CANADA 



1121 



CANADA 



and other officials, who resented his attempts 

 to regulate the fur trade. The king, in disgust, 

 finally recalled both Frontenac and Duches- 

 neau, the intendant, in 1682. 



Not the least of Frontenac's services to New 

 France was the opening of the West. The 

 Jesuits had heretofore given most of their 

 attention to the Hurons, but the practical de- 

 struction of this nation by the Iroquois left 

 them without a field. Frontenac encouraged 

 them to go into the unexplored West, and he 

 gave aid to Marquette and Joliet, to La Salle 

 and Tonty. These men discovered the Missis- 

 sippi and traced it to its mouth, thus giving 

 France a claim on the great interior valley 

 which it finally surrendered to the United 

 States in 1803. Posts were established at Mack- 

 inac, Niagara and other points, and New France 

 seemed embarked on a new era of prosperity. 

 See MARQUETTE; JOLIET; LA SALLE. 



The French, however, were not without am- 

 bitious rivals, for in the north the Hudson's 

 Bay Company (which see) was taking away 

 the trade of the northern Indians, and on the 

 southeast Albany was becoming a great center 

 for marketing furs. Frontenac's successors, 

 moreover, were unable to handle the Iroquois 

 Indians as Frontenac had done. Attempts to 

 conquer or conciliate resulted in enraging them, 

 and for several years they put an end to 

 the French fur trade. Their raids had a terrible 

 climax at Lachine, which they destroyed to a 

 house and to a man. In this crisis, King 

 Louis XIV turned again to Frontenac, who 

 seemed the only man, in spite of his seventy 

 years, to save the colony from destruction. 



The Struggle for New France. The reap- 

 pointment of Fronteaac coincided with the 

 beginning of the struggle between France and 

 England France to keep New France, Eng- 

 land to conquer it. There had been wars be- 

 tween them before this time, and when the 

 French in Canada were not fighting both the 

 Iroquois and the English, they were fighting 

 the Iroquois. But it was now clear that the 

 French were planning a great American empire, 

 while William III of England was beginning 

 to organize Europe against French aggression. 

 In 1689 the real struggle began, and for three- 

 quarters of a century it continued, with occa- 

 sional periods of peace or truce; during which 

 the nations made further preparations to renew 

 the conflict. 



It was the ultimate aim of the French to 

 hold the English to the Atlantic seaboard, or 

 even to drive them out of North America. 

 71 



Frontenac at once began attacks on the New 

 England colonies, and for years the colonies 

 suffered the horrors of border warfare. The 

 success of their raids encouraged the French, 

 but infuriated the English, who made an at- 

 tempt with a small fleet to capture Quebec and 

 Montreal. The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 

 brought a temporary halt to the hostilities, and 

 in the next year Frontenac died. Peace did not 

 last long; in the next years three more wars 

 were fought (for details, see FRENCH AND IN- 

 DIAN WARS). After the fall of Quebec, in 1759, 

 the triumph of England became almost in- 

 evitable, but the French made desperate at- 

 tempts to regain Quebec and hold Montreal. 

 When no a.id came to them from France, the 

 French army in America was driven to sur- 

 render in 1760. By the Treaty of Paris in 

 1763 France surrendered its possessions in 

 America to England. 



Government and Society under French Rule. 

 Subject to the approval of the king, the royal 

 governor of New France was practically an 

 absolute ruler. He commanded the army, and 

 was authorized to conduct all negotiations 



BISHOP'S PALACE, QUEBEC 

 Where the first Parliament of Lower Canada 

 met, in 1792. 



with the Indians and with foreign powers. The 

 strong governors, like Frontenac, stretched 

 these powers to cover almost all problems. 

 Second in authority to the governor was the 

 intendant, who controlled the finances and the 

 administration of justice. Incidentally he was 

 a sort of spy on the governor. The governor 

 was generally a noble of high rank; the in- 

 tendant was usually a lawyer and of humble 

 birth. The bishop ruled the Church, and also 

 sat in the supreme council, which issued the 

 official decrees in most matters of civil govern- 

 ment. There was a bishop's court at Quebec 

 for the trial of offenses against the Church, 

 and there were local judges for civil cases at 

 Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal. Appeal 

 was allowed from all courts to the council and 



