33 
settler, however industrious and resourceful, was dependent economi- 
cally on the Old World. Each year the ships that sailed from France 
brought him fresh cargoes of firearms and ammunition, supplies of 
metal, and even clothing and food. No doubt he often raised all his 
own food supplies, his wife clothed him with the pelts from his hunt- 
ing and the wool from their sheep and goats. Yet every year, or 
every second year, he needed to replenish his supply of powder and 
lead, to purchase a new knife, a new ax, or new cooking utensils. 
Furthermore, the vessels that lay at anchor off Quebec or Louisburg 
were a visible sign of his connexion with a powerful motherland that 
would surely come to his aid in times of stress or danger. The Indian 
had no motherland save the country over which he roamed. The 
tribes that surrounded him were economically no more advanced 
than his own, and he neither knew of, nor could communicate with, 
the great centres of civilization beyond. He was merely one of a 
community, small in numbers and self-dependent, that looked no 
farther than its own borders for the fulfilment of all its needs. His 
raw materials, his tools and his weapons, everything indeed that he 
possessed, came as the fruit of his own labour from the resources of 
his own narrow domain. ^ 
What, then, were the resources on which he relied? How far in 
the scale of civilization had he progressed? And by what means did 
he procure life’s three basic necessities, food, clothing, and shelter. 
When man first invented tools, some time in the late Pliocene 
or early Pleistocene, lie took the first step forward on the long road 
to civilization. The Indian had passed far beyond those early stages 
in man’s ascent that have been uncovered in the glacial drifts of the 
Old World — beyond the palirolithic or Old Stone epoch into a neo- 
lithic age, when stones were not only chipped but polished, agri- 
culture had arisen, and pottery had made its appearance. Many 
tribes even made tools and ornaments of native copper; but since 
they treated it simply as a malleable stone, and possessed no knowl- 
erlge of its smelting, they were still far removed from a true metal 
age. Tools of stone still formed the basis of all their material culture, 
and they were no farther advanced economically than the inhabi- 
tants of England two thousand years before Christ. 
1 C}. Cluiciin mc'.'^na're (among the Hnroii!.) fairt tie luynicsnie ne qiii h.ty est convenahle et iiecessaire, 
soil a couder, a filler, faire des pots de lerre, et toiite autre oiivrage et attion de iiietstier qui leur faict 
besom. Saganl, T, G,: “ liistoire du Canaila”; ii, p. 324 (Pans, 1S66). 
