The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663 by Marcel Trudel

Author:Marcel Trudel [Trudel, Marcel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Canada, America, Discovery, Exploration, History, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780771003363
Google: qkJmCwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0771086105
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 1973-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

New Holland

200

New England

310

Newfoundland

100

English and

Dutch population

2,610

In 1627, then. New France was pitifully weak numerically. Even more disappointing is a count of those who had settled for good in the country or appeared to have done so: a total of twenty people.

This tiny population, even the most closely-knit group at Quebec, was no better provided for than it would have been in the preceding century.

From November until April it was completely cut off from Europe, and during the navigable months it was often enough left without a single boat; if, perchance, it was found necessary to go down-river to Gaspé, a boat would have to be built first. As for food, only enough for a winter was provided, in the certainty that the ships would be returning the following spring; should the returning ships be the least delayed, however, the winterers of Quebec would cry famine.

The community was organized only in very summary fashion. In 1621, administrative machinery of a sort had been established. On September 12, 1621, Champlain published his first ordinances (of whose content or application we know nothing), and in 1625 a lieutenant and an ensign were appointed as his assistants. By 1627 there was little of this institutional structure still in evidence.

The seigneurial regime had been established, but as yet there was no seigneurial community or way of life.

There was no parish life either. The Church as yet had no formal structure; in Acadia there was no longer a single priest, and in Canada the priests, in point of fact, served only as chaplains to the French population. As for the missionary effort, in 1615 there seems to have been serious intent to push ahead, but by 1627 it had brought about only dubious results. Of the fifty-four converts claimed in those twelve years, thirty-nine died after baptism and two more did not persevere in their new-found faith. There remained therefore, from the St Lawrence to the Great Lakes, only thirteen native Christians!

At this time New France still had no teaching institution of any kind, even though the Récollets were initiating a few Indians to the French way of life before sending them to study and be baptized in France. There is no known text to show that the Récollets served as schoolmasters for the French population before 1629, and in fact only one boy, Eustache Martin, reached school age during this period.

The greatest accomplishment for New France had been the development of the fur-trade network; by 1627 it was immense and far-reaching. In Acadia, the French had made a firm alliance with the Indians, thereby gaining access to the trade routes of the St John River, the Ste Croix River, the Pentagouët and (although in competition with the English) the Kennebec. The compass of these routes was fairly narrow, but in the St Lawrence the extent of the network was practically unlimited. Furs arrived at Tadoussac through the Montagnais from the nations of the north, and there was as yet no one in the upper reaches of

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