The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1

The city of Detroit dates its history from July, 1701. At that time M. de la Motte Cadillac, with one hundred men, and a Jesuit, carrying with them every thing necessary for the commencement and support of the establishment meditated, reached this place. "How numerous and diversified," said a public literary document, "are the incidents compressed within the history of this settlement. No place in the United States presents such a series of events interesting in themselves and permanently affecting, as they occurred, its progress and prosperity. Five times its flag has changed; three different sovereignties have claimed its allegiance; and since it has been held by the United States, its government has been thrice transferred. Twice it has been besieged by the Indians, once captured in war, and once burned to the ground."

"Detroit has long been considered as the limit of civilization toward the northwest. This town, or commercial port, is dignified by the name, and enjoys the chartered rights of a city, although its population at present does not exceed three thousand. The banks of the river above and below the city are lined with a French population, descendants of the first European traders among the Indians in that quarter, and extending from Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair, increasing in density as they approach the town, and averaging, perhaps, one hundred per mile. This place, but a little while ago so distant, is now brought within four days of the city of New York, the track pursued being seven hundred and fifty miles. Here, at Detroit, some of the finest steamers in North America come and go every day, connecting it with the east, and have begun already to search out the distant west and north."—Colton's Tour to the American Lakes, vol. i., p. 46.

389

"Le fruit de sa victoire (Da Buisson) fut que les Anglois désespérèrent de s' établir au Détroit, ce qui auroit été la ruine entière de la Nouvelle France, non seulement à cause de la situation de ce lieu, qui est le centre et le plus beau pays du Canada, mais encore parcequ'il ne nous auroit plus été possible d'entretenir la moindre communication avec les sauvages d'en haut ni avec la Louisiane."—Charlevoix, vol. iv., p. 105.

390

"Le roi très Chrétien céde à la reine d'Angleterre à perpétuite, l'Acadie, ou Nouvelle Ecosse, en entier, conformément à ses anciennes limites, comme aussi la ville de Port Royal, maintenant appellée Annapolis Royale."—Article XII. du Traité d'Utrecht, 1713.

391

"Ce dernier article ne nous ôta rien de réel, et ne donna non plus rien aux Anglais, parceque les cantons renouvellèrent les protestations, qu'ils avoient déjà faites plus d'une fois contre les prétentions réciproques de leurs voisins et ont très bien sçu se maintenir dans la possession de leur liberté et da leur indépendance."—Charlevoix.

392

"Il (Prior) étoit pareillement autorisé à traité sur les limites de l'Amérique septentrionale, et s'il plaisoit au roi, ces deux articles pouvoient être regles en peu de tems."—Mémoires de Torcy sur la Paix d'Utrecht, vol. iii., p. 426.

393

It is hardly remembered at the present day that the French nation once claimed, and had begun to colonize the whole region which lies at the back of the thirteen original United States, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, comprising both the Canadas and the vast fertile valley of the Ohio, and had actually occupied the two outlets of this whole region by its ports at Quebec and New Orleans.["La ville de Nouvelle Orléans fut fondée dans l'année 1717. M. de Bienville fit choix de la situation. On a nommé cetto fameuse ville la Nouvelle Orléans. Ceux qui lui ont donné ce nom croyoient qu' Orléans est du genre féminin, mais qu' importe? l'usage est établi et il est au-dessus des regles de la grammaire. Cette ville est la première qu' un des plus grands fleuves du monde ait vu s'elever aur ses bords."—Charlevoix, vol. viii., p. 192] Canada, the oldest French colony, and the only one on the continent to which that nation has sent any considerable number of settlers, was under the management of an exclusive company, from 1663 to the downfall of what was called the Mississippi Scheme, in 1720; and this circumstance, still more, perhaps, than the vicious system of granting the land to non-resident proprietors, to be held by seignorial tenure, checked its progress. Louisiana, with more sources of surplus wealth from climate and soil, was never a very thriving colony, and was surrendered to Spain with little reluctance, from which last power its dominion passed to the United States.

The French traders and hunters intermarried and mixed with the Indians at the back of our settlements, and extended their scattered posts along the whole course of the two vast rivers of that continent. Even at this day, far away on the upper waters of these mighty streams, and beyond the utmost limits reached by the backwoodsman, the traveler discovers villages in which the aspect and social usages of the people, their festivities and their solemnities, in which the white and red man mingle on equal terms, strangely contrast with the habits of the Anglo-American, and announce to him, on his first approach, their Gallic origin.—Merivale, vol. i., p. 58; Sismondi, Etudes sur L'Ecole Politique, vol. ii., p. 200; Latrobe.

394

"Garcilasso de la Vega parle des Chichachas dans son histoire de la conquête de la Floride, et il les place à peu près au même endroit où ils sont encore presentement.... Ce sont encore les plus braves soldats de la Louisiane, mais ils étoient beaucoup plus nombreux du tem de Ferdinand de Soto.... C'est notre alliance aves les Illinois qui nous a mis en guerre avec les Chichachas et les Anglois de la Caroline attisent le feu. Nôtre établissement dans la Louisiane fait grand mal au cœur à ceux-ci; c'est une barrière que nous mettons entre leurs puissantes colonies de l'Amérique septentrionale, et le Mexique.... Les Espagnols qui nous voyent avec des yeux si jaloux nous fortifier dans ce pays, ne sentent pas encore l'importance du service que nous leur rendons."—Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 160.

395

From the year 1706 the name of Cape Breton was changed to Ile Royale. Louisburg was called le Havre à l'Anglais.

396

"The importance of the colonies ["L'île de Cap Bréton n'étoit pas alors (at the time of the treaty of Ryswick), un objet, et l'établissement que nous y avions n'avoit rien qui put exciter la jalousie des Anglais: elle nous demeura."—Charlevoix, tom. iii., p. 349] was too little considered until the commencement of the last war. The reduction of Cape Breton by the people of New England was an acquisition so unexpected and fortunate, that America became, on that remarkable event, a more general topic of conversation. Mr. Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts Bay, was the principal projector of that glorious enterprise; an enterprise which reduced to the obedience of his Britannic majesty the Dunkirk of North America. Of such consequence to the French was the possession of that important key to their American settlements, that its restitution was, in reality, the purchase of the last general peace of Europe." ["The island of Cape Breton, of which the French were shamefully left in possession at the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, through the negligence or corruption of the British ministry, when Great Britain had the power of giving law to her enemies."—Russell's Modern Europe, vol. iii., p. 223.

"Only three years after Cape Breton was taken by the New Englanders, England was obliged reluctantly to resign her favorite conquest of Cape Breton, in order to obtain the restitution of Madras. This was by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The final conquest took place in 1758, by the English, under Amherst and Wolfe."—Belsham, vol. ii., p. 333] —A Review of the Military Operations in North America, in a Letter to a Nobleman, p. 4 (London, 1757).

"The plan of the invasion of Cape Breton was laid at Boston, and New England ["The sum of £235,749 was granted by the British Parliament to the provinces of New England, to reimburse them for the expense of reducing Cape Breton."—Smollett, vol. iii., p. 224] bore the expense of it. A merchant named Pepperel, ["The news of this victory being transmitted to England, Mr. Pepperel was preferred to the dignity of a baronet of Great Britain."—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 154] who had excited, encouraged, and directed the enterprise, was intrusted with the command of the army of 6000 men, which had been levied for this expedition. Though these forces, convoyed by a squadron from Jamaica, brought the first news to Cape Breton of the danger that threatened it; though the advantage of a surprise would have secured the landing without opposition; though they had but six hundred regular troops to encounter, and eight hundred inhabitants hastily armed, the success of the undertaking was still precarious. What great exploits, indeed, could have been expected from militia suddenly assembled, who had never seen a siege or faced an enemy, and were to act under the direction of sea-officers only? These inexperienced troops stood in need of the assistance of some fortunate accident, with which they were indeed favored in a singular manner. The construction and repair of the fortifications had always been left to the care of the garrison at Louisburg. The soldiers were eager to be employed on these works, as the means of procuring a comfortable subsistence. When they found that those who were to have paid them appropriated to themselves the profits of their labors, they demanded justice: it was denied them, and they determined to assert their right. As the depredations had been shared between the chief persons of the colony and the subaltern officers, the soldiers could obtain no redress. They had, in consequence, lived in open rebellion for above six months when the English appeared before the place. This was the time to conciliate the minds of both parties; the soldiers made the first advances, but their commanders distrusted a generosity of which they themselves were incapable. It was firmly believed that the soldiers were only desirous of sallying out that they might have an opportunity of deserting, and their own officers kept them in a manner prisoners, until a defense so ill managed had reduced them to the necessity of capitulating. The whole island shared the fate of Louisburg, its only bulwark. This valuable possession, restored to France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, was again attacked by the English in 1748, and taken. The possession was confirmed to Great Britain by the peace in 1763, since which the fortifications have been blown up, and the town of Louisburg dismantled."—Winterbottom's History of America, vol. iv., p. 14.

397

"When Marshal Belleisle was told of the taking of Cape Breton, he said he could believe that, because the ministry had no hand in it. We are making bonfires for Cape Breton, and thundering over Genoa, while our army in Flanders is running away."—Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, July 26, 1745.

398

"The tract of country known by the name of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, was in 1784 divided into two provinces, viz., New Brunswick on the southwest, and Nova Scotia on the southeast. The former comprehends that part of the old province of Nova Scotia which lies to the northward and westward of a line drawn from the mouth of the River St. Croix, through the center of the Bay of Fundy to Baye Verte, and thence into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, including all lands within six leagues of the coast. The rest is the province of Nova Scotia, to which is annexed the island of St. John's, which lies north of it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The modern Nova Scotia is the French Acadia. The modern New Brunswick is the French Nouvelle Ecosse. This name was given by Sir William Alexander, to whom the first grant of lands was given by James I.; since then the country has frequently changed hands, from the French to the English nation, backward and forward. It was not confirmed to the English till the peace of Utrecht. Three thousand families were transported into this country in 1749, at the charge of the government, and they built and settled the town of Halifax."—Winterbottom's History of America, vol. iv., p. 39.

399

"La cour de France avoit extrêmement à cœur de recouvrer cette province (Acadia); les efforts reitérés des Anglois pour l'avoir en leur puissance, et plus encore, leur triomphe après l'avoir conquise, avoit enfin ouvert les yeux aux François sur la grandeur de la perte qu'ils avoient faite. M. de Pontchartrain écrivit ainsi à M. de Beaubarnois: 'Je vous ai fait assez connoître combien il est important de reprendre ce poste (le Port Royal) avant que les ennemies y soient solidement établis. La conservation de toute l'Amérique septentrionale, et le commerce des Pêches le démandent également: ce sont deux objets qui me touchent vivement.'"—Charlevoix, tom. iv., p. 90.

400

"Roland Michel Barrin, marquis de la Galissonière, remplit la poste de gouverneur comme s'il ne se fut toute sa vie occupé que de cet objet.... Il établit à Quebec un arsenal maritime, et un chantier de construction, où l'on n'employa que les bois des pays. Il conçut, proposa, et fit adopter le vasté plan dont il commenca l'execution, de joindre le Canada et la Louisiana par une chaine de forts et d'établissements, le long de l'Ohio et des Mississippi, à travers les régions désertes qui séparaient ces deux colonies à l'ouest des lacs. A l'avantage d'établir entre elles une communication moins pénible et moins long que par le nord, se joignoit celui de pouvoir faire parvenir les dépêches en France, en hiver par la Louisiane, tandis que l'embouchure du fleuve St. Laurent est fermeé par les glaces; enfin celui de resserrer les Anglais entre les montagnes et la mer.... Il emporta tous les regrets quand il revint en France, en 1749.... La défaite de l'amiral Anglais, Byng, et la prise de Minorque que fut le fruit de cette victoire décisive, couronnèrent sa carrière. Il avoit entrepris cette dernière expédition contre l'avis des médécins qui lui avoient annoncé sa mort comme prochaine, s'il se rembarquoit.... Il cacha ses maux tant qu'il put, mais il fut enfin obligé de se démettre du commandement. Il revint en France et se mit en route pour Fontainebleau où étoit alors le roi. Les forces lui manquèrent totalement à Nemours, où il mourut le 26 Octobre, 1756.... A ses talens éminens comme marin, la Galissonière unissoit une infinité de connaissances.... Sérieux et ferme, mais en même tems doux, modéré, affable, et intégre, il se faisito respecter et chérir de tous ceux qui servoient sous ses ordres.... Tant de belles qualités étoient cachées sous un extérieur peu avantageux. La Galissonière étoit de petite taille et bossu. Lorsque les sauvages vinrent le saluer à son arrivée au Canada, frappés de son peu d'apparence, ils lui parlèrent en ces termes, 'Il faut que tu aies une bien belle âme, puisqu' avec un si vilain corps, le grand chef notre père t'a envoyé ici pour nous commander.' Ils ne tardèrent pas à reconnaître la justice de leur opinion, et entourèrent de leur amour et de leur vénération, en l'appellant du nom de père, l'homme qui ne se servit du pouvoir que pour améliorer leur sort."—Biographie Universelle, art. Galissonière.

401

"In observing on old maps the extent of the ancient French colonies in America, I was haunted by one painful idea. I asked myself how the government of my country could have left colonies to perish which would now be to us a source of inexhaustible prosperity. From Acadia and Canada to Louisiana, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, the territories of New France surrounded what originally formed the confederation of the thirteen United States. The eleven other states, the district of Columbia, the Michigan, Northwest, Missouri, Oregon, and Arkansas territories, belonged, or would have belonged to us, as they now belong to the United States, by the cession of the English and Spaniards, our first heirs in Canada and in Louisiana. More than two thirds of North America would acknowledge the sovereignty of France.... We possessed here vast countries which might have offered a home to the excess of our population, an important market to our commerce, a nursery to our navy. Now we are forced to confine in our prisons culprits condemned by the tribunals, for want of a spot of ground whereon to place these wretched creatures. We are excluded from the New World, where the human race is recommencing. The English and Spanish languages serve to express the thoughts of many millions of men in Africa, in Asia, in the South Sea Islands, on the continent of the two Americas; and we, disinherited of the conquests of our courage and our genius, hear the language of Racine, of Colbert, and of Louis XIV. spoken merely in a few hamlets of Louisiana and Canada, under a foreign sway. There it remains, as though but for an evidence of the reverses of our fortune and the errors of our policy. Thus, then, has France disappeared from North America, like those Indian tribes with which she sympathized, and some of the wrecks of which I have beheld."—Chateaubriand's Travels in America, vol. ii., p. 207.

402

From the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, 1632, till 1654, the French had quiet possession of Acadia; then Cromwell sent Major Sedgwick to attack it, with orders to expel all who would not acknowledge themselves subjects of England. Sedgwick executed his commission, and Cromwell passed a grant of Acadia to one De la Tour, a French refugee, who had purchased Lord Sterling's title to that country; and De la Tour soon after transferred his right to Sir William Temple.

Nova Scotia was ceded to France at the treaty of Breda, in 1670. In 1690 it was retaken by Sir William Phipps on his way to Quebec. It was given back to France by the treaty of Ryswick; retaken by General Nicholson (who gave the name of Annapolis to Port Royal) in 1710, during the War of the Succession. It was formally and finally ceded to England at the peace of Utrecht. The undefined limits of Nova Scotia were a constant source of dispute between the French and English nations.

403

Professor Kalm thus speaks of La Galissonière, who was the governor of Quebec at the time of his travels through Canada. "He was of a low stature and somewhat hump-backed. He has a surprising knowledge in all branches of science, and especially in natural history, in which he is so well versed, that, when he began to speak to me about it, I imagined I saw our great Linnæus under a new form. When he spoke of the use of natural history, of the method of learning, and employing it to raise the state of a country, I was astonished to see him take his reasons from politics, as well as natural philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences. I own that my conversation with this nobleman was very instructive to me, and I always drew a great deal of useful knowledge from it. He told me several ways of employing natural history to the purposes of politics, and to make a country powerful in order to depress its envious neighbors. Never has natural history had a greater promotion in this country, and it is very doubtful whether it will ever have its equal here. As soon as he got the place of governor general, he began to take those measures for getting information in natural history which I have mentioned before. When he saw people who had for some time been in a settled place of the country, especially in the more remote parts, he always questioned them about the trees, plants, earths, stones, ores, animals, &c., of the place. Those who seemed to have clearer notions than the rest were obliged to give him circumstantial descriptions of what they had seen. He himself wrote down all the accounts he received, and by this great appreciation, so uncommon among persons of his rank, he soon acquired a knowledge of the most distant parts of America. The priests, commandants of forts and of several distant places, are often surprised by his questions, and wonder at his knowledge when they come to Quebec to pay their visits to him, for he often tells them that near such a mountain, or on such a shore, &c., where they often went a hunting, there are some particular plants, trees, earths, ores, &c., for he had got a knowledge of these things before. From hence it happened that some of the inhabitants believed he had a preternatural knowledge of things, as he was able to mention all the curiosities of places, sometimes near 200 Swedish miles from Quebec, though he never was there himself. Never was there a better statesman than he, and nobody can take better measures, and choose more proper means for improving a country and increasing its welfare. Canada was scarcely acquainted with the treasure it possessed in the person of this nobleman when it lost him again; the king wanted his services at home, and could not have him so far off."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 679.

404

Louisburg, together with the whole island of Cape Breton, had been restored to the French by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.

405

"In the year after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the land forces of Great Britain were reduced to little more than 18,000 men; those in Minorca, Gibraltar, and the American plantations, to 10,000; while the sailors retained in the royal navy were under 17,000."—Commons' Journals, Nov. 23, 1749, and Jan. 19, 1750.

"From the large number both of soldiers and seamen suddenly discharged, it was found that they might be either driven to distress or tempted to depredation. Thus, both for their own comfort and for the quiet of the remaining community, emigration seemed to afford a safe and excellent resource. The province of Nova Scotia was fixed upon for this experiment, and the freehold of fifty acres was offered to each settler, with ten acres more for every child brought with him, besides a free passage, and an exemption from all taxes during a term of ten years. Allured by such advantages, above 4000 persons, with their families, embarked under the command of Colonel Cornwallis, and landed at the harbor of Chebuctow. The new town which soon arose from those labors received its name from the Earl of Halifax, who presided at the Board of Trade, and who had the principal share in the foundation of this colony. In the first winter there were but 300 huts of wood, surrounded by a palisade; but Halifax at present deserves to be ranked among the most thriving dependencies of the British crown."—Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 6.

406

"As it was the intention of the government to build a strong fort at Beau-sejour, Chaussegros de Lery, son of the engineer who traced the fortifications of Quebec, was sent for that purpose. De Vassan, who succeeded La Corne in the command of this post, was instructed, as his predecessor had been, to pay the utmost attention to the Abbé le Loutre, and to avoid all disputes with the English. De Vassan's penetration soon led him to discover Le Loutre's true character; but, not wishing to have any misunderstanding with him, he left him full scope in the management of the affairs of the Acadians. These unhappy people had from the first felt the iron hand of his tyranny; neither the provisions nor clothing furnished by the crown could be obtained without repeated supplications and prayers, and in every instance he showed a heart steeled against every sentiment of humanity."—Smith's History of Canada, vol. i., p. 217.

407

"We soon after came to anchor in the basin, called by the French, with much propriety, Beau-bassin, where a hundred ships of the line may ride in safety without crowding, and from the time we entered this bay we found water enough every where for a first-rate ship of war. It is about five miles from Beau-sejour, now Fort Cumberland."—Knox's Historical Journal, vol. i., p. 35.