«; 3
«;r»
*' K
*.:*
^" #..
* . #
^5.^ Bi. %, T' '
#■ . I
*,:Ti
i^ .' *-:
.t.. .#.
a-.,--^
%Cik
^■■:m
!<..;■■■ 1.
1 :. 1^
'm/:.M".%
^ *.■":».*:
a:*
|
u,^'-^^-,^. |
|
|
^ 1 |
|
|
ii. |
i^^__. « ^ |
^ ' ~'M-^^'''
»... ^.
■ --4? .•^•■'-■'S
1^5 .#*
■^ f*
^^.:^^ ">•/"*
NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES
3 3433 08177421 2
\
^o,--..>^
Atlcnlion Scanner: Foldniit in Rook^
Mibi U
>
Emig
;; erica
" A 1 y
^ ^1 ^"^ *-
t'* !• ^-
HISTORY
Huguenot Emigratiou
America
/
CHARLES W; BAIRD, D.D.
Volume I '^
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COINl^^.^^V'' PUBLISHERS ' ■"■ "' ' '
'\r ckA
/■^3q
?
A' -• y-"^ ^^X "^ ^ Copyright, 1885.
'?/ APR ''idi
<i^ i art' ^ ♦SatoODD, MEAD & COMPANY.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
Bay of Rio de Janeiro. Villegagnon's Island Facing title-page.
Mouth of St. John's River, Florida Page 64
Fort Caroline ; from a view in the Brevis Narratio
of Jacques Lemoyne de Mourgues " 73
Map: Acadia and part of Canada Facing page 7q
Fac-sirnile : Signatures of the Walloon and French
Petitioners " " 162
Map : St. Christopher (St. Kitts), Guadeloupe, and
Martinique, West Indies " " 201
Basse-Terre, St. Kitts; and the Island of Nevis " " 204
La Rochelle ; from the Outer Port " " 264
The " Temple" of La Rochelle ; built in the year
1630, and demolished March i, 1685 " " 276
La Rochelle ; from the Inner Port " " 318
Map: Provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Poitou,
France. . End.
PREFACE.
I have undertaken to narrate the coming of the perse- cuted Protestants of France to the New World, and their establishment, particularly in the seaboard provinces now comprehended within the United States. This movement and settlement took place principally at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. But before that period, important emigrations had already occurred ; emigrations to Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Canada, to the French West Indies, and, by way of Holland, to the Dutch possession of New Netherland — now New York. And still earlier, the effort had been made by Coligny — unsuccessfully, indeed — to plant a colony and provide a retreat for the French Calvinists, first in Brazil, and afterward in Florida.
The volumes now submitted to the public treat first of these antecedent movements, and then take up the narrative of the events that led to the more considerable and more effective emigration, in the latter years of the seventeenth century. The attempt has been made, in connection with a brief account of the Huguenots, before their exodus from France,' to trace the fortunes of many who ultimately reached this country. The recital is by no means to be regarded as exhaustive. It is presented rather as illustrative of the subject. Yet the number of families whose places of
' Of the works devoted to the consideration of this topic, the latest — the History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, by my brother Professor Henry M. Baird — is already widely known. Two volumes, on The Huguenots and Henry the Fourth, will soon succeed that publication, to be followed — it is hoped — by others, covering the period of struggle and suffering, down to the Edict of Toleration.
iv PREFACE.
origination I have ascertained, and of whose flight from France some particulars at least have been gathered, consti- tutes no small portion of the whole number known to have come to America : and the exemplification of their adven- tures here given, may be taken, it is believed, as a picture, tolerably correct, of the entire history.
Of the settlement in America, at the period of the Revo- cation, the present work includes only the part relating to New England. In another work I propose to treat of the settlement in the Middle and Southern provinces or States — in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware — and in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.
The story of the Huguenot emigration to America has remained, till now, unwritten. This has not been due to a lack of interest in the subject, nor to a failure to recognize its importance. Many a glowing tribute has been paid to the memory of the persecuted exiles, and many a thoughtful estimate has been formed, of the value of the contribu- tion made by them to the American character and spirit. No traditions have been more fondly and reverently cher- ished among us, than those concerning the hardships and sufferings of the fugitives from France : and no names are more honored than the names, of foreign cast, that indicate descent from them. Yet there has scarcely been a serious attempt to set in order the facts that have been known with reference to this theme ; much less, to delve into the mass of documentary evidence that might be supposed to exist. The entire literature of the subject, to the present day, may be said to consist of little more than a few newspaper and magazine articles, a few passages of works upon more gen- eral themes,' and a few valuable monographs relating to local settlements.
' I do not forget that the episode of " The Huguenots in Florida " has been told by the brilliant historian of New France, in his graphic way, and that a brief account of De Monts' settlement in Acadia is embodied in the same volume. (Pioneers of France in the New World, by Francis Parkman.) But that episode is rather introductory to the history of tlie Huguenots in America, than a part of it ; and both these inci- dents are related by Mr. Parkman as subordinate to his special theme: France and England in North America.
PREFACE. V
My attention was called to this deficiency, more than thirty years ago, when M. Charles Weiss, while preparing his important " History of the French Protestant Refugees, from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to our Own Days," applied to my father, the late Reverend Robert Baird, D.D., for direction in the endeavor to obtain mate- rials for an account of the Huguenot colonists in the United States. Little information could at that time be imparted, in addition to the brief but interesting sketch that had already appeared, in my father's book entitled " Religion in America;'" and upon that sketch, M. Weiss based the greater part of his chapters on the Refugees in America.
The present work is the fruit of investigations that have been carried on, in this country, and in France and En- gland, during the last ten or twelve years. The materials used have been found largely in unpublished documents. Manuscripts in the possession of the descendants of refu- gees ; memorials, petitions, wills, and other papers, on file in public offices ; the records of a few of the early French Churches in America ; the registers of the French Churches in England, in the custody of the Registrar-General, Lon- don ; the letter-books of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; documents in the British State Paper Office, and in the National Archives of France, have constituted a precious part of this material. Of the pub- lished works that have aided me, the most important have been, the volumes — now numbering thirty-three — of the monthly Bulletin of the French Protestant Historical So- ciety ; the volumes of La France Protestante, the second edition of which, edited by M. Henri Bordier, is in progress ; the histories of Protestantism in several of the provinces and chief towns of France ; and the series of volumes printed in this country under government auspices, comprising doc-
1 Religion in the United States of America. By the Rev. Robert Baird. Glasgow and Edinburgh : MDCCCXLTV. Book II., Chapter XII. "Religious Character of the early Colonists: Huguenots from France." A revised edition was published in the year 1857, by Messrs. Harper Brothers, New York.
vi PREFACE.
uments relative to the colonial history of several of the States.
Of traditions, however interesting, I have taken little account, save where they have been substantiated through written testimony, or incidentally confirmed by established facts. It was a remark of Goethe, which Baron Bunsen quotes as verified under his own observation, that tradition ceases, after three generations ; in the fourth, already, every thing is either myth, or documentary history.' Yet I have found not unfrequently, and sometimes very unexpectedly, that the legends preserved in our Huguenot families for six or seven generations, have agreed, in the main, with historic statements ; confirming, in their turn, the accounts preserved in more durable forms, of the perils and sufferings under- gone by the exiles.
In the prosecution of these researches, I have been fa- vored with the able and generous assistance of many fellow- laborers, my indebtedness to whom I gladly acknowledge here. To none of them have I owed more, than to M. Henri Bordier, of Paris, whose labors in connection with the revision of La France Protestante are conferring a vast ob- ligation upon the student of Huguenot history ; to M. Jules Bonnet, of Paris, the accomplished Editor of the " Bulletin de la societe de I'histoire du protestantisme frangais," and to M. W. N. du Rieu, Director of the University and Walloon Libraries, Leyden. From M. Louis Meschinet de Richemond, of La Rochelle ; from M. James Vaucher, of Geneva ; and from M. Philippe Plan, Librarian of the Public Library of Geneva, I have also received material help.
During a visit to London, made in the autumn of the year 1879, I experienced the greatest courtesy at the hands of the gentlemen in charge of the collections of documents that I had occasion to consult. My thanks are especially dug to Mr. Walford D. Selby, of the Public Record Office ; to Mr. John Shoveller, of the General Register Office, Som- erset House ; and to Mr. S. W. Kershaw, Librarian of
' .Memoirs of Baron Bunsen. Vol. II., p. 305.
PREFACE. vii
Lambeth Palace Library. Since that visit, I have received important aid from these gentlemen, and also from two of the Directors of the French Protestant Hospital in London. Mr. Arthur Giraud Browning, and Mr. Henry Wagner, F. S. A., who have spared no pains to procure for me all needed information upon the subjects of my inquiry.
At home, I have enjoyed the invaluable cooperation of the custodians of various repositories of manuscripts and books. I may particularly mention Dr. George H. Moore, Superintendent of the Lenox Library ; Mr. Frederick Saunders, Librarian of the Astor Library; and Mr. B. Fernow, of Albany, and Dr. Edward Strong, of Boston, who have been most helpful to me in the investigation of the historical records of the State of New York and of the State of Mas- sachusetts. I have been greatly indebted to the authorities of the French Protestant Episcopal Church " du St. Esprit," and of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Churches of New York, Kingston, and New Paltz, for the privilege of con- sulting the ancient records in their keeping. The numerous manuscripts of Gabriel Bernon, perhaps the most remarka- ble of the Huguenots who came to America after the Revocation, have been kindly intrusted to me for examination, by Mr. Sullivan Dorr, Mrs. William D. Ely, and the late Mrs. Anne Allen Ives, of Providence, Rhode Island, descendants of that distinguished refugee. The Mascarene papers, now published for the first time,' have been made accessible to me through the courtesy of their possessor. Miss Mary W. Nichols, of Danvers, Massachusetts. These interesting documents, upon the death of the last male descendant of Jean Mascarene, passed into the hands of Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, of Salem, the ancestor of the lady named.
I have received important help, the value of which will appear in future volumes, rather than in these, from Professor Frederick A. Porcher, President of the South Carolina Historical Society, from the Reverend Dr.
' A translation of one of these papers appeared in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, No. CXXXIX. (July, 1881.)
vjii PREFACE.
Charles S. Vedder, and from Mr. Langdon Cheves, of Charleston. My thanks are also due to Mr. William Kelby, of the New York Historical Society ; to the Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. De Costa ; to Mr. John William Potts, of Camden, New Jersey, and to Mr. James A. Dupee, and Mr. J. C. J. Brown, of Boston, for their obliging counsel and as- sistance. To the names of these friends and helpers I must be permitted gratefully to add the name of my brother, Professor Henry M. Baird.
The views of La Rochelle, that illustrate these volumes, have been copied, with the kind consent of Mr. Matthew Clarkson, of New York, from engravings in his possession, made early in the last century, and doubtless representing the city very much as it was at the time of the dispersion. The quaint view of the Huguenot " temple " of La Rochelle, is a fac-simile of a picture contained in the rare work attributed to Abraham Tessereau, a copy of which exists in the British Museum. The petition, bearing the signatures of the Walloons «nd French, among whom, it is believed, were several of the first colonists of New Netherland, and founders of the city of New York, is a fac-simile of the original, preserved in the British State Paper Office. Per- mission to reproduce this important document was readily given by the Master of the Rolls, upon the application made in my behalf by Mr. A. G. Browning.
I am indebted to Mr. George F. Daniels, the author of a very valuable account of " The Huguenots in the Nipmuck Country," for a view of Oxford, Massachusetts, the site of one of the most interesting of the French settle- ments in America.
I offer no apology for the multiplicity of proper names, and of personal details, that will be found in several of these chapters. The value of such a work as the present one must obviously depend in no small degree upon the fullness and the accuracy of information of this nature. On the other hand, it may be necessary that I should explain, that these particulars relate chiefly to the emigrants tliemselves, except in the case of those who came to New England. Of
PREFACE. ix
the families that came to the Middle and Southern prov- inces, or States, fuller notices will be reserved for a future publication, that will treat of the settlement in those parts of our land.
A general appreciation of the Huguenot character, and of the Huguenot element in the population of this country, will naturally find its place in the concluding chapter of that publication.
RvE, New York,
November i, 1884.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST.
INTRODUCTION.
Attempted Settlements in Brazil and Florida
Coligny's Plans of Colonization A Refuge from Persecution Spread of Calvinism in France The Inquisition proposed Reformed Church of France Coligny's Apprehensions The Moment favorable Durand de Villegagnon Projected Colony in Brazil Recruits for the Expedition Rio de Janeiro The Bay of Nitherohy . Difficulties encountered The Island Coligny The Settlement Embassy to Geneva First Mission to the Heathen The Sieur du Pont Visit to Coligny Voyage to Antarctic France Affray in Honfleur . Villegagnon's Professions First Religious Service Villegagnon's singular Demeanor , Glowing Anticipations A sleepless Night Villegagnon a second St. Paul Holy Communion administered Letters to Calvin Plans of Missionary Work Villegagnon writes to Calvin Gatherincr Clouds
PAGE
21 21 22 23 24 25 25 26
27 27 28 29 29 30 31 31 32
33 33 34 35 35 36 37 38 39 39 40
41
41 42
43 43
xu
CONTENTS.
Chartier's Mission . Change in Villegagnon . His Eccentricities . Rupture with the Genevese Du Pont leaves the Island Psalm-singing in the Forest A Brazilian Village Preaching to the Savages Attentive Hearers . An Indian Tradition Transient Impressions The War-Song . The homeward Voyage Villegagnon's Treachery Sufferers for the Faith Jean Boles
The Colony broken up Coligny undiscouraged Attempted Settlements : Florida A favorable Juncture Edict of July, 1561 Edict of January, 1562 The " New Religion" recognized Civil War impending The Expedition The River of May Port Royal .
Outbreak of the first Civil War Fate of Charlesfort Second Expedition La Caroline
Former Mistakes repeated The Leader's Weakness Psalm-singing in Florida Sir John Hawkins . Third Expedition A common Danger . The Spaniards . Council of War Pedro Menendez de Abila Ribaut surrenders . No Terms with Heretics Butchery at St Augustine The Crime avenged Dominique de Gourgues
44 45 45 46
47 47 48
49 49
50
51
51
52
53
53
54
55
56
57
57
5«
59
59
59
60
61
61
62
63
63
65
O7
67
68
69
70
71
71
72
73
74
75
75 76
77
CONTENTS.
xui
CHAPTER I.
Under the Edict : Acadia and Canada
Sully's Statesmanship .
Henry IV. favors Colonization
The Reformation in Western France
Spread of the new Doctrines
The Mass unsaid
The Huguenots insecure
Need of a Refuge foreseen
Pierre Chauvin, Seigneur de Tontuit
New France still unoccupied
La Cadie ....
De Monts' Commission
The Rights of Conscience secured
Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts
Minister and Priest
The Coast of Acadia explored
Aubry's Adventure
Port Royal discovered .
Annapolis Harbor .
St. Croix Island
Lay Preaching at Port Royal
A Missionary Expedition
Converts to Christianity
" The Christian Faith and Religion"
Objections to De Monts' Commission
No Guarantee against Heresy .
Religious Differences
Privileges of Trade withdrawn
Port Royal abandoned
Settlement at Quebec
Religious Liberty unrestricted
De Monts' Commission surrendered
The Jesuit Missions
The Bargain closed
The Jesuits in Acadia
Mount Desert Under the Edict : Canada
The Compagnie Montmorency
Guillaume de Caen
The Jesuits enter Canada
Company of New France
Huguenot Settlers excluded
Triumph of the Jesuits
Toleration deplored
79 79
80 81 81 82
83 83
84
85 86
87 87 88 89 90
91
92
93 93 94 95 95 97 97 98
99 100 100
lOI
102 103 103 104
105
105 106 106 107 107 108 109 109 no
XIV
CONTENTS.
No Compromise with Heresy England enters the Lists Expedition to conquer New France Huguenots join it Quebec taken Canada reverts to France The Doom pronounced The Loss to Canada Protestants detected in the Colony A stubborn Heretic Pulverized Relics Relations with La Rochelle Rochellese Merchants Dangerous Proximity of Boston Deserters to New York Protestant Soldiers in Canada False Brethren The Sieur du Buisson Echoes of the Revocation . Bernon in Canada Under the Edict : Acadia Changing Owners Dealings with the Puritans The " Wonderful Plague" Emigration from La Rochelle Huguenot Families Charles de la Tour Inflexible Loyalty Rival Chieftains Madame de la Tour Acadia reverts to France John Paul INIascarene Heresy in Acadia Bergier, of La Rochelle Huguenots in Newfoundland The Sieur Pasteur's Daughter
PAGE III 112
114
116 117 118 119 120 121 121 122 123 124
126 127 128 128 129 130
131 132
135 136
137
139
140
143 144
145 146
CHAPTER n.
New Netherland
The Walloons
The Refuge in Holland
The Bayards
Leyden V Walloons and French in Leyden
148 149 151 151 152 153
CONTENTS.
XV
The Brownists Projects of Emigration Negotiations
The Puritans leave Leyden The Walloons prepare to follow Jesse de Forest .
Petition of the Walloons and French Privileges desired Manorial Rights Promises of Fealty The Virginia Company's Answer Inadmissible Requests . The Correspondence ceases The Dutch West India Company Providential Aspects The " New Netherland " sails The Bay of New York Landing on Manhattan Island The Colonists disperse A cheerful Report George de Rapalie . First Settlers of New York Jean Mousnier de la Montagne Death of Jesse de Forest Peter Minuit, the Walloon The Church of New Amsterdam Religious Services in French Bay of the Walloons Judith Bayard Arrivals from France Growth of Persecution in France . Condition of the French Protestants I — "Emigration from the Northern Provinces Waldenses of Piedmont They take Refuge in Holland Wreck of the " Prince Maurice" Waldenses on Staten Island Louis, the Walloon The Palatinate The New Palatinate Esopus
Indian Depredations The Esopus War Dominie Hermanns Blom . Site of the Settlement .
t54 t55 ^56 t57 ^58 '59 ■59 [6i [6i 162 r63 164
'65 [66 [67 r69 [70 [71 171
72 :72
'73 74 '75 '75 76
'77 '77 '78 '79 [80
'83
[84
55 [86
'87 [88 [89 [90 [91 [91 [92 '93
XVI
CONTENTS.
The " New Village" .... 194 Attack upon the Settlements . . -195
Brave Defense of Wiltwyck . . .196
Consternation at New Amsterdam . .196
The Esopus Indians pursued . . . 197
The Rescue ..... 198
Security of the Settlement . . . 199
New Netherland becomes an English Possession . 200 David Provost, and Johannes de Peyster . 200
CHAPTER III.
The Antilles .... Caribbean Islands Occupation of St. Christopher Mount Misery . Basse-Terre Early Toleration Heretics always suffered Huguenot Seamen Churches in St. Christopher Protestant Merchants The Protestant Quarter of Guadeloupe American Huguenot Names The Storm approaches Proscriptive Edicts Protestant Officials in the Islands . Elie Neau in the West Indies . Occasional Severities Methods of Intimidation The " Engages"
Transportation to the Islands dreaded Banishment and Slavery Numbers actually shipped SyniDathy awakened in Europe A Transport Ship at Cadiz Horrors of the Passage Large Mortality
Martinique .... " Les Mornes" . . . •
Quartering of Soldiers Instances of Humane Treatment Flight from the Islands Methods of Escape Arrivals in New York
201 202 202 203 204 205 205 206 206 208 210 211 211 212 213 214
215 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 227 228 229 230 231
CONTENTS.
xvii
Tardy Change of Policy- Protestants remaining in the Islands Bermuda ....
CHAPTER IV.
Approach of The Revocation Fall of La Rochelle Political Importance of the Huguenots They cease to form a Party Their Devotion to Trade and Manufactures Their unimpeached Loyalty Testimonies of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. Their Relentless Enemy The Edict irrevocable Preparing to revoke it . The family attacked : Disorder introduced into the
Home ......
The Schools attacked : Academies suppressed The Church attacked : Closing of Protestant
" Temples" ..... Personal Rights invaded Exclusion from Trades and Professions The Dragonnades As in an Enemy's Country . Forced Conversions The Exodus
Expedients of the Fugitives Flight by Sea and Land The Collapse Doors of Escape England's Welcome The Royal Bounty . Other Overtures The Protestant Princes Persecution continues . The Edict of Revocation . Its Provisions Judgment of the Age, and of Posterity
233
234 235
238 238 239 239 240 241 241 242 242 242
243
245
247 247 247
249
249
250 251 251 252
253 254 255 255 255 256 256
257 25S
259
CHAPTER V.
The Revocation : Flight from La Rochelle and
AuNis ..... 262
Calvin's first Disciples .... 262
XVIU
CONTENTS.
The seaboard Provinces
Home of American Huguenots
La Rochelle
" La Terre d' Aunis"
A glorious History
The Protestant Capital
Second Siege of La Rochelle
Its political Importance ceases
Three hundred Families ejected from the City
Emigrants to America
Jean Touton ....
Correspondence with Governor Stuyvesant
Homes of the Rochellese
Streets of La Rochelle
St. Nicolas, and La Lanterne
Historic Associations
" Le Bastion de 1' Evangile"
The Pre de Maubec
The Huguenot " Preche"
Rochellese Families : Bernon and Jay
Gabriel Manigault
Baudouin, Sieur de la Laigne
Allaire and Faneuil
The Sigourneys
The Protestant " Noblesse" of Aunis
The Sieur de Rivedoux
Bruneau de la Chabossiere
The Seigneurs de Cramahe
Daniel Robert .
Rochellese Emigrants to Boston
Emigrants to the City of New York
The Ancestor of John Morin Scott
Em.igrants to New Rochelle,
Settlers in Ulster County
Settlers on Staten Island
Antoine Pintard
Settlers in South Carolina
Marans in Aunis
The Seigneur de Cressy
Elie Boudinot's Will
Benon and Mauze, in Aunis
The Gallaudets
The Isle of Re .
Descendants of the " New Converts"
Emigrants from the Isle of Re .
263 263 264 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 273 274 275 275 276 276 277 279 280 281 282 283 283 284 285 286 287 288 290 291
293 294
295 296 297
598 299 300 301 302 303 303
CONTENTS.
XIX
Emigrants from the Isle of Re to New England . 304 To New York ..... 305
Pierre Bontecou ..... 307
Emigrants to South Carolina . . . 308
Isaac Mazyck . . . , -31°
The Intendant Demuyn , . . 312
The " Temple " of La Rochelle demolished . 313
Bernon's Letter to a Friend in Boston . . 314
Fusileers from Beam . . . -315
Pillage in La Rochelle . . . '315
" Bowing the Knee to Baal" , . -316
Pierre Jay . . . . -317
Escape of Jay's Family . . . -317
A Prisoner in La Lanterne . . . 318
Andre Bernon . . . . -319
Brutality of the Intendant Arnou . . 320
Samuel and Jean Bernon . . . -321
Fervent Proselytes .... 322
Gabriel Bernon ..... 323
His Escape to Holland .... 324
Relatives in the Convents and Galleys . . 325
Appendix ...... 327
Letter of the Ministers Richer and Chartier to
Calvin ...... 329
Translation ..... 330
Letter of the Minister Richer to an unknown Cor- respondent ..... 332
Translation ..... ^^^
Letter of Villegagnon to Calvin . . . 335
Translation ..... 338
Commission of Henry IV. to De Monts . -341
Translation. " The Patent of the French Kinge to
Mounsieur De Monts" . . . 344
Petition of the Walloons and French . . 348
Answer of the Virginia Company . . 350
The Walloon and French Petitioners . -351
Notes from the Walloon Records of Leyden . 353
INTRODUCTION.
ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS
IN
BRAZIL AND FLORIDA.
The project of establishing colonies of French introd. Protestants in America, was entertained and ad- 1555. vocated, as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, by the illustrious Gaspard de Coligny. A patriotic and a religious zeal alike prompted him to favor the measure. Intent on fur- thering the prosperity of France through the development of her industrial resources, the ereat Admiral, a hundred years before Colbert, coiigny's
cs . . -^ plans of
pleaded for colonization. Whenever released Coioniza- from the more pressing cares of political and military life, his mind was occupied with plans of this nature, hoping, as he expressed it, " so to manage that in a little while we may have the finest trade in all Christendom." Coiigny's views of the foreign policy of France also led him to favor a colonial system. Spain, foremost in the discovery and exploration of the New World, was now nearly without a rival upon its continents and waters. The vast empires of Mexico and Peru had fallen an easy prey to her captains ; and the riches which the conquest poured into the royal treasury, enabled Charles
22 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. the Fifth to carry on the wars which disturbed 1555. the peace of Europe, and which especially humili- ated France. Coligny had already distinguished himself in arms against the Spaniard. Devoted to his country's interests, he could not but ap- prove a plan for weakening her inveterate foe by planting settlements and trading posts along the American shore, and contesting the commerce and the sovereignty of the New World with Spain.
But there was another consideration, perhaps more potent, appealing to Coligny's religious sympathies. Though not yet an avowed adher- ent of the Reformed faith, he was in accord with AEefuge ^^^ Protestaut movement, and was preparing to fromPer- j-,g ^\-^q fearless champion of relisfious freedom
secution. _ .
and of the rights of conscience that he proved himself ever after. At this moment, the outlook for Protestantism in France was an anxious one. The doctrines of the Reformation, proclaimed in Germany by Luther, had soon spread into the 1521. neighboring territory of France, and made con- verts among the learned and the titled, as well as among the common people. For a time it seemed probable that the evangelical faith might enjoy toleration, if not patronage and acceptance, from the ereat. The kingf, Francis the First, himself professed a desire to see the abuses of the Church corrected. His sister, Margaret of Angouleme, afterwards Queen of Navarre, early came into sympathy with the teachings of the reformers, and showed herself their zealous and steadfast friend. Motives of state policy prompted Francis to seek alliance with the Prot-
SPREAD OF CALVINISM IN FRANCE.
-v)
estant princes of Germany, and to conciliate the introd. Lutherans among his own subjects. But it was i~2. not long before, influenced by other considera- tions, he forsook the course of moderation upon which he had entered, and acknowledged himself the implacable foe of the Reformation. His hos- tility was reflected and intensified in the legisla- tion of the period. Parliamentary enactments pronounced the profession of the new doctrines a crime, to be punished with death ; and execu- tions for heresy became frequent throughout the kingdom. The last years of Francis I. were stained by the massacre of the Protestant inhab- 1545. itants of twenty-two towns and villages in south- eastern France, and by the burning at the stake of fourteen members of the newly organized church of Meaux. Under the reiofn of his son. Henry H., the laws that aimed at the extirpation of heresy became increasingly severe. The edict june27, of Chateaubriand enjoined upon the civil and ecclesiastical courts of the kingdom to combine for the detection and punishment of heretics. Persons convicted of heresy were denied the right of appeal from the decisions of these courts. Suspected persons were excluded from every public preferment, and from all academic honors. Heavy penalties were imposed upon apy who should harbor them, connive at their escape, or present petitions in their behalf. In- formers were awarded one-third part of the goods of persons informed against. The property of those who fled from the kingdom was to be confiscated. The same edict forbade the intro-
1551.
24 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. duction of heretical books from abroad, and j~ established a rigid censorship of the press at home, to prevent the publication of such works within the realm.
Yet in spite of these harsh repressive meas- ures, the Protestant faith continued to spread in France. Its enemies, finding that the torture and the fagot, as applied under the sanction of civil law, availed nothing to deter multitudes from embracing the new religion, now urged the Thein- introduction of the Spanish Inquisition, which
pSposed. had proved so effectual in destroying heresy on the other side of the Pyrenees. It was, how- ever, at the very time when this proposal was under consideration in the Parliament of Paris, that the first Protestant church in France was
September organized in a private house of that city ; and it was soon after this that the foundations of an ecclesiastical system destined to unite and con- solidate the scattered congregations of believers throughout the kingdom, were laid by a handful of obscure and persecuted men. May 26, xhe first National Synod of the Reformed
1559- . . . _
Churches of France met in Paris, in May, 1559. The form of ecclesiastical discipline adopted was that already existing in the Reformed Church of Geneva ; and it was substantially the same with that which was established in the following year by the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The parity of the Holy Ministry was recognized. In each congregation the minister or ministers, together with the " anciens," (elders,) chosen by the people, formed
1559-
heusions.
REFORMED CHURCH OF FRANCE. 25
the " Consistoire" or Church Session, having introd the oversight of the flock. From the decisions of this court, appeal could be made to the " Col- loque," or Provincial Synod, which met twice every year, and which was composed of all the pastors of the churches within a certain territory, together with elders representing the congrega- tions. The National Synod was the supreme ecclesiastical court.
Coliorny knew the temper of the religious i555.
.^L-ir 111 1- CoUgny's
party to whicli he was already bound m sympa- Appre- thy, and of which he was soon to become the military leader. Sagacious and far-sighted, this eminent man — " one of the largest, firmest, and most active spirits that have ever illustrated France" — dreaded the effect of persecution upon a body of men, steadily growing in numbers, swayed by the most powerful convictions, con- scious of their strength, yet denied the liberty either to enjoy their rights of conscience at home or to seek room for the enjoyment of them in foreign lands. The plan of founding a French colony in America, where the adherents of the Reformed religion might freely profess and exer- cise their faith,' while at the same time enlarg- ing the possessions and increasing the resources of the kingdom,^ commended itself strongly to
" Le but etoit bien moins d' acquerir a la France une partie du Bresil, que d'y assurer une ressource au Cal- vinisme, proscrit et persecute par le Souverain." — Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par le P. de Charlevoix. Vol. I., P- 35-
^ " La colonisation par les protestants des regions qu' on
26 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. his judgment : and upon his representations, the 1555. '^ii^g' Henry II., consented to the scheme.'
The moment seemed favorable. A series of mihtary reverses had incHned Charles the Fifth to terms of peace with France and with her allies, the Protestant States of Germany. Spain was resting from a lonsf and an exhaustive war. Among the countries beyond the seas which had been discovered by vSpanish adventurers, Brazil remained almost unnoticed. A companion of ^500' Christopher Columbus had taken possession of it, fifty years before, in the name of the King of Castile : but the claim had not been pressed. By the line of demarkation which the Roman See had drawn, dividing all lands as yet undis- covered between the crowns of Spain and Portugal, Brazil was found to belong to the lat-
nommait alors les Indes etait un des reves favoris de ramiral." — De Grammont : Relation de 1' expedition de Charles-Quint contre Alger par Villegaignon. P. 8.
' " On disoit ouvertement que c'etoit-la le moyen d'e- tendre la gloire du nom Frangois, & d' affoiblir les forces des ennemis, qui tiroient de ces contrees de puissans secours, pour faire la guerre : Que 1' exemple des Francois serviroit beaucoup a ouvrir aux nations etrangeres le chemin decette partie du monde : de sorte qu' en rendant la liberie aux Americains, on y etabliroit un commerce public et commun a toutes les nations, dont les seuls Espagnols, par le joug insupportable qu' ils avoient irnpose a ces peuples, tiroient tout le profit. Voila ce qu' on publioit par- lout. Mais Villegagnon avoit traite secretement avec Coligny, et comme il scavoit que 1' Amiral fav'orisoit sourdement les sectaleurs de la Religion des Suisses et de Geneve, dont il y avoit deja un grand nombre en France, il lui avoit fait esperer qu' il etabliroit celte Religion dans les pais dont il se rendroit le maitre." — Hisloire Universelle de Jaques Auguste de Thou, Tome II. , p. 381.
/
DURAND DE VILLEGAGNON. 27
ter power. The Portuguese indeed, at an early introd. day, formed a few settlements along- the coast. 1555. But it was not until the discovery of gold in that country, that Portugal herself showed any great interest in this occupation. Meanwhile, the French, who had never admitted the right of the Pope to apportion a hemisphere between their rivals the Spaniards and Portuguese, were ex- ploring the coast of Brazil, and trading with its inhabitants, upon their own account.
It was now that a French soldier of fortune, Projected Durand de Villegagnon, proposed to Coligny Brazil, the establishment of a Protestant colony in Brazil. Villegagnon was well known as a brave soldier, and an accomplished naval commander, and was particularly recommended for such an expedition by his acquaintance wath. the Bra- zilian coast. He also represented himself to the Protestants as in sympathy with their views ; and if he did not himself originate the plan of emi- gration to the New World, willingly lent himself to Coligny's scheme in behalf of his persecuted brethren.'
' Jurieu, Apologia pour la Reformation, I. 552, maintains that Coligny fixed upon Villegagnon to carry out his own design, and prepare a retreat in America for the persecuted Protestants. Bayle, Hist. & Crit. Dictionary (v. Villegagnon) quotes Beza in opposition to this statement. Count Dela- borde (Gaspard de Coligny, Amiral de France, I. 145, 146,) adopts the former view. " Coligny avait con^u le projet d'y fonder [en Bresil] une colonic, dans la double pensee de servir les interets de la France en lui assurant, au dela de r Ocdan, la possession d' une contree propre a favoriser son commerce, et d' ouvrir un asile a ceux des protestants fran9ais qui pourraient se soustraire aux persecutions dirigees contre eux sur le sol natal."
tion.
28 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. It was in July, 1555, that two ships and a July 12, transport, furnished and fitted out at the royal 1555- charges,' set forth under the auspices of Ad- miral Coligny, from the port of Havre de Grace. The company of emigrants was considerable. Villegagnon's ship alone carried one hundred persons. Some of these were Protestants, of various conditions — noblemen, soldiers, and mechanics. But there were others who proba- bly cared little either for the " new " doctrines Recruits or for the old. Villegagnon had availed himself Expedi- of the king's permission to visit the prisons of Paris, and select any of the criminals whom he might judge to be suitable as recruits. This was no uncommon way of securing colonists for the settlement of lands beyond the seas. It may be doubted whether the experiment ever proved a successful one.
The band of volunteers was soon reduced in number by desertions. Scarcely had the vessels gained the Channel, before a severe gale set in, driving them back to the coast of Normandy. At Dieppe, where they put in for shelter and re- pairs, many of the voyagers, satisfied with their brief experience of the perils and discomforts of the ocean, abandoned the enterprise. Only eighty persevered, of whom thirty were artisans and common workmen.
A long and stormy voyage brought the adven- turers to the wonderful Bay, which its discoverer,
' In addition to this outfit, the king granted the sum of ten thousand livres for the first expenses of the enterprise. (De Lery.)
RIO DE JANEIRO.
29
supposing it to be the moutli of some great river, had misnamed Rio de Janeiro. As their ships approached the narrow entrance to this land- locked sheet of water, the Frenchmen looked with admiring eyes upon scenery unsurpassed for magnificence and beauty by any other in either hemisphere. On each side of this en- trance, a granite mountain stood, as if forbidding access. Beyond these giant sentinels, and through a deep vista of wooded hills, the vast harbor was seen, its expanse broken by palm-clad islands, and framed in wuth dense forests, behind which rose lofty ranges of mountains, strangely contorted in abrupt, fantastic forms. Nearing the shore, the voyagers beheld for the first time the splendors of a tropical vegetation. The at- mosphere was heavy with the odor of flowers, and sight and hearing were together regaled by the incessant song and the brilliant plumage of countless varieties of birds.
Villegagnon landed with his men upon the, shore near the entrance of the bay. The arrival of the party was greeted by the savages in the neighborhood with every demonstration of joy. These tribes were friendly to the French, with whom they had long traded ; and they regarded their visitors' as allies, come to protect them against the Portuguese, whom they hated for their cruelty and rapacity. But neither the friendliness of the savages nor the grandeur and loveliness of the scenes of nature around them, could blind the strangers to the fact that a labo- rious and discouraging work awaited them. The
Introd.
^555-
Bay of Nithe- rohy.
so ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
introd. country was utterly uncultivated. The natives, 1555. though disposed to be helpful, were improvident, and had no sufficient stores of food for their supply. It was necessary to begin without de- lay the building of some kind of fortification, not only as a precaution against the Indians, whose fidelity could not be greatly relied on, but especially in view of the proximity of the Portu- guese, who, though they had not been able to retain possession of the land, were enraged by Difficui- the intrusion of the French, and miorht at any
tl6S 611"
countered, moment make a descent upon them from their settlement at San Salvador, in the north. But the difficulties in the way of building were many. There were no beasts of burden, and timber must be carried on the shoulders of men, up the steep hillsides of the wild broken country. Villegagnon himself was at a loss to decide upon the best course to be pursued : and his compan- ions, the better portion of them especially, were completely discouraged, and only waited till the ships which had brought them over should be r6ady for the homeward voyage, re- turning to France with a cargo of Brazil-wood. The leader was soon left with a diminished band, consisting for the most part of the convicts whom he had taken out of the prisons in Paris. Fearing lest they too might desert him, and go over to the savages, with whom they were but too well inclined to consort, he determined to leave the main-land,' and establish himself upon
' So Villegagnon himself intimates in his letter to Calvin,
THE ISLAND COLIGNY. 3 1
one of the numerous islands in the beautiful introd. bay. The little island of Lage, just within the 1555. entrance of the bay, was first chosen. Here Villegagnon set his men at work to build a tem- porary fort or block-house. But it was soon found that the action of the water at flood-tide in the narrow channel threatened the security of the building ; and the party removed to another small island, two miles further up the widening portal of the bay, and directly opposite the site now occupied by the city of Rio de Janeiro. This island, known at the present day by Ville- TheSettie-
, • , ^, ., . . - ment.
gagnon s name, is less than a mile in circumfer- ence, and lies at the distance of only two fur- longs from the shore. It was called in honor of the patron of the colony, Coligny : a fort was erected on a rock at the water's edge, and near by, under shelter of the guns, the rude cabins of the settlers were hastily constructed.
Even in this isolated spot, Villegagnon found it difficult to keep his vicious and refractory fol- lowers under control. A conspiracy against his
(see appendix to this volume,) in which he gives his reasons for subsequently removing to an island. De Lery, who arrived more than a year later, and who may not have known all the particulars of the beginnings of the colony, says nothing about the unsuccessful attempt to settle on the main-land.
There is an allusion to it in Andre Thevet's notices of the expedition. " Nous trouvasmes une petite isle . . . dans laquelle quelques deux mois suivans commen9ames a fortifier, apres avoir pense a nos affaires et avoir /iz/V descente en terre continente, pour tirer I'amitie de ces bar- bares." (Histoire de deux voyages par luy faits aux Indes australes et occidentales, apud Memoires de Claude Haton.- appendice, p. 1099.)
Z2 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
latrod. life, in which all but five joined, was discov- 1555- cs^ barely in time, and the summary punish- ment of the ringleader struck terror into the minds of the rest. After this, the work of forti- fication proceeded, and the little colony enjoyed a tolerable degree of tranquillity for the remain- der of the year. toGeneva. ^^^^ ship that returned to Europe with some of the discouraged adventurers, carried also a trusty messenger from Villegagnon, charged with the duty of reporting to Coligny and to the king the establishment of the colony, and of seeking re-enforcements, in order to the perma- nent occupation of " Antarctic France," as the new continent was now denominated. In addi- tion to this embassy, the messenger was in- structed to proceed to Geneva, and there to present to the ministers and magistrates of the city an earnest appeal for help to plant the Gos- August20 pel in America. Calvin himself was absent, *i2°i55a having been called to Frankfort for the purpose of endeavoring to settle the serious disputes among the English exiles and the Protestants of that city. But the envoy was heartily welcomed by the other ministers of Geneva, as well as by the magistrates. Solemn relig^ious services were held in the cathedral church of St. Pierre : the Genevese, who were " naturally desirous of the spread of their own religion, giving thanks to God," as the old chronicler Lescarbot relates, " for that they saw the way open to establish their doctrine yonder, and to cause the light of the Gospel to shine forth among those
FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 33
barbarous people, godless, lawless, and without introd. reliorion." Several pious young students, one 1556. of whom was Jean de Lery, offered themselves for the work of instructing the savages in the knowledge of Christianity ; and two clergymen • of the Church of Geneva, Pierre Richer, called de Lisle, and Guillaume Chartier — the first Protestant ministers to cross the Atlantic — were appointed to this mission.
The other members of the little company were Pierre Bourdon, Mathieu Verneuil, Jean du Bordel, Andre Lafon, Nicolas Denis, Jean Gardien, Martin David, Nicolas Roviquet, Nicolas Carmeau, and Jacques Rousseau. Three of these were destined to martyr- dom for their faith,
A number of mechanics and laborers also Thesieur joined the party. At its head was the aged Philippe de Corguilleray, sieur du Pont, an old neighbor and friend of Coligny, who had left his estates at Chatillon sur Loing, some years before, that he might live amid the religious privileges to be enjoyed in Geneva. It was at the admiral's own request, seconded by that of Calvin, that this venerable man' consented to take the leadership of the enterprise.^
' Ja vieil et caduc. — De Lery.
"^ The particulars of the expedition to Brazil are given by De Lery, who accompanied it, and by Lescarbot, who seems to have derived his information from others who were en- gaged in it. De Lery's account is to be found in his " His- toire d'un Voyage fait en la Terre du Bresil, autrement dite Amerique. Contenant la Navigation, & choses remar- quables, veiies sur mer par 1' aucteur. Le comportement
34 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. The band of volunteers thus organized left
1556- Geneva in excellent spirits.' Crossing the
September Jura mountains, they made their way through
the provinces of Franche Comte and Burgundy,
Visit to the home of Coliorny, in the valley of the
to Coligny. ^ . ,^ , i-i -i .,
Lomg. Here the admiral graciously entertamed them, in his ancient castle of Chatillon, ''one of the very finest in France," and encouraged them in their undertaking, setting before them many reasons that led him to hope that God would permit them to see the fruit of their labors, and promising them the help of the naval force at his command. From Chatillon they proceeded to Paris, where they spent a month, and where, to their delight, Richer and Chartier found that " a church had been gathered in the best manner, according to the word of God." Scarcely a year had passed since the organization of this
de Villegagnon en ce pais la. Les meurs & fagons de vivre estranges des Sauvages Ameriquains : avec un colloque de leur langage. Ensemble la description de plusieurs Ani- maux, Arbres, Herbes, & autres choses singulieres, & du tout inconues pardeca : dont on verra les sommaires des chapitres au commencement du livre. Non encores mis en lumiere, pour les causes contenues en la preface. Le tout receuilli sur les lieux par lean De Lery, natif de La Mar- gelle, terre de Sainct Sene, au Duche de Bourgougne. Pseaume CVIIL Seigneur, ie te celebreray entre les peuples, & te diray Pseaumes entre les nations. A Geneve. Pour Antoine Chuppin, M.D. LXXX." — 8 vo., pp. 382.
' Gallasius writes, September i6th, from Geneva, to Calvin, then in Frankfort, '' Richeriiis et Quadrigarius \Q\\zx\\^x\ cum Pontatio [du Pont] octavo die hujus mensis in viam se dederunt eadem alacritate animi quam antea prae se fere- bant. Unum tantum diem discessum eorum distulit Ponta- nus, quod torminibus subito correptus itineris laborera ferre non posset."
VOYAGE TO ANTARCTIC FRANCE. 35
little flock in the French capital, the first Prot- introd. estant church in France : and the visit of these T556. ministers was well-timed, as on the way to their mission field, they stopped to speak to their fel- low-believers of the prospects of God's kingdom in the heathen world. In Paris the travelers were joined by several noblemen who had heard of the expedition. In due time they reached Honfleur, in Normandy, their appointed place of embarkation.
While waiting for the little fleet of three ves- sels which the king had promised to furnish for their voyage, the emigrants experienced one of those effects of the popular hatred to which the Protestants of France were perpetually exposed, even in times of peace. Gathered in their Affray in lodgings, they were celebrating the Lord's Sup- per at night, when a mob burst in upon them, and in the afifray that followed, one of their number, the captain Saint Denis, was killed.
It was on the twentieth of November that the November
20 adventurers launched upon "that great and im-
pestuous sea, the Ocean." A nephew of Velle- gagnon, the sieur Bois-le-Compte, was in com- mand. His flag-ship, "la petite Roberge," carried eighty persons. Jean de Lery, and his companions, sailed with Captain de Sainte- Marie ; and a third vessel, the '' Rosee," had on board six boys, sent over to learn the language of the country, and five young girls, under the care of a matron. The voyage lasted nearly four months. It was disgraced by several acts of piracy, perpetrated by Bois-le-Comte, upon
J)
6 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
iii^d. Spanish and Portuguese ships. The emigrants
1557- remonstrated in vain with the commander against these lawless acts, which he doubtless sought to justify by the maritime customs of the time.' March 10 At length, on Wednesday, the tenth of March, the passengers landed on the island Coligny, in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. "The first thing we did," says Jean de Lery, " was to join in thanks^ivinCT to God." The new-comers were led at once into the presence of Villegagnon, who welcomed them warmly. These courtesies over, the aged sieur du Pont addressed him, setting forth the motives which had influenced his companions and himself in undertaking a voyage attended with so many dangers and hardships. It was, he said, to constitute in that country a Church reformed according to the word of God. Villegagnon replied, declaring that inasmuch as this had long been the desire
viiie- of his own heart, he received them gladly with ^pnJe^-^ this understanding. Nay, it was his purpose
^^°^^ that their Church should be the best reformed of all, and even far beyond others : and that henceforth vice should be rebuked, extravagance in dress corrected, and in short everything that might hinder the worship of God in its purity removed. Then, clasping his hands, and raising
' It deserves to be noticed that Coligny himself had earn- estly protested against piracy, and had exerted himself for its repression, and for the protection of commerce upon the high seas. — Gaspard de Coligny, Amiral de France ; par le comte Jules Delaborde, Paris, 1882. T. III., p. 363.
INTERVIEW WITH VILLEGAGNON.
37
his eyes toward heaven, he thanked God for sending him the blessingr which he had so fer- vently besought from Him ; and turning to the Genevese, he addressed them as his children, as- suring them of his unselfish design to provide for their welfare and for that of those who might come to this place for the same purposes. " For," said he, " I am planning to prepare a refuge for the poor believers who may be perse- cuted in France, in Spain, and elsewhere, beyond the sea, to the end that, without fear of king, emperor or other potentate, they may here serve God in purity according to His will."
This interview ended, Villegagnon led the whole company into a cabin that stood in the middle of the island, and that served both as chapel and as refectory. Here, when they had sung the fifth Psalm, after Marot's version,^
Introd.
1557-
First religious service.
' Aux paroles que je veux dire, Plaise toi I'oreille prester : Et a cognoistre t'arrester, Pourquoi mon cceur pense et soupire, Souverain Sire.
Enten a la voix tres-ardente, De ma clameur, mon Dieu mon Roy, Veu que tant seulement a toi Ma supplication presente J'offre et presente.
Matin devant que jour il face, S'il te plaist, tu m'exauceras : Car bien matin prie seras De moi, leuant au ciel la face, Attendant grace.
Tu es le vrai Dieu qui meschance N' aimes point, ne malignite :
i»;r
-VH**
36 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
Introd
1557-
March 10
Spanish and Portuguese ships. The emigrants remonstrated in vain with the commander against these lawless acts, which he doubtless sought to justify by the maritime customs of the time.'
At length, on Wednesday, the tenth of March, the passengers landed on the island Coligny, in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. "The first thing we did," says Jean de Lery, " was to join in thanksgiving to God." The new-comers were led at once into the presence of Villegagnon, who welcomed them warmly. These courtesies over, the aged sieur du Pont addressed him, setting forth the motives which had influenced his companions and himself in undertaking a voyage attended with so many dangers and hardships. It was, he said, to constitute in that country a Church reformed according to the word of God. Villegagnon replied, declaring that inasmuch as this had long been the desire Viiie- of his own heart, he received them gladly with )n)fe°^ this understanding. Nay, it was his purpose ^^"'^^ that their Church should be the best reformed of all, and even far beyond others : and that henceforth vice should be rebuked, extravagance in dress corrected, and in short everything that might hinder the worship of God in its purity removed. Then, clasping his hands, and raising
' It deserves to be noticed that Coligny himself had earn- estly protested against piracy, and had exerted himself for its repression, and for the protection of commerce upon the high seas. — Gaspard de Coligny, Amiral de France ; par le comte Jules Delaborde, Paris, 1882. T. III., p. ^6;^.
-'It -
I
F(^l(l(Viit ill Rook'
INTERVIEW WITH VILLEGAGNON.
Z1
his eyes toward heaven, he thanked God for sending him the blessing which he had so fer- vently besought from Him ; and turning to the Genevese, he addressed them as his children, as- suring them of his unselfish design to provide for their welfare and for that of those who might come to this place for the same purposes. " For," said he, *• I am planning to prepare a refuge for the poor believers who may be perse- cuted in France, in Spain, and elsewhere, beyond the sea, to the end that, without fear of king, emperor or other potentate, they may here serve God in purity according to His will."
This interview ended, Villegagnon led the whole company into a cabin that stood in the middle of the island, and that served both as chapel and as refectory. Here, when they had sung the fifth Psalm, after Marot's version,'
' Aux paroles que je veux dire, Plaise toi I'oreille prester : Et a cognoistre t'arrester, Pourquoi mon coeur pense et soupire, Souverain Sire.
Enten a la voix tres-ardente, De ma clameur, mon Dieu mon Roy, Veu que tant seulement a toi Ma supplication presente J'offre et presente.
Matin devant que jour il face, S'il te plaist, tu m'exauceras : Car bien matin prie seras De moi, leuant au ciel la face, Attendant grace.
Tu es le vrai Dieu qui meschance N' aimes point, ne malignite :
Introd.
1557-
First religious service.
;8 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
Introd.
1557-
Villegag-
non's
singular
demeanor.
Richer, one of the two ministers, preached, tak- ing for his text the fourth verse of the xxviith Psalm : One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Doubtless the discourse was eloquent,' as the occasion was inspiring. But the preacher's at- tention, and that of his audience, must have been greatly distracted by the singular conduct of their host. Villecjaf^non, throuQ^hout the ser- mon, "ceased not to clasp his hands, raise his eyes to heaven, heave deep sighs, and assume other like expressions, insomuch that every one marveled." Less edifying was the surprise that awaited the voyagers, on the same day, when, a few hours later, they were summoned into the cabin, now transformed into a dining-hall. It was a sorry feast to which the austere com- mander invited them : consisting of boiled fish, and bread prepared after the manner of the sav- ages from dried roots reduced to fiour, together wath certain other roots baked in the ashes. The rocky island, upon which the little settle- ment was perched, contained neither spring nor
Et auec qui en verite Malfaicteurs n' auront accointance, Ne demeurance.
Jamais le fol et temeraire N'ose apparoir devant tes yeux : Car tousiours te sont odieux Ceux qui prenent plaisir a faire Manuals affaire.
* " II avoit le talent de la parole," says Arcere. — Histoire de la ville de la Rochelle, II., 103.
GLOWING ANTICIPATIONS, 39
running stream, and the only beverage provided introd. for the company was drawn from a tank which 1557. Villegagnon's men had dug upon their first ar- rival.
The sober meal concluded, Du Pont and his companions were led to the quarters provided for them. These were small Indian huts, built near the water's edge, which the savages in the governor's employ were just completing, by roofing them over with grass. For beds, they had hammocks, suspended in the air, according to the South American custom.' But it was a sleepless night, we may suppose, to some of the party, if not to all. The air was balmy — as mild as that of May in their native land. The cloud- less heavens, revealing new constellations — the bay, its irregular shores fringed with graceful palm-trees — the encircling mountains, that re- Asieepiess called to the Genevese their own majestic Alps ^^ — must have kept the eyes of more than one of them waking. But to the pious ministers, at least, the mental prospect was still more im- pressive. This, then, was the New World, where the Gospel of the Son of God, so lately revealed in its purity to the nations of Europe, was to be
' The Portuguese missionaries who found their way to Brazil about the same time with the French Calvinists, speak of the Indian hammock as a novel but an agreeable contrivance. It is still in use at the present day, among the tribes of the Rio Negro and the Amazon. The hammock is woven from the fibrous portions of certain varieties of the palm-tree. — Brazil and the Brazilians, by Rev. James C. Fletcher and Rev. D. P. Kidder, D.D., sixth edition, pp. 68, 468.
40 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
introd. preached to savage tribes still immersed in 1557. heathen darkness.' Here, in the first mission- field of Protestantism, the pure doctrines of Christianity were to be announced, before the emissaries of Loyola could introduce their cor- rupted creed. Here, "Antarctic France" was to be possessed for the king, and for that perse- cuted cause to which the good Coligny was lending his powerful influence.^ It is not un- likely, however, that these glowing anticipations may have been shaded somewhat by recollec- tions of the past few hours, as the ministers re- membered with perplexity the singular demean- or of Villegagnon at the religious service in which they had engaged, and his excessive protestations of zeal for the reformed religion, viiiegag- Three weeks passed by, and the commander's second St. great show of piety was kept up so admirably, ^^^^" that the good minister Richer, captivated by his eloquence and soundness in the faith, declared to his companions that they ought to esteem themselves happy in having a second Saint Paul in this extraordinary man. To testify his zeal for religion, Villegagnon lost no time in establish- ing an order of public worship for his colony. Evening prayer was to be said daily, after the
' " Voyage . . . qui donna une merveilleuse esperance d'avancer le royaume de Dieu jusques au bout du monde." — Theodore de Beze, Histoire ecclesiastique, livre IL
^ " Osant assurer qu' il ne se trouvera a par toute I'antiquite qu' il y ait iamais eu Capitaine Frangois et Chrestien, qui tout a une fois ait estendu le regne de Jesus Christ Roy des Rois, et Seigneur des Seigneurs, et les limites de son Prince Souuerain en pays si lointain." — De Lery.
HOLY COMMUNION ADMINISTERED. 41
colonists had left their work :' and a sermon, introd. not exceeding one hour in length, was to be 1557. preached. It was on Sunday, the twenty-first of March, 1557, that this order of worship was sol- emnly inaugurated. A preparatory service was held, according to the custom already adopted in the French Reformed Churches ; and those who wished to communicate were catechised. At the celebration of the Lord's Supper which fol- lowed, Villegagnon insisted that the shipmasters and seamen who were not of the Reformed religr- ion should go out from the assembly ; and then, to the amazement of some and the edification of others, he kneeled down, and offered two lengthy prayers. After this he presented himself the first to receive the sacrament, kneeling upon a piece of velvet cloth which a page had spread on the ground before him.
The two ministers were perhaps the last to see letters to any occasion for uneasiness in the governor's con- ^*^^^"- duct. The ship that sailed early in April on its homeward trip, carried letters from Richer and Chartier to Calvin and to another correspondent, extolling in rapturous terms their " brother and father" the sieur de Villegagnon.'' The colony under his pious care presents the appearance of a Christian household, or rather of a church, like that which in apostolic times gathered in the house of Nymphas. From this nucleus, it is to be hoped, illustrious churches shall spring forth,
* " Apres qu'on avoit laisse la besongne." — Lescarbot. ' See these letters, in the appendix to this volume.
42 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
introd. and overspread the vast continent of Antarctic
j^cy, France, which is now waiting for the Gospel.
April. Concerning the barbarous inhabitants of the land, the ministers write with undissembled hor- ror. Not only are they accustomed to eat human flesh, but they seem to be in all respects sunk to the very level of the beasts, not know- ino- good from evil, and having no conception of the being of a God. The ministers are op- pressed with a sense of their inability to reach these perishing heathen, with the good news of Redemption. Their unacquaintance with the language of the aborigines, and the want of com- petent interpreters, shut them off from immediate effort in this direction. But great things are ex- pected of the young men who have come from
Plans Geneva expressly to learn the native dialect, and arywork. prepare themselves to preach the Gospel to the savages. They have already begun this work, and are spending their time on shore among the people. God grant, adds Richer, that this may be without peril to their own souls.
Villegagnon himself wrote to the great re- former, by the same ship. His letter is not surpassed by that of Richer and Chartier, in the profusion of its assurances of respect and devo- tion. He acknowledo^es the letter which he has received from Calvin by these brethren, and promises for himself and for his colony that the counsels given shall be observed even to the min- utest particulars. He rejoices in the coming of the ministers, to relieve him of the burden of care for the spiritual interests of his fol-
VILLEGAGNON WRITES TO CALVIN. 43
lowers, and to aid him by their advice and introd. sympathy in all things. He recounts the hard- j^y ships and perplexities of his undertaking, and April, especially his anxieties for the moral and religious welfare of the colonists. Nothing, indeed, but a regard for his own good name, prevents him from doincr as others have done, and abandoninof the enterprise. But he is confident that, hav- ing a work to do for Christ, he will be sustained and prospered. He closes his long letter with best wishes for the lengthened life and usefulness of the reformer and his colleagues, and sends his special salutations to the pious Renee of France, the daughter of Louis XH., and the warm friend of Calvin and of the Protestant cause.
Before the vessel that bore these letters could Gathering reach its destination, the aspect of affairs on the island Coligny had greatly changed. Villegag- non's zeal for orthodoxy and strictness of living had passed into captiousness and querulousness, ending in pronounced opposition. He began by finding fault with the manner of celebrating the Lord's Supper and of administering Baptism, as practiced by the Genevan ministers. Pro- testing that he wished only to know and to follow the teachings of the Gospel, he sent one of the ministers, Guillaume Chartier, to France, by a vessel homeward bound from the coast of Brazil, in order to confer with the prin- cipal Reformed theologians upon certain ques- tions of dogma and casuistry which he had
44 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. raised.' The same ship carried to France ten jTTy. young savages, who had been captured in war by one of the native tribes friendly to the French, and sold to Villegagnon as slaves, chartier's These were designed as a present to the king, nussion. ^^j^^ graciously received them, and distributed them among the nobles of his court. Villegag- non did not wait for the minister's return, "" to announce his conclusions with reference to the Protestant doctrines. He soon declared that his opinion of Calvin had been changed, and that he now held the so-called reformer to be an arch-heretic and an apostate. Villegagnon attributed this change in his religious views to the arguments of one Jean Contat,^ a student
* According to De Lery — who, however, confesses his inability to understand Villegagnon's views — he rejected both the doctrine of Transubstantiation and that of Con- substantiation, and yet held to the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, in a sense peculiarly his own. The practical questions upon which he professed a desire for in- struction, were such as these : Whether the Lord's Supper should be celebrated with a certain degree of pomp : whether the wine should be mingled with water : whether unleavened bread ought to be used : whether, if any of the consecrated bread should remain after the celebration of the ordinance, it ought to be set aside as sacred, etc. — La France Protestante, deuxieme edition. Vol. IIL, p. 795.
^ Chartier, indeed, did not return to Brazil. He incurred Calvin's displeasure by delaying the fulfillment of his mission for several months after his arrival in Europe. His ex- cuse was, that certain important despatches, which he was expecting from Brazil, had been withheld by Vijlegagnon. Nothing is known positively concerning Chartier's subse- quent career ; but there are reasons for identifying him with a minister of the same name, who was chaplain to Jeanne d'Albret, about the year 1581. — La France Protestante : ubi supra.
' " Un nomme Jean Contat etudiant de Sorbonne, aspir-
CHANGE IN VILLEGAGNON. 45
of the University of Paris, who had abjured the introd. Roman Catholic faith, but who soon began to 1557. discuss points of theology with the ministers, generally taking the side of Rome. It was shrewdly suspected, however, that certain letters of warnine which the commander received about this time from France had more to do with his conversion.' Villegagnon found that in his professions of friendliness toward the Reformed religion he had gone too far. While seeking to ingratiate himself with Coligny and the Protest- ant party, whose favor he needed for the suc- cess of his expedition, he was in danger of incurring the displeasure of the king.
The colonists were sorely disappointed in His eccen- their leader. But they had still greater cause for uneasiness, in view of the change of temper that accompanied this change of religious pro- fession. Villegagnon became moody and ca- pricious. His eccentric manners, indicating an unbalanced mind, his frequent outbursts of
ant secretement a je ne sais quelle dignite episcopale aussi fantastique qu'etait le royaume de Villegagnon, etant venu le jour destine pour celebrer la Cene, demanda ou etaient les habillemens sacerdotaux, et commenga de disputer du pain sans levain, qu'il disait etre necessaire, et de meler de I'eau avec le vin de la Cene, avec autres questions sembla- bles. . . . Le different ne laissa pas de croitre, voire jusques a ce point, que Richer faisant un bapteme, condam- nant la superstition qu'on y ajoute, Villegagnon dementit tout hautement le ministre, protestant de ne se trouver plus a ses sermons, et de n'adherer a la secte qu'il appellait calvinienne." — De Beze, Histoire universelle, livre II.
' " Sollicite, comme 1' on croit, par les lettres du Cardinal de Lorraine." — De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tome II., p. 383-
46 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
introd. violent rage, and the cruel punishments he in- 1557- flicted on any that displeased him, alienated and disgusted his followers. Several of them aban- doned the colony, and went off to seek their fortune in the wilderness. More than one conspiracy against the governor's life was de- tected among the soldiers and seamen on the island. Toward Du Pont and his associates, he now showed himself haughty and overbearing. At length they declared plainly to the com- mander, that since he had rejected the Gospel, they considered themselves no longer bound to serve him, and refused to work at the building Rupture of the fort. Thereupon, Villegagnon cut short oLevesl their provisions, and threatened to put them in irons. The threat precipitated a rupture which could not have been long deferred. Du Pont answered for his brethren, that they would not submit to such treatment ; and that inasmuch as he was not disposed to maintain them in the ex- ercise of their religion, they renounced his authority. Villegagnon quailed before this fear- less and determined attitude, and made no at- tempt to execute his threat. But not long after, he resolved to rid himself altogether of the Protestant leaders, and ordered them to leave the island. They obeyed at once — "Although," observes one of them in his narrative of the ex- pedition, " we, ourselves, might have readily driven him from the place, but we would give him no occasion to complain of us." Removing to the main land, they awaited the departure of a ship from the coast of Normandy, which was
DU PONT LEAVES THE ISLAND. 47
then taking in her cargo for the homeward introd.
trip.' 1557-
The Genevese had spent eight months on the island CoHgny.^ Two months more elapsed before the vessel was ready to sail. Meanwhile Du Pont and his companions, who were now at liberty to employ themselves as they pleased, beguiled the time by visiting some of the friendly tribes of Indians in the neighborhood. The savages appear to have been singularly susceptible of religious emotions. One day, psaim- Jean de Lery tells us, as he was walking in tSrlst^ the forest, accompanied by three or four of the natives, the grandeur and beauty of the tropical scenery so enchanted him that he could not re- frain from singing, and he broke forth in the words of the metrical psalm : " S71S, s?(S, mon ante, il te faiit dire biai.''^ His companions,
' De Lery, Histoire d'un Voyage fait en la Terre du Bre- sil, p. 95. De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tome H., p. 383. ^ Two of Du Font's followers, the sieurs de la Cha- pelle and du Boissi, remained with Villegagnon after the departure of the others ; but they soon joined their brethren on the main. — (De Lery, p. 378.)
^ Sus, sus, mon ame, il te faut dire bien De I'Eternel : 6 mon vrai Dieu, combien Ta grandeur est excellent' et notoire ! Tu es vestu de splendeur et de gloire : Tu es vestu de splendeur proprement, Ne plus ne moins que d'un accoustrement : Pour pavilion que d'un tel Roi soit digne, Tu rends le ciel ainsi qu'une courtine
Lambris^ d'eaux est ton palais voust^ : En lieu de char, sur la nue es port6 : Et les forts vents qui parmi Pair souspirent Ton chariot avec leurs ailes tirent.
48 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : BRAZIL.
introd. filled with surprise and delight, asked the mean- 1557- ing- of the words. When this had been explained to them, they exclaimed, using- their ordinary expression of wonder and admiration, ''Teh! O how happy are 3"ou, to know so many things that are hidden from us poor miserable creatures ! " ' A On another occasion, a few of the French were
Brazilian .... , .... ^ .
village, entertained with great hospitality in one oi the principal villages of the region, some miles back from the coast. The whole population of the place collected around the strangers, as they seated themselves at the feast prepared for them, the old men of the village, proud of the honor shown to their people by the visit of these dis- tinguished guests, constituting themselves a body guard to keep the children from disturbing them. Each of them was armed with a curious weapon; two or three feet long, in the shape of a saw, made of the spine of a large fish. At the close of the feast, one of these old men ap- proached the party, and asked the meaning of a strange procedure which he had noticed. Twice — before partaking of food, and again after eat- ing— he had seen the Frenchmen remove their hats, and remain perfectly still, while one of their
Des vents aussi diligens et legers
Fais tes herauts, postes et messagers :
Et foudre et feu fort prompts a ton service,
Sont les sergeans de ta haute justice. Ps. civ.
' " Usant de leur interjection desbahissement Teh ! ils dirent, O que vous autres Mairs estent heureux de scavoir tant de secrets qui sont cachez a nous chetifs & pouvres miserables." — De L^ry. Histoire d'un Voyage fait en la Terre du Bresil, p. 290.
PREACHING TO THE SAVAGES. 49
number uttered some words. To whom was he introd. speaking ? Was it to them, or to some person i7cy. not present? The pious Huguenots thought this a providential opening for the instruction of these savages in the true rehgion ; and they hastened to enter it, with the help of the inter- preter who accompanied them. They told them of the great God to whom they prayed, and who, though they could not see Him, heard their words and knew their most secret thoughts. It was this God who had brought them in safety across the wide ocean, preserving them during a voyage of many months, while they were out of sight of the solid land ; and because they served Him and trusted in Him, they had no fear of being tor- mented bv Aio-na — the dreaded demon of these savages — either in this life or in one to come. They exhorted their hearers to abandon the errors taught them by their lying priests, and especially to leave off the barbarous practice of eating the flesh of their enemies, promising them that if they would do this, they should enjoy the same blessings with themselves. The Indians listened with breathless attention to the account Attentive of the creation of the world and the fall of man, in which, says Jean de Lery, who was the spokes- man, " I endeavored to show them man's lost con- dition, and so prepare them to receive Jesus Christ." The discourse lasted two hours, and left the audience in a state of great amazement. At length one of the old men replied. " Certainly," said he, "these are wonderful things that you have told us, and things that are very good,
50 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. though \ve have never known them till now. j~.~ Nevertheless, your words have brought to my mind what we have often heard our fathers relate, namely, that long ago, so many moons that we have not been able to keep the reckon- An Indian ing of them, there came a JMair — a European — clothed and bearded like some of you, who tried to persuade our people to obey your God, tell- ing them what you have just told us. But our people would not believe his teachings ; and when he left there came another, who gave them a sword, in token of a curse,' and from that time to this we have slain one another wath the sword, insomuch that, having become used to it, if now we should forsake our ancient custom, all the other tribes around us would laugh us to scorn." - The French warmly remonstrated with
' De Lery speculates as to the Alair who had come so many hundreds of years before to announce the true God to the natives of Brazil, and somewhat thnidly ventures the query, "si c'auroit point este I'un des Apostres." As for the one who followed, he suggests the apocalyptic vision of the red horse and him that sat thereon, to whom it was given " to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another : and there was given unto him a great sword." — Revelation, vi. 4.
^ " Nous fusmes plus de 2. heures sur ceste matiere de la creation, dont pour brievete ie ne feray ici plus long dis- cours. Or tous prestans I'oreille, avec grande admiration escoutoyent attentivement de maniere qu'estans entrez en esbahissement de ce qu'ils auoyent ouy, il y eut un vieillard qui prenant la parole dit : Certainement vous nous auez dit merueilles, & choses tres bonnes que nous n'auions iamais entendiies : toutesfois, dit-il, vostre harengue m'a fait rememorer ce que nous auos ouy reciter beaucoup de fois a nos grads peres : assauoir que des longtemps & d^s le nombre de tat de Lunes que nous n'en auons pus
TRANSIENT IMPRESSIONS. 5 1
their hearers. They entreated them to disre- introd. gard the foolish ridicule to which they might jTZ be subjected, and assured them that if they would worship and serve the one living and true God, He would help them ; and should their enemies attack them on that account, they should vanquish them all. " In short," says Jean de Lery, " our hearers were so moved by the power which God gave to our words, that some of them promised to follow our teachings, and declared that they would never again eat human flesh : and the interview closed with a prayer offered by one of our company, which our interpreter translated into their lan- guage, the savages kneeling together with us," It must be added, however, that the hopes awakened in the hearts of the zealous mission- aries were soon grievously disappointed : for in the middle of the night, as they lay in the ham- mocks which the hospitable savages had pro- vided for them, they heard the whole band sing- The war- ing a war-song, the purport of which was, that ^°^' to revenge themselves on their enemies, they
retenir le conte, un Matr, c'est a dire Frangois ou etranger vestu & barbu comme aucuns de vous autres, vint en ce pays ici, lequel pour les penser ranger a I'obeissance de vostre Dieu, leur tint le mesme lagage que vous nous auez main- tenant tenu : mais comme nous tenons aussi de peres en fils, ils ne le voulurent pas croire : & partant il en vint vn autre qui en signe de malediction leur bailla I'espee, dequoy depuis nous nous sommes tousiours tuez I'vn I'autre ; tellement, qu'en estans entrez si auant en possession, si maintenant laissans nostre coustume nous desistions, toutes les nations qui nous sont voisines se moqueroyent denous." — DeLery, pp. 283, 284.
homeward voyage,
52 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. must slay and eat more victims than ever be- j77__ fore. " Such," says De Lery, " is the inconstancy of these poor people, a striking ilkistration of human depravity. " Notwithstanding," he adds, " I verily believe that if Villegagnon had not proved recreant to the Reformed religion, and had we have remained longer in that country, some of them misfht have been attracted and won to Christ." '
There are few accounts of peril and suffering at sea more frightful than that of the returning voyage of Du Pont and his companions, from Xhe the coast of Brazil. The story has been mi- nutely told by two of the sufferers, the minister Richer, and Jean de Lery. The ship on which they had taken passage proved to be a crazy bark, leaky and worm-eaten, and almost water- logged. Before they were out of sight of land, five of the party losing heart asked to be sent back. They were accordingly put in a boat, and reached the shore safely, but only to meet from Villegagnon a worse fate than that of their brethren. The rest pursued their way ; and after five months, in the course of which a number died of sheer starvation, the survivors landed in a state of indescribable misery, upon the coast of Bretaorne. But their dansfers were not over when they had escaped the perils of the sea. Villegagnon had intrusted the master
' " Toutesfois i' ay opinion que si Villegagnon ne se fust reuolte de la Religion reformee, & que nous fussions de- meurez plus longtemps en ce pays la, qu'on en eust attir^ & gagne quelques vns a lesus Christ."
VILLEGAGNON'S TREACHERY. 53
of the ship with a packet of letters, to be de- intxod. livered to certain persons on his arrival in iTTs. France. Among these letters, there was one addressed to the nearest magistrate. It con- tained a formal accusation against the bearers, as heretics, and recommended that they be forth- with consigned to the stake. Happily, the sieur Du Pont, the leader of the little band, took coun- sel with some magistrates whom he found to be well affected toward the Protestant cause. These, so far from molesting the travelers, en- tertained them with the 'utmost kindness, and sent them on their journey.'
Little remains to be said of the unfortunate sufferers Brazilian expedition. Three of the five men faith.* who had turned back to the ship, were at once sentenced by Villegagnon to be drowned, as heretics and rebels. The names of these suf- ferers have been preserved, and enrolled in the martyrology of the French Reformation. They were Pierre Bourdon,'' Jean du Bordel, and Mathieu Verneuil. " Thus," observes Jean de
' Pierre Richer, dit de Lisle, made his way to La Ro- chelle, where he found the nucleus of a Protestant congre- gation, which had been gathered by Charles de Clermont a few months before. He deserves, says Callot, to be re- garded as the father of the Rochellese reformation, because of the part he took in the organization of the church in that place. On Sunday, November 17, 1558, he officiated at the formation of the first Consistory of La Rochelle. (La Ro- chelle protestante, pp. 24, 25.) Richer died in La Rochelle, March 8, 1580. (Ibid. See also Delmas, Eglise reformee de la Rochelle, p. 434).
" Pierre Bourdon was a native of Ambonay in Cham- pagne, France, who had taken refuge at Geneva in Septem- ber, 1555.
54 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. Lery, " Villegagnon was the first to shed the 1558. blood of God's children in that newly-discovered country ; and because of that cruel deed, he has well been called the Cain of America^
Of the Protestants who had remained on the island, a number now escaped to the continent. They soon fell into the hands of the Portu- guese, who were not more disposed than the treacherous Villegagnon to show mercy to Cal- vinists. One of the fugitives was induced by threats or by promises to renounce his faith. Three others were thrown into prison. Among Jean thesc was a man of note, lean Boles, a scholar
Boies. . •'
versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages. The Jesuits spared no effort to persuade him to follow his companion's example. Boles, how- ever, remained firm throughout a captivity of eight years. At the end of that time, the Jesuit 1567. Provincial ordered him to be brought to the newly-founded city of St. Sebastian — now Rio de Janeiro — and there put to a cruel death, in order that any of his Protestant countrymen, still lingering in that region, might take warning by his fate. The Jesuit writers represent this martyr as having recanted shortly before his ex- ecution. If so, his recantation must have been made, according to their own showing, under promise of reprieve, or of an easier mode of death. For they relate, that when the execu- tioner showed awkwardness in the performance of his work, the Provincial interposed, and gave him directions how to dispatch the heretic more speedily, " fearing lest he should become impa-
THE COLONY BROKEN UP. 55
tient, being an obstinate man, and newly re- introd, claimed." 1267.
Meanwhile, Villegagnon's colony had been entirely broken up by the Portuguese. Soon after the departure of Du Pont and the other Protestant leaders for Europe, the commander himself returned to France, where he at once avowed himself a zealous champion of the Church of Rome.' It was noticed that this August change of faith coincided with Coligny's impris- ^''''^^^^• onment by the Spaniards after the defeat of St. Quentin. The powerful patron upon whose help he had depended for the carrying out of his am- bitious plans, was now in captivity ; and Ville- o^ag^non souorht a new master.^
' There seems to be no room for doubt as to Ville- gagnon's duplicity. That he professed to favor the Reformed doctrines, the accounts given by De Lery, Lescarbot, Theo- dore de Beze^ and Agrippa d'Aubigne, and his own letter to Calvin (see the appendix to this volume,) abundantly prove. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic writers make no mention of a departure from the Roman faith : and he appears upon his return to France only as a vehement foe of Protestantism, using both sword and pen against its adherents. If Claude Haton is to be credited, Villegagnon carried with him to Brazil all the requisites for the celebration of the Mass (" ornemens d'eglise pour dire la messe." — Memoires, I., 38.) An estimate of his character would be incomplete, however, that should not take into account, together with his insincerity, his eccentricities of conduct while in Brazil, indicating apparently some degree of mental aberration.
'^ Villegagnon died January 15, 157 1. He was a native of Provins, in Champagne. His fellow-townsman, Claude Haton, eulogizes him as a valiant servant of the king, and defender of the Church, "ennemy capital " of the heretical Huguenots, whom he opposed to his utmost with temporal and spiritual arms. " 11 a faict plusieurs beaux livres latins
56 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: BRAZIL.
introd. Early in the year 1560, a Portuguese fleet 1560. arrived at Rio de Janeiro. The little garri- son which Villegagnon had left in charge of Fort Coligny was overpowered after a brave resistance. Some of the occupants escaped to the main land, where they sought refuge among the savages ; others w^ere mercilessly butchered ; and soon every trace of the French occupation disappeared from the island.
Coligny's first experiment in colonization had failed, and the hopes that had been awakened throughout Protestant France, of a place of refuge from religious oppression in the New Coligny World, lay prostrate. But Coligny himself was couraged. not One to be discouraged by failure. There was much to account for the ill success of the expe- dition to Brazil, especially in the character and conduct of its chief ; but for whose faithlessness or imbecility, it must have seemed then as it has seemed since, a French colony might have flour- ished at Rio de Janeiro, and the dream of an " Antarctic France " mio;ht have been realized. Such a settlement would have speedily re- ceived large accessions, and would have found itself strong enough to hold its ground against the enemy. Indeed, when the news of Ville- gagnon's treachery reached Europe, a company of emigrants, numbering seven or eight hund-
et frangoys, pour confuter la faulse oppinion de son com- paignon d'escolle, Jehan Calvin, de Genefve, et autres predi- cans de la faulse oppinion lutherienne et huguenoticque." (Memoires de Claude Haton, publics par M. Felix Bourque- lot. Paris, 1857. Tome IL, p. 623.) ,
A FAVORABLE JUNCTURE. 57
red, was preparing to join the colony ; and it introi was estimated by Jean de Lery, that ten thou- 1562. sand French Protestants would soon have crossed the ocean to Brazil'
The baseness of one man had ruined the scheme which promised so much for France and for America. But there were others in the Prot- estant ranks, tried and trusted leaders, who stood ready for a. second venture, upon Coligny's bidding ; and the harbors of Bretagne and Nor- mandy swarmed with men as ready to follow. The times also, if not brighter, were more op- portune. The Huguenots, as they now began to be called, had become a recognized power in the land ; with two princes of the blood — Antoine, kinof of Navarre, and his brother, Louis, prince of Conde — at their head. There was a lull in the storm of persecution. Nearly thirty-seven years had passed since Jean Leclerc, the first con- picuous martyr of the Reformation in France,
' " Car quoy qu' aucuns disent, veu le peu de temps que ces choses ont dure, ^ que n'y estoit a present non plus de nouvelle de vraye Religion que de nom de Francois pour y habiter, qu'on n'en doit faire estime : nonobstant telles allegations, ce que j'ay dit ne laisse pas de demeurer tou- siours tellement vray, que tout ainsi que I'Evangile du fils de Dieu a este de nos jours annonce en ceste quarte partie du monde dite Amerique, aussi est-il tres certain si 1' affaire eust este aussi bien poursuivi qu'il avoit este heureusement commence, que 1' un & 1' autre Regne spirituel »Sr temporel, y avoyent si bien prins pied de nostre temps, que plus de dix mille personnes de la nation Frangoise y seroient main- tenant en aussi plein & seure possession pour nostre Roy, que les Espagnols y sont au nom de leurs." — Histoire d' un Voyage fait en la Terre du Bresil. P. 2.
58 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
In trod.
1525- July 22.
Edict
of July,
1561.
had been burned at Metz ; and each inter- vening year had witnessed the sufferings, in every part of the kingdom, 0/ those who had been tried, condemned, and sentenced to the prison, the torture or the stake, for the crime of heresy. Edict after edict of the government had pronounced the penalties of imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and death, upon the fol- lowers of Luther and Calvin, and while enforc- ing persecution under the forms of law, had en- couraeed the countless deeds of violence which a lawless populace stood always ready to perpe- trate. The latest of these edicts was the most severe and sweeping. It inflicted punishment by imprisonment and confiscation upon all who, whether armed or unarmed, should attend any heretical service of worship, public or pri- vate. The passage of this law intensified the feelings of hostility, which were soon to break out into open strife, between the two great re- ligious parties. While the Romanists exulted, the Protestants did not conceal their indignation. Even Coligny, pacific, and anxious to avert the impending calamity of civil war, declared plainly that the " Edict of July," as it was called, could never be carried into effect. But meanwhile, as the strength of the Protestant party grew more apparent, and its position more menacing, the necessity of conciliation became obvious to the court. Catharine de Medici, now regent of the kingdom during the minority of her son Charles IX., turned to Coligny for advice. The Admiral counseled toleration ; and to
THE " NEW RELIGION " RECOGNIZED. 59
show the expediency of toleration, he presented introd. to Catharine a list of the Protestant churches of 1561. France, already numbering two thousand one hundred and fifty, that asked for freedom and protection in the exercise of their religion. His advice was heeded ; and the ** Edict of July" was followed, six months later, by the "Edict of Edict of January," 1562. It was now that for the first Tse?^' time the existence of "the new religion " became recognized in France as legal, and as claiming some degree of protection under the laws. The penalties previously pronounced on its adherents were provisionally repealed, until a general Coun- cil of the Church could be called for the settle- ment of all questions of religious faith. Prot- estants throughout the kingdom were to be ex- empt from all molestation, while proceeding on their way to their religious assemblies and in returning from them ; and the presence of an officer of the government at every ecclesiastical meeting gave dignity and legality to the pro- ceedings of the Protestant consistories, collo- quies, and synods.
Such was the favorable juncture which Coligny chose for a second effort to accomplish his cher- ished plan of American colonization. Little did civil the sagacious statesman and chieftain dream JndiU^' that the year which was opening so auspiciously would prove one of the darkest in the history of France ! Six weeks from the date of the promul- gation of the Edict of January, the massacre at Vassy precipitated the outbreak of the First Civil War; and for the next ten months the kingdom
6o ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. was a scene of horrible massacre and devasta-
1562. tion.
All this was happily unforeseen by the brave men who set sail from the port of Havre, in
February Normandy, on the eighteenth day of February, ^^" 1562, for the coast of Florida. At their head was Jean Ribaut, an experienced officer of the Reformed party, whom Coligny had chosen to lead them. Preparations for the expedition had been going on for some months in that harbor, of which the Admiral had lately been appointed
The Expe- governor ; and a goodly number of volunteers *^*"°' had responded to the invitation to join it. " . Nearly all the soldiers and laborers, as well as a few noblemen who presented themselves, were Calvinists. The only names that have come down to us are those of Rene de Laudonniere, Nicolas Barre, Nicolas Mallon, Fiquinville, Sale, Albert, Lacaille, the drummer Guernache, and the soldiers Lachere, Aymon, Rouffi, and Martin Atinas. The first of these, Rene de Laudonniere, was no ordinary man. An experi- enced navigator, and a man of tried integrity, he enjoyed the full confidence of Coligny, whom he greatly resembled in character. Nicolas Barre had accompanied Villegagnon in the ex- pedition to Brazil. Others of the party were veteran seamen, and were familiar with the re- gion about to be visited.
To avoid the Spaniards, Ribaut took a more direct course across the Atlantic than that which was usually followed ; and on the last day of April his little fleet, composed of two staunch
THE RIVER OF MAY. 6 1
but unwieldy ships, arrived off the coast of introd. Florida. Proceeding northward along the coast, 1^2. they found themselves the next day at the mouth of a large river, which they named the River of May 1. May — now the St. John's. Here they landed ; and the first impulse of the Huguenots was to kneel down upon the shore, in thanksgiving to God, and in prayer that he would bless their enterprise, and that he would bring to the knowl- edge of the Saviour the heathen Inhabitants of this new world. Their actions were watched with wonder by a company of the friendly na- tives, who had gathered fearlessly around them and who sat motionless during the strange cere- monial. After this, Ribaut took formal pos- session of the country in the name of the King of France, and set up a pillar of stone, engraven with the royal arms, upon a small elevation in a grove of cypress and palm trees near the harbor. Returning to their ships, the French continued the exploration of the coast, until they reached a broad estuary to which they gave a name which it has retained to the present day. It was the Port channel of Port Royal. The voyagers had ^°y*^ passed the northern limit of Florida, as it was to be defined in later days, and, leaving untried the shallow inlets along the sandy shore of Georgia, found themselves off the coast of South Carolina. Entering the harbor, *' one o"f the largest and fairest of the greatest havens of . the world," Ribaut decided here to lay the foundations of a colony. The site of a fort was chosen, not far from the present town of Beau-
62 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. fort. It was called Charlesfort, in honor of the 1562. boy-king who had lately come to the throne of France. Ribaut did not wait to see the work completed. His present voyage was one of ex- ploration chiefly. Report of the discoveries made and the enterprise begun must be carried to the king ; and larger supplies of men and of means for the establishment of the colony must be secured. Leaving, therefore, a few of his followers to garrison the little fort, Ribaut, with Laudonniere and the others, set sail for Europe, and arrived in Dieppe on the twentieth day of July, only five months from the time of their embarkation. Outbreak Meanwhile, however, civil war had broken first civil out in France. The unprovoked attack of the ^"' Duke of Guise upon an assembly of Protestants, met for worship in one of the towns of Cham- pagne, and the slaughter of fifty or sixty inof- fensive persons in cold blood, had stirred the long suffering Huguenots as none of the many preceding outrages inflicted upon them had done. For the first time, they took up arms in good earnest to defend their civil and religious rights. The Protestant nobility of the kingdom gathered around the Prince of Conde, their rec- ognized leader. CoHgny himself, whose cautious and patriotic spirit shrank from the prospect of a civil conflict, at length decided to join his brethren in the field. The moment was unfav- orable, in which to plead for re-enforcements in behalf of a distant colonv. Failino- in his efforts to do this, or swept against his will into the
FATE OF CHARLESFORT. 6
J
current of political excitement at home, Ribaut introd. entered the Protestant ranks under his old leader 1563. the Admiral, and the next year, upon the re- turn of peace, took refuge, for some reason, in England.
The handful of men left in possession of the fort near Port Royal, met a miserable fate. Un- disciplined and improvident, they soon fell into disputes among themselves, murdered their captain, Albert, whom Ribaut had placed in command, consumed all the supplies they had brought with them, and after subsisting for av/hile upon the charity of their generous savage neighbors, set themselves in their desperation to build a boat, upon which, after incredible suffer- ings, they succeeded in reaching Europe.
Coligfnv was still icrnorant of this wretched second ex
,. -1 /, . 1 11-1 1 pedition.
failure of his second attempt to establish a col- ony in America, when the peace of Amboise brought the first civil war to a close, and set him free to resume his efforts in behalf of com- merce and colonization. Representing to the king that no tidings had yet arrived from the men whom Ribaut had left in Florida, he ob- tained permission to fit out three ships, of sixty, one hundred, and one hundred and twenty tons respectively, to go in search of them, and to bring them relief. Rene de Laudonniere was chosen as chief of the new expedition, and a number of noblemen, and of experienced officers and sailors, volunteered to join it. Among the noblemen were d'Ottigny, d'Erlach, officers, and de la Rocheferriere, de Marillac, de Gron-
64 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: FLORIDA
Introd. 1564-
LA CAROLINE. 65
taut, and Normans de Pompierre, who went introd. as volunteers. Michel Vasseur commanded one 1564. of the ships — the " Breton ; " Jean Lucas com- manded the " Elisabeth," and Pierre Marchant the " Faucon." Nicolas Vasseur and Trenchant were pilots ; sergeant Lacaille was interpreter, Jean Dehaies, carpenter, and Hance, artificer. Among the seamen were Pierre Gambie, La Roquette, Le Gendre, Martin Chauveau, Ber- trand,' Sanferrent, La Croix, Estienne Gondeau, Grandpre, Nicholas Lemaistre, Doublet, Four- neaux, Estienne de Genes, Jacques Sale, Le Mesureur, Barthelemy, Aymon, LaCrete, Grand- chemin, Pierre Debray, and three brothers of sergeant Lacaille. The expedition was accom- panied by a draughtsman, Jacques Lemoyne de Mourcrues.
The adventurers sailed from Havre in April, April 23c 1564. A voyage of no more than the usual leno-th brought them to the mouth of the St. John's, where Ribaut had first set up the arms of France. Following the course of the river for a short distance, Laudonniere chose a spot, six miles from the sea, as the site of a projected town, and at once began the building of a fort which he named La Caroline. The locality is now known as St. John's Bluff.' The Hugue-
' " The river St. John's ... is more like an arm of the sea than a river ; from its mouth for a distance of fifteen miles, it is spread over extensive marshes, and there are few points where the channel touches the banks of the river. At its mouth it is comparatively narrow, but immediately ex- tends itself over wide-spread marshes ; and the first head- land or shore which is washed by the channel is a place
66 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. nots after their pious usage inaugurated the 1564. work with their simple and hearty worship. July 1. " There," in the language of the commander himself, "we sang praises to the Lord, beseech- ing Him that of His holy grace He would be pleased to continue His accustomed goodness to us, and henceforth help us in all our undertak- ino-s, in such wise that the whole might redound to His glory, and to the furtherance of our faith. Prayers ended, each one began to take courage."
But the brief history of this expedition was to be one of disappointment and disaster through- out. Not fourteen months from the day when Laudonniere landed upon the bank of St. John's river, full of hope and courage, the spot thus consecrated with prayer and praise was red- dened by the blood of his followers ; and another of Colio-ny's experiments of colonization ter-
known as St. John's Bluff. Here the river runs closely by the shore, making a bold, deep channel close up to the bank. The land rises abruptly on one side into a hill of moderate height, covered with a dense growth of pine, cedar, etc. This hill gently slopes to the bank of the river, and runs off to the southwest, where, at a distance of a quarter of a mile, a creek discharges itself into the river, at a place called "the shipyard " from time immemorial. I am not aware that any remains of Fort Caroline, or any old remains of a fortress, have ever been discovered here ; but it must be recollected that this fort was constructed of sand and pine trees, and that three hundred years have passed away — a period suffi- cient to have destroyed a work of much more durable char- acter. Moreover, it is highly probable, judging from present appearances, that the constant abrasion of the banks, still going on, has long since worn away the narrow spot where stood Fort Caroline."— History and Antiquities of St. Au- gustine, Florida, by George R. Fairbanks, M. A. Pp. 26, 27,
FORMER MISTAKES REPEATED. 67
minated in a horrible^ massacre. The events of introd. that hapless year have been related with particu- 1565. larity by the chroniclers of the time, and by later writers. Suffice it to say here, that the French re-enacted the mistakes and the misfortunes of previous undertakings. They neglected the cultivation of the soil, yielded to the seductions of gold, and fell out among themselves. Their policy toward the natives was injudicious. Finding the savage tribes of the interior at war, and anxious to secure the white man's help, Laudonniere at first endeavored to maintain a strict neutrality ; but he soon suffered himself to be drawn into alliances that proved disastrous. " As a leader, he showed a deplorable lack of Theieaa-
_ TIT' 1 • er's weak-
firmness. Insubordmation and conspiracy were ness. too easily pardoned. The young nobles, who had accompanied the expedition in the hope that they might enrich themselves from the far- famed treasures of the new world, were soured and angered by their failure to discover gold in Florida. They could not stoop to work for their bread, and they took it ill when required to do their part in the labors of fortification. The Protestants, who composed the majority of the expedition, complained of the indifference of their leader to religion. No Huguenot pastor had joined the colony ; and those who had been accustomed to religious ministrations in the camp, as well as at home, declared openly that they would take the very first opportunity to leave. But the direst calamity that befell the ill- planned enterprise, was famine. By the second
68 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. summer, scarcity prevailed at La Caroline. No 1565. crops had been planted in the rich soil of the surrounding lands, and though the river teemed with fish, the colonists depended on their savage neighbors for the food which they would not condescend to obtain for themselves.
From this record of mistakes and calamitous errors, it is pleasant to turn for a moment to some redeeming facts in the story of the French in Florida. Unlike the Spaniards, they treated the savage inhabitants of the country with much gentleness ; and their brief occupation left no Psalm- such memories of cruelty as the earlier visits of Florida, the Spanish adventurers had left. The simple- minded children of the forest v/ere greatly im- pressed with the habitual gayety and good na- ture of the French, and they were especially captivated by the sonorous singing in which the Huguenots perpetually indulged. Long after the breaking up of Laudonniere's colony, the European, cruising along the coast, or landing upon the shore, would be saluted with some snatch of a French psalm uncouthly rendered by Indian voices, in strains caught from the Calvin- ist soldier on patrol, or from the boatman ply- ing his oar on the river.' No fierce imprecation or profane expletive lingered in the recollection of the red men, as the synonym for a French Protestant.
' Le Challeux, who states this, gives the words " Du fond de ma pensee" and " Bienheureux est quiconque sei't d Dieic volontiers,'' as frequently used by the Indians in this
SIR JOHN HAWKINS. 69
Laudonnlere at length reluctantly decided to introd. abandon the expedition, and return to Europe. 1-65. Of the three small and frail vessels which had brought his followers over, only one remained that could be made sea-worthy. By the first days of August, the carpenters had completed their work ; and the French were making ready for departure, when a fleet appeared off the August mouth of the St. John's. The four ships of which it was composed were commanded by the famous English navigator John Hawkins. His coming was friendly ; he willingly relieved from his naval stores the most pressing necessities of the French, and he offered to transport them all to France. Laudonniere declined this offer, but availed himself of the Englishman's kindness by purchasing one of his ships at a nominal price. Scarcely had this visitor disappeared, when an- '*'27^^* other fleet was seen in the offing. Its admiral was Jean Ribaut, the leader of the former expe- dition.
Reports unfavorable to the character of Lau- donniere had reached France. Coligny decided to recall him, and at the same time to send a much larger force for the occupation of Florida. Seven ships, some of them of considerable size, were fitted out for this purpose. They carried not far from one thousand men. A number of Huguenot gentlemen joined the expedition as volunteers. Amongf them were the sieurs de la Blonderie, d'Ully, de Beauchaire, de Lagrange, de San Marain, du Vest, de Jonville. Of the officers, the names of Jacques Ribaut, Maillard,
70 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS: FLORIDA.
introd. de Machonville, Jean Dubois, Valuot, Cosette, 1565. Louis Ballaud, Nicolas Verdier, de Saint-Clerk, de la Vigne, Du Lys, and Le Beau have come down to us. Among the artisans, seamen and soldiers, were Nicolas le Challeux, of Dieppe, Nicaise de la Crotte, Francois Duval, Elie Desplanques, Jacques Tauze, Christophe Lebreton, Drouet, Jacques Dulac, Masselin, Jehan Mennin, Gros, Bellot, Martin, Pierre Rennat, Jacques, Vincent Simon, and Michel Gonnor. This time, the religious wants of the adventurers were not forgotten. At least one clergyman,' Robert by name, accompanied them. The minister had an efficient helper in Le Chal- leux, the ship-carpenter, a man of advanced years, and well versed in Holy Scripture.^ Third ex- Jean Ribaut was called home from England pedition. ^^ command this fleet, which sailed from the harbor of Dieppe, in the latter part of May, and arrived at the mouth of St. John's river on the twenty-seventh of August. The larger ships remained at anchor, while Ribaut with three smaller vessels sailed up the river to La Caro- line. Laudonniere, summoned on board the flag-ship, was soon able to clear himself from the charges which Ribaut brought to his notice, and the old associates were friends once more.
' Gaffarel intimates that more than one minister was sent. — Histoire de la Floride frangaise, par Paul Gaffard. P. 195. " Maitre Robert, qui avoit charge de faire les prieres," is the only one mentioned by Le Challeux.
^ A graphic account of the expedition from the pen of this pious Huguenot has been preserved.
A COMMON DANGER. 7^
But a common danger was now to cement their introd. fortunes. Five days after Ribaut's arrival, tid- 1565- ings were signaled from the coast that another September fleet had come in sight. It was late in the after- noon ; a heavy fog was just lifting, and in the dusk the sentinels at the mouth of the river could not distinguish the nationality of the ships. The night of the third of Septem- ber wore away anxiously at La Caroline. But with the dawn of the following day all uncertainty vanished. Ribaut's larQ^er vessels were now seen to have left their anchoracfe, and to be making for the open sea. They had descried the approaching fleet, and recognized a dreaded foe. The Spaniards had come. Spain and France The were for the time at peace. But Spain had al- ^p^^^^^^^. ways denied the right of France in the New World. Florida belonged to Spain by virtue of discovery ; and though the Spaniards had been unsuccessful heretofore in their attempts to conquer the country, they did not propose to surrender their claim to a rival power. Least of all would they permit the hated Huguenot to establish himself upon those shores. No sooner did Philip the Second learn that such an j^arch 22. attempt had actually been made, than he com- missioned one of his bravest and most resolute captains to dislodge the audacious intruder. Pedro Menendez de Abila had now come with a strong force to execute this commission. His fleet consisted of some fifteen vessels, several of them ships of large tonnage. They carried twenty-six hundred men, Spanish and Portu-
'J2 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. guese, the latter of whom were to distinguish 1565. themselves by their demon-like ferocity.
Menendez hoped to take the French una- wares. Failing in this, he landed his men at a spot thirty miles south of the St. John's, near the present city of St. Augustine. Meanwhile the French at La Caroline were consulting as to the course to be pursued in view of this sudden danpfer. Laudonniere was for streno-thenincf the Council of fort, and harassing the enemy by land, in a se- ijepTe^mber ries of skirmishes, aided by the friendly savages. ^' The wisdom of this policy seemed obvious to all the members of the council of war, save one. Ribaut alone insisted upon a naval engagement. His plan was to fall upon the enemy's ships, and after disarming them, attack and destroy the forces already landed. Remonstrances and ar- guments availed nothing. Laudonniere was no longer in command. Had his advice been taken, " Florida," says the enthusiastic historian of La Floridc Frangaisc, " would have remained a French country." September The four ships whIch had taken flight upon the approach of the Spaniards, now re-appeared. Ribaut ordered all his soldiers on board, to- gether with as many of Laudonniere's men as were fit for service. Only those who had been wounded in a late affray with one of the Indian tribes of the interior, were left at La Caroline, with their late commander, himself disabled at the time by illness.
Heavy-hearted, Laudonniere saw his comrades sail away. His fears for the ill-judged expedi-
PEDRO MENENDEZ DE ABILA.
7:
tion were more than realized. A furious storm soon broke upon the coast : and Ribaut's ships, driven southward, far beyond the spot where Menendez was landing his men, were miserably wrecked on the dangerous shore in the neigh- borhood of Cape Canaveral.
lutxod. 1565-
Menendez was now free to execute the work of butchery for which he had come across the At- lantic. Leaving the bulk of his little army at September the fort which he had built and named St. Au- ^^• gustine, he took five hundred picked men and set out for La Caroline. Within three days the
74 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. French fort was reached.' Surprised in their 1565- slumbers, the sick and wounded, as well as the September able-bodied, were put to the sword. Only the women and children were spared. Laudonniere and a few others fled. Among them was the Hu- guenot minister Robert. After many hair- breadth escapes, the fugitives reached the coast, and were taken on board one of the smaller ships which Ribaut had left in the river. It was soon joined by another of these vessels, and the two, though poorly fitted for the long voyage, succeeded in making their way across the ocean. Eibaut A far more wretched fate was reserved for
STirrsH"
ders. Ribaut and his shipwrecked followers. With great difficulty, they made their way northward through forests and swamps almost impassable, till they came in view of La Caroline, only to see the Spanish flag flying from its wall. Re- tracing their steps, they found themselves in the neighborhood of the Spanish force at fort St. Aucrustine. Ribaut sent one of his officers to ask for terms of surrender. Menendez informed the Frenchman of the slaughter of his compan- ions at La Caroline. Even such, he coldly as- sured him, should be the fate of every man who professed the Protestant religion. Menen- dez was reminded that his nation was still at peace with France. " True," he answered, " but not so in the case of heretics, with whom I
' It was occupied by some two hundred and forty per- sons— invalid soldiers, artisans, women and little children. (Delaborde, Coligny, L, 447, note.)
NO TERMS WITH HERETICS. 75
shall ever carry on war in these parts : and I introd. shall do it with all possible cruelty toward all 1565. of that sect, wherever I shall find them, whether October, by sea or by land. Yield yourselves to my mercy, give up your arms and your colors, and I will do as God may prompt me."
We shall not reproduce here the sickening details of the massacre that followed. Ribaut announced the Spaniard's decision to his little army, and gave it as his own opinion that there was no alternative for them but surrender. Two hundred rejected the proposal, and fled into the woods. The others — one hundred and fifty in number — hoping against hope, threw them- selves upon the compassion of one to whom the Butchery word had no meaning. The French accounts gj, /ugus of the affair represent Menendez as resorting to *^^^' a base subterfuge in order to induce them to submit without a struggle. In an interview with Ribaut's messenger, the Spanish comman- der caused one of his officers to personate him. The officer made the most solemn promise that the lives of the French should be spared. How- ever this may be, all the authorities agree as to the fact of the surrender, and the wholesale ex- ecution. Menendez himself announced it to his government. " I had their hands tied behind their backs," he wrote to the king, " and them- selves put to the sword. It appeared to me that by thus chastising them, God our Lord and your Majesty were served. Whereby in future this evil sect will leave us more free to plant the Gospel in these parts."
76 ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENTS : FLORIDA.
introd. The party of two hundred that had refused to 1565. surrender with the rest, escaped the butchery. Making their way back to the place of their shipwreck, near Cape Canaveral, they attempted to construct a vessel out of the fragments of the broken ships. Menendez pursued them, but finding that they were prepared to sell their lives dear, he entered into negotiations with them, and engaged to treat them as prisoners of war. Perhaps satiated for the time with human blood, he kept the promise, until word came from the Spanish king, remanding his prisoners to the galleys.
Thus ends the story of the Huguenot expedi- tion to Florida — in carnage, and in slavery worse than death.
Upon the spot where many of his unresisting victims were ignominiously killed, after the cap- ture of La Caroline, Menendez placed a tablet bearing this inscription :
" Hung not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans." 1567. Two years later, a gallant French officer de-
The crime termined to avenge the slaughter of his country- avenged. nien. The horrible brutality of the Spaniards had awakened g-eneral indio^nation in France. The French court had loudly complained of this outrage committed upon its subjects in a time of peace between the two nations. Its remon- strances, however, made no impression upon Philip the Second, nor was any redress obtained for the widows and orphans of the butchered Huguenots. But Dominique de Gourgues, though not of the Huguenot faith, could not
DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. ']']
rest while the blood of his countrymen cried for introd.
vengeance. Through the sale of his little pat- i^^
rimony, and by the help of his brother, he August
gathered means to purchase and equip three
small vessels. After a perilous voyage, De
Gourgues reached the coast of Florida, enlisted
the friendly Indians of the neighboring region
in his service, and falling upon La Caroline, i568.
took prisoners the Spanish force by whom it
was garrisoned. The greater number of these
he put to the sword. The remainder he hung April 28.
upon the trees from which Menendez had hung
his French captives ; and upon the other side of
the tablet which the Spaniard had placed near
bv, he inscribed these words :
" I do this not as unto Spaniards, nor as unto seamen, but as unto traitors, robbers, and mur- derers."
ACADIA
PAKT OF CANADA
SCALE OF MILES, V 0 40 SO 120
CHAPTER I.
Under the Edict, acadia and canada.
The Edict of Nantes was signed on the thir- chap. i. teenth day of April, 1598. Never were the jus- j^g^ tice and expediency of a poHtical measure more April 13. promptly vindicated by its effects. The publi- cation of this royal decree was followed by the speedy return of prosperity to France. In one day, says Benoist, the disasters of forty years were repaired. The civil wars had left the country in a deplorable condition. Everywhere the traces of the long struggle were to be seen, in ruined villages and dismantled castles, in farms laid waste, and cities impoverished. Under the Edict, which secured to the Protestants of France the enjoyment of their civil and religious rights, public confidence soon revived, and trade and manufactures began to flourish.
For these advantages, the kingdom was large- suiiy's ly indebted to the statesmanship of the great mansMp. Sully. It was the good fortune of Henry the Fourth to have for his trusty counselor a man of staunch fidelity and of far-sighted wisdom. Sully was a Protestant, and, unlike his master, remained faithful to his religious convictions,
8o UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. through all the changes of his times. In admin- 1598. istering the affairs of the country, his principal concern was for the development of its inter- nal resources. Bringing a rigid economy into all the departments of government, he rapidly reduced the enormous debt which had accumu- lated during the civil wars ; whilst at the same time he sought to encourage agriculture as the most assured means of national enrichment. Henry Henry shared his minister's views ; but he had coKSza- other plans also, into which Sully did not enter *^°°- so cordially. The king favored foreign com- merce and colonization. It was his ambition to possess a powerful navy ; to promote adventure and discovery and trade with distant parts ; and especially, to carry out the scheme which had originated with Coligny, his early teacher and companion in arms, for the establishment of a French colony in America. The time for this CTreat undertakino- had come at last ; and it is to Henry the Fourth that the honor belongs, of having founded the first agricultural colony in the New World, and of having founded it upon principles of religious equality and freedom. • 1504. Already for a hundred years the banks of
Newfoundland had been frequented by French fishermen. From the harbors of Normandy and Bretagne, from La Rochelle, and the low sandy islands along the coast between the Loire and the Gironde, hardy seamen ventured forth an- nually across the Atlantic, rivaling the English and the Spaniards in discovery and commercial enterprise. Not a few of them were Protest.
REFORMATION IN WESTERN FRANCE. 8 1
ants. Many of the ships that visited the fish- Chap. i. ing banks, or cruised along the shores of the i^gS. gulf of St. Lawrence, were owned by Hugue- not merchants, and manned by Huguenot sail- ors, whose loud voices were often heard, in port and at sea, to the indignation of all good Catho- lics, as they joined lustily in singing Clement Marot's psalms.
The Reformation early gained a foothold in the seaboard provinces of western France. It was about the year 1534, that two of Calvin's first and most ardent disciples' entered the province of Saintonge, and began to preach the new doctrines. Their success was marked, es- spread of pecially among the humbler classes of the pop- doctrines, ulation. In a short time, nearly every village and hamlet had been reached. These mission- ary labors were aided by recruits from an unex- pected quarter. A number of monks, in the central part of France, having heard of Luther, left their monasteries, and crossed the frontier into Germany, to hear the great reformer for themselves. Upon their return to France, they began to preach boldly against the abuses of Rome ; but soon, incurring the displeasure of
' Philippe Veron, called " le Ramasseur," and Albert Babinot, were of the number of those who came under Calvin's influence during his stay in Poitiers for some months, before he went to Geneva. — Histoire des Protest- ants et des eglises reformees du Poitou, par A. Lievre. Tome I., p. 34. — Histoire des eglises reformees de Pons, Gemozac et Mortagne, en Saintonge, par A. Crottet. P. 10, se^. — Bulletin de la Societe de I'histoire du protestantisme frangais, 316 ann^e (1882) p. 6.
82 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. the clergy, they were forced to scatter, and hide 1540. themselves in the remoter parts of the king- dom. Several of these monks came into Sain- tono-e, and took refuge among the rude fisher- men and seamen who inhabited the islands of Ole- ron, Marennes, and Arvert. Here, cautiously at first, and then more openly, they preached their Lutheran doctrines, protected by a dignitary of the Church who was in sympathy with the Ref- ormation, and finding much acceptance with the 1546. people. The persecution that soon arrested the
August, labors of these zealous men, several of whom were burned at the stake, did not prevent the spread of the new faith in Saintonge. By the middle of the sixteenth century, a large part of the population of this province, as of the ad- joining provinces, had embraced the Protestant religion.
The mass So rapid and so thorough was the change,
'''''^'^" that at the time when the Edict of Nantes was published, the Roman mass had not been said openly at La Rochelle for nearly forty years. In many other Huguenot towns, the pub- lic exercises of the Roman Catholic worship had been interrupted almost as long : and in lower Normandy, and in Henry's native province of Beam, it had been formally excluded.
Protestant and Catholic alike, the merchants and seamen of western France were now look- ino- with keen interest toward America as a field of commercial adventure. The fisheries and the fur-trade, pursued hitherto without govern- ment aid, by companies of merchants and by
THE HUGUENOTS INSECURE. 83
private individuals, had proved exceedingly Chap. i. lucrative ; and the seaport towns of Norman- 1603. dy, Bretagne and Aunis vied with one anoth- er in seeking to obtain the exclusive control of the profitable traffic. There were reasons, however, why Protestants especially should wel- come the plan of colonization in the New World. They were by no means free from anxiety as to their condition and prospects in France. The Edict of Nantes, whilst it recog- nized and " irrevocably " confirmed their civil and religious rights, greatly exasperated their enemies. The clergy, and the more extreme among the Roman Catholic party, were bitterly Need of a opposed to its execution. The parliaments long forSe^n. refused to register the decree, and yielded only to the express command of the king. Henry himself was viewed with distrust by his former fellow-religionists. Whilst protecting them in the exercise of their religion, he was endeavor- ing to weaken them as a political party. It was known that the Jesuits, who had been banished from the kingdom, were regaining their influence at court. The day might come, which Coligny had foreseen, when the Protestants of France would need a place of refuge from renewed per- secution, and a country where they and their children could enjoy freedom of conscience. It was by considerations like these, that the Prot- estant subjects of Henry were moved to fall in heartily with his plans of American coloniza- tion.
On the eighth of November, 1603, a commis-
84 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. sion was granted to a Huguenot gentleman of i6^. Saintonge, Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts, au- thorizing him to possess and settle that part of November North America lying between the fortieth and ®" the forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and granting him the monopoly of trade between Cape Race and the fortieth degree of latitude, for a period of ten years. The coasts of this region had been visited and explored by Jacques 1534. Cartier, nearly seventy years before ; and during the reign of Francis the First an ineffectual at- tempt had been made to plant a colony on the bank of the St. Lawrence. Later experiments had not been more fortunate. One of these ad- ventures was conducted by a Huguenot officer. 1599. In the year 1599, Pierre Chauvin, seigneur de Tontuit,' of Honfleur in Normandy, was com- missioned by Henry IV. to colonize America. Chauvin was a captain in the royal navy, "very expert and well versed in matters of navigation," says Champlain, " who had served his Majesty in the late wars, althozigh he was of the Pretended Reformed religion." "" Several vessels were
' Nouvelles Glanes historiques Normandes, puisees exclu- sivement dans des documents inedits. Par E. Gosselin, Greffier-x\rchiviste. Rouen : Imprimerie de H. Boissel, ruedelaVicomte, 55.— 1873. P. 17. Z?/<; Tontuit. Id., p. 35.
" " Homme tres expert et entendu au faict de la naviga- tion, qui avoit servi sa Majesty aux guerres pass^es, quoi qu'il fust de la religion pretendue reformee." " Ce qui fut a blasmer en cette entreprise, est d' avoir donne une com- mission a un homme de contraire religion, pour pulluler la foi c, a. et r., que les heretiques ont tant en horreur, et abbomination. Voila les defauts que j'avois a dire sur ceste entreprise." Voyages de Champlain, vol. I., pp. 44, 48.
NEW FRANCE STILL UNOCCUPIED. 85
equipped, and with a force of five hundred men, chap. i. Chauvin embarked, accompanied by none but i^^^ Calvinistic ministers.' At Tadoussac, on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, at the mouth of its confluent the Saguenay, a trading- post was established ; and leaving sixteen of his men to gather furs, the leader returned to France. The little colony dragged out a miser- able existence through the winter. Several of the men died, and the others were barely kept alive by the compassionate savages, who shared with them their slender provisions. Chauvin made another unsuccessful attempt to effect a settlement in the same place, and was about to 1602. start upon a third voyage, when he died. In the following year, the commission which had been granted him was transferred to a Roman Catho- lic patentee, Aymar de Chastes, governor of Dieppe. But before the ships sent out for the exploration of the country returned, De Chastes too was dead. Thus in the early days of the seventeenth century, scarcely a trace remained of the expeditions of French adventurers to North America. The whole of the vast region claimed by France in virtue of the discoveries of Verrazzano, who as early as the year 1524 had planted her standard upon its soil, was still waiting to be occupied.
De Montshad accompanied Chauvin, " for his own pleasure," on his first visit to the St. Law-
' " Tout ira assez bien, horsmis qu'il n' y aura que des ministres & pasteurs Calvinistes." — Id., p. 45.
86 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. rence. His impressions of the country watered 1 60^? by that great river — influenced perhaps by the unfortunate resuh of the expedition — were not favorable ; and he preferred a more southerly region, and a milder temperature, for his own agricultural colony. For this reason he was attracted to the large peninsula lying south of the gulf of St. Lawrence, now known as Nova Scotia. The discoverer Cartier had given a glowing account of this territory, and had par- ticularly noticed its climate, resembling that of Spain, and in singular contrast with the bleak weather he had encountered on the neiehborine coast of Newfoundland. This fertile country, abounding in lakes and rivers and estuaries,' had La already received the name of La Cadie ; ^ and the commission given by Henry IV. to his trusty subject the Sieur de Monts, constituted him its viceroy.
This commission was a characteristic docu- ment.3 It began by setting forth the king's favorite project for the enlargement of his do- minions. " It has ever been," reads the pream- ble of the royal grant, " our principal concern and endeavor, since our accession to this crown, to maintain and preserve it in its ancient dignity, greatness and splendor, and to spread and augment, so far as may be legitimately done, the
About one-fifth of the area of Nova Scotia is occupied by these waters.
'^ The earliest mention, however, occurs in De Monts' commission.
' See the Appendix to this volume.
Cadie.
DE MONTS' COMMISSION. 87
bounds and limits thereof." But there was an Chap. i. object of still higher importance to be sought in 1603. the present enterprise. The king, " having long since informed himself of the situation and condition of the country and territory of Acadia," professed to be " moved above all things by a singular zeal, and by a devout and firm resolu- tion " which he had taken, " with the help and assistance of God, who is the author, distributor, and protector of all kingdoms and states, to seek the conversion, guidance and instruction of the races that inhabit that country, from their barbar- ous and godless condition, without faith or relig- ion, to Christianity and the belief and profession of our faith and religion, and to rescue them from the ignorance and unbelief in which they now lie." For these purposes, secular as well as spiritual, Henry appointed the Sieur de Monts his lieutenant-general, with powers ''to subject all the peoples of that country and of the surrounding parts to our authority ; and by all Therights lawful means to lead them to the knowledge of conscience God and to the lio-ht of the Christian faith and reliofion, and to establish them therein." All other inhabitants were to be maintained and pro- tected in the exercise and profession of the same Christian faith and religion, and in peace, repose and tranquillity.
Thus the foundations of New France were to be laid in relieious freedom and toleration. Ro- manist and Calvinist were equally secured in the enjoyment of the rights of conscience. And the heathen aborigines were to be taught the truths
88 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. of that common Christianity which Cathohc and
1603. Protestant ahke professed. If the plan was im- practicable, it did honor nevertheless to the heart and mind that prompted and devised the Edict of Nantes.
De Monts associated with himself the mem-
, bers of a company which had been organized for
one of the previous unsuccessful expeditions ; adding to their number some of the merchants of the principal seaports of the kingdom, chiefly of La Rochelle. He himself was well fitted to be the leader of such an enterprise. He had fought
Pierre bravely under Henry in the late wars, and the sieur' king, who trusted him thoroughly, had made him
Monts. o^G of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber, and some years after appointed him governor of Pons, in his native province of Saintonge. All the early writers agree in characterizing him as a man of the highest integrity, and the purest patriotism. In courage, energy, perseverance, in tact and firmness, and in unselfish devotion to his country's glory, the Protestant founder of New France was admirably qualified for his mis- sion. '
With two well-provisioned ships at his com- mand, De Monts sailed from Havre de Grace
' " Henry IV. avoit une grande confiance [en lui] pour sa fidelite, commeil a toujours fait paroitre jusques a samort." — Voyages du Sieur Chaniplain, ou Journal es Decouvertes de la Nouvelle France. Paris, 1S30. Vol. I., p. 54.
" C'etoit d' ailleurs un fort honnete homme, et qui avoit du zele pour I'Etat et toute la capacite necessaire pour reussir dans I'entreprise dont il s'^toit charge." — Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par le P. de Charlevoix. Vol. I., p. 173.
MINISTER AND PRIEST. 89
early in March, 1604. The band of adventurers Chap. i. whom he had gathered for his colony, numbered 1604. about one hundred and twenty persons.' It was March made up of materials very diverse. Some were '^' of noble birth, while others were of low condi- tion. There were Huguenots and Romanists ; and for the spiritual care of the settlers, and the proposed conversion of the savages of America, a Protestant minister and a Roman Catholic priest went with them.' De Monts' commission authorized him to impress for his expedition any " vagabonds, idlers or vagrants," as well as any criminals condemned to banishment from the realm, whom he might see fit to employ. A like permission had been given to preceding adven- turers, and more than one of them had availed himself of it.' But it does not appear that the
* The names of a few of these may be gathered from Cham- plain's account of the expedition. Mention is made of les Sieurs de Geneston, Sourin, d' Oraille, Chaudore, de Beau- mont, laMotte Bourioli, Fougeray, la Taille, IMiquelet ; the surgeons des Champs, of Honfleur, and Bonnerme ; Messire Aubry, priest, and le Sieur Raleau, secretary of M. de Monts.
* It is charitable to presume that these religious teachers may have kept the peace during the voyage, at least. The lively incident related by Champlain {v.J>osfea,Y)Rge 99) did not occur af sea, as we might infer from the account of it in " Pioneers of France in the New World," page 223 ; since it took place in the presence of " the savages," who some- times sided with the one disputant and sometimes with the other. Their differences doubtless began in earnest when they engaged in efforts to convert the Indians, each to his t)wn religious belief.
' In 1540, Francis I. sent Cartier back to Canada, with or- ders to take with him fifty persons condemned for crime," hors d' heresie, et de lese-majeste divine et humaine," for the settlement of that country. (Nouvelles Glanes historiques
90
UNDER THE EDICT: ACADIA.
Chap. I 1604.
The coast of Acadia
Huguenot leader found it necessary to form his company out of such materials. There were good men and true, of his own creed and severe morality, who could easily be drawn into an enterprise so hopeful. Among the gentlemen who accompanied De Monts were two of his for- mer comrades in the service of Henry of Navarre. The one was the famous Samuel de Champlain, like himself a native of Saintonge, and not im- probably a Protestant by birth,' but who if origi- nally a Protestant had followed the king's example in conforming to the Church of Rome. The other was Jean de Biencourt, baron de Poutrincourt, the future proprietor of Port Royal. A short and uneventful voyage brought the colonists in sight of Acadia. Some time was exp ore . ^Qj-^g^jj-^-^^^^ jj-^ explorations with a view to the dis- covery of a suitable place for the settlement. On one occasion, the explorers met with an adven- ture, that came near disturbing the harmony of the expedition. Coasting along the south-eastern shore of the peninsula, De Monts had passed Cape Sable, and then steering northward had entered a bay, to which he gave the name St.
Normandes, par E. Gosselin. P. 4.) The saving clause, '■'heresy excepted^' illustrates the fatuous policy of France, in shutting out from her colonies the only class of people dis- posed to emigrate, and the class affording the best material for colonization.
' The possibility is suggested by the authors of the Histoire de la Colonie fran^aise en Canada, in view of the fact that no record of Champlain's birth and baptism is to be found in Brouage, his native place ; and in view of his surname, Samuel, " nom inusite alors chez les Catholiques et en honneur chez les Protestants." — Vol. I. Note XXI.
AUBRY'S ADVENTURE. 91
Mary, which it retains. Here, pleased with the Chap. i. appearance of the country, he sent ashore a 1604. party to make further examination. Among the men were two, a Protestant, and a young Roman Cathohc priest, named Aubry, who had often dur- ing the voyage engaged in hot discussion over their differing rehgious tenets. Straying from his companions, Aubry lost his way in the forest, and when the time came for their return to the ship, he could not be found. Anxious for his safety, De Monts caused a search to be made, not only by his own men, but by the friendly savages also. Trumpets were sounded, and cannon were fired, but in vain. At length all hope of success was abandoned. With heavy hearts the colonists set sail, and leaving St. Mary's bay proceeded on their course. But now their conjectures as to the fate of their unfortunate comrade took the hue of grave sus- picion. For it was remembered that Aubry had last been seen in company with the Protestant who had so frequently been his antagonist in sharp debate. Angry words, that might be con- strued as threats of personal violence, were re- called by the priest's co-religionists. Finally, they openly charged the Calvin ist with having secretly murdered his opponent. His earnest denials, and the efforts of the prudent com- mander to allay the rising storm, deterred them from taking summary vengeance. Great must have been the relief of all, when after many days Aubry reappeared. Wandering in the trackless forest until his- strength and courage
92 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. failed, he had given up all thought of rescue, 1604. when finding himself on the shore of the great bay — now known as the Bay of Fundy — he spied a boat. It belonged to De Monts' ship, and was lying off the island that still bears the name of Long Island, where the men were en- gaged in fishing. Aubry succeeded in attract- ino- their attention, and was taken on board, a mere shadow of his former self, having subsisted for seventeen days upon such edible herbs and berries as he could find in the wilderness.' Port Proceeding northward in the Bay of Fundy,
Royal ^ 1 • 1 A
discovered. De Monts came to another mlet. A narrow channel, between two wooded elevations, admit- ted the ship to a noble harbor, surrounded by sheltering hills. To this beautiful basin — now called Annapolis Harbor — the commander gave the name of Port Royal ; and here his associate De Poutrincourt, who was in search of an eligible spot for a settlement of his own, decided to re- main and make his home. De Monts approved the choice, and accompanied the consent with a grant of the locality to his friend, who promised at once to brinof over a number of families from France to occupy and improve it.
The site chosen for the future town of Port Royal was a point of land jutting out from the eastern shore, between two rivers that flowed into the bay. A wooded island, half a league in circumference, lay directly opposite, in the cen-
' Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot. A Paris : chez Jean Millot. MDC. XII. P. 453. CEuvres de Champlain, tome II., p. 16.
ANNAPOLIS HARBOR. 93
ter of the basin. The surrounding forests were chap. i. broken here and there by broad prairies ; and ^^ along the shore stretched extensive salt marshes, which at a later day were reclaimed and made exceedingly productive. The largest ships could ride in safety within the land-locked har- bor, which was, however, difficult of access, owing to the narrowness of the entrance and the shoals within. The place offered every ad- vantage for settlement. The fertile soil, the abundant and excellent timber, the rich fisheries, the salubrious climate, invited the colonist. In no other part of Acadia were the winters so mild.
Accompanied by Champlain, De Monts con- st. Croix tinued his explorations, passing from headland ^^^ ' to headland along the shores of the great bay, and finally fixed upon a place for the establish- ment of his own colony. It was a small island off the coast, at the mouth of the St. Croix river, on the opposite side of the Bay of Fundy. The site was singularly unsuitable. The island, not more than ten acres in extent, was without water, and ill-supplied with wood. The bitter experiences of a winter passed upon this rocky islet convinced the French of their mistake, and after examining other places along the coast, De Monts resolved to remove his colony to Port Royal, and unite his forces with the settlement which De Poutrincourt had commenced there. Sickness had thinned the numbers of the little company during their stay at St. Croix : of seventy-nine settlers, only forty survived. They
94 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. were joined in the summer of 1606' by Marc 1606. Lescarbot, a Protestant lawyer and man of letters, who has left us a lively account of the infant colony in his History of New France. He found it without a religious teacher. The priest and the minister whom De Monts brought over with him, both died during the sickness that prevailed on the island of St. Croix. Les- carbot tells us that he did his best to supply the vacancy. " Being requested," he says, " by the Sieur de Poutrincourt,' our chief, to give some portion of my time to the Christian instruction Lay of our little community, in order that we might preaching ^^^ jj^^ ij|,g ^-^^ beasts, and that we might afford Port the savages an example of our way of living, I did so every Sunday, and also upon some extra- ordinary occasions, nearly all the time we were there. And it happened well that without antici- pating this, I had brought with me my Bible and a few books ; for else the duty would have wearied me greatly, and I might have been compelled to decline it. As it was, the labor was not with- out fruit ; for several persons have testified to me that they had never heard so much said and well said concerning God, having been pre-
' Le Samedi veille de Pentecoste trezieme de May [1606] nous levames les ancres & fimes voiles en pleine mer tant que peu a peu nous perdimes de veue les grosses tours & la ville de la Rochelle puis les isles de Rez & d'Oleron, disans Adieu a la France. — Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, pp. 523, 524.
^ This nobleman, if nominally a Roman Catholic, appears to have been in full sympathy with his Huguenot associates, De Monts and Lescarbot. His hatred of the Jesuits was undisguised.
A MISSIONARY EXPEDITION. 95
viously unacquainted with the principles of the chap. i. Christian doctrine." "A condition," adds the 1606. Calvinist, " in which the mass of Christendom is living." '
Great hopes were cherished among the Prot- estants of France for the success of this colony as a missionary expedition. The conversion of the heathen natives was indeed one of the chief of its avowed ends. At La Rochelle, where Lescarbot took ship for New France, he found the Huguenots praying for this object daily in Converts their public assemblies. He intimates that a christian- number of the savages were brought under * ^' religious instruction during the time of his stay in America, and professed their readiness to be baptized." The Jesuit historians throw discredit
' Meme je ne seray point honteux de dire qu' ayant este prie par le Sieur de Poutrincourt no're chef de doner quel- ques heures de mon Industrie h. enseigner Chretiennement notre petit peuple, pour ne vivre en betes, & pour donner exemple a notre fa^on de vivre aux Sauvages, je I'ai fait en la necessite, & en etat requis, par chacun Dimanche, & quelque fois extraordinairement, presque tout le temps que nous y avons ete. Et bien me vint que j'avoy porte ma Bible & quelque livres, sans y penser : Car autrement une telle Charge m'eut fort fatigue & eust et^ cause que ie m'en serois excuse. Or cela ne fut point sans fruit, plusieurs m'ayant rendu temoignage que jamais ils n* avoient tant oui parler de Dieu en bonne part, & ne sachant auparavant aucun principe en ce qui est de la doctrine Chretienne." — Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot. Livre iv., chap. V.
'' " Le principal but de sa [de Poutrincourt] transmigra- tion, qui estoit de procurer le salut de ces pauvres peuples sauvages et barbares. Lors que nous y estions nous leurs avions quelquefois donne en I'ame de bonnes impressions de la connoisance de Dieu, comme se pent voir par le dis-
96 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. Upon these early efforts to Christianize the 1604. Indians ; and in fact they represent that the Huguenot De Monts was required, by the terms of his commission, as viceroy of Acadia, to propagate the Roman Cathohc faith among them. This statement, for which the authority of Champlain himself is given, has hitherto passed unquestioned. But we have already seen that De Monts' commission contained no such stipulation. It differed in this respect very significantly from the commissions that had been given to previous applicants. The patent granted by Francis I. to Jacques Cartier speaks of " the augmentation of our Mother Holy
cours de notre voyage, & en mon Adieu a la Nouvelle France."— Lescarbot, Histoire dela Nouvelle France, p. 636.
Adieu done ie te dis, ile de beaute pleine, Et vous oiseaux aussi des eaux et des forets, Qui serez les temoins de mes tristes regrets. Car c'est a grand regret, et ie ne le puis taire, Que ie quitte celieu, quoy qu' assez solitaire. Car c'est a grand regret qu' ores ici ie voy Ebranle le sujet d'y enter notre Foy, Et du grand Dieu le nom cach6 sous le silence, Qui a ce peiiple avoit louche la conscience.
******
Temoins soient de ceci les propos veritables Que Poutrincourt tenoit avec ces miserables Quand il leur enseignoit notre Religion, Et souvent leur montroit I'ardente affection Qu'il avoit de les voir dedans la bergerie Que Christ a rachete par le pris de sa vie.
Eux d' autre part emeus clairement temoignoient Et de bouche & de coeur le desir qu'ilz avoient D'estre plus amplement instruits en la doctrine En laquelle il convient qu' un fidele chemine.
— Lescarbot, Adieu ^ la Nouvelle France,
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND RELIGION. 97
Church CathoHc " (de notre mere Sainte Eglise chap. i. CathoHque). Henry IV. himself, in his com- 1604. mission to the Marquis de la Roche, a Roman Catholic nobleman, mentions the "aggrandize- ment of the Catholic faith " (la foy Catholique) as the aim in view. But the patent issued to the Huguenot De Monts was conceived in mpre general terms. It required that the heathen be converted " to Christianity," " to the knowl- edge of God, and to the light of the Christian faith and religion."' However this language might be understood by the zealots of Rome, it was not likely that Protestants would construe it as denoting the doctrines of the Papal system exclusively, nor indeed that the king, who, if not still a Protestant at heart, was far from being regardless of the rights of his Reformed subjects, could have so designed it. This sig niflcant omission, indeed, did not escape the notice of De Monts' enemies at the time.
Objections were raised to the expedition Objections on the score of the religious belief of its De Monts' leader. The Parliament of Rouen refused to ^°bS!^" register his commission, and sent one of its members to remonstrate with the king against the appointment of a heretic to be his lieutenant in Acadia. But before the envoy could reach Paris, a letter came from Henry, setting forth in very peremptory terms the royal pleasure. "We have been advised," said the king, "of the
* The correctness of Lescarbot's version of the patent granted to De Monts is attested by a contemporaneous translation, for which see the Appendix.
98 UNDER THE EDICT : ACADIA.
Chap. I. opposition that has been made to the execution
1604. of the powers we have given to the Sieur de
Montsfor the peopHngand occupying of Acadia
and other adjacent countries ; and we have
learned that you take chief exception to the
pretended reformed rehgion, of which the said
Sieur de Monts makes profession
Wherefore that you may be certified of our
will and purpose, we let you know that we have
given command that some ecclesiastics of good
life, doctrine, and edification shall proceed to
the said countries with the said Sieur de Monts,
to counteract [prevenir] whatever of a contrary
profession might be there sown and introduced.' "
Notwithstanding this assurance, the Parlia-
guarantee ment of Rouen still hesitated to confirm the
heresy! commission. Manifestly, it was thought that
no sufficient guarantee had been given for the
' " Nos amez et feaulx, nous avons este adverty des oppo- sitions formees k I'execution du pouvoir que nous avons donne au Sieur de Monts pour le peuplement et I'habitation de la terre de I'Acadye et autres terres et provinces circon- voisines, selon qu'elles sont prescrites par ledit pouvoir et sceu que vous vous arretez principalement sur la religion pretendue reformee, dont ledict Sieur de Montz faict pro- fession comme aussy sur 1' interdiction que vous avons faicte a nos courts du Parlement de ce faict, des circon- stances et dependances et autres actions qui se pourroient mouvoir pour raison des ordonnances que nous avons faictes pour ce subject, ou, ce que Ton pretend de prejudice et interets en la liberie du commerce. Sur quoi afin que vous soyez assurez de notre vouloir et intention, nous vous dirons que nous avons donne ordre que quelques gens d'Eglise de bonne vie, doctrine et edification se transportent es dits pays et provinces avec le diet sieur de Montz pour prevenir ce que Ton pourroit y semer et introduire de contraire pro- fession."
— Gosselin. (Nouvelles Glanes historiques normandes.)
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES. 99
spread of the true faith and the repression of chap. i. heresy in New France. But the king deigned 1604. no further explanation ; and all discussion of the subject was speedily cut off by a royal behest, which admitted of no further delay.
Champlain represents the heathen as greatly scandalized by the differences between the Catholics and the Protestants, which they wit- nessed from time to time. " One thing must be remarked," he observes, " to the disadvantage of this enterprise, namely, that two conflicting re- ligions never produce any great results for the glory of God in the conversion of the unbelievers. 1 have seen the minister and our curd fighting with their fists, while discussing their religious differences. I do not know which one of the two may have been the braver, and may have dealt the better blow; but I do know that the minister used sometimes to complain to the Sieur De Monts that he had been beaten. Thus it was that they determined their points of controversy. I leave it to you to say whether this was a pleas- ant sight. The savages sided sometimes with the one party and sometimes with the other ; and the French, mingling in the discussion according to their differing beliefs, vilified both religions, though the Sieur De Monts did his best to restore peace among them."
Port Royal was beginning to wear the aspect of a thrifty and prosperous settlement, when in the summer of the year 1607, tidings arrived from France that the privileges of trade granted to De Monts under his commission from the king
lOO UNDER THE EDICT: ACADIA.
Chap. I. were withdrawn. The merchants of St. Malo, in 1607. Bretagne, had long been foremost in the traffic pursued along the American coast. Great was their indignation when they learned that a rival company had obtained exclusive rights, shutting them out from the fisheries and the fur-trade which they prized so much. No efforts were spared to break down the odious monopoly ; and at length these efforts succeeded. De Monts was compelled to renounce his cherished plan. A good beginning had been made by the little band Privileges o^ colonists. Their cultivated lands gave promise °\S^^ of rich harvests. They had erected a small pali- drawE. saded fort, a mill, store-houses and dwellings, and had undertaken the manufacture of tar. They had established friendly relations with the natives, and had met with some success in the effort to convert them to Christianity. But the experiment of colonization was costly, and, without the revenue to be derived from the monopoly granted them, could not be carried on. Port Royal was abandoned, at least for the present. The title to the lands upon which the settlement had been effected was still held, however, by De Monts' associate, De Poutrincourt, and two years later he returned and took possession of his grant, a confirmation of which he obtained from the king. Meanwhile, baffled in the attempt to colonize Acadia, De Monts did not immediately renounce the scheme of a French settlement in the New World. Though he had lost his exclusive privileges of trade, the Huguenot leader still held his commission from Henry the Fourth, giv-
PORT ROYAL ABANDONED. lOI
ing him vice-regal powers over the whole vast Chap. i. territory, which included not only the peninsula 1608. since known as Nova Scotia, but also Canada, and a great part of the continent to which it belongs. He was resolved to attempt a settle- ment in the interior ; and in order to secure the means of accomplishing this purpose, he again petitioned the king, and obtained a renewal of the monopoly of trade with America, at first for a single year. Again he associated with himself the daring and enthusiastic Champlain. Two ships were equipped for the expedition ; the one, to carry on the traffic in peltries from which the needed revenue for the enterprise was to be derived ; the other, under the command of Cham- plain, to discover and to occupy a suitable site for the proposed colony.
It was in the summer of the year 1608 that settlement Champlain, acting under the authority of De Quebec. Monts, landed on the bank of the St. Lawrence, upon the spot which was to be the site of the city of Quebec. The superb position must have im- pressed the great explorer, and perhaps, like Frontenac, at a later day, he too saw here " the future capital of a great empire." '
For many years, however, the place was scarcely more than a trading-post. Little in- ducement was held out to settlers, and few came over with any design to remain and culti- vate the soil. The attractions of commerce were stronger than those of colonization. De Monts'
o
' Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. by Fran- cis Parkman, p. 15.
I02 UNDER THE EDICT: ACADIA.
Chap. I. company, holding nominally the exclusive right 1608. to trade with the New World, had been consider- ably enlarged. The sagacious and large-hearted Huguenot, more Intent upon the success of his colony than upon his own personal Interests, drew the rival houses of St. Malo into Its service by admitting them as partners of the monopoly which they had endeavored to break down. But the company's ships were not alone in carry- ing on the traffic. Many merchants of Rochelle and other ports were actively engaged In it ; and many a free-trader, besides, setting at defiance the restrictions placed upon commerce, sought the shores of New France, drove his own bargain with the savages, and sailed back to the French
Religious coast with rich cargoes of peltry. unresSt- ^^ Y^^' there was no Interference with re- ^^' llglous liberty. Protestants and Romanists shared alike in the toils and the profits of trade, and often discussed the differences of their belief with a freedom that ran Into license. Re- lloflous contentions were indeed amon^ the chief troubles experienced by Champlain In the gov- ernment of the colony, to which he had now been appointed. A few Franciscan friars were brought over In 161 5, to undertake the spiritual care of the French, and the conversion of the Indians. But the Calvinist traders and sailors were proof against the persuasions of the zeal- ous missionaries ; and as yet, no harsher means than persuasion could be employed to subdue their heresy. On many of the company's ves- sels, as on most of the ships engaged In inde-
DE MONTS' COMMISSION SURRENDERED. 103
pendent trade, the crews were assembled daily Chap.!, for prayers, after the manner of Geneva; and 1610. even good Catholics, it was complained, were required by the Huguenot captains to join in the psalmody which formed so important a part of the Protestant worship,
But the Huguenots of France had now lost their royal protector. Henry the Fourth fell May under the assassin's knife ; and soon after, the honest and patriotic De Monts, relinquishing at length his cherished plan, surrendered the com- mission he still held as viceroy of New France. It was manifest that the infant colony needed a more powerful friend ; and the Prince of Conde, a former chief of the Huguenot party, and still its recognized champion, was induced to lend his name to the enterprise. This headship, how- ever, was only titular. The actual possessors of New France were no friends to Protestantism or to religious freedom. By a singular fatality, the proprietary rights which De Monts had parted with, were now, to all intents and pur- poses, lodged in the hands of the Jesuits. The ostensible purchaser was a woman. Antoinette de Pons, marquise de Guercheville, a lady of honor to the queen, was an intense devotee of the Church of Rome, and an enthusiastic ad- The mirer of the so-called Society of Jesus. The missions, missions which that Society had been carrying on with wonderful energy for more than half a century in Asia and in South America, awakened her warmest interest. Plans for a similar work were now entertained with reference to the
I04 UNDER THE EDICT: ACADIA.
Chap. I. northern continent of the New World ; and i6ii. Madame de Guercheville readily gave her in- fluence and her wealth for the furtherance of the scheme. Seeking out the Huguenot pat- entee of Acadia and Canada, she made him a tempting offer for the transfer of his rights in New France. She found De Montsin his native town of Pons, to the government of which he had lately been appointed. The moment was The favorable to the success of the lady's plan. De ^cSd! ^lonts stood in pressing need of money for the defense of his town. Pons was one of the strong places secured to the Protestants by the Edict of Nantes, and great pains had been taken since the close of the civil war to repair its walls and fortifications. But Pons was poorly garrisoned ; and its citizens, sharing in the uneasiness that pervaded the Reformed body ever since the tragic death of Henry the Fourth, were anxiously devising ways and means to augment the military force in command.' The barorain was made. The grarrison of the little 1621. town — destined to be dismantled in a few years by the troops of Louis the Thirteenth — was strengthened ; and the title to the proprietor- ship of half a continent passed from the hands of a Huguenot into those of a subservient tool of the Jesuits.
Acadia was the field chosen for the beginning of the missions of Rome in New France. On
' Histoire des eglises reformees de Pons, Gemozac et Mortagne, en Saintonge. Par A. Crottet. Bordeaux, 1841. Pp. 101-107.
THE JESUITS IN ACADIA. 105
the twenty-sixth of January, 161 1, a second ex- chap. i. pedition set forth from the French coast for the 161 1. harbor of Port Royal. But this time, no Hugue- January, not minister accompanied the colonists. Two ^^" Jesuit priests, the van-guard of the spiritual army of occupation that was to follow, were the chief passengers on board the well- freighted ship. They had been preceded, at Port Royal, by a small band of immigrants, under De Poutrincourt, who came in the spring of the year 16 10 to resume possession of the place originally granted to him b}^ De Monts. But the ill-success that attended the former set- tlement was awaiting the new enterprise. Bitter dissensions broke out among the colonists, which the presence of the Jesuit fathers did not contrib- ute to allay. In 161 3, another vessel came over, richly provisioned, and bearing a reenforcement of missionaries, to plant a second station on the American shore. A beginning was made, on the island of Mount Desert, off the coast of Maine. Both settlements, however, were speedi- Mount ly destroyed by an English freebooter. Cruis- ing in these waters at the time of the arrival of the second colony from France, Samuel Argall, afterwards deputy-governor of Virginia, landed upon the island of Mount Desert, made prison- ers of the French, took possession of their ves- sel, and then — guided, it has been said, by one of the Jesuit fathers, out of malice against the pro- prietor of Port Royal — proceeded to the older settlement of De Poutrincourt, and laid the place in ashes.
I06 UNDER THE EDICT : CANADA.
Chap. I. Acadia was now lost to the Jesuits ; and some 1613- time must yet elapse before they could obtain 1621 possession of Canada. The commercial interests of France were still controlled largely, as they continued to be for many years, by Huguenot merchants ; and in order to the prosecution of the important trade with the New World, the capital and enterprise of the great companies of La Rochelle, Rouen and Dieppe were indispen- sably needed. Hence, though the Prince of Conde was succeeded as viceroy of New France by the Duke of Montmorency, an open enemy of the Huguenots, no attempt was made as yet to exclude them from the colonies.
In 1 62 1, the duke, dissatisfied with the man- The agement of the trade with Canada, conferred Montoor-^ the monopoly of that trade upon a body of mer- ^^^^' chants to be known as the Compagnie Montmor- ency. At the head of this company was Guill- aume de Caen, sieur de la Mothe, a Huguenot of Dieppe.' De Caen was at once an enter- prising merchant and an experienced navigator. Bred to the sea, he had already made many a trip, under his father's direction, to the banks of Newfoundland. His able administration soon raised the new company to a height of prosperity such as none of its predecessors had reached. Royal favors were showered upon it. Privilege after privilege was granted, in utter disregard of the rights previously conferred upon the older associations. A fleet was created for its
* Son of Guillaume de Caen and Marie Langlois his wife, (Gosselin: Nouvelles Glanes Historiques Normandes.)
GUILLAUME DE CAEN. 107
service, with De Caen as its admiral, under the chap. i. title of General of the Fleet of New France. 1^21. Secure of government patronage, the company spent vast sums in building ships and store- houses, and in 1627 boasted of an annual rev- enue of one hundred thousand francs.
Among the conditions upon which the com- pany held its monopoly, was that of transport- ing to Canada and there maintaining six friars of the order of St. Francis, for the religious instruc- tion of the colonists and the natives. De Caen was faithful to this engagement, but he claimed for himself and for his fellow-religionists all the liberty which the Edict of Nantes secured to them, of conducting worship according to the Reformed rite. No great objection seems to have been made to this, until, five years later, three Jesuit fathers came to reenforce the band of Franciscans. De Caen and his fellow-traders gave them but a cold reception. True to their The character, the new comers lost no time in stirring enter up strife with the hated heretics. Complaints ^*°^**' were made to the viceroy that the Huguenot sailors at Quebec were regularly assembled by order of De Caen, for prayer, and the singing of psalms. It was represented that even Roman- ists in the company's employ, were forced to be present at these services. The most objection- able part of this heretical worship, was the sing- ing. The followers of Loyola especially de- tested it. Their own rule exempted them from the chants and other choral services observed by religious orders in the Roman Catholic
1626.
lo8 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. Church. "They do not sing," said the enemies 1626 ^^ ^^^ Jesuits ; " birds of prey never do." ' The governor of Quebec was instructed to forbid these disorderly practices. No pubHc saying of prayers or singing of psahns was to be tolerated on the river St. Lawrence. But the company's men, and especially the crews of their vessels, refused to comply with these orders, and threat- ened mutiny. " At last," says Champlain, " it was agreed that they might meet to pray, but should not sing psalms. A bad bargain, yet it was the best we could do."
But the time was now drawing near, when the powerful Society of Jesus could carry its plans in- to effect, and Canada, closed against heresy, could be held as an exclusive field of missions Coinpany f^j- ^j^^ Church of Rome. Another change in the New vice-recrency of New France took place ; and
France. o ^ 1 '
Montmorency was succeeded by his nephew, the young Duke de Ventadour. At once, the new viceroy, who was a devoted friend of the Jesuits, sent over five members of the order. A few months later, the monopoly of trade was with- drawn from the Huguenot De Caen, and a com- pany was formed, to be known as the Company of New France. At the head of this organization, upon which exclusive commercial and proprietary rights were conferred, was Cardinal Richelieu, the energetic and sagacious minister of Louis the Thirteenth. In return for the extraordinary privileges and powers granted to it, the com-
' Miscellanies, by William R. Williams. The Jesuits as a Missionary Order. New York: 1850. P. 175.
HUGUENOT SETTLERS EXCLUDED. 109
pany bound itself to transport emigrants to the chap. i. New World, to give them lands, and to main- 1627. tain them for three years after their arrival. But every emigrant must profess the Roman Catholic faith. From this vast region — the whole conti- nent of North America, as claimed by France — heresy was to be rigidly and forever excluded.
To the statesman and to the Jesuit alike, this exclusion appeared a master-stroke of policy. Richelieu, who had but lately taken his place in the royal council, was already maturing his plans for the depression of the Huguenot power in France. At this moment he was engaged in re- ducing La Rochelle, the political center of that power, with whose fall, a few months later, the hopes of the party were to be extinguished. The time had not yet come for a legalized and sys- tematic persecution of the adherents of the Re- formed faith. But meanwhile it was the object of the government to weaken and humiliate them. To throw open the colonies to the Calvinists, with their superior thrift and enterprise, would be to offer them enlarged opportunities of en- richment and advancement. On the other hand, their exclusion would increase the odium which it was for the interest of the kinof to connect with the Huguenot name.
The Jesuits, equally anxious to extirpate ^Jf^t^^^ heresy at home, and to shut it out from their Jesuits. mission fields abroad, hailed this measure as a signal triumph. By a curious coincidence, their recall to power had followed closely upon the grant made to De Monts for the settlement of
no UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. New France. They had viewed with an evil eye 1627. the broad provisions of that grant, which con- tained no discrimination in favor of the Roman Cathohc religion, but admitted Huguenots to the privileges of trade and the ownership of land, upon the same footing with the sons of the true Church. The Jesuit historian Sagard deplores the spirit of toleration and indifference that was exhibited Toleration by the first settlers under De Monts' charter, and ep ore . ^.^i^^^g ^j^ incident that illustrates at once their rough pleasantry, and their freedom from relig- ious animosity. " It happened in the course of those beginnings of the French in Acadia' that a priest and a minister died about the same time. The sailors who buried them laid them both in one grave, to see if they who could not agree whilst alive would dwell together in peace when dead. In short," he adds, "everything was made a matter of jest. The undevout Catholics readily accommodated themselves to the humor of the Huguenots ; and these malicious heretics kept on, unrestrained, in their loose way of liv- ing.
A better feeling had sprung up in France between the adherents of the two religions, at the close of the civil wars. The Edict of Nantes imposed some restraint upon the virulence of the Roman clergy ; and the banishment of the Jesuits had already removed for the time the most zealous agents of religious agitation. An
' " En ces commencemens que les Francois furent vers I'Acadie."
' Sagard, Histoire du Canada, I., p. 26.
NO COMPROMISE WITH HERESY. Ill
old writer, depicting the state of things then chap, i. prevalent, tells us that at Caen, in Normandy, 1627. " Catholic and Huguenot lived side by side in a perfect understanding. They ate together, drank together, played together, enjoyed each other's society, and parted company without the slightest offense, the one to go to mass, the other to attend preaching." ' The return of the fathers from their temporary exile broke up these amica- ble relations. Though in Caen, as in many other places, a strong opposition was made by Catholics and Protestants alike, to their admission, yet no sooner had this opposition been overcome, than the presence of the order was felt in sowing dis- cord and fomenting strife. The reign of good feeling was at an end. Awaiting the time when severer means could be used to crush out heresy in the land, the Jesuits employed themselves in rousing the popular mind to suspicion, envy, and bitter resentment. Frequent infractions of the Edict of Nantes occurred. The government it- self, whilst professing to maintain the Edict, winked at many violations of its provisions.
In the meantime, no compromise with heresy must be suffered, in that vast territory which .the Jesuits now controlled in the New World. Canada was to be the patrimony of the Church of Rome. Its savage population must be won to the true faith, through the labors of an army of devoted missionaries, trained in the school of
' Essai sur I'histoire de 1' Eglise rdform^e de Caen, par Sophronyme Beaujour. Caen ; 1877. P* 208.
112 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. lornatlus Loyola. And the comino- o-enerations 1627. of its colonists must be shielded from the malign influences that had been at work in France, ever since the days of Calvin.
At the last moment, however, the prize
England seemed about to elude the hands that were lists, stretched out to grasp it. Heretic England en- tered the lists for the acquisition of Canada. While Richelieu was organizing the Company of New France, a project was entertained at the British court, having in view the conquest of the French possessions in the western hemisphere. England still claimed the North American con- September tinent by right of discovery : and in 1621, James the First, acting upon this assumption, made over to one of his subjects, a Scottish gentle- man. Sir William Alexander — afterward Earl of Stirling — the whole territory east of the St. Croix river, and south of the St. Lawrence. The grant included all Acadia ; and the peninsula, with the lands conveyed on the main — now forming the province of New Brunswick — was to be known as Nova Scotia. For several years, however, little was done, either by the king or by the nobleman, to make good these pretensions to a region already held, and held with a clearer title certainly, by the French. France and England were at peace ; and the question of proprietor- ship in a distant wilderness was not important enough to provoke a conflict. But in 1627 a sudden war — soon to terminate — broke out. Charles the First, declaring himself the protec- tor of the persecuted Protestants of France, sent
EXPEDITION TO CONQUER NEW FRANCE. 1 13
a fleet under the command of his favorite the Chap. i. Duke of Buckingham, for the rehef of La 1627. Rochelle, then blockaded by the troops of Louis XIII. The ill-contrived and ill-conducted expe- dition ended ignominiously. Buckingham was no match for Richelieu. The starving inhabi- tants of La Rochelle saw a second and a third fleet approach their city only to sail away after a few feeble demonstrations ; and on the twenty- eighth day of October, 1628, La Rochelle was taken.
Better success attended another enterprise of Huguenots the English in the course of the same brief war. JpSitJo^n. The patentee of Nova Scotia, Sir William Alexander, saw the opportunity to obtain pos- session of his grant ; and under his auspices, a squadron was fitted out for the conquest of New France. It was easy to find good material for the expedition. England was now the refuge of many brave Huguenot seamen and soldiers, well qualified, and more than ready for such an adven- ture.
Amone the refugees were three brothers, David, Louis, and Thomas Kirk, natives of Dieppe in Normandy. To David, as admiral, the com- mand of the expedition was given, his brothers serving under him. The sailino- master was one Jacques Michel, a " furious Calvinist," who had been in the employ of Guillaume de Caen, and was forward in promoting the present enterprise. Many other Huguenots joined it, all eager for the conquest of New France. Acadia fell an easy prey to the invaders. After taking pos-
114 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. session of Port Royal, and capturing a French 1628. fleet on its way to Canada with supplies for Champlain's colony, Kirk returned to England with flying colors, and the next year sailed for the St. Lawrence. Anchoring with the body of his fleet at the port of Tadoussac, the commander sent his brother Louis up the river, with three ships, for the capture of Quebec. The little fort, held by a mere handful of soldiers under Cham- plain, and utterly without provisions, was In no condition to withstand an assault. On the twen- Quebec. tieth day of July, 1629, Quebec surrendered. ^ ^°" The Huguenot ofiicer in command of the Engrlish force took possession of the place ; and the Jesuit fathers, who had lately come to occupy the mission field which they hoped to secure against the intrusion of heresy, found themselves prison- ers in the hands of the very men against whom they purposed to close Canada forever.
The war, however, was already over, and peace had been siofned between France and England three months before the capture of Quebec. Canada must revert to its original proprietors; and after three years of negotiations, during which Louis Kirk remained In command, the English yielded Quebec to the French. The Huguenot governor won the respect and confi- dence of the Inhabitants by his lenient course, and his courteous manners. He was, according to Champlain, a thorough Frenchman, though the son of a Scotchman who had married In Dieppe ; and he did all in his power to induce the French families, whose company he preferred to that of
CANADA REVERTS TO FRANCE. 1 15
the English, to remain in Quebec. He permitted chap.i. the Jesuit fathers to say mass, and entertained igjg. them at his table, to the great displeasure of his sailing master Captain Michel, who couldscarcely restrain himself from coming to blows with the members of the hated fraternity. The death of this stubborn heretic, which occurred a few days later, was regarded as a judgment, in view of his violent abuse of "the good fathers ;" and dying in his pretended religion, I do not doubt, says Champlain, that his soul is now in hell.'
Singularly enough, the agent whom France now appointed to receive back her American province, was likewise a Huguenot. This agent was Emery de Caen, the son^ of Guillaume, sieur de la Mothe. Emery had been associated with his father in the company holding the monopoly of the Canadian fur-trade ; and to indemnify him for the losses he had sustained in the late war, he was permitted to enjoy the benefits of that monopoly during a single year. At the expira- tion of this term, the Company of New France entered upon the full possession of its rights.
It was on the twenty-third day of May, 1633, that Champlain, again appointed governor, took
* Voyage de Champlain, II., p. 313. " Deux ou trois jours apres ledit Jacques Michel estant saisi d'un grand assoupisse- ment fut 35 heures sans parler, au bout duquel temps il mourut rendant 1' ame, laquelle si on peut juger par les oeuvres et actions qu'il a faites, et qu'il fit le jour auparavant; et mourant en sa religion pretendue, je ne doute point qu'elle ne soit aux enfers."
' The First English Conquest of Canada, with some account of the Earliest Settlements in Nova Scotia and New- foundland. By Henry Kirk, M.A. London, 187 1. P. 69.
Ii6 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. from the hands of the Protestant De Caen, the 1633. keys of the fort of Quebec. Two Jesuit mission- May aries, who had come over with De Caen, were ^^" already in possession of their convent, built shortly before the capture of the place by Kirk. From this time forth, Canada was formally closed to the Protestant colonist. The heretic trader continued to be tolerated, but he was jealously watched, and restricted in his inter- course with the inhabitants. The privilege of a permanent residence was granted to none but to Frenchmen professing the Roman Catholic faith. The In this prohibition, religious intolerance pro-
doom nounced the doom of the French colonial system
pronounc- . r 1 x t
ed. in America. The exclusion of the Huguenots from New France, was one of the most stupen- dous blunders that history records. The re- pressive policy pursued by the French govern- ment for the next fifty years, culminating in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, tended more and more to awaken and to strengthen among the Protestants a disposition to emigrate to foreign lands. Industrious and thrifty, and anxious at any sacrifice to enjoy the liberty of conscience denied them at home, they would have rejoiced to build up a French state in the New World. No other desirable class of the population of France was inclined for emigra- tion. It was with great difficulty that from time to time the feeble colony could be re- cruited, at vast expense, and with inferior material. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of expatriated Huguenots carried into the Protest-
THE LOSS TO CANADA. 1 17
ant countries of Northern Europe, and into the chap, i, British colonies of America, the capital, the in- 1633. dustrial skill, the intelligence, the moral worth, that might have enriched the French posses- sions, and secured to the Gallic race a vast do- main upon the North American continent' There is reason to believe that in spite of
' The enlightened author of the Histoire du Canada depuis sa Decouverte jusqii a nos Jours, has fully recognized the greatness of this mistake. " Le dix-septieme siecle fut pour la France I'epoque la plus favorable pour coloniser, a cause des luttes religieuses du royaume, et du sort des vaincus, assez triste pour leur faire desirer d' abandonner une patrie qui ne leur presentait plus que I'image d' une persecution finissant souvent par 1' echafaud ou le bUcher. Si Louis XIIL et son successeur eussent ouvert 1' Amerique a cette nombreuse classe d'hommes, le Nouveau Monde compterait aujourd'hui un empire de plus, un empire fran^ais ! . . . . Richelieu fit done une grande faute, lorsqu'il consentit a ce que les protestans fussent exclus de la Nouvelle-France ; s' il fallait expulser une des deux religions, il aurait mieux vallu, dans 1' interet de la colonic, faire tomber cette exclu- sion sur les catholiques qui emigraient peu ; il portait un coup fatal au Canada en en fermant 1' entree aux Huguenots d' une maniere formelle par 1' acte d' etablissement de la
compagnie des cent associes Le systeme colonial
franfais eut eu un resultat bien different, si on etjt leve les entraves qu' on mettait pour eloigner ces sectaires du pays,
et si on leur en edt laisse les portes ouvertes Et
pourtant c' etait dans le temps meme que les Huguenots sollicitaient comme une faveur la permission d' aller s' etab- lir dans le Nouveau-Monde, ou ils promettaient de vivre en paix a r ombre du drapeau de leur patrie, qu'ilsnepouvaient cesser d' aimer ; c'etait dans le temps, dis-je, qu' on leur refusait une priere dont la realisation e1lt sauve le Canada, et assure pour toujours ce beau pays a la France. Mais Colbert avait perdu son influence a la cour, et etait mourant. Tant que ce grand homme avait ete au timon des affaires, il avait protege les calvinistes qui ne troublaient plus la France, mais 1' enrichissaient." — Histoire du Canada depuis sa Decouverte jusqu' a nos Jours. Par F. X. Garneau. Quebec : 1845. Tome I., pp. 155, 156, 157, 493.
Il8 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. prohibitory laws and ecclesiastical vigilance, 1633. Huguenot settlers succeeded from time to time in establishing themselves in Canada. We may infer as much from the boasted success of the Jesuits in their efforts to convert heretics whose presence in the colony was detected.' Sixteen
' Tanguay, Dictionnaire Genealogique des Families Cana- diennes, depuis la fondation de la colonic jusqu' a nos jours, mentions the following instances of abjuration prior to the year 1700 :
David Beaubattu, baptized 1668, son of Jean Beaubattu and Marie Champagne, of Lairac, [Layrac,] near Agen, [Lot-et-Garonne]. Soldier in the company of M. de Muy. Abjured Calvinism, Jan. 6, 1686, at Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec.
Franpois Bibaud, baptized 1642, son of Francois Bibaud, of La Rochelle, [a Protestant : comp. La France Protest- ante, s. V.,] was living in Quebec in 167 1.
Charles- Gabriel Chalifour, born in 1636 in La Rochelle, after spending some years in New England, went to Montreal, where he abjured Calvinism and was baptized Dec. 26, 1699.
Pierre Champout, son of Andre Champout and Marie Lavau, of St. Germain d' Hemet, in Perigord, diocese of Perigueux, abjured August 16, 1672, at Three Rivers.
Matthieu Doucet, miller, baptized in 1637, came from France in 1656. Made abjuration of heresy. Was buried March 25, 1657, at Three Rivers.
Daniel Fore, son of Isaac Fore and Anne Tibault, of St. Jean d' Angely, diocese of La Rochelle. Soldier, called Laprairie. Made abjuration in April, 1685.
Francois Frete, called Lamothe, baptized in 1668, of La- motte St. Eloi, diocese of Poitiers, abjured Calvinism, June 29, 1699, in Montreal.
Isaac Le Comte, tailor, of Linctot, [Lintot,] diocese of Rouen ; a Calvinist converted in Canada ; buried March 9, 1635, at Three Rivers.
Daniel Pepie, called La Fleur, soldier in the company of M. Cahouac ; son of Jacques Pepie and Isabelle Fore, of the diocese of Xaintes. Abjured Calvinism, March 4, 1685, in Montreal.
Jacques Poissant, called Laselline, soldier in the company
PROTESTANTS DETECTED IN THE COLONY. 1 19
were discovered in a regiment of regular troops chap. i. sent over by the government in 1665 ; and the 1665. royal intendant hastened to inform the king of their speedy conversion. About the same time, a number of the proscribed religionists were found among a body of emigrants who landed at Quebec. We read in the Jesuit " Relations " an edifying account of the miraculous change ef- fected in one of these men, through the pious ingenuity of a hospital nun. " I cannot," writes Le Mercier to the Reverend Father Bordier, " omit the mention of a very wonderful act of grace, performed upon another heretic, one of the most stubborn of those whom we have seen stubborn here. He was entreated repeatedly, and with all possible urgency, in order that his heart might be touched, and that he might be made to see his wretched condition, but always in vain. And not only was he unwilling to listen to the holy and charitable solicitations that were addressed to him, thrusting them from him with indigna- tion, but he even bound himself with fresh prot- estations to die sooner than to abandon the religion to which all his relatives were attached. Nevertheless, having fallen very grievously ill, he was carried, like others, to the hospital ; and there the good nuns, who are not less zealous for the salvation of the souls of their patients, than anxious for the hea,lth of their bodies, did every- thing in their power to win him over. One of
of M. De Noyan, son of Jacques Poissant and Isabelle Magos, of Bourg-Marennes, diocese of Xaintes. Made ab- juration in April, 1685, at Pointe-aux-Trembles, Montreal.
i665.
1 20 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. them, who had frequently had occasion to prove the virtue of the relics of the deceased Father de Brebeuf, (who was burned some years ago very cruelly by the Iroquois in the country of the Hurons, while engaged in the endeavor to con- vert that barbarous people), bethought herself of mino-line — unknown to this man — a small quantity of these relics, reduced to powder, in a ^""rJiics!^ potion which she was about to administer to him. Wonderful to relate, this man became a lamb ; he asked that he might receive instruc- tion. He admitted into his heart the impres- sions of our Faith ; he publicly abjured heresy, and that with such fervor as even to astonish himself. And to crown the mercies of God be- stowed upon him, he received health for the body as well as for the soul." '
' Relation de ce qui s'est passe en la Nouvelle France es annees 1664 & 1665 ; envoyee au R. P. Provincial de la Province de France. A Paris, chez Sebastien Cramoisy, M. DC. LXXVI. Avec Privilege du Roy. Chapitre dernier. Pp. 124, 126. Au Rd. Pere Jacques Bordier. Dated a Kebec le 3, Novembre 1665.
" Je ne puis pas aussi omettre un coup de la grace, bien merveilleux, en la personne d' un autre Heretique, des plus opinionastres que nous ayons veus ici. On le sollicita a plusieurs reprises & avec toutes les instances possibles, pour lui toucher le coeur, & pour lui faire voir son mal-heureux estat : mais toujours en vain. Et non seulement il ne vouloit pas escouter les saintes & charitables instances qu'on luy faisoit, les rebutant avec indignation mais mesnie il s'engageoit par de nouvelles protestations, a mourir plutost, que de quitter la Religion, dans laquelle estoient tous ses parens. Cepandant estant tonibe tres-grievement malade, & ayant este porte a 1' Hospital comme les autres, ces bonnes Religieuses, qui n'ont pas nioins de zele pour le salut de I'ame de leurs malades, que d' affection pour la sante de leurs corps, faisoient de leur coste tout leur possi-
RELATIONS WITH LA ROCHELLE. 121
The commercial relations of the colony with Chap. i. La Rochelle increased the difficulty of exclud- 1664. ing heresy from Canada. That ancient strong- hold of the French Protestants had lost its military consequence : but it retained its mari- time importance, and the chief part of its wealth and trade were still in the hands of Husruenot capitalists. Quebec depended upon them for its principal importations : and the yearly visits of the merchants concerned in the fur-trade must needs be endured. They were, however, for- bidden to exercise their religion while in the colony ; and their stay was strictly limited. Merchants Emigrants from La Rochelle were looked upon with special distrust. For a time they were admitted : but in 1664, the imperious bishop Laval, of Quebec, declared that he wanted no more colonists from that hot-bed of heresy.'
Scarcely less obnoxious to the clergy than the Protestant settler was the agent or factor repre- sentinof in Canada some Huouenot firm in
bles pour le gagner. Une d' entre-elles ayant souvent ex- perimente la vertu des Reliques de feu Pere de Brebeuf, brule autrefois tres-cruellement par les Iroquois, dans le pais des Hurons, lors qu'il travailloit a la conversion de ces Barbares, s' advisa de mesler a son insceu, un peu de ces Reliques pulverisees dans un breuvage qu' elle luy fit pren- dre. Chose admirable ! cet homme devint un agneau, il demande a se faire instruire et il rcfoit dans son esprit et dans son coeur, les impressions de nostre Foy & fait pub- liquement abjuration de 1' heresie, avec tant de ferveur, que luy-mesme en est estonne : & pour comble des graces de Dieu sur luy, il regoit la sante du corps, avec celle de r ame."
* The Old Regime in Canada. By Francis Parkman. P. 216.
122 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. France. The bishop of Quebec complains in 1670. 1670 that these persons are still permitted to come into the province, though the evil effects of their presence have long been felt and made known to the government. These effects may be seen both as it regards religion and as it re- gards the state. On the side of religion it must be observed that these commercial agents use many enticing words, that they lend books, and sometimes hold meetings among them- selves ; and, moreover, to the bishop's knowl- edge, there are people who speak honorably of these men, and cannot be persuaded that they are in error. Nor is the matter less import- ant as viewed on the side of the state. For every one knows that the Protestants are in Dangerous general not so strongly attached to his Majesty ofBostoif ^^ ^^^^ Catholics. Quebec is not very far from Bos- ton and from other English towns. To multiply Protestants in Canada would contribute at some future day to revolutions. Those who are here already have not appeared to take any very special interest in the success of his Majesty's arms. On the contrary, they have been seen spreading with some eagerness the intelligence of every slight mischance that has occurred. A sufficient remedy would be applied to this abuse if French merchants were forbidden to send over Protestant clerks.'
* " L'Eveque de Quebec represente que les commercants de France envoyent des commis Protestans, que depuis long- tems le clerge en a fait connoitre les inconveniens et par rap- port a la religion et par rapport a I'Etat. A I'egard de la
DESERTERS TO NEW YORK. 1 23
The fact that the persecuted Huguenots of Chap. i. France were taking refuge, in large numbers, in 1675- the neighboring EngHsh colonies, greatly dis- ^^^^ turbed the Canadian government and clergy during the last quarter of the seventeenth cen- tury. Naturally enough, it was apprehended that in the event of an invasion of the province, on the part of New York and New England, these " renegades," as they were opprobriously styled, would be among the foremost assailants of the power that had oppressed them in the old world. Occasionally, the refugees in those colonies were joined by some Protestant com- patriot from ]\Iontreal or Quebec. Strict laws were passed for the punishment of any Cana- dians who might attempt to leave the country for the purpose of removing to Orange or Manatte — as Albany and New York were still
religion, I'Eveque de Quebec assure qu'ils tiennent plusieurs discours seduisans, qu'ils pretent des livres et que quelque- fois meme ils se sont assembles entr'eux ; qu'enfin il a connoissance que plusieurs personnes en parlent honorable- ment, et ne peuvent se persuader qu'ils soient dans I'erreur. En examinant la chose du coste de I'etat, il paroit qu'elle n'est pas moins importante. Tout le nionde s^ait que les protestans en general ne sont pas si attaches a sa Majeste que les Catholiques. Quebec n'est pas bien loin de Boston et autres villes Anglois : multiplier les Protestans dans Canada, ce seroit donner occasion pour la suite a des revo- lutions. Ceux qui y sont n'ont pas paru prendre une part particuliereau succes des armes de Sa Majeste : on les avus repandre avec un certain empressement tous les petits con- tretems arrives. Une defense aux commer9ans Francois d'envoyer des commis Protestans sufifiroit pour remedier a Tabus." — Memoirede I'Eveque de Quebec sur les Protestans, 1670. Massachusetts Archives : French Collections, vol. II., p. 233.
soldiers
in Canada.
124 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chapel, called by the French. But in spite of royal 1683. edicts, and military surveillance, whole families sometimes succeeded in escaping to the En- glish. The governor of Canada wrote home in 1683 : " There are at present over sixty of those miserable French deserters at Orange, Manatte, and other Dutch places under English command." ' Some years later, an agent of Massachusetts, who had been sent to Quebec for the purpose of effecting an exchange of prisoners with the Canadian government, found Protestant there " several French Protestant officers and soldiers," who had " a great desire for Protest- ant liberty," and "to be under the English pro- tection." These men were only deterred from escaping to New York as "being the most nigh, and the way they are best acquainted with thither," by the fear of " the Maquas' cruelty, who have already murdered several in making their escape." '
Masters of the arts of intrigue, the Jesuits of
' Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. Vol. IX., p. 203.
* The Information of Mathew Carey received from sever- all ffrench Protestants ofificers and soldiers at Quebeck, Oct. 28, 1695. — Massachusetts Archives, A. 38. This informa- tion was communicated by Lieutenant-governor Stoughton, Nov. 25, 1695, to Governor Fletcher of New York. — English Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N. Y., vol. XL., pp. 100, loi. Governor Fletcher, in acknowledging the communication, Dec. 3, 1695, writes, " It is the first time I heard tliere is any ffrench Protestants in Canada." — Mass. Archives, II., 409. In the margin of Carey's letter occurs the name, probably that of one of the ofificers referred to, " Monsr. Delarogtterie Cap. of a Marine detachmt." (Nicolas Lecompte de la Ragotterie, capi-
FALSE BRETHREN. 1 25
Canada had their agents among the Huguenot chap. i. refugees in the English colonies ; and one of 1676- these, it would seem, was Jean Baptiste de ^^g^ Poitiers, sieur Du Buisson, a prominent French resident of Harlem, New York, between the years 1676 and 1681. The accurate historian of Harlem mentions him as "evidently a person of character, and of standing and influence among the refugees," taking much interest in their affairs and rendering them many friendly serv- ices.' It is to be feared that the Sieur Du The Buisson was a Canadian spy of the most accom- ^^^ plished type." Lord Bellomont had him in Buisson. mind, perhaps, when he reported to the British Board of Trade in 1698: "Some French that passed for Protestants in this province during the war, have since been discovered to be Papists ; and one would suspect their business was to give intelligence to Canada."
Meanwhile the zeal of the Canadian clergy for the exclusion and suppression of heresy had
taine, etait a Quebec en 1695. — Tanguay, Diet. gen. des fam. Canadiennes, p. 362.)
' Harlem (city of New York) : its Origin and Early Annals. By James Riker. P. 416.
* Jean Baptiste du Poitiers, sieur du Buisson, was the son of Pierre du Poitiers and Helene de Belleau, of St. Martin d'Annecour, diocese of Amiens. In 1700 he made declaration, at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, that he had caused several of his children to be baptized in certain heretical countries near Menade [New York] by priests who were then in flight because of persecution. Meanwhile he was passing for a Protestant. It appears from the above declaration that he resided at various times in Flushing, on Staten Island, in Hotbridge [?], three leagues from Menade, and in Esopus, where his youngest child was baptized
126 UNDER THE EDICT: CANADA.
Chap. I. been stimulated by the Revocation of the Edict 1686. of Nantes. A letter of Louis XIV. to Governor de Denonville, in the spring following that event, informed him of the brilliant success of the meas- ure, and expressed his Majesty's persuasion that the example of his subjects of the Pretended Re- formed Religion in France, all of whom had now abjured their heresy, would determine those heretics who might still remain in Canada to do likewise. If, however, there should be found among them any stubborn persons unwilling to be instructed, the governor was authorized to Echoes quarter his troops in their houses, or to imprison Revoca- them ; being careful to accompany this rigorous tion. treatment with the necessary provisions for their instruction, and to concert with the bishop for this purpose. '
{ondoye) by a Protestant minister. — Tanguay, Diet, g^neal. des fam. Canadiennes, s. v. — In 1693 he was sponsor at the baptism of two children of Pierre Montras, who had re- nounced the Roman Catholic faith. Riker, p. 416. Sus- picions were entertained during his stay in Albany, in 1689, that Du Buisson was maintaining " a secret correspondence with the French" in Canada. — Riker, 416. These sus- picions must have been allayed, since he remained several years longer in the province. But in the light of the facts given above, they seem to have been well founded.
' Memoire du Roy a M. de Denonville, Versailles, le 31 May, 1686. * * * Quoyque Sa Majeste soit persuadee qu'il est a present inform^ de I'heureux succes que son zele pour la conversion de ses sujets de la R. P. R. a eu, elle est bien ayse de luy faire s^avoir qu'ayant re9u des advis de toutes les provinces de son Royaume dans les moisd'aoust et de Septembre dernier du Grand nombre de conversions qui s'y faisoient des villes toutes entieres dont presque tous les marchands faisoient profession de la d. Religion I'ayant abjur^e ; cela obligea Sa Majeste a faire publier un edit au
BERNON IN CANADA. 127
No occasion was found to use the severities chap. i. thus permitted. The governor speedily wrote 1686. to his royal master, assuring him that there was not a heretic in Canada.'
One of the effects of the Revocation, was the exclusion of the Huguenot merchants w^ho had so long been tolerated in the province for the sake of its commercial interests. Henceforth the Protestant trader could remain in Quebec only upon condition of a change of religion. The principal French merchant in Canada at this time was one Bernon, who had done great service to the colony. " It is a pity," wrote Denonville, " that he cannot be converted. As he is a Hugue- not, the bishop wants me to order him home this autumn, which I have done, though he carries on a large business, and a great deal of money remains dice to him here.'' ^
mois d' Octobre dernier pour revoquer celuy de Nantes. Depuis ce terns, Dieu benissant les pieux desseins de Sa Majeste, tous ses sujets qui restoient encore dans I'heresie en ont fait abjuration de sort que Sa Majeste a a present la satisfaction non seulement de ne voir plus aucun exercise de cette Religion dans ses etats, mais meme de voir tous ses sujets faire profession de la religion Catholique. Elle est persuadee que cet exemple determinera les heretiques qui peuvent estre en Canada a faire la meme chose, etelleespere que le dit Sr. de Denonville y travaillera avec succes ; cepen- dant si dans ce nombre il s'en rencontrait quelques uns d'opiniatres que refusassent de