Mobilian group: (i) that of Salouriana; (ii) of Thimagoa under a chief named Outina, living in forty villages; (iii) that of king Panaroo, all at deadly enmity with one another. Their social state was more advanced than that of the wandering tribes of the north, and around their villages, made of huts thatched with palmetto, could often be seen the fertile fields of maize, beans, and pumpkins. Here the climate was milder and the conditions of life easier. In the midst of this village, protected occasionally by palisades and approached by devious avenues, dwelt the chief of the tribe, holding hereditary office; differing in this respect from the wild hunting tribes of the north. Although these tribes and confederacies existed in the days of René de Laudonnière, the great French explorer and colonist (1564), they are all extinct now. The attack of the Spaniards coming from Pensacola upon the village of Mobile (1540), in which 2500 Indians were slain, suffocated or burnt, was one of the most murderous Indian fights ever known on North American soil1. CHAPTER VI. Champlain and the Rule of the Hundred (1) IN the reign of Henry IV of France (1598), about fifty years after Cartier's last expedition, a commission was given to the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany. He was styled Viceroy of Canada, Acadie and the 1 Parkman's Pioneers of France. adjoining territories, with sole right to carry on the furtrade within the bounds of his domain, or rather Empire as we might almost term it. Searching for a suitable place for settlement, the Marquis left forty of his crew, who were convicts and gaol-birds, on Sable Island, an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. He himself, however, encountered such tempestuous weather that he was driven away from the coast and forced to return to France, leaving his wretched followers on Sable Island. Exposed to tremendous privations they all died with the exception of a miserable remnant of twelve, who managed to find their way back to France and tell their piteous tale of suffering. The Marquis who had set out with such remarkable promise, was upon his return thrown into prison, where he lingered for many years. (2) In 1599 another expedition was organised by Chauvin of Rouen, a naval officer, and by Pontgrave a sailor merchant of St. Malo, who obtained a monopoly of the Canadian fur-trade from King Henry, and undertook to establish a colony of 500 persons. Two vessels were equipped in the spring of 1600, and a party of settlers landed at Tadousac. It was found impossible for the whole party to winter there, so a small remnant of sixteen colonists was left behind. Being unprepared in food or clothing to face the rigours of a Canadian winter, they were reduced to great straits, and were obliged to throw themselves upon the charity and hospitality of the Indians. Not long afterwards, during a third voyage to Tadousac, Chauvin himself, the leader of the expedition, was taken ill and died. (3) He was succeeded in his enterprise, which was in reality a very lucrative fur-trade with the Indians, by de Chaste, the Governor of Dieppe. De Chaste prevailed upon several wealthy merchants to take the matter up, and enlisted in his service a most valuable auxiliary, Samuel Champlain, who may be termed the father of French colonisation in Canada. He explored the country up the St. Lawrence as far as the Sault St. Louis, where he was stopped by the rapids. He thus followed in the wake of Cartier, who had in 1535 described the Huron village of Hochelaga, and had given the name of Mount Royal (Montreal) to the mountain behind the village. From the summit of this mountain the eyes of the first explorers must have been greeted with a most wild and magnificent view. On all sides spread miles of interminable forests, between which the great St. Lawrence flowed majestically, showing the paths to a vast and unexplored region in the distant west, whence it gathered its mighty flood. (4) Upon his return to France, Champlain found that de Chaste, the patron of the enterprise, had died, and that the Company had broken up. He was determined, however, not to lose the fruits of his enterprise, and went to Paris and laid before King Henry a chart of the country he had seen. He was graciously received, and the scheme of de Chaste was taken up by de Monts, a Calvinist gentleman of great wealth, who was in favour at the Court of Henry. There was toleration at this time for both Catholics and Protestants in France. De Monts was allowed the free exercise of his Calvinistic faith, with instructions, at the same time, to forward the Roman Catholic religion amongst the natives. This kingly toleration, contrasted with what had gone before and with what was to follow afterwards, was like a gleam of light on troubled waters. (5) The Sieur de Monts was given great powers and large concessions. His patent included all the country between the fortieth and forty-sixth degree of latitude, namely, from Philadelphia to Montreal, with a monopoly of the fur-trade and supreme governing powers. De Monts set sail with a larger expedition than had ever yet gone to Canada (March, 1604), and after examining the coast of Nova Scotia, wintered on the Island of St. Croix, near the mouth of a river of that name. In the spring of 1605 de Monts removed to Port Royal on the Bay of Fundy, where a Frenchman named Poutrincourt had already formed a settlement. In later times Port Royal and the Harbour of Annapolis were destined to be the scene of many conflicts between French and English. In 1605 de Monts explored the country to the south, and claimed the rivers, especially the Merrimac, and the bays as far as Cape Cod, for France, but no French colony within the borders of what is now United States territory was founded until 1615. On the eastern shore of Mountdesert Isle, a fort was raised at St. Sauveur by a Frenchman of the name of de Saussaye. This was meant to be a missionary outpost rather than a colony, and had the support of Mary de Medicis. "The conversion of the heathen was the motive of the settlement; the natives venerated Biart, the Jesuit Father, as a messenger from heaven; and under the summer sky, round a cross in the centre of the hamlet, matins and vespers were regularly chanted'.' (6) It was the object of de Monts to develop the resources of Acadia, but Champlain advocated the claims of Canada, as the basin of the St. Lawrence was then called. There was a prevalent idea in the minds of the explorers of that age, that Asia could be reached by a short water route across the American continent, and the Lachine rapids were so named from the belief that beyond them was the way to China. With Champlain lies the honour of founding Quebec. 'On the 3rd of July, 1608, he fixed upon a promontory covered with a luxuriant growth of vines and shaded by some noble walnut-trees, called by the natives Quebio or Quebec, not far distant from the spot where, Bancroft, vol i. 20. |