Stories from Canadian History: Based Upon "Stories of New France"

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Preface

As will be seen by the title-page, this volume is based upon "Stories of New France," published by D. Lothrop Company in 1888. Five of Miss Machar*s stories from that book have been, with her kind permission, shortened and arranged to suit the length of the present work. Of the remaining twelve by the Editor six originally appeared in longer form in ** Stories of New Fiance.*' The other six— "The Discovery of America," "The Story of Br^boeuf," "The Story of Michillimackinac," "The Last Siege of Quebec," "The Story of Brock," and "The Story of Tecumseh" — were specially written for these pages.

T. G. M.

Stratford, Ont.

Contents

Ghaftkr Pagb.

I. — The Discovery of America 1

n. — Story op Jacques Oartier 5

Chapter I. The Discovery Op America

"Columbus is the real discoverer of Amerioa.*'— High School History ^ page SS5,

Living in an age when the whole world has been traversed, when there is hardly an island of the sea but has known the foot of the white man, it is hard to realise what the inhabitants of Europe of the fifteenth century imagined about the unexplored parts of the earth. Europe and a part of Asia and Africa made up the then known world, and the superstitious men and women of the time believed the places beyond the explored territory to be inhabited by giants and pigmies, by sea-monsters and land monsters, by men of strange shape and stranger manners. Even our own Shakespeare makes Othello when relating his experience to Desdemona speak of

'' The camiibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders.''

Henry IV. the large-minded and noble-hearted King of Portugal, did much to dispel this darkness. He sent voyager after voyager forth to examine the coast of Africa, and year by year new capes, new rivers, new peoples, were discovered, until at last Bartholomew Diaz reached the Cape of Good Hope, called by him Stormy Cape. It is a note-worthy fact that on this voyage he was accompanied by Batholemew Columbus, brother of Christopher.

These discoveries excited the whole maritime world, and many sailors hoped to be the successful ones in the search for the wealtjh

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2 STORIES Prom cakadian history.

of the Indies, the kingdom of the legendary monarcl^ Prester John, or the land of the Grand Khan.

There was no larger mind or more daring spirit in Europe at this time than Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool-carder of Genoa. He spent a few brief years at the University of Pavia, and there acquired a knowledge of mathematics and an intense love of geographical science ; but before he was fifteen circumstances compelled him to earn his own living, and he went to sea. The many discoveries which were then being made influenced his mind, and he brooded, over enterprises that the bravest mariners never dreamed of. It was nothing to him to coast along the African shore. There he would ever be in sight of known land, but his heart yearned after something greater than had yet been done.

The broad expanse of ocean that lay far to the west had a secret that he felt he could discover. There night and day he dreamed he saw the land of the East, the land of wealth and wonders. To this land he would go, and every year he lived made him more fixed in his determination. He married a daughter of Perestrelo, a famous Portugese navigator, and his father-in-law's books and charts, which fell into his hands, added fuel to his ambition. He perused lovingly the works of Paulo Toscanelli, and the famous "Oosmographia " of Cardinal Aliaco, where wise and accurate knowledge is almost clouded in a mist of absurd fables of lionbodied men and dog-faced women, of monsters of gigantic size, and of sea serpents and salamanders. Columbus devoured eagerly all that related to the unknown world, and at length determined to ask aid to go forth to discover it for himself.

His first appeal was to the King of Portugal, but the king of his time had none of the enterprise of Henry IV., and so he had to turn his eyes to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. In 1485 he began his entreaties, and till 1492 he left no stone unturned to get a chance to venture out on the unknown seas. He had but faint encouragement from the court; he was rebuffed by the wealthy, and called a n^onomaniac by his fellow-mariners ; but he had a daring spirit and could not be borne down. When he despaired of aid from Spain, he sent his brother to Charles VIII. of France and Henry VII. of England to get either to help. The noble queen Isabella and her ambitious husband sajy that Columbus

THE DISCOVERY OF* AMERICA. 3

was not to be daunted, and probably fearing that some other nation would forestall Spain, consented to aid him. Three vessels were got ready at Palos ; the " Santa Maria," a decked vessel, commanded by Columbus, and the caravels, the *' Pinta " and "Nina," under the command of the Pinzon brothers, merchants and mariners who had risked considerable wealth in fitting out the vessels for the voyage.

One hundred and twenty men joined the expedition, and on the third of August, 1492, the vessels sailed from Palos, with the hopes and fears, the blessing* and prayers of the inhabitants following them long after they had passed out of sight across the ocean.

Columbus' heart burned with a conqueror's joy ; for eight years he had prayed for this chance, and for eight years his *' proposition was a thing for mockery." Labor, study, struggle, defeat, had made him prematurely gray, but his majestic carriage, fair complexion, and clear blue eye, pronounced him as he stood on the poop of his vessel a man bom to command men.

The vessels sailed to the south-west until the Canary Islands were reached, and after some delay they left Gomera, one of the group, on the sixth of September, and shaped their course to the west, hoping to discover a new route to the wealth of the East. From this it will be seen that Columbus was much in advance of his age, believing the earth to be a sphere, while the scholars of his day laughed such an idea to scorn. However Columbus thought the world much smaller than it is, and began to look for the promised land very soon after leaving Gomera.

On the fourteenth of September one of the sailors on the "Nina" saw several tropical birds rarely seen far from shore, and the whole of the voyagers began eagerly to scan the horizon, but nothing met their gaze except the blue waste of leaping waters. On the following night a meteor fell from the skies, and, as they watched its fiery path, they saw in it a warning that they should go no further, and many were for turning back ; but the heroic Columbus pushed onward, feeling that land was nearing every instant.

Time and again huge floating plains of seaweed were met, and each time the cry of "land on the starboard bow," "on the larboard bow," or "dead ahead," made all turn their eyes in the direction indicated, only to meet disappointment. Each day brought

4 STOKIES FROM CANADIAN HISTORY.

new hopes, and each night they were cast into despair : now a flock of birds ; again a cloud-bank ; to-day a pelican, usually seen at a comparatively short distance from land ; to-morrow a sea-weed island ; — seemed to show that the end of their journey was at hand.

Two months had passed since they left Palos, and they only seemed farther from the goal of their ambitions than when they started. The sailors were terrified, and crowded round Columbus beseeching him to return ; but he steeled his heart to their entreaties. He was attempting what man had never before attempted ; he was hazarding everything ; and with heroic energy he had determined to succeed or perish. At last, on the eleventh of October, signs of land that could not be mistaken came to them over the salt waters. A table board and a carved stick, evidently the work of man, were picked up, and shortly afterwards a haw-tree branch with the fruit on it was eagerly drawn on board. The olive leaf was not more welcome to Noah than this broken branch to the toiling, terrified crew. The horizon was carefully scanned, but not uncil ten o'clock at night did Columbus, who was anxiously watching from the high poop of the ** Santa Maria," discern a light that could be neither star nor meteor. Soon all were on the alert, and e'er morning Rodrigo de Triana, a common sailor on the *'Pinta'' cried out triumphantly **land." No one went to rest, and with the first signs of daylight a fair island came into view, its beautiful green slopes bathed in the fresh morning sun, and its woods ringing with the songs of tropical birds. The sailors, wild with delight, rent the air with triumphant shouts, and their pent up, grateful hearts found vent in a Te Deum, while every eye filled with tears of joy.

Columbus had the boats manned, and he and his captains in complete armor were rowed ashore, and took possession in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. He named the island San Salvador. His men stood by him and begged his forgiveness for the trouble they had caused him on the voyage. He was triumphant, and could readily pardon ; and all were as happy as only conquerors can be. The natives watched with awe and delight the figures clad in armor, particularly Columbus, who wore, as a mark of his position, a crimson scarf across his breast.

THE DISCOVERY OP AMERICA. 5

From San Salvador the vessels sailed to other islands of the West Indian group, and every place Columbus touched at he claimed for his sovereign. At length, bearing the joyful tidings of a new world, he set sail for Spain on the fourth of January. The winter storms were sweeping the Atlantic, but the vessels arrived safely on the fifteenth of March. On reaching Palos Columbus was given a royal welcome, and was for a time the hero of Spain. The strange men, the strange weapons, the strange objects of nature that he brought with him, filled all with amazement. The wonders of the new land stirred every mind, and rich and poor were eager to venture all on voyages of exploration.

Although the continent of America was not reached by Columbus on tliis voyage he deserves the honor of being its discoverer. Others only followed in his steps ; and it was mere chance that kept him from touching on the mainland on his first voyage. The Cabots, father and son, were great men, but they were mere imitators. Columbus is truly the Father of America. He crossed four times in all and made important discoveries on each voyage, suflfering much both by land and sea. His name is stained by his having taken part in the slave trade, but this was the sin of the age. Like every great man, lie made enemies, and they so far succeeded against him, that on one occasion he crossed the Atlantic in chains. Poverty came upon him in later years, and at last he died poor and neglected, in 1506. His body lies in the cathedral of Havana, a fitting resting place for the man who gave a world to mankind.

Chapter II

From ''Story of Jacqiies Cartier," by Miss A. M. Machar.

" Frands I. sent out from the sea-port of St. Malo, the famous sea captain, Jacques Cajctier."— High School History, page 325.

One bright spring morning two little ships glided slowly away from the harbour at St. *Malo, bound on a long and adventurous voyage. They were manned 'by a hundred and twenty men, and their commander was Jacques Cartier, a captain specially chosen by King Francis,

The little expedition sailed across the wide Atlantic, reaching Cape Bona vista in Newfoundland .about the middle of May. From thence they explored the cold and sterile shores of Labrador and shaped their course to the Magdalen Islands. Cartier thought that there was probably an opening between Newfoundland and Cape Breton, and began to look for a passage by which he might sail westward into the heart of the country. As the sailors rowed their boats close in shore, coasting along bays and inlets, they could sometimes see the naked savages moving about on the beach, or paddling their light birch canoes ; after a time they managed to hold some intercourse and traffic with them, by means of signs and little gifts of hatchets, knives, beads, and toys, often having as many as fifty canoes about them.

Cartier tried in vain all the little inlets and rivers opening out of the Bay of Chaleurs, and then sailed along the coast of Gasp^ Bay. Here he landed and set up a large wooden cross, thirty feet high, carved with three fleurs-de-lis, and bearing the inscription, "Long live the King of France ! " By this means he formally took possession of the land for the king.

This done, Cartier and his men returned to their ships and were visited afterwards by many of the Indians, including the chief, his brother, and three sons. Cartier treated the chief hospitably, expressing a great desire to make friends with his people, and promising to return, bringing many useful articles made of iron to exchange for furs. Two of the chief's sons were persuaded to accompany him to France. Then, with good will expressed on all sides, the French captain sailed away, exhorting the Indians to respect the cross he had set up on the shore. When he arrived at home in September, his account of his adventures was eagerly listened to. The two young Indians he had brought with him were objects of great interest to the Bretons, and were taught to speak French, so that they might answer the questions that were asked on all sides. Cartier received great honors for his discoveries, and many people in France were most anxious that he should make a second voyage in order to exteml them.

In spite of opposition they succeeded in organizing another and a better equipped expedition. Great preparations were made during the winter, and on May 16, 1535, all St. Malo was astir to

JACQUES CARTIER. 7

see the great religious ceremonial.which celebrated the departure of the little fleet. And in the old cathedral were assembled the oflScers and men to hear mass, and to receive absolution and the paternal blessing of the bishop on their perilous enterprise. Three days later the flotilla set sail for the setting sun.

It was the f^te of St. Lawrence when they entered the gulf, and Cartier bestowed that name on a small bay opposite the Isle of Anticosti, from whence it afterwards extended to the whole gulf and thence to the noble river, then called by Cartier the River of Hochelaga.

Piloted by the young Indians who had accompanied Cartier to France, they sailed up the St. Lawrence until they dropped anchor at last on the lee of a fair island, known now as the beautiful Island of Orleans, whose purple mass divides the river below the rock of Quebec. As the ships approached the shore and cast anchor, the Indians could be seen watching them with great interest and wonder. At first they seemed disposed to fly, but Cartier sent ashore his two young Indian pilots. Very soon curiosity overcame fear, and the red men*s birch canoes were seen swarming about the ships.

Cartier's two young Indians could now speak French pretty well, and acted as interpreters. Next day their old chief Donnacona came in state to visit Cartier. He left ten canoes at a safe distance, and approaching the ships with , two others he began a long oration, inquiring whether the strangers had come for peace or war. With the help of his interpreters, Cartier succeeded in reassuring him, and invited him into his cabin, where he regaled him before they parted, the old chief kissing Cartier's arm and placing it round his own neck, as the greatest mark of respect he could show him.

From this place Cartier sailed on till he reached the mouth of the St. Charles. Here the St. Lawrence became a mile wide strait. On one side were the wooded heights of Point L^vis ; on the other, rising grand and sheer from the river, the great brown rock of Cape Diamond. Cartier moored his ships in the St. Charles, and Donnacona came with a train of five hundred Indians to welcome him to his village of Stadacona that nestled at the base of the mighty rock. At this village the French captain and his friends were received with great Joy — ^the men and boys screeching out welcome, and the squaws dancing knee-deep in the water.

But Cartier had heard that miles away up the mighty river lay a large Indian town called Hochelaga, the capital of a great country. Thither he wished to proceed, with his two young Indian guides as interpreters. He now laid up his two larger vessels in the St. Charles, and in his smallest vessel, the Hermerillon, he set sail again on the noble river. The Hermerillon grounded in Lake St. Peter, and from thence the party proceeded in small boats, till, on the second of^October they approached the beautiful forest-crowned slopes of the hill below which lay the renowned Hochelaga. As they drew near the Indians thronged to the shore, dancing, singing, and shouting their rude welcome, offering ready gifts of fish and maize, in return for which they joyfully received beads and knives. In the early dawn of the third of October Cartier landed with his men in all the splendor of full dress and martial accoutrement. They were met by an Indian chief, followed by a numerous train. The chief made them a long address in his own language^ and received, with much satisfaction, the gifts of hatchets, knives, and a crucifix. Marching on a Httle way through the forest, they came out on the cleared fields of yellow, rustling maize that encircled the Indian town, of which nothing could be seen at first, but the protecting palisades.

In the middle of this town was an open square, about a stone'sthrow in width, and here Cartier and his companions held a conference with the inhabitants, who swarmed out of their huts — men, women, and children — ^to survey and touch the mysterious strangers. But the ** braves" called the village to order, se'nt the women and children indoors, and squatted round the French in rows. The ruling chief, a helpless, paralyzed old man, was carried out on a deer-skin, and laid down at Cartier's feet. He could only point to his powerless and shrivelled Hmbs, silently imploring from the white strangers the touch in which Indian superstition supposed a mysterious healing power to lie. Cartier willingly fulfilled the request, though we are not told whether it did any good ; and the grateful old man gave him a fillet he wore in token of his thanks. A throng of sick, lame, infirm, and blind people then crowded about the French captain to share his healing touch.

JACQUES CARTIER. 9

Sorely puzzled what to do, Cartier pronounced over his patients a portion of St. John's Gospel, with a prayer not only for the healing of their bodies, but of their souls as well. After that there came what they understood much better — the distribution of gifts. Before departing Cartier and his friends ascended the beautiful hiU above the village. Delighted with the magnificent view of broad river and boundless forests and distant cloudlike mountain, he called the hill Mont Boyal — Montreal. Cartier would gladly have pressed on up the enticing river that lay before him, past the foaming rapids whose snowy crests he could see flashing to westward, but he had no means of doing so, and the season was growing late. So, turning his back on the ** Royal Mountain," he and his companions began to retrace their way to the ships and men they had left on the St. Charles.

At Stadacona Cartier was again kindly received by Donnacona. His men had built a palisaded fort round their ships, and Cartier, thinking it well to be wary in dealing with the savages, whose friendliness might not last, strengthened the little fort with some of the guns from his ships.

Now the face of the country was changed indeed. The winds howled through the leafless forest, great masses of ice began to drift down the St. Lawrence, and soon a solid bridge of ice was formed across the river. But a worse foe than cold attacked the unfortunate explorers. The terrible scurvy broke out among them, and spread until only three or four healthy men were left to wait on the sick. Twenty-six died before April, and the survivors, too weak to break through the ice-bound soil, buried the dead in the snow-drifts till spring should return. Still Cartier did not lose his faith in God, who, as he said, "looked down in pity upon us and sent to us a knowledge of the means of cure."

One of their young guides, who had himself been suffering from scurvy and had recovered, told Cartier of the remedy which had cured him — ^a decoction from an evergreen called Ameda, supposed to have been the spruce fir. The sick men eagerly tried it, and drank it in such quantities, that in six days they had boiled down a tree as large as a French oak ; and very soon all the invalids were restored to health, com-age, and hope.

At last the great snow-drifts melted away under the warm spring sunshine, and the ice slowly broke up, and the blue water, sparkling in the sunshine, gladdened the eyes of the imprisoned French. Cartier and his men joyfully prepared for departure ; but in leaving the country he committed a base and ungrateful act of treachery. He wanted to take home some trophies of his enterprise, and as the chief Donnacona had travelled far and professed to have seen many wonders, Cartier carried him and some of his braves off by force. This cruel and false act was a foul stain on the honor of the brave explorer, and, like most such actions, brought its just recompense in future disaster.

It was five years before Cartier again saw the shores of the New World ; and then it was without his captives, who had all died in France. He lied to the Indians about their fates, saying that Domiacona was dead, but that the others had married grand ladies in France, and lived there in state like great lords. But the Indians would not trust them again. A cold, dreary winter followed, with justly estranged Indians around them, and bitter cold chilling their blood and depressing their spirits in this lonely and savage spot. And as soon as spring returned, the disheartened " colonists " hastened to set sail to return to France.

Cartier had nothing this time to show, save some quartz diamonds, scales of mica, and yellow dust. However, he received a patent of nobility for his discoveries, and seems to have settled down quietly in his little manor-house near St. Malo. He was on the whole, a brave and gallant explorer, and his name must always he honored as the discoverer of Canada.

Chapter III

From ^^Stcxry of Pcyrt Boyaly" by Miss A. M. Machar.

*' For the next few years the efforts of the French were directed to establishing a colony at Port Hoyal,"— High School History, page 326.

The next great attempt to colonize Canada was inspired by the energetic young explorer Samuel de Champlain. The fierce cold of the St. Lawrence terrified the French sailors, and so they shaped their course to the south and settled on a small island in the St.

PORT ROYAL. 11

Croix River, in New Brunswick. Here they suffered so much during the winter that with the first breath of spring they broke up their colony and sailed for the sheltered haven of Port Royal.

The winter was milder here, but it did not pass without suffering, though less from cold than from lack of food. The settlers had only a hand-mill for grinding their corn, and bread was consequently scarce. De Monts, their lieutenant-general, was away in France, fighting for the colony against the indifference and prejudices of even its friends, and the active hostility of its enemies. Baron de Poutrincourt, a leading spirit in the new enterprise, despite urgent business in France, started for Canada in a ship bearing the curious name of the Jonas. He brought with him his enthusiastic and poetic friend. Marc Lescarbot, who was said to be as able to build up a colony as to write its history.

After a long and tedious voyage the Jonas sailed into the calm harbor of Port Royal, and soon reached the spot where, amid the deep green of the almost unbroken forest," were clustered the wooden buildings of the little colony. They saw no sign of human existence till an old Indian appeared cautiously paddling a birch canoe. Then a Frenchman, armed with his arquebuse, came down to the shore, and at the same moment a shot rang out from the little wooden fort. But the white flag at the mast reassured the two lonely Frenchmen who were left on guard in the absence of their comrades, gone to look for French fishing vessels and secure supplies.

The long-imprisoned emigrants leaped on shore, and the lately silent settlement resounded with the merry voices of the Frenchmen.

Poutrincourt and Champlain soon started on a voyage of discovery, which occupied two months. It proved very fruitless, and was at last cut short by the autumn gales.

Lescarbot had, however, remained at Port Royal, where his activity, energy, and bright, cheery spirit made him a most useful member of the colony. He spurred the others on by example as well as precept, to cultivate the low meadows by the river, and to lay out gardens in which he would often work busily till late in the summer moonlight. He set the colonists to construct a -water-mill, in place of the primitive hand-mill, to make fire-bricks and a fur- Digitized by VjOOQ IC nace for preparing pitch and turpentine from the pines and firs, to lay out roads in the forest and make charcoal for fuel.

The winter that followed was a cheery one, with a very different record from that of the miserable winters previously spent by Frenchmen in Canada. In order to produce a little variety in their solitary and monotonous life, as well as to secure a regular provision for their table, Champlain organized the famous Order of the Good Time [Ordre du Bon Temps], The knights were fifteen in ntunber, and a Grand Master or Steward was appointed for each day, whose duty it was to provide for the table of the company.

The bill of fare included moose meat, caribou, deer, beaver, otter, hares, bears, and wildcats, with ducks, geese, grouse, and plover, as well as sturgeon, trout, and other varieties of fish. They dined at noon, with no little pomp and formality ; the fifteen knights each carrying a dish filed into Poutrincourt's great dark-ceilinged dininghall, the Grand Master at their head.

The colonists were much assisted by an old chief called Merabertou, who became their staunch friend and ally. He was, unlike the Indians generally, bearded like a Frenchman, and was said to have been a cruel and treacherous warrior, notwithstanding his kindness to the French. But the busy life of the colony suddenly came to an unexpected close.

One fine spring morning Membertou's keen eyes discovered a distant sail. The colonists hailed the sight gladly, supposing it to be the long expected vessel of De Monts. But it was a bearer of bad news. The discontented traders who had been shut out of the fur trade had combined, by money and influence, to secure the withdrawal of De Monts* patent of monopoly. This was a deathblow to the colony, as the projects of the company would no longer bear the expense of it ; and Port Royal must be abandoned.

There was nothing for Poutrincourt to do but to prepare for leaving his Acadian domain. No one showed more sorrow for the sad necessity than old Membertou, who had built a palisaded village near Port Royal, in order to be near his kind and generous friends. He wept at taking leave of the Frenchmen, who generously bestowed on the Indians ten hogsheads of meal and all the crops that stood ready for the sickle.