rance," known popularly as "The Company of One Hundred
Associates." With 120 members it was granted the whole St Lawrence
valley; for fifteen years from 1629 it was to have a complete monopoly
of trade; and products from its territory were to enter France free of
duty. In return the company was to take to New France 300 colonists a
year; only French Catholics might go; and for each settlement the
company was to provide three priests. Until 1663 this company controlled
New France.

It was an era of missionary zeal in the Roman Catholic church, and
Canada became the favourite mission. The Society of Jesus was only one
of several orders--Franciscans (Recollets), Sulpicians, Ursulines,
&c.--who worked in New France. The Jesuits have attracted chief
attention, not merely on account of their superior zeal and numbers, but
also because of the tragic fate of some of their missionaries in Canada.
In the voluminous _Relations_ of their doings the story has been
preserved. Among the Huron Indians, whose settlements bordered on the
lake of that name, they secured a great influence. But there was
relentless war between the Hurons and the Iroquois occupying the
southern shore of Lake Ontario, and when in 1649 the Iroquois ruined and
almost completely destroyed the Hurons, the Jesuit missionaries also
fell victims to the conquerors' rage. Missionaries to the Iroquois
themselves met with a similar fate and the missions failed. Commercial
life also languished. The company planned by Richelieu was not a
success. It did little to colonize New France, and in 1660, after more
than thirty years of its monopoly, there were not more than 2000 French
in the whole country. In 1663 the charter of the company was revoked. No
longer was a trading company to discharge the duties of a sovereign. New
France now became a royal province, with governor, intendant, &c., on
the model of the provinces of France.

In 1664 a new "Company of the West Indies" (_Compagnie des Indes
Occidentales_) was organized to control French trade and colonization
not only in Canada but also in West Africa, South America and the West
Indies. At first it promised well. In 1665 some 2000 emigrants were sent
to Canada; the European population was soon doubled, and Louis XIV.
began to take a personal interest in the colony. But once more, in
contrast with English experience, the great trading company proved a
failure in French hands as a colonizing agent, and in 1674 its charter