OF THE RED INDIAN RACE. 439 



Canadian Intendant, tells him that the prosperity of the people, and 

 all that is most dear to them as colonists, depend upon their securing 

 the marriage of youths not later than their eighteenth or nineteenth 

 year to girls at fourteen or fifteen; and the next step was to impose 

 a fine on the father of a family who neglected to niai-ry his children 

 when they reached the respective ages of twenty and sixteen. 



Up to this period the native women had chiefly svipplied wives for 

 the colonists ; nor was this element now ignored or slighted. In the 

 Memoire sur VEtat Present dii Canada, 1667, it is stated : " At this 

 time it was believed that the Indians, mingled with the French, 

 might become a valuable part of the population. The repi'oductive 

 qualities of Indian women therefore became an object of attention 

 to Talon, the Royal Intendant ; and he reports that they impair 

 their fertility by nursing their children longer than is needful ; but 

 he adds, ' this obstacle to the speedy building up of the colony can 

 be overcome by regulations of police.' " Thus it is apparant that 

 the strongest encouragement was given to such alliances. 



The religious element, moreover, among a purely Roman Catholic 

 population, helped to foster a sense of equality in the case of the 

 Christianized Indian ; while the gentler and less progressive habits 

 of the French Habitants have tended to prevent direct collision with 

 the Indians settled in their midst. Hence in the province of Quebec, 

 Half-breeds, and men and women of partial Indian blood, are frequently 

 to be met with in all ranks of life ; and slighter traces, discernible in 

 the hail', the eye, the cbeek-bone, and peculiar mouth, as well as cer- 

 tain traits of Indian character, suggest to the close observer remote 

 indications of the same admixture of blood. 



But while favouring iiifluences in national character, political 

 institutions, and religion, all united to encourage a more friendly 

 intercourse between the native and European population of Lower 

 Canada, the circumstances attendant on the settlement of new clear- 

 ings have everywhere led in some degree to similar results ; and 

 expeiience abundantly proves the impossibility of preserving distinct 

 two races living in close proximity to each other. 



Throughout the old provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and 

 the Maritime Provinces, where the aborigines are mostly congregated 

 on reserves, under the charge of Government oflScers of the Indian 

 Department, they appear, \vith few exceptions, to have passed the 

 critical stage of transition from a nomadic state to that of assimila- 



