صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

IV.

SECT. from the Downs,) and met with nothing of consequence, till such time as they judged themselves to 1605. be very near the coast of what was then called Virginia; but the winds carrying them to the northward, in the latitude of 41° 30', and their wood and water beginning to grow extremely short, they became very desirous of seeing land. By their charts they had reason to expect it, and therefore bore directly in with it, according to their instructions, yet they found none in a run of almost 50 leagues. After running this distance they discovered several islands, on one of which they landed, and called it St. George. Within three leagues of this island, they came into a harbour, which they called Pentecost harbour, because it was about Whitsuntide they discovered it. They then sailed up a great river forty miles; set up crosses in several places, and had some traffick with the natives. In July they returned to England, carrying with them five Indians; one a Sagamore, and three others of them, persons of distinction, whom they had taken as prisoners.§

* In Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 223, this island is said to be that which is now called Long island, near New York. + In the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 240, this harbour is said to be the mouth of Hudson's river.

This river is said by Oldmixon, in his British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 220, to have been "the river of Powhatan," now called James's river, in Virginia. Dr. Belknap (American Biog. ii, 149,) is satisfied, that it was the Penobscot, in Maine; but from the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 240, it would seem to have been the Hudson's; which is the most probable, if (according to Harris's Voyages, just cited,) the island above-mentioned was Long Island.

§ See Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 223. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 150.

SECTION V.

The progress of the French in settling colonies in America-A settlement of convicts on the Isle of Sables, by the French-Chauvin's voyages to the St. Lawrence-Pontgrave's voyage to the sameThe Sieur de Mont's commission, and voyages under it-His patent revoked-Pontrincourt's endeavours to fix a settlement at Port Royal, Nova Scotia-The Sieur de Mont obtains a restoration of his grant-and establishes the first permanent colony in Canada, under the conduct of Champlain.

SECT. V.

gress

THE connection which necessarily subsists between the events attending the early settlements of the French in Acadia, now called Nova Scotia, 1598. and Canada, and those of the former British colo- The pronies in North America, must apologise for a short of the digression here, in taking a cursory notice of the in settling early progress of those French settlements. In do. colonies in ing this it will be necessary to carry the attention of America. the reader a few years back.

That great and good monarch, Henry IV, of France, (having acceded to the throne of that kingdom in the year 1589,) as soon as he had defeated his enemies, the Guise faction, and obtained quiet possession of the crown, with a liberality of mind, which always marked his character, issued his edict of the 4th of July, 1590, whereby he revoked those extorted from his predecessor by the Leaguers, and established religious liberty of conscience throughout his dominions. A restless disposition, however, which appears to have too much attended the conduct of the Hugonots or Protestants of France,

French

North

V.

SECT. throughout their unhappy civil wars of the sixteenth century, did not permit them to rest quiet 1598. with these concessions of Henry.* Indeed, as he had been a Protestant and one of their leaders, and had obtained the crown principally by their means, they might naturally look up to him for greater fa vours than a mere toleration. Be this as it may, he thought it proper to yield to the importunities of their deputies, who had for that purpose waited upon him at Nantz, where he then was, by issuing another edict, bearing date the 13th of April, 1598, since well known and celebrated in history under the emphatic denomination of "The Edict of Nantz;" the revocation of which by Louis the fourteenth, in the year 1685, is said to have been productive of much mischief to France for many succeeding years. By this edict of Henry, the Protestants were, not only restored to the free enjoyment of their religion, and a safe protection in their civil rights by the establishment of particular tribunals of justice for them, but they were also advanced to an almost equal share of political liberty, by a free admission to all employments of trust, profit, and honour in the state.†

France, having thus recovered some tranquillity after fifty years of internal commotion since her last attempts at colonisation in 1549,‡ was now enabled

The Hugonots, or Protestants of France, are said to have been at this time, about a twelfth part of the nation.Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV, Vol. 2, p. 183.

† Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 24. p. 334, 342, 377.

See before, p. 41.

V.

A settle.

convicts

of Sables,

by the

to exercise again, the enterprising talents of her citi- SECT. zens. In the same year in which the Protestants obtained from Henry the edict of Nantes, (1598,) 1598. the Marquis de la Roche, a Breton gentleman, re- ment of ceiving from the king a commission to conquer on the isle Canada, and other countries, not possessed by any Christian prince, sailed from France, in quality of French. lord-lieutenant of those countries, taking with him a person of the name of Chetodel, of Normandy, for his pilot. The marquis, having most absurdly pitched upon the isle of Sables, (which lies about fifty leagues to the south-east of Cape Breton, is about ten leagues in circumference, and is itself a mere sand-bank,) as a proper place for a settlement, left there about forty malefactors, the refuse of the French jails. The history of those poor wretches, contains the history of the expedition. The marquis, after cruising for some time on the coast of Nova Scotia, returned to France, without being able to carry them off the miserable island; and is said to have died of grief for having lost all his interest. at that court. As for his wretched colony, they must all have perished, had not a French ship been wrecked upon the island, and a few sheep driven upon it at the same time. wreck, they erected huts; with the sheep, they supported nature: and when they had eat them up, they lived on fish. Their clothes wearing out, they made coats of seal's skins; and in this miserable condition, they spent seven years, till Henry IV ordered

With the boards of the

* See a like colony of convicts authorised by the commission to Quartier, before mentioned, and referred to in a note in p. 40.

V.

1598.

SECT. Chetodel to go and bring them back to France. Chetodel found only twelve of them alive; and when he returned, Henry had the curiosity to see them in their seal-skin dresses. Their appearance moved this generous and humane monarch so much, that he ordered them a general pardon for their offences, and gave each of them fifty crowns to begin the world with anew.*

Though la Roche's patent had been very ample and exclusive, yet private adventurers still continued to trade to the river St. Lawrence, without any notice being taken of them by the government. Amongst others was one Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo, who had made several trading voyages for furs, to Tadoussac.† Upon the death of the Marquis de la Roche, his patent was renewed in favour of Mons. de Chauvin, a commander in the French navy, who put himself under the direction of Pontgravé; as the latter might justly be supposed, from his frequent trading voyages to that country, to have acquired a considerable knowledge of 1600. it. In the year 1600, Chauvin, attended by PontChauvin's gravé, made a voyage to Tadoussac, where he left to the St. some of his people, and returned with a very proLawrence. fitable quantity of furs to France. These people,

voyages

whom he left, would have perished by hunger or disease, during the following winter, but for the compassion of the natives. Chauvin, in the next

*Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408.

Tadoussac is a town, or place, at the mouth of the Saguenay, a small river emptying into the St. Lawrence from the north, considerably below Quebec, and ninety leagues from the mouth of the St. Lawrence.

« السابقةمتابعة »