he sailed for Halifax. Halifax, with fourteen ships of war and the greater portion of his troops. His purpose was an attack on Louisburg. 1 Louis de St. Veran, Marquis de Montcalm, at that time 44 years of age. He had distinguished himself in Italy and in Bohemia, and had won his promotion by his valour. He was born at Candiac, in the south of France, in 1712. MASSACRE AT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. 139 He spent the summer in idly threatening that stronghold, in drill- ing his already well-drilled men, and in growing garden stuff to keep the soldier's blood in good condition. Men said that he would carry on the campaign with cabbages for cannon-balls. At length he heard that Louisburg had been strongly reinforced, and that twenty-two French ships of the line were lying under its guns. In discomfiture he sailed back to New York. Admiral Holborne, however, who commanded the English fleet, was of better mettle. He cruised to and fro before the harbour of Louis- burg, trying to tempt the French ships out to battle ; till at last a storm arose and so shattered his fleet that he had to sail away for repairs. Meanwhile Montcalm, seeing Loudoun's mistake in carrying his troops off to Halifax, came out of his lines at Ticonderoga, moved down Lake George, and with six thousand men laid . . The massacre siege to Fort William Henry. The fort was well atFortwn- liam Henry. built, and garrisoned by two thousand two hundred men under a brave Scotch soldier, Colonel Munro. Fourteen miles away, at Fort Edward, lay General Webb, with a force of thirty-six hundred. Montcalm, remembering the fate of Dieskau, attempted no assault ; but before settling down to a regular siege he asked the fort to surrender, saying that his victory was sure, but that if there was stubborn resistance he feared he might be unable to check the ferocity of his Indians, who made up a third of his force. Munro answered that he would defend his post to the end ; and his guns opened fire. Soon the French field-pieces were in position, and under their battering the wooden ramparts of the fort flew rapidly to splinters. Munro had sent urgent petition to Webb for reinforcements, but that ofiicer declared that he could not spare a man. As the position of Fort William Henry grew more and more desperate, Munro repeated his appeal with vehemence. Three thousand six hundred men were lying idle at Fort Edward. Had this force moved upon Montcalm's rear while the garrison assailed his front, the French would have found them- selves in perilous straits. But W^ebb was a coward. He had no I40 A HISTORY OF CANADA. heart to come out from his ramparts while Indian scalping- knives were in the field. At last, his fort in ruins, and a general assault with all its horrors impending, Munro capitulated. Montcalm allowed the garrison to march out with the honours of war, and pledged himself to protect them from the Indians. But now fol- lowed a deed that brought dishonour on the French arms ; for Montcalm had promised more than he could perform. The Indians were in an ugly mood, because the fort had yielded scant plunder. As the English troops, with all their women and chil- dren, were filing through the woods to Fort Edward, the savages burst upon them. The men were helpless, having given up their arms to the victors. Women were snatched out of the ranks and scalped. Children were dashed to pieces against the trees. The heads of men were split open with hatchets. A hideous clamour arose of shrieks and oaths and yells. The wilderness became a reeking shambles. Beside himself with shame, Montcalm ran hither and thither sword in hand, and strove to check the slaugh- ter. He threatened ; he implored ; and several of his ofificers, passionately seconding his efforts, were wounded in the struggle with their butchering allies. But every French bayonet should have been ordered to the charge ere the stain of such a treachery was allowed to rest on Montcalm's honour. To him had the fort surrendered, and he was responsible for the prisoners. When at last the butchery was stopped the savages made off, in fear lest their captives and their plunder should be taken from them. Fort William Henry was then levelled to the ground. The spirit of Canada, by this victory, was braced anew for the great struggle in which she was now finally locked ; but Montcalm's heart was heavy for the shame which his aUies had put upon him. 48, The Combatants compared. Louisburg once more. — At this hour of exultation for France, of gloom for England, there Pitt comes came a sudden change. The incompetent Newcastle into power. niinistry was cast down, and the " Great Commoner," William Pitt, was called to power. His dauntless will and swift energy made themselves felt in every pulse of the empire, and FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONIES COMPARED. 141 English hearts revived ; while in Canada the sagacious eyes of Montcalm watched anxiously to mark in what direction the new fire of his adversaries would strike. The end of the great duel for colonial empire was now close at hand. The English colonies were far richer and ten times more populous than Canada. In more or less compact The French settlements they could boast a population of about colonel wm- one million three hundred thousand souls ; while Can- p^""^*. ada had scarcely more than sixty thousand inhabitants, and these trailed thinly along the St. Lawrence, with denser clusters at Que- bec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. Her vast western territory was held only by a frail chain of forts, the capture of almost any one of which would put an end to her connection with Louisiana. Her inhabitants were impoverished, ground helplessly beneath the ra- pacious hands of Bigot and his crew ; while the Enghsh colonists, lightly taxed and cheaply governed, were rapidly growing in wealth. On the other hand, the English colonies were unwieldy in war, because of their unwillingness to act together, their extreme economy in military expenditure, and their jealousy of each other as well as of the home government. The Canadians were under one control. The habitans were all bound in military service to their seigneurs, and the seigneurs to the King. Thus the commander- in-chief, as the King's military representative, could wield the whole body as one man. And this whole body was inured to war. Canada was like a bright, light weapon, ready drawn, and bran- dished in all directions ; while the English colonies were like a huge blade, strong and terrible indeed, but hard to wield and rusted in the sheath. As the struggle was not, at the last, decided wholly by the sword, a word is needed here to show how the military genius and tried valour of men like Montcalm and his lieu- Bigot's cor- tenants were made vain by civil rottenness at the heart ™Pti°°- of Canada. The civil affairs of the colony were in the hands of a creature of the King's mistresses, the briUiant and infamous Bigot. As intendant, he held the purse-strings. Offices of profit imder 142 A HISTORY OF CANADA. his authority he filled with such men as would follow his example and act as his tools. The old seigneurial families, unable to stem the tide of corruption, for the most part held aloof on their estates ; though a few yielded to the baneful example. The masses suffered in helpless silence. Montcalm, the military chief, had small means of knowing the real state of affairs, and still less means of interfering had he known. The governor alone, Vau- dreuil, might have changed it ; but he was either blinded by Bigot's cleverness or in sympathy with his crimes. Either directly or through his confederates, of whom the most notorious was a contractor named Cadet, Bigot's thieveries rose to a colossal figure. The King's milUons sent out for war, the people's millions squeezed from them in crushing taxes, alike found their way into these rapacious pockets. The enemies of New France within the walls were as deadly as those without. As outside perils thickened, Bigot's thefts grew more daring. Forts fell like ripe fiiiit into the hands of the Enghsh, because they were commanded by weak favourites of the intendant, or because the intendant had kept the money which should have supplied them with arms and food. Brave soldiers were left half-starved, half-clothed, half-armed, that Bigot and his followers might revel in profligate excess. It is claimed that in two years alone, 1757 and 1758, the intendant cheated his King and country out of nearly five million dollars. A few years later, when New France had passed into Enghsh hands and the flag of the lilies had been lowered on all her strongholds, Bigot was thrown into the Bastille. Being brought to trial and condemned, he was banished from France for hfe, his estates were confiscated, and a crushing fine was laid upon him. His confederates, in varying degrees, received like punishment. To return to the conflict. The first blow of Pitt's heav}^ hand fell on Louisburg. To reduce this dreaded stronghold he sent out a force under General Amherst,^ with James Wolfe as second 1 Aftenvards made Lord Amherst. He was a brave and experienced com* mander, skilful but slow. He did good service in this campaign, but has been thrown into eclipse by the brilliancy of Wolfe's achievements. WOLFE AND MONTCALM. 143 in command. Though but thirty-two years old, and of delicate health, Wolfe had won distinction for s'agacity and fiery courage on the battlefields of Europe. He was chosen over the heads of many seniors, because in the ardent young soldier characteris- Pitt's keen eye had discerned the qualities dear to his and Moat*-*^ own heart and necessary to the execution of his daring *'^^™" purpose. Wolfe was loved by his followers and his fellows, trusted implicitly by his superiors. In a warlike generation his bravery was conspicuous. His character was a rare combination of wis- dom, manhood, gentleness, though marred sHghtly by an irritable temper. It is a somewhat strange coincidence that his great opponent should have been a man distinguished by like qualities. In appearance the noble antagonists were most unlike. Mont- calm, with erect, strong, soldierly figure, square, resolute face, full forehead and dominant chin, looked his part. Of Wolfe's face the most prominent feature was the somewhat tilted nose, from which forehead and chin receded sharply. His upper lip was long and full, so that the lower part of his mouth looked weak by contrast. His chest was narrow ; his frail limbs were ill-fitted for ■warHke exercise ; his long, red hair was gathered in a queue. But in his eyes, masterful and penetrating, burned the light of his indomitable spirit.^ With the army under Amherst and Wolfe went a strong fleet led by Admiral Boscawen. Early in June, 1758, the whole force reached Gabarus Bay. Louisburg, since its capture ^ °' ^ Louisburg. by Pepperell thirteen years before, had been vastly strengthened, especially on that landward side where it had proved vulnerable. Within its mighty ramparts dwelt and traded a population of about four thousand souls. Its commandant was a brave and prudent officer, the Chevalier de Drucour. Its garrison consisted of three thousand regular troops, veterans of European 1 Wolfe was the son of an English officer. He had been in the army from the age of fifteen. Adjutant of his regiment at sixteen, he was lieutenant-colonel at twenty-three, through his own merits. He had served with high distinction at Dettingen, Culloden, and other famous battles. 144 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. wars, besides a body of armed citizens. Under the heavy bastions of the water-front rode at anchor twelve war-ships, carrying about three thousand men and five hundred and forty-four guns. The batteries of the fortress mounted in all two hundred and nineteen heavy cannon and seventeen mortars. It is a high tribute to Pepperell's judgment that his plan of attack was followed by the experienced Amherst. But Amherst's The second landing, on the shore of Gabarus Bay, was a more dif- siege. ficult task than Pepperell had found it. It was done through a heavy surf, and in the face of an enemy well prepared to repulse it. Wolfe, armed only with a cane, led the movement. The fight was deadly fierce, but brief. Boats were shattered on the rocks, or swamped by cannon shot, but the red-coated assail- ants would not be checked. They swarmed ashore with cheers. A battery was captured ; and the French at length were routed with heavy loss. The EngHsh gave chase through the thickets of young fir-trees till they came out upon the morass, in fall view of the great ramparts. Then the cannon thundered against them and drove them back. Meanwhile the whole force had made a landing. The result of this success was a prompt abandonment of the Grand Battery, as well as the battery on Lighthouse Point, which were thus outflanked. They were at once occupied by the English and their fire turned against the Island Battery. Night and day this duel of giants was kept up, the heavy guns roaring defiance back and forth across the harbour. Steadily and quietly the invaders, burrowing like moles, ran their zigzag trenches closer to the walls, planting their batteries nearer and nearer, hurling back the fiery sorties of the garrison, and holding hke bulldogs to every advantage gained. Soon the Island Battery was silenced, and the gate of the harbour lay open to the English fleet. But Drucour sank four large ships in the jaws of the passage, barring it anew. His other ships were set on fire by shells and burned, except one which was daringly cut out by a party of English sailors. The position of the garrison grew desperate. In the intervals of the cannonade, however, nice courtesies FINAL CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG. 145 were exchanged between the rival leaders. Amherst ordered his gunners to spare as far as possible the houses of the town. Dru- cour sent word to Amherst under a flag of truce that he had a wonderfully skilful surgeon, whose services were at the disposal of wounded English officers. Amherst took pains to send in reports and messages ft-om his wounded captives ; and to Madame Dru- cour he sent a basket of pineapples with many regrets for the dis- comforts which he was causing her. Madame Drucour, not to be outdone, presented her foe with a hamper of fine French wines. For all these courtesies the fight was no less fierce. At last, with his ramparts breached, his best guns silenced, and nearly half his garrison killed or wounded, to save the town from the horrors of assault Drucour made unconditional surrender. He had gained the glory of a heroic defence. He had held out so long that, as he purposed, there was no time that year for Amherst . . ^ The final to strike another blow at Canada. The brave de- fan of Louis- burg, fenders of Louisburg were sent to England as pris- oners of war. With the fall of the stronghold all Cape Breton, and also the island of St. John in the Gulf (now Prince Edward Island), passed under the Enghsh flag. For months went on the toil of demoHshing the mighty fortifications, — blowing up case- mates, fining in ditches, shattering the walls of stone with pick and crowbar, — till Louisburg was no more. But the vast fines of the earthworks are still to be traced, covered with a mantle of green turf; and the bells of pasturing sheep tinkle softly over the tomb of the vanished fortress. 49. Ticonderoga. — But while the French were suffering this deadly stroke at Louisburg, they triumphed on Lake Champlain. Not yet had the chief antagonists come face to face. While Wolfe was serving Amherst at Louisburg, Montcalm lay in the lines of Ticonderoga. At the other end of Lake George, preparing to march against him, was encamped General Abercrombie with fifteen thousand men. Montcalm's position was one of matchless strength. The fort itself stood on a rocky height overlooking the head of Lake Champlain. Behind it ran a rough valley ; and the 146 A HISTORY OF CANADA. crest of the ridge beyond was fortified by a higli and zigzag breast- work, built of trunks of trees with sharpened branches pointing outwards Uke the spines of some colossal porcupine. The sloping approach to this breastwork was set thick with sharp- Montcalm's ^ ^ ' victory at ened stakes and felled trees, making it almost impas- Ticonderoga. ° ' sable. Behind these lines were only between three and four thousand men, to oppose the fifteen thousand of Aber- crombie. But they were led by Montcalm, with de Levis and de Bougainville to support him. Abercrombie was a man of slight capacity and wavering will, who owed his high position not to merit but to favour. So strong were his friends that even Pitt, who saw his weakness, had not cared to remove him from com- mand. The wary statesman had contented himself with appoint- ing as Abercrombie's second in command one who might be expected in a measure to make up for his chiefs deficiencies. This was the young Lord Howe, an officer of radiant promise. Howe was the very life of the army. Adored alike by the regu- lars and the militia, he was rigid in discipline, ready in resource, discreet, yet boundlessly audacious in the hour of need. Had he lived, the story of Ticonderoga might have been far different. But in a chance skirmish on the way to the battlefield a bullet struck him down ; and from that moment the whole army was in confusion. Abercrombie made no attempt to outflank Montcalm's position, or to cut off his supplies by occupying the lake shores beyond. During a whole, long, dreadful day he hurled his dogged soldiery against that impregnable glacis, wherein they were mown down hke grass by the close fire of the hidden defenders. Among the English were a regiment of Highlanders, who fought like tigers, hacking at the stakes with their claymores to reach the barri- cade. Regulars and militia outdid each other in feats of stubborn daring, of which the French spoke afterwards with wondering praise. But the splendid sacrifice was all in vain. Abercrombie might as well have taken his troops and hurled them into the lake. When night fell two thousand English dead lay amid the sharp branches of the glacis. Of the French there had fallen but NEW FRANCE CUT IN TWO. 1 47 three hundred. They had made a glorious defence. Abercrombie, Avith fainting heart, fell back upon Fort William Henry. He was presently relieved of his command. The joy in Canada over this victory was soon damped by news of disaster. While Abercrombie lay trembling at Fort William Henry, cursed by all his men, Bradstreet with a body of colonial militia had crossed Lake Ontario in whale- ^/p^JI Fort boats and captured Fort Frontenac. With the fort he Cutting New took rich stores, and all the French ships that sailed ^^^^ ^^ the lake. This success cut Canada in two. Fort Du- quesne, severed from its source of supplies, forsaken by the fickle tribes who had aided in the overthrow of Braddock, and hotly attacked by a force under General Forbes, was abandoned in November (1758). The retreating garrison blew up their fortifi- cations. Near the same site the Enghsh now raised a new strong- hold with a name of good omen. They called it Fort Pitt; and to the cluster of traders' cabins that gathered about it was given the name of Pittsburg. During this same year, while forts were falling and battles rag- ing east and west, an event took place which was full of peaceful significance. The first legislative assembly ever held Legislative in what now forms Canada was called together at heid™tHaii- Halifax. The pioneers who had built the city had *^^' come out, as we have seen, under promise of free representative institutions. Now this promise found its first measure of fulfil- ment. The people of Nova Scotia were called upon to elect such men as they desired to represent them and to legislate for them. But almost all the real power was kept in the hands of the governor and other crown officials. To make these represen- tative institutions really free cost a century of ceaseless struggle, destined soon to begin and to colour a whole period in our story. 50. The Beginning of the End. — Both sides now seemed to realize that the death-grapple was fairly begun. A gloom hung over Canada. In the west she had lost the I^ake country, and some of her strongest alhes among the Indians. In the centre, 148 A HISTORY OF CANADA. where Montcalm was, she had superbly held her own. But in the east her case looked ruinous enough. Her world-famous stronghold of Louisburg snatched from her, she had been vio- lently hurled back upon the St. Lawrence. At her Montcalm on -^ ^ thedefen- heart, meanwhile, gnawed Bigot's greedy pack, deaf sive. to every appeal in this supreme hour of their country's peril. To France the tottering colony cried for aid ; but France was hard pressed in Europe. She could spare no more regiments for Canada, no more gold for Bigot's pockets. Montcalm was told to stand on the defensive and wait for fortune to change. Between Montcalm and the governor-general, the vain and jealous Vaudreuil, there was sharp antagonism ; but they acted together in this crisis. Vaudreuil called out all the remaining militia reserves, and concentrated them about Quebec, where Montcalm now made his headquarters. To the defence of Niagara were called in the garrisons of the remaining western forts, from Detroit to Venango, together with the north-west- ern tribes who dwelt about Michilimackinac. To Bourlamaque, one of Montcalm's bravest lieutenants, was set the hard task of holding Lake Champlain and the Richelieu against the English advance on Montreal. In the spring of 1759 the English opened the campaign. Their plan was a sweeping one. General Prideaux and Sir William John- son were sent against Niagara. Amherst, in the centre. The English *'. * ' . . ' plan of cam- was to force the inland gateway, descend the Richelieu, paign. a J and capture Montreal. Then he and the Niagara ex- pedition were to unite, come down the St. Lawrence, and help Wolfe take Quebec. Before turning our eyes upon Wolfe's gigantic task, let us see how the ventures of Prideaux and Amherst fared. The expedition against Niagara arrived before the reinforce- ments which were to succour the doomed post. The fort was Fan of Fort regularly besieged; and its defences soon gave way Niagara. before the English guns. Prideaux was killed, and Johnson took command. Presently came the French reinforce- ments. Johnson faced them with a portion of his force, struck AMHERST ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 149 them heavily, and drove them back in fragments. Thus deprived of its last hope, the garrison at once laid down its arms. Broken was the last hold of France on the great west. In the centre Amherst cautiously pushed his way down Lake George. When he drew near, Bourlamaque blew up the dreaded walls of Ticonderoga and fell back upon Crown Point. Thence he again retired to a much stronger and more strategically im- portant position on Isle aux Noix, at the narrow outlet of Lake Champlain. Here he gathered all his forces to make a final stand. He held control of the lake by means of four well- armed sloops. In the face of their guns it was impossible for Amherst to advance in his open boats ; so he spent Bourlamaque the summer in building vessels to cope with those of hers^on^Lake the French. When this was done the weather turned Champiam. stormy, so he concluded to winter at Crown Point. He was a brave leader, but in his own deliberate way ; too painfully method- ical for an enterprise like this, which called for dash and risks. At all costs he should have forced his way forward and created a diversion in Wolfe's favour. But he preferred to build forts and secure his advance by strictly regular process. Bourla- maque at Isle aux Noix and Montcalm at Quebec were gratified by his forbearance, but little impressed by his brilliancy. CHAPTER XI. SECTIONS : — 51, Wolfe and Montcalm Face to Face. 52, the Plains of Abraham. 53, Quebec l\ English Hands. 51. Wolfe and Montcalm Face to Face. — To defend Quebec, to make his last stand for France in Canada, Montcalm had about ^,. ^ X fifteen thousand regulars and Canadian militia, with The forces of ° ' Montcalm perhaps a thousand Indians. The regulars were his and Wolfe. ° only rehance for battle in the open ; while in bush- fighting, on the other hand, one Canadian was considered equal to three regulars. All the troops alike were good behind en- trenchments ; wherefore Montcalm resolved to take the defensive, and force his foe to break himself to pieces on his lines. He would make Quebec another Ticonderoga. To bring against the sixteen thousand defenders of his almost impregnable posi- tion, Wolfe had but nine thousand men ; but these were all tried stuff, adapted to any service. Leaving a garrison of two thousand in the city itself, under de Ramesay, Montcalm ranged his army along the shore from the city walls to the Montmorenci River eight miles below. The mouth of the St. Charles was closed with a massive boom of chained timbers, and both its banks were covered by Montcalm's plan of de- heavy batteries. A little higher up, the river was crossed by a bridge of boats, forming the avenue of communication between camp and city. From the St. Charles down to the little Beauport stream, the bank of the St. Law- rence consists of low meadow-land, with wide shoals spreading- before it. At the mouth of the Beauport stream was anchored 150 WOLFE BEFORE QUEBEC. 151 a floating battery. From this point down to the Montmorenci the shore is a steep and rocky ridge, with a narrow skirt of flats along its base. The whole front of the French position was faced with earthworks, crossing the Beauport meadows, and crowning the crest of the ridge. On the flats between ridge and water, also, were built advance works, strong in repelHng attack, but useless to the enemy if captured, because open to the fire from the ridge above. The floating battery at the Beauport mouth carried twelve heavy guns. The colossal walls of the city itself mounted one hundred and six cannon, under whose muzzles, at the edge of the Lower Town, clung a fleet of gunboats and fire- ships. The most important ships of the French fleet had been sent for safety far up the St. Lawrence, that their crews might be used in the defence. For eight miles above the city, to the strong defences of Cap Rouge, the north bank of the St. Lawrence was a precipice 200 feet in height, impassable except at a few points, and even at these passes so difficult that a handful of resolute men could hold them against an army. On this side no attack was dreaded, yet it was watched with vigilance by a force under Bougainville. Wolfe's army, as we have seen, consisted of about nine thousand picked troops. Under him were three energetic and courageous brigade-generals, Monckton (the conqueror of Beaus^jour), Town- shend, and Murray. There was also a strong fleet , ' . T .. • Wolfe under Admiral Saunders to cooperate in the enterprise, occupies lie d' Orleans. Toward the end of June the throng of battle-ships, frigates, and transports arrived safely under the green and peopled shores of lie d'Orleans. Here Wolfe disembarked his army, led a strong force up the island, and entrenched himself on the extreme western point, about four miles below Quebec. Before Wolfe's eyes was now unfolded the magnitude of his task. On his right was the splendid white cataract of Montmorenci leaping out of the dark fir groves on the summit of the ridge. Beyond lay the long, serried lines of entrenchments, swarming with the white uniforms of France. Then, the crowded, steep roofs and spires of the 152 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Lower Town, with the gunboats and fire-ships on its water ^ont. And then, soaring over all, the majestic promontory of Cape Diamond ; its grim face seamed with batteries, and stairs, and climbing ribbons of street ; its summit crowned with portentous bastions and with the chivalrous banners of France. A it"^ days after Wolfe's arrival Vaudreuil undertook, at tre- mendous expense, to destroy the English fleet with fire-ships, vaudreuii's The great hulls were filled with pitch, fireworks, bombs, flre-ships. ^^^ ^ manner of old guns loaded to the muzzle. One black night these perilous craft were towed into the current of the north channel, at the foot of which lay the English fleet at anchor. There they were set on fire. The roar and blaze were terrific. The red lines of the English on the island, the white masses of the French behind their earthworks, were luridly revealed. Around each flaming shape rained a shower of death from the exploding engines within it ; but the English sailors swarmed out in boats, hooked the monsters with grappling irons, and towed them close in shore, where they stranded and roared themselves harmlessly to silence. The next day Wolfe seized the heights of Point L6vi, opposite the city, and began to erect his batteries. In the village-churches round about Ldvi he posted a proclamation asking the Canadian Wolfe at habita7is to stand neutral. He promised them pro- Point Levi, tection of Hfe, property, and religion if they did so, but fire and pillage if they refused. While the batteries on Levi were steadily growing, in defiance of a ceaseless hail of shells from the city ramparts, a band of fifteen hundred Quebec volunteers, crossing the river some miles above the city, descended in the night to rout the foe. They set out with martial zeal. But a panic seized them ere they reached the hostile lines. They fled back madly to their boats, and returned to Quebec to face the jeers of their fellows. Wolfe's next move was to effect a landing below the Montmo- renci. This was done after a sharp skirmish with the Canadian rangers. Here, on the east side of the cataract, Wolfe fortified THE ATTACK ON BEAUFORT SHORE. 153 himself with care, planted a battery, and opened a fire which proved very galling to the French lines over the stream. Some of the French officers were eager to attack this new -^gug J^t position, but Montcalm's judicious policy forbade. Montmorenci. " Let him amuse himself where he is," said Montcalm. " If we drive him away from there, he may go to some place where he can do us more harm." Wolfe's position was now dangerous, for his command was cut into three parts, either of which might be attacked in force before the others could come to its defence. But he longed to lure the French out of their lines, and felt that the occasion was one for taking great risks. He knew that success in this instance was not to be earned by caution or reached by regular , , , -r ,1 1- J • 1 The English paths ; but only, 11 at all, by some danng and unex- fleet goes up pected stroke. He now still further divided his forces. His batteries on Point L^vi were fast demolishing the Lower Town. Under cover of their fire he ran a portion of the fleet up the river beneath the very mouths of the citadel's guns, and laid them over against Cap Rouge to threaten Bougainville. This division of the fleet was commanded by Admiral Holmes. It now began to harass the French sorely by drifting back and forth with the tide over the eight miles between Quebec and Cap Rouge. Bougainville found himself compelled to follow laboriously along the shore so as always to oppose a strong front against any attempt at landing. Meanwhile the summer was wearing away ; and though the Lower Town was knocked to pieces Quebec was not weakening. Supplies were still abundant in the city, and the waiting game played by Montcalm was driving Wolfe's eager tem- per to desperation. He decided that if Montcalm would not come out and fight he must even be attacked in his trenches. The attack was made on the extreme left. At low tide there was a ford across the mouth of the Montmorenci. The French batteries at this point were engaged by a heavy fire from the fleet, while a body of grenadiers, Royal Americans, and Highlanders dashed shoreward in boats. To aid them came a column from 154 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the Montmorenci redoubt, fording the turbulent channel, and fol- lowing the strip of wet flats along below the ridge. Impatient after their long restraint, the grenadiers threw themselves on the advance redoubt and carried it with cheers. Then the Failure of Wolfe's at- place became a slaughter-pen, under the concentrated tack on the ^ , , • , r. • ■ , , • Beauport fire from the heights. Swarming with thinned ranks out of the death-trap, the red-coated companies strug- gled fiercely to scale the steep before them. The tall, lean figure of Wolfe was everywhere at once, waving his stick, encouraging, praising, urging on. But the top of the ridge was a ceaseless sheet of fire, and the red masses rolled back shattered. Again they returned to the charge ; but soon upon the scene of fury broke a drenching storm. The steeps became too shppery to climb. The ammunition of defenders and assailants alike was soaked and useless. The English drew back baffled into the re- doubt which they had taken ; and Wolfe led them off quietly in sullen array. Each side claimed that the other had been saved from ruin by the storm. But the result of the battle was rejoic- ing in Quebec, and in the English camp deep dejection. Along those deadly slopes had fallen five hundred of Wolfe's best troops. 52. The Plains of Abraham. — In Quebec, as the autumn wore on, hope rose high. Wolfe had so far accomplished little beyond the devastation of some villages. He was ill with a painful disease, which now, aggravated by toil, anxiety, and dejection of spirit, grew swiftly worse. With it came a fever ; and for many weary days he was held to his bed in a farmhouse at INIontmorenci, English while gloom fell on the troops. Then came news that opposite'^cap ^^^ help could be expected from Amherst. A little Rouge. j^^gj. ^j^g captains of the fleet began to talk of giving up the enterprise, lest the ships should get caught by an early frost. But Wolfe, though he wrote despondently to Pitt, had not given up his purpose. He now turned his attention to the heights above the city. With his brigadiers he arranged a new plan of attack ; and he promised the admiral that if this plan failed he would then consent to withdraw. Rapidly and secretly the main WOLFE'S FINAL PLAN. 155 body of the troops was marched overland from Point Levi by night, and concentrated opposite Cap Rouge. The position at Montmorenci was abandoned ; and Montcalm, thinking woife's final that the foe was at Point L(^vi, was perplexed to know p^^'^- what movement was afoot. Did it mean flight, or did it mean attack ? Hopeful as he naturally felt, after the summer's success, his position was growing difficult from scarcity of food. The English ships above the city patrolled the river so well that the supply boats from Montreal found it hard to steal through the blockade, and many were captured ere they reached the wharves of Quebec. The land route, of course, was open ; but where were horses and transport waggons for the work of provisioning a city? Wolfe's plan was a forlorn hope. Up the face of the cliff, at a point about three miles above Quebec, his glass had shown him a narrow thread of a path with the tents of a small guard grouped about its top. This was the Anse dii Foulon, where a rivulet had cut itself a gully down the steep. Up this path by night he would send a desperate handful of men, to hold the position to the death till the army should follow behind them. The plan was known only to the generals and admiral ; but the whole camp knew that some great game was to be played. Demand was made for twenty-four volunteers. They came forward eagerly, for a desperate venture and a goal they could not guess. At last there fell a starless night, and the army was ordered to the boats. The fleet, as usual, drifted up stream with the tide. He floats Then, when the ebb began, the boats cast off", and were river^by^ carried swiftly down toward the Anse du Foulon, from ^^^ ■ that night called Wolfe's Cove. The boat containing the gallant twenty-four was in the lead, Wolfe followed close behind. In the darkness of that silent journey, to ease the suspense, he quoted softly to the officers about him the calm lines of Gray's "Elegy," remarking as he ended — "Gentlemen, I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec." And, illustrious as is his memory, who shall say that he was not right? The venture was a desperate one indeed ; for even if all his 156 A HISTORY OF CANADA. force should gain the heights, they would yet have «n army to fight of nearly twice their number. But meanwhile the bulk of the French troops lay in their old position below the St. Charles, thinking, from the furious bombardment which Admiral Saunders had opened upon them, that they were to be attacked in front. Knowing that the English had not wings, they never dreamed of danger in the rear. That night a number of provision boats were expected to pass down to Quebec, a fact which the English had learned from a deserter. Presently Wolfe's foremost boats were carried by a current close to the shore. A sentinel challenged them sharply out of the darkness. Fortunately in one of the boats The sentries was a Highland officer to whom French was as his evaded. ^^^^ tongue. In reply to the sentry's questioning he said — "Hush, it's the provision boats. Don't make a noise or the English will be upon us." The Frenchman was satis- fied. A few minutes later the boats were in the cove ; and the men landed noiselessly on the narrow beach between cliff and waterside. The fate of Canada had ordained that this pass of the Anse du Foidon should be guarded by that same coward Vergor who had so lightly given up Beaus^jour. He had been tried at the time for cowardice, but acquitted through the influence of Vaudreuil and The forlorn Bigot. Now, when Wolfe's forlorn hope was creeping hope. ^p |.j-^g steep, Vergor was asleep in his tent. When those twenty-four daring chmbers reached the summit, there was no one to oppose them. They saw close by a glimmering group of tents. They dashed on the sleeping guard, shot some, routed the others, and captured Vergor as he sprang from his bed in l^anic. At the sound of their cheers the rest of the troops, wait- ing in the cove below, swarmed up the face of the cliff. Wolfe, weak from sickness, but all his soul on fire, found strength to reach the top among the foremost. When day broke, it saw Wolfe's army in firm array along the brink of the heights. He stood between Montcalm at Quebec and Bougainville at Cap Rouge, with no choice but victory or ruin. THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM. 157 To seek a favourable battle-ground Wolfe moved forward to what are called the Plains of Abraham, a grassy and bushy level about half a mile in width, forming the western end of ' ° The English the wind-swept summit of Cape Diamond. Less than on the Plains of Abraham. a mile away, but hidden by a low bare ridge, lay Que- bec. On this lofty plateau Wolfe drew up his line, facing towards the city. From the thickets surrounding his position the Canadian rangers and Indians kept up a sharp skirmishing. Wolfe made his men lie down to escape their fire, while he engaged them in the bush with his light infantry. Presently the ridge before him swarmed with white uniforms. Montcalm, riding into the city about daybreak, had caught sight of the scarlet lines on the height. In hot haste he had Montcalm ordered up his regiments from the Beauport trenches. ^"^■^^^• The garrison of the city refused to leave their ramparts, and some regiments under Vaudreuil's influence were mysteriously detained. W^ith the rest of his force, about four thousand five hundred men, he formed his line of battle. His followers were full of courage. Mounted on his great black horse, he led them at once to the attack. They advanced with shouts, firing hotly as they came. It was then ten o'clock in the morning. On the issue of this fight was hanging the fate of Canada. The scarlet English lines and the kilted Highlanders rose up. They stood in ominous silence. Suddenly, when the white-coated columns were within forty paces of their front, there rang a sharp command. Out flamed the answering andwoife's volley, a sheet of fire. The French lines staggered, but rushed on intrepidly. Another shattering volley, — and when its smoke rolled up the French were seen broken and confused, so terrible had been the slaughter. While they strove desperately to recover formation, Wolfe gave the order to charge, himself lead- ing at the head of his grenadiers. Then rose the cheers of the English, the yells of the Highlanders, and the wild skirling of the bag-pipes. The French, though cut to pieces, were not beaten. They fired fiercely in desperate groups. A bullet shattered Wolfe's 158 A HISTORY OF CANADA. wrist. Another shot pierced his body, but he pressed on. Yet a third struck him in the breast, and he fell. Two or three of the men nearest him carried him toward the rear. At his entreaty they laid him down. As they bent over him one looked up and cried, " They run ! They run ! " Wolfe opened his eyes, like one half-awakened from a dream, and asked, "Who run?" "The enemy, sir!" was the exultant reply. "They 'give way every- where ! " The dying general gathered his strength with an effort, and held himself back from the brink. For that instant he saw clearly. " Go, tell Colonel Burton," he said, " to march Webb's regiment to the Charles River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge." Then -he whispered, " God be praised, I die in peace ! '.' and with a sigh the life escaped his lips. The rout of the French was utter. The officers by this time could not make their orders heard ; but a body of Canadians Death of distinguished themselves by making a desperate stand Montcalm. ^j^^^g ^j^g gj^p^ called Cote Ste. Genevieve, where they fought so stubbornly that Webb's advance against the bridge was foiled. Montcalm, desperate and furious, was carried along with the mass toward the city gates. A bullet passed through his body and he sank together in the saddle ; but two soldiers had seen him struck and they supported their loved leader in his seat. Thus he entered the gates which he had so long and well de- fended. When they saw him so stricken the pale throng cried aloud in grief and terror. Montcalm roused himself for a moment. " It is nothing," said he ; " do not be grieved on my account, good friends." Then he was carried to the house of a surgeon, — to die. But in his anguish he found time to send a note to the Eng- lish commander, begging him to protect the people he had con- quered. On the morning of the following day, September 14th, a little before daybreak, he died, and was buried in a rough box under the floor of the Ursuline convent. His grave was a cavity hollowed by the explosion of an English shell. The body of his great rival had a different fate. It was embalmed and carried to England, where the public rejoicings over Wolfe's victory were QUEBEC CAPITULATES. I 59 quenched in sorrow for his death. As a fit emblem of the union of the two races who fought that day together for the mastery of Canada, stands now in Quebec a noble shaft of stone, inscribed to the memories of Montcalm and Wolfe. By Montcalm's fall the French were left leaderless. The gallant de Levis, Montcalm's not unworthy successor, was in Montreal. The feeble Vaudreuil, bold only when danger was far distant, was in supreme command. After a few hours of wild y r\ ^ i • i r ii Qucbec taken, uncertamty he forsook Quebec, and with a force still outnumbering the English retreated up the St. Lawrence to the impregnable stronghold of Jacques Cartier. The English mean- while, expecting prompt attack, were entrenching themselves on their victorious field. The command had fallen upon Townshend, Monckton being disabled by his wounds. When Townshend saw that the French army had fled, he was no less relieved than aston- ished. But he knew there were generals left, somewhere in Canada ; and he thought they would soon be back. The safest place for him then would be inside the walls of Quebec, and he rnade up his mind to get there without delay. To the comman- dant, the sturdy Ramesay, he sent a summons of immediate sur- render, declaring that he would otherwise take the place by storm. Ramesay hesitated, still hoping for the return of the vanished army. Townshend, with unresting energy, pushed his mines and his trenches ever closer to the walls. Then, on the 17th, the English ships drew in. A strong attacking column marched toward the city gates. The citizens, in terror at the threat of an assault, with all its pillage, flame, and butchery, demanded instant capitu- lation. Ramesay yielded to their prayers. The flag of truce was raised ; but some of the officers pulled it down. It was raised again, — and stayed. Townshend was generous, and granted honourable terms. The inhabitants he agreed to protect as if they were English citizens. The garrison marched out with full honours of war, and were sent away to France at the English cost. Down sank the lilied flag which had so long waved over New France ; and the red banner of England rose in its stead. l6o A HISTORY OF CANADA. 53. Quebec in English Hands. — Scarcely was the capitulation , . settled when messengers came to Ramesay, with word arrives too that de L^vis and succour were close at hand. But late. it was too late. Destiny had made her decision. The English now gave themselves diligently to the work of making their position secure. This done, and stores for the winter gathered in, Townshend and the fleet sailed away, leaving General Murray in command. In Murray the Canadians found a warm friend ; and English officers were loud in praise of the devotion Murray win- "^^i^h which the French nuns attended to the_ sick ters in Quebec. ^^^^^ wounded of both nations. The citizens took the oath of allegiance, and soon were on cordial terms with the English soldiers, who shared rations with them and vol- untarily helped them with their work. Murray planted strong outposts around the city, to guard every approach ; and as the winter wore on there were sharp skirmishes at Point Levi and Lorette. The garrison was daily expecting an attack in force, as de L^vis was known to be planning the recapture of Quebec ; and while they waited, sickness was decimating their ranks. But it was not till spring reopened the navigation of the St. Lawrence that de L6vis was ready to move against Quebec. All The battle of winter, at Montreal, he had been gathering his forces, e. oy. Toward the end of x'Vpril he set out, with an army of eight thousand men, besides Indians, sworn to recover the lost jewel of New France. The English outposts fell back rapidly before him, destroying those stores they could not save, and re- united with Murray in Quebec. De Levis halted at the village of Ste. Foy, five or six miles from the city, to arrange his plan of at- tack. Murray, daring to rashness and burning for renown, scorned to await this attack. He led out his little army, thrice outnumbered by that of his skilful antagonist, and hurled himself on the French columns as they advanced from Ste. Foy. The struggle was a mad one. Deeds of emulous heroism were many on the field of Ste. Foy. But the English had undertaken too much. Their losses were tremendous ; and seeing his error, Murray gave the order to THE FRENCH BESIEGE QUEBEC. i6l fall back. They obeyed, but with angry reluctance, grumbling " What is falling back but retreating? " De L^vis, seeing their tem- per, was content to accept his victory ; and the English columns, a thousand weaker than when they started out, withdrew into the city. And now Quebec was close besieged. The garrison was weak with sickness, and worn with ceaseless toil ; but its spirit was ex- cellent. Officers worked like privates, harnessing themselves to the gun-carriages, wielding spade and besieged by pickaxe, sharing every hardship with their men. De Levis' army was entrenched on the ridge to eastward of the Plains of Abraham, under a hot fire from the ramparts. Presently he got his siege guns in position, and a steady bombardment was kept up. Both sides were expecting aid by sea. The question was which would first arrive, the French ships or the English. One day a sail appeared, with no colours at the peak. The suspense was breathless. At last the flag of England fluttered to the mast- head, and the garrison went wild with joy. She was but the van- guard of a strong fleet, on whose arrival de L^vis hastily withdrew. The French ships in the river were destroyed ; but not till one small vessel had made so superb a defence that her captain, a daring officer by the name of Vauqueline, was feasted and toasted as a hero by his admiring conquerors. The failure of de L^vis robbed New France of her last hope. Her keys were in her enemy's hands. Nothing remained but Montreal. De L^vis, however, playing gallantly his hopeless game, guarded all the approaches. Against back on Mon- him moved Murray up the St. Lawrence from Quebec and Amherst down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario, while in the centre Colonel Haviland struck hard at the line of the Riche- lieu. Three Rivers with its garrison was not disturbed, as its fate hung on that of Montreal. A few miles below Montreal Island Murray encamped, threatened by French armies on both sides of the river. There he anxiously waited for Amherst and Haviland. The latter came first, having cut Bougainville's lines and forced him to fall back without a battle. At last came Amherst, and M 1 62 A HISTORY OF CANADA. landed at Lachine, He marched down the island and encamped under the city's western walls. Murray at once made landing on the lower end of the island, while Haviland pitched his camp on the shore just opposite. The Canadian militia, under promise of Amherst's protection, now deserted and went to their homes. Vaudreuil and de L6vis were left to defend Montreal with about two thousand dispirited regulars. These were hemmed in by three armies, amounting in all to seventeen thousand men. Re- sistance was, of course, impossible ; and on the 8th of September, ,, ^ , 1 760, Vaudreuil capitulated, including in the surrender Montreal and ' ' r ? & all Canada not Montreal alone, but the whole territory of Canada, capitulate. The French troops, save those who chose to stay, were sent home to France on parole, pledged not to serve against England during the war. To the inhabitants Amherst issued a- proclamation, telling them that they were now all British subjects, and as such to be protected in all their rights of person, property, and religion. General Murray was appointed governor of the new province. Canada having become a British colony, large numbers of the old seigneurial famihes, unwilling to hve under the flag which they Peace in Can- ^^^ their fathers had spent their lives in defying, went the'war con- ^way to France, robbing Canada of her best blood, tmuesabroad. -pj^^ g,._ Lawrence valley was now at peace, and striving to repair its losses. But the Seven Years' War still raged abroad, — in Europe, in India, and among the islands of the West Indies. Still the English triumphs went on in far-off seas, and still the great Frederick of Prussia made head indomitably against his svvarm- 'ing foes. In Newfoundland the settlement and fort of St. John's were taken by a French squadron, but only to be recaptured by English . „ ships a few months later. Not till nearly three years The Seven ^ ■' ■' Years' War after the capitulation of Montreal did the Treaty of ended by the Treaty of Paris bring peace (Feb. loth, 1763). By this notable document half of North America changed hands. Spain yielded up Florida. France, besides great concessions in THE TREATY OF PARIS. 1 63 other quarters of the globe, made over to England all her claims and possessions in America, excepting only the territory of Louisi- ana, at the Mississippi mouth. She also retained, on the condi- tion that they should not be garrisoned or fortified, the two little islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland. These were to be used as fishing-stations ; and she was allowed at the same time to retain certain fishing privileges in the Gulf and on Newfoundland's western shore, out of which have since grown innumerable difficulties, — hereafter to be known as the French Shore Disputes. Russia and Austria, left to fight their battles alone, came speedily to terms. On the day when the treaty was signed, France secretly gave over to Spain the remnant saved from the wreck of her North American possessions ; and Louisiana passed under the Spanish Crown. Thus ended the Seven Years' War, leaving England intoxicated with glory, mistress of the North American continent, victor in the tremendous duel for the empire of the New World. CHAPTER XII. SECTIONS: — 54, Population and Dwellings at the Close of THE French Period. 55, Dress, Arms, Social Customs, Food, ETC., during the FRENCH PERIOD. 54. Population and Dwellings at the Close of the French Period. — When the flag of France departed from Canada, it left a people destined to find under the new rule a The people of ' ' Canada after fuller freedom, an ampler poHtical development, a far the conquest. . more abundant prosperity. It left a people destined to honour their new allegiance by loyalty and heroic service in the hour of trial. The spirit in which the French Canadian noblesse — such of them as remained in Canada — received the new rule, is well exemplified in the words which a French Canadian novelist ^ puts in the mouth of one of the old seigneurs. The seigneur, once an officer under the French King, is on his death-bed. To his son, who has left the French army and taken the oath to the English Crown, he says, " Serve thy new sovereign as faithfully as I have served the King of France ; and may God bless thee, my dear son This people, which thus became British by a campaign and a treaty, was destined to form the solid core around which should grow the vast Confederation of Canada. But for them there would now, in all likelihood, be no Canada. By their rejection of the proposals of the revolted colonies the northern half of this continent was preserved to Great Britain. The debt which the empire owes to the French Canadians is immeasurably greater 1 Philippe Aubert de Gasp6, author of "Les Anciens Canadians." 164 QUEBEC. 165 than we at present realize. Let us examine the characteristics of the small and isolated people which was to exercise such a deep influence on the future of this continent. Let us consider their numbers, the peculiarities of their life, their food, their dress, and the houses in which they dwelt. The whole population of Canada when she came under the British flag was, as we have seen, about sixty thousand. This hardy handful was gathered chiefly at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. The rest trailed thinly along the shores of the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu. The lands about the Great Lakes, and the western country, were held only by a few scattered forts, buried here and there in the green wilder- ness. At Detroit had sprung up a scanty settlement of perhaps one thousand souls. In these remote posts the all-important question was still that of the fur-trade with the Indians. The traders and the soldiers, cut off from civiHzation, frequently took wives from the Indian tribes about them, and settled down to a life half barbarous. These men soon grew as lawless as their adopted kinsfolk. They were a weakness and a discredit to the country in time of peace, but in war their skill and daring were the frontier's best defence. Quebec had seven thousand inhabitants. Most of them dwelt between the water's edge and the foot of the great cliff whose top was crowned by the citadel. Where the shoulder of Quebec, the promontory swept around toward the St. Charles the slope became more gentle, and there the houses and streets began to clamber toward the summit. Streets that found them- selves growing too precipitous had a way, then as now, of chang- ing suddenly into flights of stairs. The city walls, grimly bastioned, ran in bold zigzags across the face of the steep, in a way to daunt assailants. Down the hillside, past the cathedral and the college, through the heart of the city, clattered a noisy brook, which in time of freshet flooded the neighbouring streets. Part of the city was within walls, part without. Most of the houses were low, one- story buildings, with large expanse of steep roof, and high dormer 1 66 A HISTORY OF CANADA. windows. Along the incline leading down to the St. Charles stretched populous suburbs. On the high plateau where now lies the stately New Town, there was then but a bleak pasture-land whose grasses waved against the city gates. Three Rivers, situated at the mouth of the St. Maurice, 76 miles above Quebec, was a small town, dwarfed politically and Three Rivers socially by Quebec on the one side and Montreal on and Montreal, ^.j^^ other. Iron mines in the neighbourhood gave it a measure of importance ; and it was the stopping-place for travellers journeying between its bigger rivals. Montreal, after its childhood of awful trial, had greatly prospered. Its popula- tion had risen to about nine thousand. The fur-trade of the rtiysterious North-west, developed by a succession of daring and tireless wood-rangers, had poured its wealth into the lap of the city of Maisonneuve. The houses, some of which were built of the light gray stone which now gives dignity to the city, were usually of but one story. They were arranged in three or four long lines parallel to the river. The towers of the Seminary of St. Sulpicius and the spires of three churches, standing out against the green of the stately mountain, were conspicuous from afar to voyagers coming up the river from Quebec. The city was en- closed by a stone wall and a shallow ditch, once useful as a defence against the Indians, but no protection in the face of serious assault. At the lower end of the city, covering the landing- place, rose a high earthwork crowned with cannon. The real defences of Montreal were the citadel of Quebec and the forts on Lake Champlain. Save for its threshold flood and its guardian mount, the Montreal of that day bore little likeness to the splendid city which now wears .its name and boasts of its traditions. The houses of the habitans, the tillers of the soil, were small cabins, humble but warm, with wide, overhanging The houses ' . ' _, of seigneurs eaves, and consistmg at most of two rooms. The par- and habitans. /- 1 i t 1 1 tition, when there was one, was of boards. Lath and plaster were unknown. The walls within, to the height of a man's DWELLINGS IN NEW FRANCE. 167 shoulders, were worn smooth by the backs that leaned against them. Solid wooden boxes and benches usually took the place of chairs. A clumsy loom, on which the women wove their coarse homespuns of wool or flax, occupied one corner of the main room ; and a deep, box-Uke cradle, always rocking, stood beside the ample fireplace. Over the fire stood the long black arms of a crane, on which was done most of the cooking ; though the " bake-kettle " sometimes reUeved its labours, and the brick oven was a stand-by in houses of the rich habitans, as well as of the gentry. For the roasting of meats the spit was much in use ; and there was a gridiron with legs, to stand on the hearth, with a heap of hot coals raked under it. The houses even of the upper classes were seldom two stories in height. But they were generally furnished with a good deal of luxury ; and in the cities they were sometimes built of stone. A typical country mansion, the dwelling of a seigneur on his own domain, was usually of the following fashion. The main building, one story in height but perhaps a hundred feet long, was surmounted by lofty gables and a very steep roof, built thus to shed the snow and to give a roomy attic for bedchambers. The attic was hghted by numerous, high-peaked dormer windows, piercing the expanse of the roof. This main building was flanked by one or more wings. Around it clustered the wash-house (adjoin- ing the kitchen), coach-house, barns, stable, and woodsheds. This homelike cluster of walls and roofs was sheltered from the winter storm by groves of evergreen, and girdled cheerily by orchard and kitchen-garden. On one side, and not far off, was usually a village with a church-spire gleaming over it ; on the other a circular stone mill, resembling a httle fortress rather than a peaceful aid to industry. This structure, wheie all the tenants of the seigneur (the censitaires) were obliged to grind their grain, had indeed been built in the first place to serve not only as a mill but as a place of refuge from the Iroquois. It was furnished with loopholes, and was impregnable to the attacks of an enemy lacking cannon. 1 68 A HISTORY OF CANADA. 55. Dress, Arms, Social Customs, Food, etc., during the French Period. — The dress of the upper classes was like that prevailing among the same classes in France, though much less extravagant. The hair was worn powdered and in high, elaborate coiffures. Men's fashions were more picturesque than those of the present day. Their hair, curled, powdered, and sometimes tied in a queue, was surmounted by a graceful, low-crowned hat with caught-up brim. This head-dress was superseded on occasions of ceremony by the stately, three- cornered cocked hat. The long, wide-frocked coats were of gay- coloured and costly material, with lace at neck and wristbands. The waistcoat might be richly embroidered with gold or silver. Knee-breeches took the place of our unshapely trousers, and were fastened with bright buckles at the knee. Stockings were of white or coloured silk, and shoes were set off by broad buckles at the instep. These, of course, were the dresses of ceremony, the dresses seen at balls and grand receptions. Out of doors, and in the winter especially, the costumes of the nobility were more distinctly Canadian. Overcoats of native cloth were worn, with large, pointed hoods. Their pattern is preserved to the present day in the blanket coats of our snow-shoers. Young men might be seen going about in colours that brightened the desolate winter landscape. Gay belts of green, blue, red, or yellow enriched the waists of their thick overcoats. Their scarlet leggings were laced up with green ribbons. Their moccasins were gorgeously embroidered with dyed porcupine quills. Their caps of beaver or marten were sometimes tied down over their ears with vivid handkerchiefs of silk. The habitajis were rougher and more sombre in their dress. A black homespun coat, gray leggings, gray woollen cap, heavy moccasins of cowhide, — this grave costume was usually brightened by a belt or sash of the liveliest colours. The country-women had to content themselves wdth the same coa-se homespuns, which they wore in short, full skirts. But they got the gay colours which_ they loved in kerchiefs for their necks and shoulders. In war the regulars were sharply distinguished from those of UNIFORMS AND ARMS. 1 69 the British army by their uniforms. The white of the House of Bourbon was the colour that marked their regiments, as scarlet marked those of the British. The militia and wood- uniforms and rangers fought in their ordinary dress, — or, occasion- ^''"®- ally, with the object of terrifying their enemies, put on the war- paint and eagle-quills of the Indians. The muskets of the day were the heavy weapons known as flint-locks. When the trigger was pulled the flint came down sharply on a piece of steel, and the spark, falling into a shallow " pan " of powder called the " priming," ignited the charge. The regulars carried bayonets on the ends of their muskets, but the militia and rangers had little use for these weapons. They depended on their markmanship, which was deadly. The regulars fired breast high in the direction of their enemy, trusting to the steadiness and closeness of their fire ; but the colonials did not waste their precious bullets and powder in this way. They had learned from the Indians, whom they could beat at their own game, to fight from behind trees, rocks, or hillocks, to load and fire lying down, and to surprise their enemies by steahng noiselessly through the underbrush. At close quarters they fought, like the Indians, with knife and hatchet, both of which were carried in their belts. From the ranger's belt, too, when on the march, hung the leathern bag of bullets, and the inevitable tobacco-pouch ; while from his neck swung a powder horn, often richly carved, together with his cherished pipe en- closed in its case of skin. Very often, however, the ranger spared himself the trouble of a pipe by scooping a bowl in the back of his tomahawk and fitting it with a hollow handle. Thus the same implement became both the comfort of his leisure and the tor- meat of his enemies. In winter, when the Canadians, expert in the use of the snow-shoe and fearless of the cold, did much of their fighting, they wore thick peaked hoods over their heads, and looked Hke a procession of friars wending through the silent forest on some errand of piety or mercy. Their hands were covered by thick mittens of woollen yarn, and they dragged their provisions and blankets on sleds or toboggans. At night they would use I/O A HISTORY OF CANADA. their snow-shoes to shovel a wide, circular pit in the snow, clearing it away to the bare earth. In the centre of the pit they would build their camp-fire, and sleep around it on piles of spruce boughs, secure from the winter wind. The leaders, usually mem- bers of the nobiUty, fared on these expeditions as rudely as their men, and outdid them in courage and endurance. Some of the most noted chiefs of the wood-rangers were scions of the noblest families ; and, though living most of the year the life of savages, were able to shine by their graces and refinement in the courtliest society of the day. The French Canadians of all classes were a social people. Quebec and Montreal, even when Wolfe's cannon were startling the hills of the St. Lawrence, found heart for the dehghts of dance and dinner-party. The governor and the Social life , . , ^^ . , • . , • and amuse- high oiiicials were required by etiquette to enter- tain with lavish generosity. Balls were kept up till six or seven in the morning. Conversation was a fine art with these sprightly and witty people. The country homes of the seigneurs, such as we have described, were the scene of many gaieties. Driving parties, picking up guests from each manor-house as they passed it, would gather at some hospitable abode. When tired of the stately dances then in fashion, the guests would amuse themselves with games such as now, when men seem less light-hearted or more self-conscious, are mostly left to children. Society was so limited in numbers that all the mem- bers of it knew each other intimately, and the merriest freedom was possible. "Hide the Handkerchief," "Fox and Geese," "My Lady's Toilet," and various games of forfeit, were among those that made life cheerful for the Canadians of old. Then there was riding in the summer ; and in winter sledging over the crisp, glittering snow. Baptisms, betrothals, and weddings were made occasions of feast; and on May-Day the hoisting of the may-pole in front of the seigneur's house was accompanied by much merry- making, — eating, drinking, bonfires, and the firing of guns. This feast was the affair of the habitans, who were for that day guests FOOD AND TABLE CUSTOMS. l/l of the seigneur. The may-pole, presented and erected by them, was a tall, peeled fir-tree, with a tuft of green left on its top, and surmounted by a red and green weather-cock. The whiteness of the peeled trunk was speedily blackened by the salutes of blank powder fired against it. During most of the year the habitant fared very plainly. A feast, therefore, was something to make the most of On such occasions he drank a good deal of brandy. Among the upper classes drunkenness was a disgrace, and all but un- Food and known. During the early days of the colony the table cus- habitans had lived chiefly on bread and eels. Throughout the early part of the eighteenth century they hved on salt meat, milk, and bread for the greater part of the year. But in winter fresh meat was abundant. Travelling was pleasant, and from Christmas to Ash Wednesday there was a ceaseless round of visits. Half a dozen sleighs would drive up to a habitant'' s cot- tage. A dozen of his friends would jump out, stable their horses, and flock chattering into the warm kitchen. The house-wife at this season was always prepared for guests. She had meats of various kinds roasted and put away cold. All she had to do was to thrust them into the hot oven, and in a few minutes the dinner was ready. At such times bread was despised by everybody, and sweet cakes took its place. When the habitans, as on May-Day, were feasted by their seigneur, the table was loaded with a pro- fusion of delicacies. Legs of veal and mutton, roasts and cutlets of fresh pork, huge bowls of savoury stew, pies of many kinds shaped like a half-moon, large tarts of jam, with doughnuts fried m lard and rolled in maple sugar, were among the favoured dishes. The habitant cared little for the seigneur's wines, because they did not, to use his own expression, "scratch the throat enough." Among the upper classes breakfast was a light meal, with white wine and coffee, usually taken at eight o'clock. Dinner was at midday, and supper at seven. Soup was always sei-ved at both these meals. On the great sideboard, filled with silver and china, which usually occupied one end of the dining-room and reached 172 A HISTORY OF CANADA. to the ceiling, stood cordials to encourage the appetite. In one corner stood a water jar of blue and white porcelain, at which guests might rinse their hands before going to table. The table was served with a great abundance of choice fish and game. Each person's place was supplied with napkin, plate, silver goblet, spoon, and fork ; but every one carried and used his own knife. Some of these closed with a spring, and were carried in the pocket. Others were worn in a sheath of morocco, of silk, or of birch-bark quaintly wrought with Indian designs in beads and porcupine quills. This sheath was generally worn hanging from the neck by an ornamental cord. The habitans often used a clasp-knife with no spring, which had to be kept open when in use by means of the thumb. To use such a knife was a feat requiring some practice. Among the dishes specially favoured by the upper classes was one of great size and richness, and of very elaborate construction, called the Easter pasty. This pasty was eaten cold. Lest it should break in the cooking, and so lose its flavour, the lower crust was an inch in thickness. The contents were nothing less than a turkey, two chickens, partridges, pigeons, and the thighs of rabbits, larded with slices of pork, embedded in balls of force-meat and onions, and seasoned with almost all the spices of the pantry. With such a dish to set before them it is no wonder that the Canadians of old enjoyed their banquets. To keep up the cheer of hearts that aids digestion, all the company sang in turn about the table, the ladies bearing their full share with the men. It was a happy and innocent life which sped in the manor-houses of the St. Lawrence, where the influence of Bigot and his crew was not allowed to reach. Though many of the seigneurs were ruined at the conquest, and many others left the country, those who remained kept up their ancient customs long after the flag of France had ceased to wave above Quebec ; and some of these venerated usages survive in the province to this day. SECOND PERIOD. ENGLISH DOMINION : — THE STRUGGLE FOR RESPON- SIBLE GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER XIII. SECTIONS: — 56, THE Conspiracy of Pontiac. 57, the Quebec Act. 58, Affairs in Nova Scotia. 56. The Conspiracy of Pontiac. — Before the Treaty of Paris was signed, a new trouble, arising from the sudden change of masters, began to brew in the west. With the fall of Montreal had fallen too the chain of western forts, — Michili- Pontiac plans mackinac, Detroit, PresquTle, and all the rest. The to expel the . English, western Indians at that time were largely under the influence of a great chieftain of the Ottawas named Pontiac. In force of character, subtlety, eloquence, and daring he was perhaps the most brilliant man the Indians of North America have pro- duced. Though chieftain of the Ottawas alone, he stretched his personal influence not only over the Ottigamies, Hurons, Sacs, Pottawattamies, Ojibways, and Wyandots, but even over the fierce Delawares and Shawanoes on the far frontiers of Virginia. Of the Iroquois, however, only the Senecas yielded to his spell. At first he accepted, reluctantly, the sovereignty of the English. But speedily he saw that with the end of French dominion had come the end of his people's importance. No longer was there need of the Indian alliance. No longer were the tribes to be propitiated with gifts and flattered with elaborate courtesy. The English, remembering their barbarities along the frontier, and no 173 174 A HISTORY OF CANADA. longer obliged to think of policy, treated them with contemptuous indifference. Their mightiest chiefs received little more attention than the old women or naked children. To Pontiac's haughty- spirit this treatment was intolerable. He saw that the Indians must either be swamped in the westward flowing torrent of the pale-faces, or else give up their ancient inheritance and flee deeper into the wilderness. Neither of these things could he accept. Utterly mistaking the English power, he conceived the design of uniting all the Indians against them, and scourging them out of the country. In this audacious scheme he was encouraged by cer- tain of the French fur-traders, who told him that the King of France, at last stirred up to vengeance, was sending out a host to annihilate his foes. And the merchants of New Orleans secretly urged him on. The conspiracy was well organized. The outbreak was timed fbr the yth day of May, 1763, — three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed. Pontiac himself was to surprise Detroit, the The Indian Strongest of the western forts. But the plot was re- nsmg. vealed by a young squaw to Major Gladwyn, the com- mandant. On the morning of the yth, Pontiac, with a band of chiefs, came to the fort on the pretence of seeking a conference. Each conspirator carried under his blanket a rifle with the barrel cut short. They were received by the English troops drawn up in battle array. Showing no sign of his discomfiture, Pontiac de- spatched some business and withdrew. Next morning he came again, but was ordered away from the gates. Then he knew that his plot was discovered. At once the flame of Indian war blazed all along the west. Detroit was vigilantly besieged ; and a detachment of troops from Niagara, sent out to relieve it, was surprised and cut to pieces. Sandusky, PresquTle, du Boeuf, Venango, were taken and destroyed. The frontiers of Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, and Virginia ran with the blood of the settlers. From Detroit the garrison made a fierce sortie against Pontiac's entrenchments. To reach the enemy's position, which was wisely placed, the soldiers had to cross a narrow bridge spanning a water- PONT I AC'S OVERTHROW. 175 course. Once over, they were met by a fire so deadly and an attack so intrepid that they were driven back in confusion. So great was the slaughter that the bridge has borne the name of " Bloody Bridge " from that day. Further to the north, Pontiac's followers got possession of Michilimackinac by a stratagem. All unsuspicious of danger, the officers were invited out of the fort to watch the Ojibway braves play a game of lacrosse. It was the 4th of June, King George's birthday ; and the game, with shrewd irony, was declared to be in his honour. Skilfully it was played for hours, the amused officers betting on the result. Meanwhile the gates were open. A number of squaws, with weapons under their blankets, wandered in. At last, apparently in the course of the game, the ball was driven against the palisades. Down rushed the players in a body. Then, with a yell, they dashed through the open gates, and seized their weapons. Before the astonished garrison could awake from their amazement fifteen of them had fallen under the hatchet, and the rest lay helpless in their bonds. In the middle of the summer Colonel Henry Bouquet, an officer of high sagacity and courage, was sent out from Philadelphia to relieve the western frontier and reinforce Fort Pitt. The rising After a hard fight he defeated the Delawares and ^"^^i^^- Shawanoes in the battle of Bushy Run, or, as it is sometimes called, Edge Hill. After this reverse some of Pontiac's allies, growing discouraged, began to desert him. In the next year (1764), Colonel Bradstreet, the victor of Fort Frontenac, was sent to relieve Detroit and chastise Pontiac. He accomplished his first object, and received the submission of some of the hostile tribes. But his expedition Avas ill conducted and his treatment of the Indians ill advised throughout. He let himself be fooled by idle promises ; and Pontiac, falling back before a superior force, kept up his depredations further west. Not until 1766, when the vigorous presence of Sir William Johnson had undone the effects of Bradstreet's folly, did Pontiac finally submit. His submission carried with it that of every hostile tribe, and brought instant peace to the frontiers. A year later, at the trading-post 176 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of Cahokia on the Mississippi, this truly great leader of his race was killed by an Illinois brave in some private quarrel. 57. The Quebec Act. — ■ During the period from the capture of Canada in 1760 to its final cession in 1763, the country was under mihtary government, — a despotism indeed, but exercised with such forbearance on the part of the conquerors that the conquered found little to complain of. After the Treaty of Paris English ^ ^ settlers flock was signed, the people were told that as soon as into Canada. o ? 1 1 the affairs of the country could be arranged they should have representative institutions like those in the Enghsh colonies. With this prospect in view EngUsh settlers flocked into Canada. They received liberal grants of land, on the easy tenure of what is known as " free soccage." Of this tenure the only conditions are allegiance to the Crown and obedience to the laws. It was understood, however, that after a period of ten years the holders of these easy grants were to be subject to small "quit- rents," — so called because by the payment of such rents the grantees were acquitted from the duty of rendering feudal service to the Crown. The government was placed in the hands of a governor and council ; and English law, with its essential principle of trial by jury, took the place of French law. Over this change of the law there arose at once a difficulty between the " old subjects," as the English settlers who had just moved into the province were called, and the " new English set- ^ tiers object to subjects," or French Canadians. The Enghsh settlers French law. ^ ^ were inclined to be arrogant toward their neighbours, as toward a conquered people. In their eyes, too, English law was the only righteous law, and the principle of trial by jury the supreme safeguard of their liberties. To this principle, when applied in criminal cases, the French did not object ; and they valued their new security from being imprisoned without trial ; but to bringing mere civil cases before a jury they had strong objection. They complained that the process was tedious and expensive, — a serious drawback in the eyes of a people who loved to go to law over every dispute. They urged, too, not LAND TENURE AND MORTGAGE. IJJ without reason, that they wished their differences settled by men whose business it was to know the law and interpret it, rather than by men called in suddenly from the desk, the counter, or the plough, and impatient to get back to business. To the Eng- lish immigrants, on the other hand, certain sections of the French law were excessively distasteful. These were the sections gov- erning sale and purchase of land, mortgage, and marriage. By the seigneurial tenure the purchaser of land in a seigneury was compelled to pay to the seigneur the lods ei vents, already referred to, which were an amount equal to a twelfth Difficulties in of the purchase-money, besides the full sum paid to chlse^and'"' the seller. As this tax was chargeable not only on sale of land, the value of the land, but also on all buildings and improvements, which, while costing the seigneur nothing, were often far more valuable than the land itself, it was considered by the English settlers an intolerable handicap. The French law of mortgage exposed the new-comer to still greater hardships. By this law, when a man mortgaged his land in security for a loan the transaction was a secret one. in regard to Thus a man might mortgage his farm many times over, "^o^gage. and then quietly sell it. The unhappy purchaser would presently see his property taken from him and sold to satisfy the claims of those holding the mortgages. Instances of this sort were not nu- merous, indeed ; but very few were needed to make the " old sub- jects " cry out, and demand a public registration of all mortgages. In regard to the property-rights conferred on the wife at mar- riage, there were provisions in the French law which English set- tlers, marrying in ignorance of them, found peculiarly exasperating. The wife, by French law, had two claims upon her husband's prop- erty, the one of "dower" and the other of "partnership." The former gave her, in case of her husband's death, half of all his real estate ; the latter gave her, even during his hfetime, half of all his personal property. It was in regard to this claim of part- nership that the difficulty arose, for if the wife died before the husband, this share of hers went at once to her children, or, chil- 178 A HISTORY OF CANADA. dren failing, to her nearest relatives. Thus a man might find half of his personal property suddenly taken from him and handed over to strangers. Such a contingency could be guarded against only by a formal contract made before the marriage. Over these differences, and others of like nature, there was more or less dispute in Canada during the ten years following the conquest ; but the country increased in wealth and population more rapidly than it had ever done before, and the " new sub- jects" were for the most part well content. By General Murray, The Quebec their first governor, they were held in high esteem ; Act passed. ^^^ j^jg guccessor. Sir Guy Carleton, greatly prefer- ring them to the more turbulent British settlers, favoured them in every way that the law would permit. It was mainly owing to his enthusiasm for the French Canadian population that the famous "Quebec Act" of 1774 was passed by the British Parliament. This act extended the limits of the province southward to the Ohio and westward to the Mississippi. And instead of giving Canada a representative legislature, as the " old subjects " eagerly demanded, it placed the government wholly in the hands of the governor and council. The most important and far-reaching pro- vision of the Quebec Act, however, was that by which the French Civil Law was restored, and the Roman Catholic rehgion estab- lished, thus making Canada in all but name a French colony, though under the English Crown. This settled the question as to whether the French Canadians should be swallowed up by their English fellow-countrymen, or, retaining their language and individuality, should develop side by side with them. The question was debated hotly on the floor of the British House of Commons ; and the decision, so gratifying to the sentiments and aspirations of a proud race like the French Canadians, was influ- enced perhaps more by policy than by any considerations of abstract justice. The Enghsh colonies, freed at last from the menace of the French power on their borders, were banding themselves together against the motherland. English statesmen turned their eyes with ever-increasing esteem upon their new AFFAIRS IN NOVA SCOTIA. 1 79 subjects in the north, — an obedient people, trained in loyalty, with Church and King supreme in all their traditions. 58. Affairs in Nova Scotia. — While events were maturing and changing so rapidly along the St. Lawrence valley, Nova Scotia was slowly healing her scars and settling down to steady progress. Nova Scotia was now a vast territory, including all of what are now New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. First Parha- Along the Gulf coast, about the mouths of the Richi- ment of Nova ° ' Scotia. bucto, Miramichi, Nepisiguit, and Restigouche rivers, the scenes of Cartier's first visit to the mainland, stood thriving Acadian settlements which had escaped the decree of exile. These settlements, during the latter years of the war, suffered terribly from famine, pestilence, and the attacks of English ships. When Quebec fell, many villages sent in their submission to the English at Fort Lawrence, begging and receiving grants of food to help them through the winter. In July of 1760, just two months before Montreal capitulated, a French fleet lying in the mouth of the Restigouche River, off the village of Petite Rochelle, was discovered by Commodore Byron, sailing from Louisburg with five English ships. The battle that took place resulted in the destruction of Petite Rochelle, and in the sinking or capture of the whole French fleet. This fight in the Restigouche mouth was the closing battle of the war. After the fall of Montreal the Indians sent their representatives to Fort Frederick, at the mouth of the St. John, to take the oath of allegiance to George III, and to renew a treaty which they had made with the Enghsh in 1726. Meanwhile upon all the loyal inhabitants of the great Acadian province had been conferred that badge of Anglo-Saxon freedom, representative government. In October, 1758, the Parliament of Nova Scotia met at Halifax. This was the first representative assembly ever convened on Cana- dian soil. It consisted of twenty-two members, representing the districts of Halifax, Annapolis, Dartmouth, Lunenburg, and Cum- berland. Under the stimulus of this change settlers began to come in from the hill districts of New England, exchanging their l8o A HISTORY OF CANADA. rocky farms for the rich meadow-lands of the CornwalHs, Annap- oHs, Avon, and Shubenacadie valleys. The population of Nova Scotia was increased by over seven thousand of these New Eng- land immigrants, between 1759 and 1763. Pioneers from Penn- sylvania, and afterwards from the Highlands of Scotland, formed a settlement which they called Pictou, on the shores of Northum- berland Strait. About the same time a band of New Englanders from Massa- chusetts took up a track of fertile land on the St. John River about New Eng- the mouth of the Oromocto, and called their settlement on^thrst^"^^ Maugerville. Soon afterwards the greater part of what John River. -g ^^^ New Brunswick was made the county of Sun- bury in the province of Nova Scotia. Many of these pioneers at Pictou and at Maugerville endured great hardships, from the fail- ure of crops and from the severe weather that came upon them before they were ready to meet it. There was then an Acadian settlement at St. Anne's Point, where now stands Fredericton. This little French village formed a reminder of the days when the capital of all Acadia was Villebon's rude fort at the mouth of the Nashwaak River opposite. Acadian settlers, too, clustered on the rich meadows about the Keswick mouth, ten miles above Fredericton. Prince Edward Island, then called by the old name which its illustrious discoverer, John Cabot, had given it, — the Island of St. John, — had but a scanty population, in spite of SMohnrnow i^s fertile soil and inexhaustible fisheries. At the ward^iSand ^^^^^ ^^ *^^ ^naX Capture of Louisburg in 1758, when ratepr^vince' *^^^ island came into English hands, it had but four or five thousand inhabitants, many of whom were Aca- dians of Beaus^jour and Minas, who had fled at the time of the Great Exile. After the Treaty of Paris a careful survey was made of the island. Not only were its area and resources investigated, but plans were elaborated for its speedy settlement and develop- ment. The old French station of Port la Joie was selected as the capital, and received the name of Charlottetown. In 1767 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. l8l the whole of the island was granted to English officers and others, at small quit-rents, on condition that each grantee should within the next four years bring in one actual settler for every two hundred acres of his grant. The vast estates thus lightly gained were as lightly valued. Sometimes they were sold for a trifle, sometimes they were gambled away, till almost all this " Garden of the Gulf" was in the hands of a few indifferent proprietors, many of whom dwelt in England and disregarded the terms on which they had received their great possessions. This state of affairs was a grievous drawback to the growth of the island ; and later on, as we shall see, it led to serious evils. At the request of the new proprietors,- the island, with its little handful of colo- nists, was separated from Nova Scotia and erected into a separate province. This took place in 1770; and Colonel Walter Patter- son was made first governor, with a small salary, and with such a variety of duties as few governors have been asked to perform. He came with a full staff of officials, their stipends to be judged from that of his attorney-general, which was fixed at one hundred pounds a year. Small as it was, it proved for some time more than he could collect. Undaunted by lack of population, and of many other things usually considered requisite to a full-fledged province, provision was quickly made for an elective assembly, which was duly convened and held its first session in 1773. CHAPTER XIV. SECTIONS : — 59, Trouble brewing between England and the Thirteen Colonies. 6o, the War begun, and Canada in- vaded BY the Revolutionists. 6i, the Revolting Colonies achieve their Independence. 59. Trouble brewing between England and the Thirteen Col- onies. — Hardly had the bonfires that hailed the conquest of Canada died out in the market-places of Boston, Philadelphia, and The growth New York, hardly were the paeans of loyal rejoicing tion^in tte" hushed in colonial throats, ere began that unhappy dis- coionies. p^^g which ended in the rupture of our race. When the Treaty of Paris was signed, there were shrewd observers in Europe who said that in driving France out of North America England had thrown away her strongest hold upon her colonies. In fact, no sooner did the colonies cease to need the strong arm of the mother country, than they also ceased to remember that they owed her anything. When the bugbear of French invasion no longer terrified them, they clung no longer to the mother's skirt. No longer occupied in fighting the enemy at their gates, they turned their turbulent energies to fighting the officers of the King, the regulations of ParUament. That they had bitter grievances the most hostile historian must allow. But that these grievances were sufficient to justify them in setting their swords to the throat of the motherland, — this is what no fair critic can grant. That motherland had just been fighting their battles, pouring out her blood and treasure lavishly to rid them of their foes. The Seven Years' War, as far as England was concerned, was purely a war 182 COLONIAL GRIEVANCES. 1 83 for the colonies. In this imperial cause she burdened herself with a debt that was in those days held appalling. It was not to be wondered at that she should expect the colonies to contribute something toward the payment of this debt. The only way in which they could be called on to contribute seemed to be through the medium of taxes. On the other hand, the colonies were without representation in the Imperial Parliament, and one of the dearest principles of British liberty was that there should be no taxation without representation. The position was plainly one that required tact and tenderness on both sides ; but, alas, no tact or tenderness was shown on either. The British government was bitterly aggrieved at the ingratitude of the colonists in seeking to evade their share of the war-debt. The colonists grew to believe that their most sacred rights were being trampled, their manhood contemptuously ignored. Their smouldering wrath, fanned by agitators and demagogues who now strut as patriots across the page of history, flamed out at last in open rebellion. True patriots indeed there were in the American colonies ; and in both the loyalist and revolutionary parties they were to be found. Among them towers preeminent the figure of Washington, whose clear sincerity, dauntless courage, and self-sacrificing devo- tion to his country command the reverence of friend and foe alike. But Washington, and those like Washington, did not go about to stir up the conflagration, while at the same time profess- ing unquenchable loyalty to England ! They, on the contrary, sought a common ground of reconciliation, in a removal of just grievances on both sides. But on both sides, alas, prevailed the counsels of the rash and blind. Let us glance hastily at some of the grievances of which the colonies complained. These chiefly had regard to customs du- ties and interference with trade. For the benefit of colonial British merchants, British manufacturers, and British snevances. ship-builders, colonial shipping was kept down by severe naviga- tion laws^ colonial manufactures were strangled by ingenious prohibitions, and colonial commerce was allowed to flow into 184 A HIS 7^ OR Y OF CANADA. none but British ports. The great products of the country — furs, hides, cotton, indigo, tobacco, sugar — could be sold only to Great Britain ; and none but British ships were allowed in the colonial harbours. Of course, as a result of such regulations, an immense deal of smuggling went on. This proved very profitable to the colonists. When England undertook to suppress it, there was resistance at once. In a foolish hour the British government determined to employ the King's army and the King's navy in the work of revenue collecting. The royal uniforms thus became associated in the popular mind with all that was' most hateful to it, — with the collection of taxes deemed unjust, and with the exe- cution of laws held tyrannical. The British troops had already made themselves very unpopular with the colonists by their over- bearing attitude, and by the supercilious contempt which they displayed toward the colonial militia, who were man for man their equals. In fact it has been said that the seeds of the revolu- tion were sown by the ill-bred arrogance of British ofificers, who made themselves hateful to all the colonial troops. But among the events which stand out as direct causes of the revolution, none loom darker than the Stamp Act and the Tea Tax. The Stamp Act (1763) required that all contracts, deeds, wills, and such like written agreements between man and man should carry government stamps in order to be legal. The stamp ,• , 1 Act and the The tax was a light one, but it reached into everv X63. X3.X cj ^ concern of life. It forced itself upon the attention of every colonist. It was a frank assertion of the claim of the Imperial Parliament to tax British subjects not represented in that Parliament. The act was both improper and impolitic. Wise statesmen, like Pitt, spoke fervently against it, but in vain. Then from- end to end of the Atlantic seaboard rose fierce protests. Mobs gathered to resist, and collectors were so roughly handled that they resigned their offices in terror. The storm deepened so ominously that, at the eleventh hour, the ministry bowed before it, and repealed the tax (1766). There- upon the colonies sank back into an uneasy quiet. It was the THE WAR BEGINS. 1 85 quiet of a slumbering volcano. The next false move of Parliament was a bill to tax all tea brought into colonial ports. Again blazed forth the anger of the colonists. Boston was the centre of the popular indignation. A revenue cutter was attacked and burned. A merchant caught selling Enghsh goods was stoned in the streets. The very preachers from their pulpits stirred up the people to in- surrection. Then came the childish farce of the " Boston Tea Party" (1773), when a band of Boston citizens, disguised as savages, boarded a British ship and emptied her cargo of tea into the waters. This, of course, was a dehberate felony, none the less criminal because ridiculous ; but it is sometimes held up to admiration as a dignified and patriotic protest against unjust taxation ! The angry home government retorted by closing the port of Boston and withdrawing the charter of Massachusetts. War seemed by this time very near. A Continental Congress, to devise means of mutual support, was therefore summoned. It met at Philadelphia (1774). An address of heated protest was forwarded to the King. One of the grievances of the ° ° The First and colonies was alleged to be the passing of the Quebec Second Con- Act. This establishment of a Roman Catholic province in the north was declared to be an intolerable menace to the Protestant colonies. In the following year the Congress met again at Philadelphia (May, 1775). An urgent appeal was now made to Nova Scotia and Quebec, calling on them to join their sister provinces in withstanding British tyranny. But the message fell on deaf ears. In the address to Canada the Roman Catholic population was flattered and caressed in a way strangely at variance with the words of the previous year. The sagacious ecclesiastics of Quebec must have smiled at the contrast. 60. The War begun, and Canada invaded by the Revolutionists. — Meanwhile, some weeks before the meeting of the second Congress, swords had been crossed and the war begun. BUnd intolerance had had its way on both sides. General Gage, military governor at Boston, had sent out a detachment to seize some rebel stores at the village of Lexington (April 19, 1775). 1 86 A HISTORY OF CANADA. This force had been surrounded by a swarm of " Minute Men," — as the mihtia about Boston were called, from the fact that they were ready for duty at a minute's notice. The Eng- Lexington . ° and Bunker ]ish soldiers were driven back to the city with heavy Hill. . . -^ loss, but not till they had accompHshed their errand and destroyed the stores. Then, two months later, came the battle of Bunker Hill. This, contrary to the general notion, was a British victory, — but it was a costly one. Twice were the royal troops repulsed with loss, before they succeeded in carrying the enemy's position. The rebels made a brave stand, but in the end were utterly defeated ; and their defeat is commemorated by a trophy which stands on the citadel at Quebec. It is one of the cannon which the British columns captured at Bunker Hill. In the name of the United Colonies a continental army was now enrolled. Its professed aim was not to seek independence, but to secure redress of grievances. The Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, decided that if Canada Canada invaded by did not thirst for the blessings of liberty, these bless- the rebels. ings must be thrust upon her. It was resolved to capture Canada before reinforcements from England could be poured in. That redoubtable rebel, Colonel Ethan Allen, with a band of his Vermont Rangers, or " Green Mountain Boys," had surprised the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The old war-path into Canada lay open. An army of three thousand men under General Montgomery was sent against Montreal by way of the Richelieu ; while Colonel Benedict Arnold, with a force of twelve hundred, made his way up the Kennebec and down the Chaudiere toward Quebec. To defend Canada against these two invasions the governor, Sir Guy Carleton, had only about four hundred regulars, and some five hundred and fifty French Cana- dian volunteers. The habitans, for the most part, were deter- mined to remain neutral. They had had enough of fighting to last them for a generation. In spite of the appeals of their clergy. • the persuasions and commands of the seigneurs, they refused to respond to the governor's call for aid. Nevertheless we may say QUEBEC ATTACKED. 1 8/ that to them we owe this Canada ; for without the few hundred French Canadians who did rally to the British flag, and without the obstinate neutrality of their countrymen, Quebec must have fallen. By refusing to join the rebels the habitans fought Eng- land's battle. To Sir Guy Carleton, also, we owe a debt that is never to be forgotten. But for his unconquerable energy the invaders must have triumphed. They forced the passage of the Richelieu, captured the forts of St. John's and Cham- Carieton at . Quebec, bly, and took possession of Montreal. Carleton fled in disguise to Quebec, narrowly escaping capture, and there made ready for his last stand. In Quebec he weeded out all those citizens who sympathized with the rebels, expelling them from the city. From among the loyal remnant he was able to enroll some hundreds of hardy volunteers. With sixteen hundred men at his back — a small force indeed, but to be trusted — he awaited the struggle. When Arnold, after a daring and terrible journey through the winter wilds, arrived at Quebec, he came under the walls and called upon the city to surrender. He was answered from the mouth of a cannon. Thereupon he withdrew, and formed his camp on the Plains of Abraham. A little later he was Arnold before joined by Montgomery from Montreal. Quebec was Q'^®''^*^- then closely besieged ; but the position of the besiegers, as, the rigour of winter settled in, became bitterly trying. They were chagrined at their failure to seduce the French Canadians. They knew that if the siege dragged on till spring they might expect a British fleet to relieve Quebec. In this strait they resolved on a desperate venture. It was the last night of the year 1775. In thick dark and a driving storm they crept up to take the city by assault. While a feigned attack was made on the walls over against the . . , , ° The double Plains of Abraham, two assaulting columns moved assault on Quebec. secretly upon the Lower Town. Once let the streets be gained, and they trusted to scale the walls to the Upper Town. One column, led by Arnold, approached from the side of the 1 88 A HISTORY OF CANADA. St. Charles, through the suburb of St. Roch's. After a hot fight, in which Arnold was wounded, the assailants carried the two-gun battery which guarded the entrance, and forced their way into the city. With flame, and steel, and yells, raged the battle through the streets, till there came a body of troops from the Upper Town. Falling upon the rear of the invaders, they captured about four hundred, and drove the rest in headlong flight. The second assaulting column, led by Montgomery himself, came down the St. Lawrence shore from Wolfe's Cove, and Defeat of sought to enter the city by a narrow path where now andd^aTh'of ^uns Champlain Street. At the head of this path Montgomery, g^^^^ g^^^.^ ^ company of Canadians. They had a small cannon, loaded with grape, pointing directly up the path. The enemy stole forward in the darkness, till they thought them- selves near enough, and then made a rush to overpower the guard. But in their faces belched a roaring flame, and a close volley of grape mowed down the head of their column. Among the slain were Montgomery himself and his two aides. Leaving their sud- den dead on the field, where the falHng snow soon covered them, the assailants fled in a panic. In the morning the bodies were brought into the city. That of Montgomery was cared for with special consideration ; and the place of his burial, in the St. Louis bastion, was marked with a cut stone. The dead leader, slain so piteously in darkness and defeat, was a brave and humane officer whose memory is respected by his foes. His death was in strik- ing contrast to that of his adored master, the heroic Wolfe. It is a strange coincidence that both Montgomery, the invader of Can- ada, and Carleton, her defender, had fought under Wolfe in his last campaign, and made him their exemplar as a soldier and as a man. After this disastrous repulse the enemy contented themselves with keeping the city under strict blockade. Toward The Amen- . cans driven spring reinforcements arrived, and they pressed the outof Canada. \ ^ ' . . siege. But before they could accomplish anything the garrison was cheered by the sight of British ships in the St. Law- rence. The invaders hastily retired. Carleton sallied out upon their AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 189 rear, captured their artillery, and turned their retreat into a head- long rout. A few weeks later a little band of regulars and Indians, descending from the western forts to help in the defence of Can- ada, attacked and captured a body of four hundred Americans at the rapids of "The Cedars" on the St. Lawrence. This was in May of 1776. In June the Americans sent a force to attack Three Rivers. They were met by an equal force of Canadians and regulars. The battle was sharp, but the invaders were routed. Reinforcements were now flowing into Canada ; and the Ameri- can troops, giving way at all points, abandoned Montreal. They fell back on Lake Champlain. There, for a time, a small fleet gave them control of the situation. But during the summer the British built an opposing squadron. By autumn it was afloat ; and then was fought a hot battle for the mastery of the lake. The fleet of the revolutionists was destroyed. Thereupon they blew up the grim ramparts of Crown Point, and left the lake in English hands. Carleton drew his entrenchments at Isle au Noix ; and once more the inland gates of Canada were barred against the enemy. 61. The Revolting Colonies achieve their Independence. — The invaders having been beaten back from the bounds of Canada, the rest of the war is not a part of Canadian history ; but its results were of such vital importance to us that the struggle must be briefly outlined here. In 1776 the congress at The colonies Philadelphia issued what is known as the " Declaration seives^inde™" of Independence." So many of the colonists remained p^^^^^"*- loyal that the struggle now became a civil war. Brother fought against brother, father against son. Conspicuous among the loyaHsts were the Iroquois, who were held faithful to the Royal cause by the influence of Sir William Johnson. Washington dis- played great judgment in avoiding pitched battles between his untrained militia and the disciplined forces of the Crown. By his persistency and patience he gradually drove the English back from point to point, without ever defeating them in the field. On Long Island the English in fair fight drove the revolutionists IQO A HISTORY OF CANADA. before them, and might have destroyed the whole continental army but for the inertness of the commander-in-chief, Lord Howe. Howe then advanced from New York, defeated Washington at the battle of the Brandywine, and occupied Philadelphia ; where he wintered and amused himself. In this same year a force of about eight thousand regulars, with a thousand Indian alhes, was gathered in Canada under General Burgoyne, for the purpose of ascending Lake Champlain, capturing Albany, descending the Hudson to New York, and thus cutting the revolution in two. The enterprise failed disastrously. The colonial militia swarmed hke hornets about the line of Burgoyne 's disaster at march, shutting off supplies, and harassing the English Saratoga. . _, , ■,■ ^ t ■ n i i at every pomt. Burgoyne s little army dwmdled day by day, — disease, desertion, and the bullets of the sharpshooters eating away his ranks, till he had less than six thousand men left in his command. He fell back in despair on Saratoga. Here he was surrounded by General Gates with a much superior force, and was compelled to surrender. This was an overwhelming triumph for the revolutionists. And now came the hour for France. She hungered to avenge the defeats of the last war. She recognized the revolted colonies as an independent and sovereign state, and took up arms attacked by in their support. England straightway found herself France and , , "^ ^ J^ ,, . . , , other Euro- involved m a European war. Holland thought the hour was come to humiliate her ancient rival. Spain joined in, hoping to win back Gibraltar. It was the hour for England's enemies, of whatever race or clime. French leaders and French sympathy were a tower of strength to the revolution- ists, while yet their fate hung in the balance. When England's hands were thus fettered by her entanglements in Europe, it was clear that she could not subdue the colonies. Though continually beaten in fair field, defeat but made the revolutionists more for- midable. In England, too, there was a strong party which bitterly opposed the war. There were statesmen of power and wisdom who thought the rebel provinces not wholly in the wrong, and who YORKTO WN. 191 wished to let them go in peace. But the King was obstinate. The war dragged on, with the greatest vindictiveness on both sides, but with no great actions. Lord Howe resigned, and was succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton, who pushed the war with more alacrity. He seized Charleston ; and his lieutentant, Lord Corn- walHs, gaining several victories in quick succession, forced the rebelHon in the South to hide its head (1781). Soon afterwards, however, the colonials won a pitched battle, defeating the famous loyahst leader, Tarleton, at " the Cowpens." At length there fell upon the English the overwhelming disas- ter of Yorktown. New York was menaced by a combined attack of French and revolutionists. Cornwallis evacuated Charleston and hastened northward to help Clinton. Threatened by greatly superior numbers, he halted and entrenched himself at York- town, on a neck of land jutting out into Chesapeake Bay. Here, expecting the arrival of a British fleet, he felt himself secure. But the fleet that came was that of France, and he found him- self hopelessly entrapped. Four times outnumbering his own force, the French and American armies under Rochambeau and Washington shut him in to landward. The French ° Cornwallis broadsides commanded his water-front. He could capitulates at Yorktown. either starve or capitulate. He capitulated. This was the end of the struggle, because the British people would fight no longer, nor suffer the King to prolong a war in which their hearts were not engaged. Any clear observer could see that England was not beaten by the revolutionists. But little of her vast power had been put forth in America, That she was not exhausted was promptly shown by the vigour with which she now turned on England ac- her foreign foes, humbhng them swiftly by land and the°inde^e^n- sea. A tithe of this obstinate energy, displayed on urdted"***^^ American fields, must have crushed even Washington's states, tireless courage. In the following year (1782) England acknowl- edged the independence of the Americans. She made over to her triumphantly rebellious children all those vast regions stretching 192 A HISTORY OF CANADA. from the western boundaries to the Pacific, — a generosity which was far from palatable to France and Spain. France had helped the colonies, not for the love she bore them, but because she hoped through them to cripple her great adversary and win back some portion of her New World empire. But all she got in the end was humiliation and debt. French Canada, prosperous and favoured under Enghsh rule, remained faithful to English alle- giance ; and the realm of the fertile west was placed forever beyond French grasp. The claws of the lion's cub were now closed upon that prize more jealously than those of the old lion had ever been. Canada, after the repulse of the invasion, had heard but the distant mutterings of the dread storm in the south. The brave and politic governor. Sir Guy Carleton, had resigned in 1777, seeking active service, and feeling confident that the wave of war would not again break over the Canadian frontier. He was Echoes of the Succeeded by General Haldimand, whose harshness Maritime ^ made him somewhat unpopular. This severity, how- Provinces. ever, was not without wholesome effect on the rebel emissaries who sought to seduce the Canadians from their alle- giance. In Nova Scotia such emissaries met at first with a measure of success. Some people of Maugerville, on the St. John River, foolishly lent ear to them, and were led by one Colonel Eddy to make an attack on Fort Cumberland.^ This enterprise failed ignominiously ; but the Maugervillians tried to console them- selves by seizing a brig that lay in the Missiguash. The prize was sold in an American port. Their exploit, however, brought them neither glory nor gain ; for the government made them pay the owners of the brig its full value, and then forgave them, with a warning to indulge in no more such escapades. The Indians, too, of the St. John River and the Gulf shore put on war-paint under persuasion from Boston, and some of them took part in the expedition against Fort Cumberland. But a mixture of firm- 1 Formerly Beausejour. TREATY OF VERSAILLES. 193 ness, gifts, and flattery converted them into loyal subjects. At the St. John mouth, under the walls of Fort Frederick, then without a garrison, stood a small fishing settlement. A band of marauders from the port of Machias in Maine wiped out both fort and settlement. The infant settlement of Charlottetown, and the coasts of Bay Chaleur, were ravaged by American privateers. Many of these privateers were mere pirates, without privateering license, and their outrages were sharply condemned by the rebel Colonel John Allan, in the Massachusetts Assembly. Peace was at length secured by a treaty signed at Versailles on Sept. 3rd, 1 783. By this treaty Canada suffered. England was in a mood to be generous, — a generosity for which The Treaty of she has since received small thanks, — and this mood "Versailles. she chose to indulge at some expense to Canada. The rich Ohio val- ley — all the fertile region, indeed, to the south of the Great Lakes — was taken from Canada and given to the new-born republic. From the point where the St. Lawrence is crossed by the 45th parallel, the southern boundary of Canada was declared to lie along the mid-channel of the river, and through the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Superior, and Lake of the Woods. On the east the boundary between Nova Scotia and Maine was defined to be the St. Croix River, with a " line drawn from its source to the highlands dividing the waters falling into the Atlantic from those emptying themselves into the St. Lawrence." This definition was an irretrievable blunder, permitting Maine to thrust a great elbow of alien territory far up between Canada and Nova Scotia. It was a blunder from the effects of which we suffer to this day. The wording, too, was ignorantly vague ; and from its vagueness afterwards came disputes which were hardly settled without another war. CHAPTER XV. SECTIONS: — 62, the Loyalists. 63, Experiences of the Loyalists during the War. 64, the Loyalists in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. 65, the Loyalists in Western Canada. 66, Conditions of Life among the Loyalists. 62. The Loyalists. — When England signed the Treaty of Versailles (1783), she was so bent on being generous to her tri- The loyalists umphant enemies, that she failed in common justice to the^Treaty'of the friends who had staked their all upon her fidelity Versailles. ^^^ prowess. The war, made possible by the selfish stupidity of Parliament in denying to the colonists the rights of free British subjects, was a stinging humiliation to the motherland before the eyes of all peoples. But more humiliating beyond measure was the peace which abandoned the loyalists to their fate. The treaty made no provision for them, except that it pledged Congress to commend them to the kind consideration of the various states ! This clause of the treaty called forth indignant protest both in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords. Wilberforce said, " When I consider the case of the loyalists, I confess I there feel myself conquered ; I there see my country humiliated ; I see her at the feet of America." Lord Sackville said, " A peace founded on the sacrifice of these unhappy subjects must be accursed in the sight of God and man." The worried government, however, pleaded harsh necessity. In piteous tones they protested — " We had but the alternative either to accept the terms proposed, or continue the war." But the honour of England demanded that her last penny should be 194 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LOYALISTS. 195 spent, her last sword shattered in war, before she forsook those whom she was bound by every tie to defend. The compensations which, as we shall presently see, she afterwards granted to the loyalists, were only the late rendering of a partial justice. But the destiny that governs nations was working to great ends. It was decreed that of stern and well-tried stuff should be built a nation to inherit the northern half of this continent. The migra- tion of the loyalists will some day come to be recognized as one of those movements which have changed the course of history. It will be acknowledged as not less significant and far-reaching in its results than the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. For, with- out detracting from the achievement of our French fellow-citizens, who have moulded a great province, of the loyai- it is but truth to say that the United Empire loyalists were the makers of Canada. They brought to our making about thirty thousand people, of the choicest stock the colonies could boast. They were an army of leaders, for it was the loftiest heads which attracted the hate of the revolutionists. The most influen- tial judges, the most distinguished lawyers, the most capable and prominent physicians, the most highly educated of the clergy, the members of council of the various colonies, the Crown officials, people of culture and social distinction, — these, with the faithful few whose fortunes followed theirs, were the loyalists. Many of them would never have consented to dwell under the flag of the new republic. Many others, accepting the decision of the war, would have forced themselves to accept also the new government ; but for having remained true to their allegiance they were hounded to the death as traitors. Canada owes deep gratitude indeed to her southern kinsmen, who thus, from Maine to Georgia, picked out their choicest spirits, and sent them forth to people our northern wilds. 63. Experiences of the Loyalists during the War. — For those of the loyalists who were loyal because of the offices which they held under the Crown, trouble of course began long before the outbreak of the war. This was especially the case in Massachu- 196 A HISTORY OF CANADA. setts, where indignant patriots proved their patriotism by burn- ing Governor Hutchinson's mansion, mobbing sheriffs and judges, The people driving feeble old men into the woods, and heaping before'uie ^'^^ insults upon the wives and daughters of officials, war. Where the violence was directed merely against Crown officers in the act of enforcing obnoxious statutes, of course much allowance must be made. When collectors ' of the tea-duty, or officers executing the Stamp Act, were tarred and feathered, such ebullitions may be regarded as merely an energetic form of pro- test. But the violence of protest soon deepened into the violence of persecution. On the approach of war the line between the loyalists and revolutionists widened to a gulf of hate. Many of the loyalists could not have been other than loyal, because their sense of duty forbade them to rebel, although they were ready enough to seek redress of grievances in a constitutional way. Yet others again, divided in their sympathies, not certain as to the right course, or merely averse to the miseries of war, hesi- tated. But all these alike, in the eyes of the revolutionary party, were traitors. The word " traitor " was put to a novel use when it was applied to the loyalists. The loyalists, in turn, were not backward in retorting the same vigorous epithet upon the revolutionists. In those districts where they were heavily outnumbered, they were compelled The loyalists ^ \ . ' ■' ^ in New Eng- to seek safety with the King's troops. They were beaten and plundered, their estates confiscated, and themselves banished under penalty of death. When Gage evacu- ated Boston, out-generalled by Washington at the very beginning of the war, he took with him hundreds of loyal citizens, who dared not trust their lives to the men of Massachusetts. It has been well asked by a distinguished writer, '" Were not the loyalists Americans, and did not their wrongs exceed any of those done to Americans by the King?" F2ven the wives of the English and German officers captured with Burgoyne's army at Saratoga were subjected to gross insult during their captivity in Boston. Where, as was the case in parts of the South, the population SUFFERINGS OF THE LOYALISTS. ic^y was fairly divided between loyalist and revolutionist, the fight was waged with intense ferocity, and dreadful barbarisms were practised on both sides. In some districts the two factions threat- ened to exterminate each other. Noted partisan leaders arose, like Tarleton on the loyal side, Marion on what was xhe loyalists now called the "continental" side. Adventurous i^i ti^e South, chiefs like these gathered troops of followers who smarted to avenge either public or private, real or fancied, wrongs ; and a vindictive guerilla warfare was waged. Each side did cruel out- rage in the name of the cause which it held sacred. When at length peace was declared, terrible was the case of the vanquished. Peace should sheathe the sword and bring forgetful- ness of vengeance j* but this peace meant the opportunity of the victors. It was followed by barbarities which put an ineffaceable stain on the shield of the young republic. At the time of the evacuation of New York Sir Guy Carleton comes at last ■' to the rescue, commanded the English forces in America ; and feel- ing bitterly the desertion of the loyalists, he sent several thousands of them away in the King's ships. But of the great numbers lying beyond the reach of Carleton's care many were put to ignominious death. Scourging, ducking, tarring and feathering, proscription, and banishment were the fate that fell to the remainder. The state governments deliberately plundered, and drove out in abject poverty, men guilty of nothing but fair fight in a lawful cause. At Charleston, when the King's troops sailed away, the spectacle that greeted their backward gaze was one that EngHsh cheeks must blush to think of. The bodies of twenty-four loyalists, abandoned to their foes by the country they had fought for, swung from a row of gibbets on the wharf. It is not civilization, but blind barbarism, that takes such vengeance upon the conquered. Men like Washington, Hamilton, Jay, and Greene, jealous for the honour of their cause, protested, but in vain. At length the cry that went up from the suffering loyahsts grew so bitter that England tardily gave ear. Sir Guy Carleton was the chief mover in the work of rescue ; 198 A HISTORY OF CANADA. but Governor Haldimand in Quebec and Governor Parr in Nova Scotia lent effective aid. It was decided that the refugees should be settled in western Canada, in Nova Scotia, and on the Island of St. John ; that they should be given grants of land according to their rank and standing, in extent from one hundred acres up to several thousand ; and that they should be fed by the govern- ment, till their lands should begin to make return. The loyalists of the Atlantic coast gathered in the seaport towns, where ships were speedily provided. Others, dwelling inland, were directed to make their rendezvous at Niagara, Sackett's Harbour, Oswego, and the foot of Lake Champlain. In the year 1 783 the great ' exodus took place, and the loyalists flocked across the border into the land which they and their descendants have made great. They divided into two main streams, one moving eastward to the Maritime Provinces, the other flowing westward to the region north of the Lakes. 64. The Loyalists in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. — In St. John, New Brunswick, the iSth day of The founding May is celebrated as the natal day of the city. On andShei^° that day, 1783, took place the Landing of the Loyal- bume. -g^g^ Th.^ mouth of the St. John River is a secure haven, but fenced about with grim and sterile hills which belie the fertile country lying inland. Hither came the ships of the refugees from New York, and all through the summer they continued to arrive. At the harbour mouth they built a city which they called Parrtown, in honour of Nova Scotia's governor. Many went on through the rocky defile of the Narrows, and spread up the beau- tiful shores of the great river a distance of eighty-four miles, to St. Anne's Point. Five thousand loyaHsts came to the St. John during this memorable summer. These were, for the most part, ofificers and men of disbanded regiments who had fought bravely for the King, — among them the famous Queen's Rangers, — and their temper toward the Maugerville settlers, who were known to have sympathized with the rebels, was by no means friendly. The Maugerville settlers were known as the "old inhabitants." Where NEW BRUNSWICK AND CAPE BRETON. 199 these " old inhabitants " could show titles to their lands, they were secure ; but in other cases, where titles were not forthcoming, the loyalists were very ready to seize the farms of the squatters in revenge for what they had themselves been forced to endure. While the St. John River valley was thus filling up with strong settlers, and a busy city rising at the river's mouth, other loyalist bands went to Nova Scotia, and to the fertile gulf province which still bore the name of St. John's Island. On the tidal meadows of the Bay of Fundy waters they settled, and at Digby, and along the Atlantic coast to eastward of Halifax ; but their great settlement was made at Port Razoir, near the south-west cor- ner of the peninsula. Here was a superb and landlocked harbour which captivated the exiles. As it were in a night there sprang up on its shores a city of twelve thousand inhabitants, which took the name of Shelburne. But the site had been ill-chosen. Shelburne had nothing but its harbour. The country about it was not fertile. There was nothing to nourish a town of such size and pretension. So the city which had sprung up like a gourd in a single night, withered as it were in a day. Its people scattered to Hahfax and other parts of the province, some even going up the St. Lawrence and westward to the Lake region. And in three years from its sanguine foundation Shelburne had dwindled to a small village. In some cases the very houses of this fleeting city were taken down and carried away, to be set up again at Yarmouth or Weymouth. The loyalists of the St. John River were no sooner settled than they demanded representation at Halifax. When this was refused by Governor Parr they at once agitated for a division of the prov- ince. In spite of the governor's opposition this was granted, for they had strong friends in England ; and in 1784 Nova Scotia was shorn of her great territory to the north of the Bay of ^ew Bnins- Fundy. This region was erected into the province of cape Breton New Brunswick, with Colonel Thomas Carleton, Sir Sfepro?-^" Guy's brother, as its governor. He was assisted by a ^'"'®®- council of twelve members, and an elective assembly of twenty-six representatives. Cape Breton, at the same time, was made a 200 A HISTORY OF CANADA. separate province, under Major Desbarres as governor ; and its capital was removed from Louisburg to the new town of Sydney. About eight hundred loyalists moved into Cape Breton, settling at Sydney, Louisburg, St. Peter's, and Baddeck, where during their first winter they suffered terribly from storm and famine. The existence of Cape Breton as a separate province was brief. In 1820, as we shall see, it was reabsorbed in Nova Scotia. Soon after the establishment of New Brunswick, Parrtown was incorporated as a city, and its name was changed to St. John. Two years later (1786) the capital was removed to St. made the Anne's Point, eighty-four miles up the river, where the C3.pll3.1 Oi NewBruns- city of Fredericton was built. The main object of this wick. ^ removal was greater security from attack, the object which Villebon, too, had sought when he removed thither from Port Royal. It was also the governor's purpose to escape from the distractions of a stirring commercial centre, which St. John very rapidly became. The province of New Brunswick, like its mightier sister Ontario, was thus peculiarly a child of the loyal- ists. It is estimated that the loyalist migration brought not less than twenty thousand people into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. In New Brunswick the new-comers so overwhelmingly outnumbered the old inhabitants that they gave their own character and type to the whole province. 65. The Loyalists in Western Canada. — Into the work of finding western homes for the loyalists Governor Haldimand of Canada threw himself with fervour. As we have seen, most of the loyalists of the seaboard went to Nova Scotia ; but a ■D +1. * T portion of this eastern stream flowed on into the and districts Gulf and turned up the St. Lawrence. Some of occupied by ^ the western these wide-wandering immigrants stayed their course loyalists. & (3 J at Sorel, a few miles below Montreal. The greater number, however, went on to the vast unpeopled spaces about Fort Frontenac. These pioneers of what is now our premier _ province, the great commonwealth of Ontario, were led by a sturdy loyalist of the Hudson, named Grass, whose father, hav- THE WESTERN LOYALISTS. 20I ing once been prisoner among the French at Fort Frontenac, had reported the country good. To this same region followed the greater number of the inland loyalists, making their escape from the hostile republic by way of Oswego, Sackett's Harbour, and Ogdensburg. The chief movement took place in 1784, and occupied all the northern shore of Lake Ontario. The western fringe of the migration consisted of families from the Susquehannah valley, many of whom worked their way along Lake Erie as far as the banks of the St. Clair. The refugees who had gathered at Niagara were wise enough not to go far. They established themselves on the sunny and fruitful lands along the Niagara River and around the head of Lake Ontario, whence they spread westward through the peninsula that lies between Erie and Huron, the very garden of Canada. On the east of this inland migration lay invitingly open the pathway of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu, so often the track of armies. By this most accessible portal entered many of the Hudson River loyalists, — Germans of the old Palatinate settlements, Sir John Johnson's disbanded "Royal Greens," and the Mohawks who had so faithfully adhered to the fortunes of the Crown, under their great chief, Joseph Brant. Many of these went on to the west and north, settling the St. Lawrence shore between Fort Frontenac and Montreal ; but others, dreading the long journey and the hardships The Eastern of the remoter wilderness, paused in their flight as ^"^°ships. soon as they found themselves well beyond the border. The pleasant country between the American frontier and the old St. Lawrence settlements was thus filled up with a strong popula- tion. It now forms what is known as " The Eastern Townships," — a distinctively English section of the French province of Que- bec. That all the inland loyalists did not stay in the Eastern Townships is due to two facts. In the first place, the loyalists had been trained to self-government, and doubtless looked to the erection of a new province with a constitution and laws very different from those established in Canada by the Quebec Act. 202 A HISTORY OF CANADA. In the second place, Governor Haldimand discouraged settle- ment along the frontier, dreading a continuance of the American intrigues which had already caused him so much trouble. It is estimated that not fewer than ten thousand loyalists came into the St. Lawrence and Lake districts during the great „ ^ , migration. This number includes what are known as Numbers and ° influence of the "Later Loyalists," who came inafter the pioneers the loyalists. '■ had opened the way. These later loyalists were people who, through prudence or weakness, had made them- selves less obnoxious to the revolutionists and had therefore been allowed to stay in the new republic. Their hearts, how- ever, had clung to the old flag. The first comers were of the sturdier stock, and more uncompromising in their views. To them belongs the greater glory. The majority of them were members of loyal colonial regiments which had fought with tire- less tenacity through the war ; and when, nearly a generation later, war broke out between England and the American states, they and their sons proved that the warlike fire had not been suffered to perish. To this, as we shall see, the records of the war of 1 812-14 bear witness. As the history of Canada unfolds, we shall mark henceforth the mighty influence of the thirty thousand exiles who crossed our borders in those eventful years. As we watch the destiny of this people taking shape, we shall be forced to realize that the hands most potent in shaping it are the hands of the sons of the loyalists. 66. Conditions of Life among the Loyalists. — From 1783 to 1790 the British government kept commissioners at work inquir- The United ^i"*? ^'^to the claims of the loyalists, and granting Empire List, j-j^gi-^ partial indemnity for the losses which they had sustained in the war. The total amount paid out by Great Britain in this way was nearly ^15,000,000, which does not in- clude the value of the general land grants, implements, and sup- plies of food which were issued. In many sections the loyalists were fed on government rations for three years after their arrival. The sons of the loyalists, on coming of age, were entitled to cer- MILLS AND FOOD. 203 tain grants and privileges. In 1789, therefore, was compiled that ' roll of honour known as the United Empire List, consisting of the names of all the loyalists who had fled out of the republic during the previous six years. These were to be known thence- forward as the United Empire LoyaUsts. After their names they were entitled to place the letters U. E. L. Among the supplies granted to the faithful immigrants were tools for building their houses and implements for clearing and tilling their lands. To each pioneer family were Mills and given a plough and a cow. A few of the settlements *°°'^' were so fortunate as to receive portable mills for the grinding of their grain. The greater number of the pioneers, however, in Upper Canada at least, had no such luxuries as mills. Their grain was chiefly Indian corn and wild rice. These they crushed between stones, or with an axe ; and with the broken stuff" they made a rough bread. But this clumsy process was soon super- seded by the "Hominy Block," — a hard-wood stump, with a large hollow burned in the top of it. In this hollow the grain was pounded with a great wooden rammer or " plumper." Some- times a hominy block was large enough to hold a bushel or two of grain at a time ; and in such case the grinding was done by a stone with a heavily weighted "sweep," or long pole, attached to it. Of course, as prosperity advanced these primitive con- trivances were soon set aside, and grist-mills took their place. As the settlers felled the great trees which covered their do- mains, they used the logs to build their cabins and their barns. Such sawed lumber as they absolutely required they got out laboriously with the " whip saw " and " cross-cut." Many of these men were quite new to the use of axe and saw. Not a few had been accustomed to life in social centres ; but now they made their homes in harshest isolation. Often miles of savage forest severed them from their nearest neighbours. They had been used to snug cottages, well-stored roomy farmhouses, or perhaps to those stately old colonial mansions wherein reigned a hospitality all but princely. Now they betook themselves to 204 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. a log dwelling, often with but one room and one window. Its roof would be mere sheets of bark stretched on a layer of poles ; its chinks would be stuffed with moss and clay to Houses. •' keep out the wind. Their chimneys at first were perilous structures of sticks and clay. As soon as possible, how- ever, they reproduced the ample chimneys of their former dwell- ings, built of rough stone or coarse and ill-shaped brick ; and thousands of such chimneys stand to this day, occupying a hugely disproportionate space in the houses which they both serve and dominate. Into these rude first dwellings of the loyalists came some arti- cles of luxury, brought from rich honaes on the Susquehannah, the _ .^ Hudson, or the Connecticut. To-day the sons of the Furniture. ■' loyalists point with pride to tall, old clocks, to time- stained chairs and " secretaries," that have shared the changed fortunes of their ancient owners and withstood the rough journey from the world into the wilderness. In most cases, however, little was saved from the angry revolutionists, and that little could not be taken over the forest trails. Some of the loyalist cabins had no furniture but a bed, made of four poles with strips of basswood bark woven between them. The toil of clearing and planting sometimes left no time for the construction of luxuries like chairs and tables. To stave off actual famine took all the settler's ener- gies. In parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, of course, where the way was already opened up by older settlers, the new- comers had less hardship to endure ; but by far the greater por- tion of the country allotted to the loyalists was remote and unbroken wilderness. In the subduing of this wilderness the loyalists were not at first convincingly successful. Many of them, as we have seen, were by The Hungry no means fitted for the life into which they had been ^®^''" so harshly thrust. In 1787, just when they were being thrown upon their own resources by the government, the stubborn soil rebelled against its new masters and the crops on all sides failed. This was in the Lake region. Though the THE HUNGRY YEAR. 205 government had only undertaken to feed the immigrants for three years, some of the more shiftless among them had made no pro- vision for the time when this help would cease. Others, who had done their best, had yet been unfortunate in the battle with frost and wild beasts. The following year, 1788, was one of the bitter- est privation, till a good harvest en'ded the anguish. Its memory comes down to us under the name of the " Hungry Year." The people had to dig those wild, tuberous roots which children know as " ground-nuts." Butternuts and beechnuts were sought with eager pains. Men sold their farms for a little flour, or even the coarsest bran. The early buds of the basswood were gathered and boiled, with the weed called " lamb's-quarter," and pigweed, and the wild " Indian cabbage." Game of all sorts was fairly abun- dant, — deer, rabbits, turkeys, pigeons ; but powder and shot were scarce. Gaunt men crept about with poles, striving to knock down the wild pigeons ; or they angled all day with awkward, home-made hooks for a few chub or perch to keep their families from starvation. In one settlement a beef-bone was passed from house to house, that each household might boil it a little while and so get a flavour in the pot of unsalted bran soup. A few of the weak and aged actually died of starvation during these famine months ; and others were poisoned by eating noxious roots which they grubbed up in the woods. As the summer wore on, however, the heads of wheat, oats, and barley began to grow plump. People gathered hungrily to the fields, to pluck and devour the green heads. Boiled, these were a luxury ; and hope stole back to the starving settlements. But this year had marked the climax of their trials ; and thence- forward the loyalists of Upper Canada made swift progress. At the very beginning they had realized the value of "Bees "and cooperation ; and instead of each man painfully level- "^^^^^^s-" ling his own patch of forest, hauling his own logs, building his own meagre cabin, a system of " frolics " or " bees " ^ was instituted. 1 The word " frolic " seemed the more in favour throughout the provinces by the sea, while around the lakes " bee " was the accepted term. 206 A HISTORY OF CANADA. There were "chopping frolics" and "building bees." Later, when the cleared fields began to yield generous crops, and the frame-house little by little took the place of the log-cabin or shanty, then came " husking bees " and " framing bees." When a new homestead was to be raised, along the raw roads and "blazed" trails the men of the townships came flocking to the neighbourly task. On such occasions (when ance the first hard years were over), there was free mirth and rough but wholesoine abundance. The daring of wolves and bears made pork, mutton, and beef all too scarce • but venison and wild turkeys were on hand ; with pies of wild fruit, and pyramids of smoking corn- bread or "johnny-cake." A delicacy much favoured at these fes- tivities was known as " pumpkin-cake," which consisted of a mixture of boiled pumpkin and corn-meal, sweetened with maple sugar, spiced, and baked. Or it was made without sweetening, and eaten with butter. At such festivals, as at ordinary times, the spoons and dishes used were generally of wood, — the white fine-grained wood of the poplar being preferred for the purpose. Little by little these wooden utensils were replaced by pewter, which came to the pioneer's door in the packs of occasional Yankee peddlers. This pewter, under much scouring, was made to shine like silver. Long after our loyalist fathers had learned to satisfy their robust appetites with generous and varied backwoods fare, their dress kept its primitive simplicity. At first, of course. Clothing, etc. , . ir j > they had the ordinary costumes of the pre-Revolution time, which they brought with them. These, in the case of the wealthier classes, were quite too gorgeous and elaborate for wear in the woods. The men would outshine the most dazzling belle of our more sober day. Imagine a Robinson, a VanAlstine, a Delancey, dressed in a wide-flapping frock-coat of blue damask lined with velvet, white satin waistcoat, black satin tight knee- breeches, white silk stockings, and red morocco slippers mth huge silver buckles covering the whole instep ; — or in a pea-green coat, white silk vest, and yellow nankeen knee-breeches, with garter- LOYALIST DRESS. 20/ bows dangling to the ankles. Perhaps for informal occasions the loyalist gentry would be content with stockings of some dark hue, and wide-skirted coat of snuff-colour, bottle-green, or claret. Certain it is, however, that most of the loyalists had small choice in the matter of clothes after they had been a year or two in the new land. As speedily as possible flax and hemp were grown, and the clacking loom became an institution in every settler's cabin. Coarse linen was woven ; and blankets of hemp mixed with hair from hides. But wool was long a scarce article, owing to the fondness of Canadian wolves for loyalist sheep. Many of the poorer men, and women too, wore nothing but dressed deerskins, which proved durable indeed, but soon got lamentably greasy. In the scarcity of soap, the scant linen of the household was often washed with strong lye. In the records of the time we read of a girl who innocently tried to clean her one garment, a gown of deerskin, in the same potent liquid, and saw the leather shrivel away to nothing before her startled eyes, so that she was fain to hide in the potato cellar till her mother could get her a blanket. As for finery, a Httle of that could be got, by those able to afford it, from the Yankee peddlers already referred to. It usually took the form of poorly-printed calicoes at a fabulous number of shil- hngs per yard. We read of such calicoes at eight and ten shillings, with book muslin at eighteen shillings. Many a bride of the loyal- ists had nothing but deerskin for her wedding garment. But the stubborn energy of these pioneers, which had made them so hated by their adversaries, in due course carved success out of misfortune. The greatness of that success one success at has but to look around him to see. The loyalists ^^®*' were God-fearing men, and they held sacred the education of their children. Therefore as soon as the wilderness began to yield before their axes, they made haste to build the school-house and the church ^ in every district. A jealous care for these marks the Canadian spirit to this day. 1 The first loyalist church erected in what is now Ontario was that of the loyal Mohawks on Grand River. CHAPTER XVI. SECTIONS: — 67, Lord Dorchester Governor-General. 68, THE Constitutional Act. 69, the Two Canadas — Upper AND Lower. 70, the Maritime Provinces. 71, Threats of War between England and the United States. 67. Lord Dorchester Governor-GeneraL — Ever since the pass- ing of the Quebec Act in 1674, the Enghsh inhabitants of Canada Canadians, had been dissatisfied. As we have seen, the provisions Engiisha^fke, ^^ French law were deeply distasteful to them. Still resentative' niore Strongly did they object to being deprived of government, representative government. As soon as the loyalists were fairly established in Canada, the clamour for English law and popular assemblies increased a hundredfold. The new inhabitants were not of a stock or a temper to long endure the loss of their political privileges ; and being high in favour with the home government, their appeals were heard attentively in the halls of Westminster. In their demand for self-government, they were warmly supported by the leaders of the French Canadians, who foresaw the power to be wielded by the votes of their country- men. They protested, very naturally, against being counted less fit for representative government than their fellow- subjects of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In this demand for representa- tive institutions we catch again, and this time sharply sounded, the key-note of the Second Period of Canadian History. We discern the first strong movements of that struggle which was to end in full Responsible Government for all the provinces. Governor Haldimand, who had been somewhat arbitrary in his 208 FIRST SUGGESTION OF UNION. 209 methods of enforcing the very arbitrary form of government pro- vided by the Quebec Act, now resigned. Though a warm and untiring friend to the loyaUsts, his sternness had made LordDorches- him unpopular. In 1787 that well-tried friend of govern™^*^ Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, returned to the country senerai. which he had saved twelve years before. For his services he had been made Lord Dorchester. He came now as governor-general of all the provinces and commander-in-chief of all the forces in British North America. His immediate authority was exercised in the Lake country and the valley of the St. Lawrence ; while the governors of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, St. John's Island, and Cape Breton were made subordinate to him, with the title of lieutenant-governor. Even at that day we find germs of the policy and sentiment which were destined to ripen, , , 1 , , . . The first sug- slowly and through many vicissitudes, into this great gestionof Confederation of Canada. We see the first governor tween the of New Brunswick, Thomas Carleton, unfolding to the provincial Assembly his dreams of the expansion which would follow as the sister provinces drew more closely together in their interests and their sympathies. On Lord Dorchester's arrival in Canada he made haste to reheve the general discontent. His measures were but tempo- rary, however. They were intended to serve only till , ' . . , T^ ,. , , , , LordDorches- the British Parliament could pass such an act as would ter soothes ... ^ , , ^^ the agitation. remove the mam grievances of the people. He re- stored the Act of Habeas Corpus, as well as the principle of trial by jury in civil cases. At the same time, to aid the British Parlia- ment in the legislation which he demanded, he drew up a careful and masterly report on the conditions of politics, education, com- merce, and the administration of justice in Canada. For the bet- ter ordering of its affairs, Lord Dorchester divided the newly settled Lake region into four districts, each with regularly constituted courts of English law. As a compliment to the large German element in their population, — so many of the inland loyalists being of German stock, — he named these districts Lunenburg, 2IO A HISTORY OF CANADA. Mecklenburg, Nassau, and Hesse. They were afterwards renamed Eastern (that adjoining the Ottawa), Midland, Home (or Niag- ara), and Western (or Detroit). 68. The Constitutional Act. — The remedy proposed by Lord Dorchester for the difficulties in Canada was a division of the The division territory into two provinces, each to have that form of of Canada. constitution best suited to the wants of its inhabitants. In accordance with this plan Earl Granville introduced in the British Parliament a bill, known to Canadian history as the "Constitutional Act," for dividing the dissatisfied province into Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The act stirred up a fierce debate in the Imperial Parliament. The English population of the proposed Lower Province were violently against it, fearing that they would be swamped by the French majority. Many were for treating French Canada in all respects as a conquered territory, and imposing upon it the EngUsh language, English laws, and English institutions, — a course which would have found ample precedent in the practice of civilized states. But both policy and justice seemed to point to other measures. Lord Dorchester's advice, backed by the tremendous support of the younger Pitt, carried the day. The French Canadians had proved themselves loyal subjects of Great Britain at a time when the sons of her own loins were flying at her throat. They had turned a deaf ear to the bribes of the rebel colonies. Now, at a time when France was given up, in the name of Liberty, to all the wild horrors of the Revolution, the French Canadians were faithful to their church and obedient to their priests. This steadiness and conservatism found great favour in English eyes. Enghsh statesmen were not incHned to force upon so excellent a people any laws and customs which they did not like. More- over, the revolt of the thirteen colonies had rubbed smartly into the English mind a lesson which was not yet fully understood. Pitt fancied that the new colonies would be more securely held to. England if they could be held somewhat apart from each other. He favoured the perpetuation of French ideas, institutions, and UPPER AND LOWER CANADA. 2II speech in Lower Canada, as a barrier between the Enghsh prov- inces of Upper Canada on the one hand, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the other. His dread was lest these provinces should some day roll together into one, and repeat the deeds of '76. He remembered the cynical saying of Turgot that " colonies are like fruits which only cling till they ripen." He wished by justice and generosity to strengthen every tie of love between the colonies and England ; but by no means did he wish that the colonies should love each other. Upper Canada, therefore, was made in all respects a British province, with English laws, and with all lands held on the free- hold tenure. Lower Canada, while receiving the bene- ° Differences in fit of representative institutions, along with the Habeas the institu- Corpus Act and the Crimmal Law of England, re- twoprov- mamed m other respects, what she already was, a French province. Lands were held on that feudal tenure which has been already explained. In the case of new grants, however, the freehold tenure was permitted on special request. In Civil Law, the French practice was established. French sentiment was determined that the French language and French customs should not go down before the swarming inroads of Enghsh settlement, and this sentiment was fully recognized in the new act. The act secured to the French Canadians what had been allowed them from the Conquest, — the privileges of their rehgion and the main- tenance of their church system ; but at the same time, to protect the Protestant minority, a large portion of the wild lands was set apart in Lower Canada, as in the other provinces, for the support of the Protestant clergy. These lands, known as the " Clergy Reserves," became in after years a source of bitter strife in the provincial assemblies. At the time of the division Lower Canada had a population of perhaps one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Upper Canada of less than twenty thousand. To each was given a Legislature of three branches, as in the other provinces. These three branches — Governor, Legislative Council, and House of Assembly — cor- 212 A HISTORY OF CANADA. responded in a vague way to the "three estates" in England, — King, Lords, and Commons. There was also a strong but anoma- lous body called the Executive Council, which acted The Governor ■' and Execu- as an advisory board to the governor. Its powers tive Council. , , • i i i i r were very vaguely laid down ; and the position of its members enabled them to defy public opinion. They were the occupants of the highest official posts in each colony, and as a rule, though not of necessity, they held seats in the Legis- lative Council. The governor, appointed by the Crown, and usually sent out from England with small knowledge of the pe- culiar conditions of hfe in a new country, was apt to be swayed unduly by these official advisers. If the governor made himself obnoxious to the people, the people could, in course of time, get rid of him by petitioning for his recall. But the members of the Executive Council, once they were appointed, held office without responsibility either to the governor or the people. The Crown, of course, could remove them ; but they were hardly important enough to attract the Crown's attention. Therefore their seats were impregnable, and they gradually acquired a lofty contempt for the classes whom they considered their inferiors. Much of the bitterness of the struggle for Responsible Government, des- tined so soon to commence, was directly traceable to the arro- gance of the Executive Council. The Legislative Council was mixed up with the Executive in a most confusing way; its membership in part, and its interests The Legisia- altogether, were the same. The members of the Leg- tive Council, igjative Council were appointed by the Crown, and for life. They were selected from among the judges, bishops, and highest officials of the provinces. They held themselves respon- sible to no one but a king who was too far off to observe them ; and they strove to secure to themselves the privileges of a heredi- tary aristocracy. In the beginning they were the most vehement petitioners for free representative government. When they had gained a measure of it, and that measure entirely in their own hands, they set themselves to block the wheels of progress. Them- THE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY. 213 selves at first the leaders in the advance, they became at last its most obstinate opponents. The final triumph of the principles of Responsible Government was only gained by their overthrow. The members of the Assembly were the representatives of the people, responsible to the people, and elected by the people to serve for a fixed term of years. They did not always serve the full term, however, as the governor had power to TheAssem- " dissolve the House " at any time, and call upon the ^^^' people to elect a new Assembly. Under these circumstances the people were very likely to reelect their old representatives. In the hands of the Assembly rested the power of raising revenues for the public services, by taxation and the imposition of customs duties. The making of laws rested with the Assembly and Legis- lative Council, but no law became operative till it received the assent of the governor. As we have said, the raising of revenue was in the hands of the Assembly ; but there was a large revenue coming in from the sale or lease of Crown lands, as well as from the lease of mines and timber limits, which was known as the " Casual and Territorial Revenue." The control of this revenue was in the very beginning seized by the Executive, with the Leg- islative Council's consent. It became a bone of fierce contention between Executive and Assembly. 69. The Two Canadas, Upper and Lowe-r. — The Constitu- tional Act, passed in 1791, came into effect in 1792. In that year the legislatures of the two provinces were called together. That of Lower Canada met at Quebec. It consisted of fifteen members for the Legislative Council, and fifty for the House of Assembly. The Assembly elected a Frenchman as First meeting Speaker of the House, and passed at once a significant of Lower^^'^'^^ resolution, requiring the use of both the French and c^^^^^- English languages in debate and in the Reports of the House. An address was presented to the governor, expressing the grate- ful loyalty of the Assembly toward their generous sovereign, George HI. An overwhelming majority in the Assembly was French ; and this element, though entirely untrained in political 214 A HISTORY OF CANADA. life, proved itself well adapted to parliamentary procedure and quick to exercise the new powers thus placed within its grasp. The Legislature of Upper Canada was summoned in September, 1792, to meet at Niagara, then the capital of the infant province. First meeting It was a miniature parliament, with a Legislative of Upp'er^*'^'^^ Council of seven members, an Assembly of sixteen. Canada. 'pj^g ^^.g^ governor of Upper Canada was Colonel John Graves Simcoe, who may well be called the father of Canada's premier province. Governor Simcoe had fought with distinction in the late war, commanding the famous Queen's Rangers of Vir- ginia. His whole heart was in the Loyalist cause ; and he spared no effort to promote the growth of the new loyalist province now committed to his care. His first parliament, though it sat but for a month, got good work done. Besides completing its organization and making rules for its procedure, it passed eight important acts. Among these was one which estabhshed English law in its entirety. The four divisions of the province were re- named, as we have seen ; and in this period of swiftly changing names the little capital, at first Niagara, became Lennox, then Nassau, then Newark, — only to return at last to its original sonorous and stately title. TraveUing afoot over the rough, forest trails, or threading lake and river in his birch-bark canoe, the sturdy governor explored his province, laying out roads where he thought them most urgently needed. The great arteries of traffic known as Governor's Road, Governor Yonge Street, and Dundas Street, are among the monu- for°the^prov^^ ments that remain to us of Simcoe's zeal as a road- ^^'^^' builder. The gist of his policy was to draw into the province those Americans who, though loyalist at heart, had shrunk from the hardships of the wilderness and accepted the new flag. He issued a proclamation offering free grants of land to all who would guarantee to bring it promptly under tillage, and who would at the same time subscribe to the following oath : — " I, A. B., do promise and declare that I will maintain and defend to the utmost of my power the authority of the King in his Parlia- FOUNDING OF TORONTO. 215 ment as the supreme legislature of this province." This proc- lamation brought in a throng of settlers from the adjoining states, together with immigrants from England and Germany. Within the four years after Simcoe's coming the population of Upper Canada rose to thirty thousand. Simcoe was not satisfied with Niagara as a capital. It was too near the American border. The little town had grown with great rapidity since the division, filling up with American X. 116 Capital. immigrants, and capturing a large portion of the trade moved to of Lakes Erie and Huron. Its houses were almost all built of wood, but many of those occupied by the provincial officials were large and imposing structures. Simcoe wished to plant his new capital on the river Thames, where the busy city of London now stands. But Lord Dorchester favoured the claims of Kingston, as old Fort Frontenac was now called. Kingston had grown to be a prosperous town, with a hundred houses, a church, a fort and barracks, and a thriving trade. It had important ship- building industries, and was the headquarters of the Httle fleet which guarded Lake Ontario. This squadron, soon to be with- drawn because it was regarded as a menace to the Americans, was under the command of a French Canadian commodore and was officered almost wholly by French Canadians.^ In Simcoe's view Kingston was not sufficiently central. The conclusion of the matter was a compromise. Just across the lake from Niagara, on a little bay which formed a safe harbour, was a trading-post long known to the Indians as Toronto. In 1793 the name of this post, which had been already made the centre of a township, was changed to York, in honour of the old king's son, Frederick Duke of York. Here was the place for the new capital. No sooner was the choice made than Simcoe betook himself thither, and began the building of the town. He could brook no delay. The gubernatorial headquarters enshrined themselves in a tent, with the red flag flapping above, till a roof could be raised to shelter 1 The officers wore a blue-and-white uniform with large gilt buttons, on which, were stamped the word " Canada " and the figure of a beaver. 2i6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. them. The new capital was nicknamed at first Little York, and later, as it grew larger, Muddy York. But at last, in 1834, it resumed its lovely ancient name of Toronto, and wiped out all reproaches by its progress and its beauty. Before Simcoe could see his labours rewarded by the session of Parliament in his new capital, he was recalled from Upper Canada and sent to govern the island of St. Domingo R6C3.il of Governor (1706). He had made some troublesome enemies. Simcoe and v / ^ / LordDorches- By his strictness m enforcmg the terms of his land- grants he had stood in the way of speculators ; by his vigour and fearless honesty, as well as by the conservatism of his social views, he had stirred up ill-will in many quarters ; and though he deserved and held the loyal devotion of the province as a whole, the intrigues of his foes brought about his removal. But he had stamped himself indeUbly on the province. The pros- perity of Ontario is his monument. In the same year that Canada lost Simcoe, she lost another of her truest friends. Lord Dorchester. During his term of office Europe had been convulsed by the French Revolution and the upheavals that followed in its train. England had been drawn into war, and republican France had sent her emissaries to the St. Lawrence valley to seduce the Canadians from their allegiance. But the spirit of the Revolution was abhorrent to the French of Canada. The generous rule of England had secured itself in their affections, largely through the efforts of Lord Dorchester. The Roman Catholic Church was sturdily loyal. And the seed which Paris was scattering abroad over the world found in Canada no congenial soil. A son of George IH, Edward Duke of Kent, was now commander of the forces at Quebec, and he was made a centre of loyal enthusiasm on the part of the French Canadians. During this period another and graver peril was Amity and averted, by the conclusion of a " Treaty of Amity and Commerce " between England and the United States. The Americans, still hot from the late struggle and filled with a youthful ardour for republican institutions, were eager for a PROGRESS IN NOVA SCOTIA. 21 7 war with England and an alliance with republican France. But the vast weight of Washington's influence was thrown into the other scale, and secured the ratification of the treaty. Not yet was the overweening pride of the young republic ready for the lesson which it was to receive in 1812. 70. The Maritime Provinces. — In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick progress was rapid after the coming of the loyalists. The introduction of the strong new stock, however, progress in produced some disturbance in the political atmos- NovaScotia. phere. About the time the Constitutional Act was passed, Governor Parr in Nova Scotia was succeeded by Sir John Wentworth. A sturdy loyalist clergyman from New York, Doctor John Inglis, was made first Bishop of Nova Scotia ; and with the warm support of Governor Wentworth he established the Univer- sity of King's College, at Windsor. This university, which soon afterwards received a royal charter from George III, is the oldest university in the colonial empire of Great Britain. The usefulness of the college was somewhat unhappily restricted by the fact that all but members of the Church of England were at fi.rst excluded from it by religious tests. Sir John Wentworth was a steadfast upholder of the union between Church and State. He was fairly typical of those well-meaning but over-conservative gov- ernors with whom the leaders of the people were soon to find themselves in conflict for the rights of free citizenship. The war with France brought English fleets and English troops to Halifax, and English money to circulate through the province, putting life into all the channels of its trade. The coasts suffered somewhat from the attacks of French privateers, but this only served to stir up a martial spirit in the inhabitants. The militia battalions were crowded, and the Royal Nova Scotia regiment was enrolled. The Duke of Kent shifted his headquarters from Quebec to Halifax in 1 794, and the little city became the centre of a brilliant social life. The Prince interested himself heartily in provincial affairs. He made himself so widely popular that in 1799 the island province of St. John was renamed in his honour Prince Edward Island. 2i8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. The province of New Brunswick, well administered in its in- fancy by Governor Thomas Carleton, was basing its progress upon lumber. England needed its great pine-trees as masts for the fleets which were so gloriously upholding her honour on every sea. To foster the trade of this favoured colony, heavy Progress in ' NewBruns- duties were imposed on the tmiber commg mto Ene- wick. • - land from foreign ports. This checked the Baltic trade, while it stimulated the ship-building and lumbering of New Brunswick to a magic growth. Lumbering towns with shrieking saw-mills sprang up at every river-mouth. The population grew rapidly by immigration from England. Pine plank and spruce deal became the bulwarks of New Brunswick's prosperity, and all her veins seemed to run sawdust. It was in New Brunswick that the struggle between the As- sembly on the one hand and the Executive Council on the other was first fairly and openly begun. It began almost ft)r R^espo^ifsf- immediately after the organization of the province, ment°beeins ^^^ ^^^ question at issue was that of the appropriation Brun^ick °^ revenues. The Assembly demanded the right of raising and controlling the revenues. The members voted themselves the sum of ys. 6d. each per day during the session as remuneration for their services. This bill was thrown out by the Upper House, as the Legislative Council was called. The Assembly then incorporated it in the bill for the yearly ex- penditure on schools, bridges, roads, and other public service. In this new form it went back to the Council. The Council had the right to accept or reject, but not to change, the Appropriation Bill.^ This brought legislation to a standstill. Neither side would yield. At length the Colonial Secretary thundered out of Downing Street, pronouncing against the Assembly ; but even by this the Assembly was not daunted. For three years (1796- 1799) no revenue or appropriation bills were passed. Then the 1 This was the name given to the bill providing for the payment of the Civil List and other items of the public service. IMMIGRATION OF SCOTCH HIGHIANDERS. 219 quarrel was settled by a compromise. The Assembly consented to make two separate appropriation bills, the one containing items of which the Council approved, the other containing those to which it objected. The result, though apparently a compromise, was in reality a triumph for the Lower House, whose members continued to receive their pay. While the population of New Brunswick was being swelled by English immigrants, Scotch Highlanders were pouring into Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. This Highland , ° Immigration immigration, beginning with the arrival of the ship of Scotch '^ ' ° ° ^ Highlanders Hector at Pictou in 1773, with two hundred settlers to cape ' ' "* Breton and from Ross, continued with some steadiness till 1828, Prince Ed- ward Island, by which date not fewer than twenty-five thousand Scotch settlers had entered Cape Breton alone. On the threshold of the new century began the work of an illustrious colonizer, the Earl of Selkirk, whose heart was moved by the sufferings of evicted tenants in Scotland and Ireland. He conceived the plan of set- tling these unhappy people under the Old Flag in the New World. He bega;n his work by leading three ship-loads of Highlanders into Prince Edward Island, where they settled the county of Queens in 1803. From Prince Edward Island Selkirk next turned to Upper Canada, and founded a settlement at Baldoon in the extreme west of the province. Thence his attention wandered to the far west ; and a few years later we shall find him on the banks of the Red River of the North, laying the foundations of our prairie province. 71. Threats of War between England and the United States. — In the opening years of the century the ill-will of the United States toward Great Britain again grew menacing. ^JQ^^,Jg^g. What chiefly aroused it was Great Britain's stern in- tween Great ^ Britain and sistence upon her "Right of Search." The Royal United states ^ ° . . . over the Navy was suffering serious loss by its sailors deserting '-Right of to American ships. American captains had acquired a habit of seducing the British man-of-war's men firom their duty by the offer of higher wages and easier discipHne. Angered by 220 A HISTORY OF CANADA. this conduct, the British government ordered its captains to seize any deserters found on American ships, and to search all ships suspected of harbouring deserters. This order, needless to say, was not always carried out in the gentlest fashion, the temper of the time not being gentle. A climax came in 1807, when the United States frigate Chesapeake, challenged by Her Majesty's ship Leopard, refused to give up the deserters among her crew. She was forthwith disabled by several broadsides, boarded by the Leopard^s crew, and the deserters taken by force. This amazing outrage was promptly disavowed by Great Britain ; but it gave the Americans righteous grounds for wrath, and war was with difficulty averted. Meanwhile, in the previous year (1806), Napoleon had struck desperately at England's trade by his famous " Berhn Decrees." By these decrees Great Britain was declared to be in Decrees^^^^"^ a state of blockade. Neutral ships were forbidden to Councn^' enter her ports, and all use of her manufactures was A^^andVon- prohibited on the continent. The overwhelming nit^ercourse strength of the British navy made this decree of small effect ; but England retaliated by her Orders- in-Council, which forbade all nations to trade with France. This was no idle mandate, but one which her fleet was well able to enforce ; and under it the commerce of both America and France came to ruin. America, if she had felt herself strong enough, would perhaps have declared war on both France and England, both of whom were capturing her ships. Her wrath, however, burned far more hotly against England than against France. Not being ready for war, she passed the famous Embargo Act (1807), forbidding American ships to trade at any foreign port whatever. This curious proceeding almost completed the destruction which England and France had begun. The New England States, the chief ship-owners, threatened to secede; whereupon a new act was passed, forbidding trade with France and England but permitting it with the rest of the world. After several years of this. Napoleon told America that he had revoked QUARRELS IN LOWER CANADA. 221 his Berlin Decrees in her favour ; while at the same time he gave secret instructions to the fleets that they were to enforce the de- crees as before. Congress was deUghted. The Non-Intercourse Act was repealed as far as France was concerned ; and America began to dream wild dreams of a French aUiance. For a time, however, wise counsels prevailed in the New World repubhc. The influence of Washington was yet mighty. The horizon seemed to clear ; and as the war-cloud lifted Political along our borders, it was quickly forgotten in the Lowe/° excitement of a loud political quarrel in Lower Can- ^^'^^'^^■ ada. Dispute had arisen between the Assembly and the Legis- lative Council. The Assembly was pressing for fuller self-govern- ment and for fuller control of the revenues. For this the Council accused it of disloyalty. The members of the Council, in turn, were assailed by the Assembly with galling invective. They were taunted as greedy and tyrannous intruders. Each party had a vigorous press to fight its battles ; and each party, when abuse seemed too mild a weapon, was apt to reUeve its feehngs by the imprisonment of opposing editors or the suppression of opposing sheets. In the midst of this contention came the threat of war, — and the strife was hushed. Both parties vied with each other in warlike loyalty; the militia companies were rapidly filled up; and the French Bishop, M. Plessis, issued a strongly British pastoral to be read in all the churches. In 1808 Sir James Craig came to Quebec as governor-general. A few months later the war-scare subsided. Meanwhile the gov- ernor, a brave but obstinate Scotchman, and quite un- „. ^ ' ' ^ _ Sir James acquainted with Caiiadian affairs, had been listening Craig and the ^ ' =" Assembly. to the tales of the Council. He had been persuaded that the French Canadians were dangerous and disloyal. He soon found himself at strife with the Assembly, who were at that time bent on prohibiting judges from holding seats in the Legislature. The governor insisted that the Assembly should give its attention to providing for the defence of the province ; but the Assembly declined to do so until the question of the judges' seats was settled. 222 A HISTORY OF CANADA. The governor, with a fine absolutism that would have done credit to a Caesar, dissolved the House on the plea that the members wasted their time. New elections were held ; and the French party came back stronger than ever. More bitterly than ever the quarrel was renewed, not only over the judges but over expendi- ture of revenues as well. The Assembly declared vacant the seats of the judges. The governor again dissolved the House. Secret meetings were held all over the province. Angry proclamations were issued. The office of the Canadien newspaper, the organ of the French party, was stripped by a squad of the governor's sol- diers; and the editor was thrown into prison. Six of the most prominent and turbulent Assembly-men were arrested and im- prisoned ; and the people, with picturesque extravagance, de- scribed the time as a Canadian " Reign of Terror" (1809-10). The new elections again sent back the old members to their seats ; but meanwhile the autocratic governor-general had got a rebuke from Westminster. He was ordered to pursue a more concilia- tory course, and to assent to the bill for the disqualification of the judges. The Council was obliged to yield, and the strife died down. Meanwhile the long-threatened storm had burst on Canada, called down in some degree by an act of the governor's which we shall consider in the next section. Sir James retired ; and The quarrel Sir George Prevost came in haste from Nova Scotia apKoachof^ to ^ th'e vacant office. He soothed the excited war. French Canadians. He summoned leading men of their party to seats in the Council, and did special honour to others whom Craig had treated with harshness. In Upper Canada, meanwhile, like scenes, though less violent, had oc- curred. After Simcoe's departure the reins of power had been quickly gathered into the hands of a iQ,\v influential families, who made successive governors the tools of their ambition and pride. The Assembly were not long in girding themselves to the struggle for popular liberty. But when the war-cloud burst on the frontier it stilled the strife of party. The whole force of INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT. 223 the province was at once arrayed under the command of a military governor, the illustrious Sir Isaac Brock. During these opening years of the century the provinces which now form Canada had been growing in population and trade. PoUtical strife had been a part of the ferment of growth. Lower Canada now contained no fewer than two hundred progress in and twenty thousand souls, while Upper Canada could *^^ canadas. boast about eighty thousand. There were prosperous newspapers in both provinces ; there were iron works at Three Rivers ; there were manufactures of paper, leather, and hats. The chief exports, besides the ancient trade in lumber and the yet more ancient traffic in furs and fish, consisted of wheat and potash. Shipping had become a powerful interest, and the foundations of Canada's vast mercantile marine were already laid. In 1809 the steamboat Accommodation, the first steamer ever seen on the St. Lawrence, made the trip from Montreal to Quebec, greatly to the excitement and admiration of the people. CHAPTER XVII. SECTIONS: — 72, War declared by Congress. 73, 1812. The American Plan of Campaign. 74, the Campaign of 18 13. 75, THE Campaign of 1814. 72. War declared by Congress. — The war averted in 1807 by England's reparation and apology for the violence of the ship Leopard, was finally brought on by a very little matter. In 1809 Sir James Craig sent a Captain John Henry to Boston, to sound the sentiments of the people. There was a certain wild hope in Congress Canada that the New Englanders might be persuaded declares war. ^^ j^^^g ^j^^ Union. It was well known that the war- feeling of Congress was hateful to the men of New England, whose interests were wrapped up in British trade. Needless to say, how- ever. Captain Henry's mission bore no fruit ; but between him and Sir James Craig there passed some correspondence on the subject. Meanwhile the temper of the United States govern- ment was growing more dangerous. This was manifested by the attack of the United States frigate President, of 44 guns, upon the English sloop of war Little Belt, of 18 guns, resulting, of course, in the capture of the sloop. In the following year (1811), Congress passed a bill to treble the United States army and to borrow eleven million dollars. A pretext was eagerly awaited for open war. It came in the action of Captain Henry, who, not receiving from Sir James Craig what he considered sufficient re- ward for his services, sold his correspondence to President Madi- son for fifty thousand dollars. It was a large price to pay for documents which contained nothing of real importance. But the 224 AMERICA'S AMBITION. 22$ letters were craftily used. The cry was raised that Great Britain had tempted the fidelity of New England ; and this spark was enough to fire the explosive train. On the 19th of June, 1812, Congress declared war. It was really France against whom this declaration should have been made, for Napoleon, after luring immense numbers of American ships into his harbours, had thrown off the mask and seized them all. This outrage, far worse than anything of which England was accused, was for- given because it was done by England's enemy. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey cried out against this senseless war ; and Boston flags were hung at half mast. But the masses, the great democracy of America, were ' ° ■' ' The ambition much elated. It was proposed to broaden the bor- of the Americans. ders of the Union by at once annexmg Canada.^ To the American democrats the French alliance seemed to mean no less than a division of the world between France and America. Canada would drop into the union like a ripe plum. Europe for France, the New World for America, — this was the radiant pros- pect that dazzled the dreams of politicians of the school of Jeffer- son. But the sober New Englanders were not dazzled. They pointed to the fact that England had already repealed the detested "Orders-in-Council." But they protested in vain. Napoleon was advancing, apparently to subdue the vast realms of Russia. He was on his way to Moscow at the head of three hundred and eighty thousand men. The young republic burned to emulate in North America the deeds of her despot model. England's hands were well tied by the war in Europe. Wellington was straining all his resources in Spain, against Napoleon's marshals. The time seemed very ripe. It was plain to all eyes that Canada must bear the brunt of the war. For her it was to be a war of defence, and the chief burden 1 The ostensible object of the war was to establish the principle that the flag covered the merchandise, and that the right of search for seamen who have deserted is inadmissible ; the real object was to wrest from Great Britain the Canadas, and, in conjunction with Napoleon, extinguish its Maritime and Colonial Empire. — Alison's History of Europe. Q 226 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of this defence was to fall on the Canadian militia. Her fron- tier was drawn out over some seventeen hundred miles. To guard Canada's it she could put in the field perhaps five thousand readiness. regular troops. But the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada had together a population of over three hundred thou- sand, — a small number, indeed, compared with the eight millions of their enemies, but a sturdy stock from which to gather fighters. Lower Canada's Legislature promptly voted ^250,000 for the war. In Upper Canada, destined to be the chief battle ground, there was a stern spirit of resistance. Volunteer battalions were rapidly formed and drilled. But here and there throughout the province were bodies of disloyal settlers, — Americans who had lately crossed the border in search of better lands, and who wished nothing better than annexation. These traitors in the camp gave Brock some uneasiness ; but they proved dangerous only to the enemy, whom their noisy treason grievously misled. Their pres- ence added fuel to the ardour of the loyalists, who thronged to Brock's banner till arms could not be found for them all. As for the Indians, not only those well-tried loyalists, the Mohawks, but also the tribes of the north and west proved faithful and efficient allies. They were moved by good-will toward Canada, who had treated them iustly. Thev were moved also The loyal . Indians, and by hatred of the border Americans, from whose greed they had long been suffering. Among these Indians was one whose memory Canada holds in highest honour, the brave and humane Tecumseh,^ chief of the Shawanoes. This chieftain, after the defeat of his people by the Americans at Tippecanoe, in Indiana, had led the tribe northward into Canada. Brave, wise, and faithful, his majestic figure towers throughout the conflict with ever-growing distinction, till it falls in the shameful defeat of Moravian Town. 73. 1812. The American Plan of Campaign. — The American plan of attack was threefold. An " Army of the North," under 1 The story of this able leader is well told in the drama of " Tecumseh," by the Canadian poet Charles Mair. GENERAL BROCK. 22/ General Dearborn, was to set out from Albany and move against Montreal. An " Army of the Centre," under General Van Rens- selaer, was to strike the Niagara frontier. And an „^ . ' '^ The American " Army of the West," under General Hull, the governor plan of triple of Michigan Territory, was to operate from Detroit and overrun the western sections of Upper Canada. It is a noticeable fact that our eastern frontier, all open and hard to defend, was left unthreatened, though lying next to those populous and warlike communities of New England which had so often signalized their prowess on these same borders. For this we had the resolute forbearance of the New Englanders to thank. Their state gov- ernments would take no part in the war. As we shall see later, there was plenty of privateering from the New England ports (as there was also from Nova Scotia), but with such unofficial ventures the state governments had nothing to do. The soul of the Canadian defence was General Brock.^ Before he came the loyahsts had watched the approaching storm firmly, indeed, but with little hope of anything less than ruin. General Brock, who had been ten years in Canada, was thor- ^'^°'^^- oughly Canadian in sentiment, and though accustomed to the command of British regulars he understood and appreciated the militia. The militia, in return, adored him. Honest, brave, kind, untiring, and sagacious, he was worthy of the enthusiasm which his name evoked. Canada does well to honour him as one of her national heroes. As soon as he took charge, a new spirit sprang up in the scant battalions of Upper Canada, now face to face with so grave a trial. The war began in the west. Hull, with an army of twenty-five hundred, crossed over from Detroit to Sandwich, and capture of found himself among a quiet farming people of French ^^ckmaw. descent. Here he issued a bombastic proclamation, promising " peace, hberty, and security " to all who would accept American 1 Isaac Brock was born in Guernsey in 1769. He was therefore forty-three years old when this war broke out. He had seen service and won honour in Holland, the West Indies, and under Nelson at Copenhagen. He came to Canada in 1802, and identified himself heart and soul with Canadian interests. 228 A HISTORY OF CANADA. rule, but denouncing the horrors of war upon those who should be so misguided as to oppose his irresistible advance. Brock issued a counter proclamation, assuring the people that Great Britain would defend her subjects, and that Canada, knowing her duty toward herself and toward her sovereign, would neither be bullied nor seduced. In the interval between the two proclamations ^ fell the first stroke of the war, and it was one of good omen for Canada. The American fort of Michilimackinac, commanding, as in old days. Lake Michigan and the north-west tribes, was taken by Captain Roberts with a handful of voyageurs and regu- lars. This little force, less than two hundred - in all, marched suddenly from Fort St. Joseph, forty miles to the north, crossed to Mackinaw Island, and captured without a struggle the Ameri- can fort with its garrison of seventy-iive regulars. This was an important achievement, as it filled the Indians with fervour, and exposed Hull to an attack from the rear. Hard on the news of this success came that of Hull's retreat upon Detroit. He had been checked by Colonel Proctor with Capture of ^ corporal's guard of three hundred and fifty men, and Detroit. j^y 'Pecumseh with his Shawanoe bands. Tecumseh had intercepted and scattered a detachment of Americans with provisions and letters for Hull ; and this slight reverse, together with the refusal of the Canadians to hail him as their deliverer, had discouraged the doughty general. As soon as the Canadian side of the river was thus freed from the enemy, Proctor sent a party across to follow up Tecumseh's stroke ; but he suffered a sharp repulse at Brownstown, where the Americans were led by a brave and capable officer, one Colonel Miller. Before the dilatory Hull could second this success, Brock was upon him. The Cana- dian general had left York with his little army on August 6th, and, traversing the length of Lake Erie in open boats, reached /\mherst- 1 Hull's proclamation was issued on July 12th, Brock's on July 22nd. Michili- mackinac was captured on July 17th. 2 Roberts was aided in his enterprise by a gallant French Canadian, Toussaint Pothier, agent of the North-west Company, who was in Fort St. Joseph at the time. CAPTURE OF DETROIT. 229 burg on the 13th. As we have seen, the letter-bags of the enemy had been captured ; and from the contents of these Brock learned that Hull's force was thoroughly dispirited. His own force/ in- cluding the six hundred Indians under Tecumseh, was little more than half that of his adversary ; but he resolved to strike at once. Before dawn of August i6th he crossed the river and marched on Detroit. The Americans, deserting their outposts, retired into the main fort ; and when Brock was on the point of storming the works, to his astonishment they capitulated. By the articles of capitula- tion thirty-three cannon, twenty-five hundred troops, and the whole of Michigan Territory, passed into Canadian hands. The moral effect was tremeiidous. The wildest enthusiasm flamed across the province, and the name of Brock thrilled every Canadian breast. Meanwhile Canada was threatened by the armies of the Centre and the North. Brock was hurrying back to fall upon Van Rens- selaer, when, much to his disgust, he was met on Lake Erie by the news of an armistice. Sir George Prevost, the com- ^he armis- mander-in-chief at Quebec, had forbidden all further *^^^' hostilities on the part of Canada. England fondly hoped that her repeal of the " Orders-in-Council " would lead Congress to recall its declaration of war. But Congress had no such thought. The armistice was briskly used to strengthen the American position ; while Brock was left chafing in forced idleness, and Canada lost a golden opportunity. The autumn wore on till the American army at Niagara had swelled its ranks to a total of six thousand, regulars and militia. Brock, with his headquarters at Fort George, had less than a thousand men — Canadian militia, with a few companies of regulars, and a band of Mohawk allies. At this juncture a party of one hundred American seamen performed a daring feat, in the capture of two armed Canadian brigs which were descending Lake Erie laden with spoils of war from Detroit. The fame that justly accrued to these plucky Yankee mariners fired their coun- trymen at Niagara with zeal. They clambured to be led on at 1 Besides these six hundred Indians, Brock had three hundred and thirty regu- lars and four hundred Canadian militia. 230 A HISTORY OF CANADA. once to the conquest of Canada. Their general yielded, and led them on — not to conquest, however, but to the stinging defeat of Queenston Heights. The American attack on Queenston took place on October The American 13th, 1812. The heights are a part of the lofty and Qu^e^enston beautiful plateau through which the Niagara River has death o^f' ^"^^ cleft its path from Erie to Ontario. I'he panorama Brock. £j.Qj^ ^j^g summit is one of tranquil loveliness, a benign and fruitful expanse which has been called the garden of Canada. But not of peace are the memories of Queenston. Before daybreak Van Rensselaer led the vanguard of his army across. The opposite shore was defended by two companies of the 49th regiment, with two hundred men of the York Volunteers. A sound of many oars in the gloom aroused the defenders. The Canadian battery, of one i8-pounder stationed on a spur of the heights, opened fire. But under cover of a heavier fire from their own side the invaders pressed on, till they had thirteen hundred men in line of battle on the Canadian shore. They dashed for- ward courageously ; but the Canadians, not daunted by superior numbers, held their ground with stubborn valour. At the same time a dashing American officer, Captain Wool, leading his de- tachment up an almost inaccessible path, gained the crest of the heights and turned his fire on the rear of the battery. Then Brock, roused by the noise of the firing, rode up from Fort George. Other American battalions had by this time joined their comrades on the height. There was the key of the situation. Straight up the steep Brock led his charging line, in the face of a scathing fire. Waving his sword toward another quarter of the field, he shouted, " Push on the brave York Volunteers." The words were scarcely out of his mouth when he fell, shot through the breast. His men raced forward to avenge him, but their ranks withered under the fire from the crest ; and the gallant McDonell, at the head of those "brave York Volunteers," shared the fate of his wor- shipped chief. Then the Canadians paused, holding the approaches to the height, and lying in covert behind the houses of the village ; QUEENSTON HEIGHTS. 23 1 while the Americans, who had suffered severely, rested on their post of vantage. Their general, Van Rensselaer, was disabled ; and now, though they had bravely carried and bravely held the heights, their position was a perilous one. About fifteen hundred men were cooped up on the narrow summit; behind them the deep flood of the Niagara washing the base of two hundred feet of precipice, before them the angry Canadian battalions burning to avenge their chief. On the other side of the river, to be sure, were some four thousand American militia ; but these, perceiving the kind of reception their companions-in-arms had met, had grown careless about the conquest of Canada. They remem- bered only that their duty as New York militia required them to remain on the soil of their own state. On the death of Brock the chief command fell on General Roger Sheaffe, who was at Fort George. About noon he arrived at Queenston, bringing with him three hundred regulars General of the 41st and 49th regiments, two companies of Lin- fefea^sthe coin militia, two hundred Chippewa volunteers, and a g^lnston ^^ small band of Six Nation Indians. These additions ^^^s^t^. swelled the Canadian force to nearly one thousand men, — a motley throng, but of vengeful and eager mettle. Ringing the American position with a circle of converging fire, Sheaffe led his men forward. The Americans fell fast. Their brave captain. Wool, was killed, and his place was taken by Winfield Scott, after- wards to gain fame in the annals of American warfare. The Americans lay down and reserved their fire till the fatal lines were within forty yards of their muzzles. Then they fired as one man, a deadly and shattering volley, — but it was powerless to stop the Canadian onset. In that grim charge the Americans were swept from the summit. Chnging, scrambling, shding, falling, the sur- vivors made their way over the brow of the precipice, and on the narrow ledges between cliff and flood they surrendered uncondi- tionally, — eleven hundred prisoners of war. The battle was one at whose story Canadian hearts beat high ; but in the death of Brock its triumph was dearly bought. 232 A HISTORY OF CANADA. During the funeral of the slain leader the minute guns of Fort George were answered gun for gun from the American batteries of Fort Niagara, while the American flag flew at half mast, — a chiv- alrous tribute to an illustrious foe. On the Heights of Queens- ton now rises a tall shaft of stone in Brock's memory, which serves also as a far-seen remembrancer of Canadian patriotism. The sight of it should bring a blush to the cheeks of those Cana- dians whose doctrine proclaims their patriotism a matter of dollars and cents. The name of Queenston and the name of Brock are blended in our hearts. Nevertheless it must not be forgotten that the battle was finally won by Sheaffe, who got a baronetcy for his reward. Meanwhile, at the lower end of Lake Ontario, the Americans were strengthening their position and arming a fleet at Sackett's Harbour. This squadron attacked Kingston, but being worsted by the Canadian guns, drew off. As they cleared Kingston har- The Schooner bour there was enacted a thrilling episode of Cana- Szmcoe. ^-^^^ daring. The schooner Simcoe, Captain Richard- son commanding, bound for Kingston from Niagara, sailed into the midst of the enemy, never dreaming of a hostile sail so near her destination. The Simcoe was totally unarmed, the only weapon on board being a solitary musket. She was completely headed off by the American fleet. But, hopeless as the case seemed, the gallant Richardson would not surrender. Crowding on all sail, and with the wind behind her, the mad httle craft dashed straight upon the fleet. She took the broadside of every ship as she flew past. For four miles she ran the terrible gauntlet, her sails and bulwarks riddled with round-shot, till at last, in shoaling water just outside the port, she sank with a big shot-hole below her water line. As she went down the crew cheered recklessly, and fired their one musket in gay defiance ; and their cheers were reechoed by their countrymen on shore. Boats darted out in haste to rescue the heroic crew ; and the Simcoe, raised from her temporary grave, was soon again ploughing the blue waters of Ontario. BATTLES ON THE SEA. 233 Van Rensselaer, wounded at Queenston, had been succeeded by General Smyth, a notable warrior in words and proclamations. Smyth set out upon the postponed conquest. He did General not lead his men across, however ; he thought it safer f^Jated at to send them. They were twenty-five hundred strong, Chippewa, but between Chippewa and Fort Erie they were met and roughly handled by Colonel Bishopp, with a force of six hundred regu- lars and militia. Surprised and vexed to see that his opponents were not frowned down by his numbers, Smyth sent a flag of truce to Fort Erie requesting the surrender of that stronghold. Colonel Bishopp, the commandant, with the utmost poUteness declined ; whereupon Smyth withdrew both his troops and his request, and went into winter quarters ! His men were so dis- gusted and indignant at his folly that a whisper of tar and feathers began to circulate in the camp. The general discreetly threw up his command and retired to safer neighbourhoods. Thus ended, very gloriously for Canada, the land operations of the campaign of 181 2. But these successes were overshadowed by a series of British reverses on the sea, which filled America with such exultant pride that she forgot her humilia- ^avai duels tions on the lakes. In five naval duels, four of which orlrt^ Britain took place in the latter part of 181 2, the fifth in Feb- united^ ruary of 1813, England was defeated on the ocean, of states, which she claimed to be sovereign. English hearts were stunned at the disgrace ; and England's enemies everywhere rejoiced, dreaming that her maritime supremacy was at an end. But the explanation was not far to seek. England had a thousand ships of war afloat, serving on every sea, most of them scarce half manned, many of them long in need of repair. The American navy, speaking by comparison, can hardly be said to have existed at that time. It was represented by but four frigates, so-called, and eight sloops of war. These, however, were all new ships, of a ton- nage and weight of metal far beyond their rating, heavily manned with picked crews. They were swift, and so could escape into their harbours when threatened by superior force. They could 234 A HISTORY OF CANADA. choose their own time for fighting. When they fought, there is no questioning the fact that they fought well, as to both courage and seamanship ; but in every one of these five contests the result was a foregone conclusion, so heavily were the British overmatched. The American ships Constitution and United States, though called 44-gun frigates, carried, the one 58 guns, the other 54. They were two feet longer than the largest 76-gun ship in the British navy. Calling themselves frigates, they were fought by British vessels which should never have presumed to join battle with them. The duels were as follows : In August the Constitution defeated and sank the British frigate Guerriere. In October the American sloop Wasp captured the British sloop Frolic. In the same month the United States captured the frigate Macedonia. In December the Constitution sank the frigate Java. And in Feb- ruary, 18 13, the American sloop Hornet sank the English sloop Peacock. The first of these contests was a type of all the rest. The Constitution fresh from port, the Guerriere just returning from a long cruise, with foremast and bowsprit sprung ; the Constitu- tion with 58 guns, throwing 1536 lbs. of metal, the Guerriere with 48 guns, throwing only 1034 lbs. of metal; the Constitution with a crew of four hundred and sixty, and a tonnage of 1538, the Guerriere with a crew of two hundred and forty, and a tonnage of 1092. The battle was fought for two hours at close quarters ; and when the Guerrih-e struck she had lost a third of her men, and was sinking. The Americans did themselves and their British lineage credit in the battle ; but the victory, under the circum- stances, was hardly one to wonder at. And the other victories were similar, as may be seen by the note.^ A little later, as we shall note in the next section, a sea fight was to be fought on more even terms, and with a widely different result. 1 American. Wasp. Guns 18 Weight of metal 536 lbs. Tonnage 434 Crew . 13s British. Frolic. Guns 18 Weight of metal 524 lbs. Tonnage 384 Crew 92 CAMPAIGN OF 1813. 235 December of this same year, 181 2, saw the beginning of an important organization. "The Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada " was formed, to provide help for the destitute famiUes of Canadian soldiers, succour for Patriotic Society of the wounded, and comforts for the troops. This Upper Canada. society raised large sums, both in the colonies and in Great Britain. It was instrumental not only in reheving much distress, but also in binding together with sympathy the widely scattered parts of the empire. 74. The Campaign of 181 3. — In the opening weeks of 18 13 new battalions were enrolled in Lower Canada, and large credits voted by the loyal French Assembly. Prominent ■' ■' ■' The opening among the new troops were a regiment of Glen- ofthecam- . paign. garry Highlanders, a regiment of Canadian Fencibles, and a French Canadian regiment of Voltigeurs, under Colonel de Salaberry. In March a notable feat was accomplished by a regiment of New Brunswick regulars, the illustrious 104th, who marched on snow-shoes through the wilderness that lay between Fredericton and Quebec. In their footsteps followed a small party from Halifax, officers and men of the Royal Navy, who made haste to Kingston for the purpose of strengthening and equipping the fleet on Lake Ontario. There were now about American — Concluded. United States. Guns 54 Weight of metal 1728 lbs. Tonnage 1533 Crew 474 Constitution. Guns 58 Weight of metal 1536 lbs. Tonnage 1538 Crew 460 Horiiet. Guns 20 Weight of metal 594 lbs. Tonnage 460 Crew 162 British — Concluded. Macedonian. Guns 44 Weight of metal 1056 lbs. Tonnage 1081 Crew 254 Java. Guns 44 Weight of metal 1016 lbs. (Crew and tonnage not known to writer.) Peacock. Guns 18 Weight of metal 384 lbs. Tonnage 386 Crew no 236 A HISTORY OF CANADA. thirteen thousand American troops at Plattsburg, under General Dearborn, threatening the approaches to Montreal. To oppose this army Sir George Prevost had but three thousand men. At Sackett's Harbour lay twenty-two hundred Americans, with five thousand more on Lake Champlain to back them ; while the Cana- dian frontier opposite, from Kingston to Prescott, had but fifteen hundred defenders in all. The Niagara frontier, defended by twenty-three hundred of our troops, was menaced by five thousand of the enemy. In the west, Detroit and Amherstburg were held by Colonel Proctor with a force of about twenty-two hundred. Proctor was opposed by an American force slightly smaller, but of high quality, consisting in the main of Kentucky riflemen. It was led by General Harrison, the victor of Tippecanoe. Here, where they were afterwards to win their chief success of the war, the Americans seemed at first doomed only to disaster. Harrison had advanced half of his army, under General Winchester, to Frenchtown on the River Raisin, when Proctor, seeing the enemy divided, attacked in force (Jan. 22, 18 13). The batde was a fierce one. These Kentucky Americans, though heavily outnum- bered, were well led and knew how to fight. Not till nearly half their number were dead or disabled did they lay down their arms, and surrender five hundred prisoners of war, with stores and ammunition, into the hands of our little army. For this victory Proctor was made a brigadier-general. The next important events of the campaign took place further east. The Americans, crossing the St. Lawrence on the ice, made a raid on Brockville, sacked the houses, The capture ' ' ofOgdens- wounded a sentry, and carried off fifty-two of the peaceful inhabitants as prisoners. This act was of no importance in itself, but it led to a brilliant reprisal. Oppo- site the Canadian village of Prescott lay the American fortified town of Ogdensburg, well armed and garrisoned, with eleven guns and five hundred troops. The St. Lawrence between Ogdensburg and Prescott was frozen over, and on the level surflice, near their own shore, the Canadian companies were wont to drill. On the OGDENSBURG STORMED. 237 morning of the 22nd February Colonel Macdonell led a force of four hundred and eighty men, with two field-pieces, out upon the ice, and began the customary evolutions. Some of the Americans on the Ogdensburg ramparts thought this play looked unusually like serious work ; but their commander, laughing at the idea of his strong position being threatened with so weak a force, went on with his breakfast. Suddenly the Canadians, having worked their way to mid-river, made a fierce rush upon the town. The Ameri- cans, awaking to their danger, met them with volleys of can- non and musketry, but could not stop their advance. At the point of the bayonet they carried the town, the garrison retreat- ing into the woods behind, with a loss of seventy-five in killed and wounded, eleven cannon, large military stores, and four armed ships which were burnt as they lay in the harbour. In the honour of this exploit many parts of the empire had share ; for the victo- rious band was made up of one hundred and twenty English regu- lars, forty men of the Royal Newfoundland regiment, and three hundred and twenty Canadian militia, of whom some were Glen- garry Highlanders and some French of the St. Lawrence. New Brunswick, too, was represented. The right wing of the attack, which charged straight in the teeth of the main battery, was led by a son of New Brunswick, Captain Jenkins of the Glengarries. The honour of this deed was not tarnished by any robbery or violence, in spite of the fact that the Americans had ruthlessly plundered Brockville. Macdonell would not let his followers help themselves to so much as a twist of tobacco ; and he even paid the American teamsters ^4.00 a day for their labour ifi hauling the military stores across to Prescott. The American fleet, equipped in haste by Commodore Chaun- cey, now controlled Lake Ontario, and the few ships at Kingston could not stir outside the harbour. The capital of Little York. Upper Canada, the httle town of York, was not m any sense a military post. It had no defences but an old French earthwork once built to resist the Indians, and three old French guns, without carriages, commanding the entrance to the harbour. 238 A HISTORY OF CANADA. It was wholly without strategic importance ; and no one dreamed that it would be regarded by the Americans as an object of attack. It was a mere residence village of about a thousand inhabitants, open at all points, and important only as being the seat of legislature, — which, in case of need, could be established just as well at any other point. The Americans, however, with all their fleet and a land-force of twenty-five hundred men, attacked the defenceless village. Gen- eral Sheaffe was passing through York at the time, with The Amen- 100 ' cans sack two companies of the King's Own ; and the civilians York. ^ '^ ' of the town, old men and boys, invalids and wounded, whoever could for a brief space shoulder a musket, rallied to the defence, till Sheaffe found himself with a force of nearly six hun- dred to oppose the onslaught. The unequal contest, however, was soon over ; and Sheaffe withdrew toward Kingston while the vol- unteers covered his retreat. The Americans then took possession of the town. Numbers of them swarmed into the so-called fort, where a handful of militia were yet attempting a vain defence. At this juncture, and for cause never explained, the powder maga- zine blew up, involving assailant and defender in a common ruin. After this catastrophe York surrendered, the militia laid down their arms, and all mihtary stores were given up to the conquerors. By the terms of the surrender the town was to be protected ; but the enemy, professing to beUeve that the explosion was a deliberate act of treachery on the part of the Canadians, broke the agree- ment, burned the public buildings ^ with all their records, pillaged the church, and sacked the public library. They showed their taste for things intellectual by carrying off every book. They also looted and destroyed a number of private houses. A few days later the invaders withdrew. During their absence Sir George Prevost had attacked their headquarters at Sackett's Harbour. When appar- ently on the point of capturing this important post, he had suddenly withdrawn, to the bewildered indignation of his followers. 1 It is said that a periwig, which they found hanging to the Speaker's chair in ilie Parliament House, was mistaken for a human scalp, and carried off to serve as proof of Canadian barbarism. STONY CREEK. 239 The Americans now turned their arms with fresh vigour against the Niagara frontier. The victorious fleet and army under Chauncey sailed from devastated York to attack Fort George and the little town of Newark that lay beneath its guns. This post was held by Colonel Vincent with thirteen hundred men, while an army of some six thousand threatened it from _. „ ^ The Cana- the other side of the river. The Americans, swarming dians driven ° back from to shore under cover of a terrific fire from the ships, Niagara and Chippewa, were this time ably led, and fought with spirit. Again and again they were repulsed ; but at length Vincent was driven back with heavy loss by the fire from Chauncey's ships. The Canadian general called in the troops that held Chippewa and Fort Erie, blew up the ramparts of Fort George, and retreated to a new position at Beaver Dam, about twelve miles from Niagara. The garrisons of Chippewa and Fort Erie had now swelled Vin- cent's force to sixteen hundred. The Americans pur- 1 • -1 r r £ 1 J 1 stony Creek, suing him with a force of twenty-five hundred men and eight field-pieces, he continued his retreat to Burlington Heights. The enemy advanced to a stream known as Stony Creek, where they encamped for the night. Relieved from immediate pressure, Vincent sent out a strong reconnoitring party under Colonel Harvey,^ to examine the enemy's position. Finding the entrenchments carelessly guarded, Harvey made a daring attack in the darkness. I'he American soldiers, rudely awakened, sprang up about their glimmering camp-fires and stood their ground bravely for a time. But they were be- wildered and without discipline. After a blind struggle they were routed at the point of the bayonet ; and their two generals, Winder and Chandler, with one hundred other prisoners and four field-pieces, fell into Harvey's hands (June 5th, 1813). Vincent at once followed up the retreat of the invaders, and sent a small advance party to reoccupy the position of Beaver Dam. This dangerous duty was entrusted to Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon, 1 Afterwards Sir John Harvey, governor of New Brunswick, and one of the bravest and most skilful officers in the service. 240 A HISTORY OF CANADA. with but thirty British regulars and thirty Mohawk Indians. A few miles to the rear, where now stands St. Catherine's, lay Major de Haren with two hundred men. The Americans, smart- Beaver Dam. . 1 , ■ 1 r 1 1 • , • ing under their defeat, planned to surprise this outpost. One Colonel Boerstler, with five hundred and fifty men and two field guns of the 14th United States regiment, was despatched with great secrecy on the enterprise. In spite of all precautions, however, news of the plan got abroad. It reached the ears of James Secord, a wounded Cana- dian mihtiaman of Queenston. Unable himself to carry the alarm to Fitzgibbon, his wife undertook the perilous and difficult errand. She succeeded : and the name of Laura Secord was Laura Secord. written high among those of Canada's heroines. At dawn she set forth, eluding the hostile sentry by pretending to milk a cow, which she gradually drove before her into the woods. Once out of sight, she ran. Through twenty miles of wild forest she forced her way, now startled by the rattlesnake, now trembling at the cry of the wolf, till late in the day she was stopped by the sentinel Mohawks, who carried her before Fitzgibbon with her tidings. Heaped with praise and gratitude, she was taken to a farmhouse near by and tenderly cared for. Fitzgibbon at once sent word back to de Haren. Then he threw out his Indians along the line of approach, and awaited the attack. About dawn the American column encountered the Indians, who, by firing irregularly, yelling terrifically, and keeping well out of sight, managed to convey the impression that their numbers were formidable. Hearing the noise of the fight, three young Canadian militiamen named Kelly, at work on their farm near by, ran for their guns and hastened to the scene. They were joined by seven or eight more muskets, summoned from other farms by the sound. Hiding behind trees the Canadians opened fire, from a direction in which no attack was looked for. The enemy threw out skirmishers and pressed on, but in growing con- fusion. The front of their column became disorganized. Their commander quite lost his wits. Suddenly they were met by Fitz- FORT SCHLOSSER AND BLACK ROCK. 241 gibbon at the head of his bold thirty, advancing with a flag of truce. The suggestion of a truce was now much to Boerstler's fancy. He was told by Fitzgibbon that de Haren, with reinforcements, was close by. He saw before him a resolute array of red coats. The Indians, in the woods on both flanks, yelled assiduously, with scalping-knives and horrors in their cry. Those eleven Canadian mihtiamen kept up their rude assault upon the rear. Boerstler felt himself entrapped. Much worried, he hurriedly surrendered his whole force. Fitzgibbon was embarrassed, however, by such haste. Taking refuge in politeness, he kept the American officers a long time busy in drawing up the articles of capitulation ; till at last de Haren arrived with his two hundred bayonets and released him from the awkward situation (June 24, 18 13). After this stroke General Dearborn resigned his command, to be succeeded by General Boyd. About the same time the gov- ernorship of Upper Canada was given to General de Rottenburg, who thus superseded both Sheafife and Vincent. For a time there was inaction along the Niagara frontier, broken only by the suc- cessful raid of Colonel Clark, of the Lincoln militia, ' FortSchlos- against the American post of Fort Schlosser, and ser and Black Rock. Colonel Bishopp's attack on the American naval depot at Black Rock. This attack was entirely successful, resulting in the destruction of valuable stores ; but it cost Canada the life of Colonel Bishopp, a brave and judicious officer to whom both the regulars and the militia were attached. About this time Commodore Chauncey with his fleet made another descent on the unfortunate provincial capital, "Little York," burned the barracks, carried off" public and ' ^ Battle of the private stores, and destroyed some small boats. But fleets on Lake meanwhile his supremacy on Lake Ontario had been Ijrought into question. The Canadian fleet in Kingston harbour had been reinforced by the arrival of Sir James Yeo with four hundred and fifty British seamen. Sir James had only six ships to the American fourteen, but he sailed from Kingston, captured some depots on the south shore of the lake, and then challenged Chaun- 242 A HISTORY OF CANADA. cey to come out of Niagara and fight. Nothing leth, the' Ameri- can commodore accepted the challenge. Nor was the contest so uneven as might appear from the numbers on each side, for the Canadian ships were somewhat larger and more heavily armed than their adversaries. The Americans, however, were much the superior in speed and in the range of their guns, and they foiled all Sir James's efforts to bring them to close quarters. During the battle two of the American vessels were captured. Two more were upset in a squall, and all on board lost save sixteen whom the British boats picked up. After these losses Chauncey declined to fight it out, and retired under the guns of Fort Niagara. On Lake Erie, however, the strife for naval supremacy had a different ending. On the loth day of September the Canadian fleet of six ships, under Captain Barclay, fought the i.y 3.113. (11 3.11 C1C~ feat on Lake American fleet of ten ships, under Commodore Perry, and suffered a most disastrous defeat. The battle was a desperate one, and Barclay fought with stubborn valour ; but in the end every one of his ships was taken or destroyed. In this case, again, the battle was not so unequal as would appear from the numbers on each side, as the Canadian ships were the larger and carried the heavier broadsides. This disaster brought another on its heels. Proctor, at Detroit, was cut off from his supplies. He determined to give up Detroit, evacuate the western country, and fall back on Burlington Heights. Dismantling his fortifications and taking the guns with him, he retreated up the valley of the Thames. His force, including Tecumseh's five hundred warriors, numbered between thirteen and fourteen hundred. He was followed with great energy by General Harrison, at the head of an army which had by this time swelled to over three thousand. And now came the humiliating defeat of Moravian Town. Proctor halted his army before Moravian Town, in a strong posi- tion, with the current of the Thames on his left, a dense cedar swamp on his right, and a front of only about three hundred yards to defend. The swamp was securely held by Tecumseh and his MORAVIAN TOWN. 243 Indians. For this position his force should have been ample, even if ten times outnumbered by the enemy. But he seems to have neglected the most ordinary precautions in the mat- X 116 u,lS3.ST6r ter of scouts and skirmishers. By felling trees in his of Moravian ■' . ° Town. front he might have protected himself with an im- penetrable abatis ; but this obvious duty he neglected. Harri- son's Kentucky riflemen, moving with great swiftness, were upon him before he realized their approach. The Canadian front was shattered at the iirst rush. The battle was over ere well begun, and Proctor with his staff was in full flight for Burlington. The troops seemed to have had no confidence in their leader, for they had not lost a score in killed and wounded before they broke. The Indians alone were men that shameful day. They held their ground and fought heroically when their white allies had fled. In the wild mel^e the brave Tecumseh fell, a stroke more grievous than the defeat itself. The victors in their triumphant hatred dis- graced themselves by mutilating the body of the dead hero, who, savage though he was called, had ever set them an example of humanity, moderation, and justice. Proctor, for his conduct on this sorry occasion, was court-martialed, and dismissed from the service. Some slight compensation for the disasters of Lake Erie and Moravian Town was granted by Fate, meanwhile, on Lake Champlain. The Americans, with their heavily armed „, sloops-of-war, Eade and Growler, commanded the and ^ 'A ' Growler. lake. The gate of Lower Canada was barred, as of old, at Isle aux Noix. Here, expecting attack, the Canadian commander, Colonel Taylor, equipped three small gunboats ; and having no sailors, manned them with soldiers from his regiment. When the American ships attacked, they met with a surprisingly hot reception. After a four hours' battle they were both captured. Soon afterwards, under the Red Cross of England's marine, they swept the American flag from the lake. A httle later the army of the North, the most numerous and hitherto least active division of the enemy's forces, made a double 244 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. movement on Montreal. One section, consisting of seven thou- sand men under General Wade Hampton, advanced from Lake Chateau- Champlain to the Chateauguay River, with the inten- ^"^^' tion of descending that stream to its mouth and cross- ing thence to the head of Montreal Island. The other section, consisting of eight thousand men under General Wilkinson, was to operate from Sackett's Harbour, and descend the St. Lawrence in boats to join Hampton at Lachine. To hold the frontier against Hampton's advance stood a scattered force of about sixteen hundred men, of whom three hundred and fifty, chiefly French Canadian Voltigeurs with a handful of Glengarry Fencibles, formed a corps of observation far to the front. This body of troops was under the command of the brave de Salaberry, a member of the old French Canadian noblesse, who had won distinction fighting England's battles in foreign lands. De Salaberry had already repulsed an attack of Hampton's on the little forest out- post of Odelltown. Now he hastened to throw himself in the path of the march on Chateauguay. In a tract of difficult forest, intersected by four parallel ravines, with the river on the left and a swamp on his right, he threw up his defences. Half a mile to the rear was a ford of the river, whereat he posted a small party of Beauharnois mihtia, supported by a band of Glengarries under Macdonell, the victor of Ogdensburg. The Americans came on in two divisions, one, under General Izzard, attacking in front, the other, led by Colonel Purdy, moving down the further bank of the river to force the ford. The front attack was hurled back in con- fusion. Not an American bayonet got inside the breastworks- All through the fight the Canadian buglers kept blowing, and the menacing brass resounded at such widely separate points that the invaders thought the whole Canadian army was before them. Presently the attack in front weakened. That on the ford, mean- while, was pressed in great force. The defenders fell back slowly. The enemy followed, till all at once, reaching a bend in the river, they found themselves exposed to a deadly flank fire from de Sala- berry's lines. They broke and fled back into the bushes, and were CHRYSLER'S FARM. 245 fired upon by advancing parties of their own men who mistook them for the victorious Canadians. Then wild panic seized the invading army ; and the path of its flight was strewn with knap- sacks, drums, muskets, and camp equipage. The defeat of the three thousand five hundred by the three hundred and fifty was overwhehning in its completeness. The victory of Chateauguay, let it be remembered, was a victory of the French Canadian militia, led by their own officers ; and it was perhaps the most glorious in the whole course of a war which brought much glory to our arms.^ General Wilkinson, meanwhile, was lingering at Sackett's Har- bour. Not till the 3rd of November did he get his army under way. In a flotilla of three hundred batteaux, escorted Chrysler's by gunboats, he began the descent of the St. Law- ^^'■'"• rence ; and twelve hundred of his troops marched abreast of him down the south shore of the river. When well beyond the batteries of Prescott this force crossed to the Canadian side, and was rein- forced till its ranks numbered something under three thousand. Close on the heels of the invaders followed a force of eight hun- dred British regulars and Canadian militia from Kingston, cease- lessly harassing their march. This little army, a mere corps of observation, was commanded by Colonel Morrison, and accom- panied by the daring Harvey, victor of Stony Creek. A little beyond Williamsburg, at a spot whose name is one of the unfor- gettable names of our history, the attacks of the Canadian skir- mishers on the American rear became too galling to be borne. The invaders turned, at their general's orders, to "brush away the annoyance." It was in the fields of " Chrysler's Farm " that they took up their position, and angrily faced their handful of tor- mentors. The battle took place in the afternoon of Nov. 12th. In spite of their numbers the Americans were utterly routed and driven to their boats. Sick, and dejected from such a reverse, 1 The victors of Chateauguay were specially honoured by England. Every soldier engaged was decorated with a medal. De Salaberry himself was knighted, being made a Commander of the Bath. 246 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Wilkinson pressed on down the river, expecting to join Hampton's forces. At R^gis he heard of the rout of Chateauguay. The attack on Montreal was at once abandoned, and the American army went into winter quarters. The closing acts of the campaign of 18 13 were not war, but reprisal. In December, General Sir George Drummond was put in command of the forces in Upper Canada. He ordered an attack on Fort George, — rather uselessly, as Fort George was commanded by Fort Niagara opposite, and was therefore of no great value to either side. On the approach of the Repnsals on ^ ^ ^ the Niagara Canadian column General McClure abandoned the frontier. place and retired to the American side. But before departing he left a legacy of hate by burning the town of Newark, and casting all the inhabitants, old and young, sick and well, adrift in the storm of a wild December night. This senseless barbarism brought swift retribution. The angry Canadians crossed the river, stormed Fort Niagara, burned Lewiston, burned Buffalo, and wasted the whole Niagara frontier. To turn once more from the Lakes to the sea, we find that the summer of this year brought some compensation to England for the maritime disasters of 181 2. Early in June, while the American frigate Chesapeake was refitting in the port of Boston, the British frigates Shannon and Tenedos appeared off the harbour. The Shannon, a fine ship carrying 52 guns, manned with a full and well-drilled crew, was commanded by Captain Broke, The Chesa- ' . ... peakea.ndthe who burned to wipe out the humiliations which the Shannon. •■in i i rr ^ r^ T British flag had suffered on the sea. Sending away the Tenedos, he despatched a formal challenge to Captain Law- rence of the Chesapeake, asking for " the honour of a meeting" to try the fortunes of our flags." Lawrence, a gallant officer, accepted with enthusiasm. On June nth he sailed out of port,^ all ready for battle ; and in his wake swarmed gaily the pleasure boats and yachts of Boston, eager to witness another triumph over the mistress of the seas. The two ships were well matched, each carrying 52 guns. But the Chesapeake had a small advantage in THE SHANNON AND THE CHESAPEAKE. 247 weight of broadside, in tonnage, and in the numbers of her crew.^ The battle was desperate but brief. Under a terrific can- nonade from all the guns which they could bring to bear, the eager antagonists closed. The moment they came together and grappled, the Shannon^s crew boarded their foe, swarming over the bul- warks cutlass in hand, swinging across from yard-arm and rigging. At the head of his men, fighting fiercely, Lawrence fell mortally wounded. In fifteen minutes from the first broadside the Chesa- peake's flag came down ; and the Shannon had won back the old prestige of England's ships. The victorious Broke sailed away with his prize to Halifax ; and there, with military honours, the slain captain was buried. At the tidings of this triumph a chorus of joy went up from English tongues. To the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the cam- paign of 1 8 13 brought no great actions, though the stir of military preparation kept Halifax excited and made trade brisk Echoes of the throughout the neighbouring counties. Halifax fur- Maritime^ ther profited from the fact that prizes captured off the Provinces. American coast were brought into her port to be sold. Ameri- can privateers, now and again, swooped down upon the coast, doing some damage. Annapolis in particular, so surely does his- tory repeat itself, felt the weight of this scourge. Chester, too, was harried more than once \ and the fertile vale of the Cornwallis was raided. But all the damage inflicted by privateers ^ was far more than made up by the profits of the contraband trade which our seaboard countrymen carried on with shrewd diligence. Be- 1 American. Chesapeake. Guns 52 Weight of metal iiSolbs. Tonnage 1135 Crew 376 British. Shanno7i. Guns 52 Weight of metal 1070 lbs. Tonnage 1066 Crew 306 2 In Mahone Bay took place the affair of the Young Teazer. This noted American privateer was chased up the bay by two British vessels. Overtaken at last, the crew fought desperately ; but as she was on the point of surrender she was blown up, and only eight of her men escaped. This wholesale destruction was the work of a British deserter, who knew that for him capture meant hanging, and who therefore chose to fire the magazine. 248 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ing the boldest and readiest of sailors, moreover, the Nova Sco- tians and New Brunswickers took pattern from their foe ; and in secluded ports of the Atlantic and Fundy shore were fitted out swift privateers, whose successful cruises laid the foundation of many a provincial fortune. 75. The Campaign of 1814. — During the next winter reinforce- ments were brought into Canada, in preparation for the sharp work that seemed to threaten on the opening of spring. In February a portion of the 8th regiment accomplished the painful march from Fredericton to the St. Lawrence, over the route already marked out by the 104th. By the same route came two hundred and fiftv British seamen for service on the Lakes. Though the autumn advance on Montreal had been so rudely checked, the Americans had not relinquished their plan of attack in that quarter. About the end of March they moved from Platts- burg with five thousand men, crossed the border, and assailed the Canadian Canadian position at La Colle mill. The position was Coiie mm ^^ ^ strong one, and was held by Major Handcock with v?c1;w-y a^''^" about five hundred men. The mill was a massive stone Chippewa. structure of two stories, further strengthened by heavy beams, and well fitted for defence. Against this small outpost Wil- kinson threw his whole force. After several hours of fighting, in the course of which the intrepid little garrison showed its spirit by an audacious sortie, the Americans retired. Upon this rebuff Wilkin- son resigned his command ; and the Champlain frontier was left at peace for a time, while the centre of war shifted back to L^pper Canada. In May an expedition from Kingston captured Oswego and destroyed the fort. On the Niagara frontier the Americans took Fort Erie, thus compensating themselves for the loss of Fort Niagara. Our little army in this district, consisting of two thou- sand men with a few field guns, was now under command of Gen- eral Riall. On July 5, 1S14, Riall attacked the x\merican army of thrice his strength, near Chippewa, and was beaten off after a hard fight. Some weeks later, General Drummond arrived with reinforce- LUNDY'S LANE. 249 merits; and on July 26th was fought the battle of Lundy's Lane, or, as the American historians call it, Drummondville. Lundy's Lane was the most hotly contested battle of the war. On the Canadian side were some two thousand eight hun- ° The battle dred regulars and militia, under General Drummond ; of Lundy's . Lane, while the Americans, under General Brown, numbered about five thousand. The road called Lundy's Lane, running within earshot of the giant cataract, was seized by Drummond at the beginning of the battle, and formed the key of the position. The fight began at five in the afternoon. It was a confused and desperate struggle, so close that more than once the opposing cannon were thundering muzzle to muzzle. The green lane was heaped with dead and dying. Once the foe gained possession, but held it not for long. Backwards and forwards swayed the deadly grapple, through the twilight, then through the dark. The sky was thick with clouds, but at times a white finger of moonlight touched wonderingly the scene of carnage. Toward nine o'clock there was a pause, and the roar of Niagara sounded heavily over the sudden hush. Then with fresh strength and fury the matched antagonists sprang at each other's throats. Till near midnight, with varying but well-balanced fortunes, the struggle went on. At last the Americans retired and fell back on their camp at Chippewa, leaving many hundreds of dead and wounded on the field. On the following day they threw their heavy bag- gage into the river, and fled ^ to Fort Erie, destroying the Chip- pewa bridge behind them. Drummond followed the American retreat, and laid siege to Fort Erie ; but there he was so roughly handled by the enemy in two dashing sorties that he raised the siege and fell *= ^ The defeat of back on Chippewa. In this position the two armies Prevostat , J , , r 1 • , • Plattsburgr. watched each other tor weeks, with no important move- ment on either side. The edge of battle shifted to other and widely 1 Some American historians, who quite ignore Chateauguay and Chrysler's Farm, claim Lundy's Lane as an American victory. It is hard to find their grounds for such a claim, or to reconcile it with this burning of bridges and cast- ing of baggage into the river. 250 A HISTORY OF CANADA. separate points. In August an American expedition went northward and attacked the fort at Michilimackinac. The enterprise ended disastrously for them, the plucky garrison not only beating back its assailants but capturing two of their vessels. In September Sir George Prevost undertook the reduction of Plattsburg, the Ameri- can headquarters on Lake Champlain, and failed ignominiously. This disaster came just when great things were expected of Prevost. England and her allies had triumphed in the Old World. Napoleon had been driven from the throne of France to the narrow isle of Elba. The power of England was free to move in America. The whole coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to Nova Scotia, was declared under blockade, and British fleets threatened every port. At the same time strong reinforcements were sent to Lower Canada, and Prevost was directed to strike a decisive blow on Lake Champlain. With thirteen thousand choice troops, many of them veterans of Wellington's Spanish campaigns, he moved up the shores of the lake. Abreast of his march sailed a fleet of sloops and gunboats, with one small frigate, under Captain Downie. The American fleet lay under the gims of Plattsburg. Prevost's plan of battle provided that the land-force should storm the entrenchments while Downie was destroying the American ships. But the American ships proved too tough a morsel. The battle was a stubborn one. The brave Downie was killed, and his fleet was shattered. Daunted by the disaster Sir George withdrew precipi- tately, leaving many of his wounded on the field. This astonish- ing retreat he explained by saying that Plattsburg would be of no use to him now that the destruction of the fleet had lost him the command of the lake. But his army was filled with rage. Many of the officers broke their swords in fury at the disgrace. A few months later Prevost was summoned home to England to be tried for incompetency ; but he fell sick on the journey, and died before the trial took place. It is said that when actually under fire this unfortunate general displayed great personal bravery ; , but it is certain that he lacked resolution in emergency, and that he had not the courage of his responsibUities. SEIZURE OF EASTERN MAINE. 25 I In the Maritime Provinces the summer of 18 14 was marked by some activity. Sir John Sherbrooke was governor of Nova Scotia. He concluded that the time was ripe for extending „ „ ^. ^ ° Nova Scotia British claims over the old disputed territory of Maine, takes pos- ^ ■' session of In July he organized an expedition against Eastport, eastern captured it, and made the citizens take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown. In September he stretched his hand westward to the Penobscot, seizing the towns of Castine and Bangor, and proclaiming British authority over the surrounding region, which had once been a part of Acadie. He accomplished the bold enterprise with little opposition and no bloodshed, the people accepting the new rule with good grace. During the rest of the war all this district was under Sherbrooke's administration. The customs receipts were carried to Nova Scotia, and constituted what was known as the Castine Fund. It amounted to nearly ^40,000, most of which, a few years later, went to the founding of Dalhousie College in Halifax. Meanwhile, far to the south, England was pushing hard against her adversary. A fleet, under Admiral Cochran, sailed into Chesapeake Bay and bombarded Fort McHenry, the defence of Baltimore. The fleet carried a land-force defeated at New Orleans. under General Ross, which took Washington. In retaliation for the destruction of York, the Capitol and other public buildings were burned. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Great Britain and the United States were sitting in council at Ghent, in the Netherlands; and at last they managed to agree upon terms of peace. On the day before Christmas, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed. By its provisions each nation restored all lands taken during the war. The tidings of peace, however, were slow in reaching the New World, and in January was fought a fierce and bloody battle. The city of New Orleans was attacked by General Pakenham with a strong force. The defenders of the city were mostly raw militia, and they were heavily outnumbered by the British ; but they had ingeniously strengthened their breastworks with cotton bales and bags of 252 A HISTORY OF CANADA. sand, and under the command of a vigorous and warlike leader. General Andrew Jackson, they fought with admirable courage. In vain the British hurled themselves against the novel breast- works. The long lines of cotton bales streamed with a murder- ous fire, and two thousand British soldiers fell before them. The result was the defeat and death of Pakenham, and for Jackson a flood of popular adoration which by-and-by carried him to the White House. The war was now done. To the Americans it had brought little but disaster. They had gone into it in a spirit of deliberate and wanton aggression, and with so little excuse that one of their greatest statesmen, Quincy, could say on the floors of war for Congress — " Since the invasion of the Buccaneers, there is nothing in history more disgraceful than this war." They had invaded the lands of an unoffending people, whom they first vainly tried to seduce from their allegiance, and then visited with fire and pillage. They came out of the war with few victories to their credit, but smarting under many and humiliating defeats. They came out of it with their great mercan- tile marine destroyed (England took three thousand of their ships), their foreign commerce ruined, two-thirds of their merchants bank- rupt. Their export trade had fallen from ^100,000,000 to less than ^8,000,000 ; their imports from $140,000,000 to $15,000,000. For all their expenditure of blood and treasure, they could show no great wrong righted, no foot of added territory, — nothing, in- deed, but such a record as a proud people loves not to dwell upon. To Canada, on the other hand, the war was fruitful of glory. Its results are potent in our blood to this day. Some of the most splendid and decisive victories of the war were won by the Canadian militia. These victories taught us our ability to defend our wide frontier even against overwhelming numbers. They taught us, too, that in a flagrantly unjust war, — a war of offence, — the great kindred republic on our borders could not put forth all its strength, being hampered by the national conscience. Just RESULTS OF THE WAR. 253 as England was weak in the war of American Independence, be- cause her people doubted the righteousness of her cause, so the United States proved weak in the war of 181 2, be- ^ . ' Results of cause their wisest sons, their most enlightened com- war to Canada, munities, refused to support the wanton aggression of the government. Canada gained, by this baptism of fire, a mar- tial self-reliance, the germs of a new spirit of patriotism. She learned that, whether of French or English blood, Scotch, Irish, or German, her sons were one in loyal valour when the enemy came against her gates. Her devastated homes, the blood of her sons, these were not too great a price to pay for the bond of brotherhood between the scattered provinces. The bond that then first made itself felt, from Cape Breton to the Straits of Mackinaw, grew secretly but surely in power till it proclaimed itself to the world in Confederation, and reached out to islands of the Pacific. To crown its work there is wanting now only that " Ancient Colony " which sits in the portals of the Gulf and wraps her austere shoulders in her cloak of fogs and suspicion. CHAPTER XVIII. SECTIONS: — 76, the North-west; 1789-1835. 77, Strife in Politics, Growth in Population. 78, Political Strife in Lower Canada. 76. The North-west ; 1789-1835. — Far aloof from the pomp and circumstance of war, amid solitude and ceaseless hardship, ^^•^ went on the exploration and beginnings of settlement Rivalry of the ^ & & Hudson Bay of what is now our great North-west. The moving and North- ° ° west Com- force in that vast region was the fur-trade. The panies. Hudson Bay Company, with its lonely posts at the mouths of rivers, on the shores of the great sea from which it took its name, was forced by its active Montreal rival, the North- west Company, to push its power all over the interior. North- ward to the Arctic circle, westward to the Rockies, and at last to the very Pacific, spread the stockaded posts of the rival com- panies, sometimes rising almost side by side, but always with fierce jealousies that too often broke out in bloodshed. The employes of the Hudson Bay Company were chiefly men from the Orkney Islands, those of the North-west Company French Canadians. These hardy adventurers took themselves wives from among the tribes of the land ; and there sprang up in time a race of half-breeds, almost as wild as their savage mothers, but capable in affairs, and susceptible to education. They came to be a mighty factor in the making of the North-west. The most famous name in North-west exploration is that of Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotch Highlander, who in the latter- quarter of the eighteenth century came to the New World as a 254 MACKENZIE AND VANCOUVER. 255 servant of the " Nor'-westers," — as the Montreal company was called. His boldness, endurance, and aptitude for leadership among the turbulent spirits who surrounded him, pres- Mackenzie ently brought him to the front. In the summer of 1789, ti^e explorer. Mackenzie set out from Fort Chippewyan, on Lake Athabasca, and with four birch-bark canoes went north by the Slave River to the Great Slave Lake. Thence he descended the huge river that bears his name, till near the end of July he came out upon the Arctic Ocean. After this feat he returned to England for a year of study, in order that he might be able to determine more accu- rately the positions and characteristics of his future discoveries, and so give his records more scientific value. His next achieve- ment was the ascent of the Peace River from Fort Chippewyan, through a gap in the Rockies, to its source in what is now our splendid Pacific province of British Columbia. Thence, through tremendous difficulties and endless perils, he made his way to the Pacific coast. To commemorate this triumph the exultant ex- plorer took a quantity of vermilion, such as the Indians used, mixed it with grease, and on the face of a cliff overlooking the waves inscribed the following words — " Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three." About this time Captain George Vancouver, following the path which Captain Cook had already made memorable (i 778-1 779), was exploring the British Columbian coast, and dis- ^ ° Vancouver on puting with the Spaniards the possession of the great the Pacific Cod-Sr. island which now bears his name. Captain Cook had made his landing at Nootka, on the island. Nootka became a centre of trade with the Indians of the coast. In 1788 Captain John Meares had founded a settlement there, which the Spaniards, ■claiming all the coast, had destroyed with great barbarity. It was to look into this matter that Vancouver was sent to the Pacific. The year of his arrival was 1792. He found the Span- iards at Nootka, but they withdrew at his bidding ; and the dis- pute was referred to arbitration. The decision of the arbitrators 256 A HISTORY OF CANADA. gave all the Pacific coast to Great Britain, from California in the south to Russian America in the north. In 1792, also, the mouth of that great river called by the Spaniards the Oregon was entered by an American ship, and renamed by its captain the Columbia. By a curious exchange, the patriotism of the American captain afterwards furnished a name for a Canadian province, while the supplanted Spanish title of the river served to designate an Ameri- can state. The next name illustrious in the annals of the North-west is that of Lord Selkirk, whose colonizing' labours in Prince Edward Island and Upper Canada have been already described. In 181 1 the noble colonizer became interested in the Hudson Bay Com- pany, and purchased from the company a vast tract of land on Red River. This district he named Assiniboia, and Lord Sel- ' kirk's Red thither he sent, by way of Hudson Bay, a band of River colony. > j j j > Scotch and Irish numigrants. In 1812 these pioneers, heedless of the war-storms further east, settled on the fertile lands by the Red River's muddy current, where they were joined from year to year by other immigrants till the colony became important enough to excite the jealousy of the North-west Company's half- breeds. A number of the colonists were presently persuaded by a north-western trader to leave Red River and betake themselves to Penetanguishene on Georgian Bay ; but their place was soon filled by another band sent out by the indefatigable Selkirk. In 181 6 the hostility of the half-breeds, who claimed the whole North-west as their birthright and vaingloriously styled them- selves " the New Nation," blazed out in open war. Fort Douglas, the centre of the Selkirk settlement, was assaulted, and Semple, the governor of the colony, was killed in the struggle. Lord Sel- kirk, who was on the way from Montreal with a small party of troops for the defence of his colony, was met by the news of Semple's death, whereupon he retorted by seizing Fort William, an important Nor'-wester post on Lake Superior. After winter- ing there he pushed on to the Red River valley and promptly brought the half-breeds to submission. Thus troubled was the THE COUNCIL OF ASSINIBOIA. 257 birth of the Red River settlement, which half a century later was to become the " Prairie Province " of Manitoba. In 1 82 1 the dangers which still menaced the settlements were removed by the union of the North-west and Hudson Bay Com- panies, both companies having found the rivalry ruinous. About this time a number of Swiss settlers came to Red River, and the colony entered upon a period of peaceful growth. In 1835 the Red River colony was brought under a regular gov- r^^^ council ernment, called the Council of Assiniboia, which con- °* Assimboia. tinued to rule its affairs till the purchase of the North-west by the Canadian Confederation. The Council of Assiniboia held its ses- sions at Fort Garry, the capital of the colony, and was presided over by the Hudson Bay Company's governor. Its first president was the energetic and masterful Sir George Simpson. To the history of the North-west belong the exploits of Sir John Franklin and the explorations of George Back. These were fruitful of heroism, if not of desirable new lands. York Factory, at the mouth of the Nelson, and afterwards Fort Chippewyan, were the points of departure for these expeditions. Franklin on his first journey (1819-1822) reached the Arctic Sea Arctic expio- by way of the Coppermine River, at the mouth of which Frankfin and he built a post. On his second expedition (1825- ■^^*^^' 1827) he descended the Mackenzie River and explored the Polar coast to the westward. Back's expedition (1833-1835), de- scended the Great Fish River (sometimes called Back's River), at the head of which he built Fort Reliance. The final expedition of Franldin, that on which he and his followers perished, did not set out till 1845. 77. Strife in Politics, Growth in Population. — For the prov- inces of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, the period immediately succeeding the war was one of growth in population, of strife in politics. Great Britain being now at peace, she found on her hands a throng of disbanded soldiers, and ofiicers retired on half pay. Besides this fact, the labouring classes in the British Isles had been increasing of late much more rapidly than work could 258 A HISTORY OF CANADA. be found for them. The government turned its attention to pro- moting emigration. Beginning with the "Perth Settlement" of disbanded soldiers and their officers, in 18 16, settlers kept flock- immigration i'^g i^to both Upper and Lower Canada in yearly in- to Canada, creasing numbers. These new-comers were at first mainly Scotch and Irish ; but soon the movement extended to the English and Welsh as well. It was by no means a pauper immigration. In almost all cases it was under strict government supervision, and the immigrants were of a sturdy, independent, self-respecting class. This fact cannot be too much dwelt upon, for on it depends the high average — intellectual, moral, and physical — of the Canadian stock. Landing usually at Quebec, some of the immigrants were unwiUing to prolong their journey, and therefore settled in the surrounding districts. Others went south-westward to the Eastern Townships and the valley of the St. Francis. Yet others established themselves about Montreal. But the greater number kept on into Upper Canada, preferring the English laws and institutions under which they had been brought up. They spread in bands to all parts of the province, peopling new townships, opening in the wHderness new centres of pros- perous life. To the beginning of this period belongs the con- struction of the Rideau Canal,^ from Kingston to the Ottawa River at Chaudiere Falls. Many of the newly arriving settlers took up lands about the canal and on the Ottawa, and at the Falls arose a busy little lumbering village (1825) called Bytown in honour of Colonel By, the engineer who had built the canal. This remote settlement of shantymen and lumbermen was destined to become our national capital, the beautiful city of Ottawa. A powerful factor in this work of peophng the Canadian wilder- The Canada ^^^ss was the " Canada Company," incorporated by Company. Imperial Parliament in 1826, with a capital of one million pounds sterling. The company purchased, in the two prov- 1 This work was planned by the British government for military purposes, to secure communication between Montreal and the Lakes in case of the exposed St. Lawrence route falling into an enemy's hands. THE CHOLERA YEARS. 259 inces, vast tracts of land, amounting in all to nearly three million acres, on terms requiring the construction of roads and other measures of development. The secretary of the company, very zealous in its affairs, was a vigorous Scotch man-of-letters, John Gait of Ayrshire. To the Canada Company we owe a long roll of flourishing settlements, with such busy towns as Gait and Gode- rich, and the fine city of Guelph, nicknamed "The Royal City." The year of heaviest increase was 1831, when no fewer than thirty-four thousand immigrants came to Canada. It is estimated that in the four years beginning with 1829 the settlers seeking a home within our borders numbered no less than one hundred and sixty thousand. This period of our history is well named by a Canadian historian^ the period of the "Great Immigration." Hand in hand with this immigration came a plague which scourged both Upper and Lower Canada (1832-1834). In June of 1832 came a ship from Dublin to the St. Lawrence with Asiatic cholera on board. She was stopped at the quarantine station down the river, but on the day following her arrival the plague was already in Quebec, where it seized its thousands The cholera of victims. It spread hungrily up the St. Lawrence, y^^""^- ravaged Montreal, and swooped down upon the infant towns and villages of the Lake province. The frosts of autumn stayed its fatal march, and the terrified people had time to mourn their dead. They thought themselves safe, and again breathed freely ; but two years later the destroyer awoke to new life, and ravaged the settlements through the whole of a grievous summer (1834). Side by side with peaceful growth in population went on a stormy growth in pohtical life. Pohtical struggles constitute, for the half century succeeding the war, almost the whole Disputes of Canadian history. The contestants are, on the one ecutive^^d' side, the people as represented by the Assembly, on p^°p^^- the other side the Executive and Legislative councils, usually in alliance with the governor. The strife went on in Upper Canada, 1 Doctor George Bryce, author of "A Short History of the Canadian People." 26o A HISTORY OF CANADA. Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, with such variations as chance and local differences might be expected to produce ; but, at the same time, with such similarities that we are forced to seek some one general cause as the base of all the quarrels. In one province, religious differences may seem, at first glance, to explain the trouble ; in another the root of the difficulty may appear to lie in antagonisms of race and language. But these, when looked at fairly, prove to be mere accidents. The struggle is in fact a constitutional one. It is for the reality of representa- tive institutions, — for what is known as Responsible Government. The constitutions given to the several provinces in the latter part of the preceding century had put the government nominally in the hands of the people, but by no means actually so. In fact, its functions were usurped by the Executive Council, whose members, as we have seen, held office for life and were respon- sible to no one. They represented the views and wishes of a small and exclusive class, and maintained a show of constitutional authority by their connection with the Legislative Council, wherein most of them held seats. They were in name the governor's advisers ; but circumstances, and the support of the Legislative Council, and their own importance, and too often the governor's ignorance of provincial affairs, combined to make them his direct- ors. Their rule, whether wise or unwise, was the rule of a strict oligarchy. It was contrary to the whole spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom. Whatever shape the struggle against this oligarchy might take on from time to time — "Judges' DisabiUties," "Civil List Bills," " Clergy Reserves" — the ultimate object aimed at by the people was the control of the governor's advisers. The people de- The Family manded that the Executive should be directly respon- Compact. g-|jjg ^Q them; — in other words, that the Executive should be chosen from among the representatives elected by the people, and should retire from office on refusal of the people to reelect them. This claim is now admitted as an inalienable right ;' but in watching the stress and turmoil of the conflict by which STRIFE IN LOWER CANADA. 26 1 that right was won, we must not forget that the question had two sides. The men who strove with voice and pen in the cause of Canadian freedom deserve our grateful remembrance ; but we must not forget that some of them put themselves much in the wrong by violence and folly, and even, in one or two cases, were so far misled by fanaticism or personal ambition as to stain their hands with treason in the sacred name of patriotism. Their opponents, on the other hand, were not without weighty argu- ments in support of their position, and they included in their number many conscientious, patriotic, and able men whose mem- ^ories stand far above any charge of greed or self-seeking. The oligarchy in Upper Canada, on account of the close relationship between its members and the jealous exclusiveness with which their circle was guarded, came to be known as the " Family Compact." This title was gradually extended to the like classes existing in each of the other provinces. In New Brunswick, indeed, it seemed hardly less appropriate than it was in the province by the Lakes. 78. Political Strife in Lower Canada. — In Quebec the par- liamentary conflict, stilled on the approach of war, broke out again in 1 8 14, during the lull before the opening of the final campaign. The Assembly, exultant over the French Canadian triumph at Chateauguay, voted all the war credits that Sir George Prevost asked. Then their minds reverted to the old quar- TheAssembiy rel. For all that they had suffered under Sir James ag^n^^^^ Craig they laid the blame upon Chief Justice Sewell, ^''o^sed. who had been his chief adviser. They impeached the chief justice on a charge of having changed the rules of procedure in his court without legislative authority. Judge Monk, of Montreal, who had also made himself obnoxious to the Assembly, was impeached at the same time on charges of official corruption. The Assembly demanded that the governor should suspend these men from office. This the governor naturally refused to do, unless the Legislative Council should concur in the impeachment. The Legislative Council would have nothing to do with the impeachment. 262 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Secure in such support, Judge Monk paid no attention to the wrath of the Assembly. Chief Justice Sewell, however, went to Chief Justice England, desiring that the charges preferred against gests^Confe'd- him should be looked into ; but his accusers failed to eration. appear. Sewell was warmly received in England, and he made his visit memorable. He laid before the colonial sec- retary, as a remedy for existing grievances and a safeguard against future perils, a scheme for the Federal Union of the Colonies of British North America. Thus, in 1814, the germs of the great idea of Confederation began to stir. The proposal awakened some interest at court ; but the time was not yet ripe by half a century. Events, however, and chief among them the war just ending, were slowly but surely paving the way for the consumma- tion of Se well's splendid dream. The quarrel between Assembly and Executive in Quebec was so much the more bitter because the Executive was almost exclusively Disputes over English. The EngUsh element in Lower Canada was the Civil List. j^Qj. Qj^jy ^ small minority of the population, but it was so foolish as to assume an air of superiority over its fellow-citizens. Members of this minority held almost all the offices. Having made good their grasp on power, they clung to it stubbornly, and professed to regard their fellow-subjects of French birth as an inferior race. The race dispute, however, was not a vital one, for we find the English members of the Assembly siding vigorously with their French colleagues in opposition to the governor and Council. It will be remembered that in 1809 the Assembly had offered to pay the expenses of the Civil List, — that is, the salaries of the officials, — and that the Council had indignantly rejected the offer, as a scheme to make them dependent on the Assembly. Now the governor was ordered by the home government to accept this offer (1816). The Assembly paid the bill, which had by this time much increased ; but refused to make permanent provision for it. The members declared that they would vote the required amount each year, and would retain the right of examin- ing the items of the List. This caused no collision, however, till PAPINEA U. 263 181 9, when it was found that the List had increased from p^6o,ooo to ;^76,ooo. The Assembly protested, examined the items, and made some reductions before passing the Appropriation Bill. The bill thus amended was rejected by the Legislative Council ; and thus affairs once more came to a dead-lock. In the following year the old King, George III, died, and George IV came to the throne. New assemblies were elected in all the provinces, and to Quebec, as governor-general, came the Earl of Dalhousie, who had been serving as lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. The speaker of the new Assembly was a brilliant French Cana- dian orator, soon to win a wide but unfortunate fame. This was Louis Papineau, the hero of the French Canadian de- „ . ^ ' ... Papmeau. mocracy. In spite of quarrels and jealousies, Papineau could say in his opening speech of welcome to the new governor — " On the day on which Canada came under the dominion of Great Britain, the reign of law succeeded that of violence. From that day its treasures were freely spent, its navy and its army were mustered to afford her an invincible protection. From that day the better part of British laws became hers, while her religion, her property, and the laws by which they are preserved, remained unaltered." But this loyal temper was soon to change. Lord Dalhousie forced on a conflict. He demanded that the Assembly should provide for the Civil List by a permanent appropriation. When the Assembly refused, he himself appropriated the funds in the treasury, and paid the Civil List expenses. It will be remembered that the province had three sources of revenue, — (i) that derived from the Permanent Revenue Act of 1774, in the form of a tax imposed by the Crown on spirits and molasses \ (2) that derived from the leases of mines and sales of land, called the " Casual and Territorial Revenue " ; and (3) that derived from the customs duties imposed by the Assembly on goods coming into the province. Of all these revenues the Assembly claimed control ; but the first two were where the governor and Council could lay hands on them. When the governor drew these funds and used them to pay the expenses of government, the Assembly 264 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. denounced his act as a breach of the constitution. To make matters worse, a noisy section of the Enghsh inhabitants began to argue for the abohtion of French laws and the banishment of the French language from the Legislature. These extremists claimed that unless Lower Canada ceased to be a French province she would soon cease to be an English possession. A scheme for a union of Upper and Lower Canada was now proposed by the British government (1822) ; but it provided for the use of no language but English in the parliamen- Schemefor ° ° ^ ^ reuniting the tary reports, and for the abolition of French from the Canadas. debates after fifteen years. The French protested so vehemently that the plan was dropped. But the Imperial Parha- ment, still arrogating to itself the right to tax the colonies, passed the Canada Trade Act, for raising a revenue and regulating com- merce. More and more bitter then grew the disputes in Lower Canada between Assembly and Legislative Council. The Assembly amended the Council's bills ; the Council threw out the amended bills ; the governor went on appropriating the permanent revenues to pay the Civil List. At length the position of the Council received a severe blow in the failure of the receiver-general, Sir John Caldwell. He had been appointed by the governor ; and no security had been exacted of him that he should prove faithful to his trust. The Crown, not having taken security, was thus morally responsible to the province. Caldwell could not account for some ;^9 6,000 of the funds of the province, which had passed into his hands. In spite of this notorious defalca- tion, he retained his seat in the Executive ; and the people found a new and potent weapon to their hand. As the public wrath boiled higher and higher. Lord Dalhousie was discreet enough to go away on leave of absence, and his place was tem- porarily filled by a more politic leader, Sir Francis Burton. He at once acknowledged the claim of the Assembly to control the Permanent Revenue ; and the indignation died down. On Dal- housie's return, however, the storm blew up again with increasing menace. That obstinate nobleman flouted all the claims of the THE CANADA COMMITTEE. 26$ Assembly, and displayed active hostility toward its leaders, who were Papineau for the French section, and Doctor Wolfred Nelson for the smaller but not less dissatisfied EngUsh section. The next step in the struggle was reached in 1827, when, after a general election, the governor-general refused to accept Papineau as speaker of the new House. Then the province hummed with excitement, and all legislation came to an end. The people gathered in angry knots. Mass meetings were held in the cities ; and huge petitions, stating grievances and asking for the recall of the governor-general, were posted in haste to England. As Upper Canada was at the same time besieging the home government with like petitions, the state of affairs attracted anxious attention in England. Parliament appointed a Canada xhe Canada Committee to examine the points at issue. The report Committee, of this committee (1828) was hailed in Lower Canada with grate- ful rejoicing. It urged that the Crown duties (of the act of 1774) should be put under the control of the Assembly on condition that permanent provision should be made for the payment of the Crown officials ; — that the judges should give up their seats in the Legis- lative Council ; — that bishops should not be allowed to interfere in matters of government ; — that receivers-general should give security; — that accounts should be examined by the Assembly's auditors ; — and that the Executive and Legislative Councils should be enlarged and made more independent by the addition of mem- bers representing different classes and interests, and not holding government offices. These recommendations apphed to both Upper and Lower Canada ; and in regard to the latter province, it was particularly urged that the French Canadian majority should have a fair representation. The unpopular Dalhousie was recalled. The new governor-general. Sir James Kempt, recognized Papineau as speaker of the Assembly ; and once more the excitement died away. The management of Great Britain's colonial affairs was in the hands of the Colonial Office, presided over by the colonial secre- tary. From the fact that the colonial secretary had his official 266 A HISTORY OF CANADA. headquarters in Downing Street, the name of that old London street came to be accepted in the colonies as synonymous with the Colonial Office. All through the struggles whose street sym- course we are now observing, the Colonial Office was pathizes ° with the somewhat inclined to favour the popular party in Reformers. , , . ir i sr j Canada, which called itself the Reform party. This was due to the fact that, whether British Whig or British Tory ruled at Westminster and filled the great office of colonial secretary, the under-secretary was a permanent official. This under-secretary, for a long term of years, was Mr. Stephens, who combined a vast knowledge of colonial aifairs with very broad views on the subject of colonial self-government. His attitude was much resented by the official party in Canada, — or, as their opponents called them, the Family Compact Tories. The Colonial Office sought to carry out the recommendations of the Canada Committee ; and Sir James Kempt at once insti- tuted a number of important reforms in Lower Canada. He also called prominent French Canadians to seats in the Executive. But, acting on his instructions from Downing Street, he reserved to the Crown the control of the Casual and Territorial Revenues. Over this reservation the strife soon broke out afresh, for the demands of the Assembly grew with each success. By 1830, when Kempt was succeeded by Lord Aylmer, the Assembly was once more as clamorous as ever. Lord Aylmer strove to conciliate them, but they would accept nothing less than the full surrender of the disputed revenue ; and this the Crown would not yield. The Assembly further began to demand that the Legislative Council should be made elective. And now, seeing that the French were aiming to get full control of all departments of the government, most of the British members of the Assembly, alarmed for the safety of their institutions, went over to the official party. Dur- ing the next three years the fires of party hate waxed hotter and hotter. The Assembly refused to vote supplies. The Casual and. Territorial Revenue was insufficient for the expenses of the Civil List; and the salaries of officials were left unpaid. Practical THE NINETY-FOUR RESOLUTIONS. 267 legislation ceased ; and the Assembly, having fallen a prey to fanaticism and the eloquence of an ambitious visionary, spent its time in passing votes of censure on the government. There can be no doubt that Papineau was now being carried off his feet by the adoring flattery of his countrymen. In inflam- ing their hearts he inflamed himself ; and he began to papineau dream of a French Canadian republic, to the head s^^srash. of which he himself would, of course, be raised by an enthusi- astic and grateful people. He was doubtless in love with the example of George Washington, but the great American's sagacity was something which Papineau, for all his genius, could by no means emulate. He forgot his ancient professions of loyalty, his eloquent admiration for British institutions. He so far forgot his obligations as a constitutional legislator under oath, that he spoke open treason from the chair of the House. He denounced mon- archy, thundered in praise of republicanism, reviled the British as tyrannous usurpers, and held up the United States as an exam- ple for his countrymen to follow. It was not strange that the British should retort with the epithets "rebel" and "traitor," — which Papineau, blinded by vanity and ambition, was soon to make only too apt. At length the Assembly drew up a statement of its grievances, in what are known to history as the Ninety-four Resolutions. These famous resolutions were passed in the House . ^ The Ninety- with most violent harangues, and then forwarded to four Resoiu- ° tions of England as an address to King and Parliament. They Lower , . , _, , ^ T , rr-ii • Canada. spoke for the French Canadians only. They reiter- ated every charge of tyranny, fraud, and corruption against the official party in the province ; demanded absolute control of all the lands and revenues, and a surrender of all authority to the PVench Canadian population. These demands were coupled with an implied threat of rebellion in case of refusal. In reply the British party in Lower Canada passed another address to the throne, stating their side of the story. The home government, quietly ignoring Papineau's threats, adopted a policy of concilia- 268 A HISTORY OF CANADA. tion. Lord Gosford was sent to Canada as governor-general, and as chairman of a Commission of Inquiry (1835). While this commission was at work, the popular excitement went on growing, fed by the knowledge that Lord Gosford's instructions positively forbade him to grant an elective Upper House or an Executive responsible to the people. The train was now well laid for an explosion, and the spark to light it was near at hand. CHAPTER XXX. SECTIONS : — 79, Political Strife in Upper Canada. 80, the Struggles in Nova Scotia. 81, Political Strife and Other Matters in New Brunswick, 82, Affairs in Cape Breton^ Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. 79. Political Strife in Upper Canada. — In Upper Canada, meanwhile, there had been almost ceaseless wrangling, kindred to that in the French province, though somewhat less The excuses bitter. All power was in the hands of the strictest ^IctfoTtheiT form of Family Compact. This small oligarchy con- toward W trolled not only all the government offices, but the p^^p^^- real estate and nearly all the business of the province. By the amount of patronage at their disposal they were able to get their followers elected to the Assembly, and so, for a long time, to keep that troublesome body subservient. They kept the press muzzled, they repelled petitions or statements of popular grievances, they frowned down public political meetings, they dis- couraged the education of the lower classes, — and all because they had before their eyes the dread of '76. The tendency of these things, they said, was toward republicanism. Their fixed purpose was to keep the republican spirit out of this province which had grown from loyalist seed. Doubtless selfishness and arrogance, in many cases, had much to do with their attitude. But there was a good deal to urge in excuse. In the first place, the world was at that time only beginning to acknowledge the claims of popular liberty, and the views held by the Canadian oligarchy were but little behind the age. In the next place, the 269 270 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ofificial party was made up of loyalists or the sons of loyalists. Having suffered and bled for the Crown, they were rigid to up- hold the prerogatives of the Crown; and not unnaturally they thought that they themselves were best entitled to exercise the prerogatives of the Crown, as well as to reap the rich rewards of that exercise. Their strongest excuse, however, was to be found in the fact that the liberal land grants of Upper Canada had attracted a large number of American immigrants into the prov- ince. These immigrants had brought with them republican prin- ciples, a fondness for noisy agitation, and an active sentiment for union with the States. They had formed the chief danger of Canada during the fiery trial of 1812-1814; and after the war was over they came in growing numbers. To the men whose devotion, whose treasure, and whose blood had saved Canada, that kind of government seemed the right kind which best kept the disloyal and the alien out of power. They must not be blamed too severely if they imagined that they alone were capable of governing their country aright. Little by little dissatisfaction gathered strength. Men remem- bered that they were British subjects. They saw their fellow-sub- jects in Great Britain enjoying free responsible government. And soon they began to assail the outworks of the official party. Some of the men who thus put themselves forward as champions of equal rights and representative government, were themselves of loyalist The Clergy stock, and in no way inferior to the Compact in intellect Reserves. ^^^ culture. They formed the solid core of the Reform- ers, and strove to hold in check the more flighty and fanatical ad- herents of the party. Among the grievances which early began to vex the people was that of the Clergy Reserves. In both provinces vast tracts of land had been set apart for the support, as the Act said, of " the Protestant religion in Canada." To Lower Canada this was distasteful, being taken as an unjust discrimination against the Roman Catholic Church ; but other questions overshadowed it. In Upper Canada the complaint it raised was a very different one.' In the first place, it was considered excessive, amounting as it did THE CASE OF GO URL AY. 271 in that province to two and a half miUions of acres. In the second place, the management of the lands was in the hands of the Family Compact, who chose to interpret the words " Protestant religion " as referring solely to the Church of England, with some possible exception in favour of the Church of Scotland. This interpretation excited the reasonable anger of Methodists and Baptists. In the third place, the Reserves did not he in one block, but were made up of every seventh lot in the surveyed townships. These lots remained unimproved while the land about them was cleared and tilled. The people objected to such wild spaces in the midst of their cultivated settlements. The differences thus arising were not settled till toward the close of the whole con- stitutional struggle ; and as late as 1836 the control of the Clergy Reserves enabled the Council to make an established church in Upper Canada, by the endowment of forty-four rectories. The strife between Reformer and Official was begun by one Robert Gourlay, a lively and erratic Scotchman who came to CaJnada in 181 7 and began work as a land-agent. The state of affairs in Upper Canada at once aroused his wrath. To every township he sent a hst of thirty-one questions, which . . ^ ^ ^ , . The casc of went deep into local abuses. The stin? was in the Robert Gour- . lay. last question, which inquired — " What, in your opin- ion, retards the improvement of your township in particular, or the province in general, and what would most contribute to the same? " The questions brought pubhc dissatisfaction to a crisis. Meetings were held to discuss them, and Gourlay's advice to the people was that they should complain to the Colonial Office. The Family Compact took alarm. They passed an act in the Legis- lature which strikes us now as tyrannous beyond belief, — an act forbidding all conventions. It is hard to realize that only three- quarters of a century ago such an act could be passed in Canada, and Canadians endure it. Then the Compact determined to expel this troublesome Gourlay for his unpleasant habit of asking ques- tions. He was arrested, tried for libel at Kingston, and acquitted. He was arrested again and tried at Brockville, with the same result. 2/2 A HISTORY OF CANADA. He was arrested yet again, this time on a charge of sedition, thrown into prison, and, in defiance of every principle of British justice, kept there seven months without trial. At length (1819) he was tried, and this time in Niagara, where the people were all sup- porters of the Compact. The unhappy Scotchman, broken down in mind and body by his unjust imprisonment, was brought before a partial judge and a prejudiced jury. The trial was a mockery of justice, and Gourlay, declared guilty of sedition, was driven out of Upper Canada. But his fate opened men's eyes ; and from that day the power of the Compact was doomed. The agitation for •Reform never afterwards ceased till the fulness of its triumph in complete Responsible Government. Among the leaders of the official party the two strongest per- , ^ sonalities were those of a Loyalist lawyer and a Scotch Two leaders ^ •' of the Com- Episcopalian divine. John Beverley Robinson, made attorney-general of the province at the age of twenty- one, and afterwards chief justice and a baronet, was a typical Tory of the best type. He was fearless, whether before the guns of a hostile army or the clamours of an angry mob. He was capable, unyielding, dogmatic, arrogant, honest, and convinced of the divine right of the Compact to rule the province. Doctor John Strachan, afterwards first Bishop of Toronto, was made a member of the Executive Council in 181 5, when he was rector of York. He was not only an uncompromising member of the Compact, hating democratic principles as the worst form of heresy, but he was also a subtle and skilled politician. His was the guiding intellect of the official party. His hand ma'de the moves which so often seemed to checkmate the Reformers. So much slower was the growth of the popular party in Upper William Lyon than in Lower Canada, that it was not till 1824 that ackenzie. ^^ Assembly showed a reform majority and came into conflict with the governor and Council. In this year William Lyon Mackenzie, a fiery young Scotchman who had come to Canada four years before, started a paper called the Colonial Advocate in the interests of the reform movement. The new ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT. 273 journal published scathing criticisms of the Compact, and threw a dangerous Hght upon certain grave abuses. The hostility of the governor and both Councils was at once turned upon the dar- ing journalist. The Colonial Advocate proved unprofitable, and before it was two years old Mackenzie was in trouble. But just at this juncture the folly of the officials gave it a new lease of life (1826). A gang of young men, sons of the Compact, broke into Mackenzie's office, destroyed the presses, and emptied the types into the lake. The rowdies, however, were speedily brought to trial, and condemned to pay Mackenzie about three thousand dollars damages, — a sum which greatly eased the needy editor. Other things happened to stir up the people's indignation. Members of the opposition in the Assembly were spied upon and persecuted. A British half-pay officer, Captain Matthews, for having, in an after-dinner mood, called upon some strolling Ameri- can players to give two or three American national Arbitrary airs, was reported to the home government for dis- |overnor'and loyalty, and lost his pension. A certain Judge Willis, ^^ecutive. sent out from England, incurred the wrath of the Compact by his strictures upon their modes of administering justice, and was re- moved from his position. Then a grasping inn-keeper named Forsyth, at Niagara Falls, built a high fence along the front of his place, to shut out the view and force visitors to pass through his grounds if they wished to see the great cataract. Governor Maitland ordered him to take away the obstruction, but Forsyth refused. Thus far, Forsyth was in the wrong. But the arbitrary governor made haste to put himself in the wrong, — and at once the avaricious Boniface appeared a victim of Tory persecution. A squad of soldiers appeared, tore down the fence, destroyed a house of Forsyth's which stood on his own land, and threw the wreck into the Falls. The Assembly undertook to investigate the outrage. Certain government officials were summoned before the House to give evidence ; but on Maitland's rash advice they refused to obey the summons. The Assembly had them arrested and put in prison ; whereupon the governor dissolved the House. This led 274 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. to such a storm of anger that Maitland was promptly recalled by the Colonial Office (1828). He was succeeded by Sir John Col- borne. But the change brought no more temperate counsels, no cessation of the conflict. Editors of reform journals fiercely criticised the officials, and were answered by fines and imprison- ment. Solicitor-General Boulton, one of the leading members of the Compact, refused to give evidence when summoned to do so by a committee of the House. For this flagrant disobedience he was called before the bar of the House, and sternly reprimanded by the speaker, Mr. Marshall Bidwell. But now the party of the Reformers began to split into two sections. Men of dignity, sagacity, and loyalty, like Speaker Bidwell, Robert Baldwin, and the great Methodist A split in the . ' ' ° Reform Loyalist, Egerton Ryerson, would not tolerate the ex- tremes and violence of the Mackenzie faction. This split, in 1830, enabled the Compact to gain a majority in the Assembly. The occasion was seized to pass what was known as the " Everlasting Salaries Bill." This made a permanent grant for the salaries of judges and officials, thus rendering them still further independent of the Assembly. The bill was attacked with great force by Mackenzie, who had been elected member for York ; and the angry majority, since they could not beat him in argument, expelled him. Again and again he was returned by his enthusiastic constituents, only to be as promptly turned out for disagreeing with the majority. He then went to England to lay his complaints before the Throne ; and the colonial secretary declared his expulsion illegal. Still the Assembly, blindly obsti- nate, and scorning even the authority for which the Compact pro- fessed such veneration, refused to admit him. He became then a sort of popular idol, almost as frantically adored by certain classes as Papineau in the sister province ; and in 1834, when York was incorporated and took again its old-time name of Toronto, he was elected first mayor of the city. In this year the breach between the moderate Reformers and the extremists grew wider. The cause of this was a letter received by Mackenzie REFORMERS FAVOURED BY COLONIAL OFFICE. 275 from Hume, the English radical, in which he said that the course of events in Canada must " terminate in independence and free- dom from the baneful domination of the mother country." As these sentiments were not repudiated by Mackenzie, Mackenzie was angrily repudiated by Ryerson and other loyal Reformers. In spite of this split, however, the Compact was beaten in the next election, and the Reformers had a majority in the new House. Bidwell was once more made speaker, and Mackenzie was made chairman of a "Special Committee on Grievances" (1835). The report of this committee opened the eyes of the Colonial Office to the state of affairs in the province, and Sir John Colborne was recalled. His last act was a deliberate defiance of the people. He established and endowed, from the Clergy Reserves, the forty- four rectories already referred to. The number was intended to be fifty-six, but before all the patents were made out the matter came to the ears of the Assembly, and the speaker put a stop to it at that point. The Colonial Office was now sincerely bent upon limiting the tyranny of the Compact, securing the rights of the people, and conciliating the Reformers, as far as all these things xhe colonial could be done without weakening the authority of theRe-^^"^"^^ the Crown. The point on which the home gov- *°"°^''^- ernment was most unwilling to yield was that of making the Executive responsible to the people. It was still held in England that colonists were dependents, and therefore in a sense inferior to the British voter at home. The British Executive was, of course, responsible to the British people ; but to give colonial voters a like control of their own Executive, would, it was thought, do away with a righteous distinction between colonists and full citizens. It was further held that with complete self-govern- ment the colonists would grow too independent, and by-and-by throw off their allegiance after the example of their southern kin. The home government was hampered, therefore. Its good-will toward the colonies was sincere ; but it did not yet understand the situation. Upper Canada now needed a governor of 276 A HISTORY OF CANADA. special tact and prudence, who would be able to exact concessions from both the opposing parties. Instead of such a one, Downing Street sent out the self-confident and blundering Sir Francis Bond Head. The new governor at once called three prominent Reformers to the Executive. At the same time, however, he assured them Sir Francis that they were in no way responsible to the people, but Bond Head. ^^ j^-^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ j^^ ^-^ ^^^ consider it neces- sary to ask their advice except when he should chance to feel that he needed it. Upon receiving this statement of extreme absolu- tism the three Reformers resigned their seats, — and the indignant Sir Francis at once allied himself with the Compact. Anew Coun- cil was formed, exclusively Tory. The Assembly passed an address censuring Sir Francis ; and for the first time in Upper Canada happened that which in Lower Canada had become quite the custom, — the Assembly refused to vote supplies. The Reformers of the two provinces, meanwhile, had been drawing together for sympathy, and now from Papineau came a letter to Speaker Bidwell, urging that the Reformers of all the British North American provinces should join in the fight for self-government. Sir Francis cried out that this was republicanism, and forthwith dissolved the House. A new election was held, the governor him- self taking the stump and haranguing as a violent partisan. He declared that the fight was for monarchy and British connection — and this cry, falling on loyalist ears, carried the day. Men who hated the tyranny of the Compact bitterly enough were never- theless willing to endure it rather than side with disloyalty and treason. The new House showed a majority in support of the Compact ; and Mackenzie, Bidwell, Rolph, and other leading Reformers were left out. Enraged at this, and puffed up by the flattery of his followers, the excitable Mackenzie stretched out both hands to Papineau and planned open rebellion. 80. The Struggle in Nova Scotia. — In Nova Scotia and New . Brunswick the struggle for representative institutions went on more temperately, and came to a climax more gradually, than in the DEPRESSION IN NOVA SCOTIA. 277 Upper Provinces. The questions at issue between Official and Reformer were more simple. They were not complicated by questions of race, and the line of division between the Depression in different classes of society was not drawn with such NovaScotia. arrogance. In Nova Scotia the close of the war brought a depart- ure of ships, a diminution of troops, and therefore a speedy col- lapse of trade. This was felt most of all in Halifax. The chief naval station was removed from Halifax to Bermuda. The popu- lation shrank, and hundreds of workmen were fed by the Poor Man's Society. For five years the people were fully occupied and patriotically united in the effort to improve their province. Men's thoughts were kept away from politics. What rather interested the people were such things as letters in the newspapers on the state of provincial agriculture ; and a series of such letters by an anonymous "Agricola " led to the estabhshment of an Agricultural Society, with Lord Dalhousie as president and the public-spirited unknown^ as secretary. Education, too, was a question of gen- eral interest. A system of parish schools was begun; and in 1821 Dalhousie College was founded, chiefly with the moneys of the Castine Fund already referred to. Lord Dalhousie, doomed later to win himself such an ill renown in Lower Canada, was fairly popular in Nova Scotia. The first symptoms of the approaching struggle made themselves felt, however, during his administration. The Assembly advanced certain charges against the collector of customs, who was a member of the Executive Council. At such presumption Lord Dalhousie grew righteously indignant. In spite of the fact that the Family Compact in Nova Scotia formed an irresponsible oligarchy, holding all offices, powers, and privileges in their grasp, the people were slow to move strong posi- against their rulers. The officials, indeed, were strongly compac\^^n entrenched. The Executive Council and the Legis- NovaScotia. lative Council formed one body ; and they sat with closed doors. i"Agricola" revealed himself as a Scotchman named John Young. Reen- tered the Assembly, and became prominent in the politics of Nova Scotia. 278 A HISTORY OF CANADA. careless of public opinion, careless of the Assembly itself. Grievances there were ; but the governor, Sir James Kempt (1820-1828), was devoted to the development of the province. He improved the roads. He opened up communications. In 1827, under his auspices, the Shubenacadie Canal was begun, to connect Halifax harbour with the head waters of the Bay of Fundy, — a work which was expected to develop the internal growth of the province, as well as feed the commerce of Halifax. The people needed some burning question, or else a powerful leader, to make them attack the strong supremacy of the Compact. In 1830 came up a question of taxation, and it seemed as if the fight was fairly begun. The Assembly had some years before put a duty of one shilling and fourpence per gallon the brandy on brandy ; and now they discovered that the duty actually collected was only one shilling per gallon. They protested, and called for the exaction of the full tax. The Council refused to agree, so high a tax being unpopular with their friends, who seem to have been the chief consumers of the article in question. As neither body would yield, there were no collec- tions for a year; — and the province lost nearly ;^25,ooo, while Halifax enjoyed the blessing of cheap brandy. Then came a general election, bringing in a new Assembly which proved even more unyielding than its predecessor ; and at last the Council with much grumbling agreed to the tax. Trouble next arose on the management of affairs in Halifax, which, not being incorporated, was governed by magistrates in Howe's libel t^e interest of the Compact. There were crying ^^^^' abuses, corrupt mismanagement, and neglect of the public needs. And now came forward as champion of the popu- lar cause one of the most illustrious of the sons of Nova Scotia. Joseph Howe, born of loyalist parents, near Halifax, in 1804, was at this time editor of a Halifax newspaper called the Nova- scotian. In the columns of his journal (1835) ^" anonymous, correspondent denounced the magistrates, and charged them with defrauding the city to the amount of ;^40oo a year. The JOSEPH HOWE. 279 immediate result of this bold step was that Howe found himself attacked with the favourite weapon of the Compact, namely, an action for criminal libel. Confident in his eloquence and in his case, Howe made his own defence, and spoke before the jury for six hours. His prosecutor was one of the most eloquent of his fellow-countrymen, the Hon. S. G. W. Archibald, then attorney- general of the province. But in spite of the fact that the judge charged flatly against him, Howe was acquitted ; and the enthusi- astic citizens kept holiday in honour of his triumph. Howe became the popular idol, as Papineau was in Lower Canada, as Mackenzie was with a noisy section in Upper Canada. But the contrast was great between Howe and these other tribunes of the people. The Nova Scotian reformer, while impetuous, fearlessj and uncompromising, was unimpeachably loyal. He wanted nothing but what was to be got by constitutional means. " Red fool fury " was hateful to him, and ridiculous. Though his eloquence and his magnetism could sway an audience as the wind sways a field of wheat, he had a fund of humour that held him worlds apart from the vainglorious rashness of Mackenzie and Papineau. He did not think that, because the people cheered him, he could therefore defy the old lion of England and set up a little republic between Cape Sable and Cape North. He led the people, but he was not misled by them. When Howe was elected to the Assembly, he set his hand at once to reform. He had able assistants in Young, Huntington, and Lawrence O'Connor Doyle. His first step was ■^ ^ Howe's an attack on the Council for sitting with closed doors, Twelve Reso- •C • 1 ■ ■ rr ■ r^y ■ r lutiOnS. as it its business were a private affair. This vote of censure from the Assembly was scornfully ignored by the Council ; whereupon the Assembly passed a series of Twelve Resolutions, condemning both the constitution and procedure of the Council, and accusing that body of setting its own interests before the public good. This called forth an uproar, which Howe quieted by shrewdly rescinding the resolutions, saying that they had done their work in opening the eyes of the pubHc. The gist of them^ 28o A HISTORY OF CANADA. however, was embodied in a petition to the Throne, praying for redress of grievances. The result was a victory, but by no means a complete one. The accession of Queen Victoria (1837) brought on general elections everywhere, and with the gathering of the new Assembly at Halifax came new instructions to the governor from Westminster. The doors of the council room were opened to the public, the Legislative and Executive councils were separated, the chief justice and the bishop were forbidden to sit in either council, the control of the revenues (except the Casual and Territorial) was put in the hands of the Assembly, and the Executive was made to include members of both Houses. But these concessions were in great part made useless by the manner in which they were carried out. The governor of Nova Scotia at this time was the veteran general Sir Colin Campbell, respected for his sincerity by friend and foe alike, but obstinately opposed to any growth of popular power. He appointed, indeed, members of the Assembly to seats in the Executive Council ; but the members so appointed were all adherents of the Compact. The Assembly, now controlling the customs revenues, refused to make permanent provision for the Civil List, preferring to pass an appropriation bill each year, and declaring that the salaries then paid were much too high for a province in such needy circum- stances. Delegations were sent to London by both parties, to carry their quarrel and argue their case before the home govern- ment. But this time the Reformers gained little. Their urgent demand for an elective upper house, and for an executive responsible to the people, was not heard kindly in Downing Street. And for a time such principles became unpopular in Nova Scotia itself. The insane rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada, though sternly discountenanced by Howe and his fol- lowers, were used by the Official party as an excuse for taunting the Reformers with repubhcanism and treason. They called forth, however, a vigorous loyalty all through the Maritime Provinces, a loyalty in which Reformer and Official strove to outdo each other; and then came a lull in the noise of party SIR HOWARD DOUGLAS. 28 1 Strife. Ten years more of agitation and dispute were yet to be endured before the final triumph of Responsible Government. 81. Political Strife, and Other Matters in New Brunswick. — In New Brunswick, as we have already seen, the quarrel between Assembly and Executive began early. We noted, at sir Howard the close of the preceding century, the preliminary Ke'^Bruns- struggle for control of the revenues, and the conse- '^^'^^^ quent dead-lock. The same struggle, persistent rather than fierce, was renewed from time to time; till in 18 18 the governor, Mr. Tracey Smythe, indignantly dissolved the House. The record of quarrels and reconciliations in all the restless provinces grows most wearisome to tell or to consider. On the coming of Sir Howard Douglas as governor (1824) a more amiable spirit pre- vailed. Both parties united with the patriotic governor in efforts for the advancement of the province. The population was now something less than seventy-five thousand. It was so completely dependent upon the lumber interest and ship-building that agricul- ture was sadly behindhand. The governor, seeing that the lumber- trade was bound sooner or later to decay, sought to turn the attention of the people toward the sounder occupation of farming. To open up the province he ran new roads and strove for the im- provement of old ones. This was, in those days, a prime duty of colonial governors. Education, too, came in for his diligent care, and through his efforts was presently founded at Frederic- ton a college called, like the similar establishment in Nova Scotia, King's College, later to become the University of New Brunswick. In the year after Sir Howard's coming the province was visited by a disaster whose effects may even yet be traced in the vast charred tracts of the interior. This calamity was the xhe Mirami- great Miramichi fire. The summer of 1825 had '^^i^''^- been one of heat and drought over the northern half of the conti- nent. For months there was no rain. All through September the inhabitants of the New Brunswick towns and villages were kept uneasy by the threat of forest fires. The air about Frederic- ton was thick with smoke. At the close of the month a blaze 282 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ran in through the fir thickets to the very outskirts of the town, and Government House was burned. In October the fire broke out in the vast forest region about the upper waters of the Nash- waak. The woods were hke so much tinder. Hurled forward by a great wind, the hurricane of flame swept out the whole heart of the province, from the waters of the Miriamichi to the shores of Bay Chaleur. The heaviest sufferers were the inhabitants of New- castle and Douglastown, on the northern bank of the Miramichi. All through the day of that memorable October 7th, the townsfolk had been weighed down by the sultry, poisoned air, and by a dread of coming woe. The cattle, warned by a like instinct, huddled together in frightened groups ; and wild animals, tamed by fear, crept out of the woods to seek refuge in the clearings. About sundown came the first huge breaths of a burning wind, and through the sudden darkness could be seen the red flashings and creepings of the fire along the western sky. Soon the wind grew to a wild gale, and up from the horizon's edge the flames leaped ominously. Then came an appalling roar, that bowed men's souls with terror ; the sky rained hot cinders and flaming branches ; and the heavens grew suddenly one sheet of flame. Through the horror men rushed madly to seek shelter in the streams, carrying their sick and helpless with them. Some pushed out in boats or scows, on rafts or single logs, into the wide and wind-lashed current of the Miramichi. Others crouched down in the water along shore, where they were crowded and trampled by the throng of frantic animals — wolves, bears, deer, horses, cattle, all in strange and shuddering confusion. Slfips were burned at their moorings before they could get clear. All the houses of the Miramichi settlements were wiped out of exist- ence in an hour, — Newcastle, at that time, being a prosperous little town of several hundred buildings. In the Miramichi region alone there died that night one hundred and sixty persons, some slain by the fire, some drowned by the waves in which they had. sought shelter. But scattered over the interior were lonely pio- neer families, solitary lumbermen, for many of whom there was REPEAL OF TIMBER DUTIES. 283 no possible refuge from this ocean of flame that raged over nearly six thousand square miles. Those who escaped only did so by wallowing in the lakes and wider streams. The heat was so terrific that in shallow waters the fish were struck dead by thousands, and afterwards, washed up along the shores, infected the air. The intense flame in places licked all vegetable matter out of the soil, so that to this day there are wide tracts in the burnt region where nothing grows but stunted shrubbery. The loss to the province was estimated at about ;^228,ooo in goods and prop- erty, and in standing timber at something like ;^5 00,000. The total number of buildings burnt at Miramichi was five hundred and ninety-five ; of cattle and horses eight hundred and seventy- five. Subscriptions for the suff"erers were taken up in all the provinces, as well as in Great Britain and the United States ; and nearly ;^40,ooo were collected. At the same time that this great ruin was falling on the eastern part of the province, a fire broke out also in Fredericton, burning eighty-nine buildings ; while another at Oromocto village destroyed twenty buildings. Soon after this calamity the old quarrel between Maine and New Brunswick about the boundaries once more grew threat- ening. But for the time the danger was averted. Qj-eat Britain It will be referred to more fully at a later point in the Repeal the° narrative, when the whole question of the Disputed gaitic ^^ Territory comes up for settlement. The effect of ti^iber. suffering and peril was to draw classes more closely together and quiet the bitterness of party strife. In 1830 the province re- ceived a rude blow. The British West India trade was made free to the world, and American competition cut down the profits of New Brunswick's fish and lumber. The stroke was felt in Nova Scotia as well as in New Brunswick. Then came news which caused a panic, and almost stirred the very loyalists to rebeUion. Great Britain proposed to repeal the duties on Baltic timber. As the duties then stood, the lumber of the colo- nies was protected in the English market by a heavy duty on the product of foreign forests. The withdrawal of this protection 284 A HISTORY OF CANADA. rneant ruin to the trade on which New Brunswick had pinned all her faith. Angry and piteous were the petitions that went across to the home government. Fortunately Sir Howard Douglas, in so many ways the good genius of the province, was in England at the time reporting on the quarrel with Maine. He issued a strong address against the repeal of the duty, which carried such weight that the bill was killed in Parliament. In grateful enthusiasm New Brunswick presented Sir Howard with a service of plate; but the governor did not return to the post he had so adorned. In championing his province as he did he had brought a reverse upon the government which had appointed him, and he therefore felt bound to resign. His successor was General Sir Archibald Campbell, a stiff -necked old soldier, with high ideas of the royal, and his own, prerogative. It required no keen observer to guess that the pohtical calm of the last few years was doomed to a speedy termination. In the Assembly now arose a leader who was destined to do for his party in New Brunswick what Howe was doing in Nova Scotia. Lemuel Allan Wilmot, a lawyer of loyalist stock and L. A. Wilmot. 1. , , ;. commandmg eloquence, became a figure almost as conspicuous as that of Howe, though he lacked the magnetic and robust humour of the Nova Scotian statesman. In parlia- mentary tactics and in debate he was a master. The Reform party in the House soon began pressing its demands. Its first success was the separation of the Executive from the Legislative Council. This was done with the object of having members of the Lower as well as the Upper House on the Council board ; but the governor managed to make the concession vain by re- fusing to appoint any new members whatever to the Council, which thus remained in the hands of the Compact. The Re- formers then turned their attention to the Crown Land depart- ment, the mismanagement of which was one of their chief griev- ances. This department was managed by a chief commissioner, whose salary was extravagantly large. He used his position to favour the rich lumbermen and other members of the Compact, PARLIAMENTARY DISPUTES. 285 and was indifferent to the censure of the Assembly. The revenues of his department were those Casual and Territorial Revenues of which we have heard so much. They were beyond the control of the Assembly, and were used to pay the expenses of the Civil List, thus making the public officials independent of the people whom they were supposed, by a polite fiction, to serve. The As- sembly asked for an account of the expenditure of this revenue : but Sir Archibald, who had small love for the Reformers and their doctrines, refused to give it. The answer of the Assembly to this rebuff was the despatch of delegates to London, to pray that the control of the dis- puted revenue should be given to the people's rep- resentatives. These delegates were well received : with the Executive, but their mission failed. On this failure the Assembly grew only the more determined ; while the abuses in the Crown Land department grew yearly the more shameless. Returning to the attack, the Assembly passed in 1836 a resolution calling for a detailed statement of the sales of government lands for the preceding year. The obstinate governor, ignoring his orders • from London, refused to give the House any such statement. Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Crane were sent to England with a new petition. To the King, the sagacious William IV, and to his colo- nial secretary, the claim of the Assembly to control all moneys seemed nothing more than reasonable. The petition was granted. The Assembly was allowed full charge of the disputed revenues ; and was required in return to make permanent provision for the salaries of governor and officials. The appointing of members of the Assembly to seats on the Executive was recommended. And the governor and Council were ordered to submit detailed ac- counts of the Crown Land department to the Assembly at every session. The victory was an overwhelming one for the Assembly ; but the governor strove to prevent the carrying out of these conces- sions. He sent the Hon. George F. Street, one of the most influential members of the Official party, to London, to plead 286 A HISTORY OF CANADA. against the change. Crane and Wilmot foiled Street's efforts. The implacable governor then resigned, rather than yield to the Sir John Reformers. He was succeeded by the hero of Stony ?acifl7sthe Creek, Sir John Harvey (1837). The Civil List Bill strife. ^g^g passed ; and peace, under the judicious rule of Sir John Harvey, descended upon the pohtics of New Brunswick. The grateful Assembly had a full-length portrait painted of the colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, to hang over the speaker's chair. The intention of Glenelg, in procuring the passage of the Civil List Bill, was that its provisions should be extended to all the provinces. He wished it to form the basis of a new consti- tution, which should bring harmony out of the prevaihng chaos. But Upper Canada jealously protested against having her constitu- tion thus cut and dried for her by the New Brunswick Assembly ; and the plan was thrust aside. 82. Affairs in Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and New- foundland. — The population of the little province of Cape Breton, meanwhile, was growing at a snail's pace. Till it Cape Breton. , . . ceased to be a provmce, it never quite rose to the dignity of political problems. The region about Sydney, and the French district of Arichat, long continued to hold the bulk of the population. Government was carried on by a governor and council, and Sydney was in great part peopled by officials. There was no clamour, as in the other provinces, for free representative institutions. Far from it. But the numerous officials, having much leisure to dispose of, managed to get up among themselves almost as much disturbance as the other provinces could boast. Attention was very early directed to the rich coal mines of the province, which soon, in the form of " royalties," began to yield a revenue to the government. The " royalty " was a certain fixed tax on every ton or chaldron taken from the mines. But a novel kind of thievery flourished. Where the seams of jetty mineral broke out on the seaward cliffs, ships were wont to come in and without fee or license do their own coal-mining. CAPE BRETON AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 287 In 1807 the whole population of Cape Breton was Httle more than five thousand souls. The revenue was swallowed up in paying the salaries of too-abundant officials. The War of 181 2 produced but a mild ripple in the island. When its echoes had ^ ' Cape Breton ceased, a difficulty arose over the coal-royalties. Cer- reunited to • , r \ 1 , , , , Nova Scotia, tain lessees refused to pay them, on the ground that, by its original constitution, no duties could be levied in the province. This plea was upheld in the courts of law ; and all processes of government were brought to a standstill. There was nothing to do but call an assembly, or reannex the island to Nova Scotia. General Ainslie, who had been governor since 181 6, resigned his post in 1820. In departing he spoke very bitterly of the people. In view of the fact that ever since the foundation of the prov- ince it had been a hot-bed of rancour, the home government decided not to call an assembly. In the teeth of indignant protests from the people, Cape Breton in 1820 was reunited to Nova Scotia; and two representatives, R. J. Uniacke and Lawrence Kavanagh, were elected to the Nova Scotian As- sembly. But though the union was an accomplished fact, the people strove against it. In 1823 a second petition was ad- dressed to London, praying for repeal of the union. This was peremptorily refused. Twenty years later the agitation was revived at Sydney, and resulted in a new petition to the home government. It was answered by Mr. Gladstone, then under- secretary of state, with a very decided refusal, which put an end to the question (1846). In the "Garden of the Gulf," after its change of name from St. John's to Prince Edward Island, no great political events took place. The immigration of Lord Selkirk's High- prince Ed- landers, in 1803, has been already mentioned. Amid ""^^rd island, their fertile farms, their genial climate, the people prospered quietly ; and the isolating waters kept them apart from the stir and tumult of the War of 181 2. Nor did the strife of parties greatly vex the peaceful island. The great constitutional ques- tions between Assembly and Executive were fought out slowly 288 A HISTORY OF CANADA. and somewhat mildly in the legislative halls of Charlottetown. One of the governors, Charles Douglas Smith, when in difficulties with the Assembly, took the simple plan of not calling that body together, and so pursued in peace his arbitrary course. But suc- ceeding governors were less autocratic ; and when the violent courses of Papineau and Mackenzie culminated in rebellion, the militia of Prince Edward Island promptly volunteered for service ill repressing it. In 1822 a harsh and sudden attempt of Governor Smith to collect the old arrears of the quit-rents caused much suffering and The land wide-spread indignation. The one evil, indeed, which question. i» the eyes of the islanders obscured all others, was the crying one of absentee proprietorship. This arose from the light way in which the lands of the island had been granted when it came into English hands. Most of the inhabitants held their farms as tenants of landlords who dwelt in England and knew nothing of circumstances in a young colony. After putting the best of their lives on improving a piece of wild land, these tenants were liable to be turned out for inability to pay arrears of rent. Many a man thus found his life's work wasted. The question was one that touched the people ceaselessly and deeply. But it was not to be settled till after three-quarters of a century of wrangling ; and its full discussion belongs to a later chapter. To Newfoundland the wars which opened the century and shook the thrones of Europe proved an unparalleled blessing. Her European rivals in the cod-fisheries were swept Great prog- ^ ress in New- from off her seas by the fleets of England, and for a foundland. ^ ° ' time she ruled the fish-markets of the world. The progress of the island advanced by mighty strides. Population flowed in, in spite of the old restrictions on settlement. In the years when the loyalists were flocking into Canada (i 783-1 785), the population of Newfoundland was about ten thousand. In the year 1800 the Royal Newfoundland regiment, stationed at St. John's, conspired to mutiny, plunder the town, and escape to the NE WFO UNDLAND. 289 United States. The plot was discovered by Bishop O'Donnell, and crushed out with a firm hand. The regiment was sent to another station. In the year which saw the close of our War of Defence (1814) came seven thousand immigrants to the Ancient Colony, whose population now reached the very respectable figure of seventy thousand. These settlers were gathered most thickly on the peninsula of Avalon, about the secure harbours which mark that deeply indented coast on either side from St. John's. But all the inhabitants were seafarers, dwelling within reach of the salt spray and rich harvests of the tide. Far more exclusively than New Brunswick devoted herself to lumber, Newfoundland devoted herself to fish. Farming was all but unknown. In 1816, when the wars had ceased in Europe and America, and New- foundland could not longer monopohze the fisheries, the pros- perity of the island all at once collapsed, and sudden ruin fell. Then, and in the year following, St. John's was all but wiped out in three great conflagrations ; and the island became a scene of misery. But soon the price of fish went up, and prosperity came again. The merchants of St. John's, making great fortunes out of the fisheries* and desirous of keeping all the people in a state of dependence, diligently reported that there were no farm lands in the province. Neither climate nor soil, ative Assem- bly granted they said, was fit for husbandry. But in spite of them to Newfound- population went on growing, though all political life in this population was so successfully choked down that not till 1832 did the island receive the first rudiments of representative govern- ment, in the form of a popular Assembly. The agitation for this benefit was begun in 1 821, but was successfully opposed for eleven years by the merchants of St. John's, whose great object was not only to prevent increase of population but to procure the removal of the inhabitants already occupying the island. Their one con- sideration was their pockets ; but for long they were able to blind the home government to the selfish greed of their policy. When the colony .did at length arrive at the dignity of a Legislature, 290 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Strife between Executive and Assembly soon began. But it had not the clear and consistent form which it took in the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Nor were the people of New- foundland destined to win a full measure of Responsible Gov- ernment till long after this goal had been reached by the sister provinces. CHAPTER XX. SECTIONS: — 83, the Rebellion in Lower Canada. 84, the Rebellion in Upper Canada. 85, Lord Durham and his Report. 86, the Canadas united. 87, Responsible Gov- ernment gained in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 83. The Rebellion in Lower Canada. — And now we turn back to Lower Canada, which we left a caldron of popular discontent. The Royal Commission of Inquiry, which had been . , . , , / , . LordRus- appomted to investigate the troubles, made its report sell's firm to the British Parliament in February of 1837. The report showed that the Reformers of Lower Canada had put themselves in a position which the most liberal of their friends were bound to condemn. Lord John Russell brought in a bill which dealt firmly with the whole matter. As the Assembly had for five years refused to vote supphes, leaving the judges and other officials in distress, Lord Russell's bill authorized the gov- ernor-general to take ;^i42,ooo out of the provincial treasury and pay all the arrears of the Civil List. He was warned that this step would cause rebellion. He answered that justice should be done at whatever cost. The people had got all they asked for, except an elective Upper House and a responsible Executive. These were refused to every other colony as well. The refusal could hardly be held to justify rebellion. By the banks of the St. Lawrence, however, Lord Russell's bill made the cup of wrath run over. Wild meetings were held, and treason walked openly. Papineau moved in a blaze of enthusi- asm. Second only to him in seditious eminence was a man of 291 292 A HISTORY OF CANADA. perhaps equal ability but less magnetism, a cultured physician of English birth, Doctor Wolfred Nelson, already referred to as Papineau's ally in the Assembly. Nelson exerted a wide Papineau and Nelson move influence, both by his character and by his eloquence. rapidly j ~\ toward open He imagined that the strife between Reformers and rebellion. i , , - 1 /- government was a duel between, tyranny and free- dom ; and he threw all his weight into the scale for Papineau. In the early summer Lord Gosford warned the people of the peril of their course, and forbade the holding of seditious meet- ings. His proclamation, posted in places of public resort, was torn down with yells of derision and shouts of " Long live Papi- neau our Deliverer ! " The people organized themselves into soci- eties called the " Sons of Liberty." To cut off the revenues, they vowed to use no articles that paid duty. When the Assembly met in August, the members were for the most part clad in homespun garments of the rudest fashion. The demands of this Assembly were for nothing less than the withdrawal of all imperial author- ity from the affairs of Lower Canada. The governor-general promptly dissolved the House. Papineau now threw all wisdom to the winds, and made frantic appeal to the judgment of the sword. His will was law with cer- tain young and excitable sections of the people. Faithful in her citizenship, the Church strove to stem the tide of The Church , „ ' . , , ^ , , , , strives to folly; but vam were the appeals of the best-loved check Papi- .... . neau'smad- pnests, vam the threats, commands, and excommuni- cations of the loyal bishops. The British minority organized to defend the law and constitution. All the British troops in the province were gathered at Montreal, and the loyal Glengarry militia mustered to their aid. From Upper Canada, in spite of the fact that there, too, was rebellion gathering head, came all the regulars of the province. The governor had taken the boll step of sending away his English troops, in order to show his confidence in the Upper Canadian militia. The militia,. said he, were able and ready to defend their province against all rebels. REBELLION IN LOWER CANADA. 293 In October the British settlers of the rebellious districts, aban- doning their farms and harvested crop to the rebels, fled into Montreal. The centre of disaffection was the country along the Richelieu. At St. Charles, on that stream, the habi- The rebellion tans massed in force, and a Liberty Column was ^''^^^^ °^t- raised in Papineau's honour. Around this column the rebel forces were enrolled, and arms and ammunition were distributed. Near by stood an old seigneurial mansion of stone, which was presently occupied and fortified by a strong detachment of rebels under one Stowell Brown, an American, who took to himself the title of " General." Not far off, at St. Denis, was another rebel post com- manded by Wolfred Nelson. The centre of Nelson's position was a large stone distillery, well barricaded and fitted for defence. The first coUision, a mere scrimmage, took place in Montreal, early in November, when a meeting of the " Sons of Liberty " was attacked and broken up by a loyal club called the " Doric." Soon afterwards two expeditions were sent by the commander- in-chief. Sir John Colborne, to seize the rebel leaders and scatter the insurgents at St. Denis and St. Charles. The movement against St. Denis was led by Colonel Gore, with one ° ^ ' The murder field-piece and five hundred men. Colonel Wetherall, of Lieutenant Weir, with a stronger force, marched upon St. Charles. Before any general engagement took place, a small body of loyal cavalry coming up from St. John's, on the Richelieu, was attacked by the rebels. Then took place an act of barbarism which roused the fury of the troops. An intrepid young officer. Lieutenant Weir, carrying despatches from Colonel Gore, was captured by the rebels. He made a dash for liberty, but was shot down by his captors and hacked to pieces with their swords. This atrocity was sharply condemned by Nelson ; but from the unhappy lieu- tenant's despatches the rebel leader learned of Gore's advance, and made ready to receive him. On the 23rd of November Colonel Gore attacked St. Denis. He marched sixteen miles through the darkness of a stormy night, over roads deep with mire, and at ten o'clock opened his assault. 294 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. But Nelson's position proved too strong for the force at Gore's command. The one gun of the besiegers made no impression Defeat of Gore o^ the stone walls of the distillery, and the habitans, atst. Dems. though a mere handful in numbers, kept up a deadly fire. The attack was maintained for some hours ; and then, carry- ing his dead and wounded with him, but leaving his one gun igno- miniously stuck in the mud. Gore led off his men. At this success the rebels were highly elated. Two days later, however, their elation was quenched. Colonel Wetherall's march had been delayed by the miry roads and by broken bridges. On the 25th he brought his guns to bear on the rebel position at St. Charles. The pasteboard gen- victory at eral, Brown, was no such leader as Wolfred Nelson. St. Charles. He fled with discreet alacrity at the first rattle of the guns. The habitans, thus left leaderless, stood their ground bravely, till a hot charge drove them from their breastworks and scattered them in blind flight. At a very early stage in the out- break Papineau, more warlike with his tongue than with his sword, had yielded to the advice of his disf'iples and prudently placed himself on the safe side of the American border. Thither the other leaders now made haste to follow him. At news of the defeat Nelson's force at St. Denis melted like a flurry of April snow ; and its disappointed leader, forced to follow the steps of his less valiant fellows in folly, was captured as he fled. Troops were now arriving from New Brunswick, but there was small need of them. The back of the revolt was broken by the Thechapeiat victory at St. Charles. Only in the Two Mountains St. Eustache. (jistj-jct, north of Montreal, did disaifection still lift an armed front. Thither marched Sir John Colborne with a strong force of regulars and militia. The rebels were gathered at the villages of St. Eustache and St. Benoit. From the former position most of its defenders fled on Colborne's approach, but a resolute few under one Doctor Chenier threw themselves into the stone church of the parish and made a mad but magnificent resistance. Not till the roof was blazing, the walls falling in, and most of their ATTITUDE OF FRENCH CANADIANS. 295 comrades slain, did these deluded heroes seek escape. Nearly every man of them sought it in vain. From the embers of St. Eustache Colborne led his force to St. Benoit. The leaders of the rebels fled before him, and the ill-armed mob, suddenly seeing its folly, begged and obtained peace. That night, however, a part of the village was burned down by angry British settlers, seeking to avenge the destruction of their own homes and harvests. When the new year opened the rebellion in Lower Canada was practically at an end, though the year 1838 was to see some border troubles, the work largely of filibustering Americans. „ - ^ ,. . The attitude One s first feehng is apt to be surprise that the rebel- of the French Canadians lion in Lower Canada, after all the windy threats of its toward the ringleaders, should turn out so small an affair. But the reason is easy to find. It lies in the fact that the real weight of French Canada was not behind the rebellion. The rising was, indeed, no more the work of the Lower Canadians, as a whole, than the revolt going on at the same time in the sister province was the work of the Upper Canadians as a whole. In Upper Canada, when the extreme Reformers drifted toward rebellion, the wiser and more moderate of their party turned against them. It was the same in Lower Canada. These men saw that constitu- tional agitation was one thing, rebellion quite another. In the natural determination to preserve their language and national character, this spirited people, with a noble history to look back upon, stood together as one man. But when the question of fidelity to their allegiance came up, the face of affairs changed. Papineau and his fellows thought that they carried French Canada in their hands. But the event taught them otherwise. The French Canadian Church, as we have seen, threw all its weight into the opposite scale. The old seigneurial families, also, stood by the constitution. The farming communities over the greater part of the province turned a cold, if not actively hostile, shoulder toward the rebels. They thought themselves tolerably governed. They wanted no civil war. Significant is the fact that many of the French Canadian militia were actively loyal, and tendered their ser- 296 A HISTORY OF CANADA. vices to the government for the curbing of their misguided coun- trymen. Colonel de Hertel, commanding fifteen hundred militia in one of the most rebellious districts, reported to the commander- in-chief that his troops were stanch in their allegiance and ready for any service. With the first collision on the Richelieu loyal addresses came pouring in from nearly all th.e French counties. It is a crying injustice to a gallant and honourable people to say, as is so often said, that the Papineau outbreak was a rebellion of the French Canadians. It was the rebellion of a few ambitious hot-heads among the French Canadians. By the majority of their fellow-countrymen it was repudiated with anger and alarm. But the whole province had to suffer for the fault of the few. Along the frontier, where gathered the fugitive rebels, there were threats of armed American support. Lord Gosford departure of was recalled, and Sir John Colborne was made military Lord Durham. _,, . . ^ , , governor. The constitution of 1791 vvas suspended (1838). Lower Canada found herself once more beneath an absolute government. But this was not intended to last. In May arrived Lord Durham, as governor-general and also as special commissioner, with power to settle disputes and to arrange for the effective working of representative government in the Canadas. His work, which was of deep and lasting importance, will be explained in a later section. Suffice to say here that in the autumn he threw up his task in anger and returned to England. On his departure the smouldering embers of revolt leaped again into fitful blaze. In the American towns along the border secret societies had been formed, called " Hunters' Final out- -.-,,,, , , break of the Lodges, whose members were sworn to the support Lower of Canadian independence, and to the spreading of republican institutions over all the American conti- nent. These " Hunters' Lodges " now grew threateningly active ; and the American authorities seemed obstinately blind to their schemes. In October the rash habitans of the rebellious town; ships again prowled in armed mobs, and the Enghsh settlers once more fled into the city for safety. In Beauharnois County the REBELLION IN LOWER CANADA. 297 rebels were especially daring. It was Sunday, November 5th, when a body of them drew near Caughnawaga, a village of loyalist Iro- quois. The Indians rushed out of church, seized their arms, routed the bragging rebels, and took a number of prisoners. At Napierville was the headquarters of the rising. There Robert Nelson, a brother of Doctor Wolfred, proclaimed the republic of Canada. On the approach of a loyal force Nelson retired with his mob toward the border, seeking to unite with a band of Amer- ican allies. On the march a party of the rebels encountered a party of militia, and a sharp skirmish took place in which the rebels were beaten. The main body of Nelson's force then came up, whereupon the militia threw themselves into the church at Odelltown, and defended themselves with such vigour that the insurgents drew off across the line. The militia were now hot with the vindictiveness which civil war is quick to breed, and the rebellion was stamped out with small gentleness in Beauharnois County. Villages were burned. The gaols were filled with rebels and suspects. This was the last flicker of the flame in Lower Canada. Further west, however, the aid of the American filibus- terers was yet to make sore trouble, the rebels were yet to be chas- tised. The rebellious districts being under martial law, a number of the prisoners were tried at once, and thirteen, convicted of treason, were put to death, while others were banished to penal settlements. Some of those executed had been pardoned for tak- ing. part in the rebellion of the year before, and well deserved their punishment. In other cases, however, it was but the deluded tools of the conspirators who suffered, while the leaders, escaping in time, lived to win pardon, and even at last to share the rewards of office in the land which their madness had convulsed. 84. The Rebellion in Upper Canada. — During the early months of 1837 events in Upper Canada were keeping pace with those in the sister province. As in the sister province, those „ , ^ '- Mackenzie who contemplated violence were the very small but proclaims ^ . rebellion, noisy minority. Between the two provmces, however, there was this difference. The majority in Upper Canada were 298 A HISTORY OF CANADA. actively loyal; the majority in Lower Canada were sullenly in- different. Early in August Mackenzie gave rein to his folly. He and his disciples issued what they presumptuously called a " Declaration of the Reformers," a blatant document which the real bone and brain of the Reform party made scorn of. Men hke Ryerson, Baldwin, Bidwell, fiercely condemned it. This document set forth the grievances of the malcontents, renounced imperial allegiance, and declared for the rebel cause in Lower Canada. A " Vigilance Committee " was established to spread the principles of the Dec- laration, and Mackenzie travelled about the province with sedition and delusion on his tongue, seeking to inflame the people. In some districts he found sympathy ; in others he was rudely silenced by the loyalist farmers. The government let him go to the full length of his tether. By this masterly inactivity Sir Francis Head, the governor, displayed more wisdom than he had shown in an earlier stage of the excitement. He thought it better that Mackenzie's followers should declare themselves unmistakably before force should be used for their correction. It was a shrewd and wholesome policy, too, which sent the regulars away to Lower Canada at such a moment. It threw the whole defence upon the provincial militia and cleared the imperial troops of responsibihty for any blood that might be shed. The centre of conspiracy was in Toronto. The subtle Rolph, whose name appeared on no rebel manifestoes, and whose loyalty was relied upon by the governor, was nevertheless deep Provisional in the confidence of Mackenzie, and destined by the Government ' ^ on Navy rebels to preside over the new government. Stylins: Island. ^ ° ^ & themselves "Patriots," like their fellow-rioters in Lower Canada, the rebels estabUshed what they called a " Provisional Government " on Navy Island, in the middle of the Niagara River. The flag of the proposed republic carried two stars, one for each of the Canadas. To us at this day the action of the rebels seems much hke that of schoolboys playing war. On the 25 th of Novem- ber, when the insurgent habitans were being routed at St. Charles, MONTG OMER Y'S TA VERN. 299 William Lyon Mackenzie was issuing a proclamation calling on the Canadians to rise as one man. This screed was issued by him as " Chairman pro tern of the Provisional Government of the State of Upper Canada." On Yonge Street, a few miles out of Toronto, stood Montgom- ery's Tavern, the rendezvous of the rebel forces. Toronto was unguarded. On December 4th came news that the Toronto rebels were marching on the city. The governor, ti^reatened. officials, and leading citizens threw themselves into the City Hall, determined to defend to the last the arms and ammunition there in store. At the same time messengers were sent flying to Hamil- ton, to summon Colonel MacNab wiih his fighting militia of the Gore. Mackenzie's object in attacking Toronto was to capture the military stores in the City Hall, for the equipment of his ill- armed followers. But the occasion slipped by him. Half-way to the city the rebels turned about and gave up the enterprise. Their numbers went on steadily increasing at Montgomery's Tav- ern ; but meanwhile MacNab arrived with the men of Gore, and Toronto was saved. Blood flowed straightway. The mob at Montgomery's Tavern was being drilled vigorously by one Van Egmond, an old officer of Napoleon's. The rebel commander-in-chief was ^ The fight at Samuel Lount, a blacksmith. A loyalist captain, named Montgom- ery'sTavem. Powell, taken prisoner by Lount's men, escaped by shooting his guard. Then Colonel Moodie, a loyalist officer, en- deavouring with scornful bravado to ride through the r^bel lines, was shot from his horse. But not long was the revolt to go un- bridled. On December 7th the governor and Colonel MacNab, with five hundred militia behind them, marched out to the attack. Nearly a thousand men held the lines at Montgomery's Tavern, but they were scarce half armed. Some carried scythes, some axes, some pitchforks. Anxious to avoid bloodshed, the governor called upon them to lay down their arms ; but Mackenzie's sole reply was a demand for the redress of grievances. The militia, dressed only in rough homespuns, but no less dauntless than if 300 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. scarlet had covered their ardour, advanced on the rebel lines. At first the exchange of volleys was hot, but the skirmish was soon over. In all directions scattered the rebels ; and Mackenzie fled over the border. The victors burnt Montgomery's Tavern, and the house of a rebel leader in the neighbourhood ; but the {^w prisoners taken were pardoned by Sir Francis. For some days after this event the militia of the couhtry districts kept flocking into the city, till the governor had more troops on hand than he knew what to do with, and had to send most of them home. The rebel flag still flew on Navy Island, where Mackenzie, with a handful of his followers and some American allies, kept up the childish fiction of a provisional government. The American border cities were eager in Mackenzie's cause. Not till the fol- lowing year were proclamations issued by the President and by the governors of border states, warning American citizens against attacking a friendly power ; and these warnings not seldom were loftily disregarded. Mackenzie, in his ridiculous estabhshment on Navy Island, was generously issuing grants of land to all who would take up arms Thedestnic- ^^ ^^ rebel cause. He was watched by MacNab's steamer militia, on the Canadian shore just opposite ; and the Caroline. j.jya^j lines kept firing across the current. In Macken- zie's hands was a steamboat called the Cai'oline, used for carrying stores to the rebel camp. On the night of the 27th Colonel Mac- Nab sent over a band of marines and volunteers, in row-boats, to capture the vessel. The daring venture was led by Lieutenant Drew, of the Royal Navy. The Caroline was lying under the ginis of Fort Schlosser ; but the intrepid assailants cut her out, bundled her crew ashore, set her on fire, and sent her flaming over the Falls. The Americans, ignoring their own breaches of the laws of neutrahty, cried out against this action, because, forsooth, the Caroline was an American vessel. The British government therefore apologized ; but Colonel MacNab was rewarded with knighthood. FIGHT AT PELEE ISLAND. 30 1 Mackenzie at length took down his two-starred flag, and Navy- Island was deserted. Not long afterwards he was arrested by the New York state authorities, tried at Albany for attack- pightat ing a friendly nation, and sentenced to an imprison- P^i^e island, ment of eighteen months. But American conspiracies against Canada went on none the less. A great threefold attack was planned, from the cities of Ogdensburg, Buffalo, and Detroit ; but in the over-abundance of would-be leaders lay our safety. The leaders quarrelled, for all could not command at once ; and the central invasion fell through. On the east, however, a party of fifteen hundred rebels and filibusters crossed to Hickory Island, on the Canadian side, — and then crossed back again (February 22, 1838). The only serious operation of the raiders was in the west. Four hundred of them, under one Sutherland, crossed from Michi- gan to Pelee Island, off Amherstburg, where they encountered a small force of regulars. The river was frozen, and amid the blocks of ice a sharp fight took place. The invaders were routed with loss, and their leader captured. While in prison he made a formal statement, declaring that these attempted invasions were encouraged by the American government, in the hope that Canada might be gained by the methods which had brought Texas into the Union. But the testimony of a convicted traitor is not to be considered convincing. Sir Francis Bond Head had now resigned the governorship, rather than obey the Colonial Ofifice and appoint Reformers to the Executive Council. His place was filled by the harsh ^ ^ Vengeful and inflexible Sir George Arthur, lately governor of spirit of the TT TA- iTii i,T^^ loyal party. Van Diemens Land, who spurned the Reformers, and identified himself heart and soul with the Compact. The spirit of revenge ran high in the province, the jails were full of prisoners, and there was much persecution of suspects. The rebel leaders, Matthews and Lount, were hanged ; and more exe- cutions would have followed but for the sharp interference of the home government. The effect of the rebellion was to discredit the Reformers for a time ; but it so increased the arrogance of the 302 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Compact that their rule became more and more intolerable. The most loyal began to demand the overthrow of such a tyranny. And Reformers were much strengthened in their purpose by the recommendations of Lord Durham. As we have seen, the departure of Lord Durham, in the fall of _. . 1 8-^8, was followed by fresh outbreaks in Lower Canada. The invasion ^ •' of Van In Upper Canada it was followed by new attacks on the frontier. The iniquitous " Hunters' Lodges" collected a force at Ogdensburg, and the citizens turned out joyously to watch the attack on Canada. On November nth a body of refu- gees and American adventurers, to the number of about two hun- dred, sallied across to Prescott and entrenched themselves on a hill. They were led by a brave but misguided Pohsh exile, named Van Schultz, who fancied that, because his own country was a victim of tyrants, therefore Canada must be in a like unhappy case. On the 15 th a party from Kingston attacked the invaders, and drove them into one of those strong, circular stone mills of which we have so often spoken. There they defended them- selves bravely, while sending vain appeals across the river for a help which the applauding crowds were much too prudent to give. At this juncture, the American authorities intervened and took possession of the adventurers' boats. On the day following a force of regulars arrived, with artillery, and the insane undertaking of Van Schultz fell straight to ruin. The walls of the mill were battered down, and the remnants of the invaders were made captive. Van Schultz and eleven of his. fellows were tried, con- demned, and hung. In spite of the tardy proclamation of President Van Buren, for- bidding American citizens to support attacks on Canada, the The flght at people of Detroit now lent aid to a band of raiders Sandwich. ^^^q planned the capture of Amherstburg. In Decem- ber, T839, about four hundred and fifty of the rebels crossed over to Windsor, burned a vessel and some houses, captured a small guard of militia, and murdered a peaceful citizen who refused to join their cause. Then they marched into Sandwich, on the road LORD DURHAM'S REPORT. 303 to Araherstburg. Their captives somehow managed to escape, which so enraged them that they killed the next man they met, a surgeon named Hume. At Sandwich they were confronted by Colonel Prince with two hundred militia, and a fierce struggle ensued. It ended in a complete victory for the militia. The invaders, what were left of them, fled back to Windsor, and then across the river to their refuge. The militia, furious at the murders which had been done, shot four of the prisoners at once. This was answering barbarism with barbarism, and fortunately went no further. The other captives were in due time brought to trial. Three were executed ; others were transported. Many, made prisoners here and at Prescott, were pardoned on account of their youth. This raid against Sandwich was the last splutter of the rebeUion. 85. Lord Durham, and his Report. — Great as was the misery which it had caused in Canada, the rebellion was not without its compensations. It aroused the best minds in Eng- ^ . ° Lord Durham, land, and the colonies came in for a close attention which led to the correction of many grave abuses. The brief rule of Lord Durham, in the summer months of 1838, marked the end of the old order in Canada. Lord Durham was an eminent English statesman of the Liberal school. Sent to Canada not only as governor-general, but also as high commissioner, \\£. was armed with a very wide but vague authority. He seems to have been somewhat self-important, fond of imposing ceremony, and over-sensitive to criticism ; but he was a keen and honest observer, a firm but humane administrator ; and his report showed a breadth of view, a sagacity and insight, such as no British statesman before him had brought to bear on colonial questions. He arrived at Quebec in May. Six months later he resigned in a huff and went back to England. But that briefest of administrations was long enough to build an imperish- able monument to his fame. While studying the situation in all the provinces. Lord Dur- ham found himself compelled to deal with a number of po- 304 A HISTORY OF CANADA. litical prisoners. Many of the ringleaders had escaped into the States. Most of the prisoners he pardoned ; but from this indulgence he left out eight of the most conspicu- His dealing ^ ° ^ with the ous offenders, including Wolfred Nelson. There rebels. was now no trial by jury in the province, the constitution having been suspended. Lord Durham presumed upon his vague authority, took upon himself the office of both judge and jury, and banished the culprits to Bermuda, on pain of being executed for treason if they should return. This action of the governor-general's was irregular, and his enemies made great capital out of it. The governor of Bermuda com- plained that there was no authority by which he could hold the exiles. The British government disallowed the decree ; and in Parliament Durham was criticised so harshly that he threw up his office in anger. But before leaving he proclaimed that as the government had refused to uphold him in his punishment of notorious rebels, he now extended full amnesty to all who had been concerned in the insurrection. So sweeping an indulgence, which included Papineau himself, was regarded as an encourage- ment to treason ; nevertheless the angry governor would not withdraw it. But during the summer, ere the storm brewed in Bermuda and London had had time to break on the governor's castle in Que- bec, Lord Durham got done the work that he had Confedera- ' ° ' tionsug- come to do. He despatched responsible agents to each province, to inquire exactly into the conditions of government and the grievances of the people. He also invited the governors of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island, with delegates from their Legislatures, to meet and confer with him at Quebec. This conference was a most memorable event. It talked over a plan for nothing less than the Confederation of the Provinces of British North America. But for this it was felt that the time was not yet ripe ; and to the idea of a lesser union between Upper and Lower Canada Lord' Durham turned his more immediate care. ACT OF UNION. 305 The report which he submitted to Parliament is one of the most masterly papers ever written on colonial affairs. Its opin- ions and suggestions were supported by a wealth of facts. It pointed out that the state of government in ham's all the provinces was one of ceaseless strife between the executive and representative bodies ; and it reminded Parlia- ment that since 1688 the stability of Britain had depended on the responsibility of the government to the Legislature. It called attention to the fact that the same grievances prevailed in all the provinces ; and it fearlessly declared that " while the present state of things is allowed to last, the actual inhabitants of these provinces have no security for person or property, no enjoyment of what they possess, no stimulus to industry." This was a crush- ing arraignment of the colonial system as it stood. As a cure for race jealousies in Lower Canada, Lord Durham proposed a legis- lative union of the Canadas, which would cause parties to divide ■ on new lines of local or sectional interest rather than on those of race and language. For the cure of the deeper, constitutional ill that was gnawing at the vitals of the country, he urged that the Executive should be made responsible to the Assembly. To draw the provinces closer together, both in sentiment and in trade, he recommended the building of an intercolonial rail- way. And to secure the protection of local interests, he urged that municipal institutions should be established without delay. 86. The Canadas united. — On the basis of Lord Durham's report a bill was brought into Parliament by Lord Russell ; but before its passage it was submitted to the government The Act of of Upper and Lower Canada. This was done with ^^^°'^- admirable judgment by Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson, who was now sent out to Canada as governor-general. In Lower Canada the scheme of union was accepted at once. It had to go before the Council only, for, the constitution of 1791 being suspended, there was no Assembly to consult. Had the French been con- sulted, they would have rejected the scheme with scorn, as they 3o6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. imagined it to be a mere cloak for the blotting out of their lan- guage and nationality. In this fear, as events will show, they were very much mistaken. To get the bill of union accepted in Upper Canada was a task far harder. It tried all Mr. Thomp- son's tact. Both branches of the Legislature were at this time in the hands of the Compact, which felt loftily virtuous because it had crushed the rebellion without help from the home govern- ment. The idea of an Executive responsible to the people was hateful to the Compact. But such an Executive was intended by the Act of Union, as was shown by a despatch from Lord Russell on the Tenure of Office (1839), which the governor-general read to the Upper Canadian Legislature. He stated that he had " received Her Majesty's commands to administer the government of these provinces in accordance with the well-understood wishes and interests of the people." In Lord Russell's despatches he was required to call to his counsels and employ in the public service those persons who " have obtained the general confidence and esteem of the province " ; and it was declared that thereafter certain heads of departments, such as attorney-general, surveyor- general, receiver-general, and other members of the Executive, would be called upon to retire from the public service when motives of public poUcy should require it. The principles proclaimed by Mr. Thompson, and laid down in Lord Russell's despatch, were welcomed with joy by the Re- formers ; but to the Official party they meant nothing The Compact ' , , , bows to the less than defeat. Nevertheless, to the lasting honour will of the ° home govern- of their loyalty be it said, they accepted the defeat. The Executive Council of Upper Canada, the very core of the Compact, forced to the conviction that this was the will of Westminster, brought in the hateful bill as a government measure and carried it through the Upper House. In the Assem- bly it was debated with great bitterness, but the public good and the wish of the Crown prevailed, and the measure passed. With some changes it was again brought up at Westminster, and passed in July, 1840. THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 307 It was not put into effect, however, till February of the follow- ing year, when Upper and Lower Canada again became one province. For iust half a century had they dwelt ^ .... Triumph of apart. The proclamation of reunion was accom- the moderate .panied by another despatch from Lord Russell, in which it was laid down that " the governor must only oppose the wishes of the Assembly when the honour of the Crown or the interests of the Empire are deeply concerned." The act was a triumph of moderation. The moderate Reformers were victori- ous. The extremists of both parties were dissatisfied, — the one side regarding it as a half-measure, the other as the enter- ing wedge of republicanism. Poulett Thompson, who had so judiciously accomplished his task, was made Lord Sydenham of Kent and Toronto. By the new constitution the Legislature of the United Canadas consisted of a governor ; an Upper House, or Legislative Coun- cil, of twenty members, appointed by the Crown ; xhe new and a Lower House, or Assembly, of eighty-four constitution, members, elected by the people. The representation in both Houses was divided equally between the two provinces. The Executive Council was composed of eight members, selected by the governor from both Houses. Those chosen from the Assem- bly went back to the people for reelection before they could per- form the duties of office, thus assuring themselves that they had the people's confidence. Arrangement was made for a permanent Civil List of ^75,000 a year ; but, this provided for, the Assembly had full control of the rest of the revenues. Bills for the expendi- ture of public moneys had to originate with the government, — a measure wisely planned to check extravagance. The first Parlia- ment under the union was held at Kingston (June, 1841) ; and in his address from the throne the governor-general declared himself bound by the principles of Responsible Government. It was not till some years later, however, that these principles came to be regarded as firmly established and in full working order. The first session saw many important measures introduced, — for 308 A HISTORY OF CANADA. regulation of the currency and the customs, for the extension of canals and other public works, for the spread of common school education, and for the establishment of municipal institutions. This last was a great boon to the country. By giving each town- ship control of its local and internal affairs, sectional jealousies were reduced, the French Canadians were reassured, and the people generally were put in the way of learning the lesson of self-government. The old bitterness between parties and between races was not to be wiped out in a moment by the magic of an Act of Parhament ; but the widening of the arena made it less personal. New influences springing up soon began to blur the old lines by drawing new ones over them. The parties dividing, the people began to be known as Conservatives ^ and Reformers. The names had then a meaning which was later to become hope- lessly confused. The municipal institutions, referred to in the preceding para- graph, call for a word of explanation. In the earlier days of our history each provincial legislature performed the duties of a municipal council, and was therefore burdened with minute local affairs of which the majority of the members knew nothing. In Ontario the Legislature early began to relieve itself by giving Municipal towns, counties, and villages the control, to a large ins 1 utions. (jggj-ee, of their own local business. By the union of 1 84 1 this system, with modifications, was extended to both provinces, and was rapidly enlarged and perfected. Not till some years after Confederation, however, were municipal institutions introduced in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ; and in Prince Edward Island they are still but imperfectly developed. The Act of Confederation gave each provincial legislature full control of municipal institutions within its borders ; and with the exception just noted, each province has now an efficient municipal code. 1 In the original meaning of the terms Conservative and Reformer, these repre- sented two different methods of serving the State. The Conservatives thought mainly of preserving what was good in institutions, the Reformers of getting rid of what was bad. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT SET BACK. 309 under which each separate municipal district — county, city, town, township, village, parish, as the case may be — attends to its own matters of public improvement, public health, and public morals, and taxes its inhabitants for such purposes. There are slight variations of procedure in the different provinces, but the gov- erning body in each case is the council, — village, parish, town, county, or city council. In village and township councils the chief officer is called the reeve ; in town and county councils he is called the warden, and in city councils he is the mayor. The members of city councils are known as aldermen. In the autumn Lord Sydenham was thrown from his horse ; and he died some time later from the effects of the accident. He was succeeded by Sir Charles Bagot. The Conservatives in England had now taken the reins of government ; Sir Robert Peel was prime minister; there was a Conservative colonial secretary, Lord Stanley, in Downing Street ; and the new governor-general was an old-school Tory. The Family Compact party in Canada now looked for a return to their views, a reversal of the Responsible reforms which they had found so bitter to swallow. meetsT^^* But they were disappointed. The colonial secretary *^•^^''^• would make no change ; and the new governor-general walked firmly in the footsteps of his Liberal predecessor. He called to the Executive Messrs. Lafontaine, Baldwin, Hincks, and Daly, who were the leaders of the Reform majority in the Lower House. In the following year Sir Charles Bagot resigned his post on account of ill-health, and was succeeded by Sir Charles Metcalfe. The new governor-general was no believer in Responsible Govern- ment for the colonies ; but he was a very firm behever in the need of upholding the prerogative of the Crown. The only responsibility he cared to recognize was his own responsibility to the Queen in Council. With these views, he made several official appointments without the advice of his Executive. In vain did Baldwin and Lafontaine remonstrate. The governor insisted that the right of patronage was in his hands. He would not yield it up, said he, for the purpose of enabling certain of his ministers to 3IO A HISTORY OF CANADA. buy favour with the Assembly. Baldwin and Lafontaine resigned ofifice. In all the provinces the quarrel was eagerly watched. A general election took place in Canada. The governor was sus- tained. The Reformers were defeated. The Conservatives had a majority in the new House, and Mr. Draper, the Conservative leader, formed a ministry. Responsible Government was set back three years. In 1844 the seat of government was moved from Kingston to Montreal. The colonial secretary had by this time pardoned all the rebels but Mackenzie, who did not get his amnesty till five years later. In the new Parliament which met at Montreal in November of 1845, several of the pardoned rebels sat as mem- bers. Lord Metcalfe having resigned, his place was filled by Lord Cathcart. And now came up a new and burning question in „ . . ^ Canadian politics. Sir Allan MacNab, the loyal hero Beginning of ^ ' ^ trouble over of the rebellion, was a leading member of the Assem- Rebellion ' ° . Losses legis- bly under Draper's administration. He brought in a bill for the compensation of those persons in Upper Canada on whom the rebellion had brought loss. This became famous as the Rebellion Losses Bill. About ;^40,ooo was voted to satisfy these claims. On this the representatives from Lower Canada came down upon the ministry with a like demand. The loyaHsts of the upper province, who professed to beheve that all the French Canadians had been rebels, protested angrily. A commission appointed to inquire into the matter reported that, though the claims amounted to a quarter of a million, ;^ 100,000 would cover the real losses. The Draper government thereupon awarded ^10,000. At this both provinces got ex- and the final cited, — Lower Canada because the small amount was triumph of Responsible a mockery of her claims. Upper Canada because she Government. ■ ^ \ ■, ■ ^ ■, t^ considered the grant a compensation to rebels. Dur- ing the excitement came a change of government in England. A new governor-general, one of the most firm, judicious, and capable that England ever sent out, arrived in Canada. This was Lord Elgin, a son-in-law of Lord Durham (1847). The year after MAINE AND NEW BRUNSWICK DISPUTE. 311 his arrival elections were held. The Conservatives were defeated, and the Reformers found themselves with a majority in the new House. Mr. Draper, accepting the principle of responsibility, handed in his resignation. Lord Elgin, proclaiming the same principle, accepted the resignation, and called the Reform leaders, Lafontaine and Baldwin, to form a new government. This, in 1848, was the complete victory in that long struggle for Responsi- ble Government, which we saw foreshadowed on the coming of the loyalists, and which fills the whole horizon of Canadian his- tory from the War of 181 2 to 1848. The same year saw the same victory achieved in New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia, by steps which we shall trace in a succeeding section. In Prince Edward Island it was not to be won till 1852 ; and in Newfoundland not till 1855. 87. Responsible Government gained in New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. — In the provinces by the sea Official and Reformer alike had watched with loyal indignation the rebellions in the sister provinces. The friction that kept the borders The Maine of Upper and Lower Canada aflame reached eastward Brunswick to the Disputed Territory between Maine and New ^o^'^'^^ry- Brunswick, and nearly gave rise to war. This was in 1839; but to understand the quarrel it will be necessary to go back to the treaty of 1 783, which professed to define the boundary between the British possessions and those of the new republic. When Great Britain recognized her revolted colonies as an independent nation, their eastern boundary, as has been said, was defined to be the St. Croix River, with a line drawn from its source to the highlands dividing the waters falling into the Atlantic from those emptying themselves into the St. Lawrence. Immediately dis- pute arose as to which was the St. Croix River, the Americans claiming it to be a stream now known as the Magaguadavic, far to the east of the true St. Croix. This question was set at rest by discovery of the remains of Champlain's ill-fated settlement on the island at the river's mouth. But the St. Croix had branches ; and dispute arose as to which branch was the true St. Croix. The 312 A HISTORY OF CANADA. commissioners appointed to decide this point agreed upon the most westerly branch ; and at its source they erected a stone monument as a perpetual landmark (1798). The next diffi- culty was in regard to the " highlands." The British claimed that they were a line of heights of which Mars Hill, about forty miles north of the monument, was the chief; and this claim was justi- fied by the fact that the spirit, if not the letter, of the treaty of 1783 intended that all the tributaries of the St. John should lie in British territory. The Americans claimed that the highlands referred to in the treaty were those running a hundred miles fur- ther north, skirting the St. Lawrence valley, — a claim which, if allowed, would give them a number of the largest tributaries of the St. John. It was a difference which the commissioners could not settle. Therefore it remained open, and in time, as pioneers begdn to cast their eyes on those fertile tracts and rich timber areas, it gave rise to such wrangling that the district in debate became known as the Disputed Territory. The quarrel waxed hot during the governorship of Sir Howard Douglas, when Maine militia gathered on the border and threat- Maine ened to seize the territory. A party of adventurers, Disputed^^ under a man named Baker, saUied in, and hoisted the Territory. gtars and Stripes on the Madawaska. Sir Howard sent his troops to confront the Maine militia ; but he left the civil authorities to deal with Baker's raid. A constable with his posse hastened up to Madawaska, cut down the flag-staff, seized Baker, rolled the American flag under his arm, and carried them both to Fredericton. Baker was brought to trial and fined. The men of Maine stormed, but did not strike. In the hope of a settle- ment the matter was then, in 1829, referred to the King of the Netherlands, who, after careful investigation, declared that the rights of the case were beyond his power to determine. He pro- posed a division of the territory, giving the larger share to the Americans ; but as each claimant believed he ought to have the whole, this plan was acceptable to neither. The bone of conten- tion remained, and both parties eyed each other angrily across THREATS OF WAR. 313 it. At length, in 1839, while Ogdensburg, Buffalo, and Detroit were breathing threatenings and slaughter against their neigh- bours over the line, Governor Fairfield of Maine concluded that the time was ripe for taking in the coveted areas. In January a band of lumber thieves, in defiance of the laws of both Maine and New Brunswick, invaded the territory and cut a lot of valuable timber. The governor of Maine sent a sheriff and posse to drive them out and seize their logs. At news of this a band of New Brunswick lumbermen gathered to repel the men of Maine, the guardianship of the territory being in the hands of the New Bruns- wick government. A fight took place in the wintry forest. The Americans were driven back ; and one of their leaders, a land- agent named Mclntyre, was made prisoner and carried off to Fredericton on a horse-sled. To compensate for this rebuff, the Maine men seized McLaughlin, the regularly appointed warden of the Disputed Territory, and carried him captive to Augusta. Both Maine and New Brunswick now wanted to fight it out. Maine sent eighteen hundred militiamen to the Aroos- war threat- took. Sir John Harvey, then governor of New Bruns- ^^^^' wick, issued a proclamation, calling on Governor Fairfield to with- draw his troops, and reasserting the acknowledged right and duty of Great Britain to guard the territory till the question of ownership should be settled. Fairfield vehemently denied this right, and issued a call for ten thousand state troops in order that he might go in and take possession. Sir John Harvey then sent up two regiments of the line, with artillery, and some companies of en- thusiastic volunteers from along the St. John River valley. The whole province was full of fight, and the governor had hard work to hold the troops in check. Nor was the excitement confined to Maine and New Brunswick. On the one side the haters of Eng- land throughout the Union, led by Daniel Webster, clamoured for war. On the other side the Canadas sent sympathy and offers of aid ; and Nova Scotia, in loyal ardour, voted all her militia and ;^ 1 00,000 in money to aid New Brunswick in her quarrel. This patriotic vote was carried with a roar of cheers from the floor of 314 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the House and from the close-thronged galleries. In England, however, no less a journal than the Times, with that ignorant con- tempt for colonial interests which has more than once cost us dear, proposed that the Americans should be given all they asked ; nay, even that they should have all New Brunswick lying west of the St. John River. Fortunately President Van Buren was calm and just in the matter, and was not to be clamoured into war as Madi- son had been in 1812. He sent General Winfield Scott to the scene of action. Scott, whom we have met before in these pages, was a brave general, but temperate and judicious. He stopped the warlike stir of Maine's hot-headed governor, and began sober negotiations with Sir John Harvey. The two generals had fought against each other, and learned to respect each other, at Lundy's Lane and Stony Creek. They soon came to an agi-eement. A temporary joint occupation was decided on ; and what is some- times jocosely termed the "Aroostook War" was brought to a bloodless end. But the difficulty remained. The Maine settlers went on en- croaching ; and a fresh survey threw no new light upon the sub- TheAshbur- j^^t. At last, in 1842 the Hon. Mr. Baring and ton Treaty. y^^ Daniel Webster were appointed commissioners to settle the dispute. They met ; and Baring, as was to have been expected, was overmatched by his strong and keen opponent. Of the twelve thousand square miles under dispute five thousand were given to New Brunswick, and seven thousand, by far the most valuable region, went to Maine. The line due north from the monument was continued till it struck the St. John just beyond the mouth of the Aroostook. Thence the St. John was the boun- dary as far as the St. Francis, which stream was made the north-east boundary of Maine. New Brunswick swallowed the decision as best she could ; and indeed, with Webster as her foe and England eager only for a settlement, she was fortunate to get what she did. Mr. Baring was made Lord Ashburton, and the treaty based on his labours was named for him. In the Senate of the United States, however, this division was ASHBURTON TREATY. 315 bitterly opposed. The Senate wanted all. It was on the point of rejecting the treaty, when it was suddenly brought to terms by Mr. Webster. Behind closed doors Webster un- Webster's folded a map which he had had all through the con- duplicity, ference, but which he had kept carefully from the eyes of Mr. Bar- ing. The map purported to be a copy of one made by Frankhn, containing the boundaries as actually agreed on by the treaty of 1783. The eastern boundary, marked with a red line, was exactly what the British claimed. With this evidence before them to show that the British had been worsted, the Senate made haste to accept so good a bargain, and the Ashburton Treaty was ratified (1842). To return to the question of Responsible Government in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, we must go back to 1839 and Russell's despatch on the Tenure of Office. It was held by the jr g . Reformers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that this wick Assem- bly rejects despatch applied to all the provinces. The governor Responsible of New Brunswick, Sir John Harvey, read the despatch to his Legislature when it came, and declared for its acceptance. But so well had he soothed all strife that the Assembly no longer seemed anxious for its rights. A measure to adopt Responsible Government was defeated after full debate by just one vote, the casting vote of the speaker. In Nova Scotia the case was very different. Sir Colin Camp- bell was by no means Sir John Harvey. When the despatch came to his hands he said nothing about it, but continued ^^ ° ' The quarrel in his old course. The Assembly having passed by a continued in ^ ° . Nova Scotia. sweeping majority a vote of want of confidence in the Executive, the Reformers expected the Executive to resign. The governor, however, said that his advisers suited him, whether they suited the Assembly or not. In vain the Assembly appealed to the despatch, and to Sir John Harvey's interpretation of it. Sir Cohn Campbell said he could interpret the despatch for himself. Party feeling again grew hot. A memorial to the Throne was talked of, asking for the removal of Sir Colin. Angry meetings were held aU over the province, and vehement was the flow of party elo- 3l6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. quence. The times had called forth brilliant men in a province which has ever been fruitful of that rare product. The Reformers were led by such champions as Howe, Uniacke, and Young ; but the Conservatives had a leader who was not second to Howe him- self in eloquence and authority. This was James W. Johnstone, a man who won the devotion of his friends and. the respect of his most obstinate rivals. When Mr. Poulett Thompson visited the Maritime Provinces, he had an interview with Howe, and found reason to support the claims of the Reformers. Sir Colin Campbell was recalled ; and Lord Falkland, who succeeded him, tried a policy of compromise. Certain members of the Executive were retired, and three of the Reform leaders, Howe, Uniacke, and MacNab, were called to take their place. This formed a coalition government, the members of which mingled like oil and water. An oft-debated bill for the incorporation of Halifax was passed ; but harmony was not to be expected with Howe and Johnstone in harness together. On al- most every question they pulled opposite ways. On the subject of education they came into open conflict. Howe favoured free com- mon schools, and one provincial university. Johnstone favoured denominational schools and colleges, with provincial grants. It was soon seen that the coalition must fall. Lord Falkland, having gone over to the Conservatives, dissolved the House without con- sulting the Reform members of the government. Then, a vacancy occurring on the Council, he followed the example of Metcalfe in the upper province, and appointed a new member on his own re- sponsibility. Upon this Howe, Uniacke, and MacNab resigned their offices (1844). Once more was the battle joined between governor and Assembly. Between Howe and Falkland it grew violently personal. Falkland tried, but in vain, to lead away the Reformers from their chief. Howe, not content with the weapons of argument and eloquence, lampooned his foe in bitter verse. The Colonial Office, seeing that Falkland's usefulness was gone, , recalled him, and put the great peace-maker. Sir John Harvey, in his place. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN NOVA SCOTIA. 317 Sir John at once invited the Reform leaders back into the Council ; but they refused on two grounds, — first because there was a Conservative majority in the House, and second because they had had enough of coalition. They said they J ^ J J Triumph of would wait till the approaching elections should show Responsible 1 1 iiT-r^,,. Government whom the people wanted. Late ni 1847 the elections in Nova Scotia, took place ; and when the House met, in January, it showed a majority of Reformers. Johnstone retired, and Howe was called upon to form a government. This, in 1848, was the triumph of Responsible Government in Nova Scotia. In New Brunswick the end of the boundary dispute and the departure of Sir John Harvey were followed by a drop in the lumber trade, which brought all the province into The dispute trouble. At the same time the city of St. John was New Bntns- scourged by fire, which added to the general depres- ''^^^^• sion. A few years before this the province had had a large balance to its credit ; but now it found itself in debt, and this state of affairs was charged to the Reformers and their extrava- gant meddling with the revenue. In 1842 an election was held. The Conservatives were victorious, and when Sir Charles Met- calfe in Canada was quarrelling with his ministry over the right of appointing to office, the New Brunswick Assembly passed resolutions thanking the autocratic governor-general for his firm stand against republicanism. But the sincerity of these profes- sions was soon tested. The governor of New Brunswick, Sir William Colebrook, trusting to the docile spirit of the Assembly, appointed his son-in-law, an Englishman, to the office of pro- vincial secretary. There was angry protest at once, and four members of the Council resigned. The Conservatives said that Sir William had no right to appoint an outsider ; the Reformers said he had no right to appoint any one. The appointment was presently cancelled by the home government, and the position was given to a New Brunswicker. With the coming of Lord Elgin to Canada as governor-general, the principles of Reform went abroad on the air, even to Conser- 3l8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. vative New Brunswick. In fact, the Conservative ministry itself brought in a measure for Responsible Government, — whence it Coalition and flight have been said of them as it was said of Sir nls^nsibie Robert Peel, that they caught the Reformers in taiifew^^^* swimming and stole their clothes. The measure Brunswick. ^^^^ passed by an overwhelming "majority. Govern- ment and Opposition, Conservative and Reformer, voting side by side (1848). A new ministry was formed, including the two Reform leaders, Wilmot and Fisher. Responsible Govern- ment was now established beyond the reach of question, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the united Canadas. In New Brunswick, however, the principle thus established in theory was not applied in actual practice till 1854, when, the Reformers gaining a majority in the House, the Conservative ministry made way for a Reform cabinet. CHAPTER XXI. SECTIONS: — 88, the Rebellion Losses Bill. Confederation PROPOSED. 89, the Reciprocity Treaty. 90, Prince Ed- ward Island, Newfoundland, the North-west, and British Columbia. 88. The Rebellion Losses Bill. Confederation proposed. — Let us turn again to the upper provinces. Lord Elgin had called upon the Reform leaders, Lafontaine and Baldwin, to The Rebellion form a government in Canada. Responsible Govern- I'osses again. ment, now in the very hour of its triumph, was to confront a crucial test. In 1846, as we have seen, those citizens of Upper Canada who had suffered in the rebellion got compensation from the public funds, while citizens of Lower Canada who had suffered in the same way were denied it. We have noticed, too, the cause of this distinction. But as soon as the Reformers came to power, a bill was brought in to authorize the payment of ;;^ 100,000 in satisfaction of claims in Lower Canada. The bill carefully pro- vided that no compensation should be made to any one who had taken part in the rebellion. The British party, however, raised a loud cry of "No pay to rebels." Bitter party feelings, race jealousies yet more bitter, again flamed out. The object of the Conservatives was to break up the union. For this purpose a " British North American League " was formed, with headquarters at Montreal. And now, out of the politi- 1 J 1 , £• 1 r , , ,., British North cal darkness arose the first true dawn of the splendid American idea of Confederation (1849). Sewell had suggested it in 1 81 6, but this had been no more than the flash of a meteor, bright for a moment and then forgotten. Durham had dreamed 319 320 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of it in 1838 ; but the dream had faded. It had been jeered into oblivion by these very Conservatives who now began to realize its splendour and its power. Not till after twenty years of turbulent growth was the scheme to reach fulfilment, — but never again was it to pass out of men's minds. The charm of the idea just now, in the eyes of the British party, was the fact that it offered a way out of the union, as well as a better control of the French Cana- dian vote. In a union of the British North American provinces, Canada, of course, would make two provinces ; and Upper Canada would again be free to manage her own affairs. The Conserva- tives made urgent appeal to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for support ; but Nova Scotia and New Brunswick listened coldly. And now the wheel of circumstance took an astonishing turn. The party of loyalty was to be seen threatening treason in their righteous wrath at seeing treason go unpunished. The British party began to talk annexation. A few unbalanced spirits threat- ened to call in the aid of the United States, in case the French claims were granted, and a union of all the provinces refused. The Reformers, once all too friendly with sedition and violence, Tiow stood fast for Constitutional Government. In the Parliament House at Montreal the bill was fought furiously step by step, the opposition being led by the soldier- Lord Elgin pohtician Sir Allan MacNab. When it was finally Relfeihon" passed by a determined majority, the opposition Losses Bill, strained every nerve to persuade Lord Elgin to veto it. Responsible Government trembled in the balance. But Lord Elgin had the courage of his convictions. He saw that the measure, whether a wise one or not, was that of a ministry which had the confidence of the people. He saw that the money to be spent was money which the Provincial Legislature had a right to spend. He saw that no imperial prerogative was in danger. Ignoring the threats of the minority, on April 25th he signed the bill. Responsible Government had triumphed. As Lord Elgin left the Parliament Buildings the news of his resolute action preceded him. A swiftly gathering mob, repre- OTTAWA THE CAPITAL. 32 1 senting much of the wealth and respectabihty of the city, pursued his carriage with jeers, and stones, and rotten eggs. The news spread hke wildfire. The mob swelled in numbers ^ The Parlia- and in wrath. The Assembly was holding a night mentBuiid- -. 11 1 1 • , 1 I'lgs burned. session. Presently the crowd, armed with muskets, stones, and flaring torches, surged against the Parliament House. Through the gleaming windows crashed a shower of stones that drove the members from their seats. The mob rushed in, and cleared the House. One rioter carried off the mace. Another seated himself in the speaker's chair, placed the official hat upon his head, and roared "The French Parliament is dissolved." Others applied the torch, and suddenly the great building was in flames. The timbers were dry, and the conflagration was swift. By midnight the building, with all the state records and a valuable library, was a heap of glowing ruins. For the next two days the city seethed with wrath, while Parlia- ment held its sessions in Bonsecour Market. Lord Elgin was formally thanked by the Legislature, while the minority J J ° \ J The capital drew up bitter resolutions demanding that the home removed to ,..,,, Ottawa. government should recall him and disallow the bill. The home government, however, sustained him ; and for months the stanch old Loyalists and Tories growled out their ill-temper in rebellious threats. But Montreal's brief career as a capital was over. She had forfeited all claim to it. Parliament met no more beneath the shadow of Mount Royal. For a time it borrowed the fashion of our early educators, and "boarded round." It sat alternately at Toronto and Quebec, four years in each city. Then, growing tired of the expense and inconvenience of this peripatetic plan, it called upon the Queen to choose it a perma- nent home. In 1858 Her Majesty's choice was made. It fell upon the httle lumbering village of Bytown, on the Ottawa, remote from the rivalries of cities and the perils of the border. The name was changed to Ottawa ; and Parliament met amid the shriek of sleepless saws and the thunder of the Chaudiere cataract. 322 A HISTORY OF CANADA. In the year following these events, the British North American Provinces entered upon a period of trade depression which sorely r, ^ „ .. ■ tried their manhood. The " Corn Laws " had been Great Bntain repeals the repealed by England, which forced Canadian grain to and waviga- compete with the foreign product on even terms. In tion Laws. . « i 1849 the provmces suffered a cruel blow in the repeal of the Navigation Laws. These laws had shut mit x^merican ships from the carrying trade of England, and created the great shipping industries of the Maritime Provinces. When this protection was torn away, a cry of distress went up from every colonial seaport. Everywhere, for a time, was panic. But left to their own resources, the pluck and enterprise of this northern people quickly asserted themselves. New channels of trade were opened, new business, new undertakings, absorbed our young energy ; and " good times " came again. The period between the final triumph of Respon- sible Government and the active movement for Confederation, a period of about fifteen years, saw a splendid advance in wealthy population, and public enterprise. Education was spread abroad, railways and canals were built, telegraph and steamship lines were established, common roads began to enlace the wilderness with their civiHzing network. Most significant, from a national point of view, was the effort made in this period to unite the provinces by the iron bands of an intercolonial railway. The idea of an intercolonial railway originated in that fruitful source of good, the brain of Lord Durham. It lay unheeded for a time : but a few years later began an era of railway Intercolonial ^ ^ o j Railway building in Great Britain and the United States, and the negotiations. . , , , ■ i -i impulse spread to the colonies. A railway was built between Montreal and Portland, Maine ; and in 1846 a survey was undertaken with a view to a railway between Quebec and the Mari- time Provinces. This was just Lord Durham's scheme revived. The report of the engineers who conducted the sur\'ey was favour- able. It spoke highly of the country that would thus be opened up. Of the various routes proposed, it gave the preference to that following the Gulf coast of New Brunswick, familiarly known as the CLERGY RESERVES AND SEIGNEURIAL TENURE. 323 " North Shore." As the railway was designed to be no less a military than a commercial line, it was expected that Great Britain should help to build it ; but the Colonial Ofifice threw cold water on the scheme. Thus discouraged in their hopes of a trade with the St. Lawrence, the Maritime Provinces turned their eyes toward New England. Sentiment grew in favour of a railway from Halifax to St. John, and thence westward to the American seaboard cities. In 1850 a Railway Convention was held at Portland, Maine, where delegates from the New England States fraternized with those from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The outcome of this gathering was the scheme of the European and North American Railway. But this movement toward a purely American trade found a strong opponent in Howe, who went to England, and so eloquently advo- cated the intercolonial project that the government grew interested. In 185 1 a meeting of provincial delegates was held at Toronto to discuss the scheme and arrange for a division of the cost. Every- thing looked toward success. But suddenly the home govern- ment announced that it would not help that part of the proposed line which would connect St. John with the main line between HaHfax and Quebec, — the so-called European and North Amer- ican section. This upset the whole project. There were new meetings, and discussions, and delegations to England, till at last each province sullenly went its own way. The Canadas began to build the Grand Trunk, with a line down the St. Lawrence from Quebec. New Brunswick pushed ahead with the European and North American, connecting St. John with Shediac. Not till after Confederation had been made a fact was the great uniting railway to be built. 89. The Reciprocity Treaty. — In 1854, while England and France were fighting side by side in the Crimea against the great Bear of the North, French-Canadians and English- „, ' ° Clergy- Canadians were working together in the development Reserves and of our country. To this period belongs the peaceful Tenure 1 ■ /-I ^1 -^ -. ^, ^ abolished, conclusion of the Clergy Reserves dispute. The Cana- dian Legislature passed an act formally declaring the separation 324 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of Church and State. Rectories already endowed were not inter- fered with, and certain provisions were made for the widows and orphans of the clergy. The balance of the Reserves, both fiinds and lands, were distributed among the different townships in pro- portion to their population, for purposes of education and local improvement. In the following year steps were taken to free the small farmers of Lower Canada from the bondage and incon- venience of the Feudal or Seigneurial Tenure, by buying out the claims of the seigneurs. This reform, though set on foot in 1855, was not completed till four years later. The habitans themselves paid a small portion of the seigneurial claims, but the bulk of expense, to the sum of ;j^ 65 0,000, was borne by the province at large. Besides this quieting of vexed questions and salving of old wounds, the summer of 1854 saw the accomplishment of an im- The Recipro- portant treaty between the provinces and the United city Treaty, gt^teg, ^his was the famous Reciprocity Treaty, which introduced a season of friendly intercourse and busy commerce between Canadians and their southern kinsmen. The treaty pro- vided for a free exchange of the products of the sea, the fields, the forest, and the mine. It admitted Americans to the rich Canadian fisheries, and to the advantages of Canadian river and canal navigation. To Canadian farmers, lumbermen, and miners, it was beneficial ; but to the Maritime Provinces it refused the only boon worth being considered in exchange for the fisheries, namely, the admission of provincial ships to the American coasting trade. On the whole, the treaty was a good thing for Canada, though perhaps more advantageous to the Americans. Its pro- visions were to remain in force for ten years, after which either party to the agreement was left free to end it by giving one year's notice. As will be seen later on, it was terminated by the Ameri- cans, who thought that by depriving Canada of their markets they would force her into the Union. The effect of the Crimean War on Canada was to stir up a new' and eager loyalty. The Royal Canadian looth, one of the most DRIFT TOWARD CONFEDERATION. 325 effective regiments of the British regular army, was altogether recruited in Canada. The battle of the Alma called forth con- gratulatory addresses from the Canadian Legislature, ., .. r r r , ,. ^,., ^ , Effects of the with a gift of ;£j 20,000 for the relief of widows and or- Crimean war phans of those who fell in the war. Among the heroes of the struggle were three sons of Nova Scotia. Major Welsford and Captain Parker fell at the head of the storming party that car- ried the Redan. In Hahfax stands a monument to their heroic memory. General Fenwick Wilhams covered himself and his native land with glory by his magnificent defence of Kars, a fortress in Asia Minor. The exploit won him a baronetcy from the Queen and a pension from the British Parliament. Sir Fenwick Wilhams was afterwards made governor of his native province. From New Brunswick, too, went men of loyalist breeding and tradi- tion, who brought back to their quiet colonial homes on the St. John the most coveted of English, French, and Turkish medals, awarded them for valour on the battlefield. Such deeds of Canadians gave an impulse to our military spirit, and in 1855 ^ Volunteer Force was organized for home defence. This force has been steadily maintained and developed to the present day. At this time the principle of an elective Upper Chamber was accepted in the Canadas. In 1856 it was decided that as fast as seats became vacant by death or by the retirement The Canadas of the Ufe members appointed by the Crown, new efecfj^e""^ ^'^ members were to be elected by the people to serve ^pp^"" House, for a term of eight years. But vacancies occurred seldom in the peaceful Upper House, and long before it became an elective body all was changed by Confederation. In the political field events tending toward Confederation began to tread hard on one another's heels. The great idea was soon brought into the sphere of practical politics. How , • , Mi 1 , 1 • , ,. . Drift toward this came about will be told m the succeeding chap- Confedera- T . , „ . - tion begins. ter. Let us now turn our attention to the affairs of other sections of the country, where the great problems which 326 A HISTORY OF CANADA. troubled the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, had not begun to press for solution, or had pressed but lightly. 90. Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, the North-west, and British Columbia. — In Prince Edward Island a census was Triumph of taken in 1848, showing a population of 62,634. Seeing Government Responsible Government an accompHshed fact in Edward^ the neighbouring provinces, the island asked for the Island. same privilege. But the Colonial Office said no. The province, declared Lord Grey, was as yet too small for such a dignity. But it was not too small, thought Lord Grey, to pay the expenses of its own Civil List, with the exception of the governor's salary. This the Assembly agreed to do, on all revenues being surrendered to its hands, and on the granting of Responsible Government. Addresses and despatches passed to and fro across the water, and with the examples of the sister provinces before their eyes the island x^ssembly had somewhat the best of the argument. The Colonial Office yielded the point ; and the session of 1851 saw Prince Edward Island under full Responsible Government. After this, and up to the date of the memorable Charlottetown Conference, the history of the island chiefly centres about the The land \'3XiA question. In 1854 the provincial government question. purchased, for resale to settlers on freehold tenure, the great Worrell estate of some eighty-one thousand acres. The Land Purchase Bill under which this was done was warmly ap- proved by the home government. The Colonial Office was much troubled over the land dispute. It felt the reality of the griev- ance, and was yet bound in all justice to defend the rights of the landlords, who had come by their estates in a legal manner. The Assembly then proposed that the home government should guarantee for the province a loan of _;^i 00,000, to be used in purchasing the estates of these absentee proprietors. This pro- posal was at first looked on favourably, but a little later it was met by a refusal. Then, in 1858, a royal commission was demanded,' to look into the whole matter and arrange for its early settle- LAND COMMISSION REPORT. 327 ment. This was agreed to, and in i860 three commissioners were appointed, one by the home government, one by the proprietors, and one by the Assembly on behalf of ... Commission- the tenants. The commissioner chosen to act for ers appointed the tenants was the Nova Scotian leader, Mr. Howe. In this same year the estates of the Earl of Selkirk were pur- chased by the province — no less than sixty-two thousand acres being magnanimously given up by the heirs for the small sum of ^6586. The commissioners spared no pains over their task. They traversed the island from corner to corner, held courts of inquiry in the villages, and brought landlords and tenants r . ' . . Report Of the face to face. Their report, given in 1 861, is a mas- commission- terly document. It strongly condemned the careless method in which the lands of the province had been originally granted away ; and it therefore held the home government mainly responsible for the evils of the case. It recommended, as the only just and satisfactory solution, the application of the Land Purchase Act (under which the Worrell and Selkirk estates had been already acquired) to all the great absentee holdings. And it further recommended that the home government, whose care- lessness was to blame, should guarantee the loan of _;^ioo,ooo which the province had asked for. It was further recommended that proprietors holding more than fifteen thousand acres should be obliged to sell, down to that amount, when called upon to do so by their tenants ; and that the terms of sale should be those laid down by the commissioners, or else such as should be determined by arbitrators. It was urged, also, that arrears of rent beyond the three years immediately preceding the Commission should be cancelled. This report was promptly accepted by the Assembly ; but the home government refused to guarantee the loan, and the proprietors proposed another mode of settlement. This caused deep indignation in the province ; and the question was left an open sore. Delegations were sent to England to argue the matter, but in vain. It was not till after she entered Confed- ■ 328 A HISTORY OF CANADA. eration, and, as part of a great Dominion, became strong enough to demand justice at the cost of much sacrifice of red tape, that the island province saw her ancient grievance settled (1875). To Newfoundland the year 1841 brought a boon, in the coming of Sir John Harvey to take the office of governor. To every Sir John province which he was sent to govern Sir John's term Newf sand inhabitants of the Red River settlement, nearly ten thousand of whom were half-breeds. As soon as the Territory was handed over to Canada by the Hudson Bay Company, Canadian surveyors flocked in to lay out roads, and lots, and townships. But now Canada found that the great company was not the only factor to be dealt with. The settlers of Red River were makinsf them- RED RIVER REBELLION. 363 selves heard in angry protest. There were several reasons for their anger. They claimed that their interests had not been pro- tected in the transfer. They objected that they were being thrust into the ignoble position of the colony of a colony. The half- breeds resented the presence of the Canadian surveyors, who regarded them as an inferior race. They foresaw heavy taxation in all this surveying and proposed road-building. The half- breeds were themselves divided, some being of Scottish origin, English speech, and Protestant creed, while others were in speech and origin French, in creed Roman Catholic. Each of these two sections was afraid lest union with Canada should give the other some advantage. But these were not all the elements of disturbance. Among the influential pure whites, two thousand in number, there were many Canadians who did their utmost for union. But there were also Fenians, who dreamed childish dreams of a republic in the Red River valley. And there were American immigrants whose hearts were set on annexation. Hotter and hotter grew the excitement, and the Hudson Bay officials, not ill-pleased, took no steps to allay it. The faction that came to the front was that of the M^tis, or French The Red half-breeds, under their fanatical leader, Louis Riel. uon^reaks' When news came that McDougall was on his way to °"*" Fort Garry as governor, Riel and his followers rose in open rebellion (1869). They seized Fort Garry and estabhshed what they called a " Provisional Government," with Riel as presi- dent. When Governor McDougall, travelling to his new charge by way of Minnesota, reached the boundary-line, he was stopped by the half-breeds and forbidden to enter the territory. The English-speaking inhabitants now took alarm, and spoke for union ; but Riel had grown too strong for them. McDougall, thundering out of the Minnesota wilderness, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms. His order was laughed to scorn. Louis Riel was the son of a full-blooded white father and a half-breed mother. He was educated at Montreal for the priest- hood, but returned to Red River without takina; orders. As a 364 A HISTORY OF CANADA. boy he was noted for bodily vigour, and for his influence over his fellows. He was a fluent orator, a fair scholar, and skilled in playing upon the hearts of his countrymen. His pre- andthemur- tensions were as boundless as his ambitions, and he der of Scott. ' seems to have been m some degree the victim of self- delusion. Had he not been so vainglorious as to think that he could set law and order and the Canadian government at naught, he would probably now be honoured as the champion of North- west liberty ; for many of the claims which he made for his countrymen were such as justice could not ignore. But with insane impatience he snatched at the sword. There was no one in the settlement ready or strong enough to oppose him. The wild fanatic arrested those Canadian settlers who would not bow to his sway. Then came the cHmax of his madness. Among his pris- oners was a resolute young immigrant from Ontario, by the name of Thomas Scott, who had faced Riel with contemptuous defiance. Furious at this, Riel determined to strike terror into the hearts of the Canadian party. Young Scott was court-martialed for treason against the provisional government, and condemned to death. No argument, no appeal, no picture of the inevitable conse- quences, could turn Riel from his purpose. On the 4th of March, 1870, Scott was taken out and shot like a dog in the snow, under the walls of Fort Garry. It was not an execution, it was a mur- der, and a peculiarly brutal one. At news of it a cry of ven- geance went up from the east. The volunteers sprang to arms. Of the thousands offering themselves seven hundred were ac- cepted. They formed, with five hundred regulars, the Red River Expeditionary Force, which in hot haste started for the scene. Immediately after the murder of poor Scott, Archbishop Tache, who was much beloved by the Metis, arrived at Fort Garry, to act as an informal mediator between Ottawa and the rebels. He brought an invitation for the half-breed delegates to visit the capi- tal, and also a promise of pardon for those who had taken part in _ the rising. This promise of pardon, however, had been issued before the murder of Scott, and Canada held that it could not MANITOBA ORGANIZED. 365 apply to his murderers. The good Bishop, seeking peace, was rather lavish of his pardons ; and out of it came trouble by-and- by. But his presence, together with the news that troops were coming, had an instant effect. Riel became a model of loyalty. The Queen's Birthday, even, was celebrated with zeal, and Riel began to look askance at his Fenian secretary, O'Donohue. Delegates from the provisional government were sent in haste to Ottawa, to confer upon the terms of union. The Red River Expedition was led by Colonel Garnet Wolse- ley, now commander-in-chief of the British army. Being a miU- tary force, the expedition could not pass through Manitoba United States territory. It took the toilsome route of organized, the old fur-traders, up Lake Superior, and through five hundred miles of difficult wilderness. While it was on the way,^ the Manitoba Act was passed, and Manitoba was received into the Confederation as a full-fledged province (1870). By the provi- sions of the act no less than one million four hundred thousand acres of land were reserved for the settlement of half-breed claims, and many of the demands for which Riel had raised such outcry were granted without dispute. Soon afterwards (August, 1870), the Red River Expedition, emerging from the wilderness, arrived at Fort Garry. There was nothing for it to do. At the first sound of its bugles. The rebellion Riel and his fellows had vanished. The rebeUion P^t^own. was at an end. Riel fled into exile in the neighbouring states, to return years later and work further mischief. Many of Wolseley's volunteers settled in the new province, to be an element of sturdy loyalty. Under land laws of the most liberal type immigrants flocked in by thousands. Like magic uprose our stately prairie province. The old Hudson Bay post by the turbid stream of 1 It was in the spring of 1870, while Riel was still rampant at Fort Garry, that the Fenians made their renewed attempts on our frontiers. These raids have been described in an earlier paragraph. It is worth while to note, by the way, that the Fenians so far dishonoured that much-loved emblem, the Shamrock of Ireland, as to inscribe it on the rebel flag which flew over the murderers of Scott. 366 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Red River grew into the busy city of Winnipeg, with its thronged and imposing streets, its hum of modern activity. The first gov- ernor^ of the new province was Adams G. Archibald, of Nova Scotia, who arrived close on the heels of Wolseley's expedition. And now, there being no hope of a new Reciprocity Treaty, Canada set about protecting her fisheries from American poach- The imperial ^rs. She fell back on the provisions of the treaty of dmwnTrom i^iS. A patrol fleet was fitted out, and the poachers Canada. vvere warned. Vessels disregarding- the warning were seized, condemned in the courts,. and sold. Fierce were the threats of the Americans because Canada would no longer be robbed. Under such influences our Militia Bill was passed ; and seeing Canada fairly ready to provide for her own defence, Great Britain withdrew her troops. During 1868 and 1869 there had been nearly sixteen thousand British regulars in Canada. These were reduced to less than two thousand. The massive fortifications of Halifax remained in imperial hands, and that city was made the British naval and military station for the North Atlantic. All other fortifications, with arms and military stores, were given up to Canada. The ancient fortress of Quebec passed into the care of Canadian troops. Young Canada was thus made more self- reliant, and taught to cling less closely to the maternal apron- strings. The year 1870 was made further notable by a succession of local calamities. Great fires ravaged the upper provinces. Que- bec city lost four hundred houses in one visitation. Calamities. ■' t , 1 ■ ,• Ottawa was so threatened by a hungry encircling horde of bush-fires, that for protection the Rideau Canal was cut, and the low lands all about laid under water. A strange blow fell on Nova Scotia, in the loss of the great Inman steamer City of Bosto7i. Sailing from New York on January 25th, she called at Halifax and took on board a number of Nova Scotian passengers. 1 McDougall had been made governor, not of a province, but an unorganized territory. LOCAL CALAMITIES. 367 On the 28th she steamed out of Halifax harbour, — and from that day to this no tidings of her have come to the ears of men. Later in the year the coasts were visited by a terrific tidal wave and hurricane, which strewed the shore with wrecks and drowned the marshes. As if war, conflagration, and ruin by sea were not enough, on October 20th the land was shaken by an earthquake. This jarred men's nerves, but did no serious damage. And the troubled year came to an end in quiet. CHAPTER XXIV. SECTIONS: — 98, British Columbia joins the Dominion. 99, Provincial Affairs. 100, Prince Edward Island joins the Dominion. Change of Government. 10 i, the National Policy. The Fisheries Commission. 98. British Columbia joins the Dominion. — The year 1871 brought another addition to the Confederated Provinces of Can- British sda, and fulfilled the dream of the fathers of Con- ioinsthe\;on- federation by extending Canada from ocean to ocean, federation. British Columbia came into the Dominion. In the previous year a resolution favouring union had been passed by the British Columbia Legislature, under the influence of the pro- vincial governor, Mr. Antony Musgrave. This was the same judi- cious statesman* who, when governor of Newfoundland, had so nearly succeeded in bringing the Ancient Colony into Confedera- tion. Delegates were sent to Ottawa to confer on terms of union. During the session of 187 1 the bill for the admission of British Columbia was hotly debated in the Canadian Parliament, and finally carried. The chief condition on which the- Pacific province came in was the building of a railway to connect her with the eastern provinces. This transcontinental line was to be begun within two years, and completed within ten years, from the date of union. As we shall see, these conditions proved too hard, and the railway was not finished till five years later than the time agreed upon ; but the splendid faith which could undertake, the splendid vigour which could achieve, so vast an enterprise with such slender resources, are enough to justify the most boundless 368 BRITISH COLUMBIA. 369 confidence in our country's future. The imperial dimensions which Canada attained on the accession of British Columbia drew the eyes of the world upon her, and men grew interested in the young giant thus suddenly springing up in the spacious north. The new member of the Dominion was a vast realm, of greater area than Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick all taken together. It has been already referred to as xhecharac- a sea of mountains. But the torrents that run down th."new °* from her snowy peaks bear sands of gold, her ledges p'^°^i°'=^- and her cHffs are veined with all the precious metals. There is coal, too, of the highest quality and in lavish abundance. The steep slopes are clothed with magnificent forests, able to supply the lumber-trade of the world. Bays and rivers swarm with fish. The great resources, therefore, of British Columbia are her mines, her fisheries, and her timber. But she is not poor in cultivable land. The great delta of the Eraser River is a garden, where flourish in profusion the choicest products of the farm. There are valleys scattered over the mainland and Vancouver Island which afford millions of fertile acres, under a climate of match- less mildness, with a winter that is like perpetual spring. And in the north of the province, about the sources of the Peace River, stretches a region which must soon attract a great farming popu- lation. At the time of union the province had about thirty-six thousand inhabitants, of whom less than half were white. But the union brought a new era. Wealth and population at once leaped forward. Towns and cities sprang up as at the waving of an enchanter's wand. The wand that wrought this magic is the great railroad whose history we shall take up in later paragraphs. With Canada's vast expansion came the need of a prompt settle- ment of her disputes with the neighbouring republic. This was gained by the Treaty of Washington. There were AHighCom- damages for the Fenian raids to consider, — and the Seets'at fisheries dispute, — and the question of the naviga- Washington, tion of the St. Lawrence, — and British Columbia's uncertain south- ern boundary. Great Britain seized the occasion for a settle- 370 A HISTORY OF CANADA. ment of the "Alabama claims." A joint High Commission was agreed upon by Great Britain and the United States. Canada was represented on the board by Sir John Macdonald. On Feb- ruary 27, 1871, the commissioners opened their court at Washing- ton. As might have been foreseen, Canada was the one whose interests had to suffer most for peace' sake. The Washington Treaty dealt with four points of dispute : (i) the ownership of the island of San Juan ; (2) the boundaries Subjects dis- between Canada and Alaska; (3) the admission of commls^^*^^ Americans to Canada's inshore fisheries and to the sioners. navigation of the St. Lawrence system ; (4) the claims of America on account of damage done to her trade by the Southern cruiser Alabama; and the counter-claims of Can- ada on account of the Fenian raids. The San Juan question has been already explained. The question of the boundary between British Columbia and Alaska, particularly as to the width of that narrow strip which, from latitude 54° 40' northward, fences British Columbia from the sea, was referred to arbitration. But the settlement, made on insufficient data, was not to prove final. In later years, when the discovery of gold in Alaska brought the usual inrush of population, it was found that some of the mines were on territory whose ownership was uncertain. New surveys became necessary, and the end is not yet. In regard to the fisheries dispute, an agreement was come to for a term of twelve years. It provided that fish and fish oil The Washing- from either country should be admitted duty free to ton Treaty. ^j^^ markets of the other. As the Canadian fisheries were vastly the more valuable, it was agreed that for the privilege of sharing them the Americans should pay Canada a lump sum, the amount of which should be determined by another commis- sion. The Americans were admitted on even terms to the navi- gation of the St. Lawrence, and of the canals of the St. Lawrence system ; while Canadians were to share in the navigation of the . St. Clair Canal, of the rivers Yukon, Porcupine, and Stikeen in Alaska, and also, for twelve years, in the navigation of Lake THE WASHINGTON TREATY. 371 Michigan. The Americans were allowed the privilege of floating lumber from the Maine woods down the river St. John to the sea. Provision was made for the free transmission of goods in bond through either country. In other words, it was agreed that goods intended for the American market might pass through Canadian territory without paying toll to the Canadian custom house, and similarly, goods intended for the Canadian market might pass through American territory without being subject to American duties. The Alabama claims were referred to arbitration. The arbi- trators met at Geneva in the following year, 1872, and decided that Great Britain should pay the United States the sum of ^15,500,000. This heavy award Great Britain at once paid over. As for Canada's Fenian claims, Great Britain insisted on their withdrawal, and they were therefore withdrawn. But this aroused such indignation in Canada, that, to quiet the storm, England agreed to guarantee a Canadian loan of ^2,500,000 in aid of the proposed railway across the continent, and for the extension of our canal system. Thereupon Canada reluctantly accepted the treaty. By this treaty the Americans got practically all they demanded •' a i- J J Dissatisfac- of Canada, while Canada's demands were coolly thrust tion of T 1 Canada. aside. But, as a leading French Canadian journal remarked, " we ought perhaps to be thankful that they asked no more." 99. Provincial Affairs. — At this time arose a difficulty between Ontario and Quebec. When the two provinces entered Confedera- tion they had a large debt which was common to both. Dispute Part ofthis the Dominion government agreed to assume, tari^and '^' the balance to be divided between the two provinces. Q^^^^*^- The division was left to three arbitrators, one appointed by Quel^ec, one by Ontario, and one by the Dominion government. But the two provinces differed so widely on the subject (a differ- ence of several millions), that the Quebec arbitrator withdrew, and the Quebec Legislature refused to be bound by the award of 3;2 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the others. The question created an angry debate in the Federal Parliament, and was at length referred for settlement to the law- courts. In 187 1 was taken the first Dominion census. It gave Canada, exclusive of Manitoba and British Columbia, a popu- The first , . . ^ X- 1 Dominion lation of 3,433,000.^ British Columbia added thirty- six thousand, and Manitoba eighteen thousand. The Maritime Provinces at this time received a stimulus in the opening of the European-and-North-American Railway between The Chicago St. John and Bangor. In October of this year the ^^^- neighbouring republic was visited with the most ter- rible conflagration of modern days. The city of Chicago was all but swallowed up in a vortex of flame. One hundred and fifty thousand people were left homeless. Canada came forward with prompt sympathy. Old grievances were forgotten. Swift relief trains, laden with provisions and clothing, sped forward to the scene. The gift of Canada to Chicago amounted in money value to over a miUion dollars. In New Brunswick a question came up which tested the fairness of the Dominion government. The Legislature of New Bruns- TheNew vvick passed a new school law, introducing a liberal schooiLaw system of free schools, but making all public educa- dispute. ^JQj^ non-sectarian. The Roman Catholics urged that their contributions to the school fund should go to the support of schools in which the children should receive definite instruction in the principles of their church. They claimed that they should not be taxed to support institutions which were of no use to them. They said they would be put to the expense of supporting schools of their own, while paying at the sarne time for the education of their neighbours. With most of the Protestant churches, on the other hand, the free school system was very popular. They were willing that in the schools their children should receive merely 1 Ontario, 1,620,851; Quebec, 1,139,119; Nova Scotia, 387,800; New Brunswick, 285,594- LORD DUFFER IN. 373 their secular education, and look for religious instruction to their homes and their Sunday-schools. When the school law was passed in the provincial Legislature, the minority appealed to the Dominion government to disallow the bill, on the ground that it violated certain provisions of the British North America Act. The government refused to disallow it, holding that the matter lay entirely within the powers of the provincial Legislature. The question was appealed to the courts, and finally to the Privy Council of Great Britain, where the New Brunswick School Law of 187 1 was declared constitutional. As we have seen, British Columbia had joined the Dominion on condition that a transcontinental railway should be begun within two years of the union. In 1872, therefore, Sir John First steps Macdonald began to move in the matter. CapitaUsts bunting^of were soon interested in the scheme. Two great com- continental panics were formed, bidding against each other for R^ii'^^y- the right to build the railway. One of these, with headquarters at Toronto, was called the Inter-Oceanic ; the other, organized by Sir Hugh Allan, with headquarters at Montreal, was called the Canada- Pacific. Both companies were duly incorporated ; and Parliament empowered the government to contract with either company, or with a new one, for the construction of the road. The terms, as to cash subsidy, land grants, privileges, and so forth, were laid down by Parliament, but great freedom of action was left to the government. In 1872 there came to Canada as governor-general one who did much to awaken national sentiment and to endear his office to the people. This was the Earl of Dufferin. The , , Lord Dufferin same year that brought Lord Dufferin, brought news comes to •^ ' o Canada. that our Canadian riflemen at Wimbledon had de- feated the crack shots of Great Britain and captured that coveted trophy, the Kolapore Cup. The new governor-general had no sooner entered on his duties than he was called upon to dissolve the House. A general elec- tion was held that autumn. Sir John Macdonald's government 374 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. was sustained, though with a reduced majority. It met with reverses in Quebec, and defeat in Ontario ; but in the Maritime Provinces its gains were so great as almost to counterbalance these losses. In Nova Scotia the change of feeling was most sig- nificant, as showing how thoroughly the province had accepted Confederation. Whereas in 1867 she had elected but one mem- ber favourable to union, now she elected but one member in oppo- sition to the union government. Manitoba and British Columbia elected none but government candidates. 100. Prince Edward Island joins the Dominion. Change of Government. — In the session of 1873 it was enacted by Parlia- A motion in nient that the Dominion elections should be carried Imperial O" by secret ballot, for the better prevention of brib- Federation. ^^^ ^^^ election riots. During this session it was moved by Mr. Wallace, member for Albert, that Canada should make an address to the Throne praying for a federation of the empire. The motion called forth some important expressions of sympathy, but was not pressed to a vote. Canada was not inchned to take up so tremendous a project ; but she went on vigorously with the work of her own expansion. The island prov- ince of the Gulf, repenting of her reserve, now came into the Dominion. As we have seen, the most pressing question in Prince Edward Island, running like an angry nerve all through her history, was the Prince Ed- question of the ownership of the land. When she jofns the1?on- entered Confederation, the Dominion appropriated federation. ^8oo,ooo for the purpose of buying out the proprie- tors. Two years later the long sore was finally healed. The land passed on liberal terms into the hands of those who tilled it. This new member of the Dominion brought in an industrious and thriving population of ninety-four thousand. Canada took over the sinuous narrow-gauge railway which forms a sort of spinal column to the province, and also undertook to maintain steam-, boat connection between the island and the mainland. The spring of 1873 was darkened by the loss of two of the most THE PACIFIC SCANDAL. 375 eminent sons of Canada. Within a few days of each other died the ffreat French Canadian statesman, Sir George *= ' =" Deaths of Cartier (May 20, 1873), and the great Nova Scotian cartierand orator, Joseph Howe (June i, 1873). Howe had been, for a month only, lieutenant-governor of his native province, of whose history he had made no small portion. What is known as the Pacific Scandal (1873) is one of the most striking incidents in the parhamentary history of Canada. It is an event of party, rather than of national signifi- xhe Pacific cance. The first mutterings of the storm were heard ^'^^'^^^i- in April. In the beginning of the year the government, finding itself unable to decide between the claims of the Inter-Oceanic Railway Company and the Canada- Pacific Railway Company, and also unable to procure a satisfactory union between the two com- panies, chartered a new one for the work. This was incorpo- rated as the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Its president was Sir Hugh Allan, the most successful capitalist and financier in Canada, the head of the great Allan fine of steamships and of many other institutions which aided the progress of the Dominion. The stock of the company was divided so that all sections of the country, from Halifax to Victoria, should have an interest in it. About five-thirteenths were held in Ontario, four-thirteenths in Quebec, and one-thirteenth each in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and British Columbia. In April Mr. Huntington, mem- ber for Shefford, arose in the House and accused the government of having sold the charter to the Canadian Pacific Railway Com- pany in return for large sums of money received from Sir Hugh Allan to aid in carrying the late elections. Mr. Huntington stated that he had evidence to substantiate this grave charge. He moved for a committee to investigate it. The motion was treated as one of want of confidence, and voted down. But the govern- ment could not allow itself to rest under such an accusation. A few days later Sir John Macdonald himself moved for a commit- tee of inquiry. A bill was passed to enable this committee to examine witnesses under oath. But after it had sat for a time the 3/6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. bill was disallowed by the Imperial Parliament, as lying beyond the powers of the Dominion Legislature. Thereupon the com- mittee adjourned till it could receive new instructions from the House, which had itself adjourned. Great party bitterness was displayed in the debates which this matter gave rise to. During the summer party feeling ran high. Important private documents, telegrams, and correspondence were published. The evidence was conflicting, and therefore capable of being twisted either way to suit party ends. But as the government failed to clear itself instantly of the charge, it bore the stigma of the doubt ; and the opposition rapidly gained strength. Parliament had adjourned at the end of May, to meet again on August 13th, not for general business, but merely to receive _, „ the report of the committee, which was then to be The Macdon- ^ ' aid govern- printed and distributed before the next session. This ment resigns. plan had been accepted on both sides of the House. But when August 13th came the opposition, led by Alexander Mackenzie, demanded that the governor-general should not pro- rogue, but dismiss his advisers and summon a new ministry. Lord Dufferin, however, declared that he could not disregard the advice of his ministers until they were proved guilty of the charge alleged against them, or until he was convinced that they no longer had the confidence of the people. The committee ^having no report ready. Parliament was therefore prorogued. It still remained open for the one party to cry that the government was the victim of a conspiracy. It still remained open for the other party to denounce two or three leading members of the Cabinet, the prime minister in particular, as guilty of shameless corruption. Both parties found basis for their views in the evidence which had found its way into print. The government, however, was weakened by its continued delays, which caused a suspicion that Sir John Macdonald was trying to postpone inquiry. Immediately after proroguing, a royal commission was appointed by Lord Dufferin to look into the whole matter. The commissioners were three, — Judge Polette, MACDONALD MINISTRY OVERTHROWN. T^yy Judge Gowan, and Ex-Judge Day, chancellor of McGill Univer- sity. Mr. Huntington refused to appear before this tribunal. An immense quantity of evidence was gathered, but the commission- ers reported by merely citing this evidence, without expressing any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the government. Parlia- ment met again on October 23, and the commissioners' report was at once laid before it by Macdonald. A furious debate fol- lowed. From the ministerial bench on the one side, the opposi- tion benches on the other, the great party champions crossed swords in flaming controversy. Meanwhile the government major- ity daily grew less. At length Macdonald saw that when the ques- tion came to a vote the vote would be against him. To avoid this, which would be equivalent to a verdict of " guilty," the Macdonald ministry resigned. Alexander Mackenzie, as leader of the opposition, was at once summoned by Lord Dufiferin to form a government. When the new ministers weqt before their con- stituents for reelection they were almost all returned without a contest, so demoralized were their opponents. Owing to the man- ner in which the Liberals had come into power, Mackenzie was in haste to receive the verdict of the people. With the opening of the new year (1874) the House was dissolved, and writs issued for a general election. This resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Liberals, the people thus declaring their belief in the charges brought against the old ministry. Mackenzie now found himself with a majority of over eighty at his back. Among the new members was no less a personage than Louis Riel, who had been elected for the district of Provencher in Manitoba. Riel was a fugitive from justice, with TheMacken- an indictment for murder hanging over him. But men1:°sup-" secretly he came to Ottawa, secretly he took the oath |?^t^major- and signed the roll, secretly he withdrew to await the '^^^' results. He had not long to wait. In a very few days a motion to expel him from the House was carried by a sweeping majority. In the following year, being again elected for Provencher, he was again expelled. At this time, however, it was decreed that after 378 A HISTORY OF CANADA. five years of banishment the amnesty which had been extended to the rest of the rebels should be extended also to Riel and his so-called adjutant, Lepine. During the excitement of the previous year, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company had thrown up its charter, and the una- voidable delay in commencing the road had caused Difficulty -^ . . . with British deep discontent in British Columbia. This discon- Columbia. , , . , , tent was changed to anger and alarm at the acces- sion of a ministry whose members had opposed the scheme of a transcontinental railway. These feelings were not allayed by the first words of the new prime minister on the subject. He declared in a speech at Sarnia that while the spirit of the agree- ment with British Columbia would be carried out, the letter of it would not and could not be. He brought in a bill providing for the early construction of parts of the road, leaving other parts to be built as the finances of the country would admit. British Columbia pressed firmly for her rights, and finally sent a delegation to England to lay the matter before the Throne. Lord Carnarvon, the colonial secretary, offered to act as arbitrator between the province and the Dominion, and both agreed to abide by his de- cision. What were known as the " Carnarvon Terms " provided among other things that a waggon road and telegraph line should be constructed at once along the route to be followed by the rail- way ; that a railway between Esquimault and Nanaimo on Van- couver Island should be built without delay; and that by the last day of December, 1890, the transcontinental line should be open for traffic from the Pacific to the western end of Lake Supe- rior, where it would connect with American railways and Canadian steamship lines. The remainder of the line, around the north of Lake Superior, was to be left for construction at some future date. Even with this relief the Dominion government delayed the great work ; and British Columbia grew more and more wrathful. Mr. Mackenzie attempted to evade the terms; and threats of secession grew loud by the shores of the western sea. In 1876 Lord Dufferin visited the province, and succeeded in soothing the just THE NATIONAL POLICY. 379 anger of the people, assuring them that Canada would eventually fulfil her agreements, but that the government had been checked by unforeseen obstacles. A Httle later contracts were awarded for certain sections of the road, surveys were pressed forward, and some supplies purchased. But the government was in financial difficulties, and British Columbia had yet some time to wait ere her eyes were gladdened by seeing the railway fairly under way. loi. The National Policy. The Fisheries Commission. — In 1876 the United States held at Philadelphia a great world expo- sition, known as " the Centennial," to celebrate the Canada at the centenary of their Declaration of Independence. Mr. Centennial. Mackenzie was keenly alive to the importance of the occasion, and Canada was well represented. In educational exhibits all states and nations were outdone by the province of Ontario, which car- ried off the international medal for this department, and supplied examples to the civiUzed world. This was an object lesson in the civilization and intellectual progress of Canada. Our fruit exhibit, too, outstripped all rivals, and astonished the many who had thought of Canada as a land of semi- Arctic rigour. The session of 1876 was made memorable by the introduction of a poUcy which two years later was to take Canada by storm and carry the Liberal-Conservatives back to power. This xhe growth was what is known as the National PoUcy, or, more menrfor^' familiarly, the N. P. It was voted down by ParUa- Protection, ment, with its large Liberal majority ; but it caught the ear of the people. All classes were growing restless under a prolonged depression in trade. The revenues were shrinking ; there was a yearly increasing deficit ; and men were just in the mood to hearken to the pohcy now proposed by Sir John Macdonald. The watchword of this pohcy was " Canada for the Canadians." Its principle was the fixing of such a tariff as would not only yield a revenue but also afford protection to national industries. The question which from that day to this has most agitated Canadian politics has been the fiscal one. The tariff we must always have with us ; but whether it shall be a tariff for revenue purposes only, 380 A HISTORY OF CANADA. or one for combined revenue and protection, is a point on which the two great parties divide. The tendency of the Liberals, allowing for certain restraints, is toward out-and-out free trade ; while that of the Liberal-Conservatives is toward frank protection. Dominion Day of this year was fitly celebrated by the opening of that great bond between the Maritime and Upper Provinces, the Intercolonial Railway. This period which we have been considering was one of " hard times " for almost all the civilized world, a period of commercial The St. John panics, lack of enterprise, scarcity of money, dulness ^^^' of trade. In Canada the depression was increased by the blow which now fell on the busy city of St. John. On June 20, 1877, the city was almost wiped out of existence by a fire second only to that of Chicago. In one night of horror, while the red, bellying curtains of the smoke enclosed the doomed city and her blazing ships, no less than sixteen hundred buildings were devoured, two hundred acres of populous streets laid waste. For the sufferers relief came pouring in, from every city, town, and village of Canada ; and generous aid was rendered by the mother country and the sister republic. Four months later the adjoin- ing town of Portland, separated from St. John only by the width of a city street, suffered a like fate. But the people set bravely to the task of repairing their shattered fortunes ; and St. John has risen from her ruins more stately and beautiful than before. The Treaty of Washington, as has been said, had provided for the appointment of a commission to settle the amount of com- pensation due to Canada for the use of her fisheries. The matter had not been pressed by Canada, as long as there was hope of a re- vival of the Reciprocity Treaty. The government had sent George Brown to Washington to seek such a treaty, on the basis of Canada giving up her fisheries claim. But reciprocity the American gov- ernment would not hear of. The Americans feared that Canada would gain too much by it ; and they hoped that without it a feeling for annexation would spring up. Mr. Mackenzie now determined to assert the rights of Canada. THE LETELLIER CASE. 38 1 In 1877, at his urgent demand, a commission of three members were appointed, — one for Great Britain, one for the United States, and a third agreed upon by the other two. This impar- • 1 ^ • -K IT • -r^ir -r»i* Th6 a.3.\lfSLX. tial arbitrator was Monsieur Delfosse, Belgian minis- fisheries award. ter to Washington. The American commissioner was the Hon. E. H. Kellog. In view of the manner in which Brit- ish commissioners had so often sacrificed Canadian interests in order to favour America, Mr. Mackenzie insisted that the British commissioner in this case should be a Canadian ; and Sir Alex- ander Gait was appointed to the office. The Canadian claim was $14,500,000 for the use of the fisheries for the whole twelve years designated in the Treaty of Washington, six of which had already passed. The American claim was that Canada had gained so many privileges by the Treaty of Washington that she was entitled to nothing in return for her fisheries. Finally, after the examina- tion of many documents and statistics, it was decided by two of the commissioners that the United States should pay $5,500,000. The American commissioner protested, and Congress for a time refused to abide by the decision. At length, however, the Ameri- cans grew ashamed of their attitude. Reluctantly, and with much grumbling, the HaHfax award was paid over. At this time a troublesome question arose in Quebec. The provincial government was Conservative, with a strong majority behind it ; while the provincial governor was Letellier LeteUier de de St. Just, a prominent Liberal. There soon came ^^-J**®*- war between the governor and his ministry. At last the governor went so far as to dismiss the ministry, declaring that they had slighted his authority, and that they no longer had the confidence of the people. He summoned the leader of the opposition to form a new government. The Assembly, supporting the old gov- ernment, passed votes of censure on the new, and refused to vote supplies. The governor thereupon dissolved the House, and called for a new election ; and the people supported his arbitrary act by giving a large majority to the new government. In the Dominion Parliament the opposition, led by Sir John Macdonald, 382 A HISTORY OF CANADA. loudly demanded the removal of St. Just. But Mr. Mackenzie went warily in the matter. He was by no means ready to approve of St. Just's action, but he concluded that it was unnecessary to take any notice of it. In this decision he was supported by Parliament. In the following year, however, when Sir John Mac- donald had returned to power, Governor St. Just was removed from office, — but not before the colonial secretary had been consulted on this delicate question. The great political event of 1878 was a general election. The cry of " Canada for the Canadians " proved one to conjure with. TheMacken- The idea of a "National Policy," with protection to men^Ie-'^' national industries, was alluring to a people just begin- feated. vixwg to realize their national existence. The Liberal party was amazed to meet with just such an utter overthrow as that which they had brought upon their opponents five years before. Mackenzie and his Cabinet resigned, and Macdonald led his triumphant party back to the government benches. That autumn Lord Dufferin left Canada, venerated and re- gretted by every one. He had visited every quarter of the Dominion : had conciliated every interest ; had taught LordDuffenn ^ ^ ^ o leaves the remotest provinces to realize and glory in their union. The difficult task of filling his place was con- fided to Lord Lome and his wife the Princess Louise, a daughter of the Queen. Soon after the accession of the Macdonald government the National Policy was put in force and the duties on imports greatly , . increased. That great enterprise which had proved The National . Policy so disastrous to the Liberal-Conservatives in i87t established. . '^ again engaged their concern. The Mackenzie min- istry had determined to build the Canadian Pacific Railway as a government work. At the time of their resignation the Pembina branch, and some other sections of the road, were under construction. The new ministry reverted to their old policy, and in 1880 handed the work over to a company. This company was chiefly made up of Montreal capitalists, and was known as the SECOND DOMINION CENSUS. 383 Canadian Pacific Railway Syndicate. Of tlie terms on which the syndicate undertook the work, and of the vigour with which they carried it to an unparalleled success, we shall read in another chapter. The second Dominion census was held in 188 1. It showed a population of 4,324,810.^ A portion of the gain was due to the admission of Prince Edward Island. The most re- The second markable increase was in Manitoba and the North- Dominion census. west, where immigration had brought up the total population to 122,400. An increase for the whole Dominion of over eight hundred thousand in ten years was not rapid, but it represented substantial growth. It was entirely made up of choice material, and was accompanied by an immensely greater increase in wealth. It owed nothing to pauper immigration, and con- tained none of the refuse of older countries. 1 Quebec, 1,359,027 ; Ontario, 1,924,228 ; Nova Scotia, 440,572 ; New Brunswick, 321,233; Prince Edward Island, 108,891; Manitoba, 65,954; British Columbia, 49.459 ; North-west Territory, 55,446. CHAPTER XXV. . SECTIONS : — 102, Causes leading to the Saskatchewan Rebellion. 103, the Saskatchewan Rebellion. 104, the Canadian Pacific Railway. 102, Causes leading to the Saskatchewan Rebellion. — As we have seen, the suppression of Kiel's rebellion and the organization of Manitoba were the signal for an influx of immigration. The new province received an Assembly of twenty-four members, and a Legislative Council of seven members. This latter body was soon abolished, and one House now serves the legislative needs of Manitoba. In this she follows the example of Ontario. When the rebellion was put down, many of the half-breeds were unwilling to submit to the new authority. Sullenly they withdrew to the further west, seeking a fuller freedom along the Growth of , , . the North- shores of the Saskatchewan. In their place came the west. ^-11 • • ■ , Ontario and other eastern pioneers, journeying around by the south of the Lakes and through Minnesota as far as Ameri- can railways could carry them. Then their long canvas-covered emigrant waggons had four hundred miles to crawl through the black mud of the prairie trails, ere they found themselves on those exhaustless wheat-lands which their industry was soon to make famous. The land was granted on the most liberal terms, one hundred and sixty acres free to every homesteader, and as many more at a merely nominal price. The immigration from Europe was chiefly of northern stock, — Scandinavian, British, German, and Icelandic. These latter began to come in 1875, and have found in our North-west a far more congenial soil and clime than those of their Arctic island. In the previous year came an interesting band 384 GROWTH OF THE NORTH-WEST. 385 of pioneers, the Mennonites of southern Russia. These people were originally Germans. They formed a sect akin in religious views to the Quakers, and distinguished by the practice of commu- nism. For their peace principles they had left Germany and fled to Russia. When military service was there demanded of them, they took refuge in our North-west, where their doctrines are not inter- fered with. They numbered nearly six thousand when they came ; and their thrift and industry have made their settlement one of the most prosperous in the province. In their footsteps, as to a land of promise whose rumour has gone abroad, have flocked Scotch " Crofters " from their loved but barren highlands, and found on the prairies Highland names and Highland faces to welcome them. A few refugees from Poland, a few adventurous Hungarians, have also found their way into the North-west ; and many French Canadians, having left their native Quebec for the factory towns of New England, have sought again the Maple Leaf Land and made themselves new homes in Manitoba. All this immigration was by no means confined to the new province. It spread westward and north-westward. It sought the valley of the Saskatchewan, whither the angry half- breeds had already shown the way. It sought the chewandis- Bow and Belly rivers, even to the foot-hills of the Rockies. It sought the Athabasca and the Peace, and wondered at the mild skies overhanging these northern floods. For the governing of these vast domains, the region was divided into two districts. The western district retained the name of the North- west Territory, and was given a governor and council of its own. The eastern section was called Keewatin, and was attached to the jurisdiction of Manitoba. This is still the country of the fur- trader, harsh of climate, meagre of soil, but rich in fish and game. To protect the settlers, enforce the laws, prevent the seUing of whiskey to the Indians, and keep these latter in order, a body known as the North-west Mounted Police was established. It constitutes a little standing army in the North-west, and has earned a splendid reputation for efficiency. 386 A HISTORY OF CANADA. A few years later the growth of the North-west Territory seemed to call for a further division. In 1882 it was cut up into the dis- tricts of Assiniboia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca. These districts, however, remained under one territorial government as before. This government has its headquarters at Regina, in the district of Assiniboia. But the peaceful growth of the North-west was doomed to a rude interruption. The turbulence which had convulsed Mani- „, , „ toba in the hour of birth was to break out with two- The half- breeds and fold violence on the Saskatchewan, and to give Canada Indians . . . ' ° averse to that most binding of baptisms, a baptism in the blood settlement. ° . of her sons. The causes which led to the Saskatche- wan rebeUion, sometimes known as Kiel's Second Rising, are not far to seek. Both Indians and half-breeds were growing yearly more discontented, as the herds of bison, on which they had so long relied for support, vanished before the rising wave af settle- ment. Of old the bison had traversed the plains in such myriads that the land would be blackened to the horizon with their furry and rolling forms. Indians and half-breeds, mounted on their active ponies, unterrified by the tossing horns and savage eyes, would hang like wasps to the skirts of the herd, shooting down their victims till night stayed the slaughter. The beef thus secured so abundantly was dried and pounded into " pemmican." The hides were sold to traders and whiskey smugglers, and purchased the means for many a wild revel. It was not to be expected that the primitive people of the plains should view with love the civili- zation which thus checked their license, or the name of Canada, which represented that civilization. But there were other influences at work. The half-breeds who had stayed in Manitoba had received patents securing to them ^ , . their grants of land. To the half-breeds on the Sas- Delay m ° granting katchewan these patents had not been issued, though title-deeds ^ ' ° to the half- they had more than once petitioned for them. As breeds. -^ -111 long as they were without their patents, or title-deeds, they dreaded lest their lands should be snatched from them by THE RETURN OF RIEL. 387 speculators, of whom the North-west was full. The land question has always been one in which men were quick to draw sword ; and the excitement of the Mt§tis, or half-breeds, gradually rose to the boiling-point as the Dominion government, too busy or too indifferent, continued to hold back the patents. Further, there was a general dissatisfaction, in some degree shared by the new settlers, over the absence of representation and the autocratic powers of the governor. As the anger grew, all unheeded at Ottawa, the half-breeds turned their eyes toward Riel, who dwelt in exile in Montana. That he was powerful they were convinced, for had ■' Riel returns not his rebellion gamed the Manitoba half-breeds the to lead the half-breeds, land-titles which they wanted ; and had not the gov- ernment been afraid to punish him for the execution of Scott ? They prayed him to come over arid help them. His time of banishment having passed, the old agitator lent an ear to the appeal. At first his counsels were moderate. The memory of his ancient failure and its consequences stood grimly before his eyes. He organized petitions from the inhabitants of the North- west. He went to work in a constitutional way ; agitating indeed, but only, it seemed, as might any loyal politician. At the same time, as his influence over the half-breeds deepened, as his power spread abroad over the Indians on their scattered reserves, a muttering of secession was heard. Once more the fanatic was letting himself be carried away by his vanity. Once more the dreams of a madman were inflaming his brain. He began to call himself the Liberator. He claimed a divine mission ; and spoke confidently of bringing the whole of the North-west under his sway. The priests, when they saw that Riel meant violence, threw all their influence against him, but he retorted by declaring his authority in spiritual matters higher than theirs ; and so enslaved were the half-breeds by his eloquence that they listened to him, and turned a deaf ear to their Church. People who knew the territories took alarm ; but to the older provinces all suggestion of danger seemed like an idle tale or party clap-trap. As the spring 388 A HISTORY OF CANADA. of 1885 drew near, anxiety deepened on the Saskatchewan. The Indians began to leave their reserves. The half-breeds were gathering at Batoche, where Riel had his headquarters. In March the citizens of Prince Albert organized a volunteer battalion, and put their town in a position of defence. Then came the fight at Duck Lake. Over Canada flashed the news that Canadian troops had been attacked by rebels in the North-west, and beaten back with loss. The Saskatchewan rebellion had begun. 103. The Saskatchewan Rebellion. — Had the rebellion been a rising of the half-breeds only, there would have been no great cause for alarm. Brave and skilful fighters as these men were to prove themselves, they were comparatively few in number. But the The Indians real peril of the crisis lay in the Indians. Of these there and Riei. ^^y^xt perhaps thirty-five thousand scattered over Mani- toba and the North-west. Most of these, notably the great tribes of the Crees and the Ojibways, were disposed to be friendly to the white men. But they were under a lot of petty chiefs, some true, some treacherous ; and all were more or less restless owing to the scarcity of food. Further west, towards the Rockies, were the warlike Blackfeet tribes, under a redoubtable old chief named Crow-foot. With all these tribes Riel had been tampering. He told them he would drive the Canadians out of the country and set up a new rule, under which, if they would help him, the Indians should see a return of their old prosperity. Some of the chiefs turned a deaf ear to these blandishments, because they realized that the government at Ottawa could reach out a long and terrible arm. Others, however, were incUned to go on the war-path, and only awaited the encouragement of a rebel success. Among these, the most prominent was a turbulent chief named Big Bear, who later became infamous for the Frog Lake massacre. He had but lately and reluctantly signed the treaty with the gov- ernment, and betaken himself, with his band, to the reserves of the North Saskatchewan. He acted as Riel's agent among the tribes ; and on the first outbreak of hostilities he hastened to draw the knife. Another Indian prominent in the rising was DUCK LAKE. 389 Poundraaker, a Cree chieftain of great ability, and more liumane than his fellows, who had always been regarded as friendly to the whites. It is by no means certain, indeed, that Poundmaker would have taken any part had he not been first attacked. But the threat that hung over the North-west was that of fire and the stalping-knife in every little defenceless settlement, in every solitary cabin, — it was all the nameless horrors of an Indian war. Throughout March events ripened swiftly. In scattered posts the stores were seized, and lonely settlers were robbed of arms and ammunition. On March i8th Riel, who had heard Rieiinopen a rumour that Great Britain was on the verge of a rebellion, war with Russia, boldly threw off the mask. In the village of Batoche, the centre of extensive Metis settlements, he assumed authority and proclaimed his mission. There were a few loyal Canadians settled in the village, and these he at once arrested. Having superseded the priests, he took the village church for a storehouse, and afterwards for a prison. He organized a council, sent out scouting parties to capture supplies, and consigned his military affairs to one Gabriel Dumont, a brave and skilful buffalo hunter whom he made his adjutant-general. The first object of Dumont's attention was the little village of Duck Lake, or Stobart. The two great rivers known as the North Branch and South Branch of the Saskatchewan flow together at the Forks, and then roll their united current to Lake Winnipeg. For more xhe flght at than a hundred miles above the Forks the two streams ^""^^ ^^'^^' run nearly parallel to each other, at a distance of twenty or thirty miles. On the North Branch, some thirty miles west of the Forks, stood the thriving little town of Prince Albert, the centre of the white population. Fifty miies above Prince Albert stood Carleton, a fortified post of the Mounted Police, with half-a-dozen houses grouped about it. On the South Branch, twenty miles straight across country from Carleton, lay Batoche, and between them the settlement of Duck Lake, a handful of small log-houses. 390 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Here were stored provisions, arms, and ammunition, which the half- breeds went out to seize. It happened about the same time that Major Crozier, the officer in command at Carleton, sent a small party in sleighs on the same errand. He had heard of Kiel's doings at Batoche and hoped to prevent the supplies from falling into rebel hands. As this party approached Duck Lake they found the half-breeds already in possession, and were turned back by Dumont with threats and indignities. This was on the 26th of March. They hastened back to Carleton ; and at once a stronger force, consisting of eighty Mounted Police and Prince Albert Volunteers, was despatched to avenge the insult. A little way from the village they were stopped by Dumont. During the par- ley that followed, the half-breeds began occupying the bushes on both sides of the road. Our troops at once spread out to keep themselves from being surrounded, and in a moment the firing had begun. It was sharp bush-fighting, and was maintained for nearly an hour. Our men, however, were ill-placed, being on lower ground, and they were heavily outnumbered by the foe. Seeing himself at such a disadvantage, Crozier ordered a retreat. The men flung themselves on to their horses or into their sleighs, pausing only to snatch up their wounded, and fled from that cul- de-sac where every bush blazed death. The Canadian loss was twelve killed and seven wounded. The skirmish had the effect of awakening the white settlers to their peril, and convincing them of the powers of the half-breeds. It brought many Indians out upon the war-path, and exalted the fame of Riel. But at the same time it sealed the arch-rebel's doom ; for it lighted a fire in the older provinces which only his blood could quench. At the first news of Kiel's rising, a small force had been sent from Winnipeg to help the Mounted Police. This detachment consisted of the . goth Kifles, and a portion of the Canadian ^ , , . , troops start Winnipeg Field Battery. When the grun tidings of Duck Lake thrilled over the wires, the call of the government for troops met an instant response. All over Canada the volunteers sprang to arms. Within three days of the news, POINTS THREATENED BY THE REBELS. 391 Canadian troops from Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, and the martial " Midlands " of Ontario were on their way to the front. The leadership of the North-west campaign was in the hands of General Middleton, commander-in-chief of the Cana- dian forces. The troops were carried to within two or three hundred miles of the scene of revolt by the Canadian Pacific Railway, then approaching completion. There were long gaps in the road, over which our raw battalions marched with an indiffer- ence to hardship which won the praise of their veteran leader. By April 9th the Toronto troops, consisting of C Company Canadian Regulars, the Queen's Own Rifles, the Royal Grena- diers, the Governor-General's Foot Guards, and the company of cavalry known as the Governor-General's Body Guard, had marched to Qu'Appelle, where the Winnipeg contingent was awaiting them. Here, as the nearest point on the railway to the rebel centre at Batoche, Middleton established his base of operations. Meanwhile the rebellion was spreading all up the North Saskatchewan valley. It threatened three main points, — Prince Albert, the town of Battleford at the mouth of Battle The chief River, and the settlement about Fort Pitt, between points threatened. Battleford and Edmonton. Prince Albert, in hourly dread of a half-breed advance from Batoche, had a garrison of Mounted PoHce and Volunteers behind its improvised ramparts of cordwood. Battleford was threatened by hungry bands of Stony and Cree warriors, whose nominal chief, however, the famous Poundmaker, kept strictly to his reserve, some thirty miles dis- tant, and professed to lend no aid or countenance to the maraud- ers. The town was in two divisions, the Old Town on a low flat lying south of Battle River, and the New Town on a shoulder of elevated prairie between this ruin and the Saskatchewan. In the New Town, within and around the fort, clustered the terrified townsfolk, while the savages looteci and burned at will on the other side of the river. Closer to the fort they dared not come, having a wholesome awe of its one little cannon. The position of 392 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the settlers was desperate. The telegraph wires being cut, they were shut off utterly from the world, and knew not how general was the Indian rising, or how soon the savages might come down upon them in force. An Indian instructor and a lonely ranchman, far out on one of the trails, were murdered in cold blood. But the crudest tragedy of the whole rising took place near Fort Pitt. Just beyond the fort was Big Bear's reserve ; and ^^ ^ beyond the reserve the little settlement of Frog Lake, The Frog •' ^ ' Lake mas- in a recess of the Moose Hills. On April 2nd a sacre. Strong party of Big Bear's braves, under a chief called Travelling Spirit, came to Frog Lake. After parleying awhile with Quinn, the Indian agent, they disarmed the handful of settlers, on pretence of avoiding a quarrel. Suddenly, and with- out warning, the now helpless settlers were shot down wherever they stood. Two heroic priests. Father Fafard and Father Mar- chand, were butchered while striving to defend their flocks. A few Wood Crees and half-breeds who were present tried to pre- vent the atrocity, but in vain. They succeeded in saving one man, the Hudson Bay Company's agent ; and the half-breeds gave Big Bear their horses to ransom the women who had been captured. These women, with some prisoners afterwards taken by Big Bear, owed their lives to the Wood Crees and half- breeds, who protected them and treated them with kindness. After the massacre the bodies of the victims were mutilated, and then thrown into the wrecked houses to burn ; and the Indians feasted and danced for three days on the scene of outrage. From Frog Lake they moved against Fort Pitt. This post, called by courtesy a fort, was but a few log-houses arranged in a hollow square, with no ramparts more formidable Fort Pitt. 1 . . ^ , than an old rail fence. It stood on a plot of meadow close to the river. To guard its valuable stores against Big Bear and his three hundred braves,''there stood but twenty-three red- coated troopers. Their leader was Francis Dickens, a son of the' great noveUst. In a stockaded fort this handful of men, skilled THE CANADIAN ADVANCE. 393 in arms, disciplined, fearless, might have defied even the odds that now confironted them. But their position was untenable. Nevertheless, so great was the dread in which the Mounted Police were held, that Big Bear was unwiUing to attack. His warriors, though drunk with blood, held off; and he offered the garrison freedom and safety if they would give up the stores and go. The reply of Commander Dickens was a curt refusal; and the red- skins rushed yelHng to the assault. After a hot fight they were beaten back, and held at bay for a time. But at last Dickens saw the case was hopeless. Destroying the arms, ammunition, and food stored in the fort, he led out his dauntless little company, and made good his retreat down the river. As we have seen, there were three points to be reached by the army of rescue. Middleton divided his force into three columns. The western column, under General Strange, was sent ° The Cana- forward to Calgary, thence to march northward to dian troops advance in Edmonton and operate against Big Bear. Strange's three force, numbering between five and six hundred, was made up of the 95th (Quebec) Battalion, the 92nd (Winnipeg), with a company of Rangers and some Mounted PoHce. The middle column, under Colonel Otter, began its overland march from Swift Current on the South Saskatchewan. It was made up of the Queen's Own Rifles (Toronto), half of C Company (Canadian Regulars), B Battery (Canadian Regulars), the Ottawa Foot Guards, and fifty Mounted Police. Its strength was about the same as that of Strange's column, and the task com- mitted to it was the rehef of Battleford. The main or eastern column, charged with the rehef of Prince Albert and the subjuga- tion of Batoche, was retained by Middleton under his own com- mand. It was nearly one thousand strong, and consisted of the loth Royal Grenadiers (Toronto), the 90th (Winnipeg), the Midland Battalion (Ontario), the Winnipeg Field Battery, A Battery (Canadian Regulars), half of C Company (Canadian Regulars), Boulton's Horse, French's Scouts, and one gatling gun under command of an American officer, Captain Howard. 394 -^ HISTORY OF CANADA. From Qu'Appelle, Middleton led the greater part of his forces across country toward Batoche. The Midlanders, with the gatUng Middieton's ^'^^ suppHes, were sent to Swift Current, there to take column. ^]^g steamer Northcote and descend the Saskatchewan to a junction with the main column at Clark's Crossing. The two hundred miles' march from Qu'Appelle, -through the woody covers of the Touchwood Hills and over the toilsome morasses of the great Salt Plain, was safely accomplished. Then, after wait- ing in vain at Clark's Crossing for the heavily-laden Northcote, delayed in the shallows, Middleton moved cautiously toward Batoche. He advanced in two columns, one on each side of the river. On April 24th he came suddenly on the rebel lines, strongly posted in the ravine of Fish Creek. The fight at Fish Creek began about nine in the morning. The country through which our troops marched was high prairie Battle at sprinkled with sad-coloured groves of poplar. It was Fish Creek. drained by precipitous ravines, called coulees, from twenty to thirty feet in depth, and running at all angles to the river. Fish Creek was a small stream, but its ravine, marked with a dense growth of cotton-woods and gray willows, was wide and tortuous. Under the brink of the steep, Dumont had ranged his rifle-pits and posted a strong force. As our right-hand column came within fire it broke into cheers, and spread rapidly across the hostile front. Company C was first in the fight, and then the Winnipeg 90th, whose dark uniforms and dashing courage were soon to make them known as the " Black Devils." The men, never before within range of an enemy's bullets, bore themselves admirably. They exposed themselves with rash valour to their unseen enemies, and their loss was heavy. Middleton rode up and down his lines as if on parade, a plain target to Riel's sharp- shooters. He got a bullet through his cap. About ten o'clock the rebels gathered their strength and strove desperately to turn our right flank. Here the Canadian loss was heaviest, but after- a sharp struggle the assault was hurled back. At last our battery got the range of some of the rifle-pits and covers, and silenced CUT KNIFE CREEK. 395 their fire. The troops on the other side of the river, furious at being cut off from the fight, were making frantic haste to get across in the one scow available as a ferry. As each squad landed it rushed forward into the struggle ; but while yet the greater number were on the other side, Middleton ordered a general advance, supported by the guns of Battery A. The half-breeds, after a stubborn resistance, fell back to another ravine a mile dis- tant. They had held in check for five hours a greatly superior force, and so impressed General Middleton with their fighting quahties that he encamped where he was, unwilling to advance upon Batoche before the arrival of the Midlanders and the gatling. The relief of Battleford had been accomplished by Colonel Otter's column, after a remarkably rapid march across the two hun- dred miles intervening between Swift Current and the cut Knife North Saskatchewan. But unhappily it was thought ^'^^^^■ well that Poundraaker should be chastised, though the depredations at Battleford were almost certainly due to other Indians than his. The sagacious Cree chieftain, with some three hundred warriors, was on his own reserve, about thirty-five miles away, when Colonel Otter led his expedition out of Battleford. The force amounted to about three hundred men, including a strong body of Battle- ford Rifles who were hungry for vengeance on the redskins. The start was made on the afternoon of May ist. On the morning of the 2nd, as the sky reddened with dawn, the column plunged into a deep gully, crossed the icy current of Cut Knife Creek, and began to climb the slope of Cut Knife Hill. Just then the scouts who had reached the crest of the hill were seen falling back and taking cover. The troops dashed forward. In a moment the Indians opened fire in front and on both sides. In another mo- ment they had closed in on the rear. Cut Knife Hill was a trap, and the Canadian troops had walked into it. But there was no sign of panic. The men kept their heads and fought steadily, while the artillery knocked over the distant wigwams, and drove the enemy from one cover to another. The Indians rushed boldly 396 A HISTORY OF CANADA. on the guns, and were with difficulty repelled. All through the long morning the Canadians fought under that encircling fusillade, till Otter, seeing the uselessness of further sacrifice, decided on a retreat. The way was cleared by a charge of the Battleford Rifles, and under cover of the guns the column was withdrawn across the creek. The retreat on Battleford was not molested. The affair of Cut Knife Hill was one in which our troops bore themselves like veterans in the face of defeat. But the laurels of it were all for Poundmaker, who had outgeneralled his opponents, fought a splendid fight in defence of his wigwams, and spared his foes in retreat when he might have cut them to pieces. One week after the defeat of Cut Knife Hill began the three days' battle of Batoche's Ferry, which practically ended the rebel- Batoche's ^io"^ (May 9th). Soon after the arrival of the North- ^®"^' cote with her reinforcements Middleton broke camp at Fish Creek and advanced warily on the rebel stronghold. The Northcote, barricaded with timbers to play the part of a gunboat, was sent down the river to attack the enemy in the rear. Early on the morning of the 9th the No?-thcote's whistle was heard opposite Batoche, and at the signal our batteries opened fire. Some empty houses were knocked to splinters. Suddenly the rebels rose as it were out of the ground and poured in a wither- ing volley. Our advance had come unawares upon the first line of rifle-pits. The whole face of the country was furrowed with ravines and honeycombed with trenches. The advance was staggered, the line wavered ; but the plucky American, Captain Howard, thrust forward with his gatling and played it with such deadly effect over the pits that the rebels dared not charge. The critical moment passed. Then the red lines set- tled down to steady fighting; but those few moments had made Howard the hero of the day, and where the angry screech of his gatling rang out across the din it stirred the troops like a trumpet. All day the fighting went on among the bewildering ravines. It was painfully manifest that the half-breeds were not only good soldiers but well captained. By evening Middleton had gained B A TO CHE'S FERRY. 397 not one rifle-pit. The Northcote, after signalling the fight to open, had with difficulty saved herself from capture, and with riddled sides and demohshed smoke-stack had escaped down stream. Our force encamped in hollow square on the battle- field, protected by a rude zareba of brushwood and waggons. All night the rebels kept up a harassing fire, and under the shrilling of rifle-balls the men slept little. At dawn they opened out to the attack, but the whole day's fighting resulted in no advance. The artillery fire worked havoc in the enemy's more exposed trenches, but not a foot did the resolute half-breeds yield. Middleton would not risk a charge on the deadly rifle-pits ; and when night fell the troops encamped where they had lain the night before. But the men by this time were getting restless under the long restraint, and when fight began on the morning of the nth they were hard to hold in. They pressed close to the pits, firing heavily, and toward noon the rebel fire slackened. At last Colonels Van Straubenzie, Williams, and Grassett called the general's attention to the temper of the men and in vain begged permission to charge. Middleton was loth to sacrifice the men who would surely fall among the rifle-pits. But on Thursday, early in the afternoon, as the troops pressed eagerly forward, the officers all at once gave them their head. With cheer on cheer the angry battalions broke into a run. The gallant Midlanders, under Williams, were first among the rifle-pits ; but Grassett's Royal Grenadiers had the centre to storm, and carried it with a resistless rush. On the right the rebels scattered like rabbits from the trenches before the dark onslaught of the 90th. The pits were cleared, the ravines swept clean, and the rebels streamed back through the village. By four o'clock the battle was won. Batoche was taken ; Riel and Dumont were fugitives ; the insurrection was crushed at its heart. A few days later Riel found himself a prisoner in his own headquarters. There remained little more to do but to go on to Battleford and arrest the now submissive Poundmaker, who resolutely averred that he had done no wrong. The western column, under Gen- 398 A HISTORY OF CANADA. eral Strange, had overawed the Indians around Edmonton, and prevented a rising there ; but it did not come in contact with Big Bear till May 27th. On this date Strange attacked General ■' . ° Strange at the warlike savage in a strong position near Fort Pitt, Edmonton. and was repulsed. Two days later, however, a small portion of his force, under Major Steele, inflicted a sharp defeat on the Indians. Big Bear's prisoners were rescued and his band driven away to the north. Early in July they came back in a most submissive mood, Big Bear gave himself up, and the whole tribe was disarmed. This meant peace all over the North-west, and on July 5th the troops started for home. The troops actually in the field, besides those which have been already named, were the York and Simcoe Battalion, the 7th The troops London Fusiliers, the Montreal Garrison Artillery, the engaged. ^^^ Voltigeurs of Quebec, the Quebec Cavalry School Corps, the HaHfax Provisional BattaHon, and the 92nd Winnipeg Light Infantry. These corps, though not brought under fire, did garrison duty at various threatened points, where, but for their presence, rebellion would doubtless have burst forth. New Bruns- wick and Prince Edward Island were not called on till later in the struggle, but when the call came they responded with prompt enthusiasm. The New Brunswick Battalion was on its way to the field when it was stopped by news that Batoche had fallen, and that there was nothing left for it to do. That same summer Riel was tried for treason at Regina. The trial created intense interest throughout the Dominion, and on Execution of both sides were engaged some of the ablest lawyers of ■ Canada. A strong plea was made for Riel on the ground of insanity, a plea which the prisoner himself repudiated with scorn. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. In September the sentence was carried out, and the unhappy half- breed paid the penalty of his crimes. Along with him were exe- cuted eight Indians who had been concerned in the Frog Lake . massacre. A few others most deeply imphcated in the rising were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. But Gabriel RESULTS OF THE REBELLION. 399 Dumont, preeminent for his bravery as for his guilt, evaded pun- ishment by escaping across the border. To such a degree had the daring half-breed won the respect of his opponents, that his escape was not greatly regretted. The results that followed from the struggle were far-reaching. While the rebellion was yet in progress, the Dominion government appointed commissioners to settle the claims of the Results of the half-breeds. It was not long before patents were is- ^^^^^^i°^- sued, and the aggrieved settlers secured in the possession of their lands. In the following year the districts of the North-west re- ceived the benefit of representation at Ottawa, — one member for Alberta, one for Saskatchewan, and two for the more populous Assiniboia. The rebellion turned men's eyes upon the North-west, and with the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway came a swift increase of population. The numbers of the Mounted Police were increased from three hundred to one thousand. In Parlia- ment a storm was raised over the execution of Riel, which seemed for a time to threaten ruin to the Macdonald government. The old race-cry, unhappily, was raised in Quebec, and many of the French Conservatives, or bleus} went over to the other side, because the government had refused to commute the rebel's sen- tence. Their desertion was more than made up by the unex- pected support of a number of English Liberals. It must not be supposed, however, that the French Canadians were at all united in condemning the execution of Riel. Out of the fifty-three French members who voted on the question, twenty-five voted in support of the government. Quebec was not so much at odds with her sister provinces in this matter as it has been made to appear. Perhaps, when all is said, the most permanent result of the rebel- lion was the widening and deepening of our national sentiment. In the fight for unity, Canadians from all corners of the Dominion fought shoulder to shoulder, learned to honour each other as brave men, learned to love each other as comrades. In this quarrel 1 In Quebec the Liberals are called Rouges or " Reds," and the Conservatives Bleus or " Blues." 400 A HISTORY OF CANADA. flowed Canadian blood, and the members of the Confederation were drawn together more indissolubly than before. 104. The Canadian Pacific Railway. — The Canadian Pacific Railway is an enterprise so essentially national and so imperial in its importance, that its completion calls for treatment The Canadian ... Pacific Rail- in a section by itself. As we have seen, the vast way. . western expansion of Canada and her access to the riches of the Orient were made to hinge upon the building of this railway. It constituted a question upon which governments arose and fell. The needs which called it into existence were national, not commercial ; but true to the maxim that trade follows the flag, where it went it created a commerce to which its services were necessary. The engine's whistle peoples the wilderness. Of all material bonds holding Confederation together it has proved the most tangible. It has interwoven the life, trade, interests, and sentiments of the older provinces with those of the new. It has brought the wheat-fields of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the ranches of Alberta, to the markets of east and west. It has opened the resources and needs of half a continent to the capital and the manufactures of those communities by the sea where Canadian life had birth. Though it has grown to be an inde- pendent institution, it was the creation of Canada herself; and it has stimulated a healthy national pride by proving that Canada could carry to success an enterprise more colossal than any other people so small and poor had ever dared to dream of. It is no exaggeration to say that the daring conception and swift execution of this scheme astonished the world, and won Canada a fame that generations of slow progress might not have earned. To the empire our great railway was a new strength, a new pledge of unity. To the imperial station at Hahfax was added an imperial station at Esquimalt ; and with the Intercolonial and the Canadian Pacific forming a direct path between them, there opened a shorter and safer route from Great Britain to Austraha. Thus, with the Suez Canal on one side and Canada's Highway on the other, was completed the imperial girdle around the world. It is THE BUILDING OF THE RAILWAY. 401 no longer possible for imperial statesmen to question supercili- ously, as they have done, the importance of Canada to the empire. As we have seen, the government in 1880 had handed over the task of building the Canadian Pacific Railway, together with seven hundred and twelve miles of road already completed, •' ^ ' The building to a syndicate. The heads of this syndicate were of the rail- way Mr. George Stephen, a merchant of Montreal, who afterwards became Lord Mount Stephen, and Mr. Donald Smith, a distinguished official of the Hudson Bay Company, who has since been knighted for his services to Canada. The terms on which the syndicate took up the work were as follows : The railway to be completed from Montreal to Port Moody by 1891; the company to receive as subsidies ^25,000,000 and twenty-five million acres of land in blocks alternating with gov- ernment blocks along the railway ; the company to receive all land required for stations and workshops, with all the sections of the railway built and being built by the government, valued at ^30,000,000 ; tjie company to have the privilege of import- ing duty free the materials for the road, and to be exempt from taxation for twenty years; no competing lines to be built in the North-west, south of the Canadian Pacific and connecting with American lines, for a space of twenty years. Besides these grants and privileges, Canada further aided the company from time to time with liberal loans and guarantees while the line was under construction. Burrard Inlet was presently substituted for Port Moody as the Pacific terminus. The work was pushed with such extraordinary vigour that it was completed in half the time agreed upon. Construction went on from both ends at once. In November of 1885 the two sections, which had been crawling toward each other from the St. Lawrence and the Pacific, came together at the little station of Craigellachie, beside the Eagle River, in the Rockies. Sir Donald Smith drove the last spike to unite them. And thus was fulfilled the ancient dream of a North- west passage to Cathay. The total length of the main line, from Montreal to the Pacific, 402 A HISTORY OF CANADA. was twenty-nine hundred and nine miles ; and its extension to Quebec, where it joined our other national highway, the Inter- colonial, made it three thousand and twenty-five miles. It has since extended feeders in every direction, tapping the northern centres of American trade, and reaching the Mari- Vancouver. . t^. r>.Ti, -,■■,■ time Provmces at St. John by a direct hne from Montreal. It has also established lines of fast steamships on the Pacific Ocean, connecting Vancouver with Japan, Hong- Kong, and Australia, and vastly shortening the distance between Europe and the East. At the terminus on Burrard Inlet has sprung up as if by magic the busy city of Vancouver. In 1885 the site of Vancouver was an impenetrable forest of the giant Douglas pines. In the spring of 1886 there arose a strange bustling little, town of wooden houses amid a chaos of huge stumps. In July the place was hterally blotted out of existence by fire. But almost while the ashes were yet hot began the re- building of the irrepressible city. Saw-mills were set at work without a roof to cover them. Now this nqietropohs of eight years has a population of sixteen thousand, with the dignity and substance of a long-established centre. Its handsome buildings and well-paved streets cover a soil which has hardly yet for- gotten the footprints of the grizzly. But Vancouver is not the only town which the great railway has created as in a breath. All through the mountains, all along the prairies, are strung little settlements growing into villages, villages blossoming into towns, so filled with sanguine life that they sparkle like jewels on their thread of steel. And so the roaring trains of the great highway may be likened to gigantic shuttles darting backwards and for- wards across the continent, and weaving into the warp of this northern land the bright pattern of our national life. CHAPTER XXVL SECTIONS: — 105, THE Fisheries Dispute again. 106, Third Dominion Census. 107, Affairs in Newfoundland up to the Present Day. 105. The Fisheries Dispute again. — The two great events of the last decade of our history were those which we have just been considering ; namely, the Saskatchewan rebellion and the comple- tion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Other events there have been of interest and importance, but none fillina: so ° Canadian large a page m our history. Not without deep mean- boatmen on • , , 1 • , . , / , the Nile, mg to the whole empire, however, is the fact that when General Sir Garnet Wolseley, in 1884, was despatched up the Nile with an army to relieve Khartoum and rescue Gordon from the Soudan rebels, he took with him five hundred Canadian boat- men to help him through the storied barrier of the Cataracts. He had not forgotten the skill and daring shown by the Canadian troops when he was leading the Red River Expedition through the wilderness beyond Lake Superior. The head of this Cana- dian contingent, which went to fight in the sands of Egypt the battles of the empire, was Colonel F. C. Denison, of Ontario. The idea of imperial unity was now springing into active life, as was plainly shown by the presence not only of Canadian but also of Australian troops under the imperial banners in Egypt. Those years of Canadian expansion, 1885 and 1886, saw, how- ever, what seemed like a backward movement in Nova Scotia. That province had asked for a larger cash subsidy from the Dominion, basing her demand on these grounds, among others : 403 404 A HISTORY OF CANADA. that she had not received terms as favourable as those granted to certain other provinces ; that her financial position was not as good as it had been before the union : that her reve- Repealagita- ° . „ . . , tioninWova nues were insuincient for the purposes 01 government Scotia. ^ . , . I ^ , ^ *=. . and mternal improvement ; that the Dommion gov- ernment had taken over a large mileage of provincial railroad without sufficient compensation to the province ; and that her contributions to the Dominion treasury, through custom duties collected in her ports by Dominion officials, were greatly out of proportion to her receipts from the Dominion. The Dominion government having refused the demand, the Nova Scotia Legis- lature passed a resolution favouring the secession of the Maritime Provinces from Confederation and the establishment of a Maritime Union. In case of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island proving unfriendly to this scheme, the resolution proposed the secession of Nova Scotia alone, and her return to the status which she occupied before Confederation. A month later the provincial elections were held, and the secession government was supported by a very large majority. The real foundation of this outburst, of course, was a revival of the old wrath at the manner in which Nova Scotia had been taken into the Dominion without being properly consulted in regard to so vital a change in her constitution. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, how- ever, would have nothing to do with this secession scheme ; and the island of Cape Breton, strongly Confederate in sentiment, began a movement to secede from Nova Scotia and set up as a separate province of the Dominion. It is not to be supposed, however, that the secession cry was expected to lead to any such extreme step as separation. It was rather a most urgent form of protest against the Dominion's refusal of better terms. When, in the very next year, the Dominion elections were held, Nova Scotia returned a large majority in support of the Confederation party. A better understanding was presently brought about between Ottawa and Halifax ; and the repeal cry was let slip into oblivion.' As the reader will call to mind, the clauses of the Washington THE FISHERIES DISPUTE AGAIN. 405 Treaty relating to the fisheries had settled the matter only for twelve years, after which either the United States or Canada was to be free to terminate the agreement with two ° The fisheries years' notice. In 1883 the United States gave this dispute notice, and the agreement under which the two coun- tries had got on so harmoniously came to an end in the early summer of 1885. Tlie Americans did this because, said they, the privilege of fishing in Canadian waters was not worth the price they had been made to pay for it by the Halifax fisheries award. Canadian fish were at once shut out by a high duty from American markets. At the same time American fishing-vessels began a system of deliberate trespassing on Canadian waters. The provisions of the treaty of 18 18, known as the Convention of London, now came again into force. These prohibited the Americans from taking, drying, or curing fish within three miles of the British North American coast, certain very Umited portions of Newfoundland, Labrador, and the Magdalen Islands excepted. There were other sharp restrictions imposed by the treaty of 1818. But Canada hesitated to assert her rights in the matter; and, in the hope of reaching a new and fair agreement with the United States, she gave the Americans freely, for the rest of the season, the valuable privileges for which they had refused to make any return. But the Americans were inexorable. Congress would not make a new treaty or accept an International Com- mission. Tiiere was nothing left for Canada to do but enforce her rights. A fleet of armed cruisers was fitted out to patrol the fisheries. A number of New England vessels, caught poaching on Canadian waters or evading the Canadian customs regulations, were seized, and heavy fines inflicted upon them. The New England fishermen, choosing to regard this action as one of war, were clamorous in their wrath. Threats of reprisal were loudly uttered, and even the government, forgetting that Canada was but doing police duty on her own property, talked of cutting off all trade intercourse with the Dominion. But wiser counsels pre- vailed; and in the year 1887 an International Commission was 406 A HISTORY OF CANADA. appointed to clear up the dispute. The commission consisted of Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Sir Sackville West, and Sir Charles Tapper for Great Britain ; Secretary of State Bayard, Mr. W. L. Putnam, and Doctor James B. Angell for the United States. They met at Washington towards the end of the year. The agreement reached by the commissioners was rejected by Congress; and the matter was allowed to lapse into its former dangerous posi- tion (iS88). The year 1887 was made memorable by two important con- ferences. One, known as the Imperial Conference, was held at . „ London. Attended by delegates from Great Britain Impenal Con- ^ ° ferenceand and all her self-governing colonies, and discussing Interprovin- 00 ^ o ciai Confer- matters of concern to the whole empire, it marked a ence. . . . Step toward the conscious unity of Greater Bntam. Canada was represented at this conference by Sir Alexander Campbell and Mr. Sandford Fleming. The other gathering, gen- erally known as the Interprovincial Conference, met at Quebec. It was made up of the leaders of the governments of those prov- inces wherein the reins of power were held by the Liberal party. These provinces were Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Bruns- wick, and Manitoba. Prince Edward Island and British Colum- bia, being ruled by Conservative governments, were not repre- sented. The purpose of the conference was to seek a revision of the British North America Act. It represented chiefly the views of those who desire to increase the powers of the provinces and diminish the powers of the central government. It was the old dispute of Provincial versus Federal rights. The resolutions passed by this conference looked toward a number of radical changes in the Constitution of Canada. One of the most signifi- cant of these was the proposed transfer of the power of disallowing provincial acts from the Dominion to the Imperial government. No action, however, has thus far grown out of the resolutions of the conference. That there should arise some friction, from . time to time, between the central government and those of the various provinces, was inevitable. It has arisen chiefly from the "EQUAL RIGHT Sr 407 disallowance of provincial acts by the central government. But Canada has reason to congratulate herself that the differences have been so few, and have been settled with so much forbearance on both sides. In this year the right was conceded to Canada of negotiating her own commercial treaties with foreign powers. It was pro- vided that when such a treaty was to be made, nego- Canada gains tiations should be conducted by the British minister n^|otfate*° and the Canadian envoy, acting together and with ^^^^^t^^s- equal powers. The beginning of this year witnessed a general Dominion election, in which the Macdonald government was again sustained. The year 1888 saw the rise of a new party, calling themselves the Equal Rights party, which for a time seemed likely to once more confuse the old party lines. It took its rise in ^ ■> The " Equal an act of the provincial government of Quebec, called Rights" ^ ° . agitation, the Jesuits' Estates Act, reendowing the Jesuit Order. This great order had been suppressed by the Pope in 1773, and their estates had consequently fallen to the Crown. Now, in com- pensation, the province granted to the Jesuits a sum of ^400,000. By its opponents this act was regarded as an attack on Protes- tantism. The Dominion government was passionately urged to disallow it. But Sir John Macdonald said the matter was one which lay quite within the powers of the provincial Legislature, and could not therefore be vetoed. In this judgment he was sup- ported not only by his own party but by an overwhelming majority of the Liberals as well. The act became law. But out of the Equal Rights movement grew an agitation in Manitoba, which has resulted in the discontinuance of French as an official language, and in an Act for the Abolition of Separate Schools. 106. Third Dominion Census. — In 1891 was taken the third Dominion census. It showed a population of 4,833,239 for the whole of Canada. The population of 1881, as already Third Domin- stated, was 4,324,810; and the smallness of the in- ^o^^ census, crease, only about a half milUon in ten years, caused a wide-spread 408 A HISTORY OF CANADA. feeling of disappointment. It may be doubted, however, if there was much real ground for disappointment. The increase, though slow, had been of desirable and enduring character; and the increase in wealth, material comfort, and intellectual progress, as shown by statistics of bank deposits, trade, and education, had been remarkably great. The natural growth. of the older prov- inces had been to some extent drawn off to people the fertile and expectant wilderness of the North-west. It has become the habit to judge the progress of a country by its growth in population; but possibly a sounder measure of its development may be found in the growth of means, morals, and culture. In this year the government dissolved the House and appealed again to the country. The result, after a party struggle of unusual heat, was a victory for the Conservatives. The great Death of Sir ' ^ ° John Mac- statesman who had so long guided the destinies of donald. ° . Canada was now old and worn with effort. The arduous struggle bore too heavily upon him, and in the hour of his triumph, but a few weeks after the people had once more testified their confidence at the polls, he took his exit from the stage which his genius had made conspicuous. Memorable years for Canada had been those of his rule, years in which she had learned to lift her head among the nations. When Sir John Macdonald died, on June 6, 1 89 1, parties and factions hushed their strife to unite in honouring the memory of one who had done so much for his country. One year later (April 17, 1892), died the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, the great Liberal statesman who had proved himself Macdonald's strongest rival. He alone had been able Death of Hon. ■ ^ r , ^ 1 , , , Alexander to wrest the rems of power from Macdonald s hand, and for five years to hold them against brilliant party assault and the unfriendUness of fate itself. The name of Mac- kenzie stands for honesty of purpose in Canadian politics. No statesman of Canada held more steadily than he the respect alike - of friend and adversary. Mackenzie had, some years before his death, ceased to be the leader of the Liberal party. This position THE BERING SEA DISPUTE. 409 was occupied for a time by Hon. Edward Blake, who has since exchanged Canadian for imperial poUtics. Mr. Blake was suc- ceeded by Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, who is now leader of the Lib- erals. On the death of Sir John Macdonald, Sir John Abbott succeeded to the premiership. After less than a year of office he resigned on account of ill health, and died a year later. He was succeeded in the same year (1892) by Sir John S. D. Thompson. All this time a quarrel with the Americans over the seal-fisheries of Bering Sea was growing sharper with each season. This trouble had begun in the west as far back as 1886, when some The Bering Canadian sealers were seized by the Americans. The Sea dispute. Americans made the astonishing claim that the whole of Bering Sea within sixty miles of the Alaska coast was a territorial water of their own. As the phrase goes, they declared this vast water a mare clausum, or " closed sea." A glance at the map will show the colossal audacity of this pretension. At the same time strife was waxing hot in the east over the cod, herring, and mackerel fisheries. As we have already seen, the Atlantic coast-waters were acknowledged as the exclusive possession of the country which they washed, to a distance of three marine miles from shore. This was a long-estabhshed principle of international law. The Cana- dians claimed that in the case of waters Uke the Bay of Fundy and Bay Chaleur, whose coasts were exclusively Canadian, the line of the " three-mile limit " should run from headland to head- land across the mouth. The Americans, with striking incon- sistency, resisted this claim with vigour, and protested that the "three-mile limit" should be taken to follow all the windings of the shore. A decisive judgment in the Bering Sea controversy was not obtained till 1893. Canadian sealing-vessels were seized and confiscated in 1887 and 1889. Several times there was danger of armed collision. At last the United States agreed to Great Britain's proposal that the matter should be submitted to arbitration. The Bering Sea Court of Arbitration met in Paris on April 4, 1893, and sat till the middle of August. The arbitrators were Lord Han- 4IO A HISTORY OF CANADA. nen and Sir John Thompson, prime minister of Canada, on be- half of Great Britain ; Judge Harlan and Senator Morgan on behalf of the United States ; Marquis Visconti Venosta, The Bering ^ Seaarbitra- of Italy; Mr. Gregora W. Gram, of Sweden; and Baron de Courcel, of Belgium, who presided. The agent for Great Britain and Canada was Mr. Charles Hibbert Tupper, since knighted for his services in the arbitration. The agent for the United States was General J. W. Foster, ex-secretary of state. Both sides were supported by the ablest legal counsel. The decision of the arbitrators was favourable to Great Britain and Canada. The American claims to jurisdiction over Bering Sea, to property rights in the seals visiting the coast and islands of Alaska, and to the rights of seizing vessels found trespassing on these alleged rights, were all firmly rejected by the Court of Arbitration. At the same time a series of regulations was drawn up for the better protection of the seal fisheries ; and both Great Britain and the United States were required to join in enforcing them. By these regulations a close season was established, making it unlaw- ful to kill seals from May ist to July 21st. The use of firearms in sealing was prohibited, and there were other regulations equally strict. In compensation for the unlawful seizure of Canadian sealing-vessels, the United States was condemned to pay the owners a sum of ^500,000. The decree of the Court of Arbitra- tion was accepted by the United States with extreme ill-grace, and Congress has hitherto refused to pay the damages awarded to the injured sealers. At the time of writing, in 1895, the matter is still unsettled. In 1893 the Liberal party held a great convention at Ottawa. Among the fifteen hundred delegates were the premiers of Ontario, The Liberal Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Convention, jgij^nd. The chairman, Sir Oliver Mowat, laid stress on the loyalty and national feeling of the party, and explained that while better trade relations with the United States were to be- earnestly sought, they were not to be solight at any sacrifice of our national honour or any peril to our national existence. The THE COLONIAL CONFERENCE. 411 convention passed a series of resolutions which formulated the policy of the Liberal party and expressed confidence in the leader- ship of Mr. Laurier. In February of this year was signed a treaty with France, under which France and Canada made each other certain important con- cessions. These related to the tariff, and were designed to encour- age trade between the two countries. Another important event was the exploration of some three thousand miles of unknown regions in the North-west, by members of the Geological Survey of Canada. The exploring party was led by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, and brought back definite knowledge of the country about Lake Athabasca and Chesterfield Inlet. It gives one some conception of the vast extent of our country, when we read of the discovery of a river nine hundred miles long, the existence of which had never been guessed. At the World's Fair, or Columbian Exposition, held at Chicago in 1893, Canada made a showing of even more conspicuous bril- liancy than at the Centennial, carrying off no fewer Canada at the than twenty-three hundred and forty-seven awards. ^^^^^'^ ^^^'■■ The departments in which she was most successful were those of agriculture, live stock, transportation, and the liberal arts. Among educational exhibits Ontario kept up the splendid reputation which she had earned in 1876 ; but she was closely followed by Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the North-west Territories. In the early summer of 1894 British Columbia was visited by devastating floods. Swollen by unwonted rain in the mountains, her rivers roared in terrific volume down their wild Floods m canons, and covered the lower lands with ruin. In British Coliunbia. the settled regions about the Fraser whole villages were swept away, and railway communication was cut off by the wrecking of the bridges. The loss of life and property was a serious blow to so small a population. For significance to Canada and the empire, the chief event of 1894 was perhaps the Colonial Conference, to which allusion has been already made. This conference met at Ottawa in July. It 412 A HISTORY OF CANADA. was presided over by the Earl of Jersey, who attended as the rep- resentative of Great Britain. There were delegates from Canada, The Colonial New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Aus- conference. ^^^j-^^ Tasmania, New Zealand, and South Africa. The objects of the conference were the encouragement of intercourse, the development of trade, and the promotion of sympathy be- tween the various members of the empire. In a word, the unity of Greater Britain was the end in view. Among the results of the conference will probably be closer trade relations, the speedy con- struction of a submarine cable system between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the establishment of a fast steamship service between Canada and England. The view obtained by Australasian delegates of the progress made by Canada since Confederation cannot fail to hasten the day of Australasian union. On the 1 2th day of December, 1894, Canada was shocked by the sudden death of her premier. Sir John Thompson. He died X, .^ .c- while visiting Her Majesty at Windsor. He was at Death of Sir ° ■' ■" johnThomp- the height of his fame, secure in the trust of his son. ° country and the approbation of the empire. The high honour of membership in the Imperial Privy Council had just been conferred upon him. One of the great cruisers of Her Majesty's fleet, the Blenheim, was commissioned to bear his body back to Canada, and the embarkation was accompanied by a solemn ceremonial of mourning. The Blenheim steamed across the ocean to Halifax ; and there in his native city, from the Cathedral of St. Mary, the majestic state funeral took place on the 2nd day of January, 1895. 107. Affairs in Newfoundland up to the Present Day. — The most prominent feature of Newfoundland history during the last ^,. T, ,. few years has been the French shore grievance. As The French ■' ° shore dis- we have seen, by the treaty of 1783 France was se- cured in the rights of taking, curing, and drying fish, and erecting huts and stages for such purpose, along the whole . western coast of Newfoundland, from Cape Ray northward, and down the eastern coast as far as Cape St. John. There were other NEWFOUNDLAND RAILWAY BUILDING. 413 privileges, too, such as exemption from duties, which gave their fishermen overvvhehning advantage. The British government had undertaken that its subjects should in no way interfere with the French fishermen in the exercise of their rights. The French held that any settlement along this portion of the coast, the estab- lishment of any industries, would be an interference. As a con- sequence, the mildest and most fertile parts of the island were left for nearly a hundred years a desert. The colonists had always fretted under the French restrictions. As population and enter- prise grew in the colony, squatters settled on the forbidden shore, where they lived without law, as no jurisdiction could be exerted by the provincial government. Protest after protest went up from the province, but Great Britain would not suffer the rights of France to be encroached upon. These rights France interpreted entirely to her own advantage, and asserted with severity. At last, in 1877, the French shore was brought within the pale of civilization by the estabhshment of law-courts and custom houses ; but the restrictions on industry and settlement remained in full force. In 1878 a railway was authorized by the Legislature to run across the island, from St. John's to St. George's Bay, opening up the rich valleys of the Exploits and Gander rivers.^ But St. George's Bay was a part of the French shore, and therefore the British government refused its sanction to the railway. Rail- ways and internal development being a manifest necessity to the island, a road was then planned from St. John's northward to Hall's Bay on the east coast, the centre of the copper-mining dis- trict. The first soil of this first Newfoundland railway was turned in August, 1 88 1. At length, in 1882, through the efforts of Sir William Whiteway, then provincial premier, the Imperial govern- ment consented to allow the issue of mining licenses and land 1 In connection with this proposed railway a charter was granted to the "Amer- ican and F^uropean Short Line Railway Company," which was organized to run a line across the island from east to west, a fast ferry across the Gulf to Cape North in Cape Breton, and a line thence to connect with the Intercolonial system. Fast steamers were to run from the eastern terminus to Liverpool, thus giving the shortest possible passage between Great Britain and the New World. 414 A HISTORY OF CANADA. grants on the French shore, and the district received representa- tion in the Provincial Legislature. But the hand of France was felt everywhere and coUision was frequent. In 1875 ^^ agree- ment between England and France was signed at Paris. The provincial government refused to accept it, but their protests were not heeded, and the agreement was enforced by British and French naval forces. The inhabitants of the French shore hve under fetters, as it were. Almost any effort they may make, almost any enterprise they may engage upon, is likely to be taken as an encroachment upon French rights. The growth of nearly half the island is strangled to suit the convenience of a foreign power. The resentment of the Islanders grows yearly more bitter. In the season of 1889 the attitude of the settlers grew so threatening, the quarrels between the French and native fishermen so angry, that the commander of a French cruiser in St. George's Bay declared he would bombard the settlement and massacre the inhabitants if the blood of one Frenchman were spilt. In 1890 it was claimed that the authority of the island officials was superior on the island to that of any British official. The right of British naval officers to interfere with the native fishermen in the interest of the French was denied. For such interference, as an illegal transgression of the rights of British subjects, Admiral Walker was tried and condemned in the Newfoundland courts. The Imperial government thereupon asserted its authority sharply, and admin- istered a severe rebuke to the province. One of the most dan- gerous effects of all this has been a Aveakening of the sentiment of loyalty .toward England. If Newfoundland were now to enter Confederation, Canada would find herself confronted with a grave problem in the French shore difficulty. It is a problem too perilous and too pressing to be left much longer unsettled. The course of the Imperial government in supporting French claims, overriding the acts of the provincial Legislature, and ordering naval officers to perform police duties against Newfound- land citizens, stirred up a fierce resentment at St. John's. The local government turned toward the United States for sympathy, GREAT FIRE AT ST. JOHN'S. 415 and there arose an idle but noisy talk of annexation. One of the members of the government, Hon. Robert Bond, was sent to Washington to discuss, with the aid of the British Newfound- minister, the question of trade relations between New- u^te^"^^^^^ foundland and the United States. The astute Blaine s^^^^^- was then, secretary of state. He rejected the proposals of the British minister and the Newfoundland envoy, but submitted a counter proposal which Mr. Bond accepted. This trade conven- tion, though far more advantageous to the Americans than to Newfoundland, proved acceptable to the Newfoundland govern- ment in the temper then paramount (1890). But certain of its terms were extremely unjust to Canada, and at the request of the Canadian government Great Britain refused her sanction to the so-called Blaine-Bond Treaty. The indignation of the Ancient Colony against Great Britain was now in part turned against Canada. It was intolerable, fumed the Islanders, that Canada should be allowed to interfere. Valuable fishing privileges, secured to Canada's fishermen by many pledges, and in return for gen- erous concessions, were suddenly refused on any terms, while to Americans they were granted as a free gift. After vain protest, Canada imposed a duty on Newfoundland fish, as a slight measure of retaliation. The ill-feeling between the two countries, however, soon died away, and hostile acts were recalled on both sides. Since that day conferences have been held between the Canadian and Newfoundland governments on the subject of Confederation ; but they have not as yet borne fruit. The masses still view the idea of union with alarm, and associate it with the threat of in- creased taxation. An event which did much for peace between the Dominion and the Ancient Colony was the terrible fire which, in the summer of 1892, overwhelmed the city of St. John's. This was The greatest the third, and most destructive, by which the city has ares^of^st^* been scourged. The conflagration began among the J°^°'^- crowded wooden buildings by the water, and before a favouring wind it spread with appalling swiftness. Men delaying to save 41 6 A HISTORY OF CANADA. their property barely escaped with their hves. Stone walls shriv- elled like leaves in the intense heat. The main portion of the city was swept out of existence. The greater portion of the population was left homeless and penniless. In the hour of trouble, however, Canada came to the rescue, with ready sympathy and generous hands. Towns and cities vied with one another in the munifi- cence of their gifts. The Americans gave also ; but their contri- butions were small compared with those of Canada. Tliere followed a sudden growth of good-will toward Canadians, a swift forgetfulness of petty enmities. The development of Newfoundland's resources has gone on but slowly during the past four or five years, owing to the financial ^ ^ difficulties of the province. In iSg-? were held the Theflnan- . '- ^^ ciai disasters provincial elections, in which Sir William Whiteway's government was sustained. But in the following year the Whiteway ministry lost the confidence of the House, and a new administration was formed under Mr. Goodridge. The life of this administration was short. In 1895 the island was swept by a wave of financial ruin, which also swept the Goodridge ministry from power. The banks fell with a crash which shattered the proudest fortunes in the colony. Great mercantile houses of St. John's chased each other into bankruptcy. The Savings Bank closed its doors. There was no money to buy food. The people were starving. Again, as at the time of the great fire, help flowed in from abroad ; but financially the province was prostrate. Pro- posals of Confederation were made to Canada by the Whiteway government, now returned to power ; but the terms offered by Canada, though generous, were rejected by the island. At present the government is striving, by painful economy and the aid of an English loan, to lift the province out of its despair. CHAPTER XXVII. SECTIONS : — io8, Intellectual Progress. 109, Material Progress, no, Present Conditions; and the Outlook. 108. Intellectual Progress. — In a new country, like Canada, material must precede intellectual progress. The first makes possible the second. In the beginnings of settlement, and for long afterwards, the energies of a pioneer people are absorbed in the conquest of the wilderness. There are fields „ ,.^. ^ Conditions of to be cleared ; houses to be built : roads, canals, rail- lite in a new land, ways, dikes to be constructed. The labour of the mine, the toil of the fur-trade and the fishery, these occupy the busy year. The hand is called upon rather than the brain ; the axe is busier than the pen. There is little time to think of adorn- ing the mind, while yet the bear and the wolf prowl nightly about the cabin. But while the struggle for existence is still keen comes the desire for education, and schoolhouses spring up at many a lonely cross-road. Swiftly civilization wins, the wilderness is subdued, farm and village thrust back the forest, the land takes on a new face. But the thoughts and tastes of the people are still altogether practical. Science is the first of intellectual pur- suits to find favour in their eyes. It shows new ways of making nature yield tribute to man's needs. It arms him for fresh con- quests over earth. It teaches him to tunnel mountains, open mines, cut canals, and spread his shining rails like giant gossa- mers over the land. So comes wealth, and with wealth leisure ; and with leisure the desire for things and thoughts not altogether concerned with bread and butter, but beautiful in themselves 2E 417 41 8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. and ennobling to the spirit. At this stage come literature and art, the choice fruits of civilization. This stage Canada has reached but lately. Her literature and her art, therefore, are only beginning. In science she has done more and gone further. But in education she has made the greatest progress. For this Canadians have cared, while yet they had to brush the sweat from their eyes in order to read ; and as a consequence Canada is one of the foremost countries of the world in the matter of popular education. Hand in hand with education, or some- times, rather, leading it by the hand, went religion ; for the makers of Canada, whether of French or English speech, whether of Catholic or Protestant creed, were God-fearing men. In each new settlement, church and schoolroom usually arose at the same time. In French Canada education may be said to have gone on the very heels of colonization, for one object kept in view by the Education iu founders of Quebec was the instruction and conver- Canada. gj^j^ ^^ ^^ Indians. The first school in Canada was at Quebec, in the early part of the seventeenth century. Its teachers were devoted nuns. Its pupils were wild Indian chil- dren, liable to run away at any moment if they got homesick for canoe and wigwam. In the French province free schools were established in 1801. In the English settlements the population scattered itself over wide areas, burying itself deeper in the wilds. The first schoolhouses of these settlements were, as a rule, rude cabins of logs "chinked" with moss and mud. The school- house stood, most often, in a lonely spot and at the meeting- place of one or more of the backwoods roads. The site was chosen so as to accommodate the greatest number of pupils. As the district gained in wealth, and children became more numer- ous, a rude frame building soon took the place of the log cabin. Rough desks were ranged around the wall, and children sat painfully dangling their legs all day from hard, high benches . without backs. In summer there was generally no school, for the bigger children were kept busy on the farms. In winter the PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 419 walk to school was a tramp of perhaps five or six miles through the deep snow, in the stinging frost of early morning. In mit- tened but aching fingers the pupils carried their bundle of worn school-books and their well-filled dinner-basket. The open fire- place that at first warmed the schoolhouse was soon supplanted by a sturdy box stove, around which the benches were drawn close at recess and dinner hour. The gaping cracks of the warped board floor swallowed many a pen, slate-pencil, and treasured jack-knife. The hours were painfully long, but the discipline, though severe, was irregular ; and the room was filled with a clamour of recitation, studying " out loud," and surrep- titious talk. The subjects taught were reading, writing, elemen- tary rules of arithmetic, and sometimes a little geography and grammar. The teachers, as a rule, were wretchedly paid and worse prepared. Sometimes they knew little more than their pupils. To eke out their subsistence they had to turn their hands to many an odd job outside their profession. They received a portion of their pay by " boarding around," as the process was called ; that is, certain families of the district, instead of contrib- uting money to the teacher's salary, would take him to live with them for a certain length of time, thus paying him in board and lodging. As it was the poorer families that chose to pay in this way, the arrangement possessed few charms for the teacher. The contrast between the public schools of those days and our pres- ent typical public schools is as sharp as the contrast between backwoods and boulevard. All the provinces of Canada have now elaborate school systems, under which the minutest details of public education are in the care of responsible officials. Nowa- days, in all but the poorest and remotest districts, the school- house is at least as comfortable as the home, and generally better ventilated, better lighted, better warmed. The path of learning is made pleasant for young feet, and it is everywhere recognized that education, to be thorough, must be interesting. The hand that chiefly worked this change was that of Egerton Ryerson, who may be called the father of the Canadian public school. 420 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Ryerson gave Ontario a public school system second to none in the world, and the model thus afforded by Ontario has been studied with effect by the sister provinces. Three years after the union of Upper and Lower Canada, Ryerson was made chief superintendent of education. He studied the best educational systems of the world and borrowed freely • from Europe and America to complete his scheme, which has ripened gradually to a perfection commanding everywhere the applause of practical educators. The public school instruction leads directly to the high schools and collegiate institutes, and thence to the Univer- sity of Toronto, which crowns the fair edifice. The system of Ontario may be taken as fairly typical, though the other prov- inces have made certain changes to suit special needs. In all alike the public schools are supported by government and local grants. All the people are taxed for school purposes, and to all the schools are free. Two of the provinces, Quebec and Ontario, allow of separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants. In the others no distinction of creed is recognized. In Ontario, educational matters are in the care of a department of the pro- vincial government, presided over by the minister of education. In the other provinces these affairs are managed by a superin- tendent and board of education, attached to the department of the provincial secretary. Our most important universities, in the order of seniority, are as follows: King's College, Nova Scotia (1789); the Univer- Canadian sity of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick Universities. (^^2,00); McGill College, Montreal (1813); Dal- housie College, Halifax (1821) ; the University of Toronto, Toronto (1827) ; Acadia College, Wolfville, Nova Scotia (1838) ; Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario (1841) ; Victoria College, formerly at Cobourg, Ontario, now at Toronto in combination with the University of Toronto (1841) ; Bishop's College, Len- noxville, Quebec (1843) j Trinity College, Toronto (1852) ;' Laval University, Quebec (1852) ; St. Michael's College, Tor- onto (1852); the University of Mount Allison, Sackville, New SCIENCE. 42 1 Brunswick (1862) ; the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario (1874) ; the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Mani- toba (1877) ; McMaster University, Toronto (1888), There are other colleges doing good work, besides a number of theo- logical and technical schools, and schools for women only. Each province has well- equipped Normal Schools for the training of its teachers, and there are flourishing schools of agriculture in Quebec and Nova Scotia. Out of Canada's five milhon people, it is estimated that more than one million are in attendance at her schools and colleges. If the civiHzation of a country is to be judged from the diffusion of knowledge among its people, then Canada's place must be high upon the roll. Canada's contribution to science is of two kinds. She has pro- duced several eminent scientists ; and she has organized, under government direction, a thoroughly equipped geo- logical survey, which year by year adds richly to the world's store of scientific knowledge. Though first of all occupied in the national task of discovering and making known the resources of our own country, the work of the Canadian Geological Survey reaches far beyond those limits. The present director of the Survey is Doctor Selwyn. The first great name in Canadian science is that of Sir William Logan, who became the head of the Geological Survey in 1841. He was born in Montreal in 1798, and in 1856 was knighted for his services in the cause of science. Certain rock formations which enter largely into the structure of earth's framework are known the world over as the Laurentian rocks. This was the name given them by Logan, who studied the formation among the hills of the lower St. Lawrence. Logan died in 1875. A name perhaps even more illustrious than his, is that of Sir William Dawson. Born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1820, educated at Pictou Academy and Edinburgh University, Dawson was made superintendent of education in his native province at the early age of thirty. In this post his energy and abihty were so conspicuous that in 1855 he was made principal of McGill University. His most important works are the "Acadian 422 A HISTORY OP CANADA. Geology," "Fossil Men," "Origin of the Earth," and "The Chain of Life." To him we owe the discovery of the earliest form of animal life, and to his patriotism we owe the fact that this first of creatures is known to the scientific world as the "Eozoon Canadense." Sir William Dawson in 1886 was elected to the dis- tinguished office of president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The late Sir Daniel Wilson, though born in Edinburgh and with his reputation won before coming to Canada, may be claimed by Canadian science. Being made president of Toronto University, he identified himself completely with Canadian interests, and his most important contribution to science, the volume on " Prehistoric Man," was written after he became a Canadian. Among our contemporary men of science stands preeminent the veteran worker, Sandford Fleming, chan- cellor of Queen's University, whose patriotism and learning are ever pointing the way to national achievements, and his energy pressing them to fulfilment. He first showed the feasibility of the Canadian Pacific Railway, finding for it a path through the mountains. He has identified the name of Canada, and his own name, with the system of standard time which now prevails all over Canada and the United States, and which will in all likeli- hood be adopted by the world. His steady advocacy of a Pacific cable between Canada and Australasia seems now about to win the fruits of success. Other Canadians there are whose hands are carry- ing onward the torch of knowledge ; but while they are shoulder to shoulder with us in contemporary emulation, their names are not matter for history. A later day will decide their rank and fame. For causes which we have already seen, literature has been a plant of slow growth on Canadian soil. During the larger portion of our history, moreover, there has been wanting that Literature. "" ' , . , ® warmth of national sentiment without which, no matter how favourable other conditions may be, a great imaginative litera- ture does not spring up. In spite of obstacles, however, Canada has done enough to show the strong imaginative and intellectual bent of her people. Her contribution to the world's literature is LITERA TURE. 423 more distinguished than that of any other colony. It is immeas- urably richer than anything that the great kindred repubUc to the south of us could boast, till more than half a century of national life had given her a population five times as numerous as ours. It must be remembered that the need of literary expression could not arise very early in a people whose energies were ab- sorbed in the struggle for Hfe, and whose cravings for intellectual food had the literatures of France and England to satisfy them. The earliest Canadian writings are, as might be expected, in the French language. The father of Canada, Champlain, was his own historian, and his narrations may justify us in calling him the father of Canadian literature. In the same way we may claim the writings of Marc Lescarbot, the immortalizer of Port Royal, and of Charlevoix, whose histories of " La Nouvelle France " are Canadian in origin and subject. With them may be mentioned the " Jesuit Relations," and Father Lafitau's work on the American Indians, which was published at Paris in 1724. All these, how- ever, must be regarded as Canadian literature merely by courtesy. Those early days of Canada produced not literature but the mate- rials of hterature, — the inspiration for poets, historians, novehsts, to come. The real beginnings of a literary spirit in Canada may be said to date from the triumph of Responsible Government. That struggle had broadened men's minds and taught them to think for themselves. With the consciousness of power came the desire for expression. Good work was done in the newspapers, chiefly, of course, on political questions. Patriotic poems and essays were written, like those of the accomplished orator and statesman, Joseph Howe. In Nova Scotia now arose the most distinguished of native Canadian writers, Thomas Chandler Hali- burton. Haliburton was born at Annapolis in 1796. He was educated at King's College, Windsor, practised law, sat as a mem- ber of the provincial Legislature, and was finally called to the bench. He wrote "An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," and a number of other books ; but the work on which rests his fame is " The Clockmaker ; or Sayings and Doings of Sam 424 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Slick of Slickville." The shrewd and racy utterances of the Yankee clockmaker became popular at once. First published by Joseph Howe, in his famous newspaper the Novascotian, they were reprinted in England and America ; and Hahburton be- came the progenitor of a brilliant line of American humorists. In recognition of his genius the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L., — after which his own Alma Mater, King's College, tardily accorded him a like honour. Haliburton became generally known by the name of his immortal creation ; and the old Haliburton house at Windsor is called popularly " Sam Slick's place." His humour was pointed with a pungent satire which often touched his fellow-countrymen on the raw. Behind it lay the patriotic motive of arousing the provincialists to their splendid opportunities, and shaming them into emulation of the sharp and active Yankees. The effort has not been all in vain. At length Haliburton's fame led to the offer of a seat in the British House of Commons. The offer was accepted, and in 1859 Haliburton became member for Launceston. He died in Eng- land in 1865. Canadian literature, like Canadian life, may be said to flow in two parallel streams, in closest connection but not intermingling. At first the greater fruitfulness was found in the French tongue, but in later years this difference has vanished, and now the work of English Canadians is inferior neither in quality nor volume to that of their French kindred. In history the great work of Fran- cois Xavier Garneau, the first volume of which appeared at Que- bec in 1845, had long to wait ere Enghsh Canada could produce its peer. Garneau's work covers the history of Canada down to the union of 1841. An English translation appeared in i860. Other French Canadian historians of distinction are Bibaud (who wrote before Garneau), Ferland, and Turcotte. The Abb^ Faillon, after a ten years' residence in Canada, wrote a valuable history of the French province. Among contemporaries whose reputation is , secure must be named the Abb6 Casgrain and Monsieur Benja- min Suite. Of historical value, though in the form of a romance, is LITERA TURE. 425 de Gasp^'s "Les Anciens Canadiens," in which the life of French Canada before the Conquest is reproduced with a picturesque and loving touch. Among Canadian historians writing in English must be mentioned, besides Haliburton, another Nova Scotian who was educated at Windsor, namely, Robert Christie, whose " History of Lower Canada " was contemporary with Garneau's work. Weighty and authoritative is Alpheus Todd's " History of Parliamentary Government in England." Eminent among contemporaries is Doctor Kingsford, of whose monumental history eight volumes have appeared. It is, as far as now completed, the most com- plete history of Canada in existence. The volumes of Doctor J. G. Bourinot have won acceptance all over the English-speaking world. Doctor Bourinot's most important work is entitled " Par- liamentary Practice and Procedure." Perhaps the most conspic- uous figure in Canadian literature at the present day is that of Professor Goldwin Smith, whose work is chiefly historical. Gold- win Smith's fame was established before he came to Canada. He was born in England in 1823. In 187 1 he settled in Toronto. Some of his writings are Canadian in subject, but they are far from Canadian in sentiment. His style is marked by incisive vigour and picturesque effect. His most important work is " The United States ; an Outline of Political History," published in 1893. In fiction the Canadian output has not been large, until within the past five years. Besides Haliburton and de Gasp^, already mentioned, the* chief names are those of James de Mille, author of" Cord and Creese," the " Dodge Club," etc. ; Joseph Marmette, author of " Frangois de Bienville " and other historical romances ; and William Kirby, author of " The Golden Dog." The French Canadian poet, Pamphile le May, has written several entertaining romances. In the present day a strong school of Canadian fiction is arising. The first Canadian poet of genuine gift was Octave Cr^mazie, who wrote in French. His lyrics are full of patriotic fervour. More famous than Cr^mazie is Louis Honore Frechette, whose poems in 1880 won for Canada the laurel wreath of the French 426 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Academy. The volumes thus honoured by the highest literary tribunal in France were "Les Fleurs Boreales " and " Les Oiseaux de Neige." Frechette was born at L^vis in 1839. Other names long established in French Canadian poetry are those of P. J. O. Chauveau and Pamphile le May. The earliest Canadian poet writing in English was Charles Sangster, whose metrical description of Canadian scenes were first published in 1856. His verse is full of genuine Canadian feeling. Alexander McLachlan, as far back as 1861, sang of life in the back settlements. The most important poem of pre-Confederation days, and in some respects perhaps the greatest piece of Canadian verse, was the drama of "Saul," by Charles Heavysege, published at Montreal in 1857. This work received commendation in England and America. Midway between the older men and the young writers now known as the Canadian School stand John Reade, Hunter Duvar, and Charles Mair. The former published in 1870 a book of scholarly and well-wrought verse, " The Prophecy of Merlin, and Other Poems." Hunter Duvar's chief work is a vigorous' historical drama on the subject of Roberval. Charles Mair issued a thin volume, called "Dreamland," in 1868, and in 1886 a drama en- titled "Tecumseh." This thoroughly Canadian creation, full of sturdy patriotism, brings the author into touch with the eager band of young writers now winning their spurs in the literary arena of the world. The figures of our younger writers — poets, novelists, essayists, historians — are still obscured by the dust of struggle. They stand too near to let us judge their proportions accurately. They have gained a creditable standing in the eyes of the world ; but it is not for a contemporary to say which heads of them tower the highest, which names should live on the pages of our country's history. Suffice to say that they are helping to give effective form to the growing national sentiment of our people. In the Royal Society of Canada, science and literature meet on common ground. French and English writers are drawn together in sympathetic emulation. The society was founded by the Mar- quis of Lome, acting with some of the most distinguished leaders ROYAL SOCIETY AND ROYAL ACADEMY. 427 of thought in the Dominion. Its object was the development of literature and science in Canada. Its first meeting was held at Ottawa, in 1882, with Sir William Dawson as president, ^ ' ^, . .J 'The Royal the Hon. P. T. O. Chauveau as vice-president. The society of Canada, membership of the society was limited to eighty, divided into four sections of twenty each. Each section elects its own members. Section I. is devoted to French- Canadian Literature and History ; Section II. to Enghsh-Canadian Litera- ture and History; Section III. to Mathematical, Physical, and Chemical Science ; Section IV. to Geological and Biological Science. The society holds its annual meetings in May, usually at Ottawa, and publishes every year a large volume of transac- tions. These volumes contain an immense amount of valuable matter, the result of original research in the fields of history, archseology, and the various branches of science. The expense of their publication is covered by a government grant. What the Royal Society of Canada would fain do for literature and science, the Royal Canadian Academy seeks to do for art. This institution was founded by Lord Lome and the ^ The Royal Princess Louise, in 1880. Its first president was Canadian Academy, L. R. O Brien, one of the most successful of Cana- and art in Canada. dian painters. Its members are distinguished by the title of Royal Canadian Academician, but the title of Associate Academician may be conferred upon others not yet admitted to full membership. Almost all Canadian artists of repute are on the rolls, either as full members or associates. Exhibitions have been held in various cities of Canada, but the Academy languishes for lack of public support. Canadian art has been very slow to develop, but the interest of Canada in her artists grows yet more slowly. In sculpture we have little of native origin to show except the excellent work of Hubert, a French- Canadian. But in painting the product is richer, and the work of some Canadian painters wins favour in the galleries and mar- kets of the world. Paul Kane, a depicter of Indian life, may be regarded as the pioneer of Canadian art. The names of Verner, 428 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Fraser, Sandham, Forbes, Forster, Harris, Matthews, Bell-Smith, Reid, Bourassa, Walker, Homer Watson, emerge into prominence among a large number who are doing creditable work. Which of them will win permanent fame remains to be seen. They are contemporaries; and therefore, though we may rightly take a patriotic pride in their works, it is too soon to hazard a judgment on their relative importance. An artist of genuine gift was the young Canadian, Paul Peel, who died as he stood on the thresh- old of fame, crowned with the highest approval of the Paris Salon. At the World's Fair at Chicago, in 1893, a number of Canadian artists were represented, and several prizes were won by Canadian pictures. Most conspicuous among these was a large and effective painting called " The Foreclosure of the Mortgage," by George Reid. * There is inspiring material for Canadian artists in our land- scapes and in the romantic pages of our history ; and when our people supply a more stimulating sympathy, and our chief cities awaken to the need of establishing art-galleries to advance the culture of their citizens, then the struggUng seedhng of Canadian art will doubtless expand in swift and vigorous growth. 109. Material Progress. — The first Canadian railway was begun in 1832. It was about fourteen miles in length, and ran from La Prairie on the St. Lawrence to St. John's on Railways. '' the Richelieu, thus connecting the St. Lawrence with the navigable waters of Lake Champlain. In 1835 a railway was projected between Quebec and the winter port of St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Work was under way on this hne when the Ash- burton Treaty of 1842 gave the United States a great portion of the territory over which the road was to run ; and the enterprise was therefore given up. At the time of Confederation Canada had twenty-two hundred aud fifty-eight miles of railway. Now, by the returns of 1893, she has fifteen thousand and twenty miles in operation. Of these, fifty-seven hundred and eighty- five belong to the Canadian Pacific system, thirty-one hundred and sixty-eight miles to the Grand Trunk system, and thirteen CHIGNECTO SHIP RAILWAY. 429 hundred and eighty-four to the Intercolonial system, all of which have been discussed in earlier chapters. In her rail- ways Canada has nearly nine hundred millions of paid-up capital invested. In railway mileage Canada ranks seventh among the countries of the world, the United States coming first with one hundred and sixty- five thousand miles, then the British Empire, German Empire, France, Russian Empire, and Austrian Empire, in the order named. Canada has many ad- ditional railways either under construction or projected. The most interesting of these are the Hudson Bay Railway and the Chignecto Ship Railway. Of the Hudson Bay Railway some forty or fifty miles are built. The line runs northward from Winnipeg and is intended to reach Hudson Bay either at Port Nelson or Port Churchill. This would give a summer outlet for the produce of the North-west, by water route through Hudson's Bay and Strait. Owing to the diminution of the earth's circumference as it approaches the poles, the distance between Liverpool and Port Nelson is much less than that between Liverpool and Montreal or New York. With a second transcontinental line from Hudson Bay up the North Saskatchewan and through the Peace River valley to Port Simpson, the distance between Liver- pool and Japan would be reduced by nearly two thousand miles. The great disadvantage of the Hudson Bay route lies in the fact that the season of navigation in bay and strait is brief, as a rule not more than three months, and the passage much obstructed by fogs and ice-floes. The Chignecto Ship Railway is an enterprise which has come to a standstill when already nearing completion. It crosses the Isthmus of Chignecto, between New Brunswick and y . Chignecto Nova Scotia, and connects the waters of the Gulf of Ship Rail- way. St. Lawrence with those of the Bay (5f Fundy. Its total length is seventeen miles. It is designed to carry ships, of all sizes up to a burden of two thousand tons, from water to water. At either end of the road are docks, from which ships are to be raised on hydraulic lifts to the level of the rails. Secured in a 430 A HISTORY OF CANADA. huge steel cradle, the ship will be drawn across the meadows and through the hills by two giant locomotives, and lowered again to the water at her strange journey's end. It is held by the pro- moters that the ship railway will be cheaper to build and maintain than a canal of equal capacity. The need of a ship-way across the isthmus has been felt for nearly a century. If the railway proves a success, the problem of connection between Atlantic and Pacific waters may be solved by a ship railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Another interesting possibility is a ship railway from Georgian Bay to the lower waters of Lake Ontario. The Chignecto Ship Railway supplants the long-considered project of a canal between the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The canal system of Canada is one of Canals. great extent and importance. The first Canadian canal was that at Lachine, nine miles long, begun in 1821 and completed in three years. Then came the great enterprise of vanquishing Niagara Falls and opening connection between Lakes Erie and Ontario. This was accomplished by the Welland Canal, inseparably connected with which is the name of its dauntless promoter, William H. Merritt. The first Welland Canal, a shal- low way with but four feet of water in the locks, was open in 1829. Now the canal has an available depth of fourteen feet. Its length is twenty-seven miles. These canals are a part of the chief canal system of Canada, that of the St. Lawrence, which renders available twenty-two hundred and sixty miles of inland waterway. The most capacious canal of the system is that which overcomes the Falls of Ste. Marie, between Lakes Huron and Superior. The volume of freight passing between these lakes in one summer is greater than that passing through the Suez Canal in the whole year. The depth of water in the Canadian Canal (there is also an American canal at Ste. Marie) is twenty- two feet. The vast lock is nine hundred feet in length, by sixty in width. Certain other canals of the St. Lawrence sys-, tem have a depth of but nine feet. It is now proposed to deepen the whole system to twenty feet, thus admitting large SHIPPING. 431 ocean ships to the head of Lake Superior. These canals are open to Americans on the same terms as to Canadians. Other important canal systems of Canada are the Rideau and Ottawa,' giving Ottawa free water communication with Montreal and King- ston ; and the Richelieu and Lake Champlain system, connecting Montreal with New York by way of the Hudson River. Of in- terest, too, is the St. Peter's Canal, giving access from the Atlantic to the Bras d'Or Lakes which open up the heart of Cape Breton. As long ago as 1837 it was proposed to construct a canal between the Bay of Quints and Georgian Bay, utilizing the Trent River and a number of the lakes which lie along the in- tended route. The whole distance is two hundred and thirty-five miles, of which one hundred and fifty are already available for small vessels. In view of the great and rapidly growing traffic of the upper lakes, the project has lately been revived and may before long be carried out. The effect of deep water canals either between Erie and Ontario or between Ontario and Huron, and also around the various rapids of the St. Lawrence, would be to make the cities of the lakes practically maritime ports. Canada is a great maritime nation. After the fur-trade, the first native Canadian industry was the building of ships in which to gather the rich harvest of our fisheries. The sea- 11 Shipping. board provmces have a coast line serried with bays, and estuaries, and secure little havens. Everywhere at hand stood the timber, and the lure of the fisheries was ever present. Each small port and creek-mouth came to have its ship-yard. The men had in their blood the seafaring instinct of their ancestors ; and soon our keels were furrowing every sea. In 1723 ship-building was an established industry with us, that year seeing the construc- tion of two men-of-war and six merchant ships. The device on New Brunswick's shield is a ship. Our daring sailors carried their lumber and their fish around the world, and brought many a snug fortune home to their native villages. Canada attained, not long after Confederation, the rank of the fourth ship-owning country of the world. Her coasts are studded with light-houses, fog- 432 A HISTORY OF CANADA. horns, and like safeguards to the mariner. In 1893 the registered ships of the world numbered thirty-two thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight ; of this number seventy-one hundred and thir- teen were Canadian, or nearly one-fourth of the whole. The first vessel successfully propelled by steam was Robert Fulton's invention, the Clermont, which ran on the Hudson in 1807 ; and only two years later a steamboat was running on the St. Law- rence. The first steamship to cross the Atlantic was a Canadian vessel, the Royal William, built at Quebec in 1831, and supplied with machinery by Montreal. Canadian in its origin was the first successful line of ocean steamers, the great Cunard Line, which was begun in 1840. Its founder and head was Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, afterwards made a baronet. It started with a fleet of four steamers plying between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston. The first distinctively Canadian ocean steamers, however, were those of the Allan Line, founded by Hugh Allan, plying between Liverpool and Quebec in summer, Liverpool and Halifax in winter. The first ship of this line was the Canadian, built in 1853. Allan's genius and indomitable energy carried the enterprise to success through myriad obstacles, and won him the honour of knighthood. Now Canada has steamship lines on both oceans and on all her great inland waters. She has fifteen hundred and thirty-eight steamers on her own registry, with many more which have been transferred to the British registry. The great maritime achieve- ment of Canada's immediate future bids fair to be the inaugu- ration of a line of large and swift Atlantic steamers, equal to the best of those running out of New York, which will cut down the ocean passage by way of the Canadian route to only four days. Of late years the conditions of shipping and ship-building have greatly changed. All over the world the sail is giving way to the screw, wooden ships to those of iron and steel ; but Canada, with her vast resources in iron, coal, and nickel, may count upon as great maritime progress under the new conditions as undei; the old. The chief of all the industries of Canada is agriculture. Our AGRICULTURE, MINES, AND FISHERIES. 433 soil and climate enable us to produce the best food grains of the world, the best apples, the best potatoes, with live-stock and dairy produce inferior to none. Half our population depends upon agriculture for a livelihood, and our shipping depends upon agriculture for more than half its freights. Canada is already one of the great wheat exporters of the world, though but a small proportion of her wheat-lands has yet been brought under cultivation. She may reasonably look to become the chief of all wheat countries. The wealth of our soil is not only in its food products but in its minerals. Our tremendous and varied mineral wealth is as yet barely on the threshold of its development. In coal, . Mines, iron, lime, petroleum, salt, copper, nickel, gold, asbes- tos, our resources are inexhaustible. We have also lead, silver, platinum, phosphates, and almost all the other important minerals. Each year reveals new riches awaiting our capital and our enter- prise. Even now, when we may be said to have barely scratched the surface in a few places, the yearly product of our mines is worth from nineteen to twenty millions. In the harsh and deso- late regions about the Arctic Circle lie treasures of coal, petro- leum, and other minerals, which are likely to give those distant territories a value not possessed by many more favoured cUmes. The plains through which the giant Mackenzie rolls its northward way grow forbidding to husbandry as they approach the Circle, but do not cease to invite the miner's toil. It is not unlikely that they will some day be thronged with a busy and prosperous population. Not from the soil only, but also from the sea, does Canada gather in her harvests. Her fisheries are the most extensive in the world. Her deep-sea fisheries on the Atlantic r ^ ■ r I Fisherics. and Pacific coasts, the fresh-water fisheries of her great lakes and rivers, yielded in 1893 a revenue of ^21,000,000. They are the object of incessant care to the government, which protects them with armed cruisers and strict regulations. There are four- teen fish-breeding establishments in Canada, devoted to the hatch- 434 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. ing of fish-spawn and the stocking of waters with young fish. The questions of cod, herring, mackerel, salmon, and lobster have seemed important enough to lead us into many quarrels with our neighbours. Besides these pursuits, of late there has grown up a great manufacturing interest. In 1891 Canada had seventy-five thousand seven hundred and forty-one industrial establishments, with a capital of about ^^c;i; ,000,000, distributing Industries ^ -^OJOJ ' > & and banking in wages over ^100,000,000. The busmess of Can- system. ada is carried on through the medium of thirty-nine chartered banks, with total assets of over ^300,000,000. The Dominion government issues ^21,000,000 of notes. The bank- ing system is both safe and elastic. We may fairly claim it to be the most effective banking system in existence. The oldest Canadian bank, as well as the richest, is the Bank of Montreal, established in 181 7. The currency^ of Canada is in dollars and cents. She issues copper and silver coin, but no gold. When gold coins are used in Canada, they are from the British or American mints. The postal system of Canada is elaborate and complete. The general letter rate is three cents per ounce or under. In 1875 Postal, tele- Canada made an agreement with the United States by ^feph'one^ which a Canadian letter goes to any part of the United systems. States for the same postage as in Canada, and an American letter goes to any part of Canada for the same postage as in America. There is no account kept between the two post- offices, but each country carries the other's letters free. In 1885 Canada became a member of the Universal Postal Union, which now includes almost all the countries of the civilized world. In 1893 there were eighty-four hundred and seventy-seven post- 1 The former currency of Canada was known as " Halifrix Currency." It used the names pounds, shillings, and pence; but a pound was just four dollars, instead of ^4.865. This was called a "pound currency," to distinguish it from a "pound sterling." A shilling currency was 20 cents, and sixpence currency 10 cents. House rents in the Maritime Provinces are still sometimes reckoned in " pounds currency " by the older people. MILITARY SYSTEM. 435 offices in Canada, and the total number of letters and post-cards carried was about one hundred and twenty-nine million. The telegraph systems of Canada are in the hands of private com- panies. There are in all about thirty-two thousand miles of tele- graph line in Canada, in which respect we rank eighth among the countries of the world. The first submarine cable of the world was laid between Dover and Calais in 185 1. In the following year was laid, between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, the first cable of the New World ; and the second cable of the New World was laid between Cape Breton and Newfoundland in 1856. The great transatlantic cables from Europe all terminate in Canada ; and as a result of the Colonial Conference of 1894 there is to be a cable system from our shores to Australasia and the Orient. So close are we drawing to that Cathay which our fathers dreamed of finding and died in search of. The telephone had its birth in Canada. The first telephone ever constructed was put up in the town of Brantford, Ontario. ^ It connected the house of the inventor, Graham Bell, with that of a neighbour. In 1877, at Hamilton, the first business line was established. There are now nearly fifty thousand miles of telephone lines in Canada. At Confederation Canada took upon herself the charge of her own defences, and Great Britain, as we have seen, withdrew her troops, except those of the Halifax station. The Military naval defences of our seacoast are the care of Eng- sy^*^"^- land's ships. The headquarters of the North Atlantic Squadron are under the guns of Halifax, upon whose mighty fortifications Great Britain has spent millions. Our militia system is under the charge of a minister of militia. Subject to his orders is the general-in-command, whose appointment, however, rests with the Imperial government. The first minister of militia was the great French-Canadian, Sir George Cartier. The first Dominion Mihtia Act was passed in 1868, and has been much modified since. As it now stands, the militia of Canada consists of all the male inhabitants between the ages of eighteen and sixty, except clergymen, judges, and certain other officials. One who 436 A HISTORY OF CANADA. is the only son and sole support of a widow is also exempt. The sons of Canada who are liable for military service are divided into four classes : — ( i ) Unmarried men or childless widowers between eighteen and thirty; (2) Unmarried men or childless widowers between thirty and forty-five ; (3) Men between eigh- teen and forty-five who are married, or widowers with children ; (4) Men between forty-five and sixty. These are called upon, in case of necessity, in the order of their classes. There is a further division into Permanent, Active, and Reserve Militia. The permanent corps is limited to one thousand men, and con- sists of Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry. These do garrison duty, and also serve as schools ^ of instruction for members of the Active Militia. There is also the permanent corps of one thousand North-west Mounted Police, already referred to. The Active Militia is limited to forty-five thousand, who serve for three years, and drill from eight to sixteen days each year. The Reserve Militia consists of all those who are not in the permanent or active corps. The Dominion is divided into twelve mihtary dis- tricts, each under the command of a deputy adjutant-general and permanent staff. The militia expenditure for each year is from one to two millions. The number of men between eighteen and forty-five, now available for service in case of war, is some- thing over a million. At Kingston is our Royal Military College, of which Canada is justly proud. It was founded in 1875, and its graduates have Royal Miii- done their country credit. Eighty-five of them have tary College, j-gceived commissions in the Imperial Army, Among these are two of Canada's heroes, her youngest but not least glorious. Captain William Grant Stairs, whose bravery and skill were winning him honours in African exploration when one of the 1 The permanent corps and schools of instruction consist of " A " and " B " Troops, Royal Canadian Dragoons, at Quebec and Winnipeg; "A" and "B" Batteries, Royal Canadian Artillery, at Kingston and Quebec; Nos. i and 2 Companies of Garrison Artillery at Quebec; Nos. i, 2, 3, and 4 Companies Royal- Canadian Regiment of Infantry, at London (Ontario), Toronto, St. John's (Que- bec), and Fredericton. PRESENT CONDITIONS. 437 deadly fevers of that treacherous land struck him down, was born in Halifax in 1863. He graduated at Kingston, was gazetted to the Royal Engineers, and followed Stanley into unknown Africa, where he met his death at Chinde, in 1892. Captain William Beverley Robinson was born in St. John in 1864, and graduated at Kingston. He received a commission in the Royal army, and was employed on the African service at Sierra Leone. While on this service he was sent with a little party to reduce the stockaded capital of a hostile tribe in the interior. The gates of the stockade required to be blown down with gun-cotton, as the expedition had no artillery. The task of applying the gun-cotton, in the face of the ready rifles and thronging assegais of the enemy, when the lightest blow would excite the explosive and rend the bearer into fragments, was too appalling for any of the rank and file to face. Captain Robinson volunteered, marched up to the gate amid a shower of missiles, and affixed the gun-cotton as deliberately as if he had been on parade. Just as his task was accomplished he was shot down. But his heroism had won the victory (1892). From the earliest pages of our story to this its latest, is traced the inspiring record of Canadian fortitude and Canadian daring. no. Present Conditions, and the Outlook. — Boundless are the possibilities of that future upon which the eyes of Canada are now fixed with confident but questioning hope. We feel dimly the movement of great forces, our veins thrill •11- , r • 1 i-r ^ ^ ^^^ heritage, with the unpulse of an eager national life, and the figure of our destiny looms splendid and mysterious before us. Rich almost beyond calculation is our heritage, material, intel- lectual, spiritual. The area of Canada is 3,456,383 square miles. It constitutes more than one-third of the whole British Empire, and is only about two hundred thousand square miles smaller than the continent of Europe. In other words, if Canada were placed upon Europe the whole of that continent would be covered, with the exception of France; or, if the United States, without Alaska, were placed on Canada, British Columbia and half Alberta would be left uncovered. Without its dependent territory Alaska, 438 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the United States is four hundred thousand square miles smaller than Canada. The one Canadian province of British Columbia is larger than France, Italy, Switzerland, and Portugal taken all to- gether. Quebec and Ontario are each larger than the German Empire and Switzerland combined. Nova Scotia is larger than Greece, or Switzerland, or Denmark, or Holland, or Belgium. Yet Nova Scotia is the second smallest province of Canada. Prince Edward Island is larger than Montenegro. The inland waterways of Canada are the most extensive in the world. In her lakes and rivers might be sunk the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, and nineteen thousand square miles of water would be left unfilled. Our climate, though it varies enormously over an area so vast, is such as has always bred the strongest and most enterprising races of mankind. We have the largest and richest fisheries, coal areas, and timber regions of the world. Our wheat-lands, grazing lands, and iron mines, when developed, will be among the most produc- tive in the world. To develop these matchless resources we have a people blended of two dominant races, — a people tracing its origins to freedom, religion, and loyalty, — a people which has kept itself clean from the taint of criminal and pauper immigration. To Our people. . fib mcite us to greatness we have all the glory of France and Britain, whose heirs we are, whose example is always before us, the seeds of whose virtues are sown in our blood. Thus peculiarly favoured by the God of Nations, we stand with our feet on the threshold of the future. In the wide prospect which opens before our eyes there is more than one possible goal re- vealed. To which of these our fate is leading us is a question which should stir us with ceaseless solicitude. It is a question of tremendous import. It gives to life in Canada a meaning, a hope, an impulse, a sense of mighty possibilities. We feel that these are great and significant days. We seem to ourselves the chil- dren of Destiny. Our present colonial position can hardly be a permanent one. Favourable as it is to our growth, it is not the best thing for our CANADA'S FUTURE. 439 manhood that we should too long continue to accept the pro- tection of the motherland without bearing our part in the respon- sibilities of empire. Colonies are children of the pa- '■ Our present rent nation. When a child becomes a man, he by-and- colonial status, by ceases to serve in his father's house. He is either taken into full partnership, or he goes forth to face life indepen- dently and work out his destiny with his own hands. The colonial standing is a subordinate one, disguise it as we may. To accept it as permanent would stamp us cowards, and give the lie to our whole heroic past. But it may well last a generation yet, en- abhng us to pursue our course of peaceful expansion ; on the other hand, it may scarce outlive this century, which draws to a close amid many portents of change. The future presents to us three possible alternatives, — absorp- tion by the United States, Independence, or a federal union with the rest of the British Empire. The first of these The possibili- is the fate which, as we know, has long been planned ties of our future. for US by our kinsfolk of the great repubUc. The Monroe doctrine, already referred to, seems to anticipate it ; for in the eyes of some American statesmen and historians it is the manifest destiny of the United States to occupy the North Ameri- can continent. But to Canadians " manifest destiny " wears a very different face. It is through no unfriendliness toward a great kindred people that we reject unconditionally the idea of absorp- tion. We point with pride to the magnificent achievements of that nation, allied to us in language and in blood. Their self- rehant energy, their intellectual force, their ardent patriotism, we hold up as an example to ourselves. But our growth has been on different lines from theirs, our aspirations and political ideas are not theirs, our very existence as a people has its root in a sharp divergence from their principles. As the sentiment of Canadian nationalism deepens year by year, we realize that to sink our life in another's, to have our country torn apart and swallowed up as so many additional states of the American Union, would be a burning ignominy. It would make vain all the sacrifices of our 440 A HISTORY OF CANADA. fathers, all the blood they shed in their country's cause. We should be no longer worthy of the great nation into whose bosom we should carry our sordid purposes and craven hearts. The name of Canada would cease to shine across the continent ; and in vanishing it would leave but a humiliating memory. It is safe to conclude that absorption by the United States, commonly known as Annexation, is not likely to be the fate of Canada. But the other alternatives, Independence and Federation with the Empire, come within the range of the probable. Either would seem to be a goal toward which patriotism might consistently strive. To many ardent Canadians, Independence seems the more attractive ideal. It is a manly ideal, easy to grasp, and thrilling to the young imagination. At the same time it seems to stand fairly in the line of our growth. It could perhaps be accomplished without any violent break in the course of our history. But there can be Httle doubt that if undertaken now or soon it would but open a door to annexation. It would put us to such an expense for diplomatic, consular, mihtary, and above all naval service, in the protection of our vast commercial navy, that we might soon find ourselves borne to the ground with debt. No longer backed by Great Britain, we should be at the mercy of every demand of the United States, who might help herself to our fisheries, or, forcing us to defend them in a ruinous war, dismember us when exhausted, even as she treated Mexico. If Independence is to be our goal, we should be rash indeed to seek it now, while our population is so small and our wide frontier so vulnerable. Meanwhile there is rising into view a grander idea, which appeals to a higher and broader patriotism. The project of Im- perial Federation fits at least as logically upon our career as Inde- pendence. Indeed, it gives a fuller meaning to our whole past, — to our birth from the disruption of 1776, — to our almost miraculous preservation from seizure by the United States while we were yet but a handful of scattered settlements, — to our struggle for unity, — to our daring and splendid expansion, — and to the cost at which we have secured it. Independence, more- IMPERIAL FEDERATION. 441 over, is selfish in its aims, while Imperial Federation considers not our own interests only, but those of the mother country, and the growing debt of loyalty which we owe her. It is possible to con- ceive of a form of Imperial Federation which would so guard the autonomy of each federating nation and so strictly limit the powers of the central government as to satisfy even those who desire absolute independence. The practical independence enjoyed under such a federation would be secured by the force of the whole empire. It is urged that the difficulties in the way are too great to be overcome, — but it is the fashion of our race to overcome difficulties. It is urged that the distances between Great Britain, Canada, Australasia, South Africa, are too vast to permit of union, . — but the swift steamship, the fast express, the cable, and the telegraph have so reduced the effect of these distances that the most widely separated portions of the empire are now less far apart than were Ottawa and Vancouver Island when British Columbia joined the Dominion. Imperial Federation would admit us to full political manhood without the dishonour of annexation, or the risk and the ingratitude of Independence. It would build up such a power as would secure the peace of the world. It would gain for our race a glory beside which the most dazzling pages of earth's history would grow pale. It is a less daring dream than that which Canada brought to pass when she united the shores of three oceans under the sway of one poor and scat- tered colony. It is Canada who has taught feeble provinces how to federate, how to form a mighty commonwealth while re- maining within the empire. It may be her beneficent mission, also, to lead the way toward the realization of the vaster and more glorious dream. APPENDIX A. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, • and the Government thereof, and for Purposes connected therewith. [2gth March, 1867.] Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom : And whereas such a Union would conduce to the Welfare of the Provinces and promote the Interests of the British Empire : And whereas on the Establishment of the Union by Authority of Parliament it is expedient, not only that the Constitution of the Legis- lative Authority in the Dominion be provided for, but also that the Nature of the Executive Government therein be declared : And whereas it is expedient that Provision be made for the eventual Admission into the Union of other Parts of British North America : Be it therefore enacted and declared by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows : I. Preliminary. 1. This Act may be cited as The British North America Act, 1867. 2. The Provisions of this Act referring to Her Majesty the Queen extend also to the Heirs and Successors of Her Majesty, Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 443 444 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. II. Union. 3. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a Day therein appointed, not being more than Six Months after the passing of this Act, the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall form and be One Dominion under the Name of Canada ; and on and after that Day those three Provinces shall form and be One Dominion under that Name accordingly. 4. The subsequent Provisions of this Act shall, unless it is other- wise expressed or implied, commence and have effect on and after the Union, that is to say, on and after the Day appointed for the Union, taking effect in the Queen's Proclamation ; and in the same Provisions, unless it is otherwise expressed or implied, the Name Canada shall be taken to mean Canada as constituted under this Act. 5. Canada shall be divided into Four Provinces, named Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick. 6. The Parts of the Province of Canada (as it exists at the passing of this Act), which formerly constituted respectively the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, shall be deemed to be severed, and shall form Two separate Provinces. The Part which formerly con- stituted the Province of Upper Canada shall constitute the Province of Ontario ; and the part which formerly constituted the Province of Lower Canada shall constitute the Province of Quebec. 7. The Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall have the same Limits as at the passing of this Act. 8. In the general Census of the Population of Canada, which is hereby required to be taken in the Year One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and in every Tenth Year thereafter, the respective Population of the Four Provinces shall be distinguished. III. Executive Power. 9. The Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen. 10. The Provisions of this Act referring to the Governor General extend and apply to the Governor General for the Time being of Canada, or other the Chief Executive Officer or Administrator for the APPENDIX A. 445 Time being carrying on the Government of Canada on behalf and in the Name of the Queen, by whatever Title he is designated. 11. There shall be a Council to aid and advise in the Government of Canada, to be styled the Queen's Privy Council for Canada ; and the Persons who are to be Members of that Council shall be from Time to Time chosen and summoned by the Governor General and sworn in as Privy Councillors, and Members thereof may be from Time to Time removed by the Governor General. 12. All Powers, Authorities, and functions which under any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, are at the Union vested in or exercisable by the respective Governors or Lieutenant Governors of those Provinces, with the Advice, or with the Advice and Consent of the respective Executive Councils thereof, or in conjunction with those Councils, or with any Number of Members thereof, or by those Governors or Lieutenant Governors individually, shall, as far as the same continue in existence and capable of being exercised after the Union in relation to the Government of Canada, be vested in and exercisable by the Governor General, with the Advice or with the Advice and Consent of or in conjunction with the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, or any Members thereof, or by the Governor General individually, as the Case requires, subject nevertheless (ex- cept with respect to such as exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) to be abolished or altered by the Parliament of Canada. 13. The Provisions of this Act referring to the Governor General in Council shall be construed as referring to the Governor General acting by and with the Advice of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. 14. It shall be lawful for the Queen, if Her Majesty thinks fit, to authorize the Governor General from Time to Time to appoint any Person or any Persons jointly or severally to be his Deputy or Depu- ties within any Part or Parts of Canada, and in that Capacity to exer- cise during the Pleasure of the Governor General such of the Powers, Authorities, and Functions of the Governor General as the Governor General deems it necessary or expedient to assign to him or them, subject to any Limitations or Directions expressed or given by the Queen ; but the Appointment of such a Deputy or Deputies shall not 446 A HISTORY OF CANADA. affect the Exercise- by the Governor General himself of any Power, Authority, or Function. 15. The Commander-in-Chief of the Land and Naval Militia, and of all Naval and Military Forces of and in Canada, is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen. 16. Until the Queen otherwise directs, the Seat of Government of Canada shall be Ottawa. IV. Legislative Power. 17. There shall be One Parliament for Canada, Consisting of the Queen, an Upper House styled the Senate, and the House of Commons. 18. Repealed — new Section substituted. See Appendix B. 19. Related only to calling of First Parliatnetit . Acted npon. 20. There shall be a Session of the Parliament of Canada once at least in every Year, so that Twelve Months shall not intervene between the last Sitting of the Parliament in one Session and its first Sitting in the next Session. The Senate. 21. The Senate shall, subject to the Provisions of this Act, consist of Seventy-two Members, who shall be styled Senators. 22. In relation to the Constitution of the Senate, Canada shall be deemed to consist of Three Divisions — 1 . Ontario ; 2. Quebec; 3. The Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; which Three Divisions shall (subject to the Provisions of this Act) be equally represented in the Senate as follows : Ontario by Twenty-four Senators ; Quebec by Twenty-four Senators, and the Maritime Prov- inces by Twenty-four Senators, twelve thereof representing Nova Scotia, and twelve thereof representing New Brunswick. In the Case of Quebec each of the Twenty-four Senators represent- ing that Province shall be appointed for One of the Twenty-four Electoral Divisions of Lower Canada specified in Schedule A. to Chapter One of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada. The Senate 7io'w numbers 81 — Ontario, 24; Quebec, 24; Nova Scotia, 10; New Brutiswick, 10; Manitoba, 4; British Columbia, 3; Prince Edward Island, 4; North West Territories, 2. See Section IA7 of Ifi^^ Act. As Pri7ice Edward Island is now admitted into the Dominion, the representatives from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick APPENDIX A. 447 are respectively ten in number. Majiitoba has four Senators, its popu- lation being 07)er 75,000 (152,506 in 1891). R. S. C. c, 12. 23. The Qualification of a Senator shall be as follows : — (i) He shall be of the full Age of Thirty Years : (2) He shall be either a Natural-born Subject of the Queen, or a Subject of the Queen naturalized by an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of One of the Provinces of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, before the Union, or of the Parlia- ment of Canada after the Union : (3) He shall be legally or equitably seized as of Freehold for his own Use and Benefit of Lands or Tenements held in free and common Socage, or seized or possessed for his own Use and Benefit of Lands or Tenements held in Franc aleu or in Roture, within the Province for which he is appointed, of the Value of Four thousand Dollars, over and above all Rents, Dues, Debts, Charges, Mortgages, and Incumbrances due or payable out of or charged on or affecting the same : (4) His Real and Personal Property shall be together worth Four thousand Dollars over and above his Debts and Liabilities : (5) He shall be resident in the Province for which he is appointed : (6) In the Case of Quebec he shall have his Real Property Quali- fication in the Electoral Division for which he is appointed, or shall be resident in that Division. 24. The Governor General shall from Time to Time, in the Queen's Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon quali- fied Persons to the Senate ; and, subject to the Provisions of this Act, every Person so summoned shall become and be a Member of the Senate and a Senator. 25. Such Persons shall be first summoned to the Senate as the Queen by Warrant under Her Majesty's Royal Sign Manual thinks fit to approve, and their Names shall be inserted in the Queen's Proclama- tion of Union. 26. If at any Time on the Recommendation of the Governor General the Queen thinks fit to direct that Three or Six Members be added to the Senate, the Governor General may by Summons to Three or Six qualified Persons (as the Case may be), representing equally the Three Divisions of Canada, add to the Senate accordingly. 448 A HISTORY OF CANADA. 27. In case of such Addition being at any Time made, the Governor General shall not summon any Person to the Senate, except on a further like Direction by the Queen on the like Recommendation, until each of the Three Divisions of Canada is represented by Twenty-four Sena- tors and no more. 28. The Number of Senators shall not at any Time exceed Seventy- eight. See note io Section 22 above. 29. A Senator shall, subject to the Provisions of this Act, hold his Place in the Senate for Life. 30. A Senator may by writing under his Hand addressed to the Governor General resign His Place in the Senate, and thereupon the same shall be vacant. 31. The Place of a Senator shall become vacant in any of the fol- lowing Cases : — (i) If for Two consecutive Sessions of the Parliament he fails to give his Attendance in the Senate : (2) If he takes an Oath or makes a Declaration or Acknowledgment of Allegiance, Obedience or Adherence to a Foreign Power, or does an Act whereby he becomes a Subject or Citizen, or entitled to the Rights or Privileges of a Subject or Citizen, of a Foreign Power : (3) If he is adjudged Bankrupt or Insolvent, or applies for the Benefit of any Law relating to Insolvent Debtors, or becomes a public Defaulter : (4) If he is attainted of Treason or convicted of Felony or of any infamous Crime : (5) If he ceases to be qualified in respect of Property or of Residence ; provided that a Senator shall not be deemed to have ceased to be qualified in respect of Residence by reason only of his residing at the Seat of the Government of Canada while hold- ing an Office under that Government requiring his Presence there. 32. When a Vacancy happens in the Senate by Resignation, Death, or otherwise, the Governor General shall by Summons to a fit and qualified Person fill the Vacancy. 33. If any Question arises respecting the Qualification of a Senator or a Vacancy in the Senate, the same shall be heard and determined by the Senate. 34. The Governor General may from Time to Time, by Instrument APPENDIX A. 449 under the Great Seal of Canada, appoint a Senator to be Speaker of the Senate, and may remove him and appoint another in his Stead. 35. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the Presence of at least Fifteen Senators, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to.constitute a Meeting of the Senate for the Exercise of its Powers. 36. Questions arising in the Senate shall be decided by a Majority of Voices, and the Speaker shall in all Cases have a Vote, and when the Voices are equal the Decision shall be deemed to be in the Negative. The House of Commons. 37. Provided for 181 Members of the House of Commons; now (50-51 Vzct. [Dom.^, c. 4) the House consists of 21 ^ Members as follows : — Ontario, 92 ; Quebec. 65 ; Nova Scotia, 2 1 ; New Brjins- wick, 16; Prince Edward Island, 6; British Columbia, 6; Manitoba, 5 ; North- West Territories, 4. After the next General Election, the member will be 213: — Ontario, 92 ; Quebec, 65 ; Nova Scotia, 20 ; New Brtmswick, 14; Manitoba, 7; British Columbia, 6; Prince Edward Island, 5 ; North-West Territories, 4. 55-56 Vict. [E>om.'] c. 117. 38. The Governor General shall from Time to Time, in the Queen's Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon and call together the House of Commons. 39. A Senator shall not be capable of being elected or of sitting or voting as a Member of the House of Commons. 40. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall, for the Purposes of the Election of Members to serve in the House of Commons, be divided into Electoral Districts as follows : — The Districts as arranged by the B. N. A. Act have since beeti altered. See R. S. C, c. 6, amended by 50-51 Vict. {Dom.'), c. 4. Each District returns one Monber. 41 . Provided that until the Parliament of Canada otherwise eiiacted, the Provincial laws relating to Elections and electoral matters generally should apply to Dominion Elections. Now, by R. S. C, chapters 5, 8 and 9, and subsequent amending Acts, the Domijiion has provided legislation for all these matters. This Section is, therefore, superseded. 42. Related solely to first election for Dominion Parliament. Effete. 43. Related to filling of vacancies in representation before meet if ig of Parliament — now superseded. 44. The House of Commons on its first assembling after a General 450 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Election shall proceed with all practical speed to elect one of its Members to be Speaker. 45. In case of a Vacancy happening in the Office of Speaker by Death, Resignation, or otherwise, the House of Commons shall with all practicable speed proceed to elect another of its Members to be Speaker. 46. Tlie Speaker shall preside at all Meetings of the House of Commons. 47. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, in case of the Absence for any Reason of the Speaker from the Chair of the House of Commons for a Period of Forty-Eiglit consecutive Hours, the House may elect another of its Members to act as Speaker, and the Member so elected shall during the Continuance of such absence of the Speaker have and execute all the Powers, Privileges and Duties of Speaker. 48. The Presence of at least Twenty members of the House of Commons shall be necessary to constitute a meeting of the House for the Exercise of its Powers ; and for that purpose tlie Speaker shall be reckoned as a Member. 49. Questions arising in the House of Commons shall be decided by a Majority of Voices other than that of the Speaker, and when the Voices are equal, but not otherwise, the Speaker shall have a Vote. 50. Every House of Commons shall continue for five years from the Day of the Return of the Writs for choosing the House (subject to be sooner dissolved by the Governor General), and no longer. 51. On the Completion of the Census in tlie Year One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and of each subsequent decennial Census, the Representation of the four Provinces shall be readjusted by such Authority, in such Manner, and from such Time, as the Parliament of Canada from Time to Time provides, subject and according to the following Rules : — (i) Quebec shall have the fixed number of Sixty-five Members. (2) There shall be assigned to each of the other Provinces such a number of Members as will bear the same Proportion to the Number of its Population (ascertained at such Census) as the Number Sixty-five bears to the Number of the Population of Quebec (so ascertained): (3) In the Computation of the Number of Members for a Province a. fractional Part not exceeding One Half of the whole Number requisite for entitling the Province to a Member shall be dis- APPENDIX A. 451 regarded ; but a fractional Part exceeding One Half of that Number shall be equivalent to the whole Number: (4) On any such Re-adjustment the Number of Members for a Province shall not be reduced unless the Proportion which the Number of the Population of the Province bore to the Number of the aggregate Population of Canada at the then last preceding Re-adjustment of the Number of Members for the Province is ascertained at the then last Census to be diminished by One Twentieth Part or upwards : (5) Such Re-adjustment shall not take effect until the Termination of the then existing Parliament. 52. The Number of Members of the House of Commons may be from Time to Time increased by the Parliament of Canada, Provided the proportionate Representation of the Provinces prescribed by this Act is not thereby disturbed. See Note to Sections 37 and 40 above. The re-adJHst7ne?tt referred to has been jfiade and the result is stated at foot of yj. Money Votes: Royal Assent. 53. Bills for appropriating any Part of the Public Revenue, or for imposing any Tax or Impost, shall originate in the House of Commons. 54. It shall not be lawful for the House of Commons to adopt or Pass any Vote, Resolution, Address or Bill for the Appropriation of any Part of the Public Revenue, or of any Tax or Impost, to any Pur- pose that has not been first recommended to that House by Message of the Governor General in the Session in which such Vote, Resolution, Address or Bill is proposed. 55. Where a Bill passed by the Houses of Parliament is presented to the Governor General for the Queen's Assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion, but subject to the Provisions of this Act and to Her Majesty's Instructions, either that he assents thereto in the Queen's Name, or that he withholds the Queen's Assent, or that he reserves the Bill for the Signification of the Queen's Pleasure. 56. Where the Governor General assents to a Bill in the Queen's Name, he shall, by the first convenient Opportunity, send an authentic Copy of the Act to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and if the Queen in Council within Two Years after Receipt thereof by the Secretary of State thinks fit to disallow the Act, such disallowance (with a Certificate of the Secretary of State of the Day on which the 452 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Act was received by him) being signified by the Governor General, by Speech or Message to each of the Houses of the Parliament or by Proclamation, shall annul the Act from and after the Day of such Signification. 57. A Bill reserved for the Signification of the Queen's Pleasure shall not have any Force unless and until within Two Years from the Day on which it was presented to the Governor General for the Queen's Assent, the Governor General signifies, by Speech or Message to each of the Houses of the Parliament or by Proclamation, that it has received the Assent of the Queen in Council. An Entry of every such Speech, Message, or Proclamation shall be made in the Journal of each House, and a Duplicate thereof duly attested shall be delivered to the proper Officer to be kept among the Records of Canada. V. Provincial Constitutions. Executive Power. 58. For each Province there shall be an Officer, styled the Lieuten- ant Governor, appointed by the Governor General in Council by Instru- ment under the Great Seal of Canada. 59. A Lieutenant Governor shall hold Office during the Pleasure of the Governor General ; but any Lieutenant Governor appointed after the Commencement of the First Session of the Parliament of Canada shall not be removable within Five Years from his Appointment, except for Cause assigned, which shall be communicated to him in Writing within One Month after the Order for his Removal is made, and shall be communicated by Message to the Senate and to the House of Com- mons within One Week thereafter if the Parliament is then sitting, and if not then, within One Week after the Commencement of the next Session of the Parliament. 60. The Salaries of the Lieutenant Governors shall be fixed and provided by the Parliament of Canada. 61. Every Lieutenant Governor shall, before assuming the Duties of his Office, make and subscribe before the Governor General or some Person authorized by him. Oaths of Allegiance and Office similar to those taken by the Governor General. 62. The Provisions of this Act referring to the Lieutenant Governor . extend and apply to the Lieutenant Governor for the Time being of each Province or other the Chief Executive Officer or Administrator APPENDIX A. 453 for the Time being carrying on the Government of the Province, by whatever Title he is designated. 63. The Executive Council of Ontario and Quebec shall be composed of such Persons as the Lieutenant Governor from Time to Time thinks fit, and in the first instance of the following Officers, namely, — the Attorney General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, within Quebec, the Speaker of the Legislative Council and the Solicitor General. As to Ontario, see R. S. O. 1887, c. 13. 64. The Constitution of the Executive Authority in each of the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the Pro- visions of this Act, continue as it exists at the Union, until altered under the Authority of this Act. 65. All Powers, Authorities and functions which under any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, were or are before, or at the Union vested in or exercisable by the respective Governors or Lieutenant Governors of those Provinces, with the Advice, or with the Advice and Consent, of the Respective Executive Councils thereof, or in conjunc- tion with those Councils, or with any Number of Members thereof, or by those Governors or Lieutenant Governors individually, shall, as far as the same are capable of being exercised after the Union in relation to the Government of Ontario and Quebec respectively, be vested in, and shall or may be exercised by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and Quebec respectively, with the Advice or with the Advice and Consent of or in conjunction with the respective Executive Councils, or any Members thereof, or by the Lieutenant Governor individually, as the Case requires, subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parlia- ment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) to be abolished or altered by the respective Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec. 66. The Provisions of this Act referring to the Lieutenant Governor in Council shall be construed as referring to the Lieutenant Governor of the Province acting by and with the Advice of the Executive Council thereof. 67. The Governor General in Council may from Time to Time 454 ^ HISTORY OF CANADA. appoint an Administrator to execute the Office and Functions of Lieutenant Governor during his Absence, Illness, or other Inability. 68. Unless and until the Executive Government of any Province otherwise directs with respect to that Province, the Seats of Government of the Provinces shall be as follows, namely, — of Ontario, the City of Toronto ; of Quebec, the City of Quebec ; of Nova Scotia, the City of Halifax ; and of New Brunswick, the City of Fredericton. Legislative Power. 1 . Ontario. 69. There shall be a Legislature for Ontario consisting of the Lieu- tenant Governor and of One House, styled the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 70. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario shall be composed of Eighty-two Members, to be elected to represent the Eighty-two Elec- toral Districts set forth in the First Schedule to this Act. In Ontario there are naw eighty-nijte Electoral Districts^ retiirjiing ninety-one members. R. S. O. 1887, c. 7, ainended by 52 Vict. {Ont.), c. 2, s. 2. There may be a re-adjnstment in Ontario during the next Session based oti the last Census. 2. Quebec. Ti. There shall be a Legislature for Quebec consisting of the Lieu- tenant Governor and of Two Houses, styled the Legislative Council of Quebec and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. 72. The Legislative Council of Quebec shall be composed of Twenty- Four Members, to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in the Queen's Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, one being appointed to represent each of the Twenty-Four Electoral Divi- sions of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, and each holding Office for the Term of his Life, unless the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides under the Provisions of this Act. 73. The Qualifications of the Legislative Councillors of Quebec shall be the same as those of the Senators for Quebec. 74. The Place of a Legislative Councillor of Quebec shall become vacant in the Cases, mutatis mutafidis, in which the place of Senator becomes vacant. 75. When a Vacancy happens in the Legislative Council of Quebec APPENDIX A. 455 by Resignation, Death, or otherwise, the Lieutenant Governor in the Queen's Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, shall appoint a fit and qualified Person to fill the Vacancy. 76. If any Question arises respecting the Qualification of a Legisla- tive Councillor of Quebec, or a Vacancy in the Legislative Council of Que- bec, the same shall be heard and determined by the Legislative Council. 77. The Lieutenant Governor may from Time to Time, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Quebec, appoint a Member of the Legislative Council of Quebec to be Speaker thereof, and may remove him and appoint another in his Stead. 78. Until the Legislature of Quebec otherwise provides, the Presence of at least Ten Members of the Legislative Council, including the Speaker, shall be necessary to constitute a Meeting for the Exercise of its Powers. 79. Questions arising in the Legislative Council of Quebec shall be decided by a Majority of Voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a Vote, and when the Voices are equal the Decision shall be deemed to be in the negative. 80. The Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall be composed of Sixty- five Members to be Elected to represent the Sixty-five Electoral Divi- sions or Districts of Lower Canada in this Act referred to, subject to Alteration thereof by the Legislature of Quebec : Provided that it shall not be lawful to present to the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec for Assent any Bill for Altering the Limits of any of the Electoral Divisions or Districts mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act, unless the Second and Third Readings of such Bill have been passed in the Legislative Assembly with the Concurrence of the Majority of the Mem- bers representing all those Electoral Divisions or Districts, and the Assent shall not be given to such Bill unless an Address has been presented by the Legislative Assembly to the Lieutenant Governor stating that it has been so passed. 3. Ojitario and Quebec. 8i. Related to first meeting of Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec. Effete. 82. The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and of Quebec shall from Time to Time, in the Queen's Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of the Province, summon and call together the Legislative As- sembly of the Province. 83. Until the Legislature of Ontario or of Quebec otherwise provides, 456 A HISTORY OF CANADA. a Person accepting or holding in Ontario or in Quebec any Office, Com- mission or Employment, permanent or temporary, at the Nomination of the Lieutenant Governor, to which an annual Salary, or any Fee, Allowance, Emolument, or profit of any Kind or Amount whatever from the Province is attached, shall not be eligible as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the respective Province, nor shall he sit or vote as such ; but nothing in this Section shall make ineligible any Person being a Member of the Executive Council of the respective Province, or holding any of the following offices, that is to say, the Offices of Attorney General, Secretary and Registrar of the Province, Treasurer of the Province, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, and in Quebec Solicitor General, or shall disqualify him to sit or vote in the House for which he is elected, provided he is elected while holding such Office. Acts have been passed in Ontario to further secure the independence of the Legislature. R. S. O. 1887, c. \\, sees. 6 to 14. 84. Related to Electoral Matters in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Superseded in Ontario by R. S. O. 1887, chaps. 9 and 10. 85. Every Legislative Assembly of Ontario and Every Legislative Assembly of Quebec shall continue for Four Years from the Day of the Return of the Writs for choosing the same (subject nevertheless to either the Legislative Assembly of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Quebec being sooner dissolved by the Lieutenant Governor of the Province), and no longer. 86. There shall be a session of the Legislature of Ontario and of that of Quebec once at least in every Year, so that Twelve Months shall not intervene between the last Sitting of the Legislature in each Province in one Session and its first Sitting in the next Session. 87. The following Provisions of this Act respecting the House of Commons of Canada shall extend and apply to the Legislative Assem- blies of Ontario and Quebec, that is to say, — the Provisions relating to the Election of a Speaker originally and on Vacancies, the Duties of the Speaker, the absence of the Speaker, the Quorum, and the mode of voting, as if those Provisions were here re-enacted and made appli- cable in Terms to each such Legislative Assembly. 4. Nova Scotia and New Br^ttiswick. 88. The Constitution of the Legislature of each of the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the Provisions of this APPENDIX A. 457 Act, continue as it exists at the Union until altered under the Authority of this Act ; and the House of Assembly of New Brunswick existing at the passing of this Act shall, unless sooner dissolved, continue for the period for which it was elected. 5. Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. 89. Related to calling of the first Legislatures. Effete. 6. The Four Provinces. 90. The following Provisions of this Act respecting the Parliament of Canada, namely, — the Provisions relating to Appropriation and Tax Bills, the Recommendation of Money Votes, the Assent to Bills, the Disallowance of Acts, and the Signification of Pleasure on Bills re- served, — shall extend and apply to the Legislatures of the several Provinces as if those Provisions were here re-enacted and made appli- cable in Terms to the respective Provinces and the Legislatures thereof, with the Substitution of the Lieutenant Governor of the Province for the Governor General, of the Governor General for the Queen and for a Secretary of State, of One Year for Two Years, and of the Province for Canada. VL Distribution of Legislative Powers. Powers of the Parliament. 91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate and House of Commons, to make Laws for the Peace, Order and good Government of Canada, in relation to all Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces ; and for greater Cer- tainty, but not so as to restrict the Generality of the foregoing Terms of this Section, it is hereby declared that (notwithstanding anything in this Act) the exclusive Legislative Authority of the Parliament of Canada extends to all Matters coming within the Classes of Subjects next hereinafter enumerated, that is to say : — I. The Public Debt and Property. The Regulation of Trade and Commerce. The raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation. The borrowing of Money on the Public Credit. Postal Service. The Census and Statistics. 458 A HISTORY OF CANADA. 7. Militia, Military and Naval Service, and Defence. 8. The fixing of and providing for the Salaries and Allowances of Civil and other Ofificers of the Government of Canada. 9. Beacons, Buoys, Lighthouses, and Sable Island. ID. Navigation and Shipping. 11. Quarantine and the Establishment and Maintenance of Marine Hospitals. 12. Sea Coast and Island Fisheries. 13. Ferries between a Province and any British or Foreign Country or between Two Provinces. 14. Currency and Coinage. 15. Banking, Incorporation of Banks, and the issue of Paper Money. 16. Savings Banks. 17. Weights and Measures. 18. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes. 19. Interest. 20. Legal Tender. 21. Bankruptcy and Insolvency. 22. Patents of Invention and Discovery. 23. Copyrights. 24. Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians. 25. Naturalization and Aliens. 26. Marriage and Divorce. 27. The Criminal Law, except the Constitution of Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal Matters. 28. The Estabhshment, Maintenance, and Management of Penitentiaries. 29. Such Classes of Subjects as are expressly excepted in the Enu- meration of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclu- sively to the Legislatures of the Provinces. And any Matter coming within any of the Classes of Subjects enumerated in this Section shall not be deemed to come within the Class of Matters of a local or private Nature comprised in the Enumer- ation of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislature of the Provinces. Exclusive Powers of Provincial Legislatjires. 92. In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in ' relation to Matters coming within the Classes of Subjects next herein- after enumerated, that is to say : — APPENDIX A. 459 1. The Amendment from Time to Time, notwithstanding anything in this Act, of the Constitution of the Province, except as regards the Office of Lieutenant Governor. 2. Direct Taxation within the Province in order to the raising of a Revenue for Provincial Purposes. 3. The borrowing of Money on the sole Credit of the Province. 4. The Establishment and Tenure of Provincial Offices and the Appointment and Payment of Provincial Officers. 5. The Management and the Sale of the Public Lands belonging to the Province, and of the Timber and Wood thereon. 6. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Public and Reformatory Prisons in and for the Province. 7. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Hospitals, Asylums, Charities, and Eleemosynary Institutions in and for the Province, other than Marine Hospitals. 8. Municipal Institutions in the Province. 9. Shop, Saloon, Tavern, Auctioneer, and other Licences in order to the raising of a Revenue for Provincial, Local, or Municipal Purposes. 10. Local Works and Undertakings other than such as are of the following Classes : — a. Lines of Steam or other Ships, Railways, Canals, Telegraphs, and other Works and Undertakings connecting the Prov- ince with any other or others of the Provinces, or extend- ing beyond the Limits of the Province : b. Lines of Steam Ships between the Province and any British or Foreign Country. c. Such Works as, although wholly situate within the Province, are before or after their Execution declared by the Parlia- ment of Canada to be for the general Advantage of Two or more of the Provinces. 11. The Incorporation of Companies with Provincial Objects. 12. The Solemnization of Marriage in the Province. 13. Property and Civil Rights in the Province. 14. The Administration of Justice in the Province, including the Con- stitution, Maintenance and Organization of Provincial Courts, both of Civil and of Criminal Jurisdiction, and including Pro- cedure in Civil Matters in those Courts. 15. The Imposition of Punishment by Fine, Penalty, or Imprisonment 460 A HISTORY OF CANADA. for enforcing any Law of the Province made in relation to any Matter coming within any of the Classes of Subjects enumerated in the Section. 16. Generally all Matters of a merely local or private Nature in the Province. Edncatio7i . 93. In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following Provisions : — • (i) Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union : (2) All the Powers, Privileges and Duties at the Union by Law con- ferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the Separate Schools and School Trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic Subjects shall and the same are hereby extended to the Dissentient Schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic Sub- jects in Quebec. (3) Where in any Province a System of Separate or Dissentient Schools exists by Law at the Union, or is thereafter established by the Legislature of the Province, an Appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or Decision of any Provincial Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education : (4) In case any such Provincial Law as from Time to Time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due Execu- tion of the Provisions of this Section is not made, or in case any Decision of the Governor General in Council on any Appeal under this Section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that Behalf, then and in every such Case, and as far only as the Circumstances of each Case require, the Parlia- ment of Canada may make remedial Laws for the due Execution of the Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of the Governor General in Council under this Section. U7iiformity of Laws in Ontario^ Nova Scotia and Ne-cv Brunswick.- 94. Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the Parliament of Canada may make Provision for the Uniformity of all or of any of the Laws APPENDIX A. 461 relative to Property and Civil Rights in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and of the Procedure of all or any of the Courts in those Three Provinces, and from and after the passing of any Act in that Behalf the Power of the Parliament of Canada to make Laws in relation to any Matter comprised in any such Act shall, notwithstanding any- thing in this Act, be unrestricted ; but any Act of the Parliament of Canada making Provision for each Uniformity shall not have effect in any Province unless and until it is adopted and enacted as Law by the Legislature thereof. Agriculture and Im?mgratzon. 95. In each Province the Legislature may make Laws in relation to Agriculture in the Province, and to Immigration into the Province; and it is hereby declared that the Parliament of Canada may from Time to Time make Laws in relation to Agriculture in all or any of the Provinces, and to Immigration into all or any of the Provinces ; and any Law of the Legislature of a Province relative to Agriculture or to Immigration shall have effect in and for the Province as long and as far only as it is not repugnant to any Act of the Parliament of Canada. VII. Judicature. 96. The Governor General shall appoint the Judges of the Superior, District, and County Courts in each Province, except those of the Courts of Probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 97. Until the Laws relative to Property and Civil Rights in Ontario^ Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the Procedure of the Courts in those Provinces, are made uniform, the Judges of the Courts of those Provinces appointed by the Governor General shall be selected from the respective Bars of those Provinces. 98. The Judges of the Courts of Quebec shall be selected from the Bar of that Province. 99. The Judges of the Superior Courts shall hold office during good Behaviour, but shall be removable by the Governor General on Address of the Senate and House of Commons. 100. The Salaries, Allowances, and Pensions of the Judges of the Superior, District, and County Courts (except the Courts of Probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), and of the Admiralty Courts in Cases where the Judges thereof are for the Time being paid by Salary, shall be fixed and provided by the Parliament of Canada. j^ 462 A HISTORY OF CANADA. loi. The Parliament of Canada may, notwithstanding anything in this Act, from Time to Time, provide for the Constitution, Maintenance, and Organization of a General Court of Appeal for Canada, and for the Establishment of any additional Courts for the better administration of the Laws of Canada. See as tj Salaries of Judges of Provincial Court, R. S. C, c. 138. As to General Court of Appeal for Canada, see R. S. C, c. 135. As to Exchequer Court, see 50-51 Vict. {Dojh ), c. 16. VIII. Revenues; Debts; Assets; Taxation. 102. All Duties and Revenues over which the respective Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick before and at the Union had and have Power of Appropriation, except such Portions thereof as are by this Act reserved to the respective Legislatures of the Provinces, or are raised by them in accordance with the special Powers conferred on them by this Act, shall form One Consolidated Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the Public Service of Canada in the Manner and subject to the Charges in this Act provided. 103. The Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada shall be perma- nently charged with the Costs, Charges, and Expenses incident to the Collection, Management, and Receipt thereof, and the same shall form the First Charge thereon, subject to be reviewed and audited in such Manner as shall be ordered by the Governor General in Council until the Parliament otherwise provides. 104. The annual interest of the Public Debts of the several Prov- inces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick at the Union shall form the Second Charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada. 105. Unless altered by the Parliament of Canada, the Salary of the Governor General shall be Ten Thousand Pounds Sterling Money of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, and the same shall form the Third Charge thereon. 106. Subject to the several payments by this Act, charged on the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, the same shall be appropriated by the Parliament of Canada for the Public Service. As t.-? Consolidated Revenjie Fujid, see R. S. C, c. 29. 107. All Stocks, Cash, Banker's Balances, and Securities for Money belonging to each Province at the Time of the Union, except as in this Act mentioned, shall be the Property of Canada, and shall be taken APPENDIX A. 463 in Reduction of the amount ot the respective Debts of the Provinces of the Union. 108. The Public Works and Property of each Province, enumerated in the Third Schedule to this Act, shall be the Property of Canada. 109. All Lands, Mines, Minerals, and Royalties belonging to the several Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick at the Union, and all Sums then due or payable for such Lands, Mines, Min- erals, or Royalties, shall belong to the several Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in which the same are situ- ate or arise, subject to any Trusts existing in respect thereof, and to any interest other than that of the Province in the same. no. All Assets connected with such Portions of the Public Debt of each Province as are assumed by that Province shall belong to that Province. 111. Canada shall be liable for the Debts and Liabilities of each Province existing at the Union. 112. Ontario and Quebec conjointly shall be liable to Canada for the Amount (if any) by which the Debt of the Province of Canada exceeds at the Union Sixty-two million five hundred thousand Dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the Rate of Five per Centum per Annum thereon. 113. The Assets enumerated in the Fourth Schedule to this Act belonging at the Union to the Province of Canada shall be the Property of Ontario and Quebec conjointly. 114. Nova Scotia shall be liable to Canada for the Amount (if any) by which its Public Debt exceeds at the Union Eight million Dollars, and shall be charged with Interest at the Rate of Five per Centum per Annum thereon. 115. New Brunswick shall be liable to Canada for the Amount (if any) by which its Public Debt exceeds at the Union Seven million Dollars, and shall be charged with Interest at the Rate of Five per Centum per Annum thereon. 116. In case the Public Debts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick do not at the Union amount to Eight million and Seven million Dollars respectively, they shall respectively receive by half-yearly Payments in advance from the Government of Canada interest at Five per Centum per Annum on the Difference between the actual Amounts of their respective Debts and such stipulated Amounts. /// addition to the %']'], ^00,000 provided J or in sections 112, 114, and 464 A HISTORY OF CANADA. 115, the Dominion has since Confederation assumed $31,930,148 on acconjit of the Provinces. 117. The several Provinces shall retain all their respective Public Property not otherwise disposed of in this Act, subject to the Right of Canada to assume any Lands or Public Property required for Fortifica- tions or for the Defence of the Country. 118. The following Sums shall be paid yearly by Canada to the sev- eral Provinces for the Support of their Government and Legislatures. Ontario Eighty thousand Dollars. Quebec Seventy thousand Dollars. Nova Scotia Sixty thousand Dollars. New Brunswick .... Fifty thousand Dollars. Two hundred and sixty thousand ; and an annual Grant in aid of each Province shall be made, equal to Eighty Cents per Head of the Popu- lation as ascertained by the Census of One Thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the case of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by each subsequent Decennial Census until the Population of each of those two Provinces amounts to Four hundred thousand Souls, at which Rate such Grant shall thereafter remain. Such Grants shall be in full Set- tlement of all future Demands on Canada, and shall be paid half-vearly in advance to each Province ; but the Government of Canada shall deduct from such grants, as against any province, all Sutns chargeable as Interest on the Public Debt of that Province in excess of the several Amounts stipulated in this Act. 119. New Brunswick shall receive by half-yearly Payments in advance from Canada for the Period of Ten Years from the Union, an Addi- tional Allowance of Sixty-three thousand Dollars per Annum ; but as long as the Public Debt of that Province remains under Seven million Dollars, a Deduction equal to the Interest at Five per Centum per Annum on such Deficiency shall be made from that Allowance of Sixty- three thousand Dollars. 120. All Payments to be made under this Act, or in discharge of Liabilities created under any Act of the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick respectively and assumed by Canada, shall, until the Parliament of Canada otherwise directs, be made in such Form and Manner as may from Time to Time be ordered by the Governor General in Council. The present Act relating to subsidies to the provinces is R. S. C, c. 46. APPENDIX A. 465 121. All Articles of the Growth, Produce or Manufacture of any one of the Provinces shall, from and after the Union, be admitted free into each of the other Provinces. 122. The Customs and Excise Laws of each Province shall, subject to the Provisions of this Act, continue in force until altered by the Par- liament of Canada. These matters have been legislated upon by the Dominion. See R. S. C, chaps. 32, 33, 34. 123. Where Customs Duties are, at the Union, leviable on any Goods, Wares, or Merchandises in any two Provinces, those Goods, Wares, and Merchandises may, from and after the Union, be imported from one of those Provinces into the other of them on Proof of Payment of the Customs Duty leviable thereon in the Province of Exportation and on Payment of such further Amount (if any) of Customs Duty as is leviable thereon in the Province of Importation. 124. Nothing in this Act shall affect the Right of New Brunswick to levy the Lumber Dues provided in Chapter Fifteen of Title Three of the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, or in any Act amending that Act before or after the Union, and not increasing the Amount of such Dues ; but the Lumber of any of the Provinces other than New Bruns- wick shall not be subject to such Dues. JVeiv Brunswick having surretidered these lumber dues, the Dominion pays that Province $150,000 a year additional. R. S. C, c. 46, s. i. 125. No Lands or Property belonging to Canada or any Province shall be liable to Taxation. 126. Such Portions of the Duties and Revenues over which the respective Legislatures of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had before the Union Power of Appropriation as are by this Act reserved to the respective Governments or Legislatures of the Provinces, and all Duties and Revenues raised by them in accordance with the special Powers conferred upon them by this Act, shall in each Province form One Consolidated Revenue Fund to be appropriated for the Public Service of the Province IX. Miscellaneous Provisions. General. 127. If any Person being at the passing of this Act a Member of the Legislative Council of Canada, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, to whom 2 H 466 * A HISTORY OF CANADA. a Place in the Senate is offered, does not within Thirty Days thereafter, by Writing under his Hand addressed to the Governor General of the Province of Canada, to the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia or New^ Brunswick (as the case may be), accept the same, he shall be deemed to have declined the same ; and any Person who, being, at the passing of this Act, a Member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, accepts a Place in the Senate, shall thereby vacate his Seat in such Legislative Council. 128. Every Member of the Senate or House of Commons of Canada shall, before taking his seat therein, take and subscribe before the Gov- ernor General or some Person authorized by him, and every Member of a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly of any Province shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Lieutenant Governor of the Province or some Person authorized by him, the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act ; and every Member of the Senate of Canada and every Member of the Legislative Council of Quebec shall also, before taking his Seat therein, take and subscribe before the Governor-General, or some Person authorized by him, the Declaration of Qualification contained in the same Schedule. 129. Except as otherwise provided by this Act, all Laws in force in Canada, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick at the Union, and all Courts of Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction, and all legal Commissions, Powers and Authorities, and all Offices, Judicial, Administrative, and Ministe- rial, existing therein at the Union, shall continue in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick respectively, as if the Union had not been made ; subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as are enacted by or exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), to be repealed, abolished, or altered by the Parliament of Canada, or by the Legislature of the respective Province according to the Authority of the Parliament or of that Legislature under this Act. 130. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, all Officers of the several Provinces having Duties to discharge in relation to Mat- ters other than those coming within the classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces shall be Officers of Canada, and shall continue to discharge the Duties of their respective Offices under the same Liabilities, Responsibilities, and Pen- alties as if the Union had not been made. 131. Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, the Gov- APPENDIX A. 467 ernor General in Council may from Time to Time appoint such Officers as the Governor General in Council deems necessary or proper for the effectual Execution of this Act. 132. The Parliament and Government of Canada shall have all Powers necessary or proper for performing the Obligations of Canada or of any Province thereof, as Part of the British Empire, towards For- eign Countries, arising under Treaties between the Empire and such Foreign Countries. 133. Either the English or the French Language may be used by any Person in the Debates of the Houses of the Parliament of Canada and of the Houses of the Legislature of Quebec ; and both those Lan- guages shall be used in the respective Records and Journals of those Houses ; and either of those Languages may be used by any Person or in any Pleading or Process in or issuing from any Court of Canada established under this Act, and in or from all or any of the Courts of Quebec. The acts of the Parliament of Canada and of the Legislature of Quebec shall be printed and published in both those Languages. Ontario and Quebec. 134. Until the Legislature of Ontario or of Quebec otherwise pro- vides, the Lieutenant Governors of Ontario and Quebec may each appoint, under the Great Seal of the Province, the following Officers, to hold Office during Pleasure, that is to say, — the Attorney General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, and, in the Case of Quebec, the Solicitor General ; and may, by Order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, from Time to Time iDrescribe the Duties of those Officers and of the several Departments over which they shall preside or to which they shall belong, and of the Officers and Clerks thereof; and may also appoint other and additional Officers to hold Office during Pleasure, and may from Time to Time prescribe the Duties of those Officers, and of the several Departments over which they shall preside or to which they shall belong, and of the Officers and Clerks thereof. The Ontario Civil Service Act is R. S. O., 1887, c. 14. 135. Until the Legislature of Ontario or Quebec otherwise provides, all Rights, Powers, Duties, Functions, Responsibilities, or Authorities at the passing of this Act vested in or imposed on the Attorney Gen- 468 A HISTORY OF CANADA. eral, Solicitor General, Secretary and Registrar of the Province of Canada, Minister of Finance, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Commis- sioner of Public Works, and Minister of Agriculture and Receiver General, by any Law, Statute or Ordinance of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, and not repugnant to this Act, shall be vested in or imposed on any Officer to be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor for the Discharge of the same or any of them ; and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works shall perform tlie Duties and Func- tions of the Office of Minister of Agriculture at the passing of this Act imposed by the Law of the Province of Canada, as well as those of the Commissioner of Public Works. 136. Related to use of Great Seals of Upper and Lower Canada^ Ojitario and Quebec temporarily . Effete. 137. Related to use of words " next Session " as applied to Acts cur- rent at tifue of Union. Effete. 138. From and after the Union the Use of the Words "Upper Canada" instead of "Ontario," or "Lower Canada" instead of "Que- bec," in any Deed, Writ, Process, Pleading, Document, Matter, or Thing, shall not invalidate the same. 139. Any Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Province of Canada issued before the Union to take effect at a Time which is sub- sequent to the Union, whether relating to that Province or to Upper Canada, or to Lower Canada, and the several Matters and Things therein proclaimed shall be and continue of like Force and Effect as if the Union had not been made. 140. Any Proclamation which is authorized by any Act of the Legis- lature of the Province of Canada to be issued under the Great Seal of the Province of Canada, whether relating to that Province, or to Upper Canada, or to Lower Canada, and which is not issued before the Union, may be issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario or of Quebec, as its Subject Matter requires, under the Great Seal thereof; and from, and after the Lssue of such Proclamation, the same and the several Matters and Things therein proclaimed shall be and continue of the like Force and Effect in Ontario or Quebec as if the Union had not been made. 141. Related to Fenitetitiary of old Province of Caftada. See fiow R. S. C, c. 182. 142. The Division and Adjustment of the Debts, Credits, Liabilities, Properties and Assets of Upper Canada and Lower Canada shall be referred to the Arbitrament of Three Arbitrators, One chosen by the APPENDIX A. 469 Government of Ontario, One by the Government of Quebec, and One by the Government of Canada ; and the Selection of the Arbitrators shall not be made until the Parliament of Canada and the Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec have met : and the Arbitrator chosen by the Government of Canada shall not be a Resident either in Ontario or in Quebec. 143. The Governor General in Council may from Time to Time order that such and so many of the Records, Books and Documents of the Province of Canada as he thinks fit shall be appropriated and delivered either to Ontario or to Quebec, and the same shall thence- forth be the Property of that Province ; and any Copy thereof or Extract therefrom, duly certified by the Officer having charge of the Original thereof, shall be admitted as Evidence. 144. The Lieutenant Governor of Quebec may from Time to Time, by Proclamation under the Great Seal of the Province, to take effect from a day to be appointed therein, constitute Townships in those Parts of the Province of Quebec in which Townships are not then already constituted, and fix the Metes and Bounds thereof. X. Intercolonial Railw^ay. 145. Related to building of Intercolonial Railway. The Railway was built as required. The section is therefore effete. XI. Admission of Other Colonies. 146. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice of Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, on Addresses from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada, and from the Houses of the respective Legislatures of the Colonies or Provinces, of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, to admit those Colonies or Provinces, or any of them, into the Union, and on Address from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada to admit Rupert's Land and the North-western Territory, or either of them, into the Union, on such Terms and Conditions in each Case as are in the Addresses expressed and as the Queen thinks fit to approve, subject to the Provisions of this Act ; and the Provisions of any Order in Council in that Behalf shall have effect as if they had been enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Under the authority conferred by this section the following Provinces have been adjnitted to the Dominion : — 470 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Manitoba and Northwest Territories., 15th July, 1870. British Columbia., 20th July, 1871. Prince Edward Island, ist July, 1873. 147. In case of the Admission of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, or either of them, each shall be entitled to a Representation in the Senate of Canada of Four Members, and (notwithstanding any- thing in this Act) in case of the admission of Newfoundland, the normal Number of Senators shall be Seventy-six and their maximum Number shall be Eighty-two ; but Prince Edward Island when ad- mitted shall be deemed to be comprised in the third of the Three Divisions into which Canada is, in relation to the Constitution of the Senate, divided by this Act, and accordingly, after the Admission of Prince Edward Island, whether Newfoundland is admitted or not, the Representation of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Senate shall, as Vacancies occur, be reduced from Twelve to Ten Members, respec- tively, and the Representation of each of those Provinces shall not be increased at any Time beyond Ten, except under the Provisions of this Act for the Appointment of Three or Six additional Senators under the Direction of the Queen. See note to Section 11 above. SCHEDULES. The First Schedule and the Second Schedide related to the original Electoral Divisiotis, which have since been altered from time to time as provided for in Section 5 1 of the Act. The Third Schedule. Provincial Public Works and Property to be the Property of Canada. 1. Canals, with Lands and Water Power connected therewith. 2. Public Harbors. 3. Lighthouses and Piers, and Sable Island. 4. Steamboats, Dredges, and public Vessels. 5. Rivers and Lake Improvements. 6. Railways and Railway Stocks, Mortgages, and other Debts due by Railway Companies. 7. Military Roads. 8. Custom Houses, Post Offices, and all other Public Buildings, APPENDIX A. 471 except such as the Government of Canada appropriate for the Use of the Provincial Legislatures and Governments. 9. Property transferred by the Imperial Government, and known as Ordinance Property. 10. Armories, Drill Sheds, Military Clothing, and Munitions of War, and Lands set apart for General Public Purposes. The Fourth Schedule. Assets to be Property of Ontario and Quebec conjointly. Upper Canada Building Fund. Lunatic Asylum. Normal School. Court Houses, ~ in Aylmer. r Lower Canada. Montreal. Kamouraska. Law Society, Upper Canada. Montreal Turnpike Trust. University Permanent Fund. Royal Institution. Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund, Upper Canada. Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund, Lower Canada. Agricultural Society, Upper Canada. Lower Canada Legislative Grant. Quebec Fire Loan. Temiscouata Advance Account. Quebec Turnpike Trust. Education — East. Building and Jury Fund, Lower Canada. Municipalities Fund. Lower Canada Superior Education Income Fund. The Fifth Schedule. Oath of Allegiance. I, A. B., do swear. That I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 4/2 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Note. — The Afame of the King or Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the Time being is to be substituted from Time to Time., with proper Terms of Reference thereto. Declaration of Qualification. I, A. B., do declare and testify, That I am by Law duly qualified to be appointed a Member of the Senate of Canada [or as the Case may be'], and that I am legally or equitably seized as of Freehold for my own Use and Benefit of Lands and Tenements held in Free and Common Socage [or seized or possessed for my own Use and Benefit of Lands or Tenements held in Franc aleu or in Roture (as the Case may bey\, in the Province of Nova Scotia \or as the Case may be], of the Value of Four Thousand Dollars over and above all Rents, Dues, Debts, Mortgages, Charges, and Incumbrances due or payable out of or charged on or affecting the same, and that I have not col- lusively or colorably obtained a Title to or become possessed of the said Lands and Tenements or any Part thereof for the Purpose of enabling me to become a Member of the Senate of Canada [or as the Case 7nay be], and that my Real and Personal Property are together worth Four thousand Dollars over and above my Debts and Liabilities. Appendix A. An Act respecting the establishment of Provinces in the Dominion of Canada. Imperial Act, 34 and 35 I'ict.. c. 28. 2gtk ftiiie, 1S71. Whereas doubts have been entertained respecting the powers of the Parliament of Canada to establish Provinces in Territories admitted, or which may be hereafter admitted into the Dominion of Canada, and to provide for the representation of such Provinces in the said Parliament, and it is expedient to remove such doubts, and to vest such powers in the said Parliament : — Be it enacted, by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : — APPENDIX A. 473 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The British North America Act, 1871." 2. The Parliament of Canada may, from time to time, establish new Provinces in any Territories forming for the time being part of the Dominion of Canada, but not included in any Province thereof, and may, at the time of such establishment, make provision for the consti- tution and administration of any Province, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order and good government of such Province, and for its representation in the said Parliament. 3. The Parhament of Canada may, from Time to Time, with the consent of the Legislature of any Province of the said Dominion, in- crease, diminish or otherwise alter the limits of such Province, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed to by the said Legislature, and may, with the like consent, make provision respecting the effect and operation of any such increase or diminution or alteration of Territory in relation to any Province affected thereby. 4. The Parliament of Canada may, from time to time, make pro- vision for the administration, peace, order and good government of any Territory not for the time being included in any Province. 5. The following Acts passed by the said Parliament of Canada, and intituled respectively : " An Act for the temporary government " of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory when, united with " Canada," and " An Act to amend and continue the Act 32 and 33 " Victoria, chapter 3, and to establish and provide for the Government " of the Province of Manitoba," shall be and be deemed to have been valid and effectual for all purposes whatsoever from the date at which they respectively received the assent, in the Queen's name, of the Gover- nor General of the said Dominion of Canada. 6. Except as provided by the third Section of this Act, it shall not be competent for the Parliament of Canada to alter the provisions of the last mentioned Act of the said Parliament, in so far as it relates to the Province of Manitoba, or of any other Act hereafter establishing new Provinces in the said Dominion, subject always to the right of the Legislature of the Province of Manitoba to alter from time to time the provisions of any law respecting the qualifications of Electors and members of the Legislative Assembly, and to make laws respecting elections in the same Province. 474 A HISTORY OF CANADA. Appendix B. An Act to remove certain doubts with respect to the powers of the Parliament of Canada, under Section i8 of the British North Amer- ica Act, 1867. Imperial Act, 38 and 39 Vict., c-. 38. i.gth July, 1875. Whereas, by section eighteen of the British North America Act, 1867, it is provided as follows : — " The privileges, immunities and powers to be held, enjoyed and "exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the " members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time " defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that the same " shall never exceed those at the passing of this Act, held, enjoyed and " exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United King- " dom of Great Britain and Ireland, and by the members thereof." And, whereas doubts have arisen with regard to the power of defin- ing by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, in pursuance of the said section, the said privileges, powers or immunities ; and it is expedient to remove such doubts : — Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the au- thority of the same, as follows : — 1. Section eighteen of the British North America Act, 1867, is hereby repealed, without prejudice to anything done under that Sec- tion, and the following section shall be substituted for the Section so repealed : The privileges, immunities, and powers to be held, enjoyed and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Commons, and by the members thereof respectively, shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of the Parliament of Canada, but so that any Act of the Parliament of Canada defining such privileges, immunities and powers shall not confer any privileges, immunities or powers exceeding those at the passing of such Act held, enjoyed and exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- land, and by the members thereof. 2. The Act of the Parliament of Canada, passed in the thirty-first APPENDIX A. 475 year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, Chapter twenty-four, in- tituled : " An Act to provide for oatlis to witnesses ' being administered " in certain cases for the purposes of either House of Parliament,'" shall be deemed to be valid, and to have been valid as from the date at which the Royal assent was given thereto by the Governor General of the Dominion of Canada. 3. This Act maybe cited as "the Parliament of Canada Act, 1875." Appendix C. An Act respecting the Representatives in the Parliament of Canada of Territories which for the time being form part of the Dominion of Canada, but are not included in any Province. Imperial Act. z^tk June, 1886. Whereas it is expedient to empower the Parliament of Canada to provide for the representation in the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, or either of them, of any Territory which for the time being forms part of the Dominion of Canada, but is not included in any Province. Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : — 1. The Parliament of Canada may from time to time make provision for the representation in the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, or in either of them, of any Territories which for the time being form part of the Dominion of Canada, but are not included in any Province thereof. 2. Any Act passed by the Parliament of Canada before the passing of this Act for the purpose mentioned in this Act shall, if not disallowed by the Queen, be, and shall be deemed to have been, valid and eflfectual from the date at which it received the assent, in Her Majesty's name, of the Governor General of Canada. It is hereby declared that any Act passed by the Parliament of Canada, whether before or after the passing of this Act, for the purpose mentioned in this Act or in the British North America Act, 1871, has effect, notwithstanding anything in the British North America Act, 1867, and the number of Senators or the number of members of the 476 A HISTORY OF CANADA. House of Commons specified in the last mentioned Act is increased by the number of Senators or of members, as the case may be, provided by any such Act of the Parliament of Canada for the representation of any Provinces or Territories of Canada. 3. This Act may be cited as " The British North America Act, 1886." This Act and the British North America Act, 1867, and the British North America Act, 1871, shall be construed together and may be cited together as "The British North America Acts, 1867 to 1886." APPENDIX B. THE MOST IMPORTANT INDIAN TRIBES OF CANADA. The Indian tribes which have figured most prominently in the history of Canada are to be classified under two great families or stocks, the Iroquois and the Algonquin. Of these the most powerful, most aggres- sive, most advanced in development and in tribal organization, were members of the Iroquois family ; while the Algonquin tribes were the most numerous and most widely distributed. Algonquin Stock. Those Indians occupying the eastern seaboard of Canada, with whom the early explorers came first in contact, were of the Algonquin stock. In the Acadian peninsula and on the Gulf coast were the Micmacs. In the valley of the St. John River dwelt the Melisites ; and to the west of these ruled the fierce and powerful tribe of the Abenakis, occupying territory which is now the State of Maine. On the north shore of the Lower St. Lawrence were the Montagnais. From the Montagnais westward extended the Algonquins proper, the tribe which gives its name to all the group. This tribe occupied most of Quebec, and a large portion of Ontario. It came early under French control, and was peculiarly an object of Iroquois hostility, although it had the firm alli- ance and support of the Hurons, a powerful member of the Iroquois group. The Ojibways were a numerous tribe, dwelling in Ontario. The Shawnees, who came into Canada from the south, and played a brief but brilliant part under the leadership of their famous chief, Tecumseh, belonged to the Algonquin stock. Prominent in our early history, though not dwelling on what is now Canadian soil, were the great Algonquin tribe of the Illinois, with their kindred, the Sacs and 477 4/8 A HISTORY OF CANADA. the Pottawatomis. A numerous tribe of the same family is that of the Crees, distributed over the whole North-west from Hudson Bay to the Rockies. These people were conspicuous in the Saskatchewan rebel- lion. Along the Rockies, from the Saskatchewan southward, spread the Blackfeet, another influential branch of this stock. The Algonquins, in general, though ranking lower than the Iroquois, stand high in rela- tion to the other Indian families. Iroquois Stock. Of this family the dominant tribes were those known as the Iroquois, or Five Nations, a confederation skilfully organized and sagaciously conducted. It was not alone their warlike prowess — their courage, swiftness, and relentlessness — that made their name a living fear from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Their command of the arts of policy and diplomacy was no small part of their strength. They were far- seeing enough to adopt a definite policy, and sufficiently stable to follow it out through successive generations. Their shrewdness and steadiness of purpose thus enabled them for a long time to hold a sort of balance of power between the French and English colonies, and gained them a degree of consideration never paid to any other Indians. The five tribes making up the Iroquois Confederacy were the Mohawks, occupying the Lake Champlain region, and extending eastward nearly to the land of the Abenakis ; the Oneidas, lying immediately west of the Mohawks ; the Onondagas, in the centre, holding the main lodge and council fire of the Confederacy ; the Cayugas, south of the eastern end of Lake Ontario ; and the Senecas, on the western flank of the Confederacy, occupying the Niagara district. To this league was afterwards added a kindred tribe, the Tuscaroras, which migrated northward from North Carolina ; and thenceforward the Confederacy Avas known as the Six Nations. Immediately west of the Senecas dwelt the Neutral Nation, so called, whose neutrality did not save them from ultimate destruction by their all-conquering kindred. Another tribe of this stock, the fierce Eries, or " Wild Cats," suffered the same fate as the Neutrals, when they were so unhappy as to cross the path and purposes of the Five Nations. The habitat of the Eries was south of the great lake to which they have left their name. Especially conspicuous throughout the earlier history of Canada was the great tribe of the Hurons, or Wyandots, occupying the fertile regions east and south of Georgian Bay. Here they had populous villages and well-tilled fields ; AIPENDIX B. 479 and they dwelt in firm alliance with the French as well as with the neighboring Algonquin tribes, till the flame of Iroquois hate devoured them. In courage, in organization and development, and in language, they were so like their triumphant kinsfolk that these latter were always ready to adopt them into their own tribal organizations. Indeed, the avowed object of the Iroquois in one of their most devastating wars was to force the Hurons into union with certain of their tribes, whose ranks had become depleted. Unlike most Indians, those of the Iro- quois family do not deteriorate or die out when brought in contact with civilization. They are almost as numerous at the present day as they were when their power was at its height ; they can point to self-supporting and prosperous communities as evidence of their capacity for civilization ; and individual members of these communities have pushed their way to prominence in various walks of modern life. There are many Indian tribes in Canada which belong to neither of the above great families, but few of these have played any notable part in our story. Of the great Dakota family, we have the Assiniboines, and those " Iroquois of the west," the Sioux. These latter, having their home in Minnesota and the Dakotas, have at times moved over the border and given concern to our Indian Department. The Assini- boines, dwelling on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers, are second only to the Crees in importance among the tribes of our North-west. To the north of the Crees and Assiniboines we come upon a tribe called the Chippewyans, belonging to the Athabascan stock. Of this stock also are other North-west tribes, such as the Dog-Ribs, Yellow-Knives, and Sarsi. The most famous and most formidable member of the Athabascan stock is the great Apache nation, whose implacable ferocity is, fortunately for us, confined to a sphere far south of the Canadian borders. INDEX. Abbot, Sir John, premier, 409. Abenakis, the, 67. Abercrombie, General, 138, 145, 146, 147. Acadie, 23, 27, 44, 46, 57, 96, 104, 105, no. Acadians, 112, 126. Acadian expulsion, 128, 129; settlement on Gulf coast, 179. Acco7nmodation, steamboat, 223. Act of Union, 305. "Admirals, the Fishing," 31. Agricola, 277. Agriculture, 433. Ainslie, General, 287. Aix-la-Chapelle, 120, 121. Albert, Prince, 341. Alberta, 386. Alabama claims, 348, 360, 371. Alaska, 410. Allan Line, the, 432. Allen, Colonel Ethan, 186. Alma, the, 325. Alleghanies, 137. Alleghany River, 121. Albanel, Father, 82. Algonquin plot, 41. Alexander, Sir William, 46. America, discovery of, 6. American privateers, 193. American plan of campaign, 226; plan of secession, 339; hostility, 347; and Canadian federations, 352 ; poaching on Canadian fisheries, 360. Americans driven out of Canada, 188. Amerigo Vespucci, 6. 21 <; Amherst, General, 143, 144, 145, 161. Ancient colony, the, 253, 289. Angell, James B., 406. Annapolis Royal, 109, 112, 116, 129. Annexation of Canada proposed, 225, 439- Appropriation Bill, 218. Arnold, Colonel Benedict, 186. Army of the North, 226 ; of the Centre, 227; of the West, 227. Archibald, Adams G., 279, 342, 366. Arthur, Sir George, 301. Aroostook War, 314. Argall, Samuel, 30. Art in Canada, 427, 428. Artists, Canadian, 427, 428. Ashburton, Lord, 314. Associated Merchants of St. Malo and Rouen, 39. Association of the Grand Council of Plymouth, 46. Assiniboine, 113. Assiniboia, 256, 257, 330, 386. Athabasca River, 114, 386. Austrian succession, 115. Avalon, 32, 289. Aylmer, Lord, 266. B. Bank fisheries, the, 7. Bale des Chaleurs, 9. Bacchus, Isle of, 11. Baltimore, Lord, 32. Bay of Famine, 88. Batoche, 388, 391, 396. 482 INDEX. Battleford, 391, 394. Baldoon, 219. Baltic timber duties repealed, 283. Battle of the fleets on Lake Ontario, 241. Back, George, 257. Baldwin, Robert, 274, 298, 309. Bagot, Sir Charles, 309. Bayard, 406. Banking system, Canadian, 434. Baring, Hon. Mr., 314. Baker's raid on Madawaska, 312. Baldwin-Lafontaine, 338. Beauharnois, Marquis de, 113. Beauharnois militia, 244; county, 296. Beausejour, Fort, 125, 127. Beaubassin, 125. Beaujeu, 133. Beauport stream, 150. Beaver Dam, 240. Beorn, 3. Bering Sea dispute, 409, 410. Bell, Graham, 435. Better Terms, 359. Berlin Decrees, 220. Biencourt, 28, 47. Biard, Father, 28. Bigot, 141, 142. Big Bear, 388, 392. Bibaud, 424. Bishop of Nova Scotia, first, 217. Bishopp, Colonel, 233. Bidwell, Marshall, 274, 298. Blake, Hon. Edward, 409. Blackfeet, 388. Blaine-Bond Treaty, 415. Black Rock, 241. Blanchard, Richard, 330. Bloody Bridge, 175. Boerstler, Colonel, 240. Bonsecour Market, 321. Bonavista, 106. Bond, Hon. Robert, 415. Boscawen, Admiral, 143. " Boston Tea Party," 185. Boucher, 72. Boundary disputes, 121, 125. Boundary of Canada, southern, 193 ; be- tween Maine and Nova Scotia, 193. Bourlamaque, 138, 148, 149. Bourinot, J. G., 425. Bouquet, Colonel Henry, 175. Boulton, Solicitor-General, 274. Braddock, General, 132, 133, 134. Bradstreet, 147, 175. Brant, Joseph, 133, 201. Brant, Molly, 133. Brandywine, 190. Brandy duty, dispute over the, 278. Breboeuf, Father,'4i, 60, 65. Breda, Treaty of, 58. British Columbia, 19, 330, 331, 332, 334, 368,369,378,411. British troops and Colonial militia, 184. British North America Act, 345, 350. British North American League, 319. Brock, General Sir Isaac, 223, 227, 230, 232. Brockville, raid on, 236. Broke, Captain, 246. Brownstown, 228. Brown, Stowell, 293. Brown, George, 337, 341, 343, 344. Brown-Dorion government, 338. Burrard Inlet, 401. Bushy Run, 175. Bushland, 3. Bunker Hill, 186. Burgoyne, General, 190. Burlington Heights, 239. Buffalo burned, 246. Burton, Sir Francis, 264. -Byron, Commodore, 179. Bytown, 258. C. Canada, 2, 18, 44, 162, 258, 437, 438 ; and Acadia, 51 ; and New England, 67 ; invaded, 185 ; new constitution of, 307 ; constitution of, 350; confederated, 354 ; purchases North-west, 361 ; at the Cen- tennial, 379 ; " for the Canadians," 379 ; Upper and Lower, 210 ; Upper, popu- lation of, 211, 269, 297; Lower, 221, 261, 291, 296; population of, in 1812, 226 ; population of, 165 ; Lower, popu- lation of, 211 ; Lower, first Parliament, 213 ; differences in institutions of Up- per and Lower, 211. Canada Company, the, 258. Canada-Pacific, the, 373. INDEX. 483 Canada Trade Act, 264. Canada Committee, the, 265. Canadas, scheme for uniting the, 264 ; united, 305 ; coalition in the, 341. Canadian history, i, 2 ; pubhc school system, 419, 420 ; universities, 420, 421 ; squadron in Ontario, 215 ; newspaper, the, 222 ; Reign of Terror, 222 ; brigs captured on Lake Erie, 229. Canadian Fencibles, 235. Canadian Pacific Railway, 400, 401, 402. Canadian, the, 432. Canadians in Egypt, 403. Cabots, the, 6, 7. Cartier, Jaques, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15. Cartier, Sir George, 337, 343, 344, 375. Cartier-Macdonald government, 338. Caron, Father le, 36. Carhagouha, 38. Carignan-Saliferes, regiment of, 78. Carbonear, 106. Carleton, Sir Guy, 187, 191, 197, 209. Carleton, 389. Carleton, Colonel Thomas, 199, 209, 218. Caroline, destruction of the, 300. Carter, F. B. S., 344. Carnarvon Terms, 378. Casco Bay, gg. Casgrain, Abbe, 424. Casual and territorial revenue, 213, 263^ 266. Castine fund, 251. Catholic and Huguenot, 40. Cape Breton, 48, loi, ill, 145, 199, 286, 287. Cap Rouge, 151, 154. Cape Diamond, 157. Calli&res, 97, 107. Cataracoui, 82, 85, 87. Canso, 112. Calgary, 393. Canals, 430, 431. Cable, 435. Cahokia, 176. Campaign of 1813, 235 ; of 1814, 248. Caldwell, Sir John, 264. Campbell, General Sir Archibald, 284. Campbell, Sir Colin, 315,316. Campbell, Sir Alexander, 344, 406. Caughnawaga, 297. Cathcart, Lord, 310. Cabinet or executive, 351. Censitaires, the, 75. Celoron de Bienville, 121. Cedars, the, 189. Charlesbourg Royal, 16. Champlain, 22, 23, 24, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39. 40, 43. 44. 45. 423- Champlain, Lake, 138, 145. Chastes, Aymar de, 22. Chaudifere, 36. Charnisay, Seigneur d'Aulnay, 51, 52, 53, ■ 54.55,56. Chaumonat, Father, 68. Chambly, Fort, 79., Chamberlain, Hon. Jos., 406. Chauveau, P. J. O., 426, 427. Chapais, J. C, 344. Chauncey, Commodore, 237. Chateauguay, 244. Charlottetown conference, 342. Charlottetown, 180. Chandler, Edward, 344. Chandler, Senator, 360. Chateau St. Louis, 344. Chignecto, 95, 121. Chignecto Ship Railway, 429. Chebucto Bay, 119, 123. Christie, Robert, 425. Charlevoix, 423. Charleston, igi. Chippewa, 233, 239, 248. Chrysler's Farm, 245. Cholera years, the, 259. Chenier, Doctor, 294. Chinook, 362. Chicago fire, the, 372. Civil list, 262. City of Boston, loss of, 366. Clinton, Sir Henry, 191. Clark, Colonel, 241. Clergy Reserves, the, 270, 323. Clermont, the, 432. Columbus, 4, 5, 6. Columbia, the, 256. Cortereal, 8. Convicts on Sable Island, 20. Conception Bay Colony, 31. Colbert, 72, 76. Coureurs des Bois, 78. 484 INDEX. Come, Le, 125. Cornwallis, Hon. Edward, 123, 191. C3te, Ste. Genevieve, 158. County of Sunbury, 180. Colonies, the, 182. Colonial Advocate, 272 ; grievances, 183 ; office, the, 265, 275 ; conference, 411, 412. Continental Congress, 185, 186. Cowpens, 191. Constitutional act, 210, 213. Confederation, 209, 262, 304, 319, 325, 329, 335, 337. 355- College, University of King's, 217. Constitution, the, 234. Cochran, Admiral, 251. Cook, Captain, 255. Coppermine River, 257. Commission of Inquiry, 268. Colborne, Sir John, 296. Conservative, 308. Colebrook, Sir William, 317. Corn Laws repealed, 322. Cockburn, J., 344. Coal royalties, the, 286. Coles, G., 344. Coalition of the parties, 355. Columbian Exposition, 411. Conditions of life in a new land, 417. Crowne, William, 58. Crown Point, 113, 133, 186, 189. Crown lands, 213. Cr6mazie, Octave, 425. Crees, 388. Crow-foot, 388. Crozier, Captain, 390. Craigellachie, 401. Craig, Sir James, 221. Crimea War, 323, 324. Cutler, Lyman, 333. Cutknife Creek, 395. Cunard Line, 432. Cunard, Samuel, 432. Currency, Canadian, 434. D. Dalhousie College, 251, 277. Dalhousie, Earl of, 263. D'Anville, 119. Daniel, Captain, 48. Daniel, Father, 60, 65. Daly, 309. Dablon, Father, 68. Day, Judge, 377. Davis, Jefferson, 339. D'Ailleboust, 67. D'Aiguillon, Duchesse, 60. Dartmouth, 123', 124. Daulac, 70. Dawson, Sir William, 421. D'Aulnay Chamisay, 51, 56. D'Avaugour, 71. Davoust, 60. De Bienville, 121. De Bougainville, 138, 146, 149. De Bourlamaque, 138, 148. De Bullion, Madame, 62. De Caen, 40, 41, 44. De Callieres, 89, De Conde, 39. De Courcelles, 78, 79, 82. De Drucour, 143, 144, 145. De Denonville, 89, 91, 97. De Gourgues, 18. De Gamache, 59. De Gaspe, 425. , De Guercheville, Madame, 28, 30. De Haro Channel, 332. De Haren, 240. De Hertel, Colonel, 296. De Lauson, 68. De Lery, 8. De Levis, 138, 146, 159, 160, 161, De la Galissonnifere, 121. De la Peltrie, Madame, 60. De la Jonquiere, 119, 120, 122. De la Noue, Father, 41. De la Verendrye, 113. De la Roche, 20. De Maisonneuve, 62. De Mesy, 74, 78. De Mille, 425. De Monts, 22, 23, 34. De Montmagny, 59, 62. De Queylus, Abbe, 69. De Ramesay, 150, 160. De Razilly, 51. De Roquemont, 43. De Rottenburg, 241. INDEX. 485 De Roberval, 15. De Silleri, 60. De Salaberry, 235, 244. De Tracy, 78. De Troyes, 90. De Ventadour, 41. Dearborn, General, 227, 236. Delfosse, 381. Denis of Honfleur, 8. Denys, Nicholas, 51, 56, 57. Denison, 403. D'Estournelle, 119. Desbarres, 200. Detroit, iii, 165, 173, 228. D' Iberville, 90, 104. Dickie, R. B., 344. Dieskau, 132, 135. Dinwiddie, 131. Disputed territory, 283, 311. Donnacona, 11, 14. Dollard, 69, 70. Dongan, 86, 89. Dominion Day, 353. Dominion elections, first, 357 ; parlia- ment, first, 357. Dominion census, first, 372; second, 383 ; third, 407. Dorchester, Lord, 209, 216. Downie, Captain, 250. Downing Street, 266. Douglas, Sir Howard, 281, 284; James, 330. Doyle, Lawrence O'Connor, 279. Drake, Sir Francis, 19. Draper, 310. Drew, Lieutenant, 300. Drummond, Sir George, 246. Drummondville, 249. Dress in old French Canada, 168. Druilettes, Father, 67. Dupuy, 68. Du Vivier, 116. Duquesne, 122, 130. Duchambon, 117. Dumont, 72 ; Gabriel, 389, 399. Duck Lake, 389. Duvar, John Hunter, 426. Duchesneau, 84. Duluth, 90. Dundas Street, 214. Durham, Lord, 296, 303. Durham's Report, 306. Dual representation, 357. Dufferin, Lord, 373, 382. E. Earthquakes, 72, 320. Easter pasty, 172. Eastern Townships, 201. Eagle and Growler, 243. Edge Hill, 175. Education in Canada, 418, 419, 420, 421. Elgin, Lord, 310, 320. Embargo Act, 220. English and French colonies compared, 141. England attacked by France, Spain, Holland, 190. Equal Rights Agitation, 407. Eric the Red, 3. Eries, extirpation of the, 67. Estates, subdivision of, 76. Esquimau, 400. Everlasting Salaries Bill, 274. Executive Council, 212. Exploits, river, 413. Fafard, Father, 392. Faillon, Abbe, 424. Family Compact, the, 260, 269, 277, 306. Fairfield, Governor, 313. Falkland, Lord, 316. Ferryland, 32. Feudal tenure, 75. Ferland, Abbe, 424. Fenians, the, 349, 358. Federal and legislative union, difference between, 352. Five Nations, 77. Fitzgibbon, Lieutenant James, 239. Finisterre, battle of, 120. Fisheries dispute, 405, 433. Fish Creek, battle of, 394. Fisher, Charles, 344. " Fifty-four Forty, or Fight," 331. Flfeche, Father la, 27. Fleming, Sanford, 406, 422. 486 INDEX. Food, French Period, 171. Forbes, General, 147. Fort Beausejour, 125, 127, 129; Chippe- wyan, 114, 255; Cumberland, 192; Duquesne, 131, 147; Douglas, 256; Erie, 248 ; Edward, 135, 139 ; Fred- erick, 179, 193 ; Frontenac, 147 ; Garry, 257. 363; George, 135; Louis, 47; Niagara, 149 ; Oswego, 138 ; Pitt, 147, 175, 391, 392 ; Reliance, 257 ; Rouge, 113; Schlosser, 241, 300; St. Charles, 113; St. Joseph, 200; William Henry, 136, 140; William, 256; Venango, 121. Forsyth, the case of, 273. Eraser River, 331, 369. Franklin's map, 315. Franklin, Sir John, 257. French, colony in Florida, 18; fisheries question, 96; shore disputes, 163,412, 415. French Canadians, after the conquest, 164; attitude toward the Rebellion, 295- Frenchtown, battle of, 236. Frechette, 425. Fredericton, 180, 200. Frobisher, 19. Frog Lake Massacre, 392. Frolic, the, 234. Frontenac, 84, 87, 94, 97, 103. Fuca, Straits of, 332. Fur-trade, 77. G. Gabarus Bay, 117, 143. Gage, General, 185. Gait, John, 259 ; Alexander T., 337, 343, 344. 381. Gander River, 413. Garneau, Francois Xavier, 424. Geneva Award, the, 371. Geological Survey, the, 421. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 19, 20. Glen, 98. Gladwyn, Major, 174. Glengarry, Highlanders, 235 ; militia, 292. Glenelg, Lord, 286. Goodridge, 416. Governor and executive, 212. Governor's Road, 214. Governor-General, the, 351. Gosford, Lord, 268, 292, 296. Gore, Colonel, 293. Gore, Fighting militia of the, 299. Gourlay, Robert, 271. Gowan, Judge, 377. Grass, 200. Grand Pre, 95, 120, 129. Gray, Colonel John Hamilton, 343, 344. Gray, Judge John Hamilton, 344. • Greenland Colony, 3, 4. Green Bay Mission, 82, 85. Great Meadows, 132. Great Fish River, 257. Grit, 356. Griffin, the, 85. Guy, John, 31. Guerriere, the, 234. H. Harold Harfager, 3. Haverhill, massacre of, 108. Handfield, Major, 129. Halifax, 123, 149. " Halifax Currency," 434. Halifax fisheries award, 381. Habitans, the, 167, 168. Half-breeds, the, 386, 387. Haliburton, 423, 424. Hall's Bay, 413. Haldimand, Governor, 192, 198, 208. Harrison, General, 236. Harvey, Sir John, 239, 245, 286, 313, 316, 328, 333. Hampton, General Wade, 244. Handcock, Major, 248. Haviland, Colonel, 161 Haviland, T. H., 344. Hebert, Louis, 40. Hubert (sculptor) , 427. Heavysege, Charles, 426. Henry, Captain John, 224. Henry, W. A., 344. Head, Sir Francis Bond, 276, 298, 301. Hill, Sir John, 109. Hickory Island, 301. Hincks, Sir Francis, 309, 337. High Commission meets at Washington, 370. INDEX. 487 Hochelaga, 12. Hotel Dieu, 60. Howe, Captain, 125. Howe, Lord, 146, 190. Howe, Joseph, 278, 316, 348, 360, 375, 423. Howe's libel case, 278. Holboine, Admiral, 139. Howard, Captain, 396. Holland, 190. Hor7iet, the, 234. House of Assembly, 213. House of Commons, 351. Hudson, Henry, 32. Hudson Bay territory, no. Hudson Bay and Northwest Companies' rivalry, 254. Hudson Bay Company, 358, 361. Huntington, L. S., 375. Hunters' Lodges, 296, 302. Hurons, the, 65, 66, 173. Hutchinson, Governor, 196. Hungry Year, the, 204. Hull, General, 227. L He au Noix, 189; d'Orleans, 151; St. Jean, 180. Illinois River, 82, 85. Imperial conference, 406. Imperial federation, 373, 440. Immigrants, American, 270. Independence, Declaration of American, 189 ; American, acknowledged by Eng- land, 191 ; Canadian, 440. Inheritance, Law of, 75. Industries, 434. Intellectual progress, 417. Interprovincial conference, 406. Inglis, Doctor John, 217. Inter-Oceanic Company, 373. Iroquois attacks, 41, 63, 67, 70, 87, 92; treaty with the English, 67; loyalists, 189. " Iroquois Track," the, 64. Izzard, General, 244. Jackson, Andrew, 252. Java, the, 234. Jenkins, Captain, 237. Jersey, Earl of, 412. Jesuits, the, 28, 29, 41. yesuites, Relations des, 59. Jesuit missions to Hurons, 60; to Iro- quois, 68, 79. Jesuits' Estates Act, 407. Jogues, Father, 64. jolliet, 81. Johnson, Sir William, 133, 135, 136, 149, I7S> 189. Johnson, John M., 344. Johnstone, James W., 316. K. Kavanagh, Lawrence, 287. Kane, Paul, 427. Kars, 325. Keelness, 4. Keewatin, 385. Kempt, Sir James, 266, 278. Kent, Duke of, 216. Kellog, E. H., 381. Kingston, 215, 307. Kirby, William, 425. Kingsford, Doctor, 425. Kirke, Admiral, 43, 48. Knight-Baronets of Nova Scotia, 47. Kolapore Cup, 373. Kondiaronk, 92. La Barre, 87. La Chesnaye, 102. La Colle Mill, 248. La Moth Cadillac, in. La Heve, 51. La Salle, 84, 86. La Tour, Claude de, 47, 49, 52. La Tour, Charles de, 31, 47, 49, 51, 58. Lachine, 85, 93. Laleman, Father, 41, 66. Lake Region, the, 81, 209. Lake of the Woods, 113. Lake Champlain, 189. Lake Erie, battle of, 242. Land, sale and purchase of, 177. Land Purchase Bill, 326. Lafontaine, 309. 488 INDEX. Langevin, Sir Hector, 344. Law, French, 176. Laurier, Hon. Wilfred, 409. Laval, 69, 71, 74, 78. Lawrence, Fort, 125. Lawrence, Major, 126. Le Borgne, 57. Le Loutre, Abbe, 124. Le Jeune, Father, 59. Le May, Pamphile, 425. Leif the Lucky, 3. " Leif s Booths," 3. Legislative Assembly at Halifax, first in Canada, 147. Legislative Council, 212. Lennox, 214. Lepine, 378. Lescarbot, Marc, 25, 422. Leopard, the, and the Chesapeake, 220. Lewiston burned, 246. Lexington, 185. Liberal convention, 410. Lighthouse Point, 118. Lincoln, Abraham, 339. Liquor trafific, 71, 95. Literature, Canadian, 422. Lods et Venis, 177. Logan, Sir William, 421. London, 215. Long Island, 189. Lome, Lord, 426. Louisburg, iii, 118, 120, 139, 144, 145. Louisiana, 86, 106. Loudoun, Earl of, 138. Lount, Samuel, 299, 301. Loyalists, the, 194, 198, 200, 202. Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada, 235. Lundy's Lane, 249. Lunenburg, 124. M. Machias, 52, 193. Masse, Father Enemond, 28, 41. Marguerie, 61. Mance, Mademoiselle, 62. Marquette, Father, 81, 82. Manitoba, Lake, 114. Manitoba Act, the, 365. Manners and customs (French Period), 167, 168. Marchand, Father, 392. Macdonald, Sir John A., 337, 343, 373, 408 ; government, 376, 382, 407. Macdonald, A. A., 344, Macdonell, Colonel, 237. Material progress in Canada, 428, 429, 430, 431. 432. 433. 434, 435. 436, 437- Marmette, Joseph, 425. Mair, Charles, 226, 426. Mackenzie, Hon. Alexander, 377, 408. Mackenzie, Alexander, 254. Mackenzie, Wm. Lyon, 272, 274, 297. Mackenzie River, the, 257, 361. Mackinaw, 227. Macedonia, the, 234. MacNab, Sir Allen, 299, 300, 310. MacNab-Morin Government, 338. Maine, eastern districts seized, 251. Maine boundary question, 311. Maritime provinces, the, 217, 247 ; union, 338. 342. Maugerville, 180, 192, 198. Marriage, 177. March of 104th Regiment, 235. Mathews, 301 ; Captain, 273. Maitland, Governor, 273. Mars Hill, 312. Mason and Slidell, 340. McGee, T. D'Arcy, 343, 344, 358. McDougall, Hon. William, 343, 344, 358, 363- McCully, J., 344. Mclntyre, land agent, 313. McLachlan, Alexander, 426. Membertou, 25, 27, 29. Mennonites, the, 385. Metis, the, 363, 387. Merritt, W. H., 430. Meares, Captain, 255. Metcalf, Sir Charles, 309. Mitchell, Peter, 344. Missions to the Hurons, 61. Mission, Green Bay, 82. Mississippi, the, 81, 86. Mistassinni, Lake, 82. Miquelon, island of, 163. Middleton, General, 391, 394. Midlanders, the, 394. INDEX. 489 Michilimackinac, 173, 228, 250. " Minute Men," 186. Michigan Territory, 227. Miramichi fire, the, 281. Militia Bill, the, 341. Military system, 435, 436. Mines, 433. Mount Royal, 13. Montreal, 62, 63, 162, 166, 3IG. Montagnais, the, 60. Moyne, Father le, 68, 69. Mohawks, the, 79, 136, 201. Mowat, Sir Oliver, 344, 410. Monck, Lord, 355, 357. Monk, Judge, 261. Monckton, General, 126, 129, 151, 159. Mortgage, 177. Montgomery, General, 186, 188. Moravian town, 226, 243. Morrison, Colonel, 245. Montgomery's Tavern, 299. Moodie, Colonel, 299. Montcalm, 138, 139, 143, 150, 157, 158. Montmorenci, 151. Monument to Wolfe and Montcalm, 159. Munro, Colonel, 139. Munro doctrine, the, 439. Murray, General, 129, 151, 160. Municipal institutions, 308. Musgrave, Antony, 368, N. Nashwaak, Fort, 105 ; River, 180. Nassau, 214. Naval duels between Great Britain and the United States, 233. Napierville, 297. Navy Island, 300. Navigation laws repealed, 322. National policy, 379, 382. Newfoundland, 7, 14, 31, 32, 95, 96, 106, no, 162, 288, 289, 360, 412, 416. Newfoundland amalgamated assembly, 328. New York, 32, 77. New Company of the Hundred Asso- ciates, the, 42. New Amsterdam, 77. New subjects, 176. New Brunswick, 179, 199, 218, 281 ; Uni- versity of, 281 ; school law dispute, 372. Newark, 214, 239, 246. New Orleans, 251. New nation, the, 256. New Caledonia, 331. New Westminster, 333. Nepiscaw River, 82. Necessity, Fort, 132. Nelson, Doctor Wolfred, 265, 292, 293 ; Robert, 297. Niagara, Fort, 91, 113, 149, 133, 148. Niagara, 214, 215 ; frontier, the, 239, 246. Nicholson, Colonel, 109. Ninety-four resolutions, the, 267. Northmen, the, 2, 4. Noirot, Father, 41. North America granted to Madame de Guercheville, 29. North-west, the, 113, 254, 329, 358, 361, 384, 385, 386, 411 ; mounted police, 385, 436; campaign, the, 391. Northcote, 394, 396. Nor'-westers, 255. Nootka, 255. Nova Scotia, 46, 121, 123, 179, 276, 359, 404. Notre Dame de Montreal, Society of, 62, 69. Noble, Colonel, 119. Nova Scotian, the, 278.' O. O'Brien, 427. Odelltown, 244, 297. O'Donnell, Bishop, 289. Ogdensburg, 236. Ohio valley, 121, 130, 193 ; Company, 131- Ojibways, 388. Old subjects, 176. " One Hundred Associates," 59, 72. Onondagas, 67, 68. Ontario and Quebec, 371. " Order of a Good Time," 26. Oregon, the, 256. Orders-in-Council, 220. Oswego River, 69 ; Fort, 113. Oswego, 248. 490 INDEX. Ottawas, 173. Ottawa, 258. Ouinipon, Lake, 113. Paris, Treaty of, 162. Patterson, Colonel Walter, 181. Parr, Governor, 198. Parrtown, 198. Papineau, Louis, 263, 267, 292. Pakenham, 251. Palmer, E., 344. Parliament buildings burned, 321. Parliament removed to Ottawa, 320. Parker, Captain, 325. Pacific scandal, the, 375. Penobscot, 47, 49, 95. Perrot, Nicholas, 81, 90. Pemaquid, 105. Peace River, 114, 369. Pepperell, William, 116, 117, 118, 119. Pennsylvania, 121, 138. Peel, Paul, 428. Petite Rochelle, 179. Peacock, the, 234. Perry, Commodore, 242. Penetanguishene, 256. Perth settlement, 258. Permanent Revenue Act of 1774, 263. Pelee Island, fight at, 301. Peel, Sir Robert, 309. Phips, Sir William, 100, 102. Pilgrim fathers, the, 42. Piziquid, 129. Pitt, WiUiam, 140, 142, 184. Pittsburg, 147. Pictou, 180. Pickett, Captain, 333. Plains of Abraham, 154, 157, 187. Plessis, M., 221. Plattsburg, 236. Placentia, 96. Pontgrave, 21, 22, 34. Poutrincourt, 23, 31. Port Royal, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 48, 53, 108, 109. Point Levi, 152. Poundmaker, 389, 391, 396. Port Moody, 401. Port la Joie, 180. Port Razoir, 199. " Poor Man's Society," 277. Postal system, Canadian, 434. Polette, Judge, 376. Pontiac, 173. Pope, W. H., 344. Prince Edward Island, 112, 145, 179, 180, 181, 217, 287," 374; land question in, 288, 325, 327. Prince Albert, 388, 389, 391. Prideaux, General, 148. Presqu'ile, 173. Prince Arthur, 360. Prince of Wales, 339. Prince, Colonel, 303. Prevost, Sir George, 222. Proctor, Colonel, 228. Provisional government, 298, 363. Puget Sound, 332. Purdy, Colonel, 244. Putnam, W. L., 406. Quebec, 42, 43, 59, 71, 78, 150, 151, 159, 160, 161, 165. Quebec Act, the, 176, 178, 185. Quebec Resolutions, 345. Qu'Appelle, 391. Queen's Rangers of Virginia, 198, 214. Queenston Heights, 230. Quincy, 252. R. Razilly, Isaac de, 51, 52. Ramesay, de, 150, 159. Railway, Intercolonial, 322, 380; between Montreal and Portland, 322 ; conven- tion at Portland, 323 ; European and North American, 323, 372; Grand Trunk, 323 ; Transcontinental, 373 ; Canadian Pacific syndicate, 383. Railways, 428. Recollets, 37, 59, 80. Religious institutions, 60. Remy, Fort, 94. Red River, 113, 219, 361, 363, 364. Restigouche, 179. INDEX. 491 Reads, John, 426. Reid, George, 427. Responsible Government, 208, 218, 260, 307, 3". 315. 317, 318, 326, 329. Red River Colony, 256. Reform Party, 274. Reformers, Declaration of the, 298, 307. Reformer and Conservative, 308. Rebellion Losses Bill, 319, 320. Redan, the, 325. Representation by population, 336. Rideau Canal, 258. Richelieu, 42, 48. Richelieu River, 165. Riel, Louis, 363, 377, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390. 391. 392, 393. 394, 395. 39^. 397. 398, 399- Riall, General, 248. Right of Search, 219. Ridgeway, 349. Roberval, de, 15, 16. Roche, de la, 20. Rochelle, 62. Roland, Fort, 94. Rocky Mountains, 114. Royal Society of Canada, 426, 427. Royal Canadian Academy, 427. Royal Canadian One Hundredth regi- ment, 324. Royal Commission of Inquiry, 291. Royal Newfoundland regiment, 288. Royal Nova Scotia regiment, 217. Royal Military College, 436. Royal WiUiain, the, 432. Royal Greens, 201. Rochambeau, 191. Roberts, Captain, 228. Ross, 251. Robinson, John Beverley, 272, 437. Rosario Channel, 332. Russell, Lord, 291. Ryswick, 103, 104, 106. Ryerson, Edgerton, 247, 298, 420. Sable Island, 8. Sackett's Harbour, 232, 238. Saguenay, the, 11. Salmon Falls, 99. Sangster, Charles, 426. San Juan, 332. Sandwich, fight at, 302. Saratoga, 190. Saskatchewan, 114, 361, 385; rebellion, 384, 386, 388. . Schenectady, 98. Science in Canada, 421. Scotch in Acadie, 46; in Cape Breton and P. E. I., 219. Scott, Winfield, 231, 314, 333. Scott, Thomas, murdered by Riel, 364. Secord, Laura, 240. Seigneurs, the, 75. Seigneurial tenure abolished, 324. Selwyn, Doctor, 421. Selkirk, 219, 256. Selkirk estate, the, 327. Senate, the, 351. Senecas, the, 83, 91, 173. Semple, Governor, 256. Seven Years' War, 182. Seventy-two Resolutions, the, 345. Separate schools, 420. Sewell, Chief Justice, 261. Shea, Sir Ambrose, 344. Shannon, the, and the Chesapeake, 246. Shavvnees, the, 173. Shelburne, 199. Sheaffe, General, 231. Sherbrooke, 251. Shirley, Governor, 116, 126, 133. Ship Hector at Pictou, 219. Shipping, 431. Shubenacadie Canal, 278. Simcoe, Governor, 214, 216. Sinicoe, schooner, the, 232. Simpson, Sir George, 257, 330. Smith, Charles Douglas, 288. Smith, Albert J., 345. Smith, Sir Donald, 401. Smith, Goldwin, 425. Smythe, Tracey, 281. Soccage, free and common, 176. Social life in New France, 170. Sorel, 78. Sons of Liberty, 292. Soto, de, 17. Sovereign Council, the, 74. States- Rights doctrine, 339. 492 INDEX. Stadacona, ii, 13. Stairs, Captain, 436. Stanley, Lord, 309. Stamp Act, the, 184. Steeves, W. H., 344. Stephen, George, 401. Stony Creek, 239. Stoneland, 3. Strahan, Doctor John, 272. Street, George F., 285. Strange, General, 393. Subercase, 94. Sulpicians, the, 69, 85. Suite, Benjamin, 424. Susa, convention of, 44. Swift current, 394. Sydenham, Lord, 309. St. St. Anne's Point, 176, 198, 200. St. Benoit, 294. St. Castin, 95, 109. St. Charles, Fort, 113. St. Charles, battle at, 294. St. Croix, 24. St. Denis, battle at, 294. St. Eustache, 294. Ste. Foye, battle of, 160. St. Germain-en-Laye, 44, 50. St. George's bay, 413. St. Ignace, 65. St. John's, Newfoundland, 106, 162, 288, 328, 413, 415. St. John River, 24, 52, 121. St. John's Island, 112, 199. St. John, 198, 200, 380. St. Joseph, 65. St. Just, Letellier de, 381. St. Lawrence, 8, 11, 165. Ste. Marie, 66. St. Pierre Island, 163. St. Sauveur, 30. T. Tadousac, 21. Talon, 74, 76, 80, 82. Tarleton, 191. Taylor, Colonel, 243. Tache, Sir Etienne P., 344. Tache, Archbishop, 364, Tenure of fealty and homage, the, 42. Tenure of office despatch, 306. Tea tax, 184. Tecumseh, 226, 228. Temple, 58. Telegraph systems, Canadian, 435. Telephone, invention of, 435. Terra Corterealis, 8 Thorwald, 3. Thorfinn Karlsefni, 4. Three Rivers, 61, 165, 166, 189, 223. Thompson, Sir John, 409, 410, 412. Thompson, Charles Poulett, 305. Ticonderoga, 138, 139, 146, 186. Timber duties, 218. Tippecanoe, 226. Tilley, Sir S. L., 337, 342, 344. Tour, Charles de la, 31, 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54. 57- 58. Tour, Claude de la, 47, 49. Tour, Lady la, 49, 56. Tonti, Henry de, 85. Townshend, General, 151, 159. Todd, Alpheus, 425. Toronto, 215, 216, 274, 299. Tory, 356. Treaties, Canada gains right to negoti- ate, 407. Treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, 121 ; of Paris, 162, 173, 176; of Versailles, 193, 194; of Amity and Commerce, 216; of Ghent, 251; the Ashburton, 314; the Reciprocity, 324, 348 ; the Oregon, 332 ; of Washington, 370; of Utrecht, no; of Ryswick, 103, 104, 106. Trent affair, the, 340. Turgot, 194. Tupper, Sir Charles, 337, 342, 344, 406. Turcotte, 424. Twelve Resolutions, the, 279. Tyrrell, 411. U. United Colonies of New England, 66, 186. United Empire list, 202. United States, the frigate, 234. Uniacke, R. J., 287. Uniforms and arms, 169. the. INDEX. 493 Universal Postal Union, 434. Upper House, elective, 325. Ursulines, 70. Utrecht, treaty of; no. V. Van Buren, President, 314. Van Corlaer, 64. Van Egmond, 299. Van Rensselaer, General, 227. Van Schultz, 302. Vancouver Island, 330. Vancouver Island and British Columbia separated, 333, 402. Vancouver, Captain George, 255. Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 108, 112, 113, 132, 142, 148, 152. Vauban, in. Vasco di Gama, 6. Venango, Fort, 121. Verendrye, de la, 113. Vercheres, Madeline de la, 102. Vergor, 127, 156. Verrazzano, 8. Victoria, 330. Victoria Bridge, the, 338. Viel, Father Nicholas, 41. Vigilance committee, 298. Vignan, Nicholas, 36. Vigilant, the, 118. Villebon, 104. Ville-Marie, 62, 69. Villiers, de, 132. Vincent, Colonel, 239. Vineland, 3. Virginian militia, the, 134. Voltigeurs, 235. Volunteer Force, 325. W. Walker, Sir Hoveden, 109. Walker, Admiral, 414. War of Spanish succession, 107; of Austrian succession, 115 ; Seven Years', the, 137 ; of 1812, 225, 252. War feeling, Maine and New Brunswick, 313- Warren, Admiral, 118. Washington, George, 131, 134, 183, 189, 191, 217, 267. Washington, treaty of, 405; city of, cap- tured, 251. Wasp, the, 234. Waterways, inland, 438. Webb, General, 139. Webster, Daniel, 313. West India Company, 76. West, the struggle for, 130. West, Sir Sackville, 406. Weir, Lieutenant, 293. Welsford, Major, 325. Wentvvorth, Sir John, 217. Wetherall, Colonel, 293. Whelan, E., 344., Whitbourne, Captain Richard, 32. Whiteway, Sir William, 413, 416, Willis, Judge, 273. Wilkinson, General, 244. Wilkes, Captain, 341. William Henry, Fort, 105, 136. Williams, Sir Fenvvick, 325. Wilson, Sir Daniel, 421. Wimbledon, 373. Wilmot, Lemuel Allan, 284. Winnipeg, 366. Winnipegoosis, 114. Winslow, Colonel, 126, 129. Winthrop's expedition against Montreal, loi. Wives brought out for colonists, 80. Wolfe, General, 142, 150, 151, 158. Wolfe's Cove, 155. Wolseley, General Sir Garnet, 365, 403. Wool, Captain, 230. World's Fair, the, 411. Worrell estate, the, 326. Y. Yeo, Sir James, 241. Yorktown, 191. York, 215. York, Little, 216, 237, 238. York Factory, 257. Young Street, 214. Young Teazer, 247. Young, John, 277. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 017 373 525 A