 |
of Canada  
1600 to 1699 Settlement, Fur Trade & War Introduction Beaver hats became the fashion rage in Europe in the early 17th century, and no self-respecting European was without one. This began a rush by both French and English merchants to establish control over the fur trade in the New World. Trading companies, including the Hudson's Bay Company (which still exists today) spang up almost overnight and many towns grew up around them. For the first time in history, hostilities between England and France washed over into the colonies. Land and ownership would change quickly and often, and the Native Peoples were caught in the middle.1600 - Fur Trade & the First 'Unofficial' Settlement --- Beaver hats became the fashion rage in Europe and the demand for beaver pelts increased enormously. One single pelt was valued more than a human life. --- François Grave du Pont (a.k.a. Pontgrave) and Pierre Chauvin de Tonnetuit sailed to Tadoussac and established the first unofficial settlement in Canada. Since they were Huguenot (French Protestant), the settlement was never officially recognized by the Catholic Church. 
1602 - The Canada and Acadia Company --- Aymar de Clermont de Chaste was appointed Vice-Admiral of France by King Henri IV. He was commissioned to colonize New France and was granted a fur trade monopoly. To those ends, he created The Canada and Acadia Company. 1603 - Samuel de Champlain --- François Grave du Pont was appointed de Chaste's representative in New France. Samuel de Champlain sailed with him on his first voyage in March to New France. --- Samuel de Champlain's first voyage under the authority of The Canada and Acadia Company to set up fur trade and to enforce a fur trade monopoly.
--- May 13 - Aymar de Clermont de Chaste died. Pierre du Gua de Monts replaced him as Lieutenant General of Acadia and took over the fur trade monopoly. --- May 27 - Champlain was told by the Montagnais and Algonkins that they had attacked an Iroquois village near the Iroquois River and massacred and scalped over 100 Iroquois. Champlain suspected exaggeration, but noted that it was an attempt by the Natives to show that they were seeking an alliance with the French. 1604 - Champlain and the Iroquois --- Champlain's second voyage. Champlain encountered the warring Iroquois near Cape Cod with disasterous results. He returned to the Bay of Fundy on the western shore of Nova Scotia.
1605 - Champlain - First Permanent Settlement in Canada --- Champlain founded Port-Royal (present-day Annapolis, Nova Scotia) which ultimately became the first permanent settlement in Canada. (see 'Champlain' Details, 1604) 1606 --- The Canada and Acadia Company went bankrupt. The de Monts Trading Company was formed by de Monts, Champlain, and Pontgrave. (see 'Champlain' Details, 1604) 1608 - Champlain - Québec & Conspiracy --- July 8 - Champlain founded Kebec (Québec - hereafter spelled 'Quebec'), the name deriving from the Algonkin word for 'where the river narrows'. Traitors, hired by the Spanish and Basque, conspired to murder Samuel de Champlain. Champlain discovered the conspiracy and his drastic actions ultimately sealed an alliance with the natives of Huronia.
1609 - Champlain - Battle of Ticonderoga --- June 5 - A relief ship from France arrived in Quebec to find only 8 of the original 28 colonists left alive. The others had died of scurvy and winter. --- Étienne Brûlé was sent by Champlain to live among the Hurons as a 'truchement' ('embassador') (see 1610). Nicolas du Vignau was sent to live among the Algonquins on the Ottawa River. Savignon, son of the Algonquin chief Iroquet, was sent to live in France. The exchange was a great success. --- Champlain allied with the Natives north of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River against the Iroquois to the south in the Battle of Ticonderoga. The battle would introduce European guns to the Iroquois with deadly results.
--- Arms trade following the Battle of Ticonderoga.
--- Writer Marc Lescarbot, who sojourned with Champlain, became the first historian of Canada with his book "A History of New France". --- Henry Hudson was commissioned by King James I of England to locate the Northwest Passage. (see 1610) --- The fur trade monopoly granted to The de Monts Trading Company was not renewed. The Company folded and de Monts formed a partnership with the Rouen Merchants. 1610 - John Guy - First English Settlement in Canada --- April 26 - The first Jesuits arrived in Quebec. They were not well-received in New France. Their ambiguous beliefs and anti-Christian actions were matters of great contention throughout their time in the New World.
--- May 2 - The Company of Adventurers and Planters of London and Bristol (a.k.a. The New Found Land Company) was established with the intent to colonize Newfoundland. --- John Guy and 39 colonists settled Cuper's Cove (present-day Cupid's Cove, Newfoundland) under King James I of England. Cuper's Cove became the first English settlement in Canada.
--- Étienne Brûlé became the first coureur de bois. His life among the Huron would lead him to adventure and, eventually, death.
--- Henry Hudson explored Hudson Bay, mistaking it for the Pacific Ocean, and became icebound in James Bay. (see 1611)
1611 - Henry Hudson - Mutiny --- The crew of the Discovery mutinied when Henry Hudson wanted to continue his search for the Northwest Passage. Hudson, his son, and 7 others were set adrift in Hudson Bay. No trace of them was ever found. (see 'Henry Hudson' Details, 1610) 1612 - John Guy and The Beothuk --- John Guy discovered the reclusive Beothuk, which would ultimately be the first and only recorded encounter with the Beothuk. (see 'John Guy' Details, 1611) 1613 --- With England's first settlement, Cuper's Cove (present-day Cupid's Cove), failing, John Guy resigned as Governor and returned to England. The settlement at Cuper's Cove was abandoned shortly thereafter. (see 'John Guy' Details, 1611) --- Samuel Argall, a pirate based in Virginia, attacked, looted and destroyed Port-Royal (present-day Annapolis, Nova Scotia). 1614 --- The Beothuk 'vanished' from the New World. (see also 1823)
1615 - Champlain and The Black Robes --- The name given to the missionaries by the Natives, there were 3 main groups of 'Black Robes': The Jesuits, the Récollets, and the Suplicians.
--- Three Récollet friars who were under directions from France and with orders to convert the Natives to Catholicism accompanied Champlain on his first journey into Huronia.
--- Champlain accompanied a Huron invasion party in an attack against the Iroquois. Champlain was wounded in battle.
--- Father Joseph le Caron celebrated the first mass in what is present-day Ontario. --- Schools were opened in Trois-Rivières and Tadoussac to teach Native children. More than teaching them, though, the French hoped to convert the children to Christianity. 1617 --- Louis Hébert became the first true permanent settler in Canada (one who supported his family from the land and not with supplies from the homeland).
--- Fort Trois-Rivières became a trading post. 1620 --- With France in civil war, King James I of England commissioned William Alexander to reclaim New France and Acadia under authority of John Cabot's claim in 1497.
--- Henri II, Duc de Montmorency, was named Viceroy of New France. Samuel de Champlain was appointed his lieutenant. De Montmorency began building Fort Saint Louis on the cliffs at Quebec. He formed the Compagne de Montmorency (Montmorency Company) and was granted an 11-year fur trade monopoly. --- June 3 - The cornerstone of the first stone church in Quebec, Notre Dame des Anges, was laid by the Récollets. --- The coureurs des bois (free fur traders) founded a trading post at Hochelaga (present-day Montreal) and named it Palace Royal. The coureurs des bois were considered pirates by the Church, so many of their accomplishments were attributed to either the priests or to other Frenchmen. 1621 --- King Louis XIII of France merged the Compagne de Montmorency and the Compagne des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint Malo. 1623 --- Henri II, Duc de Montmorency, established the feudal land system in Canada by granting the fief of Sault au Matelot to Louis Hébert, Canada's first permanent settler. (see 1617) 1624 --- The French established a peace treaty with the Wendat (Hurons), Algonkins (Algonquins) and the Iroquois. --- Armand-Jean de Plassis, Cardinal Richelieu, became Chief Minister to the French Crown and became the absolute master of New France. He imposed a monopoly on all commerce and proclaimed that all baptized (i.e. Catholic) colonists and Natives would receive equal rights. This action would create a caste system in Canada which would remain to present times. 1625 --- Henri II, Duc de Montmorency, resigned as Viceroy of New France. His nephew, Henri de Levis, Duc de Vantadour, took his place. Champlain remained as de Vantadour's lieutenant. 1626 - Jesuits --- Jesuit missionaries from the Society of Jesus began working amongst the Indians around Quebec to convert the Natives to Christianity. Jean de Brébeuf founded Jesuit missions in Huronia, near Georgian Bay.
--- The Iroquois destroyed the Mohicans and dominated all of eastern North America south of the St. Lawrence. They set their sights to the north. 1627 --- January 25 - Louis Hébert, Canada's first permanent settler, died after a serious fall on the ice. --- April 29 - The Company of One Hundred Associates (a.k.a. the Company of New France), organized by Armand-Jean de Plassis, Cardinal Richelieu, was given a fur-trade monopoly to all the lands claimed by New France. Champlain was named Lieutenant to the Viceroy of Canada and commissioned to establish a permanent colony of at least 4,000 people before 1643, which they failed to do. (see 1628)
--- Meanwhile, hostilities between England and France continued to grow. 1628 - The Kirke Brothers --- The French ships carrying colonists to Quebec were intercepted by the Kertk (Kirke) brothers, ultimately resulting in the surrender of Quebec. (see Details, 1627) 1629 --- July 19 - Louis Kirke attacked and took over Quebec in Britain's name. Champlain would work for the next 3 years to overturn the conquest of New France. (see Details, 1627) --- It is quite likely that the family of Louis Hébert (see 1617) swore allegiance to England in order to retain their property and belongings rather than to be deported as were many other French families following the fall of Quebec to the British. 1632 --- The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returned Quebec to France under the condition that King Louis XIII pay the dowry of one million livres to England. Champlain returned to rebuild the colony. (see Details, 1627) 1634 --- Étienne Brûlé was murdered by the Hurons, either for trading with the Iroquois or for his sexual improprieties. The Hurons feared that Champlain would seek retribution, but Champlain, who now considered Brûlé a traitor, promised the Hurons that no action would be taken against them. 1634-1649 - Smallpox and the End of the Hurons --- With the coming of the 'White Man' came also White Man's diseases: Measles, Influenza, and Smallpox to name just a few. Thousands of Hurons died and, by 1649, the Iroquois had all but wiped out those who survived. Forty years after meeting Samuel de Champlain, the Huron Nation ceased to exist.
1635 --- December 25 - Samuel de Champlain died on Christmas Day in Quebec. 1637 --- Sir Louis Kirke (knighted in 1633) was made the first governor of Newfoundland. --- Jesuits founded the Jesuit College in Quebec. --- Jacques Marquette (of Marquette and Jolliet) was born in France. (see 1666) 1639 - Marie de l'Incarnation & the Ursuline Convent --- Marie de l'Incarnation embarked for New France, arriving on August 1. She became the first female missionary in Canada. Thanks to her frequent correspondence with her son, Claude, we have a unique glimpse into Canada's pioneer history. 1641 - Montréal --- Marie de l'Incarnation founded the Ursuline Convent in Quebec and became the first Mother Superior of New France. --- Catholic militants, The Mystics, founded Ville Marie (present-day Montréal, hereafter spelled 'Montreal'), led by Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière and his wife, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve (soldier and commander), and a nurse, Jeanne Mance (aged 34). Considered a 'foolhardy enterprise' by Governor Montmagny, the 'Society' was doomed to failure.
--- (circa 1641) Médard Chouart des Grosseilliers (of Radisson and Grosseilliers) arrived in New France. He spent several years in Huronia before meeting his future partner and brother-in-law, Pierre-Esprit Radisson. (see also 1651 and 1654)
1642-1667 - Iroquois Invasions --- For 25 years, New France was under almost constant siege by the Iroquois. Using guerrilla raids instead of outright invasions, the Iroquois brought fur trade to a complete standstill. Anyone venturing out of the safety of Montreal, Quebec, or Trois-Rivières, even to gather fire wood, did so at extreme risk. Smaller settlements were massacred. Dozens of Jesuit missionaries were brutally murdered and the missions destroyed. Many other missions were abandoned. The Iroquois destroyed what remained of the Huron Nation. These invasions ultimately resulted in a declaration of war by France against the Iroquois. 1642 --- Jesuit Isaac Joques, attempting to convert Iroquois to Christianity, was captured and tortured the first time. He returned in 1645, but on October 18, 1646, Joques was hacked to death by the Iroquois. He was only 39 years old. 1643 --- November 21 - René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle was born in Rouen, Normandy. He would come to be known as the Mad Explorer. Through trickery and some devious manipulations, la Salle would ultimately explore the Mississippi River and claim the entire Mississippi basin for France. (see 1667) 1645 --- Louis Jolliet (of Marquette and Jolliet) was born near Quebec in September. (see 1655) 1651 --- Pierre-Esprit Radisson (of Radisson and Grosseilliers) arrived in Trois-Rivières with his family. He was captured by the Iroquois with whom he lived for a time, escaped, and then made his way back to New France where he became partners with Médard Chouart des Grosseilliers. (see also circa 1641 and 1659)
1652 --- Iroquois defeated the Petun and Ottawa nations, gaining control of the entire St. Lawrence region. 1655 --- Louis Jolliet (of Marquette and Jolliet) was enrolled in the Jesuit college in Quebec at the age of 10 where he began his study for the priesthood. (see 1667) 1659 - Radisson and des Grosseilliers --- Following the loss of trade with the demise of the Huron Nation, the King of France commissioned Pierre-Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law Médard Chouart des Grosseilliers to explore westward and set up trade relations with any natives they discovered. During their voyage, they discovered the headwaters of the 'Michissipi' River. The reactions to their return to Quebec would cause them to change allegiance to England (see 1665) and ultimately create the Hudson's Bay Company for England. (see 1669).
--- François de Laval arrived in Quebec as the Vicar General of the Pope in June. 1660 --- In May, about 500 Iroquois Natives attacked Long Sault. Defended by only about 60 people, including Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, Long Sault was able to withstand the attack. Because of this battle, tradition holds that the Iroquois were so impressed with the efforts of the small band of Frenchmen that they decided not to attack Montreal as originally planned. 1661 - King Louis XIV & War against the Iroquois --- The Prime Minister of France died and Pierre Boucher was sent from Trois-Rivières to France to beg help from 22-year-old King Louis XIV. Louis dreamed of ruling a huge empire and found Boucher's reports disturbing. He didn't want to begin his reign by losing New France to the Iroquois. King Louis XIV dismissed royal administration in the colony and appointed a governor and intendant and promised significant military support. War was declared on the Iroquois. 1662 - Alcohol --- February 23 - The first concerns over the trade of alcohol for furs were met with a decree which made the sale of alcohol to natives illegal under threat of excommunication. (see 1679) 1663-1673 - Filles de Roi (Daughters of the King) --- Over 800 Filles de Roi (Daughters of the King) were sent to New France for the purpose of settling there and marrying the many single male settlers. Unlike other women who had been brought to New Fance at the expense of the colonists, the Filles de Roi were sponsored by King Louis XIV of France.
1663 - Royal Province of Quebec --- Quebec became a royal province and Laval organized the Séminaire du Québec. (Originally a theological college, the Séminaire would eventually become the Université de Laval in 1852.) 1664-1671 - Engagés and Voyageurs --- Over 1,000 engagés (indentured servants) settled in New France, hired by colonial farmers, merchants, religious people, etc. Contracts lasted 3 years, during which time the engagés were denied citizenship, marriage, and were prohibited from becoming involved in fur trade. For their work, the engagés were paid 75 livres per year minus food, lodging and clothing. Their contracts could be bought or sold at any time without their consent. At the end of their tenure, the engagés had only the clothes on their backs, a few coins in their pockets, perhaps a gun if they were lucky enough, and their freedom. Most returned to France but many remained and became voyageurs, which were, essentially, canoeists for hire. 1664 --- Hans Bernhardt became the first recorded German immigrant. 1665 - Radisson & des Grosseilliers Change Allegiance --- Following the fines and confiscation of their furs in 1660, Radisson and des Grosseilliers secretly sailed to England where they switched their loyalties and began the process of forming the Hudson's Bay Company, a company which still exists in Canada. (see 1669)
--- Jean Talon became Quebec's first intendant (an administrative officer who oversaw agriculture, education, justice, trade, etc.). Talon arrived with the Carignan-Salières Regiment (1,200 soldiers who had been sent by King Louis XIV to deal with the Iroquois situation) and other representatives to the crown Governor Daniel de Remy de Courcelle, and the Commander of the troops, the Marquis of Tracy. (see 1666) 1666 - War without a War --- France launched its war against the Iroquois. Oddly enough, there would not be a single encounter, yet the war would end with a significant loss of life.
--- Jacques Marquette (of Marquette and Jolliet) arrived in New France. 1667 --- Canada's first census, counting 3,215 non-native inhabitants. --- Radisson and des Grosseilliers, having failed to secure a new commission from France, gained sponsorship from Prince Rupert, cousin of King Charles II of England. --- Louis Jolliet renounced his clerical vocation and left the Jesuit college at the age of 23 in order to become a coureur de bois. --- René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, who had also renounced his Jesuit vows 2 years earlier, arrived in New France, his first step on the road to becoming The Mad Explorer. (see 1669)
1668 --- The Carignan-Salières Regiment was recalled to France. Several hundred, however, chose to remain in New France. --- Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette (of Marquette and Jolliet) arrived on assignment in Sault Ste. Marie where he met Louis Jolliet. Jolliet was well-aquainted with the Great Lakes region and could speak 5 indigenous native languages. (see 1673) 1669 --- Radisson and des Grosseilliers sailed to Hudson Bay on their first voyage under the British flag. This voyage would confirm the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company (see 1674). During the voyage, Radisson's ship became damaged in a storm and he was forced to return to England. Des Grosseilliers continued on the Nonsuch, returning later with a shipload of furs. He was richly rewarded and was dubbed Knight of the Garter by King Charles II.
--- La Salle's first voyage to the Mississippi River proved his incompetence as an explorer. (see 1673)
--- The Suplician missionaries of Montreal discovered that the Great Lakes were all linked on their first and only voyage into the Upper Country.
1670 - Hudson's Bay Company --- May 2 - The Hudson' Bay Company was founded by King Charles II. Underwritten by a group of English merchants, the royal charter granted trade rights over Rupert's Land to the company. (Rupert's Land included all the land draining into Hudson Bay. At its most powerful, the Hudson's Bay Company owned 10% of the entire land surface of the earth.) 1671 --- June 4 - Simon Daumont de Saint-Lusson formally took possession of the western interior of North America by declaration at Sault Ste. Marie. Effectively, the declaration claimed all the land from Sault Ste. Marie north to Hudson Bay, west to the Pacific Ocean, and south to the Gulf of Mexico. 1672 --- Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac became the Governor-General of New France. His first administration would last 10 years. Despite his haughtiness, Frontenac would accomplish much in New France before being recalled to France in 1682.
--- April 30 - Marie de l'Incarnation died in Quebec, never having returned to France and never having seen her son again. She was 72. --- Jesuit Father Charles Albanal travelled up the Saguenay River and reached Hudson and James Bays. 1673 --- Marquette and Jolliet were commissioned by Frontenac to explore the Michissipi (Mississippi) River to determine if it flowed into the Pacific Ocean (as hoped) or into the Gulf of Mexico (as feared).
--- La Salle constructed Fort Cataracoui (also Cataraqui, present-day Kingston, Ontario). In France, la Salle began his lifestyle as a shrewd con man in order to further his wealth and historical prominence. (see 1678)
1674 --- Radisson and des Grosseilliers renounced their allegiance to England and returned to France to explore and trade under the French flag.
--- Laval became the first Bishop of Quebec. 1675 --- Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette died at Green Bay from illnesses acquired during his trip down the Mississippi River. Louis Jolliet returned to Quebec where he was married. He became a renowned merchant who was often consulted by the colony officials when important trade and settlement decisions had to be made. (see also 1679)
1676 - End of the Coureurs des Bois --- April 15 - King Louis XIV signed a decree banning fur trade from private traders and trappers, the coureurs des bois. The decree forced the natives to travel to specific trading posts on specific days to trade their furs and the coureurs des bois eventually passed into history. 1678 Using bribery and deception, la Salle secured a commission from King Louis XIV to explore the Mississippi River. (see 1682)
--- Récollet priest Louis Hennepin became the first person to describe and to draw Niagara Falls. 1679 --- King Louis XIV signed another decree preventing the sale of alcohol outside any French dwelling and banned transportation of alcohol to any Native village under threat of severe penalty. --- Louis Jolliet was commissioned to travel to Hudson Bay in order to assess the expansion and success of the Hudson's Bay Company.
1681 --- Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye, friend to Pierre-Esprit Radisson, formed the Compagnie Française de la Baie d'Hudson (a.k.a the Northern Company) in an effort to compete with the Hudson's Bay Company of England. Radisson and des Grosseilliers were hired by the Company to reclaim the trading posts on Hudson Bay. This would ultimately be the final, tragic, and disturbing chapter in the Radisson and des Grosseilliers saga.
1682 - La Salle... the Mad Explorer --- April 9 - René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi River after 4 years of exploring the length of the river. He claimed the entire Mississippi basin in the name of France and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV. (see 1684)
--- King Louis XIV revolked the title of Governor-General granted to Louis de Buade, Compte de Frontenac in 1672 and recalled him to France. 1684 - La Salle and Louisiana Using altered maps, la Salle tricked the King of France into believing that Louisiana was rich in silver and that the mouth of the Mississippi River would be an ideal place for a colony and fort in order to stave off Spanish incursions from the south. The King named la Salle commander of all Louisiana and commissioned him to start a colony on the Mississippi Delta. La Salle's haughty, self-serving nature would ultimately result in his assassination. (see 1687)
1687 --- March 19 - La Salle was ambushed and shot in the head by Pierre Duhault. Mortally wounded, la Salle was stripped naked by his men. All his belongings were taken away and la Salle was left where he had fallen. 1689 - English Invasion --- May - France and England declared war. English colonists in New York heard the news first and convinced their Iroquois allies to attack the French. Most French colonies were unfortified. Their vast expansion had not allowed them to defend them properly. --- August 5 - 1,500 Iroquois attacked Lachine near Montreal, which became known as the Lachine Massacre. Of the 375 inhabitants, 24 were killed and 76 others were taken prisoner. Fifty-six of the 77 buildings were razed to the ground. --- October - Frontenac was renamed Governor of New France. He would come to be known as the Saviour of New France.
1690 - French Retaliation & King William's War --- Following the Lachine Massacre, Frontenac ordered a retaliatory attack on Albany in the British colony of New York. This war, the first in the British and French colonies, would come to be known as King William's War. --- February - Frontenac began his invasion. One hundred and sixteen militiamen and 96 Indian allies were placed in the charge of coureur de bois Nicolas D'Ailleboust de Manthet and brothers Jacques le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène (see October 16, 1690) and Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (see 1696). They reached the fort at Schenectady and massacred 60 settlers. --- May 11 - Sir William Phips, (sent by Massachusetts) captured Port-Royal (Annapolis, NS). --- October 16 - Admiral Phips approached Quebec with 34 ships, including 4 warships. Phips sent Major Thomas Savage to demand the surrender of Quebec and the entire French colony. Frontenac's reply was: "The only answer I have for your general will come from the mouths of my cannon and muskets." Frontenac had been forewarned of the invasion and had secretly gathered 3,000 militiamen and natives. When Phips attempted a landing, he was surprised by resistance from Jacques le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène and the invasion was repulsed. le Moyne died in battle. --- October 24 - With many of his ships seriously damaged by artillery fire from Quebec, Phips weighed anchor and returned to Boston. 1694 --- Louis Jolliet was commissioned to explore and map the coastline of Labrador and to assess the trade possibilities there.
1696 - Les Canadiens & British Surrender --- France and England were at war yet again. Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville became the most famous 'Canadien', (colony-born soldier). He ejected the British from Hudson Bay and, in November, led 120 militia and Mi'kmaq warriors and attacked British fishing outposts on Newfoundland before attacking the settlement and fort at St. John's. In the attack on the settlement, d'Iberville had the homes torched, then scalped a prisoner named William Drew and sent the scalp into the fort with a demand for surrender. The British surrendered and abandoned St. John's to the French. --- For his efforts, d'Iberville was dubbed 'Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint Louis', the highest military distinction in the kingdom of France. 1697 --- The Treaty of Ryswick assured that all lands captured during the struggles between the English and French were returned. 1698 --- November 28 - Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac died at Quebec. He was 76.
| ||||||||||||
http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/can1600.htm-----------------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS; bits and pieces- Cool stuff that happens in Nova Scotia , Canada - everyday folk living in a world that works for us - getting by, living nature and loving what we have- rich folks need not apply- come visit and bring your aged and kids - u'll love it /some of that crazy no sheeeeeet sherlock Canada stuff if ur interested/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CANADA ROCKIES 1911
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2015/08/canada-military-news-cool-stuff-that.html----------------------
O Canada- the new explorers
The Explorers
Samuel de Champlain 1604-1616
Samuel de Champlain (sometimes called Samuel Champlain in English documents) was born at Brouage, in the Saintonge province of Western France, about 1570. He wrote in 1613 that he acquired an interest “from a very young age in the art of navigation, along with a love of the high seas.” He was not yet twenty when he made his first voyage, to Spain and from there to the West Indies and South America. He visited Porto Rico (now Puerto Rico,) Mexico, Colombia, the Bermudas and Panama. Between 1603 and 1635, he made 12 stays in North America. He was an indefatigable explorer – and an assistant to other explorers – in the quest for an overland route across America to the Pacific, and onwards to the riches of the Orient.
The name “Samuel,” taken from the Old Testament, suggests the possibility that Champlain was born into a Protestant family during a period when France was torn by endless conflicts over religion. However, by the time he undertook his voyages of discovery and exploration to Canada, he had definitely converted to Catholicism. The marriage contract between Samuel de Champlain and Hélène Boullé, dated 1610, shows that he was the son of the then-deceased sea captain, Anthoine de Champlain, and Marguerite Le Roy. On this basis, several historians have deduced that Champlain must have been born around 1570.
Is this the baptismal certificate of the “Father of New France”? Certainly the document is difficult to read; the letters often have to be deciphered as much from their context, as from their appearance. Moreover, in that era the rules of spelling were flexible, to say the least. The different spellings used for the family name of the child and his father can be explained by the fact these names had perhaps previously been written down only rarely. A standard spelling had possibly not yet been adopted.
What are the chances of finding another baptismal certificate dating from this era where the names are identical to those we find in other historical documents? The chances are in fact very small indeed. However, even though the family names of Chapeleau and Champlain are similar, this small difference — understandable as it may be — cautions us not to jump to conclusions. Although the probability is slight, it is still possible that this document has nothing to do with our Samuel de Champlain.
If we are indeed looking at the baptismal certificate of our Samuel de Champlain, we can now say for certain that he was born into a Protestant family, most probably during the summer of 1574. But unless there is another discovery to equal the one made by Mr. Germe, a complete mystery will continue to surround Samuel de Champlain’s date and place of birth.
“On Friday, the thirteenth day of August, fifteen hundred and seventy-four, Samuel, son of Antoine Chapeleau and of m [word crossed out] Marguerite Le Roy, was baptized. Godfather, Étienne Paris; godmother, Marie Rousseau. Denors N. Girault.”
Thus Champlain sailed from Honfleur on the fifteenth of March, 1603, and prepared to follow the route that Jacques Cartier had opened up in 1535. He proceeded to explore part of the valley of the Saguenay river and was led to suspect the existence of Hudson Bay. He then sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as Hochelaga (the site of Montreal.) Nothing was to be seen of the Amerindian people and village which Cartier had visited, and Sault St. Louis (the Lachine Rapids) still seemed impassable. However, Champlain learned from his guides that above the rapids there were three great lakes (Erie, Huron and Ontario) to be explored.
While the settlers were tilling, building, hunting and fishing, Champlain carried on with his appointed task of investigating the coastline and looking for safe harbours.
The three years stay in Acadia allowed him plenty of time for exploration, description and map-making. He journeyed almost 1,500 kilometres along the Atlantic coast from Maine as far as southernmost Cape Cod.
Champlain also explored the Iroquois River (now called the Richelieu), which led him on the fourteenth of July, 1609, to the lake which would later bear his name. Like the traders who had preceded him, he sided with the Hurons, Algonquins and Montaignais against the Iroquois. This intervention in local politics was ultimately responsible for the warlike relations that were to pit the Iroquois against the French for generations.
Even more important, he succeeded in penetrating beyond the Lachine Rapids, becoming the first European (apart from Étienne Brûlé) to start exploring the St. Lawrence and its tributaries as a route towards the interior of the continent. Champlain was so convinced that it was the route to the Orient that in 1612 he obtained a commission to “search for a free passage by which to reach the country called China.” Like most of the explorers who followed after him, he could not carry out his mission without the support of the Amerindian population.
The following year Champlain was induced to make a voyage up the Ottawa River in the course of which he reached Allumette Island. It was his initial foray along the route that was to lead him to the heartland of present-day Ontario and eventually to reach Lake Huron on the first of August, 1615.
That was to be Champlain’s last voyage of exploration. In the years that followed, he devoted all his efforts to founding a French colony in the St. Lawrence valley. The keystone of his project was the settlement at Quebec.
When it capitulated to the English Kirke brothers in 1629, Champlain returned to France, where he lobbied incessantly for the cause of New France. He finally returned to Canada on the twenty-second of May, 1633. At the time of his death at Quebec on the twenty-fifth of December, 1635, there were one hundred and fifty French men and women living in the colony.
The Mystery of Samuel de Champlain
In the title of his first book, published in 1604, Des Sauvages: ou voyage de Samuel Champlain, de Brouages, faite en la France nouvelle l’an 1603 [“Concerning the Primitives: Or Travels of Samuel Champlain of Brouages, Made in New France in the Year 1603”], Samuel de Champlain indicated that he was a native of Brouage in the Saintonge region of France. But a fire in the 17th century completely destroyed the town records of Brouage, where the young Champlain was believed to have spent his childhood. Since then, historians have speculated about the birth date of the man often described as the “Father of New France.”The name “Samuel,” taken from the Old Testament, suggests the possibility that Champlain was born into a Protestant family during a period when France was torn by endless conflicts over religion. However, by the time he undertook his voyages of discovery and exploration to Canada, he had definitely converted to Catholicism. The marriage contract between Samuel de Champlain and Hélène Boullé, dated 1610, shows that he was the son of the then-deceased sea captain, Anthoine de Champlain, and Marguerite Le Roy. On this basis, several historians have deduced that Champlain must have been born around 1570.
These are the few facts that history reveals, leaving room for all sorts of hypotheses about Champlain’s date of birth. But things were to take a different turn in the spring of 2012 when Jean-Marie Germe, a French genealogist, was examining the archives of the Protestant parish of Saint Yon de La Rochelle. In Champlain’s time, La Rochelle was a neighbouring town and rival of Brouage. What Mr. Germe found there was the baptismal record of Samuel Chapeleau, son of Antoine Chapeleau and Marguerite Le Roy, dated August 13, 1574.
Baptismal certificate of our Samuel de Champlain
What are the chances of finding another baptismal certificate dating from this era where the names are identical to those we find in other historical documents? The chances are in fact very small indeed. However, even though the family names of Chapeleau and Champlain are similar, this small difference — understandable as it may be — cautions us not to jump to conclusions. Although the probability is slight, it is still possible that this document has nothing to do with our Samuel de Champlain.
If we are indeed looking at the baptismal certificate of our Samuel de Champlain, we can now say for certain that he was born into a Protestant family, most probably during the summer of 1574. But unless there is another discovery to equal the one made by Mr. Germe, a complete mystery will continue to surround Samuel de Champlain’s date and place of birth.
Baptismal certificate of our Samuel de Champlain, detail
In the Footsteps of Jacques Cartier
In 1602 or thereabouts, Henry IV of France appointed Champlain as hydrographer royal. Aymar de Chaste, governor of Dieppe in Northern France, had obtained a monopoly of the fur trade and set up a trading post at Tadoussac. He invited Champlain to join an expedition he was sending there. Champlain’s mission was clear; it was to explore the country called New France, examine its waterways and then choose a site for a large trading factory.Thus Champlain sailed from Honfleur on the fifteenth of March, 1603, and prepared to follow the route that Jacques Cartier had opened up in 1535. He proceeded to explore part of the valley of the Saguenay river and was led to suspect the existence of Hudson Bay. He then sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as Hochelaga (the site of Montreal.) Nothing was to be seen of the Amerindian people and village which Cartier had visited, and Sault St. Louis (the Lachine Rapids) still seemed impassable. However, Champlain learned from his guides that above the rapids there were three great lakes (Erie, Huron and Ontario) to be explored.
Acadia and the Atlantic Coast
After Aymar de Chaste died in France in 1603, Pierre Du Gua de Monts became lieutenant-general of Acadia. In exchange for a ten years exclusive trading patent, de Monts undertook to settle sixty homesteaders a year in that part of New France. From 1604 to 1607, the search went on for a suitable permanent site for them. It led to the establishment of a short-lived settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.)While the settlers were tilling, building, hunting and fishing, Champlain carried on with his appointed task of investigating the coastline and looking for safe harbours.
Routes
From Quebec to Lake Champlain
In 1608, Champlain proposed a return to the valley of the St. Lawrence, specifically to Stadacona, which he called Quebec. In his opinion, nowhere else was so suitable for the fur trade and as a starting point from which to search for the elusive route to China. During this third voyage he learned of the existence of Lac Saint Jean (Lake St. John), and on the third of July, 1608, he founded what was to become Quebec City. He immediately set about building his Habitation (residence) there.Champlain also explored the Iroquois River (now called the Richelieu), which led him on the fourteenth of July, 1609, to the lake which would later bear his name. Like the traders who had preceded him, he sided with the Hurons, Algonquins and Montaignais against the Iroquois. This intervention in local politics was ultimately responsible for the warlike relations that were to pit the Iroquois against the French for generations.
From the Ottawa Valley to Lake Huron
In 1611, Champlain returned to the area of the Hochelaga islands. He found an ideal harbour, and facing it he built the Place Royale (royal square), around which the town would later develop from 1642 onwards.Even more important, he succeeded in penetrating beyond the Lachine Rapids, becoming the first European (apart from Étienne Brûlé) to start exploring the St. Lawrence and its tributaries as a route towards the interior of the continent. Champlain was so convinced that it was the route to the Orient that in 1612 he obtained a commission to “search for a free passage by which to reach the country called China.” Like most of the explorers who followed after him, he could not carry out his mission without the support of the Amerindian population.
The following year Champlain was induced to make a voyage up the Ottawa River in the course of which he reached Allumette Island. It was his initial foray along the route that was to lead him to the heartland of present-day Ontario and eventually to reach Lake Huron on the first of August, 1615.
Routes
When it capitulated to the English Kirke brothers in 1629, Champlain returned to France, where he lobbied incessantly for the cause of New France. He finally returned to Canada on the twenty-second of May, 1633. At the time of his death at Quebec on the twenty-fifth of December, 1635, there were one hundred and fifty French men and women living in the colony.
-----
The Changing Role of
Natives in the Exploration of Canada:
Cartier (1534) to Mackenzie (1793)
Conrad E.
Heidenreich
Introduction
After the French had built their first permanent
settlements on the east coast of Canada, Ste. Croix (1604), Port Royal (1605)
and Québec (1608), it took them only until 1681 to explore and roughly map the
shores of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. This
was an astonishing achievement considering that the first Dutch and Englishmen
did not even see Lake Ontario until 1685. Conventional wisdom gives one to
understand that the French were strongly motivated to explore westward in order
to expand their fur trade, to proselytize the Natives and to seek a route across
the continent; and what enabled them to do so were the magnificent river systems
that connected the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River. By contrast, it is
said, these motives were all but absent among the Dutch and English as were the
easy routes leading westward.
Motives are of course only
an essential first step in defining goals; by themselves, without further
development, they remain a “pipedream.” To reach goals successfully involves
compromises and the development of appropriate cultural and technological
innovations necessary for the desired outcome. Penetrating westward into the
continent was a very real problem for Europeans who had to move through an alien
physical environment inhabited by people about whom they knew
nothing.
The key to European inland
exploration and fur trade expansion was learning how to cope with the physical
environment through which they had to travel and seeking the co-operation of the
Native populations who controlled that environment. By the end of the sixteenth
century, the French had discovered that the “magnificent” rivers that supposedly
led westward were in fact un-navigable to them; they were full of falls and
rapids, and flowed swiftly eastward from the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence and
Atlantic coast making it difficult to travel westward, upstream. The St.
Lawrence River was a cul-de-sac. European transportation technology
(boats, horses, even walking) was useless under these conditions. Europeans who
wanted to use these rivers had to change the way they traveled before any
movement inland was possible. The canoe, which could have solved part of this
problem at an early date, was, until the early seventeenth century, an item of
Native technology that no European knew anything about. To Europeans, at first
glance, it was obviously “inferior” to their technology because it could not
carry the loads they were accustomed to take with them and required the skill to
paddle that only the Natives had. The canoe was in fact a technological
innovation that belonged to an alien culture, developed to overcome an alien
environment. Even if the canoe was recognized as a technological solution to a
transportation problem, knowledge of its construction and operation was still
required. This meant peaceful relations with the Native populations who
controlled not only the knowledge about canoes but also access to the lands in
the interior and how to live on those lands.
The expansion of the fur
trade into the interior of Canada was also a powerful motive to the French.
Since trade has to be mutually beneficial to both partners, it can only function
adequately under peaceful relations. The fur trade was a partnership to exploit
a resource that provided furs to one partner and durable utilitarian goods to
the other. But once trade was established there was still no reason why the
Natives should give the French access to their lands and those of their
neighbors. What could the French offer them in return? To the Natives, explorers
and to some degree traders, were men who wanted to travel across their lands
without a discernible purpose or with one that would contribute little to Native
concerns and in fact might jeopardize them. In order for explorers to be
permitted inland, the concerns of the Natives had to be understood and met in
some manner. This meant a diplomatic dialogue to see what each wanted from the
other. Such a dialogue was predicated on peaceful relations and a spirit of
co-operation.
Besides the motives of the
Natives, traders and explorers in promoting or hindering inland expansion, the
motives of the French government also have to be examined. While the support of
the French monarchs in finding a route across the North American landmass was
inconsistent, their policy regarding inland trading was at best ambivalent.
Until trading licenses (congés) were introduced in 1681, it was in fact
illegal for French traders to travel west of Montreal to the pays d’en
haut. This did not stop some men, like Radisson and Des Groseilliers who
began to carry out an illegal trade in the northwestern interior by the late
1650s, but if caught, they were subject to severe penalties. Such illegal
traders were called coureurs-de-bois. The fear of the home government was
that if the interior trade were permitted, too many men would leave the
fledgling colony, making it vulnerable to attack especially from the Iroquois.
They were also concerned that if French traders were to compete with Native
traders and trappers, animosities would be fomented that could jeopardize the
existence of the colony. By the early seventeenth century the French realized
that success in any of their enterprises in Canada depended on accommodating
Native concerns and demands. Whether it was safe settlement on the banks of the
St. Lawrence River, expansion of the fur trade, inland exploration, the
establishment of interior missions or protection of the colony from potential
Dutch-English aggression, the development of a Native policy based on trust and
friendship was essential. The problem was how to gain the trust that would lead
to peaceful co-operation.
What I would like to develop in the following pages is
a broad picture of the gradual evolution of French-Native relations that led to
the successful exploration of eastern Canada, and the adoption of French
methods, at a much later date, by English explorers traveling inland from Hudson
Bay. Without an understanding of these relations any explanation of the
exploration of Canada makes little sense.1 Lack of space precludes a discussion of
the reasons why the Dutch and English on the Atlantic coast did not develop a
comparable exploration program and instead had miserable relations with the
resident Native population.
The Sixteenth
Century
The sixteenth century began badly for the Canadian
Natives. In 1497 Cabot noted their presence but was too cautious to go inland
and seek them out.3 Four years later (1501) however, the first
Portuguese expedition under Gaspard Corte Real raided Newfoundland and captured
57 Beothuk who were sold into slavery in Lisbon.4 This was Canada’s first export commodity and thus
began a depressing litany of mutual distrust and hostility along the Atlantic
coast from the Arctic, south to Cape Cod and beyond. Kidnapped Native
individuals and small groups began to make appearances at European courts and
exhibitions.5 Friendly contact was rare and even when it
occurred often degenerated into fighting. Natives were regarded with suspicion.
They looked different from Europeans, their technology, social and political
institutions, if indeed they were acknowledged to exist, were deemed to be
obviously inferior, and worst of all, they were not Christians. That they might
be useful to Europeans in some way other than curios and slaves did not become
an issue until the early 1580s, except in one case, but only partially
so.
The partial exception was the expeditions of Jacques
Cartier. On his first expedition in 1534, after engaging in gift exchanges with
Mi’kmaq in Chaleur Bay, and with Stadaconans (the St. Lawrence Iroquoians) at
Gaspé, Cartier kidnapped two teen-aged boys (Dom Agaya and Taignoagny), sons of
the headman Donnacona.6 They were to learn French and serve as guides on a
return trip. The following year, they led Cartier’s ships to Stadacona where the
city of Québec is now located, but refused to be of further service, an act
Cartier regarded as treachery.7 This is the first instance in Canada of Natives
serving as guides for explorers. As Cartier’s men became increasingly unwelcome,
they were told stories about the wealthy “Kingdom of Saguenay,” stories that
were intended to draw them away from the Québec area (Canada, in
Cartier’s relations). These fables led Cartier to kidnap ten more Stadaconans,
including Donnacona and, yet again, his unfortunate sons in order that they
repeat their stories to the French court and serve as guides on a return
trip.8 By the time a new expedition was put
together in 1541, of the potential guides all but one little girl had
died.9 Eventually this expedition and one by
Roberval the following year led to fighting and closure of the St. Lawrence
River to Europeans.10
During the 1580s the French
continued to pursue their fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and began a
small trade in furs. Although the fisheries did not demand Native contact, some
contact did occur. With the fur trade however, contact became a necessity, and
that contact had to be friendly. By the beginning of the seventeenth century
therefore, French traders had developed seasonal trading contacts at various
places along the maritime coast and through the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as
Tadoussac. Both sides understood each other in a rudimentary fashion and knew
from practice what goods the other wanted. The interdependence of trappers,
traders and manufacturers so characteristic of the fur trade had
begun.
The Seventeenth
Century
In 1602, two Montagnais men were invited from the
Tadoussac area to visit the French court of Henri IV. The following year they
were returned to present a proposal from the king to a huge gathering
(tabagie) of the Montagnais at Tadoussac; “that His Majesty wished them
well, and desired to people their country, and to make peace with their enemies
(who are the Iroquois) or send forces to vanquish them.”11 This proposal
was enthusiastically accepted, and with it the French had made an agreement, the
first of its kind, that permitted peaceful, unhindered French settlement on the
shores of the St. Lawrence River in return for helping the Montagnais against
the Iroquois. Samuel de Champlain, who was present at the tabagie, had to
deliver on that promise in 1609. After the tabagie, Champlain began his
resource survey along the St. Lawrence River, during which he developed the
beginnings of a plan to explore the Canadian interior. Before leaving Canada,
three months after he had arrived, he entered his ideas in the manuscript for
his first book, Des Sauvages (Paris, n.d. and 1604). His insights were:
i) that the Natives had useful geographical information that they were willing
to share; ii) that they would draw maps if asked; iii) that the only way to
travel in Canada was by canoe and by living off the land; iv) that the interior
could only be explored with Native help; and v) that the key to all of this was
friendly relations with those Natives among whom the French would settle and
those whose country they wanted to see.12
In 1608, Champlain returned to the St. Lawrence having
surveyed the Atlantic coast and having put some of his ideas about exploration
into practice. The following year, at the suggestion of the Montagnais he
broadened their alliance to include the Ottawa valley Algonquin and the Huron by
aiding them on a raid with two French volunteers against the Mohawk on Lake
Champlain.13 To gain greater trust with his “allies” he exchanged
young men in order that each would begin to learn the language and customs of
the other.14 Although he had been promised that he would be taken
to explore the interior, nothing happened. Impatient, he tried to buy canoes but
was not successful until four years later (1613). With two canoes, four men and
a Native paddler-guide, Champlain’s first solo exploring expedition lurched up
the Ottawa River. It soon became evident that steering a canoe was not easy for
the French neophyte paddlers. After a few days one Frenchman was sent back and
replaced by another Native who was hired to steer the second canoe. Eventually
the entire expedition returned prematurely because the Kichesipirini (Big River
People) Algonquin denied them further passage.15 To Champlain that meant further broadening the bonds
of friendship, which in turn meant supporting all the Natives with whom he was
in contact, as he had done in 1609 and 1610, in the one thing they wanted –
military aid against the Iroquois.16 At the first opportunity, which came in
1615, Champlain with ten men joined a Huron war party bent on destroying an
Iroquois village. Although Champlain considered the raid a military failure, it
cemented the new French-Montagnais-Algonquin-Huron alliance. That year also
marked the introduction of Recollet priests to the Huron.17
With the raid of 1615, the
French had gained access to the interior west of the Lachine rapids and had
proven themselves as allies. They did not organize trips or travel on their own,
but came as passengers in Native canoes hoping to be dropped off at appropriate
places. Some Frenchmen paddled and thereby gained confidence in handling a canoe
and the respect of their Native hosts. They also began to learn Native languages
and cultures. Trade was in Native hands, but the merchants sent
truchements (interpreter-trader’s agents) back with the various Native
traders to curry their favor as fur suppliers and customers for the following
season. These men were only incidentally explorers. Although we know the names
of about half a dozen, the only one about whom we know a little more was Étienne
Brûlé, who ranged widely but did not leave a personal record of where he had
been and what he saw.
With the permanent introduction of the Jesuits into
the missionary field in 1632, all those not under their control were recalled.
With that, the Jesuits also became explorers, diplomats and interpreters, roles
to which they were eminently suited through their training. They too traveled as
passengers. Only rarely did they strike out on their own, as they did in 1640-41
to the Neutrals near the west end of Lake Ontario.18 Like the Recollets before them in 1626-27,
they were lucky to get away with their lives because they went without
permission of the Huron. Europeans were tolerated but were not free to travel
where they wanted. The Jesuits made important discoveries through the
geographical reports of their Native hosts and travels of their donnés
(servants), some of who ranged more widely with the Natives than the
priests.19 By about 1648, the Jesuits were able to
put together the geography of all five Great Lakes for the first time in written
descriptions and maps.20
If we examine the first fifty years of French activity
we can see some interesting developments. The French were drawn westward in
order to find routes across the continent, to proselytize the Natives and to
persuade them to trap animals and bring the skins to the St. Lawrence merchants.
The key to these aims was friendly Native relations. Champlain learned that he
had to aid the Natives in war in order to gain their trust; without them
exploration was impossible. The priests were tolerated because, initially at
least, they were regarded as being innocuous and were portrayed by the French as
important men and symbols of friendship between them and their Native allies. In
expanding their interior missions to seek more Native converts the priests aided
the cause of exploration. Although Pope Paul III had declared the Natives to be
human on 29 May 1537, under the Encyclical Sublimus Dei,21 many Europeans remained doubtful and regarded them at
best as uncultured savages. Through their missions and publications the Jesuits
in particular helped to transform this image. The Jesuit de Brébeuf, for
example, argued that the Natives should be seen “as ransomed by the blood of the
son of God, and as our brethren,”22 while the lawyer Marc Lescarbot argued that “they
share your human nature” and “to call them savage is unmerited and
abusive.”23 Among the French the question of intellectual or
racial inferiority did not arise. Some aspects of Native culture were abhorred,
especially their belief systems, and every effort was made to change these.
Familiarity did not “breed contempt,” but over time a great deal of
understanding. To the Jesuits, the Native was “perfectible” in a Christian sense
if he converted and gave up certain customs that conflicted with
Christianity.24 In 1635, in order to hasten the spread of
Christianity, the Jesuit Superior at Québec, Father Paul Le Jeune proposed to
the governor, Champlain that they try to promote Huron-French
intermarriage.25 Champlain agreed not only for religious
reasons, but also because intermarriage was a
way of further cementing French-Native alliances. He also thought that by
building a settlement in the Huron country, the French/Huron population could
complete the exploration of the continent.26 While the Huron were ambivalent about accepting this
proposal, the French court accepted and still promoted it during the late 1660s,
namely that French and Natives “mingle” and “constitute only one people and one
race.”27 The civil, mercantile and religious authorities saw
the Natives as human beings with whom they could live, travel, go to war,
explore and intermarry. Acceptance of each other as human beings was a first
step in opening the country to exploration. A second step was that the French be
willing to learn from the Natives how to cope in the Canadian environment. This
meant relinquishing aspects of their culture when they were away from the
colony, such as food, clothing, shelter, etiquette and modes of transportation.
By the time of Champlain’s death (1635), Natives and French were beginning to
adapt to each other, and the French to Canada’s natural environment. These
adaptations eventually led to the remarkably peaceful exploration of
Canada.
In 1648, the Iroquois wars turned more virulent and
with the Iroquois victories the interior missions, the fur trade, the system of
Native alliances and any hope of further exploration collapsed. In 1653 the
Onondaga offered to make peace on behalf of all Iroquois except the Mohawk, an
offer the French eagerly seized. Father Simon Le Moyne was chosen to go to
Onondaga and work out the details. This led to the opening of the mission Ste.
Marie de Gannentaa and the exploration of the Iroquois country.28 The following year Des Groseilliers and a
companion were asked by Governor Lauson to accompany a group of
Huron-Tionnontati traders who were returning to the western Great Lakes where
they had fled from the Iroquois.29 They had taken advantage of the impending peace to
trade at the St. Lawrence settlements. The aim of Des Groseilliers’ journey was
to contact as many Native groups as possible in the hope of reviving the fur
trade. Although this was not an exploring expedition, it resulted in significant
oral reports, especially to the Jesuits who were keenly interested in opening
missions to the refugees from the east who had settled around the western Great
Lakes. With these reports and others gathered from the Montagnais, Cree and
Algonquin, Father Druillettes managed to put together a good perspective on the
geography north of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes.30 Parts of his map survived in Tabula
Novae Franciae – 1660, which was published in François Du Creux’s
Historiae Canadensis (Paris,
1664). A renewed outbreak of war with the Iroquois in 1658 collapsed inland
exploration again. It convinced the French that peaceful trade, the missions and
exploration could only be gained through a major war against the Iroquois. In
1659, while the colony was debating the dwindling prospects of reviving their
activities in the pays d’en haut unless an army was sent from France, Des
Groseilliers, this time with Radisson, joined a small group of Ojibwa on the way
to their refuge on the south shore of Lake Superior. The governor however,
fearing that many men needed to protect the colony would follow them to seek
their fortune, had forbidden Radisson and Des Groseilliers to go. Consequently
Des Groseilliers was briefly incarcerated upon their return the following
year.31 They did however bring news to the Jesuits
of the location of large Native populations, most of them refugees from the
Iroquois wars, in the Green Bay area and along the south shore of Lake Superior.
A few weeks after the return of the two traders, Father Druillettes met a
Nipissing convert, Michel Awatanik, who had paddled from Green Bay with his
family to James Bay and from there via the Rupert River and Lake Mistassini to
Tadoussac between 1658 and 1660.32 Des Groseilliers’ and Awatanik’s
geographical reports made the Jesuits determined to launch a missionary effort
north toward James Bay and west to Lake Superior. Father Ménard headed west in
1660, and the following year Fathers Dablon and Druillettes, accompanied by
three traders and guided by Awatanik and his family, went north from Tadoussac.
Ménard lost his life trying to find a dying convert in the forest against the
advice of his Native hosts. The other party had to return half way to James Bay
when Awatanik became totally distraught and incapable of guiding after he lost
his family to convulsive seizures.33 French exploration was still entirely
dependent on Native support.
In 1665, a substantial army of 1200 soldiers arrived
in Canada and forced a peace on the Iroquois.
With them came Jean Talon the new Intendant. One of his first acts was to
develop an exploration policy.34 Although French traders were at the time
not permitted to go west of Montreal, the search for minerals, souls and staking
of land claims against the English was encouraged. With the Iroquois at peace
and with the confidence the French had developed in traveling and living outside
the colony, expeditions again left for the interior. These were organized far
differently from earlier ones. No longer were the French merely passengers. They
paddled their own canoes and hunted along the way, but still carried Native
guides and interpreters, particularly when they entered unknown areas. Also in
the interior were a growing number of coureurs de bois, illegal traders
who lived, traveled and traded with the Natives much to the annoyance of the
authorities. This period saw the explorations of La Salle, Peré, the Jolliet
brothers Louis and Adrien, Daumont de Saint-Lusson, Fathers Albanel, Allouez,
Hennepin, Marquette, and many others. One example will suffice to show how
dependent the French still were on Native support.35
When the two Sulpicians,
Dollier and Galinée, left Montreal in July 1669, to establish a mission to the
Shawnee on the Ohio River, they had a Shawnee guide with whom they could barely
communicate because his Algonquin was very different from that which the priests
had learned in the Montreal area. Knowing that they would encounter Iroquois,
they needed a second interpreter. Although their companion La Salle claimed to
speak Iroquoian, the two Sulpicians did not believe him (correctly as they
discovered) and hired a Dutchman who could speak Iroquois but unfortunately
little French. By the time they were portaging from Lake Ontario to the Grand
River both their guide-interpreters had disappeared. Luckily they met Adrien
Jolliet on the portage who was on his way to Montreal. He gave them a map and
told them of a canoe he had hidden on the shore of Lake Erie. The Sulpicians
spent a pleasant winter beside a little river on the north shore of the lake,
but the following spring on the day after they set out, one of their canoes blew
away in a storm with some of their baggage. A few days later they lost most of
their remaining supplies in a night storm. They had left their packs on the
beach, too tired after paddling all day to move them to high ground. Now their
plans to establish a mission had to be abandoned. Fortunately they found
Jolliet’s canoe and eventually made their way to the Jesuit mission at Sault
Sainte-Marie. None of these mistakes would have occurred if Native guides had
been with them.
A well-organized trip that set a new standard was
Marquette and Jolliet’s exploration of the Mississippi in 1673.36 During the winter Jolliet had collected
Native maps and geographical accounts, enabling him to have had a good idea
where he was going and what he would find before he set out. Both Jolliet and
Marquette spoke enough Native languages to take them through the known areas as
far as the Fox River where they hired their first guides. From there they
proceeded cautiously south, promoted good relations with the Natives they met
and hired interpreters as they needed them. This was one of the first journeys
of exploration that the French made with less Native
help.
La Salle’s explorations were the first done
substantially without Native help, but were hampered by a lack of good Native
relations, especially with the Iroquois (1680) and the Santee Dakota (1681).
Some of his men, Accault, Auguel and Hennepin, did however equip themselves with
Native maps before setting off for the Mississippi in 1681, and collected
geographical information from the Santee while in their captivity.37
After 1681, when the interior trade was legalized
through a permit (congé) system, French canoe traffic and establishment
of posts increased markedly.38 So did the capacity of the canoes on which
the entire interior trade and exploration was dependent. Because trading
licenses were in canoe loads, enterprising canoe builders at Trois- Rivières and
Montreal gradually transformed the standard 15-23 foot Native canoe into the
much larger voyageur canoe up to twice the original length, eventually with
capacities of over four tons. Along the edge of the explored Great Lakes
employees of the traders began to contact Native groups who lived further north
and west by traveling either with them or by hiring guides to take them there.
Some of the best known are, Daniel Greysolon de Dulhut in the Lake Superior area
and headwaters of the Mississippi (1683-84); Jean Peré from the north shore of
Lake Superior to James Bay (1684); and Jacques de Noyon westward from Lake
Superior to Rainy Lake (1688).
In the mid-1680s, war broke out again with the
Iroquois. Exploration was curtailed as men were channeled into the militia and
fur trading was intensified to pay for the war. In 1685, Dutch-English merchants
from Albany tried to use the confusion of the war to send trading expeditions to
the eastern Great Lakes (Roseboom and MacGregory). This is the first mention
that any English from the eastern colonies had made it to any of the Great
Lakes. They were guided not by Natives but by renegade Frenchmen. French militia
and traders apprehended them in 1687 and deported them.39
By 1697, the war was effectively over, but trading, helped by the capture
of the H.B.Co. posts in 1686 had been so successful that a huge glut of beaver
had developed on the markets in Paris (some 1 mill. livre weight or ca.
500, 000 skins).40 Consequently most of the interior trading
posts were closed and exploration halted except out from the New Orleans
colony.
The Eighteenth
Century
a) The French
After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the
disappearance of the glut in beaver (due to moths and vermin), the French began
to re-open their interior posts. By the mid-1720s they were ready to continue de
Noyon’s explorations west of Lake Superior to discover the much-rumored La
Mer de l’Ouest.41 Information about the “western sea” came from the
Cree and Assiniboine, as did the maps gathered by La Vérendrye senior to take
them there.42 Equipped with guides and maps the various members of
the La Vérendrye family, ably assisted by their nephew La Jemerais, began to
push westward in slow stages by canoe and in constant contact with the resident
Native groups. Their 1738 journey from the Assiniboine River to the Missouri was
on foot as they traveled with a village of Assiniboine on their way to visit the
Mandan. Other villages were contacted as they moved along and presents given to
smooth the way. In 1741, two of La Vérendrye’s sons, Louis-Joseph and François,
with Native guides, struck out across the plains on horses to within sight of
the Big Horn Mountains. Although the French had long wanted to probe westward
along the Saskatchewan River, constant wars between members of the Blackfoot
confederacy and the Assiniboine-Cree alliance prevented them from doing so.
Several French attempts to promote peace came to nothing. Finally in 1751 the
opportunity came when it seemed a peace had been worked out with the Blackfoot.
Two canoes with ten men were sent westward with some Blackfoot prisoners the
French had ransomed from their Cree-Assiniboine allies who were to be returned
as peace offerings. A post was built within sight of the Rocky Mountains.
Unfortunately, a troop of Assiniboine warriors, who had followed the French,
came upon a Blackfoot village near the new French post and massacred its
occupants, thus ending further exploration. 43
Although the push westward was the main thrust of
French exploration in the eighteenth century, there was some other activity,
most notably the geographical inquiries and maps gathered from Montagnais
informants by the Jesuit Father Pierre Laure during the early 1730s. These maps
were used by Nicolas Bellin and became the standard maps of the northern
interior of Quebec until the surveys made in the nineteenth century.44
b) The English
English exploration outward from the shores of Hudson
Bay began in the same way as earlier French exploration. The first was by Henry
Kelsey, a young man of 23 years, who volunteered to head inland with Assiniboine
traders who were returning to their camps on the edge of the plains in
1690.45 He was the first European to see the Canadian west.
Two years later he returned. Unfortunately he wrote his journal in “poetry”
making it difficult to know where he had been. The next was William Stewart who
was sent to make peace in 1715 between the Cree and Chipewyan in order that the
latter could come unhindered to Fort Churchill to trade. He was the first
European traveler into the northern “Barren Grounds” (tundra). It is certain
that Stewart would never have returned if it had not been for the diplomacy and
linguistic skills of Thanadelthur, a Chipewyan woman who had been a slave among
the Cree, but was ransomed by the H.B.Co. to be Stewart’s guide.46
These were the only journeys out from the “bayside”
until 1754, when the H.B.Co. decided to send men inland to winter and to meet
French competition. These men were the so-called “winterers.”47 They would leave from York Factory with Cree and
Assiniboine traders, travel up the Hayes or Nelson Rivers in the late summer and
return the following spring, always traveling as guests of various Natives
groups. Anthony Henday, in 1754, was the first of these. Others followed every
year until 1774 when the H.B.Co. built Cumberland House, their first interior
post. The next significant probe into the northern “Barren Grounds” after
Stewart was by Samuel Hearne.48 He was given a number of tasks, of which finding the
Coppermine River with its supposed copper deposits and the possibility of an
east-west passage across the north were the most important. He set out on foot
in November 1769, after the muskeg had frozen, with Cree and Chipewyan guides. A
month later he was back in Churchill, his guides having deserted him for lack of
food. A second attempt early in 1770 also came to naught. In the late fall of
the same year he met the experienced Chipewyan headman Matonabbee who offered to
guide him. In Matonabbee’s opinion, Hearne’s previous expeditions ended in
failure because his incompetent guides had not taken enough women along to carry
the baggage, pitch the tents and cook while the unencumbered men procured food.
Matonabbee’s insight is worth quoting because, in a somewhat politically
incorrect manner by present standards, it conveys what it took to explore the
“Barren Grounds” successfully.
“For, said he, when all the
men are heavy laden, they can neither hunt nor travel to any considerable
distance; and in case they meet with success in hunting, who is to carry the
produce of their labor? Women were made for labor; one of them can carry, or
haul, as much as two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and mend our
clothing, keep us warm at night; and, in fact, there is no such thing as
traveling any considerable distance, or for any length of time, in this country,
without their assistance. Women though they do every thing, are maintained at a
trifling expense; for as they always stand cook[ing], the very licking of their
fingers in scarce times, is sufficient for their
subsistence.”49
The expedition departed on
7 December 1770 and returned, 30 June 1772, after completing a vast sweep
through the tundra and edge of the boreal forest. Without Matonabbee and his
family of seven wives and retinue to guide and take care of him, Hearne could
not have succeeded in this journey.
After the mid-1770s, the fur trade increasingly drove
exploration. Competition between the H.B.Co. and the newly created North West
Co. made it necessary to find Native groups in fur-producing areas that would
undertake trapping. In 1778, Peter Pond of the Nor’westers “discovered” the 20
km-long Methy Portage (Portage la Loche), the only practical link to the
Athabaska country from the headwaters of the Churchill River and other rivers
already explored north of the upper Saskatchewan. The Cree and the Chipewyan who
wanted a trading post in the Athabaska area to save them the dangerous trip to
the “bayside” posts, had shown Pond this route. The Methy portage opened the
fur-rich Athabaska country to traders. As Peter Pond became more familiar with
the southern edge of the Athabaska area, he speculated that the Slave River that
connected Lake Athabaska to Great Slave Lake might have its outlet at the
Pacific Ocean. If it did, this would be a much shorter route for exporting furs
than the overland trip to the St. Lawrence River.50 The person who decided to explore this route was one
of Pond’s partners in the N.W.Co, Alexander Mackenzie.51 Mackenzie did not need guides since he was exploring
a river, but he needed hunters who would provision him and act as interpreters
in case they came across people with whom they were unfamiliar. In addition to
his five men, two of whom had their Native wives with them, he hired two canoes
of Natives, whose leader (the “English Chief”) had traveled with Matonabbee and
Hearne. As interpreters these Natives did help to overcome some tricky
situations with Native groups who had not seen Europeans before and exhibited
hostile intentions. The canoes departed on June 3, 1789 from Fort Chipewyan and
were back 102 days later on September 12. Mackenzie was disappointed at finding
that the “Disappointment River,” as he wanted to call the Mackenzie River, did
not drain into the Pacific. Since the river did not flow to the Pacific,
Mackenzie began to plan the exploration of an alternate route. After some
debate, his choice fell on the upper Peace River, which flowed out of the
Rockies. As he wintered on the Peace River, he traded for furs and questioned
the Native traders about the geography of the upper Peace and any tributaries
that he could follow across the first mountain range. On the 9th of May he departed in a 25-foot canoe with
7 men and two Natives hired as hunters and interpreter/guides. Since Natives
inhabited the valleys of the mountainous interior, it was usually possible to
question them about alternate routes when difficulties were encountered. As the
party came to increasingly rough stretches of the Fraser River and was warned of
possible hostilities from the Carriers, Mackenzie heeded the advice of his
interpreter/guides and headed west overland. Eventually they came to the
headwaters of the Bella Coola River. Here they obtained canoes and paddled down
the river to the coast reaching the Dean Channel on July 22, 1793, seventy-four
days after they had started from their wintering post. The English had crossed
the continent by land, thirteen years before Lewis and Clark did it on November
15, 1806. As on every other trip, guides, interpreters and the good will of
resident Native populations made success possible.
Conclusions
What accounts for the relatively peaceful exploration
of the Canadian interior? It is obvious that the French realized very early that
exploration and the related activities of trade and establishing missions could
not take place without Native help. In order to get that help they had to adapt
themselves to some extent to Native customs, to commit themselves to alliances
and to give aid in war. The French quickly learned that they could not develop
good relations with any Native group if they aided or traded with their enemies.
Of course this practice made enemies out of people like the Iroquois who were
fighting the Algonquin, Huron and Montagnais; the Fox who were enemies of the
Odawah and Ojibwa and friends of the Iroquois, or the Dakota who were enemies of
the Cree and Assiniboine. The French also had to adopt some Native customs,
especially in travel, food, dress and the like. Intermarriage was a way of
cementing alliances and the adoption of Christianity, a hoped for by-product of
intermarriage and the work of missionaries, would, it was thought, further bind
those alliances. The offspring of those marriages (métis) had the
advantage of having “a foot in both camps.” Many of the métis men were
welcomed into the French troops stationed at the interior forts. As descendants
of both French and Native parents, the more able ones became officers who were
placed in command of both French and Native forces. Traders desired métis
women in marriage because they had practical fur trade skills and were
culturally adapted to living under wilderness conditions, whereas French and
English women, even if enough were available, did not. The French had no problem
with intermarriage; in fact it was encouraged if the couple became Catholics.
Adoption of some Native customs, intermarriage and aid in war, all helped to
inspire mutual confidence. Of paramount importance to French success was that
they made it clear they were not after Native land. Nor did they trap
fur-bearing animals outside the confines of the colony. In the pays d’en
haut when a fort was erected permission was sought first and yearly gifts
were given at regular times, which the Natives regarded as a form of rent on
their land.52 After 1681, when trade and posts were
permitted west of Montreal, French traders (and before them coureurs de
bois) brought goods directly to their customers and saved them the trip to
the St. Lawrence colonies. In spite of outrageous prices the traders were
generally welcome. After the Iroquois wars in the late 1640s had dispersed many
of the eastern groups with whom the French had close relations, knowledge of the
French diffused with them westwards. In later years, only in rare cases did
explorers come across Native groups that had not heard of them. In other words,
the Native groups the French met and from whom they requested help in exploring
did not feel threatened by them.
Unlike the French, where
westward expansion was driven by missionaries, the possibility of a
transcontinental route and later, the fur trade, English exploration from Hudson
Bay was motivated almost exclusively by the fur trade and occasionally by trying
to find a northwest passage. In the methods used by the English, there were
striking parallels to that of the French because they too were reliant on local
Native populations. Initially, one or a few Englishmen would attach themselves
to Native groups who were returning to the interior after trading at the bayside
posts much like Radisson and Des Groseilliers did in the 1650s. As more H.B.Co.
men and Nor’westers started to live at interior posts, they undertook
exploration on their own but never without first gathering Native geographical
information and hiring guide/interpreters, very much like the French a hundred
years before them. Initially the English learned much from the French,
especially from Radisson and Des Groseilliers whose expertise had helped found
the H.B.Co. They continued to learn from the French after the fall of New France
by hiring expert Canadian voyageurs who knew how to paddle canoes and
communicate with Natives.
It is astonishing how
little attention has been paid in our histories to the role of Natives in
exploration. Reading the original texts, especially those concerning French
exploration, shows that explorers themselves did not try to hide the fact that
they got Native help. The distortions and omissions came much later, in the
second half of the nineteenth century, after Natives had been degraded and cast
aside on reserves, or vilified as savages. During this time, North Americans
were spreading across the continent and were looking for heroes in the men who
had preceded them. In this process the Natives were shoved aside or ignored
because heroes do not need helpers, especially if these are deemed to be
inferior savages.
End notes
1 For an
overview of the period covered by this paper see: John Logan Allen, ed.,
North
American Exploration: Vol. 2, A Continent Defined (Lincoln, 1997) Chap. 10, Conrad Heidenreich, “Early
French Exploration in the North American Interior,” p. 65-148. Chap. 11, William
J. Eccles. “French Exploration in North America, 1700-1800,” p. 149-202. Chap.
12, Richard I. Ruggles, “British Exploration of Rupert’s Land,” p.
203-268.
2 In order to understand the attitudes of the English who settled on the American seaboard, see: Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (New York, 1976), William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (New York, 1983) and James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York, 1985). Of these three books, the latter also treats New France. 3 James A. Williamson, ed., The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery under Henry VII (Cambridge, 1962) p. 212. 4 Williamson, The Cabot Voyages, p. 229. 5 Without trying very hard, the author gleaned documentary evidence of 20 hostile encounters between Natives and Europeans between 1501-1587. In almost all cases the Europeans were the aggressors. For a well-documented case of Natives in a traveling exhibition see: William C. Sturtevant, “The first Inuit depiction by Europeans.” Études Inuit Studies, V. 4, Nos. 1-2, (1980) : 47-9. This is a handbill printed in Augsburg (1567), advertising the exhibition of a 20-year-old Inuit woman and her 7-year-old daughter captured by French sailors the year before. The text, in German, tells the reader that these are undoubtedly cannibals and advises them to thank God that they are not like that. 6 Ramsey Cook, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier (Toronto, 1993), p. 27, 43. 7 Ibid., p. 52-4. 8 Ibid., p. 84. 9 Ibid., p. 96. 10 Conrad E. Heidenreich, “History of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes Area to A.D. 1650,” in Chris J. Ellis and Neal Ferris, eds., The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650 (London, 1990), p. 480. The third Cartier voyage, with Roberval, was organized to conquer a supposedly wealthy indigenous “kingdom,” like the Spaniards had in Central and South America and Cartier’s contemporaries De Soto (1539-42) and Coronado (1540-41) were attempting to do in the southern parts of North America. 11 Henry P. Biggar, ed., The Works of Samuel De Champlain, Vol. 1. (Toronto, 1922), p. 100. 12 Conrad E. Heidenreich, “The Beginning of French Exploration out of the St. Lawrence Valley: Motives, Methods, and Changing Attitudes towards Native People,” in: Germaine Warkentin and Carol Podruchny, eds., Decentring the Renaissance: Canada and Europe in Multidisciplinary Perspective, 1500-1700 (Toronto, 2001), p. 238-41. For an example of Native cartographic information gathered by Champlain in 1603, see the lakes portion west of montreal and grand sault on his map Carte Geographiqve De La Novvelle Franse Faictte Par Le Sievr De Champlain Saint Tongois Cappitaine Ordinaire Povr Le Roy En La Marine…1612. 13 Biggar, The Works, Vol. 2, p. 68-71, 80. It is important to note that Champlain’s 1609 raid against the Mohawk was made in fulfillment of Henri IVs promise (1602-03), to aid his new Native allies in a war against the Iroquois. 14 Ibid., p. 138-39. 15 Heidenreich, “The Beginning of French Exploration,” p. 243. 16 Biggar, The Works, Vol. II, p. 69-71, 104-05, 110; Vol. III, p. 31-2. 17 The raid on the Iroquois village and surrounding events are described by Champlain in: Biggar, The Works, Vol. 2, p. 27-29. 18 The Jesuit journey to the Neutral, and brief mention of the Recollets, is given in: Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1898), Vol. XXI, pp. 187-237. 19 The two best-known donnés who engaged in exploration during this period are Jean Nicollet beginning in 1634 and Médart Chouart Des Groseilliers in 1645. 20 Jesuit geographical descriptions are given in: Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. XXXIII, p. 61-7, 149-51. The maps based on Jesuit exploration at this time are: Nicolas Sanson’s Amerique Septentrionale…1650 and Le Canada, ou Nouvelle France…1656; a map attributed to Father Francesco Giuseppe Bressani, Novae Franciae Accurata Delineatio 1657; and Tabula Novæ Franciæ, attributed to Father François Du Creux. 21 See: www.papalencyclicals.net. Click on: Paul III; Click on: Sublimus Dei. 22 Thwaites, Jesuit relations, Vol. XII, p. 117. See also: Vol. LVIII, p. 85. 23 William L. Grant, ed. and trans., The History of New France by Marc Lescarbot (Toronto, 1907), Vol. I, p 31-3. 24 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. VI, p. 229-241. 25 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. VIII, p. 47-9. See also the Jesuit rationale and conditions for permitting intermarriage: Pierre de Sesmaisons, “Raisons pour permettre le marriage des Français avec des femmes indigénes,” in Lucien Campeau, S.J., Monumenta Novæ Franciæ, III Fondation de la mission Huronne (1635-1637) (Rome/Quebec, 1987), p. 36-9. 26 John G. Shea, trans. and ed., History and General description of New France by the Rev. P.F.X. de Charlevoix, S.J. (Chicago, 1870), Vol. II, p. 74. 27 John R. Brodhead and Edmund B. O’Callaghan, eds. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York…(Albany, 1855), Vol. IX, p. 59. (Extracts from a letter of 6 April 1667, from Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of the Marine under Louis XIV, to Jean Talon, Intendant of New France). 28 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. XLI, p. 91-129. 29 Ibid. Vol. XLII, p. 219. 30 Ibid. Vol. XLIV, p. 235-51. 31 For details regarding this venture see: Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration…” p. 110-12. 32 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. XLV, p. 217-39. 33 Ibid. Vol. XLVI, p. 249-95. 34 Brodhead, New York Colonial Documents, Vol. IX, p. 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 72. 35 Louise Phelps Kellog, ed., “The Journey of Dollier and Galinée, by Galinée, 1669-1670,” in Early Narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1699 (New York, 1917), p. 161-209. 36 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Vol. LIX, p. 87-163. 37 Reuben G. Thwaites, ed., A New Discovery of Vast Country in America by Father Louis Hennepin (Chicago, 1903), Vol. 1, p. 175, 266-8. 38 Brodhead, New York Colonial Documents, Vol. IX, p. 159-160. Also: William J. Eccles, Canada Under Louis XIV, 1663-1701 (Toronto, 1964), p.109-10. 39 Allen W. Trelease, Indian Affairs in Colonial New York: The Seventeenth Century (Ithaca, 1960), p. 269-72. 40 Eccles, Canada Under Louis XIV, p. 204. 41 The classic study on the exploration of the Canadian west is: Lawrence J. Burpee, The Search for the Western Sea: The Story of the Exploration of North-western America (2 vols., Toronto, 1935). 42 For the documents and maps relating to the La Vérendrye expeditions see: Lawrence J. Burpee, ed. Journals and Letters of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye and his Sons (Toronto, 1927). 43 Eccles, “French Exploration,” p. 189-95. For a translation of the journal of this expedition see: Public Archives of Canada, Report (Ottawa, 1886), p. clvii-clxiii. 44 Nicolas Bellin, Carte de la partie Orientale De La Nouvelle France ou du Canada…1744, in P.F.X. de Charlevoix, Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France…(Paris, 1744; Six vol. edition), Vol. 2, facing p. 237. The portion of this map east of the Saguenay River and north of the St. Lawrence was based on Father Laure’s maps of 1731-33. The 1731 Laure map is reproduced in: Conrad Heidenreich, “Mapping the Great Lakes: The Period of Imperial Rivalries, 1700-1760,” Cartographica 18/3 (1981): 78. 45 John Warkentin, ed., The Kelsey Papers (Regina, 1994). 46 For a well researched fictionalized account of this journey, see: James Houston, Running West (Toronto, 1989). 47 For a discussion of the activities of the “winterers” see: Ruggles, “British Exploration,” p. 226-33. 48 Joseph B. Tyrrell, ed., A Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean by Samuel Hearne (Toronto, 1911). 49 Ibid., p. 101-2. 50 Barry M. Gough, “Pond, Peter,” in: Frances G. Halpenny, ed., Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto, 1983), Vol. V (1801-1820), pp. 681-6. 51 W. Kaye Lamb, ed., The Journals and Letters of Sir Alexander Mackenzie (Cambridge, 1970). This is the most authoritative version of Mackenzie’s journals, including his maps. 52 William J. Eccles, “Sovereignty Association, 1500-1783,” Canadian Historical Review 55/ 4 (1984): 475-510, 507. An excellent paper that outlines French/Native relations concerning territory and property. |
--------------------------
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LOSING ABORIGINAL LANDS
History is the organized story of the whole human past.
The imperial conquest of North America began when the French founded Quebec on the St. Lawrence in 1604, the English settled on the James River in 1607, the Spaniards established Santa Fe on the Rio Grande in 1609 and the Dutch built Fort Nassau on the Hudson River in 1614. Initially Europeans were vastly outmanned by the numbers of Native warriors who could easily have overwhelmed the woebegone whites in no time at all. Why did they not do so? The reasons are varied.
Natives failed to feel threatened by the small bands of whites who came to trade or till on coasts and rivers. For the furs and skins they sought they brought boons such as muskets, iron tools, useful or novelty knickknacks and liquor. Whites concentrated around fortified villages and were well supported by seapower and firearms. Once settlers had consolidated their positions they fought tenaciously to hold their ground, while Natives rather than persevere and fight fiercely simply withdrew further inland. Once established the seemingly inexhaustible flow of white settlers from national sources stood in stark contrast to limited number of Natives scattered across the forested frontier. Their effectiveness was crippled by tribal feuds and their failure to join forces. Finally and most fatally whites brought with them 'invisible battalions,' infectious diseases like influenza, chicken pox, smallpox, measles and plague against which Native Americans had no genetic immunity and were decimated.
"When your white children first came to this country, they did not come shouting the war cry and seeking to wrest this land from us. They told us they came as friends to smoke the pipe of peace; they sought our friendship; we became brothers. Their enemies were ours. At that time we were strong and powerful, while they were few and weak. But did we oppress them or wrong them? No! Time wore on and you have become a great people, whilst we have melted away like snow beneath an April sun, our strength is wasted, our countless warriors dead." Shinguacouse (Ojibwa Chief) 1849)
Most colonists did not come to America intent on killing, enslaving, converting or consorting with Native Americans. They simply expected them to make way for the whites. The attitude of most whites regarding the Aboriginals was summed up by a British Member of Parliament at the commencement of the Seven Years' War. "Here is a contest between two equals about a country where both claim an undivided right. I think it is allowed on all hands that the Natives have no rights at all."
Even the urge to redeem with religion and bring civility to the Aboriginals faded before the settlers rapidly multiplying numbers and insatiable appetite for land. While politicians sitting safe and secure in London saw Native warriors as potential military manpower made necessary because of their own persistent shortage of regular soldiers, settlers seeking ever more land saw the Natives as obstacles to be feared, fought and dispersed.
The end of the Seven Years' War with the fall of Quebec and the ensuing Treaty of Paris in 1763 changed everything for the Native Nations. It eliminated the English-French competition in the fur trade as the French abandoned the continent ceding to Great Britain all their lands in Canada and east of the Mississippi and turning over New Orleans and the Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi to Spain which yielded Florida to Britain. No longer able to find a strategic middle ground by playing contending European powers against one another, the tribes were left with few options. Instead of dealing with the French who wanted their trade but not their land, the Native peoples were confronted by a never-ending flood of settlers and their settlements advancing from the east. Most disturbing to the western Indians was the influx of settlers from the coastal colonies into the Ohio Valley. The French had come into that area as traders dependant upon Natives for furs. Now English colonists came as settlers and displaced the Aboriginals.
In the Ohio Valley the Delawares and the Shawnees lashed out against their enemies - both whites and rival tribes - who had driven them from their original homes in the east. In response Lord Jeffrey Amherst enforced a repressive Native policy that included authorizing distributing among them blankets infected with smallpox. This resulted in the bloody rebellion led by Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas, who was successful in welding a coalition of Aboriginal tribes south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi in a united resistance against the encroaching English settlers. Their assaults against the British posts were so effective that most of them fell and by the summer of 1763 more than 2000 settlers had been killed and their settlements ravaged. Although the outbreak was eventually crushed the British government regularly feared a renewal of Indian Wars and acted to prevent them.
In an attempt to buffer the Aboriginals from the whites and restrain land speculators and settlers from establishing breakaway colonies, King George III signed the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which drew a line down the crest of the Appalachians and declared settlement west of it off limits. It was hoped the Proclamation would enact a policy of pacification of the western Native tribes. It established an enlarged boundary for the colony of Quebec, the new name for New France. This was followed by the Quebec Act of 1774.(see maps) It was hoped these acts would halt westward expansion, secure land for the Natives and provide a buffer between Upper Canada and the 13 Colonies.The acts aroused nothing but frustration and bitterness in the 13 Colonies for they denied Americans access to the great, open western spaces in which they say their future. The resulting resentment and anger became one of the major causes of the American revolution.
In a relatively short period of time the Aboriginals had lost nearly all of their Atlantic homelands, the territory south of the St. Lawrence River and most of present-day southern Ontario. Few colonists took the Proclamation as anything other than a temporary delay in their inexorable march across the mountains. The single most important reason for this rapid change was the American War of Independence and the Loyalist migration to British North America resulting therefrom.
In 1794 times were tense in Upper Canada and a major reason was the unrest of Native tribes in the Northwest Territory because of the encroachment of Americans on Aboriginal lands. From George Washington's time onward, Americans used every opportunity to thrust the Native tribes westward in their relentless urge to acquire ever more land. Native peoples were pressed unrelentingly to abandon their homes and heritage in the face of the insatiable search for land in the west. While some saw the warring Aboriginals as brutal villains, others saw them as misunderstood victims. Even Washington, who acquired for himself fine fertile farmland and encouraged and supported this expansionism, recognized that Native violence was the result of white colonists and their inroads into indigenous lands. "The Indian side of the story would never make it into the history books
Robert Hamilton, a wealthy merchant in Upper Canada, remarked on this American longing for western lands in a letter to Governor Simcoe dated January 4th, 1792.
In His Own Words "The Americans seem possessed with a species of mania for getting lands which has no bounds. Their Congress, prudent, reasonable and wise in other matters, in this seems as much infected as the people."
While the Natives could not stem the flood of white newcomers who multiplied at a staggering rate, they responded to the onslaught with hatchet and flame. In addition to set-piece conflicts, the risk of skirmish, ambush and death was an ever-present fact of life for both whites and Natives. American attacks on Native settlements resulted in retaliatory raids on white squatters. The American squatters attributed much of this mayhem to the subversive activities of British Indian agents urging on the Aboriginals and keeping them well supplied with guns, ammunition and war paint. They conveniently ignored their own cavalier contempt for boundary treaties that had been solemnly signed by their leaders and the sachems.
In addition to being charged with fostering frontier fighting in the west, the British were faulted for their failure to relinquish following the American Revolution the northwestern posts which were all located on American territory. These irritants festered in the minds of Americans and as terror and tensions grew it became clear to many that the two countries were poised on the brink of war. During these tense periods between the two countries, each sought alliances with Native warriors. Both vied for the allegiance of the various tribes and spared neither energy nor expense to win them over. In New York this included paying a dollar a head to Iroquois braves who were invited aboard a French ship to see the guillotined semblance of Louis XVI's severed head dripping blood. Both countries contrived in every way they could to create jealousies and divide Native loyalties. Washington bemoaned the British success in this regard and charged them with,
In His Own Words "Seducing tribes that we have hitherto been keeping at peace at a heavy expense and who have no cause for complaint."
Britain was fortunate to have Joseph Brant's leadership to thank for keeping the Six Nations true to the King's cause. Despite Britain's friendship with Brant and the tribes of the Six Nations, William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, admitted that fair and equitable treatment of the Aboriginals was difficult to ensure because it frequently conflicted with the interests of leading men in the province. Merchants with investments in land speculation as well as local sheriffs and justices of the peace hindered government efforts to secure just treatment for the Aboriginals. This usually involved land deals.
Although land was bought and treaties were signed by British officials, the deals were often defined in the vaguest of terms. For example, northern boundaries were determined by how far a person could walk in a day or by how far one could hear the sound of a gun fired from the lakeshore. The First Nations received very little for the immense tracts of land they ceded. In 1784 the Mississaugas gave up 3 million arcres along the Niagara Pensinsula for less than 1200 pounds worth of gifts. British negotiators were always cautioned "to pay the utmost attention to Economy." Treatment of the Natives was often tawdry too. Charles II was advised to bestow on the "Indian kings" who needed wooing, "small crowns or coronets made of thin silver plate, guilt and adorned false stones."
The increasing loss of their land to white settlers was a source of continuing concern to the chiefs of the various tribes. They were aware of the ongoing negotiations between the American John Jay and his British counterpart and eagerly awaited the terms of the treaty hoping it would include provisions that would protect them and their lands from further encroachment by whitemen. They waited in vain for while the treaty referred to Aboriginal trade, it omitted any mention of Aboriginal property rights. The Natives had backed the losing side and were now at the mercy of whites on both sides of the border. Many tribes saw the extinction of their way of life "written on the wind."
While they readily admitted that Native warriors had bled freely for the King, the British proceeded to sacrifice the interests of their Native allies to the cause of accommodation with the Americans. If the Aboriginals intended to confront Americans to preserve what was left of their lands, they would simply have to shift and shoot for themselves. In the United States an important source of government revenues came from the sale of land to settlers, land which had been purchased for a pittance from the Aboriginal owners. Americans were shocked when they began to realize that increasingly tribal chiefs were becoming less willing to sell their lands to scheming individuals for mere baubles and beads. "It is no secret that the Indians are beginning to appreciate their lands, not so much for the use they make of them as by the value at which they see them estimated by those who purchase them."
As the acquisition of land from the Aboriginals became more complicated and costly, it resulted in American government agents making deals fraudulently with renegade representatives of the tribes or bribing chiefs with dollars and drink to get them to make their mark on official documents. Often land speculators simply claimed Aboriginal lands before government agents had completed their negotiations and then provoked the Natives to do something about it. When warriors responded with force to protect what was theirs the army was called in to "rescue" American interlopers. Defeat usually followed and the chiefs were forced with punitive treaties to sign away their lands. This pathetic pattern was repeated throughout the period of American's westward expansion.
"The Indians should be made to smart," declared the American general Arthur St. Clair. Congress agreed and appropriated a million dollars for a federal army to fight the western tribes. St. Clair marched to the Wabash River southwest of Lake Erie where he met and was badly beaten by a force of Shawnees and Miamis. This convinced the American government that the union of the western tribes had become too powerful to ignore and stronger forces would be required. Prior to using greater military measures half-hearted negotiations usually preceded the use of force to convince public opinion at home and abroad as Jefferson put it,
In His Own Words"that Peace was unattainable on terms the Indians would agree to.",/p>
When an important peace parley failed American commissioners sent a coded message to a waiting general."We did not effect peace." The general translated this into "Begin vigorous offensive action." This occurred at a place called Fallen Timbers on August 20th, 1794 when the army of Major-General Anthony Wayne met and defeated a large number of western warriors. Subsequent to this defeat some 110 chiefs and warriors signed the Treaty of Fort Greenville in August 1795. By this treaty, the most important Indian treaty in the history of the United States, the sachems and War Chiefs gave away 25,000 square miles which today includes most of Ohio, part of Indiana and the sites of Detroit, Chicago and a number of other mid-western cities for 25,000 dollars in trade goods - calico shirts, farm tools, trade hatchets, ribbons, combs, mirrors, and blankets and an annuity of $9500 to be divided among the tribes. It was a humilitating settlement with payments that were a pittance. Some tribes received as little as $500 a year. Few could challenge its terms for when Wayne destroyed their fields many became dependent on the United States for food. When a calumet or peace pipe was smoked by the parties to cement the terms of the treaty the ceremony was ridiculed by one American negotiator as "a tedious routine."
From a pre-contact population in the millions the number of Native peoples remaining by 1900 numbered some 250 thousand. Their dispossession makes melancholy reading. The grim truth was that when two peoples competed for the same land the stronger prevailed and the weaker simply had to accept whatever terms they could get. In return for this huge tract of the fertile frontier, pledges were given that the remaining lands would be left to the Native owners. It was not to be for the tide of white settlement was unstoppable.
Joseph Brant, Chief of the Six Nations, hoped it might not be too late to salvage something.
In His Own Words "I know that to complain of what is past will not ensure an absolute redress but I believe it may be useful to reflect upon past errors and to discuss the malconduct of public officers whereby important injuries have been done to Indians."
Chief Cornplanter thought it was already too late.
In His Own Words "Brothers, we have scarcely place left to spread our blankets. You have taken our country."
Alone among the sachems the great Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, refused to sign the treaty. Tecumseh, who was always merciful toward his captives, was a man of remarkable intelligence and ability. Noble in speech and behaviour this great orator was brave and farsighted.
In His Own Words "So live your life that fear of death can never enter your heart. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you rise in the morning give thanks for the joy of living.
Tecumseh raged against the sale of lands long held by the Aboriginals. "Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, the great sea as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make all for the use of his children? Our fathers from their tombs reproach us. I hear them wailing in the winds. We are determined to defend our land, and if it be the Creator's will, we wish to leave our bones upon it."
Tecumseh did just that. With painted face and tomahawk held high, he fell fighting from a load of buckshot in the breast near Moraviantown at the Battle of Thames. So died one very brave heart. As sunset faded into darkness his faithful warriors stole like spirits through the woods and bore his body away. His people revered him as the white men revered Brock, but their grieving saw no flags lowered, no martial music mourned his death, no stately monument marked his final resting place. They buried him stealthily by the light of flickering torches, his grave quickly blanketed by the falling autumn leaves lost forever in the mists of time.
With the Treaty of Paris in 1763 Native people living near the borderlands of the Thirteen Colonies came under British jurisdiction. Shortly thereafter the American Revolution led to the exodus of Amerindian and white Loyalists into Ontario. To secure lands for these settlers the Imperial government initiated a process whereby the Natives surrendered most of their territory to the Crown in return for some form of compensation. With the Amerindians' loss of their land came the loss of their former fishing, hunting and gathering grounds. They received in exchange land that became known as Indian reserves.
Previous / Review / Nexthttp://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/ -------------- [PDF] Respecting and Protecting the Sacred - Ministry of the Attorney ...
https://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/.../Johnston_Respecting-and-
31 Oct 2006 ... Aboriginal peoples and newcomers to Canada, has hardly been the norm. .... This origin story, which reaches back to the beginning of human history in ..... of Samuel de Champlain (1604-1616) Narrated by Himself, Volume II,. -----
---- Mathieu Da Costa: The Black man (Ladino Moor) Who Discovered Canada By Oguejiofo Annu Mathieu DaCosta was an black ladino Moorish Jew of Iberian origins. He was a Portugese Moor, and his family had lived in Portugal for at least 600 years as the lords of the land before they were brutally conquered, and expelled from Portugal by the barbaric hordes of Reconquista Gothic crusaders, under the banner of the papacy of Vatican. The Moors of Portugal were expelled by 1497, with the Edicts of expulsion and the “Leis de Limpeza de Sangue”(The Laws of the Cleaness of Blood). The “Laws of Cleaness of Blood” stated that: All Moors and Jews had to flee the Penisula. And that any gothic chretin crusader who aspired to have a middle to high ranking office in the Kingdoms had to prove that he had no Moorish or Jewish ancestry for at least five generations (until the fourth or fifth generation). The laws lasted until the end of the 18th century. Da Costa’s family was a sea trading family, probably descended from the Muurish Phoenicians of the ancient times otherwise variously called the Cartheginians, or the Canaanites, or the Moors. His family name Dacosta means “of the sea”, that they were traditional sea farers. His name, Dacosta also indicated that he was a blood Jewish Ladino, a Muurish Canaanite Jew like Louis Torres another Muurish Jew, who performed the role of interpreter for Christopher Colombus on his first American voyage. As was his family tradition, Mathieu Dacosta grew up into an able sea man, a maritime trader, and a global adventurer. Sea-farers played a crucial role in the relief of the imperiled Moors subjected to genocidal criminality by the gang of gothic reconquistadas. Upon their interdiction in Iberia by the “Bull of Toledo”, gangs of Muurish sea men organized to rescue hundreds of thousands of fleeing Moors. For instance, it is recalled that Moorish Portuguese sailor Sequeira had sailed to area now known as Lagos in 1472 with a ship load of Moorish refugees. Others like the Moorish sea farering families like the Ninos and the Pinzos of Spain (e.g. Pierto Da Nino who brought Columbus to the Americas), Estevanico also known as “Stephen the Moor” the explorer of what is now the southwest of the United States of America, and Mathieu Dacosta, who brought Champlain to Canada, were at hand to ferry the Moorish refugees from southern Europe to the continents of Africa and the Americas, to more friendly shores wherein they could start anew. Not much is written today about the life of this great black-a-moor ladino jew named Mathieu Da Costa, but the more we learn about him, the more we are convinced that the life-story of this incredible almost impossible black man, must be heard by the searchers of truth, so that much enlightenment, knowledge and beauty can be brought to culture the mental conception of modern humanity in an upful manner. Da Costa is significant because he is the start of Black Canadian culture and heritage. He combined a Ladino Jewish heritage, with a then vanishing black European heritage. He was one of the earliest, if not the earliest Canadian multi-lingualist on record. Canada has always been a multicultural country, it is thus expected that Canadians will cherish the history of this great moorish sailor, who typfied everything that Canada has become today… metropolitan, elan, panache, travel and muliticulturalism. THE FIRST WESTERNER IN CANADA There is documented evidence that Mathieu Dacosta had been frequenting the shores of Canada on trade and exploratory vogages for many years before he met Champlain, the man who is mistakenly known as the first European in Canada. See Endnotes. Mathieu Dacosta was so familiar with Canada, that he was said to be able to speak several first nations languages between the coast of Nova Scotia and the Saint Lawrence River valley. The harbours and coasts most commonly identified as places of contact between Europeans and Amerindians are the most likely spots where he would have travelled. He might also have reached places like Canso, the Bay of Fundy, and up the St. Lawrence River. It is possible that he might have made it as far inland as the Huron country, even up to the present day Ottawa valley. By the early 1600s Mathieu Da Costa could have made trips to many different locations in the service of a variety of Moorish captains and merchant backers. The Moors of Europea and West Africa were very familiar with the northeastern corner of North America, stretching from New York to Newfoundland and up the St. Lawrence River. The Moors of Iberia and Morocco had long established trading networks in those areas and were making innumerable trading and exploration voyages throughout the late 1500s and into the early 1600s. PIDGIN BASQUE One often encounters in this area of history assertions that a certain “pidgin Basque” language had evolved between the “naigres” the blacks and the aboriginals of the Americas which had been used as the major international trading language throughout the pre-gothic conquest Atlantic world. According to Marc Lescabot, a French author, poet and lawyer, best known for his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609), the aboriginal peoples of the Atlantic regions of the Americas used their own language when communicating with themselves but “for the sake of convenience spoke to us in a language which is more familiar to us with which much Basque is mingled”. This pidgin Basque (really “Afro-Amerindian”) is indisputable evidence of deep and enduring cultural contact between two indigenous peoples facing each other across the atlantics. There is nothing more substantive than language, as proof of cultural contact between two people. Centuries of sustained contact between the black Moorish Portuguese ladino Jew and Muslims of pre-gothic Portugal, and their brethrens living on the west coast of Africa in the mid-1400s had created a new language and culture, known as a pidgin which flourished all around the rim of the Atlantic, from Africa to Americas back to the coastal regions of southern Europe. It offered a blend of old latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese vocabulary interspersed with African and Amerindian terms. It generally followed West African grammatical rules and syntax. In time, the pidgin evolved into a more formal language known as a creole. Creole English, i.e. Jamaican Patois, Haitian Patois, Nigerian Pigin English are derivatives of this former global language. In this area of historiography, one often hears de-contextualized accounts from western writers about how Africans were preferred as interpreters of those languages by the visiting Europeans (presumable whites this time) in America, without an explantion of the context that saw the so-called negro becoming the arbiter of cultural contact between the visiting whites and the first nation indigenes of the Americas.  WHO ARE THOSE EUROPEAN MUURS For before the gothic conquest of Iberia, long before the rise of Rome, the black-skined children of Punt, had spread from the coast of East Africa to Northeast and Northwest Africa, and there began the ancient Moorish civilizations which are separately known as Egypt, Kush, Libya, Mauritania, Numidia, Israel, and Syria. The bible calls them the children of Ham, sometimes as the Kanaanites. The Bible, the Torah, the Koran and all other relevant books that COME out of the near east confirm that the Canaanites were an African dark skin people, the Muurs who originally rose from Africa and roamed all over the world. According to William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography 1866, the Canaanites were: “These Moors, who must not be considered as a different race from the Numidians, but as a tribe belonging to the same stock, were represented by Sallust (Sal. Jug. 21) as a remnant of the army of Hercules, and by Procopius (B. V. 2.10) as the posterity of the Cananaeans who fled from the robber Joshua; he quotes two columns with a Phoenician inscription. Procopius has been supposed to be the only, or at least the most ancient, author who mentions this inscription, and the invention of it has been attributed to himself; it occurs, however, in the history of Moses of Chorene (1.18), who wrote more than a century before Procopius. The same inscription is mentioned by Suidas (s. v.), who probably quotes from Procopius….” Most of the Arabian writers, adopted a nearly similar tradition, to wit, that the indigenous inhabitants of N. Africa were the people of Palestine, Canaanites, expelled by David, who returned to Africa under the guidance of Goliah, whom they call Djalout. (St. Martin, Le Beau, Bas Empire, vol. xi. p. 328; comp. Gibbon, c. xli.).” Those children of Africa had spread into southern Spain and Portugal, Iberia and then into the entire coast of southern Europe, before the first child of the Gothic tribe had been created in Turkmenistan, where originally comes the Germanic and the English and the French and the modern Spanish people. Those later Goths were known as the Vandals and they were the ancestors of the modern day christian Spaniards, and French and Italians. Those Goths first came to Spain in around 350 Anno Domini. Whereas the Black Europeans established the cities of Cardiz, Mareseilles, Barcelona, and hundreds of other such, had been established by Africans in Europe as early as 1000 B.C. The Moors of Europe and Africa were the spirit and light of all the ancient empires that thrived in the mediterrenean coast. They were the capsians, the Iberians, the Ibero-maurisians, the Aegeans, the Mycenians, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Ethiopians and the Moroccans, their various names, applied to one section of them or the other by over-awed foreigners. Those Moors not only had explored, mapped and measured the seas to the Indies and Sina (China), they had mapped and explored the Americas, north and south, Pacific and Atlantic, and had set up settlements on the mainlands and along the route on the Islands of the seas such as the Taino Indians, the Black Caribes, the Black Hawaiians, the Black Bajans, the Black Fijians, Tahitians, all pointing irrefutableable to an ancient presence of a sea faring black nation between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans from the most ancient of times. Those Moors also had a highly developed trading network in the north Atlantic sea-board of the Americas. They traded with their settlements which traded with the red skin and the dark skin first nations. They grew stupendously rich from this trade. And so when the goths crashed in on Spain and Portugal in the 15th century, they walked into an Eldorado of gold. And this explains why they hurried across the Atlantic seeking the “Eldorado” Because the moors had taught them all of this. It takes hundreds of years of patient expedition and interaction between two people before a trusting enduring network of trade and familial relationship will subsit. It takes just about the same time to develop a new culture, a new language, that supports that trade and interaction. The presence of black people all over the Atlantic and Pacific Island and mainland can no longer be denied. Technology has brought the knowledge of them to the whole world. The existence of such a language that developed between African Moors and indigenous first nation in north eastern sea board of the Americas is long established. Thanks to the memory of black men like Mathieu Dacosta, who between 1604-06 brought the Champlain expedition to Port Royal, and served as the interpreter between the French and the Micmac Indians of the area; and to Luis Torres, a black Marano-Ladino Jew who served as translator for Christopher Colons (Columbus) on his first voyage to the Americas. The preeminent mastery and dominance of this creole culture that supported a network of trade and cultural contact thousands of years old, by African so-called “interperters” demonstrates that again the deep involvment of pre-columbian Africans to the development of this trans-Atlantic language. Again it is stressed that numerous European scholars take pains to point out, eventhough biased in their narrative, that Europeans (so-called whites) explorers (first timers) sought out particularly the help of Africans and moors to facilitate interaction between them and the natives of the Americas. Thanks again to the memory of men like Mathieu Dacosta, this truth is demonstrable. All this is to say, that the Moors and the Africans brought the gothic descendants of today’s Europe to the Americas. Not the other way round. But then, just as happened in Rome, in Spain, in Gaul, the children of the Vandals, ran riot, went viral, destroyed, violated and vandalized all relationship between nations and nations, nations and material, and nations and the spiritual. The children of the goths performed an act of perfidy on everyone, stole America, and set themselves up, puff up and big up like some poisonous adder; setting itself up for the grand humiliation from the true Judges which is just around the corner. To reiterate once more, when the children of the gothic conquerors of civilization began their intrusion into Iberia as the chretin crusaders warring for the Pope of Vatican city, they were late comers in history. When the christians conquered Portugal and Spain, they simply inherited and debased the centuries old trade network established by the Phoenicians and Afro Carthegnians, maintained and further expanded by the Moors of Iberia. For instance , it has been observed that Christopher Colons (Colombus) never commanded anything more than a river canoe before he was taken to America by the Spaniard and Portugese black Ladino Muurish families of the Pinzos and the Ninos. Those inland bound christians, who never before had any interaction with the sea, now sailed on Afro-Cartheginians designed ships, piloted by Moorish captains; those gothic christians were inducted by the Afro-Moorish muslims and ladinos into sea-faring and international trading, and literally led by the hand to those Moorish lands across the Atlantics in the so-called Americas, where ageless networks of lucrative trading had been dealing in prosperity from a time without beginning. Da Costa may have participated in several of those voyages. As a sailor, ship pilot and international trader, Mathieu Dacosta brought Sur de Mons and Champlain from Paris to Canada at the start of the expedition that would give Canada its first permanent European settlement, between 1605 and 1608. There was another seaman of African descent on that voyage, who had died of stomach ailment and was buried in Canada. As an multi-linguist and someone very familiar with the first nation Canadians, he was sought after by both the French and the Dutch to help in their trading with Aboriginal peoples. He was so sought after that the Dutch secret service plotted and kidnapped away from the French in Paris and literally carried him over the border to the Nedetherlands. This affair formed the subject of a famous case known as the Hauge trial in Europe around 1608. In other to have been of use to all those various nations and peoples, Dacosta must in addition to several Canadian aboriginal languages he spoke,likely spoken French, Dutch, Portuguese, as well as the so-called “pidgin Basque.” The last-named language as we saw earlier on, was a very common trade language used in dealing with some nations of the Aboriginal peoples and the Moors of Europe and Africa. It is clear that when Mathieu Da Costa had first arrived in Canada that none of the persons such as de Mons or Champlain had even been aware of the existence of the country. As such, we know with certainty that Mathieu Da Costa holds the eminent position as the first recorded European, black European moor, in history to have visited and lived in the country Canada. It was not Champlain, the white Frenchman from Paris, who is wrongly attributed as the “discoverer of Canada” in official Canadian history. Champlain was literally led by the nose into Canada, by Mathieu Da Costa, the Black Jewish Ladino Moor, from Portugal. Honour should always repose in its proper place, and water will always find its level. Oguejiofo Annu February 2011 (for my children Ani, Osita and Dovi, Muurish Ladino Canadians, so that they remember their origins) ENDNOTES Literary Evidence “Documents generated in Europe between 1607 and 1619 provide the only “facts” there are that relate to Mathieu Da Costa. The first document dates from February 1607, when Da Costa was in Holland. At issue was the apparent enticement or kidnapping of Da Costa by the Dutch away from the French. Implied but not stated was that Da Costa had been working as an interpreter, or had contracted to do so, when Dutch interests had intervened. One might conclude that Da Costa had been involved in the Pierre Dugua de Mons’ trading activities along the St. Lawrence River, but that is not stated. The following year, 1608, Da Costa signed a contract in Amsterdam that committed him to sail with or on behalf of Dugua de Mons as an interpreter “pour les voyages de Canada, Cadie et ailleurs.” “It is significant that the relevant documents specified voyages in the plural, and perhaps as well that Canada was mentioned before Acadia (“Cadie”). The expectation was undoubtedly to make use of Da Costa’s talents in trading voyages around the Atlantic region, certainly including up the St. Lawrence River (which is what was meant by the reference to Canada). Da Costa’s contract with Dugua was to take effect in January 1609 and to last for three years. The annual salary was to be 60 crowns, about 195 livres, which was a significant amount. Unfortunately for Dugua de Mons, the monopoly that the French Protestant trader possessed was not renewed at the end of 1608. He never made it back to Port Royal. Nor was there any French presence at that post from late 1607 to 1610. Nevertheless, the Sieur de Mons “continued to participate actively in the Canadian trade and to encourage the exploration and settlement of the country until 1617.” Perhaps Da Costa participated in some of those voyages? He well might have, yet not in the first few months of his contractual relationship. In the spring of 1609, Mathieu Da Costa was not on board a ship heading for North America; he was in Rouen. The next reference has him imprisoned in Le Havre in December 1609. What had occurred is not known but the mention of “insolences” suggests that Da Costa possessed an independent spirit and spoke his mind freely.” See also: A. J. B. Johnston Parks, “Dacosta” , http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/Mathieu%20Da%20Costa%20A_J_B%20Johnston.htm Oguejiofo Annu, The Marranos: The Black Moorish Jews of Spain and Benin (Guinean) Coast (Part 1), http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/black-jews-of-spain-and-benin-guinean-coast-part-1-oguejiofo-annu/ George R. Gibson, Mellungeons and myth, http://www.banjohistory.com/article/detail/2_mellungeons_and_myth Jack H. Goins, Mellungeons and other Pioneer families Jide Uwechia, The Moorish Cities of Lagos in Nigeria and Portugal, http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-moorish-cities-of-lagos-in-nigeria-and-portugal-jide-uwechia/ Moors – History, Origins, Etymology, Human population genetics, Historical images, Other Moors in history, Present-day Moors http://encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com/pages/15392/Moors.html#ixzz0c8gtjLQ2 Dacosta: 400 years of Black Canadiana, http://www.dacosta400.ca/cavalcade/mathieudacosta.shtml History of Newfoundland and Labrador - Wikipedia, the free ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../History_of_Newfoundland_and_Labrador - Cached
France ceded its claims to Newfoundland to the British (as well as its claims to the shores ... By 1620, 300 fishing boats worked the Grand Bank, employing some 10,000 sailors; many ... The Liberal Party, based on the Irish Catholic vote, alternated with the ... 1,000; Salvationists, 6,600; Moravians, Baptists and others, 1,600. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.