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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