422 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



of these hymns in giving the Huguenots comfort and 

 courage and strength was remarkable. Engrafted upon 

 their natures as Frenchmen was a biblical breadth and 

 depth, and a manly gentleness of character. 



II 



A High Type It was, thcu, a high and peculiar type of French blood 

 that was infused into the English colonial life ; and 

 marked results followed. First of all, it quickened 

 material prosperity. By the addition of these skilled 

 artisans, agriculture and commerce and the mechanical 

 arts received a new impulse. They brought to iierfection 

 the cultivation of rice and tobacco, improved the native 

 vines, introduced new fruits such as the quince and pear, 

 and added greatly to the variety and quality of American 



Skilled garden products. In commercial enterprise they were 



Prosperous Unequalled, and such merchants as the Faneuils, the Lis- 

 penards, the Allaires, the Marquands, the De Lanceys, 

 the Manigaults, were names to conjure with. The share 

 of the colonial wealth held by the Huguenots was out of 

 all proportion to their numbers, for of all the peoples 

 who enjoyed the bounties of the New World they were 

 the most prosperous. The same enterprise which caused 

 the settlers of the Narragansett colony to set out mul- 

 berry trees, for the purpose of silk culture, at the same 

 time they planted the crops which were to serve their 

 immediate needs, found an outlet in the improvement of 

 settled manufactures and in the introduction of new ones. 

 In the weaving and dyeing of cloth, in the manufacture 

 of felt, gunpowder, sugar, etc., they were pioneers, as 

 they were likewise in the development of American min- 

 eral resources. 



Moral and ^ ^ The lufusiou of the Hugucuot blood had a second 

 marked result — it produced a higher type of moral and 

 religious life. It modified and softened the harsher and 

 more austere views of the Puritans in New England and 

 thus helped to produce a higher and more efl&cient type 



Religious Life 



