1672.] ARRIVAL. 15 



set himself to his work with the elastic vigor of 

 youth. His first impressions had been very favor- 

 able. When, as he sailed up the St. Lawrence, the 

 basin of Quebec opened before him, his imagina- 

 tion kindled with the grandeur of the scene. " I 

 never/' he wrote, " saw any thing more superb 

 than the position of this town. It could not be 

 better situated as the future capital of a great 

 empire." * 



That Quebec was to become the capital of a 

 great empire there seemed in truth good reason to 

 believe. The young king and his minister Col- 

 bert had labored in earnest to build up a new 

 France in the west. For years past, ship-loads of 

 emigrants had landed every summer on the strand 

 beneath the rock. All was life and action, and 

 the air was full of promise. The royal agent 

 Talon had written to his master : " This part of the 

 French monarchy is destined to a grand future. 

 All that I see around me points to it ; and the colo- 

 nies of foreign nations, so long settled on the sea- 

 board, are trembling with fright in view of what 

 his Majesty has accomplished here within the last 

 seven years. The measures we have taken to con- 

 fine them within narrow limits, and the prior claim 

 we have established against them by formal acts 

 of possession, do not permit them to extend them- 

 selves except at peril of having war declared 

 against them as usurpers ; and this, in fact, is what 

 they seem greatly to fear." 2 



1 Frontenac an Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672. 



2 Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1671. 



