to Baie des Chaleurs, he pursued his exploratory cruise, which included three of the present provinces of Canada, casting anchor in Gaspé Basin about the middle of the month. On the bold heights of the entrance of that picturesque sheet of water he planted the cross on the 24th July, and took formal possession of the country in the name of his Royal Master by attaching to the great emblem of Christianity a shield emblazoned with the Fleur de Lys, and bearing the legend "Vive le Roy de France." This accomplished, he bent the sails of his two 60-ton vessels and sailed for France to give report of his adventures to a delighted sovereign and court. Cartier returned in 1535 and completed the explorations of the previous year by going up the St. Lawrence River through the Saguenay, the Canada and the Hochelaga regions. In the course of this cruise he learned that the chief town of the central region, where the fresh water began, was called Canada, and in the Bref récit de la Navigation faite en 1536-37 par Capt. Jacques Cartier the name first appears as applied to the whole country as then known (1). Nothing was done, either in this visit or the two subsequently made by Cartier, in the way of colonization, and the country remained a vast forest, the habitation of savages, until 1608, when, with the advent of Champlain, came the establishment of Quebec as the seat of his government and the first permanent settlement on the shores of the St. Lawrence. 4. Champlain was the founder of Quebec and Three Rivers, and the dis coverer of the River Richelieu, of Lakes Champlain, George, Ontario, Simcoe and Huron. When he died, the entire colony consisted of about 250 persons. The historian Charlevoix says that "Canada then comprised a fort at Quebec surrounded by a few miserable houses and barracks, two or three huts on the Island of Montreal, the same at Tadoussac and a few other places on the St. Lawrence, used for the fishing and peltry trade, to gether with the beginnings of a station at Three Rivers." For a dozen years during Champlain's time, and afterwards during the Governorship of Champlain's successors (Montmagny, d'Ailleboust de Coulonge, Jean and Charles de Lauzon, d'Argenson and d'Avaugour) to 1663, the supreme control of the affairs of the colony was vested in a company established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627, under charter given by the French Government and designated "The Society of 100 Associates." The Jesuits, who came to Canada in 1625, (2) used to send reports every year to the superior of their order in France. These reports, known by the title of the "Relations of the Jesuits," contained information about the country, and the 100 Associates allowed them to be published. In conse quence, a good many people were led to emigrate from France. Persons of good family embarked, bringing with them artisans, labourers and depend ents. To such persons, the Associates granted tracts of land (seigneuries (1.) In the second map of Ortelius, published about the year 1572, New France, Nova Francia, is thus divided:-Canada, a district on the St. Lawrence above the river Saguenay Chiloga (Hochelaga), the angle between the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers; Saguena a district below the river of that name; Moscosa, south of the St. Lawrence and east of the river Richelieu; Avacal, west and south of Moscosa; Norumbega, name of New Brunswick Terra Corterealis, Labrador-(Parkman's Pioneers). (2.) They first came in 1611 to Port Royal (ne field after a short residence. polis, N.S.), but abandoned the along the St. Lawrence. During the regime of the Associates the foundations of Montreal, the future metropolis of Canada, were laid. In 1667, four years after the 100 Associates had ceased to exist as a chartered company, the white population of New France was nearly 4,000. 5. In 1672 the Count de Frontenac was appointed Governor, and, next to Champlain, he is in every way the most conspicuous figure among the early holders of that office. The chief glory of his administration was the spirit of daring exploration and discovery by which it was characterized, the grandest achievement of all being the exploration of the Mississippi River and the great West under Joliette, Marquette, La Salle and Hennepin. In 1688 war between France and England led to hostilities between the French and the New England colonies. After nine years of harrying, peace came, and by the treaty of Ryswick (1697) the two nations restored to each other the conquests they had made. The peace lasted four years. The war of the Spanish succession then involved England and France in bloody strife, which, of course, had to be shared by their colonies. Thenceforward until 1713 tragic scenes were enacted from the shores of Acadia to the pathless forests of the West, in which French, English and Indian warriors outvied one another in lust for blood. During the long period of peace following the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the population of New France slowly increased. The cultivation of the soil was, however, greatly neglected for the seductive fur trade, which possessed for the adventurous voyageur and coureur des bois a fascination that even its enormous profits did not wholly explain. In 1744 the war of the Austrian succession once more involved the Colonies in hostilities, which were chiefly remarkable for the capture of Louisbourg. The war terminated between the principals with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), but this truce was regarded by both nations as only a breathing spell to prepare for the coming struggle that would decide the possession of the continent. In 1754 the expected conflict opened with a brush between a small body of troopers under Washington and a party of French soldiers under Jumonville, at Fort Duquesne. Washington took the initiative and, as Bancroft. says, his command to fire "kindled the world into a flame." It precipitated the tremendous struggle which, fought out to the bitter end on the plains of India, on the waters of the Mediterranean and the Spanish main, on the gold coasts of Africa, on the ramparts of Louisbourg, on the heights of Quebec and in the Valley of the Ohio, resulted in the defeat of the French "and the destruction of their sovereignty on the American Continent, and prepared the way for the foundation of the unique Empire which, unlike Russia and the United States, "equally vast but not continuous, with the ocean flowing through it in every direction, lies, like a world-Venice, with the sea for streets-Greater Britain." 6. The era of the French regime in Canada lasted till 1760, when France gave up the contest with England for supremacy on the American Continent, and New France with its population of 70,000 became the Canada whose progress is set forth in the pages following. 7. In 1774 what is known as the "Quebec Act" was passed by the British Parliament. It extended the bounds of the Province from Labrador to the Mississippi, and from the Ohio to the water-shed of Hudson Bay. It established the right of the French to the observance of the Roman Catholic region without civil disability, and confirmed the tithes to the clergy. It restored the French civil code and established the English administration of law in criminal cases. This act continued to be the rule of government of the province for seventeen years. 8. Soon after the passing of the Quebec Act the "War of Independence" began, one of the first steps taken by the secessionists being to capture Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain. Other forts along the gateway followed, and on the 12th November, 1775, Montreal, then having a population of 10,000, succumbed; but the tide turned when, flushed with their first success, the Americans essayed the capture of Quebec, two daring attempts resulting in disastrous failure. 9. By the terms of the treaty of peace signed at Paris, September 3rd, 1783, Canada lost the region lying between the Mississippi and the Ohio, and was divided from its southern neighbour by the great lakes, the St. Lawrence, the 49th parallel of north latitude and the highlands dividing the waters falling into the Atlantic from those emptying themselves into the St. Lawrence and St. Croix rivers. 10. In 1791 the Constitutional Act was passed by the British Parliament. It divided Canada, then having a population of 161,311, into two provinces, known as Canada East and Canada West, or Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Each province received a separate legislature, consisting of a Legislative Council appointed by the Crown, a Legislative Assembly elected by the people, and a Governor appointed by the Crown and responsible only to it. 11. In 1812-14 Canada was called upon to undergo a severe ordeal caused by the United States declaring war against Great Britain. The United States selected Canada as the first point of attack, but though Canada had less than 6,000 troops to defend 1,500 miles of frontier and a population under 300,000 to match itself against the eight millions of the United States, the Canadians, rallying as one man to the loyal support of their Government, so bore themselves throughout the two years' struggle which ensued, that, when it ended, the advantage lay clearly upon their side, and the victories of Queenston Heights and Chateauguay are to-day pointed to with the same patriotic pride as the Englishman takes in Waterloo or the Frenchman in Austerlitz. 12. When the war was over, the people of Canada turned their attention to domestic matters and began their agitation for Responsible Government, which they never relaxed until in 1840 the Home Government, acting upon the suggestions contained in the report of Lord Durham on the state of the Canadas, determined upon the union of the two provinces and the acknowgement, in the new Constitution of 1841, of the principle of Responsible rnment. 13. The new agitation sprung out of the more rapid growth of population in Upper Canada compared with Lower Canada. It was a demand in Canada West for representation by population. It culminated in 1867 in the Union Act, by which the Province of Canada was divided into two provinces (Ontario and Quebec) and, with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, became the Dominion of Canada. 14. The first attempt to colonize Acadia (Nova Scotia) was made by the French in 1598. It was unsuccessful. A second and a third attempt in 1599 and 1600 proved abortive. In 1605 Baron de Poutrincourt, a French gentleman-adventurer, established Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) the first actual settlement by Europeans on the shores of the North American continent. Port Royal holds a unique place in our history. In it was built the first cluster of French homes that ever gladdened Canada ; to it came the first body of colonizing Britons that ever left the Mother Isle to found an English-speaking community on our half of this continent. It is the nursery from which sprang the two branches of the two great races, which, after a hundred and fifty years of fierce fighting around Port Royal for supremacy through the arts of war, are now, as they have been for a century and a third, joint proprietors of this Canada of ours, having settled down to nobler rivalries in the arts of peace, with the one common object of making the land we live in a shining example of the prosperity that surely comes from concord and a well cemented union. It holds the record as the most frequently assaulted place on this continent. lowing is the record of the changes of masters it has experienced. : 1605. Founded by Poutrincourt. 1608. Transferred to Virginia by English grant. 1613. Destroyed (the fort) by Argal of Vir- 1613. Taken possession of by French. 1624. Ceded to France. 1627. Granted to the 100 Associates. 1643. Scene of battle between D'Aunay and 1654. Captured from French by Sedgewick with Massachusetts troops. 1655. Ceded by Oliver Cromwell to France, Treaty Westminster. 1657. Passed to Sir Thomas Temple (English) 1667. Became French again by Treaty of Breda. 1679. Became English. 1680. Restored to French. The fol Nova Scotia was formally ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Under its first name, La Cadie (1), (afterwards Acadia) 1. Acadie in the Micmac language means "abundance"; Shubenacadie, "abundance of potatoes"; Apochechkumochwakadi, "abounding in black duck." The river is now called Canard in English, Duck River. Nova Scotia abounded in forests, forest animals, minerals, fertile lands, streams, fish-everything, in fact. The Indian wanted for nothing. Everything was there in abundance. Acadi" the Indian would say of his country to the French visitors; hence, probably, the origin of the early name of the country. 66 Nova Scotia included a considerable portion of New Brunswick. In 1785 the latter was made a separate province. Prince Edward Island, first named St. John's Island, annexed to Nova Scotia in 1763, was constituted a distinct colony in 1770. Cape Breton, separated politically from Nova Scotia in 1784, was re-annexed to the mother colony in 1820. Vancouver Island, which was a separate colony till 1866, was united that year to the mainland colony. The North-west Territories were acquired by purchase in 1870; other provinces subsequently joined. The island and territory of Northern British America were transferred to the Dominion by the British Government in 1880, and the Confederation, as it stands to-day, was completed. Newfoundland alone, of all the British North American group, remaining outside. 15. Representative institutions were granted by the British Government to Nova Scotia in 1758, to Prince Edward Island in 1770, and to New Brunswick in 1785. Vancouver Island received them in 1849 by Imperial Statutes 12 and 13 Vic., chap. 48, the first Legislature meeting in 1856; the mainland was granted them in 1858 by Imperial Statute 21 and 22 Vic., chap. 99. Responsible government was given by the Imperial Parliament to the Provinces of Canada in 1841, but not definitely established till 1847; to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1848; to Prince Edward Island in 1851, and to British Columbia in 1871. The North-west Territories were governed at first under the administration of the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba; then by a Lieutenant-Governor and Council nominated by the Dominion Government (Act of 1880); then by a Lieutenant-Governor and by a Council, part elected and' part nominated; then, in 1888, by a Lieutenant-Governor and Elective Assembly. In the Session of 1890 the Federal Parliament provided for the adoption of responsible government. 16. Appended is a list of the Governors General and Governors of the several provinces before Confederation, together with the years of office. GOVERNORS GENERAL OF CANADA. FRENCH. 1534. Jacques Cartier, Captain General. FRENCH. 1663. Chevalier de Saffray de Mésy. 1540. Jean François de la Roque, Sieur de 1665. Marquis de Tracy. (a) Roberval. 1665. Chevalier de Courcelles. 1725. Baron (1st) de Longueuil (Acting). (a.) Marquis de Tracy was the King's Lieut. General in America, and during the period he was in Canada, 30th June, 1665, to 28th August, 1667, he was virtually Governor of Canada. Acting during captivity of La Jonquière. |