Columbus and Other Heroes of American DiscoveryD'Anvers, N.
History
Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery
D'Anvers, N.
America -- Discovery and exploration; North America -- Discovery and exploration
A year or two before this event, so auspicious to French interests
in the West, a new association had been formed in France, known as
the “Company of the Hundred Associates,” to whom Louis XIII. had
given the whole of Canada and of Florida――though the latter, as we are
aware, was already claimed by Spain――together with a monopoly of the
fur-trade. The cod and whale fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
however, the French monarch reserved for himself.
The joy of the Company of the Hundred Associates, on the restoration
of the privileges which had so suddenly been snatched away from them
by Kirk, may be imagined. They at once elected Champlain Governor of
New France, and he returned to his old home at Quebec in 1633, taking
with him a large party of new settlers, including many Jesuits, who
were to form the nucleus of a college for the education of the youth
of Canada, from which missionaries were to be sent forth for the
conversion of the natives.
Having patched up something of a peace with the Indians, and founded
his college, Champlain prepared to continue that part of his work
which was nearest his heart――the further exploration of the country;
but before he could organize an expedition to the West, his career
was cut short by death. He expired in December, 1635, having sown the
seeds of the future greatness of Canada, and inaugurated a new era of
geographical discovery.
Champlain was succeeded as Governor of Canada by M. de Montonaguy, a
man of a very different stamp, who, while displaying great ability and
address in his management of the internal affairs of the colony and
his dealings with the treacherous Iroquois, did little to extend our
knowledge of the country under his charge.
To continue our narrative of the progress of discovery in French
America, we must leave the ruling powers to join two obscure Jesuit
missionaries, named Brébœuf and Daniel, the advance guard of that
heroic band of laborers for the faith of Christ who led the way in
every early expedition from Canada, and with whose names is associated
the origin of every great town on the vast inland seas which are now
among the proudest possessions of England.
Brébœuf and Daniel, who had both already done good work among the
natives, left Quebec on their joint mission in 1634, with a party of
Huron Indians, and after just such another arduous journey through the
forest and up the Ottawa as that taken by Champlain a few years before,
they arrived safely on the banks of Georgian Bay. Here they pitched
their tents, and in a short time they gathered about them a little
band of converts to the Roman Catholic faith, for whose use a little
chapel, built of the trunks of trees, was presently erected, which was
dedicated to St. Joseph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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