The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1

320

"This was not the case in the earlier and more northern settlements, where Mather mentions a clergyman who, from the pulpit, alluded to this as the main object of his flock's coming out, when one of the principal members rose and said, 'Sir, you are mistaken; our main object was to catch fish.'"—Murray's America.

"To this day the Council of Massachusets, in the impress of their public seal, have an Indian engraven, with these words: 'Come over and help us,' alluding to Acts, xv., 9."—Narrative of the Wars in New England, 1675. Harleian Miscellany, vol. v., p. 400.

321

"Among these was the celebrated Eliot. Notwithstanding the almost incredible hardships endured by Eliot during his missionary labors, he lived to the age of eighty-six. He expired in 1690, and has ever since been known by the well-earned title of Apostle to the Indians."—Missionary Records, p. 34.

Dr. Dwight says of him, "He was naturally qualified beyond almost any other man for the business of a missionary. In promoting among the Indians agriculture, health, morals, and religion, this great and good man labored with constancy, faithfulness, and benevolence which place his name not unworthily among those who are arranged immediately after the apostles of our Divine Redeemer." Eliot translated the Holy Scriptures into the Indian language. In 1661, the New Testament, dedicated to Charles II., was printed at Cambridge, in New England, and about three years afterward, it was followed by the Old Testament. This was the first Bible ever printed in America; and, though the impression consisted of 2000 copies, a second edition was required in 1685.—Ibid., p. 27.

"When at Harvard College, a copy of the Bible was shown me by Mr. Jared Sparks, translated by the missionary, Father Eliot, into the Indian tongue. It is now a dead language, although preached for several generations to crowded congregations."—Lyell's America, vol. i., p. 260.

"Eliot had become an acute grammarian by his studies at the English university of Cambridge. Having finished his laborious and difficult work, the Indian grammar, at the close of it, under a full sense of the difficulties he had encountered, and the acquisition he had made, he said, 'Prayers and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, do any thing.'"—Life of Eliot, p. 55.

"The Honorable Robert Boyle often strengthened Eliot's hands and encouraged him in his work—he who was not more admirable among philosophers for his discoveries in science, than he was beloved by Christians for his active kindness and his pious spirit."—Ibid., p. 64.

"Nor was Eliot alone. In the islands round Massachusetts, and within the limits of the Plymouth patent, missionary zeal and missionary enterprise were active; and the gentle Mayhew, forgetting the pride of learning, endeavored to win the natives to a new religion. At a later day, he took passage for New England to awaken interest there, and the ship in which he sailed was never more heard of. But such had been the force of his example, that his father, though bowed down with the weight of seventy years, resolved on assuming the office of the son whom he had lost, and till beyond the age of fourscore years and twelve, continued to instruct the natives, and with the happiest results. The Indians within his influence, though twenty times more numerous than the whites in their immediate neighborhood, preserved an immutable friendship with Massachusetts."—Bancroft's Hist of the United States, vol. ii., p. 97. See Missionary Records; Life of Eliot; Mayhew's Indian Converts; T. Prince's Account of English Ministers.

322

"History has no example to offer of any successful attempt, however slight, to introduce civilization among savage tribes in colonies or in their vicinity, except through the influence of religious missionaries. This is no question of a balance of advantages—no matter of comparison between opposite systems. I repeat that no instance can be shown of the reclaiming of savages by any other influence than that of religion. There are two obvious reasons why such should be the case: the first, that religion only can supply a motive to the governors, placed in obscure situations, and without the reach of responsibility, to act with zeal, perseverance, and charity; the other, that it alone can supply a motive to the governed to undergo that alteration of habits through which the reclaimed savage must pass, and to which the hope of mere temporal advantage will very rarely induce him to consent." This position is well stated in the words of Southey: 'The wealth and power of governments may be vainly employed in the endeavor to conciliate and reclaim brute man, if religious zeal and Christian charity, in the true import of the word, be wanting.'—Merivale on Colonization, vol. i., p. 289.

323

"The attempt to organize an Indian priesthood at this period failed altogether, the converts possessing neither the steadiness nor the sobriety requisite for the holy office. The duty, therefore, devolved upon European teachers, who in many cases scarcely obtained the wages of a day laborer, and that very precariously. The formation, however, of a society in England for the propagation of the Gospel in this settlement, and pretty liberal contributions raised in the principal towns, in some degree remedied these evils. After the lapse of a few more generations, the Indian character, in its slow but steady upward progress under the teaching of devoted and enlightened Christian ministers, underwent a change so effectual, that the native teachers and preachers of the present day may well bear comparison in zeal, piety, and eloquence with their European colleagues."—Catlin's American Indians; Cotton's American Lakes.

324

"The Indians about this time (1653) obtained the appellation of 'Praying Indians,' and the court appointed Major Daniel Gookin their ruler."—Life of Eliot, p. 53.

325

"On Hudson's return according to the English historians, he sold his title to the Dutch."—British Encyc., vol. ii., p. 236. Chalmers questions, apparently on good grounds, the validity of this odd transaction. If, as Forster asserts, Hudson not only sailed from the Texel, but was equipped at the expense of the Dutch East India Company, there was no room for sale or purchase of any kind to constitute the region Dutch.—Chalmers, vol. ii., p. 568; Charlevoix. tom. i., p. 221.

326

"The English jurists, referring to the wide grants of Elizabeth, according to which Virginia extended far to the north of this region, insist that there had long ceased to be room for any claim to it founded on discovery. But the Dutch, who are somewhat slow in comprehension, could not see the right which Elizabeth could have to bestow a vast region, of the very existence of which she was ignorant. They therefore sent out the small colony, 1613, which was soon after compelled by Argall to acknowledge the sovereignty of England."—Murray's America, vol. i., p. 331; Fastes Chronologiques, 1613.

327

The Dutch West Indian Company was established in 1620, and sent out colonists on a large scale.

328

"Juet, the traveling companion of Hudson, called the island on which New York is situated Manna Hatta, which means the island of manna; in other words, a country where milk and honey flow. The name Manhattoes is said to be derived from the great Indian god Manetho, who is stated to have made this island his favorite place of residence on account of its peculiar attractions."—Knickerbocker's New York, vol. v., p. 1.

329

"Albany bore the name of Orange when it was originally founded by the Dutch; and as a great number of this people remained in the city after it passed into the possession of England, they continued to call it Orange, and the French Canadians give it no other name."—Charlevoix, tom. i., p. 222.

"Albany received that name from the Scottish title of the Duke of York."—Bancroft.

330

Nine years before (1655), Stuyvesant had attacked the happy and contented little colony of Swedes who were settled on the banks of the Delaware, and after a sanguinary contest, the Swedish governor, John Rising, was obliged to submit to the Dutch authority. Such was the end of New Sweden, which had only maintained an independent existence for seventeen years. Thus the Swedish settlements passed into the hands of the English at the same time as those of the Dutch. The first Swedish colonization had been projected and encouraged by the great Gustavus Adolphus in 1638. They gave their settlement on the banks of the Delaware, the name of the Land of Canaan, and to the spot where they first landed that of Canaan, so inviting and delightful did this part of the New World first appear to them. The only thing now known of this terrestrial paradise is, that its situation was near Cape Henlopen, a short distance from the sea. The colonists purchased tracts of lands of the Indians, and threw up a few fortifications; of the city they founded, Christina, there is now no trace. It was situated near Wilmington, twenty-seven miles south of Philadelphia. The Dutch, whose principal city was then New Amsterdam, pretended that the country round the Delaware belonged to them, having paid it a visit before the arrival of the Swedes. This insinuation, moreover, did not prevent the latter from settling, and, according to Charlevoix, the two nations lived in amity with each other until Stuyvesant's aggression, the Dutch being wholly devoted to commerce and the Swedes to agriculture. The Swedish settlement was at first called New Sweden, afterward New Jersey.

331

"The entire cost of this transportation amounted to £78,533, which, amid the ferments of party, was declared by a subsequent vote of Parliament to be not only an extravagant and unreasonable charge to the kingdom, but of dangerous consequence to the Church."—Brit. Emp. Amer., vol. i., p. 249, 250.

"Swabia, with the old Palatinate, has contributed very largely to the present population of America. From the end of Queen Anne's reign to 1753, it is said that from 4 to 8000 went annually to Pennsylvania alone."—Sadler, b. iv., cap. v.

332

"King William, impatient of judicial forms, by his own act constituted Maryland a royal government. The arbitrary act was sanctioned by a legal opinion from Lord Holt. The Church of England was established as the religion of the state.... In the land which Catholics had opened to Protestants, the Catholic inhabitant was the sole victim to Anglican intolerance. Mass might not be said publicly.... No Catholic might teach the young.... The disfranchisement of the proprietary Lord Baltimore related to his creed, not to his family. To recover the inheritance of authority, Benedict, the son of the proprietary, renounced the Catholic Church for that of England. The persecution never crushed the faith of the humble colonists."—Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 33.

333

This name was given in honor of Charles II.

334

"The system framed by Locke was called 'the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.' … Locke was undoubtedly well acquainted with human nature, and not ignorant of the world; but he had not taken a sufficiently comprehensive view of the history of man, nor were political speculators yet duly aware of the necessity of adapting constitutions to those for whom they were destined. The grand peculiarity consisted in forming a high and titled nobility, which might rival the splendor of those of the Old World. But as the dukes and earls of England would have considered their titles degraded by being shared with a Carolina planter, other titles of foreign origin were adopted. That of landgrave was drawn from Germany. (Locke himself was created a landgrave.) But these princely denominations, applied to persons who were to earn their bread by the labor of their hands, could confer no real dignity. The reverence for nobility, which can only be the result of long-continued wealth and influence, could never be inspired by mere titles, especially of such an exotic and fantastic character.... The sanction of negro slavery was a deep blot in this boasted system.... The colonists, who felt perfectly at ease under their rude early regulations, were struck with dismay at the arrival of this philosophical fabric of polity."—Murray's America, vol. i., p. 343.

335

"It was insisted that there should be some landgraves and some caciques when many other parts of 'the Fundamental Constitutions' were given up; but these great nobles never struck any root in the Western soil, and have long since disappeared "—Hist. Acc. of the Colonization of South Carolina and Georgia, London, 1779, vol. i., p. 44-46; Chalmers, p. 326. quoted by Murray.

336

Monk, duke of Albemarle, was constituted palatine.

337

"It is remarkable that the philosopher's colony seems to have been the only one founded before the eighteenth century, except Virginia, in which the Church of England was expressly established; but this clause is said to have been introduced against his will."—Merivale on Colonization, vol. i., p. 88-92.

338

"Mr. Chalmers makes the very bold assertion that the annals of delegated authority do not present a name so branded with merited infamy, and that there never had taken place such an accumulation of extortion, injustice, and rapacity as during the five years that he misruled the colony. He had been made prisoner in his way out, and kept in close captivity at Algiers, where he took, it appears, not warning, but lessons. (Sette Sothel had purchased the rights of Lord Clarendon, one of the eight original proprietaries.)"—Murray, vol. i., p. 345.

339

"The rights of the proprietors were sold to the king for about the sum of £20,000. Lord Carteret alone, joining in the surrender of the government, received an eighth share in the soil."—Hist. Account, &c., vol. i., p. 255-321.

340

"The importation and use of negroes were prohibited; no rum was allowed to be introduced, and no one was permitted to trade with the Indians without special license. The colonists complained that without negroes it was impossible to clear the grounds and cut down the thick forests, though the honest Highlanders always reprobated the practice, and denied that any necessity for it existed."[ "Slavery," says Oglethorpe, "is against the Gospel, as well as the fundamental law of England. We refused, as trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime."—Memoirs of Sharpe, vol. i., p. 234; Stephen's Journal, quoted by Bancroft. In 1751, however, after Oglethorpe had finally left Georgia, his humane restrictions were withdrawn. Whitefield, who believed that God's providence would certainly make slavery terminate for the advantage of the Africans, pleaded before the trustees in its favor. At last even the Moravians (who in a body emigrated to Georgia in 1733) began to think that negro slaves might be employed in a Christian spirit, and it was agreed that if the negroes are treated in a Christian manner, their change of country would prove to them a benefit. A message from Germany served to crush their scruples: "If you take slaves in faith, and with the intent of conducting them to Christ, the action will not be a sin, but may prove a benediction."—Urlsperger, vol. iii., p. 479, quoted by Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 448]—Murray, vol. i., p. 360.

341

"He accepted this grant, because it secured them against any other claimant from Europe. It gave him a title in the eyes of the Christian world, but he did not believe that it gave him any other title."—Colonization and Civilization, p. 358.

342

"Etablissement de la Pennsylvanie, dans le pays qui avoit porté le nom de Nouvelle Suéde: Cette colonie a reçu son nom de son fondateur, le Chevalier Guillaume Penn, Anglais à qui Charles II., Roi de la Grande Bretagne, conceda ce pays en 1680 et qui cette année 1681, y mena les Quakers ou trembleurs d'Angleterre, dont il étoit le chef. Lorsqu'il y arriva, il y trouva un grand nombre de Hollandois et de Suédois. Les premiers, pour la plupart, occupoient les endroits situés le long du golphe, et les seconds, les bords de la Rivière De la Warr, ou du midi. Il paroit par une de ses lettres, qu'il n'étoit pas content des Hollandois; mais il dit que les Suédois étoient une nation simple, sans malice, industrieuse, robuste, se souciant peu de l'abondance et se contentant du nécessaire."—Fastes Chronologiques, 1681.

343

"Even Penn, however, did not fully admit into his scheme of colonization the notion of retaining for the Indians a property in a part of the soil they once occupied. He gave the natives free leave to settle in certain parts of his territory, but, unfortunately, he did not treat any definite tract of the soil as their property, which would rise in value along with other tracts, and thus afford a stimulus to their gradual improvement. It was the want of systematic views in this and other respects, which rendered the benevolent intentions of Penn toward the natives of little ultimate avail; so that, after all, the chief good which he effected was by setting an example of benevolence and justice in the principle of his dealings with them."—Merivale on Colonization, vol. ii., p. 173.

344

"William Penn of course came unarmed, in his usual plain dress, without banners, or mace, or guard, or carriages, and only distinguished from his companions by wearing a blue sash of silk net-work (which, it seems, is still preserved by Mr. Kett, of Seething Hall, near Norwich), and by having in his hand a roll of parchment, on which was engrossed the confirmation of the treaty of purchase and amity."—Edinburgh Review of Clarkson's Life of William Penn, p. 358.

"The scene at Shachamaxon, quoted by Howitt, forms the subject of one of the pictures of West. Thus ended this famous treaty, of which Voltaire has remarked with so much truth and severity, 'That it was the only one ever concluded which was not ratified by an oath, and the only one that never was broken.'"—Howitt. p. 360.

345

"In three years from its foundation, Philadelphia gained more than New York had done in half a century."—Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 394.

346

"Virtue had never, perhaps, inspired a legislation better calculated to promote the fidelity of mankind. The opinions, the sentiments, and the morals corrected whatever might be deficient in it."—Raynal, vol. vii., p. 292.

"Beautiful," said the philosophic Frederick of Prussia, when he read the account of the government of Pennsylvania; "it is perfect, if it can endure."—Herder, p. 13, 116. Quoted by Bancroft, vol. ii., p. 392.

347

"Their conduct to the Indians never altered for the worse. Pennsylvania, while under the administration of the Quakers, never became, as New England, a slaughter-house of the Indians."—Howitt, p. 366.

348

Among the Ursulines who accompanied Madame de la Peltrie to Quebec was Marie de l'Incarnation, "the Theresa of France," and Marie de St. Joseph. The sanctity of these remarkable women and the miracles they performed are the favorite theme of the Jesuit historians of Canada. Several lives of the former have been published, one of them by Charlevoix. A quarto volume of her letters was also published (à Paris, chez Louis Billaine, 1681): they are highly extolled as "worthy of her high reputation for sanctity, ability, and practical good sense in the business of life." They record many historical facts which occurred during the thirty-two years that she passed in Canada, where she arrived in 1640. When the Ursulines and the "Filles Hospitalières" landed at Quebec, they were received with enthusiasm. "It was held as a festival day; all work was forbidden; and the shops were shut. The governor received these heroines upon the shore at the head of the troops, who were under arms, the guns firing a salute. After the first greeting he led them to the church, accompanied by the acclamations of the people; here the Te Deum was chanted."—Charlevoix.

"The venerable ash tree still lives beneath which Mary of the Incarnation, so famed for chastened piety, genius, and good judgment, toiled, though in vain, for the culture of Huron children."—Bancroft's History of the United States. vol. iii., p. 127.

349

"Cette ville a été nominée Ville Marie par ses fondateurs, mais ce nom n'a pu passer dans l'usage ordinaire; il n'a lieu que dans les actes publics, et parmi les seigneurs, qui en sont fort jaloux."—Charlevoix. When the foundations of the city of Montreal were first laid, the name given to it was Ville Marie. Bouchette, vol. i., p. 215; La Hontan, vol. xiii., p. 266.

Charlevoix gives the following account of the formation and progress of the remarkable settlement at Montreal: "Quelques personnes puissantes, et plus recommandable encore par leur piété et par leur zèle pour la religion, formèrent donc une société, qui se proposa de faire en grand à Montréal, ce qu'on avoit fait en petit à Sillery. Il devoit y avoir dans cette isle une bourgade Françoise, bien fortifiée, et à l'abri de toute insulte. Les pauvres y devoient être reçus, et mis en état de subsister de leur travail. On projetta de faire occuper tout le reste de l'isle par des sauvages, de quelque nation qu'ils fussent, pourvû qu'ils fissent profession du Christianisme, ou qu'ils voulussent se faire instuire de nos mystères, et l'on étoit d'autant plus persuadé qu'ils y viendraient en grand nombre qu' outre un asile assuré contre les poursuites de leurs ennemis, ils pouvoient se promettre des secours toujours prompts dans leurs maladies, et contre la disette. On se proposoit même de les policer avec le tems, et de les accoûtumer à ne plus vivre que du travail de leurs mains. Le nombre de ceux qui entroient dans cette association fut de trente-cinq; des cette année 1640, en vertu de la concession que le roi lui fit de l'isle, elle en fit prendre possession à la fin d'une messe solennelle, qui fut célébrée sous une tente. Le quinzième d'Octobre l'année suivante, M. de Maisonneuve fut déclaré gouverneur de l'isle. Le dix-septième de May suivant, le lieu destiné à l'habitation Françoise fut béni par le Supérieur des Jésuites, qui y célébra les saints mystères, dédia à la mère de Dieu une petite chapelle, qu'on avoit bâtie, et il y laissa le St. Sacrement. Cette cérémonie avoit été précédé d'une autre, trois mois auparavant, c'est à dire vers la fin de Février: tous les Associés s'etant rendus un Jeudi matin à Nôtre Dame de Paris, ceux qui étoient prêtres, y dirent la messe, les autres communièrent à l'autel de la Vierge et tous supplièrent la reine des anges de prendre l'isle de Montréal sous sa protection. Enfin le quinze d'Août, la fête de l'Assomption de la mère de Dieu fut solemnisée dans cette isle avec un concours extraordinaire de François et de sauvages. On ne négligea rien dans cette occasion pour intéresser le ciel en faveur d'un établissement si utile, et pour donner aux infidèles une haute idée de la religion Chrétienne."—Charlevoix, tom. i., p. 345.

In the year 1644 Charlevoix says, "L'isle de Montréal se peuploit insensiblement, et la piété de ces nouveaux colons disposoit peu à peu les sauvages qui les approchoient à se soûmettre au jong de la foi." In 1657, however, it was considered that "les premiers possesseurs de l'isle n'avoient pas poussé l'établissement autant qu'on avoit d'abord espéré." and it was therefore ceded to the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. From that time the establishment made a rapid progress, M. de Maisonneuve still continuing its governor, after it had changed masters. He was a man of ability and piety: under his auspices the order of "Filles de la Congrégation" was established at Montreal by Margaret Bourgeois, who had accompanied the first settlers on the island from France. For the details of this admirable institution see Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 94. He speaks of it with justice as one of the brightest ornaments of New France.