were vain and given to luxury; but these qualities were in a large measure the result of the circumstances in which they were placed and the general influences of the time. How could they fail to be fond of adventure when incitements to it presented themselves on every hand, and the rewards that it promised were so much more tempting than those to be derived from the tillage of the soil? It was human nature in those days to prefer the gun to the spade, and the paddle to the scythe. If they were vain and fond of luxury and show, it proceeded in part from innate taste, and in part from the example of those above them, who, in turn, reflected the manners, the habits, and the tone of the most luxurious court in Europe. It soon began to be observed that a given class in Canada represented a higher degree of refinement and culture than a similar class in European France. The reason was that, in the vast spaces and free air of a new continent, human nature had more scope for expansion; ambition was stirred; thought and imagination were quickened. The old seed was germinating with new power in a virgin soil. The people were gay, chivalrous, courteous, and brave, with an underlying tenacity of purpose and power of industry ready to be revealed in due season under more settled conditions of life. That intemperance was a serious evil there can be no doubt; but that, too, was more or less incidental to the times. The physique of the people was good; and, if their moral habits were not all that

THE CANADIAN PEOPLE

their spiritual guides could have wished. they were at least free from serious corruption. In a word, the Canadians of that period lived, on the whole, healthy lives, and were planting a hardy and enduring race on the soil they had made their

own.

CHAPTER VIII

GOVERNORSHIP OF MARQUIS DE DENONVILLE

HE

1685 TO 1689

TH Marquis de Denonville was sent to

66

Canada to retrieve a difficult and dangerous situation. He was a soldier by profession, and had had thirty years' experience of military life. His courage and honour were alike beyond question. In morals he was irreproachable. He was one of those laymen who are half churchmen; and on the voyage from France he greatly edified Saint Vallier by the gravity of his conduct and his punctilious observance of all the forms and practices of religion. "He spent," Saint Vallier himself tells us, 'nearly all his time in prayer and the reading of good books. The Psalms of David were always in his hands. In all the voyage I never saw him do anything wrong; and there was nothing in his words or acts which did not show a solid virtue and a consummate prudence, as well in the duties of the Christian life as in the wisdom of this world." Three years later Saint Vallier speaks of him in terms of equal praise, adding that "there is no need to be astonished at the benedictions which God is bestowing upon his government and upon his enterprises against the Indians." Unfortunately, this interpretation of the ways of Providence

preceded by just a year the greatest calamity in early Canadian history, the massacre of Lachine.

The three hundred men who were sent out with Denonville were far from constituting, even had their number not been sensibly reduced by fever on the voyage, the reinforcement he required in order to assume the offensive against the Iroquois with any hope of success. He was compelled, therefore, to temporize while making the most earnest appeals for a more liberal supply of troops. To counteract English intrigues among the Five Nations, he sent numerous presents in that direction, and carefully avoided any acts which could precipitate a conflict. One of the chief perils of the situation was the disaffection produced in the minds of the Lake tribes by the dismal failure of La Barre's expedition of 1684. The only way to regain credit, he says in a despatch to the minister (Seignelay), dated 12th June 1686, is to put a sufficient number of French troops, militia and regulars, into the field to attack and defeat the Iroquois without any assistance from the western allies. He wished to begin building blockhouses for defensive purposes, but was afraid to do so, lest the enemy should consider it a preparation for war. Like La Barre, he entered into correspondence with the governor of New York, Colonel Dongan, but in a more guarded manner. He wrote first simply announcing his appointment to the governorship of Canada. Dongan replied in his usual high-flown manner with many expressions