Section II, 1888. [ 3 ] Trans. Eoy. Soc. Canada, 



I — The Romance of the History of Canada. 

 By John Talon-Lesperance. 



(Read May 24, 1888.) 



In former papers read before the English Section of the Eoyal Society, I dwelt on the 

 difficulty of writing the history of Canada, because of the peculiar circumstances attending 

 the discovery, settlement and administration of the country. There is, perhaps, no young 

 people, quietly plodding along and striving to keep step with the march of modern civi- 

 lization, whose origin is invested with so many elements of originality as ours, and it is 

 safe to say that, without a full knowledge and keen appreciation of these, it were hope- 

 less for even the most skilful writer to attempt a history of the present Dominion. This 

 remark applies in great measure to the second half of our national career, the century 

 and a quarter since the Conquest of 1759-60 ; but it belongs more strikingly to the first 

 half, from the earliest days of discovery to the capitulation of Vaudreuil. To sum up that 

 individual character, I shall call it Romance — and hence this short paper will be taken 

 up with some thoughts on the Romance of Canadian History. 



"We need not go farther back than Cartier. In his three voyages of 1534, 1535, and 

 1541-42 — his fourth ended in naught, even if it was ever made — he descried Blanc Sablon, 

 in Labrador ; the Magdalen Islands ; the Gaspé coast ; then Tadoussac, Quebec and Hoche- 

 laga, and by his published reports settled the site of Verazzani's New France in the 

 minds of his French countrymen. Everyone of Cartier's voyages would furnish a chapter 

 for a novel. That which immediately followed, Roberval's, has afforded material for 

 two clever Canadian dramatic poems, Martin's "Margaret" and Duvar's "De Roberval." 

 There was a merciful stroke of Providence in the wreck of De la Roche's expedition, 1598, 

 on Sable Island, as his ships were freighted with convicts from the gaols and galleys. 

 Not one of these set foot in New France, the surviving twelve being carried back to their 

 country. Two years later, in 1600, Pontgravé steps upon the scene, followed at first by 

 a captain named Chauvin, and a gentleman named De Monts, and a little later by the 

 Commandant of Dieppe, high in favour with Henry IV. Alongside of these men, appears 

 the figure of Champlaiu, in the strength of six and thirty years, thirty more of which he 

 was to devote to the settlement of New France. Indeed, Champlain may be called the 

 father of Canada. In 1603, he made his first voyage, ascending the St. Lawrence to the 

 Sault St. Louis, a little above Montreal. The next year he set sail from France, under 

 De Monts, with Pontgravé, Poutrincourt and the historian Lescarbot, for Acadia, where a 



