CHAPTER I. EARLY TRADE OF CANADA. THREE hundred and twenty-seven years ago, Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, discovered the St. Lawrence,* sailed up its mighty stream for several hundred miles, formed alliances with the Indians, built a fort, and wintered in the country. In 1549, the colonization of the newly discovered "Canada" was commenced, under the auspices of Roberval, the first viceroy, and an attempt made to establish a traffic in furs with the natives; but, in consequence of the loss of Roberval and some of his companions, at sea, in 1549, and European distractions arising from the wars between France, Spain, and Austria, no further effort was made for nearly half a century to colonize the valley of the St. Lawrence. In 1581, a trade with Canada began to spring into activity, and in 1591 a fleet of ships was fitted out by the adventurous inhabitants of St. Malo, to engage in the Canada trade, and, chiefly, to procure the teeth of the walrus, which at that time was common in the gulf and estuary of the St. Lawrence. In 1603, a company of adventurers, headed by M. de Chauvin, lieutenant-general of Canada and Acadia, received a royal charter from Henry IV., of France, and established a regular system of trade in the colony. Ten years later, Champlain obtained a commission authorizing him to seize every vessel, not holding a license, he should find trafficking in furs between Quebec and the upper part *In 1508, one Thomas Aubert made a voyage from Dieppe to Newfoundland, and sailed up the estuary of the St. Lawrence. of the St. Lawrence. In 1628, the celebrated but unscrupulous Cardinal de Richelieu organized the "Company of One Hundred Partners," and conceded to its members in perpetuity the viceroyalty of New France and Florida, thus establishing a commercial régime in Canada, whose influence soon extended far and wide among the Indian races of the valley of the St. Lawrence. The "Company of One Hundred Partners" was dissolved by Louis XIV., in 1663, who resumed the jurisdiction over the country, which for thirty-five years had been under the rule of a trading association. Scarcely, however, had a year elapsed, when, by a royal edict dated 1664, Canada was once more handed over to the short-lived commercial bondage of the "West India Company," but, in 1666, free trade with the aborigines was again declared, subject to certain restrictions and reservations. The company was permitted to retain the right to one-fourth of all the beaver-skins, and one-tenth of all the elk-hides exported, besides the traffic which belonged to Tadoussac at the mouth of the Sauguenay. For these privileges, the company paid 48,950 livres, or about $10,000, a livre being worth, at that period, about one English shilling. Thus far, the efforts made by the French to colonize Canada, and open a trade with the different nations inhabiting the vast extent of country drained by the St. Lawrence, had not been productive of much public and private good, and was marked by a succession of individual disasters which damped the ardor even of the most courageous and enterprising merchants of that day. Lake Superior was visited, in 1659, by two traders, who joined some roving bands of Algonquins, and passed the winter in that region. In 1660, they returned to Quebec, escorted by sixty Algonquin canoes laden with furs. In the autumn of 1678, La Salle, armed with a royal commission, commenced the construction of a fort at Niagara; and during the winter he laid the keel of a ves sel intended for the navigation of the upper lakes, about six miles above the stupendous cataract. The first Upper Canadian ship (for in those days it was worthy of that designation) was launched in the summer of the following year, and, to the unbounded astonishment and alarm of the savage Iroquois and Eries who peopled either shore, it sailed through Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and finally reached Lake Michigan. The "Griffon," as the vessel was called, met with an untimely fate on her return; she was wrecked before she reached the Niagara river, and, with her rich cargo of furs, sank beneath the waves of the inland sea whose solitudes she was the first to invade. Not two centuries (183 years) after the lonely "Griffon" had penetrated through the Upper Canadian lakes, the commerce of the region tributary to them was more than sufficient to employ nearly two thousand steamers and sailing vessels, exceeding half a million tons burden, and costing fifteen millions of dollars.* Subsequently to the extinction of the West India Company, the trade in peltries was free for a time, with the exception of beaver and elk skins, for which monopoly 70,000 francs a year was paid by the lessees, until it became the property of a French society, called the "Company of Canada." After an unprosperous existence for a few years, this trading association, like its predecessors, expired deeply in debt, in 1706. In a report on the condition of Canada in 1715, contained in the "Documents de Paris," there is an interesting account of colonial affairs, which throws some light on the state of Canada at that period. The report is by M. d'Auteuil, who remarks that trade with the savages, once considerable, had even at that early date greatly fallen off. Ship-building was brisk even 150 *The Marquis de Denonville, in a proclamation respecting the taking of the post Niagara, in 1687, states that the stocks on which La Salle built his "bark" were still seen above the great lake, and that his "quarters" were burned in 1675 by the Senecas. He also states that the Sieur de la Salle navigated Lakes Erie, Huron, and Illinois (Michigan), for several years. years ago; hemp for cordage and flax for linen were advantageously grown; but France did not import Canadian timber, or continue to work the copper mines on Lake Huron. The French, at the close of the 17th century, must have been familiar with the copper treasures of the shores of Lake Huron, and perhaps even of Superior, or M. d'Auteuil would not have regretted their neglect of them. In 1687, M. de Denonville writes to the French ministry:* 166 The copper, of which I sent a sample to M. Arnon, is found at the head of Lake Superior. The body of the mine is not yet discovered. I have seen one of our voyageurs, who assures me that he saw, fifteen months ago, a lump of 200 lbs. weight, as yellow as gold, in a river which falls into Lake Superior. When heated, it is cut with an axe; but the superstitious Indians, regarding this piece as a good spirit, would never permit him to take any of it." The estimate formed by M. d'Auteuil of the annual value of the peltries exported from Canada in 1677, was 550,000 francs, and in 1715, two million francs. Thomas Dongan, governor of the province of New York, in 1687, complains bitterly of the difficulties he had to encounter in finding, on his arrival in the colony, "such a contest between the government of Canada and this (New York) about the beaver trade, the inland country, and the Indians." The English found their way to Lakes Ontario and Erie with merchandise, for barter with the Ottawa Indians, as early as 1686, much to the disgust of M. de Denonville, who writes to his government that he is going to intercept ten English canoes, laden with merchandise, that have appeared on Lakes Ontario and Erie. "I regard, my lord," he says, "as of primary importance the prohibition of the trade to the English, who, without doubt, would entirely ruin ours, both by the cheaper bargains they could give the Indians, and by attracting to them the Frenchmen of our colony, who are *Paris Doc., 1686. accustomed to go to the woods."* The "merchandise" largely employed in those days, and continued up to the present time, both by British and French, has proved the ruin of the Indian race of this continent. M. de Denonville writes to Governor Denon: "Think you, sir, that religion will progress whilst your merchants supply, as they do, eau de vie in abundance, which converts the savages, as you ought to know, into demons, and their cabins into counterparts and theatres of hell?" But what was the religion spoken of by Denonville? Here is a description of it: "The presentis to inform Y. R. of our return from the Iroquois mission, loaded with some spoils rescued from hell. We bear in our hands more than five hundred children, and a number of adults, the most part of whom died in baptism. We have re-established faith and piety in the heart of a poor captive church, the first foundations of which we laid in the Huron country. We have proclaimed the gospel unto all the Iroquois nations, so that they are henceforth without excuse, and God will be fully justified against them at the great day of judgment."+ In a memoir addressed to the Marquis of Seignelay, dated 1687 (Paris Doc.), the trade of Canada is described as being very precarious. "Canada is encompassed by many powerful English colonies, who labor incessantly to ruin it by exciting all our savages and drawing them away with their peltries, for which the English give them a great deal more merchandise than the French, because they pay no duty to the king of England."‡ * Paris Doc., 1687. Father Paul Ragueneau. officer. Governor Dongan's reply to M. de Denonville is characteristic of that "The missionary fathers, if they please but do me justice, can give you an account how careful I have been to preserve them; I have ordered our Indians strictly not to exercise any cruelty or insolence against them, and have written to the king, my master, who has as much zeal as any prince living, to propagate the Christian faith, and assured him how necessary it is to send to them some fathers to preach the gospel to the natives allied to us, and care would then be taken to dissuade them from their drunken debauch |