The Great Intendant

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CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes

Volume 6

THE GREAT INTENDANT
A Chronicle of Jean Talon in Canada 1665-1672

By THOMAS CHAPAIS

TORONTO, 1914

CHAPTER I

TO THE RESCUE OF NEW FRANCE

When the year 1665 began, the French colony on the shores
of the St Lawrence, founded by the valour and devotion
of Champlain, had been in existence for more than half
a century. Yet it was still in a pitiable state of weakness
and destitution. The care and maintenance of the settlement
had devolved upon trading companies, and their narrow-minded
mercantile selfishness had stifled its progress. From
other causes, also, there had been but little growth.
Cardinal Richelieu, the great French minister, had tried
at one time to infuse new life into the colony; [Footnote:
For the earlier history of New France the reader is
referred to three other volumes in this Series--The
Founder of New France, The Seigneurs of Old Canada, and
The Jesuit Missions.] but his first attempts had been
unlucky, and later on his powerful mind was diverted to
other plans and achievements and he became absorbed in
the wider field of European politics. To the shackles of
commercial greed, to forgetfulness on the part of the
mother country, had been added the curse of Indian wars.
During twenty-five years the daring and ferocious Iroquois
had been the constant scourge of the handful of settlers,
traders, and missionaries. Champlain's successors in the
office of governor, Montmagny, Ailleboust, Lauzon,
Argenson, Avaugour, had no military force adequate to
the task of meeting and crushing these formidable foes.
Year after year the wretched colony maintained its struggle
for existence amidst deadly perils, receiving almost no
help from France, and to all appearance doomed to
destruction. To make things worse, internal strife
exercised its disintegrating influence; there was contention
among the leaders in New France over the vexed question
of the liquor traffic. In the face of so many adverse
circumstances--complete lack of means, cessation of
immigration from the mother country, the perpetual menace
of the bloody Iroquois incursions, a dying trade, and a
stillborn agriculture--how could the colony be kept alive
at all? Spiritual and civil authorities, the governor
and the bishop, the Jesuits and the traders, all united
in petitioning for assistance. But the motherland was
far away, and European wars and rivalries were engrossing
all her attention.

Fortunately a change was at hand. The prolonged struggle
of the Thirty Years' War and of the war against Spain
had been ended by the treaty of Munster and Osnabruck in
1648 and by that of the Pyrenees in 1659. The civil
dissensions of the Fronde were over, thanks to the skilful
policy of Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu's successor. After
the death of Mazarin in 1661, Louis XIV had taken into
his own hands the reins of administration. He was young,
painstaking, and ambitious; and he wanted to be not only
king but the real ruler of his kingdom. In Jean Baptiste
Colbert, the man who had been Mazarin's right hand, he
had the good fortune to find one of the best administrators
in all French history. Colbert soon won the king's
confidence. He was instrumental in detecting the
maladministration of Fouquet as superintendent of Finance,
and became a member of the council appointed to investigate
and report on all financial questions. Of this body he
was the leading spirit from the beginning. Although at
first without the title of minister, he was promptly
invested with a wide authority over the finances, trade,
agriculture, industry, and marine affairs. Within two
years he had shown his worth and had justified the king's
choice. Great and beneficial reforms had been accomplished
in almost every branch of the administration. The exhausted
treasury had been replenished, trade and industry were
encouraged, agriculture was protected, and a navy created.
Under a progressive government France seemed to awake to
new life.

The hour was auspicious for the entreaties of New France.
Petitions and statements were addressed to the king by
Mgr de Laval, the head of ecclesiastical affairs in the
colony, by the governor Avaugour, and by the Jesuit
fathers; and Pierre Boucher, governor of the district of
Three Rivers, was sent to France as a delegate to present
them. Louis and his minister studied the conditions of
the colony on the St Lawrence and decided in 1663 to give
it a new constitution. The charter of the One Hundred
Associates was cancelled and the old Council of
Quebec--formed in 1647--was reorganized under the name
of the Sovereign Council. This new governing body was to
be composed of the governor, the bishop, the intendant,
an attorney-general, a secretary, and five councillors.
It was invested with a general jurisdiction for the
administration of justice in civil and criminal matters.
It had also to deal with the questions of police, roads,
finance, and trade.

To establish a new and improved system of administration
was a good thing, but this alone would hardly avail if
powerful help were not forthcoming to rescue New France
from ruin, despondency, and actual extermination. The
colony was dying for lack of soldiers, settlers, and
labourers, as well as stores of food and munitions of
war for defence and maintenance. Louis XIV made up his
mind that help should be given. In 1664 three hundred
labourers were conveyed to Quebec at the king's expense,
and in the following year the colonists received the
welcome information that the king was also about to send
them a regiment of trained soldiers, a viceroy, a new
governor, a new intendant, settlers and labourers, and
all kinds of supplies. This royal pledge was adequately
fulfilled. On June 19, 1665, the Marquis de Tracy,
lieutenant-general of all the French dominions in America,
arrived from the West Indies, where he had successfully
discharged the first part of the mission entrusted to
him by his royal master. With him came four companies of
soldiers. During the whole summer ships were disembarking
their passengers and unloading their cargoes of ammunition
and provisions at Quebec in quick succession. It is easy
to imagine the rapture of the colonists at such a sight,
and the enthusiastic shouts that welcomed the first
detachment of the splendid regiment of Carignan-Salieres.
At length, on September 12, the cup of public joy was
filled to overflowing by the arrival of the ship Saint
Sebastien with two high officials on board, David de
Remy, Sieur de Courcelle, the governor appointed to
succeed the governor Mezy, who had died earlier in the
year, and Jean Talon, the intendant of justice, police,
and finance. The latter had been selected to replace the
Sieur Robert, who had been made intendant in 1663, but,
for some unknown reason, had never come to Canada to
perform the duties of his office. The triumvirate on whom
was imposed the noble task of saving and reviving New
France was thus complete. The Marquis de Tracy was an
able and clear-sighted commander, the Sieur de Courcelle
a fearless, straightforward official. But the part of
Jean Talon in the common task, though apparently less
brilliant, was to be in many respects the most important,
and his influence the most far-reaching in the destinies
of the colony.

Talon was born at Chalons-sur-Marne, in the province of
Champagne, about the year 1625. His family were kinsfolk
of the Parisian Talons, Omer and Denis, the celebrated
jurists and lawyers, who held in succession the high
office of attorney-general of France. Several of Jean
Talon's brothers were serving in the administration or
the army, and, after a course of study at the Jesuits'
College of Clermont, Jean was employed under one of them
in the commissariat. The young man's abilities soon became
apparent and attracted Mazarin's attention. In 1654 he
was appointed military commissary at Le Quesnoy in
connection with the operations of the army commanded by
the great Turenne. A year later, at the age of thirty,
he was promoted to be intendant for the province of
Hainault. For ten years he filled that office and won
the reputation of an administrator of the first rank.
Thus it came about that, when an intendant was needed to
infuse new blood into the veins of the feeble colony on
the St Lawrence, Colbert, always a good judge of men,
thought immediately of Jean Talon and recommended to the
king his appointment as intendant of New France. Talon's
commission is dated March 23, 1665.

The minister drafted for the intendant's guidance a long
letter of instructions. It dealt with the mutual relations
of Church and State, and set forth the Gallican principles
of the day; it discussed the question of assistance to
the recently created West India Company; the contemplated
war against the Iroquois and how it might successfully
be carried on; the Sovereign Council and the administration
of justice; the settlement of the colony and the
advisability of concentrating the population; the
importance of fostering trade and industry; the question
of tithes for the maintenance of the Church; the
establishment of shipbuilding yards and the encouragement
of agriculture. This document was signed by Louis XIV
at Paris on March 27, 1665.

On receiving his commission and his instructions, Talon
took leave of the king and the minister, and proceeded
to make preparations for his arduous mission and for the
long journey which it involved. By April 22 he was at La
Rochelle, to arrange for the embarkation of settlers,
working men, and supplies. He attended the review of the
troops that were bound for New France, and reported to
Colbert that the companies were at their full strength,
well equipped and in the best of spirits. During this
time he spared no pains to acquire information about the
new country where he was to work and live. Finally, by
May 24, everything was in readiness, and he wrote to
Colbert:

Since apparently I shall not have the honour of writing
you another letter from this place, for our ship awaits
only a favourable wind to sail, allow me to assure
you that I am leaving full of gratitude for all the
kindness and favours bestowed on me by the king and
yourself. Knowing that the best way to show my gratitude
is to do good service to His Majesty, and that the
best title to future benevolence lies in strenuous
effort for the successful execution of his wishes, I
shall do my utmost to attain that end in the charge
I am going to fill. I pray for your protection and
help, which will surely be needed, and if my endeavours
should not be crowned with success, at least it will
not be for want of zeal and fidelity.

A few hours after having written these farewell lines,
Talon, in company with M. de Courcelle, set sail on the
Saint Sebastien for Canada, where he was to make for
himself an imperishable name.

CHAPTER II

NEW FRANCE IN 1665

Let us take a glance over the colony at the time when
Courcelle and Talon landed at Quebec after an ocean
journey--there were no fast lines then--of one hundred
and seventeen days.

In 1665 Canada had only three settled districts: Quebec,
Three Rivers, and Ville-Marie or Montreal. Quebec, the
chief town, bore the proud title of the capital of New
France. Yet it contained barely seventy houses with about
five hundred and fifty inhabitants. Then, as now, it
consisted of a lower and an upper town. In the lower town
were to be found the king's stores and the merchants'
shops and residences. The public officials and the clergy
and members of the religious orders lived in the upper
town, where stood the principal buildings of the
capital--the Chateau Saint-Louis, the Bishop's Palace,
the Cathedral, the Jesuits' College and Chapel, and the
monasteries of the Ursulines and of the Hotel-Dieu sisters.

Francois de Laval de Montmorency, bishop of Petraea and
vicar apostolic for Canada, was the spiritual head of
the colony. He had arrived from France six years earlier,
in 1659, and was destined to spend the remainder of his
life, nearly half a century, in the service of the Church
in Canada. Because of his noble character and many virtues,
his strong intellect, and his devotion to the public
weal, he will ever rank as one of the greatest figures
in Canadian history. His vicar-general was Henri de
Bernieres, who was also parish priest of Quebec and
superior of the seminary founded by the bishop in 1663.
The superior of the Jesuits was Father Le Mercier. The
saintly Marie de l'Incarnation was mother superior of
the Ursulines, and Mother Saint Bonaventure of the
Hotel-Dieu.

It may be interesting to recall the names of some of the
notable citizens of Quebec at that time, other than the
high officials. There were Michel Filion and Pierre
Duquet, notaries; Jean Madry, surgeon to the king's
majesty; Jean Le Mire, the future syndic des habitants;
Madame d'Ailleboust, widow of a former governor; Madame
Couillard, widow of Guillaume Couillard and daughter of
Louis Hebert, the first tiller of the soil; Madame de
Repentigny, widow of 'Admiral' de Repentigny, to use the
grandiloquent expression of old chroniclers; Nicolas
Marsollet, Louis Couillard de l'Espinay, Charles Roger
de Colombiers, Francois Bissot, Charles Amiot, Le Gardeur
de Repentigny, Dupont de Neuville, Pierre Denis de la
Ronde, all men of high standing. The chief merchants were
Charles Basire, Jacques Loyer de Latour, Claude Charron,
Jean Maheut, Eustache Lambert, Bertrand Chesnay de la
Garenne, Guillaume Feniou. Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye,
the stalwart Quebec trader of the day, was then in France.

In the neighbourhood of Quebec were a few settlements.
According to the census of the following year there were
452 persons on the Island of Orleans, 533 at the Cote
Beaupre, 185 at Beauport, 140 at Sillery, and 112 at
Charlesbourg and Notre-Dame-des-Anges on the St Charles
river.

Three Rivers was a small port with a population of 455,
including that of the adjoining settlements. The governor
in charge of the local administration was Pierre Boucher,
already mentioned as a delegate to France in 1661. The
Jesuits had a residence there and a chapel which was the
only place of public worship, for the colonists had not
as yet the means to erect a parish church. In the vicinity
there were the beginnings of settlement at Cap-de-la-
Magdeleine, Batiscan, and Champlain. Among the important
families of Three Rivers were those of Godefroy, Hertel,
Le Neuf, Crevier, Boucher, Poulin, Volant, Lemaitre,
Rivard, and Ameau. Michel Le Neuf du Herisson was juge
royal, and Severin Ameau was notary and registrar of the
court.

Montreal or Ville-Marie was scarcely more important than
Three Rivers. The population of the whole district numbered
only 625. A fort built by Maisonneuve and Ailleboust at
Pointe-a-Callieres; the house of the Sulpicians at the
foot of the present Saint-Sulpice Street; the Hotel-Dieu
on the other side of that street; the convent of the
Congregation sisters facing the Hotel-Dieu; a few houses
scattered along the road called 'de la Commune,' now
Saint-Paul Street; and on the rising ground towards the
Place d'Armes of later years a few more dwellings--these
constituted the Montreal of primitive days. On the top
of the hill called 'Coteau Saint-Louis' was erected an
intrenched mill--'Moulin du Coteau'--which could be used
as a redoubt to protect the inhabitants. The Sulpicians'
house, the Hotel-Dieu, the convent of the Congregation,
and the houses of the Place d'Armes and of 'la Commune'
were connected with the fort by footpaths. Before 1672
there were no streets laid out. The only place of public
worship was the Hotel-Dieu chapel, fifty feet in length
by thirty in width. The superior of the Sulpicians was
Abbe Souart. Mother Mace was superioress of the Hotel-Dieu,
but the mainstay of the institution was the well-known
Mademoiselle Mance, who, by the aid of Madame de Bullion's
benefactions, had founded it in 1643. The illustrious
Sister Marguerite Bourgeoys was at the head of the
Congregation, which owed its existence to her pious zeal
and devotion to the education of the young. Among the
'Montrealistes' of note the following should be specially
mentioned: Zacharie Dupuy, major of the island; Charles
d'Ailleboust, seigneurial judge; J. B. Migeon de Bransac,
fiscal attorney; Louis Artus Sailly, who had been for
some time juge royal; Benigne Basset, at once registrar
of the seigneurial court, notary, and surveyor; Charles
Le Moyne, king's treasurer, interpreter, soldier, settler,
who was later to be ennobled and receive the title of
Baron de Longueuil; Etienne Bouchard, surgeon; Pierre
Picote de Belestre, a valiant militia officer; Claude de
Robutel, Sieur de Saint-Andre; Jacques Leber, a merchant
who controlled almost the whole trade of Ville-Marie.

Altogether the white population of Canada, including the
settlers and labourers arriving during the summer of
1665, numbered only 3215. Yet the colony had been in
existence for fifty-seven years! It was certainly time
for a new effort on the part of the mother country to
infuse life into her feeble offspring. This was a task
calling for the earnest care and the most energetic
activity of Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon.

One of the first matters to receive their attention was
the reorganization of the Canadian administration. We
have seen that in 1663 the Sovereign Council had been
created, to consist of the high officials of the colony
and five councillors. At this time, September 1665, the
five councillors were Mathieu Damours, Le Gardeur de
Tilly, and three others who had been irregularly appointed
by Mezy, the preceding governor, to take the places of
three councillors whom he had arbitrarily dismissed--Rouer
de Villeray, Juchereau de la Ferte, and Ruette d'Auteuil.
The same governor had also dismissed Jean Bourdon, the
attorney-general, and had replaced him by Chartier de
Lotbiniere. These summary dismissals and appointments
had arisen out of a quarrel between the governor and the
bishop, in which the former appears to have been influenced
by petty motives. At any rate Mezy had been recalled by
the king; and Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon had been
instructed to try him for improper conduct in office.
But before their arrival at Quebec, Mezy had obeyed the
summons of another King than the king of France. He had
been taken ill in the spring of the year and had died on
May 6. Mezy being dead, it was wisely thought unnecessary
to recall unhappy memories of his errors and misdeeds.
Sufficient would be done if the grievances due to his
rashness were redressed. Accordingly the dismissed
officials were reinstated, and on September 23, 1665, a
solemn sitting of the Sovereign Council was held, at
which Tracy, Courcelle, Laval, and Talon were present,
together with the Sieur Le Barroys, general agent of the
West India Company, and the Sieurs de Villeray, de la
Ferte, d'Auteuil, de Tilly, Damours--all the councillors
in office before Mezy's dismissals--Jean Bourdon, the
attorney-general, and J. B. Peuvret, secretary of the
council. The letters patent of Courcelle and Talon as
well as the commission and credentials of the Sieur Le
Barroys were duly read and registered; the letters patent
of the Marquis de Tracy had been registered previously.
With these formalities the new administration of Canada
was inaugurated.

The next proceeding of the rulers of New France was to
prepare for a decisive blow against the daring Iroquois.
Tracy and the soldiers, as we have seen, had arrived in
June and three forts were in course of building on the
Richelieu river, or 'riviere des Iroquois,' so called
because for a long period it had been the most direct
highway leading from the villages of these bloody warriors
to the heart of the colony. During the summer and autumn
of 1665 the Carignan soldiers were kept busy with the
construction of these necessary defensive works. The
first fort was erected at the mouth of the river, under
the direction of Captain de Sorel; the second fifty miles
higher, under Captain de Chambly; and the third about
nine miles farther up, under Colonel de Salieres. The
first two retained the names of the officers in charge
of their construction, and the third received the name
of Sainte-Therese because it was finished on the day
dedicated to that saint. During the following year two
other forts were built--St John, a few miles distant from
Sainte-Therese, and Sainte-Anne, on an island at the head
of Lake Champlain. Both Tracy and Courcelle went to
inspect the work personally and encourage the garrisons.

In the meantime Talon was in no way idle. He had to
organize the means of conveying provisions, ammunition,
tools, and supplies of every description for the maintenance
of the troops and the furtherance of the work. Under his
supervision a flotilla of over fifty boats plied between
Quebec and the river Richelieu. It was also his business
to take care of the incoming soldiers and labourers and
to see that those who had contracted disease during their
journey across the ocean received proper nursing and
medical attendance.

From the moment of his arrival he had lost no opportunity
of acquiring information on the situation in the colony.
There is a curious anecdote that illustrates the manner
in which he sometimes contrived to gain knowledge by
concealing his identity. On the very day of his landing
he went alone to the Hotel-Dieu, and asking for the
superioress, introduced himself as the valet de chambre
of the intendant, pretending to be sent by his master to
assure the good ladies of the hospital of M. Talon's
kindly disposition and desire to bestow on them every
favour in his gift. One of the sisters present at the
interview--Mere de la Nativite, a very bright and clever
woman--was struck by the extreme distinction of manner
and speech of the so-called valet, and, with a meaning
glance at the superioress, told the visitor that unless
she was mistaken he was more than he pretended to be. On
his asking what could convey to her that impression, she
replied that by his bearing and language she could not
but feel that the intendant himself was honouring the
Hotel-Dieu with a visit. Talon could do no less than
confess that she was right, showing at the same time that
he appreciated the delicate compliment thus paid to him.
From that day he was a devoted and most generous friend
to the Hotel-Dieu of Quebec.

One of the first problems with which the intendant had
to deal in discharging the duties of his office was the
dualism of administrative authority. It has been mentioned
that Colbert had founded a new trading company, known as
the West India Company. This corporation had been granted
wide privileges over all the French possessions in America,
including feudal ownership and authority to administer
justice and levy war. The company was thus invested with
the right of appointing judicial officers, magistrates,
and sovereign councils, and of naming, subject to the
king's sanction governors and other functionaries; it
had full power to sell the land or make grants in feudal
tenure, to receive all seigneurial dues, to build forts,
raise troops, and equip war-ships. The company's charter
had been granted in 1664, and of course Canada, as well
as the other French colonies in the New World, was included
in its jurisdiction. The situation of this colony was
therefore very peculiar. In 1663 the king had cancelled
the charter of the One Hundred Associates and had taken
back the fief of Canada; but a year later he had granted
it again to a new company. At the same time he showed
clearly that he intended to keep the administration in
his own hands. Thus Canada seemed to have two masters.
In accordance with its charter, the company held the
ownership and government of the country de jure. But in
point of fact the king wielded the government, thus taking
back with one hand what he had given with the other. By
right the company controlled the administration of justice;
it could, and actually did, establish courts. But, in
fact, the king appointed the intendant supreme judge in
civil cases, and made the Sovereign Council a tribunal
of superior jurisdiction. By right, to the company belonged
the power of granting land and seigneuries. In fact, the
governor or the intendant, the king's officers, made the
grants at their pleasure. This strange situation, which
lasted ten years--until the West India Company's charter
was revoked in 1674--is often confusing to the student
of the period.

Talon saw at a glance the anomaly of the situation; but,
being a practical man, he was less displeased with the
falsity of the principle than apprehensive of the evil
that was likely to result. In a letter to Colbert, dated
October 4, 1665, he discussed the subject at length,
putting it in plain terms. If, when the grant was made,
it was the king's intention to benefit only the company--to
increase its profits and develop its trade--with no
ulterior consideration for the development of the colony,
then it would be well to leave to the company the sole
ownership of the country. But if His Majesty had thought
of making Canada one of the prosperous parts of his
kingdom, it was very doubtful whether he could attain
that end without keeping in his own hands the control of
lands and trade. The real aim of the West India Company,
as he had learned, was to enforce its commercial monopoly
to the utmost; and become the only trading medium between
the colony and the mother country. Such a policy could
have but one result; it would put an end to private
enterprise and discourage immigration.

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