Champlain returned to France, leaving a small colony at Quebec; was invited to an audience, and had favor with the King, who bestowed upon all this region, the name of New France. Champlain visited his infant colony again in 1610, and 1613, recruiting it, and upon each occasion going himself to battle with his neighbors and allies against the Iroquois. In 1615 a company of merchants in France, having procured a charter from the King, which embraced all of French interests in New France, gave to Champlain the principal direction of their affairs. Having attended to the temporal affairs of the colony, the conversion of the natives, by Catholic missionaries, engaged his attention. Four missionaries of the order of Recollets were enlisted. These were the first missionaries in Canada, and the first upon all our Atlantic coast, with the exception of some Jesuit missionaries that had before reached Nova Scotia. Leaving the large recruit of colonists he brought out at Quebec, where he found all things had gone well in his absence, the intrepid adventurer, and soldier as he had made himself, pushed on to Montreal, and joined again a war party of his Indian allies, against the Iroquois. The Iroquois were this time conquerors. Defeat had lessened the importance of Champlain in the eyes of his Indian allies, and they even refused him and his few followers, a guide back to Quebec, although he had been wounded. Remaining for the winter an unwilling guest of his Indian allies, he improved his time, as soon as his wounds would allow of it, in visiting more of the wild region of Canada. In the spring he returned to Quebec, and in July, to France.

For several succeeding years, Champlain visited and revisited the colony, extending and strengthening it; encountering vicissitudes in France consequent upon the breaking up and change of proprietorships; his colony subjected to attacks from the Iroquois whom he

* Charlevoix.

NOTE. It has remained for an indefatiguable researcher in the history of the early French occupancy of this region-O. H, Marshall, Esq. of Buffalo-to ascertain where Champlain and his Indian allies invaded the territory of the Iroquois. They came across the lower end of Lake Ontario, and passing through what is now Jefferson and Oswego counties, crossed the Oneide Lake and attacked the Onondagas at their principal settlement and Fort on the banks of the Onondaga Lake, when a battle ensued which lasted three hours, the invaders gained no advantage; and Champlain who expected a reinforcement endeavored in vain to induce his Indian allies to remain and continue the seige. He had received two severe wounds, and was carried in a basket of "wicker-work" to the shores of lake Ontario. He spent a dreary winter among the Hurons on the north shore of the Lake.

had injudiciously made his implacable enemies. Still, French colonization in New France slowly progressed, and trading establishments were multiplied. In 1623 a stone Fort was erected at Quebec to protect the colonists against the Iroquois, and a threatened end of amicable relations with the Hurons and Algonquins. In 1625, '6, the first Jesuit missionaries came out from France, among them were names with which we become familiar in tracing the first advents of our race in Western New York and the region of the Western Lakes.

In 1627 the colonization of New France was placed upon a new footing, by the organization of the "Company of One Hundred Associates." Their charter gave them a monopoly in New France, and attempted to promote christianization and colonization, both of which had been neglected by making the fur trade a principal object. The "Company" engaged to introduce 16,000 settlers before 1643.Before the advent of this new association, the colony had become but a feeble one; the Indians had become hostile and kept the French confined to their small settlements, at times, to their fortifications.

Hostilities having commenced between France and England, the first vessel sent out by the Associates fell into the hands of the English. An English expedition after destroying the French trading establishment at Tadoussac, on the Sagenay, sent a demand for the surrender of Quebec. Champlain replied in a manner so spirited and determined as to delay the attack, until the English force was increased. In July 1629 an English fleet appeared, and demanded a surrender which Champlain with his reduced and feeble means of resistance was obliged to obey. The terms of capitulation secured all private rights of the French colonists, and most of them remained. Champlain, however, returned to France. It was a siege and capitulation in miniature, that after the lapse of more than a century, was destined to be the work of concentrated armies and navies, and weeks of fierce contest.

English possession was surrendered by treaty in 1632. At the period of this small conquest :-"the Fort of Quebec, surrounded by a score of hastily built dwellings and barracks, some poor huts on the Island of Montreal, the like at Three Rivers and Tadoussac, and a few fishermen's log houses and huts on the St. Lawrence, were the only fruits of the discoveries of Verrazano, Jaques Cartier, Roberval and Champlain, and the great outlay of La Roche and

De Monts, and the toils and sufferings of their followers, for nearly a century."

Champlain returned in 1633, having been re-appointed Governor of New France, bringing with him recruits of Missionary and other colonists, and gave a new impulse to colonial enterprize; settlements began to be extended, and a college, with rich endowments was formed at Quebec, for the "education of youth, and the conversion of the Indians." While all this was in progress, Champlain, the founder of French colonization in New France, to whose perseverance, courage, and fortitude, France was indebted for the foothold she had gained upon this continent, died, and was "buried in the city of which he was the founder." †

Montmagny succeeded Champlain. Deprived of much of the patronage from the Associates that he had reason to expect, the work of colonization progressed but slowly during his administration, which continued until 1647. Trade, advanced settlements, agriculture, made but little progress, but missionary and educational enterprises, had a powerful impetus. At Sillery, near Quebec, a college was founded. The Dutchess de Arguillon founded the Hotel Dieu, and Madame de la Peltrie, the convent of the Ursulines. The last named liberal patron was young, high born; a devotee to her religious faith, and a zealous propagator of it. She came herself to the New World, with a vessel of her own, accompanied by Ursulines, who blended their names and services conspicuously with the history of Lower Canada. Such was the eclat that attended the advent of the noble patron and her followers, who had left all the refinements, gaities, and luxuries of France, to take up their abode upon the wild and inhospitable shores of the St. Lawrence, that their arrival was signalized by a public reception, with military and religious observan

*ces.

The other principal events under the administration of Montmagny, were the founding of Montreal, and the building of a Fort there and at the mouth of the Richlieu, as out-posts against the Iroquois, who since they had become exasperated by Champlain, made frequent attacks upon the French settlements. A threat reach

* Conquest of Canada.

t He was one of the extraordinary men of his age and nation. History finds in him a marked character, and poetry and romance the model of an heroic adventurer.

ed the ears of Montmagny that they would "drive the white man into the sea," and becoming convinced of the powers of the wild warriors, whose strength he had no means of estimating, he sought the means of establishing a peace with them, in which he was encouraged by his neighbors the Hurons, who were worn out, and their numbers reduced, by long wars with their indefatiguable adversaries. The gov ernor and the Huron chiefs met deputies of the Iroquois at Three Rivers, and concluded a peace.

M. d'Ailleboust who had held a command at Three Rivers, was the successor of Montmagny, and continued as Governor until 1650. The peace with the Iroquois gave a spur to missionary enterprise and trade, both of which were extended.

During the administration of Montmagny, missionaries and traders had followed the water courses of Canada, and reached Lake Huron, where they had established a post. From that distant point, in 1640, came the first of our race that ever trod upon the soil of Western New York, and left behind them any record of their advent. * On the 2d day of November, 1640, two Jesuit Fathers, Brebeauf and Chaumonot, left their mission station at St. Marie, on the river Severn, near Lake Huron, and came upon the Niagara river, both sides of which were occupied by the Neuter Nation. † They found this nation to consist of 12,000 souls, having 4,000 warriors, and inhabiting forty villages, eighteen of which the missionaries visited. They were, say these Fathers:-" Larger, stronger, and better formed than our Hurons." The men, like all savages, cover their naked flesh with skins, but are less particu

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*In a letter from Father L'Allemant to the Provincial of the Jesuits in France, it is mentioned that the Recollet Father Daillon passed the winter of 1626 among the Neuter Nation. If this is so, he was the first white man who saw Western New York. The period is earlier than we can well suppose there could have been any Frenchman so far away from the settlements upon the St. Lawrence, especially when we consider the then utter hostility of the Iroquois. Still, the Seneca branch of them may as early as this have tolerated a few missionaries and traders.

This Neuter Nation, then, were occupants of all the region between the Niagara and the Genesee rivers, Lake Ontario and the foot of Lake Eric, and a wide strip on the west side of the Niagara river. It was NEUTRAL ground, while surrounding nations were at war, and they were neutrals. But three years only after the visit of Brebeauf and Chaumorot, they were dispossessed by the Iroquois. Thus the region became as we found it a part of the domains of the Seneca. Says Charlevoix :- "To avoid the fury of the Iroquois, they finally joined themselves against the Hurons, but gained nothing by the union. The Iroquois, that like lions that have tasted blood, can not be satiated, destroyed all that came in their way; and at this day there remaius no trace of the Neuter Nation."

lar than the Hurons in concealing what should not appear." "The Squaws are ordinarily clothed, at least from the waist to the knees; but are more shameless in their immodesty than our Hurons." "They have Indian corn, beans, and gourds in equal abundance; also, plenty of fish. They are much employed in hunting deer, buffalo, wild cats, wolves, wild boars, beaver, and other animals. It is But rare to see snow in the country more than half a foot deep. this year, it is more than three feet." The Rev. Fathers found our remote predecessors here upon the soil of Western New York, with the exception of one village, unfavorable to the mission they were upon, and intent upon which they had braved all the rigors of the season, and a long forest path which they soon retraced.

If those Rev. Fathers were admirers of nature's almost undisturbed works, fresh, as it were, from the Creator, and bearing the impress of His hands and we may well suppose they were, for they had come from cloistered halls and high seats of learning, and refinement-how must their eyes have been satiated in view of the panorama of lakes and forests, hills and plains, rushing torrents, water-falls, and the climax in their midst-the mighty cataract of Niagara, thundering in its solitude! Who would not wish that he had been among them or what is perhaps more rationalthat he could enjoy such a scene as Western New York then was?

The treaty with the Iroquois had but suspended their hostilities. In 1648, they were again out upon their war-paths upon the banks of the St. Lawrence. Father Antoine Daniel had made a mission station of the small settlement of St. Joseph. When the Huron warriors had gone out upon the chase, while the missionary had the old men, the women and children, collected for religions service, a party of Iroquois stole upon them and massacred the whole. This was probably the first of a series of martyrdoms that awaited the Jesuit missionaries. In the early part of 1649, a thousand Iroquois fell upon two villages of the Hurons, and nearly exterminated the whole population; the missionary in each place meeting the fate of Father Daniel. This was followed up in the same year by an attack upon the Huron village of St. Johns, where nearly three thousand, with their missionary, were massacred! Disease, as well as the war-club, had visited the Hurons. "Most of the remnant of this unhappy tribe then took the resolution of presenting themselves to their conquerors, and were received into their nation. The few