Thomas Chapais

“ 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. ”

“ By right, to the company belonged the power of granting land and seigneuries. In fact, the governor or 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 This strange situation, which lasted ten years—until the West India Company's charter was revoked in 1674—is often confusing to the student of the period.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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was very well to send troops, labourers, women, settlers, and supplies; but, in order that all should yield their maximum of efficiency, it was necessary that the business affairs of the colony should again be placed in the hands of the intendant, who had already worked wonders by his sagacity and skilful management. There was no man who knew so well the weak and strong points, the requirements and possibilities of Canada. ”

“ After more than two centuries, Talon's idea remains stamped on the soil; and the plans of the Charlesbourg villages as surveyed in our own days show distinctly the form of settlement adopted by the intendant.
Proper dwellings were made ready to receive the new-comers. Then Talon proceeded with the establishment of settlers. To his great joy some soldiers applied for grants. He made point of having skilled workmen, some, if possible, in each village—carpenters, shoemakers, masons, or other artisans, whose services would be useful to all. ”

“ Altogether the white population of Canada, including the settlers and labourers arriving during the summer of 1665, numbered only 3215. Yet the colony had been in existence for fifty-seven 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, Courcelle, and Talon. ”

“ 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 St Lawrence for a distance of eighty 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 there was great activity. ”

“ In all departments the French government was displaying intelligent activity. Trade and commerce, agriculture and manufacture, were encouraged and protected. With ample means at their disposal and perfect freedom of action, Louis XIV and Colbert could not but be in a favourable mood to receive Talon's reports and proposals. Talon acted as if he were still the intendant of New France; and though for the time being he was not, he was surely the most powerful agent or advocate that the colony could have. ”

“ The superior jurisdiction in judicial matters belonged to the intendant. Under his commission he had the right to 'judge alone and with full jurisdiction in civil matters,' to 'hear all cases of crimes and misdemeanours, abuse and malversation, by whomsoever committed,' to '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.' Nevertheless, in practice and with due regard to the good administration of justice, the council's decree went perhaps too far. ”

“ The lieutenant-general, the governor, and the intendant gave the matter their attention, and after discussion an ordinance was passed for payment of tithes, consisting of the twenty-sixth part of all that the soil grows, naturally or by man's labour, for the benefit of the priests who ministered to the spiritual wants of the people. There was a proviso stating that the words 'by man's labour' did not include manufactures or fisheries, but only the products of the soil when cultivated and fertilized by human industry. ”

“ Talon left Quebec in November 1668. Expressions of deep regret were heard on all sides. Mother Marie de l'Incarnation wrote: 'M. Talon is leaving us and goes back to France. It is a great loss to Canada and a great sorrow for all. For, during his term here as intendant, this country has developed more and progressed more than it had done before from the time of the first settlement by the French.' The annalist of the Hotel-Dieu was not less sympathetic, but there was hope in her utterance: 'M. Talon,' she said, 'left for France this year. ”

“ 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 a tax of five hundred livres, payable one-third to the seigneurs of the country, one-third to the Hotel-Dieu, 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 hogsheads of wine and four hundred of brandy. ”

“ From what has been said it will be seen that this period of Canadian history was one of great progress. What Colbert was to France Talon was to New France. While the great minister, in the full light of European publicity, was gaining fame as a financial reformer and the reviver of trade and industry, the sagacious and painstaking intendant in his remote corner of the globe was laying the foundations of an economic and political system, and opening to the young country the road of commercial, industrial, and maritime progress. Talon was a colonial Colbert. ”

“ After the great councils held at Quebec, the Senecas again assumed a somewhat disquieting attitude. The governor, they said, had been too hard on them. He had threatened to chastise them in their own country if they did not bring back their prisoners. Perhaps his arm was not long enough to strike so far. Evidently they had forgotten the expedition against the Mohawks five years ago. They were convinced that distance and natural impediments, such as rapids and torrents, protected them from invasion in their remote country south of Lake Ontario. Courcelle resolved to shake their confidence. ”

“ There is some reason to believe that, without any further female immigration, the country will see more than one hundred 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 desirous of settling. Neither will it be necessary to send young ladies, as we received last year fifteen, instead of the four who were needed for wives of officers and notables.
In a former chapter the population of Canada in 1665 was given as 3215 souls, and the number of families 533. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII RENEWED EFFORTS AND PROGRESS When Talon arrived at Quebec, New France had again just escaped an Indian war. A party of Iroquois hunting near the country of the Outaouais met two men of their nation who had been prisoners of the Outaouais and had succeeded in escaping. These informed their fellow-tribesmen that the Outaouais village was undefended, almost every warrior being absent. The Iroquois then attacked the village, destroyed it, and brought with them as prisoners about one hundred women and children. ”

“ The colony was dying for lack of soldiers, settlers, and labourers, as well as stores of food and munitions of war for defence and maintenance. Louis XIV made up his mind that help should be given. In 1664 three hundred labourers 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 labourers, and all kinds of supplies. ”

“ Thus it came about that, when an intendant 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. ”

“ To create on the shores of the 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 'unpeople France for the purpose of peopling 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 here display his usual insight. Talon never had in mind the unpeopling of France. ”

“ The intendant gave fifty livres 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 twenty was entitled to a gift of twenty livres, called 'the king's gift.' The same decree imposed a penalty upon all fathers who had not married their sons at twenty and their daughters at sixteen. In the same spirit, it enacted also that all Canadians having ten children living should be entitled to a pension of three hundred livres annually ”

“ One of the most important ordinances enacted by the Sovereign Council under Talon'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. ”

“ The girls were drawn from reputable institutions, or from good peasant families, under the auspices of the cures. During their journey to Canada they were under the care and direction of persons highly respected for their virtues and piety, such as Madame Bourdon, widow of the late attorney-general of New France, or Mademoiselle Etienne, who was appointed governess 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Abbe Dollier de Casson, superior of the Montreal Sulpicians, 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. ”

“ He added that the Iroquois caused great injury to the trade of the colony by hunting the beaver in the territories of the tribes allied with the French, and selling the skins to Dutch and English traders. In another letter Talon set forth that these traders drew from the Iroquois 1,000,000 livres' worth of the best beaver, and he suggested the construction of a small ship of the galley type to cruise on Lake Ontario, and that two posts manned by one hundred picked soldiers should be established, one on the north, the other on the south shore of that lake. ”

“ Colbert went on: 'Those who may seem to have absolutely renounced marriage should be made to bear additional burdens, and be excluded from all honours; 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 volontaires to hunt with the Indians or go into the woods, if they did not marry fifteen days after the arrival of the ships from France. ”

“ One of the intendant's first official acts after his arrival in 1670 was to issue a decree for the conservation of the forests suitable for shipbuilding purposes—to prohibit the felling of oak, elm, beech, and cherry trees until the skilled carpenters sent by the king should have inspected them and made their choice. It is interesting, too, to find that in all grants of land Talon inserted a clause reserving these trees. Shipbuilding in Canada was to be encouraged and promoted. Had not Colbert given forty thousand livres for the purpose? ”

“ Denonville'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. ”

“ His Majesty has granted freedom of trade to Canada, so that the colony may hereafter receive more easily the provisions and supplies needed. It will now be necessary to inform the colonists that they must provide cargoes agreeable to the French, who will supply them with necessities, and so make a profitable exchange of goods. For there is now a great supply of furs in this kingdom, and if there were no other goods available as a return cargo perhaps the French ships would not go there. ”