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the conquest of new france-第6章

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English colonies a family of the type of the Canadian family of

Le Moyne。 Charles Le Moyne; of Montreal; a member of the Canadian

noblesse; had ten sons; every one of whom showed the spirit and

capacity of the adventurous soldier。 They all served in the time

of Frontenac。 The most famous of them; Pierre Le Moyne

d'Iberville; shines in varied roles。 He was a frontier leader who

made his name a terror in the English settlements; a sailor who

seized and ravaged the English settlements in Newfoundland; who

led a French squadron to the remote and chill waters of Hudson

Bay; and captured there the English strongholds of the fur trade;

and a leader in the more peaceful task of founding; at the mouth

of the Mississippi; the colony of Louisiana。 Canada had the

advantage over the English colonies in bold pioneers of this

type。



Canada was never doubtful of the English peril or divided in the

desire to destroy it。 Nearly always; a soldier or a naval officer

ruled in the Chateau St。 Louis; at Quebec; with eyes alert to see

and arms ready to avert military danger。 England sometimes sent

to her colonies in America governors who were disreputable and

inefficient; needy hangers…on; too well…known at home to make it

wise there to give them office; but thought good enough for the

colonies。 It would not have been easy to find a governor less

fitted to maintain the dignity and culture of high office than

Sir William Phips; Governor of Massachusetts in the time of

Frontenac。 Phips; however; though a rough brawler; was reasonably

efficient; but Lord Cornbury; who became Earl of Clarendon; owed

his appointment as Governor of New Jersey and New York in 1701;

only to his necessities and to the desire of his powerful

connections to provide for him。 Queen Anne was his cousin。 He was

a profligate; feeble in mind but arrogant in spirit; with no

burden of honesty and a great burden of debt; and he made no

change in his scandalous mode of life when he represented his

sovereign at New York。 There were other governors only slightly

better。 Canada had none as bad。 Her viceroys as a rule kept up

the dignity of their office and respected the decencies of life。

In English colonies; governors eked out their incomes by charging

heavy fees for official acts and any one who refused to pay such

fees was not likely to secure attention to his business。 In

Canada the population was too scanty and the opportunity too

limited to furnish happy hunting…grounds of this kind。 The

governors; however; badly paid as they were; must live; and; in

the case of a man like Frontenac; repair fortunes shattered at

court。 To do so they were likely to have some concealed interest

in the fur trade。 This was forbidden by the court but was almost

a universal practice。 Some of the governors carried trading to

great lengths and aroused the bitter hostility of rival trading

interests。 The fur trade was easily controlled as a government

monopoly and it was unfair that a needy governor should share its

profits。 But; after all; such a quarrel was only between rival

monopolists。 Better a trading governor than one who plundered the

people or who by drunken profligacy discredited his office。



While all Canada was devoted to the Roman Catholic Church; the

diversity of religious beliefs in the English colonies was a

marked feature of social life。 In Virginia; by law of the colony;

the Church of England was the established Church。 In

Massachusetts; founded by stern Puritans; the public services of

the Church of England were long prohibited。 In Pennsylvania there

was dominant the sect derisively called 〃Quakers;〃 who would have

no ecclesiastical organization and believed that religion was

purely a matter for the individual soul。 Boston jeered at the

superstitions of Quebec; such as the belief of the missionaries

that a drop of water; with the murmured words of baptism;

transformed a dying Indian child from an outcast savage into an

angel of light。 Quebec might; however; deride Boston with equal

justice。 Sir William Phips believed that malignant and invisible

devils had made a special invasion of Massachusetts; dragging

people from their houses; pushing them into fire and water; and

carrying them through the air for miles over trees and hills。

These devils; it was thought; took visible form; of which the

favorite was that of a black cat。 Witches were thought to be able

to pass through keyholes and to exercise charms which would

destroy their victims。 While Phips and Frontenac were struggling

for the mastery of Canada; a fever of excitement ran through New

England about these perils of witchcraft。 When; in 1692; Phips

became Governor of Massachusetts; he named a special court to try

accused persons。 The court considered hundreds of cases and

condemned and hanged nineteen persons for wholly imaginary

crimes。 Whatever the faults of the rule of the priests at Quebec;

they never equaled this in brutality or surpassed it in blind

superstition。 In New England we find bitter religious

persecution。 In Canada there was none: the door was completely

closed to Protestants and the family within were all of one mind。

There was no one to persecute。



The old contrast between French and English ideals still endures。

At Quebec there was an early zeal for education。 In 1638; the

year in which Harvard College was organized; a college and a

school for training the French youth and the natives were founded

at Quebec。 In the next year the Ursuline nuns established at

Quebec the convent which through all the intervening years has

continued its important work of educating girls。 In zeal for

education Quebec was therefore not behind Boston。 But the spirit

was different。 Quebec believed that safety lay in control by the

Church; and this control it still maintains。 Massachusetts came

in time to believe that safety lay in freeing education from any

spiritual authority。 Today Laval University at Quebec and Harvard

University at Cambridge represent the outcome of these differing

modes of thought。 Other forces were working to produce

essentially different types。 The printing…press Quebec did not

know; and; down to the final overthrow of the French power in

1763; no newspaper or book was issued in Canada。 Massachusetts;

on the other hand; had a printing…press as early as in 1638 and

soon books were being printed in the colony。 Of course; in the

spirit of the time; there was a strict censorship。 But; by 1722;

this had come to an end; and after that the newspaper; unknown in

Canada; was busy and free in its task of helping to mold the

thought of the English colonies in America。







CHAPTER III。 France Loses Acadia



The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 had settled nothing finally。 France

was still strong enough to aim at the mastery of Europe and

America。 England was torn by internal faction and would not

prepare to face her menacing enemy。 Always the English have

disliked a great standing army。 Now; despite the entreaties of a

king who knew the real danger; they reduced the army to the

pitiable number of seven thousand men。 Louis XIV grew ever more

confident。 In 1700 he was able to put his own grandson on the

throne of Spain and to dominate Europe from the Straits of

Gibraltar to the Netherlands。 Another event showing his resolve

soon startled the world。 In 1701 died James II; the dethroned

King of England; and Louis went out of his way to insult the

English people。 William III was King by the will of Parliament。

Louis had recognized him as such。 Yet; on the death of James;

Louis declared that James's son was now the true King of England。

This impudent defiance meant; and Louis intended that it should

mean; renewed war。 England had invited it by making her forces

weak。 William III died in 1702 and the war went on under his

successor; Queen Anne。



Thus it happened that once more war…parties began to prowl on the

Canadian frontier; and women and children in remote clearings in

the forest shivered at the prospect of the savage scourge。 The

English colonies suffered terribly。 Everywhere France was

aggressive。 The warlike Iroquois were now so alarmed by the

French menace that; to secure protection; they ceded their

territory to Queen Anne and became British subjects; a

humiliating step indeed for a people who had once thought

themselves the most important in all the world。 By 1703 the

butchery on the frontier was in full operation。 The Jesuit

historian Charlevoix; with complacent exaggeration; says that in

that year alone three hundred men were killed on the New England

frontier by the Abenaki Indians incited by the French。 The

numbers slain were in fact fewer and the slain were not always

men but sometimes old women and young babies。 The policy of

France was to make the war so ruthless that a gulf of hatred

should keep their Indian allies from ever making friends and

resuming trade with the English; whose hatchets; bl
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