adopted and provided for. It is equally a
mistake to glorify the Indian as a hero and to deny him the rude
virtues which he really possessed.

{45}

Chapter IV

ACHIEVEMENTS OF FRENCHMEN IN THE NORTH OF AMERICA

The Difference between Spanish and French Methods.--What caused the
Difference.--How it resulted.

A singular and picturesque story is that of New France. In romantic
interest it has no rival in North America, save that of Mexico.
Frenchmen opened up the great Northwest; and for a long time France was
the dominant power in the North, as Spain was in the South. When the
French tongue was heard in wigwams in far western forests; when French
goods were exchanged for furs at the head of Lake Superior and around
Hudson Bay; when French priests had a strong post as far to the West as
Sault Ste. Marie, and carried their missionary journeyings still
further, who could have foreseen the day when the flag of republican
France would fly over only two rocky islets off the coast of
Newfoundland, and to her great rival, Spain, of all {46} her vast
possessions would remain not a single rood of land on the mainland of
the world to which she had led the white race?

At the period with which we are occupied these two great Catholic
powers seemed in a fair way to divide North America between them.
Their methods were as different as the material objects which they
sought. The Spaniard wanted _Gold_, and he roamed over vast regions in
quest of it, conquering, enslaving, and exploiting the natives as the
means of achieving his ends. The Frenchman craved _Furs_, and for
these he trafficked with the Indians. The one depended on conquest,
the other on trade.

Now trade cannot exist without good-will. You may rob people at the
point of the sword, but to have them come to you freely and exchange
with you, you must have gained their confidence. Further, there was a
deep-lying cause for this difference of method. Wretched beings may be
worked in gangs, under a slave-driver, in fields and mines. This was
the Spanish way. But hunting animals for their skins and trapping them
for their furs is solitary work, done by lone men in the wilderness,
and, above all, by men who are free to come and go. You {47} cannot
make a slave of the hunter who roams the forests, traps the brooks, and
paddles the lakes and streams. His occupation keeps him a wild, free
man. Whatever advantage is taken of him must be gained by winning