powerful tribe of that name he established a mission of the Récollets, intended by him for a centre of French influence, and of hostility to the Iroquois Confederacy, which he had early encountered in battle near the lake afterwards named for him.

The history of New France from this time to the end of the seventeenth century is a history of one long struggle with the Dutch and English at Albany and New York for the good will and trade of the Indians, in which the Iroquois in general antagonized the French, and the Hurons, with the Algonquin tribes, were their firm friends and supporters. But the French were unable to protect their allies against the proud and fierce confederacy, and the Hurons were driven from their ancient home and took up their abode at Michilimackinac, where they were joined by the Ottawas. But at Michilimackinac they were again assailed by their old enemies, and fled in terror before them to the country beyond Lake Superior, only to come there into conflict with the Illinois, who drove them on to the Mississippi. But there they encountered the Sioux, an enemy not less fierce or formidable than the Iroquois, and finding neither peace nor safety elsewhere, they returned to the Straits of Michilimackinac, and there, in 1671, Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission for them.

The Jesuits took early possession of the mis

THE POLICY OF THE JESUITS.

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sions in New France, and members of that order devoted themselves to the conversion of the Indians with a zeal that spared no endeavor and no artifice, shrank from no privation, quailed before no danger, and was fully in accord with the religious spirit of the day, which could persecute to the death, or submit to martyrdom at the hands of others, with undoubting confidence in either case that Heaven approved the cruelty or the sacrifice. But nothing in the policy of the order favored colonization from Europe; the fathers had come into the wilderness as apostles to the Indians, and it was no part of their mission to people America from France. On the contrary, their mission was to bring the religion of the cross to the people by whom America was already possessed. New colonies must bring with them the vices of civilized life; and the savage nature would be quite certain to add these to such as already belonged to it. A French settlement must, therefore, to some extent be inimical to the success of a mission; and in so far as the colonists failed to observe the sacred precepts of the religion they professed, their proximity would tend to bring religion into contempt in savage eyes, and greatly to increase the labors and perplexities of religious teachers.

But the policy of the fur traders was scarcely less unfriendly to colonization than was that of the Jesuits. Monopolies in the fur trade were

granted from the very first, and though conditions were attached to the grants which required the settlement of colonists within territory indicated, it was not to be expected that attention would be given to the conditions any farther than it should be compelled. The grants were made and received for the profit of the grantees, and as their gains were to be gathered in the wilderness, their interest was to preserve the forests, not to destroy them. The conditions for colonization never had more than nominal fulfillment until settlement began in earnest upon the rock of Quebec. Even then the earnestness was but partial, for most of those who were brought over came for hire, and not in pursuance of any deliberate choice to exchange their native country for a home in the new world. Finding everything in New France given over to monopoly, these men either became irregular traders, or took up a roving and lawless life among the Indians, constituting that peculiar class of men known as coureurs de bois, whose ambition was fully satisfied if by gun and trap they were able to provide for the limited wants of a life of careless indolence. In 1637, when Richelieu was at the head of affairs, an effort was made in the direction of colonization which seemed to promise great results. Previous grants of monopoly were annulled, and a company of a hundred associates was formed, with Richelieu at its head, to which was granted a perma

SCHEMES FOR COLONIZATION.

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nent monopoly of the trade in furs, skins, and leather, and a monopoly for fifteen years of the whole colonial trade, by land and sea, with the exception of the cod and whale fisheries, which were left free. The scope of the grant embraced the whole of New France, from Florida to the Arctic circle, and on its part the company undertook to convey to New France within the next year two or three hundred men of various trades, and before the year 1643 to increase the number to four thousand, lodging and supporting them for three years, and then giving them for their maintenance lands ready for cultivation. In another age and under other circumstances this undertaking might have borne fruit; but bigotry was then dominant and unrelenting in France, and it would neither tolerate a heretic at home, nor permit him to become the means of extending the glory and power of his native land in the distant wilderness. Every settler was, therefore, required to be a Catholic, and for every settlement at least three ecclesiastics must be provided. The scheme was doomed by its very conditions, for the French nature is little disposed to expatriation, and the class of the people to whom persecution had made emigration a temptation was vigorously excluded from the offer the associates were permitted to make. The company was not prosperous, and in 1663 it was dissolved.

But the dissolution of this company did not

result in freedom to trade. The next year the French West India Company was formed, to which a monopoly still more extensive was granted; but this also was not prosperous, and in 1674 its privileges, with some reservations, were surrendered. Other grants of monopoly followed in succession, the last expiring in 1731; and while they had the effect to prevent immigration and settlement, they also tended to paralyze trade of every sort, to check enterprise, and to incline the lower classes to prefer a life of slothful ease and independence in the woods to one of unprofitable service for the monopolists.

Had trade been free there would still have been serious impediments to settlement in New France. Among the chief of these was the complicated despotism of the government. No English colony had anything similar, and none would have tolerated it. First of its officers was the governorgeneral, usually a man of noble birth, and nominally the king's immediate representative. Then there was the intendant, who was the king's spy upon the governor-general, possessed of large independent judicial powers, and expected to report fully and frequently, as well as secretly, to the minister. He judged all the king's causes, and might create inferior courts. Commonly, the governor-general and the intendant were at loggerheads, and their correspondence with the minister was burdened with mutual complaints.