



Produced by David Widger from page images generously
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FRANCE AND ENGLAND in NORTH AMERICA

FOURTH PART

THE OLD REGIME IN CANADA

TWENTY-SIXTH EDITION

BY FRANCIS PARKMAN

BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

1874


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GEORGE EDWARD ELLIS, D.D.

My dear Dr. Ellis:

When, in my youth, I proposed to write a series of books on the French
in America, you encouraged the attempt, and your helpful kindness has
followed it from that day to this. Pray accept the dedication of this
volume in token of the grateful regard of

Very faithfully yours,

FRANCIS PARKMAN.




PREFACE.

“The physiognomy of a government,” says De Tocqueville, “can best
be judged in its colonies, for there its characteristic traits usually
appear larger and more distinct. When I wish to judge of the spirit and
the faults of the administration of Louis XIV., I must go to Canada. Its
deformity is there seen as through a microscope.”

The monarchical administration of France, at the height of its power
and at the moment of its supreme triumph, stretched an arm across the
Atlantic and grasped the North American continent. This volume attempts
to show by what methods it strove to make good its hold, why it achieved
a certain kind of success, and why it failed at last. The political
system which has fallen, and the antagonistic system which has
prevailed, seem, at first sight, to offer nothing but contrasts; yet out
of the tomb of Canadian absolutism come voices not without suggestion
even to us. Extremes meet, and Autocracy and Democracy often touch
hands, at least in their vices.

The means of knowing the Canada of the past are ample. The pen was
always busy in this outpost of the old monarchy. The king and the
minister demanded to know every thing; and officials of high and low
degree, soldiers and civilians, friends and foes, poured letters,
despatches, and memorials, on both sides of every question, into the
lap of government. These masses of paper have in the main survived the
perils of revolutions and the incendiary torch of the Commune. Add
to them the voluminous records of the Superior Council of Quebec, and
numerous other documents preserved in the civil and ecclesiastical
depositories of Canada.

The governments of New York and of Canada have caused a large part of
the papers in the French archives, relating to their early history, to
be copied and brought to America, and valuable contributions of material
from the same quarter have been made by the State of Massachusetts and
by private Canadian investigators. Nevertheless, a great deal has still
remained in France, uncopied and unexplored. In the course of several
visits to that country, I have availed myself of these supplementary
papers, as well as of those which had before been copied, sparing
neither time nor pains to explore every part of the field. With the help
of a system of classified notes, I have collated the evidence of the
various writers, and set down without reserve all the results of the
examination, whether favorable or unfavorable. Some of them are of a
character which I regret, since they cannot be agreeable to persons for
whom I have a very cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the facts
may be matter of opinion, but it will be remembered that the facts
themselves can be overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence on which
they rest, or bringing forward counter evidence of equal or greater
strength; and neither task will be found an easy one. *

I have received most valuable aid in my inquiries from the great
knowledge and experience of M. Pierre Margry, Chief of the Archives of
the Marine and Colonies at Paris. I beg also warmly to acknowledge the
kind offices of Abbé Henri Raymond Casgrain and Grand Vicar Cazeau, of
Quebec, together with those of James LeMoine, Esq., M. Eugène
Taché, Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau, and other eminent Canadians, and Henry
Harrisse, Esq.

The few extracts from original documents, which are printed in the
appendix, may serve as samples of the material out of which the work has
been constructed. In some instances their testimony

     * Those who wish to see the subject from a point of view
     opposite to mine cannot do better than consult the work of
     the Jesuit Charlevoix, with the excellent annotation of Mr.
     Shea. (History and General Description of New France, by the
     Rev. P. F. X. de Charlevoix, S.J., translated with notes by
     John Gilmary Shea. 6 vols. New York: 1866-1872.)

might be multiplied twenty-fold. When the place of deposit of the
documents cited in the margin is not otherwise indicated, they will, in
nearly all cases, be found in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies.

In the present book we examine the political and social machine; in the
next volume of the series we shall see this machine in action.

Boston, July 1, 1874.




DETAILED CONTENTS


I. THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION.


CHAPT I. 1653-1658.

THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA.

The Iroquois War.--Father Poncet.--His Adventures.--Jesuit Boldness.--Le
Moyne’s Mission.--Chaumonot and Dablon.--Iroquois Ferocity.--The
Mohawk Kidnappers.--Critical Position.--The Colony of Onondaga.--Speech
of Chaumonot.--Omens of Destruction.--Device of the Jesuits.--The
Medicine Feast.--The Escape.


CHAPT II. 1642-1661.

THE HOLT WARS OF