The Founder of New France : A Chronicle of ChamplainColby, Charles W. (Charles William)
History
The Founder of New France : A Chronicle of Champlain
Colby, Charles W. (Charles William)
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Champlain, Samuel de, 1574-1635
This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed which
governments could not ignore. The colonial movement was far from being a
dominant interest with Henry IV or James I, but when their subjects
saw fit to embark upon it privately, the crown was compelled to take
cognizance of their acts and frame regulations. 'Go, and let whatever
good may, come of it!' exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt as Joan of Arc
rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate France. In much the same spirit
Henry IV saw De Monts set sail for Acadia. The king would contribute
nothing from the public purse or from his own. Sully, his prime
minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished to concentrate
effort upon domestic improvements. He believed, in the second place,
that there was no hope of creating a successful colony north of the
fortieth parallel. Thirdly, he was in the pay of the Dutch.
The most that Henry IV would do for French pioneers in America was to
give them a monopoly of trade in return for an undertaking to transport
and establish colonists. In each case where a monopoly was granted the
number of colonists was specified. As for their quality, convicts could
be taken if more eligible candidates were not forthcoming. The sixty
unfortunates landed by La Roche on Sable Island in 1598 were all
convicts or sturdy vagrants. Five years later only eleven were left
alive.
For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch upon the
relations of the French government with traders at a date earlier than
1599. Immediately following the failure of La Roche's second expedition,
Pierre Chauvin of Honfleur secured a monopoly which covered the
Laurentian fur trade for ten years. The condition was that he should
convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the full period of
his grant. So far from carrying out this agreement either in spirit
or letter, he shirked it without compunction. After three years the
monopoly was withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to fulfil
his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants who desired
their share of the trade. To adjudicate between Chauvin and his rivals
in St Malo and Rouen a commission was appointed at the close of 1602.
Its members were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and the Sieur de
la Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On their
recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so modified as to admit to
a share in the privilege certain leading merchants of Rouen and St Malo,
who, however, must pay their due share in the expenses of colonizing.
Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De Chastes at once
took his place as the central figure in the group of those to whom a new
monopoly had just been conceded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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