authors of the highest credit- English, French, and American. That the civilization of a numerous race, gifted with the qualities which these writers have so ascribed to them, should have been obstructed, rather than promoted, by their communication with Europeans, affords matter of melancholy reflection. The fact, however, is not to be doubted; and the farther we inquire into the subject, the more shall we be convinced of the truth of what is observed by Lafitau, "that the Indians have lost more by imitating our vices, than they have gained by availing themselves of those arts which might have added to the comforts and conveniences of life."

CHAPTER II.

EARLY CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH WITH RESPECT

TO THE INDIANS

- DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED BY THE MISSIONARIES IN NEW

FRANCE.

FOR many years after the government of France had begun to establish a colony upon the St. Lawrence, very little interest seems to have been taken by the parent state, either in the success of the settlers, or the improvement of the Indians. The newly-acquired country, indeed, came to be dignified with the title of New France, and a prince of the blood royal was appointed by the crown to be viceroy over it.. But neither the king nor his. viceroy gave themselves much trouble concerning its government; and the entire control over Canada was delegated by letters patent-for a valuable consideration, no doubt to a company of merchants from Rouen, Saint Malo, and Rochelle. The Prince de Condé, in the year 1620, disposed of his viceroyship to his brother-in-law, the Maréchal de Montmorency, for eleven thousand crowns; and the maréchal, in his turn, sold it in 1622, to his own nephew, the Duc de Ventadour. While the uncle seems thus to have had his own temporal

T

interest in view, the chief concern of the nephew was the spiritual welfare of those heathen nations who resided within his newly purchased viceroyalty. "The Duke," says Charlevoix," had retired from the court, and had even entered into holy orders. It was not for the purpose of returning to the bustle and business of the world, but to procure the conversion of the savages, that he took upon himself the charge of the affairs of New France; and, as the Jesuits had the direction of his conscience, he cast his eyes upon them for the execution of his project. He submitted the proposal to the council of the king, and his majesty the more willingly assented to it, because the Recollet Fathers, so far from objecting to the measure, had themselves first recommended it to the duke."*

Thus commenced those celebrated missions into the wilds of Canada, which were principally directed by the society of the Jesuits-that powerful association, whose labours and perseverance were so conspicuous, in whatever quarter of the globe they endeavoured to extend their temporal influence, or to convert the heathen to Christianity. They continued, year after year, to send their missionaries into the savage regions of North America, in order to promote the great work in which they were engaged. The labour and constancy with

*Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, liv. iv,

which these men pursued their projects have never been surpassed. In Canada, the French missionary entered upon his task with the fervour of a zealot, and often closed it by suffering the fate of a martyr. But, after all, what was the result? Did the missionaries of New France, after a hundred and fifty years of zeal and exertion, leave behind them a single Indian tribe whom they had actually converted to Christianity? In the interior at least where there were at one time about twenty missions of the Jesuits-there is little, if any, trace of such conversion. It is said, indeed, that silver crucifixes are still to be found hanging at the necks of distant Indians; and so would any thing else which their ancestors had received, and handed down to them as ornamental trinkets. In Father Hennepin's day, he lamented that "if one gives them some holy image, or crucifix, or beads, they will merely use them as ornaments to adorn their persons."* With the exception of a few straggling villages of Praying Indians, as they were called †,—and which

*Voyages du R. Père Hennepin, ii. ch. 32.

+ "The French priests," says Dr. Colden," had from time to time persuaded several of the Five Nations to leave their own country, and to settle near Montreal, where the French are very industrious in encouraging them. Their numbers have been likewise increased by the prisoners the French have taken in war; and by others that have run from their own country, because of some mischief that they

were chiefly established upon the St. Lawrence, near Quebec and Montreal-what remains to mark the labours of the missionary in New France? The annals of that period, indeed, display every where to our view his exertions and sufferings; but we look in vain for any dawning of moral improvement, or the slightest trace of benefit obtained among those remote and uncivilized nations to which the missions extended. Throughout the barbarous history little is to be discerned but war, treachery, bloodshed, and extermination. As far as the improvement of the Indian race was concerned, the labour was thrown away; and it is to be lamented that no experience proved sufficient to convince the government of France that the mode adopted with respect to the civilization of that people was not calculated to effect the object which was expected.

Monsieur de Champlain, the founder of Quebec, who had been deputed to command in New France, as lieutenant to the viceroy, first carried over with

had done, or debts they owed the Christians. These Indians are all professed papists, and for that reason are commonly called the Praying Indians by their countrymen; and they are called Cahanagas by the people of Albany, from the place where they live. The French value them on account of the intelligence they give in time of war, and their knowledge of the countries." Colden's History of the Five Nations of Canada, part i. ch. 3.