At Quebec there was now great harmony. A lasting colony was
established. Piety and religion flourished and the seeds of a good and
noble population for Canada were sown. After many struggles success
seemed now to be rewarding the efforts of Champlain. One shudders to
think of what the future of Canada had been if the "convict" colonies
of Roberval and la Roche had come to any permanency. We may note now
two important movements helping to civilize the natives, which show
the real desire of the new régime to fulfill its vocation. The first
was the endeavour made by Champlain to nip in the bud the sale of
intoxicating liquors to the natives in exchange for peltry already
introduced by the preceding companies and by the English under Kerth.
Champlain forbade anyone to trade wine or _eau de vie_ with the natives
under penalty of corporal punishment and the loss of their salaries
as servants of the company. The second was the establishment by the
Jesuits of a free boarding school for boys in the house of Notre Dame
des Anges left them by the Recollects for the instruction of the Huron
children. This method of civilization of the natives already employed
by the Recollects was considered a most useful preliminary to the
civilization of the natives by thus Gallicizing and Christianizing
them, and attracted many.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S FORTIFIED RESIDENCE AT QUEBEC]
That all these institutions were in line with Champlain's policy we see
in Champlain's letter to Cardinal Richelieu, dated August 15, 1635.
After saying that some of the Indians were sedentary and lived in
villages and towns, while others were migratory hunters and fishers,
all led by no other desire than to have a number of Frenchmen and
religious teachers to instruct them in the faith, he adds, "We require
but 120 men light armed for protection against the arrows. Possessing
them, with two or three thousand more Indians, our allies, in a year we
can render ourselves absolute masters of all these peoples by bringing
among them the necessary good government and this policy would increase
the worship of religion and an inconceivable commerce. The whole for
the glory of God." In the last phrase we may see Champlain's whole
policy unfolded.
But the days of Samuel de Champlain, Sieur de Brouage, were drawing to
a close. To found this colony he had suffered many perils by land and
sea, many fatigues, privations and opposition of friends and enemies.
Paralysis now weakened his splendid physique and sturdy form, and after
two months and a half of suffering he died on Christmas day, December
25, 1635. His death was most edifying, as the Jesuit chronicler
relates. His obsequies were attended by the grief-stricken colony in a
body, the settlers, the soldiers, the captains and the religious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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