1663-1763.] THE FRENCH CANADIANS. 49 



of their song, and the blue, sunny bosom of the 

 Ottawa opened before them ; when their frail bark 

 quivered among the milky foam and black rocks 

 of the rapid ; and when, around their camp-fii'e, 

 they wasted half the night with jests and laughter, — 

 then the Canadian was in his element. His foot- 

 steps explored .the farthest hiding-places of the 

 wilderness. In the evening dance, his red cap 

 mingled wdth the scalp-locks and feathers of the 

 Indian braves ; or, stretched on a bear-skin by the 

 side of his dusky mistress, he watched the gambols 

 of his hybrid offspring, in happy oblivion of the 

 partner whom he left unnumbered leagues behind. 

 The fur-trade engendered a pecuHar class of rest- 

 less bush-rangers, more akin to Indians than to 

 white men. Those who had once felt the fascina- 

 tions of the forest were unfitted ever after for a life 

 of quiet labor ; and with this spirit the whole 

 colony was infected. From this cause, no less than 

 from occasional wars with the English, and re- 

 peated attacks of the Iroquois, the agriculture of 

 the country was sunk to a low ebb ; while feudal 

 exactions, a ruinous system of monopoly, and the 

 intermeddlings of arbitrary power, cramped every 

 branch of industry.^ Yet, by the zeal of priests 

 and the daring enterprise of soldiers and explorers, 

 Canada, though sapless and infii'm, spread forts 



1 Eaynal. Hist. Indies, VII. 87 (Lond. 1783). 



Charlevoix, Voyages, Letter X. 



The Swedish traveller Kalm gives an interesting account of manners 

 in Canada, about the middle of the eighteenth century. For the feudal 

 tenure as existing in Canada, see Bouchette, I. Cliap. XIV. (Lond. 1831), 

 and Garneau, Hist. Canada, Book III. Chap. HI. 



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