 CHAPTER I. TO THE RESCUE OF NEW FRANCE. When the year 1665 began, the French colony on the shores of the St. Lawrence, founded by the valor and devotion of Champlain, had been in existence for more than half a century. Yet it was still in a pitiable state of weakness and destitution. The care and maintenance of the settlement had devolved upon trading companies, and their narrow-minded mercantile selfishness had stifled its progress. From other causes also there had been but little Cardinal Richelieu, the great French minister, had tried at one time to infuse new life into the colony. Footnote. For the earlier history of New France the reader is referred to three other volumes in this series. The founder of New France, the seniors of old Canada, and the Jesuit missions. But his first attempts had been unlucky, and later on his powerful mind was diverted to other plans and achievements and he became absorbed in the wider field of European politics. To the shackles of commercial greed, to forgetfulness on the part of the mother country, had been added the curse of Indian wars. During twenty-five years the daring and ferocious Iroquois had been the constant scourge of the handful of settlers, traders, and missionaries. Champlain's successors in the office of Governor, Montpagnier, Aylbuste, Lausanne, Argençon, Avangueur, had no military force adequate to the task of meeting and crushing these formidable foes. Year after year the wretched colony maintained its struggle for existence amidst deadly perils, receiving almost no help from France, and to all appearance doomed to destruction. To make things worse internal strife exercised its disintegrating influence. There was contention among the leaders in New France over the vexed question of the liquor traffic. In the face of so many adverse circumstances, complete lack of means, cessation of immigration from the mother country, the perpetual menace of the bloody Iroquois incursions, a dying trade and a stillborn agriculture, how could the colony be kept alive at all? Spiritual and civil authorities, the governor and the bishop, the Jesuits and the traders all united in petitioning for assistance. But the motherland was far away and European wars and rivalries were engrossing all her attention. Unfortunately a change was at hand. The prolonged struggle of the Thirty Years' War and of the war against Spain had been ended by the Treaty of Munster and Osnabrook in 1648 and by that of the Pyrenees in 1659. The civil dissensions of the frond were over, thanks to the skillful policy of Cardinal Maslran, Richelieu's successor. After the death of Maslran in 1661, Louis XIV had taken into his own hands the reins of administration. He was young, painstaking and ambitious, and he wanted to be not only king but the real ruler of his kingdom. In Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the man who had been Maslran's right hand, he had the good fortune to find one of the best administrators in all French history. Colbert soon won the king's confidence. He was instrumental in detecting the maladministration of Fouquet as superintendent of finance and became a member of the council appointed to investigate and report on all financial questions. Of this body he was the leading spirit from the beginning. Although at first without the title of minister, he was promptly invested with a wide authority over the finances, trade, agriculture, industry and marine affairs. Within two years he had shown his worth and had justified the king's choice. Great and beneficial reforms had been accomplished in almost every branch of the administration. The exhausted treasury had been replenished, trade and industry were encouraged, agriculture was protected, and a navy created. Under a progressive government France seemed to awake with new life. The hour was auspicious for the entreaties of new France. Petitions and statements were addressed to the king by Monseigneur de Laval, the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the colony, by the governor of Angkor and by the Jesuit fathers, and Pierre Boucher, governor of the district of Three Rivers, was sent to France as a delegate to present them. Louis and his minister studied the conditions of the colony on the St. Lawrence and decided in 1663 to give it a new constitution. The charter of the one hundred associates was cancelled and the old council of Quebec formed in 1647 was reorganized under the name of the sovereign council. This new governing body was to be composed of the governor, the bishop, the intendant, an attorney general, a secretary and five counselors. It was invested with a general jurisdiction for the administration of justice and civil and criminal matters. It had also to deal with the questions of police, roads, finance, and trade. To establish a new and improved system of administration was a good thing, but this alone would hardly avail if powerful help were not forthcoming to rescue new France from ruin, despondency, and actual extermination. The colony was dying for lack of soldiers, settlers, and laborers, as well as stores of food and munitions of war for defense and maintenance. Louis XIV made up his mind that help should be given. In 1664 three hundred laborers were conveyed to Quebec at the king's expense, and in the following year the colonists received the welcome information that the king was also about to send them a regiment of trained soldiers, a viceroy, a new governor, a new intendant, settlers, and laborers, and all kinds of supplies. This royal pledge was adequately fulfilled. On June 19th, 1665, the Marquis de Trassee, lieutenant general of all the French dominions in America, arrived from the West Indies, where he had successfully discharged the first part of the mission entrusted to him by his royal master. With him came four companies of soldiers. During the whole summer ships were disembarking their passengers and unloading their cargoes of ammunition and provisions at Quebec in quick succession. It is easy to imagine the rapture of the colonists at such a site, and the enthusiastic shouts that welcomed the first detachment of the splendid regiment of Carignon-Saliers. At length on September 12th, the cup of public joy was filled to overflowing by the arrival of the ship Saint-Sebastien with two high officials on board, David de Ramy, Sire de Corselles, the governor appointed to succeed the governor Maisie, who had died earlier in the year, and Jean Talon, the intendant of justice, police, and finance. The latter had been selected to replace the Sire Robert, who had been made intendant in 1663, but for some unknown reason had never come to Canada to perform the duties of his office. The triumvirate on whom was imposed the noble task of saving and reviving New France was thus complete. The Marquis de Tracie was an able and clear-sided commander, the Sire de Corselles, a fearless, straightforward official. But the part of Jean Talon in the common task, though apparently less brilliant, was to be in many respects the most important, and his influence the most far-reaching in the destinies of the colony. Talon was born at Chalon-sur-Marne in the province of Champagne about the year 1625. His family were kinsfolk of the Parisian Talons, Elmer and Denis, the celebrated jurist and lawyers who held in succession the high office of Attorney General of France. Several of Jean Talon's brothers were serving in the administration or the army, and after a course of study at the Jesuits College of Clermont, Jean was employed under one of them in the Commissariat. The young man's ability soon became apparent and attracted Mazelran's attention. In 1654 he was appointed military commissary at Le Clesneau in connection with the operations of the army commanded by the great Tyran. A year later at the age of thirty he was promoted to be entendant for the province of Hanot. For ten years he filled that office and won the reputation of an administrator of the first rank. Thus it came about that when an entendant was needed to infuse new blood into the veins of the feeble colony on the St. Lawrence, Colbert, always a good judge of men, thought immediately of Jean Talon and recommended to the king his appointment as intendant of New France. Talon's commission is dated March 23, 1665. The minister drafted for the entendant's guidance a long letter of instructions. It dealt with the mutual relations of church and state and set forth the Gallican principles of the day. It discussed the question of assistance to the recently created West India company, the contemplated war against the Iroquois and how it might successively be carried on, the sovereign council and the administration of justice, the settlement of the colony and the advisability of concentrating the population, the importance of fostering trade and industry, the question of ties for the maintenance of the church, the establishment of shipbuilding yards and the encouragement of agriculture. This document was signed by Louis XIV at Paris on March 27, 1665. On receiving his commission and his instructions, Talon took leave of the king and the minister and proceeded to make preparations for his arduous mission and for the long journey which it involved. By April 22 he was at La Rochelle to arrange for the embarkation of settlers, working men and supplies. He attended the review of the troops that were bound for New France, and reported to Colbert that the companies were at their full strength while equipped and in the best of spirits. During this time he spared no pains to acquire information about the new country where he was to work and live. Finally by May 24 everything was in readiness and he wrote to Colbert, Since apparently I shall not have the honor of writing you another letter from this place, for our ship awaits only a favourable win to sail, allow me to assure you that I am leaving full of gratitude for all the kindness and favours bestowed on me by the king and yourself. Knowing that the best way to show my gratitude is to do good service to his majesty, and that the best title to future benevolence lies in strenuous effort for the successful execution of his wishes, I shall do my utmost to attain that end in the charge I am going to fill. I pray for your protection and help, which will surely be needed, and if my endeavour should not be crowned with success, at least it will not be for want of zeal and fidelity. A few hours after having written these farewell lines, Talon, in company with Monsieur de Corsale, set sail on the Saint Sebastian for Canada, where he was to make for himself an imperishable name. CHAPTER II NEW FRANCE IN 1665 Let us take a glance over the colony at the time when Corsale and Talon landed at Quebec after an ocean journey. There were no fast lines then, of 117 days. In 1665, Canada had only three settled districts, Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. Quebec, the chief town, bore the proud title of the capital of New France, yet it contained barely 70 houses, with about 550 inhabitants. Then, as now, it consisted of a lower and an upper town. In the lower town were to be found the king's stores and the merchant's shops and residences. The public officials and the clergy and members of the religious orders lived in the upper town, where stood the principal buildings of the capital, the Chateau Saint-Louis, the Bishop's Palace, the Cathedral, the Jesuits College and Chapel, and the monasteries of the Ursulines and the Hotel du Sisters. François de Laval de Montmorency, Bishop of Petraille and Vicar Apostolic for Canada, was the spiritual head of the colony. He had arrived from France six years earlier in 1659 and was destined to spend the remainder of his life nearly half a century in the service of the church in Canada. Because of his noble character and many virtues, his strong intellect and his devotion to the public wheel, he will ever rank as one of the greatest figures in Canadian history. His vicar general was Henri de Bernier, who was also parish priest of Quebec and superior of the seminary founded by the bishop in 1663. The superior of the Jesuits was Fr. de Mercier. The saintly Marie de l'Inquonation was mother superior of the Ursulines and Mother St. Bonaventure of the Hotel du. It may be interesting to recall the names of some of the notable citizens of Quebec at that time other than the high officials. There were Michel Fillon and Pierre Duquette, notaries. Jean-Madry, Surgeon to the King's Majesty. Jean-Lémire, the future syndicte des habitants. Madame Diaboost, widow of a former governor. Madame Couillard, widow of Guillaume Couillard and daughter of Louis Hébert, the first tiller of the soil. Madame de Repentany, widow of Admiral de Repentany, to use the grand eloquent expression of old chroniclers. Nicolas Marsolet, Louis Couillard de Lespinay, Charles Roger de Colombier, François Bissot, Charles Emile, le Gardeur de Repentany, Du Pont de Nouveau, Pierre de Nuit de la Ronde, all men of high standing. The chief merchants were Charles Bassiere, Jacques Loyer de la Tour, Claude Charon, Jean Méhude, Eustache Lambert, Bertrand Chesnet de la Guerrine, Guillaume Fenieux. Charles Aubert de la Chesnet, the stalwart Quebec trader of the day, was then in France. In the neighborhood of Quebec, there were a few settlements. According to the census of the following year, there were 452 persons on the island of Orléans, 533 at the Côte-Pau-Preté, 185 at Beauport, 140 at Cilierie, and 112 at Charlesburg and Notre-Dame-des-Anges on the St. Charles River. Three rivers was a small port with a population of 455, including that of the adjoining settlements. The governor-in-charge of the local administration was Pierre Boucher, already mentioned as a delegate to France in 1661. The Jesuits had a residence there, and a chapel which was the only place of public worship, for the colonists had not as yet the means to erect a parish church. In the vicinity, there were the beginnings of settlement at Capdele Magdalene, Patiscan, and Champlain. Among the important families of three rivers were those of Godfrey, Hurtel, Le Neuf, Créveillet, Boucher, Poulain, Volante, Le Maître, Révard, and M.O. Michel Le Neuf to Erreson was juge-royal, and Siverin M.O. was notary and registrar of the court. Montreal, or Ville-en-Marie, was scarcely more important than three rivers. The population of the whole district numbered only 625. A fort built by M.O. Le Neuf and I.A. Boost at Pointe-à-Calierre, the house of the Sulpicians at the foot of the present Saint Sulpice Street, the Hôtel-du on the other side of that street, a convent of the congregation sisters facing the Hôtel-du. A few houses scattered along the road called de la Commune, now St. Paul Street, and on the rising ground towards the Place d'Armes of the late years a few more dwellings. These constituted the Montreal of primitive days. On the top of the hill, called Cote Saint-Louis, was erected an entrenched mill, Moulin du Coteau, which could be used as a redoubt to protect the inhabitants. The Sulpicians house, the Hôtel-du, the convent of the congregation, and the houses of the Place d'Armes and of la Commune were connected with the fort by footpaths. Before 1672, they were in no streets laid out. The only place of public worship was a Hôtel-du Chapel, fifty feet in length by thirty in width. The superior of the Sulpicians was Abbe-soir. Mother Mace was superioress of the Hôtel-du, but the mainstay of the institution was the well-known mademoiselle Mance, who, by the aid of Madame Dubouillon's manufactions, had founded it in 1643. The illustrious sister Marguerite Bourgeois was at the head of the congregation, which owed its existence to her pious zeal and devotion to the education of the young. Among the Montrealists of note, the following should be specially mentioned. Zachary Dupuis, Major of the Island, Charles Daibuth, Signorial Judge, J.B. Mision-de-Brançac, Fiscal Attorney, Louis Arthur Saïs, who had been for some time Jus Royal, Berninia Basset, at once Registrar of the Signorial Court, Notary and Surveyor. Charles Leboigne, King's Treasurer, Interpreter, Soldier, Settler, who is later to be ennobled and received the title of Baron de Langueux, Etienne Bouchard, Surgeon, Pierre Picotte de Bellestre, Avaliant Militia Officer, Claude de Robattel, Sur de Saint-Entre. Jacques Lebes, a merchant who controlled almost the whole trade of Villain-Marie. All together, the white population of Canada, including the settlers and laborers arriving during the summer of 1665, numbered only 3215. Yet the colony had been in existence for 57 years. It was certainly time for a new effort on the part of the mother country to infuse life into her feeble offspring. This was a task calling for the earnest care and the most energetic activity of Tracy, Crissel and Talon. One of the first matters to receive their attention was the reorganization of the Canadian administration. We have seen that in 1663, the Sovereign Council had been created to consist of the higher officials of the colony and five counselors. At this time, September 1665, the five counselors were Mathieu de More, Legardier de Tigui, and three others who had been irregularly appointed by Maisie, the preceding governor, to take the places of three counselors whom he had arbitrarily dismissed, Rue des Villarais, Gichereau de l'Efferte, and Rouette d'Otoya. The same governor had also dismissed Jean Bourdon, the Attorney General, and had replaced him by Chartier de l'Aupignir. These summary dismissals and appointments had risen out of a quarrel between the governor and the bishop, in which the former appears to have been influenced by petty motives. At any rate, Maisie had been recalled by the king, and Tracey, Crocelle, and Talon had been instructed to try him for improper conduct in office. But before their arrival at Quebec, Maisie had obeyed the summons of another king than the king of France. He had been taken ill in the spring of the year, and had died on May 6. Maisie being dead, it was wisely thought unnecessary to recall unhappy memories of his errors and misdeeds. Sufficient would be done if the grievances due to his rushness were redressed. Accordingly, the dismissed officials were reinstated, and on September 23, 1665, a solemn sitting of the sovereign council was held at which Tracey, Crocelle, Laval, and Talon were present, together with Assur Libertrois, general agent of the West India Company, and Assur de Villiers, de L'Efferte, de Toye, de Tiyi, de Mours, all the councillors in office before Maisie's dismissals. Jean Bredin, the attorney general, and J. B. Pivret, secretary of the council. The letters patent of Crocelle and Talon, as well as the commission and credentials of Assur Libertrois, were duly read and registered. The letters patent of the Marquis de Tracey had been registered previously. With these formalities, the new administration of Canada was inaugurated. The next proceeding of the rulers of New France was to prepare for a decisive blow against the daring Iroquois. Tracey and the soldiers, as we have seen, had arrived in June, and three forts were in course of building on the Richelieu River, or Rivière des Iroquois, so called because for a long period it had been the most direct highway leading from the villages of these bloody warriors to the heart of the colony. During the summer and autumn of 1665, the Canadiens soldiers were kept busy with the construction of these necessary defensive works. The first fort was erected at the mouth of the river under the direction of Captain de Sorrel. The second, 50 miles higher, under Captain de Chamblis, and the third, about nine miles further up, under Colonel de Sallière. The first two retained the names of the officers in charge of their construction, and the third received the name of Saint Reyes, because it was finished on the day dedicated to that saint. During the following year, two other forts were built, Saint John, a few miles distant from Saint Reyes, and Saint Anne on an island at the head of Lake Charme Plain. Both Tracey and Cressel went to inspect the work personally and encouraged the garrisons. In the meantime, Talon was in no way idle. He had to organize the means of conveying provisions, ammunition, tools, and supplies of every description for the maintenance of the troops and the furtherance of the work. Under his supervision, a flotilla of over 50 boats plied between Quebec and the River Richelieu. It was also his business to take care of the incoming soldiers and laborers, and to see that those who had contracted disease during their journey across the ocean received proper nursing and medical attendance. From the moment of his arrival, he had lost no opportunity of acquiring information on the situation in the colony. There was a curious anecdote that illustrates the manner in which he sometimes contrived to gain knowledge by concealing his identity. On the very day of his landing, he went alone to the Hotel du and asking for the superior rest, introduced himself as the ballet de chambre of the intendant, pretending to be sent by his master to assure the good ladies of the hospital of Monsieur Talon's kindly disposition and desire to bestow on them every favor in his gift. One of the sisters present at the interview, Meredithine Attivité, a very bright and clever woman, was struck by the extreme distinction of manner and speech of the so-called ballet, and with a meaning glance at the superior rest, told the visitor that unless she was mistaken, he was more than he pretended to be. On his asking what could convey to her that impression, she replied that by his bearing and language she could not but feel that the intendant himself was honoring the Hotel du with a visit. Talon could do no less than confess that she was right, showing at the same time that he appreciated the delicate compliment thus paid to him. From that day he was a devoted and most generous friend to the Hotel du of Quebec. One of the first problems with which the intendant had to deal in discharging the duties of his office was a dualism of administrative authority. It has been mentioned that Colbert had founded a new trading company known as the West India Company. This corporation had been granted wide privileges over all the French possessions in America, including feudal ownership and authority to administer justice and living war. The company was thus invested with the right of appointing judicial officers, magistrates, and sovereign councils, and of naming subject to the king's sanction, governors, and other functionaries. It had full power to sell the land or to make grants in feudal tenure, to receive all scenario dues, to build forts, raise troops, and equip warships. The company Charter had been granted in 1664, and of course Canada as well as the other French colonies in the new world was included in this jurisdiction. The situation of this colony was therefore very peculiar. In 1663 the king had cancelled the Charter of the 100 Associates and taken back the fief of Canada, but a year later he had granted it again to a new company. At the same time he showed clearly that he intended to keep the administration in his own hands. Thus Canada seemed to have two masters. In accordance with his Charter the company held the ownership and government of the country desure, but in point of fact the king wielded the government, thus taking back with one hand what he had given with the other. By right the company controlled the administration of justice. It could and actually did establish courts. But in fact the king appointed the intendant supreme judge in civil cases and made the sovereign council a tribunal of superior jurisdiction. By right the company belonged the power of granting land and seniorities. In fact the governor of the intendant, the king's officers, made the grants at their pleasure. This strange situation which lasted ten years, until the West India Company's Charter was revoked in 1674, is often confusing to the student of the period. Talon saw at a glance the anomaly of the situation, but being a practical man he was less displeased with the falsity of the principle than apprehensive of the evil that was likely to result. In a letter to Colbert dated October 4, 1665 he discussed the subject at length, putting it in plain terms. If when the grant was made it was the king's intention to benefit only the company to increase its profits and develop its trade with no ulterior consideration for the development of the colony, then it would be well to leave to the company the sole ownership of the country. But if His Majesty had thought of making Canada one of the prosperous parts of his kingdom, it is very doubtful whether he could attain that end without keeping in his own hands the control of lands and trade. The real aim of the West India Company as he had learned was to enforce its commercial monopoly to the utmost, and become the only trading medium between a colony and the mother country. Such a policy could have but one result, it would put an end to private enterprise and discourage immigration. In spite of the company's apparent overlordship, Talon thought that, as the king's agent, he was bound to exercise the powers appertaining to his office for the good of the colony. By the end of the year 1665 he had planned a new settlement in the vicinity of Quebec on lands included in the limits of the seniority of Notre-Dame-des-Anges at Charlesburg, which he had withdrawn from the grant to the Jesuits under the king's authority. This was the occasion of some friction between the Jesuits and the Intendants. Talon gave the necessary orders for the erection of about 40 dwellings, which should be ready to receive new settlers during the following year. These were to be grouped in three adjacent villages named Bourg-Rael, Bourg-la-Reine, and Bourg-Talon. We shall learn more of them in a following chapter. Another enterprise of the Intendant was numbering the people. Under his personal supervision, during the winter of 1666-67, a general census of the colony was taken, the first Canadian census of which we have any record. The count showed, as we have already said, a total population of 3,215 in Canada at that time, 2,034 males and 1,181 females. The married people numbered 1,109 and there were 528 families. Elderly people were but few in number, 95 only being from 51 to 60 years old. 43 from 61 to 70, 10 from 71 to 80, and 4 from 81 to 90. In regard to professions and occupations, there were then in New France 3 notaries, 5 surgeons, 18 merchants, 4 bailiffs, 3 school masters, 36 carpenters, 27 joiners, 30 tailors, 8 coopers, 5 bakers, 9 millers, 3 locksmiths. The census did not include the king's troops which formed a body of 1,200 men. The clergy consisted of the bishop, 18 priests and aspirants to the priesthood, and 35 Jesuit fathers. There were also 19 Ursulines, 23 Hospitalliers, and 4 Sisters of the Congregation. The original record of this, the first Canadian census, has been preserved and is without question a most important historical document. It is likewise full of living interest, for in it are recorded the names of many families whose descendants are now to be found all over Canada. Chapter 3 The Iroquois Subdued It was the special task of Tracy and Curcel to rid the colony of the Iroquois Scourge, the five nations. Footnote the Iroquois League consisted of five tribes or nations, the Mohawks, the Cayugas, the Seneca's, the Onondagas, and the Onidas. The five nations had heard with some disquietude of the body of trained soldiers sent by the French King to check their incursions and crush their Confederacy. At the beginning of December 1665 the Marquis de Tracy received an embassy from the Onondagas. They desired to enter into a peace negotiation, and one of the most noted chiefs, Geraint Conti, delivered on that occasion along an eloquent address to the viceroy. A treaty was signed by them on behalf of their own and two of the other tribes, the Seneca's and the Onidas. But meanwhile the Onidas did not cease from hostilities, and the Mohawks also continued their bloody raids against the French settlements. Curcel therefore decided to march at once against their villages beyond Lake Champlain, in what is now New York State, and to teach them a lesson. But he did not know the nature of a winter expedition in this northern climate. Leaving Quebec on January the 9th, he reached three rivers on the 16th, and proceeded to Fort St. Louis on the Richelieu, where he had fixed the rendezvous of the troops. The cold was very severe, and many soldiers were frozen at the outset. On January 29 the little band of five or six hundred French and Canadian left Fort St. Louis, unfortunately, without waiting for a party of Algonquins who should have acted as scouts. It was a distressing march. The soldiers had to walk through deep snow, and the unfamiliar use of snowshoes was a great trial to the Europeans. At night no shelter. They had to sleep in the open air under the canopy of the sky, and the cold light of the glimmering stars. Having no guides, Corsal and his men lost their way in that unknown territory. After seventeen days of extreme toil they found that, instead of reaching the Mohawk district, they were near Collier in the New Netherlands, sixty miles distant. The vanguard had a brush with two hundred Iroquois, who slipped away after killing six French soldiers, and leaving four of their own number dead. The Governor could go no further with his exhausted troops, and was forced to retrace his steps. The retreat was worse than the forward march. The supply of provisions failed, and to the suffering from cold was soon added hunger. Many soldiers died of exposure and starvation. In reading the account of the ill-fated expedition, one is reminded of the disastrous retreat of Napoleon's army in 1812 through the icy solitudes of Russia. By this sad experience the military commanders of New France found that they had something to learn of the art of making war in North America, and must respect the peculiarities of the climate and country. Nevertheless Corsal's winter expedition had made an impression on the minds of the Iroquois, and had even surprised the Dutch in English. The author of a narrative entitled, Relation of the March of the Governor of Canada into New York, wrote, Surely so bold and hardy an attempt has not happened in any age. Apparently the five nations were somewhat uneasy, for in March the Seneca's sent ambassadors to the Marquis de Tracey to ratify the treaty signed in December. In July delegates came from the Onida tribe. They presented a letter written by the English authorities at Orange, which assured the viceroy that the Mohawks were well disposed and wished for peace. A new treaty of ratification was accordingly signed. But the Lieutenant General wanted something more complete and decisive. He demanded of the delegates a general treaty to include the whole of the five nations, and stated that he would allow forty days for all the Iroquois tribes to send their ambassadors to Quebec. Moreover he instructed Father Byshefer to go to Orange with some of the Onida delegates for the purpose of meeting the ambassadors and escorting them to Quebec. Unfortunately a few days after the priest's departure news came that four Frenchmen on a hunting expedition had been killed near Fort Saint Anne by a party of Mohawks, and that three others had been taken prisoners. One of the slain was a cousin of Tracey, and one of the captives, his nephew. Father Byshefer was at once recalled and captain de Sorrel was ordered to march with some two hundred Frenchmen and ninety Indians to strike a blow at the raiders. Sorrel lost no time and had nearly reached the enemy's villages when he met Tracey's nephew and the other prisoners under escort of an Iroquois chief and three warriors who were bound for Quebec to make a men's for the treacherous murder recently perpetuated and to sue for peace. Under these circumstances Captain de Sorrel did not think it necessary to proceed further and marched his men home again with the Iroquois and the rescued prisoners. On August 31 a great meeting was held at Quebec in the Jesuits' garden. The delegates of the five nations were present and speeches were made enlarging on the desirability of peace. But it soon became apparent that no peace could be lasting except after a successful expedition against the Mohawks. Tracey, Corissal and Talon held a consolation and the intendant submitted a well-prepared document in which he reviewed the reasons for and against a continuance of the war. In Talon's mind the arguments in favour of it had undoubtedly the greater weight. Tracey and Corissal concurred in this opinion. Thirteen hundred men were drafted for an expedition, six hundred regular soldiers, six hundred Canadians, and a hundred Indians. All was soon ready and on September fourteenth the day of the exaltation of the cross Tracey and Corissal left Quebec at the head of their troops. It was a spectacle that did not fail to impress the Iroquois chiefs detained in Quebec. One of them deeply moved said to the viceroy, I see that we are lost but you will pay dearly for your victory. My nation will be exterminated but I tell you that many of your young men will not return for our young warriors will fight desperately. I beg of you to save my wife and children. Many who witnessed that martial exit of Tracey and Corissal from the Chateau Saint Louis, surrounded by a staff of noble officers, must have realised that this was a memorable day in the history of New France. At last a crushing blow was to be struck at the ferocious foe who for twenty-five years had been the curse and terror of the wretched colony. What mighty cheers were shouted on that day by the eager and enthusiastic spectators who lined the streets of Quebec. On September twenty-eight the troops taking part in the expedition were assembled at Fort Saint Anne, footnote, on Isle-la-Mosse at the northern end of Lake Chaplain. Charles Le Moyne commanded the Montreal Contingent one hundred and ten strong. The Quebec Contingent marched under le Grand-Dieu de Répentinier. Father Albinelle and Father Raphael, Jesuit priest, the Abedolier de Caissant, a solpician, and the Abbey du Bois, chaplain of the Carignol Regiment, accompanied the army. Three hundred light boats had been launched for the crossing of Lake Champlain and Saint-Sacramon. Corissal, always impetuous, was the first to leave the fort. He led a vanguard of four hundred men, which included those from Montreal. The main body of the army, under Tracy, set out on October the third. Captain Champlain and Berthier would have followed four days later with the rear guard. The journey by water was uneventful, but the portage between the two lakes was hard and trying. Yet it was nothing compared with the difficulties of the march beyond Lake Saint-Sacramon. One hundred miles of forest, mountains, rivers, and swamps lay between the troops and the Iroquois villages. No roads existed, only narrow footpaths, interrupted by quagmires, bristling with stumps obstructed by the entanglement of fallen trees, or abruptly cut by the foaming waters of swollen streams. Heavily laden, with arms, provisions, and ammunition, strapped on their backs, French and Canadians slowly proceeded through the great woods, whose autumnal glories were vanishing fast under the influence of the chill winds of October. Slipping over moist logs, sinking into unsuspected swamps, climbing painfully over steep rocks, they went forward with undaunted determination. At night they had to sleep in the open on a bed of damp leaves. The crossing of the rivers was sometimes dangerous. Tracy, who unfortunately had been seized with an attack of gout, was nearly drowned in one rapid stream. A Swiss soldier had undertaken to carry him across on his shoulders, but his strength failed, and if a rock had not stood near, the Viceroy's career may have ended there. A Huron came to the rescue and carried the helpless Viceroy to the other side. The sufferings of the army were increased by a scarcity of food. The troops were famishing. Luckily they came upon some chestnut trees and stayed their hunger with the nuts. At last, on October 15th, the Scouts reported that the Mohawk settlements were near at hand. It was late in the day. Darkness was setting in, and a storm of wind and rain was raging. But Tracy decided to push on. They marched all night, and in the morning, emerging from the woods, saw before them the first of the Mohawk towns or villages. Without allowing a moment's pause, the Viceroy ordered an advance. The roll of the drums seemed to give the troops new strength and ardour. French, Canadians, and Indians ran forward to the assault. The Mohawks, apprised of the coming attack, had determined beforehand to make a stand and had sent their women and children to another village. But at the sight of the advancing army, whose number appeared to them three times as great as they really were, and at the sound of the drums, like the voice of demons, they fled, panic-stricken. The first village was taken without striking a blow. The Viceroy immediately ordered a march against the second, which was also found abandoned. Evidently the Iroquois were terrified, for a third village was taken in the same way, without a show of defence. It was thought that the invader's task was finished, when an Algonquin squaw, once a captive of the Iroquois, informed Cudercel that there were two other villages. The soldiers pushed forward, and the fourth settlement of the ever-vanishing enemy fell undefended into the hands of the French. The sun was setting, the exertions of the day and of the night before had been arduous, and it seemed impossible to go further. But the squaw, using a pistol, and grasping Cudercel's hand, said, come on, I will show you the straight path. And she led the way to the town and fort of Andarraque. The most important stronghold of the Mohawks. It was surrounded with a triple palisade, twenty feet high, and flanked by four bastions. Vessels of bark, full of water, were distributed on the platforms behind the palisade, ready for use against fire. The Iroquois might have made a desperate stand there, and such had been their intention, but their courage failed them at the fearful beating of the drums and the appearance of that mighty army, and they sought safety in flight. The victory was now complete, and the army could go to rest after nearly twenty-four hours of continuous exertion. Next morning the French were astonished at the site of Andarraque in the light of the rising sun. Instead of a collection of miserable wigwams they saw a fine Indian town with wooden houses, some of them a hundred and twenty feet long, and with lodging for eight or nine families. These houses were well supplied with provisions, tools, and utensils. An immense quantity of Indian corn and other necessaries was stored in Andarraque, food enough to feed Canada for ten years. And in the surrounding fields a plentiful crop was ready for harvest. All this was to be destroyed, but first an impressive ceremony had to be performed. The army was drawn up in battle-array. A French officer, Jean-Baptiste Dubois, commander of the artillery, advanced sword-in-hand to the front, and in the presence of Tracy and Curressel, declared that he was directed by M. Jean-Talon, King's counselor and attendant of justice, police and finance for New France, to take possession of Andarraque and of all the country of the Mohawks, in the name of the King. A cross was solemnly planted alongside a post bearing the King's coat of arms. Mass was celebrated and the to diem sung. Then the work of destruction began. The palisades, the dwellings, the bastions, the stores of grain and provisions except what was needed by the invaders. The standing crops all were set on fire, and when night fell the glaring illumination of that tremendous blaze told the savages that at last New France had asserted her power, and that the soldiers of the great King had come far enough through forests and over mountains and streamed to chastise in their own country the bloodthirsty tribes, who for a quarter of a century had been the terror of the growing settlements on the St. Lawrence. On their return march the troops suffered great hardships. A storm on Lake Champlain, upset two boats and eight men were drowned. Tracy reached Quebec on November the 5th. The expedition had lasted seven weeks, during which time he had covered nine hundred miles. The news of his success had been received with joy. Since the first days of October the whole colony had been praying for victory. As soon as the destruction of the Irca towns was known prayers were changed to thanksgiving. The tedium was solemnly chanted, and on November 14th a mass was said in the Church of Notre-Dame de Quebec, followed by a procession in Gratterium Actionum. New France might well rejoice. A great result had been attained. True it was that the Mohawks, panic-stricken, had not been met and crushed in a set encounter. Nonetheless they had had their lesson. They had learned that distance and natural impediments were no protection against the French. Their towns were a heap of ashes, their fields were despoiled, their country was ruined. The fruit of that expedition was to be eighteen years of peace for New France. Eighteen years of peace after twenty-five years of murderous incursions. Was that not worth a tedium? After his return Tracy ordered one of the Iroquois detained at Quebec to be hanged as a penalty for his share in the murder of the French hunters. He then directed three other prisoners, the Flemish Batard, note a half-breed Mohawk leader, and two Onita chiefs, to go and inform their respective tribes that he would give them four months to send hostages and make peace. Otherwise he would lead against them another expedition, more calamitous for their country than the first one. At length, in the months of July of the following year, ambassadors of the Iroquois nations arrived at Quebec with a number of Iroquois families who were to remain as hostages in the colony. The chiefs asked that missionaries be sent to reside among their tribes. This petition was granted. New France could now breathe freely. The hatchet was buried. Iroquois and coerced them into a lasting peace. He had seen order and harmony restored in the government of the colony. His mission was over and he left Canada on August 28, 1667, coursel remaining as governor and talon as intendant. From that moment, the latter, though second in rank, became really the first official of New France if we consider his work in its relation to the future welfare of the colony. We have already seen something of his views for the administration of New France. He would have it emancipated from the jurisdiction of the West India Company. He tried also to impress on the king and his minister the advisability of augmenting the population in order to develop the resources of the colony. In a word, he sought to lay the foundations of the flourishing state. Undoubtedly, Colbert wished to help and strengthen New France, but he seemed to think that talon's aim was too ambitious. In one of his letters, the intendant had gone the length of submitting a plan for the acquisition of New Netherlands, which had been conquered by the English in 1664. He suggested that, in the negotiations for peace between France, England and Holland, Louis XIV might stipulate for the restoration to Holland of its colony, and in the meantime come to an understanding with the State's general for its session to France. Annexation to Canada would follow. But Colbert thought that talon was too bold. The intendant had spoken of New France as likely to become a great kingdom. In answer, the minister said that the king saw many obstacles to the fulfilment of these expectations. To create on the shores of St. Lawrence an important state would require much emigration from France, and it would not be wise to draw so many people from the kingdom, to on people France for the purpose of people in Canada. Moreover, if too many colonists came to Canada in one season, the area already under cultivation would not produce enough to feed the increased population, and great hardship would follow. Evidently, Colbert did not hear display his usual insights. Talon never had in mind the unpeopling of France. He meant simply that if the home government would undertake to send out to few hundred settlers every year, the result would be the creation of a strong and prosperous nation on the shores of St. Lawrence. The addition of 500 immigrants annually during the whole period of Louis XIV's reign would have given Canada in 1700 a population of 500,000. It was thought that the mother country could not spare so many, and yet the cost in man to France of a single battle, the bloody victory of Senef in 1674, was 8,000 French soldiers. The wars of Louis XIV killed ten times more men than the systematic colonization of Canada would have taken from the mother country. The second objection raised by Colbert was no better founded than the first. Talon did not ask for the immigration of more colonists than the country could feed, but he rightly thought that with peace assured the colony could produce food enough for a very numerous population, and that increase in production would speedily follow increase in numbers. It must not be supposed that Colbert was indifferent to the development of new France. No other minister of the French king did more for Canada. It was under his administration that the strength which enabled the colony so long to survive its subsequent trials was acquired. Colbert was entangled in the intricacies of European politics, obliged to corroborate inventors which in his heart he condemned, and which disturbed him in his work of financial and administrative reform. He yielded sometimes to the fear of weakening the trunk of the old tree by encouraging the growth of the young chutes. Talon had to give in, but he did so in such a way as to gain his point in part. He wrote that he would speak no more of the great establishment he had thought possible since the minister was of opinion that France had no excess of population which could be used for the peopleing of Canada. At the same time he insisted on the necessity of helping the colony, and assured Colbert that could he himself see Canada, he would be disposed to do his utmost for it, knowing that a new country cannot make its own way without being helped effectively at the outset. Talon's tact and firmness of purpose had their reward, for the next year Colbert gave ample proof that he understood Canada's situation and requirements. On the question of the West India Company also there was some divergence of view between the minister and the intendant. As we have seen in a preceding chapter Talon had expressed his apprehension of the evils likely to spring from the wide privileges exercised by the company, but his trading association was Colbert's creation. He had contended that the failure of the one hundred associates was due to inherent weakness. The new one was stronger and could do better. Perhaps difficulties might arise in the beginning on account of the inexperience and greed of some of the company's agents, but with time the situation would improve. It was not surprising that Colbert should defend the company he had organized. Nevertheless, on that point as on the other, Colbert contrived to meet Talon half way. The Indian trade, he said, would be open to the colonists, and for one year the company would grant freedom of trade generally to all the people of New France. In connection with the rights of this company another question affecting the finances was soon to arise. By its charter the company was entitled to collect the revenues of the colony. That is to say, the taxes levied on the sale of beaver and moose skins. The tax on beaver skins was twenty-five percent, called le droit du car. The tax on moose skins was too sous, or pound, le droit du dixième. There was also the revenue obtained from the sale or farming out of the trading privileges at Tadoussac, la traite de Tadoussac. All these formed what was called le fond du pays, the public fund, out of which were paid the emoluments of the governor and the public officers, the costs of the garrisons at Québec, Montreal, and three rivers, the grants to religious communities, and other permanent yearly disbursements. The company had the right to collect the taxes, but was obliged to pay the public charges. Writing to Colbert, Talon said he would have been greatly pleased if, in addition to these rights, the king had retained the fiscal powers of the crown. He declared that the taxes were productive, yet the company's agent seemed very reluctant to pay the public charges. Colbert, of course, decided that the company, in accordance with its charter, was entitled to enjoy the fiscal rights upon condition of defraying annually the ordinary public expenditure of the country, as the company which preceded it had done. Immediately another point was raised, what should be the amount of the public expenditure, or rather, to what figure should the company be allowed to reduce it? Talon maintained that the public charges defrayed by the former company amounted to 48,950 livres. Footnote, the livre was equivalent to the latter of France, about 20 cents of modern Canadian currency. The company's agent contended that they amounted to only 29,200 livres, and that the sum of 48,950 livres was exorbitant, as it exceeded by 4,000 livres the highest sum ever received from farming out the revenue. Footnote, it was the custom in New France to sell or farm out the revenues, instead of collecting direct defer taxes and the proceeds of the Tadoussac trade, the government granted the rights to a corporation or a private individual in return for a fixed sum annually. To this, the intendant replied by submitting evidence that the rights were farmed out for 50,000 livres in 1660 and in 1663. Moreover, the rights were more valuable now for with the conclusion of peace trade would prosper. In the end, Colbert decided that the sum payable by the company should be 36,000 livres annually. The ordinary revenue of New France was thus fixed and remained at that sum for many years. It must not be supposed that this revenue was sufficient to meet all the expenses connected with the defense and development of the colony. There was an extraordinary fund provided by the King's Treasury and devoted to the movement and maintenance of the troops, the payment of certain special emoluments, the transport of new settlers, horses and sheep, the construction of forts, the purchase and shipment of supplies. In 1665, this extraordinary budget amounted to 358,000 livres. Talon's energetic action on the question of the revenue was inspired by his knowledge of the public needs. He knew that many things requiring money had to be done. A new country like Canada could not be opened up for settlement without expense and he thought that the traders who reaped the benefit of their monopoly should pay their dues share of the outlay. We have already seen that Talon had begun the establishment of three villages in the vicinity of Quebec. Let us briefly enumerate the principles which guided him in erecting these settlements. First of all, in defense of the King's instructions, relative to concentration, he contrived to plan the new villages as near as possible to the capital and evolved a plan which would group the settlers about a central point and thus provide for their mutual help in defense. In pursuance of this plan, he made all his Charlebourg land grants triangular, narrow at the head, wide at the base, so that the houses erected at the head were near each other and formed a square in the center of the settlement. In this arrangement, there was originality and good sense. After more than two centuries, Talon's idea remained stamped on the soil, and the plans of the Charlebourg villages as surveyed in our own days showed distinctly the form of settlement adopted by the Intendant. Proper dwellings were made ready to receive the newcomers, then Talon proceeded with the establishment of settlers. To his great joy some soldiers applied for grants. He made points of having skilled workmen, some if possible in each village, carpenters, shoemakers, masons, or other artisans whose services would be useful to all. He tried also to induce habitants of earlier date to join the new settlements where their experience would be a guide and their methods and object lesson to beginners. The grants were made on very generous terms. The soldiers and habitants on taking possession of their land received a substantial supply of food and the tools necessary for their work. They were to be paid for clearing and telling the first two acres. In return, each was bound by his deed to clear and prepare for cultivation during the three or four following years another two acres which could afterwards be allotted to an incoming settler. Talon proposed also that they should be bound to military service. For each newcomer the king assumed the total expense of clearing two acres, erecting a house, preparing and sowing the ground, and providing flour until a crop was reaped, all on condition that the occupant should clear and cultivate two additional acres within three or four years, presumably for allotment to the next newcomer. Such were the broad lines of Talon's colonization policy, but to his mind it was not enough that he should make regulations and issue orders. He would set up a model farm himself and thus be an example in his own person. He bought land in the neighborhood of the Sinchial River and had the ground cleared at his own expense. He directed thereon a large house, a barn, and other buildings, and in course of time his fine property, comprising cultivated fields, meadows, and gardens, and well-stocked with domestic animals, became a source of pride to him. Under Talon's wise direction and encouragement, the settlement of the country progressed rapidly. Now that they could work in safety, the colonists set themselves to the task of clearing new farms. In his relation of 1668, Father Le Mercier wrote, It is fine to see new settlements on each side of the Saint-Lawrence, for a distance of eight leagues. The fear of aggression no longer prevents our farmers from encroaching on the forest and harvesting all kinds of grain, which the soil here grows as well as in France. In the district of Montreal, it was great activity. It was during this period that it lands up long points of Pointe-aux-Tremble and of Le Chine were first cultivated. At the same time, along the river Richelieu, in the vicinity of Fort Chamblis and Sorrel, officers and soldiers of the Carignan-Salière regiment were beginning to settle. These worthy gentlemen, wrote Mother Marie de l'Incarnation, are at work with the king's permission establishing new French colonies. They live on their farm produce, for they have oxen, cows, and poultry. A census taken in 1668 gave very satisfactory figures. A year before, there had been 11,448 acres under cultivation. That year, there were 15,649. And wheat production amounted to 130,979 bushels. Such results were encouraging, with a change in three years. One of the commodities most needed in the colony was hemp, for making coarse cloth. Tai Long accordingly cost several acres to be sown with hemp. The seeds was gathered and distributed among a number of farmers, on the understanding that they would bring back an equal quantity of seed next year. Then he took a very energetic step. He seized all the thread in the shops and gave notice that nobody could produce thread except in exchange for hemp. In a word, he created a monopoly of thread to promote the production of hemp, and the policy was successful. In many other ways, the intended sectivity and zeal for the public good manifested themselves. He favored the development of the St. Lawrence Fisheries and encouraged some of the colonists to devote their labor to them. Caught fishing was attempted with good results. Shipbuilding was another industry of his introduction. In 1666, always deserous of setting an example, he built a small craft of 120 tons. Later he had the gratification of informing Colbert that a Canadian merchant was building a vessel for the purpose of fishing in the lower St. Lawrence. During the following year, six or seven ships were built at Quebec. The relation of 1667 states that Tai Long took pains to find wood fit for shipbuilding, which had been begun by the construction of a barge found very useful and of a big ship ready to float. In building and causing ships to be built, the intended had in view the extension of the colony's trade. One of his schemes was to establish regular commercial intercourse between Canada, the West Indies, and France. The ships of La Rochelle, Dieppe, and Avres, after unloading at Quebec, would carry Canadian products to the French West Indies, where they would load cargoes of sugar for France. The intended, always ready to show the way, entered into partnership with a merchant and shipped to the West Indies Salmon, Eels, Salt and dried cod, peas, staves, fish oil, planks, and small masts such needed in the islands. The establishment of commercial relations between Canada and the West Indies was an event of no small moment. During the following years, this trade proved important. In 1670, three ships built at Quebec were sent to the islands with cargoes of fish, oil, peas, planks, barley, and flour. In 1672, two ships made the same voyage, and in 1681, Tadol successor, the intendant du Chainot, wrote to the minister that every year since his arrival, two vessels at least, in one year four, had left Quebec for the West Indies with Canadian products. The intendant was a busy man. The scope of his activity included the discovery and development of mines. There had been reports of finding lead at Gaspé, and the West India Company had made an unsuccessful search there. At Bécaipol, below Quebec, iron ore was discovered, and it was thought that copper and silver also would be found at the same place. In 1667, Fauder Allouet returned from the Upper Ottawa, bringing fragments of copper which he had detached from stones on the shores of Lake Huron. The coal mines in Cape Britain were deemed to be a very good quality. In this connection may be mentioned a mysterious illusion in Tadol's correspondence to the existence of coal, where none is now to be found. In 1667, he wrote to Colbert that a coal mine had been discovered at the foot of the Quebec Rock. This coal, he said, is good enough for the forge. If the test is satisfactory, I shall see that our vessels take loads of it to serve as ballast. It would be a great help in our naval construction. We could then do without the English coal. Next year, the intendant wrote again, The coal mine opened at Quebec, which originated in the cellar of a lower-town resident, and is continued through the Cape under the Château Saint-Louis, could not be worked, I fear, without imperiling the stability of the Château. However, I shall try to follow another direction. For, notwithstanding the excellent mine at Cape Britain, it would be a capital thing for the ships landing at Quebec to find coal here. Is there actually a coal mine at Quebec hidden in the depth of the rock which bears now on its summit du Frein et Terres and the Château Frontenac? We have before us Talon's official report. He asserts positively that coal was found there, coal which was tested, which burned well in the fort. What has become of the mine, and where is that coal? Nobody at the present day has ever heard of a coal mine at Quebec, and the story seems incredible. But Talon's letter is explicit. No satisfactory explanation has yet been suggested, and we confess inability to offer one here. While reviewing the great intendant's activities, we must not fail to mention the brewing industry in which he took the lead. In 1668, he erected a brewery near the river Saint-Charles on the spot at the foot of the hill where stood in later years the intendant's palace. He meant in this way to help the grain growers by taking part of their surplus product and also to do something to check the increasing importation of spirits which caused so much trouble and disorder. However questionable the efficacy of beer in promoting temperance, Talon's object is worthy of applause. Three years later, the intendant wrote that his brewery was capable of turning out 2,000 hogs heads of beer for exportation to the West Indies and 2,000 more for home consumption. To do this, it would require over 12,000 bushels of grain annually, and would be a great support to the farmers. In the meantime, he had planted hops on his farm and was raising good crops. Talon's buoyant report and his incessant entreaties for a strong and active colonial policy could not fail to enlist the sympathy of two such statesmen as Louis XIV and Colbert. This is perhaps the only period in earlier Canadian history during which the home government steadily followed a wise and energetic policy of developing and strengthening the colony. We have seen that Colbert hesitated at first to encourage emigration, but he had yielded someone before Talon's urgent representations. And from 1665 to 1671, there was an uninterrupted influx of Canadian settlers. It is recorded in a document written by Talon himself that in 1665, the West India Company brought to Canada for the King's account 429 men and 100 young women and 184 men and 92 women in 1667. During these seven years, there were in all 1,828 state-aided immigrants to Canada. The young women were carefully selected and it was the King's wish that they should marry promptly in order that the greatest possible number of new families should be founded. As a matter of fact, the event was in accordance with the King's wish. In 1665, Madame Marie de la Garnation wrote that the 100 girls arrived that year were nearly all provided with husbands. In 1667, she wrote again, this year 92 girls came from France and they are already married to soldiers and laborers. In 1670, 150 girls arrived and Talon wrote on November 10th, all the girls who came this year are married, except 15 whom I had placed in well-known families to await the time when the soldiers who sought them for their wives are established and able to maintain them. It was indeed a matrimonial period and it is not surprising that marriage was the order of the day. Every incentive to that end was brought to bear. The intendant gave 50 leave in household supplies and some provisions to each young woman who contracted marriage. According to the King's decree, each youth who married at or before the age of 20 was entitled to a gift of 20 leave called the King's gift. The same decree imposed a penalty upon all fathers who had not married their sons at 20 and their daughters at 16. In the same spirit, it enacted also that all Canadians having 10 children living should be entitled to a pension of 300 leave annually. 400 leave was the reward for 12. Mary Early was the royal mandate. Colbert, writing to Talon in 1668, says, I pray you to command it to the consideration of the whole people that their prosperity, their subsistence and all that is dear to them depend on a general resolution never to be departed from, to marry youths at 18 or 19 years and girls at 14 or 15. Since abundance can never come to them except through the abundance of men. And this was not enough. Colbert went on. Those who may seem to have absolutely renounced marriage should be made to bear additional burdens and be excluded from all honors. It would be well even to add some mark of infamy. The unfortunate bachelor seems to have been treated somewhat as a public malefactor. Talon issued an order forbidding unmarried volunteers to hunt with the Indians or go into the woods if they did not marry 15 years after the arrival of the ships from France. And a case is recorded of one François Le Noir of Montreal who was brought before the judge because being unmarried, he had gone to trade with the Indians. He pleaded guilty and pledged himself to marry next year after the arrival of the ships or failing that to give 150 leave to the Church of Montreal and the likesome to the hospital. He kept his money and married within the term. The matrimonial zeal of Colbert and Talon did not slight the noblemen on officers. Captain de Amat, marrying and taking up a boat in the country, received 1600 leave. During the years 1665, 68, 6,000 leave were expended to aid the marriage of young, gentle women without means and 6,000 to enable four captains, three lieutenants, five ensigns and a few minor officers to settle and marry in the colony. A word must be said as to the character of the young women. Some writers have cast unfair aspersions upon the girls sent out from France to marry in Canada. After a serious study of the question, we are in a position to state that these girls were most carefully selected. Some of them were orphans, weird and charitable institutions under the king's protection. They were called les Fais du Roi. The rest belonged to honest families and their parents, overburdened with children, were willing to send them to a new country where they would be well provided for. In 1670, Colbert wrote to the Archbishop of Rouen as in the parishes about Rouen, 50 or 60 girls might be found who would be very glad to go to Canada to be married. I beg you to employ your credit and authority with the curée of the 30 or 40 of these parishes to try to find in each of them one or two girls disposed to go voluntarily for the sake of settlement in life. Such was the quality of the female emigration to Canada. The girls were drawn from reputable institutions or from good peasant families under the auspices of the curée. During their journey to Canada, they were under the care and direction of persons highly respected for their virtues and purity, such as Madame Bourdon, widow of the late attorney general of New France, or mademoiselle Etienne, who was appointed governor of the girls leaving for Canada by the directors of the General Hospital of Paris. When young women arrived in Canada, they were either immediately married or placed for a time in good families. The paternal policy of the minister and the intendant was swayed by the disbanding of the Carrignon companies. In 1668, the regiment was recalled to France. Four companies only were left in Canada to garrison the forts. The officers and soldiers of the companies withdrawn were entreated to remain as settlers and about 400 decided to make their home in Canada. They were generously subsidized. Each soldier electing to settle in the colony received 100 livres or 50 livres with provisions for one year at his choice. Each sergeant received 150 livres or 100 livres with one year's provisions. The officers also were given liberal endowments. Among them were captains de Contrecœur, de Saint-Tource, de Sorelle, du Gai de Bois-Briand, Lieutenant's Coletier de Varennes and Marguerite de la Valtrie, N-Signs, Paul Dupuis, Bécard de Grandeville, Pierre Monnet de Morasse, François Jarret de Verschard. The strenuous efforts of Colbert and Talon could not but give a great impulse to population. The increase was noticeable. In November 1671, Talon wrote, His Majesty will see by the extracts of the registers of baptism that the number of children this year is six or 700 and in the coming year we may hope for a substantial increase. There is some reason to believe that without any further female immigration, the country will see more than 100 marriages next year. I consider it unnecessary to send girls next year. The better to give the habitants a chance to marry their own girls to soldiers disservice of Sennling. Neither will it be necessary to send young ladies as we received last year 15 instead of the four who were needed for wives of officers and notables. In the former chapter, the population of Canada in 1665 was given as 3215 souls and the number of families 533. In 1668, the number of families was 1139 and the population 6282. In three years, the population had nearly doubled and the number of families had more than doubled. Other statistics may fit and really be given here. During the period under consideration, the West India Company sent to Canada for the King's account many horses and sheep. These were badly needed in the colony. Since its first settlement, there had been seen in New France only a single horse, one which had been presented by the company of 100 associates to Monsieur de Montmagny, the governor who succeeded Champlain. But from 1665 to 1668, 41 mares and stallions and 80 sheep were brought from France. Domestic animals continued to be introduced until 1672. 14 horses and 50 sheep were sent in 1669. 13 horses in 1670, the same number of horses and a few asses in 1671, so that during these seven years, Canada received from France about 80 horses. 20 years afterwards, in 1692, there were 400 horses in the colony. In 1698, there were 684 and in 1709, the number had so increased that the intendant Houdou issued an ordinance to restrain the multiplication of these animals. From what has been said, it will be seen that this period of Canadian history was one of great progress. What could bear was to France, tell all was to New France, while the great minister in the full light of European publicity was gaining fame as a financial reformer and the reviewer of trade and industry. The sagastrous and painstaking attendant in his remote corner of the globe was laying the foundation of an economic and political system and opening to the young country the road for commercial, industrial and maritime progress. Telon was a colonial culvert. What the latter did in a white sphere and with ample means, the former was trying to do on a small scale and with limited resources. Both have deserved the place of honour in Canadian annals. End of chapter four. Chapter five of A Chronicle of Jean Telon in Canada. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Robin Cotter. July, 2007. A Chronicle of Jean Telon in Canada by Thomas Chapey. Chapter five. The Intendant and the Sovereign Council. In the preceding chapter, a sketch has been given of Telon's endeavours to promote colonization, agriculture, shipbuilding and commerce, to increase the population and to foster generally the prosperity of New France. Let us now see how he provided for the good administration and internal order of the colony. In 1666, he had prepared and submitted to Tracey and Corsale a series of rules and enactments relating to various important matters, one of which was the administration of justice. Telon wished to simplify the procedure to make justice speedy, accessible to all and inexpensive. In each parish, he proposed to establish judges, having the power to hear and decide in the first instance all civil cases involving not more than ten levers. In addition, there would be four judges at Quebec and appeals might be taken before three of them from all decisions given by the local judges. Unless, Telon added, quote, it be thought more advisable to maintain the Sieux Chartier in his charge of lieutenant general to which he has been appointed by the West India Company, unquote. It was decided that M. Chartier, de l'autre banier, should be so maintained, and he was duly confirmed as lieutenant civil a criminel on January 10th, 1667. He had jurisdiction in the first instance over all cases, civil and criminal, in the Quebec District, and in appeal from the judgments of the local or seniorial judges. The sovereign council acted as a court of appeal in the last resort, except in cases where the parties made a supreme appeal to the king's council of state in France. In 1669, Telon wrote a memorandum in which we find these words, quote, justice is administered in the first instance by judges in the sinuries, then by a lieutenant civil and criminal appointed by the company in each of the jurisdictions of Quebec and three rivers, and above all by the sovereign council, which in the last instance decides all cases where an appeal lies, unquote. At Montreal, there was a lieutenant civil and criminal appointed by the Sulphysians, seniors of the island. In 1667, there were seniorial judges in the sinuries of Bopré, Boport, Notre-Dame-de-Ang, Cap de la Magdalene. It is interesting to find the Telon attempted to establish a method of settlement out of court, the principle of which was accepted by the legislature of the province of Quebec more than two centuries later. What was called the amiable composition of the French intendant may be regarded as a first edition of the law passed at Quebec in 1899, which provides for conciliation or arbitration proceedings before a lawsuit is begun. Telon also introduced an equitable system of land registration. In the proceedings of the sovereign council, of which Telon at this time was the inspiring mind, we may see reflected the condition and internal life of the colony. Decrees for the regulation of trade were frequent. Commercial freedom was unknown. Under the administration of the governor Avagur, 1661 to 1663, a tariff of prices had been published, which the merchants were compelled to observe. Again, in 1664, the council had decided that the merchants might charge 55% above cost price on dry goods, 100% on the more expensive wines and spirits, and 120% on the cheaper, the cost price in France being determined by the invoice bills. In 1666, a new tariff was enacted by the council, in which the price of one hog's head of Bordeaux wine was fixed at 80 leavers, and that of Brazil tobacco at 40 sues a pound. In 1667, again changes took place. On dry goods the merchants were allowed 70% above cost, on spirits and wines 100% or 120% as in 1664. The merchants did not accept these rulings without protest. In 1664, the most important Quebec trader, Charles Aubert de la Cheney, was prosecuted for contravention and made this bold declaration in favor of commercial freedom. I have always deemed that I had a right to the free disposal of my own, especially when I consider that I spend in the colony what I earn therein. Unquote. Prosecutions for violating the law were frequent during the month of June 1667 at a sitting of the sovereign council, Tracy, Corsale, Toulant, and Laval being present. The attorney general Bordeaux made out a case against Jacques de la Mode, a merchant, for having sold wines and tobacco at higher prices than those of the tariff. The defendant acknowledged that he had sold his wine at 100 livers and his tobacco at 60 sous, but alleged that his wine was the best Bordeaux, that his hog's-heads had a capacity of fully 120 pots, that care, risk, and leakage should be taken into consideration, the two hog's-heads had been spoiled, and that the price of those remaining should be higher to compensate him for their loss. As to the tobacco, it was of the marinane quality. It was of the marinane quality, and he had always deemed it impossible to sell it for less than 60 sous. After hearing the case, the council decided that two of its members, Messieurs de Mode and de la Tesserie, should make an inspection at La Mode's store, in order to taste his wine and tobacco, and gauge his hog's-heads. Away they went, and afterwards they made the report. Finally La Mode was condemned to a fine of 22 livers, payable to the Hotel Dieu. It may be remarked here that very often the fines had a similar destination, in that way justice helped charity. The magistrates were vigilant, but the merchants were cunning and often succeeded in evading the tariff. In July 1667 the habitants' syndic appeared before the council to complain of the various devices resorted to by merchants to extort higher prices from the settlers than were allowed by law. So the council made a ruling that all merchandise should be stamped in the presence of the syndic, according to the prices of each kind and quality, and ordered samples duly stamped in this way to be delivered to commissioners, specially appointed for the purpose. It will be seen that these regulations were minute and severe. Trade was thus submitted to stern restrictions which would seem strange and unbearable in these days of freedom. Would an outcry there would be if parliament should attempt now to dictate to our merchants the selling price of their merchandise? But in the seventeenth century such a thing was common enough. It was a time of extreme official interference in private affairs and transactions. We have mentioned the syndic of the inhabitants, syndic de habitants. A word about this officer will be in place here. He was the spokesman of the community when complaints had to be made or petitions presented to the governor or the sovereign council. At that time in Canada there was no municipal government. True, an unlucky experiment had been made in 1663 under the governor Meze when a mayor and two aldermen were elected at Quebec. But their enjoyment of office was of brief duration. In a few weeks the election was declared void. It was then determined to nominate a syndic to represent the inhabitants and on August 3d Claude Charin a merchant was elected to the office. But as the habitants often had difficulties to settle with members of the commercial class objection was taken to him on the ground that he was a tradesman and he retired. On September 17th a new election took place and Jean Lamir a carpenter was elected. Later on during the troubles of the Meze regime the office seems to have been practically abolished. But when the government was reorganized it was thought advisable to revive it. The council decreed another election and on March 20th 1667 Jean Lamir was again chosen as syndic. Lamir continued to hold the office for many years. To the colony of that day the sovereign council was, broadly speaking, with the legislatures, the executives, the courts of justice and the various commissions, all combined, are to modern Canada. But as we have seen it had arbitrary powers that these modern bodies are not permitted to exercise. Its long arm reached into every concern of the inhabitants. In 1667 for example the habitants asked for a regulation to fix the miller's fee. The amount of the toll to which they would be entitled for grinding the grain. The owners of the flour mills represented that the construction, repair, and maintenance of their mills were two or three times more costly in Canada than in France. And that they should have a proportionate fee. Still they would be willing to accept the bare renumeration usually allowed in the kingdom. The toll was fixed at one fourteenth of the grain. Highways were also under the care of the council. When the residents of a locality presented a petition for opening a road the council named two of its members to make an inspection and report. On receipt of the report an order would be issued for opening a road along certain lines and of a specified width. It was often eighteen feet and for pulling stumps and filling up hollows. There was an official called the Grand Voyeur or General Overseer of Roads. The office had been established in 1657 when Rene Robano de Becancourt was appointed Grand Voyeur by the company of one hundred associates. But in the wretched state of the colony at that time Monsieur de Becancourt had not much work to do. In later years however the usefulness of a Grand Voyeur had become more apparent and Becancourt asked for a confirmation of his appointment. On the suggestion of Toulon the council reinstated him and ordered that his commission be registered during the whole French regime there were about five General Overseers of Roads or Grand Voyeurs. Rene Robano de Becancourt 1657 to 1699. Pierre Robano de Becancourt 1699 to 1729. Y Lenolier de Boie-Cleur 1731 to 1751. Monsieur de la Gaugendière 1751 to 1759. Monsieur de Lino 1759 to 1760. Guardianship of public morality and the maintenance of public order were the chief carers of the council. It was ever intent on the suppression of vice. On August 20th 1667 in the presence of Tracey, Corsale, Toulon and Laval the Attorney General submitted information of scandalous conduct on the part of some women and girls and represented that a severe punishment would be a wholesome warning to all evildoers. He also suggested that the wife of Sebastian Lenolier, being one of the most disorderly, should be singled out for an exemplary penalty. A counsellor was immediately appointed to investigate the case. What was done in this particular instance is not recorded, but there is evidence to show that licentious conduct was often severely dealt with. Crimes and misdemeanours were ruthlessly pursued, for a theft committed at night in the Hotel Gilles Garden, the intendant condemned a man to be marked with the fleur de l'î to be exposed for four hours in the pillory and to serve three years in the galleys. Another culprit, convicted of larceny, was sentenced to be publicly whipped and to serve three years in the galleys. Both these prisoners escaped and returned to their former practices. They were recaptured and sentenced, the first to be hanged, the second to be whipped, marked with the fleur de l'î, and kept in irons until further order. Rape in the colony was unhappily frequent. A man convicted of this crime was condemned to death and executed two days later. Another was whipped till the blood flowed and condemned to serve nine years in the galleys. Let us now turn to activities of another order. One of the most important ordinances enacted by the sovereign council under Toulon's direction was that which concerned the importation of spirits and the establishment in the colony of the brewing industry. It was stated in this decree that the great quantity of brandies and wines imported from France was a cause of debauchery. Many were diverted from productive work. Their health was ruined. They were induced to squander their money, and prevented from buying necessaries and supplies useful for the development of the colony. Toulon, as we have read in another chapter, thought that one of the best means of combating the immoderate use of spirits was the setting up of breweries. At the same time he intended that this industry should help agriculture. The sovereign council entered into these views and enacted that as soon as breweries should be in operation in Canada, all importation of wines and spirits should be prohibited, except by special permission and subject to attacks of five hundred leavers, payable one-third to the seniors of the country, one-third to the Hotel Gilles, and one-third to the person who had set up the first brewery after the date of the enactment. Under no circumstances should the yearly importation exceed eight hundred hogs heads of wine and four hundred of brandy. When this amount had been reached, no further licenses to import would be issued. The council begged Toulon to take the necessary steps for the construction and equipment of one or more breweries. The owners of these were to have, during ten years, the exclusive privilege of brewing for trading purposes. The price of beer was fixed beforehand at twenty leavers per hogs head and six sous per pot, so long as barley was priced at three leavers per bushel or less. If the price of barley went higher, the price of beer should be raised proportionately. In 1667, the sovereign council, inspired by Toulon, had to discuss a very important question. This was the formation of a company of Canadians to secure the exclusive privilege of trading. By its charter, the West India Company had been granted the commercial monopoly. Under pressure from Toulon, it had somewhat abated its pretensions and had allowed freedom of trade for a time. But again it was urging its rights. The council asked the intendant to support, with his influence at court, the plan for a Canadian company, which he did. Colbert did not say no. Neither did he seem in a hurry to grant the request. In 1668 the council sent the minister a letter praying for freedom of trade. This year the company had enforced its monopoly and the people had suffered from the lack of necessaries which could not be found in the company's stores. Moreover, prices were exceedingly high. Such a state of things was detrimental to the colony. The council begged that, if Colbert were not disposed to grant freedom of trade, he would favourably consider the scheme for a trading company, composed of Canadians, which had been submitted to him the year before. We shall see, later on, what came of this agitation against the West India Company. The good understanding between the intendant and the sovereign council was absolute. The council had shown unequivocal confidence in Tillon's ability and respect for his person and authority. A few days before the Marquis de Tracey had left the colony, the council had ordered that all petitions to enter lawsuits should be presented to the intendant, who should assign them to the council or to the lieutenant's civil and criminal, or try them himself at his discretion. This was treating Tillon as the supreme magistrate and acknowledging him as the dispenser of justice. Monsieur de Corcelle, who was beginning to feel some uneasiness at Tillon's great authority and prestige, refused to sign the proceedings of that day, inscribing these lines in the council's register. This decree being against the governor's authority and the public good, I did not wish to sign it. At the beginning of the following year, Tillon, whose attention, perhaps, had not been called to Corcelle's written protest, requested the adoption of a similar decree, and the council did not hesitate to confirm its previous decision, notwithstanding the governor's former opposition, which he reiterated in the same terms. Corcelle was certainly mistaken in supposing that the council's decision was an encroachment on his authority. The superior jurisdiction in judicial matters belonged to the intendant. Under his commission he had the right to, quote, judge alone and with full jurisdiction in civil matters, unquote, to, quote, hear all cases of crimes and misdemeanors, abuse and malversation, by whomsoever committed, unquote, to, quote, proceed against all persons guilty of any crime, whatever might be their quality or condition, to pursue the proceedings until final completion, judgment and execution thereof, unquote. Nevertheless, in practice and with due regard to the good administration of justice, the council's decree went perhaps too far. The question remained in abeyance and was not settled until four years afterwards, at the end of Tallon's second term in Canada. He had written to Colbert on the subject stating that he would be glad to be discharged of the judicial responsibility, and to see the question of initiating lawsuits referred to the sovereign council, quote, as a matter of fact, he said, receiving the petitions for entering lawsuits does not mean retaining them before myself. I have not judged twenty cases, civil or criminal, since I came here, having always tried as much as I could to conciliate the opposing parties. The reason why I speak now of this matter is that very often, for twenty or thirty levers of principle, a plaintiff goes before the judge of first instance, which diverts the parties from the proper cultivation of their farms, and later on, by way of an appeal, before the sovereign council, which likes to hear and judge cases, unquote. Colbert did not deem the decision of the council advisable, quote. It is contrary, he wrote, to the order of justice, in virtue of which, leaving in their own sphere the superior judges, the judges of first instance are empowered to hear all cases within their jurisdiction, and their judgments can be appealed from to the sovereign council. Moreover, it would be a burden for the king's subjects living far from Quebec to go there unnecessarily in order to ascertain before what tribunal they should be heard, unquote. We must now speak of a most important matter, the brandy traffic. The sale of intoxicating liquor to the Indians had always been prohibited in the colony. In 1657, a decree of the king's state council had ratified and renewed this prohibition under pain of corporal punishment. Yet, notwithstanding the decree, greedy traders broke the law, and for the purpose of getting furs at a low price, supplied the Indians with eau de feu, or firewater, which made them like wild beasts. The most frightful disorders were prevalent, the most heinous crimes committed, and scandalous demoralization followed. In 1660 the evil was so great that Monseigneur de Laval, exercising his pastoral functions, decreed excommunication against all those pursuing the brandy traffic in defiance of ordinances. This might have stopped the progress of the evil, had not the Governor, Avagur, opened the door to renewed disorder two years later by a most unfortunate policy. Thereupon Laval crossed the ocean to France, obtained the Governor's recall, and succeeded, though with some difficulty, in maintaining the former prohibition. In 1663 the sovereign council enacted an ordinance strictly forbidding the selling or giving of brandy to Indians, directly or indirectly, for any reason or pretense whatsoever. The penalty for the offence was a fine of three hundred levers, payable one-third to the informers, one-third to the hotel dieu, and one-third to the public treasury. And for a second offence the punishment was whipping or banishment. In 1667, after the sovereign council had been finally reorganized, the prohibition was renewed, on a motion of Attorney General Bordeaux, under the same penalties as before, and it devolved many times upon the council to condemn transgressors of this ordinance to fines, imprisonment, or corporal punishment. Telol was present and concurred in these condemnations. But gradually his mind changed. He was becoming daily more impressed with the material benefits of the brandy traffic, and less convinced of its moral danger. He was besides displeased with the bishop's excommunication. In his view it was an encroachment of the spiritual upon the civil power. Under the influence of these feelings he came to consider prohibition of the liquor traffic as a mistake, damaging to the trade and progress of the colony, and to French influence over the Indian tribes. These were the arguments put forward by the supporters of the traffic. According to them, to refuse brandy to the Indians was to let the English monopolize the profitable fur trade, and therefore to check the development of New France. The fur trade provided an abundance of beaverskins, which formed a most convenient medium of exchange. The possession of these gave an impetus to trade, and brought to Canada a number of merchants and others who were consumers of natural products and money-spenders. Moreover in Canada, furs were the main article of exportation. Their abundance swelled the public revenue, and increased the number of ships employed in the Canadian trade. And last, to use an argument of a higher order, the brandy traffic, in fostering trade with the Indian tribes, kept them in the bonds of an alliance, and strengthened the political situation of France and North America. The above fairly, we think, represents the substance of the plea made by the supporters of the liquor traffic. Such indeed were the arguments used by the traders, finally accepted by Talon, developed in, after years by Frontenac, approved by Colbert on many occasions. Such was the political and commercial wisdom of those who thought mainly of the material progress of New France. To those arguments, Laval, the clergy, and many enlightened persons interested in the public welfare had a double answer. First, there was at stake a question of principle important enough to be the sole ground of a decision. Was it right for the sake of a material benefit to outrage natural and Christian morality? Was it morally lawful for the purpose of loading with furs the Quebec stores and the Rochelle ships, to instill into the Indian veins the accursed poison which inflamed them to theft, rape, incest, murder, suicide, all the frightful frenzy of bestial passion? As it was practiced, the liquor traffic could have no other result. A powerful consensus of evidence established this truth above all discussion. For the Indians, grandi was then, as it is now, a murderous poison. It is for this reason that at the present day the government of Canada prohibits absolutely the sale of intoxicating liquor in the territories where the wretched remnants of the aborigines are gathered. The strictness of the modern laws is a striking vindication of Laval and those who stood by him. Moreover, the prohibition of the brandy traffic was not as detrimental to the material development of the colony as was contended. It was possible to trade with the Otoeus, the Ogonquins, the Iroquois, without the allurement of brandy. The Indians themselves acknowledged that strong liquor ruined them. The Abbe d'Olier de Cassant, superior of the Montreal Sulpitians, was perfectly right when he made the following statement. We should have had all the Iroquois if they had not seen that there is as much disorder here as in their country, and that we are even worse than the heretics. The Indian drunkard does not resist the drinking craze when brandy is at hand. But afterwards when he sees himself naked and disarmed, his nose gnawed, his body maimed and bruised, he becomes mad with rage against those who caused him to fall into such a state. Some years later, the Governor, Dino V, answered those who enlarged on the danger of throwing the Indians on the friendship of the Dutch and English if they were refused brandy. Those who maintain, he said, that if we refuse liquor to the Indians, they will go to the English are not trustworthy. For the Indians are not anxious to drink when they do not see the liquor, and the most sensible of them wished that brandy had never existed, because they ruined themselves in giving away their furs and even their clothes for drink. Dino V's opinion was the more justified in that at one time the New England authorities proposed to the French a joint prohibition of the sale of brandy to Indians, and actually passed an ordinance to that effect. There were many other articles besides brandy that were needed by the Indians, and for which they were obliged to exchange their furs. But even had the prohibition caused a decrease in the fur trade, would the evil have been so great? Fewer colonists would have been diverted from agriculture. As it was, the exodus from the settlements of bush rangers, in search of furs, was a source of weakness, and the flower of Canadian youth disappeared every year in the wilderness. Had this drain of national vitality been avoided, the settlement of Canada would have been more rapid. Even from the material point of view, it can be maintained that the opponents of the brandy traffic understood better than its supporters the true interests of New France. For a long while this important question divided and agitated the Canadian people. The religious authorities, knowing the evil and crimes that resulted from the sale of intoxicating liquor to the Indians, made strenuous efforts to secure the most severe restriction, if not the prohibition of the deadly traffic. They spoke in the name of public morality and national honour, of humanity and divine love. The civil authorities, more interested in the financial and political advantages than in the question of principle, favoured toleration and even authorisation of the trade. Hence the conflicts and misunderstandings which have enlivened, or rather saddened, the pages of Canadian history. It is to be regretted that the intended talon sided with supporters of free traffic in brandy. We have said that at first he wavered. The rulings of the sovereign council in 1667 seemed to show it. But his earnest desire for the prosperity of the colony, the development of her trade, the increase of her population, the improvement of her finances, his ambition for the economic progress of New France misled him and perverted his judgment. This is the only excuse that can be offered for the greatest error of his life. For he must be held responsible for the ordinance passed by the sovereign council on November 10th, 1668. This ordinance, after setting forth that in order to protect the Indians against the curse of drunkenness, it was better to have recourse to freedom than to leave them a prey to the wily devices of unscrupulous men, enacted that thereafter, with the king's permission, all the residents of New France might sell and deliver intoxicating liquor to the Indians willing to trade with them. The gate was opened. It was in vain that the ordinance went on to forbid the Indians to get drunk under a penalty of two beavers and exposure in the pillory. A fearful punishment, indeed. Talon's good faith was undeniable. On this occasion he doubtless thought that he was still serving the cause of public welfare. But, without questioning his intentions, we cannot but admit that his life's record contains pages more admirable than this one.