History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers

Front matter

PUBLIC PARK, Kalamazoo, Mich. -OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN. JHfth |(lkt»trations <m& biographical jiltetcheg? ITS ZFZR/OZ&ÆIlsrZEIISrT IsÆEISr J__2<rjD PIONEERS. PHILADELPHIA : EVERTS & ABBOTT. 1880. PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. INTRODUCTORY. The county of Kalamazoo, of Avhich Ave have attempted to furnish a reliable history, notwithstanding its comparatively recent settlement by the Avhite race, is rich in historic material. The fragmentary evidences of occupation by a prehistoric people, scattered here and there among its beautiful oak openings, furnish materials from which volumes might be Avritten ; and the more recent occupation of the red hunter race is prolific of traditionary and written lore. The local writers who have from time to time placed upon record the varied incidents of pioneer life transpiring in the early days ; the prominent representatives of the professions, teachers, clergymen, attorneys, and literary men, who have contributed of their knoAvledge to the general fund, are, each and all, entitled to credit for rescuing from oblivion Avhat, in the coming years, will be invaluable.

It matters not that portions of it may be crude and hastily written ; it is far better, even in an imperfect state, than no record, and coming generations will appreciate and preserve every item as an heir-loom to be handed down to posterity. It has been our task to collect, to collate, to arrange, correct, and supplement this valuable material, of which Kalamazoo County possesses an unusual share, and present it, systematized in the best possible manner, for preservation and reference, and we have given our best endeavors to the Avork. We have searched to the bottom records, both public and private, and determined many matters about which the best citizens differed materially. The titles to lands, early mills, village plats; the earliest births, deaths, and marriages, and a thousand and one matters about Avhich there has been much disagreement, we have carefully examined and put into permanent shape for preservation.

Byron says, Critics all are ready made and we expect a generous share of their feathered weapons, from quivers ahvays full, but we hope those Avhose opinions are valuable, will at least read and carefully verify, and not be hasty to condemn. We have trodden lightly, though eagerly, above the ruins of an unknoAvn race, and given such de scriptions of them as seemed necessary. We have endeavored to furnish a readable chapter upon the physical features of the State and County, including a carefully prepared geological article; Ave have given a synopsis of early discoveries by the French in the opening years of the seventeenth century, and outlined their adventures in and around the peninsulas of Michigan, as discoverers, missionaries, traders, and coureurs des bols. We have gathered up Avhat traces have been preserved of the early trading-posts and missions in this immediate vicinity, and woven into the web of our history the traditions and fragmentary accounts of the various Indian nations Avhich from time to time inhabited this portion of the lower peninsula.

Chapter I. Early Discoveries

Cartier — Roberval — Champlain. The history of no county in the State of Michigan would be complete without some allusion to the early dis coveries and settlements of the French in the opening years of the seventeenth century, together with brief notices of the earlier voyages. The earliest knowledge of the St. Lawrence valley and the basin of the great lakes was de rived from the explorations of that enterprising people, who also first explored and made permanent settlements in the two peninsulas of Michigan. It seems eminently proper, therefore, that we should give a brief outline of these preliminary operations before considering the later history of the State, and of Kalamazoo County proper. The French navigators seem to have confined themselves principally to the regions lying around the Gulf of St. Law rence, and thence naturally extended their discoveries inland along the great river valley.

The daring fishermen of Brit tany, Normandy, and the Basque provinces of France and Spain had been familiar with the cod-fishing grounds of Newfoundland and the adjacent region from a date certainly as early as 1504, and certain French writers claim that one Cousin, of Dieppe, had explored the American coast in 1488 ; but the first authenticated voyage of exploration was made by John Verrazzano, a Florentine adventurer and navigator, under the patronage of Francis I. of France, in 1524. That portion of the continent of Northern America lying in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, and including the entire water-shed of the great lakes, was first visited by French explorers in the years 1534-35.* Verrazzano first saw land on the coast of North Caro lina, in March of that year, which he reported as " a newe land, never before seen of any man, either ancient or mod erne," notwithstanding the fact that fires were blazing along the strand, and a great number of the natives crowded to the water's edge to greet the adventurers.

The wonderful discoveries of Columbus, Vespucius, Cabot and others, in the latter part of the fifteenth century had concentrated the attention of the maritime aud commercial nations of Europe upon the " New World" lying in the great western sea. Expeditions were fitted out in the ports of Spain, Portugal, England, France, and Holland, and the borders of the new continent were explored, and colonies planted from Nova Scotia to the mouth of the La Plata, in Southern America. From thence he sailed along the coast, visiting the bay of New York, and examining the country now known as New England, and as far as the great island of Newfound land, leaving the continent in latitude fifty north. His discoveries created great interest in Europe, and the various courts vied with each other in fitting out expeditions for exploration.

According to some writers Verrazzano entered the service of Henry VIII. of England, and was killed by savages during a subsequent voyage. In this race for supremacy the Spanish people monopo lized the greater portion, extending from the thirty-second parallel of north latitude to the equator, and including the majority of the West Indian Archipelago. Their occupancy of the peninsula of Florida, hoAvever, was fiercely disputed by the French in 1565-68. The Portuguese in some measure divided the southern continent with their Succeeding Verrazzano's voyage, the French king, in consequence of wars and captivity, no doubt, seems to have lost his enthusiasm for discovery ; but among his favorites was one Philippe de Brison-Chabot, who sought out the ** We do not take into account the somewhat mythical voyages of the Northmen in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The statements concerning them, and the amountof information given, are too meagre for the purposes of this work. f This peninsula was at first occupied by the French, under the name of Acadia. They were dispossessed by the English, and the inhabitants of the colony transported. 2 'J famous Breton navigator, Jacques Cartier, a native of the seaport of St. Malo, born in 1494, whom he fitted out and sent on a voyage of discovery. titles of " Lord of Norembega, Viceroy and Lieutenant- General in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, New Foundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay, and Bacca laos."* Cartier sailed from his native town on the 20th of April, 1534, and, steering across the tossing billows of the At lantic, entered the straits of Belle Isle, examined the Bay des Chaleurs, and sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as the island of Anticosti.

This great estuary he supposed to be the opening to a passage leading to the shores of Cathay. But the storms of autumn compelled him to return to France, after a brief reconnoissance of the coasts and islands of the north. Cartier sailed on the 23d of May in the year last named, leaving Roberval to follow with additional ships, emigrants, and supplies. He reached the St. Lawrence in safety, and began a settlement at a point which he named Cap Rouge, about three French leagues above Quebec, on the northern bank of the river. Two stockade forts were erected, and Cartier named the place " Charlesbourg Royal." Here the colony passed a long and dreary winter, and in the spring, becoming dis gusted with their hard fortune, they went on board their ships and sailed for Europe. Cartier encountered Roberval in the harbor of St. John, but neither threats nor persua sions could induce him to return, and he bore away for France.

In the spring of 1535 a neAv expedition was prepared, consisting of three small vessels, the largest of one hundred and twenty tons, and placed under the command of Cartier. Accompanied by several gentlemen of noble birth, he sailed from St. Malo on the 19th of May, and after a tempestuous voyage, in which his ships were separated, reached the straits of Belle Isle, where they were once more united. Roberval, who had sailed on the 16th of April, 1542, with three ships and two hundred colonists, from Rochelle, made his way to the abandoned Charlesbourg, where he erected barracks, mills, and store-houses for a permanent settlement ; but the project was unsuccessful and the enter prise was soon after abandoned, and from that time to the year 1608 no further attempt was made to found a settlement on the St. Lawrence, except that possibly fur-trading posts were kept up at Tadoussacf and a few other points along the lower portion of the river.

Sailing up the estuary of the noble river, he named it the Bay of St. Lawrence, in honor of his patron saint, — a name which subsequently attached to both the gulf and the river. Entering the river proper, he found its Indian name to be Hochelaga, or the"" Great River of Canada." The country lying below Quebec the natives called Saguenay, and that above, Hochelaga. Cartier explored the river as far as the site of Montreal, which derives its modern name from the designation he be stowed upon the mountain in its rear, from whose summit he obtained a most " royal" view of the great valley. He called it " Mont Royal." CHAMPLAIN. Samuel de Champlain was born at the small seaport of Brouage, on the Bay of Biscay, in 1567. He held the rank of captain in the royal navy, and had seen service with the army under St. Luc and Brissac in Brittany, for which he had been pensioned by Henry IV.

Subsequently he com manded an exploring ship of the Spanish marine during more than two years in the West Indies, where he acquired a great amount of geographical knowledge, and brought back a curiously illustrated journal of his travels. The promontory now occupied by the city of Quebec and its vast system of fortifications was then the site of an Indian village called Stadacone, where dwelt the king or principal chief of the country, whose name was Donnacona. The great Indian capital of the valley, however, was located on the island of Montreal, and, like the river and country, bore the name of Hochelaga. The country around this point was at that date occupied by the Huronhoquois, a subdivision of the great Algonquin race, who afterwards removed westward to the valley of the Ottawa RiA'er and the eastern margin of Lake Huron, whence they were driven by their conquerors, the terrible Iroquois confederacy of Central New York, about 1649-50.

The progenitors of the Five Nations had formerly resided in the vicinity of Montreal, but had emigrated thence to the south of Lake Ontario, probably about the commencement of the sixteenth century. Returning to the French court, he met Aymor de Chastes, commander of the order of St. John, and Governor of Dieppe, who Avas organizing a company for the purpose of establishing settlements and missions in America. The gray-haired veteran easily persuaded Champlain to accept a position iu the new company, which, by the consent of the king, he agreed to, and in 1603, in company with one Pontgrave, he set sail from Honfleur for the mouth of the St. Lawrence, which river he ascended as far as Montreal. The busy Huron town of Hochelaga had vanished, and in its place were found a few scattering Algonquin families.

Cartier wintered in the river St. Charles (called also by some writers St. Croix), and in the spring or summer of 1536 returned to France, taking with him the chief Don nacona and a half-score of his companions, whom he had enticed ou board his ship. Most of the Indians, including Donnacona, soon after died. No permanent settlement was attempted by this expedition. Champlain returned to France to find his patron, De Chastes, dead, and the Sieur de Monts at the head of the com pany. From this time to the year 1608 he was engaged along with De Monts, Pontgrave, D'Orville, Beaumont, La Motte, and others, in founding missions and trading-posts In 1541 a squadron of five ships was fitted out, aud a third time placed under command of Cartier. The prime mover and patron of this enterprise was Jean Francois la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy, upon whom the king conferred the high-sounding but empty * Norembega was an early name for Nova Scotia, Southern New Brunswick, and a portion of the present State of Maine, called also " Arambec."

Baccalaos was the Basque name for codfish or the fish ing region. | Tliiplace was at the mouth of the Saguenay River. EARLY DISCOVERIES 11 in Acadia, and in exploring the coasts and islands of the Atlantic as far south as Cape Cod, in Massachusetts Bay. On the 17th of August they reached, the Huron metropolis, which the savages called Cahaigue, situated in what is the present township of Orilla, about ten miles west of the River Severn, she outlet of Lake Simcoe. It was a palisaded town of about two hundred lodges, and here in the course of a few days assembled the two thousand five hun dred warriors who had promised to co-operate with Cham plain against the far-off Iroquois. In July, 1608, Champlain began the permanent settle ment of Quebec, which has since grown into an important seaport and become the capital of a flourishing province.* In 1609 he, with two or three French soldiers and a band of sixty Algonquin Indians, discovered the lake which bears his name, and explored it as far south as the outlet of Lake George, near which, on the 30th of July, in that year, he fought a battle with the Mohawks, and thereby laid the foundation for that unrelenting enmity which con tinued for a period of one hundred and fifty years, and was one of the principal causes of the loss of the French possessions in America.

On the 8th of September the curious army was in mo tion. Brule, the interpreter, at his own request, was sent with twelve Indians to hasten the co-operation of the five hundred promised Eries, or Carantouans, as Brule called them. The intrepid interpreter was gone three years before he succeeded in escaping from the wilderness and rejoining his countrymen. He had a most remarkable experience among the Eries, and as a prisoner with the Senecas, more marvelous than the wildest imaginings of fiction. He was treacherously murdered by the Hurons, near Penetangui shine, in 1632.")" In 1611, Champlain founded Montreal by establishing a trading-post on its site, though it was not until 1642 that a permanent settlement was made. Thus he became the founder of two of the principal cities of Canada of the present day.

Near the site of Montreal he fought a second fierce battle with the Jroquois in the spring of 1610. The grand army, if we may so designate a naked crowd of savages, crossed Lake Simcoe, passed the portage to Balsam Lake, and thence followed the zigzag course of the River Trent to its entrance into the Bay of Quinte, and out upon the broad, spreading waters of Lake Ontario, the Outonoronons of the Hurons, and landed, probably, in one of the arms of Black River Bay, the Niaourha of the Iro quois. Secreting their canoes, they took up their march by land, along the sand beach of the lake, across Sandy Creek, Salmon River, and the outlet of the central lakes of New York, and on into the country of the Senecas. In 1613, accompanied by four Frenchmen, he made a journey with canoes up the Ottawa River as far as the great island of Allumette, in the vain effort to find a water route to Hudson's Bay.

Forty canoes, loaded with Indians, followed him on his return. In 1615 occurred Champlain's great expedition to the Huron region of Lake Manatouline, or the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, and his arrival at the head of a vast swarm of natives in the country of the Iroquois. An immense concourse of the Western Indians — Hurons, Ojibways, Otta was, Nipissings, and others — assembled at Montreal in the spring of that year for the purposes of trade. Here Cham plain met them, and entered into a treaty offensive and de fensive against the Iroquois. At the breaking up of the assembly Champlain returned to Quebec to make preparations for his journey to the Huron country, while the Fran ciscan friar, Joseph le Caron, and twelve French soldiers accompanied the Indians in their long journey to the western wilderness.

The scene of the great fight between this host and the Iroquois is located by Dr. O'Callaghan, of New York, at the outlet of Canandaigua Lake, though several writers disagree with him, some locating the Indian town on Onon daga Lake, near the present city of Syracuse. The Iroquois town was strongly fortified by a quadruple row of lofty palisades, strongly bound together, and sur mounted by a gallery from which the garrison could annoy the besiegers with arrows, spears, and stones. There was one peculiarity attending this " siege" which has not been seen ou any other occasion in the history of the continent. To enable his followers to attack the enemy upon an equal footing, and to counteract the superior advantages of his lofty platforms, Champlain constructed one or more mov able towers, high enough to overlook the palisade, and upon which he placed his French arquebusiers to shoot down the enemy upon his ramparts.

Champlain followed shortly after in two canoes, accompanied by Etienne Brule, an interpreter, one other French man, and ten Indians. His route was the same which he had pursued two years before, — up the rapid Ottawa, across the portage to Lake Nipissing, and thence down the French Ri\Ter (the outlet of the lake) to Lake Huron, which he named " Mer Douce," the fresh-water sea of the Hurons. Coasting for a hundred miles along the eastern shore of the Georgian Bay, he finally landed at the inlet known as Thunder Bay, a little west of the present port of Penetan guishine. Pushing inland in a southeasterly direction, he reached the village of Carhagouha, where he found Le Caron and his companions. Here the friar built a forest altar, and on the 12th of August, 1615, in the presence of Champlain and less than a score of Frenchmen, surrounded by a wondering horde of savages, he celebrated the first mass in the Huron country.

Great wooden shields were also constructed to screen his Indian allies from the fire of the besieged. The towers were drawn forward by the united strength of two hundred warriors, and the attack began in earnest. But the Hurons were entirely unmanageable, so that Champlain could do nothing with them, and after a furious contest of three hours' duration, the whole army fell back to their fortified camp, with the loss of seventeen warriors wounded. The French commander was also wounded by an arrow in the knee. He tried every means to persuade his followers to a renewal of the attack, but they persist- * This was the third permanent settlement on the Atlantic coast of North America; St. Augustine, in Florida, settled by the Spaniards, in 1565, and Jamestown, by the English, in Arirginia, in 1607, being f Parkman. earlier. the States-General, fitted out four friars at the earnest re quest of Champlain, himself a zealous Catholic, to begin the great work of Christianizing the American Indians.

The four named were Denis Jamet, Jean Dolbeau, Joseph le Caron, and Pacifique du Plessis, who embarked at Hon fleur in the spring of 1615, and arrived at Quebec in the end of May. ently refused, unless joined by the expected reinforcement from the Eries. Waiting five days in their camp and hearing nothing from their allies, they made a rapid retreat to their canoes, carrying their wounded in large baskets, Champlain among the rest. Crossing Lake Ontario, the great war-party di vided into small hunting-bands and scattered through the forests. At Quebec their first business was to construct a convent and adopt a system of operations. The vast field was divided among them, Le Caron being assigned to the Hu ron nations and Dolbeau to the Montagnais of the lower St. Lawrence, whom a French writer aptly designated as " the paupers of the wilderness."

Jamet and Du Plessis were for the present to remain at Quebec. Champlain had been promised an escort to Quebec, but after regaining their own side of the lake the Indians refused to furnish it, and he was compelled to remain and pass the winter with them. Once during the winter hunt he was lost in the wilderness and well-nigh perished, but at length found his way back to his baud. In the course of the winter, in company with Le Caron, he visited all the villages of the Huron-Iroquois people, and may, very prob ably, have penetrated near to the borders of Michigan. As we have seen, Le Caron repaired at once to Montreal, where he studied the Indian languages, and when Cham plain's expedition was preparing for the country of the Hurons, he accompanied it and remained a year among the savages, returning, in 1616, to Quebec.

In the spring, Champlain returned via his old route down the Ottawa, and reached Quebec on the 11th of July, after a year's absence, and was received as one from the dead, with great rejoicing. Le Caron had preceded him, and also arrived in safety. No further attempts were made by the Franciscans to establish missions among the Lake Huron Indians; and it was not until 1628 that the Jesuits first settled among them. Like the Pilgrim and Puritan Fathers of New England, the French leaders in America designed to establish a religious as well as commercial dominion, and while pushing their explorations far into the wilderness for purposes of conquest and of gain, the zealous representatives of the mother-church everywhere accompanied the mailed warriors of the king. Thus ended Champlain's second expedition into the country of the Iroquois.

He had attacked the Mohawks on the eastern flank of the confederacy in 1 609 and gained a temporary success ; the attack upon the Senecas on the western flank in 1615 ended in failure. The cross was planted wherever the golden lilies waved, and the rude chapel arose within or beside the strong stock ade and the primitive trading-house. Indeed, the daring son of the church, girded with the vestments of his order, and bearing the cross and rosary, not unfrequently preceded the mousquetaire, and his awe-inspiring ceremonies were the avant couriers of that interminable pageantry which every where and at all times characterized the French occupation of Canada. A century and a half of almost incessant warfare repaid upon the inhabitants of Canada the short-sightedness of the great explorer. Champlain continued as Governor of New France until his death at Quebec, on the 25th of December, 1635, with the exception of a period of four years, from 1629 to 1633, during which the English held the country for three years, and Emery de Caen was Governor one year,' — 1632-33.

The military leaders dreamed of an interior water-passage to the " Great South Sea," and, in imagination, beheld the dominion of the " great king" extending over the yet un known regions of the " forest continent ;" while the followers of Loyola enthusiastically looked forward to a grand gathering of all the Indian nations within the pale of the Christian Church, or, in the event of a disastrous failure, to a glorious crown of martyrdom bravely won in the service of their Master. His administration had extended over a period of twenty seven years.

Chapter II

The Recollets, with their scanty means (for they were vowed to perpetual beggary), continued their self-appointed work among the Indians of the lower St. Lawrence until about 1625, when, feeling their utter incapacity to cope with so vast a field, they reluctantly called in the assistance of the Jesuits. THE FRANCISCANS AND THE JESUITS. The Hundred Associates — Capture of Quebec by the English — Early Explorations and Missions in the Lake Region — Destruction of the Hurons. THE FRANCISCANS. The year 1615 witnessed the inauguration of that re markable system of missionary work which the Catholic Church labored so persistently to build up among the savage nations of Canada. The Franciscans, an order founded in the thirteenth century by St. Francis of Assisi, led the advance and furnished the pioneers in this great under taking.

THE JESUITS. This powerful and aggressive order was founded by Ignatius Loyola, formerly a soldier, who had been severely wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, in Spain, and who had subsequently dedicated himself wholly to the service of the Church. The order took the name " Society of Jesus," and was approved by the Pope in 1540. The Recollets, a reformed branch of the order, with the help of a generous subscription taken up among the car dinals, bishops, and nobles of the Church, assembled for Its pioneers in America were Fathers Charles Lalemant Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf. In 1628, Brebeuf proceeded to the field of his future THE FRANCISCANS AND THE JESUITS. 13 labors and tragical death, among the Hurons living around the southeastern borders of the Georgian Bay. He was accompanied by Father de la Noue aud one of the friars. and possibly carried their settlements out upon the fertile prairies beyond the lakes.

They would, at least, have been likely to live at peace with their Protestant brethren of the English colonies, and thus the devastating wars of the early part of the eighteenth century in America would have been avoided. Upon the caprice of a single individual how often hang the destinies of nations ! THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. It is necessary at this point to consider, for a few para graphs, the organization and purposes of an institution which controlled the destinies of New France for many years.* In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu was the great cham pion of absolutism, which had become supreme in France. About this date he turned his attention to the affairs of New France. CAPTURE OF QUEBEC BY THE ENGLISH. In 1628-29 the bigoted treatment extended to the Hu guenots by the French government returned to plague its abettors.

That oppressed people rose in arms against the king, and Charles the First, of England, espoused their cause, not from any love of the principles for which they contended, but through jealousy of the power of France. Under his patronage a powerful company was formed, consisting of a hundred members, with the cardinal at its head. It was called the " Company of the Hundred Asso ciates," or " Company of New France." The sovereignty of the whole of the French possessions in North America was conferred upon it, and it was granted a perpetual monopoly of the fur-trade, together with a monopoly of all other commerce, for the period of fifteen years, aud its entire trade was declared free from all duties for the same period. As a natural consequence of war with England, many Huguenots took service under her banner.

Among these were the three brothers, David, Louis, and Thomas Kirk, Calvinists, of Dieppe. Following the advice of the refugees, the government of England resolved to attack the French settlements in Canada, and in July, 1628, Admiral Sir Da vid Kirk entered the St. Lawrence, captured several trans ports laden with supplies for the half-famished inhabitants of Quebec, and sent a polite summons to Champlain to sur render that important post. The veteran governor was not frightened at his words, and as politely declined. But the loss of the needed supplies reduced the garrison and inhabitants to great straits,]; and when, on the 19th of July, 1629, Louis Kirk, brother of the admiral, appeared before Quebec and demanded its surrender, Champlain had no alternative, and on the 20th gave up the post, and with it the control of all the French possessions ou the St. Lawrence.

The company obligated itself to settle in the colony, be fore the year 1643, four thousand persons, including men of all trades, and persons of both sexes ; to support them for three years, and to furnish them cleared lands for main tenance. This colony was to be exclusively French, and every settler must be a Catholic. The Huguenots, the most enterprising class, and almost the only one inclined to emigration, were strictly forbidden to touch the shores of New France. The bigoted king gave his royal sanction to these measures, and, as an earnest of his good-will, furnished two ships-of-war completely armed and equipped. The establishment of the company was fully consummated in the beginning of 1628. The Jesuits were chosen as the spiritual managers of the colony ; the Francis cans were virtually driven from the country, and the com pany commenced operations with a paid-up capital of three hundred thousand livres, or about sixty thousand dollars.

This transfer of soA'ereignty interrupted all the plans of the Jesuits, and they beheld the despised Huguenots taking possession of the very regions from which they had been haughtily excluded. Their work had come to naught, and gathering up their scanty effects, they embarked with Cham plain and eventually reached France. From this time to 1632, when the country was restored to the French by the treaty of Suza, in April, 1629, which had been actually concluded three months previous to Champlain's surrender, it remained in possession of the English. Champlain was made governor of the colony, with civil and military jurisdiction. This bigoted arrangement carried within itself the seeds of destruction. The historian, Francis Parkman, in speak ing upon this subject, justly remarks : " There is nothing improbable in the supposition that, had New France been thrown open to Huguenot emigration, Canada would never have been a British province ; that the field of Anglo- American settlement would have been greatly narrowed, and that large portions of the United States would at this day have been occupied by a vigorous and expansive French population.