H. II. MILES, LL.D., D.C.L., SECRETARY OF THE QUEBEC COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. MONTREAL: DAWSON BROTHERS. 1872. Can 160,17 B Harvard College Library FRANCIS FARKMAN Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, by DAWSON BROTHERS, in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-two, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. PREFACE. THE History of Canada embraces two great sections, of which the first-the subject of the work now presented to the public-is complete in itself, and covers a period of 229 years. It begins with the discovery of the coasts of New Brunswick and Gaspé in 1534, and of the St Lawrence in 1535, followed by an intercourse, maintained during the ensuing three quarters of a century, between the natives frequenting the great river, and the people of France through the agency of their traders and fur-companies, and resulting in the permanent occupation of the country by French colonists, troops, military and civil functionaries, and religious missionaries. These, having their headquarters at Quebec, and their numbers augmented through the natural increase of the settlers, and the fresh arrivals from France from time to time (although, from first to last, the total number of immigrants furnished by direct importation from the mother country is thought not to have exceeded eight thousand souls, exclusive of the troops sent out in 1666, and subsequently during the seven years' war), gradually extended the settlement of the fertile lands along the banks of the St Lawrence and the Richelieu, and established numerous b |