Canada -- History -- 1763-1867; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)
Now amongst free-born Britons all this royal interference would have
been resented. Britons like to manage their own private affairs.
They would call Louis the Fourteenth's system "paternalism," and in
truth the system was a failure, because it discouraged the principle
of independence. No spirit of self-reliance was stimulated amongst
the people. They looked to the Government for everything, not to
themselves. The result was that many of the strongest and most
self-reliant amongst the young men preferred to live a life of
freedom and adventure in the wilderness, hunting, fishing, and
trading, rather than suffer the constraints imposed upon them by the
well-meaning Talon. Thus came about the creation of a famous class
called the _coureurs de bois_, or bushrangers, who at last spread
themselves all over Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, owning
no laws but their own, living like Indians, taking unto themselves
Indian wives, and rearing half-breed children. Talon and all the
Governors, Intendants, and Bishops were very angry with these men,
who thus set the wishes of the good King at defiance, and made many
laws against them. But in vain! The bushrangers, valorous,
picturesque, and their companions, the _voyageurs_, continued to
flourish almost until our own day.
{93}
CHAPTER VII
STRANGE DOINGS AT PORT ROYAL
We left the loyal, undaunted Charles de la Tour, whom his Huguenot
father, Sir Claude, had tempted in vain to enter the English service,
master once more of Port Royal in Acadia, and in high favour with
King Louis the Thirteenth. All Acadia as well as Canada was given
back to the French by the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, and King
Louis and his Court were now inclined to abandon their policy of
indifference and begin the work of colonising anew. In the spring of
1632 a nephew of Richelieu's, Captain de Razilly, arrived in Acadia
with a shipload of colonists, including artisans, farmers, several
Capuchin friars, and some gentry. Amongst the latter were Nicholas
Denys and an extraordinary person, Charles de Menou, Chevalier de
Charnisay.
The new Governor-General of Acadia was so struck by the natural
beauties of La Heve that he fixed his residence there, in preference
to Port Royal, which the Scotch had taken care to dismantle before
sailing away. Naturally young De la Tour was very jealous at
Razilly's coming. He thought the King ought to have appointed him
Governor, instead of giving him the mere lordship over a limited
territory. {94} With Razilly's death in the following year De la
Tour thought his chance had come. But again his hopes were
frustrated. It appeared that Razilly had ceded all his rights to
Charnisay, his Deputy-Governor, whose first act was to remove from La
Heve and take up residence at Port Royal, where he built a new fort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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