The history of Canada

Front matter

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Preface

It has been the aim, in writing this brief History of Canada, to make the language as far as possible simple and natural. Instead of a compilation of facts, strung together for the sake of getting everything in, more attention has been given to describe with some degree of fulness those events which stand out boldly in our history. The more commonplace facts have not been left out, but have been woven together, thus securing interest, as well as cohesion, and avoiding that dry, formal and scrappy treatment so uninteresting to beginners. As the school life of many children is very short, it is hoped that the method of treatment in this book will give them some intelligent idea of the country as a whole, and arouse such an interest that they, as well as those who remain longer at school, will have a desire for the further study of the history of their own country.

I have made use so fully of the many excellent works on Canadian history that it is difficult to acknowledge in particular my many obligations for the facts incorporated in the following pages. The most difficult task has been to weigh the importance of these facts and judge what is best to omit.

I wish to express my gratitude to those friends who have so kindly assisted me in reading proofs, and by whose help the book, it is hoped, may be found as free as possible from errors.

Teachers will find it a convenience to have the pronunciation of the more difficult proper names in parenthesis throughout the text. The outline maps will also prove valuable for reference ; but pupils should be made to see the necessity of consulting maps, and making, at every stage of their progress, outlines for themselves of all places named in the text. No plan is more excellent in impressing the facts of history on their minds.

G. U. HAY.

St. John, June 1st , 1901 .

Chapter I. Exploration

Introduction. — Every boy and girl of Canada likes to read the story of our past. It is a tale of discovery and adventure, of the deeds of heroes, of fierce struggles with enemies, of bravely facing death and suffering in many forms. This record of the deeds of heroic men and brave women, who toiled and suffered to carve from the wilderness homes that are fitted to nourish a sturdy race, will help to form the life and character of the children who grow up to fill their places.

Canada stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the United States on the south to the Arctic Ocean on the north. Its area (3,315,647 square miles) is about as large as the whole of Europe or of the United States. Its coast waters, its vast lakes and noble rivers, and countless smaller lakes and streams, teem wTith fish ; its forests abound with game, and its mines with useful and precious metals ; its soil and climate are fitted to rear a hardy and vigorous people. The untold wealth of its forests, its mines, its soil, its seas, lakes and rivers, if carefully guarded and wisely used, will support prosperous and contented millions in the years to come.

Where are the boys and girls who are not proud of such a land, who are not eager to help make it their home, and to preserve it as a part of our great British Empire ?

Discovery.— Look on the map of the world. Find Norway ; trace from it a line to Iceland, then to Greenland, and then along the eastern coast of Canada. This was the track of those hardy Norsemen, who in their frail vessels braved the tempests of the northern seas, and founded colonies in Iceland and Greenland. Thence Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, the colonizer of Greeno

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land, sailed south, with nothing but the sun, moon and stars to guide him and his brave sailors. According to the Sagas (Norse legends), he came to Newfoundland, which he called Helluland (land of flat stones) ; next to Nova Scotia, which he named Markland (woodland) ; and, it is thought, to New England, which from the abundance of wild grapes growing there, he called Yinland (wineland). This was about the year 1000 A.D., nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, landed at San Salvador (1492). The discoveries of the Northmen brought about no real contact between the Old World and the New. They are looked upon merely as chance visitors to our coasts. The discovery of Columbus, who seems to have known of the early Norse voyages, was followed by conquest and settlement, in which Spain too* the leading part. Other nations were aroused by the discovery of a new world. In May, 1497, John Cabot, with his son Sebastian and eighteen men, left the port of Bristol, England, in one small *ship, the “ Matthew,” to seek unknowm lands to the west. The iittle craft of fifty tons safely braved the winds and waves of the Atlantic, and on the 24th of June first sighted land, on the east part of the island of Cape Breton. On that day began the claim of Great Britain to the North American continent. In the spring of 1498, John and Sebastian Cabot made a second voyage to the New World with a larger number of ships and men, making a second landing on the coast of Labrador'; but, meeting with ice, they coasted southward as far as the point now called Cape Hatteras. Columbus supposed he had discovered the Indies, and the Cabots supposed they had found the way to distant Cathay' (China). The full meaning of these discoveries did not become clear until years afterwards ; and it is only in recent times that full credit has been given to the brave explorers. The men of their own times either forgot their deeds or thought there was nothing wonderful in what they had done. The Cabots, father and son, sleep in unknown graves. The small gratitude of King Henry VII. to the voyagers from England who first touched our shores is shown in the following entry, still preserved in the British Museum (mu-ze'-um) : “ August 10th (1497), to hyme that founde the New Isle, £10.” The last years of Columbus, the bold Genoese navigator, were passed in poverty and neglect. Although many places on this continent are named after him, the

EXPLORATION.

name America was given in honour of Amerigo Vespucci (am-eree'-go ves-poot'-chee), a Florentine merchant, who touched the continent somewhere in the north-east of South America, in 1501, on his third voyage, and wrote an account of the discovery.

Jacques Cartier, the Discoverer of Canada, 1534.— The real discoverer of Canada was Jacques Cartier (zhak' kar'-tee-a'). The Norsemen, the Cabots, the Portuguese Captain Cortereal, the French navigator, Verrazano (ver'-ratz-ah'-no), and a few others, merely touched its outlying shores ; and were driven back by the fogs of Newfoundland, or the rocky and ice-bound shores of Labrador. It must be kept in mind that all these early voyages, except the Norsemen’s, were made with the object of finding a shorter passage to the Indies or Cathay, so that the riches of the far East might find their way more easily to the shores of Europe. Cartier,

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sent out by Francis I., King of France, in 1534, entered the Straits of Belle Isle and discovered the gulf that separates Newfoundland from the Atlantic provinces of Canada. The rugged shores of Labrador and north-western Newfoundland did not please him. He says it “must be the land allotted by God to Cain.” But once within the gulf, and summer coming on, he found the warm weather and the scenery a pleasant relief from the icebergs and cold winds of the Atlantic. He skirted the shores of western Newfoundland and portions of what are now called Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec. He has left us a faithful account of the places visited and the natives whom he saw. Next year (1535) Cartier made a second voyage. Entering the gulf on the festival day of St. Laurent (Aug. 10th), he named it the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This name was also given to the river. Guided by two Indians whom he had taken to France as captives the year before, he sailed up that noble river — the first white man who had sailed on its broad waters — until he reached a great Indian village where now stands Quebec. This was Stadacona, where ruled Donnacona, a chief of the Algonquin (al-gon'-keen) Indians. Further up the river he came to another Indian village, Hochelaga (hosh'-e-lah'-gah), inhabited by a Huron tribe. This is the site of Montreal, so named from the hill behind it, which Cartier called Mount Royal. No wonder he was impressed with the views from the heights of Quebec and Mount Royal — the great plains to the west, the great sweep of mountain and valley to the north and south, and at his feet the noble river which he vainly thought would open to France and Frenchmen the treasures of China and India. He longed to tell the king of his great discovery ; and after a miserable winter spent at Quebec, in which he lost many men from cold and disease, he set sail for France, taking with him the chief, Donnacona, and several of his Indian subjects, whom he had coaxed on board his vessel. This was a base return for the kindness Cartier had received at the hands of the Indians ; but it was only one small instance of the cruelty and lack of faith of those who came to America to discover, then to conquer and to settle. The story too often is one of greed and cruelty on one side, and hate and slaughter on the other.

The Indians. — The Skrellings (yelling savages) was the name

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that Leif Erikson and his Norse sailors gave to the natives of our shores. These looked with fear and wonder on the dragon ships, the weapons and the white faces of the rough Northmen, and were glad to see them depart. Cartier says of the Indians of the Gulf of St. Lawrence that they were good natured and quiet and would be “easy to convert to Christianity.” But this was not so with all. The fierce Iroquois (eer'-o-kwah'), who lived in what is now the State of New York, were warlike and cruel, and frequently made war on the tribes who lived north of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes. These were the Hurons and Algonquins, the former occupying the region north and east of Lake Huron, and the latter, under various names and tribes, the country from the Atlantic Ocean towards the Rocky Mountains. Except the Eskimos (es'ke-mos'), and the Indians of the Pacific Coast, the Algonquins made up the great mass of the Indians of Canada. The Micmacs and Maliseets, who lived in the Atlantic provinces, were branches of this family. They tilled the soil to some extent ; but nearly all lived by hunting and fishing, and on wild fruits, The tribes frequently made war on one another ; and the men, when not engaged in fighting, were roaming the forests, hunting and fishing, making rude weapons, or spending their time in feasting, talking, or sleeping. The women’s lot was hard. On them fell all the heavy work and drudgery. In many tribes considerable skill was shown in the manufacture of snowshoes and moccasins, canoes from birch bark, and clothing from the skins of animals. Their tools and weapons were of the rudest kind — clubs, tomahawks, hatchets, arrowheads made of stone, the bow and arrow, fish-spears, hooks and lines, knives made from shells or thin slices of stone. The women were skilful in making baskets, ornamental work in quills and feathers, and cups and bowls shaped out of clay. Their houses or wigwams were built in the shape of a cone, with a framework of stakes covered with skins or bark. Often ten or twelve families lived together in long houses covered with bark. The Iroquois, Hurons, and to some extent the Algonquins, lived for mutual protection in large encampments. It is supposed that the word kanata , meaning an encampment or settlement such as that found by Cartier at Hochelaga, was used by him as a name for that whole district lying near. But at what time the name Canada was applied to the whole country is uncertain.

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Chapter II. Conquest And Settlement

First Settlements. — In 1542, six years after his return from his second voyage, Cartier, with Roberval (rob'-er-val') as the first viceroy of Canada, attempted to found a settlement on the St. Lawrence ; but this, with further attempts for several years, ended only in failure, shipwreck and suffering. For nearly fifty years England and France took little interest in a country that promised them neither treasures nor a highway to the riches of the far East. But the true wealth of the country was little by little being found out. Hardy fishermen from Europe — their numbers increasing every year — sought Newfoundland and its banks for the fish that swarmed in these seas ; traders and men loving the free wild life of the woods sought in the forests of Canada valuable fur-bearing animals. Thus was laid the foundation of two of our greatest industries — the fisheries and the fur-trade.

The nearness of Newfoundland to England led to the hopes of founding a colony on that island. Between the years 1575 and 1585, it was visited by Martin Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake, and the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert — names well known in England’s annals of the sea. Two attempts of Gilbert to found a colony in Newfoundland (1579 and 1583) ended in disaster and death. In attempting to return to England, his little vessel foundered at sea, and he and all on board perished.

The costly furs from the Canadian forests lured the French traders. They bought these furs or pelts from the Indians, paying for them in trinkets, beads, gay-coloured cloths, and “fire-water” (brandy), and selling them at a great profit in France. Great fortunes were thus made. Frequent quarrels arose between rival traders or companies. In return for certain privileges the traders promised to provide settlers ; but those who came were left to starve or to care for themselves as best they could. The king, for a certain sum of money, granted at different times to his nobles or to a company the sole right (monopoly) of the fur-trade, on condition that they would found colonies. “The Company of the On©

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Hundred Associates,” in 1627, was given the sole right to the fur trade and the coast and inland fisheries of Canada, on condition that they would bring out four thousand colonists, help them to settle, and maintain a Roman Catholic clergy for their spiritual benefit and for the conversion of the Indians. But the chief aim of the Company was to get riches. Many of the settlers either perished from cold and hunger or returned to France. Others took up with the wild life of the Indians, became “ rovers of the woods,” coureurs de hois (koo-rer'-de-bwah'), and married among the Indians, their descendants becoming the half-breeds of later years. But there was one among those early explorers whose name stands before all others.

Champlain, Founder of Canada —Samuel de Champlain (shamplane'), was a man whose memory Canadians, whether of French or English birth, hold in love and respect. He faithfully served his king, and he tried to do his duty. His chief aims were to make new discoveries, improve the country, make it better known by maps and writings, and above all to Christianize the people. He often said : “ To save one soul is of more importance than to found a new empire.” He was stern and upright, but his justice was tempered with mercy. In his dealings with the Indians he was fair and open, and he never engaged in traffic with them.

Champlain was trained for the sea from his earliest years. His first voyage to Canada was made in 1603, when he was thirty-six years of age. He explored and mapped the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, and published an account of his voyage on his return to France the same year. On his second voyage, in 1604, he accompanied the Sieur de Monts, (de mong), leader of a band of traders and settlers for Acadia. In May, they sighted land near the mouth of the river La Have, touched at several places along the coast of what is now Nova Scotia, entered and explored the Bay of Fundy (see map, p. 203), which De Monts called la Baye Frangaise , (lahbay'-frong'-saze'). On the 24th of June, the anniversary of that memorable day on which John Cabot made his landfall on Cape Breton, they found the mouth of a river which Champlain named St. John, in honour of the festival of that Saint. Coasting to the west, they made a settlement on an island in the St. Croix River now called Docket’s Island, a few miles above St. Andrews.

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[The site of this settlement is important ; because the discovery of its ruins in 1797 made it clear that this river is “the true and ancient St. Croix,” a fact disputed in settling the international boundary line.] Here the little company of explorers spent the winter, suffering many hardships from cold and scurvy, so that thirty-five out of seventy-nine died, and many of the remainder were greatly weakened. In the spring of 1605, the remnant of the company removed to Port Royal, six miles west of the present town of Annapolis. De Monts had landed here the previous summer, and was greatly charmed with the beauty and safety of the pi Here he founded a colony. Land was cleared, crops put in, < jid Port Royal flourished until its capture and destruction by the English under Samuel Argali, in 1613. Champlain explored the coast as far south as Cape Cod.

On his third voyage to Canada, in 1608, Champlain founded Quebec. He joined the Hurons and Algonquins and made war on the Iroquois. This made the latter the bitter foes of the French. The terrible Iroquois afterwards became the allies of the English, and for many long years — until the end of the French rule — the colonists, in the cruel slaughter wreaked upon them by these savage and revengeful enemies, reaped the fruit of Champlain’s too hasty act. Champlain discovered the lake which bears his name, and explored the country around the St, Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and Great Lakes. Later (in 1612), he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Canada. He aimed to improve the condition of the colony, and to make Quebec a strong fortress. He was so far successful as to defy the English fleet under Sir David Kirke, when it appeared before the city in 1628. But Quebec was captured in the following year, and Champlain was carried a prisoner to England. The English made little effort to keep their prize ; and the country was restored three years after (1632) to the French. Champlain was again appointed governor in the following year, a post which he held till his death, December 25th, 1635.

Champlain’s labours in Canada, which extended over thirty years, were faithful and untiring, and they produced a lasting effect on the history and progress of the country. Six large volumes of his writings, with maps and sketches, bear witness to his industry. His courage and energy put new life into the colonists, and made

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the French king and his nobles have some faith in the country. His zeal for Christianity inspired the Recollet (rek'-o-la/) and Jesuit fathers to undergo the dangers and hardships of a life in the wilderness in order to convert the savages. He gained the confidence of the Indians and proved their friend ; for though he drew upon the French and their Indian allies the fury and hate of the Iroquois, it must be remembered that the Hurons and Algonquins kept faith with the French chiefly on condition that the latter would aid them in their wars against their common enemy, the Iroquois.

Acadia. —Acadia (the French Acadie, meaning, in the dialect of the Micmac Indians, a place or district,) embraced what is now Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and the east of Maine. After the destruction of Port Royal by Argali, in 1613, the French made no attempt to settle the country for twenty years. The frequent wars between England and France, and the rival claims that often arose as to the ownership of this part of North America, left little chance for a colony to take root. In 1621, James I. of England granted the country to Sir William Alexander, a Scottish knight, who sent out a few of his own countrymen as settlers to Port Royal. But in 1632 Acadia was again restored to France ; Isaac de Razilly (r&h-zeel'-yee) was made its governor, and for several years settlement went on rapidly. Farmers, artisans and traders were brought from France — in all about forty families. These gradually mixed with the few Scottish settlers and the former French settlers in Acadia who had not returned to France or gone to Quebec ; and they became the ancestors of the Acadian French who now people various parts of the Atlantic provinces. The new settlers first occupied La Have, near the mouth of the river of the same name, on the Atlantic Ocean; but they afterwards removed to Port Royal, the site of which was soon changed to that of the present town of Annapolis. The land here was better suited for farming. The settlers prospered, increasing rapidly as the years went by, and extending themselves along the fertile valley of the Annapolis River and the low coast lands around the head of the Bay of Fundy, which continued for many years to be the centre of French population in Acadia. A few forts and trading posts, and gradually settlements, began to

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appear at other convenient points. “The simple Acadian peasants ” grew rich and multiplied. They had little care for what went on in the outside world. They were happy ; and it mattered little to them whether the king of France or the king of England ruled over them.

Story of Lady La Tour.— At the mouth of the River St. John, there was a small fort and trading post. On the death of De Razilly, the governor of Acadia, in 1635, the Chevalier D’Aulnay (shev'-a-leer' dole'-nay'), succeeded him and had his headquarters at Port Royal. On the opposite side of the Bay of Fundy, Charles de la Tour held the fort of St. John. These men had been lieutenants of De Razilly. They had long been rivals and bitter foes, and now each was bent on destroying the other, although there was land and wealth enough for both. D’Aulnay had the favour of the French court ; La Tour had some influence in England and in the English colony at Boston. But the greatest support of the latter came from his wife, whose brave defence of the fort at St. John, and whose unhappy fate, furnish one of the most interesting pages of early Acadian history.

After years of varying fortune for both, D’Aulnay succeeded in capturing La Tour’s fort, on Easter Sunday, 1645. During all the previous winter, while La Tour was in Boston seeking in vain for help, his brave wife had defended the fort, inspiring her soldiers with her own heroic spirit. In February, she repulsed an attack of her enemy with such success that D’Aulnay was glad to escape with the loss of twenty-two killed and thirteen wounded. On the 13th of April following, D’Aulnay again attacked the fort, this time on the land side. For three days and three nights he made but slight headway against the little band within the fort, which, led by the brave woman, repelled every, onset. But while the garrison were at prayers on Easter morning, a Swiss sentry, who had been bribed by D’Aulnay, treacherousl}7 allowed the enemy to approach ; and before the besieged force thought that anything was wrong, D’Aulnay’s soldiers were climbing over the walls of the fort. Even then the heroic Lady La Tour and her little company drove back the enemy with the loss of many killed and wounded. Anxious to save the lives of her soldiers, she too readily listened to terms of surrender proposed by D’Aulnay, which were that the lives of all

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should be spared and they should be free to go wherever they pleased. But barely had he taken possession of the fort, when, enraged at finding how small a garrison had so long and so successfully kept him at bay, his cruelty and want of faith were shown. Every man of the devoted band was put to death, except one whose life was spared on condition that he should act as the hangman of his comrades. Lady La Tour was forced to witness the terrible sight with a rope around her neck. Thus was one page of the early history of Acadia made bright by the brave deeds of a heroine ; the next was fouled by the cowardly act of a base and pitiless foe. The unfortunate lady, broken hearted, died three weeks after and was buried near the scene of her glory and her misfortune. Her only child, a little girl, was sent to France, where, it is supposed, she died soon after. Her husband was ruined and became for a time an outcast. His rival did not long enjoy the fruits of his victory. He was drowned a few years after (1650) in the river near Port Royal. But the sequel to this tragic story robs it of some of its romance. La Tour was put in possession of Acadia by the king of France and made its governor ; and to settle the claims of D’Aulnay’s widow he married her. The capture of Acadia by an English fleet in 1654 did not disturb him. He readily became an English subject, and was permitted to retain his possessions. He shortly after sold his rights ; but lived in the country until his death, in 1666. In the following year Acadia was restored to France. At that time it contained not more than four hundred and fifty settlers, four-fifths of whom were at Port Royal.

The Jesuit Fathers. —Equally slow was the progress made on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The colony of Canada, or New France, numbered scarcely 2,000 people (1663). The ravages of the Indians and the greed of the fur traders kept back settlement. The strong hand of Champlain had preserved some appearance of order, but after his death there seemed to be no guiding power. The five governors who succeeded him were not able to stem the tide setting against the young colony. The Jesuit priests, by their brave and unselfish efforts to convert the savages, saved the country in the days of its greatest peril. By night and by day, amid the frost and snows of winter or the heat of summer, they went boldly among the Algonquins, the Hurons, and even the savage

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Iroquois ; braving famine, fatigue and danger to carry the message of the Cross to those who had never felt its gentle influence. They never gave up their aim ; their courage never forsook them. At first they were mocked and despised, or no attention was paid to their words. Gradually their simple and pious lives began to win respect. The Hurons, more docile and intelligent than the others, accepted their teachings more freely ; and soon very many of that nation, numbering, when the French came to Canada, some 20,000 souls, were baptized and became Christians. The Iroquois hated, and did not trust, the French. The few bold missionaries who, taking their lives in their hands, sought out the encampments of these fierce people, were cruelly tortured and put to death. But these zealous and patient men seemed to accept suffering as their lot. Their duty was plain. No toil or danger disheartened them, and death had no terrors for them.

The story of the French-Indian wars is woven with the story of the missions. The Iroquois never forgave Champlain and the French for making war on them ; and they hated the Hurons and Algonquins with greater hatred than ever because they were the friends and allies of the French. There is no need here to recite the terrible tales of misery and bloodshed : how men were killed while at work in the fields ; how women and children were carried to captivity and torture ; how hundreds died from hunger and disease. The cruelty and thirst for blood of the terrible Iroquois seemed never to be satisfied. To add to the dread caused by these fierce foes, firearms had been sold to them by the Dutch settlers on Manhattan Island and at Fort Orange (Albany) ; and they began to use them with such skill that they had a great advantage over their Indian enemies. Tribe after tribe of the Hurons was destroyed, the Jesuit teachers among them killed, and in the end the Hurons, as a nation, ceased to exist. The missions which had been founded among them with such toil and suffering, left only their story and an undying example among men for all ages. Such a record would adorn the annals of any nation.